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Tucows

Tucows Inc. is an American-Canadian publicly traded Internet services and telecommunications company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and incorporated in Pennsylvania, United States. The company is composed of three independent businesses: Tucows Domains, Ting Internet, and Wavelo.

Originally founded in 1993 as a shareware and freeware software download site, Tucows shuttered its downloads business in 2021. Tucows Domains is the second-largest domain registrar worldwide and operates OpenSRS, Ascio, and Hover.

In 2012, Tucows launched Ting Mobile, a wireless service provider and used the same brand to launch its fiber Internet provider business Ting Internet in 2015. In 2020, Tucows sold its wireless business to Dish Network, while they continued to operate Ting Internet. The billing platform Tucows built for Ting Mobile was spun off into an independent OSS/BSS SaaS business, Wavelo.

The company was formed in Flint, Michigan, United States, in 1993. The Tucows logo was two cow heads, a play on the homophone "two cows".

Origins
Scott Swedorski, a Flint native, started working as a computer lab manager at Flint's Mott Community College in 1991. By late 1992, Swedorski left Mott College to work at the Genesee County Library System as a system administrator for FALCON (Flint Area Library Cooperative Online Network) and saw a need to bring shareware reviews to the public. In 1993 he formed TUCOWS (The Ultimate Collection Of Winsock Software ) leading all editorial, reviews, HTML programming and scripting.

Company history

In the early 1990s, Tucows was hosted on university and public servers (much like Yahoo! and Google were in their early stages). TUCOWS' mission was to provide users with downloads of both freeware and trial versions of shareware. Internet Direct, owned and operated by John Nemanic, Bill Campbell, and Colin Campbell, acquired Tucows in 1996. STI Ventures acquired Tucows in 1999.

The company employed roughly 30 employees in Flint, Michigan, in 1998 with additional employees in Canada. For several years Scott Swedorski personally oversaw day-to-day activity in the Flint office located in the White House building on Beecher Road.

In 2000, Tucows acquired Linux Weekly News (which was then "unacquired" in 2002 ).

In 2001, Tucows was acquired by Infonautics, which then changed its name to Tucows, a business tactic called a "reverse takeover". On August 26, 2002, Tucows sold eLibrary and Encyclopedia.com, its search and reference services properties inherited from Infonautics, to Alacritude. Internet Archive preserves a full copy of the Tucows Software Library, with thousands of software titles both in the latest versions, as well as in older versions not yet available through Tucows.

In 2004, Tucows acquired Boardtown Corporation, a billing software provider based in Starkville, Mississippi.

On August 19, 2005, Tucows went public, after completing a secondary offering, listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange as TC and the NASDAQ as TCX.

In January 2006, Tucows completed its acquisition of certain assets of Critical Path, an outsourced email services provider.

In June 2006 Tucows paid $18 million to purchase Mailbank.com Inc, a company that owns over 17,000 domain names for common surnames, such as smith.net and brown.org. Mailbank generates income from ads on its websites (from domain parking) and also from customers who want e-mail accounts with their surname in the domain name.

On June 15, 2006, Noss disclosed that the portfolio of NetIdentity's domain names acquired by Tucows represents at least 68% of surnames in the United States and Europe, and that the cost of the acquisition was $18 million. On February 19, 2008, Tucows announced that they were launching a "Personal Names Service" using their portfolio of 39,000 domain names. "The launch of the Personal Names Service marks the complete integration of the surname assets we acquired with NetIdentity into our wholesale channel", said Elliot Noss, President and CEO of Tucows.

On August 26, 2006, Tucows won an eBay auction for the web calendar site Kiko.com. The company planned to roll Kiko's features into their existing email platform.

On July 27, 2007, Tucows acquired ItsYourDomain.com (IYD), another privately held ICANN-accredited wholesale registrar offering domain services through a network of over 2,500 affiliates with over 700,000 domains under management, paying US$10.35 million. ItsYourDomain.com managed 699,951 domains compared to Tucows's 5,919,987, at the time of the sale in July 2007 ItsYourDomain.com's monthly growth of 29,181 exceeded Tucows growth of 21,126.

By June 2008, Tucows had a total of three domain name registration services called ItsYourDomain (IYD), NetIdentity, and DomainDirect. Tucows decided to discontinue these three services, and merge them into one new domain name registration service, called Hover. Hover is a simple domain name registration service powered by Tucows Inc, that started in July 2008. All IYD, DomainDirect, and NetIdentity customers are fulfilled by Hover.com.

On November 6, 2008, Tucows announced that they were launching Butterscotch.com, an online video network with video tutorials to explain Internet technology, starting with 35 video tutorials and plans to reach 500 clips by Spring 2009. On October 14, 2011, Butterscotch.com producer Sean Carruthers stated production had been shut down.

