World-Herald Arrogance

[Jim Redelfs]

Since I haven't subscribed to the hard-copy version of The Omaha
World-Herald for several years, I was pleasantly surprised that,
coincidentally, I was reading it when the newspaper announced their
OFFICIAL policy: They would NOT refer to the new convention center as
"Qwest Center Omaha".

Instead, it would forever after be called "The Omaha Convention Center
and Arena" in their news and editorials.

Their stated reason was that they felt it was unfair to allow another
entity to promote itself in this manner when, by far, the bulk of the
CO$T of building the facility was borne by the taxpayers.

What they didn't explain is how silly it would look if the facility were
called "Taxpayers Center Omaha" or some, other ridiculous name.

I would be VERY interested to hear OWH's reply to the various charges I
have since heard, including:

1. They have/had a significant interest in Cox Communications, a direct
competitor to Qwest.

2. The Omaha World-Herald was, at least in the beginning, in the
running for getting THEIR name on the new facility.

In any case, I believe that, as the defacto "mouthpiece" of the City of
Omaha, it is incumbent upon The Omaha World-Herald to strive for
accuracy and minimal confusion in its news and editorials.

When there are official NDOR signs on the Interstate Highway that say
"Qwest Center Omaha", OWH's very own advertising pages are filled with
the same reference, and that virtually every other media outlet uses the
correct name for the facility, I believe The Omaha World-Herald should
put itself above personal and petty jealousies and disappointments and
do the right thing: Call our excellent, new facility on the riverfront
what it is legally and ethically and properly called: Qwest Center
Omaha.

- Jim Redelfs

[Mike Riddle]

properly called: Qwest Center Omaha.

Truth in advertising would require "QWorst Center Omaha."
Sponsored by QWorst Miscommunications Company:
"Riding the Light Into the Ground."

<g>

[Jim Redelfs]

Post by Mike Riddle

properly called: Qwest Center Omaha.

Truth in advertising would require "QWorst Center Omaha."
"Riding the Light Into the Ground."
<g>

Hehehehe! :)

All brought to you courtesy of Nacchio-typical C.E.O.

(I hope to see him have to trade his pin-stripes for those <ahem> OTHER
stripes.)

<sigh>
JR

[Richard Q Bendelshafer]

Hmmmm ... Let's see here ...

World-Herald Arrogance
ATM Machine
DMV Department
Cardiac CPR

(Department of Redundancy Department)

Post by Jim Redelfs
I was reading it when the newspaper announced their
OFFICIAL policy: They would NOT refer to the new convention center as
"Qwest Center Omaha".

Was it maybe that our dominant local daily was also in the running
to be the corporate sponsor ?? (I don't know, I'm asking.)

Post by Jim Redelfs
Instead, it would forever after be called "The Omaha Convention Center
and Arena" in their news and editorials.

Maybe is this because our esteemed local daily just doesn't want to give
exposure to the name Qwest unless it's compensated for doing so ??

Post by Jim Redelfs
What they didn't explain is how silly it would look if the facility were
called "Taxpayers Center Omaha" or some, other ridiculous name.

Many corporate sponsored things sound just as silly. ;-) I still can't
bring myself to say 'Fed-Ex Orange Bowl' or 'Tostitos Fiesta Bowl' or
even 'World-Herald Grucci Fireworks'. ;-)

Post by Jim Redelfs
1. They have/had a significant interest in Cox Communications, a direct
competitor to Qwest.

Our local daily does have considerable holdings in many local and
regional firms, some of which might surprise you. I've never heard that
they have anything significant in Cocks, but I may be wrong.

Post by Jim Redelfs
2. The Omaha World-Herald was, at least in the beginning, in the
running for getting THEIR name on the new facility.

Oops, I should have read ahead, huh ?? ;-)

Post by Jim Redelfs
In any case, I believe that, as the defacto "mouthpiece" of the City of
Omaha, it is incumbent upon The Omaha World-Herald to strive for
accuracy and minimal confusion in its news and editorials.

I seriously doubt that when the WH prints 'Omaha Convention Center' that
anybody would possibly think they were actually referring to something
like the Sprint Convention Center, or the Cocks Convention Center. ;-)

Post by Jim Redelfs
Call our excellent, new facility on the riverfront
what it is legally and ethically and properly called: Qwest Center
Omaha.

Is it legally the Qwest Center ??

I thought that was only for N years, or until the checks start bouncing.

To play devil's advocate, a private corporation, no matter how arrogant,
is probably not bound, legally, to honor the corporate sponsorship and
refer to another facility by the name of another corporation, which may
indeed be a competitor.

