The Telecom Digest for October 23, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 285 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
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Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:36:55 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Florida cellphone network without a license
Message-ID: <4CC0CE97.7090805@thadlabs.com>
A trial system offers calling, texting, and data by weaving signals
around the chatter of baby monitors and cordless phones.
http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/26581/?p1=A4
October 20, 2010
By Tom Simonite
A trial cell-phone network in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, gets by
without something every other wireless carrier needs: its own
chunk of the airwaves. Instead, xG Technology, which made the
network, uses base stations and handsets of its own design that
steer signals through the unrestricted 900-megahertz band used
by cordless phones and other short-range devices.
It's a technique called "cognitive" radio, and it has the
potential to make efficient use of an increasingly limited
resource: the wireless spectrum. By demonstrating the first
cellular network that uses the technique, xG hopes to show that
it could help wireless carriers facing growing demand but a
relatively fixed supply of spectrum.
Its cognitive radios are built into both the base stations of
the trial network, dubbed xMax, and handsets made for it.
Every radio scans for clear spectrum 33 times a second. If
another signal is detected, the handset and base station
retune to avoid the other signal, keeping the connection
alive. Each of the six base stations in xG's network can
serve devices in a 2.5-mile radius, comparable to an average
cell-phone tower.
[...]
{story continues at the above URL}
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 08:08:43 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Kerry outlines bill to resolve TV disputes
Message-ID: <p06240849c8e72f0e0cfa@[10.0.1.8]>
Kerry outlines bill to resolve TV disputes
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
by Sara Jerome
The Hill
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) sent draft legislation to the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday aimed at resolving the
kind of dispute that left 3 million people in the New York area
unable to watch the Giants game on Sunday and "House" on Monday
night.
Cablevision subscribers have lost access to Fox channels as the
company negotiates with Fox Networks about programming fees. The
contract between the companies expired last week, and Fox has pulled
its content until the companies find agreeable terms.
Broadcasters have the ability to pull their programming under rules
for retransmission consent. Cable and satellite companies want the
rules overhauled - they think broadcasters have too much power in the
disputes.
...
http://kerry.senate.gov/press/in_the_news/article/?id=BD3CA557-5056-A032-526D-359DC6F707CE
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:25:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: markjcuccia@yahoo.com
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: California Town Gets Phone Service for First Time in History
Message-ID: <c5f6e611-6850-4232-9e90-f9af5f9bf7e6@j2g2000yqf.googlegroups.com>
There have been several news items (radio/TV/newspapers) that I
came up with doing "google" news searches, but I did some
additional research using the localcallingguide.com website, and
also called up the local telco that is providing service to
Iowa Hill CA.
Most of the news articles didn't go into detail as to which
telephone company is providing service to Iowa Hill CA. But at
least one news article did mention a company in Foresthill CA
named "Sebastian". This is the name of the company that owns the
independent "Foresthill Telephone Company", OCN 2318. (The name
is apparently one single word, "Foresthill").
I did try looking up on NANPA's (US) NPA-NXX c.o.code pages at their
website for the 530 area code (northeastern California), to see if
there was a ratecenter name (and 530-NXX code) for "Iowa Hill CA",
but there was no such distinct (new) ratecenter.
I looked up on the localcallingguide.com website, and also no such
ratecenter (nor 530-NXX) for "Iowa Hill CA". But there is the
Foresthill CA ratecenter with 530-367 (I wonder if that could have
been an old 916-FOresthill-7- exchange name in the old 2L-5N days? :-)
And the c.o.switch is FRHLCAXFDS0, an Alcatel-Lucent 5ESS.
I called up the Sebastian/Foresthill Telephone Company to inquire
further, and they confirmed that Iowa Hill CA is simply an "extension"
of the existing Foresthill CA ratecenter, with 530-367 numbers, and
Iowa Hill CA also gets dialtone from the 5ESS in Foresthill CA.
According to the localcallingguide.com website, the Foresthill CA
ratecenter (which includes Iowa Hill) has local/EAS with the following
three nearby ratecenters:
Colfax:Colfax (District Area) CA (OCN 4420 VeriZon/GTE-once-Contel)
Colfax:Weimar (District Area) CA (OCN 4420 VeriZon/GTE-once-Contel)
Georgetown CA (at&t/SBC/Pacific*Bell)
There are no other 530-NXX c.o.codes other than 530-367 for the
Foresthill CA ratecenter (including Iowa Hill CA), thus there are NO
CLECs nor wireless providers associated with the Foresthill CA
ratecenter. Also, Foresthill CA is the only ratecenter served by
Sebastain/Foresthill Telco.
