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News tagged: VoIP


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Users in our VoIP forum discuss how scammers can sometimes fake your identity and steal (port out) your existing phone number (not entirely unlike the SIM hijacking impacting some wireless carriers), and what you can do to protect yourself from the practice.

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In late 2016 a screw up at Level 3 resulted in one of the biggest VoIP outages yet recorded. The outage disrupted 29.4 million interconnected VoIP users and approximately 2.3 million wireless users, with an estimated 111 million failed calls in total.

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Users in our VoIP forum discuss Polycom's recent acquisition of Obihai, and what that might mean for the VoIP services and technology market.

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Users in our Voip Tech Chat forum discuss the best currently-avaiable independent VoIP providers currently operating in the telecom space.

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Today net neutrality supporters from all over the country are coming together to send a clear message to Ajit Pai at the FCC: we do not support your dismantling of these popular consumer protections. Net neutrality rules are a direct response to the lack of competition in the broadband sector.

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Last month we noted how the FCC, eager to please the advertising industry, has been considering a rule change that would allow for "ringless voicemail." The proposal would allow telemarketers to leave voicemail spam, advertisements and other promotions in your voicemail without your phone ringing -- something currently prohibited by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). And while the GOP and US Chamber of Commerce have thrown their full-throated support behind the proposal, consumers aren't particularly keen on this new avenue of annoyance.

Some state Attorneys General have complained about the effort, and now a group of senators have joined the attempt to prevent ringless voicemail from coming to pass.

In a letter (pdf) sent to FCC boss Ajit Pai, Senators Ron Wyden, Patrick Leahy, Al Franken, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Margaret Wood Hassa and Jeffery Merkley stated that allowing such intrusive marketing would run in stark contrast to the entire purpose of the TCPA.

"When Congress passed the TCPA, one goal was clear: whether at home or on their mobile phones, consumers should not be subject to intrusive and unsolicited messages," the Senators wrote.

In a filing with the FCC (pdf) the Republican National Committee, the fundraising arm of the GOP, had tried to argue that it's the marketing industry's First Amendment right to be able to send marketing missives directly to your voicemail inbox.

The FCC's failure to allow an exemption for ringless voicemail "would not only restrict an important form of non-intrusive communication; it would have serious consequences for the First Amendment rights of those engaged in political communication via telephone," claims the RNC.

But the Senators argue that it should be up to consumers to decide if, and when, marketing departments and political cold callers can annoy them.

"Exempting ringless voicemails from the TCPA’s autodialer protections would allow callers to overwhelm consumers with ringless voice messages without first receiving express consumer consent," the senators wrote. "Whether by robocall, by robotext, or by ringless voicemail, consumers should have meaningful control over who can and cannot contact their mobile device."

The public comment period on this effort has ended, and the FCC has no hard timeline to wrap up its consideration of the proposal, which was spearheaded by a marketing company named All About The Message (AATM).

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T-Mobile this week will release DIGITS -- a new service that lets you take phone calls on "virtually any Internet-connected device." Riffing off of Apple's iMessage, Google Voice, AT&T's NumberSync and numerous similar efforts, T-Mobile's new Digits system lets you use one phone number across any number of internet-connected devices. The system also lets you use multiple phone numbers on the same device.

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Before we had these fancy digital phone services, voice communication was done via what is termed today plain old telephone service (POTS), although at the time it was just “a phone.” It refers to the analog phone service of yesteryear, that was sent over good ol’ fashioned twisted copper phone lines. These phone lines comprised a network known as the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

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As promised, new Cablevision owner Altice has killed off Cablevision's Freewheel WiFi-based voice service. Introduced early last year, Freewheel offered non-Cablevision users unlimited data, texts and voice for $30 a month.

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When we last checked in on AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, he was falsely blaming the FCC for his company's failure to protect its users from robocalls. AT&T has come under fire in recent months for failing to follow other companies in integrating robocall technology into their services.

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When we last checked in on AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, he was falsely blaming the FCC for his company's failure to protect its users from robocalls. AT&T has come under fire in recent months for failing to follow other companies in integrating robocall technology into their services.

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