From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 27 19:54:32 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id E17DD1535A; Sat, 27 May 2006 19:54:31 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #201 Message-Id: <20060527235431.E17DD1535A@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 19:54:31 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 27 May 2006 19:56:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 201 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Wiretap Documents (wired.com) Vonage Problem (David Reihmer) Re: Uniden Phones Interference With DSL - Why or How to Fix? (DLR) Re: MOS Reading (DLR) Last Laugh! Scammers Say IRS Refund of $63.80 Coming to You (IRS) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Subject: AT&T Wiretap Documents Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 17:39:34 -0500 Whistle-Blower's Evidence, Uncut Former AT&T technician Mark Klein is the key witness in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's class-action lawsuit against the telecommunications company, which alleges that AT&T cooperated in an illegal National Security Agency domestic surveillance program. Inside the Secret Room Courtroom Clash! A federal judge refuses to give AT&T back its internal documents, but orders the EFF not to give them out. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: However, nothing was said about other publications (net or printed) not giving them out. PAT] Whistle-Blower's Precognition Years before the NSA's warrantless surveillance program made national headlines, then-AT&T technician Mark Klein suspected his company was colluding with the government to spy on Americans. The Ultimate Net Monitoring Tool A little-known company called Narus makes the packet-inspection technology said to be the basis of the NSA's internet surveillance. Here's how it works. In a public statement Klein issued last month, he described the NSA's visit to an AT&T office. In an older, less-public statement recently acquired by Wired News, Klein goes into additional details of his discovery of an alleged surveillance operation in an AT&T building in San Francisco. Klein supports his claim by attaching excerpts of three internal company documents: a Dec. 10, 2002, manual titled "Study Group 3, LGX/Splitter Wiring, San Francisco," a Jan. 13, 2003, document titled "SIMS, Splitter Cut-In and Test Procedure" and a second "Cut-In and Test Procedure" dated Jan. 24, 2003. Here we present Klein's statement in its entirety. This, and other documents were filed under seal in federal court in San Francisco. AT&T's Implementation of NSA Spying on American Citizens 31 December 2005 I wrote the following document in 2004 when it became clear to me that AT&T, at the behest of the National Security Agency, had illegally installed secret computer gear designed to spy on internet traffic. At the time I thought this was an outgrowth of the notorious Total Information Awareness program, which was attacked by defenders of civil liberties. But now it's been revealed by The New York Times that the spying program is vastly bigger and was directly authorized by President Bush, as he himself has now admitted, in flagrant violation of specific statutes and constitutional protections for civil liberties. I am presenting this information to facilitate the dismantling of this dangerous Orwellian project. AT&T Deploys Government Spy Gear on WorldNet Network -- 16 January, 2004 In 2003 AT&T built "secret rooms" hidden deep in the bowels of its central offices in various cities, housing computer gear for a government spy operation which taps into the company's popular WorldNet service and the entire internet. These installations enable the government to look at every individual message on the internet and analyze exactly what people are doing. Documents showing the hardwire installation in San Francisco suggest that there are similar locations being installed in numerous other cities. The physical arrangement, the timing of its construction, the government-imposed secrecy surrounding it and other factors all strongly suggest that its origins are rooted in the Defense Department's Total Information Awareness (TIA) program which brought forth vigorous protests from defenders of constitutionally protected civil liberties last year: "As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described the system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to information from internet mail and calling records to credit card and banking transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant." The New York Times, 9 November 2002 To mollify critics, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) spokesmen have repeatedly asserted that they are only conducting "research" using "artificial synthetic data" or information from "normal DOD intelligence channels" and hence there are "no U.S. citizen privacy implications" (Department of Defense, Office of the Inspector General report on TIA, December 12, 2003). They also changed the name of the program to "Terrorism Information Awareness" to make it more politically palatable. But feeling the heat, Congress made a big show of allegedly cutting off funding for TIA in late 2003, and the political fallout resulted in Adm. Poindexter's abrupt resignation last August. However, the fine print reveals that Congress eliminated funding only for "the majority of the TIA components," allowing several "components" to continue (DOD, ibid). The essential hardware elements of a TIA-type spy program are being surreptitiously slipped into "real world" telecommunications offices. In San Francisco the "secret room" is Room 641A at 611 Folsom Street, the site of a large SBC phone building, three floors of which are occupied by AT&T. High-speed fiber-optic circuits come in on the 8th floor and run down to the 7th floor where they connect to routers for AT&T's WorldNet service, part of the latter's vital "Common Backbone." In order to snoop on these circuits, a special cabinet was installed and cabled to the "secret room" on the 6th floor to monitor the information going through the circuits. (The location code of the cabinet is 070177.04, which denotes the 7th floor, aisle 177 and bay 04.) The "secret room" itself is roughly 24-by-48 feet, containing perhaps a dozen cabinets including such equipment as Sun servers and two Juniper routers, plus an industrial-size air conditioner. The normal work force of unionized technicians in the office are forbidden to enter the "secret room," which has a special combination lock on the main door. The telltale sign of an illicit government spy operation is the fact that only people with security clearance from the National Security Agency can enter this room. In practice this has meant that only one management-level technician works in there. Ironically, the one who set up the room was laid off in late 2003 in one of the company's endless "downsizings," but he was quickly replaced by another. Plans for the "secret room" were fully drawn up by December 2002, curiously only four months after Darpa started awarding contracts for TIA. One 60-page document, identified as coming from "AT&T Labs Connectivity & Net Services" and authored by the labs' consultant Mathew F. Casamassima, is titled Study Group 3, LGX/Splitter Wiring, San Francisco and dated 12/10/02. This document addresses the special problem of trying to spy on fiber-optic circuits. Unlike copper wire circuits which emit electromagnetic fields that can be tapped into without disturbing the circuits, fiber-optic circuits do not "leak" their light signals. In order to monitor such communications, one has to physically cut into the fiber somehow and divert a portion of the light signal to see the information. This problem is solved with "splitters" which literally split off a percentage of the light signal so it can be examined. This is the purpose of the special cabinet referred to above: Circuits are connected into it, the light signal is split into two signals, one of which is diverted to the "secret room." The cabinet is totally unnecessary for the circuit to perform -- in fact it introduces problems since the signal level is reduced by the splitter -- its only purpose is to enable a third party to examine the data flowing between sender and recipient on the internet. The above-referenced document includes a diagram showing the splitting of the light signal, a portion of which is diverted to "SG3 Secure Room," i.e., the so-called "Study Group" spy room. Another page headlined "Cabinet Naming" lists not only the "splitter" cabinet but also the equipment installed in the "SG3" room, including various Sun devices, and Juniper M40e and M160 "backbone" routers. PDF file 4 shows one of many tables detailing the connections between the "splitter" cabinet on the 7th floor (location 070177.04) and a cabinet in the "secret room" on the 6th floor (location 060903.01). Since the San Francisco "secret room" is numbered 3, the implication is that there are at least several more in other cities (Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego are some of the rumored locations), which likely are spread across the United States. One of the devices in the "Cabinet Naming" list is particularly revealing as to the purpose of the "secret room": a Narus STA 6400. Narus is a 7-year-old company which, because of its particular niche, appeals not only to businessmen (it is backed by AT&T, JP Morgan and Intel, among others) but also to police, military and intelligence officials. Last November 13-14, for instance, Narus was the "Lead Sponsor" for a technical conference held in McLean, Virginia, titled "Intelligence Support Systems for Lawful Interception and Internet Surveillance." Police officials, FBI and DEA agents, and major telecommunications companies eager to cash in on the "war on terror" had gathered in the hometown of the CIA to discuss their special problems. Among the attendees were AT&T, BellSouth, MCI, Sprint and Verizon. Narus founder, Dr. Ori Cohen, gave a keynote speech. So what does the Narus STA 6400 do? "The (Narus) STA Platform consists of standalone traffic analyzers that collect network and customer usage information in real time directly from the message.... These analyzers sit on the message pipe into the ISP (internet service provider) cloud rather than tap into each router or ISP device" (Telecommunications magazine, April 2000). A Narus press release (1 Dec., 1999) also boasts that its Semantic Traffic Analysis (STA) technology "captures comprehensive customer usage data ... and transforms it into actionable information.... (It) is the only technology that provides complete visibility for all internet applications." To implement this scheme, WorldNet's high-speed data circuits already in service had to be rerouted to go through the special "splitter" cabinet. This was addressed in another document of 44 pages from AT&T Labs, titled SIMS, Splitter Cut-In and Test Procedure, dated 01/13/03. "SIMS" is an unexplained reference to the secret room. Part of this reads as follows: "A WMS (work) Ticket will be issued by the AT&T Bridgeton Network Operation Center (NOC) to charge time for performing the work described in this procedure document.... "This procedure covers the steps required to insert optical splitters into select live Common Backbone (CBB) OC3, OC12 and OC48 optical circuits." The NOC referred to is in Bridgeton, Missouri, and controls WorldNet operations. (As a sign that government spying goes hand-in-hand with union-busting, the entire (Communication Workers of America) Local 6377 which had jurisdiction over the Bridgeton NOC was wiped out in early 2002 when AT&T fired the union work force and later rehired them as nonunion "management" employees.) The cut-in work was performed in 2003, and since then new circuits are connected through the "splitter" cabinet. Another Cut-In and Test Procedure document dated January 24, 2003, provides diagrams of how AT&T Core Network circuits were to be run through the "splitter" cabinet. One page lists the circuit IDs of key Peering Links which were "cut-in" in February 2003, including ConXion, Verio, XO, Genuity, Qwest, PAIX, Allegiance, AboveNet, Global Crossing, C&W, UUNET, Level 3, Sprint, Telia, PSINet and Mae West. By the way, Mae West is one of two key internet nodal points in the United States (the other, Mae East, is in Vienna, Virginia). It's not just WorldNet customers who are being spied on -- it's the entire internet. The next logical question is, what central command is collecting the data sent by the various "secret rooms"? One can only make educated guesses, but perhaps the answer was inadvertently given in the DOD Inspector General's report (cited above): "For testing TIA capabilities, Darpa and the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) created an operational research and development environment that uses real-time feedback. The main node of TIA is located at INSCOM (in Fort Belvoir, Virginia).." Among the agencies participating or planning to participate in the INSCOM "testing" are the "National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, the DOD Counterintelligence Field Activity, the U.S. Strategic Command, the Special Operations Command, the Joint Forces Command and the Joint Warfare Analysis Center." There are also "discussions" going on to bring in "non-DOD federal agencies" such as the FBI. This is the infrastructure for an Orwellian police state. It must be shut down! By Ryan Singel 13:30 PM May, 26, 2006 Formerly sealed documents from a lawsuit against AT&T for allegedly helping the National Security Agency spy on Americans' communications without a warrant were released in redacted form Thursday, and confirm the legitimacy of documents published earlier by Wired News. The papers, which were obtained by Wired News through an anonymous source, included a declaration written by Mark Klein, several snapshots of a secret room in an AT&T facility in San Francisco that Klein alleges is used to spy on a wide swath of domestic internet traffic, and eight pages of wiring diagrams marked "AT&T Proprietary." In order to help the Electronic Frontier Foundation's class-action lawsuit, Klein provided the online civil liberties advocacy group with a sworn affidavit and three documents, totaling more than 140 pages. The EFF filed these, along with a motion asking for a preliminary injunction that would stop the alleged spying and an evaluation of Klein's evidence by a former FCC internet expert, under seal with the court. While the judge in the case initially declined to unseal the documents last week, he ordered AT&T and EFF to jointly redact Klein's statement and the preliminary injunction motion and make them public. Much of the wording in the redacted text of Klein's affidavit (see http://Wirednews.com for details and .pdf), which was published in the court docket Thursday afternoon, matches language in the statement published Monday by Wired News. Technical details in the newly released documents also mesh with the documents published by Wired News. Additionally, both sets of documents refer to an employee who was cleared by the NSA to work in the room, but who was later laid off by AT&T as part of a downsizing. This shared detail, along with others, was not part of Klein's only previous public statement, which was released by his lawyer in early April and printed in full by Wired News. The proposed preliminary injunction (.pdf) filed by the EFF also referred to a declaration by J. Scott Marcus, a former senior technical adviser for internet technology for the FCC. Marcus found that the surveillance room described in documents provided by Klein is "consistent with the media reports describing telecommunication companies' assistance with the program, and illustrates an infrastructure built and designed by AT&T Corp. to conduct large-scale covert collection and intensive analysis of substantial amounts of both international and domestic communications carried by AT&T Corp.'s network, including domestic communications of AT&T WorldNet internet service customers such as the plaintiffs." Additionally, the preliminary injunction argues that the secret room was connected to an "additional, parallel backbone network that would be unnecessary if AT&T Corp. were merely using the Surveillance Configuration for ordinary business purposes, because such analytical results could, and logically would, be transmitted over the common backbone." The presence of extra routers on the list of equipment in the documents published by Wired News suggests intercepted traffic is being forwarded somewhere, according to Columbia University computer science professor Steven Bellovin. But Bellovin points out the system described could not forward all the internet data flowing into the room. "An OC-3 network (150 Mbit/s) can't possibly carry all of the traffic from multiple OC-3, -12 (621 Mbit/s), and -48 (2488 Mbit/s) networks back to Ft. Meade (NSA headquarters)," Bellovin said in an e-mail. "They'd have to do some filtering there." But the other equipment in the room, including a Narus packet inspection tool, is well suited to pick out traffic of interest and forward it along. Bellovin was one of the technical experts who looked at the documents for Wired News. He suggested that the room might be part of a network-management system or used to comply with lawful wiretap orders. But Klein's statements about the room being off-limits to anyone not cleared by the NSA make Bellovin suspicious. "The taps are oddly located for the alleged purpose, but the restricted-access room is unusual," Bellovin said. AT&T filed a redacted brief in its defense this week, but carried out the redaction in a sloppy manner that makes it easy to remove the black bars. The poorly redacted text included the statement, "Although the plaintiffs ominously refer to the equipment as the 'Surveillance Configuration,' the same physical equipment could be utilized exclusively for other surveillance in full compliance with" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, according to CNET News.com. That brief, along with one filed by the federal government, argued that the judge should promptly look at secret documents prepared for him by the government. Those documents, which include sworn statements by the head of the NSA and the director of national intelligence, constitute the government's argument as to why the case should be dismissed on national security grounds. U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker will review the government and AT&T's motions to dismiss the case June 23. Copyright 2006 Wired News [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That rule about 'forbidden to enter the area' (by anyone other than a couple people) was also the case in Chicago when the ESS machinery was first installed back in the early to middle 1970's. The very large Illinois Bell building downtown at Congress Parkway and Clark Street (65 West Congress) was originally full of the older style switches and frames. When they started installing the ESS equipment, one or two floors of the building became totally _off limits_ to even telephone workers who did not have a special pass to be in the area. I found this out through a discussion with an old man (in 1975) who was about to retire from Illinois Bell. He had been an 'inside plant' worker for many years. I asked him once, "what does that ESS stuff look like?" His reply was, "I have never seen it up close. None of us older guys are allowed in that room. Only a couple of the young kids who know about computers are allowed to go anywhere near it. They told me and the guys I work with to stay away from the area." See http://WiredNews.com for the full report, pictures and sketches, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: David Reihmer Subject: Vonage Problem Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 11:17:18 -0400 Vonage has been of no help with this issue. I have not enabled 'call forwarding' in many months. My broadband was down during a storm last week, and I was therefore unable to use my Vonage phone. When I came back on line, I received a call from a friend who told me that during the outage, instead of going to voicemail, my calls had been forwarded to another number, and the other party was getting pretty upset about getting all my calls. I went to the Vonage website, and saw that in the 'Activity' portion of my account, 7 calls had been forwarded to this other number. I recognized that number as a cell phone number I no longer have. When I signed up with Vonage, I included that number as an alternate. But now, of course, I don't have that number. Regardless, none of my calls should have been forwarded, as the forwarding option was disabled. The 'call forwarding' page confirmed that the 'call forwarding' option was disabled, and yet I still had calls forwarded to a number that I did not authorize. I was able to delete the old number in my 'profile', BUT it remained (and remains) in the 'call forwarding page, as the number to forward to. I tried to delete it and enter another forwarding number to, but still the 'old number' reappears when the page is reloaded. I called Vonage and was advised that 'call forwarding' was disabled on my account and not to worry. I told them I knew that it was disabled, because I never enabled it, and why were my calls being forwarded just because my network was down? I then told Vonage I was unable to delete that number from the 'call forwarding' screen. The tech was surprised he could not delete it either, and after holding for 10 minutes, I was advised that the number could not be deleted, and my call forwarding option was permanently disabled. Unsatisfied, I sent an email explaining all this and why am I paying for services I am not receiving, should I ever need them? I got a canned reply and am looking for other means of resolution. Any suggestions? Thanks. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is the 'call forwarding' option as you know, but there is also an option (I think it is called) 'Network Forwarding' and the explanation given for this is "what should we do with your calls when the network is down?" and where 'call forwarding' is the routine thing, 'network forwarding' is intended for when Vonage _is unable to see you_ for whatever reason. If Vonage is unable to complete the call on its own network to you (to ultimatly get forwarded on, etc) then what do you want them to do? Look for an option entitled 'network forwarding' and although I do not think it allows itself to be completely erased, it does allow editing which is probably what you would want to do anyway. See if that makes a difference. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 17:57:25 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: Uniden Phones Interference With DSL - Why or How to Fix? neverfamous@gmail.com wrote: > Your posting gives me pause. I just purchased the exact same phones > (last night) and have a very similar DSL set-up. I haven't connected > the Uniden system yet because I guess I'm supposed to let the phones > charge overnight first, but I was planning to do so tonight. > I did look through the manual briefly this morning and I noted there > are two types of voice mail service signals and one type may require a > configuration change on the Unidens. It may not be the culprit, but I > thought I would throw it out there as an idea. > If you do find the culprit, please post. Just an opinion. Uniden is a company who puts out a feature requirement and gets bids on who can make x1000 of them at what price. The winner builds them with Uniden's logo and they get sold. Panasonic designs phones and then builds them or contracts out the manufacturing. Big difference. I avoid makes of phones that are built like the Uniden. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 18:01:10 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: MOS Reading mike7411@gmail.com wrote: > Is there any software that I can feed an input WAV file into and an > output WAV file into to get an MOS reading for a VOIP comm system? I got to ask. What is this about WAV files and extracting information from them? Seems to be a theme with you. ------------------------------ Subject: Last Laugh! Scam IRS Says You Have Refund of $63.80 Coming From: Internal Revenue Service Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 14:47:49 -0400 (CLT) After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $63.80. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to process it. A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline. To access the form for your tax refund, please < a href="http://review.mine.nu/.../IRS/refund/caseid886432/index.html" >click here Internal Revenue Service Copyright 2006, Internal Revenue Service U.S.A. All rights reserved. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My Dear God! Don't those fools _ever_ grow weary of sending out this crap day after day? Of all the banks and other financial institutions I have seen fall victim to these scams, this is the first time I have ever seen it tried on the good old IRS. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #201 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun May 28 17:16:38 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C2341150B8; Sun, 28 May 2006 17:16:07 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #202 Message-Id: <20060528211607.C2341150B8@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 17:16:07 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 28 May 2006 17:17:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 202 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Amnesty Seeks to End Internet Repression (Paul Majendie) Symantec Business Antivirus Software Is Badly Flawed (Reuters News Wire) Streamcast Sues eBay for 12.3 Billion Dollars (David Greenfield) Cell Phone Owners Just Want Simple Phones (David Twiddy) Verizon Rates in NYS Going Up (Danny Burstein) Good Registrar With URL Fframe Forwarding Wanted (Stefan Paul Arif) Re: Vonage Problem (Joshua Putnam) Re: Last Laugh! Scam IRS Says You Have Refund of $63.80 (Steven Lichter) Another Scam eBay Job Offer (Steven Lichter) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Paul Majendie Subject: Amnesty Seeks to End Internet Repression Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 15:13:53 -0500 By Paul Majendie Amnesty International marked its 45th anniversary on Sunday by launching a global campaign to stamp out state censorship of the Internet. The human rights pressure group called on Web users to sign a pledge calling on governments to stop censoring sites and urging technology corporations not to collude with them. Arguing that online censorship is a new threat to freedom, Amnesty claimed to have uncovered Internet repression in areas around the world from China and Tunisia to Vietnam, Iran, Israel and the Maldives. Calling for the release of "cyber dissidents" jailed for expressing their political views online, Amnesty said Internet cafes are being shut down, computers seized, chat rooms monitored and blogs deleted. "The Internet is a huge, powerful tool. We see governments censoring access to the Internet or locking people up for having conversations about democracy and freedom," said Kate Allen, UK director of Amnesty International. Launching a new irrepressible.info Web site to challenge Internet censorship, Allen said "I call on governments to stop the unwarranted restriction of freedom of expression and on companies to stop helping them do it." The world's largest Internet providers have become embroiled in an international debate about Web censorship, especially in China. Earlier this month, Yahoo Inc. said it was seeking the U.S. government's help in urging China to allow more media freedom after reports linking information it gave to Chinese authorities with the jailing of a dissident. The case was the latest to highlight conflicts of profit and principle for Internet companies in the world's second biggest Internet market. Web search leader Google Inc, has come under fire for saying it would block politically sensitive terms on its new China site, bowing to conditions set by Beijing. The new campaign for freedom on the information superhighway was launched in the Observer newspaper. In 1961, an article by Peter Benenson in the same newspaper, calling on governments to stop persecution, led to Amnesty being founded. Corporations accused of collusion were quick to defend themselves in the newspaper with Yahoo corporate communications manager Alex Laity telling The Observer: "We condemn punishment of any activity internationally recognised as free expression whether that punishment takes place in China or anywhere else in the world." Amnesty, which once relied on letter writing campaigns to bombard governments with pleas to release political prisoners, now has 1.8 million supporters in more than 100 countries. Adapting "People Power" to the electronic age as a tool for pressurising international opinion, Amnesty urged Web users to sign an online pledge which will be presented to a U.N. meeting on the future of the Internet in November. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Symantec Business Antivirus Software Is Badly Flawed Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 15:15:51 -0500 Versions of Symantec Corp.'s anti-virus business security software contain a flaw that could put millions of computers at risk of a crippling worm attack, Internet experts warned on Friday. Researchers at eEye Digital Security discovered the vulnerability, which they said could allow an attacker to create a worm able to take over a user's computer and destroy critical programs and files. They rated the threat as high because a hacker could exploit the flaw to get on a machine and edit, remove and delete programs and files without a user doing anything, such as clicking on a link, eEye spokesman Mike Puterbaugh said. "This could potentially result in an Internet worm," he said. "It is a flaw that can be triggered from another location and provides the attacker with system-level access." A worm is a computer virus that spreads by sending copies of itself over a network. Most viruses these days are worms, since almost all computers are now linked by networks. Symantec, a leading maker of anti-virus software used by consumers and businesses, said in a statement it was investigating and that the issue does not affect its popular Norton consumer brand of products. It confirmed eEye's finding that its Client Security 3.1 and AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10.1 offerings contained the flaw that Symantec said could allow a remote user to attack a machine. "Fixes have been identified for all affected products and work on these fixes is ongoing," the company said in a statement. "To date, Symantec has not had any reports of any related exploits of this vulnerability." The warning comes as Internet security experts say cyber criminals are more interested in breaching systems for financial gain rather than simply to win notoriety by unleashing a devastating worm. In fact, the number of headline-grabbing viruses has slowed since the Blaster worm outbreak in 2003, which targeted Microsoft software and devastated hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ From: David Greenfield Subject: Streamcast Sues eBay for 12.3 Billion Dollars Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 15:18:40 -0500 By David Greenfield Networking Pipeline StreamCast Networks, Inc. announced today that it has field suit against eBay and twenty-one other defendants for $12.3 billion in damages for allegedly misappropriating intellectual property. The suit, filed earlier in the year against Skype, was amended to include eBay in a filing with the federal court in the central district of California in Los Angeles on Monday. "The sale of Skype to eBay was made possible through a scheme by many of the defendants to misappropriate the FastTrack peer-to-peer technology that rightfully belongs to StreamCast," added outside Counsel Dan Woods of the global law firm, White & Case. "We've now added eBay as a defendant to this lawsuit. As we learn about others who should be defendants, they are being added to the suit." The complaint states that the defendants orchestrated an "elaborate over-seas shell game" in an attempt to steal customers and technology from Steamcast. Kazaa co-founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, allegedly sold the FastTrack's P2P technology to Kazaa despite StreamCast having the contractural right to prevent the deal. The technology was and eventually transferred to Skype through a company called Sharman Networks. The complaint also alleges that the defendants also conspired to steal Streamcast's customer base of 28 million users by transferring those customers to Sharman Networks and to another off-shore company, called Blastoise. The suite seeks at least $4.1 billion for actual damages, at least $12.3 billion in treble damage, and additional funds for other damages and attorneys' fees. Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more tech news from the daily media, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html (and) http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html ------------------------------ From: David Twiddy Subject: Cell Phone Owners Just Want Simple Phones Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 15:23:17 -0500 Some cell phone owners spurn gadgetry By DAVID TWIDDY, AP Business Writer Nathan Bales represents a troubling trend for cellular phone carriers. The Kansas City-area countertop installer recently traded in a number of feature-laden phones for a stripped-down model. He said he didn't like using them to surf the Internet, rarely took pictures with them and couldn't stand scrolling through seemingly endless menus to get the functions to work. "I want a phone that is tough and easy to use," said Bales, 30. "I don't want to listen to music with it. I'm not a cyber-savvy guy." But the wireless industry needs him to be comfortable with advanced features and actively use them. As the universe of people who want a cell phone and don't already have one gets smaller, wireless carriers are counting on advanced services to generate the bulk of new revenue in coming years. Consumers last year paid $8.6 billion for so-called data applications on their phones, up 86 percent from the year before, according to wireless trade group CTIA. But they've also shown a growing frustration with how confusing those added features can be. A J.D. Power & Associates survey last year found consumer satisfaction with their mobile devices has declined since 2003, with some of the largest drops linked to user interface for Internet and e-mail services. That has providers working hard to make their devices easier to use - fewer steps, brighter and less cluttered screens, different pricing strategies - so consumers will not only use data functions more often but also be encouraged to buy additional ones. For Sprint Nextel Corp., the process begins in a suite of small rooms on its operations campus in suburban Kansas City. On one recent day, a trio of researchers watched through one-way glass and overhead cameras as a volunteer navigated her way through a prototype program that lets parents set limits on their children's phone use. The observers monitored how many steps it took for the woman to make the program work, how easily she made mistakes and how quickly she could get herself out of trouble. The results could be used to further tweak the program, said Robert Moritz, director of device development. "If you bring somebody in and they have problems, it's not because they're dumb, but we were dumb with the design," Moritz said, adding that the lab typically tests devices and programs with up to 50 users over three to nine months. The company also uses focus groups to determine what people want from their phones and what they say needs fixing. The results of those studies can sometimes push back the release of a product. For example, Michael Coffey, vice president of Sprint's user-experience design, said the company delayed releasing its walkie-talkie Ready Link service for about a year after testers said they didn't like the short delay between when the user pushes the button and the recipient answers. Coffey said the testing is worth it because ease-of-use can be a competitive edge. "IPod was not the first MP3 player on the market, but once they figured it out (the user interface), they became the predominant one overnight," he said. "Whether you make it a marketing message or not, the public will discover that usability and choose your product over a competitor's." So far, Sprint Nextel is doing something right as its subscribers spend the highest average amount for data services in the industry. "We believe there's a strong correlation between our standard of success and how usable the products are," he said. The other major wireless providers use similar techniques to improve their devices and programs. Cingular Wireless, the nation's largest wireless provider, developed MEdia Net, which allows users to personalize their phones for using the Internet, downloading ringtones or getting e-mail. Verizon Wireless has V-Cast, a service that makes it easier to download music and video. The company has also pushed designs that allow users to accomplish many things with one button press. "It's not fun to download a ringtone and have to figure out how to get that on your phone," said Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Ramey. "We do not shy away from testing. If the device or service doesn't work, it's a reflection on our network." T-Mobile also has focused on a few key areas, introducing T-Zone to help customers find ringtones and screen wallpaper by subject and decreasing the number of steps to take and send photos, for example. "Communication and personalization will continue to be the driver for phone use," said Michael Gallelli, director of product marketing at T-Mobile. Industry experts say the companies understand the stakes involved in making sure their designs attract customers and keep them loyal. "Five years ago, I wouldn't have seen a commercial from Cingular that you can customize your layout," said David Chamberlain, principal wireless analyst for research firm In-Stat. "To think that they're putting this kind of effort into the interface is welcome news." How well they're doing is a different matter. Some analysts pointed to phones from niche providers, such as youth-oriented Amp'd Mobile and sports-centric ESPN Mobile, as good examples of intuitive design, marrying easy-to-understand menus with pared-down lists of content aimed at their particular markets. But Roger Entner of the market research firm Ovum said none of the major carriers impresses him. He says most of them are trying to replicate how people use personal computers instead of coming up with a new approach. "What do (customers) do best on the phone? They talk. What do they do worst? Type. Why is every user interface based on typing?" Entner said. "Right now, the software developers take advantage of every weakness a device has and none of the strengths." Some wireless carriers and third-party companies are experimenting with voice-recognition technology. Kirkland, Wash.-based VoiceBox Technologies, for instance, plans to release a product later this year that recognizes words and context in a customer's speech to immediately bring them content on their phones. Charles Golvin of Forrester Research said a recent survey indicated few cellular customers choose a phone based on its usability, typically because they either don't think there's anything better or, like Bales in Kansas City, don't think they need those services. But Golvin said for the market to truly grow, the programs and phones themselves are going to have to become more graceful and not just the purview of tech-junkies. "Early adopters are less retarded by the user interface," he said. "As we're moving from the early adopters to the more mainstream customers, it will make a huge difference." Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from the Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Verizon Rates in NYS Going Up Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 10:24:05 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC As foretold by that scribe in dslprime.com, VZ is rushing to take advantage of the new NYS PSC unregulating ... Excerpted from an advert in the NY Times (Fri 26-May, p. D5) Dial tone monthly access rate: residential current: $ 8.61, new: $ 9.85 business: $18.24 new: $19.79 (Plus, of course, all the various fees and surcharges and taxes and kickbacks.) Oh, business local per minute of additional use: $ 0.013 new: $ 0.016 (that means an increase from 1.3 cents/minute to 1.6 cents) And ... "Certain isdn-basic service monthly rates" (no amount listed). Plenty of other increases as well. More info at: http://www.verizon.com/tariffs Click to the NY map, then "pending projects". (hmm ... anyone up to looking through all the other states?) Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: S P Arif Sahari Wibowo Subject: Good Registrar With URL Frame Forwarding That Forward Complete URL Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 23:38:14 -0400 Organization: Bell Sympatico Hi! Do you know good domain name registrars that have multiple sub-domain URL frame forwarding (also called "masking" or "cloaking") that will forward complete URL, including fragment id / anchor name? Right now I am using Wingsix, which works fine except that its URL frame forwarding will strip the fragment id from URL, so using fragment in URL won't work. If the registrar support multiple e-mail forwarding that recognize extension addresses (e.g. arifsaha-ext1@domain.name will have the same forwarding as arifsaha@domain.name), it will be even better! :-) Thanks! (Stephan Paul) Arif Sahari Wibowo _____ _____ _____ _____ /____ /____/ /____/ /____ _____/ / / / _____/ http://www.arifsaha.com/ ------------------------------ From: Joshua Putnam Subject: Re: Vonage Problem Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 21:55:42 -0700 In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to simwahh@comcast.net: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is the 'call forwarding' option > as you know, but there is also an option (I think it is called) > 'Network Forwarding' It's the "Network Availability Number" under Features. You can delete it, click on "configure" then "remove" and the field is blank. josh@phred.org is Joshua Putnam Books for Bicycle Mechanics and Tinkerers: ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Organization: I Kill Spammers, inc. Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Scam IRS Says You Have Refund of $63.80 Coming Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 00:40:02 GMT Internal Revenue Service wrote: > After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have > determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of > $63.80. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in > order to process it. > A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example > submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline. > To access the form for your tax refund, > please < a href="http://review.mine.nu/.../IRS/refund/caseid886432/index.html" >click here > Internal Revenue Service > Copyright 2006, > Internal Revenue Service U.S.A. All rights reserved. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My Dear God! Don't those fools _ever_ > grow weary of sending out this crap day after day? Of all the > banks and other financial institutions I have seen fall victim to > these scams, this is the first time I have ever seen it tried on the > good old IRS. PAT] This one has been going on for a couple of years, the IRS issued a warning a few weeks ago about this again. Plus the IRS refunds are in even amount no cents, these guys are really fools, but they do get hooks in some new users. I got one the other day from the Credit Union League, which is an association owned by credit unions and they don't e-mail customers of the credit unions unless you happen to file a complaint with them and they sure don't use a Hotmail e-mail address and what got my attention besides all the other crap was at the bottom of the message it said Insured by the FDIC, of which credit unions are not. The only way to stop this is to make sure that everyone knows about these scams and when a scammer is caught to try him fast and put him away for very long time, take anything he owns or better just take him out back of the court and SHOOT HIM. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Now, now, although I would agree with you a hundred percent, most of the Enablers would say you have no right to cause the essence of a DDoS on a spammer. They've got their rights, by God ... and don't you forget it! PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Organization: I Kill Spammers, inc. Subject: Another eBay Scam Job Offer Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 17:53:59 GMT Got one of these today offering a Free kit on selling products for them on eBay, but they needed my credit card number for shipping. Here is their toll free number if you are not happy with your kit!! 1-800-609-5118 I'm sure they would like to know people are not happy with their email marketing methods!! The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V25 #202 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 29 15:48:29 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id D87C9158D0; Mon, 29 May 2006 15:48:28 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #203 Message-Id: <20060529194828.D87C9158D0@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 15:48:28 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 29 May 2006 15:50:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 203 Inside This Issue: Happy Memorial Day! So You Think -You- Have Problems? (Chris Brummitt) The Shorter, Faster, Cruder, Tinier TV Show (Monty Solomon) Parents Making Use of TV Despite Risks - New York Times (Monty Solomon) Middle Class Goes Broadband As Price Falls (Monty Solomon) From a Small Stream, a Gusher of Movie Facts (Monty Solomon) Interns? No Bloggers Need Apply (Monty Solomon) Cellular-News: Monday 29th May 2006 (Cellular-News) Re: Last Laugh! Scam IRS Says You Have Refund of $63.80 (Gordon Burditt) Re: Last Laugh! Scam IRS Says You Have Refund of $63.80 (DLR) Ask Your Mother; She Would Love it ... (TELECOM Digest Editor) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Chris Brummitt Subject: So You Think -You- Have Problems? Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 14:08:00 -0500 Indonesian quake toll jumps past 5,000 By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer The death toll from a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in Indonesia over the weekend rose by more than 800 Monday to 5,137, according to the government. Meanwhile, emergency aid began arriving, but officials said the supplies were not reaching survivors quickly enough. The government's Social Affairs Ministry said the revised death toll included previously uncounted bodies buried in mass graves immediately after the quake. The international Red Cross said it had sent a field hospital and distributed about 2,000 tents, with up to 8,000 more on the way. The U.N. sent three trucks carrying high-energy biscuits and a plane loaded with water, tents, stoves and cooking gear. Two Singapore military cargo planes arrived at Yogyakarta airport with doctors and medical supplies. Japan said it would dispatch an undetermined number of land, sea and air forces to help with relief efforts. But officials said supplies remained inadequate. "We have received food and medicine from the government but it's not enough," said Suparno, a neighborhood official in the hardest-hit district of Bantul on Java island who goes by one name, like many Indonesians. "How can I distribute 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of rice to 1,200 people?" Indonesia said late Sunday it would allocate $107 million to help rebuild over the next year. The United States says it is considering allocating 'some money' in aid and the U.S. military plans to send 100 doctors, nurses and medical technicians from a base in Okinawa to Indonesia, U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Lt. Col. Bill Bigelow said Sunday. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, has released $100,000 in emergency aid but said it will need to give much more. U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland has proposed boosting relief efforts with money from the U.N.'s $178 million central emergency relief fund. U.N. officials in Indonesia said the most urgent needs were for generators, tents, three 100-bed field hospitals and medical supplies, mostly for treating broken limbs. Officials said they hoped to meet these requirements within three days. France said Monday it would send medical equipment and personnel. Spain was to send 12 tons of tents, blankets and medicines and other aid, while Germany said German aid groups were moving water purification equipment and a mobile medical clinic to Java. Britain, the European Union, China and the Japanese Red Cross Society together had given, or pledged to give, more than $14 million. Hundreds of villagers lined main roads in the disaster zone, holding out boxes for donations to buy rice, oil and candles. "We need help. Anything at all," one sign read. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono acknowledged a "lack of coordination" in aid distribution when he visited refugees Monday and called for government officials to be "more agile." "I saw in many areas that there are many things that need to be speeded up," he said. Yudhoyono -- criticized by some as being hesitant to act in the past -- spent the first night after Saturday's quake sleeping in a tent along with survivors and moved his office to the nearby city of Yogyakarta to supervise relief operations. The government said the quake left an estimated 200,000 people homeless, most of whom now are living in shacks close to their former homes or in shelters erected in rice fields. Hospitals overflowed with bloodied survivors. The area affected by the quake stretches across hundreds of square miles of mostly farming communities to the south of the ancient city of Yogyakarta. The quake has intensified activity at the nearby Mount Merapi volcano, which spit out lava and hot clouds Monday, sending debris avalanching 2 1/2 miles down the mountain, said Subandriyo, chief of the Merapi volcanology and monitoring office. No one was injured because the debris tumbled down unpopulated sections of the peak. Some villagers had received clothing and food, but most were still fending for themselves more than 48 hours after the quake struck. "All our valuables are gone," said Hardadi, as she cooked breakfast for three families living under a shelter made from fertilizer sacks. "But at least we managed to get the children out alive." Many survivors worked together to clear the rubble and salvage building materials to build temporary shelters and health centers. "The people here have the spirit to rebuild their lives," said Prapto Warsito, a village chief. "They have a long tradition of working and living together." Electricity and water supplies were still down in much of the region on Monday. Telecommunications were totally out, and torrential rains have fallen at least twice since the disaster, adding to the misery of survivors. The only working telecommunications noted by this reporter were two young men who had installed and were maintaining a ham radio station in a hastily erected tent, powered by a gasoline generator nearby, along with the airplane they had used to reach the area. I used their radio gear to file this report with the Associated Press. The quake was the fourth destructive temblor to hit Indonesia in the last 17 months, including the one that spawned the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami that killed 230,000 people across Asia, most of them on this Indian Ocean archipelago. The country also is battling the bird flu crisis, terrorist attacks by al-Qaida-linked Islamic militants and the threat of eruption from Mount Merapi, just north of the quake zone. Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin. It has 76 volcanos, the largest number in the world. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines of interest from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html (also) http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Throughout 2005 and 2006 the gentle folk of the south Pacific area have had more problems than many of us have seen in our lifetimes. It is really very sad. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 13:33:51 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Shorter, Faster, Cruder, Tinier TV Show By RANDY KENNEDY The New York Times One morning earlier this spring, Dave Sirulnick and a group of fellow MTV executives gathered in a 29th-floor conference room overlooking Times Square to observe a time-honored television ritual, one they'd performed dozens of times. They were shaping a pilot, the hopeful chrysalis of a television show. Three months of hard work and soul searching had gone into this particular effort, so the assembled team waited to see its work in progress with no small amount of anticipation. In these kinds of meetings, someone usually pops the show into a DVD player and it materializes on a flat-screen television the size of a coffee table. But this time the six people in the room ambled over to Sirulnick, a slender man who was peering over a pair of rimless glasses at a small, black Samsung cellphone. "Do we all stand behind each other or what?" he asked, unsure of the protocol. As everyone circled around his chair like kids gawking at a science experiment, Sirulnick pressed a button on the phone, and the tiny screen in his palm flickered to life. What appeared on it didn't feel much like a TV show as you and I have come to know it. Clocking in at just over three minutes, it seemed vaguely schematic, with lots of close-ups and static scenes. But Sirulnick watched it with the hope that what he was seeing - even through the pixel smears and buffering pauses of today's mobile-video technology -- was nothing less than the future of television. A boyish-looking 41-year-old man wearing jeans and a green-and-purple-striped sweater, Sirulnick was in the room that morning because just a few months earlier MTV redrew its organizational chart and gave him a new job it considers extremely important, one with the unwieldy title of executive vice president for multiplatform production, news and music. Translated, it means that he is the guy responsible for figuring out how his network - one of the most recognizable in the world, with annual ad revenue of more than a billion dollars -- will continue to thrive creatively, and thus financially, in a world where television's center of gravity seems to be rapidly shifting, away from immobile TV sets and toward roving screens: laptops, P.D.A.'s, iPods, game players and, most important, cellphones. The shift is not simply changing the way the medium looks and feels. Even now, in its infancy, mobile video is starting to make the very definition of television, as a place where people watch "shows" on "channels," sound pleasantly anachronistic, like a description from an old issue of Popular Mechanics. It may also be creating a new way to make a whole lot of money: one model projects that the worldwide market for mobile television will be $27 billion by 2010. By the most optimistic counts, there are only about 3 million people out of the almost 200 million cellphone users in the United States who now watch video on their phones. Other analysts say the number of those who watch regularly is much lower, which leads them to ask whether people really want another version of television, one they can literally take anywhere. Judging by what is happening in other parts of the world, where the mobile-television experiment is well under way, the more pertinent questions are: What are they going to want to watch? Will it be regular live television, redirected to their phones? Or typical television fare, edited and re-packaged to suit a screen smaller than a business card? It might end up being neither, but instead a new amalgam that feels little like traditional television and more like the increasingly video-dominated Web - like computer games, like the kind of shaggy user-generated video and mashed-up video clips that began as novelties for people killing time in their cubicles but are now on their way to becoming big business. MTV's international channels have been providing cellphone entertainment, mostly repackaged TV clips, for almost a year. In fact, MTV claims to be the world's largest mobile-content provider. When the demand for cellular television materializes in the United States, people like Sirulnick say that it is likely to be most intense among the generation of young people that has never known a world without wireless, for whom a cellphone is not just a phone but an entertainment center, a dating service, a scrapbook, a virtual hangout and a fashion statement -- in other words, MTV's core viewers, the network's to keep or lose. You could argue that of all the traditional television empires, MTV has a better-than-even shot at keeping them. It has had to reinvent itself constantly (some critics would say for the worse) to keep pace with its ever-young audience. And it popularized short-attention-span creations like music videos and created artful station breaks that at least seem likely to translate well in an on-the-fly wireless world. But MTV is approaching its 25th birthday; in the cable world, it's what is known as a mature brand. And on the morning that Sirulnick and company fine-tuned their pilot, other veteran producers, screenwriters and television executives were hard at work all over New York and Los Angeles on their own cellphone projects. Maybe more worrisome than these conventional competitors were the countless Web companies, also cranking out cellphone content, led not by television experts but by hordes of 20-somethings all angling to become the Sumner Redstones of broadband and wireless, bypassing the TV industry altogether. For television veterans, the advance of cellphone television makes for competing anxieties. They're worried that they may be moving far too slowly, but they're anxious, too, that they could be moving in the wrong direction. It's a feeling something like television's pioneers must have had, trying to create visual shows for a nation still huddled around the radio. But another, perhaps more apt, comparison is to the early years of the Internet, when so-called content providers pumped prodigious amounts of material and ideas onto the Web and hoped that the demand for it would follow. More often than not, it didn't. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/magazine/28mtv.html?ex=1306468800&en=934ea7a5db62c06b&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 13:12:44 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Parents Making Use of TV Despite Risks - New York Times By LYNETTE CLEMETSON The New York Times WASHINGTON, May 24 - Sure, Sharae Sharp knows pediatricians say children under 2 should not watch TV. But the advice feels less than practical when she needs to scrub the bathroom floor or has a migraine and is craving an hour of silence. "Sometimes you just need some time," said Ms. Sharp, 29, unapologetic about the 13-inch television she placed in her 3-year-old daughter Taelor-Shanel's room more than a year ago. Jennifer Beck-Wilson, 36, tends to agree with the Academy of Pediatrics. But with a 3-year-old son, a 15-month-old daughter and a full-time job, best intentions fall by the wayside. "There's my philosophy and then there's real life," she said. The two are hardly alone. A new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, in which both participated, found that despite increasing debate over the potentially harmful effects of television on young children, many parents believe that the benefits of a little tube time -- whether for their children's development or their own sanity -- outweigh the risk of raising a generation of crib potatoes. On a typical day 61 percent of babies one year or younger watch TV or videos, with average viewing of more than an hour, the study found. A third of children under 6 have a TV in their bedroom. And more than half of parents surveyed said their main reason for putting a TV in their child's room was so that they or other family members could watch their own shows. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/25/science/24cnd-crib.html?ex=1306209600&en=8679bb359520b60b&ei=5090 The Media Family: Electronic Media in the Lives of Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers and Their Parents http://www.kff.org/entmedia/7500.cfm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 07:45:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Middle Class Goes Broadband As Price Falls By PETER SVENSSON AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- Middle- and working-class Americans signed up for high-speed Internet access in record numbers in the past year, apparently lured by a price war among phone companies. Broadband adoption increased 59 percent from March last year to March 2006 among U.S. households with incomes between $30,000 and $50,000, according to a survey to be released Monday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. It increased 40 percent in households making less than $30,000 a year. Among blacks, it increased 121 percent, according to the study. Middle- and lower-income households still lag higher-income households when it comes to broadband adoption. Among the $30,000-$50,000 households, 43 percent now have broadband, compared to 68 percent for those making more than $75,000. Overall, 42 percent of adult Americans, or 84 million people, have broadband, compared to 30 percent a year ago. Phone companies last year started slashing prices for broadband service that uses regular phone line to establish a digital subscriber line, or DSL. Both Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. introduced $14.99 per month offers. - http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=58821282 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 00:16:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: From a Small Stream, a Gusher of Movie Facts Media Frenzy By RICHARD SIKLOS The New York Times BRISTOL, England THE closest that Col Needham gets to corporate life is the Dilbert calendar in his neat office -- a converted bedroom in a quaint house in the ancient village of Stoke Gifford, a suburb of Bristol, the harbor city that is 90 minutes west of London by train. As the founder and managing director of the Internet Movie Database, Mr. Needham might just be the archetype of the telecommuting Web-head. The site he founded and runs, www.imdb.com, ranks as the 10th-most-popular entertainment spot online, according to ComScore Media Metrix. It had 18.6 million unique visitors in April, a 67 percent surge from a year earlier. In Stoke Gifford, Mr. Needham works solo -- without even an assistant -- but is in constant contact by instant message with other employees scattered across the globe and at the Seattle headquarters of Amazon.com, which acquired the business eight years ago. "Everybody assumes that we have a massive office complex on Wilshire Boulevard," Mr. Needham said with a grin. "I always say, 'We're headquartered on the Internet.' " Mr. Needham, a boyish, closely-shorn 39-year-old walked to the kitchen, put on the kettle and made tea. Part of what makes him a curiosity -- beyond his enviable work setup -- is that Internet Movie Database, or Imdb for short, has become a classic example of a hobby that turns out to be a powerful media asset. For years, it has quietly gone about its business almost entirely separately from its parent, and only subtly does it encourage users to go to the Amazon site to buy videos. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/business/yourmoney/28frenzy.html?ex=1306468800&en=8b5199696ab48ad6&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 00:34:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Interns? No Bloggers Need Apply http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/25/fashion/thursdaystyles/25intern.html?ex=1306209600&en=d6be55156b07d13f&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News: Monday 29th May 2006 Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 09:58:14 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com [[3G News]] NTT DoCoMo Mulls Ending "mova" Phone Sales To Focus On 3G http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17556.php NTT DoCoMo said Friday it is considering ending sales of its second-generation "mova" cellphones to focus on its 3G "FOMA" phones. ... France Telecom May Consider Using Chinese 3G System http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17559.php France Telecom's research unit in Beijing said Friday it is assessing China's locally developed 3G standard, which its parent company may consider using in Europe at a later date. ... [[Financial News]] Telecom Italia Sells Digitel Venezuela For About $425 Million http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17555.php Telecom Italia said late Thursday it has sold its Venezuelan mobile-phone unit Digitel CA for about US$425 million to Telvenco SA. ... PRESS: GlobeTel responsible for WiMAX failure http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17560.php The shareholders of Russia's Internafta said that U.S. telecommunications equipment producer GlobeTel was responsible for the failure to implement a U.S $600 million project to build a WiMAX network in Russia, Vedomosti business daily reported. ... Nokia Gets $341 Million Payment From Turkish Government http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17561.php Finland's Nokia, Friday said it has received a settlement payment of $341.25 million following the completion of the sale of the assets of Telsim Mobil Telekomunikasyon's, in accordance with an arrangement with Telsim and the Turkish Savings and Depo... Iusacell announces US$416mn exchange offer http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17563.php Mexican mobile operator Grupo Iusacell has launched a solicitation of consents to restructure debts totaling US$416mn, the company said in a statement. ... International operators offer up to US$685mn for Millicom's Telemóvil http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17564.php European mobile holding company Millicom International Cellular has received offers of up to 6bn colones (US$685mn) for Telemóvil, its subsidiary in El Salvador, El Salvador newspaper La Prensa Gráfica reported. ... TEM aims to grow 7-10%, mostly boosted by LatAm http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17565.php Spain's Telefonica Moviles plans to grow its revenues by 7-10% in the next four years, particularly boosted by the positive market performance in Latin America, international press quoted board member Antonio Viana-Baptista as saying. ... Motorola Gets $410 Million Related To Sale Of Turkey's Telsim http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17566.php Motorola on Friday said it received a $410 million cash payment following Vodafone Group's acquisition of Telsim Mobil Telekomunikasyon as part of a settlement of Motorola's long-running legal spat with the Turkish mobile phone operator. ... UK PRESS: Deutsche Telekom Studying Bid For BT http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17567.php Deutsche Telekom, the German telecommunications group, is studying a possible bid for the UK based BT Group that could see the former monopoly valued at more than GBP25 billion, The Times reported Saturday. ... Vodafone Expecting to Report Record Loss http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17574.php Vodafone is expected to announce a record annual loss of US$37 billion this week as the company writes down the value of its investments in Germany. The figure exceeds the US$25 billion loss that Vodafone reported back in 2002. It should be noted tha... [[Legal News]] Sprint Sues IBM Over Failed Outsourcing Deal http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17557.php OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP)--Sprint is suing IBM, saying Big Blue did not live up to its claims three years ago that it would save the telecommunications company money by taking over some of its computer programming. ... [[Mobile Content News]] Mobile Music Will Grow to US$8 billion by 2010 - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17570.php Music available for downloading onto mobile phones is a lifeline for the shrinking global music industry and critical to wireless providers with an urgent need to recoup investment in their networks. Worldwide revenue from sales of mobile music is pr... Qualcomm Introduces World's First Universal Mobile TV Chip http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17572.php Qualcomm has announced a single-chip Universal Broadcast Modem (UBM) solution supporting three of the world's leading mobile broadcast standards. The UBM solution unifies the world's leading mobile TV standards into a single, cost-effective chip with... [[Offbeat News]] Cambodia Banning 3G Phones http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17569.php Cambodia's Prime Minister, Hun Sen is proposing a law which will ban the use of video calls on 3G handsets in the country. The move was prompted by an online petition which had also been signed by the Prime Minister's wife who feared that the video p... [[Personnel News]] Telefonica: Management Remuneration Not Tied To Share Price http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17558.php The current remuneration plans for Telefonica's top managers aren't tied to the telecommunications company's share price, a top Telefonica official said Friday. ... [[Regulatory News]] Namibia Awards Second Mobile License http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17571.php Namibia's cabinet has announced that the country's second GSM operating license has been awarded to Powercom, which is partly owned by the state controlled power utility, NamPower. Local reports suggested that the other investor in the company is Nor... Regulator Reminds Operators of Obligations http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17573.php The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has reminded all cellular mobile operators to maintain proper record of mobile phone users and follow all formal requirements when connecting new customers to their networks. The PTA says that it has iss... [[Reports News]] Fixed WiMAX Growth to be Restricted by the Adoption of Mobile WiMAX http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17568.php A new report from Juniper Research predicts that the number of Fixed WiMAX subscribers will grow from 1.3 million in 2006 to 8.5 million in 2011. However, the advent of certified Mobile WiMAX equipment in 2007 will lead to many subscribers adopting M... [[Statistics News]] Russia's MegaFon user base in Penza Region rises to 300,000 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17562.php The subscriber base of Russia's third largest mobile phone operator MegaFon in the Penza Region rose to 300,000 users as of Friday from 260,000 people as of October 31, 2005, MegaFon's subsidiary in the Volga Federal District MSS-Povolzhye said in a ... ------------------------------ From: gordon@hammy.burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Scam IRS Says You Have Refund of $63.80 Coming Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 21:45:08 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My Dear God! Don't those fools _ever_ >> grow weary of sending out this crap day after day? Of all the >> banks and other financial institutions I have seen fall victim to >> these scams, this is the first time I have ever seen it tried on the >> good old IRS. PAT] > This one has been going on for a couple of years, the IRS issued a > warning a few weeks ago about this again. Plus the IRS refunds are in > even amount no cents, these guys are really fools, but they do get hooks > in some new users. IRS refunds are in even amount, no cents? I don't think I've ever had one like that in the last 30 years or so. (The smallest one was $1.60). Some of this may have to do with whether you round off to even dollars in preparing your return, which usually seems to work in favor of the IRS. Gordon L. Burditt ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 08:31:18 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Scam IRS Says You Have Refund of $63.80 Coming Internal Revenue Service wrote: > After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have > determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of > $63.80. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in > order to process it. > A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example > submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline. > To access the form for your tax refund, > please < a > href="http://review.mine.nu/.../IRS/refund/caseid886432/index.html" >click here > Internal Revenue Service > Copyright 2006, > Internal Revenue Service U.S.A. All rights reserved. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My Dear God! Don't those fools _ever_ > grow weary of sending out this crap day after day? Of all the > banks and other financial institutions I have seen fall victim to > these scams, this is the first time I have ever seen it tried on the > good old IRS. PAT] It only gets sent if it generates income. The real question is where is the income coming from. At the first level the scam is generating income for the folks sending it out as users fall for the scam. At what I think of as the second level, the spammers are selling services to spammer wannabes who are paying to have this sent out and aren't really getting folks to fall for it. ------------------------------ Subject: Your Mother Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 14:46:18 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Ask your mother ... she will enjoy listening to 218-488-0000. PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #203 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 30 14:28:00 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 1702215475; Tue, 30 May 2006 14:28:00 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #204 Message-Id: <20060530182800.1702215475@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 14:28:00 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_REMOVE,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 30 May 2006 14:30:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 204 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson The Front Lines - May 30, 2006 (Jonathan Marashlian) Why the Democratic Ethic of the Web May Be About to End (Monty Solomon) Pay Bills With a Click? More Americans Are Doing It (Monty Solomon) Software to Look for Experts Among Your Friends (Monty Solomon) Cellular-News: Tuesday 30th May 2006 (Cellular-News) Number of Americans With Broadband Service Leaps 40% (USTelecom dailyLead) On-Hook Signal (mike7411@gmail.com) Re: Telephone 'Luxury' Tax Now Discontinued (Arthur Kamlet) Re: Cell Phone Owners Just Want Simple Phones (Dave Close) Re: Middle Class Goes Broadband As Price Falls (Sam Spade) Re: Last Laugh! Scam IRS Says You Have Refund of $63.80 (Gene S. Berkowitz) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply-To: From: Jonathan Marashlian Subject: The Front Lines - May 30, 2006 Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 11:50:02 -0400 Organization: The Helein Law Group http://www.thefrontlines-hlg.com/ The FRONT LINES Sponsored by The Helein Law Group, P.C. http://www.thlglaw.com/ Advancing The Cause of Competition in the Telecommunications Industry FORMER HELEIN LAW GROUP ATTORNEY, ROBERT McDOWELL, CONFIRMED AS FCC COMMISSIONER On May 26, 2006, the U.S. Senate confirmed Robert McDowell to be a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission (=93FCC=94). Mr. McDowell fills the fifth and final seat on the FCC, assuming the remainder of an unexpired term that runs until June 30, 2009. McDowell's confirmation as the third Republican commissioner gives Chairman Kevin Martin a majorit of votes on the 5-person Commission for the first time since Martin took office in March 2005. In a statement, Chairman Martin applauded Mr. McDowell's confirmation: I congratulate Rob McDowell on his confirmation as Commissioner at the FCC. He has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the communications arena, and we will rely on his insight. I am anxious to have him onboard and look forward to working with a full complement of Commissioners to address the important issues before us. According to media reports, with McDowell now positioned as the third Republican member of the agency, Chairman Martin can more aggressively pursue plans that include pressuring cable companies to offer channels ala carte and liberalizing media ownership rules. The FCC is also grappling with a triumvirate of major issues affecting telecommunications providers, including Universal Service reform, inter-carrier compensation and deciding how to regulate IP-based services. Unlike the broadcast and media issues, for which many news reports already have Mr. McDowell supporting Chairman Martin's initiatives, the same may not be said of matters concerning wireline Bell company issues. Martin is considered more supportive of large incumbent Bell companies while McDowell has sought an approach that supports the competitive goals of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 by balancing the interests of smaller competitors along with those of the Bell companies. Mr. McDowell most recently served as CompTel's Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel. CompTel is the leading association representing small and mid-sized competitive telecommunications enterprises. Aside from representing CompTel members before Congress, the FCC and the appellate courts, McDowell is a veteran of several Republican presidential campaigns most recently as a member of the Bush-Cheney Florida Recount Team. Prior to CompTel, Mr. McDowell served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for the America's Carriers Telecommunications Association (ACTA). Mr. McDowell began his legal career at Arter & Hadden and honed his skills as an advocate during the mid-to-late 90s working as a Senior Attorney at The Helein Law Group. On a personal note, all of us at The Helein Law Group would like to congratulate Rob on his wonderful achievement and wish him and his family all the very best. The Front Lines is a free publication of The Helein Law Group, P.C., providing clients and interested parties with valuable information, news, and updates regarding regulatory and legal developments primarily impacting companies engaged in the competitive telecommunications industry. The Front Lines does not purport to offer legal advice nor does it establish a lawyer-client relationship with the reader. If you have questions about a particular article, general concerns, or wish to seek legal counsel regarding a specific regulatory or legal matter affecting your company, please contact our firm at 703-714-1313 or visit our website: http://www.thlglaw.com/ www.THLGlaw.com The Helein Law Group, P.C. 8180 Greensboro Drive, Suite 700 McLean, Virginia 22102 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 00:21:10 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Why the Democratic Ethic of the World Wide Web May Be About to End By ADAM COHEN The New York Times The World Wide Web is the most democratic mass medium there has ever been. Freedom of the press, as the saying goes, belongs only to those who own one. Radio and television are controlled by those rich enough to buy a broadcast license. But anyone with an Internet-connected computer can reach out to a potential audience of billions. This democratic Web did not just happen. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British computer scientist who invented the Web in 1989, envisioned a platform on which everyone in the world could communicate on an equal basis. But his vision is being threatened by telecommunications and cable companies, and other Internet service providers, that want to impose a new system of fees that could create a hierarchy of Web sites. Major corporate sites would be able to pay the new fees, while little-guy sites could be shut out. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/opinion/28sun3.html?ex=1306468800&en=cd83b09b58c721a6&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 00:39:56 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Pay Bills With a Click? More Americans Are Doing It and Banks Love It By BOB TEDESCHI The New York Times FROM the annals of Online Economics 101 comes this shocker: free is good, especially when it comes to paying bills. Big billers like Verizon Wireless and ConEd learned this bit of wisdom years ago, when they offered customers the ability to pay bills free online. But most banks have come to the same realization only in the last 18 months. The result has been a boom in the number of bills viewed and paid online. According to a recent poll by Harris Interactive, a research firm, the gap between the number of bills paid by check and the number paid online has closed significantly in the past year. More than 37 percent of bills are paid by check; 35 percent are paid online. The remaining 28 percent are paid with cash, debit cards or other payment methods. Given that trend, Web payments could surpass checks over the next year. (Last year, 46 percent of bills were paid by check, and 25 percent online.) Banks are hoping to accelerate the move by marketing online services far more aggressively. Television campaigns, radio spots and, of course, online advertisements from the Bank of America and Wells Fargo, among others, now promote the benefits of such services, where in years past banks advertised other features like online statements and account balances. The caveat with these numbers is that the Harris poll was commissioned by CheckFree, which helps banks and billers build online bill presentment and payment services. But analysts said the data mirrored other research showing the growing popularity of the service. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/29/technology/29ecom.html?ex=1306555200&en=98299a26ef524a37&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 00:46:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Software to Look for Experts Among Your Friends By JOHN MARKOFF The New York Times PALO ALTO, Calif., May 27 - For anyone who has hesitated before making a purchase on a Web site, uncertain which brand is preferable, Tacit Software is preparing to introduce an online service that will make it simple to pick the brains of friends and colleagues for opinions and expertise. Tacit plans to start testing the service, called Illumio, next month. The service allows the user to mine the data on the computers of friends, business associates and others with shared interests on any subjects. However, Illumio is not a search engine, like Google or Yahoo. The system works by transparently distributing a request for information on questions like "Who knows John Smith?" and "Are Nikon digital cameras better than Olympus?" to the computers in a network of users. The questions can then be answered locally based on a novel reverse auction system that Illumio uses to determine who the experts are. The system is intended to extend a growing category of software that helps groups collaborate and work together more efficiently. Efforts to create systems that augment the intellectual power of work groups go back to the earliest days of computing technology development. The widespread availability of networks and Web browsers, however, has made such technologies far more accessible in recent years. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/29/technology/29gilmour.html?ex=1306555200&en=5b0c7f4282eb5f83&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News: Tuesday 30th May 2006 Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 07:09:06 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com [[ 3G ]] India Forces delay on 3G Services http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17586.php India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has ordered Tata Teleservices to delay its launch of CDMA EVDO based services until the government makes formal policy on 3G services. The government has planned to offer spectrum to the GSM operators so... [[ Financial ]] Hong Kong Hutchison Telecom, NTT DoCoMo In Strategic Partnership http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17575.php Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong), a unit of Hutchison Telecommunications International, said Monday it has formed a strategic partnership with NTT DoCoMo of Japan. ... Russia's Alfa Group unit says won't change stake in MegaFon http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17582.php Russia's CT Mobile, indirectly controlled by Alfa Group, does not plan to sell its stake or purchase additional stakes in Russia?s third largest mobile operator MegaFon, CT Mobile's General Director Dmitry Vozianov told a news conference Monday. ... Mobilkom Completes Slovenian Investment http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17588.php Mobilkom Austria says that it has acquired remaining 7.812% share in the Slovenian mobile operator Si.mobil from Medaljon and Iskratel. With the closure of this transaction mobilkom austria becomes 100% owner of Si.mobil. Since majority takeover, Si.... [[ Handsets ]] Two New Handsets from BenQ Mobile http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17584.php BenQ Mobile's has added two more handsets to its economy class. Both the design-oriented BenQ-Siemens A38 and the business-oriented BenQ-Siemens A58 with integrated Bluetooth technology offer top-class quality and optimal reliability at affordable pr... [[ Legal ]] Ukrainian court declares Kyivstar's voting agreement void http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17583.php Ukraine's Kiev Arbitration Court of Appeals has declared the shareholder and voting agreements of Ukraine's largest mobile operator Kyivstar void, as the general director of Storm, Kyivstar's shareholder, had no rights to sign them, Storm's parent co... [[ MVNO ]] FOCUS: MVNOs fail to advance in market dominated by major operators http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17576.php Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), which have become widespread in Europe, are unlikely to make inroads on the Russian market in the near future due to the lack of the necessary regulations for virtual operators, the absence of operational nic... [[ Network Contracts ]] Huawei Wins Tajik GSM Contract http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17585.php China's Huawei has announced that VimpelCom had recently awarded a commercial contract to Huawei to build the UMTS/GSM network for Tajikistan. According to the contract, Huawei will provide a unified 2G/3G Softswitch Core Network, New Generation Node... [[ Network Operators ]] BrT, Intelbras launch wireless fixed line phone http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17577.php Brazil's third largest telco Brasil Telecom and local telecoms manufacturer Intelbras have launched a wireless fixed line telephone, BrT said in a press release. ... Alegro PCS needs US$300mn to migrate to GSM http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17578.php Ecuadorian mobile operator Alegro PCS plans to migrate to GSM technology from the CDMA 1x platform currently in use, and is expected to invest US$30mn in the project, local newspaper El Comercio reported. ... Oi to end handset subsidies for prepaid clients http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17579.php Brazilian mobile operator Oi plans to stop applying subsidies to handsets sold for prepaid users, a spokesperson for Oi confirmed for BNamericas. ... Uzbekistan-US' Coscom to invest $100 mln in 2006-2007 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17581.php Uzbek-U.S. telecommunications joint venture Coscom plans to invest up to U.S. $100 million in the development of its network in 2006-2007, Coscom's General Director Alexei Stepanov told reporters Monday. ... [[ Personnel ]] Nokia Board Member Dies http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17587.php It has been announced that the Nokia board member, Edouard Michelin died last week in a fishing accident of Sein, off the coast of Finistare in northwest France. Edouard Michelin was managing partner and co-chief executive of the Michelin Group. He w... [[ Regulatory ]] OAS delegate to supervise mobile concession talks http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17580.php The Organization of American States (OAS) has agreed to nominate one of its delegates as a supervisor to monitor concession negotiations between Ecuador's government and mobile operators Movistar and Porta, local press reported. ... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 12:10:22 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Number of Americans With Broadband Service Leaps 40% USTelecom dailyLead May 30, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dHtEfDtuteokBlUttq TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Number of Americans with broadband service leaps 40% BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Microsoft targets unified communications market * U.K. carriers see bright future for fixed-mobile convergence * Hispanics are hot market for wireless carriers * Vodafone reports loss, details strategic vision * Report: Market for IMS gear down 7% in Q1 USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * What you need to know about IPTV HOT TOPICS * Treasury ends excise tax on phone services * Microsoft, Alcatel, HP form alliance * AT&T's new satellite broadband service gets off the ground * Motorola takes on BlackBerry with the new Q * Net neutrality debate: Craig versus McCurry TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * The really small screen may be future for MTV * Analysis: IPTV could reshape content licensing models REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Report: Telecoms will prevail in franchise battles * McDowell confirmed as fifth member of FCC Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dHtEfDtuteokBlUttq ------------------------------ From: mike7411@gmail.com Subject: On-Hook Signal Date: 30 May 2006 10:14:46 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Anyone know exactly what the on-hook signal for a plain old telephone looks like in terms of voltages? The information on the web is real contradictory. ------------------------------ From: kamlet@panix.com (Arthur Kamlet) Subject: Re: Telephone 'Luxury' Tax Now Discontinued Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 02:49:39 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: ArtKamlet@aol.REMOVE.com In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > The Treasury Department has, for many, many years, been charging a tax > on telephone calls. They have been sued many times for it, amd I guess > the decision finally came down to not only quit charging it or trying > to collect it, but also to allow the essence of a 'class action' > lawsuit so that people who have paid that tax over the years can apply > for a refund. I think the way this will work is there will be a line > on your tax form next year allowing you to deduct as a credit whatever > had been paid on the telephone tax. I believe this tax began during > the Spanish American War, and like so many government things, it just > stayed on forever for at least a century. The issue hinges on the tax on toll calls. Under the law establishing the tax, toll calls had to be defined, and were defined as a distance based charge -- what informally was called Long Distance. As long a distance was one component in the charge, minutes could also be used. But in recent years distance has stopped being a factor and minutes became the factor in toll charges. Since the law stated toll calls were distance based, and that's just not the case any longer, first one federal circuit court, than another, and most recently the fifth federal circuit in a row ruled against the IRS. So the IRS finally caved in, and will allow all taxpayers who paid the 3% excise tax on toll calls to apply for a refund of this tax. The period is from the first court ruling in March 2003, until the final demise of this tax, June 30, 2006. > Talk to your tax people about the particulars of how to apply for a > refund, etc. The IRS will be announcing how to claim the credit, which will be either the actual amount you paid if you have the bills, or a simplified method if not. That will be announced before next tax season. For the past 10 years I have been a professional tax preparer, and am "so looking forward" to this new credit :-( Art Kamlet ArtKamlet @ AOL.com Columbus OH K2PZH ------------------------------ From: Dave Close Subject: Re: Cell Phone Owners Just Want Simple Phones Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 07:00:38 UTC Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California David Twiddy writes: > So far, Sprint Nextel is doing something right as its subscribers > spend the highest average amount for data services in the industry. Something right for the stockholders, or something right for the customers? Many of us are severely annoyed by the nickle-and-dime pricing approach of the carriers. We might pay a proportionate amount extra for a worthwhile service, but $$ for a ringtone? More money for a 10-second audio clip than for a full track on iTunes? Mature adults just say no. > Charles Golvin of Forrester Research said a recent survey indicated > few cellular customers choose a phone based on its usability, > typically because they either don't think there's anything better or, > like Bales in Kansas City, don't think they need those services. One thing Sprint is doing wrong, IMHO, is narrowing the choice of phones available. They don't offer simple phones any more. I know that electronic economics means you can always get more for less as time passes, but sometimes you still just want less. I'm in the market for a new phone. I want a "candy-bar" style phone with a USB connector that allows me to manage my name list using my computer. I don't own or want to own any Windows or Mac systems. I don't care about a camera or browser. I don't care about a color screen. I do want a keyboard with all the numbers of equal size and arranged in a rectangular grid and with very few additional keys. The keys should be essentially the only moving parts on the phone. Can anyone suggest a candidate for my business? Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA "Greed is to the moralists of the dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359 left what sex is to the moralists dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu of the right." - Cathy Young ------------------------------ From: Sam Spade Subject: Re: Middle Class Goes Broadband As Price Falls Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 08:24:54 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Monty Solomon wrote: > By PETER SVENSSON AP Technology Writer > NEW YORK (AP) -- Middle- and working-class Americans signed up for > high-speed Internet access in record numbers in the past year, > apparently lured by a price war among phone companies. > Broadband adoption increased 59 percent from March last year to March > 2006 among U.S. households with incomes between $30,000 and $50,000, > according to a survey to be released Monday by the Pew Internet and > American Life Project. > It increased 40 percent in households making less than $30,000 a > year. Among blacks, it increased 121 percent, according to the study. > Middle- and lower-income households still lag higher-income households > when it comes to broadband adoption. Among the $30,000-$50,000 > households, 43 percent now have broadband, compared to 68 percent for > those making more than $75,000. > Overall, 42 percent of adult Americans, or 84 million people, have > broadband, compared to 30 percent a year ago. > Phone companies last year started slashing prices for broadband > service that uses regular phone line to establish a digital subscriber > line, or DSL. Both Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T > Inc. introduced $14.99 per month offers. Wait until the permanent prices kick in at the end of the promotional period. ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Scam IRS Says You Have Refund of $63.80 Coming Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 19:34:28 -0400 In article , gordon@hammy.burditt.org says: >>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My Dear God! Don't those fools _ever_ >>> grow weary of sending out this crap day after day? Of all the >>> banks and other financial institutions I have seen fall victim to >>> these scams, this is the first time I have ever seen it tried on the >>> good old IRS. PAT] >> This one has been going on for a couple of years, the IRS issued a >> warning a few weeks ago about this again. Plus the IRS refunds are in >> even amount no cents, these guys are really fools, but they do get hooks >> in some new users. > IRS refunds are in even amount, no cents? I don't think I've ever had > one like that in the last 30 years or so. (The smallest one was > $1.60). Some of this may have to do with whether you round off to > even dollars in preparing your return, which usually seems to work in > favor of the IRS. > Gordon L. Burditt You're kidding, right? EVERY dollar amount on a 1040 form can be rounded, with amounts ending in .49 or less rounded DOWN, and amounts ending in 0.50 or more rounded UP. As with flipping a coin, while YOU might encounter a "run" where for the last three years you had to round UP, the odds are just as likely that you would round DOWN. Gene ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V25 #204 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 30 23:37:08 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id DDDF71534F; Tue, 30 May 2006 23:37:07 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #205 Message-Id: <20060531033707.DDDF71534F@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 23:37:07 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 30 May 2006 23:40:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 205 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Virgin Mobile Introduces Ad-Subsidized Calls (Reuters News Wire) Computer Program Helps Locate, Fight Bird Flu (Reuters News Wire) Microsoft Lauches Security Plan for Windows (Allison Linn) Add Voicemail to Partner or Get Different System (vwrobert@gmail.com) Re: On-Hook Signal (William Warren) Re: On-Hook Signal (Ron Kritzman) Re: On-Hook Signal (JGolan) Re: Cell Phone Owners Just Want Simple Phones (Mr Joseph Singer) Re: Cell Phone Owners Just Want Simple Phones (GlowingBlueMist) Re: Cell Phone Owners Just Want Simple Phones (Richard Kaszeta) Re: Why the Democratic Ethic of the Web May Be About to End (Carl Moore) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Virgin Mobile Introduces Ad-Subsidized Calls Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 21:55:34 -0500 Virgin Mobile USA, a cell-phone service used mostly by teenagers and 20-somethings, said on Tuesday it was giving its customers the option to earn free calls if they view and respond to ads on their phones. Wireless providers are putting more and more features such as Web browsers and video players in cell phones in an effort to expand their revenue beyond voice. They also hope to profit from using these advanced phones to display advertising. Under the offer, customers of Virgin, a venture of Sprint Nextel and Richard Branson's Virgin, can get up to 75 minutes of free calls per month if they spend an equal amount of time looking at ads and replying to these ads via text messages. Virgin, one of the first providers to offer such a service, hopes the service will appeal to its often cash-strapped customers, 65 percent of whom are younger than 30 years old. "Very practically speaking a lot of our customers are value conscious. They manage budgets that are finite," said Howard Handler, the company's chief marketing officer. He said that while it was too soon to say how popular the service would be he expects it to increase revenue. "It will contribute meaningful additional top line revenue and EBITDA," Handler said, referring to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. He declined to reveal details of the terms of Virgin's agreements with its first advertising partners Pepsi, Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox game console unit and truth, a youth smoking prevention campaign. Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin believes advertising will be "extremely important" to wireless providers as they deliver video and news to phones. But he said it was not clear if many customers would want ad subsidized calls because cellphone calls are already cheap. "If you give somebody the choice whether you can have free content with advertising or you can pay for the content they'll chose the former," Golvin said. "Realistically the price of voice is pretty darn cheap on a mobile phone these days so giving somebody three free minutes of mobile voice is not a compelling proposition for most mobile users." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more headlines and news stories, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Computer Program Helps Locate, Fight Bird Flu Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 21:53:34 -0500 US poultry experts using Google to beat bird flu Poultry experts are turning to sophisticated computer imaging to help them prepare for the expected arrival of the deadly bird flu virus in the United States later this year. Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is being used to pinpoint the location of commercial poultry flocks, feed mills and processing plants, said Sherrill Davison, professor of avian medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The information will be used to help create buffer zones around an infected flock and contain the H5N1 strain when it makes its U.S. appearance. Since the beginning of the year, experts have also been using Google Earth, which combines satellite imagery, maps and the company's search engine to span the globe. It gives extra details including the location of buildings, schools and roads near large chicken and turkey farms and production facilities. "Twenty years ago we had to drive around the countryside and find the chicken farm that reported a disease, but now everything is on a mapping system," Davison told Reuters in a recent interview. "Now, we can very quickly, within about an hour, know exactly how many farms are in an (affected) area. Then we can know which farms to send teams to for extra sampling. "It may be there is an infected flock but they are out in the middle of nowhere and so the probability of spread to another farm is very minimal," she said. The H5N1 virus that has infected birds and chickens in Asia, Africa and Europe and caused more than 120 deaths there is expected to arrive in North America this summer via migrating birds flying from Asia to Alaska and southwards. Testing of wild birds is already underway in Alaska but no signs of the bird flu virus have yet been found. Davison and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania were among the first to develop GIS technology to monitor poultry flocks in the state in 1998. They have since used it to detect and control -- by swift culling -- minor outbreaks of avian diseases in Pennsylvania, which ranks third in the United States in chicken production. Other U.S. states have since adopted the system. "Many states do have this type of a mapping system which helps with a rapid response that reduces the spread of disease," Davison said. "We began using Google Earth to help us locate poultry farms more exactly. In the past we knew the chicken house was on a parcel of land but now we can zoom in and tell exactly where on the property it is. ... It is another tool to add into our rapid response program." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html See other news reports each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html ------------------------------ From: Allison Linn Subject: Microsoft Lauches Security Plan for Windows Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 21:57:41 -0500 By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer Security software makers, the 800-pound gorilla has landed. Microsoft Corp. was to announce Wednesday that it is releasing software that aims to better protect people who use its Windows operating system from Internet attacks. The move pits the world's largest software maker head-to-head with longtime business partners Symantec Corp., McAfee Inc. and others. Windows Live OneCare, which will protect up to three computers for $49.95 per year, marks the latest step in Microsoft's effort over the years to make its operating system less vulnerable to crippling Internet attacks. Windows, which runs on the vast majority of personal computers, has been a near-constant target of worms, viruses and other attacks, hurting countless users and forcing Microsoft to invest heavily in patching vulnerabilities and improving flaws. The official release of the OneCare product comes after months of public testing. Redmond-based Microsoft has previously said that its main focus for OneCare was the 70 percent of computer users who, according to Microsoft estimates, have no additional protection at all. But in an interview last week, Ryan Hamlin, general manager for the OneCare product, said the company also hopes to snag existing Symantec and McAfee customers. "We'd love for those customers to use our product, and encourage them to, but there's also 70 percent that don't use anybody," he said. Microsoft is hoping to gain an edge against Symantec and others by also including tools in OneCare to make computers run more smoothly and help people back up data. McAfee said Tuesday that it was preparing to release a new security service, code-named Falcon, this summer. A spokesman for Symantec, maker of the popular Norton products, said no one was available to comment on the OneCare competition. Hamlin said he expects the product to be profitable for Microsoft. He said the company doesn't have any current plans to bundle OneCare into the Windows operating system, as it has done with products such as its Internet browser and music and video player. But he said the company was looking at ways to distribute the product through computer makers or Internet service providers, as many competing security software makers have done. The OneCare release also comes on the heels of a federal lawsuit Symantec filed against Microsoft over a separate matter. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Seattle, accuses Microsoft of misappropriating Symantec's intellectual property and breach of contract. The dispute is over is over a technology that allows operating systems to handle large amounts of data. Hamlin said Microsoft believes it acted appropriately. On the Net: http://onecare.live.com Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: vwrobert@gmail.com Subject: Add Voicemail to Partner or Get Different System Date: 30 May 2006 16:58:09 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com We have an old AT&T Partner Plus system at work. We have 3 incoming lines and about 12 extensions. Some of the extensions ports have developed some static on them. I understand how to program the Partner System and change or add extensions as needed. We would like to upgrade to a system that has voicemail. Should I look at getting a newer partner system with voicemail? I see alot of used/refurbished Partner Systems available. How good is the voicemail on newer Partner systems? A local installer told me that in his opinion the Partner Systems were never really meant to have voicemail. I think he meant that Partners are older technology and voicemail was an add on and not part of the original design of the system. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 16:52:34 -0400 From: William Warren Subject: Re: On-Hook Signal mike7411@gmail.com wrote: > Anyone know exactly what the on-hook signal for a plain old telephone > looks like in terms of voltages? The information on the web is real > contradictory. Mike, The on-hook DC voltage should measure between 42 and 55 volts, depending on the CO type and the locality. This is the nominal -48 volt Central Office battery. On-hook AC voltage will be present during ringing, and it will vary widely depending on the number of ringers on the line, the cable condition, and the type of central office. You can expect to see anywhere from 30 to 120 volts AC. HTH. William Warren (Filter noise from my address for direct replies) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 16:47:11 -0500 From: Ron Kritzman Subject: Re: On-Hook Signal mike7411@gmail.com wrote: > Anyone know exactly what the on-hook signal for a plain old telephone > looks like in terms of voltages? The information on the web is real > contradictory. The info may appear contradictory because there are no standards in terms of voltage. On and off hook states on a POTS line are a function of loop current. Battery (power) is provided by the central office, and an on-hook telephone is an open circuit. To go off hook you close the circuit and current flows. What you would see with a voltmeter across tip and ring (the two wires of a basic phone pair) is the voltage drop across the middle resistor of three in series. The middle one is the phone itself and the other two are the resistance of the cable back to the C.O. When the phone is on-hook the resistance is infinite, so the voltage will be essentially whatever the CO is providing. For a residential POTS line this is typically in the range of 48-52 volts. When the phone is off hook, the drop across the resistor is typically 6-12 volts. You need to know that this is not reliable at all. The phone may not be connected to a C.O. It may be wired to a PBX, intercom, or a VOIP adapter providing 24v, 12v or who knows what. You may be far from the CO and the loop resistance may be very high. The voltages can and will be all over the place, and reading of zero volts could just as easily be a short as an open. The end result: The voltage across the line can give you a quick and dirty guess as to whether the phone is on or off hook. If you want to know for sure, look at loop current. Emoveray ethay Igpay Atinlay otay eplyray ------------------------------ From: JGolan Subject: Re: On-Hook Signal Date: 30 May 2006 17:18:55 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com on-hook (phone hung up) - Open circuit. If line is measured should be about 48-53 VDC. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 18:39:22 PDT From: Mr. Joseph Singer Subject: Re: Cell Phone Owners Just Want Simple Phones Dave Close Tue, 30 May 2006 07:00:38 UTC wrote: > I'm in the market for a new phone. I want a "candy-bar" style phone > with a USB connector that allows me to manage my name list using my > computer. I don't own or want to own any Windows or Mac systems. I > don't care about a camera or browser. I don't care about a color > screen. I do want a keyboard with all the numbers of equal size and > arranged in a rectangular grid and with very few additional keys. The > keys should be essentially the only moving parts on the phone. Can > anyone suggest a candidate for my business?>> You do not indicate if you must have a handset that will work with a certain mobile operator. If it's Sprint my first suggestion would be to go to http://www.phonescoop.com. Go to the "phone finder" and tick off anything that is important to you. Unfortunately for current models you may be forced to get more than you wanted. There are at present very few non-color phones available. The best you're likely going to do is to find a model that is a low-end introductory model as that will likely have the least amount of "features" such as cameras etc. There are still for certain technologies simpler phones such as the Nokia 1112 or Nokia 1100 which are non-color phones but they are for the T-Mobile or cingular service and not for Sprint if that's what you must have. ------------------------------ From: GlowingBlueMist Subject: Re: Cell Phone Owners Just Want Simple Phones Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 21:52:22 -0500 Organization: Octanews Dave Close wrote in message news:telecom25.204.9@telecom-digest.org: > David Twiddy writes: >> So far, Sprint Nextel is doing something right as its subscribers >> spend the highest average amount for data services in the industry. > Something right for the stockholders, or something right for the > customers? Many of us are severely annoyed by the nickle-and-dime > pricing approach of the carriers. We might pay a proportionate amount > extra for a worthwhile service, but $$ for a ringtone? More money for > a 10-second audio clip than for a full track on iTunes? Mature adults > just say no. >> Charles Golvin of Forrester Research said a recent survey indicated >> few cellular customers choose a phone based on its usability, >> typically because they either don't think there's anything better or, >> like Bales in Kansas City, don't think they need those services. > One thing Sprint is doing wrong, IMHO, is narrowing the choice of > phones available. They don't offer simple phones any more. I know that > electronic economics means you can always get more for less as time > passes, but sometimes you still just want less. > I'm in the market for a new phone. I want a "candy-bar" style phone > with a USB connector that allows me to manage my name list using my > computer. I don't own or want to own any Windows or Mac systems. I > don't care about a camera or browser. I don't care about a color > screen. I do want a keyboard with all the numbers of equal size and > arranged in a rectangular grid and with very few additional keys. The > keys should be essentially the only moving parts on the phone. Can > anyone suggest a candidate for my business? > Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA "Greed is to the moralists of the > dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359 left what sex is to the moralists > dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu of the right." - Cathy Young Sounds like you need to combine the Nokia 1100 from Tracfone http://www.tracfone.com with the USB cable from http://cell-phone-accessories-wholesale.com/browseproducts/Nokia-1100-USB-Data-Cable.-Cell-Phone-USB-Data-Cable-for-data-connectivity-between-cell-phones-and-computer.-Includes-USB-Driver-CD-for-PC.HTML and you should have what you are asking for. ------------------------------ From: Richard Kaszeta Subject: Re: Cell Phone Owners Just Want Simple Phones Date: 30 May 2006 13:28:40 -0500 Organization: University of MN ME Dept Dave Close writes: >> So far, Sprint Nextel is doing something right as its subscribers >> spend the highest average amount for data services in the industry. > Something right for the stockholders, or something right for the > customers? Obviously, the customers think (correctly or not) that they are getting a better deal from Sprint, since they pay it. If they weren't, they'd have signed up with someone else. (For existing customers, there's a disincentive for this, due to the usual 1 or 2 year service agreements). > One thing Sprint is doing wrong, IMHO, is narrowing the choice of > phones available. They don't offer simple phones any more. I know that > electronic economics means you can always get more for less as time > passes, but sometimes you still just want less. Indeed, my current cell phone is essentially disposable, costing a mere $20 (however, it's also a prepaid phone) to buy it. It costs me around $8/month to keep it running and working. But this approach only works since I don't really make a lot of calls (a lot of calling people to tell them I'm ready to go at the airport, etc, i.e. almost entirely 1-2 minute calls). Richard W Kaszeta rich@kaszeta.org http://www.kaszeta.org/rich ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 15:12:38 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Why the Democratic Ethic of World Wide Web May Be About to End There is a "little-guy" site named after me (and not connected to the office where I work) where I select, arrange, and transcribe the music myself on a volunteer basis. I already include a statement "Consider learning about the actual recordings.". There is a cultural "difference" emerging from that site, too, because most of it is based on light popular sounds of the middle third of the 20th century -- on average, I am selecting music which is older than most of my high-school classmates would pick. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Carl, why didn't you give us the URL for your site? PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. 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End of TELECOM Digest V25 #205 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 31 23:12:46 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 3E9F515606; Wed, 31 May 2006 23:12:46 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #206 Message-Id: <20060601031246.3E9F515606@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 23:12:46 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR,NA_DOLLARS autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 31 May 2006 23:15:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 206 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson VA Data Theft Worse Than First Reported (Hope Yen) Police Raid, Shut Down Music Web Site (Reuters News Wire) Cellular-News: Wednesday 31st May 2006 (Cellular-News) ADC Acquires Andrew Corp. (USTelecom dailyLead) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - May 31, 2006 (Telecomdirect_daily) RTV in Phone Jack (sawney beane) Perfect Hangup (bob@coolgroups.com) Re: Why the Democratic Ethic of World Wide Web About to End (jtaylor) Re: Why the Democratic Ethic of the World Wide Web About to End (L.Hancock) Re: Microsoft Lauches Security Plan for Windows (mc) Re: Using Cell Phone For Frequency Calibration Reference? (Scott Dorsey) Music Site (was Re: Why the Democratic Ethic ...) (Carl Moore) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Hope Yen Subject: VA Data Theft Worse Than First Reported Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 18:07:34 -0500 Stolen VA data goes far beyond initial reports By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer Personal information on 26.5 million veterans that was stolen from a Veterans Affairs employee this month not only included Social Security numbers and birthdates but in many cases phone numbers and addresses, internal documents show. Meanwhile, VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said Wednesday that he had named a former Arizona prosecutor as a special adviser for information security, a new three-month post that will pinpoint security problems at the VA and develop recommendations for improvements. The three pages of memos by the VA, written by privacy officer Mark Whitney and distributed to high-level officials shortly after the May 3 burglary, offer new details on the scope of one of the nation's largest security breaches. The memos were obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. They show that a file containing 6,744 records pertaining to "mustard gas veterans" -- or those who participated in chemical testing programs during World War II -- was breached, and that a "short file" with as many as 10 diagnostic codes indicating a veteran's disability also was stolen. At the same time, however, the memos suggest that the data might be difficult to retrieve by thieves. "Given the file format used to store the data, the data may not be easily accessible," stated one memo dated May 5 and distributed internally May 8. On Wednesday, the VA did not say why it didn't immediately reveal that personal information such as addresses and phone numbers had been disclosed. But the agency said it aggressively sought to protect veterans once Nicholson was informed. "VA's initial and primary efforts have focused on notifying the millions of veterans and some spouses whose most sensitive and identifiable information -- their names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and some disability ratings -- may have been compromised," spokesman Matt Burns said. Some lawmakers said Wednesday they were troubled by the new revelations, which go further than what the VA initially reported after publicizing the theft on May 22. At the time, Nicholson said the data was limited to names, Social Security numbers and birthdates; he later indicated that diagnostic codes in some cases also may have been breached. "It is not appropriate for this information to ever enter the public domain," said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, which is planning to hold several additional hearings on data security and veterans' benefits later this summer. Veterans groups have criticized the VA for a three-week delay in publicizing the burglary after the theft at a VA data analyst's Maryland home. During hearings last week, Nicholson said he was "mad as hell" that employees did not notify him of the May 3 burglary until May 16. Joe Davis, a spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the VA needs to come clean about who exactly is at risk. "What's so upsetting and frustrating is the lack of specific details coming from the VA," he said. "We have millions of veterans looking to the VA for answers, including older veterans who may not have Internet access or fully comprehend what this means to them, and younger veterans who will now have to carry this dark cloud with them for the rest of their lives." Separately, Nicholson said in a statement that he had appointed former Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley as his new adviser for information security. Nicholson cited a need for dramatic security changes in the wake of the burglary. "Rick Romley is a well-respected attorney and veteran who will provide a critical outsider's perspective to VA," Nicholson said. "Rick shares my commitment to cutting through bureaucracy to provide results for our nation's veterans." Romley, a Vietnam War veteran, prosecuted one of the largest public corruption cases in Arizona in the early 1990s and was seen as a potential GOP contender in that state's 2006 governor's race. On Tuesday, VA deputy assistant secretary Michael McLendon said he was stepping down because of the theft, and the VA announced it would dismiss the data analyst, who had reported to McLendon. The department also placed Dennis Duffy, the acting head of the division in which the data analyst worked, on administrative leave. On the Net: Info for veterans suspecting identity theft: http://www.firstgov.gov or 1-800-FED-INFO Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Associated Press please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Police Raid, Shut Down Music Web Site Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 18:16:36 -0500 Swedish police shut Web site in music piracy raid. Swedish police detained three people in raids and closed an Internet site on Wednesday that the entertainment industry said was a major source of music and film piracy. The Web site operators could not be contacted but supporters said the site had not been doing anything illegal and criticised the police action. Last year, Sweden banned the downloading of copyright material after being singled out for criticism by Hollywood. The issue of file sharing and copyright has been emotive in Sweden, a hi-tech country with a tradition of openness. "Three people ... have been taken in for questioning on suspicion of breaking copyright law or abetting the breaking of copyright law," Stockholm police, who carried out raids at 10 locations, said in a statement. "The preliminary inquiry is related to so-called file sharing and concerns The Pirate Bay Web site," said the statement. It gave no further details but the International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers (IFPI) said The Pirate Bay was the world's largest search index using BitTorrent software, employed to download movies and music, and was a major source of illegal material. "The Pirate Bay has damaged the legitimate music industry on an international scale and I am very pleased that the Swedish authorities have taken such decisive action against it," IFPI chairman and chief executive John Kennedy said in a statement. But Rickard Falkvinge, who launched the Pirate Party this year to run in national elections in September and fight for changes to copyright laws, condemned the police action. "Pirate Bay has not committed any crime," Falkvinge said in a statement on his Web site. "It is precisely this sort of raid which the Pirate Party wants to stop." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News: Wednesday 31st May 2006 Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 07:16:46 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com ====================================================================== [[ Financial ]] NEWS SNAP: Vodafone To Give GBP3 Billion Extra To Holders http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17590.php Vodafone Group, Tuesday offered a GBP3 billion payback to shareholders and higher dividends as it unveiled a long-awaited strategy update. ... Vodafone Happy With Current Verizon Wireless Stake -Sarin http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17591.php Vodafone Group is happy with its current stake in US mobile operator Verizon Wireless and isn't looking to sell it, Chief Executive Arun Sarin said Tuesday. ... Vodafone Breakup Would Subordinated-optimize Assets - CEO Sarin http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17593.php A potential breakup of Vodafone Group would result in lower profitability across its different divisions, Chief Executive Arun Sarin said Tuesday. "If the company were to be split, that would sub-optimize its current assets," Sarin told a conference ... 3rd UPDATE: Vodafone To Give GBP3 Billion Extra To Holders http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17594.php Vodafone Group, Tuesday offered a GBP3 billion payback to shareholders and higher dividends as it unveiled a long-awaited strategy update. ... CEO: Telefonica interested in purchasing PT's stake in Vivo http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17598.php Spain's Telefonica has confirmed that it is interested in obtaining full control of Brazil's largest mobile operator Vivo, purchasing the 50% held by Portugal Telecom, Telefonica's president Ceasar Alierta was reported as saying by inte... Telenor asks VimpelCom to move deadline for Kyivstar deal until Jul 1 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17601.php Norwegian telecommunication company Telenor has asked Russia's second largest mobile operator VimpelCom to move the deadline for completing negotiations on VimpelCom's purchase of Ukraine's largest mobile operator Kyivstar to July 1 from Wednesday, V... [[ Handsets ]] Telecom Italia Gets New Handsets Orders Worth EUR400 Million http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17592.php Telecom Italia said Tuesday it received orders for 2.5 million new handsets worth EUR400 million at a convention it held in Barcelona with its dealers. ... Mobiles Are Workers Primary Phone - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17602.php A recent IDC survey has found that enterprise telecom managers believe 28% of their employees are using their mobile phone as their primary work phone. These employees are managing multiple messaging pools and are outside the reach of policy and secu... Motorola RAZR Continues To Top Handset Sales Figures http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17609.php Wirefly, a USA based online cellphone retailer has released its list of the best-selling cell phones for Winter and Spring, calculated from January 1, 2006 through May 15, 2006. Both the silver and black RAZRs continued to dominate the list outsellin... [[ Legal ]] Kyivstar challenges regulator on antitrust case http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17600.php Ukraine's largest mobile operator Kyivstar has filed a lawsuit in the Kiev Arbitration Court against by Ukraine's Antimonopoly Committee challenging an antitrust case initiated by the regulator, Alexander Voznyuk, the state commissioner of the commit... Nokia Wins Counterfeit Lawsuit http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17603.php A USA Court has ruled in favour of Nokia over a counterfeit claim. Resulting from a civil action pursued by Nokia, United States District Judge Jose E. Martinez of the Southern District of Florida found Suplimet Corp. and Hermann Lozano in contempt o... [[ Network Contracts ]] Retain Your Office Extension Number While Roaming http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17608.php The roaming services provider, Starhome has announced that the KPN Mobile-owned European mobile communications provider Sympac has signed a contract with the company to make use of Starhome's turn-key solution 'Virtual Office Environment' - intended ... [[ Network Operators ]] Virgin Mobile Unveils Way To Earn Airtime With Ad Plans http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17589.php Virgin Mobile USA unveiled a service enabling its pre-paid customers to earn airtime minutes on their plan by interacting with advertisements. ... VimpelCom wants to get 1.1 rbl/min for fixed-to-mobile calls http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17595.php Russia's second largest mobile operator VimpelCom has suggested that mobile operators are paid 1.1 rubles per minute, excluding value-added tax (VAT), for fixed-to-mobile calls after the launch of Calling Party Pays (CPP) principle in the country, th... Digitel plans US$250mn investment in 2006 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17597.php Venezuelan startup telecoms group Telvenco plans to invest US$250mn in its recently acquired mobile unit Digitel GSM with a view to expanding its market share, the holding company said in a statement. ... [[ Offbeat ]] Kazak Telecoms Ministry Tower Catches Fire http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17604.php Kazakhstan's tallest building, which houses the government ministry of industry, information and communications caught fire at the weekend. The building, known locally as "the cigarette lighter" was wreathed in smoke, while flames could be seen comin... [[ Regulatory ]] Two remain in bidding for 4th cellular license http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17596.php Two bidders remain in negotiations with the Jamaican government regarding plans to re-auction the country's fourth mobile phone license, which was confiscated from Cingular in 2005, The Jamaica Observer reported. ... Review of Swiss GSM Licenses http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17605.php On behalf of Switzerland's Federal Communications Commission (ComCom), the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) has launched a public consultation on the renewal of the GSM licences of Swisscom Mobile, Orange Communications and TDC Switzerland.... [[ Reports ]] Deployments and Adoption of CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Accelerate http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17606.php The CDMA Development Group (CDG) has reported that 22 operators in 17 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean have deployed or are building CDMA2000 1xEV-DO networks. Operators are seeing a significant demand for 1xEV-DO services, with t... Next tech boom looming? http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17607.php The pursuit of digital convergence, and the resulting urge-to-merge, will likely deliver the next boom in the technology industry according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers. The report concludes that executives have learned from the last bubbl... [[ Statistics ]] IN BRIEF: Suptel: Mobile base grows 19% Jan-Apr http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17599.php Ecuadorian mobile operators closed April with 7.44 million subscribers, up nearly 19% compared to the 6.2 million users reported at end 2005, according to sector supervisor Suptel. ... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 12:39:12 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: ADC Acquires Andrew Corp. USTelecom dailyLead May 31, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dKesfDtuteoUplwOWv TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * ADC acquires Andrew Corp. BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Vonage to pay banks for unwanted shares * Broadband plays a key role in Vodafone's growth plans * Microsoft in VoIP deal with LG-Nortel * Airgo's MIMO technology used for IPTV-over-Wi-Fi * Verizon Airfone drops out of in-flight broadband auction USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * VoIP for Dummies TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Report: UWB will arrive in 2006 * VOD seen as way to boost voter interest in elections * Sling enters European market REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Chicago to seek private sector partner for wireless network * Mediacom, ICTA file lawsuit over broadband program * Report: Government may require companies to retain data Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dKesfDtuteoUplwOWv ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 10:46:18 -0400 From: telecomdirect_daily Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - Wednesday, May 31, 2006 Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For May 31, 2006 Agreements Imminent for MTS and VimpelCom on Fixed-to-Mobile Tarffis http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/105/18178?11228 Russian mobile operators Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) and VimpelCom have suggested that after the calling-party-pays (CPP) system is introduced in the country, on 1 July 2006, fixed-to-mobile calls should initially be charged at 1.1 rouble per minute (US$0.041), excluding VAT, according to Prime-Tass. Both MTS and VimpelCom have proposed... Slovakia's Telecom Publishes Tender for New Cell Operator http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18171?11228 BRATISLAVA -- Slovakia's state-run Slovak Telecom on Wednesday published an international bid for the country's third cell phone operator, the state-run news agency TASR reported. Potential buyers have until July 14 to make offers. The starting price was set at 110 million Slovak crowns (US$ 3.7 million). The bidders will also have... Nokia Ramps Up Counterfeiter Fight http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18168?11228 Given the rise in counterfeit mobile devices and accessories, Nokia announced plan to step up its efforts to thwart counterfeiters. The news comes on the heels of a Florida court awarding the No. 1 global handset manufacturer more than $1 million in damages in its case involving the trafficking of counterfeit Nokia products. Due to an... Survey Sez: Truck Rolls Plague Cable VoIP http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18165?11228 A huge percentage of cable-company voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) customers -- some 34 percent -- report needing on-site technical support to get their VoIP lines to work, according to a new survey commissioned by SupportSoft and done by online market research firm Decipher Inc., scheduled for release tomorrow. The issue isn't... Copyright (C) 2005 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 16:06:32 -0400 From: sawney beane Subject: RTV in Phone Jack Yesterday my neighbor said for two days he'd had no phone service except to put the phone by the window and plug it in outside. He asked if I could check his wiring. Outside, I found that one of the contacts on his plug was invisible. There appeared to be unpigmented RTV in the jack. It had the physical characteristics of RTV when I scraped it off the plug. That restored his service. He said the crackling he'd had for two months was gone. He keeps his gates locked so nobody will accidentally let his alert dogs out. Two months ago a woman from Bellsouth restored his service on the street pole. She also came into his yard. We couldn't think of any other possibility. Bellsouth will annoy me with useless telemarketing day after day, so I don't know how they think. Could Bellsouth be injecting RTV into phone jacks because they think it's preventive maintenance or to create more service calls? ------------------------------ From: bob@coolgroups.com Subject: Perfect Hangup Date: 31 May 2006 00:56:48 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Is there any kind of phone out there that does a perfect hangup? Basically, I want a phone that instantaneously creates a perfect open circuit between TIP and RING upon hangup, probably with the press of a button. Right now, I have a cheap phone that hangs up when you put it in the cradle. I think the jostling in the cradle upon hangup is causing occasional hangup errors on a VOIP system. I would prefer a phone that can do this without being in speakerphone mode. ------------------------------ From: jtaylor Subject: Re: Why the Democratic Ethic of World Wide Web May Be About to End Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 09:43:36 -0300 Organization: MCI Canada News Reader Service Carl Moore wrote in message news:telecom25.205.11@telecom-digest.org: > There is a "little-guy" site named after me (and not connected to the > office where I work) where I select, arrange, and transcribe the music > myself on a volunteer basis. I already include a statement "Consider > learning about the actual recordings.". There is a cultural > "difference" emerging from that site, too, because most of it is based > on light popular sounds of the middle third of the 20th century -- on > average, I am selecting music which is older than most of my > high-school classmates would pick. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Carl, why didn't you give us the URL > for your site? PAT] A search for "carl moore music" brings up this as the first hit: http://www.centuria.com/~carl/ ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Why the Democratic Ethic of the World Wide Web May Be About to End Date: 31 May 2006 09:56:04 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Monty Solomon wrote: > By ADAM COHEN > The New York Times Another uptopian "ivory tower" dream concept about the web. Let's be clear about this: the world described in this article never existed in the first place. I'm aware my opinion offends some people, especially web advocates. But I lived through the "magic" of the BBS world and deal with the modern web regularly. It is a _disservice_ to claim the web is something other than what it really is. Let's be honest about the web's flaws and deal with them, not fantasize in some utopian fake world*. Frankly, many utopian advocates are leftover hippies from the 1960s and 1970s. I remember them well from my college days, and how "free and open communication" was the mantra. It was nonsense then and is now, as I will describe below. > The World Wide Web is the most democratic mass medium there has ever > been. Freedom of the press, as the saying goes, belongs only to those > who own one. Radio and television are controlled by those rich enough > to buy a broadcast license. But anyone with an Internet-connected > computer can reach out to a potential audience of billions. Anyone could cheaply print up handbills and stand on a busy street corner and give them out, or distribute them door to door in a city neighborhood. Big potential audience there, too. But the reality is that almost all the recipients will toss said leaflet in the trash. On the web, very, very few of the so-called "billions" will bother to read it and even fewer will care. A heck of a lot of the web is pure wasted noise. Any serious researcher will have to skip past quack-cures, sexual come-ons, and a variety of commercial ventures, some legitimate, many bogus. Sites with the most reliable and detailed information often require a fee. People are impatient and don't want to waste time sifting through noise. > This democratic Web did not just happen. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the > British computer scientist who invented the Web in 1989, envisioned a > platform on which everyone in the world could communicate on an equal > basis. This is that "open communiation" mantra I mentioned above. Here's the reality of group communication: If it is unmoderated, those with the loudest or most oratorial voice will dominate the discussion. Just because someone is a great orator doesn't make them intelligent or bless their ideas as valid; but it is easy for a group to go into a trance by a smooth polished speaker. Obviously a loud bully speaker will dominate too. In any event, unmoderated groups do not have free communication. The Internet is no different. Bullies and "loud" drown out worthwhile speakers. "Bad money drives out good money". A big problem of the web is that it is totally unmoderated. Anyone can put up a website and claim anything they damn well want; but that does not make their website any good. There are lots and lots of such websites. In contrast, in the traditional world, anyone could write a book, but publishers act as a filter and usually the worst quacks are not accepted. A second filter is the distribution channel. This is not foolproof -- there are plenty of garbage books and articles -- but some filtering does take place. If the group is moderated, there is a much better chance for decent communication. The moderators will control the bullies and smooth out outlandish claims. Unfortunately, most web communiation is not moderators. Further, there are no controls on moderators, they could subtly or overtly impart their prejudices. Lastly, moderated groups have limitations. In college, the bell would ring and it was time go to the next class. > But his vision is being threatened by telecommunications and > cable companies, and other Internet service providers, that want to > impose a new system of fees that could create a hierarchy of Web > sites. Major corporate sites would be able to pay the new fees, while > little-guy sites could be shut out. People forget that the web is not free. It is made up of servers and high speed telephone lines between the servers. All of this must be maintained by people. (Please don't give me nonsense about "volunteers"). This costs money which must come from somewhere. AFAIK, anyone who sets up their own web page now must pay some fees to register the domain, get server space, etc. They of course have their own server costs. So, I'm not sure how a new fee schedule will curtail that. As to a "hierarchy", that exists now. As a web user, I'd like to be able to go to a site without worry about viruses. I recently tried to visit a legitimate non-profit recreation group site and the virus alarm went off. Obviously that site is clueless. I find it very offensive that I must spend my time and money on virus and sabotage protection that is a result from the "openness" we supposedly so desperately want. As a web user, if I buy something over the Internet, I'd like a reasonable assurance that the company at the other end is a legitimate company and isn't just fishing to steal my credit card number. As an Internet user, I'd like not to be bombarded with spam emails, and semi-spam emails. I visited PC Expo in NYC years ago and they still innundate me with emails despite repeated requests to cease. Unlike traditional junk mail, email costs me money. You may think your non-profit organization's cause is the most important thing in the world. I'm sorry, but not only do I not agree, I'm not the least bit interested in hearing about it nor subsidizing your web page or floods of email. When you ask for "openness" what you really want is me to open my front door so you can march in my home uninvited, sit down and push for your organization. I respect intellectual property rights, and I object to those who exploit the web download protected materials for free redistribution without paying for them. In conclusion, I have not seen any substantive argument against "the new system of fees". If anyone has studied them and has a differing opinion on their impact, please share your thoughts with us. [public replies, please] *In the mid 1950s it was clear automobiles were dangerous, yet most automakers denied this and fought against safety features like seatbelts and the like. It took more than 15 years to finally get needed stuff installed in cars. Finally, lives were saved. I see the utiopians on the web as no different than the major auto companies. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have often times wondered why people like Tim Berners-Lee (credited as the 'inventor' of the World Wide Web) did not think far enough ahead in the middle-late 1980's to slap some very firm controls on how _his_ product could be permissibly used by people in generations to follow. Oh, I know all the reasons for not doing so which were given, but I have to wonder if now, 15-20 years after the fact, if it is a case of wising up too late in the game. That is, unless Tim B-L is really okay with the unreal twists and turns which have taken place on the web in the past, all the abuses and misuses we see as a routine thing of late. Was it really his intention to provide an air of 'legitimacy' to the cretins who publish all sorts of scams and spams and then hide in obscurity behind web sites which -- while traceable by folks who have the time and energy to examine them -- for most of us are essentially impossible to track down? Somehow I think -- and I do not mean this in an unkind way -- he shared in the naive notions that so many of the early computer pioneers; that people were basically good and decent and all that. I do not wish to get into an "I warned you" or an "I told you so" posture, but I can still recall, with some bitterness I might add, the day in 1993 or 1994 when I first began attempting to clamp some _serious_ controls on this Digest in terms of editorial control on the content, the layout, etc, and how a few of the earlier readers gasped and acted so incredulous. They wanted a moderator, all right, but other than a bit of moderation, I was to keep my mouth shut and not disturb the status quo. When I changed my title (I like to say 'gave myself a promotion') from "Moderator" to "Editor" and published some rules on what would, and what would not be acceptable, the shit really hit the fan blade, as the expression goes. I would like to think I was not as naive back in the 1980-90's as many netizens were, but some have said I was even more so. Lisa Hancock is correct, IMO. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Microsoft Lauches Security Plan for Windows Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 00:02:20 -0400 A comment: There should always be a diversity of antivirus software makers. The reason is that each of them will catch things that the others don't, and the only way to be sure they're thorough is to have them compete with each other. Having a multiplicity of antivirus programs helps ensure that a virus will be detected by *somebody* before it infects *everybody*. An antivirus monopoly would be a single point of vulnerability for everyone. Having said that, I'm glad to see Microsoft getting into the virus protection business because it gives them an incentive to make their OS harder for viruses to get into. At least, the antivirus team and the OS team are in the same company. ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Using Cell Phone For Frequency Calibration Reference? Date: 31 May 2006 10:54:32 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Richard Eldon BARBER wrote: > Some piano tuners calibrate electronic tuning devices using their cell > phone. Is this a good idea? Calling up NIST on the cell phone, you > can have 440Hz played to you. Is using a cell phone going to be a > stable frequency reference? Will the cell phone network actually be > able to preserve the frequency, say as 440.0000 Hz? or will there be > frequency domain quantization errors due to wavelet compression, thus > affecting the freq stability of the transmitted tone? Please post and > email ... I don't think it would be a serious issue, but try it yourself and find out. Call the number with a conventional phone, then call it with a cell phone. Hold the two phones together and see if you hear any beat notes. There will be some error. But if you can't hear it, it's not important. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Or notice, for example, the setting of accurate clocks via the internet. I've a program here called 'Net Time' which constantly polls various 'time servers' around the net. When you set it up, one site returns data reported to have latency of .150 ms and another has latency of .75 ms, etc, in other words _none _ of them display (on my screen) -exactly- the right time. But the program takes a half dozen or so of these time servers, and averages the latencies then makes an adjustment which is as close as one can get apparently, to the 'correct time', but no one can ever discern the difference, at least human eyes and ears are unable to find a difference, which is what I suspect the original writer would find in checking landline to cellular. If he can tell the difference, then his hearing is better than mine. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 11:11:11 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Music Site (was Re: Why the Democratic Ethic ...) The music site I referred to can be reached as: http://www.centuria.com/~carl or http://www.cmooremusic.net ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 V25 #206 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 1 16:11:19 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 2F02A1538A; Thu, 1 Jun 2006 16:11:19 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #207 Message-Id: <20060601201119.2F02A1538A@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 16:11:19 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.2 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR,NIGERIAN_BODY1 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 1 Jun 2006 16:13:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 207 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson T-Online: German Court OKs Takeover (Associated Press News Wire) Yahoo Reprograms Online Video Service (Michael Liedtke) Report: Broadband Adoption Spikes (USTelecom dailyLead) Cellular-News: Thursday 1st June 2006 (Cellular-News) Comparison Between Merlin Legend and Merlin Magic (Etop Udoh) Try Cancelling Vonage (was Re: Vonage Problems) (Andy P.) Re: Perfect Hangup (Scott Dorsey) Re: Why the Democratic Ethic of the Web May Be About to End (G. Wollman) Re: Why the Democratic Ethic of the Web May Be About to End (Lisa Hancock) Two New Pages on VOIP in Our Archives (Patrick Townson) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Associated Press News Wire Subject: T-Online: German Court OKs Takeover Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 12:02:45 -0500 Internet service provider T-Online International AG said Thursday that a German federal court has cleared the way for its absorption by majority owner Deutsche Telekom AG, dismissing appeals against the deal. The Federal Court of Justice rejected as "inadmissible" complaints against a Frankfurt court's ruling that pending lawsuits by shareholders should not block any registration of the deal, T-Online said in a statement. Following the decision, "the merger will take effect once it has been entered in the commercial registers of both companies," it added. T-Online is Europe's largest ISP and has more than 13.5 million subscribers. Deutsche Telekom had spun T-Online off, but retained a 74 percent stake. In October 2004, it decided to buy out the remaining stake for nearly 3 billion euros from minority shareholders and bring the Internet provider back into its T-Com unit. Deutsche Telekom offered 8.99 euros ($11.56) per share for the outstanding T-Online shares, well under the shares' issue price of 27 euros in early 2000. More than 20 shareholders sued against Deutsche Telekom's buyout offer, saying they were treated unfairly and demanding a higher buyout offer. On Thursday, Deutsche Telekom shares rose 1.3 percent to 12.84 euros ($16.51) on the Frankfurt exchange. T-Online shares dropped 2.25 percent to 7.40 euros ($9.52). Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Michael Liedtke Subject: Yahoo Reprograms Online Video Service Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 12:05:54 -0500 By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer Yahoo Inc. is reprogramming its online video service so it's more like YouTube.com, an Internet upstart that has amassed a large audience during the past year with a free Web service that encourages people to post and share homemade clips. Under the changes unveiled Thursday, Yahoo will store homemade videos on its own site for the first time as it attempts to build a platform for people to browse and rate the clips. The videos will be separated into different categories, including a section devoted to the most-watched selections. Those features mirror YouTube, which has become the Web's most popular video channel since a pair of twentysomething technology whizzes started the San Mateo, Calif.