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The Telecom Digest for June 19, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 149 : "text" Format
====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
|
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, 17 Jun 2012 23:10:39 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: You for Sale: Mapping, and Sharing, the Consumer Genome
Message-ID: <p0624082fcc044c631527@[10.0.1.3]>
You for Sale: Mapping, and Sharing, the Consumer Genome
By NATASHA SINGER
June 16, 2012
IT knows who you are. It knows where you live. It knows what you do.
It peers deeper into American life than the F.B.I. or the I.R.S., or
those prying digital eyes at Facebook and Google. If you are an
American adult, the odds are that it knows things like your age,
race, sex, weight, height, marital status, education level, politics,
buying habits, household health worries, vacation dreams - and on and
on.
Right now in Conway, Ark., north of Little Rock, more than 23,000
computer servers are collecting, collating and analyzing consumer
data for a company that, unlike Silicon Valley's marquee names,
rarely makes headlines. It's called the Acxiom Corporation, and it's
the quiet giant of a multibillion-dollar industry known as database
marketing.
Few consumers have ever heard of Acxiom. But analysts say it has
amassed the world's largest commercial database on consumers - and
that it wants to know much, much more. Its servers process more than
50 trillion data "transactions" a year. Company executives have said
its database contains information about 500 million active consumers
worldwide, with about 1,500 data points per person. That includes a
majority of adults in the United States.
Such large-scale data mining and analytics - based on information
available in public records, consumer surveys and the like - are
perfectly legal. Acxiom's customers have included big banks like
Wells Fargo and HSBC, investment services like E*Trade, automakers
like Toyota and Ford, department stores like Macy's - just about any
major company looking for insight into its customers.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/technology/acxiom-the-quiet-giant-of-consumer-database-marketing.html
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 01:43:50 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Apple and Google Go Head to Head Over Mobile Maps
Message-ID: <p06240837cc046f88934e@[10.0.1.3]>
Apple and Google Go Head to Head Over Mobile Maps
By QUENTIN HARDY
June 17, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO - Get ready for the mobile map wars.
For many people, phones have become an important way to navigate the
world, and mobile maps are at the core of the journey. They are often
the critical element in commerce, socializing and search. So far,
Google has reigned supreme in the mobile map world, with its maps on
every iPhone sold so far - and, of course, on every phone based on
its own Android operating system.
Last week, though, Apple gave notice it would enter the battle,
announcing that in the fall, its phones would no longer carry Google
maps, but instead would have Apple's own map service built in, part
of its new mobile operating system. Maps are simply too important to
be left to a rival.
The question is: Can Apple build a map service that does as good a
job, or a better one, than Google has?
If Apple slips up, consumers in the highly competitive smartphone
market may have a good reason to turn to Android phones. If Apple
succeeds, Google will be under pressure at a time when it already has
to deal with other competitors in map services.
"It makes Apple more valuable and denies Google a lot of user data,
and a brand presence, on the iPhone," said Ben Bajarin, an analyst
with the technology research firm Creative Strategies. If Apple
cannot meet or exceed Google's maps, he added, "it will irk their
power users," who are the most valuable customers.
Apple's move into maps was not exactly a surprise. It has bought a
few companies that make mapping features, like three-dimensional
visualizations, and has secured rights to data like the names and
layouts of streets in over 100 countries from TomTom, a big digital
map company based in the Netherlands.
But making digital maps is not easy. Google has spent years working
on its services, pouring all kinds of resources into the effort,
including its Street View project to photograph and map the world. It
will be hard to duplicate that depth and breadth.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/technology/apples-goes-head-to-head-with-google-over-mobile-maps.html
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 01:43:50 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Verifying Ages Online Is a Daunting Task, Even for Experts
Message-ID: <p06240836cc046f5787d0@[10.0.1.3]>
Verifying Ages Online Is a Daunting Task, Even for Experts
By NICOLE PERLROTH
June 17, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO - Just how hard can it be to verify the age of a
person online?
After all, privacy experts have been complaining for years about how
much advertisers know about people who use the Internet.
The answer, it turns out, is very hard. Despite attempts by privacy
advocates, academics, law enforcement officials, technologists and
advertisers to determine a person's age on the Internet, the reality
is that, online, it is extremely difficult to tell whether someone is
an 11-year-old girl or a 45-year-old man.
The question arose last week after Skout, a mobile social networking
app, discovered that, within two weeks, three adults had masqueraded
as teenagers in its forum for 13- to 17-year-olds. In three separate
incidents, they contacted children and, the police say, sexually
assaulted them.
In response, Skout suspended its app for minors, appointed a task
force of security specialists to investigate and find solutions and
said it would not resume the service until it could find a better way
to vet users' ages online.