About six years ago, the community of "Mink LA" finally got landline
telephone service for the very first time from BellSouth/So.Central
Bell.
They had been trying to get service for 40-some years, ever since the
mid-1960s when it was still part of Southern Bell. But in 2004, the
La.PSC finally ordered BellSouth to extend landline loops/dialtone
from the Leesville (Vernon Parish) LA ratecenter (Leesville with an
's', NOT Leeville which is in Lafourche Parish in LA, and served by
the independent Latelco, Lafourche Telephone Company). It's probably
the Leesville LA "Simpson" central office LEVLLASNDS0 which provides
dialtone to the heavily wooded and hilly settlement of "Mink LA",
since this c.o.switch is the one closest; but it "could" be possible
that the "Main" c.o.switch at Leesville LEVLLAMADS0, a 5ESS, actually
provides dialtone to "Mink LA".
SO, it seems that there are still areas in the US which don't yet have
landline telephone service. I don't think that there are still any
"ringdown" or "non-customer-dial" points in the US anymore, but there
were still a few here/there, mostly in remote parts of California and
Nevada as late as the early 2000s. I wonder if it would have been more
efficient to extend better cellular service to Iowa Hill CA and other
similar areas? The trend does seem to be people dumping landline in
favor of wireless, and since this community never had landline before,
even though the cellular was spotty, maybe it would have been better
to improve the cellular signal to this area?
Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:21:03 +0800
From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Meet the 20-cent 'cloud phone'
Message-ID: <AANLkTikHpcztaD=VMd0SVK7a-uBF=+x+-sJY6jCi57Ch@mail.gmail.com>
Camden, Maine (CNN) -- Nigel Waller set out to create a $5 phone.
It didn't work. After much research, the cheapest phone he could make
still cost about $20, only a dollar less than the cheapest on the
market, he said.
If he wanted to bring cheaper cell phone service to the world's poor
-- people who can't afford a $25 mobile handset, many of whom live on
$1 a day -- he had to come up with a new idea.
His solution, the "cloud phone," is now being rolled out in Africa.
More at http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/21/cloud.phone/index.html
--
John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
Austin, Texas, USA
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:31:20 -0400
From: Randall <rvh40.remove-this@and-this-too.insightbb.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: FaceBook
Message-ID: <D1666876-1202-46AC-98D2-AC134EF2AD76@insightbb.com>
> From: sfdavidkaye2@yahoo.com (David Kaye)
> To: redacted@invalid.telecom-digest.org.
> Subject: Re: Facebook in Privacy Breach
> Message-ID: <i9num3$th4$1@news.eternal-september.org>
>
> Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> wrote:
>
>> I look askance at anyone who uses Fecebook, Twitter, etc. given the
>> purpose of those sites (remembering that the user is the product and
>> NOT the customer):
>
> For people who like Facebook, another way is to post fake info on
> your account. If you're male, set yourself as female. Use a
> different birthdate, put yourself in another city, etc. Your
> friends can still find you by name, but the marketing info will get
> totally screwed up.
What, exactly, is the big deal about Zuckerberg finding out this
information? Yes, he will sell it to advertisers, who will probably
assume that sending me an advertisement for HRT (menopause) drugs is
a waste of money - but so what? I am not going to be buying any
Hormone Replacement Therapy drugs anyway, why do I care that nobody
tries to sell them to me?
***** Moderator's Note *****
Would you like those advertisers to know that you are over 60? A
veteran? A practicing Democrat?
"It doesn't matter", I hear you say. "That's all public information".
But ...
It may be "public", but it's not online - until now. The fact that
you're a veteran and over 60 and a registered Democrat may be
"available" to anyone willing to wade through reams of paper, but it's
not economically feasible for advertisers to do so - UNLESS YOU DO IT
FOR THEM. By using facetube, you give permission for those advertisers
to accumulate the data which YOU are entering into THEIR computer,
free of charge.
Bill Horne
Moderator
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