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The Telecom Digest for May 23, 2014
Volume 33 : Issue 91 : "text" Format
====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
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Date: Wed, 21 May 2014 17:28:03 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Cable selection for Overland Ringdown System
Message-ID: <537D4493.5020908@thadlabs.com>
On 5/21/2014 12:01 PM, Frank Stearns wrote:
> I'm looking to put phones between two households with a ringdown box; the houses are
> approximately 700 feet apart. (We already have radio links for voice and data; but I
> also want a hard-wired back up.)
>
> Looking for practical advice on cable selection. This wire will go overland, though
> it is feasible to put it under 3-6" of soil in a quick little trench most of the
> way, but parts perhaps could be exposed, if I found suitable cable.
>
> I was thinking of some sort of armored CAT5; then I'd have four pairs. But perhaps
> there's a better 2 pair cable for this application. (I do want at least two pair;
> with one pair as a spare. The cat5 was interesting because I'd have two additionl
> pairs for some other future use.) In those exposed sections we'd need something that
> the chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, and other critters would not find tasty.
>
> Cable suggestions welcome,
Hi Frank,
Friendly advice: fiber, for electrical safety between different
outdoor structures/homes. There may be local codes in your area
requiring fiber as there are here (Silicon Valley). I recall when
HP was establishing data paths between its buildings along Page Mill
Road in Palo Alto that fiber was the only correct and legal solution.
This article seems to be a good starting point especially for the
types of gear at each end of the fiber:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_mile
Googling "fiber endpoint equipment" [without the quotes] will also
list the manufacturers and types of gear for fiber endpoints that
"should" be suitable for your application.
Safety is the operative word here. One of my hobbies is astronomy
and many friends have attempted to run CAT5/CAT6 between their homes
and their outdoor observatories and the horror stories are legion
with ground loops, lightning strikes, and more.
Thad
Date: Wed, 21 May 2014 17:52:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Net Neutrality 2014: The Regulators Strike Back
Message-ID: <74423a66-bffa-45c8-802b-fcfca39615b7@googlegroups.com>
By Paul J. Feldman, CommLawBlog, May 21, 2014
Trying to meet conflicting demands of court, Congress and
constituency, [FCC] Chairman Wheeler is on the horns of a
dilemma.
The FCC's May, 2014 monthly meeting was not ordinary. Protestors
camped outside the Commission's headquarters and shouted slogans
in its meeting room. Democratic Commissioners showed signs of
open rebellion against their Chairman. Republican Commissioners
stood in blunt opposition to the Chairman. And everyone,
including the Chairman, urged fervently that "the future of the
Internet" was at stake.
Against this backdrop, Chairman Wheeler announced the FCC's
latest proposal for Open Internet rules. Caught between the
demands of his political constituency and legal requirements set
by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, he attempted
to walk a narrow and difficult path.
And by a 3-2 vote (with two of the three Commissioners in the
majority expressing serious reservations), the FCC followed the
Chairman on that path: it adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
(NPRM) soliciting comments on the latest approach to "net
neutrality" regulation.
Continued:
http://www.commlawblog.com/2014/05/articles/internet/net-neutrality-2014-the-regulators-strike-back/index.html
-or-
http://tinyurl.com/kff2av5
Neal McLain
Date: Wed, 21 May 2014 22:40:41 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Cellphone distraction results in yet another needless train death
Message-ID: <537D8DD9.3080700@thadlabs.com>
Sad to say, many people here in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco
Bay Area are frequently killed by Amtrak and CalTrain trains because of
distraction and inattention coupled with the at-grade train crossings
prevalent in this area which have never been upgraded since the 1960s
when Silicon Valley was predominantly huge farms, orchards, vineyards
and more between each of the cities on the Peninsula from San Jose CA
to San Francisco CA and along the East Bay from San Jose to Berkeley.
Both the Peninsula and the East Bay are now a contiguous concrete and
road megapolis from San Jose to San Francisco and San Jose along the
East Bay where this tragic accident occurred in San Leandro as reported
here:
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/San-Leandro-teen-s-death-highlights-dangers-of-5493528.php
The 18-year-old woman was having an argument with her step father over
the cellphone and she neither heard nor felt the oncoming train or the
shouts from a person warning her about the train -- she was hit and died.
Cellphone and texting distraction-caused "accidents" are becoming too
common among walkers, hikers, bikers and drivers. People seem way too
wrapped-up within themselves and their cell phones as you may recall
from the 12-picture photo essay URL I recently posted -- don't scroll
past the 12th picture if vulgar reader comments would offend you:
http://dbagging.com/12-smartphone-douchebags/
As I also posted recently, one of the daughters of my best friend was
recently rear-ended by an inattentive texting driver while she was
stopped at a traffic light. Though both cars were totalled per the
insurance companies, incredibly no one was injured.
