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The Telecom Digest for April 23, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 112 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: More teens are texting, 75% have cell phones (David Clayton)
Re: More teens are texting, 75% have cell phones (Thad Floryan)
CenturyLink and Qwest Agree to Merge (Mark J. Cuccia)
Re: batteries (was Waiting for Verizon..) (Jeff)
Low-cost calling options for U.S. <> Iraq (Bill Horne)
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Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 17:23:59 +1000
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: More teens are texting, 75% have cell phones
Message-ID: <pan.2010.04.22.07.23.58.292990@myrealbox.com>
On Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:50:47 -0700, Jeff wrote:
> On Apr 21, 3:33Â pm, gaze...@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) wrote:
>
>> > Article on MSNBC about teens and cellphones: see:
>> >http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36650790/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/
>
>> Is this in the category of: Water is wet?
>
> No, it is not.
>
> The article is comprehensive and goes into detail about trends in
> cellphone use; not only who is using them, but what they're using them
> for. It has numerous statistics broken down by year, function (ie voice,
> text, etc), and age group.
>
And smart medicos will be training right now for the future flood of
chronic tendon injuries in hands as well as prematurely bad eyesight.....
We all await the direct brain comms interface to free us from the hassle
of having to talk, type or read on our technology.
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
***** Moderator's Note *****
That would give "in your head" a whole new meaning ...
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:56:11 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: More teens are texting, 75% have cell phones
Message-ID: <4BD0FE3B.3060909@thadlabs.com>
On 4/22/2010 12:23 AM, David Clayton wrote:
> [...]
> We all await the direct brain comms interface to free us from the hassle
> of having to talk, type or read on our technology.
>
> --
> Regards, David.
>
> David Clayton
> Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
> Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
> measure of how many questions you have.
>
>
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> That would give "in your head" a whole new meaning ...
It's coming, and probably sooner than we think. I'm reminded of a
very old science fiction story (sorry, author and title unknown)
where one simply replaced a tooth in one's mouth with a data cube
for (unlimited) knowledge.
Direct brain connections are no longer fiction:
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-04/silk-silicon-mesh-measures-brain-activity-cats
A Google search on "silk circuit brain" finds many related articles.
***** Moderator's Note *****
I want the kind of phone that lets me blink twice to switch from DTMF
to MF. If I sneeze, Ma Bell gets a burst of 2600 Hz tone.
Bill "Wait a second, I've got a fax coming in" Horne
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 08:05:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Mark J. Cuccia" <markjcuccia@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: CenturyLink and Qwest Agree to Merge
Message-ID: <797991.72011.qm@web31103.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
CenturyLink and Qwest agree to merge!
Actually, CenturyLink is to buy Qwest in an all-stock transaction, of
about (US)$ 22.4 BILLION.
There are numerous web-stories on this, which can be found from doing
Google "news" searches.
It appears that Qwest's IXC side will be included (101-0432 and other
codes), which itself is a (1998? 99?) merger of LCI and an earlier
Qwest.
Qwest-ILEC is actually an RBOC, made up of Northwestern Bell (MN, IA,
NE, ND, SD), Mountain (States) Bell (CO, UT, AZ, NM, MT, WY, southern ID),
and Pacific Northwest Bell (WA, OR, and a small piece of central ID).
Qwest-ILEC RBOC was known as US-West from 1984 (divestiture), until 2000
when Qwest (IXC) and US-West merged.
Pacific Northwest Bell USED to be part of Pacific Telephone & Telegraph
(California, and Nevada-Bell), until it became its own BOC circa 1961.
CenturyLink will now become a "BOC" in those 14 states of Qwest-LEC/US-West!
There is a new website set up with information on this CenturyLink/Qwest
merger, http://centurylinkqwestmerger.com/entry.php
After clicking on the "I agree" to the "forward looking statement" legalese,
you can then go to:
http://centurylinkqwestmerger.com/index.php
On that page is a map of Qwest and CenturyLink's current ILEC coverage
areas, and also a "network map" of the IXC/fiber/etc. aspects, which
appears to indicate that Qwest-IXC (the pre-US-West merger LCI/Qwest)
is to be included in this 2010 CenturyLink/Qwest merger. There are also
downloadable pdf's of these maps at this page as well.
I wonder if the Qwest name will be replaced by the CenturyLink name, or
the other way around? (Assuming approval from all regulatory bodies).
It was only in the past year-and-a-half that CenturyTel bought out
Embarq (the 2005/06 spin-off of old Centel and United, that Sprint sold
off shortly after Sprint took over Nextel cellular, Sprint no longer
having any landline, being only wireless and IXC). The Embarq areas
had been United or Centel the early 1990s when United bought out the
remaining shares of Sprint-IXC from GTE and then renamed itself Sprint.
