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The Telecom Digest for October 17, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 216 : "text" Format
====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
|
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
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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, 13 Oct 2013 23:11:47 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: N.S.A. Director Firmly Defends Surveillance Efforts
Message-ID: <p06240815ce8111479e91@[10.0.1.10]>
N.S.A. Director Firmly Defends Surveillance Efforts
By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER
October 12, 2013
FORT MEADE, Md. - The director of the National Security Agency, Gen.
Keith B. Alexander, said in an interview that to prevent terrorist
attacks he saw no effective alternative to the N.S.A.'s bulk
collection of telephone and other electronic metadata from Americans.
But he acknowledged that his agency now faced an entirely new
reality, and the possibility of Congressional restrictions, after
revelations about its operations at home and abroad.
While offering a detailed defense of his agency's work, General
Alexander said the broader lesson of the controversy over disclosures
of secret N.S.A. surveillance missions was that he and other top
officials have to be more open in explaining the agency's role,
especially as it expands its mission into cyberoffense and
cyberdefense.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/nsa-director-gives-firm-and-broad-defense-of-surveillance-efforts.html
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:14:17 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: T-Mobile Hands Consumers a Pleasant Shocker
Message-ID: <p06240817ce8111d9c0cf@[10.0.1.10]>
T-Mobile Hands Consumers a Pleasant Shocker
David Pogue
OCTOBER 10, 2013
Back in March, T-Mobile burned every possible bridge it had with the
other cellphone carriers. As I wrote then, it eliminated the two-year
contract; you can now quit T-Mobile whenever you like.
It also became the first carrier to eliminate the infuriating
15-second recording of voicemail instructions every time you try to
leave a message - a waste of your time and your callers' airtime.
And T-Mobile also ended the Great Cellphone Subsidy Con. That's where
you buy a $600 phone (like the iPhone) for $200, with the
understanding that you'll pay the cellphone company the rest over
your two-year contract - yet after you've repaid it, your monthly
bill doesn't drop!
T-Mobile was basically prancing around, demonstrating that Emperors
Verizon, Sprint and AT&T have no clothes.
I was pleasantly surprised - shocked, really - since those con games
have been baked into the American cellphone carriers' business plans
for years. And we, the American sheep, just assumed that we had to
accept them.
Apparently, lots of other people were pleasantly surprised, too. The
company says that in the second quarter of 2013, it signed up 685,000
new customers - more than Verizon, AT&T and Sprint combined.
Well, on Wednesday, T-Mobile did it again. It announced an even
bigger shocker: Starting next month, it will eliminate the sky-high,
nosebleed, ridiculous, usurious international roaming charges that
have terrified and enraged overseas travelers for years.
...
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/t-mobile-hands-consumers-a-pleasant-shocker/
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2013 10:07:20 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: As Microsoft Updates Mobile Software, a Cautionary Tale
Message-ID: <p0624082dce81aad39b8a@[10.0.1.10]>
As Microsoft Updates Mobile Software, a Cautionary Tale
By NICK WINGFIELD
OCTOBER 14, 2013
REDMOND, Wash. - If Microsoft has learned anything while competing
against Google in the Internet search business, it's that Google
clings to a dominant position like a squatter does a house.
The lesson is a relevant one for Microsoft's mobile phone business.
Microsoft is discovering that gains in market share for its phones
are incremental, slowly acquired and ultimately dwarfed by Google's
position. Just as in search, Microsoft steadily rolls out nice
improvements to its mobile products, the latest batch of which are
being announced Monday. At least in the past, though, these
refinements have not created a swell of people who find them
compelling enough to choose Microsoft over Google's Android system.
The update Microsoft is announcing Monday to its mobile operating
system - its third to Windows Phone 8 - isn't a drastic set of
changes. There is support for quad core processors that can give more
oomph to applications, support for higher resolutions on big-screen
mobile phones and a new driving mode that limits notifications people
receive when they're behind the wheel.
The updates, Microsoft said, are one example of how the company is
constantly chipping away at the reasons people have for buying
iPhones and Google's Android phones instead of Windows Phones.