-based company a year ago. Now, Internet heavyweights like Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo are trying to chip away at YouTube's early lead as the rapidly growing number of high-speed Internet connections make it easier to transfer and watch online videos. Just two weeks ago, Google Inc. retooled its video service so a special piece of software would no longer be required to upload clips to the online search engine leader. Meanwhile, Time Warner Inc.'s AOL is testing a service, called UnCut Video, that accepts clips. Since launching its video service in late 2004, Yahoo has focused on indexing the clips available on other Web sites. Although the company intends to continue indexing material from other sites, Yahoo is betting it will be able to lure more visitors and give them more reason to stick around longer by creating a unique video library through submissions from its 208 million registered users. "We felt this was a necessary next step in our evolution," said Jeff Karnes, Yahoo's director of multimedia search. Yahoo has been adding more attractions to its Web site to maintain its status as the Web's most trafficked destination and spur even more spending by advertisers -- the main source of the company's revenue. By accepting homemade videos, Yahoo risks showing material that infringes on copyrights or contains pornographic scenes. Both of those problems have cropped up on YouTube, despite restrictions prohibiting users from posting such content. Like YouTube, Yahoo will depend on its own users and copyright holders to flag rule-breaking videos so they can be removed from the site. To minimize the chances of an offensive video appearing before a big audience, Yahoo editors will screen all the clips that are featured on the service's front page, said Jason Zajac, the company's general manager of social media. Yahoo will have to make up a lot of ground to catch up with YouTube, which boasts of streaming more than 40 million videos per day. In April, YouTube attracted 12.5 million U.S. visitors, well ahead of MSN Video's second place service at 9.5 million visitors, according to Nielsen/NetRatings Inc. Yahoo's video service attracted 2.6 million visitors, trailing rival offerings from MySpace.com, Google and AOL, as well as YouTube and MSN, Nielsen/NetRatings said. Although it leads the rest of the video pack, YouTube still hasn't proven it can make money as it subsists on $11.5 million in venture capital. Yahoo, in contrast, earned $160 million during the first three months of this year and ended March with $1.4 billion in cash. On the Net: Yahoo Video: http://video.yahoo.com Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 13:01:05 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Report: Broadband Adoption Spikes USTelecom dailyLead June 1, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dKrYfDtutepBABMuYc TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Report: Broadband adoption spikes BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * France Telecom to sell products under Orange brand * Verizon expected to win video franchise in Maryland county * Comcast to let customers boost speeds on demand * HP renames division to reflect telecom market changes * Cable industry doesn't need to rush to IPTV technology USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Take a Stephen Shepard Crash Course in IMS, VoIP and Telecom TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Yahoo! revamps Web video search to compete with YouTube * Wireless is the next wave in social networking REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * California Assembly passes bill to end local franchise laws * FCC may expand USF to VoIP, wireless * Analysis: Net neutrality debate a complex web of issues Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dKrYfDtutepBABMuYc ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News: Thursday 1st June 2006 Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 07:10:12 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com ====================================================================== [[ 3G ]] Anatel: Public consultation for 3G licenses before Sep http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17613.php Brazil's telecoms regulator Anatel expects to hold a public consultation before September to evaluate interest in applying for 3G licenses, TI Inside reported Anatel director Jarbas Valente as saying. ... Qualcomm Opens African 3G Center http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17623.php Qualcomm has opened its African hub, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Qualcomm's new office will also serve as a base for implementing Wireless Reach projects, which seek to empower underserved communities through the use of 3G wireless technolog... Mobile Operators' 3G CAPEX Rising Sharply http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17628.php Two years ago, announcements of capital spending on 3G deployments were mainly made by the largest operators in the most developed nations, but today many smaller and incumbent operators in developing and less saturated markets are also increasing CA... [[ Financial ]] Russia's NSS mobile operator 2005 RAS net profit up 34% on yr http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17617.php The net profit of Russian regional mobile operator Nizhegorodskaya Sotovaya Svyaz (NSS) increased 34% on the year to 444.727 million rubles in 2005, as calculated under Russian Accounting Standards (RAS), the company said Wednesday. ... Altimo disputes Telenor's reporting of Kyivstar results http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17618.php Altimo, the telecommunications arm of Russian holding Alfa Group, disputed Wednesday financial reporting practices of Norwegian telecommunication company Telenor. ... Celtel Buys Nigerian Operator http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17619.php Celtel, a subsidiary of MTC Group has announced that it has reached agreement to acquire a controlling stake of 65% in Vmobile, one of Nigeria's leading mobile telecom operators, for US$1.005 billion. This agreement marks the company's largest ever a... [[ Handsets ]] Changing Fonts on Cellphones http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17621.php Monotype Imaging says that it is introducing a suite of scalable fonts for mobile phones -- the first in the industry to offer handset manufacturers, wireless operators, content providers and publishers the ability to integrate into their products rea... Top ten Mobile Phone Sales in Telia Stores http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17624.php Sony Ericsson and Nokia captured the leading positions on Telia's top-ten list of best-selling mobile phones in Telia's retail stores during May. The list has changed only slightly since April. Sony Ericsson had the only new mobile handset for the mo... Mobile Phone Sales in Q1 Indicate a Strong 2006 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17629.php Worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 224 million units in the first quarter of 2006, a 23.8% increase from the same period last year, according to Gartner. These strong results for the quarter have resulted in Gartner increasing its mobile phone sale... [[ Legal ]] IN BRIEF: Salinas/SEC close to settlement over fraud charges http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17614.php The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Mexican media mogul Ricardo Salinas could be close to reaching a settlement on fraud charges arising from a 2003 debt transaction, Mexican daily El Norte quoted SEC lawyer Harold Loftin as saying. ... Ringback Tone Patent Awarded http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17622.php Nearly two years after the actual introduction of ringback tones by wireless carriers, the U.S. Patent Office has granted official patent status to patent filer Karl Seelig, CEO of Perceptive Impression, for ring back signal replacement. This final s... [[ Network Contracts ]] Ericsson Wins Serbian GSM Contract http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17620.php Ericsson has signed a US$96 million contract with the Serbian operator, Telekom Serbia for the provision of equipment and services for the expansion and upgrade of Telekom Serbia's GSM/GPRS/EDGE network. This agreement is the largest Ericsson contrac... Easy Handset Settings for Swedish Operator http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17625.php Telenor Sweden has gone live with a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution from SmartTrust that will allow it to better manage subscriber access to data services such as MMS, Email, WAP and Push-to-Talk (PTT). Using SmartTrust's MDM solution SmartMa... [[ Network Operators ]] France Telecom Rebrands Services Orange In Overhaul http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17612.php France Telecom, which has seen its stock fall 32% under current management, Wednesday said it is now selling Internet, TV and mobile phone services under the Orange brand as part of a larger overhaul. ... Digicel to invest US$5mn in network upgrades in Dominica http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17615.php Caribbean mobile operator Digicel has earmarked US$5mn for its operations in the eastern Caribbean island of Dominica, the company said in a statement. ... AMX registers Claro brand http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17616.php Mexico's America Movil has registered in Chile its Claro brand for all types of telecommunication services, from mobile telephony to any equipment related to the sector, according to information published in Chile's official gazette. ... [[ Personnel ]] TeliaSonera: Prosecutor Charges CEO Igel With Bribery http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17611.php Swedish telecommunications operator TeliaSonera's chairman, Tom von Weymarn, said he remains confident in Chief Executive Anders Igel despite bribery charges being brought against him. ... [[ Regulatory ]] Italy's Regulator Opens Probe Into Fixed-Mobile Services http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17610.php The Italian communication authority said Wednesday it opened a preliminary probe into the so-called integrated fixed-mobile telecommunication services. ... [[ Reports ]] GSA Announces HSDPA Network Deployments Reach 100 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17626.php The latest "HSDPA Operator Commitments" survey undertaken by vendor trade association GSA - Global mobile Suppliers Association, confirms that 100 HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) networks, an increase of 100% in 6 months, are in deployment ... Global Mobile Gambling Market to Reach $23bn by 2011 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17627.php The popularity of Mobile gambling, involving casinos, lotteries and betting, is set to rise from under US$2 billion (in terms of bets placed) to in excess of US$23 billion come 2011, according to industry analysts Juniper Research. The increasing tre... ------------------------------ From: Etop Udoh Reply-To: sdruid11@BELLSOUTH.NET Subject: Comparison Between Merlin Legend and Merlin Magix ?? Organization: BellSouth Internet Service Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 12:20:31 -0500 Does anyone know where I can get prewritten info that contains a side by side comparison of the Merlin legend and Merlin Magix phone systems?? Thanks. ==================================================================== | Etop Udoh | Http://www.geocities.com/sdruid11 | | P.O. Box 1054| Http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/sdruid | |Snellville, Ga| Http://home.bellsouth.net/p/pwp-sdruid | | 30078 | Http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/bit/9122 | |--------------| Http://home.earthlink.net/~sdruid11 | | A+ Certified Net+ Certified | | \/ \/ | |sdruid11@earthlink.net |sdruid11@bellsouth.net |sdruid11@yahoo.com| | !! ..........Peace and Love to All......... !! | ==================================================================== ------------------------------ From: AndyP Subject: Re: Vonage Problem Date: 1 Jun 2006 11:39:54 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Now try cancelling the account, you'll have more fun. You would have to find the account cancellation number first from a rep. Then you have to wait for an hour. Then you would have to pay a cancellation fee. David Reihmer wrote: > Vonage has been of no help with this issue. > I have not enabled 'call forwarding' in many months. > My broadband was down during a storm last week, and I was therefore > unable to use my Vonage phone. > When I came back on line, I received a call from a friend who told me > that during the outage, instead of going to voicemail, my calls had > been forwarded to another number, and the other party was getting > pretty upset about getting all my calls. > I went to the Vonage website, and saw that in the 'Activity' portion > of my account, 7 calls had been forwarded to this other number. I > recognized that number as a cell phone number I no longer have. > When I signed up with Vonage, I included that number as an alternate. > But now, of course, I don't have that number. Regardless, none of my > calls should have been forwarded, as the forwarding option was disabled. > The 'call forwarding' page confirmed that the 'call forwarding' option > was disabled, and yet I still had calls forwarded to a number that I > did not authorize. > I was able to delete the old number in my 'profile', BUT it remained > (and remains) in the 'call forwarding page, as the number to forward > to. I tried to delete it and enter another forwarding number to, but > still the 'old number' reappears when the page is reloaded. > I called Vonage and was advised that 'call forwarding' was disabled on > my account and not to worry. I told them I knew that it was disabled, > because I never enabled it, and why were my calls being forwarded just > because my network was down? I then told Vonage I was unable to > delete that number from the 'call forwarding' screen. The tech was > surprised he could not delete it either, and after holding for 10 > minutes, I was advised that the number could not be deleted, and my > call forwarding option was permanently disabled. > Unsatisfied, I sent an email explaining all this and why am I paying > for services I am not receiving, should I ever need them? I got a > canned reply and am looking for other means of resolution. Any > suggestions? > Thanks. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is the 'call forwarding' option > as you know, but there is also an option (I think it is called) > 'Network Forwarding' and the explanation given for this is "what > should we do with your calls when the network is down?" and where > 'call forwarding' is the routine thing, 'network forwarding' is > intended for when Vonage _is unable to see you_ for whatever reason. > If Vonage is unable to complete the call on its own network to you > (to ultimatly get forwarded on, etc) then what do you want them to > do? Look for an option entitled 'network forwarding' and although I > do not think it allows itself to be completely erased, it does allow > editing which is probably what you would want to do anyway. See if > that makes a difference. PAT] If you think you have trouble with their service, try cancelling their account. 1) You would have to find the account cancellation number from a customer service rep. 2) Then you would have to wait for over half hour, sometimes the phone disconnects after a long wait. 3) Then you have to pay a cancellation fee, cannot be waived, period. They have made all efforts to keep the cancellation fee part hidden and the cancellation process itself very very painful. I would never recommend a company like this to anyone. ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Perfect Hangup Date: 1 Jun 2006 11:42:16 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) In article , wrote: > Is there any kind of phone out there that does a perfect hangup? > Basically, I want a phone that instantaneously creates a perfect open > circuit between TIP and RING upon hangup, probably with the press of a > button. Any phone will do this if you disconnect the ringer. But as long as the ringer is active, there will be some leakage between tip and ring. Phones with crappy piezo warblers will usually have much higher ringer impedance than phones with conventional bells. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: wollman@csail.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Why the Democratic Ethic of the World Wide Web May Be About to End Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 04:34:36 UTC Organization: MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab In article , PAT wrote: (Lisa Hancock said): > [public replies, please] I don't care to respond to hancock4's rant, which would only aggravate my blood pressure, but I wanted to respond to a few things PAT said: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have often times wondered why people > like Tim Berners-Lee (credited as the 'inventor' of the World Wide Web) The fact that you used 'scare quotes' here suggests that you don't believe TBL invented the Web. Would you care to explain who you think did, if he didn't? > did not think far enough ahead in the middle-late 1980's to slap some > very firm controls on how _his_ product could be permissibly used by > people in generations to follow. Perhaps because he (or whomever) had no such power. Remember, the Gopher folks at the University of Minnesota tried that -- and lost in the marketplace. > That is, unless Tim B-L is really okay with the unreal twists and > turns which have taken place on the web in the past, all the abuses > and misuses we see as a routine thing of late. You could actually read what he, and other Internet pioneers like Dave Clark, have written on the subject -- although I understand uninformed speculation is much easer. > Was it really his intention to provide an air of 'legitimacy' to the > cretins who publish all sorts of scams and spams and then hide in > obscurity behind web sites which Huh? How does a scam have more "legitimacy" (your word) when it's on the Web than when it's delivered in a plain white envelope, no-return-address? (Or, for that matter, in a plain white envelope, franked bulk rate and sent by one of America's largest banks?) > When I changed my title (I like to say 'gave myself a promotion') > from "Moderator" to "Editor" and published some rules on what would, > and what would not be acceptable, the shit really hit the fan blade, > as the expression goes. And yet, those people who you pissed off could easily have told their netnews servers that you no longer had anything to do with this newsgroup, and set someone else up as moderator. At that time, such a thing was still possible. Yet this didn't happen: most of those people simply unsubscribed, moving their telecom discussions to other forums where they would have to deal with you. (Sometimes you make me wonder why I still bother, but then I realize that someone responsible needs to pay attention to what you're doing, so long as it's on our servers and network. Speaking of which, that advertising on the Web site *must go*; we do not permit our network to be used for commercial gain.) -GAWollman -- Garrett A. Wollman | As the Constitution endures, persons in every wollman@csail.mit.edu | generation can invoke its principles in their own Opinions not those | search for greater freedom. of MIT or CSAIL. | - A. Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You put the emphasis (resulting from the quote marks) on the person named rather than as I intended, which was the result of the creation. In other words, we all know that Tim B-L was the primary person behind the creation of the World Wide Web. Would we use the expression 'invent' or perhaps the expression 'author' or some other expression? When a book is written, we do not say 'the author _invented_ a new book' we say the author _wrote_ a new book. My quote marks were intended to question whether or not 'invent' was the correct term to use, _not_ whether or not B-L was the person correctly identified. I suppose since it was essentially software 'authored' or 'wrote' might have been a better choice of terms. But we also have so many folks who make the claim (as he did himself) that Albert Gore 'invented' the internet and/or the WWW. One major problem I have -- as do many people who take seriously their efforts at expressing themselves in the written word -- is the choice of words to use. After all, in a text-based newsletter -- as opposed to a personal face to face meeting or at the very least lots of graphics on the page -- we are sometimes woefully lacking in our ability to completely and accurately _communicate_ the meaning of what we say. It is one of those "I know you know what I said but I am not sure you understood my meaning" situations. And I suspect that happens a lot here in this Digest. I always spend at least an hour or two in the preparation of each issue, yet day after day I finish my work sort of frustrated; in my post-reviews of my work after each issue is sent out, I invariably have 'second thoughts' about the way something was printed. My phraseology leaves much to be desired, IMO, from day to day. I have gotten entire issues of the Digest ready to go, then had a change of my mind and pulled it out of the queue in order to change a sentence or a paragraph. I know, it probably sounds stupid, which is the way I feel some days. You mentioned controls and regulations on Gopher not working in the market-place. That's true; but Gopher never did have the popularity of the WWW. Even in its earliest days, WWW was seen to be a killer- application. Although the traditional controls B-L might have tacked onto the Web in the beginning might have (probably would have) slowed down its growth a little, my thoughts are people would have adjusted to it and utlimatly made it an even better resource than it is. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Why the Democratic Ethic of the World Wide Web May Be About to End Date: 1 Jun 2006 09:38:28 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have often times wondered why people > like Tim Berners-Lee (credited as the 'inventor' of the World Wide Web) > did not think far enough ahead in the middle-late 1980's to slap some > very firm controls on how _his_ product could be permissibly used by > people in generations to follow. ... > Somehow I think -- and I do not mean this in an unkind way -- > he shared in the naive notions that so many of the early computer > pioneers; that people were basically good and decent and all that. It isn't so much an issue of "good and evil" but rather a limited understanding of human nature. There are many college professors who are in an "ivory tower" and disconnected with how the real world operates. Many college communities are a select group of people admitted because of high academic skills brought together for a common cause of study. The human interaction in such a world is not the same as interactions elsewhere. (Of course, not all colleges are like this.) In the real world, unlike college, people have many different agendas. It's not so much of a question of "good or evil", but rather Joe wants a quick answer right now while Sam wants to experiment with different stuff while Tony wants to sell things while Henry wants things for free. Without a set of rules, these differences clash. Unfortunately, in the real world, there is greater evil than in college and that, as Pat described, is a serious problem. Frankly, I'm not too sympathetic to the Internet's early developers. Way back when I was in high school and we shared but a single Teletype, various human behaviors came out loud and clear among our little group. Accordingly, our teacher established rules for the computer room. It was clear structure was needed to deal with human realities. It was also clear a technical structure was required to (1) deal with human realities and (2) deal with innocent mistakes that could screw up the computer or other people's work. In any human interaction, there are formal and informal rules of behavior. The problem with the Internet was that the rules of academia did not apply in the real world. What would be considered unpardonably rude and unacceptable in college was commonplace in the greater anonymous real world. An excellent example of this disconnect is during WW II when numerous scientists worked for the Army to develop the atomic bomb. The scientists were genuises in nuclear theory, after all, they developed a very complex set of rules for something that can't even be seen or measured directly. (How does one calculate the mass of an electron, proton, neutron? How does one even discover such particles?) But the scientists were utterly clueless in turning that theory into working units like nuclear reactors and practical weapons in a reasonable period of time. They hated their tough army general, Leslie Groves. But Groves got them to be productive. (See "Now It Can Be Told" by Groves, a very good book on organizational behavior). Another example is how FDR's academic based "brain trust" was unable to develop efficient high industrial production needed for WW II. FDR had to replace the professors with men borrowed from industry who knew how to get the job done. There was considerable friction in that too. ------------------------------ Subject: New Pages on VOIP in Our Archives Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 15:55:39 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Two new tutorial pages on VOIP service have been installed in our archives area for your review by Rene Tse: http://telecom-digest.org/voip.html and http://telecom-digest.org/voip-2.html Rene writes about this sort of thing a lot and is sharing these with us. PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #207 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 1 23:07:23 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id CC212154BE; Thu, 1 Jun 2006 23:07:22 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #208 Message-Id: <20060602030722.CC212154BE@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 23:07:22 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 1 Jun 2006 23:10:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 208 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson FBI Wants Internet Records Kept for Two Years (Pelosky & Gershberg) Firms Wary About Holding Customer Records Without Warrants (M. Sherman) ISPs Must Begin Holding Data For Two Years (Swartz & Johnson) Norvergence as of 6/01/06, Anything New??? (The Dale Earnhardt Story) Google Blogspot Domestic IP Address Blocking Confirmed (ab5cvjl@yahoo.com) Re: RTV in Phone Jack (Paul A Lee) Re: Why the Democratic Ethic of World Wide Web May Be About to Die (DLR) Cell Phone Towers in U.S. Parks Dial Up Debate (John Mayson) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jeremy Pelofsky & Michele Gershberg Subject: FBI Wants Internet Records Kept for Two Years Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 21:03:11 -0500 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In this issue of the Digest, three different reports from three sources on the new demands by Justice Department and FBI on the new file retention demands made of ISPs effective immediatly. This is report one, from Reuters. PAT] By Jeremy Pelofsky and Michele Gershberg The Federal Bureau of Investigation wants U.S. Internet providers to retain Web address records for up to two years to aid investigations into terrorism and pornography, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The request came during a May 26 meeting between U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller with top executives at companies like Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL. "I think there is less of a willingness to passively go along with this type of request than there might have been a year ago," said the source, mentioning the recent uproar over a report that telephone companies had provided call records to the National Security Agency. "All the telcos got caught in the cross fire on this; now the ISPs are feeling the heat also." A Justice Department spokesman confirmed the meeting but was not immediately available to comment on how long law enforcement officials wanted the records retained. "This meeting was an initial discussion for the Attorney General to gather information and to solicit input from Internet service provider executives on the issues associated with data retention," said spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Gonzales presented blurred images of child pornography and explained why he thought retaining data was important to those investigations. At issue was Internet protocol addresses. When one industry executive questioned how long the government wanted the records kept, Mueller said for two years and that the data would also be used for anti-terrorism purposes, said the source. The Justice Department has tangled before with Internet companies over gaining access to records, subpoenaing search data from Google to defend an online pornography law. The government cut the size of its demand and Google acquiesced. In that instance, Microsoft and Yahoo Inc. had turned over search information after receiving assurances that no specific customer data was involved. The IP address is key to unlocking what a person does online, what site they visited what terms they searched, who they e-mailed and what they downloaded, the source noted. Internet providers usually change the address data within several days to several weeks. Two big high-speed Internet service providers, Verizon Communications and Comcast Corp., also attended the meeting last week, the source said. The Justice Department spokesman said Internet companies would retain the information and the government would only gain access to the records through legal means like a subpoena. "Internet service providers would retain the information," Roehrkasse said. If Congress is going to be asked to pass legislation ordering Internet providers to retain data they won't be asked for content of that data but rather addresses e-mails were sent and sites they visited, Roehrkasse said. Recommendations are expected to be submitted to Gonzales in the next several weeks, according to another source. Data retention is a "complicated issue with implications not only for efforts to combat child pornography but also for security, privacy, safety, and availability of low-cost or free Internet services," said Microsoft senior security strategist Phil Reitinger. Google spokesman Steve Langdon said proposals by the United States and European Union on data retention "require careful review and must balance the legitimate interests of individual users, law enforcement agencies, and Internet companies." The Justice Department's chief privacy officer on Thursday met with a group of officials from rights groups including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Center for American Progress, Cato Institute, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Roehrkasse said. The American Civil Liberties Union was also invited but did not attend, he said. Other Justice Department officials were meeting with victims rights groups and law enforcement groups to discuss the same issues. (Additional reporting Deborah Charles in Washington, Daisuke Wakabayashi in Seattle and Eric Auchard in San Francisco) Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from Reuters, please go to: http:/telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Mark Sherman Subject: Firms Wary About Holding Customer Records Without Warrants Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 21:05:25 -0500 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is the second of three reports on this very sensitive topic in this issue. PAT] Firms wary about holding customer records By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Top U.S. law enforcement officials have told Internet companies they must retain customer records longer to help in child pornography and terrorism investigations, and they are considering asking Congress to require preservation of records. Industry representatives are expected to meet Friday with Justice Department officials, a week after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller first raised the issue with executives from several Internet service providers, including AOL, Comcast Corp., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. The subject has prompted alarm from some executives and privacy advocates, especially after Gonzales' Justice Department took Google to court earlier this year to force it to turn over information on customer searches. Civil liberties groups also have sued Verizon and other telephone companies, alleging they are working with the government to provide information without search warrants on subscriber calling records. Assistant Attorney General Rachel Brand, who attended the first meeting, said Thursday that some executives raised privacy concerns at the meeting. But she said Gonzales has not made any decisions about how to proceed and that the department would be mindful of the privacy issue. "We are looking at whether requiring longer data retention or asking ISPs to do it informally is something we want to pursue," Brand said. Mueller suggested a period of two years and said terrorism investigations also would be helped by such a rule, several people who attended the meeting said. Gonzales was focused on child pornography cases, they said. Any proposal would not call for the content of communications to be preserved, would keep the information in the companies' hands and could be obtained by the government through a subpoena or other lawful process, Brand said. Still, one Internet executive familiar with the meeting said one worry is that once retained, the records could be made available for any criminal investigation or civil case, "down to a bad divorce, up to a music company asking for people who visited a file trading site." The executive, who requested anonymity because it was private meeting and the talks were still continuing, said the industry was likely to oppose any legislation for financial, privacy and technical reasons. The department's recent clash with Google probably will make the companies more resolute in their opposition, the executive said. Several companies said they work hard to protect children online and often work with law enforcement. "But data retention is a complicated issue with implications not only for efforts to combat child pornography but also for security, privacy, safety, and availability of low-cost or free Internet services," Microsoft said in a statement. In a statement, Google said, "Any proposals related to data require careful review and must balance the legitimate interests of individual users, law enforcement agencies and Internet companies." The meetings are an outgrowth of Gonzales' interest in beefing up child porn investigations, some of which he said have been hampered by Internet companies' failure to retain records long enough. Gonzales, who first raised the issue in an April speech, did not name any companies or cases. But a Justice Department official said some of the information provided by Justin Berry, a child pornography victim who testified to Congress in April, did not lead to arrests because authorities who sought help from ISPs were told the records no longer existed. Berry criticized the department for acting too slowly on information he provided on 1,500 pedophiles. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because investigators still are looking into Berry's case. At the moment, there are no broad requirements for preservation of data, although federal authorities can request records be maintained for up to six months when they suspect a crime has been committed. Associated Press Technology Editor Matthew Fordahl contributed to this report. On the Net: Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more headlines and news from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Jon Swartz & Kevin Johnson Subject: ISPs Must Begin Holding Data For two Years Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 21:11:49 -0500 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is the third report of three on the wires tonight regarding law enforcement's demands on making a requirement of two years records from ISPs. PAT] By Jon Swartz and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY Top law enforcement officials have asked leading Internet companies to keep histories of the activities of Web users for up to two years to assist in criminal investigations of child pornography and terrorism, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller outlined their request to executives from Google, Microsoft, AOL, Comcast, Verizon and others Friday in a private meeting at the Justice Department. The department has scheduled more discussions as early as Friday. Last week's meeting was first reported by CNET, an online news service. The meetings reflect a new approach by law enforcement in anti- terrorism efforts. Previously, the Justice Department had invoked the need for data retention only to battle child pornography. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Internet traffic has become increasingly critical to terrorism investigations, too. COMMENT: What do you think of the government's plans? Justice is not asking the companies to keep the content of e-mails, spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said. It wants records such as lists of e-mail traffic and Web searches, he said. Roehrkasse said the government is required to seek proper legal authority, such as a subpoena, before obtaining the records. He said any change in the retention period would not alter that requirement. Law enforcement officials have seen investigations derailed "time and time again" because of a lack of data, Roehrkasse said. The government's request forces the companies to strike a balance between satisfying law enforcement demands and honoring the privacy of millions of customers. "The issue for us is not whether we retain data, but we want to see it done right," says Dave McClure, president of the U.S. Internet Industry Association, which represents 150 companies, primarily Internet service providers. "Our concerns are who pays for it, what data is retained, and if it is retained legally without violating federal laws and subscriber agreements." Lee Tien, a lawyer for the privacy advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said he was concerned. "I think that the request raises some really, really major privacy problems," he said. The Justice Department is "asking ISPs (Internet service providers) to really become an arm of the government." The request creates a logistical challenge: Most Internet providers store data such as Web searches for 30 to 90 days. Storing such information significantly longer is more expensive, McClure and others say. "We strongly support Gonzales' interest in assuring that the Internet is safe for everyone," Phil Reitinger, Microsoft's senior security strategist, said in a statement Wednesday that acknowledged the company's participation in the meeting at Justice. "But data retention is a complicated issue." "We believe (data retention and preservation) proposals deserve careful review and must consider the legitimate interests of individual users, law enforcement agencies, and Internet companies," Google spokesman Steve Langdon said Wednesday. Gonzales broached the issue of record retention in April during a speech at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va. Gonzales, who has made fighting child exploitation a prominent part of the national law enforcement agenda, said the pursuit of child predators depends on the availability of evidence often in the hands of ISPs. This isn't the first time Gonzales has gone to Internet companies with a request related to their records. In March, a federal judge ordered Google to hand over Web search records requested by Justice as part of its efforts to shield children from sexually explicit material online. Google balked at an earlier request, saying it would expose trade secrets. AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft cooperated with the government, but they said their assistance was limited and users' privacy was not violated. Contributing: William M. Welch Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2006-05-31-internet-records_x.htm?csp=34 NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more headlines and stories from USA Today, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I dunno about you, but I think if there was ever a good time to begin using anonymous proxies and/or very strong encryption, now is that time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: 3 - The Dale Earnhardt Story Subject: Norvergence as of 6/01/06, Anything New??? Date: 1 Jun 2006 13:19:28 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com This may be old to many, but not to me. Does anyone out there have any information they may be able to share on Norvergence? I don't care if it's about the bankruptcy, the Salzanos, the other executives, etc. Any new news will be appreciated. I still say, if it could happen to Enron, it could happen to Norvergence. ------------------------------ From: ab5cvjl@yahoo.com Subject: Google Blogspot Domestic IP Address Blocking Confirmed Date: 1 Jun 2006 12:59:39 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I discovered, thanks to Google, a sourced report, http://www.cotse.com/20060516.html , that Google is blocking domestic IP addresses. "Google owns Blogspot and has blocked users of our privacy service from accessing Blogspot." Per its site, cotse operates a service similar to secure tunnel and anonymizer. I have heard it is popular in China. It is not hard to see why Google Blogspot would do this. In connection with Blogspot blocking in Ethiopia and Pakistan, several bloggers have noted that these proxy services provide a way around censorship, including posting. Google, in its never ending effort to support censoring governments, is blocking a path by which people could access and post information despite the blocks. But what Google has done here goes beyond helping repressive foreign governments keep information from their own people. It is now censoring Americans, who are the primary users of these services, from accessing Blogspot who seek to preserve their privacy in reading blogs, like they do when they read a newspaper. By blocking access to Americans, Google is not only inteferring with American's rights to privacy, it is violating the rights of Californians, Google's home state, where the State Constution explicitly declares a right of privacy of its citizens. ------------------------------ From: Paul A Lee Subject: Re: RTV in Phone Jack Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 15:54:40 -0400 In TELECOM Digest V25 #206, sawney beane wrote (in part): > Outside, I found that one of the contacts on his plug was=0D > invisible. There appeared to be unpigmented RTV in the jack. =0D > It had the physical characteristics of RTV when I scraped it=0D > off the plug. That restored his service. He said the=0D > crackling he'd had for two months was gone. > Bellsouth will annoy me with useless telemarketing day after=0D > day, so I don't know how they think. Could Bellsouth be=0D > injecting RTV into phone jacks because they think it's=0D > preventive maintenance or to create more service calls? Some carriers use gel-filled jacks outside (at the demarc/NID) in coastal or tropical areas where high humidity and temperature tend to corrode connections. The gel helps exclude moisture and oxygen to prevent corrosion that degrades electrical connections. The stuff I've encountered is similar or identical to the gel filling in so-called "ickyPIC" cable and serves a similar purpose. Like the stuff in the cable, I suppose the gel in the jack could congeal and/or migrate over time. It shouldn't have disrupted the connection all by itself. Maybe the BellSouth tech unplugged the prem wiring plug for testing, and the congealed gel prevented the jack contact "whisker" from mating to the= plug contact when she plugged it back in. I'd tend to discount the "conspiracy theory", though ... Paul A Lee Sr Telecom Engineer Rite Aid Corporation WP-IS-COM (Telecomm) V: +1 717 791-6408 5280 Simpson Ferry Rd, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050 F: +1 717 791-6406 P.O. Box 3165, Harrisburg, PA 17105-3165 C: +1 717 805-6208 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2006 19:42:07 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: Why the Democratic Ethic of Web May Be About to Die TELECOM Digest Editor noted in a response, then hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have often times wondered why people >> like Tim Berners-Lee (credited as the 'inventor' of the World Wide Web) >> did not think far enough ahead in the middle-late 1980's to slap some >> very firm controls on how _his_ product could be permissibly used by >> people in generations to follow. ... >> Somehow I think -- and I do not mean this in an unkind way -- >> he shared in the naive notions that so many of the early computer >> pioneers; that people were basically good and decent and all that. > It isn't so much an issue of "good and evil" but rather a limited > understanding of human nature. > There are many college professors who are in an "ivory tower" and > disconnected with how the real world operates. Many college > communities are a select group of people admitted because of high > academic skills brought together for a common cause of study. The > human interaction in such a world is not the same as interactions > elsewhere. (Of course, not all colleges are like this.) > In the real world, unlike college, people have many different agendas. > It's not so much of a question of "good or evil", but rather Joe wants > a quick answer right now while Sam wants to experiment with different > stuff while Tony wants to sell things while Henry wants things for > free. Without a set of rules, these differences clash. What continues to amaze me is that a lot of folks think that some things really are free. The just don't get that someone has to pay for the building, electric bills, heating costs, paving the parking lot, repairing the roof leak, etc ... much less the time (initially and ongoing) to maintain that fiber Internet connection to the rest of the world. Or even just to other colleges. But then again there are a LOT of folks who think that government money grows on trees in some secret treasury orchard. :) Anyone who doesn't know the meaning of TTSTAAFL should Google it and then read the story and think long and hard about the meaning of the term. > Unfortunately, in the real world, there is greater evil than in college > and that, as Pat described, is a serious problem. > Frankly, I'm not too sympathetic to the Internet's early developers. > Way back when I was in high school and we shared but a single > Teletype, various human behaviors came out loud and clear among our > little group. Accordingly, our teacher established rules for the > computer room. It was clear structure was needed to deal with human > realities. It was also clear a technical structure was required to > (1) deal with human realities and (2) deal with innocent mistakes that > could screw up the computer or other people's work. > In any human interaction, there are formal and informal rules of > behavior. The problem with the Internet was that the rules of > academia did not apply in the real world. What would be considered > unpardonably rude and unacceptable in college was commonplace in the > greater anonymous real world. It's a problem through out all of the US and much of the developed world just now. For some reason folks can't accept that other folks don't see the universe like them and "why can't the just get it". > An excellent example of this disconnect is during WW II when numerous > scientists worked for the Army to develop the atomic bomb. The > scientists were genuises in nuclear theory, after all, they developed > a very complex set of rules for something that can't even be seen or > measured directly. (How does one calculate the mass of an electron, > proton, neutron? How does one even discover such particles?) But the > scientists were utterly clueless in turning that theory into working > units like nuclear reactors and practical weapons in a reasonable > period of time. They hated their tough army general, Leslie Groves. > But Groves got them to be productive. (See "Now It Can Be Told" by > Groves, a very good book on organizational behavior). Oppenheimer at first thought he'd need 100 folks. He was off by what, a factor of 40? > Another example is how FDR's academic based "brain trust" was unable to > develop efficient high industrial production needed for WW II. FDR had > to replace the professors with men borrowed from industry who knew how > to get the job done. There was considerable friction in that too. ------------------------------ From: John Mayson Subject: Cell Phone Towers in U.S. Parks Dial Up Debate Date: 1 Jun 2006 13:11:42 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com "The jarring ring of a cell phone deep in the wilderness is many a nature lover's worst nightmare." http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060531-cell-phones.html?source=rss I visited Big Bend National Park in 2004. One of the things I loved most about the area was neither cell phones nor pagers worked. There were also no radio or TV stations. It was paradise! John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #208 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 2 13:55:04 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 1698A14EC8; Fri, 2 Jun 2006 13:55:04 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #209 Message-Id: <20060602175504.1698A14EC8@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 13:55:04 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 2 Jun 2006 13:58:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 209 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Phishing Scam Takes Aim at MySpace.com (Jeremy Kirk, IDG) The Risk of Misplaced Myspace Hysteria (Andrew Brandt) Phishermen are Trolling MySpace for Victims (tedrichardson9925) On Point: Net Neutrality (Monty Solomon) Cell Phone Outages During Disasters (Lee Sweet) Cellular-News: Friday 2nd June 2006 (Cellular-News) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 2, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Re: ISPs Must Begin Holding Data For Two Years (John Hines) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jeremy Kirk Subject: Phishing Scam Takes Aim at MySpace.com Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 11:43:19 -0500 Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service A phishing site that harvested the login and credentials of MySpace.com users was removed as of Friday from a California server, a security vendor reported. A phishing attack involves tricking users into visiting a look-a-like Web page that asks for personal information, which is then sent to a hacker. The rich trove of personal information stored on MySpace user pages is making the social networking site an increasing attractive target for identity theft, said Ross Paul, a senior product manager at Websense, which makes security software. Spreading Via IM The attack would not have been noticed by most users, Paul said. The attack starts when a user is sent a link through an instant messaging program. The link is from someone in their contact lists, asking them to click the link to MySpace to view photos, Paul said. The link leads to a fraudulent MySpace login page. Once the victim enters their information, they are then transparently logged into the real MySpace pages, Paul said. But a hacker then has access to personal information stored by MySpace, such as someone's address and birthday, which could be used to open a bank account, Paul said. A hacker can also tap other instant messaging contacts or e-mail addresses who send out the link to the phishing site, which often is done using automated programs. "The rising popularity of this kind of meeting place is obviously increasing the potential for financial gain," Paul said. "The more information you give MySpace, the more at risk you would be if someone managed to get a hold of your login information." MySpace, started in 2004 and bought by News Corp. last year, counts at least 73 million users and is growing. MySpace's "viral" networking model allows friends of friend to easily connect, but sexual predators have also used its features to meet underage victims. As a result, MySpace appointed a chief security officer in April and implemented careful page monitoring. Copyright 2006 PC World Communications, Inc. ------------------------------ From: Andrew Brandt Subject: The Risk of Misplaced Myspace Hysteria Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 11:42:12 -0500 Posted by Andrew Brandt Last week, many of us read about yet another incident involving MySpace, the social networking site that has become so popular with teens and tweens. In the latest news, one teen was arrested and twenty were suspended from school after taking part in a MySpace "community" called I Hate [another student's name], in which the arrested teen posted a blog item about shooting the subject of the blog in the face with a shotgun. The same student also made anti-semitic remarks in other postings. In this case, this was entirely the correct action to take. School districts are a lot better at identifying Columbine-esque warning signs, and they're not sitting idly by while students write harassing and threatening things on blog pages about their fellow students. These students were way out of line, and need to learn a hard lesson about online misbehavior and consequences in the flesh-and-blood world. But I see another danger here: Knee-jerk parental reactions shutting down a line of communication between parent and child. I heard it from the very first caller to a talk radio show I participated in last Friday (RealAudio stream, Real player required), and I read vitually the same thing from the very first commenter to the blog item Ramon McLeod posted on Friday. The reaction I'm talking about goes (approximately) as follows: As soon as I found out what some kids do on MySpace, I scolded my kid(s)/took the computer away and said they couldn't ever go back there. Sarcasm alert: Yeah, that strategy always works. Kids couldn't just use the computers at school or at friends' homes. Seriously, I'm not out to minimize or mock a parent's (or a teacher's or a school administrator's) desire to protect children. These parents are freaked out because, well, sexual predators may actually know more about their kids' online activities than they do. But, people, ask yourselves: Is that the kid's fault? What's the parent's responsibility to, you know, be even peripherally aware of what their kids are doing online, not to mention (gasp) teach them right from wrong? And is throwing down the gauntlet and building a wall around your kids always the best way to protect them? Schools have a role to play here, too. The almost ubiquitous presence of computers in the classroom seem to beg for a curriculum about both online dangers and responsible computer use, something that addresses the "why" questions. These kids who love MySpace aren't just shouting across the playground. They are becoming publishers, every single one, with access to a potential audience of millions around the world. As such, we need to teach them what it means to be a publisher, and how to avoid getting into trouble. But knee-jerk reactions are even more prevalent in some schools among administrators: In one notable recent case, a teacher was suspended and "escorted from the building" after the broadcast journalism group she supervises produced a hard-hitting segment about the dangers of MySpace. Think about that: She helped teach an entire school about cybersafety, in a way that engaged and motivated students...and was severely punished for it. Parents, schools, and the people who run MySpace have a tremendous opportunity here. The publicity about the dangers of, for instance, kids posting lurid, but make-believe, details about their lives could lead to a great discussion about how online sexual predators operate -- and how to protect yourself by not posting personal details about your school, birthday, bar-hopping habits, or anything else that could help a predator find victims. There are terrific resources out there that can grease the wheels for such a conversation. A whole generation of both kids and adults don't understand Internet safety topics that are, in essence, the online equivalent of 'look both ways before you cross the road' and 'don't talk to strangers.' The adults' ignorance has made them fearful, and that fear leads to irrational decisions being made -- to lock kids away from the Internet, to suspend teachers who broach the subject of improper behavior online -- in the name of ... what? Safety? I worry that this trend could deal a crushing blow the possibility of constructive dialogue between kids and adults about safety, online and offline. My challenge to those folks is: prove me wrong. ------------------------------ From: tedrichardson9925@sbcglobal.net Subject: Phishermen are Trolling MySpace for Victims Date: 2 Jun 2006 06:11:58 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com The Phishermen are now trolling the MySpace waters, along with other cyber scum types hoping to lure victims. http://fraudwar.blogspot.com/2006/06/phishermen-are-trolling-myspace-for.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is a very good, very useful blog detailing efforts being taken in the battle of fraud using internet as a way to rip people off. I strongly suggest you review http://fraudwar.blogspot.com PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 23:25:48 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: On Point: Net Neutrality Net Neutrality http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2006/06/20060601_a_main.asp Aired: Thursday, June 01, 2006 10-11AM ET By host Tom Ashbrook: There's a battle royale raging over the future of the worldwide web and the Internet right now, and it's all about money and the egalitarian spirit of the web. From the beginning, and by design, the web has been a come-one-come-all public square, where little bloggers and pipsqueak web sites could go nose-to- nose with the big guys. Now, the big corporations who bring the Internet to your home and office want to charge big bucks for priority on the pipes that deliver the online world. That would favor the kind of big companies that already dominate radio, TV and cable. And maybe squeeze out the little guy. Critics are screaming bloody murder, and demanding "net neutrality." Hear about money, democracy and the battle for the heart of the web. Guests Adam Cohen, member of the editorial board of the New York Times, author of "The Perfect Store: Inside eBAY" Scott Cleland, chairman of http://netcompetition.org Michael Grebb, contributing editor for Wired News. Lawrence Lessig, professor of law at Stanford University, founder of school's Center for Internet and Society. Alan Davidson, Washington Policy Counsel for Google. Copyright 2006 Trustees of Boston University. All Rights Reserved http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2006/06/20060601_a_main.asp mms://realserver.bu.edu:554/w/b/wbur/onpoint/2006/06/op_0601a.wma http://realserver.bu.edu:8080/ramgen/w/b/wbur/onpoint/2006/06/op_0601a.rm ------------------------------ From: Lee Sweet Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 09:16:45 -0400 Subject: Cell Phone Outages During Disasters This may have been covered here last fall at the time of Katrina or perhaps even before, but the topic came up for us recently as we're doing some Disaster Recovery planning and I didn't recall the answer. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9120503/ Is it true that roaming cell phones can't work independently of resources in the home market? I would have assumed that the databases they need to refer to make outgoing calls (and perhaps the ones for inbound calls to be redirected to them in another market) wouldn't be centralized in the phone's home market, but be located elsewhere. For instance, perhaps Verizon Wireless would have one or more of these database resources around its coverage area, not one for each home market where it's prone to damage in a disaster. Pointers appreciated! Lee Sweet Datatel, Inc. Senior Telephony and Communications Specialist How higher education does business. Voice: 703-968-4661 Cell: 703-850-2385 Fax: 703-968-4625 lee@datatel.com www.datatel.com ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News: Friday 2nd June 2006 Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 07:10:56 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com ====================================================================== [[ Financial ]] Russia's VimpelCom withdraws proposal to buy Ukraine's Kyivstar http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17633.php Russia's second largest mobile operator VimpelCom has withdrawn its proposal to both Norwegian telecommunication company Telenor and Russia's Altimo, the telecommunications arm of Alfa Group, to acquire 100% in Ukraine's largest mobile operator Kyivs... Micron, Sprint Nextel Join Corporate Venture Capital Wave http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17636.php Micron Technology and Sprint Nextel have launched the latest in a recent flurry of corporate forays into the venture capital world. But rather than seeking a quick buck as many entrants did during the Internet bubble, these new efforts are intended t... Ukraine's Astelit says revenue soars on year in Jan-Apr http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17641.php The revenue of Ukrainian mobile operator Astelit rose to 111.661 million hryvnas in January-April from 18.115 million hryvnas in January-April 2005, the company said in a report sent to regulators Thursday. ... Telenor says still interested in VimpelCom Kyivstar deal http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17642.php Norwegian telecom operator Telenor ASA Thursday said it understands Vimpel Communication's decision not to extend its offer to purchase Kyivstar, but will continue to seek Altimo's agreement to enable talks to go forward. ... [[ Handsets ]] Venko, Teikon launch mobile phones from Rio Grande do Sul factory http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17639.php Brazilian handset manufacturers Venko and Teikon launched their first mobile phones assembled at their new factory in southern Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state on May 30, local newspapers reported. ... Nokia: Vertu luxury range to hit LatAm within two years http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17640.php Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia plans to launch its Vertu luxury phone range in certain Latin American countries over the next two years, regional press reported Vertu's CEO Alberto Torres as saying. ... Dolce & Gabbana Restyle a Motorola Handset http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17646.php Motorola and the fashion house, Dolce & Gabbana have unveiled a new RAZR V3i Dolce & Gabbana handset, the latest collaboration which unites the RAZR design together with Dolce & Gabbana's signature style for consumers across the world.... [[ Industry News ]] Emergency Telecoms Provided for Indonesian Earthquake http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17645.php Following the Indonesian earthquake at the weekend, the communications charity, Telecoms Sans Frontieres has sent a delegation to assist in providing emergency telecoms services to aid workers and displaced people who want to call worried relatives. ... [[ Messaging ]] Aicent Claims 100 MMS Interconnections http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17643.php Aicent has announced that it has reached a significant milestone by offering the largest number of destinations for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) exchange among global mobile operators. As of yesterday, over 100 operator destinations are already... [[ Mobile Content ]] Microsoft To Offer Messenger For DoCoMo Soon - Sources http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17630.php Microsoft will release a version of its Windows Live Messenger application for use on NTT DoCoMo mobile phones "very soon," sources at Microsoft say. ... China's BREW Service Market Size Dropped in Q1 2006 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17644.php China's Analysys International has reported that China's CRBT service market continues to decrease, the total market size had dropped 5% quarterly to reach US$6.1 million in the first quarter of 2006. The continuously sluggish condition has formed a ... [[ Network Operators ]] European Mobile Operators To Lower Roaming Tariffs http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17631.php Six mobile phone operators in Europe have Thursday agreed to halve the price of average wholesale roaming tariffs. ... Russia's Start Telecom to start construction of WiMAX network http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17632.php Russian telecommunications operator Start Telecom plans to start the construction of a WiMAX network soon, which is projected to operate in five cities by the end of this year, the company's Executive Director Pavel Kaplunov said, Vedomosti business ... [[ Personnel ]] Claro unit denies CEO reshuffle http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17637.php Brazilian mobile phone company Claro denied it has carried out a CEO reshuffle. ... [[ Regulatory ]] EU To Impose Roaming Rules Despite Industry Price Cuts http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17634.php The European Commission will go ahead with a proposed regulation to slash mobile phone roaming tarrifs despite operators' offer to voluntarily cut prices, spokesman Martin Selmayr said Thursday. ... [[ Reports ]] O2 Tops UK Customer Care Survey http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17648.php O2 ranks highest in customer satisfaction with mobile telephone service in both the pre-pay and contract service sectors, according to a J.D. Power and Associates study. Among pre-pay providers, O2 ranks highest with an overall index score of 738 poi... Multimedia Services Demand Urgent Planning for Expanded Backhaul Capacity http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17649.php The growth of mobile data and multimedia services over high-bandwidth 3G networks has mobile operators, traditional wireline carriers, and cable companies alike preparing to make critical choices in an effort to expand the capacity of cellular networ... [[ Statistics ]] Belarusian GSM operator BeST?s user base at 8,500 as of Jun 1 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17635.php The subscriber base of state-controlled Belarus Telecommunications Network, or BeST, rose 13.3% in May to 8,500 users as of June 1, the company said in a press release Thursday. ... April figures suggest 29 million mobile lines by year-end http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17638.php The Argentine mobile market should grow to more than 29 million lines in service by year-end if the current monthly growth rate persists. ... [[ Technology ]] Motorola Buys TTPCom http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17647.php Motorola is paying US$193 million to buy the UK based TTP Communications. TTPCom, is focused on the three core areas of mobile phone technology - applications, protocols, and silicon. The TTPCom business was founded in 1988 and has approximately 575 ... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 12:12:31 -0400 From: telecomdirect_daily Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - Friday, June 2, 2006 Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 2, 2006 ******************************** Customer Self-Care: Sharpening the Competitive Edge http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18209?11228 Customer self-care technology is moving into the spotlight, not just for the money it can save service providers, as important as that is, but also because it can be an important tool in customer retention in an increasingly competitive environment. The acquisition of Switchmaxx, a division of Phonetics LC, by CopperCom Inc., a provider... Several European Mobile Phone Operators Agree To Halve Roaming Costs http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18207?11228 LONDON -- Several European mobile phone operators, including Germany's T-Mobile and Britain's Orange, said that they have agreed to halve the price of making and receiving calls from abroad. The group of companies, which also includes Italy's Wind SpA and Telecom Italia SpA, Norway's Telenor SA and Sweden's TeliaSonera Corp., said... Russian Mobile Operator Vimpelcom Withdraws Offer for Ukrainian Telecom http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18205?11228 MOSCOW -- Russia's second-largest mobile phone operator said Thursday it had withdrawn its offer to buy leading Ukrainian telecommunications company Kyivstar. The announcement by OAO Vimpel Communications is the latest chapter in a running dispute between Vimpelcom's two primary shareholders -- Norway's Telenor ASA and... Verizon Wireless to Give SMS a Voice http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/105/18204?11228 Verizon Wireless is among several carriers planning to launch services that let subscribers send text messages from wireless phones to landline phones. Sources at the company behind the technology, Telemessage Inc., say Verizon Wireless will use Telemessage's SMS product to convert typed text messages into audio messages that play to a... Growing Pains in Off-Portal World http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18202?11228 Navigating the complex and fragmented wireless content ecosystem can be a challenge for any company. But for small application developers that typically lack manpower and wireless industry acumen, this can be an overwhelming task. In the early days of mobile content, many of the small developers gravitated toward content application... Motorola Snaps up TTP http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18200?11228 Motorola signed a deal to acquire TTP Communications, a software developer for 3G applications. Motorola has agreed to pay $192 million in cash for the British entity. A Motorola wholly-owned subsidiary will acquire TTPCom under the terms of the deal, which will give Motorola access to TTPCom's AJAR mobile operating system. In February,... Vonage Demands IPO Subscribers Pay Up http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18199?11228 Vonage's IPO disaster took a new twist as the company issued a statement that it is going to demand that those of its VoIP subscribers who bought into the IPO pay up and eat their losses. Meanwhile, Vonage shares continued the death spiral they started immediately after the $17 per share IPO, and had plunged to less than $12 at the close... Copyright (C) 2005 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ From: John Hines Subject: Re: ISPs Must Begin Holding Data For two Years Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 10:06:36 -0500 Organization: www.jhines.org Reply-To: john@jhines.org Jon Swartz & Kevin Johnson wrote: > Top law enforcement officials have asked leading Internet companies to That is a key, it is a REQUEST, because the justice department doesn't want to go to congress for a law requiring it. They are hoping the use of child porn, and terrorism will get companies to do this on their own. I'm sure any company expressing anything less than total enthusiasm will be vilified in the press for aiding and abetting. If I had something to say, this is where I'd say it. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One thing police (my generic phrase for government in general) strongly rely on is their cheering squad of fools on issues like child porn, terrorism, etc. Without that cheering squad constantly making a ruckus and a lot of noise, people might be able to think _logically_ on these social issues and (gasp! god forbid!) reach some independent conclusions different than police 'wisdom'. Why, (gasp! god forbid!) enough independent thinkers might lead us back to the original ideals, of government _by_ the people and _for_ the people, rather than government by and for the police, as is now the situation. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #209 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 2 21:24:47 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C074D15333; Fri, 2 Jun 2006 21:24:46 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #210 Message-Id: <20060603012446.C074D15333@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 21:24:46 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.7 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, FREE_ACCESS,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 2 Jun 2006 21:27:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 210 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Wen Ho Lee Settles Privacy Lawsuit (Mark Sherman) Net2Phone Sues Skype For Patent Infringment (Reuters News Wire) Free Access to Online Books This Summer(Dave Carpenter) Verizon Debuts Interactive Features For FiOS (USTelecom dailyLead) Telecom Update #532, June 2, 2006 (Angus TeleManagement Group) Cellphone Filmmakers (kshag5@yahoo.com) EPIC Alert 13.11 (Monty Solomon) Re: RTV in Phone Jack (sawney beane) Re: The Risk of Misplaced Myspace Hysteria (Lisa Hancock) Re: ISPs Must Begin Holding Data For two Years (Gordon Burditt) Re: ISPs Must Begin Holding Data For two Years (Lisa Hancock) Re: Google Blogspot Domestic IP Address Blocking Confirmed (Barry Margolin) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Mark Sherman Subject: Wen Ho Lee Settles Privacy Lawsuit Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 19:40:00 -0500 By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Wen Ho Lee, the former nuclear weapons scientist once suspected of being a spy, settled his privacy lawsuit Friday and will receive $1.6 million from the government and five news organizations in a case that turned into a fight over reporters' confidential sources. Lee will receive $895,000 from the government for legal fees and associated taxes in the 6 1/2-year-old lawsuit in which he accused the Energy and Justice departments of violating his privacy rights by leaking information that he was under investigation as a spy for China. The Associated Press and four other news organizations have agreed to pay Lee $750,000 as part of the settlement, which ends contempt of court proceedings against five reporters who refused to disclose the sources of their stories about the espionage investigation. Lee said of the settlement: "We are hopeful that the agreements reached today will send the strong message that government officials and journalists must and should act responsibly in discharging their duties and be sensitive to the privacy interests afforded to every citizen of this country." The payment by AP, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and ABC is the only one of its kind in recent memory, and perhaps ever, legal and media experts said. The companies said they agreed to the sum to forestall jail sentences for their reporters, even larger payments in the form of fines and the prospect of revealing confidential sources. The companies and their reporters were not defendants in the privacy lawsuit. "We were reluctant to contribute anything to this settlement, but we sought relief in the courts and found none," the companies said. "Given the rulings of the federal courts in Washington and the absence of a federal shield law, we decided this was the best course to protect our sources and to protect our journalists." The statement noted that the accuracy of the reporting itself was not challenged. The government agencies did not admit that they had violated Lee's privacy rights. Betsy Miller, one of Lee's lawyers, said the payments show "that both the government and the journalists knew that they had significant exposure had this case gone to trial." Lee was fired from his job at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, but he was never charged with espionage. He was held in solitary confinement for nine months, then released in 2000 after pleading guilty to mishandling computer files. A judge apologized for Lee's treatment. Two federal judges held the reporters in contempt for refusing to reveal their sources to Lee. The journalists had argued that he could obtain the information elsewhere. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer signed an order Friday vacating the contempt proceedings against the reporters, H. Josef Hebert of The Associated Press, James Risen of The New York Times, Bob Drogin of the Los Angeles Times, Walter Pincus of The Washington Post, and Pierre Thomas, formerly of CNN and now working for ABC News. CNN, in a separate statement, said it declined to join in the settlement "because we had a philosophical disagreement over whether it was appropriate to pay money to Wen Ho Lee or anyone else to get out from under a subpoena." The reporters had appealed the contempt rulings to the Supreme Court. The justices recently delayed a decision on whether to take up the reporters' case after being told a settlement was near. Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, called the payment unusual and perhaps unprecedented. "I'm certainly not happy about this, but I'm not sure I could have dreamed up a better result," Dalglish said. "On the positive side, it appears that this result will allow these reporters to continue to protect their sources." The settlement underscores the need for a federal law that would shield reporters from having to disclose their sources, she said. On the Net: Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov Energy Department: http://www.energy.gov Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from Associated Press, please go to: htp://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Net2Phone Sues Skype For Patent Infringement Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 19:42:12 -0500 Net2Phone, the Internet telephone unit of IDT Corp. has filed a lawsuit against eBay Inc.'s Skype Internet telephone unit, accusing the unit of infringing a Net2Phone patent. The suit, filed late on Thursday at a federal court in Newark, New Jersey, claims that Skype's computer-to-computer Internet telephone service infringes Net2Phone's patent number '704. It is seeking a permanent injunction and damages. An IDT spokesman said he would not comment beyond the lawsuit and a representative from eBay was not immediately available for comment. IDT bought Net2Phone in February. (Additional reporting by Eric Auchard in San Francisco) Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Dave Carpenter Subject: Free Access to Online Books Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 19:43:49 -0500 By DAVE CARPENTER, AP Business Writer Electronic book devotees may want to set aside some extra screen time this summer, as two nonprofits are preparing to provide free access to 300,000 texts online. Project Gutenberg and World eBook Library plan to make "a third of a million" e-books available free for a month at the first World eBook Fair. Downloads will be available at the fair's Web site from July 4, the 35th anniversary of Project Gutenberg's founding, through Aug. 4. The majority of the books will be contributed by the World eBook Library. It otherwise charges $8.95 a year for access to its database of more than 250,000 e-books, documents and articles. But the book fair won't be the last chance for e-bookworms to devour works ranging from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" to "Old Indian Legends," not to mention dictionaries and thesauruses, without paying for them. Project Gutenberg founder Michael Hart, who first announced the ambitious plan a month ago, said Friday the partners are on track to make 1 million books available for the annual fair's one-month run in 2009, with more appearing in subsequent years. About 100,000, he said, will be permanently available at the handful of Project Gutenberg sites on the Internet. "We want to give the most books to the most people," the 59-year-old Hart said by phone from Urbana, where he established the project in 1971 after graduating from the University of Illinois. "It has been our goal since the dawn of the Internet to break down the bars of ignorance and illiteracy." The Gutenberg books, typed and scanned into computers by thousands of volunteers, mostly are those that are no longer protected by copyright. They include fiction, nonfiction and reference books and will be available for worldwide readers in about 100 languages. While the commercial e-book market remains tiny, Hart said electronic books have "caught on without getting a lot of publicity" and are being widely read on handheld computers, cell phones and even special programs for use on iPods. "These people that grew up on GameBoys -- to them a GameBoy screen is the standard size," he said. "To us old folks, it's too small. But they don't care." Based on fast-increasing demand, he predicted there will be 10 million e-books available by 2020. "I've gotten notes from people who said they would have never, ever read Shakespeare if I hadn't put it on the Internet," Hart said. On the Net: http://gutenberg.org http://worldebookfair.com Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 12:49:05 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Verizon Debuts Interactive Features for FiOS USTelecom dailyLead June 2, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dLbEfDtuteqccpLLMt TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Verizon debuts interactive features for FiOS BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * EarthLink bets on muni Wi-Fi as growth engine * Spinoff Embarq to launch advertising blitz * LBS poised to enter mainstream * Vonage IPO customers may have avenue to seek damages, sell back shares USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Stay on top of IPTV, Network Security, IMS, Ethernet, IPv6 and more TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * DVB-H about to go live in Italy VOIP DOWNLOAD * Skype offers users free conference calls * Global Crossing takes wraps off VoIP VPN * VoIP drives Q1 growth in CMTS revenue REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * McDowell joins FCC, creating Republican majority Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dLbEfDtuteqccpLLMt ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 11:00:04 -0700 Subject: Telecom Update #532, June 2, 2006 From: Angus TeleManagement Group Reply-To: Angus TeleManagement Group ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 532: June 2, 2006 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MICROSOFT CANADA: www.microsoft.com/canada/telecom/ ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** NEC UNIFIED SOLUTIONS: www.necunifiedsolutions.com ** ROGERS TELECOM: www.rogers.com/solutions ** VONAGE CANADA: www.vonage.ca ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Three Telcos Reduce Local Rates ** OnStar Partners With Bell Mobility ** Aliant Expands High-Speed Wireless ** CRTC Modifies Interconnection Rules ** Cogeco to Buy Portuguese Cableco ** Bell Cellphones Join Missing Child Program ** Inukshuk Seeks Internet Learning Proposals ** Persona Third-Party Tariff Approved ** Telecom Regulatory Fees Increase ** Minacs Names New Chair ** SaskTel Upgrading Network for TV ** SR Telecom Names New CFO ** Telecom Summit Opens June 12 ** Hall of Fame Dinner Planned ============================================================ THREE TELCOS REDUCE LOCAL RATES: CRTC Telecom Order 2006-134 approves residential rate reductions by Bell Canada, MTS Allstream, and SaskTel, effective June 1. The rate cuts eliminate most or all recurring inflows to their deferral accounts. (See Telecom Update #517) ** Bell's individual, two-, and four-line residential rates are down $.65/mo. Other reductions affect rates for Call Waiting, Visual Call Waiting, and the Mini Messaging Pack. ** MTS's residential rates in Bands A, B, and C are reduced to $23.85. Call Display is cut $.90. ** SaskTel's residential rates in Regina, Saskatoon, Estevan, Moose Jaw, North Battleford, Prince Albert, Swift Current, Weyburn, and Yorkton are reduced by $.46/month. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Orders/2006/o2006-134.htm ONSTAR PARTNERS WITH BELL MOBILITY: Owners of equipped General Motors vehicles can now use their OnStar hardware as a Bell Mobility cellphone; and Bell Mobility customers can use their cellphones to get OnStar emergency response service, even if they don't drive GM cars. ** "Bell Minute Sharing with OnStar" costs $18/month in addition to regular cellphone and OnStar charges. Usage charges appear on the cellphone bill under the customers' existing calling plan. ALIANT EXPANDS HIGH-SPEED WIRELESS: Aliant has extended its EV-DO high-speed wireless service to Saint John, Moncton, and Fredericton, NB; Charlottetown, PEI; and St. John's, NL. The service was launched in Halifax in February. (See Telecom Update #518) CRTC MODIFIES INTERCONNECTION RULES: CRTC Telecom Decision 2006-35 further simplifies the interconnection arrangements between local carriers, reducing the number of Local Interconnection Regions in Canada from 337 to 182 (see Telecom Update #442). http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2006/dt2006-35.htm COGECO TO BUY PORTUGUESE CABLECO: Cogeco Cable has agreed to buy Cabovisao, Portugal's second-largest cableco, for 465 million euros (about $650 million). Cabovisao has 264,000 TV and 217,000 telephony subscribers. BELL CELLPHONES JOIN MISSING CHILD PROGRAM: Bell Mobility customers in Ontario can now register to receive AMBER Alerts from the Ontario Provincial Police by text messaging and email. To register for the emergency missing child announcements, go to www.bell.ca/amberalert. INUKSHUK SEEKS INTERNET LEARNING PROPOSALS: Inukshuk Wireless has called for proposals that focus on enhancing content or connectivity related to learning and the Internet. The company says $3 million in funding is available: for information, visit www.inukshuk.ca. PERSONA THIRD-PARTY TARIFF APPROVED: CRTC Telecom Decision 2006-36 gives interim approval to the third-party Internet access tariff filed by cableco Persona Communications in January (see Telecom Update #516). Provisions are temporarily suspended for ISPs who are already connected to Persona's network, pending resolution of some remaining issues. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2006/dt2006-36.htm TELECOM REGULATORY FEES INCREASE: The CRTC's cost of regulating telecom in 2005-6 was $25.2 million, $1.2 million of which was not recovered from fees paid by carriers. The shortfall will be added to the coming year's fees, bringing the 2006-7 total to $26.6 million. MINACS NAMES NEW CHAIR: Minacs Worldwide has named former New Brunswick finance minister Norman Betts as Chair of the Board. Andrea Minacs, daughter of the company's founder, the late Elaine Minacs, has joined the board to provide "continued representation of Minacs' largest shareholder." (See Telecom Update #530) SASKTEL UPGRADING NETWORK FOR TV: As part of its Next Generation Access Infrastructure initiative, SaskTel will pay Alcatel $35 million for routers, Ethernet switches, fiber-to-the-node technology, and system management to support high definition TV at speeds of up to 40 Mbps. SR TELECOM NAMES NEW CFO: SR Telecom has appointed Marc Girard, formerly with Aeroplan, Quebecor, and BCE, as Senior VP and CFO, effective August 15. He replaces interim CFO Peter Campbell. ** SR will hold its annual meeting in Laval on Tuesday, June 8. TELECOM SUMMIT OPENS JUNE 12: The Canadian Telecom Summit will take place in Toronto June 12-14. Speakers include Minister of Industry Maxime Bernier, CRTC Chair Charles Dalfen, and the CEOs of Avaya, BCE, MTS Allstream, Telus, and Videotron. http://www.gstconferences.com HALL OF FAME DINNER PLANNED: Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame will hold its second Telecom Laureate Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner on Monday, October 16, at The Carlu in Toronto. The 2006 Laureates will be announced at a press conference in Montreal in September. ** This year's Hall of Fame Selections Committee is chaired by David Colville, past Vice-Chair of the CRTC. Other members include Francoise Bertrand, past Chair of the CRTC, Carol Stephenson, Dean of the Ivey School of Business, and Lis Angus, co-editor of Telecom Update. http://www.telecomhall.ca ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca =========================================================== 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 late Friday afternoon each week at http://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 2006 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail jriddell@angustel.ca. 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: kshag5@yahoo.com Subject: Cellphone Filmmakers Date: 2 Jun 2006 16:16:38 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Check out http://www.Cellphonefilmmaking.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 19:32:04 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EPIC Alert 13.11 ======================================================================== E P I C A l e r t ======================================================================== Volume 13.11 June 2, 2006 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Washington, D.C. http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_13.11.html ======================================================================== Table of Contents ======================================================================== [1] Coalition Calls for HIPAA Compliance Review of Veterans Affairs [2] European Court Blocks Passenger Data Transfer [3] Supreme Court Rules Against Whistleblower [4] EPIC Urges Privacy Safeguards for Traveler Database [5] Gen. Michael Hayden Sworn in as CIA Director [6] News in Brief [7] EPIC Bookstore: Goldsmith and Wu: "Who Controls the Internet?" [8] Upcoming Conferences and Events http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_13.11.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 14:59:46 -0400 From: sawney beane Subject: Re: RTV in Phone Jack Paul A Lee wrote: > In TELECOM Digest V25 #206, sawney beane > wrote (in part): >> Outside, I found that one of the contacts on his plug was=0D >> invisible. There appeared to be unpigmented RTV in the jack. =0D >> It had the physical characteristics of RTV when I scraped it=0D >> off the plug. That restored his service. He said the=0D >> crackling he'd had for two months was gone. >> Bellsouth will annoy me with useless telemarketing day after=0D >> day, so I don't know how they think. Could Bellsouth be=0D >> injecting RTV into phone jacks because they think it's=0D >> preventive maintenance or to create more service calls? > Some carriers use gel-filled jacks outside (at the demarc/NID) in > coastal or tropical areas where high humidity and temperature tend > to corrode connections. The gel helps exclude moisture and oxygen to > prevent corrosion that degrades electrical connections. > The stuff I've encountered is similar or identical to the gel filling > in so-called "ickyPIC" cable and serves a similar purpose. Like the > stuff in the cable, I suppose the gel in the jack could congeal and/or > migrate over time. > It shouldn't have disrupted the connection all by itself. Maybe the > BellSouth tech unplugged the prem wiring plug for testing, and the > congealed gel prevented the jack contact "whisker" from mating to the= > plug contact when she plugged it back in. > I'd tend to discount the "conspiracy theory", though ... > Paul A Lee Sr Telecom Engineer > Rite Aid Corporation WP-IS-COM (Telecomm) V: +1 717 791-6408 > 5280 Simpson Ferry Rd, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050 F: +1 717 791-6406 > P.O. Box 3165, Harrisburg, PA 17105-3165 C: +1 717 805-6208 My neighbor thought it was something that had melted and seeped in, but I'm sure the stretchy stuff I removed from the plug was RTV. I wonder if the repair person had two similar tubes and injected RTV by mistake. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: The Risk of Misplaced Myspace Hysteria Date: 2 Jun 2006 12:41:55 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Andrew Brandt wrote: > But I see another danger here: Knee-jerk parental reactions shutting > down a line of communication between parent and child. I heard it from > the very first caller to a talk radio show I participated in last > Friday (RealAudio stream, Real player required), and I read vitually > the same thing from the very first commenter to the blog item Ramon > McLeod posted on Friday. One or two sample citizen statements (such as callers to a radio station) is by no means representative of public opinion or public trends. > But knee-jerk reactions are even more prevalent in some schools among > administrators: In one notable recent case, a teacher was suspended > and "escorted from the building" after the broadcast journalism group > she supervises produced a hard-hitting segment about the dangers of > MySpace. I find the above situation that very hard to believe. If indeed the teacher got in trouble as described (which may be an exaggeration), there must have been more to it. I do agree with your point that parents and kids must communicate about the dangers of Internet use. The problem is that parents often don't know what their kids are doing on the computer, and, so many things happen on the Internet so fast it's hard for parents to keep up with the latest technology and abuse of technology. For example, a kid could be illegally downloading and distributing music and the parent might not have known that was even possible. But I think overall there is a general blindness of parents and kids to the dangers of posting personal information on-line to any website. I strongly doubt any kid would post their beach pictures and personal info up on a public bulletin board in a mall or town square or share that information with a stranger. But parents and kids think the computer is somehow safer. This isn't only young kids, college kids have sites as well and share an awful lot publicly that they really should be more discrete about. There is another issue of how much parental supervision is appropriate. When I was a teen, I would've been furious if my parents listened in on my telephone calls and would've been annoyed if they asked to see every computer printout I made. I think teens are entitled to some privacy. Unfortunately, the power of the Internet is so strong that comparing it to old fashioned POTS phone calls is apples and tomatoes. While my parents didn't listen into conversations, they knew at least who I was talking to and it was a peer friend, not some strange adult. Further, with most parents both working, there isn't much time to monitor all online, text-message, and cell phone transmissions. Frankly, I think today's situation is unsatisfactory because people are exposing themselves (both figuratively and even literally) to danger via the Internet. But I don't know the solution without draconian controls and censorship that I don't like. [public replies, please] ------------------------------ From: gordonb.syc4f@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: ISPs Must Begin Holding Data For two Years Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 19:34:20 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com >> Top law enforcement officials have asked leading Internet companies to > That is a key, it is a REQUEST, because the justice department doesn't > want to go to congress for a law requiring it. The reports posted are also very unclear on WHAT information they want kept. There are different kinds of info that have a lot different potential for abuse. Info needed to track who was using what IP address at what time (customer name, address, credit card info, and login records for dialup lines) to track down who posted that horrible child porn is one thing. Most ISPs need to keep this info (for a short time, anyway) so they can turn off customers who cancel their accounts and possibly bill for time used. It can be used to correlate victim server logs to determine who launched that attack or posted the evil child porn. But in order to use this info, it has to be matched against someone else's logs (e.g. they have to get logs from Ebay on what IP and when searched for "weapons of mass destruction") . Tracking every web URL accessed and envelope info for every email sent or received is far more abusable and is something that most ISPs not using proxies don't keep and don't care about (unless the server involved is one of theirs). It's also extremely invasive and abusable and can reveal sensitive information (passwords, and all sorts of info on one's taste in reading). It's great for fishing expeditions. They can find out if ANY customers of this ISP, such as George Bush, searched for "weapons of mass destruction" on any search engine without going to the search engines. The difference between the two is much like the difference between "John Doe lived at 15 Maple Street, Anytown, State of Confusion between June 1999 and May 2005", and a log of everyone who came and left during that time and when. So what kinds of info are they asking for? Gordon L. Burditt ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: ISPs Must Begin Holding Data For two Years Date: 2 Jun 2006 12:51:07 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Jon Swartz & Kevin Johnson wrote: > Justice is not asking the companies to keep the content of e-mails, > spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said. It wants records such as lists of > e-mail traffic and Web searches, he said. I find this very troubling because INNOCENT people could be inadvertently caught up in some sting or dragnet. We all know that many porn sites intentionally use a misspelling of a common legtimate site to catch visitors. If someone does a typo and gets a bad site, does that make them dangerous? Many bad sites (political or porn or other) on the Internet disguise themselves so a casual user thinks they're ok. Are such innocent users who try out such sites dangerous? Some people are just curious as to what the fuss is about and will check out a "bad" site. Does that make such people dangerous? Say the government is investigating such people. An aggressive newspaper reporter gets the suspects and publishes them "in the name of public safety -- the people have a right to know who might be dangerous". Innocent people and their families, even if never charged with any crime, would be ruined by such disclosures. [public replies please] ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Google Blogspot Domestic IP Address Blocking Confirmed Organization: Symantec Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 20:47:35 -0400 In article , ab5cvjl@yahoo.com wrote: > But what Google has done here goes beyond helping repressive foreign > governments keep information from their own people. It is now > censoring Americans, who are the primary users of these services, from > accessing Blogspot who seek to preserve their privacy in reading > blogs, like they do when they read a newspaper. By definition an anonymizer prevents the site from knowing where the user is coming from. So how is Blogspot supposed to allow domestic users to access it through an anonymizer, when they can't tell that the user is domestic? I realize that's not really what you're suggesting. Obviously you think that if they can't restrict the blocking to the repressive countries, they shouldn't block anyone. But Google is caught between a rock and a hard place. One country is forcing them to block, while traditions in another country promote freedom. It's easy to understand why they went the direction they did; no government is planning on banning them for blocking, but they may be banned by the largest country in the world if they don't. > By blocking access to Americans, Google is not only inteferring with > American's rights to privacy, it is violating the rights of > Californians, Google's home state, where the State Constution > explicitly declares a right of privacy of its citizens. This is a ridiculous claim. Google isn't interfering with anyone's right to privacy, since they're not forced to post to Blogspot in the first place. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** *** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group *** ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. 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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 V25 #210 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jun 3 02:19:41 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 641AA151F4; Sat, 3 Jun 2006 02:19:41 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #211 Message-Id: <20060603061941.641AA151F4@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2006 02:19:41 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 3 Jun 2006 02:20:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 211 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Northern Alberta (780) CAC Oddities (Tim Scott) President Garfield's Assassination and Alex Bell (R. J. Brown) The World eBook Fair, July 4-August 4, 2006 (Project Gutenberg) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 21:55:03 -0600 From: Tim Scott Subject: Northern Alberta (780) CAC Oddities Well, a little while ago, I decided that I'd play around with Carrier Access Codes (CACs) and some other miscellania in my area. All of this information is relative to western Canada, primarily 780 and 403 (Alberta), and 250, 604 and 778 (British Columbia). The information about what can be done in my area is relative to Edmonton, Alberta. A little background on a few CACs. 1010324 was Telus' primary CAC for the Edmonton area, and most of Alberta, before the merger with BCTEL. Now, 1010323 is Telus' primary CAC, so 1010323-0 will give you an operator, and 1010324-00 will give you a long distance operator. The 1010324-0 simply gives you a fast busy. Same with 1010324-00. So if you sign up for normal Telus long distance, you'll get 1010323 as your CAC. I don't beleive that Telus has any additional casual-use charges for use of their CAC. 1010424 was BCTEL's primary CAC for it's areas of control in BC, before the merger with Telus. Post-merger, 1010424 became a "special services" CAC. In other words, 1010424 was used for people that required special billing or special features of some sort. 1010424 has varied accessibility in different areas of Canada. It's accessible from Edmonton, but that is all that I can verify at this time. I'll explain what I consider "accessible" to be later on. A few other carriers also have CACs that are accessible from Edmonton and surrounding areas, for example Primus (1010615), Bell Canada (1010363), and Sprint (1010348). A Carrier Access Code is a code that enables you to select which long distance provider you want to handle your calls. For example, if I sign up for Telus long distance. Let's say that I want to call my friend "Chris" in Massachusetts (NPA 413). Telus long distance might be 9 cents a minute, anywhere in Canada and the USA. But, let's say that Sprint has a special rate of 5 cents a minute to Massachusetts. I'd rather use the Sprint carrier. So, instead of dialing the number as I normally would (1-413-445-6666), I would prefix the number with the Carrier Access Code. This would yeild, "1010348-1-413-445-6666." Dialing this number would route my call over Sprint's long distance network for this call only. Dialing in this way (with the CAC prefixed before your number) is referred to as "Casual Use." Interexchange carriers are will often charge casual-use calls at a higher rate than the posted long-distance prices. It is best to verify the casual use rates (if any) with your IXC before using CACs. Anyway, on to the specific behaviour of CACs. Prefixing your call with a CAC and calling a toll number often results in very different behaviour than simply direct dialing a toll number. Often, dialing through CACs yeild many restrictions that are not present when direct dialing numbers, such as restrictions on 900-number dialing, 800/888/877/866 toll-free number dialing, 950-XXXX (Feature Group B) dialing, 700-number dialing, and many other restrictions. Often, attempting to dial a local number through a CAC will yeild a Cannot-Be-Completed-As-Dialed (CBCAD) error, or simply a fast-busy. This is expecially evident in many parts of the USA and Eastern Canada. However, when dialing local numbers through CACs in Edmonton and many other parts of Western Canada, the restrictions are slightly different. I will explain the behaviour below. For those readers that are not familier, Telus has a very lax system, when it comes to dialing formatting for local numbers. Any of the following will complete properly, and charge as a local call: 958-6111 780-958-6111 1-780-958-6111 So you can see there is a lot of flexibility on how you want to dial your local calls. Both 958-6111 and 780-958-6111 will terminate normally, and ring the party after you've finished dialing. 1-780-958-6111, however, will play a message that states, "Your local call is proceeding. There is no need to dial long distance. Thank you, from Telus," before completing your call (assuming you called a number that terminated properly, and didn't intercept, or do something weird). All CACs in my area have fairly standard behaviour when it comes to dialing local numbers. Also, this behaviour is quite different than normal direct-dialing. Normally, you dial the whole number as one string, and the entire string is parsed at once. However, certain CACs can be made to match at the thousands block, instead of waiting for the entire string to be dialed. The situations that will cause a CAC to match at the thousands block are as follows. Note that it is assumed that the conditions below are prefixed with a CAC. Note that these are also general situations, there are specific situations that can cause other specific intercepts, those will be listed and explained later. 1. Dialing a local number that is in the same exchange (NXX) as you. For example, if my number was "780-444-5555", and I dialed, "1010424-1-780-444-5556", my pattern would be matched at the thousands block (which is the first "5", in case you weren't aware), and will immediately intercept. The exact intercept it gives is discussed later. 2. Dialing a local number that is outside of the city you live in. For example, if I lived in Edmonton, and I dialed an exchange in Sherwood Park (which is just outside of Edmonton), such as 464, it would again, intercept at the thousands block. Sherwood Park is normally a local call when direct dialed. 3. Dialing a cellular prefix within your city. For example, if "903" is a cellular prefix in Edmonton, then dialing "1010424-1-780-906-6" will intercept after I dial the thousands block (the last "6"), before I can finish entering the number. All of these conditions will give the same intercept. As soon as you finish dialing the the thousands block, it will ring for a certain amount of time, then the call will intercept to a recording of "Your local call is proceeding. There is no need to dial long distance. Thank you, from Telus." Then, you'll hear a quarter-second snippet of some other intercept recording on the switch (which is a documented DMS bug that has never been fixed, likely because it occurs so rarely, and isn't really an annoyance). Following the snippet, you will hear ringing. You will then hear an intercept message. Note that the intercept message can sometimes come on *before* the ringing, and the ringing will be heard overlayed on the error message. The error message states, "The number you have called cannot be completed as dialed. Please check the area code and number before trying again, or dial 411 for directory assistance." This error will repeat three times, and on the third time, it will but off before it can get to the word, "assistance." Also note that dialing a local number prefixed with a CAC doesn't actually go through the CAC. So, even though you might not have Bell Canada long distance, you can still dial a local number (subject to the previous requirements) prefixed with a CAC. A bit more on local calling through CACs. I wanted to get another viewpoint on this interesting situation, so I called up the Telus Network Operations Center, and talked to a fellow in DMS Switching, Jason. He was on break, but he took some time to talk to me, which I really appreciate. When I explain what I had encountered with not being able to call cellular numbers, or out-of-city numbers through any CACs, he noted a few things that he thought might cause that. He mentioned that it was possible that the switches would not route *local* calls prefixed with a CAC from tandem to tandem, but would only route them from tandem to end-offices. So, any end-offices not directly connected to the tandem would not be able to be contacted, and he speculated that was why only calls within the city of Edmonton could be made through the CACs. Of course, this was speculation, and it would be appreciated if someone outside of Edmonton could verify that you really can, only call numbers in your city. I also discussed the issue of not being able to call numbers on your own exchange with Jason, he attributed it to switch programming as well, but neither of us were aware of any particular hardware restriction or regulation that would require it to be so. By all rights, it should work. Either way, thanks Jason for the comments! Alright, a bit more on 1010424. As I previously stated, 1010424 is a CAC that is now used for "special services." Not every regular casual caller can use all the features on the line. Some of the following conditions will cause 1010424 to tell you, "We're sorry, you are not authorized to call the number dialed." 1. Dialing a Feature Group 'B' number ex: 1010424-1-780-950-8888 2. Dialing 1010424-0 (operator) 3. Dialing 1010424-00 (long distance operator) 4. Dialing any long-distance number ex: 1010424-1-604-477-1452. Note that it doesn't matter if the number supervises or not, it still intercepts to that message. 5. Dialing 1-780-555-1212 This illustrates where 1010424 contrasts with 1010323. All of the previous stated conditions are conditions that would require the "special billing" parts of the system to be activated. Simply dialing local calls, within your own city, and not on your own switch, however, are local calls, and like most of Telus-land, free. So the "special billing" stuff never has to get activated. Also note, you can still dial 1-700-555-4141 and it'll tell you that "Telus" is your long-distance carrier. So if you want to verify that this is a valid CAC for Telus, you can, right like that. Alright, a bit more about 1010323. 1010323 is the normal Telus CAC, and you can place calls normally through it. 1010323-0 yeilds you an operator, 1010323-00 gets you a long-distance operator. You can place long-distance calls normally, and "special" stuff like Directory Assistance (1-NPA-555-1212) works normally, and when you dial through and place local calls, with the restrictions I listed above on local calls. Alright, a bit more on some other CACs. Bell Canada's CAC is 1010363, and it's quite similar to Telus' 1010323, with a few notable differences. You can't call an operator (via either 1010363-0 or 1010363-00) through Bell's CAC, at least, I've never gotten one. It might be possible to get an operator if you are subscribed to the service, but I've never gotten one. Comments, anyone? Also, if you dial up 1010363-1-700-555-4141, you'll get a nice messages telling you that Bell Canada is your long distance provider. Trying to make a normal long distance call, though, will net you the message, "We're sorry, the service you are calling cannot be reached by this method." Primus also runs 1010615, which is entirely unremarkable, except for 1010615-0, which will get you an automated attendant. I'm not sure if Primus has any additional casual-use charges. Telus' old CAC, 1010324, will intercept with the message, "This service is no longer available in your area. We apologize for the inconvenience," no matter what you try to call. Sprint runs a CAC as well, 1010348, which is again, entirely unremarkable. That's about it. Comments, anyone? Does it work like this in anyone else's area? -Tim ------------------------------ From: R. J. Brown Subject: Alex Bell and the Garfield Assassination Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2006 02:00 EDT >From http://www.historybuff.com/library/refgarfield.html Alexander Graham Bell and the Garfield Assassination Our thanks to http://www.historybuff.com and rbrown@tir.com Mr. Brown for this interesting report. By R.J. Brown Editor-in-Chief (of History Buff.com): Some people ask me "Why bother to collect old newspapers? If I want to read dry, boring history, I can just get a history book." My answer to this is that historical events. The only way they can be re-discovered, is through reading original newspapers published during the time of the event. The assassination of president James Garfield in 1881 is a prime example of this. James Garfield was assassinated on July 2, 1881 and lingered until September 19, 1881 when he died. The problem was that a bullet was lodged inside his chest. The two methods of treatment at the time were: (1) If the bullet had penetrated the liver (or other organs) it would mean certain death without surgery to remove it. (2) If the bullet hadn't penetrated an organ was wasn't lodged tightly against an organ at the present time, the chances of recovery were much better if they delayed the surgery until the president's condition stabilized. Therefore, finding the exact location of the bullet was very critical in the president's recovery. X-rays had not been invented yet so the only way to determine the exact location of the bullet was to do a manual probe with instruments. If they were to make continued probes to locate the bullet, it increased the risk of infection. As a result of this indecision, a most unique journalistic style arose. Newspapers across the United States printed editorial after editorial making big light of this indecision by the White House doctors. Soon, lay-people, as well as qualified medical personnel, jumped in with their opinions. The White House doctors were deluged with package after package containing such items as special herbs, teas, home remedies, poultices, as well as patent medicines. A special area was set up in the White House basement to store all the items. In addition, people with medical degrees sent lengthy letters giving their opinions on what should be done. Many of these letters were also published in newspapers. Coverage of the debate received so much attention that discussions from this angle over shadowed the current medical condition of the president. One such example of the press taking over the job of finding the answer as to finding the exact location of the bullet took place one week after the shooting. Simon Newcomb of Baltimore was interviewed by a reporter for the Washington National Intelligencer. Newcomb had been experimenting with running electricity through wire coils and the effect metal had when placed near the coils. He had found that when metal was placed near the coils filled with electricity that a faint hum could be heard at that point in the coil. The problem was that the hum was so faint that is was very difficult to hear. He suggested that he might be able to perfect his invention so that it could be used on the President but, unfortunately, he though that the perfection of the apparatus would take too long. While in Boston, Alexander Graham Bell read the newspaper account mentioned in the above paragraph of this article. Upon reading this account, Bell telegraphed Newcomb in Baltimore and offered to assist him. Further, he suggested that perhaps his own invention of the telephone was the answer he had been seeking. His telephone amplified sound made through wire! Newcomb accepted Bell's offer. Bell immediately went to Baltimore to work with Newcomb. White House surgeons spent a lot of time at the Baltimore lab witnessing the experiments. The invention consisted of two coils of insulated wire, a battery, a circuit breaker, and Bell's telephone. The ends of the primary coil were connected to a battery and those of the secondary coil were fastened to posts of the telephone. When a piece of metal was placed in the spot where the circuit breaker was, a hum could be heard in the telephone receiver. As the metal was moved further away, the hum became more faint. Five inches away was the maximum distance that a hum could still be heard. Various methods of testing the apparatus were tried. At first a game of hide and seek was played. Either Bell or Newcomb would hide an unspent bullet in their mouth, arm pit, or elsewhere on their body. The other would pass the wand over the others' body. Meanwhile an assistant would be listening on the telephone to announce (based on the hum) where the bullet was and how far away from the tip of the wand it was. Next, the experiments included spent bullets and hiding them in bags of grain, inside sides of beef and so forth. Various adjustments were made with each test. As a final test, before using it on the president, they went to the Old Soldiers Home in Washington, D.C. where they solicited Civil War veterans and lined them up in open fields. They passed the wand over each volunteer's body. As some still had bullets in their body from doing battle in the war, this provided a very close approximation of what they hoped their invention would accomplish -- locate a bullet inside a human body. In each case, the soldiers with bullets still in them, and where the bullets were, were identified. Now was the appropriate time to try the invention on the president. On July 26, Bell, his assistant Tainter, and Newcomb had an appointment at the White House. In the early evening they made their first attempt to locate the bullet using their apparatus. There were also five White House doctors and several aides present for this experiment. The president looked apprehensive as the wand was passed over his body. He expressed a fear of being electrocuted. Bell offered reassurance and tried to explain how the apparatus worked. None-the-less, Garfield's eyes never left the wand through out the experiment. The results of the experiment were inconclusive as there was a faint hum no matter where the wand was placed on the president's body. After many attempts, Bell, Newcomb and Tainter left the White House wonder just where they went wrong. Meanwhile, the press used this failure as a personal attack on Bell. The hostility of the rivalry among claimants that they (and not Bell) were the first ones to invent the telephone was at its peak at this time. Many lawsuits were already pending in the courts over this issue. The publicity over Bell using his invention to attempt to find the bullet in the president's body didn't help matters. Editorials in newspapers called Bell a "publicity seeker." Undaunted, Bell returned to the lab with Newcomb and Tainter. They ran more experiments. It still worked just fine in the lab and at the Old Soldier's Home. Bell managed to talk White House doctors into letting them come back and try again. The last day of July they went back to the White House to try again. It was the same thing again -- no matter where they placed the wand on the president's body, a faint hum could be heard. When they moved the wand away from the president's body the hum could no longer be heard. All were stumped. It worked fine on everyone else but the president. Feeling dejected, they again left the White House. Bell continued back to Boston and gave up trying to perfect the invention. A few weeks after their last attempt, President Garfield was moved to his home in New Jersey and died on September 19, 1881. So what is the answer to why Bell's and Newcomb's invention worked on everyone except the president? It wasn't the president that was the problem. The problem was the bed he was in. Coil spring mattresses had just been invented. In fact, a national campaign hadn't even been started yet at the time of the assassination. The White House was one of the few that had the coil spring mattresses at the time. Very few people had even heard of them. Thus, Bell's and Newcomb's invention was detecting metal -- unfortunately they didn't realize that it was the coil springs. If they had moved him off the bed to the floor or table, their apparatus would have detected where the bullet was and likely, knowing this, the White House surgeons could have saved James Garfield's life! Send mail to rbrown@tir.com the author of this article. ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson Subject: The World eBook Fair, July 4-August4, 2006 Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 20:55:19 -0500 The World eBook Fair Home Page eBook Celebration Please visit us here from July 4th-August 4, 2006 to download your selections from 1/3 million free eBooks. Welcome to the future home of the World eBook Fair, soon to be the largest showcase for eBooks, eBook publishers, editors, and others working in the new world of eBooks. July 4th to August 4, 2006 marks a month long celebration of the 35th anniversary of the first step taken towards today's eBooks, when the United States Declaration of Independence was the first file placed online for downloading in what was destined to be an electronic library of the Internet. Today's eBook library has a total of over 100 languages represented. The World eBook Fair welcomes you to absolutely free access to a variety of eBook unparalleled by any other source. 1/3 million eBooks await you, all free of charge for the month from July 4 - August 4, 2006, and then 1/2 million eBooks in 2007, 3/4 million in 2008, and ONE million in 2009. Ten times as many eBooks are available from private eBook sources, without the media circus that comes with 100 billion dollar media mavens such as Google. The World eBook Fair has created a library of wide ranging sample of these eBooks, totaling 1/3 million. Here are eBooks from nearly every classic author on the varieties of subjects previously only available through the largest library collections in the world. Now these books are yours for the taking, free of charge, to keep for the rest of your lives. This event is brought to you by the oldest and largest free eBook source on the Internet, Project Gutenberg, with the assistance of the World eBook Library, the providers of the largest collection, and a number of other eBook efforts around the world. The World eBook Library normally charges $8.95 per year for online access, and allows unlimited permanent downloading. During The World eBook Fair all these books are available free of charge through a gateway at http://www.gutenberg.org YOU ARE INVITED! You are encouraged to participate in The World eBook Fair, either to download any or all of the 1/3 million eBooks provided here or to add your own eBooks. The World eBook fair is currently scheduled for the next few July and August periods as follows: 2007 1/2 Million eBooks 2008 3/4 Million eBooks 2009 One Million eBooks The World eBook Fair, Project Gutenberg, and World eBook Library, along with our other participants, join together to encourage you to assist in bringing many entire libraries to the general public and to encourage ever increasing levels of literacy and reading. We hope the invention of eBooks will advance the world as much as did the invention of The Gutenberg Press, and look forward to the Neo-Industrial Revolution following the advent of eBooks, just as the invention of The Gutenberg Press undoubtedly led to the first Industrial Revolution, and your participation can help bring this new revolution in reading and libraries to the world. We heartily thank you for visiting The World eBook Fair. We hope you and yours will find lifetimes of reading materials to expand your horizons over the years. World eBook Fair, WorldeBookFair.com. 2006 World eBook Fair is sponsored by Project Gutenberg and the World eBook Library Consortia ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V25 #211 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jun 4 16:57:10 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 796E4155AE; Sun, 4 Jun 2006 16:57:10 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #212 Message-Id: <20060604205710.796E4155AE@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 16:57:10 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 4 Jun 2006 17:00:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 212 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Companies _DO_ Snoop on Employee Email (Reuters News Wire) Viral Video Sharing is New Headache for Music Business (Brian Garrity) A 14 Year Old Scammer and Millionaire (Leonard Lawal) CFP: MICAI-2006, Artificial Intelligence, Springer LNAI (Alexander Gelbukh) How eBay Makes Regulations Disappear (Monty Solomon) Bad Static, Humming, and Disconnects (Mike S.) Spam King Settles With Texas, Microsoft (Monty Solomon) Re: Perfect Hangup (Curtis R Anderson) Re: The Risk of Misplaced Myspace Hysteria (Joshua Putnam) Re: Cell Phone Outages During Disasters (John Levine) Re: Cell Phone Outages During Disasters (Mr. Joseph Singer) Re: ISPs Must Begin Holding Data For Two Years (sawney beane) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Companies _DO_ Snoop on Employee Email Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2006 21:19:00 -0500 Big Brother is not only watching but he is also reading your e-mail. According to a new study, about a third of big companies in the United States and Britain hire employees to read and analyze outbound e-mail as they seek to guard against legal, financial or regulatory risk. More than a third of U.S. companies surveyed also said their business was hurt by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information in the past 12 months, according to the annual study from a company specializing in protecting corporate e-mail at large businesses. "What folks are concerned about is confidential or sensitive information that is going out," said Gary Steele, chief executive of Cupertino, California-based Proofpoint Inc., which conducted the study along with Forrester Research. The top concern was protecting the financial privacy and identity of customers followed by compliance issues and a bid to prevent confidential leaks. Businesses ranked monitoring for inappropriate content and attachments as less important. Steele also said on Friday that more and more companies are employing staff to read outgoing e-mails of workers who typically have no idea their correspondence is being monitored. "It is not something that is broadcast," Steele said. "There are organizations where employees think they can say whatever they want to say and nobody is going to read it." The survey gathered responses concerning e-mail security from 406 companies in the United States and the United Kingdom with more than 1,000 employees. In both regions, 38 percent of respondents said they employed staff to read or otherwise analyze outbound e-mail. In the United States, 44 percent of companies with more than 20,000 employees said they hire workers to snoop on workers' e-mail. Nearly one in three U.S. companies also said they had fired an employee for violating e-mail policies in the past 12 months and estimated that about 20 percent of outgoing e-mails contain content that poses a legal, financial or regulatory risk. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from the daily media please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Brian Garrity Subject: Viral Video Sharing is New Headache for Music Business Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2006 21:21:03 -0500 By Brian Garrity As the recording industry tries to block file trading of songs across peer-to-peer networks, blogs and other viral distribution channels, the major labels suddenly have a whole new piracy concern: music videos. The rise of user-generated content sites like YouTube, MySpace, Google Video and iFilm has sparked a revolution in the viral sharing of music videos across these Web communities. The problem is, much of the distribution taking place -- outside a select number of promotional deals -- is happening without the approval of record companies. In recent weeks the Recording Industry Association of America has been stepping up its efforts to stop sharing of popular videos on such sites, particularly on the rapidly expanding YouTube. The site, which now claims more than 6 million visitors and 40 million streams daily, has become a haven for unlicensed music videos, which users are capturing with TiVo and other digital video recorders and then posting the files to the Web. Much of the material is coming from recorded MTV broadcasts. The RIAA recently issued cease-and-desist letters to YouTube users sharing videos from the likes of Nelly Furtado, Beyonce and Rihanna. In the wake of the takedowns, users following links to the video are greeted by this notice: "This video has been removed at the request of copyright owner the RIAA because its content was used without permission." Reps for the RIAA and YouTube declined to comment. However, one source close to the situation says that the recording industry is lobbying YouTube and other viral video sites to implement content-filtering technologies to identify and block unauthorized distribution of copyrighted works. POLICING THE SITES Among YouTube's competitors, early attempts at filtering solutions are bearing out in various ways. A search on Google Video for clips from commerce partner Sony BMG yields only video-for-sale offers, while searches for videos from other labels' artists produce unauthorized video postings. MTV's viral video unit iFilm allows only music videos that it can monetize through promotional deals or ads. Meanwhile, MySpace -- which has promotional and ad-supported music videos with the labels for a designated music video area of the site -- also is seeing unauthorized videos pop up in its viral video area. The major labels are taking the position that these sites are responsible for policing their own communities. But in the meantime, they have been targeting individuals who use these sites to share popular music videos, alerting them that they are distributing unauthorized works. Those efforts have produced decidedly mixed results thus far. Many of the videos that labels have requested be removed have quickly resurfaced on the site in a matter of days -- a fact that industry sources suggest supports the need for more stringent filtering by all viral video specialists. Viral video sharing would not have been an issue just 18 months ago, when the labels still viewed music videos as a promotional tool for selling albums. But today videos are a rapidly growing money-maker for the music business. The RIAA estimates that sales of music videos topped $3.7 million in three months, after being introduced in October. Meanwhile, the major labels also are sharing in the profits of ad-supported video-on-demand offerings from AOL, Yahoo, Music Choice and others. That is revenue the music industry is keenly interested in protecting. Hopes are that YouTube and others will ink similar deals with the industry in the long run. One industry insider familiar with the situation says, "The recording industry has an important antipiracy goal in music video to ensure that business moves forward." Reuters/Billboard Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ From: Leonard Lawal Subject: A 14 Year Old Scammer and Millionaire Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2006 14:58:39 -0500 Online scams create "Yahoo! millionaires" In Lagos, where scamming is an art, the quickest path to wealth for the cyber-generation runs through a computer screen. By Leonard Lawal, FORTUNE (FORTUNE Magazine) - Akin is, like many things in cyberspace, an alias. In real life he's 14. He wears Adidas sneakers, a Rolex Submariner watch, and a kilo of gold around his neck. Akin, who lives in Lagos, is one of a new generation of entrepreneurs that has emerged in this city of 15 million, Nigeria's largest. His mother makes $30 a month as a cleaner, his father about the same hustling at bus stations. But Akin has made it big working long days at Internet cafes and is now the main provider for his family and legions of relatives. Call him a "Yahoo! millionaire." Akin buys things online -- laptops, BlackBerries, cameras, flat-screen TVs -- using stolen credit cards and aliases. He has the loot shipped via FedEx or DHL to safe houses in Europe, where it is received by friends, then shipped on to Lagos to be sold on the black market. (He figures Americans are too smart to sell a camera on eBay to a buyer with an address in Nigeria.) Akin's main office is an Internet cafe in the Ikeja section of Lagos. He spends up to ten hours a day there, seven days a week, huddled over one of 50 computers, working his scams. And he's not alone: The cafe is crowded most of the time with other teenagers, like Akin, working for a "chairman" who buys the computer time and hires them to extract e-mail addresses and credit card information from the thin air of cyberspace. Akin's chairman, who is computer illiterate, gets a 60 percent cut and reserves another 20 percent to pay off law enforcement officials who come around or teachers who complain when the boys cut school. That still puts plenty of cash in Akin's pocket. A sign at the door of the cafe reads, WE DO NOT TOLERATE SCAMS IN THIS PLACE. DO NOT USE E-MAIL EXTRACTORS OR SEND MULTIPLE MAILS OR HACK CREDIT CARDS. YOU WILL BE HANDED OVER TO THE POLICE. NO 419 ACTIVITY IN THIS CAFE. The sign is treated like a joke; 419 activity, which refers to the section of the Nigerian law dealing with obtaining things by trickery, is a national pastime. There are no coherent laws relating to e-scams, the police are mostly computer illiterate, and penalties for financial crimes are light. No penalties for breaking the law "The deterrent factor is not there at all," says Thomas Oli, a Lagos lawyer, citing the case of a former police inspector general who was convicted of stealing more than $100 million and got only six months in jail. "What do you want me to do?" Akin asks in pidgin English, explaining why he turned to a life of Internet crime. "It is my God-given talent. Our politicians, they do their own; me, I'm doing my own. I feed my family -- my sister, my mother, my popsie. Man must survive." The scams perpetrated by Akin and his comrades are many and varied: moneygram interceptions, Western Union hijackings, check laundering, identity theft, and outright begging, with tall tales of dying relatives and large sums of money in search of safe haven. One popular online fraud often practiced by women (or boys pretending to be women) involves separating lonely men from their money. Attempts to speak to government officials about Internet crime were futile. They all claimed ignorance of such scams; some laughed it off as Western propaganda. But last November the Economic Fraud and Financial Crimes Commission won a high-profile case that had dragged on for years against Emmanuel Nwude, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years for bilking a Brazilian bank out of $242 million using an Internet scam involving phony bank drafts. The commission is also pursuing a case against 419 kingpin Fred Ajudua, a lawyer and businessman accused of using the Internet to steal $1 million from a victim in Germany. Some officials, who asked not be identified, said young people are drawn to Internet crime as a way of getting back at a society that has no plans for them. Others see it as a form of reparation for the sins of the West. Or as Akin puts it, "White people, especially in the United States, are too gullible. They are rich, and whatever I gyp them out of is small change to them." (Fortune Editor's note): The term "Yahoo Millionaire" is frequently used by scammers in Nigeria. They are not affiliated in any way with Yahoo! the company. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/05/29/8378124/?cnn=yes ------------------------------ From: Alexander Gelbukh Subject: CFP: MICAI-2006, Artificial Intelligence, Springer LNAI Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 04:09:46 -0500 Organization: MICAI 5th Mexican International Conference on ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MICAI 2006 Springer LNAI; poster session: IEEE CS Submission: June 2 November 13-17, Mexico www.MICAI.org/2006 ONE WEEK REMINDER *** SUBMISSION *** Papers accepted for oral session will be published by Springer in Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI). Papers accepted for poster session will be published by IEEE CS Press. Submissions are received via the webpage; see guidelines there. *** IMPORTANT DATES *** June 2: Submission deadline. PAPERS DUE NOW. July 24 / August 4: Acceptance notification for oral / poster session. August 21 / 25: Camera-ready deadline for oral / poster session. *** TOPICS *** All areas of Artificial Intelligence, see list on the webpage. *** CONTACT *** General inquiries: micai2006 at MICAI dot org. See more contact options on the webpage. We apologize if you receive this CFP more than once. It is sent in good faith of its interest for you as an AI-related person. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 01:30:00 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: How eBay Makes Regulations Disappear By KATIE HAFNER The New York Times In quick succession one morning last month, Louisiana state legislators plowed through a long list of bills, including one to relocate the motor vehicle commission, another to regulate potentially abusive lending practices, and yet another that was the handiwork of eBay, the digital shopping mall that bills itself as "the world's online marketplace." EBay had worked overtime to ensure the passage of Senate Bill 642, which sought to exempt some Internet transactions -- like those that occur on its Web site -- from Louisiana licensing requirements for businesses conducting auctions. As the State Senate's Commerce Committee convened to consider the bill, Duane Cowart, an eBay lobbyist, testified that forcing eBay "trading assistants" to fork over $300 for a license was unduly burdensome. "What they do on the Internet is not an auction, and they are not auctioneers," Mr. Cowart told the committee. Trading assistants take items on consignment from other owners and put them up for bid on eBay, but Mr. Cowart said their activities were more akin to placing classified ads. Louisiana's senators seemed to agree with him wholeheartedly. "I think eBay is great," said one, while another regaled the room about his adventures shopping for a Plymouth Prowler on eBay. State Senator Noble E. Ellington, a Democrat who sponsored the bill at Mr. Cowart's behest, beamed as his colleagues gave the legislation their unanimous support. EBay's lobbying activities are not confined to Louisiana. As the company has spread its innovative and influential wings across the Internet, it has also woven together a muscular and wily lobbying apparatus that spans 25 states. "It is a fast-moving train, and if you get in front of it you'll get flattened," said Sherrie Wilks, an official with Louisiana's licensing agency, who is concerned that eBay flouts regulatory oversight by persuading state legislators to take the company's side. Regulators in other states also say that when they try to erect guidelines around eBay's activities, they quickly encounter the realities of the company's political power, raising anew the perennial questions about the proper balance among public policy, consumer protection and business interests. EBay's lobbying tactics, meanwhile, illustrate the spoils to be won when a savvy, resourceful company combines local political persuasion and grass-roots rallying to get lucrative regulatory exemptions that allow it to safeguard its profits. EBay's efforts have been remarkably successful, and the company, which has worked tirelessly to cultivate its image as a friendly neighborhood bazaar even as it engages in hard-nosed lobbying, is not shy about boasting of its victories. Last year, Ohio passed a law that would have regulated eBay sellers, but the company moved quickly -- with the help of seasoned lobbyists -- to have a pre-emptive and more favorable bill passed. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/business/yourmoney/04ebay.html?ex=1307073600&en=b1aae9a67d18cfc5&ei=5090 ------------------------------ From: Mike S. Subject: Bad Static, Humming, and Disconnects Date: 4 Jun 2006 00:23:28 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com The other day I noticed a lot of static and humming on my phone lines. Then today I noticed that sometimes I can't get a dial tone, it sort of goes in and out. I also noticed that the upstairs phones are the ones that have more problems with getting a dial tone and the static. So I went out to the phone box (NID) and tested the line with two different phones. There was static and humming on both but it wasn't terribly bad. So it seems that the static is not so bad at the NID, at the downstairs phones it gets worse and then on the upstairs phones it's horrible. Since I get static and humming at the NID, that indicates the problem is in the outside wiring. If the problem is outside, then shouldn't all the phones have the same amount of static? Why would it be worse upstairs if the problem is outside? Is it some sort of signal problem? The further the line goes, the worse the problem gets? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 11:06:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Spam King Settles With Texas, Microsoft AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- One of the world's most notorious spammers has settled lawsuits with the state of Texas and Microsoft Corp. that cost him at least $1 million, took away most of his assets and forced him to stop sending the nuisance e-mails. Ryan Pitylak, 24, who graduated from the University of Texas last month, has admitted sending 25 million e-mails every day at the height of his spamming operation in 2004. - http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=58948931 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2006 22:12:57 -0400 From: Curtis R Anderson Organization: Gleepy's Chaotic Henhouse Subject: Re: Perfect Hangup Scott Dorsey wrote: > Phones with crappy piezo warblers will usually have much higher ringer > impedance than phones with conventional bells. I read this and all I could think of are those cheap phones which when connected to a POTS line with another phone with pulse dialing. THe cheap phone would tick once for each pulse when someone dialed a number with a rotary dial. Poor designs like that make me miss the well-made Ma Bell phones from the days of yore. -- Curtis R. Anderson, Co-creator of "Gleepy the Hen", still "In Heaven there is no beer / That's why we drink it here ..." http://www.gleepy.net/ ICQ: 50137888 mailto:gleepy@gleepy.net (and others) Yahoo!: gleepythehen ------------------------------ From: Joshua Putnam Subject: Re: The Risk of Misplaced Myspace Hysteria Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2006 09:38:17 -0700 In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says ... > Andrew Brandt wrote: >> But knee-jerk reactions are even more prevalent in some schools among >> administrators: In one notable recent case, a teacher was suspended >> and "escorted from the building" after the broadcast journalism group >> she supervises produced a hard-hitting segment about the dangers of >> MySpace. > I find the above situation that very hard to believe. If indeed the > teacher got in trouble as described (which may be an exaggeration), > there must have been more to it. I'm afraid I don't find it difficult to believe at all -- if a district has a "zero intelligence" policy against anything, whether it's visiting MySpace or drug posession, it doesn't matter who violates it or why, they're all punished the same. (If you aren't familiar with the current "zero tolerance" insanity sweeping American schools and other institutions, http://www.thisistrue.com/ has some good, well researched, examples of what hysterical stupidity can lead to.) josh@phred.org is Joshua Putnam Books for Bicycle Mechanics and Tinkerers: ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jun 2006 00:38:49 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Cell Phone Outages During Disasters > Is it true that roaming cell phones can't work independently of > resources in the home market? Yes. They need to check with the home system to see if the roamer has an active account and to exchange billing info. > I would have assumed that the databases they need to refer to make > outgoing calls (and perhaps the ones for inbound calls to be > redirected to them in another market) wouldn't be centralized in the > phone's home market, but be located elsewhere. Why would they do that? Surely you aren't under the misimpression that disaster survivability drives their network design. R's, John ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 11:05:45 PDT From: Mr Joseph Singer Subject: Re: Cell Phone Outages During Disasters Lee Sweet Fri, 02 Jun 2006 09:16:45 -0400 wrote: > This may have been covered here last fall at the time of Katrina or > perhaps even before, but the topic came up for us recently as we're > doing some Disaster Recovery planning and I didn't recall the answer. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9120503/ > Is it true that roaming cell phones can't work independently of > resources in the home market? I would have assumed that the databases > they need to refer to make outgoing calls (and perhaps the ones for > inbound calls to be redirected to them in another market) wouldn't be > centralized in the phone's home market, but be located elsewhere. For > instance, perhaps Verizon Wireless would have one or more of these > database resources around its coverage area, not one for each home > market where it's prone to damage in a disaster. Sure, if the infrastructure at the location where inbound calls are sent is damaged or unavailable the call wouldn't be delivered. This is no different than normal wireline service. I couldn't get through to any calls in NPA 504 for days and days after the 29th of August. I don't think that's any different than for any other kind of traffic into a disaster area. If you're a cellular subscriber who has a number in the area affected it's not hard to see why calls to a subscriber would not be able to be completed since the call has to be routed from the originating switch and if incoming traffic to the switch isn't possible it can't be routed out of the switch to find the cellular subscriber whereve that subscriber is located. If the originating switch is out of commission it would be sort of impossible for the switch to send the call. As far as outgoing services there should not be any problem at all since you'd be using the infrustructure of the area you are in rather than of your "home" switch. Mr. Cuccia could probably tell you about that. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2006 01:18:31 -0400 From: sawney beane Subject: Re: ISPs Must Begin Holding Data For two Years Jon Swartz & Kevin Johnson wrote: > COMMENT: What do you think of the government's plans? > Justice is not asking the companies to keep the content of e-mails, > spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said. It wants records such as lists of > e-mail traffic and Web searches, he said. > Roehrkasse said the government is required to seek proper legal > authority, such as a subpoena, before obtaining the records. He said > any change in the retention period would not alter that > requirement. Law enforcement officials have seen investigations > derailed "time and time again" because of a lack of data, Roehrkasse > said. Why would one need to trace somebody's web activity two years into the past to prosecute child pornography? If the government needs a witness to lie for a criminal prosecution, a fishing expedition of internet activity going back two years might provide leverage. Suppose a prosecutor is under pressure to pin a murder on a suspect. An old trick would be to coach a little old lady to identify a former associate of the suspect, then coerce him to testify. If the prosecutor could find out that the associate was married to an illegal alien, he could have the wife arrested and the child taken away to force the innocent man to lie in court. (I saw that on TV.) Information on an individual's internet activity could be useful for a corporate or government official who wants power over that individual. If the information were kept, I'll bet it could be accessed without a warrant. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is a name for this kind of activity: 'Prosecutorial Misconduct'. The Chicago Tribune did a five part series on this subject in 1999 which led to the disbarment of five or six attornies (who were prosecutors) in Chicago, two dozen judges of the Cook County Circuit Court and in 2002, a one hundred percent cleanout of Illinois 'Death Row' by the governor at the time who frankly stated he had considerable doubt about the guilt of many of the Death Row inmates. Needless to say, police were furious at having this happen, and the prosecutors screamed rather loudly also. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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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End of TELECOM Digest V25 #212 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jun 5 15:39:45 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 2EBA2154A7; Mon, 5 Jun 2006 15:39:45 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #213 Message-Id: <20060605193945.2EBA2154A7@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 15:39:45 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 5 Jun 2006 15:40:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 213 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Id Theft Made Easy (USA Today News Wire) Latest Wholesale Ripoff: Data From Hotels.com Users Stolen (Donna Gordon) Net Neutrality Puts Time Crunch on Telecom Agenda in Congress (K.C. Jones) Circuit City Fixes Forum Flaw That Infected IE Users (Monty Solomon) Avaya IP Office VoIP over Internet (ryanjjones@mail.com) Cellular-News: Monday 5th June 2006 (cellular-news) Telegram in TV Show 1984; Payphone in TV Show 2006 (Lisa Hancock) Investors Buy Undersea-Cable Business (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Companies _DO_ Snoop on Employee Email (Lisa Hancock) Re: Companies _DO_ Snoop on Employee Email (Steve Sobol) Re: Bad Static, Humming, and Disconnects (DLR) Re: Alex Bell and the Garfield Assassination (Lisa Hancock) Re: Microsoft Lauches Security Plan for Windows (David) Political Telemarketing Calls (Steven Lichter) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: USA Today News Wire Subject: Id Theft Made Easy Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 10:48:20 -0500 With a little computer savvy and a few keystrokes, identity thieves can invade your privacy, run up your credit card bills, pilfer bank accounts and create years of financial nightmares. A name, date of birth and Social Security number are all the thieves need. Because of slipshod procedures to protect computer data, the Department of Veterans Affairs might have given them just that. Sensitive information on 26.5 million veterans discharged since 1975 was stolen from the home of a VA employee who improperly brought the material home to work on, officials announced Monday. It's of small comfort that the burglars probably don't even know what they stole. The theft -- one of the largest breaches of identity security ever -- occurred even though the VA was on notice for years from its inspector general that its information security was lax. Even more disturbing is that the VA apparently learned nothing from the more than 130 reported breaches at banks, credit card companies, colleges and a giant data broker that exposed more than 55 million Americans to ID theft last year alone. The episode is all the more reason to be skeptical when the government says "trust us" on security and privacy matters, such as with the National Security Agency's secret collection of phone records of millions of Americans. If you think such sensitive data couldn't get beyond the office walls, recall the case of former CIA director John Deutch, who was accused of storing hundreds of highly classified reports on unsecured home computers, leaving them vulnerable to theft. (President Clinton pardoned Deutch in 2001.) The VA analyst who brought his work home violated department procedures and was placed on administrative leave. But privacy advocates are astonished that the data wasn't encrypted, which would have rendered it useless to all but the most sophisticated computer hackers. Failure to encrypt is like sending a bank armored vehicle to transfer cash with no guards. In our digital age, Congress and state lawmakers need to establish basic protections for information. The rising industry of data brokers needs more oversight. Anyone who handles sensitive information should be aware of federal privacy laws and punished for violations. It's hard to take seriously government warnings about how to prevent ID theft when the government itself is so lax about protecting sensitive data. Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-05-23-id-theft-edit_x.htm?csp=34 NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from USA Today, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html ------------------------------ From: Donna Gordon Blankinship Subject: Latest Wholesale Ripoff: Data on Hotels.com Customers Stolen Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 10:50:26 -0500 By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP, Associated Press Writer Thousands of Hotels.com customers may be at risk for credit card fraud after a laptop computer containing their personal information was stolen from an auditor, a company spokesman said Saturday. The password-protected laptop belonging to an Ernst & Young auditor was taken in late February from a locked car, said Paul Kranhold, spokesman for Hotels.com, a subsidiary of Expedia.com based in Bellevue, Wash. "As a result of our ongoing communication with law enforcement, we don't have any indication that any credit card numbers have been used for fraudulent activity," Kranhold said. "It appears the laptop was not the target of the break-in." Both Hotels.com and Ernst & Young mailed letters to Hotels.com customers this past week encouraging them to take appropriate action to protect their personal information. The transactions recorded on the laptop were mostly from 2004, although some were from 2003 or 2002, the companies said. The computer contained personal information including names, addresses and credit card information of about 243,000 Hotels.com customers. It did not include their Social Security numbers. Ernst & Young, which has been the outside auditor for Hotels.com for several years, notified the company of the security breach on May 3. "We deeply regret this incident has occurred and want to apologize to you and Hotels.com for any inconvenience or concern this may cause," said the unsigned memo from Ernst & Young dated May 2006. Ernst & Young invites those affected by the incident to enroll in a free credit monitoring service arranged by the auditor. "We sincerely regret that this incident occurred and we are taking it very seriously," said the letter signed by Hotels.com general manager Sean Kell. The letter from Hotels.com said "Ernst & Young was taking additional steps to protect the confidentiality of its data, including encrypting the sensitive information we provide to them as part of the audit process." Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news headlines and stories from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: K.C. Jones Subject: Net Neutrality Puts Time Crunch on Telecom Agenda in Congress Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 16:27:00 -0500 Providers have about 20 days to push for changes to cable franchising rules and universal service fees, until about end of June. By K.C. Jones, TechWeb.com http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188701295 Time is running out for Congress to pass several telecommunications rule changes this year because the changes are tied to another contentious issue: network neutrality. Since net neutrality is holding the telecommunications agenda hostage, the idea of compromise legislation is catching on. "As sand runs out of the hour glass, compromises are reached," said Thaddeus Strom, vice president of congressional relations for Parry, Romani, DeConcini & Symms. Panelists at Cowen and Company's Technology Conference in New York City said Friday that providers have about 20 days to push for changes to cable franchising rules and universal service fees. "It's a question of finding floor time," said Strom, whose powerful lobbying firm represents Verizon. And, there are several obstacles to overcome. Committee chairs are vying for jurisdictional control over net neutrality also called Internet neutrality. Members are drafting and revising several bills to guarantee equal access to networks or to protect providers' ability to charge more for better access and improved networks. As a challenging election season approaches, lobbyists are applying pressure from both sides. If Congress cannot get one version to the floor, and soon, members are likely to turn their attention away from telecommunications issues during recesses, budgeting and campaigns. Then there is the threat of returning to a more net neutrality-friendly congress -- one controlled by Democrats in one house or both. Political strategists believe, and telecommunications lobbyists acknowledge, that voters could sweep out Republican incumbents over national issues. "There's certainly speculation about a sea-change in the control," Strom said. While several Republicans favor legislation aimed at preserving neutrality, Democrats are not jumping to the aid of telecommunications companies. That means it could be a better strategy for telecommunications providers to make some concessions on net neutrality now, in a more certain environment. "It will probably be more than they want because it's the only way to get legislation passed this year," said Chris McKee, vice president and assistant general counsel of Covad Communications Group, a broadband voice and data communications provider. Strom said compromise legislation, which could be introduced next week, would likely include promises not to block, degrade or modify network access. The House Rules Committee is likely to decide next week whether to send an existing net neutrality bill to the floor. Mike Wendy, media relations manager for the Computing Industry Association, said that net neutrality bills could impose "onerous telephone-like, or more complicated, regulation," on caching speeds, access requirements, rate regulations and application regulation. He said regulation should not be a default, but a last resort after the free market, technology and federal watchdogs fail to protect consumers. "We just haven't been there thus far," he said during an interview Friday. He said he hopes compromise legislation does not impose restrictions on growth because the net has not relied on legislation to develop. Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more tech news from the media, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 00:03:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Circuit City Fixes Forum Flaw That Infected IE Users The company patched a customer-support message forum Web site that had been silently installing a backdoor Trojan on visitors' PCs. By Gregg Keizer TechWeb.com Jun 2, 2006 02:35 PM Circuit City Stores Inc. on Thursday patched a customer support message forum Web site that had been silently installing a backdoor Trojan on visitors' PCs for more than two weeks. Sometime on or about May 17, hackers broke into a home theater message board on Circuit City's online site, said Bill Cimino, a spokesman for the Richmond, Va.-based electronics retailer. "We're trying to backtrack to when the break-in actually occurred," Cimino said Friday. From then until Thursday, June 1, visitors to the forum who were running unpatched versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer were directed to a Russian-based Web site that tried to install a Trojan horse which would give attackers full access to the compromised PC. http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188701288 ------------------------------ From: ryanjjones@mail.com Subject: Avaya IP Office VoIP Over Internet Date: 5 Jun 2006 05:14:55 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi, We are running an Avaya IP office system. We have VoIP working on LAN, WAN and via VPN connections. However -- how do we get this working (from an Avaya IP handset) over simply the Internet? The Avaya sits on the LAN obviously. 1) - Would we configure a default gateway to be the firewall? - Have a 1-2-1 NAT rule of one of our external IPs to the Avaya? - Configure the handset to talk with the externa lP? Q - Would this work? Q - Is the Avaya secure if all ports are accessible from web? Any idea welcome on this -- as we are getting a bit of heat over this! Cheers. ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News: Monday 5th June 2006 Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 07:26:12 -0500 From: cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com ====================================================================== [[Financial News]] NTT Docomo Planning Broad Expansion Into Asia http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17650.php NTT DoCoMo is planning a broad expansion into Asia in an effort to exploit a predicted boom in high-technology demand in the region, its chief executive said, the Financial Times reported on Its Web site Thursday. ... Sonae: Vivo sale would follow PT acquisition http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17658.php Portuguese industrial conglomerate Sonae SGPS has confirmed that in the event of acquiring control of Portugal Telecom it would sell PT's 50% stake in Brazil's largest mobile operator Vivo, Brazilian newspaper Gazeta Mercantil reported. ... Saudi Telecom May Give Egypt Co 20% Of 3rd Mobile -Report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17661.php Saudi Telecommunications is ready to give Telecom Egypt -- or any other Egyptian company -- up to 20% of its shares in Egypt's third mobile operator, should Saudi Telecom win the bidding for the third license, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported Satur... Qualcomm Denies Korean Royalties Reports http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17666.php Qualcomm has reiterated a prior statement that the reports in two Korea Times articles (December 1, 2005 and May 31, 2006) indicating that certain Korean manufacturers' obligations to pay royalties to the company under their respective license agreem... [[Handsets News]] Motorola plans US$9mn investment in R&D sites http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17656.php US equipment manufacturer Motorola plans to invest US$9mn in its research and development (R&D) operations in the northeast of Brazil, Motorola said in a statement. ... [[Legal News]] Phone Network Hacker Fined http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17663.php A Vietnamese computer hacker has been fined US$980 after he managed to break into the Mobifone network and "stole" six high value phone numbers. Hacker Nguyen Van Nhuan, lived in Hoang Liet Ward, Hoang Mai District, Hanoi, worked for a MobiFone agent... [[Mobile Content News]] Hong Kong SmarTone: Hutchison-DoCoMo i-mode Service Not A Threat http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17651.php Hong Kong mobile-phone carrier SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings said Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) partnership with NTT DoCoMo to launch an i-mode service in the territory won't be a threat to its business. ... BT Movio Licenses Mobile TV Technology http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17669.php The Technology Partnership (TTP) says that it has agreed with BT Movio to license its DAB-IP open standards based mobile television module to manufacturers worldwide. This follows the successful pilot mobile TV service trials by BT Movio last Novembe... [[Network Operators News]] Russia's Equant to operate under Orange brand later this year http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17652.php Russia's Equant, or OOO Ekvant, a subsidiary of France Telecom, plans to start operating under the Orange Business Services brand starting sometime in September-November, Equant said in a press release Friday. ... Cellphone Cos Beefing Up Systems For Hurricane Season http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17653.php JACKSON, Miss. (AP)--Mobile phone companies are working on bolstering their systems to try to prevent a repeat of the havoc Hurricane Katrina wreaked on communication services last year. ... PeterStar to launch WiMAX network in Kaliningrad soon http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17654.php Russia's PeterStar, a St. Petersburg-based alternative fixed-line operator, plans to launch a WiMAX network in the city of Kaliningrad in late 2006 or early 2007, the company said in a press release Friday. ... T-Mobile Says Demand For At-Home Cell Phone Offer Strong http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17660.php Deutsche Telekom's mobile phone arm T-Mobile International is experiencing growing demand for its so-called T-Mobile@home offer launched at the beginning of the year, Chief Executive Philipp Humm told Dow Jones Newswires Friday. ... [[Personnel News]] Gunmen Kill 4 Telecommunication Workers In Baghdad http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17662.php BAGHDAD (AP)--Gunmen killed four telecommunications workers in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad Sunday, authorities said. ... Plot to Topple Vodafone Directors http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17667.php Several of Vodafone's institutional shareholders are reported to be planning to vote against the re-election of several Vodafone directors, chief executive Arun Sarin. ... [[Regulatory News]] Cofetel candidates rejected for "political" reasons http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17657.php Mexico's congress rejected this week three of the four candidates proposed by President Vicente Fox to form the new board of telecoms regulator Cofetel apparently for political reasons, local press reported. ... Irish Unaware of Roaming Costs http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17665.php Ireland's Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has published the results of its quarterly residential survey of 15-74 year olds on their adoption and use of electronic communications services. The survey results, for the period January-M... Fourth Attempt to Offer Slovak GSM License http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17670.php The Telecommunications Office of the Slovak Republic has announced plans to offer a 3rd GSM and UMTS license in the country. This is however, the third time the regulator has attempted to offer a GSM license to break the T-Mobile/Orange duopoly. Tend... [[Statistics News]] Belarus' MDC subscriber base up to 2.21 million users June 1 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17655.php The subscriber base of Belarusian mobile phone operator Mobile Digital Communications (MDC) rose 3.3% in May to 2.21 million users as of June 1, the company's press office said Thursday. ... Ecuadorian Mobile market reaches US$1bn in 2005 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17659.php Ecuadorian mobile operators billed US$1.01bn in 2005 and saw the number of users grow 76% compared to 2004, local newspaper El Comercio reported. ... Cellphones Drive Semiconductor Sales Rise http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17668.php The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has reported that worldwide sales of semiconductors rose 8.1% in April 2006, compared to April 2005. Sales reached US$19.6 billion, driven largely by mobile phones.... Mobile RAN equipment sales down 22% in 1Q06 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17671.php The worldwide radio access network equipment market fell 22% to US$7.4 billion in 1Q06 due to a huge drop in CDMA/EV-DO/EVDV and GSM/GPRS/EDGE equipment revenue, says Infonetics Research latest Radio Access Network Equipment report. W-CDMA/UMTS RAN e... [[Technology News]] Ericsson integrates with Microsoft Office Live http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17664.php Ericsson says that it is providing integration between its One Phone solution and Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005. This will enable users to 'click to dial' from their computer desktops, using any phone connected to the corporate pho... ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Telegram in TV Show 1984; Payphone in TV Show 2006 Date: 5 Jun 2006 10:36:59 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com TV Land has been running old episodes of the show "Benson". In one episode, they received a telegram announcing an award winner. I was surprised they'd still use mention of a telegram that late; by then telegrams were virtually obsolete. For the scene's dramatic effect, it was necessary to have the message in a sealed envelope and be something special as opposed to the regular mail. As an aside, in an I Love Lucy episode, Lucy received a telegram from a fancy women's group she sought to join. That was interesting since it was a local group and I'd think a plain letter or phone call would do. I wouldn't think telegrams would be used for local in-city messages after the war, but maybe they were.) In a current TV show, The Suite Life comedy, a sci-fi machine was built that looked like a British payphone booth. The stars of the show (13 y/o boys) remarked that "no uses pay phones anymore". (Actually the machine shifted to parallel universes and the subsequent plot was similar to the old Star Trek episode "MIrror Mirror".) I just realized that this show's scenes makes use of today's instant communication that would be unheard of in past TV. They had one scene where they put together a commercial for the owner of the hotel where they live. The owner, in a very distant overseas city, saw the commercial instantly and phoned at once to voice his opinion; the call was instantly received on his daughter's cell phone. However, some scenes still rely on relayed messages or even newspaper headlines (an old movie trick) to convey information for dramatic effect. In I Love Lucy there were no cell phones, of course, but Lucy seemed to be always near a phone when she needed it; she often used her apt phone and called Ricky at work. I do believe there were plots where she couldn't reach Ricky and concocted a scheme as a result. That's all doable today, they just have to make the excuse a cell phone was turned off. [public replies, please] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 12:41:12 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: June 5, 2006 - Investors buy undersea-cable business USTelecom dailyLead June 5, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dLmwfDtuterKrNcSzb TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Investors buy undersea-cable business BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * IPTV poised to take TV world by storm * RCN sees triple-play advantage in fight against larger rivals * Selling convergence no easy marketing task * Cable operators risk alienating customers in move to HDTV USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Telecom at your Fingertips - Updated TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * VoIP poses new challenge for wireless REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * JetBlue unit wins airwaves auction * Analysis: Spectrum auction faces more delays Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dLmwfDtuterKrNcSzb ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Companies _DO_ Snoop on Employee Email Date: 5 Jun 2006 08:42:57 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Reuters News Wire wrote: > "It is not something that is broadcast," Steele said. "There are > organizations where employees think they can say whatever they want > to say and nobody is going to read it." My employer issued a formal policy statement about emails, emphasizing that they are monitoring emails. There has been considerable publicity about e-mails not being private. People have lost their jobs, even gone to jail when they mistakenly sent a very personal email to everyone in the company. (Such a mistake was part of the jokes in the film "American Pie"). I dislike using email for sensitive personal matters (anything beyond "Want to meet for lunch today?") for that reason. I've gotten burned with personal emails forwarded to others without my consent. I am very careful who has my email address. (I need to establish email on Yahoo as Pat suggested that I could be less cautious with.) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The only thing -- well, not the only thing, but an important factor where Yahoo Mail is concerned is the extremely high volume of spam/scam mail you will get on your account there within days of starting to use their email. My main complaint with Yahoo Mail is the _huge_ amount of sexually-related spam. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Companies _DO_ Snoop on Employee Email Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2006 14:05:29 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Reuters News Wire wrote: > Big Brother is not only watching but he is also reading your e-mail. And? You shouldn't be using company email for personal purposes. > Steele also said on Friday that more and more companies are employing > staff to read outgoing e-mails of workers who typically have no idea > their correspondence is being monitored. > "It is not something that is broadcast," Steele said. "There are > organizations where employees think they can say whatever they want to > say and nobody is going to read it." If it's the company's resources that are being used, and company emailboxes that are being monitored, the employee has no say in the matter. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows Apple Valley, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2006 18:58:00 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: Bad Static, Humming, and Disconnects Mike S. wrote: > The other day I noticed a lot of static and humming on my phone lines. > Then today I noticed that sometimes I can't get a dial tone, it sort > of goes in and out. I also noticed that the upstairs phones are the > ones that have more problems with getting a dial tone and the > static. So I went out to the phone box (NID) and tested the line with > two different phones. There was static and humming on both but it > wasn't terribly bad. > So it seems that the static is not so bad at the NID, at the > downstairs phones it gets worse and then on the upstairs phones it's > horrible. Since I get static and humming at the NID, that indicates > the problem is in the outside wiring. If the problem is outside, then > shouldn't all the phones have the same amount of static? Why would it > be worse upstairs if the problem is outside? Is it some sort of signal > problem? The further the line goes, the worse the problem gets? Did you disconnect the inside wiring when you did the NID testing? Different makes of phones might explain it. But if you have the problem with the inside wire disconnected, I'd call the phone company before worrying about cascading effects. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Alex Bell and the Garfield Assassination Date: 5 Jun 2006 09:36:39 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com R. J. Brown wrote: > Some people ask me "Why bother to collect old newspapers? If I want to > read dry, boring history, I can just get a history book." My answer to > this is that historical events. The only way they can be > re-discovered, is through reading original newspapers published during > the time of the event. Old newspapers offer far more information than given in a history book. They tell of the times. Even a quick glimpse at old newspapers shows that times actually haven't changed very much. Take a newspaper 50 years old -- the arguments about politics and social issues haven't changed very much. The claims of technology aren't new. One would think we in the technology business would have no interest at all in old newspapers, after all, we're working with stuff that simply didn't exist back then. But that's not true. The actual physical technology -- say of making a microchip -- is new. But technology doesn't exist in a vacuum. It must co-exist with consumer preferences, social policy and custom, and economics. Human nature does not change. Many of the social issues for and against new technology are the same as 50 years ago. A read of the arguments is like reading a modern paper. Finding investment capital to move a development out of the lab into mass production is no different than 50 years ago. The challenge of marketing and consumer acceptance isn't different either beyond perhaps the style of the outer enclosure box. Many technical gadgets were envisioned many years ago. Some were actually developed but not applied because of high cost. (Many ESS features were doable on crossbar but it was expensive.) An advtg of studying old articles is that one is armed with good responses and arguments to today's issues. Another advtg is that hindsight is 20/20. Today we have that hindsight when looking at the past to see what worked and what did not and why. Politics is very much the same. We have cantankerous reactionary leaders and head-in-the-clouds liberal leaders; only the names have changed. Politics is very much a part of technology as much as technical people like to think they're above it. There's a lot of erroneous conventional wisdom that newspapers mock. For example, during WW II, newspapers published considerable criticism of FDR, his staff, and his strategies for prosecuting the war. The "good ole days" weren't so good. One problem with having old newspapers is that physical hard copies are bulky and extremely fragile (newsprint wasn't meant to last). Most old stuff is on microfilm but that loses all colors and photos are very muddy, plus it's sequential access only. The New York Times has been put on digital and some libraries have access to the database for free (others can get at it by paying an al a carte fee). Fascinating stuff. The traditional newspaper is losing readership to the Internet. I'm terribly disappointed in this. Despite what Internet proponents say, the quality of info in a tradtional major newspaper is far superior to what's on the web. Full service newspaper feature articles contain a great amount of detail, far more than a web article does. They're written and editing by professional journalists using strict standards. Of course they're not always perfect or right, but at least the journalistic standards keeps their accuracy high. Too many web articles are written by amateurs repeating conventional wisdom that may not be accurate. [public replies please] ------------------------------ From: David Reply-To: FlyLikeAnEagle@United.Com Subject: Re: Microsoft Lauches Security Plan for Windows Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 17:00:59 GMT On Wed, 31 May 2006 02:57:41 UTC, Allison Linn wrote: > By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer > Security software makers, the 800-pound gorilla has landed. Microsoft Corp. > was to announce Wednesday that it is releasing software that aims to better > protect people who use its Windows operating system from Internet attacks. Let me get this straight. Microsoft makes a popular product that is vulnerable to certain forms of attack. Rather than choosing to fix the problem, they decide to create add-on products to get a share of the money spent on competing after-market products. It is a very good thing that the public still chooses to use the popular products with known volunerabilities. A competitor might come along and take away their core business. At least the automotive industry had competitors and there was reasonable competition and improvement across the board. David ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Organization: I Kill Spammers, inc. Subject: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 02:56:22 GMT Don't these people know that calling someone who has their number on the Don't Call list do not want to here from them or anyone else, or don't they care? Today I was bombarded with one for Westly for Governor of California, 4 calls in less then 2 hours, and all were from out of state. I had planned on voting for him, now my cat gets the vote!!!! -- The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #213 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jun 5 22:46:45 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 832651551D; Mon, 5 Jun 2006 22:46:43 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #214 Message-Id: <20060606024643.832651551D@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 22:46:43 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_REMOVE,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 5 Jun 2006 22:50:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 214 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Network Time (was Re: Cell Phone For Frequency Calibration (K VandenHout) Re: Telegram in TV Show 1984; Payphone in TV Show 2006 (DLR) Re: Telegram in TV Show 1984; Payphone in TV Show 2006 (Ron Kritzman) Re: Id Theft Made Easy (USA Today News Wire) (John Schmerold) Re: Bad Static, Humming, and Disconnects (Ken Abrams) Re: Companies _DO_ Snoop on Employee Email (DLR) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (DLR) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (mc) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Sam Spade) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (George Berger) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Barry Margolin) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Koos van den Hout Subject: Network Time (was Re: Using Cell Phone For Frequency Calibration?) Date: 5 Jun 2006 19:50:37 GMT Organization: http://idefix.net/~koos/ > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Or notice, for example, the setting > of accurate clocks via the internet. I've a program here called 'Net Time' > which constantly polls various 'time servers' around the net. When > you set it up, one site returns data reported to have latency of .150 ms > and another has latency of .75 ms, etc, in other words _none _ of > them display (on my screen) -exactly- the right time. But the > program takes a half dozen or so of these time servers, and averages > the latencies then makes an adjustment which is as close as one can > get apparently, to the 'correct time' NTP (Network Time Protocol) and the associated software is a science in itself. The round-trip latency is used in the time calculations, as is the averaging of multiple servers to find correct servers and outliers. With good hardware, microsecond to nanosecond accuracy is possible. http://www.ntp.org/ (The network time protocol project) has a lot of information, including scientific papers. Koos van den Hout Camp Wireless, wireless Internet access at campsites| Koos van den Hout http://www.camp-wireless.org/ | http://idefix.net/~koos/ PGP keyid DSS/1024 0xF0D7C263 or RSA/1024 0xCA845CB5| Fax +31-30-2817051 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for mentioning this site. I went over earlier today and selected from the 'us.pool.ntp.org' numbers for my computer clock settings. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 15:48:34 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: Telegram in TV Show 1984; Payphone in TV Show 2006 hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > TV Land has been running old episodes of the show "Benson". In one > episode, they received a telegram announcing an award winner. > I was surprised they'd still use mention of a telegram that late; by > then telegrams were virtually obsolete. For the scene's dramatic > effect, it was necessary to have the message in a sealed envelope and > be something special as opposed to the regular mail. > As an aside, in an I Love Lucy episode, Lucy received a telegram from > a fancy women's group she sought to join. That was interesting since > it was a local group and I'd think a plain letter or phone call would > do. I wouldn't think telegrams would be used for local in-city > messages after the war, but maybe they were.) The start of all the headaches for the main character in "North by Northwest", 1959 depended on a telegram scene. He wanted to get in touch with his mother who had just moved and didn't yet have her phone installed. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 20:58:14 -0500 From: Ron Kritzman Subject: Re: Telegram in TV Show 1984; Payphone in TV Show 2006 hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > In a current TV show, The Suite Life comedy, a sci-fi machine was > built that looked like a British payphone booth... Certainly not a new concept! The BBC's well known time traveler Dr. Who has been moving through time, space and dimensions in a vehicle shaped like a British police box, since the program's inception in 1963. Emoveray ethay Igpay Atinlay otay eplyray ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 15:34:18 -0500 From: John Schmerold Subject: Re: Id Theft Made Easy Thinking about the USA Today newswire report in the Digest: Here's a situation where I'd like to see a juicy class-action suit against the 3 credit bureaus. If there was a simple way to lock and unlock your credit record without charge, identity theft would be difficult. After all, if the evil doer can't open accounts in my name, there is only so much damage that is possible. A few nice, expensive class action suits would encourage the credit bureaus to solve this problem. TELECOM Digest Editor wrote, quoting newswire: > With a little computer savvy and a few keystrokes, identity thieves > can invade your privacy, run up your credit card bills, pilfer bank > accounts and create years of financial nightmares. > A name, date of birth and Social Security number are all the thieves > need. Because of slipshod procedures to protect computer data, the > Department of Veterans Affairs might have given them just that. ------------------------------ From: Ken Abrams Subject: Re: Bad Static, Humming, and Disconnects Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 22:28:18 GMT DLR wrote: > Did you disconnect the inside wiring when you did the NID testing? With a modern NID, that happens automatically when you remove the plug from the jack inside the box. This is likely the style he has, since he is (seems to be) plugging in regular phones to test. > Different makes of phones might explain it. But if you have the > problem with the inside wire disconnected, I'd call the phone company > before worrying about cascading effects. I absolutely agree with that part. Also there is usually more ambient/background noise outside. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 15:54:11 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: Companies _DO_ Snoop on Employee Email hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > Reuters News Wire wrote: >> "It is not something that is broadcast," Steele said. "There are >> organizations where employees think they can say whatever they want >> to say and nobody is going to read it." > My employer issued a formal policy statement about emails, emphasizing > that they are monitoring emails. I manage some in house mail servers for some small businesses. My advice to them is to tell employees that emails must be such that they can be enlarged and nailed to the front door of the office. Anything that doesn't meet that standard is not allowed and will be treated as if it was so posted. All have basically adopted this policy. It means that personal email is ok. Just not about last nights romantic encounters. Disparaging comments about others, business or personal, is not ok unless you're willing to say it in public. And it is noted regularly that emails are not private. Any email received or sent via the company computers can be assumed to be read by management. I understand large companies need more formal rules but this one seems to be a reasonable compromise. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 15:55:51 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Steven Lichter wrote: > Don't these people know that calling someone who has their number on > the Don't Call list do not want to here from them or anyone else, or > don't they care? Today I was bombarded with one for Westly for > Governor of California, 4 calls in less then 2 hours, and all were > from out of state. I had planned on voting for him, now my cat gets > the vote!!!! They don't care. I'll repeat. They don't care. They're playing a numbers game where as long as the stats show that they are succeeding to the extend of the goals of the call, they will keep doing it. ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 17:32:34 -0400 Steven Lichter wrote in message news:telecom25.213.14@telecom-digest.org... > Don't these people know that calling someone who has their number on > the Don't Call list do not want to here from them or anyone else, or > don't they care? Today I was bombarded with one for Westly for > Governor of California, 4 calls in less then 2 hours, and all were > from out of state. I had planned on voting for him, now my cat gets > the vote!!!! This is a conversation I've had with various people at various times: "Maybe you've found a loophole in the Do Not Call List. But do you remember *why* there's a Do Not Call List? You don't get business (votes, etc.) by bothering people when they don't want to be bothered!" ------------------------------ From: Sam Spade Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 16:42:11 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Political calls and calls from charitable are exempt from the Do Not Call Registry. You think politicans would have cut themselves off? Steven Lichter wrote: > Don't these people know that calling someone who has their number on > the Don't Call list do not want to here from them or anyone else, or > don't they care? Today I was bombarded with one for Westly for > Governor of California, 4 calls in less then 2 hours, and all were > from out of state. I had planned on voting for him, now my cat gets > the vote!!!! > -- The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you > hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in > Hell. Co. ------------------------------ From: George Berger Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 20:28:44 -0400 Organization: Heller Information Services In article , Steven Lichter wrote: > Don't these people know that calling someone who has their number on > the Don't Call list do not want to here from them or anyone else, or > don't they care? Today I was bombarded with one for Westly for > Governor of California, 4 calls in less then 2 hours, and all were > from out of state. I had planned on voting for him, now my cat gets > the vote!!!! Sorry, Fella' - When Congress passed the Do Not Call legislation, they deliberately left a very large and gaping hole, viz., Political entities are exempt. Nice, eh? Did you expect legislators to cut themselves off from telephone fund-raising and "get out the vote" entreaties? George I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. -- Robert McCloskey, State Department spokesman (attributed) ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Organization: Symantec Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 20:42:27 -0400 In article , Steven Lichter wrote: > Don't these people know that calling someone who has their number on > the Don't Call list do not want to here from them or anyone else, or > don't they care? They obviously don't care, or they wouldn't have put the exemption for political calls in the law in the first place. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** *** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group *** [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We here in s.e. Kansas have a special election planned for Tuesday, June 6. I think it is only for Independence. The reason is whether or not to authorize bonds (i.e. borrow more money) to make some improvements to the schools. We have received phone calls and visitors at the door all day today telling us 'vote yes for the kids' and that is such a dishonest approach! I told each of them you want a yes vote for the school administrators is how it actually goes. This will be the third time in the past year they have tried to get this past us. The first two times they were voted down; each time they re-wrote the plan and brought it back to the voters again. They want money to build a new gymnasium for the high school among other things. This third plan now being presented is only a shell of the first two plans, so maybe it will pass. I know we do _not_ need to borrow more money. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #214 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jun 6 14:32:47 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id A724D15258; Tue, 6 Jun 2006 14:32:46 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #215 Message-Id: <20060606183246.A724D15258@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 14:32:46 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 6 Jun 2006 14:35:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 215 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson EFFector 19.13: EFF Files Evidence to Stop AT&T's Dragnet (Monty Solomon) EFFector 19.14: AOL Censors Email Tax Opponents (Monty Solomon) EFFector 19.15: EFF Stands Up for Online Journalists' Rights (M Solomon) EFFector 19.16: Action Alert - Don't Let Congress Shackle Digital (Solomon) EFFector 19.17: Action Alert - Tell Your Senators to Kick Out (M Solomon) EFFector 19.18: Donate to EFF and Stop the Illegal Spying! (Monty Solomon) EFFector 19.19: EFF Can Use Critical AT&T Documents (Monty Solomon) EFFector 19.20: Action Alert - Let the Public Decide Broadcasting (Solomon) Windows XP Update May be Classified as "Spyware" (Monty Solomon) Cellular-News: Tuesday 6th June 2006 (Cellular-News) Re: Perfect Hangup (Dan Lanciani) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Steven Lichter) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Dave Garland) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Sam Spade) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Lena) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (NOTvalid@Queensbridge.us) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Bob Vaughan) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 23:37:24 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 19.13: EFF Files Evidence to Stop AT&T's Dragnet EFFector Vol. 19, No. 13 April 7, 2006 editor@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 374th Issue of EFFector: * EFF Files Evidence to Stop AT&T's Dragnet Surveillance * Bogus Clear Channel Patent May Be Revoked * EFF Challenges Dangerous Patent on Internet Test-Taking * Citizens Lobby Congress for Reliable Electronic Voting * Smithsonian-Showtime: Why the Broadcasting Treaty Matters * Copyright v. Indexing, Part 1: TorrentSpy * You're Invited! "Email -- Should the Sender Pay?": EFF Fundraiser, Debate Between Esther Dyson and Danny O'Brien * EFF PSAs for Your Podcast or Online Radio Show * miniLinks (12): MAFIAA * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/19/13.php ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 23:37:25 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 19.14: AOL Censors Email Tax Opponents EFFector Vol. 19, No. 14 April 14, 2006 editor@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 375th Issue of EFFector: * AOL Censors Email Tax Opponents * You're Invited! "Email -- Should the Sender Pay?": EFF Fundraiser, Debate Between Esther Dyson and Danny O'Brien * Digital Copyright Law Hurts Consumers, Scientists, and Competition * E-Voting Lobby Days a Resounding Success * EFF Defends American's Free Speech Against Foreign Court Ruling * Get Secure, Encrypted Webmail and Support EFF * Support EFF at the Maker Faire Dunk Tank! * miniLinks (10): 2006 Underhanded C Contest * Staff Calendar * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/19/14.php ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 23:37:25 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 19.15: EFF Stands Up for Online Journalists' Rights EFFector Vol. 19, No. 15 April 20, 2006 editor@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 376th Issue of EFFector: * EFF Stands Up for Online Journalists' Rights in Apple v. Does * Calling For Sunshine at the Smithsonian * Visit EFF at the Maker Faire Dunk Tank and MySQL Users Conference * miniLinks (8): HDCP: Broken by Design * Staff Calendar * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/19/15.php ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 23:37:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 19.16: Action Alert - Don't Let Congress Shackle Digital EFFector Vol. 19, No. 16 April 28, 2006 editor@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 377th Issue of EFFector: * Action Alert: Don't Let Congress Shackle Digital Music! * Petition Congress to Oppose RIAA Lawsuits, Forge Better Way Forward * EFF Honors Craigslist, Gigi Sohn, and Jimmy Wales with Pioneer Awards * The Season of Bad Laws, Part 1: TM Dilution Revision Act * The Season of Bad Laws, Part 2: Criminal Copyright Infringement, Drug War Style * Top Canadian Artists Oppose DRM, Suing Fans * miniLinks (16): GETV at EFF Email Debate * Staff Calendar * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/19/16.php ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 23:37:29 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 19.17: Action Alert - Tell Your Senators to Kick Out EFFector Vol. 19, No. 17 May 5, 2006 editor@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 378th Issue of EFFector: * Action Alert: Tell Your Senators to Kick Out the Flags * Government Moves to Intervene in AT&T Surveillance Case * Sign EFF's Petition to Congress Opposing RIAA Lawsuits! * EFF Challenges FCC's Jurisdiction Over Internet Services * Update From the Smithsonian Front * Support EFF By Donating a Printer * miniLinks (15): OECD on DRM Disclosure * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/19/17.php ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 23:37:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 19.18: Donate to EFF and Stop the Illegal Spying! EFFector Vol. 19, No. 18 May 15, 2006 editor@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 379th Issue of EFFector: * Donate to EFF and Stop the Illegal Spying! * Government Files Secret Motion to Dismiss AT&T Surveillance Case * AOL Starts Pay-to-Send Email Shakedown * Court Slows EFF Efforts to Address Ohio E-voting Malfunctions * Public Interest Wins Big at WIPO Broadcast Treaty Meeting * Online Rights Canada Launches Action Center * Support EFF By Donating a Printer * miniLinks (12): Fire Hatch in 2006 * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/19/18.php ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 23:37:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 19.19: EFF Can Use Critical AT&T Documents EFFector Vol. 19, No. 19 May 22, 2006 editor@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 380th Issue of EFFector: * EFF Can Use Critical AT&T Documents in Surveillance Lawsuit * Support EFF: New EFF v. AT&T Blog Banners! * Internet Test-Taking Patent Draws Official Suspicion * Supreme Court Reverses Dangerous Injunction Rule in eBay Patent Case * Judge Grants Final Approval for Sony BMG CD Settlement * Record Labels Sue XM Radio * Support EFF By Donating a Printer * miniLinks (17): Another Way to Register Gun Owners? * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/19/19.php ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 23:37:34 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 19.20: Action Alert - Let the Public Decide EFFector Vol. 19, No. 20 May 30, 2006 editor@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 380th Issue of EFFector: * Action Alert - Let the Public Decide Broadcasting Treaty's Fate! * Huge Win for Online Journalists' Source Protection * Key Portions of Critical Documents Unsealed in AT&T Surveillance Case * The Battle for Your Digital Media Devices * miniLinks (14): A Catalog of Features Lost in iTunes Upgrades * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/19/20.php ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 08:05:05 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Windows XP Update May be Classified as "Spyware" Begin forwarded message: From: Lauren Weinstein Date: June 6, 2006 1:15:05 AM EDT Subject: Windows XP update may be classified as "spyware" Dave, There have been some murmurs about this in other forums, but since I've now independently verified I figured I'd better report here. A recent Microsoft update to Windows XP, which modifies the tool that verifies the "validity" of XP installations to insure that they are not illicit, may itself be considered to be spyware under commonly accepted definitions. The new version of the "Microsoft Genuine Advantage" tool reportedly will repeatedly nag users of systems it declares to be invalid, and will then apparently deny such users various "non-critical" updates. Apparently various parties have already found ways to bypass this tool, though the effects of this on later updating capabilities remain to be seen. However, I've noted a much more serious issue on local XP systems, all of which are legit and pass the MS validity tests with flying colors. It appears that even on such systems, the MS tool will now attempt to contact Microsoft over the Internet *every time you boot*. At least, I'm seeing these contacts on every boot after the tool update so far, and I've allowed them to proceed to completion each time. Perhaps it stops after some number of boots, but there's no indication of such a limit so far. The connections occur even if you do not have Windows "automatic update" enabled. http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200606/msg00030.html ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News: Tuesday 6th June 2006 Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 07:16:55 -0500 From: cellular-news Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com ====================================================================== [[ 3G ]] HSDPA Trials in Malaysia http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17680.php Malaysia's Time dotCom says that it has commenced a 3G pilot trial, following its success in the recent 3G spectrum award. The primary objective of the trial is to test the performance of High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) - a next generation ... Chinese Ministry Orders 3G Test Platform http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17683.php Tektronix says that China Academy of Telecommunication Research (CATR), a division of The Ministry of Information Industry (MII), has chosen it as a supplier for the 3G network environment testing. CATR has specified that Tektronix' K1297-G20 protoco... 3G Billing Deployment for Intec http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17684.php The BSS/OSS software vendor, Intec and Huawei say they have successfully implemented Intec's Mediation solution for Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless ("APBW"), a CDMA 2000 operator in Taiwan, within three months. Established in November 2001, APBW won ... [[ Financial ]] PRESS: Sistema bids for 90% in Armenia's ArmenTel http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17676.php Major Russian holding AFK Sistema has filed a bid to participate in the tender of a 90% stake in Armenian fixed-line and mobile operator ArmenTel, Sistema's Chairman Vladimir Yevtushenkov said, Vedomosti business daily reported Monday. ... Telenor inks swap agreement with ING on 3.5% in Russia's VimpelCom http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17677.php Norwegian telecommunication company Telenor has signed a swap agreement with the London branch of ING Bank N.V. under which Telenor will receive exposure to 3.52% of voting shares in Russia?s second largest mobile operator VimpelCom, Telenor said in ... [[ Legal ]] Supreme Court Turns Away Cingular Appeal On Arbitration http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17675.php The US Supreme Court Monday turned away the chance to decide whether class-action termination fee lawsuits filed against AT&T's Cingular Wireless unit in California can be forced into arbitration. ... Alltel Sued Over Mobile TV Patents http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17682.php Speedus has announced that its unit CellularVision Technology & Telecommunications filed lawsuits on June 2 against the USA network operator, Alltel. The suits address technologies now used by Alltel to transmit television to wireless users over cell... [[ Mobile Content ]] Strong Customer Support for Mobile TV http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17679.php A new report from Portio Research, the result of an extensive survey of European mobile phone users in early 2006, gives a resounding 'thumbs up' for Mobile TV. Significantly over 50% of those interviewed were interested in Mobile TV and were prepare... US Consumers Keen on Advanced Mobile Services - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17681.php Mobile subscribers in the United States are ready to catch up with their global peers -- including closing the gap on the world's most advanced users in Korea and China -- in the adoption of new cellular innovations that make mobile devices sing, play ... [[ Network Operators ]] NTT DoCoMo Eyes Phone-Wallet Market In Hong Kong http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17672.php NTT DoCoMo is planning to enter the electronic payment market in Hong Kong when it brings its i-mode service to the city at the end of this year. ... Claro reorganizes structure to provide strategic continuity http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17678.php Brazilian mobile operator Claro has consolidated its operational structure to provide strategic continuity, Claro said in a statement. ... [[ Regulatory ]] FOCUS: Russian operators seek compensation on CPP launch http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17673.php The introduction of the Calling Party Pays (CPP) principle in Russia next month will result in free incoming calls for mobile users, however, at the same time, it might also bring a hike in tariffs for outgoing calls as mobile operators seek to make ... Ukraine's regulator refuses to give CDMA-450 license to Ukrtelecom http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17674.php Ukraine's National Commission for Communications Regulation (NKRS) has refused to provide state-owned fixed-line monopoly Ukrtelecom with a license for operation in CDMA-450 standard, a spokesperson with the regulator told Prime-Tass Monday. ... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 01:48:21 EDT From: Dan Lanciani Subject: Re: Perfect Hangup gleepy@gleepy.net (Curtis R Anderson) wrote: > Poor designs like that make me miss the well-made Ma Bell phones from > the days of yore. Why miss them? My desk phone is a 2565 set that I picked up at a ham flea market in the 80's. (If you didn't grab a few when they were really cheap they are certainly available on eBay. Either way they pretty much last forever.) The other day I finally had to adjust the row oscillator in the DTMF pad because "6" was no longer working with an ISDN terminal adapter. (It still worked for POTS; it was just a little off.) It was quite difficult to turn the tuning slug. Eventually I used a triangular file held in a Vice Grip pliers. (Even after I broke it free I don't think any plastic tool would have turned it.) Using a metal tool I had to do a bit of tweak/remove/test, but once I had row #2 set all the others were correct to within the accuracy of my meter. The columns were perfect to begin with. I hope for another 20+ years of service before more maintenance is required. :) Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Organization: I Kill Spammers, inc. Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2006 03:42:10 GMT Sam Spade wrote: > Political calls and calls from charitable are exempt from the Do Not > Call Registry. > You think politicans would have cut themselves off? > Steven Lichter wrote: >> Don't these people know that calling someone who has their number on >> the Don't Call list do not want to here from them or anyone else, or >> don't they care? Today I was bombarded with one for Westly for >> Governor of California, 4 calls in less then 2 hours, and all were >> from out of state. I had planned on voting for him, now my cat gets >> the vote!!!! >> -- The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you >> hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in >> Hell. Co. I'm well aware of that, but as was pointed out, you don't get votes or business when you bother people. I did file a report after getting 2 calls an hour for 6 hours, and added the number to my Radio Shack CID box to block all further calls. I also plan on voting for my Cat for Governor. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co. ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2006 01:03:51 -0500 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when Steven Lichter wrote: > Don't these people know that calling someone who has their number on > the Don't Call list do not want to here from them or anyone else, or > don't they care? I expect they don't have a clue that you're on the Don't Call list. Political campaigns don't check against it, since legally it doesn't apply to them, and they don't have a copy of it. (I'm not saying it shouldn't, but it doesn't.) And as a volunteer who does do phone banking (not, I hasten to add, for Governor of California), we're just happy when somebody checks and corrects the database, so we're not the fifth person to call the same damn wrong number. Dave ------------------------------ From: Sam Spade Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2006 02:25:05 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Barry Margolin wrote: > In article , > Steven Lichter wrote: >> Don't these people know that calling someone who has their number on >> the Don't Call list do not want to here from them or anyone else, or >> don't they care? > They obviously don't care, or they wouldn't have put the exemption for > political calls in the law in the first place. > Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu > Arlington, MA > *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** > *** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group *** > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We here in s.e. Kansas have a special > election planned for Tuesday, June 6. I think it is only for > Independence. The reason is whether or not to authorize bonds > (i.e. borrow more money) to make some improvements to the schools. > We have received phone calls and visitors at the door all day today > telling us 'vote yes for the kids' and that is such a dishonest approach! > I told each of them you want a yes vote for the school administrators > is how it actually goes. This will be the third time in the past > year they have tried to get this past us. The first two times they > were voted down; each time they re-wrote the plan and brought it > back to the voters again. They want money to build a new gymnasium for > the high school among other things. This third plan now being > presented is only a shell of the first two plans, so maybe it will > pass. I know we do _not_ need to borrow more money. PAT] In California, the Governator has a huge bond issue set for the November election to overhaul the general declining infrastructure of the state. The place is super broke and has already one of the highest tax burdens in the nation. For the first time, the lackluster handling of the unending hordes of illegal "invaders" (primarily from Mexico) has people relating the two. I often hear, "Why should I vote to make nice roads for illegal Mexicans to driver their unlicensed cars on?" ------------------------------ From: Lena Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: 6 Jun 2006 04:16:19 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I had a burning desire for a device that I could put on my phone line that would allow me to control who and when folks could call me, since the phone companies didn't seem to be willing to do it. I thought I'd get some relief after the long awaited "Do Not Call'" list went in to effect. No such luck. Not only are political and charitable organizations exempt, but also companies with whom one has done business recently. I wish I was more computer literate and could write the software and built the necessary hardware which would allow me to block any anonymous caller and any caller from a list of numbers that I specify, especaially the callers who refuse to leave a message, but just call back over and over again. Telemarketers would only get away with calling me once. I wish I could turn the phone off completely overnight and at times during the day if I wanted. I wish I could divert certain long-winded callers to voicemail every time they called. My wish came true when I signed up for VOIP. So many features for so much less money than a landline. Block up to 20 numbers. Send another 20 to voicemail. Schedule the phone not to ring overnight and during dinner. Block all anonymous callers. Goodbye and good riddance, you #%#@!%^& telemarketers! Lena ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@Queensbridge.us Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: 6 Jun 2006 09:07:21 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com The WORST offender has to be former NYC Mayor David Dinkins. One election we got SEVEN phone calls from him with msg left on our TAD. Had to be maybe one for each office that was being voted for. I called his office at Columbia U and told his secretary I didn't want any more calls. My outgoing TAD msg at that time stated that msgs would be relayed to my cell phone. So I was charged for an outgoing call from my home phone to cell, and then air time on cell. Before then next elction I got a "Screen Machine", Caller has to enter a tone digit to continue. That solved the Dinkins' problem. ---------- Incredibly low long distance phone rates. As low as USA-Canada 1.9CPM! Works as prepaid phone card. PIN not needed for calls from home or cell phone. Compare the rates at https://www.OneSuite.com/ No monthly fee or minimum. Use Promotion/SuiteTreat Code: "FREEoffer23" for FREE time. Although from USA payphones there is a connection fee, there is NONE from other phones or Canadian payphones. Also works FROM many other countries. ------------------------------ From: techie@tantivy.tantivy.net (Bob Vaughan) Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 13:46:16 UTC Organization: Tantivy Associates In article , George Berger wrote: > Sorry, Fella' - > When Congress passed the Do Not Call legislation, they deliberately left > a very large and gaping hole, viz., Political entities are exempt. Political entities are exempted from the Do Not Call list, but as far as I can tell, they are not exempted from the delivery restrictions of 47 USC 64.1200: (a) No person or entity may: (1) Initiate any telephone call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice, (i) To any emergency telephone line, including any 911 line and any emergency line of a hospital, medical physician or service office, health care facility, poison control center, or fire protection or law enforcement agency; (ii) To the telephone line of any guest room or patient room of a hospital, health care facility, elderly home, or similar establishment; or (iii) To any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call; (3) Use a telephone faximile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone faximile machine. I have received two political campaign calls to my cellphone in the last two weeks, one of which was a prerecorded pitch for a county sales tax measure, and the other of which was a live human. My cellphone is in a prefix assigned exclusively to cellular, and the prefix serves cellular service in the northern San Francisco peninsula, including San Mateo, and northern Santa Clara counties.. I'm sure that a large number of the phones in the prefix belong to users who do not reside in the county of Santa Clara where the measures are on the ballot. I filed formal complaints with the FCC and FTC for both calls, and read the riot act to the live human. I have also received numerous calls from unidentified numbers, none of which listened to my outgoing voicemail message, which demands that telemarketers, political campaigns, and political parties place me on their do-not-call list. > Nice, eh? Did you expect legislators to cut themselves off from > telephone fund-raising and "get out the vote" entreaties? > George -- Welcome My Son, Welcome To The Machine -- Bob Vaughan | techie @ tantivy.net | | P.O. Box 19792, Stanford, Ca 94309 | -- I am Me, I am only Me, And no one else is Me, What could be simpler? -- ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V25 #215 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 7 01:44:13 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id B3A3F15122; Wed, 7 Jun 2006 01:44:12 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #216 Message-Id: <20060607054412.B3A3F15122@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 01:44:12 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, EXCUSE_3,OPTING_OUT_CAPS,SOMETHING_FOR_ADULTS autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 7 Jun 2006 01:45:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 216 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Fill up With TV News While Getting Gas (Carly Mayberry) Minnesota Sued Over Video Game Clampdown (Jesse Heistand) Battle of the Whispers (Peter Spotts - The Christian Science Monitor) Google Founder Lobbies for Net Neutrality (Joel Rothstein) Panel Recommends NTT Breakup (USTelecom dailyLead) Free and Unlimited SIP Softphone! Customization and SDK (portsip@gmail.com) Re: Windows XP Update May be Classified as "Spyware" (mc) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Steven Lichter) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Carly Mayberry Subject: Fill up With TV News While Getting Gas Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 22:14:46 -0500 By Carly Mayberry Motorists cringing at the cost of fuel can now at least fill up on current news and information while tethered to the pump. Internet-enabled Gas Station TV formally launched its digital television network Monday featuring ABC programming and original content including local news, sports, weather and traffic. The network will air constantly updated content to refueling motorists on 20-inch high-definition LCD monitors embedded in gas dispensers. GSTV already has conducted a test pilot in Dallas and expects to reach 100 locations of the Wal-Mart-based retail gasoline chain Murphy USA by September and 400 stations in the top 10 U.S. markets by next year. "We're very focused on creating an enjoyable and informative experience for the average of four minutes the user spends at the pump with content that has a sense of purpose and that can help them," GSTV CEO David Leider said, describing the venture as based on an advertising revenue model. Current content includes "News You Can Use" segments from ABC's "Good Morning America" along with news, weather forecasts and traffic updates from ABC-owned stations as well as promotional material. Rotating ads from such retail brands as Pepsi, Frito-Lay and US Tobacco are woven into the segments and geared toward driving the consumer back into the convenience store. GSTV president Adam Bleibtreu said future collaborations with other content providers are imminent. "We view this as a great distribution platform to provide the appropriate mix of content," Bleibtreu said. "This is a truly captive audience that we have -- those stuck at the pump -- and this is a great opportunity to engage them." Reuters/Hollywood Reporter Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines of interest, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Jesse Hiestand Subject: Minnesota Sued Over Video Game Clampdown Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 22:16:11 -0500 By Jesse Hiestand The trade group representing the video game industry sued the state of Minnesota on Tuesday to overturn a new bill that would fine children and teens for buying or renting mature or adults-only games. The Entertainment Software Assn. (ESA) filed the suit in Minnesota Federal District Court, arguing that the bill attempted to substitute governmental judgment for parental supervision. The ESA has successfully convinced courts to strike down six similar bills during the past five years, usually by arguing that the prohibitions on certain video games were unconstitutional. "The bill's tortured effort to end run the First Amendment by punishing kids directly fails under the Constitution because children have rights under the First Amendment, like all other citizens," ESA president Doug Lowenstein said. "The state is attempting to impose liability on children because they know that courts have consistently held that they cannot penalize retailers. We believe that the courts will agree that fining children violates the First Amendment as well." The bill would impose a $25 fine on anyone under the age of 17 who bought or rented a video game marked "M" for mature or "AO" for adults only. Stores would be required to post signs alerting customers to the restrictions. Lowenstein said that the average game buyer last year was 40 and the average player was 33. He also questioned how lawmakers reasonably expected retailers to collect the $25 fine from children. The ESA, the U.S. association for console, computer and Internet game developers, said many leading retailers already are working to prevent the sale of Mature-rated games to people under 17. The association's most recent legal victory came in April when a federal judge in Michigan issued a permanent injunction halting the implementation of a state bill that would ban the sale of violent video games to minors. The judge rejected the state's claim that the interactive nature of video games makes them less entitled to First Amendment protections, the ESA said. Reuters/Hollywood Reporter Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ From: Peter N. Spotts Subject: Battle of the Whispers Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 21:19:22 -0500 from the June 05, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0605/p16s01-stgn.html Battle of the whispers A Boston tourist attraction becomes a research lab to resolve a 19th-century sotto voce mystery. By Peter N. Spotts | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor It's an odd formula that math teachers shouldn't scrutinize too closely, but for physicist William Hartmann, it worked: S + Ta = Rp, where S is scientist, Ta is tourist attraction, and Rp is research project. When the Michigan State University physicist and his family arrived in New England to begin a sabbatical at Harvard in 1976, "it was the Bicentennial, and we did all the Boston sites," he recalls. Then he heard about a 30-foot, walk-through, stained-glass globe that played odd tricks with sound. "We'd done everything else," he says, "so we went to see it." For Dr. Hartmann, who specializes in acoustics, the globe instantly morphed from tourist attraction to research target. "I resolved that if I ever came back to Boston, I'd study its acoustics," he says. In 2001, he returned to Boston for a sabbatical at Boston University, and Monday, he and two BU colleagues are presenting their initial findings on the globe's sleights-of-ear at the annual meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Providence, R.I. The globe, known formally as the Mapparium, is part of the Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity, located in the Christian Science Publishing Society building at the First Church of Christ, Scientist's Boston headquarters (home of this newspaper). The globe lets visitors look at the world inside-out from a glass bridge. Built in 1934, the Mapparium reflects the political boundaries of the day. Now it may have also become the vehicle for settling a 135-year-old dispute between two eminent British scientists about whispering galleries -- locations inside domes or specially designed rooms where a whisper can readily be heard a far distance. "I'm very familiar with whispering galleries," Hartmann says, noting the fine gallery at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, for example. "But this one has some unique properties." He and BU researchers Steven Colburn and Gerald Kidd took measurements with microphones, noise generators, and an acoustically correct manikin "head." The globe was officially closed at the time, but church officials opened it for the team. "It's kind of a favorite place for me when we have visitors from out of town," says Dr. Kidd. "To have a chance to be in there for hours was just fabulous." Many of the results being reported Monday describe measurements of how the globe's aural illusions and their strength vary with location and orientation between listener and sound source. Ultimately, the team hopes to tie those observations to other factors, such as sound frequency, then use acoustic theory to explain the experience the Mapparium delivers. The team spent several hours trying to identify the various effects by walking the glass bridge with tiny microphones in their ears, recording what they heard at various locations. Then they returned with more sophisticated gear to test more rigorously. The whispering-gallery effect -- a person at one end of the bridge can hear clearly the whispers of someone at the other end -- is the most obvious aural illusion. But there are others: The team identified points of "acoustic symmetry" or hot spots along the bridge where sound is naturally amplified. For two people conversing at a constant volume, the volume will seem twice as loud if they stand two meters on either side of the bridge's center, compared with the volume if one person stands at the center of the bridge. Another is the "opposite ear" effect. With a miked manikin near one end of the bridge, the team moved a sound source toward the opposite end. "For a range of locations, the sound appears to come from its true direction," Kidd says, "then it flips over and sounds as if it comes from the opposite side." As for the 135-year-old debate: In 1871 Britain's Astronomer Royal, George Airy, unveiled a theory explaining the whispering effect in the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. He held that, in a spherical dome, the sound at one location reflects to an identical spot opposite the source. Fellow scientist Lord Rayleigh replied: Bosh! Noting that whispers can be heard throughout the whispering gallery, not just opposite the whisperer, he said the sound "crept" around the inner perimeter of the dome. Hartmann searched for Rayleigh's skipping phenomenon, holding a mike on a boom in various locations as close to the Mapparium's stained glass as he dared. At the end of the team's stay, and within the limits of Hartmann's setup, the final score: Airy 1, Rayleigh 0. www.csmonitor.com | Copyright 2006 The Christian Science Monitor. For more headlines and news from Christian Science Monitor, New York Times and National Public Radio with no login nor registration requirements, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've not seen the one in Boston, although I hope I may sometime have the funds and the health to go visit it. But I have seen the one at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and it is really fascinating. One person stands in a small chamber at one end of a long hall. The other person walks to the other end, about a hundred feet away to a similar chamber. The 'chamber' is actually just a piece of glass about six feet tall. You stand there facing it and talk in a whisper or a very soft voice; the person at the other end -- a hundred or more feet away down a busy hallway full of people can hear you whispering or talking very softly quite well -- you can have a conversation with each other. I do not know what makes it work. From the description shown above, apparently the one in Boston operates the same way. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joel Rothstein Subject: Google Founder Lobbies for Net Neutrality Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 22:08:12 -0500 By Joel Rothstein Google Inc. co-founder and President Sergey Brin met with U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday to press for legislation that would prevent Internet access providers from charging Web sites more for faster content delivery. "The only way you can have a fast lane that is useful -- that people will pay a premium for -- is if there are slow lanes," Brin told reporters after meeting with Republican John McCain, a member of the Senate committee that oversees telecommunications issues. Google, Microsoft Corp. and other major Internet site operators have joined with small Web site owners to oppose broadband providers such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications that want to offer faster network performance to companies that pay more. The issue has been dubbed "net neutrality" by those who oppose a two-tier system of access and pricing. Brin acknowledged large companies such as Google would be able to cut deals with the network owners to get their content through. But he added that Google searches are only valuable if consumers can then quickly access the sites listed in the results. "The thesis is that some content providers will pay for premium service. Why are they paying? Just because they feel charitable toward the telcos and ISPs?" Brin asked. "I assume they are paying because otherwise they would have worse performance, or maybe it won't really work." The U.S House of Representatives may vote as early as this week on a telecommunications reform bill that does not include the net neutrality protection sought by Google. But the bill would direct the Federal Communications Commission to enforce the agency's September 2005 broadband policy statement that says consumers are entitled to access the content and applications of their choice. Critics like Brin say these provisions do not go far enough and they hope to get stronger language in the Senate's version of a telecoms reform bill. Brin said he "did not know where McCain will come out on the issue." Clad in jeans and sneakers, the billionaire Silicon Valley executive said his company is new to Washington lobbying. Nonetheless, the seven-year-old company has found itself at the center of several political storms in recent months. It successfully battled the Justice Department to avoid handing over search records and absorbed severe congressional criticism over its business practices in China. "Our reputation certainly suffered" from reports that Google's Chinese site -- www.google.cn -- did not show search results on topics critical of the Chinese government, he said. But he said only 1 percent of Chinese users use google.cn, while the majority uses the unfiltered www.google.com. "We are not actually censoring in China," he added. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 12:43:56 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Panel Recommends NTT Breakup USTelecom dailyLead June 6, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dLxcfDtutesSBlRjgK TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Panel recommends NTT breakup BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Intel shopping parts of communications business * Qwest to bundle Microsoft's Live software with broadband * Carphone Warehouse's broadband service in high demand * Time Warner in deal with OpenTV to add interactive features * Ericsson announces IPTV platform, plans integration with IMS USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Upcoming CALEA and Security Webinars TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Prepare for takeoff and connect your Wi-Fi * RIM chief cautions on bandwidth limitations REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC chairman indicates support for tiered access * Net neutrality debate takes the spotlight * Editorial: Get serious about muni Wi-Fi Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dLxcfDtutesSBlRjgK ------------------------------ From: portsip@gmail.com Subject: Free and Unlimited SIP Softphone! Customization and SDK Date: 6 Jun 2006 19:51:56 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com http://www.portsip.com PortSIP softphone is a powerful and unique Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) software phone capable of voice over IP communications. It has been used and downloaded by a lot of users. If you are looking for a softphone for your commnucation needs, try PortSIP softphone please! It' free! Download it : http://www.portsip.com/downloads/portsip2.rar PortSIP VOIP SDK provides necessary components to quickly add SIP(Session Initiation Protocol) audio phone features to your software. Save your time! save your money! The SDK is built by using non-MFC, C and C++ programming languages. PortSIP offers affordable softphone customization for our products. Whether you need pretty GUI and private labeling or other new functionalities of the soft phone, we offer services to meet your needs, such as signing up new account, account balance displaying on the skin, modifying password, charging balance, call history management, and Address book. The customized soft phone is US $8800 including 12 months' free support (including e-mail technical support, patches and upgrades) Please vist us at: http://www.portsip.com ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Windows XP Update May be Classified as "Spyware" Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 21:08:38 -0400 Monty Solomon wrote in message news:telecom25.215.9@telecom-digest.org: > However, I've noted a much more serious issue on local XP systems, all > of which are legit and pass the MS validity tests with flying colors. > It appears that even on such systems, the MS tool will now attempt to > contact Microsoft over the Internet *every time you boot*. At least, > I'm seeing these contacts on every boot after the tool update so far, > and I've allowed them to proceed to completion each time. Perhaps it > stops after some number of boots, but there's no indication of such a > limit so far. The connections occur even if you do not have Windows > "automatic update" enabled. Please get people to investigate further. That's a fairly serious matter because it deprives you of some privacy. I don't want a third party tracking me every time I boot, irrespective of whether I want anything from their network at the time. ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Organization: I Kill Spammers, inc. Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2006 03:52:42 GMT Lena wrote: > I had a burning desire for a device that I could put on my phone line > that would allow me to control who and when folks could call me, since > the phone companies didn't seem to be willing to do it. I thought I'd > get some relief after the long awaited "Do Not Call'" list went in to > effect. No such luck. Not only are political and charitable > organizations exempt, but also companies with whom one has done > business recently. > I wish I was more computer literate and could write the software and > built the necessary hardware which would allow me to block any > anonymous caller and any caller from a list of numbers that I specify, > especaially the callers who refuse to leave a message, but just call > back over and over again. Telemarketers would only get away with > calling me once. I wish I could turn the phone off completely > overnight and at times during the day if I wanted. I wish I could > divert certain long-winded callers to voicemail every time they > called. > My wish came true when I signed up for VOIP. So many features for so > much less money than a landline. Block up to 20 numbers. Send > another 20 to voicemail. Schedule the phone not to ring overnight and > during dinner. Block all anonymous callers. > Goodbye and good riddance, you #%#@!%^& telemarketers! > Lena I have a credit card with HSBC and started getting calls to sign up for all kinds of services. I called the number to be removed from there list. It stated that it could take six months to get removed from their lists, my next act was to send a bill for each and every call I got after I called their Opt-Out number. I charged $100.00 a call which I considered fair since where I work I earn at least that much. The total was $15,000. I got a real fast answer in the form of a call from their legal department stating that I had no right to demand any fee. My answer was I would file complaints with the FCC, the regional Administrator of National Banks and the California Attorney General. To say the least it started a paper fire storm for them. It ended with my number being removed from all of their lists and a check for $1,000, which they felt was fair. I took the money and canceled my account with them. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #216 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 7 13:28:48 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id AAFF91524E; Wed, 7 Jun 2006 13:28:47 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #217 Message-Id: <20060607172847.AAFF91524E@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 13:28:47 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.3 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, NIGERIAN_BODY1 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 7 Jun 2006 13:30:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 217 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson China Internet Users Unable to Access Google at all (Reuters News Wire) Pirate Bay Back in Business Following Raid (K.C. Jones CMP Media) Active Duty Military Files Also Stolen (Ann Tyson & Christopher Lee) Cellular-News: Wednesday 7th June 2006 (Cellular-News) TelecomDirect News Daily Summary - June 07, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) EFFector 19.21: Appeals Court Corrects Dangerous Web Privacy (M Solomon) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Mark Crispin) Re: Fill up With TV News While Getting Gas (Ron Kritzman) Re: Windows XP Update May be Classified as "Spyware" (Claude J Ortega) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: China Internet Users Unable to Access Google at all Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 11:01:34 -0500 China's Web surfers have complained of problems opening Google Inc.'s main search engine Web site in the latest bout of Internet access problems afflicting foreign Internet sites. Internet search giant Google drew fire in January after it announced it would voluntarily block politically sensitive terms on its Chinese site, Google.com.cn -- bowing to Beijing's demands in exchange for access to the world's number-two Internet market. But Web site Google.com had until recently been freely available and uncensored to Web surfers in China. Problems, however, have been reported across the country with complaints ranging from intermittent access failure to sustained blockage. "I haven't been able to access Google's Web page for over a week," said Ma Le, 23, a researcher for a Beijing-based media company. "It's very inconvenient as I regularly use it for work." Students in Wuhan, the capital of the central Chinese province of Hubei, also reported trouble accessing Google. "My friends and I feel very angry about it," said an information technology student who declined to be named. "Google stopped functioning for about a month, and it seems to be a common problem ... The government always tries to control the Internet, so that might be the main reason for it." Google said on Tuesday it had received notice of the access difficulties and was investigating the cause. "We are currently looking into these reports but as yet don't know why these access problems are occurring," said Cui Jin, a Google official." Google is just one of the Web sites recently affected by access problems. Internet users have reported problems accessing email accounts and online chat servers linked to servers overseas including Google's Gmail and MSN Hotmail accounts. "In the last two and a half weeks, the level of international email traffic between China and overseas has declined sharply," said Peter Humphrey, who runs a security firm in China. "It's not just the little guys who can't afford expensive technology and communication lines, it's also affecting big businesses as well ... People are starting to wonder how they can do business in China so long as this goes on." Free information activists Reporters Without Borders on Tuesday issued a statement condemning "the unprecedented level of Internet filtering in China" and linked access problems to the passing of the 17th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4. Others have speculated that the government has tightened Internet access ahead of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security forum for Central Asia, which starts on June 15. An official from the Ministry of Information Industry -- China's Internet regulator -- admitted she had also had trouble accessing Google, but declined to comment further. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For other news and headlines from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: K.C. Jones Subject: Pirate Bay Back in Business Following Raid Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 11:03:29 -0500 Pirate Bay Back, Reportedly Overwhelmed By Traffic By K.C. Jones TechWeb.com The Pirate Bay was up and running with a few problems Tuesday after a government raid, followed by a temporary shut down. Authorities shut down the Bit Torrent tracking site last week, saying it directed visitors to illegally distributed digital files. The site returned Saturday but has had sporadic problems since then, including complete, though temporary failure Monday. The site reopened with a variation on its pirate ship logo, which has a silhouette of a cassette tape and cross bones. The logo now has cannonballs shooting at the word "Hollywood." Meanwhile, several media reports blamed the crash of Swedish government Web sites on hackers trying to retaliate. The Pirate Bay maintained its innocence, issuing statements saying it does not hold copyright files but acts as a search index. Web site operators told Wired that the site was experiencing problems because of a deluge of traffic following the publicity. Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ From: Ann Tyson & Christopher Lee Subject: Active Duty Military Files also Stolen Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 11:09:49 -0500 By Ann Scott Tyson and Christopher Lee The Washington Post WASHINGTON -- Social Security numbers and other personal information for as many as 2.2 million U.S. military personnel -- including nearly 80 percent of the active-duty force -- were among the data stolen from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs analyst last month, federal officials said Tuesday, raising concerns about national security as well as identity theft. The department announced that personal data for as many as 1.1 million active-duty military personnel, 430,000 National Guard members and 645,000 reserve members may have been included on an electronic file stolen May 3 from a department employee's house in Aspen Hill, Md. The stolen data include names, birth dates and Social Security numbers, VA spokesman Matt Burns said. Defense officials said the loss is unprecedented and raises concerns about the safety of U.S. military forces. But they cautioned that law-enforcement agencies investigating the incident have not found evidence the stolen information has been used to commit identity theft. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the loss is "the largest that I am aware of." Rep. Lane Evans (D-Ill.) ranking member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, said he was "appalled" at the data breach and called for a Government Accountability Office investigation into VA information security practices. Army spokesman Paul Boyce said, "Obviously there are issues associated with identity theft and force protection." For example, the information could be used to find out where military personnel live, security experts said. "This essentially can create a ZIP code for where each of the service members and [their] families live, and if it fell into the wrong hands, could potentially put them at jeopardy of being targeted," said David Heyman, director of the homeland security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Another worry is that the information could reach foreign governments and their intelligence services or other entities, allowing them to target service members and their families, the experts said. One defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, called the potential damage "monumental." The revelations significantly increase the potential harm from what was already one of the larger data breaches in U.S. history. On May 22, the VA disclosed that an external computer hard drive was stolen from the home of a VA employee and that it contained unencrypted names and birth dates for as many as 26.5 million veterans who were discharged after 1975 or submitted benefit claims. It also included Social Security numbers for 19.6 million of those veterans, VA officials said. Initially the VA thought that all of the 26.5 million people affected were veterans, but a database comparison revealed that they also included most of active-duty military services as well as more than 1 million members of the National Guard and reserves. Montgomery County, Md., police released a description Tuesday of the stolen laptop and its external hard drive because they said it may have been purchased by someone who does not realize the value of its content. "It could have shown up at a yard sale or a secondhand store," police spokeswoman Lucille Baur said. "This is a time of the year when parents may be buying computers for kids going to college in the fall." Montgomery County police are offering a $50,000 reward for information that allows authorities to recover the laptop. The laptop is a Hewlett-Packard model number zv5360us, and the external hard drive is an HP External Personal Media Drive. The breach outraged veterans, even more so because senior VA officials knew about the theft within hours of the crime but did not tell VA Secretary Jim Nicholson until 13 days later. The 60-year-old analyst, who had been taking home sensitive data for at least three years without authorization, has been fired, officials have said. His boss resigned last week, and another senior VA official is on administrative leave pending investigations by the FBI, the VA inspector general and Montgomery County police. A coalition of veterans groups filed a class-action lawsuit against the federal government Tuesday, contending that privacy rights were violated and seeking $1,000 in damages for each affected veteran. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, demands that the VA fully disclose who was affected by the theft and asks a court to prohibit VA workers from using sensitive data until safeguards are in place. The VA gets records for every new recruit because active-duty personnel, National Guard members and reservists are eligible for certain VA benefits, such as GI Bill educational assistance and a home loan guaranty program. "The department will continue to make every effort to inform and help protect those potentially affected and is working with the Department of Defense to notify all affected personnel," Nicholson said. Copyright 2006, Washington Post ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News: Wednesday 7th June 2006 Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 08:48:46 -0500 From: cellular-news Cellular-News - htp://www.cellular-news.com ====================================================================== [[ 3G ]] Hong Kong SmarTone Launches 3G Upgrade http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17688.php SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings said Tuesday it became the first of Hong Kong's mobile operators to launch a third-generation wireless technology upgrade, High Speed Downlink Packet Access. ... ZTE banks on 3G, NGN products in 2006 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17691.php Chinese telecoms equipment producer ZTE believes sales of 3G and NGN products will drive revenue growth in Brazil this year, Angelo Aere, ZTE's regional director for Sao Paulo told BNamericas. ... 3 UK Tests HSDPA Upgrade http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17704.php NEC with its 3G partner, Siemens Communications have successfully run the first live implementation of HSDPA on Hutchison 3G UK's network in the UK. NEC supplied, installed and tested the HSDPA UTRAN infrastructure (including RNC and Node B), but unl... [[ Financial ]] SK Telecom Denies Report Plans To Buy China Unicom Stake http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17685.php South Korea's SK Telecom said Tuesday it isn't planning to buy a stake in China's second-largest mobile operator, China Unicom, as reported in the Financial Times. ... Carphone Warehouse Fiscal Year Underlying Earnings +36% http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17686.php Carphone Warehouse Group, Tuesday reported a 36% jump in annual underlying earnings with initial consumer demand for its recently launched free broadband plan significantly ahead of expectations. ... AT&T-BellSouth Faces Opposition From Sprint, Telcos, ACLU http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17695.php AT&T's bid to acquire BellSouth ran into opposition from several different parties late Monday - the American Civil Liberties Union, a group of small telecommunications companies and Sprint Nextel. ... [[ Handsets ]] Sanyo: Y1 Billion Expense Due To Cellphone Software Defect http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17687.php Japan's Sanyo Electric said Tuesday it will start repairing defective software in mobile phone handsets it now supplies for KDDI's "au" phone service, resulting in an expense of Y1 billion (US$8.9 million) this fiscal year. ... PRESS: Police seize 40,000 Nokia handsets in St Petersburg http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17689.php Police in Russia's St. Petersburg on May 6 seized 40,000 mobile handsets produced by Finland's Nokia that were illegally imported to Russia, the police said, Kommersant business daily reported Tuesday. ... New Music Phone from BenQ Mobile http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17699.php BenQ Mobile says that it is about to launch the BenQ-Siemens Q-fi EF51, a music device with an integrated mobile phone. It is the very first mobile phone within BenQ-Siemens Q-fi range of music-focused devices. Q-fi products feature easy-to-use musi... Nokia Handset Gets CDMA Certification http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17706.php The CDMA Development Group (CDG) and Nokia have jointly announced that the CDMA Certification Forum (CCF) has certified the Nokia 2355 CDMA2000 1X phone for commercial availability. Nokia is the first tier-one handset manufacturer to utilize the CCF ... [[ Legal ]] Motorola files lawsuit against Russia's RussGPS http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17690.php U.S. telecommunications equipment producer Motorola has filed a defamation lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court seeking U.S. $18 Comptel Corp. says that it has signed a contract with the Sudan based Sudatel for the delivery of EventLink mediation solution and InstantLink provisioning solution for Sudatel's new CDMA network. Sudatel is currently deploying a new CDMA technology ... Nokia Wins Hong Kong Switch Contract http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17702.php Hong Kong operator CSL has chosen the Nokia MSC Server mobile softswitch to expand its network capacity. Nokia will provide installation, commissioning and technical support to CSL. Deliveries will start in June 2006, and the system will be operation... CDMA Upgrade for Uzbekistan http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17703.php Huawei Technologies has announced that Perfectum Mobile, the largest CDMA mobile operator in Uzbekistan, has officially launched the CDMA2000 1X network deployed by Huawei in Uzbekistan. The network has been running well and has witnessed a dramatic ... [[ Network Operators ]] FTE launches corporate services consolidation through Orange BS http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17692.php Orange Business Services, the new brand under which France Telecom gathers its corporate communications services, plans to consolidate the presence the company previously had in the corporate sector when operating as Equant, Orange BS Andean region m... Movistar plans US$2.5mn investment to expand mobile services http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17693.php Chilean operator Movistar Chile plans to invest US$2.5mn to expand mobile services to isolated areas under its social program Puentes de Comunicacin 2006-2010, general manager Oliver Flgel confirmed to BNamericas. ... Personal to invest US$12mn this year http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17694.php Paraguayan mobile carrier Personal, a unit of Telecom Argentina, plans to invest US$12mn this year, local newspaper ABC Color reported. ... Russia's Sibirtelecom to launch pilot WiMAX in 3 cities this year http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17697.php Russian regional telecommunications operator Sibirtelecom plans to launch pilot WiMAX projects in the cities of Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Irkutsk later this year, the company said in a statement Tuesday. ... [[ Regulatory ]] Over 75% of USA Covered By Phase II Wireless Enhanced 911 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17705.php Over three-quarters of the USA's population now reside in areas where wireless 911 service includes delivery of the caller's call back number and location to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), a capability known as enhanced 911 (E9... [[ Reports ]] Multifunctional Mobiles Make the World Go Round http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17698.php Almost one in two people around the world now use their mobile device as their main camera, over two thirds predict a music-enabled mobile will replace their MP3 player and nearly half want to connect up their mobile device with their home electronic... Communications Equipment Industry Awaits Consolidation http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17701.php Credit ratings will continue to improve for communications equipment providers, characterized by stronger financial profiles and further efforts at portfolio diversification, according to Fitch Ratings. Operating profiles and capital structures have ... AWS Auctions Set Off Backhaul Reshuffle http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17707.php The planned August 2006 advanced wireless services (AWS) spectrum auctions in the USA will be accompanied by specific backhaul challenges, according to industry experts at wireless solutions group, Radio Frequency Systems (RFS). While the 'new' 1700 ... [[ Statistics ]] Kyivstar subscriber base up to 15.48 mln users Jun 1 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17696.php The subscriber base of Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar rose 11.1% since the beginning of the year to 15.479 million users as of June 1, the company said in a press release Tuesday. ... ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Summary - June 07, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 11:18:46 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 07, 2006 ******************************** European Cordless Technology Coming to U.S. http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18271?11228 The European cordless telephone system known as DECT, or Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications, is headed to the United States, aiming to provide voice services for PBX systems in small- to medium-sized enterprises. DECT (the 'E' used to stand for European) is a cellular telecommunications system but with small cell... EPM Acquires Remaining 50% Stake of Colombian LD Operator Orbitel http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18268?11228 Colombian state-owned company Empresa Publicas de Medellin (EPM) yesterday announced that it had acquired the remaining 50% stake in Colombian long-distance operator Orbitel, from Grupo Sarmiento and Grupo Valorem for US$85 million, Dow Jones reports. Significance: EPM now has full control of its long-distance subsidiary, which... StarHub, Motorola in Alliance for Cable Broadband Development=C2=A0 http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18267?11228 StarHub, Singapore's second-largest telecoms operator, and Motorola today announced that the two companies would work together to establish a DOCSIS(R) 3.0 Centre of Excellence for Asia which will be based in Singapore. The centre will be used to support deployments of channel-bonding technology based on the proposed DOCSIS(R) 3.0... SmarTone-Vodafone Launches First Mobile Broadband Service with Full HSDPA Coverage in Hong Kong http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18264?11228 SmarTone-Vodafone today announced the launch of a full HSDPA network in Hong Kong, and the territory's first commercial HSDPA-enabled service -- SmarTone-Vodafone Mobile Broadband. This HSDPA network provides a data speed of 1.8 Mbps – five times faster than W-CDMA and 20 times faster than GPRS. The operator plans to upgrade... France Telecom Prepares Sale of Phone Directory Services http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18261?11228 PARIS -- France Telecom said Wednesday it will sell part or all of its 54 percent stake in Pages Jaunes, the French phone directory service, because it is not part of the company's core strategy. Based on Pages Jaunes US$28.93 closing share price Tuesday, the value of the entire stake would be worth US$4.36 billion. ... Deutsche Telekom and T-Online Complete Their Merger http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18260?11228 FRANKFURT, Germany -- Deutsche Telekom AG said Tuesday that it reabsorbed T-Online International AG, regaining control of Europe's largest Internet service provider. Bonn-based Deutsche Telekom had spun off T-Online in 2000 but retained a 74 percent stake in the Weiterstadt-based company. In October 2004, it decided to buy... Alcatel Forming Cable Group http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18259?11228 Chicago -- Globalcomm 2006 -- Alcatel is in the early stages of building a new group focused on selling its optical and Ethernet gear into the North American cable market, Light Reading has learned. Alcatel has been focused on North America's traditional telecom operators to date, but... Nortel's Loss Widens http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18257?11228 Nortel Networks financial reporting is back on track, but its balance sheet is still struggling. The company reported a first-quarter net loss of $167 million compared with a net loss of $104 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenues were $2.38 billion in the first quarter of 2006 compared with $2.39 billion in the first quarter of... FCC Eyes Interim USF Revamp Plan http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18256?11228 Reports circulating around Washington say the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering a new plan to revamp the universal service fund (USF) program on an interim basis by broadening the base of contributions, thus keeping the $7 billion annual subsidy in the money. Although unconfirmed by the regulatory agency at... Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 12:32:20 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 19.21: Appeals Court Corrects Dangerous Web Privacy Ruling EFFector Vol. 19, No. 21 June 6, 2006 editor@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 381st Issue of EFFector: * Appeals Court Corrects Dangerous Web Privacy Ruling * Announcing Line Noise: The EFF Podcast * FSF DRM Protest, Saturday, June 10 * miniLinks (7): Forty-Eight Million Americans Have Created Net Content * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/19/21.php ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 23:26:37 -0700 Organization: University of Washington There is a service called Do Not Disturb which is generally cheaper than the various "No Solicitation", "Caller ID/Anonymous Call Rejection", etc. services. It's also *far* more effective. Do Not Disturb allows you, during a preset time period, to block all calls unless a 4-digit override code is entered. You can set this time being to be the entire day. Optionally, you can choose to allow "*" for an emergency override; if the caller presses "*", he has to state his name, then you are called, told when you answer that there is a call from <...>, and then you get the chance to accept or refuse the call. If you have voice mail service, then blocked calls are forwarded to your voice mail. If you don't, then after reciting the announcement it will hang up if the 4-digit code isn't entered during the announcement. This option is not for everybody; but it *is* effective. All my trusted contacts have my 4-digit code. Since I put this in I've had zero solicitation calls. Yeah, I didn't mind when the local search & rescue volunteer organization called me to offer to sell me discount tickets to the rodeo. It was good to save a few bucks on rodeo tickets and help a good cause. Nonetheless, this benefit was outweighed by the Florida-based scam artists (such as Integrated Credit Solutions/Lighthouse Credit Foundation in Largo, and OneSetPrice in Orlando, both of which have been whacked by the FTC) who repeatedly pissed in the well. I would not mourn if global warning causes Florida to sink into the Atlantic. -- Mark -- http://panda.com/mrc Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2006 09:52:16 -0500 From: Ron Kritzman Subject: Re: Fill up With TV News While Getting Gas Carly Mayberry wrote: > Motorists cringing at the cost of fuel can now at least fill up on > current news and information while tethered to the pump... I think the gas stations will go for it. It will keep the customers eyes away from the pump ringing up and save on medical lawsuits from those who break teeth. Emoveray ethay Igpay Atinlay otay eplyray ------------------------------ From: Claude J Ortega Subject: Re: Windows XP Update May be Classified as "Spyware" Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 10:32:29 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com In article , look@www.ai.uga.edu.for.address says: > Monty Solomon wrote in message > news:telecom25.215.9@telecom-digest.org: >> However, I've noted a much more serious issue on local XP systems, all >> of which are legit and pass the MS validity tests with flying colors. >> It appears that even on such systems, the MS tool will now attempt to >> contact Microsoft over the Internet *every time you boot*. At least, >> I'm seeing these contacts on every boot after the tool update so far, >> and I've allowed them to proceed to completion each time. Perhaps it >> stops after some number of boots, but there's no indication of such a >> limit so far. The connections occur even if you do not have Windows >> "automatic update" enabled. > Please get people to investigate further. That's a fairly serious > matter because it deprives you of some privacy. I don't want a third > party tracking me every time I boot, irrespective of whether I want > anything from their network at the time. I found that one of my computers had rebooted this morning. Event viewer indicates that a WGA update was done at 3:00 AM, then the update software FORCED a reboot. The sygate fw popped up two notes, one that said that WGA had updated, and the other one indicating that WGA wanted to contact a Microsoft URL ( at about 3:05 AM ). Claude ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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End of TELECOM Digest V25 #217 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 8 00:42:16 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 6CF74152E0; Thu, 8 Jun 2006 00:42:16 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #218 Message-Id: <20060608044216.6CF74152E0@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 00:42:16 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 8 Jun 2006 00:45:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 218 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson New CD Swap Site Going on Line Thursday (Yinka Adegoke) Microsoft Plans Better Disclosures of Tool (Allison Linn) Huawei in Deal to Acquire Harbour Networks (USTelecom dailyLead) Hueghes Satellite Internet (Fred Atkinson) Re: Fill up With TV News While Getting Gas (Michael G. Koerner) Re: Fill up With TV News While Getting Gas (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (John Mayson) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Lena) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Steven Lichter) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Yinka Adegoke Subject: New CD Swap Site Going on Line Thursday Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 23:11:27 -0500 By Yinka Adegoke A new Web site that aims to transform music industry economics is set to go live on Thursday, giving musicians a major cut of the proceeds while largely freezing out record labels and other intermediaries. Lala.com, which allows fans to trade music discs for just $1, plus shipping, pledges to give a fifth of its sales to all the musicians, including lesser known session studio players, involved in the making of CDs exchanged on its site. In a move that is certain to stoke controversy with music promoters, the founder of the Silicon Valley start-up said Lala will circumvent traditional copyright and royalty payment systems to compensate identifiable working musicians. The site works something like an eBay auction exchange as it encourages consumers who sign up for the service to list all the CDs they may want to exchange as well as ones they would be interested in receiving. Once an exchange is arranged, the recipient pays $1.49, of which 49 cents pays for shipping the disc, leaving $1 for the company for musicians, administrative costs and its own cut. Lala said 20 cents of each $1 will go into a charitable fund for the musicians. It is looking to pay the musicians via a charitable organization it has set up called the Z Foundation. It plans on keeping 20-30 cents for itself, with the remainder going on administration. "We all have this music that sits in our homes -- wouldn't it be great if people can exchange those CDs," said founder Bill Nguyen, a serial Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He's a veteran of start-up companies including Seven, a mobile e-mail rival to Blackberry maker Research in Motion and OneBox, which was sold to Phone.com, which is now known as Openwave. Lala has been testing the service for several months with nearly 100,000 people and claims to already have another 200,000 people waiting to join the service when it goes live. The service is bound to raise eyebrows at record companies which have stepped up their anti-piracy drives in the last few years to combat both CD and digital music piracy. But a spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America said that, "To date we have declined comment on Lala.com -- and will hold to that here as well." Nguyen admits his company has had a mixed reaction from the record companies, with some viewing his plan as a threat along the lines of the pioneering peer-to-peer music file sharing service Napster. "One label thought it would help them to know their customers for the first time," Nguyen said. "But others' view of us is as the devil, more like peer-to-peer services." Lala argues that it offering a vibrant new way for consumers to discover new music and that if successful, it will encourage robust sales of new music, unlike the culture of pirated CDs and downloading that followed in Napster's wake. Nguyen claims that Lala's research shows that for every five CDs exchanged on the server a new CD was bought. Though Lala is a for-profit business, Nguyen envisages a community of fans and musicians running many key elements of the site with a relatively skeletal paid staff that he plans to keep under 30 employees. For instance, fans and artists will jointly decide whether a musician who applies for compensation will get paid under the system. Nguyen described the site as having a business model inspired by Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia built from editorial contributions by its users. Lala has received up to $9 million in venture capital funding, Nguyen said. (Additional reporting by Eric Auchard in San Francisco) Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Allison Linn Subject: Microsoft Plans Better Disclosures of Tool Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 23:13:04 -0500 By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer Microsoft Corp. acknowledged Wednesday that it needs to better inform users that its tool for determining whether a computer is running a pirated copy of Windows also quietly checks in daily with the software maker. The company said the undisclosed daily check is a safety measure designed to allow the tool, called Windows Genuine Advantage, to quickly shut down in case of a malfunction. For example, if the company suddenly started seeing a rash of reports that Windows copies were pirated, it might want to shut down the program to make sure it wasn't delivering false results. "It's kind of a safety switch," said David Lazar, who directs the Windows Genuine Advantage program. Lazar said the company added the safety measure because the piracy check, despite widespread distribution, is still a pilot program. He said the company was worried that it might have an unforeseen emergency that would require the program to terminate quickly. But he acknowledged that Microsoft should have given users more information about the daily interactions. "We're looking at ways to communicate that in a more forward manner," he said. Lazar also said the company plans to tweak the program soon so that it will only check in with Microsoft every two weeks, rather than daily. The tool, part of the Redmond company's bid to thwart widespread piracy, is being distributed gradually to people who have signed up to receive Windows security updates. The company expects to have offered it to all users worldwide by the end of the year. Lazar said that so far, about 60 percent of users who were offered the piracy check decided to install it. Once installed, the program checks to make sure the version of Windows a user is running is legitimate, and gathers information such as the computer's manufacturer and the language and locale it is set for. That information-gathering is disclosed in a licensing agreement. But the agreement does not make clear that the program also is designed to "call home" to Microsoft's servers, to make sure that it should keep running. At least every 90 days, the tool also checks again to see if the copy of Windows is legitimate. Lazar said that's because the company sometimes discovers that a copy of Windows that it thought was legitimate is actually pirated. When Microsoft believes a copy of Windows is pirated, the user begins to get a series of reminders that the copy isn't genuine. Such users also are barred from downloading noncritical updates, such as the new version of its Internet Explorer browser. But anyone who has signed up to automatically receive security updates, which repair flaws to prevent Internet attacks, will still get those fixes. Lauren Weinstein, who is co-founder of People for Internet Responsibility and was one of the first people to notice the daily communications to Microsoft, said he understands and sympathizes with Microsoft's desire to control piracy. But he said it's problematic that Microsoft did not disclose all the program's communications with the company. Weinstein said he also was surprised that Microsoft decided to release so widely a tool that it says is in a "pilot" mode and might need to be suddenly shut down. "Really what you're talking about is someone saying, 'Look we've put something on your computer and it might go screwy, so we're going to kind of check in every day,'" he said. On the Net: http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/default.mspx Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more headlines and news from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 12:50:07 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Huawei in deal to acquire Harbour Networks USTelecom dailyLead June 7, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dMgkfDtutetTxZHnNE TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Huawei in deal to acquire Harbour Networks BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Carphone may bid for AOL's U.K. arm * Nortel forges ahead with Metro Ethernet * Interactive elements key to IPTV deployments, execs say * France Telecom to sell PagesJaunes directories business USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * NEW! Steven Shepard's IMS Crash Course TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Broadband satellite resigned to smallest niches * TiVo service brings Web video to TV sets REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Some telecoms, ACLU oppose AT&T-BellSouth merger * Pennsylvania lawmakers plan video franchise bill * Denver City Council questions Qwest's video proposal Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dMgkfDtutetTxZHnNE ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Hueghes Satellite Internet Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 15:32:00 -0400 I am looking at moving into a house that is outside the local cable area and where Verizon says they cannot provide DSL. I spoke to Hueghes Satellite Internet. They are a little higher than I am paying for cablemodem at my present location, but I could do it if I wanted to. I will need to go back and see that I have an unobstructed view of the Southern sky. Guess I'll have to get a compass and stop back by there. Does anyone one here have experience with using Hueghes Satellite Residential Internet? If so, could you please email me with your feedback on it? I don't want to sign a lease at some place where I can't get high speed Internet. If it didn't work out, I'd be out of luck on that front. Thanks for any information you can provide. Regards, Fred Atkinson ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2006 13:00:55 -0500 From: Michael G. Koerner Subject: Re: Fill up With TV News While Getting Gas > Carly Mayberry wrote: >>> Motorists cringing at the cost of fuel can now at least fill up on >>> current news and information while tethered to the pump... > I think the gas stations will go for it. It will keep the customers > eyes away from the pump ringing up and save on medical lawsuits from > those who break teeth. > Emoveray ethay Igpay Atinlay otay eplyray I saw this at a Shell station on WI 21/73 on the east side of Wautoma, WI when I refueled there about five years or so ago already. I thought that it was interesting. I'm kind of surprized that I haven't seen it elsewhere since, but my assumption was that these sorts of pumps would be VERY expensive, including the monthly bill for the news service. ___________________________________________ ____ _______________ Regards, | |\ ____ | | | | |\ Michael G. Koerner May they | | | | | | rise again! Appleton, Wisconsin USA | | | | | | ___________________________________________ | | | | | | _______________ ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Fill up With TV News While Getting Gas Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2006 17:58:24 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Ron Kritzman wrote: > I think the gas stations will go for it. It will keep the customers > eyes away from the pump ringing up and save on medical lawsuits from > those who break teeth. A local Chevron station has been doing this already. Its really annoying as they have the default volume up quite high. ------------------------------ From: John Mayson Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: 7 Jun 2006 15:07:01 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com >> Don't these people know that calling someone who has their number on >> the Don't Call list do not want to here from them or anyone else, or >> don't they care? Today I was bombarded with one for Westly for >> Governor of California, 4 calls in less then 2 hours, and all were >> from out of state. I had planned on voting for him, now my cat gets >> the vote!!!! > They don't care. > I'll repeat. They don't care. > They're playing a numbers game where as long as the stats show that > they are succeeding to the extend of the goals of the call, they will > keep doing it. I'm afraid I agree. I have been flooded with political phone calls. Common sense says politicians should voluntarily honor the Do Not Call List, but they don't. What are the risks? A strongly pro-life person isn't going to go vote for Hillary to punish a politicians for an unsolicited phone call. I'm being very principled about this. I will not vote for Rick Perry for Texas governor. He's blown it. I asked to me removed from his list and never was. Let's hope the other three candidates do not call. BTW, I read a recent article that predicted the Democratic candidate would finish FOURTH in the Texas gubernatorial race behind the current Republican governor and the two independent candidates. I don't know if that's funny or sad. John John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------ From: Lena Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: 7 Jun 2006 15:20:08 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Mark Crispin wrote: > There is a service called Do Not Disturb which is generally cheaper > than the various "No Solicitation", "Caller ID/Anonymous Call > Rejection", etc. services. It's also *far* more effective. I'm beginning to think that my daughter has the best solution. No Caller ID, no ACR, no Do Not Disturb"; all her calls go directly to the answering machine. If she happens to be around, hears the message and recognizes the voice, she picks up. Otherwise she calls back. Telemarketers hang up immediately. Lena ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Organization: I Kill Spammers, inc. Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2006 03:06:33 GMT Mark Crispin wrote: > There is a service called Do Not Disturb which is generally cheaper > than the various "No Solicitation", "Caller ID/Anonymous Call > Rejection", etc. services. It's also *far* more effective. > Do Not Disturb allows you, during a preset time period, to block all > calls unless a 4-digit override code is entered. You can set this > time being to be the entire day. > Optionally, you can choose to allow "*" for an emergency override; if > the caller presses "*", he has to state his name, then you are called, > told when you answer that there is a call from <...>, and then you get > the chance to accept or refuse the call. > If you have voice mail service, then blocked calls are forwarded to > your voice mail. If you don't, then after reciting the announcement > it will hang up if the 4-digit code isn't entered during the > announcement. > This option is not for everybody; but it *is* effective. All my > trusted contacts have my 4-digit code. Since I put this in I've had > zero solicitation calls. > Yeah, I didn't mind when the local search & rescue volunteer > organization called me to offer to sell me discount tickets to the > rodeo. It was good to save a few bucks on rodeo tickets and help a > good cause. Nonetheless, this benefit was outweighed by the > Florida-based scam artists (such as Integrated Credit > Solutions/Lighthouse Credit Foundation in Largo, and OneSetPrice in > Orlando, both of which have been whacked by the FTC) who repeatedly > pissed in the well. I would not mourn if global warning causes > Florida to sink into the Atlantic. > -- Mark -- > http://panda.com/mrc > Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch. > Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote. I just think that all telemarketers like spammers, should just be killed along with their whole family so that can't pass being a telemarketer on to them. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #218 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 8 14:07:07 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C8D0814FF6; Thu, 8 Jun 2006 14:07:06 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #219 Message-Id: <20060608180706.C8D0814FF6@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 14:07:06 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.0 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, CELL_PHONE_IMPROVE,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 8 Jun 2006 14:10:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 219 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Miami Man Arrested for Hacking Web Phone Services (Reuters News Wire) Smartphones Get Smarter (Monty Solomon) Cellular-News: Thursday 8th June 2006 (Cellular-News) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 08, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Connecticut Okays Plan by AT&T: Television Without Franchise (USTelecom) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Mark Crispin) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Steven Lichter) Re: Hueghes Satellite Internet (DLR) Re: Fill up With TV News While Getting Gas (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Re: Microsoft Plans Better Disclosures of Tool (Hudson Leighton) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Miami Man Arrested for Hacking Web Phone Services Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 12:02:14 -0500 The FBI arrested a man in Miami on Wednesday for allegedly hacking the networks of Internet telephone service providers to fraudulently sell more than 10 million minutes of calls, federal authorities said. FBI agents early Wednesday executed nine search warrants in six states related to the case, and arrested Edwin Andres Pena in one of his Miami residences, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said in a statement. Pena, a legal U.S. resident from Venezuela, received more than $1 million through a scam that provided his customers deeply discounted telephone rates, a two-count complaint filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey said. Pena was expected to appear before a magistrate judge in Miami federal court on Wednesday, Christie said. The complaint charged him with wire fraud and a computer hacking violation from November 2004 to about May. Pena secretly hacked into the computer networks of unwitting Internet telephone services, known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Christie said. The complaint charged only Pena, but he enlisted the help of others, including a professional hacker in Spokane, Washington, he said. A Newark, New Jersey-based company, which transmits VoIP services for other telecom businesses, was billed for more than 500,000 unauthorised telephone calls. (Additional reporting by Sinead Carew.) Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 00:29:25 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Smartphones Get Smarter By Walter S. Mossberg and Katherine Boehret The cellphone -- or, more accurately, the device formerly known as the cellphone -- is getting to be more and more like a little portable computer. High-end models, known as smartphones, can handle large volumes of email, complete with attachments; surf the Web at high speed; view and edit Microsoft Office documents; take decent pictures; and play back music and videos. To manage these laptop-like tasks, they come equipped with faster and faster processors; more and more internal memory; expansion slots for increasingly spacious memory cards; and small, but usable, keyboards, instead of mere phone keypads. We've been testing two new such phones. One, from Palm Inc., is an improved model of the Treo, which has long been our favorite smartphone. The other, an entirely new design from Motorola Inc., manages to pack most of the Treo's functionality into a much thinner and lighter body, at half the Treo's price. The new Palm model, called the Treo 700p, uses the Palm operating system and is being sold by both Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. for $399, with a service contract. The Motorola challenger, called the Q, uses Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system and is being sold by Verizon for $199, with a service contract. The Q is the bigger news here. In the tradition of Motorola's RAZR phone, the Q is a sleek, handsome devil. It demolishes the two biggest problems with smartphones like the Treo: They are bulky and expensive. The Q is a little wider than the Treo 700p, but it's just half as thick and, at 4.06 ounces, is more than one-third lighter. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20060607.html ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News: Thursday 8th June 2006 Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 08:29:43 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com [[ Financial ]] Iusacell closes US$350mn exchange offer, consent solicitation http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17711.php Mexican mobile operator Grupo Iusacell closed on June 1, as expected, its exchange offer and consent solicitation to restructure a US$350mn debt in the form of notes due 2006. ... Russia's Utel to hike outgoing mobile calls by up to 14% after CPP http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17713.php Russian mobile operator Utel, a subsidiary of Russian telecommunications operator Uralsvyazinform, plans to hike tariffs for outgoing calls from mobile phones by up to 14% following the introduction of the Calling Party Pays (CPP) principle, Uralsvya Swiss Upper House Rejects Swisscom Privatization http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17715.php The Swiss upper house of parliament Wednesday voted against fully privatizing former monopoly telecommunications company Swisscom, following the lead of the lower house in May. ... [[ Messaging ]] BlackBerry Heads to Japan http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17720.php NTT DoCoMo and Research In Motion (RIM) have announced that DoCoMo will start marketing RIM's BlackBerry handheld devices to its corporate customers from autumn 2006. DoCoMo will provide the devices to further meet corporate users' needs for mobile b... [[ Mobile Content ]] Ericsson to host Centennial content download portal http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17712.php US and Caribbean wireless and broadband provider Centennial Wireless has selected Swedish equipment manufacturer Ericsson to integrate, host and manage a mobile content service, Ericsson said in a statement. ... [[ Network Contracts ]] Telenor Pakistan Upgrades Billing Platform http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17718.php Azure Solutions has announced that Telenor Pakistan is to implement it's Interconnect billing platform, Version 9 for its GSM services. In addition, Telenor Pakistan will be upgrading its existing Azure Interconnect system for its long distance inter... [[ Network Operators ]] Russia's Utel to hike outgoing mobile calls by up to 14% after CPP http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17713.php Russian mobile operator Utel, a subsidiary of Russian telecommunications operator Uralsvyazinform, plans to hike tariffs for outgoing calls from mobile phones by up to 14% following the introduction of the Calling Party Pays (CPP) principle, Uralsvya ... Russia's Dalsvyaz restores network in 7 villages after earthquake http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17714.php Russian telecommunications operator Dalsvyaz has restored fixed-line communications in seven villages in the Koryak Autonomous District that experienced earthquakes in the last two months, the company's press office said Wednesday. ... Soccer World Cup Roaming Bonus http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17722.php Visiting supporters will spend a combined total of US$47 million on mobile calls, text and video messages during this month's FIFA World Cup, according to research from Informa Telecoms & Media.... [[ Personnel ]] VimpelCom Confirms CEO May Leave,But Downplays Reports http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17708.php Russian cellular operator Vimpel Communications, Wednesday confirmed press reports that Chief Executive Alexander Izosimov may leave following shareholder conflict, but tried to downplay it. ... [[ Regulatory ]] MTC available to review telephony concession contracts http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17709.php Peru's transport and communications ministry MTC is open to hold meetings with local operators to review their concession contracts with a view to reducing rates, newspaper Gestión quoted MTC head Juan Antonio Pacheco as saying. ... EU Telecom CEOs Call For End Of Special EU Regulations http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17716.php The European Commission should move to accept the phasing-out of special controls on Europe's incumbent telecommunications giants, the chief executives of leading telecommunications companies said Wednesday. ... [[ Reports ]] Mobiles Continue to Affect Fixed-Line Revenues http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17719.php Lower prices have not stopped the decline of Central and Eastern European fixed-line telephony markets. According to a new study by IDC, in eight CEE countries (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia),... Service Providers to Invest $10 Billion in IMS http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17721.php Twelve months ago, ABI Research described IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as a jet engine that would power telecom markets to a new level. A year later, and ABI says that assessment still holds true, and IMS is on the verge of commercial reality. Accor... [[ Statistics ]] Siget: Mobile penetration reaches 35% http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17710.php Mobile penetration in El Salvador has reached 35%, or 2.4 million users, becoming one of the highest rates in Central America, local newspaper El Mundo reported, citing statistics from the country's telecoms regulator Siget. ... Russia's MegaFon northwest branch user base up 10% year-to-date http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17717.php The subscriber base of Russia's third largest national GSM mobile operator MegaFon in the Northwest Federal District increased 10% since January 1 to over 6 million people as of Tuesday, the company's branch in the district said in a press release We... ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 08, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 12:36:10 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 08, 2006 ******************************** Expectations Unfulfilled http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18288?11228 For many managers in the countries of the former European Community (EC), the prospect of an internal market in 1993 was both exciting and worrisome. They felt certain that this internal market would bring increased business opportunities as co-operation among EC countries rose and as goods, services and capital moved freely among the... Incumbent Telcos Seek End to Special EU Regulation http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18287?11228 Europe's leading incumbent telcos are ready to push the European Commission to phase out special regulations imposed on them by the European Union (EU). More than 25 telecoms company CEOs are planning to meet European media commissioner,Viviane Reding and antitrust commissioner Neelie Kroes later today to discuss the issue. First... Verizon Launches Wholesale Triple-Play Offer http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18286?11228 Verizon and DirecTV have announced a deal to enable the former's wholesale customers to offer triple-play services (voice, DSL and satellite TV via DirecTV). The offer is aimed at enabling competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) to compete on an even footing with cable TV operators. It will also enable Verizon to generate... British Broadband Market Upheaval - Bulldog Exits Retail Market, Race Heats Up for AOL http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18284?11228 British-based C&W has announced a radical change in its broadband operational strategy, opting to exit the retail broadband market for residential and small businesses. Instead, as from 1 July 2006, the company's ISP unit Bulldog will only offer wholesale products to other broadband service providers. C&W has said that it... NTT DoCoMo To Sell RIM's BlackBerry Portable Devices http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18282?11228 TOKYO -- NTT DoCoMo will introduce BlackBerry handheld devices in Japan by offering them to corporate customers later this year, Japan's top mobile carrier said Thursday. BlackBerry devices, from Research In Motion, based in Ontario, Canada, have a keyboard for typing with the thumb, and offer wireless connection with... Moto Plants Itself in India http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18279?11228 Motorola Inc. announced Wednesday that it is opening a manufacturing facility in India, having designated the country as the headquarters for its High Growth Markets initiative late last year. (See Moto Invests in India.) The vendor will initially invest $30 million in the... Single Antenna Does the Work of Five http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18278?11228 Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) engineers have developed a new antenna design that could allow a single ultra-wideband antenna to do the job of five conventional models. The computer-designed 'Fragmented Aperture Antenna' offers a 33-to-1 bandwidth -- far beyond the 10-to-1 ratio provided by conventional designs.... With One -Third of Households Broadband - Enabled, More Net Apps are Popular http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18277?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Roughly one-third of US households now subscribe to some type of broadband service, reports In-Stat. As broadband becomes commonplace, Internet use is evolving with broader adoption of a variety of applications. For example, nearly half of respondents to a recent In-Stat Consumer Broadband Survey telecommute,... Cell Phones Boost Semi Sales Forecast http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18274?11228 Thanks in large part to cell phones, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) is revising its forecasts upward, projecting worldwide sales of semiconductors will grow by 9.8 percent, to $249.6 billion, in 2006. The forecast was revised upward from a November forecast projecting an increase of 7.9 percent to $245 billion. ... Vonage's IPO Lawsuit Troubles Increase http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18272?11228 In the wake of its disastrous IPO, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providerVonage Holding Corp. was served with yet another legal action related to its public offering. Philadelphia law firm Berger Montague P.C. filed suit against Vonage on behalf of a client to expand the securities class action already started late last... Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. All rights reserved. PricewaterhouseCoopers refers to the network of member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 12:31:31 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Connecticut OKs Plan by AT&T to Offer TV Without a Franchise USTelecom dailyLead June 8, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dMrMfDtuteuxmlXokZ TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Connecticut OKs plan by AT&T to offer TV without a franchise BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Verizon, DirecTV team up to offer triple play via wholesalers * Cable & Wireless bails on residential broadband * Russian market unkind to Motorola * Cablevision files countersuit over remote DVR * Google Video in deal with Hispanic network Sorpresa! USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * VoIP, VoIP and More VoIP TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Technology may limit cities' Wi-Fi network success * Hotel offers respite for BlackBerry addicts * Avaya to unveil four modular VoIP phones for enterprise users REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Feds make arrests in VoIP investigation * FCC's hands-off approach leaves VoIP customers with nowhere to complain * McCain's bill promotes a la carte with incentives, punishments Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dMrMfDtuteuxmlXokZ ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 06:19:02 -0700 Organization: University of Washington On Wed, 7 Jun 2006, Lena wrote: > I'm beginning to think that my daughter has the best solution. No > Caller ID, no ACR, no Do Not Disturb"; all her calls go directly to > the answering machine. If she happens to be around, hears the message > and recognizes the voice, she picks up. Otherwise she calls back. > Telemarketers hang up immediately. That doesn't work, and hasn't for years now. There's a whole tribe of telemarketer scum that leave prerecorded spam on voice mail and answering machines. They hang up if they get a live person. They do this since many voice mail systems lack the capability to stop playing the current message and delete it without hearing the rest. -- Mark -- http://panda.com/mrc Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote. ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Organization: I Kill Spammers, inc. Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2006 04:51:36 GMT Lena wrote: > Mark Crispin wrote: >> There is a service called Do Not Disturb which is generally cheaper >> than the various "No Solicitation", "Caller ID/Anonymous Call >> Rejection", etc. services. It's also *far* more effective. > I'm beginning to think that my daughter has the best solution. No > Caller ID, no ACR, no Do Not Disturb"; all her calls go directly to > the answering machine. If she happens to be around, hears the message > and recognizes the voice, she picks up. Otherwise she calls back. > Telemarketers hang up immediately. > Lena Actually when they call here and hit my voice mail system they continue the recording, I come home and find the first part of the message missing since my message is first then the last part it cut off since I only allow about 2 minutes to the caller. But I have CID and a box that allows me to block numbers. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2006 01:16:09 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: Hueghes Satellite Internet Fred Atkinson wrote: > I am looking at moving into a house that is outside the local cable > area and where Verizon says they cannot provide DSL. > I spoke to Hueghes Satellite Internet. They are a little higher than > I am paying for cablemodem at my present location, but I could do it > if I wanted to. I will need to go back and see that I have an > unobstructed view of the Southern sky. Guess I'll have to get a > compass and stop back by there. > Does anyone one here have experience with using Hueghes Satellite > Residential Internet? If so, could you please email me with your > feedback on it? > I don't want to sign a lease at some place where I can't get high > speed Internet. If it didn't work out, I'd be out of luck on that > front. > Thanks for any information you can provide. If you Google search a bit you'll find that if you need it you'll have to get it. If you can live without it, you'll retain your hair and its color much longer. From what I've read, when it works, it's, well, ok. When it doesn't. It flat out doesn't. ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Fill up With TV News While Getting Gas Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2006 07:47:14 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Michael G. Koerner wrote: > my assumption was that these sorts of > pumps would be VERY expensive, including the monthly bill for the news > service. I don't know ... The pumps already have the 5x5 LCD screens for putting up menus and still ads. Most of the stations have a satellite feed for credit card authorization, reporting and price control. I didn't watch it long enough to tell, but wonder if there would be ad revenue to offset the cost of programming? ------------------------------ From: Hudson Leighton Subject: Re: Microsoft Plans Better Disclosures of Tool Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2006 10:08:58 -0500 In article , Allison Linn wrote: > By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer > Microsoft Corp. acknowledged Wednesday that it needs to better inform > users that its tool for determining whether a computer is running a > pirated copy of Windows also quietly checks in daily with the software > maker. snip > When Microsoft believes a copy of Windows is pirated, the user begins > to get a series of reminders that the copy isn't genuine. Such users > also are barred from downloading noncritical updates, such as the new > version of its Internet Explorer browser. But anyone who has signed up > to automatically receive security updates, which repair flaws to > prevent Internet attacks, will still get those fixes. I would call not getting more bugs (excuse me fixes) for Internet Explorer a good thing ;-) -Hudson ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #219 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 9 19:22:05 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C04AB1530F; Fri, 9 Jun 2006 19:22:04 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #220 Message-Id: <20060609232204.C04AB1530F@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 19:22:04 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 9 Jun 2006 19:25:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 220 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Texas to Install Border Patrol Web Cameras (Alicia A. Caldwell) Cell Phone Saves Illegal Immigrants Lost in Arizona Desert (Reuters News) DOE Computers Hacked; More Personal Data Stolen (H. Josef Hebert) Cingular Gets Personal with BlackBerry (Monty Solomon) AOL Launches Free Software to Improve PC Security for All (Monty Solomon) House Seeks to Open Cable TV Market (Monty Solomon) House Panel OKs Digital Licensing Bill (Monty Solomon) Intercom Among Three Cordless Handsets (Brian Holtz) Re: Connecticut OKs Plan by AT&T to Offer TV Without a Franchise (LHancock) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Lisa Hancock) Re: Microsoft Plans Better Disclosures of Tool (mc) Telecom Update #533, June 9, 2006 (Angus TeleManagement Group) House Approves Nationwide Video Franchise System (USTelecom dailyLead) Cellular-News: Friday 9th June 2006 (Cellular-News) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 9, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) ClickSentinel: An Open Source Project For Click Fraud Detection (G Skinner) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Alicia A. Caldwell Subject: Texas to Install Border Patrol Web Cameras Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 15:20:44 -0500 By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press Writer The governor of Texas wants to turn all the world into a virtual posse. Rick Perry has announced a $5 million plan to install hundreds of night-vision cameras on private land along the Mexican border and put the live video on the Internet, so that anyone with a computer who spots illegal immigrants trying to slip across can report it on a toll-free hot line. "I look at this as not different from the neighborhood watches we have had in our communities for years and years," Perry said last week. Some say it is a dangerous idea and a waste of money. "This is just one of those half-baked ideas that people dream up to save money but have no practical applications," said Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project in Austin. "We would be far better off to invest that money in Mexican small towns along the border so people wouldn't have to emigrate." The plan marks a political about-face for Perry, a Republican seeking re-election, who has long argued that security along the state's 1,200-mile border with Mexico is strictly a federal responsibility. This week, he said cuts in federal homeland security funding, a rise in reports of border violence and the crossing of Mexican soldiers into Texas about two years ago have demonstrated that "Texas cannot wait for Washington, D.C., to act." Under the plan, announced on the eve of the state GOP convention, cameras and other equipment would be supplied to willing landowners and placed along some of the most remote reaches of the border. The live video would be made available to law enforcement and anyone else with an Internet connection. Viewers would be able to call day or night to report anything that looks like trespassing, drug smuggling or something else suspicious. The governor plans to pay for it all with grant money the state already has, and wants the first cameras in place within 30 days. The Border Patrol already has lots of its own surveillance cameras along the border, but the images are not made available to the public. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar did not comment directly on the governor's plan Wednesday, but said: "We are looking forward to the opportunity to sit down and discuss it with him to ensure that whatever is done will be aligned with the efforts of the Border Patrol." Agency officials did not immediately return calls for comment Thursday. Luis Figueroa, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, warned that the cameras could lead to racial profiling and vigilanteism. "This leaves the door open to anyone who has a vindictive state of mind or a racial motive," Figueroa said. "Anyone down there could easily be mistaken and falsely accused of something they didn't do." Harrington said letting the public watch what is essentially a law enforcement search could be illegal. And T.J. Bonner, president of the union that represents nearly all Border Patrol agents, said the plan could further strain the overworked agency. "At first blush, it sounds like just another crazy idea that is going to overwhelm the capabilities of the federal government to be able to respond to the number of calls coming in and to the number of reports," Bonner said. "But there is a silver lining: It might just make legislators aware." Bonner said it won't take smugglers long to figure out where the cameras are. Connie Hair, a spokeswoman for the Minuteman organization, which patrols the border against illegal immigrants, said access to the video should be restricted to trained volunteers and law enforcement officials, to prevent smugglers from using the equipment to adjust their routes. But the governor said it will be hard to know where the cameras are just by watching the live Internet video. And if the smugglers do figure it out, the equipment can easily be moved. "This isn't our first rodeo," he said. Associated Press writer April Castro in Austin contributed to this report. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Cell Phone Saves Illegal Immigrants Lost in Arizona Desert Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 15:26:46 -0500 A group of stranded illegal immigrants facing death in the parched Arizona desert saved themselves by using a cell phone to call rescue services, the U.S. Border Patrol said. The group of eight Mexicans got lost in the desert southeast of Tacna, Arizona, and called for help early on Wednesday after their guides abandoned them during a two-day trek across the border from Mexico. Disoriented and without food or water, they used a cell phone to dial 911. Rescuers dispatched helicopters and located the group shortly before dawn, the Yuma Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol said in a statement. President George W. Bush visited Yuma on Tuesday as part of a tour to drum up support for an immigration overhaul that seeks to give millions of illegal immigrants a pathway to U.S. citizenship and tighten security on the Mexico border. Arizona is the principal route for mostly Mexican migrants seeking a new life in the United States. Last year more than 260 died trekking north over the desert, where summer temperatures reach highs of around 120 degrees F (49 C). This year, the Border Patrol has stepped up flights over the scorching, cactus-strewn wastes in a bid to save more lives. So far agents have rescued 309 migrants in the Yuma area since October 1, up from 203 in the same period a year earlier. "This summer we are not going to be caught off guard ... we are definitely better prepared," said Richard Hays, the Border Patrol's spokesman in Yuma. The number of recorded migrant deaths in the desert state has dropped to 107 in the eight months since October from 124 in the same period a year earlier, Border Patrol figures show. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more headlines and news from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: H. Josef Hebert Subject: DOE Computers Hacked; More Personal Data Stolen Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 16:41:41 -0500 DOE computers hacked; info on 1,500 taken By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer A hacker stole a file containing the names and Social Security numbers of 1,500 people working for the Energy Department's nuclear weapons agency. But in the incident last September, somewhat similar to recent problems at the Veterans Affairs Department, senior officials were informed only two days ago, officials told a congressional hearing Friday. None of the victims was notified, they said. The data theft occurred in a computer system at a service center belonging to the National Nuclear Security Administration in Albuquerque, N.M. The file contained information about contract workers throughout the agency's nuclear weapons complex, a department spokesman said. NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks told a House hearing that he learned of the security break late last September, but did not inform Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman about it. It had occurred earlier that month. Brooks blamed a misunderstanding for the failure to inform either Bodman or Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell about the security breach. Brooks' NNSA is a semiautonomous agency within the department and he said he assumed DOE's counterintelligence office would have briefed the two senior officials. "That's hogwash," Rep. Joe Barton (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, told Brooks. "You report directly to the secretary. You meet with him or the deputy every day. ... You had a major breach of your own security and yet you didn't inform the secretary." Bodman first learned of the theft two days ago, according to his spokesman, Craig Stevens. "He's deeply disturbed by the way this was handled," Stevens said. He said Bodman has asked the department inspector general to investigate why the security breach was not made known sooner. Barton, R-Texas, called for Brooks' resignation because of his failure to inform Bodman and other senior DOE officials of the security failure. The House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee learned of the security lapse late Thursday, on the eve of its hearing on DOE cyber security, said Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., chairman of the panel. The issue dominated lawmakers' questioning of DOE officials at the hearing. After an open session, the subcommittee continued questioning Brooks and other officials about it at a closed session because of the security implications. Although the compromised data file was in the NNSA's unclassified computer system -- and not part of a more secure classified network that contains nuclear weapons data -- the DOE officials would provide only scant information about the incident during the public hearing. Brooks said the file contained names, Social Security numbers, date-of-birth information, a code where the employees worked and codes showing their security clearances. A majority of the individuals worked for contractors and the list was compiled as part of their security clearance processing, he said. Tom Pyke, DOE's official charged with cyber security, said he learned of the incident only a few days ago. He said the hacker, who obtained the data file, penetrated a number of security safeguards in obtaining access to the system. Stevens said Bodman, upon learning of the incident, directed that the individuals be immediately told their information had been compromised. Brooks acknowledged that no attempt was made to notify the individuals until now. He declined to elaborate because of security concerns, but indicated he could tell the lawmakers more in the closed session. "If somebody got that information from your file, wouldn't you be a little concerned if nobody told you?" Rep. Diane DeGette, D-Colo., asked Brooks. "Of course I would," he replied. The Energy Department spends $140 million a year on cyber security, Gregory Friedman, the DOE's inspector general, told the committee. But he said that while improvements have been made, "significant weaknesses continue to exist," making the unclassified computer system vulnerable to hackers. Last fall, a so-called "Red Team" of DOE computer specialists -- seeking to test the security safeguards -- succeeded in hacking into and gaining control of a DOE facility's computer system, the panel was told. "We had access to sensitive data including financial and personal data ... we basically had domain control," said Glenn Podonsky, director of DOE's Security and Safety Performance Assessment. "We were able to get passwords, go from one account to another." Podonsky did not name the facility. But in response to questioning, he said that during the test it was learned that an actual penetration of a DOE computer system had occurred, leading to the theft of the files containing information about the 1,500 contract workers. On the Net: Energy Department: http://www.energy.gov National Nuclear Security Administration: http://www.nnsa.doe.gov Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So what else is old news? Theft of personal data from computers is getting to be an old story. