|
|
The Telecom Digest for May 18, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 135 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
SkyBOX: DISH Wins a Big One (Monty Solomon)
Re: Does anyone know? (John Levine)
Re: Caller ID Spoofing Puts Innocent Man In Jail (David Wolff)
Re: [Converting cell phone plan] Does anyone know? (Jeff or Lisa)
Re: Insights From a Week as a 311 Operator in N.Y. (Jeff or Lisa)
====== 28 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: Mon, 17 May 2010 07:44:46 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: SkyBOX: DISH Wins a Big One
Message-ID: <p06240808c816dc23f52a@[10.0.1.4]>
SkyBOX: DISH Wins a Big One
Forget the balloons, prizes, cheers and rah-rah team spirit ... the
BIG win for DISH last week came not in San Antonio but in the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Despite widespread expectations to the contrary, the full Federal
Circuit Court of Appeals granted DISH Network and EchoStar their
petition for a rehearing en banc on the TiVo case. That means that
the entire court of six judges will review the injunction against
DISH's DVR technology which was upheld by a three judge panel in
March. Two of those three judges (with one dissenting) ruled that
DISH's workaround of TiVo patents on the DVR systems was
insufficient. Had en banc been denied, this could have led to a
potentially disastrous shutdown of all DISH DVRs plus a $200 million
fine.
...
http://www.mediabiz.com/news/skyreport/?edit_id=14152
***** Moderator's Note *****
Ob Telecom: I think that more and more competitive issues are going to
be decided by courts instead of customers. Issues like this one
foretell the future of the VoIP and related markets, as semi-dominant
players try to stake out parts of the territory.
TiVo, of course, is a "One Trick Pony", and (like Stacker) they have
no choice but to fight with every tool at their disposal.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: 17 May 2010 00:34:43 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Does anyone know?
Message-ID: <20100517003443.14939.qmail@joyce.lan>
>Is there any way he can convert this from a monthly bill to a pre-
>paid plan AND KEEP THE SAME PHONE NUMBER?
When I cancelled my monthly AT&T service a few years ago, they told
me at the store that if I had set up a Gophone account at the same
time, they could transfer the number.
Plan B is to get any prepaid phone you want, then just tell them to
port the number, which is probably a better idea since Gophone is not
particularly cheap.
R's,
John
Date: Mon, 17 May 2010 00:46:11 +0000 (UTC)
From: dwolffxx@panix.com (David Wolff)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Caller ID Spoofing Puts Innocent Man In Jail
Message-ID: <hsq3kj$q6n$1@reader1.panix.com>
In article <zfydnWAga600PnHWnZ2dnUVZ_u6dnZ2d@giganews.com>,
Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com> wrote:
> Steven wrote:
>
>>>Me:
>
>>> If I were the victim I would be speaking with an attorney about the
>>> police's haste, and lack of understanding of how lousy Caller ID info
>>> can be. Seems like they should have first put a trap on the women's
>>> line, then looked at ANI before they went gestapo.
>>>
> You:
>
>> The same could be said in the way that The Internet was set up, had some
>> changes had been made as the net aged we would not have the spam
>> problems we have now, or at least we would really know who the spammer was.
>>
>
> I'm not sure I agree because the PSTN is basically a closed system
> unlike the Internet.
>
> Plus, if someone Spams someone else, the hapless, innocent chef doesn't
> end up close to being shot and then spending 5 days in the slammer.
"Joe job."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_job
Thanks --
David
(Remove "xx" to reply.)
Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 20:34:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jeff or Lisa <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: [Converting cell phone plan] Does anyone know?
Message-ID: <ec32b751-4d8a-4e6f-aea6-8661fc770209@y12g2000vbg.googlegroups.com>
On May 16, 10:20 am, Randall <rv...@remove-this.insightbb.com> wrote:
> The locations where he has his remaining vending machines have a cell
> phone number that's been his for a decade or more; it is AT&T, and he
> pays a monthly bill to keep his service and 250 "free" minutes with
> no roaming charges. (He is also an OTR trucker, so "no roaming
> charge" is important).
>
> Is there any way he can convert this from a monthly bill to a pre-
> paid plan AND KEEP THE SAME PHONE NUMBER?
The carrier, or another carrier, may be willing to switch him to a
cheaper monthly plan to keep (or get) him as a customer.
In thinking about this, an alternative might be to merely print up new
stickers for his machines with whatever phone number he uses for his
base of operations.
Date: Sun, 16 May 2010 20:45:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jeff or Lisa <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Insights From a Week as a 311 Operator in N.Y.
Message-ID: <ac20b7f7-9623-41bc-87dd-992a00fc9a16@v37g2000vbv.googlegroups.com>
On May 16, 3:53 pm, Monty Solomon <mo...@roscom.com> wrote:
> Insights From a Week as a 311 Operator in N.Y.
"311" service was highly touted when it was introduced in several
large cities. Now newspaper reports like this show up its problems.
In my opinion, "311" is a big waste of money.
A more efficient use of funds and to better serve the public would be
having the following:
-- A clear understandable web page, that is indexed by both specific
actual names of city departments and typical functions, and the
general phone number.
One problem of web page 'search' options is that they dig up
EVERYTHING which means lots of irrelevent garbage. So if a citizen
types in "street repair" they will find a long list of reports,
public hearing minutes, city council resolutions, all dating back
years. But they will NOT find the phone number of the street
repair department. (This has been my actual experience on multiple
municipal "user friendly" web pages).
-- Every city agency should have a general phone number that is
answered (yes, actually answered, not left to ring and ring...) by
a knowledgeable person aware of the department's functions. That
person would either be able to take down the citizen's request or
route the call to the proper person.
-- There should be a general city number answered by trained operators
aware of the different city departments.
-- City managers have to take an honest look at what complaints and
requests citizens are calling for and how they respond to such
calls. Very often the reality is that they simply don't have enough
people and time to answer every call. Creating a "311" center does
nothing to solve that problem, as we see by articles like this.
-- City employees should be trained in telephone courtesy, have a copy
of the city directory handy, and be able to transfer calls they
mistakenly receive.
Forgive me for sounding like a broken record, but the old Bell System
used to train businesses and govts on how to serve the public by
telephone. The technology has changed a little bit, but the basic
principles remain the same. It amazes to see people today in offices
(govt and private sector) who don't even know how to transfer a
telephone call or proper telephone manners.
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 Bill Horne. 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 moderated by Bill Horne.
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) 2009 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 (5 messages)
|
or 