Skout said it had vetted its users ages through Facebook, which
officially prohibits members under 13, but has acknowledged that
children find ways to enter. Facebook said recently that it was
experimenting with age verification tools that would allow people
younger than 13 to join.
The resounding response from those who have studied age verification
technologies, and, in some cases, put them in place, has been: good
luck.
The problem is that everyone - not only sex offenders - has an
incentive to lie. Children want to enter Web sites and forums where
their older peers are.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/technology/verifying-ages-online-is-a-daunting-task-even-for-experts.html
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 10:34:43 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Teenage girl posts picture of cash on Facebook, family robbed within hours
Message-ID: <p06240845cc04ec8c0806@[10.0.1.3]>
Teenage girl posts picture of cash on Facebook, family robbed within hours
May 29, 2012
By Mike Flacy
Digital Trends
As mentioned by the BBC News recently, a 17-year-old girl was
visiting her grandmother in Sydney, Australia when she took a picture
of a "large sum of cash" while helping her grandmother count her cash
savings at the home. The teenager posted the picture on her Facebook
feed around 4 p.m. on Thursday May 24. Approximately seven hours
later, two masked men armed with a wooden club and a knife entered
the girl's family home 75 miles away in the town of Bundanoon. Upon
entering the family home, the men found the 47-year-old mother of the
girl as well as a 58-year-old man and 14-year-old boy, likely her
father and brother.
When speaking to the family, the two men wanted to talk to the girl
about the sum of money in the picture that was posted on Facebook.
...
http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/teenage-girl-posts-picture-of-cash-on-facebook-family-robbed-within-hours/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18232613
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:16:01 -0400
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Predicted increase in the global adoption of mobile broadband
Message-ID: <1b6efrdqjb0v$.tceakyxoazgc.dlg@40tude.net>
Some "interesting statistics worth browsing":
> Total mobile subscribers will top 6 billion in 2012. By 2016, 7
> billion. In some countries, such as Finland, the number of
> mobile subscribers surpasses the actual population. (How?
> Multiple devices.) Some 200 million traditional phone lines will
> be dropped over the next the five years. DSL accounted for
> two-thirds of all wireline broadband subscriptions in 2011.
These and more are to be found in a ZDnet blog entitled "BRIC nations
adopting mobile broadband at rapid clip", residing at:
:
: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/bric-nations-adopting-mobile-broadband-at-rapid-clip/80119
: .
Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:15:47 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Die, contracts! Prepaid mobile phone use surges
Message-ID: <p0624084fcc05044697b6@[10.0.1.3]>
Die, contracts! Prepaid mobile phone use surges
The American market doesn't look like Europe or Asia, but it's inching closer.
by Cyrus Farivar
June 14 2012
Ars Technica
Whether we like it or not, my wife and I recently became statistics.
About eight weeks ago, we moved back to California after spending two
years in Germany. We had a suspended T-Mobile USA contract while we
were away and were likely going to re-activate it on our unlocked
iPhones upon our return. But knowing that we'd only get EDGE speeds
on our phones back in the US, it didn't seem worth it to pay well
north of $100 for two phones per month.
So we made the jump-becoming two more of the many Americans who have
recently made the switch from postpaid to prepaid.
New industry data released in May shows American mobile phone
operators have been hit with the first-ever net decline in contract
("postpaid") subscriptions, a loss of 52,000 subscribers. And the
number of non-contract ("prepaid") mobile customers has reached
record levels-now accounting for about 25 percent of all mobile phone
users in America.
...
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/06/prepaid-mobile-phone-users-in-america-hit-record-high/
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:09:28 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Meet GSM Nation, an MVNO selling any smartphone you desire
Message-ID: <p0624084dcc0502fe4ad5@[10.0.1.3]>
Meet GSM Nation, an MVNO selling any smartphone you desire
By Kevin Fitchard
June 15, 2012
GSM Nation has spent the past two years selling unlocked smartphones
through its online retail portal, and in the process it has steered
tens of thousands of customers toward contract-free voice and data
plans offered by the newly emerging class of mobile virtual network
operators (MVNOs). GSM Nation CEO and co-founder Ahmed Khattak,
however, is getting tired of handing off the potentially lucrative
service business. So this fall GSM Nation plans to launch its own
MVNO.
For those unfamiliar, an MVNO is a sans-network operator that resells
the data and voice services of a major carrier. What will set GSM
Nation apart from the growing hordes of MVNOs popping up on AT&T's
and T-Mobiles' networks is its own already highly developed retail
business. It's not quite Amazon or Best Buy, but it sells more than
200 different models of unlocked smartphones and tablets on its
website, all of which are sourced directly from manufacturers or
global distributors. It buys its iPhones from a reseller in Korea and
imports Samsung Galaxy phones from Latin America.
