Slashdot Mirror

Yes there is.

Buy her a touch tone phone, and use it anyway. Phone companies long ago left pulse behind, touch tone works on every line even if you haven't paid the fee. Do you really think there's not a computer at the other end of the line to support these 'pulse' people?

Do you really think I haven't tried that? As I said, she has a touch-tone phone with a switch to do both (dial with pulse and browse throuh menus with tone). When you pick up the receiver, put the switch to tone, then dial, it doesn't work, the dial tone remains and nothing happens.

The company is Bell Canada, and I think the charge is about $2.95 or per month (I don't have a phone bill handy...)

I too live in Montreal, and I still pay ~50Can$ for a 5M/800k dsl line... so the 30$ for 10M/2.5M is not available Canda-wide...

Altough, Bell started offering Fiber to the home in Montreal... it'a a bit pricey at 60$CAN per month, but it's fiber to the home at 10M/1M...
http://www.bell.ca/shopping/PrsShpPromo_IntOptimax .page?ADV2=OFF_CDN_optimax_JULY5

Well the user agreement your referencing is for the "Unplugged Service" which is slightly different.
Here's the Sympatico Service Agreements & the Security & Privacy policy's of Bell.
Note that the Privacy policy still maintains they will only provide user information by court order
or warrant, guess they forgot to update these policy's.

You may be right that their only going to monitor Sympatico accounts.

However the previous Liberal bill was to require all ISP's to implement data retention & each ISP
was to foot their associated costs.
The the new bill (which I haven't yet read) may have been revised to require the network owners
to monitor all network traffic (they can afford the expense) as apposed to the smaller ISP's having
to foot the bill, which would bankrupt most if not all small IPS's.

By requiring all ISP's to implement data retention the government would violate various sections of
CRTC Acts regarding competition, since it would put the small one's out of business & stifle competition.

Rogers and Bell both operate HotSpot services in Canada.. Look for HotSpot stickers on the doors of your local Starbucks or Second Cup - as well as other places. They'll even charge it to your Bell or Rogers mobile phone bill...I think all the big Canadian mobile phone providers are in on the action.. even Telus.

http://www.shoprogers.com/business/wireless/plans_ services/hotspot.asp

http://www.bell.ca/shop/en_CA_BC/Sme.Sol.Wireless. Solutions.Hotspots.page

http://www.telusmobility.com/on/business_solutions /hotspot.shtml

I have an unlimited data plan with Bell. It's on their $35 per month plan. Mind you, it's slow, so I don't know how you'd get more than 4 or 5 megs in a month, but it's unlimited. Here's a Link It's unlimited mobile browsing, which I guess isn't really true data, or I'm not sure if they differentiate. I don't really use it, it's just included in the plan.

http://www.telusmobility.com/on/wweb/mobile_tv_faq s.shtml
http://www.bell.ca/shop/PrsShpWlsFnsGnd_Mobitv.pag e

Totally agree with your comment, however I was thinking more of the streaming television that several of the providers are offering now. If I had to record, encode, and transfer everything in prep every morning for sure I'd get bored of that situation very, very quickly. Indeed, even keeping AvantGo content updated on my PDA seemed like more hassle than it was worth.

You're thinking Rogers Cable, which is only a subsiduary of Rogers Communications (the company mentioned in TFA). Rogers Wireless and Rogers Video both operate in BC, and Rogers Media owns a few radio stations there as well. Bell Canada also offers their wireless service and satellite TV in BC. I'm guessing it's mainly their wireless services that are involved in this venture anyway.

My favorite these days... Bell mobility has started offering caller ring tunes. Even worse, it's now a free service on some plans.

(one of the many reasons I love my SE T616. The default ring sound is called "Old Phone")

In large a corporation the ISP division would not be responsible for helping the media producing divisions. It's likely that these two areas of the company only share a CEO, with the rest of the corporate structure being completely separate.

The strange thing about companies that are fighting the order so fiercely since many of them own entertainment subsidiaries that produce TV and film content is that one side of a business, e.g. Sympatico MSN* produce and distribute content for free online, while the TV and film side of things Bell ExpressVu** want you to pay throught the nose for the same content... The thing that the higher-ups in these companies often don't realize is that what customers are really wiling to pay for is the service that gets them the content. It's just yet another example of the one hand not knowing what the other one is doing.

* ** Please note that I am not saying that this is what Bell does, I just am not all that familiar with Videotron and the companies that own it. I'm just giving an example of a company that provides both kinds of services.

Canada land area: 9,093,507

Cost of cable broadband: $40CDN
Cost of DSL broadband: $29CDN

Moral of the story: There's more to it than just geography.

I had the pleasure of seeing Ghost in the Shell 2 : Innocence at a midnight screening at the Toronto International Film Festival along with about 1200 other people who all fit nicely into the "anime geek" demographic. The director wasn't there for a Q&A, which was sad, because after seeing the film I definitely had some Qs for which the As would have been interesting.

