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Message Digest 
Volume 28 : Issue 88 : "text" Format

Messages in this Issue:
  Re: Railway Post Office Service - 
  Re: Railway Post Office Service - 
  Re: Railway Post Office Service - 
  Re: Joint utility poles 
  Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries
  Police tap into Twitter to keep public informed / Quick blogging  tool finds wide following
  Is Facebook Growing Up Too Fast?
  Re: Is Facebook Growing Up Too Fast? 
  Social downsizing / One firm's recent layoffs unfold on Twitter,  with some people even getting job offers
  The Officer Who Posted Too Much on MySpace
  Re: The Officer Who Posted Too Much on MySpace 
  Re: The Officer Who Posted Too Much on MySpace 
  De-anonymizing Social Networks
  Re: Full minute increment billing and send-to-end billing (was Aussie Telco brings back the 30 second rip-off) 
  Re: Where is members.dandy.net/~czg now? 


====== 27 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 Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 07:36:41 -0700 (PDT) From: Wes Leatherock <wleathus@yahoo.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Railway Post Office Service - Message-ID: <409508.78248.qm@web112218.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> On Saturday, March 28, 2009 12:11 AM "AES" <siegman@stanford.edu> wrote: > hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > >> I have a question about railway postal operations: >> In addition to RPOs, where mail was sorted on >> board the train, there were also many trains >> where mail was simply carried. Mail was >> carried on fast passenger trains and was >> profitable for the railroads. But in the >> late 1960s the post office pulled the mail off. >> That sudden loss of business hurt many trains >> and the railroads ceased running them. Would >> anyone know where I could find out more >> information about the Post Office's decisions >> in that era? (I wrote the Postal Service but >> got only a very general booklet in response.) > > The increasing use of jet engines in commercial > airlines at about that time may be at least > partially to blame. It was almost totally to blame. In later recollections the president and CEO of the Santa Fe Railroad said he could see the future of passenger trains when jet airline service came to the Chicago-Oklahoma City route. Within a week passenger loadings on the Texas Chief dropped so drastically that the train ceased to be profitable. > That left a lot of additional volume that was, > and still is, ideally suitable for carrying > relatively dense, easily handled, and regularly > scheduled freight -- like regular mail, (Of > course, this also helps in accounting for the > unpleasantly overcrowded airline passenger > accommodations that prevail today.) Probably not a major factor in crowding. Southwest Airlines for a long time wouldn't carry U.S. mail because the Postal Service's contract are so demanding and rigid that they are not always compatible with passenger needs and conveniencee. Much of the overnight mail is now carried by FedEx air under contract. But a grezt deal of mail is still carried by train, in containers or trailer moving on fast inter- modal trains whose schedules are not a great deal slower than passenger train wer in earlier years. Much of the mail is now carried by truck. Wes Leatherock wleathus@yahoo.com wesrock@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 10:43:42 -0700 From: AES <siegman@stanford.edu> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Railway Post Office Service - Message-ID: <siegman-A52C40.10431229032009@news.stanford.edu> In article <409508.78248.qm@web112218.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>, Wes Leatherock <wleathus@yahoo.com> wrote: > > scheduled freight -- like regular mail, (Of > > course, this also helps in accounting for the > > unpleasantly overcrowded airline passenger > > accommodations that prevail today.) > > Probably not a major factor in crowding. I just meant that the _ability_ to carry the weight involved, with fair efficiency and economy and using more or the less the same flight crew, ground crew, and fuselage size, makes it both possible and desirable for airlines to increase passenger numbers (or seat numbers) up to, if not well beyond, the density at which passenger comfort begins to be compromised. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 07:47:43 -0700 (PDT) From: wleathus@yahoo.com To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Railway Post Office Service - Message-ID: <755460.54401.qm@web112210.