Message-ID: <20220224141504.GA10586@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2022 14:15:04 +0000
From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Look Out For The Rising Costs Of ILEC Local Services
On Wed, Feb 23, 2022 at 11:37:46PM -0000, Garrett Wollman wrote:
> In article <20220221223656.GA27826@telecom.csail.mit.edu>,
> Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Cellular service has always been agressively targeted at young,
>> impressionable customers who were not (and, sad to say, are still
>> not) trained to consider the low-term costs of "included with offer"
>> cellphones, or per-minute cellular billing, or lowered voice
>> quality.
>
> Why should they care? They *don't use* voice telephony.
Sure they do: especially when their mommy calls them up and screams at
them about the cell phone bill that daddy is screaming about to her.
There are *STILL* "influencers" roaming middle- and high-school
corridors, showing off the "best" "new" "great" and <insert
superlative here> instruments to gullible pre-pubescent female
customers whom are able to get their mommy's credit card and their
behinds to the cell phone store. There is *REAL* money at stake, and
the guy at the cell phone store wants it.
Pre-pubescent teenage females: that's who buys pop music and expensive
cellphones.
Bill
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Message-ID: <20220222025518.72C77765@telecom2018.csail.mit.edu>
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2022 02:55:18 +0000 (UTC)
From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com>
Subject: Ignoring a Text Message or Email Isn't Always Rude.
Sometimes It's Necessary.
OPINION
GUEST ESSAY
By Erica Dhawan
It was a Tuesday night. In my apartment, I was doing three things at
once -- packing for a short business trip, trying to get dinner on the
table for my family and taking turns with my husband to calm a crying
baby. Behind me, one work Slack alert after another dinged from my
laptop. I ignored them all. During dinner, a text popped up on my
phone. "Where are u????" asked my colleague.
I wanted to scream. Instead, I didn't reply to the text. This wasn't
the first time I'd ignored a digital summons, and it wouldn't be the
last. I didn't mean to be disrespectful or malicious -- but at the
same time I knew what I wanted my silence to communicate: This is not
a priority for me right now. You are not my priority.
Ignoring messages is frowned upon in these always-on times. At its
most egregious, dropping out of communication is condemned as
"ghosting," which, in the years since the term became widespread, has
become a deadly sin of digital communications.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/opinion/culture/ghosting-work-digital-overload.html
***** Commentary *****
My son and his friends long ago stopped answering voice-mail messages:
having grown up with the always-on cellular world, they have made a
choice to take a step back, It isn't magic, or mysterious, or
otherwise special to him: it's just another PITA.
My Brother-In-Law's voice mail greeting warns callers that he checks
messages only once or twice a week, and it reminds callers that
they've alredy left the most important info (their phone number and
the time of their call), and he asks them to just hang up and wait for
him to call them back.
We Baby Boomers have been early adapters of many technologies: color
TV, direct dial long-distance, fast-food restaurants, CLASS features,
24-hour news and weather broadcasts, and then the Internet, and cell
phones, and a presumed obligation to use them whenever they need our
attention.
Television producers, for years now, have been making immense sums of
money by having the actors on TV *ALWAYS* answer every cellphone call,
as soon as the phone rings. This shilling became so obvious that it
was breaking the dramatic continuity of the shows, so now the quick
hand jerk reactions when a cellphone rings are being parenthesized by
glances at the phone and "gotta take this" excuses. None over the
actors ever says "I can ignore this," or "I don't know who that is,"
or "He's a jerk, I'll ignore this." They *ALWAYS* answer every call,
no matter what their producers put in the script to try to maintain
dramatic continuity. This is not "product placement" advertising -
this "Lifestyle Leadership" propaganda. Think about it: important,
decisive, well-liked, and pretty people *ALWAYS* answer their cell
calls. The Tall White Guy on TV told me so.
WE are coming to the nth inflection point in the history of electronic
communication: I don't know how many times the graph hit a knee before
now, but I hope the latest bend is the last, as ordinary people decide
that they will take back the most important part of their lives: the
right that they gave away as children, sold too cheaply as
adolescents, and now have come to value: the right to be left alone.
Bill Horne
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Message-ID: <20220224162720.1FC1D73A@telecom2018.csail.mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2022 16:27:20 +0000 (UTC)
From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com>
Subject: Robocall Violations, VoIP Providers, And The FTC
by David O. Klein
The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") recently sent a strong message in
enforcing its demands for information from certain VoIP providers. As
part of an investigation into alleged robocall violations, the FTC
sent letters demanding information from VoIP providers concerning
certain telemarketing users. When the service providers failed to
comply with the demands, the FTC sued them to force compliance and
participation in the investigation. These FTC VoIP actions are notable
for their targeting service providers that failed to cooperate as part
of FTC enforcement proceedings, instead of just targeting the
allegedly offending telemarketer(s).
https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/advertising-marketing-branding/1163434/robocall-violations-voip-providers-and-the-ftc?email_access=on
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Message-ID: <20220221214628.42810765@telecom2018.csail.mit.edu>
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2022 21:46:28 +0000 (UTC)
From: Sean Murphy <murphy.s@remove-this.telecomdigest.net>
Subject: NE: Homeowner notification prior to excavation considered
January 26, 2022 Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, LB884
Excavators would be required to give notice to homeowners prior to
breaking ground under a bill heard by the Transportation and
Telecommunications Committee Jan. 25.