In December 2014, Tucows launched RealNames, offering e-mail service using domain names acquired from Mailbank.com Inc.

On January 20, 2017, the company acquired eNom for $83.5 million, making Tucows the second-largest domain registrar in the world.

The company announced in January 2021 it was shuttering its Downloads business, as it was no longer essential to the rest of the company's business, but had transferred all of its assets and content to the Internet Archive prior to its closure.

Business lines
In July 2008, Tucows rebranded its wholesale services as "Open SRS".

As of July 2023, Tucows is the third-largest accredited registrar in the world.

Domain portfolio management
Tucows has three sources of income from its domain portfolio: 1) Advertising from pages of domains within their domain name portfolio; 2) Sales of domains from their portfolio, which is constantly being replenished; 3) Auction of the steady stream of thousands of domain names that expire every day and become available for resale.

On November 14, 2007, Tucows disclosed that they offer pay-per-click advertising on the pages of domains within their domain name portfolio. When a user types one of these domain names into the address of the browser (direct navigation), they are presented with dynamically generated links which are pay-per-click advertising. Every time a user clicks on one of the links listed on a web page, it generates revenue for Tucows through its partnership with third parties who provide syndicated pay-per-click results.

On February 7, 2008, Tucows disclosed that it had switched from Google Ads to a new advertising partner in 2007, which led to a one-third increase in its revenue.

On May 7, 2008, Tucows announced it put a process in place for the regular sale of direct navigation names. These domain names would come from names that expire each month from customers who decide they no longer want the domain names and that Tucows is able to select the ones they want to keep from these domain names.

Tucows announced on June 12, 2008, that they have reached an agreement with Afternic to auction Tucows’ large daily inventory of expired domain names. "We have over eight million domains under management and thousands expiring every day, so this deal provides us with a great way to share revenue with our resellers while participating in Afternic’s popular secondary domain name marketplace”, said Bill Sweetman, General Manager of Tucows Domain Portfolio. Tucows will share 10% of the gross sale price with the reseller for the sale of expired domains that were originally registered through the reseller. Revenue will be shared automatically without the reseller having to take any additional action. Tucows chose Afternic as a partner even though SnapNames with Register.com and NameJet with NetSol/eNom are the dominant players in expired domains.

On October 29, 2008, Tucows announced that it would begin direct sales from their inventory of premium domain names under the brand name of Yummy Names. The service was created especially for marketers to obtain a high-quality domain name from Tucows inventory. Customers have the option of purchasing a premium domain name outright or leasing the name. In 2009 one of Tucows' subsidiaries, Buydomains Holdings, sold another premium domain name for a record $50,000 for Myhomepage.com.

On February 20, 2008, Tucows announced a portfolio of over 1,000 domain names that have the high potential value such as "Jewellers.com", "Actresses.com", "BasketballPlayers.com", and "ProjectManagers.com".

In February 2008, Tucows successfully defended against an arbitration proceeding over Batchelor.com, which it had acquired as part of its NetIdentity purchase. The complaint had been filed by Ken Batchelor Cadillac Company, a car dealership. A National Arbitration Forum panel determined that the dealership had not established rights in the mark "Batchelor". In fact, Tucows has won all surname-related arbitration proceedings.

In 2007, Weidner Investment Services filed a complaint claiming that Weidner was its trademark or service mark and asked the National Arbitration Forum to order the transfer of Weidner.com from Tucows to Weidner. Tucows failed to respond, and the National Arbitration Forum ordered Tucows to transfer Weidner.com to Weidner Investment Services.

In January 2017, eNom was sold to Canadian domain seller Tucows for $83.5M Canadian.

Email services
Tucows provides millions of email boxes through their network of over 9,000 service providers. Customers of Tucows fully hosted email service are provided with POP3, IMAP, WAP and webmail access. Providers using Tucows Email Service have the option of using Tucows' spam and virus filtering with their current email infrastructure.

As part of the NetIdentity acquisition, Tucows had problems migrating retail customers' email from a third-party provider to Tucows in-house mail systems in September 2006.

Starting August 12, 2008, Tucows Email Service running on their servers designated as Cluster A experienced a multi-day outage lasting until August 15, 2008. On October 6, 2008, Cluster A again suffered another multi-day outage affecting at least 50% of users and at times all users. As of the afternoon of October 9, 2008, this cluster was still partially down ("degraded") preventing an unknown number of users from being able to retrieve email.

Retail services
Tucows sells services to consumers and small businesses and offers personalized email through net identity. Tucows also offers customers hosting and other services with NetIdentity. Tucows also expected to receive income for pay per click advertising revenue from domain parking the surnames.