The movie takes place some intederminate amount of time after Ghost in the Shell, and the Major's partner, Batou, has become something of a loner within Section 9. He feels that no new partner could ever equal the Major, and you really get the sense of the deep bond that had connected the two, and that he has lost. Of course, the fact that the Major's "ghost" simply disappeared without a trace is always itching at him, as well.

The movie opens with Batou showing up at a crime scene where a "Gynoid" has slaughtered her owner and two cops. A fight ensues, and before it ends, Batou hears the "Gynoid" ask for help in the voice of a little girl.

Section 9 decides to investigate, and Batou is assigned a new partner. The movie follows their investigation in pretty standard 3-act style, but the universe that the characters are moving through makes things a little more complicated. Everyone has an "e-brain" which is constantly connected to the global information net. Our characters spout obscure biblical and literal references, and more disturbingly, can have their heads hacked into if they're not paying attention closely. This frequently spurrs "Matrix"-like discussions and situations where characters are trying to determine what is real and what isn't. Batou's investigations take him to the modern Yakuza, an old border town, and eventually to the source of the plea for help he hears at the start of the movie.

But that's the plot, which adds to the enjoyment of anime, but isn't neccessarily all that requisite, right? Let's talk about the other stuff that matters: the animation, and the imaginary future society.

It rocks. There's an effective combination of computer animation and classic anime that causes some breathtaking moments (watch the alley scene at the beginning). The fights are fantastic, although I felt a little too few and far between. The futuristic world is well thought out, with a visual design being of a modern technological world that has gone 1920s-retro when it comes to industrial design and architecture.

It's definitely worth seeing if you like anime.

Yup, and both of Canada's largest ISPs -- Rogers and Bell Sympatico -- are advertising 2GB of email storage when you sign-up to one of their plans.

Personally, I'd much rather use that storage space for backups or remote file storage than for webmail. Maybe I should sign up and start emailing myself all my backups as email attachments ...

Actually I found an article recently for Bell Canada that actually allows for TV over the phone lines. I can't find the article right now but here is the jist of it:

If you are in a condo that is equipped with VDSL you just need what amounts to a cable box on your desk and not only do you get TV services equal to their ExpressVu services but you also get ADSL service as well, 4mbps down 800k up. Unalike cable though all the stations are digital instead of everything above channel 72 or what ever.

I don't know how things are going on the US side of the border but up here the next year looks like it will be interesting. Cable taking phone business and phone business taking cable.

Actually I found an article recently for Bell Canada that actually allows for TV over the phone lines. I can't find the article right now but here is the jist of it:

If you are in a condo that is equipped with VDSL you just need what amounts to a cable box on your desk and not only do you get TV services equal to their ExpressVu services but you also get ADSL service as well, 4mbps down 800k up. Unalike cable though all the stations are digital instead of everything above channel 72 or what ever.

I don't know how things are going on the US side of the border but up here the next year looks like it will be interesting. Cable taking phone business and phone business taking cable.

To use VOIP, you have networks, hubs, routers, wireless cards, firewalls, switches, and enough power bricks to saturate two 6-plug power strips so that you end up with something that must be tweaked to operate smoothly at all, in order to get something with the range of a cordless telephone. (Wifi uses the exact same frequencies as a cordless telephone - it's essentially a fancy cordless telephone modem)

You'd have to install a whole pile of even more expensive equipment if your phone company wasn't providing all of the necessary switches and other hardware leading up to your home.

I just moved into a new home less than two weeks ago. The house didn't have any telephone service coming into it, so I had to order it from the local telephone company (Bell Canada). Unfortunately, for new homes they'll only setup your service from the curb to an outside wall of your home. You have to do the rest (or pay them quite a bit to have them do it).

Between the cabling, the phone line, the basic 1x9 phone distribution panel, the wall box to contain it, and various bits and pieces of necessary hardware, it's cost nearly $200 CDN in parts. And none of these components has any processing capability -- it's all simple electronics.

Sure it's easy to think of POTS as being easier than VOIP, but that's typically because the telephone company or someone else has done all the work for you, giving you a wall jack as your interface. If the phone company did nothing but give you a cable with access to their network, you'd have to invest a pile of money into the necesary equipment to make that useful.

VOIP may be in the same boat one day. One of my previous employers went all VOIP for a new office of about 2000 employees, and setup a seperate network just for handling the telephone traffic. For those of us using the system, it was as easy as plugging the phone into the jack marked "phone" -- no different than with a POTS phone in any home (but mine. As it happens, the builder appears to have screwed up much of the phone cabling theey roughed in internally, as thus far only 1 in 5 is actually working :P).

Brad BARCLAY

1. Shaw (The cable company)
2. Rogers (Another cable company)
3. MTS (The phone company)
4. Skycable (Wireless RF)
5. Bell Expressview (Satellite)
6. Star Choice (Satellite)
7. Probably a bunch more I'm forgetting

Bell has has been offering this for a long time. They call it Single Number Reach.

They also have JustOne

Bell has has been offering this for a long time. They call it Single Number Reach.

They also have JustOne

I guess it depends on where you live. Pretty much anywhere I need to go in Ontario [Bell Mobility covereage map]with my dual mode phone is covered.