Current state law requires that excavators give two days' notice to
operators of underground utilities prior to an excavation to ensure
that all underground utilities are located, also known as the one-call
notification system. LB884, sponsored by Omaha Sen. Machaela
Cavanaugh, would add homeowners to the list of those required to be
notified.
Under the bill, an excavator also would be required to notify the
one-call center if a homeowner discovers damage or dislocation to an
underground facility if reported within a reasonable time. Liability
would be assigned to the excavator when damages are discovered.
http://update.legislature.ne.gov/?p=31206
Message-ID: <20220221223656.GA27826@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2022 22:36:56 +0000
From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Look Out For The Rising Costs Of ILEC Local Services
On Sun, Feb 20, 2022 at 07:26:05PM -0500, Michael Trew wrote:
> On 1/11/2022 16:24, Bill Horne wrote:
>> by Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby, LLP
>>
>> Do enterprises still use POTS lines? Well, the ILECs appear to be
>> asking the same question, because there is a disturbing trend taking
>> place with ILEC pricing. For example, one well-known ILEC recently
>> raised its list rate for POTS services by a whopping 50%.
>>
>> Listen to this 9 minute podcast as TC2 Directors Theresa Knutson, Julie
>> Gardner, and Joe Schmidt discuss why enterprises still use POTS lines
>> for services like elevator phones, explain why ILECs are imposing these
>> huge price increases, and offer insight on what you need to do.
>>
>>
https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/telecoms-mobile-cable-communications/1148782/look-out-for-the-rising-costs-of-ilec-local-services?email_access=on
> I've been keeping an eye on my POTS bill, and it just shot up almost
> $3/mo, again. It seems to go up a dollar or two per month, every
> year or two. I pay well over $10/mo more now, then I did in just 7
> years ago. Flat rate line, local unlimited calling, no features;
> $46/month now. It seems that they are trying to price people out of
> owning a POTS line. I'm not sure what my limit is, but we're
> encroaching it (I pay a few dollars per month for third-party long
> distance service).
Speaker as a former technician at New England Telephone & Telegraph,
and a former union organizer, and a current Verizon retiree, I'll
clarify the issue with this simple fact: the "loaded" cost for an hour
of a union employee's time is a three-figure number.
"Loaded" means that all factors are included: direct wages, training,
supervision, supervision of the supervisors, equipment, Workers
Compensation Insurance, retirement fund contributions, and health
care. It means that the stockholders have to part with somewhere
between 100 and 999 dollars for every hour a union technician is on
the job.
It's real money, and the stockholders are always looking to
disenfranchise unions for any reason they can: "retiring," i.e.,
refusing to spend the money to maintain the copper outside plant, is one
of the strategies being used to do that. No wires, no well-paid union
members to pay.
Most cellular employees are non-union, and the industry makes
extensive use of contractors, leased equipment, and low wage employees
to install, maintain, and remove physical plant. There have been union
drives at some cellular companies, with a few success stories, but
overall, it's a non-union industry. The profit figures reflect that.
In addition, the ilecs - whom are almost all in the cellular business
through various subsidiaries - want to force traffic back into the
pay-by-the-minute model that made their vast fortunes in the last
century. Although nervous lawmakers forced "Ma Bell" and its
subsidiaries to offer fixed-price plans to private citizens, almost
all business use has always been measured.
Cellular service has always been agressively targeted at young,
impressionable customers who were not (and, sad to say, are still not)
trained to consider the low-term costs of "included with offer"
cellphones, or per-minute cellular billing, or lowered voice
quality. They're being led like lambs to a slaughter, and our
government's civil servants seem to be serving only themselves when it
comes to getting any real protection for ordinary folks whom are
paying through the nose.
Bill
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
Message-ID: <20220223063739.566b1fc6.mo01@posteo.de>
Date: 23 Feb 2022 06:37:39 +0100
From: "Marco Moock" <mo01@posteo.de>
Subject: Re: 3G Shutdown 2022 - a note of sanity from Texas
Am Sonntag, 20. Februar 2022, um 14:29:22 Uhr schrieb Bill Horne:
> Here's a site at the Texas Technology Access Program, which gives a
> more clear explanaiton of 3G's multiple sunset dates. The site
> includes multiple pointers to resources and information, including
> possible work-arounds for those with 3G devices that have WiFi or
> other "bypass" capability.
Do they still operate 2G in the US?
In Germany they switched off 3G, but 2G is still available, so most old
mobile phone still work, some UMTS USB modems or PCMCIA cards do not
because the don't support 2G.
