Guess how class action lawsuits come into existence?
One person (or a small group, say 5-10) people file suit against another party. They then, while paying their own lawyers, petition to have a class certified. Still paying their own lawyers, they go through the whole court process, and at the end, a settlement gets reached, the lawyers go home with the millions, maybe the initial parties get $1000 or so each (which doesn't begin to pay for the work time lost in court), and no fault is ever admitted.
You're way better off in small-claims court. Class action suits usually net you a coupon for a free accessory and a $5 bill credit. Small-claims court nets you the disputed amount plus costs (if you're smart) and sets precedent.
I'd probably have filed a complaint -- with a copy of the recording -- with the CPUC, since I live in California. The deal there is that you send in the disputed amount (the $70 or so difference between $0.002 and $0.00002 times his usage) and state your case, and the administrative law judges decide who wins. If it's you, they send back your cheque. If it's not you, they cash the cheque, you've now suffered actionable damage, and you can sue on a tort claim in small-claims.
Mmmm, yes, because the government specifying security standards is a great idea. I mean, it worked for education, right? No Child Left Behind? Oh, and it worked for the nutritional guidelines which were finally updated after twelve years.
Gasoline is taxed on a federal and state level per gallon. Federal excise tax is 18.4c/gal for straight gasoline and 15.4c/gal for ethanol blend. California's excise tax is 18.0c/gal regardless of composition.
You don't honestly think some underpaid kids in Hyderabad are sitting there wearing out their thumbs actually sending a text message from a cell phone, do you?
You can send text messages through an e-mail gateway. 9175551212@yourcarrier.net, 9175551213@yourcarrier.net -- and since certain blocks of telephone numbers are reserved to cell phone carriers, and the assignments are published by The North American Numbering Plan Administrator, you can text 917555nnnn@yourcarrier.net and get probably 8500 successes out of 10000 e-mails sent.
There is no charge to send e-mail to a cell phone for the sender -- the receiver pays for it.
It's illegal for telemarketers to call your cell phone
No, it's merely against a DMA (Direct Marketing Association) rule, violate the rule and I presume the DMA can take action against you if you're a member. There's no requirement to be a member, of course, but as with most industry associations there are advantages, mainly in the lobbying and legal arenas I suspect
This statement would be a lot more convincing if we weren't talking about people unlocking their AT&T phones to use on OTHER networks.
I can take my unlocked (Cingular) V3682 or my unlocked (Voicestream/T-Mobile) P280 and put an AT&T SIM card in it. AT&T have no control over what other carriers do, and I have used many unsupported phones on a variety of networks. Rogers, for example, don't support the V3682. Telcel don't support the P280 and hadn't got the 3595 when last I went down there and popped my Telcel SIM into the phone.
No, the reason AT&T don't unlock telephones is because for the non-tech-savvy it's a good way to keep churn to a minimum. That way, when you want to switch from AT&T, you can't just take your phone that you're used to with you.
Just remember that your GSM phone will not work on other GSM carriers until you have the SIM lock removed. If you have a Nokia GSM phone, you can get the unlock sequence from here.
If you don't have a Nokia, you can find people who will unlock the phones for you with a special cable. T-Mobile will give the unlock codes to their customers once you hit the 90-day mark, though I've heard of people getting them as quickly as 15 days after signing up... e-mail simunlock@t-mobile.com with your phone's serial (IMEI) number and your account information. Cingular have a mixed history of giving out the lock codes. AT&T refuse to give out the codes for any reason.
Once you unlock your phone you will be able to use any provider's SIM card in it... and historically, Cingular do not require 1- or 2-year agreements when you bring your own phone.
Bear in mind that Cingular and AT&T use 800 (850) and 1900 MHz networks and T-Mobile use only 1900 MHz networks, so you want to check out which networks your phone will work on first. (If you have a triband phone it's probably 900/1800/1900, which means it works on 1900 here in North America and works in most of the rest of the world as well.)
This problem relates both to people trying to switch FROM AT&T and to people trying to switch TO AT&T... while it may be a stalling tactic on AT&T, it seems unlikely and they wouldn't want to give themselves such a PR black eye.