"No other MVNO has these types of relationships," Khattak said.
Typically an MVNO will source a handful of new or refurbished
smartphones from manufacturers or resellers, but for high-end devices
like the iPhone it only supplies SIM cards and relies on customers to
bring their own handset, he added. "We will be the first MVNO to sell
high-end unlocked handsets straight from the manufacturer," Khattak
said.
Lots of data and a modicum of voice
GSM Nation has decided to partner with T-Mobile, tapping into the
operator's high-bandwidth HSPA+ networks and possibly even its future
LTE network. Those data speeds are of particular importance to the
company because it plans to target more-sophisticated users who live
for their data services and spend relatively little time talking on
their phones.
...
http://gigaom.com/mobile/meet-gsm-nation-an-mvno-selling-every-smartphone/
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:19:35 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: App Store enigma: the patent holder, the developer, and the voiceless child
Message-ID: <p06240852cc050555d72b@[10.0.1.3]>
App Store enigma: the patent holder, the developer, and the voiceless child
Apple's "benign dictatorship" of the App Store leaves users, devs in the dark.
by Nate Anderson
June 14 2012
Ars Technica
Few apps available for the iPad sell for $300-and even fewer are
considered a bargain at the price. But "Speak for Yourself" turned
consumer-grade tablets into sophisticated Augmentative and
Alternative Communication (AAC) devices for those struggling to speak
due to issues like autism; standalone hardware offering the same
capabilities goes for up to $15,000.
The software changed lives. Dana Nieder's daughter Maya was unable to
speak on her own, and the recent Speak for Yourself app proved
intuitive enough that the four-year old could use it almost
immediately. The results amazed Nieder, who wrote about them on her
blog:
Maya can speak to us, clearly, for the first time in her life. We
are hanging on her every word. We've learned that she loves talking
about the days of the week, is weirdly interested in the weather,
and likes to pretend that her toy princesses are driving the bus to
school (sometimes) and to work (other times). This app has not only
allowed her to communicate her needs, but her thoughts as
well. It's given us the gift of getting to know our child on a
totally different level.
Then, on June 4, Apple pulled Speak for Yourself from its App Store
after two companies complained about patent infringement and filed a
separate lawsuit against the app's developers. Speak for Yourself
rushed to court to complain that its business had been "sacrificed to
Plaintiff's commercial greed" without any sort of judicial ruling, but
the court declined to take any immediate action. The Speak for
Yourself app was gone and its developers had no other lawful way to
sell it. They were worried-and angry.
...
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/06/app-store-enigma-the-patent-holder-the-developer-and-the-voiceless-child/
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 08:06:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Penna revising phone recording laws
Message-ID: <92229243-6408-4362-bbae-ec2c5a8de31c@n33g2000vbi.googlegroups.com>
The front of the telephone directories always warned that a beep tone
every 15 seconds indicated a call was being recorded. Phone centers
that recorded phone calls (such as police dispatching) had that beep
tone.
The Phila Inqr reported that the laws are being changed, which police
investigators applaud. It will make it easier to get and use
wiretapped evidence for criminal cases. The new law also deals with
the issue of disposable cell phones.
"The bill also would afford greater protection to victims by allowing
them to make secret recordings of crimes committed against them.
County DA Ferman cited a Montgomery County teenager who last year
recorded her own sexual abuse at the hands of her father, only to be
told that the recording was inadmissible in court and that she could
be charged with a crime for making it."
For full article please see:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/20120618_Investigators_laud_proposed_expansion_of_Pa__wiretap_law.html
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 12:01:09 -0400
From: Matt Simpson <net-news69@jmatt.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: timely joke
Message-ID: <net-news69-9DB7A1.12010918062012@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <9tkp9p803ls3$.1e5u1wsccq3w6$.dlg@40tude.net>,
tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net> wrote:
> S'pose Eric thinks twice now before using his cellphone in public any more?
Eric, John, Peter, or whatever his name is, probably doesn't really exist
http://www.snopes.com/embarrass/miscues/backtobed.asp
Date: 18 Jun 2012 13:23:18 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: timely joke
Message-ID: <20120618132318.57159.qmail@joyce.lan>
In article <9tkp9p803ls3$.1e5u1wsccq3w6$.dlg@40tude.net> you write:
>Is a bit of levity in order in these hallowed halls these days?
>
>After a busy day, a commuter settled down in her seat for a snooze on the
>train ride home to Mt. Kisco from downtown Manhattan.
Gee, when people sent this around last week, she was on the train home
to Hudson from Montreal.
