LA Times Advises About Toll Free

Posted on January 6, 2010 by smsgov

Did you see this recent advice in the Los Angeles Times Business Section. It is the same advice we here in the telecommunications business have been doling out for years:
From LA Times Business Section written by Karen Klein: Make sure your sales page includes product details and a toll-free customer service line. “The easier it is for customers to speak to a real human being, the less likely they are” to return merchandise or resort to a credit card “chargeback,” said Brien Heideman of BadCustomer.com.

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Shopping at Home

Posted on January 6, 2010 by smsgov

The past few years have shown a surge of at home shoppers. The internet has helped develop this multi billion dollars industry of shopping by home. You don’t have to deal with traffic, people, etc. All you have to do is have a catalog or computer and you’re good to go!

Get more information here.

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Update: Assistance Capability Requirements for Wireline, Cellular, and PCS Telecommunications Carriers

Posted on January 6, 2010 by smsgov

Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA)

Assistance capability requirements for wireline, cellular, and PCS telecommunications carriers

1. (a) Definitions.
1. Call identifying information. Call identifying information means dialing or signaling information that identifies the origin, direction, destination, or termination of each communication generated or received by a subscriber by means of any equipment, facility, or service of a telecommunications carrier. Call identifying information is “reasonably available” to a carrier if it is present at an intercept access point and can be made available without the carrier being unduly burdened with network modifications.
2. Collection function. The location where lawfully authorized intercepted communications and call-identifying information is collected by a law enforcement agency (LEA).
3. Content of subject-initiated conference calls. Capability that permits a LEA to monitor the content of conversations by all parties connected via a conference call when the facilities under surveillance maintain a circuit connection to the call.
4. Destination. A party or place to which a call is being made (e.g., the called party).
5. Dialed digit extraction. Capability that permits a LEA to receive on the call data channel a digits dialed by a subject after a call is connected to another carrier’s service for processing and routing.
6. Direction. A party or place to which a call is re-directed or the party or place from which it came, either incoming or outgoing (e.g., a redirected-to party or redirected-from party).
7. IAP. Intercept access point is a point within a carrier’s system where some of the communications or call-identifying information of an intercept subject’s equipment, facilities, and services are accessed.
8. In-band and out-of-band signaling. Capability that permits a LEA to be informed when a network message that provides call identifying information (e.g., ringing, busy, call waiting signal, message light) is generated or sent by the IAP switch to a subject using the facilities under surveillance. Excludes signals generated by customer premises equipment when no network signal is generated.
9. J-STD-025. The standard, including the latest version, developed by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) for wireline, cellular, and broadband PCS carriers. This standard defines services and features to support lawfully authorized electronic surveillance, and specifies interfaces necessary to deliver intercepted communications and call-identifying information to a LEA. Subsequently, TIA and ATIS published J-STD-025-A and J-STD-025-B.
10. Origin. A party initiating a call (e.g., a calling party), or a place from which a call is initiated.
11. Party hold, join, drop on conference calls. Capability that permits a LEA to identify the parties to a conference call conversation at all times.
12. Subject-initiated dialing and signaling information. Capability that permits a LEA to be informed when a subject using the facilities under surveillance uses services that provide call identifying information, such as call forwarding, call waiting, call hold, and three-way calling. Excludes signals generated by customer premises equipment when no network signal is generated.
13. Termination. A party or place at the end of a communication path (e.g. the called or call-receiving party, or the switch of a party that has placed another party on hold).
14. Timing information. Capability that permits a LEA to associate call-identifying information with the content of a call. A call-identifying message must be sent from the carrier’s IAP to the LEA’s Collection Function within eight seconds of receipt of that message by the IAP at least 95% of the time, and with the call event time-stamped to an accuracy of at least 200 milliseconds.

1. In addition to the requirements in section 1.20006, wireline, cellular, and PCS telecommunications carriers shall provide to a LEA the assistance capability requirements regarding wire and electronic communications and call identifying information covered by J-STD-025 (current version), and, subject to the definitions in this section, may satisfy these requirements by complying with J-STD-025 (current version), or by another means of their own choosing. These carriers also shall provide to a LEA the following capabilities:
1. Content of subject-initiated conference calls;
2. Party hold, join, drop on conference calls;
3. Subject-initiated dialing and signaling information;
4. In-band and out-of-band signaling;
5. Timing information;
6. Dialed digit extraction, with a toggle feature that can activate/deactivate this capability

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