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The Telecom Digest for December 6, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 240 : "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
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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, 5 Dec 2013 19:14:48 -0800 (PST)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Google Fiber irks Kansas City residents by placing RT cabinet in middle of sidewalk
Message-ID: <12e99f96-5215-41c7-a48c-366699ab6812@googlegroups.com>
December 5, 2013 By Sean Buckley, FierceCable
| Google Fiber's unusual placement of a utility cabinet that
| houses its fiber equipment--in the middle of a sidewalk--has
| incited the rage of Kansas City, Mo., residents, reports local
| FOX News network affiliate WDAF TV.
|
| The fiber to the home (FTTH) provider's faux pas has gotten
| the attention of community groups that say public ways like
| sidewalks should be free of any obstacles.
|
| Sheila Styron, a representative for The Whole Person, a group
| that supports independent living by the disabled, said that
| Google Fiber is violating a tenet of the Americans with
| Disabilities Act that says there should be three feet of
| clearance on public sidewalks, allowing enough space for a
| wheelchair to get through.
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/ootc5f7
FiresCable's version of this story includes a link to the WDAF-TV Fox 4 story:
http://tinyurl.com/ospjxxk
WDAF-TV's story includes a video of one of the cabinets, clearly obstructing the sidewalk.
Neal McLain
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 19:17:09 -0800 (PST)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Aereo to target Comcast subscribers with launch in Baltimore
Message-ID: <f67255c2-0eaa-4a56-9924-7ca3bc5b11c9@googlegroups.com>
By Steve Donohue, FierceCable, December 5, 2013
| Aereo said Thursday that it plans to flip the switch on its
| local broadcast TV platform in the Baltimore, Md.,
| metropolitan area on Dec. 16.
|
| The company, which charges customers $8 monthly to watch local
| TV stations on mobile devices and Web browsers, will target
| subscribers of incumbent cable MSO Comcast with its launch in
| Baltimore. Comcast's NBCUniversal subsidiary is among the
| group of broadcasters that have been seeking a court order
| aimed at forcing a shutdown of Aereo, which uses arrays of
| dime-sized antennas to capture over-the-air broadcast signals.
| The Long Island City, N.Y.-based company converts the signals
| to HTML5 video and allows customers to store programming on a
| cloud-based DVR.
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/pbqxsce
Neal McLain
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 19:10:08 -0800 (PST)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Verizon targets Cablevision subscribers with push for new FiOS franchise in Long Island
Message-ID: <fa6edffd-6a3a-4321-b7c4-44f0f27d5a41@googlegroups.com>
December 4, 2013 | By Steve Donohue, FierceCable
| Cablevision could soon face new competition in the Long
| Island town of Glen Cove, N.Y., where Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is
| seeking a cable franchise for its FiOS TV service.
|
| The Glen Cove City Council may vote on a Verizon franchise
| proposal at a meeting that has been scheduled for Dec. 10,
| Verizon spokesman John Bonomo told FierceCable.
|
| Verizon's push to expand FiOS to Glen Glove is noteworthy,
| considering the telco announced in 2010 that it would halt new
| FiOS construction. But Bonomo said Verizon decided to seek a
| FiOS franchise in Glen Cove, which has population of 27,100
| and 10,352 housing units, since its fiber network already
| covers much of the town.
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/oy3ajl6
Apparently Verizon hasn't given up on FiOS.
To nitpick, Glen Cove is a city, not a town. In New York, like most New England states, the two terms are not interchangeable.
Neal McLain
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2013 22:54:22 -0800 (PST)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Noncommercial Stations Out West Back to Being Noncommercial...For Now
Message-ID: <cc3e8649-b2fb-4666-a73a-4cd4c2054436@googlegroups.com>
Ninth Circuit en banc reverses 2012 panel decision, restores prohibition
against "issue advertising" on NCE stations.
We all know that noncommercial (NCE) broadcasting stations are just that -
NONcommercial. Section 399b of the Communications Act forbids them from
accepting advertising on behalf of for-profit operations; it also forbids
advertising both for political candidates and for expressing the advertiser's
views on any matter of public importance. (The difference between the latter
two? Think "Vote for John Smith" vs. "America's farmers are its backbone".)
As we reported back in 2012, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit tossed that last two prohibition (i.e., the ones against
political and issue advertising).
That wasn't the end of the matter. As we thought it might, the FCC asked the
Ninth Circuit en banc to take another look at the case. And now the 11-judge
court sitting en banc has restored (by an 8-3 vote) the prohibitions against
political and issue advertising.
But there's reason to believe that the case may not be over yet.
Continued:
http://tinyurl.com/n3g86df
Comment: "Out west" means the states and territories subject to the
jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (Alaska, Arizona,
California, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, CNMI, Oregon, and
Washington).
The decision does not apply to any state anywhere else.
Neal McLain
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 17:34:06 -0500
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: That's a pretty bright phone flashlight. It knows where you are...
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1312051725510.6900@panix5.panix.com>
[FTC press release]
Android Flashlight App Developer Settles FTC Charges It Deceived Consumers
"Brightest Flashlight" App Shared Users' Location, Device ID Without
Consumers' Knowledge
The creator of one of the most popular apps for Android mobile devices has
agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the free app, which
allows a device to be used as a flashlight, deceived consumers about how
their geolocation information would be shared with advertising networks
and other third parties.
Goldenshores Technologies, LLC, managed by Erik M. Geidl, is the company
behind the "Brightest Flashlight Free" app, which has been downloaded
tens of millions of times by users of the Android operating system. The
FTC's complaint alleges that the company's privacy policy deceptively
failed to disclose that the app transmitted users' precise location and
unique device identifier to third parties, including advertising networks.
In addition, the complaint alleges that the company deceived consumers by
presenting them with an option to not share their information, even though
it was shared automatically rendering the option meaningless.
=====
rest:
http://ftc.gov/opa/2013/12/goldenshores.shtm
- nothing in the FTC info about whether this application only
sent info when you activated the flashlight or if it spied
on you at other times, too.
_____________________________________________________
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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