All the major carriers except AT&T are using one portability company. Looks like AT&T ought to explore using that same firm.
Tri-mode does not mean it will work on every phone. "Tri-mode" usually refers to 800 MHz AMPS, 800 MHz CDMA, and 1900 MHz CDMA.
Wireless voice in the US is divided into bands (1900 MHz and 800MHz, which includes 850 MHz), and technologies (AMPS, TDMA, CDMA, iDEN, and GSM).
iDEN is Nextel and Telus Mike and it runs between 700 and 900 MHz, depending on which feature you're using. It's proprietary and only those two carriers use it.
AMPS was the original, it runs only on 800 MHz, and is what we know as "analog". It is 1980s technology, but it still exists because in a lot of the rural US it's all there is.
TDMA, properly called IS-136, was the first "digital" standard to be rolled out widely in the US and Canada. It is still in use with carriers like AT&T, Rogers, and Cingular, though they are all migrating to GSM. It runs on both 1900 MHz ("PCS") and 800 MHz ("cellular") frequencies.
CDMA is one of the two current front-runners. It is used on both frequencies, and is used by Verizon, Sprint, ALLTEL, the Mobility carriers in Canada (Bell, Telus, IslandTel, NewTel, MTT, NBTel, SaskTel, etc.) and some markets of US Cellular.
GSM is generally the standard outside the US and is used at both frequencies here in the US. AT&T, Cingular, and Rogers are all migrating to GSM, and T-Mobile and Fido have always been GSM. GSM phones feature SIM cards which allow you to take your data with you when you switch phones. There are many, many "tri-band" GSM phones, which work on 900/1800 MHz (the European and Asian standards) and 1900 MHz (the original American standard).
Almost all TDMA and CDMA phones also have AMPS capabilities. Very, very, very few GSM phones have any AMPS capabilities (and these are only sold in Canada). There are a couple of phones that support GSM and TDMA, and a couple that support GSM, TDMA, and AMPS.
As yet there are no CDMA/GSM or CDMA/TDMA compatible phones available in the US.
You can unlock GSM phones, usually by contacting your provider (simunlock at t-mobile dotcom is the one for T-Mobile). AT&T won't do it for any reason and so there are third-party apps to do it.
CDMA and TDMA providers are very unwilling to activate unlocked phones on their networks. With a GSM phone, the SIM card is what's important, not the phone. With CDMA and TDMA, the information that would normally be stored on the SIM is programmed into the phone and linked to the phone's serial number.
You can get much more information by visiting http://www.wirelessadvisor.com and poking about the forums.
Oh, my friend, how it's changed. All digital providers have contracts now -- except in certain markets of Fido -- and in some cases, thinking here of SaskTel and Telus, they have 3-year contracts.
We have this on a local basis. Within the 310 area code, I know that, for example, 245xxxx and 980xxxx and 920xxxx are all mobiles.
The FCC have mandated that area codes may not be assigned to any one technology.
One area that the US has Europe beat on is minutes per $CURRENCY_UNIT. I remember being in France and swapping an Orange SIM into my (unlocked, tri-band, GSM) phone and being scandalised that I had to pay 40 a month for 2 hours (120 minutes) of service.
Here in the US, $40 gets you anywhere from 500 to 5000 anytime minutes, not counting intraprovider minutes and offpeak minutes.
What part of LA County would that be? The only carpool lane I know that changes by time is the bus lane on the 10, which is 3 people during commute hours and 2 people otherwise... all others are 2 people or more, round the clock.
I hate Bay Area carpool lanes... they're only really carpool lanes during certain hours, and you can get in and out whenever you like, which makes it more dangerous and correspondingly slower.
I picked up at impromptu slug lines in L.A. during the latest MTA strike (which went on for quite a while)... I got to use the carpool lane, and the people I picked up were usually so happy to be able to get to work... in general they were not so well off economically and had the type of job where they had to be there at exactly certain hours (unlike mine, which is flexible), and so the fact that I stopped meant they got paid for the day.
Congratulations on TOTALLY MISSING THE POINT of the GPL (GNU Public Licence). The point is not that you cannot charge for software, the point is that the source code must be distributed with the software without extra charge.
