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The Telecom Digest for December 30, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 334 : "text" Format
====== 30 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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we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
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.
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Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:19:29 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: AT&T closes $1.9-billion purchase of Qualcomm spectrum
Message-ID: <4EFC9311.10409@horne.net>
AT&T closes $1.9-billion purchase of Qualcomm spectrum
by Nathan Olivarez-Giles
AT&T Inc. has officially completed its $1.9-billion purchase of wireless
spectrum licenses owned by San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc.
The deal gives AT&T the ability to offer service on wireless spectrum
that covers an area of more than 300 million people nationwide, with
more than 70 million of them in five of the top 15 metropolitan areas,
such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
http://tinyurl.com/cep5ums
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
"But the trumpets had been rented
The musicians paid at scale
The movement was discredited
and its leaders thrown in jail"
- Bob Franke
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:39:12 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Verizon Investigates Third Data Outage in Under a Month
Message-ID: <4EFC97B0.3020902@horne.net>
Verizon Investigates Third Data Outage in Under a Month
(Reuters)
Verizon Wireless is investigating reports that some customers were
experiencing trouble accessing its fourth generation (4G) network, a
spokesman told Reuters, as the company yet again had to face service
problems with its faster wireless service.
Verizon customers around the United States are reporting widespread
outages of the company's 4G wireless service, as well as spotty
performance of the older 3G service, the Los Angeles Times said on its
website.
http://tinyurl.com/d3l87v5
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
"The little guy turned his lamps on me
All bloodshot red and blue
'You say we lost the Americas Cup?
Did we lose the saucer, too?'"
- Tom Paxton
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:33:52 -0500
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Verizon Investigates Third Data Outage in Under a Month
Message-ID: <vocj4fgi2kjo.5tblxtqjd1ci.dlg@40tude.net>
On Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:39:12 -0500, Bill Horne wrote:
> Verizon Investigates Third Data Outage in Under a Month
> (Reuters)
>
> Verizon Wireless is investigating reports that some customers were
> experiencing trouble accessing its fourth generation (4G) network, a
> spokesman told Reuters, as the company yet again had to face service
> problems with its faster wireless service.
>
> Verizon customers around the United States are reporting widespread
> outages of the company's 4G wireless service, as well as spotty
> performance of the older 3G service, the Los Angeles Times said on its
> website.
>
>
> http://tinyurl.com/d3l87v5
>
Ah, and to help pay for the convenience of having no more such outages in
2012, verizon will be starting up a new $2/month convenience fee -- cf.
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/12/28/verizon-to-charge-customers-2-fee-when-paying-bills-online-starting-january-15/
:-) . Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:01:18 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Husband's reading of wife's email goes to Michigan Supreme Court
Message-ID: <4EFC9CDE.10007@horne.net>
Man charged with felony for reading wife's e-mail ready to take case to
by L.L. Brasier, Detroit Free Press
Michigan Supreme Court
A Rochester Hills man charged with a five-year felony for reading his
wife's e-mail pledged Wednesday to take the matter to the state's
highest court after a lower court refused to dismiss the charge.
In a written opinion released Wednesday, the Michigan Court of Appeals
ruled that Leon Walker should proceed to trial on charges that he gained
unlawful access to then-wife Clara Walker's Gmail account in summer 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/cze87m7
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
"The moment came, as it comes to all
When I had to answer nature's call
I was stumbling around in a beautiful haze
When I met a little cat in black PJ's"
- Tom Paxton
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:20:57 -0500
From: "Michael D. Sullivan" <mds@camsul.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: LightSquared: Style Drift In The Service of Returns Is No Vice
Message-ID: <CA+K-LfaBFwKyhr11gc+1Hk2S-Rx9Wm4o=fBhp4nm-oZ4BbDCoA@mail.gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:42:48 -0500
> From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
> Subject: LightSquared: Style Drift In The Service of Returns Is No Vice
> Message-ID: <20111228164248.GA31392@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
>
> A partner at ACM Partners defends Phil Falcone - sort of
>
> Mr. Johnson doesn't mince words about how LightSquared is trying to
> avoid spectrum auction fees by re-purposing the SkyTerra ATC
> authorization, which is from the same play-book that Craig McCaw
> followed when planning Nextel's "push-to-talk" network. It's
> refreshing to see an opinion that gets to the heart of the matter: the
> immense profit that Harbinger Capital will enjoy if its lobbying
> efforts bear fruit, and Mr. Johnson compliments Mr. Falcone for having
> powerful enemies.
