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The Telecom Digest for February 5, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 36 : "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
Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Bill Horne and
the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
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: Sat, 4 Feb 2012 11:47:07 -0500
From: Henry Horne <horneht@gmail.VALID-IF-THIS-IS-ELIDED.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: LightSquared's Woes Weigh on Falcone Hedge Fund
Message-ID: <CAOhpKK_xZJmr1Cq317Cnkv1aarJstcpV3Sk2azi80FzMnrHPqg@mail.gmail.com>
{{ From the NY Times }}
LightSquared's Woes Weigh on Falcone Hedge Fund
By AZAM AHMED
Nasty letters from lawmakers. A powerful lobby threatening his very
livelihood. Regulatory investigations. These are the things that
billionaire hedge fund manager Philip A. Falcone contends with on a
near-daily basis.
Today, scorekeepers can chalk up another point for the anti-Falcone
factions. His hedge fund, Harbinger Capital Partners, lost 46.6 percent
last year, as his biggest -- and most controversial -- investment took a
beating, according to investors who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Rest at:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/lightsquareds-woes-weigh-on-falcone-hedge-fund/
Bill Horne
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2012 12:10:35 -0500
From: Henry Horne <horneht@gmail.VALID-IF-THIS-IS-ELIDED.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Verizon cutting 336 N.J. jobs
Message-ID: <CAOhpKK-NcaC303tcJOFroHeTR9LKsoRNzvPRZrhxn9xgW9o7kw@mail.gmail.com>
{{ from the New Jersey Courier News }}
Verizon cutting 336 N.J. jobs
by David P. Willis
Verizon Communications will lay off 336 employees in New Jersey,
installers who work in homes and businesses on traditional telephone
lines, the company said on Friday.
The technicians are part of Verizon Connected Solutions, a Verizon
subsidiary. The layoffs represent virtually all of the unit's New Jersey
employees. Twenty will remain, working out of an office in Plainfield,
Verizon spokesman Lee J. Gierczynski said.
Rest at:
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20120203/NJBIZ/302030020/1022/RSS07
Bill Horne
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2012 12:20:21 -0500
From: Henry Horne <horneht@gmail.VALID-IF-THIS-IS-ELIDED.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: CenturyLink complaints outweigh positive remarks by 20-to-1
Message-ID: <CAOhpKK8CMxCFwfQyw7OB_V1Dd1vVv_129JpJxTT-dX0_EL071Q@mail.gmail.com>
At least at one website, complaints about CenturyLink's customer
service outweigh positive reports by more than twenty to one.
Although most of the complaints on the site are from unidentified users,
their remarks have a ring of truth.
The site is at:
http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com/CenturyLink
Bill Horne
Date: 05 Feb 2012 00:22:39 GMT
From: Doug McIntyre <merlyn@geeks.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: CenturyLink complaints outweigh positive remarks by 20-to-1
Message-ID: <4f2dcbcf$0$79797$8046368a@newsreader.iphouse.net>
Henry Horne <horneht@gmail.VALID-IF-THIS-IS-ELIDED.com> writes:
>At least at one website, complaints about CenturyLink's customer
>service outweigh positive reports by more than twenty to one.
>Although most of the complaints on the site are from unidentified users,
>their remarks have a ring of truth.
One thing that CenturyLink has done recently, at least in the
Minneapolis/St. Paul area (although I doubt it is so localized), is to
lay off a a bunch of installers/field techs, and then call them back to offer
contractor job work at flat per job rates. So they have zero incentive
to do anything more than the basic service.
Call center times have also gone way up as well.
Not sure how the union let them get away with it.
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2012 12:00:33 -0500
From: Henry Horne <horneht@gmail.VALID-IF-THIS-IS-ELIDED.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Qualcomm performs the first successful voice-over-LTE call with
Message-ID: <CAOhpKK9JQ2-2VPzmMSpFquXfnc80oD9wFT0V=0D6hJzMo4do6A@mail.gmail.com>
{{ from the Boy Genius Report }}
Qualcomm performs the first successful voice-over-LTE call with handover to WCDMA
By: Dan Graziano Feb 2nd, 2012 at 11:30PM
Verizon, AT&T and any other LTE providers currently rely on 3G networks to
carry voice phone calls. In the future, carriers hope to use voice-over-LTE
(VoLTE) technology, and Qualcomm recently reached an important milestone on
the road to making VoLTE a reality. Qualcomm announced on Thursday that the
company had successfully completed the "first voice call handover from an
LTE mobile network to a WCDMA network using Single Radio Voice Call
Continuity (SRVCC)."
