---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <20190403112530.GA2597@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2019 11:25:30 +0000 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: How to Protect Yourself From Robocalls As the robocall epidemic continues to grow, you have a few options to help deal with the deluge By Octavio Blanco Phone companies and others offer apps and devices designed to help reduce robocalls by blocking or identifying suspicious phone numbers that could be fraudulent. Those numbers could be those that Federal Trade Commission collects on a blacklist or that the artificial intelligence algorithms in the apps or devices have flagged as suspicious because of the sheer volume of calls they make. Consumers who downloaded these apps and responded to a Consumer Reports nationally representative survey of 1,002 U.S. adults conducted in December 2018 said they work to varying degrees. https://www.consumerreports.org/robocalls/how-to-block-robocalls-how-to-protect-yourself/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190403113832.GA2647@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2019 11:38:32 +0000 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon Offers 'Just Kids' Phone Plan With Lots Of Safeguards by P.J. Bednarski Verizon is introducing Just Kids, a new wrinkle in its Mix and Match Unlimited Plans, making it simpler to get a line for a child's first phone. It becomes available on Thursday. The wireless company's Smart Family phone plan, available for almost a year, already offers safety measures to make sure that a first phone doesn't become a nightmare waiting to happen for Mom and Dad. The plan allows parents to set content filters and block inappropriate websites. The premium version includes location tracking that alerts parents when their child leaves a pre-determined area that the parents create. https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/334015/verizon-offers-just-kids-phone-plan-with-lots-of.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <5CA82167.5010709@panix.com> Date: 5 Apr 2019 23:47:51 -0400 From: David <wb8foz@panix.com> Subject: Re: Verizon to Discontinue Copper in Heavily Populated Areas of the Northeast > Verizon has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for > permission to retire copper in numerous areas of New York, New England > and Pennsylvania, as it continues moving customers to fiber-based > technology. I wonder if there is there ANY guarantee in this filing that every now-wireline subscriber will actually *get* FTTH/FIOS service? Or is this actually Yet Another VZ ploy towards their 5G fantasy? (5G is being massively hyped by VZ (& others...) as the one, the only, universal solution replacing FTTH, mobile connectivity and who knows what else; maybe conquering measles. To quote SNL of years past: "It's a floor wax and a dessert topping...") Back to the filings: An obvious counter to this is to rule VZ can forcibly change over a wire center area only AFTER they finish all the FIOS installation to any/all all requesting subscribers in said wire center. That's one way to insure the subscriber will get really fed. Given many NYC residents have been waiting for year for VZ to finish that contractual universal FIOS deployment, that sounds prudent. ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Sun, 07 Apr 2019