Date: 5 Aug 2000 06:15:12 -0400 Message-ID: <20000805101512.12729.qmail@xuxa.iecc.com> From: owner-telecom-digest@telecom-digest.org (Telecom Digest) To: telecom-digest@telecom-digest.org Subject: Telecom Digest V2000 #8 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: f16cc3af293122a4d34c16fdbc3a79e4 Status: RO X-Status: Telecom Digest Saturday, August 5 2000 Volume 2000 : Number 008 In this issue: BigZoo (was: PTI Communications) Another comparison service Any experience with DirectONE long distance? how the testifying went (more embarrassing reports) International country code news, questions Extraordinary waste of prefixes in Peoria, IL Re: how the testifying went (more embarrassing reports) Online-payment service PayPal shifts policy in battle on fraud Fact Sheet on Export Control on Computers Phone Fears: Malignant or Benign? Wireless PDAs to Toon In Re: Extraordinary waste of prefixes in Peoria, IL Registrar Sues for Whois Spam The Heat's on Cellphone Driving Court to Address DeCSS T-Shirt Spectrum Auction Still on Horizon Seven Deadly Email Thoughts Re: Bigzoo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 4 Aug 2000 12:12:02 -0400 From: "John E. Bartley" Subject: BigZoo (was: PTI Communications) On 3 Aug 2000 14:29:02 -0400, "q'onkh abdullah" wrote: >Then I finally got hooked on bigzoo.com. (Warning: their access >number is busy in the evening, but with persistance you can get through. You have >to be willing to suffer a bit.) Bigzoo? Here's what I found so far.... It's a cardless calling card service. You account is established via an SSL session on their website. US inter- and intra-state costs $0.039/min (except in selected portions of (201), (248), (253), (313), (415), (425), (510) , (626) , (858), (908) and (973), where a local access number lowers the ppm to $0.036/min. Calling BC costs $0.078/min., and other international calling from the States is permitted (although Bigzoo does not yet support calling from outside the States). There's a $0.75/mo. service charge. The card cancels itself unless you add more $$ every six months, and the minimum input is $5. BigZoo.com, Corp 624 S. Grand Ave. #2900 Los Angeles, CA 90068 USA 213-426-6503 213-426-6535 Fax- 213-452-7026 is related to VERTEX GROUP, INC. 624 S. Grand Ave. Suite 2900 Los Angeles, CA 90017 USA PRODUCT(S) CARRIED: Talking NT Enterprise SQL CONTACT: Jim Chiu PHONE: (213) 426-6535 FAX: (213) 452-7050 EMAIL: Fmeng@[[microsoft's web based email service]].com WEB SITE: www.vertextelecom.com http://www.bbbsouthland.org/howtoreport.html reported Vertex started business on 1995-11-01 and their file w/ BBB was opened 1999-09-30. "Based on our standards, we rate this company as having a satisfactory business record. To be rated satisfactory, we must first have company background information. The company must also have been established long enough for us to gain a clear understanding of the nature of its business to determine that it is not a marketplace problem. Finally, the company must have given proper consideration to any matters we may have referred to it. Our complaint history for this company shows that this business has a clear record. To date, no customer complaints have come to our attention. This company is a member of the Better Business Bureau and has agreed to the Bureau's membership standards, which include a commitment to ethical business practices. A Better Business Bureau report is based on our file information and experience with an individual company over the past three years. The Bureau does not endorse, recommend, or disapprove of any company, product or service.". Who else uses them? Experience, please? Thank you in advance. BTW, didja ever notice you can enter a phone number into Google and get a better reverse directory than most reverse directories? - -- John Bartley, PC sysadmin, Portland OR Views expressed are mine own. "We should call this Day One of Year One." RAH to Walter Cronkhite, 1969-07-20 - --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 12:12:04 -0400 From: "John E. Bartley" Subject: Another comparison service Another LD rate comparison website which also compares cellular services is available at . Add it to >http://www.abelltolls.com> - -- John Bartley, PC sysadmin, Portland OR Views expressed are mine own. "We should call this Day One of Year One." RAH to Walter Cronkhite, 1969-07-20 - --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 12:12:03 -0400 From: "John E. Bartley" Subject: Any experience with DirectONE long distance? DirectONE is touting "four free round-trip plane tickets" (Air Slobbovovia?) for their plan also including two hours of weekend domestic calls per month and four voice mail boxes and an 800 number, with "No sign-up charges, contracts, or commitments, and no risk" (!!) www.freelotto.com in turn is listed in SamSpade.org as: PlasmaNet FreeLotto 420 Lexington Ave., Suite 2025 New York , NY 10170 US 212-931-6760 Fax- 212-931-6761 The NYC BBB notes the FreeLotto CEO is a Mr. Aronin, reports a satisfactory rating, and adds "This firm has received 1 complaint (s) in the last 36 months. 