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The Telecom Digest for January 16, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 14 : "text" Format
====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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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
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are definitely unwelcome.
We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. - Geoffrey Welsh
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
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Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 20:29:03 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: In Second Look, Few Savings From Digital Health Records
Message-ID: <p06240833cd19073b0b65@[10.0.1.3]>
In Second Look, Few Savings From Digital Health Records
By REED ABELSON and JULIE CRESWELL
January 10, 2013
The conversion to electronic health records has failed so far to
produce the hoped-for savings in health care costs and has had mixed
results, at best, in improving efficiency and patient care, according
to a new analysis by the influential RAND Corporation.
Optimistic predictions by RAND in 2005 helped drive explosive growth
in the electronic records industry and encouraged the federal
government to give billions of dollars in financial incentives to
hospitals and doctors that put the systems in place.
"We've not achieved the productivity and quality benefits that are
unquestionably there for the taking," said Dr. Arthur L. Kellermann,
one of the authors of a reassessment by RAND that was published in
this month's edition of Health Affairs, an academic journal.
RAND's 2005 report was paid for by a group of companies, including
General Electric and Cerner Corporation, that have profited by
developing and selling electronic records systems to hospitals and
physician practices. Cerner's revenue has nearly tripled since the
report was released, to a projected $3 billion in 2013, from $1
billion in 2005.
The report predicted that widespread use of electronic records could
save the United States health care system at least $81 billion a year,
a figure RAND now says was overstated. The study was widely praised
within the technology industry and helped persuade Congress and the
Obama administration to authorize billions of dollars in federal
stimulus money in 2009 to help hospitals and doctors pay for the
installation of electronic records systems.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/business/electronic-records-systems-have-not-reduced-health-costs-report-says.html
-or-
http://goo.gl/iAif6
Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 20:29:03 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Errors Mount at High-Speed Exchanges in New Year
Message-ID: <p06240832cd1906adea43@[10.0.1.3]>
Errors Mount at High-Speed Exchanges in New Year
By NATHANIEL POPPER
January 10, 2013
Confidence-shaking technology mishaps have been an almost daily
occurrence at the nation's stock exchanges in the new year.
The latest example came Wednesday night when the nation's
third-largest stock exchange operator, BATS Global Markets, alerted
its customers that a programming mistake had caused about 435,000
trades to be executed at the wrong price over the last four years,
costing traders $420,000.
A day earlier, the trading software used by the National Stock
Exchange stopped functioning properly for nearly an hour, forcing
other exchanges to divert trades around it. The New York Stock
Exchange, the nation's largest exchange, has had two similar, though
shorter-lived, breakdowns since Christmas and two separate problems
with its data reporting system. And traders were left in the dark on
Jan. 3 after the reporting system for stocks listed on the Nasdaq
exchange, the second-biggest exchange, broke down for nearly 15
minutes.
The stream of errors has occurred despite the spotlight on the
exchanges since a programming mishap nearly derailed Facebook's
initial public offering on Nasdaq last May and BATS's fumbling of its
own I.P.O. two months earlier. At the end of 2012, a number of
exchange executives said they were increasing efforts to reduce the
problems. But market data expert Eric Hunsader said that the
technology problems have become, if anything, more frequent in recent
weeks.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/11/business/in-new-year-errors-mount-at-high-speed-exchanges.html
Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 20:54:09 +0000 (UTC)
From: Koos van den Hout <koos+newsposting@kzdoos.xs4all.nl>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Verizon Announces End of 900 Number Billing
Message-ID: <kcv6th$hua$2@kzdoos.xs4all.nl>
John Reiser <jreiserfl@comcast.net> wrote in <bc6dnVzLQJLnJHnN4p2dnAA@giganews.com>:
> On 01/02/2013 06:26 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> It's interesting that in the Netherlands 0900 (equivalent to North
>>> American 1-900 service) is used for just about everything.
>> This is because in the Netherlands, it's possible to have 0900 calls
>> with fairly small minimum payments. The large minimum payment in the
>> US pretty much killed services like that.
> Please quantify. Can the billed charge be as low as 0.30 euro?
The lowest rate I can find is 0.01 euro/minute, at which the receiving
party has to pay to receive the call. Maximum timed rate I see advertised
is 0.80 euro/minute.
There is also the option of costs per call with rates between 0.075 euro
and 1.30 euro per call advertised.
This is just from a google search of some 0900 providers. I haven't looked
into 0900 service seriously in the last 20 years.
Koos van den Hout
--
Camp Wireless, the site about wireless Internet | Koos van den Hout
access at campsites
http://www.camp-wireless.org/
|
http://idefix.net/
PGP keyid DSS/1024 0xF0D7C263 | IPv6 enabled!
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2013 22:46:46 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Worry Over Sales Spurs Talk of Cheaper iPhones
Message-ID: <p06240865cd1a7ebc0e55@[10.0.1.3]>
Worry Over Sales Spurs Talk of Cheaper iPhones
By BRIAN X. CHEN
January 14, 2013
By now, most of the world knows what an iPhone is - and they know it
typically doesn't come cheap.
That is the problem Apple faces. Analysts say it must decide whether
to keep catering to the high end of the phone market, reaping fat
profits from relatively fewer sales, or offer something cheaper to
compete with lower-cost alternatives like Samsung's phones.
Worries about low-cost competition weighed on Apple's stock on Monday
after reports that the company had reduced orders of screens for the
iPhone 5, suggesting that demand for the phone could be weaker than
expected. The company's shares dropped 3.6 percent for the day to
close at $501.75; they have slid 29 percent from their high in
September.
