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The Telecom Digest for April 7, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 78 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Verizon FIOS (Rich Greenberg)
Breaking Free of the Cellphone Carrier Conspiracy (Monty Solomon)
Re: Verizon, Cablevision emerge as unlikely allies (J Horn)

====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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Date: 5 Apr 2013 21:16:27 -0400
From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Verizon FIOS 
Message-ID: <kjnt1b$sen$1@panix5.panix.com>

This was originally posted to comp.dcom.telecom.tech in error, it was
intended for cdt, so reposting to proper place with some followup
added.

During the recent FIOS discussion, I had nothing to add, so I didn't.
Its been fine since it was installed 2+ years ago.

Just recently, I had some issues, and I wanted to pass along what I
encountered for the benefit of the group.

At first, both wired and wireless went dead.  A power cycle fixed it,
and the wired connections had no furthur problems.  The wireless was
not working.  The first time or 2 the Verizon "In Home Agent" fixed it
but then it became intermittant and Agent could do nothing.  [I] found
a bug in their online diagnostics and a related bug in Agent.  The
online diagnostic was reading my userid and passphrase, spelling it
out phonetically.  My passphrase is several words with spaces between
the words, and the diagnostic ignored the spaces.  Later, Agent asked
me for the passphrase and wouldn't allow me to enter the spaces.

Later, I called FIOS tech support and reported both bugs.  I then
described the problems and asked what would it take to get a new
modem.  He responded that he would send me one and it arrived the next
day.  Aparantly they have decided that the modem I have is obselete
because they don't want it back.  I will trash it after resetting it
to clear the passphrase.  It will be installed tomorrow and I will
follow up if anything unusual happens.

One oddity in the old modem, its too slow to copy/paste the admin uid
and password.  They must be hand typed.  I will see if the new modem
has the same oddity.

Followup:

If it wasn't obvious from the above, the Verizon "In Home Agent" is a
PC program.  The new modem accepted the spaces in my passphrase but
rejected it because it now requires at least one alpha and at least
one numeric.  I added some numbers and its happy.  Reconnected the PCs
with the new passphrase and they are all happily chugging away.  The
new modem allowed me to paste in the logon password.

-- 
Rich Greenberg  Sarasota, FL, USA richgr atsign panix.com  + 1 941 378 2097
Eastern time.  N6LRT  I speak for myself & my dogs only.    VM'er since CP-67
Canines: Val,Red,Shasta,Zero,Casey & Cinnar (At the bridge)   Owner:Chinook-L
Canines: Red & Max (Siberians)     Retired at the beach  Asst Owner:Sibernet-L




Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2013 01:24:04 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Breaking Free of the Cellphone Carrier Conspiracy
Message-ID: <p06240803cd8561a7e617@[10.0.1.3]>

Breaking Free of the Cellphone Carrier Conspiracy

By DAVID POGUE
April 3, 2013

Where, exactly, is your threshold for outrage?

Would you speak up if you were overbilled for a meal? Would you 
complain if you paid for a book from Amazon.com that never arrived?

Or what if you had to keep making monthly mortgage payments even 
after your loan was fully repaid?

Well, guess what? If you're like most people, you're participating in 
exactly that kind of rip-off right now. It's the Great Cellphone 
Subsidy Con.

When you buy a cellphone - an iPhone or Android phone, let's say - 
you pay $200. Now, the real price for that sophisticated piece of 
electronics is around $600. But Verizon, AT&T and Sprint are very 
thoughtful. They subsidize the phone. Your $200 is a down payment. 
You pay off the remaining $400 over the course of your two-year 
contract.

It's just like buying a house or a car: you put some cash down and 
pay the rest in installments. Right?

Wrong. Here's the difference: Once you've finished paying off your 
handset, your monthly bill doesn't go down. You keep reimbursing the 
cellphone company as though you still owed it. Forever.

And speaking of the two-year contract, why aren't you outraged about 
that? What other service in modern life locks you in for two years? 
Home phone service? Cable TV service? Internet? Magazine 
subscriptions? Baby sitter? Lawn maintenance? In any other industry, 
you can switch to a rival if you ever become unhappy. Companies have 
to work for your loyalty.

But not in the cellphone industry. If you try to leave your cellphone 
carrier before two years are up, you're slapped with a penalty of 
hundreds of dollars.

If you're not outraged by those rip-offs, maybe it's because you 
think you're helpless. All of the Big Four carriers follow the same 
rules, so, you know - what are you gonna do?

Last week, the landscape changed. T-Mobile violated the unwritten 
conspiracy code of cellphone carriers. It admitted that the emperors 
have no clothes. John J. Legere, T-Mobile's chief executive, took to 
the stage not only to expose the usurious schemes, but to announce 
that it wouldn't be playing those games anymore.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/technology/personaltech/t-mobile-breaks-free-of-cellphone-contracts-and-penalties.html




Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2013 14:29:24 +0000 (UTC)
From: J. Horn <horn+NOSPAN@panix.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Verizon, Cablevision emerge as unlikely allies 
Message-ID: <kjmn44$ppt$1@reader1.panix.com>

Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> wrote:

> Gee, I wonder if The New York Times would be willing to sell its 
> newspaper on an a-la-carte basis so subscribers could subscribe to only 
> the sections they like?  I'm sure is must cost a lot to produce a sports 
> section, so it seems reasonable that the a-la-carte price without the 
> sports section would be substantially lower than the price for the whole 
> package.

The NYT offers a separate online subscription for its crossword puzzles. 
The nose is under the tent.

J. Horn

-- 
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