If companies couldn't charge for Linux-based software they wouldn't be companies much longer now would they.
I did not save it but I sent a letter to Mr Israel Aceves (who lives in Newport Beach, CA, not Huntington Beach) advising him of my intent to file suit should he repeat the spam.
I stand corrected re: the cost of DVD players. However, I think you've misunderstood the point of the article. Wal-mart have done DVD rentals for aeons... what they're talking about HERE is online rental à la NetFlix.
I really don't mean this to be a troll... but it occurs to me that Wal-mart's core customer group are not exactly likely to own DVD players.
Wal-mart's greatest move (from a financial gain POV) was to move into middling-to-small towns (this means towns with 4000 people or more, or county seats) and take over the businesses downtown, the mom-and-pop stores, by slashing prices. (Whether you like that tactic is irrelevant, it was enormously successful.)
Well, how much are you going to be able to slash prices on an online DVD rental? It's not like Netflix and Blockbuster are higher-priced than the market will bear.
They can try it... but I suspect it won't be a roaring success.
I'd like to see mobile providers concentrate more on getting their 2G (voice) networks rolled out and matured across America and Canada. You in Europe are lucky -- you have almost 100% coverage. Here in America that is patently not the case - even in large cities such as San Francisco, Dallas, and Los Angeles.
Have you SEEN the GSM map of the US? Looks like a road atlas with smudges.
Fix what you have, mobile providers, and then start dreaming of 3G.
In other news, scientists combine a pound of pasta and a pound of antipasto and cause an enormous chain reaction, obliterating life as we know it across four continents.
"Something that perfect could only exist if there was a god to create it, so the Babel fish proved there was a god. Proof denies faith however, and faith is the standard by which we are to know God. Oops, says God, without faith I have no followers, and disappears in a theological puff of smoke."
So when you order something online or sign up for a website that requires an immediate response and get an e-mail from something like amazon-36fg09832uk2jg09832lk.0tr98vd098@amazon.com - then what?
So not only do you have to re-train on a new e-mail client, but also on a new desktop.
Farking brilliant. Glad to see you don't waste your time figuring out that Joe End-User doesn't like learning new software and that he'd rather learn the Microsoft software that almost definitely will serve him should he switch jobs than Evolution and Ximian, which most companies have never heard of.
Sounds like your mythical boss there isn't actually inviting people to the events...
1. Cingular have contracts, except on KiC (Keep in Contact) prepaid. Prepaid wireless NEVER has a contract.
2. Omnipoint -> Voicestream -> T-Mobile.
3. Nextel are immensely popular amoung businesses. They cater almost exclusively to businesses (their prepaid Boost Mobile division notwithstanding). Most people who have Nextels, though I hate to admit it because I loathe that "chirp" sound, are soundly in love with their push-to-talk Direct Connect figure.
Come to http://www.wirelessadvisor.com - we'll straighten you out.:-P
Within the 310 area code there are (I believe) twelve rate centres, e.g., Malibu, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Compton, Gardena, West Los Angeles.
Let's say I live in Marina del Rey. Marina del Rey is not a rate centre - people who live in Marina del Rey normally have Culver City telephone numbers. If I live in MdR and I get a T-Mobile telephone, my choices are Santa Monica or Gardena (either of which is a local call), and I pick Santa Monica. Now let's say I get sick of T-Mobile and want an Cingular telephone.
I go and find out that Cingular do not have any numbers in the Santa Monica rate centre, only the Mar Vista centre. They are BOTH in the 310 area code, but I can't port my number from T-Mobile to Cingular, because they are only required to port within a rate centre.
Obviously, if you are changing area codes (i.e., moving), you are changing rate centres and WNP would not work.
The preceding assumes, of course, that WNP works along the same lines as LNP.
Slashdot Mirror
Guess how class action lawsuits come into existence?
One person (or a small group, say 5-10) people file suit against another party. They then, while paying their own lawyers, petition to have a class certified. Still paying their own lawyers, they go through the whole court process, and at the end, a settlement gets reached, the lawyers go home with the millions, maybe the initial parties get $1000 or so each (which doesn't begin to pay for the work time lost in court), and no fault is ever admitted.
