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TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Oct 2005 13:46:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 457 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cellular-News for Friday 7th October 2005 (Cellular-News) Crossbar PABX Wanted (Larry R) Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan (Henry Cabot Henhouse III) Obituary: Passing of Little Known Influential Telecom Figure (Lapsley) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Steven Lichter) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Danny Burstein) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Daniel AJ Sokolov) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (David Clayton) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Joseph) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (BobGoudreau) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (John Levine) Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord (John McHarry) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Cellular-News for Friday 7th October 2005 Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 07:28:23 -0500 From: Cellular-News <dailydigest@cellular-news.com> Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com Camera Phones to Represent 90% of Western European Mobile Phone Shipments http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14320.php According to a recent forecast published by IDC, camera phone shipments in Western Europe are set to reach 179 million units in 2009, to constitute just over 90% of total mobile phone shipments. IDC predicts a compound a... New Bang & Olufen Phone Launched http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14321.php Bang & Olufen has shown off its latest handset, developed in co-operation with Samsung. Since early 2004, the two companies have cooperated to realise this idea and the result is a truly unique product. The name of the p... East European Wireless Profitability Continues Rapid Slide http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14322.php Strategy Analytics has reported that average margins per user (AMPUs) in Central and Eastern Europe fell almost 30% to just US$6 per month in 2Q 2005. Operators in the region are losing ground with AMPU levels 50% below ... FOCUS: Russia mulls fighting mobile handset thieves http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14293.php Russia is facing a rising problem of mobile handsets theft. In 2004, the Moscow police officially registered over 7,000 mobile handset thefts. However, analysts consider that the real number of stolen mobile handsets is ... Belarus MDC mobile subscriber base up 4.1% in September http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14297.php The subscriber base of Belarus mobile phone operator Mobile Digital Connection (MDC) increased 4.1% on the month in September to 1.645 million users, the company said Tuesday. ... Ukraine's Jeans mobile subscriber base up to 5 mln users Sep 30 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14300.php The subscriber base of Ukraine's Jeans rose 74% since the beginning of the year to 5 million users as of September 30, Ukrainian Mobile Communications (UMC) said in a press release. ... Russia's Euroset to cooperate in MVNO project with MTT http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14301.php Russia's largest mobile handset retailer Euroset has concluded an agreement with Multiregional Transit Telecom (MTT) on cooperation in the development of Euroset's mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) project, an MTT... TeliaSonera says holders to invest $60 mln in Moldova's Moldcell in 5 yrs http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14303.php Shareholders of Moldova's mobile service operator Moldcell plan to invest U.S. $60 million in the company within five years, Anders Igel, CEO of TeliaSonera, Moldcell's key shareholder, said Wednesday. ... Motorola Cutting 1,900 Jobs In More Than 20 Countries http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14311.php (AP)--Motorola Inc. (MOT) is cutting 1,900 jobs at 29 different U.S. and international locations in an effort to improve operating efficiency, the company said Wednesday. ... Venezuela Fines and Shuts Nokia, Siemens and Ericsson Offices http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14312.php nes)- Venezuela's tax agency Seniat said Wednesday it imposed fines and ordered the temporary closing of various foreign companies due to tax irregularities. ... Belarus' BeST to buy $234 mln equipment from Alcatel Shanghai http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14313.php Belarus state-controlled mobile operator Belarus Telecommunications Network, or BeST, has signed an agreement with China's Alcatel Shanghai Bell to purchase the Chinese company's telecommunications equipment for U... Telecom Merger Talk Sweeps Europe; Eircom The Latest http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14314.php s) -- Eircom Group PLC soared as much as 10% Thursday on a report that Swisscom AG has approached the Irish fixed-line telecom with a view to a making a 3 billion-euro bid. ... Magyar Telekom Board OKs Mobile Arm Merger With Fixed Line http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14315.php ones)- Hungary's leading telecommunications company, Magyar Telekom Rt. (MTELEKOM.BU), said Thursday that its board