Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05099; 23 Feb 94 19:27 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA14328; Wed, 23 Feb 94 15:26:27 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA14317; Wed, 23 Feb 94 15:26:24 CST Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 15:26:24 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9402232126.AA14317@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #101 TELECOM Digest Wed, 23 Feb 94 15:26:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 101 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson GSM FAX Transmission (Lars Kalsen) Lowest Number in the NANP? (Dave Levenson) Has Anyone Heard of Filex? (Bob Malik) Modulation Techniques (Fil Parong) Calling 800 Numbers in USA From UK (Julian Thornhill) Intern's Pay in Telecom (Ramaiah V. Narla) Re: Why Caller-ID Instead of ANI? (Les Reeves) Re: Phone Number History (David Breneman) Re: Vermont Gets Ready For NNX Area Codes (Bob Goudreau) Re: Digital Cellular Phones (Bob Goudreau) Re: Paging Available on Cellular Phones (Robert Wilson) Re: Area Code Closeness (Robert Casey) Re: Caller-ID Question (Jack Coats) Orange Card Mailed Out (Carl Moore) Another Misprogrammed COCOT (Carl Moore) Re: AT&T's New 900 Mhz Cordless Phone (Cliff Sharp) 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: dalk@login.dkuug.dk (Lars Kalsen) Subject: GSM FAX Transmission Date: 23 Feb 94 19:00:17 GMT Organization: DKnet Hi outhere, I am writing on an overview article on FAX-transmission via the GSM network. I would like to know if anybody: - have some references to articles on the subject; - or books; - references to products; - any other information. If you have any information -- please E-mail me. Or if you have a copy of an article send it to me by ordinary mail -- or fax on +45 98 24 65 02 (denmark). Greetings from Denmark. Lars Kalsen Kingosvej 5 D 9490 Pandrup Denmark dalk@login.dkuug.dk ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Lowest Number in the NANP? Reply-To: dave@westmark.com Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 14:54:09 GMT According to NJ Bell's automatic intercept service, the number 201-200-0000 is 'being checked for trouble'. The number 201-200-0001 has been disconnected. I didn't try any others in that prefix. 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 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why not try 0002, 0003, etc and let us know your findings. I wonder if they know the significance of their number? What about at the other end of the line, any from the 919-999 range? PAT] ------------------------------ From: u3212alb@elm.circa.ufl.edu (Bob Malik) Subject: Has Anyone Heard of Filex? Date: 23 Feb 1994 12:48:50 GMT Organization: University of Florida, Gainesville Does anyone know about a PC communications package called Filex? I think the company that makes it is giving out 150,000 copies of it for $10 each. If you have any info, please send email to: u3212alb@elm.circa.ufl.edu Thanks, Bob Malik ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 12:32:58 EST From: Fil_Parong@ccmail.GSFC.NASA.GOV Subject: Modulation Techniques Is anyone familiar with PM and BPSK modulation techniques? Please reply to Fil_Parong@ccmail.gsfc.nasa.gov ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 08:48:14 GMT From: jth@ionospheric-physics.leicester.ac.uk (Julian Thornhill) Subject: Calling 800 Numbers in USA From UK Does anyone know how I might call a US 800 number from the UK? As you might guess this cannot be done in the normal way. Even being able to find out the real chargeable number would be a help. Some firms in their ads only give 800 numbers and it is really frustrating when you want to call them ... Julian Thornhill Email to jth@ion.le.ac.uk Physics Department Leicester University University Road Tel 0533 523566 FAX 0533 523555 Leicester LE1 7RH +44-533-523566 (international) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We've touched on this several times in the past year or so. You can attempt to to get through using the "USA Direct" service of the various carriers, and asking that operator to connect you. Some will do it, some won't. If you go through AT&T for example, the called party will be charged for a call from Pennsylvania. Generally the subscribers to 800 service in the USA do not wish to receive calls from outside the USA (at least on their toll-free line) for various reasons, one being that perhaps they are unable/not allowed/ do not wish to sell their products outside this country. Others would love to sell their products anywhere in the world, but have very stupid advertising/PR-droids who do not have any idea how telephones work in other countries. This comes up so often here, I am wondering: if I were to install a couple lines here which people could call from all over the world for the specific purpose of being reconnected to an 800 number, would anyone be interested in using it if they had to pay $10 per month and use a passcode to make the call (once they were connected through me)? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ramaiah V Narla Subject: Intern's Pay in Telecom Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 12:04:09 EST I applied with the North American Telecommunications Association (NATA) for practical training after my master's studies in telecommunications. I received an offer, over the phone, of a summer internship -- $10 for an 8-hr day (allowance/pocket money for meals and transport only, according to the official). The work involved market research and report generation in the international and national telecom areas. [Of course, I declined the offer respectfully -- it's just not practical]. Anyway, what I'd like to know is: is that how interns are taken up? So badly paid? In the telecom industry, particularly? And, could an institution such as NATA be as resource-starved? (The official said they only pick up two interns each summer and pay them each just $10/day, due to resource crunch). Any feedback will help me understand the telecom policy and research job market better and my thanks in advance for it. Ram Narla narlaram@msu.edu ------------------------------ From: lreeves@crl.com (Les Reeves) Subject: Re: Why Caller-ID Instead of ANI? Date: 23 Feb 1994 09:38:27 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] Scott Baer (baers@agcs.com) wrote: > Now, directly to my question, what is the (10XXX) PIC code for Cable & > Wireless? I would like to test this claim that C&W passes the > identity of the caller to the called party's Caller-ID display box. The PIC code for C&W is 10223. However, they *do not* accept calls from casual (non pre-subscribed) customers. Les lreeves@crl.com Atlanta,GA ------------------------------ From: daveb@jaws (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Phone Number History Date: 23 Feb 94 17:40:32 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA David Breneman (ME) (daveb@jaws) wrote: > My parents waited over ten years for a private line in the 206-858 > exchange. Finally, somebody moved into the neighborhood (never found > out who) who would leave his phone off the hook at night. If you > picked up the phone, you could hear him snoring! When my parents > complained repeatedly about the danger of this situation, the phone > company (Island Empire, now Pacific Telecom) finally relented and gave > them a private line, but charged $1.25 per month per mile for the > distance between their house and the central (crossbar) switch in Gig > Harbor (Washington -- near Tacoma). This was about 1979. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: They should have called their party line > neighbor during the day and told him to quit doing that. Yes, you could > call your party line neighbor on the phone even though the logical way > of thinking was that if you went off hook, the line would become busy so > how would you reach him ... during manual service days, if you simply > asked for the other side of your party line (let's say you were 1234-J > and party was 1234-W) then the response from the operator was 'line > is busy', the same as if you asked for your own number by accident, and > people would sometimes do that. The operator did not look at who was > *calling* unless there was a billing function involved, she looked at > who was *being called*; the (cord) tip to (jack) ring test would 'test > busy' and that was her report ... bing! she was gone to handle another > call. So you tipped her off by saying 'calling my party line, 1234-W', > and she would say to hang up, let her ring it and pick up the phone > again in maybe twenty seconds. She could then ring on the line (yours > and party's would both ring) and if party answered she told them to > hold on a couple seconds until you picked up again. On our phone system, you could call somebody on your party line by dailing their number, waiting for the busy signal, hanging up, then allowing their phone enough time to ring and picking your receiver back up. Unfortunately, it was something like a 12 party line, and we had no idea who the guy was -- and the phone company naturally wouldn't tell us. The dial-the-number-and-hang-up feature was especially useful in that you could ring your *own* phone that way, too. Just the ticket when an annoying salesman or Jehovah's Witness came to call. > Anyway, your parents should have called the snorer, and with the music > of J.S. Bach's "Sleeper's Awake" playing sweetly in the background given > him a piece of their mind. My dad tried a police whistle on a couple of occasions without much luck. Apparently this guy was a heavy sleeper. > I wonder if the guy even knew he was on a party line or if he was > just plain inconsiderate Probably just ignorant. This was about the time the California Invasion started in Washington. I'm sure most of these folks had no idea what a party line was or did. Later the phone company got even with all of us -- when they switched from the crossbar system to an electronic one, about 1980, everybody got *new* phone numbers (206-851), and all of the old numbers (206-858) were assigned to new customers. That's what you get for complaining. :-) David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 Product Development Platforms Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 12:45:32 -0500 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Re: Vermont Gets Ready For NNX Area Codes John Levine writes: > A flyer in my latest phone bill reveals that Vermont's new toll > dialing plan is 1-802-NNX-XXXX... > Personally, I find the new plan to be a big pain in the neck, since, > due to a peculiarity of exchange boundaries, it'll require that I dial > most free local calls within our town with 11 digits. Please explain these two statements. If it's a "free local call" (within the same area code, no less), then it's not a toll call, so why is "Vermont's new toll dialing plan" relevant here at all? Do you currently dial these calls as eight digits (1 + 7D)? If so, why? What is Nynex up to? Are there any other places in the NANP where local intra-NPA calls require more than seven digits to dial? Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Around where my office used to be on Howard Street in Chicago, everything I called locally had to be dialed as 1-708-seven digits because it was fifty feet north of me which at that point was the end of 312 and the start of 708. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 13:39:47 -0500 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Re: Digital Cellular Phones In article david boettger writes: >> Careful. I think that when Alex says "all digital", he means exactly >> that -- a cellular system that using nothing but digital signaling. >> Dual-mode systems, which combine support for the old (analog) AMPS >> system with support for one of the new digital systems (TDMA or CDMA) >> are *not* all-digital. > If you're going to use this definition, there are no "all digital" > cells in commercial operation; there are merely cells which have some > channels dedicated to digital traffic and some which are dedicated to > analog traffic .... Correct. That is *exactly* the point I was trying to make, and which I suspect Alex was also trying to make when he said "It is difficult for me to imagine an all digital cellular network" in North America in the near future. I.e., the installed base of AMPS equipment is not something that can be easily wished away. I suspect that dual-mode systems will exist for quite a while, even in Canada. Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA ------------------------------ From: rwilson@inca.gate.net (Robert Wilson) Subject: Re: Paging Available on Cellular Phones Date: 23 Feb 1994 14:11:48 -0500 The Fujitsu PCX cellphone has a voice chip which when the unit is set to pager mode will answer the incoming call, tell the party you are unable to come to the phone, and logs up to five numbers. This feature works well for call-screening as you can "pick-up" if you wish as the caller is leaving his/her number. Rob ------------------------------ From: wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) Subject: Re: Area Code Closeness Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 19:24:03 GMT I had thought/heard that the semi-random distribution of area codes in the USA was done to avoid confusion of numberically close area codes with geographically close areas. Especially in the same state. "was that area code 402 or 403 for Yerksville, South Dakota, Can't remember which my friend said", vs. if the two area codes are much different, "he said 70 something, lets see, that has to be 702 according to the phone book map". Phone companies tend to do the same thing with phone exchanges inside the same area codes. The phone company's got your number! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Hey, there was a time in the early days of area codes (late 1950's and much of the 1960's) when the same prefix was not assigned in two adjoining area codes. That was done to allow for 'community dialing' across state lines, where area codes always change. That is, '659' showed up in Whiting, Indiana. It did not show up in 312, 815 (since a tiny bit of the south end of 815 touches 219) nor in 317 nor in 216. The main consideration was the 219/312 closeness where until about 1970 or so, anyone in the extreme upper northwest corner of 219 (Hammond, East Chicago, Whiting, Munster) could call any number in 312 as seven digits only. Ditto in reverse. But once you got into (or past, I cannot remember which) Gary, Indiana going east then you had to dial 312 to reach Chicago. Then one day they announced that the little northwest corner had a choice: either they could being dialing 312 to reach Chicago, or 1+7 digits to reach elsewhere in the northern Indiana 219 area. Telco made the choice to go with the latter leaving Hammond/Whiting, etc hooked to Chicago for calling purposes. With the change in telcos in the late 1970's (northwest Indiana was taken away from Illinois Bell and turned over to Indiana Bell) the requirement of dialing not just 312, but 1-312 (!) to reach Chicago was added, and the 1+7D for the rest of 219 was dropped. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jocoats@amoco.com (Jack Coats) Subject: Re: Caller-ID Question Reply-To: jocoats@amoco.com Organization: Amoco Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 08:41:10 CST There was an article in one of the popular electronics type magazines (check your local library) in the last couple of months on how to build your own caller-id display machine. It would be easy to modify it (it uses a PIC micro processor) to have a serial output instead or also, that could feed your PC or whatever. The data, if I remember right, is 1200 baud. You can get a couple of codes other than just the number too. One is if you are out of the area where the codes are available (seems silly to me, if the phone company can figure out how to charge collect calls), and another code if the caller has the Caller-ID blocked. E-mail: jocoats@amoco.com Fax: 713/366-7570 Voice: 713/366-7120 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 15:11:57 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Orange Card Mailed Out I have received the Orange Card (although the account has been active for a long time) There is a slight problem: My address changed in the meantime, and the card (mailed from the Harrisburg, Pa. area with the address of Spring Park, MN 55384) reached me through the mail-forwarding. The billing for calls made on that card is already being sent to my new address, but Orange Communications still does not have my new address. This is the letter I got, dated 10 Feb.: Dear Orange Card Customer: Please find enclosed your permanent Orange Calling Card. Please note that your authorization number has not changed and that the PIN number you are currently using will stay the same also. The procedure for using the card is listed on the back of the permanent card and you will note that it is has [sic] not changed. Thank you for your patience during our delay in sending your permanent Orange Calling Card. We appreciate your business! Sincerely, Orange Communications, Inc. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 8:29:36 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Another Misprogrammed COCOT A COCOT I saw on a trip I just took across Vermont had (usual) roblems with 10xxx access code (I used 1-800-321-0288 instead of 10288) and also had this problem with use of the Orange Card: I was able to call 1-800-(Orange Card Number), get the resulting tone, then punch in the ten-digit code and the ten-digit number I was calling, then get the next burst of tone, but then got "DISCONNECTED" on the display I saw. ------------------------------ From: indep1!clifto (Cliff Sharp) Date: Tue, Feb 15 08:40:30 1994 Subject: Re: AT&T's New 900 Mhz Cordless Phone In article blaskin@panix.com (Bruce Laskin) writes: > (Most wireless home phones put out no more than 0.5mw.) I suspect you mean 0.5W. 500 microwatts, used with the el-cheapo receivers in most wireless phones, would give an effective range of about three feet... provided there was absolutely no interference. However, I remember something about Part 15 transmitters (other than spread-spectrum) being limited to 100 milliwatts. My really really el-cheapo wireless (49 MHz / 1.7 MHZ) put out about 50 to 70 milliwatts on a good charge day. Cliff Sharp WA9PDM ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #101 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa08180; 24 Feb 94 5:49 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA26629; Thu, 24 Feb 94 02:27:06 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA26614; Thu, 24 Feb 94 02:27:05 CST Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 02:27:05 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9402240827.AA26614@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #102 TELECOM Digest Thu, 24 Feb 94 02:27:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 102 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cell One/NY and NYNEX Billing Errors (Douglas Scott Reuben) Microsoft TAPI - Who Has Reviewed it? References? (James Smith) "Convenience Calls" on Phone Bill (David J. Greenberger) Local CID Showing Out of Area (Richard Dervan) Wiring Diagram Needed For Rotary Dial Phone (Grimes G. Slaughter) Auto Attendant Equipment Wanted (charlesh@ngc.com) 1-900 as a State Moneymaker (Curtis Bohl) Re: Talking Caller ID Boxes (Dave Levenson) Re: Looking For Low Cost Phone System (Mike Renault) Re: Digital Cellular Phone Review (Martin McCormick) Re: Vermont Gets Ready For NNX Area Codes (Bob Goudreau) Re: Seeking Info on GTE Interactive Multimedia Systems Devlopment (Lichter) Re: Shortages of Prefixes in 800 (Richard Cox) Re: These Cell Phones Don't Work - Why? (Jay Hennigan) Re: Excel Telecommunications (miyoungberg@delphi.com) Re: Priorities (Dave Levenson) 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: 23 Feb 1994 18:16:46 GMT From: Douglas Scott Reuben Subject: Cell One/NY and NYNEX Billing Errors I recently got my January bill from Cell One/NY, and noticed a few things: 1. SOME incoming voicemail deposits and retrievals were billed airtime charges. CO/NY, as a matter of policy, ONLY bills airtime for voicemail calls when one calls from their cellphone; all other land calls to voicemail incur no CO/NY-based charges. The calls which had charges were random -- some days it billed, some days it didn't. These calls showed up as "INCOMING", rather than "VM DEPOSIT" or "VM RETRIEVE". At first I just let them go, and figured they were correct. However, after closer scrutiny of the bill, I noticed that many of the "INCOMING" calls were billed when I wasn't even in NY, and my phone was off. I then checked my voicemail messages' time stamps, and the times on the messages coincided with the supposedly "INCOMING" calls on my bill. I called CO/NY about this, and they are investigating, but if you have VM with them, I'd closely check my bill this month. (It *could* just be a problem with my prefix, etc., so other customers in different area codes may not even notice these charges.) 2. CO/NY seems to charge a $.06 "access" charge for all outgoing calls. I had thought that the six cent/minute charge was what they billed you for calls to your local calling area, ie, NY, NJ, and now expanded to Fairfield County, CT. However, it seems that when you make a long distance call, you pay airtime (of course), the LD charge (at AT&T direct-dial rates), PLUS the six cent/min "access charge". This is so despite the fact that they supposedly have direct links to AT&T trunks and thus I don't see why they are "forced" to charge an access charge for LD calls. Moreover, calls to 800 and 0+ numbers have no six cents/min "access charge", which they should if the six cents are really designed to (ahem..) 'recover' access costs. It seems a bit deceptive to say "Oh, we offer a rate of 50 cents per minute!", but then in the fine print say "But most outgoing calls you make will also be subject to a six cents/min access charge." Anyone know what the deal is? CO/NY tried to give me some "legalistic" answer for this, although I explained to them that NYNEX didn't bill this charge (or do they bundle it?), ie, if you make an LD call you pay LD rates, if you make a local call you pay local rates; there is NO "access charge". CO/NY told me "Oh, they are the land carrier, and since they own the telco they can do that", which suprised me not only becuase they seemed so willing to acquiesce to NYNEX on this issue, but because it sounded flat-out wrong. 3. On a brighter note, CO/NY expanded the areas surrounding NY where you pay "home" airtime rates with NO roamer surcharge. They have basically included the Dutchess County (NY) system (previously $3/day, $.99 min), Sussex, NJ (previously $.85/$.85 per minute), Ocean County Cellular, and Litchfield, CT which McCaw just bought from Cell One/Litchfield (previously $3 per day?, $.85 per minute). They have also reduced the rates charged in most of their regional automatic call-delivery system. Note that this is NOT a change in the auto call-delivery regime; no new areas have been added yet for automatic call delivery. What they are offering is a DRAMATIC (and LONG overdue) rate reduction for roaming in adjacent systems. Philly used to be $.99 per minute, now, in the evening, I pay only $.27 per minute. NYNEX has a much more expansive automatic call delivery system, stretching from Maine to Reading, PA, to Virginia, but they still seem to think they can get away with charging $.99 a minute for incoming and $3/day $.99 for outgoing calls in most of their call-delivery (Mobilreach) markets. I much prefer CO/NY's regionalized plan, which now gives CO/NY customers a larger home calling area than NYNEX customes enjoy. It is certainly about time! Finally, NYNEX/NY seems to STILL be billing a $3/day daily charge for INCOMING Mobilreach calls in some of its partner (Bell Atlantic) markets. I noticed all incoming calls to Baltimore (SID 00018) were levied a $3 charge, while calls to DC (also SID 00018) were not. I've reported this problem to NYNEX/NY a number of times, and nothing has been done. Indeed, you can still call customer service, and complain that you were charged a $3 daily fee for a Mobilreach incoming call, and they will *insist* that you will be charged in some markets. This is simply NOT TRUE! If you receive a Mobilreach call, you pay only a per minute charge (usually $1) plus the cost of the toll call to deliver it to wherever you are. Customer service will regularly tell you there is a $3 charge, but don't let them stop you there (and they are good at it; they sound VERY sure of themselves ...:( ), ask to speak to the roam coordinator about it. You should *not* pay a $3 daily roam charge for an incoming automatic Mobilreach call. (How about Star Cellular in Maine, do they count too? I think so ...) Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu // dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet ------------------------------ From: jts1@gte.com (James Smith) Subject: Microsoft TAPI - Who Has Reviewed it? References? Organization: GTE Laboratories, Waltham, MA Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 23:43:07 GMT Has anyone out there made a serious review of the recent Microsoft TAPI, its "telephony" interface for windows? I would be interested in receiving (or ftp'n) any that could be shared. James T. Smith Sys. Admin. jts1@gte.com 214-242-4341 ------------------------------ From: d.greenberger@cornell.edu (David J. Greenberger) Subject: "Convenience Calls" on Phone Bill Reply-To: d.greenberger@cornell.edu Organization: Young Israel of Cornell Date: 24 Feb 94 01:12:39 GMT I just got my monthly NYNEX phone bill, and I noticed something about the AT&T page. In addition to seven calls under the heading "Directly dialed," five calls are listed under "Convenience calls (collect, third number and other operated assisted." Now, none of these calls were operater-assisted -- I remember calling each of them, and all I did was pick up the phone and dial. I noticed that the calls under "Directly dialed" were all made before February 5 and those under "Convenience calls" after. What is going on? More importantly, what can I do about it? I was charged $10.03 for a 59-minute call from Ithaca, NY to New York, NY, as well as other outrageous charges for shorter calls. Thanks, David J. Greenberger (607) 256-2171 d.greenberger@cornell.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, you might begin by contacting the Business Office and asking them what was the nature of the operator assistance; or if collect, from whom did you accept the call, etc. When talking to the rep ask if it seems peculiar that all these transactions took place after a given date. That's where I would start, by asking for an explanation. Have you done that yet? And ten dollars for a one- hour *intrastate* call is not on its face out of line. Intrastate is always more expensive than interstate. That's about 18 cents per minute which is customary even for 'directly dialed' intrastate stuff. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Local CID Showing Out of Area From: richard.dervan@atlwin.com (Richard Dervan) Date: 24 Feb 94 00:20:00 GMT Organization: The Atlanta Windows BBS - Atlanta, GA 404-516-0048 Reply-To: richard.dervan@atlwin.com (Richard Dervan) I had an interesting experience last week. I got paged by my computer indicating it had received a voice message for me. Since I was expecting a message from my sweetie, I went to a pay phone, called my computer, and picked up the message. When I got home, I saw OUT-OF-AREA on my CID box. The time of the call corresponded to the time that I called to pick up the voice mail. The restaurant I was at is no more than two miles from my house. Yet it showed up as out of area. Does anyone have an explanation for this? Thanks! Richard The Atlanta Windows BBS (404) 516-0048 9 high-speed USR nodes [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It did not have to be two miles away, it could have been your next door neighbor for all your CO cares. If it does not get the ID from the calling office, ie the calling office is not equipped with SS7, then the box will say 'out of area', no matter where it is. If your office gets the information but has been forbidden to pass it along, then the box will say 'private'. You have more than one CO in Atlanta; probably the payphone you used was served from a different exchange or CO than the one serving your home. Most likely that CO isn't modernized yet, but yours is (obviously -- you have Caller-ID) so your CO gets a call from the other CO which is unable to say who is calling. Your CO puts it down as out of area. That phrase is probably a misnomer; people would be better served by the message 'ID not available' or similar. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 23 Feb 94 21:37:46 EST From: Grimes G. Slaughter <73647.562@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Wiring Diagram Needed For Rotary Dial Phone Where can I obtain the wiring color codes and wiring diagram for the classical AT&T (Western-Electric) rotary dial wall telephone with keys (push buttons)? Thank you. Grimes G. Slaughter 73647.562@Compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: charlesh@NGC.COM Subject: Auto Attendant Equipment Wanted Organization: Network General Corporation Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 21:42:57 GMT I am looking for some product which can serve as a phone operator. When you call some company, a message is usually returned "please dial the extension", you dial and got connected. I wonder if some one can point me to such vendors. Preferably the product is just a board that can be plugged into an IBM-PC. Thanks in advance for the information. Charles ------------------------------ From: EXTMO4H@mizzou1.missouri.edu (Missouri 4-H Youth Development Programs) Subject: 1-900 as a State Moneymaker Date: Wed, 23 Feb 94 15:54:27 CST Organization: University of Missouri, Columbia Here's a new way for state government to separate more cash from your wallet. Heard on the news today that Missouri state government has started a 1-900 number for businesses to find the provider of the lowest-cost workers' compensation insurance. They are charging $1 /min, with $.45-.55 to go to the state general revenue fund. Just a new method to rob people for information they should be providing free as a public service. 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 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Quite a few states which formerly gave Secretary of State Corporate Records Information -- public information; nothing secret or special about it -- over the phone freely have now gone to 900 service. Anyone who wants to find out who the officers or owners of a corporation are, or the name of the attorney representing the corporation or a variety of other legal things about a company need only inquire at the Secretary of State in the state where the firm is incorporated. It used to be you called and asked. Now you dial a 900 number and speak with them. They get the buck or two as a fee for the services rendered. And rumor has it a few libraries have gotten so sick and tired of having to devote a clerk full time to taking calls for criss-cross book inquiries from collection agencies that they'll start using 900 also to mitigate some of the expense involved. :( The Chicago Public Library gets 100-150 such calls each day, and now they have one person and a specific extension on their centrex just to handle those calls, one after another all day. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Talking Caller ID Boxes Reply-To: dave@westmark.com Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 15:21:55 GMT elana@netcom.com (Elana Beach) writes: > I figure that by now, someone has invented and is marketing Caller ID > boxes for the blind that speak instead of (or as well as) putting the > number on a LCD display. Where do I find one? I am not visually > impaired, but it sure would be convenient to be able to just listen > for the ID when the phone is ringing rather than having to stop what I > am doing and always run to the box to look at it. Any ideas out > there? A few years ago, when Caller*ID was brand new in NJ, I bought one of those little boxes that receives Caller*ID and outputs it in ASCII over an RS-232 port. I've used this box for a number of applications. At the moment, it is connected to a /dev/tty* port on a UNIX box where an application builds a database of inbound calls. When the service was new, I plugged the Caller*ID receiver directly into a Votrax Type-N-Talk (an ASCII-to-speech box). The audio output from the Votrax was connected to the paging audio input of an ITT 701 key telephone system. The result: On every inbound call, the speakers in the telephone sets (between rings) would intone: "zero two slash two three zero nine colon three zero two zero one six four seven minus zero nine zero zero" With some experience, one could listen to all of that and recognize that it was 2/23 at 09:30 and that a call was coming in from (201)647-0900. (By that time, the phone had rung five times.) Later on, the UNIX box received the data from the CID box and wrote an abbreviated message to the Votrax box, containing either the telephone number, or, if the number was in the database, a phonetic spelling of the caller's name. The phones then would intone: "John Smith", or "two oh one six four seven zero nine hundred" by which time the phone would only have rung twice. Now, we only have the database. The voice was cute, but became annoying over time. 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: mmr@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com (Mike Renault) Subject: Re: Looking For Low Cost Phone System Organization: Motorola Codex, Canton, Massachusetts Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 21:34:48 GMT danekind@CS.ColoState.EDU (keith danekind) writes: > The small company for whom I work is growing and we need to expand our > phone system. Currently we have two incoming lines, the second of > which has call waiting, and a data line that is shared by a fax > machine and a modem. We are currently not able to handle the phone > traffic and the boss would like an automated solution rather than > hiring a receptionist to answer the calls. We are interested in call > routing to one of several phones and voice mail. A PC based PBX would > be great! Basically, we would like the phone system to greet the > caller and ask him or her for an extension number. The system would > then route the call based on the touch-tones entered. The budget for > this system is $5000 or less. Does anyone have any suggestions on how > to do this or where I might find more information? Thanks in advance. Get a copy of {Teleconnect} magazine; many companies advertise in there who would support this application. There are several companies which make boards that plug into a PC to make the PC a mini-pbx. Some names which come to mind are: Dialogic Natural Micro Systems PCBX Excel (in sagamore beach, MA) Amtelco (nice stuff here) Bicom PIKA (in canada) This is a starting point. Shop around for features such as Voice mail and maybe DID support. Michael Renault (617)-821-7613 ------------------------------ From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu (Martin McCormick) Subject: Re: Digital Cellular Phone Review Organization: Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 21:47:11 GMT In article dlr@daver.bungi.com (Dave Rand) writes: > It causes noise in my CD player, in my car's amplifier, on all home > telephone handsets (wired AND cordless). I suspect that it is due to > the transmitter turning on and off at a regular rate; even though it > is an FM signal, it appears as a low frequency AM, square wave > modulated signal. Nasty. We are going to have these problems until electronic systems can be hardened against RF signals, especially in the microwave and near ranges. The metalic traces on the circuit boards of electronic equipment make perfect antennas at 800MHZ or so and any transmitter that cycles on and off or varies abruptly in output level will induce noise in lots of different kinds of electronic equipment. The analog-style phones and UHF transmitters also have an effect on the same equipment, but the effect is much less obvious. If someone had an audio amplifier near an analog cellular phone or UHF transmitter, the speaker would probably pop when the transmitter went on and off, but there would be no other sound while it was transmitting. Tests with a volt meter might show that some of the DC operating levels were different when the transmitter was on and those biases might change slowly as the signal got stronger or weaker. The digital transmitters just accentuate a bad situation. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 18:02:46 -0500 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Re: Vermont Gets Ready For NNX Area Codes > Are there any other places in the NANP where local intra-NPA calls > require more than seven digits to dial? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Around where my office used to be on > Howard Street in Chicago, everything I called locally had to be dialed > as 1-708-seven digits because it was fifty feet north of me which at > that point was the end of 312 and the start of 708. PAT] Yes, but that was local *inter-NPA* calling, not intra-NPA. My original question still stands. Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: Seeking Info on GTE Interactive Multimedia Systems Devlopment Date: 23 Feb 1994 23:41:36 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) There was a media release that was here the other day that tells about testing and release in California. You might contact GTE Northwest and ask about it. I know a lot of the areas are testing and placing systems into service with schools. The above are my comments and not those of the company I may or not work for. 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: Wed, 23 Feb 94 21:50 GMT From: Richard Cox Subject: Re: Shortages of prefixes in 800 Reply-To: mandarin@cix.compulink.co.uk Quoth Clive D.W. Feather: >> For example, British Rail's express parcel service used to be 0800 000000. In fact the number they used was 0345 000000. 0345 numbers are like 800 numbers, except that the callers pay for the call at the same rate as if the call was within their own local calling area. Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, P.O. Box 111, Penarth, South Glamorgan, Wales: CF64 3YG Voice: 0956 700111 Fax: 0956 700110 VoiceMail: 0941 151515 Pager 0941 115555 E-mail address: richard@mandarin.com - PGP2.3 public key available on request ------------------------------ From: jay@coyote.rain.org (Jay Hennigan) Subject: Re: These Cell Phones Don't Work - Why? Date: 23 Feb 1994 18:43:45 -0800 Organization: Disgruntled postal workers against gun control In article sdkuo@argo.acs.oakland.edu writes: > In article , seanp@garnet.msen.com (Sean > Petty) writes: >> Anyhow, the other day Comcast published a letter saying: "The following >> phones are not compatible with our system -- all Motorola Model 8000-D's, >> All Harris Equipment, All Sony Portables that have a Black label under >> the battery, and All Panasonic HP 500's that haven't been upgraded." > Maybe these phones only supported 666 channels? By checking the > station class mark you can tell if your phone has extended channel > capability (832 channels). The Motorola 8000-D sounds pretty old and > may only support 666 channels. If the SCM is 00 to 07, then it only > has 666 channels, if it's 08 to 15, then its 832 channels. I wouldn't think such to be the case. There are dozens of other makes of 666-channel phones, a lot of Motorola models (They changed the color of the label from black to silver on their mobile/transportable units when they went to 832), Okis thru the 400 series, all of the original AMPS compliant phones. My guess would be that it has something to do with autonomous registration or timing. I wonder if Comcast will be allowed to get away with this without some flak from the FCC, PUC, and the manufacturers involved. It is common for cellular phones to be sold with a three-year warranty, and even five years isn't all that unusual. Comcast is selectively denying service to certain makes/models of telephones that are otherwise FCC registered as being compatible with the North American cellular system. What happens when a roamer with one of these phones tries to call 911? What happens when a user has a warranty complaint of "doesn't work" on a phone meeting factory specs? Seems to me that whoever is providing the cell site/MTSO equipment has a bug that they need to fix, rather than forcing the users to buy new equipment. Jay Hennigan jay@rain.org Santa Barbara CA ------------------------------ From: miyoungberg@delphi.com Subject: Re: Excel Telecommunications Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 00:17:42 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Excel is a LD phone service using MLM. I'd stay away. ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Priorities Reply-To: dave@westmark.com Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 16:00:38 GMT ACG@HERMES.dlogics.com (Andrew C. Green) writes: > Pardon a short digression from modern telecommunications here, but my > circa-1940 Monroe calculating machine is in fine working order, > thankyouverymuch. I rescued it from the old 123 N. Wacker building (in > Chicago) just before demolition, and it now squats proudly on my desk > next to my newfangled PC. > The Monroe can add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers up to ten > digits ... Somewhere in my basement is a manually-operated device called a "Trinks-Brunswiga Machine". This is like the old Monroe or Burroughs machines, but it pre-dated them by a couple of decades. Input consists of sliding a metal tab (which they called a cursor) in each column down to the correct value for that digit (the mouse is older than the keyboard?). When all of the cursors have been slid to the appropriate values, you manually move the carriage to the left (like the carriage-return lever on a manually-operated typewriter) and then begin turning the crank. To multiply, enter the multiplicand into the constant register, turn the crank, and watch the multiplier register increment. When its least-significant digit has incremented far enough, you manually shift the carriage left and continue cranking! Eventually, the product will be displayed in the accumulator. To divide, enter the dividend into the accumulator, enter the divisor into the constant register, and turn the crank backwards, watching the quotient appear, one digit at a time. You crank backwards until the bell rings (indicating that the declining dividend has underflowed). You then reverse the crank and go forward one revolution, shift the carriage right one digit, and continue. Eventually, you'll find a quotient in the multiplier register, and perhaps a remainder in the accumulator. It can compute a 20-digit product by multiplying two 10-digit numbers, and can also divide a 20-digit dividend by a 10-digit divisor, producing a 10-digit quotient. The machine is about the size of an office typewriter, is made of brilliant, finely-machined brass, and is mounted in a box with a lid that opens like a portable typewriter and has a handle. I think it was supposed to be portable, but it weighs over 40 pounds. I have it sitting next to a Western Electric 302-type telephone set, a local-battery magneto desk set, a Monroe electric calculating machine, and a 10x20 crossbar relay, and a few other monuments to technology, in a corner called 'the museum' by others in my household. 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 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #102 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11762; 24 Feb 94 15:50 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA06028; Thu, 24 Feb 94 12:01:27 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA06020; Thu, 24 Feb 94 12:01:26 CST Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 12:01:26 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9402241801.AA06020@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #103 TELECOM Digest Thu, 24 Feb 94 12:01:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 103 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson US West FEX Rate Hike! (Robert Dinse) AT&T SecretAgent 3.0 (David R. Arneke) Info Wanted About Home Information Systems (Hans-Dieter Zimmermann) Re: Paging Available on Cellular Phones (John Barcomb) Re: AT&T Says That They Can't Resolve my Calls' Origin (Al Varney) Re: Clipper Debate (Paul Robichaux) Re: Clipper Debate (Tom Olin) Re: These Cell Phones Don't Work - Why? (Gerald Serviss) Re: 200 "Exchange" Within 1-900 Numbers (Al Varney) 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: nanook@isumataq.eskimo.com (Robert Dinse) Subject: US West FEX Rate Hike! Organization: Eskimo North (206) For-Ever Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 09:45:18 GMT I just got the bill for one of my FEX's and there was something that looks rather underhanded to me. I was wondering if anybody else has experienced this and has an explanation. On my bill, there was a bunch of service order activity, and the new rates went up. I had not requested any changes to this line. They removed one FNX Foreign Exchange Business Line with a monthly rate of $29.20 and added one FNH Foreign Exchange Hunting or Key Line - Complex, with a monthly rate of $43.10, now reduced by the WUTC order to $38.10, still $8.90 more than the old rate. For what it's worth, this line has ALWAYS had call forwarding busy line expanded into a Seattle UCD group. I have not requested any changes to this line, but they also billed me $7.29 for order activity. In the same bill they had the nerve to include an insert telling me how they have generously lowered my rates as part of a revenue sharing plan! I don't know what this is supposed to mean, but I feel like I've just been shafted. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Have you called the Business Office to get a precise explanation? There might have been a billing error which had to be (is getting) corrected on your next statement. Keep us advised. PAT] ------------------------------ From: darneke@attmail.com (David R Arneke) Date: 24 Feb 94 10:59:05 GMT Subject: AT&T SecretAgent 3.0 FOR MEDIA INQUIRIES: David Arneke, AT&T Secure Communications Systems 910 279-7680 (office) 910 273-5687 (home) !darneke (ATTMAIL) or david.arneke@att.com (Internet) AT&T ADDS RSA SECURITY TECHNOLOGY TO SECRETAGENT (TM) SOFTWARE GREENSBORO, North Carolina -- AT&T has added RSA security technology to its SecretAgent software in an upgrade that makes the program more versatile, easier to use and faster. Other major new capabilities in AT&T SecretAgent Version 3.0 include: -- User-transparent support of RSA and DSA public keys. Users can generate RSA keys or DSA keys and communicate signed and encrypted messages with other SecretAgent 3.0 users regardless of their choice of public key algorithms. -- Cross-platform compatibility among MS-DOS, Windows, Macintosh and various UNIX operating systems. Information secured on one operating system can be processed transparently on any of the others. -- Mail-enabled operation through the widely supported Vendor-Independent Messaging (VIM) interface. -- Significantly faster implementation of DES encryption and DSA signing and validation. Version 3.0 adds the RSA cryptosystem for digital signatures and key management to SecretAgent's capabilities, which already included DES encryption, the NIST Digital Sig- nature Algorithm (DSA) and the federal Secure Hash Standard (SHS) for data integrity. For encryption and DSA signatures, a variant of the Diffie-Hellman protocol is used for key exchange. "AT&T SecretAgent 3.0 Software gives users a more powerful array of capabilities in an extremely fast and efficient way," said William A. Franklin, software security products manager, AT&T Secure Communications Systems. With its unique combination of standards, SecretAgent 3.0 software provides solutions to the security requirements of a wide variety of business and government users. "Some customers require only one set of capabilities -- government users, for example, are required to use federal standards only," Franklin said. "Some businesses prefer RSA technology, but others need RSA for electronic data interchange with other commercial businesses and government standards for dealing with the government." Users can select either RSA, SHS and DES or DSA, SHS, DES and Diffie-Hellman for signing and encrypting. On reception, the program detects which security algorithms have been used so the recipient of a message doesn't have to be concerned about which technology the sender used. Mail-enabled operation also makes security user-friendly. Messages can be created, signed, encrypted and mailed all without leaving SecretAgent 3.0 software. Documents also can be signed, encrypted and transmitted as mail attachments. DES encryption is 50 percent faster than in the original version of AT&T SecretAgent Software. Digital signature speed is also improved. DSA signing and validation are performed in approximately 150 milliseconds each on a 486/33M Hz personal computer. AT&T SecretAgent Software was developed for AT&T by Information Security Corporation of Deerfield, Illinois. The program operates independently of word processing programs, enabling it to safeguard such diverse data as text files, spreadsheets and databases. SecretAgent 3.0 software encrypts and decrypts files for transmissions or storage, even files stored on a shared network hard disk. Single-copy suggested retail price is $329.95 for the DOS and Windows versions, $359.95 for the Mac version and $399.95 for the UNIX version. Volume discounts and site/enterprise licensing are available. Recommended PC configuration includes 640 KB RAM (256 KB required) and hard disk. The Windows version of SecretAgent 3.0 software will be available March 15. The DOS version will follow on April 1, the SPARCstation UNIX version on April 15 and the Mac version on May 1. A software upgrade to allow the program to accept the federal government's TESSERA PCMCIA card and DATAKEY Sig- naSURE smart card will be available April 1. A triple-DES software capability also will be available April 1. To order or to get more information, customers can call the AT&T Secure Communications Customer Service Center, 1 800 203-5563. ###### Product names are trademarks of their respective companies. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 17:48:48 +0100 From: "CN=Hans-Dieter Zimmermann/OU=IWI/O=UNISG/C=CH"@ntgate.unisg.ch Subject: Info Wanted About Home Information Systems Hello networkers, I think you are the right audience for my questions: What do you think about home information systems (like Compuserve, Prodigy, etc.) ? Do you use them? Which one? Are you satisfied with it? Which home information systems are good, which are bad? What are your experiences? What kind of applications you use? Which one you miss? Do you like to work online? Or would you like to work more in a offline mode? What do you think about a 'store and forward' communication mode for home information systems? Please mail your opinions! I am working on a paper about the use of telematic services in private houeseholds and I am curious about your opinions. Thanks for your help, Hans-Dieter Zimmermann University of St. Gallen, Institute for Information Management Gatterstrasse 1A St. Gallen, 9010, Switzerland Internet: HDZIMMERMANN@SGCL1.UNISG.CH ------------------------------ From: uswnvg!uswnvg.com!jbarcom@uunet.UU.NET (John Barcomb) Subject: Re: Paging Available on Cellular Phones Date: 24 Feb 94 15:35:35 GMT Ken K P Lo (KKPLO@ELECTRICAL.watstar.uwaterloo.ca) wrote: > In article drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET > (Alan Boritz) writes: >>> Bell Atlantic here in Phoenix announced yesterday that they were >>> making available to their cellular phone customers the ability to be >>> pagable on their cell phones. Is this being done anywhere else? It >>> sounds like a good idea. One is able to ditch the pager and just carry >>> a phone. Any comments? >> That's nothing new. Just set call-forward-on-no-answer to your pager >> number and you've got the same thing. > I don't think so. In this case, you still have to carry a pager. I > think Bell Atlantic is offering a phone with built-in pager, right? The Motorola cellular switch has "Digital Messaging" available on it. The phones have to be built with the software to accept the commands and have memory locations set aside for these pages to the phone. In Minneapolis, the company I work for (U S WEST Cellular) uses the Motorola switch with the Digital features. The system here is NAMPS and is doing quite well. The caller to the cellular phone hears the appropriate number of rings then the call is forwarded to the "Digital messaging service" the cellular user has an outgoing message recorded in his/her own voice (similar to a voicemail system) and instructs the caller to press the appropriate key to leave a "callback number", "short message" (alpha page), or "voicemail" message. The switch then delivers the information to the phone. If a callback number is delivered, the user sees that number and can press send to dial it right away. If a voice mail message has been left, the access number for our voicemail system is displayed on the phone and again the user can press send. So, the phone does all the work in this situation. We are not using any other peripheral device to alert the user of messages, everything is displayed on the cellular phone itself. Hope that answers your questions. You can send mail if you have further questions. John ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 09:25:18 CST From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: AT&T Says That They Can't Resolve my Calls' Origin Organization: AT&T In article Will Martin writes: > johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) wrote: >> Does your office have a PBX with direct inward dialing? If so, it's >> true, the billing number that AT&T sees is the ANI billing number for >> the trunk on which the call happens to be sent, which as you've >> discovered bears no relationship to the number of the phone on your desk. I don't believe direct INWARD dialing determines much about the manner in which OUTGOING PBX calls will be billed. True, a PBX that supports DID can probably support two-way calls over such circuits, or MLHG lines with a single billing number for outgoing calls. > As a matter of fact, not even the local telco operator can resolve the > correct number in this circumstance. > Last week, here in 314-land, at the government office building where I > work, we had what turned out to be a "database error" in the PBX > servicing us, which made a lot of the local phone numbers in St. > Louis, including my home number, appear to be "busy" when we tried to > call them. (It was a fast busy instead of a regular busy, so I > suspected an internal problem, which is what it turned out to be.) I use "POTS prefix" + 10288 + 1 +..... as a first-cut method of verifying if the problem is at the originating end or the terminating end. If a local call succeeds when dialed via an IXC, you at least know it's not a problem at the terminating line interface (backhoe through DLC cable). Such information should be part of the data you put in the complaint to the PBX maintainer or TELCo. (Even if the PBX blocks 10XXX dialing on most lines, the PBX operator should be allowed to dial such calls for emergency reasons.) [even TELCo operator doesn't know the "real" calling number...] > I would think this would cause a problem for the telco. It sure sounds > like a security hole when it comes to tracing annoying or threatening > calls. Identifying a culprit within a really big organization if > someone is using one of its phones to make such calls could be nearly > impossible. The FBI has an interesting proposal that removes this security hole and also permits "monitoring" of such individuals hiding behind a PBX. Some believe the proposal itself is a security issue ... > ... Will digital telephony change this, perhaps by forcing > any PBX connected to the telco after some future date pass the real > calling number on to the telco switch via some side-channel digital > pathway? Or is this situation an un-correctable arrangement mandated > by deregulation? A "side-channel" already exists for passing the number. AIOD is a data-link feature that PBXs can use to get the "calling line" included in the AMA billing records of calls billed to the PBX. . If the PBX has AIOD, the number delivered by the PBX is screened by the CO and, if valid, is treated as the billing number for AMA, Operator and IXC FG-D ANI purposes. If the screening fails or the number isn't delivered "on time" or is mutilated in transmission, the "listed DN" of the PBX is used for AMA, Operator and IXC ANI purposes. The II digits will be set to 20 ("AIOD - LDN sent") in such cases of failure. Unfortunately, AIOD costs money, so many PBX owners don't install it. (Many have a mechanism for recording all PBX calls internally anyway.) If you want to "fix" this problem and mandate yet another rule on PBX owners, I'm sure the PBX vendors and the TELCos would welcome it. (ISDN PRI also supports a similar capability via the D-channel (a kind of "side-channel")). AIOD - Automatically Identified Outward Dialing Al Varney ------------------------------ From: paul@poboy.b17c.ingr.com (Paul Robichaux) Subject: Re: Clipper Debate Date: 24 Feb 94 14:33:14 GMT Organization: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL TELE_STEPH@ohio.gov writes: > Dave Banisar writes: >> In only two weeks, over 10,000 users of the nation's computer networks >> have signed the CPSR petition calling for President Clinton to >> withdraw the Clipper proposal. > The Clipper Chip may be a "hot" item on today's virtual debate forums, > but I fail to see the urgency. If the Clipper Proposal is passed, I > will continue to send e-mail as I do now. > If I don't care who reads it, I'll just send it. If I want privacy, I > will encrypt it. The fact that it goes through the Clipper afterwards > makes little difference to me. The Key Escrow Encryption Standard (KEES; "Clipper" is a registered trademark of Intergraph, my employer) is so manifestly broken that many people have decided that they won't use it. It is also unlikely that criminals, etc. will use it, since they know their communications can be intercepted. The only way to make KEES really viable is to ban other encryption systems. Don't be so sure that you'll be able to superencrypt your data before it goes to the MYK chip. Besides, do you not mind that the government is trying to set a precedent of REQUIRING access to ALL your communications? Paul Robichaux, KD4JZG perobich@ingr.com Intergraph Federal Systems ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 10:30:43 EST From: tro@partech.com (Tom Olin) Subject: Re: Clipper Debate In article TELE_STEPH@ohio.gov writes: > The Clipper Chip may be a "hot" item on today's virtual debate forums, > but I fail to see the urgency. If the Clipper Proposal is passed, I > will continue to send e-mail as I do now. > If I don't care who reads it, I'll just send it. If I want privacy, I > will encrypt it. The fact that it goes through the Clipper afterwards > makes little difference to me. That's fine as long as other forms of encryption are available for your use. However, that may not remain the case. Consider the final paragraph from the White House statement of February 4: The Administration believes that the steps being announced today will help provide Americans with the telecommunications security they need without compromising the capability of law enforcement agencies and national intelligence agencies. Today, any American can purchase and use any type of encryption product. The Administration does not intend to change that policy. Nor do we have any intention of restricting domestic encryption or mandating the use of a particular technology. The Administration's goal is to make encryption available "without compromising the capability of law enforcement" to intercept encrypted data. At the same time, the Administration's (current) intent is not to restrict the availability of other encryption technology. If some other form of encryption compromises the capability of law enforcement to intercept encrypted data, which do you think is more likely to change: the government's goal or its good intentions? The Administration is hoping that it can promote Clipper to the point that other forms of encryption will become unprofitable and go away. If that approach does not work, what other choice does the government have but to ban other forms of encryption, if it feels that current law enforcement capabilities must be preserved intact? Anybody who wishes to preserve the option of using secure encryption technology would be well advised to enter this debate sooner rather than later. Tom Olin PAR Technology Corporation Voice: +1 315 738 0600 Ext 638 tro@partech.com New Hartford, NY Fax: +1 315 738 8304 ------------------------------ From: serviss@tazdevil.cig.mot.com (Gerald Serviss) Subject: Re: These Cell Phones Don't Work - Why? Date: 24 Feb 1994 14:44:07 GMT Organization: Cellular Infrastructure Group, Motorola In article jay@coyote.rain.org (Jay Hennigan) writes: > In article sdkuo@argo.acs.oakland.edu > writes: >> In article , seanp@garnet.msen.com (Sean >> Petty) writes: >>> Anyhow, the other day Comcast published a letter saying: "The following >>> phones are not compatible with our system -- all Motorola Model 8000-D's, >>> All Harris Equipment, All Sony Portables that have a Black label under >>> the battery, and All Panasonic HP 500's that haven't been upgraded." > I wonder if Comcast will be allowed to get away with this without some > flak from the FCC, PUC, and the manufacturers involved. It is common > for cellular phones to be sold with a three-year warranty, and even > five years isn't all that unusual. Comcast is selectively denying > service to certain makes/models of telephones that are otherwise FCC > registered as being compatible with the North American cellular > system. What happens when a roamer with one of these phones tries to > call 911? What happens when a user has a warranty complaint of > "doesn't work" on a phone meeting factory specs? Seems to me that > whoever is providing the cell site/MTSO equipment has a bug that they > need to fix, rather than forcing the users to buy new equipment. Since I play a Cellular Software Engineer in real life I will make a guess at this one. I suspect what happened is that COMCAST turned on or is planning to turn on NAMPS capability. I am fairly confident of this as they use Motorola Cell equipment. The problem that we found is that many MOBILES do not implement the EIA-553 specification (AMPS air interface) correctly. There are bits in the air interface that are undefined for AMPS, EAMPS use that were taken over for NAMPS use. Since these mobiles assumed that the unused bits would stay unused and always be 0 they do not work when NAMPS is turned on. Since these phones technically do not comply with the air interface there is no guarantee of service from the system operator. In that cases that I am familiar with the mobiles in question are three to five years old and the operator will work with a local subscriber to trade out the phone. Also consider the fact that I can get a Motorola PT-550 Micro Tac for $49 and you have a huge non-issue for someone who is not asleep at the wheel. BTW the FCC does not test for signalling compliance as far as I know, they are more concerned with the RF performance of the units. I think the 911 issue is real but, as we have seen PACTEL in California will now block 911 calls from non registered mobiles. It would appear that the mere possession of a cellular phone is not sufficient to allow one to make calls. Jerry Serviss Motorola Inc. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 08:45:44 CST From: varney@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Re: 200 "Exchange" Within 1-900 Numbers Organization: AT&T In article Christopher.Vance@adfa.oz.au (CJS Vance) writes: > In article johnl@iecc.com (John R > Levine) writes: >>> is for instance 1-900-000-0000 available? >> Probably not. Many local switches are programmed to reject numbers of >> the form NNX-1XX-XXXX and NNX-0XX-XXXX locally, and not send them to >> long distance carriers. I suspect that a lot of switches would reject >> 100 and 000 prefixes in 700, 800, or 900 numbers as well. The statement is incorrect. > Well, here in Australia our 008 numbers (currently being moved to > 1800) are of the form 008 XXXXXX (1800 XXXXXX). It's always dialled > with the prefix, so why cut out 20% of the number space? Same with > 0055 XXXXX, moving to 1900 XXXXXX. I thought you lot had advanced > exchanges over in the US ... They are advanced, but typically "tuned" to the application. Development to support non-existent needs is seldom cost-effective. I am aware of numerous examples where we have developed capabilities beyond requirements, and received complaints because the product ALLOWED the TELCo to populate data that "should have been rejected". At the same time, the same folks complain because, in other cases, we have been "too restrictive" in the data cross-checks applied to TELCo input. You can't win this one ... (If Australia has figured out a way of determining, at development time, every variation in operation any purchaser will desire AND every "preventable error" that might occur in such usage, I wish they would publish the method.) I don't know of any local switch that is "programmed" by the vendor to "reject" numbers of the form NXX-0/1XX-XXXX. They are typically "programmed" to reject the assignment of 0/1XX-XXXX codes in customer-dialed translators, but that is so we don't get complaints of the "should have been rejected" variety -- no customer could dial such a seven-digit number. All switches, to the best of my knowledge, can accept ten-digit NANP numbers with 0/1XX following the NPA. In fact, USA switches have been routing such numbers since the days of INWATS (early version of 1-800). Typically, NPA-0/1XX-XXXX numbers are rejected by local switches, BASED ON TELCO DATA, because that is the proper place to block calls to unassigned CO codes. "Long distance carriers" prefer to carry calls that have some chance of succeeding. Al Varney ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #103 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa19497; 25 Feb 94 14:39 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA28803; Fri, 25 Feb 94 10:42:06 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA28790; Fri, 25 Feb 94 10:42:03 CST Date: Fri, 25 Feb 94 10:42:03 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9402251642.AA28790@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #104 TELECOM Digest Fri, 25 Feb 94 10:42:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 104 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Digital Cellphone Report - GSM (Juha Veijalainen) Methods For Calling USA From Europe? (Mario Valente) Technical Manual For an OKI 1150 (Barry Lustig) Looking For Long Distance Carrier Info For Business/Home (Craig Eid) Multimedia Conference (ICMCS 94) (Joseph Boykin) Update: Questions About Voice Mail (Stan Schwartz) Centrex/Key Phone System/PBX (lyre@mindvox.phantom.com) Telecommunications and Computers (Lars Kalsen) Who Sells Used Telecom Gear? (Pat Barron) Radio Program on History of the Telephone (Ralph Chapman) Neal-Wilkinson Trunk Capacity Table (Lars Borg) Why Are Rates to India Increasing? (Linc Madison) What Happened to my Answering Machine? (Yuxing Tian) Information Wanted on TR303, AIN 0.1 (Doug Hohulin) Information Needed on Satellite Phone (Min Hu) Information Wanted on FCC 91-115 (cristy@dupont.com) NYNEX "Slamming" 800 Business Directories? (Tom Betz) InterLATA CID (Terry J. Nelson) Re: Vermont Gets Ready For NNX Area Codes (John R. Levine) Re: Vermont Gets Ready For NNX Area Codes (Andy Behrens) CONNECT SysOp Subscription Discount Offer (Patricia Snyder-Rayl) 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: JVE%FNAHA@eccsa.Tredydev.Unisys.com Date: 25 Feb 1994 10:49 Subject: Digital Cellphone Report - GSM Lately we've seen postings on US/Canadian digital cellphones. I'd like to share my experiences of using GSM for about ten months now. - there are no dual mode phones. You either have a digital phone (and 'all digital network') or you don't. Analogue NMT nets are still going strong and growing, but they are completely separate. - during last summer coverage was a bit spotty and calls were cut off relatively often. Since last autumn things got much better; coverage is much better and I have not experienced any special problems with call setup or calls being cut off. - roaming is available in most of the Europe. You just switch on your phone in a foreign country and it picks up the network (if any). You can program your preferred networks on your SIM card. - GSM does interfere with some radio equipment. I have no problems with my car radio, office/home phones, TV etc. On the other hand my old portable stereo picks up GSM transmission. It seems to be a matter of radio/TV/phone quality. I've had more interference problems in Britain and Switzerland - why, I don't know. - voice quality is good, though you cannot distinquish GSM from an analog phone, if both phones are close to cell and no cell handoffs happen. If you use phones in fringe areas (weak fields) the difference is noticeable. GSM voice is not completely clear, though, it might cut off for a fraction of a second, it might make you talk like Donald Duck and sometimes it seems to fill in gaps (like 'Yes, I like it' would be replaced with 'Yesssss like it'). New services are being introduced now. 'Short messaging service' sends max. 160 character messages to your phone even when you are speaking and group 3 fax should be available soon. Other GSM II features will come later on. Juha Veijalainen 4ge system analyst, tel. +358 40 5004402 Unisys Finland Internet: JVE%FNAHA@eccsa.tredydev.unisys.com ------------------------------ From: mvalente@draco.lnec.pt Subject: Methods For Calling USA From Europe? Organization: LNEC, Lab. Nac. de Eng. Civil, Lisboa, Portugal Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 18:14:02 GMT Hi: I'm trying to setup an Internet service provider here in Portugal, where there isnt one. After trying with several service providers in Europe to get a connection and the possibility to resell and finding many difficulties, not to mention the cost of phone lines in Europe, I have started looking at other possibilities, namely USA providers ( there are more, more friendly, and with more probability of getting the reselling option ). The problem is of course the cost of the lines. I'd like to find out about some possibilities. The ones I thought/found out: - satellite feed, using some service like PageSat or Planet. This has the disadvantage of not being able to send, just receive. - leased line to the US. I suppose the cost is impossible. - using AT&T to dialup. I'm really interested in this one, since I have a service provider that allows me to connect via AT&T. I just need to find how to use AT&T from Portugal. Anyone know where this information is? - ISDN connection. Unfortunately ISND connectionsm like phone lines in Europe have a time charge: for each period of time you're charged some cost, which is quite big when you call outside Portugal (if I call the USA using the local PTT I pay $4 per minute; yes that's four dollars a minute!) Any info welcome ( especially how to use AT&T from here ) Thanks in advance, C U! Mario Valente ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 16:35:17 EST From: Barry Lustig Subject: Technical Manual For an OKI 1150 I just called OKI Telecom to order a copy of the technical manual for an OKI 1150 cellular phone. The sales rep. on the other end of the line said that the manual costs $172.50. Does anybody else think that this is outrageous? Why are they trying to discourage phone owners from getting the manuals for their phones? Barry Lustig Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe because without the manual, if something is not working right on the phone the owners will simply think it is something they are incorrectly programming and blame themselves; with a comprehensive manual in hand they will find out it is not their fault at all but that the phone is no good! It is sometimes best to keep the owners in ignorance, you know. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: craige@sad.hp.com (Craig Eid) Subject: Looking For Long Distance Carrier Info For Business/Home Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 21:41:38 GMT Organization: HP Sonoma County (SRSD/MWTD/MID) I need to decide as soon as possible which long distance carrier we'll be using on our new business line. Most of our calls will be for ten minutes or less, within the same state, and within a 200 mile radius. Does anyone have any suggestions, or should I just call up the majors and get quotes? Craig Eid e-mail address craige@hpsad.sad.hp.com ------------------------------ From: boykin@harvey.gte.com (Joseph Boykin) Subject: Multimedia Conference (ICMCS 94) Reply-To: boykin@gte.com Organization: GTE Laboratories Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 22:08:48 GMT For those who have already received information on the IEEE Computer Society's Multimedia Computing and Systems Conference (ICMCS '94), there have been a few changes since the original information went out, so you may wish to pick up the latest. New versions of the program, registration form, etc. are available either from me or via anonymous FTP on ftp.gte.com (132.197.8.2) in pub/ICMCS. Joe Boykin ICMCS Registration Chair 617-466-2803 (Phone) 617-466-2137 (FAX) boykin@gte.com ------------------------------ From: stans@panix.com (Stan Schwartz) Subject: Update: Questions About Voice Mail Date: 24 Feb 1994 18:45:23 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC I spoke with the NYNEX reps today and they confirmed the following for me: NYNEX's Voice Mail product (Call Answering) combined with Call Waiting works the following way in my 5ESS CO (516-694-NNNN): - If I am on the phone and DON'T answer the second call, the mailbox will NOT answer the call. - If I *70 to de-activate Call Waiting before I make a call, any incoming call will get a busy while I am on the call. I then appealed to NYNEX's "President's Help Line" (1-800-722-2300), and after much explaining and whining, the representative agreed to contact the product manager for the service and ask her why it is programmed that way. I was promised a return phone call (but she didn't say when ;-) ). (BTW: here on Long Island, I am kind of "self-determining" that I am in a 5ESS switch by dialing my exchange's verification number, which is usually in the NNX-9901 format. When I dial 694-9901, the recording tells me the type of switch in the CO and which exchanges it serves. Is there any way to verify how accurate and up-to-date this recording is?) Stan ------------------------------ From: lyre@mindvox.phantom.com (Lyre) Subject: Centrex/Key Phone System/PBX Date: Fri, 25 Feb 94 01:17:15 EST Organization: [MindVox] / Phantom Access Technologies / (+1 800-MindVox) I want some kind of system that will give me automated attendant voicemail and multiline capabilities. The number of lines is four to six; the number of instruments is four to start. Any recommendations/things to stay away from? Cost IS an issue. I was wondering if I can do this with Intellipath digital centrex on either DMS-100 or 5ESS, or what would be the most cost-effective key system? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: dalk@login.dkuug.dk (Lars Kalsen) Subject: Telecommunications and Computers Date: 25 Feb 94 12:04:21 GMT Organization: DKnet Hi - I am trying to get an overview over the area: Systems integrating Telecommunication and Computers =================================================== It could be voice-response systems which are placing orders directly in the company's computer system. Or systems for customer service which integrate telephony with customer datases in an intelligent way. Or it could be anything else. If you: - have knowledge of such systems I would like to have a short desciption.(Maybe you compnay have some). - know articles on the subject - I would like to have a reference - know any or sites where I can look for inforamtion - i would like to hera from you. Any inforamtion is appreciated. Plaese E-mail me if you have some. Greetings from Denmark, Lars Kalsen dalk@login.dkuug.dk ------------------------------ From: Pat_Barron@transarc.com Subject: Who Sells Used Telecom Gear? Date: Fri, 25 Feb 1994 10:43:28 -0500 Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA I'm looking for a small, used PBX ("small" is defined as three or four lines). The cheaper, the better, which is why I want used equipment. Any pointers? Thanks! Pat ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 12:41:09 EST From: chapman@ihlpe.att.com Subject: Radio Program on History of the Telephone Organization: AT&T WBEZ (FM 91.5, Chicago) will be broadcasting a for-part "radio history of the telephone", titled "Hell's Bells", starting Feb. 28 at 7:00-8:00 PM. The other three parts will be aired March 1, 2, and 7 (same time). This is an American Public Radio program; the folks at the station said it will likely be aired on other APR or NPR stations around the country, but on different schedules. Check with your local station, or call Israel Smith at APR in Minneapolis, 612-338-5000. Ralph Chapman AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL ------------------------------ From: lgb@cci.com (Lars Borg) Subject: Neal-Wilkinson Trunk Capacity Table Organization: Northern Telecom, Network Application Systems Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 17:26:34 GMT Would someone please E-mail a copy of the Neal-Wilkinson trunk capacity tables, or tell me were I can find a copy? Lars G. Borg, E-mail: lgb@cci.com Northern Telcom / Network Application Systems (716) 654-2573 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 12:56:48 -0800 From: LincMad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Why Are Rates to India Increasing? I was looking at yet another one of those newspaper ads for the various LD companies' international discount calling plans, and I've noticed that they list numbers like "India 73 cents (thru 3/30/94, 78 cents after)" Is the PTT in India increasing its "landing fees"? Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 13:39:23 -0600 From: Yuxing Tian Subject: What Happened to my Answering Machine? [I live in Chicago, and have a normal greeting message in my answering machine.] Here is the story: Yesterday, when I got home and listen to the messages left in my answering machine. A strange message is: ( ~10 seconds music) ( two rings at the other end) ( a lady picked up the phone and asked "Hello, Number?") ( ~2 seconds silent) ( she hung up.) Could anybody lighten me about what happened? Thanks a lot. ------------------------------ Date: 24 Feb 1994 17:53:24 U From: Hohulin_Doug.IL25-macmail3@il25-macmail3.schaumburg.mnc.mot.com Subject: Information Wanted on TR303, AIN 0.1 I have two questions: How wide spread is TR303 deployed? Is anyone using AIN 0.1 today on their class 5 switches? Which switches are they available on? ------------------------------ From: hu@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Min Hu) Subject: Information Needed on Satellite Phone Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA Date: Fri, 25 Feb 1994 01:11:52 GMT Hi, During the gulf war, both the reporters and the American soldiers used a kind of satellite phone system so that they could communicate with outside world. Does anybody out there know companies who make or sell this kind of mobile phone system? The following features will be desirable. 1. Ability to communicate while the phone is in motion (say a jeep) 2. The diameter of the antanne should be less than 1 meter 3. The satellite carrier should be either American satellite or sea monitoring satellite. 4. The antanne should be all-direction antanne, do not have to worry about the direction of the satellite. It will be greatly appreciated if you can offer any clue as how to find this kind of company. Thanks in advance. HU MIN, University of Toronto, Dept. of Physics Toronto, Ontario, Canada. M5S 1A7 Email: hu@physics.utoronto.ca / hu@utordop.bitnet ------------------------------ From: cristy@eplrx7.es.duPont.com (Cristy) Subject: Information Wanted on FCC 91-115 Organization: DuPont Central Research & Development Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 22:06:52 GMT My latest phone bill allows for some additional privacy for customers of unlisted numbers. I disagree with the requirement to pay the $1.50+ charge per month to be eligible for increased privacy. The reference is FCC 91-115. Does anyone know the text of this ruling or where I can get access to this ruling? cristy@dupont.com ------------------------------ From: tbetz@panix.com (Tom Betz) Subject: NYNEX "Slamming" 800 Business Directories? Date: 24 Feb 1994 14:04:37 -0500 Organization: Betz & Associates While reviewing our business phone bill, I noticed a $24.99 charge for an "1994 ATT BUS GUD" and a $3.50 shipping and handling charge. I enquired about it to NYNEX billing, who told me that "1994 ATT BUS GUD" means "1994 AT&T Toll-Free National 800 Directory", and that I had called an 800 number and ordered it. In fact, in January I had received a call from a telemarketer asking me if I wanted it, and had told them no, specifically telling them that as an AT&T 800 customer, I get these for free on request. When one arrived recently, our receptionist signed for it, and when I saw it, I assumed that our AT&T rep had sent it to us; in fact, the NYNEX telemarketer had disregarded my refusal and sent it to us, and then told NYNEX that I had called >him< and placed an order for it! Apparently, NYNEX has hired a sleazy outfit, one that is lying to NYNEX about the orders it has received, to do some of its telemarketing. I wonder how many thousands of times this year NYNEX will be collecting $29.49 from businesses who, like me, said "no" when solicited to buy this book, but who don't notice the charge on their bills? How many millions of dollars in commissions will this sleaze operation earn from these tactics? Check your bills, folks. Tom Betz ---- 114 Woodworth Ave, Yonkers NY 10701-2509 (914) 332-7511 - tbetz@panix.com tom_betz@execnet.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 12:47:00 EST From: tjnelson@attmail.att.com Subject: InterLATA CID Organization: AT&T I have a question regarding the use of Caller ID on Inter-LATA calls. Currently the technology exists to deliver the calling number to the terminating LEC office: Originating-->--ISUP-->--InterLATA-->--ISUP-->--Terminating CID LEC Carrier CID LEC Since this information in most cases is deliverable right now, why doesn't InterLATA CID exist? The only reason I've heard so far is that the RBOCs must be "de-regulated" before they can accept/deliver Inter-LATA originating numbers. This doesn't seem to make much sense. Perhaps it's just a matter of working out which carrier charges who and for how much or is there another reason? adTHANKSvance, Terry Nelson @ AT&T ATTMail: tjnelson@attmail.com GEnie: tjnelson@genie.geis.com America On Line: tjnelson@aol.com UUCP: wnxser!tjnelson UUCP via Internet: tjnelson@wnxser.att.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 12:41 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Vermont Gets Ready For NNX Area Codes Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > Please explain these two statements. If it's a "free local call" > (within the same area code, no less), then it's not a toll call, so > why is "Vermont's new toll dialing plan" relevant here at all? We're in Morgan, Vt. which has its own 895 exchange. But since we're way out on the east edge of town, we're closer to Island Pond, so we have an Island Pond 723 phone number. Normally, a call from 723 to 895 is a toll call, but there's a rule that all calls within your own town are considered local, so as a special case, calls to Morgan 895 numbers are free (or at worse charged message units) even though they're dialed as toll calls. There are 895 numbers in Holland and West Charleston as well; don't know if I get charged for them or not. > Do you currently dial these calls as eight digits (1 + 7D)? If so, why? Yup. Same reason. > Are there any other places in the NANP where local intra-NPA calls > require more than seven digits to dial? This situation is quite common in rural areas, and the rule that calls within your town are free seems to be ancient and widespread. In New Hampshire, NET came up with a uniquely awful way to implement this: you were supposed to make such calls on your calling card, then when the bill came, call up the business office and ask them to adjust the bill. I think they now do it automatically as well. [re having to dial calls from 802-723 to 802-895 with 11 digits, even though they are free for us because it's within the same town] > I wonder why Nynex doesn't fix this. If they are smart enough to bill > those calls at local (not toll) rates, they should also have the skills > to let you *dial* them as local (not toll) calls. It'd require per-line dialing plan programming in the switch, something that I don't think CO switches are set up to do. Most 723 customers are in Island Pond, so for them 895 really is a toll call. Some 723 customers are in East Charleston, who have to be able to call 895 numbers in West Charleston (same town, different P.O.) for free, but not necessarily 895 numbers in Morgan or Holland. The same applies for 895 customers calling 723, of course. I expect that it's a lot easier to fix this at the time bills are printed, since the bill printing computer has all of the address information available and, more important, doesn't have to figure out the answer in real time. NYNEX's original proposal was to make all intra-NPA calls in its territory 7D regardless of toll, which would have solved this problem once and for all. Unfortunately, state regulators insisted that they go to 1 + NPA for calls that used to be 1 + 7D. Here's another example of 1+ nonsense: I live in Cambridge Mass., and my sister lives in Lexington, about 10 miles away. For me to call her is a message unit call, not dialed with 1+, which costs 6.5 cents for the first minute, 5.5 cents for subsequent minutes, with no time of day discount. On weekends, intra-NPA toll calls to places like Nantucket (50 miles away) cost less than calling Lexington because they have time-of-day discounts. Indeed, on weekends it saves money to dial her with a 10333 prefix and hand this local call to Sprint! Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: Andy.Behrens@coat.com Subject: Re: Vermont Gets Ready For NNX Area Codes Date: 24 Feb 1994 21:21:54 GMT Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA John Levine writes: > A flyer in my latest phone bill reveals that Vermont's new toll > dialing plan is 1-802-NNX-XXXX... > Personally, I find the new plan to be a big pain in the neck, since, > due to a peculiarity of exchange boundaries, it'll require that I dial > most free local calls within our town with 11 digits. and Bob Goudreau asks: > If it's a "free local call" (within the same area code, no less), then > it's not a toll call, so why is "Vermont's new toll dialing plan" > relevant here at all? Do you currently dial these calls as eight > digits (1 + 7D)? If so, why? A number of years ago, the Vermont PUC mandated that calls to a telephone located in the same town[*] must be billed as local calls, regardless of exchange boundaries. The intent was that people should not have to pay toll charges to call their town offices. But because the state is rural, and hilly, a few outlying houses in a town may be separated from the rest of the town by a ridge of hills. It may be easier for the phone company to wire them into a neighboring exchange -- even when that exchange is far enough away from the town that the two exchanges would be considered "long distance" These outlying people will have to dial 1-802 + 7D to call their neighbors in the same town, but it's a local call for them. Other people in their exchange, for whom the call crosses town boundaries, would pay toll charges. These calls are currently dialed as 1 + 7D. Andy [*] Note: "Towns" in Vermont are what most states call "townships". Everyone in a given town is governed by the same officials, has the same fire department, etc. Andy Behrens P.O. Box 116, South Strafford, Vt. (802) 765-4138 ------------------------------ From: pegasus@cyberspace.org (Patricia Snyder-Rayl) Subject: CONNECT SysOp Subscription Discount Offer Date: 24 Feb 1994 16:29:44 -0500 Organization: Cyberspace Communications Public-Access UNIX CONNECT Magazine Offers Special Subscription Rate for BBS Sysops ================================================================ OK. You've heard about CONNECT, possibly even picked up copies of the magazine at your local newsstand, bookstore or computer dealer. Maybe you've seen our advertising in books such as the "Whole Earth Online Almanac," or you saw the mention of CONNECT in the December 6, 1993 issue of U.S. News & World Report. Or maybe you've just heard about the magazine from talk on the commercial online services, or seen the CONNECT Online BBS Edition door on a local BBS. But, you still haven't subscribed. As a BBS sysop, perhaps you've just been too busy keeping your system in peak shape. And maybe you've also been thinking about advertising your BBS via CONNECT's International BBS Listing or Service Ads. Well, we're making you an offer that'll save you money *AND* give your BBS some added international exposure. To receive details and the necessary form, email your request to pegasus@cyberspace.org. CONNECT Magazine (313) 973-8825 "The Modem User's Resource" (313) 973-0411 fax services, Internet and BBS 3487 Braeburn Circle (313) 973-9137 BBS networks from a user's Ann Arbor, MI 48108 14.4Kbps V.32bis| perspective. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #104 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa20970; 25 Feb 94 17:07 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA03849; Fri, 25 Feb 94 13:13:03 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA03839; Fri, 25 Feb 94 13:13:01 CST Date: Fri, 25 Feb 94 13:13:01 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9402251913.AA03839@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #105 TELECOM Digest Fri, 25 Feb 94 13:13:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 105 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: 1-900 as a State Moneymaker (Les Reeves) Re: 1-900 as a State Moneymaker (Dale Worley) Re: Area Code Closeness (Carl Moore) Re: Area Code Closeness (Michael King) Re: Area Code Closeness (Mike King) Area Code Listings (Bill Turini) Re: Paging Available on Cellular Phones (puma@netcom.com) Re: Paging Available on Cellular Phones (Monty Solomon) Re: It's Impossible, Isn't It? (puma@netcom.com) Re: Digital Cellular Phone Review (Ronald Oakes) Re: Program For Microwave Radio Links (Richard Masoner) Re: How to Expand the Range of Cordless? (Willie Smith) Re: Shortage of Prefixes in 800? (John R. Levine) Re: Program For Microwave Radio Links (Sun Outages) (Barry Lustig) Re: "Convenience Calls" on Phone Bill (John J. Butz) Re: Need Information about Telemate (Brian Leyton) Re: Caller-ID Question (Ben Williams) Re: Answering Machine Accepting Collect Calls (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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: lreeves@crl.com (Les Reeves) Subject: Re: 1-900 as a State Moneymaker Date: 24 Feb 1994 09:05:13 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] > Here's a new way for state government to separate more cash from your > wallet. Heard on the news today that Missouri state government has > started a 1-900 number for businesses to find the provider of the > lowest-cost workers' compensation insurance. They are charging $1 > /min, with $.45-.55 to go to the state general revenue fund. > Just a new method to rob people for information they should be > providing free as a public service. Several years ago I installed a channel bank for the US Office of Personnel Management's job line 900 service. It was a menu-driven voice information system to provide up to date info on job availability within parts of the federal government. The cost was the lowest I have ever seen on any 900 service; 40 cents per minute. They told me they selected a per-minute rate that would just cover the cost of the access from MCI. Les lreeves@crl.com Atlanta,GA ------------------------------ From: worley@village.com (Dale Worley) Subject: Re: 1-900 as a State Moneymaker Date: 24 Feb 1994 12:52:00 -0500 Organization: Village of Cambridge, Public-Access Internet > Heard on the news today that Missouri state government has > started a 1-900 number for businesses to find the provider of the > lowest-cost workers' compensation insurance. They are charging $1 > /min, with $.45-.55 to go to the state general revenue fund. Sounds like a great deal, since finding a good workmens' compensation company can save you thousands a year. > Just a new method to rob people for information they should be > providing free as a public service. Eh? Providing the names, addresses, and rates of insurance companies has never been a job of the state government, to my knowledge. That's what you have insurance agents for! Dale ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 9:23:13 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Area Code Closeness wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) writes: > with geographically close areas. Especially in the same state. "was > that area code 402 or 403 for Yerksville, South Dakota, Can't remember > which my friend said", vs. if the two area codes are much different, > "he said 70 something, lets see, that has to be 702 according to the > phone book map". 402 is in Nebraska, 403 in Alberta/Yukon/NW Territory in Canada, 701 in North Dakota, 702 in Nevada, 605 in South Dakota. TELECOM Digest Editor writes about extreme northwestern Indiana: > Then one day they announced that the little northwest corner had a > choice: either they could begin dialing 312 to reach Chicago, or 1+7 > digits to reach elsewhere in the northern Indiana 219 area. Telco made > the choice to go with the latter leaving Hammond/Whiting, etc hooked > to Chicago for calling purposes. With the change in telcos in the > late 1970's (northwest Indiana was taken away from Illinois Bell and > turned over to Indiana Bell) the requirement of dialing not just 312, > but 1-312 (!) to reach Chicago was added, and the 1+7D for the rest of > 219 was dropped. PAT] Just how far could one dial from that northwestern corner into the rest of 219 with just seven digits? And what did this corner have for long distance within 219 when it was announced that Indiana would be going to 1 + NPA + 7D for long distance within area code (in preparation for the NNX area codes)? TELECOM Digest Editor writes about the 659 prefix: >That is, '659' showed up in Whiting, Indiana. It did not show >up in 312, 815 (since a tiny bit of the south end of 815 touches 219) >nor in 317 nor in 216. South end of 815 touches 219? If you are referring to southernmost part of border between 815 and Indiana, then all of the 815/Indiana border touches 219. And where do you get 216 from? That's in northeastern Ohio, including Cleveland. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Going south along the Illinois/Indiana state line, once the old 312 (now 708) area ended and 815 began, it is just a short distance further going south on the Indiana side that 219 ends and 317 begins. That's what I meant to say; that mostly 219 borders (then 312; now) a tiny bit of 312 and some of 708) but at the southwestern end of 219 some of 815 comes up there to the state line also. I guess it is relative to how much is 'some' and 'a little'. Going east, 219 runs all the way across northern Indiana to the border with Ohio where it touches 216. At the same time across the northern edge of 219 by Michigan City, IN and South Bend it touches 616. Trivia comment/question: What places have *three* different area codes as part of their local calling area? For one, the Chicago-Mitchell CO has local service into 312/708/219. Whiting gets local service into 219/708/312. Hammond does not get any local service into 312. I think maybe Beecher, IL gets local service into 708/815/219. There are others like this. What community in the USA gets local service into four area codes? There is one such place. By 'local', I mean no toll charges even though 1 + AC + 7D dialing is required. What places get 'local' service even though two different countries are involved as well as two area codes? PAT] ------------------------------ From: an904@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael King) Subject: Re: Area Code Closeness Date: 24 Feb 1994 15:30:46 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) Pat: You essentially have the Hammond/Whiting/Munster dialing situation set right. Here in Gary, we always dialed Chicago as a 1-312 number. On the other hand, we have never dialed the remainder of the 219 area as 7D. We have always dialed it as 1 + 7D (once you were outside the local calling area). Of course now, it is dialed as 1 + 219 + 7D. The one thing that I never understood was why we (NW Indiana) were under Illinois Bell prior to 1978. Michael H. King Latitude Group, Ltd. Gary, IN Computer/Small Business Consultant Freelance Writer/Announcer [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Mr. William Gary's company town (Mr. Gary was the president of US Steel around the start of this century; Gary was founded and owned by the Gary Municipal Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of US Steel until the early 1920's) was more closely related to Chicago than to the rest of Indiana. Ditto George Hammond's meat- processing operation and John Rockefeller's gasoline and oil refinery. All these firms had offices in Chicago, as did the other industrial giants in the cluster there including Inland Steel, Sinclair (Arco) Oil Company, Union Carbide and others. *Heavily* industrialized, (for example, Whiting is permeated with the oil refinery; you can walk around town for blocks at a time on the east side and see nothing but storage tanks full of black looking gunk, railroad cars, smoldering caldrons with fire shooting out of them; the fumes can be incredibly awful some days, etc; and I don't have to tell *you* about the north end of the Gary/Indiana Harbor area exactly on the shore of Lake Michigan) northwest Indiana was the place where these guys wanted their work done. They had the convenience of Chicago few miles away, all the railroads and the inexpensive shipping which could be done via barges on the lake and the connection to the Mississipi River via the Calumet River, the canal and the Chicago River downtown. Mr. Gary had his one plant on the far south side of Chicago (what we years ago called South Works) right on the edge of Lake Michigan, and the ease of transporting stuff by barge across the lake to Gary Works made it very appealing. Mr. Ryerson (owner of Inland Steel) found Indiana Harbor -- a little slice of life situated between Gary on the east, Whiting on the west and East Chicago, Indiana on the south -- a good deal for the same reason. Hauling their stuff by boat through the lake made good sense. When telephones were relatively a new thing in the early 1900's, all the big boys wanted the new-fangled invention connected from their offices in Chicago to their steel mills, refineries and meat-processing plants along the southern edge of Lake Michigan, and the telco here at the time, known as 'Chicago Telephone Company' gladly accomodated them. When Illinois Bell Telephone Company was started about 1925 as a result of AT&T making an aggressive (and some maintain, illegal) effort to purchase Chicago Tel, northern Indiana went along as part of what they purchased. So, having Illinois Bell there rather than Indiana Bell was mostly due to the history of the area. Now why don't you ask me why Gary phones are 219-882/883/884/885/886/887? Well, you see, '88' is also 'TU' as in TUrner, and Mr. Turner was somebody who was somebody in Gary long ago. Not content with one exchange, when Gary went dial in about 1955 or so, IBT honored him by making every phone in town into either TUrner-2, TUrner-3, TUrner-4, TUrner-5, TUrner-6 or TUrner-7. I think he had early involvement with Gary Works. Sometime around 1920, the US Supreme Court said US Steel had to divest itself of the Gary Municipal Corporation; that was the end of the company town. In the 1970's as you know, 'big steel' went down the tubes in the USA and that was the end of Gary, period. Today sadly, Gary is mostly boarded up houses and store- fronts; there is no 'downtown' any longer; and hasn't been for twenty years just like Hammond to the east. The steel mills are closed and the refineries are mostly gone. You made a valiant effort at revival with the Gary Convention Center; if it were anywhere else it would be a great place. Too bad they did not build it about 1920-30 during Gary's heyday. Since your .sig identifies you as a 'writer/announcer' do you write for the {Gary Post-Tribune} or announce on WWCA, 1270 AM? (WWCA = Working With the Calumet Area), Gary's local radio station.) PAT] ------------------------------ From: mk@TFS.COM (Mike King) Subject: Re: Area Code Closeness Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 14:57:43 PST In TELECOM Digest V14 #101, wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) wrote: > I had thought/heard that the semi-random distribution of area codes in > the USA was done to avoid confusion of numberically close area codes [...] > Phone companies tend to do the same thing with phone exchanges inside > the same area codes. I haven't seen it in many other places, but Dayton and Columbus, OH, both tend to group their prefixes into the same exchanges. For example, in Dayton, 220/2-9 are in the same exchange, as are 233/5/6/7, 252-9, 274-9, 293-4/6-9, 433-6/8-9, etc. I always assumed they arose from the old 2L + 5D scheme, and they were consecutive prefixes from the same switch name; i.e., BAker 2, BAker 3, etc. Mike King mk@tfs.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: By coincidence, it appears we have two persons named 'Mike King' in this issue, but the first one is Michael rather than Mike. At least I assume it is two different people; the net addresses are different. Yes, it messed me up at first in my editing of this issue also. Both responding on the same thread, yet! PAT] ------------------------------ From: turini@gdls.com Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 09:08:10 EST Reply-To: Bill Turini Subject: Area Code Listings I have been using a listing of area codes that was included in the CD-ROM QRZ! Ham Radio and appreciate the work that has gone into it. Is there an updated list that contains the new area codes that went into effect in December? Thanks, Bill Turini KA4GAV Phone: 810.825.8810 Computer Sciences Corporation FAX: 810.825.8764 MZ 435-02-33 6000 E. 17 Mile Rd. Internet: turini@gdls.com Sterling Heights, MI 48313 Compuserve: 73741,455 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Check out the Telecom Archives. We have a very complete list of area codes there. Either use the Email Information Service or use anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu and when connected then 'cd telecom-archives/areacodes'. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 05:59:03 -0800 From: puma@netcom.com (puma) Subject: Re: Paging Available on Cellular Phones In article rwilson@inca.gate.net (Robert Wilson) writes: > The Fujitsu PCX cellphone has a voice chip which when the unit is set > to pager mode will answer the incoming call, tell the party you are > unable to come to the phone, and logs up to five numbers. This feature, since it's internal to the phone, is totally independent of the carrier. It also counts as an answered call, and you pay airtime for the time it takes the caller to listen to the synthesized message and touchtone his number. I had the impression from some earlier messages here and elsewhere that some carrier was offering a feature that would cause the caller's number to appear on the phone's display for unanswered calls, or perhaps similar to a Caller-ID display, so you could choose to answer a call or not, or allow it to forward-no-answer to voicemail. If anyone knows anything further on that, I would be interested in hearing about it. Do any cellular carriers offer call-return? (ie., *xx calls back the last party who called you, answered or not.) puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Paging Available on Cellular Phones Reply-To: Monty Solomon Organization: Roscom Date: Fri, 25 Feb 1994 07:43:00 GMT In article anthony@bigbear.demon.co.uk (Anthony Hegedus) writes: > Do you mean that the person you're talking to on your mobile can, by > pressing buttons on *his* phone, cause *your* phone to dial someone > else? or have I misunderstood? Yes. You can ask the person you are speaking with to enter a phone number into the cell phone's scratchpad memory by pressing keys on his tone phone and to then optionally cause the current call to be disconnected and for the phone to place a call to the just transmitted number. Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty@roscom.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 06:19:09 -0800 From: puma@netcom.com (puma) Subject: Re: It's Impossible, Isn't It? In article bob@bci.nbn.com writes: > I have several lines and while talking on line line, which is hooked > up to a fax machine and a phone (distinctly seperate stations), the > phone integrated into the fax machine began to ring. then, right on > que, the fax machine answered and my conversation was obliterated by > fax tones The line has no special features such call waiting or three > way calling. It does however recieve from a remote call forwarding > source, but I can't see how RCF would have any involvement. Does your phone/fax have a feature whereby if you had answered a fax call on another phone on the same line, you can bring the fax online with a touchtone digit? If so, it's possible that your voice conversation triggered it accidently. Or, does the phone/fax, under the same circumstances, listen silently for the CNG (calling) tone of a fax? Again, it might have thought it heard one. If none of the above, it could always have been a voltage spike on the power or static electricity, or goblins - did it only happen once? If it continues, I would start with a good quality surge/noise/ protecting power strip. If it still occurs, maybe it's time for the repair shop. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 09:00:20 CST From: oakes@wolverine.cig.mot.com (Ronald Oakes) Subject: Re: Digital Cellular Phone Review Organization: Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group In article martin@datacom.ucc.okstate.edu (Martin McCormic) writes: > If someone had an audio amplifier near an analog cellular phone or > UHF transmitter, the speaker would probably pop when the transmitter > went on and off, but there would be no other sound while it was > transmitting. I can confirm that this will, and does, happen. I have a bag phone, placed next to the transfer case controller on the floor of my S-10 Blazer, so that the antenna sits right next to my car radio. I can always tell when my phone registers and when I am about to receive a call by the distinctive POP that comes out when listinging to a tape. If I am listening to the radio, a registration is not as obvious, but the extra transmissions when acknowledging a page and getting ready to ring will cause noticeable interference with the radio. Ronald B. Oakes ------------------------------ From: cendata!richardm@uunet.UU.NET (Richard Masoner) Subject: Re: Program For Microwave Radio Links Organization: Central Data Corp., Champaign, IL Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 16:32:57 GMT Regarding solar interference, this kind of interesting tidbit is regularly posted to sci.space.news: > DAILY SUMMARY OF SOLAR GEOPHYSICAL ACTIVITY > 22 FEBRUARY, 1994 Along with lots of incomprehensible (to me) data on "Electron Fluence," "polar cap absorption," etc. An English summary then talks about possible satellite blackouts and such. Hope this helps. Richard F. Masoner Central Data Corporation ------------------------------ From: wpns@newshost.pictel.com (Willie Smith) Subject: Re: How to Expand the Range of Cordless? Organization: PictureTel Corporation Date: Thu, 24 Feb 1994 17:40:10 GMT In article jey@davidsys.com writes: > Can anyone tell me how far the power can be boosted for a cordless > phone system, if it is modified at its best? Given infinite resources, you could get any amount of power you want, just keep adding amplifiers ... practical limits are probably around a megawatt. > (Assuming there is no FCC or any government regulation as far as the > power of the signal, how far can the signal be sent without much loss > of power.) Probably not much more than a couple of AU with current technology. Say 15 to 20 light-minutes, though two-way conversations become difficult with more than a couple of hundred milliseconds delay. > And what could be the best way for such modification? Add a duplexer to split the transmit and receive paths (or get into the RF sections ahead of the combiner). Add power amplifiers, decent feedline, and a well-placed high-gain antenna to the transmit side. Add a high-gain antenna, good low-noise preamps, and good feedline to the receive path. If you match the transmit and recieve gains the handset and base ought to be able to hear each other equally well. Willie Smith wpns@pictel.com N1JBJ@amsat.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But that has been the catch all along, hasn't it? *How* do you get the handset power increased to the point that any modifications you made to the base are reciprocal? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 12:30 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Shortage of Prefixes in 800? Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > I don't believe any "local switches" are not capable of handling > 1xx and 0xx office codes in a ten-digit number. My cousins who run a small telco in Vermont tell me that when AT&T brought in direct trunks a few years ago, they specifically asked them to program their local switch to reject dialed numbers of the form N0X-1XX-XXXX and N0X-0XX-XXXX. They weren't eager, since it made the tables about ten times as big, but that's what your employer wanted. I realize that there are non-dialable 1XX and 0XX numbers, but that's a separate issue. > I was not aware any "local switches" blocked such inter-NPA calls. > Obviously, until the NPA 213 switches were populated with information > for routing seven-digit N0X/N1X numbers, they would fail to route > them. You sure it wasn't PBXs blocking calls? Lots of local switches blocked calls to 213-N0X until the programming was fixed. Evidently the rule is to block invalid numbers as early as possible. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Reply-To: Barry x24904/ER/167B-TED From: ornitz@kodak.rdcs.kodak.com (Barry x24904/ER/167B-TED) Subject: Re: Program For Microwave Radio Links (sun outages) Organization: Eastman Chemical Company Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 23:35:47 GMT I just ran across this program on oak.oakland.edu and remembered the request here. Unfortunately I could not find the original article to email the information to poster so I thought I would post it in case others might be interested too. 73, Barry L. Ornitz WA4VZQ ornitz@kodak.com oak.oakland.edu (141.210.10.117) ==================== Directory pub/msdos/satelite/ Filename Type Length Date Description sunou332.zip B 48551 930322 Calculate sun outages for satellite receivers ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 18:52:54 EST From: jbutz@hogpa.ho.att.com (John J Butz) Subject: Re: "Convenience Calls" on Phone Bill > charged $10.03 for a 59-minute call from Ithaca, NY to New York, NY, My brother, a student at Cornell called me at work in NJ from an on-campus phone recently. My work phone is ISDN and receives calling number information. Normally, a long distance call received on my ISDN set is announced with an "INCOMING CALL" message, but my brother's call said "201-something or another." "That's odd," I thought, so I asked Jimbo what the hell he was doing in such a great place like New Jersey? "I'm not!" he quickly replied and when I called the number on the display back in disbelief, I got the Cornell operator. Ah!!! The call was on an FX line and the Cornell operator informed me that the University has multiple FX lines throughout the nation. Might this have anything to do with the call price? Actually, aren't FX lines billed to the FX subscriber by the local service provider, in this case NYNEX? J Butz jbutz@hogpa.att.com AT&T - CCS ------------------------------ Date: 24 Feb 94 19:01:09 EST From: Brian Leyton <73160.557@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Need Information About Telemate In a reply to The Network Group (0004526627@mcimail.com), Sean Peacock (speacock@netcom.com) posted an information file on Telemate. I too was interested in Telemate, so I went looking around on CI$. It appears that there are (at least) two packages going by the name Telemate. The one referred to by Sean is a terminal emulation package, while I believe that the one of interest here is a different one. This Telemate is a call accounting package with various fraud fighting add-ons: Complementary Solutions Inc. (CSI), headquartered in Atlanta, develops, markets and supports TELEMATE. Currently, there are more than 3,000 TELEMATE users worldwide. For more information, contact CSI at (404) 454-8033. CSI also has a section in the PCVEND forum on CI$. Brian Leyton 73160.557@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: bew@brahms.udel.edu (Ben Williams) Subject: Re: Caller-ID Question Date: 25 Feb 1994 09:02:50 -0500 Organization: University of Delaware In article , Jack Coats wrote: > There was an article in one of the popular electronics type magazines > (check your local library) in the last couple of months on how to > build your own caller-id display machine. It would be easy to modify > it (it uses a PIC micro processor) to have a serial output instead or > also, that could feed your PC or whatever. The data, if I remember > right, is 1200 baud. You can get a couple of codes other than just > the number too. One is if you are out of the area where the codes are > available (seems silly to me, if the phone company can figure out how > to charge collect calls), and another code if the caller has the > Caller-ID blocked. This was in the February issue of {Electronics Now} (was Radio Electronics up to a while ago). I have been waiting for something like this for a long time, as I am interested in using Called-ID. However, one of the reasons I was waiting for a do-it-yourself thing like they have in Electronics Now was to save money on the device. But the kit parts that you need to order come to over $50 (I think I could buy a ready-made device for that much). Would anyone be willing to do a bulk order of these special components that you need for constructing a Caller_ID box: PIC16C55 (trouble is, this thing needs to be programmed -- well, you can buy a kit to build a programmer for $69.95, sigh...), 16x1 LCD module, and any other of these components that are not readily available (such as this MC145447 Motorola calling line identification receiver). You would also need to etch a double-sided PC board with the patterns they include (something else needing separate equipment which I don't happen to have). I also must admit I am not entirely happy with this kit: First of all, it allows you to store only the last five calls received. But even worse, since it uses this sixteen character LCD display module, it throws away the date of the call and only shows the time. Maybe someone knows of a kit that can store the full data for each call and doesn't use these expensive specialized components? Ben Williams bew@brahms.udel.edu ------------------------------ From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Answering Machine Accepting Collect Calls Reply-To: Monty Solomon Organization: Roscom Date: Fri, 25 Feb 1994 07:35:29 GMT In article castillo@unm.edu (deborah castillo) writes: > The real answer to your question is you should record your greeting to > include the phrase, "operator, we will accept collect calls at this > number". Obviously, you don't want to have that phrase on your machine The phrase should include the word "yes" since some of the automated collect call handlers ask the answering party to say "yes" to accept the call. Therefore, something like "operator, yes we will accept collect calls at this number" would be better. The automated recordings at the AAA (American Auto Assn) state that they will accept collect calls. Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty@roscom.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #105 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa02933; 28 Feb 94 3:38 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10073; Mon, 28 Feb 94 00:08:25 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10062; Mon, 28 Feb 94 00:08:22 CST Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 00:08:22 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9402280608.AA10062@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #106 TELECOM Digest Mon, 28 Feb 94 00:08:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 106 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Bell Canada Recovers From Cable Disruptions (Bell News via Dave Leibold) Canadian Equal Access Begins in July (Bell News via Dave Leibold) Neal-Wilkinson Table (Marty Lawlor) DSP in Communications Book Wanted (Ken K.P. Lo) National Area Code Listing - Where? (Matthew R. Zeier) Software For Voicemail Testing? (Linda Slovick) Shots of 1965 Cord Board and Switch Room (Jonathan Welch) Palo Alto Considers the Communications Biz (Michael J. Graven) Telecom News From British Columbia, Canada (Vancouver Sun via R. Sambolec) 810 Area Code Trouble? (Carl Moore) Conference Announcement (Vijay Bhargava) 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: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 27 Feb 94 13:54:55 -0500 Subject: Bell Canada Recovers From Cable Disruptions Organization: FidoNet [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 21 Feb 94] Freak cable cuts fail to foil our first class service. On a record-breaking cold day in late January when cars wouldn't start, water pipes burst, and schools shut down for the day, Bell's fiber network -- transporting the signals of thousands of long distance calls -- suffered two major blows. A contractor, taking soil samples with a four-inch diameter drill at a site 22 kilometres west of Montreal's Mirabel Airport, cut the main intertoll fiber cable between Montreal and Toronto. Damaged were 83 T3 facilities. T3 is a volume of service capability. For example, one T3, which is a 45 megabits-per-second data stream, carries the equivalent of 672 simultaneous conversations or one network quality television signal. The cut, therefore, affected 55,776 voice circuits. But, thanks to the self-healing capabilities of Bell's networks, not a single conversation was disrupted. Within 50 milliseconds -- less than the blink of an eye -- all the circuits were switched to an alternate, route-diverse fiber. Repair crews were quickly dispatched to locate and repair the cable cut. Less than three hours later came the other blow. Municipal contractors repairing a frozen water main at 800 Wilson Avenue in Toronto cut the toll fiber cable connecting the radio relay/fiber repeater site in Uxbridge to the Ronald Avenue central office. Carried on this cable are 107 T3 facilities amounting to 71,904 voice circuits. "Forty six of these T3s were already on alternate cables due to the earlier problem," explained Gord Rushforth, general manager, Ontario Network Control. Again, within 50 milliseconds, 59 of the remaining 61 T3 facilities were switched to alternate route diverse fibers. "The remaining two T3s were put on broadband restoration fibers by activating automated restoration plans," said Gord. "At the same time, our High Performance Routing (HPR) traffic network rerouted calls that would normally travel on these two facilities to their destinations." Gord is convinced that without the capabilities of our technology and our survivable network planning, "these two incidents, following one on the heels of the other, could have led to the single worst failure in the history of Bell." "A prolonged service failure on 144 T3s or 96,786 voice circuits would have been catastrophic," he said. Agreeing with Gord is Ron MacIvor, vice-president, Network Operations. "It's clear that our investment in self-healing networks is now paying off," he said. Bell Ontario president Murray Makin called the split-second recovery "an extraordinary accomplishment." "While the technology provides for this type of service capability, I must really compliment the Network Services teams on the planning, designing, maintenance and administrative work that went into bringing this capability to life and ensuring it worked when the need arose." Referring to the recent Anik 2 failure, Murray said that "uninterrupted service is what gives Bell the edge over most of our competitors. "But while any company can buy similar technology, in the end it's the employees who make it work," he said. "And obviously, ours do just that." ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 27 Feb 94 13:54:12 -0500 Subject: Canadian Equal Access Begins in July Organization: FidoNet [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 21 Feb 94] Equal Access -- it will test our strength, but it offers us an opportunity to show who's best. Along with parades, "equal access" will march our way on July 1, Canada's 127th birthday. Equal access will shorten the dialing procedure for customers who subscribe to a long distance competitor. They will no longer have to dial the 13 or 17 extra digits now required to reach that competitor's network. Like Bell customers, they will only have to dial 1 + area code + phone number to place a long distance call. The July 1 implementation of equal access was ordered by the CRTC in its June 1992 landmark decision, opening the doors to full long distance competition. Equal access will allow other carriers and resellers to access the full facilities of Bell's Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), enabling the delivery of advanced, future services and improved call set-up time. Bell has been working closely with competitors and the commission to develop and implement the technical, operational and systems aspects of network interconnection services. "Equal access will certainly benefit our competitors in the marketplace," says Bob Campbell, vice-president Network Planning. "But is also removes the major crutch they have used to claim that we have an unfair advantage over them." "Seize the opportunities" Bob believes that Bell should not fear the dawn of equal access. In fact, as long as we're prepared, equal access presents business oppor- tunities that the company can seize -- with the help of all employees. "For instance, it provides us with the ideal opportunity to remind customers why they have stayed with Bell in the first place -- because we provide total end-to-end telecommunications service, coupled with the best quality, value, innovation, and dependability. These are our strengths." As the implementation date for equal access approaches, customers will be bombarded from all sides with competing messages and aggressive sales pitches. Bell employees must be prepared to assist our customers in sorting out the confusing array of claims in the marketplace as competitors vie for the customer's attention. Public contact employees in particular will be in a unique position to guide customers through this confusing environment, while ensuring that they are made fully aware of Bell products and services. Even though Bell will stand to lose market share under equal access, Bob points to another important backstop: Bell's Carrier Services team. "By providing wholesale service excellence to our competitors, Carrier Services remains their supplier of choice and wins back important revenues for the company that would otherwise be lost." {Bell News} will be featuring articles leading up to July 1 to keep employees informed of the steps we're taking to provide equal access, and how we'll position it with our customers. Bell Canada Corporate Public Affairs and Bell Ontario Public Affairs are preparing materials to keep employees up to date with competitive information, and help prepare employees for effective response. And Bell SYGMA is developing a training program for employees whose jobs will be the most directly affected by equal access, including business office, Phonecentre, Operator Services, and Installation and Repair staff. The challenge for employees leading up to, and following, July 1 will be to stay focused on the customer responsiveness required to retain customers and maintain market share, as well as looking for opportunities to "win-back" customers who try out the competition. "Equal access will change the way many of us do business," says Bob, "but one constant will remain: the need for all of us to convince customers through words and actions that Bell remains their best-value, total service telecommunications provider." ------ (djcl extra note: Bell Canada also reported that some competing carriers are already busy pre-subscribing customers so that their default carrier will be switched when equal access time comes.) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Feb 94 08:34:10 EST From: mel@roch1.cci.com (Marty Lawlor) Subject: Neal-Wilkinson Table One of our engineers is trying to locate a Neal-Wilkinson Trunk Capacity Table. I believe he saw it cited in an AT&T publication. Any help in locating either hardcopy or electronic version is appreciated. Marty Lawlor Northern Telecom mel@cci.com ------------------------------ From: KKPLO@ELECTRICAL.watstar.uwaterloo.ca (Ken K P Lo) Subject: DSP in Communications Book Wanted Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Sun, 27 Feb 1994 15:02:33 GMT Hi everyone, The title says it all. Can anyone recommend a good book on DSP in communications? Thanks, Ken K P Lo S3 Rm 105 Box 460 A Student of University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario (519) 725 - 6332 kkplo@electrical.watstar.uwaterloo.ca ------------------------------ From: mzeier@interaccess.com (Matthew R. Zeier) Subject: National Area Code Listing - Where? Date: 26 Feb 1994 02:52:12 GMT Organization: InterAccess I'm searching for an up-to-date listing of all US Area Codes. Can someone point me in the right direction? Matthew R. Zeier mzeier@home.interaccess.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Try the Telecom Archives. Use anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous, use name@site as password, then 'cd telecom-archives/areacodes'. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Feb 94 17:41:12 PST From: Linda Slovick Subject: Software For Voicemail Testing? I need to be able to send and receive test calls to/from our voicemail systems automatically. While I've pretty much narrowed the hardware down to either a Dialogic or Voice Power (AT&T) equipped 486 system, my boss warns me that I won't have time to cut the code myself, so I'm looking for software that will do what I need at well above the API-level. What he's got in mind is some sort of application software already intended for telephony test situations, an application generator (optimized for test?), or a high-end 4GL. Sending calls is pretty straightforward. I figure that pretty much any text-to-speech software for either board will allow me to make up messages such as, "This is test message number one sent via IEC 288 from Milpitas to Monterey at 9:37 on Tuesday." Receiving calls isn't too bad on the speech recognition side of things, as most of what the card has to be able to listen to is either recorded operators, voicemail prompts, its own messages being delivered back to it, and call processing. I figure that call processing might be the part that eventually gets to be the hairiest problem once we try negotiating various switches, LECs and IECs, so something known to be robust in this area would probably be more useful to us than killer speech recognition. At this point, no decisions have been made as to OS. DOS or some flavor of UNIX seem most likely here, but compelling applications software would drive both our OS and hardware decisions. Thanks in advance for any advice! Linda Slovick Slovick Engineering slovick@apple.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Feb 1994 20:53:49 -0500 From: Jonathan_Welch Subject: Shots of 1965 Cord Board and Switch Room I just finished watching "The Slender Thread" on American Movie Classics. About 15 minutes into the film there's a terrific sequence of shots of a row of operators running a cord board one of which is called upon to initiate an emergency trace. Then the scene switches to a technician going through rack after rack of what I'd guess was a stepper switch. I bet AMC will show this a few more times in the next few weeks -- you might want to catch it to see what this kind of equipment looked like at that point in time. Jonathan Welch VAX Systems Manager UMass/Amherst JHWELCH@ecs.umass.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for the tipoff. Yes, some of that equipment would be fascinating to observe by our younger readers; many of whom have never even seen a 'cordboard'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael J. Graven Subject: Palo Alto Considers the Communications Biz Date: Sun, 27 Feb 1994 11:16:49 PST Reply-To: mjg@cs.Stanford.EDU (Michael J Graven) The {San Jose Mercury News} reported on February 25 that the city of Palo Alto is considering building its own communications utility to rival the incipient networks being advertised by Pacific Bell and others. The proposed system would be a mix of fiber and coaxial cable. Earlier this month, the city (with assistance from Digital Equipment Corp.) launched a municipal information system linked to the World Wide Web. Officials claim they are the nation's first city on the Internet. "This will be one of the most important decisions we'll make," said Mayor Liz Kniss. The city council is expected to decide next month whether further consideration is warranted. Currently, Palo Alto is one of a very few municipalities in California with a city-run utility. Water, gas, and electric service are provided by the city; electric rates are said to be comparable if not a bit lower than surrounding municipalities, and the city revenue derived from them is considerable. More interesting is that the utility conduit right-of-way is also owned by the city, so a municipal service would be able to avoid the expense of leasing conduit space. If Palo Alto decides to undertake construction of this information Main Street (sorry), it will join Seattle, New York, and Austin, Texas: other municipalities developing their own fiber systems. Several options exist: the city could install a fiber net, or it could use some preinstalled coaxial plant belonging to Cable Co-Op, the cable TV cooperative; it could run the information utility by itself, or in partnership with an outside business; it could outsource information provision and take the role of a common carrier; it could farm the whole thing out to a contractor; or it could just sit back and decide to pass by the opportunity. Dianah Neff, Palo Alto's director of information resources, said "the decision whether to get into the (communications utility) business has to come within a year -- max." Already, city right-of-way is being leased to private business. Digital has fiber among its local offices through Palo Alto conduit. If private industry were to beat the city to the punch, there would be little incentive for municipal intervention. Michael mjg@cs.stanford.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is not to say Palo Alto is like Chicago -- far from it; but I hope they intend to *compete* with the existing service from PacBell rather than use municipal condemnation authority to *seize and take over* existing private facilities. We here had a very bad scare two years ago when the City of Chicago got the not-so-bright idea to 'municipalize' (the official, and less offensive way of saying 'steal') Commonwealth Edison facilities here. The city fathers seemed to think they could do so much better a job at electrical power generation and distribution -- and at a cheaper rate -- than Edison, whose franchise had to be renewed last year. Imagine: the same fools and idiots who run our public housing, our public transportation and our schools -- in shambles, all three -- were to be in charge of the nuclear power plants as well. The city council talked seriously about it for several months, and it literally scared the bejeezus out of the few remaining large corporate and industrial firms still located in our town (so many have split the scene over the years I have lost count). The city council tried to drum up support from the citizenry (not that it matters, they tend to pretty much ride roughshod and do as they please, but it helps to make it look like there is a consensus of approval), and they did get some support from the folks who think having the government in charge of literally everything is a great idea, but most people -- and none of the large businesses -- here wanted anything to do with it. We know how badly things get messed up when the government gets into an area traditionally served by private concerns such as real estate and property management, transportation, etc. The idea of the power going out on a cold night in January because the dimwit cousin of someone in City Hall was in charge of the power plant as a favor to his father-in-law the alderman is most unappealing. A couple of the biggies here flatly told Mayor Daley they would close their plants and move elsewhere; they simply would not risk remaining, and the mayor backed down eventually. Now I repeat, Palo Alto is not Chicago, but I hope the citizens there (if they are given any say-so in the matter -- here we are not; the politicians and lawyer/judges just do as they please) will think long and hard about allowing the government and a bunch of cronies to run something as vital as a telecommunications network. Telecom, like nuclear power generation/distribution, is not something the government should be managing. Errors in judgment are just too common, and mistakes can have disasterous consequences. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Richard Sambolec Subject: Telecom News From British Columbia, Canada Date: Sun, 27 Feb 1994 14:26:45 PST According to the {Vancouver Sun} (02/25/93, D9) the B.C. Securities Commission has approved a $15 million financing, allowing for the conversion of warrants into shares. "The prospectus approval by the securities commission will allow holders of 1,071,400 special warrants to convert their instruments into 1.141 common shares per warrant. And the securities commission's receipt of the prospectus allows Cam-Net access to the $14,099,624 held in escrow since the warrant sale last October." What makes this news, you ask? Well, in the fine tradition of the V.S.E., there is more to this story than may first appear. Cam-Net's C.E.O., Robert Moore, is alleged to have: 1) sold 416,400 Hovik shares on the VSE without a prospectus on May 26, 1988; 2) made a subsequent application for an exemption from the requirement to file a prospectus which contained material misrepresentations and failed to disclose material facts of the Hovik sale; 3) failed to comply with an order by the Superintendent of Brokers to report the particulars of the sale; 4) failed to file insider trading reports for the sale of $2.7 million worth of Cam-Net shares between August 1989 and September 1992; 5) delayed filing insider trading reports for the sale of $3.4 million worth of Hovik shares between May 1988 and September 1990 until March 1993; Cam-Net is a Vancouver-based long-distance reseller which has done nothing but lose money hand over fist since entering the competitive market. According to the paper, on February 18, 1994, Cam-Net reported a net loss of $7.1 million for the nine months ending November 30, 1993, and lost $1.76 million for the same period in 1992. What is the Hovik connection you ask? Well, in addition to being C.E.O. and Chairman of the Board of Cam-Net, Robert Moore held a controlling interest in Hovik Medical Corp, which is now known as Globetel Communications Ltd. Cam-Net Communications Inc. is owned by Cam-Net Communications Network Inc., which is publicly traded on NASDAQ and VSE, has numerous affiliated companies. Its Canadian subsidiaries are: Alldial Communications Inc. (based in Sudbury, Ontario), Cam-Net Communications Inc., Cam-Net Telecommunications Inc., Cam-Net Data Systems Ltd., Cam-Star Management Services Ltd., Canadian-American Communications Inc., Canadian Northstar Satellite Systems Ltd., Canadian Northstar Transmission Systems Ltd., Network Teleconnect Ltd. (based in Burlington, Ontario), Northstar Equipment (Canada) Ltd., Northstar Engineering (Canada) Ltd., Telesolutions Corporation (including its wholly-owned subsidiary, Consumers Telephone Corp., based in Toronto, Ontario) and VisionTel Communications Inc. VisionTel was founded in 1991 by managers who left Rogers Network Services when RNS decided not to enter the switched voice long distance market. It was jointly owned by its four Canadian founders, and Montana Power, the US utility which also operates a regional long distance carrier. Apparently Montana Power is no longer involved, and the Canadian principals accepted shares in Cam-Net as part of the merger. Cam-Net also has a few US subsidiaries, including: Business Tele-Communications Corporation (BTC), Cam-Net Inc., Cam-Net Holdings Inc., Cam-Net Systems Inc., Cam-Star Management Services Inc., Northcom Inc., Northstar Engineering Inc., Northstar Equipment Sales Inc., Northstar Satellite Systems Inc. (Oregon), and Northstar Transmission Systems Inc. Other related companies, besides Hovik/Globetel include: 308723 B.C. Ltd - the U.S. subsidiary, Northcom Inc. was purchased from 308723 B.C. Ltd. The numbered company's sole shareholder is Cam-Net Chairman and C.E.O., Robert E. Moore. Goeken Communications, Inc. -- the U.S. subsidiary, Business Tele-Communications Corporation (BTC) was purchased from GCI Liquidation Trust, successor to Goeken Communications, Inc. Goeken Communications, Inc. is related through John D. Goeken, a director common to both companies. Other news in the B.C. telecom industry: Westel Telecommunications Ltd.'s directors and senior managment people unveiled their new long distance service for B.C. at an invitation-only launch yesterday (February 24 at 5:30 p.m.) at the B.C. Enterprise Hall at the Plaza of Nations (part of the former Expo '86 site) in Vancouver. Westel was formed in April 1993, replacing its predecessor, B.C. Rail Telecommunications. B.C. Rail Telecommunications headed the BCRL/Lightel/Call-Net (*not Cam-Net) consortium which also petitioned for access to the domestic long distance market in the June 1992 IX-2 hearings before the C.R.T.C., Canada's federal regulator. Interestingly, my sources tell me that B.C Rail Telecommunications/Westel is suing Lightel for breach of contract with respect to their "phantom" partnership agreement. News from central Canada: The Rogers Communications Inc. take-over attempt of Maclean Hunter continues along its bumpy ride. Yesterday (February 24) the Maclean Hunter board of directors told its shareholders Rogers' $17-a-share offer was not enough. In the mean time, shareholders have driven both stocks down in heavy trading. Interestingly, Maclean Hunter suffered a setback in its efforts to thwart Rogers' take-over attempt. The Federal budget released on Tuesday (February 22) closed a tax loophole known by the exotic moniker, "The Butterfly Manoeuvre." New regulations no longer allow companies to sell their U.S. assets without incurring capital gains taxes. Otherwise it has been a "slow" week north of the 49th parallel ... Regards, Richard I. Sambolec Internet: sambolec@sfu.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Feb 94 17:52:53 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: 810 Area Code Trouble? Item sent to me: Phones have been in the news this week. Some businesses in Michigan are having trouble with the area code change over. Some equipment does not recognize 810 as a viable area code. I have personally run into this. I am sure it will all be corrected by the August official implementation date. ------------------------------ From: bhargava@sol.UVic.CA (Vijay Bhargava) Subject: Conference Announcement Organization: University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 01:05:16 GMT Sponsored by IEEE, India Council, IEEE Bangalore Section and the IETE (India) FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS The International Conference is conceived as a forum for discussion in this part of the world of the most recent advances in Wireless technology, networks, and services. Therefore the organizing technical committee will be pleased to receive most up-to-date information on the following subjects (although not limited to these). The Conference will have several technical sessions spread over two days (Aug. 18-19), preceded by one day (Aug.17) of tutorials covering two of the most topical current subjects. The organizing committee expects a lively and stimulating discussion on all wireless related subjects in the Garden city of India, Bangalore, specially of interest to developing countries. An extended abstract must be received by the Technical Program chair no later than April 15, 1994. Authors will be notified about acceptance by May 15, 1994 and a camera ready copy will be due by June 22, 1994. Deadlines: Abstract: April 15, 1994 Camera-ready copy : June 22, 1994 Plenary Speakers from Leading Organizations: - AT&T Bell Labs - Pactel Corp - NTT - Northern Telecom - INMARSAT - ALCATEL - QUALCOMM - Motorola - CITR Theme-Speaker: N. Vittal, Govt. of India Tutorials: - FLMPTS - How soon is soon enough - CDMA - A broadband Wireless Access Sessions: - Wireless Technology: Speech Coding for wireless Digital Modulation and channel coding TDMA or CDMA - Wireless Systems and Networks: Trunked Radio Systems (or Private Mobile Radio) Wireless solutions for Developing countries Mobile Data Satellite Communication Networks and VSAT's Wireless PABX's Wireless LAN's - Telecommunications Services Radio Paging and Voice-Mail Digital Cellular and PCS CT-2 Integration of wireless subscribers into existing PSTN Frequency Spectrum how much and how many For general inquiry regarding the conference including, exhibiting at the conference, advertising in final program or sponsoring a meal event please contact: Mr. Y.S.Rao, Conference Co-Chair Dr. A.K.Seth, Conference Co-Chair BPL Systems and Projects Limited C-DOT, Centre for Development of Telematics 1/1 Palace Road 9th Floor, Akbar Bhavan Bangalore 560 001, India New Delhi 100 021, India Phone: +91 80 220 5311 Phone: +91 11 677 525 FAX : +91 80 220 5311 FAX : +91 11 688 5528 Email: bplysr@ncb.ernet.in Manuscript may be submitted to: Dr. Vijay K. Bhargava, Technical Program Chair Dept of Elec. and Comp. Eng. University of Victoria, PO Box 3055 Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3P6 Phone: +1 604 721-8617 FAX : +1 604 721-6048 Email: bhargava@sirius.uvic.ca ADVANCE REGISTRATION Last Name: ........................... First Name: ......................... Company Name and Address: ................................................... ................................................... ................................................... ................................................... Telephone:................. FAX: ................. Name of Spouse/Guest: ....................................................... IEEE of IETE Member Registration (Membership# ..........) Rs 4,000/U.S.$200.00 Non Member Registration Rs 5,000/U.S.$250.00 (Includes all sessions, conference records, refreshments and lunches) Tutorials Rs 2,000/U.S.$100.00 (In addition to the registration fee above. Includes lunch and notes) Please check: |_| Tutorial #1 - Future Public Land Mobile Telecom Service (FPLMTS) |_| Tutorial #2 - CDMA - A Broadband Wireless Access Total remittance payable to: ICPWC '94 Hotel Information: Bangalore had a number of starred hotels (tariffs ranging from Rs 2,400 to Rs 4,000 in addition to Windsor Manor where the conference is organized viz. The Taj, Oberoi and others. A few rooms will be booked in advance at these hotels on first come basis to get a preferential rate for the conference participants. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #106 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10809; 28 Feb 94 22:55 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA03045; Mon, 28 Feb 94 19:15:04 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA03035; Mon, 28 Feb 94 19:15:02 CST Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 19:15:02 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403010115.AA03035@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #107 TELECOM Digest Mon, 28 Feb 94 19:15:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 107 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Area Code Closeness (Roger Fajman) Re: Area Code Closeness (Mike King) Re: Area Code Closeness (David A. Kaye) Re: Area Code Closeness (Carl Moore) Re: Get Paid For Receiving Commercial Email (thssamj@iitmax.iit.edu) Re: Get Paid For Receiving Commercial Email (Steven King) Re: It's Impossible, Isn't It? (Tad Cook) Re: It's Impossible, Isn't It? (Brett Frankenberger) Re: Digital Cellular Phones (Henrik Rasmussen) Re: Digital Cellular Phones (Mike Borsetti) Re: Lowest Number in the NANP? (Michael Israeli) Re: Lowest Number in the NANP? (Tad Cook) Re: Lowest Number in the NANP? (Mike Wilcox) Re: Lowest Number in the NANP? (jdl@wam.umd.edu) Re: Lowest Number in the NANP? (Dave Levenson) Re: Need Information on ISDN Phones (Eric Bobinsky) Re: Air Cell (John D. Gretzinger) Re: These Cell Phones Don't Work - Why? (Henrik Rasmussen) Re: These Cell Phones Don't Work - Why? (Dave Levenson) Re: Another Misprogrammed COCOT (Jay Hennigan) Information Request For PBX-Computer Interworking (Masahiko Ohashi) 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: Roger Fajman Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 18:34:31 EST Subject: Re: Area Code Closeness > Trivia comment/question: What places have *three* different area codes > as part of their local calling area? Lots of places in the Washington, DC area. Everyone in the large DC Metro Calling Area can dial the 202, 301, and 703 area codes as local calls. There are a number of places that can dial the 202, 301, and 410 area codes as local calls. Ashton, MD, where I live is one such place. > What community in the USA gets local service into four area > codes? There is one such place. By 'local', I mean no toll charges even > though 1 + AC + 7D dialing is required. Layhill exchanges in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC can make local calls to the, 202, 301, 410, and 703 area codes. So can Bowie, Berwyn, Hyattsville, and Silver Spring, MD exchanges. Local calls to another area code here can be dialed as AC + 7D or 1 + AC + 7D. ------------------------------ From: mk@TFS.COM (Mike King) Subject: Re: Area Code Closeness Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 16:17:44 (PST) In TELECOM Digest V14 #105, Pat noted: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: By coincidence, it appears we have two > persons named 'Mike King' in this issue, but the first one is Michael > rather than Mike. At least I assume it is two different people; the > net addresses are different. Yes, it messed me up at first in my > editing of this issue also. Both responding on the same thread, yet! PAT] Yeah, it sort of threw me for a minute, too. I've spent a good portion of my life trying to train people not to automatically assume my first name is "Michael," and I never thought Pat would do so. So when I started reading #105, and the last line on the screen was the line in the contents showing the subject to which I had replied, with that, um, other name, I began to wonder. Not to worry, I'd *never* alias myself with the name for which Mike is often a diminutive. ;-) Mike King mk@tfs.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, as the circulation list for this Digest continues to grow, I have a lot of identical names on it, but never before do I recall two persons with the same name in the same issue. Did you know that once every three or four years there is a convention in the USA of persons named "John Smith". Everyone by that name is invited to attend the convention held at some hotel. Can you imagine how crazed the hotel switchboard operator must be by the time the convention is over? "Please connect me with John Smith ..." Generally several hundred people by that name attend the convention. Now you know why I am so crazy. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: Area Code Closeness Date: 28 Feb 1994 01:20:09 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] TELECOM Digest Editor questioned: > Trivia comment/question: What places have *three* different area codes > as part of their local calling area? Mountain View, Calif, the home of Ames Research, where NASA puts satellites together and all that. It's in area 415 (San Francisco), touches 408 to the immediate south (San Jose region), and 510 (the East Bay Oakland area) to the east. A call from Mountain View to Sunnyvale in 408 is local, as is a call to Fremont in 510. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 15:10:31 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Area Code Closeness NO, when 219 hits Ohio, it hits the 419 area, NOT 216. Thanks to the 301/410 split, some of the Maryland suburbs (such as Silver Spring) in the DC area now have local service to four area codes. That is, all of 202 and parts of 301,410,703. Local calls to a different area code are dialed as NPA + 7D with the leading 1 optional. ------------------------------ From: thssamj@iitmax.iit.edu (jani) Subject: Re: Get Paid For Receiving Commercial Email Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology / Academic Computing Center Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 22:02:27 GMT It's probably an Internet account not a Internet connection which is ~$20 / month or so. ------------------------------ From: king@wildebeest.cig.mot.com (Steven King, Software Archaeologist) Subject: Re: Get Paid For Receiving Commercial Email Date: 28 Feb 1994 23:07:32 GMT Organization: Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group Reply-To: king@wildebeest.cig.mot.com terminus@uahcs2.cs.uah.edu (Scott(Mac Info HQ)) publicly declared: > Well, at $0.065/message and $200-$500/yr that menas 8-21 messages of > unknown length you have to read each day. If each message takes only > one minute to read (unlikely) that will be $3.90/hr. Personally, my free > time is worth more than that. And who says you have to read them? My terminal program has a wonderful scripting capability, and can capture them to disk in case I need them later ... Heck, I can even automate it to call and "read" my mail when I'm nowhere near the computer. Still, $200 to $500 annually isn't much of a profit. $41.67/month? I suppose it would pay a fraction of my phone bill. The offer reeks of scam. To anyone who looks into it, please tell us what you find out. Steven King -- Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group ------------------------------ Subject: Re: It's Impossible, Isn't It? Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 11:35:31 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) bob@bci.nbn.com (Bob Schwartz) writes: > This happened to me and I've never heard of such a thing. > I have several lines and while talking on line line, which is hooked > up to a fax machine and a phone (distinctly seperate stations), the > phone integrated into the fax machine began to ring. then, right on > que, the fax machine answered and my conversation was obliterated by > fax tones The line has no special features such call waiting or three > way calling. It does however recieve from a remote call forwarding > source, but I can't see how RCF would have any involvement. > Has anyone seen or heard of such an occurance and how could it be? I have no idea what a "line line" is, but I assume that you are talking on the same line that the fax machine is hooked to, and that either you are behind one of those line sharing devices, or the fax machine has that feature. What is happening is that either your line sharing device or the fax machine is using a cheap filter for detecting CNG tone from the calling fax machine. The feature is so poorly implemented that it "falses" on a voice during the phone conversation, signals the fax machine, which then starts trying to handshake. Get a dedicated fax line. tad@ssc.com (if it bounces, use 3288544@mcimail.com)| [put "attn Box #215" Tad Cook | Packet Amateur Radio: | Home Phone: | on fax or cover pg!] Seattle, WA | KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA | 206-527-4089 | FAX: 206-525-1791 ------------------------------ From: brettf@netcom.com (Brett Frankenberger) Subject: Re: It's Impossible, Isn't It? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 23:23:16 GMT bob@bci.nbn.com (Bob Schwartz) writes: > This happened to me and I've never heard of such a thing. > I have several lines and while talking on line line, which is hooked > up to a fax machine and a phone (distinctly seperate stations), the > phone integrated into the fax machine began to ring. then, right on > que, the fax machine answered and my conversation was obliterated by > fax tones The line has no special features such call waiting or three > way calling. It does however recieve from a remote call forwarding > source, but I can't see how RCF would have any involvement. Once possibility is that the ring detefctor on the fax machine might be of very low quality. Detecting a ring should be trivially easy (look for a high voltage AC signal), but some boxes will trip on any relatively high voltage transient, and/or on any 20 Hz signal. If that is the case, a voltage spike or some sound on your conversation could cause the fax machine to think it has received a ring, and answer the call ... Brett (brettf@netcom.com) ------------------------------ From: Henrik.Rasmussen@lambada.oit.unc.edu (Henrik Rasmussen) Subject: Re: Digital Cellular Phones Date: 28 Feb 1994 02:54:59 GMT Organization: The University of NC, Chapel Hill, the Experimental BBS > Bill Bauserman william.d.bauserman@gte.sprint.com Note the above domain: are GTE and Sprint still related in some way? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 16:43:43 PDT From: Mike Borsetti, Cellular One/San Francisco Subject: Re: Digital Cellular Phones william.d.bauserman@gte.sprint.com writes: > Most cellular companies I have dealt with have set up (or are setting > up) their network to allow the digital user to drop to analog, but not > vice versa. That is, if you have a dualmode phone and the call starts > as analog or switches to analog because no digital channels are > available, then that call will remain analog until it ends, it will > not switch back to digital. By personal experience, I can say that this is not the case on Cellular One's San Francisco's digital (TDMA) cellular system. If for any reason you are in analog and the cellsite you're about to be handed off to has a digital channel available, you'll be assigned to it. I'm curious as to why a cellular company would deny analog to digital handoffs, as it would seem that it is in everyone's best interest to maximize digital usage. Mike Borsetti ------------------------------ From: izzy@access.netaxs.com (Michael Israeli) Subject: Re: Lowest Number in the NANP? Date: 28 Feb 1994 23:23:50 GMT Organization: Net Access - Philadelphia's Internet Connection > According to NJ Bell's automatic intercept service, the number > 201-200-0000 is 'being checked for trouble'. The number 201-200-0001 > has been disconnected. I didn't try any others in that prefix. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why not try 0002, 0003, etc and let > us know your findings. I wonder if they know the significance of their > number? What about at the other end of the line, any from the 919-999 > range? PAT] Here in the 610 area code, and also in the 215 area code, the numbers 00XX often seem to be some kind of "test" numbers. One will be 'being checked for trouble', another 'busy', another a strange busy signal. Is it possible that when you call a number that has been disconnected that your call is actually FORWARDED to that number? Michael Israeli - (izzy@access.netaxs.com) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Lowest Number in the NANP Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 11:40:19 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) writes: > According to NJ Bell's automatic intercept service, the number > 201-200-0000 is 'being checked for trouble'. The number 201-200-0001 > has been disconnected. I didn't try any others in that prefix. the Moderator responds: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why not try 0002, 0003, etc and let > us know your findings. I wonder if they know the significance of their > number? What about at the other end of the line, any from the 919-999 > range? PAT] The highest dialable number in the range is 919-995-9999 in Buxton, NC. It appears to be a working number with ring-no-answer when I called. The lowest is 201-200-0002, which is a trading desk at a brokerage house in Jersey City, New Jersey. These two exchanges are 386 miles apart. tad@ssc.com (if it bounces, use 3288544@mcimail.com)| [put "attn Box #215" Tad Cook | Packet Amateur Radio: | Home Phone: | on fax or cover pg!] Seattle, WA | KT7H @ N7DUO.WA.USA.NA | 206-527-4089 | FAX: 206-525-1791 ------------------------------ From: mwilcox@frx401.intel.com (Mike Wilcox ) Subject: Re: Lowest Number in the NANP? Date: 28 Feb 1994 21:27:25 GMT Organization: Intel Corporation , Folsom In article dave@westmark.com writes: > According to NJ Bell's automatic intercept service, the number > 201-200-0000 is 'being checked for trouble'. The number 201-200-0001 > has been disconnected. I didn't try any others in that prefix. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why not try 0002, 0003, etc and let > us know your findings. I wonder if they know the significance of their > number? What about at the other end of the line, any from the 919-999 > range? PAT] From 916-351 (Folsom, CA) 201-200-0000 "Being Checked For Trouble" 201-200-0001 "Has Been Disconnected" 201-200-0002 Answered at a business 919-999-9999 "Cannot be completed as dialed. 9161T" One interesting note about the recordings on the 201-200 numbers: The first recording read the number as two oh oh oh oh oh oh. The second recording read the number as two oh oh zero zero zero one. Mike Wilcox mwilcox@pcocd2.intel.com Intel Folsom Folsom Information Technology Telecomm and Network Services [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Did you notice that the intercept machine is smart enough to normally pronounce three trailing zeros as 'thousand' and two trailing digits as 'hundred' but in the event of a four zeros it does not say 'zero thousand'. Here, the lady says 'oh! oh! oh! ooooh!' sort of like something else was going on when the recording was being made. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 22:18:40 -0500 From: Jonathan Subject: Re: Lowest Number in the NANP? I tried 201 200-0700 and got the same checked for trouble recording. The phone company explained that: (1) it was a local recording in NJ; (2) the recording is a generic recording that doesn't mean very much; and (3) the number doesn't belong to anybody, or, if it does, then they wouldn't do anything about it. In general I am really confused about incorrect recordings. It is annoying when the recording is wrong. And the phone company doesn't do anything about it because as far as they are concerned I have the wrong number. One time the recording (for somebody in one of my classes who had moved while we were working on a project together) referred me to a number outside my area; I called it and the person had no idea who the person that I was trying to reach was; I called the phone company and explained how important that it was to contact this individual, and they put in a repair report; the next day, the maintenance center called me back and said that the recording was the way that the customer ordered it. Maybe the customer or the service rep made a mistake filling out the original service order? ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Lowest Number in the NANP? Reply-To: dave@westmark.com Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 00:04:57 GMT dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) writes: > According to NJ Bell's automatic intercept service, the number > 201-200-0000 is 'being checked for trouble'. The number 201-200-0001 > has been disconnected. I didn't try any others in that prefix. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why not try 0002, 0003, etc and let > us know your findings. I wonder if they know the significance of their > number? I don't particularly want to disturb folks in Jersey City just because they have interesting telephone numbers. I don't know if they'd find it interesting. I did, however, try 201-200-0002 and it was a ring-no-answer on Saturday afternoon. That probably indicates that the number is working ... and therefore that it is the lowest working number in the NANP. 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: cabobin@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (ERIC BOBINSKY) Subject: Re: Need Information on ISDN Phones Date: 28 Feb 1994 16:03 EST Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center In article , varney@ihlpe.att.com writes: > In article btaylor@csuchico.edu (Beverly > Taylor) writes: >> In article , The Network Group <0004526627@ >> mcimail.com> wrote: >>> I need to know a source for ISDN phonesxxx -- excuse me: voice >>> terminals. >>> I have heard that AT&T has a few of these but haven't heard of any >>> other manufacturers such as Northern Telecom or others. Apparently the >>> Northern product for Meridian Digital Centrex is not an ISDN phone. >> We have used TelRad, Fujitsu, and AT&T ISDN sets. They're all used to >> run on an AT&T 5ESS. We're very satisfied with all of them and have >> only found these three will work with our CO switch. > I believe Bellcore lists vendors that support the National-1 ISDN > interface. These should all work with the 5ESS switch (on 5E8 and > later). We've got a couple of ISDN videophones from BT up in one of our labs -- email me if you want more details. (cabobin@timelord.lerc.nasa.gov) Eric A. Bobinsky Communications Systems NASA/Lewis Research Center Cleveland, OH 44135 USA +1 216 433 3497 +1 216 433 8705 (Fax) ------------------------------ From: JOHN.D.GRETZINGER@sprint.sprint.com Date: 28 Feb 94 16:13:02-0500 Subject: Re: Air Cell In Volume 14 Issue 99 Stu Jeffery mentions a company using mobile phones from an aircraft. I presume he is talking about the air plane being in flight at the time. This would fly in the face of an FCC regulation that specifically prohibits the use of a land based cell phone while in flight. I too would be interested in that company to see how they got around that regulation, or do they have phones that work on both systems. John D. Gretzinger ------------------------------ From: Henrik.Rasmussen@lambada.oit.unc.edu (Henrik Rasmussen) Subject: Re: These Cell Phones Don't Work - Why? Date: 28 Feb 1994 03:09:35 GMT Organization: The University of NC at Chapel Hill, the Experimental BBS About two years ago an incompatability developed between Astro-Net switches and technophone Cellular telephones. This problems caused the Technophones to not recognize they were being paged, so an incoming call never rang the phone. I was told Astro-Net had to make a software mod and Technophone had to make a hardware mod to correct what was apparently a fault on both ends. ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: These Cell Phones Dont Work - Why? Reply-To: dave@westmark.com Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 01:54:50 GMT I still use a 666-channel cellular telephone. It works okay on Cellular One, New York City CGSA. 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: jay@coyote.rain.org (Jay Hennigan) Subject: Re: Another Misprogrammed COCOT Date: 28 Feb 1994 18:57:12 -0800 Organization: Disgruntled postal workers against gun control In article Carl Moore writes: > A COCOT I saw on a trip I just took across Vermont had (usual) > roblems with 10xxx access code (I used 1-800-321-0288 instead of > 10288) and also had this problem with use of the Orange Card: > I was able to call 1-800-(Orange Card Number), get the resulting tone, > then punch in the ten-digit code and the ten-digit number I was > calling, then get the next burst of tone, but then got "DISCONNECTED" > on the display I saw. Yep. Many COCOTs cut the tone pad after too few digits to use calling cards. Sounds like this one dumps the call as well. A Radio Shack pocket dialer is one workaround, and if you preprogram your calling card number into it, you avoid having to worry about "shoulder surfers" observing you keying in your card number. Speaking of COCOTs, I've observed that many of them scramble the dialed digits on the tone pad. That is, when dialing an 800 number, I can hear DTMF tones in the handset, but the tones are _not_ the digits I am dialing. However, I reach the correct number. Once the number is dialed, I get a synthesized "thank you", and thereafter the tone pad sends the correct tones. Does anyone know why this is done? Jay Hennigan jay@rain.org Santa Barbara CA ------------------------------ From: ohashi@ncs.nakahara.fujitsu.co.jp (Masahiko Ohashi) Subject: Information Requested For PBX-Computer Interworking Organization: Fujitsu Nagoya Communication Systems Ltd. Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 05:35:37 GMT Hello all! I'm researching standards of pricvate branch exchange (PBX) - computer interworking. I hear that International Organization for Standardization (ISO) starts her work for these standardizations and the first meeting was held at Korea in October last year. Will anyone tell me the result of the ISO meeting and/or schedule of PBX-computer interworking standardiztions? Thanks in advance. Ohashi - Fujistu Nagoya Communication Systems (e-mail : ohashi@ncs.ts.fujitsu.co.jp) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #107 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11294; 1 Mar 94 0:06 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA04656; Mon, 28 Feb 94 21:06:02 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA04646; Mon, 28 Feb 94 21:06:00 CST Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 21:06:00 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403010306.AA04646@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #108 TELECOM Digest Mon, 28 Feb 94 21:06:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 108 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Caller ID in Russia (For Curious) (Dima Volodin) Re: 1-900 as a State Moneymaker (Conrad Kimball) Re: PCS Documents? (M. Hedlund) Re: Answering Machine Accepting Collect Calls (Danny Burstein) Re: Information Needed on Satellite Phone (Lars Poulsen) Re: Looking For Low Cost Phone System (David A. Kaye) Re: Calling 800 Numbers in USA From UK (Bram Smits) Re: Cordless Telephone Output Power (Joseph R. Schumacher) Re: Intern's Pay in Telecom (Russ McGuire) Interference With Tape (was Re: Digital Cellular Phone Review) (B. Walker) Re: Lowest Number in the NANP? (Hugh Pritchard) Need Help Locating Writer (Dr. Harold Joseph Highland) Full Service Network (Joydeep Bose) Help Needed With Motorola Advisor Pager (Alec Isaacson) Any Information on Interop Conference? (Arnold Shore) Phones in the Movies Again (J. Harrison) Re: Inter-LATA CID (Stephen Polinsky) Question About Sprintnet Connections (Patrizio Menchetti Dott) Elementary Area Code Question (William Kucharski) Mailing List For Discussing Video Telephony (Oliver Jones) Re: 1-900 as a State Moneymaker (Phil Howard) 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: Dmitry V. Volodin Subject: Re: Caller ID in Russia (For Curious) Organization: Demos Plus Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 02:24:41 GMT In johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) writes: > It is my understanding that when dialing a toll call in Russia, you > have to dial your own phone number after the desired number so that > the exchange can tell who to bill it to. Is this what you're referring > to as Caller-ID? No. You don't have to dial your own phone number unless your exchange is _really_ old. > The term has a somewhat different meaning in the U.S. The term has exactly the same meaning here and in the U.S. A couple of words about ISKRA: In fact there's _two_ Iskras. Vassili described the older one (Iskra-1), but made a mistake -- it is _not_ digital. The newer one (Iskra-2) has five-digit numbers and it's own system of three-digit area codes and is based on digital exchanges. Iskra-2 is used extensively for dial-up access to various computer networks. Iskra-2 is not reachable from the PSTN (and vice versa), but it can be reachable from outside of the country. Iskra-2 used it's own long-distance trunks, but the current trend is that Iskra-2 and PSTN share the same long-distance trunks, so it's advantage is diminishing rapidly. Dima ------------------------------ From: cek@sdc.cs.boeing.com (Conrad Kimball) Subject: Re: 1-900 as a State Moneymaker Date: 28 Feb 94 23:03:13 GMT Organization: Boeing Computer Services, Seattle, WA In article , worley@village.com (Dale Worley) writes: >> Heard on the news today that Missouri state government has >> started a 1-900 number for businesses to find the provider of the >> lowest-cost workers' compensation insurance. They are charging $1 >> /min, with $.45-.55 to go to the state general revenue fund. > Sounds like a great deal, since finding a good workmens' compensation > company can save you thousands a year. >> Just a new method to rob people for information they should be >> providing free as a public service. > Eh? Providing the names, addresses, and rates of insurance companies has > never been a job of the state government, to my knowledge. That's what > you have insurance agents for! Given that the state government has already collected this information (at a minimum, as a result of registering with the state insurance commissioner's office), that this information is of a public nature, and that the people have already paid the government once to collect this information, many people object to the government viewing such information as a revenue-generating asset. I.e., why should I have to pay for something that I, as a taxpayer, _already_ own? Conrad Kimball | Client Server Tech Services, Boeing Computer Services cek@sdc.cs.boeing.com | P.O. Box 24346, MS 7M-HC (206) 865-6410 | Seattle, WA 98124-0346 ------------------------------ From: hedlund@netcom.com (M. Hedlund) Subject: Re: PCS Documents? Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 18:30:56 GMT In article GOODMANS@delphi.com writes: > Are there any 'white papers' out there which gives an overview on PCS > (Personal Communications Services)? I have seen alot of articles on > the service over the last few months, but I would like to have one > definitive document which gives an overview and possibly a listing of > some of the companies which are driving this. I highly recommend Bellcore Special Report SR-INS-002301, "Feature Descrip- tion and Functional Analysis of PCS Capabilities," Issue 1, April 1992. Available from Bellcore at 1(800) 521-CORE (2673), $55.00. If you have a higher budget than that, they have some more recent documents, but remember, they will primarily be concerned with the connect between the PCS service provider and the RBOC network (Bellcore is jointly owned by the seven RBOCs). ]\/[. ]-[edlund ------------------------------ From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: Re: Answering Machine Accepting Collect Calls Date: 28 Feb 1994 17:38:38 -0500 In Monty Solomon writes: > In article castillo@unm.edu (deborah > castillo) writes: >> The real answer to your question is you should record your greeting to >> include the phrase, "operator, we will accept collect calls at this >> number". Obviously, you don't want to have that phrase on your machine > The phrase should include the word "yes" since some of the automated > collect call handlers ask the answering party to say "yes" to accept > the call. Hhmm, I can just see the following: Telesleaze Incorporated here. We have a $43 collect call from Mr. Dewey Scrooem. Will you accept? Perhaps in the old days of reasoanbly consistent AT&T rates it was safe to have your answering machine automatically accept calls, but I wouldn't do it now. dannyb@panix.com (or dburstein@mcimail.com) (10288) 0-700-864-3242 ------------------------------ From: lars@Eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Information Needed on Satellite Phone Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 16:47:36 GMT In article hu@helios.physics.utoronto. ca (Min Hu) writes: > During the Gulf War, both the reporters and the American soldiers used > a kind of satellite phone system so that they could communicate with > outside world. Does anybody out there know companies who make or sell > this kind of mobile phone system? What you saw during the Gulf War was partly video uplinks on the rather enpensive systems used for broadcast feeds, and partly the Inmarsat telephone service, which provides phone service for many ships on the high seas. Presently, you should begin to hear about services from Motorola's Iridium system. In the Inmarsat system, the world is covered by three geostationary satellites, positioned roughly over the center of the Atlantic ocean, the center of the Pacific Ocean, and over India. Calls are about USD 10/minute. Earth stations typically use a three-foot dish antenna pointed towards the satellite. In the Iridium system, the earth is covered by about 70 satellites in low earth orbit. They will use channel management techniques derived from cellular mobile systems, except that in this case, it is the base stations that move. I believe they will use omnidirectional antennas. > The following features will be desirable. > 1. Ability to communicate while the phone is in motion (say a jeep) > 2. The diameter of the antanne should be less than 1 meter > 3. The satellite carrier should be either American satellite or sea > monitoring satellite. > 4. The antanne should be all-direction antanne, do not have to worry about > the direction of the satellite. It will be interesting to see how Iridium service will be priced. I think they must be several years away from being operationsal, though. 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: dk@crl.com (David A. Kaye) Subject: Re: Looking For Low Cost Phone System Date: 27 Feb 1994 01:12:13 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] keith danekind (danekind@CS.ColoState.EDU) wrote: > machine and a modem. We are currently not able to handle the phone > traffic and the boss would like an automated solution rather than > hiring a receptionist to answer the calls. We are interested in call I know this goes counter to the very nature of telecom technology, but I'd recommend hiring a receptionist. As companies get bigger and bigger they tend to lose their friendliness. For instance, today when I call the post office I call the number for the nearest small town, not the big city post office. Why? The small town post office has a live person answering the phone. The big city has poorly maintained voicemail. I had occasion to call UPS today. First I got an internal dialtone, then nothing. Second call got a modem squeal. Third call got voicemail. There was no fourth call. I called FedEx instead. Got a human immediately. ------------------------------ From: bram@fangorn.hacktic.nl (Bram Smits) Subject: Re: Calling 800 Numbers in USA From UK Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 22:36:00 GMT Organization: Fangorn Systems Being one of the people who's touched the subject in the past year: > This comes up so often here, I am wondering: if I were to install a > couple lines here which people could call from all over the world for > the specific purpose of being reconnected to an 800 number, would anyone > be interested in using it if they had to pay $10 per month and use a > passcode to make the call (once they were connected through me)? PAT] I don't need to call 800 numbers very often, so $10 per month wouldn't be appealing to me. Maybe a system that would allow me to key in my credit card number and be billed like 50 cents per use would be better -- and it would still make you a nice bundle -- you have no costs except the monthly charges for the lines (and it saves on accounting, too ...). Bram 'mouser' Smits. Fangorn Systems Heerlen, The Netherlands ------------------------------ From: JOSEPH.R.SCHUMACHER@gte.sprint.com Date: 28 Feb 94 15:59:49 Subject: Re: Cordless Telephone Output Power The (FCC) RF output limits for cordless phones are as follows: 46/49 MHz phones: 10,000 microvolts / meter, as measured three meters from the phone. 900 MHz (narrow band) phones: 50,000 microvolts / meter, same as above. 900 MHz (spread-spectrum) phones : 1 W EIRP. I believe that 10,000 microvolts/meter is roughly equivalant to an ERP of about -15 dBm (about 30 microwatts). The 900 MHz limit is obviously 4 dB hotter (0.75 mW ERP). In the 902-928 MHz spread-spectrum rules, the FCC sets requirements for what constitutes spread-spectrum and what doesn't (i.e. a minimum chip rate). Some 900 Mhz phones will satisfy this rule, others won't. The others will obviously be held to the lower limit. On the other hand, I'd be surprised to find a consumer-grade cordless telephone with an ERP of exactly 1W; I'd guess that s-s cordless phones would use the same RF finals as handheld cellular phones. And while I'm on the topic: With respect to the discussion on increasing cordless phone range, 1) It's illegal to modify the circuitry without re-testing for FCC approval 2) even if it was legal, why does everyone want to increase the output power? There is probably more room for increasing the receiver sensitivity which would have the same effect. For instance, a cheap FET between the antenna and the receiver chip could add at least 10 dB of sensitivity, if you know what your'e doing. Joe ------------------------------ From: rmcguire@wiltel20.wiltel.com (Russ McGuire) Subject: Re: Intern's Pay in Telecom Date: 28 Feb 1994 15:24:03 GMT Organization: WilTel Reply-To: rmcguire@wiltel20.wiltel.com (Russ McGuire) In article Ramaiah V Narla writes: > Anyway, what I'd like to know is: is that how interns are taken up? So > badly paid? In the telecom industry, particularly? And, could an > institution such as NATA be as resource-starved? (The official said > they only pick up two interns each summer and pay them each just $10/day, > due to resource crunch). Could they have possibly meant $10/hour? I thought it was illegal to pay less than minimum wage, even to interns ;^) ... We have used interns at times here at WilTel, but I'm not sure how well we've paid them. I'm pretty sure it was more than $10/day ... Russ McGuire WilTel, Inc. ------------------------------ From: wwalker@qualcomm.com (Bill Walker) Subject: Interference With Tape (was Re: Digital Cellular Phone Review) Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 14:20:58 -0800 Organization: Qualcomm, Inc. In article , oakes@wolverine.cig.mot.com (Ronald Oakes) wrote: > I can confirm that this will, and does, happen. I have a bag phone, > placed next to the transfer case controller on the floor of my S-10 > Blazer, so that the antenna sits right next to my car radio. I can > always tell when my phone registers and when I am about to receive a > call by the distinctive POP that comes out when listinging to a tape. > If I am listening to the radio, a registration is not as obvious, but > the extra transmissions when acknowledging a page and getting ready to > ring will cause noticeable interference with the radio. Tape players make surprisingly good recievers. I once drove between two friends who were communicating via CB radio, and I could hear their conversation on my 8-track (remember 8-track?) tape player! Bill Walker - WWalker@qualcomm.com - QUALCOMM, Inc., San Diego, CA USA ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 11:20 EST From: Hugh Pritchard <0006348214@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Lowest Number in the NANP? > [Trivia comment/question: What places have *three* different area > codes as part of their local calling area? ... PAT] The Washington, DC, metro area. Affected regions: DC (202) suburban Maryland (301) suburban Virginia (703) Within your own region (don't say "state;" DC is not a state), dial seven digits. Calling another region, but within local calling area, dial NPA + 7D (not 1+). Calling outside local calling area, dial 1 + NPA + 7D. Note that from my home in College Park, MD [301], (between DC and Baltimore/ Washington Airport) a call to Reston, VA [703], (well across the Potomac, almost to Dulles airport) is within the local area; but a call to Fort Meade, MD, which is in the 410 NPA, but not that far away, is a toll call. Hugh Pritchard hugh@snm.com (Internet) 800/906-1621 (beeper) Smoke 'N Mirrors, Inc. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 09:48 EST From: Dr. Harold Joseph Highland Subject: Need Help Locating Writer Pat you had a note about SecretAgent from AT&T. It was from David Arneke. His Internet address, which I have to use, is incorrect; mail bounces. It is noted as david.arneke@att.com -- that first period must be an error. Thanks for your help. Harold [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A period is perfectly valid as a separ- ator in an address, and I do believe the way you saw it is the way I got it, but mistakes do occur. Unfortunatly I no longer have the original from him; those are usually tossed out immediatly following publication, otherwise I would be extremely overloaded with stuff. If it was wrong, hopefully the author will see this and contact you. PAT] ------------------------------ From: joydeep@iti.gov.sg (Joydeep Bose) Subject: Full Service Network Organization: National Computer Board, Singapore Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 08:30:08 GMT I am looking for some information on Full Service Networks. Specifically what is the architecture , how do they provide Cable Tv together with Interactive VOD and other Multimedia Services. Are they totally switched or partially star and partially BUS/RING. Any specific information on Time Warner and PAC BEL Trials would be appreciated. Regards, Joydeep ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 12:27:43 EST From: Alec Isaacson Subject: Help Needed With Motorola Advisor Pager I was just issued a Motorola "Advisor" display pager and I'm interested in two things. First, is there any software available on the net to send messages to the thing? If so, where is it? (I've heard the term IXO/TAP protocol used before, I think that's what this pager speaks) Second, what sort of interesting things are there to know about this model (i.e. self test modes, and other things unaccesable to the regular customer). Thanks, Alec D. Isaacson AI4CPHYW @ miamiu.acs.muohio.edu Miami University, Oxford, OH ------------------------------ From: ashore@access2.digex.net (Arnold Shore) Subject: Information Wanted on Interop Conference Date: 28 Feb 1994 22:24:24 GMT Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA Will appreciate any information on a series of conferences or expositions named Interop xx, where xx is the year. Theme, of course, was interoperability/telecom products, services, issues. Thanks, folks. ashore@access.digex.net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Calling Ole Jacobson! Ole is our Interop person here; he publishes the {Interoperability Report} and comments here from time to time. I hope he will see this message and respond. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 18:06:02 +0000 From: J.Harrison@bra0112.wins.icl.co.uk Subject: Phones in the Movies Again I know we've discussed this before but ... where do they get phone numbers for actors to use where necessary in a movie? I thought there is supposed to be a list of "safe" numbers somewhere for just this purpose. So anyway when I was watching the old movie "10" on VCR last night Dudley Moore tells the hotel operator to get him some number. I wrote it down and called it to see what would happen ... and now some poor guy in LA wonders who it was that didn't leave a message on his answering machine. I guess it was a real number alright. Can they do this? I know I would be pretty unhappy if *my* number was used in this way. And yes I wrote it down right (I ran the tape a couple more times to make sure). Joe ICL Ltd. Bracknell Berkshire RG12 8SN UK (+44-344-473424) J.Harrison@bra0112.wins.icl.co.uk S=Harrison/I=J/OU1=bra0112/O=icl/P=icl/A=gold 400/C=GB [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is no 'list of safe numbers'. Generally they'll use a number like 555-2341 since it is unlikely such a number will be assigned anytime soon. Maybe they assumed no one would be silly enough to actually dial the number to 'see who is there'. Tell me, if the number had answered, were you going to say "This is Dudley Moore calling," or were you just going to ring off and not say anything at all, or were you going to apologize for your intrusion? Whether or not someone has any claim as a result of their phone number appearing in a movie would depend I guess on which came first: their aquisition of the number or the production of the film. If the film was made years and years ago, a person who got assigned the number in recent weeks/months could hardly blame the film maker. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 10:18:22 EDT From: TELE_STEPH@ohio.gov Subject: Re: InterLATA CID tjnelson@attmail.att.com wrote: > I have a question regarding the use of Caller ID on Inter-LATA calls. > Currently the technology exists to deliver the calling number to the > terminating LEC office: > Originating-->--ISUP-->--InterLATA-->--ISUP-->--Terminating > CID LEC Carrier CID LEC I may be wrong about this, but I think it is because the FCC hasn't approved interstate Caller-ID, leaving the states to approve it on a one-by-one basis for local service. So, legally, PUCs for each state could probably approve inter-LATA, intrastate CID. But there is no financial motivation for the LECs to file the tariff, fight the court battles and work throught the hardware differences with the IXCs. They already charge for CID, and probably would not be permitted to charge any more for inter-LATA, intrastate CID. The technical problems, though present, pale in comparison. Stephen Polinsky tele_steph@ohio.gov ------------------------------ Subject: Help Needed Using Sprintnet Date: Mon, 28 Feb 94 16:25:29 CET From: Patrizio Menchetti Dott I am trying to reach an online service available via SPRINTNET and at the same time avoid being ripped off with international or intercontin- ental calls. My subscription to the service includes subsription to SPRINTNET. Unfortunately, I have been provided with a phone number list which does not include Italy. I tried the SPRINT toll-free number, but apparently nobody was able to answer the following questions: - Are SPRINTNET accesses available in Italy? - Is SPRINTNET access available through INTERNET? Some help in this respect will be gladly welcomed. Thank you in advance. Patrizio Menchetti ------------------------------ From: kucharsk@solbourne.com (William Kucharski) Subject: Elementary Area Code Question Date: 28 Feb 1994 17:59:49 -0700 Organization: Solbourne Computer, Inc., Longmont, CO OK, this is probably an obvious question, but here goes: We recently went through a change requiring people within the 303 area code to dial 1 + 303 to call long distance numbers within the 303 area code (rather than just 1 + number). While I understand why they did this (need to reuse area code numbers as exchanges), why don't phone switches just use the following obvious (at least to me) algorithm: 1-XXX-YYYY 1+7 digits, must be long distance within the area code, so XXX is the exchange; 1-XXX-YYY-ZZZZ 1+10 digits, so XXX must be the area code. It seems a one or two second pause would be quite sufficient to denote "end of number ..." William Kucharski kucharsk@solbourne.com William Kucharski, Solbourne Computer, Inc. Internet: kucharsk@solbourne.com Ham: N0OKQ Snail Mail: 1900 Pike Road, Longmont, CO 80501 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Elaborating on that idea then, why bother to use '1' at all? Why not just say if seven digits, then the first three must be an exchange within the area and if ten digits, then the first three must be an area code? There would have to be longer than a two second timeout; some people are slow about dialing. But a five to seven second timeout would be sufficient and the timeout could always be overridden by the use of the # symbol as a terminator or carriage return. As things go now, we need to have timeouts to differentiate between 0 for the local operator and 00 for the long distance operator; people in the know about these things always dial 0# for fastest responses. I've always thought '1' was redundant with timeouts and/or a # terminator a superior way to deal with it. Plus, consider the flexibility: anything could be an area code; anything could be an exchange. In effect, telco says to the subscriber, you tell *us* where you are calling. PAT] ------------------------------ From: oj@world.std.com (Oliver Jones) Subject: Mailing List For Discussing Video Telephony Organization: Vivo Software, Inc. Date: Tue, 1 Mar 1994 02:29:47 GMT At the suggestion of several people on the comp.dcom.isdn newsgroup, I have started up a public mailing list for the discussion of video telephony, CCITT H.xxx standards, and related topics. To contribute to the discussion, please send email to: videophone@vivo.com To subscribe, unsubscribe, or conduct other administrative business, please send email to videophone-request@vivo.com The content of this mailing list won't be moderated in any way. Regards, Oliver Jones ------------------------------ From: phil@zeus.fasttax.com (Phil Howard) Subject: Re: 1-900 as a State Moneymaker Date: 28 Feb 1994 20:38:27 -0600 Organization: fasttax.com lreeves@crl.com (Les Reeves) writes: > Several years ago I installed a channel bank for the US Office of > Personnel Management's job line 900 service. It was a menu-driven > voice information system to provide up to date info on job availability > within parts of the federal government. The cost was the lowest I have > ever seen on any 900 service; 40 cents per minute. They told me they > selected a per-minute rate that would just cover the cost of the access > from MCI. So where does one call to get this kind of government information when they have 900/976 blocking? This really needs to be separated from the ripoff numbers. Phil Howard KA9WGN Unix/Internet System Admin CLR/Fast-Tax phil@fasttax.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #108 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa22280; 2 Mar 94 11:10 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11871; Wed, 2 Mar 94 07:25:12 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11861; Wed, 2 Mar 94 07:25:09 CST Date: Wed, 2 Mar 94 07:25:09 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403021325.AA11861@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #109 TELECOM Digest Wed, 2 Mar 94 07:25:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 109 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson New Brunswick Electronic Highway Discussion Paper Released (Claude Boucher) FBI Digital Telephony and PCS Mobile Phones (M. Hedlund) Help Needed With Old German Telephone (1941) (David Davidson) 555-XXXX Goes Big Time (John R. Levine) MCI/NEXTEL Announcement (Stephen Goodman) Unsolicited Fax Legality (Bob Keller, comp.dcom.fax via 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Claude Boucher Date: Wed, 2 Mar 94 18:31:42 -0400 Reply-To: boucherc@nbnet.nb.ca Subject: New Brunswick Electronic Highway Discussion Paper Released Thought this might be of some interest for your readers. If you need more info, feel free to e-mail me at boucherc@nbnet.nb.ca. You can also contact Maurice Lavigne with the Electronic Highway Secretariat at mauricel@gov.nb.ca. Claude Boucher Communications Officer Communications New Brunswick Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada Tel.: (506) 453-2240 INFORMATION HIGHWAY SECRETARIAT NB 8 March 1, 1994 FREDERICTON (CNB) -- The report of the New Brunswick Task Force on the Electronic Information Highway, Driving the Information Highway, was released by Premier Frank McKenna and George Corriveau, minister of state for the electronic information highway today. The official ceremony was held in the Centennial Building lobby, where an Information Highway Showcase has been open to the public for two days. Addressing those in attendance, the premier called the document a major part of a larger blueprint that would help develop the information highway in New Brunswick to its fullest potential for business, industry, academia and for all New Brunswickers. "If we want a piece of the action generated by this technology, we can't be trying to catch the train after it's left the station," he said. Corriveau thanked the task force, chaired by Bob Gamble, president of the N.B. Geographic Information Corporation. The minister outlined the role the task force identified for government. "The task force sees government as having a key role to play as a model/customer user of the highway." Corriveau identified other areas he says fall within the mandate of his recently-created office: providing education and training opportunities; acting as a liaison between public and private sector; promoting continued development of the highway, and helping New Brunswick companies develop products and services for the highway and for export. As part of the official launch, the premier sent the document via Internet to federal Industry Minister John Manley. Prior to the ceremony, the report was tabled in the legislative assembly. Applications showcased in the lobby of the Centennial Building included: TV Talk, use of a television screen to capture telephone services; Service New Brunswick, a free-standing unit that allows people to obtain services from government offices, NBTel and NB Power; NB Alert, a system of distinctive phone rings combined with mapping capabilities to alert people in possible danger; Interactive Television Transmission, a sample of 21st century communications possible via cable television; Tele-Radiology, the transmission of electrical diagnostic images taken at one location to another location for interpretation and analysis, and Vista 350, an interactive telephone with a display screen enabling people to view printed messages. 93/03/01 EDITOR'S NOTE -- Maurice Lavigne, Information Highway Secretariat, (mauricel@gov.nb.ca) Electronic copies of the report are available on our anonymous ftp server ftp.gov.nb.ca (142.139.24.1), in the following directories: Login: anonymous Password: your e-mail address Files for DOS and WINDOWS ---------------------------------------------------------- NB.Gov.Info/info.highway/DRIVING.ZIP (English version) NB.Gov.Info/info.highway/MENER.ZIP (French version) You must use a fairly recent version of PKUNZIP.EXE in order to decompress the files. Files for Macintosh (all versions in both languages) -------------------------------------------------------- NB.Gov.Info/cnb/macfiles/mactext.sit.hqx (Text only) NB.Gov.Info/cnb/macfiles/macwrite.sit.hqx (MacWrite) NB.Gov.Info/cnb/macfiles/msword5.sit.hqx (MS Word 5.0) NB.Gov.Info/cnb/macfiles/wperfect2.sit.hqx (WPerfect/Mac 2.x) You must use a fairly recent version of StuffIt to decode and decompress the files (BinHex 4.0 format). This shareware is available on most Macintosh archives on the Net, such as mac.archive.umich.edu (Merit Archives at the University of Michigan). ------------------------------ From: hedlund@netcom.com (M. Hedlund) Subject: FBI Digital Telephony and PCS Mobile Phones Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Tue, 1 Mar 1994 23:34:26 GMT This article elaborates on part of the EFF statement issued last week concerning the FBI's proposed Digital Telephony wiretap bill. The EFF condemned the bill, which enlarges law enforcement powers of surveillance, granted by wiretap laws, by adding tracking ability. Addressed herein is point two of the EFF statement, concerning the surveillance of mobile communica- tors, such as cellular phones, Personal Communications Services (PCS) and laptop computers. PCS mobile phones create severe privacy risks for future phone users, especially under the FBI's proposal; and these risks strongly support the EFF's position. The FBI asserts that their proposal adapts existing wiretap laws to account for emerging communications technologies. Wiretap laws have not adequately covered mobile communications, and the FBI is correct to assume that some revisions will be necessary to adequately balance law enforcement needs with the privacy rights of mobile phone users. Their proposed revisions, however, do not simply provide for wiretap; instead, the FBI seeks to expand wiretap laws, allowing law enforcement officers to track the signalling information of mobile communcations users. The EFF believes that the FBI proposal would create an enormous hole in the privacy rights of individuals suspected of crimes. Their statement notes: It is conceivable that law enforcement could use the signalling information to identify the location of a target ... This provision takes a major step beyond current law in that it allows for a tap and/or trace on a *person*, as opposed to mere surveillance of a phone line. This fear is completely realistic. It is not simply "conceivable" that the FBI's proposal would allow law enforcement to surveil the location of a target -- positioning technology is a planned part of PCS networks, one of the technological advances anticipated by the proposal. Similar positioning technology is planned for cellular phones, as well. PCS advances cellular phone technology by integrating mobile communications with other phone networks, and by expanding the services and quality mobile phones can offer. Most PCS proposals involve three forms of mobility: terminal mobility, the ability to make and receive calls at any location, and the ability of the phone network to track the location of the mobile phone; personal mobility, the ability of the user to be reachable by a single phone number at all times; and service mobility, the ability of the user to access CLASS(sm)-like features, such as Call Waiting and Caller ID, from any phone they use. The FBI proposal requires phone companies, when presented with a wiretap order, to transmit the content and the signalling, or "call setup information," from the tapped phone to law enforcement officers. With a wireline phone, such as a residence phone line, call setup information would comprise only the originating and dialled phone numbers, as well as billing information (such as the residence address) for the call. Because of the wireless aspect of PCS, however, call setup information for a PCS phone includes very detailed information on the location and movement of the caller. PCS mobile phones will connect with the phone network via "microcells," or very small receivers similar to those used for cellular phones. While a cellular network uses cells with up to an 8 to 10 mile radius, PCS networks will use microcells located on every street corner and in every building. The call setup information for a PCS call would include the microcell identifier -- a very specific means of locating the user. An order for a PCS wiretap would allow law enforcement officers to receive a detailed, verifiable, continuous record of the location and movement of a mobile phone user. These phones are also likely to "feature" automatic registration: whenever the PCS mobile phone is on (in use or able to receive calls), it will automatically register itself with the nearest microcell. Law enforce- ment agencies, able to track this registration, would have the equivalent of an automatic, free, instantaneous, and unde- tectable global positioning locator for anyone suspected of a crime. PCS tries to improve on cellular phone privacy and security by incorporating cryptographic techniques. Encryption could not only create a secure phone conversation, but could also (coupled with use of a PIN number) insure that only a valid subscriber could make calls on a particular phone, preventing fraudulent calls on stolen phones. An additional phone-to-network authentication could prevent fraudulent calling through a "masquerade" phone designed to simulate a user's regis- tration. But the FBI proposal would require that such encryption be defeatable in wiretap circumstances. As the proposal stands, this form of weak encryp- tion is distinguishable from the Clipper Chip because the phone companies, not a key escrow arrangement, enable law enforcement access; but it is entirely possible that the Clipper Chip could be used as the encrypting device. In either circumstance, PCS encryption could be compromised by careless or malicious law enforcement officials. Perhaps it is time for Phil Zimmerman and ViaCrypt to begin work on PGPCS -- and let us all hope we are so lucky. The cellular phone market is tremendous, and analysts believe that the PCS market, incorporating both voice and data communications, will be even larger. Coupled with the FBI's Digital Telephony proposal, PCS raises many privacy and security risks, making the EFF's condemnation of the FBI proposal all the more appropriate. ----------------- CLASS is a service mark of Bell Communications Research (Bellcore). For more information: * Bellcore Special Report SR-INS-002301, "Feature Description and Functional Analysis of Personal Communications Services (PCS) Capabilities," Issue 1, April 1992. Order from Bellcore, (800) 521-CORE (2673), $55.00. * GAO report GAO/OSI-94-2, "Communications Privacy: Federal Policy and Actions," November 1993. Anonymous FTP to cu.nih.gov, in the directory "gao-reports". * EFF documents, available via anonymous FTP or gopher: ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/EFF/Policy/Digital_Telephony ]\/[. ]-[edlund ------------------------------ From: davidson@ccrs.emr.ca (David Davidson) Subject: Help Needed With Old German Telephone (1941) Organization: Canada Centre for Remote Sensing Date: Tue, 1 Mar 1994 19:09:23 -0500 I just bought this old phone at the Savation Army Store. I would really like to hook it up. Can anyone help me. The description: The base of the phone is made out of what looks like a dark cardbord that has been dipped in plastic. The reciever is the handle type, there is a hook on one end, where your fingers wrap around there is a long button to squeeze. The reciever is black and the part you speak into is covered except for a few slots. The cloth cord from the reciever ends in a square plug that plugs into the top of the phone, behind where you put the reciever (the cradle?). THis plug has a small wiring diagram on it and the numbers 1 2 3 4 5 which I think correspond to the plugs connectors. Looking down were you rest the reciever it says "Vermittlungsklinke". The dial face is white with black numbers. The rotary part is black metal and has the letters A to K corresponding to the numbers. The underside: The base is metal. Stamped on it is 23532, then a circle around a capital "M". In the "M" is a small "T", then it says "1941". There is then a wiring diagram written on an aluminum plate attached in the middle. In purple stamped on to this is a large "Z". In the front part of the large "Z" there is a smaller "Z" and in the right half of the "Z" there is a smaller "A". Above this it has a sticker that says "POST". The back: For the contacts it has four large screw down connectors. It could accept very large gauge wire. Top Left (TL) is says "Lb/SA/ZB", then (TR) it says "Lb/OB", (BR) "E", and finally (BL) "La". So, I know it is a German phone from 1941, but can anyone tell me anything else? I would like to hook this up if possible. I am also curious what this might be worth. It has been used, but I would say it is in 85% good condition. I am really happy I found this and plan on putting it right beside my 1957 Swedish phone (Erricson sp?). Thanks in advance for anyone who can help me. David ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: 555-XXXX Goes Big Time Date: Tue, 1 Mar 94 20:11:18 EST A story in {Network World} reports that the telephone Industry Numbering Committee, administered by Bellcore, is proposing to allot 3000 numbers in the 555-XXXX range for use as seven-digit information service numbers. One of the eager customers for 555 service is USA Today, who presumably wants to move the well-known 800-555-5555, er, 900-555-5555 to plain 555-5555. The article said 555 numbers would be an alternative to 800 numbers, but the examples they gave were of existing 900 numbers. I'm confused. They're also discussing a proposal from Sprint to allow assignment of 950 numbers for other than FG B access, particularly for things like credit card authorizations who want fast setup for short calls. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 1 Mar 94 13:22 EST From: Stephen Goodman <0003945654@mcimail.com> Subject: MCI/NEXTEL Announcement MCI WILL INVEST $1.3 BILLION IN NEXTEL TO OFFER NATIONALLY BRANDED WIRELESS SERVICES networkMCI Strategic Alliance With Nextel and Comcast Will Provide First Digital Personal Communications Services WASHINGTON, D.C. February 28, 1994 -- A strategic alliance formed today by MCI, Nextel Communications and Comcast Corporation will begin offering MCI wireless personal communications services this year, with the technology platform provided by Motorola Inc. A $1.3 billion MCI investment in Nextel will accelerate this first nationwide offering of advanced wireless voice and data communications, featuring digital clarity and reliability, a single telephone number that will work anywhere, and availability throughout the country. The companies said that their alliance will bring these enhanced flexible services to consumers, business and government customers far sooner than generally had been expected. The services will be marketed jointly by MCI, Nextel and Comcast under the MCI brand name. Nextel's license coverage and planned interoperability agreements give the alliance the potential to reach 95 percent of the U.S. population. Its first digital network is already serving customers in the Los Angeles area and will stretch across California within the next few months. With the investment by MCI, plans are underway to accelerate construction in most major cities. "Wireless communication is becoming an integral part of our daily lives, and demand is growing rapidly," said Bert C. Roberts, Jr., MCI chairman and CEO, at a press conference in Washington, D.C. "Customers have been asking us to provide a totally portable communications service that meets their needs any time, anywhere. This alliance means that Nextel is the platform on which we will build an integrated wireless strategy, and that we will be able to reach virtually every American who wants wireless service." The strategic agreement will capitalize on the strengths of four dynamic companies, each a leader in its field. MCI brings world-class marketing assets -- name recognition, customer base and distribution channels -- as well as the company's intelligent network. Nextel adds licenses with extensive geographical coverage, planned interoperability agreements and proven wireless products and services. Comcast contributes its experience and know-how in operating cable and cellular systems and will support the build-out and operation of Nextel systems. Motorola will provide its Integrated Radio Service (MIRS) technology platform, as well as subscriber equipment. These combined strengths will enable the companies to provide a wide array of advanced wireless services to consumers, business and government customers over a larger area than any other wireless service competitor. "This alliance means that everyone else will be playing catch up," said Morgan E. O'Brien, Nextel chairman. "MCI's enormously successful marketing and branding, and large customer base give us the ability to extend beyond our core of business customers to serve virtually anyone who could benefit from wireless communications. We are delivering the first of these advanced wireless services on our all-digital network in L.A., including wireless telephone, two-way paging and dispatch radio." Under terms of the agreement, MCI will purchase approximately 17 percent of Nextel's stock, which will match Comcast's ownership. The initial purchase, expected to occur in a few months, will consist of 22 million shares of Nextel stock at $36 per share. MCI has also committed to purchase an additional 15 million shares at an average cost of $38 per share over the next three years, for a total investment of more than $1.3 billion. The announcement adds one more key component to networkMCI, the company's strategic vision announced in January. When networkMCI was unveiled, MCI highlighted its intent to form alliances with communications and information industry leaders to provide innovative new communications services. It identified wireless personal communications services as an integral part of the networkMCI vision. Roberts pointed out that the demand for wireless voice communications is expected to grow from 15 million users today to 80-90 million users in the next 10 years. Data, paging and messaging applications will further expand the total wireless market. The companies said they will provide consumers, business and government customers with MCI-branded services such as mobile services, alphanumeric messaging, dispatching and data transmission, all integrated in a single digital phone. The same telephone number will work from anywhere in the United States. Comcast has been increasing its presence in the telephony business in recent years through its ownership and operation of cellular properties in the Northeastern U.S. and cable/telephone operations in the United Kingdom. As part of the alliance, MCI and Comcast have entered into a shareholders' agreement with equal representation, and together they will own approximately 35 percent of Nextel. "Comcast is proud to have been a catalyst for bringing this alliance together," Brian L. Roberts, president of Comcast, said. "We are delighted that MCI will be joining us as both an operating partner and an investor in Nextel. From the time of our original investment in Nextel just 18 months ago, management's efforts have resulted in a near tripling of the reach of its operations. In addition to marketing under the MCI name, Comcast may market Nextel's products under our own brand as well." Handsets and infrastructure for the new system, both produced by Motorola, provide improved functionality over earlier mobile services, including digital voice, message and data services. Messages can be displayed on phone screens. The phones also can be used as mobile data receivers. Because it will be fully digital, the wireless services will provide crisper voice and data quality than current analog systems. The new system will use Motorola's powerful new digital communications technology, Motorola Integrated Radio System (MIRS). Morton L. Topfer, president and general manager of Motorola's Land Mobile Products Sector, said, "The versatility and spectrum efficiency of MIRS will open the door to a whole new world of digital, personal communications services. As it will on other MIRS systems around the world, this technology adds the power of messaging, dispatch and data, to the same handset." The agreement is subject to appropriate regulatory review. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Mar 1994 06:35:14 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Unsolicited Fax Legality FYI. From comp.dcom.fax. From: rjk@clark.net (Robert J. Keller) Subject: Re: Unsolicited Fax Legality (CORRECTION!) Date: 26 Feb 1994 12:14:14 -0500 Organization: Robert J. Keller, P.C. (Federal Telecommunications Law) Thanks to an e-mail from George Pajari , I must correct my last post to say that I discoverd a 1992 amendment to FCC Rule Section 68.318, adding the fax header/identification requirement which George refers. For some reason this did not show up in my initial computer search on Section 68.318. I then searched on the exact language of the subsection (which George kindly e-mailed to me) and that finally netted me the amendment and some related material that is included below. The amendment added a new subsection, Section 68.318(c)(3), which reads as follows: Telephone facsimile machines; identification of the sender of the message. It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States to use a computer or other electronic device to send any message via a telephone facsimile machine unless such message clearly contains, in a margin at the top or bottom of each transmitted page or on the first page of the transmission, the date and time it is sent and an identification of the business, other entity, or individual sending the message and the telephone number of the sending machine or of such business, other entity, or individual. Telephone facsimile machines manufactured on and after December 20, 1992 must clearly mark such identifying information on each transmitted message. Attached below are two FCC Pulic Notices relating to the amendment. I have deleted from the first Public Notice much of the material not specifically relating to fax. (This was part of a broader set of rule amendments addressing the general area of unsolicited telephone calls, automatic dialers, etc. If you need the entire text of all the amendments and the full text of the 11 Jan 1994 Public Notice, send me an e-mail.) Bob Keller (KY3R) rjk@telcomlaw.win.net Tel +1 301.229.5208 rjk@clark.net CompuServe 76100,3333 Fax +1 301.229.6875 ===== Excerpted from FCC January 11, 1993 Public Notice ===== FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION PUBLIC NOTICE (31291 / DA 92-1716) January 11, 1993 INDUSTRY BULLETIN -- TELEPHONE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT TELEPHONE SOLICITATIONS, AUTODIALED AND ARTIFICIAL OR PRERECORDED VOICE MESSAGE TELEPHONE CALLS, AND THE USE OF FACSIMILE MACHINES The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is a federal statute that was enacted on December 20, 1991, to address concerns about the growing volume of unsolicited telephone marketing calls and the increasing use of automated and prerecorded telephone calls. The TCPA imposes restrictions on the use of automatic telephone dialing systems ("autodialers"), artificial or prerecorded voice messages, and telephone facsimile machines to send unsolicited advertisements. The TCPA also directs the FCC to adopt regulations to protect residential telephone subscribers' privacy rights to avoid receiving telephone solicitations to which they object. The FCC adopted rules and regulations, effective December 20, 1992, implementing the TCPA. *fn*1 The FCC will be monitoring complaints about automated calls and unwanted telephone solicitations to determine whether additional action to limit or to prohibit such calls would be appropriate. ---------- On December 18, 1992, the United States District Court for the District of Oregon issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the Commission from enforcing sec. 227 (b) (1) (B) of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 pending judicial action on a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of that section (sec. 227 (b) (1) (B) prohibits calls using artificial or prerecorded messages to residential telephone subscribers). The injunction applies nationwide, and affects only FCC enforcement of sec. 227 (b) (1) (B). Different rules and regulations apply to calls placed to residences and calls placed to businesses. Therefore, you should carefully read this entire bulletin which is intended to assist your organization in complying with the TCPA and the FCC's rules and regulations. *** [Lots of Q&A's Deleted] *** DO FCC RULES BAN UNSOLICITED ADVERTISEMENTS TO TELEPHONE FACSIMILE MACHINES? Yes. Effective December 20, 1992, FCC rules ban the transmission of unsolicited advertisements to telephone facsimile machines. An "unsolicited advertisement" is defined as a transmission advertising the commercial availability or quality of property, goods or services without the prior express invitation or permission of the person or entity receiving the transmission. Unsolicited advertisements may not be transmitted by any device to a telephone facsimile machine unless the person receiving the facsimile has given prior express invitation or permission to receive it. If the sender and the recipient have an established business relationship, an invitation or permission to receive unsolicited facsimile advertisements is presumed to exist. However, the recipient may end an established business relationship by requesting that no further unsolicited advertisements be sent, thus revoking any invitation or permission to receive further transmissions. WHAT OTHER REQUIREMENTS APPLY TO THE USE OR MANUFACTURE OF TELEPHONE FACSIMILE MACHINES? FCC rules require that each transmission to a telephone facsimile machine must clearly contain, in a margin at the top or bottom of each transmitted page or on the first page of the transmission, (1) the date and time the transmission is sent (2) the identity of the ender and (3) the telephone number of the sender or of the sending machine. All telephone facsimile machines manufactured on or after December 20, 1992 must have the capacity to clearly mark such identifying information on the first page or on each page of the transmission. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR COMPLIANCE WITH FCC RULES ON TELEPHONE FACSIMILE TRANSMISSIONS? The person on whose behalf a facsimile transmission is sent will ultimately be held liable for violations of the TCPA or FCC rules. *** [More Q&A's Deleted] *** ===== Entire Text of FCC January 13, 1993 Public Notice ===== FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION PUBLIC NOTICE (31328) January 13, 1993 PART 68 IMPLEMENTATION OF TELEPHONE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT FCC Docket No. 92-90, released October 16, 1992, became effective on December 20, 1992. For Part 68 requirements, see 47 C.F.R. sec. 68.318(c)(2) and (c)(3). 1. On December 18, 1992, the U.S. District Court for the district of Oregon imposed a preliminary injunction upon the Commission, which prevents the Commission from enforcing sec. 227(b)(1)(B) (prohibiting artificial or prerecorded voice calls to residences) of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The injunction applies nationwide, but affects only Commission enforcement of sec. 227(b)(1)(B). The Commission, therefore, is implementing that portion of the Act relating to facsimile document marking requirements. 2. When filing Form 730 applications for registration of facsimile machines, applicants must attest that their equipment is capable of marking the document sent by identifying the sender, date and time of the transmission, and the telephone number of the sender or the sending machine on the first or each page transmitted and must provide consumers with appropriate customer instructions. When listing the model numbers on the Form 730 application, applicants will attest compliance with this requirement by inserting the code letters "FB" (for "fax branding") ahead of the model number. Example: FB 1234, where 1234 is the model number fax machine. If the fax machine comes equipped with a hearing-aid compatible telephone, compliance is shown as: FB HAC 1234. 3. The Commission will consider the existing registration of any machine manufactured before December 20, 1992 to continue to be valid. Form 730 Customer Instructions: The following information must be provided in Exhibit J of the Form 730 application and in instructions furnished the customer as provided in the following example: The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 makes it unlawful for any person to use a computer or other electronic device to send any message via a telephone fax machine unless such message clearly contains in a margin at the top or bottom of each transmitted page or on the first page of the transmission, the date and time it is sent and an identification of the business or other entity, or other individual sending the message and the telephone number of the sending machine or such business, other entity, or individual. In order to program this information into your fax machine, you should complete the following steps. Insert here instructions for programming the equipment and the required information or the page where it can be found. The fax branding procedure outlined above will be used only for fax machines and not for fax cards used in computers pending reconsideration proceedings. FCC Contact: William von Alven (202) 634 1833 ===== end of attachments ===== Bob Keller (KY3R) rjk@telcomlaw.win.net Tel +1 301.229.5208 rjk@clark.net CompuServe 76100,3333 Fax +1 301.229.6875 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #109 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa26498; 2 Mar 94 19:01 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA23055; Wed, 2 Mar 94 15:12:02 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA23045; Wed, 2 Mar 94 15:12:00 CST Date: Wed, 2 Mar 94 15:12:00 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403022112.AA23045@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #110 TELECOM Digest Wed, 2 Mar 94 15:12:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 110 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Need to Monitor Pager Transmissions (B.J. Guillot) Sprint Canada to Begin Residential Service (Richard Sambolec) New Lower Rates in Italy (Alfredo E. Cotroneo) Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? (Geoffrey T. Falk) Mini-Review: AT&T 9120 900 MHz Cordless (William Kucharski) DigiPhone - Anyone Know About This? (Mike Reavey) Call Transfer to Outside Number (Lars Nohling) Acronyms Listing Wanted (Dorian Smith) UCLA Short Courses on Communications (Bill Goodin) VPC Invites Your Participation (Steve Feinstein) Conference Announcement: INTERNETcom '94 (Matthew Lucas) 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: st1r8@elroy.uh.edu (B.J. Guillot) Subject: Need to Monitor Pager Transmissions Date: 2 Mar 1994 13:01 CST Organization: University of Houston Here is yet another stupid question ... Given that I have: 1. A relatively fast computer; 2. 16-bit capable sound card; 3. A scanner radio capable of picking up frequencies that a particular pager uses; 4. The serial number (or whatever) that a particular pager is on; Is it conceivable that one could write a computer program (or that there might already been programs out there that do this) so that I might leave the computer and scanner running non-stop, decoding all data coming over the pager frequency and logging any and all data meant specifically for the pager serial number in question? Reason: My sister has ran away from home (yet again) and we am trying to think of ways to track her down. She has a pager (that my parents pay for, and that she uses often). She usually calls my other sister from payphones, so Call Return and Call Trace are of no use. (We don't have Caller ID in Houston yet, but I don't think that would be of use in this case, either.) If a little bitty pager can decode this information, surely a big computer can, right? Other possibilites: 1. Call the pager company and see if they will release their logs; 2. Buy a cheap pager somewhere (that uses the same frequency) and find someone willing to reprogram it to use the same serial number as the unit my sister uses. (Can this be done easily??) Anyone info on the protocol used by standard numerical-digit pagers would be helpful. Regards, B.J. Guillot ... Houston, Texas USA ------------------------------ From: Richard Sambolec Subject: Sprint Canada to Begin Residential Service Date: Tue, 1 Mar 1994 14:29:45 PST The following advertisement appeared in the classified section of the {Vancouver Sun} on February 26, 1994: SPRINT TO THE BANK With Canada's newest long distance company. Inside and outside sales people needed to give our service away. (telephone number deleted) ------------ Ever on the hunt for info pertinent to the telecom industry, I called the good folks who placed the ad. In fact it was not Sprint Canada at all, but "Canadian Telephone Corp." a direct marketing firm, which acts as an "agent" for Sprint Canada (formerly Call-Net Telecommunica- tions Ltd. before Sprint bought a 25% interest in the company). Apparently Sprint Canada represents 60% of their client base. What is the news you ask? Well, in addition to continuing to market to businesses, Sprint Canada will make the move to solicit *residential* subscribers starting in May, 1994. You heard it here first. Regards, Richard I. Sambolec Internet: sambolec@sfu.ca ------------------------------ Date: 02 Mar 94 06:24:23 EST From: Alfredo E. Cotroneo <100020.1013@CompuServe.COM> Subject: New Lower Rates in Italy Hello there from Milano, Italy: Italcable (the Italian State intercontinental telephone provider) has just recentlly lowered their rates, thus making direct calls from Italy to the USA more affordable than most (all?) dial-back systems, and of course much cheaper than AT&T and MCI's Call-USA-like systems. This is Italcable's rate system for direct dial calls from Italy to the USA (and a couple of other reference countries): [Rate of exchange US$ 1 = Lire 1680 (1 March, 1994)] fm: Italy to: TIMES: 8-14 14-19 19-23 23-08 Sunday all day USA $1.37 $1.37 $1.28 $1.02 Singapore $1.68 $1.68 $1.68 $1.31 $1.31 Corea $1.68 $1.68 $1.68 $1.31 $1.31 Residential users add 9% VAT (usually not refundable); Commercial users add 19% VAT (most times refundable, so it is not a real cost) All information obtained from the Italcable rate operator on 1790 on March 1, 1994. It will be nice to hear if and when AT&T, MCI, IDT, and the other dial-back providers will lower their respective rates. I checked today with AT&T and MCI, and their rates are still much higher: TO USA fm Italy 1st min each add'l via calling card operator ("CALL-USA") AT&T 172 1011 (toll free) US $4.38 US $1.04 MCI 172 1022 (toll free) US $3.78 US $0.99 I hope it will be of some help, at least to Italian telephone users, so spread the word, and check yourself if you are not sure by dialing Italcable from Italy on 1790. I have started today not to use my MCI card, since all calls are much cheaper now when I dial direct thru SIP/Italcable. If you know of competitive serivices, or when/if these rates will be lowered I will appreciate yr comments and more information by e-mail to the address below. I am not able to read this group on a regular basis. I have no connection with Italcable, just a user, now a happy user. Maybe shall we have now to open a "Call-Italy" dialback service for our friends in the USA ? (grin) Alfredo E. Cotroneo, President, NEXUS Int'l Broadcasting Association PO Box 10980, I-20110 Milano, Italy Phone: +39-337-297788 / +39-2-2666971 email: 100020.1013@compuserve.com FAX: +39-2-70638151 ------------------------------ From: gtf@math.rochester.edu (Geoffrey T. Falk) Subject: Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? Organization: University of Rochester Computing Center Date: Tue, 1 Mar 94 23:07:46 GMT It seems to me that the telephone companies are charging us for our long-distance calls incorrectly. They charge per minute, not per byte. The voice signal gets digitized, compressed and sent over a fiber-optic or satellite network. The phone company is able to multiplex these signals, so effectively the less compressed bandwidth each call uses, the more conversations they can carry at any given time. Therefore, it makes little sense to charge customers for their calls by the minute. If I am talking to my parents in Calgary and there is a ten-second moment of silence in the conversation, the phone company is essentially charging me for ten seconds worth of data, even though nothing was sent or received. Perhaps we should organize a movement to make the public aware of this. If the charges were calculated properly, it would make phone conversations a lot more relaxed (and probably a little bit cheaper). g. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, most long distance carriers now charge in six-second increments after an initial thirty second period, depending on the type of package you have with them. At those rates -- just pennies or less per time period -- I don't think you'd see much difference in the cost. Additionally, even during periods of silence, there is switching equipment in use at the originating and terminating sites. That cost would have to be factored in also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kucharsk@solbourne.com (William Kucharski) Subject: Mini-Review: AT&T 9120 900 MHz Cordless Date: 2 Mar 1994 13:17:50 -0700 Organization: Solbourne Computer, Inc., Longmont, CO After going through several iterations of the VTech 900 DX while awaiting the release of the AT&T 9120 (which is itself an OEMed 900 DX), the phone finally showed up at my local phone center store on Monday. Basically, it's a 900 MHz cordless phone with a digital link between the handset and base, along with a speakerphone/intercom built into the base. (Note that this is a ten-channel 900 MHz phone, not one of the new "spread spectrum" 900 MHz units.) My feelings on the phone are mixed. While the background is silky smooth with no noise whatsoever, the quality of received audio isn't all that great. The best comparison I can come up with is audio digitized at a rather low sampling rate with some type of anti-alias filter run over the resultant audio. There's a "companding effect" to the sound (you can hear background hiss grow louder with a caller's voice level changes) and sharp audio spikes are more like "fuzz." (Needless to say, this is the same as the Tropez 900 DX.) The transmitted voice quality does roll off the highs a bit but otherwise has been determined to be pretty much indistinguishable from a corded phone (meaning that Tropez is using the high quality mike they now use in the 900 DL and DX and the AT&T 9100.) In short, I'm not really all that thrilled with it (except for the buzz from interference, my 49 MHz cordless phone actually sounds better). It's an overall wonderful phone, it's just that it falls a bit short of what I expect for $319.00. Anyone have a 900 MHz cordless phone with a digital (or scrambled analog) handset <-> base link and a handset <-> base intercom they'd like to recommend? Unless it "grows" on me, I believe the 9120 may be headed back to the store. William Kucharski, Solbourne Computer, Inc. Internet: kucharsk@solbourne.com Ham: N0OKQ Mail: 1900 Pike Road, Longmont, CO 80501 ------------------------------ Subject: DigiPhone - Anyone Know About This? From: sky@valinor.mythical.com (Mike Reavey) Date: Wed, 02 Mar 94 00:37:33 CST Hello, I recently downloaded a file called Answer.Zip. It is a program that turns your computer into a High-tech answering machine. It let you assign different out going messages to specific days and times of the week. It lets you program up to 16 of them. It also has a Voice Mail Box capability and an information server (Hit 1 For...2 for...3 for...# to repeat this list...etc.) In order to let you computer do this you must have a Data/Fax/Voice modem or a thing called DigiPhone sold by Cyngus Data Systems ... it costs $130. What I wanna know is if anyone has used this, and is it any good ... I just wanna use it for funny messages and stuff. If you know anything about this, please let me know. I don't feel comfortable at all about sending my money off to a place I've never heard of to buy a product I've never heard of. This thing sounds cool ... you can supposedly use VOCs and it supports a Soundblaster. This could really help me make some cool answering machine messages. Please email me if you know anything about it. Thanks a lot, Mike Reavey Reavey@delphi.com or sky@valinor.mythical.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Mar 94 10:46 EST From: Lars Nohling Subject: Call Transfer to Outside Number I am trying to come up with a way for our receptionist to transfer calls to outside numbers. For example a call comes in for me and she could transfer the call to my cellular number. Our Toshiba Strata PBX does not seem to have any features for this. Is CENTREX the only way to get what I want? Are there any black-boxes that would do the trick? Lars Nohling lnohling@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: dsmith@isc.nva.ge.com (Dorian Smith) Subject: Acronyms Listing Wanted Reply-To: dsmith@isc.nva.ge.com Organization: Martin Marietta, Inc., Reston, VA Date: Wed, 2 Mar 1994 16:35:20 GMT Is there an Acronym FAQ anywhere? Even one for just the ISDN stuff would help. NOTE: If there is not one, send me your lists and definitions, and I will try to put at least a minimal dictionary together. Thanks, dsmith@isc.nva.ge.com Dorian W Smith [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are several glossaries of acronyms available in the Telecom Archives. They can be obtained using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. When connected, then 'cd telecom-archives/glossaries'. Or you can either search for individual items using the SEARCH command of the Telecom Archives Email Information Service, or obtain the entire set by using the 'SEND glossaries' command. For help using the email server, write and ask for the help file. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Goodin, Bill Subject: UCLA Short Courses on Communications Date: Wed, 02 Mar 94 10:44:00 PST During the spring, UCLA Extension will present five short courses related to communications. All will be held on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. "Advanced Communication Systems Using Digital Signal Processing", April 11-15, taught by Bernard Sklar and Frederick Harris. "Trusted Systems Design and Engineering", April 18-22, taught by Cristi Garvey, Eric Anderson, Marvin Schaefer, and Amy Wu. "Nonlinear Dynamics Information Processing in Chaos, Fuzzy Logic, and Neural Networks", May 9-11, taught by Harold Szu. "Integrated-Services Telecommunications Networking: High-Speed Local, Metropolitan, and Wide-Area Networks", May 23-27, taught by Izhak Rubin, Michael A Erlinger, and Michael A Rouleau. "Fiber Optic Sensors: Theory and Applications", June 6-9, taught by Eric Udd, Sami T Hendow, and Robert A Lieberman. For further information on any of these courses, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: e-mail: mhenness@unex.ucla.edu phone: (310) 825-1047 fax: (310) 206-2815 ------------------------------ From: stevenf@world.std.com Subject: VPC Invites Your Participation Organization: Voice Processing Corp., Cambridge, MA Date: Wed, 2 Mar 1994 03:35:28 GMT Voice Processing Corp., Cambridge, MA, is building the next generation of over-the-telephone speech recognition systems to be used by telephone companies, banks, credit card companies, etc. In order to maximize the robustness of this speaker-independent system, WE REQUIRE THOUSANDS OF SAMPLED VOICES SUCH AS YOURS. By making a simple phone call (you may CALL COLLECT if necessary) and repeating a list of utterances for about 2 1/2 minutes total, you will be adding your voice to systems you may well encounter in the near future -- systems which will recognize your spoken commands over the telephone. The guidelines are simple: 1. You must be a native American or have an "American accent" (any U.S. regional accent is fine). 2. You may only call during the hours of 9am-5pm Eastern Standard Time. 3. Call only once unless you make a mistake. 4. Encourage family and friends to participate as we need as many speakers as possible. To participate, DIAL (617)494-0100 and ASK FOR EXTENSION 301. You will be prompted through several utterances. Following this, you will be asked for the state where you grew up. The call will then disconnect. The entire session takes about 2 1/2 minutes and you are welcome to CALL COLLECT. Steven Feinstein Voice Processing Corp. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 02 Mar 1994 09:43:43 -0500 From: Matthew Lucas Subject: Conference Announcement: INTERNETcom '94 INTERNETcom '94 An Internet Commercialization Conference and Exposition Washington, DC March 21-23, 1994 AGENDA UPDATE: A special workshop session has been added on March 23rd, in which Mecklermedia's Chris Locke will describe and demonstrate MecklerWeb, a commercial Internet space in which corporate sponsors and professional associations can cooperatively offer value-added multimedia information to networked communities. The current list of exhibitors include: SPRY, Readmore Inc, Rockwell International, Legi-Slate, Mesa Technologies, NEC America, PSI, Innovation Group/Hybrid Networks, CD Consultants, WAIS. Tuesday, March 22, 1994 8:30-9:00 Registration 9:00-10:30 OVERVIEW Commercial traffic on the Internet is rapidly increasing. What is driving this growth? Where will new markets emerge? How large will they be? Who are the current and potential players? What business opportunities are being created? What commercial uses of the Internet are emerging? How will today's Internet culture change? What challenges must be met as commercialization efforts move forward? What is the role of the National Science Foundation? Gordon Cook, President, Cook Network Consultants Anthony Rutkowski, Vice President, Internet Society Bill Washburn, Executive Director Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX) 10:30-11:00 Coffee Break 11:00-12:00 SECURITY ISSUES Security is still a critical issue for anyone who wants to do business on the Internet. The speaker will address the threats, concerns and countermeasures that are important and discuss what security policies and procedures need to be established. Stephen Crocker, Vice President Trusted Information Systems, Inc. 12:00-1:30 Hosted Lunch and Exhibits 1:30-3:30 DESIGN AND DELIVERY OF INFORMATION SERVICES What does it take to design and deliver a successful information service? Who will the customers be, what do they want and how much will they pay? What impact will commercialization efforts have on the information service industry? What challenges lie ahead, including copyright and licensing issues? What business strategies should the information industry adopt? Jeff Crigler, Director, Business Information Services Mead Data Central Isabella Hinds, Manager, Professional Relations Copyright Clearance Center Robert Raisch, President, The Internet Company Richard Vancil, Vice President, Marketing, Individual Inc. 3:30-4:00 Coffee Break and Exhibits 4:00-4:30 HOW TO ADVERTISE EFFECTIVELY How can effective, nonintrusive advertising be accomplished on the Internet? What features of the Internet culture and etiquette are important to understand in order to be successful? Judith Axler Turner, a head of the working group on advertising for the Coalition for Networked Information 4:30-5:30 USING THE INTERNET FOR A COMPETITIVE EDGE How can business owners enhance their operations by using the Internet not only to offer a variety of information and document delivery services, but also to market and sell? The speakers will discuss the lessons learned in implementing and using Internet connectivity and explain how to identify business costs. Chris Vandenburg, Internetworking Product Manager Rockwell International Speaker to be Announced 5:30-6:30 Reception and Exhibits Wednesday, March 23, 1994 8:30-9:15 INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS What opportunities exist for providing Internet access? What will be driving growth over the next few years? What range of services can be provided? What are end users looking for? What does it take to be successful? Michael Ballard, Chief Operating Officer, UUNET Speaker to be Announced 9:15-10:00 NAVIGATION TOOLS What are the primary challenges to navigating on the Internet and what tools are currently available? Bruce Antelman, President, Information Express Kevin Oliveau, Engineer, WAIS, Inc. 10:00-10:30 Coffee Break and Exhibits 10:30-11:30 BILLING AND SETTLEMENT ISSUES The speakers will address the following topics: billing/accounting issues and Internet service provisioning; cost and rate structures; billing options available to information service providers; and an update on billing-related activities of the Internet Engineering Task Force. Taso Devetzis, Member Technical Staff, Bellcore Bob Doyle, Director, Marketing, Sprint 11:30-11:45 Coffee Break 11:45-12:30 INTERNET ACCESS VIA CABLE TV Cable companies are looking at advanced communications uses for today's cable TV systems. One such use is remote high-speed access. The speakers will describe a cable-based access method and provide an update on cable/Internet trials, including a distance education project. Gordon Cook, President, Cook Network Consultants - MODERATOR James Ginsburg, Senior Information Officer, Jones Intercable, Inc. Ed Moura, Vice President, Marketing and Sales Hybrid Networks, Inc. Pre-Conference Tutorial UNDERSTANDING INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES FOR NON-ENGINEERS AND STRATEGIC PLANNERS by Dr. Jerry Lucas and Invited Faculty Monday, March 21, 1994 * 9:00a.m. to 5:00p.m. This one-day tutorial is for the non-engineer, strategic planner, entrepreneur or anyone who has to understand the Internet in order to make business decisions about emerging commercial opportunities. This tutorial covers not only Internet technologies, economics and leading-edge opportunities, but also looks at operational issues such as addressing, network management and security from a business development perspective. 