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The Telecom Digest for May 22, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 139 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: JitterBug? (David Clayton)
Re: JitterBug? (AES)
FCC Has Now Approved VeriZon Sale of Most GTE/Contel to Frontier (Mark J. Cuccia)
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Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 15:48:35 +1000
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: JitterBug?
Message-ID: <pan.2010.05.21.05.48.32.263287@myrealbox.com>
On Tue, 18 May 2010 20:57:20 -0400, Wesrock wrote:
>
> In a message dated 5/18/2010 6:02:58 PM Central Daylight Time,
> thad@thadlabs.com writes:
>
>> It appears to be a service catering to senior citizens with a good, no
>> nonsense phone that's easy to use.
..........
> I have been tempted but have never taken action. I use my telephone as a
> telephone and the little size and little keypad I think is a nuisance.
>
> Yes, I'm a senior citizen. I often have to use my fingernail on the
> buttons because otherwise [I] push two or three buttons at once.
>
I have had the recent (mis)fortune of having to set up IMAP e-mail access
on some iPhones for clients, and I was getting extremely frustrated with
the touch screen for inputting data as it would invariably not match up
too well with the size of my thumb and select the character next to the
one I actually wanted.
At least with a "normal" keypad there is some physical difference between
the keys, on these over-crowded touchscreens there is just "hope for the
best" a lot of the time.
I don't think the iPhone will take off in the seniors market, not unless
they have a special app that makes it much more easier to configure than
it currently is.
--
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: Fri, 21 May 2010 05:43:55 -0700
From: AES <siegman@stanford.edu>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: JitterBug?
Message-ID: <siegman-8D8B4A.05435521052010@sciid-srv02.med.tufts.edu>
Re the JitterBug phone:
> In a message dated 5/18/2010 6:02:58 PM Central Daylight Time,
> thad@thadlabs.com writes:
>
> > It appears to be a service catering to senior citizens with a good,
> > no nonsense phone that's easy to use.
> I have been tempted but have never taken action. I use my telephone
> as a telephone and the little size and little keypad I think is a
> nuisance.
>
> Yes, I'm a senior citizen. I often have to use my fingernail on the
> buttons because otherwise [I] push two or three buttons at once.
My encounter with this phone was via a somewhat handicapped
(post-stroke) but still mobile senior citizen who has one. It's just
a bit larger than the typical small cellphone, but still pocket size;
the buttons are definitely larger; I gather the interaction with the
company, and especially the availability of a real "operator" if
you just hit "0", are quite good; and he's very happy with it.
Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 14:48:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Mark J. Cuccia" <markjcuccia@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: FCC Has Now Approved VeriZon Sale of Most GTE/Contel to Frontier
Message-ID: <603959.16851.qm@web31104.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
At the moment as I type this, in the 5-pm hour Eastern, Friday 21-May-2010,
there isn't anything yet at the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC)
website, but a Google News search on "VeriZon Frontier Sale" will
result in well over a hundred results of radio/TV/newspaper/etc.
websites which now put up news items regarding the FCC's approval of
this VeriZon/Frontier transfer.
This would be mostly legacy GTE-including-Contel in several (but not all
of the) states where VeriZon has continued to so far retain such old
GTE-including-Contel, as well as legacy BOC Chesapeake-and-Potomac Tel
(of RBOC Bell Atlantic) including the Crows-Hematite VA ratecenter
(which gets its dialtone from C&P-WV' White Sulphur Springs VA remote
switch).
On Monday 17-May-2010, the Virginia SCC (State Corporations Commission)
gave its final approval for Frontier to take over the Crows-Hematite VA
ratecenter from VeriZon (BA/C&P).
The actual URL for the document is way too long to post, but the general
reference page at the VA-SCC website regarding the transfer from VeriZon
to Frontier regarding Crows-Hematite VA is:
http://docket.scc.virginia.gov/vaprod/DOCUMENTS.ASP?MATTER_NO=127929
which lists the documents in reverse-chronological-order, the 17-May-2010
approval being the top-most document linked to (a pdf file).
And the nine states (of the 14 total in this VeriZon sale to Frontier)
which were required to approve of this sale, had all approved, the
West Virginia PSC approving it last Thursday (13-May-2010).
Five states (of the 14 total) do not have it written in their legislative
statutes or regulatory procedures, for their state regulatory agencies
to approve of such a sale/transfer of telco ownership --
North Carolina Utilities Commission
Michigan Public Service Commission
Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission
Public Service Commission of Wisconsin
Idaho Public Utilities Commission
All that was required for these five states was for the FCC and other
federal regulatory agencies to approve of the sale, as well as any
necessary approval by shareholders of VeriZon and Frontier.
