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The Telecom Digest for October 18, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 242 : "text" Format
====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 08:32:41 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: The BlackBerry as Black Sheep
Message-ID: <p06240894cca3ec73235b@[10.0.1.3]>
The BlackBerry as Black Sheep
By NICOLE PERLROTH
October 15, 2012
Rachel Crosby speaks about her BlackBerry phone the way someone might
speak of an embarrassing relative.
"I'm ashamed of it," said Ms. Crosby, a Los Angeles sales
representative who said she had stopped pulling out her BlackBerry at
cocktail parties and conferences. In meetings, she says she hides her
BlackBerry beneath her iPad for fear clients will see it and judge
her.
The BlackBerry was once proudly carried by the high-powered and the
elite, but those who still hold one today say the device has become a
magnet for mockery and derision from those with iPhones and the
latest Android phones. Research in Motion may still be successful
selling BlackBerrys in countries like India and Indonesia, but in the
United States the company is clinging to less than 5 percent of the
smartphone market - down from a dominating 50 percent just three
years ago. The company's future all depends on a much-delayed new
phone coming next year; meanwhile RIM recorded a net loss of $753
million in the first half of the year compared with a profit of more
than $1 billion a year earlier.
Among the latest signs of the loss of cachet: One of the first steps
Marissa Mayer took as Yahoo's newly appointed chief executive to
remake the company's stodgy image was to trade in employees'
BlackBerrys for iPhones and Androids. BlackBerrys may still linger in
Washington, Wall Street and the legal profession, but in Silicon
Valley they are as rare as a necktie.
As the list shrinks of friends who once regularly communicated using
BlackBerry's private messaging service, called BBM, many a BlackBerry
owner will not mince words about how they feel about their phone.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/16/technology/blackberry-becomes-a-source-of-shame-for-users.html
***** Moderator's Note *****
I'm no longer following fashion: is Salmon going to be this year's
color again? Have hemlines gone up, or down? Are immature children
still buying electronic devices based on what the local thought-leader
says is "in" this week?
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 08:36:42 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Mobile Services and Cable TV Are Unexpected Allies
Message-ID: <p06240899cca456b50b01@[10.0.1.3]>
Mobile Services and Cable TV Are Unexpected Allies
By AMY CHOZICK
September 23, 2012
BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Tucked amid rows of office cubicles at the
sprawling Verizon Wireless headquarters here and hidden behind a
locked door sit the company's best kept retail secrets.
The mock store looks like a Verizon Wireless retail outlet right down
to the signs for the iPhone 5 and racks of mobile accessories. But on
one wall, an experimental display of tablets and smartphones labeled
"Home Services" offers Verizon customers a new service: cable TV.
The display is a little-known result of Verizon's $3.9 billion
purchase of spectrum from Bright House Networks, Comcast, Cox
Communications and Time Warner Cable that the Federal Communications
Commission approved last month. While most attention has focused on
how the purchase of unused airwaves will help Verizon expand its new
fourth-generation wireless network, a less publicized result is that
cable companies can now use Verizon's retail presence to sell cable
packaged with phone and wireless service.
So in mock store displays to be introduced across the country next
month, Comcast's Xfinity cable service app appears on an "attract
loop" that plays on a plasma television. Verizon customers will be
able to browse television listings on a Verizon Samsung tablet and
learn to set their DVR remotely using Xfinity's service. "Verizon
Wireless & Xfinity, Better Together," an in-store sign says.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/business/media/verizon-airwave-purchase-unites-mobile-and-cable-companies.html
***** Moderator's Note *****
I don't get it. If Verizon is still trying to offer TV through fiber
optic, why would they be giving retail space to Comcast? Is this
change signalling the erection of a tombstone over Verizon's media
ambitions?
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 10:08:41 -0700
From: Steven <diespammers@ikillspammers.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Mobile Services and Cable TV Are Unexpected Allies
Message-ID: <k5momp$ouo$1@dont-email.me>
On 10/17/12 5:36 AM, Monty Solomon wrote:
>
> Mobile Services and Cable TV Are Unexpected Allies
>
> By AMY CHOZICK
> September 23, 2012
>
> BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Tucked amid rows of office cubicles at the
> sprawling Verizon Wireless headquarters here and hidden behind a
> locked door sit the company's best kept retail secrets.
>
> The mock store looks like a Verizon Wireless retail outlet right down
> to the signs for the iPhone 5 and racks of mobile accessories. But on
> one wall, an experimental display of tablets and smartphones labeled
> "Home Services" offers Verizon customers a new service: cable TV.
>
> The display is a little-known result of Verizon's $3.9 billion
> purchase of spectrum from Bright House Networks, Comcast, Cox
> Communications and Time Warner Cable that the Federal Communications
> Commission approved last month. While most attention has focused on
> how the purchase of unused airwaves will help Verizon expand its new
> fourth-generation wireless network, a less publicized result is that
> cable companies can now use Verizon's retail presence to sell cable
> packaged with phone and wireless service.
>
> So in mock store displays to be introduced across the country next
> month, Comcast's Xfinity cable service app appears on an "attract
> loop" that plays on a plasma television. Verizon customers will be
> able to browse television listings on a Verizon Samsung tablet and
> learn to set their DVR remotely using Xfinity's service. "Verizon
> Wireless& Xfinity, Better Together," an in-store sign says.
>
> ..
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/business/media/verizon-airwave-purchase-unites-mobile-and-cable-companies.html
>
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> I don't get it. If Verizon is still trying to offer TV through fiber
> optic, why would they be giving retail space to Comcast? Is this
> change signalling the erection of a tombstone over Verizon's media
> ambitions?
>
> Bill Horne
> Moderator
>
Verizon has no plans to expand beyond areas already served, just back
fill. A lot of Verizon customers will never get FIOS, the same goes for
at&t Uverse. This way they can get part of the profits that the able
companies have taken. We have what at&t calls Uverse, the service we
have is just ADSL, I know since I am a COEI Installer and put the
equipment in, the speed is a lot better, but jumps all over the place.
--
The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2012 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co.
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 06:23:23 +0000 (UTC)
From: wollman@bimajority.org (Garrett Wollman)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Softbank to come to aid of Sprint
Message-ID: <k5lisr$2l10$1@grapevine.csail.mit.edu>
In article <20121017045454.GA15873@telecom.csail.mit.edu>,
Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> wrote:
>Japanese telecommunications and Internet Corporation, SoftBank Corp
>will be spending $20.1 billion to materialize its plans to help the
>biggest wireless market player in the United States, Sprint Nextel
>Corporation. In return, a 70 percent stake in the US carrier will be
>granted to the Japanese firm.
Have the foreign-ownership restrictions been lifted?
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wollman@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 10:20:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Voter surveys difficult due to cell phones
Message-ID: <6c9f9c35-f711-4a60-acc6-11ef5cf6d6fb@b6g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the growing use of cellphone-
only households has made conducting political surveys more difficult.
"Nationwide, the proportion of cellphone-only households has doubled
in less than four years, from 17.5 percent in the first half of 2008
to 34 percent at the end of 2011, according to the most recent
government survey. Such people are harder to reach for various
reasons. Even in those households with land lines, residents are
increasingly less likely to pick up the phone. Caller ID is
widespread for those who want to screen out unwanted calls. Amid
rising concerns about identity theft, some people are loath to divulge
the kinds of personal information polls seek."
for full article please see:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/elections/20121016_Voter_survey_disproportions_linked_to_difficult-to-reach_cellphone_users.html
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