Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10381; 4 Jan 94 4:10 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09505 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 4 Jan 1994 00:08:33 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19446 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 4 Jan 1994 00:08:04 -0600 Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 00:08:04 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401040608.AA19446@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #1 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Jan 94 00:08:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 1 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Happy New Year (TELECOM Digest Editor) Directory to Telecom Archives (TELECOM Digest Editor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 3 Jan 1994 23:05:17 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: Happy New Year Happy new year to all readers, and welcome to another volume of TELECOM Digest. We begin volume 14 with this issue. With this issue of the Digest is a copy of the index to the Telecom Archives to bring you up to date on the several hundred files at your disposal there which include all the past issues of the Digest since its beginning in 1981. One new thing you will notice about the Archives is that a sub-directory has been set aside for participants in the unmoderated TELECOM-TECH mailing list maintained by former Digest participant John Higdon. Mr. Higdon has been given a method by which copies of his journal can be automatically forwarded to the archives where back issues can be fetched by interested parties. At the present time, there is very little in this area of the archives, but no doubt it will have additional files whenever TELECOM-TECH is published, should they wish to make their journal available for all archives users. I'd like to point out also that the generous financial assistance sent to the Digest by many readers during the past year has been the main reason I have been able to continue publication of this journal, and I hope those of you who see fit to contribute financially from time to time will continue to do so during 1994, although of course there is no obligation whatsoever on your part. So throughout 1994, I hope you will enjoy the Digest and benefit from the collective wisdom of our reader/writer/participants. That of course means you as well ... feel free to write and comment anytime. The volume of mail is such that only a small sample can be used, but I try to print as wide and diverse a range of material as possible, and your mail makes it possible. Patrick Townson TELECOM Digest Editor ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Directory to Telecom-Archives Date: Tue, 4 Jan 94 0:45:27 EST The Telecom Archives is a repository of information about telecom topics and a collection of the back issues of this Digest. It is available using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu, and also by using the Telecom Archives Email Information Service. Attached here is the most recent directory to the files in the archives, as of this date. The various areas of interest (broken down into sub-directories) are listed first, then below that, the contents of each area. The indices to authors and subjects is in the process of being updated to include the final issues of 1993 and should be totally complete in the next day or two. total 28 -rw-rw-r-- 1 ptownson 0 Jan 3 22:00 Index-telecom.archives -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1173 Sep 25 02:28 Welcome.to.archives dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Sep 25 04:19 aos-cocot/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Dec 25 14:04 areacodes/ drwxrwxr-x 11 ptownson 512 Dec 27 00:44 back.issues/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Sep 24 21:06 caller-id/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 1024 Oct 27 03:30 carriers/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Sep 25 00:11 cellular/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 1024 Dec 25 14:05 country.codes/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Sep 25 00:14 email/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Nov 25 16:59 glossaries/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 1024 Dec 25 13:50 history/ drwxrwxr-x 2 ptownson 512 Oct 3 13:21 indices/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Oct 4 13:05 legal-fcc/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Nov 20 1990 minitel/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 1024 Dec 25 13:23 miscellaneous/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Sep 24 22:01 modems/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Sep 25 00:38 new-readers/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Sep 25 04:21 npa.800/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Sep 25 04:21 npa.900/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 1024 Jan 5 1992 npa.exchange.list-canada/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Sep 25 04:25 public.access/ drwxr-xr-x 2 ptownson 1536 Dec 29 22:01 reports/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 1024 Sep 24 20:09 security-fraud/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 1024 Oct 15 11:05 technical/ drwxr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Dec 27 00:58 telecom-tech.digest/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Dec 10 1990 tymnet/ aos-cocot: total 209 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 68508 Sep 24 23:43 aos.proposals -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 68224 Sep 24 23:44 aos.rules-procedures -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 21206 Sep 24 23:48 call.blocking -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 38981 Oct 12 1990 complaint.sticker -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 15023 Sep 30 1990 violation-label areacodes: total 272 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 18580 Jan 1 1993 210-512.split.texas -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 18238 Nov 9 1990 214-903.split.texas -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 34805 Jul 30 1991 301-410.split.maryland -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 41444 May 19 1992 404-706.split.georgia -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 11139 Sep 16 19:58 416-905.split.ontario -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 35073 Dec 9 16:28 guide -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 10746 Dec 25 13:09 history -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 32625 Sep 25 00:59 how.numbers.are.assigned -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 2795 Aug 3 1991 npa.510.sed.script -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 35934 Dec 13 1991 npa.809.prefixes -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 10861 Dec 1 11:19 program.in.c -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 21165 Dec 1 11:20 script.and.intl.codes back.issues: total 3811 dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Sep 24 18:55 1981-86.volumes.1-5/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Sep 24 18:56 1987.volumes.6-7/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Sep 24 18:56 1988.volume.8/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Sep 24 18:56 1989.volume.9/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 1024 Sep 24 18:57 1990.volume.10/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 1024 Sep 24 18:57 1991.volume.11/ dr-xr-xr-x 2 ptownson 1024 Sep 24 18:57 1992.volume.12/ drwxr-xr-x 2 ptownson 512 Dec 6 05:27 1993.volume.13/ -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 663 Jan 27 1991 READ.ME.FIRST -r--r--r-- 2 ptownson 1098294 Sep 22 03:06 auth.subj.idx-vol.12-13 -r--r--r-- 2 ptownson 1577582 Oct 3 13:11 auth.subj.idx-vol.9-10-11 drwxrwxr-x 2 ptownson 1536 Dec 30 15:55 recent.single.issues/ back.issues/1981-86.volumes.1-5: total 5666 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 423659 Dec 16 1990 vol1.most.issues -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 620814 Dec 16 1990 vol2.iss001-088 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 382277 Jan 14 1990 vol2.iss089-141 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 619185 Jan 20 1991 vol3.iss001-083 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 364946 Jan 20 1991 vol3.iss084-128 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 618694 Jan 20 1991 vol4.iss001-075 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 411337 Dec 10 1990 vol4.iss064-118 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 169101 Dec 10 1990 vol4.iss119-140 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 127814 Dec 10 1990 vol4.iss142-154 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 357252 Dec 10 1990 vol4.iss155-208 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 658 Jan 27 1990 vol5.READ-ME-FIRST -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 623292 Jan 27 1990 vol5.iss001-076 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 861286 Jan 27 1990 vol5.iss077-161 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 74260 Jan 20 1991 vol5.misc.msgs back.issues/1987.volumes.6-7: total 920 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 639112 Jan 26 1990 volume.6.most.issues -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 274580 Jan 20 1990 volume.7.all.issues back.issues/1988.volume.8: total 2321 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 371 Jan 20 1991 1987.vol8.READ-ME-FIRST -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 577639 Jan 20 1991 1987.vol8.iss001-071 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 73630 Jan 20 1991 misc.telecom.msgs -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 726882 Jan 20 1991 vol8.iss070-139 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 724832 Aug 1 1989 vol8.iss140-189 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 227589 Aug 1 1989 vol8.iss190-213 back.issues/1989.volume.9: total 8672 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 577173 Jan 15 1990 vol9.iss001-049 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 564262 Jan 14 1990 vol9.iss050-100 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 653097 Jan 14 1990 vol9.iss101-150 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 637611 Jan 15 1990 vol9.iss151-200 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 744800 Jan 14 1990 vol9.iss201-250 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 787166 Jan 14 1990 vol9.iss251-300 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 805328 Jan 14 1990 vol9.iss301-350 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 780366 Jan 15 1990 vol9.iss351-400 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 784366 Jan 15 1990 vol9.iss401-450 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 758330 Jan 15 1990 vol9.iss451-500 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 794183 Jan 14 1990 vol9.iss501-550 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 856691 Jan 14 1990 vol9.iss551-603 back.issues/1990.volume.10: total 15800 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 861272 Jan 28 1990 vol10.iss001-050 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 820574 Feb 14 1990 vol10.iss051-100 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 842877 Mar 8 1990 vol10.iss101-150 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 855090 Mar 24 1990 vol10.iss151-200 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 853551 Apr 13 1990 vol10.iss201-250 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 908585 May 1 1990 vol10.iss251-300 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 873608 May 16 1990 vol10.iss301-350 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 858605 May 31 1990 vol10.iss351-400 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 919538 Jun 23 1990 vol10.iss401-450 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 885056 Jul 20 1990 vol10.iss451-500 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 863414 Aug 8 1990 vol10.iss501-550 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 886042 Aug 29 1990 vol10.iss551-600 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 974899 Sep 17 1990 vol10.iss601-650 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 870218 Oct 1 1990 vol10.iss651-700 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 868902 Oct 22 1990 vol10.iss701-750 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 902018 Nov 10 1990 vol10.iss751-800 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 880896 Nov 28 1990 vol10.iss801-850 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 867675 Dec 23 1990 vol10.iss851-900 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 133082 Jan 1 1991 vol10.iss901-908 back.issues/1991.volume.11: total 18640 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 893021 Jan 20 1991 vol11.iss001-050 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 900405 Feb 8 1991 vol11.iss051-100 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 949798 Dec 27 1991 vol11.iss1001-1050 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 864550 Feb 22 1991 vol11.iss101-150 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 189348 Dec 31 1991 vol11.iss1051-1061 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 869932 Mar 14 1991 vol11.iss151-200 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 861113 Mar 30 1991 vol11.iss201-250 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 864673 Apr 23 1991 vol11.iss251-300 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 872293 May 12 1991 vol11.iss301-350 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 861315 May 27 1991 vol11.iss351-400 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 941952 Jun 14 1991 vol11.iss401-450 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 922446 Jun 30 1991 vol11.iss451-500 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 871735 Jul 20 1991 vol11.iss501-550 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 872633 Aug 3 1991 vol11.iss551-600 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 868651 Aug 22 1991 vol11.iss601-650 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 901687 Sep 6 1991 vol11.iss651-700 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 861278 Sep 20 1991 vol11.iss701-750 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 856742 Oct 8 1991 vol11.iss751-800 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 909356 Oct 25 1991 vol11.iss801-850 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 864298 Nov 9 1991 vol11.iss851-900 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 882326 Nov 23 1991 vol11.iss901-950 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 918465 Dec 13 1991 vol11.iss951-1000 back.issues/1992.volume.12: total 17312 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 900594 Jan 20 1992 vol12.iss001-050 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 921470 Feb 1 1992 vol12.iss051-100 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 905907 Feb 20 1992 vol12.iss101-150 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 920896 Mar 7 1992 vol12.iss151-200 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 886584 Mar 22 1992 vol12.iss201-250 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 948652 Apr 7 1992 vol12.iss251-300 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 936106 Apr 29 1992 vol12.iss301-350 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 895354 May 20 1992 vol12.iss351-400 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 884860 Jun 6 1992 vol12.iss401-450 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 936120 Jun 21 1992 vol12.iss451-500 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 898774 Jul 15 1992 vol12.iss501-550 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 986567 Aug 2 1992 vol12.iss551-600 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 941731 Aug 22 1992 vol12.iss601-650 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 951483 Sep 11 1992 vol12.iss651-700 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 952503 Oct 2 1992 vol12.iss701-750 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 986788 Oct 25 1992 vol12.iss751-800 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 990138 Nov 16 1992 vol12.iss801-850 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1053771 Dec 12 1992 vol12.iss851-900 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 593668 Jan 2 1993 vol12.iss901-928 back.issues/1993.volume.13: total 18608 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1116357 Aug 24 21:15 vol13.iss001-050 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1069719 Feb 16 1993 vol13.iss051-100 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1076701 Mar 4 1993 vol13.iss101-150 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1114780 Mar 23 1993 vol13.iss151-200 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1077570 Apr 10 1993 vol13.iss201-250 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1144023 May 4 1993 vol13.iss251-300 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1254595 May 26 1993 vol13.iss301-350 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1196757 Jun 19 1993 vol13.iss351-400 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1126854 Jul 5 1993 vol13.iss401-450 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1188811 Jul 23 02:02 vol13.iss451-500 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1169634 Aug 8 02:21 vol13.iss501-550 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1303262 Aug 24 21:42 vol13.iss551-600 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1266873 Sep 15 05:07 vol13.iss601-650 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1246209 Oct 15 11:10 vol13.iss651-700 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1202985 Nov 10 19:30 vol13.iss701-750 -rw-rw-r-- 1 ptownson 1293683 Dec 6 05:27 vol13.iss751-800 -rw-rw-r-- 1 ptownson 1055917 Dec 30 14:25 vol13.iss801-844 back.issues/recent.single.issues: total 1144 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 29168 Dec 6 05:18 V13_#800 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 28245 Dec 6 06:47 V13_#801 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 24438 Dec 7 17:45 V13_#802 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 29343 Dec 8 07:40 V13_#803 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 25345 Dec 8 17:22 V13_#804 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 24137 Dec 8 18:32 V13_#805 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 22951 Dec 9 10:46 V13_#806 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 25661 Dec 9 12:24 V13_#807 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 22594 Dec 9 13:07 V13_#808 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 20881 Dec 9 20:08 V13_#809 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 23405 Dec 10 05:27 V13_#810 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 23821 Dec 13 15:40 V13_#811 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 25051 Dec 13 16:24 V13_#812 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 23163 Dec 13 17:47 V13_#813 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 24218 Dec 13 18:07 V13_#814 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 30450 Dec 13 19:23 V13_#815 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 22987 Dec 13 16:47 V13_#816 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 30206 Dec 14 03:51 V13_#817 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 27870 Dec 14 15:24 V13_#818 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 22023 Dec 15 05:59 V13_#819 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 24790 Dec 16 04:27 V13_#820 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 24786 Dec 16 05:47 V13_#821 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 29661 Dec 16 18:26 V13_#822 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 24968 Dec 17 18:36 V13_#823 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 24166 Dec 18 07:22 V13_#824 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 23775 Dec 19 01:03 V13_#825 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 28123 Dec 19 01:58 V13_#826 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 24749 Dec 19 02:34 V13_#827 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 31167 Dec 19 19:29 V13_#828 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 27623 Dec 19 22:46 V13_#829 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 23188 Dec 20 14:31 V13_#830 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 15715 Dec 20 15:30 V13_#831 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 26305 Dec 21 09:02 V13_#832 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 26410 Dec 22 16:27 V13_#833 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 27956 Dec 22 17:34 V13_#834 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 24361 Dec 23 07:34 V13_#835 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 26845 Dec 23 08:28 V13_#836 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 25525 Dec 26 00:00 V13_#837 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 26056 Dec 26 00:53 V13_#838 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 28974 Dec 27 06:24 V13_#839 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 23255 Dec 28 17:10 V13_#840 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 23885 Dec 29 14:07 V13_#841 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 30556 Dec 30 03:18 V13_#842 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 23370 Dec 30 04:34 V13_#843 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 27125 Dec 30 15:55 V13_#844 caller-id: total 180 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 10795 Jul 30 14:47 asp.procomm -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 4569 Feb 2 1992 bellcore.specs -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 11267 Sep 24 21:06 cpid-ani.developments -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 61504 Jul 30 1990 legal-decision -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 85802 Aug 24 20:05 ohio-decree -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 6807 Feb 2 1992 specifications carriers: total 256 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 9886 Jan 23 1990 10xxx.access.codes -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 6847 Mar 2 1991 10xxx.list.updated -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 7714 Jul 23 1991 10xxx.new.revision -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 8593 May 5 1990 10xxx.notes.updates -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 8734 Dec 13 1991 att-reach.out-calculator -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 474 Feb 11 1990 att.service.outage.1-90 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 10590 Aug 11 1991 lata.names-numbers.table -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 801 Aug 1 1989 ld.discounts-1985 -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 2271 Aug 1 1989 ld.rate.notes-1985 -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 13675 Aug 1 1989 ld.rates.comparison-1985 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 3417 Oct 27 03:30 orange.calling.card -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 11489 Sep 29 1991 phone.home-usa -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 4184 Jul 27 1991 sprint.rates -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 46738 Jan 18 1990 starlink.vrs.pcp -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 27533 Feb 9 1990 telco.name.list.formatted -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 31487 Jan 28 1990 telco.name.listing -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 31396 Oct 27 03:28 telepassport.intl.calls -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 26614 May 29 1990 unitel-canada.ld.service -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 427 Sep 20 1991 usa.direct.service cellular: total 133 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 39449 Dec 14 1990 carrier.codes -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 35488 Aug 22 1992 cellular.and.900.in.uk -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 15141 Sep 24 19:52 cellular.sieve -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 16188 Mar 14 1991 fraud.article-abernathy -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 2755 Mar 14 1991 fraud.prevention -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 24455 Feb 6 1991 motorola.programming -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 298 May 31 1990 west.germany.cellular country.codes: total 830 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 6089 Dec 27 1991 READ.ME.FIRST -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 9150 Jan 31 1990 david.leibold.listing -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 21165 Dec 25 14:05 intl.codes.script -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 11370 Feb 9 1990 john.covert.listing -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 12260 Jan 20 1990 london.ac.script -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 12069 Mar 5 1990 london.codes.script -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 190125 Jan 31 1993 norway.goes.8.digits -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 18138 Sep 24 20:23 toll.free.prefixes -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 34771 Sep 24 21:25 zone.1.areacode.guide -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 267 Apr 10 1993 zone.1.canada.area.codes -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 35934 Apr 10 1993 zone.1.npa.809.countries -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 645 Dec 27 1991 zone.1.usa.areacodes -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 35128 Jan 27 1993 zone.2 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 31857 Dec 27 1991 zone.3 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 37294 Dec 27 1991 zone.4 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 141455 Apr 8 1993 zone.4.uk.44.detailed -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 56224 Jun 20 1992 zone.5.codes.50-54 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 60921 Jun 20 1992 zone.5.codes.55-59 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 27587 Dec 15 1991 zone.6 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 8787 Nov 16 1992 zone.7 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 17716 Nov 16 1992 zone.8 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 43018 Sep 27 1992 zone.9 email: total 276 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 62602 Aug 1 1989 ecpa.1986 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 97987 Aug 4 1990 federal.laws -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 25794 Aug 24 19:57 internet.mail.guide.8-93 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 19158 Nov 16 1992 mcimail.worldwide.service -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 5922 Feb 22 1991 middle.east.troups -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 20660 Sep 5 1990 privacy -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 13622 Aug 18 1991 system.survey -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 32160 Feb 26 1992 telex.from.internet glossaries: total 409 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 43101 Nov 25 16:52 isdn.acronyms -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 118555 Nov 25 16:50 misc.acronyms -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 115325 Nov 25 16:59 more.acronyms -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 42188 Jan 14 1990 phrack.acronyms -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 69007 Oct 2 20:33 telecom.acronyms history: total 243 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 17903 Sep 24 20:51 19th-century-telegraphers -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 10746 Dec 1 11:20 area.splits -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 474 Sep 25 00:09 att.service.outage.1-90 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1247 Feb 10 1990 digest.first.issue.cover -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 2395 Oct 23 13:08 enterprise-numbers -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 7597 Feb 10 1990 exchange.names -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 47203 Aug 1 1989 fire.in.chicago.5-88 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1998 Jan 27 1990 fire.in.st-louis.1-90 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 377 Jan 27 1990 fires.elsewhere.in.past -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 16534 Feb 11 1990 nsa.original.charter-1952 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 14354 Aug 12 1990 octothorpe.gets.its.name -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 8504 Jan 27 1990 old.fashioned.coinphones -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 2756 Jan 27 1990 old.hello.message -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 5492 Aug 1 1989 pearl.harbor.phones -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 11387 Aug 24 19:14 phone.magazine.from.1926 -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 4816 Aug 1 1989 song-day.bell.system.died -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 17129 Jan 5 1992 stock.ticker -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 3864 Aug 22 1992 tat-8.fiber.optic -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 2337 Jan 27 1990 telecom.digest -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 27984 Nov 23 1991 teletype -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 30996 Feb 26 1992 western.union indices: total 2670 -rw-rw-r-- 1 ptownson 30279 Jan 3 14:40 archives-index -r--r--r-- 2 ptownson 1577582 Oct 3 13:11 authors-subjects.1989-91 -r--r--r-- 2 ptownson 1098294 Sep 22 03:06 authors-subjects.1992-93 legal-fcc: total 633 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 29980 Oct 29 1991 87-215.modem.tax -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 68508 Sep 24 20:40 aos.proposals -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 68224 Sep 24 20:41 aos.rules-procedures -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 484 Jan 14 1990 aos.ruling -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 60505 Feb 24 1991 apple.data.pcs.petition -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 21206 Nov 18 1991 call.blocking -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 70477 Sep 5 1990 computer.bbs.and.the.law -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 39956 Jul 14 1990 elec.frontier.foundation -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 36549 Aug 24 19:44 equal.access.rules -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 53628 Dec 6 1991 house.of.reps.bill.3515 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 24706 Oct 29 1991 modem.tax.action -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 19378 Aug 1 1989 modem.tax.discussion -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 103069 Sep 24 23:45 sysops.legal.liability -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 33199 Oct 4 13:05 wiretap.laws-procedures minitel: total 222 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 11736 Apr 22 1990 dial-up.numbers -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 95917 Apr 22 1990 minitel.tar.Z.uu1 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 94305 Apr 22 1990 minitel.tar.Z.uu2 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 22688 Apr 22 1990 minitel.tar.Z.uu3 miscellaneous: total 203 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 5795 Jan 27 1993 bellcore.public.documents -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 4788 Jun 10 1990 books.about.phones -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 3397 Jul 30 20:43 comp.dcom.telecom.charter -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 14105 Nov 24 1990 genie.star-service -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 15604 Aug 1 1989 mass.lines -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 463 Aug 1 1989 measured-service -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 27351 Nov 8 21:55 no-amer.isdn.users.group -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 9764 Jan 20 1990 starline.features -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 4527 Oct 27 03:34 telecom-services -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 62927 Oct 7 19:32 telecom.newsgroup.faq -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 28529 Nov 25 17:46 uiuc.telecom.syllabus -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 116 Oct 22 1990 white.pages -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 24541 Aug 1 1989 zum.debate modems: total 258 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 2450 Jan 20 1990 call-waiting -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 106028 Aug 22 1992 digital.data -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 30981 Feb 9 1992 hotel.phones -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 103336 Jan 28 1992 tutorial new-readers: total 80 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 62927 Sep 25 00:38 frequently.asked.question -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 15302 Jan 20 1991 how.to.post.msgs.here -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 3014 Jan 27 1990 letter.to.new.readers npa.800: total 77 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 45105 Mar 2 1991 carrier.assignments -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 17618 Feb 2 1992 carrier.list -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 13779 Sep 19 1990 prefix.assignments npa.900: total 89 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 40940 Mar 4 1993 800.collect.callbacks -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 32815 Mar 25 1990 900.service.special.issue -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 15488 Nov 20 1990 carrier.assignment npa.exchange.list-canada: total 230 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 15271 Dec 15 1991 npa.204.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 18564 Dec 27 1991 npa.306.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 23266 Dec 15 1991 npa.403.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 17076 Dec 15 1991 npa.416.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 14843 Dec 15 1991 npa.418.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 10384 Jan 5 1992 npa.506.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 11672 Dec 15 1991 npa.514.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 13919 Dec 15 1991 npa.519.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 19166 Dec 15 1991 npa.604.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 12413 Dec 15 1991 npa.613.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 12956 Dec 15 1991 npa.705.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 13081 Dec 27 1991 npa.709.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 5566 Feb 7 1990 npa.800.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 10503 Dec 15 1991 npa.807.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 15611 Dec 15 1991 npa.819.exchanges-canada -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 13118 Dec 15 1991 npa.902.exchanges-canada public.access: total 190 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 28296 Sep 29 1990 dialup.access.in.uk -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 9087 Jan 27 1993 dialups.to.internet -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 9087 Jan 27 1993 internet.dialup.access -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 70153 Sep 25 01:02 pc.pursuit -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 75793 Sep 25 01:00 unix.public.access.sites reports: total 1351 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 58455 Dec 27 07:19 25th.anniversary.of.unix -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 17389 Oct 1 1992 ada.phone.requirements -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 13983 Apr 19 1992 alascom.story -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 16833 Nov 3 1992 autovon-dod.phone.co -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 18962 Jun 20 1992 autovon.instructions -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 23355 Feb 14 1993 cable.role.in.telephony -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 40784 Feb 25 1993 clinton.hi-tech.speech -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 52871 Apr 10 1993 coming.of.the.fibersphere -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 37177 Aug 22 1992 computer.in.hotel -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 23944 Aug 1 1989 computer.state -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 436 Mar 16 1991 deaf.communicate.on.tdd -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 86136 May 19 1992 deregulated.telecom.mkt -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 15877 Sep 1 1990 dial.tone.monopoly -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 8234 Sep 26 1991 exploring.950-1288 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 19836 Nov 20 1990 fax.products.for.pc -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 32625 Mar 29 1990 how.numbers.are.assigned -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 54041 Dec 13 1991 hr.3515.federal.law -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 126515 Dec 18 01:54 info.policy.conference -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 25799 Sep 12 1990 internet.story-abernathy -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 39296 Nov 25 17:31 issaquah.miracle -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 33400 Nov 25 17:39 metcalfs.law.and.legacy -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 29973 Aug 11 1991 monitor.soviet.xmissions -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 99565 Sep 27 00:06 natl.info.infrastructure -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 55287 Nov 25 17:15 new.rule.of.wireless -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 28201 Nov 25 17:03 number.crisis.in.zone.1 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 38772 Aug 1 1989 pizza.auto.nmbr.id -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 17950 Jan 14 1990 rotenberg.privacy.speech -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 20526 Jun 11 1991 st.louis.phone.outage -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 103069 Apr 26 1990 sysops.libel.liability -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 43671 Nov 16 1992 telex.ansback.to.internet -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 21831 Jan 20 1991 telsat-canada-report -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 18138 Sep 29 1991 toll-free.tolled.list -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 75793 Apr 8 1993 unix.public.access.sites -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 29377 Nov 20 06:22 venezuela.telecom.strike security-fraud: total 1058 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 24515 Sep 3 1991 atm-bank.fraud -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 16188 Sep 24 19:57 cellular.fraud-abernathy -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 2755 Mar 14 1991 cellular.fraud.prevention -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 13343 Feb 25 1990 computer.fraud.abuse.act -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 27395 Jun 23 1990 craig.neidorf.indictment -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 9354 Jul 30 1990 craig.not.guilty -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 67190 Jun 23 1990 crime.and.puzzlement -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 62602 Aug 12 1990 ecpa.1986 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 97987 Aug 12 1990 ecpa.1986.federal.laws -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 6303 Apr 10 1993 herb.zinn.story -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 21918 Dec 2 1990 illinois.computer.laws -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 28935 May 19 1990 jolnet-2600.magazine.art -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 30751 Mar 7 1990 jolnet-attctc.crackers -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 43365 Jan 28 1990 kevin.polsen -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 35612 Apr 1 1990 legion.of.doom -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 20703 Aug 12 1990 len.rose-legion.of.doom -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 2516 Jun 14 1991 len.rose.in.prison -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 184494 Jun 22 1991 len.rose.indictment-1 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 192078 Jun 22 1991 len.rose.indictment-2 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 15355 Feb 1 1993 sentencing.guidelines -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 109927 Sep 24 20:08 telecom.usa.call.blocking -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 6344 May 24 1992 virgin.islands.phreak -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 14821 Sep 12 1990 war.on.computer.crime technical: total 1059 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 14124 Mar 24 1992 air.fone.frequencies -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 3551 Jan 27 1993 ans.mach.exclusion.scheme -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 474 Sep 25 00:09 att.service.outage.1-90 -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 18937 Sep 24 19:10 auto.coin.collection -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 8526 Dec 29 1992 boing.zip -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 16292 Mar 18 1990 class.ss7.features -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 16367 Sep 1 1990 e-series.recommendations -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 3422 Jan 20 1990 early.digital.ESS -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 9052 Aug 1 1989 find.pair -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 26717 Sep 16 19:28 foreign.exchange.service -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 68804 Feb 2 1990 hi.perf.computing.net -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 31520 Aug 11 1991 how.phones.work -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 17016 Aug 5 1990 iridium -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 19745 Mar 12 1993 isdn.paper -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 12896 Nov 20 1990 isdn.pc.adapter-hayes -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 73366 Feb 15 1993 ixo.program.scripts -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 42150 Feb 14 1993 ixo.tap.protocol -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 12961 Aug 18 1991 lightning.surge.protect -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 36641 Aug 1 1989 mnp.protocol -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 106028 Sep 24 21:59 modem.for.digital.data -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 103336 Sep 24 22:00 modem.tutorial -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 23449 Jan 18 1992 motorola.programming -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 60707 Aug 18 1991 pager.bin.uqx -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 13079 Aug 22 1991 pager.ixo.example -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 41112 Jun 20 1992 phone.hardware.you.build -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 28922 Aug 11 1991 phone.patches -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 34337 Sep 24 23:56 radio-phone.interference -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 74604 Oct 15 11:00 slip.setup.server.machine -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 5921 Apr 8 1993 tdd.specifications -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 11752 Aug 1 1989 telstar -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 14429 Jan 18 1992 test.numbers -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 55580 Sep 16 20:16 truevoice.dsp.analysis -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 37947 Aug 1 1989 wire-it-yourself -rw-rw-r-- 1 telecom 4101 Aug 1 1989 wiring.inside.phones telecom-tech.digest: total 245 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 1194 Dec 25 11:01 READ.ME.FIRST -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 91765 Oct 5 19:03 cdtt.1st.vote.results -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 9719 Nov 11 16:22 cdtt.2nd.vote.discussion -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 84272 Dec 8 12:39 cdtt.2nd.vote.results -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 5251 Nov 25 22:51 cdtt.group.charter -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 53693 Nov 1 06:46 cdtt.newsgroup.discussion -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 709 Dec 27 00:56 intro.to.tel-tech tymnet: total 54 -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 25098 Dec 2 1990 inbound-outbound.rates -r--r--r-- 1 ptownson 3979 Dec 2 1990 tymdial-9.6-links -rw-r--r-- 1 ptownson 24577 Dec 10 1990 tymnet.outdials ================================ The above is accurate as of this date. It changes daily as new issues of the Digest are published and as new special reports and other files are added. Get an updated copy on a regular basis. If you cannot do anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu (then cd telecom-archives) you can request the help file for using the Email Service instead. Patrick Townson TELECOM Digest Editor ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #1 **************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa18410; 4 Jan 94 6:10 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30587 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 4 Jan 1994 02:14:30 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02536 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 4 Jan 1994 02:14:01 -0600 Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 02:14:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Digest Message-Id: <199401040814.AA02536@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #2 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Jan 94 02:14:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 2 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Rate of Change (Stewart Fist) Caller ID in Pennsylvania (Jeffrey J. Carpenter) Wireless Transceiver Boards (Aninda Dasgupta) Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services (Earl Vickers) Question About Ring Frequency (Jascha Franklin-Hodge) Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack (Jeffrey L. Haynes) Questions About VOXSON 899 Mobile Phone (Yang Yu-shuang) US West's India Project Delayed by Foreign Investment Debate (A. Indiresan) Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas (Linc Madison) Operator, Where Are My Car Keys? (Charles Hoequist, Jr.) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 03 Jan 94 23:18:27 EST From: Stewart Fist <100033.2145@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Rate of Change [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This semi-thread, a wee bit off-topic perhaps, was in progress as last year came to an end and it seems a very fitting way to begin the new year; thus I present as the first order of business in 1994 this essay from Stewart Fist. PAT] On 28 Dec 1993, H.A. Kippenhan Jr wrote: > It's probably safe to say that technology is advancing at a greater > than exponential rate. One of the things that is often overlooked is > that there are more scientists alive [and hopefully working - 8-)] > today than the total in mankind's history to date. It's no wonder > that things are changing so fast. > We want to be careful about 'run(ning) out of things to invent'. > There was a proposal just shortly after the Civil War to close the > U.S.Patent Office because everything that could possibly be invented > had been thought of. No criticism here (I assume that 'run(ning) out > of things to invent' was a -in-cheek remark). Without being critical, what's interesting in this string is that your correspondents find it curious and worthy of note, that our ancestors (stupidly) thought their old pace of change was extraordinary. We are being invited to snicker at this quaint and ridiculous idea. Everyone knows, that (by comparison with today) the pace of change of our ancestors was very slow and sedate? That's the sub-text here. But! Every generation thinks that it lives in THE period of most rapid change. Past generations always look slow by comparison because we look at THEIR change from OUR perspective. My guess is that we technologists view the world, distorted in this egoistic way, because our 'present' is always mid-stream in the technological changes that dominate our lives. And, since we egoists are obviously at the centre of the universe, ipso facto, these changes must appear extraordinary and revolutionary to the hoi polloi who don't understand things as well as we do. To our ancestors, these changes would be extraordinary! The distortion comes about because of our viewpoint. The problems and attitudes of the past always appear trivial to us -- because they are SOLVED. Relativity is such a simple and obvious concept -- why did it take an Einstein and X years to work it out? A smart high-school kid today could write a better explanation of relativity than Einstein in a week. And, similarly, we judge the rate of change selectively from our own perspective, having grown up with the 'solved' technologies which caused all the troubles in the past. And our judgement as to what is important is always a perspective from today's vantage point -- but people in the past found other aspects of change more important and difficult to handle -- things that are now trivial to us. This is where Tofler falls down in his "Future Shock" idea. I don't see any evidence that people today don't handle technological change reasonably well and easily. Ten years after Toffler warned us of technology's disruptive effects, Future Shock hasn't appeared in the way that was postulated. Today's technologies certainly aren't any more difficult for us to handle than those that gave 'Future Shock' to past generations (Crystal sets, for instance. Trams and buses for another) Morse-code telegraphy had ten times the impact of satellites. Telex has been a thousand times more important and more revolutionary than electronic mail. Computers and modern communications technologies might be revolutionary to the half-million technologists, but to the five billion users these chips and fibres are just creating marginal improvements on the adequate 'service facilities' they had before. Computers produce a very evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, change to our culture when you compare them to the impact of something like the motor car. My mother was ten before she saw her first motor car, 18 before she saw an aeroplane, but she lived to fly the Concorde and see a man step on the moon. How does this pace of change compare with my life span, when cars, aeroplanes and space travel are reasonably commonplace? And the car I drive now is not really much different to the one I drove 30 years ago. The car has made very little 'revolutionary' impact on my life because I've always had one, and it has always worked at about the same speed and travelled the same miles. So I have reservations about all this philosophical "Future Shock" and "Information Society/Age" stuff -- I think it is tabloid sensationalism under the guise of a pseudo-academic cloak. I see little evidence that the 'perceived' pace of change in the community is faster now than it has been over the last hundred years. It seems to me that 'present' change has always been perceived as 'amazingly fast' -- it's a perspective illusion. If you were to identify the time in recent history where citizens faced most 'Future Shock' then it would have to be the 1890s and early 1900s. This was when Bell invented the telephone; Edison the light bulb and phonograph; photography and the movies became popular; Marconi and De Forrest created radio; and trams, buses, cars, trucks (and later aeroplanes) replaced the horse and carriage and bicycle. All of these technologies had a direct, disruptive and rapid effect on the way (and place) people lived, worked and played. It is hard to think of anything in the last twenty years with one-tenth the impact of the steam-train in the 1800s. In fact, if you stand back and look at the last century of technology with a dispassionate eye, then the computer and fibre revolution has been rather benign for the average citizen. Fibre optics just means better phone quality. And these days the technologists placed considerable emphasis on 'user-friendliness' and on the 'transparency' of most computer applications -- so a large part of the computer's power is directed at making it easy to assimilate, and easy to use. This didn't happen with technologies in the past - 'real men' learned to double de-clutch. Most computers are hidden, and work behind the scene. Technologists see these things and marvel, but the average Joe Bloggs in the streets just finds things easier to work, or with a few extra features. Few people are conscious when driving a modern car, that computers are controlling the ignition, brakes and radio-tuning. These 'revolutionary' technical changes are just technical trivia. How do you compare these things with the impact on people and cultures from the 'transport revolution' of the early 1900's: horses almost disappeared from the roads, and trams, trains and motor cars replaced them. Suddenly everyone could travel -- from suburbs to the city, between towns, and even between states. Families were no longer isolated by distance; people had access to all forms of entertainment and recreation, most of which had only previously been available to the rich with stables. And it all happened in about the same period of time that we have been dealing with the computer revolution -- about 20 years. I think we need to get our feet back on the ground and stop imagining that we are more important than we are. ================ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Mr. Fist, thanks very much for an excellent presentation of a point of view we often tend to overlook. If any readers want to present a rebuttal to Mr. Fist, or elaborate further on his comments, I'll be happy to carry the thread here for a bit longer. It makes a great topic to begin the new year. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jan 1994 12:13:27 EST From: Jeffrey J. Carpenter Subject: Caller ID in Pennsylvania I received a copy of Pennsylvania Act 83 of 1993. This law permits Caller-ID in Pennsylvania as long as both per-line and per-call blocking are available. There may be a charge for per-line blocking, but not for per-call blocking. There are a number of parties that are excluded from charges for per-line blocking, including victims of domestic violence, women's shelters, and health and counseling centers. People ordering phone service may get per-line blocking at no charge within 60 days of ordering service. It permits a service that will automatically block calls from lines with blocking, and permits selective unblocking of lines with per-line blocking. There are a number of blocking exceptions for PBX's, 911 services and 800/900 services. Telephone companies offering this service must notify their customers sixty days in advance of the implementation to allow subscribers to obtain per-line blocking. jeff ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jan 94 14:45:44 EST From: add@philabs.Philips.Com (Aninda Dasgupta) Subject: Wireless Transceiver Boards I want to design a wireless data network for indoor (office space) applications. I want to use as many off-the-shelf products as possible. The first item I need is a wireless transceiver. The requirements are: 1) should work around corners and through walls (a range of say three to four rooms/offices), 2) support a data rate anywhere from 10 to 64 Kbps, 3) should use carrier frequencies that are not restricted by the FCC and are unlikely to be very crowded by other systems, 4) should be priced around $10. I would like to get off-the-shelf boards to which I can hook up my micro-processor based systems to build wireless nodes on the network. Can anyone point me to manufacturers of transceiver boards? Requirement one means that I can't use infra-red. I should probably use RF. How about the 900 MHz systems? The FCC allows only a few tens of watts of power in the 900 MHz range. What frequencies do other such systems (e.g. Echelon) use and what power levels do they provide? Model airplanes and toy cars use RF remotes. So does the BOSE home audio remote controller. What freq. and power levels do these use? Any help or comments will be greatly appreciated. I will summarize if I get sufficient replies. Thanks in advance. Regards, Aninda DasGupta (add@philabs.philips.com) Ph:(914)945-6071 Fax:(914)945-6552 Philips Labs\n 345 Scarborough Rd\n Briarcliff Manor\n NY 10510 ------------------------------ From: earl@netcom.com (Earl Vickers) Subject: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 3 Jan 1994 03:04:48 GMT I'm putting together a list of phone numbers for bizarre recorded information services. I used to have lots of numbers like this, but they all seem to have disappeared. For example, there used to be one where you could leave whatever strange sound effects or messages you wanted, and they would periodically edit and splice them into their new outgoing greeting. And there used to be a number in San Francisco called the Earthquake Prevention Hotline, with a different oddball comedy bit every couple days. All I have to offer so far is They Might Be Giants's Dial-a-Song number, (718) 963-6962. And dialing 1073214049889664 gets you a computer voice that reads you your own phone number, in case you forgot or something. (This works from San Jose, CA, and I'm told it's toll free but I couldn't swear to it.) Please post or email any interesting numbers you may know of. (Obviously, please, no answering machines that might sometimes be answered by a human.) Thanks! Earl Vickers earl@netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A couple of numbers I'll add to this list are 312-731-1100 and 312-731-1505. Both are operated by a fellow named Sherman Skolnick in Chicago who is a 'conspiracy buff'; you know, one of those people who believe that everyone but Oswald killed JFK. Both are five minute recordings, and he changes the two messages two or three times per week. PAT] ------------------------------ From: joeshmoe@world.std.com (Jascha Franklin-Hodge) Subject: Question About Ring Frequency Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Mon, 3 Jan 1994 05:45:09 GMT Can someone tell me the ring frequecies and durations of the standard US telephone ring? Thanks, joeshmoe@world.std.com Jascha Franklin-Hodge ------------------------------ From: jhaynes@austin.ibm.com (Jeffrey L. Haynes) Subject: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack Date: Mon, 03 Jan 1994 21:13:38 GMT Reply-To: jhaynes@austin.ibm.com Organization: AIX Defect Support I am trying to figure out how to wire two phone lines into a regular phone jack. Is this possible? I thought it was because only two wires are used. I have tried connecting the yellow and black to the red and green on the second line, but that doesn't seem to work. Anybody know anything about this stuff? Thanks, Jeff Haynes email: jhaynes@austin.ibm.com AIX Defect Support [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I guess we know a few things about it Jeff. You do not want to connect the yellow and black wires to the red and green; that causes both lines to get shorted out. R/G is typically the first line (of two in a two pair cable) and Y/B is the second line. (I'm talking like an American now; forget about Europe or other countries for the purpose of this discussion.) You bring Y/B to your phone in the same way the R/G are brought there, but as *separate and distinct* things. You need a second phone instrument or at least a phone with two distinct lines on it in order to use the Y/B pair of wires, and that is presuming of course that telco has the wires connected at their end and in service. If you have two lines from telco, then what you do is at the modular connection box depends on the kind of phone(s) you are using. If you have a true two-line phone, then connect the four wires to the four screw terminals as indicated by the color markings for each. In addition you attach the four wires from the cover of the modular box to the associated screw terminals in the same way. Plug in your two line phone and it should work okay. If you are using two separate phones, we do it a bit differently. Inside the modular box, have the four wires connected as above, but from the Y/B terminals, run two little jumper wires to a second modular box you bought from Radio Shack or similar. Connect the jumper wires from the Y/B screws of the first box to the R/G screws in the new, second modular box. Now plug your second phone into your second box. The reason we wire the jumpers from Y/B in the one to R/G in the other is because R/G is traditionally known as the 'first line' and Y/B is traditionally known as the 'second line'. Most devices which handle only one phone line (i.e. a single-line phone instrument, an answering machine, a modem, etc) are wired internally to operate on the 'first line'; that is, to respond to and connect with R/G. So if you plan to use the 'second' (or Y/B) line for a modem or answering machine or fax machine, etc you need to give it whatever phone service you are going to have there on the 'first line' as far as it can tell, meaning see to it that the R/G on the newly installed modular terminal box gets the feed, ** but in a separate modular terminal box **. Never allow any of the four wires to touch each other. If more questions arise in this project, please write again. PAT] ------------------------------ From: yang@mundoe.maths.mu.OZ.AU (Yang Yu-shuang) Subject: Questions About VOXSON 899 Mobile Phone Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 01:47:37 GMT Hi Net Friends, I bought a VOXSON CELLVOX 899 mobile phone recently. I have a few questions about it: (1) It comes with a 12 VDC 1000mA adaptor plug into the desktop charger. Is the adaptor just the ordinary AC-DC adaptor? Can I use the car cigarette lighter instead of the AC-DC adaptor? (2) I am thinking of making a small charger to be used in the car. What are the points to note? Can the battery be treated as the ordinary NiCad battery? (3) The battery has six metal pieces. Two of them are in contact with the phone which power the phone and four of them are in contact with the charger. The four in contact with the charger are labeled as "-", "S", "T", "+". What does those labels mean? (4) I noticed that the same type of phone in different shops carries different labels. For instance, the phones sold by Strathfield has a sticker saying "produced in Australia" while the ones in Myer has a sticker saying "made in Japan". The phone and the model number are the same otherwise. Are there any internal differences? Thank you in advance for any suggestions. YS (Sam) Yang yang@maths.mu.oz.au [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You can use any 'clean' (i.e. regulated) DC power supply rated at 10-13 volts and at least one amp, although my Micronta 13.8 VDC power supply is rated at three amps. Your car battery via the cigarette lighter will work fine. You don't need a charger in the car; just use a connector which fits the cigarette lighter on one end and your cellular phone battery charge connection on the other. As long as the motor is running your car battery will juice up the phone battery and let you use the phone as well. The plus and minus signs are for the positive and negative sides of the battery; most likely the S and T have to do with whether or not your phone is (or can be) wired into the circuitry of the car so that an incoming call will cause your horn to sound or your lights to flash if your car is parked somewhere and you are outside the car with the phone left in the vehicle turned on. Are you *certain* there are only two connections between the battery and the phone and not at least three or four of the six which reach the charger? It could also be that the S and T connections are like thermal switches -- when the battery gets fully juiced up it gets a little warm and some cellphone batteries use a thermal coupler to shut off the charger when the battery says it is no longer needed. There are probably no significant differences in the internals of your phone and those from Japan or Korea or Hong Kong or China or the local Radio Shack, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: US West's India Project Delayed by Foreign-Investment Debate Date: Mon, 03 Jan 1994 18:54:51 -0500 From: Atri Indiresan This report is from the India-D listserv group. I do not have the original citation for the article. Atri ------ US WEST'S PROJECT IN INDIA IS DELAYED BY DEBATE OF FOREIGN-INVESTMENT POLICY US West Inc.'s pioneering proposal to offer an alternative to India's state-owned phone system has been put on hold. The regional project, which would amount to a revolution in India's tightly controlled telecommunications industry, has run into opposition from some members of India's parliament and from unions representing workers in the state-owned network. US West proposes offering an alternative to the government-run network in parts of India's southern state of Tamil Nadu. Also on hold are 17 similar proposals lined up behind U S West's initiative, which received approval last month from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. Technically, the project has been returned to the investment board for certain evaluations. However, a senior official has said that no clearance will be given until the government reaches a consensus on the role of private and foreign investment in the telecommunications industry. The unions say basic telecommunications services shouldn't be opened to competition. They have the support of some left-wing parliament members and are threatening to strike if there is a change in policy. However, a policy change is just what is needed, says Nagarajan Vittal, head of the Department of Telecommunications. He has been pushing for one since assuming his post in October. Now, his proposals are awaiting consideration by Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and his cabinet. If the review goes as expected, a new policy is likely to be announced before the end of January. Mr. Vittal argues that there is no alternative to opening up basic services to competition. He dismisses as inadequate a 400 billion rupee ($12.85 billion) plan he inherited, which would increase the country's phone lines to 20 million in 200 from the current seven million. That plan would still leave a waiting list of two years, compared with today's five or six, he estimates. "We should target 1.2 trillion rupees ($38.54 billion) to bridge this perennial gap," Mr. Vittal says. India has less than one telephone per 1000 people. The global average is 10.5. Mr. Vittal wants India to have 20 million lines by the end of 1995. But because India lacks the resources to finance such expansion on its own, he wants to admit foreign investors. "I want India's telephone density to be at world levels and to provide telephones on demand," Mr. Vittal says. "The quality of services must go up, and that can only happen with competition." According to Boli Madappa, U S West's director of international network projects, the first stage of U S West's plan would create 430,000 lines with an investment of $90 million in and around the textile exporting town of Tirupur in Tamil Nadu. In the second stage, to be completed by 2004, the total investment would rise to $176 million and the number of lines to 930,000. U S West would provide basic telephone service, as well as data services, public call offices and cable television. Several companies seeking to enter the market are closely watching the outcome of the U S West proposal. According to Mr. Vittal, American Telephone & Telegraph Co. has offered to eliminate the waiting list in 71 towns by providing competitive services, and Motorola Inc. has offered a "waitlist-buster" proposal that, among other things, would be designed to clear the waiting list in New Delhi, India's capital, in six months. ------------------------------ From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 03 Jan 1994 22:41:40 GMT Several people have written recently about ten-digit dialing schemes for local calls to adjacent area codes. The idea is to preserve the concept that any local call can be dialed without a '1' even if prefix shortages make it no longer possible to dial just the seven-digit number. In most cases, you are permitted, but not required, to dial the 1 anyway, and all telcos are recommended to allow 1 + NPA + number for all calls within the NANP, including local calls within the same NPA. I was recently in Dallas, where you *must* dial: 7-digit number local, same area code NPA + 7-digit number local, different area code 1 + NPA + 7-digit number all non-local calls If you dial, for example, 1-817-265-xxxx instead of 817-265-xxxx, you get an intercept recording telling you to dial again without the 1. If you dial 1-214-nxx-xxxx instead of nxx-xxxx for a local call, you get a similar intercept. There is some logic, at least, in saying that any call that incurs a toll must be dialed with the 1, and thus that any call that does not incur a toll *may* be dialed without the 1, but there is just no excuse whatsoever for *prohibiting* the 1 for local calls. I only tried this from GTE Southwest, not from Southwestern Bell, since my parents had to accept exile to be within commute distance of my father's new office location. It is possible that SWB does better on this point, as well as in every single other facet of telephone service. Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jan 1994 15:20:00 +0000 From: charles (c.a.) hoequist Subject: Operator, Where Are my Car Keys? Esteemed Editor, This is a followup to my posting concerning the new 411 service in Atlanta. In response to an e-mail request to post more details to the Digest about subscriber requests which don't exactly fit the telco's DA template, here is a selection. Bear in mind that the operator doesn't dare just brush off the subscriber. That may bring a complaint. But if the call takes too long, the operator's AWT (average work time -- the average duration of the calls at the operator's position) will go up, which is also evil. So everything has to be either solved or at least properly redirected, preferably in 20 seconds or less. First, there are some frequent errors, such as subscribers asking for DA in another area code. A subclass of of these are the telephony- challenged. The operators usually read out the entire sequence for the call to the subscriber ("Dial one, then , then ..") and in one case the subscriber obediently hit DTMF 1 ("ma'am?" "Yes?" "You have to hang up first.") Second, there are ambiguous or poorly-stated listing requests. These can be mildly humorous: "I'd like the number of X in Jefferson" "Which one, ma'am? I have two Jefferson listings for that name." "Well, it's the one on the main street." "Neither is listed as having Main Street as an address." "No, it's the main street, it runs right through the center of town." (pause) "Ma'am, I don't know the name of that street." "Hmm. Well, it's the one that turns into the state road a little out of town ..." This can go on and on. Others would get me fired for talking back to customers if I had to put up with them: "Well, that's what _I_ always call my bank, and _they_ always know what I'm talking about!" Then there are some which are telephony-related, but not DA calls, like the bozo who badgered the operator endlessly about whether he'd get charged for a DA call made from his cellular phone. Or requests for beeper numbers. Finally, there are the miscellaneous requests: - what time is it? Not, what is the number to get the time recording? The subscriber was very explicit. - when do the buses run? - what zipcode is ? - and the winner: "Could you tell me what research is going on at Emory University?" Charles Hoequist, Jr. | Internet: hoequist@bnr.ca BNR, Inc. | voice: 919-991-8642 PO Box 13478 | fax: 919-991-8008 Research Triangle Park NC 27709-3478 USA The number you have dialed is imaginary. Please rotate your telephone ninety degrees and try again. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Indeed, directory assistance operators (in fact, all telco operators) get a tremendous amount of abuse in a day's time. As Ms. Murphy, my former next-door neighbor and retired IBT operator once told me, "I thought something was wrong if I hadn't been cussed out by at least two or three subscribers before noon each day ...". Murphy was the very first union steward for the operators in Chicago over a half century ago; back in the days when 'everyone knew' no one would ever organize "the Bell" ... too big, too large, it just can't be done ... Murphy helped do it and after some forty years in the service of Ma Bell she retired in the early 1960's. She said to me she often missed the subscribers cursing at her all day long. :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #2 **************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa19231; 4 Jan 94 7:21 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25031 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 4 Jan 1994 03:52:53 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30138 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 4 Jan 1994 03:52:25 -0600 Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 03:52:25 -0600 From: TELECOM Digest Message-Id: <199401040952.AA30138@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #3 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Jan 94 03:52:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 3 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson GDC V.FAST Modem Bulletin (Seng-Poh Lee) US Digital Cellular Standard (Weiyun Yu) Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones (John C. Fowler) CFP - ACM SIGCOMM'94 (Patrick Dowd) Cellular System in Guangzhou, Mainland China? (Laurence Chiu) Ludwig's Book on Viruses Forbidden in France (Jean-Bernard Condat) ISDN Cards for IBM PCs (Arie Markus) GSM-Phones From London (Sami Vainionpaa) GTE vs. Cellular One (Michael Judson) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: lee@gdc.com (Seng-Poh Lee) Subject: GDC V.FAST Modem Bulletin Date: Mon, 03 Jan 1994 17:31:32 EST Organization: General DataComm Ind. Inc., Middlebury, CT What follows is a bulletin from General DataComm regarding the availability of our V.FAST modem. For LITERATURE ONLY, please call 1-800-777-4005 (outside the US, call (203) 792-0542). For TECHNICAL or PRODUCT questions, you may either fax your queries to (203) 758-9129, or send e-mail to vfast@gdc.com. Please include a daytime phone number. Please mention that you heard about it in TELECOM Digest. ---------------------------------------------------- General DataComm, Inc. 1579 Straits Turnpike. , Middlebury, CT 06762-1299 INTERNET BULLETIN GDC ANNOUNCES V.FAST MODEM AVAILABILITY Middlebury, CT, December 30 -- General DataComm has just announced immediate availability of their new V.F 28.8 Series modems. These modems operate at full duplex speeds of 28.8 Kbps (Kilobits per second) in each direction, with compressed file speeds exceeding four times that rate. Currently shipping V.F 28.8 models are the DeskTop standalone modem and SpectraComm 7" high density rackmount version for central site installations. The DataComm V.F 28.8 standard rackmount model will be available in January. These modems are guaranteed to meet the new V.34 ITU-T recommendations as soon as it is ratified. Units purchased now will be upgraded, free, over the phone line. With 2- and 4-wire, synchronous and asynchronous, dial up and leased line operations, these may be considered universal modems. Containing the ITU-T V.21, V.22, V.22bis, V.32, V.32bis, V.34 and Bell 212A and 103 modulations and V.42/V.42bis error detection and correction with data compression, this modem covers speeds from 300 bps to 28.8 Kbps, with effective throughput up to 128 Kbps with data compression. V.fast - V.fastest! Currently there are few actual 28.8 Kbps modems in the market. Testing the DeskTop V.F 28.8 Series against two of these has shown GDC the clear winner in the speed race. From random, incompressible files, to data base and graphics files so common in LAN and multi-media applications, GDC bests the competition by as much as 100%. With over twice the speed in many applications, using lines that are typical of over 50% of the U.S. dial-up network, the results clearly indicate GDC modems provide the best high-speed solution. These tests are currently being confirmed by an independent testing laboratory. Speed Saves For modem users, this means that with graphics and database file transfers, they will be cutting their phone bill in half using GDC's modems over the other V.fast solutions, and saving significantly more over V.32bis or slower modems. Companies and individuals looking for high speed modems to meet their applications requirements, are sensitive to these cost issues. Buying the wrong modem could cost many times the price of the unit. In fact, it may be shown that, even if you were given a competitive modem at no cost, it would pay to purchase a GDC unit. The GDC V.F 28,8 Series may also be equipped with high speed interfaces - both ITU-T V.35, ITU-T V.24/V.28/ISO2593 and EIA/TIA 530-A, ITU-T V.10/V.11/V.24/ISO 2110 are available for international and domestic use. This is very important, since these interfaces may be required to actually achieve the inherent speeds available using these new modems. With approvals already received for more than 30 countries, and more on the way, the GDC V.F 28.8 should be considered the international modem of choice for multi-national concerns. FLASH Flash All GDC V.F 28.8 Series modems are currently shipping with FLASH memory, allowing feature enhancements to the modems to be implemented by upgrading the software electronically, rather than swapping PROM chips. This means that obsolescence is a thing of the past, and users will be able to keep their modems up-to-date by making a phone call and downloading code for: - invoking new features - implementing code enhancements - insuring compatibility with the V.34 standard - establishing connectivity with new software communication packages and other devices. Many of today's modems are based on modified V.32bis chip sets incorporating proprietary modulation firmware which cannot be upgraded to V.34 when the standard is ratified. Phrases like "V.fast technology", "V.32terbo", "V.fast Class" are commonly used to infer compliance with the V.fast recommendations. This may not, in fact, become a reality when the standard becomes available. GDC guarantees its modems can be upgraded to the V.34 standard via download. Competitive modems still have to physically update the hardware as well as the software when upgrading products. Loss of the use of the modem while transporting it to and from the manufacturer for upgrade, disruption of service while the service technician replaces the chip and tests it, and the costs of providing services during these times are typical costs associated with other modem updates for your prospect. "These costs are avoided using the new GDC software upgrade technology. With GDC, a phone call does it all." says Dick Drake, Director of Marketing for Transmission Products. In January, GDC will begin compliance testing with the proposed V.34 standard, insuring GDC will be ready to implement the changes necessary when the standard is ratified. In addition, there are a number of new features already in the works. These include: Automatic Dial Restoral (ADR) for backup of leased lines with dial circuits; Password and Security Callback; V.25bis serial dialing (sync and async); and Remote Configuration of modems from other locations. How Upgrades Work There are two characteristics built into the V.F 28.8 that allow upgrades to be achieved over the phone line. First is the ability of the hardware, in this case a universal communications platform, to change it's functionality based on the resident software provided. The second characteristic is the ability to download the modem-defining software by connecting to the GDC Bulletin Board (BBS). The new software containing the desired features and operational characteristics -- the modem personality -- for the upgrade are then loaded down to the internal FLASH memory of the V.F 28.8 modem. Since the modem has the capability of storing up to four custom configurations, along with four fixed pre-defined profiles, and up to ten customer-defined phone numbers, these are also saved so the customer retains all unique operational parameters during this upgrade process. Safety Concerns In addition to the approved modem standards, many modem customers are concerned with safety issues. The V.F 28.8 Series has passed UL safety tests for lightning protection (UL1459) and for flammability (UL94V0). And heat is not an issue. With less than six watts of power consumption, our V.fast modems produce much less heat than our competitors with 12 watts, or more. This translates into greater safety, reliability, and savings for the customer. Digital Impact In some cases, users may wish to use the new V.F 28.8 modems as a substitute for, or backup of, digital circuits. With effective throughput speeds exceeding 100 Kbps, applications abound: 1. The V.F 28.8 Series is ideally suited for backup of Switched 56 Kbps analog or 64 Kbps digital leased lines using the dial-up network. Speeds are now compatible with many LAN-to-LAN applications. This insures both reliability and cost efficiencies. 2. Many managers are taking a hard look at the costs of upgrading to an all-digital network. Some of the benefits they see by staying with high-speed modems are: a. Modems fit in existing networks, and can be incrementally added as required versus installing a whole new digital system. b. Modems provide the only universal connectivity worldwide. c. Installation, training and support are all minimized with modems versus having to retrain, re-equip, and re-educate the department when switching to new technology. d. Modem technology is inherently more cost effective. e. Most MIS managers are more "comfortable" with modem technology, and the GDC V.F 28.8 Series may be changed into a managed modem with minimum network disruption with a simple download. Equipment obsolescence is virtually eliminated. 3. Generic applications, using modems as just another design element, are appearing from non-traditional sources. Applications from medical (CAT scan data transfer), to multi-media (training and manual field updates) are appearing daily. Many of these, due to larger file sizes, require higher speeds and universal transport - ideal for the GDC V.F 28.8 Series modems. 4. Most large users have occasion to work overseas. Many are multi-national. The GDC V.F 28.8 Series is currently homologated (approved for use) in thirty countries. In most cases, GDC is the only game in town (and country). "It would be a shame for a user to get new V.fast modems for his U.S. offices and then find out that his overseas offices, where he spends big communications bucks, can't use all the available speed because they implemented a proprietary system with a modem not approved in this country." said Drake. General DataComm, Inc. is a leading provider of multimedia networks and telecommunications equipment worldwide. Based in Connecticut, GDC serves corporate customers and telephone operating companies throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia/New Zealand. ------------------------------ From: weiyun@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Weiyun Yu) Subject: US Digital Cellular Standard Organization: Information Services, Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia Date: Mon, 03 Jan 1994 00:35:12 GMT It has come to my attention that the digital cellular standards adopted by US carriers are not going to be compatible with what we have adopted in Australia, GSM. I am interested in finding out a bit more about the US systems but cant find any FAQ on the subject. My specific questions are: 1. What are the pro and cons of the US standards vs GSM. 2. Is there going to be some degree of compability encorporated into the 2 standards so that international roaming could be achieved. 3. What is the future of digital cellular? Is there going to be a third standard that can be used world wide? Does anyone know the answers? Dr Weiyun Yu "Why Me?" | Internet: weiyun@ucc.su.oz.au Dept of Surgery, Uni of Sydney, Australia | Voice: 61+2-692-3851 Personal opinions only... | Fax: 61+2-692-4887 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Jan 94 00:02 EST From: John C. Fowler <0003513813@mcimail.com> Subject: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones The following is from an interesting insert in my December telephone bill. A SPECIAL NOTICE TO OUR CUSTOMERS IN COLORADO: EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 1994, YOU WILL BE BILLED FOR CALLS YOU MAKE TO CERTAIN CELLULAR TELEPHONE NUMBERS. If the cellular phone you are calling begins with 1 + 579, you will be billed for the cellular airtime charges and also any long distance charges associated with the call when applicable. Like most other 1+ calls, there will be a charge for placing calls to these cellular 1+ numbers. The cost of the call will depend upon the cellular customer you call. (The charges for these calls are deter- mined by the cellular carriers, not by U.S. West.) If there are any questions about cellular airtime charges that appear on your bill, to the above prefix, please call the Customer Inquiry Center at 1-800-USW-BILL. A couple of comments: Colorado is one of those states where any non-local call requires that a 1 be dialed before the number. Currently, 1 + 7D can be used, but 1 + NPA + 7D will need to be used after February 27, 1994. Also, the use of the 579 prefix may not apply to other states. For example, my mother, who lives in Dixon, New Mexico, has a regular phone number on the 579 prefix there. I wonder what kinds of people will be using "caller-pays" cellular service. John C. Fowler, 3513813@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: dowd@acsu.buffalo.edu (Patrick Dowd) Subject: CFP - ACM SIGCOMM'94 Reply-To: dowd@eng.buffalo.edu Organization: State University of New York at Buffalo Date: Mon, 03 Jan 1994 14:46:32 GMT Call for Papers ACM SIGCOMM'94 CONFERENCE Communications Architectures, Protocols and Applications University College London London, UK August 31 to September 2, 1994 (Tutorials and Workshop, August 30) An international forum on communication network applications and technologies, architectures, protocols, and algorithms. Authors are invited to submit full papers concerned with both theory and practice. The areas of interest include, but are not limited to: -- Analysis and design of computer network architectures and algorithms, -- Innovative results in local area networks, -- Mixed-media networks, -- High-speed networks, routing and addressing, support for mobile hosts, -- Resource sharing in distributed systems, -- Network management, -- Distributed operating systems and databases, -- Protocol specification, verification, and analysis. A single-track, highly selective conference where successful submissions typically report results firmly substantiated by experiment, implementation, simulation, or mathematical analysis. Papers must be less than 20 double-spaced pages long, have an abstract of 100-150 words, and be original material that has not been previously published or be currently under review with another conference or journal. In addition to its high quality technical program, SIGCOMM '94 will offer tutorials by noted instructors such as Paul Green and Van Jacobson (tentative), and a workshop on distributed systems led by Derek McAuley. Important Dates: Paper submissions: 1 February 1994 Tutorial proposals: 1 March 1994 Notification of acceptance: 2 May 1994 Camera ready papers due: 9 June 1994 All submitted papers will be judged based on their quality and relevance through double-blind reviewing where the identities of the authors are withheld from the reviewers. Authors names should not appear on the paper. A cover letter is required that identifies the paper title and lists the name, affiliation, telephone number, email, and fax number of all authors. Authors of accepted papers need to sign an ACM copyright release form. The Proceedings will be published as a special issue of ACM SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review. The program committee will also select a few papers for possible publication in the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking. Submissions from North America should be sent to: Craig Partridge BBN 10 Moulton St Cambridge MA 02138 All other submissions should be sent to: Stephen Pink Swedish Institute of Computer Science Box 1263 S-164 28 Kista Sweden Five copies are required for paper submissions. Electronic submissions (uuencoded, compressed postscript) should be sent to each program chair. Authors should also e-mail the title, author names and abstract of their paper to each program chair and identify any special equipment that will be required during its presentation. Due to the high number of anticipated submissions, authors are encouraged to strictly adhere to the submission date. Student Paper Award: Papers submitted by students will enter a student-paper award contest. Among the accepted papers, a maximum of four outstanding papers will be awarded full conference registration and a travel grant of $500 US dollars. To be eligible the student must be the sole author, or the first author and primary contributor. A cover letter must identify the paper as a candidate for this competition. Mail and E-mail Addresses: General Chair Jon Crowcroft Department of Computer Science University College London London WC1E 6BT United Kingdom Phone: +44 71 380 7296 Fax: +44 71 387 1397 E-Mail: J.Crowcroft@cs.ucl.ac.uk Program Chairs Stephen Pink (Program Chair) Swedish Institute of Computer Science Box 1263 S-164 28 Kista Sweden Phone: +46 8 752 1559 Fax: +46 8 751 7230 E-mail: steve@sics.se Craig Partridge (Program Co-Chair for North America) BBN 10 Moulton St Cambridge MA 02138 Phone: +1 415 326 4541 E-mail: craig@bbn.com ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Cellular System in Guangzhou, Mainland China? Date: 03 Jan 1994 10:22:36 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access, California Reply-To: lchiu@crl.com I plan to travel to mainland China in the near future. I am hoping to be able to use a cellular phone in the area but from distant recollection I think they use GSM. I don't know of any US provider that uses GSM and hence would have no idea how to purchase a phone that uses that standard. Does anybody have any ideas on how to get one? Purchasing one in China would be exorbitant I would imagine. An an aside I think Hong Kong uses AMPS and with the massive amount of trade between Senzhen (sp?) -- the new economic zone in southern China, I wonder what system they use there? How would one roam between the two areas? Laurence Chiu | Walnut Creek, California Tel: 510-215-3730(wk) | Internet: lchiu@crl.com ------------------------------ From: cccf@altern.com (cccf) Subject: Ludwig's Book on Viruses Forbidden in France Date: Mon, 03 Jan 94 9:25:34 EST Translated in French language by Jean-Bernard Condat, Mark A. Ludwig's book "The Little Black Book of Computer Viruses" is actually available in all bookstores for 198 FF. The editor of this event is: Addison-Wesley France (41 rue de Turbigo, 75003 paris, France; Phone: +33 1 48879797, Fax: +33 1 48879799). Monday Dec. 27th, Addison-Wesley France received a legal pursuit to stop the diffusion of all issues of "Naissance d'un Virus" immediately. The judgment became definitive on Dec. 30th at 11:00 at the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris. Followed the increadible text, piece of humor :-) +++++++ ASSIGNATION EN REFERE D'HEURE EN HEURE devant Monsieur le President du Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris L'an mil neuf cent quatre vingt treize et le VINGT SEPT DECEMBRE A Dix Heures Cinquante Cinq minutes A LA DEMANDE DE : LA SOCIETE PRESSIMAGE SARL au capital de 250 000 francs - inscrite au RCS Paris B 332 127 828 dont le siege social est 19, rue Hegesippe-Moreau 75018 Paris agissant poursuites et diligences de ses representants legaux domicilies audit siege Ayant pour avocat Maitre Eric ANDRIEU, avocat associ{ demeurant a 75017 Paris - 22, rue Fortuny - Toque R 047 - Tel: 47637426 - Telecopie: 42272675 J'AI DONNE ASSIGNATION A : 1/ Monsieur Mark A. Ludwig domicilie aux editions Addison-Wesley France 41 rue de Turbigo - 75003 Paris 2/ LES EDITIONS ADDISON-WESLEY FRANCE prises en la personne de leurs dirigeants legaux domicilies audit siege 41 rue de Turbigo - 75003 PARIS 3/ LES EDITIONS BORDAS prises en la personne de leurs dirigeants legaux domicilies audit siege 17 rue Remy Dumoncel - 75014 PARIS D'avoir a comparaitre le TRENTE DECEMBRE 1993 a 11 HEURES a l'audience et par devant Monsieur le President du Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris, tenant l'audience des referes au Palais de Justice de 4 boulevard du Palais - 75001 PARIS Vous devrez comparaitre a cette audience ou vous y faire representer par un Avocat inscrit au Barreau. A defaut, vous vous exposeriez a ce revues editees par Pressimage est, au-dela de leur contenu editorial, la remise simultanee a titre de prime aux acheteurs des journaux de disquettes informatiques pouvant etre utilisees sur les micro-ordinateurs de chacun. 2/ Monsieur Mark A. Ludwig est unnfiance de la part de la clientele de Pressimage qui peut craindre, en utilisant les disquettes editees par la requerante, d'introduire un virus dans son propre systeme informatique. Au surplus, la diffusion de l'ouvrage litigieux et de son annexe cree un SOUS TOUTES RESERVES Pieces versees aux debats: - livre "Naissance d'un virus" - justificatifs des activites de Pressimage. -------------- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is quite interesting. Perhaps one of our readers versed in French will translate the above for me, and I'll run the English translation in a day or two. It is not that common for books to be banned in the United States. Generally the only time a book will be censored (or banned outright) in the USA is when the govern- ment feels very threatened by it. Two which come to mind are "The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence" and "The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia". Both were written by former operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency when George Bush was in charge of that agency. In both instances the government convinced a court that publication/distribution of the book would be quite harmful to the government's interests. When the books were finally allowed to be published they contained large amounts of blank space -- entire pages were completely blank in places -- as the authors and publishers attempted to comply with the court order while still printing *something*. When reading the books, I'd be on a page and halfway through a paragraph; the printed text would stop and resume perhaps an inch or two down the page with a note in the middle saying the text originally planned to appear there was removed by court order. In one section, the text stopped halfway down the page, and about a dozen completely blank pages followed with the text resuming about two- thirds of the way through the thirteenth page with the same notation on each of the blank pages. The books were deliberatly published that way with the gaping holes in the text throughout to show the public the large amount of stuff the government had censored. I believe the authors remain under government-imposed silence even today, over two decades after the books were written. Is there anyone in this room old enough to remember when {Ramparts Magazine} published AT&T's calling card check-digit secrets back in the middle 1960's? AT&T went to court at the time of publication and got an order banning that issue of the magazine. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Jan 94 15:12:39 IST From: Arie Markus Subject: ISDN Cards For IBM PCs Hi, I would like to know if there are any ISDN cards for the IBM PCs yet. Please reply via direct mail as I am not subscribed. Any help would be appreciated. Arie Markus (VE3JLM/4X6JO) ------------------------------ Reply-To: comp.dcom.telecom@mpoli.fi Subject: GSM-Phones From London From: sami.vainionpaa@mpoli.fi (Sami Vainionpaa) Date: Mon, 03 Jan 94 03:14:00 +0200 Organization: Metropoli, Finland Hi, I live in Finland and I'm going to travel to London in the beginning of next year and I found out that GSM-telephones are quite cheap there (at least cheaper than in Finland) ;) But I don't know where to buy it. So I would appreciate to get all kinds of information (addresses, prices, tel. numbers, FAX-numbers, etc.) I am interested in knowing if GSM-phones have EUR-certifications; that proves they are European made. Especially interested in marks like: Ascom Crystal, Ericsson GH 197, Nokia 1011. ------------------------------ From: judson@crl.com (Michael Judson) Subject: GTE vs. Cellular One Date: 3 Jan 1994 23:47:43 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] Does anybody have any comments regarding which cellular service is better, GTE or Cellular One? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: *Which* Cellular One and *which* GTE in *which* market area? Judging from the site where you logged in, it is likely you are referring to the Bay Area in California, but that might not be your physical location. 'Cellular One' is a trademark name for numerous carriers on the 'A' side; GTE has several telephone operating companies. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #3 **************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa27912; 4 Jan 94 23:38 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22625 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 4 Jan 1994 20:12:22 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08331 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 4 Jan 1994 20:11:51 -0600 Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 20:11:51 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401050211.AA08331@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #4 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Jan 94 20:10:30 CST Volume 14 : Issue 4 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Sprint Response to MCI Announcement (John D. Gretzinger) Magazine Telemarketers From (Heck) (Andrew C. Green) Book Review: "Kermit: a File Transfer Protocol" by Da Cruz (Rob Slade) Need Help Wiring OLD Extension Phone to Modern System (Rob Levandowski) Old AT&T/Wsetern Electric Documents (George Thurman) TasCom Managers, etc. Sought (Scott Sanbeg) NBC Computer Series (Barry Mishkind) SWBMS to Reduce Roam Rates! (Mark W. Earle) Fundraising/Saving Program (Steve Freedkin) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: JOHN.D.GRETZINGER@sprint.sprint.com Date: 4 Jan 94 19:18:24-0500 Subject: Sprint Response to MCI Announcement Passed along for your enjoyment. John D. Gretzinger Sprint doesn't speak for me, and I don't speak for them. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Forwarded message from PC SprintMail: STATEMENT FROM WILLIAM T. ESREY, SPRINT CHAIRMAN & CEO IN RESPONSE TO MCI "NETWORK CATCH-UP" ANNOUNCEMENT "Sprint is not at all surprised by MCI's network catch-up announcement. More than a year ago, Sprint announced its broadband network plans to deploy SONET and ATM. We were the first to offer commercial ATM service in August 1993. We continue to have the most modern network and remain as the only 100 percent digital, fiber-optic long distance carrier. "MCI is very good at packaging announcements that make mountains out of molehills. Sprint hopes the public will take this latest ploy for what it is -- a slick admission of being behind in terms of technology deployment. "On the other hand, MCI's foray into local access has some merit. Sprint long has endorsed expanded local competition and believes MCI's efforts may be one in a long series of steps necessary before local competition will exist. Network Upgrades "We agree with MCI that it's going to take a lot of people working together to build the information superhighway. Sprint welcomes MCI and others aboard this significant effort. "An important first step in the investment in the National Information Infrastructure is the development and expansion of the network. "We announced our strategic vision for our advanced network a year and a half ago and are the only carrier implementing a broadband data strategy. We were also the first carrier to announce plans for SONET, which we revealed over a year ago. Since that time, we have moved from opening up pipes, which is the basis of today's announcement, to the many exciting applications that are driving the National Information Infrastructure concept. "The examples are numerous. For example, our InterNet capabilities are unrivaled. Sprint offers the most widespread Internet connectivity through SprintLink(R) network -- the first and only TCP/IP network service for commercial and government Internet users to be offered by a carrier. This service has expanded to offer international connections and forms the core of the global Internet, with two-thirds of the international Internet traffic to and from the United States being carried on SprintLink. This service originated from a cooperative agreement between Sprint and the National Science Foundation to provide international InterNet connections to the domestic InterNet. "Sprint has been and continues to be the leader in introducing leading edge technologies, which are the 'building blocks' of the information superhighway, to the marketplace. We led the industry by being the first major long distance company to deploy frame relay, and we have more frame relay customers than any of our competitors. We were also the first to deploy ATM service and our first customer turned up service last year. "Our leadership in this key technology has been widely recognized -- most recently by the government by being selected to provide ESNet for the Department of Energy and NASA -- because of our unique ability to offer ATM. "That recognition as the technology leader in ATM extends to the telecom industry, as well as the academic and government communities, by being the only company selected to provide ATM for the National Information Infrastructure Testbed. NIIT is a consortium of business, government and academic leaders working together to speed the delivery of the information highway. "Our ATM leadership, in conjunction with our 1993 deployment of SONET, will ensure that Sprint continues to build on its reputation as the advanced networking leader. Local Access "The virtual monopoly that exists today in local access is troublesome for the long distance industry. Currently, more than 99 percent of long distance traffic originates and terminates over facilities owned by local telephone companies, principally the Regional Bell Operating Companies. Long distance competitors are at the mercy of local telcos, since they are the only way to reach our customers. Today, about 45 percent of the cost to carry a long distance call is a direct payment to the local telephone company for the 'last mile' connection. "Sprint has been an advocate of expanded competition in local access primarily because of the excessive cost of access charged by the RBOCs in their respective operating areas. "MCI's plan to build local access networks in major metropolitan areas could be another step toward local competition. Competition will not happen overnight, however. It took more than 15 years of constant litigation and ultimately the breakup of the Bell System before competing carriers were able to establish a meaningful presence in long distance. The local monopolies of the RBOCs are at least as strong as the monopoly enjoyed by Bell in long distance prior to divestiture. "MCI's plans, no matter how grand, should be viewed much the same as the plans for local access that have been announced by cable television, cellular and PCS providers -- positively, but without expectations of near-term impact. "The issue of RBOC entry into the interexchange market does not change with MCI's plans. True competition for local access is still many years away. Until there is actual and effective competition in the local loop and the bottleneck is broken, the RBOCs should not be allowed to act as both competitors and virtual sole source access providers to long distance carriers. When the means and opportunity for the RBOCs to discriminate against long distance competitors is lifted through competitive local access, then, and only then, should the restrictions on the Bell companies be lifted." Jan. 4, 1994 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 10:33:40 CST From: "Andrew C. Green" Subject: Magazine Telemarketers From (Heck) As a member of what are apparently some very popular demographic categories, I get a constant stream of telemarketing calls. Most are semi-intelligent types who drop the effort when we decline the offer, but recently we've had a string of bozos all originating from one source, and before I go on the attack, I thought I'd poll the forum here for anyone else who's had the same experience. I recently renewed my subscription to "Car and Driver" magazine, a publication boasting circulation of something like 1.1 million, if memory serves. At about the same time, I received a call from a true whacko who thanked me for resubscribing to C&D, then offered me one of those multi-magazine subscriptions where they quote you a low weekly rate (failing to mention that the monthly charge is higher than individual subscriptions direct from the actual publishers), plus a set of Ginsu steak knives. Yes, really. He got insulting when I pointed out that his math didn't add up and that Car and Driver probably did not appreciate his trying to sell "Road and Track" subscriptions from their mailing list. Last night I got another call from a girl who also thanked me for my C&D subscription, then tried desperately to foist a 16.9% Visa card at me. No, thank you, said I. "But it's pre-approved!" she shrieked, apparently not aware that gainfully-employed people get those things all the time. ;-) Not _two_ _hours_ later, an elderly lady from "DialAmerica Marketing" called. You guessed it: she thanked me for my Car & Driver subscription, and would I like to extend it at the 1993 rate? She disavowed any knowledge of the preceding Froot Loops, which I sort of believed, as it appears that Car & Driver has painted my phone number on an expressway overpass somewhere, and promised to relocate my number to their "Do Not Call" list. Nevertheless, this magazine has far surpassed all others on my Telemarketing Annoyance scale, and before I start complaining to the magazine, I'd be interested in hearing from any other TELECOM Digest/Car and Driver subscribers who have experienced the same thing. E-mail is fine; I'll submit any interesting followup news in the future. Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610-3498 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jan 94 14:59 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Kermit: a File Transfer Protocol" by Da Cruz BKKERMIT.RVW 931123 Digital Press PO Box 3027 One Burlington Woods Drive Burlington, MA 01803-9593 800-DIGITAL (800-344-4825) "Kermit: a File Transfer Protocol", da Cruz, 1987 KERMIT@CUVMA.BITNET fdc@watsun.cc.columbia.edu It may be that Kermit is popular because it is a robust file transfer protocol suitable for almost any line or network conditions. It may be that Kermit is popular because it is available for pretty much any computer you can name (and a bunch that you can't). It may be that Kermit is popular because it is free. Or, it may be that Kermit is popular because of the (written) communications skills of Christine Gianone and Frank da Cruz. As Kermit is both protocol and communications program, so this book is an introduction to computer communications, protocol specification, introduction to the Kermit implementations and programmers' reference guide, all rolled into one. An ambitious task, but one handled with grace and skill, in this instance. Part one gives us the basics of the development of Kermit and of data communications from the user's perspective. This confirms that, yes, the name was inspired by the Jim Henson muppet character (or, more exactly, by a Muppets wall calendar). One hopes that Jim Henson approves of this memorial. Chapter two does not get into exhaustive detail on computer (mostly PC) communications, but does cover the fundamental steps and needs with more brevity, completeness and wit than one sees in many works intended for the mass market. (I am sorry to see the confusion of "baud" and "bits per second", although the two terms are correctly defined in the glossary.) Part two gives us two primers; one on computers and data files, and the other on data communications. The section is well named. Both chapters are easily understood by the novice and provide the minimum necessary information to proceed from. Excellent pieces, both of them. Part three is an introduction to using Kermit. Chapter five describes a set of the most commonly used commands, including an introduction to the simplest login scripts. Chapter six discusses common problems while seven deals with the possibly thorny issue of getting Kermit into your machine in the first place. Included in this last chapter is a BASIC source code program for a "read only" Kermit protocol for downloading files. Part four is a guide to writing a Kermit implementation. Quite a complete guide: not only does it give you the protocol specification (which is still *the* protocol specification) but also optional features, advanced options and even tips on programming style. Appendices give you the bulk of the Kermit source code (in C), a command summary, packet summary, the ASCII character set and a discussion of binary, octal and hexadecimal numbers and notation. If you want to build your own implementation of Kermit, this is the book for you. If you care nothing for programming, and have only bought your computer in order to "get online", this is the book for you, too. (Be sure to get "Using MS-DOS Kermit," too.) (cf. BKUMSKMT.RVW) For those in between, this is an excellent resource to have around to answer those "how does work?" type questions. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKKERMIT.RVW 931123 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact: rulag@decus.ca ------------------------------ From: rlvd_cif@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Rob Levandowski) Subject: Need Help Wiring OLD Extension Phone to Modern System Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York Date: Tue, 4 Jan 94 22:38:20 GMT Hi! I have an antique extension phone that I'd like to connect to my phone system. It's a small black desk set, with no dial, but there is a blank for one. On the back, below the hook, is stamped the legend "D1 USA". Inside, "K-7" is stamped into the metal and "IV 37" is printed in red paint. The handset is labelled "Western Electric [tm etc] E1". The cord from handset to base is fabric-sheathed, and contains three rubber-sheathed wires: red, white, and black. Inside, the hook operates two leaf switches. The black and white wires are each attached to just one of the two leaf switches; i.e., black to one switch, white to the other. The red wire is attached to a terminal by itself. The line cord is missing; the empty terminals on the switches are marked for green (GN) and yellow (Y) wire. I don't want to add a ringer or a dial; I'd simply like to be able to use this phone to answer a call when I hear another phone ringing. If anyone can tell me what I need to do to connect this to a modern phone system, I'd sure appreciate it -- and so would my mother! :) Please cc: replies to macwhiz@cif.rochester.edu; I am on vacation and won't be reading news often, but email will get forwarded to someplace I can reach it! :) Rob Levandowski Computer Interest Floor associate / University of Rochester macwhiz@cif.rochester.edu ------------------------------ From: gst@gagme.wwa.com (George Thurman) Subject: Old AT&T/Wsetern Electric Documents Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 05:37:18 CST Here is a message I saw on Fidonet that I thought TELECOM Digest readers would find of interest. *********************** Msg#:14544 *SHORTWAVE* 07-25-93 21:37:00 From: DON KIMBERLIN To: ALL Subj: AT&T INFO ON-LINE It's fairly often that someone comes across an old bit of Western Electric-made equipment from the heyday of the Olde Bell System, and lacks the needed drawings or instructions to try to make use of it. Perhaps the most common old items we hear people asking about are the old 1A Key Telephone Systems using 26-pair cable to hook the telephone sets up to their common equipment cabinets in a wide variety of configurations. Or, perhaps there are items of how things like managing trouble reports in telecommunications systems are handled, or what _are_ all those abbreviations and acronyms used by telephone companies? Or, perhaps you even need documentation for something newer, like a 3B2 minicomputer or a System 75 or 85 PBX ... or maybe you have a strange "data set" with a nomenclature like 201C or 2048, and would like to know if you can make use of it. There _is_ a repository of much of this information that's often handed down verbally or misquoted from memory. Today's name for it is the AT&T Customer Information Center, and it's located in Indianapolis, Indiana. You can telephone (800) 432-6600 or (317) 322-6484 to get telephone assistance from the AT&T CIC staff, and place orders with them for publications to help you, and there's now an on-line searchable link to their catalog, so you can browse as you will at any hour of the day or night through all their many years of material. Here's some text from their announcement of the AT&T CIC on-line offering: "INTRODUCING THE MOST COMPLETE CATALOG OF AT&T DOCUMENTS AT&T's Customer Information Center (CIC) now offers a free on-line catalog where you can locate and order from over 380,000 documents using your PC terminal. Find documents using key word, title, subject or document number. Then use the on-line order form for simple and quick service! Access the CIC database using the directions below, then simply follow the prompts: AT&T Datakit Users Dial-Up Users At the "destination" prompt, enter: Telephone Sue Rea at 426/813/nik1.telnet..sunids 317-322-6491 for instructions and a logon ID and password. THROUGH THE CIC CATALOG YOU CAN LOCATE: o AT&T Plant and Engineering Practices o Product Manuals o User Guides o Installation and Service Manuals o Books o Brochures o Catalogs o Product Bulletins o Handbooks o Newsletters o Training Materials o Engineering Drawings o Technical Bulletins o Product Specifications o Administrative Forms o Employee Benefit Literature o International Telephone Directories Questions regarding the CIC catalog should be directed to Brenda Oeff at 317-322-6626." Origin: Borderline! BBS Kannapolis,N.C. (704) 938-6207 (1:379 (1:379/37.0) ----------------- GEORGE S. THURMAN (312) 509-6308 gst@wwa.com ------------------------------ From: ssanbeg@hebron.connected.com (Scott Sanbeg) Subject: TasCom Managers, etc. Sought Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 14:40:24 -0800 Organization: Connected INC -- Internet Services Provider Hello all, We are using two TasCOM systems to provide call-center services to our client base. I am searching for other users/managers of this system, and any info on user groups, periodicals, internals and so forth on the machine. Please email if interested. Scott Sanbeg Computer Systems Engineer, Seattle, WA ssanbeg@hebron.connected.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Jan 94 10:52 MST From: barry@coyote.datalog.com (barry mishkind) Subject: NBC Computer Series Last week NBC did a series of reports on the "Information Superhighway." A couple of things I noticed: 1. The address for the broadcast is nightly@nbc.com 2. During the report on voice recognition, the filming was done at a 'state-of-the-art voice recognition company'. The man demonstrating the system was dictating something about sending information " ... on voice mail ..." Sure ... the crt printed out " ... envoy smell". Really. Do you suppose this was a poke at the State Department? Barry ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Jan 94 17:39 EST From: Mark W. Earle <0006127039@mcimail.com> Subject: SWBMS to Reduce Roam Rates! Enclosed with my cellular bill from Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, Corpus Christi, TX was the usual glossy newsletter. Of interest: Now it is more convenient and more economical to take your cellular phone with you when you're traveling. SWBMS is working iwth other cellular companies to give you lower roaming rates in over 350 markets, or approximately 25% of all cellular markets. Beginning in December, cellular companies will begin lowering roaming rates in two ways. First, the daily charges will be eliminated and second, the per minute rate will be reduced. You will save money based on the amount of roaming that you do. For example, if you travel to a market where the daily charge is $3/day and .75/min, you'll receive a tremendous savings. (Note: I'd be happy while roaming, with zero daily fee and any airtime rate < $1/min. This looks pretty good) SWBMS customers currently enjoy reduced roaming rates throughout Texas. When you are traveling in the Lone Star Cellular Network, you already pay a reduced rate of only .50/min. The LSCN is an exclusive service of SWBMS (Note: In GTE cities, Houston and Austin, the rate charged by GTE is .40/min. Although "exclusive" to SWBMS, Texas GTE MobilNet customers are also part of the LSCN for billing purposes when they roam in SWBMS cities. mwe) Through these agreements, you will enjoy the added benefit of using your cellular phone while traveling (Cynical note: We'll make even more monies!) and you will see what an added value a cellular phone can be. And you can be sure SWBMS will continue to lead the way by providing even better service to our coustomers. (OK, when is seamless roaming for the 'B' side coming? When will my features, forwarding, voice mail, etc. work while I'm roaming?) (Note: Any month there is roaming billed, a $3 "roamer admin fee" is added to the bill. With GTE, it's cheaper than roaming in SWBMS nearby systems, strangely. No list of cities comprising the 350 markets was provided). Typos my own: SWBMS always spelled out, I abbreviated it. Likewise LSCN. mwearle@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 23:56:14 -0800 From: Steve Freedkin Subject: Fundraising/Saving Program MONEY SAVING & RAISING OPPORTUNITY Hello, and happy new year! -- I want to let you know about an opportunity for organizations and individuals to save 10% on all their long-distance calling, and organizations to raise money with minimal cost and no obligation. The deregulation of long-distance telephone service created many opportunities, including this one, which should be of interest to those who follow telecommunications developments. | * GUARANTEED! 