McCaw came to his position in Nextel long after the company had
planned and developed its iDEN push-to-talk network. He headed McCaw
Cellular when Nextel (originally named Fleet Call) was developing its
enhanced specialized mobile radio network.
--
Michael D. Sullivan
Bethesda, MD
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:40:24 -0500
From: "Geoffrey Welsh" <gwelsh@spamcop.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: FTC warns that expanding DNS could lead to increased fraud
Message-ID: <55479$4efcd03a$d1b716c0$27956@PRIMUS.CA>
tlvp wrote:
> Let me try to understand. Your client's domain name might have been,
> say, ru.net or tv.com, and the takedown notice emanated from, say,
> net.ru or com.tv? That'd be amusing :-) .
Not emanating from but concerning an image posted to a site whose URL
used a domain ending in the two letters. For example, I will choose
two letters that are not a valid country code and a domain that is
registered but doesn't seem to have a web page: xy; I hope that
posting the following causes them (and me!) no grief: the email was
from an unrelated domain, claiming to represent the copyright holders
of a certain image that had been posted to site example.xy, but the
notice was sent to the contacts for xy.com.
It reminds me of a advertisement I saw several years ago for something
like (I forget the exact details) a mobile device that could access
email and the ad used a phrase like www.canyoubelieveiamreadnigthis.com.
obviously the creators (and approvers) of the ad assumed that
everything on the internet started with "www", even email.
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2011 08:45:31 +1100
From: David Clayton <dcstarbox-usenet@yahoo.com.au>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Mexican cartels build radio network for military precision
Message-ID: <qPQTBD.A.K2B.2GO_OB@telecom>
On Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:18:26 +1100, David Clayton wrote:
> Mexican cartels build radio network for military precision December 28,
> 2011
>
> When convoys of soldiers or federal police move through the scrubland of
> northern Mexico, the Zetas drug cartel knows they are coming.
>
> The alert goes out from a taxi driver or a street vendor, equipped with a
> high-end handheld radio and paid to work as a lookout known as a "halcon,"
> or hawk.
>
> The radio signal travels deep into the arid countryside, hours by foot
> from the nearest road. There, the 2-meter-tall dark-green branches of the
> rockrose bush conceal a radio tower painted to match. A cable buried in
> the dirt draws power from a solar panel.
>
> [Moderator snip]
>
> Read more:
>
> http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/mexican-cartels-build-radio-network-for-military-precision-20111228-1pbyx.html#ixzz1hnsVGWGG
>
>
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> Ham radio operators in the U.S. and Mexico have been constructing and
> using repeaters since the 1970's. This is the kind of "fluff" piece that
> reporters come up with when they have a hangover and feel like phoning it
> in.
>
> Instead of trying to make a radio repeater seem like a whiz-bang
> achievement, AP's reporters would get a lot more respect if they followed
> the trails of the drugs and the money that paid for the radios: the reason
> they choose not to is left as an exercise for the reader.
>
> Bill Horne
> Moderator
I see the article as more of a clear message that any "bad guys" around
the planet are now readily using available technology to either reduce (or
even eliminate) the advantage that law enforcement once had over them -
the access to cutting-edge communications and other technologies.
Military grade technologies of all sorts seem available to anyone with
enough money these days, and that increasingly seems to be enveloping
people with technical skills in the particular areas involved. Perhaps the
most lucrative career opportunity for the next generation of radio
engineers is organised crime?
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
***** Moderator's Note *****
Having a solar-powered radio repeater is hardly "cutting edge": New
Mexico had them deployed in 1971. The advantage that law enforcement
once had over the drug lords was that ordinary people didn't want to
be a part of making or selling illegal drugs. However, when the drug
lords have so much money that they can buy a cloak of respectability,
then ordinary people start wondering if they're the fools in the game,
and they start wondering who is, and who is not, worthy of the mantle
of leadership.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:27:47 -0500
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: FTC warns that expanding DNS could lead to increased fraud
Message-ID: <gdr29y0e8ot2.3atrgmpwzngi$.dlg@40tude.net>
On Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:40:24 -0500, Geoffrey Welsh wrote:
> a phrase like www.canyoubelieveiamreadnigthis.com.
> obviously the creators (and approvers) of the ad assumed that
> everything on the internet started with "www", even email
Nah ... they assumed the viewing public would be thinking that.
But why they assumed noone would fault their spelling in the
run-together part of the URL is beyond me -- imagine: Can You
Believe I Am Read Nigth Is dot com -- should be Night, no?
(or is it Nigh 'Tis? -- naah, that makes no sense :-) ).
Yours for Improved World Understanding, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
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