Yes, it sounds arrogant. Almost as arrogant as, dare I say it, The Phone
Company<tm>. (ducking and running) ;-)

[Jim Redelfs]

Post by Richard Q Bendelshafer
I seriously doubt that when the WH prints 'Omaha Convention Center' that
anybody would possibly think they were actually referring to something
like the Sprint Convention Center, or the Cocks Convention Center. ;-)

C'mon, now. You're/we're dealing with the public. They are notoriously
ignorant. We have the Omaha Civic Audiorium and Convention Center, not
to mention The Orpheum Theater and Rosenblatt Stadium.

Which begs the question, why don't they balk at calling the stadium by
the former Mayor's name? For that matter, officially it's the "Charlie
Mancuso Convention Center" adjoining/attached to the Civic Auditorium.

Post by Richard Q Bendelshafer
Is it legally the Qwest Center ??

For ~$15M it is. In any case, I'm sure that *LEGALLY* it is probably
labeled by more than one name. As far as I'm concerned, if the TRASH
CONTAINERS and the blazers worn by the rent-a-cops there are labeled
"Qwest Center Omaha", that's good enough for me - my employer
notwithstanding.

Post by Richard Q Bendelshafer
To play devil's advocate, a private corporation, no matter how arrogant,
is probably not bound, legally, to honor the corporate sponsorship and
refer to another facility by the name of another corporation, which may
indeed be a competitor.

Of that I have NO doubt. Otherwise, I'm quite sure "our" lawyers could
- and would - beat up THEIR lawyers.

Post by Richard Q Bendelshafer
Yes, it sounds arrogant. Almost as arrogant as, dare I say it, The Phone
Company<tm>. (ducking and running) ;-)

Uh, I think you'll find VERY FEW of us - still on the payroll - as
arrogant as we might have been at one time. Losing 50% of our
residential customers to the competition is very humbling, indeed.

<sigh>
JR

[Mike Riddle]

Post by Jim Redelfs
Uh, I think you'll find VERY FEW of us - still on the payroll - as
arrogant as we might have been at one time. Losing 50% of our
residential customers to the competition is very humbling, indeed.

The only reason I haven't switched (besides inertia) is that the "last
mile" is (or used to be--there are a lot of SLC-96 or their progeny
sprouting up) somewhat more reliable on copper, and that TPC offered a
"Choice" package that comes close to Cocks. HOWEVER, now that number
portability has left the "growing pain" stage, Cocks is beginning to
look more and more attractive.

[Paul W. Schleck]

Post by Mike Riddle

Post by Jim Redelfs
Uh, I think you'll find VERY FEW of us - still on the payroll - as
arrogant as we might have been at one time. Losing 50% of our
residential customers to the competition is very humbling, indeed.

The only reason I haven't switched (besides inertia) is that the "last
mile" is (or used to be--there are a lot of SLC-96 or their progeny
sprouting up) somewhat more reliable on copper, and that TPC offered a
"Choice" package that comes close to Cocks. HOWEVER, now that number
portability has left the "growing pain" stage, Cocks is beginning to
look more and more attractive.

Just wait until Vonage adds the 402 area code, due to happen "soon."
That, combined with their new $14.99/month, 500 minute rate, will
probably accelerate the shake-out in the market.

--
Paul W. Schleck
***@novia.net
http://www.novia.net/~pschleck/
Finger ***@novia.net for PGP Public Key

[Jim Redelfs]

Post by Paul W. Schleck
Just wait until Vonage adds the 402 area code, due to happen "soon."

Who, or what, is "Vonage"? Wireless or wireline?

Post by Paul W. Schleck
That, combined with their new $14.99/month, 500 minute rate, will
probably accelerate the shake-out in the market.

If they are a "wireline" company, and UNLESS they build their own
infrastructure (a la Cox), their traffic will likely use Qwest
facilities, a la McLeod, AT&T, Nebraska Telco, Acme, Fones-R-Us, E Z
Phone Connection, yadda, yadda, yadda.

In that case, Qwest's (and other imbedded, incumbent telcos) biggest
beef is that we are required by [government entity] to resell our
capacity to them at BELOW our cost.

It's been enough years since Divestiture and Modified Final Judgement
(Judge Green in 1984). I think it's time to turn ALL the "baby Bells"
loose and let them do business in a TOTALLY unregulated environment.

Factoid (whatever THAT is): A non-Qwest customer, using the services of
a CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier - using our lines and
equipment - a "reseller", if you will) had to switch to Qwest because he
wanted DSL but couldn't get it from Acme Fones-R-Us, despite their using
our line(s). I guess DSL is DEregulated and, as such, we are not
required to resell it! HA!