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 22:34:23 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cingular Gets Personal with BlackBerry Wireless E-mail Leader Introduces Consumer-Friendly Offering With New BlackBerry 7130c, Service Plans ATLANTA and WATERLOO, Ontario, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Cingular Wireless and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today unveiled the new BlackBerry(R) 7130c(TM) and service offering that brings the power of BlackBerry to on-the-go individuals at consumer friendly prices. The new BlackBerry Personal Plan from Cingular offers customers direct and easy access to their Internet e-mail accounts for as low as $29.99 per month. The plan is designed solely for use with the newly enhanced BlackBerry Internet Service(TM) (note: this plan excludes access to BlackBerry Enterprise Server(TM)). In addition, customers can select the new, EDGE-enabled BlackBerry 7130c handset for as low as $199.99. The solution, which will be available beginning next week in Cingular retail stores, is ideal for on-the- go consumers such as young professionals who need to stay in touch and parents who spend their days juggling work and family activities. - http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=59037906 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 22:35:39 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AOL Launches Free Software to Improve PC Security for All AOL Launches Free Software to Improve PC Security for All Internet Users - Jun 8, 2006 08:00 AM (BusinessWire) DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 8, 2006-- Active Security Monitor Continuously Checks Status of Key Security Features/Programs, Assigns Security Score, Offers Recommendations AOL today launched Active Security Monitor, a free downloadable program that continuously checks the status of key security programs - including anti-virus, firewall, spyware protection, wireless security, and Windows/browser updates - on a user's home computer. Active Security Monitor assigns a Security Score to each PC on the user's network, and it offers specific recommendations based on the scan's results to improve user security. - http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=59040983 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 22:38:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: House Seeks to Open Cable TV Market By JIM ABRAMS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Legislation to open cable TV markets to more competition, possibly saving consumers hundreds of dollars a year, passed the House Thursday. The biggest telecommunications legislation in a decade, approved 321-101, would make it easier for telephone companies to enter the subscription television market. A national franchise process would replace the current system where potential providers must negotiate contracts municipality by municipality, sometimes taking months and years. The vote came shortly after the House rejected a Democratic-backed amendment aimed at better protecting Internet users from pricing or access discrimination that Internet providers might apply. The issue of "net neutrality" dominated debate on the bill. - http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=59061781 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 00:00:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: House Panel OKs Digital Licensing Bill By Anne Broache Staff Writer, CNET News.com A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Thursday approved a digital copyright bill that critics say could imperil home-use copying of music and video recording devices like TiVo. The Section 115 Reform Act, or SIRA, introduced by Texas Republican Lamar Smith, attempts to overhaul a piece of copyright law that established a complex system of "mechanical royalties" for record companies, recording artists, songwriters and publishers in exchange for the right to reproduce and distribute their music. There's a general consensus among politicians, the U.S. Copyright Office and the music industry that the law, first written in the era of piano music rolls, is in need of updates for a digital era. Right now, companies wishing to sell music have to negotiate separate licenses for each song's recording. SIRA proposes establishing a "blanket licensing" system in which those entities would apply for and receive licenses through a one-stop shop. Established by the Copyright Office, that body would act as a representative for music publishing companies with the greatest share of the market. Supporters of the bill argue that such an approach would make it easier for online music services to secure speedier approval for vast libraries of music, opening up the possibility for new market entrants, greater selection and lower prices. http://news.com.com/2100-1028-6081874.html ------------------------------ From: brianholtz1965@gmail.com Subject: Intercom Among 3 Cordless Handsets? Date: 9 Jun 2006 16:01:11 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I can't find a cordless phone system that * is WiFi-friendly (i.e 5.8GHz) * allows two-way speakerphone intercom operation without the callee doing anything * allows a three-way intercom conference. All I want is to hang a device on each of my two girls that will allow me to listen in on both and talk to either/both as they roam our large backyard. Only Motorola seems to offer auto-answer, and nobody offers 3-way intercom (even though some brag that 3 handsets can conference with an outside caller). Brian Holtz ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Connecticut OKs Plan by AT&T to Offer TV Without a Franchise Date: 8 Jun 2006 11:37:10 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com USTelecom dailyLead wrote: > * Connecticut OKs plan by AT&T to offer TV without a franchise One reason we pay a lot in cable fees is that each municipality got their hands in the mix and take out their tribute. My town gets several dollars from each customer. How did they get along before cable TV tax revenue (relatively new in my area)? > * Cable & Wireless bails on residential broadband I haven't looked at them in a long time, but C&W is an ancient company that used to handle overseas telegraph cables and early radio. They had many isolated ocean islands that were used as relay stations; they built buildings and huts in a British colonial style. If you're interested in that sort of history check them out. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: 8 Jun 2006 11:43:27 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Bob Vaughan wrote: > I have received two political campaign calls to my cellphone in the > last two weeks, one of which was a prerecorded pitch for a county > sales tax measure, and the other of which was a live human. > I filed formal complaints with the FCC and FTC for both calls, and > read the riot act to the live human. Did anything happen as a result of your complaints? Were you reimbursed for charges for your lost minutes? Did the phone carrier make any effort to reduce all those unwanted calls? I have a low use cell phone plan. Depending on time and place, an unwanted call could cost me $2.00 per call minute. I tend to doubt I'd get reimbursed from my cell phone carrier or the politicians if I were to receive such calls. As mentioned previously, my mother who was a patient in a nursing home received soliciting calls on her phone and that forced me to disconnect the service. I might note that there are private businesses that violate the law by various shticks, such as claiming a prior business relationship or a "mistake". ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Microsoft Plans Better Disclosures of Tool Organization: BellSouth Internet Service Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 19:25:54 -0400 > The company said the undisclosed daily check is a safety measure > designed to allow the tool, called Windows Genuine Advantage, to > quickly shut down in case of a malfunction. For example, if the > company suddenly started seeing a rash of reports that Windows copies > were pirated, it might want to shut down the program to make sure it > wasn't delivering false results. Bogus. The tool only needs to contact Microsoft when it changes state in some way (e.g., when it concludes for the first time that it is running on a pirated copy). I see no legitimate reason for it to phone home every day. Further, I see a serious problem here with computers containing records that are required by law to be kept confidential (such as university computers with grades on them). We don't *know* whether it's sending any of our confidential data to Microsoft. We fully believe it is not, but all we have is Microsoft's word and we can't testify to it ourselves. We aren't authorized to just trust Microsoft on that point. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 09:19:55 -0700 Subject: Telecom Update #533, June 9, 2006 From: Angus TeleManagement Group Reply-To: Angus TeleManagement Group ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 533: June 9, 2006 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MICROSOFT CANADA: www.microsoft.com/canada/telecom/ ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** NEC UNIFIED SOLUTIONS: www.necunifiedsolutions.com ** ROGERS TELECOM: www.rogers.com/solutions ** VONAGE CANADA: www.vonage.ca ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Bell AGM Okays Income Trust ** Nortel Loss Increases in First Quarter ** Avaya, Mitel Show New IP Phones ** Rogers Wireless Offers Name Display ** Ottawa and Bell Agree on Expanded Calling ** Primus Appeals Winback Change ** Do-Not-Call Replies Filed ** CRTC Seeks Comment on "Rate Range" Tariffs ** Montreal Wants Cellphone Ban ** CRTC Receives VoIP Review Comments ** Hennessy Joins Telus ** Barrett Seeks Review of Deferral Account Decision ** New Ground Station for Northern Sat-Phones ** ORION Presents Innovation Awards ** New Titles for Cisco Head ** Glentel Offers Vonage Service ** Conference Seeks Telecom Speakers ** Correction -- SaskTel Local Rates ============================================================ BELL AGM OKAYS INCOME TRUST: At this week's General Meeting, 99.2% of Bell Canada shareholders voted in favour of the plan to create a "Regional Lines" income trust in Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces. (See Telecom Update #515) NORTEL LOSS INCREASES IN FIRST QUARTER: Nortel Networks posted a first quarter loss of US$167 million, compared with $104 million a year earlier. Revenue was flat at $2.38 billion; Nortel's cash balance dropped 8% on the quarter to $2.7 billion. ** Nortel's partnership with Chinese telecom giant Huawei, announced with great fanfare a few months ago, has been quietly scrapped. The two companies hoped to bid on broadband equipment contracts for major U.S. carriers, but the Nortel/Huawei combination was not included in recent RFPs issued by AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth. (See Telecom Update #515) AVAYA, MITEL SHOW NEW IP PHONES: Both Avaya and Mitel Networks unveiled new IP phones last week. ** Avaya's one-X Deskphone Edition offers high-fidelity audio, using the G.722 wideband codec, as well as usability and conferencing enhancements. ** Mitel's new 5330 and 5340 IP phones provide 24 and 48 customizable keys plus wideband handsets; its Wireless Phone Stand gives a wired Mitel phone multi-user WLAN capability. ROGERS WIRELESS OFFERS NAME DISPLAY: Rogers Wireless says it is the first North American cellco to offer name display, which shows the names of landline callers in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland as well as of Rogers and Fido callers. Price (including number display): $8 a month. OTTAWA AND BELL AGREE ON EXPANDED CALLING: After years of negotiations, the City of Ottawa and Bell Canada have agreed to a plan to expand the local calling area to include the entire city. If the plan is approved by the CRTC, Bell will be reimbursed for lost long distance revenue by surcharges of 63 cents a month on residential lines, and 59 cents on business lines, for three years. ** The CRTC's usual policy is to give automatic approval to any such plan if the monthly increase is less than $1. PRIMUS APPEALS WINBACK CHANGE: Primus Telecommunications has submitted a Part VII application asking the CRTC to restore the requirement that incumbent telcos must wait 12 months before attempting to win back local phone customers from competitors. (See Telecom Update #524) http://www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2006/8662/p11_200607327.htm DO-NOT-CALL REPLIES FILED: Five groups, including the major incumbent telephone companies, have filed Reply Comments in the CRTC's proceeding creating a mandatory Do-Net-Call registry for telemarketers. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2006/8665/c12_200601626.htm#4d CRTC SEEKS COMMENT ON "RATE RANGE" TARIFFS: CRTC Telecom Orders 2006-142 and 2006-143 give interim approval to requests from SaskTel and Bell for "rate range" tariffs on certain non-VoIP services. CRTC Telecom Public Notice 2006-8 seeks comment on establishing general guidelines for such tariffs. To participate, notify the CRTC by June 23, and submit comments by July 14. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Orders/2006/o2006-142.htm http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Orders/2006/o2006-143.htm www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2006/pt2006-8.htm MONTREAL WANTS CELLPHONE BAN: As part of a general plan to make the city more pedestrian-friendly, the City of Montreal plans ask the provincial government to outlaw the use of cellphones by drivers. CRTC RECEIVES VoIP REVIEW COMMENTS: Twenty-three organizations have submitted comments to the Cabinet-ordered review of the CRTC's decision on the regulatory treatment of Voice over IP services. (See Telecom Update #529) ** There are no surprises: the incumbent telcos want the decision overturned and their competitors disagree. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2006/8663/c12_200605587.htm HENNESSY JOINS TELUS: Michael Hennessy, who was president of the Canadian Cable Television Association until the group was dissolved earlier this year, has been named Vice-President, Broadband and Video Policy at Telus Communications. BARRETT SEEKS REVIEW OF DEFERRAL ACCOUNT DECISION: Barrett Xplore, which last month asked the federal Cabinet to halt implementation of the CRTC's "Deferral Account" decision, has now asked the CRTC to review and change it. The New Brunswick ISP says that using the money to finance the telcos' rural broadband expansion will harm it and other competitors. (See Telecom Update #530) NEW GROUND STATION FOR NORTHERN SAT-PHONES: Globalstar has received regulatory approval for a sixth North American ground station, located in Wasilla, Alaska. The satellite phone provider says the station, which will begin operations on June 30, will improve reception in Yukon and northwest B.C. ORION PRESENTS INNOVATION AWARDS: On June 5, Ontario's research network ORION presented innovation awards to: ** The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory team, for underground research connected by ORION to partners around the world. ** Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning, for interactive educational videoconferencing. ** Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network (SHARCNET), a consortium of academic and research organizations, for providing supercomputing resources. NEW TITLES FOR CISCO HEAD: Following this year's AGM in November, John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, will also hold the title of Chairman, but will give up the title of President. The current chair, John Morgridge, is retiring; there has been no announcement of a new president. GLENTEL OFFERS VONAGE SERVICE: Vonage start-up kits are now being sold through Glentel Inc's 145 WirelessWave, Telephone Booth, and La Cabine Telephonique retail mall stores. CONFERENCE SEEKS TELECOM SPEAKERS: Enterprise Networks 2006, the Angus Dortmans conference scheduled for October 24-26 in Toronto, has issued a call for speakers. Proposals should be emailed to info@enterprisenetworks.ca by June 22. CORRECTION -- SASKTEL LOCAL RATES: Last week's Telecom Update incorrectly reported that SaskTel is reducing local rates in nine cities. The reduction, from $22 to $21.54 a month, applies only in Regina and Saskatoon. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca =========================================================== 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 late Friday afternoon each 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 2006 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail jriddell@angustel.ca. 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: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 12:10:48 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: June 9, 2006 - House approves nationwide video franchise system USTelecom dailyLead June 9, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dMAMfDtuteuUiNPkjg TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * House approves nationwide video franchise system BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Microsoft TV to go live in Europe * RIM rivals apply pressure with smartphone rollouts * Cablevision suspends test of server-based DVR USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * USTelecom Applauds Bipartisan House Vote to Bring Video Choice to Consumers TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Report: IMS spending, revenue set to surge * Report: 3G users pass 100M worldwide VOIP DOWNLOAD * Qualcomm runs VoIP calls over EV-DO network * Networking Pipeline examines elaborate VoIP scam REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Investigators look at short sellers' role in Vonage stock plunge Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dMAMfDtuteuUiNPkjg ------------------------------ Subject: cellular-news: Friday 9th June 2006 Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 07:44:15 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com ====================================================================== [[ Financial ]] Bouygues Executive: Telecom Investment Could Hurt Fiscal Year EBITDA http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17724.php Investment in customer acquistion and retention could hurt a key measure of Bouygues Telecom's profitability this year, the company's chief financial officer said Thursday. ... STAR Group Sells 19.9% Of Phoenix TV To China Mobile http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17725.php STAR Group, a wholly owned unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., sold a 19.9% stake in Hong Kong-listed Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings to China Mobile (Hong Kong) Group, the holding company of China Mobile, STAR Group and China Mobile said in a... Altimo: Telenor Wasn't Serious About Kyivstar Merger http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17726.php Norway's Telenor wasn't serious about merging its Russian and Ukrainian cellular interests, VimpelCom and Kyivstar, said Altimo, which partners Telenor in the two companies. ... PRESS: Cyprus' Eventis may sell stakes in 3 Russian mobile cos http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17728.php Cypriot company Eventis Telecom may sell its wholly-owned subsidiary Vostok Mobile Volga, which holds stakes in three Russian regional mobile operators, Vladimir Androsik, co-founder of Eventis said, Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday. ... PRESS: Russia's VimpelCom bids for 90% in Armenia's ArmenTel http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17730.php Russia's second largest mobile operator VimpelCom has filed a bid to participate in the tender of a 90% stake in Armenian fixed-line and mobile operator ArmenTel, Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday. ... [[ Handsets ]] Study: Motorola LatAm share reaches 34% http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17723.php US equipment manufacturer Motorola is dominating the Latin American mobile handset market with a 34% share at the end of 1Q06, according to international consultancy RNCOS. ... Axesstel wins fixed wireless handset order from Movistar http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17731.php US fixed wireless voice and broadband equipment designer Axesstel has won an order for its PG210 GSM fixed wireless desktop phones from Telefonica Moviles Guatemala, Axesstel said in a statement. ... [[ Legal ]] Megafon: IPOC Affiliated To Numerous Russian Telecom Cos http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17727.php The involvement of controversial holding company IPOC International Growth Fund in the Russian telecommunications sector is much greater than previously thought, according to documents released Thursday by Russian cellular operator, MegaFon. ... [[ Network Operators ]] Rubicon launches CDMA2000 standard in Uzbekistan http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17729.php U.S.-Uzbek joint venture Rubicon Wireless Communications (RWC) has launched CDMA2000 network for 800MHtz frequency range in Uzbekistan, a spokesperson with the company told Prime-Tass Thursday. ... ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 09, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 11:54:00 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 09, 2006 ******************************** Finding the Winning Formula http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18310?11228 The following is an excerpt from 'Finding the Winning Formula' in PricewaterhouseCoopers InfoComm Review, Volume 11, No.1, titled 'Trailblazing'. To read more and view all articles, please click here. From mobile to cable, from alternative network operators to resellers, and from portals to... The Corporate Fraud Cycle: How to Break the Chain http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18309?11228 This article was originally published in Executive Perspectives, pwc.com global monthly business magazine http://www.pwc.com/executiveperspectives by Thomas W. Golden, Steven L. Skalak, and Mona M. Clayton ; Fraud evokes a visceral reaction in us. It is an abuse of our expectation of fair treatment by fellow human beings.... USF Bills Call for VoIP Players to Ante Up http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18308?11228 THE UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND (USF), while still at billions of dollars, is dwindling, due to a decreasing number of contributors, and, in the interest of sustaining the fund, many in the telecom industry want IP operators to ante up. One House bill and one Senate bill call for this change directly, but the outcome of those proposals is... White House Supports U.S. Liberalisation of Video Franchising http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18306?11228 The administration of George W. Bush has released a statement in support of a bill that would ease the entry of telecoms operators into video markets. Under current legislation, the likes of AT&T and Verizon must negotiate individually with thousands of municipalities to receive the go-ahead to launch video services. The bill would... Regulator Mulls Splitting Telecom Italia's Commercial, Network Units=C2=A0 http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18303?11228 Italy's telecoms regulator is considering mandating Telecom Italia to split its commercial and network operations. Speaking in an interview with the daily Il Sole 24 Ore, regulator president Corrado Calabro said that he was open to the possibility of compelling Telecom Italia to separate its units, hinting that his office was already... China Mobile Acquires 19.9% of Phoenix Satellite TV from STAR Group http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18301?11228 China Mobile and Hong Kong-listed Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings have today announced a purchase of a 19.9% interest in Phoenix from business mogul Rupert Murdoch’s STAR Group by China Mobile (Hong Kong), China Mobile’s holding company. After the transaction, STAR - a wholly-owned unit of Murdoch's News Corp. -... Talkin' Up VOIP http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18298?11228 Unstrung readers are a well-packetized lot according to our latest site poll. A 73 percent majority of respondents to the "Wireless VOIP" poll say that they have used a WiFi-based voice-over-IP system of one kind of another, with another six percent unsure if they have used one or not. Nearly 50 percent of respondents... Two Charged in VOIP Hacking Scandal http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18295?11228 Federal authorities pressed charges Thursday against a second man who helped perpetrate a VOIP wholesale scheme that defrauded at least 15 VOIP service providers. Robert Moore of Spokane, Wash., also known as the 'Spokane Hacker', was served papers Thursday but had not yet been taken into custody, according U.S.... Group Calls for Special Access http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18293?11228 WASHINGTON -- A divergent band of communications companies, including several wireless carriers, has asked the Senate subcommittee working on the telecommunications act rewrite to preserve low pricing on Bell company-supplied network backup lines. The presidents and CEOs of wireless carriers Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA... C&W Sends Bulldog To The Pound http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18291?11228 Cable & Wireless, the U.K.'s second-largest fixed-line network operator, is getting out of the retail broadband business barely two years after it bought Bulldog, the ISP unit on which it has now lost a large fortune. In a statement issued this morning, C&W said it is laying off some 150 people involved with retail... Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. PricewaterhouseCoopers refers to the network of member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 19:28:15 +0000 From: Greg Skinner Subject: ClickSentinel: An Open Source Project for Click Fraud Detection Several months ago, I asked here if anyone knew of an open source project set up to tackle the click fraud problem. I'm happy to report that there is such a project: ClickSentinel http://www.clicksentinel.com . The community is looking for members and for people to spread the word. (People with Internet security backgrounds would be very useful as they can provide insight into the ways that fraudulent clicks can be generated and how difficult it can be to detect them.) Please visit the web site for more information. --gregbo ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #220 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jun 10 18:18:09 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 7121815260; Sat, 10 Jun 2006 18:18:08 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #221 Message-Id: <20060610221808.7121815260@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 18:18:08 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 10 Jun 2006 18:20:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 221 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Appeals Court Backs Bush on Wiretaps (Pete Yost) Court Also Backs Government on Broadband Wiretap Access (Peter Kaplan) RFID "Best Practices" (Monty Solomon) Re: Connecticut OKs Plan by AT&T to Offer TV Without a Franchise (John L) Re: Microsoft Lauches Security Plan for Windows (William Warren) Re: Connecticut OKs Plan by AT&T to Offer TV Without Franchise (Joe Singer) Re: Fill up With TV News While Getting Gas (Wesrock@aol.com) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Pete Yost Subject: Appeals Court Backs Bush on Wiretaps Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 16:26:02 -0500 By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer A federal appeals court sided with the Bush administration Friday on an electronic surveillance issue, making it easier to tap into Internet phone calls and broadband transmissions. The court ruled 2-1 in favor of the Federal Communications Commission, which says equipment using the new technologies must be able to accommodate police wiretaps under the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, known as CALEA. Judge David Sentelle called the agency's reading of the law a reasonable interpretation. In dissent, Judge Harry Edwards said the FCC gutted an exemption for information services that he said covered the Internet and broadband. The FCC "apparently forgot to read the words of the statute," Edwards wrote. FCC chairman Kevin Martin said the decision ensures that law enforcement's ability to conduct court-ordered electronic surveillance will keep pace with new technology. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, primary sponsor of CALEA, called the court's decision contrary to congressional intent, saying it stretches a law written for "the telephone system of 1994 to cover the Internet of 2006." Education groups challenged the FCC rule because they said the requirements would impose burdensome new costs on private university networks. They argued that broadband Internet access is an information service beyond the reach of CALEA. The American Council on Education said it was encouraged by part of the court's ruling that the law does not apply to private networks, which include many research institutions and corporations. But more broadly, "we believe we had established a strong legal case that CALEA did not apply to providers of facilities-based Internet access or voice-over-IP," the education council said. Challengers to the FCC rule focused on a Supreme Court case upholding the FCC's classification of broadband as an integrated information service under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Therefore, the education groups said, broadband providers must fall within the exemption for information services in CALEA. But the appeals court said CALEA and the Telecom act are different laws and that the Supreme Court did not find that broadband Internet access was exclusively an information service. The two laws reflect different objectives and the commission made a reasonable policy choice, wrote Sentelle, an appointee of President Reagan. Jim Dempsey, policy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology, a private group, said the decision "threatens the privacy rights of innocent Americans as well as the ability of technology companies to innovate freely." Judge Janice Rogers Brown, who sided with Sentelle, is an appointee of President George W. Bush. Edwards was appointed by President Carter. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Associated Press please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Peter Kaplan Subject: Court Also Backs Government on Broadband Wiretap Access Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 16:28:18 -0500 By Peter Kaplan A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld the government's authority to force high-speed Internet service providers to give law enforcement authorities access for surveillance purposes. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a petition aimed at overturning a decision by regulators requiring facilities-based broadband providers and those that offer Internet telephone service to comply with U.S. wiretap laws. In a split decision, two of three judges on the panel concluded that the 2005 Federal Communications Commission requirement was a "reasonable policy choice" even though information services are exempted from the government's wiretapping authority. The FCC has set a May 14, 2007, deadline for compliance, and the ruling drew praise from the FCC and the Justice Department, which sought the access. "Today's decision will ensure that technology does not impede the capabilities of law enforcement to provide for the safety and security of our nation," the department said in a statement. But the chief author of the 1994 wiretapping law, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), criticized the court's decision, saying Congress had deliberately excluded the Internet when it wrote the wiretap law. "The court's expansion of (the wiretapping law) to cover the Internet is troubling, and it is not what Congress intended," Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said in a statement. The ruling comes at a time when some lawmakers have voiced concern that the Bush administration's communications surveillance program violates civil liberties. The administration has countered that it needs the program, which allows the National Security Agency to monitor international telephone calls of U.S. citizens, as part of its broader war on terrorism. Authorities want to be able to access e-mails and other communications because of concerns that the proliferation of Internet communications could allow criminals to circumvent wiretaps by using e-mail and Internet phone services instead of traditional telephone services. Private networks would not be subject to the wiretap requirements, but those connected with a public network would have to comply with the law. The FCC decision last year prompted an appeal by universities and libraries. The groups, including the American Library Association and Association of American Universities, challenged the agency's authority to extend such requirements to high-speed Internet services. The FCC has considered broadband Internet in the category of an "information service," insulating it from many regulations. But in an opinion written by Judge David Sentelle, the appeals court said the same words could be defined differently by the FCC in applying the wiretapping law. In a dissenting opinion, one of the judges, Harry Edwards, called the argument "convoluted." "The agency has simply abandoned the well-understood meaning of 'information services' without offering any coherent alternative interpretation in its place," Edwards said. A lawyer who represents some of the groups that challenged the FCC said Edwards' dissent makes the case a good candidate for appeal. "We will give serious consideration to asking for Supreme Court review," said Andrew Schwartzman, president of Media Access Project, a co-counsel for the groups. Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headline from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 20:19:58 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: RFID "Best Practices" Policy Post 12.09: CDT-Led Working Group Releases RFID "Best Practices" A Briefing On Public Policy Issues Affecting Civil Liberties Online from The Center For Democracy and Technology (1) CDT-Led Working Group Releases RFID "Best Practices" (2) Best Practices Ideal for Evolving Technology (3) Technology-Neutral Consumer Privacy Legislation Still Needed http://www.cdt.org/publications/policyposts/2006/9 ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John L) Subject: Re: Connecticut OKs Plan by AT&T to Offer TV Without a Franchise Date: 10 Jun 2006 00:57:07 GMT Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> * Connecticut OKs plan by AT&T to offer TV without a franchise > One reason we pay a lot in cable fees is that each municipality got > their hands in the mix and take out their tribute. Actually, Federal law limits the franchise fee to 5%, so that's what they all get. > My town gets several dollars from each customer. How did they get > along before cable TV tax revenue (relatively new in my area)? I don't know about your town, but around here, we didn't have to buy $300,000 fire engines and we didn't have to pay 15% of people's pay into the pension fund. >> * Cable & Wireless bails on residential broadband > I haven't looked at them in a long time, but C&W is an ancient company > that used to handle overseas telegraph cables and early radio. Yes, they were originally the Gutta Percha company that made the insulation for the earliest telegraph cables. They've rather reinvented themselves in recent years, spun off Hong Kong tel which was their largest subsidiary, and now they're sort of a generic global telecom company with a sideline of extracting outrageous monopoly prices from their little island telcos. R's, John ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 00:53:29 -0400 From: William Warren Subject: Re: Microsoft Lauches Security Plan for Windows David wrote: > On Wed, 31 May 2006 02:57:41 UTC, Allison Linn > wrote: >> By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer >> Security software makers, the 800-pound gorilla has landed. Microsoft Corp. >> was to announce Wednesday that it is releasing software that aims to better >> protect people who use its Windows operating system from Internet attacks. > > Let me get this straight. Microsoft makes a popular product that is > vulnerable to certain forms of attack. Rather than choosing to fix > the problem, they decide to create add-on products to get a share of > the money spent on competing after-market products. > It is a very good thing that the public still chooses to use the > popular products with known [vulnerabilities]. A competitor might come > along and take away their core business. Given that Microsoft's core business is Public Relations, in all senses of the words, and that the corporation has proved that FUD is a much more profitable product than competently written software, there is no incentive for it to improve Windows or anything else it sells. Moreover, there is little motivation to change: having ground Apple and other upstarts under its heel, The Boys from Redmond need only to pre-pre-pre announce the next "improvement", cash some more options, and laugh themselves to sleep while worshiping an effigy of P.T. Barnum. The only competitors with the political, financial, marketing, and HR muscle to mount a frontal attack are governments, and _they_ already took their cut. Lacking the authority to mount an inquisition - a prerogative of the governments they just settled with - Microsoft has no way to intimidate or outspend those whom are working for free to create and improve things like GNU, Linux, BSD, and Apache. It remains to be seen if Open Source will continue to fly under the radar, or if Mr. Gates' minions will manage to co-opt or suppress the efforts. > At least the automotive industry had competitors and there was > reasonable competition and improvement across the board. The automobile industry's only "competitors" are alternative modes of transportation such as urban mass transit, and your friendly local oil baron ripped up the tracks long ago: the industry hasn't had, and hasn't needed, any meaningful change in almost a century. The odds are overwhelming that you drive a gasoline-powered, rubber-tired, human-guided vehicle which is fundamentally the same as a Model T: this popular product is dangerous and expensive to maintain, but automakers are doing just fine while selling add-ons such as seat belts and side-impact airbags. The fact that you feel the automotive industry has even the appearance of competition is proof prima facie of Madison Avenue's expertise and the impressionability of the average consumer, and with that in mind I'll declare Microsoft's monopoly safe for the moment. William Warren (Filter noise from my address for direct replies) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 13:27:17 PDT From: Mr Joseph Singer Subject: Re: Connecticut OKs Plan by AT&T to Offer TV Without a hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com 8 Jun 2006 11:37:10 -0700 wrote: > USTelecom dailyLead wrote: > * Connecticut OKs plan by AT&T to offer TV without a franchise One reason we pay a lot in cable fees is that each municipality got their hands in the mix and take out their tribute. My town gets several dollars from each customer. How did they get along before cable TV tax revenue (relatively new in my area)?>> Lord knows how they did it but cities, counties, states and until the feds recently rescinded the Spanish American War Tax of 1898 they all think that communications and services whether it's cable TV or telephone service is just a gravy train for attaching any tax or fee that they think they can ram through. I pay over 25% in taxes and surcharges every month on my telephone services after paying the city, county and state taxes never mind city, state and county 911 charges, surcharges to help the poor country cousins get big city services and on and on. It's just one big gravy train. ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 19:25:36 EDT Subject: Re: Fill up With TV News While Getting Gas In a message dated Thu, 08 Jun 2006 07:47:14 -0600, Clark W. Griswold, Jr. writes: > Michael G. Koerner wrote: >> my assumption was that these sorts of >> pumps would be VERY expensive, including the monthly bill for the news >> service. > I don't know ... The pumps already have the 5x5 LCD screens for > putting up menus and still ads. Most of the stations have a satellite > feed for credit card authorization, reporting and price control. I > didn't watch it long enough to tell, but wonder if there would be ad > revenue to offset the cost of programming? Probably the pumps with the 5x5 screens are still in the minority, the others having a different kind of display which appears to be text only and too small for any useful presentation. Some stations have the satellite dishes, but they, too, are probably in the minority. Not to mention those (often the least expensive stations) which do not have any provision for pay-at-pump. As far as revenue from advertising, this would appear to be the only reason for providing such a service. Otherwise, why would any station do it or why would the vendor/supplier even think of going into this business? Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #221 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jun 11 20:56:17 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C3C7B1525B; Sun, 11 Jun 2006 20:56:16 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #222 Message-Id: <20060612005616.C3C7B1525B@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 20:56:16 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: R TELECOM Digest Sun, 11 Jun 2006 20:59:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 222 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson DOE Computers Hacked; Information on 1500 Employees Stolen (Josef Hebert) Vonage Says FTC Inquiry Still Open (Reuters Newswire) VoIP Security Alert: Hackers Now Working VOIP For Cash (J. Nicholas Hoover) Re: Connecticut OKs Plan by AT&T to Offer TV Wthout Franchise (Neal McLain) For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Resume (Monty Solomon) Online World Cup Scalpers Meet High-Tech Resistance (Monty Solomon) EU Court Bars Giving Passenger Data to U.S. (Monty Solomon) Beware of VONAGE! Don't Sign Up! I Wish Someone Had Warned Me (big D) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (John David Galt) Re: Texas to Install Border Patrol Web Cameras (Gordon Burditt) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: H. Josef Hebert Subject: DOE Computers Hacked; Information on 1500 Employees Stolen, Misused Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 18:57:26 -0500 By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer A hacker stole a file containing the names and Social Security numbers and home addresses/phone numbers of 1,500 people working for the Energy Department's nuclear weapons agency. But in the incident last September, somewhat similar to recent problems at the Veterans Affairs Department, senior officials were informed only two days ago, officials told a congressional hearing Friday. None of the victims was notified, they said. The data theft occurred in a computer system at a service center belonging to the National Nuclear Security Administration in Albuquerque, N.M. The file contained information about contract workers throughout the agency's nuclear weapons complex, a department spokesman said. NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks told a House hearing that he learned of the security breach late last September, but did not inform Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman about it. It had occurred earlier that month. Brooks blamed a misunderstanding for the failure to inform either Bodman or Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell about the security breach. Brooks' NNSA is a semiautonomous agency within the department and he said he assumed DOE's counterintelligence office would have briefed the two senior officials. "That's hogwash," Rep. Joe Barton (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, told Brooks. "You report directly to the secretary. You meet with him or the deputy every day. ... You had a major breach of your own security and yet you didn't inform the secretary, or anyone else. Were you afraid of what would happen to you or others?" Bodman first learned of the theft two days ago, according to his spokesman, Craig Stevens. "He's deeply disturbed by the way this was handled," Stevens said. Barton, R-Texas, called for Brooks' resignation because of his failure to inform Bodman and other senior DOE officials of the security failure. The House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee learned of the security lapse late Thursday, on the eve of its hearing on DOE cyber security, said Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., chairman of the panel. The issue dominated lawmakers' questioning of DOE officials at the hearing. After an open session, the subcommittee continued questioning Brooks and other officials about it at a closed session because of the security implications. Although the compromised data file was in the NNSA's unclassified computer system -- and not part of a more secure classified network that contains nuclear weapons data - the DOE officials would provide only scant information about the incident during the public hearing. Brooks said the file contained names, Social Security numbers, date-of-birth information, a code where the employees worked and codes showing their security clearances. A majority of the individuals worked for contractors and the list was compiled as part of their security clearance processing, he said, 'with all sorts of data in it.' Tom Pyke, DOE's official charged with cyber security, said he learned of the incident only a few days ago. He said the hacker, who obtained the data file, penetrated a number of security safeguards in obtaining access to the system. Stevens said Bodman, upon learning of the incident, directed that the individuals be immediately told their information had been compromised. Brooks acknowledged that no attempt was made to notify the individuals until now. He declined to elaborate because of security concerns, but indicated he could tell the lawmakers more in the closed session. "If somebody got that information from your file, wouldn't you be a little concerned if nobody told you?" Rep. Diane DeGette, D-Colo., asked Brooks. "Of course I would," he replied. The Energy Department spends $140 million a year on cyber security, Gregory Friedman, the DOE's inspector general, told the committee. But he said that while improvements have been made, "significant weaknesses continue to exist," making the unclassified computer system vulnerable to hackers. "We could have saved a lot of that money for what little security it bought us", he noted. Last fall, a so-called "Red Team" of DOE computer specialists -- seeking to test the security safeguards -- succeeded in hacking into and gaining control of a DOE facility's computer system, the panel was told. "We had access to sensitive data including financial and personal data ... We basically had domain control," said Glenn Podonsky, director of DOE's Security and Safety Performance Assessment. "We were able to get passwords, go from one account to another." Podonsky did not name the facility. But in response to questioning, he said that during the test it was learned that an actual penetration of a DOE computer system had occurred, leading to the theft of the files containing information about the 1,500 contract workers. On the Net: Energy Department: http://www.energy.gov National Nuclear Security Administration: http://www.nnsa.doe.gov Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Vonage Says FTC Inquiry Still Open Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 18:54:45 -0500 Vonage Holdings Corp. said on Friday that the Federal Trade Commission had not yet ended its investigation into the Internet telephone service provider's emergency 911-related compliance. After saying on Thursday that the FTC had finished its investigation without taking any formal action, Vonage issued a correction that said the investigation was officially still going on because the company had not yet received a closure letter from the FTC. The industry regulating Federal Communications Commission requires that Internet-based phone services such as Vonage ensure that customers who dial 911 are connected to a dispatcher who receives the caller's location and phone number. The FTC opened its investigation into Vonage in January 2005, saying it was looking into how the company complied with federal emergency services rules. Vonage shares have fallen 30 percent since their market debut last month at $17. The stock closed at $11.88 in New York Stock Exchange trading on Friday, up 0.8 percent. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: J. Nicholas Hoover Subject: VoIP Security Alert: Hackers Now Working VOIP For Cash Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 19:00:22 -0500 By J. Nicholas Hoover InformationWeek IP phone crooks are learning how to rake in the dough. An owner of two small Miami voice-over-IP telephone companies was arrested last week and charged with making more than $1 million by breaking into third-party VoIP services and routing calls through their lines. That let him collect from customers without paying any fees to route calls. Hacking's become a decidedly for-profit crime, with crooks intent on theft rather than disruption. Voice-over-IP hasn't been a big target, but only because crooks haven't figured out how to make money off breaking in. In that sense, Edwin Pena's a pioneer, if federal prosectuors' allegations are true. Prosecutors claim he paid $20,000 to Spokane, Wash., resident Robert Moore, to help send VoIP telecoms millions of test calls, guessing at proprietary prefixes encoded on packet headers. Eventually, the right one gave them access. The two also are accused of hacking into computers at a New York investment company to set up servers to make it look like calls came from third parties. Edwin Pena had been making easy cash for almost 18 months and sold about 10 million minutes before law enforcement caught up with him yesterday morning, prosecutors say. The newfound magnate is alleged to have lavishly spent his takings on luxury cars, a 40-foot Sea Ray motorboat and Miami-area real estate. Now, he faces losing all of that and spending up to 25 years in jail and $500,000 in fines. Pena didn't carry out his plan alone, according to authorities. He paid $20,000 to Spokane, Wash., resident Robert Moore, who helped Pena scan VoIP providers for security holes with a code cracking method called brute force. They sent these companies millions of test calls, guessing at proprietary prefixes encoded on packet headers that are used to show VOIP calls are legit until the right one gave them access. The two also hacked into computers at a Rye Brook, N.Y., investment company and set up other servers to make it seem like they were sending calls from third parties through more than 15 VoIP providers. Those companies have to pay for access to the Internet's backbone, and they found themselves with up to $300,000 in charges for access stolen through Pena's hacks, authorities say. Yet it's not only carriers that could be concerned with the type of attack Pena and Moore launched, says Seshu Madhavapeddy, CEO of VoIP security company Sipera Systems. In general, Pena's attack was a spoofing attack, designed to let his calls masquerade as those of another carrier. Madhavapeddy says these types of attacks are relatively easy to carry out, and could hit at enterprises just as easily as carriers. One possibility is stolen access, but there are others. For example, a hacker might spoof call forwarding features to make all calls route to him. Customers trying to reach a help line could be tricked into giving credit card information to the hacker. "People remember the voice and forget the over IP part," says Mark Rasch, SVP of security company Solutionary Inc. "Just like data can be rerouted without authorization, VoIP can be rerouted without authorization." The exponential growth of VoIP can only add targets. Infonetics Research predicts spending on VoIP will jump from $1.2 billion in 2004 to more than $23 billion in 2009. Meanwhile, IP communications are inherently more complex than traditional phone calls, and are getting even more so. Emerging technologies like unified communications that include voice, video and data in one console intended to drive collaboration through the roof have the potential to put more and more information at the fingertips of hackers. And just as email and the Internet opens the door for vulnerabilities, these next generation tools could allow hackers to spoof a call and send illicit information and files to end users. For now, VoIP is a wilderness for hackers, and there have been very few publicized attacks. But security companies like Symantec predict a coming epidemic of spam over VoIP, so-called SPIT. They warn about phishing not unlike what companies and consumers see in emails. And VoIP networks are just as susceptible to crippling denial of service attacks as are data networks, and mass calls generated by a worm could overload networks or kill productivity with ceaseless phone calls and messages. That's another way hackers could make money from VoIP networks. "If I can take down the enterprise network and I'm showing you demonstratably how I can do it, I can blackmail you," Madhavapeddy says. And this case? "These modern day cyber-thieves had hoped they had engineered a brilliant 'toll free' calling network for themselves," Newark FBI Special Agent in Charge Leslie G. Wiser, Jr., said in a statement. "They hoped wrong." Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more high-tech news from the daily media, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ rom: Neal McLain Subject: Re: Connecticut OKs Plan by AT&T to Offer TV Without a Franchise Reply-To: nmclain@annsgarden.com Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 22:10:37 -0400 John Levine wrote: > Actually, Federal law limits the franchise fee to 5%, so > that's what they all get. But federal law allows LFAs to impose that 5% franchise fee on the cable company's entire revenue from video services, *including* the revenue charged to pay the franchise fee, so the total fee actually works out to about 5.26%. See http://tinyurl.com/buwku Federal law also allows LFAs to demand, as part of the franchise agreement, extra goodies like free basic service to schools and government buildings, PEG access channels, access production studios, company-paid personnel to run those production studios, million-dollar performance bonds, institutional networks (I-nets). These items are subject to negotiation during the franchising process, so LFAs can't impose them unilaterally. But during the Great Franchise Wars of the 1970s and 80s, cable companies were competing against each other, and LFAs were able to play applicants off against each other. In the midst of competitive hearings, many cable companies made promises that look pretty foolish today. Nevertheless, to the extent that these old agreements are still in force today, these extra-goodie requirements are still enforceable. And whatever it costs the cable companies to comply are over and above the 5.26% franchise fee. Speaking of I-nets reminds me of a three-year old thread about Comcast's lawsuit against City of San Jose. As I recall, the city was demanding, as a condition for approving a franchise transfer to Comcast, that Comcast build a telephone network for the City government, and that Comcast was refusing to agree to this requirement. The details weren't clear at the time, but I assume that Comcast's position was that such a requirement was not in the original (ca 1975) franchise agreement. At the time (June 1, 2003), John Higdon, a San Jose resident and Telecom-Digest contributor, wrote [22:489]: > Why Comcast, which operates a 30-year-old cable infrastructure in > San Jose, is nit-picking about issues in its franchise agreement is > beyond me. They don't even have a product to offer; there is > nothing to discuss. Whereupon, on June 1, 2003, I wrote [22.490]: > Well, the city government apparently thinks there's a lot to > discuss. Otherwise, why would this issue have come up in the first > place. The whole point of the "nit-picking" is that Comcast wants > to extend its franchise so that it can build a whole new network > and completely abandon that "30-year old infrastructure." On June 2, 2003, Higdon wrote [22:492]: > Uh huh. We have been hearing this for decades from the half-dozen > companies who have bought the system and then continue to milk the > revenue out of the sixties technology. Comcast is just the latest > in long line of empty promise providers. On June 3, 2003, I wrote [22:495]: > Well, I don't think either of us can predict the future. So here's > a suggestion: mark your calendar for June 4, 2004, and post an > update then on Comcast's progress. Unless I missed something, Higdon didn't post an update in June 2004 or June 2005. So, Mr. Higdon, how about posting an update for us in June 2006? Neal McLain ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 23:28:15 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Resume By ALAN FINDER The New York Times June 11, 2006 When a small consulting company in Chicago was looking to hire a summer intern this month, the company's president went online to check on a promising candidate who had just graduated from the University of Illinois. At Facebook, a popular social networking site, the executive found the candidate's Web page with this description of his interests: "smokin' blunts" (cigars hollowed out and stuffed with marijuana), shooting people and obsessive sex, all described in vivid slang. It did not matter that the student was clearly posturing. He was done. "A lot of it makes me think, what kind of judgment does this person have?" said the company's president, Brad Karsh. "Why are you allowing this to be viewed publicly, effectively, or semipublicly?" Many companies that recruit on college campuses have been using search engines like Google and Yahoo to conduct background checks on seniors looking for their first job. But now, college career counselors and other experts say, some recruiters are looking up applicants on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Xanga and Friendster, where college students often post risqu=E9 or teasing photographs and provocative comments about drinking, recreational drug use and sexual exploits in what some mistakenly believe is relative privacy. When viewed by corporate recruiters or admissions officials at graduate and professional schools, such pages can make students look immature and unprofessional, at best. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/us/11recruit.html?ex=3D1307678400&en=3Dddf= be1e3b386090b&ei=3D5090 For news and headlines from New York Times, with *no login nor registration requirement* please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 12:16:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Online World Cup scalpers meet high-tech resistance By Doreen Carvajal International Herald Tribune PARIS -- With tickets for World Cup games almost as precious as goals, desperate soccer fans are flocking to the Web to engage in a form of ticket scalping that comes with the usual huge markups and red-card threats to eject secondhand buyers from the stadiums. New technology is a bane and a blessing for frantic international buyers in the last stage of sales for the remaining 3.1 million tickets to 64 games that begin in June across Germany. The prized tickets are trophies in a strict selling and trading system, developed by Germany's local soccer organizing committee, to combat advanced online globalization of the black market. The organizers' weapons are pinhead-size radio frequency microchips inserted in tickets and old- fashioned shrill threats. Privacy advocates in Germany are more worried about the chips, raising Big Brother alarms about their links to an electronic database of personal information about purchasers. The rules are that legally purchased tickets, with unique identification codes contained on individual chips, can be transferred only among relatives or in connection with hardship cases, not excluding assorted events of mass destruction like epidemics, earthquakes, natural catastrophes and acts of war. But barring plagues and locusts, hope is eternal. Tickets for the finals are selling for upward of $3,000 on eBay in the United States, which has emerged as a ticket exchange of last resort because of new restrictions in Britain, where World Cup ticket scalping is a criminal offense. Soccer governing bodies like FIFA, which presides over the World Cup, and UEFA, the European soccer authority, had lobbied hard for restrictions, arguing that it was a security issue, because violent fans could buy tickets online through individual sellers and find themselves seated next to rival supporters. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/07/business/tkts.php ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 12:14:02 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EU Court Bars Giving Passenger Data to U.S. By Nicola Clark International Herald Tribune PARIS -- The European Union's highest court on Tuesday overturned an agreement that provides Washington with personal data on air passengers flying to the United States from Europe. The decision did not address privacy issues, but it forces the two sides back to negotiations at a time when privacy safeguards are increasingly being debated. The European Court of Justice gave the European Commission four months to formulate a new agreement with the United States. Until then, current procedures remain in effect. The Luxembourg-based court found that the commission and the European Council lacked an adequate legal basis for the agreement they reached in May 2004. Specifically, the court ruled that because the information contained in passenger records is collected by airlines for their own commercial use, the European Union could not legally agree to provide that data to the U.S. authorities even for purposes of public security or law enforcement. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/30/news/fly.php ------------------------------ From: big D Subject: beware of VONAGE! Don't sign up! I whish someone had warned me... Date: 11 Jun 2006 12:02:16 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I just ordered Vonage and I *reeeeeally* wish I hadn't done that. Suddenly, I am having problems with internet and I've had the same internet service for whole two years with no problems at all. I talked to two inarticulate women in India who tried to help but couldn't. I spent 40 minutes talking to them and another 40 minutes waiting on hold to talk to someone else. At this point, I'm just trying to cancel it, which is NOT EASY to say the least. I wish I read the 28 PAGES OF COMPLAINTS AGAINST Vonage on http://www.consumeraffairs.com (I never would have ordered this stupid service.) Don't do it! Tell others about it! I wish someone had warned me! ------------------------------ From: John David Galt Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 16:31:30 -0700 Organization: Diogenes the Cynic Hot-Tubbing Society mc wrote: > This is a conversation I've had with various people at various times: > "Maybe you've found a loophole in the Do Not Call List. But do you > remember *why* there's a Do Not Call List? You don't get business > (votes, etc.) by bothering people when they don't want to be > bothered!" I wonder how many of the "Westly calls" were by his opponent's campaign, *hoping* to piss you off? ------------------------------ From: gordonb.w3284@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: Texas to Install Border Patrol Web Cameras Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 05:07:03 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com > The governor of Texas wants to turn all the world into a virtual > posse. > Rick Perry has announced a $5 million plan to install hundreds of > night-vision cameras on private land along the Mexican border and put > the live video on the Internet, so that anyone with a computer who > spots illegal immigrants trying to slip across can report it on a > toll-free hot line. Doesn't this also mean that the illegal immigrants can also use the cameras to detect the absence of patrols and determine what the cameras can actually see? > Under the plan, announced on the eve of the state GOP convention, > cameras and other equipment would be supplied to willing landowners > and placed along some of the most remote reaches of the border. The > live video would be made available to law enforcement and anyone else > with an Internet connection. I prefer to state that: "The live video would be made available to would-be illegal immigrants and smugglers and anyone else with an Internet connection". > Bonner said it won't take smugglers long to figure out where the > cameras are. It's probably easy, especially if the cameras can see into Mexico. Someone just carries a large sign on the Mexico side of the border with GPS coordinates on it. Or perhaps they have an airplane fly low along the border (on the Mexican side of it), log its course and match times with when it is observed. People working for the smugglers (also probably in Mexico) observe which cameras it shows up on. If someone else spots the guy with the sign, well, he's Mexican, IN Mexico, and is not breaking any Mexican law I know of. > patrols the border against illegal immigrants, said access to the > video should be restricted to trained volunteers and law enforcement > officials, to prevent smugglers from using the equipment to adjust > their routes. Duh! I also wonder if the smugglers would use the cameras to rat out the competition. You could get quite a smuggling war going on. > But the governor said it will be hard to know where the cameras are > just by watching the live Internet video. And if the smugglers do > figure it out, the equipment can easily be moved. "This isn't our > first rodeo," he said. Maybe they'll spot some Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction? Has anyone yet suggested setting up catapults to return caught illegal immigrants to Mexico? Gordon L. Burditt [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A couple people have said that when this goes into effect later this year, the Mexicans (illegal or otherwise) could also tune into the Internet from the Mexican side to see the 'show'. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. 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End of TELECOM Digest V25 #222 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jun 12 15:35:18 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id ADFBE15207; Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:35:17 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #223 Message-Id: <20060612193517.ADFBE15207@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:35:17 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, CELL_PHONE_IMPROVE,INITIAL_INVEST,NA_DOLLARS autolearn=no version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:38:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 223 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson E-Newspapers Just Around Corner (Kenneth Li - Reuters) Cellular-News: Monday 12th June 2006 (Cellular-News) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 12, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Franchise Rules Get a Makeover in Some Places (USTelecom dailyLead) IRS Laptop Lost With Data on 291 People (Monty Solomon) Caution: Mobile Phone Text Message Scam! (3z3k3l) Re: Political Telemarketing Calls (Steven Lichter) Re: Connecticut OKs Plan by AT&T to Offer TV Without Franchise (J Higdon) Re: Beware of VONAGE! Don't Sign Up! I Wish Someone had Warned (Sam Spade) Re: Beware of VONAGE! Don't Sign Up! I Wish Someone had Warned (3z3k3l) Re: VoIP Security Alert: Hackers Now Working VOIP For Cash (Lisa Hancock) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Kenneth Li Subject: E-Newspapers Just Around Corner Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 10:42:51 -0500 By Kenneth Li Cheap digital screens that can be rolled up and stuffed into a back pocket -- have been just around the corner for the last three decades. But as early as this year, the future may finally arrive. Some of the world's top newspapers publishers are planning to introduce a form of electronic newspaper that will allow users to download entire editions from the Web on to reflective digital screens said to be easier on the eyes than light-emitting laptop or cellphone displays. Flexible versions of these readers nay be available as early as 2007. The handheld readers couldn't come a moment too soon for the newspaper industry, which has struggled to maintain its readership and advertising from online rivals. Publishers Hearst Corp. in the U.S., Pearson Plc.'s Les Echos in Paris and Belgian financial paper De Tijd are planning a large-scale trials of the readers this year. Earlier attempts by book publishers to sell digital readers failed due to high prices and a lack of downloadable books. But a new generation of readers from Sony Corp. and iRex, a Philips Electronics spin-off, have impressed publishers with their sharp resolution and energy efficiency, galvanizing support for the idea again. "This could be a real substitution for printed paper," Jochen Dieckow, head of the news media and research division of Ifra, a global newspaper association based in Germany, said. It's easy to see why publishers are keen. Digital newspapers, so called e-newspapers, take advantage of two prevailing media trends -- the growth of online advertising and widespread use of portable devices like the iPod music player. Nearly all papers run Web sites, but few readers relish pulling out laptops in transit or risk dropping one in the bathroom. E-newspapers would cut production and delivery costs that account for some 75 percent of newspaper expenses. Circulation in the $55 billion U.S. newspaper industry has slid steadily for nearly two decades as papers compete with Internet news for attention and advertising dollars. Some publishers now see new devices as a way to help them snatch a bigger slice of online advertising and protect their franchise in reading away from home. Ad spending on newspaper Web sites grew 32 percent in 2005 but only accounted for 4 percent of total ad spending in newspapers, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Still, little is known about demand for an e-paper. "The number of consumers who are interested in reading on the go as opposed to listening to music on the go is probably smaller in the U.S. today," NPD Group analyst Ross Rubin said. PRINT SCREENS Sony and iRex's new devices employ screen technology by E Ink, which originated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. Investors include Hearst, Philips, McClatchy Co., Motorola Inc. and Intel Corp. The company produces energy-efficient ink sheets that contain tiny capsules showing either black or white depending on the electric current running through it. Some of the latest devices apply E Ink's sheets to glass transistor boards, or back planes, which are rigid. But by 2007, companies such as U.K.-based Plastic Logic Ltd will manufacture screens on flexible plastic sheets, analysts say. Separately, Xerox Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. are developing methods to produce flexible back planes cheaply. Xerox, in particular, has created a working prototype of system that lets manufacturers create flexible transistor boards much like one would print a regular paper document. Production costs are expected to be low enough soon for publishers to consider giving away such devices for free with an annual subscription. Data on subscribers could also help publishers better tailor ads. Sony's reader will cost between $300 and $400. "If you can get one of these products to cost less than the cost of a year's subscription it could probably work," Kenneth Bronfin, president of Hearst Interactive Media, said. He declined to name which other groups plan testing, but said Hearst's San Francisco Chronicle and Houston Chronicle will likely be among the first of its 12 daily papers to offer such devices to several hundred subscribers later this year. In Europe, Ifra is discussing trials with 21 newspapers from 13 countries. The New York Times Co. is a member. Sony is separately in discussions with some publishers to offer newspaper downloads in its e-bookstore due to launch this summer, although no decision has been made, said Lee Shirani, vice president of Sony's online content service, Sony Connect. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more headlines and news each day, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News: Monday 12th June 2006 Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 07:31:41 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com ====================================================================== [[3G News]] HSDPA for Hong Kong http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17750.php SmarTone-Vodafone has announced the launch of full High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) network in Hong Kong and Hong Kong's first commercial HSDPA-enabled service, SmarTone-Vodafone Mobile Broadband.... 100 Million 3G Users http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17751.php Strategy Analytics' on-going research into 3G subscriber tracking shows that more than 100 million people around the globe are now using WCDMA and CDMA2000 1x EV-DO 3G technology on their mobile phones. 3G-user momentum is ramping up with a strong op... [[Financial News]] Hermes Denies Leading Investors In Vodafone Revolt http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17739.php Fund manager Hermes isn't leading a group of investors against Vodafone Group, but would seek seek to engage with the company to achieve change, a Hermes spokesman said Sunday. ... [[Handsets News]] Sagem: 50% market share is feasible http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17733.php French handset manufacturer Sagem believes it can reach a 40-50% market share in Colombia, with sales of 2 million units in 2007, Colombian newspaper Portafolio quoted Sagem Americas VP Vctor Diaz as saying. ... Motorola Plans Indian Handset Investment http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17749.php Motorola has announced plans for an Indian manufacturing facility with an initial investment of US$30 million. This will be scaled up to a total of US$100 million in phases. The company will establish a manufacturing plant in the 300 acre Sriperumbad... [[Legal News]] IPOC says Alfa Group tries to impede IPOC's claim in Russia http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17737.php Russia's Alfa Group has filed a claim with Bermuda Supreme Court seeking to suspend IPOC's court action in Russia regarding a controlling stake in MegaFon, IPOC International Growth Fund said in a press release Friday. ... [[Messaging News]] RIM Targeting Consumer Market, Expanding Internationally http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17732.php Two announcements from Research In Motion, Thursday signal how it plans to take on a growing list of competitors and increase its subscriber growth. ... Optus Survey Reveals Mobile Mail on the Rise http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17753.php The Australian operator, Optus has published the results of a study, which found that in less than 12 months the use of handheld mobile devices to access work email has tripled from 3 to 9 per cent. Over the same period wireless access to email on a ... [[Mobile Content News]] Social Networking Concerns Extend to Mobile Phones http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17740.php As concerns over online predators of teens and children through social networking Web sites grow, industry professionals say mobile operators and subscribers must employ solutions that block this same inappropriate and harmful content and contact fro... Many Mobile TV Broadcasting Options Will Not Be Financially Viable http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17742.php Despite high expectations for mobile TV and radio services, only a small number of broadcasting technology options will be financially viable, according to a new report from Sound Partners Research. As consumer demand for mobile TV and radio increase... Dijji Closes Down http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17743.php Dijji, formerly known as Dwango Wireless says that it is closing down and will liquidate all its assets, which include a series of major brand names for the mobile content market. The company recently announced substantial job cuts to try and curb it... Theme-Based Content Will Drive Mobile Data Adoption in Western Europe http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17744.php Focusing services around specific events or themes will play an influential role in users embracing mobile data services, according to IDC research. Therefore, the idea is for operators to use themes and/or events to gain users' acceptance and thus c... [[Network Operators News]] Porto Alegre plans US$1.5mn WiMax network http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17734.php The government of the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre plans to invest 3.5mn reais (US$1.5mn) to build a WiMax network for its offices, tech publication Computerworld reported. ... Inmarsat: LatAm has largest potential for BGAN services http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17735.php Norwegian satellite services provider Inmarsat expects its recently launched Broadband Global Area Network service, BGAN, to help increase Latin America's contribution to global revenues from the 10% it represents today, Inmarsat Latin America direct... Name Display Launched on Canadian Cellphone http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17741.php Canada's Rogers Wireless and Fido are launching an extension of the conventional CLI (caller line identity) which displays the callers name, even if the callers name is not in their handset phone memory. The Name Display service works from wireless t... Village Phone Arrives in Rwanda http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17748.php In Rwanda, the mobile phone is more than just a means of communication; it is an economic lifeline. In rural villages, enterprising small business owners find that mobile phones can boost profits as well as provide a service for residents.... Improved Coverage on Board High Speed Trains in Sweden http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17752.php Talking on the phone on board the X2000 high speed trains will now be much easier. Amplifiers of mobile coverage are now being installed on all of these trains. Everyone who travels on these trains has probably realized that the mobile coverage varie... [[Random Stuff News]] Cellphones Lead to al-Zarqawi Hiding Place - Report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17746.php In an interview, an Iraqi army colonel told CNN last week, that intelligence from tracking cellphone locations helped US armed forces find and kill the head of Al Quaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Colonel Dhiya Tamimi said he worked with USA mili... [[Reports News]] Analyst says Russian cell operators' Jan-Mar revenue up 34% on yr http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17736.php The revenue of Russian mobile operators rose 34% on the year to about U.S. $2.9 billion in January-March, telecoms analyst J'son&Partners said in a report Friday. ... Cingular Finds Men Chat More Than Women http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17745.php For the sixth consecutive year, Cingular's annual survey on wireless usage reveals that men talk 16% more on their wireless phones each month than women. This year's survey revealed that men talk an average of 546 minutes per month on their cell phon... [[Statistics News]] Ukraine's URS subscriber base up 62.4% year-to-date http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17738.php The subscriber base of Ukrainian mobile operator Ukrainian Radiosystems, or URS, rose 62.4% in January-May to about 452,000 people as of June 1, the company's Press Secretary Irina Lelichenko told Prime-Tass Friday. ... [[Technology News]] Nortel and RFS Collaborate on Multi-Beam PCS Smart Antennas http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17747.php In conjunction with RF technology solutions group, Radio Frequency Systems (RFS), Nortel has developed a multi-beam 'smart' antenna solution specifically designed to meet the needs of PCS 1900-MHz networks. The antenna -- a multi-beam adaptive antenna ... ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 12, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 11:33:40 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 12, 2006 ******************************** The Future of European Business Leadership http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18336?11228 The founding fathers of the European Union, Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet, dreamed of creating a community of nations that would become more convergent as the years went by. The result of their vision is the EU, the most far-reaching plan for economic integration ever to be attempted among a group of sovereign... Indian Mobile Market Surpasses 100-mil. User Landmark http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/105/18335?11228 The mobile subscriber base in India continued to maintain high growth last month, with net additions of approximately 4.25 million subscribers. At the end of last month, there were 101.2 million mobile subscribers in the country, representing a penetration level of 9.2%. Meanwhile, the fixed-line market experienced a decline of 110,000... New 'Ten' MVNO Debuts with MSN Messenger http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/110/18332?11228 Ten, a new MVNO in France, has launched commercial services offering innovative mobile data services such as MSN Messenger and email. Ten - a start-up from former Tele2 director Jean-Louis Constanza, which also has private-equity backing - offers unlimited subscriptions to MSN Messenger and mobile email for a flat fee using GPRS... Cingular Wireless Estimates Men Use More Mobile Minutes than Women in U.S. http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18329?11228 U.S. mobile operator Cingular Wireless has found that men used 16.2% more mobile calling minutes then women in 2006, among other results in its 2006 annual market research.Cingular Wireless’s market research was carried out with 1,016 adult customers (of which 48% were men and 52% were women), according to reports from PR Newswire.... Verizon Bets Big on Fiber Optic Overhaul http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18327?11228 Optical fiber -- strands of glass 15 times thinner than a human hair -- have been used by telecommunications companies over long-haul routes since the 1980s. Now, Verizon Communications Inc., is making a big and expensive bet on replacing the network of copper wires that has provided phone service since the 19th century with fiber, giving... The IP Telephony Business Value Gap: Top 10 Reasons Why Businesses Aren't Getting Full ROI From VoIP http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/110/18324?11228 This whitepaper explores the top ten causes of the IP telephony business value gap, including: Implementation of IP Telephony, Targeting of Enterprise solutions, Business case for IP Telephony, Pioneering third-party applications and Early-adopter experience. Additionally we explore what is not being done to fill this gap, including:... Court Upholds FCC on Broadband CALEA Compliance http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18317?11228 WASHINGTON — A U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that upheld the FCC’s decision to apply digital wiretapping rules to VoIP providers probably won’t significantly affect wireless carriers’ broadband wiretap capabilities, according to a CTIA representative. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of... Europe-Wide Wireless Network Planned http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18315?11228 The fact that home and office wireless networking is gaining momentum is hardly news. Municipal wireless networks are also on the fast track to widespread deployment, with numerous systems already in operation and many more planned. But what about wirelessly connecting an entire continent? Imperial College London is working on just such... Will Carphone Drive AOL U.K. Into Its Warehouse? http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18312?11228 Carphone Warehouse, which has been in the broadband business for a grand total of 60 days now, is being touted as a potential bidder for Time Warner's AOL U.K. subsidiary - a deal that could potentially approach $2 billion in what might be a high-stakes, three-way bidding contest. Also being touted as potential bidders for AOL... Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 12:11:51 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Franchise Rules Get a Makeover in Some Places USTelecom dailyLead June 12, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dNlYfDtutevEktUOxO TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Franchise rules get a makeover in some places BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Satcasters to launch broadband services * The evolution of the ISP * Qualcomm files patent complaint against Nokia * SingTel to invest $63M in quest to become top enterprise ISP in Asia USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Security Services from the Cloud HOT TOPICS * House approves nationwide video franchise system * IPTV poised to take TV world by storm * Verizon to pay $48.9M in class-action lawsuit * Huawei in deal to acquire Harbour Networks * Cable operators risk alienating customers in move to HDTV TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Analysis: Internet grabs viewers from local TV networks * Startup enhances UWB for home networks * France becoming a hotbed for converged services REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Court supports VoIP wiretapping * Q-and-A: Verizon's Tauke talks Net neutrality * Japan pressures NTT to trim fees Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dNlYfDtutevEktUOxO ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 21:13:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: IRS Laptop Lost With Data on 291 People By Christopher Lee Washington Post Staff Writer An Internal Revenue Service employee lost an agency laptop early last month that contained sensitive personal information on 291 workers and job applicants, a spokesman said yesterday. The IRS's Terry L. Lemons said the employee checked the laptop as luggage aboard a commercial flight while traveling to a job fair and never saw it again. The computer contained unencrypted names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and fingerprints of the employees and applicants, Lemons said. Slightly more than 100 of the people affected were IRS employees, he said. No tax return information was in the laptop, he said. "The data was not encrypted, but it was protected by a double-password system," Lemons said. "To get in to this personal data on there, you would have to have two separate passwords." Lemons said the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration is investigating the loss. The IRS is notifying affected individuals and advising them on steps to guard against identity theft. Lemons declined to name the airline or the employee, or to say whether the worker was disciplined, citing the ongoing investigation. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060701987.html ------------------------------ From: 3z3k3l Subject: Caution: Mobile Phone Text Message Scam! Date: 12 Jun 2006 08:46:53 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com This could happen to you; be careful: SMS SCAMS 24 Jan 2006, 03:04:39 PM Reporter: Helen Wellings They're telemarketer's dreams -- mobile phones generate fortunes for scammers. With around 20 million mobile phone users around Australia, those fraudsters can't lose. In fact complaints to the Telecommunications Ombudsman about bills for premium rate SMS's have tripled in the past year -- and text spams top the list. Gordon Renouf, of the Australian Consumers' Association, publishers of Choice magazine, warns "There's more and more of this kind of spam going to go out to consumers. It's only going to get worse unless the regulations are fixed up." The latest rackets attacking mobile users left, right and centre - offers of so-called "free" ringtones, "you've won a competition for a trip" scams and innocent-looking text messaging that tricks you into replying. "All the text messages were inviting and playful and much like a friend would text you that's really what got me in," says IT expert Steve Marr. He was intrigued by an SMS from someone say "Hi it's Susan. I'm back. Contact me." Thinking it was an old acquaintance just back from overseas, naturally he sent back a text message. "It came back with a very bizarre message saying "blonde hair blue eyes long legs. Does that help?" I thought I still don't know who this person is but they're having a lend of me. Someone's got a sense of humour I'll play along." After a few text messages, he discovered he couldn't make a call from his prepaid mobile, even though he'd just bought $30 worth of credit. Steve was scammed! By replying to the message, he'd automatically become a subscriber to a chat service. Every time the service messages him, it costs him $4 up; his replies cost him 50 cents. Source: http://www.pbxinfo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18067 So don't reply to any Text Message you get unless you know the person for sure or you could be signing up for a chat service and not know it! ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Organization: I Kill Spammers, inc. Subject: Re: Political Telemarketing Calls Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 01:05:13 GMT John David Galt wrote: > mc wrote: >> This is a conversation I've had with various people at various times: >> "Maybe you've found a loophole in the Do Not Call List. But do you >> remember *why* there's a Do Not Call List? You don't get business >> (votes, etc.) by bothering people when they don't want to be >> bothered!" > I wonder how many of the "Westly calls" were by his opponent's > campaign, *hoping* to piss you off? The ones that I got were from his election committee, located in West Los Angeles, I check the CID number with a network friend of mine with Verizon, who I had worked with before I retired from GTE; though it could have been forged. The other number was from a company that they had contracted to call, they were located in Beaverton, Or. I plan on exacting revenge from them in a month when I go back up there for a contact job. How about all of their phones ringing all at once with no interrupt. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 19:17:15 -0700 From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Connecticut OKs Plan by AT&T to Offer TV Without a Franchise Neal McLain wrote: > On June 2, 2003, Higdon wrote [22:492]: >> Uh huh. We have been hearing this for decades from the half-dozen >> companies who have bought the system and then continue to milk the >> revenue out of the sixties technology. Comcast is just the latest >> in long line of empty promise providers. > On June 3, 2003, I wrote [22:495]: >> Well, I don't think either of us can predict the future. So here's >> a suggestion: mark your calendar for June 4, 2004, and post an >> update then on Comcast's progress. > Unless I missed something, Higdon didn't post an update in June 2004 > or June 2005. So, Mr. Higdon, how about posting an update for us in > June 2006? Well, here it is: The wrangling between the San Jose city government and Comcast faded into the woodwork after Comcast proclaimed to the media, in essence, "We're bigger than the city of San Jose. What are they going to do, make us take it all down?" Over the last three years, Comcast has upgraded parts of the old Gill/Heritage/TCI/AT&T system so that at least most of San Jose has, in addition to standard TV service, Comcast's brand of Internet connectivity. A major disappointment has been my own area, which was one of the first of those in which Pacific Bell built its ADN (Advanced Digital Network), the system that Ed Whitacre shut down immediately after SBC acquired Pacific Telesis. The network had been fully operational, providing digital phone service (fully switched 64Kbps, not VOIP) as well as digital video service. It was something to behold. Some time in 2004, Comcast purchased that dark network and vowed to bring it up to upgrade cable service in those areas in which it had been originally constructed by PB. Apparently, all they did was glue enough of it together to provide Internet service in addition to cable TV and nothing more. As of this moment, Comcast does not offer phone service in my neighborhood, but does offer it in San Francisco. That's about it. Comcast pays no attention to the San Jose city government, and San Jose remains the most expensive service and least equipped facility in the bay region. Their Internet service is nearly the same price as Speakeasy DSL, which has far better service and far fewer restrictions than Comcast. TV service (which is not as full-featured as DirecTV) costs about twenty percent more than the satellite provider. The bottom line is that you were right: none of us can predict the future. I had no idea that Comcast would just tell San Jose to buzz off ... and get away with it. Comcast has made some incremental improvements here in the south bay, but honestly, they're nothing to write home about. And the prices are outrageous. So that's pretty much the state of things, cable-wise in the "heart" of Silicon Valley! John Higdon 408 266-4400 ------------------------------ From: Sam Spade Subject: Re: Beware of VONAGE! Don't Sign up! I Wish Someone Had Warned Me Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 06:17:47 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Big D wrote: > I just ordered Vonage and I *reeeeeally* wish I hadn't done that. > Suddenly, I am having problems with internet and I've had the same > internet service for whole two years with no problems at all. I talked > to two inarticulate women in India who tried to help but couldn't. I > spent 40 minutes talking to them and another 40 minutes waiting on > hold to talk to someone else. > At this point, I'm just trying to cancel it, which is NOT EASY to say > the least. > I wish I read the 28 PAGES OF COMPLAINTS AGAINST Vonage on > http://www.consumeraffairs.com (I never would have ordered this stupid > service.) > Don't do it! > Tell others about it! > I wish someone had warned me! Well, boo hoo. I have had Vonage since its inception and haven't had any problems with it and my broadband service. That includes cable and two DSL installations during that time. ------------------------------ From: 3z3k3l Subject: Re: beware of VONAGE! Don't sign up! I whish someone had warned me... Date: 12 Jun 2006 08:43:40 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Big D wrote: > I just ordered Vonage and I *reeeeeally* wish I hadn't done that. > Suddenly, I am having problems with internet and I've had the same > internet service for whole two years with no problems at all. I talked > to two inarticulate women in India who tried to help but couldn't. I > spent 40 minutes talking to them and another 40 minutes waiting on > hold to talk to someone else. > At this point, I'm just trying to cancel it, which is NOT EASY to say > the least. > I wish I read the 28 PAGES OF COMPLAINTS AGAINST Vonage on > http://www.consumeraffairs.com (I never would have ordered this stupid > service.) > Don't do it! > Tell others about it! > I wish someone had warned me! I have Vonage and have used it for 3 months with Zero issues. I am in Tx and using Verizon Fios for internet access. Not having to worry about local or long distance calls is so nice! Vonage doesn't control your internet it rides it. Have you talked to your ISP to see if they can look at the issue from their end? ========== Rix http://www.pbxinfo.com ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: VoIP Security Alert: Hackers Now Working VOIP For Cash Date: 12 Jun 2006 09:09:56 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com J. Nicholas Hoover wrote: > IP phone crooks are learning how to rake in the dough. An owner of two > small Miami voice-over-IP telephone companies was arrested last week > and charged with making more than $1 million by breaking into > third-party VoIP services and routing calls through their lines. That > let him collect from customers without paying any fees to route calls. Since VOIP is a relatively new feature, I would've thought the providers had built in extensive security features to prevent hackers and other sabotage attacks. Another area of concern is intercepting calls, that is, developing logs of who called whom and listening in to conversations. I find it ironic that when the govt does this it's front page news and raise the outrage of so many people. But when a criminal exploits inherent and apparently obvious weaknesses in the Internet, it's a yawner. Sorry, but I'm more worried about criminals listening in to my phone calls than the govt. > Prosecutors claim he paid $20,000 to Spokane, > Wash., resident Robert Moore, to help send VoIP telecoms millions of > test calls, guessing at proprietary prefixes encoded on packet > headers. Eventually, the right one gave them access. How (though what internet access points, computer resources, etc) did the hackers generate "'millions' of test calls"? Presumably ISPs, even those providing professional services, have limits on traffic coming out of a short time. (Mine has very low limits to prevent spammers). Also, most computers shut off access after a few unsuccessful log on attempts (like 3 [THREE]). After "millions" of hits, shouldn't the computer have blocked access or raised a warning to a human operator? This isn't only necessary for security, but also reliability--suppose a failed computer someone else is in an "infinite loop" and sending out calls repeatedly. Without protection (ie a "circurit breaker"), the networks will get flooded. Power systems have physical circuit breakers to isolate faults that could damage equipment. These go off fairly often, but there is redundant lines so troubles are rare. It seems the Internet should have 'logical circuit breakers' to do the same thing for protection. This is one of my concerns about the safety and security of the Internet. If anyone can just get on and send out millions of transactions unchecked by any protocol, the risk for disruption is extremely great. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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'. 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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 V25 #223 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jun 13 17:48:06 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 07A0F15380; Tue, 13 Jun 2006 17:48:05 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #224 Message-Id: <20060613214805.07A0F15380@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 17:48:05 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 13 Jun 2006 17:38:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 224 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Deal on Net Neutrality in US Senate is Elusive (Reuters News Wire) The Future of the Internet (Washington Post Editorial) Worm Attacks Yahoo Email (Reuters News Wire) Cellular-News: Tuesday 13th June 2006 (Cellular-News) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 13, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Report: Broadband Growth to Double in Next Five Years (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Beware of VONAGE! Don't Sign up! I Wish Someone had Warned (R Hassan) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Deal on Net Neutrality in US Senate is Elusive Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 15:38:48 -0500 The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee so far has been unable to reach a compromise on Internet network neutrality, a week before the panel is supposed to vote on it as part of a broader communications reform bill, Senate aides said on Monday. Internet content companies like Google Inc. want lawmakers to bar high-speed Internet broadband providers like Verizon Communications from charging more to guarantee access and service quality, an issue dubbed "Net neutrality." Broadband providers have countered that they have no intention of blocking consumers' access to public Internet sites, but do want to offer private Internet-based services that have faster download speeds for uses such as movies. Sen. Ted Stevens, the committee chairman and an Alaska Republican proposed on May 1 studying the issue. The top Democrat on the panel, Sen. Daniel Inouye (news, bio, voting record) of Hawaii, and others have pressed for more extensive protections. One possible compromise on Net neutrality could be adopting language approved last week by the U.S. House of Representatives bill, according to one committee aide. It gave the Federal Communications Commission the authority to enforce principles the agency backed last year. Those principles called on broadband providers to provide consumers unfettered access to Internet content and permit them to use whatever legal applications and services that are available. "I think that's the one issue where we still have some work to do," Lisa Sutherland, chief of staff to Stevens, told reporters. "We're going to work as hard as we can this week on Net neutrality." "Whatever the committee does on Net neutrality I assume it will be re-litigated on the floor," she said. The provisions are part of a larger bill aimed at overhauling U.S. communications laws, including making it easier for Verizon and AT&T Inc., traditionally telephone companies, to enter the subscription television business. The Senate committee issued a revised version of the legislation on Monday and is scheduled to begin considering and voting on any amendments to the bill on June 20. "The majority has made some noteworthy revisions but there's still substantial room for improvements, particularly in areas like Net neutrality," said Andy Davis, a spokesman for the Democrats on the committee. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines each day, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Washington Post Editorial Staff Subject: The Future of the Internet Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 15:41:19 -0500 The Internet's Future: Congress should stay out of cyberspace. THE SENATE will hold hearings tomorrow on "net neutrality," the idea that the pipes and wires that form the Internet should treat all content equally. An alliance whose membership ranges from the Christian Coalition to MoveOn.org is demanding that Congress write this neutrality into law; the groups fear that the pipe owners -- cable companies, phone companies and so on -- might otherwise deliver corporate content at high speed for high fees, while consigning political Web sites and hobbyists to a slow information byway. These arguments are amplified by the big Internet firms -- Google, Microsoft, eBay -- that want their services delivered fast but don't want the pipe owners to extract fees from them. Although this coalition lost a House vote last week, its prospects are stronger in the Senate. (The Washington Post Co. owns broadband networks that might charge Web sites for fast delivery. It also produces Web content that might be subject to such fees, so it has interests on both sides of this issue.) The advocates of neutrality suggest, absurdly, that a non-neutral Internet would resemble cable TV: a medium through which only corporate content is delivered. This analogy misses the fact that the market for Internet connections, unlike that for cable television, is competitive: More than 60 percent of Zip codes in the United States are served by four or more broadband providers that compete to give consumers what they want -- fast access to the full range of Web sites, including those of their kids' soccer league, their cousins' photos, MoveOn.org and the Christian Coalition. If one broadband provider slowed access to fringe bloggers, the blogosphere would rise up in protest -- and the provider would lose customers. The cable TV analogy is doubly wrong because media culture reflects technology. Cable TV has been the province of Hollywood studios because making a sitcom is expensive and hard -- though, with cheap digital camcorders, this is changing. Equally, the Internet is the province of experimenters and hobbyists because creating your own Web site is cheap and easy. Thanks to technology, the Internet will always be a relatively democratic medium with low barriers to entry. The serious argument for net neutrality has nothing to do with the cable TV boogeyman. It's that a non-neutral net will raise barriers to entry just slightly -- but enough to be alarming. To use a far better analogy: Competitive supermarkets aim to please customers by offering all kinds of goods, but the inventor of a new snack has to go through the hassle of negotiating for display space and may wind up on the bottom shelf, which dampens his incentives. Equally, if the owners of Internet pipes delivered the services of cyber-upstarts more slowly than those of cyber-incumbents, the incentive to innovate might suffer. Would instant messaging or Internet telephony have taken off if their inventors had had to plead with broadband firms to carry them? This concern should not be exaggerated. Cyber-upstarts already face barriers: The incumbents have brand recognition and invest in tricks to make their sites load faster. The extra barrier created by a lack of net neutrality would probably be small because the pipe owners know that consumers want access to innovators. Meanwhile, there are powerful arguments on the other side. If you want innovation on the Internet, you need better pipes: ones that are faster, less susceptible to hackers and spammers, or smarter in ways that nobody has yet thought of. The lack of incentives for pipe innovation is more pressing than the lack of incentives to create new Web services. You can see this imbalance in Wall Street's low valuation of Internet infrastructure firms such as Verizon (price-to-earnings ratio: 12) and its infatuation with Internet service firms such as Google (price-to-earnings ratio: 69). You can see it, too, in the fact that U.S. broadband infrastructure lags behind that of East Asia and Europe. Allowing builders of Internet infrastructure to recoup their investment by charging the Googles and Amazons for use of their network would balance the incentives for innovation more closely. Ironically, a non-neutral net would accelerate the spread of zippy broadband that can deliver movies, allowing hobbyists with camcorders to take on Hollywood studios. The neutrality advocates who criticize corporatized cable TV should welcome that. The weakest aspect of the neutrality case is that the dangers it alleges are speculative. It seems unlikely that broadband providers will degrade Web services that people want and far more likely that they will use non-neutrality to charge for upgrading services that depend on fast and reliable delivery, such as streaming high-definition video or relaying data from heart monitors. If this proves wrong, the government should step in. But it should not burden the Internet with preemptive regulation. Copyright 2006 The Washington Post Company ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Worm Attacks Yahoo Email Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 15:43:43 -0500 Yahoo Inc. , the world's largest provider of e-mail services, said on Monday that a software virus aimed at Yahoo Mail users had infected "a very small fraction" of its base of more than 200 million accounts. The e-mail virus, or worm, has been dubbed Yamanner and landed in Yahoo mailboxes bearing the headline "New Graphic Site." Once opened, the message infects the computer and spreads to other users listed in Yahoo users' e-mail address books, security experts said. The e-mail containing the virus need only be opened -- in contrast to most worms that are hidden in attachments and require users to take an additional step -- to release the virus, according to computer security site Symantec Corp.. The Sunnyvale, California-based company advised users to update virus and firewall software on their computers and to block any e-mail sent from the address "av3@yahoo.com." "We have taken steps to resolve the issue and protect our users from further attacks of this worm," Yahoo spokeswoman Kelley Podboy said in a statement. "When we learn of e-mail abuse, such as a worm or other online threat, we take appropriate action," she said. "(A) solution has been automatically distributed to all Yahoo Mail customers, and requires no additional action on the part of the user." Yamanner, first detected by Yahoo and major computer anti-virus software makers earlier on Monday, was ranked as having a low threat level by Trend Micro Inc. and McAfee Inc. But Symantec considers the worm an "elevated threat," one step up from the lowest ranking in terms of relative danger. Symantec's Security Response site suggested Yahoo Mail users might protect themselves by upgrading to the latest test version of the recently upgraded Yahoo Mail software. "The worm cannot run on the newest version of Yahoo Mail Beta," Symantec's site said. A Yahoo spokesman was not immediately available to comment on whether the company advised users to do this. The worm exploits a vulnerability in Javascript technology used to make the mail program easier to use by triggering embedded HTML scripts to run in the computer user's browser. The e-mail addresses are also sent to a remote online computer server, which may be used to run spam campaigns, experts said. The technical name of the worm goes by variants of "JS.Yamanner." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines each day, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html (also) http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News: Tuesday 13th June 2006 Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 07:24:47 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com ====================================================================== [[ 3G ]] Comtech Wins Chinese 3G Standard Contract http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17763.php Comtech Group says that it has won a significant design contract for a TD-SCDMA infrastructure solution from China's Datang Telecom Technology. TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) is China's proprietary 3G mobile teleco... 3G Consultation in India http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17766.php India's government has sought recommendations from the Telecoms Authority of India (TRAI) on the methodology for allotment of spectrum for 3G services and its pricing aspects. Following this, TRAI has released the consultation paper to facilitate dis... [[ Financial ]] Iusacell denied special tax exemption request http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17756.php Mexico's supreme court has thrown out an appeal by the country's third largest mobile operator Iusacell to receive special tax exemption, local daily El Financiero reported. ... Elektrim: Deutsche Telekom Exercises Call On PTC Shares http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17759.php Poland's conglomerate Elektrim said Monday that Deutsche Telecom has exercised its call option on shares in the mobile operator, Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa. ... UPDATE: Elektrim Says Deutsche Telekom Now Controls PTC http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17760.php Polish conglomerate Elektrim, Monday said Deutsche Telekom has taken control of Poland's largest mobile operator in the latest move in a three-way dispute that also involves French media group Vivendi. ... Ericsson Sells Defense Division http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17764.php Ericsson has announced that it is selling its defense business division to Sweden's Saab for US$512 million. Ericsson is selling Ericsson Microwave Systems, and its 40% holding in Saab Ericsson Space, while retaining its National Security and Public ... [[ Handsets ]] Wireless Users Say They Need More Information When Shopping for Cell Service http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17761.php Americans buying wireless service want more information that's easy to understand, according to survey results released by Consumer Action, a national non-profit education and advocacy organization. Sixty-one percent of 1,001 randomly selected adult ... Motorola RAZR Tops the List of Most Researched Wireless Phones http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17762.php comScore Networks has released an analysis of the online research and purchase behavior of US consumers in the wireless phone market. comScore revealed that consumers were most likely to research newly released and "trendy" models, with the... Let the Parents Track You Everywhere ... or Lose that Mobile Phone http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17770.php Verizon Wireless, the second largest mobile operator in the United States, has launched a child tracking service called Chaperone. ABI Research believes that despite current limitations in infrastructure and technology, attaching child-tracking capab... [[ Legal ]] Qualcomm Files Complaint Against Nokia With ITC http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17758.php Qualcomm's legal clashings with Nokia, which have become more bitter over the past few months, have heated up again. ... [[ Messaging ]] TIM, Vivo, Claro enable Microsoft's MSN Messenger http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17757.php Brazil's three largest mobile phone operators TIM, Vivo and Claro have signed an agreement with Microsoft to allow their users to receive and send instant text messages, reported local newspaper Gazeta Mercantil. ... Indian Vendor Secures SMSC Order http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17765.php India's Bharti Telesoft says that it has secured its 25th order for the Short Message Service Center (SMSC) from the Indian GSM network operator, Airtel to become the leading vendor of SMSC solutions for the operator. Bharti Telesoft secured the 25th... [[ Network Contracts ]] Nokia Gets GSM Order In British Virgin Islands http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17755.php Finland's Nokia, Monday said its has signed a agreement with telecommunications company Cable & Wireless to expand their existing global agreement to include the supply and deployment of a GSM network in the British Virgin Islands. ... [[ Offbeat ]] A Perfume for Sophisticated Phone Users http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17768.php Mobiado, luxury mobile phones manufacture, in cooperation with Bissol, manufacturer of luxury fragrances says that they are launching a perfume - designed specifically for, as they put it -� the sophisticated luxury mobile phone user.... [[ Regulatory ]] Telecom Egypt Group Gets Technical OK For Egypt License http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17754.php Telecom Egypt announced Monday that its consortium with Telecom Italia has been qualified by the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) for the technical component of its bid for Egypt's third mobile license. The consortium is one of... [[ Reports ]] Hurricane Katrina Still Affecting Cellphone Usage http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17769.php Telephia reports that monthly mobile usage in the Houston and New Orleans metropolitan areas grew by more than 250 minutes between Q1 2005 and Q1 2006. Data from Telephia's Customer Value Metrics research panel shows that average monthly voice minute... Moroccans Still Prefer Payphones for International Calls http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17771.php While Morocco's GSM penetration exceeded 40% in 2005, some 80% of GSM users are still using payphones for national calls. A new Arab Advisors Group major survey of GSM users across Morocco avails deep insights into the usage habits of this predominat... Family and Prepaid Plans Continue to Drive Growth in the United States http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17772.php Yankee Group says that family plans are a driving growth factor in the North American mobile market. In the United States, family plans continue to have appeal, with 54% of adult postpaid users on a family plan, up from 49% in 2005. Comparatively, 81... [[ Statistics ]] Subscriber Gains Continue for North American Wireless Industry http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17773.php Youth, family and reseller plans are driving strong gains in gross additions for the North American wireless industry as industry trends experienced in 2005 continue through Q1 of 2006, according to Fitch Ratings. Postpaid churn showed further improv... [[ Technology ]] Remote GSM picocell solution with satellite backhaul http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17767.php ip.access says that its nanoGSM picocell solution has successfully completed testing for interoperability with VSAT satellite equipment from iDirect, the satellite-based broadband access solutions developer. ip.access has joined iDirect's IP Alliance... ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 13, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 11:51:53 -0400 (EDT) ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 13, 2006 ******************************** Qualcomm Files Patent Complaints vs. Nokia http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18360?11228 NEW YORK -- Qualcomm Inc.'s legal clashes with Nokia Corp., which have become more bitter over the past few months, have heated up again. In a complaint filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission on Friday, San Diego-based Qualcomm alleged that the Finnish wireless manufacturer infringed on six Qualcomm... EU Revises Roaming Charge Proposal http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18358?11228 The regulatory dispute over roaming charges within Europe appears to be nearing a conclusion, following a European Commission statement that a proposal on the topic is undergoing a final internal consultation. The European Union (EU) had aimed to cap charges on mobile calls abroad. Now it seems likely that the roaming cost for local ... Voitel Aims to Increase 2006 Revenues by 25-30% Y/Y in Brazil http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18356?11228 The Brazilian subsidiary of U.S. VoIP company Voitel has announced that it aims to grow its 2006 revenues by 25-30% year-on-year (y/y) according to CEO Pedro Suchodolski, quoted by Business News Americas. Voitel Brazil grew revenues by 23% in 2005. Eighty-five per cent of its 2005 revenues were from VoIP services, the remainder from... Reliance Plans US$326 mil. Investment for GSM Network Expansion http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18354?11228 Reliance Telecom, the GSM business unit of Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd. (Reliance), plans to invest 15 billion rupees to significantly expand its GSM network coverage in its existing telecoms circles, according to Dow Jones reports citing a company executive. The investment will be made in the eight circles of Kolkata, West... Verizon Offers Families a Chaperone http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18352?11228 Verizon Wireless became the latest carrier to add a family tracking service to its portfolio. The company today debuts Chaperone, a service designed to help parents locate their young children. There are two components to Chaperone. Child Locator helps parents locate children who are outfitted with the LG Migo phone. The service... Norway Gets ADSL2+,'ADSL Mini' http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18350?11228 Telenor launched what it calls its second generation of broadband services as it looks to tighten its grip on the Norwegian broadband market. The carrier is using ADSL+2 to offer as much as 16 Mb/s service and at the same time coming up with what it is calling 'ADSL Mini' that extends the distance from a central office at... Lightbridge Intros Service http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18347?11228 BURLINGTON, Mass. -- Lightbridge, Inc. (NASDAQ: LTBG - message board), a leading e-commerce, analytics and decisioning company, today announced it has implemented its new Enhanced Disaster Recovery service to all its Telecom Decisioning Services (TDS) clients. The configuration will provide clients with increased data protection,... WiMax Telecom Names COO http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18344?11228 VIENNA -- WiMAX Telecom Group, the world's only multinational operator of WiMax services, is centralizing its Operations unit and has appointed Bela Virag (31) as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the entire company. WiMAX Telecom Group, Europe's largest WiMax network operator, has decided to centralize its... Lawsuits Could Nuke Network DVR http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18342?11228 Despite the way it may look, the growing legal battle between Cablevision Systems and nine Hollywood studios and TV networks over a proposed new digital video recorder service really isn't about the DVR. Rather, the recent spate of federal lawsuits and countersuits over Cablevision's proposed network-based DVR (nDVR) service... Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 12:24:52 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Report: Broadband Growth to Double Over Next Five Years USTelecom dailyLead June 13, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dNykfDtutewDhhDHMO TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Report: Broadband growth to double over next five years BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Battle for TV subscribers could hinge on HD * Google application aims to link Web, TV * Insight Research chief peers into crystal ball * Embarq launches wireless services, receives mini-tender offer USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * CALEA Compliance: Behind the recent FCC Order TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Faster Wi-Fi slow to reach market REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Connecticut franchise ruling may hit roadblock * Analysis: Debate over in-flight mobile services could intensify Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dNykfDtutewDhhDHMO ------------------------------ From: Raqueeb Hassan Subject: Re: Beware of VONAGE! Don't Sign Up! I Wish Someone Had Warned Me Date: 13 Jun 2006 11:10:04 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com 3z3k3l wrote: > Big D wrote: >> I just ordered Vonage and I *reeeeeally* wish I hadn't done that. >> Suddenly, I am having problems with internet and I've had the same >> internet service for whole two years with no problems at all. Did you talk to your ISP regarding the Vonage service? Do they allow it? I think your ISP has some issues with your Vonage service. Raqueeb Hassan Bangladesh ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V25 #224 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jun 13 17:48:06 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 07A0F15380; Tue, 13 Jun 2006 17:48:05 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #224 Message-Id: <20060613214805.07A0F15380@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 17:48:05 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 13 Jun 2006 17:38:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 224 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Deal on Net Neutrality in US Senate is Elusive (Reuters News Wire) The Future of the Internet (Washington Post Editorial) Worm Attacks Yahoo Email (Reuters News Wire) Cellular-News: Tuesday 13th June 2006 (Cellular-News) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 13, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Report: Broadband Growth to Double in Next Five Years (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Beware of VONAGE! Don't Sign up! I Wish Someone had Warned (R Hassan) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Deal on Net Neutrality in US Senate is Elusive Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 15:38:48 -0500 The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee so far has been unable to reach a compromise on Internet network neutrality, a week before the panel is supposed to vote on it as part of a broader communications reform bill, Senate aides said on Monday. Internet content companies like Google Inc. want lawmakers to bar high-speed Internet broadband providers like Verizon Communications from charging more to guarantee access and service quality, an issue dubbed "Net neutrality." Broadband providers have countered that they have no intention of blocking consumers' access to public Internet sites, but do want to offer private Internet-based services that have faster download speeds for uses such as movies. Sen. Ted Stevens, the committee chairman and an Alaska Republican proposed on May 1 studying the issue. The top Democrat on the panel, Sen. Daniel Inouye (news, bio, voting record) of Hawaii, and others have pressed for more extensive protections. One possible compromise on Net neutrality could be adopting language approved last week by the U.S. House of Representatives bill, according to one committee aide. It gave the Federal Communications Commission the authority to enforce principles the agency backed last year. Those principles called on broadband providers to provide consumers unfettered access to Internet content and permit them to use whatever legal applications and services that are available. "I think that's the one issue where we still have some work to do," Lisa Sutherland, chief of staff to Stevens, told reporters. "We're going to work as hard as we can this week on Net neutrality." "Whatever the committee does on Net neutrality I assume it will be re-litigated on the floor," she said. The provisions are part of a larger bill aimed at overhauling U.S. communications laws, including making it easier for Verizon and AT&T Inc., traditionally telephone companies, to enter the subscription television business. The Senate committee issued a revised version of the legislation on Monday and is scheduled to begin considering and voting on any amendments to the bill on June 20. "The majority has made some noteworthy revisions but there's still substantial room for improvements, particularly in areas like Net neutrality," said Andy Davis, a spokesman for the Democrats on the committee. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines each day, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Washington Post Editorial Staff Subject: The Future of the Internet Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 15:41:19 -0500 The Internet's Future: Congress should stay out of cyberspace. THE SENATE will hold hearings tomorrow on "net neutrality," the idea that the pipes and wires that form the Internet should treat all content equally. An alliance whose membership ranges from the Christian Coalition to MoveOn.org is demanding that Congress write this neutrality into law; the groups fear that the pipe owners -- cable companies, phone companies and so on -- might otherwise deliver corporate content at high speed for high fees, while consigning political Web sites and hobbyists to a slow information byway. These arguments are amplified by the big Internet firms -- Google, Microsoft, eBay -- that want their services delivered fast but don't want the pipe owners to extract fees from them. Although this coalition lost a House vote last week, its prospects are stronger in the Senate. (The Washington Post Co. owns broadband networks that might charge Web sites for fast delivery. It also produces Web content that might be subject to such fees, so it has interests on both sides of this issue.) The advocates of neutrality suggest, absurdly, that a non-neutral Internet would resemble cable TV: a medium through which only corporate content is delivered. This analogy misses the fact that the market for Internet connections, unlike that for cable television, is competitive: More than 60 percent of Zip codes in the United States are served by four or more broadband providers that compete to give consumers what they want -- fast access to the full range of Web sites, including those of their kids' soccer league, their cousins' photos, MoveOn.org and the Christian Coalition. If one broadband provider slowed access to fringe bloggers, the blogosphere would rise up in protest -- and the provider would lose customers. The cable TV analogy is doubly wrong because media culture reflects technology. Cable TV has been the province of Hollywood studios because making a sitcom is expensive and hard -- though, with cheap digital camcorders, this is changing. Equally, the Internet is the province of experimenters and hobbyists because creating your own Web site is cheap and easy. Thanks to technology, the Internet will always be a relatively democratic medium with low barriers to entry. The serious argument for net neutrality has nothing to do with the cable TV boogeyman. It's that a non-neutral net will raise barriers to entry just slightly -- but enough to be alarming. To use a far better analogy: Competitive supermarkets aim to please customers by offering all kinds of goods, but the inventor of a new snack has to go through the hassle of negotiating for display space and may wind up on the bottom shelf, which dampens his incentives. Equally, if the owners of Internet pipes delivered the services of cyber-upstarts more slowly than those of cyber-incumbents, the incentive to innovate might suffer. Would instant messaging or Internet telephony have taken off if their inventors had had to plead with broadband firms to carry them? This concern should not be exaggerated. Cyber-upstarts already face barriers: The incumbents have brand recognition and invest in tricks to make their sites load faster. The extra barrier created by a lack of net neutrality would probably be small because the pipe owners know that consumers want access to innovators. Meanwhile, there are powerful arguments on the other side. If you want innovation on the Internet, you need better pipes: ones that are faster, less susceptible to hackers and spammers, or smarter in ways that nobody has yet thought of. The lack of incentives for pipe innovation is more pressing than the lack of incentives to create new Web services. You can see this imbalance in Wall Street's low valuation of Internet infrastructure firms such as Verizon (price-to-earnings ratio: 12) and its infatuation with Internet service firms such as Google (price-to-earnings ratio: 69). You can see it, too, in the fact that U.S. broadband infrastructure lags behind that of East Asia and Europe. Allowing builders of Internet infrastructure to recoup their investment by charging the Googles and Amazons for use of their network would balance the incentives for innovation more closely. Ironically, a non-neutral net would accelerate the spread of zippy broadband that can deliver movies, allowing hobbyists with camcorders to take on Hollywood studios. The neutrality advocates who criticize corporatized cable TV should welcome that. The weakest aspect of the neutrality case is that the dangers it alleges are speculative. It seems unlikely that broadband providers will degrade Web services that people want and far more likely that they will use non-neutrality to charge for upgrading services that depend on fast and reliable delivery, such as streaming high-definition video or relaying data from heart monitors. If this proves wrong, the government should step in. But it should not burden the Internet with preemptive regulation. Copyright 2006 The Washington Post Company ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Worm Attacks Yahoo Email Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 15:43:43 -0500 Yahoo Inc. , the world's largest provider of e-mail services, said on Monday that a software virus aimed at Yahoo Mail users had infected "a very small fraction" of its base of more than 200 million accounts. The e-mail virus, or worm, has been dubbed Yamanner and landed in Yahoo mailboxes bearing the headline "New Graphic Site." Once opened, the message infects the computer and spreads to other users listed in Yahoo users' e-mail address books, security experts said. The e-mail containing the virus need only be opened -- in contrast to most worms that are hidden in attachments and require users to take an additional step -- to release the virus, according to computer security site Symantec Corp.. The Sunnyvale, California-based company advised users to update virus and firewall software on their computers and to block any e-mail sent from the address "av3@yahoo.com." "We have taken steps to resolve the issue and protect our users from further attacks of this worm," Yahoo spokeswoman Kelley Podboy said in a statement. "When we learn of e-mail abuse, such as a worm or other online threat, we take appropriate action," she said. "(A) solution has been automatically distributed to all Yahoo Mail customers, and requires no additional action on the part of the user." Yamanner, first detected by Yahoo and major computer anti-virus software makers earlier on Monday, was ranked as having a low threat level by Trend Micro Inc. and McAfee Inc. But Symantec considers the worm an "elevated threat," one step up from the lowest ranking in terms of relative danger. Symantec's Security Response site suggested Yahoo Mail users might protect themselves by upgrading to the latest test version of the recently upgraded Yahoo Mail software. "The worm cannot run on the newest version of Yahoo Mail Beta," Symantec's site said. A Yahoo spokesman was not immediately available to comment on whether the company advised users to do this. The worm exploits a vulnerability in Javascript technology used to make the mail program easier to use by triggering embedded HTML scripts to run in the computer user's browser. The e-mail addresses are also sent to a remote online computer server, which may be used to run spam campaigns, experts said. The technical name of the worm goes by variants of "JS.Yamanner." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines each day, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html (also) http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News: Tuesday 13th June 2006 Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 07:24:47 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com ====================================================================== [[ 3G ]] Comtech Wins Chinese 3G Standard Contract http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17763.php Comtech Group says that it has won a significant design contract for a TD-SCDMA infrastructure solution from China's Datang Telecom Technology. TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) is China's proprietary 3G mobile teleco... 3G Consultation in India http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17766.php India's government has sought recommendations from the Telecoms Authority of India (TRAI) on the methodology for allotment of spectrum for 3G services and its pricing aspects. Following this, TRAI has released the consultation paper to facilitate dis... [[ Financial ]] Iusacell denied special tax exemption request http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17756.php Mexico's supreme court has thrown out an appeal by the country's third largest mobile operator Iusacell to receive special tax exemption, local daily El Financiero reported. ... Elektrim: Deutsche Telekom Exercises Call On PTC Shares http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17759.php Poland's conglomerate Elektrim said Monday that Deutsche Telecom has exercised its call option on shares in the mobile operator, Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa. ... UPDATE: Elektrim Says Deutsche Telekom Now Controls PTC http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17760.php Polish conglomerate Elektrim, Monday said Deutsche Telekom has taken control of Poland's largest mobile operator in the latest move in a three-way dispute that also involves French media group Vivendi. ... Ericsson Sells Defense Division http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17764.php Ericsson has announced that it is selling its defense business division to Sweden's Saab for US$512 million. Ericsson is selling Ericsson Microwave Systems, and its 40% holding in Saab Ericsson Space, while retaining its National Security and Public ... [[ Handsets ]] Wireless Users Say They Need More Information When Shopping for Cell Service http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17761.php Americans buying wireless service want more information that's easy to understand, according to survey results released by Consumer Action, a national non-profit education and advocacy organization. Sixty-one percent of 1,001 randomly selected adult ... Motorola RAZR Tops the List of Most Researched Wireless Phones http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17762.php comScore Networks has released an analysis of the online research and purchase behavior of US consumers in the wireless phone market. comScore revealed that consumers were most likely to research newly released and "trendy" models, with the... Let the Parents Track You Everywhere ... or Lose that Mobile Phone http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17770.php Verizon Wireless, the second largest mobile operator in the United States, has launched a child tracking service called Chaperone. ABI Research believes that despite current limitations in infrastructure and technology, attaching child-tracking capab... [[ Legal ]] Qualcomm Files Complaint Against Nokia With ITC http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17758.php Qualcomm's legal clashings with Nokia, which have become more bitter over the past few months, have heated up again. ... [[ Messaging ]] TIM, Vivo, Claro enable Microsoft's MSN Messenger http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17757.php Brazil's three largest mobile phone operators TIM, Vivo and Claro have signed an agreement with Microsoft to allow their users to receive and send instant text messages, reported local newspaper Gazeta Mercantil. ... Indian Vendor Secures SMSC Order http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17765.php India's Bharti Telesoft says that it has secured its 25th order for the Short Message Service Center (SMSC) from the Indian GSM network operator, Airtel to become the leading vendor of SMSC solutions for the operator. Bharti Telesoft secured the 25th... [[ Network Contracts ]] Nokia Gets GSM Order In British Virgin Islands http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17755.php Finland's Nokia, Monday said its has signed a agreement with telecommunications company Cable & Wireless to expand their existing global agreement to include the supply and deployment of a GSM network in the British Virgin Islands. ... [[ Offbeat ]] A Perfume for Sophisticated Phone Users http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17768.php Mobiado, luxury mobile phones manufacture, in cooperation with Bissol, manufacturer of luxury fragrances says that they are launching a perfume - designed specifically for, as they put it -� the sophisticated luxury mobile phone user.... [[ Regulatory ]] Telecom Egypt Group Gets Technical OK For Egypt License http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17754.php Telecom Egypt announced Monday that its consortium with Telecom Italia has been qualified by the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) for the technical component of its bid for Egypt's third mobile license. The consortium is one of... [[ Reports ]] Hurricane Katrina Still Affecting Cellphone Usage http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17769.php Telephia reports that monthly mobile usage in the Houston and New Orleans metropolitan areas grew by more than 250 minutes between Q1 2005 and Q1 2006. Data from Telephia's Customer Value Metrics research panel shows that average monthly voice minute... Moroccans Still Prefer Payphones for International Calls http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17771.php While Morocco's GSM penetration exceeded 40% in 2005, some 80% of GSM users are still using payphones for national calls. A new Arab Advisors Group major survey of GSM users across Morocco avails deep insights into the usage habits of this predominat... Family and Prepaid Plans Continue to Drive Growth in the United States http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17772.php Yankee Group says that family plans are a driving growth factor in the North American mobile market. In the United States, family plans continue to have appeal, with 54% of adult postpaid users on a family plan, up from 49% in 2005. Comparatively, 81... [[ Statistics ]] Subscriber Gains Continue for North American Wireless Industry http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17773.php Youth, family and reseller plans are driving strong gains in gross additions for the North American wireless industry as industry trends experienced in 2005 continue through Q1 of 2006, according to Fitch Ratings. Postpaid churn showed further improv... [[ Technology ]] Remote GSM picocell solution with satellite backhaul http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17767.php ip.access says that its nanoGSM picocell solution has successfully completed testing for interoperability with VSAT satellite equipment from iDirect, the satellite-based broadband access solutions developer. ip.access has joined iDirect's IP Alliance... ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 13, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 11:51:53 -0400 (EDT) ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 13, 2006 ******************************** Qualcomm Files Patent Complaints vs. Nokia http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18360?11228 NEW YORK -- Qualcomm Inc.'s legal clashes with Nokia Corp., which have become more bitter over the past few months, have heated up again. In a complaint filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission on Friday, San Diego-based Qualcomm alleged that the Finnish wireless manufacturer infringed on six Qualcomm... EU Revises Roaming Charge Proposal http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18358?11228 The regulatory dispute over roaming charges within Europe appears to be nearing a conclusion, following a European Commission statement that a proposal on the topic is undergoing a final internal consultation. The European Union (EU) had aimed to cap charges on mobile calls abroad. Now it seems likely that the roaming cost for local ... Voitel Aims to Increase 2006 Revenues by 25-30% Y/Y in Brazil http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18356?11228 The Brazilian subsidiary of U.S. VoIP company Voitel has announced that it aims to grow its 2006 revenues by 25-30% year-on-year (y/y) according to CEO Pedro Suchodolski, quoted by Business News Americas. Voitel Brazil grew revenues by 23% in 2005. Eighty-five per cent of its 2005 revenues were from VoIP services, the remainder from... Reliance Plans US$326 mil. Investment for GSM Network Expansion http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18354?11228 Reliance Telecom, the GSM business unit of Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd. (Reliance), plans to invest 15 billion rupees to significantly expand its GSM network coverage in its existing telecoms circles, according to Dow Jones reports citing a company executive. The investment will be made in the eight circles of Kolkata, West... Verizon Offers Families a Chaperone http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18352?11228 Verizon Wireless became the latest carrier to add a family tracking service to its portfolio. The company today debuts Chaperone, a service designed to help parents locate their young children. There are two components to Chaperone. Child Locator helps parents locate children who are outfitted with the LG Migo phone. The service... Norway Gets ADSL2+,'ADSL Mini' http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18350?11228 Telenor launched what it calls its second generation of broadband services as it looks to tighten its grip on the Norwegian broadband market. The carrier is using ADSL+2 to offer as much as 16 Mb/s service and at the same time coming up with what it is calling 'ADSL Mini' that extends the distance from a central office at... Lightbridge Intros Service http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18347?11228 BURLINGTON, Mass. -- Lightbridge, Inc. (NASDAQ: LTBG - message board), a leading e-commerce, analytics and decisioning company, today announced it has implemented its new Enhanced Disaster Recovery service to all its Telecom Decisioning Services (TDS) clients. The configuration will provide clients with increased data protection,... WiMax Telecom Names COO http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18344?11228 VIENNA -- WiMAX Telecom Group, the world's only multinational operator of WiMax services, is centralizing its Operations unit and has appointed Bela Virag (31) as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the entire company. WiMAX Telecom Group, Europe's largest WiMax network operator, has decided to centralize its... Lawsuits Could Nuke Network DVR http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18342?11228 Despite the way it may look, the growing legal battle between Cablevision Systems and nine Hollywood studios and TV networks over a proposed new digital video recorder service really isn't about the DVR. Rather, the recent spate of federal lawsuits and countersuits over Cablevision's proposed network-based DVR (nDVR) service... Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 12:24:52 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Report: Broadband Growth to Double Over Next Five Years USTelecom dailyLead June 13, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dNykfDtutewDhhDHMO TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Report: Broadband growth to double over next five years BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Battle for TV subscribers could hinge on HD * Google application aims to link Web, TV * Insight Research chief peers into crystal ball * Embarq launches wireless services, receives mini-tender offer USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * CALEA Compliance: Behind the recent FCC Order TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Faster Wi-Fi slow to reach market REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Connecticut franchise ruling may hit roadblock * Analysis: Debate over in-flight mobile services could intensify Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dNykfDtutewDhhDHMO ------------------------------ From: Raqueeb Hassan Subject: Re: Beware of VONAGE! Don't Sign Up! I Wish Someone Had Warned Me Date: 13 Jun 2006 11:10:04 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com 3z3k3l wrote: > Big D wrote: >> I just ordered Vonage and I *reeeeeally* wish I hadn't done that. >> Suddenly, I am having problems with internet and I've had the same >> internet service for whole two years with no problems at all. Did you talk to your ISP regarding the Vonage service? Do they allow it? I think your ISP has some issues with your Vonage service. Raqueeb Hassan Bangladesh ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V25 #224 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 14 15:38:29 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 3018514DCD; Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:38:27 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #225 Message-Id: <20060614193827.3018514DCD@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:38:27 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:40:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 225 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson eBay Signs Up 200 Millionth Member (Reuters News Wire) EFFector 19.22: EFF Launches New Animation - Stop Hollywood (Monty Solomon) Death by DMCA (Monty Solomon) Cellular-News: Wednesday 14th June 2006 (Cellular-News) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 14, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) EBay Adds Skype to Online Marketplace (USTelecom dailyLead) Testing Extended Dmarc Cable (Jason Brault) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: eBay Signs Up 200 Millionth Member Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 13:47:52 -0500 EBay Inc. has now registered 200 million users of its online auction services, which would make it the fifth-largest country in the world if its members could form one nation, its CEO said on Tuesday. Speaking to thousands of the company's most loyal buyers and sellers at its annual user conference here, Chief Executive Meg Whitman said eBay achieved the milestone on Saturday. Only, China, India, the United States and Indonesia are larger in terms of population, Whitman said. As of March 31, the company had reported it had 192.9 million registered users worldwide, and 75.4 million "active" users in the March quarter. EBay's biggest markets are the United States, Germany, Britain and South Korea. The figures exclude other eBay properties such as Rent.com, Shopping.com, and its online classified advertising Web sites. San Jose, California-based EBay also runs the PayPal online payment service and Skype, a Web-based communications operation that allows users to make cheap phone calls or trade text messages on computers and phones. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines each day, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 23:43:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 19.22: EFF Launches New Animation - Stop Hollywood EFFector Vol. 19, No. 22 June 13, 2006 editor@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 382th Issue of EFFector: * EFF Launches New Animation - Stop Hollywood's Corruptibles! * S1RA Update: Encouraging Signs from DC * Line Noise talks S1RA: a new EFF Podcast * miniLinks (8): Hilary Rosen - I Don't Like the RIAA Lawsuits * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/19/21.php ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 23:51:34 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Death by DMCA By: Fred von Lohmann and Wendy Seltzer IEEE Spectrum June 2006 A flood of legislation released by the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act threatens to drown whole classes of consumer electronics In 1998, U.S. entertainment companies persuaded Congress to make dramatic changes in its copyright code by passing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA gave copyright holders new rights to control the way people use copyrighted material and new protection for technologies designed to restrict access or copying. The movie and record companies argued they needed these new restrictions to fight increased piracy threats in the digital era. In the eight years since the DMCA's passage, however, piracy has not decreased, and hurdles to lawful uses of media have risen. The Motion Picture Association (MPA), the international arm of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), estimated worldwide losses because of piracy to be US $2.2 billion in 1997 and $3.5 billion annually in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Meanwhile, entire consumer electronics categories have been wiped from retail shelves. If three or four years ago you didn't buy a digital video recorder that automatically skips commercials, you're out of luck; that feature is not in such products today. Television executives brought litigation that bankrupted the company offering DVRs with these user-friendly features, because skipping commercials potentially undermines their ability to sell commercial time. You're likewise out of luck if you're looking to buy software that lets you copy a DVD onto your laptop's hard drive; it's no longer for sale, at least not in the United States. Even if you want to put the movie you bought onto a pocket-size video and game console, such as Sony's PlayStation Portable, which allows users to watch video stored on flash memory or a miniature hard drive, you can't legally do so, because you'd have to "rip," or decode, it to make the transfer-and the studios claim that this action violates the DMCA. When you rip a CD, be it to an audiotape or an MP3 file, you're not breaking any laws. But to rip a DVD you need to somehow get around the encryption technology built into a standard disc, and since such circumvention is forbidden by the DMCA, if you rip a DVD, you are breaking a law. Under the DMCA, legality doesn't depend on how the copy will be used but rather on the means by which the digital content is copied. Now, in an even more vexing situation, U.S. entertainment companies are successfully spreading the copyright code changes established by the DMCA around the world. Laws similar to the DMCA now exist in Japan, Australia, and much of Europe. At least nine additional countries, including Chile, Guatemala, and Singapore have also been pressured to enact DMCA-like laws as part of a devil's bargain with U.S. trade negotiators, who say the copyright change is necessary to secure free trade pacts with the United States that would govern all sorts of commerce. And in Europe, the body charged with defining the European digital television standards is mixing in content-protection obligations, responding yet again to pressure from major U.S. movie studios. Emboldened by their successes, U.S. entertainment companies are pushing for another wave of even more restrictive legislation. "Broadcast flag" legislation could require that all consumer electronics devices recognize protected television broadcasts and potentially refuse to copy them; a so-called "radio flag" bill would prevent or restrict the manufacture of hard disk recorders for digital radio; and an "analog hole" closure would restrict the connections new digital devices can make with analog devices. As the entertainment industry expands copyright law, the rising tide threatens to completely wash away many types of innovative gadgets. http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jun06/3673 ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News: Wednesday 14th June 2006 Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 07:15:39 -0500 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com ====================================================================== [[ 3G ]] Anritsu Announces HSDPA capability on Test Tool http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17787.php Anritsu has announced further developments to its software tool, which will speed up the testing of W-CDMA terminals. With Release 2 of the RTD (Rapid Test Designer), Anritsu has taken a leap forward in technology by supporting HSDPA when used in con... Huawei Wins Arab 3G Contract http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17788.php Huawei has been awarded a contract by Saudi Telecom Company (STC) to deploy its 3G network in Saudi Arabia. According to the contract, Huawei will supply a complete core network and new generation NodeBs to help STC launch 3G services countrywide and... HSDPA Operators Must Give Better Thought to Applications - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17798.php With the arrival of the first live HSDPA networks and services, the operator community needs to understand exactly what it hopes to achieve with the technology and how to go about doing so. That is one of the findings of visiongain's latest report. H... [[ Financial ]] Qualcomm Lifts Its Financial Forecast http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17783.php Qualcomm, on Tuesday raised its earnings forecast for the third quarter amid strong demand and higher prices for mobile phones that use the company's semiconductors. ... [[ Handsets ]] 2GB Memory Card for Mobile Phones http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17790.php Kingston Technology says that it is producing larger capacity miniSD and MMCmobile Flash memory cards to support the growing storage demands of feature-rich mobile phones. The new mobile memory cards are immediately available in 2-GB capacities.... Nokia Shows Off Concept Phones http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17793.php Nokia has shown off the result of its recent collaboration with the UK based, Central Saint Martins (CSM) College of Art and Design at the Future of Mobile Design exhibition. For six months 25 Industrial Design MA students from London's CSM College o... [[ Legal ]] KDDI: Finds Information Leakage On About 4 Million Customers http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17774.php KDDI Corp. said Tuesday it found that information on about 4 million customers for its Internet service has been leaked. ... 