---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <a3306091-bba0-4261-9ae4-0ee9d31ee645@googlegroups.com> Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2018 13:00:32 -0700 (PDT) From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Re: Internet Connectivity: As Essential As Water & Roads? On Tuesday, July 10, 2018 at 6:12:24 AM UTC-4, Bill Horne wrote: > More than 2,300 years before the common era, the people of the Indus > Valley Civilization (now modern-day eastern portion of Pakistan) > constructed the first public water, sewer, and road systems. > > Later civilizations perfected techniques, but the residents and > leaders of that area had to answer a fundamental question: what is > essential to modern civilization? > > http://www.keizertimes.com/2018/07/08/internet-connectivity-as-essential-as-water-roads/ IMHO, these days the Internet is indeed a vital public service. Many businesses and government agencies make it very difficult to deal with them except by Internet. They strongly discourage using the voice telephone or postal mail; indeed, make it very difficult to do business with them that way. Further, nowadays often the Internet is the only way of getting critical news, weather, or urgent community notices. Many years ago the telephone was seen as a luxury, indeed, welfare recipients weren't allowed to have one. It was finally recognized that the telephone was essential and rules changed. Unfortunately, one big problem with the Internet today is website bloat. Web developers constantly upgrade their sites, adding more and more bells and whistles. Not too long ago I had a modest home PC with a dial-up modem that worked just fine. But more and more sites added features and the modem and PC simply couldn't handle the volume of bits thrown at me to do fancy stuff so I had to buy a new computer and upgrade my phone line. None the less, today, my home PC with DSL is too slow and its web browser obsolete, again because of website bloat. IMHO, those bells and whistles are totally unnecessary to communicate information. The American auto industry used to be criticized for its planned obsolescence, where consumers were pressured to buy a new car often. Now the computer industry is following the same business model. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <AF1D7055-AF67-4CD2-A1EE-13605B9EF03F@mishmash.com> Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2018 20:17:11 -0700 From: Fred Atkinson <fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com> Subject: [Telecom] iNum Access Availability When I read the recent postings on iNum calling, I investigated and discovered what I could find out. I have a small handful of friends that live in Australia. I thought it would be great that they could make iNum calls to me toll-free. I am using Callcentric. Turns out I only had to request an iNum number in my online account. It was immediately activated with no human intervention other than my own. I dialed it on my Callcentric service. I reached my personal voice mail. I emailed my friends in Australia and asked them to make a test call on my new iNum number. Two of them tried it from their home phones in Australia. Both of them got a recording saying the call could not be completed as dialed. One was using OPTUS. The other was using TELOS (I think). A third Australian friend was in Poland when he got my email. He tried calling from there with no luck. He says he will try it on his home phone when he returns to Brisbane. I emailed the iNum folks and asked them what percentage of phone companies allow the iNum calls. So far, I've not gotten a reply. The Callcentric folks said they didn't have that information. I discovered that Verizon Wireless does not support it, either. I sent them a revised copy of the form letter on the iNum Web site asking them to allow these calls. Unless they are flooded with requests, I doubt they will. So I can't dial it from my cellular phone. When I tried it from my office phone, the call did not go through. I asked our I.T. guys about it. They inquired. We use XO. Apparently, XO does not support it. I also discovered that iNum numbers are not portable. So if you change carriers, you will lose your iNum number. Your new carrier may [or may not] be able to assign you a new iNum number. If this is important to you, I would suggest finding out about it before you could make the transition to a new carrier. What good is an international toll-free number if the major carriers don't allow calls to be made to it? As always, if it sounds too good to be true... That seems to be the case here. But at least there are no funds lost. Fred ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180710161557.GA9350@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2018 12:15:57 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: AT&T files lawsuit against American Tower AT&T files lawsuit against American Tower but likely won't affect revenues by Mike Dano AT&T filed a lawsuit against American Tower arguing that the tower company is not complying with amendments to the companies' tower leasing agreements. However, at least one Wall Street analyst reported that the disagreement between the companies centers on a "small number of leases" and likely won't affect American Tower's second-quarter revenues. https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/at-t-files-lawsuit-against-american-tower-but-likely-won-t-affect-revenues -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180711204708.GA15045@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2018 16:47:08 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Green America Calls Out Verizon On Misleading Ad Campaign Green America Calls Out Verizon On Misleading Ad Campaign Embracing 100% Renewable Energy By Joshua S. Hill Ethical consumerism non-profit Green America has this week gone on the offensive against American telecommunications giant Verizon regarding what it describes as misleading '#humanability' advertising campaign that is currently focusing on a partnership with the Hawaiian Electric Company. Green America has long been the self-imposed watchdog for America's telecommunications companies, as highlighted by its Wireless Scorecard which rates the big four companies - T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon - on their commitment to and current clean energy sourcing, and their greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. In March of this year, the latest Scorecard gave T-Mobile an A-, Sprint received a C, AT&T received a C-, and Verizon flunked out across the board with Fs. https://cleantechnica.com/2018/07/11/green-america-calls-out-verizon-on-misleading-ad-campaign-embracing-100-renewable-energy/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180711211114.GA15162@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2018 17:11:14 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: What next for Inmarsat after rejected Echostar bid? Anyone watching the UK stock market can't have failed to notice the roller coaster ride that Inmarsat has had over the past few weeks. >From a low of 340.4p in April 2018, to a high of 632.2p just a couple of months later, at the time of writing it was trading at 525.9p. But why the turbulence with the inflight connectivity provider's share price? https://www.getconnected.aero/2018/07/inmarsat-rejected-echostar-bid/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180711205118.GA15080@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2018 16:51:18 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: AT&T plans to expand HBO, but could destroy it in the process One month after the close of the acquisition, and there are already warning signs. By Bryan Bishop One of the big questions surrounding AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner has been about how the telecom giant will handle its new flagship entertainment brands. Earlier this week, a story from The New York Times raised some concerns about the future prospects of HBO. The story recounted a June 19th town hall with new Warner Media chief executive John Stankey, HBO CEO Richard Plepler, and 150 HBO employees, during which Stankey made it clear that he expected HBO to ramp up content production and diversify its offerings. The account painted a grim picture for the network, which has excelled, thanks to its incredibly discerning taste and prestige-level programming. Making things as awkward as possible, Stankey predicted that the coming year would be so arduous that it would feel "like childbirth" for HBO employees. https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/11/17560702/hbo-att-time-warner-merger-game-of-thrones -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180711210556.GA15120@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2018 17:05:56 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Frontier launches new cloud-based UCaaS offering for businesses by Mike Robuck Frontier Communications is now offering its customers a cloud-based unified communications-as-a-service to help them migrate their voice services to the cloud. Frontier's AnyWare UCaaS allows small-to-medium-sized business and enterprise customers to lease phones and equipment without having to worry about stranding investments in outdated gear. https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/frontier-launches-new-cloud-based-ucaas-offering-for-businesses -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Thu, 12 Jul 2018