Date: 27 Aug 2000 06:15:10 -0400 Message-ID: <20000827101510.5425.qmail@xuxa.iecc.com> From: owner-telecom-digest@telecom-digest.org (Telecom Digest) To: telecom-digest@telecom-digest.org Subject: Telecom Digest V2000 #34 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: 2953698cba747d229817a408707b4354 Status: RO X-Status: Telecom Digest Sunday, August 27 2000 Volume 2000 : Number 034 In this issue: NYTimes.com Article: A Telephone Contract Set, Service Is Next Re: Update: Verizon Hole still Open Re: Update: Verizon Hole still Open Re: AT&T's contribution to network radio Re: Wired News : New Toys for Cheating Students Another Update: Verizon Compromising Customer Privacy New Computer Telephony Resource CWA Operating verizonREALLYsucks Web Site Re: CWA Operating verizonREALLYsucks Web Site COCOTs charging for 800 information? Re: COCOTs charging for 800 information? Re: Another one of AT&T's contribution to network radio ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 26 Aug 2000 12:16:00 -0400 From: itsamike@yahoo.com Subject: NYTimes.com Article: A Telephone Contract Set, Service Is Next This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by Mike Pollock itsamike@yahoo.com. Telcom Digest Whatever you do, don't archive this! Mike Pollock itsamike@yahoo.com /-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\ Celebrate Summer with a NYTimes.com Photo Screensaver NYTimes.com's latest screensaver captures the unforgettable moments from Coney Island amusement park. Enjoy these images every day on your computer, absolutely free. http://www.nytimes.com/partners/screensaver/index.html?eta2 \----------------------------------------------------------/ A Telephone Contract Set, Service Is Next August 25, 2000 By SIMON ROMERO Verizon Communicationsand the remainder of its striking workers settled a walkout late Wednesday after an 18-day strike. It will take the company almost twice that long to work through its backlog of repairs and orders. Although about two-thirds of the strikers had reached an agreement with the company and returned to work in New York and New England earlier in the week, 35,000 members of the Communications Workers of America in several mid-Atlantic states remained on strike until yesterday. An agreement in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Washington was reached after Verizon, which was created by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE, agreed to lower mandatory overtime to a maximum of 7.5 hours a week for customer service representatives, down from 15 hours previously. Other union members agreed to a maximum of 8 hours. Otherwise the settlements for the members of the unions that went on strike, the communications workers' union and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, are basically the same in the two regions. They include wage and benefit increases, stock options, greater job security and more flexibility to organize in Verizon's fast-growing wireless division. Other provisions of the settlement for both regions include coverage for obesity treatment, discounted laser eye surgery, coverage for reproductive and fertility treatment, adoption reimbursement, increased reimbursement for dental care and a bilingual pay differential of 3.5 percent for workers who do jobs that require more than one language. The agreement is subject to ratification by union members through the mail, in a process expected to take two to three weeks. Verizon is now turning to the demands of its customers. It will take about a month for the company to work through roughly 50,000 delayed repairs and more than 200,000 orders for new service as a result of the strike. But many customers are already frustrated. "I will never give Verizon another cent in my life," said Chiwoniso Kaitano, 25, a graduate student at Columbia University from Zimbabwe. "During the strike they told me it would take 48 hours to get a phone in my new apartment and now they're telling me it will be another month. This reminds me of the telecom services of an underdeveloped country." Customers in need of new phone service have few alternatives aside from acquiring a wireless phone, as Ms. Kaitano said she planned to do -- from a carrier other than Verizon. Even if customers try to get local dial-tone service from one of Verizon's competitors like AT&T or MCI Worldcom, there could be delays because those companies use parts of Verizon's network. "The main thing people can do is be patient," said Eric Rabe, Verizon's spokesman. Verizon customers in the 12 Eastern states and Washington where the strike took place can call customer-service numbers on their bills. Or they can use the Verizon Web site, www.verizon.com, to order new service or request repairs. Verizon also sought to reassure investors and press forward with its corporate strategies. The company said the settlement would not affect its earnings in coming quarters, and investors bid up the company's shares $1.13, to $41.63. The company's wireless division, which operates as a venture with Vodafone AirTouch of Britain, filed yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell as much as $5 billion of shares in what would be one of the largest initial public offerings ever. The share sale, which is being managed by Goldman, Sachs & Company