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> On Saturday, March 28, 2009 4:09 PM "Neal McLain" <nmclain@annsgarden.com> wrote: > Tom Horne <hornetd@remove-this.verizon.net> wrote: >> Are there actually installations that can withstand three >> inches of radial ice? Once the ice passes 0.3 inches here >> we're heading for a major power and communications failure >> with ordinary residential streets looking like plates of >> spaghetti. > > I plead guilty of hyperbole. Even in northern states ("heavy > loading" district), the specified maximum ice loading is 0.5 > inches of ice with a wind pressure of 4 psf. > > My point, however, stands: in a crosswind, communications > cables can put large lateral forces on utility poles. With > or without radial ice, these forces can equal, or even exceed, > the forces caused by the action of the wind on electric power > conductors. > > Of course, a lot depends on the relative size and quantity > of electrical conductors vis-à-vis the communications cables > and the relative wind speeds at different elevations above > ground. > > In any case, the lateral forces caused by communications > cables produce lower bending moment at the base of the pole > simply because they're closer to the base of the pole. > > I should add that these observations are based on field > experience, not empirical research. There's virtually no > published research on the subject. > > Neal McLain Much of the heavy loading area is not confined to the northern states. The central part of the country is more subject to ice storms and freezing rain which adheres to cables and wires. The dividing line brtween heavy loading and less severe runs east and west across Oklahoma, for example. Wes Leatherock wleathus@yahoo.com wesrock@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:08:37 GMT From: Tom Horne <hornetd@verizon.net> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Joint utility poles Message-ID: <92Nzl.428$6n.355@nwrddc01.gnilink.net> Neal McLain wrote: > Tom Horne <hornetd@remove-this.verizon.net> wrote: > > > Are there actually installations that can withstand three inches of > > radial ice? Once the ice passes 0.3 inches here we're heading for a > > major power and communications failure with ordinary residential > > streets looking like plates of spaghetti. > > I plead guilty of hyperbole. Even in northern states ("heavy loading" > district), the specified maximum ice loading is 0.5 inches of ice with a > wind pressure of 4 psf. > > My point, however, stands: in a crosswind, communications cables can put > large lateral forces on utility poles. With or without radial ice, > these forces can equal, or even exceed, the forces caused by the action > of the wind on electric power conductors. > > Of course, a lot depends on the relative size and quantity of > electrical conductors vis-à-vis the communications cables and the > relative wind speeds at different elevations above ground. > > In any case, the lateral forces caused by communications cables produce > lower bending moment at the base of the pole simply because they're > closer to the base of the pole. > > I should add that these observations are based on field experience, not > empirical research. There's virtually no published research on the > subject. > > Neal McLain > I wasn't trying to climb down your throat with combat boots on. I really was just asking if there were places that produced that much ice. -- Tom Horne "This alternating current stuff is just a fad. It is much too dangerous for general use." Thomas Alva Edison ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:21:00 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries Message-ID: <p0624083ec5f55d6fed23@[10.0.1.6]> Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries By JOHN MARKOFF March 29, 2009 TORONTO - A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers have concluded. In a report to be issued this weekend, the researchers said that the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China, but that they could not say conclusively that the Chinese government was involved. The researchers, who are based at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto, had been asked by the office of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader whom China regularly denounces, to examine its computers for signs of malicious software, or malware. Their sleuthing opened a window into a broader operation that, in less than two years, has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries, including many belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices, as well as the Dalai Lama's Tibetan exile centers in India, Brussels, London and New York. The researchers, who have a record of detecting computer espionage, said they believed that in addition to the spying on the Dalai Lama, the system, which they called GhostNet, was focused on the governments of South Asian and Southeast Asian countries. Intelligence analysts say many governments, including those of China, Russia and the United States, and other parties use sophisticated computer programs to covertly gather information. The newly reported spying operation is by far the largest to come to light in terms of countries affected. This is also believed to be the first time researchers have been able to expose the workings of a computer system used in an intrusion of this magnitude. Still going strong, the operation