Then the Embarq name replaced Sprint in those areas in 2006, only to be
changed to CenturyLink last Summer (2009). And all of the CenturyTel
areas also had to rename/brand as CenturyLink (with a new logo) as well,
although the "Century" part was retained.
I understand that the HQ will remain in Century's HQ of Monroe LA (which
itself is actually an at&t/BellSouth/South-Central-Bell/Southern-Bell
ratecenter), but that Denver CO (HQ of Qwest-LEC/US-West/Mountain-Bell)
will continue to be a major operational center.
CenturyLink/Qwest will have several "big" cities though, including the
following from Qwest/US-West: Denver CO, Minneapolis/St.Paul MN,
Seattle WA, Portland OR, Salt Lake City UT; and from CenturyLink (Embarq
but dating back to Centel) Las Vegas NV.
CenturyTel had taken over numerous GTE and GTE-once-Contel areas that
GTE or later VeriZon chose to sell-off during the 1990s-era or in 2000
and 2002. And here in Louisiana, circa 1972/73, Century bought out all
of GTE's presence, and then circa 1977, Century bought out all of
Contel's presence. The vast bulk of the Lafayette/Lake Charles LA LATA,
at least in number of ratecenters/c.o.switches/geography is CenturyLink,
mostly GT&E that was sold to Century in the early 1970s. (However, the
number of access lines and population in this LATA is "Bell", being
Lafayette and Lake Charles, and several other larger population
ratecenters, when compared to CenturyLink).
CenturyTel began buying out other local/small independent telcos in
Louisiana and Arkansas throughout the later 1960s and 1970s-era. Then
they began branching out into other states as well. In the late 1980s
or early 1990s, Universal Telephone was purchased by CenturyTel.
Universal was another group of mostly rural/small town local telcos.
In 1997, Century bought out PTI (Pacific Telecom Inc), which was a
growing independent telco group out west and in the Pacific Northwest
states, and also the "upper" Midwest area (ND, SD, MN, WI). PTI also
owned a number of local telcos throughout Alaska, and between 1980 and
1994 had owned Alascom itself (the dominant LD-provider in Alaska;
AT&T bought out Alascom in 1994, known now as AT&T-Alascom). Century
did NOT retain the local telcos of PTI in Alaska, that has been retained
by PTI Alaskan-based executives as "ACS", Alaska Communications Services.
In 1999, CenturyTel bought out some twenty Wisconsin ratecenters from
SBC/Ameritech/Wisconsin-Bell! Including Superior WI. Also note that
Superior WI has inter-LATA EAS with Qwest/NW-Bell's Duluth MN, which
itself could now be part of Century!
Century has continued to buy out various local telcos, including the
2006 purchase of the Madison River group, which included Gulf Tel in
Alabama, Gallatin River Tel in Illinois, Mebane Telco (MebTel) in North
Carolina (which in 2005 had taken over two BellSouth exchanges, Milton NC
and Gatewood NC, along the line with Virginia, but these two were
BellSouth/Southern-Bell exchanges actually based in NC but part of a
Virginia LATA), and Coastal Utilities & Communications in Georgia.
Over the years, Mountain Bell and Pacific Northwest Bell (in the early
1980s), US-West and then Qwest (following divestiture), had sold off
some operating territory. These were individual exchanges/ratecenters,
not entire blocks though. (Following the 1984 divestiture, it still was
mostly in the old Mountain and Pacific Northwest regions, not really
Northwestern Bell). CenturyTel bought up many of these one-time Bell
exchanges, although other also bought some up as well, including
Fremont Telecom St.Anthony ID which bought out the exchange from
US-West/Mountain-Bell -- Fremont Telcom became part of FairPoint in 2000.
US-West/Qwest has not been really all that big into wireless over the
past few decades. With 1984 divestiture, all seven Regional BOC
corporations were allocated a "Mobility" side. I don't know if the
original name for US-West's was known as "US-West Mobility" or not, but
in the mid-1980s, US-West's was actually known as "New Vector". In
1996, US-West sold it to AirTouch, which was later bought by GTE and
Vodafone, which itself later became VeriZon Wireless.
In more recent years, Qwest has been re-selling or jointly branding
"another" cellular company for customers who chose to have combined
billing of Qwest-ILEC and the joint-ventured wireless provider. Prior
to Summer 2008, Qwest-ILEC and Sprint/(Nextel) were in a joint venture,
with Sprint/(Nextel) re-branded as "Qwest Wireless". This came to an end
in Summer 2008, and has since been in a venture with VeriZon-Wireless.
I don't know what will happen w/r/t Wireless now that CenturyLink is to
buy Qwest.
Qwest had farmed out its directory publishing business to DEX in recent
years.