Mobile phone services
In February 2012, Tucows launched a new mobile virtual network operator in the United States known as Ting, which resells voice and data services on the T-Mobile US network. As of July 2018, the service had approximately 286,000 subscribers.

In 2017, Tucows acquired Canadian MVNO Roam Mobility from Otono Networks. Roam Mobility ran for three years until it was shut down in June 2020, likely due to travel slowdown from the COVID-19 pandemic.

On August 3, 2020, Tucows announced that it would sell the Ting Mobile business to Dish Network (owner of Boost Mobile) and serve as its provider of backend services for its new wireless businesses.

As of 2022, Tucows no longer runs its mobile phone service and has shifted focus to software enablement for other providers.

Internet services
On December 15, 2014, Tucows announced its acquisition of the Charlottesville, Virginia ISP Blue Ridge InternetWorks, which was building a fiber to the home network. The services were brought under Tucows' Ting branding. They began offering symmetrical gigabit fiber internet without bandwidth caps. Since expanding the existing fiber network in Charlottesville, Ting Internet is currently in 12 markets wth more on the way.

Software (SaaS)
In January 2022, Tucows launched Wavelo, a software as a service (SaaS) company that builds telecom billing and operations software for Mobile Virtual Network Operators and Fiber Internet Services. They have two products: MONOS (Mobile Network Operating System) currently used by Dish Network and ISOS (Internet Services Operating System) currently used by Ting Internet.

De-emphasis of software downloads
Tucows maintains a download archive that includes more than 30,000 software titles in its worldwide network of partner sites. Although some listing features now have fees, basic listing remains free. Tucows founder Scott Swedorski announced his resignation in November 2003. On March 10, 2006, Tucows Content division closed its satellite office located in Flint, Michigan, and relocated the remaining editorial functions to its corporate head office in Toronto. On February 7, 2008, Tucows disclosed that Tucows plans to de-emphasize the software download aspect of their business. The download service was finally closed down in January 2021.

Divestment of web hosting accounts
On May 6, 2008, Tucows announced that they are getting out of the web hosting business. As part of the divestment Tucows signed an agreement for Hostopia to purchase about 14,000 Domain Direct, NetIdentity and ItsYourDomain.com (IYD) customer web hosting accounts and would migrate the web hosting accounts to Hostopia's unified web service platform by July 2008.

Divestment of equity interest in Afilias
On November 5, 2008, Tucows announced that it was selling its entire 7.38% equity interest in Afilias for $7.4 million. Afilias is the registry operator of the .info and .aero TLDs, and the service provider of the .org generic top-level domain (gTLD), .mobi mobile phone TLD, and a provider of domain name registry services for several countries around the world, including .AG (Antigua and Barbuda), .BZ (Belize), .GI (Gibraltar), .HN (Honduras), .IN (India), .ME (Montenegro), .SC (the Seychelles), and .VC (St. Vincent and the Grenadines).

Domain name add grace period (AGP) abuse
On January 8, 2008, Tucows explained its values and position on domain name front running: "We work to uphold the rights of Registrants. That means, for example, not putting 60-day locks on domains when a Registrant makes a change to their WHOIS information effectively locking some into a renewal and blocking domain name transfers to other Registrars. That also means having a clear, defined policy surrounding expiry and redemption periods." Tucows addresses domain tasting "by charging our Resellers a monetary fee on domain name registrations that are cancelled within the five-day Add Grace Period (AGP)", but it "doesn’t use WHOIS query data or search data from our API to front-run domain names".

Although it supports ICANN’s fee to discourage domain tasting and Google's decision to drop names added and deleted during the AGP from its AdSense program, Tucows claimed that AGP abuse could be further curbed by shortening the AGP period to 12 hours or less, sufficient time for registrants to correct spelling mistakes—AGP's original purpose.

Registrations to sites selling illegal goods and connections to terrorism
In 2015, the U.S. Trade Representative included Tucows on its annual "notorious markets" list—the first time it has named a domain name registrar—in order to set an example for what happens to registrars that do not block or suspend sites that sell illegal goods. Tucows responded that it suspended dozens of sites every day, but that "unlike some competitors, it considered all complaints carefully to ensure they were justified".

Tucows used to be the domain name registrar for the notorious American imageboard 8chan, which has been delisted by Google for hosting child pornography, and also seen numerous swatting attacks and terrorist attacks announced and planned by users, notably the 2019 New Zealand Terror Attack. It is also a domain name registrar for the social media platform Truth Social and the white nationalist website Stormfront.

in 2021, Tucows launched a framework to explain their role in dealing with domain name abuse.