10% SAVINGS ON ALL LONG-DISTANCE CALLS | | * 5% OF YOUR CALLING BENEFITS NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION | I used to be director of a local nonprofit peace resource center that raised money through a service that saved our constituents money *and* generated royalties for us. The program is a long-distance telephone service that was started in 1990 to benefit nonprofits. The company, Affinity Fund, gives each customer rates *guaranteed* to be below whatever the person is currently paying for long distance, and at the same time gives the nonprofit that signs up the customer a 5-percent royalty on that person's long-distance usage every month. (Affinity arranges for the actual service to be provided by one of the nation's foremost long-distance carriers, so there's no difference in service quality.) Groups that are raising money this way now include schools, Central America support groups, community radio stations, Sister Cities programs, local and national peace groups (War Resisters League is one), nonprofit community newspapers and media services, etc. If you'd like information about Affinity please contact me and I'll pass it along. Or, please pass this note on to the appropriate person. Let me know whether you're interested as a customer who'd like to save 10% on all your long-distance; representing a nonprofit that might like to raise money using this method; or both. | If you *aren't* interested please ignore | | this message, and accept my best wishes. | Thanks for your attention, and have a safe and prosperous 1994! Peace, Steve Freedkin Email: sfreedkin@igc.apc.org P.O. Box 91817 Phone: 805/682-9986 Santa Barbara, Recorded message (3 minutes): 805/569-0983 CA 93190-1817 Explains Affinity Fund, Available 24 hours [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I'm happy to pass along Steve's message even though as all regular readers here know, I do the very same thing myself where this Digest is concerned. Orange Calling Card royalties along with Telepassport royalties help in a small way to offset the cost of producing this Digest each day. The 'affinity' method of selling long distance phone service is an approach which has helped many non-profit organizations in the past three years since it was conceived. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #4 **************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa28387; 5 Jan 94 1:15 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26272 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 4 Jan 1994 21:31:33 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17879 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 4 Jan 1994 21:31:00 -0600 Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 21:31:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401050331.AA17879@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #5 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Jan 94 21:31:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 5 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Motorola Cellular Phone Programming (Mark Crispin) CFP: Home, Informatics, Tele ... Intl. Conference June 94 (Kresten Bjerg) Bandwidth to Russia Wanted (Alex Turkenich) Excel LD Provider: Yea or Nay? (Dave Read) Info on Cellular One NACP (Colin Tuttle) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 04 Jan 1994 16:35:08 PST From: Mark Crispin Subject: Motorola Cellular Phone Programming Here is a documentation file I wrote: Motorola Digital Personal Communicator secrets revealed!! INTRODUCTION AND RELIGIOUS STATEMENT The purpose of this document is to enable the hacker who wants to know everything about his DPC cellular telephone. It is based upon the belief that the bad guys already know this information, so keeping it secret doesn't do any good except to annoy those of us who want to know *everything* about our phones. Some of this information only applies to certain models, or varies from model to model. I entered the information for the model of DPC which I have. If you have a different model, either figure it out on your own or get ahold of the Motorola documentation and look it up there. Have fun with this information, but don't try to use it for illegal activity (fraud, harassment, illegal transmission). The cellular companies and the FCC are becoming quite aggressive (and skilled) at tracking such activity down. At best, your phone's ESN will be blacklisted nationwide; at worst, you could face federal criminal charges. The bad guys use stolen phones or phones with altered ESNs, and either toss the phone or alter the ESN after a day or so of misuse. This hole will be closed upon the completion of a North American ESN database which the cellular companies are busily setting up. On the other hand, feel perfectly free to tell a new cellular company (e.g. when you move to a new city) to buzz off when they want to charge you $25 to reprogram your phone. Tell them just to give you the various details of programming information you need (system ID, telephone number, station class mark, access overload class, group ID, paging channel, MIN mark, and local use mark) and do it yourself and save $25. Even better, if you decide to get an evaluation account with the other carrier, you can program your dual NAM without letting the new or old carriers know too much about your other account. [If you've ever dealt with the customer service people at the carrier you know why this is desirable ...] Remember, it's your phone; you own it (even *if* the cellular carrier puts its name on it). You can do anything with it that you damn well please, as long as you don't use it to transmit in an unauthorized fashion or attempt to place fraudulent calls. I pay for every call I make; you should too. USER MODE COMMANDS PWR toggle power on/off unlock phone (nnn = unlock code) CLR erase last digit (hold to clear all) 1 (held down) dial number in location 01 SND place call nn SND place call from memory nn SND redial attempt for next four minutes SND switch hook toggle during a call END terminate call or mode VOL adjust earpiece volume STO nn store in memory nn RCL nn recall from memory nn (*/# to scroll) RCL nn RCL SND tone dial from memory nn RCL 00 view last number called RCL SND continue to next after pause in dialing sequence RCL * system type selection (* to scroll, STO to select, END to exit): Std A B non-wireline first, then wireline (home non-wireline) Std B A wireline first, then non-wireline (home wireline) SCAn A B non-wireline first, then wireline (home wireline) SCAn B A wireline first, then non-wireline (home non-wireline) Home home only SCAn A non-wireline only SCAn B wireline only RCL # view own phone number RCL # STO change to alternate phone number (dual NAM feature) RCL # # view individual call timer RCL # # # view resettable call timer RCL # # # # view cumulative call timer FCN VOL adjust ringer volume FCN SND insert pause in dialing sequence FCN RCL nn insert tone dial from memory nn in dialing sequence FCN 0 1 STO enable call restriction (only memory 01-10 permitted) FCN 0 4 STO disable call restriction FCN 0 7 CLR reset resettable call timer FCN 0 9 RCL view non-default status (*/# to scroll, END to exit) SiG oFF signal strength meter disabled AnSWer automatic answer enabled AUtoLoc automatic local enabled Emr OFF emergency dialing disabled vOX VOX mode enabled L dtMF Long-tone DTMF enabled LEvEL 1 call restriction enabled SCAn A B non-wireline first, then wireline (home wireline) SCAn B A wireline first, then non-wireline (home non-wireline) Home home only SCAn A non-wireline only SCAn B wireline only FCN 0 RCL display unlock code FCN 0 STO change lock code FCN 0 RCL program phone (* to scroll, # to exit, SND during entry number display to save changes) WARNING: if the phone is reprogrammed too many times, programming will be disabled. The only way to fix this is to completely wipe out the memory with 32# in Test Mode. 01 System ID 02 Area Code 03 Telephone Number 04 Station Class Mark 05 Access Overload Class 06 Group ID Mark 07 Security Code 08 Unlock Code 09 Initial Paging Channel (0333 for A, 0334 for B) 10 Option Programming Bits (default 011100) 100000 Internal Speaker Disable 010000 Local Use enable (responds to local control orders) 001000 MIN Mark enable (0 = area code always sent) NOT CHANGEABLE IN CURRENT MODELS 000100 Auto Recall enable (speed dial from memory) 000010 Second Telephone Number Enable 000001 Diversity enable (dual antennas) 11 Option Programming Bits (default 11110) 10000 Failed Page Indicator Disable (0 = user told about failed inbound calls due to weak signal) 01000 Motorola Enhanced Scan enable 00100 Long Tone DTMF enable 00010 Transportable Internal Ringer/Speaker enable 00001 Eight Hour Timeout disable (0 = phone shuts down after 8 hours) 12 start of information for second phone number (steps 07, 08, and 11 are skipped) FCN 1 view features (*/# to scroll, END to exit): _ SiGnAL OFF signal strength meter enabled o SiGnAL OFF signal strength meter disabled _ AnSWr AUTO automatic answer disabled o AnSWr AUTO automatic answer enabled _ AUTO LOC automatic lock disabled o AUTO LOC automatic lock enabled _ EMrCY OFF energency dialing enabled o EMrCY OFF energency dialing disabled _ vOX MOdE VOX mode disabled o vOX MOdE VOX mode enabled _ LOnG dtMF Long-tone DTMF disabled o LOnG dtMF Long-tone DTMF enabled FCN 2 ??? I don't know what, if anything, this does FCN 3 ??? I don't know what, if anything, this does FCN 4 battery meter FCN 5 lock phone FCN 6 mute toggle FCN 7 ??? I don't know what, if anything, this does FCN 8 ??? I don't know what, if anything, this does FCN 9 ??? I don't know what, if anything, this does TEST MODE COMMANDS Shorting the middle pin of the battery connector puts the phone in test mode upon power up. Unlock the phone first if necessary. It starts out in Status Display Level. The display will alternately flash two values: xxx yyy xxx = channel, yyy = RSSI (signal strength) abcdefg a (D)SAT (supervisory audio tone): 0 5970 Hz 1 6000 Hz 2 6030 Hz 3 No SAT 0 - 6 DSAT vector 7 No DSAT b TX (1 = on) c Signalling Tone (1 = on) d Power Level (0-7) e Control Channel (1 = on) f RX Audio (1 = off) g TX Audio (1 = off) Pushing the # key will put the telephone in Servicing Level. The display will be US '. This can be done without unlocking it. WARNING!!! Some of these commands will cause the phone to transmit. This may get your cellular phone company annoyed at you. Of greater concern is the fact that doing so is *illegal* under federal law and can get the FCC breathing down your neck. ``Verbum sat sapenti...'' Servicing Level commands are: 01# Restart (re-enter DC power start-up routine) 02# Display Current Telephone Status (non alternating version of Status Display) 04# Initialize Telephone to Standard Default Conditions 05# TX Carrier On 06# TX Carrier Off 07# RX Audio Off (mute receiver audio) 08# RX Audio On 09# TX Audio Off 10# TX Audio On 11 # Set Transceived to specified Channel 12 # Set Power Step (0 = maximum, 7 = minimum) 13# Power Off 14# 10 KHz Signaling Tone on 15# 10 KHz Signaling Tone off 16# Setup (transmits a five word RECC message) 17# Voice (transmits a two word RECC message) 18# C-SCAN (allow entry of as many as 5 negative SIDs for each NAM) 19# Display Software Version Number 25 # SAT On (value is SAT tone number, 0-2) 26# SAT Off 27# Transmit Data (transmits continuous control channel data) # terminates 32# Clear the telephone. This may be necessary to reprogram the telephone after too much reprogramming. The following data is erased: System Registration, *all* timers, repertory memory, all user programmable features, last number dialed, directory. This can take up to three minutes, wait until an apostrophe shows on the display. 33 # Turn on DTMF for indicated key (0-9, *, #) 34# Turn DTMF off 35 # Set Audio Path 1 Speaker 2 Alert 3 Handset 4 Mute 5 External Telephone 6 External Handset 36# Scan (TDMA only) 38# Display ESN (Electronic Serial Number) one byte at a time (* to scroll, # to exit) 43# Disable Diversity (use R antenna) 44# Disable Diversity (use T/R antenna) 45# Display RSSI (signal strength) as 3-digit number 46# Display Cumulative Call Timer 47 # Set RX Audio Level (0 = lowest, 7 = highest) 48# Side Tone On 49# Side Tone Off 55# Test Mode Programming (* to scroll, # to exit without making changes) 01 System ID 02 A Option Byte (default 101xx1x1) 10000000 Local Use enable 01000000 Preferred System (1 = A, 0 = B) 00100000 End-to-End Signaling enabled 00010000 unused 00001000 Repertory Memory NOT CHANGEABLE 00000100 Auxillary Alert enabled 00000010 unused 00000001 MIN Mark enabled NOT CHANGEABLE 03 Telephone Number 04 Station Class Mark 05 Access Overload Class 06 Group ID Mark 07 Security Code 08 Unlock Code 09 Service Level 001 memory dialing 01-10 only 002 memory dialing only (no keypad, no speed dial) 003 keypad dialing only (no memory) 004 no call restrictions 005 seven-digit dialing only 006 full dialing, but no memory changing 007 memory dialing only 10 B Option byte (default xxx00100) 10000000 unused 01000000 unused 00100000 unused 00010000 Extended Field enable (not used in NA) 00001000 Single System Scan enable 00000100 Auto Recall enable (speed dial) 00000010 Disable Service Level setting 00000001 Lock Code Disable 11 C Option byte (default 0000000) 10000000 User NAM Programmability disable 01000000 2nd Number Registration enable 00100000 unused 00010000 Auto Redial disable 00001000 Internal Speaker Disable 00000100 Dual IMTS/Cellular enable 00000010 Selectable System disable 00000001 Dual Antenna Enable 12 Initial Paging Channel (0333 for A, 0334 for B) 13 Initial Paging Channel for System A (0333) 14 Initial Paging Channel for System B (0334) 15 Number of Dedicated Paging Channels (021 in NA) 16 D Option byte (default 0011000x) 10000000 Motorola Enhanced Scan enable 01000000 Cellular Connection (0 = SERIES II) 00100000 Long Tone DTMF 00010000 Transportable Internal Ringer/Speaker 00001000 Eight Hour Timeout disable 00000100 not used 00000010 Failed Page Indicator disable 00000001 Portable Scan (DO NOT CHANGE) Entering a * after 16 reprograms the phone 57 # Call Processing Mode 0 AMPS 1 NAMPS 5 TDMA signaling 6 TDMA signaling with loopback 7 TDMA signaling with loopback voice 8 TDMA signaling with loopback FACCH after decoding 9 TDMA forced synchronization 58# Compander On (audio compressor and expander) 59# Compander Off 61# ESN transfer 62# Turn On Ringer Audio Path 63# Turn Off Ringer Audio Path 66# Identify Transfer 68# Display FLEX and Model Information 69# used with identify transfer ------------------------------ From: kresten@vax.psl.ku.dk (Kresten Bjerg) Subject: CFP: Home, Informatics, Tele... Intl. Conference, June 94 Organization: IFIP WG 9.3 Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 11:56:48 GMT CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS - CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS A cross-disciplinary international conference HOME-ORIENTED INFORMATICS, TELEMATICS & AUTOMATION From 'State of the Art' through 'Prospects' and 'Blueprints' to 'Implementation' organized by IFIP Working Group 9.3 in cooperation with the University of Copenhagen University of Copenhagen, Denmark June 27 - July 1, 1994 BACKGROUND The home offers a great potential for new automation, information and communication technologies and related services. A wide array of innovations are already under way, with many more to come. They will transform the home and everyday life in the emerging information society. They will condition how private households will be enabled to function in changing social, economic and political structures. AIMS AND SCOPE The conference will assess and conceptualize perspectives and options, which attach to developments of domestic informatics, telematics and automation across the levels of - consumer hard- and software, - network infrastructures - storage & distribution media, - teleservices and - socio-cultural & economic structures. How can these new technologies - seen together - be used to empower consumers and private households? How can both users and suppliers get the optimal benefits from the possible new technologies? - and with which global impact? Can these technologies contribute to the emergence of a new home concept, an "Oikos", where the private household can reestablish itself in an experienced way as a living and production centre, embedded in and interacting with a larger community? Addressing such questions requires a multi-disciplinary approach. Therefore the conference aims to bring together experts from many fields and disciplines. Researchers and practitioners, designers and users, policy makers and industrialists, each with new knowledge and new questions from their experience of recent and expected development. The conference will not only serve as a forum to present and exchange experience, results of research and ideas, but also to explore and discuss strategic approaches and alliances for product research and development, and for prototyping and field experiments. MAJOR THEMES * The social construction of new domestic technologies. * Bridging between the various disciplinary approaches. * The changing position and importance of households in the new social and economic structure of the information and communication society. * Strategies for creating professional and public awareness of the converging potentials and implications of constructive innovations for everyday life and for social, cultural, educational, health, energy, and economic policies. * Ways of organizing relations between research and product development which can further the long-term interest of consumers, and save produ- cers from waste of investments in development of products and services which are doomed to failure. * Relevance for developing countries, cultural diversities and the general goals of the UN year of the family 1994. MAIN AREAS Advanced Home Technologies (e.g. Intelligent home - Linking of TV, telephone, computer and VCR - Interactive multimedia and domestic virtual reality - Security-systems - Household appliances - Environmental control and ecology - Bio-electronics and health-monitoring.) Communication and telematics (e.g. Convergence of broadcast and telecom networks - Interactive teleservices and teletransactions - Tele-education - Telework - Evolving informal networks - Home-to-Home interfacing.) Economics and politics of HOIT (e.g. Interests of industry and service providers - Links between R&D and marketing - Prices and tarifs - Legal and regulatory policies on national and international level - The future of home economics.) Cultural and social impact on everyday life (e.g. Personal development and knowledge distribution - Intra- and interfamily relations - Functions for children, elderly, disabled and home-bound people - Community structure - Cultural continuity.) CONTRIBUTIONS We solicit Research papers Papers on experiments and case studies Policy and strategy papers Opinion and position papers which will address State of the Art, Prospects, Blueprints or Implementation within these general areas. Besides full papers, short contributions like posters and statements papers may be submitted. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS Notification of the intention to submit a full paper (including title and subject area) should preferably be sent as early as possible. Two page abstracts of full papers are due at latest January 15, 1993. Notification of acceptance March 1, 1994. Deadline for submission of final full papers and short contributions May 1, 1994. All accepted contributions will be published in the preceedings available at the conference. Selected papers will be published in the conference proceedings. PROGRAM COMMITTEE Felix van Rijn (Chair), Univ. of Amsterdam, Dept. of Communications (NL) Kresten Bjerg, University of Copenhagen, Psychological Laboratory (DK) Gunilla Bradley, Stockholm University, Inst. of Internatl. Education (S) Valerie Frissen, Univ. of Amsterdam, Dept. of Communications (NL) Karamjit Gill, Seake Centre, University of Brighton (GB) Leslie Haddon, University of Sussex (GB) Gisela Lehmer, Ministry of Telecommunications, Kln (D) Mara Gabrila Macra, IDAT, Montpellier (Fr) Kurt Monse, IWT, Universitaet Wuppertal (D) Bjoern Nake, University of Copenhagen (DK) Toomas Niit, Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law, Tallin (Estonia) Gerrit Noltes, Ministerie van WVC (NL) Yves Punie, Free University of Brussels (B) Andy Sloane, School of Comp. & Inf. Techn. Univ. of Wolwerhampton (GB) Alladi Venkatesh, Grad. Sch. of Management, Univ. of Calif., Irvine (USA) L.E. Zegers, European Home Systems Association, Eindhoven (NL) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Kresten Bjerg (DK), Bjoern Nake (DK), Dan Melkane (DK), Poul Groenhoej(DK) REPLY FORMAT Please e-mail, fax or photocopy and mail to: HOIT-94, Kresten Bjerg, Psychological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, 88, Njalsgade, DK 2300 Copenhagen S. Tel.:+45 31541856 Fax: +45 32963138 E-mail: kresten@vax.psl.ku.dk [ ] I/we consider participating. [ ] I/we intend to submit a full paper. Area: Preliminary title: [ ] I/we intend to submit a short contribution, poster or audio-visual demonstration. Topic: [ ] I/we want to exhibit/demonstrate electronic or mechanic equipment, taking max. m2 floorspace. Subject: Name: Institution: Street address: City / postal code: Country: Voice telephone: Fax: E-mail: Observe news.groups for the ongoing RFD and later CFV concerning comp.home.misc. ------------------------------ Reply-To: alex@mvision.com Date: Tue, 4 Jan 94 12:37:25 EST From: alex@mvision.com (Alex Turkenich) Organization: Market Vision Inc. Subject: Bandwidth to Russia Wanted Several of my friends and I working part time as agents for one of the telephone companies were able to get about 50,000 minutes per month of switched traffic from US to the former Soviet Union. SERVICE DESCRIPTION: The subscribers to our service do not have to switch their long distance provider. The subscriber simply dials 1-800 ... number and if his ANI is registered he gets a dial tone if the switch does not recognize the ANI (when the subscriber is calling from a payphone or a hotel) the subscriber is prompted to enter his Travel Code. Some customers have preset spending limits and are prompted before each call regarding the amount of credit they have left. PROBLEMS: The main complaints of our customers is that the service is not reliable. The switch is usually down several hours a day, many of the calls placed to the Former Soviet Union do not go through, FAXes cannot be sent. We feel that these reasons are preventing us from increasing our traffic and are contrtibuting to loss of customers. OUR WISH LIST: Here are some of the solutions we envision (listed in order of preference): 1) A direct E1 (or T1) trunk from US (preferably 60 Hudson St, New York) to Moscow, Russia. All of the 30 (24 for T1) circuits have to approved by FCC for switched traffic. We can arrange to distribute traffic from Moscow. We would prefer the lines to be multiplexed between 4:1 and 6:1. We approached several US telephone companies about leasing E1 or T1 and were given monthly prices that were about twice the prices quoted by some US companies in Moscow. 2) We are also willing to route all our traffic through some other provider if we can get some reasonable rate per minute and still are able to provide the same service as we are providing now (see SERVICE DESCRIPTION). If you can offer one of the above two services or have any ideas where we can obtain these services please send e-mail to : alex@mvision.com or call me at: (212) 306-0410 (work) (201) 575-8215 (home) (201) 227-5037 (fax) Alex Turkenich ------------------------------ From: dave@kentrox.com (Dave Read) Subject: Excel LD provider: Yea or Nay? Date: Tue, 04 Jan 94 10:44:49 PST Yesterday a friend put the full-court press on me to sign up with some long-distance outfit called Excel. I'd never heard of 'em, but he made it sound like your basic multi-level marketing scheme, get bucks when you sign people up, and more bucks when *they* sign people up, etc etc etc. Reminded me of Amway. :-) Anyway, any experiences/opinions? I presume they buy their LD service from the biggie providers (AT&T, Sprint, MCI etc), but beyond that I haven't a clue if Excel is on the level or not. Thanks, dave ------------------------------ Subject: Info on Cellular One NACP From: ctuttle@obelisk.pillar.com (Colin Tuttle) Date: Tue, 04 Jan 94 00:21:25 CST Organization: Pillar Communication, Oklahoma City, Ok I have a question regarding the Cellular One North American Cellular Network. I have Cellular One service in Oklahoma (McCaw Communications) and found the system works well passing my calls from Oklahoma City to Tulsa when I travel (about 100 miles but part of Cellular One's SuperSystem). Everyone who has called me on my Oklahoma City number gets me in Tulsa with no problems, delays, etc. Everything works the way it should. Now this past week I went down to Austin, (a NACN City) turned on the cell phone and immediately called my Oklahoma City number from a nearby pay phone. It rang twice and then my cell phone rang. Now my question is how does Cellular One Austin so quickly notify Cellular One Oklahoma City I am in Austin Texas about 400 miles from home and immediately send my calls to me? I assume when I turn on my phone the cell processes my ESN and sends the information either to its computer or my home system. What impressed me was how fast it did all this, and without me telling it to do this. Whatever system they use must also allow greater security, as if your phone is stolen they could immediately deactivate it around the country. Is this a FAQ, or could someone briefly explain how the Cellular One NACN actually works? The computing power to keep track of all of these ESN's must be great as well as passing all of this information from system to system obviously in real-time. ctuttle@obelisk.pillar.com (Colin Tuttle) Pillar Communications BBS, Oklahoma City, OK -- +1 405 942 8794 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #5 **************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa29662; 5 Jan 94 4:16 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01271 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 00:54:29 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06448 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 00:54:00 -0600 Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 00:54:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401050654.AA06448@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #6 TELECOM Digest Thu, 5 Jan 94 00:54:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 6 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Index For 1993 Now Complete (TELECOM Digest Editor) Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones (John McDermott) Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones (Curtis Bohl) Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones (John R. Levine) Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones (Steve Wood) Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones (John C. Fowler) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Kelly Bert Manning) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Carl B. Page) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Jack Decker) Re: Caller ID in Pennsylvania (Greg Vaeth) Re: Caller ID in Pennsylvania (Lynne Gregg) Re: Use a 9600 Baud US Modem in UK? (Linc Madison) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 22:30:33 -0600 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Index For 1993 Now Complete The 1992-93 Index of Authors and Subjects for TELECOM Digest, Volumes 12 and 13 has now been updated to include all messages through the end of last year. It is housed in the Telecom Archives sub-directory called 'indices' with a cross-reference located in 'back.issues'. This is the companion volume to the 1989-91 index which lists all the authors and subjects for volumes 9, 10 and 11. Look for them in the indices sub-directory under the title 'authors-subjects.1989-91' and 'authors-subjects.1992-93'. Should you wish to capture these files and print them out as hard copy for future reference, you should note that the first volume is 24,939 lines, or about 380-390 pages in length, and the second volume is 19,760 lines, or about 300-310 pages in length. The index is split into two volumes for ease in handling in case you want one part but not the other, etc. Users of anonymous FTP can take either or both volumes. Users of the Email Information Service will find that the command SEARCH checks both volumes in the process of returning reference results. Should you obtain a copy of the file(s) for yourself, please note that the following characteristics apply: The left column of numbers indicates the volume and *bundle of fifty issues* to be pulled for the desired topic. For example, if the reference given is 13/101-150, that means go to the back issues area and pull volume 13, issues 101-150. 09/501-550 would refer to volume 9, issues 501-550 and so on. The subjects are then filed in strict alphabetical order, with instances of 'Re:' ignored where they appear. Where two or more articles have an identical title (because there was an original article followed by one or more 'Re: Article Title' responses (and since 'Re:' is ignored, therefore the articles would appear to be identical), the sort further continues by author name, again in alphabetical order *by the first name* of the author. For example, an article by John Smith would be listed ahead of an article with the identical title by Paul Brown, because /J/ comes before /P/. You can also search the indexes (or indices as they are known to the email server to avoid conflict with the information file 'index') using the Unix command 'grep -i'. Due to some irregularities in the way articles were named and author's names included. I suggest a liberal interpretation of grep when searching the indexes. If your search criteria is too narrow, you won't get any hits. If your search criteria is too wide, you will get flooded with article titles you do not want. Experiment for the best combination. Technically, these are accelerated indexes because they do not point to the actual article in question but merely *to other groups of indexes and batches of issues* wherein the article(s) will be found. If something you wanted was found in 13/150-200 for example, you would then get the batch of back issues labled Volume 13 Issues 150-200 and check the Index contained at the start of each issue of the Digest to see if your article(s) were found there. Or of course you could then 'grep -i' the batch of fifty issues if you prefer. One final note: within the two volume index itself resides a limited help file with a few details to help with your searches. You can read this help file by grepping (-i) "HELP-". The first fifty or sixty lines of text in each file is the 'help' part. Each line in the help section begins with "HELP-". Whatever you grep for in these indexes is what you will get, so you can search article titles, key phrases which appeared in several article titles, author names, or by volume and batch-of-issues number if you wish. It is up to date through issue 844, the final issue of 1993. This was quite a labor of love, and I am still checking it for errors in my spare time, but it is pretty well cleaned up and quite reliable for use as it appears now. Good luck in your searches, and I hope you find the indexes easy and convenient to use. If you need a help file for use with the Email Information Service, just ask. Patrick Townson TELECOM Digest Editor ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 23:00:52 -0600 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident Word has reached me that well known net participant Brendan Kehoe was quite seriously injured in an automobile accident in Newton, PA on December 31. Kehoe wrote 'Zen and the Art of the Internet' and he is also the archivist for Computer Underground Digest. Apparently the injuries were quite serious, and there was some question in the very early period afterward if he would even survive or not. I guess the doctors are still unwilling to make any commitment regards his recovery other than to say he will be hospitalized for a long time and perhaps permanently disabled. Some parts of his body were badly mangled. Greeting cards and electronic mail messages are being solicited and I refer you to the current issue of Computer Underground Digest for a full report on the incident and how to respond with your notes of sympathy and support. What an awful way to end one year and begin another. My best wishes for Brendan's recovery and eventual return to the net. I imagine all telecom readers agree with my sentiments. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: mcdermot@cs.unm.edu (John McDermott) Subject: Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones Organization: Computer Science Department, University of New Mexico Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 15:55:49 GMT In article John C. Fowler <0003513813@ mcimail.com> writes: > I wonder what kinds of people will be using "caller-pays" cellular > service. We've had caller-pays cellular in NM for some time. Those I know who have it have their phones primarily for "emergency" use or to call to/from home. Most of these users have a billing plan with little or no prepaid time. This makes the call more expensive, but quite useful for someone stranded in a dead car at night. John McDermott 505/897-2064 H/W mcdermot@cs.unm.edu [ UNM only lets me use this account because they are nice. I have no relationship with them whatsoever (besides being friends).] ------------------------------ From: EXTMO4H@mizzou1.missouri.edu (Missouri 4-H Youth Development Programs) Subject: Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones Organization: University of Missouri Date: Tue, 04 Jan 94 10:07:51 CST In Sedalia, MO, calls to local cellular numbers are always toll calls, to both the A and B cellular carrier, even though both have locally- based offices. What I was told is that SWB wanted to take their cut of the cellular market. (BTW, SWB Mobile does not have the wireline carrier.) In the city where I work, calls to both cellular systems here are local calls. Curtis Bohl Computer Programmer/Analyst extmo4h@mizzou1.missouri.edu 4-H Youth Development Alternate: bohlc@ext.missouri.edu Programs (314) 882-2034 University of Missouri-Columbia ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Jan 94 11:26 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > [in Colorado] > If the cellular phone you are calling begins with 1 + 579, you will be > billed for the cellular airtime charges and also any long distance > charges associated with the call when applicable. > If there are any questions about cellular airtime charges that appear > on your bill, to the above prefix, please call the Customer Inquiry > Center at 1-800-USW-BILL. Could someone in Colorado call US West and inquire whether these 579 numbers will be reachable from outside of Colorado? Long-distance carriers are absolutely unwilling to bill surcharges for other than 900 numbers, so the two likely scenarios are either that IXCs don't get surcharged, so out of state callers can call at normal toll rates, or 579 is only reachable from inside the LATA. (In the first case, if you can divert your call to an IXC, a Colorado caller can avoid the surcharge, too.) Either way, sounds pretty brain damaged. I have seen both of these scenarios in different places. Surcharged numbers like 212-540, 617-550, and -976 aren't available from long distance. On the other hand, the number in Chicago which gives reverse D.A. is surcharged if you call it locally but a normal call from elsewhere. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: Steve Wood Subject: Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones Date: Tue, 04 Jan 94 10:00:00 PST > I wonder what kinds of people will be using "caller-pays" cellular > service. I would definitely have used this in my consulting business if it had been available. It makes it palatable to freely publish your mobile phone number and not have to worry about paying for a lot of calls you don't want. My business clients would have no problem paying for the airtime. I can also imagine that this would make a lot of sense for many other service businesses, like PR agencies and law firms. They typically bill their clients for the airtime charges anyway, many times with a markup. Steve Wood steve.wood@mccaw.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Jan 94 12:51 EST From: John C. Fowler <0003513813@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones I've gotten copies of a couple of messages asking whether or not the new 579 prefix (a cellular prefix in Colorado which charges the caller for airtime) could be dialed from outside Colorado. I checked with the number on the U.S. West insert, and the first operator who came on immediately answered "Yes." This seemed a bit suspicious to me (I'm not used to the first person who answers the telephone actually knowing something), so I decided to call AT&T to verify. I went through four operators there, but the best answer I could get was "Probably Yes." So I guess all those COCOT owners out there reading the Digest (yes, both of you) should program their phones not to accept 303-579 or 719-579 for coin calls. Just remember that 579 is a regular prefix most everywhere else. John C. Fowler, 3513813@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: ua602@freenet.victoria.bc.ca (Kelly Bert Manning) Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous Reply-To: ua602@freenet.victoria.bc.ca (Kelly Bert Manning) Organization: Camosun College, Victoria, B.C. Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 08:35:49 GMT The switch my phone number is on has Caller ID blocked on every line because it can't provide CLASS services. A friend who is on the same exchange says that her mother's Caller ID box always shows "unknown number" when she calls, which is a problem because she can't unblock the blanket caller ID suppression. Sounds like this new "service" could run into similar problems. ------------------------------ From: carlp@teleport.com (Carl B. Page) Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous Date: 4 Jan 1994 10:05:43 GMT Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 Recently, our esteemed moderator wrote this about calling a phone that rejects anonymous callers from a blocked phone: : [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes they do. The person placing the : call need only dial the appropriate 'unblock code' (what is it, : typically *67) before dialing his call and it will go through just : fine. PAT] Lets not give wrong emergency advice! That won't work in Oregon or other places where PERMANENT LINE BLOCKING cannot be turned off. This was deemed a better functionality choice than allowing blocking to be toggled without any feedback about the final state. (So you can block safely even if you don't know whether the phone was already line-blocked.) In such an emergency your only option is to call the operator and ask them to put your call thru. Incidentally, you can also use the operator as a way of making an anonymous call. US WEST actually suggested this before the Oregon PUC when they were hoping they could use it as an argument to justify with-holding per-line blocking. In an area where no blocking is allowed, although telling an operator to dial for you lacks a certain feeling of privacy. (arl carlp@teleport.COM Public Access User --- Not affiliated with TECHbooks Public Access UNIX and Internet at (503) 220-0636 (1200/2400, N81) [Moderator's Note: But placing your call through the operator won't provide ID to the called party! Calls from the operator always show up as 'outside'. Of course people who reject 'private' most likely will accept 'outside' so I guess your call would get through. And in the case of using the operator to bypass the identification given to the police when you call 911, the rule is the operator is supposed to remain on the line until the police answer and then announce the calling number, as in "... this is the operator, I have an emergency call for the police from the number 123-4567 ..." Some operators do that; some don't, but they are supposed to. No such requirement is in effect for routine calls handled by the operator -- only calls where you dial the operator, state that an emergency exists and ask for the police. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous Date: 4 Jan 1994 03:55:52 GMT Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net Reply-To: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) On Thu Dec 30 11:49:05 1993, jfh@netcom.com (Jack Hamilton) wrote: > dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) wrote: >> A new service offered in the NYC area by NY Tel (soon to be called >> Nynex) is called "Anonymous Call Rejection." This tariff allows you >> (at a fee, of course) to take calls coming from caller-id BLOCKed >> numbers and reroutte them to a recording saying something like: >> We're sorry, the person you called does not take calls from anonymous >> callers. If you want to reach this person, please redial from an >> unblocked line ... > Do such services offer a way around the blocking in an emergency, > either by subscriber (911 and other services could call all numbers > without being blocked) or on a per-call basis through the operator? [.....] > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes they do. The person placing the > call need only dial the appropriate 'unblock code' (what is it, > typically *67) before dialing his call and it will go through just > fine. PAT] I would point out that relying on this could be dangerous. Just to give you one example: I have a dialer on my line (which I use to convert touch tones to dial pulses, so I don't have to pay GTE $2.00 per month to accept my touch tones directly), and when Caller ID is offered here, it will be a trivial matter for me to program the dialer to prepend 1167 to all outgoing calls (and there are "standalone" units that do the same thing for touch tone lines, that are even less expensive than dialers). Now suppose that you are one of those folks who cops an attitude and says "if you don't call me with your number unblocked, you must be some sort of scum, and I'm not going to talk to you!" Now suppose you are my neighbor, and late one night my wife sees a fire starting in your kitchen window, and I'm not home. She tries to call you to wake you up, but gets the "please redial from an unblocked line" recording, and has no idea how to respond to that (and since I'm not home, I can't even look up the programming to disable the blocking for her, although your house might be pretty well gone by the time I figured it out anyway). Sure, she would probably then call 911 and report the fire, but if you or your family are sleeping upstairs, you might just have appreciated getting that first call. If you think that the fire example is farfetched, just consider that there are other situations where you might want folks to reach you ... anything from someone responding to a classified ad you've placed to someone who has found one of your possessions, or your pet, or one of your kids. When they get your "please redial ..." message, they just might figure "why bother, I don't know what the ---- that message means anyway", and take some other action that would be more detrimental to you or those you care about. The problem with "Anonymous Call Rejection" is that the folks who take it assume that if someone wants to reach them, they will know whether the line they are using is blocked, and if it is, how to unblock it. In the case of a blocked line, that assumption would quite possibly be true only for the person who either ordered the per-line blocking, or installed the device to automatically prepend the "*67" or "1167" blocking code (and don't think such devices won't become more common in the future). Even if we assume that person knows how to bypass the blocking (which is quite an assumption to make), it's not realistic to assume that every potential user of that line knows how to unblock it. It's a calculated risk, of course. If you are plagued by nuisance callers now, you may figure it's worth the risk. But "Anonymous Call Rejection" is not the sort of service I'd advise anyone to order unless they are currently having a genuine problem with nuisance callers, to the point that it's really disrupting their lives (or their sanity). By the way, I always get a chuckle out of the folks who say "if you don't want me to know your number, don't call me!" Believe me, if I knew that someone I was contemplating calling felt that way, there's no way I would call them, just because they sound like the sort of paranoid personality I wouldn't want to deal with. But in at least some cases, it would quite likely be their loss. But I can see that there is no way folks are ever going to agree on this issue! Jack ------------------------------ From: gvaeth@netcom.com (Greg Vaeth at Jerrold Communications) Subject: Re: Caller ID in Pennsylvania Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 17:00:58 GMT Is the Bill mentioned under consideration, or has it passed? Regards, Gregory Vaeth Jerrold Communications internet: gvaeth@netcom.com General Instrument voicenet: (215) 956-6488 2200 Byberry Road faxnet: (215) 675-4059 Hatboro, PA 19040 My opinions are my own, and do not represent those of my employer. ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Re Caller ID in Pennsylvania Date: Tue, 04 Jan 94 09:06:00 PST Jeffrey Carpenter's wrote: > Pennsylvania Act 83 of 1993 ... > Caller-ID in Pennsylvania as long as both per-line and per-call > blocking are available. Jeffrey, thanks for the post. My understanding is that although the State's PUC has ruled on Caller ID service, deployment (by local carriers) is being held by a State Supreme Court challenge. As in several other States, the issue is wiretap law violation. The basic issue is privacy. If you're aware of a ruling by the Court, please post again (or to me). Thanks, Lynne Gregg ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Jan 1994 12:40:57 -0800 From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Use a 9600 Baud US Modem in UK? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) In article you wrote: > I've got a friend who'll soon be moving to the UK (Durham actually). > She's got a Hayes compatible 9600 baud modem that she would like to > take with her and use there. > Can anyone tell me if she can expect it to work with the British phone > system? Is there a special initialization necessary for the modem? > Do they use the same standard phone jacks as used in the US? Yes, a US 9600bps modem will work in the UK, *provided*: (1) You have a power source for the modem that will take 240V/50Hz instead of 110V/60Hz. If you buy a generic adapter, be sure that it will give the correct output voltage AND amperage for the modem, and make sure that it is the correct type -- AC or DC. (My modem uses 14.5V AC, so don't just assume it's DC.) I very much do NOT recommend using a 240/120 "traveller" adapter with the US modem power supply. (2) You have a phone jack adapter. The jacks used in the UK are different both in shape and in wiring. You need to buy in the US one of those adapters that allows you to put a two-line phone on two single-line phone jacks (available from Radio Schlock or AT&T Phone Center Store, etc.). The cable to connect from the jack to the adapter you can buy in Britain probably more easily than in the US. You **may** also be able to buy a cable that does the necessary pin-switching. (Both types of jacks have six slots for wires, the middle four normally in use. The US jack uses the center pair (wires 3 & 4) for 'line 1'; the UK jack uses the outer pair (wires 2 & 5). (Wires 1 & 6 are not used in either.) If you get a "bog-standard" cable, plug the British end into the phone jack and the US end into the "Both" port of your two-line phone adapter. Run a short US phone cable from the "Line 2" port to your modem. (You can perform the same operations with an adapter for running two single-line phones from a single two-line jack, but you'll need a female-female "in-line adapter" as well, since the "Both" port on this adapter is male.) (3) You don't tell anyone connected with British Telecom, OfTel, etc., that you're doing this, because it's technically illegal unless the modem has been certified as meeting the appropriate BS (British Standard -- no, I'm not joking, although the acronym is sometimes apt). If it has been certified, it will have a large green dot somewhere on the hardware (about 1/2" diameter). (4) If your phone line in the UK is pulse, you may want to add into the setup string the code to set the make/break pattern to UK standard instead of US standard. However, in practice, most phone switches are not sensitive enough to tell the difference between 39/61 and 33/67. The command is AT&P1 for UK, AT&P0 for US. Touch-tone is the same in both. Don't even try to use pulse in Scandinavia or New Zealand. (5) If you use the modem to connect to a low-speed European modem (1200 bps or lower), you may need to include ATB0 to use CCITT instead of Bell standards for these speeds. (ATB1 is the default, Bell/U.S. standard) Again, at 2400 and above, you needn't worry about it. (6) I have seen reports that for dialing the US you can use 010-1-83-area.code-number instead of the usual 010-1-AC-number to force a cable rather than satellite circuit. I don't know if this is true; I've never tried it. Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@Netcom.com (formerly) London, England * {Telecom, Linc}@hedonist.demon.co.uk ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #6 **************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa00253; 5 Jan 94 5:44 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01233 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 02:18:54 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13268 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 02:18:25 -0600 Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 02:18:25 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401050818.AA13268@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #7 TELECOM Digest Wed, 5 Jan 94 02:18:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 7 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services (Feedlebom) Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services (C. Bongaarts) Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services (J. Carlson) Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services (Carl Moore) Re: Information Wanted on Simon Cellular Phones (Thomas M. Godbold) Re: Information Wanted on Simon Cellular Phones (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Information Wanted on Simon Cellular Phones (Steve Wood) Re: Notice to AT&T Long Distance Customers (John R. Levine) Re: Notice to AT&T Long Distance Customers (Lars Poulsen) Re: 500 Channel Cable Television (Fulcrum) Re: 500 Channel Cable Television (Michael Jacobs) Re: Radio Religion (was 500 Channels...) (Gene Fornario) Re: Super Long Range Cordless Phones (Ken Hoehn) Re: Super Long Range Cordless Phones (Neil L. Kleeman) Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers (Toby Nixon) Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers (George Zmijewski) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: feedle@kaiwan.com (Feedlebom) Subject: Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services Organization: KAIWAN Internet Access (310-527-4279,714-539-0829) Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 23:10:15 GMT Earl Vickers (earl@netcom.com) wrote: > I'm putting together a list of phone numbers for bizarre recorded > information services. I used to have lots of numbers like this, but > they all seem to have disappeared. For example, there used to be one > where you could leave whatever strange sound effects or messages you > wanted, and they would periodically edit and splice them into their > new outgoing greeting. And there used to be a number in San Francisco > called the Earthquake Prevention Hotline, with a different oddball > comedy bit every couple days. Here in the Los Angeles area, there used to be a handful of such "comment" lines, but unfortunately, they've all dissappeared. A few of the operators of them are running 976/900 services, but most just got disinterested and took 'em down. I was involved with the world-infamous NEEON-19 line in Orange County, and I can tell you that running such a line takes money, patience, and time, something most people don't have anymore. It would take anywhere from three to seven hours to edit the tape down, and countless more assembling other bits for the program. It's a bit like running a radio show: for every hour of content, there's five hours of work. And then there's the equipment ... > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A couple of numbers I'll add to this > list are 312-731-1100 and 312-731-1505. Both are operated by a fellow > named Sherman Skolnick in Chicago who is a 'conspiracy buff'; you know, > one of those people who believe that everyone but Oswald killed JFK. > Both are five minute recordings, and he changes the two messages two > or three times per week. PAT] Then there are the countless White Aryan Resistance and KKK lines around the country ... if you have a pager, you've no doubt been paged by one of them. (None come to mind right now ...) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We had one from the American Nazi Party here for quite awhile which was always good for a laugh, but I have not heard it lately, and don't remember the number so I cannot say for sure if it is stilll operating or not. Regards the amount of preparation involved, you are quite correct that it takes much, much longer than the presentation itself if you want it to be halfway decent. When I had my phone news and information service back in the 1970's, these nincompoops would ask me how could it possibly be a job which takes several hours per day ... I had to investigate what I wanted to talk about; write it down and edit it a few times; practice speaking it; then finally record it. All that for a three minute recording. Of course I had bookkeeping and maintainence to do on 35 phone lines; advertisers to contact regards payment, etc. I am reminded of the nincompoops of today -- the denizens of Usenet who hang around news.groups (a really nasty place as newsgroups go) who ask such questions as if 'all I do' is sort through some messages and put out a couple dozen or so each day, how could it 'possibly' take more than a couple minutes maximum ... I don't know if I should laugh or cry when I read some of that stuff. As you well know from your own experience, quality work takes time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bong0004@gold.tc.umn.edu (Chris Bongaarts) Subject: Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services Organization: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 05:33:41 GMT earl@netcom.com (Earl Vickers) writes: > I'm putting together a list of phone numbers for bizarre recorded > information services. I used to have lots of numbers like this, but [...] > All I have to offer so far is They Might Be Giants's Dial-a-Song > number, (718) 963-6962. As those of you who may have tried calling this know, this number is the incorrect one printed in the liner notes the TMBG's "Apollo 18" CD. The correct number (from "Flood", "Lincoln", and their self-titled "19-track debut album") is: 718-387-6962 From all of us at alt.music.tmbg, thanks... =========================================== bong0004@gold.tc.umn.edu Chris Bongaarts (Sir Taxi of the Wild Crew) cbongaar@sunrayce.solar.umn.edu Call the Game Center BBS! (612)942-7531 cbongaar@reality.cs.umn.edu My opinions are my own, and they are right. cbongaar@mermaid.micro.umn.edu ------------------------------ From: carlson@xylogics.com (James Carlson) Subject: Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services Date: 4 Jan 1994 15:21:34 GMT Organization: Xylogics Incorporated Reply-To: carlson@xylogics.com In article , earl@netcom.com (Earl Vickers) writes: [...] >> All I have to offer so far is They Might Be Giants's Dial-a-Song >> number, (718) 963-6962. Hmpf. Not so cool. It's been disconnected! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As the message before this suggests, try 718-387-6962. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Jan 94 17:21:42 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services 718-963-6962 is disconnected (I just tried it). But I did reach 410-337-FUNN (3866), the "Joke Du Jour" hotline of "Rouse and company" on WQSR-FM 105.7 in Baltimore, Maryland. ------------------------------ From: mctmg@perot.mtsu.edu (Thomas M. Godbold) Subject: Re: Information Wanted on Simon Cellular Phones Date: 05 Jan 1994 03:27:03 GMT Organization: Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee In tony@cmhcsys.cmhcsys.com (Tony Barnecut) writes: > I am looking for information on a cellular phone called SIMON. I saw a > picture of it in a recent issue of {InfoWorld} but it did not say who > the manufacturer is or where it could be purchased. From the short ... SIMON is a cellphone/pager/calendar/personal data device/fax/etc. all wrapped into one compact and versatile package. Having never seen the actual unit, I cannot vouch for its functionality. However, it is marketed (will be, anyway, as of 3/94) by BELLSOUTH CELLULAR CORPORATION (my company, BTW) and I would be happy to do a brief synopsis of the product here from the extensive (albeit a bit wordy) pre-release literature we received, as well as the test period we will have soon ... with the MODERATOR's permission. Please address inquiries/etc to : mctmg@knuth.mtsu.edu My opinions are strictly my own and are not those of BellSouth Mobility, BellSouth Cellular Corporation, BellSouth Corporation, or any of its subsidiaries or entities. Don't you just *hate* these disclaimers? Tom Godbold mctmg@knuth.mtsu.edu ------------------------------ From: mds@access.digex.net (Michael D. Sullivan) Subject: Re: Information Wanted on Simon Cellular Phones Date: 05 Jan 1994 01:34:22 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA tony@cmhcsys.cmhcsys.com (Tony Barnecut) writes: > I am looking for information on a cellular phone called SIMON. I saw a > picture of it in a recent issue of {InfoWorld} but it did not say who > the manufacturer is or where it could be purchased. From the short > description that was included I found that it has an LCD panel where > the keypad would be with interchangable cards that make it act as a > phone, pager and other things. With different cards, different icons > appear on the LCD panel for the functions for that particular card. > Any information anyone could give me on this this product would be > greatly appreciated. The SIMON is made by IBM exclusively for BellSouth. It is not just a cellular phone but a "personal digital assistant" with a pen operating system of some sort. Michael D. Sullivan mds@access.digex.net avogadro@well.sf.ca.us Washington, D.C. 74160.1134@compuserve.com mikesullivan@bix.com ------------------------------ From: Steve Wood Subject: Re: Information Wanted on Simon Cellular Phones Date: Tue, 04 Jan 94 10:39:00 PST In response to Tony Barnecut's inquiry about Simon on 12/29: It is manufactured by IBM and marketed (I think exclusively at least for now) by Bell South. Steve Wood steve.wood@mccaw.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Jan 94 13:03 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Notice to AT&T Long Distance Customers Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. According to a wire service account in the {Boston Globe}, AT&T is changing their rates to be more like MCI and Sprint. The list price for calls goes up, but with a calling plan, you pay about what you would have before. AT&T characterized the changes as revenue neutral. The i plan is going away, presumably because nobody could figure out what it was. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: lars@Eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Notice to AT&T Long Distance Customers Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK Date: Tue, 04 Jan 94 22:01:12 GMT In article , Paul Robinson writes: > {Washington Post} 12/29 Pg B3: > NOTICE TO AT&T LONG DISTANCE CUSTOMERS > Card Station $2.05 $2.12 > Operator Station: > -Collect $2.05 $2.12 > -Billed to Third Party $2.11 $2.18 > -Sent Paid--Non-Coin $2.05 $2.12 I wonder why they bother to have a special rate for third-party. The increment seems hardly worth the bother of explaining that it's different. > Effective February 10, 1994, AT&T USADirect* (R) Optional Calling Plan > - Option A, institutes a 30-call restriction on the number of Plan > calls eligible for discounted rates in a one month period. I have never heard about optional calling plans for USA Direct. I have a Universal card, and occasionally use it for USA Direct. Do you have any information about this plan? Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products Phone: (011-) +45-31 49 81 08 Hvidovre Strandvej 72 B Telefax: +45-31 49 83 08 DK-2650 Hvidovre, DENMARK Internets: designed and built while you wait ------------------------------ From: fulcrum@NeoSoft.com (Fulcrum) Subject: Re: 500 Channel Cable Television Organization: NeoSoft Internet Services -- +1 713 684 5969 Date: Tue, 04 Jan 1994 16:33:56 GMT In article thale@Novell.COM (Todd D. Hale) writes: > wait, myself. Imagine sitting down to local news and hitting some > NEXT story button when you're ready to move on. Or, select a set of > stories from a table of contents and play it through. Etc, etc ... Hmmm ... I think many of us already do this to an extent through various news sources we get through on-line services or Internet. The technology is incorporate the other aspects that television has (ie video, sound, etc) is actually coming about as we speak. Personally, I've never liked what comes out of my TV News anyway. They are slow, alarmist, and they always show the need to cut down everything to 40 second blurbs. Right now, harder news is found in the better newspapers (the ones that do more analytical news than fact reporting) or shortwave radio where you can usually get the word out from the mouths of the particular country. If the future is more 40 second blurbs, then there's really no point for much news from these TV-Packages. Mike Fulcrum - That Sassy Sassy Style... The Internet Experience: Fulcrum@Neosoft.Com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Jan 94 22:38:12 EDT From: Michael Jacobs Subject: Re: 500 Channel Cable Television I think a lot of the problem that some people seem to have with understanding the telephone/cable convergence is a tendency toward linear thinking, ie-15 channels yesterday, 50 channels today, 500 channels tomorrow. Rather, we are going to see revolutionary (exponential) changes as the convergence of cable tv and telephony progresses. The concept that many RBOC's are working towards is video dialtone. This entails an available, dedicated high-bandwidth connection between a subscriber and a software (programming) source on-demand. Each subscriber will be able to access common (ie-network) programming or custom (on-demand) programming in real-time. The keys to this are: 1) high-bandwidth subscriber loops; 2) ATM broadband switching; and 3)mass-storage programming systems (called video servers). There will be no choice to make as to which of 500 different channels to watch, rather it will be a choice as to what to program on the one available video dialtone line, much as one chooses who to call on the current voice telephone line. ALL SOFTWARE WITH NETWORK ACCESS will be available to the subscriber on demand! The revolutionary concept here is that instead of some programmer in NY or LA deciding what I should watch, it will be me choosing what to watch , whether it is a movie from Paramount's library, episode #121 of Donna Reed, Howard Stern's latest special, or the current ABC network program. The telephone company will merely provide the bandwidth from software provider to the residence, other vendors (and RBOC subsidiaries) will compete for viewership. The value of the service will lie in the diversity of programming available to the customer, much as the value of the current telephone network lies not in the fact that there is a phone in your home, but that there is a phone in every home! If the cable companies think that they can compete with a fixed 500 channel system against on-demand video dialtone, they are doomed to go the way of the dominant telecommunications company in the US of 100 years ago, Western Union, namely technological and competitive obsolescence. Personal Opinions Only Michael Jacobs, JMT0@lafibm.lafayette.edu Service Technician, Bell Atlantic-Pennsylvania ------------------------------ From: genef@netcom.com (Gene Fornario) Subject: Re: Radio Religion (was 500 Channels...) Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 05:51:20 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well by the middle 1960's all-religious > stations were starting to be heard in a few places. WYCA-FM in > Hammond, Indiana came on the air I guess about 1963; WMBI in Chicago > started their FM affiliate station sometime in the early to middle BTW, have you noticed that Canada doesn't not either have or license all-religous stations? I have asked why in rec.radio.broadcasting, and most think it was because there was a lot of fighting going on between such stations in the early days of radio ... can you add to that? Gene genef@netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I really don't know anything at all about the rules in Canada or how they can be be created; I'll take a pass on this rather than second-guess my friend Bill Pfieffer with his newsgroup and journal. I don't think there has ever been any rules oer laws against it here in the USA simply because the government here really cannot regulate speech, and technical requirements have to be applied equally to all license holders regardless of the content of their speech. Other ideas or suggestions, anyone? PAT] ------------------------------ From: kenh@w8hd.org (Ken Hoehn) Subject: Re: Super Long Range Cordless Phones Date: 04 Jan 1994 17:01:48 -0500 Organization: The w8hd Group octela!!mikedi@uunet.UU.NET (Michael Dimitrov) writes: > A few months ago I saw an ad for a long range radio telephone -- it > works like cordless, but it's range is about 100 miles (right, one > hundred miles). Of course, it said "Not for sale in the US". A > friend of mine from Eastern Europe would like to buy one of these, but > I've lost the ad since then. Could anyone provide information about > similar telephone systems -- manufacturers, reteilers, technical > details etc. There are no such systems legal for operation in the United States. They are merely interconnected business radio systems, utilizing low band (30-50 mHz) radio facilities, and interconnect units to connect the phone line to the unit. You would get away with using for a few days, maybe a couple of weeks. The co-channel users would complain up a storm, and the Commission would get you. They are intended only for surreptitious use in 'uncontrolled' (read: out of control) countries. Sorry. kenh@w8hd.org Ken Hoehn - Teletech, Inc. Compuserve: 70007,2374 N8NYO P.O.Box 924 FAX: (313) 562-8612 Dearborn, MI 48121 VOICE: (313) 562-6873 ------------------------------ From: ssinlk@solsys.com (Neil L. Kleeman) Subject: Re: Super Long Range Cordless Phones Organization: Solution Systems Inc. Date: Tue, 04 Jan 1994 10:03:38 GMT In Article , Mark W. Earle <0006127039@ mcimail.com> wrote: > Michael Dimitrov wrote: >> A few months ago I saw an ad for a long range radio telephone -- it >> works like cordless, but it's range is about 100 miles .... > These usually turn out to be nothing more than 1/2 duplex, two way > radios (hand held or mobiles) with a telephone interconnect similiar > to an amateur radio "autopatch". The reason they are not for sale in > the US is that, to use such a device requires a business or other > license; the gear must be FCC type accepted. Thanks for all of that information. Can you give me any idea what manufacturers might have this type of equipment available? Please respond via email. Thanks, Neil L. Kleeman, President Internet: ssinlk@solsys.com Solution Systems Incorporated Voice: (215) 668-4620 114 Forrest Avenue Fax: (215) 668-2157 Narberth, PA 19072 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As pointed out before, no one has this type of equipment for sale if they know you intend to use it in the USA. Something interesting I found out the other day about Radio Shack is their corporate policy which states that if you discuss with their clerk your intent to modify radio equipment you purchase from them so it will operate in an illegal way, the clerk is supposed to refuse to sell you the equipment. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tnixon@microsoft.com (Toby Nixon) Subject: Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers Organization: Microsoft Corporation, Redmond WA, USA Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 23:10:19 GMT In article Anthony wrote: > What is the ITU reference for the standard method of writing > telephone numbers? I've noticed the following: > (plus symbol) (country code) (city/area code) (number) This is described in Recommendation E.123. You have it basically right. A "+" and the country code, a space, the city code (optionally enclosed within parenthesis to indicate that it is optionally dialed if you're within the same city code), then another space, and the local number. It is preferred that if the local number is to be broken up into segments (e.g., 555 1212) that a space character be used, but other characters are permitted by local convention (e.g., period, hyphen). E.123 (the title is something like "Representation of Telephone Numbers in Printed Materials"; sorry, I don't have a copy handy) includes guidance on how to differentiate different types of lines, such as voice and fax, and how to indicate that an answering machine may be in use, etc. Toby ------------------------------ From: mzmijews@mgzcs.demon.co.uk (George Zmijewski) Subject: Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers Organization: MGZ Computer Services Reply-To: mzmijews@mgzcs.demon.co.uk Date: Tue, 04 Jan 1994 22:24:16 GMT In article 0003250251@mcimail.com writes: > What is the ITU reference for the standard method of writing I don't know what the ITU decided but in UK we are told to use: MYCOMPANY NAME (0123) 123456 international +44 123 123456 This seems a bit stupid -- the American system (if there is any), seems to be much better -- just the area code plus number. Everybody knows when to add 1 or when to add 001 (if calling from another country). In Europe 0 is being now used as prefix for area code numbers and 00 as prefix for country codes. With such a system in operation is it sensible to include the first 0 in your number? Or should we all use numbers with country code. Anybody inside the country will know what digits to drop? But then some French idiots come up with a stupid numbering system (for Paris *and* Greater Paris +331 xxxxxxxx rest of the country +33 xxxxxxxx ). Is it a revenge for changing CCITT to ITU? George Zmijewski ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #7 **************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05052; 5 Jan 94 19:54 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25306 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 15:30:37 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25602 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 15:30:18 -0600 Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 15:30:18 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401052130.AA25602@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #8 TELECOM Digest Wed, 5 Jan 94 15:30:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 8 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Bellcore FTP Site For ISDN Information (William H. Sohl) Communication Over Power Lines? (Michael Duane) Telephone Answering Machine Question (Ray Normandeau) Federal Telemarketing Laws (Bob Rankin) Access Charges if LD Carrier = Telco? (Charles F. Hofacker) What Ways Can Three Regional Offices Share One Phone Number? (J. Ortiz) California ANI Question (Phydeaux) Quick Question About Caller ID (Ashish Parikh) SLIP Information Needed (Lance M. Cottrell) Long Distance Dial/Pay Methods (Terry Brainerd Chadwick) Calling Card Statistics Wanted (Terry Brainerd Chadwick) Merlin Question (Vince Dugar) Cellular Phones Come to Belgium/Pactel (Massimo Mauro) How Are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated? (Dan Cromer) Emergency Only Cellphone (Dale Farmer) Best Remote Software? (Joseph Ferguson) Best Modem For Developing World (David Davidson) Help Needed With V.42bis (bobphin@nbnet.nb.ca) Re: New Service From NY Tel - 'Reverse Directory' (Stephen Ng) Re: New Service From NY Tel - 'Reverse Directory' (Dave Niebuhr) Re: TDD Software Wanted (Don Perrott) Re: Caller ID/911 Seattle and Article Recommendation (Steve Forrette) Re: Being Paged by Mystery 800 Number (Timothy S. Shea) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: whs70@cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Date: 5 Jan 1994 14:01 EST Subject: Bellcore FTP site for ISDN Information Pat, The following announces the availability of ISDN documentation via FTP from Bellcore. Additional documentation will be added to the FTP site as we progress in 1994. Thanks, Bill Sohl and Barbara Shaw - Bellcore ISDN Hotline 1-800-992-ISDN -------------------Bellcore FTP ISDN Info Announcement----------- Bellcore's National ISDN Hotline Announces: Availability of National ISDN Information over Internet Information about National ISDN is now available by anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol) over the Internet at host "info.bellcore.com" FTP allows the retrieval of formatted documents and software. The files are available in PostScript through anonymous FTP from "info.bellcore.com" in the /pub/ISDN sub directory. I M P O R T A N T: Many of the files are large. It is essential that you first get the README (the upper case is important) file for detailed information on retrieving various files associated with documents. The following text describes a typical anonymous FTP session: system: ftp info.bellcore.com Connected to info. 220 info FTP server (SunOS 4.1) ready. Name: anonymous 331 Guest login ok, send ident as password. Password: 230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply. ftp> cd /pub/ISDN 250 CWD command successful. ftp> mget README mget README? yes 200 PORT command successful. 150 ASCII data connection for README (8758 bytes). 226 ASCII Transfer complete. local: README remote: README 8943 bytes received in 0.19 seconds (46 Kbytes/s) ftp> quit 221 Goodbye. represents pressing the "enter" or "return" key on your computer keyboard. The README file is in ASCII format and may be read on any word processor. The other files in the directory are in PostScript format and may be downloaded as needed by using the "mget" command while in the FTP. The PostScript files may be printed on a PostScript printer by using the "lprr" command. A typical Post Script print command may look like: lpr -P -h -v where: represents printer name on your network, and represents a PostScript file. '-h' corresponds to the option of suppressing the printing of burst page while '-v' corresponds to the option of printing raster image, i.e., PostScript. Please note that the printer must support PostScript imaging model in order to print these files. If you have problems or you'd like to comment on the information stored at this site or wish to make recommendations for future enhancements, you can email us at: isdn@cc.bellcore.com Or, call us at Bellcore's National ISDN Hotline: 1-800-992-ISDN ------------------------------ From: duanem@apollo4.eng.sematech.org (Michael Duane) Subject: Communication Over Power Lines? Date: 5 Jan 1994 18:10:01 GMT Organization: SEMATECH, Austin Reply-To: michael_duane@sematech.org I received the following question from a friend. Post replies here, or mail directly to thausken@ota.gov. "This is an all points bulletin to answer an question we were pondering here the other day. The question is "Can the power company send telephone or radio signals over the power lines?" Never mind for the moment any switching problems -- just consider broadcast for now. (There *is* a proposal that power companies install fiber optic cable to homes to help monitor power usage, and in turn sell the capacity to the phone companies. I am asking something different. I am interested in using the actual power lines themselves. My campus radio station used power lines to send the local FM channel, but I don't know how they did it.) The questions are: 1. What is the cutoff frequency of the power grid? Or better, what is the bandwidth vs. distance curve? This is a basic two wire conductor problem but I don't know things like the skin resistance, etc. 2. How do you mix the frequencies? Is the 60 Hz line the carrier, mixed with the signal? Or can you combine them some other way? Any help is appreciated!! Please pass the problem on if you cannot help. Tom michael.duane@sematech.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You might be interested to know that the telephones inside the cars on the subway in Chicago used by conductors and motormen to communicate with their dispatcher used to operate via the 'third rail' (power supply for the trains). I guess you can talk over the the third rail quite nicely. Lately they have used UHF radios, but some of the phones in the fare collection booths used on the internal CTA phone system are still interconnected via the third rail. Are the connections noisy you ask? Are they? Are they!! But it works. PAT] ------------------------------ From: factory!ray.normandeau@uu6.psi.com Subject: Telephone Answering Machine Question Date: 4 Jan 94 22:15:00 GMT Organization: Invention Factory's BBS - New York City, NY - 212-274-8298v.32bis Reply-To: ray.normandeau@factory.com (Ray Normandeau) In December, {Back Stage} newspaper in NYC had the following ad: "EARN $50 While staying at home Call 289-6048 for info" The phone is in the 212 area code. I have called several times, at least once a week for the last few weeks. Altho the OGM says "Please leave a message", and I think that I am leaving one, I am not sure if it is being recorded because my calls are not being returned. It has happened to me that I put my own TAD on "Outgoing Message Only" without realizing it and that people who thought they were leaving a message for me, were not as my TAD was not recording them. Is there any way to figure out if the machine at 212-289-6048 is taking my messages or not? The ad might make some people think that it is a scam, but the newspaper {Back Stage} has a VERY GOOD reputation for screening out scam ads. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 11:48:08 EST From: Bob Rankin Subject: Federal Telemarketing Laws I just read through the archives from late 1991 looking for info on congressional action regarding automated telemarketing. I found this little excursion quite fascinating, but failed in my quest, save for a few references to Rep. Frank's appearance on NightLine discussing some proposed legislation. Kind readers, please enlighten me as to the details of whatever federal law(s) may have been passed regarding telemarketing. I'm interested to learn if *all* forms of automated outbound calling are verboten, or if it just applies to "sales" calls. For example, - A club calling members to notify them of a meeting; - A library calling to notify you of an overdue book; - An automated survey/questionnaire (for non-commercial purposes); - An announcement of a free community service; - A political party calling with a "please vote today" message; (maybe even "Press 1 if you need transportation to the polls") All these seem to be legitimate uses of automated outbound calling, since they either provide useful information/services or offer a significant labor and time savings to a caller who has no profit motive. I welcome private or public replies on this matter. Bob Rankin (r3@vnet.ibm.com) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: All the above examples you cite are exempt from the federal regulations. Political calls (vote today) are considered freedom of speech. The library (return our book) has a pre-existing relationship with you as does the club calling to notify you about a meeting. Announcements about free community services also come under freedom of speech. The only calls which are really regulated are those from commercial organizations with whom you have no previous business relationship. They have to follow regulations pertaining to how they call you (using automated techniques or not, etc). The others want to maintain your goodwill, so they follow the same guidelines for the most part, but are not absolutely required to follow them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Charles F. Hofacker Subject: Access Charges if LD Carrier = Telco? Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 12:08:06 EST The recent announcement by MCI that they were going to compete in the local loop has made me curious about something. One of the motivations for this announcement was that MCI could then avoid 'access charges' which are I believe are paid by the long distance provider to the local telco. Since my local telco is Sprint (904-386), if I sign up for Sprint long distance also, shouldn't things be cheaper for me? Why should Sprint charge Sprint access charges? Do I have a point here or is there some regulatory reason that my logic fails? I called the Sprint Long Distance 800 number and the sales rep said he had never heard of access charges. Charlie Hofacker chofack@cob.fsu.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Probably the 'Sprint' which handles your local loop is not the same branch of 'Sprint' which handles your long distance calls. Additionally, there is no reason why MCI *has* to not charge you the access fee once they get in the local loop business; just that they apparently choose not to. They apparently have chosen to 'do their bookkeeping' differently than Sprint. Under the law, whoever supplies/maintains the wires coming to your home is entitled to be compensated for the use of the wires in long distance calls and apparently Sprint (the division of the company supplying your local service) chooses to be compensated. Maybe MCI's gimmick will be to have slightly higher long distance rates in exchange for no local-loop charge. It all comes out the same in the end, or nearly so. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ortiz@cactus.org (J. Ortiz) Subject: What Ways Can Three Regional Offices Share One Phone Number? Organization: Capital Area Central Texas UNIX Society, Austin, Tx Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 17:12:26 GMT I was curious what is available from telephone services or just products on the market that would allow for a single phone number that a customer can dial and be able to connect to one of three separately located offices. Some thing like a support center, call one number and connect to the office/extension or the first available office/extension. Also could this be done with an 800 number as well? All ideas would be appreciated. I'd like to be informed before I talk to the AT&T and MCIs of the world. Thanks, joe ortiz@cactus.org [TELECOM Digest Editors's Note: Well it can most definitly be arranged with 800 service. Your 800 number would terminate different places depending on the place where the call originated. You can also have one of the regional offices be the central answering point and forward the calls one by one to the two other offices manually, then have call- forwarding on the line for after-hours connection to the other two offices. The thing is, how convenient would this be for your customers? At least two of the three regional offices would have to receive calls from *their* customers over a long distance number if all three offices used the same number (which could only be 'local service' to one of the three offices.) If you really want to pay for all the incoming calls from your customers, complainers, deadbeats and anyone else who calls the company, then go with a single 800 number which is routed on a time-of-day/day-of-week/location of call orgination basis, but I don't think you will find it terribly cost-effective. I'd say go with three 'local' numbers for each of the three offices, and internal tie-lines which allowed the receptionist/operator handling incoming calls to manually pass the call to one of the other offices if that was desired. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 17:21:03 -0800 From: reb@ingres.com (Phydeaux) Subject: California ANI Question Hi! In a discussion the other day, one of my colleagues told me that "ANI is illegal in California." I'm sure he meant CNID, but he understands the difference and was pretty emphatic about this. I'm sure someone here knows for sure. reb [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What can I tell you? Ask your colleague if he thinks 800 numbers are illegal in California. If not, then there is your answer. ANI and 800 go hand in hand. That's the way the system works. In a way, that's what makes the debate over Caller-ID so silly: People who can afford 800 numbers and insist on receiving all their calls over the 800 number have always had 'caller-ID', even in backward areas like California. :) No, ANI is not illegal in California. PAT] ------------------------------ From: aparikh@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Mr. Ashish Parikh ) Subject: Quick Question About Caller ID Date: 5 Jan 1994 04:35:09 GMT Organization: The Ohio State University I am under the impression that only listed (in phonebooks) numbers get identified in one's Caller-ID system. what I mean is that for example my number is unlisted and I call a person with Caller-ID -- according to my views, my number doesn't get recognized by his/her system. My question to you intelligent/experienced folks: Is that true? Could you please briefly describe how the whole Caller-ID thing works. Thanks very much. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Your views are quite seriously mistaken. CID depends on a few things, but having an unlisted or non-pub number is not one of them. First, both telephone exchanges -- that of the caller and the called party -- have to be equipped for the service. If the receiving office is equipped but the sending office is not, then sub- scribers to Caller-ID in the receiving office will get the message 'out of area' on their display when the sending office passes a call. If the sending office is equipped but the receiving office is not, then it all becomes a moot point. Now let us assume both telephone exchanges, that of caller and called party are equipped to handle Caller-ID. The calling party's ID will *always* be passed to the exchange serving the called party. Whether or not the called exchange passes the information on to the called party depends on two things: one, is the called party a subscriber to the Caller-ID service and two, did the calling party not explicitly refuse the passing of the information. By that I mean, did the calling party prepend a special code to his dialing string (typically *67) to tell *his* phone exchange to deny the information to the called party. So if both exchanges are equipped for the service and the called party subscribes to the service, he *will* get your number unless you have specifically told your exchange (to tell the other exchange) to not pass that information along. In the event you request that the inform- ation not be passed along, then the called party will receive a message on his display screen saying 'Private'. Note the difference: the display will say 'private' when the sender denies the receiver the right to the information and the display will say 'out of area' when the receiving exchange is unable (as opposed to not permitted) to supply the information. How you have your phone listed with directory assistance (or not) has no bearing on this at all. All your non-pub listing gets you is the inability of a third person to match your name with a number through the directory and/or the inability to match your number with a name/address through a cross-reference (or 'criss-cross' as they are usually called) directory. So the called party will get your *number* via Caller-ID (unless you specifically block delivery using *67), but it still remains relatively meaningless without a name/address to go with it. Note also that 'automatic call return' where that service exists is not affected by the 'private' status of Caller-ID (calls can still be returned although the return-caller will not know the number being called) and the ability to block Caller-ID via *67 is disabled when calling 911 or *any* telephone company facility or operator. In other words, you can never refuse the telephone company the right to know your number, nor can you hide from the police, etc. Likewise, your number is always known (or soon ascertained) by subscribers to toll- free 800 numbers that you may dial. You can't block that either. PAT] ------------------------------ From: sdphu3!loki@UCSD.EDU (Lance M Cottrell) Subject: SLIP Information Needed Date: 5 Jan 1994 05:38:44 GMT Organization: Physics Department, UCSD I am looking for information of setting up a SLIP on a Sun for call in. The Sun is not directly connected to the phone. I dial into a phone bank and telnet to the computer. Can I establish SLIP after I telnet? Thanks, Lance Cottrell ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 09:11:12 -0700 From: Terry Brainerd Chadwick Organization: InfoQuest! Information Services Subject: Long Distance Dial/Pay Methods How are both consumer and business long distance calling distributed between direct dialing, some form of card, collect calls, and other? ($ volume or percentage) Where is this information available? Thank you, Terry Brainerd Chadwick p00653@psilink.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 09:06:37 -0700 From: Terry Brainerd Chadwick Organization: InfoQuest! Information Services Subject: Calling Cards Statistics Wanted Where can I get a list of all long distance calling (including credit and debit) cards, their issuers, benefits, and rates? Also, the breakdown of card usage by consumers and business? Thank you, Terry Brainerd Chadwick p00653@psilink.com ------------------------------ From: vdugar@stortek.stortek.com (Vince Dugar) Subject: Merlin Question Organization: StorageTek Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 14:46:15 GMT Why does the Merlin system charge users so much (I forget now, but it's a lot) to buy a special modem adapter? Is there a cheaper solution? What about using an acoustic modem? (only want it for CompuServe mail handling, so low baud would be OK) Vince Dugar | CIS: 71011,2657 Boulder, Colorado | Opinions expressed are my own. Vince_Dugar@stortek.com | ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular Phones Come to Belgium/Pactel From: massimo@west.darkside.com (Massimo Mauro) Date: Tue, 04 Jan 94 01:14:33 PST Organization: The Dark Side of the Moon +1 408 245 SPAM With lots of fireworks to celebrate the event even this derelict (certainly as far as telecoms are concerned) country joins the cellular circus (GSM operational as from 1 Jan, 1994). Cellular phones, besides being a yuppy accessory, are unfortunately pretty useful, but cost over here an awful lot of money, as the service provider (a joint venture between the Belgian telecom and Pactel) operates a near monopoly. Can some cellular whiz kid tell me whether a cellular telephone (say, a Motorola or Nokia, for instance) purchased in the US or in Canada would be able to operate here? Given that frequency allocation and modulation scheme standardisation are done internationally (ITU), I expect it to be so. Thanks for emailing me some info, were it even to tell me I am wrong. massimo@west.darkside.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 05:47:29 EST From: Dan Cromer <19016007@SBACVM.SBAC.EDU> Organization: School Board of Alachua County, Gainesville, Florida Subject: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated Greetings, How are VCR Plus+ code numbers, the up-to-eight digit numbers for each TV program used in programming some new VCRs and VCR-programming remotes, generated. I bought a new VCR for my folks in Lakeland, FL, to make it easy for them to set up the VCR for recording, but the VCR Plus+ codes aren't listed in their newspaper. I'd like to be able to set up a programmable calculator so that it would generate the code for them. I know there is a 900 number at 95 cents/minute, but don't think they should have to pay $1.90 every time they want to use the system. Daniel H. Cromer, Jr. Director, Information Resources School Board of Alachua County, Gainesville, Florida 19016007@sbacvm.sbac.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Its a secret. No one knows for sure how it is done except the proprietors of the system, and they aren't going to tell. There *are* scripts around in various ftp archives sites which make a stab at this, but I understand none of them are perfect and all have a few bugs. The topic is even discussed on a regular basis in a couple of newsgroups devoted to cable television and vcr's, etc. I'm sure some readers will send you email telling you where to find the programs which have attempted to work out the VCR+ codes, but part of the reason for selling the device and operating the 900 phone number is so the proprietors can make money on the deal which I guess is the main reason their lips are zipped. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dale@access3.digex.net (Dale Farmer) Subject: Emergency Only Cellphone Date: 5 Jan 1994 13:33:42 GMT Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA I just ran across a flyer advertising (to me at least) a new cellular phone service. It is called HELPTEL, marketed by a company here in Massachusetts. 800 370 4445 if you want to call them yourself. What they are selling is a cell phone that has one button. You plug the phone into the cigarette lighter plug, press the HELP button and talk to some form of operator. The marketing is aimed squarely at the emergency only cellular customer. Rates are $35 per year, plus an unmentioned purchase price, plus an unmentioned per call charge. I thought you may be interested. Dale Farmer ------------------------------ From: Joseph Ferguson Subject: Best Remote Software? Date: Wed, 03 Jan 94 14:03:17 EST Organization: Delphi Internet I need a reliable remote software program that will actually run Windows. I use an Intel 400 at home and at work. Haven't had any luck trying PcTools Commute. Do any of these remote programs run Windows? Thanks for any suggestions. Joe ------------------------------ From: davidson@ccrs.emr.ca (David Davidson) Subject: Best Modem For Developing World Organization: Canada Centre for Remote Sensing Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 14:32:28 GMT I got another request from a group in a developing nation who want to set up digital communication. They asked what would be the best modem to use. I asked on this newsgroup once before and I believe the response was the Telebit Worldblazer. Is this correct? I would appreciate some comments or recommendations that I could pass along. Please accept my thanks in advance. David ------------------------------ From: bobphin@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca (ral) Subject: Help Needed With V.42bis Organization: nbnet Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 15:50:05 GMT I have a Zoltrix 14,400 data/fax modem. I am not sure if I am getting compression or if so what kind. My manual indicates the S95 registar gives extended result codes. For example S95=003 will give me the Protocal: result code, usually Lap-M. Since S95 is bit mapped, I do not know the values I should use to get the codes I want. The manual further says: Bit Description 0 CONNECT indicates DCE speed 1 Append/ARQ to the connect result code if the protocol is other than NONE 2 Carrier result code 3 PROTOCOL: result code 4 reserved 5 COMPRESSION: result code 6 reserved 7 reserved I should also say that when S95=003, I get codes for bit0,1,2,3. In other words I get everything I want, except for the compression code. I've tried S95=005, but this does not work.Please help. Answer here or e-mail bobphin@nbnet.nb.ca ------------------------------ From: steveng@world.std.com (Stephen Ng) Subject: Re: New Service From NY Tel - 'Reverse Directory' Organization: Sedona Software Consulting, Arlington, MA Date: Wed, 05 Jan 1994 16:56:27 GMT Given the availability of the national white pages on cd-rom, couldn't anyone set up such a service, for both business and residential listings? Stephen Ng Sedona Software Consulting 617-648-8120 steveng@world.std.com 70302, 1510 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Certainly they could. Really, the only considerations would be financial: having the cash flow to do it and the money needed to keep it running while it was first starting up. Of course you need the computer and CD-Rom, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 17:00:46 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: New Service From NY Tel - 'Reverse Directory' I mentioned earlier about testing out the NYTel 'Reverse Directory Assistance' and John Levine (john@iecc.com) wanted to know the number so that he could try it. Actually, it was simple. The first was looking in the Manhattan phone book and picking a business name then calling Manhattan DA and asking for the whole thing. That took some time since no one there seemed to know what I wanted. Well, I just tried it in Area Code 516 and got the whole kit and kaboodle (phone, address and zip) one-two-three. The cost for the DA will be about $.45 US and I think about $.35-$.45 US for the extra. Your mileage might vary. Have a Safe, Sane Healthy and Happy New Year! Dave Niebuhr Internet: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (preferred) niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jan 1994 14:09:18 PDT From: DON PERROTT Subject: Re: TDD Software Wanted In article , peltz@cerl.uiuc.edu (Steve Peltz) wrote: > In article , wrote: >> Mike, the phone company is right -- you can't get ASCII to Baudot >> (code used by TYs) communication by software alone. You're going to >> need a hybrid ASCII/Baudot modem. There are several on the market, >> including the MIC300i, and they have a version for the Mac too. > Baudot is just a 5-bit code, right? Any synchronous-capable serial > chip can do that (such as a Mac). Is the modem encoding itself also > different, possibly different carrier frequencies or such? It can't be > just Baudot coding that causes the problem. > Why don't they start releasing dual-mode TDD machines, that can handle > ASCII and "standard" modem standards, and eventually phase out Baudot- > only machines? I want to suggest that this topic has been very thoroughly covered in past issues of the TELECOM Digest. I did a search on TDD several weeks ago and found that there have been numerous requests on the topic and some excellent answers over the years. There are issues with Baudot to ASCII conversion with SHIFT characters as well as the hardware issues with half duplex communication which is no tone between characters and 1400/1800 Hz tones unlike any normal modem used today. Also, the baud rate is 45.5 bps. You can purchase dual-mode TDD machines that handle Baudot and ASCII but for some reason they have never really taken off in the deaf community. They tend to be the high end (read expensive) TDD's and are very much overkill for those only interested in TDD communications. Also, the ASCII capabilities usually provided are 300 baud ... insufficient to be useful for much else. There seems to be some lawmaker intervention in this area. Some software was written by John W. Spalding that can be used to emulate TDD on a TRS-80 Color Computer or an IBM PC/PCjr using the cassette port and a modified telephone amplifier. It is well worth getting if only for the comments in the code to help you understand how TDD works. I downloaded it from the HEX BBS (301) 593-7357. It is called tdd56.zip. I am interested in extending the concept of tdd56 and building a simple hardware interface to either use an XT/AT serial port or a simple adapter card. I have some concepts in mind but would be very happy to receive ideas (or encouragement) from anyone. Don Perrott perrott@bbs.ug.eds.com General Motors of Canada Oshawa, Ontario, Canada ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Caller ID/911 Seattle and Article Recommendation Date: 05 Jan 1994 22:14:10 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In , hedlund@reed.edu (M. Hedlund) writes: > I also saw a news piece about 911 technology and cellular phones, > saying that Caller-ID/Signalling System Seven had speeded response to > home calls (as discussed) but that only _some_ systems could ID > cellular phones -- Seattle was mentioned as considering cellular- > Caller ID to improve 911. Apologies if this overlaps a thread I > missed, but anyone in Seattle with info? I have cellular accounts with both of the Seattle carriers: US West Cellular and Cellular One. At least when calling 800 numbers, the US West Cellular system will report my actual cellular number as the ANI, whereas Cellular One reports a non-dialable number that's common on all subscribers. Since 911 systems are often implemented using operator-service trunks, I would imagine that the 'correct ANI' feature of the US West system would also work with 911, although I don't have any specific knowledge that this is the case. As far as Cellular One goes, they could implement 911 ANI with some sort of special data line to the PSAP, without converting to full ANI for all outbound calls. One benefit of the US West Cellular ANI situation is that it allows me to select any IXC that's generally available via Equal Access as my default carrier for the cellular phone. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: tsshea@mmm.com (Timothy S. Shea) Subject: Re: Being Paged by Mystery 800 Number Organization: 3M - St. Paul, MN 55144-1000 US Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 00:22:52 GMT Bud Couch (bud@kentrox.com) wrote: > In the meantime, let me offer my own WAG. I tried the number from my > PC and found that it connected at *1200* bps, although my modem is a > V.22bis (2400). This means that the machine at the other end is > forcing the speed to be that low. Why? > I suspect that the modem on the other end is an older (in modem terms > more than two years is *old*) ZOOM modem, for their 1200 units had an > interesting security feature: the entry password to the modem was not > an ascii string, but a four number *touchtone* sequence.If the correct > code wasn't entered within a few seconds of answer, the unit hung up. > We may have just stumbled into someone's database "server" that has > this security feature. I don't know about that theory. I have several scripts running on our systems that check for status or any error conditions. If it finds something wrong our communications server pages me through an old 1200 bps modem ... Or this is way the company pages its people and someone just entered in the number wrong ... internet: tsshea@mmm.com timothy shea compuserve: 76300,1230 Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #8 **************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id ab05435; 5 Jan 94 20:48 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13663 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 16:39:17 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18282 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 16:39:01 -0600 Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 16:39:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401052239.AA18282@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #9 TELECOM Digest Wed, 5 Jan 94 16:39:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 9 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: US Digital Cellular Standard (ebcguss@ebc.ericsson.se) Re: US Digital Cellular Standard (Dan J. Declerck) Re: Digital Cordless Phones Question (KATHY1310@delphi.com) Re: Digital Cordless Phones/Rolm Switch (Kathleen Denial) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Oliver Rothe) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Curtis R. Nelson) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Jon Edelson) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (John R. Levine) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Mark Blumhardt) Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack (Keith McNeill) Re: V.35 to RS-232 Conversions (David Weiss) Re: Telix and Busy Signals (Steven J. Tucker) Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers (Fernando Lagrana) Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers (Carl Moore) Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers (Ketil Albertsen) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ebcguss@ebc.ericsson.se Subject: Re: US Digital Cellular Standard Reply-To: ebcguss@ebc.ericsson.se Organization: Ericsson Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 10:45:33 GMT In article 2@eecs.nwu.edu, weiyun@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Weiyun Yu) writes: > It has come to my attention that the digital cellular standards > adopted by US carriers are not going to be compatible with what we > have adopted in Australia, GSM. I am interested in finding out a bit > more about the US systems but cant find any FAQ on the subject. > My specific questions are: > 1. What are the pro and cons of the US standards vs GSM. There are basically three standards -- AMPS used in North America, JSM (?) used in Japan, and GSM used in the rest of the world. It's the same with TV-sets. In Europe we have PAL and SECAM, in the U.S. they have NTSC; don't know about the rest of the world. As I see it, this is a producer-pushed scenario that we will have to live with. The reason is that the producers will be able to sell more terminal-units -- those who need to be accessable in all three areas will have to buy three units instead of one. I don't know a whole lot about the technical differences on the different standards. > 2. Is there going to be some degree of compability encorporated into > the 2 standards so that international roaming could be achieved. With GSM, all the operators must be open for roaming with other operators. But for roaming between GSM, AMPS, and JSM, I think we'll have to wait. > 3. What is the future of digital cellular? Is there going to be a third > standard that can be used world wide? There are at least two companies working on a satellite based system for digital mobile communication that is to be working worldwide. As I understand these will be working as plain cellular phones when inside i.e. a GSM- cell, but as a satellite-phone when you are in the desert or someplace else without access to a cellular provider. Claes ------------------------------ From: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com (Dan J. Declerck) Subject: Re: US Digital Cellular Standard Date: 5 Jan 1994 19:21:38 GMT Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group In article , Weiyun Yu wrote: > 1. What are the pro and cons of the US standards vs GSM. N-AMPS, ADC, and DS-CDMA all offer, at least, 2x the capacity of GSM. NAMPS and CDMA do not have the pulsed-noise interference of GSM. CDMA has the potential to have a longer talk-time. GSM has terrible data services vis-a-vis' Group 3 Fax. > 2. Is there going to be some degree of compability encorporated into > the 2 standards so that international roaming could be achieved. > 3. What is the future of digital cellular? Is there going to be a third > standard that can be used world wide? The frequencies and access methods (GSM is TDMA/GMSK each channel is 200 KHz, ADC is TDMA/QPSK channels ea 30 KHz, CDMA is DS-CDMA ea channel 1.25 MHz) are completely incompatible. GSM is like ISDN over the air, whereas the other standards aren't so rich. Dan DeClerck EMAIL: declrckd@rtsg.mot.com Motorola Cellular APD Phone: (708) 632-4596 ------------------------------ From: KATHY1310@delphi.com Subject: Re: Digital Cordless Phones Question Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 16:46:06 EST Organization: Delphi Internet I have an AT&T Model 9100. As you have stated, I have had no problems with range within my house (or for that matter in my next door neighbor's house. However, the range outside my house is only about 3/8 mile (it's very hilly and densly populated). I have not exper- ienced any quality problems as of yet. ------------------------------ From: kathi_denial@net.com (Kathleen Denial) Subject: Digital Cordless Phones/Rolm Switch Date: 5 Jan 94 17:12:29 GMT Organization: N.E.T. I am currently looking into using digital cordless phones in conjunction with our Rolm 9751 switch. Has anyone tried this yet? My idea is to assign a persons second line to a SLI channel. The purpose is to allow people reach the IT department when we are away from our desks. As most of you know many problems can be solved immediately if the user can reach you, and get an answer. Has anyone tried this application/do you have any suggestions? Also does anyone have any information on the technology used for the digital cordless phone. Thanks, Kathi Denial ------------------------------ From: Oliver Rothe Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous Organization: ISGI GmbH Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 09:31:12 GMT Jack Decker (ao944@yfn.ysu.edu) wrote: > If you think that the fire example is farfetched, just consider that > there are other situations where you might want folks to reach you ... For example, people from other countries (Here in Germany there is still no caller ID, although I assume that the switching systems used would allow for it in most parts of country). Oliver Rothe isgi@ztivax.zfe.siemens.com also reachable via: 100265.1543@compuserve.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: However people in other countries, like people in a central office just a couple miles from me not yet equipped with Caller-ID can get through; the difference is the display box says 'out of area' rather than 'private'. That is the key. Even people who refuse to take calls from blocked numbers still accept calls from those sources where the calling number is not known (by the exchange). PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 12:50:19 CST From: CRN@VAX3.ltec.com Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous In TELECOM Digest V14 #6 (Thu, 5 Jan 94), Jack Decker wrote regarding Caller ID Blocking and Anonymous Caller Rejection: > ... and when Caller ID is offered here, it will be a trivial matter > for me to program the dialer wo prepend 1167 to all outgoing calls ... and, > ...By the way, I always get a chuckle out of the folks who say "if you > don't want me to know your number, don't call me!" Believe me, if I > knew that someone I was contemplating calling felt that way, there's > no way I would call them, just because they sound like the sort of > paranoid personality I wouldn't want to deal with. ... Now who's the paranoid one? Another thought: If someone knocks on your door, do they have the right to cover your peep hole ("Visitor ID Blocking"). Curtis R. Nelson, P.E. email: cnelson@ltec.com Lincoln Telephone Company phone: (402) 476-4886 1440 'M' Street fax: (402) 476-5527 Lincoln, NE 68508 ------------------------------ From: winnie@flagstaff.princeton.edu (Jon Edelson) Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous Organization: Princeton University Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 18:44:59 GMT The question that one must ask oneself when using something like 'Anonymous Call Rejection' can be phrased 'How open do I want to leave my door?' This is not a trivial question; my response is always to put the tools out there so that individuals can make the choices for themselves, as I figure that the question is difficult enough that I shouldn't be answering it for someone else. To take the fire example of this thread: [The situation was a neighbor noticing a house fire, and attempting to call, but getting rejected because of anonymous call rejection.] If the neighbor's front door was unlocked, then people could run in and wake everyone up, or put out the fire. But leaving the door unlocked is a risk. Do people have little glass boxes with 'Pull for emergency access' on their doors, so that anyone can get in if necessary? No, because that would defeat the purpose of the lock on the door. But people do give keys to neighbors, because the additional risk is offset by the enhanced safety of having another set of (trusted) eyes able to look out for you. I tend to turn off the ringer of my phone when I want to sleep. That way people can call me at any time without worrying about disturbing me. However, if there was an emergency when I was in bed, my phone would be worse than useless. I doubt that I would ever get anonymous call rejection; my only need to know who is calling is for convenience. But I say 'Let it be an option, allow people to choose the risk.' Jon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 14:46 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. Does anyone actually have Anonymous Call Rejection in service now? Is it useful? It impresses me as one of those features which you get for about a week, then get rid of because it's utterly worthless. Perhaps I'm suffering from a failure of imagination, but I find it difficult to understand the mindset of people who are too scared to answer the phone if they don't know in advance who the call is from. People who are concerned about annoyance callers should consider Call Block, which lets you enter a list of numbers from which you won't receive calls. You can either enter explicit numbers, or tell it to add whoever just called, even if the call had CLID blocked. It's available the same places as other CLASS services, including some where CLID isn't, because it doesn't present the privacy problems. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: msb@advtech.uswest.com (Mark Blumhardt) Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous Organization: U S WEST Advanced Technologies Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 20:45:49 GMT I have not seen the tariff for this service, but I think that a lot of readers on this thread are missing an important distiction. This distinction is between a number not being available and being blocked. That is, the calling party number may not be available for inter-LATA calls, and in my opinion, these calls should not be rejected. This is quite different than if the delivery of a number has been blocked (i.e. *67), which is when calls should be rejected by this service. If the service is worth anything, it would make this distiction. ISUP carries the calling party number and address presentation restriction information (see TR-246 T1.113.3 3.7). Hence, the service could reject calls where calling party number delivery has been blocked and allow calls when the number is not available. Just my observation, Mark ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 10:03:42 EST From: mcneill@ngt.sungard.com (Keith McNeill) Subject: Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I guess we know a few things > If you have two lines from telco, then what you do is at the modular > connection box depends on the kind of phone(s) you are using. If you > have a true two-line phone, then connect the four wires to the four > screw terminals as indicated by the color markings for each. In > addition you attach the four wires from the cover of the modular box > to the associated screw terminals in the same way. Plug in your two > line phone and it should work okay. If you are using two separate > phones, we do it a bit differently. Inside the modular box, have the > four wires connected as above, but from the Y/B terminals, run two > little jumper wires to a second modular box you bought from Radio > Shack or similar. Connect the jumper wires from the Y/B screws of > the first box to the R/G screws in the new, second modular box. Now > plug your second phone into your second box. Actually, Radio Shack sells an RJ11 adaptor that splits out the 1st and second line for you. It looks like a normal one phone jack to two phone jack adaptor, except it has three jacks. One for line one, one for line two and one for both lines. There is no need to do the extra wiring. On a side note, I recently called NY Telephone (or NYNEX as they want to be called now) about getting a second phone line installed in my apartment. I was shocked to get a quote of $185 for the second line (first line costs about $60). This is the price for installing a totally different phone line in the apartment. I complained a little that they didn't need to do that as there was a perfectly good second pair coming into the apartment I didn't get very far as the customer service rep wasn't technical. Is there really any need to get a totally seperate line into my apartment? Diamond State Telephone (Delaware) was able to put a second line on the second pair. Is NYNEX just trying to gouge me? Keith D. McNeill SunGard Capital Markets +1 212 371 1116 560 Lexington Ave, 10th Floor mcneill@ngt.sungard.com New York, NY, 10022 USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not necessarily. Telco outside plant records are in notoriously bad condition in some places. The rep may have actually not had any record of the second pair in your apartment or may have had a record of it but shown it to be actually a multiple of someone else's first pair or what-have-you. Have you tested that pair to see if it is alive (with someone else's service because some installer in the past never opened it up at the pole) or if it is in good condition? Have you traced it back to the demarc, such as in the basement of the building where you live? If you can get that second pair back as far as the demarc for the building (or yourself, whichever applies), then you have a second pair and it should not be required for telco to make any visit to your home with the high cost for same. You have to be careful though; make sure that set of wires you are looking at actually goes somewhere and reaches the demarc. If not, then you are possibly stuck for the high installation costs of a second line. You should trace that pair first, getting it back to the demarc if at all possible. Note on the demarc there may be some notations (little tags tied on with bits of string are common) telling the installers what goes where. If you see a notation saying something like 'cable 74, pair 29' or similar then when you call back to the business office if you get the same rap about how a new line has to be installed in your apartment tell the rep you *think* 'cable 74 pair 29' is there already. Note I emphasize 'think'. You're not a phone installer so don't try to act like one. But stress you have seen complete wires back to the demarc which appear to be idle, and you are wondering if the rep will please have someone confirm or correct the outside plant records. PAT] ------------------------------ From: D_WEISS@delphi.com Subject: Re: V.35 to RS-232 Conversions Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 21:31:17 EST Organization: Delphi Internet V.35 to RS-232 Converters are readily available and come in several types, from simple in-line, line powered converters (as for example thoes manufactured by RAD) to A/C powered devices with full line driver capability (Dataprobe). For Information on V.35 specifications, get a copy of the CCITT V series specs. Hope this helps, David Weiss ------------------------------ From: dh395@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven J Tucker) Subject: Re: Telix and Busy signals Date: 5 Jan 1994 06:24:42 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Reply-To: dh395@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven J Tucker) In a previous article, ericw@seanews.akita.com (Eric Walrod) says: > Okay, I just set up a new PC Logic 14.4kbps Internal Fax/Modem for a > friend, and set-up deltaComm's Telix v3.21 for it. > I CANNOT get Telix to recognize a busy signal. I am already using > ATX4V1 to no avail (sp?). Is your modem actually reporting 'BUSY' when you get a busy signal? If it is, the problem is prob in the configuration of Telix. Type ALT-O and choose option M (Modem and Dialing), Suboption G of this menu defines the 'No Connect Strings'. Make sure 'BUSY' is listed there. Steve ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 14:31:49 +0100 From: LAGRANA Subject: Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers In Telecom Digest V13 #842, Anthony D. Vullo asks: > What is the ITU reference for the standard method of writing > telephone numbers? I've noticed the following: > (plus symbol) (country code) (city/area code) (number) Toby Nixon is right when answering that ITU's corresponding reference is Recommendation E.123. This Recommendation was adopted in Melbourne in 1988 and is still in force. Its title is "Notation for national and international telephone numbers". Let me thank Toby Nixon for his answer. Let me not thank George Zmijewski for his, hhhuuummm, rather rough one (I'm both French and TSB official, ha, ha, ha!!!). Fernando Lagrana International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Bureau Editor, Catalogue of Recommmendations Coordinator, Electronic Document Handling Internet: lagrana@itu.ch Voice: + 41 22 730 58 94 Fax: + 41 22 730 58 53 X.400: SURNAME=lagrana, PRIVATE_DOMAIN=itu, ADMIN_DOMAIN=arcom, COUNTRY=ch ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 9:28:52 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers This responds to mzmijews@mgzcs.demon.co.uk (George Zmijewski): You write: > MYCOMPANY NAME (0123) 123456 > international +44 123 123456 > This seems a bit stupid -- the American system (if there is any), > seems to be much better -- just the area code plus number. Everybody > knows when to add 1 or when to add 001 (if calling from another > country). If an American (i.e. country code 1) telephone number (including the area code) is being to someone outside, it needs +1 in front. By coincidence, a leading 1 is used for long distance within country code 1. ------------------------------ From: ketil@edb.tih.no (Ketil Albertsen,TIH) Subject: Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers Organization: T I H / T I S I P Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 16:48:00 GMT In article , mzmijews@mgzcs.demon.co.uk (George Zmijewski) writes: > This seems a bit stupid -- the American system (if there is any), > seems to be much better -- just the area code plus number. Everybody > knows when to add 1 or when to add 001 (if calling from another > country). Remembering that USA is 1 is fairly simple, but remembering that Norway is 47 is more difficult. Adopting the American practice of not including country code at all is simply not applicable outside North America. > In Europe 0 is being now used as prefix for area code > numbers and 00 as prefix for country codes. Not at all true, as a general rule. Here in Norway, we currently use 095 1 xxx... to dial North American numbers. Up until last year, a (single) leading 0 generally indicated "not a local, ordinary phone no" but anything else, like long distance (0 + area code), out-of-country (0 95 + country code + national no), directory service (0 180 Nordic countries, 0 181 International), weather forecast, news summary, error reports for the phone system etc.etc.etc. But during 1993, area codes have been removed; you can now in principle move all across the country keeping your old number ("for administrative reasons" they will currently give you a new number, but they admit that one of the reasons for dropping area codes was to open up this possibility from a technical point of view), and the leading zero has been removed from all special services. (There were three special emergency numbers which did have double leading zeros, for Fire alarm, Ambulance and Police respectively; they now have a single leading zero). So it all boils down to 0 being a perfectly ordinary digit, even as a leading one, in the Norwegian national numbering plan. > But then some French idiots come up with a stupid numbering system > (for Paris *and* Greater Paris +331 xxxxxxxx rest of the country +33 > xxxxxxxx ). According to my phone book, France is 33. Then, if the first digit is 1, then it is Paris, if the first digit is something else, it is NOT Paris but some other area. Is that really "stupid"? You could similarly classify it as stupid that any international number starting with +4722 is Oslo, starting with +4772 or +4773 is Trondheim, and the est of the country is +47 and not +4722, +4772 or +4773. But we see it differently -- the first digits after the country code indicate which city. Plain and simple: There are always eight digits, the leading ones hinting about the location. (Until they open up for taking your phone number along when you move to another city.) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #9 **************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05969; 5 Jan 94 22:13 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13066 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 18:33:20 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA30086 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 18:33:03 -0600 Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 18:33:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401060033.AA30086@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #10 TELECOM Digest Wed, 5 Jan 94 18:33:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 10 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: 500 Channel Cable TV (Bill Pfeiffer) Re: Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas (David H. Close) Re: Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas (David L. Kindred) FCC Approval for Telcom Devices (Jon Batcheller) Sprint (Dvorak) Modem Offer - Not Again! (David Horvath) Hayes' New Modem (Charles Randall Yates) Data Services - GSM (Lars Kalsen) Professor Neon's TV and Movie Mania Machine (Lauren Weinstein) AT&T Secure Software (David R. Arneke) Notice to Antique Phone Buyers (Todd Inch) Japan's Telecom Market (Alex Cena) SW-56 and ISDN Questions (Lenny Escalante) Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones (Carl Moore) Re: Landlines Pay Airtime to Call Some Cellular Phones Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones (Martin McCormick) Re: Caller-ID in Pennsylvania (Jeffrey J. Carpenter) Re: Unique(?) Problem With Voicemail Prompts (Jan Ceuleers) Re: Question About Ring Frequency (Tony Pelliccio) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu (Bill Pfeiffer) Subject: Re: 500 Channel Cable TV Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 10:28:44 CST Michael Jacobs wrote: > This entails an available, dedicated high-bandwidth > connection between a subscriber and a software (programming) source > on-demand. Each subscriber will be able to access common (ie-network) > programming or custom (on-demand) programming in real-time. > The keys to this are: > 1) high-bandwidth subscriber loops; > 2) ATM broadband switching; and > 3)mass-storage programming systems (called video servers). Let's not forget #4: Total accounting as to who is watching what channel. Arbitron will have a field day. > There will be no choice to make as to which of 500 different channels > to watch, rather it will be a choice as to what to program on the one > available video dialtone line, much as one chooses who to call on the > current voice telephone line. ALL SOFTWARE WITH NETWORK ACCESS will > be available to the subscriber on demand! Well that will be a real kick in the teeth for couch potato(e) channel surfers, won't it :-). I think I'll take my cable-clicker (which I can use to sample the wares on several channels quickly) over this system. > The revolutionary concept here is that instead of some programmer in > NY or LA deciding what I should watch, it will be me choosing what to > watch. No, the same programmers will determine what you watch, just like a restaraunt manager decides what choices are on their menu. Current tv technology offers you a choice among the available programming. On-demand exists now. Nobody holds that channel selector but you. How does the medium of delivery change the fact that someone else still creates the programming? > If the cable companies think that they can compete with a fixed 500 > channel system against on-demand video dialtone, they are doomed to go > the way of the dominant telecommunications company in the US of 100 > years ago, Western Union, namely technological and competitive > obsolescence. Well, Mike, I am old enough to remember all the fancy claims that 'cable-tv' would put over-the-air tv out of business, would make networks obsolete, would transform our very lives, would offer first-run movies, would offer live video from foreign countries, would bring the classroom to the living room, would offer access to niche programming, fine arts, etc etc etc. What we wound up with is re-run mills, home shopping channels, music videos, 24 hour weather channels, preachers, pay-per-view wrestling and more commercials than ever. Even the so-called premium services like HBO are lame and repetitive. So before I go GA-GA over this new network idea, I gotta see the plans. If the tele-entertainment industry's history of 'promising heaven and delivering re-runs' is any indication, we will have 500 channels of on-demand QVC and pay-per-view wrestling. > Personal Opinions Only Same here. William Pfeiffer - Moderator/Editor rec.radio.broadcasting - Airwaves Radio Journal - Internet email - Article Submission: articles@airwaves.chi.il.us Subscription Desk: subscribe@airwaves.chi.il.us ------------------------------ From: dhclose@cco.caltech.edu (David H. Close) Subject: Re: Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas Date: 5 Jan 1994 07:56:59 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) writes [about Dallas/Fort Worth]: > In most cases, you are permitted, but not required, to dial the 1 > anyway, and all telcos are recommended to allow 1 + NPA + number for > all calls within the NANP, including local calls within the same NPA. > I only tried this from GTE Southwest, not from Southwestern Bell, > since my parents had to accept exile to be within commute distance of > my father's new office location. It is possible that SWB does better > on this point, as well as in every single other facet of telephone > service. True also for SWB. In fact the recording is, "We're sorry..." As I've posted before, they certainly are! Whatever the solution to the 1+ problem, it sure would be nice if *something* worked everywhere. Even if other techniques were local option. Maybe a new prefix, 111+ NPA+7D, which could be used *anywhere*, for either local or LD calls, same NPA or different. Perhaps the third 1 (or whatever) could be considered a country code, so that whatever scheme is adopted will eventually work world-wide. The 1+ problem seems like a NANP problem now, but will certainly be a world problem soon. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa dhclose@alumni.caltech.ed dave@compata.attmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 12:18 EST From: kindred@telesciences.com (David L Kindred) Subject: Re: Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas Linc Madison writes: > I only tried this from GTE Southwest, not from Southwestern > Bell, since my parents had to accept exile to be within > commute distance of my father's new office location. It is > possible that SWB does better on this point, as well as in > every single other facet of telephone service. My parents lived in the SWB part of the Dallas area a few years ago. During the time they lived there, the dialing requirements not only varied due to area code and "localness", but also by whether the "other" phone company was involved. I don't remember the particulars, but dialing a local SWB-SWB call was different than dialing a local SWB-GTE call. As I recall, you needed at least ten, if not eleven digits, to call a GTE 214xxxxxxx number from a SWB 214xxxxxxx number, even if the call was to the next exchange (or next house...). One major annoyance was the percentage of calls into GTE that went high-and-dry. Has any of this changed recently? Dave ------------------------------ From: jonb@library1.mentorg.com (Jon Batcheller) Subject: FCC Approval for Telcom Devices Date: Wed, 05 Jan 1994 22:29:33 GMT Organization: Mentor Graphics I am looking for a lab or list of labs to get FCC approval of a telcom device to be marketed in the US. Thanks! Jon A. Batcheller Mentor Graphics Campus 8005 SW Boeckman Rd., Wilsonville, OR 97070-7777 (503) 685-1249 jonb@mentorg.com ------------------------------ From: dhorvath@sas.upenn.edu (David Horvath) Subject: Sprint (Dvorak) Modem Offer - Not Again! Date:v Wed, 5 Jan 94 17:40:17 EST I was one of those who, a few months ago, ordered Sprint LD service while under the impression that I would get *one* external 9600 baud *data* modem with FAX. After speaking with the post-offer Sprint staff, I accepted the internal 2400 baud data and 9600 baud fax modem. Now the problem -- I just got a second modem in the mail! Exactly the same as the first. All I have is an 818 area code phone number for Best Data, so I don't want to call them back; it came UPS, so I can't just throw it in the mail with REFUSED scribbled all over it. I doubt the Sprint rep's will be able to help. Now what? David Horvath [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you want an honest answer or a correct answer? Let me know, and I'll reply. PAT] ------------------------------ From: yatesc@eggo.usf.edu (Charles Randall Yates) Subject: Hayes' New Modem Date: 5 Jan 1994 19:52:24 GMT Organization: University of South Florida Dear Information Theorists: Have any of you heard about the Hayes Optima 288 V.FC + FAX modem? It can allegedly transmit data over a phone line at 28.8 kilobits per second *WITHOUT COMPRESSION*!!!! I thought you guys told us the upper limit was in the low 20's. What gives? Randy Yates Electrical Engineering/Mathematics Major ------------------------------ From: dalk@login.dkuug.dk (Lars Kalsen) Subject: Data Services - GSM Date: 5 Jan 94 19:56:03 GMT Hi - outthere, I have a couple of questions about data services in GSM: - is there right now terminal equipment on the European market for datatransmission via GSM? - what plans do the different suppliers of mobile telephones have to put on GSM the market in 1994? - will the GSM-operators offer all the data services in the GSM-specifications - or will they all offer different subsets of these? Please e-mail me if you have any piece of information. I will put the information together and send this to all who respond to this letter. Happy New Year, Lars Kalsen dalk@login.dkuug.dk ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 11:34 PST From: lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Professor Neon's TV and Movie Mania Machine On the subject of fun phone numbers, "Professor Neon's TV & Movie Mania Machine" is definitely still up and running! --- (310) 455-0971 --> Professor Neon's TV & Movie Mania Machine! Greetings. In honor of the bygone days of telephone entertainment, I'm pleased to announce that Professor Neon's TV & Movie Mania Machine is available, 24 hours/day, on +1 (310) 455-0971. This of course is an ordinary phone number, so only regular phone charges (if any) apply. Callers will receive a randomly selected item relating to television and cinema, including nostalgia, trivia, games, viewing suggestions, and more. Right now, the nostalgia element strongly predominates. I think I can say without fear of contradiction that most of the materials on there now are things that you haven't heard anywhere for at least 20 years -- if not longer -- or ever! You'll fire up some old neurons and relive memories you thought had faded away decades ago. Will you go running for your old polyester leisure suit or bell-bottoms? I certainly hope not. Have fun. --Lauren-- ------------------------------ From: darneke@attmail.com (David R Arneke) Date: 5 Jan 94 15:24:16 GMT Subject: AT&T SecureE Software AT&T LICENSES LINKABLE CODE FOR SECURE SOFTWARE GREENSBORO, North Carolina -- AT&T is giving software developers access to linkable code modules for encryption, public key exchange and other communications security functions. AT&T announced today that a comprehensive library of linkable code modules, including RSA security technology and the NIST Digital Signature Algorithm, is available for licensing. Linkable code is available in the form of linkable object module libraries and Windows Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs), which are under license from Information Security Corporation of Deerfield, Illinois. The code is compatible with shrink-wrapped programs recently introduced by AT&T. The security functions included have applications for a broad variety of software, including tax returns and other electronic-forms programs, electronic mail, electronic data interchange and electronic fund transfers. "Electronic commerce has an inherent requirement for privacy, data integrity, authentication and non-repudiation," said Larry Salter, director of secure systems and services for AT&T Secure Communications Systems. "These capabilities are ideal for PCMCIA and smart-card applications as well as conventional software for PCs and workstations." The package includes code for DES encryption, the ElGamal public key cryptosystem, the Digital Signature Algorithm, the Secure Hash Standard and most RSA security functions, including RSA encryption, key management and digital signatures; MD5 hashing functions; and the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol. A proprietary encryption algorithm for exportable applications is available as well. More than a dozen military and civilian federal agencies and a growing number of corporations have already licensed the code for new software applications, Salter said. "This is a full range of information security functions, relying on the most widely accepted government and commercial standards," Salter said. Prices for code packages containing DSA technology are $750 for the DOS/Windows version, $1,000 for the Macintosh version and $1250 for the UNIX version. For code packages containing RSA technology are $300 for the DOS/Windows version, $400 for the Macintosh version and $500 for the UNIX version. The license allows developers to load the code into two workstations for software development. Royalty payments are required for distribution of applications to end users. AT&T and ISC have incorporated the code modules into software that provides a wide range of security capabilities. AT&T SecretAgent (R) Software provides DES encryption, ElGamal key management and DSA digital signature technology. AT&T SecretAgent (R) II Software provides DES encryption, RSA digital signatures and key management, and MD5 for message digests. AT&T Surity (TM) DSA Signature Software is a digital signature program. And AT&T SecureZMODEM (R) provides DES encryption and user-transparent key management for data communications using the ZMODEM protocol. Programs using RSA technology are in development. Software developers can get more information on licensing the AT&T linkable code module library by calling the AT&T Secure Communications Customer Service Center, 1 800 203-5563. ------------------------------ From: toddi@ocsg.com (Todd Inch) Subject: Notice to Antique Phone Buyers Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 12:54:43 PST I finally checked out an old phone that has been in a locked case at the local thrift store for months and wonder if any collectors out there want me to buy it for them, or buy my old Monophone, for that matter. It's shaped like an old Monophone, but has an all-brass base and a swivel-up handle apparently for carrying it. The handset is bakelight and the handset cord is cloth covered. RTT56 is stamped on the underside and I believe RTT is in a logo on the dial. It also has a white button in front of the dial on the front. It's priced at $79.99, which is surprisingly expensive for a thrift store where I occasionally get "real" (e.g. WECO, ITT, Stromberg, etc) touch-tone phones for $5 or so. I can probably get it for half that with a coupon or during one of their "half off everything" days, which are on every major holiday. Anybody interested, or have more information? It's only in fair shape. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 16:12:23 EST From: Alex Cena Subject: Japan's Telecom Market There are several deadlines coming up in Japan over the next few weeks on various disputes. Feb. 11 is the deadline for a deal on opening Japan's government procurement market for telecommunications equipment. 1) Does anyone have any details or thoughts on this issue? 2) Are there any US firms that do well selling to private firms in Japan? Why? Why not? 3) Has anyone seen anything in industry publications on this? TIA, Alex M. Cena, Lehman Brothers, acena@lehman.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 12:17:27 EST From: Lenny Escalante Subject: SW-56 and ISDN Questions Sirs: I'm a tech with Brown University in Providence RI. My question is basic, yet important to our work here at Brown, perhaps you may be able to give me some direction to obtain the answers. 1. Which countries/provinces have SW-56 service and are ISDN capable? 2. Here in the US what cities have been converted to ISDN, and who are still operating at SW-56? 3. If you know, who are their carriers? Please respond to Leonardo_Escalante@Brown.edu, or fax to 401-863-7329. Many thanks in advance, Lenny Escalante ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 9:47:43 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones The 1 + 7D --> 1 + NPA + 7D is for long distance within your own area code. (Refers to the comment about Colorado.) Colorado has two area codes as of 1988: 303 and 719. In which area code is 579 located, or do both area codes have it? ------------------------------ From: mzmijews@mgzcs.demon.co.uk (George Zmijewski) Subject: Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones Organization: MGZ Computer Services Reply-To: mzmijews@mgzcs.demon.co.uk Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 21:20:06 GMT In article 0003513813@mcimail.com "John C. Fowler" writes: > I wonder what kinds of people will be using "caller-pays" cellular > service. In UK calls to cellphones were *always* "caller pays". Some rip-off companies charged also for incoming calls but that idea died very quickly. Who will want to pay for incoming calls if they have the choice of getting them for "free"? The UK system of tariffs seems to me logical (unlike US). If you call cellphones you pay 4.2p for every 7.61 sec (33p per minute); if you call from cellphone you pay 25p per minute to anywhere in UK including another cellphone. IMHO this price structure made it possible for cellphone to become so popular -- most calls to cellphones are made from offices where somebody else pays for the call :-) Also the cellphones are subsidized by the airtime providers (in the best times the dealer would get GBP 400 for connecting new cus- tomers -- now this commission is down to about GBP 100. BTW the idea of free local calls is unknown here. :-( George Zmijewski ------------------------------ From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu (Martin McCormick) Subject: Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones Organization: Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 19:57:52 GMT Charging the land-line caller to a cellular number makes perfect sense to me. It isn't any more fair or proper to charge cellular subscribers for received calls than it is to charge any other type of subscriber. There should be a choice of two different types of cellular service. One would charge the caller for the call with the cell phone getting no aditional charges for received calls while the other would be what we have now with the cellular subscriber paying for both answered and originated calls. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jan 1994 15:51:49 EST From: Jeffrey J. Carpenter Subject: Re: Caller-ID in Pennsylvania In article is written: > I heard an unsubstantiated rumor that Gov. Casey as one of his first > acts after taking the reigns of leadership back signed a Caller-ID > bill for PA which includes blocking provisions. Can anyone substantiate > that and give more information about how and when it will be available? Senate Bill 860 was passed and signed into law as Act 83. I have been told that it permits Caller-ID with per call blocking. The person who drafted the bill is on vacation until Monday, so I won't get any more specifics until then. They are sending me a copy of the bill. Bell of Pennsylvania says it will be available in 1994, but the schedule for which exchanges will have it when is not yet determined (or ready for public announcement). Jeffrey James Bryan Carpenter Computing and Information Services, University of Pittsburgh 600 Epsilon Drive, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15238-2887 jjc+@pitt.edu, +1 412 624 6424, FAX +1 412 624 6436 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 13:54:09 PST From: Jan.Ceuleers@f857.n292.z2.fidonet.org (Jan Ceuleers) Subject: Re: Unique(?) Problem With Voicemail Prompts I quote Dave Levenson: > Does the user experience talk-off only from one telephone > set? Try replacing its handset or transmitter element. Can > the minimum tone duration on your voice mail system be > administered? Try increasing it a few tens of milliseconds. > We have found that 50 - 75 msec. work well. Unfortunately, this is not in accordance with the specifications laid out in many countries. A Q.23 receiver must typically be able to reliably detect as little as 40 ms at up to -28 dBm. In the case of a voice mail system, the level requirements are even more stringent (-43 dBm). In some countries, these tests are performed while dial tone at e.g. -7 dBm is also present on the line. Elsewhere, (I think it's Spain) they even superimpose a voice signal at some ludicrously high level (-2 dBm or something). In my opinion, the level requirements are unrealistic in many cases. Requiring a Q.23 receiver to detect a tone at -43dBm means that the network is allowed to attenuate by some 36 dB, given the fact that DTMF tones must be transmitted at -7 dBm. Jan Origin: Experimenter Board, Antwerp, Belgium (2:292/857) uucp: uunet!m2xenix!puddle!2!292!857!Jan.Ceuleers Internet: Jan.Ceuleers@f857.n292.z2.fidonet.org ------------------------------ From: Anthony_Pelliccio@brown.edu (Tony Pelliccio) Subject: Re: Question About Ring Frequency Date: 5 Jan 1994 15:07:50 GMT Organization: Brown University Alumni & Development Office In article , joeshmoe@world.std.com (Jascha Franklin-Hodge) wrote: > Can someone tell me the ring frequecies and durations of the standard US > telephone ring? Around here it's a 20Hz signal, two seconds on, four seconds off. Tony Pelliccio, KD1NR Anthony_Pelliccio@Brown.edu Brown University Alumni & Development Computing Services Box 1908 Providence, RI 02912 (401) 863-1880 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #10 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa06256; 5 Jan 94 23:16 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22429 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 19:41:25 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22775 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 19:41:10 -0600 Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 19:41:10 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401060141.AA22775@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #11 TELECOM Digest Wed, 5 Jan 94 19:41:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 11 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Digicom Modems FAQ Version 2.01 (Wolfgang Henke) Fax Services Wanted (Darren Ingram) Brendan Kehoe Critically Injured in Car Accident (Monty Solomon) How to Send Your Thoughts to Brendan Kehoe (Jim Thomas & Gordon Meyer) How do I Subscribe to Computer Underground Digest? (Wolf Paul) Re: Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident (Carl Moore) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: wolfgang@netcom.com (Wolfgang Henke) Subject: Digicom Modems FAQ Version 2.01 Organization: Netcom Date: Wed, 05 Jan 1994 01:55:47 GMT Digicom Frequently Asked Questions Version 2.01 archived at ftp.netcom.com /pub/wolfgang/Digicom.faq email additions to wolfgang@netcom.com 1. Which different models of Digicom modems are there? 2. What is SoftModem technology and what are its benefits? 3. What is special about Digicom? 4. Can you explain the Signal Computing Architecture? 5. Are there Digicom related ftp sites? 6. What is the recommended setup string? 7. What are the current ROM revisions? 8. Where can I get technical support? 9. Are there any reviews available? 10. Where can I purchase Digicom modems? 11. What's so hot about modems? 1. Which different models of Digicom modems are there? Digicom currently offers Connection series, Scout+ series and 9624 series modems and a 1.544 Mbps digital CSU/DSU. A) Connection series The Connection modems are the industry's first SoftModems. Two models are available: the Connection 14.4+ is an internal 14,400 bps data modem and the Connection 14.4+ FAX is an internal 14,400 bps data and 14,400 bps fax modem. Connection series modems are software upgradeable without having to burn EPROMs. Digicom Connection 14.4+ (internal) software Digicom Connection 14.4+ FAX (internal) upgradeable CCITT V.32bis Modulation (14,400/12,000/7200 bps) X CCITT V.42bis Data Compression X CCITT V.32 Modulation (9600bps/4800bps) X CCITT V.22bis, Bell 212A (2400/1200bps) X V.42 (LAPM) and MNP 4 Error Control X Built-In Speaker for Line Monitoring X Autobaud and Automatic Speed Negotiation X DTE Speeds up to 115,200 baud X Flow Control Selection (Xon/Xoff or RTS/CTS) X Configurable COM Ports 1-4, IRQ 3-5 Support X Extended AT Command Set X V.54 Test Modes and Diagnostics X 16550A UART Compatibility X FCC Class A/B Approved X Five Year Warranty X Qmodem Lite Communication Software X Send/Receive Fax 14,400 bps V.17 Class 1 Group 3 X SoftModem manager, Delrina Winfax Lite (included with the Connection 14.4+ FAX) V.32terbo (19,200/16,800 bps de facto standard) X (available December/January) B) Scout+ series: There are five different Scout+ modems available. The Scout+ is an external 14,400 bps data and fax modem. The Scout+ PC is an internal 14,400 bps data and fax modem. The Scout+ Terbo is an external 19,200 bps data and 14,400 bps fax modem. External modems are also available for the Apple MacIntosh. Digicom Scout+ (external) 14,400 bps data 14,400 bps fax Digicom Scout+ PC (internal) 14,400 bps data 14,400 bps fax Digicom Scout+ Terbo (external) 19,200 bps data 14,400 bps fax V.32terbo de facto standard (19,200/16,800 bps) (Scout+ Terbo only) CCITT V.32bis Modulation (14,400/12,000/7200 bps) CCITT V.42bis Data Compression CCITT V.32 Modulation (9600bps/4800bps) CCITT V.22bis, Bell 212A (2400/1200bps) V.42 (LAPM) and MNP 4 Error Control Built-In Speaker for Line Monitoring Autobaud and Automatic Speed Negotiation DTE Speeds up to 57,600 baud (115,200 baud for Scout+ Terbo) Flow Control Selection (Xon/Xoff or RTS/CTS) V.54 Test Modes and Diagnostics Online help and signal quality testing 16550A UART Compatibility FCC Class A/B Approved Five Year Warranty Qmodem Lite Communication Software Send/Receive Fax 14,400 bps V.17 Class 1 Group 3 Delrina Winfax Lite and Dosfax Lite Compuserve and Prodigy membership kits C) 9624 series modems The 9624 series modems are 14,400 bps data and fax modems which are available in external and rack mounted versions. Digicom 9624LE+ (external) Digicom 9624LR+ (rack mounted; 16 per rack) Digicom 9624E+ (external) Digicom 9624AR+ (rack mounted; 16 per rack; modem management) V.32bis, V.32, V.22bis, V.22, V.21, Bell 212A 14,400, 12,000, 9600, 7200, 4800, 2400, and 1200 bps V.42bis and MNP 5 data compression V.42 (Lap M, MNP 4), MNP 2, 3 and 4 error correction Group 3 send and receive fax, V.29, V.27ter and V.21 adaptive handshake, auto line monitor and retrain full duplex dial-up and two-wire leased line operation asynchronous 10 or 11 bit including start/stop synchronous with internal or external timing flow control XON/XOFF, RTS/CTS, HP ENQ/ACK single number call-back EIA RS-232C up to 38,400 bps RJ-11 with MI/MIC support transmit level -10 dBm (dial), -2 and -10 dBm (leased) receive level 33 db dynamic range, (-43 dBm dial, -35 dBm leased) test modes V.54 analog, digital and remote loopback with selftest Temperature 0 to 50 degrees Celsius relative humidity 0 to 95 degrees non-condensing Appropriate FCC, DOC, UL and CSA certificates with Qmodem and Fax software very low ping latency 2 year warranty 9624LE+ (external): eight LED indicator lights grey/white metal housing talk/data switch 1.5 x 6.5 x 9.0 inches 7 Watts maximum 9624LR+ (rack): 9 LEDS and fits into the 9100RS rack. The 9100RS accepts up to sixteen rack cards. Card dimension 6.25 x 0.8 x 11.5 inches Power: 18 VAC supplied to card Rack dimension: 7 x 19 x 14 inches Power: 117 VAC 60 Hz input 9624E+ (external): all features of 9624LE+ plus 4 wire leased line operation, V.25bis autodial, LCD front panel 9624AR+ (rack): all features of the 9624LR+ plus 4 wire leased line operation, V.25bis autodial, dial backup and Network Management support for 9000ARS rack system D) Digital CSU/DSU The Digicom 5664 FT1 is a fractional T1 CSU/DSU. The bandwith on digital lines can be increased in increments of 56,000/64,000 bps up to a maximum speed of 1,544,000 bps. Digicom 5664 FT1 fractional T1 CSU/DSU 1,544,000 bps digital line Framing: D4, ESF BIT Rate: 1,544 Mbps + 50 Hz Time-Slot Allocation: User defined Transmit Timing: Internal, Network, DTE and External DTE ports: 2,4 and 6 (field expandable) Line code: AMI Signal Levels: 3.0 V + 0.3 V Connector: D-Type 15 pin male Interface Type: RS-449, V.35 or EIA530 Network Performance Monitoring Alarms 2. What is SoftModem Technology and what are its benefits? The SoftModem (tm) Technology Story Digicom Systems' exclusive SoftModem Technology has revolutionized modem design using a general-purpose, reprogrammable Digital Signal Processing (DSP) chip. This neat software solution allows you to take advantage of on-board RAM-based modem/DSP memory. The SoftModem approach allows operational algorithms to be easily installed, quickly changed, and most importantly, upgraded via software. Designed using upgradeable hardware architecture, SoftModem Technology provides the flexibility necessary to keep up with evolving communications standards and changing command interfaces. In addition, this design improves support and service and facilitates the integration of data, fax, and voice-related applications. SoftModem Technology provides all the standard features and characteristics of a high-speed, high-performance modem as a hardware programmable solution that can be modified or enhanced and then distributed over the telephone line, computer networks or on a diskette. Based on SoftModem Technology Upgrade modem features without changing the hardware. That means you can keep up with changing standards and save money. Just install new software to get more out of your modem! FREE ROM updates such as V.32bis (14,400 bps), V.42bis and MNP5 (data compression) can be downloaded. Feature upgrades like Send/Receive V.17 Fax (14,400 bps) and V.32terbo (19,200 bps) will be available from your local computer reseller or online distributors. The Connection 144+ is the world's first software upgradeable modem. It's based on SoftModem Technology, which reduces the risk of obsolescence that is always a problem with traditional modems. Protect your modem investment - the Connection 14.4+ will serve your needs for years to come. 3. What's so special about Digicom? Some background on Digicom: Digicom Systems, Inc. was one of the first to realize the power and flexibility of digital signal processing solutions in data communications (in 1987). DSI then emerged as a leader in modem DSP design which allowed them the flexibility to introduce the first V.32 modem using just one, albeit very powerful DSP. Digicom introduced the industry's first V.32bis modem to market, the first V.32bis modem with send and receive fax capability and very recently the first modem based on SoftModem Technology. A local Silicon Valley manufacturer. 4. Can you explain Signal Computing Architecture? Digicom's products are based on Analog Devices general purpose digital signal processors, abbreviated DSP. Modem algorithms require powerful computational resources and DSPs are well suited to meet them cost effectively. Analog Devices has introduced a common architecture for its DSPs and the accompanying peripheral chips. It is called the Signal Computing Architecture. The advantages of this approach are manifold. Companies developing in different areas of digital signal processing like voice, data communications, graphics can join efforts more easily and offer a more unified interface to application program developers. The Signal Computing Architecture is indeed very popular at present and is attracting more and more developers, like AOX, Cardinal, Dialogic, Hewlett Packard, Media Vision, Spectron and many others. For interested readers BYTE magazine's four article series on Signal Computing may be a good start (November 1992). The Signal Computing Architecture is emerging as a cost effective albeit powerful and versatile platform for communications and multimedia applications. 5. Are there Digicom related ftp sites? feenix.metronet.com /pub/wolfgang SoftModem related files. The subdirectory /smodem carries the latest production algorithms and open beta files. Drivers for Linux and OS/2 are available here. ftp.netcom.com /pub/wolfgang General information files, like this file Digicom.FAQ. ftp.rahul.net /pub/wolfgang Scout+ modem files sgi.com /sgi/fax FlexFAX Unix fax software and fax related documents and information. 6. What is the recommended setup for PCs, Macs and Suns? Here are a few simple setup strings for three different operating systems which work well for the author. They should work with the Digicom Scout+ as well as Digicom 9624 series of modems. For the Connection 14.4+ modems AT&F&W1 should work fine in most cases. Enabling &W1 will report error correction call progress when connecting. Setup for the Digicom Scout+ modem. Setup string for IBM compatibles: AT&F&W Software Qmodem at*o MODEL:SCOUT PLUS DTE: 57600 N81 DCE: IDLE E1 K1 M1 Q0 V1 X4 TONE &B0 &C1 &D2 &R2 &T5 *E9 *F3 *G1 *M1 *N6 *P0 *Q1 *S1 *T1 S00=002 S04=010 S08=002 S15=255 S01=000 S05=008 S09=000 S18=000 S02=043 S06=002 S10=003 S25=000 S03=013 S07=045 S12=050 S26=000 OK Setup string for Apple MacIntosh: AT&F&D0&W Software Quicklink II, cable included with modem Use *F0 with Eagle and non hardware handshake cable at*o MODEL:SCOUT PLUS DTE: 57600 N81 DCE: IDLE E1 K1 M1 Q0 V1 X4 TONE &B0 &C1 &D0 &R2 &T5 *E9 *F3 *G1 *M1 *N6 *P0 *Q1 *S1 *T1 S00=002 S04=010 S08=002 S15=255 S01=000 S05=008 S09=000 S18=000 S02=043 S06=002 S10=003 S25=000 S03=013 S07=045 S12=050 S26=000 OK Setup string for Sun 3/60: AT&F*F2*M0X5M0&W Software tip from 4.1.1 at*o MODEL:SCOUT PLUS DTE: 38400 N81 DCE: IDLE E1 K1 M0 Q0 V1 X5 TONE &B0 &C1 &D0 &R2 &T5 *E9 *F2 *G1 *M0 *N6 *P0 *Q1 *S1 *T1 S00=002 S04=010 S08=002 S15=255 S01=000 S05=008 S09=000 S18=000 S02=043 S06=002 S10=003 S25=000 S03=013 S07=045 S12=050 S26=000 OK 7. Where can I get technical support? Digicom Systems, Inc. 188 Topaz Street, Milpitas, CA 95035 Voice: (408) 262-1277 FAX: (408) 262-1390 Digicom BBS: (408) 262-1412 SoftModem BBS: (408) 262-5629 Also have a look at the ftp sites listed under answer #5 and the list of competent resellers and distributors listed under answer #10. A few commands which can be very helpful in case of difficulties are ATI7 online help ATI6 reason of last disconnect ATSQ signal quality monitor AT*O display current connection statistics and register settings. 8. What are the current ROM code revisions? Latest production ROM releases: Scout+ 11.98 MHz 3225/2930 no V.17 3225/3310 with V.17 3507/3506 Eagle 3310/3310 Scout+ Terbo 3823/3A22 Connection 96+ DATA96 3628/3413 DATA144 3628/3413 DATA144B 3628/3610 FAX144C1 3614/3413 TEST.DSI 3628/3413 9624LE+/9624PC+/9624LR+ 1B11/2503 9624E+/9624AR+ 2227/2503 The first number represents the controller code revision, the second number (after the slash) the DSP code revision. It's datecoded: 3225 e.g. translates into 1993 February 25. 9. Are there any reviews available? There are numerous modem reviews in which Digicom modems are usually fairing quite well. Here is only a brief selection. PC Computing Magazine rated the Digicom Scout+ as the top choice from the 48 modem reviewed in the June 1993 issue. Modems were rated for price/performance. ftp.netcom.com /pub/wolfgang/Scout.txt has a review of the Scout+ by the author of these frequently asked questions. sgi.com /sgi/fax/bakeoff carries extensive test results on the fax capabilities of several current modems and rates them according to a metric called faxstones. The test was performed by Sam Leffler. The Scout+ faired well. PC Week reviewed the Digicom 9624LE+ favorably in its November 19, 1990 issue. PCWeek published benchmark results on April 29, 1991. The 9624LE+ was selected as the Analysts' choice. The fractional FT1 CSU/DSU received the 1993 user choice award in Communications News. Digicom is supplying modems and chipsets to several other modem manufacturers under OEM aggreements. 10. Where can I purchase Digicom modems? Firms that carry Digicom communication products and know them well: Argentina: Turbo Bulletin Board Service +54-1-545-0370 voice/fax +54-1-545-0365 BBS claudio@satlink.net contact: Claudio Vidal Australia: Amuse Developments New Zealand: +64-3-379-5000 +64-3-379-8760 BBS/fax jay@amuse.adsp.sub.org chrish@python.equinox.gen.nz contact: Jeremy Elgin Austria: Focus EDV GesmbH +43-316-28-16-16-0 +43-316-28-16-16-981 (fax) contact: Georg Tamm Germany: Seicom Computer Vertriebs- und Service GmbH +49-7121-9770-0 +49-7121-9770-19 (fax) +49-7121-9770-20 (Fido) +49-7121-9770-30 (Unix Test BBS) haug@seicom.de contact: Winfried Haug DIGICOM MODEM Support & Distribution Site in Germany Hongkong: Global Network Communication Technology Co. +852-4925025 (BBS) tomyan@gnct.com (retail) garyng@gnct.com (corporate) contact: Gary Ng Ireland: Gallimaufry Ltd. +353-88-599673 (Mobile) Paul Harrington +353-88-547228 (Mobile) Ronan Waldron +353-1-966052 (fax) phrrngtn@gallimaufry.ie info@gallimaufry.ie phrrngtn@dsg.cs.tcd.ie contact: Paul Harrington "We support the FSF. We support/install/configure Scout+ modems for fax, e-mail, slip, uucp etc. We offer consultancy by e-mail as well as by remote login over internet and phone." Japan: Independant Research Associates +81-75-951-1168 +81-75-957-1087 (fax) davidg@aegis.org davidg@aegis.or.jp (within Japan) contact: Dave McLane IRA offers Telix (DOS) and Z-term (Mac) installations configured for Scout+ (no extra charge) and consults on various telcommunication projects (contact for fees). Singapore: Modems By Mail order c/o DLS Pte. Ltd. 462 Siglap Road #01-06 Singapore 1545 pg: 4004316 fax: 4485831 inet: kohkhang@iscs.nus.sg contact: Jerry Koh USA: WH Networks +1-415-390-9316 +1-415-964-2027 (fax) wolfgang@netcom.com contact: Wolfgang Henke 11. What's so hot about modems? "A lowly device, called modem, was central to the initial formation stages of our information based society. For several decades after the invention of the transistor its cost of production declined dramatically while the cost of bandwidth remained high due to cost-plus regulation of local telephone monopolies." 4th grade textbook, 2043 WH Networks (415) 390-9316 2672 Bayshore Parkway Suite 503 fax (415) 964-2027 Mountain View CA 94043 ftp.netcom.com /pub/wolfgang USA feenix.metronet.com /pub/wolfgang ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 20:39 GMT From: Darren Ingram Subject: Fax Services Wanted Reply-To: satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk Greetings, I am looking for a low cost service which I can use to send faxes around the world. I have prime requirements to send fax to NA and the Asia Pacific regions. I could do with single copy and mailing list type services. Ideally I'd like to deliver straight ASCII via Internet for faxing out, *but* it must not have lots of urwry@fax.me. received @iworuw.;rwioruwr.wriu type gibberish; ergo, I'd want a similar output to that you'd expect through a fax card and winfax. Any ideas? By mail please! TIA, Darren Ingram, M2 Communications Ltd ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1994 13:32:15 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Brendan Kehoe Critically Injured in Car Accident [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This report is presented FYI and passed along by Monty Solomon from our sister publication Computer Underground Digest to present more details about the accident and how to respond. Following this, a message from Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer of CuD which will elaborate further. My thanks to the several readers who wrote to ask for more specifics both about Kehoe and CuD. Hopefully the messages which follow in this issue will answer questions. PAT] Begin forwarded message: Date: Mon, 3 Jan 1994 14:41:00 CST Reply-To: TK0JUT2@MVS.CSO.NIU.EDU Sender: CU-DIGEST list From: TK0JUT2@NIU.bitnet Subject: Brendan Kehoe critically injured in car accident To: Multiple recipients of list CUDIGEST Brendan Kehoe, Cu Digest archivist at ftp.eff.org and author of ZEN AND THE ART OF THE INTERNET, was critically injured in an automobile accident in Pennsylvania on Friday, 31 December. He sustained massive head injuries, but on Monday, the prognosis for his survival was "cautiously optimistic," according to his brother. Tragically, the severity of the injuries will likely produce permanent disability, although the nature and extent remains uncertain at this time. Doctors expect that he will be semi-comatose for at least two weeks. The hospital is not allowing him to receive flowers or other tangibles. Cards may be sent to him at: Brendan Kehoe c/o Alice Kehoe Penn Tower Hotel Civic Center Blvd ad 34th Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 Brendan will not be able to directly communicate for some time. But, his brother and a few friends intend to set up a net-link to keep people informed of his condition. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 18:52 CST From: Jim Thomas (tk0jut1@mvs.cso.niu.edu) Subject: How to Send Your Thoughts to Brendan Kehoe As Pat noted in a previous issue of TELECOM Digest, Brendan Kehoe was seriously injured in a car crash on 31 December. Brendan's wit and helpfulness earned him many friends. The Cu Digest editors are encouraging netfolk to send electronic messages to him that include a joke, funny story, or a "get-well" recipe. The editors will accept e-mail contributions until about January 19. Then, we'll print the responses on rag-bond paper, bind them, and send them to him as a "net anthology." Send notes to: tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu with the subject header: TO BRENDAN Jim Thomas / Gordon Meyer CuD Editors [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I hope all readers of this Digest who are familiar with Brendan Kehoe will take a few minutes sometime in the next week or so to send their thoughts to Jim and Gordon per the examples above. I hope they get so much stuff they have to make two or three volumes to hold it all! :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: cc_paul@aaf.alcatel.at (Wolf Paul) Subject: How Do I Subscribe to Computer Underground Digest? Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 14:20:15 MET Unfortunately some of us don't know how to get hold of the current issue of the CUD. Could you please post a pointer to it, or post the appropriate sections here. Thanks, Wolf Paul (who wants to send a card). Wolf N. Paul, Computer Center wnp@aaf.alcatel.at Alcatel Austria Research Center +43-1-391621-122 (w) Ruthnergasse 1-7 +43-1-391452 (fax) A-1210 Vienna-Austria/Europe +43-1-2206481 (h) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The message before this one explains how to write to Brendan. For those readers who are not familiar with Computer Underground Digest, now is a good time to tell you about it. It began back in 1990 as an overflow mailing list for a series of messages here in TELECOM Digest dealing with hacking and phreaking, and some persons who had been arrested and put on trial for related things. The messages just kept rolling in and CuD stayed around to become -- like this Digest -- a very popular, very well-read e-journal on the computer networks of the world. CuD should definitly be on your 'must read' list of e-journals and if you would like to subscribe I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I do. Let me repeat the address Jim Thomas gave earlier: tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu This will get you a free subscription to our sister publication, Computer Underground Digest, and I hope you will sign up today. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 9:38:55 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident Where in Pennsylvania is Newton? I know of West Newton, Newton Hamilton, Newtown Square, and Newtown. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Good point, Carl. According to my Rand McNally atlas there are two separate communities in Pennsylvania each called "Newtown"; between them their combined population is less than four thousand people. There appears to be no such place as 'Newton' in Pennsylvania. Perhaps JT or the writer of the original message will issue a correction. In the meantime, his mother Alice is staying in Philadelphia; see an earlier message in this issue. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #11 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa06600; 6 Jan 94 0:46 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05824 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 21:15:46 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06093 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 5 Jan 1994 21:15:33 -0600 Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 21:15:33 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401060315.AA06093@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #12 TELECOM Digest Wed, 5 Jan 94 21:15:30 CST Volume 14 : Issue 12 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers (Dik T. Winter) Re: California ANI Question (Steve Forrette) Re: California ANI Question (Steven H. Lichter) Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated (Carl Oppedahl) Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated (David A. Kaye) Re: Wireless Transciever Boards (Cliff Sharp) Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services (Joe George) Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services (R. McMillin) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Ron Schnell) Re: Info on Cellular One NACP (Peter Gregory) Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack (John S. Roberts Jr.) Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Telephone Answering Machine Question (Carl Moore) Calvacom: New Distribution Site For Digest (TELECOM Digest Editor) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dik.Winter@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter) Subject: Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers Organization: CWI, Amsterdam Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 02:22:39 GMT In article mzmijews@mgzcs.demon.co.uk writes: > I don't know what the ITU decided but in UK we are told to use: > MYCOMPANY NAME (0123) 123456 > international +44 123 123456 The second line is the recommended ITU method. > This seems a bit stupid -- the American system (if there is any), > seems to be much better -- just the area code plus number. Everybody > knows when to add 1 or when to add 001 (if calling from another > country). Most American numbers I see are in the form (202) 855-4444. Should I add a 1? Or 001? None will work. > In Europe 0 is being now used as prefix for area code numbers and 00 > as prefix for country codes. Hey! When did you change to 00 as prefix instead of 010? I thought that was in the future? > But then some French idiots come up with a stupid numbering system > (for Paris *and* Greater Paris +331 xxxxxxxx rest of the country +33 > xxxxxxxx ). Is it a revenge for changing CCITT to ITU? The French may be idiots, but you are an idiot parsing numbers. The first should be +33 1xxxxxxxx. So the country is +33. Anyhow, try to phone me. Area code plus home number are 206372010. Try your logic preceding it with either 1 or 001. A better choice for you would be 01031 (and 0031 in the future). dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj amsterdam, nederland, +31205924098 home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn amsterdam, nederland; e-mail: dik@cwi.nl ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: California ANI Question Date: 6 Jan 1994 00:46:16 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In , reb@ingres.com (Phydeaux) writes: > Hi! In a discussion the other day, one of my colleagues told me that > "ANI is illegal in California." I'm sure he meant CNID, but he > understands the difference and was pretty emphatic about this. I'm > sure someone here knows for sure. ANI is not illegal in California. As the Digest Editor noted, with very few exceptions, if you can call an 800 number, the recipient can get your ANI. I manage a switch which has hundreds of 800 numbers going to it (about five of them for my personal use), and I can assure you that I have no problems at all getting ANI from California. In fact, only about .5 percent of all calls nationwide arrive with no ANI, and California is no exception. Since my switch is not located in California, all calls that come to it from the Golden State are interstate commerce, and any laws that the state may have do not apply to them (BTW, there are no laws regarding ANI in CA that I am aware of anyway). I even have a couple of customers in CA that receive ANI delivery from me, either in real-time via inband DTMF, through voice mail and pager mail, and of course on their bills (just like any 800 service today). Perhaps the state may have something to say about that in the future if they choose to do so, but they have not chosen to do so up to now. Also, it is questionable as to what would happen at that point anyway, since the calls would still cross the state line before returning to California (and no, this is not done to get around CA's [nonexistant] ANI regulation - it just so happens that I don't live in CA anymore). And there is blocking available -- if callers choose not to have me or my customers pay for their telephone calls (which is what they are doing when they call an 800 number), we will never get their number. I guess this is a form of per-call blocking :-) (I suppose you could even have per-line 800 ANI blocking if you got a toll restrictor and programmed it to block 800 numbers :-)) Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: California ANI Question Date: 5 Jan 1994 23:27:49 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) I have an 800 number coming into my BBS for a few friends and myself to use and have the call reports from AT&T. They are overwelming each month, but I'm able to see all the wrong numbers (under 30 seconds) and the phone hackers looking for a DID trunk (New York, New Jersey). I sure wish they would finally get CID here in California. -=- Sysop: Apple Elite II -=- an Ogg-Net Hub BBS (909) 359-5338 12/24/96/14.4 V32/V42bis Via PCP CACOL/12/24 ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated Date: 5 Jan 1994 17:23:04 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In Dan Cromer <19016007@SBACVM.SBAC.EDU> writes: > How are VCR Plus+ code numbers, the up-to-eight digit numbers for each > TV program used in programming some new VCRs and VCR-programming > remotes, generated. I bought a new VCR for my folks in Lakeland, FL, > to make it easy for them to set up the VCR for recording, but the VCR > Plus+ codes aren't listed in their newspaper. I'd like to be able to > set up a programmable calculator so that it would generate the code > for them. I know there is a 900 number at 95 cents/minute, but don't > think they should have to pay $1.90 every time they want to use the > system. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Its a secret. No one knows for sure how > it is done except the proprietors of the system, and they aren't going > to tell. There *are* scripts around in various ftp archives sites > which make a stab at this, but I understand none of them are perfect > and all have a few bugs. The topic is even discussed on a regular basis > in a couple of newsgroups devoted to cable television and vcr's, etc. > I'm sure some readers will send you email telling you where to find the > programs which have attempted to work out the VCR+ codes, but part of > the reason for selling the device and operating the 900 phone number is > so the proprietors can make money on the deal which I guess is the > main reason their lips are zipped. PAT] Well, it is not a secret. The algorithm, at least for the relatively short (four to six digit) codes, was published a year or so ago in {Cryptologia} magazine. Three people managed to reverse-engineer the algorithm. And the patent that is said to cover it was published in Europe a year ago or so ... although it does not reveal much of the algorithm. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY voice 212-777-1330 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Has anyone ever been completely successful with this yet? Radio Shack has a VCR+ thing they sell now which does not even have written documentation with it. All the 'instructions' tell you to do is (after you buy it, shoplift it or whatever) take it home and call a certain 800 phone number to speak with someone who will then *program it over the phone* for you based on what you tell them about your VCR/television equipment. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated Date: 5 Jan 1994 16:40:08 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] Dan Cromer (19016007@SBACVM.SBAC.EDU) wrote: > remotes, generated. I bought a new VCR for my folks in Lakeland, FL, > to make it easy for them to set up the VCR for recording, but the VCR > Plus+ codes aren't listed in their newspaper. I'd like to be able to I could have sworn that Toshiba or possibly Mitsui has a remote control device which has thumbwheel switches for day of week, date, time, and channel number, so that a person can read across the front of the unit, "Monday - 7th - 7:00 to 7:30 - pm - channel 4" and be done with the confusion. Has anyone seen one of these? ------------------------------ From: indep1!clifto (Cliff Sharp) Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 11:48:32 GMT Subject: Re: Wireless Transceiver Boards In article add@philabs.Philips.Com (Aninda Dasgupta) writes: > 1) should work around corners and through walls (a range of say > three to four rooms/offices), > 2) support a data rate anywhere from 10 to 64 Kbps, > 3) should use carrier frequencies that are not restricted by the FCC and > are unlikely to be very crowded by other systems, > 4) should be priced around $10. Are you _serious_? I'd like to see something like this under $150/station. In fact, I'd like to know of a source for a decent, shielded 25' RS-232 cable around $10. The _only_ things along this line I'm aware of are the spread-spectrum 902-928 MHz modems some companies made and are presumably still making. (Unfortunately, I just threw away the information; "never needed it". Bah.) Last I asked, they were in the $300-600 range (per station). Someone _may_ make power-line modems that might work over these distances, but I've yet to get a manufacturer's name. If you find anything like a $10, 64KBPS wireless modem, I know where I can sell a hundred thousand or so ... Cliff Sharp clifto@indep1.chi.il.us WA9PDM clifto@indep1.UUCP never works ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 08:09 EST From: jgeorge@nbi.com (Joe George) Subject: Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We had one from the American Nazi Party > here for quite awhile which was always good for a laugh, but I have > not heard it lately, and don't remember the number so I cannot say for > sure if it is stilll operating or not. Regards the amount of preparation The Wizard of the north Georgia KKK has a 'hotline' number as well. I'd say this number is good for a VERY non-Politically Correct laugh from time to time. The number is (706) 967-3479. Might be (404) 967-3479 with the recent arguments over area code boundaries. Joe George (jgeorge@crl.com, jgeorge@nbi.com) The NBI Press: Typesetting, Graphic Artwork, Fine Italian Cuisine If I put Vicki Robinson in my sig, will she put me in hers? "Usenet is a cesspool, a dungheap." -Patrick Townson [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I dunno about Vicki Robinson but if you put me in your .sig I'll be sure not to truncate it when I publish your fine cuisine (of some sort!) in this Digest. ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services Organization: Surf City Software/TBFW Project Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 15:06:17 GMT On Tue, 4 Jan 94 17:21:42 EST, Carl Moore said: > 718-963-6962 is disconnected (I just tried it). > But I did reach 410-337-FUNN (3866), the "Joke Du Jour" hotline of > "Rouse and company" on WQSR-FM 105.7 in Baltimore, Maryland. On again, off again over a period of the last fifteen or more years is the Zzygot dial-a-joke line (714-839-3000). Some days you get a joke, others the phone rings and rings and rings. Lately it's been just rings. Robert L. McMillin | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Netcom: rlm@netcom.com 13442 Wilson St. | Garden Grove, CA | 92644 voice: 714-638-2459 | fax: 714-638-2384 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 12:08:13 EST From: Ron Schnell Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous I have anonymous call rejection enabled on my phone in Miami, FL, and someone tried to call me from a cellular phone that was installed in a rental car in San Diego in their rental car and got the rejection message. I assume that the cellular rental company uses some ultra-cheap LD service (to make the most amount of money possible on the $2.00/minute rental charge!) that uses a local out-going line in Miami that disabled CID. Ron (ronnie@twitch.mit.edu) ------------------------------ From: peter.gregory@asix.com (Peter Gregory) Subject: Re: Info on Cellular One NACP Date: 5 Jan 1994 21:43:37 GMT Organization: Asix, Inc. Reply-To: peter.gregory@asix.com In article 5@eecs.nwu.edu, ctuttle@obelisk.pillar.com (Colin Tuttle) writes: > Now this past week I went down to Austin, (a NACN City) turned on the > cell phone and immediately called my Oklahoma City number from a > nearby pay phone. It rang twice and then my cell phone rang. Now my > question is how does Cellular One Austin so quickly notify Cellular > One Oklahoma City I am in Austin Texas about 400 miles from home and > immediately send my calls to me? The secret is this: as soon as you turned on your phone in Austin, the local switch picked up your ESN; when a local database lookup failed, it requested your profile from the main database, which was then sent to the local switch. Peter Gregory [NICname PG11] peter.gregory@asix.com Senior Consultant. ASIX Inc., 1420 Fifth Ave, Suite 2200, Seattle, WA 98101 on-site at Wireless Data Div., McCaw Cellular Communications, Kirkland, WA ------------------------------ From: John S. Roberts Jr. Subject: Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack Date: 5 Jan 1994 16:32:10 -0500 Organization: University of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences I connected up the "other two wires" on all the lines running through my house. Now, I can hear line two when using line one and vice-versa. Is there any solution to this? Thanks, John S. Roberts, Jr. 100 McVey Hall Work: 257-2275 University of Kentucky Home: 272-1417 - FAX: 272-7105 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The solution is that somewhere in the loop you (or someone long gone before you) cross connected the wires and what you think is the 'other two wires' is really just part of the first two wires. You don't really have 'line one' and 'line two'; you have one line wired in multiple so to speak. Go to each box as well as to the head end and find out where the cross connection is in place. It may be nothing more than a real messy box with some loose wires which are touching the connectors for the first set of wires. Clean up that mess, and your 'other two wires' will suddenly go dead again unless/until you have an actual second phone line brought up to them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack Date: 5 Jan 1994 20:54:40 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In mcneill@ngt.sungard.com (Keith McNeill) writes: > On a side note, I recently called NY Telephone (or NYNEX as they want > to be called now) about getting a second phone line installed in my > apartment. I was shocked to get a quote of $185 for the second line > (first line costs about $60). This is the price for installing a > totally different phone line in the apartment. I complained a little > that they didn't need to do that as there was a perfectly good second > pair coming into the apartment I didn't get very far as the customer > service rep wasn't technical. Is there really any need to get a > totally seperate line into my apartment? Diamond State Telephone > (Delaware) was able to put a second line on the second pair. Is NYNEX > just trying to gouge me? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not necessarily. Telco outside plant > records are in notoriously bad condition in some places. The rep may > have actually not had any record of the second pair in your apartment > or may have had a record of it but shown it to be actually a multiple > of someone else's first pair or what-have-you. Have you tested that > pair to see if it is alive (with someone else's service because some > installer in the past never opened it up at the pole) or if it is in > good condition? Have you traced it back to the demarc, such as in the > basement of the building where you live? If you can get that second > pair back as far as the demarc for the building (or yourself, whichever > applies), then you have a second pair and it should not be required > for telco to make any visit to your home with the high cost for same. > You have to be careful though; make sure that set of wires you are > looking at actually goes somewhere and reaches the demarc. If not, then > you are possibly stuck for the high installation costs of a second line. > You should trace that pair first, getting it back to the demarc if at > all possible. Note on the demarc there may be some notations (little > tags tied on with bits of string are common) telling the installers > what goes where. If you see a notation saying something like 'cable 74, > pair 29' or similar then when you call back to the business office if > you get the same rap about how a new line has to be installed in your > apartment tell the rep you *think* 'cable 74 pair 29' is there already. > Note I emphasize 'think'. You're not a phone installer so don't try to > act like one. But stress you have seen complete wires back to the demarc > which appear to be idle, and you are wondering if the rep will please > have someone confirm or correct the outside plant records. PAT] In some states the steps the moderator describes are exactly right. In New York, things are a little different. Telco is obligated to provide a network interface jack (if that is what you want) *in your apartment*, for a price that is fixed -- unaffected by how long it takes to do. This is the case regardless of whether their records show a previous second line in your apartment; all that changes is the amount of the fixed price. Last I checked the cost for your situation (where they claim there was never a second line) is $88. Then you just connect your own wiring to that second NIJ. The state-to-state differences are discussed in my book about phone service. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY voice 212-777-1330 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What's this about your book about phone service? Please review it for us and tell us how to obtain copies. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 18:20:07 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Telephone Answering Machine Question I don't know the answer; I had a note in this Digest long ago about an "action line" telephone number which gave a beep but did not take messages -- AND THE RECORDING SPECIFICALLY SAID IT DID NOT TAKE MESSAGES. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 1994 20:06:54 -0600 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Calvacom: New Distribution Site For Digest This is just a note of welcome to the subscribers of Calvacom, a service in France which was described to me as 'a lot like Compuserve in the USA'. I've been in correspondence with someone there about making TELECOM Digest available to the subscribers on that system, and distribution has now begun. If the participants on Calvacom choose to send mail to this Digest, you'll see network addresses for them of the form '@calvacom.fr'. I appreciate very much them thinking of me and asking to have this Digest included among the various features available to their users. I would also like to mention that the gateway to Prodigy now seems to be in place and a welcome is in order to the several susbcribers from that network who have requested subscriptions to the Digest in recent days. PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #12 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10542; 6 Jan 94 14:10 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02605 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 6 Jan 1994 09:13:42 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24461 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 6 Jan 1994 09:13:26 -0600 Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 09:13:26 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401061513.AA24461@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #13 TELECOM Digest Thu, 6 Jan 94 09:13:20 CST Volume 14 : Issue 13 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson MCI's ATM Communications Response (Dan L. Dale) A Tale of Two Dialtones (Paul Robinson) Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (A. Padgett Peterson) Re: Fax Services Wanted (Arlington Hewes) Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers (Robert L. Ullmann) Cable Channels and Satellites (Miles Thomas) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 22:55 EST From: Dan L. Dale <0005517538@mcimail.com> Subject: MCI's ATM Communications Response SUBJECT ARTICLE: Setting the record straight on the Communications Week article "User's Want Data Details for MCI" (12/20/93) DATE: January 4, 1993 On December 20, 1993, Communications Week published a front-page article entitled "Users Want Data Details From MCI". This article criticized MCI for not publicly disclosing detailed plans for ATM service offerings. Customers may ask about the article and MCI's overall strategic data direction related to emerging technologies such as ATM. Communications Week extensively quoted Paul Weichselbaum, MCI's vice president of data marketing, along with many telecommunications managers from a variety of companies. Mr. Weichselbaum has written to Communications Week regarding their news coverage. His letter to the editor seeks to place his comments in the appropriate context and accurately explain MCI's approach to ATM. The complete text of the Communications Week article and MCI's response is included below. The article began by stating MCI "will renege on a promise to detail its ATM plans by year's end, frustrating users who are trying to understand the carrier's data strategy". The article continued to criticize our lack of an ATM switch vendor and the lack of service and pricing details. It is important that MCI assist customers in placing emerging technologies in the proper perspective. Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) are two emerging technologies that will play an important role in the next generation of data service offerings from MCI. ATM employs fixed-length cells to carry data, voice, and video at speeds suitable for wide area connections. This technology has the potential to support new applications and consolidate traffic. ATM will obviate the need, at least technically, for the multiple separate networks (such as data, voice, and video-conference) most companies maintain. This technology could allow corporations to build a single enterprise wide area network carrying all their communications traffic. For better or worse, ATM is often looked upon as a networking panacea. The reality is that ATM is one of several solutions that may or may not be appropriate for a customer at this time or in the near future. The following are key points to remember when discussing MCI's view of ATM technology: MCI believes ATM, in its current state, is more of a technology than a service; MCI has found that most of our customer's current application can be served with existing data services. ATM's full potential and value will be realized through the implementation of future applications; ATM technology must mature; standards must be developed and finalized. The technology is quickly maturing; product and hardware life cycles are short. The first generation switches are not adequate to offer a robust central office based service offering. MCI continues to actively work with switch vendors to influence second generation technology. As noted above, experience has shown that the vast majority of customer applications do not require transport rates in excess of 1.544 Mbps. ATM is traditionally associated with transport speeds in excess of 45 Mbps. Although potential standards are being evaluated for ATM below 45 Mbps speeds, other issues must be resolved before ATM becomes a truly viable service offering. MCI understands these issues and is working with manufacturers and standards bodies to arrive at solutions that will allow carriers to offer interoperable, network based ATM service offerings. Various trade publications have echoed MCI's concerns. John McQuillan's recent article in Business Communications Review ("Where are the ATM Applications?", pp 12-14, November 1993) noted that "...there are simpler and less expensive alternatives to ATM". He continued to state that "...while the ATM community has been focused on ATM at 45 Mbps rates and up, customers spend most of their money at T1 rates and below". Mr. McQuillan is widely recognized as a leading industry expert on ATM technology. Readers of the Communications Week article may form the impression that MCI is behind everyone else since we have not publicly disclosed specific ATM service plans. MCI has chosen not to tell our ATM story via the media. There are two primary reasons for this. MCI cannot control the media and their spin to a story. In addition, our discussions with vendors and end users impact the formulation of ideas and thinking about what our ATM service directions should be; we want to keep that information away from the competition for the time being. MCI is not at a competitive disadvantage related to the understanding of ATM technology. MCI is actively participating in the ATM Forum and other standards bodies. We actively participate in the development of standards and applications related to ATM. MCI is also investigating current ATM research and technical design issues. We have implemented a trial ATM network to study ATM. Our trial network has allowed the engineering lab to study flow control interactions between higher layer protocols and ATM switches. We have also found that the high speed access lines and bursty nature of today's high performance applications such as file transfer and distributed database applications can easily overrun small buffers that are often found in ATM switches. These detailed simulations have allowed us to understand the impact of existing buffer management schemes on TCP flow control mechanics and the resulting useful throughput that can be achieved. Although MCI has not announced an ATM switch vendor, switches from leading ATM vendors have undergone evaluation in MCI's Network Engineering Laboratory. Testing continues on second generation switches. We have found that ATM technology is quickly maturing and switch hardware life cycles are short. To further the development of ATM, MCI has provided feedback to ATM switch manufacturers on the key issues we have learned. Our methodical approach will allow us to influence the technology changes in the next generation of switches. This approach will ultimately be advantageous to our customers. More than a dozen ATM products have been announced in 1993 - and more will be available in 1994. Hardware vendors interested in ATM technologies include Cabletron, Cisco Systems, Motorola Codex, Newbridge, Northern Telecom, StrataCom, and Wellfleet to name a few. At the present time, most switch vendors only provide a partial set of service characteristics associated with ATM (e.g. access classes and the timing, bit rate and connection mode attributes, etc.). Industry analysts generally agree with MCI's view that ATM standards must be further developed to address additional areas of concern to a perspective end user such as the lack of flow control between switches, no LAN bridging specifications, and a lack of quality of service definition. In addition, many service features offered by vendors are proprietary in nature. Only when these issues are addressed, will the full potential of ATM be realized. Once again, other industry analysts and periodicals mirror MCI viewpoint. For instance, an article in Data Communications magazine ("ATM at Your Service?", pp 85-88, November 1993) noted that "without standard service definitions, carriers may end up developing their own approaches, a scenario that could lead to the same troubles that have plagued ISDN: lack of interoperability and spotty geographic coverage." The press and general public is often unaware of the work MCI has undertaken with ATM. Our focus is on driving service related issues with standards bodies and vendors; not to engage in public debates, create unfulfilled service expectations, pre-announce products, or provide proprietary service solutions in the absence of industry standards. The above is not meant to provide you with all the details on MCI's strategic data direction or our work with ATM. It is meant to inform you that MCI is actively undertaking initiatives to develop expertise with the technology. MCI's pragmatic approach will allow us to effectively develop, market and support the existing and emerging services required by our customers. These considerations will ultimately prove to be in the customers' best interest. COMMUNICATIONS WEEK ARTICLE: Communications Week via First! : WASHINGTON MCI Communications Corp. will renege on a promise to detail its ATM service plans by year's end, frustrating users who are trying to understand the carrier's data strategy. "I just wish I knew what its data strategy is," said Thomas O'Toole, director of communications systems for Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh. "MCI always, for some reason, has struggled with a data strategy." In briefings delivered several times during the year, MCI has glossed over its plans to offer asynchronous transfer mode services. MCI officials have said the company will provide ATM services, but they have given no details on prices, operating speeds, network management capabilities, switching platform or classes of service. That kind of information is already available from AT&T, Sprint and WilTel-MCI's main competitors. "We clearly have a different approach," said Paul Weichselbaum, MCI's vice president of data marketing. In May, Weichselbaum said that by the end of this year, MCI would select an ATM switch vendor, begin field trials and provide service details (Communications Week, May 31). It is clear that MCI will not meet those goals. MCI now expects to select its ATM switch vendor during the first half of next year and roll out a service late next year, Weichselbaum said in an interview with Communications Week. He would not discuss service characteristics or say when such information would be available. Weichselbaum explained the delay by saying that MCI has tested ATM switches, but found that they did not measure up to its expectations. SMDS Late Too MCI also has vacillated on its plans to offer a switched multimegabit data service, which it announced in October 1992 for general availability in mid-1993. During the May briefing, Weichselbaum said MCI was postponing SMDS availability because of software delays. MCI canceled an SMDS beta test that had been planned with Rockwell International Corp., Seal Beach, Calif. MCI was supposed to reschedule the test, but has yet to do so, according to Chuck Ramey, Rockwell's manager of network hardware-telecommunications services. Weichselbaum said this month that SMDS will be generally available in the first half of next year. He said users are trying the service now, but he declined to name them. Users said MCI's failure to provide details on its ATM plans or roll out SMDS indicates that the carrier's data strategy is in disarray. "If they want to be seen as a leader in the industry, they need to provide information on [ATM] pricing and service levels pretty quickly," said Blair Sanders, senior member of the technical staff at Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas. During a recent interview, MCI chairman and CEO Bert Roberts insisted that MCI has a strong data strategy. If there's confusion, he said, MCI may not be doing a good job of communicating its plans. "Sometimes it's a market perception, but in this case, I think it's a real issue," said Rosemary Cochran, principal with Vertical Systems Group, Dedham, Mass. Details, Details The information on data services MCI recently supplied Domino's Pizza in response to a request for proposals was "far less detailed" than that received from AT&T and Sprint, said Daniel Gonos, telecommunications manager at the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based pizza company. "I'm not sure whether it's a learning curve with MCI, or that it's just trying to be careful," Gonos said. "But it's clear, for whatever reason, that MCI is behind everyone else." Jeffrey Marshall, director of communications for Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., New York, said MCI has done a good job articulating a broad data strategy, but that the details are missing. Other MCI users said they are satisfied with the information they have received from MCI. "I think it's been up-front since the beginning with ATM," said William Johnson, director of communications at Woolworth Corp., New York. "It wanted to make sure it had its act together before implementing a program. I don't think it's at that point yet. We need more details, but we can wait." Donald Moore, communications technology manager at Aldus Corp., a Seattle-based software maker, said ATM is still far enough in the future that his company can wait for details. Moore said, however, that he was told that MCI already has selected its switch vendor but won't publicly disclose its choice. Apparently, confusion over the switch vendor extends to Roberts, who said earlier this month that MCI has selected an ATM switch vendor. MCI representatives later denied that Roberts made that statement. Weichselbaum argued that MCI has a solid data portfolio, and that the carrier has yet to find an application that can't be handled by its existing services. He said ATM is not necessary today because frame-relay, SMDS and other switched data services offer users what they need. MCI tries to encourage companies to consider data services like frame-relay or SMDS, rather than ATM, Weichselbaum said. But MCI will bid on request for proposals in cases where users insist on ATM. "We would have to install switches if the bid were approved," he said. This approach bothers some users, who said they would prefer to use an established network. "We don't mind being a test pilot, but if it's a matter of getting into an airplane that's never been made before, we're a little shy about that," said Marshall of Bear, Stearns. MFS Datanet Inc., Sprint and WilTel already offer ATM-based services. AT&T has detailed its service, which will be available in mid-1994. "There's no compelling application that absolutely requires ATM today," Weichselbaum said. "We don't want to do it because everyone else is doing it." Industry analysts said MCI is too wrapped up in its purchase of BT North America Inc., San Jose, Calif., to focus adequate attention on its data strategy. Roberts confirmed that the company was preoccupied for at least two months working out the details of their joint arrangement. [12-22-93 at 14:59 EST, Copyright 1993, CMP Publications, Inc., File: c1222056.2mp] MCI RESPONSE TO THE COMMUNICATION WEEK ARTICLE: MCI's Paul Wiechselbaum, vice-president data marketing, wrote the following letter to the editors of Communications Week. The letter will probably be published in the 1/10/94 issue. MCI takes great exception to the tone and content of your December 20, 1993 article, "Users Want Data Details From MCI." You quote me as saying "we clearly have a different approach [to ATM]," without giving your readers the opportunity to understand or evaluate that approach. First, MCI approaches ATM not as a high technology company, but rather as a service company; we employ high tech products in the provisioning of our services. We want to offer data services to the marketplace that will help customers compete more effectively. In our opinion, ATM in its current state is more a technology than a service; it's a fast-bit pipe using ATM multiplexing. CommWeek editors seemed to agree with this point, given the November 22, 1993 editorial, "Bridging the Gap of ATM Theory and Reality." Our market research shows that it will be a couple of years before the multimedia promise of ATM can be fully deployed as a broadly available, economically compelling and completely standards-based service. We've found that most of our customers' current applications can be served with existing services. In other words, ATM's full potential is required for future market applications and much less so for current ones. At the same time, our discussions with ATM switch vendors over the past three years have convinced us that the technology is maturing quickly and product life cycles are short. With first generation switch technology only a pale imitation of what ATM could be and the market still immature, we are taking the time to try to influence second generation technological changes to our customers' advantage. We believe we can enter the market with a much richer ATM service well before it gains much momentum and the longer we can wait before making this investment, the more likely it is that a particular vendor of ATM technology will have something better to offer than we've seen to date. Our experience with frame relay reflects the merits of such an approach. While we were among the last to offer a commercial frame relay service, the fact that our HyperStream Frame Relay continues to be unique in the marketplace a full 18 months after introduction -- with its sustained burst capabilities, usage and mileage sensitive pricing, and asymmetrical provisioning -- is telling. Such capabilities give our customers greater control and ultimately, save money over competitive offerings. HyperStream's success has convinced us that our market strategy is on target. Given this experience, we don't feel compelled to mimic other carriers in the ATM arena; our focus is on the market. Your broad generalization that "users want data details from MCI" is misleading. CommWeek knows very well that MCI's data strategy is much broader than just ATM. And we are certainly telling customers what our ATM directions are and how these fit with our overall data plans. However, to date we've chosen to do this in private customer briefings. These briefings serve to validate our current conclusions on ATM services while enabling us to protect competitive advantages we gain as a result of those discussions. MCI clearly does have a different approach to ATM. We believe it's a methodical, realistic, customer-oriented and responsible one. It reflects the market window available to us as well as the technology cycles we're seeing and shaping. The feedback from our customers has been both positive and constructive. It's unfortunate that our rationale for pursuing this different strategy was not fully represented in the story. Paul J. Weichselbaum Vice President Data Marketing ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 01:00:49 EST From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: A Tale of Two Dialtones Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA It was the best of dials, it was the worst of dials ... I originally had four phone lines coming into my house. The family member who needed the fourth line didn't need it any longer, so I had it shut off. Recently, another relative had to move in with us and wanted their own phone line. Since I had a circuit left I called the phone company to have them turn that on ($47.00) from the office instead of their paying another $65.00 to have another circuit installed (when the new wire was installed, the old wire, which the installer discovered was spliced, was pulled and replaced with a six-pair cable; see "Dial Tone is No Extra Charge" printed last year.) I do my own wiring so I had put in the wire and turn on was scheduled for the 5th. Earlier in the day I had made a call from my computer line. I went to work and called home to check up on my mother who is recovering from Cancer. The phone doesn't answer. This is unusual. Over several hours I tried it, off and on, and got no answer. Tried calling the special number in the hall (it's used for my 800 number) no answer. I was worried a little, so when I got home I discovered nothing unusual. I picked up the phone and got dial tone. I did, however, discover later that the hall phone / answering machine's power had become unplugged, which meant it wouldn't even allow me to dial out. Plugged back in it gave me dial tone. Note this is the electrical plug, in addition to the telephone line. I went down to the basement demarc and finished wiring the new phone line. No problem and I get a dial tone. I dialed my home number and it was busy. Dialed the special number that runs to the hall phone and it just rang (as stated above). I must have, in running the 50 or so feet of wire down to the basement, miswired the phone onto my line. But since each circuit goes through its own gas fuse, I thought I had done it correctly. I left the phone on a busy signal and went to the other phone. Dial tone. All I did was hook up the new phone. This doesn't make sense. Then it hit me. I hung up the new phone, went back to the regular phone, and dialed the regular number. The new phone rang. Went upstairs, got the paper with the new phone number C&P supplied me when I placed the order. Dialed that number and my old phone rang! I never touched my original connection, so the problem is with the phone company. This is what happened: in ordering the new service, the phone company put the new service on the original number, and put our old service on the new line! Well, tomorrow morning I'll call and make a stink about it. There are at least six or more outlets running wires into the original connection for me to change them all, so I'll complain and insist they fix it. Beyond that, for all I know they may charge me for moving my phone service to a different pair! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 07:54:38 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped It was announced yesterday that Southern Bell has agreed to drop the U$1.00/line/month surcharge for tone dialing in the Orlando area that had been in effect since the introduction of touch-tone dialing service. It is not known exactly when this change will take place other than it is expected "within 60 days". Warmly, Padgett ------------------------------ From: Arlington Hewes Subject: Re: Fax Services Wanted Date: Wed, 05 Jan 1994 19:48:15 -0800 > Greetings, I am looking for a low cost service which I can use to send > faxes around the world. I have prime requirements to send fax to NA > and the Asia Pacific regions. Send a note to tpc-faq@town.hall.org and check out the TPC.INT project. mtr ------------------------------ From: ariel@world.std.com (Robert L Ullmann) Subject: Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers Organization: The World in Boston Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 04:03:45 GMT tnixon@microsoft.com (Toby Nixon) writes: > right. A "+" and the country code, a space, the city code (optionally > enclosed within parenthesis to indicate that it is optionally dialed > if you're within the same city code), then another space, and the No, not exactly. Numbers in parens should not appear in the + form. If they do, they mean _do_not_ dial this to the international caller: a London number might be +44 (0) 71 123 4576. BTW: IMHO, BT does a disservice to the UK consumer by always listing city codes with the leading "0"; the consumer is going to have trouble understanding that the "0" is an access code, not part of the city code. I think the +1 code for the NANP being the same as the 1- access code for long distance within the NANP isn't a coincidence. ATT invented the international plan ... When I first saw country codes in the telephone book years ago, I wondered why the USA code wasn't listed. (Some droid figured: "but you don't NEED that from the USA". Never mind businesses trying to figure out how to list themselves.) To this day the phone books list places like Izmir, Turkey (+851 according to NYNEX Boston 1993) but omit the USA and Canada. No wonder most ordinary people don't *understand* the system! Back then I called the operator: "What is the country code for the USA?" Oper: "Sir, you don't NEED the country code to dial the USA." Me: "sigh, can I have the overseas operator?" Overseas op: "Sir, you don't NEED ..." Me: "may I have your supervisor please?" Super: "hmmm, I don't know that. Why would you need it?" Me: "suppose I want to place an ad in an international magazine?" Super: "hmmm" Me: "can we ask the overseas operator in, say, London?" Super: "sure!" London: "It is ONE. But why would YOU need it? ..." Robert Ullmann Ariel@World.STD.COM +1 617 693 1315 ------------------------------ Date: 05 Jan 94 23:07:02 EST From: Miles Thomas <70624.130@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Cable Channels and Satellites lars@eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) wrote > The largest satellite operator (German ASTRA which has a near monopoly > on service to Germany, Scandinavia and I think Be-ne-lux as well) has > two birds in the same nominal slot (and a third one planned) so that > you can get 24 channels without re-aiming the dish. This has allowed > the sale of very inexpensive receiver systems (I have seen a low end > system with 18" dish on sale for USD 155 including 25% VAT!! A normal > price is about twice that for a system with built-in descrambler with > 2 "smart card" slots). This kind of pricing for "wireless cable" led > to sharp reductions on cable service prices. The ASTRA sats also broadcast to the UK, Spain etc etc. Its actually owned by a company in Luxembourg, SES. The two birds are actually 0.25 of a degree apart, which is close enough for a dish toi see both (it has to be within 1 degree to see it). I understand that they plan to add a third, ie one at 0.25, one at 0.5 and one a 0.75. The only reason that they aren't spaced any closer is that it would require constant manoeuvering to stop the sats hitting each other as they wiggle slightly in orbit. Just for you info, the Marcopolo high power sat used for BSB with the infamous dinner plate or sqarial antennae has been retargeted onto Scandanavia for their DBS services. Miles Thomas ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #13 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10819; 6 Jan 94 14:32 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11423 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 6 Jan 1994 10:12:17 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22594 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 6 Jan 1994 10:12:01 -0600 Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 10:12:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401061612.AA22594@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #14 TELECOM Digest Thu, 6 Jan 94 10:12:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 14 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Announcing networkMCI (Dan L. Dale) "Caller Pays" Cellular Airtime (Paul Robinson) Dialing Changes for Delaware (Carl Moore) Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services (Feedlebom) Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated (Art Walker) Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated (Dave Reus) Re: California ANI Question (David Josephson) Re: Sprint (Dvorak) Modem Offer - Not Again! (Dan Osborn) Re: 500 Channel Cable TV (Gary W. Sanders) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Al Varney) Re: Help Needed With v.42bis (Janusz Purwin) Re: Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident (Carl Moore) Re: Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident (Jim Thomas) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 5 Jan 94 22:56 EST From: Dan L. Dale <0005517538@mcimail.com> Subject: Announcing networkMCI MCI UNVEILS LONG-RANGE VISION: networkMCI Opens Nation's First Transcontinental Information Superhighway; Announces $20 Billion in Strategic Initiatives Washington, D.C., January 4, 1994--MCI today unveiled a sweeping strategic vision under which MCI and associated partners are expected to invest more than $20 billion to create and deliver a wide array of new branded services to teleconsumers, businesses, research facilities and government customers. "Our notion of the future of telecommunications and MCI is going to have a brand name: networkMCI," said Bert C. Roberts, MCI chairman and CEO. "This strategic vision is the sum of all our plans and opportunities in the new emerging markets with services that consumers, businesses and governments will want at their fingertips as we move into the 21st Century. As a core strategy, it leverages the tremendous opportunities brought on by the convergence of telephony, entertainment and the computer." Transcontinental Information Superhighway Today the company announced, as an initial element of the networkMCI vision, the inauguration of the nation's first trans- continental information superhighway. Often talked about as a key ingredient to keeping America competitive in tomorrow's world economy, the MCI superhighway's roadbed uses SONET fiber optic technology at speeds 15 times faster than any SONET network available today. MCI said that the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) is the first user of its New York to Los Angeles SONET fiber system. The NSFNET Backbone Service is the fastest and most powerful of the university, government and commercial networks known collectively as the Internet. "Some people may be surprised to learn that MCI developed these intercity links for the Internet six years ago," said Roberts. "The NSFNET service today reaches nearly 15,000 networks around the world that participate in the Internet." "The Internet doubles in size annually and now links over two million computers serving some six million users," said Vinton Cerf, President of the Internet Society. "When electronic mail interconnects are taken into account, nearly 20 million users conduct their business from labs, homes and offices over the Internet. MCI and its partners, IBM, Merit and ANS, pioneered the use of 45 megabit per second technology for the NSFNET Backbone Service. NSFNET now carries a volume of information that approximately equals the holdings of the Library of Congress EACH MONTH, and MCI's announcement indicates the potential to carry more than 50 times that much traffic." SONET, which stands for Synchronous Optical Network, is a high-speed transmission technology that MCI is using to hasten the widespread availability of broadcast quality videophones, electronic data interchange (EDI), long distance medical imaging, multimedia education, movies on demand, and a single-number Personal Communications Service (PCS) that will use the same pocket-sized telephone anywhere in the world. High-speed SONET technology was deployed in half of MCI's network at year-end 1993, far outpacing its long distance rivals. Under the development program announced today, SONET will be available throughout MCI's domestic network by the end of 1994 and on international routes across the Atlantic and the Pacific by 1995. The company said it will further increase carrying speeds on existing fiber from 2.5 gigabits (billion bits) per second to more than 10 gigabits per second by 1995. MCI Metro As another element of its long-range vision, the company announced the creation of MCI Metro, a wholly owned subsidiary that is expected to invest $2 billion in fiber rings and local switching infrastructure in major U.S. metropolitan markets. Through its metropolitan area facilities, MCI will connect directly to customers and begin providing alternative local telecommunications services. Referring to these connections as "digital on/off ramps" to the nationwide information superhighway, Roberts noted that they would be a vital addition to America's economic infrastructure for the 21st Century. Construction has already begun in Atlanta, with completion expected there by mid- year. Roberts announced the appointment of two key executives to lead this subsidiary. Executive vice president Gary M. Parsons will be chief executive officer of MCI Metro, and senior vice president Nate A. Davis will become its chief operating officer. The subsidiary owns properties and rights-of-way in several hundred cities. "MCI Metro will ensure the availability of superior local access facilities at reasonable cost," said Roberts. "During the last decade, MCI was instrumental in bringing the benefits of competition to the long distance marketplace. During the next decade, we must secure those same benefits for customers of local telephone service. In addition, these digital backbone facilities will strongly position MCI in the emerging markets of interactive multimedia and wireless PCS." networkMCI Roberts said that networkMCI is being introduced to the public via a national advertising campaign utilizing television, magazines and newspapers to explain the company's vision to consumers, businesses, investors and potential partners. "When we announced our global alliance with BT (British Telecom) last year, we said that the added financial flexibility would allow us to invest in America's infrastructure, economy and future," said Roberts. "With networkMCI, we have cast a strategy to deliver on that promise, and then some." MCI expects that other partner companies with complementary skills and resources will participate in projects within the overall networkMCI vision, through equity stakes, joint ventures or other business arrangements. "As telecommunications, computing and television converge, no one company will have the infrastructure and the skills to do everything alone," said Roberts. "Partnering is smart strategy for the 1990's, and MCI has proven repeatedly that it doesn't have to own and control another party in order to work together effectively." MCI cited a number of customer usage trends underlying the decision to make the additional multibillion dollar investments. The company has been growing more than twice as fast as the long distance industry as a whole, and is winning the lion's share of growth in the booming market for international calls to and from the U.S. Data traffic is another major growth factor, with business customers' usage of data communications expected to surpass voice by 1998. In wireless communications, the superior performance of the emerging PCS technology is expected to help drive the total number of wireless devices in the U.S. to 70 million by the turn of the century, which will increase network usage. "Beyond the long-term vision," Roberts continued, "there are a number of immediate benefits that networkMCI brings to the everyday, workaday MCI network. We have created this long-term strategy to meet the demands of a nation of teleconsumers who use telecommunications more frequently and in more ways than ever before. American businesses of all sizes want competitive advantage from their communications. And potential partners in this arena want to create new opportunities. With networkMCI, there will be a clear path to follow." MCI, headquartered in Washington, D.C., offers a full range of domestic and global telecommunications services through one of the world's largest state-of-the-art networks. With annual revenue of more than $12 billion, the company is the second largest long distance provider in the U.S. and has more than 65 offices in 55 countries and places. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 01:23:50 EST From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: "Caller Pays" Cellular Airtime Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Recently, someone announced that Colorado would be having calls to 579 exchange charged for as "caller pays" cellular airtime in addition to toll charges. It's been asked whether or not people could call this number from out of state. The AT&T Operator quoted me the standard 26c for a call to 303-579. But let's not forget that long distance calls are going to net between 2 and 5c in local termination charges from the carrier anyway, so the caller is paying something for the connection. The person who mentioned this told that U.S. West offered a number to call 1-800-USW-BILL for questions. Surprizingly enough, this number does work from Maryland. That 800 number apparently handles surcharged lines including 900, 976 and cellular airtime. The clerk, a person with a very strong foreign accent, indicated that the 579 exchange is a "caller pays" exchange. If someone (in Colorado) calls a 579 number, the caller pays for the airtime. If the user of a 579 number calls someone, they pay for their airtime. I asked whether this was something akin to a 900 or 976 number, trying to explain to the woman what I meant (a number where the called party gets a fee for each incoming call) and apparently she got the gist of what I was trying to point out, in that the caller is surcharged for a call made to the number. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 10:14:41 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Dialing Changes for Delaware I have heard from Carl Drake, over whose name a letter had been sent to Delaware customers regarding new area code 610 in Pennsylvania. He says the Delaware PUC (public utility commission) ordered 1 + 10D for long distance within Delaware; permissive is to start April 1 and mandatory is to come Jan. 7, 1995 (latter is the same as the full cutover for 610 in Pennsylvania). (Delaware is area code 302.) ------------------------------ From: feedle@kaiwan.com (Feedlebom) Subject: Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 07:00:14 GMT Robert L. McMillin (rlm@helen.surfcty.com) wrote: > (something about Zzzzzzygot Dial-a-joke which was trashed by my reader) Interestingly enough, it's still in the new 1994 Pacific Bell white pages. It's gotta have some kind of record for being the last number in the phone book ... close to 15 years in a row, always the last number in the white pages. "839-3000, Not particularly funny, but that's the number you've reached ..." ------------------------------ From: walker@unomaha.edu (Art Walker) Subject: Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Nebraska at Omaha Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 08:09:25 GMT David A. Kaye (dk@crl.com) wrote: > I could have sworn that Toshiba or possibly Mitsui has a remote > control device which has thumbwheel switches for day of week, date, > time, and channel number, so that a person can read across the front > of the unit, "Monday - 7th - 7:00 to 7:30 - pm - channel 4" and be > done with the confusion. Has anyone seen one of these? As an aside, what most people *really* want is a VCR that all you have to do is walk up to it, say "tape letterman tonight", and that's it. Art Walker (walker@guinness.unomaha.edu) (walker@beeble.omahug.org) ------------------------------ From: dave@geis.geis.com Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 14:12:00 GMT Subject: Re: How Are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated On 5 Jan 1994 dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) wrote: > I could have sworn that Toshiba or possibly Mitsui has a remote > control device which has thumbwheel switches for day of week, date, > time, and channel number, so that a person can read across the front > of the unit, "Monday - 7th - 7:00 to 7:30 - pm - channel 4" and be > done with the confusion. Has anyone seen one of these? I've seen one of these in my local (Frederick, MD) Montgomery Wards store: It is a slim device that has several LCD windows and a thumbwheel by each. One for Month, Day, Channel, and Time.... and a TRANSMIT button. It was pretty cheap, so I opened the box and looked at the docs that came with it: It was clear to me that this device only worked with the specific brand of VCR as it had no options for setup for different brands. Can't remember what brand it was tho! Dave Reus ------------------------------ From: davidj@rahul.net (David Josephson) Subject: Re: California ANI Question Organization: a2i network Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 09:09:15 GMT In stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > In , reb@ingres.com (Phydeaux) writes: >> Hi! In a discussion the other day, one of my colleagues told me that >> "ANI is illegal in California." I'm sure he meant CNID, but he >> understands the difference and was pretty emphatic about this. I'm >> sure someone here knows for sure. > ANI is not illegal in California. As the Digest Editor noted, with > very few exceptions, if you can call an 800 number, the recipient can The CPUC tariff is the law. CPUC denied Pacific Bell's tariff filing that would have offered CNID. Only that which is tariffed is permissible. > interstate commerce, and any laws that the state may have do not apply > to them (BTW, there are no laws regarding ANI in CA that I am aware of > anyway). > I even have a couple of customers in CA that receive ANI delivery from > me, either in real-time via inband DTMF, through voice mail and pager > mail, and of course on their bills (just like any 800 service today). > Perhaps the state may have something to say about that in the future > if they choose to do so, but they have not chosen to do so up to now. Yah, what could they do, make it illegal for a CA subscriber to obtain an interstate service from you? Not too likely. > And there is blocking available -- if callers choose not to have me or > my customers pay for their telephone calls (which is what they are > doing when they call an 800 number), we will never get their number. > I guess this is a form of per-call blocking :-) (I suppose you could > even have per-line 800 ANI blocking if you got a toll restrictor and > programmed it to block 800 numbers :-)) I wonder if the per-number (56# or whatever it was?) CNID blocking from here would block a INWATS ANI/CNID? David Josephson [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: *Nothing* blocks ANI delivery. Nothing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dosborn@Internet.cnmw.com Date: Thu, 06 Jan 94 08:37:25 EST Subject: Re: Sprint (Dvorak) Modem Offer - Not Again! Pat: I too signed up of the Sprint Modem offer. However, I apparently signed up too late. I talked to a Sprint Rep on Oct 6 about the Dvorak offer and then switched to Sprint under the assumption that I would be receiving a modem. I then waited for it to appear in the mail. In November, I received a bill from Sprint on an existing (but forgotten) Sprint account that I had. It listed only the $7 charge for my calling plan but no actual calls. I called Sprint to enquire about this and I was told to try the 1-700 number to verify my long distance carrier. It was still AT&T! This would explain why I had not received my modem; I hadn't made any calls on Sprint yet. Well, the Sprint rep told me the easiest way to rectify this was to call my local company (Cincinnati Bell) and tell them to switch me. This I did. Still, I waited and waited and waited for my modem. When I called at the end of December to enquire about the status of my modem, I was informed that since I had signed up after Oct 1st, I was too late -- there were no more modems to be had. Wanting to minimize the amount of hassle (my life is currently preoccupied with the birth of my second daughter), I just asked Sprint to credit my account with the amount of the LD switching fees so I could switch back. I'm relating this tale of woe so that (with clear conscience) David could send me his "extra" modem. (I'm sending him a copy of this directly). I will gladly pay for shipping. And should he ever receive a nasty-gram demanding the return of the modem, I will return it to/for him. After all, he would be doing me a favor, and I want to minimize his hassle. Dan Osborn * dosborn@internet.cnmw.com * (513) 247-4623 * FAX: (513) 489-0819 Cincinnati Microwave Inc. * One Microwave Plaza * Cincinnati, OH 45249-9502 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well now, that's very gracious and generous of you to agree to take that extra modem off his hands. :) Meanwhile, back in California, I am wondering what is going on with the lawsuit against Sprint the guys were starting based on alleged misrepresentations of the product being shipped, etc. Can anyone bring us up to date on that side of it? PAT] ------------------------------ From: gary.w.sanders@att.com Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 14:34:52 GMT Subject: Re: 500 Channel Cable TV Organization: AT&T In article rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu (Bill Pfeiffer) writes: > No, the same programmers will determine what you watch, just like a > restaraunt manager decides what choices are on their menu. Current tv > technology offers you a choice among the available programming. > On-demand exists now. Nobody holds that channel selector but you. > How does the medium of delivery change the fact that someone else > still creates the programming? Not totally true. With 500 channels you now open the way for more programmers. What cable system is going to give a small time programmer access to one of its 50 channels? Not many unless the programmer has a proven track record. However with 500 channels they can try many different programmers and let the consumers decide what is popular. How many cable companies are carrying the "outdoor channel" 24h/day? How many people have even heard of this? If you have a satellite dish check out F2/3. Programming is so/so at best. A few good shows and lots of commercials for gold prosper club. This service has little chance on a 50 channel system but I am sure would get on a 500 channel system. >> If the cable companies think that they can compete with a fixed 500 >> channel system against on-demand video dialtone, they are doomed to go >> the way of the dominant telecommunications company in the US of 100 >> years ago, Western Union, namely technological and competitive >> obsolescence. Price of the dialtone will be the factor here. Many cable pay-per-view companys have gone under or been forced to merge with others to survive. Why? Cost. Why would someone pay $8 to watch a movie when just about every street corner has a video store with $1-$2 movies. Early PPV also generated negative views of PPV with over priced and poor quality of service. Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) gary.w.sanders@att.com AT&T Bell Labs 614.860.5965 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 09:01:04 CST From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous Organization: AT&T In article johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) writes: > Does anyone actually have Anonymous Call Rejection in service now? Is > it useful? It impresses me as one of those features which you get for > about a week, then get rid of because it's utterly worthless. Perhaps > I'm suffering from a failure of imagination, but I find it difficult > to understand the mindset of people who are too scared to answer the > phone if they don't know in advance who the call is from. > People who are concerned about annoyance callers should consider Call > Block, which lets you enter a list of numbers from which you won't > receive calls. You can either enter explicit numbers, or tell it to > add whoever just called, even if the call had CLID blocked. It's > available the same places as other CLASS services, including some > where CLID isn't, because it doesn't present the privacy problems. I don't HAVE ACR (or other CLASS services) on my residential lines. However, the first public announcement of the service was over two years ago by Bell Atlantic, at a National Communications Forum in Chicago. Ray Albers discussed the service, indicated the pricing and played a recording of the announcement he received attempting to call such a line after dialing a *67 prefix. The first service was in C&P Maryland, but it has probably been offered elsewhere in Bell Atlantic by now. In discussions about this service, I don't recall "... too scared to answer ..." being a reason for wanting the service. It was primarily a tool to avoid unwanted calls (not repeated annoyance calls, just unwanted ones). [I recognize some folks treat any unwanted call as an "annoyance", but the intent is to avoid calls even from phones that have never called before, so that Call Block is not a reasonable option.] In fact, Bell Atlantic was offering ACR for a small monthly fee even to those who did not have any other CLASS features! The idea was that the caller doesn't KNOW if you have Caller ID, but you might be willing to use ACR as a primitive means of screening out a "class" of callers -- those that suppress Caller ID delivery. They won't ring your phone OR generate call waiting tones while you are on another call. If you have call forwarding on a line with ACR active, the call will not forward. Also note that telco can elect to turn on supervision when connecting to the ACR announcement, so the call will be considered "completed" for billing purposes. Also note that Bell Atlantic was offering ACR on a user-controlled basis; customers can turn it on and off as desired. See Bellcore TR-NWT-000567 for other details. Al Varney ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 9:59:16 EST From: PURWIN@XANADU.XYPLEX.COM (Janusz Purwin tel 508-952-4711) Subject: Re: Help Needed With v.42bis Well don't worry about if it does work or not. Firstly V.42 requires that both modems have to have that feature enabled. Secondly it is most useless feature ever put into modem. Its good for marketing people to brag about and give false advertising about how faster modem will transmit data without pointing out when it happens. The V.42 uses Limpel-Ziff compression scheme that is based on generating dictionary as you transfer a file. What that mean is, it will not compress as you type. The compression ratio is related to the type of file you will send. The text will compress to about 25 % of its original size any other files like binaries have much lower compression rate. But here is the catch normally ALL files are compressed by PKzip, ARC or ARJ LHA GIF programs. Those are using precisely same algorithm as V.42. So those files are not compressible. If you try to compress them again the file size will be larger than original. The only time you might get any benefit from compression is when you get screens of text send to you. Again you will trade size of the file versus time (it takes time to compress on a fly) versus link speed. ... So the benefits of V.42 for the user are minimal! Happy compressing Jan! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 9:24:08 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident I do see that Brendan's mother is staying in Philadelphia, and it's possible Brendan had to be transferred to a hospital in Philadelphia due to the severity of his injuries. Of the places I named, two are near Philadelphia: Newtown, Bucks County, 215-968 prefix Newtown Square, Delaware County, 215-353 & 356 prefixes (and at least one other; goes to 610 later) Newton Hamilton, zipcode 17075 in Mifflin County, is in central Pa. West Newton (zipcode 15089 and phone prefix 412-872) is in western Pa. in Westmoreland County. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jan 94 22:52 CST From: Jim Thomas (tk0jut1@mvs.cso.niu.edu) Subject: Re: Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident Carl Moore writes: > Where in Pennsylvania is Newton? I know of West Newton, Newtown > Hamilton, Newtown Square, and Newtown. Sorry for the typo. It was NEWTOWN. Here's an excerpt from the conversation with Newtown police: According to Newtown police, the accident was called in at 1:45 p.m, and police arrived at 1:49 p.m. According to a police spokesperson, Brendan was driving on Eagle Road, on which there is a stop sign at the Rightstown road intersection, where the accident occured. According to the police spokesperson, there was one passenger with him who was treated and released. Brendan was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The patient information number: (215-662-3308) Jim Thomas [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is just a reminder to readers that Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer, the Moderators of CuD are collecting notes for Brendan from netters everywhere and will forward them at an approp- riate time. Please send along your notes to them. Brendan remains in very critical condition, and as of yet the doctors have not made any statements about an estimated time for his recovery or the extent of the physical damage he has suffered. It is believed that full-recovery is unlikely, and that partial rehabilitation may well be several weeks or months. Very grim, very sad news. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #14 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11708; 6 Jan 94 16:11 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08344 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 6 Jan 1994 12:05:14 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21437 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 6 Jan 1994 12:05:00 -0600 Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 12:05:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401061805.AA21437@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #15 TELECOM Digest Thu, 6 Jan 94 12:05:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 15 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (Dave Niebuhr) Re: US Digital Cellular Standards (Alistair Munro via Weiyun Yu) Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones (Olaf Seibert) Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones (John R. Levine) Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated (Arthur Rubin) Re: Info on Cellular One NACP (Phil Wherry) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Jorge Lach) Re: 500 Channel Cable TV (Randy te Velde) Re: Federal Telemarketing Laws (John R. Levine) Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack (Carl Oppedahl) Re: California ANI Question (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas (Scott Pelham) Re: Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident (Carl Moore) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 12:40:00 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Sucharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped > In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 : Issue 13 : padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com > (A. Padgett Peterson) writes: > It was announced yesterday that Southern Bell has agreed to drop the > U$1.00/line/month surcharge for tone dialing in the Orlando area that > had been in effect since the introduction of touch-tone dialing > service. > It is not known exactly when this change will take place other than it > is expected "within 60 days". NYTel, as part of a multi-million dollar rate rollback has been ordered to reduce the cost of touch-tone dialing from $1.35 to $.50 per month which is still not enough. In addition, it is phasing out the optional business Flat Rate and untimed Message Rate plans for businesses in upstate NY and imposing timed message rate for them. Other charges that are reduced are Intra-LATA calls that are Inter-Region (the NY Metropolitan LATA has Lower Westchester (AC 914), NYC (212/718/917) and Nassau County, West Suffolk County and East Suffolk County (AC 516). There were more changes involved in Upstate NY but I can't recall them now. Dave Niebuhr Internet: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (preferred) niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ From: weiyun@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Weiyun Yu) Subject: Re: US Digital Cellular Standards Organization: Information Services, Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 16:22:21 GMT This is a posting on behalf of Alistair Munro in relation to my original posting... From: Alistair Munro Subject: US Digital Cellular standards Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 14:33:03 +0000 (GMT) To expand on Dan Leclerck's reply: > In article , Weiyun Yu ucc.su.OZ.AU> wrote: > 1. What are the pro and cons of the US standards vs GSM. > N-AMPS, ADC, and DS-CDMA all offer, at least, 2x the capacity of GSM. > NAMPS and CDMA do not have the pulsed-noise interference of GSM. CDMA > has the potential to have a longer talk-time. There is a paper by David Goodman: "Second Generation Wireless Information Networks", IEEE Trans on Vehicular Technology, Vol 40, No 2, May 1991; this describes key aspects of GSM compared with IS-54 (sort of digital AMPS) and might be useful for you. > GSM has terrible data services vis-a-vis' Group 3 Fax. GSM specifies terminal adaptation functions for both asynchronous (V.21, V.22, V.23, I.420, V.25) and synchronous (V.22, V.22bis, V.26ter, V.32 X.21, X.25, X.32, V.25, I.420) bearers. This seems to cover almost every packet or character mode interface in the CCITT world at least. As far as I know, they are not implemented yet by any of the operators. Whether they are terrible or not, time will tell, but I expect they will be dire. One of the main technical issues seems to be that they are very expensive to provide with TDMA, and with the GSM TDMA in particular. There is a new project in the the ETSI GSM group called GPRS (GSM packet radio services?) which might provide a multiple access scheme more suited to data traffic. If you want a comparison, try the US CDPD spec that provides data with AMPS. There is also a data message service (SMS) and I believe that this is is available from some operators. >> 2. Is there going to be some degree of compability encorporated into >> the 2 standards so that international roaming could be achieved. >> 3. What is the future of digital cellular? Is there going to be a third >> standard that can be used world wide? > The frequencies and access methods (GSM is TDMA/GMSK each channel is > 200 KHz, ADC is TDMA/QPSK channels ea 30 KHz, CDMA is DS-CDMA ea > channel 1.25 MHz) are completely incompatible. GSM is like ISDN over > the air, whereas the other standards aren't so rich. As Dan says, compatibilty is zero at the signalling level. However it is conceivable that manufacturers could agree on control and management protocol that would permit subscribers to have a single telephone number that they could move between handsets for the respective systems. I would prefer to have it said that GSM call-control protocol is like ISDN D-channel call-control. Obviously they diverge at the physical level. Perhaps you could pass this on to the newsgroup as I don't get near such things normally. Dr. Alistair Munro, Centre for Communications Research, Bristol University Rm 1.3 Queen's Building, University Walk, BS8 1TR UK E-mail: A.Munro@bristol.ac.uk Tel: +44-272-291403 | +44-272-288620; Fax: +44-272-255265 ----------- Dr Weiyun Yu "Why Me?" | Internet: weiyun@ucc.su.oz.au Dept of Surgery, Uni of Sydney, Australia | Voice: 61+2-692-3851 ------------------------------ From: rhialto@mbfys.kun.nl (Olaf Seibert) Subject: Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 16:07:42 GMT In John C. Fowler <0003513813@mcimail. com> writes: > I wonder what kinds of people will be using "caller-pays" cellular > service. As far as I know, in the Netherlands calls to or from cellular phones (or car telephones as they are usually called here) have always been more expensive than regular calls. I don't know about the rates for calls *between* cell phones. Olaf 'Rhialto' Seibert rhialto@mbfys.kun.nl ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 11:14 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > Charging the land-line caller to a cellular number makes > perfect sense to me. In the abstract, it makes some sense. On the other hand, surcharged numbers are a pain for callers, local telcos, and long distance carriers since the prices tend to be mysterious and the bills at the end of the month often an unpleasant surprise. How long do you think it will take for someone to complain to US West "nobody told me that a call to 1-579 cost 65 cents* a minute"? If it's as much as two days after the first bill is sent, I'll be surprised. The day after that, people will demand 579 blocking, like 900 and 976 blocking. In concrete terms, it's basically impossible to implement long distance calls to surcharged given the way that toll charging works in the U.S. Inter-LATA toll rates are based entirely on distance. There's no provision for passing around surcharges from one carrier to another -- that's why surcharged numbers like the notorious 212-540 only work from points where the local telco carries the call. The only exception is 900 numbers, which have an extremely complicated billing setup that would be impractical for individual cellular customers. I suppose that we could reserve a prefix in each area code (900, perhaps) to be used for local surcharged numbers and try to set up some arrangement for settling the surcharge amounts among various carriers, but it seems like a awful lot of mechanism for a small set of users. Also, experience with 900, 976, and 540 numbers suggests that a lot of callers will be extremely displeased to find yet another kind of phone number that costs extra and has to be blocked, passworded, etc. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com * - a plausible guess, 50 cents for airtime plus 15 cents for toll ------------------------------ Subject: Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated From: a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com (Arthur Rubin) Date: 6 Jan 94 16:55:30 GMT Organization: Beckman Instruments, Inc. In TELECOM Digest Editor responded to oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl): > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Has anyone ever been completely successful > with this yet? Radio Shack has a VCR+ thing they sell now which does > not even have written documentation with it. All the 'instructions' tell > you to do is (after you buy it, shoplift it or whatever) take it home > and call a certain 800 phone number to speak with someone who will then > *program it over the phone* for you based on what you tell them about > your VCR/television equipment. PAT] Well, you do need to program in the translator from the "published" channel numbers (the ones used to encode the VCR+ code) to the channel numbers your VCR and/or cable box use, and to program the box to learn how to program your VCR and/or cable box, but I don't THINK there's anything more that needs to be done. (Of course, all of this was intended for those people whose VCR is blinking "12:00" (actually, mine blinks "--:--" when not set), so do you really expect them to attempt to tell you how to program a "universal remote".) Arthur L. Rubin: a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com (work) Beckman Instruments/Brea 216-5888@mcimail.com 70707.453@compuserve.com arthur@pnet01.cts.com (personal) ------------------------------ From: psw@carillon.mitre.org (Phil Wherry) Subject: Re: Info on Cellular One NACP Date: 6 Jan 1994 15:44:31 GMT Organization: The MITRE Corporation, McLean, Va Reply-To: psw@carillon.mitre.org (Phil Wherry) The talk about automatic cellular call delivery raises an interesting question: under what circumstances can a cellular telephone transmit when "on-hook." The response to a poll (ring) message is one obvious example where this happens -- what are the others? Phillip Wherry Member of the Technical Staff The MITRE Corporation, McLean, VA psw@mitre.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When a cellular phone is first powered on (even if just in the standby mode instead of in calling mode) it immediatly announces itself to the nearest tower and makes it known that it is available to receive calls. When the tower sees that this new arrival on the scene is not one of its own kind, then it passes the information along and the database is queried to see who the newcomer might be part of. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jorge@erex.East.Sun.COM (Jorge Lach - Sun BOS Hardware) Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Date: 6 Jan 1994 15:53:28 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc. - BDC Reply-To: jorge@erex.East.Sun.COM It would seem to me people keep trying to find compelling reasons for and against each one of these services: how it won't work, under what circumstances it's counterproductive, how it protects potential victims, etc ... Now, let's just call this services (and most/all other new services) what they really are. With a fully software-controlled telephone network, a bunch of people in the central office can come up with uncounted software options to suit anyone's desires ... all at a price. The phone companies are just milking the infrastructure they built. They'll offer products for everybody. At 3.95/month, that's roughly $50 per year, out of a potential market of 100 million-plus phones, you figure out how much money that is. I see this as being analogous to buying clothes at the mall. There are stores for every taste, and styles for everybody. You don't have to understand or rationalize it. Producers try to figure out which thing people like, get them made and then try to sell them. Consumers will buy some and reject others ... for what reasons, nobody knows. So, this "Anonymous Call Rejection" is just another way for the phone companies of making an honest buck. Nothing more. Jorge Lach Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation Jorge.Lach@Sun.Com East Coast Division, Chelmsford, MA Phone: (508) 442-0214 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: True, but where it becomes critical for the anti-Caller-ID crowd is that the automatic blocking of anonymous calls cuts into their ability to control their calling universe. That is, they are suddenly no longer able to call anywhere they please anytime they please on their own terms ... in order for them to regain that one hundred percent control over where/who/when they call, they have to give up that extra bit of privacy they regard so highly: the with- holding of their telephone number. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 10:40:35 EST From: Randy te Velde Subject: Re: 500 Channel Cable TV On Wed, 5 Jan 1994, rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu (Bill Pfeiffer) wrote: > Michael Jacobs wrote: >> There will be no choice to make as to which of 500 different channels >> to watch, rather it will be a choice as to what to program on the one >> available video dialtone line, much as one chooses who to call on the >> current voice telephone line. ALL SOFTWARE WITH NETWORK ACCESS will >> be available to the subscriber on demand! > Well that will be a real kick in the teeth for couch potato(e) channel > surfers, won't it :-). I think I'll take my cable-clicker (which I > can use to sample the wares on several channels quickly) over this > system. Again, it looks like we're ignoring both the interactivity and the power of the upstream capacity. You wouldn't want to control your computer with a cable-clicker, would you? Remember that interactive software for use on a widely deployed broadband network hasn't been invented yet. No one wrote groupware applications until ethernet cards were cheap and widely deployed. >> The revolutionary concept here is that instead of some programmer in >> NY or LA deciding what I should watch, it will be me choosing what to >> watch. > No, the same programmers will determine what you watch, just like a > restaraunt manager decides what choices are on their menu... It's true that the list of options will have _some_ limitation. But I think the prevailing metaphor would be the white pages, not a resturant menu. >> If the cable companies think that they can compete with a fixed 500 >> channel system against on-demand video dialtone, they are doomed to go >> the way of the dominant telecommunications company in the US of 100 >> years ago, Western Union, namely technological and competitive >> obsolescence. > Well, Mike, I am old enough to remember all the fancy claims that > 'cable-tv' would put over-the-air tv out of business, would make > networks obsolete, would transform our very lives, would offer > first-run movies, would offer live video from foreign countries, would > bring the classroom to the living room, would offer access to niche > programming, fine arts, etc etc etc. What we wound up with is re-run > mills, home shopping channels, music videos, 24 hour weather channels, > preachers, pay-per-view wrestling and more commercials than ever. _Univeral_ _access_ to programming a public network is the key ingredient missing from this comparison. No one wants more infomercials and PPV wrestling. These are the best arguments I can think of to open the network up for _everyone_ to provide content. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 11:34 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Federal Telemarketing Laws Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > I just read through the archives from late 1991 looking for info on > congressional action regarding automated telemarketing. The current {Privacy Journal} has a lead article entitled "Can the telemarketers' autodialers be controlled at all?". It details court action all over the country against both the federal law and 22 similar state laws. Judges in Oregon and New Jersey found such laws to be an unconstitutional abridgement of free speech, while in Minnesota it was upheld. The issue appears to be that restrictions on time, place, and manner of speech are OK, while restrictions on content are not. The federal law permits the FCC to exempt some types of calls such as random surveys and political calls, but that's a content distinction. Presumably a law that outlawed all unsolicited robot dialing would be constitutional. We can only hope. FYI, {Privacy Journal} is an excellent monthly newsletter. It costs $109/yr, but is usually discounted to $69 if you pay in advance. Phone is +1 401 274 7861, e-mail 5101719@mcimail.com. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack Date: 6 Jan 1994 11:43:00 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In John S. Roberts Jr. writes: > I connected up the "other two wires" on all the lines running through > my house. Now, I can hear line two when using line one and vice-versa. > Is there any solution to this? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The solution is that somewhere in the > loop you (or someone long gone before you) cross connected the wires > and what you think is the 'other two wires' is really just part of > the first two wires. You don't really have 'line one' and 'line two'; > you have one line wired in multiple so to speak. Go to each box as > well as to the head end and find out where the cross connection is > in place. It may be nothing more than a real messy box with some > loose wires which are touching the connectors for the first set of > wires. Clean up that mess, and your 'other two wires' will suddenly > go dead again unless/until you have an actual second phone line > brought up to them. PAT] Let's reread the original post. I think he is able to use both lines and is merely getting crosstalk. If that is the case, it is not a "touching conductors" problem at all. It is probably just a case of someone whose house was wired with quad wire (back when Y & B was power for the lights on the Princess phone) who will always have crosstalk. Until, that is, he goes back and installs some new pairs, hopefully with true twisted pair. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: California ANI Question Date: 6 Jan 1994 11:47:54 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) writes: > I have an 800 number coming into my BBS for a few friends and myself > to use and have the call reports from AT&T. They are overwelming each > month, but I'm able to see all the wrong numbers (under 30 seconds) > and the phone hackers looking for a DID trunk (New York, New Jersey). > I sure wish they would finally get CID here in California. I have a similar 800 number (I am in New York). Each month I get the call detail and each month there are twenty or so calls from crackers (not hackers) trying to see what mischief they can get into. What's interesting is that my cracker calls all come from Florida. Sometimes I get curious and try calling the origin phone numbers listed on my 800 call detail. One of them, ending in either -0002 or -9998, I forget which, was aswered with the name of a telephone company. If the person at the other end was telling the truth, I had reached a phone company frame room or switch room. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY voice 212-777-1330 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Considering that -9998 is as often as not a number assigned for internal use at telco, your assumption is probably correct. What's that you say? You didn't know that crackers and phreaks often times have jobs working for telcos? Makes you feel real good about the security and integrity of the telephone network in the USA doesn't it ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: /G=J.SCOTT/S=PELHAM/O=GTE/PRMD=GTEMAIL/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com Date: 6 Jan 94 12:05:44-0500 Subject: Re: Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas David L Kindred writes: > My parents lived in the SWB part of the Dallas area a few years ago. > During the time they lived there, the dialing requirements not only > varied due to area code and "localness", but also by whether the > "other" phone company was involved. I don't remember the particulars, > but dialing a local SWB-SWB call was different than dialing a local > SWB-GTE call. As I recall, you needed at least ten, if not eleven > digits, to call a GTE 214xxxxxxx number from a SWB 214xxxxxxx number, > even if the call was to the next exchange (or next house...). To clear up how it works in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, I'll just expain it then respond to David's comments. Dallas county is mostly in 214 area code, Tarrant county (Fort Worth) is mostly included in 817 area code. The area in between the two cities is all suburban towns. The two cities just sort of run together. When dialing within one area code, in the Metroplex, you only dial seven digits regardless of whether it is a GTE or SW Bell number. When dialing from one area code to the other you dial 1+, just like you would from any other two area codes. The difference is when the number being called, *or* the number being called from, is a "Metro" number. "Metro" number means the call is no longer a long distance call, rather the owner of the Metro number is paying a higher monthly charge, but can call or receive calls from 214 or 817 without paying long distance rates. In this case you dial the area code and exchange, without the leading 1. I personally don't have a metro number so I can't give any particulars about the cost. These metro numbers were provided so that people and businesses can be reached easily and inexpensively by friends and customers outside their area code, but potentially next door. I have lived in Dallas/Ft Worth for almost three years and I have never dailed any differently when I lived in SW Bell or now that I live in GTE service area. > One major annoyance was the percentage of calls into GTE that went > high-and-dry. Again in nearly three years I have never had a call end "high and dry", in GTE or SW Bell. > Has any of this changed recently? Apparently much has changed or you didn't understand it in the first place. Scott Pelham ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 12:08:55 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Brendan Kehoe Seriously Hurt in Car Accident Some of you may remember reading that Jan Berry (singer, and the "Jan" of Jan and Dean) was seriously injured, with brain damage, in a 1966 automobile accident not far from "Dead Man's Curve". He had go through long therapy, and I have personally seen him twice in concert with Dean in the last 13 years. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: From what we are told so far, it appears Brendan Kehoe is in for the long term with a lot of time needed for basic recovery then a period following of therapy. I have no more recent details than what has appeared here in the past couple of days, but his is not going to be a quick and easy return to his usual lifestyle ... if there is a return at all. :( PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #15 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa19691; 7 Jan 94 16:42 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18842 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 7 Jan 1994 11:33:30 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA29039 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 7 Jan 1994 11:33:14 -0600 Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 11:33:14 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401071733.AA29039@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #16 TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Jan 94 11:33:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 16 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Rate of Change (Gordan Palameta) Re: Communication Over Power Lines? (James H. Haynes) Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack (Kriston J. Rehberg) Book Review: "The Phone Book" by Carl Oppedahl (Al Varney) Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack (John S. Roberts Jr.) Re: Hayes' New Modem (Michael P. Deignan) Re: Radio Religion in Canada (Rich Wales) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: gord@nmx701.attmail.com Date: 7 Jan 94 05:06:37 GMT Subject: Re: Rate of Change Stewart Fist wrote: > Computers and modern communications technologies might be revolutionary > to the half-million technologists, but to the five billion users these > chips and fibres are just creating marginal improvements on the > adequate 'service facilities' they had before. Computers produce a > very evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, change to our culture > when you compare them to the impact of something like the motor car. > My mother was ten before she saw her first motor car, 18 before she > saw an aeroplane, but she lived to fly the Concorde and see a man step > on the moon. How does this pace of change compare with my life span, > when cars, aeroplanes and space travel are reasonably commonplace? > And it all happened in about the same period of time that we have been > dealing with the computer revolution -- about 20 years. I think we > need to get our feet back on the ground and stop imagining that we are > more important than we are. Hmm, perhaps in the year 2040, someone will write an article about the rapidly-changing 1940s. Atomic bombs and computers were invented then, and just look at the impact computers have had on society: why, we can use our wristwatch PDAs to download the Encyclopedia Galactica directly into our brain cells. By contrast, this newfangled teleportation technology is just an evolutionary change ... The point is, when we consider the impact of airplanes, automobiles, etc. from our perspective, we are really compressing eighty years of history. A fair comparison with computers would require a similar eighty-year perspective. It was some time, for instance, before automobiles could be driven reliably by someone who was not a skilled mechanic. It took even longer for automobiles to change society in fundamental ways (the suburbanization of America, etc). The same is even more true for airplanes. It was decades before the invention of jet aircraft and other developments made flying widely available. As recently as the late 40s, a transatlantic flight cost the same as a semester at Harvard. Cheap flights for the masses didn't become a reality until US deregulation barely a decade ago. On the one hand, computers are still an "elite" technology, as user-unfriendly to the average user as the Model T was to the mechanically challenged. We can anticipate that computers, just like cars and planes, will need a few more decades before they become widespread and commonplace enough to truly change the way we live. On the other hand, however, in a very real sense, it won't take a few more decades; it's already happened. Computers have already had an enormous impact on the way we live, but it's overlooked because it's indirect and behind the scenes. Computers are ubiquitous and invisible, embedded in other products and (especially) services. The fact that you are able to book a flight tomorrow (not to mention a hotel room and rental car) is thanks not just to aircraft technology but to computerized reservation and scheduling systems. You could argue that this is merely a quantitative change, not a qualitative change: computers merely make the process more efficient. But this is not so: a sufficiently large quantitative change eventually becomes a qualitative change. Instead of merely doing the same thing more efficiently, you can do new things that would never have been considered previously. For instance, a modern, mechanically reliable car lets you commute fifty miles a day to work and back, every day. You can't do that with a horse. Early cars were merely faster horses; modern cars are something qualitatively different. Without computers, even an army of airline clerks couldn't manually synchronize takeoff and landing times across the continent, not unless air traffic levels were several orders of magnitude smaller than they are today. Again, this represents a qualitative change. No one would fly on routine overnight business trips, or fly home for Christmas. The tourism and hospitality industry, one of the largest employers, would hardly exist in its present form. We can generalize this: computers make high-volume applications practical, and make it possible for companies to offer many services widely and cheaply. Without computers, many such services wouldn't even exist because the market wouldn't be large enough to outweigh the fixed overhead costs. Others, such as air travel, would be restricted to an elite or moneyed group, and would therefore have very little impact on society as a whole. When considering the impact of technology, we tend to focus too much on things that are flashy and highly visible. A generation ago, people figured that by now we'd be zipping around in rocket ships and flying to work with our own personal jet packs. Few bothered to predict simple things like fax machines. And similarly, when we look back on the twentieth century, we tend to focus on cars and planes and space shuttles, while we overlook the unobtrusive things that have had an enormous indirect impact. Consider plastics: one of the most important inventions of the 20th century, yet often overlooked because they too are behind the scenes and "internal" to other products. Consider air conditioning: without it, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Las Vegas simply wouldn't exist in their present form as business centers, and the massive ongoing population shift to the Sunbelt wouldn't be taking place. And consider computers. In the future, they will be embedded into other products in ways that would seem extravagant or preposterous to us (consider the intelligent volleyball and the smart spray paint in Vernor Vinge's "Marooned in Real Time"). And their impact on society will be as great then as it is now. (I'll let someone else argue the case for telecom technologies; this is already far too long). Gordan Palameta (416) 979-7700 x134 Numetrix Ltd. Suite 1700 gord@numetrix.com (416) 979-7559 fax 655 Bay St. Toronto, Ont. M5G 2K4 [or gord@nmx701.attmail.com] ------------------------------ From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (James H. Haynes) Subject: Re: Communication Over Power Lines? Date: 6 Jan 1994 23:00:18 GMT Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz Back in the days when you could walk into a telephone office and pay your bill in cash, there were a bunch of pamphlets in a rack on the wall giving things like tips on telephone usage, the history of the telephone, how the telephone works, etc. I remember one of these had an illustration of rural telephone service using a carrier system operating over the power wire. In this case they used the high-voltage line for the carrier, isolated from the telephone equipment by a high-voltage capacitor presumably installed by the pwoer company for the purpose. The booklet didn't go into detail as to whether there were multiple carrier frequencies so that several subscribers could be served on one power line. Then there are articles in magazines from time to time, and maybe commercial products you can buy, that use the 120v house wiring for conductors; but in that case the interest is in communicating just within the building, or maybe to nearby houses connected to the same transformer. I don't think you'll get carrier frequencies to go through a power transformer and on to the high-voltage side and back through another transformer to the 120v side on another circuit. I believe the power companies also use carrier current for signaling and controlling their relays and things, again working on the high-voltage side of things so they don't have to go through transformers. haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack Reply-To: krehberg@vnet.IBM.COM Date: Thu, 06 Jan 94 17:35:21 EST From: V2ENA81%OWEGO@zeta.eecs.nwu.edu Quoted from mcneill@ngt.sungard.com's message of Wed, 5 Jan 94 10:03:42 EST: > On a side note, I recently called NY Telephone (or NYNEX as they want > to be called now) about getting a second phone line installed in my > apartment. I was shocked to get a quote of $185 for the second line > (first line costs about $60). This is the price for installing a > totally different phone line in the apartment. I complained a little > that they didn't need to do that as there was a perfectly good second > pair coming into the apartment I didn't get very far as the customer > service rep wasn't technical. Is there really any need to get a > totally seperate line into my apartment? Diamond State Telephone > (Delaware) was able to put a second line on the second pair. Is NYNEX > just trying to gouge me? Perhaps they were trying to sell you installation of the wire INSIDE your house. That is the extra $80-$100 or so. If you just want them to put a wire up to your network interface (typically in the basement of your apartment) that will cost you more like $85 from NYNEX. They will always assume the most expensive option, so you say "just hook your wire up to my building's interface box and activate my service". It's then your responsibility for the inside wiring. On your point about four-wire hookups, NYNEX will almost never install a second telephone line onto the second pair in a typical residential phone cable (probably) for reasons discussed on the Digest earlier in which noise can leak between the lines due to induction. They also want to have an extra modular jack inside their network interface for quick connect/disconnect if things go wrong. Not only that, they do want to make money installing inside wiring, which they are NOT obliged to do BY LAW, but are not really itching to tell you that you don't need them to do it for you. You have to be an educated consumer. Read on. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not necessarily. Telco outside plant > records are in notoriously bad condition in some places. The rep may As I said earlier, the NYNEX (formerly NY Telephone) telco doesn't seem particularly fond of second pairs. I actually looked into the network interface when they were done with it and they actually installed an extra interface jack and had cut off the second pair on the original wires so I couldn't hope to use them ... those bastards. Anyhow, you can probably hook it up to the second pair after the line is hooked up (and they leave) by using that same Radio Shack converter with your existing phone line inside the network interface and saved yourself some wiring headaches. Remember to tell NYNEX only to bring the wire to the network interface box in the basement. I told them I wanted them to do that in my old house, and they were more than happy to charge me the cheaper $85 for simple pole-to-house hookup and activation. I now live in an apartment in a semi-suburban/rural area and just recently checked with the local business office and the phone book, and nothing has changed even though it has to go to the basement of the house. In an extreme case, if there aren't any extra wires coming in (kinda unlikely in an apartment) and/or there aren't any more terminals on the pole (in a house situation) they're supposedly allowed to charge you an extra $30-$50 or so bringing the cost to more like $85 + $50 = $135. Then the optional charge for installing the wires in the house would probably bring the cost up to the $185 you stated. Don't let the bean counters cheat you! oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) wrote: > In some states the steps the moderator describes are exactly right. In > New York, things are a little different. Telco is obligated to provide > a network interface jack (if that is what you want) *in your apartment*, > for a price that is fixed -- unaffected by how long it takes to do. > This is the case regardless of whether their records show a previous > second line in your apartment; all that changes is the amount of the > fixed price. Last I checked the cost for your situation (where they > claim there was never a second line) is $88. It's $88, but if there aren't any more terminals on the pole they will charge you an extra $30 to $50 (depending on the work needed) to add that extra line terminal to the pole. This is information from the technicians and the business office here in Binghamton, NY. These are the same idiots who replaced our two pole-to-house lines twice. Once with two wires, and the second time two months later with a single two-line cable (we lived in a house with two dwellings in it). I think they were training their technicians at the time. Kriston J. Rehberg Internet External :krehberg@vnet.ibm.com Associate Programmer/Analyst FSC Internal RSCS :V2ENA81 AT OWEGO ENSCO, Incorporated FSC Internal AFS :v1ena81@legend.endicott Loral Federal Systems Co, Owego, NY Tel: 607-751-2180 :Tieline: 662-2180 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 12:31:52 CST From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Book Review: "The Phone Book" by Carl Oppedahl Organization: AT&T In article oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) writes: > The state-to-state differences are discussed in my book about phone > service. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What's this about your book about phone > service? Please review it for us and tell us how to obtain copies. PAT] What's this, Pat? Surely you are aware that Carl is a multi-talented lawyer, author on telecom and all-around consumer advocate? And a ham? Assuming Carl is too modest to review his book, I'll provide: BOOK REVIEW The Phone Book : How to get the Telephone Equipment and Service You Want - and Pay Less by Carl Oppedahl, a Consumer Reports Book ISBN 0-89043-364-X (pb), 1991, a revision of the book originally published by Weber Systems, Inc in 1987 as "The Phone Book" This book is a non-technical, "consumer-oriented" collection of information on telephones, telephone service, long-distance carriers, cellular carriers, and reference lists of PUC/Consumer Advocates for each state. The most technical content is a GOOD summary of what an REN is (and why a consumer might be interested), what the USOC codes like RJ11 mean (with pin/wire color information) and how to parse the FCC Part 68 registration number on equipment. The remaining 300+ pages consist of about 200 pages on how to wire one- and two-line telephones and troubleshoot the installation, intermingled with 100 pages of useful (and probably well-known to Digest readers) information on long-distance carriers, cellular/fax/ answering-machines and typical problems in connecting them, dealing with the Phone Company and how to read a phone bill. There is probably more information in this book than most consumers need, but it tends to be information they would not otherwise easily find. Those who need only wiring information might feel more at home with some Radio Shack-style publication, but they would be missing out on the substantial background information mingled in with the technical. Occasionally, there are little anecdotes to illustrate a point. For example, p. 96 mentions "Ruth's" inability to get Equal Access of any form when she moved to Townsend, Tennessee [pop. about 300, so this isn't an oblique PAT reference -- or is it?]. Carl indicates here that even without Equal Access, Ruth may be able to save money by using one of AT&T's discount plans. (It may not occur to many such captive customers that the discount plan can apply even if they have no choice in IXCs.) Some complaints: -ANI is defined as the service we here call "Caller ID", which will be confusing when talking to those who know the difference. -Quad wire is blessed as a method of installing 2-line telephones, and as a general inside wiring method. (Modems and their problems are not high-lighted in the book, but Carl does mention how to get around the A-lead control some modems have, for example.) -The cellular information should include information on ESN-cloning and other problems with cellular service. -Information (see below) useful to apartment dwellers is indexed under the term "multiunit buildings", not under "apartment". (In general, there is little "lawyer-speak" in the book.) SUMMARY: For its audience, this is an excellent reference book. BIO: Carl Oppedahl is a graduate of Harvard Law School and a practicing patent attorney. As a consumer activist, he has championed the interests of consumers in obtaining cost-effective telephone service. +++++++++ To get back to the original topic, Carl's book has several pages of information on various Network Interfaces and FCC/state rules on where/how such interfaces and demarcation points interact. On p. 29, describing NI Jacks in multiunit buildings: "In New York, for instance, the jack is located within the premises of each individual tenant. In Illinois the jack is located at the point where the telephone wiring first enters the building, generally in a basement room. (In a state like Illinois, you and not the local telephone company are responsible for the maintenance of the wiring running from the basement to your premises even though the landlord may not allow you access to such wiring. ..." Carl does indicate that such wiring should be maintained by the landlord at no cost to you, just as such electrical wiring is maintained. (Check your lease.) He lists 14 "renter-beware" states that make the renter responsible for running from the basement any wiring needed for service, such as a second line. He also lists 2 "interface- unfriendly" states that do not require TELCO to install (at little or no charge) a network interface at customer request on new service orders. Al Varney - I have no connection with Consumers Union, except as a happy customer. I have no connection with any lawyer, except as an unhappy customer. ------------------------------ From: John S. Roberts Jr. Subject: Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack Date: 6 Jan 1994 13:42:02 -0500 Organization: University of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences John S. Roberts Jr. writes: > I connected up the "other two wires" on all the lines running through > my house. Now, I can hear line two when using line one and vice-versa. > Is there any solution to this? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The solution is that somewhere in the > loop you (or someone long gone before you) cross connected the wires > and what you think is the 'other two wires' is really just part of > the first two wires. You don't really have 'line one' and 'line two'; > you have one line wired in multiple so to speak. Go to each box as > well as to the head end and find out where the cross connection is > in place. It may be nothing more than a real messy box with some > loose wires which are touching the connectors for the first set of > wires. Clean up that mess, and your 'other two wires' will suddenly > go dead again unless/until you have an actual second phone line > brought up to them. PAT] I DO have two phone lines. That is the problem. I know that they are not shorted because I can make two seperate calls on each of the lines, however I can HEAR the line one conversation when I am using line two. I have heard people talking about how when you run four conductor wire (like from Radio Shack) and use two conductors for one line and two conductors for the other you often get bleed over. I am looking for a solution to this other than running another set of wires to seperate the two lines from being so close. Thanks so much, John S. Roberts, Jr. 100 McVey Hall Work: 257-2275 +=- University of Kentucky Home: 272-1417 - FAX: 272-7105 +=- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ah, okay, that clarifies things. Indeed then, the thing you want to be careful about is the choice of wire you use. Some wire tends to 'bleed' more than others. You don't need two separate cables -- one set with four or more wires in it will do -- but be careful about what you use, as others have noted. PAT] ------------------------------ From: md@maxcy2.maxcy.brown.edu (Michael P. Deignan) Subject: Re: Hayes' New Modem Reply-To: mpd@anomaly.sbs.com Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 17:54:39 GMT In article , yatesc@eggo.usf.edu (Charles Randall Yates) writes: >> Have any of you heard about the Hayes Optima 288 V.FC + FAX modem? It >> can allegedly transmit data over a phone line at 28.8 kilobits per >> second *WITHOUT COMPRESSION*!!!! I thought you guys told us the upper >> limit was in the low 20's. What gives? Quite easy, actually. These new modems use a combination of phase-shift and amplitude modulation to transmit four, eight, even twelve bits for each baud. So, given a standard 2400 baud modem using a modified quadrature amplitude modulation scheme, you could conceivably get this level of thruput. Its all a matter of how sensitive your equipment is to detecting minute phase shifts and amplitude changes in the carrier, then it could be quite easy to get twelve bits of data transmitted with each baud. Think of it this way: Each baud is represented by a 360 degree sine wave. You can vary the phase of the sine wave to actually transmit multiple bits for each baud. For example, early "dibit phase shift keying" was a modulation scheme used by 1200bps modems. The modems were really 600 baud modems, but each baud transmitted two bits, depending on how much "out of phase" the baud's sine wave was. For instance: 0 degrees out of phase = hex 00 90 degrees out of phase = hex 01 180 " " " " = hex 10 270 " " " " = hex 11 So, by varying the phase of each baud's sine wave, you could technically transmit two bits of data for each baud. Early 9600bps modems used this same method. 9600bps modems are still technically 2400baud modems - there are only 2400 signal samples (or sine wave occurances) in each second. Using a modified phase shift keying, you could transmit 4 bits of data for each baud, hence, 9600bps. Now, sine waves have more than a phase charactistic. They also have an amplitude. You can modulate a carrier wave's signal via amplitude - tune to a local AM broadcast station, they're using amplitude modulation to transmit their signal. If you combined the two methods -- phase shift and amplitude -- you can transmit many bits simultaneously by modifying those two characteristics. For example (and I don't know if this is technically feasible, given our current technology) if you could measure a 1-degree shift in the phase of a carrier wave, in conjunction with 23 different amplitudes, then theoretically you could transmit one of 360x23 unique "values". 360x23=8280, so we could then use this combination to represent one of 2^13, or 8196, different values. Since we're transmitting 13 bits per baud, multipled by 2400 baud per second, we're getting an effective throughput of 13x2400, or 31200 bits per second, uncompressed. Of course, I don't know if this is how Hayes does it, but remember, you can only modulate a sine wave one of three ways: amplitude, phase, and frequency. Ain't technology wonderful? Michael P. Deignan Population Studies & Training Center Brown University, Box 1916, Providence, RI 02912 (401) 863-7284 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 13:03:01 EST From: richw@mks.com (Rich Wales) Subject: Re: Radio Religion in Canada Reply-To: richw@mks.com (Rich Wales) Organization: Mortice Kern Systems Inc., Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Gene Fornario wrote: > BTW, have you noticed that Canada doesn't either have or license > all-religious stations? Up till recently at least, the CRTC (Canadian FCC-analogue) would not license so-called "single-faith" radio or TV stations. I think there's one religious radio station in Newfoundland that was there before the province became part of Canada and got grandfathered, but that's all. However, I heard a few months ago that the CRTC had changed the rules and will now permit religious radio stations. I don't have the details, though, and I don't know how soon these stations might start appearing. Rich Wales (VE3HKZ, WA6SGA/VE3) Mortice Kern Systems Inc. richw@mks.com 35 King Street North +1 (519) 884-2251 Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2J 2W9 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #16 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa20196; 7 Jan 94 17:47 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA19460 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 7 Jan 1994 13:23:22 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA28845 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 7 Jan 1994 13:23:07 -0600 Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 13:23:07 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401071923.AA28845@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #17 TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Jan 94 13:23:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 17 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions (Bruce Taylor) Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions (Bill Halverson) Re: Best Remote Software? (Andy McKinsey) Re: California ANI Question (Steve Forrette) Re: California ANI Question (Jon Edelson) Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones (Ronald Oakes) Re: Sucharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (Eric De Mund) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Mark Crispin) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (A. Padgett Peterson) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Alan Boritz) Re: Merlin Question (Steve Cogorno) Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated (Kriston Rehberg) Re: Caller ID/911 Seattle and Article Recommendation (Alan Dahl) Re: Sprint (Dvorak) Modem Offer - Not Again! (Chris Ambler) Re: Sprint (Dvorak) Modem Offer - Not Again! (Alan T. Furman) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 11:30:58 EST From: Bruce Taylor Subject: Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions Dear Lenny, You questions are so broad that it would be nearly impossible to answer with any accuracy. But, since this is Usenet, I'll try :-) > 1. Which countries/provinces have SW-56 service and are ISDN capable? 1: Answer depends on which long distance carrier (IXC) that you use to get to the countries. In Europe, most countries are apparently ISDN capable. Getting there, on the other hand ... > 2. Here in the US what cities have been converted to ISDN, and who are > still operating at SW-56? 2: Again, depends on the local exchange carrier, and the IXC as well. Most switched that are fully digital are ISDN capable. The LEC may not have a tariff for it, though. This is not an exclusive choice, though. Pittsburgh has both ISDN and SW56 services available. > 3. If you know, who are their carriers? 3: Argh -- whose carriers? Cities? Not relevant. There are LEC's and IXC's. In theory, any IXC can carry ISDN to any LEC. Depends greatly on which combination you're talking about. May I suggest: Talking with your college telecom group, your LEC (a 'Bell' company), and your IXCs (AT&T, MCI, Sprint, LCI, Wiltel, etc.). They could help you in greater detail. Best wishes for your research, Bruce Taylor (blt@cmu.edu) (412) 268-6249 New Projects Coordinator, Telecommunications, Carnegie Mellon University ------------------------------ From: wjhalv1@pacbell.com Subject: Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions Date: 6 Jan 94 18:56:44 GMT Organization: Pacific * Bell In article , writes: > Sirs: I'm a tech with Brown University in Providence RI. My question > is basic, yet important to our work here at Brown, perhaps you may be > able to give me some direction to obtain the answers. > 1. Which countries/provinces have SW-56 service and are ISDN capable? Within the USA, these two services are considered to be "complementary", in the sense they can coexist within a network. > 2. Here in the US what cities have been converted to ISDN, and who are > still operating at SW-56? In California, Pacific Bell is offering both ISDN and SW-56. Since the service is hardware dependent, the prefix you get from the phone company will determine whether the switch you receive dialtone from provides either or both service. Here is an 800 number you can call to find out what is availble in our service territory: 800-995-0346 You need a touch-tone phone. You will be able to find out what kind of service is available based on the NPANXX combination you enter. Hope this helps!! Bill Halverson Pacific Bell ------------------------------ From: aam@crl.com (Andy McKinsey) Subject: Re: Best Remote Software? Date: 6 Jan 1994 10:14:03 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] Joseph Ferguson (JOEJR1@delphi.com) wrote: > I need a reliable remote software program that will actually run > Windows. I use an Intel 400 at home and at work. Haven't had any luck > trying PcTools Commute. Do any of these remote programs run Windows? > Thanks for any suggestions. Try Reachout software from Ocean Isle software. 407/770-4777 Vero Beach, FL. You can run windows over a dial up link or on a network. Andy ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: California ANI Question Date: 6 Jan 1994 19:29:28 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In , davidj@rahul.net (David Josephson) writes: > In stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: >> ANI is not illegal in California. As the Digest Editor noted, with >> very few exceptions, if you can call an 800 number, the recipient can > The CPUC tariff is the law. CPUC denied Pacific Bell's tariff filing > that would have offered CNID. Only that which is tariffed is > permissible. What does the tariff filing on Caller ID have to do with 800 ANI? (answer: nothing!) 800 ANI for inter-state calls is tariffed by the FCC for all three of the Big Three IXC's. Since 800 ANI is tariffed, it is permissable. > I wonder if the per-number (56# or whatever it was?) CNID blocking > from here would block a INWATS ANI/CNID? Not unless Caller ID blocking prevents you from making a 1+ long distance call (which it doesn't). There is no way to block 800 ANI short of not calling the number. Even the traditional methods of blocking Caller ID do not work: a) you can't call an 800 number by using a calling card; b) calling through the Operator doesn't block your number (on AT&T, operator assisted 800 calls still deliver the correct ANI to the recipient, and other carriers do not have operator assisted 800 calls); or c) calling over non-SS7 facilities, as SS7 is not required to support 800 ANI. This is why it works for 99.5% of all calls. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: winnie@flagstaff.princeton.edu (Jon Edelson) Subject: Re: California ANI Question Organization: Princeton University Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 15:10:16 GMT In article stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > And there is blocking available -- if callers choose not to have me or > my customers pay for their telephone calls (which is what they are > doing when they call an 800 number), we will never get their number. > I guess this is a form of per-call blocking :-) (I suppose you could > even have per-line 800 ANI blocking if you got a toll restrictor and > programmed it to block 800 numbers :-)) Yea! Another service that the telephone company can offer to make money. 800 number ANI blocking. For a small monthly fee, your 800 calls will go through, but _you_ will have to pay for them. In exchange for actually paying for the service, your ANI will not be transmitted. The various carriers charge more per call, and split the additional profit :-) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But they do this already. You simply dial the regular ten digit number for the person or company; you pay for the call; everyone is happy. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 14:59:37 CST From: oakes@wildebeest.cig.mot.com (Ronald Oakes) Subject: Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones Organization: Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group In article John Levine writes: >> Charging the land-line caller to a cellular number makes >> perfect sense to me. > In the abstract, it makes some sense. On the other hand, surcharged > numbers are a pain for callers, local telcos, and long distance > carriers since the prices tend to be mysterious and the bills at the > end of the month often an unpleasant surprise. How long do you think > it will take for someone to complain to US West "nobody told me that a > call to 1-579 cost 65 cents* a minute"? If it's as much as two days > after the first bill is sent, I'll be surprised. The day after that, > people will demand 579 blocking, like 900 and 976 blocking. There already is blocking for 1-579, and 1-976 blocking, at least for people familiar with using telephones in Colorado, New Mexico and other "civilized" parts of the country. In these parts of the country -- assuming they are not pressured to change -- dialing a "1" before a seven digit number, or after conversion the local area code, is a clear and deliberate indication that the call is toll. If you do not know that, then you simply will receive a polite "please dial 1" or "please dial 1 303" message when you attempt the call. This simple solution removes many of the problems with charge calls that become present when you allow seven digit toll calling. This would have prevented -- or at least lessened -- the New York pager scam, and can reduce the problems with 976 numbers. And for cellular services, unlike 900 and 976 like numbers, the charge will probably be a flat rate, published in the phone book, or available from the operator upon request. Ronald B. Oakes ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 13:50:44 PST From: Eric De Mund Subject: Re: Sucharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped Reply-To: Eric De Mund Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Genome Computing Group People, Dave Niebuhr in TELECOM Digest V14 #15: > NYTel, as part of a multi-million dollar rate rollback has been > ordered to reduce the cost of touch-tone dialing from $1.35 to $.50 > per month which is still not enough. Given that backwards state of affairs, maybe my dad *is* telling me the truth when he says that he can't even *get* touch-tone service at his home in central Nassau County (Westbury), Long Island, New York, telephone number (516) 333-xxxx. Incredible. Can anyone confirm this? Eric De Mund ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 13:44:47 PST From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous I just saw in an electronics toy catalog (Danmark or one of those) a Caller ID box that implements something like Anonymous Call Rejection as its own feature. If you enable it, it automatically answers the call and plays a refusal message, than hangs up. What I see as different between this box and the telco's feature: 1) You don't have to beg the ACLU for this feature, after having begged them for CNID. 2) No monthly charge beyond the CNID. 3) You need to wire the box in series with all your extensions, otherwise you won't get the ring suppression on the other ones. 4) I doubt that it interacts well with Call Waiting. 5) The ability to set the refusal message (I don't know if this particular box has it, but doubtless others will). Big win. So, there are interesting tradeoffs. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Plus which, the call *supervises*, and the scorned calling party gets to pay for a thirty second message telling him his call is unwanted. :) Some say that condition should be the default on this sort of thing, but at least when the telcos do it they can optionally toggle it either way. I am reminded of this guy who had a phone line installed in a remote area which he used only occassionally. The number was never given out, and he used it maybe once a week for a call or two, but he wanted a phone available when he needed it. The first thing he noticed following installation was how many wrong numbers this line was getting; like three or four a day from all sorts of people who were looking for someone or something else -- there was no set pattern to the wrong numbers. He knew for a fact no one would ever call *him* on that line because he never gave to the number to anyone for any reason. His solution was to put a real cheap answering machine on the line with an outgoing message which said, "You have reached a wrong number. For your convenience, this line is answered 24 hours per day by this recording. The person or company you are seeking is not at this number. Because of your carelessness in dialing, you have been charged for this call. Goodbye." He later said the funny part was how many people paid absolutely no attention and at the tone went ahead and recorded their airline reservations, questions for customer service, requests for songs to be played on the radio, etc. A few did actually listen and take note of the message; many of those chose to respond with anonymous (of course) obscene incoming messages, some made sounds into the phone which resembled belching or passing of 'gas', a couple were gales of hysterical laughter, etc. He finally changed his outgoing message on that line referring to it as the "Telephone Company Wrong Number Respository". ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 16:45:55 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous > Does anyone actually have Anonymous Call Rejection in service now? Is > it useful? It impresses me as one of those features which you get for > about a week, then get rid of because it's utterly worthless. I can see a very valid use -- computer modem lines. On my dial-ups I use Caller-ID to validate the caller before permitting connections. If the CNID is blocked, I just do not answer the phone but the line is still occupied until the caller hangs up. Even if I did not have CNID, I doubt that many people would be willing to use a Demon Dialer if they could not block CNID since they would not *know* if I were logging. It certainly would put a crimp in annoyance calls that rely on anomynity. Warmly, Padgett ------------------------------ Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) Date: Thu, 06 Jan 94 06:42:56 EST Organization: Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) writes: > Does anyone actually have Anonymous Call Rejection in service now? I've had the function working for a good part of a year, but with the Colonial Data Technologies "Block The Blocker" CNID box. Works like a charm. ;) NJ Bell sent out a flyer on 1/1/94 to all of their CNID customers announcing CNID privacy block (*67) and anonymous call rejection (*77). However, it also added that the call rejection feature would not be available in some areas for a while. > It impresses me as one of those features which you get for > about a week, then get rid of because it's utterly worthless. Perhaps > I'm suffering from a failure of imagination, but I find it difficult > to understand the mindset of people who are too scared to answer the > phone if they don't know in advance who the call is from. Then you probably don't receive a lot of calls from telemarketing idiots and nosy scam artists. We go through periods at work when we're inundated with those, and calls from telemarketing machines (our exchanges are low numbers in the 201 area). Telemarketing calls are an enormous time-waster, and more than half of the investment scam callers are pushy and rude. Invade my privacy at home with a useless sales pitch AND hide your CNID from me and I'll redefine the word "rude" for you. ;) If you're hiding your identity from me (privacy block), then I don't want to talk to you. My time is worth more than yours (anonymous caller, that is) and I don't appreciate it being wasted. > People who are concerned about annoyance callers should consider Call > Block, which lets you enter a list of numbers from which you won't > receive calls. That Class feature only handles ten numbers, maximum (and can handle privacy-blocked numbers), and has to be manually programmed. That's not a solution, except for the most obnoxious and uninventive abusive callers (those who can't figure out that they could pick up ANOTHER un-blocked phone to call you). aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place BBS (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Merlin Question Date: Thu, 6 Jan 1994 14:13:36 PST Said by: Vince Dugar > Why does the Merlin system charge users so much (I forget now, but > it's a lot) to buy a special modem adapter? Is there a cheaper > solution? What about using an acoustic modem? (only want it for > CompuServe mail handling, so low baud would be OK) Sure -- instead of buying a BTMI or Data Adapter, you can wire your modem straight into the demarc point (bypass the Merlin altogether). Of course, this will prevent you from using Merlin Features, but if you want to play you gotta pay :-) Steve cogorno@netcom.com #608 Merrill * 200 McLaughlin Drive * Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1015 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated Reply-To: krehberg@vnet.IBM.COM Date: Thu, 06 Jan 94 17:51:16 EST From: V2ENA81%OWEGO@zeta.eecs.nwu.edu In dk@crl.com's message of 5 Jan 1994 16:40:08 -0800 was written: > Dan Cromer (19016007@SBACVM.SBAC.EDU) wrote: >> remotes, generated. I bought a new VCR for my folks in Lakeland, FL, >> to make it easy for them to set up the VCR for recording, but the VCR >> Plus+ codes aren't listed in their newspaper. I'd like to be able to > I could have sworn that Toshiba or possibly Mitsui has a remote > control device which has thumbwheel switches for day of week, date, > time, and channel number, so that a person can read across the front > of the unit, "Monday - 7th - 7:00 to 7:30 - pm - channel 4" and be > done with the confusion. Has anyone seen one of these? Yah, modern Panasonic VCR's with VCR/Plus has a thumwheel on the remote control which lets you cycle through the days. It also has a meager explanation of VCR/Plus and lets you graphically program the channel positions into the VCR so that it will automatically know which channel is which. It had some kind of cross-reference listing on it as to which channels go where so that the codes might actually work for your local cable system. Prevue Guide (the TV-Guide channel that allows the cable system to automatically select the preview commercials based on your area's channels) also provides VCR plus on almost all the programs in the commercial section, and at least some of them in the program listing section. Pretty cool, if you ask me. But I'm not among those millions of people who can't program something as simple as a VCR. Come to think of it, just setting up this Panasonic VCR for VCR/Plus would give this kind of person a coronary. Kris ------------------------------ From: alan.dahl@mccaw.com (Alan Dahl) Subject: Re: Caller ID/911 Seattle and Article Recommendation Date: 6 Jan 1994 23:28:49 GMT Organization: McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. In article stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > In , hedlund@reed.edu (M. Hedlund) writes: >> I also saw a news piece about 911 technology and cellular phones, >> saying that Caller-ID/Signalling System Seven had speeded response to >> home calls (as discussed) but that only _some_ systems could ID >> cellular phones -- Seattle was mentioned as considering cellular- >> Caller ID to improve 911. Apologies if this overlaps a thread I >> missed, but anyone in Seattle with info? > I have cellular accounts with both of the Seattle carriers: US West > Cellular and Cellular One. At least when calling 800 numbers, the US > West Cellular system will report my actual cellular number as the ANI, > whereas Cellular One reports a non-dialable number that's common on > all subscribers. Since 911 systems are often implemented using > operator-service trunks, I would imagine that the 'correct ANI' > feature of the US West system would also work with 911, although I > don't have any specific knowledge that this is the case. As far as > Cellular One goes, they could implement 911 ANI with some sort of > special data line to the PSAP, without converting to full ANI for all > outbound calls. One benefit of the US West Cellular ANI situation is > that it allows me to select any IXC that's generally available via > Equal Access as my default carrier for the cellular phone. The problem, of course, with using ANI with cellular numbers for enhanced-911 is that it only gives the 911 people some of the information they need. It will give them your cell number (assuming that the ANI works correctly) so they can try calling back if the number is disconnected but there is no way for them to translate this number into a location since the cellular phone could be anywhere. With normal 911 the phone number is translated to a street address, and since houses (with the possible exception of mudslides in LA :-) rarely move, the 911 operator (and thus the police/fire department/whatever) can be relatively sure that that's where you're calling from so that help can be dispatched to the right address if you are unable to communicate. With a cellular phone the information that is _really_ needed is the cell site that the phone is communicating with. This could, in turn, be translated to a street address that would at least get the police to within a thousand feet or so of your location in the event you are cut off, don't know where you are or are unable to communicate. You can imagine the frustration of a 911 operator talking to a child over a cell phone (say, after a car accident) where the child may be unable to explain where the car is and the 911 operator helpless to narrow down the location at all without help from the cellular provider (and a lot of valuable time lost). Coming up with a way to communicate cell site address to the 911 operator is non-trivial and will probably take a fair amount of effort to implement. Since I don't work on that side of the company I'll let someone else explain the technological challenges. I understand (from what I read in the papers, I don't know anything even remotely official) that McCaw is committed to delivering this functionality within the next couple of years. Alan Dahl Axys Development Team alan.dahl@mccaw.com McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. Phone: (206) 803-4496 P.O. Box 97060 Fax: (206) 803-4901 Kirkland, WA 98083-9760 ------------------------------ From: cambler@cymbal.aix.calpoly.edu (Chris Ambler - Fubar) Subject: Re: Sprint (Dvorak) Modem Offer - Not Again! Organization: The Phishtank Date: Fri, 07 Jan 1994 02:01:44 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well now, that's very gracious and generous > of you to agree to take that extra modem off his hands. :) Meanwhile, > back in California, I am wondering what is going on with the lawsuit against > Sprint the guys were starting based on alleged misrepresentations of the > product being shipped, etc. Can anyone bring us up to date on that side > of it? PAT] Certainly! I have received from Sprint a letter from their agent here in California informing me that they are the proper people to serve. The papers have been made out accordingly. I am in the process of receiving legal advice on my claim, and should be filing this month. I'm being very careful about what I'm doing so as to not make any mistakes. I want this to be as "fair" a case as possible, at least from my end. And, since I know that Sprint reads this group (since they were able to quote me my own words on the phone from a post here), a hearty hello to them as well, expect me to file shortly. This has been a learning experience for me if nothing else, I've come to understand how the law works in these cases, and believe I have a very strong case. I look forward to its resolution. Meanwhile, the modems sit, sealed and unopened, in a cool dry safe place, awaiting their day in court :-) Pat, might I ask you the easiest way for me to scan the archives for all messages posted on this subject? I have been advised that I should have them all handy, since Sprint will most likely have the same. Christopher(); // All original text is strictly the opinion of the poster Christopher J. Ambler, Author, FSUUCP 1.42, FSVMP 1.0, chris@toys.fubarsys.com Ozric Tentacles Mailing List: ozric-request@toys.fubarsys.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you get the index to subjects and authors in the Digest for volume 13 from the Telecom Archives, use the Unix command 'grep' to search for the words 'Sprint' and 'modem' in the same subject line. If you use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service, one of the commands available to you is SEARCH and you would search for those same keywords. The results would be returned by email and you would then order the issues of the Digest referenced in the index. As a practical matter however, the majority of the discussion went on during September through November, and you could just pull all the back issues from that period and scan the indexes given at the start of each issue (if you get the Digest format rather than c.d.t.). Also, are you *sure* those modems are sitting in their original unopened boxes in a cool, dry place? Have you fellows been playing with your new toys? I am reminded of this dude twenty years ago who used to buy CB radios from Radio Shack at a time when CB's were easily modified to install an additional 250 channels and with luck oscillate clear up in ten meters. He'd buy the radios and modify them, then resell them to folks. Naturally, once in awhile there'd be an accident. He'd mess up something, ie, the radio would blow up. In that case, he'd scrap all the internals he wanted -- the chips, etc -- for spares to use elsewhere and he would *carefully* put the unit back together otherwise, *carefully* repackage the remains and take it back to Radio Shack to complain the unit was defective. Now the RS clerks didn't pay any attention; they'd just swap him out and send the 'defective' unit back through the system to their regional center. Over time the 'defective' CB would find its way back to the factory in Korea (Hong Kong? China?) where it was made. Just imagine the scene: the Chinese factory workers open the radio and look inside. As they look closer, they squint their eyes and proclaim, "Holy $%^%# ... look at this! No master crystal, no trim-pots, no final ... how did this thing pass quality control and get out of here to start with!" ... :). PAT] ------------------------------ From: atfurman@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Sprint (Dvorak) Modem Offer - Not Again! Date: Thu, 6 Jan 94 21:17:45 PST > I was one of those who, a few months ago, ordered Sprint LD service > while under the impression that I would get *one* external 9600 baud > *data* modem with FAX. After speaking with the post-offer Sprint > staff, I accepted the internal 2400 baud data and 9600 baud fax modem. > Now the problem -- I just got a second modem in the mail! Exactly the > same as the first. All I have is an 818 area code phone number for > Best Data, so I don't want to call them back; it came UPS, so I can't > just throw it in the mail with REFUSED scribbled all over it. I doubt > the Sprint rep's will be able to help. Now what? Look at it this way: You now have a total of 4800 bits/sec of data bandwidth. It is not yet 9600, but you are halfway there. Alan Furman [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What's he supposed to do, wire them in parallel somehow and process the data through each at twice the speed or something? Ha ha ha ... :) Poor Sprint ... I'll bet they cuss everytime they see this thread come back to life here. I know they rue the day some brainy person in their marketing department ever thought up the promotion. What was that nice lady's name who went to all the trouble of calling each person trying to get it straightened out? And now, just when they thought the long nightmare was over ... PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #17 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa24939; 8 Jan 94 12:32 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA18277 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 8 Jan 1994 09:22:16 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16922 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 8 Jan 1994 09:22:02 -0600 Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 09:22:02 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401081522.AA16922@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #19 TELECOM Digest Sat, 8 Jan 94 09:22:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 19 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Book Review: "The Phone Book" by Carl Oppedahl (Carl Oppedahl) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Richard Masoner) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Anthony E. Siegman) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (James R. Saker Jr.) Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (Ed Greenberg) Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (A. Padgett Peterson) Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (Chris Labatt-Simon) Correction: Re: Help Needed With V.42bis (Jim Graham) Re: Hayes' New Modem (Jakob Hummes) Re: Communication Over Power Lines? (Michael D. Griffin) Re: How are VCR Plus Codes+ Generated (Peter Capek) Sprint (Dvorak) Modem Offer - Finally (Dan Osborn) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Book Review: "The Phone Book" by Carl Oppedahl Date: 7 Jan 1994 17:52:11 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In varney@ihlpe.att.com writes: > In article oppedahl@panix.com (Carl > Oppedahl) writes: >> The state-to-state differences are discussed in my book about phone >> service. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What's this about your book about phone >> service? Please review it for us and tell us how to obtain copies. PAT] [most of review omitted here -- thank you by the way to Mr. Verney!] > Some complaints: > -ANI is defined as the service we here call "Caller ID", which will > be confusing when talking to those who know the difference. Yes, Mr. Varney is right. I incorrectly used the terms as if interchangeable, which of course they are not. If and when there is another edition I will correct this. > -Quad wire is blessed as a method of installing 2-line telephones, and > as a general inside wiring method. Again Mr. Varney is right. While I am pleased with most of what I wrote, I am very embarassed that I did not then appreciate the difference between quad and twisted-pair for multiline purposes. As readers here are aware (1) many home have quad already in place so adding twisted-pair is more work and (2) quad often yields annoying crosstalk. I wish I had made the latter point in my book, and hope to cover that point in another edition. > -The cellular information should include information on ESN-cloning > and other problems with cellular service. Again he is right. > -Information (see below) useful to apartment dwellers is indexed under > the term "multiunit buildings", not under "apartment". (In general, > there is little "lawyer-speak" in the book.) Yes, and what's annoying is, I supplied an index and the publisher did not use it -- they used one prepared by an index consultant that they had used on other books. Oh, well. > Al Varney - I have no connection with Consumers Union, except as > a happy customer. I have no connection with any lawyer, > except as an unhappy customer. Well, thank you for taking the time to write it up. Now, dear readers, here is how we can get a new edition that corrects the bugs Mr. Varney mentioned, and that reflects everything else people in this newsgroup might want to add -- you can guess. People would have to buy the present print run. So, trot down to your local bookstore and clear those shelves. Buy extra copies for use as gifts. Or call up Consumer Reports Books and order it by phone. But seriously, thank you for the writeup. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: cendata!richardm@uunet.UU.NET (Richard Masoner) Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous Organization: Central Data Corp., Champaign, IL Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 21:44:22 GMT In article drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) writes: > Then you probably don't receive a lot of calls from telemarketing > idiots and nosy scam artists. We go through periods at work when > we're inundated with those, and calls from telemarketing machines (our > exchanges are low numbers in the 201 area). Telemarketing calls are > an enormous time-waster, and more than half of the investment scam > callers are pushy and rude. Invade my privacy at home with a useless > sales pitch AND hide your CNID from me and I'll redefine the word > "rude" for you. ;) Many (not all) telemarketing calls actually originate from somewhere outside of your area code (places where rent and labor is cheap). Rejecting anonymous callers doesn't work for them. > If you're hiding your identity from me (privacy block), then I don't > want to talk to you. My time is worth more than yours (anonymous > caller, that is) and I don't appreciate it being wasted. Many people do have legitimate privacy concerns, and don't want their phone numbers to be known outside of a select circle. Just my observations. Richard F. Masoner Central Data Corporation 1602 Newton Dr., Champaign, IL 61821 (217) 359-8010 x251 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 94 16:57:53 PST From: Anthony E. Siegman Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous > Then you probably don't receive a lot of calls from telemarketing > idiots and nosy scam artists. We go through periods at work when > we're inundated with those, and calls from telemarketing machines ... > Telemarketing calls are an enormous time-waster, and more than half > of the investment scam callers are pushy and rude. Ditto here. In past two days San Jose Mercury telemarketers have managed to ring all four university extensions on my secretary's desk (selling newspaper subscriptions to Stanford University office extensions? -- but then, who expects intelligence from telemarketers). Let me once again pitch the simple idea that telemarketers should be allowed total freedom to call anyone -- but required to do it with CNID from a special "telemarketing area code" prefix, like 300 or 400 or ??? (just like the "Advertisement" warning at the top of commercial inserts in reputable magazines). Those who wanted could then buy a cheap black box to block all such calls. No First Amendment problems, no "do not call this number" databases to prepare and maintain, burden of protection entirely on the callee (but easily done), etc. ------------------------------ From: jsaker@cwis.unomaha.edu (James R. Saker Jr.) Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 19:22:27 GMT Ron Schnell writes: > I have anonymous call rejection enabled on my phone in Miami, FL, and > someone tried to call me from a cellular phone that was installed in a > rental car in San Diego in their rental car and got the rejection > message. > I assume that the cellular rental company uses some ultra-cheap LD > service (to make the most amount of money possible on the $2.00/minute > rental charge!) that uses a local out-going line in Miami that > disabled CID. I've got US West Cellular service in Omaha, Nebraska (all you can eat a month for $150!). Several of my friends and business associates who have caller ID services have noticed that whenever they receive calls from me on my cellular phone, they appear as anonymous calls. Attempts to use last-call-return also fail (with some useless message). Evidently it's not just cheap cellular providers which demonstrate this problem ... Jamie Saker jsaker@cwis.unomaha.edu Chief Operating Officer Business/IS Major Synergistic Communications Univ. Nebraska at Omaha voice: (402) 680-8280 fax: (402) 391-7283 ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped Date: 7 Jan 1994 17:24:46 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In Eric De Mund writes: > Dave Niebuhr in TELECOM Digest V14 #15: >> NYTel, as part of a multi-million dollar rate rollback has been >> ordered to reduce the cost of touch-tone dialing from $1.35 to $.50 >> per month which is still not enough. > Given that backwards state of affairs, maybe my dad *is* telling me > the truth when he says that he can't even *get* touch-tone service at > his home in central Nassau County (Westbury), Long Island, New York, > telephone number (516) 333-xxxx. Incredible. I don't know the situation now, but a few years ago a friend in Westbury had three lines in the house, one of which was a 516-333. The 516-333 had been in place for a decade or more, and he kept it because it was a flat-rate line -- no charge for local calls. Makes me think that 516-333 was some sort of ancient equipment, a stepper exchange, maybe. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 14:20:02 GMT In article Eric De Mund writes: > Given that backwards state of affairs, maybe my dad *is* telling me > the truth when he says that he can't even *get* touch-tone service at > his home in central Nassau County (Westbury), Long Island, New York, > telephone number (516) 333-xxxx. Incredible. Since 516-333 is served out of the Westbury DMS-100, it would surprise me if it couldn't handle touchtone. Now, NYTel may have some foolish reason for not providing it, but be assured that 516-333 isn't step or some other ancient technology. Ed Greenberg edg@netcom.com Ham Radio: KM6CG ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 94 08:39:39 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped > In addition, it is phasing out the optional business Flat Rate and > untimed Message Rate plans for businesses in upstate NY and imposing > timed message rate for them. This is the scary part simce everywhere I go I see regional carriers attempting to eliminate "flat" and "unmetered" plans. As telecommuting and information hightway access begins to take hold, the elimination of unmetered local service is the biggest threat to individual connectivity that I can imagine. Of course, the biggies (Compu$erve, Plodigy, etc.) will have 800 numbers and just pass the cost along, but one might expect amateur BBSs, SLIPs, and the like to become much less popular. The biggest threat would be to the infant telecommuting industry and the home office which relies on unlimited local service and the best means for achieving the Clinton/Gore "20% reduction in commuting" would go up in smoke. True, TANSTAAFL still applies and I suppose metering is inevitable particularly since it is both cheap and desirable for the Telcos. The only advantage that I can see for the consumer would be that with metered service, the subscriber would have a right to a call detail listing the individual calls by called number, time, and duration. Chilly today, Padgett [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Chilly is an understatement, Padgett. Four degrees below zero at 9:00 AM this Saturday morning is not my idea of a pleasant spring day in Chicago! :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) Subject: Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped Date: 7 Jan 1994 22:51:01 GMT Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, USA Eric De Mund writes: > Given that backwards state of affairs, maybe my dad *is* telling me > the truth when he says that he can't even *get* touch-tone service at > his home in central Nassau County (Westbury), Long Island, New York, > telephone number (516) 333-xxxx. Incredible. I have a friend in Islip (Nassau County) who has touchtone. I though this was a capability that was in all switches manufactured in the last umpteen (how much is an umpteen anyway?) years, and that if a customer wanted pulse service, the phone company had to disable touchtone. Anyone? Anyone? Chris Labatt-Simon Internet: pribik@rpi.edu Design & Disaster Recovery Consulting CIS: 73542,2601 Albany, New York PHONE: (518) 495-5474 FAX: (518) 786-6539 Subscribe to the Lotus Notes Mailing List - e-mail me for info.... ------------------------------ From: jim@n5ial.mythical.com (Jim Graham) Subject: Correction: Re: Help Needed With V.42bis Organization: Future site of Vaporware Corporation (maybe). --Teletoons (NW) Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 16:13:08 GMT The purpose of this posting is to correct some major technical goofs in another post. These corrections come right out of the ITU-T (ex-CCITT) text for V.42 and V.42bis, as well as info from one of the authors of both standards. General comments, of course, are mine. :-) In article PURWIN@XANADU.XYPLEX.COM (Janusz Purwin tel 508-952-4711) writes: > Well don't worry about if it does work or not. Firstly V.42 requires > that both modems have to have that feature enabled. Secondly it is > most useless feature ever put into modem. Its good for marketing > people to brag about and give false advertising about how faster modem > will transmit data without pointing out when it happens. First off, V.42 *IS* an important feature, especially for high-speed modems. If you didn't have some type of error control, you could run into all kinds of problems. Remember, high speed modems (e.g., V.32bis and the up-and-coming V.34) really stretch the limits of a normal POTS line. I won't bore everyone here with the details, since that's not going to be anything new to anyone anyway. Second, V.42 (and MNP3) strip off the start/stop bits, thus using only 8 bits per character instead of 10. For a V.32bis connection, this means going from a throughput of absolutely no more than 1440 cps to somewhere around 1650 cps to 1724 cps (after protocol overhead). See the discussion over in comp.dcom.modems for more details on this. But when have you ever seen a vendor 'brag' about this? > The V.42 uses Limpel-Ziff compression scheme Sorry, but V.42 doesn't do any compression, period. V.42 is an error control protocol, as is clearly indicated by the title of ITU-T (ex-CCITT) Recommendation V.42: "Error-Correcting Procedures For DCEs Using Asynchronous-to-Synchronous Conversion" (originally in all-caps). V.42 is an HDLC-based error control procedure. It operates in one of two modes: LAPM (Link Access Procedure for Modems), which is its primary mode, and an alternate mode specified in Annex A, which is basically an MNP4 clone (added to provide support for older modems that don't have V.42). If you can find anything about data compression in Recommendation V.42, you must be reading a different version than the one that was written by the CCITT (now the ITU-T). Now, assuming that your reference to V.42 was a typo, and you really meant V.42bis ... > The V.42 uses Limpel-Ziff compression scheme that is based on > generating dictionary as you transfer a file. What that mean is, it > will not compress as you type. First off, V.42bis uses a modified version of Lempel-Ziv-Welch compression. Various extensions were added to LZW to make it more effective in a modem environment where it would be required to compress continuous streams of data. It compresses whatever data it can, regardless of whether that data is typed by you, is a screen of data from the remote computer, or is a file being transferred. Second, even if V.42bis only worked when *FILES* were being transferred, and not when text screens, etc., were moving, would you please explain to me how it's supposed to know the difference? :-) Think about it ... > But here is the catch normally ALL files are compressed You seem to be assuming that the only use for high-speed modems is downloading files from a BBS. This is, in fact, far from the truth. There are lots of people using modems to access various other online applications, and V.42bis can definitely help a *LOT* in this case. And even if all you're doing is snarfing up some file from a BBS, isn't it nice to have those file listings move faster? Hey, if I'm grabbing a file from a BBS, I usually have something I want to do WITH that file -- I'd rather get on with that than sit there waiting for screen after screen of info. > by PKzip, ARC or ARJ LHA GIF programs. Those are using precisely > same algorithm as V.42. As already covered above, V.42 isn't data compression, and V.42bis (which *IS* data compression) uses a modified version of LZW that is designed specifically for the modem world. In fact, zip, etc., usually do better than V.42bis, so where possible (and it isn't always possible) you're better off compressing files with something like zip or gzip prior to sending them. > So those files are not compressible. If you try to compress them > again the file size will be larger than original. Not true. Unlike MNP5, V.42bis is nice enough to not expand pre-compressed data, so the worst you'll get is 1:1. For more details, refer to section 7.8 of Recommendation V.42bis ("Data compressibility test"). > ... So the benefits of V.42 for the user are minimal! That depends on what the user is doing. The benefits for YOU may be minimal, and that's fine. But just remember that there are other modem users in the world, and they don't all do things exactly the same way you do. Later, jim 73 DE N5IAL (/4) < Running Linux 0.99 PL10 > jim@n5ial.mythical.com ICBM: 30.23N 86.32W || j.graham@ieee.org Packet: N5IAL@W4ZBB (Ft. Walton Beach, FL) E-mail me for information about KAMterm (host mode for Kantronics TNCs). [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My thanks to Jim for submitting this correction. It is very difficult from where I sit to catch some of the errors in the more complex technical articles which appear here in the Digest, thus the importance of readers sending in corrections when they are needed. Never hesitate to send in corrections and to be sure they catch my eye given the high volume of mail received, be sure to add some phrase in the subject line such as 'correction to posting' or similiar. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hummes@osf.org (Jakob Hummes) Subject: Re: Hayes' New Modem Date: 7 Jan 1994 21:04:43 GMT Organization: Open Software Foundation In article , md@maxcy2.maxcy.brown.edu (Michael P. Deignan) writes: > Of course, I don't know if this is how Hayes does it, but remember, > you can only modulate a sine wave one of three ways: amplitude, phase, > and frequency. > Ain't technology wonderful? Yes, it is. But there is an absolute limit (Shannon's Law). The question was about the transmission over a *real* phone line. And that means there exists *noise*. The limit of bps is proportional to the logarithm of the signal to noise ratio. Unfortunately I don't remember the constant factors. Jakob Hummes ------------------------------ From: mgriffin@access3.digex.net (Michael D. Griffin) Subject: Re: Communication Over Power Lines? Date: 7 Jan 1994 19:38:21 GMT Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA James H. Haynes (haynes@cats.ucsc.edu) wrote: > I believe the power companies also use carrier current for signaling > and controlling their relays and things, again working on the high-voltage > side of things so they don't have to go through transformers. Actually many of them (most) have discovered that they can run a fiber optic cable right along side or even inside the high voltage cables since the opticial signals are immune to the electrical interference ... now if someone could only figure out how to transmit electric power via fiber cable the power companies would really be happy. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 94 15:14:54 EST From: Peter Capek Subject: Re: How Are VCR Plus+ Codes Generated VCR Plus codes are a "secret" encoding of the channel, start date and time, and length of a program. Gemstar seems to have elected to try to keep the encoding secret, so as to maintain their ability to sell the device, and also to sell to the newspapers the codes. This may be because they couldn't get an effective patent or other form of protection. Unfortunately, they seem not to have anticipated that this strategy would be interpreted by many as a challenge. As a result, almost all details of the encoding were deduced and published in a paper, published in Cryptologia about two years ago. As far as I know, there's no other protection on the encoding, so that no legal barrier prevents a newspaper (at least, one which isn't already under contract to Gemstar) from creating the codes itself and publishing them (modulo the missing details), although there is undoubtedly protection on the VCR Plus trademark itself. Peter Capek ------------------------------ From: dosborn@Internet.cnmw.com Date: Fri, 07 Jan 94 15:28:01 EST Subject: Sprint (Dvorak) Modem Offer - Finally Pat: As a final effort to obtain my sprint modem, I scanned back issues for Diane Worthy's number. The number associated with her is no longer in service. However, in my search I came across the number for Shawn Larimer. One article listed him as the person in charge. I called that number and left a message. Well, I just received a return call, not from Mr. Larimer, but from Don Sivesind (913-624-5136). He was very nice, even cheerful. When I breifly explained to him my tale of woe, he (much to my delight) said that he would order me a modem right away. It turns out that instead of setting up a new account (which would have trigged a modem order) they re-activated on old account. Well, I'm a "happy camper" now, and not "so" down on Sprint's customer service. Although, this still leaves David in a quandry about what to do with his extra modem. Dan Osborn [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for the followup on this. I'm glad to hear Sprint was willing to work along with you. Regards David and his extra modem, I wonder if he has been staying awake all night wondering what to do about it. :) Hey, he can send it to me if nothing else; somehow I will find a way to sacrifice one of the empty slots in my 386. :) I'll try to stay warm today as it is miserably cold here in Chicago, and the forecast is for sub-zero weather for a couple days. Otherwise, have a nice weekend! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #19 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa25039; 8 Jan 94 12:32 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA32425 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 8 Jan 1994 08:34:20 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07001 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 8 Jan 1994 08:34:05 -0600 Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 08:34:05 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401081434.AA07001@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #18 TELECOM Digest Sat, 8 Jan 94 08:34:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 18 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T and NYTel (Larry Nathanson) How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? (Maaruf Ali) Looking For Information on Faxmail Systems (Greg Trotter) Technical Description of PBXs Wanted (Don Pelton) High Speed Telephone Cables for Residences (Daren Cline) SprintNet Access From the Internet (Robert J. Rodriguez) User Interface From Hell (John Limpert) "Dynamic" SLIP? (Mike Eggley) Two Changes to Caller*ID in NJ (Dave Levenson) Multi-line BBS's (Dannie Gregoire) Methods to Prevent Stalking and Phone Harrassment (Nevin Liber) GSM Recs on the CD ROM (Volkmar Scharf-Katz) Looking For Cordless Headset Phone (Gregory Corbett) Re: Notice to AT&T Long Distance Customers (William M. Eldridge) Re: Merlin Question (Paul Cook) Re: Use a 9600 Baud US Modem in UK? (Laurence Chiu) Re: Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas (David H. Close) Re: Help Needed With V.42bis (Sean P Peacock) Re: Announcing networkMCI (Tom Horsley) Re: How Do I Subscribe to Computer Underground Digest? (Monty Solomon) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 13:12:25 -0500 From: Larry Nathanson Subject: AT&T and NYTel I've just had an interesting time on the phone with the droid-reps of NYTel and AT&T ... It seems that my last bill came in with a munged minutes column of the AT&T portion. (Half of the calls had no minutes value, and there was a $10.14 call to Sacramento at 11pm that said 8 minutes! (The call is my roommate's -- I'm not sure how long it really was for.)) I called AT&T, whose rep suggested that I call NYTel, as the problem was with their printing of the bills. The NYTel rep said that AT&T had messed up the tapes, and that they had dropped the minutes column for calls that were between one and four minutes. (Obviously this is not the whole story -- many of the calls in that range are listed, not to mention the $1.25+/min call to CA!) When I suggessted that I'd like a corrected bill, she said "Oh no, were not equipped to do that!" When I persisted, she called AT&T, and her final conclusion was that AT&T would call her back with the minutes information in about two weeks, and then she would call me. At that point I asked to speak to manager (I consider yelling at droids on a par with teaching pigs to sing). I was told that one would call me back later ... As far as I'm concerned, if they want my money, they'll have to send me an accurate bill. Some of the lines on the bill fail simple sanity checking -- so as far as I'm concerned, the whole page is suspect. Anyone else have a similar experience with them? L ------------------------------ From: MAARUF ALI Subject: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? Date: 8 Jan 94 08:42:04 GMT Organization: King's College London Could someone please tell me how to phone US 0800 numbers from the UK? Thanks. Maaruf Ali [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We do not have '0800' numbers. If you mean 800 (toll free numbers), the answer is that generally you cannot call them from outside the USA. Most of the subscribers to 800 service only pay to accept calls from places inside the USA. Subscribers in the USA who wish to accept toll-free (reverse charge) calls from other countries have numbers assigned to them in the actual format used by the other country. In other words, if there is an 0800 number listed in your directory which states that it rings into the USA somewhere, you can call it. If you otherwise see (in advertising or whatever) a number in the USA marked 800-something, you *cannot* call it from outside the USA under normal conditions. They don't want to accept your call and have to pay for it. One exception to this is that you can call the 'home direct' services of the various carriers and some of these carriers will handle it so that you pay for a call to the USA and the 800 subscriber on this end pays only for the portion of the call which is in the USA. You need to match carrier with 800 number for this however; the carrier of the 800 number is the carrier who's 'home direct' service you need to connect with, *and not all of them will do this*, although I think AT&T and MCI will. PAT] ------------------------------ From: greg@gallifrey.ucs.uoknor.edu (Greg Trotter) Subject: Looking For Information on Faxmail Systems Date: 8 Jan 1994 08:52:12 GMT Hello! I am looking for information on systems that can handle fax calls on a store-and-forward basis. I've used systems like FaxFacts from Copia, but am not sure about their support on a few key issues: CLID support DID support If anybody has information on software/hardware to do this, I'd appreciate the information. greg ------------------------------ Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Date: Friday, 7 Jan 1994 11:26:29 PST From: Don Pelton Subject: Technical Description of PBXs Wanted I'm looking for sources of good technical descriptions of PBX technology and standards. Can anyone suggest books, articles, newsgroups and/or other internet resources? Standards documents? Thanks, Don Pelton (dep@slac.stanford.edu) ------------------------------ From: dcline@PICARD.TAMU.EDU (Daren Cline) Subject: High Speed Telephone Cables for Residences Date: 7 Jan 1994 22:17:43 GMT Organization: Department of Statistics, Texas A&M University Subject: High Speed Telephone Cables for Residences I am designing a home to be built this spring and summer and I want to specify the telephone cables it will have. With all the news about phone companies improving their networks for higher speed transmission I wonder if there will be (in, say, five years) correspondingly higher standards for residences. I'd like to anticipate them if possible. Locally, at least, it seems that fiber optics is out of the question since it would require very expensive multiplexing and demultiplexing equipment. For twisted pair copper cable, the industry grades by "level" which is roughly corresponding to speed or throughput. Apparently most homes have level 1 or 2. Level 3 supposedly can handle up to 10 megabits per second, level 4 higher and level 5 maybe 20mbps. I have two questions. Responses by e-mail are welcome. 1) Is there any reason to expect that level 3 will not be sufficient in the near future, keeping in mind what the phone and cable TV companies are likely to provide? 2) Besides cable and jacks, what else should I be careful to specify? (I do plan to specify 4 twisted pairs per cable.) Daren Cline ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 94 17:32:22 EST From: Robert J. Rodriguez Subject: SprintNet Access From the Internet Has anyone found a public gateway to access SprintNet (specifically PC Pursuit) from the Internet using a TELNET connection? This might be useful at sites that don't have direct modem dialout access but do have an Internet connection. Robert Rodriguez (alternate address kjjy@musicb.marist.edu at Marist College) ------------------------------ From: johnl@medusa.gsfc.nasa.gov (John Limpert) Subject: User Interface From Hell Date: 7 Jan 1994 22:58:00 GMT Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center -- InterNetNews site I just received the user guide for our ROLM PBX voice mail system. Although I like to think of myself as technologically literate, the user interface for the voice mail system intimidates me. The rather thick user guide lists many features, options and user commands. The system structure is summarized in 6 pages of decision tree diagrams. User commands are things like "*73" (replay a message), and there are alot of them. I already have an 89 page user guide for my ROLM telephone. Does anyone else find this as frustrating as I do? The local phone company uses similar commands to access the new features that have been added to their switch software. I don't mean to single out ROLM, I'm sure other vendors have similar systems and problems. The ROLM PBX has some nice features that I never use because I can't remember groups of commands like "FLASH-*-*-3". The telephone has mutated from an easily understandable electric instrument to a terminal for a complex computer/data switch. It still has the same basic external layout except for the addition of a few extra buttons in some telephones. How can telephones be made easier to use? The local phone companies are going to have a hard time selling new features to their customers if they expect them to press "*-*-FLASH-4-2-#-6-6-6" every time they use them. John Limpert johnl@medusa.gsfc.nasa.gov ------------------------------ From: mse@ins.infonet.net Subject: "Dynamic" SLIP Date: 8 Jan 1994 04:12:21 GMT Organization: INFOnet - Iowa Network Services, Inc. Reply-To: mse@ins.infonet.net My understanding of SLIP is that it is a point-to-point dedicated configuration, requiring a modem on the receiving end to be dedicated to a specific user (due to IP I think). I've heard some talk about so-called 'dynamic' SLIP -- where the SLIP connection is made, but through a mux or terminal server, allowing the provider to serve multiple dial-up customers instead of a 1-1 ratio. Any insight, knowledge on this would be much appreciated. If this is totally off-base I'd like to know that too. Thanks, Mike Eggley mse@ins.infonet.net ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Two Changes to Caller*ID in NJ Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 02:21:26 GMT Effective January 1, NJ Bell has begun offering two new services related to Caller*ID: Anonymous calling, and anonymous call rejection. For no additional charge, you may dial *67 before any call, and your number will not be revealed to the called party. But, if you dial *77 at any time, others who attempt to call you after dialing *67 are routed to a telco-supplied recording advising them that you do not accept calls with blocked identification. Anonymous call rejection is available at no additional charge to all customers who subscribe to Caller*ID. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 94 00:56 EST From: dannie@coplex.coplex.com (Dannie Gregoire) Subject: Multi-line BBS's Hi Pat, I'll direct this question to you if possible, as you are the true phone system guru. I asked it in the newsgroup a couple of months back with no useful response. I would like to know how some of these bulletin boards have 60-100 lines running into them (eg EXEC-PC). Do they simply have that many individual lines run or is there a nifty service that the TELCO offers through a PBX? I apologize if this is a stupid question, but it is one that has baffled me, and I gotta know the answer. Thanks for any help ... Dannie J. Gregoire dannie@coplex.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for the compliment, but you overestimate my skills a little. Depending on your application or needs, you can have as many actual lines run as desired. I suspect most very large systems these days however use what is called T-1 or similar, where a large number of circuits are multiplexed or handled over just a few actual pairs of wires. In addition to T-1, there are similar methods for bringing in a large number of circuits on only a few wires. In my own personal applications in the past, I always just had the physical wires, but that was several years ago before the present technology became available. Perhaps Fred Goldstein or one of the *real* tech people here will reply. PAT] ------------------------------ From: nevin@cs.arizona.edu (Nevin Liber) Subject: Methods to Prevent Stalking and Phone Harrassment Date: 8 Jan 1994 23:59:20 -0700 Organization: University of Arizona CS Department, Tucson AZ A friend of mine (in Cook County, IL) is currently being stalked by a mutual acquiantance of ours. This has been going on for over a year. Unfortunately, the only evidence that my friend has is circumstantial (eg: the phone calls temporarily stopped when the suspect went on vacation, and resumed when the suspect returned back to IL). Much of what the suspect is doing is in the way of harassing phone calls, including calls from various payphones in the area where my friend lives, calls at all hours of the day and night, calling pagers and leaving my friend's phone number, etc. Does my friend have any recourse (legal or technological)? He has tried many of the new technological means (I don't want to go into detail, since the suspect has net access and potentially reads this newsgroup), but he's running out of ideas. A legal means might be preferred (since that might help against the stalking as well as the harassment), but just being able to curtail the phone harassment (and it is happening at both his home and his work, so just changing the phone number won't be enough) would be helpful. Nevin ":-)" Liber nevin@cs.arizona.edu (602) 293-2799 ^^^ (520) after 3/95 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are laws against stalking and harassment in place here in Illinois. If your friend wants to do something about it legally, I suggest that he go to court and ask for a 'peace bond'. If the court agrees the circumstances warrant it, the other person will be told to come to court and the 'peace bond' will be issued against him; he'll be ordered to keep his distance and refrain from harassing activities. Failure to do so will result in his arrest. Your friend may get a run-around from court personnel if he shows up without an attorney so he might want to hire a lawyer to go in and get it done for him. Changing his home phone number will eliminate at least some of the problem, however it is hard to say what might help at work since you don't mention the type of phone system there. Really though, he should not have to change his number at home. That is an inconvenience on him. I think my first steps would be to secure the peace bond and install selective call screening (subscriber can punch in up to ten numbers from which he does not wish to receive calls) on my line. Each time the guy called, I'd add 'last call received' to my list of screened numbers. That would keep him looking for new payphones to use since I'd always keep *his* home phone(s) and office phone(s) on the screened list. If that did not discourage him, then with the peace bond in hand I'd ask Illinois Bell to install a trap on my line. I assume your friend has the stalker's home address and place of employment? Getting served with a court order to lay off might be all it takes; the person might be sufficiently discouraged at that point. What kind of phone system does your friend have at work? Would employees there (for example the operator/receptionist) be willing to help eliminate the problem? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Volkmar Scharf-Katz Subject: GSM Recs on the CD ROM Date: 8 Jan 1994 08:24:48 +0100 Organization: Detecon GmbH - Projekt Digitaler Mobilfunk - Vermittlungstechnik Does anybody know whether GSM Recommendations are on CD? Best regards, Volkmar Scharf-Katz (katz@duitex3.pdmv.detecon.de) ------------------------------ From: gcorbett@husc8.harvard.edu (Gregory Corbett) Subject: Looking For Cordless Headset Telephone Date: 8 Jan 94 05:47:50 GMT Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts Can anyone help me? I am looking to obtain a cordless, "Headset" telephone that operates with a small microphone and "walkman-like" earpiece. Where can I obtain such a phone? Thanks in advance. Greg Corbett gcorbett@husc.harvard.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Try the "Hello Direct" mail order catalog. Phone 1-800-HI-HELLO for details. "Hello Direct" is now an official supplier of equipment to Illinois Bell customers through telco's 'work at home center'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bill@COGNET.UCLA.EDU (William M. Eldridge) Subject: Re: Notice to AT&T Long Distance Customers Date: 8 Jan 1994 00:42:09 -0800 Organization: UCLA Cognitive Science Research Program > According to a wire service account in the {Boston Globe}, AT&T is > changing their rates to be more like MCI and Sprint. The list price As somebody who just switched from AT&T to MCI, I have a few qualifications for this. On international calls, MCI has all weekend rates, while AT&T leaves its three Day-Evening-Night slots the same, seven days a week. MCI has better hours during the week. AT&T had worse setup (first minute) charges. For U.S. calls, the MCI regular charges are not much more than the AT&T monthly plans (something like .12/minute vs. 11/minute at night). Bill Eldridge bill@cognet.ucla.edu 310-206-3960 (3987 fax) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Jan 94 03:09 EST From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Merlin Question vdugar@stortek.stortek.com (Vince Dugar) writes: > Why does the Merlin system charge users so much (I forget now, but > it's a lot) to buy a special modem adapter? Is there a cheaper > solution? What about using an acoustic modem? (only want it for > CompuServe mail handling, so low baud would be OK) This is a device that talks to the Merlin KSU using it's proprietary signalling, but can connect to a modem, standard single line phone, or fax machine, and provide ringing and a standard, 2-wire telco line type connection on the output side. If you just want to use the modem for dial out, a much cheaper solution is to bypass the KSU with an exclusion device that will provide protection against interruption to both the Merlin system and the modem, since there is no reason to have the added expense of ringing or an expensive connection to the key system's station side. You can use Proctor's 41434 Voice/Data Privacy module. Install it on one of the CO lines ahead of the KSU. One of the outputs will go to the same place on the KSU where this outside line used to plug in, and the other output will run directly to the modem. When this trunk isn't in use, the modem can seize it and dial out. If the line is already in use, the modem will be blocked. If someone attempts to place an outgoing call on this line from the Merlin system while the modem is using the line, they will be blocked from interrupting the modem transmission. If you have a number of incoming lines in a hunting rotation, and one line is used the least, install the modem access on that least used line. For more information, contact Proctor via fax/email/telephone via one of the numbers below. Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5378 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: Use a 9600 Baud US Modem in UK? Date: 8 Jan 1994 01:08:30 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access In article , Linc Madison wrote: > In article you wrote: >> I've got a friend who'll soon be moving to the UK (Durham actually). >> She's got a Hayes compatible 9600 baud modem that she would like to >> take with her and use there. > (4) If your phone line in the UK is pulse, you may want to add into > the setup string the code to set the make/break pattern to UK standard > instead of US standard. However, in practice, most phone switches are > not sensitive enough to tell the difference between 39/61 and 33/67. > The command is AT&P1 for UK, AT&P0 for US. Touch-tone is the same in > both. Don't even try to use pulse in Scandinavia or New Zealand. Why not in New Zealand? You just have to change your numbers so that they are modulo 10. I think since the old telephone dial went 0....9. Of course there's no earthly reason to use pulse in NZ since all exchanges are MTDF capable. Laurence Chiu | Walnut Creek, California Tel: 510-215-3730 (work) | Internet: lchiu@crl.com ------------------------------ From: dhclose@cco.caltech.edu (David H. Close) Subject: Re: Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas Date: 8 Jan 1994 07:28:00 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena /G=J.SCOTT/S=PELHAM/O=GTE/PRMD=GTEMAIL/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com writes: > When dialing within one area code, in the Metroplex, you only dial > seven digits regardless of whether it is a GTE or SW Bell number. > When dialing from one area code to the other you dial 1+, just like > you would from any other two area codes. The difference is when the > number being called, *or* the number being called from, is a "Metro" > number. Apparently much has changed or you didn't understand it in > the first place. It could look that way if you live in either Dallas or Fort Worth. But if you live near the boundary, the problem is complicated by the fact that some exchanges in the "other" area code are local. So you don't dial the one, even though the number is not metro. However, if you call from one end of either area code to the other end, such that the call is not local, you do dial the one and the area code, even within your own area code. What that all means is you can memorize all the metro exchanges (a big job) but it still won't always help you. Whether a call requires a one or not depends on whether it is local, and that depends on both the calling and the called numbers. So if you recognize an exchange as not being metro and dial the one, you can still get the intercept if the exchange just happened to be local anyway. I found it exceedingly stupid and time-wasting. They only accept one way to dial each possible call and you really can't always guess right. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu dave@compata.attmail.com ------------------------------ From: speacock@netcom.com (Sean P Peacock) Subject: Re: Help Needed With V.42bis Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 07:36:47 GMT ral (bobphin@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca) wrote: > I have a Zoltrix 14,400 data/fax modem. I am not sure if I am getting > compression or if so what kind. My manual indicates the S95 registar > gives extended result codes. For example S95=003 will give me the > Protocal: result code, usually Lap-M. Since S95 is bit mapped, I do > not know the values I should use to get the codes I want. > The manual further says: > Bit Description > 0 CONNECT indicates DCE speed > 1 Append/ARQ to the connect result code if the protocol is other than > NONE > 2 Carrier result code > 3 PROTOCOL: result code > 4 reserved > 5 COMPRESSION: result code > 6 reserved > 7 reserved Bitmap codes: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ------------------------ 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 So if you wanted them all it would be 1+2+4+8+32=47 > I should also say that when S95=003, I get codes for bit0,1,2,3. In > other words I get everything I want, except for the compression code. > I've tried S95=005, but this does not work.Please help. Answer here > or e-mail bobphin@nbnet.nb.ca Although v.42bis is not all that useful in file transfers it it _very_ useful in news reading, terminal emulations etc. There is a noticable difference when I get an MNP 4 connect. Sean ------------------------------ From: tom@travis.csd.harris.com (Tom Horsley) Subject: Re: Announcing networkMCI Date: 08 Jan 1994 03:25:49 GMT Organization: Harris Computer Systems Division > Roberts said that networkMCI is being introduced to the public via > a national advertising campaign utilizing television, magazines and > newspapers to explain the company's vision to consumers, businesses, > investors and potential partners. Is that what the MCI TV commercials with the little girl with the pseudo-Nritish accent standing in a puddle spouting existential gibberish are all about? And I thought they were just trying to finally beat AT&T for the worst imaginable ad campaign :-) domain: tahorsley@csd.harris.com USMail: Tom Horsley Delray Beach, FL 33444 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 08:16:12 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: How Do I Subscribe to Computer Underground Digest? > Unfortunately some of us don't know how to get hold of the current > issue of the CUD. Could you please post a pointer to it, or post the > appropriate sections here. Cu-Digest is a weekly electronic journal/newsletter. Subscriptions are available at no cost electronically from tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu. The editors may be contacted by voice (815-753-0303), fax (815-753-6302) or U.S. mail at: Jim Thomas, Department of Sociology, NIU, DeKalb, IL 60115. 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Please avoid quoting previous posts unless absolutely necessary. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #18 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03497; 10 Jan 94 3:24 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15589 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 9 Jan 1994 23:45:24 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA07485 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 9 Jan 1994 23:45:10 -0600 Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 23:45:10 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401100545.AA07485@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #20 TELECOM Digest Sun, 9 Jan 94 23:45:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 20 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Press Release re MCI Expansion (MVM@cup.portal.com) Phone Phreakers Down South (Charlotte Observer via vantek@aol.com) Dial 511 For Info (Atlanta Journal and Constitution via vantek@aol.com) Console Products (S. Wayne Lockhart) Telecom Service in Guam (Steve Kass) Source Wanted For Mini-PBXs (Tom Metro) All Wire Isn't The Same (John Warne) GSM Network Operators (Lars Kalsen) Unique Idea: Error Message for TDDs (Paul Robinson) Computer-Telephony Integration (Ray Mc Guigan) Network Sources of Telephony (Richard Weisinger) Long Distance CLID is Here! (Jack Winslade) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: MVM@cup.portal.com Subject: Press Release re MCI Expansion Date: Sun, 9 Jan 94 13:54:04 PST (From the MCI Mail News "Bulletin Board" comes this press release:) Date: Tue Jan 04, 1994 12:02 pm CST Subject: MCI UNVEILS LONG-RANGE VISION: networkMCI Opens Nation's First Transcontinental Information Superhighway; Announces $20 Billion in Strategic Initiatives Washington, D.C., January 4, 1994--MCI today unveiled a sweeping strategic vision under which MCI and associated partners are expected to invest more than $20 billion to create and deliver a wide array of new branded services to teleconsumers, businesses, research facilities and government customers. "Our notion of the future of telecommunications and MCI is going to have a brand name: networkMCI," said Bert C. Roberts, MCI chairman and CEO. "This strategic vision is the sum of all our plans and opportunities in the new emerging markets with services that consumers, businesses and governments will want at their fingertips as we move into the 21st Century. As a core strategy, it leverages the tremendous opportunities brought on by the convergence of telephony, entertainment and the computer." Transcontinental Information Superhighway Today the company announced, as an initial element of the networkMCI vision, the inauguration of the nation's first trans- continental information superhighway. Often talked about as a key ingredient to keeping America competitive in tomorrow's world economy, the MCI superhighway's roadbed uses SONET fiber optic technology at speeds 15 times faster than any SONET network available today. MCI said that the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) is the first user of its New York to Los Angeles SONET fiber system. The NSFNET Backbone Service is the fastest and most powerful of the university, government and commercial networks known collectively as the Internet. "Some people may be surprised to learn that MCI developed these intercity links for the Internet six years ago," said Roberts. "The NSFNET service today reaches nearly 15,000 networks around the world that participate in the Internet." "The Internet doubles in size annually and now links over two million computers serving some six million users," said Vinton Cerf, President of the Internet Society. "When electronic mail interconnects are taken into account, nearly 20 million users conduct their business from labs, homes and offices over the Internet. MCI and its partners, IBM, Merit and ANS, pioneered the use of 45 megabit per second technology for the NSFNET Backbone Service. NSFNET now carries a volume of information that approximately equals the holdings of the Library of Congress EACH MONTH, and MCI's announcement indicates the potential to carry more than 50 times that much traffic." SONET, which stands for Synchronous Optical Network, is a high-speed transmission technology that MCI is using to hasten the widespread availability of broadcast quality videophones, electronic data interchange (EDI), long distance medical imaging, multimedia education, movies on demand, and a single-number Personal Communications Service (PCS) that will use the same pocket-sized telephone anywhere in the world. High-speed SONET technology was deployed in half of MCI's network at year-end 1993, far outpacing its long distance rivals. Under the development program announced today, SONET will be available throughout MCI's domestic network by the end of 1994 and on international routes across the Atlantic and the Pacific by 1995. The company said it will further increase carrying speeds on existing fiber from 2.5 gigabits (billion bits) per second to more than 10 gigabits per second by 1995. MCI Metro As another element of its long-range vision, the company announced the creation of MCI Metro, a wholly owned subsidiary that is expected to invest $2 billion in fiber rings and local switching infrastructure in major U.S. metropolitan markets. Through its metropolitan area facilities, MCI will connect directly to customers and begin providing alternative local telecommunications services. Referring to these connections as "digital on/off ramps" to the nationwide information superhighway, Roberts noted that they would be a vital addition to America's economic infrastructure for the 21st Century. Construction has already begun in Atlanta, with completion expected there by mid- year. Roberts announced the appointment of two key executives to lead this subsidiary. Executive vice president Gary M. Parsons will be chief executive officer of MCI Metro, and senior vice president Nate A. Davis will become its chief operating officer. The subsidiary owns properties and rights-of-way in several hundred cities. "MCI Metro will ensure the availability of superior local access facilities at reasonable cost," said Roberts. "During the last decade, MCI was instrumental in bringing the benefits of competition to the long distance marketplace. During the next decade, we must secure those same benefits for customers of local telephone service. In addition, these digital backbone facilities will strongly position MCI in the emerging markets of interactive multimedia and wireless PCS." networkMCI Roberts said that networkMCI is being introduced to the public via a national advertising campaign utilizing television, magazines and newspapers to explain the company's vision to consumers, businesses, investors and potential partners. "When we announced our global alliance with BT (British Telecom) last year, we said that the added financial flexibility would allow us to invest in America's infrastructure, economy and future," said Roberts. "With networkMCI, we have cast a strategy to deliver on that promise, and then some." MCI expects that other partner companies with complementary skills and resources will participate in projects within the overall networkMCI vision, through equity stakes, joint ventures or other business arrangements. "As telecommunications, computing and television converge, no one company will have the infrastructure and the skills to do everything alone," said Roberts. "Partnering is smart strategy for the 1990's, and MCI has proven repeatedly that it doesn't have to own and control another party in order to work together effectively." MCI cited a number of customer usage trends underlying the decision to make the additional multibillion dollar investments. The company has been growing more than twice as fast as the long distance industry as a whole, and is winning the lion's share of growth in the booming market for international calls to and from the U.S. Data traffic is another major growth factor, with business customers' usage of data communications expected to surpass voice by 1998. In wireless communications, the superior performance of the emerging PCS technology is expected to help drive the total number of wireless devices in the U.S. to 70 million by the turn of the century, which will increase network usage. "Beyond the long-term vision," Roberts continued, "there are a number of immediate benefits that networkMCI brings to the everyday, workaday MCI network. We have created this long-term strategy to meet the demands of a nation of teleconsumers who use telecommunications more frequently and in more ways than ever before. American businesses of all sizes want competitive advantage from their communications. And potential partners in this arena want to create new opportunities. With networkMCI, there will be a clear path to follow." MCI, headquartered in Washington, D.C., offers a full range of domestic and global telecommunications services through one of the world's largest state-of-the-art networks. With annual revenue of more than $12 billion, the company is the second largest long distance provider in the U.S. and has more than 65 offices in 55 countries and places. ------------------------------ From: vantek@aol.com Reply-To: vantek@aol.com Date: Sat, 08 Jan 94 21:09:02 EST Subject: Phone Phreakers Down South Thought I'd pass this little story along ... Charlotte Observer, N.C. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News Jan. 7 -- Another Charlotte company has fallen victim to telephone hackers. Pic 'N Pay Stores Inc., the Charlotte-based shoe retailer, says it got stung for $17,000 by high-tech hijackers who got into the company's voice- mail and dialed anywhere they pleased. Pic 'N Pay filed suit last week against BellSouth Telecommunications Inc., parent of Southern Bell, which made and serviced the phone system in question. The suit in Mecklenburg Superior Court seeks reimbursement for phone bills the retailer had to pay to AT&T, Alltel and Sprint. Southern Bell spokesman Clifton Metcalf declined comment on the case Thursday but said the company works hard on security issues. The suit says BellSouth specifically told Pic 'N Pay its voice-mail system, installed in January 1991, was not vulnerable to fraud. A few months later, Pic 'N Pay noticed strange goings-on. One night, 13 of its 17 local trunk lines were busy, even though only four employees were in the building. Securing the system took a technician five minutes, the suit says. Pic 'N Pay attorney Larry Hewitt said some of the fraudulent calls were made from New Yorkers to the Caribbean. Unauthorized access through voice-mail systems is one common variety of telephone fraud. Altogether, the problem is estimated to cost U.S. businesses and individuals more than $1 billion a year. Pic 'N Pay Vice President Phil Myers said staffers caught the problem before it became severe. Others have been less fortunate. For a week in 1989, drug dealers using computers penetrated Piedmont Natural Gas Co.'s phone system and made hundreds of calls to such places as Colombia, Bolivia and Pakistan, costing the company nearly $70,000. When Piedmont refused to pay AT&T for the charges, AT&T sued. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount. r#QFP ------------------------------ From: vantek@aol.com Reply-To: Date: Sat, 08 Jan 94 21:09:31 EST Su ]qQbject: Dial 511 for Info Another news article to pass along ... The Atlanta Journal and Constitution Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News 9z ATLANTA -- Jan. 7--Within three months, consumers will be able to dial 511 to get information from an operator about classified ads and the Yellow Pages. The new service -- a joint venture between Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises Inc. and BellSouth Corp. -- was approved Thursday by the Georgia Public Service Commission. Want to buy a used pickup? Dial 511 and an operator will read any ads that help, or fax the information to you. You'll also be able to have the operator contact you as ads come in. "The simplicity of this is the great thing, and you have the added advantage of having an operator to help you," said Kristie Madara, a spokeswoman for BellSouth. "The plan is to not only be able to access this by phone, but eventually by personal computer." The venture, called Infoventures of Atlanta, will use the 511 telephone number the PSC awarded to Cox Enterprises in May. It's currently used to provide a range of information from sports scores to stock quotes for 50 cents a call. The new services will carry the same fee. The new services, which also would allow you to place electronic ads using 511, would be available to all consumers in Atlanta's local dialing area. If that dialing area is expanded -- as the PSC is considering -- the services likely would be expanded as well. "A lot of things are still in the planning stage right now, but I assume this to be the case," said James T. McKnight, vice president of information services for Cox Enterprises, which owns {The Atlanta Journal-Constitution}. Thursday's 4-to- 1 approval followed a sometimes heated public hearing and came over strong opposition from Williams Communications Inc., which was awarded a 711 number last month. Williams Communications, which is owned by Gov. Zell Miller's chief of staff, Virgil R. Williams, argued that: - If BellSouth financially subsidizes Cox Enterprises, then Cox has an unfair advantage over competitors in its use of the three-digit number. - The joint venture would restrain competition between Cox and BellSouth, eliminating service innovation. - BellSouth hasn't gone through the same application process for a three- digit number that Cox and others have. "We feel the objections are just an attempt to delay this," sai attorney Peter Canfield, who represented Cox Enterprises. "We believe that Williams, as a competitor, is trying to delay us from going forward." ------------------------------ From: lockhart@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca (S. Wayne Lockhart) Subject: Console Products Organization: nbnet Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 23:37:30 GMT I am looking for products (hw/sw) that would run on a intelligent workstation (PC) and replicate the functionality of a Centrex or Meridian 1 Attendant Console. Please mail me direct so I don't miss any responses. Thanks, S. Wayne Lockhart lockhart@nbnet.nb.ca ------------------------------ Subject: Telecom Service on Guam From: skass@drunivac.drew.edu (Steve Kass) Date: 9 Jan 94 21:43:43 EST Organization: Drew Univ Academic Computing A friend of mine is moving to Guam soon, and I am looking for information for him. Does anyone know anything about telecommunications there? Information on Internet, phone service, television, radio, etc., on Guam and throughout the Marianas would be welcome. He will be coordinating many aspects of media at the University of Guam, and the information will help him with preparations here before moving. How to call Guam cheaply would also be nice to know (AT&T gives 70c/min through Reach Out Guam or something). Information about life on Guam in general is welcome, but should be send directly to my address, not posted here. Thanks! Steve Kass/Math & CS/Drew U/Madison NJ 07940/ 201-408-3614/skass@drew.drew.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Jan 1994 23:38:27 EST Reply-To: tmetro@vl.ci.net From: tmetro@vl.ci.net (Tom Metro) Subject: Source Wanted For Mini-PBXs On a few occasions I have browsed through magazines such as "Electronic Components & Test Instruments" (which are intended to provide a way for Taiwan and other Asian manufactures to reach an American, European, etc. audience) and I have ran across products called Mini-PBXs. These devices typically handle a few incoming lines and 4 to 6 extension phones. They sound ideal for a home or small business installation. They also look like something that would be priced in the $200 to $300 range. What I'd like to know is, are there American sources for these products -- either from US manufactures or imported? If not, why? I know that there are a variety of companies that make small PBX systems, but from what I have seen they haven't been that cheap and they also typically require special phones. I would also be interested to know about PBX cards for PCs that fall into this price range. Last time I looked there weren't any. Please respond by mail. I will summarize if there is interest. Thanks, Tom Metro tmetro@lynx.neu.edu Venture Logic tmetro@vl.ci.net Newton, MA, USA ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Jan 94 19:42:49 EST From: John Warne <19064001@SBACVM.SBAC.EDU> Organization: School Board of Alachua County, FL. Subject: All Wire Isn't The Same There has been discussion recently regarding crosstalk between pairs of wires in two-pair cable ("Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack"). A recent BELLCORE bulletin pointed out that two-pair inside wire (AKA station wire or JKT) can be found to have been made in two quite different ways. The cross-sectional view of one wire reveals the plastic outer sheath is formed around the conductors in a cloverleaf-like pattern, holding a certain relationship between the conductors for the length of the cable (AT&T *used* to make their two-pair stuff this way), resulting in less crosstalk between pairs. The sheath of the other type (which AT&T is using now) does not hold the conductors in any particular alignment, but is a loose outer covering. This wire exhibits greater crosstalk when used for two telephone lines. You can detect the second type of cable easily -- it's smaller in overall diameter, the conductors slide within the jacket, and it simply *feels* cheap (editorial comment). In my opinion, the new stuff is junk, and, probably, at a higher cost to the purchaser. I have a roll of General Wire at the shop that is constructed in the "good old way," but several of our suppliers can't seem to find any more of it in their warehouses. I'd recommend the second pair in the new stuff be used only for backup in case the first pair is damaged in some way, and not used for a second service. Such is progress. John Warne Voice: 904-336-3522 FAX: 904-336-3744 Telecommunications Manager I-NET: 19064001@sbacvm.sbac.edu School Board of Alachua County CIS: 76424,2220 Fred C. Sivia, Jr. Support Center 3700-B NE 53rd Avenue Gainesville, Florida 32609 ------------------------------ From: dalk@login.dkuug.dk (Lars Kalsen) Subject: GSM Network Operators Date: 9 Jan 94 21:30:59 GMT Hi, Does anyone have a mailing-list with all the addresses of the GSM-network operators in Europe -- or maybe some of them. I would like to have the complete mailing-address and/or the fax-numbers. Please E-mail me the information if you have it -- or a copy by ordinary mail. Greetings from Denmark. Lars Kalsen Kingosvej 5 D 9490 Pandrup Denmark ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 22:46:19 EST From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: Unique Idea: Error Message for TDDs Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA By accident I found something new and unusual. Someone suggested that one of the things being done was to not use as prefixes any number that matches an area code touching the one in question, e.g. in the 301 area code there should not be a 302 or any of the prefixes from Pennsylvania that touch it (since before it was split, 301 touched Delaware). Well, to test it I tried the other area code in Virginia. The one touching 301 is Northern Virginia -- 703. The one in Richmond is 804. The system will not allow me to dial a number with 804 (from a 301 area-code number) unless I dial ten digits, in which case I get the "You must first dial a 1" recording. But I can dial the local area code, so I dialed 301-804 and then picked a random number -- 5000. 1234 and 1000 also give the same recording: "We're sorry, because of an area code change, your call cannot be completed as dialed. Dial again using area code 410. Please make a note of this change. The following tones are for TDD users: " Then, on a TDD device we have in our office, the message comes across "PLS USE 410 AREA". Unique idea -- putting a TDD message into an error recording -- and I'm surprised that I've never heard it done before. ------------------------------ From: ray.mcguigan@ashe.cs.tcd.ie (Ray Mc Guigan) Subject: Computer-Telephony Integration Organization: Trinity College Dublin Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 14:31:03 GMT A friend has a number of queries relating to computer-telephone integration. Specifically: Were IBM the first company to link a computer to a switch when in 1969 they linked their PABX 2750 to mainframes? Does anyone have the technical details of these links and any information on the types of applications which used them? Any general references to Computer-Telephony Integration would be greatly appreciated. Please reply to email if possible. Thanks, Ray Mc Guigan ray.mcguigan@ashe.cs.tcd.ie Dept of Computer Science Tel: (+ 353 1) 702 2361 Trinity College, Dublin. Fax: (+ 353 1) 677 2204 Republic of Ireland ------------------------------ From: weisingr@netcom.com (Richard Weisinger) Subject: Network Sources of Telephony Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 14:55:22 GMT I'm looking for more information about Computer Telephony. Although a lot of the topics which show up in this group are related, I was wondering if someone could point me towards other sources. Thanks, Dick Weisinger weisingr@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: jsw@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) Subject: Long Distance CLID is Here Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 00:12:54 CST I had quite a surprise today when I was looking over the CLID log. I saw an entry of 513-247-xxxx. This is, of course, here in Omaha on the 402-896 prefix. I recognized the caller's name and number as being correct, so I can assume that LD CLID is now working in some cases over some LD carriers. About nine months ago on a CO tour, the CO tech said that this feature would be coming shortly. This is the first time I have actually seen this in action. Good day, JSW [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In Chicago we have had inter-LATA Caller-ID on an intermittent basis for about a year. It is sent here by some exchanges in other cities, but not by all or even a majority yet. Minneapolis comes to mind as one place where I've seen it a lot. Area code 612 numbers show up here when I get those calls. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #20 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04017; 10 Jan 94 4:33 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA16541 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 10 Jan 1994 00:43:16 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA01277 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 10 Jan 1994 00:43:01 -0600 Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 00:43:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401100643.AA01277@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #21 TELECOM Digest Mon, 10 Jan 94 00:43:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 21 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: California ANI Question (Clive D.W. Feather) Re: California ANI Question (Ed Ellers) Re: California ANI Question (Jon Edelson) Re: Hayes' New Modem (Michael P. Deignan) Re: Hayes' New Modem (ssatchell@bix.com) Re: Info on Cellular One NACP (Dave Levenson) Re: Info on Cellular One NACP (Gib Henry) Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? (Mark Brader) Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? (Lars Poulsen) Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? (Clarence Dold) Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? (Laurence Chiu) Re: Federal Telemarketing Laws (John Palmer) Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (Scott Dorsey) Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (Chris Labatt-Simon) Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (John R. Levine) Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (Dave Niebuhr) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: California ANI Question Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 20:47:10 GMT From: Clive D.W. Feather In TELECOM Digest: Volume 14, Issue 17, Message 5 of 15, Jon Edelson says: > For a small monthly fee, your 800 calls will go through, but _you_ will have to pay for them. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But they do this already. You simply > dial the regular ten digit number for the person or company; you pay > for the call; everyone is happy. PAT] SCREAM. Some of us would *love* to be able to call US 800 numbers and pay for the calls. Or have a way to find out the POTS number. Even in UK-only publications, I *still* see US companies only quoting their 800 numbers. Clive D.W. Feather | Santa Cruz Operation clive@sco.com | Croxley Centre Phone: +44 923 816 344 | Hatters Lane, Watford Fax: +44 923 817 688 | WD1 8YN, United Kingdom [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But those are stupid companies run by stupid people. Why would you want to purchase any of their stupid products? Anyone who cannot figure out that they have to provide a valid dialing sequence for the location in which their advertising appears deserves to lose whatever money they spent on the adverts. If you must begin your relationship with some firm by fighting with them trying to figure out how to reach them, then find someone else to do business with. Lots of companies in this country are run by intelligent people and many are run by stupid people. Choose to do business with the former. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: California ANI Question Date: Sat, 8 Jan 94 16:33:28 EST Organization: Delphi Internet So what if a given state orders telcos to allow per-call blocking on 800 calls using the same code (*67 or whatever) as is used for Caller ID? Ed Ellers, KD4AWQ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is a moot point simply because the state cannot issue such a directive. They lack the jurisdiction to do so. Individual states do not control interstate commerce or communica- tions. I suspect most telcos would simply refuse to implement this. PAT] ------------------------------ From: winnie@flagstaff.princeton.edu (Jon Edelson) Subject: Re: California ANI Question Organization: Princeton University Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 05:38:03 GMT In article winnie@flagstaff.princeton. edu (Jon Edelson) writes: > [About paying for 800 number calls] > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But they do this already. You simply > dial the regular ten digit number for the person or company; you pay > for the call; everyone is happy. PAT] Actually this has already come up in the context of international callers who cannot use the 800 service. Some companies would publish _only_ their 800 numbers, and thus reduce the value of your suggestion. I suppose that most folk have wised up to the fact that some customers cannot or will not use the 800 service, and provide both 800 and regular numbers in their ads. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: See my earlier message. The companies which cannot figure this out don't deserve your patronage. PAT] ------------------------------ From: md@maxcy2.maxcy.brown.edu (Michael P. Deignan) Subject: Re: Hayes' New Modem Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science Date: Sat, 8 Jan 1994 15:44:31 GMT hummes@osf.org (Jakob Hummes) writes: > Yes, it is. But there is an absolute limit (Shannon's Law). The > question was about the transmission over a *real* phone line. And that > means there exists *noise*. The limit of bps is proportional to the > logarithm of the signal to noise ratio. Unfortunately I don't remember > the constant factors. You are correct. Shannon's Law is defined as C=W * LOG [1 + (P/N)] 2 Where P is the power in watts of the signal through the channel, N is the power in watts of the noise out of the channel, and W is the bandwidth of the channel in hertz. One typical values for a voice-grade analog circuit are: W=3000hz, P=.0001 watts (-10dBm), N=.0000004 watts (-34dBm). This would yield: C = 3000 * Log2(1+250) = ~24,000 bits per second. Due to the nature of the Log function, its easier to increase the value of C more easily by increasing the value of W , rather than P or N. Michael P. Deignan Population Studies & Training Center Brown University, Box 1916, Providence, RI 02912 (401) 863-7284 ------------------------------ From: ssatchell@BIX.com (ssatchell on BIX) Subject: Re: Hayes' New Modem Date: 8 Jan 94 18:55:38 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation Actually, if you really want to find out how the Hayes Optima 288 and the GDC V.F modems work, get Draft Recommendation V.34 ... ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Info on Cellular One NACP Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 03:02:29 GMT In article , psw@carillon.mitre.org (Phil Wherry) writes: > The talk about automatic cellular call delivery raises an interesting > question: under what circumstances can a cellular telephone transmit > when "on-hook." The response to a poll (ring) message is one obvious > example where this happens -- what are the others? The cell site can send a mobile audit request -- basically a 'ping' of a mobile unit which does not result in a ring. The cell site typically sends an autonomous registration request message from time to time, causing all mobile units which receive it to respond. Roamers and home-system mobiles are addressed separately for this one. This is one of the ways in which the system attempts to keep track of which mobiles are turned on, and where they are ... so it knows where to page them in case it has in incoming call. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ From: gibhenry@cscns.com (Gib Henry) Subject: Re: Info on Cellular One NACP Organization: Community_News_Service Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 15:13:12 GMT In article , peter.gregory@asix.com (Peter Gregory) wrote: > The secret is this: as soon as you turned on your phone in Austin, the > local switch picked up your ESN; when a local database lookup failed, > it requested your profile from the main database, which was then sent > to the local switch. Whooh! This has some scary implications of the Big Brother variety! If Cellular One keeps this info, it could be a real invasion of privacy. Gib Henry [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Now come on and try to be for real! What do you expect the rest of us to do who roam, manage somehow to get by when a call is made to us while the switches fumble around at some later point trying to exchange information? If you think this is such a darned invasion of your privacy then either quit roaming, don't turn on your phone (when roaming) until you get ready to originate a call, or get out of cellular altogether. Exactly what do you find so 'scary' about cellular companies attempting to coord- inate with each other in an effecient way? PAT] ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Sat, 8 Jan 94 20:26:05 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: ... If you mean 800 (toll free > numbers), the answer is that generally you cannot call them from > outside the USA. Most of the subscribers to 800 service only pay to > accept calls from places inside the USA. As has often been pointed out, this is only half an answer. The caller might be willing to pay for an overseas call, after all. And the other half of the answer is that even in if you're willing to pay, you *still* can't do it. As was noted, > ... One exception to this is that you can call the 'home direct' > services of the various carriers and some of these carriers will > handle it so that you pay for a call to the USA and the 800 subscriber > on this end pays only for the portion of the call which is in the USA. > You need to match carrier with 800 number... But as I understand it, this requires you to have a USA phone number yourself, so that it can be billed to. Is that still true? Actually, in all of the foregoing, "USA" should read "USA and/or Canada, as appropriate for the particular number". Some 800-numbers in each country can be called from the other in the usual way. In fact, some can *only* be called from the other country. Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You can get a calling card from some carriers like AT&T without having a phone in the USA, and use that for 'home direct' style calls. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lars@Eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK Date: Sun, 9 Jan 94 22:53:39 GMT In article MAARUF ALI writes: > Could someone please tell me how to phone US 0800 numbers from the UK? The short, general answer is "You can't get there from here !!" > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We do not have '0800' numbers. If you > mean 800 (toll free numbers), the answer is that generally you cannot > call them from outside the USA. Most of the subscribers to 800 service > only pay to accept calls from places inside the USA. > If you otherwise see (in advertising or whatever) a number in the > USA marked 800-something, you *cannot* call it from outside the USA > under normal conditions. They don't want to accept your call and have > to pay for it. One exception to this is that you can call the 'home > direct' services of the various carriers and some of these carriers > will handle it so that you pay for a call to the USA and the 800 > subscriber on this end pays only for the portion of the call which is > in the USA. You need to match carrier with 800 number for this > however; the carrier of the 800 number is the carrier who's 'home > direct' service you need to connect with, *and not all of them will do > this*, although I think AT&T and MCI will. PAT] 1) There is no way that a customer in a foreign country can find out which carrier services a particular (800) number. 2) Only the "big three" carriers have "home direct" services. 3) All of the people asking this question are quire willing to pay USD 5.00 + USD 1.50/minute (or whatever the operator-assisted rate is) to talk to these companies (who then will often gladly leave the call on hold for 5 to 15 minutes before answering it. About ten years ago, AMerican industry started telling people, that for our own good, they were moving manufacturing to South East Asia. The American workforce would henceforth be retrained for jobs in: (a) Service (b) Development and Engineering (c) Sales and Marketing In the meantime, the marketing departments of America's "Fortune 500" companies are now staffed with people who have difficulty thinking straight (to put it VERY politely). How else can I describe my experience last October, when I was attending a large international trade show in Paris with 400 American companies displaying their products to 23,000 visitors, and many of them were handing out product data sheets with only an 800-number for contact information? A dozen (American) trade magazines had printed special editions for the show, filled with glossy color ads and press releases, which generally had only the company name (no mailing address, no city name) and an 800 number? Given that the IXCs fall down on their face and refuse to route calls to these numbers, I have only two pieces of advice: I. To the customers: Don't buy anything from a company that has an "International Marketing Manager" who orders up such ads. If they treat customers this way in the "buttering-up" phase, how will they treat you after the sale ? II. To the telecom gang: There should be a business opportunity in setting up a (toll restricted) call diverter line to route calls to 800-numbers. Maybe make the caller listen to a 30 second blurb for TelePassport before giving them a dial tone good only for 800 numbers, or for long distance calls paid for with Orance cards. (Which "home direct" service will accept calls from Europe for 800-numbers served by Orange ?) In light of the inflammatory content above, I should explicitly say that my employer, Rockwell International is very unlikely to agree with these opinions! Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products Phone: (011-) +45-31 49 81 08 Hvidovre Strandvej 72 B Telefax: +45-31 49 83 08 DK-2650 Hvidovre, DENMARK Internets: designed and built while you wait [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Bravo! Bravo! You are absolutely correct. They spend *millions of dollars* in advertising with all sorts of glossy full page ads then are too stupid to include a phone number people can call. To heck with them! I hope their stupidity causes them to go into bankruptcy and close their doors. To Clive and others: don't worry about the fact that you cannot call these idiots. So what! As Lars says, if this is how they act when you are a new prospect, how will they act when you are an old customer? PAT] ------------------------------ From: dold@rahul.net (Clarence Dold) Subject: Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? Organization: a2i network Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 22:35:11 GMT [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We do not have '0800' numbers. If you > the call which is in the USA. You need to match carrier with 800 number With portable 800 numbers, that strikes me as being nearly impossible, short of calling the company on its regular business line, and asking what their long distance carrier is. And while you're on the line, you might as well ask them whatever you wanted in the first place ;-) Clarence A Dold - dold@rahul.net - Milpitas (near San Jose) & Napa CA. ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? Date: 9 Jan 1994 20:24:15 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access, California Reply-To: lchiu@crl.com In article , MAARUF ALI wrote: > Could someone please tell me how to phone US 0800 numbers from the UK? MCI will, but AT&T will only connect you if it's their 800 number. I don't know about MCI. Laurence Chiu | Walnut Creek, California Tel: 510-215-3730(wk) | Internet: lchiu@crl.com ------------------------------ From: jp@tygra.Michigan.COM (John Palmer) Subject: Re: Federal Telemarketing Laws Organization: John Palmer's Private Box Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 20:37:50 GMT In article johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) writes: >> I just read through the archives from late 1991 looking for info on >> congressional action regarding automated telemarketing. > The current {Privacy Journal} has a lead article entitled "Can the > telemarketers' autodialers be controlled at all?". It details court > action all over the country against both the federal law and 22 > similar state laws. Judges in Oregon and New Jersey found such laws > to be an unconstitutional abridgement of free speech, while in > Minnesota it was upheld. > The issue appears to be that restrictions on time, place, and manner > of speech are OK, while restrictions on content are not. The federal > law permits the FCC to exempt some types of calls such as random > surveys and political calls, but that's a content distinction. > Presumably a law that outlawed all unsolicited robot dialing would be > constitutional. We can only hope. Thats probably why the NSFNet's Acceptable Use Policy is widely held to be unconstitutional. The part which says that "no commercial use allowed" restricts speech based on content. Last I heard, the attorneys general from nine states (MI included) have given opinions that the policy is unenforcible. Its really a moot point since the policy is going away in the spring anyhow, last I heard. ------------------------------ From: kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped Date: 9 Jan 1994 02:08:51 GMT Organization: NASA Langley Research Center and Reptile Farm In article pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) writes: > I have a friend in Islip (Nassau County) who has touchtone. I though > this was a capability that was in all switches manufactured in the > last umpteen (how much is an umpteen anyway?) years, and that if a > customer wanted pulse service, the phone company had to disable > touchtone. Anyone? Anyone? We got it last year when they upgraded our crossbar to some sort of 1ESS system. I figure we should have ISDN here some time around 2030, if the installation of other features is any example. This is in southern VA. scott ------------------------------ From: pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) Subject: Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped Date: 9 Jan 1994 18:37:29 GMT Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, USA pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) writes: > I have a friend in Islip (Nassau County) who has touchtone. I though > this was a capability that was in all switches manufactured in the > last umpteen (how much is an umpteen anyway?) years, and that if a > customer wanted pulse service, the phone company had to disable > touchtone. Anyone? Anyone? Oops ... my mistake. Islip is in Suffolk County. How about Garden City? Anyone? Anyone? Chris Labatt-Simon Internet: pribik@rpi.edu Design & Disaster Recovery Consulting CIS: 73542,2601 Albany, New York PHONE: (518) 495-5474 FAX: (518) 786-6539 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Jan 94 12:31 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > Of course, the biggies (Compu$erve, Plodigy, etc.) will have 800 > numbers and just pass the cost along ... Unlikely. An 800 number costs at rock bottom ten cents a minute, while message rates are usually more like two cents. Even with metered local service, calling direct is considerably cheaper. Note that in New York City, the calls are metered, but local calls are charged one unit (about a dime) per call, no matter how long the call is. If ever there were a rate plan that favors modem users, that's it. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Jan 94 19:06:23 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped In TELECOM Digest V14 #19 oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) writes: > In Eric De Mund > writes: >> Dave Niebuhr in TELECOM Digest V14 #15: >>> NYTel, as part of a multi-million dollar rate rollback has been >>> ordered to reduce the cost of touch-tone dialing from $1.35 to $.50 >>> per month which is still not enough. >> Given that backwards state of affairs, maybe my dad *is* telling me >> the truth when he says that he can't even *get* touch-tone service at >> his home in central Nassau County (Westbury), Long Island, New York, >> telephone number (516) 333-xxxx. Incredible. This might not be relevant but what type of phone does he have? Rotary or tone dial? > I don't know the situation now, but a few years ago a friend in > Westbury had three lines in the house, one of which was a 516-333. > The 516-333 had been in place for a decade or more, and he kept it > because it was a flat-rate line -- no charge for local calls. Flat Rate is available to all residence customers and maybe some small businesses. pribik@rpi.edu (Chris Labatt-Simon) writes: > I have a friend in Islip (Nassau County) who has touchtone. I though Nope and Carl Moore is bound to comment on it; Islip is in Suffolk County. > this was a capability that was in all switches manufactured in the > last umpteen (how much is an umpteen anyway?) years, and that if a > customer wanted pulse service, the phone company had to disable > touchtone. Anyone? Anyone? There has never been a choice of pulse, rotary and tone; just the latter two. According to NYTel, the standard offering is rotary only with a surcharge for tone even though most, if not all, lines can handle tone quite nicely. I intend to call the business office next week and make an attempt to find out if 516-333 is tone enabled which I think it is. I seem to remember that 516-333 was mentioned in the first deployment of SS7 which, at least to me, means that it has either a DMS-100 or a 5ESS switch and is able to handle either touch tone or rotary dialing. I also find it hard to believe that tone isn't deployed in that exchange since tone has been around on Long Island since 1965 or before. Here are the exchanges in the 33X series for Area Code 516: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ------------------------------------------------------------- 33X | |PtJef|GdnCy|<----Westbury--->|Hksvl|GdnCy|Wstby| | Code: PtJef - Port Jefferson; Hksvl - Hicksville (a small tale here); GdnCy - Garden City. Note that all except 331 are in Nassau County and all are next door so to speak from each other and there are a plethora of businesses and government offices is that area. I don't think that they'd put up with rotary only dialing. Dave Niebuhr Internet: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (preferred) niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #21 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04181; 10 Jan 94 4:40 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02736 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 10 Jan 1994 01:12:25 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA26428 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 10 Jan 1994 01:12:08 -0600 Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 01:12:08 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401100712.AA26428@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #22 TELECOM Digest Mon, 10 Jan 94 01:12:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 22 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson List of Country Codes (David Leibold) Bizarre Cordless Behavior (Linc Madison) Dr. Vint Cerf Joins MCI (Dan L. Dale) Old Telephones Wanted (Jay Hennigan) Radio Modem Help Wanted (John Michael Pierobon) Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas (Richard Masoner) Re: Best Remote Software? (Richard A. De Castro) Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones (John R. Levine) Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers (Erik Thomas Mueller) Re: Rate of Change (Michael Jacobs) Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions (Bill Halverson) Re: "Dynamic" SLIP (John R. Levine) One Way of Dealing With Obscene Calls (alt.shenanigans via Elana Beach) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 9 Jan 94 18:56:49 -0500 From: djcl@io.org Subject: List of Country Codes Here is an updated list of country codes used in international dialing; errors/additions/corrections can be sent to: dleibold1@attmail.com or djcl@io.org. Notes indicated by bracketed numbers are found after the code listings. Country Codes Summary 8 January 1994 0 - (no country codes begin with '0') 1 - North America (Canada, USA including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Barbados, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Bahamas, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Christopher and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Bequia, Mustique, Prune (Palm) Island, Union Island) (Trinidad and Tobago [1]) 20 - Egypt 210 - (reserved Morocco) 211 - (reserved Morocco) 212 - Morocco 213 - Algeria 214 - (reserved Algeria) 215 - (reserved Algeria) 216 - Tunisia 217 - (reserved Tunisia) 218 - Libya 219 - (reserved Libya) 220 - Gambia 221 - Senegal 222 - Mauritania 223 - Mali 224 - Guinea 225 - Cote d'Ivoire 226 - Burkina Faso 227 - Niger 228 - Togolese Republic 229 - Benin 230 - Mauritius 231 - Liberia 232 - Sierra Leone 233 - Ghana 234 - Nigeria 235 - Chad 236 - Central African Rep 237 - Cameroon 238 - Cape Verde 239 - Sao Tome & Principe 240 - Equatorial Guinea 241 - Gabonese Republic 242 - Congo 243 - Zaire 244 - Angola 245 - Guinea-Bissau 246 - Diego-Garcia 247 - Ascension 248 - Seychelles 249 - Sudan 250 - Rwandese Republic 251 - Ethiopia 252 - Somalia 253 - Djibouti 254 - Kenya 255 - Tanzania [2] 256 - Uganda 257 - Burundi 258 - Mozambique 259 - Zanzibar [2] 260 - Zambia 261 - Madagascar 262 - Reunion (France) 263 - Zimbabwe 264 - Namibia 265 - Malawi 266 - Lesotho 267 - Botswana 268 - Swaziland 269 - Comoros & Mayotte 27 - South Africa 290 - St Helena [3] 291 - Eritrea [4] 295 - San Marino [5] 296 - Trinidad/Tobago [6] 297 - Aruba [7] 298 - Faroe Islands [8] 299 - Greenland [9] 30 - Greece 31 - Netherlands 32 - Belgium 33 - Andorra, France, Monaco [10] 34 - Spain 350 - Gibraltar 351 - Portugal 352 - Luxembourg 353 - Eire (Irish Rep) 354 - Iceland 355 - Albania 356 - Malta 357 - Cyprus 358 - Finland 359 - Bulgaria 36 - Hungary 37 - East Germany [11] 370 - Lithuania [12] 371 - Latvia [12] 372 - Estonia [12] 373 - Moldova [12] 38 - Yugoslavia [13] 381 - Serbia and Montenegro (former Yugoslav areas not otherwise assigned) [13] 385 - Croatia [13] 386 - Slovenia [13] 387 - Bosnia [13] 389 - Macedonia [13] 39 - Italy, San Marino, Vatican City [14] 40 - Romania 41 - Switzerland, Liechtenstein [15] 42 - Czech & Slovak Republics 43 - Austria 44 - United Kingdom 45 - Denmark 46 - Sweden 47 - Norway 48 - Poland 49 - Germany 500 - Falkland Islands 501 - Belize 502 - Guatemala 503 - El Salvador 504 - Honduras 505 - Nicaragua 506 - Costa Rica 507 - Panama 508 - St Pierre & Miquelon 509 - Haiti 51 - Peru 52 - Mexico 53 - Cuba [16] 54 - Argentina 55 - Brazil 56 - Chile 57 - Colombia 58 - Venezuela 590 - Guadeloupe [17] 591 - Bolivia 592 - Guyana 593 - Ecuador 594 - Guiana (French) 595 - Paraguay 596 - Martinique [18] 597 - Suriname 598 - Uruguay 599 - Netherlands Antilles [19] 60 - Malaysia 61 - Australia 62 - Indonesia 63 - Philippines 64 - New Zealand 65 - Singapore 66 - Thailand 670 - Marianna Isl. [20] 671 - Guam 672 - Australian Territories: Antartica, Christmas, Cocos, Norfolk Islands 673 - Brunei Darussalm 674 - Nauru 675 - Papua New Guinea 676 - Tonga 677 - Solomon Islands 678 - Vanuatu [21] 679 - Fiji Islands 680 - Palau 681 - Wallis & Fortuna 682 - Cook Islands 683 - Niue Island 684 - American Samoa 685 - Western Samoa 686 - Kiribati, Gilbert Is 687 - New Caldonia 688 - Tuvalu, Ellice Is (Saipan?) 689 - French Polynesia 690 - Tokelan 691 - F.S. of Micronesia 692 - Marshall Islands 7 - CIS nations, Baltic Republics, otherwise former USSR countries 800 - (see note [25]) 81 - Japan 82 - South Korea 84 - Vietnam 850 - North Korea 852 - Hong Kong 853 - Macao 855 - Cambodia 856 - Laos 86 - China 870 - (apparently unassigned, reserved for Maritime Mobile service) 871 - Inmarsat (Atl E) [22] 872 - Inmarsat (Pacific) 873 - Inmarsat (Indian) 874 - Inmarsat (Atl. W) [22] 875 - (apparently unassigned, reserved for Maritime Mobile service) 876 - (apparently unassigned, reserved for Maritime Mobile service) 877 - (apparently unassigned, reserved for Maritime Mobile service) 878 - reserved [23] 879 - reserved [23] 880 - Bangladesh [24] 886 - Taiwan [24] 90 - Turkey 91 - India 92 - Pakistan 93 - Afghanistan 94 - Sri Lanka 95 - Myanmar (Burma) 960 - Maldives 961 - Lebanon 962 - Jordan 963 - Syria 964 - Iraq 965 - Kuwait 966 - Saudi Arabia 967 - Yemen Arab Rep 968 - Oman 969 - Yemen Dem Rep [26] 971 - United Arab Emirates 972 - Israel 973 - Bahrain 974 - Qatar 976 - Mongolia 977 - Nepal 98 - Iran 994 - Azerbaijan [12] Notes: [1] Trinidad and Tobago has been assigned code 296. The date when this country code will take effect is unknown. [2] Zanzibar is routed via Tanzania as + 255 54, though the country code 259 is assigned for Zanzibar. [3] St Helena is a code found in service under British Telecom. It may not be an official assignment much as it would be a hack used by BT to provide overseas service to that point. [4] Eritrea separated from Ethiopia in 1993 to become a new nation; until +291 code is in effect, use Ethiopia +251 4. [5] San Marino will be split from Italy's country code (was 39). [6] Trinidad and Tobago are new with country code 296, moving out of North American area code 809 (ie. + 1 809). The date when this country code takes effect is unknown. [7] Aruba got its own country code when it formally became independent of the Netherlands Antilles 1st January 1986. [8] was under Norway [9] Greenland (country code 299) is supposed to be in the part of the world where country codes begin with 3 or 4 (Europe). However, since all those codes are used up, 299 is as close to 3 or 4 as possible. Country codes beginning with 5 are also all gone. [10] Andorra: + 33 628, Monaco: + 33 93 [11] Removed from service as Germany is now one country. New city codes beginning with 3 under country code 49 are now in use for those former east German regions. [12] These are new assignments breaking away from country code 7 (former USSR). Other countries from the CIS or those republics formerly with the Soviet Union, could have new country codes of the form 37x or 9xx soon. [13] Effective 1st October 1993 former Yugoslavia country code 38 was split up into country codes of the form 38x representing the various nations formed from the breakup of Yugoslavia. (Information courtesy teletext of German TV ARD and ZDF as relayed by Thomas Diessel (diessel@informatik.unibw-muenchen.de)). [14] San Marino: + 39 549 (formerly +39 541), but moving to country code 295 at some unknown date. Vatican City: + 39 66982 [15] Liechtenstein: + 41 75 [16] Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base: + 53 99, a special hack dialable from USA [17] includes French Antilles: St Barthelemy, St Martin, Guadeloupe [18] should now be onlyu Martinique; was all of French Antilles [19] includes Saint Maarten, Saba, Statia, Curacao, Bonaire [20] that is, Northern Mariana Islands, or Saipan [21] or New Hebrides [22] 874 is a new assignment as INMARSAT is putting a fourth satellite region into service, and adjusting its zones accordingly. This is to allow for new land-based services on the INMARSAT network, particularly in North America. 874 will become Atlantic Ocean Region West, while 871 will be for Atlantic Ocean Region East. [23] Reserved for national mobile/maritime uses in various countries [24] By CCITT policy, no more country codes of the 880-889 series are supposed to be assigned until all other country codes beginning with 8 have been taken. 886 for Taiwan is an unofficial code used for access to Taiwan. The "People's Republic of China", on the other hand, has assigned Taiwan access via country code 866 (presumably + 86 6, through China). [25] There is some discussion in CCITT circles that the 800 country code could be established as an international-access toll free service. This is subject to a formal proposal and CCITT approval, however. [26] with the unification of the Yemen republics, it appears that this country code will no longer be needed, as 967 Yemen Arab Republic code will likely take over. In the meantime, the dialing procedures remain as if Yemen were still separate countries, at least until the telephone system can be unified. ------------------------------ From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Bizarre cordless behavior Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 09:41:51 GMT I have for about four or five months now had a cordless phone, a Southwestern Bell Freedom Fone Model FF1185, ten channels, two lines, "digital security code," etc. I'm mostly happy with it, but there are a couple of problems. (1) There is excessive bounce in the keypad. I had to take the first unit back because I misdialed at least 75% of all attempts. The new unit is not so bad, but still has bad problems with the '2' key. (2) It has ten channels, but doesn't do any sort of "automatic channel selection" or anything like that. By far worst of all, though: (3) Sometimes, when I press the "change channel" button, if my neighbor (in the same apartment building) happens to be using her cordless phone, *she* gets connected to my call while *my* handset is frozen out. I don't know what happens to any call she is on or is attempting. This has happened three times so far. What usually happens is that I hear a click on the line (the other person usually assumes it's my call-waiting) and then the static gets progressively worse. I press "channel" to try to get a better connection, and get dumped. This is EXTREMELY annoying. Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Jan 94 16:36 EST From: Dan L. Dale <0005517538@mcimail.com> Subject: Dr. Vint Cerf Joins MCI WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ via First! -- MCI today announced Vinton Cerf, well-known in telecommunications and academic circles as a data visionary, has rejoined the company to serve as senior vice president of data architecture for the Data Services Division. Cerf, who was with the company in the early 80's, will be responsible for developing the network architecture of MCI's future data services, as well as the development of a common framework in which data, voice and video services can be delivered to businesses and consumers with equal ease. Cerf, 50, co-developed the computer networking protocol, TCP/IP, widely used in the industry and for communications between the diverse university, government and commercial data networks, known collectively as the Internet. He also has served as president of the Internet Society since 1992. "As we further develop networkMCI, the company's recently announced strategic vision, and the new generation of services that businesses, consumers and governments will want, we need the best minds available to help lead these efforts," said Richard T. Liebhaber, MCI's chief strategy and technology officer. "Vint is one of the leading architects of what we know as public data networking today, as well as a major contributor to the development of technologies needed for a national information infrastructure." "We're very pleased someone like Vint will help MCI drive a new generation of data services as we move into the 21st century," said Liebhaber. Cerf joins MCI from the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) where he has served as vice president since 1986, conducting national research efforts on information infrastructure technologies with CNRI's president, Robert E. Kahn (also co-inventor of TCP/IP). Prior to this, Cerf was vice president of MCI Digital Information Services and served as the chief engineer of MCI Mail from 1982 to 1986, working with MCI's J. Robert Harcharik, creator of MCI Mail and currently general manager of MCI's Data Services Division. Cerf also has played a major role in sponsoring the development of Internet-related data packet technologies during his stint with the Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) from 1976 to 1982. He served on the Stanford University faculty in the computer science and electrical engineering departments and worked on the ARPA network development at UCLA during the late 60s and early 70s. At MCI, Cerf will again team with Harcharik under the recently formed Data Services Division based in Dallas. The division is charged with the development, engineering, operations and marketing of all MCI data services and is part of MCI's organization devoted to harnessing emerging technologies into applicable services under Liebhaber. These include MCI's virtual data services called HyperStream, which will include asychronous transfer mode (ATM) technology-based services MCI plans to deliver under networkMCI in the future. MCI, headquartered in Washington, offers a full range of domestic and global telecommunications services through one of the world's largest state- of-the-art networks. With 1992 revenue of more than $10 billion, the company is the second largest long distance provider in the United States and has more than 65 offices in 55 countries and places. ------------------------------ From: jay@coyote.rain.org (Jay Hennigan) Subject: Old Telephones Wanted Date: 8 Jan 1994 10:01:46 -0800 Organization: Regional Access Information Network I'm looking for repair parts or collectors groups of old telephones. In particular, I have a brass Western Electric candlestick phone which is missing the steel diaphragm from the receiver. The phone has patent dates of Jan 26, 15 - Jan 1, 18 - May 7, 18 - Sept 21, 20 on the base and 329W on the transmitter. Also have a Kellogg candlestick in need of a baseplate. A source of the woven jacket cordage used in the old days would be nice as well. Reply here or e-mail jay@rain.org. I will summarize all responses. Jay Hennigan jay@rain.org Santa Barbara CA ------------------------------ From: pierobon@gate.net (John Michael Pierobon) Subject: Radio Modem Help Wanted Date: 8 Jan 1994 14:15:58 -0500 Organization: Cybergate, Inc. Hello, I am trying to set up a communication link to a hub from a remote part of South America. Here is the problem. My computer, or home base, is located in a place where telephones do not reach. Neither celullar nor wire can be strung to reach this place. Therefore, my only option to transfer data is via a "radio modem". A friend of mine suggested I look into this, but he was not able to provide me with more information. Where can I get additional information on "radio modems"? Thank you. ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack Date: 9 Jan 1994 17:34:49 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In V2ENA81%OWEGO@zeta.eecs.nwu.edu writes: > oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) wrote: >> In some states the steps the moderator describes are exactly right. In >> New York, things are a little different. Telco is obligated to provide >> a network interface jack (if that is what you want) *in your apartment*, >> for a price that is fixed -- unaffected by how long it takes to do. >> This is the case regardless of whether their records show a previous >> second line in your apartment; all that changes is the amount of the >> fixed price. Last I checked the cost for your situation (where they >> claim there was never a second line) is $88. > It's $88, but if there aren't any more terminals on the pole they will > charge you an extra $30 to $50 (depending on the work needed) to add > that extra line terminal to the pole. This is information from the > technicians and the business office here in Binghamton, NY. I find this very interesting, since it goes against what I understood the New York State PSC policy to be. I was under the impression that if you order a Network Interface Jack (you have to be sure not to call it a "regular phone jack") the cost is fixed. In particular, that no matter what work turned out to be necessary between the NIJ and the phone company central office, that work was being done for the same fixed $88. If you can describe this a little more fully (in the newsgroup or via email) I would find it most interesting. And if others in New York have been through this exercise and been charged something other than the fixed-price $88 for the NIJ I would be delighted to hear about it. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: cendata!richardm@uunet.UU.NET (Richard Masoner) Subject: Re: Dialing 1 First Prohibited in Dallas Organization: Central Data Corp., Champaign, IL Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 21:24:36 GMT In article kindred@telesciences.com (David L Kindred) writes: > My parents lived in the SWB part of the Dallas area a few years ago. > During the time they lived there, the dialing requirements not only > varied due to area code and "localness", but also by whether the > "other" phone company was involved. I don't remember the particulars, > but dialing a local SWB-SWB call was different than dialing a local > SWB-GTE call. As I recall, you needed at least ten, if not eleven > digits, to call a GTE 214xxxxxxx number from a SWB 214xxxxxxx number, > even if the call was to the next exchange (or next house...). > Has any of this changed recently? I just moved from the D/Ft. Worth area last month. I worked in Irving, which is GTE land (214 area code), and lived in SWB-serviced Euless (817 area code). To call from home to work, I would dial 214-xxx-xxxx. To call home from work, I dialed 817-xxx-xxxx. To call from work to my friends in SWB serviced Watauga (about 20 miles away), I dialed 1-817-xxx-xxxx. I never encountered any difficulty in accessing phones serviced by different providers. So I guess things have changed. Richard F. Masoner Central Data Corporation 1602 Newton Dr., Champaign, IL 61821 ------------------------------ From: decastro@netcom.com (Richard A. De Castro) Subject: Re: Best Remote Software? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 03:10:59 GMT Joseph Ferguson writes: > I need a reliable remote software program that will actually run > Windows. I use an Intel 400 at home and at work. Haven't had any luck > trying PcTools Commute. Do any of these remote programs run Windows? > Thanks for any suggestions. Carbon Copy windows -kinda- works. good luck. decastro@netcom.com Richard A. De Castro California, North America, Sol-3 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Jan 94 22:33 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > There already is blocking for 1-579, and 1-976 blocking, ... > [the leading ``1'' tells you it's toll] If that theory were correct, nobody would ever complain about 1-900 bills. I think we've found that's not the case. The problem is that cellular airtime costs a lot more than an in-state toll call, the former being on the order of 50 cents per minute, the latter more like 15 cents per minute. > This would have prevented -- or at least lessened -- the New York pager > scam, and can reduce the problems with 976 numbers. Hardly. I know I can call any place in the country for 25 cents per minute or less, except for surcharged numbers. Some of the 212-540 numbers cost $40 for the first minute. The problem isn't free calls vs. non-free calls, it's cheap normal calls vs. expensive abnormal calls. (In New York, for example, no calls are free, since you are charged at least one message unit for every local call.) The 579 prefix costs significantly more to call than any normal Colorado prefix and callers are going to find that out the hard way and complain. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't think the complaint people make about 1-900 is that there is a charge; I think it is because a lot of 900 numbers charge *so much*. PAT] ------------------------------ From: etm@email.teaser.com (Erik Thomas Mueller) Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 17:46:00 GMT Subject: Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers In article mzmijews@mgzcs.demon.co.uk writes: >> But then some French idiots came up with a stupid numbering system... By the way, note that the current numbering plan in France is scheduled to be replaced in 1995 by the uniform NPA + 8D where NPA = 1 Ile-de-France (Paris, ...) 2 Northeast France 3 Southeast France 4 Southwest France 5 Northwest France Dialing instructions: Within an area code: 8D. To another area code: 0+NPA+8D. To another country: 00+. (Information is from "numero s'il vous plait" by Claude Perardel, a history of French numbering plans available from the huge Musee de Telecommunications, Pleumeur-Bodou, Cote-d'Armor, France). By the way, I'm posting this message from a Minitel. Everyone in France now has USENET and Internet mail access via 3617 EMAIL on the Minitel. A Minitel costs about $3.50/month. ISDN is available everywhere. Plus we also have Bibop! Erik Thomas Mueller Internet: etm@email.teaser.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 94 00:04:09 EDT From: Michael Jacobs Subject: Re: Rate of Change Gordon Palameta's comments regarding the complex interactions of technological change and society are right on the mark. Too often we forget that the history of our civilization is a history of technological progress. Triggering factors result in widespread and substantial change. Mr. Palameta described several such factors in his article. To understand the significance of events occurring today, and their potential significance as triggering factors for tomorrow's progress, we must understand the significance of past events that catalyzed the progress that resulted in today's world. Historically, incremental developments in the communication arts have resulted in revolutionary changes in our society. The invention of language is credited with being a causal factor for the development of society. Paper resulted in a the first indirect communications medium, and allowed the development of modern religions. Medieval church mail services offered the first reliable widespread communications services and Guttenburg's invention of movable type certainly caused revolution- ary change as did the Morse telegraph, Bell's telephone, Marconi's radio, etc. So too, will the changes in computer/telephone/video communications result in changes which we can only speculate about, with the near- certainty that our speculations will be wrong. James Burke's excellent series "Connections", shown occaisionaly on the Learning Channel and the companion book illustrate this point exquisitely, and is reccommended highly to anyone interested in understanding how progress really affects society. ------------------------------ From: wjhalv1@pacbell.com Subject: Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions Date: 9 Jan 94 18:56:44 GMT Organization: Pacific * Bell In article , writes: > Sirs: I'm a tech with Brown University in Providence RI. My question > is basic, yet important to our work here at Brown, perhaps you may be > able to give me some direction to obtain the answers. > 1. Which countries/provinces have SW-56 service and are ISDN capable? Within the USA, these two services are considered to be "complementary", in the sense they can coexist within a network. > 2. Here in the US what cities have been converted to ISDN, and who are > still operating at SW-56? In California, Pacific Bell is offering both ISDN and SW-56. Since the service is hardware dependent, the prefix you get from the phone company will determine whether the switch you receive dialtone from provides either or both service. Here is an 800 number you can call to find out what is available in our service territory: 800-995-0346 You need a touch-tone phone. You will be able to find out what kind of service is available based on the NPANXX combination you enter. Hope this helps! Bill Halverson Pacific Bell ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Jan 94 12:54 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: "Dynamic" SLIP Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. SLIP is simply a way of passing packets back and forth betweeen two IP network nodes. It doesn't make much sense to talk about multiplexing it, since IP already does all of the multiplexing you need. With a SLIP link, at a particular moment either you're connected or you aren't. You may be thinking about the distinction between hard-wired and dial-up SLIP. In the latter case, you typically dial into a terminal server, enter the password, then give a SLIP command. The server assigns you an IP address from a pool it has for SLIP users, tells you what it is, and away you go. The better PC TCP/IP SLIP implementations recognize the message with the IP address and automatically update their tables, so it's all pretty much automatic. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) Subject: A Good Way to Deal With Obscene Calls Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 07:13:17 GMT Sorry I took so long to send this to you, Pat! It's funny as hell in any case... =8) -Elana Newsgroups: alt.shenanigans Subject: An Obscene Phone Callers Worst Nightmare! Message-ID: <4839@heimdall.sdrc.com> Date: 11 Nov 93 18:53:38 GMT Reply-To: tracy.schuhwerk@sdrc.com Organization: Structural Dynamics Research Corporation I don't know if this qualifies as a "shenanigan" or not, but last I night had some fun with an obscene phone caller! Before reading this, I have to tell you that I am a male. Having the first name Tracy leads to stuff like this happening from time to time... [ Some names have been changed to protect the ignorant. ] The Scene: 3:30 in the morning, my bedroom... last night. I'm dead asleep! You hear the ringing of a the phone right behind my head on the head board. [RING] Tracy: "Huh?" [RING] Tracy (picking up the phone): "Hello?" Mysterious Caller: (In a deep raspy voice) "I want to lick your [fill in the blanks here]"... Tracy (mind still fogged with sleep): [Silence] [Click] The phone hangs up... Tracy (looking at his caller ID system): "Cool..." I get up and jot down the phone number... This is where the fun begins! Since I am now awake and will need a few minutes to get my blood pressure back down to somewhat near normal, I decided to have fun with the obscene caller! I went down to my PC and fired it up... tossed the US Residential Phone Book CD ROM for the mid-west into the drive and did a quick search on the phone number I jotted down from the caller ID. Within seconds, I had the name and address attached to the number! Michael Smith, 837 Appletree Lane... Got it... This is going to be fun! After jotting down the information, I grab the phone... [RING] (A familiar voice answers the phone... it is the person who called me just minutes before) Michael: "Hello??" Tracy (In a well practiced "Voice of Pure Evil"(tm)): "Hello Michael, remember me? You wanted to lick me..." [CLICK] (The "VoPE" is best described as James Earl Jones having a "Bad Voice Day"...) I waited about 5 minutes... and picked the phone up again... [RING] [RING] Michael: "Uh, Hello??" Tracy (using the "VoPE" again): "837 Appletree Lane, Michael... I know where you live!" [CLICK] One more time... waiting about 5 minutes... I pick up the phone... [RING] [RING] [RING] Michael (voice a bit shaky): "He... Hello???" Tracy (once again, the "VoPE"): "I'm coming for you Michael!" I went back to bed... :-) I think Michael might have had trouble doing that himself! Isn't technology GRAND! :-) -- Tracy Schuhwerk ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #22 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04498; 10 Jan 94 5:17 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02216 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 10 Jan 1994 01:43:18 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA17780 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 10 Jan 1994 01:43:04 -0600 Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 01:43:04 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401100743.AA17780@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #23 TELECOM Digest Mon, 10 Jan 94 01:43:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 23 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Multi-line BBS's (Lars Poulsen) Re: Multi-line BBS's (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Correction: Re: Help Needed With V.42bis (ssatchell@bix.com) Re: Merlin Question (Christopher Zguris) Re: US Digital Cellular Standard (Donald J. Miller) Re: 500 Channel Cable Television (David M. Berman) Re: 500 Channel Cable Television (sandyron@delphi.com) Re: Notice to AT&T Long Distance Customers (Laurence Chiu) Re: User Interface From Hell (Gary Bridgewater) Re: "Dynamic" SLIP (John Kennedy) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: lars@Eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Multi-line BBS's Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK Date: Sun, 9 Jan 94 23:30:05 GMT In article dannie@coplex.coplex.com (Dannie Gregoire) writes: > I would like to know how some of these bulletin boards have 60-100 > lines running into them (eg EXEC-PC). Do they simply have that many > individual lines run or is there a nifty service that the TELCO offers > through a PBX? A BBS is just a special case of the general class of "multi-user computer systems". Access for remote terminal users of such a system can be provisioned in several ways: 1) If the users are on-site, the system may be constructed with many serial ports, and you may wire each terminal directly to a port dedicated to that terminal. The drawback of this is, that for large systems, serial terminal ports may actually be very expensive (as expensive as high-speed ports, and probably more expensive than the terminals.) 2) Often the terminals are wired to "cluster controllers" that aggregate traffic from a number of terminals (16 is a common number) and feed the aggregated traffic into a high-speed port. The operating system on the server machine must then contain code to unravel the multiplexed data before feeding it into the software driver for the logical ports. 3) If not all of the users are active at the same time, it has been common to attach the terminal to a modem, and attach the modem to a port on the building's PBX, which then routes the calls to a bank of modems which may be attached to ports on the server (as in 1) or on a cluster controller (as in 2). This allow you to get by with a smaller number of ports, and also allows all wiring to be installed by telephone technicians, which traditionally have been easier to find and manage than computer technicians. Also, the PBX already has mechanisms to deal with contention. 4) This technique extends in a simple manner to off-site users: Just attach a few modems to outside lines instead of PBX station ports. You need one outside line with a modem per port, of course. 5) If the callers are far away, you may be able to save by locating the cluster controllers near the users, far from the server system, and attach them to the server by: - leased data lines or - automatic dialers that bring the line up when someone needs service. Generally, if you have a remote building with a cluster, it will be more economical to lease the line. The crossover happens at 2-4 hours per day. If you have 4 to 8 terminals, then it is likely that at any given time at least one will be in use. 6) Some companies have specialized in setting up such remote cluster controllers (called PAD: Packet Assembler/Disassembler) provide them with local dial-in lines with modems, and arranging for shared carriage from these access points to servers in several/many cities over lines leased from the phone companies. These companies (legally called "Value Added Networks") generally use a protocol called X.25 between the cluster controllers and the server hosts. They also provide for connections directly between the servers using the X.25 protocol. The VAN carriers include CompuServe, SprintNet (formerly TELENET), TYMNET, AT&T Accunet, INFONET and many more. With such a hookup, you may be able to use a single high-speed access line to carry traffic originating at hundreds of different remote points. 7) Finally, a whole other group of carriers have sprung up to do the same using a more modern set of protocols called TCP/IP or Internet Protocol. Generally, this is much less expensive than X.25 service, and provides many more features. Principal commercial Internet service providers who offer service throughout the USA include: ANS (Advanced Networks and Services - a partnership including IBM, MCI and the State of Michigan), AlterNET (a service mark of UUNET Technologies), PSI (Performance Systems International of Troy, NY), AT&T, INFONET and SprintNet. (At least the last 3 also offer one-stop international connections.) The special magic of this technology is that the networks are all interconnected, so that your customers can reach you even if they have service from different providers. The company that I work for, is on of many that sells equipment for Internet service. We expect (between all of us) to hook up every school and every public library the US and at least Western Europe in my lifetime. We have a long way to go. To date we have only connected about two million computers, serving about ten million people worldwide. Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products Phone: (011-) +45-31 49 81 08 Hvidovre Strandvej 72 B Telefax: +45-31 49 83 08 DK-2650 Hvidovre, DENMARK Internets: designed and built while you wait ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: Multi-line BBS's Date: 9 Jan 1994 03:18:18 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA In article dannie@coplex.coplex.com (Dannie Gregoire) writes: > Hi Pat: > I'll direct this question to you if possible, as you are the true > phone system guru. I asked it in the newsgroup a couple of months > back with no useful response. I would like to know how some of these > bulletin boards have 60-100 lines running into them (eg EXEC-PC). Do > they simply have that many individual lines run or is there a nifty > service that the TELCO offers through a PBX? I apologize if this is > a stupid question, but it is one that has baffled me, and I gotta know > the answer. Thanks for any help ... > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for the compliment, but you > overestimate my skills a little. Depending on your application or > needs, you can have as many actual lines run as desired. I suspect > most very large systems these days however use what is called T-1 > or similar, where a large number of circuits are multiplexed or > handled over just a few actual pairs of wires. In addition to T-1, > there are similar methods for bringing in a large number of circuits > on only a few wires. In my own personal applications in the past, > I always just had the physical wires, but that was several years > ago before the present technology became available. Perhaps Fred > Goldstein or one of the *real* tech people here will reply. PAT] I have to admit that I don't know much about how real BBSs operate, just how they could be operated. But thanks for the compliment, Pat. BBSs are funny things. I read an article about Channel 1, a huge operation in Cambridge, which services its dozens of incoming lines by a network of dozens of little PCs. They were lined up all over a tiny house. If it were up to me, I'd have a big machine or two ... It's often easier and cheaper to use T1 circuits rather than the 23-24 (30 in Europe) separate analog circuits that it replaces. If your central office is digital (eg., 5ESS or DMS), then a T1 is much easier for the phone company to provide -- it plugs right in to a trunk port. Most large PBXs probably hook up this way now. For modems, though, this isn't always cheaper. You need either a T1 modem (big bucks for a BBS operator; figure $1k/line, from Primary Access or US Robotics) or a channel bank (maybe $5k, but available used) to demulitplex it into analog lines. Of course you could use a PBX instead but a plain old channel bank is lots cheaper since it leaves out the switching function! So I suspect the BBS crowd tends towards big blocks of analog lines. Advantage of moving towards T1: If you're a plain old "kiddiecomms" BBS, then maybe this won't be necessary. But if you use T1, you can not only talk to modems, but talk to ISDN and Switched 56 at a 56 kbps speed. Channel banks, PBXs and T1-modems all support this. Fred R. Goldstein k1io goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission ------------------------------ From: ssatchell@BIX.com (ssatchell on BIX) Subject: Re: Correction: Re: Help Needed With V.42bis Date: 8 Jan 94 18:57:34 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation Let me add my pair-o'-pennies to the V.42 bis discussion. Much of what I'm about to say is derived by my research into the question for inclusion into TIA PN2826, what will eventually become TSB-38, a modem testing methodoly description for modems: BTLZ is not a true LZW derivitive, as jim claims. (However, the difference is so minimial that only the truly nitpicking will care.) It is Ziv-Lempel with several additions to permit adaption and to prevent expansion of the data, particularly pre-compressed data. It also has one of the niftiest escape systems I've ever seen. You start with a dictionary pre-filled with the alphabet, and have nine-bit output codes. As data transfer progresses, and the dictionary fills, you expand the size of the output code until you reach the dictionary limit negotiated by both ends. At that point, you start "burning" leaf nodes so that as the characteristics of the data change the LZ tree will change shape to adapt. If a block of compressed data is significantly larger than its uncompressed counterpart, then you enter "transparency mode" and send the uncompressed data. If a subsequent block of compressed data is significantly smaller than its uncompressed counterpart, you then switch to "compression mode". Initally the system is in transparent mode. While in transparent mode, if an escape character is seen, the system sends an escape-in-data sequence like most codes which use a reserved flag character. Unlike the others, though, the escape character definition is CHANGED so that repeated runs of the (original) escape character don't cause a two-fold explosion in the size of the resulting data stream, and a less-than-optimal change to compression mode for that string. For PN2826, we wanted to develop test files which would virtually guarantee one million data bits sent through the signal converter (before HDLC zero- stuffing). So we examines a number of files to determine the compression properties using dictionary sizes common to modems. What I found is that the vast majority of uncompressed files experience a compression ratio (input/output) ranging from 2.5:1 to 3.1:1; the only time I got anywhere near the four-to-one everyone attributes to V.42 bis is when I was transferring B&W line-art in uncompressed TIFF form. (Indeed, with one picture I achieved a 7:1 compression ratio.) Compressed files had ratios which depended greatly on the scheme used to com- press them. LZW-based compressed files showed anywhere from 1.1:1 to 1.4:1 with V.42 bis; a purely random file (generated using the DES algorithm) has a compression ratio of 0.998:1 -- the expansion attributed to the 57 escape-in- data sequences in this 132-kilobyte file. Encrypted compressed files tended to be at exactly 1:1. These figures were developed by running files through a desktop implementation of V.42 bis -- my thanks to Dr. Coleman of Georgia University for the code. This is a straightforward implementation of V.42 bis with a rather wasteful compression prediction algorithm (fill two buckets, throw out the one that's more full) but is simple and surprisingly good at minimizing local expansion. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Jan 94 15:02 EST From: Christopher Zguris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Merlin Question In a recent TELECOM Digest post Vince Dugar (vdugar@stortek.stortek. com) wrote: > Why does the Merlin system charge users so much (I forget now, but > it's a lot) to buy a special modem adapter? Is there a cheaper > solution? What about using an acoustic modem? (only want it for > CompuServe mail handling, so low baud would be OK) The simplest way I know of - that I have used successfully - is to tap the voice pair on the merlin. As I remember, the voice pair on the merlin are the two middle wires on the 8 pin jack. If you're electronically inclined (or know someone who is) the simple schematic below should do the trick. To build it, you'll need two identical RJ-45 8-position 8-conductor phone jacks, and another merlin cable. To build it, wire pins 1-3 and 6-8 straight through from the "from Wall" jack to the "to phone". Tap pins 4 & 5 with a cable to plug into the modem (or run them to another jack and plug the modem in). The SPST switch is optional, but will come in handy, read on. To use the thing, plug the cord coming from the wall in the "from wall" jack and plug your new cord into the "to phone" jack, then plug that cord into your phone. You're phone should work fine, if it doesn't, disconnect the gizmo and check you're wiring. To actually use the thing, fire up your modem, dial out, and QUICKLY pick up on a line USING the merlin phone. When the modem dials it will dial out through the merlin on whatever line your merlin has selected! The disadvantage to this gizmo over the AT&T rip-off is that you must keep the merlin off-hook while your modem is in use and manually hang up when your modem is done (redialling is impossible- if you want to do that manually dial and redial using the merlin). You will want to set the SPST switch to open so the voice pair disconnected from the merlin, otherwise the modem noise will come through the merlin speaker or handset, and if the handset it used voices and noises will be picked up and sent and screw up your modem communications. I've used a similar setup at 2400 baud, anything above that I can't vouch for. When you're done, flip the SPST switch. If you have any questions let me know, I'll try to help out- I love solving problems! {From Wall} 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 [;][;][;][;][;][;][;][;] 8 Position-8 Cond. RJ-45 Jack I I I I I I I I I I I I *---------------------- \ I I TAP-wire to modem (red & Green) I *------------------- / I I I I I I-------------O / I / SPST Switch I I-------------O I I I I I I I I I I I I [;][;][;][;][;][;][;][;] 8 Position-8 Cond. RJ-45 Jack {To Phone} (First attempt at ASCII art, what do you think?) Chris ------------------------------ From: dmiller@crl.com (Donald J. Miller) Subject: Re: US Digital Cellular Standard Date: 9 Jan 1994 13:59:23 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] Weiyun Yu (weiyun@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU) wrote: > It has come to my attention that the digital cellular standards > adopted by US carriers are not going to be compatible with what we > have adopted in Australia, GSM. I am interested in finding out a bit > more about the US systems but cant find any FAQ on the subject. The US Digital Cellular scheme (TDMA) was originally conceived to ease the bandwidth requirement for a phone conversation by at least 3 to 1. A 6 to 1 capacity advantage over the regular AMPS service would be achieved if and when acceptable half-rate voice codecs were available. Currently, each caall uses two of the six TDMA time slots. The aim was/is to eventually use only one. The first TDMA phones were to be dual-mode: that is to say that they would function as regular AMPS phones as well. The hope WAS that after 10 to 15 years, the AMPS functionality could be dropped, resulting in more cost effective phones. A monkey wrench has been tossed in the works, however. AFTER the cellular industry chose TDMA as the standard, Qualcomm proposed the use of a different CDMA technology with promises of even greater capacity. Some, but not all carriers joined the Qualcomm camp. The net result is that we now have two digital phone standards. Motorola proposed a new analog system (NAMPS) with a capacity advantage of 3 to 1 over AMPS that many hail as a good intermediate step before full digital cellular implementation. So, now we have FOUR phone "standards". What about ROAMING? Well, it looks like the more expensive DUAL-MODE phones are here to stay. Either of the two digital systems, TDMA or CDMA could have been cost effective with time and further work on the ICs inside the phones. The power-wasting RF duplexers required in AMPS phones for full-duplex operation would not have been needed -- money would be saved and talk time increased. Six times the existing bandwidth was not enough. We got greedy. Don Miller dmiller@crl.com ------------------------------ From: images@netcom.com (David M. Berman) Subject: Re: 500 Channel Cable Television Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 18:46:22 GMT I think most of you are limiting yourselves when you imagine the offerings that could be available with video dial-tone or 5000 channels of audio/video/data. Imagine not only every piece of video, film, or music ever published, but the new publishing opportunities that will spring from recent advances in home/cheap video and audio production. You might see excellent products aimed at smaller and smaller audiences (college lectures, poems, paintings, dance, how to fix your 1983 Toyota, etc.). To me, the most exciting thing about the possibility of all this new bandwith is the thought that we could escape the tyranny of the majority and their pedestrian tastes. David M. Berman images@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: SANDYRON@delphi.com Subject: Re: 500 Channel Cable Television Date: Sun, 9 Jan 94 22:51:21 EST Organization: Delphi Internet I somewhat agree. Who has the most bandwidth in the home? Anyone of the 500 channels could be an on-demand channel. By the way, without a broadband entry in the house how can all of the consumers requests be met like pix in pix. ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: Notice to AT&T Long Distance Customers Date: 9 Jan 1994 20:24:23 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access, California Reply-To: lchiu@crl.com In article , William M. Eldridge wrote: >> According to a wire service account in the {Boston Globe}, AT&T is >> changing their rates to be more like MCI and Sprint. The list price > As somebody who just switched from AT&T to MCI, I have a few > qualifications for this. > On international calls, MCI has all weekend rates, while AT&T leaves > its three Day-Evening-Night slots the same, seven days a week. MCI > has better hours during the week. AT&T had worse setup (first minute) > charges. If you join Reach Out World from AT&T for $3 a month, then it seems that there are only two time slots and there is no higher first minute charge. It's quite competitive with MCI now, Friends and Family even taken into account. For example if I specifiy New Zealand as my Selected Country then during off peak times and weekends I get to call *any* number in NZ for 0.68/minute while with MCI and their Friends around the World plan and Friends and Family, I get to call only a maximum of two numbers for $0.66/minute. I find AT&T's plan more flexible here. Laurence Chiu | Walnut Creek, California Tel: 510-215-3730(wk) | Internet: lchiu@crl.com ------------------------------ From: gjb@lsil.com (Gary Bridgewater) Subject: Re: User Interface From Hell Date: 9 Jan 1994 08:41:39 GMT Organization: LSI Logic In article johnl@medusa.gsfc.nasa.gov (John Limpert) writes: > How can telephones be made easier to use? The local phone companies > are going to have a hard time selling new features to their customers > if they expect them to press "*-*-FLASH-4-2-#-6-6-6" every time they > use them. In another life, at a super-mini company, we had a subsidiary PBX design company that was designing a terminal/phone combo but the whole thing evaporated during a "rightsizing". I saw one working - real, not a prototype. There was a button on the terminal keypad that would bring up a phone menu and you could click on the option you wanted. Software on the computer could interact with the phone so you could have a Rolodex on-line and touch a number to dial it, record and playback digital messages and record and playback on-line (with a beep). You could then file, mail, etc. the messages. Took lots (and lots) of disk space but we sold disks so what the heck. Used realy cheap off-shore digital handsets - bad but liveable. Probably something like the Newton will solve this. Also, the VCR programming in another thread. Gary Bridgewater (gjb@lsil.com) LSI Logic, Milpitas, CA ------------------------------ From: warlock@csuchico.edu (John Kennedy) Subject: Re: "Dynamic" SLIP Date: 9 Jan 1994 18:52:35 GMT Organization: California State University, Chico In article , wrote: > My understanding of SLIP is that it is a point-to-point dedicated > configuration, requiring a modem on the receiving end to be dedicated > to a specific user (due to IP I think). If you get the right hardware, that isn't necessarily true. You could dedicate one line/SLIP connection if you wanted to, but many people don't. Most people dedicate one IP _addresses_ to a SLIP user. That mostly depends on how much you're willing to trust any IP address (for security purposes or otherwise ... like access to a USENET server). > I've heard some talk about so-called 'dynamic' SLIP -- where the SLIP > connection is made, but through a mux or terminal server, allowing the > provider to serve multiple dial-up customers instead of a 1-1 ratio. ... Yes, true. I use Cisco communication servers to do this, but there are many more vendors that provide the same features. Depending on your computer's OS, you might be able to connect a modem into it and server multiple SLIP users. The one thing I'd worry about is that most SLIP servers I've seen can only provide access to the subnet they are in ... so you can only server ~250 (fixed, single user/IP addr) users with one rotary. John Kennedy ; Communications Services; USENET admin ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #23 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15475; 11 Jan 94 13:52 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10137 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 11 Jan 1994 09:16:30 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA11304 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 11 Jan 1994 09:16:12 -0600 Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 09:16:12 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401111516.AA11304@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #24 TELECOM Digest Tue, 11 Jan 94 09:16:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 24 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Sendmail" by Costales/Allman/Rickert (Rob Slade) Call Waiting/Three-Way Together (Michael Israeli) Someone Has Tapped My Line - Help (Joel M. Hoffman) Possible Internet Service Scam (Les Reeves) NYTel/NYNEX Dusts Off Rotary Payphones (Paul R. Coen) Network Outage in 205 NPA? (Paul Cook) Truckstop Calling Cards (Scott M. Pfeffer) Cell Phone Charges: Can You Pay With a Calling Card? (Velu Sinha) Touch-Tone Dial Pads? (Willie Smith) Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions (Susan Sirmai) Oracle and Bell Atlantic ADSL Service (Randy te Velde) Inquiring Minds Want to Know (Alec Isaacson) 50 Pin Connector Help Wanted (John Stewart Pinnow) Phone Line Simulator Wanted (David Jones) Distinctive Ringing and Ring Detectors (Bob Rankin) New ATTmail Charges (David Appell) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 00:34:07 MDT From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Sendmail" by Costales/Allman/Rickert BKSNDMAL.RVW 930922 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 103 Morris Street, Suite A Sebastopol, CA 95472 800-998-9938 707-829-0515 fax: 707-829-0104 info@ora.com "sendmail", Costales/Allman/Rickert, 1993, U$32.95 costales@icsi.berkeley.edu eric@cs.berkeley.edu rickert@cs.niu.edu Sendmail might not be the heart of UNIX mail and communications services, but it certainly is a good portion of the autonomic nervous system. Although considered venerable by some, it is also extremely widely used. This book hopes to make sendmail administration not only easy, but fun. Quite a task. Part one of the book is tutorial in nature, starting with background information in chapter one. We are given a brief history and philosophy of sendmail, plus some description of the component parts, and the related Internet RFCs (Request For Comment) and technologies. (RFCs, the name to the contrary, are the descriptions of how Internet functions should work. In a sense, they are the standards of the Internet.) Chapter two gives us some examples of how "subnetworks" of machines within the Internet handle mail among themselves, and introduces routing, very briefly. It takes its tutorial function seriously: there are questions at the end of the chapter for you to think about or try out. The questions get harder in chapter three, and start requiring more knowledge of both UNIX and the RFCs, in order to deal with headers and "envelopes". (Actually, the text is easy. Only the questions are hard.) Chapter four introduces the various related programs that sendmail calls and the functions it performs. So it continues up to chapter fifteen. The tutorial covers the invocation and switches, the configuration file, mail delivery agents, macros, rules, rules and more rules, class macros, options, headers, and miscellaneous topics. Part two deals with administration and management, and runs you through the process of configuring, compiling and installing sendmail. It also has specifics of V8 and IDA, as well as DNS (Domain Name Server). Topics covered include security, the queue, aliases, mailing lists and forwarding logging and statistics. Part three is the reference, and chapters twenty-three to thirty-three list the options for delivery agents; defined, class and database macros; options, headers, the command line and debugging. Finally, seven appendices deal with queue file intervals, obscure error messages, the "define" macros in the confi.h file, the client.cf file from the tutorial, V8 and IDA configuration macros, and a bibliography. Because of the nature of the book, you will find a fair amount of material duplicated (for example between the tutorial on delivery agents, and the reference sections). However, the duplicated material, and the short chaptering make this an excellent reference work overall. The material is generally clear and well laid out. The tutorial section is definitely for the technically advanced: I suspect the authors have a ways to go before many people find sendmail "fun". copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKSNDMAL.RVW 930922 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the TELECOM Digest and associated mailing lists/news groups. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact: rulag@decus.ca ------------------------------ From: izzy@access.netaxs.com (Michael Israeli) Subject: Call Waiting/Three-Way Together Date: 10 Jan 1994 11:41:22 GMT Organization: Net Access - Philadelphia's Internet Connection In my house, I have call waiting and three-way calling installed on the same line. They are a great combination, as you are even able to turn off call waiting through the three-way calling on an incoming call. Now, the problem is that when I am on a three-way call, my line becomes busy, allowing no calling to come through. I know other people in different areas who can be on a a three-way call and still receive call waiting. What is the reason for this difference? I called Bell of PA, and they said that it just wasn't available in my area. Anyone know? Michael Israeli izzy@netaxs.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are two types of 'three-way' calls. If you are in 'consultation' you have pressed the hook, dialed a number and are talking with a third person while leaving the second person on hold. Situations like that will result in a new caller getting a busy signal. If however you have flashed, dialed the third party and gotten him on the line, then flashed again so that the three of you are talking then call waiting should become available once again. At that point if there is a call waiting, flashing will leave your two three way parties (from your outgoing call) on hold unable to speak to each other while you take your new incoming call. The reason a busy signal has to be given to a new arriving call during the early stages of a three way call (when you have flashed, gotten dial tone and brought one additional party on the line but not yet joined that party with your call in pro- gress) is because you only have one flash of the hook available to you and there is a conflict at that point as to whether the flash should cause the newly dialed third party to join your outgoing call or it should cause the whole thing to go on hold while you speak to the newly arrived call waiting. Try getting an actual three way call installed (not just to the beginning 'conference' stage where you talk to a third party and tell him you are attaching him to the call in progress) where you are talking to two parties (both of whom *you originated*) then see if call waiting does not work okay once again. Where there is a conflict between CW and 3WC (because flashing the hook could cause one thing to happen or the other) then 3WC takes priority. The theory is should telco hand you a CW at that point in time does your flash mean you want to accept the new call or connect the other two. Since maybe you do not want that to happen (the two you dialed to be joined together) telco has chosen to block CW for that limited period of time. Let us know. PAT] ------------------------------ From: joel@wam.umd.edu (Joel M. Hoffman) Subject: Someone Has Tapped My Line - Help Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 18:40:12 GMT Organization: Excelsior Computer Services Two hours ago, I heard a clear conversation on my line. I live alone, and have no extensions, so someone else is using my line. I called the phone company to try to get information (on another line) and tried to get information about the call, but they told me that local calls are not recorded. The technician tells me my line is connected to a 5ESS. Am I correct in assuming that the phone company can access that information, but that they're choosing not to? Does anyone else have experience with this, and perhaps advise they can offer? Many thanks. Joel (joel@wam.umd.edu) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One of four things is happening: Assuming the worst, someone did 'borrow' (or is 'borrowing') your line. Telco won't know about that immediatly until/unless a technician or outside plant auditor specifically comes out and looks around. Check your bill when it comes for calls you did not make which appear to be direct- dialed or an unusually high number of local calls which you feel sure you did not make. The second case would be where someone in your area got new service and telco did accidentally put them on your pair of wires due to errors in the outside plant records as to what pairs were available for use, etc. In either case, telco will make the required adjustments in billing and service (who gets which wire pair, etc) when the matter is brought to their attention. In the third case, a very temporary fluke or bug or programming error caused the ESS to misbehave for a few minutes. Again, telco will make required adjustments, but actually catching this while it is happening so that it can be traced and corrected will be difficult. In the last scenario, there may have been 'crosstalk', a condition which occurs when wires get wet or are otherwise quite conducive to each other in the cable or at a junction point in a conduit/underground crawl space in the street, etc. You did not say if you were able to participate in the spurious conversation or not (or if you chose not to). In the first two cases above, you *could* have participated should you chose to do so. In the third and fourth case, it is unlikely you would have been heard by the other people had you chosen to speak up. In the case of crosstalk due to intermittant shorts and grounds on your line due to damaged or wet cable, normally what you hear is several conversations going on at one time, none of which are distinct enough to be understood although one might stand out and have reasonable clarity. It could also be that a phone technician was working in the area on a telephone pole somewhere nearby and chose to make a call to his office using your line. That happens occassionally. In order to make an an effective judgment call on this, we need a bit more history and background. Yes, the numbers dialed on local calls are recorded by the ESS, but it is a mess trying to find the record on the microfilm at the end of the billing cycle and anyway, this may have nothing more than crosstalk or a temporary glitch in the ESS. Followup on this for a couple weeks or so and let us know in more detail exactly what you are hearing if you hear it again; if you can speak to the party 'using your line' etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 10:15:01 PST From: Les Reeves Subject: Possible Internet Service Scam ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 06 Jan 1994 10:18:48 -0500 (EST) From: Melinda Massi (MHM0) To: Multiple recipients of list TECHWR-L Subject: warning: possible Internet scam If you are contemplating a private Internet account, read the following and be alert. Washington, DC, may not be the only place where this is happening. -- M. Massi ---------------------------- Text of forwarded message > Date: Tue, 4 Jan 1994 16:18:44 -0500 > From: Scott A. Ward 703-614-4719 > To: Multiple recipients of list COMMUNET > Subject: Warning: International Internet Association A company calling itself the International Internet Association, and billing itself as "the largest non-profit provider of free Internet access in the world" has started advertizing in the Washington, D.C. area, and offering free Internet accounts to individuals who will FAX them, among other things, a credit card number. As an active member of the Member Council of the National Capital Area Public Access Network (CapAccess), I wanted to find more about this organization that supposedly has offices NOT THREE BLOCKS FROM CAPACCESS. Here's the result of my search for the IIA. 1. Their address, listed as "Suite 852 - 202 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W. Washington D.C. 20006", is actually a post office box at Mailboxes, Etc. 2. The company lists no incorporation, trademark or service-mark licenses. 3. They claim your E-mail address would be @iia.org. However: a. No iia.org is listed in the hq.af.mil hosts table b. No iia.org is listed in the acq.osd.mil hosts table c. No iia.org is listed is the INTERNIC 'whois' database d. No iia.org is listed using the INTERNIC 'netfind' Internet lookup In other words, IIA.ORG does NOT, at this time, exist. 4. Although they apologize profusely in the application, they state that "Without receiving a credit card number, the IIA _cannot_ process an account." 5. Although I have left a message on their voice-mail system, I have received no response from them. (They also apologize in the voice mail that, due to demand, they are operating at a three-week backlog for applications.) I cannot judge an organization in advance. However, I do think it highly suspicious that, to use their propaganda, "The International Internet Association is able to make this service available through generous private donations, and the extraordinary dedication of its membership." I can say that I am not convinced this organization exists, and highly discourage any Internet user from sending information until you make certain that the IIA is real. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 18:29:11 EST From: "Paul R. Coen" Subject: NYTel/NYNEX Dusts Off Rotary Payphones Organization: Drew University Academic Technology Yup, that's right. The return of the pulse-dial, rotary, bleed to death while dialing 9-1-1 payphone. Some neighborhoods have gotten tired of the drug dealers and the "corner office" by the payphone. Seems that a lot of them use the touch-tone payphones to access the beepers of their associates. So, under pressure from local groups, New Yor..., uh, I mean NYNEX, decided to put in the old rotary payphones. I'm sure it broke their heart to find a use for all this old equipment, and to put the touch tone equipment somewhere else. They apparantly tried this in one or two areas already, and it did cut down on the number of people hanging around by the phones on corners. However, in some of the new areas, touch-tone phones are as close as across the street from the "new" rotary phones. A NYNEX official was shown on the local news (WABC, channel 7) saying that these phones "couldn't" be used to trigger a pager. Gee, and DTMF tone generators are so hard to come by. If they make it hard enough to walk to a different phone, the dealers with half a clue will just pick one up. Hell, it isn't like they don't have telephone-savvy people involved -- look at all the cellphone ID modification going on in NYC. This doesn't stop cellphones, either. They did mention, however, future plans to expand blocking. Currently, a lot of these phones apparantly can't accept incoming calls, and NYNEX is talking about expanding this to prevent calls from going out to pager numbers. I wonder how long it will be before the drug dealers just let themselves into buildings and start attaching new wiring to pairs? A lot of the older buildings have tons of exposed wiring and screw-down connections in the hallways and basements. Seems like they're just expanding the incentive to commit cellular fraud as well. Not that I think it shouldn't be done at all, I just think it isn't going to make that big a difference. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The return to rotary dial plus 'calling card, collect or third party billing after dark' seem to be the two principal ways the neighborhood people are convincing telco to help in the 'war on drugs'. Many payphones in Chicago have the latter option on them, meaning coins are not accepted as payment between about 8 PM and 4 AM daily. This causes a more reliable paper trail to exist should someone want to seek it out and prove a point as to who called whom at what time. A third option, and the one which seems to me to be a little more fair to everyone concerned is to fix the phone for no incoming service, although customers of drug dealers could still make outgoing pages and transmit messages to dealers other than to be called back at the payphone they are using. Everyone seems to love the war on drugs as it is quite profitable for all concerned: telcos, governments, police departments -- all are getting extra money from it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 94 13:18 EST From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Network Outage in 205 NPA? Anyone know what happened with the telephone network in Alabama on Monday? I got a call from a customer in Arab, and I get an all-circuits-busy when trying to return his call on all AT&T, Sprint and MCI. Did BellSouth lose a tandem switch? Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5378 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: sp9183@swuts.sbc.com (Scott M. Pfeffer) Subject: Truckstop Calling Cards Date: 11 Jan 94 05:00:45 GMT Organization: Southwestern Bell Telephone Company Recently I was traveling home from Atlanta to St. Louis. I stopped at a gas station somewhere in Tennessee or Kentucky for refreshments, refilling, and relief, and noticed something very interesting in a business card holder near the convenience store cash register -- a stack of pre-authorized long distance calling cards. I inquired of the cashier. The cards cost $10 for 20 minutes of long distance, or $20 for 40 minutes of long distance. Instructions on the card indicated a toll-free number you could call that would enable you to see how much your card had left, in minutes. This card is printed on paper (as opposed to plastic), and requires no identification or registration to purchase, since the life of the card is based on your pre-paid purchse. The cashier told me the major selling point, that now, if you lost this card, you were only out the amount left on the card. "Great for travelling!" I didn't buy. (Although it would have been interesting to attempt to call overseas with this card, if it let me.) Scott [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Those are called 'Talk Tickets' and they are a bit expensive at 50 cents per minute of domestic use although you can get that down to about 35 cents per minute with quantity pur- chases of the ticket from the wholesalers of same. Yes you can make international calls also but instead of 20 minutes for ten dollars you wind up getting about five minutes. To be a wholesaler of Talk Tickets you plunk down $1850 for $2500 in tickets of assorted denominations. That gets you a 25 percent discount off the 50 cent per minute rate, or about 35 cents per minute of use. If you then resell these to truck stops or convenience stores, etc you split the commission with them by selling them the tickets for around $2200; they in turn sell to their customers at the face value. Western Union also has prepaid calling cards like this at a similar rate. Personally, I prefer the Orange Card with its 25 cent per minute rate and no surcharge. PAT] ------------------------------ From: velu@pix.com (Velu Sinha) Subject: Cell Phone Charges: Can You Pay With a Calling Card? Organization: Pix -- The company with no adult supervision. Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 15:07:53 GMT Are there any cellular service providors out there who are able to bill your fixed monthly fees along with usage and roaming charges to a calling card (AT&T)? (Instead of sending you a bill that you need to pay by check or whatever ...) I notice that the new generation of cellular phones in Hertz rental cars allow you to swipe your AT&T calling card for payment. The older generation phones require a Visa/MC/Amex and perhaps Discover or CB. But I haven't gotten any informed response from either Cellular One or Bell Atlantic Mobile in the DC area on this matter. (I know that you can charge the toll portion of any call made from a cell phone by dialing in the standard 0+ or 10XXX0+ fashion, but the roaming and access charges still seem to wind up on your monthly bill!) ------------------------------ From: Willie Smith Subject: Touch-Tone Dial Pads? Date: Mon, 10 Jan 94 10:18:53 EDT I've got a couple of the old-style Bell (WE?) 2500 touch-tone phones that I bought from the Telco after renting them that are having troubles dialing. Some of the row and collumn switches are kinda 'mushy' and make intermittent contact, so I'm not making real Touch-Tones. Is there a way to clean these, tighten the switches, or just buy new TT pads? Any hints on cleaning or pointers to suppliers of the real full-travel (not the newer style hinged button) TT pads would be greatly appreciated! Willie Smith wpns@pictel.com N1JBJ@amsat.org ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 94 10:50 EST From: Susan Sirmai <0003188677@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions Global ISDN is becoming a very hot topic these days as companies continue to go global and applications such as videoconferencing, batch file transfer and G-4 fax continue to grow. I will provide you the answers to your questions from an overall and MCI perspective. > 1. Which countries/provinces have SW-56 service and are ISDN capable? Today over 20 countries around the world currently have some level of ISDN service. The number is growing as domestic networks are upgraded and advanced signalling is implemented between the overseas carriers and the domestic US carriers. In most countries, the network operates at a 64 kbps level and is accessed using BRI (2B+D) or PRI (30B+D). 56 kbps connectivity can be achieved with the use of a terminal adapter for rate adaption which is marketed by several companies in the US and overseas. MCI International 64 Service currently provides switched digital connectivity to Canada and most of the European and Pacific Carriers capable of providing the service today. Current MCI Tariffed Countries include: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan (IDC, ITJ, KDD), New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom. Additional countries are planned for 1994. > 2. Here in the US what cities have been converted to ISDN, and who are > still operating at SW-56? Availability depends on the local exchange carrier. There is a document published by Bellcore that lists most of the exchanges that are capable of providing the service. You should contact your local LEC provider or your local MCI representative to assist you with evaluating a specific location in your area since the list changes and either source could provide you with up to date information. > 3. If you know, who are their carriers? Service is provided locally by the US Local Exchange Carriers and interexchange and internationally by the interexchange carriers offering the service. The carriers in-country overseas are the PTTs or ITOs who provide local and/or international service. Please contact your local MCI rep or me by phone at 1-703-903-1033 or fax at 1-703-506-6626 if you have any additional questions. Regards, Susan Sirmai MCI Global Marketing ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 23:21:15 EST From: Randy te Velde Subject: Oracle and Bell Atlantic ADSL Service The {New York Times} reports today that Oracle and Bell Atlantic will offer interactive broadband services to the home in the "DC area" using ADSL over copper wire. The Times anticipates a Wednesday announcement by the companies involved. According to this report, work will begin on the service "before the end of 1994" and will offer "movies as well as other interactive services". randy ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 94 21:50:47 EST From: Alec Isaacson Subject: Inquiring Minds Want to Know This evening in Cincinnati Bell-land I had a lot of trouble getting making phone calls. Each time I tried to make a call, I got a "fast busy" reorder. After a bunch of attempts I called the repair people and they said there was "central office trouble", but had no details. Now, being a dilligent TELECOM Digest reader, I'm more than a little interested in knowing more details. I have heard that telephone companies have to report outages, but I don't know to who. Bottom line is, I'm interested in finding out what happend, but don't know who to ask. I'd appreciate some pointers from those who know. Oh, for the record, I'm in (513) 829- Thanks for the help. Alec D. Isaacson AI4CPHYW@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu Miami University, Oxford, OH ------------------------------ From: jspinnow@netcom.com (John Stewart Pinnow) Subject: 50 Pin Connector Help Wanted Organization: Tmoh Research, Milwaukee, WI Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 22:53:16 GMT A 50 pin connector. Used for a phone system. What are the pin layouts for it? Does anyone have a description? Tmoh Research Internet: jspinnow@netcom.com Phone: (414) 761-1537 John S. Pinnow jspinnow@world.std.com Disclaim: Opinions==Mine ------------------------------ From: dej@eecg.toronto.edu (David Jones) Subject: Phone Line Simulator Wanted Organization: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, U of Toronto Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 15:25:15 -0500 I am in need of a phone line simulator. It will be used to verify the functionality of modems for a large computing network. This device need not be complex -- I need dial tone, DTMF detection, ring signal generation and an analog path whose noise characteristics approximate that of a real phone line (i.e. 3300 Hz BW, -34 dB S/N). Any ideas as to where I can get one cheap? Even used? David Jones, M.A.Sc student, Electronics Group (VLSI), University of Toronto email: dej@eecg.utoronto.ca, finger for more info/PGP public key ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 94 09:27:59 EST From: Bob Rankin Subject: Distinctive Ringing and Ring Detectors Just saw an ad for a gizmo that will decipher the unique ringing cadence for up to four lines and route them to a specified telephone device. Using this device ($75) along with distinctive ringing ($6/mo) sounds like a wonderful alternative to having separate lines installed for fax, modem, answering machines, etc. Kinda like a poor man's DID! Anyone have any experience with these devices? Any drawbacks? Bob Rankin (r3@vnet.ibm.com) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The only drawback to distinctive ringing and/or call-waiting is that you still only have one phone line instead of two (or three or four), and as long as there is no possibility two or more of the devices (or human persons) will want to be on the phone at the same time everything is fine. As soon as two people or devices need to be on the phone at the same time, everything falls apart. I can see and justify a single distinctive ringing number so that two things share one line if neither is used a lot. But when you are talking three or four distinctive rings for that many end 'users' to share, unless none of them get any real volume of calls there will always be someone or something getting a busy signal in a conflict with the others. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 18:13:27 -0700 From: David Appell Subject: New ATTmail Charges I received the following message in my January bill for AT&T Mail: "Due to increasing costs associated with the delivery of messages received from the Internet, AT&T Easklink Services will implement a new inbound Internet pricing structure beginning Feb. 1, 1994. All Internet messages received will be charged at the following rates: 0 to 1,000 characters $0.15 Each additional one thousand characters (or portion thereof) will be charged at $0.02. Looks like it's time to find another Internet provider -- the quality of their service doesn't warrant anything near that, IMO. David Appell appell@csn.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That means a typical issue of this Digest will cost each recipient via ATTMail about 50-60 cents. My calculations are 2 cents per K times 22K = 44 cents plus 1 K at 15 cents. Too bad. :( PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #24 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa20297; 12 Jan 94 3:28 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA12412 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 11 Jan 1994 23:33:20 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08044 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 11 Jan 1994 23:33:02 -0600 Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 23:33:02 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401120533.AA08044@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #25 TELECOM Digest Tue, 11 Jan 94 23:33:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 25 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Possible Internet Service Scam (John R. Levine) Re: Possible Internet Service Scam (Les Reeves) Re: Possible Internet Service Scam (Bill Mayhew) Re: Possible Internet Service Scam (Duncan Glendinning) Re: Phone Phreakers Down South (Gary W. Sanders) Re: Phone Phreakers Down South (Kriston Rehberg) Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? (John Temples) Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? (David Jones) Re: Hayes' New Modem (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Hayes' New Modem (Charles Randall Yates) Re: Radio Religion in Canada (Rich Wales) Re: Radio Religion in Canada (Wm. Randolph U. Franklin) Re: V.35 to RS-232 Conversions (ssatchell@bix.com) Re: FTP Site For EIA Standards (ssatchell@bix.com) Re: SprintNet Access From the Internet (Steven H. Lichter) Re: Announcing networkMCI (Paul R. Coen) Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services (Gib Henry) Re: A Tale of Two Dialtones (Gordon Hlavenka) Cold Temperatures (Thomas Lapp) How To Download Files From Local Internet Access? (steve2400@delphi.com) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 11 Jan 94 15:21 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Possible Internet Service Scam Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > In other words, IIA.ORG does NOT, at this time, exist. The Internic thinks they do: International Internet Association (IIA2-DOM) 30 South First Avenue Highland Park, NJ 08904 Domain Name: IIA.ORG Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Bochicchio, Charleen (CB45) char@JOY.ICM.COM +1 202 387 5445 (FAX) +1 202 387 5446 Record last updated on 01-Dec-93. On the other hand, it is kind of odd that their mailing address is in New Jersey, but their phone number is in Washington DC. Internic has this address for their contact Ms. Bochicchio: Bochicchio, Charleen (CB45) char@JOY.ICM.COM International Discount Telecommunications Corp 294 State Street Hackensack, NJ 07601 +1 202 387 5445 (FAX) +1 202 387 5446 When you look up ICM.COM, they are at the same address as IIA: Intellicom (ICM-DOM) 30 South First Ave. Highland Park, NJ 08904 Domain Name: ICM.COM Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Kramer, Michael (MK30) mikek@MINDVOX.PHANTOM.COM 201-417-2166 Perhaps Mr. Kramer can shed some light on the situation. Their requirement that you pay by credit card could be a legitimate way for them to keep costs down, since bills can then be handled entirely automatically, or might be bogus. I couldn't say. Let us know if they ever call you back. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 12:29:24 PST From: Les Reeves Subject: Re: Possible Internet Service Scam On Tue, 11 Jan 1994, John R Levine wrote: > Perhaps Mr. Kramer can shed some light on the situation. > Their requirement that you pay by credit card could be a legitimate way > for them to keep costs down, since bills can then be handled entirely > automatically, or might be bogus. I couldn't say. Let us know if they > ever call you back. By the time I forwarded this to TELECOM Digest, it was a third or fourth generation forward. I probably should have made that a little more obvious. Your research is very interesting. Have you considered sharing it with the author of the message? Regards, Les Reeves 404/874.7806 ------------------------------ From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) Subject: Re: Possible Internet Service Scam Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 23:23:53 GMT Well, I did an MX entry check and found a record for iia.org pointing to mary.iia.org, which indeed does exist. A telnet shows that it is a SunOS system of some type. I didn't feel like doing a traceroute, since it is not on this host, but a ping to that system takes 91 mS from here in Rootstown. That probably indicates that mary.iia.org is within a few states' distance of Ohio, so an east coast USA location seems reasonable. None the less, a demand for credit card number seems bogus to me and I certainly would not agree to it. Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-9995 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu amateur radio 146.58: N8WED ------------------------------ From: ddrg@superior.ccs.carleton.ca (Duncan Glendinning) Subject: Re: Possible Internet Service Scam Organization: Carleton University Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 02:26:54 GMT > 3. They claim your E-mail address would be @iia.org. However: > a. No iia.org is listed in the hq.af.mil hosts table > b. No iia.org is listed in the acq.osd.mil hosts table > c. No iia.org is listed is the INTERNIC 'whois' database > d. No iia.org is listed using the INTERNIC 'netfind' Internet lookup > In other words, IIA.ORG does NOT, at this time, exist. They're registered somewhere: Script started on Tue Jan 11 21:25:10 1994 {superior:1} nslookup Default Server: alfred.ccs.carleton.ca Address: 134.117.1.1 > set type=any > iia.org Server: alfred.ccs.carleton.ca Address: 134.117.1.1 Non-authoritative answer: iia.org nameserver = MARY.IIA.ORG iia.org nameserver = NS.UU.NET Authoritative answers can be found from: MARY.IIA.ORG inet address = 198.4.75.9 NS.UU.NET inet address = 137.39.1.3 > server ns.uu.net Default Server: ns.uu.net Address: 137.39.1.3 > iia.org Server: ns.uu.net Address: 137.39.1.3 iia.org origin = mary.iia.org mail addr = char.mary.iia.org serial=2, refresh=10800, retry=3600, expire=604800, min=86400 iia.org nameserver = mary.iia.org iia.org nameserver = ns.uu.net iia.org preference = 10, mail exchanger = mary.iia.org mary.iia.org inet address = 198.4.75.9 ns.uu.net inet address = 137.39.1.3 > exit script done on Tue Jan 11 21:25:40 1994 Duncan Glendinning ddrg@ccs.carleton.ca Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6 ------------------------------ From: news@cbnews.att.com Date: Mon, 10 Jan 94 14:54:22 GMT Subject: Re: Phone Phreakers Down South Organization: AT&T In article vantek@aol.com writes: > Thought I'd pass this little story along ... > Charlotte Observer, N.C. > Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News > Jan. 7 -- Another Charlotte company has fallen victim to telephone > hackers. Pic 'N Pay Stores Inc., the Charlotte-based shoe retailer, > says it got stung for $17,000 by high-tech hijackers who got into the > company's voice- mail and dialed anywhere they pleased. > Pic 'N Pay filed suit last week against BellSouth Telecommunications > Inc., parent of Southern Bell, which made and serviced the phone > system in question. Hmm, maybe I'll file suit against Ford the next time my car is stolen. They made and serviced the car. Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) gary.w.sanders@att.com AT&T Bell Labs 614.860.5965 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You might have a good case if Ford made the claim to you that the car was 'theft proof' or 'could not be stolen due to the way we have designed it ...' etc. It is alleged that AT&T made this claim to the user of the phone system. Should the customer have known better? Did the customer know better? What if Ford made those claims to you and 'documented' their claim with some high-tech sounding language that you as a typical consumer did not understand? AT&T could easily avoid this kind of lawsuit if they would make certain in writing that the purchaser of the equipment is aware of its flaws. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Phone Phreakers Down South Reply-To: krehberg@vnet.IBM.COM Date: Tue, 11 Jan 94 10:25:03 EST From: V2ENA81%OWEGO@zeta.eecs.nwu.edu In-reply-to: vantek@aol.com's message of Sat, 08 Jan 94 21:09:02 EST: > Jan. 7 -- Another Charlotte company has fallen victim to telephone > hackers. Pic 'N Pay Stores Inc., the Charlotte-based shoe retailer, > says it got stung for $17,000 by high-tech hijackers who got into the > company's voice-mail and dialed anywhere they pleased. I am assuming that how is this done is to figure out people's voice mail passwords and then use the transfer feature to get off-site. However, on our voicemail system, you only have the option to transfer to another on-site extension or off-site tie-line (within the corporation, only), and not an actual local or long-distance telco off-site line. Are some PBX's just plain stupid in transfer restrictions, or am I missing something here? Kriston J. Rehberg Internet External :krehberg@vnet.ibm.com Associate Programmer/Analyst FSC Internal RSCS :V2ENA81 AT OWEGO ENSCO, Incorporated FSC Internal AFS :v1ena81@legend.endicott Loral Federal Systems Co, Owego, NY Tel: 607-751-2180 :Tieline: 662-2180 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are probably various levels of security with some users only allowed to transfer to other extensions while others are allowed to make calls outside the system if desired. So often, there has to be a compromise between security and user convenience. Then too, sometimes the phreaks manage to get the root password (the code used by the system administrator for system maintainence) and reconfigure the system for themselves. Maybe it did not allow transfers to outside lines until the phreaks worked it over using the root password for entry and programmed it to start doing that. I am reminded of the time that former Digest participant John Higdon called me at home very late one evening on a three-way call with some phreak phriend(s) of his on the line because they wanted to brag and show me how 'someone' (the name(s) of the other person(s) on the line were never given to me) had broken into and looted the voicemail system of a certain long distance carrier which specializes in 900 service. It seems 'someone' had gotten in via the root password and proceeded to rephrase certain prompt messages, replacing what had been there with lewd comments of their own about the carrier's pending bankruptcy. So don't assume the sysadmin left that feature there. Phreaks could have called one night and put it back in then run up quite a phone bill by the time the proprietors found out what had happened. PAT] ------------------------------ From: john@gulfa.ods.gulfnet.kw (John Temples) Subject: Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? Date: 10 Jan 1994 19:45:45 +0300 Organization: Gulfnet Kuwait > [ ... You need to match carrier with 800 number for this > however; the carrier of the 800 number is the carrier who's 'home > direct' service you need to connect with, *and not all of them will do > this*, although I think AT&T and MCI will. PAT] I just spoke to an AT&T USA Direct operator who told me that AT&T will attempt to put through calls to any 800 number, regardless of whose 800 number it is. But the number must be "reachable on the AT&T network." He specifically said AT&T does not have a policy of blocking calls to 800 numbers on other carriers. John W. Temples, III Gulfnet Kuwait Phone: +965 242 6728 Fax: +965 242 6720 ------------------------------ From: dej@eecg.toronto.edu (David Jones) Subject: Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto Date: Mon, 10 Jan 1994 15:10:37 -0500 In article msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) writes: > Actually, in all of the foregoing, "USA" should read "USA and/or > Canada, as appropriate for the particular number". Some 800-numbers > in each country can be called from the other in the usual way. In > fact, some can *only* be called from the other country. Of course, there are ways for Canucks to make use of USA-only 800 numbers. If you work for BNR, you dial 6-1-800- ... from any phone. If you live in Toronto, then ACC Long Distance Inc. will let you dial US 800 numbers through their network for ten cents/min. David Jones, M.A.Sc student, Electronics Group (VLSI), University of Toronto email: dej@eecg.utoronto.ca, finger for more info/PGP public key ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: Hayes' New Modem Date: 10 Jan 1994 05:41:34 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA In article hummes@osf.org (Jakob Hummes) writes: > ...But there is an absolute limit (Shannon's Law). The > question was about the transmission over a *real* phone line. And that > means there exists *noise*. The limit of bps is proportional to the > logarithm of the signal to noise ratio. Unfortunately I don't remember > the constant factors. Shannon's law is, in plaintext, BPS(max) = Bw * log(2)((1+S)/N) That is, take the signal-to-noise ration (adding 1 to signal, so a negative SNR has some information present) and represent it as a power of 2. Multiply by bandwidth (in Hz) and you get BPS. THus if you have a 30 dB (1000) signal to noise ratio, that's 1001/1 which is a smidgen under 2^10. If you have 3000 Hz usable bandwidth that's the 10 times 3000, or around 30000 bps max. It was often said that a phone line couldn't go beyond 26000 bps or so, based on the typical bandwidth and SNR. Today a good clean line is more likely to be digitally switched at 64000 bps, which is well above the Shannon limit (digitization is lossy), but you still get a theoretical limit closer to 40 kbps. Thus V.34, at 28.8 kbps, is pushing the envelope, but still possible. But it won't work on a line that's transcoded down to 32 kbps, or just plain noisy. Note the 300 to 3400 Hz nominal frequency range; the 3400 is a hard filter. Fred R. Goldstein k1io goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission ------------------------------ From: yatesc@eggo.usf.edu (Charles Randall Yates) Subject: Re: Hayes' New Modem Date: 11 Jan 1994 03:34:36 GMT Organization: University of South Florida In article ssatchell@BIX.com (ssatchell on BIX) writes: > Actually, if you really want to find out how the Hayes Optima 288 and > the GDC V.F modems work, get Draft Recommendation V.34 ... It's worth a look -- anyone know where this can be ftp'ed from? Randy ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 94 22:57:55 EST From: richw@mks.com (Rich Wales) Subject: Re: Radio Religion in Canada Reply-To: richw@mks.com (Rich Wales) Organization: Mortice Kern Systems Inc., Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Earlier, I mentioned that the CRTC (Canadian TV/radio regulatory agency) had recently changed the long-time policy forbidding "single-faith" religious stations in Canada. I just saw a comment on USENET (talk.religion.misc) from someone in the Vancouver area, reporting that an AM station there (formerly CHRX, now CKBD) had changed format from "classic rock" to contemporary Christian music. I'll try to let TELECOM know if I hear of any more such stations up here in Canada. In this area (Kitchener-Waterloo, west of Toronto), the closest such station right now is WDCX in Buffalo, which doesn't really come in very well this far away. Rich Wales (VE3HKZ, WA6SGA/VE3) Mortice Kern Systems Inc. richw@mks.com 35 King Street North +1 (519) 884-2251 Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2J 2W9 ------------------------------ From: wrf@ecse.rpi.edu (Wm. Randolph U Franklin) Subject: Re: Radio Religion in Canada Date: 11 Jan 1994 21:22:21 GMT Organization: ECSE Dept, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, 12180 USA Reply-To: wrf@ecse.rpi.edu (Wm. Randolph U Franklin) Canada didn't need all-religious radio stations in the past so much since normal stations would broadcast so much religious programming. I grew up (in Ottawa) listening to Ernest C. Manning's weekly "Canada Bible Hour" (or some such title). Manning was the Social Credit Premier of Alberta at the time. How many American state Governors have longtime nationwide religious programs? Side notes for Murricans: The Social Credit party started in the depression with the theme that if the government printed money and handed it out then the depression would end. EC Manning's son is Preston Manning, leader of the third largest party in Parliament now. He attracts a lot of invective from opponents of his right-wing pro-English politics. Wm. Randolph Franklin, wrf@ecse.rpi.edu, (518) 276-6077; Fax: -6261 ECSE Dept., 6026 JEC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst, Troy NY, 12180 USA [TELECOM Digest Moderator's Note: As another side note, my earlier message on this thread right at the end of the year used the past-tense in saying that the CBS Radio Network carried "Music and the Spoken Word" for over forty years which originated with station KSL in Salt Lake City, Utah. A few different people wrote to point out that the weekly show, a/k/a the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is still sending out the weekly broad- cast via KSL. WBBM, the CBS affiliate here hasn't carried the show for thirty years! Sometime in the middle 1960's they dropped it and it was picked up by WCLR in Skokie which coincidentally (or maybe not so coin- cidentally) is a radio station owned by the Bonneville Corporation, a corporation wholly owned by the LDS Church. Whether 'Double-You Clear' as they call themselves is still carrying it is anyone's guess, as I am not usually awake at 8 AM on Sunday. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ssatchell@BIX.com (ssatchell on BIX) Subject: Re: V.35 to RS-232 Conversions Date: 11 Jan 94 18:44:36 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation The V.35 interface is described in the Red Book. The entire section about V.35 was removed from the Blue Book, and all attempts I've made to obtain this information has met with roadblocks. If you can find someone who has a copy of the Red (or Orange) book, you can get this information. ------------------------------ From: ssatchell@BIX.com (ssatchell on BIX) Subject: Re: FTP Site For EIA Standards Date: 8 Jan 94 18:48:00 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation rob@ubitrex.mb.ca (Rob McConnell) writes: > Does anyone know the whereabouts of an FTP site for EIA standards, > specifically EIA IS-60? Currently, I know of no FTP site for EIA or TIA documents. They want you to buy them from Global Engineering Documents. With money. ------------------------------ From: ue554@freenet.victoria.bc.ca (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: SprintNet Access From the Internet Organization: Camosun College, Victoria, B.C. Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 20:43:25 GMT If you have SprintNet access type C CRIS at the @ prompt. This will put you onto an information BBS which offers a service like you want. The cost is not free, but a lot less then some services. -=- Sysop: Apple Elite II -=- an Ogg-Net Hub BBS (909) 359-5338 12/24/96/14.4 V32/V42bis Via PCP CACOL/12/24 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 22:55:04 EST From: Paul R. Coen Subject: Re: Announcing networkMCI Organization: Drew University Academic Technology > Is that what the MCI TV commercials with the little girl with the > pseudo-[B]ritish accent standing in a puddle spouting existential > gibberish are all about? Is it a girl? I thought it was a boy. Then again, I didn't look very closely. All I noticed was an overly-perfect child dressed in weird black clothes and a really ghastly hat. And the kid sounded like one of the brats from _Mary Poppins_. > And I thought they were just trying to finally beat AT&T for the worst > imaginable ad campaign :-) You know, I felt like I was watching some sort of weird one act play that I didn't understand. Then again, considering that I *still* don't understand what "networkMCI" is besides a new name for stuff they already have, maybe that's okay. Does someone want to take a stab at explaining it? Maybe they blew the fiscal year's budget for ads on that commercial with everyone from "Star Trek," and they're going low budget :) ------------------------------ From: gibhenry@cscns.com (Gib Henry) Subject: Re: Post Cool Phone Numbers - Strange Recorded Info Services Organization: Community_News_Service Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 15:06:05 GMT In article , feedle@kaiwan.com (Feedlebom) wrote: Here's another dial-a-joke number (try overnight, after 6 p.m. until 6 a.m.): 1-404-REQUEST. Gib Henry ------------------------------ From: cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (gordon hlavenka) Subject: Re: A Tale of Two Dialtones Organization: Vpnet - Your FREE link to the Internet (708)833-8126 Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 22:06:07 GMT > This is what happened: in ordering the new service, the phone company > put the new service on the original number, and put our old service on > the new line! Well, I have only two lines, and Illinois Bell managed to screw even _that_ up... When we moved to our new home, we ordered both lines at the same time. But because one is a residential line and the other is a business line they were installed at different times. The residential line went in first, and worked just fine. Two days later, the business line went in. But they wired the business line to the residential circuits, and _disconnected_ the residential line altogether! Calls to the residential line were RNA. I don't get it; they had to add a new drop for the business circuit, so they must have known there were supposed to be two lines working. I called and raised whatfor, and FWIW they were back within an hour and put things right. Gordon S. Hlavenka cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us Proud father of Daniel Scott born August 9, 1993 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 94 08:32:22 EST From: Thomas Lapp Subject: Cold Temperatures Pat, you complained of the temps being below zero in Chicago the next few days. Well, someplace it is always worse. In the Philadelphia/Delaware Valley area, we had freezing rain wich put 1/4 inch or more of ice on trees, power and phone lines, hanging traffic lights, etc. Philadelphia Electric reported 500,000 consumers out of power, with half of them not getting power back for up to 48 hours. 160 crews from outside PECO service area were coming in to help them out. While you sit in your home, there are a goodly number of folks who had to leave their homes because they have no power to heat the home. I'd also not enjoy being one of the utility folks who had to work a full shift last night repairing lines with temperatures in the teens. Brrr. tom internet : mvac23!thomas@udel.edu or thomas%mvac23@udel.edu (home) Location : Newark, DE, USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Next thing you know, I'll be printing messages from you here telling me I should be grateful for what I have and not complaining so much ... :) I believe outside utility workers are worth every nickle they are paid and then some. Christmas Eve, 1983: record cold temperatures here ... the temperature dropped to 29 *below zero* early Christmas Eve and did not go above zero again for three days. On Christmas, the *high* temperature for the day was something obscene like minus ten degrees. Despite conditions as they were, three friends and myself decided to have our holiday dinner downtown at Berghoff's. On the corner of State and Adams, a big excavation in the street with a truck parked there from the Municipal Water Works. The excavation area was blocked off by street barricades and a trash barrel sitting nearby had been set afire, with three men standing there around the fire warming themselves. In the hole in the street, at least fifteen feet below down into the ground was this black, muddy, gunky looking water swirling around rapidly and therein stood two men in hip boots with water halfway up to their posterior with tools doing their thing to replace an obviously quite broken underground water pipe. Despite the ten or fifteen below zero or whatever -- it had gotten so cold it no longer mattered -- I was fascinated by this and stood there a minute or so peering down into the hole at those two guys, the water swirling around everywhere and them banging away and digging, etc ... Christmas Day in downtown Chicago. One of the men standing by the barrel of burning trash was the foreman; he saw me and said jokingly, "Would you like to give it a go, sir? I've got a tool here for you that's about the right size ... when they come up, you can go on down a bit and see what you think ..." I asked him what those guys got paid and his answer was that 'normally' they get seventeen dollars per hour, ".... but today being Christmas they get *double time and a half* ... and for reasons of safety the union requires two men on the job to look out for each other, so that one doesn't fall down and drown, or have it all cave in him, you know? ... ". The two who had been in the hole apparently got the water flow shut off about that time and climbed up to the street and headed right to the fire to warm themselves. They passed among themselves a bottle which did not appear to contain iced tea and the foreman invited me to share with them but I declined and went inside Berghoff's to join my friends. When we came out nearly two hours later full of turkey and stuffings and a few drinks of our own, all five of the water works crew were down in the hole installing a new section of pipe, slopping around through the now nearly frozen mud. Outside utility workers are marvelous people. Does anyone remember when the two AT&T workers were killed in an accident in the Rocky Mountains in January several years ago? They had volunteered to go out to a very desolate area and replace a downed aerial cable that provided telephone service to a little town. Due to very icy, very hazardous conditions their vehicle skidded and overturned; they were killed. It happens, and it t'aint funny. PAT] ------------------------------ From: STEVE2400@delphi.com Subject: How To Download Files From local Internet Access? Date: Tue, 11 Jan 94 05:33:57 EST Organization: Delphi Internet I recently got access to the internet at my local school. I'm pretty new to the Internet and Unix but I managed to FTP some files into my directory at the local site. Now I need someone to tell me how to get the files from the computer at school to my computer at home. I would appreciate if some of you experienced Internet users could help me with the correct information. Please send mail to stevens@tstc.edu first or STEVE2400@delphi.com. Thank you, Steve [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The above message was recieved from this new user and perhaps one or more of the regular readers will write him and try to help him resolve his problem. Thanks! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #25 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa21369; 12 Jan 94 4:32 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13382 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 12 Jan 1994 00:38:46 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA14351 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 12 Jan 1994 00:38:29 -0600 Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 00:38:29 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401120638.AA14351@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #26 TELECOM Digest Wed, 12 Jan 94 00:38:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 26 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: All Wire Isn't The Same (Carl Oppedahl) Re: All Wire Isn't The Same (Kriston J. Rehberg) Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated (Aninda Dasgupta) Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated (John T. Grieggs) Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (Dave O'Shea) Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (Dave Niebuhr) Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? (A Alan Toscano) Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? (A. Padgett Peterson) Re: Looking For Cordless Headset Telephone (Subodh Bapat) Re: Caller ID in Pennsylvania (Jeffrey J. Carpenter) Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Methods to Prevent Stalking and Phone Harrassment (Dan Borkowski) Re: Technical Description of PBXs Wanted (Mike Renault) Re: User Interface From Hell (Kriston J. Rehberg) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: All Wire Isn't The Same Date: 11 Jan 1994 07:40:07 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In John Warne <19064001@SBACVM.SBAC.EDU> writes: > There has been discussion recently regarding crosstalk between pairs > of wires in two-pair cable ("Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack"). > A recent BELLCORE bulletin pointed out that two-pair inside wire (AKA > station wire or JKT) can be found to have been made in two quite > different ways. > The cross-sectional view of one wire reveals the plastic outer sheath > is formed around the conductors in a cloverleaf-like pattern, holding > a certain relationship between the conductors for the length of the > cable (AT&T *used* to make their two-pair stuff this way), resulting > in less crosstalk between pairs. > The sheath of the other type (which AT&T is using now) does not hold > the conductors in any particular alignment, but is a loose outer > covering. This wire exhibits greater crosstalk when used for two > telephone lines. > You can detect the second type of cable easily -- it's smaller in > overall diameter, the conductors slide within the jacket, and it > simply *feels* cheap (editorial comment). In my opinion, the new > stuff is junk, and, probably, at a higher cost to the purchaser. > I have a roll of General Wire at the shop that is constructed in the > "good old way," but several of our suppliers can't seem to find any > more of it in their warehouses. > I'd recommend the second pair in the new stuff be used only for backup > in case the first pair is damaged in some way, and not used for a > second service. I am sure the person posting this is well-intended, but I fear that through inadvertence the phrasing used may make people buy wire other than the stuff they wanted to buy. Let's define four colors - R G Y B - and with that, here is a typical so-called "quad" wire. R G Y B And the point is, you could cut the wire anywhere along its length, and you would see the same cross section, differing only in that all four wires may have rotated, e.g. Y R B G but, as you will appreciate, the relative configuration remains the same, R has Y to one side and G to the other, for example. This is Bad Wire For Two-Line Use. It is the cloverleaf type wire mentioned above. Many Readers Have Reported Cross-Talk With Such Wire. Now let's define four numbers, corresponding to color codes as follows: 1 - white with blue stripe 2 - blue with white stripe 3 - white with orange stripe 4 - orange with white stripe These numbers are arbitrary -- they are only meaningful in the following diagrams. 1 2 3 4 This is one typical configuration for "twisted pair" wire, which is what you *should* use for two-line (or more-line) work. At points along the way you may find any of these: 2 1 4 3 or 1 2 4 3 or 2 1 3 4 The main point, as you will have guessed, is that if you stripped off the outer jacket of the cable for some length, you will find 1 and 2 twisted around each other, and 3 and 4 twisted around each other. Often, indeed almost always, this kind of wire has an outer jacket that is of constant thickness. It has a cylindrical hollowness that contains the twisted pairs. Quad wire, on the other hand, typically fills the spaces between the wires, so that when you strip off the jacket it has a cloverleaf- shaped hollowness. For two-line use, don't buy quad. Buy twisted pair. Usually you can recognize twisted pair phone wire from the use of the striped color codes, such as blue with a white stripe etc. Usually you can recognize quad wire from the use of the R G Y B color codes. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: All Wire Isn't The Same Reply-To: krehberg@vnet.IBM.COM Date: Tue, 11 Jan 94 10:32:53 EST From: V2ENA81%OWEGO@zeta.eecs.nwu.edu In-reply-to: John Warne's message of Sat, 08 Jan 94 19:42:49 EST: [quad wire crosstalk discussion] > I'd recommend the second pair in the new stuff be used only for backup > in case the first pair is damaged in some way, and not used for a > second service. In light of NY Telephone's (now NYNEX) use of the quad wire, yet consistently not using it for two-line phones, is probably due to the fact that they'd rather not rewire a building with faulty cabling and would rather use the second pair for both as a backup and as a reinforcing agent to make the wire strong enough not to break as easily as two-lead wire can. When I moved out of my parents' house, they needed to use the wire left over from my computer phone line because theirs had deteriorated. Kriston J. Rehberg Internet External :krehberg@vnet.ibm.com Associate Programmer/Analyst FSC Internal RSCS :V2ENA81 AT OWEGO ENSCO, Incorporated FSC Internal AFS :v1ena81@legend.endicott Loral Federal Systems Co, Owego, NY Tel: 607-751-2180 :Tieline: 662-2180 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 94 08:42:53 EST From: add@philabs.Philips.Com (Aninda Dasgupta) Subject: Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated Magnavox sells a Voice Recognition remote that: - allows programming of VCR - is a universal remote - recognizes commands from more than one person. So, for about $100 to $150, you can hold up the remote in your hand and say something like : "Record, Thursday, Start 9:00 pm, End 9:30 pm, Channel 4." And the remote does the rest. No need to look up codes and punch them in. Training the remote to recognize your voice takes a few minutes as the user is prompted on an LCD screen to read out a few numbers and words that appear on the screen. Very user friendly. See your local Magnavox/Philips dealer for demonstrations. Aninda DasGupta (add@philabs.philips.com) Ph:(914)945-6071 Fax:(914)945-6552 Philips Labs\n 345 Scarborough Rd\n Briarcliff Manor\n NY 10510 ------------------------------ From: grieggs@jpl-devvax.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (John T. Grieggs) Subject: Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 19:09:25 GMT In article , Arthur Rubin wrote: > Well, you do need to program in the translator from the "published" > channel numbers (the ones used to encode the VCR+ code) to the channel > numbers your VCR and/or cable box use, and to program the box to learn > how to program your VCR and/or cable box, but I don't THINK there's > anything more that needs to be done. (Of course, all of this was > intended for those people whose VCR is blinking "12:00" (actually, > mine blinks "--:--" when not set), so do you really expect them to > attempt to tell you how to program a "universal remote".) Well, actually, I got mine because my cable company delivers scrambled signal to my house. The chintzy plastic box they rent me as a decoder is able to be controlled via IFR. Which is a darn good thing, because the VCR it is attached to must be tuned to channel 3 all the time if it wants to see any signal at all. VCRPlus is able to handle this situation. I give it codes and leave my VCR turned off and with tape. When it's time to tape, the VCRPlus unit changes channels on the cable box, turns on the VCR, and starts taping. When the programmed time elapses, it stops and turns off the VCR. Once in a while, I need to run a little program I got from the net a while back, to manually generate a VCRPlus code, when I want to tape something from a local station which is not listed in TV Guide. I assure you, none of my VCR clocks blink. Perhaps you should consider broadening your somewhat patronizing definition of whom the product is intended for? John T. Grieggs (Telos @ Jet Propulsion Laboratory) 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, Ca. 91109 M/S 525-3660 (818) 306-6506 Uucp: {cit-vax,elroy,chas2}!jpl-devvax!grieggs Arpa: ...jpl-devvax!grieggs@cit-vax.ARPA ------------------------------ From: dave_oshea@wiltel.com (Dave O'Shea) Subject: Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped Date: 11 Jan 1994 18:36:23 GMT Organization: WilTel A. Padgett Peterson (padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com) wrote: >> In addition, it is phasing out the optional business Flat Rate and >> untimed Message Rate plans for businesses in upstate NY and imposing >> timed message rate for them. > This is the scary part simce everywhere I go I see regional carriers > attempting to eliminate "flat" and "unmetered" plans. As telecommuting > and information hightway access begins to take hold, the elimination > of unmetered local service is the biggest threat to individual > connectivity that I can imagine. Well, in a word, no. It will mean that those of us who have been tying up a trunk for six hours at the same price as a 30-second call will have to stary paying for the privilege -- though I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see some alternative local loop providers selling a "flat-rate"-type service to people who are priced out of the market by the LEC's. As it is, I probably burn up seven or eight hours a month of modem time, and virtuaally all of it is long-disatance anyway. Considering that I can do ~18kb/s with a Telebit 3000, I'm probably saving money compared with using PC Pursuit or some similar service. One of the big reasons that long distance rates seem to "bottom out" somewhere in the 10 cents/minute rate, even for the most humongous customers is that the LD carriers have to pay most of that to the LEC for the local loop. Perhaps as the RBOCs are able to recoup something for those millions of unbillable hours of local connect time, this will ease up. > Of course, the biggies (Compu$erve, Plodigy, etc.) will have 800 > numbers and just pass the cost along, but one might expect amateur > BBSs, SLIPs, and the like to become much less popular. The biggest > threat would be to the infant telecommuting industry and the home > office which relies on unlimited local service and the best means for > achieving the Clinton/Gore "20% reduction in commuting" would go up in > smoke. If an employee is worth telecommuting, even a $4/hour connection charge is fairly minor in the face of, say, a $65,000 salary/benefits package. Even if you get charged that for eight hours a day, it's minor. Most employees who would best benefit from telecommuting are the ones who are well into long-distance calling areas. And who knows -- I don't follow ISDN or related services too closely, but it (and similar services) will become more widely available as the cost of bandwidth falls. Keeping the local connection price artificially low is a disincentive for LEC's to provide higher capacity and better services. > True, TANSTAAFL still applies and I suppose metering is inevitable > particularly since it is both cheap and desirable for the Telcos. The > only advantage that I can see for the consumer would be that with > metered service, the subscriber would have a right to a call detail > listing the individual calls by called number, time, and duration. Desirable, probably. Cheap, no. All those CDR records mean gags of new storage, more throughput needed on billing systems, and a near complete re-working of billing software and tariffs. Dave O'Shea dos@wdns.wiltel.com Sr. Network Support Engineer 201.236.3730 WilTel Data Network Services Do I *look* like a WilTel spokesman? ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped Date: 11 Jan 1994 07:41:19 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) writes: >> Of course, the biggies (Compu$erve, Plodigy, etc.) will have 800 >> numbers and just pass the cost along ... > Unlikely. An 800 number costs at rock bottom ten cents a minute, > while message rates are usually more like two cents. Even with > metered local service, calling direct is considerably cheaper. > Note that in New York City, the calls are metered, but local calls are > charged one unit (about a dime) per call, no matter how long the call > is. If ever there were a rate plan that favors modem users, that's > it. Uh, this is the case, in New York City, only for residential callers. If you have a business line a lengthy local call costs much more than a brief one. In dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) writes: > In TELECOM Digest V14 #19 oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) writes: >> In Eric De Mund >> writes: >>> Given that backwards state of affairs, maybe my dad *is* telling me >>> the truth when he says that he can't even *get* touch-tone service at >>> his home in central Nassau County (Westbury), Long Island, New York, >>> telephone number (516) 333-xxxx. Incredible. >> I don't know the situation now, but a few years ago a friend in >> Westbury had three lines in the house, one of which was a 516-333. >> The 516-333 had been in place for a decade or more, and he kept it >> because it was a flat-rate line -- no charge for local calls. > Flat Rate is available to all residence customers and maybe some small > businesses. Flat rate might mean two things -- local calls never cost anything, or local calls cost one message unit no matter how long you are connected. For most phone exchanges in New York state, residence customers get the latter, not the former. Only a relatively small number of exchanges in NY state have true flat rate, where all local calls never cost anything. In NY Telephone's service area (most of NY State) nearly all business service (no distinction made between large or small businesses) is charged so that lengthy local calls cost more than brief ones. > Here are the exchanges in the 33X series for Area Code 516: > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 > ------------------------------------------------------------- > 33X | |PtJef|GdnCy|<----Westbury--->|Hksvl|GdnCy|Wstby| | > Code: PtJef - Port Jefferson; Hksvl - Hicksville (a small tale here); > GdnCy - Garden City. > Note that all except 331 are in Nassau County and all are next door so > to speak from each other and there are a plethora of businesses and > government offices is that area. I don't think that they'd put up > with rotary only dialing. I find that in general the numerical nearness of telephone exchange numbers has little or no correlation with geographical nearness. I suggest that it would have even less correlation with central office equipment types. By this I mean that while you will sometimes see a "run" of exchange numbers that are clearly closely related (e.g. 333, 334, 335) once the "run" has a break (e.g. from 336 to 337) then I suggest that there is probably no correlation of geographic areas and no particular correlation of central office equipment types. The 337 wires fan out from one building to cover Garden City, while the 336 wires fan out from a *different building* to cover Hicksville. Once we appreciate that they are different buildings, we can see that there is no particular reason to assume anything in common about the type of equipment inside. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 94 14:35:03 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped In TELECOM Digest V14 #19 there was a question as to whether 516-333 was touchtone equipped. I checked yesterday with the business office (since NYTel is now known as NYNEX, I ended up in a Rockland County (upstate) office instead of one on Long Island) and found out the following. 516-333 (Westbury, NY) does have touchtone available and the switch is a DMS-100. All CLASS (SS7) features are enabled for anyone who wants them. Therefore, I would suspect that whoever said that touchtone was not available in that exchange didn't know what was available or not. Dave Niebuhr Internet: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (preferred) niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 ------------------------------ From: atoscano@attmail.com (A Alan Toscano) Date: 11 Jan 94 00:01:07 GMT Subject: Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? In article MAARUF ALI, writes: > Could someone please tell me how to phone US 0800 numbers from the UK? Several previous replies suggested AT&T's USA Direct Service, but stated that the service could only be used to call AT&T-serviced "800" numbers. THERE IS NO LONGER ANY SUCH REQUIREMENT. AT&T previously filed a tariff, allowing the Service to pass "800" calls to the local exchange carrier (serving whatever "gateway city" is processing the USA Direct traffic), for subsequent routing to the appropriate long distance (interexchange) carrier. Generally, then, the following three requirements are necessary to complete a call via AT&T's USA Direct Service, to a USA "800" number: 1. There must be USA Direct access for the country you're in. This is usually a toll-free access telephone number. Alternatively, in a few countries, you may use special public telephones. In even fewer countries, both access methods exist. (To learn more about USA Direct, from outside of the USA, call collect: +1 412 553 7458.) 2. You must be calling an "800" number which does not have a geographic restriction against calls from the "gateway city" (in the USA) which serves USA Direct traffic from the country you're calling from. (This is unlikely, but possible. Most USA "800" numbers have no such restriction.) 3. You must have an AT&T Calling Card to which the cost of the international segment of the call may be billed. International customers holding an acceptable bank credit card may request an application for an AT&T Calling Card by calling (collect): +1 816 654 6004. It's my impression that AT&T will not, due to international agreements, knowingly complete USA Direct calls to Canadian or Carribean numbers. Ideally, with North America's increased awareness on global trading, American businesses will, over time, become better educated on international telecommunications issues. In the mean time, I hope the above will be helpful to those businesses which, due to their specialized needs, for example, must trade with American corporations in spite of any current naivete. Disclaimer: I don't work for AT&T. I'm just a customer. A Alan Toscano Postal: P O Box 741982; Houston, TX 77274-1982 Voice Mail: +1 713 415 9262 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 94 08:40:30 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK Clive D.W. Feather wrote: > Some of us would *love* to be able to call US 800 numbers and pay for > the calls. Or have a way to find out the POTS number. Even in UK-only > publications, I *still* see US companies only quoting their 800 > numbers. Pat mentions one possibility. Another is that the copmpany is too small to handle its own marketing and has "outsourced" the order business to a mass order taking (is there a one word description?) organization. In this case, the 800 number may be the only way the order-taker knows which company's name to answer with. (Remember when you were supposed to ask for a particular "operator number" and this told the outsourcer which company to respond as). Thus an "800 only" number is a flag to me that 1) The company has probably outsourced the order system and 2) They do not have anyone at their office to take orders. At one time I used to be amazed at the "one-man" operations operating out of their home with giant advertising. Being somewhat more cynical now, I accept that "allow four to six weeks for shipping" means the company has no stock and is waiting for sufficient paid orders to qualify for volume discounts before ordering any. Warmly, Padgett [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Either that, or they also farm out the orders to be filled elsewhere on a drop ship basis. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bapat@gate.net (Subodh Bapat) Subject: Re: Looking For Cordless Headset Telephone Date: 11 Jan 1994 00:34:41 -0500 gcorbett@husc8.harvard.edu (Gregory Corbett) writes: > Can anyone help me? > I am looking to obtain a cordless, "Headset" telephone that operates > with a small microphone and "walkman-like" earpiece. > Where can I obtain such a phone? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Try the "Hello Direct" mail order > catalog. Phone 1-800-HI-HELLO for details. "Hello Direct" is now > an official supplier of equipment to Illinois Bell customers through > telco's 'work at home center'. PAT] I just saw a Ginzu-knife commercial on TV advertising a do-it-yourself device. What this seems to be is a flat metal headset that goes on your head but has absolutely no electronics in it. Instead, one of the "earpieces" is a round metal plate with a Velcro patch on it. You get another adhesive Velcro patch which goes onto the back side of a regular cordless phone. When you put on the "headset" and attach the two Velcro pads together, you essentially get hands-free operation and mobility -- which is what the original poster wanted. (Of course, you could use this with a wireline phone too, if all you want is hands-free operation and not mobility.) I have no idea how well it works or how comfortable it is. If you already have a cordless phone, this alternative will cost you $19.95, as opposed to the $399.95 cordless headset from Hello Direct. ------------------------------ From: jjc+@pitt.edu (Jeffrey J. Carpenter) Date: Tue, Jan 11 06:15:40 1994 GMT Subject: Re: Caller ID in Pennsylvania In article , is written: > My understanding is that although the State's PUC has ruled on > Caller ID service, deployment (by local carriers) is being held by a > State Supreme Court challenge. This Act is meant to overcome the wiretap law problems previously found by the courts. > Is the Bill mentioned under consideration, or has it passed? It was signed into law last month. Jeffrey James Bryan Carpenter |* Go Orioles! * Catch the Fever! *| Computing and Information Services, University of Pittsburgh 600 Epsilon Drive, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15238-2887 jjc+@pitt.edu, +1 412 624 6424, FAX +1 412 624 6436 ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers Date: 11 Jan 1994 07:55:08 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In etm@email.teaser.com (Erik Thomas Mueller) writes: > By the way, I'm posting this message from a Minitel. Everyone in France now > has USENET and Internet mail access via 3617 EMAIL on the Minitel. A Minitel > costs about $3.50/month. ISDN is available everywhere. Plus we also have > Bibop! I am very interested to see this message which suggests that everyone in France with a Minitel has Usenet and Internet access. But can I send email to everyone on Minitel? If so, what is the general addressing format? Or is 3617 EMAIL a private company that is offering a gateway between Minitel and the Internet? What is "email.teaser.com"? Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY voice 212-777-1330 ------------------------------ From: dborkowski@gte.com (Dan Borkowski) Subject: Re: Methods to Prevent Stalking and Phone Harrassment Organization: GTE Laboratories Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 12:57:47 GMT Don't assume that changing a home telephone number (even to unlisted) will stop harassing phone calls. Case in point: My sister was in a situation with a former *friend* who was harassing her (phone calls, stalking, rocks through windows, etc.), so she started by getting a restraining order and an unlisted phone number. The phone was quiet for about two weeks, but the calls started again. At this point she noticed that she hadn't received a phone bill that month. Well, it turns out that she probably did, but her former *friend* probably had stolen it from her mailbox (yes, that's a crime, but try proving it w/o witnesses!) and read her new phone number right off the bill. So she paid to get another new unlisted phone number. Her former *friend* was then arrested on a charge of violating the restraining order, and while in the police department, her former *friend* read her new phone number off the police report. So she paid to get another new unlisted phone number. This scenario probably would have continued, but fortunately this was college, and she graduated soon thereafter and left that town forever. Dan Borkowski GTE Laboratories Incorporated dborkowski@gte.com All opinions are my own. ------------------------------ From: mmr@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com (Mike Renault) Subject: Re: Technical Description of PBXs Wanted Organization: Motorola Codex, Canton, Massachusetts Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 15:06:24 GMT Don Pelton writes: > I'm looking for sources of good technical descriptions of PBX > technology and standards. Can anyone suggest books, articles, > newsgroups and/or other internet resources? Standards documents? PBX standard for the US is ANSI/EIA/TIA-464-A-1989. Title is "Private Branch Exchange Switching Equipment for Voiceband Application". My copy cost $67.00. This document is aimed towards the designers of PBXs. Call Electrionic Industries Association in Washington DC to order, sorry I don't have their phone number. Michael Renault (617)-821-7613 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: User Interface From Hell Date: Tue, 11 Jan 94 10:10:10 EST From: V2ENA81%OWEGO@zeta.eecs.nwu.edu johnl@medusa.gsfc.nasa.gov wrote: > I just received the user guide for our ROLM PBX voice mail system. > Although I like to think of myself as technologically literate, the > user interface for the voice mail system intimidates me. The rather > thick user guide lists many features, options and user commands. The > system structure is summarized in 6 pages of decision tree diagrams. > User commands are things like "*73" (replay a message), and there are > alot of them. I already have an 89 page user guide for my ROLM > telephone. Does anyone else find this as frustrating as I do? The > local phone company uses similar commands to access the new features > that have been added to their switch software. At first glance, the ROLM phonemail (voice mail) system is extremely difficult to master at first, especially if you DON'T have a ROLMphone. The ROLMphones have templates on them with most of the phonemail commands like delete, save, listen, record, skip, etc., plus extra keys which on our phones are mostly inactive. If you DON'T have a ROLM phone, you can still use the DTMF touch-tones and flash feature of your existing phone, but I weep for you. The ROLM phones seem to use a digital-style link between the PBX and the phone itself for the special buttons and fancy blinking lights, but it will still accept that white-bread DTMF fone with flash capability you may have floating around. At least on our system, which was put into full operation sometime in the spring and early summer of '93, the phonemail prompts are very descriptive, but can drive a new user crazy. Follow the tutorials in the user manuals. I, unfortunately, didn't have that luxury until after I cut my teeth on it. Be SURE to beg, borrow, or steal one of the flip-chart-style help indices that stick to your phone. It gives you all the commands in a handy flip-chart format. Disclaimer: I am not an employee or representative of ROLM, who seems to make very good PBX's and phones. At least better than the Northern Telecom PBX's I've been a captive customer of before. Kriston J. Rehberg Internet External :krehberg@vnet.ibm.com Associate Programmer/Analyst FSC Internal RSCS :V2ENA81 AT OWEGO ENSCO, Incorporated FSC Internal AFS :v1ena81@legend.endicott Loral Federal Systems Co, Owego, NY Tel: 607-751-2180 :Tieline: 662-2180 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #26 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa21537; 12 Jan 94 4:40 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15642 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Wed, 12 Jan 1994 01:08:38 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08560 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Wed, 12 Jan 1994 01:08:22 -0600 Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 01:08:22 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401120708.AA08560@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #27 TELECOM Digest Wed, 12 Jan 94 01:08:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 27 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Sprint Voice Foncard Press Release (Les Reeves) Re: Unique Idea: Error Message for TDDs (John Nagle) Re: Bizarre Cordless Behavior (Steve Forrette) Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack (John Gilbert) Re: Multi-line BBS's (Steve Norton) Re: Computer-Telephony I (Donald Crenshaw) Re: US Digital Cellular Standard (John Barcomb) Re: Info on Cellular One NACP (John Barcomb) Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous (Haakon Styri) Re: 500 Channel Cable TV (Brad Hicks) Re: Radio Modem Help Wanted (Richard A. De Castro) Re: Long Distance CLID is Here (Scot E. Wilcoxon) Are LATA Maps Available? (Michael Dalby) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 08:00:49 PST From: Les Reeves Subject: Sprint Voice Foncard Press Release SPRINT ANNOUNCES THE VOICE FONCARD(SM) -- The World's First Calling Card That Lets Your Voice Do The Dialing -- KANSAS CITY, Mo., Jan. 5, 1994 -- Sprint today introduced the Voice FONCARD(SM), the first voice-activated calling card, which will take consumers into a new dimension of telecommunications. "The Sprint name is synonymous with 'fiber-optic network' and 'technology leadership,'" said Dave Schmieg, president of Sprint's Consumer Services Group. "All of our products and services are offered via the world's first and still only all-digital, fiber-optic network. The pin-drop quality of our voice and data transmission is unsurpassed in the industry. Sprint's state-of-the-art network allows us to again pre-empt the competition and be first in the market with an exciting new product for our customers -- the Voice FONCARD." The Voice FONCARD is available only through Sprint Priority Gold(SM), a package of services also announced today by Sprint. Instead of punching in phone numbers and authorization codes, customers can let their voices do the dialing: "Call mother," "Call pediatrician," or "Call stockbroker." Speak it, and the Sprint network will do the rest. "Once you've learned a single 800 access number, you won't need to pull a calling card out of your wallet, look up phone numbers, or punch in any more digits," said Schmieg. "Give your fingers a rest. The network is interested only in hearing your voice. No voice can be heard truer than on Sprint." Schmieg continued, "Everybody's voice is different so this technology offers built-in fraud protection. The voice-matching process is secure enough to ensure authenticity, but flexible enough to allow for slight variations in a caller's voice due to illness or fatigue." Here's how to place a call using the Voice FONCARD: o dial the 800 access number; o speak the Voice FONCARD number, which is the card holder's Social Security number, preceded by one digit (for added protection, the Social Security number is not printed on the card); o then direct the system to place the call by saying, for example, "call home." The system recognizes the security code and verifies the voice print, which has been pre-registered, before automatically dialing the requested number. Users of the Voice FONCARD can register up to 10 spoken speed dials with the system, from "call home" to "call doctor." The Voice FONCARD can be customized to fit specific calling needs, whether for frequently dialed numbers, or hard-to-remember numbers. Voice FONCARD users are not limited to the spoken speed-dial list, and may manually dial any desired number. "Sprint's Voice FONCARD represents the cutting edge of technology," said Schmieg. "We're using that technology to provide convenient and easy-to-use communications tools for our customers and paving the way for voice activation to become a worldwide means of communication." The Voice FONCARD is being supported with national advertising featuring the voices of celebrities such as Candice Bergen, Sprint spokesperson and Emmy-award winning actress from the hit TV show "Murphy Brown;" Steve Young, San Francisco 49ers quarterback; Don Shula, the "winningest" NFL coach of all time; Beverly Sills, opera singer, and Harry Caray, voice of the Chicago Cubs. In addition to the Voice FONCARD, Sprint Priority Gold customers receive, for a low $5.00 monthly fee, benefits that make long distance calling easier, including: o Automatic savings on residential dial-1 calling. The Most(R), Sprint's lead residential calling plan, saves customers up to 36 percent each month on domestic calls. The Most WORLDWIDE(SM), Sprint's international calling plan, saves customers up to 36 percent each month on domestic calls and up to 20 percent on international calls. o Sprint Advisor(SM). Sprint regularly reviews customer accounts to ensure they are getting the best value for their money. Sprint will notify the customer of other Sprint calling plans that will help them save money. o Sprint Priority Rewards. With every call, customers earn points toward merchandise, free nights at Marriott Hotels, discounts on United Airline tickets, free calling and more. o Sprint Priority Gold customer service. Sprint provides a service center dedicated solely to Sprint Priority Gold customers. Sprint is the first major long distance company to make calling easier by offering voice-activated technology, one of many technological innovations from Sprint. Sprint is a diversified international telecommunications company with more than $10 billion in annual revenues and the United States' only nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network. Its divisions provide global long distance voice, data and video products and services, local telephone services to more than 6 million subscriber lines in 19 states, and cellular operations that serve 42 metropolitan markets and more than 50 rural service areas. ------------------------------ From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) Subject: Re: Unique Idea: Error Message for TDDs Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 17:50:33 GMT Paul Robinson writes: > By accident I found something new and unusual. > "We're sorry, because of an area code change, your call > cannot be completed as dialed. Dial again using area code 410. Please > make a note of this change. The following tones are for TDD users: " > Then, on a TDD device we have in our > office, the message comes across "PLS USE 410 AREA". > Unique idea -- putting a TDD message into an error recording -- and > I'm surprised that I've never heard it done before. Is this something which will become standard in the US, perhaps to comply with the ADA? If so, consideration should be given to supporting it in modems and modem programs, so computers can use that data. TDD is just 5-level Baudot at 45.45 baud, sent half-duplex using the (I think) "Originate" tone pair of a 103A type modem. Most older modems, and some newer ones, can be coerced into using this mode. John Nagle ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Bizarre cordless behavior Date: 11 Jan 1994 18:20:03 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In , lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) writes: > I have for about four or five months now had a cordless phone. I'm mostly > happy with it, but there are a couple of problems. > (1) There is excessive bounce in the keypad. I had to take the first > unit back because I misdialed at least 75% of all attempts. The new > unit is not so bad, but still has bad problems with the '2' key. My AT&T cordless (a few years old now) has the same problem. The '1' key is particularly problematic. Since I often call into area code 916, this has created an embarrassing situation. I'll dial 1-916-xxx-xxxx, but the second '1' will bounce. As astute Digest readers will remember, any special routing codes (1+, 0+, 10XXX+, etc.) codes in front of 911 are ignored, so I get connected to the Police department instead. I now make it a point to use another phone when making those calls. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Connecting Two Phone Lines to One Phone Jack Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 17:19:14 -0600 In article , John S. Roberts Jr. wrote: > I DO have two phone lines. That is the problem. I know that they are > not shorted because I can make two seperate calls on each of the > lines, however I can HEAR the line one conversation when I am using line > two. I have heard people talking about how when you run four conductor > wire (like from Radio Shack) and use two conductors for one line and two > conductors for the other you often get bleed over. I am looking for a > solution to this other than running another set of wires to seperate > the two lines from being so close. The folks you heard are correct. "D station" quad wire commonly used for household telephone wiring does not have the individual pairs twisted inside the jacket. This causes it to have very poor crosstalk performance. You should change the wire. John Gilbert johng@ecs.comm.mot.com ------------------------------ From: steve@interaccess.com (Steve Norton) Subject: Re: Multi-line BBS's Date: 11 Jan 1994 18:25:26 -0600 Organization: The second InterAccess INN server dannie@coplex.coplex.com (Dannie Gregoire) writes: > I'll direct this question to you if possible, as you are the true > phone system guru. I asked it in the newsgroup a couple of months > back with no useful response. I would like to know how some of these > bulletin boards have 60-100 lines running into them (eg EXEC-PC). Do > they simply have that many individual lines run or is there a nifty > service that the TELCO offers through a PBX? I apologize if this is > a stupid question, but it is one that has baffled me, and I gotta know > the answer. Thanks for any help ... Everyone seems to think that multiplexing lines across T1's is the greatest thing since sliced bread. However, even the most cut-rate companies in the Chicago area charge $700-800/month for a T1 line. At 24 simulated POTS lines/T1, this is about $30/line/month. Not even Ameritech is so evil as to charge $30/line/month -- we pay about $15/line/month. Add in the $5K for muxes and the fact that you almost always have to use proprietary (read as expensive/poor selection) modem cards, T1's really are a bad deal. Steve Norton 708-671-0111 (voice) 708-671-0237 (data,login guest) InterAccess Co. steve@home.interaccess.com Chicagoland's best public access Internet provider ------------------------------ From: Donald.Crenshaw@tdkt.mn.org (Donald Crenshaw) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 09:26:00 -0600 Subject: Re: Computer-Telephony Organization: The Dark Knight's Table BBS - (Free) Public Acces News/Email RMcG> Any general references to Computer-Telephony Integration would be RMcG> greatly appreciated. Please reply to email if possible. In the US, try the Alliance of Computer-Based Telephony Application Suppliers (ACTAS). They are a subgroup of sorts of the the North American Telecommunications Association (NATA). The point of contact is: David Haviland NATA 200 M Street NW Suite 550 Washington DC 20036 (202) 296-9800 ext 266 (voice) (202) 296-4993 (fax) He should be able to point you in the direction of a lot of good resources. If that doesn't work, let me know and I'll dig deeper into my files for more names. Sorry I'm not emailing, it's a hassle with my limited access and besides, this information may have general utility for readers here. Take care, DON Origin: Dark Knight's Table (1:282/31) The Dark Knight's Table BBS +1 612 938 8924 Minnetonka, MN USA Free access to Usenet news and e-mail ------------------------------ From: jbarcom@uswnvg.com (John Barcomb) Subject: Re: US Digital Cellular Standard Date: 11 Jan 94 21:18:50 GMT Donald J. Miller (dmiller@crl.com) wrote: > So, now we have FOUR phone "standards". What about ROAMING? The way I see it, AMPS will always be supported so it will always be standard to use AMPS in the U.S. > Well, it looks like the more expensive DUAL-MODE phones are here to > stay. Either of the two digital systems, TDMA or CDMA could have been Actually, U S WEST didn't increase our price to the customer when we started selling dual mode N-AMPS/AMPS (832/2412) phones in our N-AMPS markets. > Six times the existing bandwidth was not enough. We got greedy. When the potential benefit of CDMA is 10-20 times capacity, there is a good reason to look at that technology. There is also talk about voice quality issues (Possible improved quality on CDMA -- nothing for sure yet.) Just thought I throw my $.02 in ... John ------------------------------ From: jbarcom@uswnvg.com (John Barcomb) Subject: Re: Info on Cellular One NACP Date: 11 Jan 94 21:48:18 GMT Gib Henry (gibhenry@cscns.com) wrote: > Whooh! This has some scary implications of the Big Brother variety! > If Cellular One keeps this info, it could be a real invasion of > privacy. How do you think roaming is handled now? Each cellular system puts all your info on a billing medium of some sort and sends it to your "home" cellular carrier who bills you. To make life somewhat more convenient information does need to be shared between carriers to make this system work. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 94 00:04:23 +0100 From: styri@balder.nta.no Subject: Re: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous Just for the record, may I ask how "Anonymous Call Rejection" would affect calls from abroad? We don't transfer ANI from Norway to the USA, arriving in the US the call is only marked as 'coming from Norway' and this is unlikely to change in the near future. (I could write chapter and verse about why, but you probably don't want to read the full argument ...) Haakon Styri Norwegian Telecom Research *** std disclaimer applies *** [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The key is in the word 'private' versus 'outside' as displayed on the Caller-ID unit. Anonymous call rejection does not prohibit 'outside area' calls from getting through; it only forbids those calls which were specifically ID-blocked. If the ID never arrives (because your exchange did not receive the data from the sending office) then the message displayed is 'outside'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mc/G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU1=0205925@mhs.attmail.com Date: 11 Jan 94 17:28:59 GMT Subject: Re: 500 Channel Cable TV > Well, Mike, I am old enough to remember all the fancy claims that > 'cable-tv' would put over-the-air tv out of business, ... Broadcast TV's share of the viewing market has been dropping steadily, and in fact if it weren't for the last round of cable TV regulation ordering cable companies to pay the local affiliates for rebroadcast permission, might well have been on its way to fulfilling this prophecy. > would make networks obsolete, In the sense that networks existed pre-cable, you betcha. Paramount TV, Fox, and Prime Time Entertainment Network, plus shopping channels like QVC, are not only getting their shows seen by people without buying up affiliated stations but even getting the network affiliates to broadcast their shows ... in some cases, even =instead= of the network fare. It used to be that The Big Three (ABCBSNBC) dictated what the American people saw on TV. We kissed that (expletive deleted) goodbye. > would transform our very lives, I got a taste of this while I was waiting for my satellite receiver to be delivered; for almost a month I was choked down from 40+ channels to the six broadcast channels available in my area. No CNN/HN, no Weather Channel, no music channels, no Cartoon Network, only very limited and very bland "variety" and "network" programming ... I thought I would go mad. I don't watch =that= much TV, but when I =do= sit down at the set, I expect to find =something= I can stand within a few minutes of channel surfing. Channel surfing through only six channels felt stupid, like my ears were stuffed with cotton and I was wearing blinders. > would offer first-run movies, Like HBO's _And the Band Played On_ and _Attack of the 50 Foot Woman_, or the =many= first-run movies on LifeTime. There's more, that's just what I thought of off-hand. > would offer live video from foreign countries, Every morning C-SPAN (1, I think) shows the "evening" news from Moscow, live with a translator in voice-over. If you want this sort of thing regularly, bug your cable provider to offer SCOLA, which does the same sort of thing 24 hours a day. > would bring the classroom to the living room, A&E, C-SPAN, The Learning Channel, but especially The Discovery Channel, which has done =wonders= for the resurrected art of the documentary. Coming soon: the History Channel. > would offer access to niche programming, fine arts, etc etc etc. A&E (fine arts and foreign film), AMC (American Movie Classics, plus great old newsreals), BET (Black Entertainment Television), Cartoon Network, CMTV (Country Music TeleVision), CNBC (all financial news), CNN and CNN/HN (all news), Comedy Central, CSPAN-1 and CSPAN-2 (government and public affairs), Discovery (all documentaries), E! (Entertainment industry television), ESPN-1 and ESPN-2 (all sports), the Family Channel (targeted at "family values" conservatives and their families), LifeTime (targeted at adult women), MTV, Nickelodeon (children's and teen programming), the Outdoor Channel (hunting, fishing, etc.), the Sci Fi channel, Univision (all Hispanic and Hispanic-American programming), plus of course all the all-movie channels like HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, TNT, Bravo, Encore ... In fact, other than the three or four "superstations" and the local broadcast channels, on a typical 30+ channel CATV system, they're =all= niche programming. Given the above variety, do we really begrudge the home shoppers' HSC and QVC, or the people who =want= to see televangelism on Fam (part time) or EWTN, or the wrestling fans and rock-n-rollers the occasional pay-per-view? Let's face it, the reason that cable TV companies are singing, "My God, How the Money Rolls In" is because they =have= fulfilled the promises you mentioned, far better than broadcast TV ever could have. (And of course, they have a monopoly on that service, unless you invest the $2k or so for a dish with "all the trimmings.") No, we're not to the point yet where no matter what you're in the mood to see, you can sit down at your tube and flip over to it ... but we're a =lot= closer than we used to be before CATV. J. Brad Hicks Internet: mc!Brad_Hicks@mhs.attmail.com X.400: c=US admd=ATTMail prmd=MasterCard sn=Hicks gn=Brad ------------------------------ From: decastro@netcom.com (Richard A. De Castro) Subject: Re: Radio Modem Help Wanted Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 18:23:37 GMT pierobon@gate.net (John Michael Pierobon) writes: > I am trying to set up a communication link to a hub from a remote part > of South America. > Here is the problem. My computer, or home base, is located in a place > where telephones do not reach. Neither celullar nor wire can be > strung to reach this place. Therefore, my only option to transfer > data is via a "radio modem". A friend of mine suggested I look into > this, but he was not able to provide me with more information. Where > can I get additional information on "radio modems"? The general technology you need is called packet radio. There are several rec. groups dedicated to it, they can be of much help. In general, you use a pair (one at each end) of special radio "modems" called TNC's, or Terminal Node Controllers. These are different from a standard modem, in that they have hardware that actually assembles the packets (chunks of data) and then sends it to the modem chip. The TNC connects to a serial port on the computer, and to the mic jack on the radio. The radio needs to be of a suitable type for the ranges involved, and if needed, you need to be licensed. Then, using a special (generally easy to get shareware) communications software (I like one called YAPP, for yet another packet protocol), the two machines, radios, etc call each other. Depending on the radio frequencies, thru-put is incredibly slow. RE ally incredibly slow. If you just need to transfer text, another type of protocol, using mostly the same hardware, is TOR, or teletype over radio. Again, check out rec. whatever Good Luck! decastro@netcom.com Richard A. De Castro - California, North America, Sol-3 ------------------------------ From: fieldday!sewilco@kksys.mn.org Date: Tue, 11 Jan 94 19:03 CST Subject: Re: Long Distance CLID is Here Organization: Esix Test Unit 1 In article TELECOM Digest Editor notes: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In Chicago we have had inter-LATA > Caller-ID on an intermittent basis for about a year. It is sent here > by some exchanges in other cities, but not by all or even a majority > yet. Minneapolis comes to mind as one place where I've seen it a lot. > Area code 612 numbers show up here when I get those calls. PAT] Cute. Here in Minneapolis CLASS services are not available yet, so we cannot request blocking of caller ID. US West says CLASS probably will be available in April. Scot E. Wilcoxon sewilco@fieldday.mn.org +1 612-825-2607 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 15:59:43 -0800 From: Michael Dalby Subject: Are LATA Maps Available? I wonder whether you know of maps of RBOC lata boundaries. I have the list of sample cities you posted on mintaka at mit, but wonder if there is a commercially available version that actually marks the interlata boundaries. Can you shed any light on this? Thank you. Michael Dalby md@well.sf.ca.us ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #27 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03075; 13 Jan 94 5:26 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25653 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Thu, 13 Jan 1994 01:25:21 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA25488 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Thu, 13 Jan 1994 01:25:04 -0600 Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 01:25:04 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401130725.AA25488@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #28 TELECOM Digest Thu, 13 Jan 94 01:25:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 28 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson PacTel Announcement (Alex Cena) ISDN: Coming Soon to my House? (Robert L. McMillin) Shannon's Law (was Re: Hayes' New Modem) (Jakob Hummes) Communications Over Power Lines (Stewart Fist) Internet<->FIDOnet Mail/File Transfer (Jim Groeneveld) Unmetered Local Service (Lars Poulsen) New AT&T Bell Labs WWW Server (comp.dcom.cell-relay via Monty Solomon) Anyone Know Anything About GTE-4600 (Min Hu) Phonebook on CD-ROM/Internet? (Claes Gussing) New York Telephone Issuing "New" Rotary Phones (Kriston Rehberg) FCC Report on LD Carrier Growth (Stephen Goodman) Sprint VoiceCard - Maybe Not Such a Good Thing? (goodmans@delphi.com) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 12:27:00 EST From: Alex Cena Subject: PacTel Announcement From a PacTel Cellular Press Release: 01/12 PacTel Cellular announces plans for introducing digital cellular service; company signs contract with Motorola in preparation for launching CDMA system in Los Angeles. WALNUT CREEK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) -- PacTel Cellular today announced plans to invest nearly $250 million over the next five years to build its Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital cellular networks in California and Georgia. The company will launch its first commercial CDMA system in Los Angeles in early 1995. Digital cellular technology offers a platform for introducing many important new wireless services for business and consumers: text messaging, in-building coverage, voice mail notification, data communications, fax, and one-number calling. The advent of CDMA will help fuel the growth of personal communications services, as digital systems provide the capacity to serve the mass market and enable new customers to take advantage of the benefits of tetherless communications. As part of its digital deployment plans, PacTel Cellular announced it has signed a definitive agreement with Motorola to purchase CDMA network infastructure equipment for use in the greater Los Angeles area. The value of the Los Angeles contract is initially about $70 million and could reach $130 million by the year 2000. In addition to Los Angeles, PacTel plans to deploy CDMA in San Diego, Sacramento and Atlanta over the next three years, using Motorola infrastructure equipment. "We're committed to maintaining our strong leadership position in the wireless industry," said Sam Ginn, chairman and chief executive officer of PacTel Corporation. "By investing in this new digital technology, we're demonstrating our intent to build a high-quality cellular network that will meet our customers' needs cost-effectively. Our current investment in CDMA will allow us to reduce our cost structure significantly in the future." "Although new players are entering the personal communications marketplace, we don't believe their services will provide any advantages over our digital cellular technology," added Lee Cox, president and chief operating officer of PacTel Corporation. "Given our 10 years of experience building, operating and marketing cellular service in L.A. -- one of the country's most demanding markets -- we feel that we're well positioned to compete successfully against the new entrants." PacTel will begin installing the Motorola equipment in early 1994, with pre-commercial service slated to begin by mid-year. The company intends to conduct comprehensive testing before launching commercial service. By the end of 1995, the digital network will completely cover PacTel's Los Angeles market, a region of nearly 11,000 square miles, making this the largest CDMA infastructure deployment contract announced to date. "Motorola is pleased to have won this commercial contract to deploy CDMA throughout an entire city -- one of the largest in the United States," said Jack Scanlon, senior vice president and general manager, Motorola Cellular Infastructure Group. "We are confident Motorola's CDMA technology will provide the basis for significant improvements in call quality and new calling services for PacTel customers. CDMA will redefine cellular service during the second half of the '90s." "We welcome Motorola's strong commitment to CDMA technology," said Craig Farrill, vice president of technology planning and development for PacTel Corporation. "Based on our work together over the past four years, we feel confident that Motorola will support our goal of delivering a technically superior network, quickly and economically." "By combining CDMA digital technology with Motorola's advanced networking capabilities, we'll be able to provide cellular customers with an array of highly portable personal communications services," Farrill explained. "For example, customers will have control over how and when their calls reach them, whether they're in their home markets or traveling." Under the agreement, PacTel will purchase Motorola's new SC(TM)9600 digital base stations, cellular base station controllers, and digital switching platforms manufactured for Motorola by DSC Communications Corporation. Due to CDMA's dramatic capacity increases, the Los Angeles network eventually will be able to serve about four million customers, or more than 25 percent of the region's entire population of 15 million. PacTel will offer dual-mode phones which can operate on its new digital network as well as the existing analog system, providing customers with a smooth transition to CDMA technology. During the pre-commercial phase in Los Angeles, PacTel plans to use Motorola's prototype and pre-commercial dual-mode CDMA handsets. PacTel previously announced agreements to purchase a total of 50,000 dual-mode phones from OKI telecom (30,000 phones), Hyundai (10,000 phones) and Maxon (10,000 phones). The company expects to complete similar CDMA agreements with other subscriber equipment manufacturers in the near future. Some of PacTel's wireless competitors in Los Angeles have recently deployed other forms of digital technology. "We know from our ongoing market research that customers place the highest priority on voice quality and network coverage," commented Cox. "Since we're more interested in offering the best digital technology than being first to market, we've chosen a carefully managed process of testing and refining our network. We think it's clearly worth the wait for CDMA and the long-term benefits it offers." To expand its customers' cellular coverage when they're traveling in the United States and Canada, PacTel is a member of MobiLink (SM), an alliance of 15 cellular companies. MobiLink has set common service standards to ensure consistent cellular quality and service nationwide. The MobiLink national network already reaches nearly 85% of the population of the United States and Canada and expects to cover virtually all of North America through licensing agreements. With MobiLink, PacTel Cellular customers using dual-mode CDMA phones will enjoy nationwide coverage with a single handset. In 1989 PacTel was the first cellular carrier to field test CDMA, which is based on technology developed to provide secure communications for the military. Its wideband channel, advanced receiver technology and sophisticated encoding scheme result in a signal that is highly resistant to interference and eavesdropping. Some of CDMA's advantages over existing analog technology include improved voice quality, broader coverage, enhanced privacy, capacity increases of at least tenfold, and the potential for expanded wireless data and messaging services. Since 1990, PacTel and Motorola have been testing CDMA using PacTel's San Diego network in conjunction with Qualcomm Inc., and a group of other carriers. PacTel Corporation, based in Walnut Creek, operates cellular, paging, vehicle location and international wireless ventures in a number of the world's best markets. PacTel Corporation and PacTel Cellular are subsidiaries of Pacific Telesis Group, a worldwide diversified telecommunications corporation based in San Francisco. On December 3, following the third-largest initial public offering in U.S. history, PacTel Corporation began trading on the New York and Pacific Stock Exchanges under the symbol PTW. Subject to final approval from the Pacific Telesis board of directors and certain other conditions, Pacific Telesis plans to spin off PacTel as a completely independent company in the first half of 1994. Motorola is one of the world's leading providers of wireless communications and electronic equipment, systems, components and services for worldwide markets. Products include two-way radios, pages, personal communications systems, cellular telephones and systems, semiconductors, defense and aerospace electronics, automobile and industrial electronics, computers, data communications and information processing and handling equipment. Sales in 1992 were $13.3 billion. CONTACT: PacTel Corporation Susan Rosenberg, 510/210-3910 or Motorola Scott Wyman, 708/632-4691 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 06:53 PST From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: ISDN: Coming Soon to my House? The thread about quantization and signal/noise on a POTS line has me thinking that maybe all this will be increasingly obsolete. According to the 800 number posted recently on this forum, my switch is set up to handle ISDN! A friend who is an authorized Pac*Bell digital services reseller arranged for some techs to come out and do a site survey; this means they'll check the line loss to see whether the existing copper can support ISDN without an additional signal boost. According to my friend, ISDN is currently tarriffed in California under a provisional business class of service, which means that I'll pay probably a little more per month ($35, I recall) than I might if there were an ISDN available under a residential service plan. Nonetheless, it does seem quite reasonable given the potential benefits. The ISDN they're selling will be two B and one D channels. If things go well and they can install this service, I'll let you all know how this goes. Robert L. McMillin | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Netcom: rlm@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: hummes@osf.org (Jakob Hummes) Subject: Shannon's Law (was Re: Hayes' New Modem) Date: 12 Jan 1994 19:07:24 GMT Organization: Open Software Foundation In article , goldstein@carafe.tay2. dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) writes: > In article hummes@osf.org (Jakob > Hummes) writes: >> ...But there is an absolute limit (Shannon's Law). The >> question was about the transmission over a *real* phone line. And that >> means there exists *noise*. The limit of bps is proportional to the >> logarithm of the signal to noise ratio. Unfortunately I don't remember >> the constant factors. > Shannon's law is, in plaintext, > BPS(max) = Bw * log(2)((1+S)/N) > That is, take the signal-to-noise ration (adding 1 to signal, so a > negative SNR has some information present) and represent it as a power > of 2. Multiply by bandwidth (in Hz) and you get BPS. Of course, not! But now I remember Shannon's Law (you have placed wrong the brackets): BPS(max) = Bw * log(2)(1+(S/N)) The addition of 1 is needed to unable a negative BPS-rate, which would be nonsense. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And of course Murphy's Law says that when you are attempting to copy something down in plain ASCII text for transmission to a computer network you'll always get some one or more parts of it bass-ackwards to confound the readers even more than they are already. That error might have been Goldstein's or it might have been mine. Regrets extended. Your editor, Murphy.] ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jan 94 05:07:03 EST From: Stewart Fist <100033.2145@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Communication Over Power Lines? James H. Haynes writes: > Then there are articles in magazines from time to time, and maybe > commercial products you can buy, that use the 120v house wiring for > conductors; but in that case the interest is in communicating just > within the building, or maybe to nearby houses connected to the same > transformer. I don't think you'll get carrier frequencies to go > through a power transformer and on to the high-voltage side and back > through another transformer to the 120v side on another circuit. Back in my old paper files somewhere I have a product-test article from an American computer magazine about a LAN system that did just that (I can't find it). From memory, the author said that the system worked quite well at a relatively low speed, but was limited in distance to the first transformer in the street. It seems to me that today, with adaptive filtering and the ability to handle higher frequences -- plus digital echo-cancellation, etc. -- these systems may be worth examining again. You'd need a bit of collision detection, but for small businesses and home use this might be the cheap way to tie together a few PCs and a printer. A Sydney, Australia, company called TCG Pty Ltd (fax +612 319 3629) makes a simple one-way power-line-carried system called 'ILID' which uses the data control of light circuits in supermarkets to transmit optical signals to addressable shelf displays. The transmitter sends out data packets through the power lines, the light tubes in the store then translate these to optical packets, which are then received by small photocell-powered LCD screen displays on the shelves. It gives them a simple way to update prices. ------------------------------ From: groeneveld@cmi.tno.nl (Jim Groeneveld CMI-TNO Leiden NL) Subject: Internet <- > FIDOnet Mail/File Transfer Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 10:50:18 MET I found your address in mailings concerning the subject Internet<-> FIDOnet. So that's why I'm addressing you presently with some Q's. I would like to have some information on transferring mail between Internet/Bitnet and FIDOnet: 1. are there other, more direct forms of addressing a mail from FIDOnet to Internet and Bitnet? I know the form "uucp at number" with the first separated message line "To: internet_address". With this form of addressing it is not possible for a point (using Dutchie) to add the addressee to his/her node list. Only uucp gets added (the first time). In the Dutchie documentation there is a remark in which the form "uucp#internet_address" is stated. Is that a valid form? It would allow different internet addresses being added to a FIDOnet node list at a point. 2. With the form "uucp at number" what gateway FIDOnet numbers are available in the US and Europe? Must they all be called "uucp"? 3. What gateway(s) is/are used when sending from Internet/Bitnet to FIDOnet using the address form First.Last@Pp.Ff.Nn.Zz.FIDOnet.org ? 4. What happens if the Pp.Ff.Nn.Zz do not match First.Last? 5. What is the average transfer time from sender to recipient? A day? 6. How should (binary) files be transferred? UUEncoded or so? 7. Are FIDOnet users (especially points) able to order files from the SIMTEL collection or other public file systems? If yes, how? I hope this doesn't bother you too much, Regards, Y. (Jim) Groeneveld, TNO Institute for Preventive Health Research, department of Application of Technology in Health Care, (IPG-TNO, TTG) P.O.Box 124, 2300 AC Leiden, NL, (+31)71-181810 groeneveld@cmi.tno.nl, groeneveld@tno.nl ------------------------------ From: lars@Eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Unmetered Local Service Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 13:35:33 GMT A. Padgett Peterson (padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com) wrote: >> everywhere I go I see regional carriers attempting to eliminate >> "flat" and "unmetered" plans. As telecommuting and information >> highway access begins to take hold, the elimination of unmetered >> local service is the biggest threat to individual connectivity that I >> can imagine. About two years ago, I asked telecom readers for information about local rates, because I had the same fear. My results indicated that flat-rate local calling is readily available everywhere. In article dave_oshea@wiltel.com (Dave O'Shea) writes: > though I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see some alternative > local loop providers selling a "flat-rate"-type service to people who > are priced out of the market by the LEC's. I rather doubt it; residential flat rate local calling is justified as a giveaway of excess capacity that must be there in order to serve the business community during "prime time". Alternate providers would tend to establish rate structures that discourage residential customers so that they don't have to build local plant to serve the low-volume customers. > One of the big reasons that long distance rates seem to "bottom out" > somewhere in the 10 cents/minute rate, even for the most humongous > customers is that the LD carriers have to pay most of that to the LEC > for the local loop. Perhaps as the RBOCs are able to recoup something > for those millions of unbillable hours of local connect time, this > will ease up. There is no inherent reason that a telco under rate cap (de)regulation will lower the access charges charged to IXCs just because they obtain a new revenue stream somewhere else. On the other hand, a rational rate structure would charge the IXC exactly the same as a local customer for what is essentially a local call at each end of the long-distance call. >> threat would be to the infant telecommuting industry and the home >> office which relies on unlimited local service and the best means for >> achieving the Clinton/Gore "20% reduction in commuting" would go up in >> smoke. > If an employee is worth telecommuting, even a $4/hour connection > charge is fairly minor in the face of, say, a $65,000 salary/benefits > package. Even if you get charged that for eight hours a day, it's minor. > Most employees who would best benefit from telecommuting are the ones > who are well into long-distance calling areas. Many telecommuters will have a local call to an internet carrier's local Point Of Presence. Eight hours at $4/hour is $32 a day. This is at least the equivalent of another hour's salary. Hardly negligible. >> only advantage that I can see for the consumer would be that with >> metered service, the subscriber would have a right to a call detail >> listing the individual calls by called number, time, and duration. Hahahaha hahaha ha ha ... he ho hummmm ... Here in Denmark, local calls have been metered for many, many years -- by the pulse method. Itemized billing is NOT available, and there would be an uproar from office workers -- on privacy grounds -- if the telco were to start itemizing bills. Itemized billing, like flat rate local calling -- is a feature of the American telephone system; it has ended up that way mostly by accident. Certainly there is no logic that says subscribers have the right to an itemized bill. (There may, however, in many jurisdictions be a PUC regulation saying so.) Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM CMC Network Products Phone: (011-) +45-31 49 81 08 Hvidovre Strandvej 72 B Telefax: +45-31 49 83 08 DK-2650 Hvidovre, DENMARK Internets: designed and built while you wait ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 1994 02:37:17 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: New AT&T Bell Labs WWW server FYI. From: hgs@allegra.att.com (Henning G. Schulzrinne) Newsgroups: comp.archives Subject: [comp.dcom.cell-relay] New AT&T Bell Labs WWW server Date: 10 Jan 1994 14:42:25 +0100 Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ Sender: x920031@rubb.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de Message-ID: <2grm01$kk4@rubb.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de> Archive-Name: auto/comp.dcom.cell-relay/New-AT-T-Bell-Labs-WWW-server A new WWW server at AT&T Bell Laboratories is now available for use: http://www.research.att.com/ Note that this is NOT an ftp server. Its current offerings include: - a bibliography of about 3000 entries covering computer networks and performance evaluation, about 1700 of which have abstracts; some entries have links to PostScript copies of the paper. (Click on the highlighted title to retrieve the paper.) The database can be searched by specifying words contained in title, author, abstract, etc. For example, 'Smith 1992' will extract all papers (co)authored by Smith in 1992. Submissions of BibTeX records for the database are strongly encouraged, with abstracts and keywords if possible. [Implementation: The database is stored in BibTeX format, with a fully inverted index. A special BibTeX style file translates the selected entries into HTML, with some postprocessing for accented characters and the like.] - Calls for papers for special issues of IEEE JSAC, one of them on the Internet. Submission guidelines are there, too. - A FAQ (HTMLified) for the Internet MBONE. Henning Schulzrinne (hgs@research.att.com) ------------------------------ From: Min Hu Subject: Anyone Know Anything About GTE-4600 Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 3:22:43 GMT Hi, Recently, my friends and I required two large PBX system GTD-4600 made by GTE. I am planning to ship them to China. But I have following unclear spots needed to be sorted out. Any help will be greatly appreciated. 1. If these system will be compatible to Chinese telephone system? 2. What is the market value of GTD-4600 system? (made in 1985 and 1987 with fully equiped lines of 8500 and 5000) 3. How diffcult the de-installation and installation of the system will be? Should I pay big bucks to hire contactor to do job? Or I should risk to bring some very experienced Chinese enginers to do the de-installation and installation? 4. The working voltage for the battery charger of the present system is 110-240 v with 60 Hertz, while the Chinese working power suply is 220 v with 50 Hertz. Will the present charger be able used over there? 5. How this system compare with AT&T system? Will it equivalent to some models by AT&T, say 2ESS or 3ESS? 6. Any suggestions? MIN ------------------------------ From: ebcguss@ebc.ericsson.se (Claes Gussing) Subject: Phonebook on CD-ROM/Internet? Reply-To: ebcguss@ebc.ericsson.se Organization: Ericsson Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 05:15:16 GMT Hi there, I was wondering if one can get the phonebook on CD-ROM in the U.S? I know this wouldn't work in Sweden, since we have some law about keeping personal data on automatically readable media (as the phone- book wouldn't be, with OCR ...). I thought maybe in the U.S. this would work. A CD-ROM carries 650 Mbyte of memory, so some 5-10 disks should carry the whole U.S! Also, I was wondering if is possible to find a phonenumber on some Internet-site with automatic reply. Maybe something like: To: phonebook@some.site.us Subject: me@my.site.se Reply-to: State: Texas City: Dallas First_Name: John Last_Name: Doe Business: Company: Street: Box: Zip: 76543 Phone: where one can leave a few blanks. The last input, 'Phone:', if you know the number, and want's to know who it belongs. If there are more than i.e. 100 matches, one gets a reply saying "insufficiant description". Another search-argument could be state, city and a business, i.e Hotels, Restaurants, etc. That way one could achieve a sort of yellow-pages on-line! This site could be realized with a computer and a CD-ROM setup like presented above. Comments? Claes ebcguss@ebc.ericsson.se ------------------------------ Subject: New York Telephone Issuing "New" Rotary Phones Reply-To: krehberg@vnet.IBM.COM Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 02:43:48 GMT From: V2ENA81%OWEGO@zeta.eecs.nwu.edu (This is paraphrased from the AP Wire) New York Telephone (now NYNEX) in New York City has elected to install rotary-dial phones, on request, in communities and areas where other drug fighting measures have failed. They are installing them because they say that rotary phones can't be used on the pager services that these drug dealers use to communicate. (Begin Commentary) What I would like to know is, doesn't NYNEX realize that these people will simply walk into their local Radio Shack and pick up a personal tone dialer designed specifically for dialing touch tones on these "new" rotary-only lines? Is anyone going to tell NYNEX that it is simply wasting its and its customers' money? I believe the phones also won't receive calls anymore (that service exists even here in sleepy Binghamton), but changing to rotary dialers are ridiculous! Kriston J. Rehberg Internet External :krehberg@vnet.ibm.com Associate Programmer/Analyst FSC Internal RSCS :V2ENA81 AT OWEGO ENSCO, Incorporated FSC Internal AFS :v1ena81@legend.endicott Loral Federal Systems Co, Owego, NY Tel: 607-751-2180 :Tieline: 662-2180 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Telco knows very well what you are saying is correct. It makes these adjustments (rotary dial, no incoming service, no coin-paid calls during overnight hours) to accomodate the neighborhood organizations in their fight in the 'war on drugs' and to appease the local politicians who decide on municipal ordinances regards payphones who in turn are trying to appease their voters. Telco is making nothing on the deal except for community goodwill from the part of the community which seems to be the largest and noisiest. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 00:32 EST From: Stephen Goodman <0003945654@mcimail.com> Subject: FCC Report on LD Carrier Growth TELECOMMUNICATIONS REPORTS [TE11] via NewsNet Monday January 10, 1994 The number of long distance lines "presubscribed" to MCI Telecommunications Corp. grew at a faster rate during the one-year period ending in June, 1993, than in any comparable period in the past three years, according to an FCC report. "Long Distance Market Shares," a quarterly report published by the Commission's Industry Analysis Division, noted a 103% annual increase in MCI's presubscribed lines, from 19.19 million in June, 1992, to 21.17 million in June, 1993. During the same period AT&T's presubscribed lines grew by 0.4%, from 101.38 million to 101.77 million. Sprint Communications Co. L.P.'s lines grew by 2.3%, from 8.42 million to 8.62 million. Copies of the report are available for review at the Industry Analysis Division reference room, 1250 23rd St., N.W., Washington, and can be purchased by calling 202/857-3800. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 01:00:12 EDT From: GOODMANS@delphi.com Subject: Sprint VoiceCard - Maybe Not Such a Good Thing? I was intrigued by the Sprint commericals on their voicecard and called them to get more information. I was quickly turned off from it after speaking with one of their reps: To use it you dial an 800 number;announce your SSN plus 1 digit; announce the programmed number (ie call joe) I don't know about you but I don't want to announce my SSN to the world, especially in a crowded airport! Also: the surcharge per call is $1.00, its limited to domestic calls only, charged $5 a month, have to be a Sprint Dial 1 customer, and the list is limited to 10 people. It does not have any of the features the AT&T and MCI card have: information services (weather, news) and conference calling. What does everyone else think? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #28 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa17730; 14 Jan 94 13:26 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13021 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Fri, 14 Jan 1994 08:33:19 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13238 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Fri, 14 Jan 1994 08:33:00 -0600 Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 08:33:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401141433.AA13238@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #29 TELECOM Digest Fri, 14 Jan 94 08:33:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 29 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Canadian Teen Charged With $500,000 Phone Fraud (William Van Hefner) Re: Phone Phreakers Down South (Paul Buder) Re: Phone Phreakers Down South (Bob Niland) Using Spare Channels on a T1 (Javier Henderson) Re: Sprint Voice Foncard Press Release (Brent Whitlock) Telnet to Remote PC's COM Port (Steve Pinkston) Nynex Name Change (Dale Farmer) Norwegian CLID (was "Anonymous Call Rejection") (Richard Cox) Book Review: "Basics Book of Information Networking" - Motorola (R. Slade) ISDN Residential and PacBell (Steve Cogorno) Transborder Data Flow? (Michael L. Winkelman) Online Comments to U.S. Social Security Administration (Jack Decker) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: vantek@aol.com Reply-To: vantek@aol.com Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 04:27:38 EST Subject: Canadian Teen Charged With $500,000 Phone Fraud TORONTO (Jan. 11) UPI - A Canadian teenager has been charged with defrauding a cellular phone network out of $500,000 worth of long distance calls. The youth, who as a young offender can not be identified, allegedly used a computer to gain access to customers' voice mail boxes. The teen would change the greetings in the voice mailboxes, and the new greetings were used to approve calls billed to the Rogers Cantel Inc. network. About $200,000 worth of calls were billed to a single phone number over a 17-day period. Cantel blames Bell Canada's new automated long-distance billing service, and is fighting with the phone company over who should pay for the losses. Since the alleged thefts last spring and fall, Cantel has started offering customers a service that will keep their cellular phones from accepting third-party bills. A industry analyst estimated that long-distance fraud costs North American companies $2 billion a year, much of it by hackers who gain access to telephone networks by breaking access codes. (END) Geez, to ring-up a $500,000 cellphone bill he must have been on the phone for AT LEAST a couple of hours!!! He'll probably end-up counter-suing the cellular carrier for giving him a brain tumor, or something ... William 'Van' Hefner Vantek Communications ------------------------------ From: paulb@teleport.com (Paul Buder) Subject: Re: Phone Phreakers Down South Date: 13 Jan 1994 18:53:39 -0800 Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Then too, sometimes the phreaks > manage to get the root password (the code used by the system > administrator for system maintainence) and reconfigure the system for > themselves. That wouldn't be possible on all voicemail systems. The system I use is called Repartee. No reconfiguration of privileges is allowed over the phone unless it is explicitly set up to do that. They have to be done by typing into the keyboard of the voicemail computer. paulb@teleport.COM Not affiliated with teleport. ------------------------------ From: rjn@hpfcla.fc.hp.com (Bob Niland) Subject: Re: Phone Phreakers Down South Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 15:41:20 GMT Reply-To: rjn@csn.org Organization: Colorado SuperNet V2ENA81%OWEGO@zeta.eecs.nwu.edu wrote: > I am assuming that how is this done is to figure out people's voice > mail passwords and then use the transfer feature to get off-site. Stealing voicemail passwords and redirector access codes is trivially easy if: - Any of the system users have cellphones; - They aren't directed, in the strongest terms, to NEVER use secured system features from cellphone; Cordless phones are also a risk, although a smaller one. Does AT&T routinely advise their PBX customers to warn users about the cellphone risk? Regards, 1001-A East Harmony Road Bob Niland Suite 503 Internet: rjn@csn.org Fort Collins CompuServe: 71044,2124 Colorado 80525 USA ------------------------------ Subject: Using Spare Channels on a T1 From: henderson@mlnaxp.mln.com Date: 13 Jan 94 17:06:41 PST Organization: Medical Laboratory Network; Ventura, CA Hello, I posted about this several months ago, and I only got one or two responses. I thought I'd post again ... Our company has the main facility in Ventura, CA, and we have smaller sites throughout California. Right now, we're just using regular phone lines to connect to these facilities for voice. For data, there's a T1 going from the Ventura site to the long distance carrier POP, and they run 56Kb circuits to each of the remote locations. We're currently using only 7 channels on the T1, and expect to have a total of 12 in use by the end of the year. I'd like to know how complicated it'd be to use the remaining 12 channels for to route voice calls to our remote sites. Ideally, the extensions at the remote sites would look like regular extensions to everyone else in the network. Some technical details ... The main facility has an AT&T System 75 switch. The remote sites have their own switches, though not all of them have the same model (or brand, for that matter). One of the facilities doesn't even have a switch, just three lines in a rotary (our smallest site). Thanks! Javier Henderson henderson@mlnaxp.mln.com ------------------------------ From: whitlock@photon.vlsi.uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) Subject: Re: Sprint Voice Foncard Press Release Date: 14 Jan 94 23:41:28 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Reply-To: whitlock@uiuc.edu (Brent Whitlock) > SPRINT ANNOUNCES THE VOICE FONCARD(SM) > -- The World's First Calling Card > That Lets Your Voice Do The Dialing -- > ... No voice can be heard truer than on Sprint." [ME:] ^^^^^ looks like a little jab at AT&T... > Schmieg continued, "Everybody's voice is different so this > technology offers built-in fraud protection. The voice-matching > process is secure enough to ensure authenticity, but flexible > enough to allow for slight variations in a caller's voice due to > illness or fatigue." [ME:] I wonder how secure this really is... > Here's how to place a call using the Voice FONCARD: > dial the 800 access number; > speak the Voice FONCARD number, which is the card holder's > Social Security number, preceded by one digit (for added ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > protection, the Social Security number is not printed on the > card); [ME:] It's beginning to not look very secure at all... "for added protection" your SSN is not being printed on the card, but you have to say it so everyone within earshot will be able to hear your SSN and make a note of it if they so choose. I think I'd rather key it in with my fingers. I would rather not use my SSN at all, actually, as is the case with my current FONcard. > In addition to the Voice FONCARD, Sprint Priority Gold > customers receive, for a low $5.00 monthly fee, benefits that make > long distance calling easier, including: [ME:] I already get the other benefits through my Priority Plus membership, which costs me nothing. So essentially, users must pay $5.00 a month for their calling card. Does a $60 annual fee for a calling card seem a bit expensive to you? It does to me. I won't be getting this new FONcard. I wonder how many will ... Brent Whitlock Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology whitlock@uiuc.edu Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ------------------------------ From: pinkston@kentrox.com (Steve Pinkston) Subject: Telnet to Remote PC's COM Port Organization: ADC Kentrox - Portland, Oregon Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 23:43:37 GMT I hope someone can help me with this: I'm looking for a way to be able able to telnet to a specific serial port on a remote device, so that I can connect to a non-ip-addressable device that is connected to that port. To be more specific: I have two LANs that are interconnected via bridges and T1/FT1 WAN links. I have a PC on the remote LAN that has an unused serial port ("COM2"). I want to be able to use telnet from a PC on my local LAN to connect to that that port so that I can connect to the (9600 bps async) console port of a non-ip device located near that PC, in this example a smart CSU. In effect we would be making the remote PC a small terminal server. It has been suggested to me that there may be software solutions to this. Ultimately I want to be able to do this for Macs and unix stations, too, but for right now I would be pleased with a solution for PCs. Any help or pointers to resources would be greatly appreciated. Steve Pinkston Technical Support Specialist ADC Kentrox Portland, OR, USA pinkston@kentrox.com ------------------------------ From: dale@access2.digex.net (Dale Farmer) Subject: Nynex Name Change Date: 14 Jan 1994 11:30:11 GMT Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA Last week I had reason to walk past the building in Boston that was the main office of New England Telephone. (Franklin Street in Boston) They vandals had chiseled off the gold colored metal letters over the entrance that said "New England Telephone", Leaving permanant scars in the stone over the doors. Really ugly looking. They had placed on each side or the doors these huge, blue NYNEX logos. Amazingly ugly looking! They took a pretty nice looking art Deco building and stuck these awful plastic logo thingies on to spoil the whole look. One more reason to prove that Corporate America has no taste ... or shame. (I don't think the execs in charge noticed the large old style Bell System logo up around the eighth floor, otherwise they probably would have ordered that removed also. Thank god for their inability to look more that six feet past their noses. ) Dale Farmer Telephone art policeman :-) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 20:55 From: Richard Cox Subject: Norwegian CLID (Was: "Anonymous Call Rejection" - Could be Dangerous) Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk Haakon Styri (styri@balder.nta.no) said: >> We don't transfer ANI from Norway to the USA, arriving in the US >> the call is only marked as 'coming from Norway' and this is unlikely >> to change in the near future. (I could write chapter and verse about >> why, but you probably don't want to read the full argument ...) Perhaps some of us do want to read the full argument. It would be very enlightening to know how this issue is viewed in other countries -- especially one like Norway whose telecommunications decisions usually seem very well thought out. Apart from the idea of doing all exchange modernisation and number changes at ten to four in the afternoon ... on Thursday afternoons, isn't it? If PAT doesn't want to carry this topic, feel free to mail me directly. Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 956 700111 Fax: +44 956 700110 VoiceMail: +44 941 151515 E-mail address: richard@mandarin.com - PGP2.3 public key available on request ------------------------------ Date: 14 Jan 94 14:18 -0600 From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Basics Book of Information Networking" by Motorola BKBSIFNT.RVW 931125 Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Kelly Ford, Promotion/Publicity Coordinator P.O. Box 520 26 Prince Andrew Place Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 or Tiffany Moore, Publicity tiffanym@aw.com John Wait, Editor, Corporate and Professional Publishing johnw@aw.com 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-822-6339 617-944-3700 Fax: (617) 944-7273 5851 Guion Road Indianapolis, IN 46254 800-447-2226 "The Basics Book of Information Networking", 0-201-56370-3 Ten years ago, this book was known as, "The Basics Book of Data Communications." The preface describes it as an industry primer. A number of other "Basics Books" have sprung from it on specialized topics, and this new version is the "basic" book of the new series. In general terms, the book does reasonably well as a primer. The tone is light, with a fair bit of humour thrown in, as well as cartoon illustrations of many points. I doubt, however, that completely non-technical managers who need to get a minimal background overview of data communications will be entirely comfortable with it. Although it makes fun of other texts as being written from the perspective of someone with three degrees in computer science, it is entirely clear, despite any efforts taken to modify the fact, that this was written by engineers. At the same time, there are occasional problems with the material presented. While there are no overt errors, there are very possible sources of confusion, as when the discussion of"smart" and "dumb" terminals seems to relate the two classes to block versus character based transmission. The OSI model of data communications layers is discussed under the topic of X.25 and packet switching, and may contribute to a misunderstanding of the purpose of a layered model. The strongest emphasis is on "point-to-point" networking--in other words, the connection of terminals or computers in related, but geographically dispersed, offices. However, as a short and reasonably fundamental introduction to data communications, it has its uses. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKBSIFNT.RVW 931125 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the TELECOM Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact: rulag@decus.ca ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: ISDN Residential and PacBell Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 17:08:46 PST I just got off the phone with a PacBell Marketing Rep (This guy KNEW what he was talking about, and actually treated me like an intelligent person.) Basically, he said that right now ISDN is a tarrifed as business. However, Pac Bell filled a Tarrif Request on Nov. 17, 1993, to become effective 5/15/93 making it a Residential service, with unmeasured service. The pricing was quite good though: Installation 20.00 Conversion to Business Service 150.00 Installation Monthly Service 4.25 Business Measured Rate 15.00 ISDN Service Charge -7.50 Installation Premium (for every month up to 24 that the service is connected.) Usage .04 Call Setup .01 Per Minute (Note: 30% disc. after 5, 60% after 11 & weekend) I have not heard what the hard costs will be yet; the Pac Bell rep could not discuss it with me because of regulatory reasons. He said he would have a tech call me back with info tomorrow. For more info, you can call 1-800-622-0735. The guy I talked to was Steven, and he really knows what he was talking about (as opposed to the first droid who told me that "There is no service called ISDN or SDS." When I told him that it was a 'digital' phone line, he politely told me that _ALL_ Pacific Bell Exchanges are digital. *NOT* what I asked... :-) Steve cogorno@netcom.com #608 Merrill * 200 McLaughlin Drive * Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1015 ------------------------------ From: Michael L Winkelman Subject: Transborder Data Flow? Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 15:44:08 EST Organization: NovaLink, 800-274-2814 (voice) or 800-825-8852 (data) Does anyone out there know anything about encrypted transborder dataflow, more specifically the rules governing whether a country will allow data to flow into or thru that country in an encrypted manner, as opposed to the actual export of the programs that do the encryption? I've heard rumblings about various countries, like France, South Korea, etc. that either have laws in place saying that you are not supposed to telecommunicate in an encrypted manner into the country or even worse, you must give them the capability to decrypt what comes into the country encrypted? Is this true? Can anyone cite some actual laws or authorities? Mike mncwink@novalink.com ------------------------------ From: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) Subject: Online comments to U.S. Social Security Administration Date: 13 Jan 1994 05:11:38 GMT Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net [Although not strictly telecom related, I thought you might be interested in seeing this.] When I logged on to Youngstown Freenet tonight, I was greeted by the login message (I guess this is called the "Message Of The Day" in Unix circles) which contained the following blurb: > UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU: The Congressional Office of Technology > Assessment is conducting a multi-city "Teleforum" in which they are > seeking your thoughts on the Social Security Administration for a > study they are doing. Senior citizens (and those who someday expect > to BE senior citizens) are invited to participate. > Access the OTA TELEFORUM off the NPTN Special Projects on the main > menu and join in this rather interesting application of teledemocracy > at work ... I entered the forum and was able to pull the following "about" paragraphs. Two things to note: Apparently the "teleforums" are available on five popular Freenet systems (the ones in Buffalo, NY; Cleveland, OH; Denver, CO; Tallahassee, FL; and Youngstown, OH) and I would assume you need to have an account on one of those systems in order to participate (Internet users can telnet to all these systems, and they are accessible from many Gopher systems as well). Also, it appears that the Social Security Administration is considering making some or all of their services available via the Internet. This could be good or bad depending on whether proper attention is paid to privacy. However, one thing that personally disturbs me is that they are apparently at least considering elimination of mailing of checks to individuals, in favor of disbursements via "Electronic Fund Transfers or Electronic Benefit Transfers." My initial gut reaction to that is that this could have some real negative effects on privacy and individual liberty, because it would in effect force people to have an account at some financial institution in order to receive benefits. I won't comment further on that now because I haven't really thought about all the implications of this yet. Anyway, here's what I was able to pull off of Youngstown Freenet: ABOUT THE OTA TELEFORUMS Over the next five years the Social Security Administration (SSA) intends to spend about $1.1 billion on information systems procurement and modernization. Critics of SSA -- most notably the General Accounting Office -- say that SSA does not have a solid justification for this huge investment. That they have not shown that it will result in improved service delivery, or an improved work environment. To help settle this dispute both agencies turned to the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) to do a study of the issue. The OTA, in turn, has asked the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN) to set-up an electronic forum which would allow YOU to express your opinions on the matter. Here's how it works ... When you enter the TeleForums you will be able to select any (or all) of four issues to comment upon. The issues have to do with: 1) SOCIAL SECURITY AND CUSTOMER INTERACTION 2) NETWORK ACCESS TO BENEFIT FILING SERVICES 3) DISTRIBUTION OF BENEFITS 4) YOUR GENERAL SATISFACTION WITH THE SSA You then choose the issue you want to examine and READ THE FILE CALLED "README." This file will contain a summary of the issue and the kind of things we would like the discussions to focus on. Each of these forums will be running simultaneously on NPTN affiliates in five cities: Buffalo, NY; Cleveland, OH; Denver, CO; Tallahassee, FL; and Youngstown, OH. Thus, a comment from someone in Cleveland might be intermixed with something from a user in Tallahassee, followed by someone in Youngstown, or Denver, or Buffalo. PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU POST A COMMENT TO ANY OF THESE BOARDS IT WILL NOT APPEAR IMMEDIATELY. Your posting will first be routed to the NPTN machine in Cleveland for distribution to all five systems -- including back to the system of origin. Thus, it might be several hours before it is cleared for the network. In summary ... You are looking at one of the first attempts BY CONGRESS to use this medium on a national scale to hold discussions on the policy issues that are before it. Use it well. If you have any questions about this project, please feel free to contact Tom Grundner at: tmg@nptn.org or William Beasley at: wab@nptn.org <<< ISSUE #1: SOCIAL SECURITY AND CUSTOMER INTERACTION >>> The general question in this area is: How can the Social Security Administration improve customer interactions by utilizing telecomputing technology? You are free, of course, to comment on anything you'd like, but some specific questions or issues might include: * Should routine requests for such things as replacement Social Security cards be made available via the telecom- puting networks in addition to the present methods. * Should informational materials such as explanations of benefits be made available via the telecomputing networks. * Should earnings record be available utilizing the tele- computing networks. * If any of the above were done, specifically how do you think your life would be improved (or not-improved) by it? * Are there issues of confidentiality, data security, and privacy that bother you? <<< ISSUE #2: NETWORK ACCESS TO BENEFIT FILING SERVICES >>> The general question in this area is: Could this new technology help the Social Security Administration improve the process of filing for benefits? You are free, of course, to comment on anything you'd like, but some specific questions or issues might include: * Should the Social Security Administration allow for the filing of benefits via the telecomputing networks? * Should the Social Security Administration utilize the electronic networks to file for appeals and transfer records and supporting documents in regard to the substantiation of claims. * If any of the above were done, specifically how do you think your life would be improved (or not-improved) by it? * Are there issues of confidentiality, data security, and privacy that bother you? <<< ISSUE #3: DISTRIBUTION OF BENEFITS >>> The general question in this area is: What do you think is the best way for the SSA to distribute monthly benefits? You are free, of course, to comment on anything you'd like, but some specific questions or issues might include: * Should the Social Security Administration continue to mail checks to individuals or should all disbursements be made via Electronic Fund Transfers or Electronic Benefit Transfers? * In order to spread the workload of the Social Security Administration there is talk of changing the disbursement of benefits from the first of the month to a staggered payment date, i.e. 1st, 10th, 20th of the month. How would this effect you? Would you find it acceptable? * Should the Social Security Administration expand the use of the EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) in co-operation with other agencies. * Should the Social Security Administration work toward combining use of the EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) with various State government benefit programs? * If any of the above were done, specifically how do you think your life would be improved (or not-improved) by it? * Are there issues of confidentiality, data security, and privacy that bother you? <<< ISSUE #4: GENERAL SATISFACTION WITH THE SSA >>> The general question in this area is: To what extent have you been satisfied with your interactions with the Social Security Administration? You are free, of course, to comment on anything you'd like, but some specific questions or issues might include: * In the past year did you have occasion to contact the Social Security Administration? If so, tell us about that experience. * How did you contact them - In person visit to Social Security Administration Office - Telephone Call to local Social Security Administration - Telephone Call to 800 number of Social Security Admin. - Postal Mail - Community meeting with Field Representative of the - Social Security Administration - Other * On a scale of 0 to 5 with 5 being the highest rating, how would you rate your experience. * How long did it take for you to receive a satisfactory answer from the Social Security Administration? * If you visited the local office in person how long did you have to wait before you were seen? * If you telephoned, did you have any problems getting to talk to someone. * If you mailed a letter, how long did you wait before you received an answer? * Was the information provided to you understandable? * Would you be willing to utilize a telecomputing network to contact the Social Security Administration? * From your experience, how would you suggest the Social Security Administration improve their service to you? [End of information from Youngstown Freenet] As of January 10, 1993 there were no messages yet in any of the four forums, so I assume this is brand new. Remember, if you want to send comments on any of these issues, you need to log onto one of the five Freenet systems listed above. If you cannot do that for some reason, I suggest contacting one of the two NPTN people mentioned (Tom Grundner at: tmg@nptn.org or William Beasley at: wab@nptn.org) and asking for advice. Whatever you do, don't send your comments to me, because they will go nowhere from here! Jack ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #29 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id ab23704; 15 Jan 94 3:36 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06073 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 15 Jan 1994 00:17:53 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA02902 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 15 Jan 1994 00:17:34 -0600 Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 00:17:34 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401150617.AA02902@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #30 TELECOM Digest Sat, 15 Jan 94 00:17:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 30 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Norwegian CLID (was "Anonymous Call Rejection") (styri@balder.nta.no) Re: Technical Description of PBXs Wanted (Al Varney) Re: Internet <- > FIDOnet Mail/File Transfer (Alan Boritz) Re: ISDN: Coming Soon to my House? (Rob Knauerhase) Re: ISDN: Coming Soon to my House? (Robert L. McMillin) Re: All Wire Isn't The Same (Alain Fontaine) Re: All Wire Isn't The Same (ssatchell@bix.com) Re: All Wire Isn't The Same (Tom Watson) Re: Truckstop Calling Cards (Ed Greenberg) Re: Truckstop Calling Cards (Ben Cox) Re: Truckstop Calling Cards (John R. Levine) Re: Phone Line Simulator Wanted (Paul Cook) Re: Phone Line Simulator Wanted (ssatchell@bix.com) Re: Phonebook on CD-ROM/Internet? (Pat Barron) Re: Phonebook on CD-ROM/Internet? (Matthew Aldridge) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 21:55:16 +0100 From: styri@balder.nta.no Subject: Re: Norwegian CLID (was "Anonymous Call Rejection") In article mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk wrote: > Perhaps some of us do want to read the full argument. It would be > very enlightening to know how this issue is viewed in other countries > -- especially one like Norway whose telecommunications decisions > usually seem very well thought out. Well, there are two parts to this. One is implementing CLID, the other is giving ANI to other operators so that they may use that information for CLID. The first CLID customers in Norway will be ISDN users. However, the question is not only about technology. There's been a long discussion about the privacy considerations (from the originating end of the call). I'm not the right person to give a neutral account of that debate. The question about sending ANI out of Norway is in general covered by CCITT agreements. It may be done, but I don't like to open up that privacy debate once more. Wrt the privacy debate, it's funny to note that there wasn't much said about the privacy of the people being called. One reason for this may be that CLID was only viewed as available to ISDN customers, and that would mean business customers. Personally I look very much forward to the moment I can screen them late night calls. The privacy debate extends to detailed billing as well as CLID, but opposition comes from the comsumer rights people. Personally I was a bit bored at this stage, but I managed to stay just to watch the fun when the concept of "B number masking" was introduced. > Apart from the idea of doing all exchange modernisation and number > changes at ten to four in the afternoon ... on Thursday afternoons, > isn't it? If you think about the work usually noticed by the always important customers you're wrong. The final stage of such work is usually started at 5 pm Fridays. Thursday afternoon would be the time new number plans are implemented. Please don't ask what we do the other days ... Haakon Styri Norwegian Telecom Research *** std disclaimer applies *** ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 17:33:31 CST From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: Technical Description of PBXs Wanted Organization: AT&T In article mmr@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com (Mike Renault) writes: > Don Pelton writes: >> I'm looking for sources of good technical descriptions of PBX >> technology and standards. Can anyone suggest books, articles, >> newsgroups and/or other internet resources? Standards documents? > PBX standard for the US is ANSI/EIA/TIA-464-A-1989. > Title is "Private Branch Exchange Switching Equipment for Voiceband > Application". > My copy cost $67.00. This document is aimed towards the designers of > PBXs. Call Electrionic Industries Association in Washington DC to > order, sorry I don't have their phone number. My 10-year-old number for orders is: (202) 457-4966. The address: Electronics Industry Association 2001 Eye Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006 (Is there really an "Eye" street or is it "I Street" renamed?) Their Catalog of EIA/JEDEC Standards is about $10 -- good reference. To understand the Standards, you'll need the IEEE standards on test methods and measurements. Catalog of standards is free (last I heard), on 1-800-678-IEEE or +1 908 981-0600. Note that EIA-464 refers to PBX interface standards for connection to public networks. For PBX internal information, you'll have to pry that out of a talkative vendor -- other than UL, Nat. Elect. Code and Fire Code standards, PBXs have no standards. Witness the PC versions .... Seriously, some older PBX designs are described in various conference proceedings (NCF, ISS, IEEE, etc.). State-of-the-art PBX designs are unlikely to be publicly documented, unfortunately. Al Varney - just my opinion ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Internet <- > FIDOnet Mail/File Transfer From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 07:58:50 EST Organization: Harry's Place BBS - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 xyzzy@imagen.com (David McIntyre) writes: >> I would like to have some information on transferring mail between >> Internet/Bitnet and FIDOnet: >> 6. How should (binary) files be transferred? >> UUEncoded or so? > Yes. Excuse me, but files are NOT transferred through routed mail within FidoNet. Most gateways (including mine) will block such messages without prior arrangement. >> 7. Are FIDOnet users (especially points) able to order files from the >> SIMTEL collection or other public file systems? If yes, how? > I suppose they could, though a mail-server. No, not unless set up in advance. fidonet.org is set up to block mailing lists and ftp servers. Unlike the internet, most FidoNet routed mail is done through regular timed pots line calls, so each routed message carries a price tag. In general, if a message can't be entirely understood as plain language (clear text), it can't be sent via routed mail to a FidoNet system. Alan - f102.n2605.z1.fidonet.org aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place BBS (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ From: knauer@ibeam.intel.com (Rob Knauerhase) Subject: Re: ISDN: Coming Soon to my House? Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 18:19:47 PST Organization: Intel Mobile Software Lab, Hillsboro, OR In a previous message, Robert L. McMillin wrote: > [...] my switch is set up to handle ISDN! [...] According to my > friend, ISDN is currently tarriffed in California under a provisional > business class of service, which means that I'll pay probably a little > more per month ($35, I recall) than I might if there were an ISDN > available under a residential service plan. Nonetheless, it does seem > quite reasonable given the potential benefits. That depends on your usage; for me (in GTE Northwest land), it'd be much much more expensive than POTS lines. It might be for you, too, depending on how you plan to use it. After talking to five different people in the local GTE residential and business sales offices (favorite quote: "What is ISDN?", from two people in residential sales), I finally found someone willing to admit that they could sell me ISDN service. Interestingly enough, their price was $48/month for 2B+D, which would provide two voice lines and two phone numbers. This is about the same price as two unmeasured POTS lines -- what a deal. Of course, this is GTE. There has to be a catch. For data, they charge the same as measured-by-minute local calls. I asked if that mightn't be perhaps the silliest way to bill it (data calls by the minute), when a major benefit of digital telephony is that when I'm not using it, I'm _not using it_! (mostly) That of course didn't phase them. Even at pennies/minute, the advantage of faster speed is removed by cost when I can do plain-ol' 14.4K with compression for "free." Is _anyone_ bothering to campaign phone companies and Public Utilities Commissions so that we can get this tarriffed in a reasonable manner (at least in places other than Oregon)? [Side note for those keeping score: US West in Portland offers 2B+D for $90/month, no limit on data. Of course, you can't make an ISDN data call between GTE and US West just yet, but they're working on it.] Rob Knauerhase [knauer@ibeam.intel.com] Intel Mobile Software Lab ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 02:29 PST From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: ISDN: Coming Soon to my House? On Thu, 13 Jan 1994 16:20:27, MCINTIRE@imagen.com (David McIntyre) said: > In article rlm@helen.surfcty.com > (Robert L. McMillin) writes: >> The thread about quantization and signal/noise on a POTS line has me >> thinking that maybe all this will be increasingly obsolete. According >> to the 800 number posted recently on this forum, my switch is set up to >> handle ISDN! > What is this 800 number again? 800-995-0346 Of course, this is in Pac*Bell land only. Additional news: while the site survey hasn't been done yet, I'm assured by someone else locally that Pac*Bell will install any needed repeaters free, a big turnaround from the days when that company required big fees to extend digital services. But the best news is yet to come. According to my friend the ISDN reseller, the new rate card for Pac*Bell digital services shows some BIG price cuts. Unfortunately, I don't have the info with me, but suffice it to say that T1 will be nearly cheap enough to be within reach of the residential high-volume talker -- around $135 a month is what I remember him saying. (But there's still an impossibly high installation fee of around $700.) And get this: no per-mile charges out of the CO. Switched 56 and SDS (Pac*Bell's ISDN offering) will be substantially cheaper. It may not be very long before we start talking about residential T1-class services. (I hope that before this becomes reality, Pac*Bell drops the $0.01/min for local calls it charges under the provisional business tarriff; residential service is residential service!) I expect that one of the hot topics this year will be T1 and/or ISDN ISA and NuBus cards, this supplanting the continuous dull roar of speculation and hearsay surrounding the ITU's v.37 standard-in-progress. While it's premature to predict the demise of the analog modem, its last hurrah is in sight. Robert L. McMillin | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Netcom: rlm@netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The message referenced above posted by David McIntire was an unauthorized posting to Usenet's comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup which has since been cancelled by myself so as a result it was not seen by the list readers. PAT] ------------------------------ From: fontaine@sri.ucl.ac.be (Alain Fontaine) Subject: Re: All Wire Isn't The Same Organization: Universite Catholique de Louvain Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 13:47:18 GMT In article , oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) wrote: > In John Warne <19064001@SBACVM.SBAC.EDU> > writes: >> The cross-sectional view of one wire reveals the plastic outer sheath >> is formed around the conductors in a cloverleaf-like pattern, holding >> a certain relationship between the conductors for the length of the >> cable (AT&T *used* to make their two-pair stuff this way), resulting >> in less crosstalk between pairs. > I am sure the person posting this is well-intended, but I fear that > through inadvertence the phrasing used may make people buy wire other > than the stuff they wanted to buy. > This is Bad Wire For Two-Line Use. It is the cloverleaf type wire > mentioned above. Many Readers Have Reported Cross-Talk With Such > Wire. The phone company here uses such cable to install the underground ties to the master cable below the street. When I had a second line installed, they just took the second pair. I have no crosstalk problems, and despite the fact that my house is about 100 meter (330 ft) away from the street. Just another data point ... /AF ------------------------------ From: ssatchell@BIX.com (ssatchell on BIX) Subject: Re: All Wire Isn't The Same Date: 14 Jan 94 17:25:01 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation A brief follow-up to Carl Oppendhal's excellent description of the evil of older inside wiring: In debugging crosstalk problems, I'm finding more and more that people who have installed twisted-pair wire don't understand that telephone signals HAVE TO TRAVEL OVER THE PAIR properly to avoid crosstalk. If you use, for example blue/white and orange/white, the telephone signal isn't travelling properly through a pair, but instead is using one wire from each twisted pair. Hooking a second line up will virtually guarantee crosstalk. Also, I've seen installations which connect the ring lead of two phone wires together. This effectively unbalances the pair from the connection point all the way back to the central office, which makes for huge cross- talk problems. Routing of unshielded twisted-pair is important, too. Keep it at least two inches away from any metal object such as water pipes, gas pipes, iron sewage lines, air ducts, electrical conduit, or electrical power wiring. (Don't sweat nails or the occasional pipe hanger.) The original intent of the separation was to provide air space between telephone wire and grounded objects such that a lightning strike wouldn't arc over and damage the wire, but the practice has proven to benefit crosstalk, too. If you can't avoid running next to metal, consider using shielded twisted-pair wire instead. You need only an overall shield, not a shield around every pair. Care in wiring makes all the difference in the world. Stephen Satchell, Principal Satchell Evaluations, Incline Village, Nevada USA Testing modems for magazines since 1984 ------------------------------ From: tsw@cypher.apple.com (Tom Watson) Subject: Re: All Wire Isn't The Same Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 17:53:17 -0800 Organization: Apple Computer (more or less) All this talk about twisting wires and such reminds me of the various outside open-wire lines I see while driving about (Hint: usually near railroads). These have what are called "transpositions" which are magical four-insulator thingy-jobs (high-tech techinical term!) that twist the wires. The fact that they were needed was discovered long-long ago when the concept of long-distance was just being tested out. If one looks at early books, there are all sorts of formulas and diagrams for doing this operation. Perhaps a good history buff will look up some. Tom Watson tsw@cypher.apple.com ------------------------------ From: edg@netcom.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: Truckstop Calling Cards Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 16:17:34 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Those are called 'Talk Tickets' and > they are a bit expensive at 50 cents per minute of domestic use although Considering that they are paid for up front, talk tickets should cost no more than ten to fifteen cents per minute. Think about it. No billing, no uncollectables, no customer service, no credit for wrong numbers, no nothing. The cost of talk tickets should in no way exceed standard direct dialed rates. Anything more is a rip-off. Ed Greenberg edg@netcom.com Ham Radio: KM6CG ------------------------------ From: thoth@netcom.com (Ben Cox) Subject: Re: Truckstop Calling Cards Organization: Ancient Illuminated Bavarian Sears Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 19:30:05 GMT sp9183@swuts.sbc.com (Scott M. Pfeffer) writes: > Recently I was traveling home from Atlanta to St. Louis. I stopped at > a gas station somewhere in Tennessee or Kentucky for refreshments, > refilling, and relief, and noticed something very interesting in a PAT writes: > cards like this at a similar rate. Personally, I prefer the Orange > Card with its 25 cent per minute rate and no surcharge. PAT] Incidentally, I encountered a pay phone at a gas station along route 70 in Ohio or Indiana (i.e., somewhere between Pittsburgh and Indianapolis or so) that had a HUGE banner attached to it, with a picture of an orange and "Call home for 25 cents per minute" in orange on it. :) Ben Cox thoth@netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is correct. The Orange Communications people now have a collect service as well as a calling card. To try it out, use the number 1-800-TALK-4-25. Your call will be forwarded collect at that rate to whatever number you requested. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 18:53 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Truckstop Calling Cards Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > [At a truck stop] a stack of pre-authorized long distance calling cards. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Those are called 'Talk Tickets' ... > Western Union also has prepaid calling cards like this at a similar rate. So do Sprint and an outfit called Liberty Tel, both at rates closer to 33 cents/min than to 50 cents. It's not entirely clear to me who the target market is: people with no home phone (particularly students)? people who are too clueless to get a calling card? The anonymous call crowd? Evidently they do sell them, but I wouldn't have thought that the market was very large. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 13:06 EST From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Phone Line Simulator Wanted dej@eecg.toronto.edu (David Jones) writes: > I am in need of a phone line simulator. It will be used to verify the > functionality of modems for a large computing network. > This device need not be complex -- I need dial tone, DTMF detection, > ring signal generation and an analog path whose noise characteristics > approximate that of a real phone line (i.e. 3300 Hz BW, -34 dB S/N). Any of the Proctor Telephone Demonstrators will do this. There are three models, from two to four lines, and the newest one will also do Caller ID and CENTREX emulation. Contact Proctor via email, fax or phone at one of the numbers below for more information. Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5378 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: ssatchell@BIX.com (ssatchell on BIX) Subject: Re: Phone Line Simulator Wanted Date: 14 Jan 94 05:18:25 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation dej@eecg.toronto.edu (David Jones) writes: > I am in need of a phone line simulator. It will be used to verify the > functionality of modems for a large computing network. > This device need not be complex -- I need dial tone, DTMF detection, > ring signal generation and an analog path whose noise characteristics > approximate that of a real phone line (i.e. 3300 Hz BW, -34 dB S/N). > Any ideas as to where I can get one cheap? Even used? David, The cheapest I'm aware of is the PTT 5101, if you can find one used. They are located in Huntsville, AL and you can call (205) 971-8001 for more information. Old TAS boxes are out there as well, like the original Model 100. You can check with TAS at (908) 544-8700. To round it all out, Consultronics (formerly AEA) has a box as well, but I haven't heard of used ones for sale as Consultronics has been upgrading existing boxes; try (613) 225-6087 and see what they say. Teltone has some boxes, but they don't have the right loss characteristics. If you prefer, you can get these phone simulators on rental if your need is short-term, and the rental prices are coming down on the older units. Another option is to find a company with the capability of performing the testing for you. There is Henderson Communications in San Moreno CA at 909-788-8849, or Satchell Evaluations (me) could do it (I'm at 702- 832-7157) for perhaps much less than you could get a simulator. If you are looking for go/no-go acceptance tests, it should cost you very little to use one of the independent test labs. Stephen Satchell, Satchell Evaluations Testing modems for magazines since 1984. ssatchell@bix.com, 70007.3351@compuserve.com, sts@well.sf.ca.us ------------------------------ From: Pat_Barron@transarc.com Subject: Re: Phonebook on CD-ROM/Internet? Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 16:12:42 -0500 Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA ebcguss@ebc.ericsson.se (Claes Gussing) writes: > I was wondering if one can get the phonebook on CD-ROM in the U.S? I > know this wouldn't work in Sweden, since we have some law about > keeping personal data on automatically readable media (as the phone- > book wouldn't be, with OCR ...). I thought maybe in the U.S. this > would work. A CD-ROM carries 650 Mbyte of memory, so some 5-10 disks > should carry the whole U.S! I just bought "PhoneDisc USA" at the local Egghead Software store. US$65.00 for two discs of residential listings (they claim 80 million listings from telephone directories across the country on the two discs). Pretty cool, except: * It's out of date as soon as it's published, * Only includes listed numbers (the company has phone numbers from sources other than telephone directories, but they seem to filter out unlisted numbers on these discs - I don't think they do that on their commercial discs), * You can only search on a person's name, and then limit the search based on their address, city, state, zip, or area code - i.e., can't "reverse lookup" a phone number to see who it belongs to. The target audience for this package is apparently people who have a PC in their home, and just want an on-line phone directory - it's not targetted for commercial usage (the company that sells this - sorry, I don't remember who it is - has other products for business use, with things like "reverse lookup" capability, which they will be happy to sell you ...). I wouldn't put up a server with this info on the net, due to licensing restrictions from the database provider. Pat ------------------------------ From: psyjmja@unicorn.ccc.nottingham.ac.uk (Matthew Aldridge) Subject: Re: Phonebook on CD-ROM/Internet? Date: 14 Jan 1994 22:02:48 GMT Organization: Cripps Computing Centre, University of Nottingham For the interest of those overseas the UK phonebook is available on CD-ROM from British Telecom. It is called Phonebase and subscription costs are quite high, but I guess overseas purchasers may get a special deal. If you want it though I'd get in there quick because they seem to be on the verge of a major policy change -- mainly price increases. Phonebase is also available online, but only currently at V22bis -- ask BT. Later, Matt JD Aldridge Room A13a, Lincoln Hall, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2QU, England mja@cs.nott.ac.uk Arcade BB +44 (81) 654-2212 & +44 (81) 655-4412 User #184 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #30 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa25246; 15 Jan 94 11:32 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10421 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 15 Jan 1994 08:18:18 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15206 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 15 Jan 1994 08:18:00 -0600 Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 08:18:00 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401151418.AA15206@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #31 TELECOM Digest Sat, 15 Jan 94 08:18:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 31 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Call Waiting/Three-Way Together (Michael Israeli) Re: Call Waiting/Three-Way Together (Mike King) Re: Call Waiting/Three-Way Together (Ron Schnell) Re: NYTel/NYNEX Dusts Off Rotary Payphones (Linc Madison) Re: NYTel/NYNEX Dusts Off Rotary Payphones (B. Z. Lederman) Re: New York Telephone Issuing "New" Rotary Phones (Danny O'Bedlam) Re: New York Telephone Issuing "New" Rotary Phones (Richard Cox) Re: New York Telephone Issuing "New" Rotary Phones (Steve Hutzley) Re: Distinctive Ringing and Ring Detectors (Kevin Ray) Re: Distinctive Ringing and Ring Detectors (Thomas Chen) Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones (Mark) Re: 50 Pin Connector Help Wanted (Chris Oxenreider) Re: Voice Mail HW Wanted (David L. Anderson) Re: Possible Internet Service Scam (Tim Gilman) Re: Possible Internet Service Scam (James Taranto) Re: Possible Internet Service Scam (Andrew M. Cohn) Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? (Drew Dean) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: izzy@access.netaxs.com (Michael Israeli) Subject: Re: Call Waiting/Three Way Together Date: 14 Jan 1994 19:21:33 GMT Organization: Net Access - Philadelphia's Internet Connection > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Try getting an actual three way call installed > between CW and 3WC (because flashing the hook could cause one thing to > hand you a CW at that point in time does your flash mean you want to > accept the new call or connect the other two. Since maybe you do not > want that to happen (the two you dialed to be joined together) telco > has chosen to block CW for that limited period of time. Let us know. PAT] Well, I attempted the following: 1) I originated a call to a friend; 2) I flashed the line, got the three beeps, and a dial tone. I then dialed another friend; 3) After I said "Hello", I flashed the line so we were all connected and started to chat; 4) I picked up LINE 2 in my house, and dialed my number, BUSY! So, I placed another call to Bell of PA. I explained again my situation, receiving a CW tone during a three way call. The agent looked into some book she had, and explained to me that I live in an area with a "5E" switching system, in which CW and 3WC can have NO interaction. Whereas my friend who lives in a different area has a "1A" switching system, where they DO interact! Now, those two numbers I only put down from memory, so I may be wrong. The only thing I have noticed different between my system and his is that when he gets a CW and I am online, I hear a CLICK, and when I get a CW, the person on the phone with me gets one second of silence. Also interesting is that on his system, if he calls me three way, and in the middle of the call he gets a CW, when he switches to that CW line, I can actually keep talking to the other party! It is a pain that my line is busy during 3WC, because I ordered CW for the specific reason of NOT loosing calls! Are there any specific questions I should ask the phone company, or just give up on this one? Michael Israeli izzy@netaxs.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Give up on it then. The generics in your CO are the way they are. Other places work differently. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mk@TFS.COM (Mike King) Subject: Re: Call Waiting/Three-Way Together Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 14:22:54 PST In TELECOM Digest, V14 #24, izzy@access.netaxs.com (Michael Israeli) asks: > In my house, I have call waiting and three-way calling installed on [...] > call. Now, the problem is that when I am on a three-way call, my line > becomes busy, allowing no calling to come through. I know other > people in different areas who can be on a a three-way call and still > receive call waiting. What is the reason for this difference? I > called Bell of PA, and they said that it just wasn't available in my > area. Anyone know? and Pat replied that it depends on whether the 3WC is established or is in the third-party consultation phase when the incoming call arrives as to whether or not it will invoke CW. Most switches can be configured to either allow or disallow CW during a 3WC *after* all parties in the 3WC are connected. I once had CW & 3WC from a 1A, and I could get a CW beep during a 3WC. My friends served from the 5E in the next town could not. I doubt that any mere mortals could get Bell of PA to enable it. ;-) Mike mk@tfs.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 13:00:41 EST From: Ron Schnell Subject: Re: Call Waiting/Three-Way Together > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are two types of 'three-way' calls. > If you are in 'consultation' you have pressed the hook, dialed a number > and are talking with a third person while leaving the second person on > hold. Situations like that will result in a new caller getting a busy > signal. If however you have flashed, dialed the third party and gotten > him on the line, then flashed again so that the three of you are talking > then call waiting should become available once again. At that point if > there is a call waiting, flashing will leave your two three way parties > (from your outgoing call) on hold unable to speak to each other while > you take your new incoming call. The reason a busy signal has to be We have been through this before, I thought. Most switches will *not* allow you to get call waiting during the three-way call. Of all of the places where I travel during the year, only one allows the call waiting, and that is in Miami, FL. My friend down the road who is in a different CO cannot use it. I remember someone saying that it is enabled by default on 1ESS, but not 5ESS. This was about a year ago in this group. Ron (ronnie@space.mit.edu) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: All I can vouch for is what can be done in some exchanges here. Other places are different. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: NYTel/NYNEX Dusts Off Rotary Payphones Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 00:54:53 GMT Paul R. Coen (PCOEN@DRUNIVAC.DREW.EDU) wrote: > A NYNEX official was shown on the local news (WABC, channel 7) saying > that these phones "couldn't" be used to trigger a pager. Gee, and > DTMF tone generators are so hard to come by. The only thing I can think of that could make that statement true is that it is apparently possible to design the telephone hardware to block the DTMF frequencies coming through the handset. I had an AT&T phone and a Commodore VIC-20 modem some many years ago. The phone was one of the first with the "limited-travel" buttons on the keypad, around 1982. The modem plugged into the handset cord and sent DTMF tones down the wire to dial, using your base unit phone for everything else. On the old phone I had, it worked fine, but on the AT&T phone, it wouldn't even break dialtone. I called AT&T and they told me that they had deliberately designed the phone not to allow DTMF through the handset, although they steadfastly refused to say why. I don't have any tech specs on this point, and in fact no longer own that phone, so I can't tell you anything beyond that. Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ From: "B. Z. Lederman" Subject: Re: NYTel/NYNEX Dusts Off Rotary Payphones Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 14 Jan 94 07:56:38 -0500 Organization: DECUServe In article , "Paul R. Coen" writes: > Yup, that's right. The return of the pulse-dial, rotary, bleed to death > while dialing 9-1-1 payphone. > They apparantly tried this in one or two areas already, and it did cut > down on the number of people hanging around by the phones on corners. > However, in some of the new areas, touch-tone phones are as close as > across the street from the "new" rotary phones. So the genuine NYNEX phones are rotary, and the drug dealers will go across the street to the touch tone phones which are owned by COCOTS and the other 'rip-off' companies. It will be interesting to see which group of crooks succeeds in stealing the most from the other. [Note to the humor impaired: that was sarcasm, with a touch of bemused irony.] Bart Z. Lederman ------------------------------ From: dfl@panix.com (Danny O'Bedlam) Subject: Re: New York Telephone Issuing "New" Rotary Phones Date: 14 Jan 1994 02:41:17 -0500 In V2ENA81%OWEGO@zeta.eecs.nwu.edu writes: > What I would like to know is, doesn't NYNEX realize that these people > will simply walk into their local Radio Shack and pick up a personal > tone dialer designed specifically for dialing touch tones on these > "new" rotary-only lines? As Pat pointed out, NYNEX knows all too well. Further, this is incentive for those who need the tone servies, criminal and honest citizens alike to make more use of COCOTs in the face of NYNEX foolish move. I'm in favor of restricted incoming calls to payphones, as much as I'd prefer the option of having someone call me back on a street corner, if its in a pinch, and I've run out of nickels. Last thing we need in NYC is more COCOTs! Danny Lieberman PO Box 3131 Church St Sta New York NY 10008-3131 [USA] dfl@panix.com, danny@echonyc.com, lieberd@cbc.com NYC & Environs Bicycle mailing list: ebikes-request@mailhost.panix.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 20:55 From: Richard Cox Subject: Re: New York Telephone Issuing "New" Rotary Phones Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk Kriston J. Rehberg [krehberg@vnet.IBM.COM] said: >> What I would like to know is, doesn't NYNEX realize that these people >> will simply walk into their local Radio Shack and pick up a personal >> tone dialer designed specifically for dialing touch tones on these >> "new" rotary-only lines? Is anyone going to tell NYNEX that it is >> simply wasting its and its customers' money? And PAT replied: "Telco knows very well what you are saying is correct". It may not be. Over here some systems are capable of filtering out the MF tones so that even if the keypad enabled MF, it just wouldn't get through. In fact this is necessary on some PABXs where the MF digits dialed are processed by the switch before sending to line -- otherwise the CO would see the same digit twice, and generate a wrong connection. And if we can do it, the RBOCs certainly can. They may not be doing it now -- it is after all a political issue, not a telecomms issue, but if the community still sees the telco as the villain, even when tone dialers are used, it would be a very simple matter for the telcos to put MF filters in. Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 956 700111 Fax: +44 956 700110 VoiceMail: +44 941 151515 E-mail address: richard@mandarin.com - PGP2.3 public key available on request ------------------------------ From: hutzley@ranger.enet.dec.com (Steve Hutzley) Subject: Re: New York Telephone Issuing "New" Rotary Phones Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 17:08:11 GMT In article , V2ENA81%OWEGO@zeta.eecs. nwu.edu writes: > New York Telephone (now NYNEX) in New York City has elected to install > rotary-dial phones, on request, in communities and areas where other > drug fighting measures have failed. They are installing them because > they say that rotary phones can't be used on the pager services that > these drug dealers use to communicate. > What I would like to know is, doesn't NYNEX realize that these people > will simply walk into their local Radio Shack and pick up a personal > tone dialer designed specifically for dialing touch tones on these > "new" rotary-only lines? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Telco knows very well what you are > saying is correct. It makes these adjustments (rotary dial, no incoming > service, no coin-paid calls during overnight hours) to accomodate the Now, Wouldn't make sense for the TELCO to go all the way here. I mean, if they are going back to rotary, blocking incoming calls, no coin calls after dark...etc, why cant they install a DTMF filter in the line (this should be simple, looking at the frequencies of DTMF - OK, its right in the middle of the voice band -- its an outside phone). Just disabling the DTMF on the line wouldn't work, because the phone could be dialed with the rotary, then DTMF'd with the pocket dialer (when the pager line has been reached.) Comments invited, Steve ------------------------------ From: kevray@MCS.COM (Kevin Ray) Subject: Re: Distinctive Ringing and Ring Detectors Date: 14 Jan 1994 03:46:30 -0600 Organization: MCSNet Services Bob Rankin writes: > Just saw an ad for a gizmo that will decipher the unique ringing cadence > for up to four lines and route them to a specified telephone device. > Using this device ($75) along with distinctive ringing ($6/mo) sounds > like a wonderful alternative to having separate lines installed for > fax, modem, answering machines, etc. Kinda like a poor man's DID! > Anyone have any experience with these devices? Any drawbacks? I have one (for sale :-). I used it for about a month and became VERY unhappy with it (in IL). It did not always 'decipher' the incoming ring and thus just let it ring and ring and ring. I also use AT&T's switch box (pressing #1 transfer to yet ANOTHER 'fake' line -- good for modems, faxes, multi answering machines, etc) and the multi-ring box with this little toy did not work together nicely (ie: MAJOR voltage problems ON the phone line). The unit was nice in that if the line was in use and you tried to pick up another one of the lines it gave a fake busy signal (though not fake enough for a modem to get it). Considering the number of calls I lost (both voice and data) I quickly decided to make the second number a 'real' number and trash the unit. FYI: I exchanged the original unit thinking it may be a bad one with no luck with the 'new' one. I could not sell this thing to ANYONE and go to sleep at night. Just so you know the one I have is called "Ring Decipher" by Command Communications, Inc (Aurora, CO). It may very well be a good unit and just not compatible with my telcom supplier (Ameritech). I would have returned it, but lost the receipt. :-( ------------------------------ From: tchen@sdesys1.hns.com (Thomas Chen) Subject: Re: Distinctive Ringing and Ring Detectors Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 19:18:11 GMT Organization: Hughes Network Systems Inc. What is the spec for distinctive ring? Is this an American phone feature or is it a CCITT type of specifcation? Thanks, Tom ------------------------------ From: markr@mot.com (Mark) Subject: Re: Landlines Pay Airtime To Call Some Cellular Phones Reply-To: markr@mcil.comm.mot.com Organization: MCIL Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 17:36:07 GMT In article oakes@wildebeest.cig.mot.com (Ronald Oakes) writes: > In article John Levine writes: >>> Charging the land-line caller to a cellular number makes >>> perfect sense to me. >> In the abstract, it makes some sense. On the other hand, surcharged >> ... > There already is blocking for 1-579, and 1-976 blocking, at least for > ..... > This simple solution removes many of the problems with charge calls > that become present when you allow seven digit toll calling. This > would have prevented -- or at least lessened -- the New York pager > scam, and can reduce the problems with 976 numbers. What was the NY pager scam? Mark [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The 'New York pager scam' involved this guy who took out a very expensive (to call) phone line on the 540 (?) exchange in New York City. That exchange *only when calling from the LATA (212/708/914/516?)* charges the callers in the same way that 900 or 976 service works elsewhee. This guy had a line which cost the calling party something like $20-30 each time they dialed it and he sent page messages to (apparently) thousands of pagers in the area asking them to call him back on his expensive number ... they responded by the thousands and he got a nice commission from telco -- just like you would get if you ran a 900/976 service. The people who called got very large charges on their phone bill, and the guy made a mint from it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: oxenreid@chaos.cs.umn.edu Subject: Re: 50 Pin Connector Help Wanted Organization: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 22:36:58 GMT In jspinnow@netcom.com (John Stewart Pinnow) writes: > A 50 pin connector. Used for a phone system. What are the pin layouts > for it? > Does anyone have a description? Well, I do not have a "from the book answer", though having put more than a few dozen together my self, I can give you a dim memory review of them (aka it has been two years since I crimped one). Looking at the connector: The cable is going down, and the male/female part is in your face. From the top left, the first copper strip is the white/blue wire. Opposet of it on the right side is the blue/white wire, and thus makes a pair. Now, just step through the color codes and you step through all 25 Pair of lines on that cable. Chris Oxenreider (Electronics Technician) oxenreid@chaos.cs.umn.edu ------------------------------ From: dlander@idss.nwa.com Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 17:16 CST Organization: Northwest Airlines, Inc. Subject: Re: Voice Mail HW Wanted In article , Joseph I. Ceasar wrote: > am looking for voice mail cards that can be fully programmed. I > [stuff deleted] > The question is where do I find voice mail cards? > I have one from Talking Technologies, but it supports only two > lines/card. I need something that can support four lines/card. I've > heard of a Canadian company called Bicom, but cannot locate them! > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Dialogic also makes voice mail cards > capable of handling four lines. They are (I think) in Parsippany, NJ. PAT] My wife's business uses a card referred to as Watson. I called the company for some specifics (it came bundled with some software) and they told me at the time that they have products that will support four lines and you can have multiple cards per system. Unfortunately I don't recall the name of the company or the exact city -- Boston suburb, I think. If you send me a note via E'mail I'll dig up the information at home this evening and respond to your note privately. Overall, I'd say that we're pleased with the product. I've made modifications to the incoming routing routines and found that programming the card was very easy. The vendor states that there is a company in Canada that sells a 'C' library for custom applications -- something I'd very much like to get my hands on! David L. Anderson Voice: 612.726.0775 Northwest Airlines, Inc. dlander@idss.nwa.com Fax: 612.726.0521 Dept J3750 uspf2172@ibmmail.com 5101 Northwest Drive St. Paul, MN 55111-3034 ------------------------------ From: tdgilman@iris-1.CE.Berkeley.EDU (Tim Gilman) Subject: Re: Possible Internet Service Scam Date: 15 Jan 1994 03:46:38 GMT Organization: Dept. of Structural Engineering, UC Berkeley Les Reeves writes: >> From: Scott A. Ward 703-614-4719 [deletions] > 3. They claim your E-mail address would be @iia.org. However: > a. No iia.org is listed in the hq.af.mil hosts table > b. No iia.org is listed in the acq.osd.mil hosts table > c. No iia.org is listed is the INTERNIC 'whois' database > d. No iia.org is listed using the INTERNIC 'netfind' Internet lookup > In other words, IIA.ORG does NOT, at this time, exist. info@iia.org autoresponds with info on the organization. It claims that if you use their 800 number, charges will be billed to your credit card, but no charges will be billed if you the local or long distance number. Tim ------------------------------ From: taranto@panix.com (James Taranto) Subject: Re: Possible Internet Service Scam Date: 14 Jan 1994 23:15:29 -0500 Organization: The Bad Taranto IIA does appear to be a legitimate operation, based on the following: 1. I sent them a credit card number over a month ago, and though I have not yet heard back from them, there have been no unauthorized charges to my account. 2. There is, in fact, a WHOIS listing for iia.org, and it is possible to telnet to the address (I believe it's mary.iia.org). 3. I have heard a report of at least one person (friend of a user of my server, panix.com) who has gotten connected with an account. Cheers, James Taranto taranto@panix.com ------------------------------ From: andy@clark.net (Andrew M. Cohn) Subject: Re: Possible Internet Service Scam Date: 14 Jan 1994 16:42:14 GMT Organization: Clark Internet Services, Inc., Ellicott City, MD USA For whatever it's worth, I forwarded the IIA my application about 7 weeks ago. The other day, I received a call from a real live person in their NJ office. They wanted me to give them my fax number or home address again, since it got lost in the shuffle. I did so, and they advised me that I am being put into the system, and that I will receive my "Welcome Aboard" packet in about two weeks. So we'll see ... andy@clark.net ------------------------------ From: ddean@robadome.com (Drew Dean) Subject: Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? Date: 14 Jan 1994 17:34:30 -0800 Organization: ROLM - A Siemens Company If you have an American Express card, it's easy. You call MCI (I think Sprint also has a similar deal), and they'll setup an account where they bill your Amex card. In the US, there's an 800-extender for long distance. When I was in Austria last year, I had no problem using MCI's service there to call an 800 number here (I don't know what carrier the recipient used.) The call just showed up on next month's Amex bill. BTW, using the MCI service was substantially cheaper than the Austrian PTT, about $1.30/minute vs $1.80/minute for the same call. Drew Dean (408) 492-5524 ddean@robadome.com ROLM, a Siemens company ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #31 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa25646; 15 Jan 94 12:31 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA13401 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sat, 15 Jan 1994 08:54:21 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15753 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sat, 15 Jan 1994 08:54:03 -0600 Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 08:54:03 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401151454.AA15753@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #32 TELECOM Digest Sat, 15 Jan 94 08:54:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 32 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Unmetered Local Service (Jack Decker) Re: Unmetered Local Service (David J. Greenberger) Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? (John R. Grout) Re: User Interface From Hell (Martin McCormick) Re: Rate of Change (Stewart Fist) Re: Methods to Prevent Stalking and Phone Harrassment (Michael D. Sullivan) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) Subject: Re: Unmetered Local Service Date: 14 Jan 1994 23:00:23 GMT Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net Reply-To: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) On Wed Jan 12 08:35:33 1994, lars@Eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) wrote: > A. Padgett Peterson (padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com) wrote: >>> everywhere I go I see regional carriers attempting to eliminate >>> "flat" and "unmetered" plans. As telecommuting and information >>> highway access begins to take hold, the elimination of unmetered >>> local service is the biggest threat to individual connectivity that I >>> can imagine. > About two years ago, I asked telecom readers for information about > local rates, because I had the same fear. My results indicated that > flat-rate local calling is readily available everywhere. Depends on what you mean by "flat-rate". If you mean that local calls are untimed, then you are probably correct. If, however, you mean that there is no charge for individual local calls, that is not the case in many areas. Ameritech in particular has tried to do away with no-charge local calls; they've been successful in Wisconsin and (I think) parts of Illinois. I think when we talk about this issue, there are a couple things to keep in mind: 1) Telephone CUSTOMERS do not want to be charged on a per-call or per-minute basis. This was actually put to a vote of the people in at least two states (Maine and Oregon, back in 1986 I believe), and in those states the people voted to ban mandatory measured service by a considerable margin. This was the case even though under the phone company proposal pending at the time, there would have been a cap on the maximum amount that could be charged for local calls (something like $19 as I recall). In at least those two states, there will be true flat rate service for the forseeable future. 2) If you consider the components of local telephone service, charging on a per call or per-minute basis generally doesn't make sense (except as an artificial means of raising revenue). The two major components involved in the provision of local telephone service are outside plant (the wires, cables, and terminal blocks and similar equipment that carry service to your home) and the central office switch. The costs for outside plant are totally unrelated to usage except in very rare circumstances. The wires and cables do not "wear out" faster through use. Most of the costs of maintaining outside plant is associated with replacement of aging facilities, repairing damaged equipment and cables, and upgrading equipment to keep up with growing populations. None of these occur with any greater frequency because a line is used more. From the standpoint of outside plant, whether a line is in use zero hours a day, 24 hours a day, or somewhere in between makes no difference whatsoever. In regard to central office equipment, the only time increased usage becomes a factor is when it is so high that extra call handling capacity must be added to the switch. Normally, telephone switches are designed to handle the maximum number of calls placed during peak calling periods and then some. Most residential customers do not place the majority of their calls during peak calling periods (that is, during the business day). For all practical purposes, once the central office switch has been installed, there are no additional costs to the phone company whether subscribers use their phones a lot or a little. Of course, there is the argument that the phone company can get by with installing a switch with lower capacity in the first place, if it can discourage phone usage. In my opinion, this sort of backward thinking is a disservice to customers. I can't imagine that in the grand scheme of things it costs the telco that much more to provide plenty of capacity right from the start, and it's a one-time cost that can be amortized over the life of the switch (which is at least ten to fifteen years, even with today's fast-changing technology). If anything, today's technology should make it possible to charge less for calls, especially local calls. For example, most interoffice trunking is now on fiber optic cables which provide far greater call capacity at less cost the the former system of interoffice copper cables. > In article dave_oshea@wiltel.com (Dave > O'Shea) writes: >> though I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see some alternative >> local loop providers selling a "flat-rate"-type service to people who >> are priced out of the market by the LEC's. > I rather doubt it; residential flat rate local calling is justified as > a giveaway of excess capacity that must be there in order to serve the > business community during "prime time". Alternate providers would tend > to establish rate structures that discourage residential customers so > that they don't have to build local plant to serve the low-volume > customers. There are a couple of reasons why I tend to think that may not happen. First, telcos are still regulated by state PUC's, and in at least some states alternative carriers will be required to serve all comers. For another thing, in some areas the current LEC's will be required to unbundle their local service offerings, charging separately for the use of outside plant (which will almost certainly be on an unmeasured basis) and for provision of dial tone from their switch. Alternate service providers in those states will be allowed to lease circuits (between the C.O. and the customer's premises) from telco on a month-to-month basis, and connect those to their own switches. In such areas there will be no disincintive to serve residential customers, since they won't have to build any outside plant. And it may well be that such alternate providers will choose to offer true flat-rate calling, at least between customers of their switch. Even in areas where the option to rent circuits from the telco doesn't exist, they may be able to get to residential customers via cable TV lines, small-cell wireless technology, or some other method that is usage insensitive. Another thing to keep in mind is that the heaviest users of residential phone service (other than teenagers) are personal computer users with modems. However, new technologies may be developed that effectively takes most of that traffic off of the phone wires. For example, there's no reason that full Usenet news feeds couldn't be transmitted direct to the home via small satellite dishes (or via a channel on the local cable TV system) ... the user would simply need a computer (or other "box") with enough intelligence to selectively retain only those newsgroups and articles of interest. Under such a system, the user would only need to make a call in order to transmit or recieve e-mail, or to upload Usenet news articles. I believe there is something similar to this available already, but it is priced out of reach of the home user (it's economical in some cases for those who want a full Usenet feed, however). But this cost could well drop as demand for access to the Internet rises. And beyond that, data communications are much more suitable for wireless technologies, since data users can tolerate small delays during periods of extreme congestion much more readily than voice users. So if telcos are figuring that they can make big bucks off of modem users if only they can charge for local calls, they might want to think further about that, since new technology could obsolete that particular use of the phone lines rather quickly if the need arises. >> One of the big reasons that long distance rates seem to "bottom out" >> somewhere in the 10 cents/minute rate, even for the most humongous >> customers is that the LD carriers have to pay most of that to the LEC >> for the local loop. Perhaps as the RBOCs are able to recoup something >> for those millions of unbillable hours of local connect time, this >> will ease up. > There is no inherent reason that a telco under rate cap (de)regulation > will lower the access charges charged to IXCs just because they obtain > a new revenue stream somewhere else. > On the other hand, a rational rate structure would charge the IXC > exactly the same as a local customer for what is essentially a local > call at each end of the long-distance call. A rational rate structure would charge all customers something remotely related to the actual costs associated with providing a particular service. Under a truly rational rate structure, your basic monthly bill would be much higher (as much as double what it is now, maybe even a bit more), but you'd have essentially free local calling within your home LATA (and maybe even adjacent LATA's), and very low cost calling to the rest of the country. Custom calling services would be provided free, or at very low cost (just enough to amortize any additional software costs required to provide those features). The problem with this is that most customers, especially residential customers (and especially senior citizens) would squawk like stuck pigs if their monthly phone rates doubled or tripled, even if you gave them free long distance calling to anywhere in the country. Actually, if local service were to be pretty much deregulated (and full competition allowed), I could conceivably see a day where you might pay, say, $35 - $40 per month and get free, unlimited local calling anywhere in your LATA. You'd then pay maybe about the same amount to a long distance company to get unlimited calling anywhere in the country (or at least within the continental U.S.). If you didn't have that much usage in a month, you'd have the option to be on a measured plan instead. I do not think this will happen until and unless there are some substantial changes in the current regulatory framework. Actually, about the only regulations that I would like to see (which we do NOT have now) would be ones that would prevent telcos from "bundling" service in such a way that you can only get circuits from them if you also get dial tone from them. >> If an employee is worth telecommuting, even a $4/hour connection >> charge is fairly minor in the face of, say, a $65,000 salary/benefits >> package. Even if you get charged that for eight hours a day, it's minor. >> Most employees who would best benefit from telecommuting are the ones >> who are well into long-distance calling areas. > Many telecommuters will have a local call to an internet carrier's > local Point Of Presence. Eight hours at $4/hour is $32 a day. This is > at least the equivalent of another hour's salary. Hardly negligible. I agree with this last point completely. I don't claim to be psychic, but I will predict that telecommuting will NEVER take off where there are per-minute charges involved. By that I mean it will never get to the point where anyone other than the top executives and maybe a very few other employees will be allowed to work outside the home. No company in their right mind would pay $32 a day for an employee to telecommute when that same employee could drive to work on under $5 worth of gas, and be physically present when needed. And keep in mind that it wouldn't be just the $4/hour in the example mentioned, there's also extra monthly charges for the extra phone lines required, plus equipment costs at both ends. It all adds up. >>> only advantage that I can see for the consumer would be that with >>> metered service, the subscriber would have a right to a call detail >>> listing the individual calls by called number, time, and duration. > Hahahaha hahaha ha ha ... he ho hummmm ... Here in Denmark, local > calls have been metered for many, many years -- by the pulse method. > Itemized billing is NOT available, and there would be an uproar from > office workers -- on privacy grounds -- if the telco were to start > itemizing bills. Itemized billing, like flat rate local calling -- is a > feature of the American telephone system; it has ended up that way > mostly by accident. Certainly there is no logic that says subscribers > have the right to an itemized bill. (There may, however, in many > jurisdictions be a PUC regulation saying so.) I am sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, I do not trust telco to do correct billing without having some way to check up on them. What do you folks do in Denmark when you get a bill that says you've used 100,000 units (meter pulses?) of service and you think it should be more like 1,000? Do you pay without protest? Do you refuse to pay and let telco disconnect your service for non-payment? Do you just assume that your telco so perfect that they never make mistakes? Or do you just figure that getting overbilled is part of the cost of having a phone? I'm sorry, but I don't like any of those options. Jack [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The thing Jack Decker and other pro- ponents of flat rate billing seem to forget or ignore is that in most instances of measured billing, the majority of telephone subscribers actually pay LESS for service than with flat rate. A small minority of the users -- mainly people with telephone intensive lifestyles such as modem users -- pay more. Where flat rate service exists, the rate is invariably evened out in such a way that telco still makes money based on average usage which tends to run high on the curve due to modem (and similar heavy volume) users. In other words, if you want to average it out and set a 'flat rate', telco still won't be the loser, but the majority of the users will be. He mentions two areas where people voted against measured service but exactly the opposite was the case in Chicago in the middle 1980's when IBT dropped its 'metro calling plans' in favor of pay-as-you-use it. Yes, the modem users screamed bloody murder, but all sorts of telephone users other- wise were happy to see their bill go down a couple dollars monthly. One of the major consumer organizations here endorsed the new plan without reservations. Flat rate calling plans work much the same way as insurance actuarial tables: let a few people in a given category cause some major expenses and everyone pays. I can't say that I benefitted from measured service here (in fact I wound up paying more than before by quite a bit) but it is a lot fairer to the 99 percent of the public who does not use modems or stay on a phone connection for hours at a time each day. PAT] ------------------------------ From: d.greenberger@cornell.edu (David J. Greenberger) Subject: Re: Unmetered Local Service Reply-To: d.greenberger@cornell.edu Organization: Young Israel of Cornell Date: 14 Jan 94 23:30:38 GMT lars@Eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) writes: > About two years ago, I asked telecom readers for information about > local rates, because I had the same fear. My results indicated that > flat-rate local calling is readily available everywhere. Not quite, if by flat-rate you mean no charge for local calls (as opposed to untimed service, carrying a per-call charge). As far as I know, it is not an option in New York City, although it is an option in other parts of New York State (such as Ithaca). David J. Greenberger (607) 256-2171 d.greenberger@cornell.edu ------------------------------ From: grout@sp17.csrd.uiuc.edu (John R. Grout) Subject: Re: How to Phone US 0800 Numbers From the UK? Reply-To: j-grout@uiuc.edu Organization: UIUC Center for Supercomputing Research and Development Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 21:44:25 GMT In atoscano@attmail.com (A Alan Toscano) writes: > In article MAARUF ALI, kcl.ac.uk> writes: >> Could someone please tell me how to phone US 0800 numbers from the UK? > Several previous replies suggested AT&T's USA Direct Service, but > stated that the service could only be used to call AT&T-serviced "800" > numbers. THERE IS NO LONGER ANY SUCH REQUIREMENT. > 2. You must be calling an "800" number which does not have a > geographic restriction against calls from the "gateway city" (in the > USA) which serves USA Direct traffic from the country you're calling > from. (This is unlikely, but possible. Most USA "800" numbers have no > such restriction.) Many nationwide USA "800" numbers used to have blackout areas in their service to avoid paying for calls from callers who were near _their_ gateway city (from which they were providing _their_ service) ... since current toll-switch technology can reroute such calls to cheaper incoming lines, this is probably not too common anymore ... and, one could assume that if a USA company (foolishly) listed a USA "800" number as the _only_ way to reach them, it would be reasonable to assume that it would be nationwide with no blackout areas ... so it would be reasonble to assume that one could reach them via USA Direct. However, nationwide USA "800" numbers may be sent to different places in different parts of the country (e.g., my insurance company's nationwide 800 number is sent to the nearest office) ... and many USA "800" numbers _do_ have geographic restrictions (e.g., a specific area code, a specific state, a specific group of states), and are unassigned (or even reassigned) in other parts of the USA. Several questions: 1. How would 800 Directory Assistance (which, for the benefit of readers outside North America, is 800-555-1212), handle calls coming through USA Direct? I can imagine an AT&T operator asking such a person "what area code are you calling from?", as they often do here, and the conversation taking a turn for the worse. 2. If a USA Direct caller thought they could reach the same office of a company multiple times through their USA "800" number, would they have any guarantee that each call would come through the same gateway city each time (so it would be routed to the same office each time)? At least, the post implies that there were different gateways when calling from different countries. John R. Grout j-grout@uiuc.edu Center for Supercomputing Research and Development Coordinated Science Laboratory University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ------------------------------ From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu (Martin McCormick) Subject: Re: User Interface From Hell Organization: Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 00:39:17 GMT The discussion of human engineering regarding telecommunication systems reminds me of the beautifully-done report on the history of Unix which was posted, recently. The report detailed the development of Unix and the philosophy behind it. There was a wonderful point made about the fact that each part of Unix is a small block in the overall scheme of things and that nobody can predict how these blocks will need to be arranged to do a certain job so they must be designed according to certain standards of input, output, and control in order to make them most useful. Unfortunately, this idea is still pretty foreign to many people who really should know better. We have a situation in which the computer operating systems gaining the most popularity use a graphical user interface instead of the command line or text-based interface which was the standard user interface until recently. The GUI or graphical user interface has been tauted as the end-all and be-all to make computing accessible to the general public. The problem is that the GUI makes access by blind people very difficult. Actually, it wrecks any kind of nonstandard I/O because we no longer have a situation in which input and output are separated from the program. The beauty of Unix and, to a lesser degree, such systems as CPM and DOS is that the original developers were smart enough to know that they could never cover all possible applications so they produced a set of great tools which allowed others to do like Isac Newton and stand on the shoulders of giants. GUI's are neither good nor bad in and of themselves, but they are a serious barrier to blind computer users and anybody else who needs to do things differently. Rather than choosing which interface works best for us, the software companies have in their most finite wisdom created a hideously complex operating system whose manuals are thicker than many metropolitan telephone books and whose only hard and fast rule is that the rules are constantly changing. There are several companies working on interfaces to both the Microsoft and Apple graphical operating systems, but users who have shelled out hundreds of Dollars to buy these programs report that access is still difficult and problematic. The problem is that there isn't a large market for this sort of special software and the amount of time and skill needed to develop it means that somebody will need to be paid well for their time. I have no complaint about that as much as I feel that the software companies have created a bad problem in that it is not easy nor trivial to get nonstandard forms of I/O. The ideal solution would be for the operating system companies to design their interfaces with vectors or hooks which could be easily used as the input to special software which could treat the operating system as a black box and concentrate on providing whatever output or control is necessary for the user to manage the system. Finally, while I don't know what will happen in the future, I can almost promise what won't happen. The companies who produce the spread- sheets, word processors, etc that we use will not, nor should they be expected to, produce programs for blind users or other people who need nonstandard access. If something isn't done to solve this problem in a meaningful way, the information age will be only a dream for some. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ Date: 14 Jan 94 21:09:51 EST From: Stewart Fist <100033.2145@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Rate of Change Quite frankly, I don't know whether Gordan Palameta is agreeing or disagreeing with me -- which is a bit of a let-down when you're trying to deflate a few overfed techno-egos! But his contribution about the ways we can now organise society better with computers is certainly true -- it's just that this is evolutionary, not revolutionary. What I was trying to say is that technological change is less disruptive, and *less* revolutionary these days, than it has been for most of the last hundred years -- while conventional wisdom (especially in the computer and communications industries) tries to make us believe that it is *more*. Technologists are not at the centre of the universe -- we are just one of the parts. Gordan Palameta writes: > The point is, when we consider the impact of airplanes, automobiles, > etc. from our perspective, we are really compressing eighty years of > history. A fair comparison with computers would require a similar > eighty-year perspective. But we can take an 80 year perspective. Before Henry Ford came along, motor cars and aircraft were toys for the technophiles and for the expert mechanics. There were eighty years of technological development, but only 20 years of social impact. It has been the same over the last eighty years with computers -- right from the days of Babbage and Pascal, if you want to stretch the word 'computer' that far. My estimate of 20 years really only covers the period when computers began to make an impact on the community, not when they were custom-made devices used for vote-counting, or calculating ballistics, or performing military decryption. The technophile sees the development of planes extending back to Kittyhawk, while the community sees aircraft-development only going back to the days of the Ford Triplane and ending with the Jumbo Jet nearly 30 years ago. What has happened to commercial aircraft since then is largely trivia from the customer's viewpoint. The jumbo jet flying today might be a much more sophisticated machine than the first 727 Jumbo twenty-five years ago, but from the customer's viewpoint, it is inferior if it doesn't have more leg room. The pilot may notice an improvement, but the passengers don't. This is just the point. In the area of computers and communications the technological complexity and ingeniuty being exhibited by the technologists, is not now being reflected in social impact -- or at least, it's being reflected in changes with are relatively minor when compared to those of the first decade or so of commercial PC production. PCs will soon be telephone peripherals, about as exciting as a modern-day telephone handset. The linkage between social change and improvements in technology has decline because we are moving from core effects, to the periphery. This is always the way with technologies -- which is why we must be careful with infinite extrapolations. The curve always flattens -- not because technological innovation lessens, but because it becomes less relevant. I was involved in making a television series on aircraft and airports around the world in 1966, and we visited the Concorde factory in France, then went on to Boeing in Seattle. The Boeing minders, at that time, were keen that we should concentrate on the swing-wing SST (SuperSonic Transport) -- which was the data superhighway of air- transport at the time. But they hardly mentioned the first Jumbo 747 that was rolling off the assembly line, because it was too mundane. So I totally agree with Gordan when he says: > When considering the impact of technology, we tend to focus too much > on things that are flashy and highly visible. A generation ago, > people figured that by now we'd be zipping around in rocket ships and > flying to work with our own personal jet packs. Few bothered to > predict simple things like fax machines. A good electronic mail system with national and international backbones (like the Internet, but extended to the wider community so everyone has access, as they do to the Postal Service) would be much more socially useful and productive than videophones and videoconfer- encing and fibre-to-the-home ... but where do we put our money? And e-mail technologies needed have been around for years -- it is just that e-mail is so cheap to implement, that it is impossible for the telecos to make a profit. So e-mail backbone services need to be public infrastructure, not commercial services run by telephone companies. The commercial operators have a conflict-of-profits: each one-cent e-mail message is one less 20-cent less phone or fax call. If we leave it to free-market enterprise and we'll never get a good service. I agree with most of Michael Jacobs remarks, except for: > Too often we forget that the history of our civilization is a > history of technological progress. Sure, technology is a major contributor -- but he is attempting to place technology at the centre of the universe again -- and equating "technology" with "progress". We are just one of the parts -- and a lot of our technologies are useless, counter-productive, ridiculously costly, or outright destructive. ------------------------------ From: mds@access.digex.net (Michael D. Sullivan) Subject: Re: Methods to Prevent Stalking and Phone Harrassment Date: 15 Jan 1994 01:23:39 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA nevin@cs.arizona.edu (Nevin Liber) writes: > A friend of mine (in Cook County, IL) is currently being stalked by a > mutual acquiantance of ours. This has been going on for over a year. > Unfortunately, the only evidence that my friend has is circumstantial > (eg: the phone calls temporarily stopped when the suspect went on > vacation, and resumed when the suspect returned back to IL). > Much of what the suspect is doing is in the way of harassing phone > calls, including calls from various payphones in the area where my > friend lives, calls at all hours of the day and night, calling pagers > and leaving my friend's phone number, etc. Contact the local prosecutor (e.g., state's attorney). Many states have a statute against harassment by wire. In New York, the crime is "aggravated harassment." When I was a law clerk for the NY DA's office many years ago, I worked on a case involving stalking in person and by telephone (250+ calls a day) by a jilted lesbian lover and the court entered an order prohibiting any attempt at telephone contact or personal contact based on the aggravated harassment statute. A secretary at my current law firm in DC was being stalked by an ex-husband, both in person and by telephone (at the office, at one point over 100 calls/hour), and we helped her get a court order prohibiting any calls or visits. When he continued, we got him thrown in jail. Michael D. Sullivan mds@access.digex.net avogadro@well.sf.ca.us Washington, D.C. 74160.1134@compuserve.com mikesullivan@bix.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #32 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa00468; 16 Jan 94 14:57 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06366 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 16 Jan 1994 11:39:24 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA05019 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Jan 1994 11:39:04 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 11:39:04 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401161739.AA05019@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #33 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Jan 94 11:39:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 33 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Unmetered Local Service (Jack Decker) Re: Unmetered Local Service (Fred Goldstein) Re: Unmetered Local Service (David A. Kaye) Re: Unmetered Local Service (Al Varney) Re: Unmetered Local Service (Bill Pfeiffer) Re: Unmetered Local Service (Cliff Sharp) Re: Unmetered Local Service (TELECOM Digest Editor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) Subject: Re: Unmetered Local Service Date: 16 Jan 1994 05:27:46 GMT Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net Reply-To: ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) In response to my recent article, Pat wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The thing Jack Decker and other pro- > ponents of flat rate billing seem to forget or ignore is that in most > instances of measured billing, the majority of telephone subscribers > actually pay LESS for service than with flat rate. A small minority > of the users -- mainly people with telephone intensive lifestyles such > as modem users -- pay more. Where flat rate service exists, the rate > is invariably evened out in such a way that telco still makes money > based on average usage which tends to run high on the curve due to > modem (and similar heavy volume) users. In other words, if you want > to average it out and set a 'flat rate', telco still won't be the > loser, but the majority of the users will be. He mentions two areas > where people voted against measured service but exactly the opposite > was the case in Chicago in the middle 1980's when IBT dropped its > 'metro calling plans' in favor of pay-as-you-use it. Yes, the modem > users screamed bloody murder, but all sorts of telephone users other- > wise were happy to see their bill go down a couple dollars monthly. > One of the major consumer organizations here endorsed the new plan > without reservations. Flat rate calling plans work much the same way > as insurance actuarial tables: let a few people in a given category > cause some major expenses and everyone pays. I can't say that I > benefitted from measured service here (in fact I wound up paying more > than before by quite a bit) but it is a lot fairer to the 99 percent > of the public who does not use modems or stay on a phone connection > for hours at a time each day. PAT] Pat, it sounds to me like you are willing to accept lower rates in the short term while giving up a considerable measure of control over your phone bill in the long run. I'm not arguing that people who take measured service don't often save money at first; in fact, I think it's been designed that way. The phone companies aren't above giving up a little revenue in the short term if they see the potential of making greater profits in the long run. My point, which you seem to have overlooked, is that the costs to the phone company are rarely increased by increased usage of telephone service, especially by residential customers. Therefore, it is arguably fairer to charge for phone service in a usage insensitive manner. The people of Maine and Oregon obviously thought it was fairer to do it that way. (By the way, I don't have much use for most "major consumer organizations"; I find they often have their own axes to grind. But, that's another topic for another time). You say that measured service "is a lot fairer to the 99 percent of the public who does not use modems or stay on a phone connection for hours at a time each day." I would agree with you IF the phone company's costs were being driven up by those customers, but I've yet to see any evidence that they are. Keep in mind that we're talking about residential customers here, and residential customers very seldom make heavy use of the telephone system during peak calling periods. Sure, a residential user may talk for hours at a time, but if it's in the evening when the central office which is loafing along at a fraction of its total call handling capacity, what does it matter? Keep in mind that since the phone company is a monopoly, they can juggle the rates any way they want. Suppose that when IBT introduced measured service in Chicago, they had chosen to price it in such a way that the average customer would have paid more than they did under the previous plan? They could have done that, you know, but obviously they wouldn't have had many takers for measured service if they'd done that. But if they had, perhaps now you might now be arguing that flat rate service is the better deal? I think that what many of the Baby Bells (and GTE) would like to do is get mandatory measured service in everywhere. Why? Because it makes rate increases easier to justify. Under flat rate service, when customers complain that their bills are too high, the PUC just might order the telco to lower their rates, or at least not approve any new rate increases. But when customers have measured service, then it's easier for telco to place the blame for high bills on customers: "If they want lower bills, they should make fewer calls!" Of course, if the day ever comes that virtually everyone has measured service, then telco can raise the rates so that the "average customer" is paying MORE than he would have under unmeasured service. You have to understand that there's a bit of psychology involved here. It's often easier to get a PUC to approve a rate increase of a penny or two per call than to approve an extra dollar or two per month on the total phone bill. It's like the AT&T commercials where they say "you're only saving pennies" without pointing out that as the units add up, so do those pennies. Right now, none of the Baby Bells have managed to get measured service throughout their service area, so they haven't been able to jack up measured service rates as much as they'd like to, because they know that regulators and consumers in other states would find out about the increases and use them as ammunition to forestall the implementation of mandatory measured service in the states where unmeasured service is still available. I think that instead of looking at Chicago as an example, it might be more instructive to look at places where virtually no flat rate service exists. Take Europe for example; even in countries where the phone system is fairly well developed, local phone charges are considerably higher than ours. I doubt you will find any place in the world (outside of the United States and Canada) where people can make as many calls and talk as long as the average person does here, and still receive a phone bill that's anywhere near as low as our bills are. A lot of those people would truly love the luxury of being able to pick up the phone and make a local call anytime they feel like it, without worrying about the costs. And what they have there is pretty close to what we would have here, if the telcos could get mandatory measured service put in place nationwide. One other thing, you always take swipes at modem users on this issue, but I think that's even a bit unfair for three reasons. First, many modem users are on business lines, and since most business lines are now measured, they're paying for their service anyway. Second, most residential modem users tend to make their calls in off-peak periods, so they're really not taxing the capacity of the phone system that much. But the third thing is that when most telcos here implement measured service, they charge on a per-call rather than per-minute basis. If we were to assume that the point of measured service was to discourage modem use, then it would make more sense to charge by the minute on local calls (because modem users tend to make longer calls), but that's done in VERY few areas of the country. It would make even more sense to charge extra only for calls made during the heaviest calling periods, but as far as I know, that's not done ANYWHERE in the United States for local calls. So I don't the the phone companies really have modem users (and people who stay on a phone connection for hours at a time) foremost in mind when they implement mandatory measured service, even if you think they're a major target. The bottom line is that while measured service may seem like a deal now, I would not assume that such will always be the case. This is the phone company's version of a "loss leader", something to convince you (whether "you" is the individual residential customer or the PUC of a state) that measured service is a good deal ... and never mind that there may be price increases around the corner. Think, Pat ... their costs are NOT usage based, and they can juggle the price of either measured or unmeasured service to make either one seem like the better deal at any point in time. Therefore, saying that measured service is "better" because the majority of customers are saving money with it is in reality making a value judgement based on the conscious actions of the phone company to make measured service a better deal AT THIS POINT IN TIME. When it's the ONLY deal available, you may suddenly find it's not such a bargain. Jack ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 00:19:06 -0500 From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Subject: Re: Unmetered Local Service Imagine, if you will, a new telephone rate structure announced by your local Bell company, say, Ameritech. Henceforth, your monthly residential rate will be $2 + $1 for each letter of the alphabet removed from "A". Thus Abolafia will pay $2, Bernstein $3, Coletti $4, up to Zzzyandottie who will pay $27. This is perfectly fair, of course, because most people have names that are before "M", and thus come out in the cheaper half. Is this absurd? It is only a bit less arbitrary than most measured local service plans! Telephone rates are set by regulators because in a free market, price tends towards cost, but telephones are a monopoly so there is no free market. And in this monopoly world, the historical regulatory regime has NOT been cost, but "value of service". And that's basically whatever your regulator says it is. One approach, of course, is to price telephone service (80%+ of which is a fixed cost, whether you never use it or never hang up) based upon usage. Illinois Bell and New York Telephone both do this a lot. In the case of NY City, the state regulators made them do a fancy cost of service study, and they ended up with a complex three-rate-period multi-band structure that bottoms out under a penny a minute for short-haul nighttime calls. (Residence can get untimed service.) Note though that NY City has an unusually complex and costly infra- structure, with so many COs, tandems, etc., to deal with. The trouble with overcharging for usage is that it reduces the economic efficiency of the network as a whole. Overprice (vis a vis true cost) usage rates discourage usage, so the usage-insensitive infrastructure (most of it) gets less usage than it should. The resource is wasted. The FCC makes telcos produce true cost data when making up the rates charged to long distnace carriers for delivering calls. These rates are then buggered by a formula that produces a subsidy (read: they're marked up), and they're entirely usage-based. But the mileage component is only about 1/100 of a cent per mile per minute. A call anywhere in a LATA usually costs about the same. Overcharging heavy local users or overcharging people named "Townson" is equally wrong. fred ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: Unmetered Local Service Date: 15 Jan 1994 20:30:49 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] Jack Decker (ao944@yfn.ysu.edu) wrote: > 1) Telephone CUSTOMERS do not want to be charged on a per-call or > per-minute basis. This was actually put to a vote of the people in at > least two states (Maine and Oregon, back in 1986 I believe), and in > those states the people voted to ban mandatory measured service by a > considerable margin. In Oregon US West does provide flat rate service for both residential AND business customers. The Portland local calling area extends fifty miles! It's amazing. It is also probably one of the reasons why business bypass service is not popular in that area, whereas in San Francisco it is a booming business (measured business rate and a local calling area of about ten miles). ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Jan 94 16:39:34 CST From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: Unmetered Local Service Organization: AT&T In article ao944@yfn.ysu.edu (Jack Decker) writes: > On Wed Jan 12 08:35:33 1994, lars@Eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) > wrote: >> A. Padgett Peterson (padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com) wrote: >>> If an employee is worth telecommuting, even a $4/hour connection >>> charge is fairly minor in the face of, say, a $65,000 salary/benefits >>> package. Even if you get charged that for eight hours a day, it's minor. >>> Most employees who would best benefit from telecommuting are the ones >>> who are well into long-distance calling areas. >> Many telecommuters will have a local call to an internet carrier's >> local Point Of Presence. Eight hours at $4/hour is $32 a day. This is >> at least the equivalent of another hour's salary. Hardly negligible. > I agree with this last point completely. I don't claim to be psychic, > but I will predict that telecommuting will NEVER take off where there > are per-minute charges involved. By that I mean it will never get to > the point where anyone other than the top executives and maybe a very > few other employees will be allowed to work outside the home. No > company in their right mind would pay $32 a day for an employee to > telecommute when that same employee could drive to work on under $5 > worth of gas, and be physically present when needed. And keep in mind > that it wouldn't be just the $4/hour in the example mentioned, there's > also extra monthly charges for the extra phone lines required, plus > equipment costs at both ends. It all adds up. I disagree, but only because $4/hour is unlikely -- at $2/hour or $16 per day, it costs about the same as floor space, parking, taxes, services, etc. When urban companies start paying real money when the number of single-car commuters doesn't drop, telecommuting will be a real option. In addition, it's not the $65K folks that are candidates. It's the skilled clerks and sales folks. If you can pay these people $2/hour less in salary/benefits in exchange for work-at-home (or work-in-the- car), telecommuting looks pretty good. Better yet, you can compete for workers that would be unwilling to commute to your work site -- those with small kids, a sick parent or poor access to transportation will usually work for less in exchange for a presence at home (perhaps part-time). Al Varney ------------------------------ From: rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu (Bill Pfeiffer) Subject: Re: Unmetered Local Service Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 20:26:56 CST > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The thing Jack Decker and other pro- > ponents of flat rate billing seem to forget or ignore is that in most > instances of measured billing, the majority of telephone subscribers > actually pay LESS for service than with flat rate. A small minority > of the users -- mainly people with telephone intensive lifestyles such > as modem users -- pay more. Please, Pat. That is not at all true. I know of nobody (yourself included) whose bill has decreased with measured service. Yes I know that the telcos propaganda said this would be true but it is not true for anyone who uses the phone. It is not even true for those who dont. Basic service is way up, supplemental charges are up too. > Where flat rate service exists, the rate is invariably evened out in > such a way that telco still makes money based on average usage which > tends to run high on the curve due to modem (and similar heavy volume) > users. Hogwash. When we had callpacks here, you still had the option of measured zero service where each call cost roughly what it does now. Noobody was forced to take any callpacks. They took them because they made sense to consumers. We had several 'paks' to choose from too, including certain numbers of units, on up to unlimited and super unlimited, which reached almost everywhere in the LATA. All that this measured service has done is make timed toll calls out of calls which were untimed local calls and have driven the average phone bill up, not down. > He mentions two areas here people voted against measured service but > exactly the opposite was the case in Chicago in the middle 1980's when > IBT dropped its 'metro calling plans' in favor of pay-as-you-use it. Er, I don't remember any vote in Chicago where the 'opposite' happened. I remember the company notifying us that our callpaks were to be termin- ated and how wonderful it will be. > Yes, the modem users screamed bloody murder, but all sorts of > telephone users otherwise were happy to see their bill go down a > couple dollars monthly. ... while most other people who actually USE their phones saw their bills skyrocket. Sure Gramma and Grampa with their rotary black phone who call junior once a month on the next block, saves a couple of bucks but most people, I feel, saw dramatic increases. In Chicago you have an eight mile radius from your CO to the called CO for a one time charge of about five cents. If your CO is on the lake, however, your eight miles east is nil. What was once an untimed call from the North side of Chicago to the South side (even under measured zero in the call-pak days) is now timed by the minute. > One of the major consumer organizations here endorsed the new plan > without reservations. Flat rate calling plans work much the same way > as insurance actuarial tables: let a few people in a given category > cause some major expenses and everyone pays. Sorry, Pat, that is just untrue. You are sounding like the public relations drone for Bell. Flat-rate services were a choice, not a requirement. You had choices of what level you needed too. > I can't say that I benefitted from measured service here (in fact I > wound up paying more than before by quite a bit) but it is a lot > fairer to the 99 percent of the public who does not use modems or stay > on a phone connection for hours at a time each day. PAT] 99%? You are telling us that 99% of the phone users in 1990's have benefitted from measured service? I'd love to see those statistics. Pat, I know you love to defend the corporations while they are, at the same time, sucking you dry, but c'mon ol buddy, lets get real. This is the 1990's. Everyone uses the phone. The days of granny in her apartment who made five calls a month are, for the most part, history. And your modem calls have not driven you bankrupt. You and I make virtually all our modem calls to local, untimed numbers. Telcom instituted measured service to make more money, not to save money for users. Period! To suggest that the majority of telephone subscribers are better off with measured service than they were with call-paks and calling plans, is absurd. What has happened is that our choice over the most economical plans have been removed. In their place is public relations jive. Pat, I love your Digest, and we are personal friends, but when I hear you preach of how benevolent telecommunications corporations are and how much better we all are off because of their actions, I have to jump in and say 'wake up'. William Pfeiffer - Moderator/Editor Recrec.radio.broadcasting - Airwaves Radio Journal - Internet email - Article Submission: articles@airwaves.chi.il.us Subscription Desk: subscribe@airwaves.chi.il.us ------------------------------ From: Cliff Sharp Date: Sat, Jan 15 23:49:54 1994 Subject: Re: Unmetered Local Service In article our Esteemed Moderator writes: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The thing Jack Decker and other pro- > ponents of flat rate billing seem to forget or ignore is that in most > instances of measured billing, the majority of telephone subscribers > actually pay LESS for service than with flat rate. A small minority > of the users -- mainly people with telephone intensive lifestyles such > as modem users -- pay more. Where flat rate service exists, the rate Now, waaaaait a minute. When Call-Pak Unlimited disappeared from the Chicago area, my calling patterns changed dramatically. The very first month of measured service, I went from 3500 units to 800, and my bill _doubled_ from around $40 to over $80. My average bill today is about $120, custom features excluded; the way I figure it, over ten times what I used to pay per unit. In any event, the smallest bill we've had since was much larger than the largest bill we had during the Call-Pak days. I have yet to meet _anyone_, even the little old lady downstairs with a retirement income who seldom calls anyone, whose bill went down when Call-Pak disappeared. (Perhaps you'll be the first?) A few people told me their bills went up only 50% or so; one only went up 25-30%. My modem line is NOT included in the current $120 figure; perhaps I should add in the $60 I spend on that to even it out, since I used one line for everything in the Call-pak days. (Make it $40 to remove the charges for the second line. That keeps everything down to about 13 times the original cost.) > I can't say that I benefitted from measured service here (in fact I > wound up paying more than before by quite a bit) but it is a lot > fairer to the 99 percent of the public who does not use modems or stay > on a phone connection for hours at a time each day. PAT] Guess you won't be the first (see above) after all ... I still can't see why it costs me more for a one-hour, 2 AM modem call across town than it costs Mabel down the street for a prime-time half-hour yap with Gert across town. It certainly costs the phone company a LOT less, in raw dollars as well as in actual resource allocation. (Non-Chicago-area folks: the 9 PM to 8 AM discount is 40%.) Cliff Sharp clifto@indep1.chi.il.us WA9PDM ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Re: Unmetered Local Service Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 09:00:00 CST Some responses are in order on this cold day in Hell ... for the past 39 hours (Friday about 6 PM through Sunday at 9 AM) the temperature in Chicago and suburbs has been sub-zero with a drop to fourteen below zero Friday overnight into Saturday morning; a 'high' temperature of two below zero Saturday and eleven below last night. We're told things may 'warm up' to the single digits today. None the less, it warms my heart to read messages from you guys singling out telco as the one utility service which you feel should be an exception to the 'pay for what you use' rule. Would you like to pay for your electrical service based on some average amount that all your neighbors, including the big factory across town uses? The factory would love having the electric bill averaged out to some community-wide fee per month. Would you object to paying a flat rate for your gas or your water based on some amount which includes the public laundry down the street with all the washers and dryers running all the time? Betcha the owner of the laundry would consider it to be 'fair'. Jack Decker agrees with me that frequently (but only 'at first' in his opinion) the costs to many subscribers are lower, and on this point he apparently would be in disagreement with Bill Pfieffer and Cliff Sharp who feel the bills always are more. Jack says the catch is that telco is willing to promote what is sometimes called a 'loss-leader' in order to later present a more palatable dinner to the regulators. It is easier to get them to go along with a half-pence or so here and there than a dollar or two per month. Jack contends that the use of the phone does not affect telco's costs, and while that is partly true (and more true than it is in the case of the gas, electric or water utilities, all of whom have to obtain and pay for (or 'manufacture' in the case of electricity) the product they are passing along), it is not entirely true since the size and extent of the *common equipment* telco must install and maintain DOES depend on the extent to which it is used. The general public does not know this, but I would expect most telecom readers to realize that telco does not have wires from every phone to every other phone and that said wires sit there idle in between calls. The common equipment is continually being swapped around among users of the moment. Typically, a telco has the physical capacity to serve only about ten to fifteen percent of its customers at any one time. If its customers tie up the common equipment for long periods of time then more common equipment is needed. Consider the car rental business: Hertz had a couple million customers last year. They do not own a couple million cars, but rather, they own a few thousand vehicles which are constantly being shuffled around among customers and locations (where the company operates) to meet the demand at the company's busiest times. Ditto with telco. While Fred G. seems to think it is equally absurd to charge by the letters in one's last name as it is to charge by the amount of usage, he ignores the fact that one's name has no relevance to one's use of the phone while one's use of the phone has a direct relevance to the amount of equipment telco must maintain to make it all work right. I agree with Fred that my name has no bearing on anything, but the fact that I have tied up a circuit between Skokie and Evanston for awhile typing out this answer does have a bearing on the cost. Jack suggests looking at Europe where 'costs are considerably higher'. Yes, they are higher in Europe (where they also have virtual monopoly phone service in a few countries), and yes phone charges are higher in any event. But this is not due to measured service, it is due to the lack of technological development in telecom. You don't wait three years to get phone service in the USA as you do in some places in Europe either. In general, phones cost more and provide less value in Europe than in the USA regardless of how the bill is calculated. Bill Pfieffer does not recall 'any votes in Chicago' and that is because there were no votes taken. But the Consumer's Utility Board (known locally as CUB) which functions as a citizen's 'watchdog' of the state regulators (the Illinois Commerce Commission) said they liked the idea of measured service for the simple reason that the old plan (a combination of measured and unmeasured 'local community service' plus area-wide metro 'call-pak' and 'unlimited call-pak' service was grossly unfair to the suburbanites while being overly generous to residents of Chicago. I would agree in general with Jack Decker's side note about 'consumer groups with their own axes to grind' and was very surprised to find myself in basic agreement with CUB's premises at the time. As Bill points out, we now have an 'eight mile local zone' in which residence calls cost but a single 'unit' and are untimed. A 'unit' is roughly three to four cents and we get discounts on this based on the time of day and the number of units used per month. The local zone is all the exchanges in the central office serving you plus all the exchanges in the contiguous central offices. All of northern Illinois (not just Chicago) is now under this plan. What Bill says is true: the subscribers who live along the lakefront do not get eight miles to the east since there are no central offices out in Lake Michigan, but they do get eight miles north, south and west. Under the old plans, there were a number of flaws which made them unfair to various users. For example, every user had untimed local calling with calls *in the corporate limits of his community* rated at one message 'unit'. Talk one minute or talk all day, no matter. For people in Golf, Illinois (a tiny village right next to Skokie) that meant one exchange, and a distance of five blocks from one side of the village to the other. For people in Chicago, that meant a distance of *thirty miles* from one side of town to the other at the most extreme angles of direction; easily 25 miles for everyone else and dozens (in those days) of exchanges. Under the old local plan, we got 80 'units' per month to use as we saw fit as part of the monthly fee. You could make 80 (or 120, 180 or 240) local calls or some lesser number of calls to other communities with the number of 'units' charged being based on time connected plus distance. That part was fair enough, but if one decided to get 'unlimited call pak' (the next step above 240 units) because one was on the phone a lot, then guess what? If you were calling anywhere outside the so-called 'inner met area' your units didn't matter ... those calls were coin-rated, and your units were wasted. Grandma might not use a single one of her 80 units allotted as part of her monthly bill, but every Sunday afternoon when she called Bill's friend Junior out in Aurora she'd get nipped for forty cents in coins. Under the old, highly-touted (by some people, and admittedly while I lived in Chicago-proper I was one such person) 'unlimited call pak plans' all the plans were heavily biased in favor of Chicago residents to the detriment of the suburbanites. All the plans used as their territory a starting point of State and Madison Streets in downtown Chicago then expanded outward in rings or circles. The 'inner met area' was 28 miles *from downtown Chicago* in any direc- tion. That was fine if you were in downtown Chicago or even anywhere in Chicago. The poor guy who lived in Wheaton, Illinois could call *anywhere* to the east/northeast/southeast on that plan but if he wanted to call west/northwest/southwest he had about three or four city blocks he could call under the unlimited plan then *his* calls became coin-rated for westerly points. The next size unlimited call-pak went forty miles *from downtown Chicago* and picked up such places as Aurora, Illinois on the outer edge of (what was then 312 and now is 708) plus bits here and there of 815. Well, that was fine until you moved to Fox Lake, Aurora, Zion, or Joliet to name a few examples. Then you were on the outer edge of the 'outer-met unlimited call-pak area' and you could call north and east all you wanted but not south or west (if Zion or way up north then the reverse was true; you got calls south and to a limited extent west, but being on the lake you got nothing east and you bumped into the Wisconsin state line a mile or two north of you and a whole new LATA). So people living in the outer suburbs had quite a choice for phone service: local area which gave them their puny little town with all of one or two exchanges or they could get 'outer-met unlimited service' based on rates and mileage from downtown Chicago from which they were already removed by forty miles or so. There was no inbetween type plan for those people. A very sensible plan was developed where the entire northern Illinois area would be treated as one large metro area for local calling. All 'local' zones would be relative to where you were actually at and all 'local' zones would be the same size regardless of what town you actually lived in. Everyone across northern Illinois gets eight miles in any direction from them. Telco does not choose who lives by the lake and who lives elsewhere. Anyway, as a side note, along the lake is **so bad** now in terms of nasty people, nasty violent crimes, drug sales, run-down and horrible housing, etc I can't imagine why anyone would live there; I'll sure never return to Chicago/Rogers Park having had a taste of Skokie! But, we get eight miles in any geographically possible direction, we pay three or four cents per *call* for these (or less depending on time of day and volume of calls per month dis- counts) and we pay progressively more for each cluster of phones in eight mile groups beyond that. What could be fairer to *everyone* in a large metro area than that? That is, assuming you agree with my premise that the number and duration of calls does cost telco *something* even if the analogy to gas and electric service is not entirely right. Part of the problem is the government did not lay out all the villages and towns on a checkerboard pattern with the same population in each town and the same boundary lines, etc. We have some real weird layouts here and any 'local flatrate in your own community' type plan would never be fair. I agree they might have as an alternative developed some additional 'unlimited call-pak' plans with concentric rings whose centers were in places other than (in addition to) smack-dab in downtown Chicago favoring downtowners at the (increasing) expense of all other residents as far away from downtown as you went, but they did not. Instead they developed a checkerboard pattern with each person getting his own square and the squares on any side of him. The rates *were* reduced (under the old plans, 'units' cost 5.5 cents each where now they cost between 3-4 cents depending on how many and time of day) and the suburbanites gained some equality with the city people. Of course modem users *in the city* who had previously been able to call *anywhere else in the city* for that 5.5 cents per call (with a bundle of 80/120/180/240) as part of the prepaid package now lost large chunks of the city in exchange for picking up in many cases quite a few suburbs in the process at 3.5 cents per call, but the suburbanites in many cases doubled or tripled the territory they could call for their 5.5 cents at a new rate of 3.5 cents. Instead of a choice between very local and limited 'flatrate' service at a cheap cost or an area-wide plan which cost a fortune and only included calls aimed in the direction of downtown Chicago, suburbanites now get to call anywhere in their 'square' or the 'squares' around them at a decent rate. For telco, the switch from flatrate to measured was more or less revenue neutral here. The fact that phone bills are higher now is because we are using the phone more now than we were even ten years ago. The modem users disliked it because frankly, quite a few were accustomed to calling BBS's (in those days Internet connectivity was virtually zilch, we all dealt only with small systems around the area) all over the metro area -- a distance of several hundred square miles -- and staying on line for an hour at a time. And you can't tell me that the 'average' phone user spends an hour at a time, several times per day, or even several times per week) calling to a point 30-40 miles away. The fact is we can say in voice to one another in a minute or two that which takes 15-20 minutes or longer to type in via email or a message and most people do NOT construct stuff off line then call in to deliver it. They call the system they are using and construct their message then and there. That's why modem connections are going to be inherently longer than voice connections, and that is why the modem users screamed about measured service, for the same reason the factory would love to have its electric and water usage on flat rate instead of meter. So often, 'what is best' is an applications-driven thing. Our old plans here *sucked* -- they were great for inner city Chicagoans and lousy for everyone else with the exception of heavy volume residential users in certain particular locations such as (go ahead and admit it Bill and Jack) inner-city modem users. Some phone customers here such as modem users calling all over the metro area and hanging on for hours at a time got a free ride for years. Now instead, Grandma gets to call Aurora or Zion without seeing a forty cent per minute coin-rated charge on her bill. So there is no mistake in where I am coming from, measured service costs me MORE -- much more, and I do not like it *for myself*, but overall, if you care about the rest of the greater metropolitan community, it is fairer this way. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #33 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa00795; 16 Jan 94 16:20 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA08426 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 16 Jan 1994 12:51:19 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA06841 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Jan 1994 12:51:01 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 12:51:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401161851.AA06841@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #34 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Jan 94 12:51:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 34 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Circa 1977 Rotary-Dial Trimline (Rev. Michael P. Deignan) Why the Rotary Phones? (Steve Kass) Book Review: "Basics Book of X.25" by Motorola (Rob Slade) Small Cellular Phones With Data Capability (James Cook) Article on the Net in the 1/7/94 Economist (Robert L. McMillin) Is .mil Going Away? (Network World via Robert L. McMillin) Long Distance Weather Calls? (Anthony E. Siegman) FAQ Not Quite Forgotten (David Leibold) Wanted: Mobile Cellular Speaker (Orator) (Robert J. Keller) Looks Like a Hacker (Clarence Dold) Modem With DTMF and MF Tones (Bob Erdman) PBX Features On LAN Hubs? (Kevin Tanner) Anyone Using Touch 1? (Arnold Robbins) New Area Code 360 in Washington State (Paul Cook) How Does Inmarsat Work? (Koos van den Hout) PBX Vendors With Isochronous Interface (George Nazi) Telephone System in China and in the US (Min Hu) Answering Machine Question (Tim White) Learning Experience (Thomas Hinders) Telephone Numbers in France (Richard Cox) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: kd1hz@anomaly.sbs.com (Rev. Michael P. Deignan) Subject: Circa 1977 Rotary-Dial Trimline Date: 16 Jan 1994 14:39:49 GMT Organization: Small Business Systems, Inc., Esmond, RI 02917 I have just retired a circa-1977 rotary-dial "Bell System Property" Trimline phone from years of trusty service in our kitchen. (The pulse dial occasionally caused my modem to decide to pick up and answer the call in the midst of dialing a number -- quite annoying). Anyway, since I know there are folks here who collect these things, I thought I'd offer it up for sale. It works fine. The handset itself has a few minor cracks from years of dropping the handset on the kitchen floor. It could use a good dose of Fantastic or 409. Best offer takes it! Michael P. Deignan, KD1HZ Internet: kd1hz@anomaly.sbs.com UUCP: ...!uunet!anomaly!kd1hz AT&TNet: 401-273-4669 ------------------------------ From: skass@drunivac.drew.edu (Steve Kass) Subject: Why the Rotary Phones? Date: 16 Jan 94 10:58:15 EST Organization: Drew Univ Academic Computing In Volume 14, Issue 31, several contributors discuss the merits of NYTel's installing rotary phones to thwart drug dealers. Some writers were cynical of the move, pointing out that pocket tone dialers are widely available, but others suggested DMTF filters to prevent their use. NYTel _already_ has the capability to detect both keypad-generated and pocket-dialer generated tones and disconnect a call after some number of these tones. This "service" was in effect on many East Village telephones a year or two ago, and caused me to give up trying to use my voice mail from those phones. My experience is that NYTel is not forthcoming about how their phones are configured, so I'll offer a guess as to the real reason for rotary phones: If a phone has a keypad, the average customer expects to be able to use voicemail. At such a phone where tones don't work, (we've had this experience with COCOTs), s/he is likely to make several attempts, then call operators for credits or repair service to report problems. (I speak from experience. As a result of all this, I also had my calling card number stolen, having been asked to speak the number each time I asked for credit from a failed call.) Money is lost and ill will is generated. The AOSs don't care about this (and often don't provide access to operators or service personnel). But NYTel does care about this. The rotary phone says "Don't try to use voice mail from this phone." I suspect tone dialers won't work from these rotary phones, so some honest customers will still be frustrated, but fewer than before. Steve Kass/Math & CS/Drew U/Madison NJ/201-514-1187 skass@drew.drew.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 20:38:19 MDT From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Basics Book of X.25" by Motorola BKBSX25.RVW 931125 Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Kelly Ford, Promotion/Publicity Coordinator P.O. Box 520 26 Prince Andrew Place Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 or Tiffany Moore, Publicity tiffanym@aw.com John Wait, Editor, Corporate and Professional Publishing johnw@aw.com 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-822-6339 617-944-3700 Fax: (617) 944-7273 5851 Guion Road Indianapolis, IN 46254 800-447-2226 "The Basics Book of X.25 Packet Switching", 0-201-56369-X In contrast to other of the "Basics" series, this one has no stated audience or objective. (It is also the first one I've seen that strongly pushes the Motorola Codex product line, even including a business reply card bound into the back of the book.) The coverage of X.25 is fairly detailed and reasonably complete. The conceptual description, however, is oddly lacking. While there is a description of the advantages of circuit reduncy in packet networks, there is no such discussion or illustration of the efficiency of network or link resources using packetization. A brief introduction to X.25 and packet networks. Useful for data communications people who need a "fast start" on the topic, and can pick up the pieces later. It won't, however, make life with Datapac any easier. Ceterum censeo Datapac delendam essc. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKBSX25.RVW 931125 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the TELECOM Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact: rulag@decus.ca ------------------------------ From: jcook@netcom.com (James Cook) Subject: Small Cellular Phones With Data Capability Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 20:01:22 GMT I'm wondering if any of these small, flip style cell phones can accomodate data transfer from laptops? Ideally, just a direct means of connection the laptop modem to the cell. phone. Available? Pros and cons? TIA, James Cook Internet: jcook@netcom.com San Francisco Bay, California Compuserve: 76520,2727 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Jan 94 08:27 PST From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Article on the Net in the 1/7/94 Economist The British magazine, {The Economist}, has an article in its 1/7/1994 double issue on the Internet. Mostly, it's about the explosion in private digital networks -- including the furious pace of the private expansion of the Net. Somehow, they managed to miss Netcom in all this; but there's good reading therein. Robert L. McMillin | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Netcom: rlm@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Jan 94 08:23 PST From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Is .mil Going Away? According to a headline article in the January 10, 1994 issue of {Network World}, in an attempt to reduce the exposure of military computers to viruses, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) wants to take many military computers off the Net. According to the article, the DISA wants to rename all .mil domain addresses and hide them behind a single firewall. This has met with quiet but widespread disapproval from miltary users who cherish their Internet freedom. Military network managers say the plan may be technically unfeasible, and that a better way to improve system security would be to force all Internet-connected .mil sites to have MX firewalls. According to the article, "Leaked Defense Department e-mail suggests DISA made its decision about disconnecting the DDN without informing the Pentagon, which is now in the awkward position of explaining DISA's actions." The future of the DISA plan is unclear at the moment. Robert L. McMillin | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Netcom: rlm@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Jan 94 17:59:25 PST From: Anthony E. Siegman Subject: Long Distance Weather Calls? Calling Directory Assistance at 1-617-555-1212 from my residence in AC 415 got me the number 936-1234 for telco (NYNEX) weather service in Boston. But then dialing 1-617-936-1234 repeatedly only gave me loud, intermittent, very scratchy static -- no ringing, no answer. When I called the long distance operator at 00 about this, her attempts got essentially the same result. She then went through an "inward long distance" operator in Boston, which did get me connected to the weather message. Anyone else encounter this same problem? Also, the local PacTel weather message is 936-1212; wouldn't it be handier if every LOC had the same number, so you could get the weather in any area code in the same way as you get Directory Assistance? (Maybe some AC's are so big one recording couldn't handle it?) P.S., Pat: Boston weather for next two days said daytime highs 8 to 12 F, nighttime lows -3 F, windchill factors -20 to -30 F; why am I even going there! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Some of the weather forecasts are now on 976 numbers such as the one for Chicago. I don't think you can get those at all since most telcos no longer connect with the 976 numbers of other telcos. I get my local area time and temperature along with a recorded advertisement from Centel by dialing 708-296-7666. And PS to you too: our temperature here has been sub-zero (like ten or more degrees below zero) for nearly two days. Why am I staying here? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Jan 94 22:05:14 -0500 From: djcl@io.org Subject: FAQ Not Quite Forgotten Last month, I announced an intention to finally update the FAQ. A bit of updating has been achieved so far, but will still require a bit of time to finish off. This is just about the last chance to get any new or improved things for the next edition of the telecom FAQ. Send to djcl@io.org or dleibold1@attmail.com. David Leibold ... djcl@io.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: David Leibold has worked on this project for several years now along with help from other devoted Digest readers. Every year we get an updated FAQ as a result and we owe djcl and the others involved our thanks. Please contribute. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: rjk@telcomlaw.win.net (Robert J. Keller) Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 20:14:16 Subject: Wanted: Mobile Cellular Speaker (Orator) From: rjk@telcomlaw.win.net (Robert J. Keller) A large computer hardware manufacturer is planning a conference in mid-February for its sales, marketing, and technical support personnel. They are seeking someone who could do a presentation on the future of computers in the wireless marketplace (e.g., cellular, PCS, etc.). If you qualify and are available, send me via e-mail a brief synopsis of your background and qualifications as well as complete information on where/how you can be contacted. I will be collecting this information next week and passing it on to the manufacturer. FWIW, I am not financially involved in this, but am merely posting this feeler as a favor to a friend who works for the manufacturer and is charged with looking for this particular speaker. Thanks, Bob Keller CompuServe: 76100,3333 Internet: rjk@telcomlaw.win.net ------------------------------ From: dold@rahul.net (Clarence Dold) Subject: Looks Like a Hacker Organization: a2i network Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 20:12:23 GMT An "800" customer of mine called to complain that a lot of calls were on her bill from the same caller, but she tried calling the number back, and it was disconnected. I checked the SMS database, and there was no record found. I checked against a small run of telephone logs, and found a lot of calls from the same ANI, mostly into our 800-voicemail. Smells like a hacker ... Then I saw some not-so-malicious patterns. I called PacBell security, to track the ANI down. 510 893-0781 Cellular One Outbound Trunk Hmm ... How many ANI are like this? Does anyone have a table? V&H data only shows it as Oakland, CA, which is true. Clarence A Dold - dold@rahul.net - Milpitas (near San Jose) & Napa CA. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 11:58:23 -0500 From: Bob Erdman Subject: Modem With DTMF and MF Tones Has anyone ever heard of a device that can connect to an RS232 port to accept commands, and then use these commands to generate MF tones as well as DTMF tones? The application is to hook a PC up directly to a trunk to make calls, and then to control an end device with DTMF tones. Thanks in advance for any input. ------------------------------ From: kevin_tanner@wiltel.com Subject: PBX Features On LAN Hubs? Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 08:06:48 PST Organization: WilTel Greetings all ... Does anyone out there know of any LAN hub manufacturers who are working on hubs which will eventually include PBX chip sets and/or PBX-like features? (The underlying LAN technology doesn't really matter to me at this point, whether it's ATM, Fast Ethernet, or something else.) With the much-talked-about and much-anticipated coming of CTI, it seems logical (at least to me) that LAN hubs should become even more intelligent by adding PBX-like features. Or, will all this great CTI we keep hearing about simply be a bridge between the data world (the LAN) and the voice world (the PBX), as with the Novell-AT&T concept? Any help and/or opinions on the subject will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Kevin D. Tanner WilTel, Inc. Telephone: (918) 588-5843 FAX: (918) 588-5616 E-mail: kevin_tanner@wiltel.com ------------------------------ From: arnold@cc.gatech.edu (Arnold Robbins) Subject: Anyone Using Touch 1? Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 16:51:16 GMT Greetings. We were recently solicited by a long distance company called "Touch 1". Their thing is that they (apparently dynamically) select amount ATT, Sprint, and MCI at the time of your call for the one with the lowest rates. We currently have MCI with "Friends and Family" and are pretty satisfied; there's a small group of people we call fairly often, in at least three different states. Is anyone using Touch 1, and would it really bring us savings over MCI? Please reply by email and I'll summarize -- I don't hang out in this newsgroup at the moment. Thanks! Arnold Robbins --- Continuing Education, College of Computing Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0280 Phone: +1 404 894 9214 (has voice mail) E-mail: arnold.robbins@cc.gatech.edu FAX: +1 404 853 9378 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 11:44 EST From: 0003991080@mcimail.com Subject: New Area Code 360 in Washington State I got a notice from Bellcore confirming the rumored split of area code 206 in Washington State. The new NPA is 360, and will cover all of the area that is currently within 206, but outside of the Seattle/Tacoma area. I have not yet seen a map that shows exactly where the boundary will lie, but scuttlebutt is that the northern boundary of 206 should be somewhere between the King/Snohomish county line and the city of Everett, and the southern boundary just south of Tacoma. The eastern boundary should enclose the suburbs of Seattle that are currently dialed toll-free from the city, but will not go all the way to the boundary with 509 at the crest of the Cascade mountains. The western boundary should be in Puget Sound, with islands that are currently within the Seattle toll-free dialing area (Vashon, Bainbridge) to remain in 206. The split happens on 1/15/95, with permissive dialing until 7/9/95. So far I have seen nothing about this in the local media, so maybe you heard it here first. Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5378 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl (Koos van den Hout) Subject: How Does Inmarsat Work? Date: Sat, 15 Jan 1994 21:34:00 GMT Organization: HIN / BBS Koos z'n Doos While making some remarks about Inmarsat, I suddenly realized myself one thing: I don't know how Inmarsat works. So, is there anybody out there who can tell me? I'd like to know if it's digital or analog, how base stations are verified, how the satelite 'rings' the base station and stuff like that. I'm also curious about the security of the whole system (both the 'listening in to calls' security and the 'making calls at the expense of another user' part). Grtx. Koos van den Hout ----------------------------------------------- Sysop Datacomm, networking, E-mail... BBS Koos z'n Doos (+31-3402-56619 2400) Inter-: koos@kzdoos.hacktic.nl (+31-3402-36647 14400 v32b v42b MNP5) net : koos@hacktic.nl| PGP key by finger | Fido: Sysop @ 2:500/101 Or : koos@hut.nl | koos@hacktic.nl | Give us a call !! ------------------------------ From: george_nazi@wiltel.com (George Nazi) Subject: PBX Vendors With Isochronous Interface Date: 15 Jan 1994 16:27:13 GMT Organization: WilTel, Tulsa, Okla. Reply-To: george_nazi@wiltel.com I would to know/contact the PBX vendors that are working on Isochronous interfaces. I am looking at applications where voice and data is over the same line. Thanks, George Nazi WilTel george_nazi@wiltel.com Telecom. Engineer, Network Development P.O.Box 21348, M.D. 25-5 Tulsa, OK 74121 phone: (918) 588-5400 fax: (918) 588-5616 ------------------------------ From: Min Hu Subject: Telephone System in China and in the US Date: Sat, 16 Jan 94 1:44:15 EST Hi, A question, if the telephone system in US is compatible with the telephone system in China. Or put it in the other way, will the PBX or Central Office in US will work in China? Specificially, will GTD-4600 work in China? Thanks in advance. MIN ------------------------------ From: ao936@yfn.ysu.edu (Tim White) Subject: Answering Machine Question Date: 16 Jan 1994 16:15:54 GMT Organization: Youngstown State/Youngstown Free-Net We have a customer working out of a remote RSS which is hosted from a #1 ESS. This customer's answering machine will not operate (answer the call) from this office. I have taken the machine to another office and it works fine. This RSS has sealing current which uses 130 VDC on the ring and 70 VDC on the tip. When we remove the sealing current from the office we have 70 VDC over 20 VDC. I know that other customers have answering machines in this office area and are having no problems. Does anyone have any ideas on why this one won't work and what we could do to make it work? ------------------------------ Date: 16 Jan 1994 11:12:16 EDT From: Hinders, Thomas Subject: Learning Experience I moved from Wash DC (Silver Spring MD) to Phila (Sanatoga PA). I recently "discovered" an interesting quirk ... as it applies to my use/charges for telephone service. When I lived in DC, ALL +1 (ie LD) calls were billed to my ATT LD account. If I dialed Baltimore from Silver Spring, it was billed to my ATT LS account. I don't recall (I checked some old C&P bills) any C&P toll charges. I was surprised on a recent Bell of PA bill to find all my +1 302 (DE) calls charged to to my Bell of PA account rather than to my ATT LD account ... at a higher toll rate. Contact with Bell of PA and ATT confirmed that unless I specify ATT access code, the intra-Bell of PA call will be placed (ie AC 610 to AC 302), and charged as a Bell of PA toll charge. This moves (no pun ...) me to ask which is cheaper -- a +1 302 call via Bell of PA or ATT (using Reach-Out-America). Add to the equation the fact that most of my calls from my home are toll calls (the local joke here is all calls beyond your next-store- neighbor's are toll calls) and my Bell of PA bill is about 30% higher than my C&P bill ... excluding the LD toll charges (ie to AC 302). Life (as it applies to Telephone service) was truely simpler before Judge Greene. Tom Hinders/Soft-Switch +1 610 640 7487 (v/vm) +1 610 640 7511 (f) Internet: thinder@SSW.COM X.400: C=US A=Telemail P=Softswitch S=Hinders G=Thomas ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Jan 94 22:15 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: Telephone Nunbers in France Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk etm@email.teaser.com (Erik Thomas Mueller) said: >> By the way, note that the current numbering plan in France is scheduled >> to be replaced in 1995 by the uniform NPA + 8D where NPA = >> 1 Ile-de-France (Paris, ...) >> 2 Northeast France >> 3 Southeast France >> 4 Southwest France >> 5 Northwest France We had heard rumours that this plan had been shelved due to public opinion, but there again it might just have been a vociferous user group ... It is said that the user group wanted a unified nine-digit numbering scheme. Oddly enough, France has roughly the same number of telephones as the UK; but the UK is about to change from a 10 digit scheme to an 11 digit scheme. I somehow doubt if the North West France zone will be given code "5"; because that would entail callers dialling 05 to call NW France. At the moment 05 is the French toll-free code, the equivalent of 1-800 and 0800, which they call "numberos verts" - green numbers. The French 05 will, I am told, in due course change to 0800. A separate code (06?) has been allocated for mobiles. Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 956 700111 Fax: +44 956 700110 VoiceMail: +44 941 151515 E-mail address: richard@mandarin.com - PGP2.3 public key available on request ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #34 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01294; 16 Jan 94 18:35 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA09811 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 16 Jan 1994 15:08:25 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA10049 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Jan 1994 15:08:04 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 15:08:04 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401162108.AA10049@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #35 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Jan 94 15:08:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 35 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Using Spare Channels on a T1 (Javier Henderson) Wanted: Reverse Phone Directory (Ted Hadley) AC 215 to 610 ... NOT (Thomas Hinders) GSM Phase 1 Documents (Bhaktharam Keshavachar) AT&T True Rewards (Richard Butler) ATM and DSP Chips (Dinesh Kulkarni) Signalling Off-Hook on an Unsiezed DID Trunk (Chuck Cox) Security Warning (Rich Greenberg) Bell Canada Rationalizes Rates For Calling Features (Mark Brader) Free Local Calls (Richard Cox) Extra-long 800 Numbers? (David C. LeDoux) Calvacom Distribution of TELECOM Digest (Earle Robinson) Re: Announcing networkMCI (Carl Spangenberger) Re: Announcing networkMCI (Andrew C. Green) Re: Are LATA Maps Available (Gregory P. Monti) Re: Are LATA Maps Available (Marty Lawlor) For Your Amusement (Mark S. Brader) No Bells? (James Taranto) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: henderson@mlnaxp.mln.com Subject: Using Spare Channels on a T1 Date: 16 Jan 94 07:06:41 PST Organization: Medical Laboratory Network; Ventura, CA Hello, I posted about this several months ago, and I only got one or two responses. I thought I'd post again ... Our company has the main facility in Ventura, CA, and we have smaller sites throughout California. Right now, we're just using regular phone lines to connect to these facilities for voice. For data, there's a T1 going from the Ventura site to the long distance carrier POP, and they run 56Kb circuits to each of the remote locations. We're currently using only seven channels on the T1, and expect to have a total of 12 in use by the end of the year. I'd like to know how complicated it'd be to use the remaining twelve channels for to route voice calls to our remote sites. Ideally, the extensions at the remote sites would look like regular extensions to everyone else in the network. Some technical details: The main facility has an AT&T System 75 switch. The remote sites have their own switches, though not all of them have the same model (or brand, for that matter). One of the facilities doesn't even have a switch, just three lines in a rotary (our smallest site). Thanks! Javier Henderson henderson@mlnaxp.mln.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Jan 94 14:11:03 PST From: tedh@cylink.COM (Ted Hadley) Subject: Wanted: Reverse Phone Directory I have a (hopefully) simple request: Is there a simple (and low cost) method of converting a residential telephone number to the name and address of the 'owner'? I called the public library and they had no such directory. I have two numbers I would like "reversed"; both are local to the San Jose, CA, area (one is Mountain View, the other is Sunnyvale). Please E-mail responses. Thanks much. Ted A. Hadley tedh@cylink.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The simplest and least expensive method would be to call one of the three libraries in the communities mentioned above and ask to speak with the reference librarian. Tell that person you need a couple lookups from the criss-cross directory. If they are not busy they will probably bring the book to the phone and read from it to you. You did not say which library it was that you called who told you they did not have such a book, but I'd be quite surprised if the San Jose library did not have one covering the immediate region. Almost all public libraries have a criss-cross directory at least for their own service area. Maybe the person who answered the phone mis- understood you (if you called one of those three). Ask specifically for connection to the reference librarian or the reference desk first. There are a few libraries whose board of directors has passed a rule against reading to patrons over the telephone from the criss-cross; usually these are cases where some deadbeat has been located by a collection agency via a phone call to the local library reference department to track down a phone at the address in question and the deadbeat has then called the President of the Library Board raising cain about 'violations of his privacy', etc ... rather than bother with defending their right to speak public information and having to choose between which patrons to offend (local service area people or the out of towners who want to use the criss-cross) the Board may just say to heck with it and tell the librarians to not quote the book over the phone any longer. It goes against their grain to ban the book entirely, so the compromise for those libraries is that people who want to use the criss-cross have to come in personally to see it. For some libraries also, it is an administrative problem: some libraries get literally *dozens* of telephone calls daily just for the criss-cross book alone; the Chicago Public Library has a telephone line and a full time employee for just that purpose -- taking calls of the 'will you look in the criss-cross and give me the phone number and residents' names at XXX ZZZZ Street.' When you call, the line is always busy as the woman gets several dozen such calls every day of the week. Some libraries get more long distance calls each day from out of town people (frequently collection agencies and other investigators) asking for information from the criss-cross than they do local calls from their own service area patrons about other reference topics. By the way, if it is a large library in a bigger town, try asking the switchboard to connect you with the 'Business and Technology Department'. They nearly always have a local criss-cross as well. A five minute or less phone call that costs about a dollar will tell you all about the address or phone number you want. No need to use fancy services or pay big $$. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 16 Jan 1994 09:58:09 EDT From: Hinders, Thomas Subject: AC 215 to 610 ... NOT Although AC 610 was activated on Jan 8th I am receiving complaints from folks who claim that they are unable to reach me via my "new" AC. The orginators are in AC 212, 302, and 703. They indicate they are getting a "fast busy" when they are placing the call. Some are business ... some are private ... using a variety of LD carriers. I can "imagine" that lots of switches, PBXs etc need to be updated ... but it is not very comforting to be passing out my "new" AC (including business cards!) and not knowing if the number will work. Tom Hinders/Soft-Switch +1 610 640 7487 (v/vm) <----- old AC 215 +1 610 640 7511 (f) Internet: thinder@SSW.COM X.400: C=US A=Telemail P=Softswitch S=Hinders G=Thomas ------------------------------ From: keshavac@enws202.eas.asu.edu (Bhaktharam Keshavachar) Subject: GSM Phase 1 Documents Reply-To: keshavac@enws202.eas.asu.edu Organization: Network Systems Lab, Arizona State University Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 18:58:52 GMT Hi, I have a question about the GSM documents. Has the ETSI frozen the GSM specs for the Phase I implementation? If so what is the version number which is fully compliant with Phase I implementation? What about Phase II implementation? Has ETSI finalized the Phase II documents? How about the GSM packet radio services group? Have they published any standards? I am particularly interested in the latest documents and Phase I documents for GSM specs 04.08 (layer 3), 04.06 (layer 2), 05.02 (MAC), 05.08 (RSLC) and 05.10 (synchronization). How much does ETSI charge for these documents if I want to buy them? (Seriously considering this). Please post or e-mail. I will publish a summary if we collect good information. Thanks in advance, Regards, Bhaktha ------------------------------ From: rbutler@cc.bellcore.com (butler,richard) Subject: AT&T True Rewards? Date: 16 Jan 1994 10:10:49 -0500 Organization: Bell Communications Research Awhile ago, there was an article posted here about the AT&T True Rewards program. This article has disappeared from my site now but I have a couple of questions: In that article the author said he was able to get credit under this plan for all his long distance back to January of 1993. Is this true? Have others tried this? I tried, but no go and it almost seemd to good to be true anyway. Will they really give you all that credit? I'd really appreciate hearing from the poster of that article to confirm this, or anyone else that has successfully gotten this credit. Thanks for the information. Rich Butler rbutler@cc.bellcore.com ------------------------------ From: dkulkarn@aristotle.helios.nd.edu (Dinesh Kulkarni) Subject: ATM and DSP Chips Date: 16 Jan 1994 17:27:25 GMT Organization: University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame Hi ! I had a few questions about the intersection of ATM and DSP architectures and algorithms. Here they are: 1. What are the typical algorithms used in processing of full-motion video, images and audio packetized into ATM cells of 48 bytes? In particular, how does this level of packetization affect the signal processing steps undertaken and the architectures that perform these steps? Of course compression/decompression algorithms are important, but other than that, how about algorithms arising out of user-interaction and manipulation? In other words, if the flow is not directly from the source to a rendering device like a monitor or a speaker, what are the important classes of algorithms? 2. Is there any literature on this topic, that you would care to recommend? Survey papers accessible to non-DSP-type but technical people would be perfect as my knowledge of DSP is limited to a basic graduate-level course. Thanks a lot. Dinesh ------------------------------ Subject: Signalling Off-Hook on an Unsiezed DID Trunk Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 10:03:53 -0800 From: Chuck Cox Hi, I would like signal to the central office that a DID trunk should not be used, but that it should not be taken out of service. I have a situation where I can not provide a wink start to the central office. If the CO siezes the line and doesn't get a wink, I am afraid that they will (eventually if not immediately) down my trunk. Can I signal an off-hook by reversing polarity on ring and tip on an otherwise idle line and prevent the CO from siezing the line? I could not find the issue addressed in ANSI T1.405-1989. Any help or references would be appreciated! Thanks, Chuck chuck@timberline.almaden.ibm.com ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Security Warning Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 16:05:34 GMT The latest issue of "2600" magazine ("The Hacker Quarterly") has a 2 page listing of telephone numbers under "Passageways to the Internet". All USA and Canada except for three numbers listed at Eindhoven U, nl. Mostly universities, except "Cisco terminal servers, Chicago", two numbers listed as 312-413-xxxx and several just listed with a city in Indiana. Rich Greenberg Work: ETi Solutions, Oceanside & L.A. CA 310-348-7677 N6LRT TinselTown, USA Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Bell Canada Rationalizes Rates For Calling Features Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 11:43:35 GMT Currently, Bell Canada classifies calling features into three groups. "Custom Calling Features" includes Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Ident-a-Call (distinctive ringing), Three-Way Calling, and Speed Calling. "Call Management Services" includes Call Display (caller ID), Call Return, and Call Screen (blocking of calls from selected numbers). And "Telemessage Service" includes Call Answer, Extension Call Answer, and Voice Mail. The classification into groups matters because it affects the charging. Any one Custom Calling Feature costs $4.00 a month (Canadian, plus tax, residence rate); any two, $5.50; any three, $7.50; any four, $9.50; all five, $11.50. Any one Call Management Service costs $4.75 a month; a second or third one is $2.25. And the Telemessage Services are similarly grouped together. In my case, I have Three-Way Calling and Call Return, and have found it annoying that there is no discount for this combination. Well, they're fixing that. All the features are being lumped under the general title of SmartTouch Services, and a simplified pricing scheme is being adopted. Call Answer, Call Display, and Call Waiting will be $5.00 a month; Extension Call Answer and Voice Mail will be classed as "options" at $2.00 a month; and all the other services will be $3.00 a month. However, each service (but not options) after the first one is reduced by $1.00 a month. So my charge for Three-Way Calling plus Call Return goes down from $8.75 to $3 + $3 - $1 = $5. I like it. Incidentally, as usual with Bell Canada, the bill insert announcing the change (which is effective January 22) is in English and French. For those who may be curious, here are the French names for each of the above services, and their translations back into English. SmartTouch Services services Etoiles (Star Services) Custom Calling Features (The French version of the brochure Call Management Services uses no names at all for these Telemessage Service groups of features) Call Waiting Appel en attente (Call in Waiting) Call Forwarding Renvoi automatique (Automatic Resending) Ident-a-Call Appel personnalise (Personalized Call) Three-Way Calling Conference a trois (Conference of Three) Speed Calling Composition abregee (Abridged Dialing) Call Display Afficheur (Poster) Call Return Memorisateur (Memorizer) Call Screen Selecteur (Selector) Call Answer TeleReponse (TeleAnswer) Extension Call Answer TeleReponse multiusagers (Multi-User TeleAnswer) Voice Mail TeleCourrier (TeleMail) Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 12:15 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: Free Local Calls Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk mzmijews@mgzcs.demon.co.uk (George Zmijewski) said, referring to the UK: >> the idea of free local calls is unknown here. :-( That's not quite true. "Bundled" local calls (nothing is *ever* free!) have been available for some time in the independant Grand Dutch of Hull. We discussed Hull's special status in the Digest some time last year. Now the new "local-loop competitors", the Cable TV companies, are starting to offer their customers free local calls within their system ... but of course calls to other phone companies' customers are chargeable. And in a surprise move late last year the Mercury One-2-One service (A PCS service operating to the DCS 1800 standard) now offers customers on its domestic tariff free local calls in the off-peak period. These calls really are free, even though they are mostly to customers of BT ! As a result the service has been overwhelmed with customers despite what is reported to be less than ideal radio coverage, and a limited service area. Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, Cardiff Business Park, Llanishen, CARDIFF, Wales CF4 5WF Voice: +44 956 700111 Fax: +44 956 700110 VoiceMail: +44 941 151515 E-mail address: richard@mandarin.com - PGP2.3 public key available on request ------------------------------ From: ledoux@pogo.den.mmc.com (David C LeDoux) Subject: Extra-Long 800 Numbers Organization: Martin Marietta Astronautics, Denver Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 03:39:30 GMT I have only been reading TELECOM Digest for a short time, but have found it to be very informative. I have a question for the gurus. Hopefully it has not already been discussed exhaustively. I have noticed a lot of toll-free (1-800) numbers and some 1-900 numbers that have 8 digits, e.g. 1-800-OPERATOR, and some that even have 9 digits, e.g. 1-800-JOES-DINER (don't call that one; I made it up since I couldn't remember any specific cases). Are the extra one or two digits simply ignored by the system, or are they used somehow for switching or bookkeeping? Thanks, David C. LeDoux ledoux@pogo.den.mmc.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Additional digits are simply ignored by the equipment. They are there only for the convenience of the person calling the number to help them remember what to dial. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 16 Jan 94 10:40:57 EST From: Earle Robinson <76004.1762@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Calvacom Distribution of TELECOM Digest Please note that the European forum (go eurfor) on CompuServe also has the TELECOM Digest in its library. Since CompuServe in France is much less expensive than Calvacom, especially with the upcoming price drop from $8 per hour to $4.80, those interested in the TELECOM Digest will find at a much lower cost for downloads through the CompuServe European forum. -er [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This Digest is circulated by several online services as a convenience to their subscribers including as you point out CIS, where not only the European forum carries it but the telecommunications forum does as well. Check out the Library area in each forum. Also, the Digest can be read via the Net Exchange, a service for PC Pursuit customers (@c pursuit from any Sprintnet/Telenet prompt) and I think GEnie has it in their telecommunications roundtable area. Quite a few independent BBS's have the Digest including a few in Europe. So there are numerous places where one can obtain each issue of this journal but none the less, I am pleased to have Calvacom as part of the distribution circle. You can get a printed copy delivered to your fax machine of each issue (for a fee, unless you let me deliver it to your 800 number), or if you prefer you can have each issue delivered by snail-mail, again for a fee to cover postage, etc. You can even read the Digest on Usenet via comp.dcom.telecom if that's your thing, at least for the time being. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Carl Spangenberger Subject: Re: Announcing networkMCI Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 02:41:46 EST Organization: The University of Kentucky In article Paul R. Coen writes: >> Is that what the MCI TV commercials with the little girl with the >> pseudo-[B]ritish accent standing in a puddle spouting existential >> gibberish are all about? > Is it a girl? I thought it was a boy. Then again, I didn't look very Yes, it is a girl. She is British. > closely. All I noticed was an overly-perfect child dressed in weird > black clothes and a really ghastly hat. And the kid sounded like one > of the brats from _Mary Poppins_. See above, that is probably why she looks like a person from Mary Popins. >> And I thought they were just trying to finally beat AT&T for the worst >> imaginable ad campaign :-) Actually it is philosophic. > You know, I felt like I was watching some sort of weird one act play > that I didn't understand. Then again, considering that I *still* > don't understand what "networkMCI" is besides a new name for stuff > they already have, maybe that's okay. Does someone want to take a > stab at explaining it? The girl was standing in a virtual reality, it was a computer simulation. The girl said every thing can be represented by digital information, implying that the universe can be represented infinite amount of 1's and 0's. The girl represents the international information highway, because of the deal between MCI and BT (British Telecom) will allow MCI to link information services from US to BC. This one ups ATT which advertisements are US only. The girl is sophisticated which implies that MCI is. That is my interpretation of the commercial. I like it :) Carl Spangenberger Alternate Address: cspangen@ms.uky.edu opcarl@ukcc.uky.edu Computer Consultant ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 10:27:55 CST From: Andrew C. Green Subject: Re: Announcing networkMCI Paul R. Coen writes: > You know, I felt like I was watching some sort of weird one act play > that I didn't understand. Then again, considering that I *still* > don't understand what "networkMCI" is besides a new name for stuff > they already have, maybe that's okay. What you may be subconsciously reminded of is the embarrassing series of Infiniti car commercials back when the marque was first introduced. Rather than show the car, the ad agency decided to show soothing pictures of waves. That was all. Rather than provoke curiosity about the car, it raised questions about the competence of the advertising agency. ("Dammit, Bruce, I _told_ you the tide was coming in!" -- Dave Barry) Having seen at least two equally-uninformative commercials featuring the mystery girl, I share your puzzlement. One of the ads ends with an unexplained freeze-frame closeup on her reciting the name; the image freezes in midsentence while the soundtrack continues, truly a jarring sight to no apparent effect. More to the point, it appears MCI is aiming at a audience sophisticated enough to understand new product information, but MCI doesn't seem to realize that this same audience will tune out nonsense messages where no information is really there. The conclusion I draw is, "MCI has blown a ton of money on this, with no clear idea of what they want to say. This does not give me confidence in the company." AT&T, Ameritech et al have all had their share of annoying commercials, but at least you get a sense of purpose from them: "Here is our product; this is what it does; would you like to buy it, please?" MCI's message appears to be, "How do you like my hat?" Andrew C. Green Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@dlogics.com 441 W. Huron UUCP: ..!uunet!dlogics!acg Chicago, IL 60610-3498 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 08:26:53 EST From: "Gregory P. Monti" Subject: Re: Are LATA Maps Available I think McGraw Hill's business publishing division sells a nice two- or three-color LATA map. I saw one posted many years ago at a data communications school where I was taking a class. About 20 by 30 inches, with state, countyn, LATA and RBOC boundaries along with the three-digit LATA numbers and LATA names. Every LATA has a number. The 100 series are in Nynex states, the 200 in Bell Atlantic states, 300 Ameritech, 400 Bell South, 500 Southwestern Bell, 600 US West, 700 Pacific Telesis, 800 offshore states and territiries, 900 continential US states and territories that are served only by non-Bell companies (such as Connecticut, Fishers Island NY, Navajo Reservation in AZ, etc). Sorry, I don't hgave a numnber or address for McGraw Hill. I suspect it's in northern New Jersey somewhere. Greg Monti Arlington, Virginia, USA gmonti@cap.gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 12:52:23 EST From: mel@roch1.cci.com (Marty Lawlor) Subject: Re: Are LATA Maps Available CCMI (Center for Communications Management Information), 800-929-4824, sells several versions: National Lata Map (in two sizes) as well as a State LATA Map Book. Marty Lawlor Northern Telecom ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.com Subject: For Your Amusement Date: 16 Jan 94 11:12:44 GMT Located elsewhere, passed along FYI and amusement: johnper@bunsen.rosemount.com (John Perkins) writes: The British ask "Who is that?" when requesting a person's name over the phone, whereas Americans ask "Who is this?" I wonder how this (that) happened? It's because we Americans know that the person to whom we're speaking is really inside the phone handset, therefore within the "this" zone. ------------------------------ From: taranto@panix.com (James Taranto) Subject: No Bells? Date: 16 Jan 1994 13:17:41 -0500 Organization: The Bad Taranto I got a catalog in the mail the other day from a company called Hello Phones. One item for sale was what they call the "Basic Phone." The ad declared: "No bells. No whistles. Just your plain, basic workhorse phone." I called the 800 number and asked, "If there are no bells, how are you supposed to know when it's ringing?" The reply was: "It's more of a saying kind of thing." Cheers, James Taranto taranto@panix.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #35 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa02972; 17 Jan 94 2:22 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA15232 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Sun, 16 Jan 1994 23:04:20 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20293 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Sun, 16 Jan 1994 23:04:01 -0600 Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 23:04:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401170504.AA20293@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #36 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 Jan 94 23:04:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 36 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Unmetered Local Service (Danny Burstein) Re: Unmetered Local Service (Robert L. McMillin) Re: Shannon's Law (was Re: Hayes' New Modem) (Clarence Dold) Re: Shannon's Law (was Re: Hayes' New Modem) (Charles Randall Yates) Re: ISDN: Coming Soon to my House? (Al Varney) Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions (Dave Cherkus) Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped (A. Padgett Peterson) Re: Wanted: PC/Mac Voicemail Recommendations (Jonathan Reiser) Re: Announcing networkMCI (Atri Indiresan) Re: Cordless Headset Telephone (Mike D. Schomburg) Re: US Digital Cellular Standard (Stan Scalsky) Re: Hayes' New Modem (Stephen Satchell) Re: Network Outage in 205 NPA? (Paul Cook) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: Re: Unmetered Local Service Date: 16 Jan 1994 13:54:29 -0500 (lots of arguments pro and against measured service vs. flat rate deleted) Umm, to all you folk out there, let me point out a reality of life. The telcos are in business to do one thing and one thing only. What's that? to provide phone service? BZZZT. wrong answer. They are in it ... TO MAKE.MONEY.FAST. (with apologies to David Rodes ...) They will configure the rates in such a way as to maximize their revenue. Pure and simple. Now in many cases this will also help people reduce their own costs. For example, The Telephone Company way-back-when realized that their 'long distance' equipment sat idle after business hours, and that it cost them a -LOT- to add capacity for that 2:15pm surge in calls, so they put in discount rates for after hours. This helped shift some usage away from peak daytime (which lowered their costs) AND brought in 'found' revenue by increasing the number of discretionary calls. If the 2:15 pm load was 10% higher, then they'd need more physical plant, and would (almost justifiably) have to raise rates as well. OTOH, most of the incomprehensable rate plans they've implemented have been designed solely to increase revenue, WITHOUT doing much good for the customers. For example: Here in NYC about 15 years ago NY Tel eliminated free directory assistance calls. Instead, tehy gave a ?50 cent? credit and offerred six free calls/month. Calls above the six would be $0.25 each (quantity and rates approximate from memory). The idea, they claimed, was that DA calls cost the company, and by extension the customers (never the shareholders, by the way) money. People who 'abused' DA would get charged and everyone else would benefit. Of course we've seen the credit disappear, and we've seen a complete elimination of any free DA calls ... I could go on and on, but the key point to keep in mind here is that the telcos are a business, not a service, and want to enhance their money streams. In -some- cases a general good comes of it (off peak pricing) but in most cases the only benefit is to the company. (or should that be The Company). dannyb@panix.com (or dburstein@mcimail.com) (10288) 0-700-864-3242 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 16:14 PST From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: Unmetered Local Service On 14 Jan 1994 23:00:23 GMT, Pat wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The thing Jack Decker and other pro- > ponents of flat rate billing seem to forget or ignore is that in most > instances of measured billing, the majority of telephone subscribers > actually pay LESS for service than with flat rate. [deletia declaring modem users a small minority who will get squeezed by per-minute rates] But the question in my mind is this: is it *really* the case that modem users are that small of a minority that they wouldn't be able to resist this sort of thing? It's happened slowly and quietly, but there are a *lot* of homes with personal computers in them. A goodly number, and I would bet a majority, have modems. In California, digital data service is coming in the guise of ISDN, or SDS as Pac*Bell insists on calling it. This digital service will not carry the 500 channels of one-way television that the cable companies and the telcos want to believe will drive their stillborn idea of the Data Superhighway; but rather, it, and its successors, will spark a far superior way of communication: e-mail, digital voice-mail, and tons of other digital services. In other words, the Data Superhighway will be a many-to-many network of peers, not a one-to-many broadcast network for The War Channel, Duck Hunting Network, and Macramevision (although this isn't entirely beyond the pale). By some estimates, as much as 50% of the existing traffic on the telco networks is data. If digital services are offered at reasonable prices and terms, there is absolutely no doubt that they can spur a *real* revolution in communications. Obviously, for Pac*Bell to offer ISDN now seems to me to say that they think there's enough people out there with modems who want this service that they'll succeed. I think they're right. ------------------------------ From: dold@rahul.net (Clarence Dold) Subject: Re: Shannon's Law (was Re: Hayes' New Modem) Organization: a2i network Date: Mon, 17 Jan 1994 01:34:56 GMT Of course, in the good old days, of printing _checks_ on a serial printer, hanging off a terminal, you would always overstrike the dollar amounts. That way, if there was a glitch, the number would appear bad. A good number would appear bolded. Clarence A Dold - dold@rahul.net - Milpitas (near San Jose) & Napa CA. ------------------------------ From: yatesc@eggo.usf.edu (Charles Randall Yates) Subject: Re: Shannon's Law (was Re: Hayes' New Modem) Date: 16 Jan 1994 05:57:08 GMT Organization: University of South Florida In article hummes@osf.org (Jakob Hummes) writes: > In article , goldstein@carafe.tay2. > dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) writes: >> In article hummes@osf.org (Jakob >> Hummes) writes: >>> ...But there is an absolute limit (Shannon's Law). The >>> question was about the transmission over a *real* phone line. And that >>> means there exists *noise*. The limit of bps is proportional to the >>> logarithm of the signal to noise ratio. Unfortunately I don't remember >>> the constant factors. >> Shannon's law is, in plaintext, >> BPS(max) = Bw * log(2)((1+S)/N) >> That is, take the signal-to-noise ration (adding 1 to signal, so a >> negative SNR has some information present) and represent it as a power >> of 2. Multiply by bandwidth (in Hz) and you get BPS. > Of course, not! > But now I remember Shannon's Law (you have placed wrong the brackets): > BPS(max) = Bw * log(2)(1+(S/N)) > The addition of 1 is needed to unable a negative BPS-rate, which would > be nonsense. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And of course Murphy's Law says that > when you are attempting to copy something down in plain ASCII text > for transmission to a computer network you'll always get some one > or more parts of it bass-ackwards to confound the readers even more > than they are already. That error might have been Goldstein's or it > might have been mine. Regrets extended. Your editor, Murphy.] I'm the one who originally posted this question, for those who don't know. It's nice to know what Shannon's law says -- if you assume a 30 dB SNR and 3100 Hz bandwidth, the law above works out to about 31 kilobits per second. If you happened to get a quiet channel, say, 40 dB SNR, the equation returns about 41.2 kilobits per second. However, this is still quite a ways off from a full-duplex, 28.8 kbps link, or 57.6 kbps total transfer rate. So my question still stands: How do they do it? Are they assuming a particularly quiet channel? Are they assuming more than the standard 3100 Hz of bandwidth is available? Randy Yates ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 15:58:18 CST From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: ISDN: Coming Soon to my House? Organization: AT&T Network Systems In article knauer@ibeam.intel.com (Rob Knauerhase) writes: > After talking to five different people in the local GTE residential > and business sales offices (favorite quote: "What is ISDN?", from two > people in residential sales), I finally found someone willing to admit > that they could sell me ISDN service. Interestingly enough, their > price was $48/month for 2B+D, which would provide two voice lines and > two phone numbers. This is about the same price as two unmeasured > POTS lines -- what a deal. Actually not too bad -- but you have to get over the assumption that ISDN is ONLY for medium-speed digital data traffic. What's the price for just one phone number, able to complete to each B-channel? > Of course, this is GTE. There has to be a catch. For data, they > charge the same as measured-by-minute local calls. I asked if that > mightn't be perhaps the silliest way to bill it (data calls by the > minute), when a major benefit of digital telephony is that when I'm > not using it, I'm _not using it_! (mostly) Sorry, but when you use ISDN to place a B-channel data (non-packet) call, you have a data path reserved through the network for your call, just as in the case of a voice/modem/FAX call. At least as much equipment is needed for such a call as for a voice call. Sometimes supporting ISDN data requires equipment replacement or updates, adding to the costs of ISDN. > That of course didn't phase them. Even at pennies/minute, the > advantage of faster speed is removed by cost when I can do plain-ol' > 14.4K with compression for "free." Is _anyone_ bothering to campaign > phone companies and Public Utilities Commissions so that we can get > this tarriffed in a reasonable manner (at least in places other than > Oregon)? Some consumer groups will support the retention of flat-rate voice calls in various areas. I know of none that advocate the funding of ISDN deployment by placing those costs into the general rate base (forcing all telephone users to fund ISDN "free" data calls). And if cost recovery is only from ISDN fixed charges, very few customers will want ISDN. Who do you want to fund your "free" data calls. > [Side note for those keeping score: US West in Portland offers 2B+D > for $90/month, no limit on data. Of course, you can't make an ISDN > data call between GTE and US West just yet, but they're working on > it.] This is difficult to believe (but possible) that such data calls cannot be placed, since most US West and GTE areas support Switched 56 calls. ISDN B-channel data calls rate-adapted to 56Kbps are almost identical to and interwork well with Switched 56 calls. The Switched 56 dialing plan usually uses '#56' as prefix digits to let the CO know you aren't making a voice call -- with ISDN, this information in in the SETUP message from the customer's ISDN equipment. The interworking also allows 56K calls from ISDN customers to reach other countries that do not yet have ISDN in place. Al Varney ------------------------------ From: cherkus@fastball.unimaster.com (Dave Cherkus) Subject: Re: SW-56 and ISDN Questions Organization: UniMaster, Inc. Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 19:37:34 GMT Reply-To: cherkus@UniMaster.COM > 2. Here in the US what cities have been converted to ISDN, and who are > still operating at SW-56? You can get this info on-line from the Combinet BBS: By popular demand, the Combinet "BBS" providing information on ISDN availability in many areas of the US is now available via the Internet. The information is supplied by Bell Communications Research and various Operating Companies and is updated periodically as new information becomes available. To access the service, telnet to bbs.combinet.com and login as isdn (no password is required). After entering an area code and three-digit prefix, the service displays the availability of ISDN. Also displayed is information about carrier installation prices and monthly charges. For those without direct Internet access, the service continues to be available on a dialup basis using a 2400 bit/sec modem at (408) 733-4312. Dave Cherkus UniMaster, Inc. cherkus@unimaster.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 08:53:13 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Re: Surcharge for Tone Dialing to be Dropped From: dave_oshea@wiltel.com (Dave O'Shea) I wrote: >> This is the scary part simce everywhere I go I see regional carriers >> attempting to eliminate "flat" and "unmetered" plans. As telecommuting >> and information hightway access begins to take hold, the elimination >> of unmetered local service is the biggest threat to individual >> connectivity that I can imagine. > Well, in a word, no. > If an employee is worth telecommuting, even a $4/hour connection > charge is fairly minor in the face of, say, a $65,000 salary/benefits > package. Even if you get charged that for eight hours a day, it's minor. Check the math -- a typical eight-hour-a-day work-year is 2000 hours. $4.00.hr would be U$8,000.00. Since the U$65k S+B package you mention really works out to about $35-$40k/year take home for a family, this would be 20-25% or about the same as a typical house payment. Besides, it is not the highest paid employees who would be the best candidates nor the largest group, it would be the lower level clerks, secretaries, accounts receivables, accounts payable, etc. employees who would make up the largest and best group. For example, it would not particularly benefit me (though I do a lot of things work-related from home) since it it usually the obscure things that require hands-on that I do. It would not be practical for me to have a full laboratory at home (though some say that I do already), however for someone who does all of their work with a terminal and a telephone already, it is very viable. > Most employees who would best benefit from telecommuting are the ones > who are well into long-distance calling areas. Disagree here also. Metro commuting is what takes the most time and LATAs are getting very big. I live 23 miles one way from my desk and it is a local phone call. Metro commuting is also what takes the most fuel and creates the most congestion. > And who knows -- I don't follow ISDN or related services too closely, > but it (and similar services) will become more widely available as the > cost of bandwidth falls. Don't hold your breath. Orlando is often touted as one of the cities with ISDN available, but the last I looked it was confined to a very small area that was not at either my workplace (10,000 employees) nor my home. Warmly, Padgett ------------------------------ From: guppy@panix.com (Jonathan Reiser) Subject: Re: Wanted: PC/Mac Voicemail Recommendations Date: 16 Jan 1994 09:31:40 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In AARNOLD@gsb-lira.stanford.edu writes: > We are building a low-cost PC or Mac-based voicemail announcement system > (1-4 line) from existing hardware and would like recommendations on > software and hardware. > Please advise directly by e-mail. Thank you! Prometheus' fax modem/voice mail software is pretty poor, and their technical support is even worse ... I had to jump thru hoops to get an answer to my question: "Why is it that I can't send faxes to my computer when my voice mail system is running?" The answer: Prometheus' software, when it is running the voice mail mode, cannot recognize the tones from certain fax machines ... if you're not going to be sending faxes to the computer, you might want to take a chance, but I just want you to be aware of that limitation. Note: I last tried this about eight months ago, maybe Prometheus has come up with something different or better. Regards and good luck, Guppy ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Announcing networkMCI Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 11:53:33 -0500 From: Atri Indiresan Paul R. Coen wrote: >> Is that what the MCI TV commercials with the little girl with >> the pseudo-[B]ritish accent standing in a puddle spouting >> existential gibberish are all about? > Is it a girl? I thought it was a boy. Then again, I didn't > look very closely. All I noticed was an overly-perfect child > dressed in weird black clothes and a really ghastly hat. And > the kid sounded like one of the brats from _Mary Poppins_. It was a girl -- the scene (and perhaps the actress?) were taken from the movie "The Piano". She is (or is suppposed to be) British. The scene is in New Zealand, around the turn of the century, and she just got off a boat from England, which would explain the clothes. While this says nothing about NetworkMCI, I do recommend the movie. Atri ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 09:43:54 CST From: mschomburg@ltec.com (Mike D. Schomburg) Subject: Re: Cordless Headset Telephone Concerning the recent request for information on cordless headset telephones, I have been searching for items like this ever since supervising a telco "trouble" bureau several years ago. The technicians would have to answer service calls at desks, and then usually walk to our nearby equipment room to perform tests. It seemed to me that a hands-free telephone would have a dramatic effect on productivity, but I never found the right phone for the job. A few months ago I saw an advertisement for a thing called the Ear Phone, made by Jabra Communications Corporation (I have no relationship with them) which is a small device that fits in your ear (like ear-bud headphones) and functions as both microphone AND headset. It can plug into a regular telephone headset jack, a personal computer (for voice control or annotation) or a CELLULAR PHONE. I haven't tried it out, but this sounds like a really cool application. The cellular phone has to have a special jack, but I am guessing this will become common (the jack). Once you've got a portable phone, who wants to use up one hand holding the dumb thing? Mike Schomburg mschomburg@ltec.com Lincoln Telephone ------------------------------ From: sscalsk@relay.nswc.navy.mil (Stan Scalsky) Subject: Re: US Digital Cellular Standard Organization: NSWC DL Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 17:21:51 GMT With all this talk about cellular standards is there anywhere to get copies of the standards? Does the cellular industry have a location for standards dissemination? Docs on N-AMPS/AMPS, TACS, or ETACS would be of interest. Thanks, stan sscalsk@relay.nswc.navy.mil ------------------------------ From: ssatchell@BIX.com Subject: Re: Hayes' New Modem Date: 16 Jan 94 17:11:28 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) writes: > It was often said that a phone line couldn't go beyond 26000 bps or > so, based on the typical bandwidth and SNR. Today a good clean line > is more likely to be digitally switched at 64000 bps, which is well > above the Shannon limit (digitization is lossy), but you still get a > theoretical limit closer to 40 kbps. Thus V.34, at 28.8 kbps, is > pushing the envelope, but still possible. But it won't work on a line > that's transcoded down to 32 kbps, or just plain noisy. Note the 300 > to 3400 Hz nominal frequency range; the 3400 is a hard filter. The anti-aliasing filters used to be at 3400, particularly when they were implemented using passive-filter technology. Today, the modern line cards are using digital filtering or active filtering (using op-amps) and the anti-aliasing filters start having their effect at 3700 Hz. Draft Recommendation V.34 makes used of the extended bandwidth when available in selecting the symbol rate to use on a connection. The added benefit of shifting to a higher symbol rate ("baud" rate to you old-timers) is that the Draft-V.34 modems can try to avoid a low-frequency distortion problem caused by the transformers on certain line cards without having to shift down in speed. When looking at the Shannon limit, you have to look at more than just added noise in the channl. There is also noise caused by intermodulation distortion which seems to be nigh near impossible to remove from the network. The "rule of thumb" is that the quantization noise of a companded telephone channel is equivalent to 39 dB SNR for a single PCM channel, 36 dB SNR for two tandem (unsynchronized -- don't ask) PCM channels, and 34 dB SNR for three tandem PCM channels. Digital speech compression just adds to this, although I don't have number for it all. Stephen Satchell, Principal Satchell Evaluations, Incline Village, Nevada, USA Testing modems for magazines since 1984 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 13:14 EST From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Network Outage in 205 NPA? I wrote: > Anyone know what happened with the telephone network in Alabama on > Monday? I got a call from a customer in Arab, and I get an > all-circuits-busy when trying to return his call on all AT&T, Sprint > and MCI. Did BellSouth lose a tandem switch? Oops. This turned out to be a local problem in GTE's switch here in Redmond. For some reason all of 205 was blocked from the local CO for at least two days. This is the same switch that serves the area that Microsoft's main campus is in, although I am sure they have some direct connection to their long distance carriers, so they probably weren't affected. Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5378 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #36 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03468; 17 Jan 94 3:42 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA20935 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Mon, 17 Jan 1994 00:27:20 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA22361 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Mon, 17 Jan 1994 00:27:01 -0600 Date: Mon, 17 Jan 1994 00:27:01 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401170627.AA22361@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #37 TELECOM Digest Mon, 17 Jan 94 00:27:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 37 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Long Distance Weather Calls? (Dale Dulberger) Re: Long Distance Weather Calls? (Peter M. Weiss) Re: Caller ID in Software (Chris Farrar) Re: Phone Line Simulator Wanted (Yee-Lee Shyong) Re: Unique Idea: Error Message for TDDs (Tom Watson) Re: Bizarre Cordless Behavior (Teng-Kiat Lee) Re: Possible Internet Service Scam (Clive D.W. Feather) Re: Are LATA Maps Available? (wjhalv1@pacbell.com) Re: Unmetered Local Service (A. Padgett Peterson) Re: Cable Channels and Satellites (Cord Beermann) Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers (George Zmijewski) Re: Radio Religion in Canada (Gord Deinstadt) Re: Need Source For Tariffs (James R. Saker Jr.) Re: Canadian Teen Charged With $500,000 Phone Fraud (Kevin C. Almeroth) Re: Radio Modem Help Wanted (Ben Burch) Re: Old Telephones Wanted (David Breneman) Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated (Craig Williamson) Re: Long Distance CLID is Here (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Telecom Service on Guam (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Using Spare Channels on a T1 (Scott Hinckley) Re: Online Comments to U.S. Social Security Administration (Damon Kelly) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dulberge@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Dale Dulberger) Subject: Re: Long Distance Weather Calls? Date: 16 Jan 1994 19:01:04 GMT Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee > weather message is 936-1212; wouldn't it be handier if every LOC > had the same number, so you could get the weather in any area > code in the same way as you get Directory Assistance? (Maybe > some AC's are so big one recording couldn't handle it?) Well, over here in 414 (Milwaukee and it is COLD!), Ameritech/Wisconsin Bell (when it was still around) has the whole 936 exchange set aside for weather (936 = WE6 = WEather). You can dial any number in 936 and you get the current weather forcast etc. It also has the whole 844 exchange fot time (844 = TI4 = TIme). It's been this way for as long as I can remember. I kinda figured that all AC's had it set up this way. It seems very logical, oh well, go fig. (And Milwaukee's probably even worse ... snow (two to five inches) and below zero temperatures. UGH!) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We 'warmed up' today here in Chicago; all the way to about ten degrees! Sunday evening we started getting the same snow however and by Tuesday we are supposed to get the sub- zero temperatures again. For quite a few years here we had WEAther expressed as 932-1212 (WEA) then it went to 934, and later to 936. For a few years now it has been a premium service on 976. As 932/934/936 it was always the sole occupant on the exchange; you could dial any number at all and get weather. Not so with the Time of Day however. For umpty-dozen years it was on CAThedral 8000, aka CAthedral 8-8000. It was the only occupant of CA-8 (228), but 228 itself simply trans- lated into DEArborn or DEarborn 2-8000 where a block of a couple hundred numbers upward from there in rotary hunt would provide the time of day. Now they even have that on a premium 976 number! I simply use the one provided by Central Telephone Company (aka Centel in Park Ridge, IL) at 708-296-7666 for the time of day and temperature. Does anyone remember when the Time of Day in New York City was NERVOUS? Do they still have that one going? The weather forecast for London, England made the most sense for quite a few years. One simply dialed WEATHER. I never did know why in the USA they always insisted on using 1212 as the suffix. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 16:43:21 EST From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: Re: Long Distance Weather Calls? Organization: Penn State University I prefer to gopher wx.atmos.uiuc.edu (port 70) and bypass the LD charges. Setting a "bookmark" assists for future searches. Pete (pmw1@psuvm.psu.edu) -- co-owner LDBASE-L, TQM-L, CPARK-L, et -L Peter M. Weiss "The 'NET' never naps" +1 814 863 1843 31 Shields Bldg. -- Penn State Univ -- University Park, PA 16802-1202 USA ------------------------------ Reply-To: comp.dcom.telecom@cld9.com Subject: Re: Caller ID in Software From: chris.farrar@cld9.com (Chris Farrar) Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 00:42:00 -0600 Organization: C-9 Communications Rgbecker@xap.xyplex.com said something along the lines of the following: > is a good question. I also have such a modem, and I've been looking > for a utility like this ever since I got Caller ID (New England > Telephone calls it PhoneSmart). It would be even better if it had an > automatic logging capability. Anyone seen something like this? ICON CS Canada Inc. sells a hardware board for a PC that will capture CLID info, maintain a log, and even route the call to a specific port (port 1, 2, or 3, or NUL) so you can decide who you want connecting. Write art.hunter@f131.n163.fidonet.org for more info Chris Internet: chris.farrar@f20.n246.z1.fidonet.org Origin: Comedy Bytes! Reply-To: csrnet.cld9.com (11:100/160) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 08:30:51 GMT From: apollo@n2sun1.ccl.itri.org.tw (Yee-Lee Shyong) Subject: Re: Phone Line Simulator Wanted Currently, I have one four-line phone line simulator from "TELETONE' Corporation. It has all the functions you wanted. It also possesses small outlet. Cost $499. Address: 22121-20th Avenue SE, Bothell, WA 98021-4408 Tel: 1-800-426-3926 Fax: 206-487-2288 Model No.: TLS-4 (4-line) or TLS-3 (2-line) ------------------------------ From: tsw@cypher.apple.com (Tom Watson) Subject: Re: Unique Idea: Error Message for TDDs Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 17:33:25 -0800 Organization: Apple Computer (more or less) In article , nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) wrote: > TDD is just 5-level Baudot at 45.45 baud, sent half-duplex using > the (I think) "Originate" tone pair of a 103A type modem. Most older > modems, and some newer ones, can be coerced into using this mode. Nope, they are very different. I don't know for sure but the shift is probably 850 Hz (ham radio standards of the day), not 200 Hz (Bell 103 standard). Tom Watson tsw@cypher.apple.com ------------------------------ From: ltk@ss3.vlsi.ee.nus.sg (Teng-Kiat Lee) Subject: Re: Bizarre Cordless Behavior Date: 16 Jan 1994 02:49:00 GMT Organization: VLSI CAD, NUS Reply-To: ltk@vlsi.ee.nus.sg Talking about AT&T cordless phones, I have a very nagging problem which I still haven't managed to solve. AT&T phones have the best reception I have ever encountered, the clarity is just unsurpassed! But my AT&T 5450 model has an attitude problem. It doesn't ring sometimes when it is not sitting on it's charging base-unit or the extra cradle which came with the set. This is quite frustrating since I actually have to install a second phone to hear the ring! Has anyone encountered this? Does someone has a solution? I have tried various things like not collapsing the the antenna but none worked all the time. Thanks and regards, --------------- Teng-Kiat Lee ---------------------- ltk@vlsi.ee.nus.sg t.lee@ieee.org VLSI CAD & Design Lab Voice: (65)-772-6319 Dept. of Electrical Engineering (65)-467-1518 National University of Singapore Fax: (65)-777-3117 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Possible Internet Service Scam Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 04:06:28 GMT From: Clive D.W. Feather In TELECOM Digest 14.25.3, Bill Mayhew writes: > Well, I did an MX entry check and found a record for iia.org pointing > to mary.iia.org, which indeed does exist. A telnet shows that it is a > SunOS system of some type. I didn't feel like doing a traceroute, > since it is not on this host, but a ping to that system takes 91 mS > from here in Rootstown. I did a traceroute: they are connected to Alternet's New Brunswick NJ node. Clive D.W. Feather | Santa Cruz Operation clive@sco.com | Croxley Centre Phone: +44 923 816 344 | Hatters Lane, Watford Fax: +44 923 817 688 | WD1 8YN, United Kingdom ------------------------------ From: wjhalv1@pacbell.com Subject: Re: Are LATA Maps Available? Date: 16 Jan 94 18:38:46 GMT Organization: Pacific * Bell In article , writes: > I wonder whether you know of maps of RBOC lata boundaries. I have the > list of sample cities you posted on mintaka at mit, but wonder if > there is a commercially available version that actually marks the > interlata boundaries. Can you shed any light on this? Yes indeed ... for any state you are interesed in, call that state's equivalent to the CPUC. They keep maps of the telephone companies' service territories, exchange boundaries, and LATA boundaries. FYI, in most states there is only one LATA. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 08:29:40 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Re: Unmetered Local Service From: lars@Eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) I wrote: >> only advantage that I can see for the consumer would be that with >> metered service, the subscriber would have a right to a call detail >> listing the individual calls by called number, time, and duration. > Hahahaha hahaha ha ha ... he ho hummmm ... Here in Denmark, local > calls have been metered for many, many years -- by the pulse method. > Itemized billing is NOT available, and there would be an uproar from > office workers -- on privacy grounds -- if the telco were to start > itemizing bills. Sorry, but it is the customer who pays the bill, not the employee of the customer. What is done with that information is up to them. Cannot talk about other countries but at least here in the US a person generally has a right to know what he/she/it/other is being charged for. Of course nothing is stopping anyone from purchasing a pen recorder (several are available) and putting it on *their* line, the major privacy issue seems to be that the employer may have some difficulty if the employees are not told, but and again in the US, property laws are still the foundation of our society. Was told recently that British Telecom has started itemizing their bills after many years of just presenting a total. Quite a few parents were surprised to find out how many babysitters had friends in Australia. Warmly, Padgett ------------------------------ From: Cord Beermann Subject: Re: Cable Channels and Satellites Date: 16 Jan 1994 18:40:21 +0200 Organization: Fachhochschule Lippe, Lemgo, Germany In Miles Thomas <70624.130@CompuServe. COM> writes: > lars@eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) wrote: > The ASTRA sats also broadcast to the UK, Spain etc etc. Its actually > owned by a company in Luxembourg, SES. The two birds are actually > 0.25 of a degree apart, which is close enough for a dish toi see both > (it has to be within 1 degree to see it). I understand that they plan > to add a third, ie one at 0.25, one at 0.5 and one a 0.75. Astra actually runs three satellites on the orbital position 19,2 degrees east, and there are three others planned, the fourth will be launched in middle/end 94. Cord ------------------------------ From: mzmijews@mgzcs.demon.co.uk (George Zmijewski) Subject: Re: ITU Method For Writing Telephone Numbers Organization: MGZ Computer Services Reply-To: mzmijews@mgzcs.demon.co.uk Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 19:45:20 In article Dik.Winter@cwi.nl "Dik T. Winter" writes: >> But then some French idiots come up with a stupid numbering system >> (for Paris *and* Greater Paris +331 xxxxxxxx rest of the country +33 >> xxxxxxxx ). Is it a revenge for changing CCITT to ITU? > The French may be idiots, but you are an idiot parsing numbers. The > first should be +33 1xxxxxxxx. So the country is +33. Anyhow, try to > phone me. Area code plus home number are 206372010. Try your logic > preceding it with either 1 or 001. A better choice for you would be > 01031 (and 0031 in the future). BT phonebook says: *FRANCE* (1) For Paris City and Greater Paris Dial 010 331 + 8 digits. (2) For rest of country Dial 010 22 + 8 digits As for parsing numbers -- with a good numbering plan cannot rely on existence of brackets, spaces, dashes etc . If a switch can figure out how to route call so should be able a human being. Does your phone have space bar and ( - ) keys ? George Zmijewski ------------------------------ From: ad577@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Gord Deinstadt) Subject: Re: Radio Religion in Canada Organization: The National Capital FreeNet, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 09:20:52 GMT Since the discussion started with Aimee Semple McPherson, and came around to Canada, I might as well point out that a well-known Canadian poet wrote a poem on the subject of "Aimee, Aimee, Simple McFarcin". My high-school Canadian Literature teacher was stumped by this one; much later I noticed that the Old Testament tells us that the moving hand wrote "Eli, Eli, tekel upharsin". BTW I understand she eventually ran away with a man, not her husband, and chucked the whole business. Gord Deinstadt ad577@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ From: jsaker@cwis.unomaha.edu (James R. Saker Jr.) Subject: Re: Need Source For Tariffs Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 15:52:53 GMT bharrell@nyx.cs.du.edu (Ben Harrell) writes: > A company in the Washington DC (202 area code) called CCMI provides this > service. Don't have the number handy but you can get it from ... An interexchange carrier I've worked with in the past obtains their tariffs on CD-ROM (monthly replacement set, weekly update CD-ROM) from a company called Communication Image Technologies, Inc. (CITI). CIT's application works with a set of 12 CD-ROMs, a special application which facilitates the searching and retrieval, setting tariff marks to check for updates in important tariffs, etc.. By purchasing the system and service, they've replaced a 12x14 room of bookshelves for tariffs (which were impossible to keep updated; took one full-time clerk to maintain) to a 486/33 workstation and 12 CD-ROMs, running Windows and CITI's application. The application was easy enough to allow anyone in the office to quickly retrieve the information they need. Tariffs stored include not only interstate FCC tariffs (AT&T FCC1, FCC2, etc. even including contract tariffs!, MCI, Sprint, LDDS, Worldcom, and other smaller IXC's, RBOC tariffs for switched/special access, Independent LEC tariffs incl. United, GTE, Lincoln Telephone, etc., and Intrastate tariffs including switched/special access, business service, residential service, special products (ISDN, Frame Relay, Information Services)). Overall, my impression was that if you need current access to telecom tariffs, this system is an exceptional resource. Contact information for CITI: 800-944-CITI (800-944-2484). Jamie Saker jsaker@cwis.unomaha.edu Chief Operating Officer Business/IS Major Synergistic Communications Univ. Nebraska at Omaha voice: (402) 680-8280 fax: (402) 451-1540 ------------------------------ From: kevin@cc.gatech.edu (Kevin C. Almeroth) Subject: Re: Canadian Teen Charged With $500,000 Phone Fraud Organization: College of Computing, Georgia Tech Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 19:20:46 GMT In article , wrote: > TORONTO (Jan. 11) UPI - A Canadian teenager has been charged with > defrauding a cellular phone network out of $500,000 worth of long > distance calls. > About $200,000 worth of calls were billed to a single phone number > over a 17-day period. Hmmm, this seems strange to me ... 17 days * 24 hours/day * 60 minutes/hour = 24,480 minutes 200,000 dollars / 24,480 minutes = ~8.17 dollars/minute That's awful expensive phone charges even if he was on the phone for 24 hours a day for the whole 17-day period! Kevin Almeroth [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: However it is not so unusual if you assume he might have had some confederates on it with him: other phreaks he showed the system to. Several people might have been 'working the phones' for hours at a time every night. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ben Burch Subject: Re: Radio Modem Help Wanted Organization: Motorola, Inc Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 19:49:46 GMT In article John Michael Pierobon, pierobon@gate.net writes: > Where can I get additional information on "radio modems"? If you are talking about non-commercial data transmission (personal, scientific, etc.), then you should contact the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). A 20 M band packet setup could (when propagation permits) provide you with the service you need. All that is required for this is a good ham radio rig, and a packet radio modem (called a TNC). You would, of course, need to get a license. There are also a number of carriers that provide data services via satellite, but I don't have any good pointers towards them. (We make wireless data devices, but ours assume an infrastructure you don't have there.) Ben Burch Motorola Wireless Data Group Ben_Burch@msmail.wes.mot.com ------------------------------ From: daveb%jaws@dsinet.dgtl.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Old Telephones Wanted Date: 16 Jan 94 20:41:51 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA Jay Hennigan (jay@coyote.rain.org) wrote: > I'm looking for repair parts or collectors groups of old telephones. > In particular, I have a brass Western Electric candlestick phone which > is missing the steel diaphragm from the receiver. The phone has > patent dates of Jan 26, 15 - Jan 1, 18 - May 7, 18 - Sept 21, 20 on > the base and 329W on the transmitter. Also have a Kellogg candlestick > in need of a baseplate. A source of the woven jacket cordage used in > the old days would be nice as well. I seem to recall that the diaphragms in old (ie, Korean war-vintage) Army field phones are compatible with these. Take that for what its worth. :-) David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 Software Engineering Services Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A. ------------------------------ From: Craig Williamson Subject: Re: How are VCR Plus+ Numbers Generated Reply-To: craig.williamson@ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM Organization: NCR, ICSS Columbia Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 23:18:46 GMT In article Aninda Dasgupta writes: > Magnavox sells a Voice Recognition remote that: > - allows programming of VCR > - is a universal remote > - recognizes commands from more than one person. > So, for about $100 to $150, you can hold up the remote in your hand > and say something like : "Record, Thursday, Start 9:00 pm, End 9:30 > pm, Channel 4." And the remote does the rest. No need to look up > codes and punch them in. Training the remote to recognize your voice > takes a few minutes as the user is prompted on an LCD screen to read > out a few numbers and words that appear on the screen. Very user > friendly. See your local Magnavox/Philips dealer for demonstrations. Well it won't work like it shows in the commercial though when John Cleese puts the remote beside the VCR. The remote still need to be able to hit the VCR at the right time with the infrared data. I would probably forget to leave the remote in range of the VCR before I left and wouldn't get anything. It's a neat idea if you don't use that remote for anything elase and always leave it where it can get to the VCR. Craig ------------------------------ From: mds@access.digex.net (Michael D. Sullivan) Subject: Re: Long Distance CLID is Here Date: 17 Jan 1994 01:06:01 EST Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA jsw@ivgate.omahug.org (Jack Winslade) writes: > I had quite a surprise today when I was looking over the CLID log. I > saw an entry of 513-247-xxxx. This is, of course, here in Omaha on > the 402-896 prefix. > I recognized the caller's name and number as being correct, so I can > assume that LD CLID is now working in some cases over some LD carriers. > About nine months ago on a CO tour, the CO tech said that this feature > would be coming shortly. This is the first time I have actually seen > this in action. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In Chicago we have had inter-LATA > Caller-ID on an intermittent basis for about a year. It is sent here > by some exchanges in other cities, but not by all or even a majority > yet. Minneapolis comes to mind as one place where I've seen it a lot. > Area code 612 numbers show up here when I get those calls. PAT] Actually, it depends on the interexchange carrier handling the call. A thread on the WELL indicated that Cable & Wireless always passes the CNID (calling number ID) field to the receiving LEC's SS7 network, which then passes it to the subscriber if Caller-ID-enabled. AT&T does not pass this field through. In a legal matter in which I am involved as counsel, AT&T has admitted that it gets the CNID from the originating LEC and strips it out unless it is paid to pass it through; however, they don't apparently have a tariff to charge for the pass-through. Interestingly, it seems it may cost AT&T more to strip it out than to pass it through. Michael D. Sullivan mds@access.digex.net avogadro@well.sf.ca.us Washington, D.C. 74160.1134@compuserve.com mikesullivan@bix.com ------------------------------ From: mds@access.digex.net (Michael D. Sullivan) Subject: Re: Telecom Service on Guam Date: 17 Jan 1994 01:00:36 EST Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA skass@drunivac.drew.edu (Steve Kass) writes: > A friend of mine is moving to Guam soon, and I am looking for > information for him. Does anyone know anything about > telecommunications there? Information on Internet, phone service, > television, radio, etc., on Guam and throughout the Marianas would be > welcome. He will be coordinating many aspects of media at the > University of Guam, and the information will help him with > preparations here before moving. How to call Guam cheaply would also > be nice to know (AT&T gives 70c/min through Reach Out Guam or > something). > Information about life on Guam in general is welcome, but should be > send directly to my address, not posted here. The one thing I know about telecom in Guam is that Motorola owns a paging system (and possibly mobile telephone and/or cellular system) there. It was Motorola's first venture as a common carrier. Michael D. Sullivan mds@access.digex.net avogadro@well.sf.ca.us Washington, D.C. 74160.1134@compuserve.com mikesullivan@bix.com ------------------------------ From: terminus@uahcs2.cs.uah.edu (Scott Hinckley) Subject: Re: Using Spare Channels on a T1 Organization: Linux Users of North Alabama [LUNA] Date: Sun, 16 Jan 94 08:14:53 GMT On the subject of spare channels on a T1 ... What sort of equipment would it take to use spare channels off of a T1 line coming into one building on campus from another? The buildings are using Meridian PBX. INTERNET: hinckley@ebs330.eb.uah.edu AT&TNET : +1 205 720 0734 (24hr voicemail) Copyright 1994 Scott Hinckley ------------------------------ From: damon@umbc.edu (Mr. Damon Kelly) Subject: Re: Online Comments to U.S. Social Security Administration Date: 17 Jan 1994 02:54:13 GMT Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County In article , Jack Decker wrote: > [Concerning the distribution of Social Security checks electronically] > However, one thing that personally disturbs me is that they are > apparently at least considering elimination of mailing of checks to > individuals, in favor of disbursements via "Electronic Fund Transfers > or Electronic Benefit Transfers." My initial gut reaction to that is > that this could have some real negative effects on privacy and > individual liberty, because it would in effect force people to have an > account at some financial institution in order to receive benefits. Not necessarily. I live in Baltimore, Maryland, where most Welfare recipients receive their benefits via these methods. You don't need an account with a recognized bank; the local Welfare office issues a recipient an ATM card and a list of distribution dates. The recipient can make unlimited withdrawawals/balance checks of the funds remaining in his/her "account," from *any* machine equipped to deal with the cards, at no charge. Presumably, SS checks could be distributed in the same manner. -d damon@umbc.bitnet damon@umbc.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #37 ***************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03576; 18 Jan 94 6:02 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA24035 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu); Tue, 18 Jan 1994 01:43:38 -0600 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu id AA21519 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oQ/var/spool/mqueue.big -odi -oi -ftelecom-request telecomlist-outbound); Tue, 18 Jan 1994 01:43:13 -0600 Date: Tue, 18 Jan 1994 01:43:13 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199401180743.AA21519@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #38 TELECOM Digest Tue, 18 Jan 94 01:43:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 38 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson CA State Report on LA Quake (Mike King) Los Angeles Earthquake, January 17 (Nigel Allen) More on the LA Earthquake (Robert L. McMillin) FYI AT&T Reduces LA Quake Services to 213, 310, 805 and 818 (Dan Arthur) Still Alive (Lauren Weinstein) Book Review: "Basics Book of Frame Relay" by Motorola (Rob Slade) DBS Satellite Services in Europe (Alfredo E. Cotroneo) Case History of a Phone Rip-Off (Part 1) (David L. Kindred) Cost of GTE Dialup Lines (Charles M. Hatcher) Shannon and Echo Canceller Protocols (Arnim Littek) More on Communication Over Power Lines (Michael Duane) V.32vis -> Bell_102 Due to CO Data Compression (Ross Porter) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and GEnie. Subscriptions are available at no charge to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu * The Digest is compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson Associates of Skokie, Illinois USA. We provide telecom consultation services and long distance resale services including calling cards and 800 numbers. To reach us: Post Office Box 1570, Chicago, IL 60690 or by phone at 708-329-0571 and fax at 708-329-0572. Email: ptownson@townson.com. ** Article submission address only: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ** Our archives are located at lcs.mit.edu and are available by using anonymous ftp. The archives can also be accessed using our email information service. For a copy of a helpful file explaining how to use the information service, just ask. TELECOM Digest is gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom. It has no connection with the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup comp.dcom.telecom.tech whose mailing list "Telecom-Tech Digest" shares archives resources at lcs.mit.edu for the convenience of users. Please *DO NOT* cross post articles between the groups. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mk@TFS.COM (Mike King) Subject: CA State Report on LA Quake Date: Mon, 17 Jan 1994 16:06:01 PST Passed along FYI: FROM: Governor's Office of Emergency Services, Sacramento STATE OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES STATUS REPORT AS OF JANUARY 17, 1994, 1130 HOURS SAN FERNANDO VALLEY EARTHQUAKE 1. Proclamations/Declarations 1. Local Declarations - County & City of Los Angeles, City of Hawthorne, County of Ventura 2. Governor's Proclamation of a State of Emergency - County of Los Angeles 2. Disaster Assistance Programs/Facilities 3. Dead/Injured 3 - 19 fatalities reported--not confirmed. 4. Evacuations (See medical) 5. Damages/Incidents OES Fire reports 70+ structures involved or down from fire. All fires under control. LA City - 100 incidents reported. Numerous building collapses; mainly in north area. Ranging from single family homes to larger structures including an apartment building and Northridge shopping mall. People trapped. Partial collapse to pancaking. LA County - City of El Monte--unreinforced masonry moderate damage. Cities of Sierra Madre and Alhambra--broken glass in business districts. Ventura County - Fillmore hardest hit; partial collapse of Fillmore Hotel. Petro chemical plant at SR 126 and Santa Clarita; potential chlorine release. Fire at El Dorado Mobile Home Park, Fillmore. Saugus - 1,000 hydrocloric acid and 500 gallon of sodium hyperchloride spill. Lake Castaic - Ruptured tank - crude oil spill with one-mile plume (unconfirmed). Valencia - pipeline rupture, crude oil. Oil flowing into Santa Clara River. Three more pipeline leaks in Newhall, Pyramid Lake, and Quail Lake (I-5 & SR 138). Train derailment 5,000 gallon acid sulfuric acid - Northridge. State Facilities--Have inspected three major state buildings. Los Angeles State Building and Ronald Reagan Building - no power; Long Beach State Building - no reports of damage. Three sites damaged (Santa Monica, Culver City, and Inglewood). California Aqueduct overpassing cracked at Silverwood Lake to Bakersfield. Counties of Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Imperial, Mono, Inyo, San Luis Obispo- Report no major damage. 6. Care & Shelter American Red Cross identifying shelter sites; have experienced power problems at their Headquarters in Los Angeles. 4 shelters open--Sylmar High School; Canoga High School; Simi Valley High School; Oxnard Armory. 7. Medical Inspectors are in the field. Problems appear to be power outages and broken glass. L.A. County reports three hospitals with major damage (Holy Cross, Panorama City, VA Sepulveda); patients evacuated. State Fire Marshal reports Holy Cross appears most impacted. Major problems for hospitals are no water; on emergency power with approximately 4 hours of emergency fuel left. Injury reports from these hospitals are minor. EMSA reports emergency radio net to hospitals has broken down twice. Have received reports of 6 or 7 severely impacted hospitals. 8. Utilities Reported oil pipeline rupture in Valencia; spill only, no ignition. Southern California Gas - Numerous interruptions at their facilities; assembling crews and moving them into critical areas; Southern California Edison - Numerous power outages; detailed report to follow. Telecommunications - AT&T and GTE report major switch problems; will be coordinating movement of equipment into critical areas. Local communication service out in Pacoima due to structural damage to Pac Bell switching center. Water - LA Dept. of Water and Power reports aqueduct broken in San Fernando Valley. Trunk line breaks in the area. Large water tank has collapsed and another has sustained minor damage. 9. Road Net See Caltrans report 10. Air Space/Facilities Los Angeles International (LAX) and Long Beach Airports closed for inspection. Orange County - All airfields open. 11. Other critical information 12. EOCs and other facilities activated State Operations Center; Southern Region EOC CHP Emergency Response Center - Headquarters and Southern Division. State Police EOC - Headquarters CDF EOC - Headquarters Caltrans EOC - Headquarters Office of Statewide Health Planning & Development (OSHPD) EOC - Headquarters DHS Emergency Coordination Center - Headquarters Dept. of Fish & Game EOC - Headquarters FEMA Region IX EOC, Disaster Field Office (Pasadena) Major utilities' EOC's including GTE, Pacific Bell, Southern California Edison City/County EOC's - Los Angeles City; Los Angeles County; Orange County; San Bernardino County; San Diego County; Santa Barbara County Operational Area American Red Cross National Operations Center, State EOC, 3 zone EOC's 13. Response actions taken and resources committed by function Medical - California National Guard dispatching 10 air ambulances; expected to arrive at 1/17/94, 1700 hours. Urban search and rescue teams and equipment being transported to Los Alamitos. Fire & Rescue - Orange County reports sending strike teams to L.A. County. L.A. City reports major fire at San Fernando Road Trailer Park. Natural gas fires in Balboa region. OES Fire & Rescue reports 30 strike teams ordered from Region VI and 8 strike teams from the north state. 7 of 8 of the state USAR teams have been activated. The eighth is the City of LA which is committed to its own operations. LA, Orange, and Riverside county teams have been committed to assist LA City. The others will be stationed at Los Al; three northern CA teams on way from Travis AFB 1/17/94, afternoon. LA City being assisted by local USAR resources. 10 person federal USAR team enroute. Law Enforcement - LAPD and LASO are on tactical alert. No requests for out of area mutual aid. Anticipate security problems with businesses. Transportation - Caltrans conducting damage assessment. Receiving calls from vendors offering equipment; so far Caltrans does not need extra equipment. Caltrans is coordinating resources from their unimpacted districts; staff and equipment on standby. CHP reports 108 officers deployed in LA area; more call-ups occurring. They are on tactical alert. Water - DWR inspecting dams in area; dispatching two teams. Dam owners report no problems. Owner of Santa Felicia Dam reports no damage. CCC - Assembling resources list Federal - Air Force will fly U-2 mission; photos will be ready by 2400 hours, 1/17/94; will have staff to interpret. EDIS-01-17-94 1309 PST ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jan 1994 11:03:22 -0500 From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Los Angeles Earthquake, January 17 Organization: The National Capital FreeNet, Ottawa Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca Information on the Los Angeles earthquake is available in the ca.earthquakes newsgroup. Nigel Allen ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jan 94 06:37 PST From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: More on the LA Earthquake At about 4:35 AM, Los Angeles suffered an earthquake of magnitude 6.6 on the Richter scale, centered in the San Fernando Valley. Phones and electricity were reported out throughout the entire Valley. Major fires started by gas main ruptures have been reported, and at least four large apartment complexes have burned completely to the ground. Valley residents will probably report this with more harrowing detail that I can. Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan announced one death on the freeways caused by today's earthquake, but failed to say where or which freeway. Interstate 405, the main coastal artery, has suffered extensive damage in the Valley, and is completely closed. In fact, except for one, all freeways in the San Fernando Valley are closed. Los Angeles International Airport is closed. Details as they come in. Robert L. McMillin | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Netcom: rlm@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: siproj@i-link.com (Dan Arthur) Subject: FYI AT&T Reduces LA Quake Services to 213, 310, 805 and 818 Date: 17 Jan 1994 14:35:07 -0600 Organization: I-Link, Ltd., Des Moines, Iowa, US - 515/255-2754 FYI - from siproj@ilink1.i-link.com The following area codes are considered in an emergency condition according to a national newscaster: 213 - California, Los Angeles 310 - California, Beverly Hills 805 - California, Bakersfield 818 - California, Glendale AT&T has apparently reprogrammed the long distance switching network to free up lines for disaster personnel. Any business with one of the above area codes as an origin will likely have problems getting in touch with you or vice versa. Please e-mail any other specifics. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jan 94 18:44 PST From: lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Still Alive Still alive. A total mess, but still here. Power just came back and I just managed to bring up the main systems. Miraculously, the routes back to the net are up. More details later. Basically, much of the region is still w/o power and water. I have water in theory, but the main broke so I can't get at it. The valley is still largely black -- I'm amazed this area came back online as soon as it did. Phones stayed up pretty much throughout, with only the usual overloading problems. Definitely the worst I've been through in my lifetime here. Much worse damage than '71. --Lauren-- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Please keep us posted whenever you can with more details. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jan 1994 21:18:33 MDT From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Basics Book of Frame Relay" by Motorola BKBSFRRL.RVW 931125 Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Kelly Ford, Promotion/Publicity Coordinator P.O. Box 520 26 Prince Andrew Place Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 or Tiffany Moore, Publicity tiffanym@aw.com John Wait, Editor, Corporate and Professional Publishing johnw@aw.com 1 Jacob Way Reading, MA 01867-9984 800-822-6339 617-944-3700 Fax: (617) 944-7273 5851 Guion Road Indianapolis, IN 46254 800-447-2226 "The Basics Book of Frame Relay", 0-201-56377-0 The preface states that this is an easy-to-read introduction to frame relay for busy communications professionals who presumably want to know something about the new technology besides the fact that it is generating a lot of interest. Fine. I fit the bill perfectly. I'm a communications (specifically *data* communications) professional. I'm busy. Let's get to the frame relay. Not so fast. First, we have an introduction that wants to tell me I should be interested in frame relay. Look, I got the book, didn't I? Then, we have a chapter one which wants to tell me what a "protocol" is, and about packet switching. Pack it in, guys: I'm a professional, remember? Then, we get another *two* chapters of sales pitches! Buried in the verbiage, there is a *bit* of information about frame relay: - it has higher throughput than X.25 (how? less error correction and recovery); - you can connect anything to it (how? probably the same way you do now-- with difficulty); - you can connect voice to it (maybe. or maybe that's *cell* relay, or ATM); - it has faster response time (how? don't know); - it has higher throughput, again (how? by letting you use more bandwidth, if it is available. Huh.) On the other hand, it takes less than an hour to read. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993 BKBSFRRL.RVW 931125 Permission granted to distribute with unedited copies of the TELECOM Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '94, Vancouver, BC, Mar 1-3, 1994, contact: rulag@decus.ca ------------------------------ From: alfredo@quickt2.it12.bull.it (Alfredo E. Cotroneo) Subject: DBS Satellite Services in Europe Date: 17 Jan 1994 04:53:32 -0600 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway I am looking for information on companies which offers audio subcarriers on European DBS (Direct Broadcasts Satellite) such as the Astra(s), the Eutelsat(s), Intelsat(s) or others. As I have heard, tipically, unused audio subcarriers may be rented directly also from companies which have rented a transponder, and use it for their DBS TV transmission (e.g. MTV, Sky, TNT, etc.). Phone and fax numbers of TV stations on European satellites, as well as those of the original satellite service providers (AStra, Eutelsat, etc. ) will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Alfredo Cotroneo, Milano, Italy 100020.1013@compuserve.com fax: +39-2-706 38151 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jan 94 14:51 EST From: kindred@telesciences.com (David L Kindred ) Subject: Case History of a Phone Rip-Off (Part 1) As "Dragnet" used to say, "The following is a true story. Only the names were changed to protect the innocent". My mother is Manager of a credit union in one of the small cities adjacent to Newark, NJ. The office is on the ground floor in a mixed use area (street level business, upper floor residences). In addition to herself, there are two part time employees. They have two or three ph