29 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
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The Telecom Digest for June 12, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 149 : "text" Format
====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== |
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Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:11:56 -0500
From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Unsecured Call Warnings In iOS 5
Message-ID: <BANLkTimwf+YvDFfMv7ZTXs72mS_2ipeoMg@mail.gmail.com>
"If you're on a call on a GSM iPhone (AT&T, not Verizon) and there's a
risk of someone tapping your call, you'll see the "Unsecured Call"
message pictured at right."
http://www.businessinsider.com/ios-5-unsecured-call-notification-2011-6
How much of a problem is this? And are CDMA phone immune?
Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2011 01:59:20 -0700
From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Cable rates are rising, but don't blame your provider - entirely
Message-ID: <Z7idnUf_cND1s27QnZ2dnUVZ_qydnZ2d@giganews.com>
Telecom Digest Moderator wrote:
..
>
> Just tell Mayor Menino that he's a pretentious blow-hard, and organize a
> boycott of Comcast: they'll get the message. Better yet, turn it off,
> get a library card, and read a book.
That isn't going to happen.
Perhaps going to Dish or Direct is the answer.
***** Moderator's Note *****
If it doesn't happen for others, they get to bear the
consequences. You have your own choice.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2011 04:28:53 -0500
From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Cable rates are rising, but don't blame your provider - entirely.
Message-ID: <4DF33555.2080107@annsgarden.com>
In Message-ID: <p06240807ca173f75990d@[10.0.1.3]
Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com quoted Boston.com:
> Cable rates are rising, but don't blame your provider -
> entirely
> By Johnny Diaz
> Globe Staff / June 5, 2011
>
> Cable subscribers in Boston are fuming about rising
> bills, and many blame what they see as Comcast Corp.'s
> virtual monopoly in the city....
>
> For most subscribers, the biggest driver of these rising
> cable bills is the increased cost of programming - the
> result, ironically, of competition with satellite
> companies, Internet TV, movie rental providers, and
> Verizon Corp.'s FiOS network, analysts said. As these
> services bid for programming, sports, entertainment, and
> local channels demand - and receive - higher fees from
> cable companies, which ultimately get passed on to
> consumers.
Surprise! Same point I've been trying to make for years:
- At the retail level, competition acts to lower prices because the
customer -- the subscriber -- only needs one supplier.
- At the wholesale level, competition acts to increase prices because
all retailers have to buy the same products from the same monopoly
suppliers.
And a monopoly it is, created and protected by the federal government.
As I noted in thread "Kerry outlines bill to resolve TV disputes
[telecom]" (Oct 26 2010, 12:00 am) http://tinyurl.com/3y4xyfl:
> - A broadcast licensee can elect must-carry or
> retransmission-consent with respect to any MVPD that
> distributes its signal within its home DMA.
>
> - A broadcast licensee has exclusive market protection
> within its DMA.
>
> - A broadcast licensee (or its parent company) is
> permitted to bundle broadcast programming with non-
> broadcast programming.
>
> - Every MVPD must deal with the licensee serving the DMA
> in which said MVPD distributes the licensee's signal.
>
> - If a MVPD cannot reach a retransmission-consent
> agreement with a given licensee, it is prohibited from
> carrying same-network programming from any other
> broadcast station.
In any other business, an arrangement like this would be called a
monopoly. But in the upside-down world of broadcast television, it's
called "consumer protection."
If Senator Kerry really wants to do something about cable prices, he
should introduce a bill to repeal the grotesquely-misnamed "Cable
Television Protection and Competition Act of 1992."
Our moderator commented:
> Comcrap is the most arrogant, intractable, intransigent,
> and incompetent telephone service provider in the world:
> I know, because I had the misfortune of paying them for
> telephone service years ago.
>
> Having said that, I'll also say that cable TV viewers who
> don't cancel overpriced or substandard television
> offerings get little sympathy from me: it's an
> entertainment service, not a food or fuel monopoly, so
> nobody is forced to put up with prices they find
> inconvenient.
If cable TV offerings are "substandard," what do you define as "standard"?
> Just tell Mayor Menino that he's a pretentious blow-hard,
> and organize a boycott of Comcast: they'll get the
> message. Better yet, turn it off, get a library card, and
> read a book.
If Menino wants to accomplish something, instead of blaming Comcast for
ever-rising prices, he should join Comcast in its retransmission-consent
battles with programmers. And he should certainly join the efforts of
the senior senator from his state to address the issue.
Neal McLain
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