approved the merger of the company's mobile arm, T-Mobile Hungary Rt., into the fixed line segment, T-Co... Russia's VimpelCom to launch tariff with free cell phone in Dec http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14316.php Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom plans to launch a tariff with a free mobile handset included in the price of the subscription fee, the company said in a press release Thursday. ... Investcom Shares Higher In Conditional Trading In London http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14317.php were sharply higher in conditional trading in London after the Beirut-based cellphone operator earlier Thursday priced its initial public offering at the top of the range used to survey investor interest. ... News Leaks Put Pressure On TDC To Make Statement http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14318.php Jones)- Danish telecommunications company TDC A/S (TLD) could be compelled by regulators to make a statement on efforts to take over the company, following news reports that it is cooperating with bidders. Danish Bourse... Russia’s VimpelCom user base in Far East hits 1 million people http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14319.php The subscriber base of Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom in the country's Far East Federal District has exceeded 1 million people, the company said on Thursday. ... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 19:44:53 PDT From: Larry R <_lr_@yahoo.com> Subject: Crossbar PABX wanted Does anyone out there know of a crossbar PABX, preferably Western Electric, that might be available? Location in the Northeast would be a big plus. The plan is to use it as a sink for my extra time and money, hopefully getting it operating someday. If you know of one, please write to me at this address. Thanks, Larry Rachman ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 22:16:17 -0700 From: Henry Cabot Henhouse III <sooper_chicken@hotmail.com> Subject: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan When I signed up with Vonage in December '03, I did the 500 minute plan, which was perfect. I seem to recall that all local calls - in our case in Los Angeles within the 323 area code -- were included and did not eat up any of the 500 minutes. Last month was the first time we've ever exceeded 500 minutes -- most of those for local 323 calls. I was charged for calls over and above my 500 minutes, the call detail shows local calls being billed at the 3.9c per minute. I poked around the Vonage website and can't find any reference to local calls being included. Does anyone know a site that may have the older Vonage website in storage? An email to Customer Service resulted in a stock reply, pointing me to a bunch of faq's - none of which seem to answer my question. Thanks in advance, Dave ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 19:34:18 -0700 From: Phil Lapsley <phil@notchur.biz> Subject: Obituary: Passing of Little Known Greatly Influential Telecom Figure [Patrick: my name is Phil Lapsley and I've been a telecom-digest poster back since the old days ('83, I think). If you could please withhold my email address on this posting to avoid spam, I'd appreciate it. Thanks! --Phil] Carl A. Dahlbom, one of the key figures behind multifrequency (MF) signaling, died last week at age 93. If you've ever heard and enjoyed those quick little tones after you dialed a long-distance call, or if you've ever used a blue box, Carl is the man you have to thank for it. He is probably most famous for the article "Signaling Systems for Control of Telephone Switching", co-authored with C. Breen for the November 1960 issue of the Bell System Technical Journal. His obituary can be found at: http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2005/09_29-37/FOR. Instead of a moment of silence, honor Carl with a burst of 2600 Hz followed by some MF tones. Phil ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter <shlichter@diespammers.com> Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 04:03:28 GMT John Hines wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A couple things I do not understand >> about voice communication over electrical power lines: Some say it >> will not work; others say it is okay. > My understanding is there are two different electrical systems in the > world, the 220v version the rest of the world uses, and the 110v the > US uses. In the rest of the world, a fairly large number of residences > are run off a single transformer, where in the USofA, a much smaller > number are run. > For example, in my neighborhood, each block of houses (8-10) has its > own transformer, which would require a fiber run, or some way to > couple it to the 12kv 3phase line that drives the transformer. > Multiply by millions and millions of these things all over the place, > and it is easy to see why, even though it is being reported in the US > media, the actual action is taking place in a foreign county, in the > article, it was Japan. A few years ago the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power had planned a system, don't know if they ever went ahead with the plans. