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The Telecom Digest for September 21, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 198 : "text" Format
====== 32 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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Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
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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.
|
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 20:49:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Ryvicker: Stations Losing $10.4B In Retrans
Message-ID: <eee52c51-4470-4b7d-9d75-c40682c19efa@googlegroups.com>
By Diana Marszalek, TVNewsCheck, September 18, 2013
| "Broadcast captures 35% of the audience, gets 7% of programming fees,"
| Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker told the TVB Forward conference
| today. Growing retrans consent revenue (it's expected to total $2.6
| billion this year) is one factor driving investor interest in
| broadcasting, she added, with broadcast TV stocks currently up 74% over
| what it was at this time last year.
|
| Broadcasters would get $13 billion a year in retransmission consent
| revenue if they got their fair share of programming fees --a far cry
| from the $2.6 billion they are expected to get this year.
| Speaking at the annual TVB Forward conference in New York, Ryvicker
| said she does expect that figure to go up, climbing to about $6.2
| billion by 2018.
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/mfkmdgc
This is another reason to support Rep. Anna Eshoo's "Video CHOICE Act
Draft Bill." As Steve Donohue of FierceCable noted,
| Eshoo's bill would require stations that elect retransmission consent
| to be carried on a tier separate from basic cable tiers containing
| must-carry stations and PEG (public, government, education) channels.
http://tinyurl.com/nz9mfna
Enacting that bill would let viewers decide the "fair share of
programming fees."
http://tinyurl.com/lvn4s2b
Neal McLain
Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 03:45:32 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Court: cellphone customers may block robocalls
Message-ID: <p0624083cce5b15f0ece8@[10.0.1.7]>
Court: cellphone customers may block robocalls
August 26, 2013
By Saranac Hale Spencer / The Legal Intelligencer
Cellphone customers may revoke their consent to receive "robocalls"
on those devices, the Third Circuit has ruled in a case of first
impression.
Interpreting the Telephone Consumer Protection Act broadly, the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed the district court's
holding, based on guidance from the Federal Communications Commission
and common-law treatment of consent.
...
http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/legal/court-cell-phone-customers-may-block-robocalls-700756/
Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 03:03:00 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Aereo fumbles on NFL opening day, but it's still a streaming sports champion
Message-ID: <p06240823ce5b0bca8c0c@[10.0.1.7]>
Aereo fumbles on NFL opening day, but it's still a streaming sports champion
Brad Chacos
Sep 9, 2013
Ditching your hefty cable bill sounds great on paper, but one glaring
issue has prevented scads of would-be cord cutters from flipping the
all-digital switch: The lack of live sports. While Netflix, Amazon
Prime, Hulu, and their ilk carry a cornucopia of TV shows and movies,
none cast live sports, and the scant few streaming options offered
directly by professional sports leagues tend to be expensive and
limited to a handful of devices. And the NFL-the most popular sport
in the U.S.-is the worst of the bunch.
Enter Aereo.
The streaming service that broadcasters love to hate recently
expanded to the Boston area -including southern New Hampshire, my
stomping grounds-as part of a nationwide expansion push. With Aereo,
you can stream local broadcast stations such as FOX and CBS to your
Internet-equipped devices in real-time, and the $8 monthly fee
includes DVR capabilities and a channel guide.
The vast majority of NFL games (and more than a few NHL, NBA, and MLB
games) air on channels broadcast over the open air, making Aereo a
potential cornerstone to the cord cutting strategy, or at least a
low-cost way to catch live football on your mobile devices.
So just before the Patriots kicked off at 1 P.M. E.T. Sunday, I
signed up for the service with the hopes of using it to scratch my
football itch. (I'm a cord cutter who can't easily place an antenna
at my new house.) The final score: Aereo wasn't quite ready for
football, but it came pretty close.
...
http://www.techhive.com/article/2048414/aereo-fumbles-on-nfl-opening-day-but-its-still-a-streaming-sports-champion.html
Date: 19 Sep 2013 09:34:27 -0400
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: X.25 links still available?
Message-ID: <l1euh3$r4e$1@panix2.panix.com>
<sampsal@gmail.com> wrote:
>Does anybody know if it is possible to get an X.25 hook up nowadays?
Sure. You can route it over a T1. It's just a serial port. The public
switched network, though, is pretty much gone, so you can't call Tymnet or
Telenet up and ask for a switched line.
You can also encapsulate X.25 over IP for transmission, which is how most
folks with X.25 systems are going today. IP connectivity is very very cheap.
>Ideally over the D channel of a basic ISDN connection.
Cisco will sell you a box that will do the encapsulation. Get two boxes,
two ISDN lines, call one from the other and you have a network. Mind you,
getting two ISDN lines that actually work in the US is the hard part. And
you are paying for the circuit-switched connection even when you're not using
it, which defeats the benefit of X.25.
--scott
---
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
***** Moderator's Note *****
Why would someone be paying for the "circuit-switched connection" if
they're not using it? IIRC, all ISDN calls were billed by the minute.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 12:31:26 -0500 (CDT)
From: "B. Z. Lederman" <LEDERMAN@Encompasserve.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: X.25 links still available?
