33 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981Copyright © 2015 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.The Telecom Digest for Jun 18, 2015
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| All the lessons of history and experience must be lost upon us if we are content to trust alone to the peculiar advantages we happen to possess. |
| Martin van Buren |
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| Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2015 06:55:20 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Did Verizon NY Charge You for a Fiber Optic Service You May Never Get? Message-ID: <mlrjkc$dop$1@dont-email.me> by Bruce Kushnick Verizon NY Charged Every Residential Phone Customer about $750.00 Per Line for a Fiber Optic Service, Including Seniors, Low Income Families and Rural Areas, (counting taxes, some of which are also revenues to Verizon). * In 2006, the NY Public Service Commission granted Verizon NY multiple rate increases (84%) on residential phone service for "massive deployment of fiber optics" and "losses". (VNY also raised business rates multiple times as well.) * Extra services, including inside wiring or non-published numbers, also got hit with 100%-300% rate increases since 2006. Customers paid an additional $430.00 extra, counting taxes for inside wire maintenance, for example. * If you have phone service and added features, (though the excess costs vary based on which additional services you have), you paid over $1,000 extra. http://goo.gl/ioyHM0 -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly) |
| Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2015 07:01:22 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: AT&T and Verizon Accused of Dominating the Wireless Industry Message-ID: <mlrjvm$f7e$1@dont-email.me> The Coalition Petitioning the Government to Stop AT&T and Verizon From So Easily Dominating the Wireless Industry by Adam Levy The crème de la crème of wireless spectrum for cellular carriers is pretty much anything under 1 GHz. These frequencies carry the ability to send a signal long distances, and penetrate objects much better than higher bands. Think about how your TV antenna was capable of picking up the signal for I Love Lucy even in the concrete-surrounded basement. With an upcoming incentive auction scheduled for next year, which will reappropriate old television spectrum for cellular networks, a big chunk of that valuable spectrum is up for grabs. http://goo.gl/Hur174 -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly) |
| Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2015 07:11:36 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Let's Encrypt Launch Plan Message-ID: <mlrkis$hj4$1@dont-email.me> BY JACOB HOFFMAN-ANDREWS The first free and automated certificate authority, Let's Encrypt, will launch to the public in September of this year. This is a huge milestone for web security and privacy. Encryption in transit (HTTPS) is vital to protect people and websites from spying and tampering. Someday soon, we hope every site on the web will use HTTPS by default. Unfortunately, there are still obstacles preventing some sites from implementing HTTPS. Many are stymied by the need to obtain and install a certificate. For years, this was an expensive and difficult process. Today, it's possible to obtain a certificate for free, so it is merely a difficult process. Our informal tests have shown that it often takes 1-3 hours for a web administrator to install a certificate. People without web administration skills may not be able to install one at all. We think that's not acceptable. The free and open web must be accessible to anyone who wants to publish their thoughts, not just those with technical skills. As HTTPS becomes a more integral part of the web, we must democratize access to its benefits. https://goo.gl/vDusfs -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly) ***** Moderator's Note ***** This piece is mostly hype. That's OK: from a first glance, it appears that "Let's Encrypt" has well-known backers whom are able to get the all-important "root" certificate placed into browsers by default, and the browser-makers' reluctance to accept new root certificates is the tollgate that has prevented previous competition in the PKI market. Bill Horne Moderator |
| Date: 17 Jun 2015 16:14:16 -0000 From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Let's Encrypt Launch Plan Message-ID: <20150617161416.74134.qmail@ary.lan> > This piece is mostly hype. That's OK: from a first glance, it > appears that "Let's Encrypt" has well-known backers whom are able to > get the all-important "root" certificate placed into browsers by > default, and the browser-makers' reluctance to accept new root > certificates is the tollgate that has prevented previous competition > in the PKI market. Prevent competition? Have you counted the CA's that your typical web browser trusts? My browser has about 200, including Startcom which issues ordinary certs in about 10 minutes for $0. Let's Encrypt is interesting because the whole thing is automated at the server end once the required software is installed, which will be no big deal. (It's like installing PHP or other plugins.) The level of security isn't fabulous, but it's similar to what other CAs do now and it means that all of those cheap pre-fab web sites running Wordpress and the like can do https with one click by the server operator. R's, John |
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