and Merrill Lynch & Company, is expected before the end of this year. Although Verizon and the union reached a settlement, they showed some evidence of lingering bad feelings. According to Verizon, negotiators for members of the communications' workers union in the mid-Atlantic states submitted several demands after their colleagues in New York and New England returned to work on Monday. Related Site This site are not part of The New York Times on the Web, and The Times has no control over its content or availability. www.verizon.com   The New York Times on the Web http://www.nytimes.com /-----------------------------------------------------------------\ Visit NYTimes.com for complete access to the most authoritative news coverage on the Web, updated throughout the day. Become a member today! It's free! http://www.nytimes.com?eta \-----------------------------------------------------------------/ HOW TO ADVERTISE - --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact Alyson Racer at alyson@nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@nytimes.com. Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Aug 2000 12:21:55 -0400 From: Alan Boritz Subject: Re: Update: Verizon Hole still Open Monty Solomon wrote: >Update: Verizon Hole still Open > >Managers at the largest regional telco pulled an all-nighter Sunday >to fix a web application that allowed access to customer records. >Today it's harder to find, but still up. It's not hard at all to find. I've got the "secure" status page up right now on IE5, and it was no problem at all to grab the java scripts out of one of the temporary internet file directories. This is the field that caused all the excitement, as loaded into my browser: It's from the script that begins:
- -- Perhaps the biggest risk that no one has addressed yet is that Verizon's web site loads a lot of confidential LMOS data with NO verification of who has the right to view it. The fact that Verizon is making account info available to EVERYONE in the entire world with a web browser is far more important than their loading the "Customer Is Irate" field value into a browser queue. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Aug 2000 15:45:57 -0400 From: Alan Boritz Subject: Re: Update: Verizon Hole still Open Monty Solomon wrote: >Update: Verizon Hole still Open ... >http://www.securityfocus.com/news/75 BTW, there's something very bogus about this site. SecurityFocus.com apparently is not allowing either the page or the frame with this story to be printed within Netscape v4.74. Perhaps they've intended to only allow the page to be viewed with obnoxious ads intact, while not permitting the article to be printed? - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Aug 2000 16:38:21 -0400 From: Dale Neiburg Subject: Re: AT&T's contribution to network radio Mark Cuccia wrote: >But seriously-NBC, CBS, Mutual, ABC and DuMont >were BIG customers of AT&T/The Bell System, >for leasing all of those telco-owned >lines and circuits to distribute network radio/TV, >so Telco made sure that these lines were in the >best operating order [....snip!] >I do remember that an AT&T Long Lines retiree >recently told me (and he started with Long Lines >in 1952) that at major AT&T centers around >the country where the radio and television network >feeds were controlled, in the OVERNIGHT period >(back then, the networks weren't usually >feeding programs on a 24-hour basis), >to make sure that the lines were in operational >order for the early morning 15-minute newscasts (CBS >World News Roundup, NBC News of the World, ABC News >Around the World, Mutual's 15-min morning newscast >and I can't really remember >its "catchy" title right now), AT&T would feed music >and programming of interest to telephone company >employees down the CBS/NBC/Mutual/ABC lines. >Testmen/techs and even Operators, particularly >in slow parts of the overnight, would frequently >listen in to these AT&T-fed music/news >programs over the AT&T-owned lines used for the radio networks. >If there were a "break" in the line somewhere, >or a circuit or equalizer/ amplifier went down somewhere, >there would have been SOME form of >program being fed in the overnight hours, that >would be interrupted, and telco techs could try >to trace the source of the outage and try to >either have it repaired, or the feeds re-routed, >so that when the local radio affiliates signed on >in the morning [...] and then opened up their "pot" >to CBS/NBC/Mutual/ABC, they could get >the program feeds, without even knowing that >things had to be re-routed or fixed[....] That procedure had fallen by the wayside when I joined NPR in the '70s, when we used telco land lines for program distribution, but we had our own variant. During off-hours, we fed country & western music down the lines. That was the telco test board techs' preferred genre, and they were careful to keep our lines sounding good! >You couldn't have CBS affiliates signing on >in the mornings expecting "Arthur Godfrey Time" >and not receiving it... or ABC affiliates not getting >"Don McNeil's Breakfast Club", or NBC stations >not getting "NBC Bandstand", or Mutual stations >not getting their morning news and >entertainment programs... And, in fact, they did so well that slipups stand out in my memory as distinctly rare