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The Telecom Digest for May 16, 2014
Volume 33 : Issue 84 : "text" Format
====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
|
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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are definitely unwelcome.
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: Thu, 15 May 2014 11:22:34 -0700
From: "John Meissen" <john@meissen.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: What is "Viber"?
Message-ID: <20140515182234.C8D0817F89A@john>
I was wondering if anyone in the community knows anything about this app?
http://www.viber.com/
Traveling to Japan recently I was looking for some way to make calls with my
phone over wifi (since Verizon apparently had their head in a dark place when
they told me my phone would work there).
Skype would do what I want, but I don't believe there's an android version.
I have a Google Voice number, but the GV integration doesn't use the data
connection by itself. There was an app that used the gmail calling feature, but
Google removed that external API recently, and it was a PITA to use anyway.
This looks promising, but the skeptic in me says, "what's the catch?" As I'm
fond of saying, TANSTAAFL.
Regards,
john-
Date: 15 May 2014 20:07:46 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: What is "Skype"?
Message-ID: <20140515200746.2942.qmail@joyce.lan>
>Skype would do what I want, but I don't believe there's an android version.
Sure there is. Fire up Google Play, download and install it. Calls
to other Skype users or to numbers in the US are free.
An alternative for making phone calls is Vonage (yes, that Vonage.)
They also have an Android app that lets you call US numbers for free.
R's,
John
Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 14:02:34 -0700
From: "John Meissen" <john@meissen.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: What is "Viber"?
Message-ID: <20140515210234.AB0B517F89A@john>
> >Skype would do what I want, but I don't believe there's an android version.
>
> Sure there is. Fire up Google Play, download and install it. Calls
> to other Skype users or to numbers in the US are free.
>
Thanks, I didn't know it was there. I'll give it a try, although the slew of
recent 1-star reviews doesn't fill me with confidence.
> An alternative for making phone calls is Vonage (yes, that Vonage.)
> They also have an Android app that lets you call US numbers for free.
I'm not ready to ditch my local provider yet, although I've considered
switching to Vonage in the past. It won't help my daughter while she's out
of the country this summer, either.
Neither of those answer the original question, though. Viber seems to integrate
nicely into the phone GUI, and doesn't require separate registration/login.
I've heard from one person I know who apparently likes it and is impressed by
the call quality. But I can't figure out what their business plan is. They
don't use advertising, so where's the money?
john-
Date: 15 May 2014 17:18:06 -0400
From: "John R. Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: What is "Viber"?
Message-ID: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1405151707040.3219@joyce.lan>
>> An alternative for making phone calls is Vonage (yes, that Vonage.)
>> They also have an Android app that lets you call US numbers for free.
>
> I'm not ready to ditch my local provider yet, although I've considered
> switching to Vonage in the past. It won't help my daughter while she's
> out of the country this summer, either.
The Vonage app is just an Android app to make outgoing calls. It doesn't
affect any other phone service you might have. I think for extra money
you can get an incoming phone number, but you can do that with Skype and
other apps, too.
> Neither of those answer the original question, though. Viber seems to
> integrate nicely into the phone GUI, and doesn't require separate
> registration/login. I've heard from one person I know who apparently
> likes it and is impressed by the call quality. But I can't figure out
> what their business plan is. They don't use advertising, so where's the
> money?
It's like Skype. Calls to other people using the Viber app are free. If
you want to make real phone calls, those are .019/min to US numbers.
That's not partcularly cheap.
I use a service called Voipdiscount, which is a reseller of the German
VoIP company Betamax (no relation to the video recorders), with a freeware
VoIP app called CSipSimple. When I load up my VoipDiscount account with
â?¬10 of credit, I get 120 days of free calls to most of the countries you'd
want to call (landline and mobile in North America, landline only most
other places), other calls are on the order of â?¬0.01/minute. Works pretty
well.
Regards,
John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail.
http://jl.ly
Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 16:19:40 -0400
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: What is "Viber"?
Message-ID: <w8dzam1m3u0f.v5xqfztjvs4l.dlg@40tude.net>
On Thu, 15 May 2014 11:22:34 -0700, John Meissen wrote:
> I was wondering if anyone in the community knows anything about this app?