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein <dannyb@panix.com> Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 04:16:26 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In <telecom24.456.2@telecom-digest.org> John Stahl <aljon@stny.rr.com> writes: [ big snip ] > companies. But their usage differs from potential US deployment from > the basic differences in end-user voltage of 240 VAC (Europe) vs. 120 > VAC (US). The European distribution system normally connects something > like 200 - 300 end-users into one (last link) transformer distribution > point while the US power system has something like 4 or so end-users > connected to the (last link) power transformer. This big difference > makes the US proposed BPL system design more expensive than other > deployed methods of supplying broadband to end-users. I have to wonder whether there's a multi-country definitiional/translation issue here. In US urban areas, while the utility transformer may only feed five separate addresses, each of those is an apartment building with 25-50 or more customers (which, in turn, may be 50 or 100 people -- totalling up to, perhaps 500 or more individuals per transformer). And our rural areas tend to be, well, more rural ... than most of Europe. And certainly more spread out than Japan. Anyone out here in Telecom Digest land have any hands-on familiarity with the distinctions? Thanks. _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 11:44:01 +0200 From: Daniel AJ Sokolov <sokolov@gmx.netnetnet.invalid> Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband 07.10.2005 00:17 John Stahl wrote: > The following article indicates that one of the major power companies > (Pittsburgh Power and Light, Allentown, PA) in field testing phase of > BPL (Broadband Over Power Line) technology has decided to > "pull-the-plug" and not pursue widespread deployment. The same has happened to most deployments in Germany. If you have one or two users, it works fine (though you generate interference for other users, especially shortwave radio). But if you get hundreds or thousands of users, they start to interfere themselves and the bandwith drops considerably. MfG Daniel AJ My e-mail-address is sokolov [at] gmx dot net ------------------------------ From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com> Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 17:10:41 +1000 On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 18:17:07 -0400, John Stahl wrote: > Previously published: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A couple things I do not understand about >> voice communication over electrical power lines: Some say it will not >> work; others say it is okay. <clip> ...... > Don't be surprised to see many more of the BPL testing power companies to > similarly end their testing and plans for deployment. 2005-Sep-13 "The world's first large-scale trial of Broadband over Powerline (BPL) technology began in Tasmania today": http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1541 Regards, David Clayton, e-mail: dcstar@XYZ.myrealbox.com Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. (Remove the "XYZ." to reply) Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a measure of how many questions you have. ------------------------------ From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 06:53:31 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 15:18:21 -0500, John Hines <jbhines@newsguy.com> wrote: > Multiply by millions and millions of these things all over the place, > and it is easy to see why, even though it is being reported in the US > media, the actual action is taking place in a foreign county, in the > article, it was Japan. Japan uses 100 V @ 50 or 60 Hz (in comparison with the USA and Canada which uses ~120 V @ 60 Hz.) http://kropla.com/electric2.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 10:43:41 -0400 From: BobGoudreau@notchur.biz Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband [As always, please anonymize my email address.] John Hines <jbhines@newsguy.com> wrote: > My understanding is there are two different electrical systems in the > world, the 220v version the rest of the world uses, and the 110v the > US uses. In the rest of the world, a fairly large number of residences > are run off a single transformer, where in the USofA, a much smaller > number are run. > Multiply by millions and millions of these things all over the place, > and it is easy to see why, even though it is being reported in the US > media, the actual action is taking place in a foreign county, in the > article, it was Japan. Nice theory, but a few seconds with Google would have saved you the trouble of expounding it. In fact, there are MORE than two different electrical systems in the world; the existence of two chief voltage ranges (110ish vs. 220ish) is only one of the differentiators. The other big one is the frequency of the AC (50 Hz vs. 60 Hz). And there are several different physical connector standards (plugs and sockets) even to serve some of the same voltage/frequency combinations, though of course this does not affect things like transformer load. The US is hardly alone in using 110v at 60 Hz; so does most of the rest of the western hemisphere. Most of the eastern hemisphere uses 220-240v, but one of the exceptions is in fact Japan, which uses 100v (though part of the country runs at 60 Hz and the other part at 50 Hz). So, any conclusions made on the faulty premise that Japan uses 220v power must be discarded. See http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/electricity.htm for a detailed breakdown of the world for all the aforementioned categories. Bob