:)
JR

[jsw]

Post by Jim Redelfs
Who, or what, is "Vonage"? Wireless or wireline?

None of the above. Actually, it could be copper, could be fiber, could
be wireless, or could be a mixture of any.

Vonage (www.vonage.com) uses almost-ready-for-prime-time technology,
VOIP (voice over IP) over the public Internet instead of the copper pair
or cellular link.

It uses a very standard Cisco analog telephone adapter, so it's very
close to POTS service from a naive user's perspective.

We had a demonstration of this at the {mumble, April, maybe} Omahug
meeting last year.

The good news is that it works rather well most of the time over
very clean DSL, cable, or commercial grade Internet connections.

The bad news is that, as of this day, there's no way they can guarantee
uptime, performance, or voice quality. It's totally dependent on the
Internet between your endpoint and their POP.

My guess is that it comes close, in many case, to meeting '3-nines' but
falls quite short of the '5-nines' or better which is expected for
copper loop technology.

VOIP over clean leased private lines is quite reliable. VOIP over the
Internet is a crapshoot.

Post by Jim Redelfs
If they are a "wireline" company, and UNLESS they build their own
infrastructure (a la Cox), their traffic will likely use Qwest
facilities, a la McLeod, AT&T, Nebraska Telco, Acme, Fones-R-Us, E Z
Phone Connection, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Their infrastructure consists of many POPs over the country. I assume
they colocate with other CLECs and instead of the usual Nortel or
Ericsson switch gear, they install Cisco VOIP gateways and have a
good-sized connection into one or more of the major Internet backbones.

The connection to the subscriber is a long 'virtual extension cord' over
the greater Internet.

Yes, it works, most of the time. No, I don't have it and don't plan to.
Here and now, 2004, I would not want to have it as my only telephone
service.

Good day JSW

[Paul W. Schleck]

Post by Jim Redelfs

Post by Paul W. Schleck
Just wait until Vonage adds the 402 area code, due to happen "soon."

Who, or what, is "Vonage"? Wireless or wireline?

Neither, it's Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Sorry, I wasn't at
the OMAHUG demo where I lent Jack my Vonage setup to plug into the
Creighton network and start making phone calls, so I didn't realize you
weren't there. Vonage is also being discussed fairly frequently on
Telecom Digest (aka, comp.dcom.telecom), and I assumed that most OMAHUG
members read that religiously.

Just go to:

http://www.vonage.com

give a credit-card number, choose a phone number that they support (most
major metropolitan areas, though they haven't gotten to Omaha, *YET*),
pay a modest startup fee, and about 7-10 days later UPS drops off your
CISCO ATA 186 (ATA stands for "Analog Telephone Adapter"). Plug the
10-Base-T connection into your Cable Model or DSL router, and the
telephone connection into, well, a telephone (even a Western Electric
Model 600 rotary in robins-egg blue will do). Voila, instant phone
service! Caller ID, Call Forwarding, Three-Way Calling, and Voice-Mail
(listenable via a phone number or web interface) are included. There
are three rate tiers, from cheapest ($14.99) to unlimited ($34.99).
There are also competitive rates for both U.S. and overseas long
distance.

My CISCO ATA is plugged into my Linksys router, which in turn, is hooked
up to my cable modem. The phone side has an AT&T black trimline and
(ironically) a U.S. West Caller ID box. It is currently set to an
out-of-town number that is a local call for friends and family. I can
also take the box anywhere there is a 10-Base-T network connection,
DHCP, and at least a few hundred kbps of spare bandwidth. Voice
messages will generate an E-mail message, which I can check anywhere I
have a web browser, Windows Media Player, and a sound card.

It gets even better than this. It seems that you won't have to even
wait for UPS to deliver the equipment. Circuit City will now start
carrying Vonage startup kits for $99, which includes the hardware, setup
fees, and two months service:

http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40757074

Once 402 numbers are supported, and can be switched to Vonage via number
portability, I predict two things:

- I won't have to pay for Vonage service for at least a year from OMAHUG
numbers signing up for it, giving each of us a referral bonus of one
month's free service.

- Phone service that does not have to rely on a monopoly selling them
access to switched, hardwired infrastructure *WILL* disrupt the market.

--
Paul W. Schleck
***@novia.net
http://www.novia.net/~pschleck/
Finger ***@novia.net for PGP Public Key

[Jim Redelfs]

Post by Paul W. Schleck

Post by Jim Redelfs
Who, or what, is "Vonage"? Wireless or wireline?