Leadership

 * Elliot Noss - President & Chief Executive Officer - Tucows and Ting Internet
 * Dave Singh - Chief Financial Officer
 * Bret Fausett - Chief Legal Officer
 * Justin Reilly - chief executive officer - Wavelo
 * David Woroch - chief executive officer - Tucows Domains

Source:

Board of directors

 * Robin Chase - chairperson of the Board of Directors
 * Allen Karp, Q.C.
 * Marlene Carl
 * Erez Gissin
 * Jeffrey Schwartz
 * Elliot Noss
 * Lee Matheson
 * Gigi Sohn

Source:

title: Tucows


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Rubén González (pianist)

Rubén González Fontanills (26 May 1919 – 8 December 2003) was a Cuban pianist. Together with Lilí Martínez and Peruchín he is said to have "forged the style of modern Cuban piano playing in the 1940s".

Between the 1940s and his retirement in the 1980s, he played with Cuba's most successful acts, including Paulina Álvarez, Arsenio Rodríguez, Orquesta América del 55, Orquesta Riverside and Enrique Jorrín. In the 1990s, he came out of retirement to play in the revival ensembles Afro-Cuban All Stars and Buena Vista Social Club, also recording solo material and performing live until 2002.

Early life and career
González was born in Santa Clara, Cuba, on 26 May 1919. His family moved to the small village of Encrucijada when he was 6 years old. He took up the piano at age seven and graduated from the Cienfuegos Conservatory at age 15.

He grew up wanting to be a doctor and studied medicine, thinking music would remain a hobby he could pursue by night. However, he abandoned his studies after four years because music was "in his blood" and also because of all the encouragement he received from people around him. Thus, after graduating from high school, he began playing with groups in Cienfuegos and around the country.

From Havana to Venezuela
In 1941, González moved to Havana where he played in the charanga of danzonete singer Paulina Álvarez, as well as Orquesta Elósegui and the orchestra of the CMQ radio station. He became friends with important pianists such as René Hernández, Anselmo Sacasas, Jesús López and Facundo Rivero. He joined Arsenio Rodríguez's conjunto in 1943,  replacing Adolfo "Panacea" O'Reilly. Rodríguez advised him to "just play your own style, whatever it is, but don't imitate anyone". Although González's first confirmed recordings with Arsenio's conjunto are dated to 5 July 1945, earlier recordings might feature him, since Panacea's last confirmed recording session took place on 16 November 1943; these recordings were all released by RCA Victor.

In 1945, he left the conjunto—and was replaced by Lilí Martínez—to go to Panama with the ensemble Estrellas Negras, comprising mostly ex-Rodríguez musicians. With the Estrellas Negras, González toured most of South America—from Mexico City to Buenos Aires—and, on his return to Cuba, he joined the Conjunto Kubavana directed by Alberto Ruiz. He also performed with the Orquesta Los Hermanos Castro which, at one time, featured Mongo Santamaría.

Between 1948 and the mid-1950s, González played with Ernesto Grenet and Senén Suárez at the Cabaret Tropicana. At the same time, he became a member of René Álvarez y Los Astros and he often played with Orquesta Gris, Orquesta Ideal de Joseíto Valdés, Orquesta Siboney de Armando Pidre, and Los Hermanos Lebatard. In 1954, he backed Rolando Laserie at the Cabaret San Souci.

In the mid-1950s, he toured Venezuela with the charanga Orquesta América del 55. He established himself in Venezuela between 1957 and 1962, in the orchestra directed by Luis Alfonso Larraín. He also briefly resided in Argentina, where he played with tango musicians. By the late 1950s, Rubén González was widely known in Cuba and other parts of Latin America.

Back in Havana
González returned to Cuba in 1961, joining the famous big band Orquesta Riverside. In 1962, he became the pianist for the Orquesta de Enrique Jorrín, and would continue to play for him for the next 25 years. In 1964, González joined Pucho Escalante's Noneto Cubano de Jazz.

In 1975, he recorded his eponymous solo album backed by members of Jorrín's orchestra; the album was released by Areíto as LD-3582. In 1979, he recorded the album Los héroes as part of the Estrellas de Areito all-star ensemble. After Jorrín's death in 1987, González briefly took over the role of bandleader, but retired soon after.

Career revival
In 1994, Raúl Planas and Radio Progreso announcer Eduardo Rosillo approached González with the idea of recording new versions of ten songs composed by fellow Cuban pianist Lilí Martínez. The resulting album, Son Inconcluso, featured a full band including bassist Orlando "Cachaíto" López and Arturo "Alambre dulce" Harvey (ex-tresero with Conjunto Chappottín), among others, and was released in 1999 by EGREM.

