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The Telecom Digest for October 23, 2010
Volume 29 : Issue 285 : "text" Format

Messages in this Issue:

Florida cellphone network without a license(Thad Floryan)
Kerry outlines bill to resolve TV disputes(Monty Solomon)
Re: California Town Gets Phone Service for First Time in History (markjcuccia)
Meet the 20-cent 'cloud phone'(John Mayson)
Re: FaceBook(Randall)


====== 28 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:36:55 -0700 From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Florida cellphone network without a license Message-ID: <4CC0CE97.7090805@thadlabs.com> A trial system offers calling, texting, and data by weaving signals around the chatter of baby monitors and cordless phones. http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/26581/?p1=A4 October 20, 2010 By Tom Simonite A trial cell-phone network in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, gets by without something every other wireless carrier needs: its own chunk of the airwaves. Instead, xG Technology, which made the network, uses base stations and handsets of its own design that steer signals through the unrestricted 900-megahertz band used by cordless phones and other short-range devices. It's a technique called "cognitive" radio, and it has the potential to make efficient use of an increasingly limited resource: the wireless spectrum. By demonstrating the first cellular network that uses the technique, xG hopes to show that it could help wireless carriers facing growing demand but a relatively fixed supply of spectrum. Its cognitive radios are built into both the base stations of the trial network, dubbed xMax, and handsets made for it. Every radio scans for clear spectrum 33 times a second. If another signal is detected, the handset and base station retune to avoid the other signal, keeping the connection alive. Each of the six base stations in xG's network can serve devices in a 2.5-mile radius, comparable to an average cell-phone tower. [...] {story continues at the above URL}
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 08:08:43 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Kerry outlines bill to resolve TV disputes Message-ID: <p06240849c8e72f0e0cfa@[10.0.1.8]> Kerry outlines bill to resolve TV disputes Tuesday, October 19, 2010 by Sara Jerome The Hill Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) sent draft legislation to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday aimed at resolving the kind of dispute that left 3 million people in the New York area unable to watch the Giants game on Sunday and "House" on Monday night. Cablevision subscribers have lost access to Fox channels as the company negotiates with Fox Networks about programming fees. The contract between the companies expired last week, and Fox has pulled its content until the companies find agreeable terms. Broadcasters have the ability to pull their programming under rules for retransmission consent. Cable and satellite companies want the rules overhauled - they think broadcasters have too much power in the disputes. ... http://kerry.senate.gov/press/in_the_news/article/?id=BD3CA557-5056-A032-526D-359DC6F707CE
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:25:35 -0700 (PDT) From: markjcuccia@yahoo.com To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: California Town Gets Phone Service for First Time in History Message-ID: <c5f6e611-6850-4232-9e90-f9af5f9bf7e6@j2g2000yqf.googlegroups.com> There have been several news items (radio/TV/newspapers) that I came up with doing "google" news searches, but I did some additional research using the localcallingguide.com website, and also called up the local telco that is providing service to Iowa Hill CA. Most of the news articles didn't go into detail as to which telephone company is providing service to Iowa Hill CA. But at least one news article did mention a company in Foresthill CA named "Sebastian". This is the name of the company that owns the independent "Foresthill Telephone Company", OCN 2318. (The name is apparently one single word, "Foresthill"). I did try looking up on NANPA's (US) NPA-NXX c.o.code pages at their website for the 530 area code (northeastern California), to see if there was a ratecenter name (and 530-NXX code) for "Iowa Hill CA", but there was no such distinct (new) ratecenter. I looked up on the localcallingguide.com website, and also no such ratecenter (nor 530-NXX) for "Iowa Hill CA". But there is the Foresthill CA ratecenter with 530-367 (I wonder if that could have been an old 916-FOresthill-7- exchange name in the old 2L-5N days? :-) And the c.o.switch is FRHLCAXFDS0, an Alcatel-Lucent 5ESS. I called up the Sebastian/Foresthill Telephone Company to inquire further, and they confirmed that Iowa Hill CA is simply an "extension" of the existing Foresthill CA ratecenter, with 530-367 numbers, and Iowa Hill CA also gets dialtone from the 5ESS in Foresthill CA. According to the localcallingguide.com website, the Foresthill