Qwest also expanded its name in payphones, going outside of its 14-state
BOC (US-West) territory, having "COCOT-like" payphones in other states.
And they have mostly retro-fitted previous c.o.switch-controlled telco
payphones in its own 14-state BOC territory into "COCOT-like" payphones
as well. But circa 2004/05, it appears that Qwest exited the payphone
business, turning it over for most locations to "FSH", although there
is still some kind of venture where the Qwest name still appears. Since
I don't live in the 14-state Qwest-ILEC territory, and payphones overall
have become such an archaic function (even though there is nostalgia to
payphones), I haven't really even looked for any remaining "Qwest-branded"
"COCOTs" in Louisiana recently. It's possible that there is still a
Qwest-branding, but that doesn't really mean that Qwest or FSH owns that
payphone anymore! COCOT-vendors, for the most part, really don't seem to
"keep up" their equipment, though.
CenturyTel in southwest Louisiana still had some GTE-AE c.o.switch-controlled
payphones here/there in its territory a few years ago. Many of them were
still located inside the "egg-shaped" housings that GT(&)E and other
independent telcos had been using in many areas since the late-1950s,
throughout the 1960s, and into the 1970s. Also, remember that much of
CenturyTel in south-central/south-west Louisiana is former GT&E, taking
over when GTE exited Louisiana circa 1972/73. There weren't many of
these GTE-AE manufactured telco-switch payphones in CenturyTel here in
southwestern Louisiana, but there were still a few. Some of them have
been removed since I first noticed them three years ago! They would route
to at&t/South-Central-Bell intra-LATA TOPS and AT&T-LL inter-LATA OSPS
on 0/00/0+/01+, but 1+ anything for sent-paid coin via TOPS (intra-LATA)
would fail with a re-order, and AT&T-LL OSPS eliminated 1+ inter-LATA
and 011+ IDDD coin-sent-paid back in 2002/03. (Of course, 1+8yy toll-free
would work, so 1-800-CALL-ATT/etc. did indeed work). Local calls paid
in coin worked as they should, with a "ground-check". If you didn't
drop the 35-c (or was it 50-c?) and dialed all seven-digits on a local
call, the c.o.switch would come in with "the call you have made requires
a local deposit. Please hang up, then listen for dial-tone again,
deposit that amount, and dial again".
I haven't really gone "out into the country" into CenturyLink towns
here in southwest Louisiana lately to see if there are still any such
payphones in actual service though, in the past couple of years, but as
I said, the last time I went, about two years ago, many of the few I
saw in 2007 were gone.
Embarq rebranded many of the previous Sprint-branded "super-COCOT"
Millenniums payphones (card-swipes, LCD display, touch-a-carrier buttons
and such). I don't know what Sprint-United/Centel (Embarq) had in their
actual ILEC territory, but MOST (though not all) Greyhound Bus
stations have had Sprint-later-Embarq branded Nortel-Millennium
super "COCOT" payphones. I haven't checked a Greyhound station lately
to see if these are now branded CenturyLink though.
A CenturyLink press-release can be found at:
http://ir.centurylink.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=112635&p=irol-newsArticle_Print&ID=1416196&highlight=
I haven't yet looked for the Qwest press-release, but I assume that the
text of both is mostly identical.
Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:37:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: batteries (was Waiting for Verizon..)
Message-ID: <90ddaf5e-d9d2-4d3a-9783-6c0a14138379@o24g2000vbo.googlegroups.com>
On Apr 13, 4:09 pm, klu...@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
> No battery has had memory for the past thirty years or so. You're much
> more apt to damage any sort of battery stack by fully discharging it than
> not.
>
> Cell phone batteries today usually have computer control inside with a
> little processor that equalizes the load between the individual cells
> both on charging and discharging, to make the cells last a lot longer,
> so none of these issues are a problem.
Thanks for the explanation. But now I'm confused: What is the best
way to maximize battery life in a cellphone? Wait until it runs down,
or, recharge it at a different level? (I don't use my cellphone very
much, so my recharge cycles are about 1-2 months apart. So far I'm
getting four hours of talk time on a charge. I usually have the phone
turned off unless I'm expecting a call, so my standby time is brief).
--J.
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:48:00 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Low-cost calling options for U.S. <> Iraq
Message-ID: <20100423004800.GA23920@billhorne.homelinux.org>
I've gotten a call from the wife of a U.S. serviceman in Iraq: she is
seeking low-cost calling options to keep in touch with him.
Please submit any information you have, and I'll publish the results
here. TIA.
Bill
(Filter QRM for direct replies)
--
Bill Horne
"Though having it, sharing it, ain't quite the same
Ain't a gold nugget, you can't lay a claim"
- Buffalo Springfield
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End of The Telecom Digest (5 messages)
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