Date: 21 Aug 2000 06:15:09 -0400 Message-ID: <20000821101509.18620.qmail@xuxa.iecc.com> From: owner-telecom-digest@telecom-digest.org (Telecom Digest) To: telecom-digest@telecom-digest.org Subject: Telecom Digest V2000 #28 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: 0a35299be673a949ecd49eca35696787 Status: RO X-Status: Telecom Digest Monday, August 21 2000 Volume 2000 : Number 028 In this issue: Phone Surfing for a Few Yen BigZoo - Big Mistake AT&T and 866 - still problematic New IVR,CTI Web Directory AG Reilly Praises Decision to Keep Toysmart From Selling Consumers' Personal Information Re: Phone Surfing for a Few Yen NANP-Expansion; New NPAs, etc., was Re: Wintel (Candian-based LD Carrier/Reseller) Internet Safety ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Aug 2000 17:55:09 -0400 From: "Mike Pollock" Subject: Phone Surfing for a Few Yen By MIKI TANIKAWA Many Japanese mobile phone content providers are in the black, offering dozens of services that have caught large numbers of users and provide new services almost daily -- including cartoons. http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/08/biztech/articles/19japan-cell.html - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 20 Aug 2000 17:58:58 -0400 From: "Andy Ball" Subject: BigZoo - Big Mistake FamilyNet HQ: Telnet:\\www.family-bbs.net Hello Quonk! QU> Good calling cards? I recommend the calling cards > from Sams Club or Costco. Both cost 5.9 cents per > minute with no surcharges. Although 5.9 cents per minute is quite expensive, I might consider it for occasional use depending on how reliable their network (and access to it) is. QU> Or try http://www.bigzoo.com . Or better still, *DON'T* Their network is hideously unreliable and their level of customer service is literally NIL. They've also developed a nasty habit of crediting your account for double the amount you wanted. In short, avoid BigZoo like the plague!! - - Andy Ball * SLMR 2.1a * FamilyNet <> Internet Gated Mail http://www.fmlynet.org - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 20 Aug 2000 18:27:10 -0400 From: "Jeffrey James Bryan Carpenter" Subject: AT&T and 866 - still problematic 866 does NOT work in DC on AT&T wireless, so apparently, they did not fix it nationwide. Sigh. droopy - -- Jeffrey James Bryan Carpenter jjc@pobox.com +1 218 837-6000 - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 20 Aug 2000 18:44:15 -0400 From: "Keith Harper" Subject: New IVR,CTI Web Directory TelephonyIndex - IVR, Call Centre & CTI Resource. Promote your own telephony related website for FREE with TelephonyIndex, the fastest growing computer telephony industry resource on the net! Visit : http://www.telephonyindex.co.uk/ Regards, keith@telephonyindex.co.uk - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 20 Aug 2000 20:39:05 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AG Reilly Praises Decision to Keep Toysmart From Selling Consumers' Personal Information http://www.ago.state.ma.us/toystoys.asp Office of Attorney General Tom Reilly NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AUGUST 17, 2000 CONTACT: MARSHA COHEN (617) 727-2543 A.G. REILLY PRAISES DECISION TO KEEP TOYSMART FROM SELLING CONSUMERS' PERSONAL INFORMATION BOSTON -- Attorney General Tom Reilly praised the fact that a decision by a federal bankruptcy judge will keep a bankrupt online toy store from selling consumers' personal information for now. United States Bankruptcy Court Judge Carol Kenner today denied a motion by Toysmart.com to approve a settlement it had reached with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to sell its customer list as an asset to a third party. Toysmart.com is an educational on-line toy store based in Waltham. Judge Kenner put off a final decision on whether the customer list can be sold in the future and, if so, whether restrictions will be imposed. The list cannot be sold as long as there is no buyer, which means that the rights of Toysmart's customers remain protected. "This decision is a victory for consumers and everyone interested in Internet privacy," said AG Reilly. "For now, the Attorneys General have achieved their goal by preserving the privacy rights of Toysmart's customers." "When this issue comes up again, and we expect that it could in this case, we will continue to fight for the highest standard when it comes to protecting the personal information consumers give over the internet," AG Reilly added. "I am proud that Massachusetts led this effort to protect the privacy rights of unsuspecting consumers and to keep their very personal information out of the hands of the highest bidder." AG Reilly led 43 other states and two territories, and the District of Columbia in objecting to the settlement, saying it did not go far enough to adequately protect the privacy rights of consumers, and urging that the customer list should not be sold without consumers first agreeing. Toysmart had posted on its website a policy pledging that the company would never share its customers' personal information with third parties. However, after financial problems forced Toysmart to file for bankruptcy, the company did seek permission to sell the customer list that contained consumers' names, addresses, billing information, credit card numbers and browsing and purchasing histories as part of its assets. This effort was opposed by the states and initially by the FTC. Recently, the FTC settled its concerns with Toysmart, and filed the stipulation in Bankruptcy Court that required Judge Kenner's approval. The other states and territories joining Attorney General Reilly in the case are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, and the District of Columbia. Assistant Attorney General Pamela Kogut of AG Reilly's Consumer Protection and Antitrust Division handled the case. Click here to read the Bankruptcy Court filing... http://www.ago.state.ma.us/oppositi.pdf - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 20 Aug 2000 20:43:47 -0400 From: John De Hoog Subject: Re: Phone Surfing for a Few Yen Mike Pollock wrote... >Many Japanese mobile phone content providers are in the black, offering >dozens of services that have caught large numbers of users and provide new >services almost daily -- including cartoons. > >http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/08/biztech/articles/19japan-cell.html Note, however, that this does not translate automatically into success outside of Japan. We have some special conditions here. First, for millions of users mobile phones are their only connection