In 1995, Nick Gold (head of World Circuit Records) and Juan de Marcos González (director and tres player of Sierra Maestra) decided to record a series of descarga sessions featuring classic Cuban musicians, including Rubén González on piano, together with African virtuosos Toumani Diabate (kora player) and Djelimady Tounkara (guitarist). By early 1996, the Cuban musicians had already been selected and the African musicians were about to leave for Cuba, but could not travel because of difficulties in obtaining visas. Gold then invited Ry Cooder and his son Joachim to participate in the sessions; Ry would play guitar and Joachim African percussion.

The sessions, all of which featured Rubén González on piano, took place in March 1996 in Havana's EGREM studios. The first set of recordings was meant to revive the 1950s Cuban big band sound. This material yielded the album A Toda Cuba le Gusta credited to the Afro-Cuban All Stars and produced by Gold and Juan de Marcos, who also played tres. It again featured Orlando "Cachaíto" López on bass along with vocalists Ibrahim Ferrer, Pío Leyva, Manuel "Puntillita" Licea, Raúl Planas, Félix Baloy and José Antonio "Maceo" Rodríguez. Cooder also played slide guitar on Lilí Martínez's famous son "Alto Songo". In the sleeve notes, Juan de Marcos wrote: "This album is dedicated to Rubén González, genius of Cuban piano".

The second set of recordings were meant to revive the acoustic sound of the 1940s Cuban trova and filin movements. It yielded the critically acclaimed Buena Vista Social Club album. Gold was credited as executive producer, Juan de Marcos as A & R consultant and Cooder as producer. Here Rubén González on piano and Cachaíto on bass accompanied singers Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo and Eliades Ochoa. Cooder played guitar on all but one track.

In April 1996, and using left over studio time after the sessions that had produced the previous two albums, the solo album Introducing...Rubén González was recorded in just two days, live with no overdubs. All three albums were released on Nick Gold's World Circuit Records in 1997. In early 1998, Wim Wenders filmed a documentary entitled Buena Vista Social Club, and González and his colleagues became famous worldwide.

Later years and death
Between 1997 and 2000, González recorded his next album, Chanchullo, at EGREM Studios in Havana and Angel Recording Studios in London. Some recordings he made in September 1999 at EGREM studios were released by EGREM as Rubén González and Friends in 2000. His last public appearances took place in Mexico and Cuba in 2002.

In the morning of 8 December 2003, Rubén González died at his home in Havana after a long illness which had prevented him from walking and eventually led to renal and respiratory problems. He was survived by his wife, Eneida Lima, and is buried in Havana's Cristóbal Colón Cemetery.

Style and legacy
Rubén González is considered an innovator of the son cubano piano style. The genre's early ensembles (sextetos and septetos) lacked pianos, and these were introduced in the late 1930s by the first three conjuntos: Arsenio Rodríguez's conjunto, Alberto Ruiz's Conjunto Kubavana, and Conjunto Casino. González played in the former two, which made him a pioneer in the genre. Apart from the son, González had a profound knowledge of the danzón and his improvisations are characterized by harmonic subtleties. His style has been described as "romantic and angular", possessing "strong lyricism" with characteristic "swirling arpeggios".

Like his contemporary Peruchín, González was influenced by jazz, particularly by Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, which made him one of the grandfathers of Afro-Cuban jazz. His style has influenced Eddie Palmieri, amongst others.

As principal artist

 * Rubén González (Areito, 1975)
 * Introducing...Rubén González (World Circuit, 1997)
 * Chanchullo (World Circuit, 2000)

As sideman

 * With Noneto Cubano de Jazz
 * Jazz Cuba (Areito/Palma, 1964)

 * With Estrellas de Areito
 * Los héroes (Areito, 1979)

 * With Afro-Cuban All Stars
 * A Toda Cuba le Gusta (World Circuit, 1997)

 * With Buena Vista Social Club
 * Buena Vista Social Club (World Circuit, 1997)
 * Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall (World Circuit, 2008)
 * Lost and Found (World Circuit, 2015)

 * With Raúl Planas
 * Son Inconcluso (EGREM, 1999) – Recorded in 1994; reissued as Trilogía De Boleros in 2002 on the Exotica label
 * Dos Grandes – Con la Orquesta Jorrín (EGREM, 2000) – Recorded in 1989

Compilations

 * Rubén González and Friends (EGREM, 2000)
 * Todo sentimiento (Yemayá, 2004)
 * The Essential Rubén González (Manteca, 2006)

Filmography

 * With Buena Vista Social Club
 * Buena Vista Social Club DVD (Road Movies/Sony VCD0040, 1999) – Directed by Wim Wenders

 * With Afro-Cuban All Stars
 * Afro-Cuban Legends DVD (Warner Music Vision 8573-88531-2, 2001) – Directed by Tony Knox

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Rubén González (pianist)


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Talk:M6 Toll

Untitled
I used to work at the services and I never saw "table service in the restaurant", they might bring it over to you if you had a stir fry or something but it was nothing like a proper resturant. Anyway, here is some more information about the services should you wish to add them.

