By David Sims
[email protected]
The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music
is Robert Earl Keen’s great recent album, What
I Really Mean:
Great to see Martina
Hingis back in action. Always a classy, respectful champion, so
unlike the bratty, lying about why they pulled out of tournaments to avoid playing each other
Williams sisters who followed her, Hingis (named after Martina Navratilova) has just
beaten Russian phenom and world #4 Maria Sharapova to make it to the final of
the Toray Pan Pacific Open.
Injuries forced Hingis out of the game a few years ago,
otherwise she’d have a lot more Slam titles and the overrated Williamses, who “dominated”
probably the thinnest women’s tennis field since some German lunatic took the
superior Monica Seles out of action and left Steffie Graf unobstructed to pile
up a gaudy record, a lot fewer.
The Williamses are yesterday’s news now, losing in the
earlier rounds more frequently and dropping in the rankings as they care less
and less about tennis and more about fashion, and today’s news is a rejuvenated
class act from the past, Martina Hingis.
…
Okay, pick out the
newsworthy hook in the following statement Wireless Association President and
CEO Steve Largent made yesterday in response to the nomination of Robert M.
McDowell to the Federal Communications Commission:
“Robert McDowell is in an excellent choice for a seat on the
FCC. His considerable knowledge of the telecommunications industry and his firm
belief in policies that promote free market competition make him an exceptional
choice for this important post at this current time.
“We hope the Senate will act quickly on his nomination and
look forward to working with him in the near future.”
What’s the salient point there? What McDowell’s going to do
for VoIP? No, although that’s important, too. McDowell’s chances for Senate
confirmation? Not exactly, his views on abortion aren’t going to come into
play. Give up?
Steve Largent,
before he was head of the Wireless Association, before he was a U.S.
Congressman, was a star – and I mean really good, if he’s not in the Hall of
Fame he should be – wide receiver for
the Seattle Seahawks, who are going for their first Super Bowl title
tomorrow against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Largent, a gutty player with sweet moves, never got to play
in a Super Bowl. No doubt he’ll be at the game tomorrow, watching his beloved
Seahawks get their heads handed to them by the Steelers.
…
InstaDial is announcing that their
subsidiary, InstaTelecom Inc., will now
be providing 911 dialing to Canadian customers “in accordance with the CRTC
decision,” according to company officials:
“InstaTelecom Inc. will provide customers with information
to educate them on the differences and limitations of this 911 service and the
distinctions between VoIP and a traditional landline.”
Company officials say this means InstaTelecom Inc. will provide clients with
911/e911 service limitation and safety information identifying the differences
between E911 available with traditional phone service and the emergency
services associated with VoIP service thusly:
When customers register for the 911 service, they must correctly identify the
actual service address where they will be using the VoIP service. When dialing
911 on their phone, they will be connected to an emergency call taker who will
ask the client to confirm that they are located at their registered location.
Once the emergency call taker can confirm or update the service address, the
emergency call taker will route the call to emergency personnel responsible for
the clients’ service address.
The emergency call taker will stay on the line to ensure the
client is connected to emergency personnel. If the 911 caller is not able to
speak, the emergency call taker will route the call to emergency personnel
responsible for the clients’ registered location. In that case, emergency
personnel will be dispatched to the registered location regardless of the
actual location or the location of your phone.
So when customers travel or move they must update their new location
information and have broadband Internet service for 911 dialing to function
properly. If a client wants to change the location where their service will be
used, they must update their registered location and must provide at least ten
days prior notice of their new service address in order to avoid delays and
loss of emergency services.
Emergency service associated with VoIP has certain limitations, including the
fact that 911 emergency dialing is only available on approved devices or
equipment and upon completion of the 911 acknowledgement process. If you use
other equipment, 911 may fail.
Plus 911 emergency dialing will not function if the clients’ VoIP device – SIP
phone, adaptor, whatever you’re using – fails, is not configured correctly, or
if the service is not working for any reason, including because of power
outage, broadband internet service outage, network congestion,
suspension/disconnection of service because of non-payment or late payment, or
if they fail to meet the minimum technical service requirements.
So if there is a power outage, users may be required to
reset or reconfigure your equipment prior to being able to use your Service,
including for 911 emergency dialing purposes. In certain areas, when clients
dial 911, there may be a delay before the emergency call taker is able to
connect you with emergency personnel.
…
So, give me one good
reason why you haven’t gotten Robert Earl Keen’s What
I Really Mean yet. Nope, sorry, not good enough.
First CoffeeSM is hereby making an iron-clad
money-back guarantee: Buy What I Really
Mean, from your local CD shop, Amazon or iTunes, and if you don’t like it I’ll
give you double your money back.
That’s right, double your money back. Simply drop by the
house here in Istanbul and it’s yours. Be sure to watch Turkish lira exchange
rates. Residents of Turkey who live west of Ankara are not eligible.
…
In “Global VOIP Has Arrived; Just Not As Expected!” tech
research firm In-Stat throws out another crystal ball prediction that total VoIP subscribers worldwide, 16
million in 2005, will balloon to over 55 million in 2009.
But despite an impressive 62% year-over-year subscriber
growth rate in 2005, InStat officials say, “few consumers have ever heard of
the term ‘VoIP.’” In other words, considerable room for market growth here,
friends.
“Competition in broadband access services is the key driving
force behind VoIP market development,” says Keith Nissen, In-Stat analyst. “In
addition, multiple waves of new entrants, ranging from broadband ISPs and cable
MSOs, to Google and eBay will play significant roles.”
73 percent of all VoIP subscribers worldwide have migrated
to VoIP without making a conscious buying decision to adopt the new technology,
InStat found.
The report also says that in North America and Canada,
cable operators are aggressively expanding their VoIP footprint, but are
marketing VoIP as plain old telephone service.
In Asia, South Korea will have the highest VoIP growth rate,
followed by Hong Kong and Singapore, InStat thinks, while in Europe, broadband
ISPs, such as Free Telecom (France) and FastWeb (Italy) are poised to do well
with “innovative consumer triple-play service bundles.”
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