to the Internet. They do not have Internet connections at home with large screens, so they don't consider the small mobile phone screens much of a problem. Second, at least in big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, travel is not by car so much as by train or on foot. People can be seen everywhere walking around with their mobile phones, exchanging mail or checking the latest baseball scores or stock prices. I realize people in the US might be inclined to do the same thing in their cars (at great risk to themselves and those around them), but it would seem much more practical for pedestrians. A third factor, I believe, is the finger dexterity of Japanese people in general, allowing them to exchange messages and make information requests on those tiny mobile phone keypads with amazing speed. I've heard of young high-schoolers who compose messages secretly during class, hardly even looking down at the keypad as their fingers fly over it selecting from a couple thousand Japanese characters. - -- John De Hoog, Tokyo http://dehoog.org - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 20 Aug 2000 21:51:51 -0400 From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: NANP-Expansion; New NPAs, etc., was Re: Wintel (Candian-based LD Carrier/Reseller) Joey Lindstrom wrote: > Peter Corlett wrote: >> Joey Lindstrom wrote: >>> You then dial the ten-digit number you want (overseas calls are also >>> permitted but you precede them with "999", then country code, then >>> the rest), and voila!, your call goes through. >> That 999 stuff looks a bit of a nasty kludge - why not use the NANP or >> ITU defined number space instead? > It's a very low-tech operation. Basically, once you dial into your > local access number, it presents you with a second dial tone. It was > originally designed only for North American calling, so it expects you > to dial your number as ten-digits - 3 for area code, 3 for CO code, and > 4 for subscriber line. When they introduced overseas calling, I guess > they musta figured it was cheaper and easier to kludge it this way, by > forcing you to use an "area code" of 999, then followed by the > (variable-length) full international number, rather than using the > potentially-confusing plan of having you dial > 011-countrycode-citycode-number. Potentially confusing because you may > have already dialed long distance to get to this access number - it > would break many people's minds if they had to dial ANOTHER long > distance escape sequence to complete their call. :-) FYI, at this point in time, the NANP 3-digit NPA codes of the N9X format (eighty total) were reserved for "future expansion" purposes at some point in the future, to a NANP-format number of "greater than ten-digits". No word yet from the INC on any agreed upon option for expanding the NANP format number - they have been discussing it for some five-plus years now of different options, etc. The N9X format codes were "reserved" as such sometime around 1993/94, in preparation for "what ranges" should be "flagged" when the NANP actually started adding NNX format area codes (to the already existing N0X and N1X codes, to make NPA codes a complete NXX range format), beginning January 1995. IMO (and in others' opinions as well), the most LOGICAL expansion of the NANP ten-digit format to "something longer" would be to take existing 3-digit area codes, and insert a '9' between the existing first and second digits for a new 4-digit NPA code. 212 would become 2912 504 would become 5904 etc. There could be a "permissive" dial period where one could dial the existing 3-digit area code of the ten-digit format, as well as dialing the new 4-digit area code of a longer-than-ten-digit format, since the second digit of '9' would indicate to switch translations to expect a longer-than-ten-digit NANP number. Then after a year or two, the expanded format would become MANDATORY for dialing. 212(X), 504(X), etc. would be considered "vacant" (4-digit) area codes (ranges), and then as needed, these ranges could then be assigned for new 4-digit area codes. However, this MOST LOGICAL (thanks Linc and James! :) expansion plan is still _NOT_ anything official by the INC/NANPA/FCC/CRTC/etc. So, as long as the INC and NANPA doesn't "take away" the reservation of those eighty N9X codes, and if N9X is still used for expansion purposes, as long as the expansion doesn't take effect for some time to come, Wintel's use of '999' instead of 011+ for Intl/Ovs calls from the NANP doesn't "break" anything, although it does appear "unique" and "violating" the traditional NANP dialing procedures. However, many PBX/Cellular systems, wireless/cellular systems, COCOT payphones, "other LD carriers" dialup platforms (usually for card billing) such as Wintel, and even some independent telco (public) POTS/PSTN central offices -- are KNOWN to frequently implement all KINDS of "non-NANP-standard" dialing procedures. The (non-US) NANP-Caribbean is another example of non-standard dialing for NANP-toll, Customer-dialed Opr/Spcl.Billed toll, and Intl/Ovs dialing procedures, as they all don't necessarily use '0(#)', N11, 1+/0+, 01(1)+, etc. but frequently still maintain their _OWN_ unique service/access codes. NANPA has their list of *XX(X) = 11-XX(X) "vertical service code" assignment recommendations, but the NANP telephone industry (PBX, etc) frequently has their own uses for a particular numerical *XX(X) code. Independents, and even BOCs, don't necessarily follow the NANPA list. > They used to be really bad at loading new area codes in - oftentimes, > new area codes that had gone to mandatory dialing were still not > useable with Wintel. Typical of post-1994 NANP service! :( > Nowadays (for the past year and a half at any rate), they have the new > codes loaded almost as soon as they're announced and LONG before > permissive dialing goes into effect. Well, at least they probably have someone at Wintel in numbering, routings, or translations who attends the ATIS meetings, and/or regularly checks the ATIS, Telcordia-TRA, Telcordia.com (general company), NANPA, etc. websites! MJC - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 20 Aug 2000 22:12:47 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Internet Safety The Internet, Your Child and You. What Every Parent Should Know http://www.ago.state.ma.us/intrnet2.pdf Internet Safety: Advice From Kids Who Have Faced Danger Online http://www.ago.state.ma.us/intsafe.pdf - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ End of Telecom Digest V2000 #28 *******************************