Microsoft has long been trying to fill holes in the app library for
Windows Phone. The company is also buying Nokia's handset business to
strengthen its mobile products.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/as-microsoft-updates-mobile-software-a-cautionary-tale/
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:12:35 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Bolstering a Phone's Defenses Against Breaches
Message-ID: <p06240816ce81118aae37@[10.0.1.10]>
Bolstering a Phone's Defenses Against Breaches
By NICOLE PERLROTH
October 13, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO - From Lookout's headquarters here, the view extends
west from the Bay Bridge to the Golden Gate, but its employees -
mostly 20-something engineers in T-shirts and jeans - seem too
preoccupied with the world's nastiest new threats to take it in.
Lookout's employees are busy tracking the cybercriminals and
aggressive advertisers that target the 45 million people around the
globe who have downloaded the company's free mobile security app.
That is Step 1 to a more lucrative goal: protecting the data of big,
corporate customers that are allowing employees to use their own
mobile devices on corporate networks.
The so-called bring your own device, or B.Y.O.D., trend can lead to
trouble. Last year, for example, Jackson North Medical Center in
North Miami Beach, Fla., banned personal smartphones after a
volunteer used his phone's camera to take about 1,100 photos of
patient records, including their Social Security numbers, and sold
them.
Such episodes are not that unusual. Almost half of companies that
allow personally owned devices to connect to the corporate network
have experienced a data breach, either because of unwitting mistakes
by employees or - as was the case at the Florida hospital -
intentional wrongdoing, according to a 2012 survey of 400 technology
professionals by researchers at Decisive Analytics.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/technology/bolstering-a-phones-defenses-against-breaches.html
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2013 09:08:18 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: TV-over-Internet service Aereo to come to Android
Message-ID: <p06240823ce819d045ef8@[10.0.1.10]>
TV-over-Internet service Aereo to come to Android
Associated Press
October 10, 2013
NEW YORK - Aereo, a service that delivers broadcast television
stations over the Internet, will come to Android devices on Oct. 22.
The service started on iPhones and other Apple devices along with the
Roku streaming box before expanding to personal computers. The
company says that the Android offering took longer because of the
many versions of Android available. Device makers are able to
customize the version made by Google.
Aereo says its Android app will run on phones and tablets with
Android 4.2 or higher. It will be in a beta test mode at first.
On iPhones and iPads, Aereo is accessible through the device's Web
browser. Aereo opted to develop a stand-alone app for Android to give
subscribers a consistent experience on a wide range of devices.
...
http://online.wsj.com/article/AP93931afe813e474d8f695d7caf83fad0.html
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2013 10:11:16 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: An App That Saved 10,000 Lives
Message-ID: <p0624082ece81abc3d3b3@[10.0.1.10]>
An App That Saved 10,000 Lives
By AMY O'LEARY
OCTOBER 5, 2013
While most start-ups feverishly track figures like the total number
of users, Ron Gutman, the founder and chief executive of the health
information start-up, HealthTap, is more interested in a different
data point.
This week, the start-up heard from its 10,000th user who said the
site saved her life.
"My local doctor brushed me off and told me it was anxiety without
doing any tests at all," wrote one woman who turned to HealthTap
after seeing her doctor. After spending two hours on HealthTap, she
was told by a doctor who contributes to the site that her condition
sounded like a blocked artery. She soon saw a cardiology specialist
who later inserted a coronary stent.
Since its founding in 2012, the site has logged nearly a billion
questions and answers, from simple queries about headaches or the
flu, to more complicated ones, like whether mechlorethamine is a
cancer medication. Questions are then routed to a physician who is
both an expert in that particular field of medicine, and who is
determined by an algorithm to be likely to respond fast, Mr. Gutman
said.
None of that would be possible without the participation of nearly
50,000 doctors who contribute their advice free. (Every page on the
site has a disclaimer saying that the site "does not provide medical
advice, diagnosis or treatment.")
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/how-to-save-10000-lives-with-an-app-flatter-doctors/
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:16:39 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: From the Start, Signs of Trouble at Health Portal
Message-ID: <p06240819ce811268e255@[10.0.1.10]>
>From the Start, Signs of Trouble at Health Portal
By ROBERT PEAR, SHARON LaFRANIERE and IAN AUSTEN.
October 12, 2013
WASHINGTON - In March, Henry Chao, the chief digital architect for
the Obama administration's new online insurance marketplace, told
industry executives that he was deeply worried about the Web site's
debut. "Let's just make sure it's not a third-world experience," he
told them.
Two weeks after the rollout, few would say his hopes were realized.
