---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <CD8F50FC-A5E2-4C33-9C99-062412E142BF@roscom.com> Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2017 14:11:36 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Apps Make Pestering Congress So Easy That It Can't Keep Up Donald Trump is now president, and Americans are flooding Congress with pleas and protestations. They're anxious about the fate of Obamacare, the future of the environment, and the president's cabinet nominations. How are they expressing their anger, fears, and hopes? Email. Lots of email. Take Pennsylvania Democratic senator Bob Casey. He reportedly received 50,000 letters and emails opposing the nomination of Betsy DeVos for secretary of education. But it's not just the election that's driving citizens to press "send." The volume of email sent to Congress has been growing for years. According to the Congressional Management Foundation, constituent correspondence to the Senate increased by 548 percent between 2002 and 2010. Once upon a time, emailing your elected representatives meant navigating a maze of creaky web forms. Today tools like Countable and Democracy.io make it trivial to send a message to your representatives. https://www.wired.com/2017/01/apps-make-pestering-congress-easy-cant-keep/ ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20170130151845.GA21563@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2017 10:18:45 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon and AT&T are losing face with customers, experts say Both companies recently experienced drops in 'value perception' By Abigail Elise Customers are losing faith in Verizon and AT&T, according to Brand Index, an analytics and intelligence firm based in London. Consumer surveys and interviews conducted by the company found that both telecommunications giants experienced "significant value perception" declines during the past 30 to 60 days. "Since Christmas, Verizon Wireless consumer value perception moved to its lowest point in at least six years, while AT&T has been declining steadily since early December to fall behind the other three in this key consumer metric," Brand Index CEO Ted Marzilli said last week. http://www.kcra.com/article/verizon-and-atandt-are-losing-face-with-customers-experts-say/8651655 -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20170130152137.GA21588@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2017 10:21:37 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: BBB warns about CenturyLink advertising practices DENVER BUSINESS JOURNAL - The Denver/Boulder Better Business Bureau has issued a warning to consumers about concerns on CenturyLink Inc.'s advertising claims. Consumers have complained that they are charged more than the price they agreed to when signing up for service from the phone and broadband company and they don't receive the speed and quality that is promised, the BBB said. http://www.king5.com/news/denver-better-business-bureau-warns-about-centurylink-advertising-practices/394007633 -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20170130151433.GA21538@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2017 10:14:33 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon's millennial mobile video service lays off 155 employees by Michelle Castillo Verizon's big attempt to get millennial viewers is going through a massive shakeup. The company laid off 155 staffers from its streaming service go90 last week, which was first reported by Variety. Sources close to Verizon told CNBC said the majority of staff changes will be mostly on the go90 engineering team, and said new employees would be on-boarded from Vessel, a digital video service Verizon acquired in October. The news comes at a time when Verizon is still negotiating its acquisition of Yahoo. The deal has hit road bumps after news of two massive data breaches involving up to 1.5 billion Yahoo accounts. http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/24/verizons-millennial-mobile-video-service-lays-off-155-employees.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <1C3B4288-4A2C-4C77-8B4B-24F43AE72222@roscom.com> Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2017 08:50:22 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Ransomware killed 70% of Washington DC CCTV ahead of inauguration Huge ransomware. The best ransomware. Ransomware [which was] fixed with a wipe-and-restore Criminals infected 70 percent of storage devices tied to closed-circuit TVs in Washington DC eight days before the inauguration of President Donald Trump. The ransomware infection downed 123 of its 187 network video recorders, each controlling up to four CCTVs, and forced the city to wipe its affected IT systems which it says did not include deeper componentry of the Washington DC network. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/30/ransomware_killed_70_of_washington_dc_cctv_ahead_of_inauguration/ ***** Moderator's Note ***** Guilty pleasure: I love stories that show how overdependence on computers leads to more problems. Just wait for the "Internet Of Things" to arrive: you'll try to open your refrigerator door, and hear a message telling you your meat will be thawing unless you fork over a couple of hundred clams. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20170130150901.GA21503@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2017 10:09:01 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: In a Verizon-Charter Deal, Analysts See One Massive Pile of Debt by Sally Bakewell Verizon Communications Inc. is said to have given thought to buying Charter Communications Inc., a deal that would create the biggest U.S. wireless and internet provider. But many in the finance world are focused on another superlative a Charter tie-up could lead to: the world's biggest corporate debtor. And that's causing some credit analysts to wonder how Verizon could finance such a massive deal, while also achieving its goal of reducing debt, let alone avoiding a blow to its credit metrics that could jeopardize its investment-grade rating. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-27/in-a-verizon-charter-deal-analysts-see-one-massive-pile-of-debt -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20170130154325.GA21848@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2017 10:43:25 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: CenturyLink restores service By Rachel Rodgers Dixon, IL - CenturyLink has resolved the outage that left customers without service for nearly 2 weeks. Water leaked into a lead-lined pipe and damaged a cable in the 800 block of Dement Avenue, creating an outage to about 190 units that began Jan. 16, said Nick Breidel, a regional marketing development manager for CenturyLink. http://www.saukvalley.com/2017/01/27/everything-is-all-up-and-live-centurylink-restores-service/auh91js/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Tue, 31 Jan 2017