Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Telecom

Elegant solution or jury-rigged joke?

longsleeves — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:49:57 -0800

Is it common to remove a utility pole but leave a small chunk of it still in use twenty feet up? This is all that's left of the utility pole that used to grace the corner my house sits on. Public Works re-did the street several months ago and the project included new sidewalks. The corner was reengineered while the workers and all the heavy equipment were tearing up the old and installing the new, the utility pole was removed and not replaced. At first we thought this slice of old pole would soon be replaced with either a new pole or at least a new connector or anchoring thingy, yet here it remains, looking a bit like it belongs on a joke picture blog. I've never seen this anywhere else.

It certainly appears secure enough but it sure looks a little weird. I've even heard passersby comment that it looks like a birthday cake caught in some wires. Will it be safe in the long term? Have you ever seen this? I'm also curious if there is electric power transmission involved.

Undercharged for DSL and land line. Now what?

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:42:29 -0800

Telecom has undercharged me for DSL and land line service the past couple months. Is this going to bite me in the butt? If so, when and how severely? Back in December last year, I signed up for DSL internet service from my local telecom on a "first six months free with two-year commitment" promotion for longtime residential phone service customers. In the spring of this year, before the six months were up, they mistakenly started charging me for DSL, and I had to call them several times to get them to adjust my bill.

They rectified it and then some: since then, they've been crediting me on every billing cycle for more than the amount of the DSL charges, so that my total bill, including land line phone service, has been ridiculously low. The six month free period ended in late June, and I should now be paying around $70.00 per month for the two services. My July bill came last week: the erroneous credit is on it again, and my total amount due is about a dollar.

How likely is it that they'll discover their mistake? If they do, are they likely to bill me for all of the charges I should have been paying during the time they've been crediting me incorrectly? If they do that, do I have any recourse, since it was their error? Should I a) notify them of their error, b) simply start paying what I think I actually owe without comment, or c) continue paying the exact amount they're billing me? Thanks.

Retroactive Wiretapping in Google Voice?

GamblingBlues — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:09:54 -0800

Does Google Voice record all calls connected through the service, and if so, would those calls be subpoenable? This part of Google Voice's privacy policy got me thinking:

When you use Google Voice, Google's servers automatically record certain information about your use of Google Voice. Similar to other web services, Google Voice records information such as account activity (including storage usage, number of log-ins), data displayed or clicked on (including UI elements, links); and other log information (including browser type, IP-address, date and time of access, cookie ID, and referrer URL). Google's servers also automatically collect telephony log information (including calling-party number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls, SMS routing information, and types of calls).

They're recording information "such as," as opposed to "specifically limited to," or something else of the sort. Knowing that Google Voice provides me the option to click-to-record through the web interface, not to mention storing my voicemails as audio on their servers, I think it's safe to say that they can aggregate the content of all phone calls connected through the service.

But are they (and are calls made through traditional telecoms recorded too)? And would the content of the calls (the audio, not just who I called and when) be able to be subpoenaed in a court case? Not that I have anything to worry about, but does a recording of a call stored on a server change our previous presumptions of privacy so that any Google Voice call can effectively be "retroactively wiretapped?"

Which prepaid cell company to use?

reenum — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:49:26 -0800

PrepaidCellFilter: Two questions about prepaid cell plans: 1. Can I use a phone I buy off eBay with one of these plans, or is it essential to use the phones provided by the carrier? 2. If I'm mostly interested in texting, which prepaid cell provider would be the best for me? I'm thinking of ditching my Sprint contract and switching to a prepaid carrier. I only use the cell to call people if there is an emergency and little else.

However, I do like texting and would like to try and choose a plan that allows unlimited or a high number of texts at a reasonable price.

Also, I'd like to have a nicer phone with T9 rather than the cheapo Nokia phones some of these carriers give you.

So, Hive Mind, what say you?

Where are companies building power-hungry datacenters to take advantage of cheap power?

thewalrus — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:59:35 -0800

Is there a list of datacenter projects that have been built from a green-field state to take advantage of a guaranteed low per kilowatt-hour electrical rate? In particular I'm thinking of the big Google facility near The Dalles, Oregon and the Microsoft datacenter in a small eastern Washington town. Both were built in areas with excess capacity originally intended to serve large Aluminum smelters. Second, does anyone have reliable information on the bulk rates that have been locked in by companies? Such as, N cents per kWH for Y years rising to Z c/kWH after a certain period of time.

