As mentioned in a previous post, now that musical channels is over and everyone is on the air on their final (many have been reassigned) TV channel, if you still watch TV from an antenna (off the air) and not via cable, U-verse, or satellite, your TV or box needs to relearn the TV landscape.

Here in San Diego, KUSI-TV has made a minor-yet-significant change subsequent to last weekend's historic reshuffling. This is because they were digitally identifying themselves as being on Channel 18 which is, in fact, the "channel chair" they sat down in when the music stopped. But the text you see on your TV when you change channels is not necessarily the actual FCC-assigned channel number. It's called a PSIP and is a simple a tag that each station sends on its data stream showing its virtual channel. It could say "Eat at Joes" but that would be messy, and incorrect. But it does say the call letters and can say either their actual channel or, perhaps, their former channel, because that's how people have known them over the years.

The Man steps in
KUSI elected to say KUSI-18 because  1) it's a fact and  2) a Low-Power Spanish-language station now occupies Channel 51. But the FCC says that, without a waiver, stations need to identify themselves by their former, analog, channel number. Are you losing track yet? Good. Shows you're thinking. Anyway, this rule means KUSI must sent KUSI-51 as its PSIP code. So, if you watch off-air TV, you should rescan to get this new change that was effective today.

RESCANNING May Be Trickier Than You Think
Some DTV sets and converter boxes get confused during a rescan and do not dump their old memories before adding new channels, sometimes causing memory conflicts. One solution is to manually delete all the channels and then execute a rescan.  The other is to follow the FCC's newly-announced procedure called "double rescan."  Steps 1-3 are apparently designed to dump the old memory. If you think this is confusing, you're right, and you shouldn't have to do it again for a LONG LONG TIME.  [Thanks to respected industry newsletter, The CGC Communicator]

You know the old joke about local calling zones and LATAs.  There are these two Polish guys in an Irish bar drinking Jamaican rum when....hold on a second, actually, NO one in their right mind or even sloppy drunk, who would talk about zones and LATAs.   The topic might drive you to drink, but even then, you won't want to talk about it.  And that's too bad, because they can be an important part of cutting your "phone phat" and getting your overweight phone bill fighting-trim again.   So let's travel down to the phone phat farm and see how we can cut some of your excess phone weight.

Zones and LATAs
So here's a quick primer.  Back in the "old" days, like a few years ago, most business phone charges were based on distance. This was not narrowed down quite so much for residential calls because you generally get an unlimited number of local calls (unless you opt for ZUM billing) but it's good to know where LOCAL stops.

There are 3 "bands" around your local central office.  Zones 1 and 2 are billed together. You pay a flat rate per-minute rate for these calls. Zone 3 is for calls to central offices from 13 miles to 16 miles and are an additional fee per minute. Beyond that, within your LATA, is called Local Toll. You can have your dialtone provider carry these (at a fairly high rate) or you can have a long distance carrier handle them. The bottom of this web page gives a graphic representation.

What's a LATA? It is a Local Access Transport Area which is the geographic limit of where a wireline phone company (e.g. AT&T in California) can carry calls. They were created as part of the breakup of the phone system in the 1980's. You can call within a LATA without the call being considered an IntraState or InterState (aka Long Distance) call. Here in California, the PUC considers San Diego and Imperial Counties to be LATA 6 and nationally it's called LATA 732.

Long Distance Calls
Calls outside your LATA cannot be handled by your local landline carrier. They must be handled by a long distance provider. You get to choose this carrier (known as a PIC in telco lingo) when you sign up for wireline phone service. Don't settle for the default because it will probably be much more expensive than if you do a little research and specify one. Also, be sure you HAVE picked SOME kind of plan because if you have no plan at all, your long distance calls can be billed at the highest rate your carrier charges. Even if you make few long distance calls, a couple minute call at the default rate could cost you many dollars.

Here's at least one web site that helps you compare long distance plans available in your area. 

Getting Slammed
You shouldn't be paying more than a dime a minute for long distance calls these days. If you are one possibility is that you have been SLAMMED - that is, a nefarious long distance provider has told your phone carrier to switch you to them (as if you had actually asked for this to happen) and now you will pay higher rates. They do this because this all can be so confusing that the average consumer has no idea that it occurred. You can confirm you long distance carrier very easily: just dial 1-700-555-4141. This free call will tell you who you are signed up with. If it's not who you expect, call your provider. To avoid being SLAMMED, once you've picked a long distance provider, ask your carrier to put a "PIC Freeze" on your account so it can't be easily changed.

Checking your carrier doesn't always work as designed. I am signed up with PowerNet Global. If I dial 1-700-555-4141 on my home phone, I get nothing.  If I dial it from my office phone I get "Your long distance service is now active - 5102".  Real useful. So, I used another tool: I dialled "00". Just like dialing "0" gets your phone carrier's Operator (AT&T Operator Assistance, in my case), 00 calls your long distance carrier's Operator assistance. In my case, the recording says "Welcome to WCLLC" which is just as useful as "5102". In my case, it means that PowerNet Global doesn't really have a network. They resell a major long distance provider - used to be Qwest, now it's Williams Communications Group.