Do any such ISPs or mail providers offer such a service? If not, why not? Surely it's in their interest?

Bell Sympatico which is my DSL provider (and Canada's largest telco) offers virus scanning as an extra-cost service ($6/month). They also offer a firewall service ($6/month). You're much better off buying your own antivirus software & firewall.

Tivo is not available here, but it seems more and more of the Digital Cable/Satellite providers are offering combo decoder-PVR boxes.

Good thing about this is they already know what channels you get, deal with all your listings. No calls, no updating, no programming.

I'm in Montreal, with Videotron, and they offer such a box for $650, plus $140 programming credit, that means a cheaper cable bill for eight months. So it costs $509, but there is no competition really, as this is the only Cable service in my area, other than the 5820 offered by Bell Canada, but it's a satellite box, and not allowed in my apartment building. The boxes for Videotron are manufactured by Scientific Atlanta, which has more info on them here.

I do believe other cable co's in Canada offer these, Quick searching turns up one at Rogersas well

Tivo is not available here, but it seems more and more of the Digital Cable/Satellite providers are offering combo decoder-PVR boxes.

Good thing about this is they already know what channels you get, deal with all your listings. No calls, no updating, no programming.

I'm in Montreal, with Videotron, and they offer such a box for $650, plus $140 programming credit, that means a cheaper cable bill for eight months. So it costs $509, but there is no competition really, as this is the only Cable service in my area, other than the 5820 offered by Bell Canada, but it's a satellite box, and not allowed in my apartment building. The boxes for Videotron are manufactured by Scientific Atlanta, which has more info on them here.

I do believe other cable co's in Canada offer these, Quick searching turns up one at Rogersas well

That service has been available for awhile. Bell Canada markets it as JustOne.

I would be surprised if there were any common law country where the identify of users of an IP address were NOT subject to subpoena in a civil suit. Why should it be? There's no presumption of confidentiality.

a) The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act

b) Bell, probably the biggest ISP in cananda (also the biggest provider of phonelines!!!) has this document about private customer information.

Ummm yeah .. In most countries (I'd bet), even the police would have to get a warrant of some sort, before they can just get this information from a company. Why on God's green earth does an association of stupid record labels, have the power to bypass all these laws?!?!?

Current regular monthly rate is $69.95/mth and includes access, modem use and 20 GB of combined download and upload bandwidth activity. Additional bandwidth is $7.95/GB and is charged in increments of 100 MB (1024 MB = 1GB) for a maximum of $30/month

You can get the unit from Bell, however it requires you to have the satellite service as well.

In Canada the local phone company basically has a monopoly over the last mile

Do you mean that there is no local loop unbundling of any sort (no CLECs either leasing the last mile or leasing access to, for example, the high-frequency portion to the last mile)? Bell Canada's tariff for ADSL speaks of "Service providers wishing to offer a competitive alternative to the Company's ADSL Access service" doing so by "co-locating their ADSL transmission equipment in a Company serving wire centre in accordance with the terms, conditions, rates and charges specified in the Company's Access Services Tariff (AST) Item 110 - Co-location Arrangements for Interconnecting Canadian Carriers and Digital Subscriber Line Service Providers (DSLSPs)"; the next paragraph appears to speak of that being done over "a particular end-user's Company-provided, individual line", which sounds like line-sharing to me.

(That tariff also appears to speak of Bell Canada providing the ADSL Access service to service providers, rather than having the service provider offering an alternative to ADSL Access service; those service providers might be ISPs, rather than the CLECs who would provide competitive alternatives to ADSL Access.)

That tariff item refers to an item for Local Network Interconnection and Component Unbundling, which speaks of "Digital Subscriber Line Service Providers", who are explicitly described as not being CLECs (that would probably include ISPs competitive with Bell Sympatico), and of CLECs.

In Canada the local phone company basically has a monopoly over the last mile

Do you mean that there is no local loop unbundling of any sort (no CLECs either leasing the last mile or leasing access to, for example, the high-frequency portion to the last mile)? Bell Canada's tariff for ADSL speaks of "Service providers wishing to offer a competitive alternative to the Company's ADSL Access service" doing so by "co-locating their ADSL transmission equipment in a Company serving wire centre in accordance with the terms, conditions, rates and charges specified in the Company's Access Services Tariff (AST) Item 110 - Co-location Arrangements for Interconnecting Canadian Carriers and Digital Subscriber Line Service Providers (DSLSPs)"; the next paragraph appears to speak of that being done over "a particular end-user's Company-provided, individual line", which sounds like line-sharing to me.

(That tariff also appears to speak of Bell Canada providing the ADSL Access service to service providers, rather than having the service provider offering an alternative to ADSL Access service; those service providers might be ISPs, rather than the CLECs who would provide competitive alternatives to ADSL Access.)

That tariff item refers to an item for Local Network Interconnection and Component Unbundling, which speaks of "Digital Subscriber Line Service Providers", who are explicitly described as not being CLECs (that would probably include ISPs competitive with Bell Sympatico), and of CLECs.