1 of those 1 complaint(s) were received in the last 12 months...This company has responded to the one complaint brought to its attention by the Bureau." has no listing for this company. Now that I've deluged you with this info, anyone have any experience with these companies? - --- John Bartley, PC sysadmin, Portland OR Views expressed are mine own. "We should call this Day One of Year One." RAH to Walter Cronkhite, 1969-07-20 - --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 13:44:37 -0400 From: Bennett Haselton Subject: how the testifying went (more embarrassing reports) [sent to journalists on Peacefire's press contacts list] Yesterday morning I testified at the COPA Commission's third and final hearing on blocking software, in San Jose. There were several informative speakers who brought statistics about teens' versus adults' poll responses, or opinion gaps between Americans and Europeans, but nobody else really talking about flaws in the blocking programs. During the first panel, several speakers commented that they thought there should be an "independent review board" to look at the quality of different blocking programs ("Maybe FamilyPC or somebody"), so I thought that was a nice lead-in to Peacefire's presentation :) The first new report we presented was on SurfWatch. We collected a list of the first 1,000 working .com domains in an alphabetical listing, and checked them against SurfWatch's "Sexually Explicit" category. Of the 51 domains that were blocked, 42 were obvious errors, and only 9 were pornographic. Since we started with a representative cross-section of all .com domains, this means for every one pornographic site blocked by SurfWatch, about four non-pornographic sites are blocked! A VP from SurfWatch, who testified before I did, said at the time that he hoped more independent groups would evaluate their software. (That's why I like going last.) That report is at: http://www.peacefire.org/censorware/SurfWatch/first-1000-com-domains.html We also submitted two reports on FamilyClick and Cyber Sentinel, which we chose because they both claimed high rates of accuracy in not blocking non-pornographic content, and they both had representatives sitting on the Commission (i.e. *they* were supposed to be the ones grilling *me*). Those reports are at: http://peacefire.org/censorware/FamilyClick/familyclick-blocked.html http://peacefire.org/censorware/Cyber_Sentinel/cyber-sentinel-blocked.html Sites blocked by FamilyClick included a report on the AIDS problem in China, a report on the gambling problem in Washington state, and a page of dietary advice for victims of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Sites blocked by Cyber Sentinel included bios of two COPA Commission members, all of CNN.com, and searches on Wired.com, News.com, Time.com and USAToday.com for "COPA". (This might seem overbroad, but remember that here we're not talking about industry leaders like SurfWatch who have been around for five years and have managed to get their error rate almost all the way down to 80%.) The representative from Cyber Sentinel did acknowledge that overblocking with their program had been widely reported and would be fixed in their next version. (Of course, if the overblocking was so easy to discover in independent tests, why didn't they find and fix the problem before they released the original program three years ago?) Donna Rice Hughes was unfortunately not attending in her "official" capacity as a FamilyClick consultant so there wasn't much she could say about our report, although the mistakes are not really FamilyClick's fault anyway since they use the third-party I-Gear program. So, I was pleasantly surprised that the COPA Commission invited Peacefire to begin with (it takes some guts to recognize us at all, since we have the censorware-hacking instructions on our page), and I was glad that, judging from the questions afterwards, many of the Commission members really took in what our reports were saying. Of course, we can't measure their open-mindedness for certain until their final report comes out in November, but in the meantime we were glad for a chance to get our findings into the official record. -Bennett bennett@peacefire.org http://www.peacefire.org (425) 649 9024 - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 21:49:55 -0400 From: Linc Madison Subject: International country code news, questions 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. All of the +37X codes in Europe are now active, EXCEPT +379 for Vatican City. There is no word on when +379 might be implemented. I would think that the end of this year would be a good time, since their numbers will be changing anyway with the next phase of the Italian renumbering. The +423 code for Liechtenstein is active, but there are still some countries not yet routing to it, so the old +41 75 code remains in parallel running for the time being. LTN hopes to make an announcement soon of a disconnect date for +41 75, possibly in the first half of 2001, depending on progress in resolving the remaining issues with routing to +423. East Timor has been assigned +670, formerly used for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI, now +1 670). The implementation date and other details are not yet set. The telecom infrastructure in East Timor is in serious disrepair due to the years of armed conflict there. At present, the interim government is reached via a switchboard in Darwin, Australia. SUMMARY: +370 Lithuania +371 Latvia +372 Estonia +373 Moldova +374 Armenia +375 Belarus +376 Andorra +377 Monaco +378 San Marino +379 Vatican City (Assigned, but not active; use +39 06 6988.xxxx. As of 12/31/2000, use +39 46 6988.xxxx.) +420 Czech Republic +421 Slovakia +423 Liechtenstein (+41 75 in parallel use, to be discont'd 2001?) +670 East Timor (Assigned, but not active; hoping for service in 2001. Temporarily using +672 9 for some services. The U.N. Temporary Administration (UNTAET) is reached by a switchboard in Darwin, Australia, +61 8.) (former +670 = CNMI is now mandatory +1 670) +7 Russia, Kazakhstan (only, although some former Soviet republics might still have parallel running with their old +7 codes) +992 Tajikistan +993 Turkmenistan +994 Azerbaijan +995 Georgia +996 Kyrgyz Republic +998 Uzbekistan QUESTIONS: 1. Does the Vatican have any plans to implement +379? If so, when? How many digits of the current number in Rome will be used? So far as I can tell, Vatican numbers have only four significant digits, which coincides with the minimum length for the national portion of a properly formatted international number. 