There can be times when you'd want more than one long distance carrier. An example would be that you get the best rates for US calls from CoolTel (your PIC provider) but their rates to Mexico are poor. In this case you can make arrangements with a Dial-Around provider which gives you a toll-free number to call which then provides a second dialtone where you call your party at their rates. There are also 10-10 services which work similarly but there are more likely to be extra charges.

Alternative Carriers
Maybe you don't use AT&T (or other landline carrier). Maybe you use a cell phone for all your calls and have "cut the cable" as they say. These days most cell phone services include free nationwide long distance because they use their own network to carry the call most of the way to its destination. So, for domestic long distance on a cell phone, you don't need to "PIC" a carrier, and the 700 number doesn't do anything.

Perhaps your home uses a cable company (like Cox or Time Warner) or a VoIP provider like Vonage or maybe your business uses a business-line like a T-1 or PRI. In these cases, the rules change because the calls don't necessarily involve the baby bells or other traditional carriers. Quite often, your basic plan includes free long distance. So this means from 1 mile to 3000 miles, there's never a charge no matter how long you talk. If you make a lot of LD calls, this can be something worth considering.

The only reason I have not yet switched to a carrier like Time Warner for my home dial tone is that the traditional phone system has an advantage that the others don't - resiliency. The Plain Old Telephone System, in most cases, especially in the city or suburbs, dedicates a pair of wires just for you, all the way from their central office to your home and to everyone elses. If a pair of wires in the cable goes bad, it may well not be yours. Also, in times of power outages, like during an earthquake, generators and huge 40v batteries at each central office continue to power the lines and thus your ability to make/take calls (your cordless phone won't work if your power is out but a corded one probably will). However, I use my landline so seldom these days that I may soon join the others and take my chances with Time Warner or just with my Verizon cell phone - the only problem with a cell phone is that it's hard to tell someone to "pick up the extension to talk to The Kids".

The Bottom (Phone) Line:
If you have business service with a traditional carrier, like AT&T, and especially if you're a business (vs residential) customer, you now know what those Zone charges are. They're not broken out by the call like Long Distance is but they can cost you a bundle. Check your next phone bill and look for your Local Calls (Zones 1 and 2) to see what they're costing you. Also, look at your Zone 3 calls and any IntraLATA calls and see if a 3rd party carrier could reduce your costs here a bundle.  Residential customers - if you have ZUM billing, this applies to you too.

It used to be “for a good time call 867-5309”. Now it's “for a good time text “DEBAUCHED” to 696969”. Did you ever wonder what those numbers are, who administers them, and how you can use them for business? I did. I think about these things all the time. I'm Dr. Telecom.

Every cell phone has the ability to send 160 character (max) SMS or “text” messages to other cell phones. The address used to route the message is simply the phone number. Since all phone numbers in North America are unique, so are all SMS addresses.

The addresses seen in the ads you see on the TV and other places, entreating you to text a keyword someplace for products, services, media, etc., are a different kind of address that is also routed among the cellular carriers. These are called Common Short Codes and are administered by the CSC Administration (CSCA), part of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) http://www.usshortcodes.com/aboutCSCA.html

A business leases a CSC from the CSCA for between $500 and $1000 a month. Once set up, all US cellular carriers can route their subscribers' SMS texts to you or to an Application Provider with whom you've contracted to get the messages and do something with them.

The CSC gets the message to the business or their Application Provider. But the first word in the message sent, known as the KEYWORD, is what typically determines what will happen. If UCAN had the CSC of 11111, they could say “Text CONSUMER to 11111 to start getting our daily Consumer Alert message.” They could also say “Text SPL to 11111 to start getting Sunrise Powerline status alerts.”  The address is the same but a computer program uses the first word as a trigger and responds differently depending on the trigger text received - it stores the email address in a database for that campaign, then replies in some way. UCAN could have hundreds of different campaigns, all from that one CSC account.

I'LL START TEXTING WHEN YOU PRY MY PHONE OUT OF MY COLD DEAD HANDS (or maybe not)
Texting seems to be somewhat generational, IMHO. Most Gen X'ers and younger use it while most of the mid-to-early boomers that I know do not. Personally, as you can probably tell from my blog posts, I tend to be verbose, so 160 characters is a limitation! But also, I prefer to both send and get regular email because I don't want to be interrupted during the day for things that aren't temporally significant. A phone call (or a text message) generally requires my direct involvement when it happens. I also reserve that attention I might give to text message for VERY important things - once and awhile I might text Mrs. Telecom if she's in class so she knows to check the message at an early convenience but it's not as intrusive in a classroom as a phone call and she doesn't use her phone for email, PERIOD. Emails are things I can go thru when I want to. That's me. I don't “text SPOCK to  NCC1701 to get Star Trek trivia sent to your cell phone!” I'm unusual. But, you knew that.

If you're considering using text messages for marketing be sure you only send them to people who have initiated the process. Text messages cost money while emails, if you already have Internet access, are free. Be sure your system has a way to let people unsubscribe.