1. INTERNET OVERVIEW: What is the Internet? Who controls it? What can you do with it? Who pays for it? Who are the players domestically and internationally? What is the role of the NII and NREN? Why are the RBOCs, cable TV companies, IXCs and PDA vendors interested in Internet? Why all the attention to commercialization? 2. INTERNET ACCESS, NAVIGATION AND APPLICATIONS: How to find, share and sell information on the Internet. The basic application tools and navigation/search systems (FTP, TELNET, ARCHIE, GOPHER, WWW, WAIS, etc.). Access service providers (CIX, PSI, Sprint and others). Access options (dial-up, dedicated, frame relay, cable TV and wireless). New entrepreneurial developments. 3. INTERNET ADDRESSING: IP addressing. How to obtain addresses (Class A,B,and C). CIDR, Internet DNS and how to register. Setting up an E-mail server, bulletin board and directory service. New business opportunities. 4. INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES: Role of TCP/IP. MAC vs. PC products. LAN access (SLIP, PPP, frame relay, etc.) and WAN and ATM developments. IPX, DECNET and APPLETALK. Leading edge vendors and where their products are headed. 5. INTERNET MANAGEMENT AND SECURITY: Managing a commercial Internet service. SNMP management tools and products. Security concerns, encryption, authentication and Clipper Chip issues. Other operational concerns related to doing business on the Internet. WORKSHOP TRACK Monday, March 21, 1994 9:00-12:30 INTRODUCTION TO THE INTERNET What is the Internet? How does it work? How can it help me? How much does it cost to use? What are the rules and policies that govern the Internet? GETTING CONNECTED What does it take to get connected to the Internet? What choices are available? How much does it cost to get connected? What should I look for in a service provider? What problems can I expect and how can they be solved? 2:00-5:00 INFORMATION ACCESS AND DELIVERY How can I find out what electronic information is available on the Internet? Specifically, what information, catalogs, textual documents and databases are available and how can they be accessed? Tuesday, March 22, 1994 9:00-12:00 NAVIGATING THE INTERNET What tools are available for navigating through the Internet and searching for information? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these techniques? What is the outlook for the future? 2:00-5:00 ACCESS AND MANAGEMENT ISSUES Once your organization has been connected to the Internet, who should have access? What guidelines and policies should be set to maximize the benefits for everyone? What management and training issues will arise in this new environment? RAISING VENTURE CAPITAL FOR INTERNET ENTREPRENEURS What are venture capitalists looking for when they want to invest? How should you structure your business plan to make it attractive to investors? Wednesday, March 23, 1994 9:00-12:00 GOVERNMENT INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET What electronic information resources developed by and about the government are available on the Internet? For More Information Call TeleStrategies Inc. at (703) 734-7050. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #110 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12136; 4 Mar 94 17:23 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11450; Fri, 4 Mar 94 12:53:09 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11442; Fri, 4 Mar 94 12:53:06 CST Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 12:53:06 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403041853.AA11442@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #111 TELECOM Digest Fri, 4 Mar 94 10:00:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 111 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Digital Chicken: Fax Gateway to Ontario, Canada (c.d.f. via Rich Sambolec) Re: Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? (Bill Mayhew) Re: Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? (Dale Worley) Re: Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? (Alan Larson) 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: Richard Sambolec Subject: fax gateway to Ontario, Canada (fwd) Date: Thu, 3 Mar 1994 15:23:22 PST Forwarded FYI from comp.dcom.fax: Forwarded message: Subject: Fax Gateway to Ontario, Canada D I G I T A L C H I C K E N AN EXPERIMENT IN GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS, AND INTERNATIONAL REMOTE PRINTING AND FAXING. Who? Digital Chicken is a new cooperative project between Dr. Robert Riley and Planet Communications & Computing, of Toronto. Digital Chicken c/o Dr. Robert Riley 157 Bastedo Avenue, Suite #2 Toronto, Ontario Canada M4C 3N2 Telephone: (416) 690-3833 Fax: (416) 778-5345 Internet: riley@chicken.planet.org What? The service provided by Digital Chicken is to allow people with Internet e-mail access to communicate quickly and efficiently with a variety of Canadian federal and provincial government and non-governmental agencies (e.g., the Prime Minister, Toronto Star, Toronto Blue Jays, Ontario Human Rights Commission). E-mail may be sent to any of these agencies, and upon receipt by Digital Chicken the mail is immediately forwarded via fax to the organizations office. In time, interested organizations will be shown how to access their e-mail directly, and in turn respond to your letters by e-mail. At the moment, however, replies to you will be via fax or regular mail. How? Refer to the following list of Digital Chicken member agencies. You may e-mail to the agency(ies) of your choice by using their 'nick' and sending mail to the following address: @chicken.planet.org Remember that at the present time you must include your correct name, postal mailing address, and/or fax number if you wish a reply from the agency. If you have any questions/concerns, or if you would like to see an agency/organization included in our service, please contact Digital Chicken at: riley@chicken.planet.org Further, if you wish to send a fax in the 416 or 905 area codes, you may send it to fax@chicken.planet.org and it will be forwarded on for you. Please make the subject line: FAX TO NOTE: PLEASE BE AWARE THAT E-MAIL IS NOT THE ROUTE FOR TRANSMITTAL OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION. ANY SYSTEM OPERATOR, OF ANY SITE ON THE ROUTE YOUR MESSAGE TRAVELS, COULD READ YOUR MESSAGE. IT IS YOUR CHOICE AND RESPONSIBILITY TO USE E-MAIL WHEN AND WHERE APPROPRIATE. DIGITAL CHICKEN, DR. ROBERT RILEY, NOR PLANET COMMUNICATIONS AND COMPUTING FACILITY WILL BE HELD LIABLE IN ANY WAY FOR USE OF THIS SERVICE, OR FOR FAILURE OF YOUR MESSAGE TO REACH IT'S INTENDED DESTINATION. THIS IS A FREE SERVICE--USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. *indicates organizations receiving e-mail directly NAME USER NICK FAX Metro Toronto Police Chief McCormack mccormac 416-324-6026 General metcop 416-324-0695 Public Complaints Bureau metcopcb 416-324-0551 Board of Commissioners metcopbr 416-324-0693 Ontario Police Public Complaints Commissioner opcctor 416-325-4704 Ontario Police Public Complaints Commissioner (South-West Region)-Windsor opccsw 519-973-1470 York Regional Police yorkcop 905-853-5810 Peel Regional Police peelcop 905-453-7370 Ontario Provincial Police opp 705-329-6195 Halton Regional Police haltcop 416-825-9416 Barrie Police Service barrcop 705-728-2971 Durham Police Service durhcop 905-433-5053 Guelph Police Service guelcop 519-763-0516 Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Police Service hamilcop 905-546-4752 London Police Service londcop 519-645-1908 Niagara Regional Police Service niagcop 905-685-5081 Orangeville Police Service orangcop 519-941-1279 Sarnia Police Service sarncop 519-344-6001 Waterloo Regional Police watercop 519-650-1793 Windsor Police Service windscop 519-255-6569 Municipal Governments Town of Ajax ajax 905-686-8352 Town of Oakville oakville 905-815-2025 *City of Mississauga jackl@city.mississauga.on.ca City of Toronto toronto 416-392-1446 June Rowlands, Mayor Toronto rowlands 416-392-0026 Councillors council 416-392-1050 Toronto Transit Commission ttc 416-485-9394 Chairman, Metro Toronto Council chairman 416-392-3799 Metro Toronto Zoo mtzoo 416-392-5934 City of Etobicoke etobicok 416-394-8895 Borough of East York eastyork 416-778-9134 City of North York noryork 416-395-7337 City of York york 416-394-2803 City of Brampton brampton 905-874-1119 City of Barrie barrie 705-726-0510 City of London london 519-661-4892 City of Windsor windsor 519-255-6868 City of Sarnia sarnia 519-332-3995 City of Hamilton hamilton 905-546-2095 City of Guelph guelph 519-763-1269 City of Kitchener kitchen 519-741-2705 City of Waterloo waterloo 519-747-8760 City of Niagara Falls niagara 905-356-0759 City of St.Catharines stcathar 905-682-3631 City of Welland welland 905-732-1919 City of Oshawa oshawa 905-436-5697 City of Whitby whitby 905-686-7005 Region of Durham durham 905-668-9963 City of Burlington burlingt 905-335-7881 City of Brantford brantfor 519-752-6977 Government of Ontario Premier of Ontario ontprem 416-325-3745 Minister of Agriculture & Food ontagri 416-326-3083 Ontario Film Review Board ontfilm 416-314-3632 Minister of Transportation onttrans 416-327-9185 Minister of Economic Trade & Development ontecdev 416-325-6918 Minister of Labour ontlabor 416-326-1449 Minister of Health onthlth 416-326-1571 Minister of Finance ontfin 416-326-9096 Ombudsman of Ontario ombud 416-586-3485 Chief Electoral Officer of Ontario elect 416-321-6853 Provincial Auditor (Ontario) ontaudit 416-324-7012 Lt.Gov. of Ontario ongltg 416-325-7787 Solicitor General and Minister of Correctional Service ontsolg 416-326-5085 Attorney General ontatg 416-326-4016 Minister of Natural Resources ontnatur 416-314-2159 Minister of Citizenship ontcitiz 416-314-0022 Minister of Consumer and Corporate Relations ontcons 416-326-5820 Minister of Community and Social Services ontsoc 416-325-5221 Minister of Education ontedu 416-325-2608 Royanl Commission on Learning rclearn 416-325-2956 Minister of Environment ontenvir 416-323-4682 Minister of Housing onthouse 416-585-6935 Ministry of Northern Development & Mines ontnorth 416-327-0665 Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Tourism onttour 416-325-6195 Minister Resp.for Women ontwomen 416-314-0253 MPP Don Mills donmills 416-696-0181 MPP Oakville-South oaksouth 905-842-0332 MPP Fort York fortyork 416-363-0835 MPP Lake Nipigon nipigon 416-327-0968 MPP Dovercourt dovercou 416-653-1054 MPP Etobicoke-West etobwest 416-695-1222 MPP Mississauga-South misssth 905-278-1525 MPP Oriole oriole 416-494-2440 MPP Downsview dwnsview 416-740-2474 MPP Eglinton eglinton 416-482-2776 MPP Etobicoke-Lakeshore etoblake 416-259-3704 MPP Beaches-Woodbine beachwd 416-421-3741 MPP Oakwood oakwood 416-781-4116 MPP Etobicoke-Humber etohumb 416-233-4321 MPP High Park-Swansea highpark 416-762-4499 MPP Lawrence lawrence 416-785-4524 MPP Mississauga-North missnor 905-826-4553 MPP Mississauga-West misswest 905-566-5264 MPP Etobicoke-Rexdale etobrex 416-745-5670 MPP Mississauga-East misseast 905-276-6933 MPP Brampton-North bramnor 905-840-7845 MPP Durham-West durwest 905-683-8643 Ms Lyn McLeod, Leader, Ontario Liberal Party ontlib 416-325-9895 Mr. Michael Harris, Leader, Ontario Progressive Conservative Party ontpc 416-325-7810 Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Offices Information and Privacy Commissioner/Ontario ipcont 416-325-9195 Provincial Govt. Ministry FOIPP Coordinators Min. Agriculture & food oagffoi 416-326-3083 Min. Attorney General oatgfoi 416-326-4307 Min. Consumer&Corp.Relations occrfoi 416-326-8461 Min. Citizenship ocitfoi 416-325-6117 Min. Comm.&Social Services ocssfoi 416-730-6654 Min. Education oedufoi 416-325-2608 Min. Environment oenvfoi 416-323-4630 Min. Housing ohoufoi 416-585-6935 Min. Labour olabfoi 416-314-8749 Management Brd.of Cabinet ombcfoi 416-327-2190 Min.Culture,Tourism,Recreat. octrfoi 416-325-6195 Min.Correctional Services omcsfoi 705-494-3081 Min. Finance ofinfoi 905-436-4462 Min. Intergov. Affairs omiafoi 416-325-4787 Min. Natural Resources omnrfoi 705-740-1666 Min. Health omohfoi 416-327-7044 Min. Transportation omtofoi 416-235-5277 Min. North.Develop.&Mines ondmfoi 416-327-0665 Min. Solicitor General osolfoi 416-314-3195 Other FOI Coordinators/Office: City of Toronto torfoi 416-392-6990 Municipality of Metro Toronto metrofoi 416-397-5624 Ontario Human Rights Commission onthumrt 416-314-4533 Canadian Human Rights Commission canhumrt 416-973-6184 Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto romantor 416-977-6063 Anglican Church of Canada anglican 416-968-7983 United Church of Canada united 416-925-3394 Bahai' Faith Toronto bahaitor 416-889-8184 Newspapers (including "Letters to the Editor") Toronto Star torstar 416-869-4322 Globe and Mail globe 416-585-5085 Toronto Sun torsun 416-947-3228 Now Magazine now 416-461-2886 Xtra! xtra 416-925-6674 Eye Weekly eye 416-971-7786 Beaches-Metro News beachmet 416-698-1253 Ryersonian (Ryerson) ryerson 416-979-5216 Barrie Examiner barrexam 705-726-7245 London Free Press frpress 519-667-4528 Windsor Star winstar 519-777-2551 Hamilton Spectator spectat 905-521-8986 Kitchener-Waterloo Record record 519-894-3829 St. Catharines Standard standard 905-684-6032 Hospitals (Metro Toronto Area) The Hospital for Sick Children sickkids 416-813-7161 The Toronto Hospital torhosp 416-340-5888 Addiction Research Foundation addict 416-595-5017 Donwood Institute donwood 416-425-7896 Casey House (AIDS hospice) casey 416-962-5147 Humber Memorial Hospital humber 416-249-1312 Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital trafalg 905-338-4636 Orthopaedic/Arthritic Hospital ortharth 416-967-8593 Sunnybrook Health Science Centre sunny 416-480-4588 Doctor's Hospital doctors 416-923-1370 Central Hospital central 416-969-4183 Wellesley Hospital wellesly 416-926-4874 North York Gen.Hospital nyghosp 416-756-6384 Etobicoke Gen.Hospital eghosp 416-747-8608 York-Finch Gen.Hospital yfghosp 416-747-3883 Bloorview Children's Hospital blrview 416-494-9985 Hugh McMillan Rehabilitation Centre hughmac 416-425-6591 St. Michael's Hospital stmike 416-864-5669 St. Joseph's Health Centre (Toronto) stjoetor 416-530-6346 Queensway Gen.Hospital queens 416-253-0111 North York Branson Hospital branson 416-635-2537 Toronto East General & Orthopaedic Hospital, Inc. tegh 416-469-6106 Scarborough Centenary Health Centre scarcent 416-281-7323 Scarborough Grace General Hospital scargrac 416-495-2631 Scarborough General Hospital scargen 416-438-9318 Grace Hospital, Toronto gracetor 416-925-3211 Northwestern General Hospital nwestgen 416-658-2192 Mount Sinai Hospital mtsinai 416-586-8787 Princess Margaret Hospital prmarg 416-926-6547 Women's College Hospital womens 416-323-7314 Lyndhurst Hospital lyndhrst 416-422-5216 Peel Memorial Hospital peelmem 905-451-8439 Ajax-Pickering General Hospital ajaxpick 905-683-1262 Mississauga General Hospital missgen 905-848-7139 Credit Valley Hospital credit 905-820-0020 Queen Street Mental Health Centre queenst 416-583-4307 Clarke Institute of Psychiatry clarke 416-979-5679 Markham-Stouffville Hospital mrkstouf 905-472-7086 Shouldice Hernia Surgery shouldic 416-889-4216 Other Hospitals: Bowmanville Memorial Hospital memhosp 905-623-4088 Brantford General Hospital brantgen 519-752-0098 Grace Hospital (Windsor) gracewin 519-255-2254 Guelph General Hospital ggenhosp 519-822-2170 Hamilton General Hospital hamilgen 905-527-1941 Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital hamilpsy 905-575-6038 Henderson General Hospital hendhosp 905-575-2641 Chedoke-McMaster (Hamilton) (includes Children's Hosp.) chedoke 905-528-3828 Hotel Dieu Hosp.(St.Catharines) hdstcath 905-682-0663 Hotel Dieu Hosp.(Windsor) hotelwin 519-977-0018 Joseph Brant Hosp. (Burlington) jbrant 905-336-6480 Kitchener-Waterloo Hospital kwhosp 519-749-4208 Metropolitan General (Windsor) metrowin 519-254-0883 Oshawa General Hospital ogenhosp 905-433-2794 Royal Victoria (Barrie) royalvic 705-726-0822 Sarnia General Hospital sarngen 519-336-1293 St. Joseph's (London) stjoelon 519-646-6028 St. Joseph's (Sarnia) stjoesar 519-336-2379 St. Mary's (Kitchener) stmarys 519-749-6597 St. Catharines Gen.Hospital stcgen 905-684-1468 University Hospital (London) univhosp 519-663-3876 Victoria Hospital (London) victoria 519-685-8147 Welland General Hospital wellhosp 905-732-3268 Whitby General Hospital whitgen 905-668-7480 Whitby Psychiatric Hospital whitpsy 905-430-4032 Windsor Western Hospital westwin 519-257-5121 Ontario Nurses' Association ona 416-964-8864 College of Physicians & Surgeons college 416-961-3330 of Ontario Public Libraries Toronto Public Library torlib 416-393-7782 Etobicoke Public Library etoblib 416-394-5050 Scarborough Public Library scarlib 416-396-8808 Brampton Public Library bramlib 905-799-0806 Mississauga Public Library misslib 905-615-3615 City of York Public Library yorklib 416-394-2781 East York Public Library eylib 416-396-3812 North York Public Library nylib 416-395-5542 Metro Toronto Reference Library referenc 416-393-7229 Hamilton Public Library hamlib 905-546-3202 Windsor Public Library windlib 519-255-7207 London Public Library londlib 519-663-5396 St.Catharines Public Library stcatlib 905-688-6292 Kitchener Public Library kitchlib 519-743-1261 Waterloo Public Library waterlib 519-886-7936 Guelph Public Library guellib 519-824-8342 Brantford Public Library brantlib 519-756-4979 Burlington Public Library burlilib 905-681-7277 Sarnia Public Library sarnlib 519-337-3041 Oshawa Public Library oshawlib 905-433-8107 Whitby Public Library whitblib 905-668-7445 Bowmanville Public Library bowmlib 905-623-9905 Barrie Public Library barrlib 705-728-4322 St. Marys Public Library smarylib 519-284-2630 St. Thomas Public Library sthomlib 519-631-1987 Niagara Falls Public Library niaglib 905-356-7004 Font Hill Public Library fontlib 519-892-3392 Boards of Education East York Board of Education eyedu 416-465-2237 Etobicoke Board of Education etobedu 416-394-3803 Metro Toronto Roman Catholic Separate School Board rcssbedu 416-229-5345 North York Board of Education nyedu 416-395-8210 Peel Board of Education peeledu 905-890-6698 Scarborough Board of Education scarbedu 416-396-4856 Toronto Board of Education toredu 416-393-9969 York Board of Education yorkedu 416-727-3984 London Board of Education lonedu 519-455-7648 London R.C. Sep.School Board lonssedu 519-663-9250 Windsor Board of Education winedu 519-255-1651 Windsor R.C. Sep.School Board winssedu 519-253-8397 Lincoln Cty. Board of Education lincedu 519-685-8511 Lincoln Cty.R.C.Sep.School Brd. linssedu 519-682-0012 Waterloo Cty. Brd.of Education wateredu 519-742-1364 Waterloo Cty.R.C.Sep.School Brd. watssedu 519-578-5520 Hamilton-Wentworth Brd.of Ed. hamedu 905-521-2536 Hamilton-Wentworth R.C.Sep. School Board hamssedu 905-525-1724 Durham Region Brd.of Education durhedu 905-576-1457 Durham Reg.R.C.Sep.School Brd. durssedu 905-576-0953 Simcoe Cty. Board of Education simedu 705-728-2265 Simcoe Cty.R.C.Sep.School Brd. simssedu 705-722-6534 Sarnia Board of Education sarnedu 519-336-0992 Sarnia R.C.Sep. School Board sarssedu 519-336-5160 Television/Radio CityTV citytv 416-593-6397 CFMT TV cfmttv 416-265-0509 CFTO TV cftotv 416-299-2273 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) cbc 416-963-9036 Global Television Network global 416-446-5371 CTV Television Network ctv 416-928-0907 Ontario Legal Aid Plan olap 416-979-8669 Ontario Legal Aid Plan Scarborough Area olapscar 416-750-7184 Fire Departments City of Toronto torfire 416-392-0161 City of Scarborough scarfire 416-396-7765 City of North York nyfire 416-395-7286 City of Etobicoke etobfire 416-394-8589 City of York yorkfire 416-394-2764 Borough of East York eyfire 416-396-3757 Town of Ajax ajaxfire 905-683-8119 City of Brampton bramfire 905-874-2727 City of Mississauga missfire 905-615-3756 Ambulance Services Metro Toronto ambulanc 416-392-2008 Art Gallery of Ontario artont 416-979-6646 Government of Canada Prime Minister of Canada primemin 613-941-6900 Minister of Health & Welfare health 613-952-7746 Minister of the Environment environ 819-953-3457 Minister of Transportation transpor 613-995-0327 Minister of Fisheries/Oceans fisherie 613-990-7292 Minister of Labour labour 819-953-3419 Minister of Supply & Service supply 819-953-1908 Minister of National Revenue revenue 613-952-6608 Minister of Agriculture agricult 613-996-9219 Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs consumer 819-953-4930 Canadian Federal Immigration and Refugee Board immrefbr 416-954-1165 Political Parties New Democratic Party of Canada ndpcan 613-996-9584 Green Party of Canada green 613-232-3081 Toronto Blue Jays bluejays 416-341-1250 Toronto Maple Leafs leafs 416-977-5364 Eric Snyder - Ottawa Canada : "Introduction to Internet" - 3 hrs Targeted Communication Mgt : "Internet - POWER User Workshops" - 2 days ae924@freenet.carleton.ca : "Internet for Workgroups" - 1 to 2 days HANDS-ON COMPUTER LAB TRAINING WITH FULL FTP CONNECTIVITY ------------------------------ From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) Subject: Re: Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Date: Thu, 03 Mar 1994 17:39:28 GMT I agree with Pat that while you have a long distance circuit engaged, you are in effect paying an availability fee during periods of silence in as much as you could begin speaking again at any moment. The switch gear has to be available to handle your on-demand transmission. Since the long distance business is a quite competitive business, doubtless the carriers have factored in average rates of circuit re-use in periods of silence so they can offer you the most favorable rate relative to their competators. Billing in time increments I'm sure makes for easier comprehension by the customer than some [apparently to the customer] number of bytes transferred. Something that has come up for discussion between is that fax and modem calls should be charged a higher rate because they tie up more transmission resources. It wouldn't be beyond the capabilites for billing equpipment to detect modem carrier and adjust rates accordingly. Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-0095 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu amateur radio 146.58: N8WED ------------------------------ From: worley@village.com (Dale Worley) Subject: Re: Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? Date: 4 Mar 1994 10:46:06 -0500 Organization: Village of Cambridge, Public-Access Internet Geoffrey T. Falk (gtf@math.rochester.edu) wrote: > It seems to me that the telephone companies are charging us for our > long-distance calls incorrectly. They charge per minute, not per byte. > The voice signal gets digitized, compressed and sent over a fiber-optic > or satellite network. The phone company is able to multiplex these signals, > so effectively the less compressed bandwidth each call uses, the more > conversations they can carry at any given time. > Therefore, it makes little sense to charge customers for their calls > by the minute. This *should* be true, but it isn't, because the telco's equipment is set up in a way which doesn't allow it to take advantage of the time you're not sending data. Consider that your modem is sending a carrier even when you're not sending data. (With error-correction protocols, your modem may be sending data even when you're not.) And even if the telco installed complex equipment to allow them to detect times of no-data-transmitted and tear down your signal path during them (and simulate the carrier at the other end!), the next modem standard to come along would obsolete the system. In addition, the telco system is designed to do circuit switching; it assumes that calls are long, and that setup and teardown are infrequent, and so the system is optimized to make holding a channel open cheap at the expense of making setup/teardown expensive. In theory, much of this could be fixed in ISDN, but isn't. This leads to my favorite hobbyhorse: Rent a TCP/IP line from the telco! Then the telco knows exactly when you're sending data and when you aren't, and you occupy no more bandwidth on the network than you actually need. Dale ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 00:12:04 PST From: larson@net.com (Alan Larson) Subject: Re: Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? In article is written: > The voice signal gets digitized, compressed and sent over a fiber-optic > or satellite network. The phone company is able to multiplex these signals, > so effectively the less compressed bandwidth each call uses, the more > conversations they can carry at any given time. > Therefore, it makes little sense to charge customers for their calls > by the minute. If I am talking to my parents in Calgary and there is a > ten-second moment of silence in the conversation, the phone company is > essentially charging me for ten seconds worth of data, even though > nothing was sent or received. Aside from the fact that the switching equipment is in use at each end, the digitized data stream is still being sent. Those bits are still flying down the connection during that 'quiet' time. The compression of u-law encoding does not reduce the data rate during quiet time. It reduces the number of bits needed for an apparent dynamic range, but it does it constantly during the connection. Telephone call compression is not like the unix utility compress on an ascii file compressing lots of blanks out quite efficiently. Alan ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #111 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12295; 4 Mar 94 17:27 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10714; Fri, 4 Mar 94 12:34:04 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10702; Fri, 4 Mar 94 12:34:00 CST Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 12:34:00 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403041834.AA10702@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #112 TELECOM Digest Fri, 4 Mar 94 12:34:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 112 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Premium Rate, Sex Lines, Astronomic Bills (Eduardo Garcia Lopez) Unitel Seeks Balloting in Canada's Long-Distance War (Richard Sambolec) Westel Enters the B.C. Long-Distance Race (Richard Sambolec) New Area Code Change Question (Joe Beeler) Voicemail Answering Collect Call? (Steve Heitke) P X 64 Video Chipsets (Paul Wareham) Line/Cable Simulators (phil_s1@verifone.com) Setting up a 900 Number (Tauren N. Mills) Telular Canada Gets Canadian Rights to VideoModem (Richard Sambolec) Bell Mobility Skytel Takes Off With Air Canada (Richard Sambolec) Voice Cards (Randy Gellens) Telecommuting Examples Wanted (Jeff Cauhape) Help! Nitsuko Phone Gremlins Invade Startup Company! (Mark Forbes) MOH and Royalties and Supreme Court (Barton F. Bruce) Re: Phones in the Movies Again (Jack W. Judy) Re: Phones in the Movies Again (Brian Buckman) Re: Information Needed on Satellite Phone (Terry Gilson) Re: Information Needed on Satellite Phone (A.N. Ananth) 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: edgar@tidos.tid.es (Eduardo Garcia Lopez) Subject: Premium Rate, Sex Lines, Astronomic Bills Organization: Telefonica I+D Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 09:57:08 GMT I recently read an article (A Rock and a Hard Place, Communications International, Feb 94) where the author describes the Premium-rate service fiasco in South Africa that finally lead to closing down the service in December 1992. Uncontrolled use of telephone services by employees in thousands of businesses left many companies with bills that they could not pay. Millions of debts to the phone company, harms to its image caused by sex lines advertised in the national press remind me of a similar situation we have been living in Spain during the last year. Complaints from companies, government offices, families whose kids could freely access these services and stories of bills over several thousands of dollars. Here the problem received a salomonic solution that involved the Communications General Secretary, the Senate and the Ombudsman. After their recommendations the phone company should offer separate numbers for different premium-rate services. Instead of the old 903 prefix two prefixes will be available, 903 and 906. 906 access will be universally available and allows access to services considered of general interest such as entertainment, news, meteorological, legal, fiscal, sanitary information, etc. 903 is only available for customers who explictly request access to the service. It is used for entertainment services that may produce undesirable effects to certain sectors of society, specifically teenagers and kids. All customers were sent a letter informing them about this separation and the tariffs for 903 services, tariffs for 906 would be fixed latter. A reply coupon was enclosed for customers who might wish to have 903 access. An elegant solution that has washed up the image of the phone company. Surprisingly one does not find 903 numbers advertised currently, instead one finds now in the national press and a TV channel numbers like the following: 0785217477522 07639884010494 A quick look at the first pages of the phone book reveal the secret behind these suspiciously long numbers: 07 prefix in Spain to get international tone 852 Hong-Kong prefix 63 Philippines prefix Calls are presumably rerouted back to Spain so that service providers can offer their services in the local language. I am sure many users will not bother looking at the phone book. Kids may still call without control, business and families may still be getting astronomic bills for a international calls and premium rate services. I wonder if phone companies have carried out studies about the sociological impact of the services they are creating. I wonder how many other countries are living situations like this. I wonder how can one now explain to dissatisfied customers that it is not a problem of the local phone company. Limit also international acess upon demand ? And if voice telephony is creating these sort of problems I would not like to imagine what will happen with multimedia, virtual reality communications. Eduardo ------------------------------ From: Richard Sambolec Subject: Unitel Seeks Balloting in Canada's Long-Distance War Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 02:13:07 PST Yesterday, company Vice-President Richard Stursberg announced Unitel was petitioning the CRTC for the right to hold a national referendum on long-distance competition. Stursberg suggested that this was the only way to level the playing field, arguing that customers were not aware of their long-distance carrier options. Reaction from the telcos was swift. Jocelyne Cote-O'Hara, President and C.E.O of Stentor Telecom Policy, which represents the provincial telcos, noted that Canadians were already informed and given a choice through the earlier Unitel licensing process, stating that "Maybe Unitel just has not done its job. We (the Stentor membership) have paid 100% of the cost of interconnecting to allow competition. It's up to them to come up to the mark." {The Financial Post} (03/03/94 p.5) The proposed balloting procedure is similar to that used previously in Australia and the United States; telephone subscribers across the nation would be sent a vote-by-mail kit, tailored to their region. Subscribers would check the preferred service provider in their area and return the ballot via Canada Post within a specified time. A return of less than 65% of the initial ballots would require a second solicitation for votes. Unitel would like to see the ballots distributed by early next year. Bell Canada officials have estimated that the cost of balloting in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec alone to exceed $35 million, not counting the expense of pre-ballot advertising. This morning BC Tel issued a press release which estimated that the cost of postage alone would top the $15 million mark. According to press reports, Unitel has proposed the cost be split between the phone companies based on their level of support in the ballot -- if 50% of the ballot respondents vote for Unitel, Unitel would pay 50% of the cost. {The Financial Post} (03/03/94 p.5). As the underdog, Unitel would clearly benefit most from this scenario. If the respondents indicate that they wish to continue with the status quo, then it would be the Stentor members who would pay the bulk of the costs. Clearly Unitel has nothing to lose. The alternative is that Unitel may ask the CRTC, as administrator of the telecommunications regulation, to finance the vote. The long-distance market in Canada exceeds $7 billion dollars, with most of it continuing to be dominated by the Stentor members. Since commencing business over one year ago, Unitel has only managed to sign up 300,000 customers, despite an extensive advertising campaign, whereas Bell has over seven million subscribers in Ontario and Quebec. ------------------------------ From: Richard Sambolec Subject: Westel Enters the B.C. Long-Distance Race Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 02:33:37 PST At their February 24, 1994 launch, Westel Telecommunications Ltd. executives revealed that they will begin serving business and residential customers starting March 31, 1994 in order to take advantage of the excess capacity they have accumulated during the last 40 years of service to their railway parent company, B.C. Railway Ltd. The newest entrant in the phone wars will focus on small and medium sized business and promises to do some "100% B.C. owned" chest-beating. To date, 2/3s of the company's revenues have been from providing telecommunications service to their parent. Last year their revenues were $14 million. Seeing room to steal market share from BC Tel through marginal discounts (cited as 5% {The Globe & Mail} 03/03/94 B14) Westel hopes to increase recenues to $89 million by 1997. Westel currently has about 135 customers, whereas BC Tel has approximately 40,000 business clients. Until "equal access", due to arrive this summer, customers will likely access Westel's facilities from the BC Tel network, requiring a seven-digit number and a four-digit access code. According to General Manager, Ron Ades, Westel owns and operates over 2,000 kms of lines and will be adding facilities linking Vancouver with Victoria and Kamloops, as well as upgrading nine lines in the province's north. ------------------------------ From: joeb@inca.gate.net (Joe Beeler) Subject: New Area Code Change Question Date: 3 Mar 1994 13:46:17 -0500 Organization: Cybergate, Inc. During some recent research, I have come across something called the North American Numbering Plan that is supposed to take effect in January 1995. I am looking for more information on this, specifically a report or database on where the changes are going to take place, and what the exact change will be. I will be happy to post a summary of sources should anyone be interested. Regards, Joe Beeler joeb@gate.net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The NANP has been around for more than forty years. It is nothing more or less than the layout or organization of area code numbers throughout the USA and Canada. What *is* new, and changing early next year is the method or rationale by which such numbers are assigned. From the early days in the late 1940/early 1950 period until a couple years ago, area codes always had 2 through 9 as the first digit (of three), 0 or 1 as the second digit, and 1 through 9 as the third digit. 0 was never the third digit, and nothing greater than 1 was ever the second digit. There were a few special 'area codes' of the form X10 (where X was 4 through 9) and these were assigned to use by TWX (TypeWriter eXchange) machines. Instances of X00 were not 'area codes' but 'access codes' for use with special services such as 800 (automatic reverse charge calling which replaced the old 'Enterprise/Zenith' numbering scheme). Obviously, the available numbers were limited, and now we have run out of possibilities. Starting a couple years ago, area codes of the form 'X10' (where X is any number 2 through 9) were put into use, and beginning next year, there will be no 0/1 restriction on the second digit of the three. Since the general public has never probably understood the way area codes were constructed in the past, the general public will probably not notice the difference starting next year. PAT] ------------------------------ From: heitke@tellabs.com (Steve Heitke) Subject: Voicemail Answering Collect Call? Organization: Tellabs, Lisle, IL Date: Thu, 3 Mar 1994 23:58:31 GMT Intro: A few days ago I came to work to find my message light blinking on my phone. I checked my voicemail to find a collect call had been accepted by the PBX and a five to ten minute message was left in my "mailbox". The call was a wrong number and I alerted the proper people at Tellabs to the situation. Question: How did the automated collect call get confused into allowing the call to go through? The phone interface in question is a ROLM 9751 CBX (I know it's a ROLM but the model could be wrong). Steve Heitke - heitke@tellabs.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Two things may have happened. If the call was handled manually by an operator, the operator may have made a mistake and let the call go through; that could be either the telco operator or the PBX operator. You do not mention if your voicemail (or extension) can be dialed direct without going through a PBX operator or not. If calls can go through without a local PBX operator, then it is possible some word or phrase (i.e. 'yes') might have triggered whatever mechanism caused the call to be accepted. Even if a PBX operator answered first, it is possible that someone using a COCOT/AOS got past that point because the local PBX operator was never tipped off to the status of the call. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wareham@vision.ee.queensu.ca (Paul Wareham) Subject: P X 64 Video Chipsets Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 11:23:07 -0500 Organization: Dept of Electrical Engineering, Queen's Univ, Kingston, Ontario I am looking for any manufacturers who sell chip sets capable of supporting the P X 64 / H.261 motion video coding standard. Any info would be appreciated. Regards, Paul Wareham Queen's University Ontario, Canada ------------------------------ From: HNL DQ ENGINEERING Subject: Line/Cable Simulators Date: 3 Mar 94 22:49:12 -1000 Organization: VeriFone Inc., Honolulu HI Does anyone know who manufactures, sells or rents line/cable simulators? I need to simulate 3K feet lengths of various gauges. Thanks in advance. phil ------------------------------ From: tauren@cs.pdx.edu (Tauren N Mills) Subject: Setting up a 900 Number Date: 3 Mar 1994 18:13:48 -0800 I am investigating setting up a 900 number for my business, but cannot justify the $2500 installation fee that AT&T wants, plus the $1000 per month. Does anyone know of any outfits that will rent 900 numbers? I don't want to rent one that is already set up and all you have to do is advertise. I need my own information to be available. Tauren Mills * phone: 503-281-3091 * Interactive Multimedia New Media Magic * fax: 503-281-3104 * Computer Animation tauren@cs.pdx.edu * compuserve 71530,3700 * Film & Video ------------------------------ From: Richard Sambolec Subject: Telular Canada Gets Canadian Rights to VideoModem Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 02:40:55 PST According to {The Globe & Mail} (03/02/94 B8), Telular Canada Inc and Colby Systems Corp. have reached an agreement that gives Telular the exclusive right to distribute VideoModem products in Canada. The company claims the Colby VideoModem digitizes and compresses both audio and full colour motion video for transmission trhough any type of telephone connection, including analog, digital, ISDN, and cellular. Telular officials report VideoModem transmits and receives video and audio simultaneously, at low cost and without special connection facilities, allowing customers to send live, moving video in colour by telephone. ------------------------------ From: Richard Sambolec Subject: Bell Mobility Skytel Takes Off With Air Canada Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 02:51:07 PST The {Globe & Mail} (03/02/94 B2) reports: "Air Canada planes will soon be outfitted with a new generation of telephones that will allow travellers to get phone calls during their flight. Bell Mobility Skytel announced yesterday (March 1st) it has signed an agreement with Air Canada to equip its entire fleet with GTE Airfone's latest ground-to-air equipment, called GenStar. Over the next 15 months, 7000 GenStar telephones will be installed in Air Canada aircraft." This reminds me, how is Jack Goeken's In-Flight Phone Corp (IFPC) doing these days anyhow? ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 03 Mar 1994 18:49:00 Subject: Voice Cards Question How reliable are voice cards, such as those sold by Dialogic? How about the VM software available for them, such as that by the company which DialLogic recommends (I think it is Telecom Technologies)? Would it be relatively easy to set up a small VM system using these cards and software, and would it be reasonable to expect such a system to run unattended at a remote location? How hard is it to administer such a system remotely? How about funny requirements, such as some mailboxes being receive-only? Randall Gellens randy@mv-oc.unisys.com Net**2 656-6350 (Please forward bounces to Mail Stop MV 237 rgellens@mcimail.com) ------------------------------ From: Jeff Cauhape Subject: Telecommuting Examples Wanted Organization: The Wollongong Group, Inc., Palo Alto, CA Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 12:37:23 GMT Hi, I'm trying to get telecommuting going in a big way at our company, and my manager has tasked me with gathering a list of other companies that use telecommuting already. If you telecommute, would you please email me with a short description of how your company handles it. Thanks in advance. Jeff Cauhape cauhape@twg.com ------------------------------ From: forbesm@CSOS.ORST.EDU (Mark Forbes) Subject: Help! Nitsuko Phone Gremlins Invade Startup Company! Date: 4 Mar 1994 15:51:28 GMT Organization: CS Outreach Services, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA I'm trying to keep track of the phone system here at work. It's a Nitsuko DS01 24x72 KSU, with a NVM2000 voicemail system running behind it. Problems include periodic false ringing, blasts of static from the phones, programming in the system getting re-programmed, extensions that won't transfer, etc. I've swapped nearly everything in the system, I've spent hours on the phone to Nitsuko technical support, I've screamed, cursed, begged, groveled and torn my hair out in despair. Now bald and abased, I turn to the *real* experts ... you guys. Anybody out there got one of these things? It's a digital phone system, so it isn't as simple as 'just check your connections'. The phones and the KSU both have CODECs in them, and the signal travels between the two as 56Kbaud packetized data on two differential pairs. At least, that's what they told me. I'm starting to suspect a software bug of some kind. It's running version 1.05 firmware, and it's a two-cabinet system currently, but could be expanded to three cabinets. The problems got worse this last week when I added two more station sets. Prior to that it had been fairly stable for a couple weeks. Nitsuko tech support has *tried* to be helpful, but their usual answer is, "Well, try swapping some components and see if that helps." I'm down to the point where I have to buy some more phone system parts, just to see if I can solve the problem. I've got spares of most things, but I guess I'll now have spares of *everything*. :-( Any net.advice would be greatly appreciated. Failing that, anybody got a suggestion for a replacement system? We need to service a high-technology company with a planned size of about 80 people and probably 20-25 incoming voice lines. PBX/KSU/phone widget ideas would be welcomed. Mark G. Forbes Test Engineer (and itinerant 'phone guy') Acres Gaming Inc. (503) 753-7648 (assuming the &^#*&$ phone system is working....) forbesm@csos.orst.edu ------------------------------ From: Barton.Bruce@camb.com Subject: MOH and Royalties and Supreme Court Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 4 Mar 1994 12:36:17 -0500 Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc. I thought the Supreme Court had fairly recently made it 'ok' to play radio/cd/ on music on hold without paying BMI (Brass-knuckles Music Investigations?) or ASCAP or ... A background music vendor just claimed we could NOT put what we want on MOH without paying. What is the truth? ------------------------------ From: jjudy@bsac.EECS.Berkeley.EDU (Jack W. Judy) Subject: Re: Phones in the Movies Again Date: 4 Mar 1994 06:54:57 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley On the subject of phones in the movies I wonder if anyone else noticed that in the movie Die Hard 2 (the one in the Airport) Bruce Willis called someone (his wife?) from a pay phone in the Wash. DC (?) airport ... except that the phone has Pac-Bell written on it? I guess this goes to show you how much effort and thinking went into this movie. I wonder how many phone gaffes have appeared in the movies. Cheers, Jack W. Judy Office: (510) 642-1010 Electrical Engineering FAX: (510) 643-6637 497 Cory Hall (BSAC) Lab: (510) 642-2716 University of California Home: (510) 849-2604 Berkeley, CA 94720 email: j.judy@ieee.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This particular gaffe has been mentioned here before a couple times. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bbuckman@flexible.demon.co.uk (Brian Buckman) Subject: Re: Phones in the Movies Again Organization: The Flexible Work Company Reply-To: bbuckman@flexible.com Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 13:09:04 +0000 In the UK British Telecom had (in fact they may still have) a team that would allocate dummy numbers. They would also check for historical accuracy -- so if the play was set in (say) 1920 they would give you an appropriate number. In fact, many of the numbers thay provided worked however, as they were often meter pulse test numbers (so any one calling would increase their next phone bill as the equipment would pulse their rather fast). Brian Buckman bbuckman@flexible.com The Flexible Work Company bbuckman@cix.compulink.co.uk Tel: +44 933 460951 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A team or group of employees just to do that? What a job! Imagine your friends asking you what are your duties at the Telephone Company: " ... oh, I am part of a team which allocates dummy numbers to movie producers." PAT] ------------------------------ From: tgilson@delphi.com (Terry Gilson) Subject: Re: Information Needed on Satellite Phone Date: 4 Mar 1994 07:21:53 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation On Feb. 25 Min Hu hu@helios.physics.utoronto.ca wrote: > During the gulf war, both the reporters and the American soldiers used > a kind of satellite phone system so that they could communicate with > outside world. Does anybody out there know companies who make or sell > this kind of mobile phone system? > The following features will be desirable. > 1. Ability to communicate while the phone is in motion (say a jeep) > 2. The diameter of the antanne should be less than 1 meter > 3. The satellite carrier should be either American satellite or sea > monitoring satellite. > 4. The antanne should be all-direction antanne, do not have to worry about > the direction of the satellite. > It will be greatly appreciated if you can offer any clue as how to > find this kind of company. To my knowledge the only commercial voice-capable satellite system around will be the one from American Mobile Satellite Corp. which will offer their SKYCELL Mobile Telephone Services sometime in 1995. It should offer full-service mobile satellite connections throughout North America, including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and 200 miles of coastal waters. AMSC is one of the first recipients of an FCC license granting authority to provide a full range of satellite-delivered, mobile telephone, fax and data services to land mobile, maritime, aeronautical and fixed site markets. AMSC is a consortium of some big names such as: Hughes Communications, Inc.; McCaw Cellular Communications Inc.; and Mtel Corporation, to name just a few. I think it will be made up of five or six GEO birds, the first of which was originally to be launched in late '94. TRW plans the Odyssey MEO series some day and then of course Motorola will put up the Iridium system in Low Earth Orbit. --------------------------- While I am thinking about it, I sometimes wonder who will be the customers for all this expensive communications capability. It seems to me that the majority of the populated land mass is covered quite well with the current cellular systems, and those systems tie in nicely with the land-line systems of the world. I like the idea of offering coverage on every square inch of the planet, but who would I sell it to? There are only so many world travelers who need to take the same phone with them wherever they go. Maybe I am missing something, but right now I don't know what it could be. I hope this answers your question. Terry Gilson tgilson@eis.calstate.edu DCN Cellular 805-379-3333 71220.2040@compuserve.com Westlake Village, CA USA tgilson@delphi.com ------------------------------ From: ananth@access.digex.net (A N Ananth) Subject: Re: Information Needed on Satellite Phone Date: 4 Mar 1994 11:50:10 -0500 Organization: Prism Communications Inc, Annapolis MD In article , Min Hu wrote: > During the gulf war, both the reporters and the American soldiers used > a kind of satellite phone system so that they could communicate with > outside world. Does anybody out there know companies who make or sell > this kind of mobile phone system? As has been mentioned by someone else, you are probably referring to INMARSAT. In the North American continental region you ought to consider the MSAT system that is being offered by AMSC in the US and TMI in Canada. It has all the qualities you desire and is priced comparably to ground based cellular systems. ananth Phone: (410) 765-9281 Prism Communications Inc. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #112 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12688; 4 Mar 94 18:13 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA13441; Fri, 4 Mar 94 13:55:52 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA13429; Fri, 4 Mar 94 13:55:49 CST Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 13:55:49 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403041955.AA13429@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #113 TELECOM Digest Fri, 4 Mar 94 13:55:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 113 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Area Code Closeness (David Whiteman) Re: Area Code Closeness (Mark C. Williams) Re: Call Transfer to Outside Number (Steve Cogorno) Re: Call Transfer to Outside Number (puma@netcom.com) Re: 1-900 as a State Moneymaker (Gary W. Sanders) Re: 1-900 as a State Moneymaker (Steve Forrette) Re: Radio Program on History of the Telephone (Jodi Weber) Re: Intern's Pay in Telecom (Gary W. Sanders) Re: Interop Conference (Bruce Sullivan) Re: InterLATA CID (John Gilbert) Re: Need Information on ISDN Phones (Ethan C. Tuttle) Re: Why Are Rates to India Increasing? (A.N. Ananth) Re: ATM Comes to Long Island (Dorian Smith) Re: Help Needed Using Sprintnet (David O. Laney) Re: Need to Monitor Pager Transmissions (Mark Earle) Re: Need to Monitor Pager Transmissions (John Gilbert) Re: New Lower Rates in Italy (Aled Morris) Re: Another Misprogrammed COCOT (William Pfeiffer) Re: Elementary Area Code Question (Peter Campbell Smith) Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? (Doug Grant) CallBack-Service Wanted (Uli Mittermaier) 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: dbw@netcom.com (David Whiteman) Subject: Re: Area Code Closeness Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 03:25:32 GMT La Habra in Orange County, California which is in the 714 area code has portions of the 714, 909, 310, 213, and 818 area codes in its local calling area. That is five area codes in its local calling area; can anyone beat that? ------------------------------ From: Mark C. Williams Subject: Re: Area Code Closeness Date: 4 Mar 1994 09:36:56 -0600 Organization: The Black Box, PO Box 591822 Houston, TX 77259-1822 Paul Robinson (PAUL@TDR.COM) wrote: > The two areas were Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles/Southern > California (back then). Los Angeles is 213, Dallas is 214; Fort Worth > is 713, Orange County and the rest of Southern California (was then) > 714. Had they switched these, the Southern California area could have > allowed people to advertise an 8 digit number starting with 3 or 4, > since they would all have started with 21 or 71. And the Metroplex > could have done the exact same thing only using the other two-digit > group. But Fort Worth is in NPA 817. Metro Houston is NPA 713, some five hours south east of the metroplex. Mark C. Williams Williams@blkbox.com ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Call Transfer to Outside Number Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 06:53:20 PST Said by: Lars Nohling > I am trying to come up with a way for our receptionist to transfer > calls to outside numbers. For example a call comes in for me and she > could transfer the call to my cellular number. > Our Toshiba Strata PBX does not seem to have any features for this. Is > CENTREX the only way to get what I want? > Are there any black-boxes that would do the trick? At work when the need has come up, we pull a second line, dial the number, announce the call, and bridge the two lines using conference. This is not a very good method if the information is confidential, but it works in an emergency. Steve cogorno@netcom.com #608 Merrill * 200 McLaughlin Drive * Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1015 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 05:46:49 -0800 From: puma@netcom.com (puma) Subject: Re: Call Transfer to Outside Number In article Lars Nohling writes: > I am trying to come up with a way for our receptionist to transfer > calls to outside numbers. For example a call comes in for me and she > could transfer the call to my cellular number. > Our Toshiba Strata PBX does not seem to have any features for this. Is > CENTREX the only way to get what I want? Centrex (at least here) will not allow *transfer* to an outside number. You can add-on an outside number, but the local caller has to stay on the line. If the local person disconnects, the whole call is taken down. > Are there any black-boxes that would do the trick? I'm surprised there isn't some way for your PBX to do a three-way-add-on of an outside line. Your receptionist could add you on, and then put the call on hold locally. This works fine on Centrex, and when the party eventually hangs up, the local hold is dropped. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: gary.w.sanders@att.com Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 14:29:37 GMT Subject: Re: 1-900 as a State Moneymaker Organization: AT&T In article cek@sdc.cs.boeing.com (Conrad Kimball) writes: > In article , worley@village.com (Dale > Worley) writes: >>> Heard on the news today that Missouri state government has >>> started a 1-900 number for businesses to find the provider of the >>> lowest-cost workers' compensation insurance. They are charging $1 >>> /min, with $.45-.55 to go to the state general revenue fund. Ohio just installed a $15/call 900 number for gun dealers who need to do background checks on gun sales. Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) gary.w.sanders@att.com AT&T Bell Labs 614.860.5965 ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: 1-900 as a State Moneymaker Date: 3 Mar 1994 22:08:44 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In , lreeves@crl.com (Les Reeves) writes: > Several years ago I installed a channel bank for the US Office of > Personnel Management's job line 900 service. The cost was the lowest I have > ever seen on any 900 service; 40 cents per minute. They told me they > selected a per-minute rate that would just cover the cost of the access > from MCI. This doesn't make any sense at all. If they are not making any money from the 900 number, why is it even on a 900 number? Why require the caller to pay 40 cents a minute, when they could pay at most 25 cents for a regular 1+ call? Also, 900 puts all sorts of restrictions on the calling phone: it can't be a cellular phone, pay phone, international call, blocked PBX, and so on. Is there something I'm missing, or is this another example of our government's experts at work? Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 05:58:07 EST From: jodiweber@attmail.att.com Subject: Re: Radio Program on History of the Telephone Organization: AT&T In article is written: > WBEZ (FM 91.5, Chicago) will be broadcasting a four-part "radio history > of the telephone", titled "Hell's Bells", starting Feb. 28 at 7:00-8:00 > PM. The other three parts will be aired March 1, 2, and 7 (same time). > This is an American Public Radio program; the folks at the station > said it will likely be aired on other APR or NPR stations around the > country, but on different schedules. Check with your local station, > or call Israel Smith at APR in Minneapolis, 612-338-5000. I called the above number to find out when it was playing in the New York or Philadelphia areas, and unfortunately it's already been aired there. But I was given the producer's name to contact regarding this program (APR is just the distributor). His name is Greg McVicar at Pacific Multimedia. His number is 510-938-2877. Jodi Weber jodiweber@attmail.com or jweber@cbnewsg.cb.att.com ------------------------------ From: gary.w.sanders@att.com Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 14:27:05 GMT Subject: Re: Intern's Pay in Telecom Organization: AT&T In article rmcguire@wiltel20.wiltel.com (Russ McGuire) writes: > In article Ramaiah V Narla student.msu.edu> writes: > Could they have possibly meant $10/hour? I thought it was illegal to > pay less than minimum wage, even to interns ;^) ... > We have used interns at times here at WilTel, but I'm not sure how > well we've paid them. I'm pretty sure it was more than $10/day ... Minimum wage has a lot of loop holes. If your paying room and food then you can pay under minimum. Gary W. Sanders (N8EMR) gary.w.sanders@att.com AT&T Bell Labs 614.860.5965 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 12:01 EST From: Bruce Sullivan Subject: Re: Interop Conference In TELECOM DIGEST V14 #108, ashore@access2.digex.net (Arnold Shore) asks: > Will appreciate any information on a series of conferences or > expositions named Interop xx, where xx is the year. Theme, of course, > was interoperability/telecom products, services, issues. Interop '94 will be held May 4-6, 1994 in Las Vegas, NV at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Questions: 1-800-488-2883. FAX: 1-415-525-0199. I have a brochure. If you have further questions I might be able to answer them. However, the 800# above will probably be more helpful. Bruce ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: InterLATA CID Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Fri, 04 Mar 1994 10:47:29 -0600 Aren't tariffs only required for the IXC or LEC to add an additional charge for the feature? They way I look at it, I am already paying the $6.50 /month for the feature and my LEC should be doing their best to make this feature work as well as possible with as many IXCs as possible. When I have a choice, I will choose the LEC and IXC who make this feature work most frequently while still maintaining the other aspects of local and LD service that I value. I look at this like audio quality or operator services -- another place where an IXC or LEC can improve to differentiate their service offering from their competition. If the IXCs feel that they need to be compensated for passing this information, they can talk to my LEC. At $6.50 /month and with CID support on only some of the COs in my LATA and none outside my LATA, Caller ID is already marginally useful to me. The IXC won't be getting any more money from me for this feature. I called ATT's public relations office to ask about their support of Inter-LATA Caller ID. The supervisor who I spoke with didn't know what I was talking about, but promised to check into it and call me back (he never did). As soon as an ATT competitor can offer me an equivalent service level WITH caller ID compatibility, I'll be changing to them. John Gilbert johng@ecs.comm.mot.com ------------------------------ From: ethan@medisg.Stanford.EDU (Ethan C. Tuttle) Subject: Re: Need Information on ISDN Phones Date: 4 Mar 1994 14:30:43 GMT Organization: Stanford Med School ISG PacBell has some info on various ISDN equipment (including phones) on their gopher site: gopher.pacbell.com You'll have to poke around to find it, I don't quite remember where it is. ethan ------------------------------ From: ananth@access.digex.net (A N Ananth) Subject: Re: Why Are Rates to India Increasing? Date: 4 Mar 1994 11:38:46 -0500 Organization: Prism Communications Inc, Annapolis MD In article , Linc Madison wrote: > I was looking at yet another one of those newspaper ads for the > various LD companies' international discount calling plans, and I've > noticed that they list numbers like "India 73 cents (thru 3/30/94, 78 > cents after)" > Is the PTT in India increasing its "landing fees"? Actually the rates are not increasing at all. As one who spend$, let me assure you that the rate of $0.73 is almost 50% off the normal rate...at the present time, $0.78 per minute is the best you can do [if you call over the weekend etc] ananth Phone: (410) 765-9281 Prism Communications Inc. ------------------------------ From: dsmith@isc.nva.ge.com (Dorian Smith) Subject: Re: ATM Comes to Long Island Reply-To: dsmith@isc.nva.ge.com Organization: Martin Marietta, Inc., Reston, VA Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 16:39:55 GMT Curious, your part of "Clinton's Information Superhighway" was originally funded by the Bush administration. Also, you are not the first. dsmith@isc.nva.ge.com Dorian W Smith ------------------------------ From: ua291@fim.uni-erlangen.de (David O. Laney) Subject: Re: Help Needed Using Sprintnet Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 00:51:36 GMT Organization: Free-Net Erlangen Nuernberg, Germany To reach SPRINTNET from Italy trying calling the USA Direct Operator for Sprint at 172-1877 which should be available from most phones in Italy. David O. Laney ae711@dayton.wright.edu +1 (513) 443 2765 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 12:31:03 CST From: mearle@cbi.tamucc.edu (Mark Earle) Subject: Re: Tracking a Particular Pager > Is it conceivable that one could write a computer program (or that > there might already been programs out there that do this) so that I > might leave the computer and scanner running non-stop, decoding all > data coming over the pager frequency and logging any and all data > meant specifically for the pager serial number in question? > 1. Call the pager company and see if they will release their logs; > 2. Buy a cheap pager somewhere (that uses the same frequency) and find > someone willing to reprogram it to use the same serial number as the > unit my sister uses. (Can this be done easily??) The computer program your theorize above is possible, but illegal. The same ECPA which gives cellular telephone users "privacy" extends this type of privacy to digital format pager users (note that voice pagers are not afforded such privacy). Paging companies generally keep no such detail -- some bill by a volume of pages, but again, usually the detail is not kept. Item two above might help you, if you have all the technical specs of the target pager, but might also run afoul of the ECPA. Also, some brands of pagers (Motorola) have the "cap code" pre-programmed at the factory. While it _can_ be changed in the field, it is an unusual requrest and so finding someone who knows about it and would be willing to order parts not stocked might not be easy. We won't even consider that the law enforcement might have the computer program/ or functional equal. After all, it's illegal by Federal law. Note though that the Detective type magazines do offer such devices for educational use only, of course. The same way they offer devices which can log calls to/from target cellular phones, and (supposedly, they say) intercept calls to/from specific cellular phones. Strictly for educational purposes :-). I've not kept up with any of this educational type material so can offer only this vauge information. mwearle@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Need to Monitor Pager Transmissions Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Thu, 03 Mar 1994 18:07:03 -0600 Your easiest and least expensive bet is to get a pager with the same signalling format, signalling rate and frequency. This could then be programmed on the same cap code that your sister is using. I really don't see how you will be able to do this without your paging company's help or without reading the information off the back of your sister's pager. You need all the information above if you want to monitor her pages. The cap code is probably on her bill, if you have access to that, but the rest of the information is probably not. There are commercial devices available to monitor paging data. Greyson Electronics in Blacksburg Va, makes a package that runs several thousand dollars and is only sold to law enforcement or paging operators. Hark electronics makes a small modem for decoding paging data that still runs over $1000. The least expensive PC based monitoring solution is the M400(?). Check "Popular Communications" or "Monitoring Times." They take out a full page add every month. The box they sell is designed for shortwave listeners for decoding radio-teletype primarily. It also decodes POCSAG and GSC paging data. If you are going to go looking for the cap-code and frequency that she is on with a scanner and paging demodulator, remember that data can be delayed by a few minutes from the time you enter the page to the time that it hits the air. FYI -- paging data is protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) just like a cellular phone conversation. John Gilbert johng@ecs.comm.mot.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 10:15:24 GMT From: aledm@relay-europe.ps.net (Aled Morris) Subject: Re: New Lower Rates in Italy In article Alfredo E. Cotroneo <100020.1013@Compu Serve.COM> writes: > This is Italcable's rate system for direct dial calls from Italy to > the USA (and a couple of other reference countries): > [Rate of exchange US$ 1 = Lire 1680 (1 March, 1994)] > fm: Italy > to: TIMES: 8-14 14-19 19-23 23-08 Sunday all day > USA $1.37 $1.37 $1.28 $1.02 > Singapore $1.68 $1.68 $1.68 $1.31 $1.31 > Corea $1.68 $1.68 $1.68 $1.31 $1.31 For comparison, here's what I'm paying my local telephone co: GB#1 = US$1.5 (this is a bit generous, I think its nearer $1.4 now, so these numbers are too high) fm: GB to: Standard Economy USA $0.5418 $0.4856 Singapore $0.9720 $0.8010 Korea $1.4895 $1.4688 Italy $0.3737 $0.3341 Standard = 8am-8pm Mon-Fri, Economy = all other times. For calls to Singapore and Korea, Standard rate applies 8am-8pm weekends too. VAT (sales tax) is 17.5% (reclaimable by commercial users). I'm glad I don't call Korea very often :-) Also, it looks like it's cheaper to relay calls between Italy and the US via a dial-back from England. Aled aledm@relay-europe.ps.net | tel +44 81 476 2212 Perot Systems Europe Ltd. | fax +44 81 476 2419 ------------------------------ From: rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu (AIRWAVES E-PUBLISHING) Subject: Re: Another Misprogrammed COCOT Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 02:24:17 CST jay@coyote.rain.org (Jay Hennigan) wrote: > Speaking of COCOTs, I've observed that many of them scramble the > dialed digits on the tone pad. That is, when dialing an 800 number, I > can hear DTMF tones in the handset, but the tones are _not_ the digits > I am dialing. However, I reach the correct number. Once the number > is dialed, I get a synthesized "thank you", and thereafter the tone > pad sends the correct tones. > Does anyone know why this is done? A guess ... When you are dialing initially, you are not dialing against the CO dialtone, but against an internally generated dialtone. Perhaps, the internal call recongition interface recognizes non-standard tones (perhaps as a security measure against pocket dialers). Once you satisfy the internal brain, you get standard tones. I have heard these 'wobbly' tones too on COCOTS. 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: campbellsm@lish.logica.com (Peter Campbell Smith) Subject: Re: Elementary Area Code Question Organization: Logica, London Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 08:49:07 GMT In article , kucharsk@solbourne.com (William Kucharski) wrote: > Why don't phone switches just use the following obvious (at least to > me) algorithm: > 1-XXX-YYYY 1+7 digits, must be long distance within the area code, > so XXX is the exchange; > 1-XXX-YYY-ZZZZ 1+10 digits, so XXX must be the area code. > It seems a one or two second pause would be quite sufficient to denote > "end of number ..." In other countries (such as this one) telephone numbers vary in length and until the advent of digital switching we always relied on timeouts. It worked fine, though now that we have become accustomed to instant ringing we might be less keen on it. However, we never had the case where someone dialing a long number slowly might have it misinterpreted as a different number. In your example, suppose your number was (AAA) XXX-YYYZ. Granny Jones, within AAA but ouside your local calling area, tries to dial 1-XXX-YYY-ZZZZ but pauses to adjust her spectacles after the first Z, and she's through to you. What you could do is to drop the 1 for calls within an area code. So you dial seven digits for calls within the area code (whether toll or not) and 1 + ten digits for other area codes. The disadvantage is that you don't know whether the seven-digit call is in your local calling area, but most times you probably know already, don't care, or could look it up in the phone book. It's easy enough to come up with bright ideas like this which could be implemented if one was introducing the phone system from scratch. Unfortunately a lot of existing equipment is expensive or even impossible to change. Also, it is generally accepted that any change to what you dial needs a period when both the old and the new are accepted, so as well as making the new scheme unambiguous there can't be a string of digits which is legal under both old and new schemes but connects you to different destinations. Peter Campbell Smith, Logica plc, London. Voice: +44 71 637 9111 Fax: +44 71 344 3638 Internet: campbellsm@lish.logica.com ------------------------------ From: dmgrant@tasc.com (Doug Grant) Subject: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? Date: 4 Mar 1994 18:48:54 GMT Organization: TASC Our company is producing a product with a significant telecommunications component. We use a distributed/replicated database; our host sends database updates to sites A & B. Then A sends the update to C & D, while B sends it to E & F, etc. Using this strategy makes it possible to complete our updates to the 200 or so sites with in a reasonable time. In our planning and alpha-testing we have always assumed we could get at least 9600 baud. Our alpha testing runs quite well at 14400. However, users on Cape Cod, our second planned beta-test site, have told us that NYNEX has informally told them that 2400 baud is the best they can count on. Is 2400 baud a reasonable service level to expect in this day and age? What is the best or most appropriate way to approach a telephone company on this issue? As readers can no doubt deduce I am not a telecommuncations person. ------------------------------ From: Uli Mittermaier Date: Thu, 3 Mar 1994 19:20:29 +0100 Subject: CallBack-Service Wanted Hi! I am looking for a callback-provider that matches the following criteria: - no monthly minimum fee - no minimum charge per call If you know a company that offers this kind of service, please e-mail me directly (uli@koala.muc.de), as I am not on this list/newsgroup. Thank you very much! Best regards, Uli Mittermaier Internet: uli@koala.muc.de D-84405 Dorfen CompuServe: [100270,1200] Germany [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The one I represent called Telepassport is unfortunatly not for you then, as it charges a monthly $25 minimum use fee (applied against charges on your bill). PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #113 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14830; 5 Mar 94 3:16 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA24797; Fri, 4 Mar 94 23:54:03 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA24787; Fri, 4 Mar 94 23:54:01 CST Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 23:54:01 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403050554.AA24787@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #114 TELECOM Digest Fri, 4 Mar 94 23:54:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 114 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Personal Wireless Communications Conference (Monty Solomon) Wireless Internet Connections (Paul Wareham) RBOC FTP Sites and Gopher Servers List (Hjalmar Syversen) Now Anyone Can Have ANI on Their 800 Number (Tom Lowe) Followup on C&W CID in NY and CT (Doug Reuben) Online Access to AT&T Annual Report (Andrew B. Myers) Transborder Local Calls (John Botari) Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (Monty Solomon) Mobile Penetrations (Lars Kalsen) Fax on the Net - Impact on Telcos? (Richard Sambolec) Re: Phones in the Movies Again (Martin McCormick) Re: Phones in the Movies Again (Bill Mayhew) Re: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? (Peter M. Weiss) Re: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? (Fred R. Goldstein) Administrivia: Some Lost Messages (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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 17:47:10 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Personal Wireless Communications Conference Excerpt from Cellular Digest From: bhargava@sirius.uvic.ca (Vijay Bhargava) Date: Fri, 25 Feb 94 16:50:56 PST Subject: Conference Announcement International Conference on Personal Wireless Communications August 18-19, 1994 Windsor Manor Sheraton, Bangalore (India) Sponsored by IEEE, India Council, IEEE Bangalore Section and the IETE (India) FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS The International Conference is conceived as a forum for discussion in this part of the world of the most recent advances in Wireless technology, networks, and services. Therefore the organizing technical committee will be pleased to receive most up-to-date information on the following subjects (although not limited to these). The Conference will have several technical sessions spread over two days (Aug. 18-19), preceded by one day (Aug.17) of tutorials covering two of the most topical current subjects. The organizing committee expects a lively and stimulating discussion on all wireless related subjects in the Garden city of India, Bangalore, specially of interest to developing countries. An edited abstract must be received by the Technical Program chair no later than April 15, 1994. Authors will be notified about acceptance by May 15, 1994 and a camera ready copy will be due by June 22, 1994. Deadlines: Abstract: April 15, 1994 Camera-ready copy: June 22, 1994 Plenary Speakers from Leading Organizations: - AT&T Bell Labs - Pactel Corp - NTT - Northern Telecom - INMARSAT - ALCATEL - QUALCOMM - Motorola - CITR Theme-Speaker: N. Vittal, Govt. of India Tutorials: - FLMPTS - How soon is soon enough - CDMA - A broadband Wireless Access Sessions: - Wireless Technology: Speech Coding for wireless Digital Modulation and channel coding TDMA or CDMA - Wireless Systems and Networks: Trunked Radio Systems (or Private Mobile Radio) Wireless solutions for Developing countries Mobile Data Satellite Communication Networks and VSAT's Wireless PABX's Wireless LAN's - Telecommunications Services Radio Paging and Voice-Mail Digital Cellular and PCS CT-2 Integration of wireless subscribers into existing PSTN Frequency Spectrum how much and how many For general inquiry regarding the conference including, exhibiting at the conference, advertising in final program or sponsoring a meal event please contact: Mr. Y.S.Rao, Conference Co-Chair Dr. A.K.Seth, Conference Co-Chair BPL Systems and Projects Limited C-DOT, Centre for Development of Telematics 1/1 Palace Road 9th Floor, Akbar Bhavan Bangalore 560 001, India New Delhi 100 021, India Phone: +91 80 220 5311 Phone: +91 11 677 525 FAX : +91 80 220 5311 FAX : +91 11 688 5528 Email: bplysr@ncb.ernet.in Manuscript may be submitted to: Dr. Vijay K. Bhargava, Technical Program Chair Dept of Elec. and Comp. Eng. University of Victoria, PO Box 3055 Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3P6 Phone: +1 604 721-8617 FAX : +1 604 721-6048 Email: bhargava@sirius.uvic.ca ADVANCE REGISTRATION Last Name: ........................... First Name: .......................... Company Name and Address: .................................................... .................................................... .................................................... .................................................... Telephone:................. FAX: .................. Name of Spouse/Guest: ........................................................ IEEE of IETE Member Registration(Membership# ............) Rs 4,000/U.S.$200.00 Non Member Registration Rs 5,000/U.S.$250.00 (Includes all sessions, conference records, refreshments and lunches) Tutorials Rs 2,000/U.S.$100.00 (In addition to the registration fee above. Includes lunch and notes) Please check: |_| Tutorial #1 - Future Public Land Mobile Telecom Service (FPLMTS) |_| Tutorial #2 - CDMA - A Broadband Wireless Access Total remittance payable to: ICPWC '94 Hotel Information: Bangalore had a number of starred hotels (tariffs ranging from Rs 2,400 to Rs 4,000 in addition to Windsor Manor where the conference is organized viz. The Taj, Oberoi and others. A few rooms will be booked in advance at these hotels on first come basis to get a preferential rate for the conference participants. ------------------------------ From: wareham@vision.ee.queensu.ca (Paul Wareham) Subject: Wireless Internet Connections Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 19:05:15 -0500 Organization: Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Queen's Univ, Kingston, Ontario I heard somewhere that there was a company offering wireless satellite internet connections. I think perhaps it was just Usenet News or something. If any has any info or can point me in the right direction please let me know .... Regards, Paul Wareham, Queen's University Ontario, Canada ------------------------------ From: hsyversen@BIX.com (hsyversen on BIX) Subject: RBOC FTP Sites and Gopher Servers List Date: 5 Mar 94 03:17:19 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation Can anyone help me with listings of RBOC FTP sites and/or Gopher servers? If so, I would appreciate any e-mail on these listings. Please e-mail to hsyversen@bix.com. Thanks! Hjalmar Syversen Bombeck/Syversen 711 H Street #630 Anchorage, AK 99501 907/258-4557 (voice) hsyversen@bix.com ------------------------------ From: tomlowe@netcom.com (Tom Lowe) Subject: Now Anyone Can Have ANI on Their 800 Number Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 16:57:48 EST If you are interested in receiving REAL-TIME ANI on 800 calls to your Voice Response system, regardless of whether your calls are coming in on T1, Loop Start, Ground Start, or otherwise, read on ... Working with a client of mine, we have developed a method whereby anyone with a VRU that is direct dialable from the United States can receive the ANI of the caller, as well as the 800 number that was dialed, prior to conversing with the customer. This does NOT rely on Caller-ID, ISDN, or any other out-of-band type of signalling. It is really quite simple ... as soon as your VRU answers the ringing line, the DNIS and ANI will be outpulsed to the VRU using DTMF tones. If your VRU does not receive any digits within the first three seconds, it can provide a default prompting scenario. This would happen if someone called the VRU directly, instead of through the 800 number. For more information, please contact me at the email address listed below, or call me at 609-698-7044 X201. Tom Lowe tomlowe@netcom.com Compro Technologies, Inc. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 Mar 1994 12:51:53 EST From: dreuben@ROC.CON.WESLEYAN.EDU (Doug Reuben) Subject: Followup on C&W CID in NY and CT About a day after I posted an article on how C&W doesn't appear to be delivering ANI -> CID in New York and Connecticut, it suddenly started working again, but only in NY. Our software pages me with remotely with the CID of who called, so you can bet I was suprised when I got a call via a C&W 800 number in NY where the ANI -> CID was sent to my pager and it showed a number in Atlanta! I thought it was something wrong with the computer, or maybe that someone had paged me by mistake, but when I got down to NY and checked the CID box, it did indeed have the number from Atlanta. Further tests confirmed that ANI -> CID was indeed working again. I said "Wow! That was fast -- someone must have read the post and 'fixed' problem!". But, when I tried to get the CID from C&W in CT (where it had worked in the past), all I get is still "Out of Area :( . Also, after some testing, I noticed that the CID to NY works from most areas of the country, except for New England. You don't get ID's from Rhode Island, Mass, VT, NH, or Maine. I didn't try Canada yet, but I suspect that at the very least Quebec won't work either (it did previously). So it's working again -- sort of. Thanks to anyone at C&W who may have read my earlier posting and fixed the problem. Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 17:49:23 EST From: myers@hogpa.ho.att.com (Andrew B Myers) Subject: Online Access to AT&T Annual Report ONLINE ACCESS TO AT&T'S 1993 ANNUAL REPORT; PLUS NEWS RELEASES BASKING RIDGE, N.J., March 4, 1994 -- AT&T's new 1993 Annual Report has just been installed on AT&T News Online. AT&T News Online is a data base containing nearly 5,000 company press releases going back five years. Also included are AT&T's 1991 and 1992 Annual Reports and the most current AT&T Fact Book. The fact book contains many of the company's "vital statistics," including such items as notable AT&T Bell Labs inventions, AT&T business units and groups, corporate environmental and philanthropic activities, a corporate history, employee head counts, corporate revenues and many other facts. The fact book was last updated in September 1993. The next update is expected in early April. New releases are available via AT&T News Online whenever they are issued to the media. There is no charge to access AT&T News Online. Anyone may access the system via computer and modem by dialing 908-221-8088. The system will match modem speeds up to 9600 bits per second. Set communications for 7 data bits, 1 stop bit, even parity. There is no password. When you see the prompt, just type "go news" (not the quote marks) and hit ENTER. If you have questions, call Andrew Myers, AT&T Corporate Media Relations, 908-221-2737, or send e-mail to andrew.myers@att.com. Note that AT&T News Online is NOT an Internet service; it is a stand-alone data base available only by modem. The only expense to users is the cost of the phone call. CONTACT: Andrew Myers, 908-221-2737 (office), 908-522-9485 (home) ------------------------------ From: John Botari Subject: Transborder Local Calls Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 16:58:44 CST Pat: This is in reply to a trivia question that you posted a while back concerning a local calling area that crosses an international boundary ... Baudette, MN - (218) 634-xxxx, and Rainy River, ON - (807) 852-xxxx can call each other locally. Dialing is seven digits (or at least it was the last time I looked). Baudette actually appears in the Bell Canada directory for Northwestern Ontario. John Botari Environment Canada Saskatoon, SK ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 17:57:29 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications Excerpt from Cellular Digest From: M_Satya@MOZART.CODA.CS.CMU.EDU Date: Thu, 03 Mar 94 15:08:47 EST Subject: Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications CALL FOR PARTICIPATION WORKSHOP ON MOBILE COMPUTING SYSTEMS AND APPLICATIONS DECEMBER 8-9 1994 DREAM INN, SANTA CRUZ, CA Sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society TCOS (pending) (in cooperation with ACM SIGOPS and USENIX Association) General Chair Darrell Long, University of California, Santa Cruz Program Chair M. Satyanarayanan, Carnegie Mellon University Exhibits Peter Honeyman, University of Michigan Finance & Registration Richard Golding, Hewlett-Packard Publication Luis-Felipe Cabrera, IBM Almaden Program Committee Dan Duchamp, Columbia University Peter Honeyman, University of Michigan Randy Katz, UC Berkeley & ARPA Jay Kistler, DEC SRC Krishan Sabnani, AT&T Holmdel M. Satyanarayanan, Carnegie Mellon University Amal Shaheen, IBM Austin Marvin Theimer, Xerox PARC Rich Wolff, Bellcore A major challenge of this decade is the effective exploitation of two symbiotic technologies: portable computers and wireless networks. Harnessing these technologies will dramatically change the computing landscape. But realizing the full potential of the resulting mobile computing systems will require advances in many areas such as: hardware communications scalability power management security data access user interfaces location sensitivity The goal of this workshop is to foster exchange of ideas in mobile computing among workers in the field. Attendance will be limited to about 60 participants, based on the position papers submitted. Submissions should be fewer than five pages in length and may expose a new problem, advocate a specific solution, or report on actual experience. In addition, we will be hosting a small number of novel hardware and software exhibits relevant to mobile computing. The exhibits may be research prototypes or commercial products. Interested parties should submit technical descriptions of their exhibits. Online copies of the position papers will be made available via anonymous FTP prior to the workshop. A printed proceedings will be published after the workshop, and mailed to participants. A small number of graduate students will be granted a waiver of the registration fee. In return, these students will be required to take notes at the workshop and help put together the proceedings. Students who wish to be considered for the waiver must send in a brief description of their current research, and an explanation of how participation in the workshop is likely to help them. Send ten copies of position papers to: M. Satyanarayanan Email: satya@cs.cmu.edu School of Computer Science Phone: (412)-268-3743 Carnegie Mellon University Fax: (412)-681-5739 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Send exhibit descriptions to: Peter Honeyman Email: honey@citi.umich.edu CITI Phone: (313)-763-4413 University of Michigan Fax: (313)-763-4434 Ann Arbor, MI 48103-4943 IMPORTANT DATES Submissions due August 20 1994 Acceptance Notification October 1 1994 Camera-ready copy due November 15 1994 ------------------------------ From: dalk@login.dkuug.dk (Lars Kalsen) Subject: Mobile Penetrations Date: 4 Mar 94 19:01:00 GMT Organization: DKnet Hi, These penetrations rates for mobile telephones are from 1992. Country Penetration of mobiles Spain 0.3 % Italy 1.2 % Luxembourg 0.4 % Germany 0.8 % Netherlands 0.9 % Ireland 1.1 % Belgium 0.6 % France 0.7 % Austria 1.6 % Switzerland 2.8 % UK 2.2 % Denmark 3.7 % Iceland 5.2 % Finland 6.2 % Sweden 7.4 % If you have some newer figures please correct the figures and return this article to me by E-mail. I will send a summary to this list if I get any corrections. Greetings from Denmark. Lars Kalsen dalk@login.dkuug.dk ------------------------------ From: Richard Sambolec Subject: Fax on the Net - Impact on Telcos? Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 13:32:23 PST I've just started looking into the developments in fax gateways via the Internet. I know there are a number of commercial services available, and of course there are fax/modems and software available, but I'm talking about the *non-commercial* avenues available, such as the TPC project lead by Carl Malamud (of Internet Multicasting Service) and Marshall Rose (of Dover Beach Consulting, Inc.), and of course, Dr. Robert Riley's Digital Chicken experiment which covers the Toronto area. My question is this: How is this going to affect the telcos? It seems to me that as the Internet grows in popularity and use, people will be seeking options such as these, rather than mere discount fax plans. What's the scoop? Regards, Richard I. Sambolec Internet: sambolec@sfu.ca ------------------------------ From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu (Martin McCormick) Subject: Re: Phones in the Movies Again Organization: Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 19:49:48 GMT There was a movie produced in the fifties, probably patterned after "The Desperate Hours" in which a couple of thugs terrorize a Las Angeles family for a day or so. In the movie, one of the hoods modifies the radio in a car to receive the LAPD. The criminals also place several telephone calls which the police frantically try to trace. In one scene, a technician is following the call through rack after rack of steppers, hoping that the call won't be disconnected before he can follow it through. As a telecomm enthusiast, I was impressed with the technical authenticity of the film, but I don't remember its name. Before the mid sixties, the Las Angeles PD was on 1735KHZ and was often audible in Oklahoma around midnight, especially in Winter. In the scene where the telephone technician was tracing the calls, one could hear the rata-tat-tat of steppers and the zzzzip of the resetting relays when the call tore down. One of the exchange names in the trace was Dunkirk. Does this movie sound familiar to anybody? Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) Subject: Re: Phones in the Movies Again Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Date: Sat, 05 Mar 1994 04:01:31 GMT These aren't totally telecom-related: 1. In the movie Electric Dreams, the protonist Miles [Lenny Von Dohlen] who lives in San Francisco, California purchases an Acorn computer to help keep his schedule in order. When he's unpacking the computer, it has European two pin style 220 volt plugs. In one scene, they do have US style baseboard 110 volt outlets with adaptors for the computer's plugs. Miles accidentally spills champagne in the computer, causing it to take on an anthropomorphic personality. The computer falls in love with Miles' neighbor [Virginia Madsen] who is a cellist. At one point, Edgar the computer calls Miles' pager while he is at a concert and serenades the cellist with Tchaikowski via the pager. It is a silly movie but rather fun for computer nerds. 2. In one of the Pink Panther movies (I forget which), Clouseau [Peter Cellars] is tracking Lady Litton in Switzerland. He's playing a bell boy delivering room service to Lady Litton's room. He's trying to remain stealthy when a lightbulb pops out of a table lamp. He has to catch the flying bulb so it doesn't break, rousing Litton's attention. He tries to put the bulb back in the socket repeatedly, but it keeps flying out. The movie is probably primariliy aimed at US movie audiances, but I doubt they understand the joke since here in the US we have Mazda base bulbs, which thread into their sockets. European bulbs have bayonet type sockets (similar to over-grown automotive turn signal lamp sockets) so the gag makes sense if you understand this. The US neophyte would think the joke dumb as there's no way a screw-in bulb would pop out that way. Well, there is an error in that scene where the mechanical device that makes the bulb pop out of the socket is clearly visible in one of the takes. I remember seeing it the first time I saw the movie and wasn't in the pick-it-apart mode. There are a number of cheesey monster movies and the like where the sytle of the telephone instrument doesn't match the country there the action is supposedly taking place. Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-0095 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu amateur radio 146.58: N8WED ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 Mar 1994 16:27:19 EST From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: Re: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? Organization: Penn State University I wonder if 2400 baud is being taking literally or figuratively? BAUD is signaling states. BPS is something different and is some integral number of baud. Just a guess. Pete-Weiss@psu.edu Peter M. Weiss 31 Shields Bldg. -- Penn State Univ -- University Park, PA 16802-1202 USA ------------------------------ From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? Date: 5 Mar 1994 05:27:38 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton MA USA In article dmgrant@tasc.com (Doug Grant) writes: > In our planning and alpha-testing we have always assumed we could > get at least 9600 baud. Our alpha testing runs quite well at 14400. > However, users on Cape Cod, our second planned beta-test site, have > told us that NYNEX has informally told them that 2400 baud is the best > they can count on. This may be a trick question, or it may be somebody at NYNEX using an old line. No commercial modem today runs above 2400 baud on the phone line. BY definition, baud is the inverse of the signaling interval; even 14.4 kbps modems only send 2400 symbols per second, but each symbol encodes six bits, so they are only 2400 baud! The data terminal interface, of course, may be serial at the higher rate. If they're not being so literal, then it's true that they traditionally treated phone lines as "voice" and thus considered 2400 the top modem rate. But today's 9600 bps modems are about as tolerant of line quality as yesteryears' 2400 bps modems; even faster speeds will usually work. They just don't _guarantee_ it. Cape Code has no electromechanical central office switches left, either; it's all modern stuff (a few 5ESS switches with a bunch of remotes, mostly). Unless they're very far from one of the wire centers, the phone on the Cape are as good as anywhere. Fred R. Goldstein k1io goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Mar 94 14:12:15 CST From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: Administrivia: Some Lost Messages Some messages sent early this past week to the Digest have been accidentally trashed in processing ... and are no longer available to me. Some of you (those who I was able to identify from the autoreply logs) have been notified of this -- others are being notified here and now. If you sent a message to the Digest (probably on Monday or Tuesday) and it has not yet appeared then most likely it was lost in the shuffle here due to an unfortunate bug I found and (I think!) removed. Please resubmit it if you think it worthwhile or it has not already been covered/responded to by someone else. PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #114 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa21496; 6 Mar 94 11:00 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA12251; Sun, 6 Mar 94 07:59:24 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA12241; Sun, 6 Mar 94 07:59:21 CST Date: Sun, 6 Mar 94 07:59:21 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403061359.AA12241@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #115 TELECOM Digest Sun, 6 Mar 94 07:59:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 115 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Starring Tom Cruise as Kevin Poulsen? (Daily Variety via Ronald Austin) Country Code For San Marino? (Martin Kealey) Is it Tymenet? (Scott M. Pfeffer) USR's New Modem (Allen0@delphi.com) US 1-900 Access From Canada (Robert Schwartz) Re: New Area Code Change Question (Carl Moore) Re: Elementary Area Code Question (Carl Moore) Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls (Steve Forrette) Re: Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? (Vance Shipley) Re: Air Cell (Alan Brown) Re: Help Needed Using Sprintnet (Patrizio Menchetti Dott) Re: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? (John R. Levine) 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: Sun, 6 Mar 94 02:21:40 PST From: raustin@pro-palmtree.socal.com (Ronald Austin) Subject: Starring Tom Cruise as Kevin Poulsen? I thought this might interest you. Daily Variety March 3, 1994 Thursday SECTION: NEWS; Pg.1 BYLINE: MICHAEL FLEMING PAR'S HACK ATTACK: Though the minds of Paramount execs have surely been on potential whackings, computer hacking was the chief focus of execs Bob Jaffe and John Goldwyn last week. The execs got Par to pay a low six-figure fee against mid-six figures to Jonathan Littman for the rights to make a movie from his Sept. 12 {L.A. Times Magazine} article "The Last Hacker," and major names are lining up to be involved. It's the story of Kevin Lee Poulson, a skilled computer hacker who was so inventive he once disabled the phone system of KIIS-FM so he could be the 102nd caller and win the $50,000 Porsche giveaway. More seriously, he's been charged with using his expertise to breach national security by accessing top secret files and selling the information. He's even suspected of disabling the phone systems of "Unsolved Mysteries" after he was profiled, so that callers couldn't furnish clues to his whereabouts. Poulson was caught and has been in jail for the last three years, facing more than 100 years in prison. ICM agent Kris Dahl got Littman to turn the article into a book for Little, Brown, and ICM's Irene Webb racked up yet another sale for the screen rights to the hacker story. It was a vigorous tug of war between Touchstone, which was trying to purchase it for "City Slickers" director Ron Underwood, and Paramount, chasing it for producer Oren Koules. Littman chose Koules, and now, Dish hears, Underwood wants to join Koules to direct. Littman, meanwhile, has remained tight with the underground community of hackers as he researches his book. That takes its toll. Among other things, the mischief meisters have already changed his voice mail greeting to render an obscene proposal. --------------------- UUCP: hatch!pro-palmtree!raustin The Palmtree BBS Inet: raustin@pro-palmtree.socal.com 310-453-8726 v.32 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for passing this along. For readers who do not remember/know of Poulsen, we have a file about him in the Telecom Archives. As the article above points out, he will probably be in jail for a long time to come. Articles about other hackerphreaks who have been arrested and their exploits are in the same sub-directory in the Archives. You can reach the Archives using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. PAT] ------------------------------ From: martin@kurahaupo.gen.nz (Martin Kealey) Subject: Country Code For San Marino? Date: Sun, 6 Mar 1994 02:44:12 +1300 From the calling instructions in my local phonebook: country# area# hrs behind UTC+12 San Marino (00) 378 - 11 Trinadad & (00) 1809 - 16 Tobago From which I gather that T&T hasn't split away to 296 yet, while 378 appears to be subdividing the old East German country code; however grepped from documents retreived by FTP: in how.numbers.are.assigned: 295 - San Marino [3] % [3] San Marino will be split from Italy's country code (was 39). 352 - Luxembourg 39 - Italy, San Marino, 48 - Poland [9] San Marino: + 39 541, but moving to country code 295 at some unknown date in script.and.intl.codes: San Marino +674 +SM +SMR +39 541 So what's the official story? Has NZ Telecom pulled a fast one in using the 378 country code, or has CCITT revised its ideas on the number allocation? By the way, is there a mailing list or something for updates to area codes globally? I currently have information on country codes for nearly everywhere, and area codes for New Zealand, Australia and North America (and a skattering elsewhere). There are also a couple of changeovers which I have heard about but don't have definitive information. Firstly the Australian eight-digit local call plan, which is already partially implemented -- there was an article posted on comp.dcom.telecom earlier, but although I saved it we had a system crash shortly afterwards and I haven't seen it since. Secondly the move in Britain to put a 1 on the front of area codes -- I gather some area codes will get rewritten differently, so is there a file anywhere indicating the proposed changes? Lastly, does there exist an exhaustive list of area codes under zone 7 (ex USSR)? I don't even know if they use fixed ten-digit zone numbers or not, so any pointers to this would be appreciated. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, our Telecom Archives seems to be a more-or-less unofficial repository of this information, and the two guys who keep it up to date are David Leibold and Carl Moore. What we have on zone 7 (Russia and former USSR) seems to be about as complete as can be obtained. PAT] ------------------------------ From: sp9183@swuts.sbc.com (Scott M. Pfeffer) Subject: Is it Tymenet? Date: 6 Mar 1994 02:50:35 GMT Organization: Southwestern Bell Telephone Company I am working with a dialup service into a packet-switched network that is implemented with hardware and software from Tymenet. Anyone used Tymenet packet-switching engines/nodes out there configured with serial interfaces (to modems)? Any advice on configuration of the modem and serial interface on the Tymenet engines/node? Also, how about the modem that dials in. Any thoughts on its configuration w.r.t. using the Tymenet serial interface? Anyone ever tried to run a binary protocol like Zmodem or PPP over such a serial link, through a packet-switched network, and out onto another serial interface? With PPP, ever tried to run TCP on top of this? Why? What results did you get? Hardware diagram-ish: ______ _______ _______ _________ | DTE |____|Modem|~~~~|Modem|___| Tymenet |___Packet Switched Net--- |______| |_____| |_____| |__PAD____| | ______ _________ | | DTE |________| Tymenet |________________________| |______| |__PAD____| Scott Pfeffer Information Services, Southwestern Bell Telephone ------------------------------ From: allen0@delphi.com Subject: USR's New Modem Date: 5 Mar 1994 03:19:59 -0500 Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation U.S. Robotics is releasing a new modem in five weeks. The modem will be upgradable to the V.34 standard when it is approved via a software download. The new modem will have read/writeable EPROMS which will allow this. The modem will have all the current protocols, making it the best modem on the market. And since there's no fee to get the V.34, I'd say it'll be the best buy when it comes out. For more info call USR at 1-800-DIALUSR. Allen ------------------------------ From: r.schwartz18@genie.geis.com Date: Sat, 5 Mar 94 02:52:00 BST Subject: US 1-900 Access From Canada Organization: ActionTel How does one go about setting up a 1-900 number that is accessible to the US market, but terminating on equipment in Canada. We called Bell Canada, and they say that, unlike 800 lines, 900 numbers can NOT cross the border. If we wanted access to the US market, we would have to locate the equipment in the US, or set up some sort of forwarding equipment. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of arrangement? Of course we considered a state-side service bureau, but our setup would require frequent changes to the messages. Any ideas would be appreciated. Robert Schwartz ActionTel r.schwartz18@genie.geis.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Mar 1994 05:07:03 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: New Area Code Change Question What's the line about a little knowledge being dangerous? There has been at least one warning that new area codes will look strange to some people. Remember what was said about the "strange" N0X/N1X prefixes found in southern California? (in 1973-1980, only area 213 had N0X/N1X prefixes). [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, but that was still a relatively small part of the population which had questions or found the situation 'strange'. Most folks really did not know the difference. I think the people with the most questions were operators in Bell's Traffic Department. They'd be expected to consider it strange if they were not advised of the new-style numbers. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Mar 1994 16:08:44 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Elementary Area Code Question There have been a couple of cases in country code 1 (that's where I am) where the system actually relied on time-out: In the 1970s, 213 area in California continued to publish 0 + seven digits for 0+ calls within that area code, and it needed a time-out to distinguish between, say, 0-413-2345 and 0-413-234-5678. Please don't call these numbers, because there is no way for me to know if these are working numbers. Recently, when 215 area dropped the leading 1 for long distance within it, I found that 215-267 Denver and 215-484 Adamstown (both of which later moved to 717) had not made the change. (215-267 became 717-336.) The history file in the archives mentions both of the above situations, and it notes that long distance within an area code has to become either just the seven digit number or 1 + areacode + number; otherwise, ambiguities arise which would need a timeout to resolve. ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls Date: 6 Mar 1994 11:49:24 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In , Anthony E. Siegman writes: >> I think you're misrepresenting the position of the people who were >> opposed to Caller ID in California. I was opposed to it, or at least >> to the way I understood it was to be implemented. The problem was that >> it was going to be difficult for callers to turn off identification. >> We wanted a way to turn off Caller ID "permanently" ... (much deleted) > This is a good message, and matches my impression of why Caller-ID > went down in CA. Pac Bell insisted it be done "their way" or not at > all, and the latter prevailed. I don't want to start the age-old debate up again, but the above implies that Pacific Bell was opposed to per-line blocking. On the contrary, their proposal was to have free per-call blocking on all lines, plus free per-line blocking for anyone that requested it. Note that this is the state of affairs in most areas of the US that have Caller ID, and there have been no horror stories of the alleged wife-beatings or other near-Armageddon events that would happen. The California PUC insisted on two provisions that were different from any other area of the country: that unlisted numbers have per-line blocking by default, and that there be two types of per-line blocking: one with per-call unblocking available, and the other without per-call unblocking. The first one was viewed as an overly-restrictive require- ment that would limit the market for Caller ID (overly-restrictive since it had not been required anywhere else in the US and nobody could point to any facts that indicated that what was being done elsewhere was harmful). The second requirement presented a technical problem, as the switches were designed by the manufacturer such that per-call unblocking was available for all per-line blocking customers, or none of them. There was no provision to have this optioned individually for each line. Complying with this requirement would have meant getting NT, AT&T, and possibly other switch vendors to put this into the switch software. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: Vance Shipley Subject: Re: Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? Organization: XeniTec Consulting, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada Date: Sun, 6 Mar 1994 03:19:11 GMT In article , Alan Larson wrote: > The compression of u-law encoding does not reduce the data rate > during quiet time. It reduces the number of bits needed for an > apparent dynamic range, but it does it constantly during the connection. Compression equipment which uses "speech interpolation" does. The aggregate bandwidth is not sliced up into equal peices but used dynamically to send the bandwidth needed. Silence periods will require no bandwidth while fax transmission will require more than voice. Neat stuff when you're paying tens of thousands a month for international private lines. Vance Shipley, vances@xenitec.on.ca ------------------------------ From: root@papaioea.manawatu.gen.nz (Alan Brown) Subject: Re: Air Cell Date: 6 Mar 1994 03:39:10 GMT Organization: Manawatu Internet services, Palmerston North, New Zealand In article , JOHN.D.GRETZINGER@sprint. sprint.com writes: > I presume he is talking about the air plane being in flight at the > time. This would fly in the face of an FCC regulation that > specifically prohibits the use of a land based cell phone while in > flight. In this part of the world, the initial (very tight) restrictions were eased somewhat. A cellular phone may be used in flight in New Zealand provided: A: An external aerial is fitted; B: The aircraft is below 5000 feet above ground level; C: The phone is disabled when taking off, landing and in an airfield circuit (To this end, some operators have things set up so that the power to the phone is cut when the flaps are activated); D: The aircraft installation has been inspected and approved by the NZ regulatory body. Strangely enough the initial restrictions on cellular phone usage in aircraft weren't put in place by the NZ regulatory body, but by the (then) monopoly telco -- mainly because of fears (later proven true) of intercell blocking by aircraft flying at altitude. It's only recently (last three years) that using a phone handset while driving has been made illegal -- too many crashes. It doesn't stop people doing it though, which is a shame considering how cheap car kits are now. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Help Needed Using Sprintnet Date: Sun, 6 Mar 94 11:53:20 CET From: Patrizio Menchetti Dott Thank you for your suggestions. Unfortunately -- and it's my fault, as I should have mentioned it in my message -- that is precisely the toll-free number I called, receiving only vague answers. However, I received some more information, but my problem hasn't been solved yet. Apparently, I have also a software problem, as the service I am trying to reach provides a proprietary software for access via SPRINTNET and it doesn't seem to work with Italian ordinary or X-25 lines. Thank you again. Patrizio ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Mar 94 23:58:00 EST From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. >> In our planning and alpha-testing we have always assumed we could >> get at least 9600 baud. ... NYNEX has informally told them that 2400 >> baud is the best they can count on [on Cape Cod]. As noted, 9600 bps should work fine. Remember, if you have problems, the code phrase you say to telco repair is "my fax machine doesn't work." Speaking of NYNEX, I have the third trouble call in a month for incredible static on my home phone. I gather that the phone lines in this neighborhood were probably hung by Bell and Watson themselves -- they sure sound like it. The NYNEX repair people seem to understand what I tell them, and guys occasionally come out and fool around on the pole, but they haven't been very effective at fixing it. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #115 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa25896; 7 Mar 94 2:10 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA21484; Sun, 6 Mar 94 22:57:34 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA21472; Sun, 6 Mar 94 22:57:31 CST Date: Sun, 6 Mar 94 22:57:31 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403070457.AA21472@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #116 TELECOM Digest Sun, 6 Mar 94 22:57:30 CST Volume 14 : Issue 116 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Time Magazine on Clipper (Dave Banisar) Time Reports 80% Oppose Clipper Chip (Philip Elmer-DeWitt) Competition and Technology (Jerry Leichter) ISDN Deployment Data (Bob Larribeau) Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls (Lance Ginner) Re: 810 Area Code Trouble? (John Palmer) Re: New Area Code Change Question (Carl Moore) Re: Starring Tom Cruise as Kevin Poulsen? (Carl Moore) Traffic Overloads in Manual Service Era (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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 6 Mar 1994 14:13:18 -0500 From: Dave Banisar Subject: Time Magazine on Clipper {Time Magazine}, March 14, 1994 TECHNOLOGY WHO SHOULD KEEP THE KEYS? The U.S. government wants the power to tap into every phone, fax and computer transmission BY PHILIP ELMER-DEWITT ... (general background) ... (general info on techo advances) Thus the stage was set for one of the most bizarre technology-policy battles ever waged: the Clipper Chip war. Lined up on one side are the three-letter cloak-and-dagger agencies -- the NSA, the CIA and the FBI -- and key policymakers in the Clinton Administration (who are taking a surprisingly hard line on the encryption issue). Opposing them is an equally unlikely coalition of computer firms, civil libertar- ians, conservative columnists and a strange breed of cryptoanarchists who call themselves the cypherpunks. At the center is the Clipper Chip, a semiconductor device that the NSA developed and wants installed in every telephone, computer modem and fax machine. The chip combines a powerful encryption algorithm with a "back door" -- the cryptographic equivalent of the master key that opens schoolchildren's padlocks when they forget their combinations. A "secure" phone equipped with the chip could, with proper authorization, be cracked by the government. Law-enforcement agencies say they need this capability to keep tabs on drug runners, terrorists and spies. Critics denounce the Clipper -- and a bill before Congress that would require phone companies to make it easy to tap the new digital phones -- as Big Brotherly tools that will strip citizens of whatever privacy they still have in the computer age. In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to conduct wiretaps. When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they opposed it. The battle lines were first drawn last April, when the Administration unveiled the Clipper plan and invited public comment. For nine months opponents railed against the scheme's many flaws: criminals wouldn't use phones equipped with the government's chip; foreign customers wouldn't buy communications gear for which the U.S. held the keys; the system for giving investigators access to the back-door master codes was open to abuse; there was no guarantee that some clever hacker wouldn't steal the keys. But in the end the Administration ignored the advice. In early February, after computer- industry leaders had made it clear that they wanted to adopt their own encryption standard, the Administration announced that it was putting the NSA plan into effect. Government agencies will phase in use of Clipper technology for all unclassified communications. Commercial use of the chip will be voluntary -- for now. It was tantamount to a declaration of war, not just to a small group of crypto-activists but to all citizens who value their privacy, as well as to telecommunications firms that sell their products abroad. Foreign customers won't want equipment that U.S. spies can tap into, particularly since powerful, uncompromised encryption is available overseas. "Industry is unanimous on this," says Jim Burger, a lobbyist for Apple Computer, one of two dozen companies and trade groups opposing the Clipper. A petition circulated on the Internet electronic network by Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility gathered 45,000 signatures, and some activists are planning to boycott companies that use the chips and thus, in effect, hand over their encryption keys to the government. "You can have my encryption algorithm," said John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, "when you pry my cold dead fingers from my private key." ... (history of Public Key encryption). ... (history of PGP) Rather than outlaw PGP and other such programs, a policy that would probably be unconstitutional, the Administration is taking a marketing approach. By using its purchasing power to lower the cost of Clipper technology, and by vigilantly enforcing restrictions against overseas sales of competing encryption systems, the government is trying to make it difficult for any alternative schemes to become widespread. If Clipper manages to establish itself as a market standard -- if, for example, it is built into almost every telephone, modem and fax machine sold -- people who buy a nonstandard system might find themselves with an untappable phone but no one to call. That's still a big if. Zimmermann is already working on a version of PGP for voice communications that could compete directly with Clipper, and if it finds a market, similar products are sure to follow. "The crypto genie is out of the bottle," says Steven Levy, who is writing a book about encryption. If that's true, even the NSA may not have the power to put it back. Reported by David S. Jackson/San Francisco and Suneel Ratan/Washington ------------------------------ From: ped@panix.com (Philip Elmer-DeWitt) Subject: TIME Reports 80% Oppose Clipper Chip Date: Sun, 06 Mar 1994 20:59:34 -0500 Organization: TIME Magazine To accompany an article on the Clipper Chip in this week's TIME, the magazine commissioned a poll on public attitudes toward wiretap issues. The relevant graph: "In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to conduct wiretaps. When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they opposed it." Philip Elmer-DeWitt ped@well.com TIME Magazine ped@panix.com philiped@aol.com Read TIME on America Online, where we get paid to take abuse. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Mr. Elmer-DeWitt, I thank you very much for okaying the use of your piece in {Time Magazine} in this issue of the Digest, and for your own contribution here. Please write to us on on a regular basis. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Mar 94 13:21:02 EDT From: Jerry Leichter Subject: Competition and Technology A recent TELECOM Digest ran a transcript of Reed Hundt's statement to the Senate on telecommunications. It repeated a point that's always bothered me. Hundt says that when he was growing up, "the telephone was a black, rotary dial instrument". Starting with the Hush-a-phone case in the '50's, and culminating with the MFJ splitting up the Bell System in 1984, the FCC and the courts deregulated the telephone industry and "unleashed the forces of competition". Hundt lists the benefits of competition today as the ability to buy phones in all shapes, sizes and colors; phones with built-in answering machines, with memory, with speed dialing; cordless telephones; PBX's; fax machines. Now, what bothers me about this whole list is that *everything of significance on it is available due to technological advances, not deregulation*. Even in 1984, it would have been impossible to build most of the telephone variations listed. Oh, you could get different colors -- but think about what went into a touchtone keypad in those days. No IC tone generators, sorry. Memory? Using what memory chips? Oh, you could *buy* either, but at a very high cost. Cordless phones? How much would a cordless phone using 1984 electronics and battery technology have weighed, much less cost? Fax machines? Hah. PBX's? How many companies would have had the room to hold a switch of that era? How many would have been willing to hire the staff to keep it going? One of the things that gets overlooked is that, without competition, the telephone system developed from operator controlled to direct dialing, added long distance, got direct long-distance dialing; saw touchtone appear; and saw many other background developments. I have great respect for competition, but I have yet to see a sound argument that the advance in services available *since* deregulation is signficantly different from the advance *before* deregulation - AFTER CONTROLLING FOR THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVANCE IN APPLICABLE TECHNOLOGY. Competition has almost certainly brought the *price* down, at least for those services for which companies find it worth while to compete (coin calls have *theoretically* been open to competition for years...). But as for actual products available -- I'm not so sure. Jerry [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Some people maintain that without dereg- ulation and competition, the old Bell System -- as advanced in technology as it was -- had no real incentive to go much further or with any speed. I don't know if that is true or not. Some people believe that if we were still dealing with the old Bell System, half or more of what has become available in the past decade would not be available at any reasonable price or in any quantity. Like yourself, I think it would have been. but quite a few people believe Bell was growing stagnant and lazy; that they came out with what they have in the past few years only when there were threats by serious competitors. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 06 Mar 94 08:58:46 -0800 From: Bob Larribeau Organization: Consultant Subject: ISDN Deployment Data I have presented the Telecom Archives with the Bellcore ISDN Deployment data as a ZIP file. It expands into a READ.ME explaining the headings and abbreviations. It has the data from each telco as a TXT file. These files are ASCII with TAB delimiters. You can read them with a word processor or a spread sheet. Thanks for putting this information in the archives. By the way, I have changed email addresses. Bob Larribeau I will be discountinuing my "p00136@psilink.com" Consultant mail box at the end of March. San Francisco Please use "blarrib@netcom.com" to contact me. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks very much for this contribution to the archives. This morning I mailed out a revised copy of the directory to the archives, and your file is in the /technical sub- directory there. Readers are cautioned to remember that when this file is transferred using ftp, you'll need to set your session to 'I' for binary, and when you have this *LARGE* file at your site then you'll need to unzip it and prepare it for use. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lance@arasmith.com (Lance Ginner) Subject: Re: Harrassing One-Ring Calls Reply-To: lance@arasmith.com Organization: North Bay Network Date: Sun, 6 Mar 1994 16:01:15 GMT I'm in California. It seems that we got all the disadvantages of Caller ID (everyone can read us but we can't read them) and none of the advantages. Am I missing something? I for one am not thrilled about the way it seemed to turn out. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Neither are a lot of other people. What I do think you are missing however is that we *cannot* 'read' you either. Your Caller-ID is not coming here to Illinois for example. I don't know about all places, but we are not getting it. Is anyone getting Caller-ID data from Caifornia telephones? PAT] ------------------------------ From: jp@tygra.Michigan.COM (John Palmer) Subject: Re: 810 Area Code Trouble? Organization: John Palmer's Private Box Date: Sun, 6 Mar 1994 17:08:23 GMT In article Carl Moore writes: > Item sent to me: > Phones have been in the news this week. Some businesses in Michigan > are having trouble with the area code change over. Some equipment > does not recognize 810 as a viable area code. I have personally run > into this. I am sure it will all be corrected by the August official > implementation date. A couple points: people from areas out in GTE-Land (central California) are still getting an intercept after they dial +1-810 saying that "their call could not be completed as dialed" ... Also, Ameritech still hasn't gotten their act together. Some switches are still sending 313 as the area code in the Caller-ID data; others have it correct. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Mar 94 17:27:42 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: New Area Code Change Question As I recall reading, problems arose when a "strange" prefix (what was then 213-N0X/N1X) was in a phone number which had to be given to an operator for any reason. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Mar 94 17:24:13 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Starring Tom Cruise as Kevin Poulsen? But what does ICM stand for? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I dunno, Carl. Maybe the original author can write and let us know. I wish Hollywood would quit glorifying people like that. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Mar 94 22:26:41 CST From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: Traffic Overloads in Manual Service Era Most people are aware of the way in which telephone service today gets bogged down during times of emergency situations such as natural disasters or important political news, assasinations, etc. The typical response today will be delayed dial tone -- a delay ranging anywhere from several seconds to upwards of two or three minutes under very severe conditions. We've also all experienced 'blocking'; a condition where the local telco in an area affected by an emergency simply turns away some percentage of the calls handed to it by a long distance carrier; the carrier in turn responds to its customer that 'all circuits are busy now; try your call again later please'. Or, there may be a very rapid 'busy signal' to indicate that all circuits are busy rather than the specific line of the called party. Overloaded conditions like that are nothing new; there have been many instances over the past 115 years since the telephone was first put into regular use with the ability to have calls switched between subscribers when the demand for service was so great that the telco literally 'ran out of equipment' to handle the call. Persons knowledgeable of how telephone switching systems operate know that telephone companies are generally only able to handle calls from about ten to fifteen percent of their subscribers at any given time ... and anytime when more than eight to ten percent of the subscribers want service all at the same time, traffic is considered quite heavy. If more than two or three percent of the total subscriber base attempt to make a call all at the very same instant -- or within a second or two of each other -- there will be a delayed dial tone for many. In some smaller central offices, perhaps only nine or ten subscribers can go off hook with dial tone at the same time. Subscribers following will hear dial tone as soon as someone in the first bunch has finished dialing. 'Busy Hour' is defined as that time of the day when historically the largest number of subscribers want service all at the same time; then is the time that you'll see ten to fifteen percent of the total subscriber base on the line all at once. Usually if this happens, it will be mid-morning or mid-afternoon on a weekday; a time when businesses make heavy use of their phones. During other 'non-busy' times, perhaps five percent of the subscribers will be using the phone. There are many times when only one or two percent of the subscribers are using the phone, and sometimes less than one percent of the total sub- scriber base will be using the phone. We all know that to provide a scenario where total or 'virtual' non- blocking is available would be prohibitively expensive; and anyway, an analysis of the telecom traffic patterns in the past simply does not warrant that kind of service. I've been asked what did 'they' do in the days of manual service -- all calls handled by the 'number please?' operator -- when an emergency occured? Surely California had earthquakes and presidents got assasinated and other grievous things occurred causing the citizens to all go 'off- hook' at once seeking information, comfort, guidance or whatever ... Generally, Bell went to 'emergency service only', meaning instead of responding 'operator' or 'number please?' the operators would answer with the phrase 'emergency service only right now; if this is not an emergency please hang up and place your call later ...'; the operators would go up and down the line of lighted jacks on their switchboards repeating that message over and over; saying it, pulling their cord out and moving to the next one. They'd only pause if the subscriber spoke up immediatly such as to ask for the Fire Department or something like that. If the subscriber then continued to stay off hook (as evidenced by the illuminated lamp associated with his jack) or tapped rapidly on his hook (meaning the lamp would flash in the same way), then the operator or some other operator would go on the line to deal with it. If the emergency/disaster was national or worldwide in scope (the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 comes to mind as does the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945) then the entire Bell System would be on emergency service only for a matter of an hour or two, maybe eight or ten hours until the stirred up citizens quieted down and went back to whatever they had been doing before the incident which caused the uproar. An operator with Illinois Bell during those years told me that she was on duty the Sunday of the Pearl Harbor incident, and that '... about noon that day, our boards lit up like a Christmas Tree; we wondered about it and within about ten minutes our supervisors were telling everyone what happened and we were on emergency service only from then until about ten o'clock that Sunday night ...' If the incident was local in nature or confined to the jurisdiction of one central office exchange, then those operators dealt with it in the same way, but word was quickly passed to the rest of the area that non-emergency calls were to be withheld from the affected exchange until the operators had gotten their boards under control again, however long that might take. A woman who was the chief operator and phone room manager at Pearl Harbor on the day that FDR said would 'live in infamy forever' whose story has appeared here in TELECOM Digest recalled later that '... the operators in Oakland were very protective of us that day and for several days following; they'd wait for us to call them when we could handle more traffic given all the downed wires and wrecked buildings and all ...' At the time, Oakland, California was the AT&T international center handling calls to the far east, the Pacific Islands, etc. On a summer day in 1935 when an explosion caused a major fire in the Chicago Union Stockyards causing a huge amount of thick, very black, very acrid smoke over a large area of the southside of Chicago, the operators at the YARds exchange (now 312-927) worked for several hours explaining to a frantic neighborhood around the stockyards what was going on, and relaying information to the residents from authorities at the scene, etc. One such instance that I remember specifically was an explosion at the Whiting Refinery in 1953. I was only a little kid, but I remember hearing kind of a loud 'thump' with the house shaking a little for just a second or two. I guess we were about a mile west of the labor- atory which had the explosion, but a big fire could be seen even that far away. It was fierce enough that it quickly spread into some storage tanks and a large device they called a 'cat cracker' -- whatever that means -- and hot enough that it twisted some railroad tracks out of shape there and completely melted the main street in Whiting where it runs through the center of the refinery (on both sides of the street) at that point. People living within a block or two of the location had their houses completely caved in. Between the Amoco Refinery Fire Depart- ment and the Whiting Fire Department it took them four days to put out the fire. I was just a kid; it was all very exciting to see and I wanted to make sure all my friends knew about it but when I tried to call someone I knew, maybe ten minutes or so after the blast, I remember the Whiting phone operator taking what seemed like forever to respond and then all she said was they were only handling emergency calls due to the explosion and the large number of people trying to find out the details. I turned on the radio (local area station) where they were already talking about it and remember the announcer saying something to the effect that 'if you know how to operate a telephone switchboard then your help is urgently needed at the Whiting telephone exchange to cope with a flood of calls due to the explosion', and asking people to refrain from using the phone if at all possible until further notice. Just some thoughts this Sunday evening I thought you might enjoy reading. PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #116 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa02739; 7 Mar 94 18:03 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA09042; Mon, 7 Mar 94 14:09:24 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA09031; Mon, 7 Mar 94 14:09:21 CST Date: Mon, 7 Mar 94 14:09:21 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403072009.AA09031@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #117 TELECOM Digest Mon, 7 Mar 94 14:09:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 117 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson International vs. 900 Numbers (Will Martin) CBTA Call For Papers (Mary Nakoneczny) LD Headaches From Within an IBX System (Jonathan Lieberman) Clipped Again (A. Padgett Peterson) Pair-Gain, ADSL, HDSL Information Needed (Alex Cena) Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Phone Harrassment (Jim Thomas) Maps of LATA's in the US (Robert S. Mah) Need TAP/IXO For Alpha Pagers (George Cifrancis) Need Help With Minitel Files (Franck Nazikian) 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, 7 Mar 94 8:58:49 CST From: Will Martin Subject: International vs. 900 Numbers We've previously discussed the use of international numbers as opposed to 900 numbers or 800 numbers with billing for the sex-call industry; the way it works is that the caller pays the ordinary international-call rate and the provider gets a kickback from the foreign-country telco. I have a friend who recently started a 900-type call service (actually, he just provides the information and someone else actually arranged the 900 line and handles the business aspects) at 95 cents per minute for daily-updated data related to shortwave radio listening. Of course, as soon as this began, there was the usual fuss amongst some parts of the hobby about how this was too expensive and that it was inappropriate, etc. (Same sort of stuff Pat has to put up with regarding the "commercialization" issue.) One objection that IS valid, though, is that this service is not available to out-of-the-US people with the 900-number arrangement. There is a possibility it might be available to Canadian callers in the future, but that isn't definite. (In the past, this information was broadcast worldwide on a sponsored shortwave radio program, but the difficulties of keeping sponsors and the time it took to produce the program each day killed that off. During that period, though, it was freely available to anyone in the world who cared to listen and who could receive the signal. So there is an international audience but it is probably relatively small.) I'm wondering how feasible it might be to transfer this 900-service to one of the international-call arrangements. Looking through a recent men's magazine, I see a couple international-call sex services amidst the sea of 800, 900, and regular number ads. These advertise numbers in the 011-592-247-4XX and 011-373-969-00XX ranges. According to the Telecom Archives "country.codes" files, "592" is Guyana, and I recall that we mentioned that country's participation in this field before. But, unless I'm misreading the file, "373" is Moldova, and this seems very odd to me. Is Moldova really involved in this international sex-call kickback scheme? I would have thought the service to that country wouldn't have the capacity to support such a usage. I had thought these were only based in the South American/Central American/ Caribbean region. Am I being misled by the way the advertisers hyphenate these numbers? The way I show them is the way they appear in the ads. Anyway, how does one go about setting up such an arrangement? Is it at all feasible to even think about this sort of thing with a moderate volume of calls, or do the foreign telcos insist on such a high level of usage before they will begin to consent to such a scheme that the sort of special-audience appeal to a limited number of people that I'm talking about would never make it? That only the huge calling volume generated by sex-talk lines will make this setup practical or viable? (I do note that those international-number ads were larger than the run-of-the-mill 800- and 900-number ads; I guess thus more likely to generate higher call volumes.) With whom does one negotiate this arrangement? With the foreign PTT directly? With a US-based IXC? Or are there brokers who do this and you have to use their services and pay them a cut, because they have an "in" with the powers-that-be? What countries do support this sort of arrangement? Can anyone provide any sort of guesstimate as to the figures involved, such as how many cents per minute the info provider ends up with as the bottom line? Can these numbers be called as local from within their respective host countries? (I'm hoping that they are, because I wouldn't want a potential caller to be prevented from calling just because he lived in the same country where the service is based. Even though such a call wouldn't generate any revenue, it is still more important to make the information available to all.) As a separate side issue, I had first attempted to find out some international-calling information by looking in my local St. Louis 1994 Southwestern Bell white pages. I was shocked to find out that they have dropped ALL international-calling information or instructions. They replaced what I recall as several pages of country codes and instruct- ions/information with a paragraph telling people to contact their long- distance carrier for information. It sure seems that the local operating companies are taking advantage of the breakup environment to abandon their time-honored responsibility to inform and instruct their subscribers in at least the basic guidance needed to use the telephone system. Is this universal, or is this unfortunate change something local to the Midwest, and the directories for areas that perhaps have greater proportions of international-calling populations have retained the general guidance and instructions for international calling? Regards and thanks, Will [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As you point out, there is always *someone* who is unable to participate. When you were doing it via the radio, there were those folks who were unable to receive the signal due to poor propo- gation that day. Via 900, there will those folks who phone lines are blocked and with international numbers, there will be still other problems. I am beginning to think the only practical way of handling this sort of thing is by using a local seven digit number and a method of screening incoming calls to obtain payment and letting it go at that. Then, anyone who wishes to call that number can do so, and you set some small fee based on the number of minutes they use the service, etc. They can pay by credit card or by sending a check, etc and when their bulk purchase of time runs out then they either have left instructions to automatically debit their account for more time or they send a new check or whatever. I've got a machine here which will do that; you enter your password and get to listen to the message you are entitled to hear, etc. Each time you call, the clock checks your account against available minutes remaining. Call or write me and maybe we can work something out. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 12:26:41 EST From: Mary Nakoneczny Subject: CBTA Call For Papers Now is the time to begin planning for the Canadian Business Telecommunica- tions Alliance (CBTA) annual Conference and Trade Exposition - TeleCon '94. TeleCon'94 will be held at the Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre, Toronto, Ontario on October 11 to 14, 1994. The TeleCon '94 theme is ... IMAGINATION: Our Only Limitation -------------------------------- Today's technologies and more specifically, their applications are advancing by leaps and bounds. Nowhere is this acceleration more apparent than in the telecommunications industry. Products and services that are commonplace today existed only in our imaginations as recently as a few years ago. Likewise those innovations and applications that are currently just a fantasy will be a reality in the near future. The telecommunications world of tomorrow is limited only by our imaginations today. Qualifications? At TeleCon, we address the issues of the utmost importance to Canada's telecommunications professionals. Their needs are specific, their expectations, high. Therefore, the TeleCon'94 Conference Committee requires speakers who are well-versed in and have an excellent understand- ing of the industry, its technologies, services and standards. Telecommunications professionals -- like yourself -- will continue to make the CBTA's annual Conference and Trade Exposition the forecmost source of expert development for Canada's telecommunication industry. Benefits Making the commitment to speak at TeleCon'94 will earn you and your organization recognition and admiration from your peers along with the benefits of an excelllent high profile promotional opportunity. Further, you will have the opportunity to increase you "Networking" contacts and, as a designated speaker, you will be able to attend other sessions and planned delegate activities on the day of your presentation as a guest of the CBTA. Interested? Please submit a 250 to 300 word outline of your proposed session by Monday, March 21, 1994. If you are selected we will notify you in late April and the Conference Committee will request a 2500 to 3000 word synopsis of your session for publication in the TeleCon'94 Conference Proceedings no later than July 4, 1994. Following is a list of topics to serve as a guideline for your proposal. If you have a topic about which you would like to speak that does not fall into any of the categories below, but still related to the theme, feel free to submit a proposal on that topic. What is of paramount importance is the creative and innovative uses that have been (or will be) successfully applied to technical, managerial, economic or social telecommunications enterprises. * Multimedia / Digital Convergence * Innovative Uses of Telecommunications * The Virtual Corporation - Your Back Door Neighbour * What is the Next Step in the Information Revolution * The New Information Professional * What Are Customers Looking For? Organizational Design Requirements of Information Networks * ISDN * Has Education Kept Up with the Information Age? * The Evolving Global Telecommunications Industry * Toll Fraud / Security - What's it Costing You? * Will ATM Technology Work on Satellites? * Exploring the Internet * Why Mommy and Daddy Can't Access Bulletin Boards * The Electronic Highway * Imagine If ... In addition, the TeleCon'94 Conference Committee would like to present three (3) specific sessions focusing on the interest and needs of the financial community (i.e. banking, brokerages and insurance) as well as three (3) separate sessions on government priorities. Fax, Mail or Hot-Air Balloon your ingenious proposals to: John Westover TeleCon '94 Conference Co-ordinator Suite 1160 36 Toronto Street TORONTO, Ontario M5C 2C5 Fax Number (416) 359-9909 Tel Number (416) 359-2911 Ext. 2241 Since there is not a great deal of lead time you may also send your outline via the Internet to: Mary J. Nakoneczny CBTA Conference Committee Member Internet ID: nakonem@mcc.gov.on.ca I will ensure that they are delivered to John Westover. ------------------------------ From: lie6@midway.uchicago.edu (Jonathan Lieberman) Subject: LD Headaches From Within an IBX System Reply-To: lie6@midway.uchicago.edu Organization: The University of Chicago Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 06:18:21 GMT Hello, I am a student at the University of Chicago, living in a dorm. The whole campus has a large IBX, using most (or all) of the 702 and 753 prefixes. This year my number changed from a 702 to a 753 number. Ever since then during aproximatly 35% - 50% of my long distance calls (both those that I originate, and when other people call me long distance) I hear other people (and they hear me) making long distance calls from within my building. I called the campus telecom folks who said, if you only have the problem when you are calling long distance, then it is an AT&T problem. I tried to call the AT&T operator tone, 8+xxxxxx, tone, 0, and I got a busy signal. Then I tried tone, 8+xxxxxx, tone, 10-ATT and I again I got a busy signal. Finally I called 1-800-operator, and waited for a person to appear and I had them transfer me. Sheesh! In any case eventually AT&T took my report. In my ignorace, it seems unlikely that this is an AT&T problem, since my line always seems to be crossed with people in the same building and this never used to happen until the numbers changed. Anybody have any thoughts? About the specifics of our system, I don't know if any of the following information is useful in describing the specific type of system that we have, all I know is that it is an IBX, so forgive me if the following is not useful: What I know: You can dial any 702-xxxx or 753-yyyy as 2-xxxx or 3-yyyy from within the system. Some phones (students') require an 8+ a 6 digit code to get an outside line, others (offices') require only a 9. There are 5-zzzz numbers that are only accessible from within the system, or through a 702-xxxx gateway. They offer a single package of services to students called "the big 3" that consists of call waiting (flash,*4), speed dialing (#4x), and three-way calling (call one person flash, *1, call the other flash,*1). On some phones internal and external calls ring differently. Jonathan Lieberman lie6@midway.uchicago.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Things have changed out there quite a bit since I worked in the old phone room thirty years ago and all calls went via the main switchboard on MIDway-3-0800. Then, in addition to the main switchboard where I worked, there were auxilliary switchboards in each dorm and quite a few campus departments. The dorms for example had switchboards with 20-30 extensions on them in a 'hunt group' and the local front desk clerk/operator in the dorm answered calls on those lines and in turn used the local switchboard to pass the calls to student rooms. Then the phone room was at 5801 Ellis on the sixth floor. Like yourself, I doubt that the problem you are experiencing now has anything at all to do with AT&T. There is more than likely a problem in the local switching system which is restricted to perhaps one or two circuits and when the 'luck of the draw' has your call using the troubled circuit then you get the problem you describe. It might help to isolate the problem a bit further with more specifics before going back to the admins with the complaint again. For example, do you always get the same people when this happens? You mention that they can hear you, but have you ever found out if *they* experience the same problem with still others on some percentage of their calls? Is there a certain time of day or night when this is more likely to happen than other times? Does it occur right from the instant when you dial your call and continue until/unless you disconnect and dial over or is it an intermittant thing which occurs at some point in your call and then drops out seconds or minutes later? Is there a method by which when this happens you could put the call on hold and use another phone to call the phone repair people so they could catch it right while it was happening? Quite a few years ago, when I lived near you and was serviced by the same telephone office as yourself (they call it Kenwood Bell, on the corner of 61st and Kenwood Avenue), I went for a couple weeks trying to make calls about midnight every night and *always* getting a trashy, nasty connection on my first attempt. I'd busy the line out and try again from my second line and get through okay. I never had this problem during the day -- always late at night or early in the morning. Finally a technician working nights took an interest in it and told me the next time it happened to hold the troubled circuit up on one line and call him on my other line. I did that, and while the connection was up he went in the frames (of course, frames are a thing now of the distant past) and found me; he came on the bad line (I was on there waiting for him per his instructions) and he said thanks very much, he found the booger ... and it was repaired that day. It appears the first selected trunk in a group of circuits from that phone office to another one was bad, and yes indeed, it was bad all day long but during the day when there were always calls going on, no one person would ever seize that first trunk all the time. Someone would place a call and get it, hang up in disgust and dial over. In the second or two interim, some other person would place a call and seize the bad trunk; they'd hang up and a third person would call. It was rare anyone got it two or three times in a row. When I was calling at midnight, the traffic was slow enough I *always* got the first selected trunk. By keeping it up on one line and dialing again on my second line, I'd always go around it. So you see, I suspect in your case it is much the same thing: some circuit between the campus phone exchange and Kenwood Bell (they are across the alley from each other coincidentally; the campus phone equipment is in the basement of the Center for Continuing Education on 60th Street) is bad; it is early in the selection of trunks used to place student long distance calls; no one person gets it enough of the time or with a consistency to pinpoint it. Everyone now and then gets it, considers it a fluke and hangs up to dial over; they then get a clean line because some other person got the bad one. You've noticed it is always another student which is helpful; and you've noticed it is always on a long distance call, which is also very helpful. Therefore, IMO (look, no 'H'; that's because I do not give humble opinions), one of the 'eight-level trunks' between the campus and Kenwood Bell is sour; who gets camped on it at any given time is anyone's guess. Get the name of a sympathetic person in the phone repair department; ask him if the next time it happens can you call him to go and look for it while you keep the connection up. If you want, print this note out and take it to show them; maybe that will be helpful. Let us know how this works out for you, and good luck. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 Mar 94 08:54:26 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Clipped Again {Time Magazine}, March 14, 1994 > In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich > Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of > phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to conduct wiretaps. > When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they opposed it. This makes no sense to me. Today there is *no* privacy in phone calls so the question must have been worded so as to imply that there is for people to believe that Clipper provides *less*. > Government agencies will phase in use of Clipper technology for all > unclassified communications. Commercial use of the chip will be > voluntary -- for now. More loaded prose -- the point was missed that to use Clipper for its own "sensitive but unclassified" information meant that the gov thinks it is *good enough for government work*. > Rather than outlaw PGP and other such programs, a policy that would > probably be unconstitutional, the Administration is taking a marketing > approach. By using its purchasing power to lower the cost of Clipper > technology, and by vigilantly enforcing restrictions against overseas > sales of competing encryption systems, the government is trying to > make it difficult for any alternative schemes to become widespread. PGP is free for individual use -- you mean the government is going to *pay me* to use Clipper? > people who buy a nonstandard system might find themselves with an > untappable phone but no one to call. Except those who buy the same phone. > "The crypto genie is out of the bottle," says Steven Levy, who is writing > a book about encryption. If that's true, even the NSA may not have the > power to put it back. Never was in the bottle, just no one cared -- the corporate landscape is filled with the corpses and struggling small companies who thought that people did. Anyone know how many commercial STU-IIIs were sold last year? When I get some Clippers/Capstones, *then* I'll make my decision as to whether or not they are any good but I am getting bothered by all the people who want to deny me that chance. Warmer by the day, Padgett ps: > In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich > Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of 100,000,000 lemmings can't be wrong. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for pointing out that just maybe {Time Magazine} has its own axes to grind in this matter. Not that this Digest would ever be used to make some of my points perfectly clear, you understand :) ... PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Mar 94 10:00:38 EST From: Alex Cena Subject: Pair-Gain, ADSL, HDSL Information Needed wood@odie.ee.wits.ac.za wrote: > I am looking for infomation on pair-gain which is a technique of > multiplexing (usually two) subscriber calls onto a single copper pair. > The reason I need this information is that I wish to investigate if it > could be used to improve the party line systems that we have in > operation here in rural areas. Try PairGain Technologies in Cerritos, CA 310-404-8811 dap@aber.ac.uk asked about Chips/Boards for ADSL or HDSL etc. > I am attempting to locate information on availability and > pricing for any chips/ evaluation boards/ products that support HDSL > or ADSL ... Try PairGain Technologies 310-404-8811 Brooktree 619-452-7580 Level One Based in Folsom, California (I do not have phone# handy) Tellabs 708-969-8800 Teltrend 708-377-1700 Alex M. Cena, Lehman Brothers, acena@lehman.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 06 Mar 94 23:02 CST From: Jim Thomas (tk0jut1@mvs.cso.niu.edu) Subject: Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Telephone Harrassment A comment on the one-ring telephone harassment: A local Chicago talk show personality (Brian McCann on WLUP's Sunday afternoon "comedy" program) has encouraged listeners to "drive your friends crazy" with one-ring phone calls. He thinks it's a "victory" if the harasser can drive the victim to taking the phone of the hook so "they can't receive those important calls." He spent this afternoon (6 March) playing this game and exhorting others to do the same. The final touch, he believed, was to eventually call back and play a Jim Nabors' song ("You can't roller-skate in a Buffalo herd") to the victim. He claimed that it was especially fun to do to people with celluar phones. If I recall, the name of the program is "The Sunday Funnies," which runs for a few hours each week. Jim Thomas [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It sounds to me like it is time for someone to circulate Brian McCann's home telephone number publicly. Incidentally, the main switchboard for the business offices at WLUP is 312-440-5270. That is public information, it appears in the phone book so there is nothing secret about it; all I am doing is saving my readers the cost of a call to directory assistance. I cannot advocate that people engage in the same harassing tactics that McCann proposes, however you might want to voice your opinion to management at WLUP about McCann and his games. Do not engage in tactics such as putting 312-440-5270 on a Demon Dialer or having a modem dial the number over and over. Do not go to public toilets at the library, truck stop or bus station and put up messages saying for a good time call Brian at 312-440-5270. Do not play the same games -- even though we know who would win and who would lose, he being merely an amateur where these games are concerned. Instead, in a responsible way, call and voice your opinion to the program director and others at the station. If it is after business hours at the station, you may reach their voicemail, but don't get abusive. If I happen to locate Brian McCann's home phone number -- I'm sure all those dudes at WLUP keep their numbers non-pub -- I'll pass it along, since no doubt you'll want to counsel with him in person. Remember now, no one-ring/hangup harassing calls! You privacy freaks be sure to prepend *67 to your dialing string. Or since you are calling 'the Loop - WLUP' use your favorite loop-arounds, etc. By the way, if anyone thinks of something else callers to WLUP should not do -- something I may have overlooked -- write and let us know. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rmah@panix.com (Robert S. Mah) Subject: Maps of LATA's in the US Date: Mon, 07 Mar 1994 08:02:57 -0500 Organization: One Step Beyond Is there an official (or non-official) source that lists the LATA's for the United States? Canada would be nice as well. It would be of _great_ help if things were sorted by exchange number, postal (i.e. ZIP) codes or even on township/county lines. I tried the FCC, but one hour of bounced calls only yielded frustruation. Cheers, Robert S. Mah One Step Beyond rmah@panix.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Carl Moore has quite a bit of this data. Maybe he will see your inquiry and respond after he finishes on his call to WLUP. PAT] ------------------------------ From: gc3@infinet.com (George Cifrancis) Subject: Need TAP/IXO For Alpha Pagers Date: 7 Mar 1994 14:02:07 GMT Organization: InfiNet - Internet Access (614/268-3639) Hi folks, I am looking for any info on the TAP (Telelocator Alphanumeric Input Protocol) or something called IXO. These are used for sending out alphanumeric messages on certain kinds of pagers. And I need the info to write my own programs. George Cifrancis III LV | Programmer/Analyst/System Administrator| Columbus, Ohio USA //3DO | Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation | gc3@infinet.com \X/AMIGA| MIS - Wide Area Net Support (AT&T/SUN) | [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Try the Telecom Archives. Use anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu then after logging in, 'cd telecom-archives/technical'. All the IXO stuff is in there. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 10:51:41 GMT From: nazikian@DaVinci.mty.itesm.mx (Franck Nazikian) Subject: Need Help With Minitel Files [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The following was recieved in my mail today. Can anyone help this fellow out? Printed below as I received it. PAT] CII ITESM Franck NAZIKIAN Sucursal de Correos "J" MONTERREY N.L. 64849 MEXICO Tel: (52-8)-358-20-00 exts.50-76 Fax: (52-8)-328-40-81 Internet: nazikian@davinci.mty.itesm.mx I tried several times to use the software of the Minitel you put on the internet network (followimg the given instructions to unpack it), and I could "uudecode" it, but I could not uncompress it; the following sentence then appeared on my computer screen: $ uncompress minitel.tar.Z uncompress: 0653-059 The input file contains bad data; SIGSEGV signal received. What should I do to solve my problem? Best regards, Franck NAZIKIAN ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #117 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa06861; 8 Mar 94 5:10 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA21255; Tue, 8 Mar 94 00:40:12 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA21244; Tue, 8 Mar 94 00:40:08 CST Date: Tue, 8 Mar 94 00:40:08 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403080640.AA21244@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #118 TELECOM Digest Tue, 8 Mar 94 00:40:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 118 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Competition and Technology (Fred Goldstein) Re: Elementary Area Code Question (Mark E. Daniel) Re: Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? (Stefan Bethke) Amateur Radio Communications With Cuba (Jack Hamilton) USWest Per-Call CLID Unblocking (William Petrisko) Cellular Phone Questions (Andy Malis) Having Trouble With "Command Ring Decipher" (Dale Worley) Re: Traffic Overloads in Manual Service Era (Tom Watson) Proceedings From Conferences Wanted (Lars Kalsen) Telephone MIS (Tom Friedman) Re: Dialing in Italy (Alfredo E. Cotroneo) IEEE INFOCOM'94, June 12-16, Toronto (Mark J. Karol) 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, 7 Mar 1994 17:04:18 -0500 From: goldstein@carafe.tay2.dec.com Subject: Re: Competition and Technology Jerry Leichter says, > Now, what bothers me about this whole list is that *everything of > significance on it is available due to technological advances, not > deregulation*. While it's certain that some technological progress would have been made in the absense of competition, I had some experience in an area where competition made a lot of difference. Witness the digital PBX. In 1975, the Bell System offered only electromechanical PBX switches. The fanciest was the 812, a reed-relay machine with random-logic electronic control (transistors instead of relays). At least that's how I remember it; it's been a while! A few vendors had electronic analog machines on the market (semiconductor crosspoints, wired logic) but the workhorses of the Bell System were the 701 stepper, the 770 crossbar (400 or so lines), the 801 and the 812. All were heavily dependent upon 1A2 keysets for a variety of features. This was labor- intensive and required big wire and closet space. That was the year in which Rolm introduced its first CBX and a year before Northern's SL-1 entered the US market (but was announced in Canada if not here). A few other digital switches were also coming on the market, like the Farinon DTS (later Harris). Danray introduced a huge processor-controlled analog crosspoint switch. AT&T/Bell, nursing its old products, was caught off guard. They rushed to market with the Dimension 400, and soon afterwards the Dimension 2000 and Dimension 100. These were CPU-controlled analog machines, with (shall we say) modest traffic capacity. Features lagged behind many competitors. These were only offered for rent. Tariffs were set by state regulators. In order to hold down rates and be competitive (because AT&T development and manufacturing costs were high, and most states refused to allow them to sell competitive gear at a loss), AT&T declared that these would be the flagship switches for many years to come, with just software updates. But they were already behind the market. In 1979, they designed "Antelope", basically a digital Dimension with more traffic capacity. But it wasn't introduced, lest it upset regulators. AT&T introduced its first Digital PBX in January, 1983, the week that PBXs were deregulated. While it was called the System 85, it was really the old Antelope, with slightly updated software (I think FP8 instead of FP12; Feature Package numbers aren't necessarily sequential.) Not that long afterwards, System 75 ("Gazelle"), an all-new design, came out. Dimension was discontinued. AT&T needed several years to become competitive in the PBX space, but now their Definity line (G1 and G3 are a renamed and updated Gazelle, respectively) is a worthy competitor. Would they have worked so hard absent competition? Hah! In monopoly countries, PBX features lagged -- even in Canada, the SL-1 offered by Bell Canada was way behind the US version. I won't mention the growth in the modem and answering machine marketplaces that occured as a result of competition. Progress _inside_ the network is often a result of economic and technological forces. Fiber optics save _them_ money. But terminal competition, I beg to argue, is the key reason for rapid progress. fred ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 13:08:48 EST From: mark@legend.akron.oh.us (Mark E Daniel) Subject: Re: Elementary Area Code Question In article is written: : [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Elaborating on that idea then, why bother : to use '1' at all? Why not just say if seven digits, then the first Because it's one of those spoiled simple things. It goes back to the fact that there used to only be a 0 or a 1 in an area code. People are used to dialing 1 for any sort of toll call. I've heard several complaints from those here in Ohio because we just recently came upon what they call local plus calls where you don't dial 1 but you pay like .05 a minute to connect. Actually I recall not being too happy about that. It could be dealt with a recording that said you are about to make a toll call, hang up now if you don't like that ... and they could denote a * code for those that know that already thus not giving up much speed of connection. Mark E Daniel (Loving SysOp of The Legend BBS) Inet: mark@legend.akron.oh.us medaniel@delphi.com (Direct INet) ------------------------------ From: stefan@sixpack.six.de (Stefan Bethke) Subject: Re: Charge per Byte For Long-Distance Voice? Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 09:37:11 GMT Reply-To: stefan@sixpack.six.de (Stefan Bethke) Organization: Promo GmbH, Hamburg, Germany In article , larson@net.com (Alan Larson) writes: > The compression of u-law encoding does not reduce the data rate > during quiet time. It reduces the number of bits needed for an > apparent dynamic range, but it does it constantly during the connection. There is a ITU recommendation G.726 (ADPCM) that specifies methods for compressing speech (low quality), voice (medium) and modem/fax signals (high) down to 48, 32, 24 and 16 kbit/s. This methods are intended for better bandwith utilitisation on inter-office lines (not subscriber lines). If the switch knows the type of a particular connection (i.e. the customer has a voice-grade line), the 5-/A-Law encoded signal can be compressed. Compression can be changed even while the connection is in use (signalling for this is not in the scope of G.726). So the telco could cut down bandwidth on this call when the signal allows for it. This of course doesn't work for modem connections because the quality degradation of the transmission line would harm data transmission of all but the slowest modems (V.21). I wonder if such mechanisms are already in use? Stefan Bethke ------------------------------ From: jfh@netcom.com (Jack Hamilton) Subject: Amateur Radio Communications With Cuba Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 04:25:34 GMT The following article was in the Amateur Radio Newsline this week: CUBA AND THE ARRL Cuban American hams are angrily denouncing ARRL acceptance of an invitation for United States hams to join their Cuban counterparts in future operating events. They are making their displeasure known on voice, on CW and on packet. The crisis began after the league issued an official bulletin saying that the Cuban national society had invited American amateurs to participate in a joint operation in the 1994 ARRL June VHF QSO Party. It said that ARRL Oklahoma Section Manager Joe Lynch, N6CL, received the invitation to lead the group during his visit to Cuba the week of February 7th. Lynch, who is also the VHF editor of {CQ Magazine} was in Cuba as a member of a Methodist Church work team. While there, he extended greetings from ARRL officials and presented Federacion Radioaficionados de Cuba President Pedro Rodriguez, CO2RP, with a certificate of participation for the June 1993 ARRL VHF QSO Party. Joe also presented an author's certificate to Arnie Coro, CO2KK, for his article in December 1993 issue of the League's {QST Magazine.} But many Cuban expatriate hams living in south Florida say that Rodriguez is nothing more than a puppet of Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro. They claim that Rodriguez is a member of the Cuban military who was given a ham call sign and a new political job: the job of keeping Cuban hams following the Castro party line. This they say at the risk of losing their ham radio privileges and possibly going to jail. The Cubans hams living in the United States say that hams outside Cuba should not be holding hands with the FRC. Instead they should be pressuring their national societies to force the FRC to loosen the reign that dictator Castro has placed on the Cuban ham community. If it does take place, the joint VHF operation will place from Bellomonte, Cuba. Officials of the FRC say they have also taken under consideration a proposal from an American group for a joint operation from Cuba on the High Frequency bands in 1995. ----------------------- The electronic publication of the Amateur Radio Newsline is distributed with the permission of Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, President and Editor of Newsline. The text is transcribed from the audio service by Dale Cary, ND0AKO, and is first published on GEnie. Editorial comment or news items should be E-mailed to 3241437@mcimail.com or B.PASTERNAK@genie.geis.com. Voice or FAX to +1 805-296-7180. Articles may be reproduced if printed in their entirety and credit is given to AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE as being the source. For further information about the AMATEUR RADIO NEWSLINE, please write to us with an SASE at P.O. Box 463, Pasadena, CA 91102. Thank you, Jack Hamilton Postal: POB 281107 SF CA 94128 USA jfh@netcom.com Packet: kd6ttl@w6pw.#nocal.ca.us.na ------------------------------ From: bill@NETSYS.COM (William Petrisko) Subject: USWest Per-Call CLID Unblocking Organization: Netsys Inc. Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 17:58:07 GMT Someone mentioned that USWest (well, Phoenix AZ) has a per-call un-blocking code (for those who have their lines permanently blocked.) That code is *82 ... and it does work. Question is, was this advertised anywhere (wasn't in my phone bill inserts)? William Petrisko (WP5) Preferred: bill@wjp.net Also works: bill@netsys.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Mar 1994 13:02:48 -0500 From: malis@maelstrom.timeplex.com (Andy Malis) Subject: Cellular Phone Questions As a prospective new cellular user, I have a bunch of questions that perhaps some kind soul(s) could answer: 1. Is there a Cellular FAQ? I looked unsuccessfully in the Telecom Archives and via archie. 2. A number of places locally are selling the Motorola 550 "flip phone" for about $50. Any advice regarding this phone, either good or bad? Does it following the Motorola programming manual found in the archives (file "motorola.programming")? 3. Anyone out there with experience and/or advice regarding either Cellular 1 or Nynex Mobile in the northern Massachusetts/southern New Hampshire area? I'm interested in coverage (especially with a .6 watt hand-held), and rate plans. Thanks much for any help. Replies by direct email would be appreciated. TIA, Andrew G. Malis malis@maelstrom.timeplex.com +1 508 266-4522 Ascom Timeplex 289 Great Rd., Acton MA 01720 USA FAX: +1 508 264-4999 ------------------------------ From: worley@village.com (Dale Worley) Subject: Having Trouble With "Command Ring Decipher" Date: 7 Mar 1994 13:15:33 -0500 Organization: Village of Cambridge, Public-Access Internet I have "distinctive ringing service" on a line, that is, I have two directory numbers that both call in on the same line, and each number has a different ring pattern (in this case, "long" and "short short"). I have a decoder box, brand name "Command Ring Decipher", that sorts out incoming calls based on the ringing pattern, and routes them to two different jacks, one of which goes to my phone and one to my Fax machine. The problem is that my phone's answering machine sometimes takes an inordinate number of rings to pick up. After testing this, I discovered that the ring decoder usually works on the first ring (like it's supposed to), but occasionally takes up to four rings before it starts feeding the incoming call to the destination jack. Does anybody know what might be causing this (other than the ring decoder being defective), and what I should do about it? Thanks, Dale ------------------------------ From: tsw@cypher.apple.com (Tom Watson) Subject: Re: Traffic Overloads in Manual Service Era Date: Mon, 07 Mar 1994 18:13:20 -0800 Organization: Apple Computer (more or less) Your discussion about overloads is quite enlighting ... I relate an experience described to me in the early 1980's. The scene is an answering service, equipped with the standard of the day (pre divestiture) 557 coard boards answering 'secreterial lines' (taps of a customers line). The answering service in question had the first few (the number four comes to mind) lines of the local cable TV service. There were times when the cable TV service for the town went out, and if it happened during an interesting event (like the Super Bowl, or the Winter Olympics) the lines would light up and the answering serivce operatators would need to give some comforting thoughts to the annoyed customers waiting for their TV to get signal again. The problem is that the same speil would need to be given to everyone who called, and as they say "time is money..." so one of the operators got innovative. They (yes, it was mostly women) would take four of the cords and position them almost in the jacks associated with the lines in question. Then with the talk keys down on the four lines, and the lines all lit up, she would plug in all the lines at once, just like a conference call (but unknown to the Cable TV customers), then with the best "recording" voice she had announce something like "The Cable TV service for the town is presently unavailable, we anticipate the service to be fully restored at xx:xx, we appreciate your patience, thank you.", then unplug the cords. The process was repeated quite often, until the traffic decreased, when things returned to "normal". When related this story, I nearly rolled on the floor with laughter. You see "manual operations" continue to this day, even with overloads!! Tom Watson Not much simpler!! tsw@cypher.apple.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That technique, of responding to several calls at one time using several cords and open keys was common when the cordboard operator had to make an emergency announcement. About 1969-70 I went back to work for University of Chicago a second time, with a part time job operating a dormitory PBX and front desk two nights per week on the midnight shift. This was an old, old, old hotel called Plaisance Apartments at 61st and Stony Island Avenue. Its been torn down now for over twenty years and the lot remains vacant on that corner. One night about 2 AM there was a fire in one of the dorm rooms; someone fell asleep with a cigarette I guess; it was put down on the report as 'careless use of smoking materials'. Well, the Fire Department pulling up outside of course woke up quite a few of the 250 or so residents of the building and as expected within a minute or so of their arrival the switchboard -- normally totally dead all night long in that building -- was lit up like the proverbial Christmas Tree we hear so much about ... since the building was rated (by Fire Department standards) as 'Class A Fireproof' -- which means simply that a fire will stay confined in the area where it started *provided the door to the apartment involved is kept closed* it was not to the advantage of the Fire Department to order an evacuation, particularly at 2 AM on a cold winter night with the exception of the residents on the same floor who came downstairs to wait in the lobby and get away from the heavy smoke. Probably a third of the residents -- mostly those on the upper floors of the building -- slept through it all, finding out only the next morning when they came downstairs. (The lobby and the whole building stunk badly of smoke for almost a week; other than water damage in the apartment *directly under* the one that caught fire and a lot of soot in the hallway on the affected floor the damage was minor as those things go.) But the ones who did wake up were quick to jump on the phone to call down to the front desk and ask what was up. The Fire Department person in charge at the scene told me to tell the residents on other floors *who asked about it* (which must have been about half the building!) that ' ... there is a fire in a different part of the building; it is under control; you are requested to keep awake and alert; open your window for fresh air as needed and stay in your apartment unless notified otherwise; if you prefer to leave then use the stairs, do not use the elevators, and wait in the lobby with other residents ...' I took four or five cords -- whatever I could grip in my hands at one time and with the associated keys open just went along shoving the cords into lighted jacks, giving that message and moving on to some others. I rang everyone on the affected floor of course and woke them up, telling them to leave with the firemen who were up there going door by door to lead them over to the stairs. Of course I had to call the building manager in his apartment (he lived in the building) and tell him what was going on and I had to call the building engineer in his apartment and tell him so he could meet the firemen with the master keys to get in where the fire was burning; take all the elevators *above* the floor where the fire was located and lock them out of service up there; and pull the power in the affected area so the water damage would not short out the electrical lines and cause a further hazard. Water seeks its own level; in this case most of it ran down the hallway and into the elevator shaft (*that* is why you always park the elevators locked out of service *above* the place where the fire is located) and for the six hours or so it took to pump out the shaft and dry out the cables the elevators were out of service meaning the residents had to walk up and down eleven flights of stairs. The next day U of C evicted the dumbo who started the fire and later the university sued him for damages caused; I think it amounted to about $8000. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dalk@login.dkuug.dk (Lars Kalsen) Subject: Proceedings From Conferences Wanted Date: 7 Mar 94 19:26:19 GMT Organization: DKnet Hi, I am interested in some publications - Proceedings - from the follwing two conferences from 93: 4th IEE Conference on Telecommunications USENIX Symposium on Mobile and Location independent Computing Can anyone help me with the exact titles on the publication - and maybe where to get them. Please E-mail me if you have some information. Lars Kalsen dalk@login.dkuug.dk ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Mar 1994 11:57:47 -0700 From: Tom.Friedman@metrokc.gov Subject: Telephone MIS Seattle Metro is looking into upgrading our system that tracks customer telephone call handling management information (currently a US West system), and incorporating a new staffing scheduling component, based on the data from the information system. Does anyone out there know of some current, successful apoplications in these areas, either transit specific or other applications? Contact Tom Friedman at tom.friedman@metrokc.gov or (206) 684-1513. Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: 07 Mar 94 15:58:28 EST From: Alfredo E. Cotroneo <100020.1013@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Dialing in Italy Carl, Within Italy, in the same district, you dial just the telephone number (as in the US): e.g. 266 6971 if you want to reach us from Milano. If you dial from outside a district you have to dial the area code first, and then the number: 02 266 6971 often wrote as (02) 266 6971, is our number in Milano if you dial within Italy, but from outside the district of Milano (02). An exception is made for the mobile/cellular phones, for which you have to dial always the "area code". (0337 for commercial cellular, and 0330 for residential cellular, 0336 for old 400 MHz car phones, 0333 [GSM ?]) The rules above -- except the cellular phones codes -- are for most, (if not all), European countries. If dialing from abroad, you have just to remember Italy's country code which is 39. The CCITT way of writing our number in Milano is +39 2 266 6971 (or +39-2-266 6971). The '+' stands for your int'l long distance access code (in the US it will be 011). In Italy there are different service numbers, which are dialed with no area code, but can be dialed only within Italy: e.g. 12 is telephone directory (just one for all Italy), 176 is for telephone enquires for the Mediterranean and Europe (including North Africa), 1790 is for overseas telephone info. Toll free numbers start with 167 (equivalent to 1-800), 1-900 like numbers start with 144 (just recently introduced). 113 Police/Ambulance, 112 Carabinieri, etc. The numbers quoted for accessing the AT&T, MCI, and Sprint operators from Italy are special toll free numbers set up by agreement between Italcable (the Italian overseas carrier) and the US carriers. These numbers are called "Countrydirect": 172 1011 ATT 172 1022 MCI 172 1877 Sprint but also: 172 1054 Argentina 172 1061 Australia 172 1055 Brasil, etc. for other 21 countries. Hope this explains a little bit our numbering system. Alfredo E. Cotroneo, President NEXUS-Int'l Broadcasting Association PO Box 10980, I-20110 Milano, Italy Phone: +39-337-297788 / +39-2-2666971 email: 100020.1013@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: news@cbnewsi.att.com Date: Tue, 8 Mar 94 03:49:01 GMT Subject: IEEE INFOCOM'94, June 12-16, Toronto Organization: AT&T Announcing . . . . IEEE INFOCOM'94 The Conference on Computer Communications June 12 - 16, 1994 The Westin Harbour Castle Toronto, Ontario, Canada Now in its 13th year, IEEE INFOCOM is the premier international technical conference devoted to computer communications and networking. Papers presented at INFOCOM represent the leading edge of understanding and development in this fast-moving field, and are accepted only after a rigorous review process. The half-day and full-day tutorials are given by leading experts and afford the participant an opportunity to stay current with the latest advances in computer communications and networking. In addition, in 1994 INFOCOM is offering for the first time a full-day Gigabit Networking Workshop, consisting of informal short presentations on "hot topics" and full paper presentations on applications enabling the large-scale deployment of gigabit networks. IEEE INFOCOM'94 is sponsored by the IEEE Computer and Communication Societies. The Gigabit Networking Workshop is sponsored by the IEEE COMSOC Technical Committee on Gigabit per Second Networks. o Gigabit Networking Workshop Sunday, June 12, 1994 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM (followed by a committee "business" meeting, 4:00 - 5:00 PM) Abstracts for presentation at this workshop are due on April 1, 1994. Selected papers will be considered for a forthcoming issue of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC). Contact the program chair James Sterbenz (914-784-6489 or jpgs@acm.org) for complete information on submission guidelines. o Tutorials Sunday, June 12, 1994 2:30 - 6:30 PM 1. "Supporting Real-Time Applications Over Internet," Lixia Zhang, Xerox 2. "Recent Advances in the Algorithmic Analysis of Queueing Systems," David Lucantoni, AT&T Bell Labs Monday, June 13, 1994 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM 3. "Advanced Topics in Broadband ATM Networks," Ender Ayanoglu and Malathi Veeraraghavan, AT&T Bell Labs 4. "Wireless Communications Networks," Donald Cox, Stanford University 5. "High-Speed Networks: Multimedia Applications, Infrastructure, and Protocols," Fouad Tobagi, Stanford University 6. "The State of the Art in Network Management," Yechiam Yemini, Columbia University o Plenary Session Tuesday, June 14, 1994 8:30 - 10:00 AM "Multimedia Information Networking in the Nineties," Maurizio Decina, Politecnico di Milano/CEFRIEL o Technical Sessions Tuesday, June 14, 1994 10:30 AM - 5:00 PM Wireless Networks Performance Congestion Control Design of Optical Networks Issues in High-Speed Protocols Virtual Path Routing in ATM Networks Discrete-Time Queues and ATM High-Performance LANs Multicast Switch Architecture Performance Analysis of Video Services Admission Control Multi-Stage Optical Networks Wednesday, June 15, 1994 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM Circuit Switching Traffic Shaping Performance Analysis of Buffering Schemes Lightwave Networks Wireless Networks Performance Congestion Control Image, Audio and Video Transport Resource Management DQDB Protocol Design, Analysis and Interoperability Switched LANs Network Multicast Routing Interconnection of LANs/MANs/WANs Real-Time Systems Optical Network Routing Thursday, June 16, 1994 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM Network Routing Traffic Modeling Admission Control High-Performance LANs Transport over ATM Queueing Models Congestion Control Multi-Stage Optical Networks Security and Database Systems DQDB Scheduling FDDI Switching Performance Analysis of Switches Network Routing Protocols for WDM Networks o Panel Tuesday, June 14, 1994 5:15 - 6:45 PM "Switch-Based LANs: A Fast Evolving Networking Paradigm" Organizer/Moderator: Yoram Ofek (IBM) Panelists: Maurizio Decina (Politecnico di Milano/CEFRIEL) Alexander Fraser (AT&T Bell Labs) HT Kung (Harvard University) Nick Maxemchuk (AT&T Bell Labs) Jonathan Turner (Washington University) o Committee General Chair: Mark J. Karol, AT&T Bell Labs, tel: 908-949-8590, email: mk@boole.att.com Vice-Chair: Al Leon-Garci, University of Toronto Technical Program Chair: Magda El Zarki, University of Pennsylvania, tel: 215-898-9780, email: infocom@ee.upenn.edu Technical Program Vice-Chair: Khosrow Sohraby, Univ. of Missouri at KC Tutorials Chair: Kai Y. Eng, AT&T Bell Labs Treasurer: Ender Ayanoglu, AT&T Bell Labs Local Arrangements: Terry Todd, McMaster University Celia Desmond, Stentor Standing Committee Chair: Harvey Freeman, LANWORKS, Inc. To receive an electronic copy of the INFOCOM'94 Advance Program send Email to: infocom@ee.upenn.edu To receive a printed copy of the INFOCOM'94 Advance Program send a FAX to Mark J. Karol, INFOCOM'94 General Chair, (908) 949-9118 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #118 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12352; 8 Mar 94 19:22 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA07264; Tue, 8 Mar 94 15:22:17 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA07244; Tue, 8 Mar 94 15:22:12 CST Date: Tue, 8 Mar 94 15:22:12 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403082122.AA07244@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #119 TELECOM Digest Tue, 8 Mar 94 15:22:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 119 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Measuring Network Availability (Stacy L. Millions) Information Market Guide (IM-GUIDE) (Jesus Bustamante) ATM Newsgroup Wanted (Mohanram) Telecom FAQ Location (Michael Petsalis) Re: Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Telephone Harrassment (Barry Mishkind) Re: Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Telephone Harrassment (Doug Oke) Re: Why Are Rates to India Increasing? (Linc Madison) Re: Information Needed on Satellite Phone (Paul Robinson) Re: InterLATA CID (Paul Robinson) Re: Traffic Overloads in Manual Service Era (Linc Madison) Wanted: Alphanumeric Pager Software (Jim Ray) Re: Need TAP/IXO For Alpha Pagers (Monty Solomon) Re: Phones in the Movies Again (Alain Fontaine) Crosstalk (was Re: LD Headaches From Within an IBX System) (C. Garrigues) 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: stacy@sobeco.com (Stacy L. Millions) Subject: Measuring Network Availability Organization: Sobeco Ernst & Young Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 19:12:41 GMT Hi, I have a question that has been puzzling me for some time. I was involved in a project, where we helped to migrate a companies user base from an IBM mainframe / SNA / 3270 terminal environment to a UNIX / TCP/IP / vt220 / terminal server environment. I can remember one of IBM network type people made a comment about how they guarantee their users 99.8% network availability and he was skeptical that we would be able to match that in the new environment. Now my question is simply this: How do you a) define and b) measure 'network availability'? Particularly in the context of LANs and WANs. I, unfortunately, did not have opportunity to take this up the the IBM network type who made the original comment, I would have been most interested in his definition. It would seem that the definition is the key. Defined one way it could be interpreted as 'No one cut the cable, therefore it is available' and thus you can easily attain 99.8%. At the other end of the scale, you could define it such that the network is considered unavailable if some one turns off their PC. More realistic would be something somewhere in the middle. I would be very interested in comments from people who have defined this and do measure it. stacy stacy@sobeco.com stacy@sobeco.ca sobeco!stacy ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Mar 1994 18:01:46 CET From: JBUSTAMANTE@vms.eurokom.ie Subject: Information Market Guide (IM-GUIDE) Organization: EuroKom Conferencing Service WHAT IS I'M GUIDE ? Developed under Action Line 3 of the Information Market Policy ACTions programme (IMPACT), I'M GUIDE is a directory of information products and services available in Europe. It includes not only databases and databanks, but also CD-ROMs, CD-I products, diskette-bases, image banks, etc., publicly available. For each product the database has detailed information about the contents, subject coverage, updating frequency, size, medium on which the service or product is available etc., as well as information on the organisations producing or offering the products (information producers, hosts, information brokers, etc.) I'M GUIDE contains information about: * more than 2500 on-line databases and databanks * more than 2000 CD-ROMs and CD-Is * more than 800 other information products * more than 1700 producers of information * more than 800 services offering access * more than 1000 information brokers The database is produced by DG XIII/E of the Commission of the European Communities. The content of the database is available in all nine official languages of the European Union. You can search it using the Common Command Language (CCL), or via a specially designed user-friendly menu-driven interface (currently available in English, Spanish, Italian, French or German). I'M-GUIDE is continuously updated, with the information collection carried out by a network of correspondents in all countries covered, monitoring the information scene in their region. On-line access to the database is provided FREE of CHARGE through ECHO (European Commission Host Organisation). HOW TO CONNECT TO ECHO VIA INTERNET Now you can access ECHO with a simple TELNET command and the address: ECHO.LU (or 158.64.1.51) Once received our welcome screen "%THIS IS ECHO PLEASE ENTER YOUR CODE", you can login with the following public password: NGUEST (or with your own personal password) If you would like to register (registered ECHO users are provided with their own personal password and a detailed CCL Manual), or you would like to receive further information about ECHO and its databases, please send your NAME and COMPLETE POSTAL ADDRESS to: ECHO European Commission Host Organisation B.P. 2373 L-1023 Luxembourg Or to any of the Email addresses below JESUS BUSTAMANTE ECHO (European Commission Host Organisation) Tel. : +352 34981 220 Email : POSTMASTER@ECHO.LU Fax : +352 34981 234 ECHO@ECHO.LU Pers. Email: JESUS.BUSTAMANTE@EUROKOM.IE ------------------------------ Date: 07 Mar 1994 22:09:06 CST From: Mohanram Subject: ATM Newsgroup Wanted Organization: University of Missouri - Kansas City, CSTP Could you please tell me if there is a news group for discussion about ATM? I would like to know more about this technology and there is no better way than the news groups. I am not a regular reader of comp.dcom. telecom news group. Please send me email. Thanks in advance, Mohanram ------------------------------ From: mike@ece.concordia.ca (Michael Petsalis) Subject: Telecom FAQ Location Reply-To: mike@ece.concordia.ca Organization: ECE - Concordia University Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 00:29:43 GMT Hello all! Could someone please point me in the direction of the FAQ for this newsgroup? Please reply by email and thanks in advance. Regards, mike@ece.concordia.ca (Michael Petsalis) Voice : (514) 848 3114 Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Fax : (514) 848 2802 Concordia University, Montreal, Canada [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've already responded to this writer with the answer so others do not need to write, but this is a question which comes up quite often. The FAQ is sent out automatically to each new subscriber to the mailing list, and it is also available in the Telecom Archives at lcs.mit.edu. From time to time, I also post it in the Usenet group comp.dcom.telecom. At the present time, I am waiting for the new edition from David Leibold; when it arrives it will replace the version there now which is about a year old. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 Mar 94 19:49 MST From: barry@coyote.datalog.com (barry mishkind) Subject: Re: Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Telephone Harrassment Organization: Datalog Consulting, Tucson, AZ In article is written: > A comment on the one-ring telephone harassment: A local Chicago talk > show personality (Brian McCann on WLUP's Sunday afternoon "comedy" > program) has encouraged listeners to "drive your friends crazy" with > one-ring phone calls. He thinks it's a "victory" if the harasser can > drive the victim to taking the phone of the hook so "they can't > receive those important calls." He spent this afternoon (6 March) > playing this game and exhorting others to do the same. The final > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It sounds to me like it is time for > someone to circulate Brian McCann's home telephone number publicly. > Incidentally, the main switchboard for the business offices at WLUP is > 312-440-5270. That is public information, it appears in the phone book > By the way, if anyone thinks of something else callers to WLUP > should not do -- something I may have overlooked -- write and let us > know. PAT] We certainly shouldn't suggest that messages be sent to the FCC, regarding Brian's behavior ... especially to the new FTP location and email address they have put on line. Barry Mishkind barry@coyote.datalog.com Tucson, Arizona [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You're right; it would not do much good. The FCC has been trying to collect on a fine against that station for a few years now based on the antics of those two other obnoxious creeps they have on the air ... what'stheirnames ... the station refuses to pay and keeps dragging it through court. Years ago, the FCC's response would have been to go out and padlock the transmitter after shutting it off; I guess these days the big money involved with major radio stations doesn't allow that to happen. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Doug_Oke@mindlink.bc.ca (Doug Oke) Subject: Re: Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Telephone Harrassment Date: 8 Mar 94 04:37:14 GMT Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada If you find it difficult to get through to the switchboard, or simply don't want to waste the operators' time, don't forget that you can FAX your message to WLUP. As long as their machines haven't run out of paper, you can use the phone lines to deliver a message about irresponsible uses of telecom to them in printed form. Doug Oke - Vancouver, Canada Doug_Oke@mindlink.bc.ca [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Good thinking! The fax number at the WLUP general offices is 312-440-9377. But keep your messages brief (say, less than 10-12 pages in length) and non-abusive. You might want to fax them copies of pertinent FCC regulations, copies of scripts from old Jack Benny radio shows to show them what 'comedy programs' were like years ago and perhaps some pages from the Chicago phone directory to show them a list of people who might be or were possibly affected by McCann's 'game'. Say Doug, do you get AM-1000 out there in Vancouver at night? I know there is a station somewhere around Calgary, Alberta playing heavy rock music which comes in here in Chicago at night some- times. When we get the signal it comes in like gangbusters even louder than some of the locals. AM radio signals are amazing things. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Why Are Rates to India Increasing? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 08:53:38 GMT A N Ananth (ananth@access.digex.net) wrote: > In article , Linc Madison > wrote: >> I was looking at yet another one of those newspaper ads for the >> various LD companies' international discount calling plans, and I've >> noticed that they list numbers like "India 73 cents (thru 3/30/94, 78 >> cents after)" >> Is the PTT in India increasing its "landing fees"? > Actually the rates are not increasing at all. As one who spend$, let > me assure you that the rate of $0.73 is almost 50% off the normal > rate ... at the present time, $0.78 per minute is the best you can do > [if you call over the weekend etc] That still doesn't answer my question. The rate (with the special discount plan) is $0.73 now, but will be (again with the special discount plan) $0.78 next month. That *is* an increase; why? None of the other countries mentioned in the ad has any differential. Also, one of the ads like this that I saw listed the "regular price" rates for India, and they *are* scheduled to increase on 4/1/94. Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 04:29:09 EST From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: Re: Information Needed on Satellite Phone Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Min Hu writes: > During the gulf war, both the reporters and the American soldiers > used a kind of satellite phone system so that they could communicate > with outside world. The soldiers were using radiotelephones that were connected to the military's satelite system. And here is how far the world has changed; some of the critical classified information sent by the military was transmitted over satelites leased from Russia! The reporters were using Inmarsat telephones. They're fine if you want to pay about $9 a minute more than typical overseas calls, e.g. a long distance call from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia is about $1.20 a minute, while Inmarsat charges about $10 a minute. Oh, and don't forget the $10,000 to $50,000 for the transmitting station. Paul Robinson - Paul@TDR.COM ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 04:33:57 EST From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: Re: InterLATA CID Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA tjnelson@attmail.att.com, writes: > I have a question regarding the use of Caller ID on Inter-LATA > calls. Currently the technology exists to deliver the calling number > to the terminating LEC office As long as all the paths from start to end are SS7 switches. > Since this information in most cases is deliverable right now, why > doesn't InterLATA CID exist? In "To Sail Beyond the Sunset," A son asks his mother, "In Dallas the TV telephones are all stereo; why is Kansas City still using flatties?" to which his mother responds, "Donald, whenever any question begins 'Why don't they' the answer is almost always 'Money'." > The only reason I've heard so far is that the RBOCs must be "de- > regulated" before they can accept/deliver Inter-LATA originating > numbers. Some people in some cities have noted getting Caller-ID information from people in other states, who are long distance calls. It's a political, not a technical question. What it probably comes down to is that the local telcos believe that providing calling party information is a valuable service for which they think they shouldn't have to provide it without compensation on calls delivered to a distant point, where the the distant party benefits without the local company getting some cut. > This doesn't seem to make much sense. Perhaps it's just a matter > of working out which carrier charges who and for how much or is > there another reason? Don't forget, if calling number delivery becomes much more available, some companies can dispense with T1s for 800 numbers and get the same thing without having to pay for T1 trunks to get real-time delivery of calling party numbers. Since an 800 call almost always comes in as just an ordinary call terminated on ordinary phone lines, the CNID information should be available in real time to me, with my $10 a month 800 number from Sprint as it is to some company paying $2000 a month for T1 trunks. Paul Robinson - Paul@TDR.COM ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 01:56:58 -0800 From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Traffic Overloads in Manual Service Era Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) In article you wrote: > One such instance that I remember specifically was an explosion at > the Whiting Refinery in 1953. ... it quickly spread into some > storage tanks and a large device they called a 'cat cracker' -- whatever > that means -- ... The 'cat cracker' is a device that uses a catalyst (cat for short) to 'crack' complex hydrocarbon molecules, which is to say to break very complex molecules into simpler molecules. It's highly explosive, of course, because you're dealing with petroleum and heating it up to work on massaging its molecular structure. Linc [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks also to several other correspondents who wrote to explain the term to me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ray@rock.concert.net (Jim Ray -- Personal Account) Subject: Wanted: Alphanumeric Pager Software Date: 8 Mar 1994 19:51:24 GMT Organization: CONCERT-Connect Public Dial UNIX Anybody know of a source for software that will use the modem to dial an alphanumeric pager and to send a message to that pager? Motorola uses these keyboard-like devices now. It would be nice to replace them with software. Thanks! Jim Ray Tel: 919-981-7433 Fax: 919-981-0066 Internet: ray@mercury.interpath.net ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 07:43:21 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Need TAP/IXO For Alpha Pagers > I am looking for any info on the TAP (Telelocator Alphanumeric Input > Protocol) or something called IXO. > These are used for sending out alphanumeric messages on certain kinds > of pagers. And I need the info to write my own programs. Look in dir pub/ixo on anonftp.geo.mtu.edu. There is also a mailing list: subscribe via email to majordomo@warren.mentorg.com (send help message for instructions) contribute via email to ixo@warren.mentorg.com Monty Solomon / PO Box 2486 / Framingham, MA 01701-0405 monty@roscom.com ------------------------------ From: fontaine@sri.ucl.ac.be (Alain Fontaine) Subject: Re: Phones in the Movies Again Organization: Universite Catholique de Louvain Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 13:08:41 GMT In article , wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) wrote: > bulbs, which thread into their sockets. European bulbs have bayonet > type sockets (similar to over-grown automotive turn signal lamp > sockets) so the gag makes sense if you understand this. And in 'America', everyone rides a horse, wearing a big hat and a pair of colts. Now, I was born here in Belgium (Europa) in 1951, and I have never encountered a bayonet socket except for the small lamp in my wife's sewing machine ... /AF [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What was that song from "West Side Story" which went, 'da da dee da in America ... da da dee da in America; da da dee da in America ... in America!' ------------------------------ From: cwg@mcc.com (Chris Garrigues) Subject: Crosstalk (was Re: LD Headaches From Within an IBX System) Organization: Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 15:49:11 GMT In article , Jonathan Lieberman wrote: > Ever since then during aproximatly 35% - 50% of my long distance calls > (both those that I originate, and when other people call me long > distance) I hear other people (and they hear me) making long distance > calls from within my building. A few years ago while unemployed, I found that I was getting crosstalk on my phone line from some business. I called SouthWestern Bell and they fixed the problem. A number of months later when I was home during the day, I noticed that the problem was back, so I called SWB again and they "fixed" the problem again. Things were fine again for a few months and then one day I was on my modem line dialing into work and the line went completely dead. I stepped out onto my front porch and noted a SWB repair truck parked in front of Jeff's house across the street. I walked over to the truck and told the guy what happened. He asked me "Is your number xxx-xxxx?" I answered that it was, and he muttered "Damn! Is it completely dead?" Yes. "Okay, I'll take care of it once and for all." He put a tone generator on my line and walked down the street with a coil on the end of a poll until he stopped getting the signal. He then climbed up the poll and discovered an ant colony in the wiring. By 10PM he had my line working and by noon the next day, he'd patched up everything and evicted the ants. I don't know of any line problems in my neighborhood since, but I could be lucky. It seems that this crosstalk problem had been going on for years and every time someone would complain about it, rather than fixing it they simply patched a different line into the bad pair. They made a point of mixing business and residencial lines on the theory that we'd be less likely to be using the lines at the same time. Until the line completely failed, they didn't have an easy way to localize the problem, so they punted. Chris Garrigues (MIME capable) cwg@mcc.com Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation +1 512 338 3328 3500 West Balcones Center Drive Fax +1 512 338 3838 Austin, TX 78759-6509 USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I once had an aunt who could be quite a nuisance on the telephone. She would call at very inconvenient times and want to talk for hours. She did not live in a colony however; she lived in a retirement village in Florida. That's enough for today. :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #119 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa19513; 9 Mar 94 15:01 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05102; Wed, 9 Mar 94 10:58:13 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05091; Wed, 9 Mar 94 10:58:10 CST Date: Wed, 9 Mar 94 10:58:10 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403091658.AA05091@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #120 TELECOM Digest Wed, 9 Mar 94 10:58:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 120 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number (TELECOM Digest Editor) Telephone Companies and the Time (Kent Borg) SONAR Data Communications Underwater (Susan Jacobson) Question About Random Dialing (gaupkg@fnma.com) Looking For Two and Three Character Country Codes (Eileen C. Bauer) Problems with GSM Technology? (John Sims) More Dialogic Help (Rich Padula) Re: Clipped Again (Barry Margolin) Re: Cellular Phone Questions (Robin Amano) Re: Line/Cable Simulators (Rich Padula) Re: Wanted: Alphanumeric Pager Software (Jeff Regan) Re: Transborder Local Calls (Wally Bloss) Re: Phones in the Movies Again (Charles Hoequist, Jr.) CONNECT Table of Contents - Mar/Apr '94 (Patricia Snyder-Rayl) 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, 8 Mar 94 23:31:08 CST From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number How's this for a new twist on the 900 number racket? Illinois' most infamous prisoner -- and one of the most infamous in the USA -- John Wayne Gacy has installed a 900 number people can call to hear him proclaim his innocence. Gacy was convicted in 1978 of the sexual assualts and murders during sado-masochistic activities of 33 boys and young men, most of whom were found casually buried under mounds of dirt in a crawl space beneath his home on Summerdale Avenue in unincorporated Norwood Park Township, a small area on the northwest side here which has Chicago on two sides of it and Des Plaines, Illinois on another side, but is not part of any town. A few boys were found buried in the back yard, a couple under the cement in the driveway, etc. John Wayne Gacy was arrested by detectives of the Des Plaines Police Department, and by the time they finished their investigation they had found so many bodies they eventually lost count and settled on 33, most of whom to this day fifteen years later have not been identified, nor has their body been claimed. After an insanity plea which the court did not buy, Gacy tried a variety of tactics and eacb step of the way, higher courts confirmed the findings and actions of the lower courts which had come before. He was sentenced to death, and imposition of punishment was repeatedly postponed as Gacy made appeal after appeal on technical matters. Finally he has run out of things to appeal and imposition of death has been scheduled once and for all early in May of this year. * Now John Wayne Gacy is taking a different approach, and claims that he is totally innocent of the charges most foul lodged against him. * He claims that 'several people' had keys to his house and were free to come and go at any time. The same people were free to use his cement mixer as well perhaps? He has no idea how the bodies of teenage boys came to be buried in his back yard or under the floor in the garage, etc. He explains all this and more on a 900 phone number set up for him by a company in Florida working with his attorney. As the message begins, we hear Gacy himself comment, ' ... This is John Wayne Gacy speaking. In this message, I will explain and prove my innocence to your complete satisfaction. The cost for this call is $2.95 per minute, and on average, each call lasts eleven minutes with a total average charge of $33 per call. If you don't wish to pay, please hang up now, and at this time the charges will begin ...' The parents of the victims who have been identified at one time or another -- sadly, only a few have been traced -- all have judgments against Gacy amounting to millions of dollars each. They are now suing to get a piece of the action on the 900 number, since that is the only money they will ever see out of this. Gacy also attempts to sell his objects 'd art, but he has not had much luck selling his mostly morbid drawings and oil paintings. Gacy's attorney wants to keep the money for himself to offset the enormous legal bills his client has run up, and the State of Illinois has other ideas. Prison officials are absolutely livid; it seems Gacy did not consult them on this at all but set it up behind their back with the company in Florida. Prison officials are now also suing Gacy to get the 900 number disconnected; meanwhile the calls keep rolling in at an average of $33 each. The prison officials want to confiscate the money and use it to pay Gacy's room and board and their other expenses in guarding him. I don't know how good a job they could be doing guarding him if his 900 number got turned on and started receiving hundreds of calls per day before they found out about it. As the date draws near for Gacy's execution -- this time, no more stalling or delays -- a group calling itself the American Civil Liberties Union has stated it will intervene to prevent Gacy from being persecuted further by the state and the criminals in our society of which Gacy is but a victim. In other correctional institution news this week, Larry Eyler -- another Gacy type, in 1984 he was convicted here of the dismemberment and sex-murder of a fifteen year old boy -- died at the age of 41 on Death Row from complications due to AIDS. His execution had been scheduled for later this year. I'll bet you're all rushing to your phones right now to call John Wayne Gacy's 900 number so you can cry your eyes out over the dilemma he finds himself in ... ... My kind of town, Chicago is! (Frank Sinatra said it, not me.) PAT ------------------------------ From: kentborg@world.std.com (Kent Borg) Subject: Telephone Companies and the Time Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 17:36:44 GMT I am under the impression that phone companies need accurate frequency sources for synchronous communications, but do they have any real need for accurate time of day information? The question is prompted by the fact that the local non-wire cellular carrier in Boston, Cellular One, doesn't know what time it is. I placed my first billable cell call one day after 7:00 PM local time but was billed a minute at prime time rates. I know it was after 7:00, for the BBC World Service had already started their 00:00 UTC news broadcast, my watch said so too, etc. Yesterday I checked the talking clock number of Nynex (as they are calling New England Telephone these days) and it was off by what sounded like at least a tenth of a second when played against a WWV transmission. (Usually they are closer -- unless there has been a leap second a few hours earlier.) Question: What need do phone companies have for accurate time (other than not cheating customers)? How many different definitions of the "correct time" likely exist inside your average RBOC, long distance company, cellular provider, etc.? Question 2: How do I find the person inside Cellular One Boston who is in charge of setting the clock on the billing computer? Kent Borg H: +1 (617) 776-6899 kentborg@world.std.com W: +1 (508) 250-5407 kentborg@aol.com Fax: +1 (508) 250-5400 ------------------------------ From: Susan Jacobson Subject: SONAR Data Communications Underwater Date: Tue, 8 Mar 94 18:58:13 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Hi there! I am looking for some information about underwater data communications. Several sources have told me I would have to use SONAR technology ... I am working on a design project in graduate school. My group wants to create a wireless communications device (like a PDA) that could be used by recreational SCUBA divers. Any information would be apppreciated. Thanks! ------------------------------ From: gaupkg@fnma.COM Subject: Question About Random Dialing Reply-To: gaupkg@fnma.COM Organization: Fannie Mae Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 21:47:18 GMT Hi! Ya'all Telecom folks, A friend of mine who doesn't read this news group has the following question: Is there a shareware program or commercial program available that can dial randomly within a given area code and when it comes across a fax machine log that fax number into a database. If anyone has any pointers I would appreciate it. Prab G. gaupkg@fnma.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Just what is needed ... a program to invade the privacy of telephone subscribers; annoy them by causing their phone to ring and hanging up on them when it discovers they are not a fax machine, and creating a list of the subscribers who are. Sorry, no help available here. Who does your friend 'who does not read this newsgroup' think he is anyway, that he has the right to scan through telephone exchanges bothering everyone like that? Tell your friend that if someone has a fax machine and wishes to use it to be in contact with him, they will let him know. In other words, don't call us, we'll call you. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ecb@world.std.com (Eileen C Bauer) Subject: Looking For Two and Three Character Country Codes Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 01:52:53 GMT Can anyone send me a list of current two and three character country codes. I have most of them, but what with the breakup of various countries and what-not, I figure I'm missing a few (codes, that is) Thanks for any info! Eileen ------------------------------ Subject: Problems With GSM Technology Date: Wed, 09 Mar 1994 11:12:53 +0800 From: John Sims Greetings! The commercial media here has started to make widely known the Australian government's plans to scrap the analog cellular system by 2000, to be replaced by a GSM based system. There is a bit of a ruckus developing, but that is not I want to discuss. I seem to remember a few months back there was some information here about some real technical problems with GSM as a system. I would be very grateful if someone out there who is aware of GSM's shortcomings could share these with us, or at least point me to where an archive of such information might be kept. Thanks very much in advance. John Sims john@fs.com.au Functional Software Voice: +61 9 328 8288 7/643 Newcastle St Fax: +61 9 328 8616 Leederville, Western Australia, 6007 ------------------------------ From: rpadula@aol.com Date: Tue, 08 Mar 94 22:11:14 EST Subject: More Dialogic Help Needed Does anyone know where I can find the latest version of the Dialogic voice drivers for DOS for their D40/B and D41/B boards? I called Dialogic, especially since their fax-back server indicates "NC" for their DOS voice drivers. Unfortunately, they would not give me the drivers for "NC" and proceeded to try to push their new products on me. Ugh. I really hate having these two boards going to waste ... Rich ------------------------------ From: barmar@Think.COM (Barry Margolin) Subject: Re: Clipped Again Date: 8 Mar 1994 22:29:20 GMT Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA In article padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) writes: > {Time Magazine}, March 14, 1994 >> In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich >> Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of >> phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to conduct wiretaps. >> When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they opposed it. > This makes no sense to me. Today there is *no* privacy in phone calls > so the question must have been worded so as to imply that there is for > people to believe that Clipper provides *less*. Where does the above description say that there is currently privacy? In fact, it says "preserve the ability ... to conduct wiretaps", implying that there currently is no privacy. The "protect the privacy" alternative is a new feature. So it claims that 2/3 would like additional privacy rather than the current ability of the government to tap. >> Rather than outlaw PGP and other such programs, a policy that would >> probably be unconstitutional, the Administration is taking a marketing >> approach. By using its purchasing power to lower the cost of Clipper >> technology, and by vigilantly enforcing restrictions against overseas >> sales of competing encryption systems, the government is trying to >> make it difficult for any alternative schemes to become widespread. > PGP is free for individual use -- you mean the government is going to > *pay me* to use Clipper? PGP may be free for individual use, but the above paragraph is presumably about commercial use. A PGP option for a phone almost certainly won't be free. The point of the above paragraph is that the most popular encryption chip will presumably be the cheapest, due to economies of scale, and a chip in use throughout the government will have automatic popularity. Of course, this ignores the effect of competition. I think the Clipper protocol is currently licensed to a single vendor, so its monopoly status will not provide incentive to lower the cost. Meanwhile, vendors competing in an open encryption market will try to beat each others' prices. > When I get some Clippers/Capstones, *then* I'll make my decision as to > whether or not they are any good but I am getting bothered by all the > people who want to deny me that chance. Most of the complaints about Clipper have little to do with the quality of the encryption algorithm (although there *is* some concern, since it's not been opened to public scrutiny), but about the government's policy surrounding it (e.g. the key escrow facility). I'm not sure how receipt of the chips would affect one's opinion about the latter. Barry Margolin System Manager, Thinking Machines Corp. barmar@think.com {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar ------------------------------ From: robin@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Robin Amano) Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Questions Organization: University of Hawaii Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 01:11:52 GMT In article malis@maelstrom.timeplex.com (Andy Malis) writes: > 1. Is there a Cellular FAQ? I looked unsuccessfully in the Telecom > Archives and via archie. > 2. A number of places locally are selling the Motorola 550 "flip > phone" for about $50. Any advice regarding this phone, either good or > bad? Does it following the Motorola programming manual found in the > archives (file "motorola.programming")? I have a 550 and it works okay for me. Where do you find this programming manual? Actually if I could afford the expensive flip phone I'd get that. I like the keys that you don't have to press hard. rob ------------------------------ From: rpadula@aol.com Date: Tue, 08 Mar 94 22:10:57 EST Subject: Re: Line/Cable Simulators In V14 #112, phil_s1@verifone.com asked for a line/cable simulator. Here's something I found in Vol. 39 of the EDN Products Edition: The Consultronics DLS-90: - Simulates up to 9000 feet of cable. - Good for ISDN, T1, HDSL, or ADSL. - 1.5 MHz bandwidth - Variable in 100 foot increments. - Passes DC voltages. - Fully passive and bi-directional. Their toll-free number: 1-800-267-7235. Their address: Consultronics/Atlanta, 5258 Ashley Dr., Lilburn, GA 30247. Their direct phone number: 404-921-3449, Fax: 404-381-5810. P.S. Any typos are mine. Hope this helps. ------------------------------ From: Jeff Regan Reply-To: Jeff Regan Subject: Re: Wanted: Alphanumeric Pager Software Date: 8 Mar 1994 19:51:24 GMT Organization: CONCERT-Connect Public Dial UNIX > Anybody know of a source for software that will use the modem to dial > an alphanumeric pager and to send a message to that pager? > Motorola uses these keyboard-like devices now. It would be nice to > replace them with software. About seven years ago I wrote a program for an XT that would call the MOTOROLA number that these little units would dial, and if right, hit return a couple of times. When it saw something like 'ID:' come back from the far end, it would enter the ID. When 'MSG:' came back, it would type the message the user requested to send. A straight terminal program was all that was needed, but the company I did it for had me set up a look up table so they just had to type the NAME of the pager user, and then the MESSAGE, and the proage was sent ... not difficult at all. I don't remember off hand but I think it was like 1200 baud 7e1 or something like that ... you would have to figure out area but that should not be too hard. I took a quick look around but was unable to locate the program. Hope this is of some help. Jeff Regan Internet address: JEREGAN@FLASH.LAKEHEADU.CA Ham Packet address: VE3XJR@VE3TKA.#NON.ON.CAN.NA ------------------------------ From: wbloss@delphi.com Subject: Re: Transborder Local Calls Date: Wed, 9 Mar 94 09:07:27 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) John Botari writes: > concerning a local calling area that crosses an international boundary > ... Baudette, MN - (218) 634-xxxx, and Rainy River, ON - (807) 852-xxxx Is a Baudette a small Baud? Wally Bloss A Human [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No, a baudette is a female baud. A baudlet is a baby baud. