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The Telecom Digest for May 21, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 122 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: 3rd party billing from AT&T (Doug McIntyre)
Re: 3rd party billing from AT&T (danny burstein)
Q.: Should jailbreaking ... mobile phones ... be legalized? (tlvp)
Re: BillPay Down, Online Banking Customers Crippled, Held Hostage (Joseph Singer)
Re: "cramming" 3rd party billing from AT&T (Joseph Singer)
Re: We Learn About The Telephone (Joseph Singer)

====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Bill Horne 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 that person, or email address owner.
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See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest. 




Date: 20 May 2012 04:56:43 GMT
From: Doug McIntyre <merlyn@geeks.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: 3rd party billing from AT&T 
Message-ID: <4fb8798b$0$74662$8046368a@newsreader.iphouse.net>

Javier <nospam@nospam.com> writes:
>In the past months I started recieving 3rd party billing from never
>demanded services from USBI.  The actual company seemed to be Onelink
>Communications Inc.  It was $6 a month.

>After some phone calls to the AT&T customer service they reversed the
>charges and told me that they would not allow 3rd party billing to me
>anymore.

You don't say if this is a POTS or wireless. 

There was a rash of 3rd party SMS cramming recently to AT&T wireless
accounts around the Minneapoils/St. Paul area (enough to make the
local news on several stations). 

Both of my AT&T wireless lines got hit. 

AT&T instantly took off the charges, and I asked for 3rd party billing
blocking on both lines. They assign a PIN and email it out. And the
cramming supposedly isn't possible then. 

Supposedly AT&T will only opt-in cramming on wireline service
(although that might not start until August). But AFAIK, wireless
is still opt-out. 




Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 04:21:15 +0000 (UTC)
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: 3rd party billing from AT&T 
Message-ID: <jp9rfr$fsa$1@reader1.panix.com>

In <jp9ois$rv1$1@speranza.aioe.org> Javier <nospam@nospam.com> writes:

> In the past months I started recieving 3rd party billing from never
> demanded services from USBI.  The actual company seemed to be
> Onelink Communications Inc.  It was $6 a month.

> After some phone calls to the AT&T customer service they reversed
> the charges and told me that they would not allow 3rd party billing
> to me anymore.

Don't waste any time with AT&T. Send off letters to your State's
Public Service Commission, with cc's (not that most will do anything,
but it's only 45 cents) to the FCC, FTC, and your State Attorney
General.

While these "third party" folk may, emphasize "may", have a valid
argument that they should be able to use AT&T's billing system
courtesy of deregulation, it's been about time, for a decade now, for
AT&T and all the others to have a simple paragraph in their access
agreement.

Something like: "if the billback rate is greater than two percent,
                 then this agreement is null and void."

-- 
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
                    dannyb@panix.com 
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]




Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 00:58:27 -0400
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Q.: Should jailbreaking ... mobile phones ... be legalized?  
Message-ID: <1gglm3vee6f7k.1ef38jy4ovapk.dlg@40tude.net>

The latest Sophos.com "Naked Security" blog post asks:

: Should jailbreaking gaming consoles, mobile phones and tablets be legalized?

Rationale for raising the question: 

| Yesterday US copyright regulators opened up the floodgates for a public
| hearing  (PDF at
| http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2012/77fr15327.pdf
| )
| of proposals to change copyright law, including authorizing the cracking
| of tablets, DVDs, gaming consoles and mobile phones.

More at (sorry for the overly long URL): 

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/05/18/should-jailbreaking-gaming-consoles-mobile-phones-and-tablets-be-legalised/

-or-

http://tinyurl.com/c2wfoyx

Cheers, -- tlvp
-- 
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.




Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 12:41:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: BillPay Down, Online Banking Customers Crippled, Held  Hostage 
Message-ID: <1337542870.30862.YahooMailClassic@web161504.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>

17 May 2012 00:38:57 -0000 John Levine wrote:

> On the other hand, they, you know, mail a check.  Surely it is not
> beyond the ability of Americans in 2012 to blow the dust off the
> checkbook and do it themselves.

Sure, we can "dust off" our checkbooks (I'm still required to write
only one check a month for my rent check since the entity that I rent
from has not evolved into the 21st century) but if you use something
to make payments and all of a sudden it doesn't work and as a result
of it not working you're going to be assessed late fees or ruin a good
payment record you have with an entity.  If you can't count on the
service working are you saying that we should all abandon banks'
e-payment services and regress into sending a cheque (and yes see if
you can find a stamp to make payments since that's one of the few
times you absolutely need to post something in the mail?)




Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 13:41:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: ("cramming" 3rd party billing from AT&T 
Message-ID: <1337546498.75231.YahooMailClassic@web161504.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>

Sun, 20 May 2012 03:31:40 +0000 (UTC) Javier wrote:

> In the past months I started recieving 3rd party billing from never
> demanded services from USBI.  The actual company seemed to be
> Onelink Communications Inc.  It was $6 a month.

> After some phone calls to the AT&T customer service they reversed
> the charges and told me that they would not allow 3rd party billing
> to me anymore.

> The 3rd party billing stopped for two months.  However, this month's
> bill comes again with the same [problem], and the company is even
> the same: USBI/Onelink Communications.

Unfortunately, this is not new and has been a problem for some time.
AT&T and Verizon have agreed to stop third-party billing for
companies.

An article in Consumerist:

The federal crackdown on the practice of landline bill-cramming -- the
slathering on of charges for often unauthorized third-party services
onto consumers' phone bills -- continues, with the Federal Trade
Commission accusing the country's largest third-party billing business
of attempting to cram $70 million worth of bogus charges down
consumers' throats.

Full article: 

http://consumerist.com/2012/05/ftc-goes-after-nations-largest-3rd-party-billing-company-for-profiting-off-bill-cramming.html

-or-

http://goo.gl/I1bYn

Also, if you do a google search there are pages and pages regarding this issue.




Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 13:19:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: We Learn About The Telephone 
Message-ID: <1337545147.90636.YahooMailClassic@web161505.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>

Thu, 17 May 2012 13:50:57 -0500 Dave Garland gave us this link:

> 1965 Bell movie for elementary-school audiences:
>
> http://archive.org/details/WeLearnA1965
> >>

Notes: When telephones ring they're all the 302 ringer even when they
illustrate everything with a 500 set.

When the boy dials "Bobby Martin" you'll notice that he dials the
standard Bell advertising number i.e. 555-2368!






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