The nine states where approval was required and the date of approval are:
Wednesday 28-October-2009: Public Utilities Commission of Nevada
Wednesday 28-October-2009: Public Service Commission of South Carolina
Thursday 29-October-2009: California Public Utilities Commission
Thursday 11-February-2010: Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
Thursday 18-February-2010: Arizona Corporation Commission
Friday 26-February-2010: Oregon Public Utilities Commission
Friday 16-April-2010: Washington (state) Utilities & Transportation
Commission
Wednesday 21-April-2010: Illinois Commerce Commission
Thursday 13-May-2010: West Virginia Public Service Commission
VeriZon and Frontier jointly announced their decision to have this sale
of telco areas, just over a year ago, on Wednesday 13-May-2009, pending
regulatory/etc. approval. Over the next several weeks/months during the
late-Spring and throughout the Summer of 2009, they also jointly filed
the necessary requests to the required regulatory agencies.
On Tuesday 01-September-2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) granted
approval (involving the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of
1976, regarding certain conditions of the IRS)
On Tuesday 27-October-2009, Frontier's shareholders approved (approval
by VeriZon shareholders was apparently NOT required, probably since it
didn't involve a purchase, but rather a sale?).
The sale of legacy GTE (and Contel) in California involves only about a
dozen or so exchange areas near the CA state border with Oregon, Nevada,
Arizona, all three states' old GTE and Contel being sold by VeriZon to
Frontier as part of this sale -- old GTE "West Coast Telephone Company"
on the Pacific coast at the Oregon state line, a couple of old Contel
exchanges near Lake Tahoe bordering Nevada, and a handful of old Contel
exchanges in San Bernardino/Riverside/imperial counties which border
Arizona. The vast bulk of (retained so far) GTE and Contel within the
bulk of California are still to be retained by VeriZon. (GTE did sell
off some old GTE and/or Contel in California to Citizens Tel, which is
now Frontier, back in 1995, however).
Also being retained by VeriZon is old GTE and Contel so far retained in
Texas (some old GTE and Contel was sold to the new Valor Telecom back
in 2000, Valor merged with Alltel's spun-off landline in 2006 to become
Windstream).
And the GTE in the Tampa FL metro area is also being retained by
VeriZon. (Old Contel in the Florida panhandle and northeast Florida was
sold to Centel way back in 1985, Centel becoming part of Sprint/United
in the early 1990s, legacy Centel & United spun-off to Embarq in 2006,
and bought by CenturyTel in 2008/09 to become CenturyLink; one Contel
exchange near the FL/GA state-line was sold to Alltel probably in the
mid-1980s, and that exchange was fully consolidated into a nearby
Alltel ratecenter; another Contel exchange in northwest Florida was sold
back in the early 1970s to Southland Tel (AL) which was bought by
Rochester (NY) Tel circa 1991, Rochester Tel renamed itself Frontier in
the mid-1990s and was merged with Citizens circa 2000).
Also being retained by VeriZon is GTE (and Contel) in Pennsylvania and
Virginia. VeriZon is PA is also legacy BOC Bell Atlantic's Bell of
Pennsylvania; VeriZon in VA is also legacy BOC BA/C&P-Va.
While North Carolina (GTE and Contel) is being sold to Frontier, the
Knotts Island NC ratecenter (once-GTE, once-Contel) is being retained
by VeriZon. Knotts Island NC is part of the Norfolk VA LATA, and has
much more of a community of interest with Virginia than with North
Carolina. It is its own (remote) switch -- i.e., it doesn't actually get
"dialtone" from a VA-based c.o.switch, although it is part of the
Norfolk VA LATA, and its "host" switch is in Virginia.
There are a handful of central offices/ratecenters in the Haggerstown MD
LATA, along the West Virginia/Maryland state-line, where VA customers/
ratecenters get dialtone from MD-side c.o.switches, and vice-versa where
MD customers/ratecenters get dialtone from VA-side c.o.switches. VeriZon
does have plans to re-wire these customers so that they will get
dialtone from their own states' side c.o.switches, so that there can be
a "clean break" of the presently VZ/BA/C&P-WV side ratecenters (soon to
be Frontier), from the presently-and-still-retained VZ/BA/C&P-MD side
ratecenters. Local/EAS will be retained where it already exists, only
that it will become inter-LEC (between VZ and Frontier) inter-state
(between MD and VA), instead of intra-VeriZon inter-state.
Previous postings of mine on this subject give more details, including
links to various VeriZon and Frontier regulatory and network/technical
documents at their respective websites.
It is expected that the network/technical/etc. and legal/regulatory/
business/financial/etc. issues (especially with NeuStar-NANPA, NECA,
Telcordia-TRA, etc) will be fully completed for an "official transfer"
from VeriZon to Frontier to be "officially effective" on Wednesday
30-June-2010 / Thursday 01-July-2010.
Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina
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