Date: 10 Aug 2000 06:15:12 -0400 Message-ID: <20000810101512.7531.qmail@xuxa.iecc.com> From: owner-telecom-digest@telecom-digest.org (Telecom Digest) To: telecom-digest@telecom-digest.org Subject: Telecom Digest V2000 #14 Reply-To: editor@telecom-digest.org Sender: owner-telecom-digest@telecom-digest.org Errors-To: owner-telecom-digest@telecom-digest.org Precedence: bulk X-UIDL: 2af85ca1c1aaf8489d9992d67192b29b Status: RO X-Status: Telecom Digest Thursday, August 10 2000 Volume 2000 : Number 014 In this issue: What's up with the Digest and Pat Re: International country code news, questions more, re Strange calls to Vanuatu via AT&T input on tone and probe set 8/9/00 ICBTollFree.Com HEADS UP HEADLINES Re: Phone Fears: Malignant or Benign? Re: NO long distance carrier on phone, but Hacker calls overseas on my line! Re: Extraordinary waste of prefixes in Peoria, IL Re: Extraordinary waste of prefixes in Peoria, IL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 9 Aug 2000 16:03:38 -0400 From: John R Levine Subject: What's up with the Digest and Pat I've been twiddling with the modbot and some local mail routing, so I think that all submissions to Telecom should be coming into the robomoderator now. As you may have guessed from Mike Sandman's message, Pat is off-line because he's in trouble with the law. I don't fully understand the details, but as far as I can tell his problems are due to a combination of bad luck and personality conflicts, not to anything that you or I would consider illegal. It's hard to say when he'll be back, but most likely it'll be around the end of the year. Mike sent me a picture with Pat, on the web at . Pat's health is still not very good, and he still needs contributions to help him run the digest and cover his expenses. Contributions to support Pat and the Telecom Digest can be sent in care of Pat's mother: Telecom Digest c/o Ruth Townson 611 East Poplar Independence KS 67301 Checks can be made out to Telecom Digest. Please send along a note of encouragement for Pat and Mrs. Townson as well. If people would like to contribute via Paypal, send me a note and I'll see if I can set up an account on Pat's behalf. With regard to the disagreements about the ICB newsletter, they're over. Since I am not comfortable posting paid material to a moderated newsgroup (none of the other 350 moderated groups do, and much of the moderation mechanism resides at universities and other non-profits), Judith and I have compromised so her newsletter is going to the mailing list half of Telecom, which is clearly Pat's to do with as he wishes, but not the newsgroup. If you read Telecom via news, you can get her newsletter either by subscribing to the mailing list via telecom-request@telecom-digest.org or directly to Judith's newsletter on her web site at www.icbtollfree.com or by writing her at editor@icbtollfree.com. Just for the record, I find her newsletter consistently worthwhile, her web site is interesting, has a fair privacy policy, and she's entited to run it in any way she wants, including the no-charge registration she uses. I registered as a subscriber ages ago. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner Finger for PGP key, f'print = 3A 5B D0 3F D9 A0 6A A4 2D AC 1E 9E A6 36 A3 47 - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Aug 2000 16:27:27 -0400 From: "H. Peter Anvin" Subject: Re: International country code news, questions Followup to: <020820001820442482%lincmad001@telecom-digest.zzn.com> By author: Linc Madison In newsgroup: comp.dcom.telecom > > A few bits of relatively recent news: > > All of the officially announced +99X codes for former Soviet republics > in Asia are now active. That leaves only Russia and Kazakhstan sharing > the old Soviet +7 code. There has been speculation that Kazakhstan > might separate into its own code, possibly +997, but there is no word > on any official plan to do so. > One would think it would have been more fair to split up +7 into 2- and 3-digit codes, at least for the CIS countries (I can imagine Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania jumping as far away as possible under any circumstances...) -hpa - -- at work, in private! "Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot." http://www.zytor.com/~hpa/puzzle.txt - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Aug 2000 18:00:30 -0400 From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: more, re Strange calls to Vanuatu via AT&T s falke wrote: > peny_lane2@my-deja.com wrote: >> 3. Somebody has hacked my phone line with a 10-10 Code. > Shouldn't the 101XXXX provider show up on your bill? Since the person had "no-PIC" with SWBell for LD, and since is still possible to place calls via 101-XXXX+ carrier codes (unless completely "toll restricted"), remember that this was for a call billed by AT&T, _AS_ AT&T. AT&T's (published) Carrier Access Code is 101-0288+ ("Ten-ten-ATT"). Maybe the Carrier code didn't appear on the bill, but I don't think that 101-XXXX+ codes necessarily appear at the top of the bill -- only the name(s) of the various carriers and/or "billing agencies" is what appears. Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@tulane.edu - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Aug 2000 19:47:06 -0400 From: Subject: input on tone and probe set i have lost my Progressive Electronics high power tone and probe set somewhere. and am currently looking for a replacement. any input on good ones? bad ones? i'm using my 10yr old standby. but it just doesn't hump it long distances or on live cable. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Aug 2000 22:19:38 -0400 From: "Judith Oppenheimer" Subject: 8/9/00 ICBTollFree.Com HEADS UP HEADLINES ************************************************************************* ICBTollFree.Com HEADS UP HEADLINES ************************************************************************* from ICB Toll Free News - Daily News and Intelligence covering the Political, Legal and Marketing Arenas of 800 and Dot Com. ************************************************************************* CONTENTS - - TRANSFERRING TOLL FREE TELEPHONE NUMBERS LAWFULLY - - REGISTER.COM WITHDRAWS ITS SHARE OFFER - - SOFTWARE.COM, PHONE.COM IN $6.8B MERGER - - NET DISASTER PLAN PROPOSED - - ICANN: THE JOKE THAT WON'T GO AWAY - - UNIVERSITIES ON THE TM TRAIL - - VERIO WON'T USE REGISTER.COM DATABASE - - ICANN'S BOARD NOMINEES UNDER FIRE - - THE SILVER DOMAIN ************************************************************************* CUSTOMER SERVICE NOTES: ICB Premium Service is on Summer Sale for $99 for a 12 month subscription, including access to all 'P' articles and Premium areas of the web site. (regular price $549) Act Now! - http://www.icbtollfree.com/order.cfm ICB is a popular research destination, with all content archived indefinitely. Find all ICB headlines, current and archived, at http://www.icbtollfree.com/icbheadlns.cfm. ************************************************************************* ARTICLE ACCESS CODE LEGEND ICB Toll Free News offers two valuable service options: F = Free - News and Features articles P = Premium - Unlimited Site Access including all Articles and Documents. ************************************************************************* HEADLINES FOR August 9, 2000 P - TRANSFERRING TOLL FREE TELEPHONE NUMBERS LAWFULLY The FCC has held that “‘hoarding’ and ‘brokering’ of toll free numbers are contrary to the public interest and, thus, subject to sanction by the Commission.” Brokering has been defined as the buying and selling of telephone numbers. CONTINUED HERE: http://www.icbtollfree.com/article.cfm?articleId=4293 F - REGISTER.COM WITHDRAWS ITS SHARE OFFER "We believe that the current market is not properly valuing register.com," said Richard Forman, chief executive officer, in a statement. CONTINUED HERE: http://www.icbtollfree.com/article.cfm?articleId=4299 F - SOFTWARE.COM, PHONE.COM IN $6.8B MERGER Combined, the companies will provide scalable infrastructure and application software that allows the delivery of email, voicemail, unified messaging, directory and wireless Internet access for IP-based networks. CONTINUED HERE: http://www.icbtollfree.com/article.cfm?articleId=4298 F - NET DISASTER PLAN PROPOSED ... is similar to a feature found in the public telephone system. CONTINUED HERE: http://www.icbtollfree.com/article.cfm?articleId=4297 F - ICANN: THE JOKE THAT WON'T GO AWAY ICANN is simultaneously arguing that it's a scientific technical forum which needs no user input, because it's making scientific and not social decisions. At the same time it's demanding the popular respect of users as an arbiter with a popular mandate. And hoping no one spots the contradiction... In fact, ICANN controls a choke point on the Internet - "and there's no constraint on their ability to charge a fee." CONTINUED HERE: http://www.icbtollfree.com/article.cfm?articleId=4296 ************************************************************************* **************************************************advertisements********* >>>>>>>>>>>>> http://1800TheExpert.com <<<<<<<<<<<<< 800 & Domain Name Acquisition Management, Lost/Stolen 800 # Retrieval, Litigation Support, Regulatory Navigation, Correlating Domain Name & Trademark Matters. ************************************************************************* FT Telecom Conferences In its 20th year, this event will bring leading personalities in the telecomms industry to discuss opportunities and challenges which technological advancement, increased competition and restructuring will pose to the future of global telecommunications. 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That's twice the value for one great rate. http://www2.gte.com/LD/bld/tollfree.cfm ************************************************************************* ************************************************************************* more HEADLINES FOR August 9, 2000 P - UNIVERSITIES ON THE TM TRAIL A division at Yale University has created a computer program that locates domain names that include the word Yale and then gives those names to university lawyers. Stanford University utilizes an outside service on a weekly basis to locate registered domain names that contain the word Stanford. CONTINUED HERE: http://www.icbtollfree.com/article.cfm?articleId=4301 F - VERIO WON'T USE REGISTER.COM DATABASE Register.com sued Verio in federal court last Thursday, alleging Verio made unsolicited calls to Register.com customers after they had registered a new Internet domain, or address. CONTINUED HERE: http://www.icbtollfree.com/article.cfm?articleId=4300 F - ICANN'S BOARD NOMINEES UNDER FIRE While their credentials may