For the past 12 days, a system costing more than $400 million and
billed as a one-stop click-and-go hub for citizens seeking health
insurance has thwarted the efforts of millions to simply log in. The
growing national outcry has deeply embarrassed the White House, which
has refused to say how many people have enrolled through the federal
exchange.
Even some supporters of the Affordable Care Act worry that the flaws
in the system, if not quickly fixed, could threaten the fiscal health
of the insurance initiative, which depends on throngs of customers to
spread the risk and keep prices low.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/us/politics/from-the-start-signs-of-trouble-at-health-portal.html
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 18:55:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Canada to propose forcing a la carte programming
Message-ID: <2fcf3c9f-f793-4be5-9c2e-389da8420226@googlegroups.com>
Government will unveil 'consumer-first' agenda during speech from the throne
By Jim Barthold, FierceCable October 14, 2013
| U.S. cable operators are closely watching for a possible
| trickle-down effect if the Canadian federal government goes
| ahead with plans to force cable and satellite TV providers to
| offer a la carte programming.
|
| That mandate is on tap this week as part of a "consumer-first"
| agenda being pushed by Canada's Conservative Party.
|
| "We don't think people should be forced to buy bundled
| television channels when they're not interested in watching
| those channels and those shows," Industry Minister James Moore
| said in an interview with The Canadian Press reported in the
| Edmonton Journal. "We should have a pick-and-pay model when it
| comes to television channels."
|
| Canadian pay TV providers like Shaw Communications, Bell
| Canada, Rogers Communications, and Videotron mirror U.S.
| operators by offering bundles of popular and less-watched
| channel packages.
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/kgtou49
It will be fascinating to find out how much ESPN will have to charge as a retail product.
Neal McLain
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 15:25:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: On a New Jersey Islet, Twilight of the Landline
Message-ID: <1381875919.13326.YahooMailNeo@web121403.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
MANTOLOKING, N.J. -- Hurricane Sandy devastated this barrier island
community of multimillion-dollar homes, but in Peter Flihan's view,
Verizon Communications has delivered a second blow: the telecommuni-
cations giant did not rebuild the landlines destroyed in the storm,
and traditional telephone service here has now gone the way
of the telegraph.
"Verizon decides then and there to step on us", said Mr. Flihan, 75, a
retired toy designer and marketer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/technology/on-a-new-jersey-islet-twilight-of-the-landline.html
-or-
http://goo.gl/wFlhTK
Note: Seems to me I remember a similar article about service on Fire
Island, New York, but my guess is that Fire Island has money where
Mantoloking perhaps does not.
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 19:44:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Aereo can't be compared to Cablevision DVR, broadcasters tell Supreme Court
Message-ID: <c9c5692a-e078-4327-98cc-43a26fc83432@googlegroups.com>
By Steve Donohue, FierceCable, October 11, 2013
| In an attempt to force Aereo to shutter its local TV platform, Fox,
| NBC, ABC and CBS filed a petition at the U.S. Supreme Court Friday
| in which they argue copyright laws that have allowed Cablevision to
| launch its network DVR don't protect Aereo's platform.
| The petition could be a game changer for Aereo, which has a made a
| business of selling access to local broadcast signals that it
| captures with arrays of dime-sized antennas, and converts to
| HTML5. Aereo stores programming on a network-based DVR, and
| transmits the content to customers who pay it $8 monthly to watch TV
| on mobile devices and Web browsers.
| Broadcasters argue in the petition that Aereo designed its system to
| exploit what they described as a loophole in copyright law which has
| allowed Cablevision to launch its network DVR. In 2008, the Supreme
| Court declined to review an appellate court ruling which found the
| MSO's network-based DVR didn't violate copyright law.
| This elaborate [Aereo] system of thousands of miniature antennas and
| digital copies is not easier, more efficient, or more
| technologically advanced than other retransmission systems. Rather,
| it is a 'Rube Goldberg-like contrivance' designed for a single
| reason: to take advantage of [the] perceived loophole in the law,"
| the broadcasters state in the petition.
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/n565c4d
The plaintiffs' petition is here:
http://tinyurl.com/mpp7lxw
I note with interest that plaintiffs cite "Fortnightly Corp. v. United Artists
Television, Inc." in their petition (page 5). Fortnightly is one of the
fundamental cases in the history of the cable TV industry. I've discussed it
before in this space, most recently here:
http://tinyurl.com/mbsxo8b
Neal McLain
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