Neither, it's Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

Ahhhh! [little light bulb goes ON]

Qwest has been making A LOT of noise recently about VoIP. They are intent on
embracing the technology. I guess that means we/they hope we'll/they'll get
"a piece of the action".

Post by Paul W. Schleck
http://www.vonage.com
give a credit-card number
pay a modest startup fee
$14.99) to unlimited ($34.99)
My CISCO ATA
Linksys router
cable modem
10-Base-T network
DHC...bandwidth
startup kits for $99
[major snip]

Uh, pass. I'll leave all that to the propeller-beanied, bleeding edge crowd
of alpha testers.

My last phone bill was 8-cents. The month before it was 97-cents. (I made a
long distance call.)

Since I quit dial-up, my SECOND line, 289-2898 is connected to [drum roll]
*NOTHING*!

:)
JR

(Imagine this great moment in history: Two VERY sleep-deprived, young
bachelors have been up FOR DAYS working on their experiment when one of them
spills sulfuric acid onto his crotch. He cries out, "Mr. Watson! Come here,
I want you!" Yeah, right.)

[jsw]

Post by Jim Redelfs
(Imagine this great moment in history: Two VERY sleep-deprived, young
bachelors have been up FOR DAYS working on their experiment when one of them
spills sulfuric acid onto his crotch. He cries out, "Mr. Watson! Come here,
I want you!" Yeah, right.)

Historians say it went like this:

Bell: Mr Watson, come here, I want you.
Watson: I heard every word you said, distinctly.

I think it was more like this:

Bell: Oh $#!+! Watson! Holy &%$^#! Hey, gimme a rag quick, I just spilled
this {bleep}ing acid all over the {bleep}ing place! Ouch, holy $#!+,
WATSON, quick, this burns like a mother.....

However (comma) one of my favorites is from Mad Magazine years ago:

Bell: Mr. Watson, come here I want you.
Phone: The numberrrr you have reaaached is not in service ...

[Paul W. Schleck]

Post by Paul W. Schleck

Post by Jim Redelfs

Post by Paul W. Schleck
Just wait until Vonage adds the 402 area code, due to happen "soon."

Who, or what, is "Vonage"? Wireless or wireline?

Neither, it's Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Sorry, I wasn't at
the OMAHUG demo where I lent Jack my Vonage setup to plug into the
Creighton network and start making phone calls, so I didn't realize you
weren't there. Vonage is also being discussed fairly frequently on
Telecom Digest (aka, comp.dcom.telecom), and I assumed that most OMAHUG
members read that religiously.
http://www.vonage.com
give a credit-card number, choose a phone number that they support (most
major metropolitan areas, though they haven't gotten to Omaha, *YET*),
pay a modest startup fee, and about 7-10 days later UPS drops off your
CISCO ATA 186 (ATA stands for "Analog Telephone Adapter"). Plug the
10-Base-T connection into your Cable Model or DSL router, and the
telephone connection into, well, a telephone (even a Western Electric
Model 600 rotary in robins-egg blue will do). Voila, instant phone
service! Caller ID, Call Forwarding, Three-Way Calling, and Voice-Mail
(listenable via a phone number or web interface) are included. There
are three rate tiers, from cheapest ($14.99) to unlimited ($34.99).
There are also competitive rates for both U.S. and overseas long
distance.
My CISCO ATA is plugged into my Linksys router, which in turn, is hooked
up to my cable modem. The phone side has an AT&T black trimline and
(ironically) a U.S. West Caller ID box. It is currently set to an
out-of-town number that is a local call for friends and family. I can
also take the box anywhere there is a 10-Base-T network connection,
DHCP, and at least a few hundred kbps of spare bandwidth. Voice
messages will generate an E-mail message, which I can check anywhere I
have a web browser, Windows Media Player, and a sound card.
It gets even better than this. It seems that you won't have to even
wait for UPS to deliver the equipment. Circuit City will now start
carrying Vonage startup kits for $99, which includes the hardware, setup
http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40757074
Once 402 numbers are supported, and can be switched to Vonage via number
- I won't have to pay for Vonage service for at least a year from OMAHUG
numbers signing up for it, giving each of us a referral bonus of one
month's free service.
- Phone service that does not have to rely on a monopoly selling them
access to switched, hardwired infrastructure *WILL* disrupt the market.

According to the Omaha Weird Harold:

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=46&u_sid=1282101

Vonage has now come to Nebraska, and offers numbers with the 402 area
code. It appears that they can transfer most existing numbers in that
area code. If any OMAHUG members are interested in setting up service,
and want to take advantage of the referral offer (one month's free
service for each of us), let me know via return E-mail, and I will set
you up with a referral code.

