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The Telecom Digest for May 8, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 99 : "text" Format
====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Bill Horne and
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we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
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See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
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Date: Mon, 6 May 2013 22:22:09 -0400
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Verizon phasing out copper
Message-ID: <MPG.2bf22f6187ce2651989de8@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <CAMdng5sCDCP-WJ_7st1g3+W9XqKJkFY_2ozCMv7BaOODCO7-
0g@mail.gmail.com>, mark@buttery.org says...
>
> Tom Metro wrote:
>
> > Today I received a letter from Verizon regarding my residence in
> > Newton [Massachusetts] saying "Verizon is replacing telephone wires
> > and removing obsolete equipment to ensure long-term service
> > reliability for our customers. [Moderator snip]
>
> [Verizon is not] using labor to dismantle the copper. Mostly they're
> just turning it off, or letting it degrade to the point where they
> can't provide adequate service with it. [Moderator snip]
Here in my section of Providence I frequently see drop lines just
dangling off a pole and laying in the street. And it stays that way for
a good long time too before someone realizes it's not HV cable and cuts
it down.
Date: Mon, 6 May 2013 22:19:58 -0400
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: The Shame of Boston's Wireless Woes
Message-ID: <MPG.2bf22edead04e0c3989de7@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <km3fbr$puf$1@reader1.panix.com>, wb8foz@panix.com says...
[Moderator snip]
> I wonder, does any cellphone show you when your outgoing SMS has
> not yet been delivered?
Yes, my Android phone will alert me that it couldn't send an SMS and
asks if I'd like to retry it.
Date: Tue, 7 May 2013 06:48:37 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Google Glass Picks Up Early Signal: Keep Out
Message-ID: <p06240840cdae8c569725@[10.0.1.2]>
Google Glass Picks Up Early Signal: Keep Out
By DAVID STREITFELD
May 6, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO - Google's wearable computer, the most anticipated
piece of electronic wizardry since the iPad and iPhone, will not go
on sale for many months.
But the resistance is already under way.
The [Eye]glasses-like device, which allows users to access the Internet,
take photos and film short snippets, has been pre-emptively banned by
a Seattle bar. Large parts of Las Vegas will not welcome wearers.
West Virginia legislators tried to make it illegal to use the gadget,
known as Google Glass, while driving.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/technology/personaltech/google-glass-picks-up-early-signal-keep-out.html
Date: Mon, 6 May 2013 22:15:26 -0400
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Accessories No Longer Tethered to Apple
Message-ID: <MPG.2bf22dc571035de1989de5@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <p06240833cdad6d2747aa@[10.0.1.2]>, monty@roscom.com says...
>
> Accessories No Longer Tethered to Apple
>
> By NICK WINGFIELD and BRIAN X. CHEN
> May 5, 2013
>
> For years, Apple's clout in the electronics world could be gauged by
> how easy it was to bump into devices tailor-made for a connection to
> an iPhone or iPod.
>
> Hotels outfitted guest rooms with alarm clocks containing a telltale
> wedge of 30 tiny pins that could play music from Apple's devices and
> charge their batteries. Retail stores were thick with sound docks and
> other speaker systems meant to work with Apple gadgets.
>
> But Apple's iron grip on the digital accessories in hotel rooms,
> store shelves and living rooms is starting to slip - potentially
> risking the royalties it earns from accessory makers and, more
> significant, giving Apple customers more freedom to switch to rival
> products. That could be an issue for a company whose stock has been
> shaken in recent months as investors worry that the iPhone business
> is slowing.
>
> Jeremy Horwitz, editor in chief of iLounge, a Web site devoted to
> Apple accessories, said Apple's aggressive control over accessories
> for its products drove many makers to more open means of connecting
> devices, which helped feed the success of mobile devices made by
> other companies.
>
> ...
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/06/technology/apples-rivals-see-an-edge-in-using-wireless-accessories.html
>
One problem I note is a lot of software development for very cool add-
ons is still IOS based. And that's despite the fact that Android now
rules the roost.
I think a lot of it is that Android is a fairly recent phenonenon and
the developers out there standardized on IOS development and and are now
playing catch-up.
Date: Tue, 07 May 2013 09:21:32 -0400
From: unknown <arnie.goetchius@invalid.domain>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Verizon phasing out copper
Message-ID: <kmauu6$mbr$1@dont-email.me>
Scott Dorsey wrote:
> unknown <arnie.goetchius@invalid.telecom-digest.org> wrote:
>> tlvp wrote:
>>> On Sat, 04 May 2013 09:15:23 -0500, Doug McIntyre wrote:
>>>
>>>> [In] my experience, the weather beats on the copper plant like nothing
>>>> else, and deteri[or]ates it, especially here in Minnesota with our
>>>> fairly extreme weather, snow, rain, hot sun, etc. Every spring/fall
>>>> I hear lots of complaints of degraded phone lines, static, cross talk, etc.