ALTERNATE APPROACH
Also, know that pretty much all cell phones can receive emails-as-texts. That is, you can send a regular SMTP email to a carrier-specific email address, e.g. 8885551212@carrier.com, and the recipient will get the email as a text message even if they don't have Internet access on their phone (truncated to 160 characters). So, you COULD do a text campaign from email, which would still cost the recipient whatever their plan's per-message cost is, but would cost you nothing. The only problem with this is that it's not SMS round-trip; that is, the consumer can't initiate this relationship by texting but must get to you via a web site or email or other method to get registered and to cancel later on. Verizon users can go here (this was really hard for me to find) to create a more intuitive “nickname” email address.

DO-IT-YOURSELF TEXT CAMPAIGNS
So what if you simply received the text messages for your campaign on your cell phone? This would work but you'd have to reply to each message manually - not very time-efficient. Well, there is a product that appears to automate this process. The one I know if is called SMSFinder by MultiTech.    In this case your subsscribers text to an actual cell phone number because SMSFinder is actually a box with a GSM cell phone in it plus some additional brains. Subscribers might text “CONSUMER” to, say, 8885551212, the unit's cell phone number, in order to have the SMSFinder get the message then do something with it. The SMSFinder owner does not have to lease a CSC address to use this product. Of course, the unit's owner will have to pay their carrier for the text messages. For a small campaign, this might beat the $500 - $1000 a month for a CSC address.

As you remember from last month, I reported on how Verizon and Sprint Wireless customers can improve (or even simply provide) coverage in their homes or businesses. Known generally as a femtocell* this micro-cell-tower is, in essence, a box you place anywhere there's Internet access. It connects Verizon's network to your cell phones locally, via the Internet. Here's a review of the product.

Michael's home's Verizon cellular coverage isn't ideal so we installed one of these units. It was easy. For me, particularly, since he sprung for the one-time $250 fee and I got to play with it.

• Connect ethernet to Internet router or directly to cable modem or DSL.
• Connect power
• Wait at least 10 minutes (maybe up to an hour) for the GPS receiver to lock. This was our only stumbling point - I didn't get a blue GPS light on the box right away so I though we had signal problems.
• Watch for 4 blue lights on the box.

You're on. How do you know? Because if you dial #48 you'll get a confirmation message. Also, when you make or take a call, if the extender is handling it, you'll hear quick confirmation tones. If you have problems here are some FAQs.

They say that you should place cell phones directly next to the unit for a few minutes so they can get to know each other. We did this with Michael's Samsung Omnia phone and did not do it with my Omnia and both worked.

The unit comes with a cable to allow you to extend the GPS antenna outdoors if necessary. As noted in Step 3 above, I thought we'd have to do this because I didn't get a blue GPS light. Be patient and give it some time before resorting to this.

Data Please?
It appears that the Network Extender will not transmit the faster EVDO (Rev0 and RevA) Internet data format. It appears that it will handle the slower 1X RTT speed data. While Michael's phone was tethered to his laptop, which was running a speed test from http://speedtest.net, I pulled the ethernet cable - the test continued, so the phone must have elected to use the EVDO signal from the cell tower which, though slower than it would be at a better location, was still faster than 1X RTT. Some people have bemoaned this lackof EVDO support. But most people, if they have Internet (as required for the Network Extender) will just use that while home and use the phone while mobile. Many modern Smartphones even have WiFi that you can use to keep it syncronised with your mail server while you're at home or elsewhere with poor cellular data rates.

Multiple Yakkers
The unit provides 4 wireless channels which support 3 concurrent calls (the 4th is reserved for 911 calls). That's fine unless your unit is at an office, or unless you're having a party, or unless you have a BIG family with a LOT of Verizon phones. The product allows you to designate up to 50 Verizon phone numbers as Priority Callers. Verizon customers can enter these numbers via their My Verizon profile on the Internet. Now, non-priority callers can still make a call. But if a priority caller tries to make a call when all 3 channels are busy, a non-priority caller will be bumped to accommodate them.

A Soft Handoff
I wanted to see if the unit would hand me off gracefully to a cell tower when I left its range. I confirmed that I was calling Mrs. Telecom via Michael's Network Extender, left the premises, and never knew I'd been thru a "soft handoff". According to the FAQs, this would not be true the other way - if the unit was in a place where there's NO, ZERO, ZIP, ZILCH, cell tower coverage, a call initiated where there WAS coverage would not get handed off as I approached the Network Extender and I'd eventually lose the call.

Michael is pleased with the improved call quality. He's still not "5 bars" at all places in his 3-level home but he's better off than he was.

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* A dear friend read my original post and asked "Why is it called a FEMTOcell?". It's kinda dumb really. People talk about mini-this and micro-that to indicate that a newer item is smaller than or is a subset of the original. In the Greek order-of-magnitude prefix system, the next smallest thing (1000th of micro) is "nano". NanoCells, used by Mark From Ork to say Goodbye or as mini cell systems in isolated locations, were already in existence. Then comes "pico". The term picocell was already used to define what's essentially just the radio part of a femtocell. The NEXT smallest prefix, femto (1000th of pico), was thus employed. Its actual value, 10-to-the-minus-15 of something, is irrelevant.