--
Paul W. Schleck
***@novia.net
http://www.novia.net/~pschleck/
Finger ***@novia.net for PGP Public Key

[jsw]

Post by Paul W. Schleck

Post by Mike Riddle
The only reason I haven't switched (besides inertia) is that the "last
mile" is (or used to be--there are a lot of SLC-96 or their progeny
sprouting up) somewhat more reliable on copper, and that TPC offered a

Primary reason here is inertia. Part of that is I *know* the quirks of
TPC and I know what to expect when things go wrong.

We are in the area served by the Popeil<tm> ONU broadband equipment.
Although I use the dialup less and less for data, lately the service on
these things has been good. At first when they cut to this thing, I
could not get a data connection better than 24k. Now I get 28.8 first
time, every time, very consistently. Yes, I know, it's not the same as
the almost-almost-56k you get on copper, but it's good enough for what
I need a dialup for. Back when they first went to ONU, we had periods
of slow/no dial tone in the evening. That hasn't happene for a long
time.

Plus, we finally broke down and got cable TV. QWest cable is actually
very good in terms of video quality.

Post by Paul W. Schleck
Just wait until Vonage adds the 402 area code, due to happen "soon."
That, combined with their new $14.99/month, 500 minute rate, will
probably accelerate the shake-out in the market.

People have been reporting MAJOR billing and customer service issues
with Vonage in Telecom Digest.

Plus, speaking from experience in deploying real commercial grade VOIP
gear from Nortel and Avaya, the state of the current Internet really is
not ready for consistent toll-grade voice. Yes, I will admit that in
most cases it works fine 95-98% of the time, it's still a best effort
service. When residential carriers do support end-to-end QOS, it will
be much more reliable WRT voice quality, but at this day, hour, minute,
and second, it's very possible that your voice will break up while
you're talking to your GF-wannabe and your neighbor is sucking up MP3's.

I do admit that Vonage is real handy if you want a local Chicago number
physically located in Omaha, though. ;-)

Good day JSW

[Jim Redelfs]

Post by Mike Riddle
The only reason I haven't switched (besides inertia)

Let me assure you there ABSOLUTELY is value in "inertia". This concept
goes hand-in-hand with the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Of course, I encounter ONLY those customers that are RETURNING to Qwest
because they are dissatisfied with that <ahem> OTHER company. The "big
savings" they are mislead to believe will occur frequently (probably
USUALLY) never happens. Apparently, customer and field service are not
as good, too. Of course, that doesn't surprise me. Their senior
technicians have ~8-years on-the-job. I have >30-years, and am 1/3 the
way down from the top of the local seniority list.

Post by Mike Riddle
is that the "last mile" is (or used to be--there are a lot of SLC-96
or their progeny sprouting up) somewhat more reliable on copper

SLC-96 is going away. pair gain (lower case) is not. In fact, "Next
Level" pair gain is going in virtually all new neighborhoods. They are
mini-Central Offices, usually fiber optically fed. They are reliable
and, apparently, fully compatible with V.90 & V.92 analog modems. These
RTs (Remote Terminals) house the equipment that enables DSL for the
neighborhoods they serve. I believe that they are the implementation of
the concept of "fiber to the neighborhood (if not "curb")" of several
years ago.

We hit the ground running a few years ago and, although still quite
backlogged, are making HUGE strides in providing broadband service to
those neighborhoods that, heretofore, had only Dick's Cable Company<tm>
for such service.

Just the other day I noticed in my mother-in-law's neighborhood (aprox 3
blocks south of Center on 40th St) yet another DSL cabinet installation.
If you LOOK for these, you'll see more and more of them. They are beige
and probably about twice the size of a HUGE doghouse. They are usually
within mere feet of a SAC box. The furthest separation I've seen is on
south 48th St where the DSL cabinet was almost a block away from the SAC.

Post by Mike Riddle
now that number portability has left the "growing pain" stage,
Cocks is beginning to look more and more attractive.

Number portability will likely NEVER be "painless", much less seamless.
Sure, you get to keep your own number, but the performance of various
"enhanced" services of a line/number on a "foreign" switch is widely
variable. In fact, a neighbor that moved to town and got a "native" Cox
number (on the Cox network), then switched to Qwest (bringing their Cox
number with them - "porting" it), finally CHANGED their number to a
"native" 289 number because the two companies were unable to make
several enhanced services work.

I agree that REAL competition in the local network would not be possible
were it not for the ability to change carriers and KEEP your number.
That doesn't not, however, change the fact that LNP (Local Number
Portability) is a pain in the @$$.

<sigh>
JR