events! (But there was the morning that NPR got swapped with CBS-TV, so that people tuning in to Morning Edition heard Captain Kangaroo, and kids turning on the TV to watch the Captain heard him speaking with the voice of Bob Edwards....) Dale Neiburg ** NPR Satellite Operations ** 202-414-2640 "To give an accurate and exhaustive account...would require a far less brilliant pen than mine." --Max Beerbohm - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Aug 2000 16:38:22 -0400 From: Dale Neiburg Subject: Re: Wired News : New Toys for Cheating Students Sandra Richards wrote: >>Most wireless industry experts, however, predict that someday teachers >>in secondary and higher education will administer tests on PDAs, >>formatting them so that every student has a different set of >>questions. Imagine how upset you'd be if the answer you received from >>your friend corresponded to a completely different question. >> >>Oh man ... do you realize this technology may blow the concept >>of standardized testing out the window (College Boards, GMAT, LSAT, GRE, >>etc) [snip!] - - ------------------------------ >Actually it won't change much in the way of testing because you can ask the kids the same >questions in a different order. Most students >aren't going to have enough time to read both the test question and the electronic device >to make sure that they get the answer in the correct >location. Most Standardize test these days have multiple test that they administer at any >given time already to avoid Cheating. In fact when I >sat for my GRE exam the proctor told us that it wouldn't due us any good to look at the >person's sheet next to us because we were given >different test include the order in which the exam was given. The new computer-administered GRE, at least, creates the test as it goes, based on the applicant's answer to the previous question. As you miss questions the computer asks you easier ones, and when you give right answers it asks harder ones. In the good old days, everyone got the same questions and you were graded on the variable of how many you got right. Now (at least in theory) everyone will get about the same number of right answers and you're graded on the variable of the difficulty of the questions you're being asked. Dale Neiburg ** NPR Satellite Operations ** 202-414-2640 "Lutfen pasaportunuzu gorebilir miyim?" - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Aug 2000 17:04:00 -0400 From: Alan Boritz Subject: Another Update: Verizon Compromising Customer Privacy I was following up the Verizon web based customer record privacy issue and discovered something even more interesting. In the script that retrieves ELMOS records from Bell Atlantic "secure" servers I discovered this little piece of code (reformatted to fit this space):
Telephone Number:
(201) XXX-XXXX [my phone number blanked out]
... [script continues] There's nothing at the Verizon web site to indicate what www.circleinteractive.com is, and they apparently don't have a public web site. A little searching came up with Snyder Communications, and an old press release that boasted "Circle Interactive" as their interactive services unit. Bell Atlantic is listed as a customer of both Snyder and Circle (who recently merged with Tsunami Consulting and Natural Intelligence, Inc.). However, this web site is registered to "Kevin Swope," of Marblehead, MA, who also registered kms.net. Both web sites are served by shore.net, in Lynn, MA. Verizon's privacy policy at their main web site states that non-identifiable customer information is provided to some agencies, but my phone number, email address, and telephone service address sure isn't "non-identifiable." Although Kevin Poulsen's 8/14/00 article on the Verizon web site problems suggested that Verizon pulled an "all-nighter," only four files in their javascript library appear to have been modified (within scripts.jar): Archive: scripts.jar Length Method Size Ratio Date Time CRC-32 Name ------ ------ ---- ----- ---- ---- ------ ---- 2393 Defl:N 1000 58% 08-15-00 17:38 4050eecf META-INF/MANIFEST.MF 5560 Defl:N 1486 73% 06-26-00 09:59 dac2c70e ALERT.js 1454 Defl:N 523 64% 06-14-00 11:44 16ed8924 CONFIRM.js 18660 Defl:N 4798 74% 08-08-00 18:54 f5fcae34 AutoTab.js 5999 Defl:N 797 87% 06-12-00 13:52 8288e489 CheckDate.js 795 Defl:N 326 59% 08-09-00 18:34 a2ce3568 CheckMaxInput.js 1173 Defl:N 424 64% 08-14-00 14:41 77fd33bb HC_ELEMENTS_MSG.js 6309 Defl:N 1849 71% 08-01-00 14:06 b9916790 HC_Modal.js 9614 Defl:N 2327 76% 06-22-00 18:41 8b7950df HandleCodes.js 2956 Defl:N 798 73% 06-12-00 13:24 46ee60ef LMOS_STATUS_CODES.js 5695 Defl:N 1337 77% 08-15-00 15:02 6ec86a64 Links.js 1592 Defl:N 441 72% 06-12-00 13:34 896d3aec TRBL_DESC_DECODE.js 10040 Defl:N 966 90% 08-14-00 14:44 7ba3dd87 TRBL_STATUS_DECODE.js 2011 Defl:N 743 63% 06-22-00 15:24 aaf21969 Tools.js 352 Defl:N 238 32% 08-14-00 14:44 0d493115 Variables.js 3468 Defl:N 1078 69% 08-01-00 15:52 f64a2141 hcEnv.js 2668 Defl:N 610 77% 08-02-00 10:38 7ca957b5 PreloadImages.js 4015 Defl:N 714 82% 08-09-00 16:45 a28caab8 NPA_NXX.js 93 Defl:N 55 41% 08-15-00 17:37 ff959bdf HC.js ------ ------ --- ------- 84847 20510 76% 19 files And, although a big fuss was made over the "Customer Is Irate" database field, which has been common knowledge in the telecom business for