be impressive, they don't make them uniquely suited for the job. "Is a large telecommunications corporation the appropriate representative of users? That seems unlikely although ICANN's Nominating Committee apparently found them appropriate." "ICANN would say 'We aren't regulators, we're engineers,' but they're not just engineers and it's not fair to say so," Klein continued. "They're making public policy, trademark and intellectual property decisions." CONTINUED HERE: http://www.icbtollfree.com/article.cfm?articleId=4295 P - THE SILVER DOMAIN To sell an individual "silver domain" requires over 250 unique contacts with the right people at the right companies in most instances. CONTINUED HERE: http://www.icbtollfree.com/article.cfm?articleId=4294 ************************************************************************* **************************************************advertisements********* DOCTOR, LAWYER, CHIEF COOK & BOTTLE WASHER? Are you a local or regional business that advertises in newspapers, direct mail, on radio or tv? 1 800 BRAND IT shared use marketing programs can help your sales skyrocket! Current Programs include: 1 800 DIAL A LAWYER 1 800 YOUR VET 1 888 YOUR MDS Calls are routed to you by area code or zip code, or the geographic radius, near or far, that you specify. Pricing is competitive, and start-up's a breeze. http://www.1800brandit.com ************************************************************************* TelecomCareers.net - Cutting Edge Telecom Careers, #1 Telecom Job Site! http://TelecomCareers.net ************************************************************************* P.A.T. - a real Live person inside your voice mail? Yes. P.A.T.LiVE, a division of ATG Technologies, Inc., rents live secretarial services through a toll free number. P.A.T. (Personal Assistance Team) can enhance your productivity and image with rates as low as 3 cents per minute. http://www.patlive.com or 800.775.7790 ************************************************************************* Free Timely Time Management Tips to increase your personal productivity and give you more time and balance for your personal life. Subscribe now at: http://www.topica.com/lists/timemanagement ************************************************************************* Read TOLLFREE-L online at http://www.egroups.com/group/tollfree-l/info.html ************************************************************************* ABOUT ICB ICB HeadsUp Headlines Daily Email is sent by request. Subscriptions are free to qualified applicants. Visit http://www.icbtollfree.com/reg.cfm?NextURL=Index.cfm to sign up. Please feel free to pass along a copy to a friend, within reason so long as the message is not modified or used unfavorably. To unsubscribe mailto:editor@icbtollfree.com, subject: unsubscribe. *************************** ADVERTISING INFORMATION *************************** For information on advertising in ICB HeadsUp Headlines emails, see http://www.icbtollfree.com/advertiz.cfm ************************************************************************* Only subscribers or registered users of ICB Toll Free News web site will be able to access all or some of the full text of URLs provided. ************************************************************************* Copyright © 2000 ICB, Inc. All rights reserved. ************************************************************************* - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Aug 2000 23:42:35 -0400 From: "Curtis R. Anderson" Subject: Re: Phone Fears: Malignant or Benign? Jay Hennigan wrote: > > On 4 Aug 2000 23:09:57 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote: > : > : Phone Fears: Malignant or Benign? (Business 3:00 a.m. PDT) > : http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,38013,00.html?tw=wn20000804 > : Cellphone manufacturers post radiation information on their packages > : while maintaining their products are safe. This in the same week a > : neurologist blames cellphones for brain cancer. By Elisa Batista. > > I'm not sure if this is a government regulation requiring the information > be posted, or the manufacturers reacting to media pressure to list it. > > While field strength in free space is relatively easy to measure or > calculate, the radiation absorbed by the user is quite difficult to > accurately predict as a lot depends on the shape of the user's head and > how the person holds the phone. > > The makers have a tough decision in terms of marketing. On the one hand, > "more powerful" sells the concept that the phone will perform better in > marginal areas, but "less radiation" appeals to the people who buy in to > the cancer scare. > > A few years ago KTLA in Los Angeles put together a documentary of the > history of the station, one of the west coast television pioneers. They > had on the show an engineer who had lived on Mount Wilson for many years > in the transmitter shack. He was in his eighties and seemed quite healthy. > > There should be by now a significant sample of those who have worked in > and around UHF and microwave facilities for a long period. Where's the > data showing increased cancer? > > I, for one, am not buying in to the cancer scare. We beat this one to death over at Slashdot a few weeks ago. My favorite conclusion was that most folks' ignorance of the inverse square law is partly