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Message Digest
Volume 28 : Issue 123 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: AT&T to discontinue CallVantage voip service
Re: News readers, was Re: AT&T doubling 3G capacity
Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
Re: Waveguide (was "size a major consideration...")
Re: Waveguide (was "size a major consideration...")
Re: Waveguide (was "size a major consideration...")
Re: Nebraska commission loses appeal on Internet call fees
Re: AT&T doubling 3G capacity
The archives are coming back
====== 27 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 03:32:41 GMT
From: tlvp <PmUiRsGcE.TtHlEvSpE@att.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: AT&T to discontinue CallVantage voip service
Message-ID: <op.utdysy14wqrt3j@acer250.gateway.2wire.net>
On Sat, 02 May 2009 09:42:43 -0400, danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
wrote:
> In <20090501210958.74983.qmail@simone.iecc.com> John Levine
> <johnl@iecc.com> writes:
>
>>> Can someone recommend another VOIP service?
>
>> I didn't like Vonage either, but I've been reasonably happy with Lingo,
>> the voip service from Primus Telecommunications, a largish international
>> long distance telco.
>
>> If interested, write me directly and I'll send you a coupon.
>
> Vonage is certainly more expensive than the new comers, but let's
> give them credit where it's due - they pretty much are the folk
> who pushed this whole technology out there to the public.
>
> So I'll give them a bit more of a look than I would the others.
>
> That being said, the economics of most VOIP companies are very,
> very, shaky, and are based on _huge_ dept loads. Oh, and their
> business model can colapse very quickly with some regulatory
> changes.
>
> I personally would recommend two services. The first
> is Skype, which is "free" to any other Skype account and
> pretty cheap to a PSTN number. They've got a rate card, with
> plenty of options at http://www.skype.com
>
> The second is available to folk who already have a t-Mobile
> cellular account. They'll provide you with a special router which
> accepts a SIM card, and that'll give you a psuedo-landline jack
> out the back of it (which you can hook up to a landline
> phone, or a wireless unit, or others stuff). Cost is $10/month
> plus taxes and fees, which winds up totalling about $15 month.
> Again, this is only applicable if you've already got a t-Mobile
> cellular account.
>
> I'm mentioning the latter one because t-Mobile is a valid fullscale
> telco, thus the VOIP portion isn't likely to disappear without notice.
>
> Disclosure: I'm a t-mobile user and shareholder.
>
> Oh, one related point. It's pretty important to have a router
> that has a "quality of service" option for the VOIP packets. Otherwise
> anything else going on at the same time, such as your e-mail or web
> browsing, could easily cause you grief. (The QOS isn't perfect, but
> it makes a big difference).
And it helps to have an ISP offering high speeds without a phone line.
DSL users, in particular, are caught in a classic Catch-22: once you're
on t-Mobile's Phone@Home plan, you no longer need your phone; but without
your phone, you no longer have the DSL you need for the hi-speed
internet connection Phone@Home requires :-) .
Yeah, there'e "dry" DSL -- if offered at a reasonable rate (but for me
dry DSL would cost the same per month as my local loop + DSL is costing);
and there's my cable ISP -- at just a little more than the previous.
So: not for me, thanks anyway.
Cheers, -- tlvp
[PS: You the Danny Burstein who used to write a column for "The
Processor"?]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 17:07:55 +1000
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: News readers, was Re: AT&T doubling 3G capacity
Message-ID: <pan.2009.05.04.07.07.54.333388@myrealbox.com>
On Sun, 03 May 2009 09:46:28 -0400, John Levine wrote:
>>Please publish a list of the newsreaders and combined email/news clients
>>available for open source users. I'm particularly interested in software
>>for the KDE environment.
>
> Evolution and Thunderbird come to mind.
Evolution is for Gnome, not KDE. Pan is a very good stand-alone newsreader.