I started thinking about this after reading an article about Iceland's current woes. The economists mention that aside from fish, one of the biggest industries is an Aluminum smelter, built there specifically to take advantage of the low electrical prices. I realize that Iceland is not the best location to build anything large telecom wise (as far as I know it has only one or two transatlantic submarine fiber optic cables, neither of which are extremely high capacity or optimal latency-wise compared to the more direct London-NYC routes). I'm wondering what other areas of the world have ridiculously low per kWH rates for large scale industrial customers.

Experience with telecom companies

fracturing — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:25:32 -0800

What has been your experience with One Communications and other telecom companies? We are trying to select a new telecom carrier for my small office and have it narrowed down to the following carriers:

One Communications
Paetec
Nuvox

Do any of you have any experiences, good or bad, with this companies? I'm trying to find out as much as I can about the customer experience after being burned pretty badly in the past by Cavalier.

The Ninth Circle Of CS Hell

chuckdarwin — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:49:40 -0800

Which body oversees British Telecom: Ofcom or Otelo? Or is it BOTH? Two weeks ago, BT unceremoniously cancelled the DSL line in one of my offices. No warning; no red letter; there is no outstanding balance on the account... they just cancelled the service.

It is getting turned back on next Tuesday, but I can NOT get anyone from BT to tell me WHY they did it.

After spending all day on the phone with every BT Local Business branch from Leeds to Birmingham to Hereford (I'm not kidding), I am now waiting for a call back and some explanation.

You and I know both know the answer, though, don't we? The answer is that someone simply fucked it up. My boss wants the answer, though, and *compensation* for the petrol, man hours, spare router we purchased, the alarm engineer visit (these were all the hoops BT made us jump through).

Some poor drone in a call centre is going to apologise, and she/he will think that's going to be the end of it. Nope.

I have a letter drafted to:

Customer Service Director BT plc
Correspondence Centre
Durham
DH98 1BT

... I just need to know which government office to CC.

TIA for any help.

identify the manufacturer of a colocation cabinet

thewalrus — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:38:03 -0800

Telecom and networking nerd filter: I am trying to identify the manufacturer of a full height colocation cabinet which is divided into four compartments. It can be seen in partial view on the left side of the photo. The photo came from the English language wikipedia page, and is an illustration of their server housing in Europe. I am aware of four different American manufacturers of cabinets with 3 compartments (typically 45U divided by 3), but I've never seen this particular model before. I am going to guess that is is manufactured somewhere in Europe and may be a brand I've never heard of. Does anyone recognize this photo?

Comcast Arbitration Agreement by Customer Inaction

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:58:32 -0800

Hidden among various other breathtakingly evil clauses, part 13 of the Comcast Agreement for Residential Services says that if the customer doesn't opt out within 30 days of receiving the dense legalese, he gives up the right to sue Comcast in a public court. But (in clause 15g), Comcast maintains the right to sue the user any time they like. Is this stuff enforceable? YMOMNBAL

Help me keep my phone number a year from now

furtive — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:48:07 -0800

Canadian Phone Question: I'll be leaving my city and province for a year, and I'd like to make sure that I have the same phone number when I return as when I left. What are my (cheapest) options? The obvious choice would be to have my number (it's a cell number) transfered to a land line at a relative's house, but that's about $50 + 12 x $25 = $350. What other options do I have?

For the record I'm in Montreal and will be out of the province for 6 months to 1 year.

Well t'aint a pardon, and t'aint attainder...

dsword — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 07:26:43 -0800

Two to three questions involving the pending FISA bill--specifically the immunity provisions. 1)
The Constitution expressly forbids Congress from passing bills of attainder, which punish individuals or groups of individuals without trial. Is there a similar term describing laws which single out individuals or groups of individuals for some benefit--either material or legal? One example I have in mind would be the current FISA bill (which includes a provision of immunity for telecoms), although I suppose that under a loose interpretation, earmarks for local or state governments might also be included in this category. Are there examples of these sorts of laws being overturned. If so, on what grounds, and what is the prevailing legal standard for overturning such statutes?

2)
(a) Why is the current administration trying to push telecom immunity through Congress, when the power to pardon is expressly and without qualification granted to the President by the Constitution? What prevents Bush from simply granting immunity from prosecution to the relevant individuals and/or corporations?

(b) If the answer to part (a) happens to be that "the pardon wouldn't extend to civil cases" (would it?) would it not be considered an act of attainder for Congress to strip telecom customers of the right to sue?

To be clear, I'm looking for legal arguments and explanations, preferably with caselaw and/or code citations (not Bush and/or Congress bashing).