Rest at:
http://www.bgr.com/tag/verizon/
Bill Horne
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2012 11:51:34 -0500
From: Henry Horne <horneht@gmail.VALID-IF-THIS-IS-ELIDED.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Sprint gives LightSquared until March to get FCC approval
Message-ID: <CAOhpKK_HC4tfD-J7xpD18R=z1u3Jj-fWYPAxF44pzM+FeurObQ@mail.gmail.com>
{{ from CNet }}
Sprint gives LightSquared until March to get FCC approval
by Marguerite Reardon |January 31, 2012 12:26 PM PST
Sprint Nextel said it will give LightSquared an additional six weeks to get
approval to build its nationwide 4G LTE wireless network from the Federal
Communications Commission or it will terminate its agreement with the
company, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
A Sprint spokesman told Dow Jones that the company had given LightSquared
until mid-March to resolve concerns that its network interferes with GPS
receivers. Sprint had already given LightSquared a 30-day extension to get
FCC approval at the end of 2011.
Rest at:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-57369141-266/sprint-gives-lightsquared-until-march-to-get-fcc-approval/
Bill Horne
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:53:03 -0500
From: bernieS <bernies@netaxs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: History--SF Chronical--telephone photos
Message-ID: <TizonC.A.HzE.V6XLPB@telecom>
One of the historical telephone photos in that series at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/thebigevent/detail?entry_id=107304
show a Touch-Tone payphone with what appears to be a 2-line
vacuum-fluorescent display. Does anyone on the list know what that
is? Is it Caller ID? I've never seen a payphone with that feature.
-bernieS
** Moderator note:
It appears that Bernie is talking about photo #9 in the series, as it is
the only Touch-Tone pay phone. The caption indicates it is the first
Touch-Tone pay phone installed in S.F., and is dated Feb 11, 1972.
This pre-dates the deployment of Caller-ID by roughly 15 years, and thus,
that possibility can be safely ruled out. Leaving the question of "what
IS it for?" unanswered.
Date: 4 Feb 2012 21:01:31 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: History--SF Chronical--telephone photos
Message-ID: <20120204210131.8599.qmail@joyce.lan>
>One of the historical telephone photos in that series at
>
>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/thebigevent/detail?entry_id=107304
>
>show a Touch-Tone payphone with what appears to be a 2-line
>vacuum-fluorescent display. Does anyone on the list know what that
>is? Is it Caller ID? I've never seen a payphone with that feature.
I think it's just an instruction card with the light reflecting oddly.
See this phone for sale on eBay which appears to be the same model:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Western-Electric-2D2-Panel-Payphone-/160582439895
R's,
John
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:57:42 -0800
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: History--SF Chronical--telephone photos
Message-ID: <4F2DC5F6.7000102@thadlabs.com>
On 2/4/2012 10:53 AM, bernieS wrote:
> One of the historical telephone photos in that series at
>
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/thebigevent/detail?entry_id=107304
>
> show a Touch-Tone payphone with what appears to be a 2-line
> vacuum-fluorescent display. Does anyone on the list know what that
> is? Is it Caller ID? I've never seen a payphone with that feature.
>
> -bernieS
>
> ** Moderator note:
>
> It appears that Bernie is talking about photo #9 in the series, as it is
> the only Touch-Tone pay phone. The caption indicates it is the first
> Touch-Tone pay phone installed in S.F., and is dated Feb 11, 1972.
>
> This pre-dates the deployment of Caller-ID by roughly 15 years, and thus,
> that possibility can be safely ruled out. Leaving the question of "what
> IS it for?" unanswered.
Huh? It's simply a printed message covered by protective plastic or
glass.
The contents of the alleged "display" (on photo #9) at this URL are:
http://blog.sfgate.com/thebigevent/2012/02/02/long-distance-fifty-years-of-telephones-in-san-francisco/#2821-9
1st line: obscured by reflection
2nd line: "LOCAL AND LONG DISTANCE CALLS"
3rd line: 3 words of text too small to read, and arrow points down to the
receiver hook
I do know my eyesight and color vision is better than 99.9% of the
population, but a person would have to be blind to not see what I
just described above.
:-)
Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:37:55 -0800
From: Bob <RBF1147-UN@YAH0O.COM>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: History--SF Chronical--telephone photos
Message-ID: <jgkj0m$no2$1@dont-email.me>
On 2/4/2012 10:53, bernieS wrote:
> One of the historical telephone photos in that series at
>
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/thebigevent/detail?entry_id=107304
>
> show a Touch-Tone payphone with what appears to be a 2-line
> vacuum-fluorescent display. Does anyone on the list know what that
> is? Is it Caller ID? I've never seen a payphone with that feature.