R's,
John
Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2012 09:59:23 -0500
From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Ring voltage measurment question
Message-ID: <gLOdnT9MXo1WbUDSnZ2dnUVZ_qqdnZ2d@posted.nuvoxcommunications>
In article <87wr37hl3d.fsf@nudel.nodomain.nowhere>,
Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:
>bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) writes:
>
>> In article <87y5nprf9v.fsf@nudel.nodomain.nowhere>,
>> Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote:
>> >
>> >[1] Is there a name for that cabinet? The central office is ca. 13
>> > miles away, the cabinet only 4 as the wire runs.
>>
>> Frequently referred to, generally, as a 'vault', especially if underground.
>> Above-ground units may be called a 'pedestal' (if small) or a 'hut' (if big
>> enough to walk into).
>>
>> Beyond that, "it depends". <grin>
>
>[further details snipped]
>
>Medium sized, two-door cabinet, not walk-in.
>
>and Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com> wrote:
>
>> Probably Digital loop carrier.
>>
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_loop_carrier
>>
>>
>> Does the box you mention look like the photo in Wikipedia?
>
>Yes, but also like the one at:
>
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_concentrator
>
>
>Rural area, guessing a few hundred scattered dwellings, no industry or
>commerce nearby. A friend who lives close -- 1/2 mi. -- to a similar
>cabinet (but far from the CO) can have ADSL because of that
>proximity. That may identify what lives in the cabinet.
THAT cabinet definitely has active electronics in it -- a 'channel bank'
equivalent (this includes the ring-generator circuitry) that de-multiplexes
a "high cap" circuit ('T'-span, fiber, etc.) from the C.O. into the individual
subscriber loop circuits, plus the DSLAM that provides the DSL capability.
Unfortunately, two such boxes can look 'identical' from the outside, and
have very different things 'inside' them. Thus external appearance is
not a reliable indicator of internal functionality.
>Would the telco device that actually generated my ring voltage be
>located in that DLC/RLC/box?
IF the box contains =just= cross-connects of copper pairs, then the
subscriber loop extends through the box, and ring-generator circuitry
somewhere closer to, if not actually in, the C.O.
OTOH, if the box is a termination for some form of high cap circuit, from
the C.O., de-multiplexing it onto the individual copper pairs providing
POTS service to subscribers, then the ring-generator circuitry IS, without
question, in that box.
I would say that it is "probable", maybe even "highly probable", that the
box which your service goes through is a high cap termination, not just
a cross-connect. But the Law of Perverse Statistics comes into play as
well -- in any specific situation, the particular 'thing' in question is
all too often NOT what is commonly found in that situation, and the more
you -want- it to be that thing, the more likely it is 'something else'.
<wry grin>
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 16:02:14 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: EBook Revenues Beat Hardcovers For The First Time
Message-ID: <p06240858cc0539269293@[10.0.1.3]>
EBook Revenues Beat Hardcovers For The First Time
John Biggs
June 15, 2012
The Association of American Publishers released a report today that
shows that ebooks have beaten hardcover revenues for the first time.
Ebook revenues topped out at $282.3 million YTD while hardcovers hit
$229.6. Almost exactly a year ago the tables were turned with ebooks
hitting $220 million and hardcovers brushing past $335 million.
The only growth in hardcovers is in the young adult/children's
category where hardcover revenue rose to $187.7 million and
children's ebooks rose to $64.3 million, up from $3.9 million in 2011.
In short, ebooks are winning.
...
http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/15/ebook-revenues-beat-hardcovers-for-the-first-time/
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 16:10:39 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Disruptions: Wearable Gadgets Upset F.A.A. Curbs on Devices
Message-ID: <p0624085acc053b90236c@[10.0.1.3]>
Disruptions: Wearable Gadgets Upset F.A.A. Curbs on Devices
By NICK BILTON
JUNE 17, 2012
Pity the poor flight attendant. They didn't sign up for this:
millions of petulant airline passengers surreptitiously reading
digital books and magazines on their iPads or Kindles during takeoff
and landing.
The flight attendants' job was never easy. Glamorous once, at times
rewarding. But now they have to stroll the aisles of a plane while it
lingers at the gate or on the runway to ensure that people turn off
their smartphones, computers or tablets - yes, "Off, not in Airplane
Mode."
The flight attendants are left to enforce the arcane rules of the
Federal Aviation Administration, which mandate that people can't use
electronic devices - with the strange exception of electric razors
and audio recorders - from the moment a plane leaves the gate until
it reaches 10,000 feet.
This task is only going to become more complex for flight attendants
as technology moves from your backpack or purse, to, well, you.
Wearable computers on planes will be an enforcement nightmare.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/disruptions-wearable-gadgets-upset-f-a-a-curbs-on-devices/
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