July News Today is:

Death to Spam & Email Viruses!

Are you tired of all the offensive Spam that keeps showing up in your email in-box?

Are you tired of the latest Virus arriving over and over in your daily email?

The biggest request that we receive from our customers is for help in the war on Spam and email Viruses.

We are pleased to announce that we have found a cost effective solution to the biggest problem faced by email users today.  We have partnered with the leading provider of Spam and Virus protection to implement protection for you and your email.  Effective July 17, we will install FullFilter on all active FullNet Email accounts.  Finally bringing you peace of mind, FullFilter is the best protection from spam and email viruses available today!

You will receive FullFilter protection at no cost (FREE) until August 7^th so that you can experience its tremendous benefits.  If you like what you see and based upon our testing you can’t help but like the freedom from spam and email viruses, let us know so you can continue receiving the FullFilter protection after August 7^th.

You can continue to be Spam and Viruses free after August 7^th for only $1.00 per month.  Yes, that’s right, only $1.00 per month for peace of mind.  Don’t be without this valuable protection.  Sign up is easy, but you must act before August 7^th.  Simply send an email to FullFilter@fullnet.net to request the continued protection of FullFilter for your email account.  Or if you prefer, our friendly customer service representatives are available by telephone 24 hours a day 365 days a year to help.

Best of all, there is no additional software to install on your computer.  We take care of everything on our end.  FullFilter is automatic and easy.  You will have the opportunity to view the messages that it blocks and adjust the settings of the filter through an easy to use web based control center.

We will keep you posted on the details as we move forward with the FREE trial period.  If you want to learn more about the Postini filter (which is the engine behind FullFilter) you can check their website at http://www.postini.com/exec/help.  Or feel free to check out their frequently asked questions at http://www.postini.com/exec/faq

Jason Ayers

VP of Operations

Monopolies out of control Part 2

The 1996 Telecommunications Act was written to promote free market competition in a field traditionally dominated by monopolies.  The very essence of a “free market economy” suggests that deregulation and market forces left on their own will ultimately be better for the consumer.  For example when the United States Post Office was the only game in town it lost money and continually raised postage rates.  (and still does J)   However, private business from Fed-X to UPS can deliver many of the same services without being a burden to the taxpayer and actually turn a profit!

For many years the local phone companies have had a government granted monopoly on local phone service.  In order to break up the monopoly and promote competition the 1996 ACT demanded that the monopolies “line share” or lease to start up companies parts of their networks.  The technical term is “Unbundled Network Elements” or UNE’s.

The very essence of the ACT is under attack once again.

(Excerpt)

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down a rule in May that required companies like BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS - News) to share lines for high-speed Internet service. It ordered the FCC to reconsider its national standard for what network elements must be shared with competitors.

"The court should grant rehearing in this case, which is of unquestioned national importance to the FCC's ongoing implementation of the 1996 Act's local competition provisions, to correct two errors," the agency said in its petition.

(End excerpt)

The monopoly didn’t startup without help.  It was granted a license to do business in a given area without competition and protected for nearly 100 years from competition.  A start up business cannot be expected to compete against a government granted monopoly without some restrictions on the monopoly.

Why should you be concerned?  If the telecommunications act of 1996 is allowed to die or be narrowly interpreted competition will wither and die.  You will be back to having only one choice for local phone service no matter what the price or how poor the service. 

The article I sighted earlier says it best:

(Excerpt)

"Without the competition that line sharing enables, consumers would instead be left with only the Bell companies, who have shown a desire to raise - not lower - prices," said Charlie Hoffman, Covad president and chief executive officer.

http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/020709/telecoms_fcc_1.html

If you have trouble viewing the whole article from the URL above.  Simply subscribe to Yahoo Finance.  It costs nothing and will allow you to view the entire article from which I took the excerpts.

Many times I am in a conversation when some radical idea has come to light that the Government implemented or opposed.  Often the question is “Where was I when this legislation passed”.  Well you are here now and you can express your opinion.  Call or write to your Senators and Congressman and let them know what you think.  Let them know that you support the competition that the 1996 Telecommunications Act was written to promote.

Timothy J. Kilkenny

Founder and CEO

tim@fullnet.net

Be Kind To Your Email Friends

 It is safe to assume that most people feel that email is one of the greatest inventions of all time.  At the same time, it can be the source of the greatest frustration.  Below are some suggestions that should help ease the pain of email, for you and for others whom you are in contact with.

 Problem 1:  Too many Forwards!

Jokes, chain letters, short stories of heroic deedswe've all been the recipients of at least one of these during our Internet history.  The problem is, we're seldom the first recipients.  Thus we first wade through 40+ lines of previous recipients and forwarding, not to mention the clicking through several attachments to get to the original message.

Solution:  Cut & Paste

If you are going to forward an email to anyone, be kind enough to shorten the message.  Here's how:

i.      Simply highlight the important part of the message from the email you received (e.g. the joke).

ii.     Right-click the highlighted text

iii.    Left-click "Copy"

iv.     Close the original message

v.      Click on your button to Create a New Message

vi.     Right-click on the space where you would normally type

vii.    Left-click on "Paste"

viii.   Now fill in the To and Subject lines.

Stay tuned next month when I'll explain how to Protect The Privacy of Your Email Address.

Randen Swartz

FullNet Customer Service Representative

support@fullnet.net