---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <20180519151832.GA9483@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 19 May 2018 11:18:32 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: As Net Neutrality nears its end, Verizon shows some customers data caps BY C. Scott Brown * With Net Neutrality about to end, some customers found Verizon data caps on their internet bills this week. * Verizon claims that the data usage limits are not caps, and will not be enforced. * Verizon credits the confusion to a "system error" and says it has no plans to cap internet data. A small collection of Verizon DSL subscribers in New York and New Jersey were surprised to find data caps on their Verizon dashboards yesterday. According to Verizon, it is "conducting a usage billing trial" and the listed limits are not caps. https://www.androidauthority.com/verizon-data-caps-867147/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20180519234254.GA10726@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 19 May 2018 19:42:54 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: 10 Ways the Tyranny of Email at All Hours Hurts Everyone Thanks to smartphones, email has crept into just about every aspect of our personal lives. This isn't a good thing for anyone. Plus, those late-night emails could be against the law. By Eric Reed Email has become a vital part of workplace culture. Today, most Millennials probably don't know what "going to work" would look like without a computer at their desk. Email occupies an enormous portion of that, with workers spending an average 25% of their workday reading and responding to their inbox. https://www.thestreet.com/slideshow/14339800/1/email-hurts-productivity.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <23A7AAE2-BCC4-4E9A-A35E-7AD1B312E9EE@roscom.com> Date: Fri, 18 May 2018 20:08:56 -0700 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Is a Dumber Phone a Better Phone? Is a Dumber Phone a Better Phone? By John Herrman A new crop of smartphones has arrived, aiming to improve on the iPhone - not by being better but by being substantially worse. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/magazine/is-a-dumber-phone-a-better-phone.html ------------------------------ Message-ID: <l923gdt8orhtlp926tcsil4qtkm6hiilq6@4ax.com> Date: Sun, 20 May 2018 10:43:20 -0400 From: Pete Cresswell <PeteCress@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Re: Despite Senate win, net neutrality rules near death Per Bill Horne: > https://lompocrecord.com/opinion/columnists/james-gattuso-despite-senate-win-net-neutrality-rules-near-death/article_cf159e97-de37-581f-a54d-75e21fc9ab7e.html "James Gattuso is Senior Research Fellow in Regulatory Policy at The Heritage Foundation (heritage.org)." The Heritage Foundation??? Why not just go directly to Breitbart or Fox-and-Friends ? --- Pete Cresswell ***** Moderator's Note ***** "The Telecom Digest does not allow 'Meta' discussions about moderation policies or decisions." (From the Telecom Digest FAQ, which is at http://telecom.csail.mit.edu/faq.html) However, a question about a source's qualifications or veracity can sometimes illuminate a debate in useful ways, and I sometimes allow them for that reason. The answer to Mr. Cresswell's question is "Because that's not where the article was published." The answer to the implied charge of bias which I infer from his post is "For the same reasons that I don't draw material only from CNN, the New York Times, Awake, The Christian Science Monitor, American Rifleman, or the Congressional Record." Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <003601d3f08c$1ab60320$50220960$@nc.rr.com> Date: Sun, 20 May 2018 18:44:22 -0400 From: Bob Goudreau <BobGoudreau@nc.rr.com> Subject: Re: Verizon Flirts With DSL Usage Caps in Virginia In < <mailto:20180519152537.GA9509@telecom.csail.mit.edu> 20180519152537.GA9509@telecom.csail.mit.edu>, Bill Horne cited a DSL Reports article that said: > Users in our forums recently discovered that Verizon has begun > conducting a new "trial" in Virginia. As part of this trial, > customers on DSL lines at speeds of 500 kbps to 1.5 Mbps are now > informed "usage" is limited to 150 gigabytes. Users on DSL speeds > between 1.5 Mbps and 3 Mbps are now told those lines only feature > 250 GB of "usage." I'm presuming that these caps are monthly limits. Even at 8 bits per byte (ignoring error-checking, overhead, etc.), the maximum that a 1.5 Mbps connection could download over the course of an 31-day month is slightly more than 502 GB (and that's using "G" to mean a mere 1,000,000,000 instead of 2^30; if you use the latter definition, the total is only 468 GB). So is Verizon really worried about customers who are downloading data at a flat-out rate for almost 8 hours a day? (I'm ignoring uploads because we're probably talking about ADSL instead of SDSL here, and ADSL upload rates are usually a fraction of the download speed.) My more cynical take is that they are using the frog-boiling technique (i.e., heating up the water gradually). Though the initial caps may be almost impossible to hit, they establish a precedent, and they can be tightened over time. Likewise, different caps could be imposed on other customers who have faster connections that would be more likely to reach their limits. Bob Goudreau Cary, NC ***** Moderator's Note ***** 1.5Mbps / 8 = 0.1875 MBps 0.1875 MBps * 3600 = 675 MB per hour. 675 MB per hour * 24 * 31 = 502,200 MB per month (which matches the figure given above) However - 675 MB per hour * 8 * 31 = 167,400 MB per month So, downloading for 8 hours/day gives a much smaller total than doing it for all 24 hours in a day. But that's not important in and of itself. What *IS* important is that Verizon is gearing up to charge by-the-byte. They don't yet have the capability to charge "by-the-byte-by-the-provider," so this is the first step toward discriminating against those who have the temerity to question that old whore Mother Bell's entitled status as the toll collector between anyone doing business by wire and their clients. I predict that the net effect of "data caps" will be to make satellite TV less expensive than streaming media. IIRC, Verizon sells satellite TV, conveniently added to DSL users' monthly bills. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Tue, 22 May 2018