continues to invade and monitor more than a dozen new computers a week, the researchers said in their report, "Tracking 'GhostNet': Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network." They said they had found no evidence that United States government offices had been infiltrated, although a NATO computer was monitored by the spies for half a day and computers of the Indian Embassy in Washington were infiltrated. The malware is remarkable both for its sweep - in computer jargon, it has not been merely "phishing" for random consumers' information, but "whaling" for particular important targets - and for its Big Brother-style capacities. It can, for example, turn on the camera and audio-recording functions of an infected computer, enabling monitors to see and hear what goes on in a room. The investigators say they do not know if this facet has been employed. ... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technology/29spy.html http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/03/28/technology/20090329_SPY_GRAPHIC.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:35:56 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Police tap into Twitter to keep public informed / Quick blogging tool finds wide following Message-ID: <p06240841c5f56181e163@[10.0.1.6]> FRANKLIN, MASSACHUSETTS U.S. Police tap into Twitter to keep public informed Quick blogging tool finds wide following By Rachel Lebeaux, Globe Correspondent | March 29, 2009 "Rte. 128/I-95 N Northbound at Exit 22: Grove St, Medical emergency: Lft tw lns clsd. Use cau." "**TRAFFIC ALERT** Rt 495 SB at Ex 16 (KING STREET), MV crash, all traffic being diverted off highway to King Street. Avoid Area." The cryptic communiqués might resemble text messages from teenagers, but they're actually bits of useful public information from local police departments, distilled down to 140 characters or less and disseminated immediately to residents on Twitter, a social networking platform that was launched in 2006 but has recently seemed to catch on with everyone from high school students to US senators across the country. Police departments in Franklin and Wellesley (Massachusetts) have been leading the way by using Twitter to push out information on traffic and other activities. And now the service is gaining popularity, or at least scrutiny, at other area departments. Boston's Police Department launched its Twitter account this month, with the Fire Department expected to follow shortly. Police in Wayland are thinking about it, and so is Newton's Police Department, where Lieutenant Bruce Apotheker observed: "We'll take a look at anything that can assist us in getting information out." Twitter is a blogging tool that allows users to post short messages, up to 140 characters, which are then blasted out to their "followers" - individuals who sign up to receive their Twitter messages, or "tweets." Participants can send out tweets as often as they like, allowing them to share information in real time. This immediacy drew Wellesley and Franklin police into the fold in 2007, ahead of many departments nationwide. .. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2009/03/29/police_tap_into_twitter_to_keep_public_informed/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:43:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Is Facebook Growing Up Too Fast? Message-ID: <p06240843c5f562c92e40@[10.0.1.6]> March 29, 2009 Is Facebook Growing Up Too Fast? By BRAD STONE WHEN Facebook signed up its 100 millionth member last August, its employees spread out in two parks in Palo Alto, Calif., for a huge barbecue. Sometime this week, this five-year-old start-up, born in a dorm room at Harvard, expects to register its 200 millionth user. That staggering growth rate - doubling in size in just eight months - suggests Facebook is rapidly becoming the Web's dominant social ecosystem and an essential personal and business networking tool in much of the wired world. Yet Facebook executives say they aren't planning to observe their latest milestone in any significant way. It is, perhaps, a poor time to celebrate. The company that has given users new ways to connect and speak truth to power now often finds itself as the target of that formidable grass-roots firepower - most recently over controversial changes it made to users' home pages. As Facebook expands, it's also struggling to match the momentum of hot new start-ups like Twitter, the micro-blogging service, while managing the expectations of young, tech-savvy early adopters, attracting mainstream moms and dads, and justifying its hype-carbonated valuation. By any measure, Facebook's growth is a great accomplishment. The crew of Mark Zuckerberg, the company's 24-year-old co-founder and chief executive, is signing up nearly a million new members a day, and now more than 70 percent of the service's members live overseas, in countries like Italy, the Czech Republic and Indonesia. Facebook's ranks in those countries swelled last year after the company offered its site in their languages. All of this mojo puts Facebook on a par with other groundbreaking - and wildly popular - Internet services like free e-mail, Google, the online calling network Skype and e-commerce sites like eBay. But Facebook promises to change how we communicate even more fundamentally, in part by digitally mapping and linking peripatetic people across space and time, allowing them to publicly share myriad and often very personal elements of their lives. Unlike search engines, which ably track prominent Internet presences, Facebook reconnects regular folks with old friends and strengthens their bonds with new pals - even if the glue is nothing more than embarrassing old pictures or memories of their second-grade teacher. ... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technology/internet/29face.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:41:10 -0700 (PDT) From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Is Facebook Growing Up Too Fast? Message-ID: <c152aba5-d070-4cae-919f-5b6004dbab32@f19g2000yqh.googlegroups.com> On Mar 29, 4:29 pm, Monty Solomon <mo...@roscom.com> wrote: > is rapidly becoming the Web's dominant social > ecosystem and an essential personal and business networking tool "dominant social ecosystem"? "essential tool"? Sounds a little exaggerated to me. Ever since personal computers became affordable and easy to use we heard all sorts of predictions for all sorts of things--that never came about. 200 million users sounds impressive--2/3 of the US population--until I read that that was world wide. World wide that is not an impressive number. Now maybe down the road in the future it will have as many users as people have telephones or TV sets. Until then, I wish these articles would hold back on the hyperbole. ***** Moderator's Note ***** One of the comedians who appear on the TV show Saturday Night Live summed it up very well in a bit about local television: "The thing you were scared of at Noon is now twice as scary! Film at Eleven!!" Bill Horne Temporary Moderator ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:01:40 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Social downsizing / One firm's recent layoffs unfold on Twitter, with some people even getting job offers Message-ID: <p06240848c5f5678e4c6e@[10.0.1.6]> INNOVATION ECONOMY Social downsizing One firm's recent layoffs unfold on Twitter, with some people even getting job offers By Scott Kirsner, Globe Columnist | March 29, 2009 For several weeks earlier this month, employees at Burlington, Massachusetts-based Mzinga Inc. sensed there was some bad news brewing. The company, which sells social media software and services to help businesses with marketing, customer communications, and employee education, hadn't been able to raise a new round of funding. Doors to executives' offices that always remained open were suddenly shut, and a board meeting was set for March 10. "Everything came to a standstill," says one former employee, who requested anonymity so as not to violate the terms of his severance package. "Everyone knew it was going to be something significant, but we were just saying, 'What's going on?' " The situation was pretty typical of the tense times that precede any layoff: On March 19, about 40 employees - roughly 18 percent of the workforce - were terminated as part of the company's second round of cuts in 2009. But what was unusual about Mzinga's situation was how widely it echoed throughout the universe of bloggers and Twitter users, since so many of the company's employees and customers - and the analysts who track its ups and downs - are part of the online community that shares morsels of information and "status updates" on a moment-by-moment basis. This was a layoff for our Twittery new times. The first public hint that something might be up at Mzinga appeared on Twitter. On March 16, a Forrester Research analyst named Jeremiah Owyang wrote to his Twitter audience that he'd been hearing that "Mzinga is having financial difficulties. They need to brief me immediately." Later that day, Mzinga's public relations manager replied, again publicly on Twitter, that she'd set up a time for Owyang to speak with executives. Later that day, Owyang posted a short note on his blog, headlined "Expect changes at Mzinga." Without explaining what was happening at the company - he hadn't yet spoken to anyone there - he suggested that Mzinga clients and prospects "stall any additional movement till they brief me," which he expected to happen one week later. The subtext of his post was that signing any new deals with Mzinga would be unwise. ... http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2009/03/29/social_downsizing/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:04:49 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: The Officer Who Posted Too Much on MySpace Message-ID: <p06240849c5f5683773fb@[10.0.1.6]> ABOUT NEW YORK The Officer Who Posted Too Much on MySpace By JIM DWYER March 11, 2009 In