33 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Copyright © 2014 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.

The Telecom Digest for Nov 15, 2014
Volume 33 : Issue 208 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
The government is spying on cell phones (Bill Horne)
Re: The Map Apps That Move You in the Right Direction (Elmo P. Shagnasty)
Verizon Wireless makes canceling contracts up to $70 more expensive (Bill Horne)
Montana PSC investigating CenturyLink phone problems (Bill Horne)
Comcast, Charter, 14 other companies form Streaming Video Alliance (Neal McLain)

You know, I could run for governor and all this but I'm basically a media creation. I've never really done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil industry. But that's not the kind of profile you have to have to get elected to public office.  - George W. Bush

See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details.

Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 16:25:34 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: The government is spying on cell phones Message-ID: <20141114212534.GA21379@telecom.csail.mit.edu> The government has special airplanes designed to spy on peoples' cell phones The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the federal government has a secret, airplane-based surveillance system that is capable of sweeping up information from thousands of cell phones at a time. While the device is intended to spy on criminal and terrorist suspects, the program also sweeps up private information from many innocent people. The Justice Department says the program complies with the law and is subject to judicial oversight, but some civil libertarians are skeptical. http://www.vox.com/2014/11/13/7217557/cell-phone-airplane-spying -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly) When the men on the chessboard get up and tell you where to go And you've just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving slow Go ask Alice, I think she'll know - Jefferson Airplane
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 08:12:51 -0500 From: "Elmo P. Shagnasty" <elmop@nastydesigns.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: The Map Apps That Move You in the Right Direction Message-ID: <elmop-A5EA5F.08125114112014@88-209-239-213.giganet.hu> In article <0767F8F8-651F-41AA-AAF0-56AC1C9BB6CB@roscom.com>, Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> wrote: > It's been a long time since most of us carried a stand-alone GPS > device around with us. Maybe not when traveling, but in my own car? It's still there. Because nothing beats a tool dedicated to that particular task.
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 16:34:06 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Verizon Wireless makes canceling contracts up to $70 more expensive Message-ID: <m45sg4$778$1@dont-email.me> $350 early termination fees now remain $350 until eight months into a contract. by Jon Brodkin Verizon Wireless just made it more expensive to cancel service by delaying monthly reductions in early termination fees (ETFs) until the eighth month of a contract. Until today, the early termination fees of $350 for new smartphone contracts declined $10 each month. Customers who signed contracts before today will still see their ETFs decline the first month and all months thereafter. But customers who sign up today or later will not see any reductions until the eighth month, Verizon's updated customer agreement says. That means that after seven months, a customer's ETF would remain at $350 instead of declining to $280. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/11/verizon-wireless-makes-canceling-contracts-up-to-70-more-expensive/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly) Money so they say Is the root of all evil today But if you ask for a rise it's no surprise that they're giving none away - Pink Floyd
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 16:41:40 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Montana PSC investigating CenturyLink phone problems Message-ID: <m45sua$8qc$1@dont-email.me> Montana's Public Service Commission wants to hear from CenturyLink customers as part of its investigation into problems with the company's landline telephone service. An informal investigation found that telecommunications company's quality of service violated PSC rules that require timely repairs. http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/state/psc-investigating-centurylink-phone-problems/article_831fdbee-6c27-11e4-9dd8-636491179654.html -or- http://goo.gl/BDESOT -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly) Well, I call you up on the phone: nobody's at home. Then I do my usual thing: I let the telephone ring and ring and ring. I'm standing at a phone booth, coping with the ugly truth. - Loudon Wainwright III
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 13:49:36 -0800 (PST) From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Comcast, Charter, 14 other companies form Streaming Video Alliance Message-ID: <9b1a8fca-7b54-4cf4-8e5d-35ec06208077@googlegroups.com> By Daniel Frankel, FierceTelecom, November 14, 2014 Conspicuously launching without the two biggest operators in the Internet video market, a group of 17 MVPDs, programmers and technology vendors have formed a new industry trade group, the Streaming Video Alliance. The group, which was partly organized by Frost & Sullivan analyst Dan Rayburn, includes leading pay-TV operators Comcast, Charter Communi- cations and Liberty Global, as well as a who's who of other video industry heavyweights: Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Viacom, Epix, Fox Networks Group, Korea Telecom, Level 3 Communications, Limelight Networks, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Qwilt, Telecom Italia, Telstra, Ustream, Wowza Media Systems and Yahoo!. Netflix and Google, which together consume up to half of all Internet traffic with their video streams, are not in the group of 17. http://www.fiercecable.com/story/comcast-charter-14-other-companies-form-streaming-video-alliance/2014-11-14?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal -or- http://tinyurl.com/mss6m6a Neal McLain

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