many years, this other ELMOS field seems to have gone unnoticed: Is this being used to track "adverse comments" from customers, or to pass "adverse comments" about customers between customer service reps? - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Aug 2000 18:23:07 -0400 From: "Keith Harper" Subject: New Computer Telephony Resource GOOD NEWS!! A comprehensive resource for locating Interactive Voice Response, Call Center and Computer/Internet Telephony products & services has been launched! Visit - http://www.TelephonyIndex.co.uk Your feedback, suggestions & opinions would be most welcome! Regards, Keith Harper. keith@telephonyindex.co.uk - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Aug 2000 21:38:59 -0400 From: Alan Boritz Subject: CWA Operating verizonREALLYsucks Web Site By now it's probably common knowledge that Verizon registered the domain name verizonsucks.com with their identity change: Registrant: Bell Atlantic Trademark Services LLC (VERIZONSUCKS-DOM) 1320 North Court House Road, 8th Floor Arlington, VA 22201 US Domain Name: VERIZONSUCKS.COM ... Record last updated on 31-May-2000. Record expires on 11-Nov-2001. Record created on 11-Nov-1999. Database last updated on 26-Aug-2000 08:39:26 EDT. Domain servers in listed order: NS13.WORLDNIC.COM 216.168.225.143 NS14.WORLDNIC.COM 216.168.225.144 But it may not be common knowledge that someone else grabbed the domain verizonreallysucks.com: Registrant: 2600 Enterprises (VERIZONREALLYSUCKS-DOM) PO Box 848 Middle Island, NY 11953 US Domain Name: VERIZONREALLYSUCKS.COM Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact, Billing Contact: Goldstein, Emmanuel (EG1) emmanuel@2600.COM P.O. Box 848 Middle Island, NY 11953-0848 (516) 751-2600 (FAX) (516) 474-2677 Record last updated on 04-Apr-2000. Record expires on 04-Apr-2001. Record created on 04-Apr-2000. Database last updated on 26-Aug-2000 08:38:55 EDT. Domain servers in listed order: PHALSE.2600.COM 216.66.24.2 FOO.NOTWORK.NET 207.99.30.40 http://www.verizonreallysucks.com brings up the Communications Workers of America web site, with special coverage of their strike against Verizon. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Aug 2000 21:53:01 -0400 From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: CWA Operating verizonREALLYsucks Web Site It was a dark and stormy night when Alan Boritz first wrote: >But it may not be common knowledge that someone else grabbed the domain >verizonreallysucks.com: > >Registrant: >2600 Enterprises (VERIZONREALLYSUCKS-DOM) > Domain Name: VERIZONREALLYSUCKS.COM > > Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact, Billing Contact: > Goldstein, Emmanuel (EG1) emmanuel@2600.COM ;-> For those who don't recognize that name, Mr. Goldstein is the editor of "2600-The Hacker Quarterly" and defendant in the recent DeCSS trial. And, presumably, a dissatisfied Verizon customer. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Aug 2000 23:50:46 -0400 From: Phil Earnhardt Subject: COCOTs charging for 800 information? Are the owners of COCOTs allowed to charge for calls to 800 information? A local pay phone was doing that. Particularly galling was that my prepaid calling card wouldn't complete the call either -- "because it's free". If the charges are a violation of a tarriff, who do I complain to? Any other suggestions? It was at a local Jiffy Lube (30th north of Arapahoe in Boulder, CO). I left a note for the District Manager that this particular COCOT was lousy for customer service and to get pay phone service with someone else. - --phil - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 27 Aug 2000 02:34:06 -0400 From: John_David_Galt@acm.org Subject: Re: COCOTs charging for 800 information? Phil Earnhardt wrote: > Are the owners of COCOTs allowed to charge for calls to 800 > information? A local pay phone was doing that. Particularly galling > was that my prepaid calling card wouldn't complete the call either -- > "because it's free". It's against federal law to charge for calls to toll-free numbers. (Several years ago the FCC ordered 800 number owners to start paying COCOT owners a fee for each call "for tying up their equipment" for calls the COCOT couldn't charge the user for. Result: some 800/8xx numbers now refuse all calls from pay phones. I would have let the COCOTs charge the price of a local call instead.) I assume you'd complain to the FCC. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 27 Aug 2000 05:58:05 -0400 From: "Ed Ellers" Subject: Re: Another one of AT&T's contribution to network radio Joseph Singer wrote: "I'm not totally up on my history, but today NBC's parent company is in fact GE which was formerly RCA." GE, which bought RCA. "If you watch NBC's night time programming sometimes they will show the studio building from which the broadcast originates. Whereas formerly there was a big RCA on top of the building (known then as the RCA building) there is now a very uninteresting looking pair of letters G E on top of the building now. (BTW, those are very uninteresting to me... why didn't they use the "scripted" GE that the company has used for year?)" Probably because the script would be harder to read at a distance. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ End of Telecom Digest V2000 #34 *******************************