>>>
>>> And what the weather doesn't finish off completely, the squirrels do :-) .
>>
>> Verizon says they won't re-build the copper plant in Mantoloking NJ
>> after most of it was destroyed by Sandy. Instead they are providing
>> telephone service through their new service called Verizon Voice Link.
>
> Umm... and they can provide the uptime and line quality demanded in the
> POTS tariff with this gadget?
> --scott
>
I would guess not. I don't think the requirements of the POTS tariff
would apply because this is a wireless service.
Date: 7 May 2013 14:06:26 -0400
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Verizon phasing out copper
Message-ID: <kmbfr2$4tb$1@panix2.panix.com>
In article <kmauu6$mbr$1@dont-email.me>,
unknown <arnie.goetchius@invalid.domain> wrote:
>Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> unknown <arnie.goetchius@invalid.telecom-digest.org> wrote:
>>> tlvp wrote:
>>>> On Sat, 04 May 2013 09:15:23 -0500, Doug McIntyre wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> [In] my experience, the weather beats on the copper plant like nothing
>>>>> else, and deteri[or]ates it, especially here in Minnesota with our
>>>>> fairly extreme weather, snow, rain, hot sun, etc. Every spring/fall
>>>>> I hear lots of complaints of degraded phone lines, static, cross talk, etc.
>>>> And what the weather doesn't finish off completely, the squirrels do :-) .
>>>
>>> Verizon says they won't re-build the copper plant in Mantoloking NJ
>>> after most of it was destroyed by Sandy. Instead they are providing
>>> telephone service through their new service called Verizon Voice Link.
>>
>> Umm... and they can provide the uptime and line quality demanded in the
>> POTS tariff with this gadget?
>
>I would guess not. I don't think the requirements of the POTS tariff
>would apply because this is a wireless service.
So, you're saying that customers who were paying for POTS tariffed circuits
can suddenly be moved onto lower quality wireless services with no warning
and the PUC doesn't have anything to say about it?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Date: Mon, 6 May 2013 22:39:34 -0400
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Verizon phasing out copper
Message-ID: <MPG.2bf23375430dbab3989dea@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <hgddo81m21qfnt07nb58irvu74oj361b2p@4ax.com>,
PeteCress@invalid.telecom-digest.org says...
>
> Per Bill Horne:
> >In short, copper is being killed by the cold-hearted economics of the
> >telephone business: the simplicity, intuitive operation, and flex-
> >ibility of centrally-powered metallic conductors has led to their
> >becoming a thing of the past, replaced not because of the cost of the
> >metal, but because of the cost of maintaining it.
>
> This discussion has me wondering about the EMP weapons that have
> surfaced in the news lately. (long story==>short story: devices have
> been developed/weaponized that can deliver an electromagnetic pulse
> similar that of an atomic bomb - but without the atomic bomb).
> viz:
> http://tinyurl.com/c7r5tfw
>
>
> I'm thinking the replacement of copper by fiberoptic would mean one less
> vehicle for the pulse to get into electronic gear - leaving, of course,
> AC power lines... but I have no clue how vulnerability differs between
> phone and power lines.
>
> Maybe somebody who knows something can comment.
Hey, go and google the term "HERF". You can build your own. Just imagine
the joy of a mobile mounted unit with a rear [facing] RF horn. Cops
chasing you? Zap em'.
Date: Mon, 6 May 2013 22:35:52 -0400
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Verizon phasing out copper
Message-ID: <MPG.2bf23290bc472065989de9@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <km36he$27n$1@reader1.panix.com>, wb8foz@panix.com says...
[Moderator snip]
> A friend with copper was out of service for 4+ months as they could
> not dispatch anyone who understood enough to fix it. They kept
> sending FiOS techs who looked askew at it and left.
Can't be any worse than the guys at Cox. Here's my story.
A few years back I worked for a state government office. We had three
locations and had to have network connectivity in each. One of them was
in the RI State House.
When we in the I.T. unit moved out of the sub-basement of the State
House to the new facility we had a 10mbps fiber link at the new place,
and two 2mbps VAN circuits over coax to the State House and our other
office.
This required moving our cable modem for the van up one level in the
state House. Well, the closet that we went into had a cable amplifier in
it. Signal was way too hot.
I asked the Cox guy if he [had] an attenuator. "What's that?" he
asked. So then I realized, ok, if you need loss in a hurry what do you
do?
I told the guy to get a spool of coax and connectors. We were going to
build a poor man's attenuator.
