31 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
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The Telecom Digest for October 19, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 243 : "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: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:50:55 -0400
From: Pete Cresswell <PeteCress@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Voter surveys difficult due to cell phones
Message-ID: <iauv78ljk12tv96c4o6f7pt5uqncjum86j@4ax.com>
Per HAncock4:
>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.
I'm eagerly awaiting what seems to me to be the real solution:
Challenge-Response.
- Somebody calls my number
- My phone does not even ring
- Caller hears "Press 1 for Fred, Press 2 for Sue, Press 3 for
Joe...." ending with press 1-2-3 for Pete. Experienced
callers know that they can press 1-2-3 as soon as they
hear the pickup.
- My phone finally rings when somebody presses 1-2-3.
- I have some options on how to set it up so that failures
can be totally ignored, go to voicemail, leave caller's
number in a log, and so-on and so-forth.
Probably already available if somebody has a home PBX system.
An enhanced answering machine would do it for me on my land line.
I wonder of the pieces are already in place, just awaiting
the right app on my Android cell phone.
As it is now, all my phones are on both state and fed no-call lists, I
work at home, as a practical matter I have to answer every time the
phone rings because it might be a client needing help.
I'm writing software, so every time I have to answer the phone
the little house of cards I have in my mind goes "Poof!" and
after the call it takes a couple of minutes to re-create it.
I'm getting at least a dozen telephone solicitor or robo calls a
day...DNC lists notwithstanding...
I'm right on the edge of being a single-issue voter on this. Not
quite... but disturbingly close.
--
Pete Cresswell
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:43:38 -0400
From: "Michael D. Sullivan" <mds@camsul.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Mobile Services and Cable TV Are Unexpected Allies
Message-ID: <CA+K-LfbRM34qnjJyHo4_Dyx=JgDdfEa26-yrP9vWzRSFWvF+8g@mail.gmail.com>
At Wed, 17 Oct 2012 10:08:41 -0700, Steven
<diespammers@ikillspammers.com> wrote:
[snip]
>> ***** 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.
Verizon will be marketing the cable companies' TV service only in
areas where FiOS is unavailable.
--
Michael D. Sullivan
Bethesda, MD
***** Moderator's Note *****
Well, isn't that cutting off their nose to spite their face? I can't
get FiOS, and I live in one of the wealthiest suburbs around Boston!
I don't think Verizon has done anything near to what it could: if the
company wants to compete with Comcast, why doesn't it put in more FiOS
equipment?
Bill
P.S. Of course, I'm on the poor side of town ...
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:30:06 -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: <k5phrf$il5$1@dont-email.me>
On 10/18/12 7:43 AM, Michael D. Sullivan wrote:
> At Wed, 17 Oct 2012 10:08:41 -0700, Steven
> <diespammers@ikillspammers.com> wrote:
> [snip]
>>> ***** 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.
>
> Verizon will be marketing the cable companies' TV service only in
> areas where FiOS is unavailable.
>
You must remember that FIOS was a GTE project long before Verizon.
Former GTE service areas for the most part have full fiber, in the area
I worked in Riverside county, Moreno Valley was wired for Fiber over 20
years ago, we had Fiber Rings all over the area, it now goes all the way
down the the San Diego country line out to past Palm Springs.
--
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: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:29:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: BlackBerry's fall from popularity
Message-ID: <1350606561.49870.YahooMailClassic@web121403.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
Bill Horne CDT/Telecom digest moderator opined:
> 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?
This is your opinion, but the reality is that mobile communications
has trends just like everything else. At one time Nokia was it as
far as mobile equipment manufacturers. That's not so any longer
because of lots of factors including not changing their focus fast
enough. BlackBerry was the darling as far as smartphones go, but
through many factors didn't act fast enough to change where they
needed to.
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:04:43 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: BlackBerry's fall from popularity
Message-ID: <20121019040443.GA31824@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 05:29:21PM -0700, Joseph Singer wrote:
> Bill Horne CDT/Telecom digest moderator opined:
>
> > 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?