Geez, I'm getting sick of seeing so many damn Tivo stories on Slashdot... not because I think Tivo is crap, but because I would love to try one of these out, but I can't! The only thing that comes close up here is Bell Satellite with their PVR, which is something like $500-$600 up front I think.

And as many Tivo users have said, it's not the PVR functionality that kicks ass, but the service features such as Season Pass (hey, that rhymes). And from what I've seen the UI is really good. My fiance and I are dying to get one of these.

Damn you, Yankees! Damn you, eh!

Found at: Bell AccessZone
Pilot locations
You can find AccessZone pilot sites at the following convenient locations across Canada. Visit this page regularly for updates as we add more hotspot sites.

Toronto: Union Station Panorama Lounge, Union Station Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, Pearson International Airport, Terminal 2

Kingston: Confederation Park and Marina St. Lawrence College Yea Kingston!!

Montreal: Panorama Lounge, Central Station Dorval Airport, Departures Area Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, Dorval Airport

Calgary: Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, Calgary International Airport

Nah it just looks like it was a bogus link. The official login for this service is here. Note: Please do not mod me up people as I also linked this in another post.

Check out this page listing the pilot locations on the right side. That's the official page for the service, as a sidenote.

Here is some more info on the hotspots, including a picture of it!

Now, this is only the case in the more heavily populated areas in Canada. As you get further out, first DSL disappears, then Cable. This is due to the fact that DSL is apparently difficult to send over long distances.

However, where it really gets interesting, is when you hear about how Bell used to be the telephone monopoly in Canada, and Rogers used to be the (Cable) Television monopoly. Now, Bell sells Satellite Television, and there have been rumors about Rogers selling Telephone service in the future!

All the rules have changed!

1) Get satellite and a Bell ExpressVu PVR. I've had mine for almost a year now, and am very happy with it's performance. I've barely touched my VCR since then!

2) Get a PC with a video capture/playback card (like ATI's All-In-Wonder Radeon), and some open source software and roll-yer-own PVR. You can get TV listings for Canada with the XMLTV project. The Linux VCR HOWTO will probably be helpful.

In fact, it might be the opposite. Major broadband ISPs (Bell - DSL, and a few cable companies Cogeco, Rogers, Videotron) are not governement subsidised, but have to live with high taxes and stronger regulations.

Although we have the same problems as those mentionned in the article: little competition for the last-mile. As a result, my DSL cost me 5$/month more that it used to. (And I can't even switch - no cable broadband on my street)

My experience: broadband is great, and worth the money - I can't live without it; but the service is getting worse, and the price increases. There is something wrong there that needs to be investigated.

yeah, i love that fee. a few months ago i read that my local telco was proposing elimination of all rotary phones to the "regulatory body" (aka rubber-stampers). Betcha they wanted to keep charging for the "touch-tone service" line item. Bastards.

That must be one really big company...