CA ratecenter (which includes Iowa Hill) has local/EAS with the following three nearby ratecenters: Colfax:Colfax (District Area) CA (OCN 4420 VeriZon/GTE-once-Contel) Colfax:Weimar (District Area) CA (OCN 4420 VeriZon/GTE-once-Contel) Georgetown CA (at&t/SBC/Pacific*Bell) There are no other 530-NXX c.o.codes other than 530-367 for the Foresthill CA ratecenter (including Iowa Hill CA), thus there are NO CLECs nor wireless providers associated with the Foresthill CA ratecenter. Also, Foresthill CA is the only ratecenter served by Sebastain/Foresthill Telco. About six years ago, the community of "Mink LA" finally got landline telephone service for the very first time from BellSouth/So.Central Bell. They had been trying to get service for 40-some years, ever since the mid-1960s when it was still part of Southern Bell. But in 2004, the La.PSC finally ordered BellSouth to extend landline loops/dialtone from the Leesville (Vernon Parish) LA ratecenter (Leesville with an 's', NOT Leeville which is in Lafourche Parish in LA, and served by the independent Latelco, Lafourche Telephone Company). It's probably the Leesville LA "Simpson" central office LEVLLASNDS0 which provides dialtone to the heavily wooded and hilly settlement of "Mink LA", since this c.o.switch is the one closest; but it "could" be possible that the "Main" c.o.switch at Leesville LEVLLAMADS0, a 5ESS, actually provides dialtone to "Mink LA". SO, it seems that there are still areas in the US which don't yet have landline telephone service. I don't think that there are still any "ringdown" or "non-customer-dial" points in the US anymore, but there were still a few here/there, mostly in remote parts of California and Nevada as late as the early 2000s. I wonder if it would have been more efficient to extend better cellular service to Iowa Hill CA and other similar areas? The trend does seem to be people dumping landline in favor of wireless, and since this community never had landline before, even though the cellular was spotty, maybe it would have been better to improve the cellular signal to this area? Mark J. Cuccia markjcuccia at yahoo dot com Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:21:03 +0800 From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Meet the 20-cent 'cloud phone' Message-ID: <AANLkTikHpcztaD=VMd0SVK7a-uBF=+x+-sJY6jCi57Ch@mail.gmail.com> Camden, Maine (CNN) -- Nigel Waller set out to create a $5 phone. It didn't work. After much research, the cheapest phone he could make still cost about $20, only a dollar less than the cheapest on the market, he said. If he wanted to bring cheaper cell phone service to the world's poor -- people who can't afford a $25 mobile handset, many of whom live on $1 a day -- he had to come up with a new idea. His solution, the "cloud phone," is now being rolled out in Africa. More at http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/21/cloud.phone/index.html -- John Mayson <john@mayson.us> Austin, Texas, USA
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:31:20 -0400 From: Randall <rvh40.remove-this@and-this-too.insightbb.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: FaceBook Message-ID: <D1666876-1202-46AC-98D2-AC134EF2AD76@insightbb.com> > From: sfdavidkaye2@yahoo.com (David Kaye) > To: redacted@invalid.telecom-digest.org. > Subject: Re: Facebook in Privacy Breach > Message-ID: <i9num3$th4$1@news.eternal-september.org> > > Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> wrote: > >> I look askance at anyone who uses Fecebook, Twitter, etc. given the >> purpose of those sites (remembering that the user is the product and >> NOT the customer): > > For people who like Facebook, another way is to post fake info on > your account. If you're male, set yourself as female. Use a > different birthdate, put yourself in another city, etc. Your > friends can still find you by name, but the marketing info will get > totally screwed up. What, exactly, is the big deal about Zuckerberg finding out this information? Yes, he will sell it to advertisers, who will probably assume that sending me an advertisement for HRT (menopause) drugs is a waste of money - but so what? I am not going to be buying any Hormone Replacement Therapy drugs anyway, why do I care that nobody tries to sell them to me? ***** Moderator's Note ***** Would you like those advertisers to know that you are over 60? A veteran? A practicing Democrat? "It doesn't matter", I hear you say. "That's all public information". But ... It may be "public", but it's not online - until now. The fact that you're a veteran and over 60 and a registered Democrat may be "available" to anyone willing to wade through reams of paper, but it's not economically feasible for advertisers to do so - UNLESS YOU DO IT FOR THEM. By using facetube, you give permission for those advertisers to accumulate the data which YOU are entering into THEIR computer, free of charge. Bill Horne Moderator
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.
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