The long slump in the stock price has increased the pressure on the
company to produce a solid earnings report on Wednesday, when
investors will be looking closely to see how strong iPhone sales were.
The iPhone is still a top seller in the American market. But it has a
tougher time competing in other markets, where consumers buy phones
without a subsidy from a wireless carrier. In countries like Brazil,
Germany and Spain, the iPhone 5 can cost $650.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/technology/worry-over-sales-spurs-talk-of-cheaper-iphones.html
Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 20:29:03 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Smartphones Become Life's Remote Control
Message-ID: <p06240831cd190641d0c5@[10.0.1.3]>
Smartphones Become Life's Remote Control
By BRIAN X. CHEN
January 11, 2013
LAS VEGAS - The smartphone is no longer just a portable computer in
your pocket. It has become the remote control for your life.
Want to flip off the living room lights, unlock your front door or
get a reading of your blood pressure? All of this can be done through
mobile apps that work with accessories embedded with sensors or an
Internet connection.
For several years, technology companies have promised the dream of
the connected home, the connected body and the connected car. Those
connections have proved illusory. But in the last year app-powered
accessories have provided the mechanism to actually make the
connections. That is partly because smartphones have become the
device people never put down. But it is also because wireless sensors
have become smaller, cheaper and ubiquitous.
Big companies with strong brands have been heavily promoting the new
uses for these gadgets. General Motors advertises its Chevy Malibu
Eco with a man showing his parents how he starts the car with a
smartphone. A major selling point of the popular Nest thermostat is
its ability to turn up the furnace from miles away with a cellphone.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/technology/smartphones-can-now-run-consumers-lives.html
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2013 22:46:46 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Daily Report: Google Invades the iPhone
Message-ID: <p06240867cd1a7fcb4dd5@[10.0.1.3]>
Daily Report: Google Invades the iPhone
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
JANUARY 14, 2013
For many people, smartphone shopping comes down to a choice of
Apple's iPhone or one powered by Google's Android software. But now
consumers can get an iPhone and fill it with Google.
As Nick Wingfield and Claire Cain Miller report on Monday in The New
York Times, Google has become one of the most prolific and popular
developers of apps for the iPhone, in effect helping its competitor
make more appealing products - even as relations between the
companies have deteriorated.
While some of its Internet services were built into the iPhone from
the start, Google has stepped up its presence in the last eight
months, pumping out major new iPhone apps or improving old ones. It
also has expanded efforts to hire developers to make more such apps.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/daily-report-google-invades-the-iphone/
Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 20:29:03 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: The End of Courtship?
Message-ID: <p06240837cd1909c6a402@[10.0.1.3]>
The End of Courtship?
By ALEX WILLIAMS
January 11, 2013
MAYBE it was because they had met on OkCupid. But when the dark-eyed
musician with artfully disheveled hair asked Shani Silver, a social
media and blog manager in Philadelphia, out on a "date" Friday night,
she was expecting at least a drink, one on one.
"At 10 p.m., I hadn't heard from him," said Ms. Silver, 30, who wore
her favorite skinny black jeans. Finally, at 10:30, he sent a text
message. "Hey, I'm at Pub & Kitchen, want to meet up for a drink or
whatever?" he wrote, before adding, "I'm here with a bunch of friends
from college."
Turned off, she fired back a text message, politely declining. But in
retrospect, she might have adjusted her expectations. "The word
'date' should almost be stricken from the dictionary," Ms. Silver
said. "Dating culture has evolved to a cycle of text messages, each
one requiring the code-breaking skills of a cold war spy to
interpret."
"It's one step below a date, and one step above a high-five," she
added. Dinner at a romantic new bistro? Forget it. Women in their 20s
these days are lucky to get a last-minute text to tag along. Raised
in the age of so-called "hookup culture," millennials - who are
reaching an age where they are starting to think about settling down
- are subverting the rules of courtship.
Instead of dinner-and-a-movie, which seems as obsolete as a rotary
phone, they rendezvous over phone texts, Facebook posts, instant
messages and other "non-dates" that are leaving a generation confused
about how to land a boyfriend or girlfriend.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/fashion/the-end-of-courtship.html
Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2013 10:28:17 -0800
From: SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Mixed news for AT&T in Consumer Reports wireless survey
Message-ID: <50f2fcd4$0$80169$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net>
On 1/12/2013 5:01 AM, Mark Smith wrote:
> I use Consumer Cellular and my girlfriend uses Tracphone. My only
> complaint is lack of call availability. We are in Laurel, MD and it's
> a very busy phone area. Sometimes I don't get a tower response (no
> bars) and sometimes the call starts but doesn't go through. I get a
> lot of voicemails where the phone never rang.
You should definitely check out Verizon's MVNO, Pageplus Cellular. It's
much less expensive than Tracfone or Consumer Cellular and (in most
cases) the coverage is better because it's on Verizon's network.
We currently have four Android smart phones on this MVNO. The big
advantage over Verizon itself is that you don't have to have a data plan
to have a smart phone (though they do offer plans with a lot of data if
you really need it).
The drawbacks are:
1) No international roaming in CDMA countries other than Canada and Mexico
2) No 4G LTE, only 3G
3) Roaming off of Verizon for voice costs extra (20-29¢/minute), (no
extra charge for texting while roaming)
4) No data roaming off Verizon
5) You bring or buy a Verizon compatible (up to 3G) phone, no free or
subsidized phones.
6) No family plans.
7) All minutes counted, no free N&W or MTM.
But if you can live with these drawbacks the rates are very good,
especially if you want a smart phone, on a good network, without paying
$100+ per month.
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
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