You're way better off in small-claims court. Class action suits usually net you a coupon for a free accessory and a $5 bill credit. Small-claims court nets you the disputed amount plus costs (if you're smart) and sets precedent.
I'd probably have filed a complaint -- with a copy of the recording -- with the CPUC, since I live in California. The deal there is that you send in the disputed amount (the $70 or so difference between $0.002 and $0.00002 times his usage) and state your case, and the administrative law judges decide who wins. If it's you, they send back your cheque. If it's not you, they cash the cheque, you've now suffered actionable damage, and you can sue on a tort claim in small-claims.
I always use Microsoft products to code... in fact, I created a shortcut to Notepad on my desktop!
Mmmm, yes, because the government specifying security standards is a great idea. I mean, it worked for education, right? No Child Left Behind? Oh, and it worked for the nutritional guidelines which were finally updated after twelve years.
Give me a break.
Gasoline is taxed on a federal and state level per gallon. Federal excise tax is 18.4c/gal for straight gasoline and 15.4c/gal for ethanol blend. California's excise tax is 18.0c/gal regardless of composition.
If you had bothered to Google for ten seconds...
D'OH! I went to go search for the cause on Google News.
My world is crumbling...
You don't honestly think some underpaid kids in Hyderabad are sitting there wearing out their thumbs actually sending a text message from a cell phone, do you?
You can send text messages through an e-mail gateway. 9175551212@yourcarrier.net, 9175551213@yourcarrier.net -- and since certain blocks of telephone numbers are reserved to cell phone carriers, and the assignments are published by The North American Numbering Plan Administrator, you can text 917555nnnn@yourcarrier.net and get probably 8500 successes out of 10000 e-mails sent.
There is no charge to send e-mail to a cell phone for the sender -- the receiver pays for it.
It's illegal for telemarketers to call your cell phone
No, it's merely against a DMA (Direct Marketing Association) rule, violate the rule and I presume the DMA can take action against you if you're a member. There's no requirement to be a member, of course, but as with most industry associations there are advantages, mainly in the lobbying and legal arenas I suspect
It is against the law in the state of California.
This statement would be a lot more convincing if we weren't talking about people unlocking their AT&T phones to use on OTHER networks.
I can take my unlocked (Cingular) V3682 or my unlocked (Voicestream/T-Mobile) P280 and put an AT&T SIM card in it. AT&T have no control over what other carriers do, and I have used many unsupported phones on a variety of networks. Rogers, for example, don't support the V3682. Telcel don't support the P280 and hadn't got the 3595 when last I went down there and popped my Telcel SIM into the phone.
No, the reason AT&T don't unlock telephones is because for the non-tech-savvy it's a good way to keep churn to a minimum. That way, when you want to switch from AT&T, you can't just take your phone that you're used to with you.
Just remember that your GSM phone will not work on other GSM carriers until you have the SIM lock removed. If you have a Nokia GSM phone, you can get the unlock sequence from here.
If you don't have a Nokia, you can find people who will unlock the phones for you with a special cable. T-Mobile will give the unlock codes to their customers once you hit the 90-day mark, though I've heard of people getting them as quickly as 15 days after signing up... e-mail simunlock@t-mobile.com with your phone's serial (IMEI) number and your account information. Cingular have a mixed history of giving out the lock codes. AT&T refuse to give out the codes for any reason.
Once you unlock your phone you will be able to use any provider's SIM card in it... and historically, Cingular do not require 1- or 2-year agreements when you bring your own phone.
Bear in mind that Cingular and AT&T use 800 (850) and 1900 MHz networks and T-Mobile use only 1900 MHz networks, so you want to check out which networks your phone will work on first. (If you have a triband phone it's probably 900/1800/1900, which means it works on 1900 here in North America and works in most of the rest of the world as well.)
This problem relates both to people trying to switch FROM AT&T and to people trying to switch TO AT&T... while it may be a stalling tactic on AT&T, it seems unlikely and they wouldn't want to give themselves such a PR black eye.