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 17:40:00 +0000 From: charles hoequist Subject: Re: Phones in the Movies Again fontaine@sri.ucl.ac.be (Alain Fontaine) writes: > And in 'America', everyone rides a horse, wearing a big hat and a pair > of colts. During my residence in Germany 1982-85, a lot of German university students seemed to think so, except that the Colts were replaced by Pershing missles. > Now, I was born here in Belgium (Europa) in 1951, and I have > never encountered a bayonet socket except for the small lamp in my > wife's sewing machine ... /AF I encountered them the first time I changed a light bulb (in a regular lamp) in the UK, and continued to find them as long as I lived there, 1986-88. Took me a couple of failures to learn to note the socket type when going to the store for replacements. Of course, one could argue that the UK isn't part of Europe ;) 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 ------------------------------ From: pegasus@cyberspace.org (Patricia Snyder-Rayl) Subject: CONNECT Table of Contents - Mar/Apr '94 Date: 9 Mar 1994 11:39:33 -0500 Organization: Cyberspace Communications Public-Access UNIX CONNECT Magazine Table of Contents Vol 2 No 2 March/April 1994 FEATURES Newspapers in the Electronic Age by David Noak Newspapers have found new life in the electronic world. This article looks at a number of newspapers making the move to the digital marketplace. Confessions of a Conference Junkie by Annina Anton A genuine real-time conferencing addict explains what it is like to be hooked on chat. How to Choose an Online Service by Rich Hower Want to get online but are baffled by the many choices available to you? This article helps you decide which online services are best for you. Teaching the Old Dog by James Rock An "old dog" who recently entered the world of telecomputing tells how he's found a new online home, and learned a few new tricks, on the Cyberia BBS in Pennsylvania. DC NET v2.1 -- An Online Window to Creativity by Dan Dearmond Durand Communication's DC NET Online Photographic Database software is the focus of this in-depth review. A Second Look at DC NET by Jeff Worchester Another DC NET user reviews Durand's online database allowing callers to view text and graphics together online. Accessing the Online World of Electronic Bulletin Boards by Russell Frey The author of PowerBBS for Windows takes you through the ABCs of the BBSing world, discusses BBSes and networking, and points you to a number of excellent BBSes that are just a connection away. Turn Your PC into a Usenet Site by Edward Branley This article shows you how to get your IBM PC or compatible system connected to the "Outernet," allowing Usenet newsgroups and Internet mail to be accessed directly on your PC. Highlights of COMDEX/Fall '93 by Steve Richardson After attending the Fall COMDEX show in Las Vegas, the author shares his impressions of what was offered for telecomputer users. Commworks for Windows by Jim Mallory The author reviews the new Windows-based communications package from Traveling Software, makers of LapLink and Remote Access. COLUMNS The Inside Line Editorial Staff Columnist Michael A. Banks points out online "hang-outs" for writers of books and publications, as well as other topics. Eye on America Online Columnist Julia Wilkinson takes us through the areas on AOL supporting palmtops and Personal Data Assistants (PDAs) like the Apple Newton MessagePad and Casio Zoomer. Connecting with Compuserve Your CompuServe guide, columnist Jim Ness, spotlights some of the service's ever-expanding European offerings. Telecomputing the DELPHI Way DELPHI's Internet SIG and Custom Forums SIG are revisited by Columnist Dick Evans, who also discusses his recent in-person tour of the DELPHI facility. GEnie's Treasures Columnist Jim Mallory takes us to the Medical RoundTable on GEnie and shows why this RT may be the cure for what ails you. The Internet Gateway Using the Internet Gopher to its fullest potential, and thereby saving you valuable time and resources, is the focus of this issue's offering from Columnist Paul Gilster. Clear to Send The MicroLink shareware Windows terminal program from MicroWerks is reviewed by PC Columnist Victor Volkman. Dial M for Macintosh Macintosh Columnist Ross Scott Rubin talks about Apple's latest foray into the modem/serial communications market with the GeoPort. Staying Connected for about a Pound Palmtop Columnist Marty Mankins shows how to stay in touch via fax with your palmtop or PDA. CONNECT magazine is available at the following magazine outlets: B.Dalton Bookseller, Bookstop, Bookstar, Barnes & Noble, Doubleday, Scribner's, Crown Books, Tower BooksT ittle Professor, Lichtman'c ewsxMjkk, Coles Book Stores, CompUSA, Computer City and Software Etc. chains, as well as other chains and independent newsstands, book stores and computer dealers in the U.S. and Canada. Call (313) 973-8825 to find the magazine dealer nearest you who carries CONNECT. CONNECT is a bi-monthly magazine covering the major commercial online services (such as America Online, BIX, CompuServe, DELPHI, GEnie and Prodigy), the Internet, and bulletin board system networks (such as Fidonet, WWIVnet, and GlobalNet). The magazine is platform-independent, with columns focusing on PC-specific (DOS and Windows), Macintosh-oriented, and Palmtop/PDA-related topics. CONNECT Magazine |(313) 973-8825 | Covering commercial online | "The Modem User's Resource"|(313) 973-0411 fax | services, Internet and BBS | 3487 Braeburn Circle |(313) 973-9137 BBS | networks from a user's | Ann Arbor, MI 48108 | 14.4Kbps V.32bis| perspective. | ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #120 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa20258; 9 Mar 94 16:38 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA08968; Wed, 9 Mar 94 12:39:04 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA08942; Wed, 9 Mar 94 12:39:00 CST Date: Wed, 9 Mar 94 12:39:00 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403091839.AA08942@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #121 TELECOM Digest Wed, 9 Mar 94 12:39:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 121 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Motorola Envoy Personal Wireless Communicator (Ben Burch) AT&T Cellular Phone 3050 and Cordless Phone 9530 (Sheldon W. Hoenig) Erlang B and Required Trunks Functions (John Osmon) Morons? (Sandra Oudshoff) Mr. Watson, Come Here ... (John R. Levine) 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: Ben Burch Subject: Motorola Envoy Personal Wireless Communicator Organization: Motorola, Inc Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 17:37:40 GMT SAN JOSE, CALIF. (MARCH 7) BUSINESS WIRE - March 7, 1994 -- Continuing its work to fulfill the vision of any time, anywhere communications, Motorola today unveiled the Envoy(R) product, the first fully integrated personal wireless communicator that incorporates two-way wireless and wireline communication. The Envoy communicator, the first in a line of personal wireless communicators from Motorola, was demonstrated at an event held in conjunction with the opening day of the Mobile '94 Conference in San Jose, Calif. Based on General Magic's intuitive Magic Cap(TM) platform and Telescript(TM) communications language, the Envoy hand-held device lets users instantly access and communicate information anywhere -- across a conference table or in a moving taxi. It is powered by Motorola's Dragon chip set -- the highly integrated 68349 processor and a special purpose application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) referred to as Astro. This chip set was designed specifically to optimize the performance of Magic Cap and Telescript. "It's rewarding to witness the result of the close business and technological cooperation between Motorola and so many distinguished partners," said Chris Galvin, Motorola's president and chief operating officer. The Envoy communicator is a practical, all-in-one tool for people who need to stay in touch. Designed for both business and personal use, it can communicate with popular public and private electronic mail systems, Windows-based computers, Macintosh computers and fax machines, as well as with other Envoy communicators. It can keep track of appointments, expenses, addresses, telephone numbers, telephone calls, billing preferences and time zones. "Motorola's leadership and expertise in wireless communications, the powerful Magic Cap and Telescript environment, and the outstanding applications from so many software developers and communication service providers make it possible to bring end-to-end solutions to market, allowing users to communicate and access information anywhere," said Bob Growney, president and general manager of Motorola's Messaging, Information and Media Sector. A user can write on the Envoy communicator with the accompanying stylus, or even use a finger, to type and select or move objects on its screen. Envoy communicator owners can use an on-screen keyboard to input information, use electronic ink to draw or write personal notations, or send messages and faxes in their own handwriting. A Single Tool, Three Ways to Communicate Using the Envoy communicator, people can send and receive messages and information any time, anywhere, and at their convenience. A two-way wireless packet data modem from Motorola is built into every Envoy communicator, allowing users to stay in touch wirelessly when access to a phone line isn't convenient. Envoy communicator owners can also access standard telephone lines to communicate, using the built-in fax modem. And through the built-in infrared communications link, users can instantly exchange data -- such as business card information -- between Envoy communicators. The two wireless communication services offered to Envoy communicator users, AT&T PersonaLink(SM) Service and RadioMail(TM), will be connected via the ARDIS(R) nationwide wireless data communications network, which serves more than 400 metropolitan areas in the United States. Communication and Productivity Software built in Motorola's Envoy personal wireless communicator features a full complement of integrated electronic mail and information services. Through RadioMail, Envoy communicator owners can wirelessly communicate with a broad population of electronic mail users via the Internet, and commercial and public mail systems. America Online(R), which is also built into the Envoy communicator, allows users to receive stock quotes and also communicate with electronic mail users. Using Telescript technology, AT&T PersonaLink Services will let Envoy communicator users take advantage of personal intelligent assistants. These intelligent assistants will make it easy for PersonaLink Services subscribers to send smart electronic messages, seek out information, and shop for products and services, using both wireless and wireline means. The built-in Official Airline Guides (OAG(R)) Flightline(TM) service gives air travelers direct access to timely flight information. The Envoy communicator also comes with PenWare's PenCell(TM) spreadsheet, a software program that's compatible with Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel file formats, and provides powerful spreadsheet and graphing capabilities to Envoy communicator users. Additionally, Motorola and Intuit have entered into a letter of intent to build into the Envoy communicator Pocket Quicken SmartWallet(TM), an application that lets users capture and sort expenses in real time. For maximum flexibility, the Envoy communicator features two PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) type II slots, allowing Envoy communicator owners to simultaneously run third-party software applications and add memory to store more information. To augment the functionality of the Envoy communicator, Motorola has made it convenient for customers to purchase additional products and services through the Motorola Software and Accessories Catalog, packaged with each communicator. Motorola is working with multiple independent software developers who have created a variety of applications and services for the Envoy communicator; more than 15 applications, ranging from travel maps to daily news summaries, will be available when the product ships. Motorola's expertise in wireless technologies and semiconductors has made it possible to miniaturize sophisticated circuitry, and fit it in one small, portable package. The Envoy communicator weighs 1.7 lbs. and measures 7.5 inches in width, 5.7 inches in height, and 1.2 inches in depth. Motorola's Envoy communicator will be available in the United States this summer through multiple distribution channels. The Envoy communicator is expandable, therefore future wireless connectivity may be possible with other networks, such as Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Mtel's Nationwide Wireless Network (NWN), the Motorola Integrated Radio System (MIRS) service providers and RAM Mobile Data. The Wireless Data Group is part of Motorola's Messaging, Information and Media Sector, and incorporates the company's business activities involved in the design, manufacture and distribution of wireless data communications products, infrastructure equipment and systems for worldwide markets. Motorola, headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois, is one of the world's leading providers of wireless communications, semiconductors, and advanced electronic systems and services. Sales in 1993 were $17 billion. For further customer information on the Envoy communicator, please call 1-800-535-5775. NOTE TO EDITORS: Motorola and Envoy are registered trademarks of Motorola Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. NOTE: For more information on product capabilities and applications please refer to the Motorola Envoy Personal Wireless Communicator Product Features Summary. ENVOY1/4lan-lvoi, lan-1/4n 1 :a diplomatic agent 2 :REPRESENTATIVE, MESSENGER (The New Merriam-Webster Dictionary) Right out of the box, Motorola's Envoy(R) personal wireless communicator has the ability to... -- Wirelessly send a message from the back of a taxi to your colleague's Envoy communicator, PC or fax, 3000 miles away. -- Broadcast a single message to a group, with each member of that group receiving the message in their preferred format. -- Program your Envoy communicator to gather information based on your requirements. -- Schedule a meeting in your Envoy communicator's appointment book, which automatically invites attendees. -- Screen, route and organize messages to suit your preferences. -- "Beam" a business card to another Envoy communicator across a conference room table. -- Access real-time scheduling and pricing information for U.S. airline flights, then order your tickets via fax or electronic mail. -- Keep track of contacts through an address book. -- Receive daily news summaries and stock information. -- Capture, organize and review business and personal expenses on-the-go. -- Gather, edit and analyze information in spreadsheets and graphs compatible with Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel file formats. -- Electronically shop in a mall. And with additional third-party software, Motorola's Envoy personal wireless communicator can also ... -- Access maps that pinpoint exact addresses, hotels, restaurants and business appointments, then automatically construct routes between all of the above. -- Automatically access specific financial information, news or mail through CompuServe at pre-designated times throughout the day. -- Print to practically any dot matrix, inkjet or laser printer. -- Transfer information to and from your personal computer. -- Check your spelling. -- Draw a picture to supplement your text. -- Use terminal emulation such as TTY, VT52, VT100 and ANSI, or use add-on modules to access most popular on-line information systems. -- Electronically access information on a variety of topics, from how to buy a car to how to get the best buys on vacations. -- Translate more than 600 useful expressions in any of six languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Japanese. Motorola Envoy(R) Personal Wireless Communicator Product Features Summary The Motorola Envoy(R) personal wireless communicator is the first hand-held device that provides two-way wireless, wireline and infrared communications. It is powered by Motorola's Dragon chip set -- the highly integrated 68349 processor and a special purpose ASIC referred to as Astro. Based on General Magic's Magic Cap(TM) and Telescript(TM) communication technologies, for which the Dragon chip set was specifically designed, the fully integrated Envoy device can communicate with popular public and private electronic mail systems, Windows-based computers, Macintosh computers and fax machines, as well as other Envoy communicators. Additionally, the device incorporates tools to manage personal information, such as a datebook, address book, notebook, filing system and calculator. Designed for both business and personal use, the Envoy communicator offers an integrated portable solution for communicating any time, anywhere. Software Environment Magic Cap - Magic Cap is an integrated software environment that includes everything needed to communicate via fax and public electronic mail services. It is also an object-oriented platform that makes possible communicating applications such as those bundled with the Envoy communicator. Telescript - Built into the Magic Cap software, Telescript technology opens a new world of electronic services to Envoy communicator users, who can launch electronic agents to manage correspondence, shop and seek out information on the AT&T PersonaLink(SM) Services. Three Communication Modes Two-Way Wireless - Motorola has developed a built-in, two-way wireless packet data modem specifically for the Envoy communicator. With the Envoy communicator, users can send and receive messages, fax and page as well as access a variety of information. The two wireless communications services offered to Envoy communicator users, AT&T PersonaLink Services and RadioMail(TM), use the ARDIS(R) network, the largest nationwide wireless data communications network. Wireline - Users can communicate via wireline when wireless connectivity is not necessary. The Envoy personal wireless communicator features a fax and data modem, connecting users to any telephone network. Infrared - Information can be swapped - or beamed - between two Envoy communicators. Users can immediately exchange address card information or an e-mail message, eliminating the need for users to re-key information. Additional Integrated Hardware Features Two PCMCIA Type II Slots - For maximum flexibility, two PCMCIA slots are built into the Envoy communicator so users can simultaneously run third-party software applications and add memory to store more information. (PCMCIA is an industry standard for portable computing add-on cards, established by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association.) Touch Screen - The Envoy communicator's touch screen has been optimized for the Magic Cap platform and may be activated with either its stylus or by finger touch. The screen features 480x320 resolution and 4-level gray scale shading for sharp contrast. MagicBus - A smart peripheral port allows users to connect the Envoy communicator to a personal computer to exchange information. It also connects the Envoy communicator to other optional peripherals such as keyboards, scanners and printers. The MagicBus can daisychain up to six devices and supports auto-configuring, hot plugging and hot removal. Speaker and Microphone - A speaker and microphone lets Envoy communicator users personalize their messages with sound. Users can record up to a 20-second voice message or choose from a selection of music stamps to accompany messages sent to other Envoy communicator users or personal computers equipped with Magic Cap. Removable/Rechargeable Battery - The Envoy communicator includes a NiCad battery, which will provide approximately eight hours of power under continuous use. The battery is self contained, so it can be removed and replaced within seconds. Hardware Security - 48-bit read-only circuitry implements a unique device identification feature for theft deterrence, simplified registration and device/owner authentication. Microprocessor - Motorola's Dragon I(TM)/68349 microprocessor (3.3V, highly integrated processor with DMA, serial controllers, 4K cache). Memory - The Envoy communicator features 1MB of RAM; 4MB of ROM. Data Input Choices On-Screen QWERTY Keyboard - Information can be input through the on-screen keyboard by either tapping with the accompanying stylus or by finger touch. Users can choose the method most comfortable to them. Freehand Writing and Drawing - With electronic ink, users can draw or write personal notations, or send messages and faxes in their own handwriting for a more personal touch. Tools for Managing Personal Information The Envoy communicator features a variety of tools for keeping the user organized: -- Address book - referenced from every function in the communicator: mail, faxing, controlling telephone functions, calendar and all the third-party applications; -- Calendar from which you can schedule appointments automatically; -- A note pad with structured formats including to-do lists; -- Telephone interface with phone log, payment preferences and other customizations; -- World clock that keeps track of daylight savings time in different time zones; -- Calculator; -- Filing capabilities that automatically file and discard correspondence; -- A tutorial and help system. Personalized Communication Features Users of the Envoy communicator can easily customize when and how mail should be delivered or received, which senders are to be treated with high priority, what subjects are to be filed or forwarded to others, and many other means for organizing communication. Envoy communicator users can add a personal touch to all their communication using rich built-in capabilities such as: -- Voice stamp - record a voice message, up to 20 seconds; -- Music stamp - send musical tunes to accompany a postcard; -- Graphics and animation - choose from interacting visuals to accompany a postcard. Integrated Services and Applications The Envoy communicator's built-in software includes electronic mail, information services and a suite of productivity packages: -- AT&T PersonaLink Services - based on Telescript, intelligent agents allow users to customize correspondence, shop for goods and services and stay informed via wireline and wireless communications; -- RadioMail - wireless messaging and information delivery service; -- America Online(R) - users can communicate with a large population of service subscribers and get stock quotes; -- Official Airline Guides (OAG(R)) Flightline(TM) - travelers can get flight and fare information using the Envoy communicator; -- PenWare's PenCell(TM) - spreadsheets and graphs. Additionally, Motorola and Intuit have entered into a letter of intent to include Intuit's Pocket Quicken SmartWallet(TM) for expense tracking and management. More than 15 third-party software applications and services will be available at the time the Envoy communicator is shipped. The software can be purchased through the Motorola Software and Accessories Catalog packaged with each communicator. Physical Characteristics The Envoy communicator is ergonomically designed with a 360-degree hinge to fold compact, with handgrips on each side so it is easy to hold by either left- or right-handed users. When closed, the Envoy communicator is 7.5 inches wide, 5.7 inches high and 1.2 inches deep, and the screen is fully protected. Its weight is 1.7 pounds, including the stylus and both main and backup batteries. Product Availability The product includes the resident software packages, input stylus, main and backup batteries, trickle charger, RJ-11 Y-adapter and user manual. Envoy will be available through multiple distribution channels this summer. Motorola Inc. Wireless Data Group 1201 E. Wiley Road, Ste. 103 Schaumburg, IL 60173 (708) 576-1600 Press Contacts: The Benjamin Group Inc., (408) 559-6090 Mario Salvadori, Motorola, (708) 576-7164 CONTACT: Motorola Mario SalvadorI, 708/576-7164 The Benjamin Group Barbara Curl/Sheri Benjamin, 408-559-6090 or 1-800-SKY-PAGE Pin 895-3785 --------------------- Ben Burch Motorola Wireless Data Group: Ben_Burch@msmail.wes.mot.com Makers of the Envoy(R) Personal Wireless Communicator ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 10:22:38 EST From: Sheldon W. Hoenig Reply-To: hoenigs@gsimail.ddn.mil Subject: AT&T Cellular Phone 3050 and Extended Range Cordless Phone 9530 Here are two short descriptions of two AT&T telephones that I have not seen described in the Digest. These descriptions are copied from the 1993 AT&T Annual Report. Mobile Cellular Telephone 3050 A cellular phone with a built-in digital, tapeless answering system and voice-activated operation. $399.99 at AT&T Phone Centers and at selected retailers. For more information, call (800) 232-5179. Extended Range Cordless Telephone 9530 A cordless phone with a range about for times the distance of traditional cordless phones. Virtually interference-free privacy and crisp, clear sound on 173 channels. $449.99 at AT&T Phone Centers and at selected retailers. For more information, call (800) 222-3111. It is not clear to me whether the cordless phone is spread spectrum. The prices are certainly high. By the way, AT&T plans is asking stockholders to approve changing the name of the Company from American Telephone and Telegraph to AT&T. Sheldon W. Hoenig Internet: Government Systems, INC (GSI) hoenigs@gsimail.ddn.mil Suite 500 hoenig@infomail.infonet.com 3040 Williams Drive Telephone: (703) 846-0420 Fairfax, VA 22031-4612 (800) 336-3066 x420 ------------------------------ From: josmon@dellgate.us.dell.com (John Osmon) Subject: Erlang B and Required Trunks Functions Date: 9 Mar 1994 14:23:30 GMT Organization: Dell Computer Corporation I am a programmer in the Telecom Department here at Dell, and my latest project is to pull trunk usage data and produce usage predictions for said trunks. This isn't really my field, so I had a co-worker write the request for me: We need a way to calculate the number of voice circuits needed to provide standard levels of service using the Retrial method. Ideally we would plug into a formula the following: - offered CCS of traffic - grade-of-service desired (P.01, P.001, P.05) The formula would then calculate the number of trunks needed WITHOUT resorting to lookup tables. If available, formulas for Erlang B method would also be useful. These would be most useful as assembler, C, or XBase sub-routines. Does any one know where I can find these? josmon@dellgate.us.dell.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Mar 1994 16:20:03 GMT From: A.M.Oudshoff@research.ptt.nl (Sandra Oudshoff) Subject: Morons? Organization: PTT Research, Groningen, The Netherlands Hi, A while ago there was a post in this newsgroup about "managerium", the latest scientific element discovered. Very funny indeed, and when I showed it to one of my colleagues he remembered seeing a more elaborate version of this where also the "morons" were described. Does anybody know where I can find a copy of this? Thanks a lot in advance, Sandra Oudshoff a.m.oudshoff@research.ptt.nl ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Mar 94 10:39 EST From: John R. Levine <0001037498@mcimail.com> Subject: Mr. Watson, Come Here ... Thursday, March 10, is the 118th anniversary of the first telephone call. The building in Boston where Bell and Watson did their work has long since been torn down to build a government office, but the site is marked by a small granite shaft and a pair of payphones. Regards from 9600 feet, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Things have come a long way in the past century haven't they ... we used to have a very nice telephone museum here in Chicago at the IBT headquarters on Randolph Street but one day the company just decided to close it down and put the 'Work at Home Center' there instead. The museum is missed. Anyway, happy 118th to Mother and her children! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #121 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa24977; 10 Mar 94 5:05 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA25192; Thu, 10 Mar 94 01:27:09 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA25180; Thu, 10 Mar 94 01:27:05 CST Date: Thu, 10 Mar 94 01:27:05 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403100727.AA25180@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #122 TELECOM Digest Thu, 10 Mar 94 01:27:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 122 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Trouble in the Phone Industry (D. Shniad) PR Summary: Undersea Fiber Cable US-Cuba (Russ McGuire) National Caller ID (Lynne Gregg) Caller ID and Mac/PC (James Snook) Internet Conferencing (Ralph E. Todd) Unzipping ISDN File in Archives (Jeff Shaver) Information on Used Telecom Equipment Dealer Wanted (Kenneth Leung) Changes in FROM Symbols on Orange Card Bill (Carl Moore) Re: Telephone Companies and the Time (Gregory Youngblood) Re: Telephone Companies and the Time (Clarence Dold) Re: Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Telephone Harrassment (Barry Mishkind) Re: Question About Random Dialing (John Coe) Re: Motorola Envoy Personal Wireless Communicator (Arthur Rubin) 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: D Shniad Subject: Trouble in the Phone Industry Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 11:20:45 PST The following article appeared in the March 1994 issue of {Labor Notes}: Phone Companies Obliterate More Jobs Big Cuts At Nynex, Pacific Telesis, GTE, as Re-engineering Proceeds -- by Kim Moody Three telephone giants launched the new year with a new round of job cuts. GTE Corporation, which owns local telephone companies across the country, said it would cut 17,000 jobs over three years. Baby Bells NYNEX and Pacific Telesis announced cuts of 16,800 and 10,000 respectively. The GTE workforce has already dropped from 160,000 employees in 1988 to 120,000 just before the latest cuts were announced. Employment at NYNEX has also fallen from nearly 100,000 in 1988 to about 76,000 last year. The latest NYNEX cuts are to be accomplished by the end of 1996. This latest wave of job slashing comes on top of earlier cuts of nearly 27,000 workers at other local phone companies in the last year and a half. Job loss in telecommunications is not linked to a slumping industry, troubled firms, or overseas competition. All the phone companies are profitable and growing. It results from deregulation, new technology, and the growth of competition over an expanding array of electronic services that use telecommunications technology for transmission. One side of this change is the burst of buyouts and joint ventures with cellular, cable, computer, and even publishing companies. In 1993, telephone companies spent over $50 billion on such growth in the U.S, and billions more abroad. PROCESS RE-ENGINEERING The other side of this re-organization into bigger multi- service operations, however, is the elimination of thousands of jobs through process re-engineering. Re-engineering is a term attributed to management guru Michael Hammer, whose 1990 Harvard Business Review article advised firms not to automate jobs, but to obliterate them. That is, find all the jobs that don't directly add to profitability and abolish them, while combining those that do. This is best done, the theory goes, through a consensual process conducted by employee-management teams. The final consensus, however, is never in doubt -- jobs will be obliterated. Union involvement is key to re-engineering in the highly organized telephone industry, and both the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have signed on. Process re-engineering teams are already at work at GTE, NYNEX, and US West. Not everyone shares the view that participation makes sense. A CWA rank and file newsletter in southern California, called the Hard Times Gazette, likened re-engineering at their GTE service center to an invitation to Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan physician who assists suicides. FRONTAL ASSAULT AT NYNEX No sooner had the CWA and IBEW agreed to set up re-engineering teams at NYNEX than the company demanded that the union reopen the contract 18 months before it expires. NYNEX presented a mass of job-busting demands, including such flexibility favorites as the ten-hour day, four-day week, with six- or seven-day operations. A CWA statement announcing the opening of early negotiations on January 3 cited NYNEX executive Robert Thrasher's plan to downsize the workforce by 35%, consolidate work centers, merge New York and New England Telephone into `one enterprise,' combine job titles, and change the basis of regulation to encourage even more cost-cutting. The CWA statement, jointly signed by president Morton Bahr and vice president Jan Pierce, said the union would work with NYNEX during re-engineering if the company would guarantee jobs. The union submitted a long list of counter-demands aimed at increased job security. The actual substance of bargaining, however, appears to be over an attrition plan. The union insists there be no layoffs, involuntary downgrades, or forced transfers, or further outside contracting. Staff cuts would have to come from pension enhancements or other voluntary programs, the union said. The sweetener in the NYNEX demands is a proposal to add six years to both current age and service time, allowing for retirement as early as age 50, with a social security supplement until age 62. This will probably provide the basis for a settlement if the company drops its more outrageous demands. It seems re-engineering will proceed, and only the pace of job loss is in question. Sid Shniad ------------------------------ From: rmcguire@wiltel20.wiltel.com (Russ McGuire) Subject: PR Summary: Undersea Fiber Cable US-Cuba Date: 9 Mar 1994 22:48:37 GMT Organization: WilTel Reply-To: rmcguire@wiltel20.wiltel.com (Russ McGuire) WilTel International, Inc. and EmtelCuba today (3/9/94) announced the first undersea fiber-optic cable between Florida and Cuba. Here is a brief summary taken from the press release: WilTel International, Inc., has signed an historic agreement with the Cuban national telephone company EmtelCuba (Empresa de Telecomunicaciones Internacionales de Cuba) to provide the first fiber-optic telecommunica- tions link between Cuba and the United States. The project will allow WilTel and other telephone companies to establish direct, high-quality telephone links between the U.S. and Cuba. Today, only a few circuits are available to accommodate the millions of U.S.-to- Cuba calls attempted annually. The cooperative venture, signed as a "Memorandum of Understanding," clears the way for WilTel and EmtelCuba to build the first modern broadband connections to the island nation. The project complies with U.S. Depart- ment of State guidelines which encourage cultural and communications ties between the U.S. and Cuba. The WilTel-EmtelCuba fiber-optic cable, called "CUBUS 1" is to be placed across the Straits of Florida between the southern tip of Florida and a point near Havana, Cuba, a distance of some 100 miles. WilTel, a full-service telecommunications company with a reputation for innovation, built a national fiber-optic network in the United States in the late 1980's by pioneering a technique to pull fiber-optic cable through decommissioned oil and gas pipelines. WilTel leases this capacity to other carriers as well as to business and government customers. Subject to government approvals, the undersea cable will begin carrying traffic within one year. "WilTel is pleased to play a pivotal role in strengthening communications between the people of Cuba and the people of the United States," said Roy Wilkens, WilTel president and chief executive officer. "This type of agreement should provide opportunities for improving relationships between our two countries, which already share so much in terms of geography and history." Salvador de la Torre, EmtelCuba's director, said the new submarine fiber- optic cable will replace an older microwave system that was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. For more information about WilTel or this agreement, please send e-mail to info@wiltel.com. ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: National Caller ID Date: Wed, 09 Mar 94 17:45:00 PST Paul Robinson - Paul@TDR.COM wrote: > Some people in some cities have noted getting Caller-ID information > from people in other states, who are long distance calls. It's a > political, not a technical question. What it probably comes down to > is that the local telcos believe that providing calling party > information is a valuable service for which they think they shouldn't > have to provide it without compensation on calls delivered to a I think Paul hit the nail on the head. In my view, transmission of Calling Party Number should be coupled with the standard SS7 interconnection. Apparently the FCC sees it this way, too. Yesterday's ruling supports transmission of CPN at no added charge. Here's the news release. Regards, Lynne CALLER ID TO BE AVAILABLE NATIONWIDE; FCC ADOPTS FEDERAL POLICIES FOR REGULATION The Commission has adopted a federal model, effective April 12, 1995, for interstate delivery of calling party number based services. These services include caller ID, which is available today in many states, as well as services that will permit businesses to service customers more efficiently and will permit increased security of computer networks. The rules adopted today enable these services to become available to consumers and businesses nationwide and require free, automatic, per call blocking to protect privacy interests. They also require carriers to educated consumers about these services. The Commission also adopted rules to address privacy concerns raised by the reuse and sale of information generated by Automatic Number Identification (ANI). Specifically, the Commission found that a federal model for interstate delivery of calling party number is in the public interest, that calling party privacy must be protected, and that certain state regulation of interstate caller ID must be preempted. The availability of calling party number based service, including caller ID, requires end to end interconnection of SS7 networks between carriers, so that the calling party's number can be transmitted from the calling party to the called party. Interstate delivery of calling party based services is thus not feasible until interstate SS7 interconnection and calling party number delivery between local exchange carriers and interexchange carriers becomes widespread. The Commission noted that a consistent, nationwide interstate policy will contribute to the economic growth as businesses employ the new technology for a number of uses. These may include pay-per-view television, order entry verification, voice messaging storage, customized customer services, business fraud reduction, call routing, emergency dispatch, health care services, telephone banking, home shopping, dealer locator, and selective call message forwarding. While the technology for nationwide caller ID service is being deployed and used on an interstate basis, several regulatory and legal issues have delayed its introduction nationwide. Today's action supports the efforts of carriers, standards-setting bodies, states, equipment manufacturers, and others to provide caller ID in an efficient manner. In the federal model, the Commission recognizes the value and benefits to the public of this service and promotes the transmission of the calling party number from the originating carrier to the terminating carrier. The Commission has balanced the reasonable privacy expectations of both the calling and called parties and removed obstacles to the development of calling party based services posed by uncertainty and non-uniform state policies. In today's action, the Commission found that: *Common carriers using Common Channel SS7 and subscribing to or offering any service based on SS7 functionality must transmit the calling party number parameter (CPN) and its associated privacy indicator on any interstate call to connecting carriers; (The CPN is the subscriber line number parameter of the call set-up message associated with an interstate call using SS7. The calling party number parameter includes an associated privacy indicator.) In other words, local exchange carriers must transmit both the calling party number and its associated privacy indicator to IXC's and vice versa; *Carriers offering CPN delivery services must provide, at no charge to the caller, an automatic per call blocking mechanism for interstate callers. Terminating carriers providing calling party number based services, including caller ID, must honor the privacy indicator; *The costs of interstate transmission of CPN are so small that the CPN should be transmitted among carriers without additional charge; and *Carriers participating in the offering of any service that delivers CPN on interstate calls must inform telephone subscribers that the subscribers number may be revealed to called parties and describe what steps subscribers can take to avoid revealing their numbers. In the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in this proceeding, the Commission is seeking comment on whether more detailed customer education rules should be adopted and whether the policies adopted for interstate calling party number based services like caller ID should be extended to other services that might identify the calling party. The Commission also adopted rules to limit the use of information generated by ANI to call set-up, routing, screening, billing and collection, and other services by end users, with exceptions for most law enforcement and emergency uses and for marketing by the ANI recipient only. The reuse or sale of ANI would be prohibited absent affirmative subscriber consent, and carriers would be required to educate callers regarding ANI services. (ANI based services were developed in the pre-SS7 signaling environment as the billing telephone number of the calling party. Because this technology predates SS7 technology, ANI is not blockable in the same way as the calling party number in an SS7 network.) In considering whether to extend its existing rules governing disclosure of customer proprietary network information (CPNI) to cover residential and single line business customers as protection of their privacy interests, the Commission said it would seek comments through a separate public notice to be considered in the context of the Computer III Remand Proceeding. ------------------------------ From: jsnook@halcyon.com Subject: Caller ID and Mac/PC Date: Wed, 09 Mar 94 17:51:10 PDT Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc. I am looking for an interface between USWest Caller ID and Macintosh or PC platform. If such an interface exists, where can we buy them and at approximatly what cost? James Snook jsnook@halcyon.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 09:50:29 -0500 (EST) From: Ralph E. Todd Subject: Internet Conferencing Greetings. I am a graduate student in the Telecommunications program at George Mason University; Fairfax, Virginia. In preparation for a term project dealing with organizational learning, I am in search of information regarding conferencing on the Internet. Specifically, I envision a moderated forum supporting concurrent access for at least 30 user sessions. Unix "talk" may be an option, but I beleive it would be kludgy for the moderator since it is limited to two-party conversations. My forum would essentially be an Internet talk radio, complete with delays, (lending generic context to the name "Talk Net"). Is anyone aware of the existence of such a forum? Any knowledge of technology or building blocks which could support it? By the way, my immediate application is electronically interactive graduate instruction. The prototype course, "Taming the Electronic Frontier," is taught by Dr. Brad Cox and televised on regional cable television. Most of the students, including an entire section, are in the TV audience. These tele-students need a way to participate in the interactive dimension of the course. I am also investigating audio and video conferencing via POTS as well. Many thanks in advance. Ralph Todd > rtodd@mason1.gmu.edu (703) 658-9668 George Mason University Telecommunications Program [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you are suggesting has been done many times in the past on Compuserve. The various forums have had special guest 'speakers' who were announced ahead of time. Using programs quite similar to the 'CB Simulator', these speakers and the program moderator would accept questions and comments from the 'audience' of people who were watching it all on their terminals/computers at home, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: sshaver@nde.unl.edu (jeff shaver) Subject: Unzipping ISDN File in Archives Date: Wed, 9 Mar 94 13:12:02 CST I recently ftp'ed the ISDN.deployment.data.zip file from the Telecom Archives, but I can't unzip it. PKZip 2.04(g?) tells me it's not a zip file. Any ideas? Thanks for your help! Jeff Shaver sshaver@nde.unl.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think the person who contributed that file needs to get in on this discussion. It is possible it was corrupt when he sent it to me, and it is possible it got corrupted in the process of moving it from here to the archives ... plus which, maybe there is a different routine needed to 'unzip' it ... if it turns out the archives copy is bad, maybe we can try it over. I've not personally looked at it or tried to unpack it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kleung@netcom.com (Kenneth Leung) Subject: Information on Used Telecom Equipment Dealer Wanted Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 03:48:54 GMT I am looking for dealers of used telecom equipment such as AT&T Merlin phone sets and used AT&T PBXs. Any sources would be appreciated Kenneth C.P. Leung 1303 Walnut Hill Ln. 2nd Floor, Irving, TX 75038 Marketing Specialist Voice : 214-550-8371 Fax : 214-550-9269 Innovax Concepts Corp. AURORA Supermarket Application kleung@netcom.com Innovax Integration Partner Program ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Mar 94 17:04:21 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Changes in FROM Symbols on Orange Card Bill My latest Orange Card bill came today (March 9). It has only three of those 3-character symbols in the FROM (abbrev. FRM) column: MAK apparently used for a call made from southern Delaware. ALl others were WDC (Washington DC?) and 800, and the WDC is apparently popping up for the calls I made from northern New Jersey??? (I don't understand the apparent spread of this use of WDC.) The 800 appeared for calls made in New York state, Vermont, plus one call from western Massachusetts. The billing is sent by LDS Telecommunications Corp. of McLean, VA. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Telephone Companies and the Time From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Wed, 09 Mar 94 16:06:11 PST Organization: TCS Computer Systems > Question 2: How do I find the person inside Cellular One Boston who is > in charge of setting the clock on the billing computer? I believe it is in the switch and not the billing computer. At least in cellular. As to who sets it, ideally it is set by someone who calls one of the atomic clocks and sets if off that. Though, I reluctantly admit that I used to set one of my switches by my watch ... :) Twice every year for day light savings etc. :) BTW, I know of at least one occurance where when the clock was set forward at the switch there was one caller that just would not hang up. The clock was changed and the caller had a 60 minute longer call.. :) Of course when this happened the tech notified customer service. ;) Greg The Complete Solution BBS Allfiles List: Anonymous UUCP Calls Accepted 707-459-4547 (24hrs, v.32) ~/tcsbbs.lst Login: nuucp Password: nuucp Telemate Distribution Site zeta@tcscs.com Cellular Telephony Groups ------------------------------ From: dold@rahul.net (Clarence Dold) Subject: Re: Telephone Companies and the Time Organization: a2i network Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 04:05:48 GMT Kent Borg (kentborg@world.std.com) wrote: > I am under the impression that phone companies need accurate frequency > sources for synchronous communications, but do they have any real need > for accurate time of day information? The switch that we use has no real idea of accurate time. It does use the clock on the span to keep an accurate clock, but if we "set" it off by a given interval, a year later it should still be off by _exactly_ that same interval. In practice, we drive a text script at it from a UNIX box that is slaved to WWV, but prior to doing that, it could easily have been off by a few seconds, although a minute is unlikely. Clarence A Dold - dold@rahul.net - Milpitas (near San Jose) & Napa CA. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Mar 94 10:14 MST From: barry@coyote.datalog.com (barry mishkind) Subject: Re: Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Telephone Harrassment Organization: Datalog Consulting, Tucson, AZ >> A comment on the one-ring telephone harassment: A local Chicago talk >> show personality (Brian McCann on WLUP's Sunday afternoon "comedy" >> program) has encouraged listeners to "drive your friends crazy" with >> one-ring phone calls. He thinks it's a "victory" if the harasser can >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It sounds to me like it is time for >> someone to circulate Brian McCann's home telephone number publicly. >> Incidentally, the main switchboard for the business offices at WLUP is >> 312-440-5270. That is public information, it appears in the phone book >> By the way, if anyone thinks of something else callers to WLUP >> should not do -- something I may have overlooked -- write and let us > We certainly shouldn't suggest that messages be sent to the FCC, regarding > Brian's behavior ... especially to the new FTP location and email address > they have put on line. > pay and keeps dragging it through court. Years ago, the FCC's response > would have been to go out and padlock the transmitter after shutting it > off; I guess these days the big money involved with major radio stations > doesn't allow that to happen. PAT] Heheheh. The young folk have no idea, do they? When I was in college, I wondered why a local station was silent. It turns out the GM of the college station had been on the air when the feds dropped by to padlock the station for non-payment or something. A young kid, he hesitated, and the fed said something like "either get out of here, or we'll lock you in, too" ... Ray told me he had never done a sign off so fast ... and got out the door to see the padlocks go up. The station never returned (sort of like the MTA traveller ) ... Barry Mishkind barry@coyote.datalog.com Tucson, Arizona [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Only a few people probably remember when the FCC ordered our very own WLS (890 AM) off the air one night over thirty years ago -- about 1960 sometime -- when one of the DJ's of the 'new' managment (the team which dumped the Prairie Farmer, religion and soap opera format for hard rock music) uttered the word 'damn' over the air. Yep, that's all it took in those days. A telephone call from the FCC enforcement representative in this area to the home of the General Manager (it was late at night) followed by a call from the GM to the engineer on duty caused the station to go off the air. They went off so fast in fact they stopped the music they were playing in the middle of the song and the DJ did a formal identification process of the station (call letters, power, location of station, that they were licensed by the FCC, etc) and concluded by saying that 'the Federal Communications Comm- ission has ordered that this station remain silent until further notice and accordingly we leave the air at this time.'. That was it, and within five seconds or so of that they dropped the carrier and were gone. Maybe ten minutes had passed between the 'damn' and WLS being ordered off the air. That was a Saturday night, and they came back on the air about 10 AM the next morning, probably after the station attornies and management straightened it out with the FCC people. They were required by the FCC to play a recorded message *once every hour* for two days and four times per day for the rest of the week from the management of the station apologizing for the indiscretion and informing the listeners how to contact the FCC to file other complaints against the station if they wished to do so. PAT] ------------------------------ From: coej@jmbpo4.bah.com (John Coe) Subject: Re: Question About Random Dialing Date: 9 Mar 1994 18:52:35 GMT Organization: Booz, Allen, and Hamilton In article , gaupkg@fnma.COM wrote: > Is there a shareware program or commercial program available that can > dial randomly within a given area code and when it comes across a fax > machine log that fax number into a database. If anyone has any > pointers I would appreciate it. Could you please explain one practical/ethical use for such a database (other than the obvious, annoying use as a junk-mail fax list)? John Coe (coej@jmbpo4.bah.com) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There isn't anything to explain. You described the purpose of the compilation. To hell with the other 99 percent of the subscribers on the exchange who do not have a fax machine but get awakened at night (or sent running from their bathroom to the phone or whatever) when the phone rings only to have the caller disconnect when 'hello' is heard instead of a fax tone. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Motorola Envoy Personal Wireless Communicator From: a_rubin%dsg4.dse.beckman.com (Arthur Rubin) Date: 9 Mar 94 22:00:12 GMT Reply-To: a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com In Ben Burch writes: > NOTE TO EDITORS: Motorola and Envoy are registered trademarks of > Motorola Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the > property of their respective owners. For what it's worth, Envoy-100 is also the name of an Email network run by Telecom Canada. 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) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #122 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03928; 11 Mar 94 3:54 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA18284; Fri, 11 Mar 94 00:38:18 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA18273; Fri, 11 Mar 94 00:38:14 CST Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 00:38:14 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403110638.AA18273@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #123 TELECOM Digest Fri, 11 Mar 94 00:38:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 123 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: National Caller-ID (A. Padgett Peterson) Re: National Caller ID (Lynne Gregg) Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number (Brian J. Cecil) Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number (John McGing) Re: Information Needed on Satellite Phone (Alan Boritz) Re: Telephone Companies And The Time (Mickael L. Dickson) Re: Internet Conferencing (Paul Robinson) Re: Why Caller-ID Instead of ANI? (Steve Forrette) Re: Digital Cellular Phones (Steve Forrette) Re: Motorola Envoy Personal Wireless Communicator (John Gilbert) Re: More Dialogic Help Needed (and Given) (J. Scott Elam) Re: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? (mberry@nosc.mil) Re: Starring Tom Cruise as Kevin Poulsen (Brian Leyton) Re: 810 Area Code Trouble? (Carl Moore) Re: Unzipping ISDN File in Archives (Dave Niebuhr) ISO Country Codes (Paul Robinson) DECT Stardards (Hanwook Jung) Needed - Uplink to Western Satellite From Ural Mountains (Isaiah Watas Cox) Need a Source For Cellular Telecom Base Station Radios (Mike Willey) 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, 10 Mar 94 08:37:16 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Re: National Caller-ID > CALLER ID TO BE AVAILABLE NATIONWIDE; FCC ADOPTS FEDERAL POLICIES FOR > REGULATION > The Commission has adopted a federal model, effective April 12, 1995, > for interstate delivery of calling party number based services. These > services include caller ID, which is available today in many states, > as well as services that will permit businesses to service customers > more efficiently and will permit increased security of computer > networks. I said two years didn't I? To me this represents one of the greatest advances in the ability to provide security to dial-ups and PBXs possible. No longer will we have to allow "blind" admission to anyone with a telephone. Caller-ID means being able to decide whether to answer the phone at all. With proper use, "demon-dialers" will become obsolete while permitting transparent telecommuting. True, there are going to be some second- generation RISKs such as the impact of call-forwarding but it will eliminate the ones we have now for the bulk of the traffic. Full encryption is still going to be necessary for those who travel a lot but right now that amounts to only about 20% of my concern, most trafic is generated from people at home or at known locations. As for call blocking -- not a problem, my "80%" lines simply do not answer blocked calls and that is *my* choice. For the other 20%, they will just have to put up with a bit more complexity. Warmly, Padgett PS: Have a "draft" Caller-ID FAQ for you, Pat -- will send later. [TELECOM Digest Editopr's Note: Thanks Padgett, I will be watching for it and will make it available when it arrives. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Re: National Caller ID Date: Thu, 10 Mar 94 09:23:00 PST In my original message I included the following credit: > From: FCC News > FCC Report: Action in Docket Case > Docket: 91-281 > CALLER ID TO BE AVAILABLE NATIONWIDE; FCC ADOPTS FEDERAL > POLICIES FOR REGULATION The report included in my original message was obtained from the FCC news release and should not be attributed to me. Thanks! Lynne [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Due to the way Ms. Gregg typed in her first message, the line 'From FCC News' above caused the first three lines to disappear entirely in the digesting process. Even today, when she sent it in again asking to have the credit included, it vanished in the processing, but I found it in the residue of the bit bucket. I did not mean to ignore the credit yesterday, but all experienced Internet users know what happens when the word 'From ' with a white space after it is the first word on a line where sendmail is concerned! :) Anyway Lynne, thanks for catching the error, and the FCC News is noted above as it should have been before. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Brian J. Cecil Date: 9 Mar 1994 20:47:08 EST Subject: Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number It is a sad commentary on our society when a convicted murderer, especially of this low caliber, can set up a 900 number and make money on the sick and morbid curiosity of others. However, I do remotely agree with one statement that was made, that Gacy is a victim; he is a victim of his lawyer! As we all are victims of lawyers! It was mentioned that the company that set this up was in Florida? Does anyone know the name of the company? I own some stock in a company that owns millions of pay phones in prisons located in Florida, Alabama, and several other southern states. If it is the company I have a financial interest in, I'll not only let management know of my disgust, but I will dump the shares. Brian Cecil [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well personally Brian, your company with its 'millions of pay phones' is probably not the outfit, because I'm sure they would not jeopardize their Corrections business by getting a prison bureaucracy angry at them. However, I must say the company you have stock in -- whatever their name is, I don't know and don't care -- is probably one of what we sometimes call the 'bottom feeders' in the (telecom) industry like a lot of other AOS/COCOT firms. Why do I say this? Because they take advantage of a class of people who have absolutely no other choice in how their phone calls are placed; i.e. prisoners. Now I do not have any love in my heart for prisoners and unlike some liberal thinkers I could name (but won't) who are constantly whining about 'all the innocent people in prison', my attitude is there are no innocent people in prison, by definition absolutely, and most likely in reality as well. Still, even prisoners have people who love them and care for them, namely their families 'on the outside'. Those folks are forced to pay perfectly outrageous rates for collect calls from their loved ones in prison because the prisoners can no longer place calls via Genuine Bell. Rates of three or four dollars *per minute* are the norm, and the families of prisoners are getting stuck with it on their phone bill if they want to receive a call from the prisoner. Cook County Jail in Chicago is using some AOS outfit to handle prisoner outgoing phone calls, and reports of local, Chicago-area calls of five minutes costing six to ten dollars are common. Naturally, some one or more prison bureaucrats are getting a piece of the action, I'm sure. Part of this is AT&T's fault; they made it rather plain they were not interested in the corrections industry traffic due to the high rate of fraud on toll charges by the prisoners, and I am sympathetic to the AOS's plight in this regard also, but it is part of the cost of doing business, and frankly, the AOS's are ripping off the families of prisoners big-time having them as a captive customer base. AT&T also never would pay bribes to employees in the US Justice Department to keep their pay- phones in prisons like a couple AOS outfits I could name (but won't) are doing. That's another reason you don't see many Genuine Bell phones in federal prisons these days. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 23:22:15 -0500 From: John McGing Subject: Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number Reply-To: jmcging@access.digex.com Pat, I was aware of the 900 number for John W. Gacy (a man who once picked me up hitchiking up Diversey Avenue in Chicago and who's housekeeper was a friend of my mom's) but was under the impression that the phone et al are located outside the prison. That being the case (and I don't know for a fact that it is, but if it were) how would the prison system know what the attorney is doing and what John is doing in his personal phone calls? Seems just a tad hard to excorigate the prison people over their not being aware of what Gacy and his attorney are doing, especially if all the "work" is being done using offsite materials and tapes or phone calls, perhaps done with the attorney and not subject to prison moni- toring. John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The 900 number terminates on voicemail in Florida. You're right, John probably set it up through his attorney using privileged attorney correspondence. Your indirect aquaintence with someone who knew him is an interesting point. My own knowledge of him is similar: a real-estate firm I did some management work for almost twenty years ago at one point hired Gacy to do some remodeling work for them on one of their properties. As you know, he was a licensed contrac- tor for building repairs, etc. As you also know, he was rather high ranking in the Cook County Democratic Party. Whatever, I'm glad your experience with him as a hitchiker turned out safely without hassles for you. Most hitchikers didn't fare as well with him. Maybe you just weren't his type. :) Didn't your mother's friend the housekeeper ever suspect anything? After all, the police said the stench in his house was something awful. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Information Needed on Satellite Phone From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.UU.NET (Alan Boritz) Date: Wed, 09 Mar 94 21:23:19 EST Organization: Harry's Place - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 Paul Robinson writes: > The reporters were using Inmarsat telephones. They're fine if you > want to pay about $9 a minute more than typical overseas calls, e.g. a > long distance call from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia is about $1.20 a > minute, while Inmarsat charges about $10 a minute. When I last looked into that kind of service (in 1988, I think), the rate for dialtone was $15 for the first three minutes, with a three minute minimum. The area of operation was to be from the New York Bight into the Atlantic Ocean. But the real bargain was for TWX or data service. > Oh, and don't forget the $10,000 to $50,000 for the transmitting > station. Not necessarily. You could get by with a relatively smaller rig for use in an area with less vegetation than to what we're used to in North America. aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ From: MICKAEL.L.DICKSON@gte.sprint.com Date: 10 Mar 94 10:12:34-0500 Subject: Re: Telephone Companies And The Time As they say on the radio talk shows "long time listener, first time caller". Anyway, I read Kent Borg's article about the "correct" time and perhaps I can answer a couple of his questions. Having spent several years in the switching side of Pacific Bell and later as a programmer and analyst in the carrier access billing side of PacBell and now as a access billing consultant for GTE, I don't believe the clock in the billing computer has anything to do with the recorded time of Kent's phone call. The time is based on whatever time was "stamped" on the record by the switching entity which processed and recorded his call. The billing computer might rate and bill this call several days later and has no way of knowing whether the date and time of the call, as recorded by the switching entity, is correct or not. In fact, when I was a switchman (I know this isn't a politically correct term) working in a #1 and #5 X-BAR switch in San Jose, CA back in the 60's, the time (for timing phone calls, not time of day recording) was maintain by two timers (one primary and one back up) which "checked" each other every six seconds for being in synch. Six seconds was used because we were on six second timing in those days. Anyway, the recorders (which recorded phone calls) were also synched to the primary timer. The time of day talking clock was in no way tied to the two master timers. In fact, even though the timers and recorders checked each other for synch conditions every six seconds, the time was set by someone using their watch! You wouldn't believe the horror stories I could tell about how out of whack the time got after someone and their watch did a time change (to and from daylight savings time). You had to insulate contacts and block relays in order to get the rotary timing switches set properly for the new time. Then you had to synch the backup timer to the primary and then synch all the recorders. Lots of room for error! I realize technologies have changed and I'm not sure whether the timing mechanisms in a digital switch are tied to some sort of master clock somewhere, but I suspect, even though they are much more accurate that the old mechanical timers I worked on, some one somewhere still has the ability to get his fingers in the equipment and goof up the timing. Some sort of timing pulse or something like that is probably used to keep the internal system clock in the switching machine in synch. And, again, I don't think the talking clock has anything to do with the system clock of an individual switching machine. So to answer Kent's questions (or to confuse him more), the billing computer internal clock has nothing to do with the timing of his phone calls. This is done by the internal system clock of the switching machine. It produces a call date and time and an elapsed time. It also produces conversation and access elapsed times. I guess that there are several definitions of the "correct time" based on whether you call the talking clock or use the connect time printed on your phone bill. Sorry if I rambled on, but thinking about call timing brought back lots of memories of relays, switches, and rotary dials. Mike Dickson GTE, Florida ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 13:18:23 EST From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: Re: Internet Conferencing Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Ralph E. Todd , writes (text edited for brevity): > In preparation for a term project dealing with organizational > learning, I am in search of information regarding conferencing on the > Internet. Specifically, I envision a moderated forum supporting > concurrent access for at least 30 user sessions. Unix "talk" may be > an option, but I beleive it would be kludgy for the moderator since it > is limited to two-party conversations. My forum would essentially be > an Internet talk radio, complete with delays, (lending generic context > to the name "Talk Net"). > Is anyone aware of the existence of such a forum? Any knowledge of > technology or building blocks which could support it? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you are suggesting has been done > many times in the past on Compuserve. The various forums have had > special guest 'speakers' who were announced ahead of time. Using > programs quite similar to the 'CB Simulator' Okay, now we have something to discuss because while I think you two are talking about the same thing, the terms are wrong. "Internet Talk Radio" refers to a broadcast *sound recording* on the order of a digitized tape recording. There is provisions for setting up a multicast sound transmission over the Internet. It is this provision that I think is an opportunity for people and a danger to telephone companies, since if you can hook up your offices over the Internet using data lines you need for transmissions anyway -- and have already paid for -- and can send voice calls among these offices, what do you need to spend money on long distance telephone calls for? But what you both appear to be referring to is a typed text communication rather than sound transmission. That application already is running -- continuously -- on the Internet. It's called Internet Relay Chat or IRC. Having seen Compuserve's forums I know what Pat is referring to, and IRC is all but identical with that. All that is needed is an IRC client on your site, and a connection to one of many IRC hosts that are carrying it, all over the world. Paul Robinson - Paul@TDR.COM ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Why Caller-ID Instead of ANI? Date: 10 Mar 1994 20:34:13 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to baers@agcs.com (Scott Baer): > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think you misunderstood the results of > your prepending 10222 to a local seven digit number. In all probability, > your local telephone exchange probably *ignored* the 10222 and handled > the call themselves. They have the right to do that. PAT] Pat, I know you have stated this several times in the past, but is it really true? Whether the local telco can prevent IXC's from handling intra-lata calls is a matter decided by each state's regulatory body. Some allow it, and some don't. But in all of the areas that I'm aware of, one of two things happens: If the state allows intra-LATA competition, then prepending 10xxx to a local call will cause the call to be carried by the IXC, and would explain the behavior reported by Scott in Phoenix. If the state does not allow it, then the call is rejected with a recording like "We're sorry, it is not necessary to use a long distance carrier access code for the number you have dialed." In no case that I know of does a LEC allow the caller to specify a 10xxx code but ignore it and carry the call itself. Is this indeed the case somewhere? Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is indeed the case in many places. For example, Illinois Bell (Ameritech) looks at the number dialed in its entirity, in context, *then* decides what to do with it; whether to handle it themselves -- if permitted, within the LATA for example -- or whether to hand it off in accordance with the dialing advice given by the subscriber. Many or most telcos do not give away their intra-LATA business if you dial it through them. Now if you wish to dial some 800 number, or 950 number for another carrier and that carrier is willing to handle it (most likely it is technically unfeasable for them to reject it even if they are not lawfully entitled to handle it), then that is another matter. IBT treats dialing 10xxx before a 312 or 708 number the same way they treat dialing 10xxx before an 800 or 900 number; i.e they ignore it and route the call according to other rules. Maybe some telcos actually send the call to treatment; in that instance at least, IBT simply handles it silently and transparently. For instance, I just now dialed 10288-1-312-440-5270. You do remember that number, don't you? :). No recording, no intercept, it just rang as always. PAT] ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Digital Cellular Phones Date: 10 Mar 1994 23:42:47 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In , jrg@rahul.net (John Galloway) writes: >> The "Cave" algorithm specified in IS-54 (the TDMA standard) is used to >> encrypt data (ESN and possibly voice). The algorithm is keyed with >> data that are never transmitted and are only known by the switch and >> the mobile. > But if this key is fixed (since it is not transmited I assume it is) > then all the cellular blue box builder need to is disect a phone to > get it. This might not be a trivial opeation, but these crooks are > pretty smart fellows. Are you assuming that the key is the same for all phones? If the key is different for each phone, then the crook would have to get a hold of a particular phone to dissect it to get the key. And if they have physical possession of the phone, there is little need to get the key in order to make fraudulent calls, right? Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: Motorola Envoy Personal Wireless Communicator Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 18:14:27 -0600 In article , a_rubin%dsg4.dse.beckman.com (Arthur Rubin) wrote: > In Ben Burch com> writes: >> NOTE TO EDITORS: Motorola and Envoy are registered trademarks of >> Motorola Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the >> property of their respective owners. > For what it's worth, Envoy-100 is also the name of an Email network > run by Telecom Canada. Envoy was also the external product name of a Motorola tone-only pager that is no longer being manufactured. John Gilbert johng@ecs.comm.mot.com ------------------------------ From: selam@teleport.com (J. Scott Elam) Subject: Re: More Dialogic Help Needed (& given) Date: 10 Mar 1994 17:21:35 -0800 Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 wrote: > Does anyone know where I can find the latest version of the Dialogic > voice drivers for DOS for their D40/B and D41/B boards? I have tar files (somewhere) of the Driver diskette and the Springware diskette. The version is 3.01 I believe. I don't know if this will work with the the xxx/B boards -- I think I'm using all xxx/D boards. Email me if you want them. One thing I am sure of -- I have a bunch of Dialogic equipment that I no longer need. 1 D/20B, 3 D/41B, 10 D/41D and DID/40's, 1 DID/120, and 1 LSI/120. Prices are negotiable. See my "For Sale: Dialogic boards" post here for further details and email me if interested. selam@teleport.com ------------------------------ From: mberry@nosc.mil Subject: Re: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? Organization: NCCOSC RDT&E Division, San Diego, CA Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 21:06:08 GMT In article , writes: > Is 2400 baud a reasonable service level to expect in this day and > age? What is the best or most appropriate way to approach a telephone > company on this issue? As readers can no doubt deduce I am not a > telecommuncations person. Ask NYNEX why 2400bps only be supported in the Cape Cod area. If the cause is noisy phone lines, then the telephone company is the one to talk to. There are standards for signal to noise that the phone company should meet. These standards should support 14.4. ------------------------------ Date: 09 Mar 94 16:39:16 EST From: Brian Leyton <73160.557@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Starring Tom Cruise as Kevin Poulsen Carl Moore asks: > But what does ICM stand for? International Creative Management. They're a management firm in the entertainment industry. The only reason I know this is that I interviewed there for a job once ... Brian Leyton 73160.557@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Mar 94 13:12:20 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: 810 Area Code Trouble? My latest phone bill for C&P had a call where I dialed 610 but which was displayed with area code 215. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Mar 94 07:05:29 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Unzipping ISDN File in Archives sshaver@nde.unl.edu (jeff shaver) wrote: > I recently ftp'ed the ISDN.deployment.data.zip file from the Telecom > Archives, but I can't unzip it. PKZip 2.04(g?) tells me it's not a > zip file. Any ideas? Thanks for your help! I have a similar problem with my Unix workstation. I have compress, Unix pack, and gzip/gunzip and these packages can't handle PKZip formats. I know that the archives are huge and each file takes space, but there are files in there that I can't access because of this. Does anyone know of a utility somewhere that I might be able to obtain to handle PKZip files. I've tried Archie/Gopher/World Wide Web and haven't had success. 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 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have been sent another copy of the file, this time in MIME format. It can be opened up with 2.04 PKUNZIP according to the note which came with it. I will hold it here awhile before putting it in the archives and if anyone wants a copy, write me here to ask for it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 13:28:03 EST From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: ISO Country Codes Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA A few issues back a woman asked for a list of the two-letter and three-letter ISO 3166 codes for most countries. While it does not include the codes for the countries that have been created as a result of others being broken up (such as the Soviet Union and Czechslovakia) one place to look is in my Internet RFC 1394, which also shows international telex codes and worldwide telephone area codes. This document is available from any of the sites that have RFCs on file, and is also accessible via FTP from DS.INTERNIC.NET. ------------------------------ From: hjung@acsu.buffalo.edu (Hanwook Jung) Subject: DECT stardards Organization: UB Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 23:18:27 GMT Would you tell me where can I get or buy the standard of DECT? Please send me a email of the organization or company who sell the standard, or possible FTP site of that. Thank you in advance, H Jung hjung@eng.buffalo.edu ------------------------------ From: iwcox@tucson.princeton.edu (Isaiah Watas Cox) Subject: Needed - Uplink to Western Satellite From Ural Mountains Organization: Princeton University Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 02:35:38 GMT I am seeking a digital carrier (either ground or satellite-based) who can provide an intermittent 9600 bit/second connection to the Ural Mountains. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Isaiah iwcox@phoenix.princeton.edu ------------------------------ From: mwilley@metronet.com (Mike Willey) Subject: Need a Source For Cellular Telecom Base Station Radios Organization: Texas Metronet, Internet for the Individual 214-705-2917 (info) Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 03:41:01 GMT I am posting the folowing for a friend who does not have internet access: I am looking for a source for cellular Base Station radios ( not the mobile units or hand-held phones, but the radios back at the cell site that talk to the mobile units ). Anyone know of a company that sells such radios separately from their own cellular systems? I am working on a new architecture for a Base Station/Mobile Switching Center ( MSC ) and need some radios to demonstrate the concept. Please followup to this news group or email to mwilley@feenix.metronet.com. Thanks, Mike Willey * Paragon Innovations, Inc. * mwilley@feenix.metronet.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #123 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04085; 11 Mar 94 3:57 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA18456; Fri, 11 Mar 94 00:54:11 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA18445; Fri, 11 Mar 94 00:54:08 CST Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 00:54:08 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403110654.AA18445@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #124 TELECOM Digest Fri, 11 Mar 94 00:54:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 124 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson NIU Forum Meeting Highlights for February 1994 (Steve Rogers) Telecomics and the Infobahn (Dave Leibold) Re: Local CID Showing Out of Area (Steve Forrette) Various Industry Items (Bell News, Ontario via Dave Leibold) 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: srogers@viking.tad.eds.com (Steve Rogers) Subject: NIU Forum Meeting Highlights for February 1994 Organization: EDS Management Consulting Services Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 15:17:29 GMT Volume 3 Number 1 NIUF Meeting Highlights, February 8-11, 1994 Note: The mention of specific products in this document does not constitute endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, along with U S WEST, sponsored the twentieth meeting of the NIUF on February 8-11, 1994. Over 200 users, implementors and service providers of ISDN technology attended the forum which was held at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center in Denver, Colorado. The NIUF continued the tradition of providing continuing education in ISDN-related topics by offering the following tutorials as part of the regular meeting: > "Overview of NIUF/New Users & New Implementors," Karen Patten, AT&T and Don Auble, Ameritech > "Basic ISDN," Steve Rogers, Electronic Data Systems > "ISDN Wiring & Powering Work Program," Steve Halpern, NYNEX S&T > "Planning Your ISDN Implementation," Karen Patten, AT&T > "ISDN: Network & User Applications," Kay Burin, Bellcore-TEC > "WaveRunnerTM Digital Modem: ISDN/Analog Connectivity", Bruce Dillon, IBM Working Group Created for NII in NIUF. Of special interest was the formation of a new National Information Infrastructure (NII) Working Group (NIIWG). This working group provides a place for industry users, such as healthcare professionals and telecommuters, to bring their information technology requirements to be developed into applications and provide access to the implementors, service providers, and hardware and software developers, who will develop actual solutions to their requirements. Plenary Highlights. The work of the Multimedia Communications Forum (MMCF) was presented by Wayne Zakowski (AT&T), Chairman of the Technical Architecture Committee of MMCF. The forum may consider a liaison between the NIUF and MMCF for future applications work. In addition, a representative from the ISDN Users' Forum for Development of New Technology (Japan), Dr. Asano, presented information on Japan's progress of the ISDN technology. Executive Steering Committee (ESC) Highlights. During this session, the Application Services Group made the steps necessary to serve the NIUF as the Applications Committee of the newly formed NIIWG. Jack Robertson, Pacific Bell, was chosen as chair of the Telecommuting and Government Mandates Committee. Gary Olsen, Northern Telecom, presented a straw proposal for a white paper to position ISDN as the on-ramp of the NII. This proposal was presented to the ESC and input to the white paper was requested before March 15. At the June NIUF, the white paper will be complete in draft form. Bob Schickofke, Siemens Stromberg-Carlson, presented the Telecommuting Application Profile. This profile will be used as the basis for a marketing package to encourage corporations to telecommute their employees. Richard Raybold presented an update on the Clean Air Act and led a discussion on telecommuting showstoppers. Robert Margetts, AT&T, brought forth a motion to the ESC to establish a recognition process for members of the NIUF who do excellent or outstanding work. The Versions - Capability Analysis and Planning group announced the availability of the National ISDN-3 content document. SR-NWT-002457, Issue 1, December 1993 can be ordered from Bellcore at 1-800-521-CORE. The cost of the document is $70.00. ISDN Users' Workshop Highlights. A General Users' Roundtable discussion included a presentation of disaster recovery of telecommunications following the recent earthquake in southern California. Several speakers discussed issues regarding the National Information Infrastructure. The Government Services Group reviewed and accepted the NIIWG. Participants were asked to review the Interworking Panel Document (Draft), submit comments and assist in establishing a compilation of ISDN Success Stories in Government. The group accepted a profile review from the Security and Network Management Technical Working Group to prioritize work in conjunction with new Presidential initiatives (NII). Several presentations were given at the Mass Markets Group meeting. GTE shared user requirements for corporate telecommuters and work-at-home customers as well as presenting deployment plans. The National Semiconductor discussed low-cost isoEthernetTM solutions for transporting multimedia streams using ISDN. AT&T introduced the AT&T Digital Adapter which allows simultaneous access to ISDN and some ISDN voice features using existing analog telephones. Finally, Bellcore presented the results of their 1993 ISDN market research on residence and small business customers. The Broadband ISDN Working Group has published Volume II of the Compendium of Broadband ISDN (B-ISDN) Papers presented at NIUF meetings as well as Volume II of the Compendium of B-ISDN Applications. An interim report of the Broadband/Narrowband ISDN Integration Committee was presented. The group voted the Interactive Simulation Application Profile as working group stable and concurred with the transfer of activities to the newly created NII Working Group's Architecture Committee. The Enterprise Network Data Interconnectivity Family recognized that remote access to LANs using ISDN devices require a great deal of interoperability. Currently most CPE on the market uses proprietary algorithms. A motion to test and demonstrate inter-vendor interoper- ability was unanimously passed. The motion set a milestone date for this to be accomplished. At the continuing series of Users' Issues Roundtables, the users heard from two user transaction processing service providers about their needs, experiences to date, and requirements for ubiquitous ISDN packet switched services. Mirek Kula, Gtech Corporation, and Andy Singleton, SPS Payment Systems, described three key benefits of ISDN packet switched services: 1) Reduce connect time significantly; 2) Provide potential economic benefits; and 3) Increase flexibility and reliability. Critical requirements for the deployment of a ubiquitous ISDN packet switched network are: develop an X.25 (over ISDN) service culture; complete the technology development of services and features on the packet network; and, offer cost effective business conditions. Mr. Rob Sterrenberg, GTE, represented the TSTS (Transaction Switching and Transport Service) Industry Forum, which was recently organized using the North American ISDN Users' Forum structure as a guideline. The TSTS Forum addresses all forms of transaction processing as well as ISDN packet-switched services. Several industries heavily involved with transaction processing include businesses with card (credit, debit) verification requirements, lottery, health care, etc. Mr. Sterrenberg also described recent deployment experiences with user groups. Going forward, the NIUF plans to formalize a liaison with the TSTS Forum and to identify packet-switched requirements within the current user-submitted applications for specific action. The Simplification of ISDN Ordering, Provisioning, and Installation Ad Hoc Group discussed the progress that has been made. The NIUF has approved a set of agreements which can simplify ISDN ordering. During 1993, the NIUF approved 10 Feature Sets (Phase 1 simplification) and 29 Line Sets (Phase 2 simplification) to serve as building blocks from which ISDN applications or services can be constructed. Customers, or their agents, can order by specifying these Line Sets and Feature Sets, instead of by specifying the much larger number of interface and feature parameters. At the February 1994 meeting, 15 Capability Packages and 43 Solution Sets (Phase 3 simplification), constructed from the Line Set and Feature Set building blocks, were approved; these enable customers, or their agents, to order an entire application. At this meeting, many telephone companies presented their plans to implement these simplification components during the current year. In addition, it is anticipated that these simplification tools will play a key role in ISDN Solutions '94, through the planned Solution Teams. ISDN Implementors' Workshop Highlights. The ISDN Implementors Workshop facilitated successful ISDN output. The NIUF IIW agreed to support the activities of the National Information Infrastructure (NII). ISDN is an excellent "on-ramp" for the NII and many synergistic activities will benefit both ISDN and NII. Four documents were ratified at the final plenary and four additional documents were approved as working group stable. These documents are listed in the plenary section. the IIW re-elected Glenn Ehley (Siemens Stromberg-Carlson) as IIW Chair and Robin Rossow (Bellcore) as IIW Vice Chair. Both were re-elected for their third consecutive term. The Security & Network Management Profile Team and Technical Working Group accepted a Department of Defense contribution of the DoD Handbook on Network Management and Security. Charters for each group were reviewed and approved. Profiles submitted to the Security groups' were reviewed and the group asked the IIW for assistance in recruiting additional analysts. Profiles were passed back to the Government Services group to prioritize or to delete profiles that are no longer championed. The Call Management Profile Team met on February 9th for a final readout of the Telecommuting Application Profile. This profile was submitted to the Closing Plenary and approved. The Video/Audio Conferencing Profile Team has changed their name to the Multimedia Applications & Networking Profile Team. The Applications Analysis Working Group distributed the document "A Catalog of National ISDN Solutions for Selected NIUF Applications - Second Edition" which was submitted to the Closing Plenary for ratification. Copies can be obtained from Bellcore by calling 1-800-521-CORE (2673) (908/699-5800 - foreign calls), Document GP-1, the cost is $43 (overseas - prepay + 15% for shipping). The document can also be accessed by anonymous FTP from "info.bellcore.com", directory: /pub/isdn. The ISDN Conformance Testing (ICOT) & ICOT ACT 23 Working Groups elected new officers: Leo Terry (Northern Telecom) as ICOT Chair, and Roxe Murray (Northern Telecom) both ICOT Vice Chair and ACT23 Chair. The document "Guidelines for Implementors of ISDN CPE to Conform to National ISDN-1 and NIUF Layer 3 Basic Call Control Test Suites [ICOT 93-07, ACT23-92/42-3R7]" was approved in the Closing Plenary. The Signaling/Supplementary Services Working Group voted the Layer 3 signalling specification for ISDN BRI Class II equipment document [NIU/SSWG/94-002] as Working Group stable. The group discussed becoming inactive after the June 1994 NIUF; however, this will not occur since a number of items were assigned to the SSWG during this NIUF. Some of the SSWG's participants had a joint meeting with the Messaging and Answering group to discuss completion of its Application Profile. The Wireless Technical Working Group demonstrated ISDN applications delivered over a satellite. One of the applications included ISDN video conferencing over a satellite. A number of vendors are indicating that they are utilizing the NIUF Application Software Interface (ASI) agreements in some of their ISDN products (e.g., IBM WaveRunnerTM). Therefore, the NIUF requested that additional activity continues in the ASI arena. The ISDN CPE and Software (ICSW) Working Group met and discussed how the CPE and software community can work with the Corporation for Open Systems to ensure that Solutions '94 will be an event that will be successful in advancing the awareness of the benefits of ISDN applications. ICSW members will be working closely with COS on the planning for this event. The ICSW - CPE Development Issues held a one-day session with 22 presentations by ISDN equipment suppliers that included terminal adapter, test equipment, video, LAN access and interconnection, and network backup equipment manufacturers. The applications discussed ranged from computer access to work-at-home to remote broadcast audio. The ICSW PBX Issues Subcommittee held discussions on the European and U.S. alternatives to using ISDN for providing standard, interoperable networking of PBXs from different manufacturers. This group of leading PBX vendors has been working with Bellcore to define specifications for the public network in the U.S. for this application. The ICSW Basic Rate Terminal Subcommittee worked with the Order Simplification Group towards the implementation of methods of ordering and installing ISDN that will make it much easier and reduce complexity. An ad hoc group was formed to work with the Corporation for Open Systems Solutions '94 teams for early implementation of these procedures. At the ICSW Powering & Wiring Subcommittee, the initial sections of the ISDN Wiring Guidelines became working group stable. The subcommittee made considerable progress on other sections of the document. In its current state the document consists of: 1) The 12/93 draft document with modifications to section 2 2) Addendum #1: dealing with the requirements of the FCC Docket 88-57. 3) Addendum #2: Other changes resulting from review of the 12/93 document. For copies, contact at NIST Dawn Hoffman or Sara Caswell at (301) 975-4853. The Closing Plenary approved the following documents on February 11, 1994: > Phase 3 NIUF Application Packages and Solution Sets > A Catalog of National ISDN Solutions for Selected NIUF Applications - Second Edition > Guidelines for Implementors of ISDN CPE to Conform to Both National ISDN-1 and North American ISDN Users' Forum Layer 3 Basic Rate Interface Basic Call Control Abstract Test Suites [ICOT-93-07 ACT23-92/42.3R7] > Signaling and Supplementary Services document NIUF/SWG/93-017 > Telecommuting Application Profile (89-039.4) The following documents were announced as working group stable and will be voted at the next meeting, if no substantive comments are received: > ISDN Wiring & Powering Guidelines (NIU/ICSW/BRI/WPE/018) with Addendums #1 and #2 > ISDN Primary Rate Access Customer Installation Layer 1 Conformance Testing - Update (NIUF 400-92/ICOT-91-53) > Interactive Simulation Profile (93-002.8) > Layer 3 Signalling Specification for the Minimal Set of Circuit-Switched Bearer Services for the ISDN Class 2 Basic Rate Interfaces (SSWG-305) The following working group charters were approved: > Security & Network Management Profile Team > Security & Network Management Technical Working Group (modified) Two new applications were submitted to the IUW: 94-001.1 Message Waiting Requirements for Attendant/Message Desk Applications 94-002.1 NI-2 for Interexchange Carrier PRI NIST, Gaithersburg, Maryland, will host the next NIUF on June 20-24, 1994. Contact Sara Caswell of NIST at (301) 975-4853 for further information. WaveRunner is a registered trademark of IBM. isoEthernet is a Registered Trade Mark of the National Semiconductor Corporation NIUF ANNOUNCEMENT North American ISDN Users Forum Expands Mission to Include Information Highway Denver Colorado, February 11, 1994 Recognizing the need for a strong user voice early in the planning process for the National Information Infrastructure (NII) the North American ISDN Users Forum (NIUF), acting on the recommendations of a study group established at its October 1993 meeting, today formally expanded its mission to include the NII, popularly known as the "Information Highway". The NIUF was established under the auspices of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 1988. Its mission was "to create a strong user voice in the implementation of ISDN and ISDN applications and to ensure that the emerging Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) meets users' application needs." As a user driven activity the NIUF has been very successful in meeting it's objectives. This is evidenced by development of ISDN user applications, a catalog of ISDN solutions, simplification of ordering ISDN services, deployment of National ISDN 1, Transcontinental ISDN Project TRIP '92 and the increasing general availability of ISDN services. It is recognized that ISDN is continuing to evolve, driven by technology and by user needs toward a ubiquitous, seamless, broadband, transparent, common user system. This advanced system is the NII. Eventually every business and residence in the US, and worldwide, will have access to the NII. Applications will be far ranging; entertainment, telecommuting, distant learning, health care, education, air and ground traffic control; the limits are set only by the imagination. The technology to implement the NII exists today, using basic and primary rate ISDN as the access architecture. As with ISDN, the key to the timely and widespread deployment of the NII will be an open architecture supporting the development of useful applications which will stimulate user demand, thus justifying investment by the service providers. As with ISDN, the development of applications requires the interchange of information on user interface standards and serving system functions and capabilities as well as knowledge of the needs of prospective users. The NIUF has provided for this interchange of information for the ISDN community, which greatly facilitated the deployment of that service, and is well qualified, prepared and motivated to provide similar support for the NII. The next meeting of the NIUF is scheduled for June 20-24, 1994 at NIST in Gaithersburg, MD. For information, contact Dawn Hoffman or Sara Caswell (301) 975-2937. ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 10 Mar 94 23:09:24 -0500 Subject: Telecomics and the Infobahn Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada Some of the recent funnies have picked up on the infobahn hype in recent weeks ... examples include: Bent Offerings 8 Mar 94: Hitch-hiker stands on the shoulder of the "Information Super-Highway" thumbing for a ride with his right hand, and holding a question mark in the left. Adam 8 Mar 94: "... I feel like I'm merging onto the autobahn in a VW bug." Shoe 15 Feb 94: Shoe: "Is my job safe in the face of this information superhighway?" Wizard: "Well, with any superhighway ... you've gotta expect some roadkill." ... and for a completely different telecomic: Shoe 7 Mar 94: Waitress: "Lunch for one? Phoning or non-phoning?" (with scene of dining cellular callers). ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Local CID Showing Out of Area Date: 11 Mar 1994 05:27:09 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In , richard.dervan@atlwin.com (Richard Dervan) writes: > I had an interesting experience last week. I got paged by my computer > indicating it had received a voice message for me. Since I was > expecting a message from my sweetie, I went to a pay phone, called my > computer, and picked up the message. > When I got home, I saw OUT-OF-AREA on my CID box. Did you use coins to place the call? Any other method of payment (such as calling card, collect, etc) is likely to cause OUT OF AREA on a Caller ID box, even if both ends of the call are in the same CO. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 10 Mar 94 23:09:42 -0500 Subject: Various Industry Items Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 7 Mar 94] On the competitive front: Mega-merger called off - What might have been the biggest merger in American history - Bell Atlantic Corp. with Tele-Communications Inc. and its programming subsidiary Liberty Media Inc. - has been called off by all parties. The $33 billion deal would have coupled the giant regional phone company with the nation's largest cable television operator. Reason given was the "regulatory actions" of the Federal Communications Commission which, on February 22, ordered cable television companies to cut their rates by an average of seven per cent. "What's happened is with cable re-regulation, the outlook for cash flow has deteriorated," said a Wall Street analyst. Unitel backs out of Albera markets - Canada's telephone companies have an obligation to provide service equally to everyone no matter what it costs -- but long distance competitors don't. Unitel announced that it was backing off on plans to provide long distance services to residence and small business customers in Alberta. The company said it would not be able to make a profit in these markets because of the contribution payments it would have to make to help support local service. The level of contribution long distance carriers must pay to support local service is established every year by the CRTC. [Rogers/Maclean-Hunter news item omitted since the deal where Rogers is to buy out MH was announced a few days ago -- though cable company rearrangements would be subject to CRTC approval]. Rogers signs deal with U.S. partner - Rogers Network Services (an affiliate of Rogers Communications), recenrly signed a deal with America's largest competitive access provider (CAP) to promote each other's services. CAPs provide customers with alternative local phone service so they can bypass the local telephone companies. The deal with MFS Communica- tions allows both companies to provide dedicated special access and local private line services to large businesses in Canada and the U.S. MFS already operates competitive networks in 23 major cities in the U.S. and U.K. MCI researches Information Highway - MCI Communications recently conducted a survey to find out what kind of services customers wanted most from the Information Highway. Of the 800 customers polled, 75 per cent said they were chiefly interested in access to libraries and educational programs; 61 per cent wanted movies-on- demand; 55 per cent wanted direct access to make travel reservations; and 44 per cent wanted video communications with their family and friends. MCI to compete in Mexico - MCI recently joined forces with Danacel, Mesico's largest financial group, to provide long distance services in Mexico. The new joint venture will begin competing against Telmex, the Mexican national carrier, when the market is thrown open to competition in 1996. Bell Atlantic signs up newspaper publisher - Bell Atlantic recently reached an agreement with U.S. publisher Knight-Ridder Inc. to develop news, entertainment, advertising and other multi-media services for delivery to the home. The deal will provide Bell Atlantic with a source of interactive information services while providing Knight-Ridder with new outlets for its newspapers. "Baby Bells" want local competition - Ameritech and Pacific Bell are both pressuring their state regulators to allow open competition in their local networks. Both companies say they are willing to compete for local business provided the federal regulator allows them to offer long distance services. Although AT&T, MCI and other U.S. long distance companies would like to get into the local network business, these companies are actively lobbying the American government to keep the Baby Bells out of their long distance market. International giants to cut jobs - AT&T recently announced that it intends to cut about 15,000 jobs in its core long distance business. The reductions, which equal about 15 per cent of AT&T's work force, have been attributed to new technologies and a reduced share in the long distance marketplace. British Telecom also plans to reduce its workforce by about ten per cent over the next two years. BT currently employs over 160,000 people. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #124 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa09273; 11 Mar 94 17:33 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA29786; Fri, 11 Mar 94 13:43:19 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA29774; Fri, 11 Mar 94 13:43:15 CST Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 13:43:15 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403111943.AA29774@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #125 TELECOM Digest Fri, 11 Mar 94 13:43:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 125 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Unitel Carrier Vote Proposal Criticised (Bell News via Dave Leibold) Expanded 900 Service in Canada (Bell News via Dave Leibold) Experience With a Telemarketer (Dave Niebuhr) Competition and Technology (Stewart Fist) "Nevada Plan" Information Needed (Tad J. Hunt) Latest Telephone Scumbag Use (Dave Niebuhr) ISDN BRI to IXC? (John McHarry) Video Conference Bridges (John McHarry) Mintel Emulation Software for MacIntosh Wanted (Franck Nazikian) Re: Erlang B and Required Trunks Functions (Stu Jeffery) Re: Information on Used Telecom Equipment Dealer Wanted (Dennis R. Hilton) Re: Digital Cellular Phones (David Boettger) Re: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? (Bill Mayhew) Re: Unzipping ISDN File in Archives (jmdchicago@delphi.com) Re: Local CID Showing Out of Area (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Country Code For San Marino? (Bill Hofmann) Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number (Eric Andruscavage) 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: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 10 Mar 1994 23:08:42 -0500 Subject: Unitel Carrier Vote Proposal Criticised Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 7 Mar 94] Bell votes NO to Unitel's balloting proposal Bell strongly objects to the procedure, the price and the principle of "balloting" customers to ask them to vote for the long distance carrier they would prefer to do business with. Last Wednesday, Unitel Communications asked the CRTC to implement balloting to "provide residential and business customers with the opportunity to select their preferred long-distance carrier." The procedure, countered Bell, would be "complex and costly, one not in the public interest" -- a position Unitel itself previously advanced. The price, pointed out Bell, would involve some $15 million in mailing costs alone. But the principle of this referendum, said Bell, "ignores the fact that competition and free choice are already here in Canada -- and have been here for almost two years now. Consumers can pick up the phone and select any alternate long distance carrier they want today." "While Unitel wraps itself in the flags of competition and choice, what it is really proposing is the imposition of another layer of regulatory process in what is -- and should remain -- a free market decision," the company said in a public statement. Furthermore, said Bell, "We don't think customers will buy into the idea of a cumbersome, disruptive, and ultimately costly process that purports to give them what they already have: full choice. "It's like asking customers to fill out a ballot to decide what grocery store to shop at; they go to the one they believe offers them the best service and the best value. We doubt that customers want to be subjected to a referendum process for this kind of everyday, free market decision." ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 10 Mar 1994 23:09:06 -0500 Subject: Expanded 900 Service in Canada Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 7 Mar 94] Advantage 900 now interactive Advantage 900 service has just become interactive, and less _risque._ The CRTC has granted approval of an enhanced Advantage 900 [tm] service. The enhancements include premises-based Advantage 900 and premium pricing which have been added to the already available network-based Advantage 900. With Advantage 900, callers are invited to dial certain 900-prefixed numbers so they can, for example, catch up on the latest news, get help while using their computer, or show their support for a political candidate. Information providers who qualify with the CRTC guidelines for content (porn purveyors won't make the grade) can have callers pay for Advantage 900 on a per-call basis, with the charges appearing on their telephone bill. Stentor developed the new premises-based Advantage 900 in response to customer demand for a more interactive way to communicate with callers. With premises-based Advantage 900, businesses and organization can offer pre- recorded, live and interactive programming from virtually anywhere in Canada. Callers have easy, direct-dial access to the customized information they need. Calls can terminate at the business's or organization's location, instead of at a telephone company office. With premium pricing, businesses, governments and organizations with Advantage 900 have the flexibility to set the price charged to Advantage 900 callers. They can also arrange to have the Stentor- owner companies, like Bell, bill and collect charges on their behalf. Previously, only network-based Advantage 900 has been available. With network-based Advantage 900, all calls are routed to recorded messages which are stored on the local telephone company's equipment, so callers had access only to one-way information. With approval from the CRTC, Stentor now has strict program content guidelines and consumer safeguards for Advantage 900 to protect callers from incurring unwanted charges. For example, the guidelines do not permit adult programming -- so called "gab" lines -- or programs that assign personal identification numbers (PINS) which must be used in subsequent calls. Callers will also hear a preamble message describing the program, the call charge and the service provider's name. If callers hang up in the first 18 seconds of the call, they will not be charged. The maximum allowable charges for Advantage 900 are $3.00 per call for programs intended for children and $50.00 for all other programs. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 06:43:14 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Experience with a Telemarketer I had an interesting experience with a persistent telemarketer last night. I'm listed in the phone book but not under my name. The first call came in (labelled Out-of-Area on my CID box) and the caller was told that there was no one in the house named "insert a name" there; less than a minute another call came in with the same ID and I took the call and told the woman that there was no one living in my house with the name she mentioned and that her information was obviously incorrect (true since it doesn't reveal my name). Call number three was the shortest. As soon as I said hello, she hung up. Using the pseuodnym is handy since it eliminates the "wheat from the chaff" type of telemarketing calls. Yes, I do accept some calls but only from companies that I deal with. Sears is an example. I'll get calls from them to take out a service contract on some appliance that I've bought from them; my fuel oil company trying to sell me fuel oil (yes, it does do that), etc. 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: Stewart Fist <100033.2145@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Competition and Technology Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 11:14:05 GMT Jerry Leichter writes: > I have great respect for competition, but I have yet to see a sound > argument that the advance in services available *since* deregulation > is signficantly different from the advance *before* deregulation - > AFTER CONTROLLING FOR THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVANCE IN APPLICABLE > TECHNOLOGY. I couldn't agree more. I've just spent a lot of time analysing the long-distance charges (and the changes thereof) from country A to country B using a range of figures produced by the OECD, for a commissioned report. It is difficult stuff to analyse, but one thing became quite clear. There's been no more drop in international long-distance call prices in advanced (OECD) countries with competitive regimes than there has in those with monopoly regimes. I must say I was surprised at these findings, because the monopolies actually did slightly better -- although the difference wasn't significant. My guess is that this results from a monopoly (at one end of a connection) having a duopoly to deal with (at the other), and therefore they can deal in such a way as to retain mutual higher prices from the duopoly end to the monopoly, but not from the monopoly end to the duopoly. The other guess, is that the duopolies and full competitive regimes spend so much on marketing and advertising that it wipes any 'competitive' advantage out. Certainly telephone companies are now the major financial supporters of television networks because of their levels of ad expenditure. One of the problems with Adam Smithian economics and the value of competition, is that it assumes that the price set by the suppliers results from the sale of a scarce resource. The whole of modern economic theory rests on the theory that price is a balance between competiting suppliers bidding down the price (to near real-cost levels) and competing buyers who will effectively pay ever higher prices for advantage in accessing the scarce resource. Eventually a balance is reached between the buyers buying, and the sellers selling. The trouble is that once you lay in a 36 fibre 1.2 Gigabit/sec cable between a couple of reasonable size towns, and you shove 32kbit/s ADPCM along it, you get a theoretical 1.3 million simultaneous calls, at an amortised price of about $US6 million a year for distances of about 1000 km. Which works out to about $5 per year per voice circuit. How does competition operate in an environment like this? Obviously, at these cost levels and with this capacity, a single cable, or a couple can satisfy most of the requirements of our largest cities - and the total expenditure on the cable is chickenfeed. Is it then in the interests of the competing companies to battle fiercely for market share by dropping prices, or by using the profit creaming to fund marketing plans and advertising? When you dig down to the bottom, the problem is that in an era where long-distance connection abundance is the norm (except that in many cases this is being deliberately knobbled) the normal competitive market forces do not apply in the way that conventional economics says it should. ------------------------------ From: jjmhome!hunt@uunet.uu.net (Tad J. Hunt) Subject: "Nevada Plan" Information Needed Date: 11 Mar 1994 12:09:55 -0500 Organization: Murray Enterprises I am looking for information related to what has been referred to as the Nevada Plan -- an arrangment where a long distance company pays the local termination charges to the owner of the phone number instead of the local phone company but that number can only be reached by using that long distance carrier. I would like to know if any special phone equipment is necessary to operate under such an arrangement. And who can I contact at AT&T or some other carrier to discuss this? I believe that speedway.net, an Internet services provider, is set up this way. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 08:42:45 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Latest Telephone Scumbag Use There is a scumbag on Long Island (area code 516) who is preying on women at home with the use of telephones. This dirtbag is calling the women and telling them that they have kidnapped their husbands and won't release them until the woman performs sexual acts with him. Even worse is that not only does he call at various hours during the day, but he calls during rush hours when the husband is more than likely unavailable. One call had a twist: he told the woman that he had kidnapped her mother and was going to rape her if she wife didn't comply. The police have advised that all calls should be reported immediately and if the homeowner has Caller ID, that should be checked to see if a number appears. Fat chance on this since Caller ID isn't 100 percent deployed to all exchanges and all possible telephone numbers. A better way would be to use the "Trap and Trace" feature even if it costs $0.75(US) per use and I believe it is available on all lines the same as per-call or per-line blocking. Dave Niebuhr Internet: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (preferred) niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 (516)-282-3093 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is an old one; it has gone around for many years. I remember hearing the phone company and police warn people against this ruse thirty years ago. I think you have to be awfully dumb to fall for it, but then, a lot of people are awfully dumb which is why it always seems to work so well with each new generation. One woman completly messed up the game when she got called: after being told her husband had been kidnapped and what she would have to do to get him back her answer was, "Keep the old %$^&^* ... I don't want him back." PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 11:46:01 EST From: John McHarry Subject: ISDN BRI to IXC? If I have an ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) from my local exchange carrier and want to place an interexchange data call, how does the LEC interconnect with the IXC? Somebody told me that this has to be hooked to a switched 56kb trunk, but I don't see why the LEC couldn't just send it in a regular Feature Group D and tell the IXC it was a data call in the SS7 message. Am I missing something? ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Video Conference bridges Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 11:49:33 EST Who makes video conference bridges? What types of compressed video can they work with? Any thoughts on what is good, bad, etc.? John McHarry mcharry@access.digex.net ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 02:03:14 GMT From: nazikian@DGICII.mty.itesm.mx (Franck Nazikian) Subject: Minitel Emulation Software for MacIntosh Wanted Thank you very much for your help! I finally could solve my problem of Minitel emulation for P.C. Now, I've got another request: where can I find a Minitel emulation software for Macintosh, available on the Internet? Best regards, CII ITESM Franck NAZIKIAN Sucursal de Correos "J" MONTERREY N.L. 64849 MEXICO Tel: (52-8)-358-20-00 exts.50-76 Fax: (52-8)-328-40-81 Internet: nazikian@davinci.mty.itesm.mx ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 00:02:35 -0800 From: stu@shell.portal.com (Stu Jeffery) Subject: Re: Erlang B and Required Trunks Functions In TELECOM Digest V14 #121 josmon@dellgate.us.dell.com (John Osmon) writes: > I am a programmer in the Telecom Department here at Dell, and my > latest project is to pull trunk usage data and produce usage > predictions for said trunks. > This isn't really my field, so I had a co-worker write the request for > me: > We need a way to calculate the number of voice circuits needed to > provide standard levels of service using the Retrial method. Ideally > we would plug into a formula the following: > - offered CCS of traffic > - grade-of-service desired (P.01, P.001, P.05) > The formula would then calculate the number of trunks needed WITHOUT > resorting to lookup tables. > If available, formulas for Erlang B method would also be useful. > These would be most useful as assembler, C, or XBase sub-routines. > Does any one know where I can find these? There are several ways of solving the equations with a recursive form of the Equation. I have seen several Traffic Engineering books with Basic programs. Here is one example in C that I wrote. /* * This program will compute required number of circuits * for designated Grade of Service, using Erlang B equation */ /* * include files */ #include #include main() { double C, Traffic, GOS, Prob_of_cong, B; int Trunks, A_max; while ( 1 == 1) { printf( "Offered Traffic: " ); scanf( "%lf", &Traffic); printf( "GOS: " ); scanf( "%lf", &GOS ) Prob_of_cong = 1; Trunks = 0 while ( Prob_of_cong > GOS) { Trunks = Trunks + 1; Prob_of_cong = (Prob_of_cong * Traffic) / (Trunks + (Traffic * Prob_of_cong)); } printf( "Number of ckts %i and conjestion %5.4f\n", Trunks, Prob_of_cong ); printf (" \n"); } } Sample output Offered Traffic: 10 GOS: .01 Number of ckts 18 and conjestion 0.0071 Offered Traffic: 10 GOS: .02 Number of ckts 17 and conjestion 0.0129 Offered Traffic: 10 GOS: .05 Number of ckts 15 and conjestion 0.0365 Offered Traffic: 20 GOS: .01 Number of ckts 30 and conjestion 0.0085 Offered Traffic: 20 GOS: .02 Number of ckts 28 and conjestion 0.0188 Offered Traffic: 20 GOS: .05 Number of ckts 26 and conjestion 0.0372 Stu Jeffery Internet: stu@shell.portal.com 1072 Seena Ave. voice: 415-966-8199 Los Altos, CA. 94024 fax: 415-966-8199 ------------------------------ From: sgiblab!kaiwan.com!troi!DRHilton@uucp-gw-2.pa.dec.com (Dennis R. Hilton) Subject: Re: Information on Used Telecom Equipment Dealer Wanted Date: 11 Mar 94 04:46:32 GMT Reply-To: sgiblab!kaiwan.com!troi!drhilton@uucp-gw-2.pa.dec.com Organization: kaiwan.com Internet Access (714) 638-2139 In article , Kenneth Leung wrote: > I am looking for dealers of used telecom equipment such as AT&T Merlin > phone sets and used AT&T PBXs. Call information for Long Beach, CA, and ask for Native Son (or Sun) communications. Best, Dennis R. Hilton ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 07:32:00 +0000 From: david boettger Subject: Re: Digital Cellular Phones In article , stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > In , jrg@rahul.net (John Galloway) writes: >> But if this key is fixed (since it is not transmited I assume it is) >> then all the cellular blue box builder need to is disect a phone to >> get it. This might not be a trivial opeation, but these crooks are >> pretty smart fellows. > Are you assuming that the key is the same for all phones? What good is a key that's the same for all phones? > If the key is different for each phone, then the crook would have to > get a hold of a particular phone to dissect it to get the key. And if > they have physical possession of the phone, there is little need to > get the key in order to make fraudulent calls, right? Yup. That's the idea. David Boettger boettger@bnr.ca ------------------------------ From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) Subject: Re: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 16:34:10 GMT As pointed out, the underlying symbol rate for 14.4 Kbps modems is still 2400 baud. Nonetheless, my practical experience in running our modem bank connecting 13 hospitals in six cities here in NE Ohio, is that 14.4K is much more troublesome than 9600 bps data calls over POTS (plain old telephone service) lines. I use good quailty Multitech or DSI rack type modems on my end, but the user community can have almost any sort of equipment. The Multitechs support 14.4K v.32bis while the DSIs are 9600 v.32 max modulation. There is definitely a correlation between good name brand equipment and the success of the connection. My chief problem is that users call my system with their modems set to demand 14.4K rate. Our systems will connect, but the error correction rate is so high that througput is almost zero. Apparently, whatever heuristic method is used by the modems doesn't see anything wrong with the connection and thus force a fallback. I do have my end programmed to accept and/or request a fallback. I've also tried calling from some of the troublesome locations and thus am sure that their modems have fallback enabled too, yet the connection will remain stoically locked at 14.4K doing copious error correction with abysmal throghput. I've gone over the prblem with Multitech and didn't get anything more than the patented Tom and Ray Magliozi mechanic's shrug as a response. From those same troublesome locations, virtually all calls forced to initate with 9600 moduation complete with hardly any error correction and good througput. I don't have any current means of measuring it, but what I am beginning to suspect is that there is phase jitter present on these lines. The modem training sequence can do echo cancellation, group delay equalization and amplitude equalization, but the training sequence can't compensate for rapidly varying phase shift on the line. The nature of the problems I have doesn't seem to depend on the length of the circuit or number of central offices involved. What puzzles me is that the modems don't fall back when the performacne gets to be so bad. It would appear that the error correction engine needs to have some sort of input the the egine that handles modulation. I am not imtimately familiar with v.32bis / v.42bis specifications, but some handshaking between the two parts of the modem would seem to be a most reasonable and logical thing to do. Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-0095 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu amateur radio 146.58: N8WED ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 01:58:00 EST From: JMDCHICAGO@delphi.com Subject: Re: Unzipping ISDN File in Archives sshaver@nde.unl.edu (jeff shaver) wrote: > I recently ftp'ed the ISDN.deployment.data.zip file from the Telecom > Archives, but I can't unzip it. PKZip 2.04(g?) tells me it's not a > zip file. Any ideas? Thanks for your help! The file may have been zipped using an older version of PKZip. PKWare came out with a new version of the zipping software, which is not bak- wards compatible with the older version. It may need the older version to unzip it properly. (This created downloading hell on a lot of bulletin boards here recently.) Another possibility is that the FTP was done using ASCII, not binary, resulting in a corruption of the file as it came over the system. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Whatever the cause, I now have another copy of it here in a MIME version and will send it to whoever writes me to ask for it. This one is supposed to work with 2.04 PKUNZIP. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 06:35:55 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Local CID Showing Out of Area > stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) wrote: > In , richard.dervan@atlwin.com (Richard > Dervan) writes: >> I had an interesting experience last week. I got paged by my computer >> indicating it had received a voice message for me. Since I was >> expecting a message from my sweetie, I went to a pay phone, called my >> computer, and picked up the message. >> When I got home, I saw OUT-OF-AREA on my CID box. > Did you use coins to place the call? Any other method of payment > (such as calling card, collect, etc) is likely to cause OUT OF AREA on > a Caller ID box, even if both ends of the call are in the same CO. When CID was deployed in my area (516 area code), I tried calling home from a pay phone and the number was displayed. However, when I call home while I'm having my car serviced at a local service station, the number doesn't show. The difference is that the pay phone on the corner is NYNEX owned, and the other one is a COCOT. 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: wdh@netcom.com (Bill Hofmann) Subject: Re: Country Code For San Marino? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 17:09:38 GMT I just checked out the report from Martin Kealey about San Marino's country code change. According to Sprint International Operator, the country code is indeed 378. Also, on the former Soviet Union, I just heard from Lithuania's embassy about telecom there. Some highlights: * city codes have been shortened: Vilnius now is "2", not "0122" other city codes are shortened in a similar way. * long distance access code is 82, intl is 810 * operator is 8p194, 8p195 (English), 8p196 (AT&T) There are access codes to former USSR cities, but I don't have the data in front of me. Bill Hofmann wdh@netcom.COM Fresh Software and Instructional Design +1 510 524 0852 ------------------------------ From: eric@access.digex.net (Eric Andruscavage) Subject: Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number Date: 11 Mar 1994 12:53:29 -0500 Organization: Zeta Data, Laurel, Maryland, USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: ... this? Because they take advantage > of a class of people who have absolutely no other choice in how > their phone calls are placed; i.e. prisoners. Does this mean that prison phones are blocked from calling 1-800-COLLECT or the 800 number for AT&T long distance? I would like to say that I once got a collect call from a prisoner (wrong number, I hope) and the operator made it clear that it was a collect call from a federal prison. Since we normally accepted collect calls, I would have taken the call if this hadn't been made clear. I wonder if MCI or AT&T would provide the same service. Eric Andruscavage First thing - let's kill all the Shakespeareans DBMS Design/Programming/Training/Answers Questioned Laurel, Maryland * 301/206-2030 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is a Class of Service available in modern switches to accomodate telephones used by prison inmates. For quite a long time all the phones at Cook County Jail including the administrative ones have been on their own centrex: 312-890. But the phones used by prison- ers are very restricted. All calls have to be dialed zero-plus. All one-plus calls are intercepted with 'call cannot be completed as dialed ...' Stuff like 10xxx/800/950/etc. is totally blocked out. Those calls all go to intercept if dialed as one-plus and just vanish in the ether, neither completing or getting denied if dialed as zero-plus. Zero-plus any regular area code and number brings a telco operator on the line whose display clearly indicates the circumstances and the *only* way she can process the call is on a collect basis. No credit card or third number billing is allowed, and as you pointed out, the operator plainly tells the called party that the call is collect from (name), a prisoner at Cook County Jail. If someone knew the numbers on the phones in the cellblocks and tries to call in, an intercept says the number is in service for outgoing calls only. The phones all have rotary dials, of course, so there can be no games with touch-tones. Dialing to other extensions on the centrex is blocked, as are calls to the 0 operator, 411, 611, and 911. In the regulations pertaining to equal access and the use of 10xxx, etc, there are exceptions built in for certain circumstances, prisons and jails being one such circumstance. Gee, and *you* thought the college phone system in your dorm was pretty restrictive :) Look how bad the 'students' have it at the College of Hard Knocks and Practical Experience. :) PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #125 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa09920; 11 Mar 94 19:01 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA01886; Fri, 11 Mar 94 14:51:04 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA01876; Fri, 11 Mar 94 14:51:01 CST Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 14:51:01 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403112051.AA01876@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #126 TELECOM Digest Fri, 11 Mar 94 14:51:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 126 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Country Code Listing (Lars Poulsen) BCE Buys More Atlantic Interests (Bell News via Dave Leibold) Mexico Link For Canada Direct (Bell News via Dave Leibold) Re: Clipped Again (Maxime Taksar) MCI Wow It's Hot Hotline (Jonny Quest) Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number (Steve Cogorno) 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, 11 Mar 94 09:58:08 +0100 From: lars@eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Country Code Listing Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK In article is written: > Can anyone send me a list of current two and three character country > codes. I have most of them, but what with the breakup of various > countries and what-not, I figure I'm missing a few (codes, that is) I found this list at my local IP service provider's FTP server. The three-digits codes are NOT telephone country codes; the only place I have seen them used, is in MS-DOS. Postal Address: ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency DIN Burggrafenstrasse 6 D-1000 Berlin 30 phone: +49 30 26010 Fax: +49 30 2601231 NOTE: Entries for Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia Hercegovina not yet complete. AFGHANISTAN AF AFG 004 ALBANIA AL ALB 008 ALGERIA DZ DZA 012 AMERICAN SAMOA AS ASM 016 ANDORRA AD AND 020 ANGOLA AO AGO 024 ANGUILLA AI AIA 660 ANTARCTICA AQ ATA 010 ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA AG ATG 028 ARGENTINA AR ARG 032 ARMENIA AM ARM 051 ARUBA AW ABW 533 AUSTRALIA AU AUS 036 AUSTRIA AT AUT 040 AZERBAIJAN AZ AZE 031 BAHAMAS BS BHS 044 BAHRAIN BH BHR 048 BANGLADESH BD BGD 050 BARBADOS BB BRB 052 BELGIUM BE BEL 056 BELIZE BZ BLZ 084 BENIN BJ BEN 204 BERMUDA BM BMU 060 BHUTAN BT BTN 064 BOLIVIA BO BOL 068 BOSNIA HERCEGOVINA BA BIH BOTSWANA BW BWA 072 BOUVET ISLAND BV BVT 074 BRAZIL BR BRA 076 BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERRITORY IO IOT 086 BRUNEI DARUSSALAM BN BRN 096 BULGARIA BG BGR 100 BURKINA FASO BF BFA 854 BURUNDI BI BDI 108 BELARUS BY BLR 112 CAMBODIA KH KHM 116 CAMEROON CM CMR 120 CANADA CA CAN 124 CAPE VERDE CV CPV 132 CAYMAN ISLANDS KY CYM 136 CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC CF CAF 140 CHAD TD TCD 148 CHILE CL CHL 152 CHINA CN CHN 156 CHRISTMAS ISLAND CX CXR 162 COCOS (KEELING) ISLANDS CC CCK 166 COLOMBIA CO COL 170 COMOROS KM COM 174 CONGO CG COG 178 COOK ISLANDS CK COK 184 COSTA RICA CR CRI 188 COTE D'IVOIRE CI CIV 384 CROATIA HR HRV CUBA CU CUB 192 CYPRUS CY CYP 196 CZECH REPUBLIC CZ CZE 203 CZECHOSLOVAKIA CS CSK 200 DENMARK DK DNK 208 DJIBOUTI DJ DJI 262 DOMINICA DM DMA 212 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC DO DOM 214 EAST TIMOR TP TMP 626 ECUADOR EC ECU 218 EGYPT EG EGY 818 EL SALVADOR SV SLV 222 EQUATORIAL GUINEA GQ GNQ 226 ESTONIA EE EST 233 ETHIOPIA ET ETH 230 FALKLAND ISLANDS (MALVINAS) FK FLK 238 FAROE ISLANDS FO FRO 234 FIJI FJ FJI 242 FINLAND FI FIN 246 FRANCE FR FRA 250 FRENCH GUIANA GF GUF 254 FRENCH POLYNESIA PF PYF 258 FRENCH SOUTHERN TERRITORIES TF ATF 260 GABON GA GAB 266 GAMBIA GM GMB 270 GEORGIA GE GEO 268 GERMANY DE DEU 276 GHANA GH GHA 288 GIBRALTAR GI GIB 292 GREECE GR GRC 300 GREENLAND GL GRL 304 GRENADA GD GRD 308 GUADELOUPE GP GLP 312 GUAM GU GUM 316 GUATEMALA GT GTM 320 GUINEA GN GIN 324 GUINEA-BISSAU GW GNB 624 GUYANA GY GUY 328 HAITI HT HTI 332 HEARD AND MC DONALD ISLANDS HM HMD 334 HONDURAS HN HND 340 HONG KONG HK HKG 344 HUNGARY HU HUN 348 ICELAND IS ISL 352 INDIA IN IND 356 INDONESIA ID IDN 360 IRAN (ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF) IR IRN 364 IRAQ IQ IRQ 368 IRELAND IE IRL 372 ISRAEL IL ISR 376 ITALY IT ITA 380 JAMAICA JM JAM 388 JAPAN JP JPN 392 JORDAN JO JOR 400 KAZAKHSTAN KZ KAZ 398 KENYA KE KEN 404 KIRIBATI KI KIR 296 KOREA, DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KP PRK 408 KOREA, REPUBLIC OF KR KOR 410 KUWAIT KW KWT 414 KYRGYZSTAN KG KGZ 417 LAO PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC LA LAO 418 LATVIA LV LVA 428 LEBANON LB LBN 422 LESOTHO LS LSO 426 LIBERIA LR LBR 430 LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA LY LBY 434 LIECHTENSTEIN LI LIE 438 LITHUANIA LT LTU 440 LUXEMBOURG LU LUX 442 MACAU MO MAC 446 MADAGASCAR MG MDG 450 MALAWI MW MWI 454 MALAYSIA MY MYS 458 MALDIVES MV MDV 462 MALI ML MLI 466 MALTA MT MLT 470 MARSHALL ISLANDS MH MHL 584 MARTINIQUE MQ MTQ 474 MAURITANIA MR MRT 478 MAURITIUS MU MUS 480 MEXICO MX MEX 484 MICRONESIA FM FSM 583 MOLDOVA, REPUBLIC OF MD MDA 498 MONACO MC MCO 492 MONGOLIA MN MNG 496 MONTSERRAT MS MSR 500 MOROCCO MA MAR 504 MOZAMBIQUE MZ MOZ 508 MYANMAR MM MMR 104 NAMIBIA NA NAM 516 NAURU NR NRU 520 NEPAL NP NPL 524 NETHERLANDS NL NLD 528 NETHERLANDS ANTILLES AN ANT 532 NEUTRAL ZONE NT NTZ 536 NEW CALEDONIA NC NCL 540 NEW ZEALAND NZ NZL 554 NICARAGUA NI NIC 558 NIGER NE NER 562 NIGERIA NG NGA 566 NIUE NU NIU 570 NORFOLK ISLAND NF NFK 574 NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS MP MNP 580 NORWAY NO NOR 578 OMAN OM OMN 512 PAKISTAN PK PAK 586 PALAU PW PLW 585 PANAMA PA PAN 590 PAPUA NEW GUINEA PG PNG 598 PARAGUAY PY PRY 600 PERU PE PER 604 PHILIPPINES PH PHL 608 PITCAIRN PN PCN 612 POLAND PL POL 616 PORTUGAL PT PRT 620 PUERTO RICO PR PRI 630 QATAR QA QAT 634 REUNION RE REU 638 ROMANIA RO ROM 642 RUSSIAN FEDERATION RU RUS 643 RWANDA RW RWA 646 ST. HELENA SH SHN 654 SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS KN KNA 659 SAINT LUCIA LC LCA 662 ST. PIERRE AND MIQUELON PM SPM 666 SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES VC VCT 670 SAMOA WS WSM 882 SAN MARINO SM SMR 674 SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE ST STP 678 SAUDI ARABIA SA SAU 682 SENEGAL SN SEN 686 SEYCHELLES SC SYC 690 SIERRA LEONE SL SLE 694 SINGAPORE SG SGP 702 SLOVAKIA SK SVK 703 SLOVENIA SI SVN SOLOMON ISLANDS SB SLB 090 SOMALIA SO SOM 706 SOUTH AFRICA ZA ZAF 710 SPAIN ES ESP 724 SRI LANKA LK LKA 144 SUDAN SD SDN 736 SURINAME SR SUR 740 SVALBARD AND JAN MAYEN ISLANDS SJ SJM 744 SWAZILAND SZ SWZ 748 SWEDEN SE SWE 752 SWITZERLAND CH CHE 756 SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC SY SYR 760 TAIWAN, PROVINCE OF CHINA TW TWN 158 TAJIKISTAN TJ TJK 762 TANZANIA, UNITED REPUBLIC OF TZ TZA 834 THAILAND TH THA 764 TOGO TG TGO 768 TOKELAU TK TKL 772 TONGA TO TON 776 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO TT TTO 780 TUNISIA TN TUN 788 TURKEY TR TUR 792 TURKMENISTAN TM TKM 795 TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS TC TCA 796 TUVALU TV TUV 798 UGANDA UG UGA 800 UKRAINE UA UKR 804 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES AE ARE 784 UNITED KINGDOM GB GBR 826 UNITED STATES US USA 840 UNITED STATES MINOR OUTLYING ISLANDS UM UMI 581 URUGUAY UY URY 858 USSR SU SUN 810 UZBEKISTAN UZ UZB 860 VANUATU VU VUT 548 VATICAN CITY STATE (HOLY SEE) VA VAT 336 VENEZUELA VE VEN 862 VIET NAM VN VNM 704 VIRGIN ISLANDS (BRITISH) VG VGB 092 VIRGIN ISLANDS (U.S.) VI VIR 850 WALLIS AND FUTUNA ISLANDS WF WLF 876 WESTERN SAHARA EH ESH 732 YEMEN, REPUBLIC OF YE YEM 887 YUGOSLAVIA YU YUG 890 ZAIRE ZR ZAR 180 ZAMBIA ZM ZMB 894 ZIMBABWE ZW ZWE 716 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: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 10 Mar 94 23:08:28 -0500 Subject: BCE Buys More Atlantic Interests Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Bell News, Bell Ontario, 7 Mar 94] BCE acquires Bruncor and MT&T shares BCE, our parent corporation, has increased its stake in two phone companies in the Atlantic provinces. BCE now owns 8,902,015 shares of Bruncor Inc. of New Brunswick, representing approximately 41.04 per cent of Bruncor's issued and outstanding common shares, and 9,925,564 common shares of Maritime Telegraph and Telephone Company (MT&T) of Nova Scotia, representing approximately 35.4 per cent of MT&T's issued and outstanding common shares. ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 10 Mar 94 23:08:54 -0500 Subject: Mexico Link for Canada Direct Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Bell News, Bell Ontario 7 Mar 94] Mexico joins Canada Direct For Canadians soaking up Mexican rays, calling home just became a whole lot easier. Canadian tourists or business people can now use their Calling Card or Call Me Card, thanks to Telmex's activation on February 16 of Canada Direct service. Canada Direct service allows Canadians travelling on foreign soil to call home with the assistance of Canadian operators. The service avoids the potential for confusion when dealing with an operator who has little or no command of English or French. To call home from Mexico with Canada Direct, callers dial 95 800 010 1990 to connect with a Canadian operator. With the Calling Card information supplied by the caller, the operator validates the card and completes the call. Canada Direct is also available in 87 other countries. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 11:06:39 -0800 From: Maxime Taksar KC6ZPS Subject: Re: Clipped Again In article , padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) writes: > This makes no sense to me. Today there is *no* privacy in phone calls > so the question must have been worded so as to imply that there is for > people to believe that Clipper provides *less*. This is actually something that deserves being addressed. At the moment, there *is* privacy in phone calls, in the sense that it's difficult for a (hypothetical) agency of the government to do complete, automated traffic analysis of any given telephone. Clipper will make this possible to an agency that does not mind skirting inconvenient laws and that can get easy access to most, if not all, phone traffic in the US. The NSA has a very good possibility (and has a history [read {The Puzzle Palace} by James Bamford for details]) of engaging in such activities, so this is not merely hypothetical. In any case, I think this has strayed from general telecom topics and probably belong in comp.society.privacy, comp.risks, and/or talk.politics. crypto. Maxime Taksar KC6ZPS mmt@RedBrick.COM PGP key by request ------------------------------ From: nboddie@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Jonny Quest) Subject: MCI Wow It's Hot Hotline Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept. Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 18:46:33 GMT Does anyone know this number? I saw it a few days ago and lost it. ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 10:40:26 PST TELECOM Digest Editor Noted: > Most hitchikers didn't fare as well with him. Maybe you just weren't > his type. :) And what type is that? I certainly hope that is not driven by homophobia. Since we are discussing politics here, I would like to point out that just because he was convicted of murder and imprisoned does not mean that he shouldn't be able to run a 900 number business. If people want to call, that's their prerogative. How is it different from Angela Davis (who is a very well respected professor in academic circles) writing a book while she was a political prisoner? Both are telling their versions of the truth, and if you want to hear it, fine. If you don't, then don't call. Steve cogorno@netcom.com #608 Merrill * 200 McLaughlin Drive * Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1015 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Homophobic Response: Thank you for sharing your version of the truth with us. To compare Angela Davis and her crimes with people like John Wayne Gacy and Jeff Dahmer (talk about homophobia! the one killed homosexuals, the other one ate them ...) is a bit of a stretch in my opinion but you are entitled to make that comparison if you wish. I am not certain how Ms. Davis would feel about the comparison. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #126 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11983; 12 Mar 94 2:34 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10513; Fri, 11 Mar 94 23:25:25 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10503; Fri, 11 Mar 94 23:25:22 CST Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 23:25:22 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403120525.AA10503@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #127 TELECOM Digest Fri, 11 Mar 94 23:25:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 127 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson GSM and TDMA Problems (Stewart Fist) Canadian Internet Handbook Released (Rick Broadhead) Racal AT Settings Needed (Alan McCowan) Sky Radio Service (spectrumshow@genie.geis.com) Calling North Korea and Cuba (spectrumshow@genie.geis.com) Miscrosoft Visual Basic Drivers for IEEE Test Equipment (Bill Steedly) Request for Demon Dialers (Zoom Electronics) (Al Cohan) Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number (Colin Owen Rafferty) Re: Phones in the Movies Again (Steve Forrette) Re: Phones in the Movies Again (David Breneman) 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: 11 Mar 94 21:34:21 EST From: Stewart Fist <100033.2145@CompuServe.COM> Subject: GSM and TDMA Problems John Sims asks about the problems with GSM. They are pretty much the same as with all TDMA systems, including the TDMA now being introduced into the USA -- and they'll be worse with DECT and DCS1800 which are designed to be used indoors in large offices. You can look at these problems in a number of different ways and at a number of different levels. The primary problem is that they were introduced in competition to perfectly good analog cellular networks, and they failed to provide any real customer advantages. A system needs to be better than the one it replaces. The magical name 'digital' doesn't carry much weight with customers after a while. Coverage area is another major problem, and here the American TDMA has a better solution than GSM because it emphasised dual-mode handsets with analog providing coverage where digital wasn't available. GSM didn't do this, so in most nations with the system (except Germany) you are limited to a very small coverage area, and a very limited range of base-stations, often with minimal equipment, and with great holes in the cells. Drop outs on the Sydney GSM networks seem to range between 40% and up to 80% for a car crossing the city. Sound quality in all digital systems seems to be consistent, but only 'acceptable'. While good static-free reception extends to the boundaries of the cell, they do all suffer from a staccato-like effect when driving down tree-line corridors (especially after dew or rain) and they drop the link precipitously, without warning, at the boundary. This is not how consumers think a phone system should behave. Within buildings, they have many more penetration and Rayleigh-fading problems than analog also. Range of a GSM cell, at present is limited to 35kms, which is too small for Australia, but this will be fixed in 1996 by slot-stealing. GSM and TDMA base stations also need to radiate from higher points for good coverage, but if they do that, they then interfere with other cells. Capacity is set by the amount of general R/F interference being introduced, and generally they seem to be only getting two to three-times that of AMPS. International roaming was the big story behind GSM, and it is certainly important to 2% of European owners who daily drive across the Continent. However AMPS is a far better system if an Australian wants International roaming, because it is used in New Zealand, Australia, most of Asia, and the America's. What we needed for good international roaming was a dual-mode AMPS/TACS handset (and the difference is really only in the R/F stage, so this would have been easy to do). The main problems are the R/F interference effects, and these are common to all TDMA systems (including the new DECT and DCS-1800) and they are cumulative -- so we see only a few signs of the problems now, but like automobile pollution growth in cities, it will get worse as the population of users grows. There are four main problems here: 1. General R/F pollution. Any system that switches its R/F transmitter on and off rapidly (GSM does it 217 times a second, TDMA does it 50 times) will scatter EMI throughout the adjacent radio spectrum. And the sharper the edge of the switch power (on and off), the wider the band of hash it scatters. These sets need a 3-5MHz guard-band between them and analog AMPS channels,and they try to ramp up the power, and still they scatter crap into nearby television broadcast bands. We've never had anything that generates EMI like a GSM handset before in these bands. We need large numbers of them like we need a hole in the head. 2. Audio-Hz interference. The on-off cycle of transmission power will be read by any analog circuit nearby (with any rectification or asymmetrical circuits) as an intrusive audio tone of 217Hz, and the two major harmonics above. This buzz intrudes into hearing aids at distances up to 30 metres, and is often intolerable at 2 metres. It also gets into cassette recorder, wireline systems, and into modems as a carrier tone. 3. Digital byte intrusions. In digital circuits, where the track on a circuit board is about the length of a GSM antenna, the on-off cycle of transmission power is often being read as a data-byte. If only one GSM handset is operating in a vicinity, it will pulse in the first (of eight) slots in a frame, and so produce a 1000 0000 byte at 217 bytes (1736 bits) a second. This can also be read as 1100 0000, 0000 0000 at 3.4kbit/s, or 1110 0000 etc. at 5.2kbit/s (and so on). When two or more handsets are working in the same location, they are all synchronised to the same base-station (same or different channels). So amplitude effects (same slot, different channels) are cumulative: the fact that they may be using different channels is immaterial, so the range of interference can increase. A number of handsets will combine to create what amounts to random number generation (they are also frequency hopping) of power pulses in digital control circuits nearby. This seems to hit some electronic equipment (laserprinters, modems, PCs, TV controllers, possibly air-bag triggers) hard, and have wierd, and often un-reproducable effects. The randomness seems to be the problem in detecting what caused some 'event'. It is virtually impossible to reproduce the conditions. This is why some people report no problems at all, others say it knocks out their Powerbook or modem or multiplexer, occasionally, or every time. Obviously some equipment is far more susceptible than others -- but not just in terms of needing EMI shielding. 4. The last EMI problems is the remote possibility (and I stress 'remote possibility') that the pulsation of the microwaves can create a different type, or order, of health problems to analog. Analog is expected to only have a 'brain and eye-lens' heating effect (but not everyone is convinced about this). Digital TDMA introduces a new factor. It is known for instance, that some enzyme reactions in chemical processes are sped up enormously when hit by pulsating R/F, but no one seems to know why. This needs a lot more research, but is no reason for panic. However, it can't be dismissed, like may technophiles seem to do. The real problem with both GSM and American TDMA is the way in which all these problems were kept secret, and the systems were rolled out slowly and quietly without anyone admitting problems until the press started shouting. When they play these sorts of games, they have only themselves to blame when the press reacts strongly and shouts 'foul' especially when it is likely to be hearing-impaired people who suffer in office environments. Later, problems were reluctantly admitted, but always the admission was associated with "Don't worry, well fix it!" which is just another of their lies. Most of these problems are intrinsic in time-division power pulsing. More recently the tactic has changed once again: now they blame the lack of shielding on hearing-aids and other electronic equipment, and want to boost the standard of immunity, rather than reduce their own emissions. It's the smoke-stack blaming inefficiencies in gas-masks for the problems. ETSI is its own worst enemy. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 19:34:26 EST From: Rick Broadhead Subject: Canadian Internet Handbook Released Pat, When I announced the Canadian Internet Handbook on TELECOM Digest last year, a number of your readers contacted me. Now that the book is finished, I thought they would be interested in seeing what the final product looks like. The book was officially released on March 3rd. It is the first book to cover the Internet in Canada. We also believe that it is the first Internet book to focus on one country. Rick Broadhead handbook@vm1.yorku.ca Canadian Internet Handbook, 1994 Edition Published By Prentice Hall Canada ISBN#: O-13-304-395-9 by Jim Carroll and Rick Broadhead ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FOREWORD by Jean Monty, President and CEO, Northern Telecom Limited 1. INFORMATION HIGHWAYS Knowledge Networking Ask the World a Question, and You'll Get an Answer How Are People Using the Internet? Why Should You Use the Internet? E-Mail - Keeping in Contact With the World Knowledge Networking - Ask the World A Question Finding a Video Knowledge Access Excitement and Fun The Growth of the Internet in Canada The Internet Index Why Do You Want to Be Part of the Internet? 2. USING THE INTERNET IN CANADA The Canadian Forest Service Midland Walwyn Capital The Daily News,Halifax, Nova Scotia Regina Public Library Foothills Hospital, Calgary, Alberta PEI Crafts Council, Charlottetown, PEI Shell Canada Ltd, Calgary, Alberta Enterprise Network, Newfoundland Front Page Challenge, Vancouver, B.C. Canadian Space Agency, Montreal, Quebec Bank of Montreal, Toronto, Ontario Park View Education Centre, BridgeWater, Nova Scotia The Polar Bear Heaven BBS, Rankin Inlet, North West Territories Summary 3.THE INTERNET IN CANADA Internet Myths The History of the Internet Acceptable Use Policies The Internet in Canada Regional Networks In Canada CA*net - The National Coordinating Body for Research Networks Regional Networks ONet NSTN Inc. Commercial Networks in Canada UUNet Canada HookUp Communications U.S. Commercial Networks Commercial Use of the Internet The Impact of Commercialization Message Routing Who Pays for the Internet? Where Is the Internet Going in Canada? An Evolution in Acceptable Use Policies Corporate Involvement Larger Network Capacities CANARIE A Mandate for CANARIE Evolution of the Network 4. INTERNET FUNDAMENTALS Internet Organizations TCP/IP Basics Why Is This Important? IP Addresses Internet Domain Names The Domain Name System Top Level Domains Subdomains in Canada Registering Domain Names Registering Under the .ca Canadian Domain Registering Directly with the InterNIC Other Issues Related to Domain Names Client/Server and the Internet A Technical Definition A Practical Definition The Impact of Client/Server on the Internet Direct Connections to the Internet Shell Account Limitations The Location of the Client Client Located on a Remote Server Client Intelligence Located on Internet Service Provider Client Located on Your Own Computer or Network The Impact of the Location of the Client 5. INTERNET ELECTRONIC MAIL A Global Standard for E-Mail What Is Internet E-mail? E-mail Client Software How Many E-Mail Users Are There? Creating Internet E-Mail Messages The Structure of an Internet E-Mail Message Answering Messages An E-Mail Signature What Do Canadian E-Mail Addresses Look Like? E-mail Styles Other E-mail Systems Consumer Oriented Systems Commercial E-Mail Systems What About Envoy 100? How Complex Can Internet Addressing Get? E-Mail Etiquette E-mail Is Different Flaming E-Mail Guidance Smileys How Do I Locate an Internet E-mail Address? Simple Solutions WHOIS Postmast Periodic Postings 6. REMOTE ACCESS APPLICATIONS FTP AND TELNET Telnet and FTP Clients Telnet Telnet Command A Sample Telnet Session Special Notes About Telnet Seeking Help Telnet resources FTP Using FTP FTP Basics A Sample FTP Session FTP Directories Basic FTP Commands Other FTP Issues File Types - Format File Types - Compression File Retrieval Via E-Mail 7. TOOLS FOR KNOWLEDGE NETWORKING MAILING LISTS AND USENET A Quick Definition What's the Difference? Mailing Lists Types of Lists Using Lists - The Mechanics LISTSERV and Other Methods Examples - Joining, Sending, Leaving Joining a List Sending to a List Leaving a List Starting Your Own List Information on Lists Major Sources USENET Newsgroup Categories Subtopics Canadian Newsgroup Categories Major Canadian Newsgroups A Sample USENET Message How Does USENET Work? Creating a Newsgroup Reading News Newsreader Software USENET- What It's Not! Network Etiquette Using USENET Lists of Newsgroups 8. TOOLS FOR KNOWLEDGE RETRIEVAL Limitations of Internet Information Sources Commercial Information Services Multiple Sources of Information Gopher A Sample Gopher Session Using Gopher Gopher Jewels Using Gopher to Find an Organization Mailing a Gopher Document Gopher Bookmarks Other Gopher Information The Growth of Gopher Hytelnet Sample Hytelnet Session WAIS Sample WAIS Session WAIS Searches World Wide Web Sample WWW Session Organization of WWW Information Archie Sample Archie Session IRC Finger The Future of Information Retrieval 9. CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET Electronic Mail Access Only Access as an Individual Access from a Corporate E-Mail System Via UUCP UUCP Explained How Does UUCP Work? UUCP Software Linking Individual Users Via UUCP Linking LAN E-Mail Systems Via UUCP Access via a Shell Account Through a Canadian Internet Provider Via a Commercial On-Line Service Direct Connections to the Internet Benefits of a Direct Connection Nature of the Connection Hardwired Connection SLIP/PPP For Casual Modem Connection Bundled Software Direct Connections to the Internet and E-mail Summary 10. PUTTING THE INTERNET INTO PERSPECTIVE What's Wrong with the Internet? Is It Too Difficult to Use? It's Difficult to Find Information There is Too Much Information Internet Is Subject to Abuse It Suffers from Too Much Hype Its Culture Is Changing Its Competitive Advantage Might Be Fleeting? Will The Internet Be Easier to Use? Be a Pioneer Tell Us About It APPENDIX A - CANADIAN INTERNET DIRECTORIES Directory of Canadian Internet Service Providers Directory of Community Networking Organizations in Canada Directory of Gopher Servers and Campus Wide Information Systems in Canada Directory of Internet-Accessible OPACs in Canada Directory of World Wide Web Servers in Canada Directory of Archie and IRC Servers in Canada Directory of Canadian USENET Newsgroups Directory of Canadian Internet Resources Directory of Organizations Registered in the .CA Domain APPENDIX B - INTERNET FORMS APPENDIX C - SCHOOLNET APPENDIX D - INTERNET RELATED PUBLICATIONS INDEX Rick Broadhead | Co-Author, The Canadian Internet Handbook Faculty of Administrative Studies | ysar1111@vm1.yorku.ca, ysar1111@yorkvm1 York University | +1 416 487-5220 Toronto, Ontario, CANADA | ------------------------------ From: alanm@gigha.UK (Alan McCowan) Subject: Racal AT Settings Needed Date: 11 Mar 1994 17:01:33 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems (UK) Reply-To: alanm@gigha.UK Folks, I have been given a Racal Milgo Maxam 3+ modem, but unfortunately minus the manual. Could some nice person supply me with the AT command set for this beast, and also tell me what the options are on the front panel. Alan McCowan Sun Microsystems Linlithgow. ------------------------------ From: spectrumshow@genie.geis.com Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 15:51:00 BST Subject: Sky Radio Service I read that a new audio service is being offered to airliners in flight. It is called Skyradio and is delivered via satellite. I would like to know the technical details on the service. What bird is used? What is the frequency and modulation used? What type of antennas are used while in-flight. Any other technical information would be appreciated as well. Dave ------------------------------ From: spectrumshow@genie.geis.com Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 15:52:00 BST Subject: Calling North Korea and Cuba Recently I saw an article about a US company that wants to setup phone service from the States to Cuba. This brings to mind a few questions. In view of the poor relations between the US and Cuba how can this be done? What about phone service from the US to other nations such as North Korea and Vietnam. Does such service exist? Dave ------------------------------ From: steedly@viper.is.aitc.rest.tasc.com (Bill Steedly) Subject: Miscrosoft Visual Basic Drivers for IEEE Test Equipment Date: 11 Mar 1994 12:46:46 -0500 Organization: The Analytic Sciences Corporation Please forgive the following repost, but my mailer hasn't been working and I missed any replys that might have been made. Is there anyone out there who has or knows of (ftp sites, etc.) programs developed under Microsoft Visual Basic to control any of the following communications test equiqment over an IEEE 488.2 interface: HP8593A HP83731A HP8782A HP3708A HP11758A TTC-1402 gigaBERT 1400 Tx and DRx CSA-907 Please e-mail any responses (I won't be able to read news) to wmsteedly@tasc.com. Thanks, William M. Steedly The Analytic Sciences Corporation wmsteedly@tasc.com 12100 Sunset Hills Road (703)834-5000x2884 Reston, VA 22090 (703)318-7900 FAX ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 14:39 EST From: Al Cohan <0004526627@mcimail.com> Subject: Request for Demon Dialers (Zoom Electronics) Can anyone direct me to a source for used (or new???!) Demon Dialers that were manufactured by Zoom Electronics? I have an old friend that loves these dialers despite the 95% failure rate I experienced! Thanks in advance, Al Cohan ------------------------------ From: craffert@nostril.lehman.com (Colin Owen Rafferty) Subject: Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number Organization: Lehman Brothers Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 22:26:47 GMT In article telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) writes: > [ long description of John Wayne Gacy's murders, subsequent appeals, > and his 900 service elided ... ] I am curious as to why you find it outrageous that someone is trying to raise money to save himself from being murdered by the state. Simply because he was convicted of horrible crimes doesn't mean he has no rights. The Bill of Rights in the US Constitution is set up not to protect the unaccused and unconvicted, but to be certain that the accused and the convicted are judged and punished fairly. The First Amendment explains how people may not have their speech limited. How can we reconcile not allowing Gacy his own 900 number with this? The Eighth Amendment explains how cruel punishments shall not be inflicted. What can be a crueler punishment than execution? The "group calling itself the American Civil Liberties Union" is well known for trying to be certain that the government follows the rules under which it was formed. If the families of Gacy's victims have judgments against Gacy, they should be receiving money from his income. If his attorney wants the money for his fees, he may have to fight with the families. If Gacy was not fined, why should the jail be charging him for incarceration when they don't charge anyone else? If you are unfamiliar with anything that I said in this, I might refer yo u to a copy of the United States Constitution. It can be very enlightening. By the way, what is that number? Colin Rafferty, Lehman Brothers ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Phones in the Movies Again Date: 12 Mar 1994 02:04:07 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) The payphone gaffes that I always notice in movies are the inaccurate sound effects for the coin mechanism: - Often, a modern-looking Bell payphone will "Ding-ding" when the coin is inserted, instead of the silent operation that most of the Bell payphones have now (at least they could keep pace with inflation and make them "Dong" instead of "Ding Ding"). - When the caller hangs up, you don't hear the totalizer drop the coins into the coin box (now who said that the Digest is not sufficient in its technical detail? :-)) Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: ole!jaws!daveb@nwnexus.wa.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Phones in the Movies Again Date: 11 Mar 94 20:30:05 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA Alain Fontaine (fontaine@sri.ucl.ac.be) wrote: > In article , wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill > Mayhew) wrote: >> bulbs, which thread into their sockets. European bulbs have bayonet >> type sockets (similar to over-grown automotive turn signal lamp >> sockets) so the gag makes sense if you understand this. > And in 'America', everyone rides a horse, wearing a big hat and a pair > of colts. Now, I was born here in Belgium (Europa) in 1951, and I have > never encountered a bayonet socket except for the small lamp in my > wife's sewing machine ... /AF Well, boy dowgies, pardner; y'all just don't know whar to *look*. The main problem with them Yuropeons is they're all *ferigners*! Every last one! Tarnation, but all us 'Maircins will jus' keep our Edison-base bulbs -- hell, pard, yer voltage is too high anyway -- no wonder yeh needs push-in bulbs -- they keep burnin' out! Har Har! Happy trails now, y'hear? Tex Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com Systeem 'Ministrator, Voice: 206 881-7544 Fax: 206 556-8033 Product Deevel'pment Platferms Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A, Texas ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #127 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12612; 12 Mar 94 4:12 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11637; Sat, 12 Mar 94 01:09:21 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11626; Sat, 12 Mar 94 01:09:17 CST Date: Sat, 12 Mar 94 01:09:17 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403120709.AA11626@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #128 TELECOM Digest Sat, 12 Mar 94 01:09:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 128 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Competition and Technology (Andrew Hassell) Re: Competition and Technology (Bob Goudreau) Re: Question About Random Dialing (James Gray Walker) Re: Question About Random Dialing (John R. Levine) Re: Internet Conferencing (Lars Poulsen) Re: Digital Cellular Phones (puma@netcom.com) Re: Measuring Network Availability (Al Varney) Re: ISDN BRI to IXC? (Al Varney) Re: ISO Country Codes (Aaron Leonard) Re: Why Caller-ID Instead of ANI? (Clarence Dold) Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number (Steve Forrette) Re: New Area Code Change Question (Mike Quinlin) Obscene Caller Nabbed by Voicemail (Milwaukee Journal via puma@netcom.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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: synaptec@netcom.com (Andrew Hassell) Subject: Re: Competition and Technology Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 12 Mar 1994 00:49:40 GMT Stewart Fist <100033.2145@CompuServe.COM> writes: > Jerry Leichter writes: >> I have great respect for competition, but I have yet to see a sound >> argument that the advance in services available *since* deregulation >> is signficantly different from the advance *before* deregulation - >> AFTER CONTROLLING FOR THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVANCE IN APPLICABLE >> TECHNOLOGY. > I couldn't agree more. I've just spent a lot of time analysing the > long-distance charges (and the changes thereof) from country A to country B > using a range of figures produced by the OECD, for a commissioned report. > It is difficult stuff to analyse, but one thing became quite clear. > There's been no more drop in international long-distance call prices > in advanced (OECD) countries with competitive regimes than there has > in those with monopoly regimes. I must say I was surprised at these > findings, because the monopolies actually did slightly better -- > although the difference wasn't significant. Hmm. I would probably be in the contra camp based on recent Australian experience with the adjustment from monopoly to duopoly for mainstream long distance carrier services. Did your report cover this market Stewart? > When you dig down to the bottom, the problem is that in an era where > long-distance connection abundance is the norm (except that in many > cases this is being deliberately knobbled) the normal competitive > market forces do not apply in the way that conventional economics says > it should. I'd interested to know if your report will be available to folks outside your commissioning parties. For my 2c worth here, I think there is a lot of economic sense in monopolizing elements of infrastructure to take advantages of economies of scale. A beautiful example would be the information hype-a-highway. Does it make sense to have multiple fibre connection by multiple carriers? This must be regulated for sure. Maybe a first carrier in best dressed situation with Government regulated access and cross access provisions would be optimal. However, what about outlying areas, less economic areas, rural areas etc. Would some form of monopoly handle this more efficiently that a tightly regulated duopoly or oligopoly? Who knows. These issues are tough but I think you hit it on the head in part of your post. How can regulators ensure that excessive profit taking is eliminated in telecommunications? Argument one that you will probably never escape from alive is the politics of this, you communist! -) [sic] Argument two is how you actually achieve the objective through structuring the industry and regulating it. The objective could be to allow a small fair return on investment, thus encouraging maximum investment in capital works. ... but enough nonsense on a lazy Saturday morning. This is la la land. Andrew Hassell synaptec@netcom.com - a technology marketer Sydney NSW, Australia Tel: +61 2 555 9560 Fax: +61 2 818 2878 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 16:32:02 -0500 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Re: Competition and Technology Stewart Fist <100033.2145@CompuServe.COM> writes: > It is difficult stuff to analyse, but one thing became quite clear. > There's been no more drop in international long-distance call prices > in advanced (OECD) countries with competitive regimes than there has > in those with monopoly regimes. Sure, but ask yourself what's driving those monopoly PTTs to cut their international calling prices: competition from the "competitive regimes"! A recent example of this phenomenon showed up recently in the telecom newsgroups from an Italian reader, who noted that the Italian telco had recently cut its international rates to levels competitive with the international call-back services that had been recently capturing so much of its business. The advent of those call-back services meant that Italtel effectively *lost* its monopoly and was thus forced to compete by cutting prices. Now, how many people think those rates would have been cut in the absence of such competition? A more interesting analysis would be to compare the costs of *intra*-national long distance calling. Most monopoly PTTs still do enjoy true monopolies in that market, while there's certainly plenty of competition for that business in the US. Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA ------------------------------ From: walkerj@muc.de (James Gray Walker) Subject: Re: Question About Random Dialing Date: Sat, 12 Mar 1994 01:06:36 +0100 Organization: MUC.DE e.V. - Individual Network in Muenchen (Munich) In article , wrote: > Is there a shareware program or commercial program available that can > dial randomly within a given area code and when it comes across a fax > machine log that fax number into a database. If anyone has any > pointers I would appreciate it. I find this idea appalling for reasons most anyone can imagine. Perhaps someone who lives closer to Fannie Mae than I could bring up the issue of the posting with the poster's employer directly. I'm fairly sure Fannie Mae has a policy which would preclude the use of their equipment for a posting of such questionable ethicality for the friend of an employee. WALKER, James Gray - walkerj@muc.de ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 19:13 EST From: John R. Levine <0001037498@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Question About Random Dialing People planning to troll for fax numbers should keep in mind these two aspects of a recently passed Federal law: -- All fax calls must have the caller's number displayed on the cover page and/or at the top of each page. -- Sending junk faxes (generally described as faxes not requested or permitted by the recipient) is forbidden. Violations are punishable by fairly severe federal penalties. Regards from 9600 feet, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: lars@Eskimo.CPH.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Internet Conferencing Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 22:59:18 GMT In article Ralph E. Todd writes: > Greetings. I am a graduate student in the Telecommunications program > at George Mason University; Fairfax, Virginia. In preparation for a > term project dealing with organizational learning, I am in search of > information regarding conferencing on the Internet. > Specifically, I envision a moderated forum supporting concurrent > access for at least 30 user sessions. > Is anyone aware of the existence of such a forum? Any knowledge of > technology or building blocks which could support it? IRC = Internet Relay Chat is the distributed equivalent of CIS's "CB simulator" conference tool. Setup a "private" channel, and there will be room for up to a couple hundred, located anywhere in the world. IRC has provisions for a moderator who can kick people out of the group if needed. It also has support for logging the session to a transcript file. 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: puma@netcom.com (puma) Subject: Re: Digital Cellular Phones Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 23:18:20 GMT In article stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) writes: > In , jrg@rahul.net (John Galloway) writes: >> But if this key is fixed (since it is not transmited I assume it is) >> then all the cellular blue box builder need to is disect a phone to >> get it. This might not be a trivial opeation, but these crooks are >> pretty smart fellows. > Are you assuming that the key is the same for all phones? If the key > is different for each phone, then the crook would have to get a hold I think the intention here is that each phone has a unique key known to that phone and the home service provider. When the phone makes a call, it encrypts part of the request using the key. The system either has the key for that ESN/phone number or asks the home system for it, and uses it to decode the encoded portion of the request. If the decode works, then obviously you are talking to the *real* phone. Seems pretty foolproof, unless you have enough data and time to break the encryption for a particular phone, or inside information. It would at least stop the casual grabbing of ESN/MIN combinations off the air. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 18:06:09 CST From: varney@uscbu.att.com Subject: Re: Measuring Network Availability Organization: AT&T Network Systems In article stacy@sobeco.com (Stacy L. Millions) writes: > I was involved in a project, where we helped to migrate a companies > user base from an IBM mainframe / SNA / 3270 terminal environment to a > UNIX / TCP/IP / vt220 / terminal server environment. I can remember > one of IBM network type people made a comment about how they guarantee > their users 99.8% network availability and he was skeptical that we > would be able to match that in the new environment. > Now my question is simply this: > How do you > a) define > and > b) measure > 'network availability'? Particularly in the context of > LANs and WANs. For some insight into this issue within the public telephone network, I recommend: "Public Networks - Dependable", by John C. McDonald in April 1992 issue of IEEE Communications Magazine. He defines and defends the concept of measuring the "reliablilty" of public networks using a log(10) scale of "user lost Erlangs" times "outage time in hours". In other words, it is a measure of user impact. The June 1993 issue of IEEE Communications magazine has several papers on the measurement of "dependability" and "availability" of telephone networks. The consensus seems to be that one must measure this from the user (or user-to-user) perspective. Network problems that have no user impact (because of redundancy, etc.) do not affect availability. Problems that prevent a user-to-user connection of sufficient quality and duration to accomplish a "transaction" do have an effect on availability. Al Varney ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 18:25:31 CST From: varney@uscbu.att.com Subject: Re: ISDN BRI to IXC? Organization: AT&T Network Systems In article John McHarry writes: > If I have an ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) from my local exchange > carrier and want to place an interexchange data call, how does the LEC > interconnect with the IXC? Somebody told me that this has to be ^^^^ Don't know what "this" refers to -- CPE, the LEC CO or what??? > hooked to a switched 56kb trunk, but I don't see why the LEC couldn't > just send it in a regular Feature Group D and tell the IXC it was a > data call in the SS7 message. Am I missing something? Assuming the BRI SETUP specified 56K data rate, the call can travel over SS7 trunks to the IXC or over "switched 56K" MF trunks. For the purposes of data transmission, these trunks are equivalent. At the far end of the call, a BRI called party will receive an "ISDN originator" indication along with the 56K data rate request IF the call used only SS7 trunks. A non-ISDN 56K destination will not know (or care) if the call was ISDN-originated. In most cases, there should be no problem interworking with SS7 and/or "switched 56K" MF trunks. The opposite is also possible: A non-ISDN 56K originator can call an ISDN BRI/PRI number. The SETUP delivered to the destination will indicate a "non-ISDN originator" and the 56K data rate request IF the call used only SS7 trunks. Otherwise, the SETUP will just indicate 56K data rate request. Again, the B-channel data looks the same as from an ISDN 56K origination. Note that whether or not the IXC wishes to accept such data calls is up to the IXC. The LEC CO routing software can provide different routing for different bearer capabilities -- and it can block certain bearer capabilities if the IXC or trunk facility can't handle them. Also, "Feature Group D" usually refers to an MF-signaled trunk. For clarity, and to avoid confusion with MF-only FG-D tariffs, the preferred term is SS7 NI (Network Interconnect) trunk or SS7 EA (Equal Access) signaling/trunk. I admit some documents use the expression FG-D trunk with the SS7 option or with SS7 signaling. Al Varney ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 17:45:03 MST From: Aaron Leonard Subject: Re: ISO Country Codes Reply-To: Leonard@Arizona.EDU > A few issues back a woman asked for a list of the two-letter and > three-letter ISO 3166 codes for most countries. > While it does not include the codes for the countries that have been > created as a result of others being broken up (such as the Soviet Union > and Czechslovakia) one place to look is in my Internet RFC 1394, which > also shows international telex codes and worldwide telephone area codes. RIPE maintains an up-to-date table of ISO 3166 codes. It has all the FSU countries and everything. The document is available via anonymous FTP from ftp.ripe.net, in ripe/docs/iso3166-codes. Aaron Leonard (AL104), University of Arizona Network Operations, Tucson AZ 85721 ------------------------------ From: dold@rahul.net (Clarence Dold) Subject: Re: Why Caller-ID Instead of ANI? Organization: a2i network Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 19:01:27 GMT Steve Forrette (stevef@wrq.com) wrote: > In , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in > response to baers@agcs.com (Scott Baer): >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think you misunderstood the results of >> your prepending 10222 to a local seven digit number. In all probability, >> your local telephone exchange probably *ignored* the 10222 and handled >> the call themselves. They have the right to do that. PAT] If you follow the carrier selection with #, you will actually draw dial tone from the carrier's switch. I can dial 10xxx#, wait for dial tone from my switch, then follow with the rest of the number. PcaBell never gets the opportunity to route the call, except to my switch, because they don't see the rest of the digits until after my switch has the connection. Merely dialing the same 10xxx without the #, gives me a "not neccessary" message and SIT reorder. Dialing one long string, with #, but no wait for dialtone, causes an incomplete phone number to be heard by my switch. Some carriers don't allow such access. 10288# draws a reorder, but it is an AT&T reorder, not PacBell. Clarence A Dold - dold@rahul.net - Milpitas (near San Jose) & Napa CA. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It used to be the case here that a couple of the 10xxx codes worked the way you mention, with # causing the call to be given the carrier's dial tone. This is not so any longer, at least on the two or three I tried at random just now. As you point out, 10288# gets re-order. You say it comes from AT&T, so I assume that is correct. 10333# got me a recording saying my call could not be completed as dialed and to try again or call 'customer service'. 10222# got me a re-order also. I think at one time, maybe in the early days of 10xxx what you say was more common; there might have been some tie-in with the equivilent 950-1xxx; ie, 10222 and 950-1222 both got MCI dial tone; the latter when you dialed it and the former when you allowed it to time out with no further digits. Illinois Bell seems to not allow it at all now. PAT] ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number Date: 12 Mar 1994 02:27:55 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) The Moderator wrote: > Now I do not have any love in my heart for prisoners and unlike some > liberal thinkers I could name (but won't) who are constantly whining > about 'all the innocent people in prison', my attitude is there are no > innocent people in prison, by definition absolutely, and most likely > in reality as well. But these AOS ripoffs are also found in jails, where newly-arrested people that have not been convicted or even charged are housed (in addition to convicted non-felons). Many jails restrict the phones so they can't call an 800 number, can't use the arrestee's own calling card, can't use coins for a local call, or any other method than the AOS's collect call service. I guess you could say that the jails have the inmates right where they want them. Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In real practice, persons who have not been charged with a crime are usually held in police lockups, and the ones here all have Genuine Bell payphones. Those who have been charged with a crime are usually free on bond (either because they posted the bond or were given freedom based on their Recognizance). It is *hard* to get into Cook County Jail ... very hard. It helps if you are a murderer, a rapist and very violent as well as being a second or third time offender. As with the prisons in the USA, there are no innocent people in jail. Despite this, I agree that the captive customer base consisting of families and loved ones of prisoners is getting shafted in the process where the phones are concerned. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mike.quinlan@phant.boise.id.us (Mike Quinlan) Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 22:22:00 -0700 Organization: Phantasia BBS Subject: Re: New Area Code Change Question In message , TELECOM Digest Editor Noted: > Since the general public has never probably understood the way area codes > were constructed in the past, the general public will probably not notice > the difference starting next year. The general public may notice that they will have to dial the area code when making long-distance calls within the same area code. mike.quinlan@phant.boise.id.us (Mike Quinlan) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 17:57:28 PST From: puma Subject: Obscene Caller Nabbed by Voicemail "System Snares Alleged Caller" from the {Milwaukee Journal}, Friday March 11, 1994 La Crosse (WI) - An obscene caller has been caught by his own call, thanks to some high-tech telephone equipment, police say. The caller, 30 year-old Richard Armstrong of La Crosse (WI), had left sexually explicit messages on the victim's voice mail system, authorities said. The system is similar to a telephone answering machine, but it includes a way of retrieving the caller's telephone number if that party also is a voice mail subscriber, which is what the victim said she did. puma grins > Bravo! One for the good guys! puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #128 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa18761; 13 Mar 94 13:17 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA01596; Sun, 13 Mar 94 10:33:24 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA01584; Sun, 13 Mar 94 10:33:20 CST Date: Sun, 13 Mar 94 10:33:20 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403131633.AA01584@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #129 TELECOM Digest Sun, 13 Mar 94 10:33:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 129 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson "Prof. Neon's TV & Movie Mania" Show via FTP and Phone (Lauren Weinstein) Bandwidth Control (Matt Young) EURO ISDN Phones (Juergen Ziegler) Murata Business System Email, Fax or Voice Address Wanted (Lev Chesali) Modem Use With Rolm Phone 240 (Jim McCormack) Re: Question About Random Dialing (puma@netcom.com) Re: New Area Code Change Question (Mike Quinlan) Re: Information on Used Telecom Equipment Dealer Wanted (Barton F. Bruce) 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: lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: "Prof. Neon's TV & Movie Mania" Show Materials via FTP and Phone Organization: Vortex Technology, Woodland Hills, CA, U.S.A. Date: Sun, 13 Mar 1994 01:29:46 GMT Greetings. For quite sometime now, I've been getting requests from folks asking me to digitize complete copies of "Professor Neon's TV & Movie Mania" radio program (some info on the program is below). The problem with doing this is that even given fairly compact coding, the files would be fairly large since it's a one hour show. As a compromise measure for the time being, I've made a digitized copy of the "Professor Neon's TV & Movie Mania" demo, which runs about 15 minutes, available for FTP. The file is about 8 Mbytes in size and is coded in standard Sun/Sparc format (8-bit, u-law, 8000 s/s). The demo is composed of segments from live, aired programs. The file is on site "ftp.vortex.com" in the /tv-film-video subdirectory, as: neon-demo.au This file *must* be transferred in BINARY mode! There is also a companion information text file that should be read before attempting to play the audio file. This info file is: neon-demo.txt The info file (but not the audio file) is also available from the gopher server on site "gopher.vortex.com". The same audio file can also be heard by calling (310) 455-1212 ("Professor Neon's TV & Movie Mania Machine") and entering the digit "2" after the announcements begin. I'm sorry that I can't make entire shows available, but I hope that this material will be interesting. Here's a couple of paragraphs about the show: "Professor Neon's TV and Movie Mania" is currently a one hour program that features a look at a broad universe ranging from classic to current television, films, and videos, with a special emphasis on the unusual, odd, silly, strange, bizarre, cult, surreal, and weird. Often featured are special interviews and in-studio guests available to take listener calls. Drawing on the vast pool of TV and film personalities (on both sides of the camera) of yesterday to today in the Los Angeles area, the enigmatic Professor Neon has featured programs focusing on topics ranging from "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (with in-studio guest "Vampira" who starred in the classic cult film), to "Mr. Science Fiction" Forrest J. Ackerman ("the grand old man" of Horror and Sci-Fi, publisher of "Famous Monsters" magazine); to shows focused on topics from "The Twilight Zone", to "The Three Stooges". --Lauren-- ------------------------------ From: kyma@netcom.com (Matt Young) Subject: Bandwidth Control Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 12 Mar 1994 21:10:25 GMT I am on a mission to establish an ethernet bandwidth control protocol which allows desktop multimedia calls to be made with existing ethernet hubs. The central idea I have is to move toward an adapter card technology which monitors traffic on the ethernet, and self regulates access to the ethernet to allow multi-media calls to meet minimum bandwidth-delay requirements. The result would be products called bandwidth controlled ethernet. End users would have the choice of paying a premium to buy bandwidth controlled adapter cards to replace all of the adapter cards within an ethernet segment. Then from that segment any desktop could make a standard packet voice or packet video call through an external switched network or make a local bandwidth controlled call to another ethernet station also on a bandwidth controlled ethernet segment. All other traffic and protocols on the ethernet would operate normally, except that a maximum frame size would be imposed during periods in which delay controlled calls are active. The maximum packet size would be on the order of 600 bytes. I have identified a control protocol which allows bandwidth control, which we can discuss. However mainly I need to identify an interested group of end users, sufficiently large to interest the major adapter card vendors. If users desire to use their ethernet PCs for standard voice communications, with full integration into the telephone and cell relay networks, then please make yourself known to me or to this newsgroup. Thank you, Matt Young ------------------------------ Subject: EURO ISDN Phones Date: Sun, 13 Mar 1994 00:39:34 +0100 From: juergen@jojo.sub.de (Juergen Ziegler) Reply-To: juergen@jojo.sub.de Last December several European countries have launched their EURO ISDN service. EURO ISDN will create a single market for CPE and other equipment among the European Union. Who has discovered new EURO ISDN phones and other CPE's? Since EURO ISDN uses a uniform CPE-switch signalling (called EDSS1) foreign EURO ISDN phones and other CPEs can be used in other countries. The German Telekom will shortly start to offer the EURO ISDN phone "Europa 10" for a retail price of DEM 298 (including taxes). The phone features most EURO ISDN capabilities. It is quite inexpensive, if compared to other ISDN phones, but maybe there are even cheaper phones in other countries? Juergen Ziegler * Obervogt-Haefelinstr. 48 * 77815 Buehl (Baden) * Germany | juergen@jojo.sub.de ****** Fax: +49-7223-900646 ***** Voice Mail: 900686 | ------------------------------ From: LCHESALI@iki3.bitnet Subject: Murata Business System Email, Fax or Voice Address Wanted Organization: IKI RAN Date: Sat, 12 Mar 1994 20:28:53 GMT Dear TELECOM Digest Readers, Please help me to find Murata Business System Inc. adresses. The best would be E-mail, but fax or even voice phone number would be also good. In my manual for Murata M1600 Fax machine (c) 1988 the address is shown as 4801 Spring Valley Road Bldg. # 108B, Dallas Texas 214- 392-1622 is printed. In the text 213-702-9778 Product Development, MBS and 1-800-825-5329 toll free are mentioned. I can not reach any of these numbers from here (it gives three tones or busy all the time). I need some help with damaged faxes of their production. Due to my country specific it is useless to try ordinary mail sorry. Many thanks in advance. Lev ------------------------------ From: as965@yfn.ysu.edu (Jim McCormack) Subject: Modem Use With Rolm Phone 240 Date: 13 Mar 1994 02:52:14 GMT Organization: St. Elizabeth Hospital, Youngstown, OH Reply-To: as965@yfn.ysu.edu (Jim McCormack) At work I have a Rolm phone 240 model #62000. Since this is a digital phone I can't use an analog modem with it. Does anyone know of a device which would allow the use of an analog modem on this phone/network? Thanks in advance for your help. Jim McCormack as965@yfn.ysu.edu W:617-935-4850 x352 ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (puma) Subject: Re: Question About Random Dialing Date: Sat, 12 Mar 1994 14:50:22 GMT In article walkerj@muc.de (James Gray Walker) writes: > In article , wrote: >> Is there a shareware program or commercial program available that can >> dial randomly within a given area code and when it comes across a fax >> machine log that fax number into a database. If anyone has any >> pointers I would appreciate it. > I find this idea appalling for reasons most anyone can imagine. > Perhaps someone who lives closer to Fannie Mae than I could bring up > the issue of the posting with the poster's employer directly. I'm > fairly sure Fannie Mae has a policy which would preclude the use of > their equipment for a posting of such questionable ethicality for the > friend of an employee. Let's not kill the messenger here, let's just send back a message that this isn't a very good thing to be doing, and why. puma@netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I agree the first step should probably be to write or respond to the poster with comments about this. It could well be he simply does not (or I hope having read the messages here in the past couple days did not) realize activities such as he described are considered very questionable at best and unethical by many. To get Fannie Mae involved at this point would be counter productive. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: New Area Code Change Question From: mike.quinlan@phant.boise.id.us (Mike Quinlan) Date: Sat, 12 Mar 94 06:43:00 -0700 Organization: Phantasia BBS In message , TELECOM Digest Editor Noted: > Since the general public has never probably understood the way area codes > were constructed in the past, the general public will probably not notice > the difference starting next year. The general public may notice that they will have to dial the area code when making long-distance calls within the same area code. mike.quinlan@phant.boise.id.us (Mike Quinlan) ------------------------------ From: Barton.Bruce@camb.com Subject: Re: Information on Used Telecom Equipment Dealer Wanted Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: Sun, 13 Mar 94 03:38:57 -0500 In article , kleung@netcom.com (Kenneth Leung) writes: > I am looking for dealers of used telecom equipment such as AT&T Merlin > phone sets and used AT&T PBXs. > Any sources would be appreciated The industry has ONE magazine that specialises in used telecom gear and it contains MOSTLY such ads. Curiosly the name is: "Telecom Gear" 1.800.866.3241 You will not be disappointed. In fact you may be slightly overwhealmed. There are more companies tucked away in odd little places than you might have expected. When you say you saw their ad there, they KNOW you KNOW where all the competition is. When you have a PBX dealer in to make a proposal, simply leaving a copy of that magazine visible on your desk will get interesting reactions. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: At one point I used to subscribe to that magazine and studied each issue carefully. As you point out, it is loaded with nothing but ads for used telecom stuff of every size and type you could imagine, and then some. It is definitly the place to look for very obscure, hard to find equipment as well as more recent and common stuff. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #129 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa27158; 14 Mar 94 15:53 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA20305; Mon, 14 Mar 94 12:26:12 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA20289; Mon, 14 Mar 94 12:26:06 CST Date: Mon, 14 Mar 94 12:26:06 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403141826.AA20289@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #130 TELECOM Digest Mon, 14 Mar 94 12:26:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 130 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? (Lars Poulsen) Re: Wireless Internet Connections (jolvan@delphi.com) Re: Sky Radio Service (Joe Harrison) Re: Dialing Numbers at Random (A. Padgett Peterson) No Monthly Fee Cell Phone (Ken Levitt) Ethernet Bandwidth Control Update (Matt Young) Global Telecom Services (Barry Lynch) 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: Can I Expect More Than 2400 Baud? Organization: CMC Network Products, Copenhagen DENMARK Date: Sun, 13 Mar 94 18:24:32 GMT In article wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) writes: > I use good quailty Multitech or DSI rack type modems on my end, but > the user community can have almost any sort of equipment. The > Multitechs support 14.4K v.32bis while the DSIs are 9600 v.32 max > modulation. ... users call my system with their modems set to > demand 14.4K rate. Our systems will connect, but the error correction > rate is so high that througput is almost zero. > What puzzles me is that the modems don't fall back when the performacne > gets to be so bad. It would appear that the error correction engine > needs to have some sort of input the the egine that handles modulation. > I am not imtimately familiar with v.32bis / v.42bis specifications, > but some handshaking between the two parts of the modem would seem to > be a most reasonable and logical thing to do. Do the MultiTechs have a way to display the EQM number? (Eye Quality Monitor). This is what feeds back to the retraining mechanism. If you have many bit errors, I should think that your EQM would go south as well. Or is the problem that the modems are retraining, but land back at 14400 when they retrain? > I don't have any current means of measuring it, but what I am > beginning to suspect is that there is phase jitter present on these > lines. Yes, phase jitter can be bad. So can clock slip on digital entrance facilities. Do you by any chance get these lines delivered on a channel bank? Is there a SLC-96 nearby? Are these hospitals all part of a big Centrex or do they use tie lines between sites? If so, there is likely to be one or more DACS involved, which could be misconfigured and cause clock slip. > The nature of the problems I have doesn't seem to depend on the length > of the circuit or number of central offices involved. As you would expect if the problem is at the receiving end. If the phone company cannot fix the real problem, cap the MultiTechs at 9600. 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: jolvan@delphi.com Subject: Re: Wireless Internet Connections Date: Mon, 14 Mar 94 01:32:44 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) You may be thinking of Planet Connect's system; it sends newsgroups and tons of other stuff through a ku or c band sat. There's coverage of it in the January issue of {Boardwatch} or call them 615-623-8751 in Newport, Tennessee. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Mar 1994 10:42:41 +0000 From: J.Harrison@bra0112.wins.icl.co.uk Subject: Re: Sky Radio Service spectrumshow@genie.geis.com wrote: > I read that a new audio service is being offered to airliners in > flight. It is called Skyradio and is delivered via satellite. ... Well I get a station named Sky Radio and it's delivered via satellite. The Astra transponder carries a variety of TV channels (mostly crap) but there is this one radio station as well. You can apparently get a receiver that will bring it into a car, and I heard of somebody who listened to it in stereo all the way on some 1500 mile drive across Europe. It's well worth a listen if you're aged over about 30 and like a nice relaxed style of music. If you don't mind the commercials and news in Dutch that is. Joe ICL Ltd. Bracknell Berkshire RG12 8SN UK (+44-344-473424) J.Harrison@bra0112.wins.icl.co.uk S=Harrison/I=J/OU1=bra0112/O=icl/P=icl/A=gold 400/C=GB ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Mar 94 07:56:09 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Re: Dialing Numbers at Random > In article wrote: >> Is there a shareware program or commercial program available that can >> dial randomly within a given area code and when it comes across a fax >> machine log that fax number into a database. If anyone has any >> pointers I would appreciate it. (negative replies ommitted) Though the concept of checking an entire area code indicates less-than- desirable motives, the concept of "demon dialing" is not necessarily bad in itself so long as the domain is confined to a wholly-owned one. My employer expects me o safeguard our systems and as a reqular part of "walking around and rattling the doorknobs" I use war dialers to test for access points however I confine such activities to our wholly-owned exchanges (five digit dialing). Invariably, in a population as large and computer-intensive as ours, individuals are tempted to add a modem for convenience despite the availability of modem pools (possibly due to cost - one-time-password tokens still cost about $50.00 each - what we need is the ability to put a token into PC software - of course what we really need is full session encryption). Since my charge is "securing the perimeter", one of the best ways is to periodically test it and generally I use the same techniques that intruders do. The only difference is that when I find a vulnerable point, the owner gets a friendly memo instead of a writeup in a crackerzine. Of course, the first time I looked, many exceptions were found. Since then the rate has been admirably low, once again proving that my job is best done if it needs to do nothing. I have the same opinion of sniffers. Guess the biggest difference between intruders and myself is that everyone here knows what I do -- was one of *my* requirements 8*). Warmly, Padgett ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Mar 94 12:20:38 EST From: levitt@zorro9.fidonet.org (Ken Levitt) Subject: No Monthly Fee Cell Phone There is a company in Massachusetts (Lindsay Communications 800-370-4445) offering Cell Phone service for $35 per year with no monthly fee and no activation fee. They advertise this service as a way to deal with road emergencies. They are marketing this service under the trade name of HELPTEL. Plan 1: 1. They sell you a cell phone for $179 that has no dial pad. It plugs into a cigarette lighter socket in your car. You can also purchase an optional battery pack. 2. You press the "Help" button on the phone and are connected to their "Emergency Response Center". You give them your PIN and they get a list of numbers you have given them on their computer screen. You can select one of the predefined calls or you can ask them to dial any other number for you. 3. I don't know if it is possible for anyone to call you. 4. You pay $3.50 per minute of air time. Plan 2: 1. You already own a cell phone. 2. You pay them $45 for a "one-time" programming fee. 3. You can make and receive calls normally at $2.50 per minute. 4. You can call their "Emergency Response Center" for $3.50 per minute. This may be a good plan for someone like me who owns a cell phone and only makes an average of one or two short calls per month. I currently pay about $20 per month in fees to Nynex. Ken Levitt - On FidoNet gateway node 1:16/390 UUCP: zorro9!levitt INTERNET: levitt@zorro9.fidonet.org or levitt%zorro9.uucp@talcott.harvard.edu ------------------------------ From: kyma@netcom.com (Matt Young) Subject: Ethernet Bandwidth Control Update Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) A couple of advances on the front for defining a bandwidth control protocol for ethernet, in support of voice calls. I have called up four ethernet vendors and discovered that two of them are at least discussing a bandwidth control protocol in their marketing departments. IMHO, I conclude that the companies are at least satisfied that a technology exists. The ftp reports on shared media switches cited by posters on this newsgroup helped the cause, thanks. To help speed matters, I dropped a thread in some of the other dcom related newsgroups to elicit user response. Some robust discussion of the issue among users is a great accelerator for these projects. I had trouble finding a suitable name for bandwidth controlled circuits over ethernet. "Leased line equivalents" is the least benign term but very ackward to use. I have selected the term "variable length cells" (roughly 60-600 bytes long), which is a contradiction in terms. Normally the next step will be the formation of a consortium for bandwidth control over ethernet. The default consortium leader will be Intel, but that probably doesn't do justice to the academic groups who have pioneered ethernet based cell transmission. I would suggest an RFC from any research group interested in keeping their interests protected. Finally, I have located at least one major developer to use the capability. The process seems to be on schedule here, investors are responding with start up funds. At least two new companies, one ATM related, will be looking at potential products. End users would have the choice of paying a premium to buy bandwidth controlled adapter cards to replace all of the adapter cards within an ethernet segment. Then from that segment any desktop could make a standard packet voice or packet video call through an external switched network or make a local bandwidth controlled call to another ethernet station also on a bandwidth controlled ethernet segment. All other traffic and protocols on the ethernet would operate normally, except that a maximum frame size would be imposed during periods in which delay controlled calls are active. The maximum packet size would be on the order of 600 bytes. I have identified a control protocol which allows bandwidth control, which we can discuss. However mainly I need to identify an interested group of end users, sufficiently large to interest the major adapter card vendors. If users desire to use their ethernet PCs for standard voice communications, with full integration into the telephone and cell relay networks, then please make yourself known to me or to this newsgroup. Thank you, Matt Young kyma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: Barry Lynch Subject: Global Telecom Services Date: Sun, 13 Mar 94 23:52:45 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) I am writing a book for a publisher in the US on the Global Product offerings that are being implemented by the various strategic alliances that have been announced to date (i.e. WorldPartners, MCI/BT et al). I would like to include an assessment of the state of competition in the various worldwide markets, as well as user requirements for markets where competition has either just started, or is planned. Any *war stories* or comments would be greatly appreciated concerning foreign (non-US) markets. Please e-mail me at the address below. Barry Lynch - President Lynch Resources barrylynch@delphi.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #130 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13175; 16 Mar 94 1:47 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA29296; Tue, 15 Mar 94 22:29:04 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA29285; Tue, 15 Mar 94 22:29:00 CST Date: Tue, 15 Mar 94 22:29:00 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403160429.AA29285@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #131 TELECOM Digest Tue, 15 Mar 94 22:29:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 131 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson CO Fire in Los Angeles (Marc Wiz) Los Angeles Fire (Rich Greenberg) Telephone Interface Chip (Jun (June) Yang) Miscrosoft Visual Basic Drivers for IEEE Test Equipment (Bill Steedly) Telex Country Codes? (Donald R. Newcomb) Cut-Rate Domestic and International Calling Cards (Heikki Ketola) How to Study the Mobile Coding (Wen-Bang Liu) Nigerian Attempt to Defraud French Businessmen (Jean-Bernard Condat) UC Berkeley Short Courses on High-Speed Communications (Harvey Stern) Re: Video Conference Bridges (Sandy Kyrish) Re: National Caller ID (John Gilbert) Re: Why Caller-ID Instead of ANI? (Steve Forrette) Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number (Darren Alex Griffiths) Decoding the Zipped ISDN File (Gary Nunn) 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, 15 Mar 1994 12:47:39 -0600 From: Marc Wiz Subject: CO Fire in Los Angeles Organization: Wizywyg Software I just received this from a friend in L.A. who is also involved in telecom. ----------------- What a way to start the day. I'm listening to KFWB and they advise that Pacific Bell has had a major fire in the Downtown L.A. central office. Most of the 9-1-1 traffic from the San Fernandoi valley is failed along with a lot of the long distance carrier access. Apparently the fire started in a bettery charger on the 13th floor. More details as I get them ... ----------------- Anybody have anymore info? Marc marc@wiz.com Yes, that really is my last name. ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 11:15:39 PST Reply-To: richgr@netcom.com Subject: LA Fire Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) No details yet. Here is some preliminary info: The radio news reported a fire on the 13th floor of a pa bell building in downtown LA that affects part of the 911 service and also mentioned connections to MCI, et al. Power supplies and batteries were mentioned. Rich Greenberg Work: ETi Solutions, Oceanside & L.A. CA 310-348-7677 N6LRT TinselTown, USA Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 ------------------------------ From: junyang@cory.EECS.Berkeley.EDU (Jun (June) Yang) Subject: Telephone Interface Chip Date: 15 Mar 1994 06:08:01 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley Hello, I am a UC Berkeley student working on a digital design project (a security system with dialing function). We need a component that receives the phone number (thru a 4-bit wire, in some binary coding) and dials the number. It then invoke a voice chip to play the recorded message. This component should be smart enough to tell whether the line is connected or busy, and, possibly, whether an answering machine is answering on the other end or not (of course we don't want the secuirty system to leave a message saying that the house has been robbed!). I know there must be some chips of this kind on the market, but I just couldn't find any good resource. Could somebody please help me out? Where can I buy this kind of chip and what will be a good resource for finding them? Hope that the price for the chip will not be too high. (We are poor Berkeley students :) We only have one month for this project ... please help!!! Thanx in advance! June Yang juney@uclink.berkeley.edu, junyang@cory.eecs.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ From: steedly@saturn.aitc.rest.tasc.com (Bill Steedly) Subject: Miscrosoft Visual Basic Drivers for IEEE Test Equipment Date: 14 Mar 1994 21:12:11 GMT Organization: TASC Is there anyone out there who has or knows of (ftp sites, etc.) programs developed under Microsoft Visual Basic to control any of the following communications test equiqment over an IEEE 488.2 interface: HP8593A HP83731A HP8782A HP3708A HP11758A TTC-1402 gigaBERT 1400 Tx and DRx CSA-907 Please e-mail any responses (I won't be able to read news) to: wmsteedly@tasc.com Thanks, William M. Steedly The Analytic Sciences Corporation wmsteedly@tasc.com 12100 Sunset Hills Road (703)834-5000x2884 Reston, VA 22090 (703)318-7900 FAX ------------------------------ From: dnewcomb@whale.st.usm.edu (Donald R. Newcomb) Subject: Telex Country Codes? Date: 14 Mar 1994 14:30:20 -0600 Organization: University of Southern Mississippi I'm confused over the assignment of Country Codes for Telex. I've been told that the CC for Albania is 604 and that one of the CCs used by INMARSAT is 581 but when I look in the AT&T directory of Telex and EasyLink addresses, it says Albania is 866 and INMARSAT Telexes are in the range 70X, 80X, 90X (where X = 2,3,4,5,6...). Does anyone have any information about the assignment of these Country Codes? Are they unique or do they depend on the country from which one sends the Telex? I have not seen this sort of confusion over telephone Country Codes. Donald R. Newcomb University of Southern Mississippi dnewcomb@whale.st.usm.edu dnewcomb@falcon.st.usm.edu ------------------------------ From: hketola@agsm.ucla.edu (Heikki Ketola) Subject: Cut-Rate Domestic and International Calling Cards Date: 15 Mar 1994 05:00:23 GMT Organization: The Anderson School at UCLA I have heard of a company that presumably offers calls to Finland at about $0.45 per minute. That does not sound unreasonable to me as one can call Germany for way less than that. Thanks a lot for any help you can give me. Heikki [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you are getting international calls between the USA and Europe for 45 cents per minute you are not getting a bad deal at all. I cannot imagine calling Germany from the USA for 'way less' than 45 cents per minute. PAT] ------------------------------ From: u7923803@cc.nctu.edu.tw Subject: How to Study the Mobile Coding Date: 15 Mar 1994 05:33:16 GMT Organization: Computer Center, National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan Hi, I am a student major in computer science. I am interested in coding theory. Recently, I want to study the topic of error correction in moving object, such as mobile phone. Can you list some books or papers which can help me? Thanks a lot. Best regards, Wen-Bang Liu My e-mail address is gcp77533@cello.cis.nctu.edu.tw ------------------------------ From: cccf@altern.com (cccf) Subject: Nigerian Attempt to Defraud French Businessmen Date: Mon, 14 Mar 94 12:22:12 EST If you need some typical French stories related to hifg-tech perversions, don't hesitate to read my preface of the French edition of Lauren Ruth Wiener book's "Digital Woes" published under the title "Les avatars du logiciel" by Addison Wesley France (phone: +33 1 48879797, fax: +33 1 48879799, e-mail: gerardc@aw.com). I give a lot of typical stories that deal with millions of dollars and/or francs. Enclosed you can found the exact copy of an e-mail message received by fax from a accrediated accounting specialist of ... "international fraud" :-) Don't hesitate to write me directly. Jean-Bernard Condat General Secretary, Chaos Computer Club France e-mail: cccf@altern.com From: MR. OLA BENSON Fax : 234-1-884175 To : MR. JEAN-BERNARD CONDAT DATE: 7TH MARCH, 1994 Dear Mr. J. B. C., Thanks for your fax of the 4th March 94 and the contents therein. I want to thank your prompt response to my request and I wish to state and clearify you as thus: I am Mr. Ola Benson, an Accountant with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in a contract award departement. This corporation is responsible for the oil lifting, Sales, Maintenance, Repairs, Construction of oil rig and Installation of oil mining equipments among other things for my country. Your company address was made available to me by an import agent who does extensive business with my country but my contracting you was not made known to him. Now the transaction which made me to contact you is very much intact due to its confidential nature for the interest of highly placed government officials that are involved. The project is that in 1991, we in the contract department awarded through the governmen contracts to foreigh contractors during which time we over-invoiced the contracts for our own personal use. The contract has since been completed and the actual contract value paid to the original contractor. Based on our previous deal with the contractors, we now want to purport your company as a subsidiary company to the original contractor a provision which we created wheroper understanding of the project before embarking on it. Revert back to me for your comments and for us to know what is your decision. I await for your confirmation fax. With best regards, (signed) OLA BENSON ------------------------------ From: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: UC Berkeley Short Courses on High-Speed Communications Date: 14 Mar 1994 18:57:54 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces Three Short Courses on Communications Technology SONET/ATM-BASED BROADBAND NETWORKS: Systems, Architectures and Designs (April 18-19, 1994) It is widely accepted that future broadband networks will be based on the SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) standards and the ATM (Asynchronous transfer Mode) technique. This course is an in-depth examination of the fundamental concepts and the implementation issues for development of future high-speed networks. Topics include: Broadband ISDN Transfer Protocol, high speed computer/network interface (HiPPI), ATM switch architectures, ATM network congestion/flow control, VLSI designs in SONET/ATM networks. Lecturer: H. Jonathan Chao, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Brooklyn Polytechnic University. Dr. Chao holds more than a dozen patents and has authored over 40 technical publications in the areas of ATM switches, high-speed computer communications, and congestion/flow control in ATM networks. GIGABIT/SEC DATA AND COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS: Internetworking, Signaling and Network Management (April 20-21, 1994) This short course aims to provide a general understanding of the key issues needed to design and implement gigabit local and wide area networks. The topics are designed to compliment those covered in the SONET/ATM-Based Broadband Networks course (above). Topics include: technology drivers, data protocols, signaling, network management, internetworking and applications. Specific issues addressed include TCP/IP on ATM networks, design of high performance network interfaces, internetworking ATM networks with other network types, and techniques for transporting video over gigabit networks. Lecturer: William E. Stephens, Ph.D., Director, High-Speed Switching and Storage Technology Group, Applied Research, Bellcore. Dr. Stephens has over 40 publications and one patent in the field of optical communications. He has served on several technical program committees, including IEEE GLOBECOM and the IEEE Electronic Components Technology Conference, and has served as Guest Editor for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. PERSONAL (WIRELESS) COMMUNICATION NETWORKS: Cellular Systems, Wireless Data Networks, and Broadband Wireless Access (April 20-22, 1994) This comprehensive course focuses on principles, technologies, system architectures, standards, equipment, implementation, public policy, and evolving trends in wireless networks. Topics include: modulation, coding, and signal processing; first generation systems; second generation systems; broadband networks; third generation systems; and applications and technology trends. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. Lecturer: Anthony S. Acampora, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering, Columbia University. He is Director, Center for Telecommunications Research. He became a professor following a 20 year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, is an IEEE Fellow, and is a former member of the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors. For more information (complete course descriptions, outlines, instructor bios, etc.) contact: Harvey Stern U.C. Berkeley Extension/Southbay 800 El Camino Real Ste. 150 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Tel: (415) 323-8141 Fax: (415) 323-1438 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Mar 94 13:25 EST From: Sandy Kyrish <0003209613@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Video Conference Bridges All major codec manufacturers (i.e. CLI, PictureTel, VTel, GPT) manufacture or OEM video conference bridges, which are actually referred to as "multipoint control units" or MCUs. Each has benefits and disadvantages. Probably the most important issue for you wouldbe compatibility with the codecs you are now using. Although there are standards evolving in this area, some MCUs are not comaptible with some codecs, particularly those using proprietary algorithms and not the H.261 standard. If you do not currently have any video conferencing codecs, then you can make the whole package decision based on price, features, etc. Incidentally MCUs are generally above $50K in price. If you are not expecting to do a lot of multipoint videoconferencing, you might consider using a public network for your multipoint calls. ATT's Accunet Reserve and Sprint's Meeting CHannel, for example, each have the capability to hook multiple sites into a multipoint conference. You pay for the time used and a surcharge for the MCU. Sandy Kyrish 3209613@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Re: National Caller ID Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Mon, 14 Mar 1994 13:16:41 -0600 In article , Lynne Gregg wrote: > CALLER ID TO BE AVAILABLE NATIONWIDE; FCC ADOPTS FEDERAL POLICIES FOR > REGULATION > The Commission has adopted a federal model, effective April 12, 1995, > for interstate delivery of calling party number based services. These > services include caller ID, which is available today in many states, > as well as services that will permit businesses to service customers > more efficiently and will permit increased security of computer > networks. I didn't see any mention of caller name services so I suppose this isn't covered by the new FCC regulation. What is the position of the LECs with regard to LECs in other parts of the country doing data base lookups on their subscribers? Are the LECs going to provide this info on a reciprocal basis or does this still have to be worked out? John Gilbert johng@ecs.comm.mot.com ------------------------------ From: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) Subject: Re: Why Caller-ID Instead of ANI? Date: 15 Mar 1994 02:38:23 GMT Organization: Walker Richer & Quinn, Inc. Reply-To: stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette) In , TELECOM Digest Editor responded to stevef@wrq.com (Steve Forrette): > IBT treats dialing 10xxx before a 312 or 708 number the same way > they treat dialing 10xxx before an 800 or 900 number; i.e they ignore > it and route the call according to other rules. Maybe some telcos > actually send the call to treatment. They do indeed. In fact, on every carrier that I've had service from, they will always return a recording in the event that the 10xxx code was dialed but cannot be used (either because of no intra-lata competition, or because it was dialed for an 800 or 900 number). I just checked this on a US West line, and upon dialing 10xxx-1-800-xxx-xxxx, it returns the following recording. "*SIT* Your call cannot be completed using the access code you dialed. Please check the number and dial again, or contact your long distance company for assistance." Steve Forrette, stevef@wrq.com ------------------------------ From: dag@ossi.com (Darren Alex Griffiths) Subject: Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number Date: 14 Mar 1994 16:44:09 -0800 Organization: Fujitsu Open Systems Solutions, Inc. > TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In real practice, persons who have not been > charged with a crime are usually held in police lockups, and the ones here > all have Genuine Bell payphones. Those who have been charged with a crime > are usually free on bond (either because they posted the bond or were given > freedom based on their Recognizance). It is *hard* to get into Cook County > Jail ... very hard. It helps if you are a murderer, a rapist and very violent > as well as being a second or third time offender. My information doesn't agree with yours Pat. A friend of mine was recently stopped for speeding and detained because she had a overdue ticket for driving without registration, something she should be punished for but not a particularly horrible crime. She was told that she was being detained until she could either pay the overdue ticket or see a judge, and she was not being arrested; actually she told me that on the whole she was treated very well. There was a problem with the phones however. She was put into a holding cell, the cell did contain a a standard Pacific*Bell payphone and she had a number of quarters on her to make phone calls. However she did not have her phone book and needed to call information, the call would not complete and when she called an operator she was told that they weren't allowed to call information from a jail phone. I can understand that they may want to avoid newly arrested people from calling information to get victims numbers and then threatening them from behind bars, but those people are legally innocent, and in this case my friend was not legally under arrest. After she managed to convince one of the officers to loan her a phone book (as I said for the most part she was treated well) she tried to call a number of people to bring down the couple of hundred dollars required to get her out. She had trouble contacting anything more than answering machines and quickly ran out of change, that's when she found her calling card wasn't accepted and she was not allowed to do third number billing, she eventually had to call collect (at very high rates). All things considered the phone problems extended her detainment for two to three hours, not very pleasant or fair in my opinion. Cheers, Darren Alex Griffiths | dag@ossi.com Senior Software Engineer | (408) 456-7815 Fujitsu Open Systems Solutions Inc. | ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Mar 94 07:46:40 EST From: gnunn@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil Subject: Decoding the Zipped ISDN File Pat I downloaded the file and took a look at it. The file has been uuencoded and you need to run it through a decoder, which comes in versions for almost any computer connected to the Internet. After running the file through the decoder you get the zipped file and PKUNZIP works just fine. Gary [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Readers who have had difficulty with the new ISDN Deployment file in the archives might want to follow the suggestion given above. If trouble still persists, then I have another copy of it here if you write and ask me for it. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #131 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13550; 16 Mar 94 2:34 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA00591; Tue, 15 Mar 94 23:38:14 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA00581; Tue, 15 Mar 94 23:38:11 CST Date: Tue, 15 Mar 94 23:38:11 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403160538.AA00581@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #132 TELECOM Digest Tue, 15 Mar 94 23:38:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 132 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Questions About GMRS Radio (TELECOM Digest Editor) Strange Meridian Mail Problem (Richard Hyde) The Final C/Fest.594 Reminder (Dave Skwarczek) Experiences With VSAT Communications (Shanliang Yin) CDPD, PCS, PCN, and Digital Cellular? (Dan Leifker) Wireless T-1 (Eric A. Litman) Voice Mail\FAX\Data Software (Mitch Rosenberg) Motorola Announces ITS PDA (Herd Beast) APS Alliance? (A.N. Ananth) Information Request - Time Off of NT-Opt61 (Greg Maples) BBS in Switzerland (Eric Jolley) Appel a` Communications Pour CFIP'95 (*in French*) (Jean-Marc Jezequel) Re: Cordless Telephone Output Power (Dave Held) Looking For a Piece of Telephone Equipment (Harold Hubschman) Re: Setting up a 900 Number (Bick Truet) Re: Mr. Watson, Come Here ... (Russell Blau) 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, 15 Mar 94 23:01:29 CST From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: Questions About GMRS Radio I have here a type of transceiver with which I am not very familiar and am hoping Digest readers can enlighten me on its proper use and what is to be expected of it. It is a UHF handheld transmitter with two channels. What very little documentation I have for it says that it is intended for use in the 'Personal Radio Service' on 462.7125 and 462.6375 mhz. Furthermore the very skimpy documentation (some notes that someone wrote out longhand) state that FCC licenses will be granted to operate on any of these eight frequencies: 462.5500 462.5750 462.6000 462.6250 462.6500 462.6750 462.7000 462.7250 But ... the transceiver has none of those frequencies; instead it has the two mentioned above and these are referred to as two of the seven 'interstitial' channels on which a licensed station may operate. The antenna for this radio is a little stubby thing about two inches long. It is a 'rubber ducky' type antenna, I assume loaded if it is that short in the 462 mhz range. In one place on the radio it states that output power is one watt, yet in the documentation is the notation that 'output power = 50' (copied verbatim from the notes). What is all this about? Making the general assumption about radio (which I assume is true in this case also) that the antenna is 80-90 percent of what radio is about, what is the range over which this will typically transmit? It is a tiny little handheld thing, and looks much like a CB 'walkie talkie'. Tell me what you know about these transceivers: range, use, etc. Thanks very much. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: rah@netcom.com (Richard Hyde) Subject: Strange Meridian Mail Problem Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 00:12:01 GMT Help, please, with a strange Meridian Mail problem. I have multiple incoming lines divided into an (800) group and a local (408) group. I have an extension, 520, that is associated with a time-of-day-controller. I have two time-of-day-controllers programmed but only one is in use at a given time. TODC 1000 is associated with three Voice Service IDs: VSI 1001 = business day message VSI 1002 = Evening/Weekend message VSI 1003 = Holiday message TODC 2000 is associated with one Voice Service ID arranged as follows: VSI 1004 = Business day message VSI 1004 = Evening/Weekend message VSI 1004 = Holiday message In normal operation TODC 1000 is switched in and the system operates normally. Each of the VSIs kicks in at the appropriate time and becomes the default recorded announcement that the customer hears. Callers on the 800 number always hear the recorded announcement. Callers on the 408 number always get the attendant console unless the console is in night mode, then they get the recording. So far, so good. Now, the TODC 2000 VSI (1004) contains an emergency message notifying all callers that our system is currently unavailable. When I use Remote Activation to change the TODC for x520 from 1000 to 2000, the 800 number behaves correctly at all times, but the 408 number still recites the 1002 message during evening/weekend hours. The console is, of course, in night mode when this happens. I can't, for the life of me, figure out what I've done wrong. Any Meridian Guru's out there? For extra credit, customers occasionally report getting the *holiday* message at inappropriate times!. I've never been able to duplicate this one :-( Thanks for the help! Richard Hyde RaH@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: talon@MCS.COM (Dave Skwarczek) Subject: The Final C/Fest.594 Reminder Date: 15 Mar 1994 18:23:32 -0600 Organization: MCSNet Subscriber, Chicago's First Public-Access Internet! Here's the final reminder about Cyberfest.594. I've been hard at work planning all this, and it's finally nearing fruition! If you haven't read anything about it, here's the scoop. Cyberfest.594 will be Chicago's first ever cyber/club event -- featuring VR, graphics, video, MIDI, gaming and telecommunications hardware and software; two live electronic bands; and cyber-art from local and national cyber-artists -- all packed neatly into one of the largest nightclubs in the city. A true socio-technological blowout. The official "who/what/when/where" announcement will take place NEXT MONDAY, MARCH 21 at every Usenet board on which this message appears. For the companies/pioneers/sigs/zines that have received their registration folders: Deadline for registration is this Friday, March 18! If you missed the mail boat, we can still fax you info on the few remaining exhibit spaces. If you're a 2D/3D/video/audio/whatever cyber-artist interested in having some work out and about at the event, send me some email! April 1 is our deadline for artists' submissions. Thanks, dave talon@mcs.com ------------------------------ From: slyin@engin.umich.edu (Shanliang Yin) Subject: Experiences With VSAT Communications Date: 15 Mar 1994 20:56:36 GMT Organization: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Hello, I was wondering if anyone has had any experience using VSAT (satellite) communications to inter connect WAN instead of using lease-lines from IXC? Does current equipment support VSAT communications effiectively, how does the cost compare with the usual terrestrial lease-line option? Also, any experiences using VSAT to connect WANs internationally? (the cost of a lease line seems so high for an international circuit!) I know Hughes Network Systems offers such services. Are there any other providers out there (I'm sure there are ...)? I'm looking into connecting a WAN I the US to another one in Asia. Any suggestions, advice, experiences ... all are welcome :) slyin Shan-Liang Yin ------------------------------ From: dleifker@mitre.org (Dan Leifker) Subject: CDPD, PCS, PCN, and Digital Cellular? Date: 15 Mar 1994 21:21:37 GMT This is a quick question to anyone familiar with wireless communications. I am taking an introductory (grad level) course in telecommunications, and the professor has asked us to write a short paper defining the following terms: digital cellular, CDPD, PCS, PCN, and wireless. I have been scouring the area (Washington, D.C.) and have found almost nothing in the way of technical literature. Could some kind soul outline the differences between these terms and give me some pointers for more information? Are these things in a competitive sort of relationship? (I'm not asking anyone to do my work ... I'm just looking for a starting place.) Thanks, Dan Leifker dleifker@mitre.org ------------------------------ From: elitman@proxima.com (Eric A. Litman) Subject: Wireless T-1 Date: 15 Mar 1994 18:32:23 -0600 Organization: Proxima, Inc. I recall reading several months ago about a device (possibly RF) allowing 1.5MB/s and greater speeds at distances of a mile and more. Is anyone familiar with such a beast? Vendor responses welcome. Eric Litman Proxima, Inc. vox: (703) 506.1661 Systems Engineer McLean, VA elitman+@proxima.com ------------------------------ From: Mitch_Rosenberg@mindlink.bc.ca (Mitch Rosenberg) Subject: Voice Mail\FAX\Data Software Date: 15 Mar 94 14:44:52 GMT Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada Has anyone has succes with a FAX ON DEMAND application for windows? I'm planning on purchasing a 14.4 with voice capabilities, as I hope to use the voice mail and FAX ON DEMAND features for a home based business. I understand Zyxel has a bundled software package (but I don't plan on paying Zyxel's sticker price!), and I hear BitComm has a voice mail and FOD app as well. While I'm at it ... suggestions for a FAXodem with voice would be appreciated as well. Thanks, Mitch_Rosenberg@Mindlink.bc.ca ------------------------------ Subject: Motorola Announces ITS PDA From: hbeast@phantom.com (Herd Beast) Date: Tue, 15 Mar 94 10:14:30 EST Organization: [MindVox] / Phantom Access Technologies / (+1 800-MindVox) Motorola has announced its own PDA -- Envoy. Envoy is the first in a series of products will announce soon, and will compete against products of Apple (newton), IBM (Simon) and AT&T/Eo. The Envoy can be used for voice, text, or FAX messages and can communicate with other Envoys, FAX machines and modems, over telephone lines or wireless communication. The Envoy also includes a personal financial program, address book, worksheet, and watch programs. The Envoy includes a small wireless modem for the wireless communications. It is compatible with the IBM/Motorola Ardis wireless PSN. Envoys communicate with each other using infrared (like Newtons) and have two PCMCIA slots. The Envoy uses the MagicCap operating system (by General Magic). It's controlled by a digital pen, or by tapping on the screen. The pen can be used for writing messages and FAXing them. Unlike the other products, the Envoy doesn't have a handwriting recognition feature. It weights about half a kilo, 18 centimeters tall, 14 cms wide and less than 3 cms high. H3rb ------------------------------ From: ananth@access.digex.net (A N Ananth) Subject: APS Alliance? Date: 15 Mar 1994 10:43:29 -0500 Organization: Prism Communications Inc, Annapolis MD Recent reports talk of an effort called the Asynchronous Protocol Specification (APS) alliance which is developing a protocol to be presented to the ITU (formerly CCITT) to let individuals link mail-enabled applications to any type of wireless networks. Members are said to include Microsoft, Apple & DEC with Intel selected to come up with a draft. The founder is said to be Dave Knight, VP of ISOCOR. The article also mentions a group called the Electronic Messaging Association with Bill Moroney as executive director. Can anyone shed more light on this or better yet provide a pointer to papers or people? Thanks in advance. ananth Phone: (410) 765-9281 Prism Communications Inc ------------------------------ From: gmaples@netcom.com (Greg Maples) Subject: Information Request - Time Off of NT-Opt61 Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 01:58:14 GMT Help! I'm trying to get time synchronization running between our NT OPT61 pbx and a Sun SS10. I'm aware that I could use nxtp for synchro in the Unix world, but we are not directly internet connected, and xntp is a big load of code. Does someone know of an easy, simple method of getting the NT to set the Sun or vice-versa? Is there a version of timed for the Sun (4.1.1)? Do I sound clueless? Sigh ... (I hate voice). Please send mail responses to: gmaples@netcom.com Thanks! ------------------------------ From: Eric.Jolley@m.cc.utah.edu (Eric Jolley) Subject: BBS in Switzerland Date: 15 Mar 1994 00:53:18 -0700 Organization: University of Utah Computer Center, Salt Lake City, Ut. I am trying to connect to a BBS in Bassersdorf, Switzerland, but I think I may be dialing the number wrong. The number is listed as: 0041-1-8364174. I am dialing from the U.S., and my LD carrier is AT&T, so I am dialing 011-41-1-8364174, but I get a "cannot complete call as dialed" message. I assume I am missing some digits, but which ones? If it is the 00 before the 41 for Switzerland, where do they go? Any help would be appreciated. Eric Jolley Eric.Jolley@m.cc.utah.edu Film Studies Major, U. of U. ------------------------------ From: Jean-Marc.Jezequel@irisa.fr (Jean-Marc Jezequel) Subject: Appel a` Communications Pour CFIP'95 (*in French*) Date: 15 Mar 1994 08:38:17 GMT Organization: Irisa, Rennes(FR) [If you don't understand French, you would not be interested in this] Appel aux communications Colloque Francophone sur l'Ingenierie des Protocoles 9-12 mai 1995 - Rennes - France Comite de Programme Presidents : Claude Jard (IRISA, France) et Pierre Rolin (Telecom-Bretagne, France) Membres : Paul Amer (Universite du Delaware, Etats-Unis) Bennani Abdelfdil (ENSIAS, Maroc) J. William Atwood (Universite de Concordia, Canada) Benkiran Amine (EMI, Maroc) Mohamed Bettaz (Universite de Constantine, Algerie) Ed Brinksma (Universite de Twente, Pays-Bas) Stanislaw Budkowski (INT, France) Richard Castanet (LaBRI, France) Ana Cavalli (INT, France) Wojciech Cellary (EFP, Pologne) Andre Danthine (Universite de Liege, Belgique) Piotr Dembinski (Academie des Sciences, Pologne) Michel Diaz (LAAS, France) Rachida Dssouli (Universite de Montreal, Canada) Jean Marc Farines (UFSC, Bresil) Serge Fdida (MASI, France) Alain Finkel (ENS Cachan, France) Roland Groz (FT/CNET, France) Farouk Kamoun (ENSI, Tunisie) Jacques Labetoulle (Eurecom, France) Guy Leduc (Universite de Liege, Belgique) Francis Lepage (CRAN, France) Luigi Logrippo (Universite d'Ottawa, Canada) Gerard Michel (IMAG, France) Pascale Minet (INRIA, France) Abdellatif Obaid (Univ. du Quebec a Hull, Canada) Omar Rafiq (Universite de Pau) Behcet Sarikaya (Universite de AIZU, Japon) Andre Schiper (EPFL, Suisse) Samir Tohme (ENST, France) Gregor von Bochmann (Univ. de Montreal, Canada) L'idee du Colloque Francophone sur l'Ingenierie des Protocoles qui a deja eu lieu par trois fois (1988, 1991 et 1993), est de permettre a la communaute francophone des enseignants, chercheurs et industriels dans le domaine des protocoles et reseaux informatiques, de faire regulierement le point en langue francaise. Le colloque comprend une journee de tutoriels, suivie de trois jours de conference. Le comite de programme souhaite se voir soumettre des communications qui traitent de tout sujet relatif au developpement des protocoles de communications. La liste non exhaustive qui suit, donne quelques points qui peuvent etre traites : - Conception, mise en oeuvre et gestion de reseaux et d'architectures de communication ; - Techniques et langages de specification ; - Techniques et outils de verification et de simulation ; application de ces techniques ; - Mise au point et integration des logiciels repartis dans les systemes ; - Architectures, methodes et outils de test de conformite et d'interoperabilite ; - Methodes formelles ou pragmatiques couvrant l'ensemble des etapes de developpements des protocoles ; - Conception et developpement de protocoles a haut debit ; - Modeles, evaluation et mesure de performances des reseaux ; - Conception, developpement et application multimedia dans les reseaux - Reseaux de mobiles ; reseaux radio ; - Securite dans les reseaux ; Le comite de programme souhaite recevoir des communications de la part d'universitaires, de chercheurs et d'industriels. Des articles de syntheses didactiques, des exposes de travaux de recherches theoriques et d'experiences pratiques sont attendus, ainsi que des propositions d'exposes pour les tutoriels. Les publications emanant de jeunes chercheurs sont particulierement les bienvenues. Un prix recompensera la meilleure publication. Les meilleures publications seront publiees dans des revues. Un espace sera disponible pour des demonstrations, le comite de programme sollicite des propositions sur les themes ci-dessus. Instruction aux Auteurs ----------------------- Si vous desirez soumettre une communication (12 pages maximum) ou un tutoriel, veuillez envoyer cinq exemplaires de l'article complet, avant le 1er septembre 1994, a : Pierre Rolin (Telecom-Bretagne, France) Telecom-Bretagne Antenne de Rennes Departement RSM Rue de la Chataigneraie BP 78 35512 - Cesson - Sevigne cedex FRANCE Tel : +33 99 12 70 21 Fax : +33 99 12 70 30 email : rolin@rennes.enst-bretagne.fr Les decisions du comite de programme vous seront notifiees le 15 janvier 1995. Pour etre publiees dans les actes du colloque les versions finales des articles doivent parvenir avant le 15 fevrier 1995. Dates a retenir --------------- 1er septembre 1994 : date limite pour la reception des articles soumis. 15 janvier 1995 : notification aux auteurs de la decision du comite de programme. 15 fevrier 1995 : date limite pour la reception des textes definitifs a inclure dans les actes du colloque. Comite d'organisation --------------------- Jean-Marc Jezequel (IRISA) Sylvie Brunet (Telecom-Bretagne) Noel Plouzeau (IRISA) Elisabeth Lebret (IRISA) Joseph Fromont (CCETT) Marie-Noelle Georgeault (IRISA) Alain Leger (CCETT) Jean-Marc Jezequel, IRISA/CNRS, 35042 RENNES (FRANCE) jezequel@irisa.fr ------------------------------ From: daveheld@delphi.com Subject: Re: Cordless Telephone Output Power Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 08:04:21 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) writes: > 2) even if it was legal, why does everyone want to increase the output > power? There is probably more room for increasing the receiver sensitivity > which would have the same effect. For instance, a cheap FET between the > antenna and the receiver chip could add at least 10 dB of sensitivity, > if you know what your'e doing. Those who want to raise transmitter power (not me, the other guys) are trying to compete against co-channel interference from other cordless phones. Boosting receiver sensitivity won't help. I might also add that simple receiver mods (such as your front-end FET) will have a lot of trouble due to the duplexing problem; i.e., a FET connected to the antenna as an RF preamp will be overloaded by the phone's own transmitter which is also connected to the same antenna. I have recommended against transmitter mods for a number of reasons: engineering difficulty, receiver desensing (the other half of the same duplexing problem), and battery life, not to mention philosophical complications such as federal law, harmful interference to other legitimate users, and the ultimate unlikeliness of achieving satisfactory longer-range performance. Dave ------------------------------ From: haroldh@ksgbbs.harvard.edu (Harold Hubschman) Subject: Looking For a Piece of Telephone Equipment Date: 15 Mar 1994 11:46:30 -0500 Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation I'm wondering if the following device exists: I have two telephone lines into my home. I would like to hook up a gadget between them that will allow me to phone in on one line on a touch tone phone, have this device answer, and then let me initiate a call out on the second line. Is such a device commercially available? Any ideas where to get one (and what it is called?) Thanks, hh [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Those devices are called 'WATS extenders' or 'call extenders' and they have been around for *years*. I think the 'Hello Direct' people sell them (1-800-HI-HELLO) along with quite a few other telecom supply houses. But whatever you do if you choose to install one: keep yourself covered! Install a difficult and *long* passcode on it or else hackerphreaks will eat you alive with fraud charges. PAT] ------------------------------ From: truet@delphi.com Subject: Re: Setting up a 900 Number Date: Tue, 15 Mar 94 13:38:12 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Tauren N Mills writes: > I am investigating setting up a 900 number for my business, but cannot > justify the $2500 installation fee that AT&T wants, plus the $1000 per > month. Does anyone know of any outfits that will rent 900 numbers? > I don't want to rent one that is already set up and all you have to do > is advertise. I need my own information to be available. Tauren: You may want to contact some of the consultants and/or service bureaus that support the 900 industry including: Telco Planning, MicroVoice applications, Brite Voice, etc. If you need telephone numbers, I'll be happy to provide them. Bick Truet TRG Clinton, NJ 908.730.9050 BickTRG@aol.com Truet@delphi.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 15:29:29 EST From: Russell Blau Subject: Re: Mr. Watson, Come Here ... In a recent article, John R. Levine <0001037498@mcimail.com> said: > The building in Boston where Bell and Watson did their work has long > since been torn down to build a government office, but the site is > marked by a small granite shaft and a pair of payphones. Yes, the building is gone, but Bell's restored workshop including some of his original equipment can still be seen in the lobby of the New England Tel (ooops, excuse me, NYNEX) building at 185 Franklin Street in Boston. It's like a little shrine to the Creator, complete with pre-recorded narration and little brochures you can take home. Definitely worth a visit if you are in Boston. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #132 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa19538; 16 Mar 94 15:20 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10613; Wed, 16 Mar 94 11:16:05 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10601; Wed, 16 Mar 94 11:16:00 CST Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 11:16:00 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403161716.AA10601@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #133 TELECOM Digest Wed, 16 Mar 94 11:16:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 133 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Los Angeles Phone Fire (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: No Monthly Fee Cell Phone (Rob Boudrie) Re: Modem Use With Rolm Phone 240 (Steve Brack) Re: New Area Code Change Question (Laurence Chiu) Meaning of the TELEX Answerback Code That Names Carrier (Sheldon Hoenig) Re: Questions About GMRS Radio (Danny Burstein) Re: Questions About GMRS Radio (Bill Nayhew) Re: Questions About GMRS Radio (Rich Greenberg) X.500 Directory Service (Go Simon Sunatori) Boca V-Mail Modem: Request For Tech-Specs (Ken Stillson) Motorola - Japan Press Release (Gregory A. Lucas) 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, 16 Mar 94 10:35:11 CST From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: Los Angeles Phone Fire Word is trickling in very slowly from California about the fire in the Pac Bell switching center. Does anyone out there have any further details on this? I am hearing that it was quite severe. Is this another case like the major fire in Hinsdale, Illinois in 1988 and the fire in New York in the mid-1970's where a telco office and major facility was left unattended for some period of time and alarms were simply ignored? That's what happened here in the Hinsdale (Chicago) fire almost six years ago. It started early on a Sunday afternoon and burned for more than an hour before the people who were supposed to be watching out for such things decided that maybe the alarms coming from Chicago (they were in Springfield, Illinois, a couple hundred miles away as if that made a lot of sense in the first place) were to be honored. Then and only then, when the doofus in Springfield decided maybe the alarms should be investigated, he called someone at home in the west suburban area and asked them 'when they had a chance' to go over to the central office in Hinsdale and see what it was about. 30-45 minutes later a supervisor shows up, goes inside, sees the fire in progress and decides to call the fire department. But by then it was too late since all the phones in town were already dead, including those to the fire department. Bottom line in Hinsdale? Service was out for two weeks in some cases and a month in others. An entire switch had to be scrapped and a replacement installed. Millions of dollars in lost business and hardships while the phones were out. According to Mr. Eibel, a vice-president of Illinois Bell at the time, staffing a phone office *with even just one clerk* at all times to prevent situations like this was not cost effective. Maybe he figured they could buy new switches on sale at Walmart or something, and that customer goodwill was something easily obtained for less than the few dollars an hour a responsible person at the CO would cost. So what's the story in Los Angeles? PAT ------------------------------ From: rboudrie@chpc.org (Rob Boudrie) Subject: Re: No Monthly Fee Cell Phone Date: 15 Mar 1994 15:59:36 -0500 Organization: Center for High Performance Computing of WPI Does the Lindsay service use the B (Nynex) or A (Cell One) carrier's service for the actual communications, or has the FCC authorized a third carrier in the market? ------------------------------ From: sbrack@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu (Steve Brack) Subject: Re: Modem Use With Rolm Phone 240 Organization: University of Toledo Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 01:00:23 GMT Jim McCormack (as965@yfn.ysu.edu) wrote: > At work I have a Rolm phone 240 model #62000. Since this is a digital > phone I can't use an analog modem with it. Does anyone know of a device > which would allow the use of an analog modem on this phone/network? In the current Hello Direct catalog, there is a device called a DataDapter that plugs into your phone on the handset side. Of course, this cannot operate on an unattended basis, but it will, according to the catslog, work with almost any phone system. Their address is: Hello Direct 5884 Eden Park Place San Jose, CA 95138-1859 TEL: +1 800 HI HELLO (444 3556) English +1 800 655 1375 Spanish +1 800 964 6444 Technical Support FAX: +1 408 972 8155 HRS: 9AM - 8PM EST (6AM - 5PM PST) (1400-0100 UTC) The DataDapter is Item # 2342N, and is listed on p. 42 of the catalog. Steven S. Brack sbrack@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu Toledo, OH 43613-1605 STU0061@UOFT01.BITNET MY OWN OPINIONS sbrack@maine.cse.utoledo.edu ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: New Area Code Change Question Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 09:33:27 -0900 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access In article , Mike Quinlan wrote: > In message , TELECOM Digest Editor Noted: >> Since the general public has never probably understood the way area codes >> were constructed in the past, the general public will probably not notice >> the difference starting next year. > The general public may notice that they will have to dial the area > code when making long-distance calls within the same area code. However currently with some places requiring this and others not, it is very confusing for visitors. I had a friend visit Seattle recently and asked him to look up a friend for me who lives in Tacoma but phone number is 206-xxx-xxxx. Every time he called he got some message about the number being out of service. He didn't think to dial 1-206-xxx-xxxx to reach the number since 1-area code is not required in CA. A more informative message from the local Telco (US West?) would have been nice. Laurence Chiu Walnut Creek, California Tel: 510-215-3730 (work) Internet: lchiu@crl.