dominik@schnitzer.at, mozparty-at-subscribe@relax.ath.cx, dominik@schnitzer.at, david_markvica@web.de, johannes_richter@gmx.net, kairo@kairo.at, rossi@chello.at, markush@world-direct.com, cbiesinger@web.de, jenskager@gmx.net, jo-at-mt@gmx.net, johann.petrak@gmx.at, dviper01@gmx.net, simon@simonschwaighofer.net, dreckskerl@glump.at, wt-lists@trexler.at, dusty@strike.wu-wien.ac.at, kasparhauserjr@hotmail.com, b.schallar@gmx.net, mutato@libero.it, phil@goli.at, diddalick@gmx.net, studio@paw8.com, croco@utanet.at, petru@paler.net, jlemmerer@node.at, bigkub@time2change.at, patrick@seher-it.at, ronald@hartwig.at, mozilla_party@webterminate.com, stefan@kleinhans.it, horst.jens@gmx.at, jjan@gibts.net, mjahn@agency.at, gpoul@gnu.org, green@eggs.ham, gerhard.hipfinger@openforce.at, mailto:moz@moz.org>, florianweinwurm@yahoo.com, christian@precht-jensen.dk, Bill_Gates@microsoft.com, Tux_the_penguin@linux.rules.microsoft.sux.open.sou rce.is.the.way.to.go.net, domi@schnitzer.at, joe_ringmaster@gmx.at, sifu@isohypse.org, dk@perm.ru, nobandwidth@bigpond.com, nobandwidth@bigpond.com, luke@strangemonkey.com, mrundataker@optushome.com.au, mcgarry@tig.com.au, chris@think.net.au, Mathias.Burbach@Bigfoot.com, acuteparanoia@optushome.com.au, syzh401@cse.unsw.edu.au, maillist@jasonlim.com, ram@digitalmethod.org, jason@sydneypubguide.net, geek@digitalone.com.au, curious@ihug.com.au, bill@maidment.com.au, kristof@staesis.org, bill@microsoft.com, belle@netset.net.au, ksosez@softhome.net, jruderman@hmc.edu, andyed@surfmind.com, down8@yahoo.com, mozparty@sigkill.com, bulbul@ucla.edu, gavin-mozparty@doughtie.com, roger@digitalfountain.com, matt@linuxschooltorrance.com, mozparty@ventura.nu, rombouts@compuserve.com, ian@freenetproject.org, tristanreid@yahoo.com, groovefx@yahoo.com, jj@lacasabonita.com, gmoudry@hotmail.com, eyezero@yahoo.com, ian@primewave.net, jlawson7@adelphia.net, el_arturo@att.net, janie@freenetproject.org, 145371217@numenor.net, infinite_8_monkey@yahoo.com, charshman@divus.org, mozparty@shadowlurker.net, john@marinapacific.com, ilanterrell@yahoo.com, aafes@psu.edu, bustamam98@yahoo.com, mozparty@myunixbox.com, yaten@sbcglobal.net, joelinux@pacificnet.net, dgc@penguino.net, poserskater69@yahoo.com, lheartb@hotmail.com, ncmother@zimage.com, daniel@likeicare.com, digital.evil@lycos.com, cjeburke@yahoo.com, jblow@hotmail.com, zachary.anthony@verizon.net, boogah@23.org, mebelost@yahoo.com, nickkricheff@netscape.net, mikemcg@ucla.edu, gogomozilla@denofslack.net, mike@mm1.com, seanmcoleman@attbi.com, jsm@bigfoot.com, hoarycripple@crippl3.net, mozparty@nslu.x.myxomop.com, mozparty@camworld.com, mozpartyNYC@isoga.net, ccarlen@netscape.com, h@rediffmail.com, lefever@rcn.com, tedjackson@accounting.org, darren@ny.com, marlon@nyc.com, plui@hyperreal.org, dzeluff@zeluff.com, joel@natividads.com, ken@bigbadapple.com, treebeard@treebeard.net, florent@nyc.com, chad@macristy.com, spud@montelshow.com, gbman_of_gvill@yahoo.com, eam-mozparty@learningpatterns.com, pkrause@primavera.com, tossoffus@yahoo.com, ryan@pantz.com, nichomof@eecs.tulane.edu, billg@microsoft.com, DevilsRejection@msn.com, petergunn@hotmail.com, bagerj@sullcrom.com, isaac@structuredsystems.net, bobk@panix.com, ngellner@hotmail.com, luke@sigterm.org, vivake@yahoo.com, jon@mediavortex.com, groovefx@yahoo.com, brendan@sighup.net, jds@panix.com, bluerose@bluerose.com, chris@allermann.net, dimkal@yahoo.com, preppyl@yahoo.com, blujoker@blujoker.net, nowell_h@hotmail.com, aragorn@cs.stanford.edu, treed@cpr.com, brt204@nyu.edu, andreas@antonopoulos.com, dj@randomwalks.com, lists@pote.com, mike@mhudack.com, reliable57@yahoo.com, jared@geek-boy.com, ondadl@mac.com, floss@myrealbox.com, xod@thestonecutters.net, mozilla@sectae.net, tywonm@screamingmedia.com, Odin_NT@hotmail.com, crooney@panix.com, bg25222@binghamton.edu, eugenem@brainlink.com, dave@downneck.net, romspace@mac.com, sdaejo@yahoo.com, masseo1@yahoo.com, jim@fearandloathing.net, mike@mjoy.us, miles@openly.com, LuciferSD@hotmail.com, nsdilwor@intertechmedia.com, chrisdowden@yahoo.com, pgs10@columbia.edu, sbrennan@ovid.com, lthomiso@rcn.com, paralox@paralox.ath.cx, Jester_458@yahoo.com, jsadove@beltion.net, stuehmke@yahoo.com, mike@realfx.com, alex@risky-roosky.com, shava@efn.org, kra10@columbia.edu, saihung@ix.netcom.com, gropo@mac.com, scottnym@yahoo.com, shaas@vibe.com, roon_toon@hotmail.com, ajaygautam@yahoo.com, jhdaly@mindspring.com, manuel@sphinx.ms, very_itchy_rash@yahoo.com, emeldrum@drew.edu, jeld@mindless.com, as867@columbia.edu, slams@penguin.rutgers.edu, wassa@columbia.edu, tony@vegan.net, zilla@bibliotrack.com, zeno_lee@hotmail.com, fosh@fishnet.cx, linux@gpl.us, jblow@hotmail.com, dkrook@hotmail.com, ivesti@yahoo.com, arek@arekwyderka.com, bljoechang@yahoo.com, brian@tribrothers.com, sparky@marklife.org, charles@softwareprototypes.com, scottkundla@hotmail.com, ccharabaruk@meldstar.com, ian@pottinger.ca, netdemonz@yahoo.com, diatribe@mailcity.com, nick@tomkinet.com, shawnlin@yahoo.com, sculley@pathcom.com, herd.killing@rogers.com, dave@renouf.com, aliyamin@hotmail.com, aswitzer@ispgn.com, netm0nkey@ispgn.com, hyakugei@hotmail.com, geduggan.mozparty@peri.csclub.uwaterloo.ca, lwhite@darkfires.ca, jorel@the-wire.com, js@tap.net, davew@tap.net, tmh@whitefang.com, vid_mozillaparty@zooid.org, anon@foolswisdom.org, morris_mk@yahoo.ca, colinmc@idirect.com, marcus.brubaker@utoronto.ca, akish@kishcom.com, nconway@klamath.dyndns.org, jason@thegeekcave.com, rampaging_simian@hotmail.com, garret@sirsonic.com, piowie@myrealbox.com, m5m5m@yahoo.com, ivan.brovko@net-sweeper.com, returnofthedorks@hotmail.com, axxackall@yahoo.com, tednye@sympatico.ca, darren.fuller@bell.ca, jbailey@nisa.net, swangeo@yahoo.ca, Hercynium@yahoo.com, cinetron@passport.ca, jotaroh@hotmail.com, aghajani@principle.com, fzv@yahoo.com, rocketmail_com@rocketmail.com, foo@bar.com, wolfe@alt.net, drew@xyzzy.dhs.org, jimmiejaz@nixhelp.net, bofh@swma.net, nilesh_mehta@email.com, mslack@rogers.com, m-cahill@rogers.com, tworkowski@sympatico.ca, george@openlight.com, irina@openlight.com, ilia@lobsanov.com, rjs@tao.ca, paul-mp@it.ca, alvarolists@aycuens.com, xan@dimensis.com, ike@lab.org, miguel@asiinfo.net, marevalo@marevalo.net, iolalla@yahoo.com, peluz0n@justice.com, weeddeveloper@yahoo.com, alfonsobugs@terra.es, sgala@apache.org, z_gringo@hotmail.com, santiz@madritel.es, murphy@litio.net, fox@mozilla.gr.jp, party@mozilla.org.uk, danj@fledgeling.com, fun@thingy.apana.org.au, moz@the-allens.net, onelists@hotmail.com, joel@fysh.org, simon.mozilla-party-if-its-in-central-london@rumbl e.net, bigboyjim@excite.com, andrew.and.friends.iff.central.london@sent.freeser ve.co.uk, itwillbecentrallondon@mozilla.org.uk, noahsark2x2@tiscali.co.uk, mmm-central-london@smileyben.com, jonathan-for-central-london@peepo.com, dave-Party-in-Central-London@dgta.co.uk, DJGMOL@netscape.net, srick@europe.yahoo-inc.com, moz-party@zpok.demon.co.uk, moz-party-central-london@trickofthelight.org, marc@brosystems.com, party@budge.net, rillian@telus.net, uphillsurfer@hotmail.com, edward@debian.org, mozilla@robertbrook.com, reagan@technomoose.com, lew@saltbeefsandwich.co.uk, osama@afghanistan.com, barking@insaneworld.org.uk, john@billabong-media.com, leith@cs.bu.edu, mozparty@noseynick.org, jonasj@jonasj.dk, bugzilla@kenneth.dk, chr_damsgaard@hotmail.com, alring@email.com, hp.grondal@get2net.dk, martin@marquentein.dk, Lovechild@foolclan.com, Kim@schulz.dk, kl@vsen.dk, mbendix@dunghill.dk, schnitzer.at@tange.dk, tommy@svindel.net, moz10@pbb.dk, dezral@despammed.com, nick@tioka.com, ask@fujang.dk, gecko@c.dk, spam@deck.dk, bugzilla@gemal.dk, b@bogdan.dk, kenneth@gnu.org, jee@email.dk, daniel@rtfm.dk, umfalvo@yahoo.com, christian@ostenfeld.dk, xor@ivwnet.com, Jason@screaminweb.com, alex@spamcop.net, dustym@riseup.net, rmcgee1@earthlink.net, dr_zeus@hotmail.com, chris.lozano@myrealbox.com, looney_binn@yahoo(dot)com, apendell@attbi.com, dantrevino@wrevolution.org, fireball1244@mac.com, tommyo@hargray.com, natas@redtailboa.net, emmett_in_dallas@yahoo.com, razzbuten@yahoo.com, igdavis@truculent-telephone.org, foobar@null.net, bob@kludgebox.com, cgrimland@yahoo.com, ghamlett@swbell.net, bgood@inceptual.com, slot0k@pogox.org, kwhudson@netin.com, jimjamjoh@softhome.net, jimmys@utdallas.edu, charlesv@mfos.org chris@focus2.com