All the major carriers except AT&T are using one portability company. Looks like AT&T ought to explore using that same firm.
There are more horror stories at Wirelessadvisor.com.
Tri-mode does not mean it will work on every phone. "Tri-mode" usually refers to 800 MHz AMPS, 800 MHz CDMA, and 1900 MHz CDMA.
Wireless voice in the US is divided into bands (1900 MHz and 800MHz, which includes 850 MHz), and technologies (AMPS, TDMA, CDMA, iDEN, and GSM).
iDEN is Nextel and Telus Mike and it runs between 700 and 900 MHz, depending on which feature you're using. It's proprietary and only those two carriers use it.
AMPS was the original, it runs only on 800 MHz, and is what we know as "analog". It is 1980s technology, but it still exists because in a lot of the rural US it's all there is.
TDMA, properly called IS-136, was the first "digital" standard to be rolled out widely in the US and Canada. It is still in use with carriers like AT&T, Rogers, and Cingular, though they are all migrating to GSM. It runs on both 1900 MHz ("PCS") and 800 MHz ("cellular") frequencies.
CDMA is one of the two current front-runners. It is used on both frequencies, and is used by Verizon, Sprint, ALLTEL, the Mobility carriers in Canada (Bell, Telus, IslandTel, NewTel, MTT, NBTel, SaskTel, etc.) and some markets of US Cellular.
GSM is generally the standard outside the US and is used at both frequencies here in the US. AT&T, Cingular, and Rogers are all migrating to GSM, and T-Mobile and Fido have always been GSM. GSM phones feature SIM cards which allow you to take your data with you when you switch phones. There are many, many "tri-band" GSM phones, which work on 900/1800 MHz (the European and Asian standards) and 1900 MHz (the original American standard).
Almost all TDMA and CDMA phones also have AMPS capabilities. Very, very, very few GSM phones have any AMPS capabilities (and these are only sold in Canada). There are a couple of phones that support GSM and TDMA, and a couple that support GSM, TDMA, and AMPS.
As yet there are no CDMA/GSM or CDMA/TDMA compatible phones available in the US.
You can unlock GSM phones, usually by contacting your provider (simunlock at t-mobile dotcom is the one for T-Mobile). AT&T won't do it for any reason and so there are third-party apps to do it.
CDMA and TDMA providers are very unwilling to activate unlocked phones on their networks. With a GSM phone, the SIM card is what's important, not the phone. With CDMA and TDMA, the information that would normally be stored on the SIM is programmed into the phone and linked to the phone's serial number.
You can get much more information by visiting http://www.wirelessadvisor.com and poking about the forums.
Oh, my friend, how it's changed. All digital providers have contracts now -- except in certain markets of Fido -- and in some cases, thinking here of SaskTel and Telus, they have 3-year contracts.
We have this on a local basis. Within the 310 area code, I know that, for example, 245xxxx and 980xxxx and 920xxxx are all mobiles.
The FCC have mandated that area codes may not be assigned to any one technology.
One area that the US has Europe beat on is minutes per $CURRENCY_UNIT. I remember being in France and swapping an Orange SIM into my (unlocked, tri-band, GSM) phone and being scandalised that I had to pay 40 a month for 2 hours (120 minutes) of service.
Here in the US, $40 gets you anywhere from 500 to 5000 anytime minutes, not counting intraprovider minutes and offpeak minutes.
What part of LA County would that be? The only carpool lane I know that changes by time is the bus lane on the 10, which is 3 people during commute hours and 2 people otherwise... all others are 2 people or more, round the clock.
I hate Bay Area carpool lanes... they're only really carpool lanes during certain hours, and you can get in and out whenever you like, which makes it more dangerous and correspondingly slower.
I picked up at impromptu slug lines in L.A. during the latest MTA strike (which went on for quite a while)... I got to use the carpool lane, and the people I picked up were usually so happy to be able to get to work... in general they were not so well off economically and had the type of job where they had to be there at exactly certain hours (unlike mine, which is flexible), and so the fact that I stopped meant they got paid for the day.
Never had any problems.
