---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <20200409133136.GA21005@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2020 13:31:36 +0000 From: Moderator <telecomdigestsubmissions@remove-this.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Fiber lit buildings blossom across the U.S.--report by Mike Robuck There are more than one million commercial buildings and data centers across the U.S. that have on-net access to fiber-based network services, according to Emerging Networks Service (ENS) Fiber Plus research from Vertical Systems Group. While fiber availability increased to 64% for medium and large buildings, small building fiber growth in 2019 accounted for two-thirds of the new fiber-lit sites. https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/fiber-lit-buildings-blossom-across-u-s-report -- Bill Horne Telecom Digest Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20200409133435.GA21047@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2020 13:34:35 +0000 From: Moderator <telecomdigestsubmissions@remove-this.telecom-digest.org> Subject: The humble phone call has returned By Matilda Coleman In Albany, Louisiana, the priests and deacons of the Church of St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, recently divided a list of 900 parishioners to call to verify them, something they never did because they saw their members in person. Some of the parishioners in the rural community outside New Orleans were suspicious when they responded, accustomed to automatic calls from unknown numbers. https://upnewsinfo.com/2020/04/09/the-humble-phone-call-has-returned/ -- Bill Horne Telecom Digest Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20200409132740.GA20979@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2020 13:27:40 +0000 From: Moderator <telecomdigestsubmissions@remove-this.telecom-digest.org> Subject: CDC issues new guidance for essential workers by Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has new guidance for essential workers as it takes a small step toward reopening the country. The guidance applies to essential workers, such as those in the health care and food supply industry, who have been within 6 feet of a person who has a confirmed or suspected case of the new coronavirus. https://katu.com/news/nation-world/cdc-issues-new-guidance-for-essential-workers -- Bill Horne Telecom Digest Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <AB7F1FB0-E64E-4803-926F-B9CFB327ECA9@roscom.com> Date: 7 Apr 2020 19:49:57 -0400 From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Privacy Cannot Be a Casualty of the Coronavirus Privacy Cannot Be a Casualty of the Coronavirus Many Americans now rely on digital tools to work remotely and stay connected. They shouldn't have to sacrifice their privacy to use them. By The Editorial Board Millions of Americans, sheltering in their homes from the coronavirus, have turned to communications platforms like Zoom, Google Hangouts and Facebook Messenger in order to work or stay connected to friends and family. Free and easy to use, the services are gobbling up record numbers of new users. But there's a saying in Silicon Valley: If the product is free, you are the product. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/opinion/digital-privacy-coronavirus.html ------------------------------ Message-ID: <013e01d60d68$c14b8480$43e28d80$@nc.rr.com> Date: 8 Apr 2020 01:44:21 -0400 From: "Bob Goudreau" <BobGoudreau@nc.rr.com> Subject: RE: Frontier prepares for chapter [11], regrets failure to put in sufficient fiber The posting <20200402102345.GA7626@telecom.csail.mit.edu> cited a rather strange article from a source that I had never heard of: > As Frontier Communications strikes nearer to an anticipated chapter > [11] submitting, the ISP advised buyers that its troubles stem > largely from its failure to take a position correctly in upgrading > DSL to fiber broadband. https://thewhitworthgazette.com/frontier-prepares-for-bankruptcy-regrets-failure-to-install-enough-fiber/ The wording of this text immediately struck me as odd -- "strikes nearer"? "Submitting" instead of "submission"? "Take a position correctly"? The rest of the article's body was also filled with stilted and erroneous English and egregious punctuation and capitalization when I read it on Friday morning. As I write this on Tuesday night, the web page is still up, but the body of the story now trails off into ellipses near the beginning of the second sentence. The author is listed as "Maria J" -- what reputable journalistic outlet refuses to display the surnames of its reporters? A reverse image search reveals that the accompanying picture of "Maria J" is a stock photo from https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1531890342783-9eada516aba1 , and the concomitant mini-bio reads (errors in original): Maria is Sr.Content Editor in Whit Worth, She had worked as Electronics Engineer and written many journals on Electronics and Sensors. and whe write articles for us on the topic of TECHNOLOGY. The contact page for the "Whitworth Gazette" (https://thewhitworthgazette.com/contact-us/) is also chock-full of butchered English and lists a mailing address in San Diego on a nonexistent street (one unknown to both Google Maps and USPS.com). Interestingly, the Whitworth Gazette has a Twitter account (https://twitter.com/whitworthgzette) and an Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/thewhitworthgazette/?hl=en) which both contain postings referencing the main thewhitworthgazette.com website, which they describe as "The magazine for owners of vintage British motorcycles". Both of those accounts themselves display content consistent with that description. However, the Twitter page's most recent post is over two years old. I can't tell whether the Instagram page is similarly dormant because I don't have (and will not get) an Instagram or Facebook account, which would allow me to look at the site's posts in detail. But my working theory is that a once-legitimate but now-disused UK website has been hijacked by a "fake news" platform, for purposes unknown. Most of the stories don't appear to be truly false, but rather seem to be legitimate news items stolen from elsewhere and subsequently repackaged, badly, by mangling some of the wording. In the case of this particular article about Frontier Communications, the original legitimate article is presumably https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/04/frontier-prepares-for-bankruptcy-regrets-failure-to-install-enough-fiber/. My takeaway from this odd case? It's always a good idea to treat articles from sites of unknown provenance with a caution bordering on skepticism. Bob Goudreau Cary, NC ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Fri, 10 Apr 2020