responsible for the scare. They forget if you just turn up the earpiece volume and pull the phone away from your ear a bit that radiation levels fall off significantly. (I can do this on my Nokia 918 as the earpiece is quite loud.) Aren't digital cell phones supposed to transmit with less power anyway? - -- Curtis R. Anderson, Co-creator of "Gleepy the Hen", SP 2.5?, KoX We eat korv, not surströmming or lutefisk in western NY. Sorry. http://www.madbbs.com/users/gleepy/ ICQ: 50137888 mailto:gleepy@intelligencia.com UTM: PS 7036 7315, zone 17 - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Aug 2000 23:44:48 -0400 From: mohaase@nilenet.com (Marty) Subject: Re: NO long distance carrier on phone, but Hacker calls overseas on my line! In article <20000808215248.12186.qmail@ivan.iecc.com>, peny_lane2@my-deja.com wrote: (Snip) > I opened my phone bill today and there were AT&T charges in the amount > of $23.90 for a 3 minute call to an overseas country called Vanuatu. I > called AT&T to find out what Vanuatu was. I was told that it was a > call placed to a porn site and that it worked like a 1-900 call. I > informed AT&T that no such call was made by me or my husband from my > computer or phone. We live alone with our 3 year old grandaughter. We > do not access porno sites on my computer; We do not have a microphone > to make computer sex calls. My desktop stays locked and I do not have > a long distance carrier. I asked, "How can a long distance call be > placed on a line that is not supposed to have long distance capability?" > (Snip) What time was the call placed and what date was it placed? Was the call placed late at night or during the day? Week day, or week end? Could someone get access to your phone WIRES (tap in with a butt set)? If you live in an apartment, do you know if your wires are routed through some other apartment? This was commonly done in older buildings, but newer wiring codes forbid this. They may still be accessable in a utility closet. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 10 Aug 2000 02:11:08 -0400 From: "Michael D. Sullivan" Subject: Re: Extraordinary waste of prefixes in Peoria, IL "Linc Madison" wrote in message news:030820000424174713%lincmad001@telecom-digest.zzn.com... > I was just browsing through the August 2000 NNAG document from > Telcordia TRA, and I noticed something astonishing. Within a one-month > period (8/18 to 9/18/2000), a single operating company is activating > TWENTY prefixes in the Peoria, Illinois, rate center. The company is > McLeod USA Telco of Illinois. The prefixes appear in the NNAG as brand > new, not as existing prefixes being changed to a different OCN. In addition to the possibility that these are actually in different tiny rate centers, as others have suggested, consider that McLeod may have a contract with a web-based "personal number" or "personal fax number" operator. Such a company caused serious problems in New Hampshire with its demands for huge quantities of numbers for assignment to web fax customers. - -- Michael D. Sullivan avogadro@bellatlantic.net Bethesda, MD, USA - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 10 Aug 2000 02:50:27 -0400 From: Linc Madison Subject: Re: Extraordinary waste of prefixes in Peoria, IL In article , Michael D. Sullivan wrote: > "Linc Madison" wrote in message > news:030820000424174713%lincmad001@telecom-digest.zzn.com... > > I was just browsing through the August 2000 NNAG document from > > Telcordia TRA, and I noticed something astonishing. Within a one-month > > period (8/18 to 9/18/2000), a single operating company is activating > > TWENTY prefixes in the Peoria, Illinois, rate center. The company is > > McLeod USA Telco of Illinois. The prefixes appear in the NNAG as brand > > new, not as existing prefixes being changed to a different OCN. > > In addition to the possibility that these are actually in different tiny > rate centers, as others have suggested, consider that McLeod may have a > contract with a web-based "personal number" or "personal fax number" > operator. Such a company caused serious problems in New Hampshire with its > demands for huge quantities of numbers for assignment to web fax customers. They're definitely not in different tiny rate centers. They are all in the Peoria rate center -- the dozen or more prefixes activated earlier this spring and the 20 being activated this month and next. It's certainly possible that one of the web-based fax-and/or-voicemail companies is setting up a major presence, but even so, 350,000 numbers in a span of less than half a year is a bit much. I'm familiar with the cluster of fax numbers in New Hampshire -- I have such a number in the 603-719 prefix, but almost all of my traffic on it is folks in New Hampshire forgetting to put the "1" in front of (719) nxx-xxxx. Strangely enough, they assigned me that number when I said I was in California; when I lied and said I was in Boston, they gave me a number in Arizona. It seems they really want to persuade you to pay extra to get your own area code. In any case, McLeod certainly can't harbor any delusions of coming in as a CLEC and assigning two numbers for every man, woman, and child in Peoria, so there must be *something* else going on. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ End of Telecom Digest V2000 #14 *******************************