Congratulations on TOTALLY MISSING THE POINT of the GPL (GNU Public Licence). The point is not that you cannot charge for software, the point is that the source code must be distributed with the software without extra charge.
If companies couldn't charge for Linux-based software they wouldn't be companies much longer now would they.
I did not save it but I sent a letter to Mr Israel Aceves (who lives in Newport Beach, CA, not Huntington Beach) advising him of my intent to file suit should he repeat the spam.
I stand corrected re: the cost of DVD players. However, I think you've misunderstood the point of the article. Wal-mart have done DVD rentals for aeons... what they're talking about HERE is online rental à la NetFlix.
I really don't mean this to be a troll... but it occurs to me that Wal-mart's core customer group are not exactly likely to own DVD players.
Wal-mart's greatest move (from a financial gain POV) was to move into middling-to-small towns (this means towns with 4000 people or more, or county seats) and take over the businesses downtown, the mom-and-pop stores, by slashing prices. (Whether you like that tactic is irrelevant, it was enormously successful.)
Well, how much are you going to be able to slash prices on an online DVD rental? It's not like Netflix and Blockbuster are higher-priced than the market will bear.
They can try it... but I suspect it won't be a roaring success.
I'd like to see mobile providers concentrate more on getting their 2G (voice) networks rolled out and matured across America and Canada. You in Europe are lucky -- you have almost 100% coverage. Here in America that is patently not the case - even in large cities such as San Francisco, Dallas, and Los Angeles.
Have you SEEN the GSM map of the US? Looks like a road atlas with smudges.
Fix what you have, mobile providers, and then start dreaming of 3G.
According to California Business and Professions Code 17538.41 et seq., mobile phone spam is illegal and the victim may recover $500 plus court costs should he bring an action against the spammer.
In other news, scientists combine a pound of pasta and a pound of antipasto and cause an enormous chain reaction, obliterating life as we know it across four continents.
"Something that perfect could only exist if there was a god to create it, so the Babel fish proved there was a god. Proof denies faith however, and faith is the standard by which we are to know God. Oops, says God, without faith I have no followers, and disappears in a theological puff of smoke."
So when you order something online or sign up for a website that requires an immediate response and get an e-mail from something like amazon-36fg09832uk2jg09832lk.0tr98vd098@amazon.com - then what?
So not only do you have to re-train on a new e-mail client, but also on a new desktop.
Farking brilliant. Glad to see you don't waste your time figuring out that Joe End-User doesn't like learning new software and that he'd rather learn the Microsoft software that almost definitely will serve him should he switch jobs than Evolution and Ximian, which most companies have never heard of.
Sounds like your mythical boss there isn't actually inviting people to the events...
You're joking, right?
:-P
1. Cingular have contracts, except on KiC (Keep in Contact) prepaid. Prepaid wireless NEVER has a contract.
2. Omnipoint -> Voicestream -> T-Mobile.
3. Nextel are immensely popular amoung businesses. They cater almost exclusively to businesses (their prepaid Boost Mobile division notwithstanding). Most people who have Nextels, though I hate to admit it because I loathe that "chirp" sound, are soundly in love with their push-to-talk Direct Connect figure.
Come to http://www.wirelessadvisor.com - we'll straighten you out.
Rate centres != area codes.
Within the 310 area code there are (I believe) twelve rate centres, e.g., Malibu, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Compton, Gardena, West Los Angeles.
Let's say I live in Marina del Rey. Marina del Rey is not a rate centre - people who live in Marina del Rey normally have Culver City telephone numbers. If I live in MdR and I get a T-Mobile telephone, my choices are Santa Monica or Gardena (either of which is a local call), and I pick Santa Monica. Now let's say I get sick of T-Mobile and want an Cingular telephone.
I go and find out that Cingular do not have any numbers in the Santa Monica rate centre, only the Mar Vista centre. They are BOTH in the 310 area code, but I can't port my number from T-Mobile to Cingular, because they are only required to port within a rate centre.
Obviously, if you are changing area codes (i.e., moving), you are changing rate centres and WNP would not work.
The preceding assumes, of course, that WNP works along the same lines as LNP.