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| Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2015 17:43:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Robocalls - the next level
Message-ID: <4b7339ef-0469-47fd-9593-3e76020c135e@googlegroups.com>
On Saturday, July 4, 2015 at 4:15:25 PM UTC-4, Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
> I repeat: the telephone as we grew up with and knew it has lost its
> utility. We can't win the arms race. Therefore, it's time to
> acknowledge that, perhaps mourn it, but regardless move on to other,
> different forms of personal communication.
Moving on to other forms of communication is not a solitary decision.
Everyone you deal with must be willing to move on as well, and in
the real world, we often don't have a choice.
As mentioned, when there is an illness in the household, there are
frequent calls from various health care providers (e.g. doctors,
nurses, labs, pharmacy, hospital, health insurance, etc). These
must be answered, otherwise, important information may be
significantly delayed or lost.
(One might argue to get different health care providers, but often
we don't have a choice about that.)
|
| Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2015 08:38:56 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Screen Addiction Is Taking a Toll on Children
Message-ID: <0B564D35-40A5-4575-9B9D-F0B37E486193@roscom.com>
Screen Addiction Is Taking a Toll on Children
American youths are plugged in and tuned out of the real world for
many more hours of the day than experts consider healthy for normal
development.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/screen-addiction-is-taking-a-toll-on-children/
|
| Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2015 08:37:14 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Free Hotel Wi-Fi is increasingly on Travelers' Must-Have Lists
Message-ID: <07ED69FC-D163-4389-9523-74A77B224BDC@roscom.com>
Hotel guests, used to receiving free Wi-Fi nearly everywhere, are
becoming less willing to pay the fees high-end flagship hotels charge
for the service.
http://goo.gl/02eIR5
|
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2015 17:24:34 +0000 (UTC)
From: wollman@bimajority.org (Garrett Wollman)
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Free Hotel Wi-Fi is increasingly on Travelers' Must-Have Lists
Message-ID: <mnh20i$13cj$1@grapevine.csail.mit.edu>
In article <07ED69FC-D163-4389-9523-74A77B224BDC@roscom.com>,
Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> wrote:
>Hotel guests, used to receiving free Wi-Fi nearly everywhere, are
>becoming less willing to pay the fees high-end flagship hotels charge
>for the service.
Good. It always pissed me off that when I travel for personal
reasons, and stay at budget hotels, I get "free" network included with
the $90 room rate, whereas when I travel for business and stay at a
Marriott or a Sheraton, they ding me for $15 a day on top of the
already outrageous room rates.
At least USENIX is now including wireless in their hotel contracts for
conferences. So long as I stay at the overpriced conference hotel,
anyway....
-GAWollman
***** Moderator's Note *****
Well, it does cost something to provide the service, and whatever a
hotel charges for it, the cost pales in comparison to the value of
your time. Maybe we all need to ask how we got the idea that only
those whom are glued to a computer are productive?
Bill Horne
Moderator
--
Garrett A. Wollman
wollman@bimajority.org
Opinions not shared by
my employers.
|
What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
repeated, than the story of a large research program
that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993
|
|
| Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2015 12:48:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Mediacom petitions FCC for retrans blackout reform
Message-ID: <10a6b73e-a4f1-4ace-8513-478850720886@googlegroups.com>
By Ben Munson, Editor, CED, 07/07/2015
Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso wants the FCC to do something about rising
retransmission fees and the blackouts local broadcasters use to keep the costs
going up.
In a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Commisso lamented the Commission's
inaction as retransmission fees inflate, including another $3 billion per year
increase during Wheeler's tenure as chairman.
"PayTV costs are significantly higher in the U.S. than anywhere else in the
world largely because the average monthly wholesale programming costs paid by
most MVPDs have grown to over $45 per subscriber. To put these wholesale
programming costs in their proper perspective, $45 is roughly the monthly
retail price ISPs charge for their flagship broadband product," Commisso
wrote.
http://www.cedmagazine.com/news/2015/07/mediacom-petitions-fcc-for-retrans-blackout-reform?et_cid=4662985&et_rid=652835436&type=cta
-or-
http://tinyurl.com/odkm7vc
Assuming of course that the FCC has legal authority to do anything about
retrans fees. As the FCC notes in its webpage "Cable Carriage of Broadcast
Stations":
Q: What can the FCC do if a broadcaster and a cable operator fail to reach a
retransmission consent agreement?
A: Generally, the FCC is not authorized to participate in discussions between
television stations and cable systems regarding retransmission consent
agreements.
https://www.fcc.gov/guides/cable-carriage-broadcast-stations
Only Congress can do anything about retrans fees. Congress doesn't appear
interested.
Neal McLain
|
| Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2015 21:55:36 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Judge awards $229,500 compensation for robocalls
Message-ID: <mnhvs3$uhd$1@dont-email.me>
Judge awards nearly $230,000 to woman who got 153 robocalls
By LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK (AP) - It wasn't a robocall, but a federal judge left a message
anyway for companies Tuesday when he awarded nearly $230,000 to a Texas
woman, finding that a cable company crossed the line when it harassed
her with 153 robocalls even after she complained about the wrong numbers.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan ordered Time Warner
Cable Inc. to make the $229,500 payment to Araceli King of Irving,
Texas, citing the New York-based company's "particularly egregious"
behavior as it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.
http://goo.gl/qwIu0D
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
|
| Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2015 22:49:32 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Centurylin to lay off employees in Missouri
Message-ID: <mni318$evc$1@dont-email.me>
Forty CenturyLink employees found out Friday that the company is closing
its regional dispatch operation in downtown Columbia (Missouri).
The elimination of the center means 40 union employees at the 625 Cherry
St. location, who dispatch technicians in 11 states, will lose their
jobs Jan. 15. About 150 employees will remain at the Cherry Street
office doing other jobs. The rest of CenturyLink's Columbia employees
report to a location on LeMone Industrial Boulevard.
http://goo.gl/eber7I
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
|
| Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2015 23:24:18 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Frontier discloses transition plan for Verizon holdings
Message-ID: <20150708032418.GA7477@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
Frontier enacts two-part OSS, customer transition plan for Verizon wireline acquisition
by Sean Buckley
Frontier told the FCC in a filing that it has devised a cutover
strategy with Verizon for its purchase of the ILEC's wireline
properties in California, Florida and Texas, one that it says will
ensure there will be no service disruptions to its retail and
wholesale customers.
The cutover plan consists of two elements: functional cutover plans
and a deliverable schedule for both Verizon and Frontier.
http://goo.gl/i58Vdn
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
|
| Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2015 23:19:29 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Verizon and the NY State PUC
Message-ID: <20150708031929.GA7452@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
by Bruce Kushnik
Verizon and the NY State Public Service ('Captured') Commission
"Regulatory Capture" is when an industry takes over the regulatory
agency that is supposed to be doing oversight of the companies'
business practices and is supposed to be protecting the Public
Interest. The newly released report by the NY State Public Service
Commission (NYPSC) "Staff Assessment of Telecommunications Services",
(June, 2015) is a model of how a corrupted government agency helped
Verizon (and Time Warner) get continuous rate increases, allows for
egregious communications bills and deceptive marketing to be 'business
as usual', covers over Verizon's failure to deliver on the commitment
for 'massive deployment of fiber optics' (but charged customers over
$750.00 and counting) and then claims that competition truly exists.
And to top it off, the State report claims that there has not been any
major telecommunications proceedings for over a decade! (NOTE: There
appears to be another name used, "The Department of Public Service",
for the report.)
http://goo.gl/Jxkubp
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
|
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