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 17:04:41 EST From: Sheldon W. Hoenig Reply-To: hoenigs@gsimail.ddn.mil Subject: Meaning of Part of the TELEX Answerback Code That Names the Carrier The telex system uses an answerback code as a rudimentary authentification technique. The answerback is usually a mnemonic having some connection to the called party. In addition, there is a suffix attached to many answerback codes in the form "Ux". From what I understand, the letter U signifies that the telex destination is in the U.S. and the letter "x" tells which telex carrier supplies the telex number and service. I am interested in determining telex carriers from answerback codes. Does anyone have a list which correlates "x" to a telex carrier? Sheldon W. Hoenig Internet: Government Systems, INC (GSI) hoenigs@gsimail.ddn.mil Suite 500 hoenig@infomail.infonet.com 3040 Williams Drive Telephone: (703) 846-0420 Fairfax, VA 22031-4612 (800) 336-3066 x420 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 01:11:26 -0500 From: danny burstein Subject: Re: Questions About GMRS Radio GMRS is the "General Mobile Radio Servce", which is kind of like CB but on the UHF band. There are approximately eight channels on it, and repeater operation is allowed using a second frequency for input to the repater. There are also a couple of 'split' or 'intenerant' channels which are authorized for lower power, direct unit-to-unit work. Power output ont he main channels is allowed at either four or five watts. Prior to more or less 1990 anyone, including businesses, could get FCC authorization for these freqs by filling out form ?475? and mailing in the money. NOTE that you did *NOT* have exclusive use of the frequencies, but since there are fewer people on UHF, and it was FM, and you could use CCITT and other nifty stuff, it was -much- better than CB. For the last few years new licensees had to be individuals or families, not businesses. Range will vary dramatically. A decent antenna on the unit (should be about six inches) will give you perhaps a reliable half mile or so in a low density city, a mile in suburbia, and twenty miles line-of-sight from mountain top to mountain top. dannyb@panix.com (or dburstein@mcimail.com) (10288) 0-700-864-3242 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 11:42:45 EST From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) Subject: Re: Questions About GMRS Radio In-Reply-To: Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Pat, You do indeed have a GMRS (general mobile radio service) radio. Power output is usally about one watt, but may vary depending on the exact model of the radio. Some are in the 100 mW range; some are as much as five watts. Recently, I've seen thousands of UHF handhelds at local flea markets that put out about 100 mW. These were used in some sort of warehouse inventory control system that interfaced the radio with a bar code scanner. Those radios work as normal radios when the scanner is not attached. All GMRS radios have to licensed. There are several "intenerant" channels for which you may apply for a license. The fee is about $20 for a five year license -- at least the last time I checked. You can get a license for other channels that are assigned to you specifically, though shared with other users. Many GMRS use tone coded CTCSS (continuous tone coded subaudible signalling) that uses a "sub-audible" tone in the range of ~80-250 Hz. The tone is sent along with your voice so that only your receivers will open the squelch when one of your employees transmits. The street name for CTCSS is PL, which is a Motorola trademark, Private Line. There is an industry standard set of about 30 PL tones, which interoperate on any manufacturer's radio. PL is generally an option, so your radio may not be so equipped. There is usally a setting on the squelch knob that has a graphic showing a speaker with a line through it; that is the setting that activates PL. There are GMRS repaters that you may be able to access. Point-to-point, a one watt GMRS hand-held will probably transmit about one mile. Though a repeater system, I've seen ranges of up to 16 miles radius from the repeater. Our university rents time on a local GMRS repeater for our courier drivers; we bought the radios, but I believe that we use them under the authority of the repeater owner. We pay a pretty reasonable fee for the repeater access -- about $20/month. We also have two UHF GMRS repeaters here in the building for which we hold FCC licenses. The repeaters put out about one watt to a ground plane antenna on the top of the building. Our groundskeepers, maintainence people and security officers use those two channels. The range gives us coverage about a mile or two around the perimeter of our campus between the handheld radios. I strongly recommend working though a local mobile radio dealer in getting things set up. You may be able to have the working frequency of the radio reset (many radios can be set up using an umbilical cord thing that dealers have to program frequency and PL). The FCC requires that the end user not have the ability to change the assigned frequency. Some radios have a magic code that will unlock the programming if they have a keypad. Radio dealers can also provide information on GMRS repeaters in your area. GMRS is not CB and the users are very likely to get real upset with any person who sets up an ad hoc operation without going though the proper steps. Unauthorized use is more likely to attract FCC notice than goofing around with a Children's Band radio. GMRS is basically what CB was intended to be before it got out of control. Fortunately, GMRS UHF and VHF frequencies are relatively line-of-sight and FM. FM helps cut down on co-channel interference thanks to the FM capture effect. Being VHF/UHF FM cuts down on the appeal of DX operation that got to be the fad on 27 MHz AM/SSB CB. Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-0095 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu amateur radio 146.58: N8WED [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is no keypad or touchtone pad on this unit, and just a switch to go between channel one and channel two. I've left it sitting on the desk here turned on for several hours with the squelch open and the volume quite low just to hear what sort of traffic there is on it, it anything. So far I've heard nothing. I assume if there were a repeater around here one would need to key in something on the pad in order to activate the repeater. I don't know if I really need such a radio as this or not. I did conduct one very short test to be sure of the frequencies by turning on my scanner to the two frequencies in question and keying the transceiver for for a second or two to watch the scanner lock in on it. I'm not going to use it otherwise without a license (or at all unless I find some use for it.) PAT] ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 08:59:58 PST Reply-To: richgr@netcom.com Subject: Re: Questions About GMRS Radio The units you have sound like business band or the old (Class A?) CB service. 1 watt is a reasonable power level for such a radio. The stubby antenna will cut down the range somewhat. Quarter wave whips at that frequency (around 6 inches) will work better if you can locate them. Ham unit whips (intended for 440-450 mHz) MAY work. From HT to HT with the stubby antennas, perhaps a mile or two in the clear, less inside a building. Double or triple that with properly cut 1/4 wave antennas. For the ham frequencies, 5/8 wave antennas are also available which give a bit more of an edge. Again, I don't know if they are available for 462 mHz or if the ham ones will work. Rich Greenberg Work: ETi Solutions, Oceanside & L.A. CA 310-348-7677 N6LRT TinselTown, USA Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for your input on this. So what is the word on the fire out there? Can you and others in Los Angeles give a more detailed report to Digest readers? PAT] ------------------------------ From: aa325@freenet.carleton.ca (Go Simon Sunatori) Subject: X.500 Directory Service Reply-To: aa325@freenet.carleton.ca (Go Simon Sunatori) Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 01:43:41 -0500 At least one government is going ahead with a full-scale implementation of the X.500 directory service. Given the tremendous potential of X.500 service in mail-enabled applications, I believe that some form of X.500 directory service will be available for the general public to use. Now, the question is who would provide such a service? Would it be the telcos which may extend the white pages, or are there opportunities for entrepreneurs to set up a pure directory business? Go Simon Sunatori, P.Eng. X.400: C=CA; A=Telecom.Canada; O=HyperInfo.Canada; S=Sunatori; G=Go Simon Internet: aa325@freenet.carleton.ca Telephone: +1-819-595-9210 ------------------------------ From: stillson@mitre.org (Ken Stillson) Subject: Boca V-Mail Modem: Request For Tech-Specs Date: 16 Mar 94 13:19:17 GMT Organization: The MITRE Corporation The hardware manual casually mentions a few of the extended AT# commands used for the voice-subsystem, but doesn't give anywhere near enough details to actually use them. Does anyone know (or know where to get) more information on how to directly use the voice system, so one can write their own software? Thanks! Ken Stillson, stillson@mitre.org ------------------------------ From: lucas@rtsg.mot.com (Gregory A Lucas) Subject: Motorola - Japan Press Release Date: 16 Mar 94 16:31:12 GMT Organization: Motorola Cellulsr Infrastructure Group Response and Questions to: Tim Kellogg (202) 371-6925 Jay Hyde (202) 833-4481 WASHINGTON, D.C., March 12 -- An agreement reached today promising U.S. access to Japan's largest cellular phone market was hailed by Motorola as beneficial to both Japanese consumers and American workers. Motorola President and Chief Operating Officer Christopher B. Galvin said, "This is an agreement where everyone wins. First, Japanese consumers, because they will have greater choice in the marketplace. Second, American workers, because more of the products they make will be sold in Japan. And, of course, Motorola benefits from resolution of the problems that have restrained our entry into the Tokyo-Nagoya market." Galvin thanked U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor and his team, as well as Ambassador to Japan Walter Mondale, for helping to remove the roadblocks that prevented a full build- out of the Motorola cellular phone system in the Tokyo-Nagoya region. "When the U.S. government found that it had reached an impasse in its 10-year effort to gain comparable access for telecommunications products in the Japanese market, it took forceful action. We commend the administration for this step," he remarked. Galvin stressed that his company was not looking for special treatment in Japan. "With this agreement, Motorola looks forward to serving our customer in the Tokyo-Nagoya market with products that meet a standard of excellence unsurpassed anywhere else in the world," he said. "We are confident we will be able to supply quality products, and ultimately help to increase consumer opportunities, throughout the region." The agreement addresses the goal of comparable market access through two interlocking features: O Installation of a cellular phone system that will reach 95 percent of the Tokyo-Nagoya region's population by the end of 1995; and O A pledge by the government of Japan that terms of this new agreement will be met at every step. The agreement removes the immediate threat of sanctions. On February 15, Ambassador Kantor found Japan in violation of a 1989 agreement assuring American telecommunications companies market access comparable to that enjoyed by Japanese suppliers. Kantor, acting under U.S. trade law, determined that Motorola had been denied access in the Tokyo/Nagoya region, as required under the 1985 Market-Oriented Sector Selective (MOSS) Agreement on Telecommunications. Reflecting on Motorola's decade-long effort to achieve success in the Tokyo-Nagoya cellular market, Galvin said, "It is our belief that this agreement offers an opportunity for a new beginning, and that Motorola will become an even more highly valued contributor to the growth of the cellular phone system in the Tokyo-Nagoya region." Motorola is one of the world's leading providers of wireless communications, semiconductors and advanced electronic systems and services. Major equipment businesses include cellular telephone, two-way radio, paging and data communications, personal communications, automotive, defense and space electronics and computers. Communication devices, computers and millions of consumer products are powered by Motorola semiconductors. Motorola's 1993 sales were $17 billion. # # # STATEMENT BY CHRIS GALVIN, president and chief operating officer, Motorola, March 12, 1994, Washington, D.C. Before taking your questions, I want to offer a single important thought. As you know, the governments of the United States and Japan announced a settlement today in the long-running dispute over access to the Tokyo-Nagoya market for American-made cellular telephone products. We have been engaged for several weeks in intense negotiations leading to this settlement. As you prepare your stories and broadcasts on the settlement, most of you will be asking, "Who wins, and who loses?" The thought I want to leave with you is this: This is an agreement where everyone wins. International trade is not a zero-sum game. It does not need to be a contest where one side is the victor and the other side is vanquished. It can be conducted so that everyone wins. This is especially true in this situation, where both Japan and the U.S. benefit. The announcement today by the governments of the U.S. and Japan is a classic example of the principle that the best solution is one where no one loses. So who wins? First, Japanese consumers, because they will have greater choice in the marketplace. Second, American workers, because more of the products they make will be sold in Japan. And, of course, Motorola benefits from resolution of the problems that have restrained our entry into the Tokyo-Nagoya market. This spring, Japanese consumers will be able to buy, rather than lease, cellular phones for the first time. As a result, we expect a virtual explosion in the use of cellular phones in Japan. This makes the timing of today's announcement particularly significant from a business point of view. It also means that Japanese companies selling cellular telephones in their own domestic market will benefit from the opportunity to sell hundreds of thousands of new units, to be used by customers in the Tokyo-Nagoya region. Throughout this process, our goal has been to achieve comparable market access for a North American-type cellular system in Japan's most heavily populated region. The agreement announced today addresses the goal of comparable market access through two interlocking features: First, through installation of a cellular phone system that will reach 95 percent of the Tokyo-Nagoya region's population by the end of 1995; and; Second, through a pledge by the government of Japan that terms of this new agreement will be met at every step. Achieving agreement in both these areas was not easy. But with the help of our customer, IDO, and the governments of the U.S. and Japan, we found ways to meet requirements in both of these critical areas. It is our belief that this agreement offers an opportunity for a new beginning, and that Motorola will become an even more highly valued contributor to the growth of the cellular phone system in the Tokyo-Nagoya region. We are happy that this very narrow issue did not escalate to the point where sanctions were applied. Although we believe in the necessity of sanctions as a tool for government negotiators, we would much rather solve our differences and solidify our trade partnerships in a positive, constructive way. It would seem that we have achieved this goal with today's announcement. Finally, I want to applaud both governments. Special thanks go to the government of Japan for its efforts to find a satisfactory resolution of this difficult situation. In the U.S., we want to thank the U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Kantor, and his team, as well as Ambassador Mondale in Japan, for helping to remove the roadblocks that prevented a full build-out of the Motorola cellular phone system in the Tokyo-Nagoya region. We also want to recognize that today's announcement would not be possible without the support of President Clinton. When the U.S. government found that it had reached an impasse in its ten-year effort to gain comparable access for telecommunications products in the Japanese market, it took forceful action. We commend the administration for this step. With this agreement, Motorola looks forward to serving our customer in the Tokyo-Nagoya market with products that meet a standard of excellence unsurpassed anywhere else in the world. We are confident that we will be able to supply quality products, and ultimately help to increase consumer opportunities, throughout the region. Thank you. ### ELEMENTS OF THE U.S. - JAPAN CELLULAR TELEPHONE ARRANGEMENT, Motorola, March 12, 1994, Tokyo, Japan CONSTRUCTION AND DEPLOYMENT OF THE TACS SYSTEM o A plan containing a schedule of quarterly commitments on the numbers of base stations and voice channels and the ratios of population coverage. o A deployment plan, to be completed within 30 days, setting out the precise geographic location of each base station in the Tokyo-Nagoya area. o These commitments will result in 159 new base stations, containing an additional 9,900 voice channels. The installation will begin in April 1994; installation and deployment of the base stations will be completed by September 1995; installation and deployment of the voice channels will be completed by December 1995. o Coverage of 95 percent of the population in the Tokyo-Nagoya region by September 1995. o An immediate letter of intent containing commitments with respect to the specific equipment to be purchased and all associated terms and conditions. PROMOTION OF THE TACS SYSTEM o Establishment of sales organization dedicated to the promotion of the TACS system. o Sales promotion of the TACS system, including devotion of two-thirds of IDO's total advertising budget to TACS promotion. o An agreement to add no further capacity to the HI-CAP system beyond that which is currently underway. o Implementation of a specially-designed campaign to encourage the movement of subscribers onto the TACS system. o Transfers within 18 months, i.e., by September 1995, of 1.5 MHz of spectrum from IDO's HI-CAP system to its TACS system which will be accomplished without inconvenience to HI-CAP customers as a result of the campaign mentioned above. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMMITMENTS o IDO will provide quarterly reports to Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN COMMITMENTS o Monitor and oversee completion of the IDO commitments, including those in the letter and all associated documents. o Ensure compliance with the letter and associated documents on a quarterly basis. o Meet quarterly with the U.S. Government to assess implementation of the actions described in the letter and associated documents. o Approve reallocation of 1.5 MHz to the TACS system. o Expeditiously grant all necessary permits and licenses to IDO and approvals required by IDO to complete the TACS system. o Give full and prompt consideration to any request from IDO for new tariff rates and conditions. Greg Lucas Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group - Arlington Heights, IL ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #133 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa20892; 16 Mar 94 17:30 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA15858; Wed, 16 Mar 94 13:54:03 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA15845; Wed, 16 Mar 94 13:54:00 CST Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 13:54:00 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403161954.AA15845@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #134 TELECOM Digest Wed, 16 Mar 94 13:54:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 134 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Hardware Recommendations For Phone Bank Wanted (mmm@cup.portal.com) Communications Software For UNIX/HPUX Wanted (SynTech) Needed: 2500 Sets (Don Grubb) Telecom GIFS at Smithsonian Institution (Dave Niebuhr) ICs in China (Robert Duque-Ribeiro) How to Provide Dialtone to an Incoming Call (Paul Jonathan E. Go) Re: Cordless Telephone Range (Joseph R. Schumacher) Re: Telex Country Codes (A. Alan Toscano) Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update (Mike O'Brien) Re: Cut-Rate Domestic and International Calling Cards (Fritz Friedlaender) Clipper Humor From Mini-JIR (Robert Virzi) 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: mmm@cup.portal.com Subject: Hardware Recommendations For Phone Bank Wanted Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 11:22:08 PST What sort of hardware do I need to set up a customized phone bank system? What I think I need are boards which plug into an IBM PC/AT-compatible backplane, which can switch calls, synthesize and detect Touch Tones, and detect ringing. Several boards plugged into a PC, programmed from MS Basic or something, could basically do anything. Who makes boards like this and what do they cost? I have in mind a system with N incoming lines for customers (where N is as large as needed to handle the volume of business), N outgoing lines, and a control computer that distributes calls, monitors operator performance, etc. Because of the unique nature of the business, configuration flexibility is a must. This system would be a pay-per-call 900 service. As I understand it, it is very easy to set these systems up nowadays. The big problem in offering a 900 service seems to be advertising for customers, and I think I've invented a way to get around that problem. My idea is to offer a pay-per-call suicide hotline. This idea isn't as ridiculous as it sounds. Conventional suicide hotlines (run as a free service) get a large number of calls from a small number of repeat callers who usually aren't very serious about suicide, they just want somebody to talk to. So instead of advertising, I'd call around to all the free suicide hotlines and ask them to refer their problem users to me. This benefits them because they off-load a burden to me, and it benefits me because that's how I get customers without paying for advertising. The conventional suicide hotlines would represent my service as a sort of "premium" suicide hotline service. They would tell the client someting like "You are really deep. We don't have anyone intelligent enough to help you. You need 900-SUICIDE." At my facility, I would re-route calls out to my operators, who would work at home. They would basically be people who like to talk on the phone, wish to help people, and want to make money at an at-home job. I'm sure I could find lots of suitable people in retirement communities. It might make sense to establish my operation in some place like Palm Beach or Arroyo Grande. If there was an emergency in progress, for example if the customer said he'd just downed a bottle of pills, my operator should be able to just hit a button to make a TT tone, and the computer would instantly detect that and make an outgoing call to the local emergency service for the client's area. I might even have a doctor on call who would come on the line and evaluate the situation. The computer would route calls to the appropriate operator. For most customers, that would be based on calling history, i.e. you get hooked up to the person who handled you most recently (if available). For new callers, a phone-mail type interrogation session would sort out who you should talk to first. For example: "If you need immediate medical assistance, press one now." "If you need to talk to a counselor, press two now." "If your situation relates to marriage, sex, or love, press one now." "If your situation relates to money or taxes, press two now." "If your situation relates to religion, press three now." "If your situation relates to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, press one now." "If your situation relates to the Holy Roman Catholic Church, press two now." "If you have been sexually abused by a member of the clergy, press one now." "If you doubt the existence of God, press two now." ... and so forth. I anticipate there would be many people I could recruit as operators without pay. For example, I'm sure every major church would want to make a counselor available for people who were thinking about leaving the church. Heck, I could even charge the churches for routing calls to them! I could make money on both ends! Maybe I should even start my own church! By the time the customers have worked through the menu system, I, or rather my computer, would know quite a lot about them. It should be possible to customize a philosophy in real-time that would be comfortable for the client, while at the same time setting realistic goals for personal development that the client could work toward. This may require a separate data line for each operator, to brief him or her on the client relationship being cultivated (as chosen by the computer). I suppose whatever hardware I choose will be programmed from Basic using Peek and Poke statements, unless it interfaces by serial I/O in which case I'd be using Print and Input statements. If it were at all possible, I'd like to run on the Mac platform, communicating with the phone line switcher by serial I/O. Is it at all reasonable to consider implementing this in HyperCard? I'd also like to hear any comments people have on the reliability of the hardware that is available, i.e. who to buy and who to stay away from. Reliability is a concern because of the possibility of emergency situations. (I'm planning to have a policy of not charging for calls where the client eventually does commit suicide.) Also, what software environments are supported? (I _can_ program in Pascal and C, and prefer C.) ------------------------------ From: syntech@access.digex.net (SynTech) Subject: Communications Software For UNIX/HPUX Wanted Date: 16 Mar 1994 12:02:47 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA I am looking for a good communications package for use on a UNIX (HP/UX) system. What I want to be able to do is send Hayes commands to my modem from a UNIX command prompt. Kermit is not too helpful for this purpose. Any suggestions on how I can interact with the modem in command mode would be appreciated. We are using MultiTech MultModem II modems. Thanks! Matt ------------------------------ From: Don Grubb Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 10:21:41 -0600 Subject: Needed: 2500 Sets If anyone has recently replaced their analog lines with digital and has a room full of 2500 sets (standard analog desk phones) that they would like to donate or sell please let me know. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 13:08:21 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Telecom GIFS at Smithsonian Institution While browsing through the Smithsonian Institution's archives today, I found some GIF files of very old telephones and telegraphs. Very interesting viewing. Use anonymous ftp to photo.si.edu cd images/gif89a/tech-history and have a look. 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: duquerr4@cti.ecp.fr (DUQUE-RIBEIRO Robert) Subject: ICs in China Date: 16 Mar 1994 17:35:22 GMT Organization: Ecole Centrale de Paris Reply-To: duquerr4@cti.ecp.fr Hi! My name is Robert Duque-Ribeiro, I have a BA in Business Management and a MBA from the Institut des Hautes Etudes Economiques Et Commerciales de Paris. I'm currently involved in a graduate program (MS Technology &Management) at the Ecole Centrale Paris. The reason why I'm writing to you today is because I am preparing a study on the Integrated Circuits industry in China, the economical activity and its potential. Therefore, I'm seeking information. I'm looking for any kind of information on: - people manufacturing, or using Integrated Circuits, - who they are? - where they are? - when did it start? - what they do?(what kind of IC, main characteristics, etc), - how do they create their ICs (tools? equipment, vendors?) - how many ICs they produce, design (?) , - for what industry (the potential customers)? - do they work with foreign companies (vendors, suppliers, customers) - do they export? - do they import? - what is China's (PRC and Hong Kong) policy towards IC? In fact I'm looking for any kind of information that could help me define the IC industry in China. I think that I may mix a marketing framework (marketing mix : Product, price, place, promotion) with an International business one (country, export rules, etc.) I want to do well on this, because if I find enough information, I may use it in my final thesis (Developing countries' new paradigm in Integrated Circuit: Being threatened could be for our sake.) Thanks for answering ASAP. Thanks for your help. Best regards, Robert Duque-Ribeiro ECOLE CENTRALE PARIS MS Technology & Management Laboratoire Strategie & Management e-mail: duquerr4@cti.ecp.fr FRANCE ------------------------------ From: pj@ugcs.caltech.edu (Paul Jonathan E. Go) Subject: How to Provide Dialtone to an Incoming Call Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 11:08:35 PST A few weeks back, there was a discussion about black boxes that would call people back and give them a dialtone. For a senior project, I would like to build a box that would give an incoming caller a dialtone after a security verification. However, I can't figure out how to provide the dialtone to the caller. When using three way calling, I usually establish a connection with the first party, flash, establish the connection with the second party, and then flash to start the three way call. If the second connection is not established, then the phone returns to a normal two party conversation. How do I make the phone pass the dialtone through to the caller instead of returning to the two party conversation? I apologize if this issue has been solved before; I remember it being discussed, but I don't remember if we ever agreed to a solution. Thanks! Paul Jonathan E. Go Caltech MSC 1028 pj@cco.caltech.edu Pasadena CA 91126 213 344 7275 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You'll never make it happen if you continue to use telco three-way calling instead of your own hardware. Telco's soft- ware is written to require supervison of the third part of the call (i.e. require an answer from the other end or at least get it out of the switch on which you are located and on its way to the other office) before the third link is officially established. It will always drop that third link if the switchhook flash is premature. If you want to use telco three-way calling to implement your project then you have to forget about providing them dialtone (at least from the CO, I guess you could provide your own for the sake of appearance) and just patch it through once the connection is established. In a way, this is the safest way to go because you can throoughly screen what they dial and only complete it if you are satisfied with the destination of the call. Providing dialtone itself can be a hazard to your financial health, with or without the additional passcode they have to insert. If you want to give them true telco dialtone however, you'll need to work with an actual second line from telco and fix your hardware so the gate is opened when the passcode has been satisfied. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 10:54:27 -0500 From: JOSEPH.R.SCHUMACHER@gte.sprint.com Subject: Re: Cordless Telephone Range >> 2) even if it was legal, why does everyone want to increase the output >> power? There is probably more room for increasing the receiver sensitivity >> which would have the same effect. For instance, a cheap FET between the >> antenna and the receiver chip could add at least 10 dB of sensitivity, >> if you know what your'e doing. daveheld@delphi.com replies: > ... Boosting receiver sensitivity won't help. I might also add > that simple receiver mods (such as your front-end FET) will have a lot > of trouble due to the duplexing problem; i.e., a FET connected to the > antenna as an RF preamp will be overloaded by the phone's own > transmitter which is also connected to the same antenna. He even quoted me: "_if you know what you're doing_." I have in fact seen 46/49 cordless phones which have FET preamps on the receiver. Okay, maybe I should have said between the _duplexor_ and receiver chip. As a matter of fact, the Motorola 3363 even has a built-in RF amplifier (ok, it's bipolar) which is intended to preceed the mixer stage. Aside from that, I really have to agree with Mr. Held regarding cordless telephone mods. What I was trying to suggest in the original posting is that increasing the transmit power isn't a good idea. It aggravates an interference problem which is already pretty bad. And don't forget, it also makes it easier for your neighbors to listen in on your calls. BTW, the original post had a typo: the 900 MHz narrow band limit, (50 mV/m @ 3 meters) is actually 14 dB (not 4 dB) hotter than the 46/49 limit (10 mV/m @ 3 meters) Joe ------------------------------ From: atoscano@attmail.com (A Alan Toscano) Date: 16 Mar 94 19:16:26 GMT Subject: Re: Telex Country Codes In TELECOM Digest V14 #131, dnewcomb@whale.st.usm.edu (Donald R. Newcomb) writes: > I'm confused over the assignment of Country Codes for Telex. I've been > told that the CC for Albania is 604 and that one of the CCs used by > INMARSAT is 581 but when I look in the AT&T directory of Telex and > EasyLink addresses, it says Albania is 866 and INMARSAT Telexes are in > the range 70X, 80X, 90X (where X = 2,3,4,5,6...). Two different standards for TELEX country codes are utilized in North America. 604 and 581 are international standard (F.69) country codes for Albania and INMARSAT-Atlantic-East respectivly. F.69 codes are two or three-digits in length. The codes which are listed in the AT&T Electronic Messaging Directory (last published in 1991) are taken from the traditional North American standard of "intercontinental codes." They are always three-digits in length, where the first digit (3, 7, 8, or 9) designates a world region. Generally, North American TELEX service providers assume the use of an "intercontinental code" by default. AT&T's commercial email services support either type of code, but default to "intercontinental." On AT&T EasyLink IMS, you can "override" the default and address an international TELEX number using an F.69 country code by entering an "ITE" format instead of a "WUW" format. For example: PTS ITE 604123456(123456ANSBK AB)+ where "604" is a country code, "123456" is a fictitious TELEX number, and "123456ANSBK AB" is a fictitious expected Answerback. On AT&T Mail, you designate an F.69 country code by adding the handling option "/PROTOCOL=F.69" immediately after the TELEX number. For example: telex!604123456/PROTOCOL=F.69 (123456ANSBK AB) or, from a gateway: attmail!telex!604123456/PROTOCOL=F.69 (123456ANSBK AB) As far as I can tell, F.69 codes are not supported on AT&T's other TELEX platforms, such as "Dial 100" Service, and EasyLink's OLC (On-line Conversation) Service. Being an AT&T TELEX customer, I have no information on other TELEX service providers' support of F.69 codes. A Alan Toscano -- Houston, TX -- 713 415-9262 atoscano@attmail.com or atoscano@speedway.net ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 11:39:01 PST From: obrien@aero.org Subject: Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update The affected switch, whose name I flat-out don't remember, is purported to be the largest switch west of the Rockies. The picture in this morning's {LA Times} shows a cleanup-crew working around "burned batteries", and I must say with the fire hitting the battery room I also don't blame the folks who rapidly decamped. I found out about the fire at 5AM, when I was awakened by a phone call from the Los Angeles Southwest District Emergency Coordinator of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES). ARES is the amateur radio emergency organization allied with LA city. ARES had been activated all over the city because the fire had knocked out 911 service to the San Fernando Valley and West LA. (A sheriff's deputy reported to me that it also resulted in 911 service being involuntarily "swapped" between districts, with each district getting the other's calls. Sounds like untested fallback technology to me.) We sat and listened to our radios as the city emergency honchos met in the LA EOC downtown to decide what to do about it. The usual plan was for us to go to the nearest firehouse and act as communicators. However, in this case, although 911 was kaput, 411 still worked fine. Of course, 411 went to a completely different set of operators having no emergency connectivity whatsoever, so the plan that was evolved on the spot was to send us out to the 411 offices to relay traffic to the firehouses. People who couldn't get anything on 911 were calling 411, and were as mad as wet hens. In the event, the emergency honchos just wound up publicizing district-wide seven-digit numbers for emergency services, as the repair estimate for return of 911 service was "six to eight hours" after the fire, which was sometime around midnight or 1AM. Today's paper reported 911 service restored at 9AM, and the rest of the switching problems fixed by around 2PM. ARES stood down around 6:30AM without being deployed. Mike O'Brien obrien@aero.org ------------------------------ From: fritzj@dynamo.ecn.purdue.edu (Fritz Friedlaender) Subject: Re: Cut-Rate Domestic and International Calling Cards Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 19:32:04 GMT AT&T currently charges 31 cents/minute weekends (until June) to "REACH OUT WORLD"(TM) customers who select Germany as their designated country. And my last bill actually used these rates though there has not been much advertising. F.J. Friedlaender ------------------------------ From: rv01@harvey.gte.com (Robert Virzi) Subject: Clipper Humor From Mini-JIR Organization: GTE Laboratories, Inc. Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 19:17:15 GMT This appeared in the mini Journal of Irreproducible results. I thought it was relevant to the discussions regarding Clipper Chip technology. Bob Virzi ------------------- 1994-03-04 Clipper Chip Envelope, Initiative, and Economics CLIPPER CHIP ENVELOPE Soon the government-mandated Clipper Chip secret-code-decoder will be installed in every piece of US electronic communications equipment. Criminals might then try to send their coded messages via traditional mail. Against that possibility, we are now applying Clipper Chip protection to paper mail. Our Clipper Chip Envelope automatically reads and decodes any paper enclosed in it. The Clipper Chip Envelope consists of a standard paper envelope with an installed optical scanner and microprocessor, optical character recognition software, a passive transmitter, and a Clipper Chip. The whole mechanism is the size and value of a fingernail clipping. Ee-way are-ay aking-may is-thay echnology-tay available-ay oo-tay any-ay official-ay agency-ay ich-way an-cay ecode-day is-they essage-may, free of charge. Anyone interested in subscribing to this 'zine can do so by sending a brief E-mail message to either of these addresses: LISTSERV@MITVMA.MIT.EDU or LISTSERV@MITVMA The body of your message should contain ONLY the words "SUBSCRIBE MINI- JIR" followed by your name. Here are two examples: SUBSCRIBE MINI-JIR Irene Curie Joliot SUBSCRIBE MINI-JIR Nicholai Lobachevsky To stop subscribing, send the following message to the same address: SIGNOFF MINI-JIR rvirzi@gte.com +1(617)466-2881 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: To make this Digest into a multi-linqual publication, I shall start producing an edition in Pig Latin each day. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #134 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa00313; 17 Mar 94 14:51 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05150; Thu, 17 Mar 94 10:26:04 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05140; Thu, 17 Mar 94 10:26:01 CST Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 10:26:01 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403171626.AA05140@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #135 TELECOM Digest Thu, 17 Mar 94 10:26:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 135 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson History of the Term "Switch" (Jonathan Welch) GTI LD Service (US) (allen0@delphi.com) NPA-NXX V&H Coordinates Request (Gary K. Nitzberg) Local CID Showing Out of Area (Jim Derdzinski) 911 Used From Car Phone (Carl Moore) Canadian Government WWW Project (Tyson Macaulay) LCI Has Network Problems (Alec Isaacson) Looking For Introductory Books, FAQ (Roger West) Re: Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Telephone Harrassment (Bob Schwartz) Re: Communications Software For UNIX/HPUX Wanted (Bill Mayhew) Re: USR's New Modem (trent@netcom.com) On Telex Answerbacks (Paul Robinson) Re: ICs in CHINA (Andrew Wu) Re: TIME Reports 80% Oppose Clipper Chip (Charles Randall Yates) PA Bell in California? (jdl@wam.umd.edu) Re: Hardware Recommendations For Phone Bank Wanted (David Devereaux-Weber) Last Laugh! BBB on 900 Bumber (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: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 19:14:58 -0500 From: Jonathan_Welch Subject: History of the Term "Switch" I saw a brief image on TV how the first so-called switch consisted of movable contacts mounted on a board, serving eight customers. Presumably this is where the term came from for today's complex switching equipment. But was the term switch invented for telegraph equipment? I don't think the light bulb existed when the telephone was invented, so it wouldn't have been used in that context (correct me if I'm wrong). Jonathan Welch VAX Systems Manager Umass/Amherst JHWELCH@ecs.umass.edu ------------------------------ From: allen0@news.delphi.com Subject: GTI LD Service (US) Date: 16 Mar 1994 20:39:22 -0500 Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation For all you long distance users out there, I have found a service that is cheaper than anything I've seen. The telecom is called GTI, based in Seattle, Washington. Below is a summary of what the service costs and has to offer. If you have more questions or would like signup info, send email to 'Allen0@delphi.com'. I would be happy to give you further info about this great service. o Rates as low as *$2.60/hr* o *No change* in present Long Distance carrier required o All calls are routed thru an 800 number o Calls may be placed from *anywhere* in U.S. to *anywhere* in U.S. o Most pay phones require no coins o *No time restrictions* -- call anytime you like o 60 day risk free guarantee (sign-up fee will be refunded) o Itemized summary of calls made each month Faxed brochures are available for convenience. Please include this in your EMAIL if you prefer this method instead of "Smail." Allen [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We've had this one before, and the catch lies in the 'rates as low as $2.60 per hour' thing, as a couple readers have pointed out. There are a few other things not completely described above, but as an educational exercise I shall let new readers send in for the brochure and learn about the program. PAT] ------------------------------ From: gknitz@netcom.com (Gary K. Nitzberg) Subject: NPA-NXX V&H Coordinates Request Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 01:59:04 GMT I am taking a class which requires a WAN designation within the United States and the instructor has supplied us with NPA-NXX numbers for the purpose of the project. Unfortunely, to acquire the major and minor V&H coordinates for these locations, I would need to purchase the documentation from Bellcore. Not to mention hoping they would come before the class is over. I was wondering if anyone could be so kind as to lookup the V&H coordinates for the following locations or maybe know of a on or offline location this information is available for the purpose of education. Thank you in advance. Irvine, CA. 714-753 Milpitas, CA. 408-945 San Diego, CA. 619-336 Atlanta, GA. 404-717 Franklin Park, IL. 708-288 Westboro, MA. 508-836 Austin, TX. 512-343 Dallas, TX. 817-685 Gary K. Nitzberg gknitz@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 21:15:06 EST From: JMDCHICAGO@delphi.com Subject: Local CID Showing Out of Area > When CID was deployed in my area (516 area code), I tried calling home > from a pay phone and the number was displayed. However, when I call > home while I'm having my car serviced at a local service station, the > number doesn't show. > The difference is that the pay phone on the corner is NYNEX owned, > and the other one is a COCOT. This sounds to me like your area might be served by a CO with two vintages of switches (i.e., one is SS7 compatible, and the other isn't) The Nynex telephone is probably connected to the SS7 compatible switch in that CO and the COCOT telephone is probably connected to the non-SS7 switch. As you can see, this also results in some prefixes in your exchange being able to get and display CID and the rest not being able to. Situations like this exist here in Chicago (although becoming rarer) The Chicago-Superior exchange comes to mind. It is possible in this area to place calls from different telephones in the same building and have the CID work with some, and "Out-of-Area" on the rest. One person in an apartment building can readily subscribe to CID, but their next door neighbor can't unless they change their number. (I always thought it was kind of funny that I can see when my mom in St. John, IN calls me, but I can't see when my friends within walking distance of here call. Ahh, modern telecommunications ...) It is my understanding that these partial CO upgrades are a result of various equipment depreciation tables, tariffs and all that other stuff. However, a buddy of mine at Ameritech told me recently that they hope to have the entire Chicago area CID capable by the end of this year. Jim Derdzinski Chicago, IL JMDCHICAGO@DELPHI.COM ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 15:53:01 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: 911 Used From Car Phone KYW news-radio has noted the use of 911 from a car phone. That's apparently how a tanker-truck crash at Conshohocken, PA was reported (this happened on I-76/I-476 interchange) this week. The driver of that truck was killed, and nobody else was hurt. ------------------------------ From: tyson@debra.dgbt.doc.ca (Tyson Macaulay) Subject: Canadian Government WWW project Organization: Communications Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 21:08:58 GMT (This notice is directed primarily to systems administrators. More information will be forthcoming shortly - please do not email requesting general information. Thanks in advance.) This is a solicitation for participant from Canadian and potentially international Internet hosts for the *Open Government* project. ---------------- The Open Government Pilot is a World-Wide-Web demonstration project that is being developed by the Directorate of Communications Development, Industry Canada. The Open Government Pilot is an Internet-based service that provides single-window access to the various segments of the federal government including: the House of Commons; the Senate; the Supreme Court; and, federal departments and agencies. The Open Government Pilot provides pointers to various Internet sites within the federal government as well as sites around Canada. Information that is available from these sites includes: contact information and information about members of Parliament; information about the Supreme Court, including its rulings; contact information for both federal and provincial government departments and agencies; and, constitutional and treaty documents. The Open Government Pilot is intended to be an educational tool. Its primary goal is to inform Canadians and people from around the world how the federal system of government works and who the key participants are. Its secondary function is to provide a central access point for those seeking contacts within House of Commons, the Senate, the Supreme Court, or government departments and agencies. This pilot is now in beta-test and a tentative launch date has been set for March 31st. *** Because of the projected load of this service, and to supply as good service as possible to the Internet community, Industry Canada wishes to create mirror sites of the Open Government project. *** Parties that may be interested in acting as host to a mirror site please send email to: tyson@debra.dgbt.doc.ca Tyson Macaulay - Internet Applications Consultant DTP/DGCP Industry Canada, 7th Floor, Journal Tower North 300 Slater Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. K1A 0C8 Email: tyson.macaulay@crc.doc.ca Voice: 613 99304236 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 15:47:12 EST From: Alec Isaacson Subject: LCI Has Network Problems As of 1:30 EST Wednesday LCI Communications has had network problems. As far as I can see it covers at least southern Ohio, and probably reaches farther than that. If you try to dial long distance on a phone that defaults to LCI you get either a re-order, an "All circuits are busy" or "Due to network problems, your call cannot be completed as dialed." This problem also affects some T1s that my employer uses for internal voice and data traffic between sites distributed across the eastern U.S. Their help desk people say they know about the problem, but had no details. If I get any more news, I'll let you know. Ironic part: I had to force my phone to AT&T (10ATT0) to call LCI to report trouble, just dialing their 800 number didn't cut it. Alec D. Isaacson AI4CPHYW@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu Miami University, Oxford, OH ------------------------------ From: west@lux.tsd.itg.ti.com (Roger West) Subject: Looking For Introductory Books, FAQ Date: 16 Mar 1994 22:38:10 GMT Organization: Texas Instruments, Speech Mushrooms. Reply-To: west@tsd.itg.ti.com Can anyone recommend any books which provide an overall introduction to telecommunications technology? The only one I'm familiar with is: "Voice/Data Telecommunications Systems, An Introduction to Technology" by Gurrie and O'Connor, Prentice Hall, 1986. but I would like to find something a little more current, if possible. Also, there wouldn't happen to be a FAQ for this newsgroup, would there? Thanks for any help. Roger West internet: west@tsd.itg.ti.com Texas Instruments voice: (512) 250-7372 Telecom Systems Division____fax: (512) 250-7104 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes there would happen to be an FAQ for this group. It is located in the Telecom Archives at lcs.mit.edu, and is available using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Brian McCann of WLUP Encourages Telephone Harrassment From: bob@bci.nbn.com (Bob Schwartz) Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 15:01:07 PST Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Only a few people probably remember when > the FCC ordered our very own WLS (890 AM) off the air one night over > thirty years ago -- about 1960 sometime -- when one of the DJ's of the > 'new' managment (the team which dumped the Prairie Farmer, religion and > soap opera format for hard rock music) uttered the word 'damn' over the > air. Yep, that's all it took in those days. A telephone call from the > FCC enforcement representative in this area to the home of the General > Manager (it was late at night) followed by a call from the GM to the > engineer on duty caused the station to go off the air. They went off > so fast in fact they stopped the music they were playing in the middle > of the song and the DJ did a formal identification process of the station > (call letters, power, location of station, that they were licensed by the > FCC, etc) and concluded by saying that 'the Federal Communications Comm- > ission has ordered that this station remain silent until further notice > and accordingly we leave the air at this time.'. That was it, and within > five seconds or so of that they dropped the carrier and were gone. Maybe > ten minutes had passed between the 'damn' and WLS being ordered off the > air. That was a Saturday night, and they came back on the air about 10 AM > the next morning, probably after the station attornies and management > straightened it out with the FCC people. They were required by the FCC > to play a recorded message *once every hour* for two days and four times per > day for the rest of the week from the management of the station apologizing > for the indiscretion and informing the listeners how to contact the FCC > to file other complaints against the station if they wished to do so. PAT] Pat, as an avid listener of WLS at that time , my recollection is of a disk jockey, Dick Biondi, telling two jokes thought to be off color. One was about short skirts (mini skirts were just about to apear on the market or maybe it was about the first ones). The joke I recall went something like , if women's skirts get shorter they'll have two more cheeks to powder and more hair to comb. there was also a second joke but I just can't recall it. Not long afterwards, Art Roberts filled Biondi's spot. Could the jokes and the 'd' word been on the same night? Faint recollections are hinting that damn was in the punchline of the second joke. Dick Biondi was a great DJ! Biondi blue horizon ... Regards, Bob Schwartz bob@bci.nbn.com Bill Correctors, Inc. +1 415 488 9000 Marin County, California [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way you describe it is the way I recall it also. WLS got an order from the FCC (in regards to Biondi) to 'cut him off the air right away' and Art Roberts took over the microphone. Still not placated, the FCC ordered the whole thing shut down. The main thing to remember here was that no one, including the FCC was very happy with the format change at WLS. Older listeners of WLS who had been tuned there for years did not like it; none of the couple dozen Sunday preachers liked it who got their shows dumped with a month's notice (on Sunday, WLS went from about 5:00 AM through 1:00 AM Monday morning with brokered pre-recorded religious programs one after another in those days, all fifteen to thirty minutes in length); the national association which represented farmers had two or three shows every weekday on WLS and they did not like it, etc. One local preacher here had the 11:00 AM - 12:00 noon slot every Sunday on WLS; his contract was solid for another two or three years and he would not accept WLS' offer to buy him out so after the format change to rock music the station still had to stop the music to put him on. The DJ on Sunday morning would always stop his music at 10:58 AM with a comment that "now it is time for Reverend Bradley at People's Church, Lawrence and Sheridan Avenues ... me, I'm going out for breakfast across the street at Walgreen's cafeteria. I'll be back at noon, and you better be back also! Please don't tune us out." And *precisely* at noon they cut the feed (the religious program was live) and the DJ was back on the air screaming about the top 40 hits of the day. They did that for about two or three years until the contract expired. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) Subject: Re: Communications Software For UNIX/HPUX Wanted Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 00:07:34 GMT In article syntech@access.digex.net (SynTech) writes: > I am looking for a good communications package for use on a UNIX > (HP/UX) system. What I want to be able to do is send Hayes commands > to my modem from a UNIX command prompt. Kermit is not too helpful for > this purpose. I test most of our modem pool lines every day. I do so by dialing out from an HP-9000 running HP-UX version 7. (yep, I know, that's old!) I use the cu program. It is lean and mean and quite handy for issuing quick 'n dirty AT commands to modems. Cu is not a terminal emulator by any means, but it is available on virtually any UNIX system. Check out the man pages; cu is one of the standard commands. Kermit, I agreee, is too much excess baggage for simple jobs. It has been about five years since I wired the ports, but I recall the wiring recommended in the manuals for tty -> modem is suboptimal. I use uugetty instead of the standard getty command so that I can support both incoming and outgoing use of the modems on the HP system. You have to make nodes for the cul and cua devices for uugetty. Cua honors modem control signals, but cul seems to ignore the control signals. I have dial-ins use the uugetty running on a cua device and dial out manually with cul since I don't have to re-invoke cu every time the carrier drops. The uugettys occasionally lock up, so I run a shell program from the crontab once per hour to kill the uugettys if there isn't an interactive shell or uucp program running on the associated port at the moment. The hourly kill repsawns the uugettys and helps assure maximum availability of the modems for incoming traffic. I still dial most of the lines in our modem pool on a regular basis manually. There is a lot of qualitative feel that you don't get from an automated script that dials the numbers. The problem is that we're getting enough lines now that dialing them is getting to take quite a bit of time. Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-0095 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu amateur radio 146.58: N8WED ------------------------------ From: trent@netcom.com Subject: Re: USR's New Modem Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 00:53:59 GMT allen0@delphi.com wrote: > U.S. Robotics is releasing a new modem in five weeks. The modem will > be upgradable to the V.34 standard when it is approved via a software > download. The new modem will have read/writeable EPROMS which will > allow this. The modem will have all the current protocols, making it > the best modem on the market. And since there's no fee to get the > V.34, I'd say it'll be the best buy when it comes out. For more info > call USR at 1-800-DIALUSR. Yeah, and what you forget to mention is that their one of the highest priced modems on the market, whos twisted the arms of customers for years by pushing their so-called HST protocol which wasn't even worthy of use for bidirectional transfers. Then they came out with their v.32terbo modems which just introduced more problems -- They like to 'train down' to speeds below V.32bis. Their solution to the problem was to remove an S register option instead of correcting the protocol implementation. They offer poor technical support, low turn around time, and poor over all response. Personally, I'd rather not pay their high cost for a modem that says 'USR' on it. They're starting to remind me of COMPUCOM before they finally folded. As far as v.34 is concerned, Microcom is offering a sysop deal vFAST modem for $140.00 RIGHT NOW. You can order them, and they'll be on their way. When v.34 is finally announced they will send you an upgrade for $39.00. Microcom can be reached at 800-822-8224. Zoom is offering a similar deal as well, but I haven't researched it. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 20:40:59 EST From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: On Telex Answerbacks Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Sheldon W. Hoenig writes in TELECOM Digest: > The telex system uses an answerback code [and]... a suffix... [which] > tells which telex carrier supplies the telex number and service... > Does anyone have a list...? As it happened, I wrote one which is part of the Internet library as Internet RFC 1394. I have finished and will be releasing within the next 60 days a revised edition that is more than twice as large. To obtain a copy of the currently available listing, which shows ISO 3166 country codes, telex answerback codes, telex numbers (three digit) and telephone area codes throughout the world, you can get a copy by anonymous FTP as follows: FTP rs.internic.net anonymous your.name@your.site cd /rfc get rfc1394.txt quit Paul Robinson - Paul@TDR.COM ------------------------------ From: awu@cisco.com (Andrew Wu) Subject: Re: ICs in CHINA Date: 17 Mar 94 02:32:16 GMT Organization: cisco Systems Yes, there were a couple of IC manufacturers in mainland China about four years ago when I left there and at least one of them, at Shanghai, was a joint venture with foreign investment. Unfortunatly, I don't know much about the IC and don't have much information about them. But you may want to post your questions to some .china news groups, as I know many engieers, scholars, students from China read these. Good luck, andrew ------------------------------ From: yatesc@zeus.ec.usf.edu (Charles Randall Yates) Subject: Re: TIME Reports 80% Oppose Clipper Chip Date: 17 Mar 1994 03:11:14 GMT Organization: University of South Florida In article ped@panix.com (Philip Elmer-DeWitt) writes: > To accompany an article on the Clipper Chip in this week's TIME, the > magazine commissioned a poll on public attitudes toward wiretap > issues. The relevant graph: > "In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by > Yankelovich Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect > the privacy of phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to > conduct wiretaps. When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they > opposed it." Why shouldn't the government have the right to listen in? Any law-abiding citizen should have nothing to hide. I'm for it. Randy Yates Signal Processing & Communications/Mathematics Student University of South Florida [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, umm, err, uh, I dunno about that. I come down a bit more conservative than many people around here and I don't think I would like your idea. Were you, like our suicide-hotline- on-a-900-number fellow yesterday just getting an early start on April Fool's Day this year or do you really believe Big Brother should get to listen and see everything? Never mind, don't answer, my mailbox would get flooded worse than ever. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 18:15:19 -0500 From: Jonathan Subject: PA Bell in California Some contributor wrote the following on this newsgroup: The radio news reported a fire on the 13th floor of a pa bell building in downtown LA that affects part of the 911 service and also mentioned connections to MCI, et al PA Bell? I didn't know that PA Bell had service in LA. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's not PA as in Pennsylvania (nor MA as in Massachusetts). It's 'pa' as in the opposite of 'ma' or your mother. Now some might contend that it really was supposed to be 'Pac' with your editor committing a typographical error by omitting the 'c' and failing to upper-case the 'P' as in 'Pac', the short form of 'Pacific'. But really the author was talking about Pa (as in Father) Bell. Or even if he wasn't, I thought it was cute that way and left it alone. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 16:51:43 CST From: weberdd@clover.macc.wisc.edu Reply-To: David Devereaux-Weber Subject: Re: Hardware Recommendations For Phone Bank Wanted mmm@cup.portal.com wrote about his suicide hot line ... mmm: It's 16 days before April Fools Day. Did you figure you'd beat the rush? > ... policy of not charging for calls where the client eventually does > commit suicide ... David Devereaux-Weber, P.E. weberdd@macc.wisc.edu (Internet) The University of Wisconsin - Madison (608)262-3584 (voice) DoIT - MACC Communications; B263 (608)262-4679 (FAX) 1210 W Dayton St. Madison, WI 53706 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 94 15:47:15 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Last Laugh! BBB on 900 Number I saw this on a billboard, I think it was along I-95 in Philadelphia: "Tired of rip-offs? Call 1-900-CALL-BBB. 95 cents / minute" (The number translates to 1-900-225-5222. BBB stands for Better Business Bureau.) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #135 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01337; 17 Mar 94 16:33 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA08904; Thu, 17 Mar 94 12:42:10 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA08894; Thu, 17 Mar 94 12:42:08 CST Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 12:42:08 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403171842.AA08894@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #136 TELECOM Digest Thu, 17 Mar 94 12:42:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 136 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Need ulaw to Linear Translation Table (Matt Eshpeter) AT&T CIC Cursor Problems (Grimes G. Slaughter) Re: Communications Software For UNIX/HPUX Wanted (Frank da Cruz) Re: Hardware Recommendations For Phone Bank Wanted (Steve Cogorno) Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update (Craig Milo Rogers) Correction Re: Telecom GIFS at Smithsonian Institution (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Questions About GMRS Radio (Paul Schmidt) Re: USR's New Modem (puma@netcom.com) Wanted: Penril VCX 1000 Equipment (Quentin Gunter) An Obscene Caller Gets Caught - 1965 (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: mates@comm.mot.com (Matt Eshpeter) Subject: Need ulaw to Linear Translation Table Reply-To: mates@tor.comm.mot.com Organization: MOTOROLA Land Mobile Products Sector Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 14:45:58 GMT I am looking for a ulaw to linear conversion table. Anyone know of a source on the net? Thanks, mates@tor.comm.mot.com Mat Eshpeter (416) 756-5865 fax (416) 499-6687 Motorola Canada Limited -- Land Mobile Products Sector ------------------------------ Date: 17 Mar 94 09:52:49 EST From: Grimes G. Slaughter <73647.562@CompuServe.COM> Subject: AT&T CIC Cursor Problems If you have been having cursor trouble with AT&T's Consumer Information Center at 800-645-6759 the trouble probably lies with CIC. I used Hayes' SmartCom Exec to access CIC using ANSI or VT100 simulation, and encountered great difficulty with an errant cursor. The AT&T people at 317-322-6491 claim that only Hayes software has problems. I advised Hayes of this, and Ashley made an intensive investigation. She found that other software encountered problems, and that CIC was not outputting a CR with the LF. They are working on it. Grimes G. Slaughter ------------------------------ From: fdc@fdc.cc.columbia.edu (Frank da Cruz) Subject: Re: Communications Software For UNIX/HPUX Wanted Date: 17 Mar 1994 14:13:07 GMT Organization: Columbia University In article syntech@access.digex.net (SynTech) writes: > I am looking for a good communications package for use on a UNIX > (HP/UX) system. What I want to be able to do is send Hayes commands > to my modem from a UNIX command prompt. Kermit is not too helpful for > this purpose. Sure it is. The current version of C-Kermit for UNIX is 5A(189), and it has comprehensive dialing abilities, and numerous methods to customize the dialing process. And of course, it also lets you type commands straight at the modem if you want to. It also lets you make TCP/IP TELNET connections. It also has a script programming language with variables, conditionals, looping, etc etc. Take another look. Anonymous ftp to kermit.columbia.edu, directory kermit/bin, binary mode, file cku189.tar.Z. Uncompress, untar, and give the appropriate HP-related "make" command, depending on which version of HP-UX you have. See the directions at the top of the makefile. To get started, just start the program and type "help". Frank ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Hardware Recommendations For Phone Bank Wanted Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 22:09:50 PST Said by: mmm@cup.portal.com > My idea is to offer a pay-per-call suicide hotline. This idea isn't > as ridiculous as it sounds. Conventional suicide hotlines (run as a > free service) get a large number of calls from a small number of > repeat callers who usually aren't very serious about suicide, they > just want somebody to talk to. This is *HORRIBLE*. I hope that you have a very large insurance plan so that family members of deceased callers who file negligence suits agansit you will get some change of getting their judgement paid. I seriously doubt you are qualified in any way to counsel people contemplating suicide, and since you are *CHARGING* for this service, I hope that the caller is smart enough to call County Services where they can get real help. Please don't disguise your greed as an attempt to help others. Steve cogorno@netcom.com #608 Merrill * 200 McLaughlin Drive * Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1015 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Personally, I think he was disguising an early April Fool's joke. Note the line in his message where he says there will be no charge for the call to 'those who actually commit suicide'. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 22:35:16 -0800 From: rogers@ISI.EDU (Craig Milo Rogers) Subject: Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update Organization: USC Information Sciences Institute In article <94.03.16.1rws@eecs.nwu.edu> TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > Some critical parts of the network, including the Priority Repair > office for the region were knocked off line. Several long distance > carriers are reporting inability to process traffic through Los > Angeles and the affected area. Originally, the switching offices above the local offices were called "tandems" because they were grouped into pairs, and each local office in a tandem pair's area connected to each of the tandem switches independently. This was a fine concept, and would have prevented fires such as ours' here in Los Angeles from disrupting service so thoroughly. What happened to the tandem design? Was it a victim of economics? Of deregulation, in particular? Thanks. Craig Milo Rogers [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Telcos seem to be far more conscious of costs than they ever used to be. Of course, many years ago they had so much money that offering a high degree of customer service and satisfaction (including redundant things to avoid any major problems that might disrupt the network) cost them little or nothing by comparison. Now things are different. We cannot make direct connections between the breakup of the Bell System in 1983 and the gradually deteriorating state of telephone service in the USA today, but I can't help but think that there is a cause and effect relationship between the two. For how many ever decades we lived with the 'natural monopoly' argument and lived with things we did not like about the old Bell System in exchange for having a great deal we DID like about it. Most of the people involved in forcing the breakup were not so much interested in improving telephone service in the USA as they were greedy and interested in getting a peice of the action. That's fine, but from the very early days of competition in the 1970's when we witnessed MCI's blantant 'skimming the cream' activities it should have been obvious that subscriber satisfaction and top-quality service was not where it was at. I'm not trying to single out MCI here, it's just that they were the first of several to come along. Nor am I saying that the (old, now defunct) Bell System was without blame at all, and surely the AT&T of two decades ago badly needed reform, perhaps even under the direction of the government. But, to use an old expression, they threw the baby out with the bath water when divestiture occurred. It was a massive overkill in my opinion. To the credit of the old system, it has taken a decade for the decay to start to become apparent. As the telcos approach the next century and the economics of competition, all sorts of corners are being cut and shortcuts being taken -- things that the old AT&T for all of its own shortcomings -- would never have permitted. Now there is major attention given to the bottom line, and while AT&T never failed to pay a juicy dividend to its stockholders in the old days, they did factor in more realistic costs of doing business (such as adequate training of personnel; staffing to the point of redundancy at times, etc) in the process. I think things like the outages in recent years are just a sample of what is to come. Much of the spirit and enthusiasm of the past is gone, and would you feel otherwise if you had to wonder if your job was still going to be there a year from now? Did you know there was a time when AT&T would never consider putting a new operator to work answering actual calls until after *ten weeks* of training in a school they went to? Customer service personnel had an initial training period and then followup training at intervals. They learned *everything* about the system. What telco can afford those luxuries now? For that matter, who cares any longer? If you wanted to work in repair, even as a clerk answering '611' calls you read {Lee's ABC} books and passed tests showing you were qualified before you were allowed to respond to customer trouble tickets. Twenty or thirty years ago -- like now -- people complained about the gradually eroding quality of the products and service in American business, but we never thought it would happen to 'the phone company'. Then came along Judge Greene and he said he'd prove us wrong ... PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 09:45:14 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Correction Re: Telecom GIFS at Smithsonian Insitution I gave the incorrect address for the Smithsonian Institution yesterday. I apologize for the inconvenience caused. The correct address is photo1.si.edu ^ 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, 16 Mar 1994 15:48:57 -0500 From: pls030@bubba.nwscc.sea06.navy.mil (Paul Schmidt) Subject: Re: Questions About GMRS Radio Pat, I saw your posting re: GMRS and can supply a bit of information for you. I just got my GMRS license last week (it took about ten weeks.) The regs are in 47 CFR Part 95 (you should be able to get a copy from a good-sized library; since it's federal regs, you can Xerox them legally. I got mine from the IU library about 25 miles from here.) The frequencies available are 462.55, .575, .60, .625, .65, .675, .70 and .725 MHz, with a limit of 50 watts output. Repeaters are legal, and, if using one, you'll transmit 5 MHz higher on the handhelds/mobiles. The FCC will license you (an individual, over 18 and not the representative of a foreign government) for personal communications on 1 or two of the channels / channel pairs listed. In addition, 462.675 may also be used by any licensee (and, if on a repeater, the repeater input 5 MHz higher) for emergency use (like CB channel 9 ... in fact, REACT went to 462.675...) Also, seven 12.5 KHz split channels (.5625, .5875, etc ...) are available for low-power (<5W ERP) to any licensee. (You will be licensed for the "main" channels, the 12.5 kHz splits are additional channels ...) If you have any other questions, drop me an e-mail line and I'll see what I can do about answering them (I'm not an expert, but I do have a copy of part 95.) The application is on FCC Form 574 and cost is $35 for a five-year license. No frequency coordination fees (channels are shared -- listen in your area for the least congested). Form 574 is available from all FCC field offices. Be sure to ask for the instruction booklet on how to fill one out -- it is NOT obvious, and they will not accept them if not done correctly (not all blocks apply to all radio services.) Hope this information helps ... Paul Schmidt / K9PS (amateur) / KAF2547 (GMRS) Paul.Schmidt@ssa-mail.nwscc.sea06.navy.mil [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The radio I have does not have any of the main frequencies you mention above. It has only 462.6375 and 462.7125 crystals in it. It does not appear to have any way of using the other frequencies. I've left my scanner on the range of 462 megs for a couple days now and hear virtually no traffic at all there. On the other hand, 460/463 is jammed here, with the Chicago Police base stations and handhelds and 470/473 is also loaded with the suburban police and various other government stuff. I suppose I could get the radio changed to include the REACT frequency; that seems like a good idea. PAT] ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com Subject: Re: USR's New Modem Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 18:07:20 GMT In article trent@netcom.com writes: > Yeah, and what you forget to mention is that their one of the highest > priced modems on the market, whos twisted the arms of customers for > years by pushing their so-called HST protocol which wasn't even worthy > of use for bidirectional transfers. While puma's still unhappy with USR over their last 'trade-up' fiasco where they shipped the new modems COD when they were prepaid, and then took over a month to get them to me , I still think I need to stand up for them regarding your comments ... No one ever claimed that HST was a bi-directional transfer protocol, it was clearly stated that it was non-symmetrical, 9600 one direction and 300 reverse (now 16.8/450, or whatever...) with the capability of reversing the channels if traffic demanded. They provided a reasonable unit back with v.32 modems were $2,500 to $3,000 and up, and the quality of the connection is still much more robust than v.32 or v.32bis. The forward/reverse channel approached worked just great for online interactive use, or for kermit/xmodem/zmodem type file transfers where you have a LOT of data in one direction and ack/nak's only in the reverse. And I don't remember having my arm twisted, I thought it was *great*. They had a *real* v.32 then v.32bis unit out long before Rockwell got their implementation working right, and you could purchase either a unit with v.32/v.32bis (the Sportster/Courier models) or one that included HST (the dual standard) -- not too pushy. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: ag938@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Quentin Gunter) Subject: Wanted: Penril VCX 1000 Equipment Reply-To: ag938@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Quentin Gunter) Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 13:15:05 -0500 I need 150 pieces of the following types of VCX 1000 Communication Cards: RS-232 cards (Part No. 4310-02) V.35 cards (Part No. 4312-02) ALC 16 Plus cards (Part No. 4301-02) Equipment can be new or used. Reply quickly to Geocom Technologies Inc. by FAX (613) 826-2002 or E-Mail. ag938@Freenet.carleton.ca (Quentin Gunter/Lori Shaw) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 12:27:03 CST From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest Moderator) Subject: An Obscene Caller Gets Caught, 1965 This happened almost thirty years ago, but it came to mind recently while reading about efforts to trace a call here by the police in a harassment case. In those days, a central office called Chicago-Wabash served the south part of the downtown area like it does today. During the week, it is a very busy office, but back then with no residential development south of downtown like today, Saturday nights and all day Sunday were pretty slow for the limited personnel on duty. After about 6:00 PM when the stores downtown closed, it was rare that more than one or two calls would come in to 611 for the rest of the weekend. Only two people were on duty then, a clerk and a guy who did whatever was needed in the frames. One subscriber had a game he enjoyed a lot, and he figured he would never get caught at it: he liked to make obscene calls to the clerk who answered on 611. He was some fellow who had a little shop downtown and who closed up at 6:00 PM every Saturday night, which is when he would have his fun before going home for the night, probably to some ugly hateful wife who had him on a short leash otherwise. Without fail for several weeks, every Saturday night at 6:10 PM this guy would call 611, give his spiel and disconnect. The repair clerk and her supervisor (the guy who worked in the frames) always had a big laugh about it and it had gotten so regular they could set their watches by this guy calling in. The repair guy would tease the clerk and tell her 'hey, its about 6:10, its time for your boyfriend to call ...'. One Saturday night, he got a bright idea and told her, 'tonight, lets catch him ... '. She wanted to know how, considering the guy was on and off in thirty seconds or so. He told her his plan: since they literally never had any other calls to 611 in that office on Saturday night, they'd reroute his call, and get him to climb into the trap on his own. "Here's what you do," he told her. "When he calls in, I want you to sound exactly like a recorded message, and I want you to say just these words: 'Repair Service has a new number. Calls for Repair Service are now taken at the number 230. Please hang up and dial 230 to reach Repair Service ...' ... if he stays on the line, repeat the message a second time, then click off." '230' was a special number which when dialed terminated on the test board at the central office, and calls to that number could be locked up! Sure enough, ten after six comes around and the clerk's phone rings. She answered, and carefully read her 'recorded message' to the caller. As expected, he disconnected, and within five seconds or so, the test board lit up with a call on '230'. "Hurry up! Get over here and take this call. Its your boyfriend calling back!" said the supervisor. She came over and plugged in her headset to the testboard and plugged in the cord to answer the call. Sure enough, it was who they expected, and with her response, the subscriber began his sick and lewd comments. Listening silently on the line was the repair guy. After the first couple sentences by the caller, he flipped a key on the board and then spoke up: "Ha ha .. you son of a bitch! We've been trying to catch you for six weeks, and this time you walked right into our trap on your own!" Well, the caller was a bit startled to hear this and immediatly rang off. But that was okay ... as the repair guy later told the story to me, he said: "I had the connection locked up, so I just rang him back. but the guy would not answer the phone. I rang him for about fifteen minutes. I'd pull the ringing key four or five times with little short rings, then a couple very long rings, maybe another short ding-ding, that kind of thing. This guy sat there and refused to answer. Finally after about fifteen minutes, he takes the phone off the hook and tries to act real surprised, saying "hello?" in a questioning, mousy little voice. "I asked him, 'say, who is this? what is your number' and the guy hung up on me. I rang him back the same as before and he finally answered a second time and argued with me that he was not going to give me his number, but finally he told me what it was. "I told him that's fine, but I don't know if I can believe you or not, so what I am gonna do is this: its time for my dinner break, and I am going out to get something to eat. I'm just going to leave this connec- tion up like it is now, and when I get back from dinner in an hour or so I'll go in the frames and look for you myself; then we'll see if you are telling the truth or not. "Well, as it turned out, he was telling the truth; the number he gave me was the number he was calling from. We wrote up a complaint about him and sent it to the Business Office. On Monday the Business Office called him and slapped his wrists; told him not to make any more obscene calls. I don't know if he did or not, but at least he did not bother us again." In 1974, Chicago-Wabash was converted to ESS and the old frames were a thing of the past. I thought you might enjoy this bit of humor from the past to close this issue of the Digest. PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #136 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03969; 18 Mar 94 3:24 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA24907; Thu, 17 Mar 94 23:46:10 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA24897; Thu, 17 Mar 94 23:46:08 CST Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 23:46:08 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403180546.AA24897@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #137 TELECOM Digest Thu, 17 Mar 94 23:46:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 137 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: TIME Reports 80% Oppose Clipper Chip (Paul Barnett) Re: TIME Reports 80% Oppose Clipper Chip (Tom Watson) Re: Clipper and Privacy (Don Berryman) Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update (H. A. Kippenhan, Jr.) Re: "Out of Area" on CID Boxes (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Setting up a 900 Number (Lee Lasson) Re: An Obscene Caller Gets Caught, 1965 (Carl Moore) Terminal Emulator For Unix (Mark Earle) Information About GTI (Barry Lustig) 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, 17 Mar 94 12:18:43 -0600 From: barnett@zeppelin.convex.com (Paul Barnett) Subject: Re: TIME Reports 80% Oppose Clipper Chip yatesc@zeus.ec.usf.edu (Charles Randall Yates) writes: > Why shouldn't the government have the right to listen in? Any > law-abiding citizen should have nothing to hide. I'm for it. and TELECOM Digest Editor noted: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, umm, err, uh, I dunno about that. > I come down a bit more conservative than many people around here and I > don't think I would like your idea. Were you, like our suicide-hotline- > on-a-900-number fellow yesterday just getting an early start on April > Fool's Day this year or do you really believe Big Brother should get to > listen and see everything? Never mind, don't answer, my mailbox would > get flooded worse than ever. PAT] Pat, I didn't want to start a flame war either, but I share your concerns. There is a on-going thread on alt.privacy entitled "What's so bad about a surveillance state?" It doesn't matter if you are liberal or conservative: anyone with even a basic familiarity with American and world history should be able to recognize the danger. I've come to the conclusion that these people are either (a) clueless, or (b) just plain stupid. I can never remember who said: "He who exchanges liberty for safety deserves neither". I think you made the right decision to drop the discussion. Pursuing it further would be like talking to a wall. I truly wish it WAS an April Fool's joke. Paul Barnett Convex Computer Corp. MPP OS Development Richardson, TX [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I've said it before and will say it again: living in a big, dirty, crime-ridden jungle of a city as I have done for most of my life; seeing the things I've seen and being victimized as I have been victimized, I'm willing to make *some* exchanges and *some* compromises. I think the way I put it once was given my druthers I'd rather be bopped on the head by a police officer than by a drug addict. Why? Because I know how the government operates and I can argue with the govern- ment about it. You can't reason with a crazy person or one who is very distraught or high on drugs, etc. There you have no recourse to the act committed against you. With the government, there is recourse. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but I know what to say and how to say it. I know how the government bureaucracy operates and to some extent, how to intimidate the government. That's the difference. I'd rather not be bopped on the head at all, or lose any liberty, but given the realities of life in these United States today, I'd prefer to give up what I must to the government rather than hoodlums on the street. They'd just as soon kill you as not; at least I can go sass-back at the government with impunity afterward in court. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tsw@cypher.apple.com (Tom Watson) Subject: Re: TIME Reports 80% Oppose Clipper Chip Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 10:48:18 -0800 Organization: Apple Computer (more or less) In article , yatesc@zeus.ec.usf.edu (Charles Randall Yates) wrote: > Why shouldn't the government have the right to listen in? Any law-abiding > citizen should have nothing to hide. I'm for it. If this is the case, why not (as someone suggested in another [joke?] posting) let the government look at all the mail you get. You have nothing to hide? What did you go to the doctor for? What did you rent at the video store? (really another question), why not let them come right in your house and look under your bed. Why not be under your bed while you are in it (what you do is a subject for another newsgroup as well). The list goes on. What we can assume is that it is not really encryption at all. It this mess comes to pass, if you want anything 'secure' (whatever that means) another level of encryption is necessary. What a fiasco!! (*SIGH*) Tom Watson Not much simpler!! tsw@cypher.apple.com ------------------------------ From: Don Berryman Subject: Re: TIME Reports 80% Oppose Clipper Chip Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 16:11:59 CST >> conduct wiretaps. When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they >> opposed it." > Why shouldn't the government have the right to listen in? Any law-abiding > citizen should have nothing to hide. I'm for it. I can't ignore this statement. Innocent people do have something to hide: their private life. The "right to be left alone" is, in the words of the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis "the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men." The Fourth Amendment says that the government cannot search everyone to find the few who might be guilty of an offense. U.S. Constitution 4th, Amendment: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized." Don Berryman don_berryman@adc.com +1-612-936-8100 ADC Telecommunications, Inc. Minneapolis, MN 55435 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So tell me, Mr. Berryman, do you get as equally indignant when 'the right of the people to be secure in their persons, their houses, et al' is violated by home-invaders, rapists, and burglars (you *do* have some of those in Minneapolis don't you?) or is it just when the government does it that you get uptight? Personally, I think the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution is a *marvelous* idea -- I like it. President Clinton and her husband hate the Second Amendment, and I've never much cared for the First Amendment, but the Fourth is a good one. Trouble is, try telling the uninvited and masked man who is ransacking your house in the middle of the night (or climbing in bed with your wife against her will) that he is violating your constitutional rights. ... you see, you can tell that to the cops. Don't misunderstand, I never would argue with the police on their own turf -- the streets -- but I'd never hes- itate to argue with them in court. Who would you rather have in your home uninvited? Neither, you say? That is not a realistic answer in the USA today; the country with the highest rate of violent crime in the world. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 19:46:24 CST From: H.A. Kippenhan Jr. Subject: Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update Hi P.T.: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Telcos seem to be far more conscious > of costs than they ever used to be. Of course, many years ago they > had so much money that offering a high degree of customer service and > satisfaction (including redundant things to avoid any major problems > that might disrupt the network) cost them little or nothing by comparison. > Now things are different. We cannot make direct connections between the > breakup of the Bell System in 1983 and the gradually deteriorating state > of telephone service in the USA today, but I can't help but think that > there is a cause and effect relationship between the two. For how many > ever decades we lived with the 'natural monopoly' argument and lived with > things we did not like about the old Bell System in exchange for having > a great deal we DID like about it. Most of the people involved in forcing > the breakup were not so much interested in improving telephone service in > the USA as they were greedy and interested in getting a peice of the > action. That's fine, but from the very early days of competition in the > 1970's when we witnessed MCI's blantant 'skimming the cream' activities > it should have been obvious that subscriber satisfaction and top-quality > service was not where it was at. I'm not trying to single out MCI here, > it's just that they were the first of several to come along. Nor am I > saying that the (old, now defunct) Bell System was without blame at all, > and surely the AT&T of two decades ago badly needed reform, perhaps even > under the direction of the government. But, to use an old expression, they > threw the baby out with the bath water when divestiture occurred. It was > a massive overkill in my opinion. To the credit of the old system, it has > taken a decade for the decay to start to become apparent. As the telcos > approach the next century and the economics of competition, all sorts of > corners are being cut and shortcuts being taken -- things that the old > AT&T for all of its own shortcomings -- would never have permitted. > Now there is major attention given to the bottom line, and while AT&T never > failed to pay a juicy dividend to its stockholders in the old days, they > did factor in more realistic costs of doing business (such as adequate > training of personnel; staffing to the point of redundancy at times, etc) > in the process. I think things like the outages in recent years are just > a sample of what is to come. Much of the spirit and enthusiasm of the past > is gone, and would you feel otherwise if you had to wonder if your job > was still going to be there a year from now? Did you know there was a > time when AT&T would never consider putting a new operator to work answering > actual calls until after *ten weeks* of training in a school they went > to? Customer service personnel had an initial training period and then > followup training at intervals. They learned *everything* about the system. > What telco can afford those luxuries now? For that matter, who cares > any longer? If you wanted to work in repair, even as a clerk answering > '611' calls you read {Lee's ABC} books and passed tests showing you were > qualified before you were allowed to respond to customer trouble tickets. > Twenty or thirty years ago -- like now -- people complained about the > gradually eroding quality of the products and service in American business, > but we never thought it would happen to 'the phone company'. Then came > along Judge Greene and he said he'd prove us wrong ... PAT] I think this is very much on target. I would point out another instance that leads to the same conclusion. Back in the late seventies (if memory serves) there was a very serious fire in a telco building in New York City. The building housed several CO's and at least one toll switch. After the fire was out, AT&T marshalled a huge task force (many people from states other than New York) to do whatever was necessary to restore service. Having spent a bit of time in various wire centers, the quick response was impressive. The response to the Hinsdale fire (my opinion) wasn't as effective. And that's not a knock on the Illinois Bell people who worked their tails off to restore service. We'll have to reserve judgment for a bit to see how things progress in Los Angeles. Regards, H.A. Kippenhan Jr. Internet: Kippenhan@FNAL.GOV National HEPnet Management HEPnet/NSI DECnet: FNDCD::KIPPENHAN Fermi National Accelerator Lab. BITnet: Kippenhan@FNDCD.BITNET P.O. Box 500 MS: FCC-3E/368 Telephone: (708) 840-8068 Batavia, Illinois 60510 FAX: (708) 840-8463 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh, indeed the people from IBT and other BOC's who responded in the Hinsdale disaster performed heroically under extremely difficult conditions. They cannot be faulted at all. The fault for Hinsdale lays with IBT management for not having the office staffed properly and relying on alarm systems instead. The fault for Hinsdale also lays with the apparently untrained person in Springfield, Illinois who chose to ignore the alarms coming from Chicago; taking it upon himself to decide that the alarms were false. He sat there and *ignored* the major alarms for an hour. Finally he called a supervisor in the Chicago area at home who was having her Sunday dinner and suggested when she finished dinner 'and got a chance' she might want to go over to Hinsdale -- itself a fifteen minute drive from her home -- and turn off the alarms which 'must be malfunctioning'. The exact time the fire started is not known; we do know it was burning for over an hour -- maybe closer to two hours -- by the time an IBT employee first got to the building and saw it. And when she saw it, and tried to call the fire department only to find the phones everywhere were already dead all over town, does she get in her car and drive to the fire department? Oh no ... she sticks her head out the door and asks a passer-by to please go call the firemen from a payphone down the street ... a dead payphone like all the other phones in Hinsdale at that point! A few more minutes pass and then she decides to go get the firemen herself. How *are* things coming along in Los Angeles? I know they have the vital stuff restored; is the rest of it back in service? Unlike Hinsdale, where IBT just plain screwed things up by ignoring the problem, El Lay was strictly an accident and Bell's response was swift and immediate; that probably kept the damage to a minimum, even as severe as it is. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 13:56:20 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: "Out of Area" on CID boxes In TELECOM Digest V14 #135 JMDCHICAGO@delphi.com writes: >> When CID was deployed in my area (516 area code), I tried calling home >> from a pay phone and the number was displayed. However, when I call >> home while I'm having my car serviced at a local service station, the >> number doesn't show. >> The difference is that the pay phone on the corner is NYNEX owned, >> and the other one is a COCOT. > This sounds to me like your area might be served by a CO with two > vintages of switches (i.e., one is SS7 compatible, and the other > isn't) The Nynex telephone is probably connected to the SS7 compatible > switch in that CO and the COCOT telephone is probably connected to the > non-SS7 switch. As you can see, this also results in some prefixes in > your exchange being able to get and display CID and the rest not being > able to. Nope; both are on the same prefix (516-281) and have been for over twenty years. I could understand it if the prefix was different at the COCOT, but its 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 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Are you sure the number on the COCOT is correct, and is it possible the company which runs it is not taking the call for whatever reason and bouncing it through some other office? PAT] ------------------------------ From: leel@on-line.com (Lee Lasson) Subject: Re: Setting up a 900 Number Organization: On-Line Consulting Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 19:54:19 GMT Tauren N Mills writes: > I am investigating setting up a 900 number for my business, but cannot > justify the $2500 installation fee that AT&T wants, plus the $1000 per > month. Does anyone know of any outfits that will rent 900 numbers? > I don't want to rent one that is already set up and all you have to do > is advertise. I need my own information to be available. Tauren, Sounds like you need a service bureau. The term 'renting' as it applies to 900 numbers can get you into some pyramid re-sale schemes and I don't think that is what you want for your business. When you deal directly with a 900# service bureau, they provide the equipment and programming and you provide the Information and the marketing. Drop me an email with what you are thinking of doing and I'll get more information to you. Thanks, Lee Lasson 800/900 systems On-Line Consulting Audiotex & Faxback 303-586-4760 / 303-586-3471 fax Service Bureau Internet: leel@on-line.com Consulting Services ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 15:15:05 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: An Obscene Caller Gets Caught, 1965 What are "frames"? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The distribution frames were the tall metal racks where the wires terminated on stepping switches. To trace a call in those days, a person had to first go to the wire pair of the line receiving the call in question and study the matrix of wires through the stepping switch to see where the call was from. They'd take what they found there, and trace *those* wires back to the next stepping switch in the 'switch train'. From there, they would go back still another level to where the wires from that switch led ... and so forth until they got to the beginning. They'd look and look and look and look, and then maybe find that the call was inbound to them from some other central office in which case they'd call the foreman in the other central office and he'd tell someone to go in the frames there and pick up on the outbound trunk to the other office. That person would repeat the process, looking and looking and looking everywhere until he found the stepping switch with its matrix of wires, and he'd work his way backward to the origin. The only trouble was, maybe they'd be almost there -- almost back to the point where they could identify the caller and they'd hear that sickening sound of the connection collapsing ... the caller had hung up and the step switches had all returned to their normal not in use state. They'd look at each other and say, well, maybe next time we'll catch him. Experienced crank/obscene callers in those days just laughed when their victim said 'the operator is tracing this call'. They knew they could stay on the line another 30 minutes or so before it mattered any, especially if there were two different CO's involved. This is not so today of course. Gone are the frames and the spaghetti- like mountains of wires everywhere. Now-a-days a technician need merely type a few keys on the keyboard of his terminal and he'll know perfectly well who is talking to whom; when they started the connection and when they finished, and more. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Mar 94 19:19:29 CST From: mearle@cbi.tamucc.edu (Mark Earle) Subject: Terminal Emulator For Unix Pat et all, excuse me for not citing the original, but I'm on a palmtop at 1200. Lucky to get AT&T at all, the hotel uses 6 for LD access ... oh well. We have PCOMM on our unix system. It's very similiar to Procomm. We ftp'd the source from world.std.com. IT's very nice, and you can "drive" it from a vt100 or ansi terminal, an HPUX terminal window, etc. Even has Zmodem built in! Works very well. It's a real "work horse" for our operations. mearle@cbi.tamucc.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, thank you for *not* quoting. There really is too much quoting in a lot of the messages I get and they have to be trimmed back considerably. Keep quotes to a minimum here please. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 20:58:21 EST From: Barry Lustig Subject: Information About GTI I sent for a copy of their brochure. All of the text below is copied from it. Please excuse any typos. HOW THE CALL AMERICA TRAVEL PLAN WORKS. LONG CALLS: With a pin code, you may make calls up to one hour each, at any time, to anywhere in the 50 states. Each month you will be billed $12.99 in advance by GTI Telecommunications, Inc (GTI) for five calls. Charges for overage minutes, extra calls, and calls less than one minute from the previous month will also be included on your statement. * Long calls over the basic five are billed at $2.99 each. * Calls over 60 minutes are additionally charged at 17.5 cents per minute, in six-second billing increments. * Calls 60 seconds or less are billed at only 30 cents and do not count as package calls. (Time charges do not commence until your calls are answered.) No surcharges or access fees are incurred! (Most carriers have a surcharge of 75 cents to 80 cents just to make the connection, and then charge in full minutes - depending on the time of day, distance to the number called, and length of the call.) SHORT CALLS: On your Call America Travel Plan, you may also make short calls with a second pin code and realize additional fantastic savings. Because you are billed in 6-second increments (instead of full-minute billing) and because you do not pay surcharges or access charges when calling, you will SAVE 63% over usage of an AT&T calling card and 62% over MCI or Sprint on a 3.5 minute call. Pin Code 1: Long calls (up to 60 minutes each) First 5 calls $12.99 Extra calls (each) $ 2.99 Overage per minute $ 0.175 Calls less than 1 minute $ 0.30 Pin Code 2: Short calls (per minute rates) Cost per minute $ 0.175 6-second increment billing GTI TELECOMMUNICATIONS, INC. is a long-distance telephone company based in Bellevue, Washington, that offers discounted rates to both business and residential customers. With its combination of long calls and short calls, you may enjoy great long-distance savings ANY TIME and ANY PLACE - while traveling, or just in your normal day-to-day lifestyle. Instead of spending millions of dollars on advertising, savings are passed on to you. The only way to hear about GTI is when people tell you how much they are saving on their long-distance bills or through a brochure like this one. BUT I NEVER SPEND AN HOUR ON THE PHONE! This Plan will save you money, even if you NEVER talk for a WHOLE HOUR on the phone. A 25-minute evening call with your current carrier is about $3.25. If made with a typical calling card, $7.05. That same call with your Call America Travel Plan is just $2.60, for a savings of $4.45! And you may even talk an additional 25 minutes (60 minutes total), without increasing the total cost, ANY TIME. CAN I MAKE SHORT CALLS WITH THIS PLAN? Of course! Use your second pin code number for all your short calls. Leave a message, set an appointment, or just call to say "hello" At 17.5 cents a minute with six-second billing, and no surcharge or access fee, a 3.5 minute call from Seattle to Miami is only 61 cents! HOW DO I SIGN UP? This service is now available in all states except Oregon. Just fill out the attached service application, mail it to the Associate listed below, and include your $37.99 check ($12.99 for your first month's service plus a one-time activation fee of $25.00) payable to GenCom, GTI's tariffed carrier. (Washington state customers will be billed for their Travel Plans). ------------------ The rest of the brochure has the "associate's" name and address, as well as a form to fill out. Barry Lustig Nicholas-Applegate Capital Mgmt barry@nacm.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #137 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa09154; 18 Mar 94 18:34 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA09287; Fri, 18 Mar 94 14:20:12 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA09276; Fri, 18 Mar 94 14:20:09 CST Date: Fri, 18 Mar 94 14:20:09 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403182020.AA09276@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #138 TELECOM Digest Fri, 18 Mar 94 14:20:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 138 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: History of the Term "Switch" (Carl Lowenstein) Re: History of the Term "Switch" (Gregg Gibson) Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update (Steven H. Lichter) Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update (Mark A. Cnota) Re: USR's New Modem (allen0@delphi.com) Re: Information Request - Time Off of NT-Opt61 (Vance Shipley) International Free Numbers (Rachid Benzaoui) NT Sl1 Questions (Alan R. Gross) Area 413 Dialing Changes (Jonathan Welch) 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: cdl@chiton.ucsd.edu (Carl Lowenstein) Subject: Re: History of the Term "Switch" Date: 17 Mar 1994 23:27:43 -0800 Organization: Marine Physical Lab, UC San Diego In article Jonathan_Welch writes: > I saw a brief image on TV how the first so-called switch consisted of > movable contacts mounted on a board, serving eight customers. > But was the term switch invented for telegraph equipment? I don't > think the light bulb existed when the telephone was invented, so it > wouldn't have been used in that context (correct me if I'm wrong). Railroads. They switched trains from one track to another. The Oxford English Dictionary gives citatations going back to 1837. carl lowenstein marine physical lab u.c. san diego {decvax|ucbvax} !ucsd!mpl!cdl cdl@mpl.ucsd.edu clowenstein@ucsd.edu ------------------------------ From: gibsongk@agcs.com (Gregg Gibson) Subject: Re: History of the Term "Switch" Date: 18 Mar 1994 08:12:14 -0700 Organization: gte In article , Jonathan_Welch writes: > I saw a brief image on TV how the first so-called switch consisted > of movable contacts mounted on a board, serving eight customers. > Presumably this is where the term came from for today's complex > switching equipment. You are probably referring to the first electro-mechanical switch. Manual switches were already in existence where an operator sat behind a cordboard and connected calls with tip and ring connectors. The manual switch was invented when it became obvious in the early days that it would be impractical to have a dedicated line between each pair of telephones that were to be connected. It was decided that it would be far more efficient to bring the individual lines from each phone into a central location where a particular phone could be connected with any other phone. When a call was to be placed, the operator would "switch" your connection to the party you wished to call. It is interesting to know that the electro-mechanical switch was invented by a man by the name of Almon Strowger. He was a mortician who suspected that the local operator was diverting his business calls to a competitor. He wanted to eliminate human intervention in the call completion process. He started a company making these switches about 100 years ago. The company he started in now known as AG Communication Systems and makes GTE's GTD-5 among other things. Gregg K Gibson AG Communication Systems-Phoenix gibsongk@agcs.com A joint venture of AT&T and GTE (602) 582-7514 ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update Date: 18 Mar 1994 02:20:44 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) I agree with you Pat, the outage may not have bee as bad years ago, but maybe it would. Keep in mind that the lose of the poweroom made it a bit harder to switch to another center. AT&T has a network control center as to most other companies for Toll/LD; the local companies also have them. There would be some loss of local traffic since the local people could not get dial tone and trunks going into the affected office would be out. Keep in mind that office is very large and handles millions of lines and calls. From what I remember that complex is part of a group of buildings under the old Bell System and AT&T has at least one of those buildings and could have been affected also. I know we had some problems (GTE) because some of our trunking goes that way. I had better not say which or I may get eaten alive again. The above post are my own and are done on my own time and on my own computer and Internet account. 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: mac@rci.ripco.com (Mark A. Cnota) Subject: Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update Organization: Ripco Internet BBS Chicago Date: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 23:02:57 GMT This is an old subject but since Mr. Townson seems to take every opportunity to slam Illinois Bell I feel some of these comments elicit a response. TELECOM Digest Editor (telecom@eecs.nwu.edu) wrote: > simply ignored? That's what happened here in the Hinsdale (Chicago) fire > almost six years ago. It started early on a Sunday afternoon and burned > for more than an hour before the people who were supposed to be watching > out for such things decided that maybe the alarms coming from Chicago > (they were in Springfield, Illinois, a couple hundred miles away as if > that made a lot of sense in the first place) were to be honored. Tell me what difference it makes where the alarm center is phyiscally located? Would it have mattered if they were downtown Chicago? No, it wouldn't have. > Then and only then, when the doofus in Springfield decided maybe the > alarms should be investigated, he called someone at home in the west > suburban area and asked them 'when they had a chance' to go over to > the central office in Hinsdale and see what it was about. 