33 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Copyright © 2015 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.

The Telecom Digest for Jun 8, 2015
Volume 34 : Issue 103 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Verizon FiOS coverage said to be "miserable" in New York (Charles Jackson)
Re: Verizon FiOS coverage said to be "miserable" in New York (HAncock4)
Re: Verizon FiOS coverage said to be "miserable" in New York (Neal McLain)
The Seven Minute Morning Prep (Bill Horne)
Re: The Seven Minute Morning Prep (Duncan Smith)
Opinion: Verizon gets a lot for little money in its deal for AOL(Bill Horne)
Verizon-AOL: A War of All Against All (Bill Horne)

An artist using statistics as a brush could paint two very different pictures of our country. One would have warning signs: increasing layoffs, rising energy prices, too many failing schools, persistent poverty, the stubborn vestiges of racism. Another picture would be full of blessings: a balanced budget, big surpluses, a military that is second to none, a country at peace with its neighbors, technology that is revolutionizing the world, and our greatest strength, concerned citizens who care for our country and care for each other.
George W. Bush

See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details.

Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2015 10:57:56 -0400 From: Charles Jackson <clj@jacksons.remove-this.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Verizon FiOS coverage said to be "miserable" in New York Message-ID: <CANog7L70FEVjWfSxoEUVLKtc1VxvDRyW78HgXTTnMAvgeU0QnQ@mail.gmail.com> On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 3:20 AM, HAncock4 wrote: > On Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 8:52:32 PM UTC-4, Bill Horne wrote: > >> Verizon's Coverage Area of New York City for Fiber Optic FiOS is a >> Miserable 46% to 59%; Upstate New York is Worse. > > The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that southern New Jersey also > suffers from poor FIOS availability despite an agreement with Verizon > in exchange for an exclusive franchise. > > for full article please see: > > > http://goo.gl/exlXzm > I read the article and did not find the word "exclusive". The Communications Act prohibits exclusive cable franchises. 47 USC 541 (a)(1) states "A franchising authority may award, in accordance with the provisions of this subchapter, 1 or more franchises within its jurisdiction; except that *a franchising authority may not grant an exclusive franchise* and may not unreasonably refuse to award an additional competitive franchise." -- Chuck Charles L. Jackson 301 656 8716 desk phone 888 469 0805 fax 301 775 1023 mobile PO Box 221 Port Tobacco, MD 20677
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2015 16:32:53 -0700 (PDT) From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Verizon FiOS coverage said to be "miserable" in New York Message-ID: <1970902c-b2bf-467c-bdd0-e5300ff0c3a9@googlegroups.com> On Sunday, June 7, 2015 at 3:31:23 PM UTC-4, Charles Jackson wrote: > On Sun, Jun 7, 2015 at 3:20 AM, HAncock4 wrote: > > The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that southern New Jersey also > > suffers from poor FIOS availability despite an agreement with Verizon > > in exchange for an exclusive franchise. > I read the article and did not find the word "exclusive". >From the article: "In New Jersey, meanwhile, Trenton lawmakers passed a law in 2006 granting Verizon a _lucrative franchise_ to wire hundreds of towns for FiOS." To me, a "lucrative franchise" meant an exclusive contract. Otherwise, what would be so lucrative about the franchise? In any event, the post of the Inquirer article was to show that other areas had trouble similar to the original post.
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2015 19:34:58 -0700 (PDT) From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Verizon FiOS coverage said to be "miserable" in New York Message-ID: <88454f40-da53-4d9c-92e5-f3ba5c3c2c06@googlegroups.com> On Sunday, June 7, 2015 at 2:31:23 PM UTC-5, Charles Jackson wrote: > I read the article and did not find the word "exclusive". > > The Communications Act prohibits exclusive cable franchises. Indeed it does. But there's nothing "exclusive" about this agreement. It couldn't be an "exclusive" franchise anyway because it overlaps numerous towns and municipalities that already have operating franchised CATV systems. Verizon's franchise agreement with the State of New Jersey doesn't even appear to be a conventional CATV franchise. It appears to be a creature of the legislature designed to allow telephone companies to enter the video distribution business. It does not require state-wide coverage, it does not require local (town, municipality or county) approval, and it is not exclusive. The New Jersey BPU Report to the Governor and Legislature "The Effects Of The System-Wide Cable Television Franchise in New Jersey" Public Law 2006, Chapter 83, June 2010 states: While the system-wide franchise option created a hospitable regulatory change for a provider like Verizon, now no longer limited to offering cable service under traditional municipal consent-based franchises, it left parts of the state without the hope of landline competition. There have been no other applicants for an initial system-wide franchise. [1] .... Verizon has never represented it would bring FiOS to its entire local phone service area in the state and was not required to do so by the amended [New Jersey) Cable Act. Rather the legislature required Verizon only to build out a portion of its service territory. In short, 70 towns are required "full build" municipalities while the remaining 299 of the total 369 contained in the system-wide franchise application are not. Prior to the entry of Verizon, only four New Jersey municipalities enjoyed head-to-head landline competition. [2] [1] New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Report to the Governor and Legislature "The Effects Of The System-Wide Cable Television Franchise in New Jersey" Public Law 2006, Chapter 83, June 2010, ii (PDF 9). http://tinyurl.com/o9swf4e [2] BPU, iii (PDF 10). Neal McLain
Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2015 10:55:43 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: The Seven Minute Morning Prep Message-ID: <ml1lv5$i74$1@dont-email.me> John Brandon has come up with a way to cut the leash for a moment at the start of our day. I recommend that you read The second point several times: Minute one: Clear your head I won't get into any religious issues or get preachy here, and I'm not even encouraging meditation, but every person on the planet who has to work for a living needs to follow this basic routine. You have to clear your head. That phone you use to check your messages constantly or that iPad that's stuck to your hip? Get rid of them. They are not part of this morning routine. Clearing your head just means being present as you prepare for the day. http://goo.gl/m4kiFb -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2015 19:40:58 +0000 From: Duncan Smith <Duncan@xrtc.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: The Seven Minute Morning Prep Message-ID: <1A9081C7-464A-4C45-BC49-CF89857BFA0F@xrtc.net> On June 7, 2015 7:55:43 AM PDT, Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> wrote: > John Brandon has come up with a way to cut the leash for a moment at > the start of our day. I recommend that you read The second point > several times: > > Minute one: Clear your head > > I won't get into any religious issues or get preachy here, and I'm > not even encouraging meditation, but every person on the planet who > has to work for a living needs to follow this basic routine. You > have to clear your head. That phone you use to check your messages > constantly or that iPad that's stuck to your hip? Get rid of > them. They are not part of this morning routine. Clearing your head > just means being present as you prepare for the day. > > > > http://goo.gl/m4kiFb > *puts on old-man suspenders* I tried to read that here on the bus, but the text kept moving around as various ads loaded and the page was reflowed. I don't mind paying data freight for the ads nearly as much as not being able to read the page for a full two minutes while all the ad networks have their go at it. -- Sent from my neighborhood Western Union office.
Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2015 22:54:19 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Opinion: Verizon gets a lot for little money in its deal for AOL Message-ID: <ml302i$t8s$1@dont-email.me> By PHILIP VAN DOORN Maybe the worst thing about AOL Inc. is its name. It confuses the coverage of the deal announced today, in which Verizon Inc. plans to acquire AOL Inc. for $4.4 billion in cash. The name "AOL" associates the current well-run company with one of the worst corporate tie-ups ever. That was the $103.5 billion acquisition of the old Time Warner by the old AOL in January 2001. The all-stock offer made in January 2000 was for $164 billion, but AOL's shares declined considerably before the deal was completed, as just about everyone realized AOL's market advantage as a pioneering provider of dial-up Internet service was going the way of the dodo. http://goo.gl/b5D6FS -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Sun, 07 Jun 2015 22:51:01 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Verizon-AOL: A War of All Against All Message-ID: <ml2vsb$sri$1@dont-email.me> Surprising deal suggests a crumbling empire more than it shows the power of the network By DENNIS K. BERMAN When Steve Jobs released the first iPhone in June 2007, Apple Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. were worth almost exactly the same in the public markets: About $115 billion. What came over the next eight years was one of the greatest transfers of power and wealth in corporate history. Mobile phone operators - who had been brutish, intractable gatekeepers to the customer - were turned into Apple's lackeys. [snip] This morning's shock announcement of a Verizon purchase of AOL makes these big changes ever more clear. Physical communications networks are less of a competitive advantage. They are becoming table stakes. Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. are launching gliders and blimps and laying fiber in the ground; cable TV operators are deploying Wi-Fi workarounds; there are now mobile-phone carriers in which Wi-Fi is the default; and cellular technology is the backup. http://goo.gl/BKVWSW -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)

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 educational service offered to the Internet by Bill Horne.

The Telecom Digest is moderated by Bill Horne.
Contact information: Bill Horne
Telecom Digest
43 Deerfield Road
Sharon MA 02067-2301
339-364-8487
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 © 2015 E. William Horne. All rights reserved.


Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself. Thank you!

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 (7 messages)

Return to Archives ** Older Issues