2. Which, if any, of the +37X and +99X countries are still in parallel running with their former codes? 3. Is there any official word regarding the future of Kazakhstan? Is it going to remain in +7? - -- For faster replies, use Telecom # LincMad * com, substituting punctuation - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 21:49:54 -0400 From: Linc Madison Subject: Extraordinary waste of prefixes in Peoria, IL 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. ACTIVATING 8/18/2000: (309) 201 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 ACTIVATING 9/18/2000: (309) 401 413 415 418 420 425 431 435 437 439 The other data for all the prefixes is the same: EOC N PEORILTC5MD DS 7393 368 PEORIA 06362 03592 That's an AWFULLY big chunk of numbers at one time for a CLEC in a town of fewer than 200,000 people. Essentially what McLeod is saying is that they are going to sign up every single man, woman, and child in Peoria and outlying areas in the blink of an eye. I'd say this block of requests should be referred to the ICC for investigation, because it sure looks like this CLEC is biting off far more than it has any cause to. - -- For faster replies, use Telecom # LincMad * com, substituting punctuation - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 21:57:01 -0400 From: Roy Smith Subject: Re: how the testifying went (more embarrassing reports) Bennett Haselton wrote: > The first new report we presented was on SurfWatch. We collected a > list of the first 1,000 working .com domains in an alphabetical > listing, and checked them against SurfWatch's "Sexually Explicit" > category. Of the 51 domains that were blocked, 42 were obvious > errors, and only 9 were pornographic. Not long ago, we hired a consulting firm to build an on-line sexual harrassement training seminar for us. They hosted it on their own web site, and we published the URL for our employees to take the course. The day after it went on line, people in one of our affiliated hospitals were suddenly unable to connect to the site anymore. Seems the automated porno filters in their firewall were triggered by some of the words in the training material and they closed the site down! - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 22:20:15 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Online-payment service PayPal shifts policy in battle on fraud Online-payment service PayPal shifts policy in battle on fraud By Stacy Forster THE WALL STREET JOURNAL August 1 - Sam Johnson isn't yet a satisfied customer of PayPal. In early July, when he bought seven hard drives on the Yahoo! Inc. auction site, he paid $418 through PayPal, a system that transfers money from online-payment accounts directly to another person or to a company. http://www.msnbc.com/news/440155.asp?cp1=1 - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 22:24:43 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Fact Sheet on Export Control on Computers THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release August 3, 2000 FACT SHEET EXPORT CONTROLS ON COMPUTERS President Clinton today announced an update of U.S. export controls on computers that will promote our national security, enhance the effectiveness of our export control system, and ease unnecessary regulatory burdens on both government and industry. Today's announcement is the fifth revision to U.S. export control parameters since 1993. This action reflects the Clinton Administration's efforts to ensure effective controls on militarily sensitive technology while taking into account the increased availability of commodity products, such as servers and workstations, of which millions are manufactured and sold worldwide every year. http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/2000/8/4/4.text.1 - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 23:09:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Phone Fears: Malignant or Benign? 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. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 23:10:58 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Wireless PDAs to Toon In Wireless PDAs to Toon In (Culture 3:00 a.m. PDT) http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,37925,00.html?tw=wn20000804 Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures are experimenting with distributing Net video to handhelds and PDAs. Trailers for Hollow Man and cartoons featuring Looney Tunes characters are close at hand. By Andy Patrizio. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 23:11:01 -0400 From: "Michael G. Koerner" Subject: Re: Extraordinary waste of prefixes in Peoria, IL Linc Madison wrote: > > 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. Check the April, 2000 issue: ACTIVATING(ED) 2000-04-16: (309) 210 213 214 215 216 218 273 276 279 285 294 296 412 414 416 417 419 422 423 424 ALL for company 7393 (McLeod USA Telco of Illinois), same CLLI as below. > ACTIVATING 8/18/2000: > (309) 201 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 > > ACTIVATING 9/18/2000: > (309) 401 413 415 418 420 425 431 435 437 439 > > The other data for all the prefixes is the same: > EOC N PEORILTC5MD DS 7393 368 PEORIA 06362 03592 > > That's an AWFULLY big chunk of numbers at one time for a CLEC in a town > of fewer than 200,000 people. Essentially what McLeod is saying is that > they are going to sign up every single man, woman, and child in Peoria > and outlying areas in the blink of an eye. > > I'd say this block of requests should be referred to the ICC for > investigation, because it sure looks like this CLEC is biting off far > more than it has any cause to. The *ONLY* thing I can think of is that they are getting an NNX for every rate center in 309 and they somehow all got assigned to 'Peoria'. The same thing happened in 906 a year or two ago when a paging company (#6695, 'Range Telecom') got a BUNCH of NXXs, one for each of a large number of the rate centers in Michigan's sparsely populated Upper Peninsula. They ALL originally showed as being assigned to 'BARAGA (Michigan)', a place with just over 1200 residents, but were correctly attributed in a later check of a 'complete' list from an NANPA download. BARAGA was the first place name on the list and it 'carried through' to the rest of the list in the NNAG. I would also send a note to the ICC about this, though. - -- ____________________________________________________________________________ Regards, Michael G. Koerner Appleton, WI ____________________________________________________________________________ - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 23:11:41 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Registrar Sues for Whois Spam Registrar Sues for Whois Spam (Politics Thursday) http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,38014,00.html?tw=wn20000804 Register.com files suit against Web hosting firm Verio, claiming the company used contact information from its database of registered domain names in a spam and telemarketing campaign. By Joanna Glasner. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 23:11:56 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Heat's on Cellphone Driving The Heat's on Cellphone Driving (Politics 3:00 a.m. PDT) http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,37830,00.html?tw=wn20000803 Everyone's got anecdotal evidence of the horrors of driving while yakking on a cellphone, but is that enough to warrant legislation? By Elisa Batista. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 23:13:10 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Court to Address DeCSS T-Shirt Court to Address DeCSS T-Shirt (Technology 3:00 a.m. PDT) http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,37941,00.html?tw=wn20000802 The DVD Copy Control Association names apparel-maker Copyleft as a defendant in its copyright lawsuit. The group says wearing the source- code shirt is a bit too revealing. By Farhad Manjoo. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 23:16:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Spectrum Auction Still on Horizon Spectrum Auction Still on Horizon (Politics Tuesday) http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,37944,00.html?tw=wn20000802 Wireless companies express uniform relief at the Federal Communications Commission's decision to delay the auction for 3G radio spectrum. By Elisa Batista. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 2000 23:17:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Seven Deadly Email Thoughts Seven Deadly Email Thoughts by Chris Oakes 3:00 a.m. Aug. 4, 2000 PDT Should you worry about someone reading your private email? Although there may not be much motivation for hiding your thank-you note to your sister-in-law, email certainly has its dangers. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,38007,00.html - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ Date: 5 Aug 2000 04:02:29 -0400 From: "q'onkh abdullah" Subject: Re: Bigzoo What you've described is the new, enhanced Bigzoo. This is new as of just a few days ago. The enhancements included the local access numbers and two additional toll free national access numbers to help relieve the previous access problems. They also include the 75 cent monthly fee. The enhancements are optional for current accounts, but mandatory for new accounts. So any experiences you may hear from current users may not be representative of the new ehanced Bigzoo. Sounds like you are exploring your options? Check out http://www.bigredwire.com I'd really like to know if anyone has experience with that. ======================================== >Bigzoo? Here's what I found so far.... >It's a cardless calling card service. >You account is established via an SSL >session on their website. >US inter- and intra-state costs >$0.039/min (except in selected portions >of (201), (248), (253), (313), (415), >(425), (510) , (626) , (858), (908) and >(973), where a local access number >lowers the ppm to $0.036/min. >Calling BC costs $0.078/min., and other >international calling from the States is >permitted (although Bigzoo does not yet >support calling from outside the >States). >There's a $0.75/mo. service charge. The >card cancels itself unless you add more >$$ every six months, and the minimum >input is $5. - --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Before you buy. - -- The Telecom Digest is currently robomoderated. Please mail messages to editor@telecom-digest.org. ------------------------------ End of Telecom Digest V2000 #8 ******************************