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 10:43:59 GMT
From: "Tony Toews \[MVP\]" <ttoews@telusplanet.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: FiOS in MDU Buildings
Message-ID: <rdhtv4hqa74jcv7fetoafoed5486i5t1cg@4ax.com>
hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>Further, if there was a serious extended power failure the cell towers
>probably would be dead, too, since their batteries aren't so great.
8 Hours is a Long Time
WirelessWeek - January 15, 2008
FCC's order for more backup power at cell sites sparks questions, innovations.
http://www.wirelessweek.com/Article-8-Hours-Long-Time.aspx
Down a ways - "Soon, three days of backup power will be required."
Ah but then
Scuffle About Cell Site Backup Power Put On Hold
WirelessWeek - July 09, 2008
The FCC must bring its rules for backup power at cell sites back to the drawing
board, a federal appeals court said yesterday.
http://www.wirelessweek.com/Cell-Site-Backup-Power-On-Hold.aspx?terms=
So who knows where it's at.
Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Tony's Main MS Access pages - http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/
Granite Fleet Manager http://www.granitefleet.com/
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 07:36:08 -0500
From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Waveguide (was "size a major consideration...")
Message-ID: <49FEE138.4050501@annsgarden.com>
I wrote:
> I think what you're seeing on cell towers is flexible waveguide
> ("Heliax"): http://tinyurl.com/cudezg
Howard Eisenhauer <howarde@REMOVECAPShfx.eastlink.ca> wrote:
> Wave guide would be a lot more efficient but for the frequencies
> used for cellular (850-900 Mhz), or even the PCS bands (~2000 MHz)
> it would be impractical due to size.
> "Heliax" (Andrews trade name) as used on cell towers is actually a
> hard line coax, not wave guide. There is a w/g product thats very
> hard to tell from the hardline from more than a few feet away but
> the w/g generally has an oval cross section where the hardline is
> round. The lowest frequency I've seen the w/g used for is 6 GHz.
I stand corrected. And I understand your point about size: clearly,
waveguide would have to be much larger at the low frequencies used by
cell and PCS.
David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com> wrote:
> I thought the big "lightning flash" was a generic warning logo for
> any microwave transmitter? (having seen them on the Telco towers
> here in Australia).
The red lightning flash is Andrew Corporation's corporate logo. Andrew
is now a subsidiary of CommScope, but it still uses the same logo.
http://www.commscope.com/andrew/eng/index.html
Neal McLain
------------------------------
Date: 4 May 2009 14:10:02 -0400
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Waveguide (was "size a major consideration...")
Message-ID: <gtnb1q$p0q$1@panix2.panix.com>
Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com> wrote:
>
>I stand corrected. And I understand your point about size: clearly,
>waveguide would have to be much larger at the low frequencies used by
>cell and PCS.
I have seen 450MHz waveguide used for early satellite antenna systems.
It wasn't big enough to walk inside, but you could climb through it.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
***** Moderator's Note *****
Given the cost of Heliax, and the losses of generic coax at 70cm, is
it possible/advisable to homebrew waveguide? A previous post mentioned
circular waveguide, and I wonder if I could feed 70cm or 23cm antennas
with waveguide made from copper pipe.
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 18:18:24 +0000 (UTC)
From: David Lesher <wb8foz@panix.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Waveguide (was "size a major consideration...")
Message-ID: <gtnbhg$lr2$1@reader1.panix.com>
Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com> writes:
> > Wave guide would be a lot more efficient but for the frequencies
> > used for cellular (850-900 Mhz), or even the PCS bands (~2000 MHz)
> > it would be impractical due to size.
> > "Heliax" (Andrews trade name) as used on cell towers is actually a
> > hard line coax, not wave guide. There is a w/g product thats very
> > hard to tell from the hardline from more than a few feet away but
> > the w/g generally has an oval cross section where the hardline is
> > round. The lowest frequency I've seen the w/g used for is 6 GHz.