The services in Norton Canes are run by RoadChef, there is a petrol station run by BP. This is seperate from the main building an is the only place open on christmas day. Inside the main building there is a Costa Coffee, Wimpy, onroute (RoadChefs resturant) and restore (RoadChefs shop) On the side of the main bulding is a TravelInn, this also houses a meeting area known as touchbase. The building has a WiFi hospost from BTOpenzone.

There have been some minor celebrites that have used the road, such as Jordan, Peter Andrea and various members of the Hollyoaks cast.

Customers can pay for the m6tol via a "tag" system (http://www.m6toll.co.uk/using/tags.asp) There some more about tags, that could go in.

There seems to be some confusion over how many vehicles can use the road before the toll is increased. The BBC's working lunch programme suggest one million today, but the entry has recently been changed to ten million, and indeed this is stated on the M6 Toll web site. Has the figure recently been changed, or do the BBC have incorrect information? -- Darkhorse 22:31, 2003 Dec 9 (UTC)

 * Ten million (10,000,000) is the figure from the official site. Also the fully-open date is the 13th, not the 12th. Darac 22:58, 9 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I'm reverting Pigsonthewing's edit back to customers, as that's the official word from the site.
 * It may well be PR-speak; but it's vehicles they're counting. It's also "vehicles" on Andy Mabbett 23:09, 9 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * Ah. Yes. It does have both. I'll leave it at vehicles Darac 23:27, 9 Dec 2003 (UTC)

"Continental" is a uniquely-british term for "mainland europe", and it unlikely to be easily understood by readers from other countries. I can't quite think of an elegant drop-in replacement ("european" and "mainland european" are poor). Ideas? -- Finlay McWalter 16:15, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * How about: "Unlike modern Toll roads in continental Europe, ..."? --snoyes 16:25, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * That's better. -- Finlay McWalter 17:11, 10 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Mills & Boon Novels
The BBC says the road's surface is enhanced by the incldusion of millions of Mills & Boon novels. I do think this should go in, but I'm damned if I can think of where (and I don't want to start a "trivia" section). Comments -- Finlay McWalter 19:36, 18 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * Yes, I've just read that, too. I can see a couple of places for that. In the first paragraph near the mention of 3-lane, 27-mile road or down among the construction info. -- Darac 09:57, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I've just copied the ref into the article; I think it needs to be there or others may, like me, think it is an unlikely enough scenario to be subtle vandalism (!) Britmax (talk) 10:52, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Moved from article:
 * This table is slightly inaccurate (2004-02-09) but I'm not quite sure what is wrong.

I've included the table here whilst it gets itself sorted out. Note that I have changed the table to have the northern junctions at the top so that it flows more like a map. Comments in italics. -- SGBailey 13:18, 2004 Feb 9 (UTC)

E05
It's a very minor point, but the e-road the M6 Toll is part of is E05, not E5. Major routes have two-digit numbers in the e-road system according to UNECE, which is responsible for the system. See our article for an explanation of why the sign on display at that article says E4!Grace Note 06:46, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Yeah, I made the map in that article; however, the only Google match I found calling it either says it's E5. Is there some sort of official document that gives the exact routings of the E-roads? The official routings by city only go so far; without that Google match I'd have no idea if the E5 uses the M6 or M6 Toll (in fact no idea which side of Birmingham it goes around). --SPUI (talk) 08:13, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * I think that the M6 Toll is the E05 because it is designated as the through route. The M6 through Birmingham was to have been downgraded (as normally happens when a bypass is built) to an A road but the council objected. --JBellis 18:11, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

Catagories
The road isn't within the boundaries of Birmingham or the West Midlands - it's mostly in Staffordshire except for the southern tip which is in Warwickshire, so I would suggest that it doesn't belong in the first two catagories.--JBellis 19:57, 4 May 2005 (UTC)
 * I'd say you've got a point, on the other hand since the road's main purpose and other name is the Birmingham North Relief Road, I guess the average reader might expect to find it in some category related to Birmingham. -- Solipsist 04:59, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

"Toll plaza"
Quote: Unlike modern toll roads in continental Europe, the M6 Toll uses toll plazas.

