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The Telecom Digest for August 20, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 199 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Converting Lat/Long from degrees-minutes-second to decimal degrees (bill)
Re: fios questions (Bruce Bergman)
Re: fios questions (David LaRue)
Re: AT&T sets deadline for 2G sunset in 4 years (T)
Re: Any Non-free SMS Gateways for e-mail to SMS on Wireless Carriers (tlvp)

====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2012 20:40:20 -0700 From: bill@horne.VALID-IF-THIS-IS-ELIDED.net To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Converting Lat/Long from degrees-minutes-second to decimal degrees Message-ID: <E1T3Iqi-0003JI-1V@telecom.xen.prgmr.com> Here's a great FCC site that converts Latitude and Longitude in Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds to or from Decimal Degrees. http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/DDDMMSS-decimal.html HTH. Bill
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:22:55 -0700 From: Bruce Bergman <brucebergman@gmail.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: fios questions Message-ID: <CACqS8052ba8TsMWmfFS2vgPgwj0+gCxatnixhTxNL4Qf5zG77A@mail.gmail.com> On Fri, 17 Aug 2012 02:18:06 -0700 (PDT), Michael < michael.muderick@gmail.com> wrote: >I may finally make the switch from copper/DSL to FIOS. I have a >couple of questions. I use many of the older Western electric/ATT >phones in my house. They work with the old 90volt ringers. Will >there be any problems with FIOS regarding this? How about the >polarity sensitive dials? Will they still work? Will they still be >polarity sensitive? What about the backup battery in the FIOS box.? >Does it need regular replacing? How often? Does Verizon charge for >that? How long does it last in a power failure? Thanks so much for >your answers. If I was offered FIOS, I'd jump - but with one proviso: They want you to sign the form, and buried in the Fine Print is the right to cut off ALL copper pairs to the house. They want to save money - but you aren't going to get Five-Nines Life-Safety reliability on FIOS. I would insist on keeping one POTS line on a Copper Pair (without any Pair Gain or other tomfoolery) for the Alarm System RJ31X and dialer, and Fax if you have one, or a simple Desk Set if you don't. Do all the long distance calling on the FIOS line, the POTS line is incoming & local only. You have a disaster, and two or three hours later you don't have phones anymore. And Cellular is going to be either down without power, or hopelessly overloaded - right when you need it the most. It could go the other way and FIOS is the one that still works, but that's not the way to bet. Just like every Telco Central Office has an Emergency Phone fed from a totally seperate nearby Central Office - if the apocryphal "fecal matter impacts the rotary air motivator" and the CO turns into a $5M paperweight, and it does happen... They've still got working Dial Tone to call in the cavalry - and tell them what to bring. In the case I got to witness first-hand, they got told to bring lots and lots and lots of spare fuses - Grab 'em all, we'll pick out what we need. I think Steven L. was still around when Art U. "leveled the busbars" at Sylmar. --<< Bruce >>--
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2012 04:33:36 +0000 (UTC) From: David LaRue <huey.dll@gte.net> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: fios questions Message-ID: <XnsA0B35ABCC419507d764ee9285@178.63.61.145> HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> wrote in news:26705c03-9f59- 4409-b15e-77787727a6d7@c19g2000vbb.googlegroups.com: > On Aug 17, 5:18 am, Michael <michael.muder...@gmail.com> wrote: >> What about the backup battery in the FIOS box.? >> Does it need regular replacing? How often? Does Verizon charge for >> that? How long does it last in a power failure? > > A friend with FIOS says the backup battery lasts about three hours in > a power failure. Unfortunately, when a severe storm knocks out power > for much longer periods there is no phone service until power is > restored. Friends with cable-TV provided phone service also report no > phone service during power outages. FWIW my traditional land-line > has always remained available even during extended power outages. I'd like to add that the FIOS UPS does not keep up the internet side of the conversation. It only works for maintaining the phone connection. Any intermittant outages (brownouts) will reset the internet router. For that reason I plugged my FIOS UPS into the computer room UPS. A small 300W would go a long way, but I have a rack mount UPS that keeps several servers up as well. I've also not had any problem with my legacy phones and the FIOS Phone. David
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2012 02:07:23 -0400 From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: AT&T sets deadline for 2G sunset in 4 years Message-ID: <MPG.2a98fb29ce929c61989d8f@news.eternal-september.org> In article <20120816184423.73331.qmail@joyce.lan>, johnl@iecc.com says... > > >> I thought AT&T was using GSM, and that GSM used TDMA. Are we talking > >> apples and oranges? > > > >I believe GSM uses a subset of CDMA, not TDMA. > > You are mistaken. GSM is most definitely TDMA. > > The next generation, LTE, is indeed CDMA. > > R's, > John Thanks! Time Division only has so many voice slots per channel. CSMA is more like CSMA/CD in computer networks. It detect collisions and therefore allows a slightly better capacity than TDMA but with the caveat that you don't get a guaranteed time slot.
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2012 23:25:58 -0400 From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Any Non-free SMS Gateways for e-mail to SMS on Wireless Carriers Message-ID: <17hssuv0qgflj.f4i6a2zqzlro$.dlg@40tude.net> On Fri, 17 Aug 2012 11:52:07 -0700 (PDT), Joseph Singer wrote: > Oh, and something you need to know about carrier specific > gateways that use 10-digits@[mobile number gateway] is > that they only let you use 140 characters rather than > 160 character limit you have with a regular phone-to-phone SMS. More to the point, I think (in theory): you do get 160 characters ... but -- 11 of those get used for the 10-digits@ part of the address; more get used for the [mobile number gateway] part of the address; another 1-3 get used for the [space] (or [space][slash], or perhaps even [space][slash][space]) required between address and SMS body (ya never know just which). And if you're using a "Subject:" line, every character it uses counts against your SMS body character-count. So even a Verizontal 10-digits@vtext.com address should let at best a 139-character SMS (with no Subject: line) go through untruncated. OK, that was in theory. In practice: I just sent myself identical "Subject:"-less emails each consisting of five 35-character lines, each successive pair of which were separated by a terminating [CR][LF] pair, to SMS email addresses of the form 10-digit-#@tmomail.net and 10-digit-#@vtext.com. Surprise: all 175 characters, and all 8 [CR][LF] characters, were displayed as received on my T-Mobile handset. But on my Verizon handset, what came through was the full first four lines, with their terminating [CR][LF] pairs (148 characters there), and the first 14 characters of the 5th line (all told, 162 characters of SMS text). So: theory and practice diverge (as usual, I suppose :-) ). HTH. Cheers, -- tlvp -- Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.
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