>I stand corrected. And I understand your point about size: clearly,
>waveguide would have to be much larger at the low frequencies used by
>cell and PCS.
I was sure Heliax implied coax, but I looked.... There are both coaxial
and waveguide products in similar looking jackets. As the poster said;
the key is the shape. Coax shall always be round. If it's not round,
I'd say it's gotta be waveguide.
I was amazed to hear of the cable co. stringing miles of waveguide.
At the cost, I'd assumed they used microwave links or coax.
--
A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz@nrk.com
& no one will talk to a host that's close........[v].(301) 56-LINUX
Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433
is busy, hung or dead....................................20915-1433
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 05:37:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: "harold@hallikainen.com" <harold@hallikainen.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Nebraska commission loses appeal on Internet call fees
Message-ID: <aec245ed-b455-42b6-8036-ea766dcb1d84@d39g2000pra.googlegroups.com>
On May 3, 2:48 pm, hanco...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> On May 3, 9:58 am, "Fred Goodwin, CMA" <fgood...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> > A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling exempting
> > Internet phone service provider Vonage Holdings Corp. from paying a
> > state telephone fee.
> > All traditional phone companies pay into the Universal Service Fund.
> > But Voice over Internet Protocol - or VoIP - providers such as
> > Holmdel, N.J.-based Vonage say they provide an information service
> > rather than a telecommunications service.
>
> Nonsense. They're providing telecommunications service.
This "telecommunications service" versus "information service" is very
strange. I've seen it come up many times before, largely for internet
service providers. As far as I can figure out, we might consider an
"information service" to be something like a newspaper that produces
content and delivers that content, but does not deliver content for
others. A "telecommunications service" would be more like UPS, which
produces nothing, but delivers for others. So, how much "information"
does Vonage provide as part of their service? How much "delivery of
information for others" do they provide? Same for ISPs. The original
Compuserv or AOL which provided a lot of their own content might be
considered information services who did their own delivery.
This whole "telecommunications service" versus "information service"
needs to be revisited by the FCC.
Harold
------------------------------
Date: 4 May 2009 13:38:49 -0400
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: AT&T doubling 3G capacity
Message-ID: <gtn979$1es$1@panix2.panix.com>
Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:
>
>Please publish a list of the newsreaders and combined email/news
>clients available for open source users. I'm particularly interested
>in software for the KDE environment.
Damn, that would be literally hundreds of different entries, for probably
hundreds of different operating systems.
The most common text based ones are the family of programs that were derived
from readnews: rn, trn, trn4, tin, etc. There is still Vnews and the EMACS
newsreader. These have been ported to everything under the sun for the most
part.
If you want a graphical one, anything that uses X11 will run under KDE
and there are dozens of those including xrn, newsfish, pan, etch and I don't
know what else.
There is some KDE-specific one called knode, though I have never actually
seen it.
Personally, I still use rn, which is fast and convenient.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
***** Moderator's Note *****
I've never cared for the emacs newsreader (Sorry, RMS), and (for
reasons I don't understand) everytime I try to install something like
openoffice on KUBUNTU, the systems changes to Gnome instead of KDE.
If knode is intended for KDE, then I'll try that. Thanks!
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 4 May 2009 15:33:22 -0400
From: Telecom digest moderator <redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: The archives are coming back
Message-ID: <20090504193322.GC27218@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
Gentle reader,
As time allows, I've been working on reconstructing the online portion
of the archives, and that work is now complete for the Telecom Digest
issues which have been published this year.
The format of the archive page isn't the same as Pat used in years
past: I still haven't figured out how he did what he did, but I'll get
there. For now, you'll see a list of issue numbers, and clicking on
any one of them will bring up that issue, just as it originally
appeared.
The link is on the Digest's home page, http://telecom-digest.org/ .
I'll put 2008 and the rest of 2007 up RSN.
Bill Horne
Temporary Moderator
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
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End of The Telecom digest (9 messages)
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