pictures, Vaughan Ettienne is a champion bodybuilder of surreal musculature. In conversation, he is polite and thoughtful. And in the looking glass of his computer screen, he becomes a man of fierce, profane views on how to keep law and order. A few weeks ago, he posted a description of his mood on a MySpace account. "Devious," he wrote. The next day, a man accused of carrying a loaded gun would go on trial in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn - and in large part, the case rested on the credibility of Vaughan Ettienne, bodybuilder, Internet user and arresting officer. What seemed like a simple gun possession case became an undeclared war over reality: Was Officer Ettienne a diligent cop who found a gun after chasing an ex-convict weaving through traffic on a stolen motorcycle? Or was his story a "devious" facade in keeping with the ruthless character he revealed on social network Web sites? "You have your Internet persona, and you have what you actually do on the street," Officer Ettienne said on Tuesday. "What you say on the Internet is all bravado talk, like what you say in a locker room." Except that trash talk in locker rooms almost never winds up preserved on a digital server somewhere, available for subpoena. The man on trial, Gary Waters, claimed that Officer Ettienne and his partner stopped him, beat him and then planted a gun on him to justify breaking three of his ribs. Suddenly, Officer Ettienne was being held to the words that he wrote in cyberspace. ... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/nyregion/11about.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:34:37 -0700 (PDT) From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: The Officer Who Posted Too Much on MySpace Message-ID: <2da5cee9-f303-4448-8986-5c78cebb8c12@d19g2000yqb.googlegroups.com> On Mar 29, 4:42 pm, Monty Solomon <mo...@roscom.com> wrote: > Except that trash talk in locker rooms almost never winds up > preserved on a digital server somewhere, available for subpoena. > Suddenly, Officer Ettienne was being held to the words that he wrote > in cyberspace. I find the use of a _subpoena_ for private writings rather disturbing. Given that attitude, can any criminal defendant subpoena a cop's personal diary? Family and friends to see if he discussed the case with any of them? Details about his private life? Indeed, a defendant should be able to subpoena all sorts of things about anyone connected to his case in any way. This reminds me of schools going after kids who write stuff on their own computers that are not connected in any way with the school. IMHO they have no right to do that. ***** Moderator's Note ***** The writings weren't private. YouTube, Facebook, and other such sites are, by design, public and available to all. That said, the question becomes "Whose business is it"? The issue is not what he said or wrote, but rather whether he is entitled to a private life when not at work: in other words, if a police officer (or other civil servant) is ever "off duty". This isn't about computers or social networking sites: the medium is being confused with the message. Had the officer said these things in a "cop's bar", he would have been immune from subpoenas because cops regard such places as safe havens where they may vent their frustrations with fear of being called to account. Sooner or later, our society will have to decide that we are not entitled to demand that policemen be superhuman. So long as we expect them to behave like cardboard-cutouts of Hollywood steriotypes, we will continue to see periodic outbursts of repressed anger - remember Rodney King? - as the all-too-human men who keep a lid on the American melting pot act out their resentment at the simplistic and hypocritical way they are judged. Full Disclosure: I was a Military Policeman in Danang and Saigon. Bill Horne Temporary Moderator ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:13:19 -0600 From: Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: The Officer Who Posted Too Much on MySpace Message-ID: <VbmdnY43_bRNyU3UnZ2dnUVZ_hGdnZ2d@posted.visi> hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > I find the use of a _subpoena_ for private writings rather disturbing. And if a person accused of attacking a cop had made personal writings about how he liked to attack cops, would you find their subpoena disturbing? > Given that attitude, can any criminal defendant subpoena a cop's > personal diary? Family and friends to see if he discussed the case > with any of them? Details about his private life? In this case, the cop had apparently bragged about using illegal techniques against defendants (he says it was just hot air, making himself look tough). Frankly, the "private writings" are potential evidence of commission of crimes by the cop, though of course the cop may well turn out to be a blowhard rather than an actual criminal. > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > Sooner or later, our society will have to decide that we are not > entitled