>
>
> http://www.viber.com/
>
>
> This looks promising, but the skeptic in me says, "what's the catch?"
Looks as if it's only good for communicating w/ other viber users -- quote:
> ... lets you send free messages and make free calls to other Viber users ...
Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
Date: Wed, 14 May 2014 23:38:17 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Verizon, AT&T leaving landline phone networks to rot, complaint says
Message-ID: <p06240838cf99e6fab4f9@[10.0.1.3]>
Verizon, AT&T leaving landline phone networks to rot, complaint says
FCC urged to investigate complaints that customers were forced off landlines.
by Jon Brodkin
May 13 2014
Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/verizon-att-forcing-customers-off-landline-phones-complaint-says/
Date: Wed, 14 May 2014 23:46:03 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Good news for privacy: Fewer servers sending e-mail naked, Facebook finds
Message-ID: <p0624083fcf99e8c22014@[10.0.1.3]>
Good news for privacy: Fewer servers sending e-mail naked, Facebook finds
Company calls on laggards to join majority of servers by deploying STARTTLS.
by Dan Goodin
May 13 2014
Ars Technica
Server-to-server e-mail encryption using the STARTTLS protocol has
reached an important tipping point that hardens the majority of
messages Facebook sends its users against wholesale snooping by
well-financed adversaries, according to figures released Tuesday by
the site.
The social network said 58 percent of the notification e-mails it
sends users are successfully encrypted using STARTTLS. Even more
impressive, 76 percent of unique Mail Exchange hostnames are set up
to support the protection, although only about half of them use valid
digital certificates to cryptographically validate connections.
STARTTLS ensures that plaintext e-mails are encrypted before being
transferred from the sending server to the receiving server. Amid
revelations of an expansive surveillance program by the National
Security Agency and other state-sponsored groups, the extension is
seen as a way of thwarting such programs or at least making them more
costly to carry out. But like most network-based technologies, its
value is proportional to the square of the number of servers that use
it, meaning it provides benefit only when widely used.
...
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/05/good-news-for-privacy-fewer-servers-sending-e-mail-naked-facebook-finds/
Date: Wed, 14 May 2014 18:40:28 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: FCC gets an earful from all sides as it considers reclassifying broadband
Message-ID: <a9573a30-1b94-4f0b-ad60-f221ba7034ca@googlegroups.com>
By K.C. Neel, FierceCable, May 14, 2014
As FCC chairman Thomas Wheeler mulls changes to net neutrality
rules, representatives from all corners of the industry --
from cable and telecom executives to Hollywood and Capitol
Hill players -- are giving him their two cents on the issue.
The FCC will release proposed new rules regulating the Internet
on Thursday, and no one appears happy with what's been floated so
far. The new rules are being crafted in the wake of a federal
appeals court ruling in January that struck down the existing
basis for the FCC's net neutrality guidelines. Wheeler's new
proposed rules seek to prevent broadband providers from blocking
or slowing down websites but would allow some content companies
to pay for preferential treatment. He has also indicated he'll
look at turning broadband service into a Title II service, which
would treat the delivery mechanism as a common carrier or utility.
More than two dozen cable and telecom industry titans are begging
the commission not to reclassify broadband as a Title II service,
arguing that "the growth of the Internet and the rapid adoption
of mobile technology have been great American success stories,
made possible by a light regulatory touch for the entire online
ecosystem." They went to say that imposing "common carrier-style
regulation upon any part of the Internet would be a dangerous
rejection of this successful policy course, potentially impeding
the development and adoption of new Internet technologies and
services, and threatening future investment in next-generation
broadband infrastructure."
Continued:
http://www.fiercecable.com/story/fcc-gets-earful-all-sides-it-considers-reclassifying-broadband/2014-05-14?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
-or-
http://tinyurl.com/pqwtxpp
Neal McLain
Date: Wed, 14 May 2014 13:05:06 -0400
From: Pete Cresswell <PeteCress@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Woman allegedly records own arrest, gets accused of wiretapping
Message-ID: <gh87n9ddqgamhjae8c8cen4bnio2r7pf3u@4ax.com>
Per Monty Solomon:
>Massachusetts wiretapping law prohibits secretly recording police.