A 31-second video produced as a Public Service Announcement by the
National Highway Traffic Safety group is sobering and highlights what
frequently happens when using a cellphone while driving and it was
recently cited in Gary Richards' ROAD KILL, er, SHOW column in Silicon
Valley's San Jose Mercury News on April 13, 2014 in this article:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mr-roadshow/ci_25539737/
and here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_-6EoNhitg
More people need to see it in the hope they can be wearned-away from
their Obsessive Compulsive Dysfunction love affair with cellphones.
Thad
Date: Wed, 21 May 2014 21:23:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Foreign Fake Phones Fetch Forfeiture Forewarning
Message-ID: <84a0cd08-70f2-43f2-8f20-75dfea8fc192@googlegroups.com>
By Mitchell Lazarus, CommLawBlog, May 21, 2014
No fine, yet, but the company must answer questions and provide
documents on hundreds of products -- if the company is still
around.
Counterfeit Rolexes, sure. Or Coach bags. But cell phones?
Blackberrys? Really?
Really. Consumer electronics is among the biggest categories of
counterfeit imports. (Although that still doesn't explain the
Blackberrys.)
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes Customs and
Border Protection, asked the FCC to check on some suspect Samsung
Galaxy and Blackberry devices being imported and marketed by a
California company. All cell phones, along with many other
electronic devices, must be labeled with an "FCC ID" number
specific to the device. The numbers, which evidence compliance
with FCC technical rules, are easy to check on this page of the
FCC website.
Here, the numbers on the Samsung phones turned out to be valid
Samsung numbers -- but the devices bearing the numbers didn't
match up with the specs tied to those numbers in the FCC's
database. Samsung took a look and confirmed they had neither
manufactured the devices nor authorized the labeling. The
Blackberrys didn't even make it that far: they bore two different, plausible-looking numbers, neither of which was valid for
anything.
Continued:
http://www.commlawblog.com/2014/05/articles/enforcement-activities-fines-f/foreign-fake-phones-fetch-forfeiture-forewarning/index.html
-or-
http://tinyurl.com/pfpntzr
Neal McLain
Date: Thu, 22 May 2014 03:37:14 -0500
From: gordonb.m71z7@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: 4 major phone carriers providing text-to-911
Message-ID: <o5SdnboIl9mnKuDOnZ2dnUVZ_vadnZ2d@posted.internetamerica>
> This is very interesting. I can see where texting might be necessary
> to remain quiet while observing a robbery in progress in a store or a
> burglary in one's home.
I can think of other situations where texting 911 might be a
significant improvement due to the time needed to get the message
across:
- High-(acoustic)-noise environments where the background noise
makes it difficult for the other end to hear and understand voice
calls. Examples: in a tornado or hurricane. In fires with
frequent explosions (e.g. the West, Texas fertilizer plant
explosion, although a significant problem with that is that the
first responders weren't trained for this type of emergency).
During/after a robbery where really loud alarms are going off and
the only person who can shut it off is unavailable. On the side
of a high-traffic road.
I once had a tire blow out on a freeway and in order to use my
cell phone to call a tow truck (not 911 in this case), I had to
climb hills to get away from the freeway noise. I couldn't even
tell whether someone answered, much less what they were saying.
This delayed the call by about 10 minutes. It could have been a
much bigger problem if I was injured and couldn't walk, or
trapped in the car.
- It's my understanding that texting gets through better than voice
calls in a RF-noisy environment or in a peak-load call situation.
- Texting may avoid long exchanges where the 911 operator wants the
street name spelled and the caller has a thick ethnic accent that
the operator has trouble understanding.
on the other hand, texting isn't as interactive and it can take time to
get necessary questions answered. You also can't tell when you've been
disconnected. It may also be difficult to piece all the texts together
into one thread in real time.
I suppose there will need to be policies about what to do if they
get a text that says:
Robbery in progress, Chase Bank 7th & Main.
and don't get any answers to subsequent texts. Then again, they
already need to know how to handle someone's voice call that says
the above and then the line goes dead, and calling back doesn't
work. Hopefully "Chase Bank 7th & Main" identifies ONE bank in
the cities covered.
I would hate to try to deliver a baby (with, say, the mother trapped
in an elevator) using texted instructions from a doctor relayed by
911 (but it's still better than nothing). I believe this has been
successfully done quite a few times using voice calls.
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