---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <CEAEBE34-5148-48BC-B149-2D84F6F7DE55@roscom.com> Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 22:07:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Verizon and Hearst to Create TV for Mobile Millennial Viewers Seeking to entertain the elusive millennial, Verizon Communications and Hearst announced on Wednesday the formation of a joint venture to develop programming for young adults to watch on their phones. Called Verizon Hearst Media Partners, the enterprise will kick off this spring with two channels: RatedRed.com, aimed at "millennials from the heartland," with programming about music, food, outdoors, politics, military and faith, and Seriously.TV, offering a comedic take on current events at the speed of breaking news. Other networks are planned. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/business/media/verizon-and-hearst-to-create-tv-for-mobile-millennial-viewers.html ***** Moderator's Note ***** Future offerings will include "Guffaws for geezers", showing past political campaign promises being made, and "RatedXY.com", which features a fun-loving trio of grandfathers showing pictures of their wives' ankles when they were saucy sirens. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <33aeb2a9-cd6e-4acc-a678-1b9ef740f480@googlegroups.com> Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2016 13:07:59 -0700 (PDT) From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Sending call-center work overseas key issue in Verizon strike The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that at a time when Verizon's rivals Comcast and RCN Telecom Services are bringing customer- service calls back from overseas, the New York-based telecommunications giant is closing domestic call centers and sending some of the work abroad. "They are sending 5,000 jobs to the Philippines, India, Mexico," said CWA. Verizon confirms that it has call-center operations in Mexico, India, and the Philippines. for full article please see: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/labor_and_unions/20160422_Sending_call-center_work_overseas_is_a_key_issue_in_Verizon_strike.html Personal note: The service quality from Vz's overseas call centers has been unsatisfactory. Comcast also continues to heavily use overseas call centers, also with unsatisfactory service quality. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <B1EC6826-860D-437A-B4D0-D96D75D3457C@roscom.com> Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 22:05:20 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: No Phones for You! Chic Businesses Are Abandoning Landlines To New Yorkers, greater Mulberry Street is typically considered NoLIta, unless it's northern Chinatown, or to those old enough to remember Sinatra at the Paramount, Little Italy. Maybe now it's time to scrap those distinctions and give it a new nickname: NoPho, for no phones. Many phone numbers these days merely lead to automated voice mail with directions to a website. And some businesses have abandoned phones altogether. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/fashion/phones-businesses-landline.html ***** Moderator's Note ***** I guess the revolution is over: the businesses which are emerging from the ashes of the telephone age are depending on web site forms and twitter and texting for the minimal amount of customer contact they choose to provide. I get the feeling that we have placed the final nail in Theodore Vail's coffin and set it to spinning. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <nfimm9$cag$1@dont-email.me> Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2016 10:57:25 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Frontier Fields Customer Complaints After Switch-Over From Verizon Company acquired millions of phone, TV and Internet accounts in three states this month By DREW FITZGERALD Frontier Communications Corp. is facing a flurry of customer complaints after acquiring millions of phone, television and Internet accounts in three states from Verizon Communications Inc. this month. The Texas Public Utility Commission fielded more than 150 complaints about Frontier's service this month, more than half of them in the past week, spokesman Terry Hadley said. The California Public Utilities Commission has recorded 235 Frontier complaints during the first half of April. http://www.wsj.com/articles/frontier-fields-customer-complaints-after-switch-over-from-verizon-1461358899 -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <nfimf4$aa5$1@dont-email.me> Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2016 10:53:38 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Are You Following Me Now? Striking Verizon Workers Keep Tabs on Their Replacements Union members in New York trail temporary workers to homes; "Why drag our customers into this labor dispute?" By ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS Jane Clausen got more than she bargained for this week when she asked Verizon Communications Inc. to send someone to her second-floor Brooklyn apartment to fix her Internet. After opening her door Tuesday for two Verizon workers, Ms. Clausen, a 30-year-old Crown Heights resident, was surprised to see striking workers outside the building. The men sent by the telecom company told her they weren't regular technicians, but part of a replacement workforce tasked to fill in for nearly 40,000 Verizon union workers who went on strike last week. The men told her the strikers had followed their company van to her home. http://www.wsj.com/articles/are-you-following-me-now-striking-verizon-workers-keep-tabs-on-their-replacements-1461336301 -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <nfim1r$6mi$1@dont-email.me> Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2016 10:46:30 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: If Verizon takes a hit, blame Bernie Sanders By Emily Stewart Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been relentless in his attacks on Verizon over the past few weeks. And believe it or not, the criticisms of the self-described democratic socialist could hurt the company where it matters most: the balance sheet. Verizon CFO Fran Shammo warned in an investor conference call Thursday that a bitter labor contract dispute with nearly 40,000 of its employees might weigh on the company's earnings. http://www.thestreet.com/story/13541995/1/if-verizon-takes-an-earnings-hit-blame-bernie-sanders.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <nfin0l$f86$1@dont-email.me> Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2016 11:02:58 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: CenturyLink Hikes Sneaky 'Internet Cost Recovery' Fee by Karl Bode One of the most misleading practices in the broadband industry is the tactic of adding sneaky, below the line fees to artificially keep the advertised rate the same. It's effectively a form of false advertising, in that consumers sign up for one rate, then wind up paying significantly more after an ISP saddles their bills with various nonsensical fees. Many of these fees, like the "regulatory recovery fee" or broadcast TV fee are simply the cost of doing business, and are not government mandated despite being designed to sound like it. Given that regulators have turned a blind eye to this practice for fifteen years (longer if you're talking about POTS), many companies don't even try very hard when trying to make up such fees. http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/CenturyLink-Hikes-Sneaky-Internet-Cost-Recovery-Fee-136766 -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <nfim84$8bi$1@dont-email.me> Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2016 10:49:53 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon Strike A Fight For Future of Labor by Martha C. White As the communication workers strike against Verizon enters its second week, it has grown increasingly ugly, with reports of sabotaged equipment, picketing workers urging customers to boycott Verizon Wireless and Verizon telling investors that the strike will hit its bottom line this quarter. Both sides appear to be digging in for a potentially protracted fight in what industry observers say is an especially high-stakes battle, some suggesting the outcome will be no less than a referendum on the strength and relevance of organized labor in the 21st century. "This is an old-fashioned labor war," said Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University. "The labor movement sees the Verizon strike as a fight for its survival." http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/verizon-strike-fight-future-labor-n560611 -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <nfin6q$h2g$1@dont-email.me> Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2016 11:06:15 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: CenturyLink says FCC should deny Windstream's UNE loop request By Sean Buckley CenturyLink is taking another shot in the special access war, saying that Windstream's request for the FCC to mandate that ILECs continue to unbundle next-gen DS1/DS3 loops should be denied. CLECs leverage these facilities to deliver traditional voice and Ethernet over Copper-based data services in areas where they can't build a business case to roll out their own facilities. http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/centurylink-says-fcc-should-deny-windstreams-une-loop-request/2016-04-14 -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Mon, 25 Apr 2016