Can somebody explain the rationale for such laws?
--
Pete Cresswell
Date: Wed, 14 May 2014 23:44:31 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Latest study on cell phones and cancer finds another weak association
Message-ID: <p0624083ecf99e8730d55@[10.0.1.3]>
Latest study on cell phones and cancer finds another weak association
A small study with known limitations doesn't do much to change our
understanding.
by John Timmer
May 13 2014
Ars Technica
Over the years, various governments around the world have attempted
to enact regulations that warn cell phone users of the supposed risks
of heavy cell phone use. There's just one problem with that: medical
authorities have had a very hard time determining what those risks
are.
It's not for lack of trying. Various small studies have found hints
of an association between cell phone use and specific cancers. But
large meta-analyses and extended cohort studies have come up empty,
suggesting that either the small studies produced spurious results or
that only a small subset of the cell phone using population is at
risk. Without a larger, definitive study, it's simply impossible to
tell.
But that hasn't stopped a steady flow of smaller studies from
continuing to retread well-worn ground-or journalists from giving
these limited studies more attention than they deserve. In the latest
example, the AFP picked up a French study that shows a potential
elevated risk of cancer from high levels of cell phone use. But the
study has the usual collection of limitations, and it has some
details that run counter to some of the past studies that found
elevated cancer risk.
...
http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/05/latest-study-on-cell-phones-and-cancer-finds-another-weak-association/
Date: Wed, 14 May 2014 23:41:24 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: NSA routinely tapped in-flight Internet, intercepted exported routers
Message-ID: <p06240839cf99e742c5f5@[10.0.1.3]>
NSA routinely tapped in-flight Internet, intercepted exported routers
Greenwald book provides more data on NSA's "Homing Pigeon," other surveillance.
by Sean Gallagher
May 13 2014
Ars Technica
In his new book No Place to Hide, Glenn Greenwald revealed a number
of additional details on the "craft" and tools used by the NSA and
its British counterpart, the GCHQ. While many of the capabilities and
activities Greenwald details in the book were previously published in
reports drawing from Edward Snowden's vast haul of NSA documents, a
number of new pieces of information have come to light-including the
NSA's and GCHQ's efforts to use airlines' in-flight data service to
track and surveil targeted passengers in real time.
The systems-codenamed "Homing Pigeon" by the NSA and "Thieving
Magpie" by the GCHQ-allowed the agencies to track which aircraft
individuals under surveillance boarded based on their phone data.
...
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/nsa-routinely-tapped-in-flight-internet-intercepted-exported-routers/
Date: Wed, 14 May 2014 18:34:45 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Comcast's Cohen: Company will roll out usage-based pricing when trials are complete
Message-ID: <6548e111-e328-46e5-aab0-ff57d11d5ff9@googlegroups.com>
By Sue Marek, FierceCable,May 14, 2014
A Comcast executive said that he is confident the
company will roll out usage-based data pricing nationwide once it
completes a series of "robust" trials it is currently conducting
in several markets. Speaking at the MoffettNathanson Media &
Communications Summit today in New York City, David Cohen,
executive vice president of Comcast, said that the company is
moving slowly with its usage-based data trials to avoid
alienating consumers. "We don't want to blow up our high-speed
data business," he said.
The company has been testing metered billing in several markets
including Savannah, Ga.; Jackson, Miss.; Charleston, S.C.;
Huntsville and Mobile, Ala.; and central Kentucky. Last December,
Comcast added the Atlanta market. Cohen noted that Comcast has
tested a few different models for its usage-based data
pricing -- but he said that the current model, in which customers
are allotted 300 GB of data per month and then charged an
additional $10 for every 50 GB of data they use over the 300 GB,
seems to be the most popular model.
Continued:
http://www.fiercecable.com/story/comcasts-cohen-company-will-roll-out-usage-based-pricing-when-trials-are-co/2014-05-14?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
-or-
http://tinyurl.com/opw7sew
Neal McLain
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