Nothing particularly unusual -- just the card with the telephone number.
Note the grey plastic keycaps on the Touch-Tone keypad. Those didn't
last very long on pay phones due to vandalism.
Compare that phone with the one on the previous photo taken five years
earlier. A short-lived characteristic of that model is the three coin
slots -- a holdover from the earlier model. Single coin slots and dial
tone first (the ability to dial emergency and alternate billed calls
without coins) were often prerequisites to price increases on pay phones.
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2012 19:37:43 -0800 (PST)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: History--SF Chronical--telephone photos
Message-ID: <cfa3853a-081b-407b-9a26-5cd9ac5b66dc@15g2000vbq.googlegroups.com>
On Feb 4, 7:37 pm, Bob <RBF1147...@YAH0O.COM> wrote:
> Compare that phone with the one on the previous photo taken five years
> earlier. A short-lived characteristic of that model is the three coin
> slots -- a holdover from the earlier model. Single coin slots and dial
> tone first (the ability to dial emergency and alternate billed calls
> without coins) were often prerequisites to price increases on pay phones.
The "panel" style of pay phone was merely a conventional 3-slot
payphone modified with a flat panel in front of it and slots to take
the coins to the chutes.
In the 1960s some locations got modernized phone booths, such as
circular all glass arrangements with sliding doors or other
experimental approaches. The booths at my 1964 local shopping mall
were kind of swirled wraparound kiosk. Payphones also came out in
ivory or green color, or even with Touch Tone before it was
widespread.
It appears in the 1970s Bell System gave up on fancy booths and
switched to austere post or plain wall mounts. They were a pain to
use in noisy locations.
I don't think the public or regulators cared about the older 3-slot
vs. the newer single-slot pay phone. The newer single slot unit had
advantages to the phone company in terms of lower maintenance, some
additional vandal resistance, and the ability to send electronic
signals for coin drops. Those signals enabled the switchgear to
'listen' for coin drops on 1+ coin calls, eliminating the need for an
operator to do it*. (Of course, today, of the few pay phones
remaining, many don't even allow 1+ coin toll calls. New York City
seems to be an exception where most pay phones do offer 25c/minute
national long distance. Some NJ Transit station pay phones have that,
too.).
As to dial-tone first, actually on rural pay phones served by smaller
step-by-step offices, those phones were always dial-tone first. Those
pay phones, known as "post pay" were simply in that they had no "hold
bucket" for the coins; the coins dropped directly into the coin box.
Those phones were simpler than those with hold buckets since they
required additonal hardware and relays.
On such phones, customers lifted the receiver, got a dial tone, and
dialed the local number. If the party answered, they then had put in
coins in order to unlock the transmitter circuit. (For toll calls,
they dialed the operator and placed coins when requested). Such
phones required battery reversal which apparently was a characteristic
of step-by-step switches; the reversal switched in and out the relay
controlling the transmitter switch. (According to the Bell Labs
history, that reversal had to dealt with in developing new key
systems).
(As an aside, I was recently in a rebuilt train station which included
some pay phones as part of the design. One was in use. One pay phone
had a text typewriter associated with it for deaf usage.)
One comment about another photograph, the one with the then new
Trimline phone. Its big feature was the lighted dial (or keypad) in
the handset. (It also had a pleasant ringer). Initially the dial
used a tiny lamp which required a transformer and wall plug-in, but
later used LEDs powered from the phone line.
Today, with so many businesses requiring the caller to press Touch
Tone keys to get through, the handset keypad becomes cumbersome to
use. (That applies to cordless handsets and cellphones, too). When
using such phones on such calls, I find myself constantly moving the
handset between my ear and my hand in order to listen and then enter
the proper key. Since most businesses today have deep multi-level
menus, this gets tiring. I've replaced my outgoing call Trimlines
with more traditional 2500 sets.
*TSP/TSPS console switchboards greatly sped up operator handling of
pay phone toll calls. The caller dialed the number himself instead of
passing to the operator, and the switchgear determined the initial
amount and displayed it for the operator to collect. All she had to
do was announce the amount due, listen for the coins to drop, and
release the call. Overtime was handled automatically, too. But there
was full provision for manual handling of a call if necessary. (This
of course sounds very mundane today, but in the early 1960s TSP was
advanced technology.)
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
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