Goudreau Cary, NC ------------------------------ Date: 7 Oct 2005 15:13:47 -0000 From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > My understanding is there are two different electrical systems in the > world, the 220v version the rest of the world uses, and the 110v the > US uses. In the rest of the world, a fairly large number of residences > are run off a single transformer, where in the USofA, a much smaller > number are run. Pretty much true. I don't know whether it's the voltage or the way neighborhoods are laid out, but Europe puts a lot more people on a transformer than we do. > Multiply by millions and millions of these things all over the place, > and it is easy to see why, even though it is being reported in the US > media, the actual action is taking place in a foreign county, in the > article, it was Japan. Oops, Japan isn't 220v or even 110v. It's 100v. But the neighborhoods are extremely dense. I'm kind of surprised that Japan has any BPL at all since you can get 10mb fiber connections cheaper than you can get DSL here. R's, John ------------------------------ From: John McHarry <jmcharry@comcast.net> Subject: Re: Finally Cutting the POTS Cord Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 02:19:25 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 11:52:19 -0700, Brian E Williams wrote: > http://tinyurl.com/9jqae > Above link is a picture of the inside of my outside telecom box here > in the USA. I want to route my Vonage VoIP service to my internal > phone network, so first I am going to disconnect the internal network > from the POTS provider as a test. I am guessing that I just flip > those little connectors up and then pull out the solid blue and > blue-white wires, being careful to keep them arranged for easy > reconnection. That doesn't look like a standard demarc to me. Maybe you are in a multifamily dwelling, or maybe I am out of date. The demarcs I am familiar with use an RJ-11 plug on your side to plug into a socket on the telco side. This allows you to test whether a problem is inside wiring or telco by unplugging your whole inside plant and plugging in a known good phone. > Is there anything else I need to worry about? Also, is having four > wires standard for a single line? Maybe that is how I can do three > way calling and call waiting, but I never thought about it before. Four wires are standard for residential wiring. As PAT notes, only red and green are used for the first line. This allows a second pair for a second line, or a ground connection for grounded ringing (mostly used in old two party lines). As PAT also notes, getting the telco hooked up across your VOIP service is ungood. The trouble with doing your connection at the demarc is that telco has access to it and may, possibly inadvertently, reconnect themselves. Also, some telcos leave disconnected lines connected to the switch and able to call 911, much like an unassigned cell phone. You might be better off to cut into your house wiring before the first tap and either disconnect the telco there, or move it over to line two, so you could use their 911 service in an emergency. I don't know how many terminals you intend to bridge onto your Vonage box, but, if it is like the Packet8 DAT310, it may have trouble driving some of them. I can ring two phones just fine, but there doesn't seem to be quite enough talk battery to keep my speakerphone happy. Of course, that may be more the phone's fault for being overly greedy. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What I do here is the Bell System demarc box is on the wall of my house outside with _two_ lines there from telco but I only use one. I have tape around the modular connector of the second, unused line. I have a small PBX unit inside my house, in a closet near my computer area. From the outside demarc, I bring the one working pair there into my house on my own wires, and into the PBX where it becomes 'dial 9' for outgoing local calls. Then I have my Vonage (VOIP) adapter box near the computer with a connection into the broadband cable line. I go from there with my personally owned modular cable to another input on the PBX, where it becomes 'dial 8' for long distance calls. Both lines (Vonage VOIP) and telco also go through a two-line splitter to which I have a caller ID device and an extra loud ringer (in my old age and feeble condition I am also a wee bit hard of hearing these days as any of you who telephone me know when I periodically ask you to repeat yourself. Then I have several pairs running from the PBX back down the cable to the outside and back to the telco demarc box where _everything_ telco related has been disconnected except for the aforementioned one incoming line. So to make a local call from any extension, it travels down the pair to the demarc, back in to the PBX, and dial 9 sends it back out the cable to the demarc and off to telco. To make a long distance call from any extension it travels down the pair to the demarc, back in to the PBX where dial 8 sends it across the room to the VOIP box and the broadband internet. To call around my house, it travels down the pair to the demarc, back inside to the PBX where dialing 100 through 105 or 0 Zero treats the call as needed, ships it back through the cable to the outside demarc where it gets distributed to where it should go. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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