>
> This is your opinion, but the reality is that mobile communications
> has trends just like everything else. At one time Nokia was it as
> far as mobile equipment manufacturers. That's not so any longer
> because of lots of factors including not changing their focus fast
> enough. BlackBerry was the darling as far as smartphones go, but
> through many factors didn't act fast enough to change where they
> needed to.
My opinion is that consumers are buying mobile computing devices based
on peer pressure and the harangues of TV pitchmen, instead of rational
evaluations of their needs, budgets, and expectations for what those
devices should do. Buyers have been, and continue to be, relying on
style, rumor, trivia, and brand names instead of bothering to find out
which product and service will best suit their needs.
"Yeah", you might say, "what else is new? You have to sell the sizzle,
not the steak" - and I agree that marketing will always be the
deciding factor during a consumers' choice of entertainment media and
associated devices.
However, and this is the nub of my reservations about smart phones and
other mobile computing devices, any gadget which supposedly makes its
user more productive, more intelligent, or more wise must be evaluated
in terms of the impact it has on the environment of its users and
its non-users. For every "benefit" a "smartphone" user claims, there
is an associated (often intangible) cost, and it is these costs that
weigh most heavily, to my mind, against the often-overrated advantages
of the devices and the services that go with them.
We can all agree, I hope, that telephones are useful devices. As
someone who owned and used an IMTS mobile telephone long before
cellular phones were available, I can attest to the utility of mobile
phones for those who have more obligations than time.
In the case of telephones, I hope we can all agree that a "500" set is
just as useful as a "2554" Touchtone instrument, and that a Motorola
"brick" cellphone is just about as transportatble as an iphone in
practical terms. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and bet that everyone
agrees that any cellphone which works is just about as useful as any
other. While I can argue that cellphones have taken away the last
"quiet time" available to us, namely the transit times during which we
used to be alone behind a wheel or strolling down a sidewalk, I'll
conceed that enough people find them usefull that they are, on
balance, a "net gain" in our lives.
However, I do not feel the smae way about smartphones and other mobile
computers. Let's face it: smartphones are not toys. They are also not
cheap, not magic, and not harmless "personal" appliances that affect
only their users. Frankly, when I think of their costs, I don't see
their benefits adding up: the tiny screens, tinier keyboards (or lack
thereof) and miniscule data rates are all symptoms of a solution that
creates its own problem.
Being constantly connected has hurt us, in ways both subtle and gross,
and I'm convinced that most of the consumers who crave the "benefits"
of smartphones actually seek the mind-numbing overload of constant
emails, continuous "tweet" mesages, and "always on" web access -
because it spares them the uncertainty of knowing that they can't let
everyone else run their lives. I think they want to be less like their
parents - without the expectation that adults should use critical
thought and experience to evaluate their options instead of engaging
in knee-jerk responses, the knowledge that speed is the enemy of
sagacity, and the common sense necessary to tell the world, now and
then, that it needs to shut up.
That is, of course, my opinion.
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QrM from my email address to write to me directly)
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:10:21 -0400
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: FTC offering public prize to "robotcall" killer
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.1210182009120.28178@panix5.panix.com>
[press release]
FTC Challenges Innovators to Do Battle with Robocallers
Agency Offers $50,000 for Best Technical Solution as Part of Ongoing Fight
Against Illegal Calls
The Federal Trade Commission is challenging the public to create an
innovative solution that will block illegal commercial robocalls on
landlines and mobile phones. As part of its ongoing campaign against these
illegal, prerecorded telemarketing calls, the agency is launching the FTC
Robocall Challenge, and offering a $50,000 cash prize for the best
technical solution.
This is the agency's first government contest hosted on Challenge.gov,
an online challenge platform administered by the U.S. General Services
Administration, in partnership with ChallengePost. Challenge.gov empowers
the U.S. government and the public to bring the best ideas and top talent
to bear on our nation's most pressing issues.
======
rest:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/10/robocalls3.shtm
_____________________________________________________
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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