[I] had him roll up 200 feet of cable and crimp new ends on it. We put that
between the amplifier and the cable modem and all of a sudden we had
just enough loss to get the signal within acceptable limits.
Of course we had other interesting problems. One particularly wet
spring we noticed wicked latency on the VAN link over to the State
House. So by now we were on a direct extension basis with the level II
guys at Cox. The called me back and told [me that] the manhole at the
base of Francis St. was filled with water. They pumped it out, dried
it out and everything was fine. They had to put an automatic sump pump
in the manhole for that spring.
But all the troubles we had with Cox paled in comparison to the general
idiocy of the Verizon guys.
For example - I had a hunt group on the phone system and one element of
the hunt group wouldn't transfer on busy. I traced it down and found out
it was what Verizon called a P-Phone. In other words, that allowed you
to hook a Nortel style set to the line and use the advanced features on
that. I tried to have Verizon delete the line and just punch a new one
down and I'd draw it into our punchdown block. Oh no. Can't do that.
I asked them to disconnect the P-Phone and remove it from the hunt on
their side. No can do.
At this point since I work for the state, my next call is to the PUC
where a former colleague is a commissioner. All of a sudden Verizon was
ready to play ball.
Then of course there were times where a phone tech would need a line so
he/she would DISCONNECT the line from a punchdown and clip on, and then
fail to replace the line.
Like I said, Cox may have issues but Verizon really sucks.
Date: Tue, 07 May 2013 13:09:24 -0400
From: Matt Simpson <net-news69@jmatt.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: The Shame of Boston's Wireless Woes
Message-ID: <net-news69-7F1DDA.13092407052013@news.eternal-september.org>
In article
<bea55514-06b3-4a95-b6e6-97c363c90313@z8g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>,
HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> wrote:
> I have text messaging blocked on my cell phone since I don't want to
> pay for unsolicited spam messages. Some people try to text me, and
> they get no response that their message was refused. This has led to
> some confusion and miscommunication where people assumed I got their
> message but did not. Seems to me in this modern age of computers, a
> reject response message ought to be sent out. (The carrier tells me
> they can't do that.)
Same here, although I haven't asked my carrier (ATT) whether it's
possible to notify senders that their message hasn't been delivered.
I suspect that this silent disappearance ot SMS messages sent to phones
that won't accept them is a carrier tactic to cause people to reconsider
blocking SMS.
Date: 7 May 2013 23:32:39 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: The Shame of Boston's Wireless Woes
Message-ID: <20130507233239.69148.qmail@joyce.lan>
>I suspect that this silent disappearance ot SMS messages sent to phones
>that won't accept them is a carrier tactic to cause people to reconsider
>blocking SMS.
You give them too much credit. Some of the gateways between carriers
work better than others, and the others don't reliably send back
failure notices.
Date: Tue, 7 May 2013 11:32:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Verizon Won't Rebuild Its Landline Network in Some Sandy Affected Areas
Message-ID: <1367951553.34449.YahooMailClassic@web121901.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
As the damage from Hurricane Sandy is disappearing and some things are
returning back to normal for those in the hardest hit areas, six
months after that hurricane devastated parts of the East Coast,
Verizon is telling some customers that they will not be getting their
landline phone service back--ever. At least not from them.
It happened to the residents of Mantoloking, New Jersey, who were not
given the choice to return to telephone service through a landline,
but instead were offered Verizon's Voice Link service, a landline-like
service that works through the company's wireless network.
http://gizmodo.com/verizon-wont-rebuild-its-landline-network-in-some-sand-493191749
or
http://goo.gl/q0KI1
Date: Tue, 7 May 2013 11:49:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: SMS delivery confirmation
Message-ID: <1367952592.92616.YahooMailClassic@web121903.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
Sat, 4 May 2013 23:11:08 -0400 "tlvp" wrote:
> On Sat, 4 May 2013 17:09:16 +0000 (UTC), David Lesher wondered:
>> ... does any cellphone show you when your outgoing SMS has not yet
>> been delivered?
> All those I've ever used while abroad have been willing to report
> success or failure when delivering a message to the SMS gateway. On
> failure, it would remain queued in the OutBox, urging me to Retry
> sending it. Nokia, Motorola, and LG, brand-wise, all did this.
Actually, within the GSM standard there's a spec for "delivery
reports" however, many operators disable that menu option. And I
should qualify that this service doesn't work as normal with all GSM
services. It works with T-Mobile and many other GSM operators giving
you status as delivered, pending or failed. With AT&T the delivery
reports are meaningless since AT&T uses a gateway for all SMS both to
GSM and any other system (such as CDMA operators) so the delivery
message you get from messages sent to AT&T are always "delivered"
though all it means is that the message was delivered to the gateway.
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