Why is the Canadian wireless telecom industry the way it is today?

saraswati — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:14:51 -0800

Why is the Canadian wireless telecommunications industry the way it is? I'm specifically looking for insight into the history of wireless telecommunications in Canada and how that brought us to the current state of the industry. Basically, how did Canada get the reputation of being the "telecom third world"? Why are wireless data plans so expensive here compared to the US? Is it the fault of the CRTC, the carriers, a combination of the two or something more complicated?

Telephone over Cat5: Is it possible without voip?

Freen — Tue, 21 Jun 2005 13:57:21 -0800

I'm setting up some telephone lines, and well, I really don't want to lay more wires than I have to. So this is the deal, I've got five telephone lines, and three telephone (rj11) jacks. We've just installed wifi, and so a number of unused ethernet cables. Is it possible to buy an adaptor that will allow me to use a cat5 cable to send plain old telephone over them? We have a room in the back where we have out ethernet switch and patch cables, as well as where verizon brings our telephone lines in. I want to be able to put in a jack, and then connect a patch cable from the rj11 telephone jack to the rj45 ethernet jack that goes from that location to the desk, then connect that cable(going from rj45 back to rj11) to a telephone, or fax machine.

I imagine there might be issues with electrical incompatibilities, or wiring incompatibilities, etc. If anyone has any ideas about other ways to do this without rewiring, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks!

Phone failures

rolypolyman — Wed, 25 May 2005 18:25:45 -0800

I've had three electronic items in my apartment bite the dust within 24 hours. What is the deal? (1) Monday my Panasonic cordless stopped communicating with the base (KX-TG2000B office phone). It no longer works. I tried reregistering the handset and it fails to "connect" with the base unit. Never had this problem. The base [hardwire] handset dials out fine though.
(2) Within the same few hours, our GE cordless ("Atlinks" 27928GE5-C) would no longer communicate with the base (couldn't even page the handset), but was usable again 5 hours later.
(3) The next day, my V.92 internal voicemodem, purchased last month, stopped working. It went off-hook permanently and was unresponsive to commands. Had to get a new one.

This may not be a power surge because: I was here the whole time and noticed no lights brightening or dimming. The UPS (used only for power to the computer) didn't trip. We haven't had a storm anywhere near here. I can't rule out something bad on the phone line.

This may not be 2.4 GHz interference because: The voicemodem is fried too! There's not a whole lot of gadgets at this apartment complex anyway, and I only receive one other WiFi box besides mine (I disconnected mine as a test and the phones still didn't work).

This may not be a dead line because: I repeatedly checked the phone line at different outlets and it worked perfectly fine the whole time.

So what is going on here? Might it be a surge? Through the telco lines? How? I tried Googling for experiences and help on this but found nothing. Any telco repairmen here? I am in an apartment complex and serviced by Sprint local; could bad wiring (or induction) possibly be affecting the lines?

DC Telecom providers

piro — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 12:12:51 -0800

Any DC locals or small-business types have a preferred telecom provider (CLEC)? MCI wants an absurd amount of money and minimum 45 days to install three new lines at the startup for which I now work. I've looked at the DC Public Service Commisssion lists of carriers and contact info, but don't know who's respectable and who's dodgy.

Is there a cheaper phone/DSL package than Verizon in Brooklyn, NY?

ParisParamus — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 19:15:03 -0800

I live in Brooklyn, NY, and seem to be a slave to Verizon: a DSL/Unlimited local/regional phone package for which, with taxes, etc., runs me nearly $100/month. Has anyone figured out a way to pay less for comparable services? I've even thought of sharing a DSL or cable modem via a wireless router with my neighbor downstairs....thoughts? And what makes it worse, I also have a Verizon cell phone--another $65/month...

Office Phones

sudama — Mon, 17 May 2004 09:19:01 -0800

I need to order a handful of office phones but it's very difficult to find a reputable dealer. Price is not the first concern; some assurance that they honor the warranties (in case of DOA phones) and that they don't sell refurbished equipment as new would be wonderful. Does anyone know of a trustworthy source for telecom equipment?

Is bluetooth worth the hype?

benjh — Thu, 04 Mar 2004 11:48:35 -0800

Is bluetooth worth the hype? I am in the process of changing cell carriers, and I am going from CDMA (Sprint) to GSM (T-Mobile) so I can't keep my phone. [more inside] I am torn between a Sony phone and a Samsung phone. The Sony has bluetooth, which I would think would be nice to geta wireless headset and sync to my PC, but the samsung is smaller, a little better on the interface and keys, but has no decent syncing capabilities.