Message-ID: <01OYKCUOQ4YA00FWWQ@Encompasserve.org>
| To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org
| Subject: Fwd: X.25 links still available?
| Reply-To: lederman@encompasserve.org
|
| From: "B. Z. Lederman" <LEDERMAN@Encompasserve.org>
| Subject: X.25 links still available?
| Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 09:16:41 -0500 (CDT)
|
| | To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org
| | Subject: Fwd: X.25 links still available?
| | Reply-To: lederman@encompasserve.org
| |
| | From: sampsal@gmail.com
| | Subject: X.25 links still available?
| | Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 18:40:41 -0700 (PDT)
| |
| | Does anybody know if it is possible to get an X.25 hook up nowadays?
| |
| | Ideally over the D channel of a basic ISDN connection.
| |
| | sampsa
|
| The anwer is almost certainly "no", unless you are already
| an existing customer.
|
| I was working at Digital Equipment / Compaq / HP when
| the port to Itanium was being done, back in the early
| 2000s. At that time, we had to decide what layered
| products to port. Since I had a background in
| Telecommunications, I researched the question of
| porting the PSI product set. Even back then,
| all of the carriers in North America and Europe that
| I could find had stopped accepting new customers for
| X.25 and related services: they only supported
| businesses that had their own private networks running
| over the packet network. At most, there was one very
| small carrier in Finland or Iceland that was privately
| operated that accepted new customers, and possibly
| one in Korea (couldn't read all of the web site). Most
| of the companies that had offered X.25 in the U.S.
| no longer existed at all.
|
| More than 10 years later, I would expect even most
| support for private networks to be gone.
|
| Bart
|
| ***** Moderator's Note *****
|
| I thought all the credit-card processing networks were on X.25 - not so?
|
| Come to think of it, what happened to Tymnet and Telenet? Weren't they
| using X.25?
|
| Bill Horne
| Moderator
The credit-card systems may well have used a packet internally, but that
would qualify as a private network. In 2005 private networks were
still supported. The connection from the actual point of sale is often
still dial-up for smaller vendors and restaurants. With the growth
in the economy, I would expect the credit card network has switched
to something newer with greater bandwidth, and less expensive equipment.
But I haven't had personal contact with this business for some time.
Incidentlaly, CCITT recommendation X.25 only refers to one interface between
customer equipment and the packet network. Most of what people refer to as
X.25 isn't, it's some other part of the network. And most terminals worked
in accordance with the X.29 recommendation: not that any of that really
matters anymore.
Tymnet went through some acquisitions, eventually ending up in MCI, which
ended up in Verizon. Telenet became part of GTE, which became Sprint.
I don't think you'll find packet switching or X.25 on their web sites
as an offering anymore.
Bart
Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 02:19:26 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Facebook Privacy Change Is Subject of F.T.C. Inquiry
Message-ID: <p06240816ce5b01be3133@[10.0.1.7]>
Facebook Privacy Change Is Subject of F.T.C. Inquiry
By VINDU GOEL and EDWARD WYATT
September 11, 2013
Facebook, which has repeatedly tripped over its own feet when
changing its privacy practices, has stumbled yet again.
The Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday that it had begun an
inquiry into whether the social network's proposed new privacy
policies, unveiled two weeks ago, violated a 2011 agreement with
regulators. Under that agreement, the social network is required to
get the explicit consent of its users before exposing their private
information to new audiences.
Facebook's new policies make clear that users are required to grant
the company wide permission to use their personal information in
advertising as a condition of using the service.
Facebook says the language was in part required by a federal court.
In August, a judge approved some of the wording as part of a
settlement in a class-action suit brought by users upset at seeing
their names and photos used to endorse products in Facebook ads sent
to their friends.
Peter Kaplan, a spokesman for the F.T.C., said on Wednesday that
Facebook was subject to continuing oversight by the commission
because of the consent order.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/technology/personaltech/ftc-looking-into-facebook-privacy-policy.html
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 12:26:58 -0700
From: Duncan Smith <Duncan@xrtc.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: X.25 links still available?
Message-ID: <1379705218.29414.24526801.17724F52@webmail.messagingengine.com>
On Wed, Sep 18, 2013, at 7:16, B. Z. Lederman wrote:
> | From: sampsal@gmail.com
> | Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 18:40:41 -0700 (PDT)
> |
> | Does anybody know if it is possible to get an X.25 hook up nowadays?
> |
> | Ideally over the D channel of a basic ISDN connection.
>
> The anwer is almost certainly "no", unless you are already
> an existing customer.
>
> More than 10 years later, I would expect even most
> support for private networks to be gone.
>
> Bart
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> I thought all the credit-card processing networks were on X.25 - not so?
>
> Come to think of it, what happened to Tymnet and Telenet? Weren't they
> using X.25?
I had ISDN from Qwest (in Seattle) briefly several years ago. I didn't
have an opportunity to explore it in detail, but they allegedly provided
X.25 service on the D-channel (at least, it's in the BRI tariff).
Notably, they explicitly did not offer any X.25 connectivity between CO
switches.
--
Duncan Smith
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 15:28:47 -0400
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: FCC ack's the problem with call completion to high priced areas
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1309201521570.19828@panix5.panix.com>
The problem: complaints by customers in (mostly far off) rural areas
that people calling them have lots of trouble getting through.
While I can't go through Telecom Digest archives right now,
I'm pretty sure we've discussed this. It's a well known problem
in the communciations field.
It seems this is courtesy of that whole issue of payments
by the inter-exchange carrier to the final local telco. For
various reasons dealing with lack of competition and the
best intentions of gov't regulators... in some regions that
cost can get pretty high.
Hence, the telcos in the middle, so to speak, not wanting
to spend all that money, don't give call transfer/completion
very high priority. (Which is a polite way of rephrasing
what they're really doing).
I'm not sure how long this has been on the FCC's website as
they've been making lots of redesigns, but the main fcc.gov
page has a discussion of this problem, along with a link to
more details at:
https://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/problems-long-distance-or-wireless-calling-rural-areas
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
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