jest6r@hotmail.com steve@ncc.com, usrg@mail.utexas.edu, steve@deltos.com, alex@avengergear.com, mkoenecke@alum.haverford.edu langley@hex.net mordred@inaugust.com swapan@yahoo.com drosoph@hotmail.com, goulash1@mac.com, ean@brainfood.com, vj@vj.com lpret42@hotmail.com bugoff@hotmail.com chad@digitaltriage.net, stewart@digitaltriage.net scottvr01@yahoo.com adam@dfwuptime.com dsaint@gnumatt.org naltrexone42@yahoo.com, webmaster@bast.net, tommyo@hargray.com, ladd@kryp.to, jtaylor5@bayou.uh.edu, jgschmitz@linuxmail.org, enslaver@enslaver.com edfierro@yahoo.com, moz@photonsphere.com, rayw@fuckmicrosoft.com, rfmobile@swbell.net, kevin@unif.com trident5@bigfoot.com Erik_Osterholm@ieee.org, tmunson@houston.rr.com, alessi_brand@hotmail.com, rballa1@lsu.edu, wasted@kewlhair.com, jofficer@martinapparatus.com, idiot@mylinuxisp.com, j0sh01@ev1.net faust@wintermarket.org bouncer@hotmonkeyporn.com tk-mozparty_@perljam.net janisch@students.zcu.cz, aha@pinknet.cz kuzi@atlas.cz scat@reboot.cz, petr@dousa.cz, ruzicka@core.cz, roman@management.cz, hojan@students.zcu.cz, tille@soti.org, cas.tuyn@hetnet.nl, aeon@pandora.be, sensi_millia2000@yahoo.com, crypto@shiftat.com, jan.fabry@vsknet.be, monkeyboy@fruru.com, adulau@foo.be, johan@linux.be, karu@pobox.com, soggie@soti.org nick@tomkinet.com, why_are_you_too_lazy_to_drive_1_hour_to_toronto@yo u_lazy.com try_grammer_class_a_while@get_a_life.com john@interlynx.ca asharp@axo.cc, unionstation@ryder.ca, prade@hotmail.com, 2600@hamilton2600.ca, chris.lozano@myrealbox.com, dantrevino@wrevolution.org, jksteinhauer@netscape.net, i_love_junk_email@yahoo.com, cmiller@surfsouth.com, jan@bestbytes.de, me@phillipoertel.com, sebastian@pixelsalon.de, ccozan@andtek.com, ben@itlib.de, martin.ament@gmx.de, pulsar@highteq.net, muid@gmx.de, cedi@zooomclan.org, soapy@soapy.ch, deep_blue_ocean@gmx.ch, stamp@zooomclan.org, hans@switzerland.com, milamber@zooomclan.org, mtettea@switzerland.com, cylander@zooomclan.org, duke@zooomclan.org, pegirun@gmx.ch, pilif@pilif.ch, mlati@yahoo.com, Mozillzooom@holophrastic.com, erichiseli@yahoo.com, la_burdet@yahoo.com, rkoerber@gmx.de, dotzmasta@hotmail.com, B.Eckstein@cli.de, rtfm@linux.de, info@phosmo.de, gz@disintegrated.de, byronbay@gmx.de, stiwi@mac.com, mage@koeln.netsurf.de, mozilla@portfolio16.de, wrede@fh-aachen.de, ilikemozilla@html.de, cloud@final-fantasy.de, sfricke@sfricke.de, info@flossbau.de, no@dom.de, julian.suschlik@gmx.net, omero@m4d.sm, lapo@lapo.it, alcor78@email.it, info@fuelcat.it, mutato@libero.it, ildella@inwind.it, a.marabini@spinthehumanfactor.com, uomoman@criticalbit.com, thefl74@netscape.net, elbardo@libero.it, clem131@libero.it, t-i-e@bigfoot.com, gng74@libero.it, moz.party.20.gnes@spamgourmet.com, ema.cerqui@libero.it, ubertob@tin.it, mozparty.20.anagoor@spamgourmet.com, gianpaolo@preciso.net, ian@deepsky.com, marco@porciletto.org, planetx2100@hotmail.com, billabong@tiscalinet.it, piofree@libero.it, skunkyboy@tiscalinet.it, vincenzo@mondopiccolo.net, macmatteo@interfree.it, contreras@jce.it, hereandnow@libero.it, pza@students.cs.mu.oz.au, caedwa@students.cs.mu.oz.au, mgi@students.cs.mu.oz.au, bah@humbug.net, mfp@cs.mu.oz.au, nospamplease@indevelopment.org, peter@simplyit.screaming,net, pmj@users.sf.net, xanni@sericyb.com.au, agh@kalcium-is.com, felicityconsult@ozemail.com.au, lucas@lucaschan.com, andrewg@nopninjas.com, andym@abnormal.com, ts@meme.com.au, jasonpell@hotmail.com, syngin@gimp.org, mhammond@skippinet.com.au, szutshi@devraj.org, rmoonen@bigpond.net.au, fawad@fawad.net, ufs@softhome.net, kotrade@yahoo.com, ben@benscorp.com, stevesmith@columbus.rr.com, kkimmelosu@yahoo.com, neal.lindsay@peaofohio.com, pat@linuxcolumbus.com, chrisbaker@iname.com, hiroki2c@yahoo.com, seth@remor.com, jsohn@columbus.rr.com, ross@nanonet.net, mark@cushman.net, swinghammer.2@osu.edu, roberto.12@osu.edu, farhat@hotmail.com, pgunn@dachte.org, jwagner@gcfn.org, bp@osc.edu, joepletch@postmark.net, dsherman@iwaynet.net, glenn@uniqsys.com, bernstein.46@osu.edu, trent_reznor@nothing.com, erikniklas@bobanddoug.com, walters@gnu.org, timo@bolverk.net, annek25@aol.com, jlamb@leader.com, bart@osc.edu, jason@mcvetta.org