So what IS a "toll plaza" (the link only takes one to a redirect to Toll road -- where toll plazas are mentioned, but not defined). And what do "modern toll roads in continental Europe" have instead? -- Picapica 19:38, 16 August 2005 (UTC)
 * OK, it is about time something was done about this. There was a little bit of debate early on in the history of this article about that sentence and no-one ever really got around to cleaning things up. So... According to [www.tollroadsnews.com TollRoads News], a Toll Plaza is " the whole assembly of queueing pavement and merge area, the booths, toll lanes, and support buildings needed to collect cash tolls". And from what I can glean off Google, the modern method is to use electronic tags and/or a pre-payment system akin to the London Congestion Charge Zone. Darac Marjal 08:44, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for that reply. As to the second part of my question, there are plenty of toll plazas (in the sense you mention) on the toll roads of France, Spain, Italy, etc. - and all of them "modern" in my view, but then perhaps I'm just getting old! Perhaps the new sentence should begin with something like "Unlike some of the very latest toll road schemes elsewhere in Europe, which use electronic tagging or number-plate recognition schemes..." (with links to such schemes -- even if they remain red for the moment -- and to a toll plaza article). -- Picapica 11:05, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

Swampy
The article previously contained the sentence: "Most notable of the campaigners was Swampy who went on to be a minor celebrity in the United Kingdom." To me this seemed to imply that Swampy shot to fame after participating in the protests at the M6 toll site. I can't find a reference elsewhere to his having participated in a protest on the site of this road, and even if he did it certainly wasn't what made him famous -- that would have been his participation in the earlier Newbury bypass protests (c. 1996). The peak of his fame came well before the M6 toll construction began (in 2002), surely? Casper Gutman 14:08, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Raised what?
"The Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust... campaigned and raised to build an aqueduct" - raised what? I hesitate to insert the obvious "funds" without refs to back up the assumption; it could have been demands. Any refs for this or many other unsourced parts of the article would be good -- Timberframe (talk) 13:28, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

 * This particular one is easy to source; it's even mentioned on the expressway's own website . And yes, it is funds that they raised.

 * You're right though, the article could use some more refs, especially in the criticism section.
 * Baeksu (talk) 23:59, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Good call, I've added the missing word and link. Cheers -- Timberframe (talk) 17:53, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

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Traffic Level figures
Anyone where current figures are obtainable from? . www.M6toll.co.uk used to publish them but don't anymore... Lawrence18uk (talk) 18:17, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

Pricing
The pricing table is split by days and times, but all the prices are always the same. Is this table really needed anymore? 157.231.27.166 (talk) 18:42, 30 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:M6 Toll


text:
Constitution of Romania

The current Constitution of Romania is the seventh permanent constitution in modern Romania's history. It is the fundamental governing document of Romania that establishes the structure of its government, the rights and obligations of citizens, and its mode of passing laws. It stands as the basis of the legitimacy of the Romanian government. Adopted on 21 November 1991, it was approved on 8 December 1991 in a national referendum and promulgated on the same day.

The constitution was amended once by a referendum on 18 October 2003. The new text took effect on 29 October 2003.

Structure
The Constitution of 1991, as revised in 2003, contains 156 articles, divided into 8 titles:
 * Title I - General principles
 * Title II - Fundamental rights, liberties, and duties
 * Title III - Public authorities
 * Title IV - The economy and public finance
 * Title V - Constitutional Court
 * Title VI - Euro-Atlantic integration
 * Title VII - Revising the Constitution
 * Title VIII - Final and transitional provisions

Background
Regulamentul Organic, voted by the respective Assemblies of Moldavia and Wallachia under Imperial Russian occupation in 1831–1832, was the first organic law resembling a constitution ever awarded to the Danubian Principalities. It remained in place until 1858, when the Crimean War removed the two countries from Russian influence and confirmed the rule by several European powers first established by the Treaty of Paris; the Paris Convention of 1858 remained the governing document following the election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as Domnitor (ruling prince) over the united countries (1859), but was replaced by Cuza's own organic law, entitled Statutul dezvoltător al Convenţiei de la Paris ("Statute expanding the Paris Convention"), in 1864. Although the newly minted state was nominally still a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, it only acknowledged the suzerainty of the Sublime Porte in a formal way.

The first constitution of the Romanian United Principalities was adopted 1 July 1866. It was retained after Romania became a kingdom in 1881. After the extension of national territory in 1918, a new constitution was approved 29 March 1923. It was repealed by King Carol II in 1938 and replaced with a corporatist/authoritarian document with the king's National Renaissance Front as the sole legal party. This document was, in turn, cancelled in 1940 by the National Legionary State government under Ion Antonescu and the Iron Guard. Antonescu broke his alliance with the Guard in 1941, and ruled by decree until his overthrow in 1944. The 1923 constitution was reinstated pending the adoption of a new constitution (see Romania during World War II).