2 Arrested For Blackmail In KDDI Customer Info Leak-Kyodo http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17776.php Two men were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of attempting to extort money from Japanese telecommunications carrier KDDI Corp. in exchange for customer information they had obtained, police said, while KDDI confirmed that private data of some 4 million... IPOC files $150 mln claim against Russia's Alfa Group in New York http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17777.php IPOC International Growth Fund has filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking to get compensation of U.S. $150 million from persons and companies affiliated with Russia' Alfa Group, the fund said in a s... Ex-Verizon Employee Gets Nearly Six Years For Fraud http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17786.php SACRAMENTO (AP)--A former customer service representative for Verizon Wireless was sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison Tuesday for stealing and selling prepaid cellular personal identification numbers with a face value of about $21 millio... [[ Marketing ]] Motorola Signs David Beckham for Advertising http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17792.php Motorola has signed one of the hottest properties in professional football as a global brand ambassador. The three-year collaboration with the UK footballer, David Beckham will kick-off with major activities across Asia including advertising appearan... [[ Mobile Content ]] SMS Aggregator Orders WAP Billing Platform http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17791.php mBlox, the premium SMS service provider has orders an end-to-end transaction engine -- PaymentsPlus from Valista, to support its next generation mobile billing services, including WAP billing. The technology from Valista, whose clients include Vodafo... Big Barriers to the Adoption of Mobile Value-Added Services http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17799.php Yankee Group has announced the results of its 2006 European Mobile Multimedia Survey, a comprehensive examination of European mobile multimedia trends providing valuable insight into current consumer behavior. Some of the major highlights include:... [[ Network Contracts ]] Ministry awards wireless contract http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17780.php Costa Rica's finance ministry has awarded local firm Difoto a contract to install a wireless network for voice, data and video traffic, local daily La Nación reported. ... GSM Network Expansion for Pakistan http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17789.php Huawei says that it has signed a GSM network expansion contract with Pakistan's Mobilink. Under the terms of the contract, Huawei is to supply its GSM Mobile Softswitches to Mobilink to serve additional capacity of 3.2 million lines. With this contra... [[ Network Operators ]] Amazonia Celular opens 10 new outlets in Maranho, Par http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17781.php Brazilian mobile carrier Tele Norte Celular Participaes (Amazonia Celular) and US telecoms equipment manufacturer Motorola have jointly invested 1mn reais (US$442,000) to open 10 new customer service stores in northern Brazil ov... Report: AMX selects Claro to operate in country http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17782.php Mexican mobile group America Movil plans to operate its Chilean subsidiary Smartcom, acquired in August 2005, under the Claro brand, the same brand used for its Brazilian unit, local newspaper El Mercurio quoted company sources as saying. ... Uzbekistan's Uzdunrobita to launch services under MTS brand http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17784.php Uzbekistan's largest mobile phone operator Uzdunrobita, a subsidiary of Russia's largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), plans to launch services under the MTS brand on Thursday, a spokesperson with Uzdunrobita told Prime-Tass Tuesday. ... [[ Regulatory ]] EU Modifies Roaming Proposal, Will Help North Europeans http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17775.php European regulators have modified their proposal to slash mobile phone roaming tariffs in a way that will hurt Southern European operators more than Northern Europeans, a European Commission spokesman says. ... Govt: Mobile telephony contracts to be renewed with new conditions http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17779.php Ecuador's telecoms regulator Senatel is studying offers from four investment banks to assist in renegotiating existing mobile telephony contracts, local newspaper La Hora reported. ... Ukraine's PM signs plan to allocate radio frequencies http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17785.php Ukraine's Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov has signed a plan to allocate radio frequencies in the country, Ukraine's Transport and Communications Ministry said in a press release Tuesday. ... Verizon Wireless Parts With Political Lobby Firm http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17794.php Public Affairs Company (PAC) of Sioux Falls says that it has resigned with immediate effect from acting as the campaign management firm supporting Verizon Wireless in its initiative to repeal the gross receipts tax (GRT) on wireless services.... State Regulation Leading to Increased Costs for Wireless Users http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17796.php The USA trade body, the Wireless Association President and CEO Steve Largent appeared before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee yesterday to reiterate the wireless industry's concern about increasing efforts by states to enact ... [[ Reports ]] Three Telecommunications Networks Now Thrive, But Only One to Survive http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17797.php The wireless, Internet and phone networks that presently comprise the global telecommunications infrastructure will generate nearly US$1.2 trillion in revenue this year, but according to a new market analysis report from Insight Research, there is a ... [[ Statistics ]] Survey shows Russia's mobile penetration up to 62% as of May http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17778.php Russia's mobile service penetration rate amounted to about 62% in May, up from about 60% in January, according to survey results that were released Tuesday by Russia's ROMIR Monitoring. ... Nearing Two Billion GSM Customers http://www.cellular-news.com/story/17795.php The number of GSM subscriptions worldwide will pass 2 billion within the next couple of weeks, according to GSA - the Global mobile Suppliers Association. The first billion GSM subscriptions was announced in February 2004, 12 years after the launch o... ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 14, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 12:15:41 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 14, 2006 ******************************** Video's Urge to Converge http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18374?11228 Ask cable operators about IPTV, and they'll tell you straight out that of course they can do it. Ask them if they have plans to do it, and the answers get laden with dependent clauses about definitions and contingencies and migration paths and transition strategies. IPTV is an issue largely because it is the greatest advance... Telstra Sale Hurdles to Be Overcome by July, Says Minister http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18372?11228 Crucial talks between Australia's competition watchdog and incumbent operator Telstra over regulatory issues are expected to be resolved by early next month, according to media reports citing Australian Communications Minister Helen Coonan. The talks centre on two issues: rules to govern an $3-billion (Australian) (US$2.2-billion) fibre network... UPC Czech Launches VoIP http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18370?11228 UPC Czech -- part of the Liberty Global group -- has launched commercial VoIP services. In April 2006, the company announced plans to launch VoIP before the year-end using Siemens technology. The new service is available in 10 towns and cities. Significance: The move follows an earlier VoIP launch, in October 2005, by Czech... Telefonica Moviles and Portugal Telecom Create Study Group to Examine Vivo's Management http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18369?11228 Telefonica Moviles and Portugal Telecom, shareholders of leading Brazilian mobile operator Vivo, have announced the creation of a study group to intervene in the company's management. According to local newspaper Gazeta Mercantil, the study group created by Telefonica Moviles and Portugal Telecom... Qualcomm Raises Guidance http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18367?11228 Qualcomm is increasing its third-quarter guidance, saying it now expects pro forma revenues of $1.91 billion to $1.96 billion, up from its prior guidance of $1.77 billion to $1.87 billion. The change comes as the company expects to ship 55 million Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chips during the quarter. That compares with about 36... Shareholders Approve Bell Canada's Telecom 'Trust' http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18366?11228 BCE Inc. received approval from its common shareholders for the implementation of a plan to form a new 'regional telephone income trust' that will own and manage 1.6 million local access lines in parts of Bell Canada's Ontario and Quebec operating territories. The so-called 'BCE Arrangement' will allow the... India Leery of Foreigners, ZTE http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18364?11228 Chinese equipment vendor ZTE Corp. is finding mixed fortunes in India's telecom market. The company has bagged a three-year deal with Tata Indicom to provide CDMA2000 equipment across the country as the carrier builds out its mobile network beyond India's urban centers. ... Moto: Mobile WiMax Is In http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18362?11228 The push to develop a mobile WiMax standard may put pressure on several companies that already have big bets in the fixed WiMax space. Carriers have already issued 25 RFPs (requests for proposal) asking about mobile WiMax, and the applications being discussed include lots of the same thing that proponents of fixed WiMax promised... TelecomDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 12:34:29 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: EBay Adds Skype to Online Marketplace USTelecom dailyLead June 14, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dOhgfDtutexbsJuDQt TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * EBay adds Skype to online marketplace BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Survey: Telecoms have edge in triple play * YES gets carriage on FiOS * "Big Three" Web players race to amass processing power * Sailing not smooth for Motorola in Russia * IPTV provider Telkonet launches NYC beta test USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * McCormick calls on Senate to support video choice, universal service * CALEA Compliance: Behind the recent FCC Order TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Analysts: HSDPA could fend off mobile WiMAX challenge * BPL may yet emerge from the shadows REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * USTelecom's McCormick testifies at Net neutrality hearing * What's "neutral" about Net neutrality? Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dOhgfDtutexbsJuDQt ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 10:11:13 -0500 From: Jason Brault Subject: Testing Extended Dmarc Cable Hi Everyone, Can anyone tell me how I might be able to test a cable (25 pair) that is used to extend a dmarc? I've had numerous issues with static and open pairs, and naturally the telco wont check past their initial NI. I'm not sure what the telco would use in this situation, but any help or pointing in the right direction would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Jason ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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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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 V25 #225 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 14 17:55:43 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id A2E18153A4; Wed, 14 Jun 2006 17:55:42 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #226 Message-Id: <20060614215542.A2E18153A4@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 17:55:42 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 14 Jun 2006 18:00:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 226 Special Issue on Net Neutrality: Editor: Patrick A. Townson What is Net Neutrality all About? Net Neutrality as the Big Print Media Defines it Senate Panel Questions Net Neutrality Senate Negotiations Continue Over Net Neutrality Congress Must Be Pressured to Preserve Net Neutrality Rebuttal to Washington Post Editorial on Net Neutrality What Will Tiered Access Mean for NPOs? Is Net Neutrality a Lost Cause? ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Various writers Subject: What is Net Neutrality all About? Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:11:48 -0500 What is this about? This is about Internet freedom. "Network Neutrality" -- the First Amendment of the Internet -- ensures that the public can view the smallest blog just as easily as the largest corporate Web site by preventing Internet companies like AT&T from rigging the playing field for only the highest-paying sites. But Internet providers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast are spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress to gut Net Neutrality. If Congress doesn't take action now to implement meaningful network neutrality provisions, the future of the Internet is at risk. What is network neutrality? Network Neutrality - or "Net Neutrality" for short -- is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet. Net Neutrality ensures that all users can access the content or run the applications and devices of their choice. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data -- not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service. Net Neutrality is the reason why the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online. It's why the Internet has become an unrivaled environment for open communications, civic involvement and free speech. Who wants to get rid of Net Neutrality? The nation's largest telephone and cable companies -- including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner -- want to be Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow and which won't load at all. They want to tax content providers to guarantee speedy delivery of their data. They want to discriminate in favor of their own search engines, Internet phone services, and streaming video -- while slowing down or blocking their competitors. These companies have a new vision for the Internet. Instead of an even playing field, they want to reserve express lanes for their own content and services -- or those from big corporations that can afford the steep tolls -- and leave the rest of us on a winding dirt road. What's at stake? Decisions being made now will shape the future of the Internet for a generation. Before long, all media -- TV, phone and the Web -- will come to your home via the same broadband connection. The dispute over Net Neutrality is about who'll control access to new and emerging technologies. On the Internet, consumers are in ultimate control -- deciding between content, applications and services available anywhere, no matter who owns the network. There's no middleman. But without Net Neutrality, the Internet will look more like cable TV. Network owners will decide which channels, content and applications are available; consumers will have to choose from their menu. The Internet has always been driven by innovation. Web sites and services succeeded or failed on their own merit. Without Net Neutrality, decisions now made collectively by millions of users will be made in corporate boardrooms. The choice we face now is whether we can choose the content and services we want, or whether the broadband barons will choose for us. What's happening in Congress? Congress is now considering a major overhaul of the Telecommunications Act. The telephone and cable companies are filling up congressional campaign coffers and hiring high-priced lobbyists. They've set up "Astroturf" groups like "Hands Off the Internet" to confuse the issue and give the appearance of grassroots support. On June 8, the House of Representatives passed the "Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006," or COPE Act (H.R. 5252) -- a bill that offers no meaningful protections for Net Neutrality. An amendment offered by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), which would have instituted real Net Neutrality requirements, was defeated by intense industry lobbying. It now falls to the Senate to save the free and open Internet. Fortunately, Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (R-N.D.) have introduced a bipartisan measure, the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2006" (S. 2917), that would provide meaningful protection for Net Neutrality. This excellent bill may be introduced as an amendment when the Senate takes up its own rewrite of the Telecommunications Act later this summer. The next key hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled for June 20. Call Congress today: No senator can in good conscience vote against Internet freedom and with the telecom cartel. Isn't this just a battle between giant telcos and other corporations? No. Small business owners benefit from an Internet that allows them to compete directly -- not one where they can't afford the price of entry. Net Neutrality ensures that innovators can start small and dream big about being the next EBay or Google without facing insurmountable hurdles. Without Net Neutrality, startups and entrepreneurs will be muscled out of the marketplace by big corporations that pay for a top spot on the Web. But Net Neutrality doesn't just matter to business owners. If Congress turns the Internet over to the telephone and cable giants, everyone who uses the Internet will be affected. Connecting to your office could take longer if you don't purchase your carrier's preferred applications. Sending family photos and videos could slow to a crawl. Web pages you always use for online banking, access to health care information, planning a trip, or communicating with friends and family could fall victim to pay-for-speed schemes. Independent voices and political groups are especially vulnerable. Costs will skyrocket to post and share video and audio clips, silencing bloggers and amplifying the big media companies. Political organizing could be slowed by the handful of dominant Internet providers who ask advocacy groups or candidates to pay a fee to join the "fast lane." Isn't the threat to Net Neutrality just hypothetical? No. So far, we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. But numerous examples show that without network neutrality requirements, Internet service providers will discriminate against content and competing services they don't like. a.. In 2004, North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked their DSL customers from using any rival Web-based phone service. b.. In 2005, Canada's telephone giant Telus blocked customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to the Telecommunications Workers Union during a labor dispute. c.. Shaw, a big Canadian cable TV company, is charging an extra $10 a month to subscribers in order to "enhance" competing Internet telephone services. d.. In April, Time Warner's AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com -- an advocacy campaign opposing the company's pay-to-send e-mail scheme. This type of censorship will become the norm unless we act now. Given the chance, these gatekeepers will consistently put their own interests before the public good. Won't more regulations harm the free Internet? Shouldn't we just let the market decide? Writing Net Neutrality into law would preserve the freedoms we currently enjoy on the Internet. For all their talk about "deregulation," the cable and telephone giants don't want real competition. They want special rules written in their favor. Either we make rules that ensure an even playing field for everyone, or we have rules that hold the Internet captive to the whims of a few big companies. The Internet has thrived because revolutionary ideas like blogs, Wikipedia or Google could start on a shoestring and attract huge audiences. Without Net Neutrality, the pipeline owners will choose the winners and losers on the Web. And when the network owners start abusing their control of the pipes, there's nowhere else for consumers to turn. The cable and telephone companies already dominate 98 percent of the broadband market. Only 53 percent of Americans have a choice between cable and DSL at home. Everyone else has only one choice or no broadband options at all. That's not what a truly free market looks like. Who's part of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition? The http://SavetheInternet.com coalition is made up of dozens of groups from across the political spectrum that are concerned about maintaining a free and open Internet. No corporation or political party is funding our efforts. We simply agree to a statement of principles in support of Internet freedom. Who else supports Net Neutrality? The supporters of Net Neutrality include leading high-tech companies such as Amazon.com, Earthlink, EBay, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Skype, Vonage and Yahoo. Prominent national figures such as Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig and FCC Commissioner Michael Copps have called for stronger Net Neutrality protections. Editorial boards at the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News and Christian Science Monitor all have urged congress to save the Internet. What can I do to help? Call your representative today and demand that Net Neutrality be protected. Encourage groups you're part of to please join the SavetheInternet.com Coalition. Show your support for Internet freedom on your Web site or blog. Tell your friends about this crucial issue before it's too late. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you agree with all this, or do you find it just a bit shrill? There are several additional essays in the collection presented here today, please continue reading. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Various writers Subject: Net Neutrality as the Big Print Media Defines it Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 14:54:48 -0500 Inside The Beltway Newspapers Lying About Net Neutrality? What A Surprise from the inside-the-beltway-logic dept Two separate editorials from DC newspapers both oppose net neutrality efforts -- and yet, both seem to be filled with outright lies or misleading half-truths. As we've said repeatedly, the real issue with net neutrality is that there isn't enough competition in the broadband space. If there were real competition, network neutrality wouldn't even be on the table for discussion. The Washington Post tries to get by this point by claiming that there is real competition in the broadband space, stating that 60% of all zip codes have four or more choices. Of course, reading that language, you can tell immediately that it's coming from the FCC's discredited broadband penetration numbers. The FCC counts on a per zip code basis -- so if a broadband provider offers broadband to a single house in that zip code, the entire zip code is considered covered by that provider. The General Accounting Office's own study found much, much lower broadband penetration than the FCC numbers suggest. Laying wires should represent a natural monopoly. It simply doesn't make economic sense to lay too many identical sets of wires (it would be like building many competing, privately owned, highway systems: it's wasteful) -- which is why the government went around and granted many of these firms monopoly rights of way in the first place, with the promise of creating competition within the network, rather than between networks. When true wireless systems come along, then perhaps there will be the necessary competition, but don't buy the hype that cellular wireless, WiMax or satellite broadband are anywhere near being true competitors to fiber, let alone DSL or cable. We're still probably a decade away from seeing real competition from those quarters (though, reformed spectrum allocation policy could help there as well...). Then, the Washington Times chimes in with its own anti-network neutrality screed, saying that we shouldn't worry about network neutrality because there's no problem yet. This, of course, has been the argument that the telcos have raised for many years, just more vocally these days. As we've noted, there is some truth to this -- but that doesn't mean network neutrality issues deserve to be ignored. As some have pointed out there are plenty of "speculative" dangers that the government decides are worth paying attention to, such as potential terrorist attacks or bird flu. And, in the case of network neutrality, the executives of AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have all stated very publicly that they would like to break the basic concepts of network neutrality, and make Google pay again for the part of the internet you already pay for. The Washington Times piece also totally mischaracterizes the debate, claiming that network neutrality means the telcos can't charge sites like Google more for the bandwidth they use. This is flat out false. The high bandwidth users online, such as Google, Yahoo, Vonage and others are already paying for their bandwidth. What the telcos are trying to get them to do is pay double for your bandwidth as well. The current network neutrality proposals in Congress are really a side issue that completely ignores the real issue (the lack of competition). It's no secret that some of the proposals in Congress have problems as well, but that doesn't mean the issue of network neutrality should be brushed aside. Of course, instead of getting any serious debate, we're getting soundbites, lies, misleading arguments, propaganda and celebrity endorsements. The whole debate, on both sides, has become a joke. ------------------------------ From: Various writers Subject: Senate Panel Questions Net Neutrality Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 14:59:04 -0500 Stevens: "Not going to do" common-carrier regulations The chairman of a U.S. Senate committee debating broadband legislation said Tuesday he would not allow broadband providers to be regulated like large telephone carriers were in the past, despite calls for a law prohibiting broadband providers from blocking or slowing some Internet traffic. Net neutrality backers want a return to "common carrier" requirements, in which telecommunications carriers were required to give all customers the same service and standard rates, Stevens said during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on a communications reform bill. "We're not going to do that," said the Alaska Republican. You can read the entire coverage of the hearing on http://ComputerWorld.com. For more coverage of Tuesday's Senate hearing on Net Neutrality, we suggest: http://InternetNews.com: Senate Showing Little Interest in Net Neutrality WASHINGTON - The network neutrality debate resumed today in the U.S. Senate the way it ended in the House of Representatives Thursday night: apparently dead on arrival. As the Senate Commerce Committee held its third of three hearings on a telecom reform bill, lawmakers seemed content to leave the controversial issue to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). http://CNET News.com: Net neutrality fight returns to Senate Analysis: Leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee are negotiating over how to deal with the controversial concept, while committee members and advocacy groups take turns airing their positions ------------------------------ From: Various writers Subject: Senate Negotiations Continue Over Net Neutrality Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:03:57 -0500 By Anne Broache, CNET News.com WASHINGTON--Key senators who are planning to overhaul the nation's communications laws remain at odds on the controversial topic of Net neutrality. At a briefing for reporters Monday, Republican aides to the Senate Commerce Committee released a revised version of a sweeping telecommunications bill -- but said the portions related to Net neutrality would not be available until later this week. An earlier version of the bill includes no Net neutrality regulations, reflecting the position supported by broadband providers such as Verizon Communications and AT&T. Aides to Sen. Ted Stevens, the Alaska Republican who serves as chairman of the committee, and Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, the committee's senior Democrat, are still negotiating new language about whether broadband providers should be allowed to give special treatment to certain types of content or Internet sites, the aides said. "Does Congress want to get into regulating how much Google pays to Verizon or what deals it makes with Yahoo?...(Stevens') view is that's a matter better left to these multibillion-dollar companies and Congress should focus on protecting the consumer," said Lisa Sutherland, the committee's Republican staff director. Last Thursday, the House of Representatives approved its own communications bill but rejected a Democratic-sponsored amendment--backed by companies like eBay, Amazon.com and Google--that would have enacted detailed prohibitions against blocking, impairing, degrading or prioritizing content. The final version authorizes the Federal Communications Commission to police violations of its broadband use principles and to levy fines if appropriate, but it bars the regulators from making new rules. In an interview with http://CNET News.com published Monday, Verizon lobbyist Thomas Tauke said: "It's fair to say that Stevens is committed to moving a bill. He'll probably have a new draft in the next few days. He seems anxious to have the committee move in the next few weeks and have it to the (Senate) floor in July." Net neutrality, which has emerged as one of the most contentious issues as Congress attempts to rewrite the nation's telecommunications laws, is the idea that network operators should not be allowed to prioritize Internet content and services that travel across their pipes or to make deals with companies seeking special treatment. The concept has received backing from some of the largest Internet companies, a wide array of consumer groups, and entertainers like Moby and Alyssa Milano. Also on Monday, The Washington Post published an editorial opposing Net neutrality mandated by the federal government. It said that the dangers cited by proponents of Net neutrality "are speculative" and the government "should not burden the Internet with pre-emptive regulation." The current Senate language, scheduled to be the subject of a committee hearing on Tuesday morning, directs the FCC to monitor incidents that could be considered violations of Net neutrality principles and report to Congress on its findings. It may change in another revised draft expected to be released as soon as the middle of the week, but it was "premature" to speculate on what shape it would take, the aides said. The committee still plans a vote on a final version of the mammoth bill on June 20. Network operators from the telephone and cable industries, allied with mostly conservative and libertarian groups and some of the nation's largest hardware companies, have said repeatedly that they have no plans to block, degrade or impair content and argue that new regulations are unnecessary. Democrats and at least one Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee had attacked the bill's current approach, saying it failed to provide adequate protections. Last month that group introduced a bill with a long list of detailed rules prohibiting network operators from prioritizing content as they please. That bill could still be offered as an amendment to the broader communications bill, though similar proposals in the U.S. House of Representatives have met with sound defeat both in committee and on the House floor in recent weeks. "I am 99 percent sure we will have a network neutrality amendment in committee on one side or the other," depending on how this week's negotiations shake out, Sutherland said. CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh contributed to this report. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: See elsewhere in this special issue on 'Net Neutrality' a response to the Washington Post editorial referred to in this essay. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Various writers Subject: Congress Must Be Pressured to Preserve Net Neutrality Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:13:59 -0500 Congress Must Be Pressured to Preserve Internet Neutrality From Mercury News, June 14, 2006 The proposition that the Internet should remain an open, decentralized network where all users and Web sites are treated equally suffered a blow last week when the House of Representatives defeated an "Internet neutrality" amendment that was part of a larger bill to reform telecommunications laws. And on Tuesday, Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who is crafting companion legislation, said Internet neutrality isn't likely to be part of his bill, either. But this battle is too important to give up. Without Internet- neutrality rules, the telephone and cable companies that control Internet access are sure to go ahead with a plan to divide the Internet into a two-tiered network. Companies that pay them a toll will see their content and services cruise at high speeds. Everyone else will be stuck in a slow lane. Worse, cable and phone companies would have the freedom to decide who gets quick access and who doesn't. As a result, consumer choice and innovation will suffer. Senators who support Net neutrality -- most Democrats and a few Republicans -- must threaten to derail the entire telecom bill unless it preserves openness and choice on the Internet. A campaign launched by consumer groups and major Internet companies including eBay, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo should help. It included a letter from eBay CEO Meg Whitman urging the millions of buyers and sellers who use the Internet auction site to show their support for Internet neutrality. As a result, tens of thousands of letters from eBay users are expected to be delivered to senators before next Tuesday's committee vote on the Stevens bill. Google, too, has used its Web site to urge users to contact members of Congress. The telecom and cable companies want lawmakers to believe Internet neutrality would amount to burdensome new regulations. But Internet neutrality isn't new. It was the law until late last year, when a U.S. Supreme Court decision and a vote by the Federal Communications Commission changed things. One of the best arguments for it is that Internet neutrality has worked. The neutrality rules have allowed innovators to create content and services without worrying that they would be squeezed out by cable or phone companies who didn't like what they were doing. Absent Internet neutrality, phone companies would not have allowed the Internet telephone industry to blossom. Without it, cable companies won't let the burgeoning Internet-video industry come into its own. And industries ranging from health care to finance, retailing to education, will face huge new tolls to guarantee access to the Net's high-speed lanes. If you want the Internet to remain a force for innovation and free speech, urge our senators not to sell off cyberspace to special interests. You can add your voice to the growing chorus of Internet neutrality supporters at http://www.savetheinternet.com or http://www.itsournet.org. This article is from Mercury News. If you found it informative and valuable, we strongly encourage you to visit their website and register an account to view all their articles on the web. Support quality journalism. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are strongly urged to register your thoughts -- either way -- on this issue at the two web sites mentioned in this essay. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Various writers Subject: Rebuttal to Washington Post Editorial on Net Neutrality Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:22:45 -0500 Mark Cooper, Director of Research for the Consumer Federation of America guest-blogs with the following response to the Washington Post's fact-challenged Monday editorial: In a June 12 editorial titled "The Internet's Future: Congress Should Stay Out of Cyberspace," the Washington Post regurgitated the cable and telephone companies' spin on Network Neutrality, cautioning that Internet freedom supporters want to "burden the Internet with preemptive regulation." This statement is wrong as historical fact and public policy. Network Neutrality has existed throughout the history of the Internet and created the most dynamic environment for innovation and competition the nation has seen in generations. Good government policy decisions created an open, neutral communications platform over the objections of the telephone companies. It is the opponents of Network Neutrality who would burden the Internet with network discrimination. The Post brushed aside concerns about network discrimination with statements like "the Internet will always be relatively democratic" and "the extra barriers to entry would probably be small because the pipe owners know that consumers want access to innovators." Network discrimination alters the fundamentally open architecture of the Internet and forces innovators to negotiate with network operators before they can get into business - ending the era of "innovation without permission," as Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet calls it. The implications of the loss of Network Neutrality deserve more careful consideration than the Post's platitudes and weak assurances. The Post also repeated telephone and cable company claims that "the weakest aspect of the Network Neutrality case is that the dangers it alleges are speculative." The concerns about discrimination are far from speculative; the Post simply has not or does not care to look at what network operators have been doing and saying they plan to do. Cable operators, who were excused from Network Neutrality by the Federal Communications Commission, force consumers to pay twice if they want a different Internet service provider than the one they provide. They discriminate against Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) providers in quality of service (Comcast refuses to guarantee the same quality of service to unaffiliated VOIP providers), against content (Time Warner blocked letters to subscribers of its AOL subsidiary with which it disagrees) and against applications (Cox is blocking craigslist while it promotes its own classified advertising Web site). For years, the FCC let the telephone companies force consumers to pay twice if they wanted VOIP from an unaffiliated provider (i.e. they refused to sell "naked" DSL). Even when the practice was banned as a merger condition, the companies continued to make it difficult for competitors. When the North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked competing services, the FCC made them stop but then repealed its own authority to prevent blocking in the future by reclassifying broadband access as an information service. The telephone companies have been the most aggressive in demanding the right to make exclusive deals. And we cannot overlook the brutal campaign of foreclosure and discrimination they conducted against the Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) after the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Thousands of ISPs, who were strangled by the network operator policy of forcing consumers to pay twice, and hundreds of CLECs who lost tens of billions of dollars without ever gaining access to the telecommunications network are evidence enough that network operators will not hesitate to abuse their market power. This anti-consumer, anti-competitive discrimination took place while its legality was being challenged. If discrimination becomes legal, it is likely to get much worse. Even more ominous is the fact that consultants funded by the cable and telephone companies have already begun a drumbeat to get rid of the open protocol altogether. This is an attempt to return the nation to the pre-Internet environment of proprietary communications networks that may or may not interoperate at the discretion of the operator, an environment in which network operators have much greater leverage. The Post editorial tells us not to worry about discrimination because "more than 60 percent of the Zip codes in the United States are served by four or more broadband providers that compete to give consumers what they want." This Zip code data has been criticized extensively by the GAO. A single customer in a Zip code tells us little about the actual nature of competition. And the FCC definition of broadband -- 200 kilobits in one direction -- is a ridiculously low speed compared to what high-speed Internet access actually is. More importantly, in the economic analysis of market structure and industrial organization, markets with the equivalent of fewer than 10 equal-sized firms are considered concentrated by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. Markets with fewer than six are considered highly concentrated. Four very unequal-sized competitors do not represent sufficient competition to prevent anti-competitive and anti-consumer abuses. Yet 98 percent of high speed Internet subscribers use either the telephone network or the cable modem service. Their market share has been rising, not falling, and as broadband becomes even higher speed, the chances that there will be more than two full service broadband platforms decreases. A duopoly is not enough for to ensure vigorous competition. The cozy duopoly will not compete on price and will spend more time protecting franchise services than innovating. This is why U.S. prices are so high and the take rate of high-speed Internet is so low compared to the rest of the world. The Post editorial laments "the fact that the U.S. broadband infrastructure lags behind that of East Asia and Europe." It advocates network discrimination as the solution, but it fails to note that those nations did not get ahead by allowing network discrimination. On the contrary, the nations who have surpassed us have done so because they adopted national policies to promote broadband deployment and forced the network operators to run neutral networks, relying on competition for services, unimpeded by network gatekeepers and toll collectors, to drive adoption. The magnificent success of Network Neutrality in providing innovative, competitive environments in other nations, the track record of past abuses of market power by U.S. network operators in the U.S., and the loud declarations of intent to discriminate in the future make it clear that the advocates of network discrimination have it backwards. Network Neutrality is a proven, successful reality; network discrimination is a hypothesis, a theory in search of support that does not exist, which will impose a severe burden on the Internet. If Congress does not step in to restore Network Neutrality, tollbooths will raise consumer costs and gatekeepers will slow innovation, destroying the fundamental character and architecture of the Internet. For more details see Coopers report, ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND NETWORK NEUTRALITY: SEPARATING EMPIRICAL FACTS FROM THEORETICAL FICTION. ------------------------------ From: Various writers Subject: What Will Tiered Access Mean for NPOs? Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:26:17 -0500 From Tech Soup, June 14, 2006 By Henry Kumagai Imagine if your nonprofit had to pay a fee to your Internet service provider in order for your Web site to turn up on search-engine results. Or what if your constituents could only access your site on a slower, more unreliable connection -- unless you made a higher monthly payment to your ISP? While they may sound far-fetched, scenarios like these could become a reality if changes proposed by telecommunications companies are approved by the U.S. Senate. Network Neutrality The term "network neutrality" describes an Internet that does not discriminate based on the content or source of information. It is just as much an ideal as a practice: currently, users can go anywhere they want on the Internet, with phone companies and cable providers treating all traffic in a neutral manner. The concept is similar to that of the common carriage provisions that govern the telephone system in the United States, whereby phone calls are treated with equal priority across a network, regardless of their source or destination. Yet new legislation threatens to shut down this open system, setting up what have been described as "toll booths" on the Internet that would allow service providers to block or degrade access to competing sites and services. This would divide the Internet into two sets of users -- those who can afford to pay the heavy tolls to use the fast lane and those who are relegated to the slow lane because they can't pay the tolls, according to the PBS article A Closer Look at Net Neutrality. A Raging Debate Network neutrality has become a hot issue over the past months as Congress prepares to update the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to address the rapidly changing nature of the Internet and telecommun- ications. On June 9, the House of Representatives voted to approve the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement (COPE) Act of 2006, a bill that lacks strong provisions for network neutrality and has withstood several attempts by House representatives to amend and include neutrality protections. The proposed legislation now moves to the Senate to decide how COPE will appear in its final form. This is in no small part due to the influence of several large telecommunications service providers and their equally powerful lobbies on Capitol Hill. ISPs like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast have expressed interest in creating a tiered Internet, whereby they would offer their broadband customers expedited service to content providers paying a premium for the privilege. With the growing popularity of high-bandwidth Internet content like streaming video, Internet providers say that a tiered Internet would allow them to build better networking infrastructure and higher bandwidth. Yet companies including Apple, Amazon, eBay, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo - along with organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Christian Coalition of America - argue that the plan would effectively make broadband providers like AT&T the gatekeepers of Internet content, giving them the power to control who accesses what information. These net-neutrality proponents argue that the "pay-to-play" model threatens to disrupt the equal cost of entry to disseminating information online, and even the democratic nature of the medium. Granting this authority to a few service providers could have dangerous consequences on freedom of speech and information. Net neutrality, they maintain, is vital to ensuring that the Internet remains a medium where information flows regardless of a provider's political or financial might. Net Neutrality and Nonprofits Earlier this year, AOL and Yahoo! appeared to test the waters on this issue by announcing that those sending emails (and especially mass emails) could pay a surcharge to bypass the mail clients' spam filtering mechanisms for direct delivery to their customers' inboxes. Immediately, organizations such as Oxfam America and Friends of the Earth -- which, like many nonprofits, rely on mass emails to stay in touch with their constituents -- rallied to voice their opposition. The result? Yahoo! abandoned the policy, while AOL agreed to allow nonprofits to send unfiltered mail to their customers without paying a fee, so long as they adhered to basic anti-spam policies. Now, nonprofits must again put up a fight to ensure that the Internet remains a free and open medium in the United States. The Internet offers nonprofits a powerful, affordable platform to raise money, reach out to constituents, and engage new ones. Nonprofits are becoming innovators in leveraging online technology to raise awareness and create social change. If network neutrality is not preserved, nonprofits may have to pay more to continue using the Internet as an outreach tool. The Internet has allowed people around the world to share and distribute content quickly and inexpensively. As a tool of communication, it is unprecedented not only in its accessibility, but also in its democratic nature. In a recent speech, former Vice President Al Gore stated, "It is particularly important that the freedom of the Internet be protected against either the encroachment of government or efforts at control by large media conglomerates. The future of our democracy depends on it." As nonprofits, we must fight to keep the Internet neutral, not only for our own sakes, but for the sake of our causes and for free speech itself. Learn More and Get Involved Google the term "network neutrality" and you'll find Web sites, news articles, blog entries, and even videos devoted to the subject. Below are links to sites where you can learn more about the issue and join the network neutrality movement. Learn More The Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 Common Cause's outline of the bill, including its supporters and provisions and ways to get involved. National Journal's Insider Update - Ongoing coverage of the Telecom Act. Get Involved Save the Internet - A nonpartisan coalition of groups across the country that have banded together to lobby for network neutrality. Sign the Save the Internet Petition at http://MoveOn.org. About the Author: Henry Kumagai is a Technology Analyst at TechCommons, a project of CompuMentor. This article is from Tech Soup. If you found it informative and valuable, we strongly encourage you to visit their website and register an account to view all their articles on the web. Support quality journalism. ------------------------------ From: Various writers Subject: Is Net Neutrality a Lost Cause? Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:01:33 -0500 Defeat for net neutrality backers US politicians have rejected attempts to enshrine the principle of net neutrality in legislation. Some fear the decision will mean net providers start deciding on behalf of customers which websites and services they can visit and use. The vote is a defeat for Google, eBay and Amazon which wanted the net neutrality principle protected by law. All three mounted vigorous lobbying campaigns prior to the vote in the House of Representatives. Tier fear The rejection of the principle of net neutrality came during a debate on the wide-ranging Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act (Cope Act). Among other things, this aims to make it easier for telecoms firms to offer video services around America by replacing 30,000 local franchise boards with a national system overseen by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Representative Fred Upton, head of the House telecommunications subcommittee, said competition could mean people save $30 to $40 each month on their net access fees. An amendment to the Act tried to add clauses that would demand net service firms treat equally all the data passing through their cables. The amendment was thought to be needed after the FCC ripped up its rules that guaranteed net neutrality. During the debate House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, said that without the amendment "telecommunications and cable companies will be able to create toll lanes on the information superhighway". "This strikes at the heart of the free and equal nature of the internet," she added. Critics of the amendment said it would bring in unnecessary government regulation. Prior to the vote net firms worried about the effect of the amendment on their business lobbied hard in favour of the amendment. They fear their sites will become hard to reach or that they will be forced to pay to guarantee that they can get through to web users. Meg Whitman, eBay chief executive, e-mailed more than one million members of the auction site asking them to back the idea of net neutrality. Google boss Eric Schmidt called on staff at the search giant to support the idea, and film stars such as Alyssa Milano also backed the amendment. The ending of net neutrality rules also spurred the creation of activism sites such as Save The Internet and Its Our Net. Speaking at a conference in late May, web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee warned that the net faced entering a "dark period" if access suppliers were allowed to choose which traffic to prioritize. The amendment was defeated by 269 votes to 152 and the Cope Act was passed by 321-101 votes. The debate over the issue now moves to the US Senate where the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will vote on its version of the act in late June. The debate in that chamber is also likely to centre on issues of net neutrality. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/5063072.stm [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Personally I think that yes, 'net neutrality' is a lost cause. The days of university/government funding for the internet are long since past. _Someone_ has to pay the bill, and the only ones in a position to do so and who have expressed some willingness to do so are the telcos and cablecos of our country. And part of the 'asking price' for their money is the right to do at least some of what they want. That is, at least to me, the realistic place things are at now, like it or not. You may disagree with me, and I hope you will do two things: One, go to one of the two sites mentioned earlier set up to take 'votes' and refer these results to the politicians who can make it happen either way, and two, bring your ideas and suggestions here to this forum when this special issue of the Digest continues with another edition devoted to your comments. Please register your opinions -- your 'votes' as it were, for whatever they eventually are worth -- at http://moveon.org and/or http://www.itsournet.org and http://www.savetheinternet.com These three sites are all very much 'pro' network neutrality, and I do not frankly know _who_ they think is going to pay the bills if the telcos and cablecos do not. I would like to let someone else pay the bills also, but I just do not think it is realistic any longer. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #226 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 15 13:53:59 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 0563A14F5E; Thu, 15 Jun 2006 13:53:57 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #227 Message-Id: <20060615175357.0563A14F5E@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 13:53:57 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 15 Jun 2006 13:55:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 227 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson C2 Files Patent Lawsuit Against US Phone Giants (Reuters News Wire) NYC Students and Parents Want Cell Phone Ban Lifted (Christine Kearney) Ring Tone Adults Cannot Hear But Teens Can Hear (Yuki Noguchi & Kim Hart) A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears (Monty Solomon) What Netflix Could Teach Hollywood (Monty Solomon) Selling Surveillance to Anxious Parents (Monty Solomon) Renting Movies With a Box and a Beam (Monty Solomon) Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power (Monty Solomon) Microsoft Patch Disclosure - June 2006 (Monty Solomon) Faster Wi-Fi Hits Hurdles/New Devices for Improved Technology (M Solomon) Lotsa New NYS Laws re: Identity Theft, Phishing, Privacy (Danny Burstein) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 15, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) On-Line Service With a Toll Free Number (Steven Lichter) Re: What Will Tiered Access Mean to NPO's? (Lisa Hancock) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: C2 Files Patent Lawsuit Against US Phone Giants Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 10:35:03 -0500 C2 Communications, a subsidiary of C2 Global Technologies Inc., said on Thursday it had filed a law suit against seven big U.S. telecomm- unications providers saying the companies infringed its patent for Internet telephone services. C2, a patent licensing company, said the suit. filed in a Texas court against AT&T Inc, Verizon Communications, BellSouth Corp, Qwest Communications International Inc, Sprint Nextel Corp Level 3 Communications Inc and Global Crossing Ltd. Representatives from six of the telephone companies were not immediately available for comment and Global Crossing declined comment. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Christine Kearney Subject: NYC Students and Parents Want Cell Phone Ban Lifted Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 10:37:21 -0500 By Christine Kearney New York may be a city of incessant cell phone talkers, but students vowed on Wednesday they would hit the "off" button during classes as they battled a ban on cell phones in schools. Speaking at a city council hearing where lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at overriding a ban on cell phones enforced under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, high school students and their parents spoke out against the unusually stringent anti-cell phone policy. "I feel mature enough to be able to turn off my cell phone in class," said LaGuardia high school student Jenna Gogan, 16. "This is about students' safety, because, especially in New York City, many parents need to feel reassured they can contact their kids going to and from school." Dissent over the ban in New York escalated recently when Bloomberg introduced metal scanners and random checks at some of the city's 1,408 public high schools. The new scanners used to protect the city's 1.1 million students had led to the confiscation of more than 3,000 cell phones and 36 weapons, mostly knives and razor blades. Detroit and Philadelphia also bar cell phones from schools while Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Las Vegas allow them in the schools but prohibit their use during classes. During the hearing, Bloomberg's representatives said the policy dated back to a 1988 ban on pagers and was needed to prevent students from using phones to send and receive text messages, taking photographs, surfing the Web and playing video games. "Cell phones, with their multiple capabilities, are not just phones," deputy mayor Dennis Walcott told the hearing. "Students have used cell phones to summon friends for fights, to cheat on exams and to take illicit photographs." But city council members said crime and disruptive behavior would occur regardless of the ban and any new law passed would allow students only to use phones before or after school and not during class. "Kids pass notes back and forth but that doesn't mean we take away pens," said council member Belinda Katz. Carmen Colon, a mother of three, said her kids needed phones so she could "juggle their lives" and keep track of them. "This is a big city, it's tough and a whole lot of things go on," said her son Andre Green, 13. Asked if he had heard phones ring during class, he answered: "Yes, but sometimes it's just their mother calling." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news headlines and stories, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html ------------------------------ From: Yuki Noguchi & Kim Hart Subject: Ring Tone Adults Cannot Hear, But Teenagers Can Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 10:41:21 -0500 Teens Find a Ring Tone in a High-Pitched Repellent Yuki Noguchi and Kim Hart Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, June 14, 2006; Page D01 When it came out in Britain in December, the Mosquito sound system was supposed to be the sonic equivalent of a "no loitering" sign. Its annoying, high-pitched sound -- which many adults can't hear but most young people can -- would act as a teen repellent. Now, teens are staging a worldwide rebellion: Downloading the sound, or another ring tone in that same high-frequency range, allows them to hear their cellphones ring when their parents and teachers (mostly) cannot. And the company that brought the Mosquito to market -- Compound Security Systems Ltd. of Britain -- is being barraged by a new market of companies wanting to sell a line of subversive ring tones. "When we brought out the teenager repellent to market, we really didn't think anybody would be interested in ring tones" in the same frequency, said Simon Morris, marketing and commercial director for Compound Security, who has been fielding hundreds of calls from companies and journalists around the world since the annoying ring tone became popular. The original Mosquito device is a small black box that looks like a speaker and emits pulsating sounds at a frequency around 17 kilohertz -- a range that is audible to relatively undamaged young ears but generally harder to hear for those older than 20. "The human ear is responsive to a range of pitches, and that range gets smaller in the higher pitches with age," particularly when one has been exposed to loud noise for long periods of time, said Vic Gladstone, an audiologist and chief staff officer at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in Rockville. The appeal of a kids-only technology quickly caught on: Teens around the world now use it to dodge cellphone restrictions in class. The craze started a few months after Mosquito launched, when someone -- probably in Scandinavia, according to Morris, though the British press pinned it on teens in Wales -- designed software that allowed people to download a similar high-pitched sound to their phones, then share that ring tone with others by beaming it through a Bluetooth wireless connection. Compound Security released its own version, and the Mosquito tone took on the classic attributes of viral marketing. About a month ago, traffic on Compound Security's Web site spiked, as 100,000 kids tried to download the sound, Morris said. Now, ring-tone sales sites such as Fork.com are hawking "the official Mosquito Ringtone" for $2.99 to compatible cellphones. "Join the thousands of folks who can hear the ringtone that their parents can't!" the Web site says. It hit the mainstream media this week, with stories in the New York Times and newspapers in Australia and Britain, as well as an appearance on NBC's "Today" and ABC's "Good Morning America." Blogs have lit up on the subject of the ring tone, with many adults writing to say they can hear the high-pitched sound -- though apparently not as piercingly as school kids can. Students at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Montgomery County haven't yet caught on to the new technology, said Ron Joyner, the school's security team leader. "But once they do learn about it, we're going to have a lot more kids running to the bathroom during class or coming to class late so they can answer phone calls and text messages," he said. "I definitely see it becoming a problem in the fall." The emergence of the Mosquito ring tone poses a new nuisance for teachers trying to stamp out cellphone use during class. "Anything that allows kids to sneak past parents and teachers is going to be popular," said Chris McMillan, assistant principal at Gar-Field Senior High School in Woodbridge. Colleen Holladay, who works in the principal's office at Rockville High School, said she hasn't run across the high-pitched ring tone -- that she knows of. "The whole student body could have it, and we'd have no idea," she said with a laugh. Gladstone, who has been monitoring the health of young people's hearing for years, said, "It's harder and harder to find healthy young ears." But he notes that parents can look on the bright side: "If kids want to be able to take advantage of their good hearing, then they need to protect their own hearing." Compound Security, which plans to start selling the Mosquito system through its U.S. distributor next month, hasn't gotten many complaints from teachers or parents about its alternate use, Morris said. After all, teens are already able to set their phones to vibrate to escape notice, he said. "The teachers all think it's kind of a giggle." Copyright 2006 Washington Post Company. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 22:47:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears By PAUL VITELLO The New York Times June 12, 2006 In that old battle of the wills between young people and their keepers, the young have found a new weapon that could change the balance of power on the cellphone front: a ring tone that many adults cannot hear. In settings where cellphone use is forbidden -- in class, for example -- it is perfect for signaling the arrival of a text message without being detected by an elder of the species. "When I heard about it I didn't believe it at first," said Donna Lewis, a technology teacher at the Trinity School in Manhattan. "But one of the kids gave me a copy, and I sent it to a colleague. She played it for her first graders. All of them could hear it, and neither she nor I could." The technology, which relies on the fact that most adults gradually lose the ability to hear high-pitched sounds, was developed in Britain but has only recently spread to America - by Internet, of course. Recently, in classes at Trinity and elsewhere, some students have begun testing the boundaries of their new technology. One place was Michelle Musorofiti's freshman honors math class at Roslyn High School on Long Island. At Roslyn, as at most schools, cellphones must be turned off during class. But one morning last week, a high-pitched ring tone went off that set teeth on edge for anyone who could hear it. To the students' surprise, that group included their teacher. "Whose cellphone is that?" Miss Musorofiti demanded, demonstrating that at 28, her ears had not lost their sensitivity to strangely annoying, high-pitched, though virtually inaudible tones. "You can hear that?" one of them asked. "Adults are not supposed to be able to hear that," said another, according to the teacher's account. She had indeed heard that, Miss Musorofiti said, adding, "Now turn it off." The cellphone ring tone that she heard was the offshoot of an invention called the Mosquito, developed last year by a Welsh security company to annoy teenagers and gratify adults, not the other way around. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/technology/12ring.html?ex=1307764800&en=2a80d150770df0df&ei=5090 http://graphics.nytimes.com/packages/audio/nyregion/20060610_RINGTONE.mp3 http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/06/12/nyregion/12ring-graphic.gif ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 22:53:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: What Netflix Could Teach Hollywood David Leonhardt The New York Times June 7, 2006 LOS GATOS, Calif. BETWEEN "The Godfather" and "The Godfather: Part II," Francis Ford Coppola made a movie called "The Conversation." It stars Gene Hackman as a paranoid wiretapper in Watergate-era San Francisco, and the cast includes Robert Duvall, a young Harrison Ford, the woman who played Shirley in "Laverne & Shirley" and the guy who played Fredo Corleone in "The Godfather." The movie was nominated for best picture in 1975, and Mr. Coppola has actually called it the finest film he has ever made. After watching it this week, I wouldn't go that far, but it is certainly better than nearly anything at the multiplex right now. Yet "The Conversation" was on its way to the movie graveyard just a few years ago. Since video stores have room for only a few thousands titles, some didn't carry it, and it was slowly being buried under the ever growing pile of newer films at other stores. It would have been easy a decade ago to imagine a time when few people would ever watch "The Conversation" again. Then came Netflix. The Internet company with the red envelopes stocks just about all of the 60,000 movies, television shows and how-to videos that are available on DVD (and that aren't pornography). Just as important, for the sake of "The Conversation," Netflix lets users rate movies on a one- to five-star scale and make online recommendations to their friends. The company's servers also sift through the one billion ratings in its system to tell you which movies that you might like, based on which ones you have already liked. The result is a vast movie meritocracy that gives a film a second or third life simply because -- get this -- it's good. Last year, "The Conversation" (average rating: four stars) was the 13th-most-watched movie from the early 1970's on Netflix. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/technology/07leonhardt.html?ex=1307332800&en=f5560e6361bf4018&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:24:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Selling Surveillance to Anxious Parents Big Brother Selling Surveillance to Anxious Parents By MATT RICHTEL The New York Times May 3, 2006 KEVIN REYNOLDS, a real estate appraiser and father of two, is confronting a quandary: should he put his daughters under electronic surveillance? It's a question more parents will face in the next months, thanks to new technology that lets them use cellphones to monitor their children's location. Next month, Verizon Wireless plans to introduce a child-monitoring service, joining Sprint Nextel and Disney Mobile, which started similar services this spring. Cingular is working on the concept, too. The systems track cellphones by satellite, allowing parents to look on the Internet to make sure their children arrived safely, say, at school or at a friend's house. "If you don't do it and something happens to your kids, how would you feel?" said Mr. Reynolds, 49, contemplating giving such phones to his daughters, ages 4 and 8. But he is also wary of being overly intrusive. "It's Big Brother on a kid's level," he said. "What's it like to live in a world where everybody has a device that tracks where we are?" We may soon find out. Several new programs for consumers use cellphones to tell us -- and our parents and employers, not to mention advertisers -- where we are, how fast we're moving, what direction we're moving in and how close we happen to be to restaurants, movie theaters, banks and other businesses. Soon our cellphones will locate, record and even herald us with digital precision: "You are here." These location-based services take advantage of technology built into dozens of the newest phones. It can instantaneously identify a phone's location by using satellites and the Global Positioning System, or by determining the location of the cell tower connected to the phone. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/technology/techspecial3/03locate.html?ex=1150430400&en=4daec5747c6b6317&ei=5070 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:29:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Renting Movies With a Box and a Beam David Pogue The New York Times June 1, 2006 YOU know the trouble with movies in America these days? There just aren't enough ways to see them. If you miss a movie in the theater, it's gone forever -- unless you can find a video-rental store, DVD-by-mail service, cable movie station, pay-per-view service, video-on-demand channel, Internet movie download site, hotel room or airplane. Thank goodness, then, that a company backed by Disney, Intel and Cisco has stepped in to fill the breach with yet another movie-delivery mechanism. It's a slim, silver, good-looking $200 set-top box called MovieBeam. You connect the MovieBeam player directly to your TV set. Then, whenever you're in the mood for a movie, you choose from the list of 100 movies on the player's hard drive. Preposterous as this may sound, there's no monthly fee and no minimum; you're billed only for the movies you watch ($4 for a new release, $2 for an old one). You can rewind, pause, fast-forward and replay a movie you've bought -- for 24 hours from your first glimpse of the opening credits. Each week, seven or eight new movies magically show up in the player's list, pushing an equal number of old ones off to movie heaven. This wireless movie-delivery feature gives MovieBeam its name. The company doesn't require an Internet connection or even a computer. Nor does the service depend on what cable or satellite setup you have, if any. How, then, can it send enormous, multigigabyte movies to MovieBeam owners nationwide? Answer: Very cleverly. MovieBeam's movies are encoded in the broadcast signal of PBS stations across the country. You're actually receiving MovieBeam's movies at this very moment -- but they're invisible unless you have the MovieBeam box. (MovieBeam pays PBS for these piggybacking rights.) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/technology/01pogue.html?ex=1306814400&en=fffe9ee52db44a76&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:45:15 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power By JOHN MARKOFF and SAUL HANSELL The New York Times June 14, 2006 THE DALLES, Ore., June 8 -- On the banks of the windswept Columbia River, Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate the next generation of Internet computing. But it is hard to keep a secret when it is a computing center as big as two football fields, with twin cooling plants protruding four stories into the sky. The complex, sprawling like an information-age factory, heralds a substantial expansion of a worldwide computing network handling billions of search queries a day and a growing repertory of other Internet services. And odd as it may seem, the barren desert land surrounding the Columbia along the Oregon-Washington border - at the intersection of cheap electricity and readily accessible data networking - is the backdrop for a multibillion-dollar face-off among Google, Microsoft and Yahoo that will determine dominance in the online world in the years ahead. Microsoft and Yahoo have announced that they are building big data centers upstream in Wenatchee and Quincy, Wash., 130 miles to the north. But it is a race in which they are playing catch-up. Google remains far ahead in the global data-center race, and the scale of its complex here is evidence of its extraordinary ambition. Even before the Oregon center comes online, Google has lashed together a global network of computers -- known in the industry as the Googleplex -- that is a singular achievement. "Google has constructed the biggest computer in the world, and it's a hidden asset," said Danny Hillis, a supercomputing pioneer and a founder of Applied Minds, a technology consulting firm, referring to the Googleplex. The design and even the nature of the Google center in this industrial and agricultural outpost 80 miles east of Portland has been a closely guarded corporate secret. "Companies are historically sensitive about where their operational infrastructure is," acknowledged Urs Holzle, Google's senior vice president for operations. Behind the curtain of secrecy, the two buildings here -- and a third that Google has a permit to build -- will probably house tens of thousands of inexpensive processors and disks, held together with Velcro tape in a Google practice that makes for easy swapping of components. The cooling plants are essential because of the searing heat produced by so much computing power. The complex will tap into the region's large surplus of fiber optic networking, a legacy of the dot-com boom. The fact that Google is behind the data center, referred to locally as Project 02, has been reported in the local press. But many officials in The Dalles, including the city attorney and the city manager, said they could not comment on the project because they signed confidentiality agreements with Google last year. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/technology/14search.html?ex=1307937600&en=d96a72b3c5f91c47&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 00:04:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Microsoft Patch Disclosure - June 2006 Alert: eEye Security Bulletin June 14, 2006 Microsoft Patch Disclosure - June 2006 Patch Tuesday is here again and this is a big one. A total of twelve bulletins were released by Microsoft. Eight of the twelve bulletins are critical, three are important, and one received a moderate rating by Microsoft. This eEye alert will discuss what is important to understand about each bulletin. http://www.eeye.com/research/html/newsletters/alert/pub/AL20060613.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 00:35:31 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Faster Wi-Fi Hits Hurdles / New Devices for Improved Technology Faster Wi-Fi Hits Hurdles New Devices for Improved Technology Lack a Unifying Standard By DON CLARK June 13, 2006; Page B3 Today's wireless networks struggle with some jobs, such as sending high-definition video signals from a personal computer to a television set. Companies have been racing for years to fix the problem. But they can't agree on whether the race is over. Computer equipment makers this spring introduced devices incorporating a faster version of Wi-Fi, the wireless technology commonplace in laptop computers. But chips in those devices were based on interpretations of an unfinished set of technology specifications. Among the results: The new devices often can't communicate with one another at their intended top speeds. The Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry organization that tries to ensure products work together, is withholding its endorsement of any of the new products until a formal standard is approved -- a milestone not expected until next year. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115015087219878208-aCtY2iOpSdK4HfdrxqZuy5CN9v8_20070612.html ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Lotsa New NYS Laws re: Identity Theft, Phishing, Privacy Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 07:55:21 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC - unfortunately, it reads like what it is, a wordy press release. Take special note of the mandatory destruction of records before disposal. Also of interest is that ISPs and others now have a cause of action in filing suit. http://www.ny.gov/governor/press/06/0609061.html FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 9, 2006 GOVERNOR SIGNS IMPORTANT LEGISLATION TO PROTECT NEW YORKERS AGAINST IDENTITY THEFT New York Remains National Leader in Providing Consumers with Ability to Proactively Protect their Credit Reports from Third Party Access Governor George E. Pataki today signed three bills that will further protect New York's consumers and their privacy. These bills will allow consumers to proactively defend themselves against identity thieves, require businesses to properly discard documents and records containing personal information, and prohibit individuals from deceptively soliciting sensitive information from Internet users. They will also help prohibit the potential repercussions that many identity theft victims encounter, including the denial of loan applications, false arrest, and criminal records. "Before another New Yorker falls victim to fraud or identity theft, these laws, signed today, will go a long way to protecting our consumers, in the future," Governor Pataki said. "As all New Yorkers come to rely heavily on the Internet in their daily lives, we must exercise all possible avenues to ensure the safety and privacy of our consumers and protect them from identity fraud. These three laws make certain that New Yorkers have additional tools to combat those wishing to take advantage of them and their families." Senator Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr., Chairman of the Senate's Consumer Protection Committee and sponsor of the bills said, "As criminals continue to devise new schemes to steal people's private information, New York State must come up with stronger laws to protect its consumers. By giving people the ability to freeze their credit and requiring businesses and governments to properly dispose of records containing private information, we will be enacting three of the toughest anti-identity theft laws in the country." "I thank Governor Pataki for helping us enact these important new laws that will greatly benefit all New Yorkers." Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer, Chair of the Assembly Consumer Affairs and Protection Committee said, "With the recent announcement that millions of the nation's veterans are the potential victims of identity theft this legislation is extraordinarily timely in aiding these New York Veterans involved in this matter, as well as consumers across the state." "These bills were developed after intensive negotiations with all parties involved, and we believe that the result is a comprehensive package of legislation that addresses the needs of our consumers and continues to demonstrate that New York remains a leader in the fight against identity theft." Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, sponsor of one of the bills, said, "Today, we took a huge step forward to protect consumers throughout this State from the nefarious activities of online fraudsters. The Internet is a lot like the Wild West where thieves and fraudsters lurk in every corner. Phishers prey on the people and this bill stops them." Teresa A. Santiago, Chairperson and Executive Director of the New York State Consumer Protection Board (CPB) said, "These new laws will help protect New Yorkers from the financial costs and emotional stress that can result from identity theft. The CPB was the first to propose legislation that would prevent Identity Theft resulting from the improper disposal of records containing personal information. When receipts and other documents are not shredded or otherwise destroyed prior to disposal, there is a greater likelihood that consumers may become victims of identity theft." The Security Freeze Law allows consumers, who are either identity theft victims or are concerned that they might be at risk of having their identities stolen, to cut off an identity thief's access to credit, loans, leases, goods and services by placing a "freeze" on their consumer credit report. Consumers must have proper identification and may have to pay an applicable fee, not to exceed $5.00, to have the freeze put in place. Consumers must send a written request to a consumer credit reporting agency by certified or overnight mail and would be permitted to remove a freeze entirely, lift a freeze for specific period of time, or grant a specific party access to their report. Consumers must have proper identification, their PIN or password (that the credit reporting agency supplies), the name of the party to whom the information may be made available, the time period of availability and payment of any applicable fees. The Disposal of Personal Records Law requires any business to properly dispose of records containing personal information through one of the following means: shredding, destruction, modification, or other reasonable action to ensure that no unauthorized person will have access to the personal information. This law will ensure that disposed records containing personal information are not a source that thieves rely upon to commit identity theft. The Law also provides that a failure to properly dispose of records by any business or other business under this law would result in a civil penalty of up to $5,000. The Anti-Phishing Act of 2006 prohibits the deceptive solicitation of personal information through electronic communications. Internet service providers, affected trademark holders or the Attorney General are authorized to bring an action to recover the greater of actual damages or $1,000 per violation. Treble damages are also allowed when the court finds that a person has engaged in a pattern and practice of phishing. Phishing is the act of sending an e-mail to an Internet user, falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The scammer lures the potential victim out of a sea of internet users for passwords and financial data. "Phishing" accounts for nearly 25% of all Internet fraud. _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 15, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 11:26:53 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 15, 2006 ******************************** Competing in Customer Care http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18391?11228 When it comes to customer satisfaction surveys, there are winners and losers, but apparently no one can rest on their laurels. Whether they're sitting at the top of the customer care satisfaction heap or at the bottom, carriers are trying to improve in the one area that has drawn more than a little regulatory and consumer interest... France Telecom's New Push in Africa, Asia http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18390?11228 France Telecom has hinted at a strategic push into emerging markets where there is still substantial room for growth. It is eying acquisitions in Africa and Asia, but concedes that there is little room for success in pushing into Latin America. 'We have a certain number of specific ideas in regions where markets are rapidly... LG Electronics Ends Negotiations to Buy Stake in KTF's Handset Unit http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18389?11228 LG Electronics (LG) has ended negotiations with South Korea's second-largest operator KTF to buy a controlling stake in the latter's handset manufacturing unit, KTF Technologies, LG and KTF said today. A KTF spokesman said that the two companies had decided to end the talks as they failed to narrow the gap on financial terms and... OTE on Track for 500,000 ADSL Customers http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18388?11228 Greece's OTE is on track to meet its target of 500,000 broadband users this year, according to its CEO Panagis Vourloumis. "Broadband is not just the future of the company but is also that of Greece," he said. Reuters reports that OTE is planning an awareness campaign as part of its strategy to boost understanding and... Think Thin: Motorola Q http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18385?11228 So what is the thinnest mobile device in the world featuring a QWERTY keyboard? The answer, claims Motorola, is the Motorola Q. Positioned by its manufacturer as a smartphone with a 'RAZR-thin look and feel,'the Moto Q is a remarkable 50 percent thinner than most of its top competitors. Now, nearly a year after its... EBay Offers Text Alerts http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18383?11228 EBay continues to extend its reach into the wireless arena. The latest: The online marketplace company has launched eBay Alerts, which enables users to receive bid updates via text message, as well as via a phone call or instant message. The SMS alerts service, according to eBay, gives users the ability to receive... Cingular Pushes MS Email http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18381?11228 Cingular Wireless LLC has become the latest U.S. carrier to offer Microsoft Corp.'s push email update for its Windows mobile operating system -- although the operator is currently only offering the code with two of its own-brand devices. The push email update will be available starting next week on the 8125 and the 2125, which... Third World Still Loves 2G http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18378?11228 According to a new report from ABI Research, 2G and 2.5G wireless infrastructure is alive and well and living in the developing world. With most wireless infrastructure markets in industrialized nations near or at saturation levels, wireless base-station vendors are looking for other markets, all the way to China, India and other... BSNL Sizes Up Five Bidders http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18375?11228 After several delays and deadline extensions, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) closed the lid on its mammoth $4.5 billion wireless tender Monday, receiving submissions from five equipment vendors. Of the 18 companies that requested the paperwork, bids came in from Ericsson AB, Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp., Siemens AG, and ZTE Corp.... TelecomDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Organization: I Kill Spammers, inc. Subject: On-Line Service With a Toll Free Number Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 01:04:45 GMT This one offers legal drugs and claims to be a US company. You can contact us at any time either by clicking the Live Help button for a live chat session with our customer service staff, or you can call us toll-free on 877-479-2455. We look forward to helping you with all your medical needs, this time, and in the future. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: What Will Tiered Access Mean for NPOs? Date: 15 Jun 2006 09:28:25 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Here is a reply to the special issue dealing with 'net neutrality' which was distributed Wednesday. PAT] Various writers wrote: > From Tech Soup, June 14, 2006 > By Henry Kumagai > Imagine if your nonprofit had to pay a fee to your Internet service > provider in order for your Web site to turn up on search-engine > results. Or what if your constituents could only access your site on a > slower, more unreliable connection -- unless you made a higher monthly > payment to your ISP? Actually, I thought that's how the world worked now. I see nothing wrong with it. Since when do "non-profits" get a free ride? > The term "network neutrality" describes an Internet that does not > discriminate based on the content or source of information. It is just > as much an ideal as a practice: currently, users can go anywhere they > want on the Internet, with phone companies and cable providers > treating all traffic in a neutral manner. No. Users can NOT go anywhere they want. I learned long ago to be very suspicious of new sites which may be fronts for scams -- gambling, porn, phishing, spyware, viruses, etc. It is NOT the ideal world these people claim it is. > The concept is similar to that of the common carriage provisions that > govern the telephone system in the United States, whereby phone calls > are treated with equal priority across a network, regardless of their > source or destination. That once was true, but with VOIP, cell phones, and brand-x local and long distance carriers, it is no longer true. Building an argument based on a utopia that doesn't exist is no way to win a debate or earn credibility for your side. Sorry, but I can't help but suspect all these writers -- that describe the Internet in such warm and fuzzy terms -- have their own personal agenda. I submit since they write for technology journals, it is in their interest to promote and push technology, just as any other advocacy magazine would. In a race car magazine I would not expect to find an article touting streetcar service, but I know the race car magazine is for a specific purpose. One of the very first questions we were taught years ago was: How (specifically) will the new technology make things better? What will be all the costs? Might it be better to stick with pencil and paper? A lot of technocrats -- like the writers of techno magazines -- don't think in those terms. They assume immediately the newest features (for which we all must buy new computers and software to use) will improve our lives tremendously. (In a separate post I'll describe how an innocent man was branded a predator thanks to the Internet and ruined his life.) In conclusion, making a solid established company the "gatekeeper" and putting up a few tollbooths might not be such a bad idea. Putting in some audit controls and audit trails may cut off some of the scams we're flooded with and spend so much money defending against. 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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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #227 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 15 16:43:16 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id BFD9515191; Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:43:15 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #228 Message-Id: <20060615204315.BFD9515191@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:43:15 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:45:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 228 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Mobile Players Form Linux Platform Pact (Marc Jones) Linux Coming to Your Mobile Phone Soon (Barry Levine) The Front Lines - June 15, 2006 (Jonathan Marashlian) Orange Releases Converged Broadband/Wireless Service (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: What is Net Neutrality all About? (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com) Re: Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power (ReasonRules@gmail.com) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Marc Jones Subject: Mobile Players Form Linux Platform Pact Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 15:21:03 -0500 By Marc Jones A group of the world's mobile operators and handset makers said on Thursday they are to join together to develop an open-source Linux-based operating system that could to be used in phones by the end of 2007. Mobile network operators Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo and handset makers Motorola, Samsung, NEC and Panasonic, said they would form an independent not-for-profit group to share the costs and speed up mobile software and handsets and cut the number of operating platforms on the market. "We expect this initiative to speed time to market for new products and also enable us to create more personalized products and applications for consumers," said Vodafone's Global Director of Terminals, Jens Schulte-Bockum. Similar to PCs, mobile devices use operating systems onto which applications such as text messaging and video and music players are loaded, much like a computer program would be loaded onto Microsoft's Windows platform or Apple's OS X. With mobile technology advancing exponentially, the cost of development is soaring for handset-maker's devices. The problem is exacerbated by applications required to be written in a variety of computer codes to enable them to run on the different operating systems. Linux software currently occupies only a tiny proportion of the mobile market, mainly in China, while market leaders Symbian and Microsoft dominate the space. The attraction of Linux for handset makers is that as the code is not owned by any one company competition is likely to be fierce between firms supplying ready-to-use embedded Linux versions for phones, driving down fees, whereas Symbian and Microsoft can keep prices higher. Mobile operators are also affected as they want as many of the phones they offer customers to have the latest must-have features and then charge for using them. "The bigger cost saving elements will come from removing the number of small fragmented proprietary platforms and reducing long lead times for new services" Vodafone platform development director, Patrick Chomet, told Reuters. "We have to adapt them each time we have a new game or a new service and we have to support ever single phone from every single supplier and that's huge effort in time and cost." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more headlines and news of interest, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Barry Levine Subject: Linux Coming to Your Mobile Phone Soon Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 15:22:01 -0500 Barry Levine, newsfactor.com Several leading mobile-device manufacturers announced Wednesday that they plan to form an alliance to develop and support a global version of Linux for mobile phones, PDAs, and other portable devices by the end of 2007. Handset makers Samsung, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, NEC, Panasonic, and Vodafone said they were creating an independent, not-for-profit group to spearhead the effort and share the costs. The main operating systems for mobile devices include Microsoft Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, and BlackBerry. Linux, a popular open-source operating system, has a smaller share of the mobile market. Strategy Defrag To date, Linux initiatives for mobiles have been fragmented, with different variations that complicate development and support for both manufacturers and application developers. As a free, open-source OS known for its stability, a standardized Linux for mobile devices could serve to reduce costs to manufacturers, create a stable platform for developers, and reduce reliance on proprietary OS providers, such as Microsoft. The foundation's objectives include creating technical specifications for the OS architecture and application programming interfaces (APIs), and creating a reference design with premade programming tools. Open-Source Media The founding member companies also pledged to seek participation from other interested companies, including software developers and chipset manufacturers. If this initiative bears fruit, consumers could see a flourishing Linux community for mobile devices, mirroring the one in the PC world. "If open-source developers latch on to a unified mobile Linux," said Avi Greengart, an analyst with technology research firm Current Analysis, "then we could see rich media applications being offered for global devices by the open-source community." Copyright 2006 NewsFactor Network, Inc. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more tech news headlines and stories, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: Jonathan Marashlian Subject: The Front Lines - June 15, 2006 Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 13:35:23 -0400 Organization: The Helein Law Group http://www.thefrontlines-hlg.com/ The FRONT LINES Sponsored by The Helein Law Group, P.C. http://www.thlglaw.com/ Advancing The Cause of Competition in the Telecommunications Industry NOTICE: THIRD QUARTER 2006 UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND CONTRIBUTION FACTOR REDUCED TO 10.5% The Wireline Competition Bureau of the FCC announced that the Universal Service Fund contribution factor for the Third Quarter of 2006 will be reduced to 10.5% from the current 10.9% factor. The proposed 10.5% contribution factor will become effective unless the FCC takes action in response to the proposed increase, which is not anticipated. Contributors are reminded that they may not mark up federal universal service line-item amounts above the contribution factor. FCC EXPECTED TO APPLY UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND CONTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS TO VoIP; INCREASE WIRELESS SAFE HARBOR AT UPCOMING OPEN MEETING Republican Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin, has proposed requiring Voice over IP ("VoIP") and Internet-based telephone service providers, offering services similar to Vonage, to contribute a portion of their revenue to the Universal Service Fund. Martin has also proposed increasing the amount of contributions it collects from wireless carriers. These proposals are set forth in a Report and Order scheduled to be considered by the full 5-member Commission at its June 21, 2006 Open Meeting. The Commission will also vote on a further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking believed to be related to USF reform. Unconfirmed reports in the media indicate that Martin's proposal would subject almost 65 percent of the revenue of VoIP providers to the 10.9 percent USF contribution factor (10.5% by the 3rd Quarter). Under the proposal, therefore, a customer paying $24.99 per month for Vonage service would be subject to an additional $1.77 USF surcharge. As for wireless providers, the current revenue level subject to USF contributions, called the "safe harbor," is 28.5 percent. Under Martin's proposal, it is reported that the safe harbor would increase to about 37 percent. The proposed expansion of USF to VoIP and increase in the wireless safe harbor comes as the agency is facing a $350 million shortfall in the USF come August. The shortfall is the result of the Commission's own doing due to its "de-regulation" last year of wireline broadband services, such a DSL (digital subscriber line). The Helein Law Group will be tracking developments closely and will be available provide clients advice and guidance in the event the FCC approves the Report and Order at the June 21st Open Meeting. If you have questions, please contact Jonathan S. Marashlian at (703) 714-1313 or by e-mail: jsm@thlglaw.com. The Front Lines is a free publication of The Helein Law Group, P.C., providing clients and interested parties with valuable information, news, and updates regarding regulatory and legal developments primarily impacting companies engaged in the competitive telecommunications industry. The Front Lines does not purport to offer legal advice nor does it establish a lawyer-client relationship with the reader. If you have questions about a particular article, general concerns, or wish to seek legal counsel regarding a specific regulatory or legal matter affecting your company, please contact our firm at 703-714-1313 or visit our website: http://www.thlglaw.com/ www.THLGlaw.com The Helein Law Group, P.C. 8180 Greensboro Drive, Suite 700 McLean, Virginia 22102 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 13:20:33 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Orange Releases Converged Broadband/Wireless Service USTelecom dailyLead June 15, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dOuAfDtutexEjJjgNm TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Orange releases converged broadband/wireless service BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Level 3 forms partnership with Internet2 * Gaming comes to cable: Q-and-A with Comcast's MacLean * Three Mexican telecoms oppose expansion of interconnection fees * Sprint Nextel's CEO: It's all about the network USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * McCormick stresses competitive communications market at Senate Judiciary hearing * Telecom at your fingertips -- Updated TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Nielsen to rate Web TV, mobile offerings REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Cable opposes rural broadband program * AT&T announces support for multicast must-carry * Report: Expansion of CALEA to VoIP poses security risks Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dOuAfDtutexEjJjgNm ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: What is Net Neutrality all About? Date: 15 Jun 2006 10:49:09 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you agree with all this, or do you find it just a bit shrill? There are several additional essays in the collection presented here today, please continue reading. PAT] No, I don't agree with it. Yes, I do find it shrill. I responded to a separate issue, here are some more comments: > This is about Internet freedom. "Network Neutrality" -- the First > Amendment of the Internet -- ensures that the public can view the > smallest blog just as easily as the largest corporate Web site by > preventing Internet companies like AT&T from rigging the playing field > for only the highest-paying sites. It also will mean the public can get hit with the nastiest virus, phising scam, porn, etc. without protection. The automobile offers us "freedom". But we can't drive any way we feel like -- we must drive on prescribed roads (not across fields) per motor vehicle laws. Our vehicles must meet safety standards. Back in the 1950s the automakers fought safety standards and lots of people were killed until they were made mandatory in the 1960s. "Freedom" is a very loaded word. It sounds good on the surface, but one must look closer. > Net Neutrality ensures that all users can access the content or run > the applications and devices of their choice. With Net Neutrality, the > network's only job is to move data -- not choose which data to > privilege with higher quality service. Given the abuses on the net perhaps we do need a gatekeeper. Real life has gatekeepers. > Net Neutrality is the reason why the Internet has driven economic > innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online. It's why > the Internet has become an unrivaled environment for open > communications, civic involvement and free speech. Without doubt the Internet is a powerful tool just as the automobile and chain saws are powerful tools. But all tools must be used with care and built with safety standards. The Internet is no different. I do work as a community activist and the value of the Internet as described above is vastly overrated. It does help, but not to the extent above. First, a great many citizens do not have a computer at home at all. Second, those who do limit their Internet work (presuming they even do so) to very specific things; they don't sit there all night and surf away. Third, the easy way to create web pages and talk means that everyone and anyone is creating web pages. To the end user, it is nothing but a lot of noise (mixed in with porn, scams, and the like). Fourth, a lot of web sites are poorly maintained -- put up once but never updated or supported. Having the Internet will not fix a sloppy organization. Go look at the newsgroup of alt.prisons. You'll see it dominated by one poster's tirades. Legitimate discussions of prison issues are nowhere to be found. Other unmoderated newsgroups have similar problems with outside trolls. Open access is open access, and will bring in people you don't want. Let's discuss the reality of functional "free speech". At a town meeting, a citizen inquired about a recent fire, he wanted to know if it was arson. The town council assured the citizen that the fire marshall had checked and found the source (accidental discarded cigarette) and there was no arson. But the citizen said it could've been arson and thus the town had an arsonist in its midst. Again the council assured the citizen that wasn't the case. The citizen persisted. This went on for a few more rounds when finally council thanked the citizen for his comments and moved on to the next agenda. The citizen was cut off from further staements. On the unmoderated Internet, there is no one to say "ok, we have to move on now". The passionate and persistent will keep posting their issue, drowning out those not as vocal. That's not free speech, that is mob rule and much of the Internet is mob rule. > Before long, all media -- TV, phone and the Web -- will come > to your home via the same broadband connection. Nonsense! It will take years before each and every house has an affordable broadband connection. There is no way today's existing cable and telephone network could support every household and business pounding away on broadband connections, doing streaming video downloads, etc. No where near enough capacity. Further, not everyone _wants_ such connections. I fear the writers of these articles are isolated in their own little techie world and don't understand there are plenty of people out there who get by with rabbit ears and POTS. Those that have cable get it only for better reception (cable's original mission). Those who do have the Internet have it only to get emails to their grandchildren. Just because these technies are willing to stay out all night to buy the latest Windows or Flash or whatever upgrade doesn't mean the rest of society is too. They're not. > The Internet has always been driven by innovation. That is not always a good thing! For an article that rants against big corporations, this "innovation business" is exactly the General Motors model of planned obsolesense of the new model year. Got Win 95 on a Pentium 120? My goodness, you're old fashioned! Buy new! Buy new! Buy new! > Web sites and services succeeded or failed on their own merit. Success has NOTHING to do with "innovation". A successful website is so for the same reasons anything else is successful--it works properly, is easy to use, and serves the customers needs. This may or not may not make use of the latest and greatest features. How often have you wasted time in a bank or store because the "new" computer system didn't work right to handle your transaction? Every time I buy clothes the clerk tries to scan the tag, it doesn't work, so the clerk then has to key in 16 digits of a product code. Error prone and time consuming. Annoying when they ring up a $300 suit when I bought $3 pair of socks. This is 2006 and they still don't get it. My comments are based on my observations of 35 years in the technological, government, and business worlds. In these posts I have attacked 'technies' for the reasons described. If any techies want to respond, please do so. > the Internet has driven economic innovation Allow me to elaborate on this issue of "innovation": There's a growing family owned department store chain that is doing well. In contrast, large national chains (ie Federated, May Co.) are consolidating. This small chain is buying up stores closed by the big guys. How is this small chain thriving? The paper had a feature article on its President. To be sure, they do use computer generated reports to track buying, trends, etc. But the head guy and his mgmt staff does something else a little old fashioned: they visit the stores and see for themselves. They speak to the customers themselves. None of this can be done remotely by computers. No such "virtual visits" or virtual simualtions. They have the real thing. Early in the morning a chartered bus picks up mgmt at the HQ and then goes to visit the stores. In each store they inspect the displays -- are they neat? Attractive? Are sales clerks on duty and helpful? Are the customers finding what they sought? Are the promotions bringing in people? How's the stock rooms? I don't know if this would be called "innovative" since it's rather old fashioned. The computer trade press promotes remote visuals through cameras and the like to automate this sort of thing a la 1984. But this approach does work since this chain is flourishing. Because the visits are face to face, it's a two-way street. The clerks and customers get to talk and listen and the mgmt gets to talk and listen. This is how the old time "merchant princes" built up their stores. Computers can and do supplement this sort of thing but cannot replace it. [public replies, please] ------------------------------ From: ReasonRules@gmail.com Subject: Re: Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power Date: 15 Jun 2006 12:22:14 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Why are they building on a flood plain next to a huge floodable river?! Monty Solomon wrote: > By JOHN MARKOFF and SAUL HANSELL > The New York Times > June 14, 2006 > THE DALLES, Ore., June 8 -- On the banks of the windswept Columbia > River, Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate > the next generation of Internet computing. But it is hard to keep a > secret when it is a computing center as big as two football fields, > with twin cooling plants protruding four stories into the sky. > The complex, sprawling like an information-age factory, heralds a > substantial expansion of a worldwide computing network handling > billions of search queries a day and a growing repertory of other > Internet services. > And odd as it may seem, the barren desert land surrounding the > Columbia along the Oregon-Washington border - at the intersection of > cheap electricity and readily accessible data networking - is the > backdrop for a multibillion-dollar face-off among Google, Microsoft > and Yahoo that will determine dominance in the online world in the > years ahead. > Microsoft and Yahoo have announced that they are building big data > centers upstream in Wenatchee and Quincy, Wash., 130 miles to the > north. But it is a race in which they are playing catch-up. Google > remains far ahead in the global data-center race, and the scale of its > complex here is evidence of its extraordinary ambition. > Even before the Oregon center comes online, Google has lashed together > a global network of computers -- known in the industry as the > Googleplex -- that is a singular achievement. "Google has constructed > the biggest computer in the world, and it's a hidden asset," said > Danny Hillis, a supercomputing pioneer and a founder of Applied Minds, > a technology consulting firm, referring to the Googleplex. > The design and even the nature of the Google center in this industrial > and agricultural outpost 80 miles east of Portland has been a closely > guarded corporate secret. "Companies are historically sensitive about > where their operational infrastructure is," acknowledged Urs Holzle, > Google's senior vice president for operations. > Behind the curtain of secrecy, the two buildings here -- and a third > that Google has a permit to build -- will probably house tens of > thousands of inexpensive processors and disks, held together with > Velcro tape in a Google practice that makes for easy swapping of > components. The cooling plants are essential because of the searing > heat produced by so much computing power. > The complex will tap into the region's large surplus of fiber optic > networking, a legacy of the dot-com boom. > The fact that Google is behind the data center, referred to locally as > Project 02, has been reported in the local press. But many officials > in The Dalles, including the city attorney and the city manager, said > they could not comment on the project because they signed > confidentiality agreements with Google last year. > http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/technology/14search.html?ex=1307937600&en=d96a72b3c5f91c47&ei=5090 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #228 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 16 13:42:14 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 5C1D31524D; Fri, 16 Jun 2006 13:42:14 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #229 Message-Id: <20060616174214.5C1D31524D@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 13:42:14 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 16 Jun 2006 13:45:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 229 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson US Sues New Jersey Over Phone Company Subpoenas (Reuters News Wire) Google Launches Government Search Site (Reuters News Wire) How Evil Will Google Become? (Tim Beyers) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 16, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) VOIP Job Available Question (jimwhite@nyc.rr.com) Re: What is Net Neutrality all About? (Tim Scott) Re: Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power (DLR) Re: NYC Students and Parents Want Cell Phone Ban Lifted (DLR) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: US Sues New Jersey Over Phone Company Subpoenas Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 11:16:40 -0500 The U.S. government has sued the New Jersey Attorney General's office on grounds of security concerns to prevent it from asking telephone companies if they gave customer call records to the National Security Agency. The government wants to stop the disclosure of confidential and sensitive information, according to the lawsuit filed in Trenton, New Jersey on Wednesday, a day before phone companies were due to reply to subpoenas issued by the New Jersey attorney general. "Compliance with the subpoenas issued by those officers would first place the carriers in a position of having to confirm or deny the existence of information that cannot be confirmed or denied without causing exceptionally grave harm to national security," the lawsuit said. New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber sent subpoenas to AT&T, Verizon Communications Inc., Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel and Qwest Communications International Inc. on May 17 asking if they had cooperated with the NSA. The suit charged that New Jersey's attorney general issued the subpoenas without proper authorization from the federal government. The lawsuit named AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Qwest and Cingular, a venture of AT&T and BellSouth, as defendants as well as Farber and other New Jersey officials. USA Today newspaper reported last month that AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth Corp. gave the NSA access to and turned over call data so it could secretly analyze calling patterns to detect terrorist plots. This provoked a host of lawsuits and objections from privacy advocates. BellSouth has denied turning over information to the NSA, and Verizon has said that it does not provide the government with unfettered access to customer records. AT&T has said it helps when asked by the government but only within the law. A lawyer for Qwest's former Chief executive Joe Nacchio has said that he refused government requests for information. David Wald, a spokesperson for the New Jersey attorney general, did not say what Farber's next step would be. "We acted to determine whether the rights of citizens in New Jersey have been violated. The federal government told us we could not make such an inquiry. We will look at this complaint and respond in court," Wald said. AT&T spokesman Walt Sharp said, "The filing by the federal government underscores the fact that the government and not corporations has responsibility for and control over national security issues." Representatives for Verizon and Sprint Nextel were not immediately available for comment. Cingular and Qwest declined comment saying they do not discuss national security matters. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from the daily media, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Google Launches Government Search Site Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 11:27:46 -0500 Navigating government bureaucracy is not easy, but it may become faster with Google Inc.'s new search site for U.S. federal, state and local government. Google U.S. Government Search, http://usgov.google.com, was launched on Thursday by the search leader. Google said the site should make finding U.S. government information easier for government employees and contractors. For example, a search of the word "highway" on the site returned links to the Federal Highway Administration and the California Highway Patrol. Another for "Iraq" returned links to Library of Congress documents and The World Factbook, a collection of country profiles published annually by the Central Intelligence Agency. The site can be personalized and also offers news from the White House, the armed forces and even provides a weather report for Washington, D.C. It is the latest in a series of specialized content sites developed by Google, which launched a search engine devoted to Shakespeare on Wednesday. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html More news and headlines at: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html ------------------------------ From: Tim Beyers Subject: How Evil Will Google Become? Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 11:29:27 -0500 By Tim Beyers Maybe I've still got evil on the brain. A week after the rerelease of The Omen on the so-called day of the devil -- you know, 6/6/2006 -- I'm wondering when Google will finally give in to its darker side. June 28 may offer another temptation. That's the date an RBC Capital Markets analyst says the search king will launch Gbuy, an online payments service similar to eBay's (Nasdaq: EBAY - News) PayPal. The fear is that, with Gbuy, Google could get unprecedented knowledge of what we buy and where we buy from, which would then allow it to charge huge premiums for its most effective advertising tools. That's a legit concern, to be sure, but it's not why I'm writing today. Instead, I wonder whether the Big Goo, as Foolish friend Seth Jayson calls it, will embrace another kind of evil: Internet gambling. The answer matters more than you might think. PayPal, you see, doesn't accept payments from gambling sites. And that leaves millions of potential customers to other providers, including Neteller, a Pink Sheets-traded company in which I own shares. Neteller is like PayPal in most respects, except that the London-based company specializes in processing online gaming payments. Poker sites such as PokerStars and PartyGaming's Party Poker offer good examples. And it's a big business -- Neteller processed more than $7.3 billion U.S. in transactions during 2005. That's a lot of, um, evil. Can Google afford to ignore it? Calls to Google PR requesting comment were not returned by press time. Nevertheless, the company may not have much of a choice, at least here in the U.S. Congressman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia, has introduced a bill in the House that would, if passed, ban money transfers for most forms of online gambling, including poker. Still, any meaningful legislation could be months or years away. Meanwhile, PayPal remains the heavy in U.S. online payments processing, handling $9 billion worth of transactions in the first quarter. Reducing that edge won't be easy. History says that Big Goo's strategy will be to zig as PayPal zags, hoping to drag consumers along for the ride. And that makes sense. Too bad there aren't many ways to do online payments differently. Unless, of course, Google decides evil isn't evil after all. eBay is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick. Fool contributor Tim Beyers thinks PayPal rocks. He's curious to see how Google will attempt to improve it. Tim owns shares of Neteller. You can find out what else is in his portfolio by checking Tim's Fool profile. The Motley Fool has an ironclad disclosure policy. Copyright 2006 Motley Fool ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 16, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 09:48:12 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 16, 2006 ******************************** How to Keep IMS from Becoming Yet Another Silo http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18412?11228 Homepage content as the telecommunications industry continues to try to get its arms around the complexity of delivery architectures and operational management of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), service providers and equipment manufacturers are focusing their attention on the IMS business case and on getting a better understanding of the ... Ministry Considers Allowing MVNO Services in Japan http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18408?11228 The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIAC) is considering facilitating the entrances of new operators into the mobile market by allowing them to use the networks owned by existing carriers, according to Dow Jonesreports citing a ministry official. The ministry said that it wants to encourage the entry of MVNOs, which buy ... Tele2, Versatel Merger on Hold http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18405?11228 Pan-European alternative telecoms operator Tele2 has suspended its proposed merger with Versatel. In a statement today, Tele2 said that both parties had jointly agreed to put the preparations for a 'triangular merger between Versatel, Tele2 Finance and Tele2 Netherlands' on hold. Tele2 said that it was considering other options ... EU Calls for Price Controls on Deutsche Telekom http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18404?11228 The European Commission (EC) has issued a formal statement to the German government indicating that it is in favour of tougher controls on German fixed-line incumbent Deutsche Telekom. It urges the German telecoms regulator to impose a change in accounting practices on Deutsche Telekom, to make price controls more effective. ... State Preemption Faces Challenge on Hill http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18401?11228 WASHINGTON -- The wireless industry is still trying to get language inserted into pending telecommunications reform legislation that pre-empts states from regulating them, but it's facing an uphill battle. On Tuesday, CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent again presented his case for an overarching national regulatory framework to the ... Linux Fills Mobile's Need For Speed http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18399?11228 A group of heavy hitters -- Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone -- are partnering to establish what they say will be the world's first global, open Linux-based software platform for mobile devices. This world-class Linux-based platform aims to provide key benefits for the ... TeliaSonera Goes 3G in Spain http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18395?11228 Scandinavian carrier TeliaSonera AB says dramatic reductions in the cost of mobile network infrastructure and handsets are allowing it to make a bold leap into the Spanish 3G mobile market with a euro1 billion (US$1.26 billion) investment in a new network. The carrier believes that's the cost to invest in networks, ... Bidders Abound for Sprint Pseudowire http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18393?11228 While the Sprint Nextel Corp. RFP for pseudowire indicates that the company is still in the nascent stages of consideration, several suitors have jumped on board to bid. In the meantime, the company has been lobbying the U.S. Congress to regulate backhaul access fees. A copy of the 10-page request for proposal, obtained by Light... Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. All rights reserved. PricewaterhouseCoopers refers to the network of member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity. ------------------------------ From: jimwhite@nyc.rr.com Subject: VOIP Job Available Organization: EasyNews, UseNet made Easy! Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 22:35:22 GMT Hello, I am trying to fill a VOIP troubleshoot position in Boston. Does anyone know where the best place to post such a position would be, other that Monster etc. The Mass. user group was not up and running yet. Thanks. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You might begin right here! We have a classified ads section in the Digest http://telecom-digest.org/classified.html which is a lot less expensive than most services on the net and since we have a lot of readers in the Boston area, some of them will no doubt see your message of inquiry right here today. I assume it will be okay for interested parties to write to you at jimwhite@nyc.rr.com ? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:52:54 -0600 From: Tim Scott Subject: Re: What is Net Neutrality all About? I agree most heartily with your comments. Internet gatekeepers are a sketchy issue, however. Who regulates the regulators? It is important that regulating the internet with gatekeepers does not "throw the baby out with the bathwater", per se. Who ensures that the gatekeepers are regulated? Your comments on "mob rule" were straight on the point, sir. -Tim > From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com > Subject: Re: What is Net Neutrality all About? > Date: 15 Jun 2006 10:49:09 -0700 > Organization: http://groups.google.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you agree with all this, or do you > find it just a bit shrill? There are several additional essays in > the collection presented here today, please continue reading. PAT] > No, I don't agree with it. Yes, I do find it shrill. I responded to > a separate issue, here are some more comments: > [snip] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: People often times praise two long- time netizens for their abilities; one being Vint Cerf and the other being Esther Dyson, in other words, the ICANN people. Maybe -- if we can think out of the box for a few minutes -- an organization like ICANN could handle this 'gatekeeper' function pretty well. Any thoughts? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 19:54:36 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power I'd bet that the lake side of the dam we're seeing in the picture. Not the river side. ReasonRules@gmail.com wrote: > Why are they building on a flood plain next to a huge floodable river?! > Monty Solomon wrote: >> By JOHN MARKOFF and SAUL HANSELL >> The New York Times >> June 14, 2006 >> THE DALLES, Ore., June 8 -- On the banks of the windswept Columbia >> River, Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate >> the next generation of Internet computing. But it is hard to keep a >> secret when it is a computing center as big as two football fields, >> with twin cooling plants protruding four stories into the sky. >> The complex, sprawling like an information-age factory, heralds a >> substantial expansion of a worldwide computing network handling >> billions of search queries a day and a growing repertory of other >> Internet services. >> And odd as it may seem, the barren desert land surrounding the >> Columbia along the Oregon-Washington border - at the intersection of >> cheap electricity and readily accessible data networking - is the >> backdrop for a multibillion-dollar face-off among Google, Microsoft >> and Yahoo that will determine dominance in the online world in the >> years ahead. >> Microsoft and Yahoo have announced that they are building big data >> centers upstream in Wenatchee and Quincy, Wash., 130 miles to the >> north. But it is a race in which they are playing catch-up. Google >> remains far ahead in the global data-center race, and the scale of its >> complex here is evidence of its extraordinary ambition. >> Even before the Oregon center comes online, Google has lashed together >> a global network of computers -- known in the industry as the >> Googleplex -- that is a singular achievement. "Google has constructed >> the biggest computer in the world, and it's a hidden asset," said >> Danny Hillis, a supercomputing pioneer and a founder of Applied Minds, >> a technology consulting firm, referring to the Googleplex. >> The design and even the nature of the Google center in this industrial >> and agricultural outpost 80 miles east of Portland has been a closely >> guarded corporate secret. "Companies are historically sensitive about >> where their operational infrastructure is," acknowledged Urs Holzle, >> Google's senior vice president for operations. >> Behind the curtain of secrecy, the two buildings here -- and a third >> that Google has a permit to build -- will probably house tens of >> thousands of inexpensive processors and disks, held together with >> Velcro tape in a Google practice that makes for easy swapping of >> components. The cooling plants are essential because of the searing >> heat produced by so much computing power. >> The complex will tap into the region's large surplus of fiber optic >> networking, a legacy of the dot-com boom. >> The fact that Google is behind the data center, referred to locally as >> Project 02, has been reported in the local press. But many officials >> in The Dalles, including the city attorney and the city manager, said >> they could not comment on the project because they signed >> confidentiality agreements with Google last year. >> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/14/technology/14search.html?ex=1307937600&en=d96a72b3c5f91c47&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 20:13:53 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: NYC Students and Parents Want Cell Phone Ban Lifted I live in Wake County, NC. They dropped the ban on cell phones a few years back. Good thing. What they do have is a ban on use during school unless specifically permitted. First offense you get it back at the end period. After that your parents have to come get it. If that happens a few times you might get suspended. The reason I mention where I'm from is that after the big city districts we're one of the faster growing ones. Adding about a next of 5000 to 7000 students a year. But since my kids go to schools nearly 10 miles from our house in opposite directions and participate in after school activities, cells phones are almost required. When I grew up, most of us in my high school of nearly 1000 kids lived within 2 miles. Hitching a ride or even walking in a pinch was no big deal. If my kids need to get a hold of me, it is a really big deal. Christine Kearney wrote: > By Christine Kearney > New York may be a city of incessant cell phone talkers, but students > vowed on Wednesday they would hit the "off" button during classes as > they battled a ban on cell phones in schools. > Speaking at a city council hearing where lawmakers introduced a bill > aimed at overriding a ban on cell phones enforced under Mayor Michael > Bloomberg, high school students and their parents spoke out against > the unusually stringent anti-cell phone policy. > "I feel mature enough to be able to turn off my cell phone in class," > said LaGuardia high school student Jenna Gogan, 16. "This is about > students' safety, because, especially in New York City, many parents > need to feel reassured they can contact their kids going to and from > school." > Dissent over the ban in New York escalated recently when Bloomberg > introduced metal scanners and random checks at some of the city's > 1,408 public high schools. The new scanners used to protect the city's > 1.1 million students had led to the confiscation of more than 3,000 > cell phones and 36 weapons, mostly knives and razor blades. > Detroit and Philadelphia also bar cell phones from schools while Los > Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Las Vegas allow them in the schools but > prohibit their use during classes. > During the hearing, Bloomberg's representatives said the policy dated > back to a 1988 ban on pagers and was needed to prevent students from > using phones to send and receive text messages, taking photographs, > surfing the Web and playing video games. > "Cell phones, with their multiple capabilities, are not just phones," > deputy mayor Dennis Walcott told the hearing. "Students have used cell > phones to summon friends for fights, to cheat on exams and to take > illicit photographs." > But city council members said crime and disruptive behavior would > occur regardless of the ban and any new law passed would allow > students only to use phones before or after school and not during > class. > "Kids pass notes back and forth but that doesn't mean we take away > pens," said council member Belinda Katz. > Carmen Colon, a mother of three, said her kids needed phones so she > could "juggle their lives" and keep track of them. > "This is a big city, it's tough and a whole lot of things go on," said > her son Andre Green, 13. Asked if he had heard phones ring during > class, he answered: "Yes, but sometimes it's just their mother > calling." > Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. > NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the > daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at > http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new > articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at > http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) > http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html > For more news headlines and stories, please go to: > http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #229 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 16 18:35:26 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id D1EA515401; Fri, 16 Jun 2006 18:35:25 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #230 Message-Id: <20060616223525.D1EA515401@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 18:35:25 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 16 Jun 2006 18:38:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 230 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Appeals Court Backs FCC on Bell Network Access (Reuters News Wire) Porn-Surfing Oregon Government Worker Exposes 2200 Taxpayer IDs (G Keizer) Verizon in Carriage Deal With Public TV (USTelecom dailyLead) Telecom Update #534, June 16, 2006 (Angus TeleManagement Group) Re: Texas to Install Border Patrol Web Cameras (Daniel J McDonald) Re: What is Net Neutrality all About? (Lisa Hancock) Re: How Evil Will Google Become? (Lisa Hancock) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Appeals Court Backs FCC on Bell Network Access Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:37:27 -0500 A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld the Federal Communications Commission's latest attempt to ease requirements that the large telephone companies lease their networks to competitors at government-set rates. A divided FCC ruled in December 2004 that companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications should only have to continue providing discount rates for rivals to serve business customers where competition is lacking. Under the new rules for the residential market, the big carriers, known as the Baby Bells, would no longer have to provide the access to their networks that has allowed rivals to serve homes at a low price. The FCC set a transition period for the new regulations to take effect. Still, the Bells and competitor Covad Communications Group Inc. appealed the decision. "Because we conclude the commission's fourth try is a charm, we deny all of the petitions for review," a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The FCC has tried for almost a decade to set local telephone rules to promote competition for service, but the three previous attempts were struck down by the court. "The commission is pleased that the court has upheld its pro-competitive rules governing network unbundling. The court's decision provides long-awaited certainty for the telecommunications industry and consumers," an FCC spokesman said in a statement. To boost competition, the 1996 Telecommunications Act authorized the FCC to require, if necessary, the Bells to unbundle pieces of their networks so competitors could lease, repackage or use them to offer service. Jim Kirkland, Covad's general counsel, said the decision added to recent stability in the industry and any price increases the company has seen were absorbed and did not have a material impact on its business. Covad competes with Verizon and AT&T, but it also rents local telephone lines from these companies to sell business customers high-speed Internet links and Web-based telephone service. "You've seen a whole new era of stability and greater increase in investor interest in the competitive sector," he said. The earlier battles over the rules pitted the Bells against Covad and long-distance and telephone giants AT&T and MCI Inc. But in the last year, SBC Communications acquired AT&T and kept that company's name, while Verizon bought MCI, which ended much of the fight. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Greg Keizer Subject: Porn-Surfing Oregon Government Worker Exposes 2200 Taxpyer IDs Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:39:53 -0500 By Gregg Keizer TechWeb.com More than 2,200 Oregon taxpayers' identities were stolen by a keylogging Trojan horse that infected a state PC after an Oregon Department of Revenue worker browsed porn sites, officials admitted this week. The identities included Social Security numbers, names, and addresses, and were transmitted to an unknown hacker by the keylogger, said the Department of Revenue in an online FAQ. According to the DOR, its anti-malware filters didn't pick up the Trojan because it was so new that anti-virus vendors hadn't yet created detecting signatures. No taxpayer financial data was lost to the keylogger, the DOR claimed, but they admitted, "we are not sure of that just yet; it went on for several months." Although the worker's PC was infected in early January, after he had spent several hours on work time reviewing pornographic web sites, the keylogger went undetected until May 15, when an audit of its hard drive was conducted after the employee was caught downloading and examining pornography during work hours and was fired. Then, it was discovered that the keylogger was patiently collecting all taxpayer ID data and transmitting it across the net to the person(s) who had installed it, and that it had been doing so for at least four or five months since it was first installed and before it was stopped. Monday, Oregon's Department of Revenue began notifying taxpayers whose identities were exposed, and on Wednesday Governor Ted Kulongoski (D) promised that the state would pick up the tab for credit monitoring and other protective services. The Governor was furious and asked how employees in the DOR could have spare time to sit 'for hours each day' looking at pornography on the internet instead of doing the work assigned to them. "I want the citizens of Oregon to know that we are taking every possible action to ensure that the people affected by this breech receive immediate notification, and that the State of Oregon will do everything possible to guard against any further compromise of their personal information," Kulongoski said in a statement. "The lazy and incompetent worker who allowed this to happen has been fired, and if we find the hacker who stole all this information he will be prosecuted." The employee stated he intends to sue to get his job back. Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more tech news of interest, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 13:06:49 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Verizon in Carriage Deal With Public TV USTelecom dailyLead June 16, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dPdwfDtuteybodKNrx TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Verizon in carriage deal with public TV BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Former CEO offers $600M for Inter-Tel * Tech company sues four cable carriers over VOD patents * Startup snags $7.6M funding for VDSL2 device * Verizon begins taking orders for FiOS TV in Hempstead, N.Y. USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Integrating the Video On-Demand Platform into IPTV TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Report: Mobile-TV chips fall below $10 * Marketers not sure if dot-mobi domain clicks VOIP DOWNLOAD * Report: Mobile VoIP will change Europe's telecom market * PeerMe launches mobile version of P2P VoIP service * Unit of C2 Global Technologies sues telecoms over VoIP patent REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * New Jersey, federal government in legal battle over phone surveillance Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dPdwfDtuteybodKNrx ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 10:47:12 -0700 Subject: Telecom Update #534, June 16, 2006 From: Angus TeleManagement Group Reply-To: Angus TeleManagement Group ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 534: June 16, 2006 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MICROSOFT CANADA: www.microsoft.com/canada/telecom/ ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** NEC UNIFIED SOLUTIONS: www.necunifiedsolutions.com ** ROGERS TELECOM: www.rogers.com/solutions ** VONAGE CANADA: www.vonage.ca ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Bernier Proposes Policy Direction to CRTC ** MTS Launches IP Trunking ** 10-Digit Dialing Starts in Five Areas ** Is Mobile Wireless Part of Local Service Market? ** Telus Deploys Microsoft Push Email ** Rogers to Offer Secure Email ** Primus Rolls Out ADSL Service ** Bell Rearrangement Goes to Court ** BCE Elix to Offer Click-to-Call ** Telus Expands Alberta High-Speed Wireless ** MTS Extends Prepaid Wireless Coverage ** BCE in Talks to Sell Telesat? ** Rogers Replies to Comwave Complaint ** Nortel--89% of Users on Road to IP Telephony ** Seven Arrested in Directory Scam ** Consultants Seek Speakers for Western Meeting ============================================================ BERNIER PROPOSES POLICY DIRECTION TO CRTC: On June 13, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier tabled in Parliament a proposed policy direction to the CRTC, signaling "the government's intention to direct the CRTC to rely on market forces to the maximum extent feasible under the Telecommunications Act." ** The document will be subject to public comment and parliamentary debate before being finalized and sent to the CRTC. ** The text is substantially identical to that proposed in the Telecom Policy Review report, with some changes: it does not order the Commission to continuously review markets to determine if market power exists, and the TPR's proposed restriction of "ex ante" (before the fact) tariffs is softened to refer only to "tariff measures that are as minimally intrusive and minimally onerous as possible." ** Bernier's speech announcing the proposed direction mentioned the TPR's recommendation for changes to the Telecom Act, but did not promise any such changes. http://tinyurl.com/jldzq http://tinyurl.com/my6y3 MTS LAUNCHES IP TRUNKING: MTS Allstream IP Trunking service enables businesses to connect PBXs to the public switched telephone network over IP. MTS says it is the first Canadian carrier to provide such IP trunks on a national basis. 10-DIGIT DIALING STARTS IN FIVE AREAS: Between June 17 and June 24, 10-digit local dialing will begin in area codes 450, 514, and 819 in Quebec, and 519 and 613 in Ontario, and for local calls from 418 and 705 to those areas. Until October, callers who dial only seven digits will hear a recorded announcement advising them to dial 10 digits in future, but the call will go through. ** The CRTC has instructed all carriers to use a shortened version of the bilingual announcement, to ensure that alarm dialers do not time out before the call is completed. IS MOBILE WIRELESS PART OF LOCAL SERVICE MARKET? CRTC Public Notice 2006-9 invites comments on whether, when considering deregulation of incumbents' wireline local services, it should include mobile wireless services as part of the local market -- and if so, how wireless services should be measured. To participate, register by June 30. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2006/pt2006-9.htm TELUS DEPLOYS MICROSOFT PUSH EMAIL: Telus has deployed Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (HMC) version 3.5, which enables new hosted services for business customers, including push e-mail to mobile devices. ROGERS TO OFFER SECURE EMAIL: On July 1, Rogers Business Solutions will begin offering a subscription-based encryption email service developed by Echoworx and hosted by IBM. Clicking a toolbar icon encrypts the email: registered recipients can read it by entering a password, or, in the case of non-subscribers, by answering a pre-arranged question at a website. Pre-ordering begins July 19: the service costs $8.95/month for each email address. PRIMUS ROLLS OUT ADSL SERVICE: Primus Canada says it will be able to offer ADSL2+ service at up to 22 Mbps to three million households and businesses by the end of this month. The company is deploying collocated equipment in the facilities of an unnamed Canadian competitive carrier. BELL REARRANGEMENT GOES TO COURT: On June 22 the Superior Court of Quebec will hear BCE's application to create the Bell Aliant Regional Communications Income Fund. BCE's shareholders approved the proposed spinoff at the company's annual meeting on June 7. BCE ELIX TO OFFER CLICK-TO-CALL: Bell Canada's contact centre integration group, BCE Elix, has added Click-to-Call technology developed by Virginia-based eStara Inc. to its product line. TELUS EXPANDS ALBERTA HIGH-SPEED WIRELESS: Telus has expanded its EV-DO Wireless High Speed service, which offers data downloads at up to 2 Mbps, to Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, and Red Deer, Alberta. MTS EXTENDS PREPAID WIRELESS COVERAGE: Customers of MTS Mobility's Evolve prepaid wireless plans can now make calls in the Atlantic provinces, most of Ontario and Quebec, Saskatchewan, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Victoria. BCE IN TALKS TO SELL TELESAT? The Globe and Mail says that BCE is negotiating with the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and other potential buyers to sell Telesat for about $3 billion. Earlier, BCE had said it would sell part of its stake in Telesat but retain a majority of the satellite operator. (See Telecom Update #515) ROGERS REPLIES TO COMWAVE COMPLAINT: Rogers Communications has told the CRTC that Comwave's complaint about delays in porting numbers (see Telecom Update #529) is "a waste of the Commission's resources and ... an abuse of process." Rogers says that Comwave's problems arose because its original order misrepresented its requirements, and that the CRTC should not be asked to change the terms of a contract between a customer and a non-dominant carrier. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2006/8622/c144_200605545.htm NORTEL--89% OF USERS ON ROAD TO IP TELEPHONY: Nortel Networks says that a survey of 750 of its enterprise customers found that 89% have begun to deploy IP telephony or plan to do so within five years. Of those who have begun the migration, 83% have switched less than a quarter of their voice traffic to IP. SEVEN ARRESTED IN DIRECTORY SCAM: A Competition Bureau investigation into Calgary-based Ambus Registry Inc. has led to charges against seven Alberta residents for allegedly scamming 7,000 U.S. businesses for listings in non-existent directories. CONSULTANTS SEEK SPEAKERS FOR WESTERN MEETING: The Canadian Telecommunications Consultants Association will hold a one-day Western Conference on "Avoiding the Trips and Traps of IP Communications for Your Business" in Calgary, October 17. Proposals for presentations must be received by June 30; email western.events@ctca.ca. http://www.ctca.ca/EventDetails.asp?R=5&EV=64 ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca =========================================================== 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 late Friday afternoon each week at http://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 http://www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2006 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail jriddell@angustel.ca. 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. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Texas to Install Border Patrol Web Cameras From: djmcdona@fnord.io.com (Daniel J McDonald) Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 12:44:03 -0500 In article , Gordon Burditt wrote: >> The governor of Texas wants to turn all the world into a virtual >> posse. >> Rick Perry has announced a $5 million plan to install hundreds of >> night-vision cameras on private land along the Mexican border and put >> the live video on the Internet, so that anyone with a computer who >> spots illegal immigrants trying to slip across can report it on a >> toll-free hot line. > Doesn't this also mean that the illegal immigrants can also use the > cameras to detect the absence of patrols and determine what the > cameras can actually see? Not according to the details I've heard. The cameras won't have fixed names. Every time you go to the site, you will see a different random camera with a generated, ephemeral name. If you see activity, you will report this generated camera name, and someone from Texas Homeland Security will look up which camera it really was and check it out before dispatching. The public won't be able to correlate cameras as long as there is no way to get the same camera in any two visits. Also, South Texas is pretty desolate. It will be hard to do terrain matching, particularly if the cameras are aimed with that in mind. Daniel J McDonald CCIE # 2495, CNX Visit my website: http://www.austinnetworkdesign.com ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: What is Net Neutrality all About? Date: 16 Jun 2006 11:41:58 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Tim Scott wrote: > I agree most heartily with your comments. Internet gatekeepers are a sketchy > issue, however. Who regulates the regulators? It is important that > regulating the internet with gatekeepers does not "throw the baby out with > the bathwater", per se. Who ensures that the gatekeepers are regulated? Very good point. I don't know the answer. For the first question, "regulated vs. unregulated" I do believe in regulation. We as consumers gave up an awful lot when some industries were deregulated. Proponents of deregulation claim the benefits outweighed the costs, but I feel strongly those proponents pretty much ignore or minimize the costs. Norvergence and Enron, anyone? The second question, "who regulates the regulators" is a lot tougher. I think _overall_ the history of FCC/PUC over the old Bell System was pretty good -- we got excellent service at good rates (with very few exceptions). But other regulators weren't so good -- Western Union got a raw deal* compared to the Bell System, and railroads suffered terribly under the old ICC**. I'll note one mistake: government pressure on the Bell System in the 1960s and 70s to hire disadvantaged people. Oslin says this contributed to the service crisis of that area (not the only factor) because so many new craft people were inexperienced and some just weren't that good. > Your comments on "mob rule" were straight on the point, sir. Thanks. *I think Bell's TWX unfairly hurt WU's own Telex, and WU was forced to absorb the bankrupt Postal Telegraph. I do think WU should've been allowed to do more voice carriage than it did. (Per Oslin's book) **Railroads did much better under deregulation, but new problems of service quality exist. Due to mega mergers, railroads have become de facto monopolies. IMHO, they're not building additional capacity to provide better service that they should. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: People often times praise two long- > time netizens for their abilities; one being Vint Cerf and the other > being Esther Dyson, in other words, the ICANN people. Maybe -- if we > can think out of the box for a few minutes -- an organization like > ICANN could handle this 'gatekeeper' function pretty well. Any > thoughts? PAT] I can't comment on those people or organization. However, the first issue is whether there is to be a "gatekeeper" at all -- a great many people do not want one as the postings show. Presuming there will be gatekeeper, then the "gate" itself has to be defined and this is tough and tricky. How big is the gate? How tough is it to pass by? Too little regulation is worthless. Too much regulation is stifling. One would think this would be an objective engineering decision but it's not. Engineers have very different ideas and opinions. Businesses, both conveyors and users, have different legitimate interests. [public replies, please] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: How Evil Will Google Become? Date: 16 Jun 2006 14:31:36 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Tim Beyers wrote: > Neteller is like PayPal in most respects, except that the London-based > company specializes in processing online gaming payments. Poker sites > such as PokerStars and PartyGaming's Party Poker offer good > examples. And it's a big business -- Neteller processed more than $7.3 > billion U.S. in transactions during 2005. That's a lot of, um, evil. Here's a tough moral issue. On the one hand, gambling is very harmful and much of it is illegal for very good reasons. It's very addictive and too many people bet their food and rent money and ruin their families. Lately, many of college kids graduate deeply in debt or get into criminal activity to cover their gambling debts. A common reason of theft by bookkeepers, cashiers, tax collectors, etc. is gambling losses. These losses are huge. Some years ago gambling was allowed in Atlantic City NJ. All sorts of promises were made of how it would rejuvenate the town, etc. Nothing came about. On the other hand, gambling is a form of great entertainment for a lot of people. It's a huge business, casinos do well because people like it. If you outlaw it, then the outlaws will take over, that was a big part of the old time mobsters and "rackets". (Of course, handling gambling is pretty tame stuff compared to handling narcotics today.) What is particularly scary and not discussed is that govt and industry are just as greedy for gambling money as are the players seeking the big win. Government wants the taxes. Towns want the alleged economic development, especially where casinos are proposed in depressed areas. Developers want to build the casino/hotels/playgrounds. These interests can't get on the bandwagon fast enough. This kind of thing I definitely don't like. If you want to have a casino in some out of the way place or a limited government lottery, ok. Some office football pools or even straight numbers, ok. But I don't want a gambling hall on every corner, and that's what all the interests want to do. Government gets too dependent on gambling tax revenue and ignores its responsibility to keep this stuff from getting out of hand. Obviously, as this article points out, Internet companies want their share. As to telephones, this has little relevance except that the stereotype of a bookie was very heavy telephone use. Old movies had the bookie with lots of phone lines. The pay phone at the corner drugstore was a bookie connection. Race tracks didn't have pay phones or restricted them. Do we even have bookies today? In the old days horse racing was a way for legal gambling. In that some skill was involved in handicapping (though luck played a role). Further, races were spaced apart, so it wasn't a constant "action" that the gamblers crave. The gambling today offers high speed "action" and that scares me. Public replies, please ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #230 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jun 17 15:26:13 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 9219B15398; Sat, 17 Jun 2006 15:26:13 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #231 Message-Id: <20060617192613.9219B15398@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 15:26:13 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 17 Jun 2006 15:29:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 231 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Phishing Scam Uses Pay Pal Secure Servers (Peter Sayer, IDG) Web Auctions: a New Jackpot for Middle Americans (Eric Auchard) Microsoft Eyes New Tech Leaders For Post-Gates Era (Dasiuke Wakabayashi) EPIC Alert 13.12 (Monty Solomon) Re: How Evil Will Google Become? (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: How Evil Will Google Become? (Jim Burks) From Our Archives: Light Beams Zip Across Ocean (TELECOM Digest Editor) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peter Sayer Subject: Phishing Scam Uses Pay Pal Secure Servers Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 13:10:41 -0500 Peter Sayer, IDG News Service A cross-site scripting flaw in the PayPal Web site allows a new phishing attack to masquerade as a genuine PayPal log-in page with a valid security certificate, according to security researchers. Fraudsters are exploiting the flaw to harvest personal details, including PayPal log-ins, Social Security numbers, and credit card details, according to staff at Netcraft, an Internet services company in Bath, England. The PayPal site, owned by eBay, allows users to make online payments to one another, charged to their credit cards, and log-in credentials for the service are a prized target of fraudsters. What Happens The attack works by tricking PayPal members into following a maliciously crafted link to a secure page on PayPal's site. Anyone thinking to check the site's security certificate at this point will see that it is a valid 256-bit certificate belonging to the site, Netcraft employee Paul Mutton wrote in the company's blog today. However, the URL (uniform resource locator) Internet address exploits a flaw in PayPal's site that allows the fraudsters to inject some of their own code into the page that is returned, he wrote. In this case, the result is a warning that the user's account may have been compromised, and that they "will now be redirected to Resolution Center." The page to which they are redirected asks for their PayPal account details -- but thanks to the cross-site scripting flaw in the PayPal site, and the data injected into the URL by the fraudsters, the page is no longer on the PayPal site. Instead, the page steals the log-in details and sends them to the fraudsters' server, then prompts the user for other personal information, Mutton said. The Web server harvesting the personal details is hosted in Korea, Mutton said. Difficult to Detect The cross-site scripting technique makes the phishing attempt difficult to detect, said Mike Prettejohn, also of Netcraft. If the malicious link arrived by e-mail, then "there would be clues in the mail that it's not genuine," he said. "It's a technique chosen by fraudsters because it is hard to spot." Although there could be benign uses of cross-site scripting to transfer data between sites, the technique has an inherent security risk, Prettejohn said. "I don't think people would intentionally use it," he said. "If somebody knows there's a cross-site scripting opportunity on their site, the right thing to do would be to fix it," he said. Staff at PayPal could not immediately be reached for comment. Copyright 2006 PC World Communications, Inc. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So we get back to the same advice given by most sites: *NEVER* click on anything sent to you as email or a web site you were not expecting. Regards your financial affairs, *ALWAYS* manually enter the URL and with anything you are not expecting (i.e. messages saying your account was, or may have been 'compromised', or was 'closed', etc) consider calling the customer service people on the phone to discuss it with them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Eric Auchard Subject: Web Auctions: a New Jackpot for Middle Americans Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 13:07:38 -0500 By Eric Auchard Al Losey, a corporate trainer at a Detroit auto parts maker, lost his job six weeks ago in what could be another down-and-out story from a hard luck corner of the American economy. Instead, Losey, and his wife Peggy, a devoted part-time seller of odds-and-ends on eBay, flew to Las Vegas this week trying to change their fortunes by hitting the jackpot as full-time sellers on the online auction site. They joined thousands of other hopefuls who made the pilgrimage to eBay Inc.'s annual user conference to learn how 1.3 million people worldwide support themselves, in whole or in part, through online auctions. "This is a great opportunity to kind of do our own thing," said Al, who, after being downsized from two jobs in the auto industry in six years, is ready to join his wife of 35 years in building a small business online. "We've had it with corporate America," says Peggy. "I'm tired of relying on other people," echoes her husband. Since 1998, she's created a sideline to her day job as a medical assistant by scouring garage sales for items many people might consider junk, but collectors on eBay covet. Now, the couple are gearing up to become full-time eBay sellers. "No more mom-and-pop operation. It's time to move up to the next level," Al enthuses during a break in courses on how to incorporate a small business and become trading assistants by helping manage other people's eBay sales. The middle of Middle America -- retirees, stay-at-home moms and school teachers -- are learning how to support themselves by the detailed work of turning items they buy on the cheap into profitable sales. EBay sellers are protected from what to outsiders might seem like the latest in a long line of get-rich-schemes because they control the sale price and how payments are received, minimizing the risk of fraud. TURNING JUNK INTO GOLD Trainers at the event estimated there are 12 million eBay sellers, including those who sell the occasional unwanted item on eBay's vast market. EBay recently signed up its 200 millionth registered user worldwide. "It's pretty much my life," says Nancy MacGillivray, 49, of San Marcos, California. She turned to eBay four years ago, after her employer went bankrupt. Her schooling 30 years ago in fashion merchandising came in handy. She sells extra large-sized clothing for young people under the eBay seller name Plus Size Fashions and More. Her daughter, Kristi Roller, 22, a fashion student, started out helping her mother, but now runs her own eBay business, called KLR Couture, which specializes in clothing for juniors. MacGillivray says she sells 35 to 50 packages of clothing a day, which at an average price of $20, translates into around $700 to $1,000 in gross sales. Among eBay sellers, she ranks as No. 8,904 in volume, company figures show. "Last year it started to feel like a real business," Nancy says. "But I'm still waiting to hit the jackpot." "You're happy, mother. Don't be greedy," chides Kristi. Peggy Losey believes she hit the jackpot three weeks ago, when she found some old plates shaped like lettuce leaves. She recognized the markings a type of Majolica pottery she'd seen on an antiques television show. Because they had tiny chips on the edges, she paid just $10 for 15 pieces. When listing the items for auction on eBay, she acknowledged the defects, fearing the wrath of buyers and the harm to her all-important user feedback rating if she did not. She auctioned off the plates for $1,419. Coming just weeks after her husband's lay-off, it amounted to winning a jackpot. "I was just running around the house yelling, 'Oh, my God! Oh, my God!"' Christian Godfrey is more sanguine about eBay. "There is no jackpot," Godfrey said. "It's just another way to sell." Still, he drove 12 hours with his wife, Kathy, 37, from their home in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The 39-year-old teacher of Web site development at a technical college has been on eBay since 1998. He says he sells $2,000 a month of merchandise, mostly home furnishings. "Everyone thinks that people can sell junk on eBay and make lots of money," Godfrey said. "It's way more work than people let on," he said between checking on inquiries. "That's the problem," he says. "You are on call all the time." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more headlines and news each day, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I sort of agree with Godfrey, quoted in the item above: Selling on Ebay is _not_ a jackpot. It is just another way of selling, and a difficult one at that. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Daisuke Wakabayashi Subject: Microsoft Eyes New Tech Leaders For Post-Gates Era Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 13:14:47 -0500 By Daisuke Wakabayashi Microsoft Corp. picked two well-respected technical minds to fill the void from founder Bill Gates' pending departure in two years, but it also identified a next tier of leaders charged with reinventing the software giant to compete against younger, agile rivals. Grabbing headlines in Thursday's announcements were Ray Ozzie, 50, who assumes the company's top technical mantle as chief software architect, and Craig Mundie, 56, who takes over some of Gates' role as long-term visionary. But Microsoft also tapped a next tier of technical talent in J Allard, Steven Sinofsky and Bob Muglia -- executives in their 30s and 40s -- to play a larger role in shaping the company's future business and technology strategy. Analysts said all three have won the respect of Microsoft's rank-and-file programmers with deep technical knowledge and an understanding that technology improvements cannot come at the expense of delays to new products, a problem that has plagued the company's mainstay Windows division. "They have really good technical minds and really good experiences about what kind of decisions you have to make in order to ship a product," said Rob Horwitz, an analyst at independent research firm Directions on Microsoft. "Those are the guys with their feet on the ground and not as much pie in the sky." An ability to ship new products in a timely manner seems all the more important in light of investor perceptions that Microsoft has been outmaneuvered by aggressive and more agile competitors like Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. "Microsoft is at a crucial inflection point," said Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox. "The technologists are important for the company's future. The decision by Gates to step back from Microsoft in two years follows longtime Windows guru Jim Allchin's plan to retire after Windows Vista ships in 2007, representing a changing of the guard at the Redmond, Washington-based company. "The world has had a tendency to focus a disproportionate amount of attention on me. In reality, Microsoft has always had an unbelievable strong depth and breadth of technical talent," Gates said at a news conference on Thursday. WHO'S NEXT Sinofsky, 40, earned his stripes as the head of product development for the Microsoft Office business software team, gaining a reputation as a tough taskmaster with an ability to meet targeted release dates. Earlier this year, he took on the role of leading the team of developers creating the next version of Windows after Vista. Sinofsky's responsibilities include integrating the operating system with a set of Windows Live Web-based services. Allard, 37, gained prominence with a note he sent to Microsoft leaders about the looming importance of the Internet, which became the basis for the company's change of strategy to embrace the Internet in the mid 1990s. An avid video game player, Allard now oversees the engineering and design of the Xbox game console. He pushed Microsoft into online gaming well before rivals Sony Corp. and Nintendo Co. Ltd. Muglia, 46, has the longest track record of the three at Microsoft, having joined the company in 1988. As the senior vice president of Microsoft's server and tools business, Muglia needs to keep outside developers happy with its tools and technology professionals using its servers. All three executives were already considered stars in the company, but analysts said granting them more say over strategy and keeping them happy and motivated is a smart move. "You have to keep these people motivated with new challenges," said Horwitz. "All three of them have been at Microsoft long enough that they could be on a 100-foot yacht in the Mediterranean sipping down Martinis all day." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more tech news each day, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 19:23:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EPIC Alert 13.12 ======================================================================== E P I C A l e r t ======================================================================== Volume 13.12 June 16, 2006 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Washington, D.C. http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_13.12.html ======================================================================== Table of Contents ======================================================================== [1] Appeals Court Wrongly Extends Wiretap Requirements [2] EPIC Testifies Before Homeland Security on Video Surveillance [3] Documents Reveal More Potential PATRIOT Act Abuses [4] Coalition Urges Strong International Privacy Rules [5] Federal, State Governments Struggle to Investigate Domestic Spying [6] News in Brief [7] EPIC Bookstore: Stanton and Stam: The Visible Employee [8] Upcoming Conferences and Events http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_13.12.html ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 21:32:11 EDT Subject: Re: How Evil Will Google Become? In a message dated 16 Jun 2006 14:31:36 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes: > As to telephones, this has little relevance except that the stereotype > of a bookie was very heavy telephone use. It was a favorite sport in the days when telcos had outside representatives (bill collectors) to send a new person in that job to go to a bookie place or other place taking bets over the telephone and have him (they were almost always male) demand that they pay their bill (always in the thousands of dollars) immediately or their service would be cut off. The first time or two it would happen at such a place the armed gatekeeper would meet them at the door and relay their request to the head man. The head man would have the guard bring the outside rep to him and demand what was going on (bookie joints always paid their bills in full and on time). The outside rep was shaking as he came before the boss after passing through all the armed goons and wondered if he would get out alive. The boss would see this, and realize what was being done to the new guy. Often he would turn to an aide and tell him to give the outside rep the money in cash. After this had happened a couple of times, and the boss knew what was going on, he still might go through the same rigamarole, doing his part in the initiation of the new outside rep. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: Jim Burks Subject: Re: How Evil Will Google Become? Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 02:38:01 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote in message news:telecom25.230.7@telecom-digest.org: > Tim Beyers wrote: > When will Google start being evil? As far as I'm concerned, they already did when they agreed to censor the results in their Chinese-language search engine. So much for the Internet bringing freedom to the world through free exchange of information. > Some years ago gambling was allowed in Atlantic City NJ. All sorts of > promises were made of how it would rejuvenate the town, etc. Nothing > came about. Yes and no. There has been a lot of capital investment and a lot of jobs created through gambling in AC. > If you want to have a casino in some out of the way place or a limited > government lottery, ok. Some office football pools or even straight > numbers, ok. But I don't want a gambling hall on every corner, and > that's what all the interests want to do. Government gets too > dependent on gambling tax revenue and ignores its responsibility to > keep this stuff from getting out of hand. The casino companies play off one state against another. They are doing that to a degree now in Tennessee and Arkansas saying 'we need to stop the state's tax money from going to Mississippi' where gaming is legal. Jim Burks ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 14:26:46 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: From Our Archives: Laser Phone Call Zips Across the Ocean [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is an item which appeared in TELECOM Digest V8 issue 202 on 12/16/88 (about 18 years ago) which I thought you might enjoy seeing again. PAT] FIRST LASER PHONE CALL ZIPS ACROSS THE ATLANTIC! ISAAC ASIMOV DEDICATES TAT-8; MAKES FIRST CALL ------------------------------------------------ A shark-proof undersea cable began carrying laser beam phone calls across the Atlantic Ocean Wednesday as the first leg of a network designed to revolutionize service on three continents. AT&T, British Telecom and France Telecom, the three principal owners of the cable asked well known author Isaac Asimov to dedicate the new cable and place the first call. In his remarks, Asimov said, "Welcome everyone to this historic trans-Atlantic crossing -- this maiden voyage across the sea on a beam of light..." He noted, "...our world has grown small, and this cable, which can carry 40,000 calls at one time is a sign of the voracious demand for communications today ... the clarity is in striking contrast to the crackling first telephone message from Alex Bell to his assistant Thomas A. Watson 113 years ago ..." Mr. Asimov was the first speaker of several in a video conference in New York that was transmitted to Paris and London by the new cable. The fiber-optic cable, which is thinner than a child's wrist, is able to handle double the capacity of all the trans-Atlantic copper-cable predecessors combined. It took seven years to design, build and install. The total cost was $361 million, but the people involved insist that in the long run, it will mean a continued decline in the price of overseas phone calls. Ordinary television broadcasts will continue to be carried by satellite because they would take up too much room on TAT-8. But the cable will be used for video conferences on a regular basis between the United States and Europe, using a method to compress the signals and take up very little bandwidth. American Telephone & Telegraph Company, which will operate TAT-8, said 1988 is the first year it will handle more than one billion international calls. Commenting on Asimov's remarks of '... a voracious demand for communications ...' an AT&T spokesperson noted that even this new cable will start running out of room late in 1991. The fourth quarter, 1991 is when a new fiber-optic cable with nearly double the new cable's capacity is scheduled to begin operation. Fiber-optic service to Japan and the far east will start in the second quarter of 1989 under the name PTAT, and fiber-optic links to the Caribbean and the Mediterranean will open in 1991 or 1992. Lasers have revolutionized phone networks by making it possible to transmit information in the form of rapid pulses of laser light through hair thin strands of glass. The lasers transmit information in digital form coded into a series of ones and zeros. Most long distance calls within the United States are already carried on optic fibers. Ownership of TAT-8 is as follows -- American Telephone and Telegraph, 34 percent British Telecommunications , 15.5 percent France Telecom , 10 percent The remaining 40.5 percent is divided among 26 partners, some of whom own up to two percent interest; while others own less than one percent interest. The principal partners are -- Sprint Communications, MCI, Western Union and Northern Telecom. Will overseas telephone rates go down in the next few years? AT&T says they will. The exact amount is anyone's guess, but a spokesperson from AT&T said " ... I think within a few years the rates will be *less than half* of what they are now ..." Wednesday, December 14, 1988: An historic day in telecommunications history, and one I believe is only third to the invention of the telephone itself; the second most historic occasion being the completion of the cable which connected the east and west coasts of the United States in the early 1920's. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: While overseas phone call rates had begun to decrease by the middle 1980's they were _no where near_ as low in cost as they are today, in 2006. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V25 #231 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jun 18 23:53:06 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 25CB215242; Sun, 18 Jun 2006 23:53:06 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #232 Message-Id: <20060619035306.25CB215242@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 23:53:06 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 18 Jun 2006 23:55:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 232 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Still Another Laptop With Lots of Personal Data Stolen (Associated Press) Senator Stevens Offers Compromise on Net Neutrality (Jeremy Pelofsky) Nokia, Siemens in Telecom Merger (Associated Press News Wire) Encryption Can Save Data in Laptop Lapses (Stephen Manning) Re: What is Net Neutrality all About? (Raqueeb Hassan) Re: What is Net Neutrality all About? (harold@hallikainen.com) Re: Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power (Raqueeb Hassan) Re: How Evil Will Google Become? (DLR) Campus Fax Finder (Lanman) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Associated Press News Wire Subject: Senator Stevens Offers Compromise on Net Neutrality Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 18:15:55 -0500 By Jeremy Pelofsky Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens has offered a compromise in the fierce fight over legislation on Internet network neutrality, but stopped short of demands sought by content companies like Google Inc. Google, Microsoft Corp. and other Internet companies have lobbied hard for Congress to bar broadband Internet service providers such as AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. from charging them to guarantee access and service quality, often called network neutrality. AT&T and Comcast, two of the largest high-speed broadband Internet providers, have opposed any obligations imposed on their services or restricting their business operations. Stevens has added a new section to his proposed bill aimed at preserving consumers' ability to surf anywhere on the public Internet and use any Web-based application, according to the latest draft obtained by Reuters this weekend. However, the draft by the Alaska Republican does not include a ban on pricing content companies have demanded. Earlier versions of the bill only called for the Federal Communications Commission to report on Internet access, prompting Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye (news, bio, voting record), the top Democrat on the committee, and some others to call for more protections. Striking a compromise would likely make it easier for the bill to pass this year. AT&T and Verizon Communications want it to pass quickly because it would also make it easier for them to get licenses to offer cable television service. The Senate committee is scheduled to consider amendments and vote on the measure at a meeting on Thursday. Spokesmen for Stevens and Inouye were not immediately available for comment. Stevens' compromise would also create a complaint process through the FCC if consumers believe their access rights were violated and the agency would be authorized to adjudicate complaints with penalties, according to the draft. However, the FCC would be barred from issuing any regulations under the new law that would add to the obligations on Internet service providers. The compromise is somewhat similar to legislation that passed the House of Representatives. However, there are other differences between the House and Senate that would have to be resolved. Broadband providers argue that they would not block any public Internet site or application but may want to offer private Internet-based services like for customers to download movies. But content companies worry that will squeeze public Internet traffic into a narrower, slower lane. Another new provision in the bill would require Internet providers to offer stand-alone service without forcing subscribers to sign up for other products, like voice or video services. Some companies already do so but charge more. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines of interest, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Associated Press News Wire Subject: Nokia, Siemens in Telecom Merger Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 22:09:12 -0500 European telecom makers Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG have agreed to combine their telephone equipment units in a deal valued at roughly 25 billion euros ($31.6 billion), according to a newspaper report. Nokia would control a majority of board seats of the new company, which would be based in Finland and not traded separately, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday on its Web site, citing people familiar with the deal. Ownership of the new company would be split evenly between Nokia and Siemens, and would be headed by a Nokia executive, Simon Beresford-Wylie, according to the report. The deal was expected to be announced on Monday. The combination would allow both companies to reduce redundant research and development spending, with savings as high as 1.25 billion euros ($1.58 billion) annually, according to the report. Siemens, based in Munich, Germany, is not expected to leave the telecommunications business but will play a smaller role than Nokia in the new operation, the report said. U.S.-based spokeswomen for Nokia and Siemens did not immediately return a call for comment Sunday evening. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ From: Stephen Manning Subject: Encryption Can Save Data in Laptop Lapses Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 22:12:07 -0500 By STEPHEN MANNING, Associated Press Writer Reports of data theft often conjure up images of malicious hackers breaking into remote databases to filch Social Security numbers, credit card records and other personal information. But a lot of the time, the scenario is much simpler: A careless worker at company or agency with weak security policies falls prey to a low-tech street thug who runs off with a laptop loaded with private data. In the biggest case, the Department of Veterans Affairs recently lost data on 26.5 million veterans and military personnel stored on a laptop and external drive stolen from the suburban Washington home of a VA employee. Security experts and some privacy groups say simple measures could protect data if a laptop falls into nefarious hands. They include encrypting the information so it's nearly impossible to access without the correct credentials. "It is shocking how many of these are stolen laptops and that fact that the users of the laptops did not use encryption to secure the data," Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, said of recent data losses. "If thieves read the newspaper, they can readily figure out that they have got more than just a piece of hardware." Since June 2005, there have been at least 29 known cases of misplaced or stolen laptops with data such as Social Security numbers, health records and addresses of millions of people, according to the Privacy Rights Clearing House, a San Diego-based nonprofit that tracks data thefts. So far, there is no evidence the stolen data were used for identity theft or other nefarious purposes. In most cases, the laptop itself, not the personal information on it, was the likely target of the theft. Sometimes, there's no good reason for why so much information is being kept on individual machines that are designed to be carried out of the office. In other cases, workers were allowed to have the data on the laptops but didn't follow proper procedures for keeping it safe. In others, they broke the rules by taking personal data out of the office or not protecting it with digital tools. Laptops have been stolen from cars, gone missing when checked for airline flights, and been taken from offices and employee homes. Hospitals, universities, consulting firms, banks, health insurers and even a YMCA have lost personal data. The portable computers are usually protected by passwords needed to boot them up, but the data on their drives are still accessible. Encryption, on the other hand, scrambles the information and would render it useless to a thief without a digital key that decrypts the data. A variety of encryption tools are available, including software as well as specialized chips. But many people are reluctant to use them because losing the key can make it hard to access the data and the programs can slow down data access, said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a computer-security organization in Bethesda. That could change as computer manufacturers start selling laptops with encryption built in. Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, due late this year for businesses and early next year for consumers, is expected to make it easier for users to encrypt all their data. Many states now require companies and organizations that store personal information to inform the public when the data leaks. But those laws generally don't make reporting obligatory if the lost data were encrypted. Some companies that have lost laptops are responding with better security measures. Ernst & Young, which has 30,000 laptops used by its highly mobile staff of consultants, is encrypting all contents on the computers, according to company spokesman Charlie Perkins. But in February, as the policy was being implemented, a laptop that hadn't been encrypted was stolen from an employee's car. With it went the names, addresses, and credit card information of about 243,000 customers of Ernst & Young client Hotels.com. Perkins said there is no evidence any of the data was misused. "We evaluated our polices in this area across the board," he said. "Encryption is the most significant step." Of course, security measures can only work if they are actually used. In several cases, laptops were lost or stolen when employees violated company rules by leaving them in parked cars or in their homes. And data that are supposed to be encrypted by an employee sometimes aren't. On June 2, grocery retailer Royal Ahold NV said contractor Electronic Data Systems Corp. lost a laptop with personal information on an undisclosed number of retirees and former workers of Ahold companies, including grocery chains Stop & Shop and Giant Food. The EDS worker was asked to check the laptop on a flight because the plane's storage bins were full, according to EDS spokesman Kevin Lightfoot. When the flight arrived, the laptop never reappeared. The employee was disciplined for violating company policy by checking the computer as luggage, Lightfoot said. Since the incident, EDS has reminded its employees about rules on handling laptops. "You have to work with your employees to make sure this information is protected," Lightfoot said. In January, Ameriprise Financial, an investment advisory company, said the internal account identification numbers of 158,000 clients were lost when a laptop was stolen from an employee's car. The employee was supposed to have encrypted the data, which was on two files, but had not, according to Ameriprise spokesman Steven Connolly. The worker was fired. The VA plans to recall every laptop to make sure the security programs are up to date. The data on the laptop taken from the suburban Washington home were in a form difficult for an outsider to use, and authorities believe thieves may have erased the information before selling the hardware. But that doesn't satisfy August Woerner, an 80-year-old World War II veteran from Westerly, R.I. He received a letter from the VA saying his data may be on the laptop because of a claim he filed several years ago at a VA medical center. Woerner takes every precaution he can to shield personal information -- he checks his credit rating online regularly, shreds financial documents and monitors the balance of his credit card nearly every day. Despite his diligence, he is convinced someone will steal his identity soon. "I do the best I can, but I can't very well fight this theft," said Woerner. "That data should not be readily available by someone simply walking it out of a building." Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ From: Raqueeb Hassan Subject: Re: What is Net Neutrality all About? Date: 17 Jun 2006 11:30:19 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com > Too little regulation is worthless. Too much regulation is stifling. Sometimes regulation turns out to be better options for those who can pay more. While using gatekeeper, all access-point providers might like to provide two kinds of Internet connections (in simplest term). Paying more would get you more contents through line 1 - less regulation. Those who can't afford line 1 would ultimately hit to restrictive line 2 option. Regulations would definitely come from State bodies, how to get them in common platform? Any idea? Raqueeb Hassan Bangladesh ------------------------------ From: harold@hallikainen.com Subject: Re: What is Net Neutrality all About? Date: 17 Jun 2006 18:43:37 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I generally want to buy communications, not content, from a communications company, so I don't like the "partnering" between content and connectivity providers. But, I'm wondering if part of the net neutrality debate can be compared to 800 numbers on the PSTN. There, companies pay a telecommunications carrier to give preferred treatment to calls to them over calls to others, in terms of cost. Could a similar idea be adopted by broadbnad providers? You normally have to pay say $70 per month to get 6Mbps connectivity. You only pay for 1Mbps connectivity (maybe $20 per month?). But, a content provider gives you 6Mbps connectivity when viewing their site, at no additional charge. The content provider pays the extra charge. Kinda like an 800 number? Harold FCC Rules updated daily at http://www.hallikainen.com ------------------------------ From: Raqueeb Hassan Subject: Re: Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power Date: 17 Jun 2006 11:48:24 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com >>> The fact that Google is behind the data center, referred to >>> locally as Project 02, has been reported in the local press. Good. Too many date centers, loads of information. We will have too many choices on information. I'm waiting for crash recovery sites to come up, for those data centers. That will even make more options for further data centers! Raqueeb Hassan Bangladesh ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 03:41:05 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: How Evil Will Google Become? Jim Burks wrote: > hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote in message > news:telecom25.230.7@telecom-digest.org: >> Tim Beyers wrote: >> When will Google start being evil? > As far as I'm concerned, they already did when they agreed to censor > the results in their Chinese-language search engine. So much for the > Internet bringing freedom to the world through free exchange of > information. Saw an interesting talk about Google today (Saturday) on BookTV on CSpan2. This issue came up. When Google did go in what they did was put up a page saying the requested search result was censored when it was. Which no one else does. The Chinese government didn't like it but let it happen. Apparently Google used it's leverage to do what they could. The Chinese government is very pragmatic when it comes to keeping public opinion muted. They'd much rather is didn't need any muting vs suppression of any one issue. If you always go absolute, you never get anything done. You vote for Ralph Nader or George Wallace. Neither gets elected and rarely do you get a seat at the table. The real issue is if you get that "seat" will your ethics survive? of casino merits. ------------------------------ From: Lanman Subject: Campus Fax Finder Date: 17 Jun 2006 13:14:18 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I have a project to determine all of the fax machines on our 4000 line campus. I would like to find a software package that I can configure with our telephone extentions and dial each one and have it record the numbers that receive a fax tone ?? Any ideas ? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Are you certain that your only purpose with this is to 'check out' the fax machines under the supervision of the person(s) who employ you (for this purpose)? In other words, such a program, if one exists, would have no reason to stop at 4000 lines; it might as well check for fax machines all over the country, and we have had some unfavorable reports here of that happening a lot; that is, phone rings, someone answers, dead silence because the caller was only looking for fax machines, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #232 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jun 19 15:25:10 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id B6CF715233; Mon, 19 Jun 2006 15:25:09 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #233 Message-Id: <20060619192509.B6CF715233@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 15:25:09 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 19 Jun 2006 15:26:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 233 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Dutch Site Linking to MP-3 Files Loses Court Case (Reuters News Wire) Verizon Accuses Vonage of Infringment (Jeffrey Gold, AP) Exploits Circulating for Unpatched Windows PCs (Gwen Mariano) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 19, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Nokia, Siemens to Merge Telecom Gear Operations (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Encryption Can Save Data in Laptop Lapses (mc) Re: Senator Stevens Offers Compromise on Net Neutrality (mc) Re: Campus Fax Finder (jtaylor) Re: What is Net Neutrality all About? (Herb Oxley) Re: Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power (John Hines) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Dutch Site Linking to MP-3 Files Loses Court Case Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 13:31:59 -0500 A Dutch music website which links to MP3 files had to stop promoting the infringement of artist rights and copyrights, the Dutch court of appeal said in a ruling that overturned an earlier one in favor of the site. The website http://www.zoekmp3.nl , operated by Techno Design, had been taken down on Monday after the ruling on Friday which said that failure to comply with the injunction would lead to fines of 10,000 euros ($12,590) per day, or 1,000 euros per infringing file. Techno Design will also have to pay damages, with the amount to be determined at a later stage. Making mp3 files available on the internet is illegal under Dutch law, where it is done without the permission of the copyright owner. A warning to users on http://zoekmp3.nl not to infringe copyright did not excuse Techno Design from liability. "Such a warning ignores the reality that the lion's share of visitors are looking for unauthorized MP3 files," the court said. "There has been concern that Holland could become a center of Internet piracy, but this decision shows that the Dutch courts will not tolerate websites building a business out of facilitating copyright infringement," said General Counsel Geoff Taylor of the International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers (IFPI). Other deep link websites have been found to be illegal in Australia http://mp3s4free.net and China (Baidu), according to IFPI. The case was brought to the appeals court by BREIN, a Dutch anti-piracy organization, after an earlier ruling in favor of the website at the Haarlem court in 2004. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines of interest, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Jeffrey Gold Subject: Verizon Accuses Vonage of Infringment Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 13:33:33 -0500 By JEFFREY GOLD, AP Business Writer Verizon Communications Inc. has charged that Internet phone carrier Vonage Holdings Corp. violated patent rights that Verizon has on technology for making phone calls over the Internet. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., on behalf of subsidiaries Verizon Services Corp., of Arlington, Va., and Verizon Laboratories Inc., of Waltham, Mass. Holmdel-based Vonage, which said Monday it had been sued, contested the claim. "Vonage believes that its services have been developed with its own proprietary technology and technology licensed from third parties and intends to vigorously defend the lawsuit," the company said in a statement. Vonage spokesman Mitchell Slepian declined to comment further. Vonage stock dropped more than 9 percent in trading Monday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange, the latest blow to shares that have lost about half their value since the company went public in late May. Verizon charged that Vonage is infringing on at least seven of its patents regarding Internet phone service, a technology known as voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP. The patents include inventions related to gateway interfaces between a packet-switched and circuit-switched network, billing and fraud detection, call services such as call forwarding and voicemail and methods related to Wi-Fi handset use in a VoIP network, the lawsuit said. The complaint, filed June 12, also claimed that "Vonage is aggressively marketing and advertising services made with Verizon's appropriated intellectual property." Vonage has added 1.1 million new customers in 15 months, "many of whom are Verizon's former customers," the lawsuit said. Vonage's plan to use funds from its initial public offering to expand its marketing and advertising on services that infringe on Verizon patents threatens "to shift more customer and goodwill to its business at Verizon's expense," the complaint stated. The action by Verizon, the country's largest telecommunications company by revenue, follows a shareholder class-action lawsuit that claims Vonage improperly steered consumers toward investing in its $531 million initial public offering. Shares of Vonage tumbled 91 cents, or 9.5 percent, to $8.69 and a 52-week low in afternoon trading on the NYSE. The stock has been trading in a 52-week range between $9.60 and $17.25. Verizon shares gained 9 cents to $32.63 in afternoon trading on the NYSE. On the Net: http://www.vonage.com http://www22.verizon.com Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Gwendolyn Mariano, Newsfactor Subject: Exploits Circulating for Unpatched Windows PCs Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 13:35:17 -0500 Gwendolyn Mariano, newsfactor.com Although Microsoft released a string of patches to fix security flaws in Windows and Microsoft Office last week, security experts are warning of several "in-the-wild" exploits that are now targeting unpatched systems. In recent months, hackers have increased the speed at which they can create malicious software that targets security flaws for which patches have just been issued. Whenever a patch is issued, it typically comes with an extensive advisory that details the vulnerability and the effect the patch might have on other software. This information allows hackers to begin building exploits to target systems whose users have not yet installed the latest updates. System Compromise Microsoft's set of patches, released last Tuesday, included 12 individual fixes to address 21 security vulnerabilities, many of them rated critical. They addressed issues in Windows, Internet Explorer, Word, PowerPoint, and Exchange Server. "They range in severity from a denial-of-service attack to remote-code execution that could lead to full system compromise," said Michael Sutton, director of VeriSign's iDefense Labs. Microsoft responded to the news of the in-the-wild exploits by saying that it is aware of the code being published online and is actively monitoring the situation to keep customers informed. "Microsoft's investigation verified that the exploit code does not affect users who have installed all June security updates on their computers," said a Microsoft spokesperson. Consumer Impact "The vulnerabilities disclosed by Microsoft last week have a very direct impact on consumers as the majority are client-side vulnerabilities," Sutton said. "Client-side vulnerabilities tend to be used in attack scenarios that target consumers, such as phishing scams or identity theft." Sutton advised consumers to apply patches immediately and be proactive in their installation of security software -- such as firewall and antivirus tools -- so that they will be protected when future vulnerabilities emerge. Copyright 2006 NewsFactor Network, Inc. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more tech news, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 19, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 13:03:44 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 19, 2006 ******************************** BREAKING NEWS: Court Upholds FCC On UNEs http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/105/18447?11228 A federal appellate court upheld the Federal Communications Commission's fourth decision about 18 months ago to revamp any of the unbundled network element (UNE) obligations on the former Bell companies and other major incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs). The 41-page ruling by Judge David B. Sentelle of ... Unified Messaging Poised to Supplant Traditional Voice Mail This Decade http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18446?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- With equipment providers embracing Unified Messaging (UM) technology, UM and UM-capable seats will continue to grow while traditional voice mail systems will disappear from the market by the end of 2009, reports In-Stat http://www.in-stat.com . UM/UM-capable shipments will rise from 8.4 million seats in 2005 to ... Putting the Brakes on Light Speed http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18443?11228 "As fast as the speed of light" is an expression that has always signified an action of impressively high speed. But, sometimes, light can actually be too fast -- such as when engineers try to get photonic systems to mimic the function of conventional electronic circuits. That's why researchers at the University of... Disney Mobile Debuts http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18442?11228 MOBILITY, AFTER ALL, IS something that permeates people's lives. "We saw this as an opportunity to bring to market an end-to-end service offering that affects people;s lives around the clock", he says. And a unique opportunity to integrate brand offers into ... O2 Set to Buy Major Mobile Retailer http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18437?11228 Mobile operator O2 is in talks to buy the remaining stakes in mobile phone retailer The Link from DSG International, for a sum in the region of tens of millions of British pounds, The Times reports. O2 already owns 40% of the company, which it inherited from its former parent company BT. The Link is currently controlled by DSG... AT&T to Launch TV Services in July 2006 in the U.S. http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18435?11228 U.S. telecoms giant AT&T aims to launch TV services in July 2006 in a few areas, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and by the end of the year it will be offering the new service in 80% of its territory. The TV services will be combined with satellite TV from EchoStart Communications and video-on-demand services from the ... Nokia to Move Leadership of Managed Services to India http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18433?11228 Nokia has announced a new managed services contract with Hutchison Essar (Hutch Essar) and a strategic step of shift moving the global leadership of its managed services to India from next month. The Finnish vendor unveiled a managed service contract that will see it eventually run 19 of the operator's 23 circles in India. Nokia will ... Report: China Mulls Cell Phone Radiation Limits http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18431?11228 Chinese officials reportedly are considering adopting cell phone radiation limit standards, according to a report from the Xinhua news agency. Chinese regulators reportedly are considering setting the limit to 2.0 watt/kg, which is the same as the European Union standard, according to the news agency. If adopted, however, the ... Going Mobile? Get Help http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18424?11228 As enterprises large and small grapple with the challenge of managing often bewildering arrays of mobile devices (many of them actually chosen and purchased by employees themselves) the concept of 'managed mobility services' has rapidly taken hold across IT departments. While the basic idea is simple -- outsourcing... Nokia, Siemens Create Networks Giant http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18421?11228 Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG are combining their carrier infrastructure businesses to create a 50/50 joint venture called Nokia Siemens Networks. The new company, comprising Nokia's Networks Business Group and the carrier-related operations of Siemens Communications Group , has annual revenues of euro 15.8 billion ($19.9... Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. PricewaterhouseCoopers refers to the network of member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 13:04:29 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Nokia, Siemens to Merge Telecom Gear Operations USTelecom dailyLead June 19, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dPoAfDtutezcaJEyGY TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Nokia, Siemens to merge telecom gear operations BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * AT&T TV service, combining Dish and downloads, to debut in July * BT in hot seat as it awaits competition ruling * Verizon units sue Vonage * Nortel beefs up security portfolio USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Integrating the Video On-Demand Platform into IPTV HOT TOPICS * Report: Broadband growth to double over next five years * Battle for TV subscribers could hinge on HD * Net2Phone's patent lawsuit against Skype "looks serious" * Orange releases converged broadband/wireless service * Insight Research chief peers into crystal ball TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Companies using cable to make entry into IPTV * In Asia, people find many uses for mobile phones * Bell Labs plans R&D center in Seoul REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Court backs FCC's position on unbundling * Sen. Stevens offers compromise on Net neutrality * Martin doesn't have multicast votes, FCC postpones action Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dPoAfDtutezcaJEyGY ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Encryption Can Save Data in Laptop Lapses Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:16:57 -0400 Why are these big databases of confidential data being carried around on laptops in the first place? What kind of work are people doing that requires them to have thousands of people's private records with them everywhere they go? ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Senator Stevens Offers Compromise on Net Neutrality Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:15:36 -0400 I am just wondering if there might be a hidden advantage to *not* having net neutrality -- it would make it easier to block rogue sites (sites that produce lots of spam or have viruses on web pages). Note: This is just a speculation. Don't say that I spoke out against net neutrality. ------------------------------ From: jtaylor Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 09:39:13 -0300 Organization: MCI Canada News Reader Service Lanman wrote in message news:telecom25.232.9@telecom-digest.org ... > I have a project to determine all of the fax machines on our 4000 line > campus. I would like to find a software package that I can configure > with our telephone extentions and dial each one and have it record the > numbers that receive a fax tone ?? Any ideas ? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Are you certain that your only purpose > with this is to 'check out' the fax machines under the supervision of > the person(s) who employ you (for this purpose)? In other words, such > a program, if one exists, would have no reason to stop at 4000 lines; > it might as well check for fax machines all over the country, and we > have had some unfavorable reports here of that happening a lot; that > is, phone rings, someone answers, dead silence because the caller was > only looking for fax machines, etc. PAT] I'm looking for just the same thing. I hate junk faxes, but I've figured out a way to get some satisfaction. Currently there is no law that says (where I live) that I cannot program a computer to call numbers looking for fax machines. I think there's a restriction in that it cannot call in order, but randomizing a list is trivial. What I propose to do is as follows: a) find fax numbers; b) when a fax number is found, send a fax saying: i. hello fax machine, I've found you. ii. I'm making a list of fax numbers, and you are number ; iii. I am selling my list to companies who wish to do mass faxings; iv. you can buy my list for $x; v. you can have your number removed from my list for $y; vi. if you, like me, hate junk faxes: 1. there's no law aginst it right now; 2. if you, like me, would like a law aganst it, contact one (list of local legistlators); 3. in the meantime, I'm happy making money. Think I'll start with the prefixes that cover the local government offices first ... ------------------------------ From: nospam4me@mytrashmail.com (Herb Oxley) Subject: Re: What is Net Neutrality all About? Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:19:51 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC harold@hallikainen.com wrote: > net neutrality debate can be compared to 800 numbers on the PSTN. > There, companies pay a telecommunications carrier to give preferred > treatment to calls to them over calls to others, in terms of > cost. Could a similar idea be adopted by broadbnad providers? You I doubt "8nn" calls get any priority over any other call on the PSTN. 8nn is merely a different billing arrangement where the entity receiving the call pays for it and gets a discounted "bulk" rate. What I see with this network neutrality debate is AT&T and Verizon getting paid by the originator for every packet they carry on their network from outside networks. Take the current case of Google ... Google uses Level 3 to connect to the rest of the Internet. Level 3 likely has peering arrangements in place with AT&T and UUNET (now owned by Verizon) where essentially "you carry my traffic I carry yours" ... however if an imbalance occurs AT&T and others want (or has) the right to charge "transit" fees. In the recent past Level 3 cut off Cogent because of this imbalance. I see a grave risk that if net neutrality goes away so does peering, which would likely partition the Internet into Verizon, AT&T, Level 3 and SAVVIS "internets" with limited connectivity with each other ... or an eventual re-creation of the AT&T quasi-monopoly only ths time as an UNREGULATED monopoly. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Herb Oxley From: address IS Valid. ------------------------------ From: John Hines Subject: Re: Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 10:25:44 -0500 Organization: www.jhines.org Reply-To: john@jhines.org Raqueeb Hassan wrote: >>>> The fact that Google is behind the data center, referred to >>>> locally as Project 02, has been reported in the local press. > > Good. Too many date centers, loads of information. We will have too > many choices on information. I'm waiting for crash recovery sites to > come up, for those data centers. That will even make more options for > further data centers! Google has been spotted creating mobile computing centers in containers that can be hauled around as needed. If I had something witty to say, this is where I'd say it. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #233 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jun 20 15:38:00 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C5E68154C5; Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:37:59 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #234 Message-Id: <20060620193759.C5E68154C5@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:37:59 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.4 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, HOT_NASTY autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:40:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 234 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Newspapers Say Web is a Key Revenue Driver (Robert MacMillan, Reuters) IBM Develops Speedier Transistor (Reutters News Wire) All Online Traffic May Not be Equal (Anick Jesdanun AP) NY Times Editorial: Online Party Crashers (New York Times Editors) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 20, 2006 (TelecomDirect) Cities Want Free, Ad-Supported Wi-Fi Systems (USTelecom dailyLead) No Pictures Please: Researchers Develop System to Thwart Unwanted (Solomon) Anyone Using Skype WiFi Phone? (SD) X-Bar Switch Noise Levels (Audrey Nardachioni) Re: Porn-Surfing Oregon Government Worker Exposes 2200 IDs (Lisa Hancock) Re: Campus Fax Finder (Lanman) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Robert MacMillan Subject: Newspapers Say Web is a Key Revenue Driver Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 13:19:53 -0500 By Robert MacMillan U.S. newspaper publishers on Tuesday said growth at their Internet divisions would at last become a key contributor to revenue, helping to fill a profit shortfall at their traditional print operations. Many publishers began experimenting with the Internet in the 1990s when readers started moving online to get their news. Though those operations have grown quickly, they still remain a small part of overall revenue. Tribune Co., now in the throes of a boardroom battle over its future, said Internet operations could generate 12 to 15 percent of publishing revenue by 2010. That compared to a forecast $222 million in 2006, or 6 percent of revenue. "We will expand our already significant Internet businesses and will invest in additional interactive ventures," Tribune Chief Executive Dennis FitzSimons told analysts at the Newspaper Association of America's (NAA) Mid-Year Media Review. The publisher of the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune also seeks to increase its ability to share news, programs and other content among various Web sites, newspapers and television stations. Media General Inc. , which publishes the Tampa Tribune and owns 26 television stations, touted an Internet strategy that began over a decade ago and forecast online revenue of $50 million in 2008, up from an expected $30 million in 2006. "Our online audience has grown significantly, and strong double-digit growth rates continue," said CEO Marshall Morton. "We expect the division in the aggregate to become profitable in 2007." Newspaper publishers have grappled with making their Internet business a major profit source. Advertisers have followed readers to the Web, but competition is fierce due to a broad array of Internet sites and Web journals, or blogs. The Internet accounts for about 5 percent of newspaper companies' revenue on average, but it is growing by about 30 percent annually, according to the NAA. At the same time, print operations have been plagued by declining readership and rising production costs. TRIBUNE CHIEF SAYS BETTER RESULTS IN STORE The New York Times Co., for example, on Monday said it still faced a challenging advertising market. But the publisher of the New York Times and the Boston Globe said its online information venture About.com would begin to boost earnings this year, rather than next year as previously expected. Defining a future strategy has become key for Tribune management as it faced opposition from the company's second-largest shareholder, the Chandler Trusts. The Chandler family publicly urged Tribune to consider spinoffs of various division or an outright sale, claiming the company had failed to make good on a multimedia strategy. They have opposed a planned $2 billion buyback of Tribune shares that aims to increase value for investors. FitzSimons said Tribune plans to increase its stake in online job site Careerbuilder.com after publisher McClatchy Co. acquires Knight Ridder Inc. Both are partners in Careerbuilder. Magazine publisher Meredith Corp. forecast earnings per share for its fiscal fourth quarter of 96 cents compared with 83 cents a year ago, partly on the strength of its "Better Homes and Gardens" and "Ladies' Home Journal" titles. Analysts on average had forecast earnings per share of 96 cents, excluding items, according to Reuters Estimates. Tribune shares fell 21 cents to $31.72 on the New York Stock Exchange. Meredith slid 12 cents to $48.55, Media General slipped 3 cents to $39.90 and the New York Times declined 10 cents to $23.50. (Additional reporting by Kenneth Li) Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from the daily media, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: IBM Develops Speedier Transistor Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 13:28:07 -0500 IBM has built a transistor that runs about 100 times faster than current chips, a development that could pave the way for ultra-fast computers and wireless networks, the computing giant said on Monday. Transistors are the basic building blocks of the processors found in everything from supercomputers to digital music players, and IBM achieved the record speeds by building one from silicon laced with exotic chemical element germanium. "What we've been doing in the last several years is pushing the absolute limits of silicon technology," said Bernie Meyerson, head of semiconductor research for International Business Machines. "What we've done in demonstrating this is that we're nowhere near having tapped the limits of silicon performance, and that's very encouraging," Meyerson said. The transistor achieved a speed of 500 gigahertz, which is more than 100 times speedier than the fastest PC chips sold today, and about 250 times faster than the typical mobile telephone chip, Meyerson said. That speed was hit only when IBM researchers, working with counterparts from the Georgia Institute of Technology, cooled the transistor to near absolute zero, but Meyerson said the device still ran at 300 gigahertz at room temperature. Clay Ryder, president of Sageza Group, a technology market research firm, said the breakthrough should lead to faster processors, but ones that will run far below the top speed demonstrated by IBM. "We can build a (race car) that can go 240 miles per hour, but is that what you're going to drive to work? No, but you learn things that you can put in mass-produced cars," Ryder said. Most improvements in chip speeds over the years have come from shrinking the size of transistors, but IBM's approach is to tweak the silicon on the atomic level, meaning that transistors can be designed from the ground up with very specific applications in mind. "That means you can have Babe Ruth-style scenarios where you step up and point the bat to left field and nail a shot there," Meyerson said. Meyerson forecasts that the advances will show up in real products within a couple years, probably in chips to power super-fast wireless networks capable of moving a DVD-quality movie in as little as 5 seconds. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more tech news and reports, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ From: Anick Jesdanun Subject: All Online Traffic May Not be Equal Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 13:29:45 -0500 By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer Market forces aren't enough to preserve the Internet's historical principle of treating all traffic equally, regardless of the content provider's wealth or clout, a high-tech advocacy group said Tuesday in announcing its support for legislation. In a report, the Center for Democracy and Technology said consumer demand might very well create sufficient incentives for Internet service providers to treat all online sites and services equally. "But that outcome is far from guaranteed," the Washington-based group wrote. "CDT believes the risk is too great to simply `wait and see.' Once new, non-neutral networks and business arrangements have been put in place, overturning those arrangements is likely to be extremely difficult." At issue is the concept of "net neutrality," the idea that telephone, cable and other Internet providers shouldn't favor certain Web sites or services simply because they are willing to pay higher fees or make special arrangements to transmit data. Phone and cable companies contend pure net neutrality would drive up costs to consumers because online businesses wouldn't pay a fair share of the billions of dollars being spent to provide high-speed service around the country. Although they say they wouldn't block access to anyone, some Internet providers have proposed "tiered services," in which a company offering an Internet phone or video service could pay for higher priority to the network. That's important because voice and video offerings consume much bandwidth and rely on real-time delivery of data, so delays would be much more noticeable than if it were e-mail or a static Web page. But critics say that with tiered services, those unable or unwilling to pay would essentially be left out. The House earlier this month passed a broad telecommunications bill that would give the Federal Communications Commission authority to enforce net neutrality principles and set fines of up to $500,000 for violations. Critics say that provision wasn't enough to maintain the Internet's freewheeling openness. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is scheduled to take up the issue Thursday. The CDT said Tuesday that any legislation should be narrow and exempt, for now, any non-Internet services that may use the same pipes -- for example, television services over regular phone lines. CDT staff counsel John Morris said Internet providers still should be able to prioritize certain types of services, such as Internet phone calls, as long as the prioritization is offered to all companies equally, without prior arrangements or fees. In a separate study released in conjunction with the CDT report, Daniel J. Weitzner, a principal research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said nothing should preclude users from paying more for higher speeds. "The freedom to buy the bandwidth that one can afford means that hundreds of millions of people around the world have been able to participate in the Internet even if not at high speed," Weitzner wrote. "These decisions are always up to the user, not the network operator or the content provider." Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: New York Times Editorial Staff Subject: NY Times Editorial: Online Party Crashers Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 13:32:30 -0500 Editorial: Online Party Crashers All good things must come to an end, including the chance to post lascivious photographs and diary entries on the Internet without repercussions. A generation that has come of age with blogging, Webcams and social networking sites is waking up to the fact that would-be employers are looking over their shoulders -- and adjusting their job offers. Alan Finder reported in The Times last week that companies have moved from putting applicants' names through Google to checking sites like Facebook and MySpace. There are ethical concerns about corporate officers snooping through registration-only sites designed for students. But the first order of business is for the indiscreet to think twice. Every generation has its shrinking violets, and plenty of high school and college students still comport themselves with dignity and decorum, but the standards of decency in public behavior have surely changed. Between reality television shows like "The Real World," and "Girls Gone Wild" videos, our culture has sent the message that acting stupid in front of a camera is a way to get attention or even start a career in show business. Many young people think nothing of posting intimate material on the Web, whether it's daily minutiae, personal poems or snapshots of a fraternity beer pong tournament. What they are getting now is an education in the virtues of privacy. The Internet feels private in certain ways that it isn't. Sharing posts with friends, fellow hobbyists or potential dates, a user could be forgiven for overlooking the possibility that a human resources executive might be zeroing in as well. So much attention has been focused on sexual predators and swindlers that it's easy to forget that businesses and the government want to retain the right to peruse our correspondence as well. A recent survey found that more than a third of large American companies read their employees' outbound e-mail, and just under a third fired someone as a result. We are only just beginning to wake up to the wider ramifications of the Internet on the personal and the confidential. In the meantime, don't leave a digital trail. That photograph from your friend's party could be more than just embarrassing. It might cost you your dream job. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company For more news and headlines from New York Times, National Public Radio and Christian Science Monitor with _no login nor registration_ requirements, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 20, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 12:13:58 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 20, 2006 ******************************** Spectrum Popularity - What's the Dif? http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18474?11228 As industry attention remains glued on FCC auctions of spectrum for commercial wireless services, one thing is clear. Not all spectrum is considered Grade-A Choice. The auction for 4 MHz (2 X 2 MHz) in the 800 MHz band, designated for linking aircraft to ground stations, just ended June 2, and will essentially provide backhaul for... Escalating Revenue Management to an Executive Priority http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18471?11228 Revenue assurance and cost management tend to go hand in hand, because they involve analysis of the same sorts of information. One way or another, diagnosis of revenue and cost problems, some the result of fraud, will involve reconciliation among billing, customer, network inventory and provisioned service data. When various aspects of... Regulator Paves Way for WiMAX in Ukraine http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18470?11228 Bids are being tendered to Ukraine's National Commission for Communications Regulation for WiMAX frequencies, reports Prime-Tass. The development comes following the government's recent approval of a plan for the allocation of radio frequencies, which allows the introduction of WiMAX technology from 1 July 2006. The frequencies... Telefonica CTC Chile Calls for Regional Digital TV Standard in Latin America http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18467?11228 Telefonica CTC Chile's manager Gustavo Perez said in interview that the Chilean authorities should consider adopting the same digital TV standard for the whole of Latin America, according to reports from Business News Americas. Moreover, the operator has recently launched digital TV services in Chile and... 802.20 Review Put on Hold http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18465?11228 The IEEE's recent decision to put on hold discussions on the emerging 802.20 standard underlines the battle of wills between the backers of competing mobile broadband standards. In one corner is Qualcomm, which is promoting the 802.20 standard, while in the other is Intel and Motorola, both proponents of the 802.16e (mobile WiMAX)... Helio Offers Cash for Used Products http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18461?11228 Helio, whwich targets affluent 18- to 32-year-olds, wants to keep disposable income in the pockets of its subscribers. To this end, the MVNO is rolling out the 'Turn in. Trade up. Cash out Program', which enables customers to send in their old consumer electronic portable devices for cash. The program covers old... Verizon Slams Vonage With VoIP Patent Suit http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18458?11228 Vonage has been hit with just what it needed the least right now -- a patent lawsuit from Verizon claiming the company trampled on seven Verizon patents covering VoIP technology. Already facing a passel of lawsuits over the conduct of its IPO and the disastrous decrease in value of its shares, the news was the last thing... Cable Turns to BB-on-Demand http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18456?11228 Seeking a new competitive edge against swiftly growing DSL providers, cable operators are starting to offer new bandwidth-on-demand services that let cable modem users sample faster data speeds whenever they wish. In the past couple of weeks, two of North America's three largest MSOs -- Comcast and Cox Communications -- have... Nascent IMS Market Could Reach $14 Billion in US by 2011 http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18453?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Still in the early stages of development, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) will take at least another year to get going, but has enormous potential, reports In-Stat. In the most optimistic of three forecast scenarios, wireless carrier revenues from IMS applications in the US could be as high as $14 billion by ... Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 13:32:20 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Cities Want Free, Ad-Supported Wi-Fi Systems USTelecom dailyLead June 20, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dPAcfDtutezCvljKuI TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Cities want free, ad-supported Wi-Fi systems BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Who's the next target in telecom gear consolidation? * Verizon's FiOS offers Web portals in Chinese, Korean USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Simplifying Network Management with ROADM Technology TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Microsoft launches new IM service * Researchers "freeze" chip to set speed record REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * N.J. Senate backs statewide franchise for Verizon TV Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dPAcfDtutezCvljKuI ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 09:01:03 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: No Pictures Please: Researchers Develop System to Thwart Unwanted No Pictures Please: Researchers Develop System to Thwart Unwanted Video and Still Photography Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have completed a prototype device that can block digital-camera function in a given area. Commercial versions of the technology could be used to stymie unwanted use of video or still cameras. The prototype device, produced by a team in the Interactive and Intelligent Computing division of the Georgia Tech College of Computing (COC), uses off-the-shelf equipment -- camera-mounted sensors, lighting equipment, a projector and a computer -- to scan for, find and neutralize digital cameras. The system works by looking for the reflectivity and shape of the image-producing sensors used in digital cameras. http://www.gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/anti-camera.htm ------------------------------ From: SD Subject: Anyone Using Skype WiFi Phone? Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:28:19 -0500 Anyone using a Skype WiFi phone along with Skype Out? If so, how do you like it? Any problems? Dan ------------------------------ From: Audrey Nardachioni Subject: X-Bar switch Noise Levels Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 14:02:49 -0400 I am trying to find out what typical Central Office switch room noise levels were for #5X-Bar, 4A-XBar and XBar Tandem switchers manufactured by Western Electric and Nortel (formerly Northern Electric Company of Canada). If you know of any source for this info, I would appreciate it. I've scoured the NET but haven't been able to find anything but then again, I'm not an Internet search wizard. There seems to be a large number of us old X-bar Techs who now suffer from hearing loss and we may be able to get workman's compensation to help us with hearing aid costs if we can produce some data for the Workman's Compensation Board. Audrey Nardachioni 20-638 Wharncliffe Road South London, Ontario, Canada N6J 2N4 Res:(519) 685-2969 E-Mail: audreyn@execulink.com ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Porn-Surfing Oregon Government Worker Exposes 2200 Taxpyer IDs Date: 19 Jun 2006 16:18:50 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Greg Keizer wrote: > By Gregg Keizer > The identities included Social Security numbers, names, and addresses, > and were transmitted to an unknown hacker by the keylogger, said the > Department of Revenue in an online FAQ. > discovered that the keylogger was patiently collecting all taxpayer ID > data and transmitting it across the net to the person(s) who had > installed it, and that it had been doing so for at least four or five > months since it was first installed and before it was stopped. I have a technical question about how this works and why those responsible can't be prosecuted. The news article said the collected data was transmitted across the net. Wouldn't that require the sabotage software to contain transmission instructions? Without, how would the stolen data be collected? Anyway, with the transmission instructions--which would have to include an address to transmit to---couldn't they trace that address fairly quickly and arrest those responsible? If it was going to a "hijacked server", wouldn't the owner be responsible be negligent for allowing an improperly secured device to be connected to the Internet? That might not be a criminal office, but it should be a tort negligence. Again, I'm not sure of the technical details of the Internet, so perhaps you could explain it in layman's terms (spell out acronyms). Also, I guess the "key logger" would consist of a what we used to call a "terminate and stay resident" program (TSR), like the old DOS keyboard utilities. But in modern operating systems, aren't all active processes carefully checked and "registered" in the "Registry"? Shouldn't audit - anti sabotage software be checking on this every day? Thanks! [public replies please] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The Oregon governor did assure us in the original article that they intended to prosecute _anyone they could catch up with_ in this nefarious scheme. Trouble is in catching the person(s) involved. Yes, they had to have an IP address to receive the data, but all sorts of proxy addresses and throw-away IP addresses make that problematic at best. You can get all sorts of dial-up accounts to use with whatever IP address is available at the moment. A dial-up account combined with various proxy servers will have the governor chasing his tail for quite awhile. Yes, it is a mess. As to the ignornat stooge who allowed it to happen by getting his computer infected to start with, I doubt he did anything willfully, which would be required for a successful prosecution. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lanman Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Date: 20 Jun 2006 12:11:53 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Lanman wrote: > I have a project to determine all of the fax machines on our 4000 line > campus. I would like to find a software package that I can configure > with our telephone extentions and dial each one and have it record the > numbers that receive a fax tone ?? Any ideas ? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Are you certain that your only purpose > with this is to 'check out' the fax machines under the supervision of > the person(s) who employ you (for this purpose)? In other words, such > a program, if one exists, would have no reason to stop at 4000 lines; > it might as well check for fax machines all over the country, and we > have had some unfavorable reports here of that happening a lot; that > is, phone rings, someone answers, dead silence because the caller was > only looking for fax machines, etc. PAT] Well I am only interested in the phone extentions on our internal phone switch, I could care less about the fax machines that are located throughout the country. In the process of replacing an aged G3 switch and VOIP is an option, but as you know, I still need to carry analog signals for fax/datacom. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #234 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 21 00:22:46 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id B6F6415163; Wed, 21 Jun 2006 00:22:45 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #235 Message-Id: <20060621042245.B6F6415163@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 00:22:45 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 21 Jun 2006 00:25:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 235 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Data Brokers Get Around Subpoena Requirements (T. Bridis & J. Solomon) CableVision Pursuing Wireless Plan (Yinka Adegoke, Reuters) Cell Phone Harassment PayBack (Robert Galloni) How to Wire an RJ45 Jack For a Merlin 206 System (Enterpriser) Re: X-Bar Switch Noise Levels (Scott Dorsey) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ted Bridis & John Solomon Subject: Data Brokers Get Around Subpoena Requirements Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 21:50:16 -0500 AP Exclusive: Data Brokers Get by Subpoenas By TED BRIDIS and JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writers Federal and local police across the country -- as well as some others among the nation's best-known companies -- have been gathering Americans' phone records from private data brokers without subpoenas or warrants. These people, many of whom market aggressively on the Internet, have broken into customer accounts online, tricked phone companies into revealing information and sometimes acknowledged that their practices violate laws, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Legal experts and privacy advocates said police reliance on private vendors or otherwise obtain information by committing such acts raises civil liberties questions. Those using data brokers include agencies of the Homeland Security and Justice departments -- including the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service -- and municipal police departments in California, Florida, Georgia and Utah. Experts believe hundreds of other departments frequently use such services. "We are requesting any and all information you have regarding the above cell phone account and the account holder ... including account activity and the account holder's address," Ana Bueno, a police investigator in Redwood City, Calif., wrote in October to PDJ Investigations of Granbury, Texas. An agent in Denver for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Anna Wells, sent a similar request on March 31 on Homeland Security stationery: "I am looking for all available subscriber information for the following phone number," Wells wrote to a corporate alias used by PDJ. Congressional investigators estimated the U.S. government spent $30 million last year buying personal data from private brokers. But that number likely understates the breadth of transactions, since brokers said they rarely charge law enforcement agencies. A lawmaker who has investigated the industry said Monday he was concerned about data brokers. "There's a good chance there are some laws being broken, but it's not really clear precisely which laws, said Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., head of the House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee that plans to begin hearings Wednesday. Documents gathered by Whitfield's committee show police officers and data brokers use trickery, impersonation and even technology to try to gather Americans' phone records. "They can basically obtain any information about anybody on any subject," Whitfield said. James Bearden, a Texas lawyer who represents four such data brokers, likened the companies' activities to the National Security Agency, which reportedly compiles the phone records of ordinary Americans. "The government is doing exactly what these people are accused of doing," Bearden said. "These people are being demonized. These are people who are partners with law enforcement on a regular basis." Essentially, the government turns a blind eye to their illegal activities. Many of the executives summoned to testify before Congress this week plan to refuse to answer questions, invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination. Larry Slade, PDJ's lawyer, said no one at the company violated laws, but he acknowledged, "I'm not sure that every law enforcement agency in the country would agree with that analysis. Of course, a lot of them (law enforcement agencies) violarted the same laws we are accused of violating." PDJ always provided help to police for free. "Agencies from all across the country took advantage of it," Slade said. "Having them on our side helps a great deal. They're not going to look a gift horse in the mouth." The police agencies told AP they used the data brokers because it was quicker and easier than subpoenas, and police lawyers claim their actions did not violate the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against unlawful search and seizure. Some agencies, such as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, instructed agents to stop the practice after congressional inquiries. Police in Orem, Utah, likewise plan to end the practice because of concerns about "questionable methods" used by the data brokers, Lt. Doug Edwards said. "Now that the heat is on, no one seems to know anything about it." The records also list some of America's most famous corporate names -- from automakers to insurers to banks -- as purchasing information on private citizens from data brokers, which often help companies track down delinquent customers. For instance, a 2003 customer list for data broker Universal Communications Company listed Ford Motor Credit Co., the automaker's lending arm, as the single largest purchaser of phone toll records, paying $17,435 to buy such data that year. In all, Ford's lending arm spent more than $50,000 with that data broker that year. Ford also paid $9,000 to another such company, Global Information Group, in 2004, the records state. Also on UCC's or Global Information's paying client list was the insurer State Farm's banking arm, Chrysler's consumer lending arm, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and banking giants Wells Fargo and Wachovia Financial Services. At least 50 departments of Wachovia made data requests in 2004, accumulating thousands of dollars in charges. Some companies could not provide an immediate explanation when called for comment Tuesday. Ford Motor Credit spokeswoman Meredith Libby said Tuesday her company used the vendors in the past to help locate customers who weren't paying and had disappeared but the companies "are no longer on our approved vendor lists." Asked why Ford would need phone toll records, Libby said her company "did not necessarily say (to the vendor), `Give us this specific piece of data, but rather help us to find this person,'" and the charges for phone records were part of the process. Wells Fargo said it ended the relationship with its data broker late last year. State Farm's banking arm made "limited use of data obtained from third parties to augment our collections operations," spokesman Mia Jazo-Harris said. None of the police agencies interviewed by AP said they researched their data brokers to determine how they gather sensitive information like names associated with unlisted numbers, records of phone calls, e-mail aliases -- even tracing a person's location using their cellular phone signal. "If it's on the Internet and it's been commended to us, we wouldn't do a full-scale investigation," Marshals Service spokesman David Turner said. "We don't knowingly go into any source that would be illegal. We were not aware, I'm fairly certain, what technique was used by these subscriber services." At Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spokesman Dean Boyd said agents did not pay for phone records and sought approval from U.S. prosecutors before making requests. Their goal was "to more quickly identify and filter out phone numbers that were unrelated to their investigations," Boyd said. Targets of the police interest include alleged marijuana smugglers, car thieves, armed thugs and others. The data services also are enormously popular among collection agencies, bails bondsmen, private detectives and suspicious spouses. Customers included: _A U.S. Labor Department employee who used her government e-mail address and phone number to buy two months of personal cellular phone records of a woman in New Jersey. _A buyer who received credit card information about the father of murder victim Jon Benet Ramsey. _A buyer who obtained 20 printed pages of phone calls by pro basketball player Damon Jones of the Cleveland Cavaliers. "I'm very disappointed," Jones told AP on Tuesday. "I paid for a service and that service is being violated. I've been an upstanding guy, never been in any trouble or anything like that. I was shocked, and I really want to get to the bottom of this." Privacy advocates bristled over data brokers gathering records for police without subpoenas. "This is pernicious, an end run around the Fourth Amendment," said Marc Rotenberg, head of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center which advocates tougher federal regulation of data brokers. "The government is encouraging unlawful conduct; it's not smart on the law enforcement side to be making use of information obtained improperly." Legal experts said law enforcement agencies would be permitted to use illegally obtained information from private parties without violating the Fourth Amendment as long it could not be shown that police encouraged or committed crimes in the process. "If law enforcement is encouraging people in the private sector to commit a crime in getting these records, that would be problematic," said Mark Levin, a former top Justice Department official under President Reagan. "If, on the other hand, they are asking data brokers if they have any public information on any given phone numbers, that should be fine." Levin said he nonetheless would have advised federal agents to use the practice only when it was a matter of urgency or national security and otherwise to stick to a legally bulletproof method like subpoenas for everyday cases. Congress subpoenaed thousands of documents from data brokers describing how they collected telephone records by impersonating customers. "I was shot down four times," data broker employee Michele Yontef complained in an e-mail in July 2005 to a colleague. Yontef was among those ordered to appear at this week's hearing. Another company years ago even acknowledged breaking the law. "We must break various rules of law in acquiring all the information we achieve for you," Touch Tone Information Inc. of Denver wrote to a law firm in 1998 that was seeking records of calls made on a calling card. Police officers questioned also agreed that privacy of private citizens and Fourth Amendment 'concerns' had to sometimes be sacrificed in their work. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Assocoiated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra.AP.html ------------------------------ From: Yinka Adegoke Subject: CableVision Pursuing Wireless Plan Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 22:07:04 -0500 By Yinka Adegoke NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cable operator Cablevision Systems Corp. said on Tuesday it plans to make its digital home phone network compatible with any U.S. wireless network, allowing subscribers to transfer calls between the two. Patricia Gottesman, Cablevision's executive vice-president of product management and marketing, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference the company had "aggressive" plans to deliver such a service but gave no time frame. Cable companies and telephone companies have talked about converging wireline and wireless services for years, but no major operator has yet to launch such a product. "Our network can allow us to have fixed line convergence with any wireless carrier that our customers prefer," Gottesman told a Standard & Poor's Telecommunications Conference. She told Reuters: "We think there are enormous opportunities ... to converge with wireless services from all major providers." A source close to the company said its digital phone network, which delivers calls over the Internet, is compatible with wireless networks, allowing one phone to be used as both a cellphone and a home phone. Cablevision, which has 3 million subscribers predominantly in the Long Island, New York area, says 20 percent of its cable television subscribers also take its digital phone service. The company was the only major cable operator not to join Sprint-Nextel Corp. in forming a joint venture, first announced in November 2005, that aimed to explore combining mobile phone services with television, home phone and Internet services. Operators including Comcast Corp., Time Warner Inc.'s cable unit and Cox Communications joined the venture. Copyright 2006 Reuters. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from the daily media, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 21:51:21 -0400 From: Robert Galloni Subject: Cell Phone Harassment PayBack Reply-To: rgalloni@verizon.net The law doesn't protect us when it comes to harassment like this. My father-in-law had a similar problem with some guy calling his cell line harassing him. He decided to go to the police but to his surprise they said there wasn't much they could do. Taking it into my own hands I set up my modem to call the offenders cell number over and over again. For a few days the harassment stopped immediately, probably because I ate up his cell minutes and his bill was over 500.00 bucks or maybe it was the fact he couldn't make calls for 3 days. Good luck! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Although your fathr-in-laws's police department was unwilling to do their duty and protect him, it would just be your luck that the other guys's police department (the ones who would respond to a complaint by him) would choose to fry you. As tempting as it is to take the law in your own hands -- besides, it feels _good_! -- it sometimes can backfire. Often times, how much police are willing to do for you depends on your own status in life. Most of us have no status, but the other guy might have been a politician or big shot in his community. I hope at the least you used *67 to block your identity as a way of discouraging him or making any further retaliation just a little bit more difficult for him. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Enterpriser Subject: How to Wire an RJ45 Jack for a Merlin 206 System Date: 20 Jun 2006 16:35:56 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm trying to set up a Merlin 206 system. I need to know how to wire the 8 conductor cable to the rj45 jack. The other end of this cable will have an 8 conductor plug which will plug into the 206 unit. Thanks for any help. It would be helpful to know which color coded wire goes to which screw terminal inside the jack and which color wire goes to which pin in the plug on the other end of the wire. ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: X-Bar Switch Noise Levels Date: 20 Jun 2006 15:59:31 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Audrey Nardachioni wrote: > I am trying to find out what typical Central Office switch room noise > levels were for #5X-Bar, 4A-XBar and XBar Tandem switchers > manufactured by Western Electric and Nortel (formerly Northern > Electric Company of Canada). If you know of any source for this info, > I would appreciate it. I've scoured the NET but haven't been able to > find anything but then again, I'm not an Internet search wizard. > There seems to be a large number of us old X-bar Techs who now suffer > from hearing loss and we may be able to get workman's compensation to > help us with hearing aid costs if we can produce some data for the > Workman's Compensation Board. My personal suspicion is that the levels varied considerably depending on time and place and the number of calls active at any given time. You may want to contact the Telephone Museum in Seattle, which has an operating #5 crossbar. If they have any sort of traffic simulator hooked up to it, it should be possible to measure SPL under various simulated loads. It might be an interesting exercise. Note that during much of the era when crossbar switches were in use, exposure-related deafness was not very well understood. Not surprisingly, a lot of the early research on environmental hearing loss was done by Bell Labs. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know that in the early/middle 1960's the Chicago-Wabash central office -- in fact all of Chicago -- was either crossbar or stepping switch and you could hear it a block away on a hot summer night walking down the street, mainly because they did not have air conditioning in those days and all the windows would be open wide. When it started to rain, someone would go around and close all the windows. Quite deafening. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #235 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 21 16:54:09 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 0057915235; Wed, 21 Jun 2006 16:54:08 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #236 Message-Id: <20060621205408.0057915235@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 16:54:08 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, NA_DOLLARS,SOMETHING_FOR_ADULTS autolearn=no version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 21 Jun 2006 16:55:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 236 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Internet VOIP Must Pay Into Subsidy Fund, Says FCC (Jeremy Pelofsky) ICANN Needs to Stop Domain Name Abuse (Doug Isenberg) My Space Adds New Age Restrictions (Anick Jesdanun) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 21, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Siemens in Talks to Sell Enterprise Networks (USTelecom dailyLead) Canceling AOL Account Blues (davidesan@gmail.com) Re: X-Bar Switch Noise Levels (Steven Lichter) Re: X-Bar Switch Noise Levels (Sam Spade) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jeremy Pelofsky, Reuters Subject: Internet VOIP Must Pay Into Subsidy Fund, Says FCC Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 13:59:39 -0500 By Jeremy Pelofsky Consumers who use wireless or Internet-based telephones could see their bills rise, as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved on Wednesday a new plan for funding phone service subsidies. The FCC ordered Internet telephone services like Vonage Holdings Corp. to contribute part of their revenue into the Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes phone service to rural and low-income areas as well as communications services and Internet access for schools, hospitals and libraries. The agency also increased the amount wireless telephone providers would have to pay into the fund. The move may lead to higher bills for wireless and Internet telephone customers because the companies typically pass the fees on to customers. Companies offering long-distance and international telephone services as well as high-speed Internet service via digital subscriber lines (DSL) must currently contribute 10.9 percent of that revenue into the $7.3 billion fund. However, DSL providers will no longer have to contribute to the program after August, so the FCC had to act to avoid a potential shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars. Consumers' DSL bills could go down if the savings were passed through to them. Under the plan adopted by the FCC commissioners, providers of Internet telephone service, known as Voice over Internet Protocol, or VOIP, would have to pay about 7 percent of their revenue into the fund under the current contribution factor. The contribution factor is usually adjusted each quarter, based on payments received from providers. Wireless carriers would have to increase their contribution to the fund by about 1 percentage point to 4 percent of their revenue under the new FCC plan. Agency officials said they expect the new levels to take effect in the fourth quarter. If the wireless or Internet telephone providers could prove that their long distance and international revenue were less, they would be allowed to use a smaller percentage as the basis for their contribution to the fund. The FCC has been weighing broader reform of Universal Service Fund contributions for some time, and Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has supported a charge based on telephone numbers. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from the daily media, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Doug Isenberg Subject: Editorial: ICANN Needs to Stop Domain Name Abuse Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 14:05:19 -0500 ICANN needs to clamp down on domain name abuse By Doug Isenberg http://news.com.com/ICANN+needs+to+clamp+down+on+domain+name+abuse/2010-1030_3-6084970.html While Congress continues to consider the merits of so-called Net neutrality, an even more soporific but vital Internet legal issue looms, with ramifications for every business online and every user of the World Wide Web: What is the purpose of the database that contains information on every domain name registrant? This question is being quietly debated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) -- the Net's keeper of the all-important addressing system -- which is meeting June 26-30 in Marrakech, Morocco. This database, known as "Whois," contains names, contact information and some technical data for every registrant of a domain name. Under ICANN's current structure, all accredited registrars -- the companies approved to provide domain name registration services -- are required to collect this data and make it publicly available through the Whois system. Unrestricted access to Whois is essential for companies fighting to protect their brands -- as well as their consumers -- from cybersquatters, spammers, phishers and other bad actors on the Internet. Without the ability to identify who is responsible for these online frauds, businesses would be unable to assert their legal rights or, at least be unable to do so without expending an exponentially greater amount of time and money by resorting to expensive and slow investigations and legal processes. But some believe that domain name registrants should be able to hide from the law, that they should not have to disclose themselves in the Whois database. They argue that the purpose of Whois should be limited to resolving technical, not legal, issues related to domain names and the Web sites associated with them. In response to an ICANN task force's request for comments earlier this year, some argued that the Whois database creates privacy risks by unnecessarily publicly publishing personal information. This despite the tradition of publishing this data for as long as there's been a World Wide Web; the analogies to and prevalence of similar databases such as those for trademarks and real estate; and the popularity of existing Whois privacy-protection services. Today, cybersquatters have rebranded themselves as "domainers." In any event, the current Whois system and domain name abuses are bad enough; ICANN surely should do nothing to make them worse. Already, it is common for domain name registrants to provide false contact information when registering domain names, and little is done to stop this fraudulent practice. The cybersquatter in one reported decision under ICANN's popular domain name dispute procedure was listed as, literally, "Sdf fdgg" -- an obvious random typing of keys. Others often identify themselves only as "DOMAIN FOR SALE." And in one recent case that would be funny if it wasn't important to Morgan Stanley, the registrant of mymorganstanleyplatinum.com was listed as, simply, "Meow" and submitted a response that it was a cat -- leading the arbitrator to write that the registrant "has undoubtedly attempted to mislead this panel and has provided incorrect Whois information. Such behavior is indicative of bad faith." Domain name registrants who provide such false information clearly have an illegitimate reason to hide, not a legitimate concern for protecting their privacy. Their reasons are clearly understandable, as domain name speculation and cybersquatting have become one of the Web's most popular, and profitable, activities. The practice is no longer limited to finding a few good names. (Still, apparently there is good money to be made in such generically used domains as Diamond.com, which reportedly sold for $7.5 million last month, the same price as the legendary sale of Business.com in 1999 by a man who has since co-founded a company known as Internet REIT, which boasts a portfolio of more than 400,000 domain names.) Today, cybersquatters have rebranded themselves as "domainers." Popular blogs and news sites track their activities. Industry conferences have sprouted to serve them. And "monetization services" -- which quickly let domain name registrants turn otherwise unused, or parked, Web pages into money via affiliate links that often trade on the goodwill established by well-known brand owners -- are finding a large and growing customer base of hungry and often shrewd domain name registrants. All of these practices are costing honest businesses untold sums. The World Intellectual Property Organization reported earlier this year that the number of cybersquatting cases it handled rose 20 percent in 2005, and the disputes have involved most of the 100 largest international brands by value. Pharmaceutical, hospitality and telecommunications companies -- all of which have a large number of customers who are harmed by online scams perpetrated by domain name registrants -- are among the most aggressive enforcers of intellectual property online. Identifying, prioritizing and pursuing bad Web site owners already is a resource-consuming task for these companies; any new restrictions on the Whois system would only cost them and, therefore, their customers more. The Whois problem is exacerbated by another flaw in the domain name system, a practice labeled "domain kiting" by Bob Parsons, the outspoken CEO and founder of GoDaddy.com, the largest ICANN-accredited domain name registrar. The practice (euphemistically referred to as "domain tasting" by those who engage in it) exploits an ICANN loophole by allowing sophisticated speculators to register a domain name without charge for five days. During this window, a registrant can post a monetized parking page and see whether any traffic results. If it does, the registrant may keep the domain name; if it doesn't, he'll let it go. The problem is that these domain names, which typically contain variations of companies' well-known trademarks, are being registered in such great numbers for such short periods of time that they make it difficult for trademark owners to pursue them or to distinguish them from even more problematic Web sites. According to Parsons, more than 93 percent of the 35 million domain names registered in April were a part of this slick practice. Who is going to stop these online shenanigans? Apparently not ICANN, which has never revoked the accreditation of a single registrar, even though some of them are among the most popular registrants of domain names. To its credit, ICANN has sought to hire a Compliance Program Specialist, recognizing that violations by registrars "can cause serious detriment to consumers and to the Internet community both directly, and indirectly, by damaging the competitive process that is crucial to a dynamic and healthy market." Yet the role has remained unfilled for more than a year. Nothing less than the integrity of the Net is at stake here, and on these important domain name issues ICANN, innocent businesses and concerned Internet users alike should not remain neutral. Copyright 1995-2006 CNET Networks, Inc. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more tech news and headlines, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The 'integrity of the net' ... ha ha, what a laugh that is! And for the folks counting on ICANN and its principal spokespersons Vint Cerf and Esther Dyson to take a stand at correcting the wholesale thievery of domain names, they better think again. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Anick Jesdanun Subject: My Space Adds New Age Restrictions Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 14:07:26 -0500 By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer MySpace.com is planning new restrictions on how adults may contact its younger users in response to growing concerns about the safety of teenagers who frequent the popular online social networking site. The site already prohibits kids 13 and under from setting up accounts and displays only partial profiles for those registered as 14 or 15 years old unless the person viewing the profile is already on the teen's list of friends. Under the changes, announced Wednesday and taking effect next week, MySpace users who are 18 or over could no longer request to be on a 14- or 15-year-old's friends' list unless they already know either the youth's e-mail address or full name. Any user will still be able to get a partial profile of younger users by searching for other attributes, such as display name. The difference is that currently, adults can then request to be added to a youth's list to view the full profile; that option will disappear for adults registered as 18 and over. However, users under 18 can still make such contact, and MySpace has no mechanism for verifying that users submit their true age when registering. That means adults can sign up as teens and request to join a 14-year-old's list of friends, which would enable the full profiles. "There is far less than meets the eye in these newly announced MySpace measures," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement. "These steps are inadequate because they lack any age verification and leave the minimum age too low." The partial profiles display gender, age and city. Full profiles describe hobbies, schools and any other personal details a user may provide. Driven largely by word of mouth, MySpace has grown astronomically since its launch in January 2004 and is now second in the United States among all Web sites by total page views, behind only Yahoo Inc. according to comScore Media Metrix. The site currently has some 87 million users, about a quarter registered as minors, according to the company. At MySpace, which was bought last year by News Corp. for $580 million, users can expand their circles of friends by exploiting existing connections, rather than meeting randomly or by keyword matches alone. It offers a mix of features -- message boards, games, Web journals -- designed to keep its youth-oriented visitors clicking on its advertising-supported pages. MySpace has recently become a target of parents, schools and law enforcement officials concerned that teens who hang out at MySpace can fall victim to sexual predators. Just this week, a 14-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old user sued MySpace and News Corp., seeking $30 million in damages. And earlier this month, a 16-year-old girl who tricked her parents into getting her a passport flew to the Mideast to be with a 20-year-old man she met through MySpace. U.S. officials in Jordan persuaded the teen to turn around and go home. MySpace officials say the new restrictions have been long planned and are unrelated to recent events. Besides the contact restrictions, all users -- not just those 14 and 15 -- will have the option to make only partial profiles available to those not already on their friends list. All users also will get an option to prevent contact from people outside their age group. Currently, they may only choose to require that a person know their e-mail or last name first; that will remain an option to those 16 and over, even as it becomes mandatory for those younger. MySpace also will beef up its ad-targeting technology, so that it can avoid displaying gambling and other adult-themed sites on minors' profile pages and target special public-service announcements to them. The changes follow a number of safety-related measures that includes the hiring of a former federal prosecutor and Microsoft Corp. executive as its online safety chief. MySpace already has developed safety tips for parents and children and devotes scores of employees to monitoring the site around the clock. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more headlines and news from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 21, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 11:58:14 -0400 (EDT) ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 21, 2006 ******************************** LG LX550: A Phone of Many Features http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18500?11228 Not many cell phones have a built-in FM radio transmitter. But it's also true that most cell phones don't have the combined ability to play MP3 music files, snap photos and show 3G streaming videos. Cramming all of these features in a single handset is what makes the LG Electronics' LX550 unique. The LX550, also known ... TelecomTactics Survey: Leading Edge Applications Address the Mobile and Distributed Workplace http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18499?11228 A recent TelecomTactics survey finds 'highest' interest in the following leading-edge telecommunications applications: Unified Messaging/Unified Communications, Teleworker, Mobility/Wireless (PBX functionality on a wireless phone) and Voice over IP (VoIP) Security. Among those surveyed by TelecomTactics were resellers of... Ericsson Signs Two Deals with Celcom, for 2G Network Expansion and Mobile TV http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18496?11228 Ericsson today announced that it had been awarded a contract by Celcom, the mobile unit of TM Group (formerly known as Telekom Malaysia) to expand, modernise and upgrade its GSM network. Covering the northern, eastern and central regions of the Malaysian peninsula, the project will be implemented over 12 months from early July. Ericsson... FCC Approves Sprint Takeover of Nextel Partners in U.S. http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18494?11228 Sprint Nextel has announced that it has been given the go-ahead by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to acquire Nextel Partners, its largest affiliate. Significance: The acquisition is likely to be completed before end-June 2006. Sprint Nextel will add over 450,000 direct wireless subscribers and over 150,000 wholesale... China Unicom, SK Telecom in CDMA Strategic Alliance http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18491?11228 Following an exclusive alliance to further develop CDMA services in China, SK Telecom has also agreed to purchase US$1 billion in convertible bonds to be issued by Unicom. Under the agreement, announced today, the two companies will cooperate in further development of CDMA-based mobile services in mainland China, including areas such as... Mobile Games Poised for Growth http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18490?11228 The global mobile games market is ready to take off, according to a new report coming out of Juniper Research. With casual games acting as a market driver, mobile games are expected to generate $17.6 billion in revenue by 2011. The firm is forecasting 2006 revenue totals of $3.1 billion. If the $17.6 billion prediction comes to... Enforta Readies Phase 1 Russian Broadband Deployment http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18487?11228 Netherlands-based Enforta BV has wrapped the construction and initial testing of its wireless broadband network in the Russian cities of Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Omsk and Novokuznetsk, the first leg of its planned 29-city rollout in that country. Once final testing is completed. Enforta says its broadband services will be available... Wireless Mesh Passes Test http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18484?11228 Light Reading today published the most comprehensive test report on wireless mesh networking equipment to date, performed by the testing lab Iometrix Inc. The results indicate that mesh hardware is ready for prime time, and that multiple radios in a mesh access point vastly improve network performance. (See Wireless Mesh: Ready!) ... Telefonica Buys Be http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18481?11228 Telefonica SA has spent £50 million (US$92 million) on a British broadband service provider to add to last year's $31.4 billion acquisition of mobile operator O2 plc . (See O2 Buys Be.) The acquisition, of broadband newcomer Be Un Limited , will help O2 keep pace with the combined... Mobile TV Broadcast Subscribers to Leap to 100 Million by 2010 http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18479?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. By the end of 2010, mobile TV broadcast subscribers worldwide will reach 102 million, a giant leap from 3.4 million in 2006, reports In-Stat. Recognizing that using cellular networks to deliver content that millions want to watch simultaneously requires much greater bandwidth than is currently available, carriers... TelecomDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 13:53:46 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Siemens in Talks to Sell Enterprise Networks USTelecom dailyLead June 21, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dQjUfDtuteAejlZtAI TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Siemens in talks to sell Enterprise Networks division BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * O2 enters broadband business with Be acquisition * Cablevision plans to link digital phone service with wireless * Analysis: Smaller equipment makers in hot seat * New BT broadband package centered on home network * JDSU adds new tools to home networking test portfolio USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Simplifying Network Management with ROADM Technology TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Verizon aims to make a better TV experience * Microsoft, Yahoo! give IM a voice REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Singapore aims to become world's most-connected nation * Verizon's FiOS lands three more franchises in Massachusetts Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dQjUfDtuteAejlZtAI ------------------------------ From: davidesan@gmail.com Subject: Canceling AOL Account Blues Date: 21 Jun 2006 05:36:50 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com How hard can it be to cancel an AOL account? One man's frustrating call, caught on tape, resounds in the blogosphere. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13447232/ ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot In Hell co. Subject: Re: X-Bar Switch Noise Levels Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 05:00:40 GMT Scott Dorsey wrote: > Audrey Nardachioni wrote: >> I am trying to find out what typical Central Office switch room noise >> levels were for #5X-Bar, 4A-XBar and XBar Tandem switchers >> manufactured by Western Electric and Nortel (formerly Northern >> Electric Company of Canada). If you know of any source for this info, >> I would appreciate it. I've scoured the NET but haven't been able to >> find anything but then again, I'm not an Internet search wizard. >> There seems to be a large number of us old X-bar Techs who now suffer >> from hearing loss and we may be able to get workman's compensation to >> help us with hearing aid costs if we can produce some data for the >> Workman's Compensation Board. > My personal suspicion is that the levels varied considerably depending on > time and place and the number of calls active at any given time. > You may want to contact the Telephone Museum in Seattle, which has an > operating #5 crossbar. If they have any sort of traffic simulator > hooked up to it, it should be possible to measure SPL under various > simulated loads. It might be an interesting exercise. > Note that during much of the era when crossbar switches were in use, > exposure-related deafness was not very well understood. Not > surprisingly, a lot of the early research on environmental hearing > loss was done by Bell Labs. --scott > "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know that in the early/middle 1960's > the Chicago-Wabash central office -- in fact all of Chicago -- was > either crossbar or stepping switch and you could hear it a block away > on a hot summer night walking down the street, mainly because they > did not have air conditioning in those days and all the windows would > be open wide. When it started to rain, someone would go around and > close all the windows. Quite deafening. PAT] Having worked in both types of offices, I would say that more damage would have been done in Step office. I know that during peak times the noise was unreal, in the Satt room it was worse. I had my ears cleaned and could not work for a couple of days until my ears adjusted. Box electronic offices are nice, but not as fun. By the way, some 20 years in these type of offices and have no hearing problems, maybe I was lucky, also no problems because of using computers either. ------------------------------ From: Sam Spade Subject: Re: X-Bar Switch Noise Levels Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 06:50:29 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Scott Dorsey: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know that in the early/middle 1960's > the Chicago-Wabash central office -- in fact all of Chicago -- was > either crossbar or stepping switch and you could hear it a block away > on a hot summer night walking down the street, mainly because they > did not have air conditioning in those days and all the windows would > be open wide. When it started to rain, someone would go around and > close all the windows. Quite deafening. PAT] During busy traffic, a large stepper was much louder than a No. 5 Crossbar. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #236 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 22 16:57:27 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id ED8C11508C; Thu, 22 Jun 2006 16:57:26 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #237 Message-Id: <20060622205726.ED8C11508C@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 16:57:26 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 22 Jun 2006 17:00:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 237 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson The Front Lines - June 22, 2006 (Jonathan Marashlian) May's Treo Leapfrogs Past January's (Monty Solomon) Inaccessible 911 recordings (Monty Solomon) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 22, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) FCC Votes to Impose USF Fee on Most VoIP Providers (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Cell Phone Harassment PayBack (Steve Sobol) Telemarketer With a Toll-Free Number (Mark Crispin) Re: My Space Adds New Age Restrictions (Barry Margolin) Re: Campus Fax Finder (Lisa Hancock) Re: Campus Fax Finder (Brad Houser) Re: Editorial: ICANN Needs to Stop Domain Name Abuse (Gordon Burditt) Re: X-Bar Switch Noise Levels (Carl Navarro) Re: X-Bar Switch Noise Levels (Lisa Hancock) Re: Internet VOIP Must Pay Into Subsidy Fund, Says FCC (Lisa Hancock) Re: No Pictures Please: Researchers Develop System (Lisa Hancock) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply-To: From: Jonathan Marashlian Subject: The Front Lines - June 22, 2006 Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 14:44:49 -0400 Organization: The Helein Law Group http://www.thefrontlines-hlg.com/ The FRONT LINES Sponsored by The Helein Law Group, P.C. http://www.thlglaw.com/ Advancing The Cause of Competition in the Telecommunications Industry FCC VOTES TO EXPAND USF CONTRIBUTION BASE TO INCLUDE VoIP PROVIDERS; INCREASES WIRELESS SAFE HARBOR As expected, at yesterday's Open Meeting the Federal Communications Commission ("Commission") adopted two modifications to its approach for assessing contributions to the Universal Service Fund ("USF"). The following changes were announced via News Release: First, the Commission raised the existing wireless "safe harbor" percentage used to estimate interstate revenue from 28.5 percent to 37.1 percent of total end-user telecommunications revenue to better reflect growing demand for wireless services. Wireless carriers continue to retain the option to base contributions on their actual revenues or on traffic studies that estimate their actual interstate revenues. Second, the Commission expanded the base of USF contributions by extending universal service contribution obligations to providers of "interconnected voice over Internet Protocol," or VoIP, service. For interconnected VoIP providers, the Commission establishes a safe harbor percentage of interstate revenue at 64.9 percent of total VoIP service revenue. Interconnected VoIP providers also may calculate their interstate revenues based on their actual revenues or by using traffic studies. The full text of the Commission's Report and Order is not currently available. The increased wireless safe harbor and addition of VoIP to the USF contribution base will become effective 30 days after publication of the full text of the Report and Order in the Federal Register. The Commission also adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on interim contribution obligations imposed in its Order. According to its News Release, the Commission's measured interim steps will stabilize the contribution base for the Fund in the near-term and minimize the impact of any changes on consumers, Fund contributors, and Fund administration, while the Commission considers more fundamental reform of the contribution methodology. For more information on how the Commission's Order will affect your business, please contact your regulatory counsel. If you do not have counsel, please contact Jonathan S. Marashlian at jsm@thlglaw.com. ---------------- The Front Lines is a free publication of The Helein Law Group, P.C., providing clients and interested parties with valuable information, news, and updates regarding regulatory and legal developments primarily impacting companies engaged in the competitive telecommunications industry. The Front Lines does not purport to offer legal advice nor does it establish a lawyer-client relationship with the reader. If you have questions about a particular article, general concerns, or wish to seek legal counsel regarding a specific regulatory or legal matter affecting your company, please contact our firm at 703-714-1313 or visit our website: www.THLGlaw.com The Helein Law Group, P.C. 8180 Greensboro Drive, Suite 700 McLean, Virginia 22102 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 23:24:15 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: May's Treo Leapfrogs Past Others David Pogue The New York Times The electronics industry operates like a very expensive game of leapfrog. You buy something in April, and then a newer, faster, less expensive version comes out in May. Rats! On the other hand, you might get lucky; you might not buy in until the better version comes along. There you sit on the train, on the plane or at the baseball field, smugly looking over at the poor saps who bought last month's phone, music player or camera. If you've been shopping for a smartphone - a multipurpose cellphone with Tic-Tac keys for tapping out e-mail - the game is picking up speed. This week, Palm unveiled the latest model of its popular Treo phone, the 700P, only four months after the previous one. The Treo has found a special place in the hearts of the upwardly technical. It offers a beautiful phone that fits sweetly in your hand, displays photos on a big, bright touch screen, does e-mail and Web browsing just about as well as a cellphone can - and doubles as a Palm organizer, effortlessly synchronizing its calendar, address book and Microsoft Office documents with your Mac or PC. All-in-one gadgets rarely do any single job as well as a dedicated one (think scanner-printer-fax machines or camera-music players). But the Treo has always come deliciously close. Somehow, Palm has managed to pack into it a BlackBerry-style keyboard (brightly illuminated, at that); a physical switch that silences all sounds (which, as the overture begins, you can hit without even taking the thing out of your pocket); a built-in digital camera; a voice-memo button that can also record phone calls (which is great to have when someone starts rattling off driving directions over the phone); a slot for an SD memory card (to hold more music, photos and videos); a removable battery (4.5 hours of talk time, 300 hours standby); and a five-way rocker switch that lets you operate most functions with one hand. Somehow, all of this works together without becoming a train wreck of complexity. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/technology/18pogue.html?ex=1305604800&en=6a671d588b79a36c&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 07:53:01 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Inaccessible 911 Recordings Phone firm: It'll take week to see if lost 911 data can be recovered Police say error may not hurt many cases By Kim-Mai Cutler and Sacha Pfeiffer, Globe Staff Verizon said yesterday it would be at least a week before data recovery experts can tell if the Massachusetts State Police will be able to retrieve about 1 million missing 911 recordings. The recordings of nearly a year's worth of cellular 911 calls and radio transmissions were lost after a Verizon subcontractor upgraded the emergency system at Massachusetts State Police headquarters last Tuesday. Both Verizon and the state's public safety office say they cannot estimate the chances of recovery. http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/06/22/phone_firm_itll_take_week_to_see_if_lost_911_data_can_be_recovered/ Calls to 911 out of reach as evidence Error entangles many recordings By Kim-Mai Cutler and Sacha Pfeiffer, Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff The recordings of about a million 911 calls to the Massachusetts State Police were rendered inaccessible by a Verizon subcontractor hired to upgrade the force's archival system, according to state officials yesterday. The error could undermine criminal cases. Kelly Nantel, spokesperson for the Executive Office of Public Safety, said that the missing data includes almost a year's worth of 911 cell phone calls routed to State Police headquarters in Framingham as well as a half million radio communications between troopers and dispatchers. The calls include some emergency calls made as recently as last week, according to Verizon. http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/06/21/calls_to_911_out_of_reach_as_evidence/ ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 22, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 12:15:16 -0400 (EDT) ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 22, 2006 ******************************** Two More 3G Licences for Romania http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18528?11228 Romania's Inspectorate General for Communications and Information Technology (ICGT) has announced that it will offer the remaining two 3G licences by 4 September 2006. The winning bidders will be announced on 15 October 2006; each successful candidate will pay US$35 million in six instalments. The first payment, of US$10.5 million,... Alliances and Acquisitions Increasingly Important For Fast-Growth Companies http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18527?11228 PricewaterhouseCoopers' Trendsetter Barometer interviewed CEOs of 339 privately-held product and service companies identified in the media as the fastest growing U.S. businesses over the last five years. Surveyed companies range from approximately $5-150 million in... Sanyo, Nokia Drop Talks On Planned Mobile Joint Venture http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18526?11228 TOKYO -- Sanyo and Nokia have scrapped plans for a mobile joint venture, just four months after they announced a deal trumpeted as a step in growing globally in one of the world's most competitive technologies. The world's largest mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. of Finland and Sanyo Electric Co. of Japan said in a joint... AT&T Alters Privacy Policy http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/110/18524?11228 SAN ANTONIO -- AT&T Inc. is changing its privacy policy for Internet and television customers to specify that account information is a business record the company owns and can be disclosed to government and law enforcement and to protect the company's legitimate business interests. AT&T said that... EU Moves to Ease Telecoms Rules http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18519?11228 The European Commission is set to announce new plans next week to reduce price controls and regulation for the telecoms market, the Financial Times reports today. Citing a draft proposal, the report adds that the Commission wants to free seven of the present 18 telecoms markets from regulation, including the important markets for... SK Telecom, China Unicom Plan to Purchase 4 mil. CDMA Phones following Strategic Tie-Up http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18518?11228 SK Telecom has said that it plans to team up with China Unicom to purchase 4 million CDMA phones from handset makers, Dow Jones reports. The South Korean company expects that such a move would save it 150 billion won (US$157 million) over three years. Significance: ST yesterday announced that it had agreed to buy US$1 billion-worth... Sprint Nextel Roams Further http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18512?11228 Sprint Nextel is expanding the reach of its data roaming capabilities through two new international agreements, one with Bell Canada and another with Iusacell in Mexico. Separately, Sprint unveiled an exclusive music series that will get up close and personal with artists. The reciprocal roaming agreements will enable customers to... Congress Goes To War Against Privacy Breaches http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18510?11228 Concern and rhetoric in the U.S. Congress over criminal, business and government breaches of consumer privacy -- including access to telephone calls and subscriber records -- is heating up this week and could culminate in a call for the Bush administration to reveal details regarding the National Security Agency (NSA) telecom monitoring ... FCC Dials VOIP for USF http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18507?11228 The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) yesterday increased the amount of money the government can tax wireless and VOIP operators for the Universal Service Fund (USF). The Commission ruled that 64.9 percent of VOIP revenues are 'interstate' and therefore are subject to assessment for the USF. That's the same rate ... TelecomDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 13:03:17 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: FCC Votes to Impose USF Fee on Most VoIP Providers USTelecom dailyLead June 22, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dQvIfDtuteAClZCmto TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * FCC votes to impose USF fee on most VoIP providers BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Web titans spend big on hardware * Boeing might sell or shutter Connexion business * AT&T announces large FTTP buildout * Cablevision feels a need for speed * Nortel taps John J. Roese for CTO position USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * What you need to know about billing systems TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Survey: Broadband use up * Analysis: Apple could be eyeing home entertainment play REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * AT&T clarifies policy on phone records Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dQvIfDtuteAClZCmto ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Cell Phone Harassment PayBack Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 17:56:32 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Robert Galloni wrote: > The law doesn't protect us when it comes to harassment like this. > My father-in-law had a similar problem with some guy calling his > cell line harassing him. > He decided to go to the police but to his surprise they said > there wasn't much they could do. Telephone harrassment has been against the law forever. What were the cops thinking? > Taking it into my own hands I set up my modem to call the offenders > cell number over and over again. Not a good idea. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Although your fathr-in-laws's police > department was unwilling to do their duty and protect him, it would > just be your luck that the other guys's police department (the ones > who would respond to a complaint by him) would choose to fry you. Well, he was harrassing the perp too. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows Apple Valley, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room. ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Telemarketer With a Toll-Free Number Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 10:30:11 -0700 Organization: University of Washington About 20 minutes ago, I got a telemarketing on my Skype number (registered on the Do Not Call list) from 877-990-3599. I'm wonder if he needs some testing. I found the following information about this number on: http://blog.elinc.ca/rod/?page_id=84 The call originates for a Toronto based hardware seller that uses a survey veneer to disguise what is a blatant telemarketing call. The company is called Pcstats.com and it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rydium Canada, Inc. Rydium Canada heads a marketing ring. The corporate address is: Rydium Canada Inc. 366 Adelaide St. W. Suite 600 Toronto, ON M5V 1R9 The CEO's email address is srdennis@rydium.com. Responsible for scads of pop-ups, etc. He deserves some quality time from the people whose time he wastes. Rydium is privately held; this guy (Sam Dennis) calls the shots. His philosophy is 'your time is my money'. PC Stats 317 Adelaide West #400 Toronto, ON M5V 1P9 If you wish to serve legal papers: MCCARTHY TETRAULT LLP, REPRESENTATIVE FOR SERVICE SUITE 4700 TORONTO DOMINION BANK TOWER TORONTO-DOMINION CENTRE TORONTO, ON M5K 1E6 -- Mark -- http://panda.com/mrc Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote. ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: My Space Adds New Age Restrictions Organization: Symantec Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 20:07:33 -0400 In article , Anick Jesdanun wrote: > By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer > MySpace.com is planning new restrictions on how adults may contact its > younger users in response to growing concerns about the safety of > teenagers who frequent the popular online social networking site. Don't all these changes assume that the site can reliably determine the ages of the users? Isn't one of the big problems on the Internet that an adult pedophile can claim to be a teenager in order to get close to potential victims? Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** *** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group *** ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Date: 22 Jun 2006 13:05:23 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com jtaylor wrote: > Currently there is no law that says (where I live) that I cannot > program a computer to call numbers looking for fax machines. I am not a lawyer, but I believe what you propose to do IS indeed against federal law. It absolutely is against the law to call certain restricted numbers or a line under monitor without legitimate purpose (and a review of your call out log would show that it wasn't legitimate). As to calling government offices, you may find yourself visited by a government employee who will invite (decline not an option) you to come with him or her to discuss the matter further. ------------------------------ From: Brad Houser Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 15:34:13 -0700 Organization: Intel Reply-To: bradDOThouser@intel.com On 17 Jun 2006 13:14:18 -0700, Lanman wrote: > I have a project to determine all of the fax machines on our 4000 line > campus. I would like to find a software package that I can configure > with our telephone extentions and dial each one and have it record the > numbers that receive a fax tone ?? Any ideas ? Did you ever see the 1983 movie Wargames? They used what is now called a wardialer to look for open modems to hack into. Modern versions exist that can distinguish modems from faxes. A free one is here: http://www.wardial.net/ I don't know if it is smart enough to go back and try busy lines later. Brad Houser ------------------------------ From: gordonb.xxapu@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: Editorial: ICANN Needs to Stop Domain Name Abuse Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 23:43:47 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com > This database, known as "Whois," contains names, contact information > and some technical data for every registrant of a domain name. Under > ICANN's current structure, all accredited registrars -- the companies > approved to provide domain name registration services -- are required > to collect this data and make it publicly available through the Whois > system. Anyone with valid contact info has a valid reason to conceal it. The reasons are SPAM, telephone solicitation, junk faxes, and junk (postal) mail. > Today, cybersquatters have rebranded themselves as "domainers." In any > event, the current Whois system and domain name abuses are bad enough; > ICANN surely should do nothing to make them worse. Already, it is > common for domain name registrants to provide false contact > information when registering domain names, and little is done to stop > this fraudulent practice. I propose that items be taken off the menu of operations you can do with do with domains. Currently it looks like this: (1) Buy (2) Administer (3) Renew (4) Cancel (5) Sell/transfer to another party (6) Transfer domain to winner of trademark lawsuit against you I'd like to see (5) and (6) removed, and the operation of the "seller" doing (4) in coordination with the "buyer" doing (1) in coordination be made so unreliable (someone else might get it first) as to preclude anyone actually being willing to pay a "seller" to release his domain name in the hopes they get it. Incidentally, the same approach should also apply to telephone numbers. You might pay me to release 1-800-EAT-SPAM (if I had it) but there would be no guarantee you could get it, even if you are Hormel. > Domain name registrants who provide such false information clearly > have an illegitimate reason to hide, not a legitimate concern for > protecting their privacy. Domain name registrants clearly have a *LEGITIMATE* reason to hide if they have legitimate contact information. Whether or not they also have an illegitimate reason, such as running scams, is likely true for a lot of them (if not 99% of them) but I doubt it's 100%. > Their reasons are clearly understandable, as > domain name speculation and cybersquatting have become one of the > Web's most popular, and profitable, activities. So end it. I can't transfer my marriage to my wife to someone else, or transfer my driver's license to someone else, so why should I be able to do it with a domain? Gordon L. Burditt ------------------------------ From: Carl Navarro Subject: Re: X-Bar Switch Noise Levels Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 05:20:51 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com On Wed, 21 Jun 2006 06:50:29 -0700, Sam Spade wrote: > TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Scott Dorsey: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know that in the early/middle 1960's >> the Chicago-Wabash central office -- in fact all of Chicago -- was >> either crossbar or stepping switch and you could hear it a block away >> on a hot summer night walking down the street, mainly because they >> did not have air conditioning in those days and all the windows would >> be open wide. When it started to rain, someone would go around and >> close all the windows. Quite deafening. PAT] > During busy traffic, a large stepper was much louder than a No. 5 Crossbar. In a college town, Wednesday night was the day the kids called home, as Thursday night was drinking night :-) I'm not sure if a normal Wednesday night in SATT or the Blizzard of '78 was the worst. On Wednesdays, the rotary switches had to find available ticketers. The noise was incredible as they cycled through the steps to find an idle path, then the ticketers dumped calls to the paper tape punches at the end of the call. During the blizzard, we just didn't have any availabe trunks and/or busied out circuits. My hearing was excellent and still is today. I made it a practice to not hang around the SATT area on busy nights. Carl ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: X-Bar Switch Noise Levels Date: 22 Jun 2006 06:42:38 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com > Audrey Nardachioni wrote: >> There seems to be a large number of us old X-bar Techs who now suffer >> from hearing loss and we may be able to get workman's compensation to >> help us with hearing aid costs if we can produce some data for the >> Workman's Compensation Board. Years ago a telco employee told us deafness in one ear was common because of heavy use of the phone, such as test sets, headsets, etc. Craft people use such devices to listen for test tones (some of which are loud), noise, etc. Older equipment wasn't as well filtered and there were numerous loud pops as connections were made and broken. You may wish to consult the telephone pioneers. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Internet VOIP Must Pay Into Subsidy Fund, Says FCC Date: 22 Jun 2006 10:51:26 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Jeremy wrote: > The FCC ordered Internet telephone services like Vonage Holdings > Corp. to contribute part of their revenue into the Universal Service > Fund, which subsidizes phone service to rural and low-income areas as > well as communications services and Internet access for schools, > hospitals and libraries. I am shocked that VOIP never had this obligation. (It was bad enough they couldn't properly support 911). No wonder their pricing undercut traditional landline carriers. People get mad when the traditional landline carriers fight the newcomers. But given this unfairness, can you blame them? The landlines have various legacy mandates and the newcomers have none. Maybe if the playing field was _truly_ level the so-called bargains by the newcomers wouldn't exist. > Companies offering long-distance and international telephone services > as well as high-speed Internet service via digital subscriber lines > (DSL) must currently contribute 10.9 percent of that revenue into the > $7.3 billion fund. 10.9% seems awfully high. That's a lot of money. > The FCC has been weighing broader reform of Universal Service Fund > contributions for some time, and Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin > has supported a charge based on telephone numbers. I am not too big a fan of such unfunded mandates but I this way of providing true universal is a tolerable idea. Serving low-income customers isn't as easy as people think, however. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: No Pictures Please: Researchers Develop System to Thwart Unwanted Date: 22 Jun 2006 10:56:52 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Monty Solomon wrote: > uses off-the-shelf equipment -- camera-mounted > sensors, lighting equipment, a projector and a computer -- to scan > for, find and neutralize digital cameras. I wonder how much nasty radiation they generate during the "nuetralize" operation, and if that radiation is bad for personal electronic equipment or human health. In any event, there are tiny traditional-film cameras that wouldn't be detected by such equipment. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #237 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 23 15:13:39 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 1A205150D3; Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:13:39 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #238 Message-Id: <20060623191339.1A205150D3@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:13:39 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, ONE_TIME autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:15:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 238 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson USDA Now Reports Computer Break in; 26,000 Identity Thefts (Reuters News) VOIP and Taxes (Wolfgang S. Rupprecht) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 23, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) AT&T to Launch TV in Connecticut by Year's End (USTelecom dailyLead) Telecom Update #535, June 23, 2006 (Angus TeleManagement Group) Re: Campus Fax Finder (jtaylor) Re: Campus Fax Finder (mc) Re: Campus Fax Finder (Robert Bonomi) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: USDA Now Reports Computer Break in; 26,000 Identity Thefts Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 23:05:01 -0500 USDA says hacker may have stolen employees' data A computer hacker may have stolen "personal identity information" for 26,000 current and former Agriculture Department headquarters employees, agency officials said. USDA announced the security breach shortly before midnight on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after it occurred. It offered one year of free credit-monitoring services to the potentially affected employees. The agency said that its computer systems were illegally accessed during the first weekend of June. Officials said that at first they thought the personal information was still protected, but now they are not sure the data is safe. At risk are the names, social security numbers and photos of USDA headquarters employees and contractors. The 26,000 names are equal to one-fourth of USDA's work force. The information was in the same database as work site information that is open to the public. USDA said it contacted "appropriate law enforcement agencies" and its inspector general was conducting an investigation as well. This marks the latest security breach of personal data in the U.S. government. In May, a computer with private data on more than 26 million military personnel was stolen from the home of a Veterans Affairs Department employee. Identity theft and stolen laptops is a regular affair in recent months. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted on Thursday to give that department $160 million to pay for one year of free credit monitoring for affected veterans. Senators said the service, similar to what USDA offered, would cost $18.50 per person. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines each day, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ Subject: VOIP and Taxes From: Wolfgang Rupprecht Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 21:36:02 -0700 Organization: W S Rupprecht Computer Consulting, Fremont CA It looks like VOIP traffic to PSTN lines might very well be taxed in the near future. One thing that this does is encourage institutions with their own PBX's to keep as much traffic as possible from hitting the PSTN by routing eligible traffic over private lines. One interesting method is to tie all participating PBX's together via the internet using globally unique "tie-line" numbers. from: http://www.freenum.org/ ISN provides an easy way for campuses, enterprises, and ASPs to acquire globally-unique subscriber numbers to support new communications services. ISNs are free, fast, and forever yours; they may be used to support SIP, XMPP, H.323 or other communications; and, they provide a domain-based, "Internet-style" number that looks more like an email address than a traditional E.164 telephone number. An ISN is formed by joining a domain-local subscriber number to an ITAD (Internet Telephony Administrative Domain) number, using an asterisk as the delimiter. For example, subscriber 1234 in ITAD 256 would have ISN: 1234*256. Think of an ISN as an Internet-style phone number, where the asterisk is analogous to the @ sign in an email address. Internet Telephony Administrative Domains (ITADs) were defined in Telephony Routing over IP (TRIP) [RFC 3219]. But, since TRIP never gained much traction, ITADs didn't either. ISN gives ITADs new life. more links: http://www.internet2.edu/sip.edu/isn/ Note: These folks have graciously let me join in their grand experiment, but I'm in no way a spokesperson for them. It just seems like an idea who's time has come and I'm happy to try to spread the word. Wolfgang S. Rupprecht http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/ ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 23, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 11:34:36 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 23, 2006 ******************************** Thunderstorm Risk for Mobile Users, Says British Medical Journal http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18544?11228 Doctors have warned against using mobiles and music players during thunderstorms, thereby raising yet another debate on mobile usage and possible linked health risks. Writing in the British Medical Journal, the doctors cited several cases of people being struck by lightning while using their handsets, arguing that holding a metal object... ZTE Open to Mergers and Acquisitions for More Partnerships http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18541?11228 Chinese telecoms equipment maker ZTE plans to seek partnerships to strengthen its product offerings, and is also open to a merger or acquisition deal to become more competitive in the global telecoms equipment market, according to Dow Jones reports citing a company executive. Cao Qiang, vice president of ZTE's mobility division, said ... France Telecom to Invest US$80 million in Moldova's Orange http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18538?11228 France Telecom's Orange unit has announced that it is to invest US$80 million in its Moldovan unit, formerly known as Voxtel, over the next five years. The funds will go towards coverage expansion and improvement of services offered by the ... Disney Makes Mobile Inroads in India http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18537?11228 The Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) aims to keep its finger on the pulse of wireless growth. To that end, the company has forged its second content deal in India in the past several months. WDIG has signed a deal to deliver Disney-branded mobile content to Reliance Communications for its Reliance Mobile service. While terms were... Major Surgery: Sonae, Telefonica Could Carve Up PT http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18534?11228 The drama surrounding the hostile takeover battle for Portugal Telecom (PT) ratcheted up another notch with reports out of Portugal hinting Spain's Telefonica SA, which owns 9.96 percent of PT, has quietly come to terms with Sonae, which is looking to take over PT via a $12.85 billion bid. As outlined, the deal would see ... Nokia Nixes Sanyo Deal http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18531?11228 Following on the heels of forming one major joint venture, Nokia Corp. is nixing another one. The mobile technology giant announced on Thursday that it will not be forming the new CDMA device company with Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., which the the two companies announced on February 14. Furthermore, Nokia plans to ramp down ... Who's Going to Buy Tellabs? http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18529?11228 Is Tellabs Inc. going to be the next company taken out in the telecom equipment world's continuing wave of consolidation? It has all the characteristics of an acquisition target, but analysts are split on who the best buyer would be, as most of the obvious names have some good reasons not to take the plunge. Tellabs, like... TelecomDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 13:17:30 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: AT&T to Launch TV in Connecticut by Year's End USTelecom dailyLead June 23, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dRfYfDtuteBimxCmWQ TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * AT&T to launch TV in Connecticut by year's end BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Verizon to sell DSL service at Wal-Mart * As Anaheim goes Wi-Fi, EarthLink sees future * Google makes commercial videos available for free * Analysis: Cisco holds strong position in IP networking USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * VoIP, VoIP and More VoIP TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Survey: Canadians want to use TV as digital hub VOIP DOWNLOAD * Enterprise VoIP gains momentum * Fusion rolls out free VoIP offering REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Scientific-Atlanta settles Adelphia case with SEC * EU may investigate telecom competition Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dRfYfDtuteBimxCmWQ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 11:12:50 EDT Subject: Telecom Update #535, June 23, 2006 From: Angus TeleManagement Group Reply-To: Angus TeleManagement Group ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 535: June 23, 2006 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MICROSOFT CANADA: www.microsoft.com/canada/telecom/ ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** NEC UNIFIED SOLUTIONS: www.necunifiedsolutions.com ** ROGERS TELECOM: www.rogers.com/solutions ** VONAGE CANADA: www.vonage.ca ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Siemens, Nokia to Combine Carrier Divisions ** Bell Operators Ratify Pay Equity Settlement ** MTS Offers Email on TV ** Bell Files Tariffs for "Regional Lines" Spinoff ** Nortel Settles Canadian Shareholder Suits ** Nokia to Stop Making CDMA Phones ** Mitel Unveils VoIP for Financial Traders ** Aliant Rebate Set at $2.69 ** Sprint Offers Roaming EV-DO in Canada ** Nortel Names Technology Officer ** Preston Joins NTG Board ** U.S. Telcos Losing 150K Landlines a Month ** IP-PBX System Comparison ============================================================ SIEMENS, NOKIA TO COMBINE CARRIER DIVISIONS: Siemens and Nokia have agreed to merge their telecom networking units that sell to the carrier market. The two manufacturers will be equal partners in a joint venture to be headquartered in Finland, with Nokia's Simon Beresford-Wylie as CEO. Nokia Siemens Networks plans to lay off 9,000 employees, 15% of the combined workforce; its annual sales will be about $22 billion. ** Siemens says it is in talks to sell a majority stake in its enterprise telecom unit, which has yearly sales of about $5 billion. Dow Jones has reported that Nortel Networks is a potential buyer. BELL OPERATORS RATIFY PAY EQUITY SETTLEMENT: Close to 5,000 present and former Bell Canada operators have voted by a 95% majority to accept the $100-million settlement of their pay equity claim negotiated on their behalf by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union. (See Telecom Update #530) MTS OFFERS EMAIL ON TV: MTS Allstream's new Email on Demand enables users of its TV and Internet services in Manitoba to access email on their TV screens, using only their remote control. BELL FILES TARIFFS FOR "REGIONAL LINES" SPINOFF: Bell Canada has filed tariffs for the regulated services to be offered by its new "regional lines" company. The telco wants approval in time for a service launch on July 1, but says that date depends on "timely finalization of the transaction and the receipt of all necessary approvals." ** The proposed tariffs include a four-month market trial of "Accelerated Delivery Interval," which would allow business customers to obtain early installation of certain circuits for a one-time charge of $1,500/circuit. NORTEL SETTLES CANADIAN SHAREHOLDER SUITS: Nortel Networks says that it has reached agreement on five Canadian shareholder lawsuits related to accounting irregularities. Resolving these suits was a condition of the settlement of two related U.S. disputes. (See Telecom Update #521) NOKIA TO STOP MAKING CDMA PHONES: The wireless technology that is used by both Bell and Telus has lost a supporter. Nokia says it will "ramp down its own CDMA R&D and manufacturing by April 2007." The company says that high licensing fees charged by Qualcomm, which owns key patents, have created a "financially prohibitive CDMA ecosystem." MITEL UNVEILS VoIP FOR FINANCIAL TRADERS: Mitel Networks is beginning customer testing of IP Trader Solutions, a portfolio of products aimed at providing the high voice quality, mobility, and reliability needed by financial trading operations. ALIANT REBATE SET AT $2.69: All Aliant customers will receive a phone bill credit of $2.69 per line, as compensation for poor service in 2004. The CRTC set the amount this week in a follow-up to Telecom Decision 2006-27. (See Telecom Update #530) SPRINT OFFERS ROAMING EV-DO IN CANADA: U.S. wireless carrier Sprint says a new agreement allows its customers to send and receive EV-DO data through Bell Canada's network in Greater Toronto, Greater Montreal, Quebec City, Mont-Tremblant, Ottawa, Hamilton, Oakville, Burlington, Muskoka, Halifax, St. John's, Charlottetown, Moncton, and Fredericton. NORTEL NAMES TECHNOLOGY OFFICER: Nortel has named John Roese as Chief Technology Officer, replacing Gary Kunis, who resigned in 2005. Roese previously served with Broadcom, Enterasys, and Cabletron. PRESTON JOINS NTG BOARD: Ron Preston, who has held VP-level positions at Bell Canada, MetroNet, and AT&T Canada, has been elected to the Board of NTG Clarity Networks, a Toronto-based network infrastructure planning company that works primarily with telecom carriers. U.S. TELCOS LOSING 150K LANDLINES A MONTH: According to TeleGeography, regional phone companies (RBOCs) in the U.S. have been losing 150,000 subscriber lines per month so far this year. An estimated 100,000 U.S. lines are migrating each month to Voice over IP services. IP-PBX SYSTEM COMPARISON: Angus Dortmans Associates is preparing an Canadian IP-PBX Comparison Report/Buyer's Guide, scheduled for November 2006. The report will encompass the state of the industry, why organizations buy IP-PBXs, a comparison of key manufacturers' offerings in Canada, end-user insights, questions buyers need to ask, and more. ** For more information, email Michael Dunne at mdunne@angusdortmans.ca. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca =========================================================== 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 late Friday afternoon each 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 2006 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail jriddell@angustel.ca. 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: jtaylor Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:18:56 -0300 Organization: MCI Canada News Reader Service wrote in message news:telecom25.237.9@telecom-digest.org: > jtaylor wrote: >> Currently there is no law that says (where I live) that I cannot >> program a computer to call numbers looking for fax machines. > I am not a lawyer, but I believe what you propose to do IS indeed > against federal law. It absolutely is against the law to call certain > restricted numbers or a line under monitor without legitimate purpose > (and a review of your call out log would show that it wasn't > legitimate). Usenet (and this digest) propagates beyond the United States; and despite the wishes of (some) Americans, US law has its geographic limits. ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Organization: BellSouth Internet Service Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 19:11:41 -0400 wrote in message news:telecom25.237.9@telecom-digest.org: > jtaylor wrote: >> Currently there is no law that says (where I live) that I cannot >> program a computer to call numbers looking for fax machines. > I am not a lawyer, but I believe what you propose to do IS indeed > against federal law. It absolutely is against the law to call certain > restricted numbers or a line under monitor without legitimate purpose > (and a review of your call out log would show that it wasn't > legitimate). I believe the OP already indicated that he only wants to call the phones on a campus that he is somehow responsible for, so that may not be a problem. But in general, I'm not a lawyer either, but you're right. See 47 USC 227 (b)(1)(B)), which says: It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, or any person outside the United States if the recipient is within the United States (A) to make any call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice: (i) to any emergency telephone line (including any '911' line and any emergency line of a hospital, medical physician or service office, health care facility, poison control center, or fire protection or law enforcement agency); (ii) to the telephone line of any guest room or patient room of a hospital, health care facility, elderly home, or similar establishment; or (iii) to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call; (B) to initiate any telephone call to any residential telephone line using an artificial or prerecorded voice to deliver a message without the prior express consent of the called party, unless the call is initiated for emergency purposes or is exempted by rule or order by the Commission under paragraph (2)(B); (C) to use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile machine; or (D) to use an automatic telephone dialing system in such a way that two or more telephone lines of a multi-line business are engaged simultaneously. I wish the junk-fax law were enforced. My office gets a junk fax about once a day, apparently from a single company masquerading as dozens of companies. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 06:40:31 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > jtaylor wrote: >> Currently there is no law that says (where I live) that I cannot >> program a computer to call numbers looking for fax machines. > I am not a lawyer, but I believe what you propose to do IS indeed > against federal law. So what?? 'federal law' is *NOT* relevant to the original poster. He can ignore whatever it says, with absolute impunity. > It absolutely is against the law to call certain > restricted numbers or a line under monitor without legitimate purpose > (and a review of your call out log would show that it wasn't > legitimate). Wrong again. The original poster is subject to *NO* such restrictions. Not only 'not a lawyer', but not much of a geographer, either. :) the original poster lives in _Canada_. And the laws *there* about use of telephones/modems and sending faxes, are *very* different. Those differences *are* what he was complaining about. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #238 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jun 25 02:21:24 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id A846215371; Sun, 25 Jun 2006 02:21:23 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #239 Message-Id: <20060625062123.A846215371@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 02:21:23 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 25 Jun 2006 02:25:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 239 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Web Services Increasingly Under Attack (Monty Solomon) Airfone to Halt Commercial Jet Service (Monty Solomon) It's Lonely Out There/Connections Fray in Wired America (Monty Solomon) Opening the New Vista (Monty Solomon) Two New Services Try to Warn You About Sleazy Sites (Monty Solomon) State OK's a Late Fee For Verizon/But Reilly Calls Levy Too Much (Solomon) Re: Campus Fax Finder (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com) Re: Campus Fax Finder (mc) Re: VOIP and Taxes (Raqueeb Hassan) Re: Texas to Install Border Patrol Web Cameras (Rick Merrill) Re: Phishing Scam Uses Pay Pal Secure Servers (Rick Merrill) Smart Dialer, Commercial VOIP Softphone Available (sadi) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 01:30:52 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Web Services Increasingly Under Attack By DAN GOODIN AP Technology Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- As more people turn to Web applications for everyday tasks like e-mail, friendship and payments, cyber criminals are following them in search of bank account details and other valuable data, security researchers said. Users of Yahoo Inc.'s e-mail service, Google Inc.'s Orkut social networking site and eBay Inc.'s PayPal online payment service were among the targets of attacks in recent weeks. All three companies have acknowledged and plugged the security holes. The attacks come as Microsoft Corp., whose Windows operating system runs about 90 percent of the world's computers, has plugged many of the most easily exploited holes in its e-mail program, browser and other products following dozens of embarrassing breaches over the past several years. They also come amid the growing popularity of online communities such as MySpace.com and of Web-based calendar, messaging and other services offered by Google, Yahoo and others. As larger audiences flock to Web sites that run on ever more powerful programming scripts, malware writers are finding them fertile ground. - http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=59357772 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 01:33:40 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Airfone to Halt Commercial Jet Service OAK BROOK, Ill. (AP) -- Verizon Airfone, long the only company to offer seatback phone service on commercial airplanes, intends to close down the service before the end of the year, a spokesman said Friday. - http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=59354306 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 02:29:08 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: It's Lonely Out There/Connections Fray in Wired America It's lonely out there Connections fray in wired America, study finds By Scott Allen, Globe Staff | June 23, 2006 Americans don't have as many close friends as they used to. We're networking on myspace.com, sharing photos and text messaging on our cellphones, and blogging at all hours. But a major national survey being released today shows that the average number of people with whom Americans discuss important matters has dropped from three to two in just two decades, a steep falloff in confidants that startled the researchers. The study by sociologists at Duke University and the University of Arizona provides powerful evidence for the argument that the country is becoming increasingly socially isolated even as cellphones, the Internet, and other technology make people more interconnected. The authors found that fully one-quarter of Americans say they have no one with whom to discuss their most important personal business. The study is a vindication for the Harvard author of "Bowling Alone," the provocative book published six years ago that portrayed an increasingly lonely society based on trends from the decline of dinner parties to lower voter turnout and falling participation in bowling leagues. The title became a catchphrase for modern alienation, fueling a passionate debate over whether the 'good old days' are really behind us. The new work, carried out by researchers skeptical of author Robert Putnam's theory, found the isolationist trend extends to people's closest relationships. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/06/23/its_lonely_out_there/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 10:09:09 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Opening the New Vista By WALTER S. MOSSBERG THE RELEASE OF a new version of Microsoft Windows is like the launching of a new aircraft carrier. It's a major, ponderous event whose ripples affect everything around it. So Microsoft's planned launch of the next version of its Windows operating system, called Windows Vista, currently set for January 2007, will be a big deal. Vista is the biggest revision to Windows in over a decade. It will be a major change, not only for consumer and corporate Windows users, but for computer makers, software creators and many others downstream. But what's in Vista? How will it be sold? And what kind of computer will be needed to run it? Here's a rough guide to the new Leviathan of the digital seas. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/report-200606.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 23:33:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Two New Services Try to Warn You About Sleazy Sites By Walter S. Mossberg The World Wide Web is a marvelous thing. Because it exists, more people have direct access to more knowledge than at any time in history. But, by linking people everywhere, the Web has also spawned a new international criminal class, and a related class of sleazy businesses. These creeps now find it easier than ever to defraud people, steal their identities and blast them with unwanted or false advertising. They use the Web as a pathway to infect computers, corrupt data and take over others' machines. Security software can help block this wave of woe. But it would be better to know in advance if a Web site that comes up in a search result, or one you arrived at through other means, is harboring malicious software, or perpetrating scams, or generating spam and unwanted pop-ups. It might also be nice to know if a site with an innocuous name contains pornography, hate speech or other content that might be offensive to you. I've been testing two services that aim to provide such advance notice of bad or offensive sites. The services, Scandoo and SiteAdvisor, take different approaches to the task and offer different features. But both instantly mark up a search-result page, and label the links that might be dangerous. Both services are free of charge, and each works on both Windows and Macintosh computers, and in multiple Web browsers. On balance, I prefer SiteAdvisor, though Scandoo has a couple of things SiteAdvisor lacks. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20060622.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Programs like this, designed to protect the average user seem like a good idea, considering how much of the internet these days is porn or scam/spam in nature. Does anyone know why ICANN has always steadfastly refused to consider top level domain names of .spam , .scam , and .porn which would enable most users to do a rather good job of filtering? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 01:22:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: State OK's a Late Fee for Verizon/But Reilly Calls Levy Exorbitant State OK's a late fee for Verizon But Reilly calls levy exorbitant and vows battle with regulator By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff | June 22, 2006 Over the strong objections of Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly , state regulators have given Verizon Corp. the green light to assess a 1.5 percent late fee on consumers who pay their monthly bills more than 30 days late. Officials at the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy said they approved the late fee after persuading Verizon to exempt customers with Lifeline service, which is available to consumers receiving public assistance. Reilly said Verizon's fee is exorbitant (19.56 percent on an annual basis), higher than what business customers are charged, and tantamount to double billing, because the phone giant's rates already include an allowance for the cost of customers paying late. Reilly's aides said they plan to fight the late fee in another proceeding that's pending before the DTE. The attorney general had urged the DTE to bar Verizon from imposing a late fee, just as state law currently prohibits electric, natural gas, and water utilities from assessing late fees. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2006/06/22/state_oks_a_late_fee_for_verizon/ ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Date: 23 Jun 2006 13:28:15 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Robert Bonomi wrote: > Not only 'not a lawyer', but not much of a geographer, either. :) the > original poster lives in _Canada_. The first poster of the thread displayed to me stated the person wanted to test lines within his company. Aside from being a rather foolish thing to do, it was still inside a PBX and thus ok. However, a subsequent poster boasted about doing this outside a business. Nowhere did I see any statement that he was not in the U.S. (If I missed it I apologize). Almost all posters here are from the U.S. (P.S. I'm familiar with Canada, but what/where is _Canada_ ? Is that a separate region with different rules than main Canada?) ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 17:05:01 -0400 Robert Bonomi wrote in message news:telecom25.238.8@telecom-digest.org: >> It absolutely is against the law to call certain >> restricted numbers or a line under monitor without legitimate purpose >> (and a review of your call out log would show that it wasn't >> legitimate). > Wrong again. The original poster is subject to *NO* such restrictions. > Not only 'not a lawyer', but not much of a geographer, either. :) the > original poster lives in _Canada_. And the laws *there* about use of > telephones/modems and sending faxes, are *very* different. I missed that totally. And it is rare for other developed countries' telecom laws to be more lenient than the United States. Are wardialers and junk faxes really legal in Canada? ------------------------------ From: Raqueeb Hassan Subject: Re: VOIP and Taxes Date: 23 Jun 2006 18:02:20 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Wolfgang Rupprecht wrote: > It looks like VOIP traffic to PSTN lines might very well be taxed in > the near future. One thing that this does is encourage institutions > with their own PBX's to keep as much traffic as possible from hitting > the PSTN by routing eligible traffic over private lines. One > interesting method is to tie all participating PBX's together via the > internet using globally unique "tie-line" numbers. Yes, it's godsend for the private PBX's. Here is the Q&A from the FAQ which might help the new users planning for the trial, which actually needs little or no modification of your existing system. -- Q. Can you recommend an inexpensive VoIP-capable platform? A. If your existing PBX has the ability to take as inputs a PRI, FXO, or FXS line(s), then it is possible through inexpensive hardware and free software to create a gateway to existing TDM infrastructures for both outgoing and incoming calls. If you have an old Pentium II 400mhz or better system as a spare, it may cost as little as $20 to create a gateway platform with Asterisk that integrates a single FXO trunk into your existing PBX. PRI-capable systems can use the same (or slightly better) CPU hardware, and single-PRI cards are in the $500 range. Raqueeb Hassan Bangladesh ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 12:02:01 -0400 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Texas to Install Border Patrol Web Cameras Gordon Burditt wrote: >> The governor of Texas wants to turn all the world into a virtual >> posse. >> Rick Perry has announced a $5 million plan to install hundreds of >> night-vision cameras on private land along the Mexican border and put >> the live video on the Internet, so that anyone with a computer who >> spots illegal immigrants trying to slip across can report it on a >> toll-free hot line. > Doesn't this also mean that the illegal immigrants can also use the > cameras to detect the absence of patrols and determine what the > cameras can actually see? >> Under the plan, announced on the eve of the state GOP convention, >> cameras and other equipment would be supplied to willing landowners >> and placed along some of the most remote reaches of the border. The >> live video would be made available to law enforcement and anyone else >> with an Internet connection. > I prefer to state that: "The live video would be made available to > would-be illegal immigrants and smugglers and anyone else with an > Internet connection". >> Bonner said it won't take smugglers long to figure out where the >> cameras are. .... The location of the cameras will be classified, and once their location is revealed by internet users the cameras will be moved to new locations. Sounds like WAR surfing: drive around the border until your car shows up on a web cam ;-) fly your piper cub along the boarder? A picure of the river or of the desert just doesn't have many clues! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The location is to be classified? That is not what I have heard. The URLs for the various cameras is going to be made public, with an invitation to the internet users to study the pictures from time to time to 'help' locate illegal border crossings. The .jpg pictures on display will include the 'camera number' and an 800 phone number with an invitation to observe the picture and telephone the number given and report the camera number if any action or movement of persons is seen. In other words, the entire internet will function like border patrol agents. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 12:21:48 -0400 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Phishing Scam Uses Pay Pal Secure Servers Paypal has announced a fix to this. ------------------------------ From: sadi Subject: Smart Dialer, Commercial VOIP Softphone Available Date: 23 Jun 2006 15:49:27 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Unicorn Software and Solutins Bangladesh brings you Smart Dialer, a high performance VOIP softphone for commercial use. It has g.723.1 and g.729 codecs support and gives ultimate voice quality even on a dialup connection. Compatible with major gateways and gatekeepers and able to work behind NAT/firewall. Radius billing is also supported. It can work in VPN environment which is very much useful in some middle east countries like Qatar and Oman. Fully customized user interface can be provided. Visit http://www.unicornsoftbd.com/smartdialer.html or call +8801713047183 to learn more. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #239 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jun 26 15:43:09 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 715AF1523E; Mon, 26 Jun 2006 15:43:09 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #240 Message-Id: <20060626194309.715AF1523E@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 15:43:09 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, INFO_TLD,NA_DOLLARS autolearn=no version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 26 Jun 2006 15:45:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 240 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: How to Break Software Andrews/Whittaker (Rob Slade) Wi-Fi Crusader in $5 Router Giveaway (Eric Auchard, Reuters) Cell Phone Signals Excite Brain According to Study (Reuters News Wire) Text Messaging Used as a Malware/Virus Lure (Ryan Nairane, EWeeek) Slate.com is Ten Years Old (Claudia Parsons, Reuters) France Unveils National Rival to Google Earth (Reuters News Wire) Cingular Gets its Antennas; In Reversal, Board Approves Variance (Solomon) Cellphone Bill Seeks to Open Tunnel Connections (Monty Solomon) Dropping the F-Bomb (Monty Solomon) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 26, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) AT&T, Cisco Back Akimbo With $15.5M Investment (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Campus Fax Finder (jtaylor) Re: Campus Fax Finder (Bob Goudreau) Re: Two New Services Try to Warn You About Sleazy Sites (George Mitchell) (Ab)use of Javascript; was Re: Web Services Under Attack (George Mitchell) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 11:46:59 -0800 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "How to Break Web Software", Mike Andrews/James Whittaker Reply-To: rMslade@shaw.ca Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User BKHTBWSW.RVW 20060520 "How to Break Web Software", Mike Andrews/James A. Whittaker, 2006, 0-321-36944-0, U$34.99/C$46.99 %A Mike Andrews Mike.Andrews@foundstone.com %A James A. Whittaker jw@cs.fit.edu %C P.O. Box 520, 26 Prince Andrew Place, Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8 %D 2006 %G 0-321-36944-0 %I Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. %O U$34.99/C$46.99 416-447-5101 800-822-6339 bkexpress@aw.com %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321369440/robsladesinterne http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321369440/robsladesinte-21 %O http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321369440/robsladesin03-20 %O Audience i+ Tech 3 Writing 2 (see revfaq.htm for explanation) %P 219 p. + CD-ROM %T "How to Break Web Software" The preface stresses that this book is neither about how to attack a Web site, nor how to develop one, but, rather, how to test. Chapter one points out that the Web is a different environment, in terms of software security, because we have desktop machines, not centrally administered, talking to everyone (with much of the traffic being commercial in nature). The authors even point out that issues of error-handling, performance, and ease-of-use all contribute to increased levels of vulnerability. Various attacks designed to obtain information about Web applications, structure, and functions are described in chapter two. For client-side scripting, chapter three notes, any validation done on the client should be untrusted and re- validated on the host, since it may be altered on the client, or data manually entered as if it came from the client. Chapter four explains the danger of using client-side data (cookies or code) for state information. Chapter five examines user supplied data, and delves into cross-site scripting (XSS, the explanation of which is not well done), SQL (Standard Query Language) injection, and directory traversal. Language-based attacks, in chapter six, involve buffer overflows (which are not explained terribly well), canonicalization (HTML and Unicode encoding and parsing), and null string attacks. The server, with utilities and the underlying operating system, can be reached via stored procedures (excessive functionality), fingerprinted for other attempts, or subject to denial of service (in limited ways) as chapter seven notes. "Authentication," in chapter eight, is really more about encryption: the various false forms (encryption via obscurity?), brute force attacks against verification systems, and forcing a system to use weak encryption. Privacy, and related Web technologies (of which cookies are only one), is reviewed in chapter nine. Chapter ten looks at Web services, and the vulnerabilities associated with some of these systems. The CD-ROM included with the book contains a number of interesting and useful tools for trying out the various attacks and tests mentioned in the text. This book is a valuable addition to the software security literature. The attacks listed in the work are known, but often by name only. This text collects and explains a wide variety of Web application attacks and weaknesses, providing developers with a better understanding of how their programs may be assailed. Some of the items mentioned are defined or explained weakly, but these are usually items that do have good coverage in other security works. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2006 BKHTBWSW.RVW 20060520 ====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer) rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca rslade@computercrime.org The corollary of constant change is ignorance. This is not often talked about: we computer experts barely know what we're doing. - Ellen Ullman Dictionary Information Security www.syngress.com/catalog/?pid=4150 http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm ------------------------------ From: Eric Auchard Subject: Wi-Fi Crusader in $5 Router Giveaway Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 13:12:16 -0500 By Eric Auchard FON, a Spanish start-up on an ambitious crusade to turn home Wi-Fi connections into wireless "hotspots" for nearby users, is set to unveil on Monday a plan to hand out 1 million wireless routers for just $5 apiece. FON, which aims to create a network of home users and small businesses to resell wireless access to passersby, said on Sunday it will subsidize $60 Cisco Linksys or Buffalo routers for $5 in the United States or 5 euros in Europe. Routers are small boxes users connect to cable or telephone Internet connections to broadcast wireless signals to nearby devices, inside a home, business or surrounding neighborhood. Juergen Urbanski, North American general manager, said FON, which in February raised $21.7 million from backers including the founders of Google and Skype, is looking to turn the brand-name equipment into what it calls "social routers." The goal of the Madrid-based company is to build block-by-block networks of shared wireless connections around the globe, turning local Wi-Fi users into an army of "foneros" -- its term for people who share wireless access. As the company's name implies, FON aims to provide wireless Internet access not just to computer users but also for mobile phones and the latest portable gaming devices as they roam. "(Wi-Fi) coverage is universal in big cites, but access is not," Urbanski said of how many of the wireless Internet links broadcasting from businesses, homes, hotels and cafes remain private and unavailable, even to users ready to pay for them. Urbanski, a former director of marketing at data storage maker Network Appliance Inc., said FON is aiming to have 50,000 working hotspots worldwide by September, 150,000 by year-end and 1 million hotspots by the end of 2007. So far, 54,000 people globally have signed up to become "foneros," up from 3,000 in February, according to the company. The $5 router giveaway is designed to overcome obstacles to helping consumers quickly set up hotspots using FON software. In exchange for receiving a $5 box, users must agree to share their wireless connections with other FON users for 12 months, the company said. Shipping and taxes are extra. "We are changing the economics of Wi-Fi," Urbanski said during an appearance on a wireless innovation panel at the Supernova conference on Friday in San Francisco. "We are just piggy-backing on the back of existing Wi-Fi connections." But FON could face legal battles with telephone and cable TV carriers who bar users from sharing Web access they supply, similar to how Hollywood sued and put the original Napster out of business for enabling millions to illegally share music. Urbanski said FON is seeking to win over carriers who lease the underlying Internet connections by arguing its strategy can expand the market for Wi-Fi by giving customers a way to roam away from home, making them more loyal subscribers at home. "The reality is that we are all talking with .... many of the large ISPs in the United States," Urbanski said of efforts by the company to head off a confrontation with the carriers. FON also is set to release later this week a previously announced billing system that is key to its multistage plan to transform the appeal of free wireless access into a sustainable business that pays parties for their contributions. Users who grant access to their Wi-Fi connections at home would be free to roam on other FON networks. Users who decline to share their home Internet access can pay $3 a day to share a wireless connection with other FON users. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Cell Phone Signals Excite Brain According to Study Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 13:14:01 -0500 Cell phone emissions excite the part of the brain cortex nearest to the phone, but it is not clear if these effects are harmful, Italian researchers reported on Monday. Their study, published in the Annals of Neurology, adds to a growing body of research about mobile phones, their possible effects on the brain, and whether there is any link to cancer. About 730 million cell phones are expected to be sold this year, according to industry estimates, and nearly 2 billion people around the world already use them. Of these, more than 500 million use a type that emits electromagnetic fields known as Global System for Mobile communications or GSM radio phones. Their possible effects on the brain are controversial and not well understood. Dr. Paolo Rossini of Fatebenefratelli hospital in Milan and colleagues used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or TMS to check brain function while people used these phones. They had 15 young male volunteers use a GSM 900 cell phone for 45 minutes. In 12 of the 15, the cells in the motor cortex adjacent to the cell phone showed excitability during phone use but returned to normal within an hour. The cortex is the outside layer of the brain and the motor cortex is known as the "excitable area" because magnetic stimulation has been shown to cause a muscle twitch. The researchers stressed that they had not shown that using a cell phone is bad for the brain in any way, but people with conditions such as epilepsy, linked with brain cell excitability, could potentially be affected. "It should be argued that long-lasting and repeated exposure to EMFs (electromagnetic frequencies) linked with intense use of cellular phones in daily life might be harmful or beneficial in brain-diseased subjects," they wrote. "Further studies are needed to better circumstantiate these conditions and to provide safe rules for the use of this increasingly more widespread device." Medical studies on cell phone use have provided mixed results. Swedish researchers found last year that using cell phones over time can raise the risk of brain tumors. But a study by Japan's four mobile telephone operators found no evidence that radio waves from the phones harmed cells or DNA. The Dutch Health Council analyzed several studies and found no evidence that radiation from mobile phones was harmful. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines of interest, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Ryan Naraine Subject: Text Messaging Used as a Malware/Virus Lure Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 13:15:44 -0500 Ryan Naraine - eWEEK Botnet herders have found a crafty new way to lure computer users to maliciously rigged Web sites-via text messaging on cell phones. The latest social engineering trick is to send SMS (short messaging service) alerts to mobile phones with a warning that the target has subscribed to an online dating service that racked up expensive charges on cell phone bills. The message includes a URL for the user to unsubscribe to avoid the $2 per day charges. According to a warning from anti-virus vendor CA, the URL points to a Web site rigged with Win32/Bambo.CF, a Trojan horse program used by identity thieves to hijack sensitive user information. The fake dating Web site associated with the scam has been set to entice targets into entering the phone number. At this point, it attempts to load an executable file called "unregister.exe." Interestingly, the Web page does not attempt to exploit any software flaws. Instead, the attacker provides step-by-step instructions to click the "Run" button on each warning page, providing an easy way around the Internet Explorer security warning prompt. For advice on how to secure your network and applications, as well as the latest security news, visit Ziff Davis Internet's Security IT Hub. If the program is run, it installs the Trojan, CA said in its advisory. At press time June 23, the malicious Web site was still active. Websense Security Labs, a San Diego, Calif., malware research company, said the bot is a variant of Dumador, a back door that opens two ports and allows the computer to be remotely controlled by malicious hackers. Dumador is controlled by a Web-based HTTP controller that is used to send commands to botnets. A botnet is a collection of hijacked computers used to send spam or launch distributed denial-of-service attacks. While bots are mostly controlled by IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels, researchers at Websense say Web-based controllers have become popular with bots that are used to capture and transmit keylogger information and to store user data. Check out eWEEK.com's Security Center for the latest security news, reviews and analysis. And for insights on security coverage around the Web, take a look at eWEEK.com Security Center Editor Larry Seltzer's Weblog. Copyright 2006 Ziff Davis Inc. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more tech and computer news of interest, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ From: Claudia Parsons Subject: Slate.com is Ten Years Old Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 14:27:31 -0500 Old at 10, Slate.com sparks media soul-searching By Claudia Parsons Not much has survived 10 years on the Internet, so Slate magazine's celebration of that milestone this month sparked self-congratulation, criticism and much soul-searching about the future of old and new media. Slate, a news magazine Web site that mixes humor and political and social commentary, has plenty of critics, the loudest of whom were invited to air their views online. This prompted descriptions such as "shrill and superficial," "liberal, contrarian and haughty," "insufferable" and just plain "irritating." But whatever the critics say, Slate has survived and boasts usage figures comparable to the Web versions of The Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and National Public Radio, according to Internet usage measurement firm Hitwise. A big reason for its survival is what media columnist Jeff Jarvis, author of media Web log www.buzzmachine.com, calls "two very good sugar daddies." Launched in June 1996 by Microsoft Inc., Slate was sold to The Washington Post in 2005. Jay Rosen, who teaches journalism at New York University and blogs at http://www.PressThink.org, said Slate also succeeded in adapting -- going from weekly to daily to real-time, switching revenue models, and adding space for readers to talk back. David Talbot, founder and editor for 10 years of Slate's longtime rival Salon, said newspapers and magazines were like "oil tankers" by comparison. With circulation declining, major U.S. newspaper groups have announced rounds of job cuts in recent years, and the industry is immersed in endless debate about its future. "The newspapers have lost one of their key bases now to Craigslist with the classifieds: you'd think that would be a huge wake-up call," Talbot said, referring to the free site that is now a one-stop shop for everything from apartments to dating. 'IN-YOUR-FACE' NEWSPAPERS? "Newspapers' future is on the Web. They should be developing more opinionated writers," he said. "Fox News showed where popular taste is. People want in-your-face, opinionated media." Norman Pearlstine, editor-in-chief of Time Inc. from 1995 until the end of 2005, said the Internet had overtaken newspapers in their three traditional strengths -- timeliness, being publications of record, and classifieds. "The most exciting thing that could happen is that newspapers and magazines become more publications of opinion," Pearlstine said at a media forum for Slate's 10th anniversary. Jarvis said British newspaper The Guardian was leading the way with its two-month-old communal blog http://www.commentisfree.com, where the paper's journalists write articles in the chatty style of blogs and enter into debate with readers. Jarvis said the new role for the journalist was to be the moderator, but even that is being overtaken by sites such as http://www.digg.com, where readers choose what tops the news by voting on stories. "What's one year old is more interesting than what's 10 years old," Jarvis said. Rosen said his journalism students at NYU still aspire to a career in traditional media, but he started teaching "Blogging 101" this spring to open their horizons. Vanity Fair media columnist Michael Wolff said the big challenge for print media apart from advertising was not the direct competition from the likes of Slate, but that nobody now relies on a single newspaper, Web site or TV channel. "The idea of one source of information is laughable now," he said. According to Hitwise, only four news sites boast a market share of more than 2 percent. Yahoo is top with 6 percent. For Jarvis, that means advertising money spread more thinly and targeted at niche markets -- good news for "citizen journalists" and bloggers, including his 14-year-old son. "My son gets checks for the blog he writes and it's plenty for him to buy an iPod," Jarvis said. But Talbot said blogs and news sites like www.drudge.com, ranked No. 5, were entirely dependent on "old media" for the stories they link to "like the birds that sit on hippos." "Without the old hippos, those birds would be out." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: France Unveils National Rival to Google Earth Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 14:30:33 -0500 A clear view of your favorite French beach or monument is only a click away. France unveiled a Web site ( http://www.geoportail.fr ) on Friday that allows people to access detailed satellite images of the country and said it offered more detail of its territory than Google Earth ( http://www.earth.google.com ). Google Earth, which allows Internet users to zoom in on locations around the world, caused concern when it was launched last year among governments who feared terrorists might use the service to help plot attacks. But President Jacques Chirac stressed the need for France to have such a site, which will allow Internet users to view aerial photos and maps, saying the state had to be at the cutting edge of modern technology. "It is also a case of economics," Chirac was quoted by his office as saying during a presentation of the new portal, which is a joint project by the National Geographic Institute and the Office of Geological and Mineral Research. "With Galileo (the European Union satellite navigation system), with the mobile telephone, services linked to global positioning will develop a lot. It is also about democracy because our citizens have the right to know all the facts about the environment." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 09:51:49 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cingular Gets its Antennas; In Reversal, Board Approves Variance NORTH ANDOVER Cingular gets its antennas In a reversal, board approves variance By Dan Tuohy, Globe Correspondent | Cingular is getting a cool reception on Chestnut Street. But after more than a year of wrangling, the giant wireless company can install the antennas it wants in North Andover. The Zoning Board of Appeals last week approved a variance to allow six antennas to be added to an existing 152-foot tower in the neighborhood, a move aimed at improving cell phone coverage. The board opposed the request last year and the company appealed the decision in federal court. Last week's unanimous approval, given without public discussion as abutting property owners groaned in the audience, settled the federal litigation. The Planning Board, the town's permitting agency , previously approved a special permit for the 300 Chestnut St. site, pending the zoning board's reconsideration of the application. Before zoning board chairwoman Ellen P. McIntyre could move to other business at the meeting, Robert Holmes of 396 Chestnut St. cried out that the additional antennas could create a harmful environment for nearby families because of radio-frequency radiation. Neighbors also said the resolution shows that companies can run roughshod over local government, despite existing zoning bylaws on cell tower sites. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/06/18/cingular_gets_its_antennas_in_a_reversal_board_approves_variance/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 11:39:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cellphone Bill Seeks to Open Tunnel Connections Turnpike Authority given a deadline By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff Drivers who lose their cellphone signals navigating the Big Dig tunnels may soon get relief, after frustrated lawmakers sent a bill to Governor Mitt Romney's desk ordering the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to provide cellular phone service by the end of the year. The measure, attached as an amendment to the $450 million economic stimulus bill, directs the Turnpike Authority to sign agreements for wireless service in the Interstate 93 tunnel and the Interstate 90 connector by Dec. 31 or the state Department of Telecommunications and Energy will take the matter out of the authority's hands. The DTE would hold hearings and then set the maximum rate the Turnpike Authority can charge the wireless companies for using the tunnels, making future negotiations over fees unnecessary. The companies have been negotiating with the authority over rental fees for three years, infuriating many legislators who travel the tunnel daily. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/06/22/cellphone_bill_seeks_to_open_tunnel_connections/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 00:11:44 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Dropping the F-Bomb By Joel Achenbach Sunday, June 25, 2006; The most versatile word in our language can do almost anything, other than be printed in a family newspaper. It can be a noun, a verb, a gerund, an adjective or just an expletive. It can be literal or figurative. Although it has an explicit sexual meaning, it's usually used figuratively these days, as an all-purpose intensifier. The F-word remains taboo. But just barely. We may be entering an era in which this fabled vulgarity is on its way to becoming just another word -- its transgressive energy steadily sapped by overuse. From hip-hop artists to bloggers to the vice president of the United States, everyone's dropping the F-bomb. Young people in particular may not grasp how special this word has been in the past. They may not realize how, like an old sourdough starter, the word has been lovingly preserved over the centuries and passed from generation to generation. For the good of human communication we must come together, as a people, to protect this word, and ensure that, years from now, it remains obscene. Our leaders aren't helping. Before he was elected president, George W. Bush used the word repeatedly during an interview with Tucker Carlson. Dick Cheney on the Senate floor told a Democratic senator to eff himself. Presidential candidate John F. Kerry said of Bush and the war, "Did I expect George Bush to [mess] it up as badly as he did? I don't think anybody did." No one is shocked that these people use such language, but as statesmanship it's not exactly Lincolnesque. More generally, the word is imperiled by the profusion of communications technologies. Everyone's talking, e-mailing, blogging and commenting on everyone else's comments. Combine that with partisan rancor and a general desperation to get one's message across, and naturally the word gets overtaxed. In Blogworld there are no idiots anymore, only [blithering] idiots. The most opportunistic move in the corporate realm may have been the decision by a retailer to call itself French Connection United Kingdom, which allowed it to put the company's initials on T-shirts everywhere. Jeepers, that's clever! http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/23/AR2006062301378.html ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 26, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 12:03:18 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 26, 2006 ******************************** Softbank to Offer Yahoo! Connectivity to Mobile Users http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/110/18573?11228 Softbank today said that phones to be offered by its mobile arm will provide direct internet connections through a Yahoo! portal site, the Wall Street Journal Asia reports. At a shareholders meeting, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son unveiled plans to equip every Softbank mobile with a browser that can display websites as they appear on... Europe: FON Begins European Roll-Out http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/110/18571?11228 Spanish Wi-Fi start-up FON, backed byglobal internet telephony provider Skype and leading search engine Google, has begun its European roll-out. The company is planning to release 1 million internet routers, available at 5 euro (US$6.30) each, which will enable global hotspot sharing by their owners. Significance: The global Wi-Fi... FCC Reviews Approach to Wireless, VoIP Universal Service Contributions http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18569?11228 Last week, the FCC adopted two modifications to its approach to assessing universal service contributions. Under modifications to the universal service rules, interconnected VoIP providers will make contributions for the first time, and wireless operators will be taxed on a greater proportion of their ... Qualcomm Addresses Nokia's CDMA Ramp Down Plans http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18567?11228 CDMA2000 is alive and well, according to Qualcomm. The company is attempting to alleviate fears following news that Nokia and Sanyo are pulling out of their planned CDMA joint venture and that Nokia is scaling back its involvement in the CDMA handset market. Nokia decided to dissolve its CDMA venture with Sanyo because the handset... Communications-Reform Bill Inches Toward Net-Neutrality Fight http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18565?11228 The key Senate committee deliberating the revised draft of a sweeping communications-reform bill adjourned barely scratching the surface during a markup session. It now faces a looming battle over network neutrality when it resumes this week. The Senate Committee on Commerce Science and Technology broke up after about... Euro Telcos Face Storage Avalanche http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18563?11228 A new European data retention directive designed to help law enforcement agencies tackle terrorist threats is set to cost Europe's telecom operators and ISPs a collective fortune, and it will likely provide rich pickings for storage vendors and integrators. The European Union's Directive 2006/24/EC on the ... Testing Telesurgery http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18558?11228 Telemedicine has been a reality for many years, but telesurgery remains on the cutting edge. During telesurgery, a surgeon performs an operation on a distant patient by using a surgical robot, a computer and telecommunications support technology. In March 2005, Timothy Broderick, an assistant professor of surgery at the University of ... Good Hooks Into Lotus http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18557?11228 Confronting Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM)in a market that it has dominated, Good Technology Inc. said today that it will release a new version of its mobile messaging product designed for the IBM Corp. Lotus Domino environment. Called Good Mobile Messaging for Lotus Domino, the new system will offer users mobile access to... Intel Wows With Dualmode WiMax http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18554?11228 Intel Corp. next week is introducing a client chipset that supports both the fixed and mobile versions of the wireless broadband technology known as WiMax. Arguably WiMax' biggest cheerleader, the company is working to make the case for the technology with a chipset roadmap that targets devices... New Converged Wi-Fi/Cellular Handsets to Take Market by Storm http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18549?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Converged Wi-Fi/Cellular handsets are expected to make a big splash, reports In-Stat. By 2010, shipments of cellular handsets containing Wi-Fi will exceed 132 million devices, the high-tech market research firm says. Carriers have been reluctant to offer Wi-Fi-capable handsets for several reasons, but Wi-Fi... TelecomDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 12:30:15 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: AT&T, Cisco Back Akimbo With $15.5M Investment USTelecom dailyLead June 26, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dRrofDtutfazxBVUNf TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * AT&T, Cisco back Akimbo with $15.5M investment BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Microsoft plans major push into business phone market * BT, KDDI team up to offer network management services * Company aims to shake up Wi-Fi business with $5 router giveaway * Mergers among equipment makers pose enormous integration challenges USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Everything You Need to Know About Telecom HOT TOPICS * FCC votes to impose USF fee on most VoIP providers * Siemens in talks to sell Enterprise Networks division * Who's the next target in telecom gear consolidation? * Cities want free, ad-supported Wi-Fi systems * Nokia, Siemens to merge telecom gear operations TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Taiwanese Wi-Fi network struggles to attract users * DSL use continues to rise worldwide * Content, not speed, may determine broadband winners REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Analysis: EU's anti-terrorism directive to be costly for telecoms Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dRrofDtutfazxBVUNf ------------------------------ From: jtaylor Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 20:28:39 -0300 Organization: MCI Canada News Reader Service wrote in message news:telecom25.239.7@telecom-digest.org: > However, a subsequent poster boasted about doing this outside a > business. Nowhere did I see any statement that he was not in the U.S. > (If I missed it I apologize). That's irrelevant. I stated (not boasted -- do I detect an agenda here) that there was no law against junk faxes where I live. > Almost all posters here are from the U.S. Even if true, so what? ------------------------------ From: Bob Goudreau Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 14:13:28 -0400 [Please obfuscate my email address as usual. Thanks.] Lisa Hancock wrote: > Robert Bonomi wrote: >> Not only 'not a lawyer', but not much of a geographer, either. :) the >> original poster lives in _Canada_. > The first poster of the thread displayed to me stated the person > wanted to test lines within his company. Aside from being a rather > foolish thing to). Almost all posters here are from the > U.S. do, it was still inside a PBX and thus ok. > However, a subsequent poster boasted about doing this outside a > business. Nowhere did I see any statement that he was not in the U.S. > (If I missed it I apologize.) It should have been pretty easy to catch from the header in the message from the second poster (who was, as you mention, the one who stated that there was no law where he/she lived preventing fax-hunting): > From: jtaylor > Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder > Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 09:39:13 -0300 > Organization: MCI Canada News Reader Service Judging from the "MCI Canada" newsreader, the GMT -0300 time offset and the "hfx" in his (obfuscated) email address, I would hazard a more specific guess that he/she is located in or near Halifax, Nova Scotia. But the "Canada" part is pretty hard to miss regardless. > (P.S. I'm familiar with Canada, but what/where is _Canada_ ? Is that > a separate region with different rules than main Canada?) Lisa, this hardly becomes you. You are a well-known long-time and respected contributor to the Digest, so people will simply not find it credible if you claim you have never seen underscores used to indicate emphasis before. Any casual perusal of the back issues will show thousands of examples of such usage, which has its origins in the typewriter days when underlining was used for emphasis. Not all early computer display devices could handle underlining consistently, so a convention developed in which prefixing and suffixing a phrase with underscore characters indicated that the reader should treat the entire intervening phrase as if it were underlined. Bob Goudreau Cary, NC ------------------------------ From: George Mitchell Subject: Re: Two New Services Try to Warn You About Sleazy Sites Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 10:03:50 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com In an article from Monty Solomon, our Moderator wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Programs like this, designed to protect > the average user seem like a good idea, considering how much of the > internet these days is porn or scam/spam in nature. Does anyone know > why ICANN has always steadfastly refused to consider top level domain > names of .spam , .scam , and .porn which would enable most users to > do a rather good job of filtering? PAT] Sure would, if the spammers, scammers, and pornsters would cooperatively run their operations from those top-level domains. But how many do you think would volutarily register there? George Mitchell [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Probably none of them would voluntarily move into the proper category. They'd probably have to be forced into the proper categories, i.e. if you want connectivity with the net, you need to be in (whatever) category. It happen that way now with the top level domains .edu , .mil and .gov . If you are not an EDUcational or a MILitary or GOVernment entity you do not get in those categories. Of course this would require some policing efforts by ICANN and its registrars. I am sure there would be a lot of wimpering and whining by some folks, but thats' life around the net. PAT] ------------------------------ From: George Mitchell Subject: (Ab)use of Javascript; was Re: Web Services Increasingly Under Attack Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 09:59:54 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Monty Solomon wrote: > By DAN GOODIN AP Technology Writer > [...] > As larger audiences flock to Web sites that run on ever more powerful > programming scripts, malware writers are finding them fertile ground. > - http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=59357772 This touches on my favorite web gripe: the growing number of web sites using Javascript. If Amazon and Google can run two of the most successful site in the world without depending on Javascript, everybody can. (Regrettably, Amazon now uses Javascript in their book reader, which used to work fine without it.) I know this isn't exactly the topic of the original poster, but I feel better after having had my say about this huge annoyance. George Mitchell [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Would you rather see sites which use Javascript switch to using cookies? Both Amazon and Google, to use your two examples, make liberal use of cookies to keep track of users. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V25 #240 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jun 27 17:33:29 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 3287114F5E; Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:33:29 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #241 Message-Id: <20060627213329.3287114F5E@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:33:29 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:35:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 241 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Wireless Firms Agree on Rules for Mobile Web Sites (Reuters News Wire) Internet Providers Unite to Combat Kiddie Porn (Anick Jesdanun) NYS Attorney General Spitzer on "Net Neutrality" (Danny Burstein) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 27, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) AT&T Launches TV Service in Texas (USTelecom dailyLead) Details From Microsoft Regarding Significant WGA Changes (Monty Solomon) Re: Two New Services Try to Warn You About Sleazy Sites (George Mitchell) Re: Two New Services Try to Warn You About Sleazy Sites (Robert Bonomi) Re: (Ab)use of Javascript; was Re: Web Services Under Attack (G Mitchell) Re: Cookies vs. (Ab)use of Javascript (Matt Simpson) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Wireless Firms Agree on Rules for Mobile Web Sites Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:53:52 -0500 Some of the world's top wireless and Internet companies, including Nokia, Vodafone Group Plc and Google Inc., have agreed on a set of Web site development guidelines aimed at making it easier to surf the Internet on cell phones. The majority of cell phones today have Web browsers as wireless providers hope to expand beyond voice services, but only about 19 percent of U.S. mobile phone users regularly use the Web on their phones, according to researcher M:Metrics Inc. The Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), a group backed by 30 industry players, hopes to improve on this percentage by creating 60 guidelines for developers to design sites that are easy to use on cell phones, which have much smaller screens and tiny keypads. "We're now seeing devices in users' hands that are capable of browsing the Web, but they're not being used as much as they could be," said Daniel Applequist, a Vodafone executive who chaired the group that worked on the guidelines. "The majority of Web sites out there do not work well on cell phones," he said, adding that if more Web sites were less awkward to navigate on cell phones, they could attract more users. The guidelines advise developers against using big graphics or pop-up ads that could clutter phone screens. They also suggest designing sites in such a way that the content appears right at the top of a cell phone screen, allowing users to avoid scrolling past multiple navigation links. "A common problem is that you have a small screen, so when a Web site loads, the navigational elements like home page or next page links are the only things you see instead of the content you're looking for," Applequist said. The guidelines also steer developers away from using cookies, which store information on the viewer's computer to help Web sites remember user preferences, enabling speedier navigation. As cookies do not work on cell phones, developers need to find alternatives, Applequist said. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines of interest, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Anick Jesdanun Subject: Internet Providers Unite to Combat Kiddie Porn Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:56:42 -0500 By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer Five leading online service providers will jointly build a database of child-pornography images and develop other tools to help network operators and law enforcement better prevent distribution of the images. The companies pledged $1 million among them Tuesday to set up a technology coalition as part of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. They aim to create the database by year's end, though many details remain unsettled. The participating companies are Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, Yahoo Inc. Microsoft Corp., EarthLink Inc. and United Online Inc., the company behind NetZero and Juno. Ernie Allen, the chief executive of the missing children's center, noted that the Internet companies already possess many technologies to help protect users from threats such as viruses and e-mail "phishing" scams. "There's nothing more insidious and inappropriate" than child pornography, he said. The announcement comes as the U.S. government is pressuring service providers to do more to help combat child pornography. Top law enforcement officials have told Internet companies they must retain customer records longer to help in such cases and have suggested seeking legislation to require it. AOL chief counsel John Ryan said the coalition was partly a response to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales' April speech identifying increases in child-porn cases and chiding the Internet industry for not doing more about them. The creation of the technology coalition does not directly address the preservation of records but could demonstrate the industry's willingness to cooperate. Plans call for the missing children's center to collect known child-porn images and create a unique mathematical signature for each one based on a common formula. Each participating company would scan its users' images for matches. AOL, for instance, plans to check e-mail attachments that are already being scanned for viruses. If child porn is detected, AOL would refer the case to the missing-children's center for further investigation, as service providers are required to do under federal law. Each company will set its own procedures on how it uses the database, but executives say the partnership will let companies exchange their best ideas -- ultimately developing tools for preventing child-porn distribution instead of simply catching violations. "When we pool together all our collective know-how and technical tools, we hope to come up with something more comprehensive along the lines of preventative" measures, said Tim Cranton, Microsoft's director of Internet safety enforcement programs. Ryan said that although AOL will initially focus on scanning e-mail attachments, the goal is to ultimately develop techniques for checking other distribution techniques as well, such as instant messaging or Web uploads. Representatives will begin meeting next month to evaluate their technologies, determining, for instance, whether cropping an image would change its signature and hinder comparisons. Also to be discussed are ways to ensure that customers' privacy is protected. Authorities still would need subpoenas to get identifying information on violators. The companies involved said they are talking with other service providers about joining. But companies that do not participate still are required by law to report any suspected child-porn images, and many already have their own techniques for monitoring and identifying them. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more headlines and news from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: NYS Attorney General Spitzer on "Net Neutrality" Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 20:21:56 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC ( quoting his press release ) U.S. SENATE URGED TO PRESERVE INTERNET NEUTRALITY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today released the attached correspondence to United States Senators Ted Stevens and Daniel Inouye, Chairman and Ranking Member respectively of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, urging passage of legislation to preserve neutral and nondiscriminatory access to the Internet. In particular, Spitzer voiced concern that consolidation in the telecommunications industry poses a threat to the open and ready use of the Internet by consumers and content providers alike. He urged that legislation be passed which would require Internet backbone operators and service providers not to discriminate with respect to content flowing over the Internet as to quality of service, speed, access or bandwidth, and that they not prioritize or otherwise favor content based on the user's ability to pay or affiliation with the provider. The Attorney General also urged that any legislation continue to enable Internet service providers to protect consumers from unwanted or harmful content. The Attorney General stated that the principles embodied in S. 2917 should be included in any legislation that emerges. The Senate Commerce Committee is resuming debate tomorrow. Spitzer's letter is [ available via the original url, below ]. http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2006/jun/jun26a_06.html _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 27, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 12:05:04 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 27, 2006 ******************************** Virgin Mobile South Africa Launches MVNO http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18597?11228 Virgin Mobile South Africa, the new MVNO, launched commercial services on Saturday (24 June). It is the fourth operator to offer service-based competition in the market, but does not own its own infrastructure. The MVNO provides services over the network of the third South African cellular operator Cell C. The latter concluded agreements ... Sonae, Portugal Telecom Add New Twist to Takeover Battle http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18595?11228 The long-running takeover battle for Portugal Telecom took a new twist yesterday, when Portugal Telecom chief executive Henrique Granadeiro said that he would reconsider Sonae's bid if the company raised its offer to above the present 9.50 euro (US$11.95) per share. Meanwhile, Sonae has denied speculation that its telecoms unit ... Mobile Internet Receives Boost with New Web-Page Guidelines http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18594?11228 Mobile internet took another giant leap today as leading mobile and internet companies -- including Vodafone, Nokia and Google -- agreed to a set of guidelines aimed at creating websites that are easier to use on mobiles. The guidelines follow the launch of the first top-level domain name -- .mobi -- solely dedicated to mobile internet in ... Microsoft Aims to Advance Unified Communications http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18590?11228 Microsoft Corporation is teaming with a host of companies -- including Motorola, Siemens Communications and HP -- in an effort to advance the adoption of a unified communications platform. The overarching goal, according to Microsoft, is to use a unified communications platform to 'break down' today's silos of ... New Zealand Telecom To Split Operations, Adopt More Open Delivery Model http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18586?11228 WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- Telecom Corp., New Zealand's largest listed company, surprised the market Tuesday by announcing it will split its operations into wholesale and retail divisions. Telecom said it will create a freestanding wholesale division, overseen by an independent monitoring unit, to deliver services to its... Lucent Wins Contract for Army Project http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18585?11228 NEW YORK -- The U.S. Army on Monday named Lucent Technologies Inc. a prime contractor on a multibillion-dollar communications modernization project, work that might need to be handled by an independent subsidiary once Lucent merges with Alcatel SA of France. There are 10 prime contractors on the project, which is worth up to $4 ... AT&T Offers U-Verse Video, Net Service http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18583?11228 NEW YORK -- AT&T Inc. on Monday expanded its gradual foray into cable TV, offering its U-verse video and high-speed Internet service to about 5,000 homes in San Antonio. The long-anticipated service, originally slated for a full-scale launch starting in late 2005, is the focal point of AT&T's bid to transform itself... Nortel Networks to cut 1,100 jobs, NA http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18579?11228 TORONTO -- Telecommunications equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp., which has slimmed down significantly in recent years, said Tuesday it will cut about 1,100 positions globally and change its pension program to improve operating margins and save money. As part of a previously announced restructuring plan, the Toronto-based... Research: Convergence Sells In The U.K. http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18578?11228 New research shows that U.K. resellers focusing on convergence and IP telephony grew at 23 percent last year, more than double the average growth rate of 10.3 percent achieved by the sector as a whole. According to a report published by IT Europa, the top 200 U.K. communications resellers garnered revenues of nearly $2.5 ... Mobile WiMax Goes Mini http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/18576?11228 Asserting that current 'macro-cell' architectures are insufficient for meeting the demand of emerging wireless broadband systems, OFDMA-gear vendor Adaptix Inc. said today it is releasing a suite of third-generation WiMax equipment based on more numerous and more dense 'micro-cell' layouts. Designed to address... AT&T, Cisco Elbow Into Akimbo http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18575?11228 Two of the central players in the telco TV world are participating in a $15.5 million funding round for the Internet video provider Akimbo Systems . AT&T Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. are new funding sources for Akimbo, as is San Francisco-based venture capital firm Blueprint Ventures . The three throw in with... TelecomDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 12:31:05 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: AT&T Launches TV Service in Texas USTelecom dailyLead June 27, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dSawfDtutfbbfZXLKb TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * AT&T launches TV service in Texas BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Telecom Italia goes after AOL units in Europe * EchoStar helps customers find DSL deals * Nortel announces restructuring plan * Marvell to buy Intel unit * Warwick Valley Telephone Company embraces IP USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Thwarting Security VulnerabilitiesThursday, June 29, 1:00 p.m. ET TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Report: China primed for enterprise Wi-Fi growth * Group maps out guidelines for mobile Web sites REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * EU telecom rules would change dramatically under proposal * Supreme Court takes telecom case * Survey: Government lagging on IPv6 planning process Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dSawfDtutfbbfZXLKb ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 13:14:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Details From Microsoft Regarding Significant WGA Changes Lauren (Weinstein) posted the following to the PFIR list. It is also available on his blog at http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000184.html Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 09:56:39 -0700 (PDT) From: pfir@pfir.org Greetings. Microsoft officials contacted me yesterday to discuss changes in their Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program taking effect today, and to chat about a variety of other issues related to WGA now and in the future. There is a particularly significant change related to the "phone home" Internet activates of WGA that have been so controversial since my initial report on this topic. http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000178.html and multiple linked entries dated forward from that posting. In particular, in response to the original controversy, MS has been widely quoted as saying that they'd reduce the frequency of WGA-initiated Internet connections from daily, to once every two weeks, then eventually to zero. Officials now tell me that this schedule has been accelerated. A new update of WGA should be appearing in the Windows Update cycle starting this morning (if it's not there now it should be within a few hours). It reportedly will be tagged as an optional "high priority" (not security) update, with a new End User License Agreement (EULA) -- more on this below. Here are some details on WGA behavior beginning with this new update, as explained to me by MS: If a system has been previously validated (via a visit to the MS Windows Update or Download Center sites, for example), the new version (and future versions as now planned) of WGA will attempt some network activity to report to MS that the new WGA installation was successful (as per the new EULA). If this connection activity fails, MS says that for most users there will be no further connection attempts by WGA. If a system has not been previously validated, the new version of WGA will retry as necessary in an attempt to validate, each time the user logs in (for most people, this means each time that they boot their system). Once validation has succeeded, these connection attempts would cease for most users. There are some Windows license classes that do not have permanent validations, and that need to be revalidated at intervals. For those license classes, WGA would begin initiating connection attempts again when the current license validation period expires. Ordinary consumer licenses of the sort that most people get with their computers have permanent validations and do not fall into this category. While recurring WGA-initiated connections will no longer be taking place for most users, WGA validation will still occur when users attempt to update at the Windows Update and Download Center sites. Non-validated systems, or systems that have had their validations revoked, may be subject to restrictions previously noted including inability to download and/or install/execute various non-critical updates -- or some major packages (e.g. Internet Explorer 7, etc.) Officials told me that the most restrictions would be on the use of automatic updates and downloads, with fewer restrictions on actual update installation procedures, and the fewest restrictions of all related to program executions (as noted, execution restrictions would mainly be related to major program releases). Microsoft considers WGA versions starting from today to no longer be "prerelease" -- but for now they are still optional. A new EULA is provided with a more explicit preamble where the user can decide to accept/reject or read more (a change of this sort was one of my original recommendations regarding the WGA EULA acceptance procedure). MS says that users can choose to reject installation of WGA even if it arrived through Windows Automatic Update. For persons who wish to remove the prerelease WGA (the one with the boot/daily Internet connection activity for all users) without installing the new WGA, I'm told that a link and Knowledge Base article will be available giving the recommended step-by-step instructions for this process, and that users can call MS support for help with this procedure if necessary (without incurring a support charge). That's the current situation as I understand it. Since it appears likely that I'll be having additional contacts with MS related to WGA issues, I'll continue to report on this topic as appropriate. In other essays I'll discuss my specific opinions regarding the implications and other issues relating to these kinds of authentication environments. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 http://www.pfir.org/lauren Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Co-Founder, IOIC - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com pfir mailing list http://lists.pfir.org/mailman/listinfo/pfir ------------------------------ From: George Mitchell Subject: Re: Two New Services Try to Warn You About Sleazy Sites Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 12:47:46 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Our moderator wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Probably none of them would voluntarily > move into the proper category. They'd probably have to be forced into > the proper categories, i.e. if you want connectivity with the net, > you need to be in (whatever) category. It happen that way now with the > top level domains .edu , .mil and .gov . If you are not an EDUcational > or a MILitary or GOVernment entity you do not get in those categories. > Of course this would require some policing efforts by ICANN and its > registrars. I am sure there would be a lot of whimpering and whining by > some folks, but that's life around the net. PAT] It's true that I can't register in the .edu/.mil/.gov domains. But plenty of organizations which CAN register in those domains choose to register in .com/.org/.net as well. There's no connection, however, between registering domains and connecting to the net, and I can't see that there ever will be. My connectivity is provided by EasyStreet Online Services and my domain is registered by BulkRegister, two companies who have absolutely no reason ever to talk to one another. A zillion domains out there have been registered by domain name speculators whose domains have no meaningful net presence, and I can have a net presence without even registering a domain (though I would not do so myself). -- George Mitchell ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Two New Services Try to Warn You About Sleazy Sites Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 12:39:47 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , George Mitchell wrote: > In an article from Monty Solomon, our Moderator wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Programs like this, designed to protect >> the average user seem like a good idea, considering how much of the >> internet these days is porn or scam/spam in nature. Does anyone know >> why ICANN has always steadfastly refused to consider top level domain >> names of .spam , .scam , and .porn which would enable most users to >> do a rather good job of filtering? PAT] > Sure would, if the spammers, scammers, and pornsters would > cooperatively run their operations from those top-level domains. But > how many do you think would volutarily register there? > George Mitchell > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Probably none of them would voluntarily > move into the proper category. They'd probably have to be forced into > the proper categories, i.e. if you want connectivity with the net, > you need to be in (whatever) category. It happen that way now with the > top level domains .edu , .mil and .gov . If you are not an EDUcational > or a MILitary or GOVernment entity you do not get in those categories. > Of course this would require some policing efforts by ICANN and its > registrars. I am sure there would be a lot of wimpering and whining by > some folks, but thats' life around the net. PAT] You obviously fail to grasp the fundamental difference between "you can't get in here unless you are ...." and "you must be in here if you are ...." Yes, you cannot get an '.edu' unless you are an educational institution. *HOWEVER*, nothing _prevents_ an educational institution from getting a name in another TLD, and many *do*. Heck, even the U.S. ARMY uses .com domain names. "In theory", things like '.scam', '.spam', or '.xxx' are a 'wonderful idea'. In reality, however, due to the perverseness of human nature, they are simply *unworkable*. Among other 'minor' flaws with the idea is the simple fact that providers don't ask 'what domain names will you be using' when they sell connectivity. I've *never* seen an ISP contract that requires you to notify the ISP if you start using different (or _additional_) domain-names. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Let me ask you this: _Why_ cannot I get into the EDU or the MIL or GOV domains? Why cannot I insist upon and recieve http://ptownson.mil or http://ptownson.edu as my domain name? Would it be because the EDU/GOV/MIL registrars have agreements among themselves to not admit me if I lack the required credentials? Would it also be because the other _valid, bonafide_ occupants of those domain names would be likely to raise Holy Hell if I were admitted without the proper credentials? Or more down to earth possibly, _why_ cannot I be admitted on my own terms to the .aero or .museum domains? Now with those questions in mind, tell me _why_ I must be automatically admitted to the .org or .com or .net domains, purely on my own say-so? Do any of these abilities to be registered (or not) have any relevance to ICANN's wishes in the matter? You mean I cannot just say I am an educational institution and be taken at my word, or claim that "I am in charge of the Army or Navy" and be accepted as such? Would ICANN and its various registrar-agents look sort of askance at such a statement by myself? Then _why_ are they so perfectly happy and willing to dump anyone and everyone -- including all the trash in the world -- into the domains known as .com and .net and .org (particularly .com)? I get so tired of the wimpering and carrying-on about (1) 'how decisions such as domain assignment are not the responsibility of ICANN (what a lot of bologna!) and (2) 'we cannot dictate to other sites what they can or cannot do with their sites' (more bologna, and possibly even more insidious than even excuse (1) above. Of course we can dictate! We do it all the time in the instances of .edu .mil and .gov where one must at least come close to 'hitting the mark' in order to being accepted therein. I think it would really be hilarious if a class-action lawsuit was started naming ICANN and its registrar-agents as the defendant, and the general computer-using public as the plaintiff-class. The complaint would be ICANN has misused its trust as the caretakers of record of the net by allowing all the trash to be dumped into the category .com, causing the general devaluation of the net by causing effective filtering of undesireable material (you fill in the blanks as desired; spam, scam, porn, etc) to be largely ineffectual, especially when filtering could be so simple: .spam, .scam, .porn . And listen to no more of their excuses; either reform the net in general, or get out of the business and let others do it. I think a class-action against ICANN would feel _so good_ don't you? I now understand they are off on another one of their international vacation trips at present; is it Morocco? PAT] ------------------------------ From: George Mitchell Subject: Re: (Ab)use of Javascript; was Re: Web Services Increasingly Under Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 12:40:14 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Our moderator wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Would you rather see sites which use > Javascript switch to using cookies? Both Amazon and Google, to use > your two examples, make liberal use of cookies to keep track of > users. PAT] Absolutely! Cookies can't open and close windows in my browser or run malicious software on my machine. I can restrict the lifetime of cookies; in fact, I can refuse to store cookies on my system for any longer than the current session. And as far as I can tell, I can run amazon.com (the non-SSL part) and google.com under Lynx, refusing all cookies altogether. Google and Amazon are going to have to store any tracking information about me on their own servers. (Which is certainly what the Bush administration is hoping they will do.) George Mitchell [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You have a good point there. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Matt Simpson Subject: Re: cookies vs. (Ab)use of Javascript Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 09:22:02 -0400 In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > Would you rather see sites which use > Javascript switch to using cookies? Both Amazon and Google, to use > your two examples, make liberal use of cookies to keep track of > users. Actually, I would. I know what cookies can and can't do, and I know that they are far less dangerous than Javascript. There's no way a cookie can hose my machine the way Javascript can. And fears of "keeping track of users" (which are tremendously overstated) can be relieved by having the browser delete cookies at the end of the session. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V25 #241 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 28 15:58:50 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id BFEE2152CD; Wed, 28 Jun 2006 15:58:49 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #242 Message-Id: <20060628195849.BFEE2152CD@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 15:58:49 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.3 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, BODY_ENHANCEMENT2,FULL_REFUND,HOT_NASTY,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 28 Jun 2006 16:00:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 242 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Vonage to Unveil Computer Phone This Week (Reuters News Wire) Spammers Find Pictures Worth Thousands of Words (Robert McMillan, IDG) Dell Investigating Exploding Laptop (Reuters News Wire) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 28, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Vonage Expands Options for Callers With Plug-In (USTelecom dailyLead) Bellsouth Keeps Calling (Sawney Beane) Places That Use 911 For All Police Business? (John L) CacheLogic Appoints New CEO (Jonathan Hirshon) Re: Campus Fax Finder (Lisa Hancock) Re: Dropping the F-Bomb (Mark J) Re: Two New Services Try to Warn You About Sleazy Sites (Robert Bonomi) Re: (Ab)use of Javascript; was Re: Web Services Under Attack (redefined) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Vonage to Unveil Computer Phone This Week Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:11:27 -0500 Internet phone company Vonage Holdings Corp. is expected to unveil as early as Wednesday a plug-in device that will turn a computer into a phone, The Wall Street Journal reported. The device, dubbed the V-phone, would allow users to make calls through software embedded on a memory drive that can plug into a USB slot on a laptop or desktop computer, the Journal said. The software will launch when the device is plugged in. The phone, which is similar to products made by other companies, will launch this week and will be aimed at business travelers, said Vonage Chairman Jeffrey Citron, according to the Journal. The product will cost $40, excluding promotions, and will be available to people who have signed up for a Vonage calling plan, the Journal said, citing a person familiar with the situation. Vonage was not immediately available for comment. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Robert McMillan IDG Subject: Spammers Find Pictures Worth Thousands of Words Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:13:36 -0500 Robert McMillan, IDG News Service Spam is again on the rise, led by a flood of junk images that spammers have crafted over the past few months to trick e-mail filters, according to security vendors. Called "image-based" spam, these junk images typically do not contain any text, making it harder for filters that look for known URLs or suspicious words to block them. Instead of a typed message, users will see only an embedded.gif or .jpeg image file urging them to buy pharmaceuticals or invest in penny stocks, or buy penis enlargements or whatever. Antispam vendor Cloudmark says that half of incoming spam on the "honeypot" systems it puts out on the Internet to lure spammers is now image-based. "About a year-and-a-half ago we started seeing a little bit of it, but it wasn't until the past six months that it became a serious issue for many antispam companies," said Adam O'Donnell, a senior research scientist with the company. Image-based spam has jumped from about 1 percent of all spam messages in June 2005 to around 12 percent today, according to Craig Sprosts, senior product manager with IronPort Systems. Spam Resurgence Its growth is helping to fuel a global resurgence in spamming, Sprosts said, and helping to avoid 'nuisance filters' which many netters use to ostensibly to avoid spam. The total number of spam messages sent daily is up 40 percent since April, Sprosts said. Much of this new spam is coming from a "relatively small group of spammers with control over very large zombie networks," of hijacked computers, he said. Spammers now generate an estimated 55 billion messages per day, according to IronPort. A year ago that number was 30 billion e-mail messages per day. The combination of greater volume and better techniques has meant more complaints for network administrators. "I've had users complaining in the last few weeks about the overall increase in spam and I've personally noticed an increased rate of spam and an increase in the percentage of it that's image-based," said Jonathan Forster, computing manager with the University of Arizona's Psychology Department. Administrators at Avnet have started stripping certain embedded image files out of all messages, after seeing an uptick in image-based spam two months ago, said Rob Kudray, manager of messaging services with the computer distributor. One other tactic that is helping keep in-boxes full is the spammers' practice of constantly registering new domains. Of the 35 million domains registered in April, 32 million were never paid for and expired after five days, Sprosts said. He believes that many of those domains were used by spammers to send out their unsolicited e-mail during that five-day grace period. This technique makes it very difficult to blacklist e-mail based on the URLs it contains. "Traditional blacklists and whitelist approaches just can't keep up with how fast they're registering new domains and changing the URLs in the e-mail," Sprosts said. Copyright 2006 PC World Communications, Inc. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more tech, computer and internet news each day, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Dell Investigating Exploding Laptop Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:15:20 -0500 The Dell laptop computer seen bursting into flames in photographs on the Internet was being examined as part of the company's probe of the incident, Dell Inc. said on Tuesday. "We have captured the notebook and have begun investigating the event," Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden said, confirming the computer was made by Dell but declining to specify the model. No one was hurt in the incident, she said. The report of an exploding laptop at a conference in Osaka, Japan, accompanied by digital photos, was first published on technology industry news Web site The Inquirer last week. Dell in December 2005 issued a battery recall for some of the batteries in its laptop due to overheating issues, according to the company's Web site. Camden said it was too early to draw any conclusions and added that it did not appear that the incident had anything to do with the battery issues related to the recall. "From here it's going to be a very methodical and meticulous process to figure out what happened," Camden said. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 28, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 12:24:01 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 28, 2006 ******************************** Brazilian Mobile Exports Reach US$1.1 bil. in First Five Months of 2006 http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18634?11228 Brazilian mobile exports totalled US$1.1 billion in the first five months of 2006, an increase of 24.2% year-on-year (y/y), according to the Brazilian and Commerce Ministry, quoted by local newspaper Gazeta Mercantil. Brazil exported 13.155 million handsets in the first five months in 2006, up 8.6% y/y. Significance: An increase... EU Plans Crackdown on European Incumbents http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18632?11228 The European Union's (EU) telecoms market regulator, headed by Commissioner Viviane Reding, is planning later this week to make public its official stance on the matter of incumbent telcos sharing their new broadband infrastructures with alternative players. Significance: Broadband internet markets in Europe are dominated by... Regulator Issues New Spectrum Policy for Bahrain http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18630?11228 Telecoms regulator TRA and the Ministry of Transportation jointly issued a new spectrum policy for the kingdom yesterday indicating that the telecommunications sector in Bahrain is on the verge of significant changes that will be brought by the publication of the complete policy and strategy for... Sprint's Forsee Sees Converged Future http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18626?11228 NEW YORK -- For Sprint Nextel, the future of the network is in its ability to allow consumers and enterprises to place-shift their applications -- in other words, the ability to access the same capabilities on-the-go that they do in their homes and offices. Sprint Nextel President and CEO Gary Forsee touted this converged network vision ... LG CG300 Offers PTT and More http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18623?11228 Already popular with many business and industrial cell phone users, push-to-talk (PTT) technology is now making rapid inroads into the consumer market. Unfortunately, most PTT handset makers continue to focus on commercial customers, forcing consumers to sacrifice popular cell phone features in exchange for PTT functionality. In a ... USF Changes: The More You Play, The More You Pay? http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18621?11228 Warning: Twenty-somethings are among those who would fare the worst under a controversial plan now under discussion in Washington, D.C., to shift how the Universal Service Fund tax is collected on phone bills. According to the Keep Universal Service Fund (USF) Fair Coalition, most young adults have at least four communications... 700MHz Debate: Safety or Shopping? http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18617?11228 What's more important? Public safety or broadband Internet services? Industry experts tackled this loaded question today at the Wireless Communications Association International (WCA)'s annual industry conference in Washington. In a session entitled 'The Great Debate', two entrenched members of the wireless... Investors Share Wireless Funding Wisdom http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18613?11228 WASHINGTON -- Investors looking to fund new wireless companies are keen to put their money where the data is, according to several industry execs attending and speaking at the Wireless Communications Association International (WCA) annual trade show here. But they're being less cavalier than they were five years ago. During... Qualcomm resists Indian demands to cut royalty on CDMA phones, looks to fund more research http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18609?11228 NEW DELHI -- Wireless technology company Qualcomm Inc. may use some of the royalties earned from mobile phone sales in India to fund research projects here, the company's chief executive said Wednesday, in an apparent move to counter demands for a cut in its royalty rates. San Diego, California-based Qualcomm ... Nokia suing Chinese companies for allegedly copying mobile phone design http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18606?11228 HELSINKI, Finland -- Nokia Corp. said Wednesday it is suing two Chinese companies for making and selling mobile phones that allegedly copy the design of one of its popular fashionable handsets. Nokia asked a court in Beijing to order the companies to pay damages and cease manufacturing and selling the mobile phones ... Report: China Netcom OK with foreign interest in PCCW's assets if not controlling stake http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/105/18603?11228 HONG KONG -- China Netcom is willing to drop its objection to bids by Australia's Macquarie Bank and U.S. investor TPG-Newbridge for Hong Kong phone company PCCW's assets if either company doesn't take a majority stake in the assets, a news report said Wednesday. Macquarie Bank's and TPG-Newbridge's interest ... TelecomDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 12:12:29 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Vonage Expands Options For Callers With Plug-in USTelecom dailyLead June 28, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dSkEfDtutfbyxdkQPj TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Vonage expands options for callers with plug-in device BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Cisco's investments designed to push into CE market * NBC dials up YouTube for online distribution * Sprint Nextel's CEO already talking 4G * DSL gains subscribers, but lags in revenue per user * Verizon's FiOS lands fifth franchise in Delaware USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Thwarting Security Vulnerabilities Tomorrow, June 29, 1:00 p.m. ET TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Cutting-edge geo-location technology emerges in Japan REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * California moves toward statewide franchise system * Congress calls on Internet companies to fight pornography * Europe's telecoms irked by proposed broadband rules Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dSkEfDtutfbyxdkQPj ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:51:10 -0400 From: sawney beane Subject: Bellsouth Keeps Calling Bellsouth seems to call me daily. They sound like voices from the West Indies. I keep saying no and hanging up, and they keep calling. I suppose it's to pay for this service that my phone bill has doubled in ten years. Today I asked why they kept calling. The caller used this to launch her pitch. $21.22 would cover local and long-distance service, and it wouldn't change. I said I wouldn't agree to anything until I had it in writing. She said I'd get it in writing after I agreed. She kept pushing without really telling me anything until I hung up. Years ago, an AT&T salesman got me to agree to promises that were utterly false. I phoned AT&T, whose representative said AT&T was not responsible, but he corrected the situation with more promises that proved to be false. I was not able to get a full refund for the "services" I didn't ask for or use. I don't want to go through that with Bellsouth. Their website doesn't mention the plan described on the phone. Can I have Bellsouth executives arrested for harassing me? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 10:38:10 CEST From: John L Subject: Places That Use 911 For All Police Business I recall seeing messages about some cities where 911 is the only number to call the cops, both for emergencies and for routine business. Does anyone know of specific places where this is the case? I realize that most places you either call 311 or a POTS number. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://johnlevine.com, Mayor "I dropped the toothpaste", said Tom, crestfallenly. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 09:00:51 Subject: CacheLogic Appoints New CEO From: Jonathan Hirshon Reply-To: jh@horizonpr.com Greetings -- the following news announcement provides details on CacheLogic's new CEO and hints at several other upcoming items as well. Please feel free to give me a shout on my mobile at 408-393-4900 if you have any questions or if I can clarify any particulars for you. Cheers, JH CacheLogic Announces Appointment of New CEO Pat Chapman-Pincher, Previously a Top Executive at UUNET and a Respected Le ader in the Global Communications Sector, To Lead CacheLogic Expansion and Growth Into New Markets 28 June, 2006 Cambridge, England CacheLogic - the telecommunication industry's acknowledged leader in P2P traffic management solutions today announced the appointment of Pat Chapman-Pincher as Chief Executi ve Officer. Previously a member of the CacheLogic Board of Directors, Pat brings more than 30 years of senior management expertise in the global telecommunications sector to the company. An immediate task for Pat is to oversee CacheLogic's rapid worldwide expa nsion and growth into new business sectors, catalyzed by major business and partnership deals to be announced throughout 2006. CacheLogic's founder , Adam Twiss, will now focus on the development and implementation of the c ompany=92s new product range and will work closely with her as a member of the senior executive staff and a member of the Board of Directors. Pat was previously the President of UUNET International (the company res ponsible for the development of the major worldwide Internet backbone, later acquired by WorldCom), with executive management responsibilities for all operations in Europe, Asia and Latin America. In this position, she was responsible for profitably growing UUNET's international business ten-fold to more than 1 billion US dollars as well as increasing UUNET's presen ce from four to 22 countries in three years. She was also a Senior Vice President at WorldCom and Director of Commercial Operations at MFS International. Pat has been involved in senior business development roles with IBM UK, Logica and BT. She has most recently been instrumental in advising technology startups through her consulting firm, The Cavell Group. As a member of CacheLogic's Board, Pat has already been instrumental in helping us define our aggressive business goals and strategy for 2006. Having her directly involved in an operational, hands-on fashion as CEO allows us to fully leverage her outstanding corporate experience and business acumen -- we are very excited to have her in this new role, said Geoffrey Finlay, Chairman of CacheLogic. CacheLogic is preparing to enter new markets that leverage our market dominance of P2P infrastructure while continuing to innovate and serve our existing ISP customers, said Pat Chapman-Pincher, CEO of CacheLogi. I have an outstanding team that will be instrumental in working with me to ensure that CacheLogic technology continues to be mission-critical for ISPs and content providers worldwide we will provide them with ways to not only manage P2P, but to improve on it in a legal and enjoyable fashion. About CacheLogic CacheLogic provides a suite of complementary products that deliver traffic management and network intelligence solutions to the Internet Service Provider and telecommunications sectors. CacheLogic's core products provide carrier-grade solutions that enable ISPs to achieve significant cost savings th rough the intelligent management of Peer-to-Peer traffic across their networks, without affecting the end-user experience. In January 2004 CacheLogic set up its analysis network to provide traffic analysis from within the ISP networks across the Globe. The network ensures CacheLogic maintains leader ship in understanding the changing nature of traffic across the Internet and, in particular, its impact upon Service Provider networks. Today through its proven track record, market-leading P2P management solution and its commitment to research and development, CacheLogic is considered the leading authority in its field. CacheLogic is currently working with a number of Digital Rights Holders and Broadcasters on their strategies for the distribution of legitimate video content using P2P technologies. Further information can be found at http://www.cachelogic.com Legal Note: All trademarks and registered trademarks previously cited are h ereby recognized and acknowledged=2E CacheLogic, Streamsight 510 and Cachepliance are trademarks of CacheLogic Limited. CacheLogic Public Relations: Jonathan Hirshon Horizon Communications jh@horizonpr.com Tel: +1 408 969 4888 CacheLogic Marketing: Nicholas Farka CacheLogic Ltd Tel: +44 1223 395 915 Email: nfarka@cachelogic=2Ecom Jonathan Hirshon - Principal, Horizon Communications Vox - 408-969-4888 US Mobile - 408-393-4900 Euro Mobile (only when traveling) - (+44)(0)7791 156425 GnuPG Fingerprint - 6E0A C579 5AE7 B006 DEE3 B658 F63F 74C3 7393 B433 Automatically add my vCard into Outlook (etc) at www.horizonpr.com/vcard.html See the current JH Music Library at http://www.horizonpr.com/ituneslist/ ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Date: 27 Jun 2006 14:27:27 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Bob Goudreau wrote: > It should have been pretty easy to catch from the header in the > message from the second poster (who was, as you mention, the one who > stated that there was no law where he/she lived preventing > fax-hunting): Assuming the header appeared. My newsreader shows only name, date, and subject, no organization. There are a great many varieties of newsreaders out there and countless options on them. Not everyone sees the same thing. >> (P.S. I'm familiar with Canada, but what/where is _Canada_ ? Is that >> a separate region with different rules than main Canada?) > Lisa, this hardly becomes you. You are a well-known long-time and > respected contributor to the Digest, so people will simply not find it > credible if you claim you have never seen underscores used to indicate > emphasis before. Sorry about that. I was attempting a subtle hint which obviously didn't convey my point. IMHO the poster I was replying to way overuses emphasis remarks -- numerous words in every sentence are emphasized in various ways. It becomes hard to read. Rather than emphasing it actually confuses. I guess it doesn't bother anyone else. ------------------------------ From: Mark J Subject: Re: Dropping the F-Bomb Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 21:54:07 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Not to mention 'Freedom Under Clark Kerr', used in the late 50's student protests at UC. Monty Solomon wrote in message news:telecom25.240.9@telecom-digest.org: > By Joel Achenbach > Sunday, June 25, 2006; > The most versatile word in our language can do almost anything, other > than be printed in a family newspaper. It can be a noun, a verb, a > gerund, an adjective or just an expletive. It can be literal or > figurative. Although it has an explicit sexual meaning, it's usually > used figuratively these days, as an all-purpose intensifier. > The F-word remains taboo. But just barely. We may be entering an era > in which this fabled vulgarity is on its way to becoming just another > word -- its transgressive energy steadily sapped by overuse. > From hip-hop artists to bloggers to the vice president of the United > States, everyone's dropping the F-bomb. Young people in particular > may not grasp how special this word has been in the past. They may > not realize how, like an old sourdough starter, the word has been > lovingly preserved over the centuries and passed from generation to > generation. For the good of human communication we must come > together, as a people, to protect this word, and ensure that, years > from now, it remains obscene. > Our leaders aren't helping. Before he was elected president, George > W. Bush used the word repeatedly during an interview with Tucker > Carlson. Dick Cheney on the Senate floor told a Democratic senator to > eff himself. Presidential candidate John F. Kerry said of Bush and the > war, "Did I expect George Bush to [mess] it up as badly as he did? I > don't think anybody did." No one is shocked that these people use such > language, but as statesmanship it's not exactly Lincolnesque. > More generally, the word is imperiled by the profusion of > communications technologies. Everyone's talking, e-mailing, blogging > and commenting on everyone else's comments. Combine that with partisan > rancor and a general desperation to get one's message across, and > naturally the word gets overtaxed. In Blogworld there are no idiots > anymore, only [blithering] idiots. The most opportunistic move in the > corporate realm may have been the decision by a retailer to call > itself French Connection United Kingdom, which allowed it to put the > company's initials on T-shirts everywhere. Jeepers, that's clever! http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/23/AR2006062301378.html ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Two New Services Try to Warn You About Sleazy Sites Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 08:05:00 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Robert Bonomi wrote: > In article , > George Mitchell wrote: >> In an article from Monty Solomon, our Moderator wrote: >>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Programs like this, designed to protect >>> the average user seem like a good idea, considering how much of the >>> internet these days is porn or scam/spam in nature. Does anyone know >>> why ICANN has always steadfastly refused to consider top level domain >>> names of .spam , .scam , and .porn which would enable most users to >>> do a rather good job of filtering? PAT] >> Sure would, if the spammers, scammers, and pornsters would >> cooperatively run their operations from those top-level domains. But >> how many do you think would volutarily register there? >> George Mitchell >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Probably none of them would voluntarily >> move into the proper category. They'd probably have to be forced into >> the proper categories, i.e. if you want connectivity with the net, >> you need to be in (whatever) category. It happen that way now with the >> top level domains .edu , .mil and .gov . If you are not an EDUcational >> or a MILitary or GOVernment entity you do not get in those categories. >> Of course this would require some policing efforts by ICANN and its >> registrars. I am sure there would be a lot of wimpering and whining by >> some folks, but thats' life around the net. PAT] > You obviously fail to grasp the fundamental difference between > "you > can't get in here unless you are ...." and "you must be in here if > you are ...." > Yes, you cannot get an '.edu' unless you are an educational > institution. *HOWEVER*, nothing _prevents_ an educational institution > from getting a name in another TLD, and many *do*. > Heck, even the U.S. ARMY uses .com domain names. > "In theory", things like '.scam', '.spam', or '.xxx' are a 'wonderful > idea'. In reality, however, due to the perverseness of human nature, > they are simply *unworkable*. > Among other 'minor' flaws with the idea is the simple fact that > providers don't ask 'what domain names will you be using' when they > sell connectivity. I've *never* seen an ISP contract that requires > you to notify the ISP if you start using different (or _additional_) > domain-names. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Let me ask you this: _Why_ cannot I > get into the EDU or the MIL or GOV domains? Why cannot I insist > upon and recieve http://ptownson.mil or http://ptownson.edu as > my domain name? Would it be because the EDU/GOV/MIL registrars have > agreements among themselves to not admit me if I lack the required > credentials? In the case of '.GOV', and '.MIL', the registry operator is the registry owner, and, as registry operator and _sole_registrar_, simply will not accept submissions that do not meet the registry owner's requirements/restrictions. (Which are effectively "I already know whether or not you qualify, so, don't bother if you don't.) In the case of .EDU, the registry owner requires that all registrars 'verify' that the registrant qualifies under the rules set up by the registry owner. > Would it also be because the other _valid, bonafide_ > occupants of those domain names would be likely to raise Holy Hell > if I were admitted without the proper credentials? Utterly inaccurate, unfounded speculation. DISPROVEN by actual history, in point of actual fact. 'non-compliant' TLD registrations _were_ allowed in several 'generic' TLDs in the past. NONE of the prior registrants 'raised Holy Hell' with anyone, at the time. There are several unqualified .EDU's still in existence today. and a whole bunch of .ORGs, and .NETs. And nobody is doing any hell-raising about it. > Or more down to > earth possibly, _why_ cannot I be admitted on my own terms to the > .aero or .museum domains? *I* will sell you a 'lifetime' registration for 'telecom-digest' in either of those domains for $100. And update the nameservers I operate to resolve those names to the machine addresses you specify. > Now with those questions in mind, tell me _why_ I must be > automatically admitted to the .org or .com or .net domains, purely > on my own say-so? Since your premise is in error with regard to the underlying, I cannot offer a constructive answer. '.org' is restricted to registered 'not for profit' business operations ... Just 'your own say-so' is -not- good enough, any more. '.com',and '.net' are open to *anyone*, and, as such, you don't even have to 'say-so' about anything to get register a domain in such. > be registered (or not) have any relevance to ICANN's wishes in the > matter? "Yes." "No." "Maybe." "One or more of the above." Check. > You mean I cannot just say I am an educational institution > and be taken at my word, or claim that "I am in charge of the Army > or Navy" and be accepted as such? Would ICANN and its various > registrar-agents look sort of askance at such a statement by myself? How in the h*ll would _I_ know? I'm not ICANN, and although I am a registrar-agent for several TLDs, it does _not_ include .EDU, or .MIL, however. I recommend you "try it and find out", and report the results. > Then _why_ are they so perfectly happy and willing to dump anyone > and everyone -- including all the trash in the world -- into the > domains known as .com and .net and .org (particularly .com)? Reviewing history will show that '.com' was expressly set up to be a 'catch-all' -- for those entities who _did_not_qualify_ for one of the 'more selective' DTS. Given that, it is not in the least surprising that it _has_ 'caught all'. The world is not a perfect place. You have precisely *two* choices -- you 'live with' the imperfections, or you "get off". > I get so tired of the wimpering and carrying-on about (1) 'how > decisions such as domain assignment are not the responsibility of > ICANN (what a lot of bologna!) and (2) 'we cannot dictate to other > sites what they can or cannot do with their sites' (more bologna, > and possibly even more insidious than even excuse (1) above. Of > course we can dictate! We do it all the time in the instances of > .edu .mil and .gov where one must at least come close to 'hitting > the mark' in order to being accepted therein. Yup. It is the difference between: 1) you must meet these criteria, if you wish to use this name and 2) you must use this name if you meet these criteria, whether or not you want to. *Every* TLD in existence is an example of the first option above. Proposed TLDs like '.XXX', '.SCAM', '.SPAM', etc. have *ZERO* value, unless they are implemented as option 2, above. There are, unfortunately, *insurmountable* barriers to the implementation of _any_ 'option 2' approach in the real world. These aren't esoteric matters like whether or not ICANN has the responsibility, or who can or cannot dictate to whom about what they can do with their sites; rather they are *practical* issues, like "WHO DECIDES what those categories are that you _must_use_ if you have certain kinds of content?" You may think that '.scam', '.spam', '.porn', etc. are obvious ones -- what about '.abomination' for any domain that touches on same-sex relationships -- be it pictures, stories, life-style discussions, "dating services" or whatever. If they're going to be spamming pornography are they required to register in ".spam", ".porn", or _both_? Next: what about 'sub-domains' that are set up _after_ the domain is created? suppose I register a domain "pastoral-pictures", with a description of "a gallery of scenes of natural beauty" -- shouldn't be any problem for a '.com' registration by your 'rules', right? A year later, I add some extra pages at "naked-women.in.pastoral-scenes,com", Is _this_ a violation of the registration? Do I _have_ to use '.porn' instead? Does it matter if those pages are classical fine art or "hustler" shots? The problems: _who_ decides? WHO CHECKS? *WHERE*DOES*THE*MONEY*COME*FROM* to do all those potential 'non-compliance' checks? Then the 'minor' issues, like HOW OFTEN do you have to do those checks to keep things 'clean'? Realizing that scammers and spammers figure they've "gotten their money's worth" out of a domain registration that stays live for only one to three _days_. > I think it would really be hilarious if a class-action lawsuit was > started naming ICANN and its registrar-agents as the defendant, and > the general computer-using public as the plaintiff-class. The > complaint would be ICANN has misused its trust as the caretakers of > record of the net by allowing all the trash to be dumped into the > category .com, causing the general devaluation of the net by causing > effective filtering of undesireable material (you fill in the blanks > as desired; spam, scam, porn, etc) to be largely ineffectual, > especially when filtering could be so simple: .spam, .scam, .porn . > And listen to no more of their excuses; either reform the net in > general, or get out of the business and let others do it. I think > a class-action against ICANN would feel _so good_ don't you? I now > understand they are off on another one of their international vacation > trips at present; is it Morocco? PAT] "Your Mission, Mr Townsend, should you decide to accept it, is to find a lawyer who will state for public record that the aforementioned 'complaint' provides any basis for a lawsuit in any court of competent jurisdiction. As always, should you, or any member of your IMF be caught or captured, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good Luck, Pat." P.S. Barbara Bain and Martin Landau have other commitments, you'll have to make due with alternates. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As Oscar Wilde once noted, he did not care what the internet writers nor the registrar-agents had to say about him, as long as they spelled his name correctly. It is T-O-W-N-S-O-N. You are welcome. PAT] ------------------------------ From: redefined Subject: Re: (Ab)use of Javascript; was Re: Web Services Increasingly Under Date: 28 Jun 2006 10:15:08 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com George Mitchell wrote: > Google and Amazon are going to have to store any tracking information > about me on their own servers. (Which is certainly what the Bush > administration is hoping they will do.) > George Mitchell > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You have a good point there. PAT] In order to store the tracking information on their server, they'll need a way to identify you the next time you return. If you cleared your cookies, there's really no way of doing that unless your IP stays the same. And even then, it would be a guess. If the government really wants to track people's online usage they'll have to give everyone the option to keep the same IP throughout their lifetime, much like they allow people to keep their phone numbers now. That way each IP address will have a name attached to it. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #242 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 29 01:26:45 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 2EB3D150FC; Thu, 29 Jun 2006 01:26:45 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #243 Message-Id: <20060629052645.2EB3D150FC@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 01:26:45 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 29 Jun 2006 01:29:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 243 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Judge Approves Yahoo Click Fraud Settlement (Reuters News Wire) AT&T Seeks Dismissal of EFF Suit (Gwendolyn Mariano, Newsfactor) Financial Search Raises Privacy Fears (Paul Blustein, Washington Post) Verizon Wireless to Ease up on Fees (Bruce Meyerson, AP) Verizon Wireless to Ease Up on Fees (Monty Solomon) Cambridge Residents to Benefit From Verizon Wireless Network (M Solomon) Verizon 100-Mbps Broadband Home Router (Monty Solomon) Re: Places That Use 911 For All Police Business (John Hines) Re: Places That Use 911 For All Police Business (Joshua Putnam) Re: (Ab)use of Javascript; was Re: Web Services Increasing (Julian Thomas) Re: Dell Investigating Exploding Laptop (Jim Haynes) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Judge Approves Yahoo Click Fraud Settlement Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 23:18:42 -0500 A federal judge on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a settlement in a lawsuit that accused Yahoo Inc. of not adequately protecting advertisers from a practice known as "click fraud," the Wall Street Journal reported. Under the terms of the settlement, Yahoo would pay about $5 million in legal fees and extend its period for reviewing advertiser click fraud complaints to include disputed charges since January 2004, rather than addressing complaints received only within the past 60 days, the newspaper said. The preliminary approval was granted by U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder in Los Angeles. The practice of clicking on online advertisements with the intent of driving up a business rival's costs or for earning commission is known as click fraud. On Yahoo and its partner Web sites advertisers pay each time ads are clicked on. Investors have expressed concern that click fraud might be a significant problem that could threaten advertiser confidence and profits, the Journal report said. "We're very pleased with the terms of the settlement," Reggie Davis, head of litigation for Yahoo, Sunnyvale, Calif. told the Journal. The suit was brought by private investigation firm Checkmate Strategic Group Inc. of Delray Beach, Florida, as a class action, the newspaper said. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Gwendolyn Mariano Subject: AT&T Seeks Dismissal of EFF Suit Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 23:12:19 -0500 Gwendolyn Mariano, newsfactor.com In the latest round in the ongoing fight over a domestic-spying program, the Electronic Frontier Foundation went head to head with AT&T and the U.S. government in federal court on Friday. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker heard oral arguments in San Francisco regarding the government's motion to dismiss the EFF's class-action lawsuit against AT&T. Walker also heard AT&T's motion to dismiss the case but did not make any final ruling on whether the suit can proceed. The nonprofit EFF, on behalf of a nationwide group of AT&T customers, first filed the suit on January 31, claiming that AT&T violated the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency to wiretap customer communications and spy on millions of ordinary citizens. 'Wrong Party' In Friday's hearing, AT&T asked Walker to dismiss the suit, saying that, according to law, AT&T and other corporations are exempt from civil suits that involve claims that they cooperated with government or law-enforcement agencies on matters of national security. AT&T also said the company obeys the law and does not give out information on customers to the government or law enforcement without legal authorization. "Ultimately, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing the wrong party," executives from AT&T said in a statement. "Their issue is with the government." Four years ago, President Bush issued an executive order that authorized the NSA to wiretap phone and e-mail communications. On Friday, the government argued that the lawsuit should be halted because state secrets might be exposed. 'Fishing Expedition' In the suit, the EFF claims that the NSA is using powerful computers to retrieve information on its customers via AT&T's telecommunications facilities and databases that consist of over 300 terabytes of caller information. The EFF maintains that AT&T is involved in what the EFF says is the "largest fishing expedition ever devised." The EFF said it believes the surveillance program violates the Fourth Amendment, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Wiretap Act, and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. "We have shown that AT&T is diverting traffic wholesale to the NSA," said EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. "It is not a secret, and it is no reason to deny AT&T customers the opportunity to show the court that this dragnet surveillance program violates the law and their privacy rights." No date has been set for Walker's ruling on whether the case will proceed. Copyright 2006 NewsFactor Network, Inc. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more internet, and tech news each day, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So AT&T, very self-rightously, claims that EFF is 'suing the wrong party' ... I do not think so! If AT&T had taken the same stance as Qwest Communications, and refused to cooperate without a warrant -- which the feds were unwilling to obtain, they would not be in the mess they are in now. But, let's face it, AT&T and its new owner Southwestern Bell, i.e. SBC have always been in bed with the federal government; always very cozy. That's one reason for a few years now I have refused to have any SBC/AT&T service in my home at all. I am still dealing with them indirectly of course, through Prairie Stream, but at least I do not have to deal with them personally. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Paul Blustein Subject: Financial Search Raises Privacy Fears Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 23:14:14 -0500 By Paul Blustein Washington Post Staff Writer For most Americans, the confidentiality of their bank accounts and other financial holdings is a right to be cherished. The idea that government agents might be secretly scrutinizing the records of individuals arouses discomfort in people who view their wealth, income and other financial information as nobody's business but their own. So questions of privacy arose yesterday after revelations that the Bush administration has been tracking clues about terrorists by searching the records of a Belgium-based banking consortium that handles millions of financial transactions daily across national borders. Bush administration officials offered extensive reasons for comfort, noting that the newly disclosed program doesn't give them access to most routine banking transactions and was designed to prevent abuse. But some experts said the revelations underscore the degree to which the government is obtaining more financial information that used to be treated as confidential, especially since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They cited, for example, the intensifying pressure on banks to submit reports to federal agencies when their customers engage in transactions that may be considered suspicious, such as withdrawing an unusually large amount of cash. "Maybe in the end, the public will be fine with it," said John D. ReVeal, a lawyer who specializes in financial regulation at the Washington office of Powell Goldstein LLP. "But it's always bothered me that the public has no idea about a lot of this. People seem to care if their bank shares information with an insurance company, for commercial purposes. But they don't seem to mind if the bank shares information with a government that puts people into Guantanamo without hearings and so forth." The administration's assurances came in briefings and interviews that officials conducted even though they had hoped to keep the newly disclosed program under wraps because of its value in thwarting terrorism. They said they were forced to go public because the New York Times had made clear that it was publishing a major story about it. In the first place, the officials said, the Belgian consortium, known by the acronym SWIFT, handles mostly transactions overseas, such as transfers of funds from a European country to a Middle Eastern country. And even when a transaction involves an American, a foreign national is typically on the other side. "As a general matter, [SWIFT's database] does not contain the type of information on ordinary transactions that would be made by individuals in the United States, such as deposits, withdrawals, checks, electronic bill payments and the like," said Stuart Levey, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence. Furthermore, the officials said, ever since the program was established, the government has taken elaborate precautions to ensure that SWIFT's data are not used for any purpose other than catching and disrupting terrorists. Investigators must provide evidence showing grounds for suspicion that the person whose transactions they are examining is involved in terrorism-related activities. SWIFT auditors may object if they view the search as unwarranted. The program even has its own outside auditors, from Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., who periodically review the searches to ensure that they are justified under the guidelines, according to Levey. "We are not permitted to browse through this data, nor can we search it for any non-terrorism investigation," Levey said, adding that in one case a couple of years ago, an analyst was found to be conducting an improper search. "In my view, that shows that the audit process is working," he said, adding that "the person who conducted that search is no longer allowed to work on" the program. Administration officials tacitly acknowledged that the information at their disposal is even greater than the initial press reports about the program indicated. According to Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, when the administration first requested information from SWIFT after Sept. 11, in subpoenas that were fairly narrowly drafted , the consortium said it couldn't comply because it didn't have the ability to extract the particular information from its database. "So they said, 'We'll give you all the data,' " Snow said, the idea being that federal agents would design methods of searching it. But he hastened to add that the data were handed over only on condition that strict safeguards would be implemented. Under various bank secrecy laws passed by Congress over the past 35 years, U.S. banks are forbidden to hand over information about individual customers' accounts, unless government agents obtain a court-authorized subpoena in the course of an investigation. But at the same time, banks risk severe penalties if they don't comply with federal "know your customer" requirements and fail to file "suspicious activity reports" to the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network about their customers' out-of-the-ordinary transactions. Since 1996, when the rules were tightened, banks have filed more than 2 million such reports, and the pace stepped up significantly after Sept. 11, when failure to file began resulting in stiff fines. "It's fair enough to say, we don't want to let the bad guys know that we're spying on them, and disclose every detail of how that's being done," ReVeal said. "But it's another thing to pull the wool over Americans' eyes and not disclose what end runs around the Fourth Amendment we may be doing." Copyright 2006 The Washington Post Company NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ From: Bruce Meyerson AP Subject: Verizon Wireless to Ease up on Fees Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 23:16:43 -0500 By BRUCE MEYERSON, AP Business Writer Targeting a top gripe by cell phone users and breaking ranks again with its industry, Verizon Wireless plans to prorate the fee it charges subscribers who break a contract so they only pay an amount proportional to the time left on their agreements. The change in the early termination fee will be implemented this fall for all new customers and any Verizon Wireless subscribers who sign a new contract, the company announced Wednesday in tandem with a speech by CEO Denny Strigl at an industry conference. The company, owned jointly by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, also said it was addressing another customer frustration by enabling existing subscribers to upgrade to a new handset at the same steep discounts being offered to lure new customers. U.S. wireless companies, their subscribers trapped by contracts and early termination fees, typically offer much smaller savings, if at all, on upgrades while they're under contract. Verizon's new flexibility will be available to subscribers with calling plans of $50 after 12 months. Wireless cancellation fees are a longtime sore point among consumers, provoking lawsuits and legislative proposals to prohibit and cap them. Earlier this month in California, a state court decided to allow a class action suit seeking to recover early cancellation fees from Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp., according to the seniors advocacy group AARP, which is providing legal assistance for the plaintiffs. And in early June, Democrats in the Michigan Legislature proposed a bill that would limit termination fees to $20. About 50 million of Verizon Wireless' 53 million subscribers are under contract, and nearly all would face an early termination fee of $175 if they decided to change carriers or just close their accounts. "The number of complaints on this issue is the single largest that our customers have," Strigl said in an interview before the speech, referring to the termination fees as a "black eye" for the industry. "It's a legitimate complaint: If they leave in month one or month 23, they pay the same charge." The change to prorating the fee isn't as big a gambit for Verizon, which boasts the industry's best customer retention rates, as it might be for many rivals with heavier subscriber defections. Wednesday's announcement marks at least the third time that Strigl has used the annual Yankee Group wireless conference to break ranks with his top rivals. In 2003, Strigl came out in favor of giving cell users the right to keep their phone numbers if they decide to change providers, an edict from the Federal Communications Commission that all the top wireless companies were trying to fight in court. The sudden reversal by Verizon Wireless scored a public relations coup, with its rivals left looking less customer friendly. Last year, citing customer privacy concerns, Strigl said Verizon Wireless would not participate in an effort to create a directory of cellular phone numbers like that in the traditional wireline industry. Asked if the latest move on termination fees might provoke more consternation, Strigl said, "That's what industry leaders do." Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Also see in this issue an abridged version of this story, submitted by correspondent Monty Solomon. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 21:38:00 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Wireless to Ease Up on Fees By BRUCE MEYERSON AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- Targeting a top gripe by cell phone users and breaking ranks again with its industry, Verizon Wireless plans to prorate the fee it charges subscribers who break a contract so they only pay an amount proportional to the time left on their agreements. The change in the early termination fee will be implemented this fall for all new customers and any Verizon Wireless subscribers who sign a new contract, the company announced Wednesday in tandem with a speech by CEO Denny Strigl at an industry conference. The company, owned jointly by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, also said it was addressing another customer frustration by enabling existing subscribers to upgrade to a new handset at the same steep discounts being offered to lure new customers. U.S. wireless companies, their subscribers trapped by contracts and early termination fees, typically offer much smaller savings, if at all, on upgrades while they're under contract. Verizon's new flexibility will be available to subscribers with calling plans of $50 after 12 months. Wireless cancellation fees are a longtime sore point among consumers, provoking lawsuits and legislative proposals to prohibit and cap them. - http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=59445926 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 21:42:39 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cambridge Residents to Benefit From Verizon Wireless Network Investing to Stay Ahead of Growing Demand for Wireless Calling, Data Access, and Music CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- In a continuing effort to provide the best wireless service for local residents in Middlesex County, Verizon Wireless, operator of the nation's most reliable wireless network, has expanded its network with a new cell site -- increasing capacity as well as in-building coverage along Massachusetts Avenue in the Central Square section of Cambridge. This network expansion is part of the company's aggressive multi-billion dollar network investment each year (more than $1 billion every 90 days), including well over $300 million in New England in 2005 alone, to stay ahead of the growing demand for Verizon Wireless voice and data services. Verizon Wireless has invested $30 billion -- on average $5 billion a year -- into its national wireless network over the past six years as part of its commitment to offer customers the most reliable service available, including wireless data services such as picture messaging, text messaging, and the company's exclusive V CAST service. V CAST brings TV, music and other multimedia services to wireless phones over Verizon Wireless' high-speed BroadbandAccess network. BroadbandAccess offers customers the nation's largest high-speed wireless broadband network, operating at average speeds between 400 kbps - 700 kbps. - http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=59432031 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 22:05:44 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon 100-Mbps Broadband Home Router Verizon Unlocks Full Potential of Fiber-Based FiOS Internet and Video Services With Advanced 100-Mbps Broadband Home Router - Jun 28, 2006 08:00 AM (PR Newswire) New Broadband Home Router Supplied by Actiontec Electronics Now Being Installed in Customers' Homes When They Order FiOS Internet Service and FiOS TV; Device Also Reduces Installation Times While Avoiding Need to Install New Equipment for Future Services NEW YORK, June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- New customers of Verizon's industry- leading FiOS broadband and video services, provided over the company's fiber- to-the-premises network, will now receive the most advanced in-home broadband networking router available today. The new router -- designed and built to Verizon's specifications and supplied by Actiontec Electronics of Sunnyvale, Calif. -- is the basis of Verizon's digital home architecture, and is capable of providing connectivity to the FiOS network at speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps). It leverages existing in-home wiring for broadband data and video signals and delivers easy, high-quality, more reliable home-networking solutions to provide connectivity to the increasing number of connected consumer devices. The new broadband home router also supports remote management that uses new industry standards known as TR-069, enabling Verizon to perform troubleshooting without having to dispatch a technician. Customers who purchase Verizon's FiOS Internet Service products, as well as those who order FiOS TV, will automatically receive the new router as part of the installation. - http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=59427414 ------------------------------ From: John Hines Subject: Re: Places That Use 911 For All Police Business Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 18:37:37 -0500 Organization: www.jhines.org Reply-To: john@jhines.org John L wrote: > Does anyone know of specific places where this is the case? I realize > that most places you either call 311 or a POTS number. In my case, in a suburb of Chicago, any response needing an actual officer has to go thru 911, as that is the county wide dispatch system. AFAIK, only the city of Chicago has 311 in my area, not the surrounding area. Silly sig to prevent isp ad [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But John Levine asked about _non-emergency_ numbers, in other words, an officer is not needed. Every Chicago suburb I know of has a seven-digit administrative number for the police as well as 911. In fact, the state law several years ago which established 911 required that every community also maintain a seven digit administrative number. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joshua Putnam Subject: Re: Places That Use 911 For All Police Business Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 17:29:55 -0700 In article , johnl@iecc.com says: > I recall seeing messages about some cities where 911 is the only > number to call the cops, both for emergencies and for routine > business. > Does anyone know of specific places where this is the case? I moved off of the island a few years ago, but as recently as 2002, that was how things were handled on Vashon Island in Washington State, a rural island served by the King County Sheriff's Department. Call 911, tell them it's non-emergency, and they route the call accordingly. josh@phred.org is Joshua Putnam Updated Infrared Photography Gallery: ------------------------------ From: Julian Thomas Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 21:01:18 -0400 Subject: Re: (Ab)use of Javascript; was Re: Web Services Increasingly Under In <20060628195849.BFEE2152CD@massis.lcs.mit.edu>, on 06/28/06 at 03:58 PM, was typed: > If the government really wants to track people's online usage > they'll have to give everyone the option to keep the same IP > throughout their lifetime, much like they allow people to keep their > phone numbers now. That way each IP address will have a name > attached to it. Hardly. Consider local network environments and shared usage computers, where many users share the same IP. Julian Thomas: http://jt-mj.net In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State! Warpstock X - October 12-15 2006; Windsor, Ont. I'll be there - will you? -- -- Finagle's First Law: If an experiment works, something has gone wrong. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Dell Investigating Exploding Laptop Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 02:43:49 GMT An article in a recent IEEE Spectrum tells about the problems manufacturers are having with counterfeit electronic parts. Exploding batteries and electrolytic capacitors are some of the problems. jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #243 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 29 16:52:58 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 4D3C215337; Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:52:58 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #244 Message-Id: <20060629205258.4D3C215337@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:52:58 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, FULL_REFUND,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:55:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 244 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: Configuring SonicWALL Firewalls, Chris Lathem etal (Rob Slade) Vet Admin Worker had Okay to Take Stolen Laptop Home From Office (Hope Yen) Experts to Form ID Theft Research Center (William Kates) Definity - Changing Hostility Calling Privileges (imalc) Junk Cell Phone Call (AES) Question About Historical Cell Site Information (Brent Newton) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 29, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Senate Panel Passes Telecom Bill (USTelecom dailyLead) Verizon "Broadband Router" the Perfect Trojan Horse (Monty Solomon) Re: Campus Fax Finder (jtaylor) Re: Bellsouth Keeps Calling (DLR) Re: X-Bar Switch Noise Levels (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: (Ab)use of Javascript; was Re: Web Services Under (redefined) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 09:19:52 -0800 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: Configuring SonicWALL Firewalls, Chris Lathem et al Reply-To: rMslade@shaw.ca Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User BKCNSWFW.RVW 20060602 "Configuring SonicWALL Firewalls", Chris Lathem et al, 2006, 1-59749-250-7, U$49.95/C$69.95 %A Chris Lathem %C 800 Hingham Street, Rockland, MA 02370 %D 2006 %G 1-59749-250-7 %I Syngress Media, Inc. %O U$49.95/C$69.95 781-681-5151 fax: 781-681-3585 amy@syngress.com %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1597492507/robsladesinterne http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1597492507/robsladesinte-21 %O http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1597492507/robsladesin03-20 %O Audience i- Tech 2 Writing 1 (see revfaq.htm for explanation) %P 500 p. %T "Configuring SonicWALL Firewalls" Chapter one provides an overview of the basics of networking, information security (at a rather simplistic level), and firewalls. The features of SonicWALL devices are described in chapter two. The material is mostly at sales brochure level. While some negative points are raised the text is not particularly careful: at one point we are told that the SonicWALL can terminate any type of VPN (Virtual Private Network), while later it is admitted that it can terminate any IPSec VPN. Management and configuration is covered in chapter three, although the command line interface gets pretty short shrift. Access control and policy management is dealt with in chapter four. Chapter five reviews user accounts and authentication. The two routing protocols possible with SonicWALL, RIP (Routing Information Protocol) and OSPF (Open Shortest Path First), are described in chapter six. Chapter seven explains network address translation (NAT) and lists the SonicWALL dialogue boxes for it. Transparent (layer two) mode screenshots are contained in chapter eight. Chapter nine throws around terms like "attack detection and defence" and "intrusion prevention" but is really a list of the application proxy setting screens. IPSec adjustments are shown in chapter ten. Availability and redundancy functions are described in eleven. "Troubleshooting," in chapter twelve, enumerates various utilities and diagnostics. Chapter thirteen shows shots of the multi-device management system. This is a decent enough replacement for vendor documentation, but not much more. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2006 BKCNSWFW.RVW 20060602 ====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer) rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca rslade@computercrime.org It is bad to suppress laughter; it goes back down and spreads to your hips. Dictionary Information Security www.syngress.com/catalog/?pid=4150 http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm ------------------------------ From: Hope Yen Subject: Vet Admin Worker Had Okay to Take Stolen Laptop Home From Office Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 23:06:40 -0500 VA worker had OK for data later stolen By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer The Veterans Affairs worker faulted for losing veterans' personal information had permission to access millions of Social Security numbers on a laptop from home, agency documents obtained by The Associated Press show. Separately, President Bush on Wednesday asked Congress for $160.5 million for credit monitoring for millions of veterans affected by the May 3 burglary. He proposed tapping dollars set aside but not used yet for food stamps, student loans and trade assistance for farmers. The department's documents raise questions as to whether top officials condoned a practice that led to a theft with the potential to affect 26.5 million veterans and active-duty troops. VA Secretary Jim Nicholson and others were to testify Thursday before a House committee investigating the government's largest security breach involving Social Security numbers. The documents show that the data analyst, whose name was being withheld, had approval as early as Sept. 5, 2002, to use special software at home that was designed to manipulate large amounts of data. A separate agreement, dated Feb. 5, 2002, from the office of the assistant secretary for policy and planning, allowed the worker to access Social Security numbers for millions of veterans. A third document, also issued in 2002, gave the analyst permission to take a laptop computer and accessories for work outside of the VA building. "These data are protected under the Privacy Act," one document states. The analyst is the "lead programmer within the Policy Analysis Service and as such needs access to real Social Security numbers." The department said last month it was in the process of firing the data analyst, who is obviously challenging the dismissal. He has provided copies of all the documentation which gave him permission to work outside the office. Apparently the department had 'forgotten' about giving him that permission. Embarassed VA officials have claimed the firing was justified because the analyst violated department procedure by taking the data home; they also said he was "grossly negligent" in handling sensitive information. The analyst says not only will he get his job back, he will get all his back pay if they try to discharge him. Lawmakers expressed dismay over the latest disclosure. They noted that the analyst immediately notified his supervisors after the theft from his suburban Maryland home, but supervisors delayed publicizing the crime until May 22. Nicholson was informed on May 16. "The gross negligence in this case are the people above him," said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the acting top Democrat on the house Veterans' Affairs Committee. "They gave him express permission to take the information home. When it was stolen, he reported it right away." The analyst has documented the full chain of events since that time. "They're trying to pin it on this one guy, but I think it's other people we need to be looking at," he said. A spokesman for the VA did not have immediate comment Wednesday. Separately, the president asked in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., for the $160.5 million to help the VA cover the costs of credit monitoring and fraud watch services. The money would be taken from programs in the departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Labor, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs whose money would otherwise go unused or from programs previously set for elimination, according to Scott Milburn, spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget. They include: _$20 million from food stamp employment and training. _$40 million from trade adjustment assistance for farmers. _$6.7 million from health professions student loans. _$49.1 million from the program, "Responsible Reintegration of Youthful Offenders." _$9 million from "Next Generation High Speed Rail" program. _$1.4 million from the Bureau of the Public Debt. _$5.3 million from the Internal Revenue Service. _$29 million from VA. Some Democrats said money to pay for veterans' protection should not come at the expense of other programs. "It's outrageous to first expose millions of Americans to credit fraud and identity theft and then to try to cut food stamps, student loans, and youth programs to pay for it," said Sen. Patty Murray (news, bio, voting record), D-Wash. "This is a new problem that needs to be solved with new money." Nicholson told lawmakers this week that the money would cover monitoring for about half of the 17.5 million people whose Social Security numbers were compromised. He said it also would pay for out-of-pocket expenses ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 for those whose identities are stolen. The extent of the identity theft has not yet been detirmined from the incident. ___ On the Net: Info for veterans suspecting identity theft: http://www.firstgov.gov or 1-800-FED-INFO Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: William Kates Subject: Experts to Form ID Theft Research Center Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 23:10:10 -0500 Experts to form ID theft research center By WILLIAM KATES, Associated Press Writer An alliance of businesses, colleges and federal crime fighters will combine their expertise at a new research center that will study the problems of identity theft and fraud. Founding partners of the Center for Identity Management and Information Protection include LexisNexis Inc. and IBM Corp., the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI. Participating schools include Carnegie Mellon University, Indiana University and Syracuse University. The center will be established in upstate New York at Utica College, which pioneered the nation's first curriculum on white-collar crime in 1988. Research will focus on critical issues in identity management, information sharing policy and data protection, said Dr. Gary Gordon, a Utica College professor and expert in cybercrime and identity fraud. "The first thing we have to do is better understand the size and scope of the issue," Gordon said. Officials were to announce creation of the center Wednesday in Washington, D.C. and in Utica. "We all know it's a major problem in society, and a potentially dangerous problem. It cuts across every aspect -- commerce, national security, government, our private lives. There is a tremendous need, though, for more research," Gordon said. One recent survey reported that there have been more than 28 million new identity theft victims since 2003, but Gordon said it's likely that just as many incidents go undetected or unreported. In May, up to 26.5 million people were exposed to possible identity theft and fraud when a Veterans Affairs Department data analyst's laptop computer was stolen from his home in suburban Maryland. The laptop contained names, birth dates and Social Security numbers. So far, there have been no identity crimes linked to the VA theft, but lesser incidents have become commonplace. "Identity theft has become rampant in our society and to better combat the problem we need bold, new and innovative solutions," said U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (news, bio, voting record), R-N.Y., chairman of the House Science Committee. Tracy Mitrano, director of information technology policy at Cornell University, applauded the center's creation. "We really don't have a coherent legal framework for privacy in this country," she said. "We have piecemeal laws that were adopted for particular reasons. We need a center like this to help us learn more about what people are doing with information ... and how it relates to our laws, ethics and values." Secret Service Deputy Director Brian Nagel agreed that it will require a comprehensive examination of the problem for officials to improve prevention and detection as well as develop technological solutions and new policies. "This will begin a dialogue and interaction on how to do better, on what tools are needed, on how we can improve policy," he said. One of the initial research projects at the center will examine current and emerging criminal groups that perpetrate identity fraud and theft, with a focus on their methods of operation. It also will look at developing stronger identity authentication systems. The center will share its research through training sessions, symposiums, publications and its Web site. ___ On the Web: Center for Identity Management and Information Protection: http://www.cimip.org Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ From: imalc Subject: Definity - Changing Hostility Calling Privileges Date: 29 Jun 2006 02:48:54 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com We have a Definity G3si for our hotel. Right now in a room that is not checked in the phone has only property and local calling privileges. I would like to change the permissions so that an unchecked in room only can call on property. I have been unable to find the correct screen to make this change. Can someone help me? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Junk Cell Phone Call Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 12:42:04 -0700 Organization: Stanford University Just received a telemarketing call to my cell phone from (416) 777-9552. Return call to this number is answered by a machine which launches into a pitch for a "special offer", but gives no information as to identity of calling party -- just says they'll call me again. Have received multiple recent calls from what seems to be the same source, under different numbers. Can any experts dredge up the identity of this caller, and perhaps a related 1-800 number I could call back for further information? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Now, Mr. Siegman, you are not hinting that the fine readers here should _abuse_ the company are you? Just like with the internet, where we are not to dictate how others are allowed to use their sites, neither are we permitted to tell others how to use their telephones. Just ask any right-thinking person. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: question about historical cell site information From: Brent Newton Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 11:00:52 -0500 Hi. I came across your website. I am a criminal defense attorney in Houston, Texas, exploring a possible alibi defense for a client whose cell phone records show his cell phone being used immediately before the alleged bank robbery that the police claim he committed. He says he made the call at his mother's house, which is 40 miles away the bank he allegedly robbed. I have subpoenaed the historical cell site records from the carrier, T-Mobile, but a T-Mobile representative claims that they do not keep historical cell site information past 30 days. Does this seem correct to you? I know other carriers, such as Sprint/Nextel, keep such records in their archives for years. Any suggestions or information would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks, Brent Newton [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Can anyone offer any suggestions to this attorney about cell phone record keeping and how cell towers are assigned, etc? And to attorney Newton, good luck in getting your client off the hook on this! PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 29, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 11:51:07 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 29, 2006 ******************************** KPN Sues Government over Telecoms Rules http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18656?11228 Dutch telecoms group KPN has launched legal proceedings against the government, accusing it of bias in the enforcement of telecoms rules. KPN argues that unlike cable operators, which face very little regulation, it is subject to a plethora of rules carried over from the era when telecoms and cable were different and independent ... Telefonnica to Wrap Up Cesky Telecom, EuroTel Merger by 1 July http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18654?11228 Spanish telecoms group Telefonica is planning to complete the merger of its Czech fixed-line unit Cesky Telecom with its mobile business EuroTel by 1 July this year. The merged company will be rebranded as Telefonica O2 Czech Republic by the year-end. The operational integration of the two companies should be completed... KT, SK to Launch Commercial WiBro in South Korea http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18653?11228 KT Corp. (KT) and SK Telecom (SKT), South Korea's two largest telecoms operators, said today that they would each launch a commercial wireless broadband WiBro service, available from tomorrow. The two companies said that they would initially operate the services in the Seoul metropolitan area and gradually expand the service coverage... Cingular CTO Downplays Displacement, Touts IMS http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18650?11228 NEW YORK -- Upstart players such as Google and Skype may be disruptive to traditional telecom business models, but Cingular Wireless CTO Kris Rinne downplayed the threat of these newcomers and instead focused on the benefits of IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) technology and how it will enable Cingular to offer cross-network applications. ... Senate Net-Neutrality Vote Promises A Continued Battle http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18648?11228 After three days of haggling over language and a slew of amendments, the sweeping Communications, Consumers' Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 (S.2686) now goes to the full Senate floor after a 15-7 vote at the committee level. However, efforts to codify and enforce network-neutrality rules over Internet-access and... Verizon Wireless to Ease Up on Fees http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18645?11228 NEW YORK -- Targeting a top gripe by cell phone users and breaking ranks again with its industry, Verizon Wireless plans to prorate the fee it charges subscribers who break a contract so they only pay an amount proportional to the time left on their agreements. The change in the early termination fee will be implemented this... V-Phone Simplifies Net Calling http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/110/18643?11228 NEW YORK -- It is a top feature of Internet phone service that few bother with: the ability to use it anywhere, making and taking calls from the same number at the same low price, even if you're halfway around the world. The buzz kill to this dreamy capability is that you usually need either to haul along an adapter to... EU Explores Tighter Broadband Regulation http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18641?11228 BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Commission unveiled plans Thursday that would force telecommunications providers to share broadband infrastructure with rivals and unify regulations in the sector. Viviane Reding, the European Union commissioner in charge of the EU's telecommunications policy, said the rules would encourage... iAnywhere Bundles Up http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18639?11228 Need proof that the mobile software market is in a state of flux? Consider that major players like Microsoft Corp., Nokia Corp., Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), and Sybase Inc. are trying to expand beyond their mobile email or management roots and offer more integrated packages to corporate users. Often, however, this can be a complex... Sprint Hints at Spectrum Plans http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18636?11228 WASHINGTON -- Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to acquire additional spectrum in the 2.5GHz band in order to give the company a nationwide footprint, according to company officials attending the Wireless Communications Association International (WCA) conference here this week. But the company remains mysterious on its service plans for the... TelecomDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 12:21:15 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Senate Panel Passes Telecom Bill USTelecom dailyLead June 29, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dSxofDtutfcfvJmApM TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Senate panel passes telecom bill BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Verizon Wireless to reduce contract exit fees * AT&T pitches TV service in Tupperware-style parties * Cable firms take on Web, each other with online video * BellSouth expands wireless broadband * ReplayTV to sell DVR software for PCs USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Take a Stephen Shepard Crash Course in IMS, VoIP and Telecom TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * S. Korean telecoms to launch WiBro * Verizon launches 100 Mbps home router * EA executive ponders the future of gaming REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Anaheim's Wi-Fi network goes live * New regs may not lead to more cross-ownership Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dSxofDtutfcfvJmApM ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:37:11 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon "Broadband Router" the Perfect Trojan Horse http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200606/msg00244.html Begin forwarded message: From: "David P. Reed" Date: June 29, 2006 12:20:09 PM EDT Subject: Verizon "Broadband Router" the perfect Trojan Horse http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=59427414 Dewayne's list passed on this press announcement of a new "high speed home router" that comes with its new FIOS service, allowing multiple users to access the Internet over the FIOS fiber. This router is described in the press release in terms of its speed and customer support capabilities. Verizon carefully notes that it was designed specifically for the FIOS users. But this routhershould also be defined in terms of the "Trojan Horses" that are embedded, designed by the DSL industry (i.e. the LECs captive suppliers). The major one being the "Industry Standard TR-069" touted at the top of the press release as a tool for customer support. But it is far more than that. I would note that "Industry Standard TR-069" is not hard to find on the DSL Forum site. http://www.dslforum.org/techwork/tr/TR-069.pdf However, a little (though not much) careful reading is required to find the reasons why Verizon might like this standard. For the worst example: I direct the reader to Appendix D. Appendix D describes an architecture for intercepting web page requests from the customer and redirecting them based on arbitrary policy choices. In other words, the standard contains the perfect tool for controlling every Internet access a customer (or the Internet-based equipment the customer might choose to buy at a later time) might make, since Verizon owns and controls the router. Note that this router feature does not merely "prioritize" traffic. This feature is promoted because it meddles with every web request you make, redirecting some requests to special sites that are in a business relationship with the owner (Verizon, I presume, here). Rather than just forwarding packets, it can only work by singling out and deeply inspecting every web page address you seek. The history of the web requests will be selectively or entirely sent to servers on Verizon's network, whether the customer agrees or not. From an Internet point of view, this router is severely non- standard. There is no Internet RFC that has been filed for the protocol involved. Not even a draft RFC. The DSL Forum is an organization that has no standing in the Internet community. Verizon's description of the protocol as "industry standard" is deceptive. It is a standard, from a very biased part of an Industry. But it has not followed the normal route by which Internet protocols are developed and deployed on a worldwide consensus basis. It violates the basic principles of the Internet architecture as well, which have created the most rapidly growing world-wide communications capability in the history of civilization. Verizon is perfectly within its rights to develop and deploy any technology it wants to sell to customers, if that is what they choose when fully informed of what they are buying. But it must acknowledge that this equipment and its network are not giving customers access to The Internet. Instead, Verizon is giving its customers access to a private walled garden, with limited access to the Internet when and if it suits Verizon's purposes. In my personal opinion, putting this kind of technology in the path of a service that claims to offer Internet access comes close to *misappropriating* and distorting an important public good, called The Internet, which was built by voluntary market cooperation and social contribution, for private gain, and deceiving its customers in its representations in the process. You may not agree, but if you do find this a bit fishy, please share this observation with your friends, and perhaps your US Senators as an example of how companies like Verizon try to deceive their customers and to exploit their government-granted monopoly power over their customers by baiting them with speed, and reserving the right to switch their communications to preferred substitutes. You might also share with your friends the following link to a proposed bill to protect the Internet from such redefinition by vendors that pretend to sell Internet Access, but sell something else instead: http://www.dpsproject.com/ . ------------------------------ From: jtaylor Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 05:36:22 -0300 Organization: MCI Canada News Reader Service wrote in message news:telecom25.242.9@telecom-digest.org: > Sorry about that. I was attempting a subtle hint which obviously > didn't convey my point. IMHO the poster I was replying to way > overuses emphasis remarks -- numerous words in every sentence are > emphasized in various ways. It becomes hard to read. Rather than > emphasing it actually confuses. I guess it doesn't bother anyone > else. I'm curious. Why did you say that I "boasted" that there was no junk fax law? What subtle hint was that intended to convey? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 07:51:10 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: Bellsouth Keeps Calling sawney beane wrote: > Bellsouth seems to call me daily. They sound like voices from the > West Indies. I keep saying no and hanging up, and they keep calling. > I suppose it's to pay for this service that my phone bill has doubled > in ten years. > Today I asked why they kept calling. The caller used this to launch > her pitch. $21.22 would cover local and long-distance service, and it > wouldn't change. I said I wouldn't agree to anything until I had it > in writing. She said I'd get it in writing after I agreed. She kept > pushing without really telling me anything until I hung up. > Years ago, an AT&T salesman got me to agree to promises that were > utterly false. I phoned AT&T, whose representative said AT&T was not > responsible, but he corrected the situation with more promises that > proved to be false. I was not able to get a full refund for the > "services" I didn't ask for or use. > I don't want to go through that with Bellsouth. Their website doesn't > mention the plan described on the phone. Can I have Bellsouth > executives arrested for harassing me? You need to use the phrase "Do not call me again." You should at that time have your request noted and very likely get to talk to another person to verify your request. Hanging up will not stop the calls. ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 10:00:57 EDT Subject: Re: X-Bar Switch Noise Levels In a message dated Thu, 22 Jun 2006 05:20:51 GMT, Carl Navarro writes: [ ... ] > In a college town, Wednesday night was the day the kids called home, > as Thursday night was drinking night :-) In the early days of providing phones in every dorm room, SWBT provided this service at the University of Oklahoma. This was done with Step switches, probably under the centrex tariffs. There were incessant complaints from students of overloads and unending busies. SWBT did the usual busy studies, ending at 9 or 10 p.m. or whatever the normal time for such studies. Sometoday finally suggested extending the study an hour or two. This showed increasing usage as the hour got later, and the busy study was finally extended long into the wee hours of the night. The busy hour turned out to be, I forget now whether it was 1 to 2 a.m. or 2 to 3 a.m. Reinforcement of the switches followed in quick time (for a telco). Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: redefined Subject: Re: (Ab)use of Javascript; was Re: Web Services Increasingly Under Date: 29 Jun 2006 12:16:21 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com This is true, but it's no different than the cookies that are currently stored/tracked on these computers. To stretch my idea even further, if there is a will there is a way. All they have to do is create a simple little program that will change the system's IP address every time a new user logs on. Say a window will prompt for the login/password, and the login will be the IP. This will of course wreak havoc on the network structure, but with the advance of wireless networks and entire cities getting ready to go wifi, this is looking more and more like when cell phones first appeared on the market. I'm sure they can come up with routers that will send traffic from each IP to its appropriate router over wifi. Again, not saying that it's going to happen. Just letting my imagination work here. Julian Thomas wrote: >> If the government really wants to track people's online usage >> they'll have to give everyone the option to keep the same IP >> throughout their lifetime, much like they allow people to keep their >> phone numbers now. That way each IP address will have a name >> attached to it. > Hardly. Consider local network environments and shared usage computers, > where many users share the same IP. > Julian Thomas: http://jt-mj.net > In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State! > Warpstock X - October 12-15 2006; Windsor, Ont. I'll be there - will you? > -- -- > Finagle's First Law: > If an experiment works, something has gone wrong. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V25 #244 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 30 13:51:37 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C1F13152C6; Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:51:36 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #245 Message-Id: <20060630175136.C1F13152C6@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:51:36 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_REMOVE autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:55:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 245 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson NorVergence Founders Fined For Fraud (Kenneth P. Stox) Confused About Net Neutrality (jmartineau@gmail.com) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 30, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) USA Today: Call Database Not So Broad (Monty Solomon) Re: Verizon "Broadband Router" the Perfect Trojan Horse (Monty Solomon) Re: Question About Historical Cell Site Information (Matt Simpson) Re: Question About Historical Cell Site Information (Danny Burstein) Re: Junk Cell Phone Call (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Verizon 100-Mbps Broadband Home Router (W Howard) Re: Bellsouth Keeps Calling (davidesan@gmail.com) Re: Places That Use 911 For All Police Business (Arthur Kamlet) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Kenneth P. Stox Organization: Ministry of Silly Walks Subject: NorVergence Founders Fined For Fraud Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 22:52:55 GMT By Jerri Stroud ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH The Federal Trade Commission has settled charges against the founders of NorVergence Inc., a company that defrauded hundreds of businesses, including dozens in the St. Louis area, in a telecommunications scheme that collapsed in 2004. Nonprofit groups, churches and towns also were victimized. In a ruling on Monday, the FTC barred NorVergence founders Thomas N. Salzano and Peter J. Salzano from engaging in the fraud again and levied fines of $50 million against each of them. The Salzanos are brothers. However, the fines mostly were suspended because the FTC believes the Salzanos are unable to pay. The agency will try to collect $10 million from Peter Salzano, who is in bankruptcy. In the fraud, NorVergence salespeople told customers they could save money on telephone, Internet and cell phone service by using a "Matrix" black box. ------------------------------ From: jmartineau@gmail.com Subject: Confused About Net Neutrality Date: 30 Jun 2006 06:32:37 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi, Been trying to keep up with the Net Neutrality debate but obviously it's a confusing issue. My question is, don't we already pay for faster service? Don't websites pay based on the amount of bandwidth they need to serve out? I know I pay a premium price for cable internet service because I get more bandwidth. Seems like most people are willing to keep going as we are now -- where the price is proportional to the speed. How is what the telecoms are proposing different? Are they suggesting that they should be allowed to arbitrarily limit or increase the speeds with which certain sites or traffic can reach me, regardless of what that site and I are paying in terms of bandwidth? ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - June 30, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 12:12:54 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For June 30, 2006 ******************************** TelecomDirect News will take an editorial holiday on July 3-July 4. We will resume publishing on July 5. We wish everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July. Telenor Mobile Network Reaches 500 Destinations in Pakistan http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18682?11228 Telenor Pakistan says that it now has the second-largest network in Pakistan, with 500 destinations covered within less than 16 months of the company's launch. Telenor Pakistan is 100% owned by Telenor. The Nordic firm also has Asian operations in Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh. Significance: Telenor launched mobile services... UTStarcom to Supply T66 Dual-Mode Handsets for China Unicom's World Wide Service http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18679?11228 UTStarcom today unveiled its T66 dual-mode, dual-standby CDMA/GSM handset. The company also announced that it had signed a contract with China Unicom to supply T66 handsets for its World Wind dual-mode phone service. The CDMA and GSM modes of the T66 handset are designed to be able to be on standby simultaneously, which can enable users ... New EU Telecoms Rules Arouse Mixed Feelings http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18677?11228 The European Commission has released its long-awaited recommendations intended to spur further competition in the region's telecoms market and attracting further investment to the industry. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding outlined far-reaching proposals, drawing the ire of the ... Murdoch reportedly joins bid for PCCW's assets http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18674?11228 HONG KONG -- Rupert Murdoch has reportedly joined Australian bank Macquarie's bid for PCCW's telecommunications and media businesses as the bidding for the Hong Kong phone company's assets added its highest profile player to date Thursday. Murdoch was also quoted as saying in a newspaper report that influential Hong... BlackBerry maker RIM adds 680,000 users in latest quarter as revenue rises 35 percent http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18672?11228 NEW YORK -- Research In Motion Ltd. said Thursday it earned $129.8 million in its latest quarter as the maker of BlackBerry wireless devices and services added 680,000 users, boosting revenue by 35 percent. The profit for RIM's fiscal first quarter, equal to 68 cents per share, was fairly steady compared with the same... U.S. appeals court won't postpone August wireless auction http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18670?11228 WASHINGTON -- A U.S. appeals court has refused to postpone a Federal Communications Commission wireless auction that is set for August, handing a victory to government regulators who are managing the high-profile auction that could raise an estimated $15 billion for the government. Three groups had asked the U.S. Third... EarthLink Debuts First Citywide Wi-Fi Network http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18667?11228 Municipal Wi-Fi is finally a reality for EarthLink, which launched its first network in Anaheim, Calif. The ISP has several other deployments in the hopper. The Anaheim deployment marks EarthLink's first commercial launch of the wireless technology. At 49-square miles, the deployment also represents the largest such citywide... Dutch Telco KPN Demands Equality With Cablecos http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18665?11228 Dutch incumbent KPN, once a government-owned monopoly that still is 8-percent held by the state, has sued the Dutch government, demanding it be allowed to follow the same rules as cable companies -- which it says are eating it alive as they muscle in on the voice business. The issue is that cable companies in the Netherlands... Jumpstarting Mobile Collaboration http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18662?11228 'Mobile collaboration' as an industry buzzword probably peaked about two years ago, but only now are the infrastructure, the networks, and the applications coming together to make it possible at the enterprise level. For remote healthcare company Intellicare, managing a team of telephone nurses, all based out of home or ... Lucatel: Full Steam Ahead http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18658?11228 The merger of telecom equipment giants Alcatel and Lucent Technologies Inc.  appears to be on course for completion by the end of 2006, dogged only, sources say, by the struggle to find roles for all the current senior executives and the ongoing disgruntlement of one of the new venture's key individuals. ... TelecomDirect Editor Copyright (C) 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:57:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: USA Today: Call Database Not So Broad WASHINGTON (AP) -- USA Today acknowledged in a "note to our readers" Friday that it could not establish that BellSouth or Verizon contracted with the National Security Agency to provide it with customer calling records, as it previously reported. But spokesman Steve Anderson said "this is an important story that holds up well. At the heart of our report is the fact that NSA is collecting phone call records of millions of Americans." "What we address in the editors' note," he said, "deals with the fact that we originally reported that the telephone companies were working under contract with the NSA. We've concluded that we cannot establish that BellSouth or Verizon entered into a contract with the NSA to provide the bulk calling records." In an accompanying story, the newspaper reported Friday that lawmakers on House and Senate intelligence committees have said that while the NSA has amassed a huge database calling records, cooperation with the NSA by telephone companies was not as extensive USA Today initially reported on May 11. - http://www.quote.com/home/news/story.asp?story=59486747 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:36:43 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Verizon "Broadband Router" the Perfect Trojan Horse [IP] more on Verizon "Broadband Router" the perfect Trojan Horse From David Farber on Thu, 29 Jun 2006 19:47:16 -0400 (EDT) http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200606/msg00253.html [IP] lets read the spec Verizon "Broadband Router" From David Farber on Fri, 30 Jun 2006 08:37:43 -0400 (EDT) http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200606/msg00254.html [IP] more on Verizon "Broadband Router" the perfect Trojan Horse From David Farber on Fri, 30 Jun 2006 08:44:36 -0400 (EDT) http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200606/msg00256.html [IP] more on Verizon "Broadband Router" the perfect Trojan Horse From David Farber on Fri, 30 Jun 2006 08:48:12 -0400 (EDT) http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200606/msg00257.html ------------------------------ From: Matt Simpson Subject: Re: Question About Historical Cell Site Information Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 09:03:47 -0400 In article , Brent Newton wrote: > I am a criminal defense attorney in Houston, Texas, exploring a > possible alibi defense for a client whose cell phone records show > his cell phone being used immediately before the alleged bank > robbery that the police claim he committed. He says he made the > call at his mother's house, which is 40 miles away the bank he > allegedly robbed. I have subpoenaed the historical cell site > records from the carrier, T-Mobile, but a T-Mobile representative > claims that they do not keep historical cell site information past > 30 days. Even if there are records available to confirm it, it's a pretty fishy alibi. So somebody at his mother's house was using his cell phone when a bank 40 miles away was being robbed. "Here Mom, take this phone ... and call me in about an hour." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Except that if the records are available it should be easy enough to find out _who_ the conversation was with, how long it lasted, and who was on each end of the line. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Re: Question About Historical Cell Site Information Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 23:02:03 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In Brent Newton writes: > Hi. I came across your website. I am a criminal defense attorney in > Houston, Texas, exploring a possible alibi defense for a client whose > cell phone records show his cell phone being used immediately before > the alleged bank robbery that the police claim he committed. He says > he made the call at his mother's house, which is 40 miles away the > bank he allegedly robbed. I have subpoenaed the historical cell site > records from the carrier, T-Mobile, but a T-Mobile representative > claims that they do not keep historical cell site information past 30 > days. Does this seem correct to you? I know other carriers, such as > Sprint/Nextel, keep such records in their archives for years. Any > suggestions or information would be greatly appreciated. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Can anyone offer any suggestions to > this attorney about cell phone record keeping and how cell towers > are assigned, etc? And to attorney Newton, good luck in getting your > client off the hook on this! PAT] I don't have any direct info on t-mobile, but based on my experience with handling backups at an ISP and general familiarity, I suspect the records are still there. Chances are they aren't on th3 standard service or technical reps screen, which is designed to answer routine customer queries and only goes bck a couple of months, but ... ... but, the call records are needed for long term purposes such as arguing " settlements " (cost sharing) with other telcos, so would be held pretty much forever. Storage space is cheap... Now t-mobile only "needs" a small subset of the many fields of data generated with each call, so it's possible their archive data doesn't include that code for the cellsite, but getting rid of it, rather than simply storing everything, is more complicated. I'd suggest the original poster demand (since there's a subpoena involved ...) that t-mobile specify when the record was destroyed, and give a definitve answer about any archives. Oh, and for good measure ... since we're now hearing publicly about the NSA's telephone surveillance, perhaps he could drop a demand on them and their commercial partners, to find out what they have ... _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 20:38:41 EDT Subject: Re: Junk Cell Phone Call In a message dated Thu, 29 Jun 2006 12:42:04 -0700, AES writes: > Just received a telemarketing call to my cell phone from (416) > 777-9552. Return call to this number is answered by a machine which > launches into a pitch for a "special offer", but gives no information > as to identity of calling party -- just says they'll call me again. > Have received multiple recent calls from what seems to be the same > source, under different numbers. > Can any experts dredge up the identity of this caller, and perhaps a > related 1-800 number I could call back for further information? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Now, Mr. Siegman, you are not hinting > that the fine readers here should _abuse_ the company are you? Just > like with the internet, where we are not to dictate how others are > allowed to use their sites, neither are we permitted to tell others > how to use their telephones. Just ask any right-thinking person. PAT] I have noticed a number of calls in the last few weeks on my land line phone with the area code shown as 416, which is Toronto. What laws would be applicable to calls from Canada to the U.S.A. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: whoward@login3.srv.ualberta.ca (W Howard) Subject: Re: Verizon 100-Mbps Broadband Home Router Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 19:24:31 +0000 (UTC) Organization: University of Alberta In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > Verizon Unlocks Full Potential of Fiber-Based FiOS Internet and > Video Services With Advanced 100-Mbps Broadband Home Router > - Jun 28, 2006 08:00 AM (PR Newswire) Someone needs to take Verizon's PR flack out for some education. Even cheap fiber, which I assume they are using, can do well over 1 Gbps. They aren't unlocking the full potential until they deliver that. It may well be the case that no one else integrates a router as fast as 100 Mbps with the broadband modem. But not all of us want both functions in the same box. And "better than the other vendors" is not the same as "unlocks full potential of fiber". Walt ------------------------------ From: davidesan@gmail.com Subject: Re: Bellsouth Keeps Calling Date: 30 Jun 2006 07:54:14 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com sawney beane wrote: > Bellsouth seems to call me daily. They sound like voices from the > West Indies. I keep saying no and hanging up, and they keep calling. > I suppose it's to pay for this service that my phone bill has doubled > in ten years. 1. Are you on the National and State Do Not Call Lists? If you are, tell them, note the time of the call, and report them. I'm sure that there are other legal things you can do. 2. Use the word harrassment in the conversation, like "I consider this harrasment." That means the next call is aggravated harrassment, a completely different charge. 3. Call BellSouth directly. Speak to a customer service rep and tell them all this. 4. Email the president of BellSouth. He won't see it, but the staff person who does see it may do something about it. 5. Call your state Public Utility Commision to do something about it. They usually make the utilities sit up and take notice. 6. Just say No. Repeatedly. Everytime they call. And hang up. Don't talk to them, don't let them waste your time. Do you read your spam email, or do you delete it before you even open it? Try these people like spam. Sing them the Spam song from Monty Python. Ask them inane questions. Ask them what they're wearing(!). Tell them about your cat/dog/child/mother. Tell them about your medication or medical condition. Its your phone, it is there for your convenience. I was recently bothered by a company wanting me to renew my subscription to a magazine that I had chosen not to renew. I kept saying that I chose not to renew the subscription. On the 6th call I told the woman that I was not mad at her personally, but if I got one more call from her organization I would file charges for aggravated harrassment, and that she should tell her manager. I have not heard from them since. ------------------------------ From: kamlet@panix.com (Arthur Kamlet) Subject: Re: Places That Use 911 For All Police Business Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 21:24:46 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: ArtKamlet@aol.REMOVE.com In article , > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But John Levine asked about _non-emergency_ > numbers, in other words, an officer is not needed. Every Chicago > suburb I know of has a seven-digit administrative number for the > police as well as 911. In fact, the state law several years ago which > established 911 required that every community also maintain a seven > digit administrative number. PAT] Pat, Here is Columbus Ohio, we are instructed NOT to call 911 for nonemergencies. Examples of nonemergencies that need police response include minor fender benders with no injuries, reports of suspicious drug or sex activities, and requests for special duty police to cover private events. Art Kamlet ArtKamlet @ AOL.com Columbus OH K2PZH [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The same thing is true here. We are _NOT_ to call 911 except in case of dire emergency. Some people do call it for almost everything, but that is considered wrong. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #245 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 30 15:25:05 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 0A86215287; Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:25:05 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #246 Message-Id: <20060630192505.0A86215287@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:25:05 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:28:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 246 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Google Checkout Makes Debut (Lisa Baertlein, Reuters) France Adopts Toned Down Version of Download Law (Reuters News Wire) A Lose/Lose Situation for Telcos (Grant Gross, IDG) California Senate Committee Backs Statewide Franchise (USTelecom dailyLead) CFP: CIC-2006, 15th International Conference on Computing (CIC-2006) Telecom Update #536 (Canada) (jriddell@angustel.ca) Re: Confused About Net Neutrality (George Mitchell) Re: Campus Fax Finder (Lisa Hancock) Re: NorVergence Founders Fined For Fraud (Lisa Hancock) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Baertlein Subject: Google Checkout Makes Debut Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:17:53 -0500 By Lisa Baertlein Google Inc. on Thursday will launch a long-awaited service called Google Checkout, which some analysts said could help online merchants boost sales and convince them to commit more advertising money to the Web search leader. Analysts were mixed on whether the product, initially available only in the United States, puts eBay Inc.'s PayPal online payment system in Google's competitive sights. The new offering, referred to in news and analyst reports as GBuy or Google Wallet, promises online sellers an easy way to add a checkout to their sites and can be used in addition to other options such as PayPal or a merchant's own pay system. Google said Checkout stores names, shipping and credit card information and eliminates the need for consumers to resubmit that data with each purchase. Google is responsible for processing the credit card payments and keeping data safe. "We think we're making e-commerce a lot more efficient and easier to use," Salar Kamangar, Google's vice president of product management, told Reuters. Google charges merchants 2 percent of the value of each sale plus 20 cents per transaction -- a fee that early users said was in line with other options. The company rewards its advertisers by offering them $10 in free sales processing for every dollar they spend on its advertising program, AdWords. "There is a clear revenue opportunity here," said Greg Sterling, an independent analyst, who noted that Google built its massive business on lots of tiny transactions. While Sterling said eBay and financial analysts will likely view the product as a PayPal competitor, Forrester analyst Charlene Li and early users such as Buy.com said it will expand the market by giving consumers another way to pay. "I don't think this was created to compete with eBay. (Google) did this to create more search advertising," Li said. Li said search ads have become so popular that merchants -- especially sellers of sought-after products like digital cameras -- have seen key word ads become prohibitively pricey. If Google helps Web retailers sell more, they could be persuaded to spend more money on AdWords, Li said. "It's a win, win, win all around." ABANDONED CART "Google is looking at exactly the right problem," said John Bresee, president of Backcountry.com, which specializes in high-end outdoor gear and had $52 million in revenue in 2005. The company, along with online stores run by Starbucks Corp., Timberland, Levi Strauss & Co. and underwear seller Jockey, is among the first to try Checkout. Users will be shown in search results next to a shopping cart icon, and Bresee hopes it can convert a higher percentage of shoppers into buyers. "What we may discover is that Google knows a lot about search, but they don't know a lot about the way consumers are shopping. We just don't know," Bresee said. In storing personal data, Google Checkout is reminiscent of Passport, Microsoft's online wallet, which bumped into security and privacy issues and failed to live up to the software titan's expectations after its launch about seven years ago. While Google is popular, it angered privacy advocates with an e-mail product that delivers ads based on message content. Li predicted an eventual backlash as Google pushes ahead with its goal to be the world's information clearinghouse and encounters inevitable customer service problems. "Whereas Microsoft wanted to own the desktop, Google wants the monopoly on your information," she said, noting Checkout also provides buyers with a purchase history that shows where they spend their money. "I'm concerned that they could fall into a situation where they're the next Microsoft." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from the daily media, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: France Adopts Toned Down Version of Download Law Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:19:37 -0500 The French parliament on Friday adopted a watered-down version of a law once seen as posing a major threat to the future of online media stores like Apple's iTunes in France. The law, intended to counter the dominance of industry leaders like Apple or Microsoft in online media stores, aroused bitter opposition in its original form and sparked suggestions Apple might pull its iTunes operation out of France. In its initial form, the bill would have forced online stores like iTunes to drop barriers that prevent songs it sells being played on portable MP3 devices and computers designed to work with another music store. At present, songs bought on iTunes can only be played directly on Apple technology like the iPod although they can also be burned onto CDs. But after amendments introduced in the Senate, the law allows companies to argue that measures to restrict the technical compatibility of songs or films sold online were undertaken at the request of the authors. The law, passed without a further reading after a special administrative measure from the Minister of Culture, was condemned by the opposition Socialists and several deputies in the ruling UMP party. The Socialists said they would seek a ruling by the Constitutional Court. But the government said it provided adequate rights for both consumers and operators. "It will allow the development of legal services," Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said. Apple's iTunes service is currently the biggest online content store after the runaway success of the iPod player but it faces competition from several rivals including Sony Corp , Dell Inc. and Microsoft. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more tech news each day, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ From: Grant Gross, IDG Subject: A Lose/Lose Situation for Telcos Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 13:23:25 -0500 NSA Case Puts Companies on Notice It's a no-win situation for telecom providers. Grant Gross, IDG News Service A shadowy "three letter" U.S. government agency calls your company and asks for copies of your private customer data ... the kind you don't share with outsiders and can get sued for losing. The agency says it needs the data to track terrorists, but won't get too specific about how. This is more than an academic exercise. According to reports in USA Today, major U.S. telecom carriers turned over the telephone records of millions of residents to the U.S. National Security Agency for use in tracking domestic terrorist communications. Obey the Government, Get Sued Reports about the program have put the telecom carriers in a difficult position. AT&T, BellSouth, and Verizon all face class-action lawsuits, filed in recent days, seeking $200 billion in damages for violating customer privacy. With the threat of another September 11-style attack on one side and cherished Fourth Amendment protections on the other, telecom carriers are damned if they do and damned if they don't, says Jeff Kagan, an independent telecom analyst. Reports about the phone-call monitoring claim AT&T, BellSouth, and Verizon turned over customer information. Qwest, another "Baby Bell," did not. That company denied the NSA request when government agents could not produce a court-issued warrant, said Herbert J. Stern, lawyer for ex-CEO Joseph Nacchio. Stand Your Ground, Go to Court Telecom carriers aren't alone in receiving government requests for private data. Google this year fought a Department of Justice request for search records in a case involving the Child Online Protection Act. In March, a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the Department of Justice also subpoenaed 34 ISPs, including Verizon and major Internet search and security firms in that case. According to the documents obtained by InformationWeek, some of those companies, including Verizon, objected to the requests, citing the sensitivity of the data being requested. Bolstered by the PATRIOT Act, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has increased the use of National Security Letters, an arcane tool with roots in the Cold War that allows the government to demand customer records and sensitive data without court approval. Under PATRIOT Act provisions, recipients are barred from even acknowledging that they received such a letter. The companies in question in the NSA case maintain that the requests were not for wiretapping access and that they were complying with the law when they turned over the call records. With no end in sight to the war on terror and the U.S. government casting an ever wider net in its search for domestic terrorists, companies need to weigh their options carefully, said Jody Westby, CEO of Global Cyber Risk, an IT consultancy. Companies have several options, including fighting the requests in court. When weighing the public relations and stock-price risks, companies may find that the public expectation of privacy trumps government demands, Westby said. "Whether or not the government follows its due process, companies have an obligation to follow theirs," he explained. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 12:58:42 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: California Senate Committee Backs Statewide Franchise USTelecom dailyLead June 30, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dTjIfDtutfdfkhhMSy TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * California Senate committee backs statewide franchise BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Telstra could scrap broadband plan * IMS rollouts more than triple over 12-month period * AOL, DirecTV to resell EarthLink Wi-Fi service * Palm, RIM report earnings USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * VoIP for Dummies TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Carriers form 4G group VOIP DOWNLOAD * Vonage aims to tackle business market with V-Phone * Report: VoIP-over-Wi-Fi to cut roaming revenues REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Verizon sues Maryland county over franchise demands * More information emerges on NSA surveillance plan Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dTjIfDtutfdfkhhMSy ------------------------------ Reply-To: gelbukh@gelbukh.com From: Alexander Gelbukh (CIC-2006) Subject: CFP: CIC-2006, 15th International Conference on Computing Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 01:52:49 -0500 Organization: CIC-IPN 15th International Conference on Computing CIC 2006 November 21 to 24, 2006 Mexico City, Mexico http://magno-congreso.cic.ipn.mx/CIC-2006 Proceedings: IEEE CS Press. Deadline: July 1 expression of interest (recommended), July 7 full papers. CALL FOR PAPERS *** PUBLICATION *** Papers accepted for oral session will be published by IEEE CS Press. Papers accepted for poster session will be published in a journal "Research in Computing Science," ISSN 1665-9899. Extended versions of selected papers will be published in the journal "Computacion y Sistemas," ISSN 1405-5546. Submissions are received via the webpage, see guidelines there. Direct submission page is http://www.easychair.org/CIC2006. *** IMPORTANT DATES *** July 1: expression of interest (abstract) -- recommended. July 7: full text for registered papers. *** TOPICS *** All areas of Computer Science and Engineering, see webpage. PLEASE CIRCULATE this CFP among your students and colleagues. We apologize if you receive this CFP more than once. It is sent in good faith of its interest for you as a CS expert or student. ------------------------------ Subject: Telecom Update #536, June 20, 2006 Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:33:59 -0400 From: John Riddell ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 536: June 30, 2006 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MICROSOFT CANADA: www.microsoft.com/canada/telecom/ ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** NEC UNIFIED SOLUTIONS: www.necunifiedsolutions.com ** ROGERS TELECOM: www.rogers.com/solutions=20 ** VONAGE CANADA: www.vonage.ca ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Telecom Update Takes a Summer Break ** Microsoft to Expand Business Telephony Portfolio ** Feds Invite Comment on Direction to CRTC ** Bell Buys Executive Communications ** Nortel to Lay Off 1,900 ** Rogers Makes All New Brunswick Calls Local ** RIM Adds 680,000 Subscribers ** Launch Date Set for Bell-Aliant Income Trust ** CRTC Reports New Media Stats ** Drivers on Cellphones as Bad as Drunks ** Telcos Rank High in Profit Report ** New Brunswick Completes Broadband Extension ** CLECs Slam Telcos for "We Miss You" Cards ** Telcos' Broadband Proposals Now Due September 1 ** Northwestel Hearing July 10 ** Yak for Sale ** Minacs Finds a Buyer ** Aliant Launches Hotspots ** SaskTel, Alcatel Plan Combined Research ** Glentel Buys Ontario Wireless Dealer ** In Memoriam: Jim McDaniel TELECOM UPDATE TAKES A SUMMER BREAK: Telecom Update is taking a week off. The next issue will be published Friday, July 14. MICROSOFT TO EXPAND BUSINESS TELEPHONY PORTFOLIO: Microsoft says the 2007 edition of MS Office will offer presence-based VoIP call management along with conferencing and messaging functions. Microsoft's Communications Server 2007 will support a unified communications client available in desktop, browser-based, and mobile versions, and desk phones supplied by Nortel Networks and other providers. ** Microsoft has postponed the release of Office 2007, originally scheduled for year-end, until early next year. FEDS INVITE COMMENT ON DIRECTION TO CRTC: Cabinet's proposed policy direction to the CRTC has been published in the Canada Gazette. The proposed text would direct the CRTC to rely on market forces "to the maximum extent feasible" under the Telecommunications Act (see Telecom Update #534). Public comments are due by August 16. ** An accompanying Regulatory Impact statement, which is not part of the proposed policy direction, says that "maintaining the current regulatory framework is not a viable option." http://gazetteducanada.gc.ca/partI/2006/20060617/html/regle5-e.html BELL BUYS EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS: Bell Canada has acquired Executive Communications Ltd, a Toronto-area provider of business telecommunications systems, for an undisclosed amount. ECL is one of the longest-surviving competitive telecom equipment providers in Canada: founded in 1973 to sell intercoms, it installed its first "interconnect" PBX in the fall of 1979. ** This follows Bell's acquisition of Kitchener-based J&D Systems in January. NORTEL TO LAY OFF 1,900: Nortel Networks plans to eliminate 1,900 jobs worldwide, while creating 800 positions in Mexico and Turkey. The company says it will also reduce pension benefits by US$100 million a year. ** At this week's AGM, CEO Mike Zafirovski said he is "not interested in selling or merging Nortel with somebody else." ROGERS MAKES ALL NEW BRUNSWICK CALLS LOCAL: New Brunswick users of Rogers Home Phone service can call anywhere in the province by dialing seven digits: no long distance charges will apply. The cableco begins offering service in Moncton, Fredericton, and Saint John on July 1; more areas will be added in the fall. RIM ADDS 680,000 SUBSCRIBERS: Research In Motion reports sales of US$613 million for the quarter ended June 3, 35% more than the same period a year ago. RIM added 680,000 subscribers, 5,000 more than its previous forecast. Net income: $129.8 million. LAUNCH DATE SET FOR BELL-ALIANT INCOME TRUST: BCE and Aliant say they expect to complete arrangements for creation of the Bell Aliant Regional Communications Income Fund on July 7, and will officially launch it on July 10. The trust will own Aliant's wireline operations, Bell's wireline operations in smaller cities and rural areas, and Bell's share of Bell Nordiq. CRTC REPORTS NEW MEDIA STATS: The CRTC's latest Broadcasting Policy Monitoring Report includes these statistics on "new media" in 2005: ** 74% of Canadian households had computers, and 78% of Canadians accessed the Internet. ** 59% of Canadians used cellphones, 3% used a Blackberry, 7% used PDAs, 12% an MP3 player, 4% iPod, and 8% a Web camera. ** 2% of cellphone, Blackberry, and PDA owners used them for watching TV, 3% for taking pictures or videos, 7% to obtain news or weather, and 4% to get sports scores. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/publications/reports/PolicyMonitoring/2006/bpmr2006.pdf DRIVERS ON CELLPHONES AS BAD AS DRUNKS: Frank Drewes, co-author of a University of Utah study published in the current issue of the journal Human Factors, says they found that "people are as impaired when they drive and talk on a cellphone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit." ** The study found no significant difference between use of handsfree and handheld phones. TELCOS RANK HIGH IN PROFIT REPORT: Canada's four largest incumbent phone companies make the top 100 in the Globe & Mail's latest report on Canada's 1,000 largest companies. Ranked by 2005 profits, Bell Canada ($2.1 billion) is in eighth place. Telus ($700 million) is number 42, Manitoba Tel ($213 million) is number 76, and Aliant ($199 million) is number 81. ** The only cableco to make the top 100 is Shaw, which is number 96 with profits of $160 million. NEW BRUNSWICK COMPLETES BROADBAND EXTENSION: The New Brunswick Broadband Initiative, extending broadband access to health care centres, business parks, First Nations Communities, and most residences and businesses in 327 rural communities, has been completed six months ahead of schedule (see Telecom Update #474). ** Funding was provided by the federal government ($16.5 million from the Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund), the New Brunswick government ($12.5 million), and Aliant ($15.6 million.) CLECs SLAM TELCOS FOR "WE MISS YOU" CARDS: Two cablecos have complained to the CRTC that "customer appreciation" cards sent by incumbent phone companies to their former local service customers are violating the winback rules. ** Quebecor says that though Bell Canada's new cards don't include a phone number for customers to call, the practice is still a violation of the rules set out in Telecom Decision 2006-17 (see Telecom Update #524). Bell says the new cards comply with the rules. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2006/8622/q15_200608028.htm ** Shaw says that Telus's "we miss you" cards, which do provide a phone number for customers to call, are "in all material respects identical" to the original Bell cards outlawed by the CRTC. Telus says it has stopped sending the cards. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2006/8622/s9_200608300.htm TELCOS' BROADBAND PROPOSALS NOW DUE SEPTEMBER 1: Responding to a request by the CNIB and 11 other national disability organizations, the CRTC has extended to September 1 the deadline for the incumbent telcos to file proposals for spending accumulated deferral account funds on expanding rural broadband coverage and improving accessibility for disabled persons. (See Telecom Update #517) NORTHWESTEL HEARING JULY 10: A public hearing on the regulatory framework for Northwestel (see Telecom Update #513) will begin in Whitehorse on July 10 and is scheduled to end by July 21. Comments from the general public will be heard on the first day of the hearing, in person or by teleconference from Fort Nelson, Yellowknife, and Iqaluit. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Letters/2006/lt060622.htm YAK FOR SALE: Dialaround long distance specialist Yak Communications says it has engaged Orion Securities "to advise the Company with regard to its various strategic alternatives, including the potential sale of the Company." Yak says it has 850,000 customers and $10 million in cash. MINACS FINDS A BUYER: Call centre outsourcer Minacs Worldwide has agreed to be purchased by TransWorks Information Services of India, which is offering about $120 million. Minacs CEO Bruce Simmonds says that the takeover will not lead to a shift of jobs out of Canada. (See Telecom Update #530) ALIANT LAUNCHES HOTSPOTS: Aliant now offers Wi-Fi based Internet access in airports and marine terminals and a casino in seven Atlantic communities, in collaboration with Halifax-based SolutionInc Ltd. SASKTEL, ALCATEL PLAN COMBINED RESEARCH: SaskTel and Alcatel have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to set up a 20-person joint R&D centre in Saskatchewan. The centre's software products will be marketed internationally by both partners. GLENTEL BUYS ONTARIO WIRELESS DEALER: Glentel has agreed to buy Digital Mobile Systems, a wireless systems dealer with six locations in southwest Ontario, for $2.5 million. IN MEMORIAM: JIM McDANIEL: Jim McDaniel, one of the best-known figures in Canadian business telecommunications, died of cancer on June 18, at the age of 88. He was a strong advocate for telecom competition, and a consistent supporter of the interests of business telecom users. Jim was one of the last of the generation of telecom executives who rose from the ranks: he started as a telegram delivery boy in the 1930s, and eventually rose to top positions in sales and marketing at CNCP Telecommunications, Unitel, and AT&T Canada. He remained active in telecommunications well into the 1990s. Angus TeleManagement Group enjoyed many opportunities to work with Jim over the years, and we were always impressed with his passionate dedication to business telecommunications. We extend our sympathy to his family. HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca 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 late Friday afternoon each week at http://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 2006 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail jriddell@angustel.ca. 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: George Mitchell Subject: Re: Confused About Net Neutrality Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 11:32:25 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com jmartineau@gmail.com wrote: > Hi, > How is what the telecoms are proposing different? Are they suggesting > that they should be allowed to arbitrarily limit or increase the > speeds with which certain sites or traffic can reach me, regardless of > what that site and I are paying in terms of bandwidth? It's a less confusing issue than the telecoms are trying to make out. Robert Cringely has an excellent discussion of the question in this week's column: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060629.html As he explains it, the telecoms are almost solely interested in creating billable events. If this is correct, then as you hypothesize, they want to set any number of arbitrary limits so that they can bill you when you exceed the limits. George Mitchell ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Date: 30 Jun 2006 11:22:40 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com jtaylor wrote: > Why did you say that I "boasted" that there was no junk fax law? What > subtle hint was that intended to convey? Sorry if you took offense. However, I objected to your plan to randomly call people -- which is unfairly annoying -- to achieve your plans. I took your attitude of "boasting" because of your sentence "I hate junk faxes, but I've figured out a way to get some satisfaction.", particularly the phrase "get some satisfaction". I failed to see how bothering innocent people was proper. Again, my headers do not show origin or organization, so I had no way of knowing you were from Canada. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: NorVergence Founders Fined For Fraud Date: 30 Jun 2006 11:24:08 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com > By Jerri Stroud > ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH > The Federal Trade Commission has settled charges against the founders > of NorVergence Inc., a company that defrauded hundreds of businesses, > including dozens in the St. Louis area, in a telecommunications scheme > that collapsed in 2004. Nonprofit groups, churches and towns also were > victimized. > In a ruling on Monday, the FTC barred NorVergence founders Thomas N. > Salzano and Peter J. Salzano from engaging in the fraud again and > levied fines of $50 million against each of them. The Salzanos are > brothers. Isn't fraud a criminal offense? Shouldn't be prison be considered for them? I don't understand. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #246 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jul 1 21:55:15 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id A730F151B8; Sat, 1 Jul 2006 21:55:12 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #247 Message-Id: <20060702015512.A730F151B8@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 21:55:12 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, FREE_ACCESS autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 1 Jul 2006 21:56:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 247 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Two More Data Breaches at Veterans Administration (Grant Gross, IDG) Google to Defend Ranking Methods in Court (Juan Carlos Perez, IDG) Google Offers Free Access to Online Videos (Bary Alyssa Johnson) Re: Campus Fax Finder (jtaylor) Re: Book Review: Configuring SonicWALL Firewalls, Chris Lathem et (S Sobol) Re: NorVergence Founders Fined For Fraud (DevilsPGD) Re: Confused About Net Neutrality (AES) Re: Confused About Net Neutrality (Gene S. Berkowitz) Re: Confused About Net Neutrality (Barry Margolin) Re: Confused About Net Neutrality (Rick Merrill) Re: Confused About Net Neutrality (Robert Bonomi) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Grant Gross IDG Subject: Two More Data Breaches at Veterans Administration Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 18:47:06 -0500 Grant Gross, IDG News Service U.S. lawmakers said Thursday they have learned of two more data breaches at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs even as the agency announced that law enforcement agencies had recovered stolen computer hardware containing the personal information of millions of U.S. military veterans. They recovered the one, and lost two more in the process. The House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Committee has learned of a May 5 incident in which a data tape disappeared from a VA facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, and a 2005 incident in which a VA laptop was stored in the trunk of a car that was stolen in Minneapolis, said Representative Steve Buyer, chairman of the committee. Also on Thursday, Pedro Cadenas Jr., the VA's chief information security officer, submitted his resignation. Cadenas, at the VA since 2002, had also served as acting deputy chief information officer at the VA in recent months. Before the Thursday morning hearing, VA Secretary R. James Nicholson said law enforcement agencies had recovered a laptop and hard drive stolen from a VA analyst's home in early May. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, after conducting forensics on the hardware, determined the personal data of 26.5 million veterans and their spouses was not accessed by the thieves, Nicholson later said. Nicholson: Expect More Resignations Buyer (R-Indiana) said he was surprised at Cadenas' resignation, which comes on the heels of former VA CIO Robert McFarland's resignation earlier this year. Nicholson said lawmakers should expect more resignations as he tries to overhaul the IT security practices at the agency. But the VA leadership has generally dismissed concerns raised by past CIOs and CISOs that the agency's decentralized IT management structure hurts IT security, Buyer said. "Maybe the wrong people are leaving," he said. However, Buyer and other committee members praised Nicholson for a plan that includes an overhaul of the agency's IT department and a memo giving the VA CIO new authority. Nicholson's response Thursday was a big change from the slow reaction following the data theft, Buyer said. "Mr. Secretary, you have stepped forward," Buyer added. "You're off your heels and on your toes." Details of Earlier Breaches Nicholson and other VA officials detailed the two other data breaches to the committee. The Indiana data tape contained information on more than 16,500 legal cases involving U.S. veterans, VA officials told committee members during a hearing on data security. The information could include veterans' Social Security numbers, dates of birth and legal documents, VA officials said. In the Minnesota case, the laptop contained the personal information of 66 people, and two people later reported identity fraud problems, VA officials said. Buyer said the Indiana case concerned him because some of the facts paralleled the stolen laptop incident. Nicholson was told by assistants of the stolen laptop nearly two weeks after it happened, and he was told about the May 5 data tape incident on May 23 or 24, he said. Buyer and Representative Bob Filner (news, bio, voting record) (D-California) both questioned Nicholson's decision to attempt to fire the analyst whose house was broken into. Filner brought documents to the committee showing the analyst had authorization to use VA software at home and to take laptops home. The analyst is facing a hearing to determine if the VA can fire him. Filner questioned Nicholson's statements suggesting the analyst was guilty of gross negligence. "It seems to me that the gross negligence is in the policies," he said. Copyright 2006 PC World Communications, Inc. ------------------------------ From: Juan Carlos Perez, IDG Subject: Google to Defend Ranking Methods in Court Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 18:41:44 -0500 Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service Google today will try to convince a judge to dismiss a lawsuit that challenges the heart of the company's business: its methods for indexing and ranking Web pages. In March, Google was sued by KinderStart.com, which alleges it suffered crippling financial harm after its Web site got dropped from the search engine's index. The case reflects the enormous impact of search engines on the business world at large. It has become crucial for many businesses to rank well in search engine results. An entire industry has sprouted to serve this "search engine optimization" need. 'Devastating Effects' As the world's most popular search engine, Google wields the strongest influence. Having a Web site that ranks low or disappears altogether from the Google index can have devastating effects for a company. This is what KinderStart.com alleges happened to it. "It's a very important case for many reasons. Everyone uses search engines, so the question is: Are you seeing true and faithful results?" said Gregory Yu, KinderStart.com's attorney. "Google shouldn't have completely free range to be able to remove sites or hit them with a zero PageRank," he added, referring to the patented technology at the heart of Google's algorithmic ranking. Charges KinderStart.com is charging Google, among other things, with violating its right to free speech; illegally using a monopoly position to harm competitors; engaging in unfair practices and competition; committing defamation and libel; and violating the Federal Communications Act. The Web publisher seeks a class action certification for the lawsuit, damages and injunctive relief, among other things. In motions filed in May, Google argues that Judge Jeremy Fogel, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, should dismiss the lawsuit, saying that the case boils down to one essential question: Should search engines or should courts determine Web sites' relevancy? "If KinderStart were right... neither Google nor any other search engine could operate, as it would constantly face lawsuits from businesses seeking more favorable positioning," Google's motion reads. Google also asks the judge to strike three of the suit's counts, alleging they violate Google's exercise of free speech in connection with a public issue. This is prohibited under a California law called the Anti-SLAPP statute, Google argues. KinderStart.com, based in Norwalk, California, began publishing a Web site for parents of children under 7 years old in May 2000 and in 2003 the site joined Google's AdSense ad network, according to the complaint. Yet, starting in March and April 2005, the Web site suffered a "cataclysmic" fall in traffic of about 70 percent and a drop in AdSense revenue of about 80 percent, from which it hasn't recovered, and which the company blames on its removal from the Google index. KinderStart.com claims it has never been notified by phone, mail or in person of the reason for its Web site's exclusion. Google states in its Web site that it reserves the right to remove Web sites from its index for various reasons. KinderStart.com states it hasn't knowingly violated any of Google's webmaster guidelines. In February, Google decided to remove the German Web site of car maker BMW for allegedly trying to deceive its search robot to gain higher placement. Days later Google reincorporated the site to its index, saying BMW had undone the offending changes, although BMW never admitted any wrongdoing. Copyright 2006 PC World Communications, Inc. ------------------------------ From: Bary Alyssa Johnson Subject: Google Offers Free Access to Online Videos Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 18:44:16 -0500 Bary Alyssa Johnson - PC Magazine Google has upgraded and updated its online video service to offer free ad-supported access to premium content, among other things. Google has launched a beta version of its new "sponsored video" service, which makes available a variety of videos that are paid for by companies like HP. The free content ranges from music videos to cartoon shows, interviews, and movies. In order to offer the content for free, Google has gone with advertisements of the non-invasive variety. Instead of pop-up ads, the sponsors post links to their Web sites as well as to commercials they've uploaded onto the Google Video service. In addition, Google users can now rate, label, and post comments on each video. Videos are rated on a five-star scale, enabling users to offer up personal input, engage in discussions with other users, and see which videos are most highly rated. Google says it added the label feature to help users associate a video with a specific word or phrase to help locate it at a later time. Lastly, Google has added a "Share this Video" feature, which lets users send videos to friends and family or post to different Web sites. "A few clicks and your current favorite is directly embedded into the most popular blogging platforms like Blogger, TypePad, MySpace, and LiveJournal," said Jon Steinback, product marketing manager for the Google Web site. Copyright 2006 Ziff Davis Inc. ------------------------------ From: jtaylor Subject: Re: Campus Fax Finder Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 20:19:57 -0300 Organization: MCI Canada News Reader Service wrote in message news:telecom25.246.8@telecom-digest.org: > jtaylor wrote: >> Why did you say that I "boasted" that there was no junk fax law? What >> subtle hint was that intended to convey? > Sorry if you took offense. However, I objected to your plan to > randomly call people -- which is unfairly annoying -- to achieve your > plans. I took your attitude of "boasting" because of your sentence "I > hate junk faxes, but I've figured out a way to get some > satisfaction.", particularly the phrase "get some satisfaction". I > failed to see how bothering innocent people was proper. You seem to forget that I intended to start with my local government offices. I'd hardly consider them innocent people, in this regard. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Book Review: Configuring SonicWALL Firewalls, Chris Lathem et Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 19:57:04 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Rob Slade wrote: > material is mostly at sales brochure level. While some negative > points are raised the text is not particularly careful: at one point > we are told that the SonicWALL can terminate any type of VPN (Virtual > Private Network), while later it is admitted that it can terminate any > IPSec VPN. Most VPNs *are* IPSec VPNs. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows Apple Valley, California PGP:0xE3AE35ED It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: NorVergence Founders Fined For Fraud Date: Sat, 01 Jul 2006 03:39:26 -0500 Organization: Disorganized In message hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: >> By Jerri Stroud >> ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH >> The Federal Trade Commission has settled charges against the founders >> of NorVergence Inc., a company that defrauded hundreds of businesses, >> including dozens in the St. Louis area, in a telecommunications scheme >> that collapsed in 2004. Nonprofit groups, churches and towns also were >> victimized. >> In a ruling on Monday, the FTC barred NorVergence founders Thomas N. >> Salzano and Peter J. Salzano from engaging in the fraud again and >> levied fines of $50 million against each of them. The Salzanos are >> brothers. > Isn't fraud a criminal offense? Shouldn't be prison be considered for > them? I don't understand. Fraud only results in prison if you're not rich. What do you want you moon-faced assassin of joy? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And prison usually only results if you are not rich also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: Confused About Net Neutrality Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 19:07:21 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , jmartineau@gmail.com wrote: > Hi, > Been trying to keep up with the Net Neutrality debate but obviously > it's a confusing issue. My question is, don't we already pay for faster > service? Don't websites pay based on the amount of bandwidth they need > to serve out? I know I pay a premium price for cable internet service > because I get more bandwidth. Seems like most people are willing to > keep going as we are now -- where the price is proportional to the > speed. > How is what the telecoms are proposing different? Are they suggesting > that they should be allowed to arbitrarily limit or increase the > speeds with which certain sites or traffic can reach me, regardless of > what that site and I are paying in terms of bandwidth? To me, the essence is that they should just *transmit* whatever packets I send thru them into the Internet or receive back from the Internet thru them, transmitting those packets both way through their facilities at whatever bandwidth capabilities I'm paying them for, but without them *knowing* or *caring* or being in any way influenced by whatever recipients are on the other end of my communications. They and we may, in fact, ultimately have to live with government laws that require them to record and store every site that we communicate with, though this will be a civil rights obscenity. And it may be a losing fight to stop them from noting that I buy a lot of books on line and turning my name over to used book dealers to spam me. But I certainly don't want them *ever* redirecting some of my packets to some other URL of their choosing, because they've made a commercial deal with the alternative site. And I don't want them transmitting packets to or from BordersBooks through their system faster than amazon.com packets (thus making BordersBooks look like a more responsive site) because BordersBooks pays them a behind-the-scenes bribe to do so (or sending streaming video signals from some sites faster than from other sites, because of similar bribes). In other words, none of their technical actions should depend on what the content is of the packets they're sending me. But, the last two items above are (a) things they want and intend to do, and (b) things that are absolutely unacceptable. ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz Subject: Re: Confused About Net Neutrality Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 01:02:20 -0400 In article , jmartineau@gmail.com says: > Hi, > Been trying to keep up with the Net Neutrality debate but obviously > it's a confusing issue. My question is, don't we already pay for faster > service? Don't websites pay based on the amount of bandwidth they need > to serve out? I know I pay a premium price for cable internet service > because I get more bandwidth. Seems like most people are willing to > keep going as we are now -- where the price is proportional to the > speed. Yes, you are correct. Consumers pay for the fastest connection they can afford, from dialup to DSL to cable to fiber. Large providers pay for their downstream bandwidth, usually on the order of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars per month. > How is what the telecoms are proposing different? Are they suggesting > that they should be allowed to arbitrarily limit or increase the > speeds with which certain sites or traffic can reach me, regardless of > what that site and I are paying in terms of bandwidth? They basically want a piece of every transaction that occurs, in addition to the bandwidth they sell. Normally, when supplier wants to increase revenue, they simply raise the price. The over-buildout in the 90's of capacity means that a raise in price will be met by defection to a lower cost supplier, of which there is always one waiting. --Gene ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Confused About Net Neutrality Organization: Symantec Date: Sat, 01 Jul 2006 01:48:06 -0400 In article , jmartineau@gmail.com wrote: > Hi, > Been trying to keep up with the Net Neutrality debate but obviously > it's a confusing issue. My question is, don't we already pay for faster > service? Don't websites pay based on the amount of bandwidth they need > to serve out? I know I pay a premium price for cable internet service > because I get more bandwidth. Seems like most people are willing to > keep going as we are now -- where the price is proportional to the > speed. The web site owner pays his own ISP (or he pays a hosting operator, who pays the ISP he connects to), but he's not paying the ISPs that serve the customers who access his site. So if you host a web site that's connected to AT&T, and a Verizon customer accesses your web site, Verizon wants you to pay them extra to provide additional bandwidth for your connections to their customers. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** *** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group *** ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 01 Jul 2006 07:38:17 -0400 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Confused About Net Neutrality George Mitchell wrote: > jmartineau@gmail.com wrote: >> Hi, >> How is what the telecoms are proposing different? Are they suggesting >> that they should be allowed to arbitrarily limit or increase the >> speeds with which certain sites or traffic can reach me, regardless of >> what that site and I are paying in terms of bandwidth? > It's a less confusing issue than the telecoms are trying to make out. > Robert Cringely has an excellent discussion of the question in this > week's column: > http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060629.html > As he explains it, the telecoms are almost solely interested in > creating billable events. If this is correct, then as you > hypothesize, they want to set any number of arbitrary limits so that > they can bill you when you exceed the limits. > George Mitchell The telecoms are not talking "net neutrality" to bill you and me -- they are talking about creating different travel lanes for the major carriers (and rivals). In other words they want to charge your ISP (who might or might not pass the cost along to you and me) for faster service. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Confused About Net Neutrality Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2006 00:23:30 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > Hi, > Been trying to keep up with the Net Neutrality debate but obviously > it's a confusing issue. My question is, don't we already pay for faster > service? Don't websites pay based on the amount of bandwidth they need > to serve out? I know I pay a premium price for cable internet service > because I get more bandwidth. Seems like most people are willing to > keep going as we are now -- where the price is proportional to the > speed. > How is what the telecoms are proposing different? Are they suggesting > that they should be allowed to arbitrarily limit or increase the > speeds with which certain sites or traffic can reach me, regardless of > what that site and I are paying in terms of bandwidth? The idea being that the site you are connecting to -- when it is _not_ on the same network provider that you are -- should have to pay _your_ network provider 'something' for that traffic they send into your provider's network; that if _they_ don't pay your provider, *you* get degraded service for access to that site, relative to those who do pay "Dane-geld". ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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 V25 #247 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jul 3 15:38:11 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 22C84152CB; Mon, 3 Jul 2006 15:38:10 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #248 Message-Id: <20060703193810.22C84152CB@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2006 15:38:10 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.7 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR,NO_COST autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 3 Jul 2006 15:40:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 248 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: Practical VoIP Security, Thomas Porter et al (Rob Slade)) Verizon's TV Licensing May be Only Half the Fight (Rutsuko Ando, Reuters) C&W Plans to Sell Broadband Customer Base (USTelecom dailyLead) Another LapTop Missing: This Time, From Red Cross (Associated Press News) How Internet Addiction Is Affecting Lives (studyandtelecom@yahoo.com) Re: Can the New T-Mobile Motorola V195 Cell Phone be Unlocked? (BrendaLee) Re: Bellsouth Keeps Calling (sawney beane) Re: Confused About Net Neutrality (Sam Spade) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 09:41:29 -0800 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: Practical VoIP Security, Thomas Porter et al Reply-To: rmslade@shaw.ca Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User BKPVOIPS.RVW 2060602 "Practical VoIP Security", Thomas Porter et al, 2006, 1-59749-060-1, U$49.95/C$69.95 %A Thomas Porter %C 800 Hingham Street, Rockland, MA 02370 %D 2006 %G 1-59749-060-1 %I Syngress Media, Inc. %O U$49.95/C$69.95 781-681-5151 fax: 781-681-3585 amy@syngress.com %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1597490601/robsladesinterne http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1597490601/robsladesinte-21 %O http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1597490601/robsladesin03-20 %O Audience i- Tech 2 Writing 1 (see revfaq.htm for explanation) %P 563 p. %T "Practical VoIP Security" VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is something of the new kid on the technology block, and computer folks may have limited experience with telephony. It therefore seems a bit strange that chapter one, as an introduction to VoIP security, starts out by talking about computer security and attacks. However, the structure of the book is rather odd in any case. The basics of telephony, and the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), are not covered until chapter four. Even then, while there is some useful trivia, most of the content is a list of telephony protocols. Chapter three covers some of the basic hardware and element information, discussing PBX (Private Branch eXchange) systems, VoIP components, and even power supplies. That material, in turn, would be helpful to those who try to understand chapter two, which is supposed to be about the Asterisk PBX software package. Although the text purports to deal with configuration and features of Asterisk, most of the section's content covers PBX operations and functions, dial plans, telephony numbering plans, and even a terse piece on the vital aspect of circuit versus packet switching. With chapter five, the book moves into some of the specifics of VoIP, discussing H.323, a protocol to specify data formats that is used extensively in commercial IP telephony products. SIP, the Session Initiation Protocol (used to negotiate interactive sessions over the net), gets a more detailed treatment (along with examination of related protocols) in chapter six. Other IP telephony architectures are briefly listed in chapter seven: the very popular Skype, H.248, IAX (Inter Asterisk eXchange), and Microsoft's Live Communications Server 2005 (MLCS). Diverse protocols used in support of VoIP are discussed in chapter eight. Most of these are commonly used in other Internet applications: some; such as RSVP (Resource reSerVation Protocol), SDP (Session Description Protocol), and Skinny; are more specialized. All the listed protocols have some review of security implications, which marks the first time in the book that security seems to be a major issue. Chapter nine examines specific threats and attacks, mostly related to denial of service and hijacking. Securing the infrastructure used for VoIP is important, although the material in chapter ten is fairly standard information security. Chapter eleven reviews a number of ordinary authentication tools that are frequently used in VoIP. "Active Security Monitoring," in chapter twelve, is the traditional intrusion detection and penetration testing, and has nothing specific to IP telephony applications. Similarly, chapter thirteen examines normal traffic management and LAN segregation issues: the only telephony related content is in regard to VoIP aware firewalls. The IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) has recommended certain existing security protocols in regard to IP telephony, and one addition (SRTP, Secure Real-time Transfer Protocol): these are outlined in chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen lists various (United States) data security related regulations and the European Union privacy directive. The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) structure is reviewed in chapter sixteen. Chapter seventeen repeats the recommendations made in chapters ten through fourteen. It is handy to have a number of the issues related to VoIP addressed in one work. There is some depth to the content of the text as well, and those dealing with system internals may find that useful. However, for those who need to manage or make policy or purchasing decisions in regard to VoIP, this book may not have the forcefulness of complete analysis, or a structure that would assist in learning the background. While there is a considerable amount of helpful information, it reads more like an accumulation of miscellaneous facts than a directed study. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2006 BKPVOIPS.RVW 2060602 ====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer) rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca rslade@computercrime.org An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one - George Mikes Dictionary Information Security www.syngress.com/catalog/?pid=4150 http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm ------------------------------ From: Ritsuko Ando, Reuters/VNU Subject: Verizon's TV Licensing May be Only Half the Fight Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2006 13:42:58 -0500 By Ritsuko Ando Verizon Communications Inc. looks increasingly impatient to roll out its Web-based television service nationwide, suing a Maryland county last week for hampering its entry, but getting licenses may only be half the battle. Analysts say that while Verizon's state-of-the-art fiber optic network allows multiple channels of high-definition video and faster downloading, the phone company must show more proof that its multibillion-dollar investment is worthwhile. Verizon will not say how much it is spending on the Internet protocol television service, named FiOS, on which it is banking to win back customers lured away by cable operators' "triple play" of Internet, phone and video bundles. But analysts estimate Verizon is spending around $700 to $1,000 per customer, double the spending of rival phone company AT&T Inc. and spooking shareholders. "The market hates Verizon's level of capital expenditure, although you could say it's a necessary evil," said Kent Custer, an analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons. Even after a recent recovery, Verizon shares are still down around 2 percent over the past year, while AT&T is up about 19 percent. Verizon says its investment will pay off as demand grows for high-quality video, speedy downloading of movies and interactive television and gaming -- in short, having more computer-like functions. "This is a once-in-a-century network upgrade," said Shawn Strickland, head of Verizon's FiOS TV product line. "TV is the growth opportunity and FiOS is the best platform for that." Verizon launched FiOS TV last September in Keller, Texas. Short for Fiber Optic Service, it is still available only in some communities in California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Virginia. It also offers high-speed Internet access through fiber in 15 states. Showing it is serious about expanding, Verizon said last Thursday it is suing Maryland's Montgomery County, a stronghold of cable operator Comcast Corp., for allegedly imposing "unreasonable and illegal" conditions for a television subscription license. BUT HOW MUCH BETTER? Verizon is not alone in plotting a counter-attack against cable. AT&T is also launching its own Web-based TV service. But while Verizon is connecting fiber optic cables directly to customers' homes to optimize bandwidth, AT&T is making use of existing copper lines and as a result spending only around half as much on fiber, analysts say. "Verizon's network is clearly superior if you believe consumers want the high-definition video. But I have a feeling they're spending more than they'd like to," said Albert Lin, analyst at American Technology Research. "The question is, how different is FiOS to cable?" At first glance, at least, there is little difference. The equipment, such as the set-top box and remote control, are largely similar to cable's. Moreover, programming and prices are alike. Most FiOS customers who take triple play packages pay around $100 a month, similar to cable operators' bundles. Verizon says FiOS has the capacity for more interactive features. For example, in the future, a customer may be able to click on a pizza advertisement on the television screen and make an order. Friends may also use the TV to talk to other friends via videolink or email. For now, however, analysts say the main advantages are incremental rather than revolutionary, such as quicker downloads and higher quality video. Verizon's Strickland said those benefits were enough to win strong customer satisfaction, and one in four households in the first market, Keller, have signed up for FiOS. Analysts said timing was also crucial for FiOS, especially as data show customers are less likely to switch providers once they have subscribed to the all-in-one packages offered by the likes of Comcast, Time Warner Inc.'s cable unit and Cablevision Systems Corp. "The outcome may not be based on technology alone but also on time to market -- who gets the customer first," said Richard Siderman, managing director at Standard & Poor's. The timing of FiOS' nationwide launch, however, depends in part on how soon counties and states grant licenses. Thursday's lawsuit aside, Verizon is also hoping lawmakers in Washington will approve a bill that would allow it to apply for a nationwide TV license instead of negotiating with each city. Reuters/VNU Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more tech news each day, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2006 12:00:25 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: C&W Plans to Sell Broadband Customer Base USTelecom dailyLead July 3, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dTucfDtutfdDaVSvMc TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * C&W plans to sell broadband customer base BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * BSkyB set to unveil broadband strategy * Showdown in San Antonio * Broadcom, TI file S. Korean complaint against Qualcomm * Internet calling shakes up phone market USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Are you missing part of the story? TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Analysis: 3G a hit with enterprise users * Columnist: Mobile Web may be far from reality in U.S. * CableCard proves no threat to set-top boxes REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Telstra privatization in jeopardy EDITOR'S NOTE * The dailyLead will not publish on Tuesday Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dTucfDtutfdDaVSvMc ------------------------------ From: Associated Press News Wire Subject: Another LapTop Missing: This Time, From Red Cross Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2006 21:18:34 -0500 DALLAS (AP) - A laptop containing personal information from thousands of blood donors -- including Social Security numbers and medical information -- was stolen from a local office of the American Red Cross, but officials said the information was encrypted. The data included matching names and birth dates of donors from Texas and Oklahoma, as well as donors' sexual and disease histories. "We haven't viewed this as a security breach at this point," Darren Irby, spokesman for the national American Red Cross office, told The Dallas Morning News for its Saturday editions. The laptop was one of three stolen from a locked closet in the Farmers Branch office of the American Red Cross in May, but the two others did not contain the personal information. There was no sign of forced entry, said Red Cross spokeswoman Audrey Lundy. Local officials alerted police and national Red Cross offices, Lundy said. Donors were not notified about the missing information, and the Red Cross claims it has no legal obligation to do so. The laptops disappeared on two separate occasions in May, according to police reports. They could have been gone as long as a week before being reported missing. Gordon Bass, acting chief information security officer for the national Red Cross, said supervisors have their own user names and passwords. Access is time-and-date based, so information can be accessed only during blood drives or when new information is uploaded to a central database. The Farmers Branch Red Cross also lost a laptop with encrypted donor information in June 2005, Lundy said, but she could provide no details on circumstances of that incident or any follow-up investigation. Security in the Farmers Branch office was tightened after the most recent disappearances, Lundy said. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: studyandtelecom@yahoo.com Subject: How Internet Addiction Is Affecting Lives Date: 2 Jul 2006 07:11:09 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com How Internet Addiction is Affecting Lives: http://www.studyandjobs.com/Internet_addiction.html or http://www.studyandjobs.com/telecom_study.htm Regards. ------------------------------ From: BrendaLee Subject: Re: Can the New T-Mobile Motorola V195 Cell Phone be Unlocked Yet? Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2006 02:24:38 GMT I found this while searching how to unlock my T-Mobile Motorola v195. It seems all the new Motorola cell phones are unlockable without something called testpoint and without dissassembling the cell phone. It seems Motorola decided to make all new phones unlockable so the new recommendation is to never buy Motorola phones if you wish to use them outside the United States. When I called T-Mobile to ask them to unlock my new cell phone they said I shouldn't have bought it from them if I wanted to unlock it. BrendaLee On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 07:02:16 GMT, maryanne kehoe wrote: > Today, I picked up the new Motorola V195 cell phone with 150 pay-as-you-go > minutes for $99.99 + tax at the local T-Mobile store. It has four bands and > a SIM card so that it can be used anywhere in the world, the salesperson > said. > The T-Mobile salesperson said I had to wait 90 days to unlock T-Mobile > phones on the pre-paid plan. But, she swore my Motorola V195 cell phone > could be unlocked immediately by anyone who knew how to do it. On that > basis alone, I purchased the Motorola V195 cell phone. I would not > otherwise have bought a locked phone. > However, upon subsequent googling, I can't seem to find a vendor who can > unlock this new Motorola V195 cell phone. > Do you know who can unlock the Motorola V195 cellphone? > I first called 800-891-0552 http://www.thedssguy.com who said they didn't > know how to unlock this new Motorola V195 cell phone. Same with the > http://www.unlocktotalk.com folks who use the same telephone number. > Then I tried http://www.cell-unlock.com who didn't even realize this > Motorola V195 cell phone has been out for some time available to the public > http://www.cell-unlock.com/motorola-v195-unlock.htm > Next I tried http://www.unlock-motorola.com which says they can generally > unlock Motorola cell phone by IMEI without a cable (remember, this phone > does not come with a cable) but not the Motorola V195. > For 5 dollars, http://www.cellunlocks.com says they can unlock cell phones, > but again, there is no listing for the Motorola V195. > Likewise with > http://www.instant-unlock.co.uk/acatalog/Motorola_V195_Unlock.html > It seems I need YOUR help. > Where can I find an outfit that can unlock the new Motorola V195 cell > phones? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 01 Jul 2006 23:43:00 -0400 From: sawney beane Subject: Re: Bellsouth Keeps Calling davidesan@gmail.com wrote: > sawney beane wrote: >> Bellsouth seems to call me daily. They sound like voices from the >> West Indies. I keep saying no and hanging up, and they keep calling. >> I suppose it's to pay for this service that my phone bill has doubled >> in ten years. > 1. Are you on the National and State Do Not Call Lists? If you are, > tell them, note the time of the call, and report them. I'm sure that > there are other legal things you can do. I'm on the national DNC list, but I think Bellsouth has a loophole. Because they hire telemarketing companies, some regulations apply. Still, when a company makes a habit of annoying customers, I think that company is too powerful. > 2. Use the word harrassment in the conversation, like "I consider this > harrasment." That means the next call is aggravated harrassment, a > completely different charge. I haven't said that because I have just been saying no, as you recommend in 6. > 3. Call BellSouth directly. Speak to a customer service rep and tell > them all this. I dread calling Bellsouth about anything. It's a slow automated system that may have no provision for what you're calling about. When you finally get a human, it's no better. Months ago I dialed Call Return. Their end picked up, but I was disconnected before their machine gave the number. In the past, Bellsouth's description said the customer had 24 hours to dial Call Return again, and there would be no charge if nobody else had called the customer in the meantime. So I dialed Call Return again and got the number. My bill showed two calls to Call Return made in the same minute, and I was charged twice. I phoned. When I finally got past the machines, the person wouldn't listen. She simply said she would have my line checked. Then she said there was nothing wrong with my line and hung up. I emailed. In a few days I got an answer saying they would remove one charge as a special one-time favor. That wasn't satisfactory. If I had to dial twice, obviously I had not gotten the number they were charging me for. Why should dropping the charge be a one-time favor? Why did they change their policy without notifying customers? Bellsouth specializes in giving customers the brush-off. > 4. Email the president of BellSouth. He won't see it, but the staff > person who does see it may do something about it. I wonder what his address is. > 5. Call your state Public Utility Commision to do something about it. > They usually make the utilities sit up and take notice. They sure have let Bellsouth raise my bills! > 6. Just say No. Repeatedly. Everytime they call. And hang up. > Don't talk to them, don't let them waste your time. Do you read your > spam email, or do you delete it before you even open it? Try these > people like spam. Sing them the Spam song from Monty Python. Ask > them inane questions. Ask them what they're wearing(!). Tell them > about your cat/dog/child/mother. Tell them about your medication or > medical condition. Its your phone, it is there for your convenience. I've just said no dozens of times. After I say no and hang up, how can I ask them what they are wearing? Would I find it convenient to tell them about my medication? > I was recently bothered by a company wanting me to renew my > subscription to a magazine that I had chosen not to renew. I kept > saying that I chose not to renew the subscription. On the 6th call I > told the woman that I was not mad at her personally, but if I got one > more call from her organization I would file charges for aggravated > harrassment, and that she should tell her manager. I have not heard > from them since. The telemarketer offered me an incredible deal, but I can't find any reference to it online. By amazing coincidence, after months of my saying no and hanging up, this was the last date for the deal! I'm sure Bellsouth would not be accountable for her promises. ------------------------------ From: Sam Spade Subject: Re: Confused About Net Neutrality Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 08:12:29 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications George Mitchell wrote: > As he explains it, the telecoms are almost solely interested in > creating billable events. If this is correct, then as you > hypothesize, they want to set any number of arbitrary limits so that > they can bill you when you exceed the limits. That has always been their greedy mind-set. An example is name delivery on Caller ID. The FCC mandate on Caller ID (1994 or 95) was only to deliver the number. So, all the telephone entities fought and fought over a per transaction fee for name deivery. Thus, name delivery over LEC boundaries is the exception rather than the norm. They also want to destroy the VOIP carriers, so they can in turn drop their flat-rate long distance plans, thus seeing heavy users of long distance return to $2,000 per month phone bills. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V25 #248 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jul 4 19:47:43 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 03EAE15443; Tue, 4 Jul 2006 19:47:42 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #249 Message-Id: <20060704234742.03EAE15443@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 19:47:42 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Jul 2006 19:50:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 249 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson CrossOver Lets Windows Apps Run o OS X, sans Windows (Peter Cohen) Maryland Tax Court Upholds Cell Phone Fees (Associated Press News Wire) Google Says Bill Could Spark Anti-Trust Complaints (Reuters News Wire) Paris Wants Wireless Internet Access Across City (Reuters News Wire) Re: Bellsouth Keeps Calling (DLR) Re: Verizon's TV Licensing May be Only Half the Fight (AES) Re: NorVergence Founders Fined For Fraud (Lisa Hancock) Last Laugh! Did You Hear the One About the Nuclear Warhead? (TD Editor) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peter Cohen Subject: CrossOver Lets Windows Apps Run o OS X, sans Windows Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 14:05:59 -0500 Peter Cohen - MacCentral CodeWeavers has announced plans to release CrossOver Mac this summer. The $60 software will allow Intel Mac users to run Windows applications -- including some games -- without having to buy or install Windows itself. Boot Camp and Parallels Desktop both provide this capability for Intel Mac owners already -- Boot Camp, software from Apple currently available in beta form, makes users reboot their Macs and run Windows. Parallels Desktop is a "virtualization" utility that enables the Windows operating system and Windows applications to run in Mac OS X, within another window (or, alternately, in full screen mode). CrossOver Mac will take this one step further -- it eschews what CodeWeavers Chief Operating Officer Jon Parshall calls the "box within a box approach." "What you see running is an application sitting in your Dock or your Applications folder," Parshall told Macworld. Both Boot Camp and Parallels Desktop work because the new Macs utilize the same microprocessor that's found in Windows-compatible computer, and CrossOver Mac employs the same basic principle. This wasn't possible before January, when Macs depended solely on PowerPC-based microprocessors made by IBM and Freescale. The presence of an Intel processor inside the Mac forges a close enough resemblance to get Windows and Windows applications to work. Although Boot Camp is free and Parallels Desktop is reasonably priced, both software applications require an expensive copy of Windows in order to work -- and that's the biggest benefit for CrossOver Mac. It works without having Windows installed all together, thanks to the underlying code that powers the software. WINE-powered CrossOver Mac is based on the same core technology that powers CodeWeavers' Linux-based offering -- an open-source project called WINE. WINE -- a self-referencing acronym that stands for "WINE Is Not An Emulator" -- is a compatibility layer that provides alternate implementations of the code referenced by Windows applications in order to work. CodeWeavers uses publicly available versions of WINE in order to develop the CrossOver product, and contributes its code changes back to the WINE project, according to Parshall. Applications running on CrossOver Mac will offer performance comparable to apps running natively on Windows, according to Parshall, with all the same capabilities and functionality as they would if you were running Windows. CodeWeavers' specific focus is getting CrossOver to run commonly used business applications, he said. Right now the company's Linux product runs Microsoft Office applications, Access, Project, Vision, Lotus Notes, Quicken, FrameMaker and other products. Gaming possibilities Gamers have a strong interest in Boot Camp, as it allows them to play games that won't run natively on Mac OS X -- Parallels Desktop has disappointed gamers because it doesn't include native graphics driver support so it isn't suitable for running 3D games. CrossOver Mac won't suffer that problem, though Parshall cautions that CodeWeavers' specific area of focus isn't on games. The company said it hopes "to offer support for a limited number of games," but hasn't yet determined the final mix of supported applications. Parshall told Macworld that the popular shooter Half-Life 2 is on the list, and while he said that it isn't technically on the supported list of application, the new 2K Games-published FPS Prey also works well. Viruses, malware not as much of an issue Another benefit of CrossOver Mac's approach to running Windows software is that it's much less susceptible to infection by Windows-based viruses or malware than a true Windows-based solution, according to Parshall. "A virus needs to affect the guts of Windows," he explained. "Theoretically, if you were really, really good you might be able to get your virus to run under WINE, but we've yet to hear about anyone who has, even in the laboratory." Parshall said he expects that this protection will extend to CrossOver Mac as well. CodeWeavers plans to release CrossOver Mac in July or August, 2006. It will cost $59.95 for a single-user license. The company said it has a backlog of beta testers, but advisers users who are interested to e-mail them anyway. Copyright 2006 Mac Publishing LLC NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more tech news please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ From: Associated Press News Wire Subject: Maryland Tax Court Upholds Cell Phone Fees Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 17:39:54 -0500 Two of Maryland's largest jurisdictions did not overstep their authority by imposing cell phone fees, the state tax court has ruled. The court rejected an attempt by four wireless providers to overturn Baltimore's $3.50 a month fee on cell phones and land lines imposed in 2004, and Montgomery County's $2 wireless fee imposed three years ago. T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Cingular Wireless challenged the fees in February 2005, arguing that they were really sales taxes, which only the state can impose. The court ruled against the companies last week. "The tax is not measured by the number of minutes that a customer uses his or her phone, or even by the number of calls made," the court wrote in its decision Thursday. "A flat tax on a telephone line, which does not vary depending on customer usage, is an excise tax rather than a sales tax under Maryland law." Attorneys for the companies could not be reached for comment Tuesday to say whether they would appeal the decision. The city's fee generated nearly $26.2 million in its first year, with $9.98 million coming from the wireless portion, city officials said. The city projects it will collect $28.6 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30. The Montgomery tax is estimated to have generated $45 million since August 2003. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Google Says Bill Could Spark Anti-Trust Complaints Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 14:04:16 -0500 Google warned on Tuesday it will not hesitate to file anti-trust complaints in the United States if high-speed Internet providers abuse the market power they could receive from U.S. legislators. The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee last week approved sweeping communications reform legislation that would make it easier for telephone companies like AT&T to offer subscription television to consumers. But it narrowly rejected attempts by some lawmakers to strengthen safeguards on Internet service, which had pitted high-speed Internet, or broadband, providers such as AT&T against Internet content companies like Google. The battle centred on whether broadband providers can charge more to carry unaffiliated content or to guarantee service quality, an issue called Net neutrality. "If the legislators ... insist on neutrality, we will be happy. If they do not put it in, we will be less happy but then we will have to wait and see whether or not there actually is any abuse," Vint Cerf, a Google vice-president and one of the pioneers of the Internet, told a news conference in Bulgaria. "If we are not successful in our arguments ... then we will simply have to wait until something bad happens and then we will make known our case to the Department of Justice's anti-trust division," he said on Tuesday. Cerf is visiting Bulgaria at the invitation of President Georgi Parvanov to discuss ways to boost information technology business and Internet access in the country. The U.S. bill includes provisions aimed at preserving consumers' ability to surf anywhere on the public Internet and use any Internet-related application, software or service. "My company, along with many others believes that the Internet should stay open and accessible to everyone equally," Cerf said. "We are worried that some of the broadband service providers will interfere with that principle and will attempt to use their control over broadband transport facilities to interfere with services of competitors." Despite extensive lobbying by the telephone carriers, prospects for a final law this year remain uncertain. Congress faces a dwindling number of work days because of the November elections. If the measure passes the full Senate, it would have to be reconciled with a narrower bill approved by the House of Representatives. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines of interest, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Paris Wants Wireless Internet Access Across City Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 17:35:27 -0500 Paris wants blanket wireless Internet cover by the end of 2007, helping to make it the most connected capital city in the world, Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said on Tuesday. Under a new plan, the city hopes to set up 400 free WiFi access points next year and allow Internet service providers to install antennae on strategically-located public property. "We will act fast and firmly ... to create the most favorable conditions for Paris," Delanoe told reporters at city hall. "It is a decisive tool for international competition and thus important for the city." The plan also calls for slashing taxes on companies that lay down fiber optic cables in a drive to have 80 percent of all buildings within the city connected to so-called 'ultra-high speed' fiber optic networks by 2010. "Sixty percent of Parisian households already have high-speed connections. ... Our goal will be not only to maintain this but also to move a step ahead," Delanoe said. License fees for fiber optic cables already snaking through the city's sewer system would be cut by 25 percent, and the tax break would go up to 90 percent for the first 400 meters of new cables that branch out to connect buildings currently lacking the high-speed lines. The free wireless access points -- to be located in parks, squares, libraries, and public areas -- will be set up by private firms that win contracts to be awarded in early 2007. The project will also experiment with free WiFi access for an entire city quarter by the end of 2007. Delanoe said he would be submit the plans for city council approval early next week. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines of interest, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra.newstoday.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 16:36:54 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: Bellsouth Keeps Calling >> 6. Just say No. Repeatedly. Everytime they call. And hang up. >> Don't talk to them, don't let them waste your time. Do you read your >> spam email, or do you delete it before you even open it? Try these >> people like spam. Sing them the Spam song from Monty Python. Ask >> them inane questions. Ask them what they're wearing(!). Tell them >> about your cat/dog/child/mother. Tell them about your medication or >> medical condition. Its your phone, it is there for your convenience. > I've just said no dozens of times. After I say no and hang up, how can > I ask them what they are wearing? Would I find it convenient to tell > them about my medication? Saying no has no effect on future calls. Saying "Do not call me again for any reason." is different and has the FCC and/or state utility commission behind it. ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: Verizon's TV Licensing May be Only Half the Fight Date: Mon, 03 Jul 2006 15:48:36 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , Ritsuko Ando, Reuters/VNU wrote: > Verizon Communications Inc. looks increasingly impatient to roll out > its Web-based television service nationwide, suing a Maryland county > last week for hampering its entry, but getting licenses may only be > half the battle. ----- > Analysts say that while Verizon's state-of-the-art fiber optic network > allows multiple channels of high-definition video and faster > downloading, the phone company must show more proof that its > multibillion-dollar investment is worthwhile. ----- > "This is a once-in-a-century network upgrade," said Shawn Strickland, > head of Verizon's FiOS TV product line. > But while Verizon is connecting fiber optic cables directly to > customers' homes to optimize bandwidth, AT&T is making use of existing > copper lines and as a result spending only around half as much on > fiber, analysts say. ----- > Moreover, programming and prices are alike. Most FiOS customers who > take triple play packages pay around $100 a month, similar to cable > operators' bundles. Interesting article. Suppose Verizon fibers up my neighborhood and comes to my curb; and I tell 'em I only want a double play package: Internet connectivity, at some reasonable bandwidth (maybe 1 to 10 Mb/s) and phone -- no TV. Think they'll sell me that at a somewhat lower price? And whether they do this or not, if I take whatever they offer, is it likely it will be truly network-neutral Internet connectivity? -- that is, they just don't intercept or mess with my Internet packets for any reason (except of course for whatever eavesdropping obscenities Bush, Cheney and Gonzales try to foist on them and me). ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: NorVergence Founders Fined For Fraud Date: 3 Jul 2006 17:47:58 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And prison usually only results if > you are not rich also. PAT] The government went to a lot of trouble to send Martha Stewart to prison for a much lesser crime. A few years before that Leona Helmsley went to prison. I wonder why the government isn't devoting its resources to these guys who, after all, hurt a lot more people. There are more well-to-do people in prison than you'd expect Their cases don't make the major headlines so we're not aware of them. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I should correct what I said earlier. Prison usually results if (a) you are an innocent person who cannot afford an attorney; or (b) the government is especially aggrieved by your actions, which is to say takes personal affront at your actions or statements. Both Martha Stewart and Ms. Helmsley fell into that (b) second category. They both felt they were 'too good' (i.e. special or different); they both were prone to sassing at the government from time to time. Their sass did not go unnoticed. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Last Laugh! Did You Hear the One About the Nuclear Warhead? Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 19:00:17 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) It seems our good friends in North Korea send us a nuclear warhead on Tuesday. The 'fireworks' were intended to reach us about the same time as the NASA launch took place. Trouble is, the warhead was defective, a total dud. It never got here, and apparently did not explode either. Had the 'fireworks' arrived safely and gone off as intended, then spam/scam -- indeed the entire telephone network -- would have been the least of our worries, I am sure. PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V25 #249 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jul 5 15:59:31 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id BB8A515506; Wed, 5 Jul 2006 15:59:30 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #250 Message-Id: <20060705195930.BB8A515506@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 15:59:30 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.9 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 5 Jul 2006 16:00:00 EDT Volume 25 : Issue 250 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Router is Just $5, But You Have to Share WiFi (Monty Solomon) AOL Said, 'If You Leave Me I'll Do Something Crazy' (Monty Solomon) Identity Thief Finds Easy Money Hard to Resist (Monty Solomon) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - July 05, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Tech Companies Eye Telecom Market (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Verizon's TV Licensing May be Only Half the Fight (Gene S. Berkowitz) Re: Junk Cell Phone Call (B. Wright) Re: Bellsouth Keeps Calling (Matt Simpson) Re: NorVergence Founders Fined For Fraud (DLR) Re: Maryland Tax Court Upholds Cell Phone Fees (Danny Burstein) Re: Last Laugh! Did You Hear the One About the Nuclear Warhead? (mc) Re: Last Laugh! Did You Hear the One About the Nuclear Warhead? (Sam Spade) Re: Last Laugh! Did You Hear the One About the Nuclear Warhead? (Berkowitz) Use Craigslist To Post Your Services? Automate The Process (Smart Listig) ====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 11, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest, and why not support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 01:04:48 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Router is Just $5, But You Have to Share WiFi Spanish firm seeks to build a nationwide network on the cheap By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff A Spanish Internet company is selling a million wireless Internet routers for just $5 each. But there's a catch: Buyers must share their wireless Internet connections with their friends, neighbors, or even total strangers. It's all part of a daring plan to create a nationwide WiFi network on the cheap. "I think it's an idea whose time has come," said Juergen Urbanski, North American general manager of FON Technology S.L., of Madrid. Today, finding WiFi access is a hit-or-miss affair. Starbucks coffee shops and McDonald's restaurants offer fee-based WiFi connections, and a growing number of cities are building municipal networks. Urbanski wants to recruit millions of ordinary people who would make WiFi available to anyone within range of the wireless routers in their homes. People who join FON (pronounced 'phone') are eligible to purchase a new wireless router for $5, plus an $8 shipping fee. This router is programmed with software that lets other FON members connect to the router for free Internet access. The router also protects the owner's privacy by blocking access to any other data on his home computer network. If enough people join FON, they'll create a nationwide WiFi network, with free service to all FON members. The FON website features frequently updated maps showing where FON service is available. FON will make money by charging nonmembers about $3 a day for access to the network. Half of this money goes to the FON member whose router is being used. FON has already signed up over 60,000 users, including about 10,000 in the United States. But since standard WiFi routers have a very short range -- less than 300 feet -- the company must deploy millions of routers to create a truly comprehensive network. http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2006/07/04/router_is_just_5_but_you_have_to_share/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 01:43:05 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AOL Said, 'If You Leave Me I'll Do Something Crazy' Digital Domain By RANDALL STROSS The New York Times "YOU'RE going to listen to me." This was the taunting command of an AOL customer service representative who sounded like a jailer twirling his keychain. The customer on the phone wanted to complete his business, but the person on the other end of the phone did not share a sense of urgency. It is fitting that the customer service representative's wish to be heard has been fulfilled on a scale he never anticipated. When Vincent Ferrari, 30, of the Bronx, called AOL to cancel his membership last month, it took him a total of 21 minutes, including the time spent on an automated sequence at the beginning and some initial waiting in a queue. He recorded the five minutes of interaction with the AOL customer service representative and, a week later, posted the audio file on his blog, Insignificant Thoughts (http://insignificantthoughts.com/2006/06/13/cancelling-aol). Shortly thereafter, those five minutes became the online equivalent of a top-of-the-charts single. To listen as Mr. Ferrari tries to cancel his membership is to join him in a wild, horrifying descent into customer-service hell. The AOL representative, self-identified as John, sounds like a native English speaker; he refuses to comply when Mr. Ferrari asks, demands and finally pleads -- over and over again -- to close his account. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/business/yourmoney/02digi.html?ex=1309492800&en=c30d6788c3f52be8&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 02:12:12 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Identity Thief Finds Easy Money Hard to Resist Stolen Lives Identity Thief Finds Easy Money Hard to Resist By TOM ZELLER Jr. The New York Times By the time of Shiva Brent Sharma's third arrest for identity theft, at the age of 20, he had taken in well over $150,000 in cash and merchandise in his brief career. After a certain point, investigators stopped counting. The biggest money was coming in at the end, postal inspectors said, after Mr. Sharma had figured out how to buy access to stolen credit card accounts online, change the cardholder information and reliably wire money to himself -- sometimes using false identities for which he had created pristine driver's licenses. But Mr. Sharma, now 22, says he never really kept track of his earnings. "I don't know how much I made altogether, but the most I ever made in a quick period was like $20,000 in a day and a half or something," he said, sitting in the empty meeting hall at the Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, N.Y., where he is serving a two- to four-year term. "Working like three hours today, three hours tomorrow -- $20,000." And once he knew what he was doing, it was all too easy. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/us/04identity.html?ex=1309665600&en=18bc230a1ae1ba06&ei=5088 ------------------------------ Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - July 05, 2006 From: telecomdirect_daily Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 12:08:40 EDT ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For July 05, 2006 ******************************** Smart Phones Could Drive New Telecom Business Model http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18704?11228 Already the banking industry is moving quickly into this market, as it has huge potential. Will mobile providers jump into the game or retreat to the transport-only lane? It will be either the banks or the telecom operators who dictate the models for proliferating smart phone technology. Already, banks are moving toward contactless ... Polish Government Adopts Telecoms Market Strategy for 2006-07 http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/110/18702?11228 The government's new regulatory measures aim to further liberalise the Polish telecoms market, by boosting competition in the fixed-line and broadband access markets, and by opening up mobile networks. The main objectives of the short-term strategy, which was devised by the Transport Ministry, are increasing competition in the ... Metered Memory: Lexar JumpDrive Mercury http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18697?11228 Mobile devices -- and their users -- always seem to be short of memory. One way to solve this problem, at least if one uses a device with a USB port, is to buy a flash drive -- a memory module that plugs directly into the USB interface. Besides providing a quick dose of extra memory, a flash drive also allows users to conveniently move files ... NTT DoCoMo Unveils Six New FOMA "7 Series" Models http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18696?11228 NTT DoCoMo and its eight regional subsidiaries today introduced six handsets in the 3G FOMA '7 Series' -- the D702iF, P702iD, N702iS, SH702iS, M702iS, and M702iT. All the models are compatible with the video-phone, i-channel news service delivered automatically to the phone's standby screen as telop text. Some are also ... Telsur Increases Fixed-Mobile Customer Base Target by 150% in Chile http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/18693?11228 Chilean regional incumbent Telefonica del Sur (Telsur) has increased its fixed-mobile customer base target from 20,000 to 50,000 by end-2006, an increase of 150%, according to local newspaper Diario Llanquihue. Note that fixed-wireless services were launched in March 2006, which required investments of some US$15 million. ... Court Rules Against AWS Delay http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/18691?11228 The FCC and big wireless carriers were happy to see a lawsuit sidelined late yesterday that was aimed at halting the upcoming Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) auction in August, but analysts say the delay may be inevitable. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia was asked by Council Tree Communications, a ... Harris Poll: What's Wrong with This (Cellphone) Picture? http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/18689?11228 Despite the fancy capabilities built into the latest generation of cellphones, Americans are making little use of such features as video clip or picture messaging -- and most don't even use text messaging, according to a new poll by Harris Interactive. The survey house went on to question the rationale for even offering such ... Europe's Abuzz With Broadband Buyouts http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/18686?11228 France Telecom SA and BSkyB Group plc have emerged as the frontrunners to buy AOL (UK) Ltd. , according to weekend media reports. U.K. newspaper The Sunday Telegraph reported that France Telecom's Orange UK and BSkyB, which is due to unveil a detailed broadband strategy in the next few weeks following its... TelecomDirect Editor ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 13:20:30 CDT From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Tech Companies Eye Telecom Market USTelecom dailyLead July 5, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dWdIfDtutfedrdlHOP TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Tech companies eye telecom market BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * China Mobile to remain on the prowl for overseas deals * Analysis: Motorola buoyed by handset business * WiMAX could find a home in India * Charter completes sales of West Virginia, Virginia systems USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Do you want to reach carriers? TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Hollywood learns to love video downloads REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Paris details Wi-Fi, fiber plans * FCC clarifies rules on calling cards Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/dWdIfDtutfedrdlHOP ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz Subject: Re: Verizon's TV Licensing May be Only Half the Fight Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 22:59:27 -0400 In article , siegman@stanford.edu says: > In article , Ritsuko Ando, > Reuters/VNU wrote: >> Verizon Communications Inc. looks increasingly impatient to roll out >> its Web-based television service nationwide, suing a Maryland county >> last week for hampering its entry, but getting licenses may only be >> half the battle. >> Analysts say that while Verizon's state-of-the-art fiber optic network >> allows multiple channels of high-definition video and faster >> downloading, the phone company must show more proof that its >> multibillion-dollar investment is worthwhile. >> "This is a once-in-a-century network upgrade," said Shawn Strickland, >> head of Verizon's FiOS TV product line. >> But while Verizon is connecting fiber optic cables directly to >> customers' homes to optimize bandwidth, AT&T is making use of existing >> copper lines and as a result spending only around half as much on >> fiber, analysts say. >> Moreover, programming and prices are alike. Most FiOS customers who >> take triple play packages pay around $100 a month, similar to cable >> operators' bundles. > Interesting article. > Suppose Verizon fibers up my neighborhood and comes to my curb; and I > tell 'em I only want a double play package: Internet connectivity, at > some reasonable bandwidth (maybe 1 to 10 Mb/s) and phone -- no TV. > Think they'll sell me that at a somewhat lower price? They're here in my neighborhood (MetroWest MA), and are offering 5Mb/2Mb (Up/Down) service for $35/month, 15Mb/2Mb for $45, and 30Mb/5Mb for $180 with a 1-year commitment. They move your existing telephone service on to the fiber, using a battery-backed interface. You continue to pay whatever you're paying now for landline service in addition to the prices above. They are lobbying my town for a TV license also, and are only offering the voice/data service at this time. > And whether they do this or not, if I take whatever they offer, is it > likely it will be truly network-neutral Internet connectivity? -- that > is, they just don't intercept or mess with my Internet packets for any > reason (except of course for whatever eavesdropping obscenities Bush, > Cheney and Gonzales try to foist on them and me). I imagine they won't be very VOIP friendly, but I haven't read the TOS yet... --Gene ------------------------------ From: B. Wright Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 07:17:40 +0000 (UTC) Organization: XMission Internet http://www.xmission.com Subject: Re: Junk Cell Phone Call Wesrock@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated Thu, 29 Jun 2006 12:42:04 -0700, AES > writes: >> Just received a telemarketing call to my cell phone from (416) >> 777-9552. Return call to this number is answered by a machine which >> launches into a pitch for a "special offer", but gives no information >> as to identity of calling party -- just says they'll call me again. >> Have received multiple recent calls from what seems to be the same >> source, under different numbers. > I have noticed a number of calls in the last few weeks on my land line > phone with the area code shown as 416, which is Toronto. I too have received calls from telespamming scum like this. Basically what happens each time is that they call and only allow it to ring long enough to register on the caller ID. These scumbags are counting on the fact that you are going to see the missed call and instead of them having to pay the call costs to telespam you, you call them, and they spam for free. I know for a fact that they are simply sequentially dialing and possibly only targeting blocks of numbers on mobile carriers. The reason I know this is a few people in our family got T-Mobile phones which were activated at the same time and the numbers are almost sequential, each time this happened, all of our phones received calls from this same unknown number within a few minutes time. The last number I got a call from like this was 1(786)264-5272 which is (or was?) a number provided by "Tcg South Florida" and in Miami, FL. Each time I called to see what it was there was a recording in Spanish only saying: "You have just won a vacation" or "You have just won prizes". Unlike the number mentioned in the original post this is not a Canadian number, but what US laws apply to this type of telephone spamming tactic? They are clearly sequentially dialing without the intention to connect the call at all and only providing a machine/recording when you call back. I'm not sure what would have happened if the call was caught soon enough to connect it, but I can guess they would have simply hung up. ------------------------------ From: Matt Simpson Subject: Re: Bellsouth Keeps Calling Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2006 09:30:28 -0400 Organization: None In article , sawney beane wrote: > I'm on the national DNC list, but I think Bellsouth has a loophole. There's a loophole for companies with which you have an existing business relationship. So if you're a BellSouth customer, it's legal for them to call you and try to sell you more services. I assume this changes if you specifically tell them to quit, but I'm not sure. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2006 12:12:21 -0400 From: DLR Subject: Re: NorVergence Founders Fined For Fraud hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And prison usually only results if >> you are not rich also. PAT] > The government went to a lot of trouble to send Martha Stewart to > prison for a much lesser crime. A few years before that Leona > Helmsley went to prison. I wonder why the government isn't devoting > its resources to these guys who, after all, hurt a lot more people. > There are more well-to-do people in prison than you'd expect Their > cases don't make the major headlines so we're not aware of them. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I should correct what I said earlier. > Prison usually results if (a) you are an innocent person who cannot > afford an attorney; or (b) the government is especially aggrieved by > your actions, which is to say takes personal affront at your actions > or statements. Both Martha Stewart and Ms. Helmsley fell into that > (b) second category. They both felt they were 'too good' (i.e. special > or different); they both were prone to sassing at the government > from time to time. Their sass did not go unnoticed. PAT] My wife got to spend 2 years on a federal grand jury. Misleading them, not talking to protect someone else, or lying will get you in trouble faster than most of the crimes that start an investigation. And that favorite, "I can't remember ..." to questions like what did you live in during the last year. ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Re: Maryland Tax Court Upholds Cell Phone Fees Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 23:41:06 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In Associated Press News Wire writes: > Two of Maryland's largest jurisdictions did not overstep their > authority by imposing cell phone fees, the state tax court has ruled. Ok, who here believes that a "state tax court", operated by the state, paid for by state _tax revenue_, is a disinterested party? Do I see a single hand out there? It will indeed be interesting to see what happens if the cellcos bring a similar action in a federal court. I can see plenty of causes (although I most assuredly wouldn't bet on any of them succeeding). Disclosure: I'm not only a cellular customer, I also own stock in one of the companies. _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Did You Hear the One About the Nuclear Warhead? Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 19:41:55 -0400 Was there in fact a nuclear warhead on anything they launched? Their marksmanship is impressive -- apparently not one missile went anywhere near the distance it was intended to. TELECOM Digest Editor" wrote in message news:telecom25.249.8@telecom-digest.org: > It seems our good friends in North Korea send us a nuclear warhead on > Tuesday. The 'fireworks' were intended to reach us about the same time > as the NASA launch took place. Trouble is, the warhead was defective, > a total dud. It never got here, and apparently did not explode either. > Had the 'fireworks' arrived safely and gone off as intended, then > spam/scam -- indeed the entire telephone network -- would have been > the least of our worries, I am sure. > PAT ------------------------------ From: Sam Spade Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Did You Hear the One About the Nuclear Warhead? Date: Tue, 04 Jul 2006 16:49:00 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > It seems our good friends in North Korea send us a nuclear warhead on > Tuesday. The 'fireworks' were intended to reach us about the same time > as the NASA launch took place. Trouble is, the warhead was defective, > a total dud. It never got here, and apparently did not explode either. > Had the 'fireworks' arrived safely and gone off as intended, then > spam/scam -- indeed the entire telephone network -- would have been > the least of our worries, I am sure. > PAT You believe that missile was equipped with a targeted nuclear warhead? Somehow I think Kim Jong knows very well that his entire nation is targeted by one, or more, nuclear subs that would wipe out his entire country with weapons of relative small yield, so as to not create too much havoc for the remainder of the region. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not know what to believe any longer about those fools. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Did You Hear the One About the Nuclear Warhead? Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 22:49:26 -0400 In article , ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu says: > It seems our good friends in North Korea send us a nuclear warhead on > Tuesday. The 'fireworks' were intended to reach us about the same time > as the NASA launch took place. Trouble is, the warhead was defective, > a total dud. It never got here, and apparently did not explode either. > Had the 'fireworks' arrived safely and gone off as intended, then > spam/scam -- indeed the entire telephone network -- would have been > the least of our worries, I am sure. > PAT Come on, Pat, at least LISTEN to the news before posting this. NK launched a long range missile, not a warhead, and that missile failed after 40 seconds in flight, falling into the sea west of Japan. --Gene ------------------------------ From: Smart Listing Subject: Use Craigslist To Post Your Services? - Automate The Process Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 01:25:07 -0500 Reply-To: Smart Listing Do you use craigslist.com to post the services you offer, houses for sale, or jobs you have available? Keep your craigslist.com posts at the top of the list. Make sure people are seeing your ad. Don't get lost in the crowd. Zing Lister will make sure that your ad is seen 100% more. Sign up today and experience the difference a craigslist.com managed campaign can make. Use Zing Lister to post: Jobs, Services, Real Estate, Resumes Check out: http://www.zinglister.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So may I assume this 'Zing Lister' also works for any spam or scams I wish to post on Criag's List or other unattended web sites which permit postings? I need to have a way to automate the spams and scams and porn I send out to Usenet news groups each day. Will your service do that for me? Does it allow me to use forged or bogus email names? Thank you for your offer of help. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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. 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