---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <nan8gn$3ts$1@dont-email.me> Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 11:04:24 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: State Utility regulators give Centurylink a "slap on the wrist" for E911 outage By Rita R. Robison Despite recommendations from the Public Counsel Unit of the Washington State Attorney General's Office that CenturyLink be fined $11.5 million for a six-hour 911 outage in April 2014, state utility regulators approved a lesser penalty of $2.85 [Million]. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission said in an order Monday that the $2.85 million penalty "appropriately reflects the nature and extent of the violations, as well as CenturyLink's actions in the wake of the 911 outage that gave rise to those violations. We conclude that the settlement reasonably resolves the issues raised in the complaint, and the result is consistent with the public interest." blog.seattlepi.com -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <50f5dc3a-176c-46cc-ada4-9a642419c23a@googlegroups.com> Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2016 21:39:02 -0800 (PST) From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> Subject: Google Fiber Changes Tack with Upcoming Huntsville, Ala. Roll Out By Diana Goovaerts, CED, 02/22/2016 Google Fiber announced Monday it will be coming to Huntsville, Ala., but -- in a change of strategy from previous offerings -- said it won't be building its own fiber network in the city. The move marks a change of strategy for Google, which has heretofore built out its own fiber networks in select cities across the country. "To date, we've built the majority of our Google Fiber networks from scratch," Google Fiber's Director of Expansion Jill Szuchmacher wrote in a Monday blog post. "But over the past five years, we've repeatedly seen that every city is unique. Now, due to the leadership of the Mayor and Huntsville Utilities CEO Jay Stowe, we'll be working with a muni-owned network to bring our high speed service to Huntsville." http://www.cedmagazine.com -or- http://tinyurl.com/gwkuljb Another network that Google didn't build from scratch: the City of Provo's "iProvo" fiber network. It acquired it for $1.00 after the city lost several million dollars on the project. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IProvo Neal McLain ------------------------------ Message-ID: <nan7td$1fi$1@dont-email.me> Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 10:54:09 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Huge chunk of Verizon building comes crashing down Huge chunk of Verizon building comes crashing down in Queens, NY POSTED 6:52 AM, FEBRUARY 25, 2016, BY SAMANTHA TATA AND DAN MANNARINO, UPDATED AT 08:01AM, FEBRUARY 25, 2016 ELMHURST, Queens -- A portion of a Verizon building in Queens came crashing to the ground during a powerful overnight storm that downed trees and power lines across the area. It happened at Vietor Avenue and Broadway in the Elmhurst section of Queens. Images from the scene show a chunk of the building as tall as an SUV crumpled in the middle of Vietor Avenue. Debris could be seen on top of several cars parked along the side of the road, and at least three vehicles appeared to sustain severe damage. http://pix11.com/2016/02/25/huge-chunk-of-verizon-building-comes-crashing-down-in-queens/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <nan84f$29u$1@dont-email.me> Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 10:57:55 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: VERIZON WIRELESS SUFFERS OUTAGE IN NEW YORK CITY AREA CELLPHONE NOT WORKING? VERIZON WIRELESS SUFFERS OUTAGE IN NEW YORK CITY AREA by Mike Waterhouse NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Verizon Wireless customers in the New York City area were left without data service after a network outage Wednesday morning. A chart from downdetector.com, which tracks online service outages, showed outage reports starting as early as 6 a.m., with the most reports coming in just before 9 a.m. http://abc7ny.com/technology/cellphone-not-working-verizon-wireless-suffers-outage-in-nyc-area/1216567/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <nan89b$29u$2@dont-email.me> Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 11:00:31 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Like PA, New Jersey Holding Hearing on Verizon Network Neglect by Karl Bode Both Pennsylvania and New Jersey have similar experiences with Verizon. Both states threw millions in tax breaks and subsidies at the telco in exchange for Verizon's promise that it would wire the entire states with fiber. But when Verizon balked at its obligation, both states, inundated with Verizon campaign contributions, just pretended Verizon had done nothing wrong. Years later, with aging DSL and phone networks falling into disarray, a few politicians in both states are feebly trying to hold Verizon accountable. Earlier this week, Pennsylvania said it was holding a hearing after being presented with photo evidence of Verizon's failure to maintain its fixed-line networks. http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Like-PA-New-Jersey-Holding-Hearing-on-Verizon-Network-Neglect-136374 -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <nan992$75o$1@dont-email.me> Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 11:17:25 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: CenturyLink Pulls A Comcast, Plans To Test Metered Billing by Wendy Davis CenturyLink plans to join Comcast in testing a billing system that charges broadband customers based on how much data they consume. CenturyLink Chief Financial Officer Stewart Ewing said during an earnings call that the company expects to run trials of pay-per-byte billing later this year. "Regarding the metered data plans -- we are considering that for second half of the year," he said. "We think it is important and our competition is using the metered plans today." http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/269038/centurylink-pulls-a-comcast-plans-to-test-metered.htmlw -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20160225202353.GA32208@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 15:23:53 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: My local phone company is lost at the frontier I just spent two hours finding out what it would cost to have a POTS line. I moved to North Carolina last year, and since my cellular bills have been running high, I decided to price a POTS line. That was two hours ago: 120 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. There is no "telephone company" listing in either 411.com or anywho.com. Every listing that is on those sites went to a fast-talking salesman who tried to talk over me, push his "package", and get my credit card number, sometimes all in one breath. I don't mind someone telling me what's available: that's their job, after all. I *do* mind being interrupted, having someone who is thousands of miles away telling me what my "best option" is, and being lied to. I've been told that I "must" have a modem, that "everything" comes with a "service plan", and that lifeline rates are "only for people on welfare". Sigh. That was the part that took 100 minutes. I did, finally, find out the name of the ILEC which serves this area. I also found their website, and got an 800 number to call them with. The person I spoke to told me that the price for a POTS line is $33.98 per month, plus taxes: he wouldn't tell me what the taxes would be, nor the Universal Service, access, or other fees; he did, however, estimate that they would be about "fourteen to eighteen" dollars per month. He also suggested that I look at my neighbor's phone bill to find out the exact figure. I'm angry about this: getting basic, publicly-available information from a public utility should not be this hard. I suppose that all the fast-buck operators who pay for ads on 411.com think that they'll make up for every guy like me by selling a "package" to some twenty- something who just fell off a turnip truck, but I expect the ILEC to be willing to quote me the rates that their tariffs specify. Bill -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Fri, 26 Feb 2016