The monarchy was abolished in 1947. In March 1948, the first constitution of Communist Romania was adopted; it was heavily modeled on the Soviet constitution. Two other constitutions appeared during the Communist era, in 1952 and 1965 (the former "building socialism", the latter announcing the "socialism has won" and notably making the change from a people's republic to a socialist republic). Following the collapse of the Communist regime in 1989, much of the 1965 document was suspended, though portions remained in effect until the present document was adopted in 1991.

Initial version (1991)
The 1991 Constitution was composed by a committee of parliamentarians and constitutional law specialists; was approved by Parliament, meeting as a Constituent Assembly, by a vote of 414 to 95 on 21 November 1991, being published in Monitorul Oficial the same day; and was approved by referendum on 8 December 1991, with 77.3% voting in favour. The 1991 Constitution contains 7 titles and 152 articles. Romania is defined as a "national, sovereign, independent, unitary and indivisible state". The form of government is a republic, headed by a president who serves a five-year term and who is eligible for a second term. The president represents the Romanian state in domestic and foreign relations, ensures obedience to the constitution and the proper functioning of state institutions, and is the guarantor of the state's independence, unity and integrity. Parliament is "the supreme representative organ of the Romanian people and the sole lawmaking authority"; it is bicameral (Chamber of Deputies and Senate) and elected for four years. After the prime minister is named by the president, Parliament validates the composition and programme of the Government and can dismiss it following a motion of censure. The constitution provides for fundamental civic rights and freedoms, and creates the office of Romanian Ombudsman to ensure these are respected.

First revision (2003)

The 1991 Constitution was first amended in 2003. Articles were introduced on "Integration into the European Union" and "NATO Accession", bringing the total to 156 in 8 titles. These specified that both could take place by parliamentary vote alone, and that EU citizens living in Romania can vote and run in local elections. The revised constitution grants minorities the right to use their native language when dealing with local administration and the courts, improves the functioning of the legislative chambers (better specifying their attributes) and restricts the privilege of parliamentary immunity to political declarations, extends the president's term to five years, explicitly "guarantees" rather than "protects" the right to private property and removes the constitutional obligation for conscription (which ended in 2006). The revised document was adopted by referendum on 18–19 October 2003; turnout was slightly above the 50%+1 threshold needed for it to be valid, with 55.7% of 17,842,103 eligible voters showing up. The opposition and NGOs alleged serious irregularities. 89.70% voted yes and 8.81%, no. It came into force ten days later.

Proposed second revision
The issue of constitutional reform was raised repeatedly in the early 2010s, especially after a major political crisis in the second half of 2012. The ruling coalition at the time, the Social Liberal Union, claimed that insufficient constitutional constraints led then-incumbent President Traian Băsescu to abuse his presidential powers, thus justifying new amendments. A public debate began in 2013 and a Parliamentary Commission for the Revision of the Constitution was established. However, the reform project stalled as the Social Liberal Union dissolved in early 2014 and Băsescu ended his term later that year.

Băsescu's successor, Klaus Iohannis, expressed support for a second revision of the Constitution, as did Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who stated that such a revision should be a political priority in 2015, as there are no elections scheduled in Romania that year. On 18 January 2015, the vice-president of the Parliamentary Commission, Valeria Schelean, requested the immediate convocation of the commission to begin working on amendments.

2018 referendum
On 6 and 7 October 2018 a referendum took place regarding the definition of the family as provided by Article 48 of the Constitution (that defines the family as being founded on the free-willed marriage "between spouses"), to prohibit same-sex marriage. The referendum failed as the turnout was only 21.1%, below the required voter turnout threshold of 30%.

Former constitutions

 * First Constitution of Romania (1866)
 * Second Constitution of Romania (1923)
 * Third Constitution of Romania (1938)
 * Fourth Constitution of Romania (1948)
 * Fifth Constitution of Romania (1952)
 * Sixth Constitution of Romania (1965)

title: Constitution of Romania


text:
Frédéric de Saint-Sernin

Frédéric Marie Joseph Bruno de Laparre de Saint-Sernin is a French politician and businessman, born 14 February 1958 in Reims.

He was the representative of former French Co-Prince Jacques Chirac in Andorra until 2002. He was also an adviser to the French President between 1999 and 2006.

He has twice been elected to the French Parliament, representing Dordogne for the right-wing political party Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (1993–1997 and 2002–2004).

He was secretary of state (French minor minister) for spatial planning from 2004 to 2005. Since 4 December 2006, he has been chair of the football team Stade Rennais.

title: Frédéric de Saint-Sernin