At our office we have DSL which is targeted at business. It is NOT the tarted up residential DSL that is sold by the telco as 'business' DSL, and is not even sold by the same group. It costs significantly more than residential DSL (8x) is somewhat faster (3x) and the tech support is amazing. When it does go down (very rarely) they will often call me to let me know before one of my co-workers get a chance to. Not only that but the tech on the other end of the line really has a clue (which is extremely rare judging from my other experiences).

Bell ExpressVu has a PVR

Does that help?

Tivo is not available here in Canada

I don't know if this is Tivo per se, but Bell will sell you a device that offers the same sort of functionality. Details here

I assume it probably phones home in the same way.

True (easier to sature trunk lines), but consider this; during 'quiet hours' when traffic is lighter, now the lone porn surfers can have faster access. During congestion nothing helps (but bigger pipes), but off-peak hours faster last copper/coax mile eq does help end users. Of course burstiness of traffic increases as well, but that shouldn't be much of a problem.

Similarly, if traffic prioritizing is done decently, the fact that some clients have faster local connection shouldn't make situation worse for those with slower connection. So, faster cable modems shouldn't necessarily make it harder for others, provided capacity is fairly shared, not by end systems but by routers doing QoS queuing.


You've hit the problem a lot of the High Speed ISPs are facing - backend provisioning a high speed network.

Sympatico used to (and seems to still be) provisioning thier Central Offices with a single T1, so your 968K connection would get choked as soon as more than 20 people were connected to the same CO. I was just speaking to someone with thier DSL service and they explained that it gets slower during peak hours (so much for thier "Always fast!" advertising angle :-P). The only cause of this I can see is people sucking up more and more bandwidth on the frontend that the provider hasn't allowed for.

QoS is a possible solution, but it could get un-weildy very quickly, especially if it's not secured properly. (Dude, I hax0red the Cisco and now I reseverd myself the whole pipe! I am l337!) A better solution would be to make sure the backend can handle more than the capacity of all the frontend pipes aggregated in order to keep QoS exposure to a minimum.

Soko

Here in the ungodly foreign parts (Canada...look it up), we already have a company that can give you phone+TV+DSL, but the CRTC (Canada's FCC) won't let 'em charge everything in separate bills, or all in one bill. (sorry, I didn't quite understand it when I signed in, and I'm still not sure.)

Personally, it annoys me. I have to pay my DSL in a lump sum with my phone, and I wish I could have a separate bill for it. That way, I could more easily figure out what I pay for the phone, and what I pay for internet (and dish TV if I had that).
I don't trust 'em ya see...sneaky bastards keep trying to get me on their call waiting scheme...

If these bastards are not going to embrace the technology and put it to use for their customer's benefits (remember, we're the ones paying to see commercials!), then they should at least be consistent and thorough in their suits.

Fancy public phones with display, card reader, keyboard & such are common fare in US airports, big hotels, convention facilities, etc. Often you'll see a bank of a dozen or so standard public phones with one or two fancy ones at the end, invariably one extra-low for folks in mobile chairs.

The fancy phones seem more of a decorating thing then a regularly used amenity. Indeed aside from using their card-reader to charge calls (which could be done by keypad as well so not a real-big win there) I can't recall ever having used their extra features nor seen anyone else ever use them. Perhaps they'll be more popular with the web-browser since kiosks for this are also quite common in the same environments, including browser-kiosks from AT&T.

However back to vandalism no, these phones don't sem to suffer unduly. Of course they're usually in fairly secure places where vandals would be quickly noticed & apprehended. Like I said: Airports, hotels, convention centers - not out on some dark stretch of rural highway or even a suburban bus-stop. Furthermore they're fairly rugged already, I can't imagine any casual attempts to damage them would succeed (perhaps chewing gum in the data-port.)

Just to keep on informing-the-folks theme many Canadian phones already have built in card-readers and 20-character/2-line displays; here's a link to Bell Canada's standard payphone.

That's the reality of the telecom infrastructure folks. Wireline infrastructure involves massive expenditures that can only be absorbed by the companies that originally had heavy government funding to install the infrastructure in the first place.

Did AT&T, in the US, have government funding, or did they merely have (regulated) monopoly status and profits?

What about Bell Canada (which, according to this item on Bell Canada's timeline, was a private company since Day One)?

In Europe, most of the telephone systems were, I think, Government-run (typically by the post office, I think), although, at least according to one of Andrew Leonard's articles on Salon.com, Finland's government "chose to grant licenses to operate telephone companies to all applicants" so that the Tsar of all the Russias would have to take over a whole bunch of telephone companies in order to control phone service in the Autonomous Duchy of Finland.

It will be interesting to see how local loop unbundling works in Europe.