to demand that policemen be superhuman. If being "superhuman" means, conducting themselves within the law, I would hope not. If it means that society should ignore the matter when a policeman brags that he has committed crimes, I would hope not. If we have policemen who brag about activities that may be criminal, I think as a society we have to pay close attention. Even if the brags turn out to be lies. Dave ***** Moderator's Note ***** Blowing off steam and pretending to be Rambo are hardly outside the law, but you're entitled to your opinion. I once had a confrontation with the father of a teenage girl who had appeared at a social event in clothes somewhat more revealing than was customary during my youth. Her father took exception to my wide-eyed stare, and I responded "Here's a tip - one father to another, OK? - worry about the guys who _don't_ look"! In other words, an officer who vents in a public forum is, IMHO, far less a danger than cops who pretend that the brutal work of policing doesn't affect their outlook on life. Bill Horne Temporary Moderator ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:55:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: De-anonymizing Social Networks Message-ID: <p06240853c5f5e3524f0f@[10.0.1.6]> Social sites dent privacy efforts `Greater use of social network sites is making it harder to maintain true anonymity, suggests research. By analysing links between users of social sites, researchers were able to identify many people in supposedly anonymous data sets. The anonymised data is produced by social sites who sell it to marketing firms to generate cash. The results suggest web firms should do more to protect users' privacy, said the researchers. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7967648.stm De-anonymizing Social Networks Arvind Narayanan March 19, 2009 http://33bits.org/2009/03/19/de-anonymizing-social-networks/ http://randomwalker.info/social-networks/ FAQ http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~shmat/socialnetworks-faq.html PDF http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~shmat/shmat_oak09.pdf ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:57:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Full minute increment billing and send-to-end billing (was Aussie Telco brings back the 30 second rip-off) Message-ID: <286624.12728.qm@web52709.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:13:13 +1100 David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com> wrote: <<After all major telcos in Australia were forced (by competitive pressure) to introduce per-second billing years ago, now the dominant player is returning to 30-second block billing:>> If only US perveyors of long distance and cell phones even had 30 second billing in the US! Pretty much all cell phone carriers charge in full minute increments and also charge as "send to end" meaning they bill for calls even the connection and ringing time before the end party answers. Carriers have the ability to charge as accurately as they choose to, but do not choose to do so since it uses lots more minutes with the combination of full minute increment billing combined with send-to-end billing will assure the most possible revenue for all calls. I dare say that if people were charged the actual usage in minutes many people could conceivably sign up for plans with less minutes allowed per month at a lower rate. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:03:47 GMT From: Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: Where is members.dandy.net/~czg now? Message-ID: <87myb3tuqi.fsf@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> me> There was once (as recently as a year ago) a web site with a useful me> collection of telecom info at: me> me> http://members.dandy.net/~czg/ me> me> Dandy.net now reports that this customer "has since changed providers. " me> [snip] me> (In particular, this time, I'm looking for an updated list of locales me> and service providers for all nnn exchanges in 902-nnn-xxxx.) Bill Horne bill@horneqrm.net (and others) replied: > ... http://www.localcallingguide.com ... Just the ticket. Pages fetched and the URL saved. Thanks all. -- Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom- munications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to Usenet, where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. The Telecom Digest is currently being moderated by Bill Horne while Pat Townson recovers from a stroke. Contact information: Bill Horne Telecom Digest 43 Deerfield Road Sharon MA 02067-2301 781-784-7287 bill at horne dot net Subscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=subscribe telecom Unsubscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=unsubscribe telecom This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Copyright (C) 2008 TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of The Telecom digest (15 messages) ******************************

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