30-45 > minutes later a supervisor shows up, goes inside, sees the fire in > progress and decides to call the fire department. But by then it was > too late since all the phones in town were already dead, including > those to the fire department. As even your representation of the facts points to, the problem was one of procedure. > Bottom line in Hinsdale? Service was out for two weeks in some cases and > a month in others. An entire switch had to be scrapped and a replacement > installed. Millions of dollars in lost business and hardships while the > phones were out. According to Mr. Eibel, a vice-president of Illinois Bell > at the time, staffing a phone office *with even just one clerk* at all > times to prevent situations like this was not cost effective. I agree with Jim Eibel. He's one of the better executives IBT has had in the past ten years, in my opinion. > Maybe he figured they could buy new switches on sale at Walmart or > something, Don't be stupid. All they needed was better procedures, and he knew it. > that customer goodwill was something easily obtained for less than the > few dollars an hour a responsible person at the CO would cost. A responsible person in Springfield would have done the same thing. Mark A. Cnota (mac@ripco.com) Ripco Internet BBS (312) 665-0065 Chicago's Low-Cost Internet Alternative [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: All right, let us assume for a minute that an alarm system monitored remotely can do as well at guarding sophisticated and expensive equipement as a real person can do. I don't think that is the case simply because motion detectors for example have a very hard time choosing between an unauthorized person walking through an area (bad) and a hot air ventilator coming on and causing a nearby sign hanging from the ceiling to flutter in the breeze (normal occurance). Strong winds and heavy rain (both conditions were present that Sunday afternoon in May, 1988) can and frequently do cause false alarms. If you don't think this is the case, then listen to the Chicago Police on a scanner following a very bad storm here, as they talk about all the alarms going off, 'is there a runner on the way to reset the circuit?', etc ... all over town. If the alarms are monitored locally, at least the monitoring person has a distinct advantage over his counterpart two or three hundred miles or more away: he knows of local problems and how responses are likely to be best handled, he knows the geography of the area, and he knows the local weather conditions at the time, etc. No offense toward the people in Springfield, but they are small town folk who look at Chicago as the big city a couple hundred miles away. To them, Hinsdale might be located next to Evanston, and Lake Forest next to downtown. To them, a ten mile drive might take five minutes or less; in heavy traffic here it takes thirty minutes, which is a big difference if there is a major problem going on. The person in Spring- field might have had a directory of key personnell and their home phone numbers and looking at it picked a name he thought was best when in fact someone else was much closer. In that sense, the person in Springfield cannot be blamed. Maybe the last five times the alarm went off he notified someone only to be told later it was false. This time he tried to handle it differently. How is he going to know truth from fiction a couple hundred miles away and how to respond given a limited knowledge of the area geogra- phy and local conditions, especially when every second counts? So to respond to your first question, if the company feels that alarm sys- tems for all their inadequacies are still better than inexpensive live people who have their heads screwed on straight, then at least have the alarms handled locally. If Jim Eibel could not cost-justify a live person to watch a CO, do you mean to say he could not cost-justify at least a local monitoring system instead of one for state-wide either? To respond to your second comment, you say 'Jim Eibel knew there should have been better procedures' ... and indeed, that's what he was there for, to have procedures in place to prevent such a horrible tragedy. I stand by what I said back in May, 1988 when the fire was discussed in detail here: Eibel should have been given the axe the next day; sent packing and replaced with someone who would implement the procedures that should have been in place all along. I mean, how far does he or the company want to push this 'cost-effectiveness' thing? The stakes are simply too great, especially in a case like Hinsdale which was the core for literally everything; i.e. cellular, long distance, all kinds of special circuits for Ohare Aiport, etc. That's why I blame Jim Eibel most of all for Hinsdale; he of all people should have been able to get his math straight when it came to calculating a bottom line even if nothing but the protection of company property was to be considered, forgetting about goodwill entirely for the moment. Well, what's past is past ... let's hope that never again such a thing happens. PAT] ------------------------------ From: allen0@news.delphi.com Subject: Re: USR's New Modem Date: 17 Mar 1994 21:18:44 -0500 Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation trent@netcom.com writes: > allen0@delphi.com wrote: >> U.S. Robotics is releasing a new modem in five weeks. The modem will >> be upgradable to the V.34 standard when it is approved via a software >> download. The new modem will have read/writeable EPROMS which will >> allow this. The modem will have all the current protocols, making it >> the best modem on the market. And since there's no fee to get the >> V.34, I'd say it'll be the best buy when it comes out. For more info >> call USR at 1-800-DIALUSR. > Yeah, and what you forget to mention is that their one of the highest > priced modems on the market, whos twisted the arms of customers for > years by pushing their so-called HST protocol which wasn't even worthy > of use for bidirectional transfers. Then they came out with their > v.32terbo modems which just introduced more problems -- They like to > 'train down' to speeds below V.32bis. Their solution to the problem > was to remove an S register option instead of correcting the protocol > implementation. They offer poor technical support, low turn around > time, and poor over all response. Personally, I'd rather not pay > their high cost for a modem that says 'USR' on it. They're starting > to remind me of COMPUCOM before they finally folded. > As far as v.34 is concerned, Microcom is offering a sysop deal vFAST > modem for $140.00 RIGHT NOW. You can order them, and they'll be on > their way. When v.34 is finally announced they will send you an > upgrade for $39.00. Microcom can be reached at 800-822-8224. > Zoom is offering a similar deal as well, but I haven't researched it. Well, it seems you have not had a pleasant experience with USR. Well, first of all, how many people actaully use BI-directional xfers? I have once in my entire life and I have done lots of xfers thruout the years. Yes I know HS/Link is around, but it's not really as widely used as Zmodem and somewhat inconvenient. the HST protocol was faster than anything else before its time, and I loved it. As for this *NEW* modem being released, the rep told me that the estimated SYSOP PRICE will be under $200. If that's not cheap than I don't know what is. Any since it will be upgradeable to the V.34 std when it is approved absolutely free, I can't see anyone not choosing this. So go ahead and buy a ZOOM or whatever and then be stuck with having to have ANOTHER ZOOM in order to carry out 28.8 xfers. Of course you can upgrade to the new V.34 when it is released but at an additional cost of $40 I believe you said. Allen ------------------------------ From: vances@xenitec.on.ca (Vance Shipley) Subject: Re: Information Request - Time Off of NT-Opt61 Organization: XeniTec Consulting, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 13:28:54 GMT In article , Greg Maples wrote: > I'm trying to get time synchronization running between our NT OPT61 > pbx and a Sun SS10. I'm aware that I could use nxtp for synchro in > the Unix world, but we are not directly internet connected, and xntp > is a big load of code. > Does someone know of an easy, simple method of getting the NT to set > the Sun or vice-versa? Is there a version of timed for the Sun While I worked at SwitchView we wrestled with this problem. The SL-1 clock can be set with the maintenance/administration port, you can even "adjust" it this way, asking for a daily adjustment to be made to the time of day. The problem we saw was that the clock was not battery backed (the very latest CPUs now have a battery backed RTC) so when there was a problem the clock would reset to default. The CDR records would then be dated badly and the display sets would be wrong. The biggest problem being when there were no display sets so that it was not recognized when the time and date needed to be reset and was not for a long time afterward. So SwitchView's Meridian 1 Administration module now has tasks to upload and download the date and time. This can be set up to run in response to a SYSLOAD. I would suggest that you use the Sparcserver as the reference (eventually using xntp to synch it) and create a script to upload the date and time either periodically or on demand. You could buy SwitchView to do it but it would be a pretty expensive way to do just this and it doesn't run on a Sun :) (SCO Unix PC based). Vance Shipley, vances@xenitec.on.ca ------------------------------ From: theone@email.teaser.com (Rachid Benzaoui) Subject: International Free Numbers Organization: Guest of France-Teaser, (3617 EMAIL) Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 00:03:56 GMT How would it be possible to know the French equivalent numbers of American international toll-free numbers? The One BBS : +33-(1)49-887-691 Internet: the.one.net.fr@on101.com Enjoy one of the best French BBS !!! :-) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If a company in the USA has indicated it is willing to accept automatic reverse charge calls on an international basis, then arrangements are made by its carrier in the USA (presently only AT&T offers international 800 service I think) with the telephone authorities in France (or wherever) to have a number of the style used in France (or wherever) assigned which when dialed there gets translated in the local phone exchange to ring an eleven digit number in the USA, i.e. 1 plus the area code and number. It is then up to the business in the USA to publicize this as they see fit either by means of a listing in the telephone directory in France (or wherever, and the USA carrier will usually arrange with the other county's PTT to place the listing) or an advertisement of some other form. There is no single list of numbers one can refer to of international 'toll-free' lines to the USA. Such numbers that exist would appear to be the French equivilent of 800, but one would have to examine each of them one by one to see if in fact their termination was in the USA instead of simply within France (or wherever). PAT] ------------------------------ From: makarios@sactoh0.sac.ca.us (Alan R. Gross) Subject: NT Sl1 Questions Organization: Sacramento Public Access U*nix Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 05:22:29 GMT At a couple of sites I need to forward to an outside number through an SL1/Meridian. When the caller is from an inside extension, there are no problems with this process, however, when the caller is from outside, there is a twenty second delay in establishing a voice path from the caller (due to trunk to trunk connect). Per NT, depending on who you talk to, there is a way around this; or it's impossible to get rid of the twenty second delay; and another vendor wishes to charge us megabucks to find out if it's possible, no guarantees that they will solve the problem. While I can kludge around the system, I don't want to, since the kludge would involve paying extra $$ monthly for an unecessary 1FB. Can anyone let me know how to shorten or get rid of the voice path delay on a direct trunk to trunk connection? Second, I am searching for a source for light probes -- previously we got these from an Oregon chapter of Telephone Pioneers of America, after several calls, I've gotten no response to my requests for probes, and need another source -- anyone know of sources? We have a few blind employees who really need these devices. Third, I'm searching for a source for "buff cloths" -- these are small white cloths that are coated with some substance that really polishes a headset plug to a new shine. We used to pass these out to operators at Mother Moose in FBKS. AK, -- anyone know where I can find these critters, and what is their official moniker? Randall A. Gross A.R.Gross.Sprint@Sprint.com Sacramento Public Access UNIX makarios@sactoh0.SAC.CA.US ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 10:52:15 -0500 From: Jonathan_Welch Subject: Area 413 Dialing Changes I just received this in my bill yesterday and am passing it along FYI to the group. AN IMPORTANT REMINDER ABOUT DIALING CHANGES FOR ALL WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS (AREA CODE 413) CUSTOMERS - Effective June 1, 1994 This is an important notice. Please have it translated. Beginning June 1, 1994 there will be a significant change in the way all NYNEX telephone customers in western Massachusetts will be required to dial calls within the 413 area code that are beyond their local calling area (toll calls). The new, permanent dialing method for these calls is: "1" plus the 413 area code and the 7-digit number ("1" + 413 + 7 digits). Following is inforrnation on how you will dial all calls - both local and toll - within the 413 area code. DIRECTLY DIALED CALLS TO ANOTHER NUMBER IN THE 413 AREA CODE Within your local calling area, dial the 7-digit number only. Beyond your local calling area (toll calls), dial "1" + 413 + the 7-digit number. ALL DIRECTLY DIALED OPERATOR-ASSISTED AND CALLING-CARD CALLS To any number (including local calls) within the 413 area code, dial "0" + 413 + the 7-digit number. Dialing methods for calls to numbers outside the 413 area code will not change. All directly dialed calls to numbers outside the 413 area code will continue to be dialed "1" + the area code + the 7-digit number. All operator-assisted and Calling-Card calls to numbers outside the 413 area code will continue to be dialed "0" + the area code + the 7-digit number. Although the way you dial toll calls within the 413 area code will change, rates and local calling areas will not change because of the introduction of this new method of dialing. A local call still will be a local call, a toll call still will be a toll call. You can find information about your local calling area in the introductory White Pages of your NYNEX telephone directory. Beginning June 1, 1994, both the "1" + 7-digit and the 7- digit methods of dialing toll calls will be permanently eliminated. You must dial all toll calls within the 413 area code using only the "1" + 413 + 7-digit method. Toll calls dialed using either the old "1 " + 7-digit method or the 7-digit method will not be completed. These calls will go to a recorded announcement that will remind you to redial. At the same time, if you dial an operator-assisted or Calling- Card call using the old "0" + 7-digit method, that call also will go to a recorded announcement that will remind you to redial. Why This Change Is Necessary As we explained to you last year in a bill insert, a change in the way you dial toll calls is necessary because North America has run out of area codes. As a result, new area codes introduced in North America after January 1, 1995 will not look like tra- ditional area codes. These new area codes, which will be introduced as the telephone number capaci- ty of existing area codes is exhausted, will have any number - not just "0" or "1" - as their middle digit. Before these new area codes are introduced, NYNEX and all other local telephone companies must intro- duce new methods of dialing some calls. To meet this requirement for new dialing methods and to create a toll-call indicator, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) has directed that toll calls within the 413 area code must be dialed using the "1" + the 413 area code + 7-digit method. NYNEX will implement these same new dialing methods in eastern Massachusetts later this year. Some Steps You May Need to Take Before these new dialing methods become perma- nent in the 413 area code beginningJune 1,1994, please check all automatic dialing devices and/or ser- vices you may have, such as Speed Calling or Call Forwarding, to determine if reprogramming is required to accommodate the new dialing methods. Remember, any needed reprogramming must be completed before June 1,1994. And don't forget to check alarm or med- ical dialers, fax machines and computer modems to see if they need reprogramming as well. Emergency Calling Reminder If you currently dial "1" + a 7-digit number to reach police, fire or other emergency service providers, please remember that beginning June 1, 1994 you will have to dial these calls "1" plus the 413 area code + a 7-digit number. A Word to Business Customers If you own your telephone switching equipment, you should make sure it can process calls to points within the 413 area code that are dialed using the "1" + 413 + 7-digit method. You should check to ensure that your switching equipment can accommodate calls dialed to one of the new area codes that will be introduced next year. Existing area codes will remain the same, while new area codes will not have a "0" or a "1" as their middle digit. For example, 579 could be assigned as an area code in the future. You may need to reprogram services such as Speed Calling and Call Forwarding and devices such as automatic dialers, security dialers, and fax machines and modems with autodialers. Customers of NYNEX INFOPATH Packet Switching Service also may need to reprogram their equipment to accommodate these new dialin~ patterns. If you're a NYNEX Centrex service customer, any necessary changes will be made for you at our central office. We suggest that you review your telecom- munications system and services - especially those involving automatic dialers, PBXs and other premises-based switching equipment - with the appropriate equipment vendors that serve your business. Please use the time before these dialing changes become mandatory beginning June 1, 1994 to test your equipment and determine if any modifications are needed. Questions? Residence customers with questions about these dial- ing changes should call us at 1 800 555-5000. Business customers with questions about these dialing changes should call us toll-free at (413) 733-1776. We want to make this transition as easy as possi- ble for you. MA (413) 3/94 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #138 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa23104; 21 Mar 94 12:43 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA12686; Mon, 21 Mar 94 08:26:23 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA12676; Mon, 21 Mar 94 08:26:21 CST Date: Mon, 21 Mar 94 08:26:21 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403211426.AA12676@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #139 TELECOM Digest Mon, 21 Mar 94 08:26:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 139 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson History May Repeat Itself (Donald E. Kimberlin) Hush-a-Phone (Steve Brack) Seeking CATV List (John Conwell) Ripped By InfoAccess (Jacque Bussey) SIT Tones - Where in the Archives? (Paul Cook) Country Code for San Marino (Clive D.W. Feather) Clever Data/Fax/Voice Switch Needed (Jody Kravitz) Re: Appel a` Communications Pour CFIP'95 (*in French*) (Jan Ceuleers) Information Security Work Group Meeting (Michael S. Baum) 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, 20 Mar 94 02:34:00 EST From: Donald E. Kimberlin <0004133373@mcimail.com> Subject: History May Repeat Itself In article , rmcguire@wiltel20.wiltel.com (Russ McGuire) posted an announcement about Wiltel achieving an agreement with EmTelCuba to build the first recent-generation broadband link between Cuba and the U.S. by laying a new fiber optic cable between Florida and Cuba. I have a close interest in works of this sort due to my own personal career work in such spheres, so I had some private communication with Russ about this matter. Wiltel seems to be playing down the matter, in essence saying it's no biggie because the distance is short and there's no earth-shattering technology to announce. I don't see it that way. In fact, the Wiltel execs have achieved something even AT&T for all its prestige and established ability couldn't do. We have here a case where David didn't slay Goliath, but did finesse a route that Goliath couldn't follow. And, in the longer run, we may see some very old telcom history repeat itself. That may in part have to do with a burden AT&T had to bear with the Cuban government. It's a telecomm lesson in dealing with what are called "emerging nations." The Cuban-American Telephone Company of the pre-Castro era was a 50/50 AT&T-ITT venture that got expropriated very early on. Due to that very nature, Cuba's connectivity to the outside world was largely hegemonized by the Yanquis at AT&T until very recently. Up until 1951, in the era when the means of providing connectivity around the globe was HF radio, Cuba had only a few channels via AT&T into the U.S. (via AT&T's Fort Lauderdale Overseas Radio Station, and a few odd HF links to Spain and several of the Caribbean nations, and that was about it. In a breakthrough technology for 1951, AT&T laid its Type SA Submarine Cable System between Key West and Havana (78 miles) and provided at one swoop a dozen stable, reliable analog voice channels. (Those who know about the more recent technology of submarine cables will recall that the 1957 TAT-1 across the Atlantic was the Type SB Submarine Cable System, and may have puzzled what Type SA ever was.) The U.S. was enjoying growing business with Cuba through the 1950's, and telephone traffic was such that overflows had to spill off the cable onto the HF radio, which was at that point intended to be a "back-up." With the advent of Operator Toll Dialing and the intimate relation between Cuban-American and AT&T, the dial networks of the two countries were completely open to each other, in terms of what operators could accomplish. People were becoming more and more telephone-dependent, and the offered traffic between Cuba and the world skyrocketed. To handle this, AT&T and Cuban-American opened up one of the few SHF troposcatter links AT&T ever used, a 900 mHz link between Florida City (just south of Miami) and Guanabo (near Havana) in the mid 1950's. That link could provide 600 (and more, with expansion) telephone channels, or one analog video link. (In fact, the entire tropo system, like all such links, ran both frequency and space diversity. This meant the redundant link could be used for video at most times, not interrupting telephone use when video was ordered.) It was a heady time for the television networks when their (then) landline video networks reached Miami, and it was possible to "do a remote from Havana," and there were a few. Having the new tropo with the old SA cable for a "backup" also permitted shutting down the HF radio operation from Fort Lauderdale. It should have been some very good business, indeed. That's the way it was when revolution came to Cuba: More than 600 channels of telephone circuits out to the U.S., with dialing capability and open access between the networks, plus the few bits of HF to other nations that had been in place for a number of years. And, that's the way it stayed for almost 30 years afterwards, with the tropo to Florida City being the prime connectivity pipe for Cuba to the outside world, controlled by an entity the Cubans had no reason to admire; seen as both economically ex-colonial and politically unacceptable. Yet, it was the only significant tool available. Another incident made the hurt deeper. The rift in relations between the countries, while not disrupting the technology, did cause problems in matters of money. Since AT&T and Cuban-American were partners in operating the links, each had a literal "open account" with the other, with settlements of revenue shares that could no longer be made. Meantime, calls originating from Cuba were given unlimited access to the U.S. network with automatic dialing. As the reach of that U.S. network expanded, fingers in Havana could reach wherever in the world a U.S. operator could reach, and matters of paying for it weren't considered. For about ten years, there were no settlements, and no meaningful communication between AT&T and the new regime in Cuba. However, the balance due AT&T was getting larger and larger. I was working in the AT&T offices in Miami the day word came down that we were to cut off the trunks from Cuba. Nothing like that had ever been done before. (In the world of international telecommunications, attempts are even made to keep some channels open during war, just in case the politicians should decide to try to talk out their differences. This doesn't mean that circuits are never shut down; it doesn't mean the technicians engage in friendly chat on them, but more often, some are kept up without publicity, at least so long as the physical plant holds up. The general public may not have access to them, but the governments do.) So, it was high drama in the Miami Testroom on that day. It only took about three hours for the telegrams to arrive from Cuba, asking what was wrong. Western Union was still operating with Cuba on its old submarine telegraph cable, the second oldest in the world. That cable has a special history of its own, more of which fits later in this story. AT&T had, of course, covered all its political bases and had the plan laid about how to handle this largest of "unpaid phone bills." The response was to tell the Cubans no more free access could be had; that if they wanted service reconnected, it would have to be on the basis of all future calls being paid on the U.S. end. That is, all calls sent-paid into Cuba, and all collect outbound, so AT&T could get its share of the revenue from somewhere. They'd have to agree to that, and leave it that way indefinitely. It didn't take long for the Cubans to agree, of course, so by later in the afternoon, the circuits were back up, with operators at Miami enforcing all outbound calls from Cuba as collect on the U.S. end. That situation remained for many years. It was, of course, just another hurtful Yanqui action as seen by the Cubans. As the satellite era grew upon the world, the Cubans saw an opportunity to bypass the Yanquis, if they could only get the needed funding and connectivity. During the years of closeness with the USSR, some Molnya earth stations had been installed, but these were largely limited to communications with Russia, and not useful for much connectivity into other parts of the world. Finally, by the 1980's, alternatives seemed feasible. The Cubans invited the world to bid providing them with new links to the global community. AT&T had reason to want to replace the now-aged analog tropo system. It was occupying 900 mHz spectrum Southern Bell should by then have for use of the growing cellular mobile telephone business. AT&T proposed a fiber optic cable between Florida and Cuba, but lost out to a bid from Italcable, Italy's highly entreprenurial international carrier. The Cubans accepted a deal with Italcable hauling their telephone trunks out by satellite to Italy and from there to the world. The U.S. and AT&T were stuck with the old tropo, and the SA cable, when it was functional. The SA cable would often be out of service for several years at a time, because whenever it got damaged (fairly often by a ship in the shallow waters of the Florida Strait), a whole, protracted negotiation via third parties would ensue about what nation's cableship would be permitted in Cuban waters and who would pay the bill. And that situation prevailed until Hurricane Andrew ended the life of the Florida City tropo antennas. (Most Americans saw the wreckage on TV as part of the Hurricane Andrew stories.) Now things were changed. While the U.S. had lost most of its connectivity to Cuba, the Cubans did not lose the world. It was being handled through Italy. (By that point in time, the Cubans claimed that some $80 million was due them in unsettled accounts that were frozen in the U.S., as well.) AT&T was indeed strapped by the way things had gone for three decades. Enter Wiltel on the scene. It turns out that John Williams, the leading founder of Wiltel's parent company, was born in Cuba in 1918, and that his family had business interests there until the revolution. Finally, there was someone in the U.S. who was "sympatico" to talk with -- someone who could reason the Latin way. Where AT&T's hegemony couldn't work, Williams' personal diplomacy could. It wasn't too difficult for Wiltel to offer an arrangement that restored a link the Cubans wanted, but do it in a way they could tolerate. The net result will be CUBUS-1, not a great technogical feat, but indeed, a great international relations feat. CUBUS-1 will be, in a way, a repeat of another submarine cable between Florida and Cuba 135 years earlier; one most of the world knows nothing about. That cable was the second long international one in 1858, just months after the landmark (but short-lived) cable laid across the Atlantic by the Anglo-American Cable Company with Cyrus Field as its American figurehead. Within months of the laying of the 1858 transatlantic cable, entreprenurial Englishmen had another one operating from Punta Rassa, Florida to Havana. The immediate question is: Why? Who wanted to connect the then mosquito-infested southwestern part of Florida to another country? There was hardly any population there, yet here were people, literally living and working in a tent town, setting up a telegraph line to another country. It turns out that (as in a later Alascom case not well publicized across the Bering Straits during the Cold War era), the engine of trade was operating. Cattle ranchers in Florida were shipping stock on the hoof from the outpost of Fort Myers to Havana, lightering them down the Peace River and its tributaries to Charlotte Harbor for embarkation to Cuba. A telegraph cable along the route made good business sense. And, connectivity back north along the Peace River, to gain entrance to the growing U.S. telegraph network made sense, too. Cuba and the U.S. had electrical communication many years before other capitals around the world did. In fact, it made so much sense that within a very short time, the cable route from Punta Rassa was extended beyond Havana to Kingston, Jamaica, providing connectivity there, as well. (Using the limited technology of 135 years ago, a long piece of the submarine cable was merely laid out on top of the ground crossing Cuba. That method was later used worldwide for a number of early submarine telegraph cables, crossing large stretches of dry land by just laying the cable on the ground.) As Western Union grew into international telegraphy, it purchased the Punta Rassa-Havana cable, bringing it ashore on Key West to provide a terminal for that small fishing village, too. When Key West grew large enough, the portion from Punta Rassa was abandoned, since Fort Myers and Key West were developing their own communication routes to Miami and Tampa as those cities grew. So, the Western Union maps showed a Havana telegraph cable that terminated at Key West and Punta Rassa was forgotten. Today, there's a small bronze marker in Key West that says it was the terminal for the "first telegraph cable to Cuba." It's one of those partial truths of corporate history books, and forgets the much earlier history of the _real_ "first cable to Cuba." What does CUBUS-1 portend beyond Havana? Might it be extended to Kingston? Might it even provide a jumping-off place for Cuba to become a telecommunications hub for the Caribbean? It's much too early to know now, but history does have a way of repeating itself, doesn't it? ------------------------------ From: sbrack@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu (Steve Brack) Subject: Hush-a-phone Organization: University of Toledo Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 01:40:14 GMT A few days ago, someone mentioned the Hush-a-Phone case. I was wondering what that case was about. Steven S. Brack sbrack@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu Toledo, OH 43613-1605 STU0061@UOFT01.BITNET MY OWN OPINIONS sbrack@maine.cse.utoledo.edu ------------------------------ From: John Conwell Subject: Seeking CATV List Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 15:40:20 EST I am interested in following the discussions on this List, but am also curious about a possible List specifically for Cable TV, or land-line video transmissions. If anyone knows of such a list, I would appreciate the information. Thanks :} ------------------------------ Date: 18 Mar 1994 18:24:04 GMT From: jabussey@ualr.edu Subject: Ripped By InfoAccess Organization: Arkansas Children's Hospital Has anyone had any DEALINGS with InfoAccess? For some reason 4 EXPENSIVE calls to this service was added to my phone. Although NO calls to it were made from our phones! There are only two people in my house, me and my wife and neither of use dialed this number. We called them to see about the charges and they said the calls were made from our phones and that we need to write a letter to the information provider and complain. In the mean time how can I handle this $50 charge with the Phone company? I refuse to pay it but if its mixed in with my phone bill how can I NOT pay it without having my phone service interruped? If anyone has any ideas please email me: jabussey@ualr.edu or 'root@[144.30.128.156]' (include the [] in the address) Thanks in advance!! Jacque Bussey ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Mar 94 08:17:00 EST From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: SIT Tones - Where in the Archives? I thought there was a reference to SIT tones in the telecom archives somewhere, but I can't find it. These are the three tones that one hears at the beginning of a toll network announcment (We're SORRY! All circuits are BUSY now ...) Does anyone have the specs on these? Paul Cook Proctor & Associates 206-881-7000 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Subject: Country Code For San Marino Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1994 01:42:38 GMT From: Clive D.W. Feather San Marino is a small country physically inside Italy. To the best of my knowledge, it is always phoned as just another area code within Italy (i.e. +39 541). I have a note in my files that San Marino has been allocated the country code 295 but is not yet using it. HOwever, I recently saw a posting, here I believe, that it has been allocated 378. Can anyone tell me which is right? Clive D.W. Feather | Santa Cruz Operation clive@sco.com | Croxley Centre Phone: +44 923 816 344 | Hatters Lane, Watford Fax: +44 923 210 352 | WD1 8YN, United Kingdom ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Mar 94 00:08:44 PST From: kravitz@foxtail.com (Jody Kravitz) Subject: Clever Data/Fax/Voice Switch Needed I would like to share a single POTS line (without distinctive ringing) between a dial-in modem, a Fax machine, and an answering machine. All of the devices I've seen require incoming data calls to either be in "answer mode" (squirting carrier), or to press some magic key on the keypad at just the right time. My existing UUCP callers cannot accomodate that. What I really want is something that makes the voice callers do something special, leaving the fax/data determination to the presence/absence of tone. Simple and elaborate schemes are welcome. Thanks, Jody ------------------------------ From: Jan.Ceuleers@k12.be (Jan Ceuleers) Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1994 07:05:16 GMT Subject: Appel a` Communications Pour CFIP'95 (*in French*) Organization: K12Net Belgium I quote Jean-Marc Jezequel: > Colloque Francophone sur l'Ingenierie des Protocoles These French are incredible. Do they really think protocol development has anything to do with the language the developer happens to speak? Origin: Experimenter Board, Antwerp, Belgium (2:292/857) Gated from FidoNet at 2:29/777 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Mar 1994 08:07:41 EST From: Michael S Baum Subject: Information Security Work Group Meeting This is posted for information purposes only: American Bar Ass'n Section of Science and Technology Information Security Committee Please correspond to: Michael S. Baum, Esq. 33 Tremont Street Cambridge, MA 02139-1227 Tel: 617/661-1234 Fax: 617/661-0716 Net: baum@im.com Notarization and Nonrepudiation Work Group INFORMATION SECURITY COMMITTEE, EDI/IT DIVISION Section of Science and Technology American Bar Association You are cordially invited to participate in a meeting of the above-referenced work groups of the Information Security Committee on Thursday-Saturday, April 14-16, 1994 in Washington, DC. These interdisciplinary work groups will continue to address conventional and electronic notarization and certification authority issues. The meetings are focused around the work product of its respective participants and will be highly results driven. During this session, an extra day will be allotted to facilitate accelerated production of the work product. At the last meeting (January 19-20, 1994), further progress was made on the development of "Model Certificate-based Public Key Guideline/ Rules of Practice" ("Guideline"). It was decided that the Guideline, as a first step, should reflect the requirements for "higher assurance" implementations. Also, following nearly a year of discussion and debate, a proposal was approved (by majority vote) recommending that the Section support, in principle, the creation of an entity to provide specialty certification of attorney-notaries engaging in professional services related to transnational electronic commerce. Joe Potenza, Section Chair has kindly agreed to permitted us to hold the meeting at his law firm in downtown Washington, DC. Please observe the hosts office's strict non-smoking rule. The meeting agenda and logistics are attached. I look forward to seeing you in Washington, DC. Sincerely, Michael S. Baum Chair, Information Security Committee and EDI/IT Division INFORMATION SECURITY COMMITTEE April 14-16, 1994 Tentative Agenda Thurs., April 14 Major Theme: Outline, Scope and Purpose 8:30- 9:00 Continental breakfast and registration. 9:00- 9:30 Participant introductions, meeting logistics and questions. 9:30-10:30 Presentation of updated Guideline outline and contributions 10:30-10:45 Break. 10:45-12:30 Discussion of proposed Guideline outlines. 12:30-13:30 Lunch & informal presentation - TBD 13:30-15:00 Identifying outstanding issues re: outline, scope and purpose. 15:00-15:15 Break. 15:15-16:45 Survey and record points of agreement/disagreement. 16:45-17:00 Wrap-up. Friday, April 15 Major Theme: Tone, Style and Content 8:30- 9:00 Continental breakfast and registration. 9:00-10:30 Presentation of contributions by authors. 10:30-10:45 Break. 10:45-12:30 Discussion of purpose and style of various sections. 12:30-13:30 Lunch & informal presentation - TBD. 13:30-15:00 Break-out session on Guideline contributions. 15:00-15:45 Break. 15:15-16:15 Status report and discussion of Clipper Resolution; Discussion on digital signature legislation. 16:45-17:00 Wrap-up. Saturday, April 16 Major Theme: Work Product!; Notarial Matters 8:30- 9:00 Continental breakfast and registration. 9:00-10:30 Break-out sessions on Guideline. 10:30-10:45 Break. 10:45-12:30 Additional presentation by contributors to the Guideline; Review of outline and contributions; Discuss work assignments. 12:30-13:30 Lunch & informal presentation - Bertram Cottine, Esq. 13:30-15:00 Discussion of corporate form for the accredited certifying organization for attorney-notaries. 15:00-15:45 Break. 15:15-16:15 Resolve work assignments; meeting review; appointments. 16:45-17:00 Wrap-up. NOTARIZATION AND NONREPUDIATION WORK GROUP INFORMATION SECURITY COMMITTEE April 14-16, 1994 Meeting Details Papers: All prior participants who plan to attend must submit their agreed upon contributions as soon as possible to: baum@hulaw1.harvard.edu and to sudiaf@panix.com. Please bring a copy of the contribution to the meeting in both paper form and on disk. First-time participants (who plan to attend the April meeting) must submit a brief paper (~3 pages in length) relevant to the subject matter; or discuss their planned contribution to the Committee (please contact Michael Baum for details). A binder of prior papers will be presented to new participants during registration. Prior participants are requested to bring their Work Group binders. Meeting Location: Banner, Birch, McKie & Beckett 1001 G. St., N.W. - 11th Floor "Floating Conference Room" Washington, DC 20001-4597 Tel: 202-508-9100 (Attn. Lisa Jones) Fax: 202-508-9299 SMOKING ANYWHERE IN THE BUILDING IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED Meals: Continental breakfast and refreshments during the breaks will be served as well as a light lunch (at cost). Hotel: The closest hotel to the meeting is the Grand Hyatt Washington, 1-202-582-1234. The next closest hotel is the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, 1-202-737-2200. RSVP: Please confirm your intention to participate to Ann Kowalski, Section Manager, Section of Science and Technology (ABA Chicago, Phone: 312-988-6281 or kowalskya@attmail.com) as soon as possible. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #139 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa23905; 21 Mar 94 14:05 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA15152; Mon, 21 Mar 94 09:52:33 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA15142; Mon, 21 Mar 94 09:52:32 CST Date: Mon, 21 Mar 94 09:52:32 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403211552.AA15142@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #140 TELECOM Digest Mon, 21 Mar 94 09:52:30 CST Volume 14 : Issue 140 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: CDPD, PCS, PCN, and Digital Cellular? (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Wanted: Alphanumeric Pager Software (Mark McClain) Re: Boca V-Mail Modem: Request For Tech-Specs (Russell Nelson) Re: History of the Term "Switch" (Bill Mayhew) Re: Local CID Showing Out of Area (Cliff Sharp) Re: 911 Used From Car Phone (Douglas Adams) Cut-Rate Domestic and International Calling Cards (Richard Barry) E3 Interface Chips? (Paulo Libano Monteiro) Cordless Question (Joseph R. Szurek) Re: Time Reports 80% Oppose Clipper Chip (A. Padgett Peterson) Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number (Chris Norloff) Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number (Christoper Ogren) 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: mds@access.digex.net (Michael D. Sullivan) Subject: Re: CDPD, PCS, PCN, and Digital Cellular? Date: 20 Mar 1994 01:33:37 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA dleifker@mitre.org (Dan Leifker) writes: > I am taking an introductory (grad level) course in telecommunications, > and the professor has asked us to write a short paper defining the > following terms: digital cellular, CDPD, PCS, PCN, and wireless. I > have been scouring the area (Washington, D.C.) and have found almost > nothing in the way of technical literature. Could some kind soul > outline the differences between these terms and give me some pointers > for more information? Two DC-area sources you should contact: CTIA (Cellular Telephone Industry Association) at 202-785-0081, and PCIA (Personal Communications Industry Association, formerly Telocator Network of America) at 202-467-4770. Both of these trade associations are involved with all of the technologies you mention. In fact, they are essentially competing trade associations. (Only in Washington! Only in America!) (When looking for specialized information in Washington, one essential starting point is TRADE ASSOCIATIONS -- they ALL have a Washington presence. Wonder why?) My take on a not-so-simple answer to your question is as follows: (1) digital cellular is (generically) cellular telephone service that uses digital transmission for the voice channels as well as the control channels. Mobile/portable telephone service is "cellular" if it employs base stations that transmit over relatively short (<20 mile) radius distances, with overlapping coverage "cells". Less generically, US cellular service operates in the 800 MHz band on defined frequency blocks, of which there are two (the A block and the B block), so there are two carriers. All US cellular carriers are, at present, required to support analog cellular service, which uses digital control channels and analog voice channels. This is known as the "AMPS" standard (after Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AT&T's moniker circa 1979)). The FCC allows cellular carriers to use other technology as well as analog, as long as they keep compatibility with analog for the benefit of the installed base. There are one analog and two digital alternative standards that have developed. The analog alternative is N-AMPS, for Narrowband AMPS, developed by Motorola, which can increase system capacity by up to 3x. Digital alternative #1, which was recently turned on by the B carrier in DC (Bell Atlantic) is TDMA, or Time Division Multiple Access. Digital alternative #2 is CDMA, or Code Division Multiple Access. The difference between these is too complicated to explain now, but basic- ally, TDMA is here now and can increase capacity 3-6x over analog, while CDMA is about a year or so further down the road and can increase capacity (I think) 10-20x over analog. The technology used is very different; TDMA uses time-slices of conventional channels to derive multiple channels, while CDMA uses spread-spectrum transmission, which is conceptually like teleportation in the old Superman comics -- break the message up into tiny bits that get trans- mitted at quasi-random frequencies and get reassembled at the end -- except that it works. In Europe, they use different frequencies and protocols, but digital cellular there is TDMA without any analog compatibility; the standard is known as GSM (Groupe Systeme Mobile). The irony is that digital cellular systems are optimized for voice (using adaptive decoders, etc.) and are unlikely to be as good for carrying modem calls as analog systems, at least in the immediate future. (2) CDPD -- Should be CPDP, Cellular Packet Data Protocol -- This is a system that the cellular industry has developed for squeezing pure data transmissions in between cellular voice calls. Cellular systems use multiple channels for transmitting voice calls, and there may be gaps when a channel is not needed for voice transmission, but in busy systems these gaps will be pretty short. CPDP allows the carrier to send data packets whenever there is a gap; the receiver has to switch back and forth between the channels to get all the packets, then reassemble them. (3) PCS -- Personal Communications Services -- this is defined by the FCC so broadly as to be generic. Basically, a family of services allowing for tetherless (i.e., not tied down to the telephone network) communications connected to a variety of networks. The generic definition includes cellular, paging, cordless telephones, and many other existing services. The FCC has allocated spectrum from the 900 MHz band for "new narrowband PCS" -- also known as advanced messaging services, such as mobile data, portable email, and two-way paging -- and from the 2 GHz band for "new broadband PCS" -- which includes, potentially, clones of today's cellular service, as well as "microcell" service, with base stations that may be only 1000 feet or so apart, oriented toward handheld service for pedestrians, not motorists. The 2 GHz band also has an allocation for "unlicensed PCS," which could include new generations of cordless telephone service that include public microcell access (known as CT-2, CT-2+, and CT-3, in some of its iterations), wireless LAN, and any number of other mobile/portable low-power voice and data applications, such as wireless PBX access. (4) PCN -- Personal Communications Network(s). This is the name the U.K. gave to a specific frequency allocation for PCS. It was supposed to be a microcellular service but was also supposed to compete with cellular and landline service. Three licenses were awarded. Two systems merged and the resulting joint venture is on-line; and one is yet to go on. The on-line system, known as Mercury one2one, is a joint venture of Mercury (the MCI of the U.K.) and US WEST; Mercury one2one is offering a service that is functionally similar to cellular, using a 1.8 GHz port of the GSM digital cellular spec. (5) WIRELESS -- without wires . In the olden days, this was the name for what we know as radio. The name stayed around longer in the U.K. Now it seems to mean about the same as PCS -- mobile or portable communications connected to the wireline network. I.e., you can use it like a phone, but no wires. > Are these things in a competitive sort of relationship? Broadband PCS *will* be in competition with cellular (analog and digital), when it happens, more or less. Narrowband PCS *will* be in competition with CPDP and other mobile data services, when it gets off the ground. PCN is in the U.K., so it can't be in competition with any of these. All of the above are wireless, as is AM, FM, TV, and garage door openers; I refuse to opine whether garage door openers, Howard Stern, or Oprah Winfrey are likely to be in a competitive relationship with Cellular One (which is a generic name, and not a specific company; the name is owned jointly by McCaw and Southwestern Bell). > (I'm not asking anyone to do my work ... I'm just looking for a starting > place.) Yeah, right. P.S., in the interest of full disclosure, I'm an attorney with the firm of Wilkinson, Barker, Knauer & Quinn, practicing in the area of cellular, PCS, and other wireless services before the FCC and the federal courts, and I was (in a previous life as a government attorney) responsible for writing the original cellular rules. Therefore, I know at least some of what I just said is probably right. This is not a legal opinion; you have to pay for that. None of the above necessarily reflects the views of my firm or my clients. Michael D. Sullivan | mds@access.digex.net avogadro@well.sf.ca.us Washington, D.C. | 74160.1134@compuserve.com mikesullivan@bix.com ------------------------------ From: n6oby@hebron.connected.com (Mark McClain) Subject: Re: Wanted: Alphanumeric Pager Software Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 05:21:07 -0800 Organization: Connected INC -- Internet Services Jeff Regan (jeregan@FLASH.LakeheadU.CA) wrote: > Anybody know of a source for software that will use the modem to dial > an alphanumeric pager and to send a message to that pager? > Motorola uses these keyboard-like devices now. It would be nice to > replace them with software. If you are using Windows, you might try to pick up a copy of 'MessageFlash' from your nearest McCaw office. It's a pretty cool package and usually available at no cost. I have it and it works well. Good luck. Mark S McClain n6oby@hebron.connected.com Redmond, WA MCI Mail: 530-2222 206-885-6770 ------------------------------ From: nelson@crynwr.crynwr.com (Russell Nelson) Subject: Re: Boca V-Mail Modem: Request For Tech-Specs Date: 20 Mar 1994 08:55:50 GMT Organization: Crynwr Software In article stillson@mitre.org (Ken Stillson) writes: > The hardware manual casually mentions a few of the extended AT# > commands used for the voice-subsystem, but doesn't give anywhere near > enough details to actually use them. > Does anyone know (or know where to get) more information on how to > directly use the voice system, so one can write their own software? This card, also known as the Computer Communicator EZ (the half-length card w/ diagonal cut), is very easy to program. Call Cirrus Logic, and ask for their "CL-MD9624AT/EC2 Programmer's Guide". They're at 1-408-436-7110. And, it's only $69 from PC Connection, 800-800-5555, +1-603-446-5555. russ ftp.msen.com:pub/vendor/crynwr/crynwr.wav Crynwr Software 11 Grant St. +1 315 268 1925 (9201 FAX) Potsdam, NY 13676 ------------------------------ From: wtm@uhura.neoucom.EDU (Bill Mayhew) Subject: Re: History of the Term "Switch" Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 10:33:27 GMT When I was a kid, my dad worked as an administrator for the local school system. The then Ohio Bell regularly provided mountains of wonderful public relational material to the schools. Items ranged from preschool telephone etiquitte type stuff to gradeuate school level technical briefs. The Bell System also provided many films. If I reall correctly, the "Mr. Watson" wrote a wonderful little booklet called, "The Birth and Babyhood of the Telephone." There is are a lot of neat reminissnaces and many pictures of early telephonica. There is one picture of a switchboard that, I believe, has four eight-position rotary switches that have what looks like a knife switch handle that can be moved to contact eight thumb-tack like contacts arranged in a circle: completely manual, of course. I had that book for many years, but can not locate it at the moment. I don't remember if that was supposedly the first switchboad or just an early example. With the advent of divestiture and cost slashing, I suspect that much of the material provided for schools by the former Bell Ssytem is long gone. Bill Mayhew NEOUCOM Computer Services Department Rootstown, OH 44272-0095 USA phone: 216-325-2511 wtm@uhura.neoucom.edu amateur radio 146.58: N8WED [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, the present day people running the company don't seem to care much about that stuff any longer. We used to get a lot of that material when I was in school also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: indep1!clifto (Cliff Sharp) Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 07:24:45 CST Subject: Re: Local CID Showing Out of Area In article JMDCHICAGO@delphi.com writes: >> When CID was deployed in my area (516 area code), I tried calling home >> from a pay phone and the number was displayed. However, when I call >> home while I'm having my car serviced at a local service station, the >> number doesn't show. > This sounds to me like your area might be served by a CO with two > vintages of switches (i.e., one is SS7 compatible, and the other > isn't) The Nynex telephone is probably connected to the SS7 compatible > switch in that CO and the COCOT telephone is probably connected to the > non-SS7 switch. As you can see, this also results in some prefixes in > your exchange being able to get and display CID and the rest not being > able to. It's not necessarily even that the other switch isn't SS7-compatible. Lombard, IL, for the longest time, had a 5ESS which delivered CNID and a 1AESS which didn't. My friend at 708-916-xxxx was always identified, and my friend at 708-932-xxxx wasn't. A call to customer service some time last year got me the information that they hadn't even scheduled the 1AESS for the software update that would allow CNID to be sent! However, around December (I think), my other friend's name and number suddenly started showing up. Might be a nit, but even if the software wasn't SS7-compatible, the switch certainly was/is ... Cliff Sharp WA9PDM ------------------------------ From: adamsd@crash.cts.com (Adams Douglas) Subject: Re: 911 Used From Car Phone Organization: CTS Network Services (CTSNET/crash), San Diego, CA Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 07:03:01 GMT Carl Moore (cmoore@BRL.MIL) wrote: > KYW news-radio has noted the use of 911 from a car phone. That's > apparently how a tanker-truck crash at Conshohocken, PA was reported > (this happened on I-76/I-476 interchange) this week. The driver of > that truck was killed, and nobody else was hurt. There was an instance east of San Diego here two winters ago. A hiker got lost and couldn't find his way back to the road. Snow was blowing in, so he pulled his cellular out of his backpack and dialed 911. Choppers were sent and they found him in less than an hour. Ironically, he was less than 1000 feet from his car at the time. ------------------------------ From: Richard Barry Subject: Re: Cut-Rate Domestic and International Calling Cards Date: 21 Mar 1994 18:59:41 -0000 Organization: Ireland On-Line > I have heard of a company that presumably offers calls to Finland at > about $0.45 per minute. That does not sound unreasonable to me as one > can call Germany for way less than that. [stuff deleted] > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you are getting international calls > between the USA and Europe for 45 cents per minute you are not getting > a bad deal at all. I cannot imagine calling Germany from the USA for > 'way less' than 45 cents per minute. PAT] There is a (US based) company providing calls to the USA from Ireland for 20p (30 cents)/minute weekends -- it used to be as low as 16p/min until a few weeks ago. It operates through a local access number and subscribers pre-pay for a block of message units in advance. I believe they also have access numbers in the UK and perhaps other states. Surely there is no reason why a transatlantic call should cost more than a coast to coast call in the US -- maybe a cent or two a minute more/minute at most, in a competitive market? The days of the 30 channel transatlantic submarine cables and bad connections are gone. Unfortun- ately, many of the established operators in the market still want to hang on to the good old rip-off international call pricing. Fortunately their days are numbered! Richard Barry Ballsbridge IRL-Dublin 4 rbarry@iol.ie ------------------------------ From: plm@gandalf.inesc.pt (Paulo Libano Monteiro) Subject: E3 Interface Chips? Reply-To: plm@gandalf.inesc.pt (Paulo Libano Monteiro) Organization: INESC - Inst. Eng. Sistemas e Computadores, LISBOA. PORTUGAL. Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 12:25:05 GMT I'm looking for chips to implement an E3 interface (34.368Mbit/s), both the framing and line interface functions. And ATM cells over 34.368Mbit/s. Any advice would be appreciated (please e-mail me). Thanks, Paulo Libano Monteiro (plm@inesc.pt) INESC - R. Alves Redol, 9 1000 LISBOA PORTUGAL Tel: +351.1.3100285 Fax: +351.1.525843 ------------------------------ From: szurek+@pitt.edu (Joseph R Szurek) Subject: Cordless Question Date: 21 Mar 94 12:33:43 GMT Organization: University of Pittsburgh Can anyone tell me if the base station for a cordless phone broadcasts all calls on the line or just when the cordless handset is on. This came up in a discussion of how private your conversations are when you have a cordless phone in the house. Thanks, J. Szurek szurek@vms.cis.pitt.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The base should not be transmitting anything when the cordless is not in use. I've seen older cordless phones whose base would respond to spurious radio signals of one kind or another and as a result cause interference on wired phones. An old cordless of mine a number of years ago was very sensitive to illegally high power from CB radios, and when a neighbor of mine talked on his CB (at something like a thousand watts) it caused the relays in my cordless base to chatter and in turn messed up my wired phone and (I suspect) transmitted my wired calls as a result. But normally, no -- the base should remain silent if the cordless handset is not in use. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 02:47:20 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Re: TIME Reports 80% Oppose Clipper Chip > yatesc@zeus.ec.usf.edu (Charles Randall Yates) writes: > Why shouldn't the government have the right to listen in? Any > law-abiding citizen should have nothing to hide. I'm for it. Sorry for the quoting but having nothing to hide has nothing to do with it. The issue here is not whether "our homes, person & papers" are safe from search but whether we can trust a third (or fourth, or fifth...) party to secure our communications and *that* is something very different. I *expect* everything that transmitted electronically is subject to search (whether legal or not, will never know that it happened unless someone *else* tells me). Therefore *it is my responsibility* to make sure that what goes out is only what I want to send under those conditions. Has nothing to do with what I want or permit. Warmly, Padgett ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 00:17:39 EST From: cnorloff@tecnet1.jcte.jcs.mil Subject: Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number > ...As the date draws near for Gacy's execution -- this time, no > more stalling or delays -- a group calling itself the American > Civil Liberties Union has stated it will intervene to prevent > Gacy from being persecuted further by the state and the > criminals in our society of which Gacy is but a victim. I can understand your revulsion at someone protecting a criminal's rights, but the law applies to the criminals and to the non-criminals. > Those folks are forced to pay perfectly outrageous rates for > collect calls from their loved ones in prison because the > prisoners can no longer place calls via Genuine Bell. Rates of > three or four dollars *per minute* ... > ... the AOS's are ripping off the families of prisoners big-time having > them as a captive customer base. Evidently you, too, think criminals have rights, sometimes. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well certainly their families and friends have rights, and they are the ones paying for the calls. Until about 1970 prison inmates were not allowed to use phones at all. Commun- ication with the outside world is a fairly recent innovation. Jail in- mates have always gotten their one free phone call since about 1905, but the routine use of payphones for other calls in jails began during the 1970's also. By virtue of their position, AT&T had all the corrections payphone business for several years and they took a bad beating on it; it was probably one part about competition AT&T liked -- let the COCOT operators have it; that was their attitude. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: cro@ssdc-220.maxcy.brown.edu (Christoper Ogren) Subject: Re: Prisoner Starts Own 900 Number Reply-To: nm1z@anomaly.sbs.com Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science Date: Sun, 20 Mar 1994 19:54:34 GMT In article , craffert@nostril.lehman.com (Colin Owen Rafferty) writes: > The Eighth Amendment explains how cruel punishments shall not be > inflicted. What can be a crueler punishment than execution? Mind you, 'cruel' in a relative term. Cruel in who's eyes? The convicted might think any punishment is cruel or maybe he/she might think life imprisonment is cruel. Hmmm. Certainly makes for interesting discussion. I just didn't think I would find it here. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And you won't find it here. We have strayed too far from the topic. Poof! To the bit bucket with all of you! Nice discussion, but one of those that never comes to an end. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #140 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16069; 22 Mar 94 19:04 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA19170; Tue, 22 Mar 94 15:11:14 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA19158; Tue, 22 Mar 94 15:11:12 CST Date: Tue, 22 Mar 94 15:11:12 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403222111.AA19158@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #141 TELECOM Digest Tue, 22 Mar 94 15:11:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 141 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Privacy-Protected Transfer of Value in Telecomuunications (Stefan Brands) Music on Hold (Stuart Whitmore) Extension Cord For Cell Phone (mtovar@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu) Cellular Roaming Charges (Lars Nohling) Stentor (Canada) Starts VideoRoute (Dave Leibold) Belarus Yellow Pages (Dave Leibold) "Howdy Mail"? Scrawl-Like Writing Device (Richard Duffy) Re: An Obscene Caller Gets Caught, 1965 (Robert Michael Gutierrez) Re: CDPD, PCS, PCN, and Digital Cellular? (coyne@thing1.cc.utexas.edu) 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: Stefan.Brands@cwi.nl (Stefan Brands) Subject: Privacy-Protected Transfer of Value in Telecomuunications Organization: CWI, Amsterdam Date: Tue, 22 Mar 1994 11:05:17 GMT I am a PhD student at the Cryptography Department at the Center for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) in Amsterdam. In the past two years, I have developed a compact set of new techniques that enable the construction of highly efficient and secure electronic systems for off-line transfer of certified information, such that privacy is fully guaranteed. The resulting systems offers a great many advantages over any other privacy-protected systems you will find. In particular, using a subset of these techniques I have contructed off-line electronic cash systems in which the privacy of the account holders is fully guaranteed. These systems are the most practical such systems to date. I am posting this letter because I am very interested in pursuing the implementation of my systems *jointly*, in a fair business relationship, with a company capable of and interested in standardizing these systems. My technologies / systems are suitable for use in telecommunications (interactive TV etc) , smart cards, hand held computers, etcetera. All the rights to the technology have been transferred to me by CWI, and so part of such a cooperation might be joint ownership of all rights. The reason for posting this letter in TELECOM Digest is that I see no other way to get in touch with interested parties. Before I go deeper into this, I would like to give you some more information about my technologies, and explain their many features. If you are not interested, but think you can help me by suggesting names etc., I would appreciate your suggestions. Privacy-protected transfer of electronic information. ----------------------------------------------------- Much work has been done to construct privacy-protected off-line cash systems previously, notably by David Chaum (formerly affiliated with CWI). This early work has resulted in two key concepts that can be used to attain the same level of security against double-spending as can trivially be attained in off-line cash systems with full traceability of payments. However, the many practical *realizations* of these concepts that have been proposed are far from satisfactory with respect to efficiency, provability of security (relative to certain well-known problems that are widely believed to be intractable), and extensibility in functionality. The new techniques I developed for my PhD thesis overcome *all* of these problems. They enable the construction of privacy-protected off-line cash systems that are almost as efficient as off-line cash systems that do *not* offer privacy. Succesful attacks against such a system provably imply that one can break a certain well-known signature scheme that is widely believed to be secure (such as the Schnorr scheme, the Guillou/Quisquater scheme, the schemes presented by Okamoto at CRYPTO 92, the Fiat/Shamir scheme etc.). The techniques in fact allow the construction of a highly efficient off-line cash system whose security (and that of all the extensions in functionality!) is based on the security of any one signature scheme of the so-called Fiat/Shamir type. Among the extensions in functionality are: prior restraint of double-spending, electronic cheques, protection against framing, currency exchange, anonymous accounts, and multi-spendable coins. All these extensions can be realized very easily without any need for additional data stuctures or basic algorithms (that is, *no* ad hoc constructions). In particular, prior restraint of double-spending can be achieved by using a tamper-resistant computing device that is capable of merely performing a signature scheme of the Fiat/Shamir type (of one's own choice), such as the Schnorr signature scheme. A highly preliminary report about a small subset of these techniques, based on the Discrete Logarithm problem, has been published by me about a year ago as a technical report at CWI. (A PostScript version of this report can be retrieved by ftp from ftp.cwi.nl, as pub/brands/CS-R9323.ps.). In August 1993 I presented these preliminary results at the CRYPTO 1993 conference in Santa Barbara. The final version of this abstract can also be retrieved by ftp from ftp.cwi.nl, as pub/brands/crypto93.ps. It's succesful acceptance can be measured by the fact that the techniques and systems in the report are currently being used as the basis for an electronic cash system by the European CAFE project, a project with 13 European partners from industry and science. I understand that some other implementations based on my report are under way as well. New developments. ----------------- In the mean time, however, I have significantly improved and greatly extended the techniques described in the preliminary report. Furthermore, I came up with a fully RSA-based variant that offers various advantages over the Discrete Log based variant. As an interesting side note, the improved techniques do *not* use the blind signature technique as developed and patented by David Chaum. The full set of techniques can be used to construct highly efficient privacy-protected off-line mechanisms for transferring certified information, the security of which again can be *proven* assuming only the security of a certain well-known signature scheme of the Fiat/Shamir type of one's own choice. The off-line cash systems are in fact just one very particular instance of the general applicability of the complete set of techniques; it is a system in which credentials that may be shown only once can be transferred between any "organizations" while privacy is guaranteed. As an example of the usefulness of the new techniques, highly efficient and secure off-line cash systems can be constructed in which payments are made under pseudonym: in order to pay with a coin, an accountholder need do no more than send 35 bytes to an "organization" at which he has a pseudonym. For those who want to know in detail about the *many* features of the new techniques, as well as the performance of several preferred embodiments of systems that can be contructed from them, I have prepared a document that can be retrieve by ftp from ftp.cwi.nl, again in the directory pub/brands. There is a PostScript version called features.ps, as well as a plain text version called features.plain. Why am I posting this letter? ----------------------------- As I already mentioned at the start of this letter, I am very interested in pursuing the implementation of my systems *jointly*, in a fair business relationship, with a company capable of and interested in standardizing these systems. I am in the process of finishing my PhD thesis, which deals exclusively with these technologies. If you have read the detailed description of the features in my ``features'' document, then I have no doubt that you will agree with me that these systems offer a great many advantages over any other privacy-protected system for off-line transfer of digital information. In general, if you want to implement electronic systems for secure transfer of certified information, whether it be cash or other types of credentials, such that privacy can be guaranteed, then you will find out that this is *the* way to go. I am not involved with any project or company whatsoever. In particular, I want like to point out that I am not involved in the CAFE project, and I also do not have business relations with the company (DigiCash) of David Chaum, although I greatly respect his innovative work on privacy-protected transfer of electronic information. In fact, all rights on my technologies have been transferred to me by my employer, CWI. Due to the fact that my research was done independently of any project or company, it is extremely hard for me to get in touch with the appropriate persons at companies that are really interested in this technology *and* that have the capability of implementing it. Since projects and companies that I am not part of obviously do not provide me with such information, I see no better way to bring my technologies under the attention than by publishing this letter on the news net. If you are interested in my technologies, and want to pursue implementation together with me in the *near* future, I invite you to contact me. We can then discuss things further. Part of such a cooperation might be *sharing* with me the rights to my technologies. My fax number is (31) 30 - 546 468 This is also my telephone number; however, I would prefer if you send fax or e-mail. My e-mail address at CWI is brands@cwi.nl. In case you are interested in having my work reviewed beforehand by some cryptography authority, to make sure I am not talking nonsense, I am happy to send to you a detailed description of my work. I guarantee you that he or she will not be able to break it, and will confirm the many statements I make about the benefits of my technologies. In addition, or alternatively, depending on the circumstances, I am happy to come over and explain my technologies in person with you. Alternatively, if you are not interested in my technologies, but you think you can help me with pointers to persons at companies that might be interested in this technology, I would very much appreciate any such suggestions. Stefan Brands, CWI, Kruislaan 413, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands Tel: +31 20 5924103, e-mail: brands@cwi.nl ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 1994 12:16:10 -0800 From: whitmore@tahoma.cwu.edu (Rattlesnake Stu) Subject: Music on Hold Organization: Central Washington University I picked up a music-on-hold module at a local Radio Shack discount store (where they unload discontinueds, display models, etc.), and after some testing determined (according to the supplied manual) that it is not compatible with the hold button on my phone. I wouldn't mind getting a new phone, but I'd like to know what to look for to ensure compatibility with this module. My current phone uses "electronic hold", as does every phone I've looked at as a likely replacement -- is this always going to be incompatible with the music-on-hold box? I have no idea how the music-on-hold module determines when to play the music and when not to -- it does have a sensitivity adjustment, but I have no idea what, exactly, it is being sensitive to. The way it is connected is via a Y splitter on the phone line; one lead goes to the phone, the other goes to the music-on-hold box: /-------- phone Wall: ----------- \-------- music box with annoying digital music If anyone has any experience with this item, or even general suggestions on what I should look for if I replace the phone, I'd really appreciate it. TIA, Stuart Whitmore FAX: (509) 925-3893 Data: Same as FAX whitmore@tahoma.cwu.edu whitmore@cwu.bitnet 71221.1737@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: MTOVAR@KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU Subject: Extension Cord For Cell Phone Date: 21 Mar 94 20:53:15 CST Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services Can anybody tell me where I can purchase an extension cord for my cellular phone? I tried my local Radio Shack but they don't carry this. It appears to be an 8 wire connection. In case you are wondering, I'm not crazy :). My boyfriend lives in a city thats a local call on cellular, but LD from my home. And, of course, my cell phone is mounted in the car. I'm looking for a way to stretch it into the house. E-mail replies are appreciated! Monica mtovar@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 94 23:15 EST From: Lars Nohling Subject: Cellular Roaming Charges Are then any tricks to cutting costs on the high roaming rates many cellular carriers charge ? Any sort of Resellers who provide discounts like in the Long Distance business ? Lars Nohling lnohling@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 21 Mar 94 23:10:48 -0500 Subject: Stentor (Canada) Starts VideoRoute Organization: FidoNet {The Toronto Star} reported this week that an occasional-use video fibre service called VideoRoute will begin this month. VideoRoute is an offering of the Stentor consortium of major Canadian telcos (Bell Canada, BC Tel, Maritime Tel & Tel etc). The intent is to provide an alternative to satellite transmission, especially useful in the wake of the recent Anik satellite mishaps. ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 21 Mar 94 22:30:01 -0500 Subject: Belarus Yellow Pages Organization: FidoNet I found a copy of a recent English-language directory for Minsk (which I believe is now spelled Mensk), Belarus. Apart from listings of companies, some other things can be found. Cellular/mobile phone services in Belarus are done by Belcel. Belpak is the packet switching/e-mail company in that country. Their e-mail address is listed as root%belpak.minsk.by@demons.su (or S=helpdesk/O=rtte/A=belpak/C-by which is presumably their x.400). Some service codes: Bus Station Inquiry 004 Railway Station Inquiry 005 Airport Inquiry Service 006 City Telephone Net. 008 Fire 01 Police 02 Ambulance 03 Gas 04 Booking Railway Tickets 051 Telephone Code Inquiry 053 Taxi Order 061 Central Inquiry 065 Telegraph 066 Housing Service 067 Chemistry Info. Service 069 "Intertown" Tel. Info Service 07 International Call Order 080 Time 088 Minsk City Info. Service 09 It seems that a feature of the old Soviet dialing system not only used area codes (8 + area code), but also a series of regional area codes beginning with 2. For instance, Molodechno has a code of 273, but for international dialing or from other parts of country code 7, this would be 01773. (Note the last '73' is common to both codes). The 2xx series of codes appear to be valid only within the caller's region. A similar setup appeared in the Kiev, Ukraine directory and also an Estonian directory (although Estonia is country code 372, and no longer under country code 7). The address for the directory office is: Yellow Pages Minsk office Opanskogo Str. 25, 6th floor 220079 Minsk tel: +7 0172 546878 fax: +7 0172 543142 I have no connection with the "Yellow Pages Minsk" other than stumbling on a copy recently. David Leibold ------------------------------ From: zeno@athena.mit.edu (Richard Duffy) Subject: "Howdy Mail"? Scrawl-Like Writing Device Date: 22 Mar 1994 15:55:00 GMT Organization: Massachvsetts Institvte of Technology Has anyone heard of a digital writing device presumably using lightpens or something equivalent, that has two "terminals" for people to use to communicate over the phone as if by writing? So it might operate something like the Unix "scrawl" game. This would be for deaf people to use in place of TTY terminals, for example. Nippon Telephone & Telegraph once had such a thing which they called Howdy Mail, no longer sold or manufactured as far as I know. If you know of something like this, or a possible source for someone to buy a working model of Howdy Mail, please e-mail me with information including costs if possible. Thanks very much. (Excuse this if it has appeared twice). Richard Duffy, Internet: zeno@mit.edu Bitnet: zeno%athena@MITVMA Tel: +1 617 253 7404 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I'd think with the advent a decade or more ago of terminals and modems with communication programs, most of those devices you are speaking about would have fallen into disuse and been discontinued in their manufacture. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rmg@barrnet.net (Robert Michael Gutierrez) Subject: Re: An Obscene Caller Gets Caught, 1965 Date: 21 Mar 1994 22:46:34 GMT Organization: Bay Area Regional Research Network (BARRNet) Reply-To: rmg@barrnet.net (Robert Michael Gutierrez) PAT says: > This is not so today of course. Gone are the frames and the spaghetti- > like mountains of wires everywhere. Now-a-days a technician need merely > type a few keys on the keyboard of his terminal and he'll know perfectly > well who is talking to whom; when they started the connection and when > they finished, and more... As of five years ago, it still was difficult to trace out a call (before the advent of SS7 and DAPs). Having once worked at MCI's Western Region Network Management Center in Hayward (before they discovered the Hayward fault was nearby and moved to Sacramento), I worked as a Network Analyist and did trend and analysis for residental and small commercial LD calls. Trending and analysis on their OCIS system (On-Line Customer Information System) compromised of the customer calling customer service, and a rep taking a "trouble report" of the call the customer had difficulty with. The report screen on the IBM 3170 terminals consisted of no more than an originating and called number and time. If OCIS detected a trend of three or more calls that were from the same general area and time, it generated a real trouble ticket on TMS (Trouble Management System), which I then recieved. Armed with that information from the trouble ticket, I then had to do a search on the switch in question so I could find out the trunk group(s) that were having a problem, taken them OOS (out of service) and refer the ticket to either transmission or switch maintainence. You usually found out which trunk group it was by doing a typical call search within the time span indicated on the trended report.@ Not with a DMS-250 you dont! A call search on a DMS-250 was like mixing molasses with epoxy and watching it pour out onto your pancakes. For every minute you want to expand the call search window, it would add ten minutes search time. And god forbid that you did a wildcard search for the phone number. You could count on doubling your search time! Example: 1 call, with both telephone numbers with a 5 minute window (2.5 minutes each way) = approx 15-30 minutes search time. 1 call, with only a/c+prefix on a 5 minute window = 40-60 minutes. Now, I do digress, Northern Telecom has supposedly alleviated that problem with their "Super-Node" front-end processor (of which I did not have the opportunity to test out myself). And, of course, with DAPs and SAPs in a typical SS7 network, you can look up call records in a matter of seconds now. Robert Gutierrez Engineer, BARRNet (Bay Area Regional Research Network) ------------------------------ From: coyne@thing1.cc.utexas.edu Subject: Re: CDPD, PCS, PCN, and Digital Cellular? Date: 22 Mar 1994 00:05:32 GMT Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas In article mds@access.digex.net (Michael D. Sullivan) writes: > (3) PCS -- Personal Communications Services -- this is defined by the > . . . .The FCC has allocated spectrum from the 900 > MHz band for "new narrowband PCS" -- also known as advanced messaging > services, such as mobile data, portable email, and two-way paging -- > and from the 2 GHz band for "new broadband PCS" -- which includes, > potentially, clones of today's cellular service, as well as > "microcell" service, with base stations that may be only 1000 feet or > so apart, oriented toward handheld service for pedestrians, not > motorists. > Broadband PCS *will* be in competition with cellular (analog and > digital), when it happens, more or less. Narrowband PCS *will* be in > competition with CPDP and other mobile data services, when it gets off > the ground. I think this sort of comment about PCS represents the sort of failed imagination that brought us the PC with a 640K limit. Pedestrians on the street will not be the eventual primary user of Microcell phones. Those who must communicate on the run have already bought a cell phone and will insist on talking from cars. Microcell users will be nomadic apartment dwellers who do not want to pay the $100 plus installation fees twice a year, teleholics who cannot afford macrocell, kids who live with dad one week and mom the next, teenagers at slumber parties and baby sitter jobs, parents who have surrendered the copper to the kids, and more. As pulling copper or glass gets more expensive and silicon gets cheaper, neighborhoods will be built without land lines at all. When dial tone competition comes, this will be attractive to second service providers as an access method that drastically reduces easement requirements and can be installed rapidly. A microcell base could be easily concealed in a street light except for a very small antenna and take about as long as a street light to install. These guys are superstock cordless phones and not crippled cell phones. That makes a big difference in who your competition is and in your potential market size. I cannot wait until I read about microcells in crime infested areas that will not accept coins and must be pulse dialed. ;-) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #141 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa22002; 23 Mar 94 14:53 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA01016; Wed, 23 Mar 94 10:03:20 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA01005; Wed, 23 Mar 94 10:03:18 CST Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 10:03:18 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403231603.AA01005@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #142 TELECOM Digest Wed, 23 Mar 94 10:03:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 142 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Sprint in China (John D. Gretzinger) Technical References and Suppliers (Gary Ross) FAX/Modem/Phone/Answering Machine Software (Peter Leif Rasmussen) BT Phone Numbering (Bill Buchan) Please Explain the Phrase 'Steaming Terminal' (sematkos@syr.edu) Windows or DOS Caller ID Program (Steve Lindsay) Cellular Phone Hacking (Bob Zigon) Telecom Business Idea (Dale Van Voorst) New Area Code For Los Angeles (David Whiteman) MS-Kermit Keyboard Commands (grantm@delphi.com) Re: Belarus Yellow Pages (Garrett Wollman) Re: Hush-a-Phone (Pawel Dobrowolski) Re: Hush-a-Phone (Michael D. Sullivan) 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, 22 Mar 1994 19:27:42 -0500 From: JOHN.D.GRETZINGER@sprint.sprint.com Subject: Sprint in China Interesting press release I thought you might like. THIS RELEASE WAS DISTRIBUTED IN CHINA ONLY. Contacts: Janis Langley, (O) 202-828-7427 SPRINT EXPANDS PRESENCE IN CHINA, INTRODUCES NEW SERVICES BEIJING, March 21, 1994 -- Sprint today announced a significant expansion of its presence, and product and service offerings, in China. Sprint also announced the immediate availability of three of those services -- a toll-free Sprint Express(R) number for calling worldwide and for collect calling to the United States, a prepaid calling card, and CLEARLINE(R) international private-line service. Sprint made the announcements today at a press briefing and two-day seminar to inform customers and leading Chinese organizations of the company's expanded local capabilities. Sprint is one of the largest telecommunications carriers in the United States, providing innovative calling services to nearly 8 million customers in that country alone. Sprint offers voice, video and data communications services worldwide via some of the world's largest and most advanced networks. Sprint is a pioneer and innovator in technology. It built the first nationwide (40,000 kilometer) all-digital, fiber-optic network in the United States. It also is the first carrier to offer such advanced services as Asynchronous Transfer Mode -- a broadband service that simultaneously carries voice, data and image -- and a voice-recognition calling card that automatically dials frequently called numbers with a single-word command, such as "home" or "office." Sprint has operated locally in China since 1992 through an office in Beijing that primarily offered data communications systems support for the company's growing customer base. Its Beijing office now has expanded to 15 employees who represent the company's increasingly diverse capabilities in consumer services, including the Sprint Prepaid Calling Card and Sprint FONCARD(SM); international network solutions for large-scale multinational users; data communications systems and services; and international carrier services to provide transit and capacity for telecommunications carriers worldwide. Sprint China will immediately begin to offer several of Sprint's versatile and cost-effective calling products: a toll-free Sprint Express number for global calling and collect calls to the United States; Sprint's Prepaid Calling Card; and its CLEARLINE international private line service. o Sprint Express -- By dialing "108-13," callers in China can place collect calls to family and colleagues in the United States, and also charge calls to the United States and worldwide using their major credit card or Sprint FONCARD. Operator assistance is available in English, with Mandarin support planned. o Sprint's Prepaid Calling Card, which initially will be available only through a limited market test, lets consumers pre- purchase calling credits that they can use from any telephone without needing exact change. The card carries attractive designer graphics -- suitable for collectors -- and offers the added convenience of operator assistance. Callers can use the prepaid calling card from nearly 30 countries for calls to virtually any other country worldwide -- including the United States. Mandarin-language instructions are available for calls from China (by dialing 108-16). The card can also be used in more than 28 countries worldwide to make calls back to China or to virtually anywhere in the world. o CLEARLINE international private-line service lets large-scale users consolidate their international calling to receive volume discounts. The service is provided via Sprint's worldwide network, which extends from the United States through its participation in virtually every major submarine fiber-optic cable system project. "Sprint has been active in China for several years, and we are delighted to be able to expand our commitment to users in this important market by offering some of the other feature-rich, cost effective products popular in the United States and worldwide," said Herb Bradley, China country manager for Sprint International, Sprint's global telecommunications subsidiary. "We believe that businesses and consumers will benefit from these innovative services as much in China as they have in the United States, and we look forward to building on strong relationships we have formed with many Chinese organizations in delivering these new services," he said. Elsewhere in the Pacific Rim, Sprint has data network points of presence in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. It also has an office in Hong Kong, which provides sales and technical support for Sprint's business interests in Hong Kong, Indochina, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore. Sprint operates fiber-optic and value-added networks that are among the world's largest, offering voice services to over 290 countries and locations, packet-switched data links to more than 120 countries and international locations, and video services via one of the world's largest videoconferencing networks, serving nearly 40 countries. Sprint also has U.S. cellular operations that serve 42 metropolitan markets and more than 50 rural service areas. The company has more than 50,000 employees and has operations in six continents through more than 50 subsidiaries, joint ventures and distributors. Sprint's customers include 80 percent of the 500 largest U.S. industrial corporations (the "Fortune 500"), and the U.S. federal government, which awarded Sprint a contract to provide 40 percent of the government's total long distance services, and data and video services, over a 10-year period. ----------------- John D. Gretzinger [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for sending this along John. I'm sure not that many folks realized the extent of Sprint's involvement in telecom in China. I know I didn't. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ross@newton.emba.uvm.edu (Gary Ross) Subject: Technical References and Suppliers Organization: University of Vermont -- Division of EMBA Computer Facility Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 00:40:52 GMT Hi, I'm the MIS/Telecom Director for a $20 million dollar company. I support a midframe host, a ROLM 9751 CBX, and an ethernet LAN with about 40 nodes along with lots of other sundry devices. I'm looking for: a) Several good *practical* reference books on general telecom issues, especially, cable plant management (cable classification, how to build a MDF, IDF, set up do cross wiring fields, merits of 66 vs 110 blocks, etc.) Also, datacomm (stat vs TD muxing, voice/data muxing, modem stuff, asynch vs synch, serial, parallel, packet switching, frame relay, ATM, etc). b) The names/addresses/phone numbers of large, "world-class" suppliers of telecom/datacomm materials (tools, blocks, cable, racks, electronics, etc.). I know of Anixter and Alltel, who else? I am in VT. What I'm up to is -- I have a small grassroots department. We prefer to do most of the work ourselves. Even when we don't do it, I need the knowledge in order to design clever systems. Thanks in advance for the help. BTW, I need to purchase some additional test sets. I have a TS-21 which is fine but I wondered if the TS-19 is adeqaute for in-plant use, and is the TS-22 an overall better value that TS-21? Most work is indoors and lots of datacomm is involved. Gary Ross MIS Director Gardener's Supply Company ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 11:17:34 JST From: plr@ichigo.os.nasu.toshiba.co.jp (Peter Leif Rasmussen) Subject: FAX/Modem/Phone/Answering Machine Software I wonder if there is anyone out there who knows about some software to integrate the simultaneous use of both functions in a FAX/Modem card with a telephone and answering machine? My problem is that I have a PC with a FAX/Modem installed and with the software I know of, there aren't any available that is able to distinguish between a modem and a FAX call. What I want to do is, to make my PC able to receive FAX and modem connections unatended. This is because some of my friends have a PC with a modem whereas some just have a FAX machine. The telephone/answering machine and FAX/Modem can be split with a device made to do that (around USD 60), but if it was possible to put all of it in the same software it would be very convenient. I know I could just buy a separate modem for the modem connection, but in the name of efficiency :-) and to save expansion slots in my notebook PC I would like to try this out. I therefore wonder if anyone knows about existing software or have any pointers to information about such things? Email me directly and I will summarize in case I get any response. Peter Rasmussen ------------------------------ From: Bill Buchan Subject: BT Phone Numbering Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh Date: Tue, 22 Mar 1994 17:46:42 GMT A few years ago British Telecom added a prefix 7 to all the four-digit phone numbers in my parents' area. At the time we assumed this would increase the scope of available numbers (ie. 0XXXX-6XXXX and 8XXXX-9XXXX) but no such numbers have ever been introduced. This year they have introduced a further prefix 4, so that now all the numbers are in the form 47XXXX. It doesn't make much difference to me (since I call them with a memory button!) but I was just wondering why this was done -- why add yet another prefix when the previous one has not been needed? Is BT trying to standardize six-digit numbers outside the cities, or is this something to do with the new area codes next year -- there are only 20000 people in my parent's town, so surely they don't need the option of a million phone numbers! Just wondering - thanks for any info. Bill ------------------------------ From: steve Subject: Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal' Organization: Syracuse University Date: Tue, 22 Mar 1994 21:55:33 GMT Could someone explain what this term means. Please email. Thank you! ------------------------------ From: slindsay@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Steve Lindsay) Subject: Windows or DOS Caller ID Program Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept. Date: Tue, 22 Mar 94 16:11:44 GMT Does anyone know of a little DOS or Windows shareware program that will act like the one of those caller ID boxes? Or is there some AT commands I can type in to my communication program to extract the phone number that is calling me? I don't want my modem to answer; just tell me what number is dialing me. Thank for any help. ------------------------------ From: Bob Zigon Subject: Cellular Phone Hacking Date: 23 Mar 1994 07:46:24 GMT Organization: Truevision, Inc Is this the right newsgroup to ask questions about Cellular Phone Hacking? If not, could you please suggest a newsgroup? If this is the right group, are there any ftp sites that contain documents about how cellular phones work? How to clone phones? Bob Zigon Sr. Software Engineer Truevision, Inc. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is against the law to clone cellular phones. Illegal activities are not condoned here, although you might find a newsgroup here and there on Abusenet where they talk about such things in lurid detail. There is an alt group for phreaks (or do you pronounce it freaks?) but I forget its name. The Telecom Archives has some stuff on cellular phones (use anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu, then 'cd telecom-archives') and some stuff on toll fraud but nothing specifically on how to clone cellular phones. Probably someone reading this will know the name of the alt group and tell you what it is. PAT] ------------------------------ From: voorst@dordt.edu (Dale Van Voorst) Subject: Telecom Business Idea Date: 23 Mar 1994 04:52:53 GMT Organization: Dordt College - Sioux Center, IA I am looking for input on a telecommunications business idea that I have. I live in a relatively small town that does not have local access numbers for any of the on-line services (Compuserve, Prodigy, AOL, etc). If you want to access these services, you must pay long distance charges on top of your normal membership fees. This is a major obstacle to private (home) users. Since many people are buying computers with modems and software (and often trial Compuserve memberships), I feel there may be a market for providing a local access number that would give them a dial-tone in a neighboring city, thus allowing them to dial the service of their choice. The theory then would be that I could offer them a significantly lower rate then a normal long distance call. Basically, I would purchase the equivalant of an FX line from the city and then have a system that my subscribers could call into, that would verify who is calling and check to see if they really are a "subscriber" of my service. If so, it would give them a dial-tone in the city. As I see it, in order to really make it work, I would need a number of lines available. It would seem that getting a 56 KB line and multiplex- ing out a bunch of phone lines at each end would be a reasonable idea. Here's where my questions begin: 1) Is it as (relatively) simple as it seems to multiplex several voice grade lines onto a 56 KB line? 2) Any hardware suggestions to accomplish this? Cost estimates? 3) Will high speed modems work properly over a line like that? 4) What kind of a system might exist that would allow me to do the caller verification (don't have caller id yet :-() and then pass the call through? (I'm thinking of having something like a six digit customer identifier so that a dial string on a customer might look like: ATDT123-4567,837463,987-2342 where "123-4567" is my local service number, "837463" is their customer code, "987-2342" is the on-line service number in the city. 5) Are there any governmental regulations regarding this type of activity? To protect myself, I would only allow local dialing over the FX lines so that even if someone get passed the subscriber check, they couldn't ring up big long-distance bills. I haven't penciled out if you could actually make money on this or not; I figured I may as well find out if it's technically feasible first. Any feedback, comments, ideas, input, or whatever, on this idea would be much appreciated. Dale Van Voorst voorst@dordt.edu ------------------------------ From: dbw@netcom.com (David Whiteman) Subject: New Area Code For Los Angeles Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 09:58:09 GMT Pacific Bell announced a new "overlay" area code for Los Angeles. (Is Overlay an official telephone term?) The area code 562 will overlay the areas covered by the 310, 818, 213 area codes for new pagers and cellular phones. This new area code will take effect 3/96 (One news source said 3/95). Also the 310 area code is rapidly filling up. Pacific Bell is considering programs to entice new cellular phone customers to request the 818 or 213 area codes instead of the 310 code. New cellular phone customers who ask for the 818 or 213 codes may be allowed to remain in that area code, but new 310 customers, and maybe current 310 customers, may be forced to switch to 562. ------------------------------ From: Mark Subject: MS-Kermit Keyboard Commands Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 09:01:03 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) I am running MS-Kermit on my 386 PC, connecting to a VAX 8550 cluster running VMS. The VAX is running All-In-One Office Automation Package and WPSPLUS editor. The WPSPlus requires the use of certain keys on the PC-Keypad for some of its editing and curso n control features. MS-Kermit doesn't seem to want to send those control sequences to the VAX. It just sends the numeric keypad characters. I am running MS-Kermit in the VT320 emulation mode. Is this just something not supported by MS-Kermit, am I miss ing a file, or have I set something up wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Please reply via E-Mail to grant@eglin.af.mil. Mark ------------------------------ From: wollman@ginger.lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Belarus Yellow Pages Date: 22 Mar 1994 23:11:18 GMT Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science In article , Dave Leibold wrote: > Belpak is the packet switching/e-mail company in that country. Their > e-mail address is listed as root%belpak.minsk.by@demons.su (or > S=helpdesk/O=rtte/A=belpak/C-by which is presumably their x.400). Seeing this address led me to make a few probes into the Domain Name Service to see which former Soviet republics have made it into the top-level nameservers and which ones haven't ... Currently, service in Russia is still performed under the `.su' domain, and they have IP connectivity through three separate connect- ions (one between DEMOS and AlterNet, one between EUNET and KIAE, and one between NASA and ???). The Ukraine uses its own domain, `.ua', but I am unable to come up with any host addresses which would enable me to tell if they have IP connectivity and if so through whom. (The nameserver records indicate that they come from Moscow.) Belarus does not have a registered domain. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia all have registered domains, `.lt', `.lv', and `.ee', respectively; Estonia and Latvia are IP connected through NORDUnet and Unisource Business Networks, respectively. It appears that these are the only former-Soviet domains registered. All of the former-Yugoslav republics which have been widely recognized have had domains registered, including Slovenia (`.si'), Croatia (`.hr'), and most recently Macedonia (`.mk'), which caused much whining from the Greek contingent (but to no avail, thank God and Jon Postel). Slovenia appears to be connected to the Internet through an X.25 gateway at the Dutch PTT; Croatia through the Austrian Ebone member network. Garrett A. Wollman wollman@lcs.mit.edu formerly known as wollman@emba.uvm.edu ------------------------------ From: dobrowol@husc8.harvard.edu (Pawel Dobrowolski) Subject: Re: Hush-a-Phone Date: 21 Mar 1994 18:04:28 GMT Organization: Harvard University Science Center Hush-A-Phone was a small plastic cup to be fitted on the mouthpiece of a telephone to facilitate a phone conversation in a noisy office. I think that it was marketed around 1948/9?. At the time there was a tariff which prohibited the connection of any non-Bell device to the network. Upon learning about this device AT&T threatened to disconnect the phones of anyone using this device (mind you the device didn't have an actual connection to the network it was just a piece of plastic one would slide onto the mouthpiece of the telephone). The manufacturer appealed to the FCC, but the FCC ruled in AT&T's favor. In 1956 the manufacturer appealed to the US circuit court of appeals for the District of Columbia (that's where all appeals against FCC decisions are made, because the FCC is located in DC). The court ruled against AT&T. This was a very important decision (although people didn't think so at the time) because it paved the way for other manufacturers to be allowed to connect their devices to the network thus demonopolizing the telephone equipment market. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The final message in this issue will discuss this case in more detail. Did you know there was a case in which AT&T sued the publisher of the plastic covers which go on phone books (with local advertising, etc) claiming that these also -- the phone book covers) were unauthorized 'attachments to the network'? I am being serious; AT&T really made a case out of that also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mds@access.digex.net (Michael D. Sullivan) Subject: Re: Hush-a-Phone Date: 22 Mar 1994 00:51:31 -0500 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA sbrack@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu (Steve Brack) writes: > A few days ago, someone mentioned the Hush-a-Phone case. I was wondering > what that case was about. Hush-a-Phone Corp. v. United States was a 1956 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. AT&T's tariff on file with the FCC prohibited "foreign attachments" -- that is attachments to AT&T's (and its subsidiaries' and connecting carriers') equipment and facilities. The tariff made it unlawful to attach anything to your phone, among other things. The Hush-A-Phone Corp. dreamed up a doodad they could sell in the ads in comic books, Popular Mechanix, etc., that supposedly allowed you to talk on the phone with greater privacy. It was a little box (originally metal, later plastic) that strapped onto the handset over the mouthpiece; it had a hole to allow sound to pass to the telephone's transmitter (microphone) and a bigger hole on the opposite side that you could stick your mouth in. You would put your mouth in this hole and talk, and baffles in the box would prevent folks near you from overhearing you tell your bookie which race you were betting on. Kind of like cupping your hands over your mouth and the handset. So goes the theory. In fact, it really muffled the sound going over the phone almost as much. AT&T found out about this device (they probably read Popular Mechanix) and asked the FCC to rule that it was a foreign attachment, and therefore illegal to put on your phone. AT&T argued that it caused a degradation in the quality of transmission carefully engineered into the phone, and that the parties to a call might complain to AT&T about the quality, thinking it was AT&T's fault, or refuse to pay the bill. The FCC ruled for AT&T. Hush-a-Phone Corp. appealed. The court reversed the FCC's decision. In essence, the court reasoned that nobody in their right mind would blame AT&T for the lousy sound, and that some idiots might actually consider this widget desirable, for whatever reason. (Actually, I think the court held that AT&T had not provided evidentiary support for its position that it would actually degrade service in a way that could be attributed to AT&T.) The court therefore ruled the tariff restriction on foreign attachments to be unreasonable, in this case, because it interfered with the subscriber's right to use telephone service in a way that was "privately beneficial" but not "publicly injurious." (I don't have the case in front of me, but I think this is essentially accurate.) So the Hush-a-Phone device was allowed to be sold, and the company eventually went out of business because not too many people wanted muffled telephone calls (or at least didn't want to pay for a device that muffled their calls when cupping one's hands worked the same). The significance of this case is that the opinion formed the foundation for later decisions striking tariff restrictions that interfered with the public's right to attach equipment that was privately beneficial yet not publicly injurious. The first of these was the FCC's Carterfone decision, which allowed (get this) an acoustic coupler -- yes, the earmuff-type things -- to be placed over a phone handset, permitting a private radio system to be manually acoustically interconnected with the telephone network. The FCC held that even if a long-distance patron experienced some static when talking to a mobile radio user connected by the Carterfone, there was a private benefit and no real public detriment. The next step, of course, was to eliminate the earmuffs and try direct electrical interconnection. At first, AT&T allowed electrical interconnection only through its "protective coupling arrangements" or PCAs, which would protect the telephone network from melting down if your connected equipment (a phone, PBX, broadcast console, answering machine, or computer modem) shorted to the power line. Of course, the PCA cost almost as much each month as AT&T's alternative to your equipment. So some manufacturers decided to build PCA-like devices right into their equipment. AT&T, of course, insisted on connecting your brand X PCA to their PCA, just to be sure the network was protected. Guess how many $40 phones anybody could sell that required a $40 PCA from AT&T, when an AT&T phone cost the same or less, but didn't require a PCA? The FCC decided it couldn't protect AT&T from equipment competition any longer. First, it allowed an equipment manufacturer to incorporate an AT&T-manufactured PCA. Then it allowed the manufacturer to incorporate its own PCA and prove it was good enough to protect AT&T from perdition. Finally, it decided to adopt its own standards (based on AT&T's own standards) and started a certification program that tested and certified equipment meeting the specs, which are in Part 68 of the FCC rules. Each certified piece of equipment would be given a number, and a telephone company could not refuse to provide service to registered, certified equipment. AT&T tried to buy the FCC off at this point with the need for a standard reference point for testing, i.e., each customer could connect any registered equipment they wanted, as long as the first thing hooked up was suppled by AT&T (this was the "Primary Instrument Concept"), but the FCC said no. AT&T also didn't like it when the FCC said that even AT&T's own equipment had to meet the AT&T spec the feds had adopted (turns out some didn't). The registration/certification program was upheld in the early '70s by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in North Carolina Utilities Commission v. FCC II, on the grounds that unrestricted interconnection of terminal equipment was privately beneficial yet not publicly injurious, as long as it was certified as meeting the spec. And so the CPE industry was spawned. Now you can buy a phone at the grocery, drug, or hardware store for about what you used to pay each month for rental under the AT&T tariff. Of course, the phone isn't designed to last for 30 years, either. The next step where Hush-a-Phone came in for a major role was in MCI's attempt to get into the switched long-distance market, but that's another story entirely. Michael D. Sullivan | mds@access.digex.net avogadro@well.sf.ca.us Washington, D.C. | 74160.1134@compuserve.com mikesullivan@bix.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Over the years, AT&T really brought on a lot of their own problems that they are having today didn't they. Imagine how much different things would be today had AT&T taken much less miltant stance with the Carterphone/Hush-a-Phone cases and with MCI in its early days. It is likely the whole industry would be entirely different. And yes, AT&T did once sue the publisher of the plastic directory covers with a claim that such 'unauthorized attachments' might cause people to complain to the phone company about the quality of the directory. They lost that case also. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #142 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa23891; 23 Mar 94 17:15 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA04945; Wed, 23 Mar 94 12:38:04 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA04935; Wed, 23 Mar 94 12:38:02 CST Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 12:38:02 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403231838.AA04935@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #143 TELECOM Digest Wed, 23 Mar 94 12:38:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 143 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson New Area Code 562 For Southern California (Ken Jongsma) New LA Area Code (Rich Greenberg) New Area Code 630 For Existing 708 in Illinois (Paul Cook) Re: Country Code For San Marino (Steve Cogorno) Re: Country Code For San Marino (Bill Hofmann) Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update (Cliff Sharp) Re: CID Did Not Show Number (Andreas S. Ulrich) Re: Extension Cord For Cell Phone (puma@netcom.com) Re: SIT Tones - Where in the Archives? (Gordon Torrie) Re: SIT Tones - Where in the Archives? (Al Varney) Re: International Free Numbers (John McHarry) Re: Alphanumeric Pager Software (Kenn Krasner) MCI and Sprint Information Needed (Shirley Mann) SS7 Information Wanted (Graeme Steyn) Who Paid For My 550? (Jim Cluett) Questions on Shannon's Law (Karim Ismail) BellSouth ISDN Announcement (William H. Sohl) Last Laugh! Bauds, Baudlets, Baby Bauds and Such 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, 23 Mar 1994 11:07:14 EST From: Ken Jongsma Reply-To: jongsma@swdev.si.com Subject: New Area Code: 562 According to an AP newswire brief, Southern California (areacodes 310, 213 and 818) will be getting an overlay areacode of 562. This code will be reserved for cellular phones and pagers. Kenneth R Jongsma jongsma@swdev.si.com Smiths Industries 73115.1041@compuserve.com Grand Rapids, Michigan +1 616 241 7702 ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 09:14:08 PST Reply-To: richgr@netcom.com Subject: New LA Area Code Pacific Bell & GTE just anounced that in 1996, LA will get its fourth area code. 562 will overlay the present 213-818-310 areas, and will be used for cellular phones and pagers. Four area codes in one metro area. Can anybody beat that? Rich Greenberg Work: ETi Solutions, Oceanside & L.A. CA 310-348-7677 N6LRT TinselTown, USA Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well the New York City metro area has quite a few now: 212/718/914/907, what else? Are we counting New Jersey? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 11:38 EST From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: New Area Code 630 I received a Bellcore Letter dated 3-16-94 titled "Declaration of Jeopardy Situation in NPA 708 (Illinois)." Bellcore has been advised by Ameritech that the demand for prefixes in NPA 708 is higher than originally projected. According to CO Code Assignment Guidelines "A jeopardy condition exists when the forecasted and/or actual demand for NXX resources will exceed the known supply during the planning/implementation interval for relief." NPA 630 will be introduced for relief of 708 NPA within the first quarter of 1995. There were no notes showing new area code boundaries. Paul Cook Proctor & Associates Redmond, WA 3991080@mcimail.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My feeling is that 708 will be probably split in half with either the southern half or the northern half getting the new code, but that is just a guess. There are a couple ways the existing area could be logically split. On the Chicago side (312) there is no real need for a split as there is plenty of space left there now that the suburbs are out of it. I've a feeling that once the new-style area codes become official and fully available for assignment we are going to be seeing a *massive* influx of them all over the USA. I've a feeling once they start getting assigned on a regular basis, there will be all sorts of them almost all at once. PAT] ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Country Code For San Marino Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 06:15:57 PST Said by: Clive D.W. Feather > San Marino is a small country physically inside Italy. To the best of > my knowledge, it is always phoned as just another area code within > Italy (i.e. +39 541). > I have a note in my files that San Marino has been allocated the > country code 295 but is not yet using it. HOwever, I recently saw a > posting, here I believe, that it has been allocated 378. > Can anyone tell me which is right? According to MCI and AT&T, San Marino is 378. Steve cogorno@netcom.com #608 Merrill * 200 McLaughlin Drive * Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1015 ------------------------------ From: wdh@netcom.com (Bill Hofmann) Subject: Re: Country Code For San Marino Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Tue, 22 Mar 1994 17:37:13 GMT Clive D.W. Feather writes: > San Marino is a small country physically inside Italy. To the best of > my knowledge, it is always phoned as just another area code within > Italy (i.e. +39 541). > I have a note in my files that San Marino has been allocated the > country code 295 but is not yet using it. HOwever, I recently saw a > posting, here I believe, that it has been allocated 378. > Can anyone tell me which is right? Well, I checked with Sprint, they told me 378, however, I received a private communication from someone in Rome who told me that as of 1990, San Marino had been split from 541 and now has Italian city code 549, and that further both country codes 295 and 378 are disallowed from Rome. Can some folks in other countries check this out? Bill Hofmann wdh@netcom.COM Fresh Software and Instructional Design +1 510 524 0852 ------------------------------ From: indep1!clifto (Cliff Sharp) Date: Wed, Mar 23 1994 11:30:10 CST Subject: Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update In article mac@rci.ripco.com (Mark A. Cnota) writes: > [PAT said:] >> According to Mr. Eibel, a vice-president of Illinois Bell >> at the time, staffing a phone office *with even just one clerk* at all >> times to prevent situations like this was not cost effective. > I agree with Jim Eibel. He's one of the better executives IBT has had > in the past ten years, in my opinion. Let's see ... ten dollars per hour, figure twenty with benefits etc. 365.24 days per year. That's $175,315.20 per year. Say 200 thou with holiday pay, overtime, etc. Figuring the cost of Hinsdale at $100,000,000, that means Eibel must have planned a useful life of the equipment there at something over 600 years. Anyone who can get 600 years out of a switching center has my vote for Executive of the Year. I guess that's why he's making the _big_ bucks and I'm working for peanuts. But maybe I should be in there, 'cause I can get a few thousand years out of it. Instead of paying someone full-time, find two local residents who'll respond quickly to check out alarms. Pay each a retainer of $100 per month, and for each alarm response, pay $50 if they get there within five minutes, $25 within ten and $10 within twenty minutes. Much cheaper, so we can amortize that over a few thousand years. Good press, too ("Bell Gives Seniors Income While Cutting Costs"). Sheesh. I guess it's fair to say he doesn't back up his hard drive ($500 for tape drive and tapes, divided by zero incidents = infinite cost per failure), put batteries in his smoke detector ($5/year divided by zero), change his oil or bathe. Not cost efficient. Cliff Sharp WA9PDM [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Now Cliff, let's not get personal. I imagine he bathes. I dunno about your idea of using local community residents; that is stretching things a bit thin, but if a responsible employee were left there -- even with other tasks to accomplish so that his/her salary could be charged back in part to other departments and further reduce the direct cost of being a 'watchdog' -- it would still be only a drop in the bucket. You think Hinsdale cost Illinois Bell one hundred million? My sources say it was closer to two hundred million; and the company is being *very* tight-lipped about all the lawsuits they are settling out of court. Suppose each CO had one data entry clerk there all the time, around the clock on weekends. That would be three people and maybe a hundred thousand per year in salary/benefits. Most of the costs would be charged to the budget for the department they worked in, with perhaps 25 percent of the cost directly allocated to security of the CO. In the course of their time on duty, between watching television more than they should, running back and forth to the vending machines for refreshments and the bathroom, etc you think they would not spot unusual occurances such as a smoke filled room, water dripping out the ceiling from a broken pipe somewhere, a buzzer or bell that was ringing constantly and so on? If the total costs for coverage under such a plan in the Chicago area alone cost a million dollars a year, do you think it might take twenty or thirty years minimum to reach the point where a Hinsdale-type disaster became 'cost-effective' instead? Considering the stakes here, to say nothing of community goodwill and public relations, if it were me, and of course it isn't, I'd opt for a conservative approach. That's why I think Jim Eibel was dead wrong, and ought to have been canned -- there is a point at which the 'bottom line' becomes purely a theoretical exer- cise with no relationship to reality. Hinsdale was such a case. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Mar 94 22:30:17 EST From: CPT Ulrich Andreas S Subject: Re: CID Did Not Show Number In article JMDCHICAGO@delphi.com writes: >> When CID was deployed in my area (516 area code), I tried calling home >> from a pay phone and the number was displayed. However, when I call >> home while I'm having my car serviced at a local service station, the >> number doesn't show. Maybe I'm wrong, but the way I understand it, the phone company in my area (Augusta, GA) allows me to disable, at my request, the CID function for my phone number -- in other words, if I ask for it, people with CID whom I call won't get my phone number. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But then the recipients display box shows 'private' rather than 'out of area'. Anyway, many payphones have *67 disabled on them. I could see a COCOT owner intercepting what was dialed and prepending *67 to keep hackerphreaks from finding out the number to his instrument (and thus dialing in with a modem and reprogramming it liberally) but the display in this case did not show 'private'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: puma@netcom.com (puma) Subject: Re: Extension Cord For Cell Phone Organization: organized?? me? Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 03:30:43 GMT In article , wrote: > Can anybody tell me where I can purchase an extension cord for my > cellular phone? I tried my local Radio Shack but they don't carry > this. It appears to be an 8 wire connection. > In case you are wondering, I'm not crazy :). My boyfriend lives in a > city thats a local call on cellular, but LD from my home. And, of > course, my cell phone is mounted in the car. I'm looking for a way to > stretch it into the house. Do you have call-forwarding on your cellular phone? You might want to check your carrier's rules, and consider it. In Wisconsin (Ameritech) we are not charged airtime for forwarded calls (we are charged nine cents per call). I know that some areas DO charge airtime, so you wouldn't save anything. This trick would do me no good, since the local calling area is the same for the cellular number as my local telco number. However I can make cellular calls back to my city at local rates FROM areas that would be a toll call for a landline phone. puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ Subject: Re: SIT Tones - Where in the Archives? From: gordon@torrie.org (Gordon Torrie) Date: Tue, 22 Mar 1994 21:35:05 -0500 Organization: Torrie Communications Services Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> writes: > I thought there was a reference to SIT tones in the telecom archives > somewhere, but I can't find it. I have two articles from comp.dcom.telecom that describe these tones. They are not in electronic form else I would simply mail them to you. Perhaps the header fields from them may help to narrow down your search in the archives. The headers are: From: loren@amcom.UUCP (loren cahlander) Subject: Re: Precise Dial Tone & A Tone of the Past: No-Such-Number Date: 27 Sep 89 14:36:12 GMT From: fmsystm!macy@hal.UUCP (Macy Hallock) Subject: Re: Special Information Tones Date: 28 Sep 89 09:05:41 GMT gordon@torrie.org Gord Torrie [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The keyword search feature of the Telecom Archives Email Information Service goes back to about April, 1989 and if he searches using the author names above or the subject lines the accelerated index will tell him what block of fifty issues needs to be pulled to find the articles in question. Without going to look, my feeling is they would be found somewhere around issues 800-850 of the year 1989. None the less, Al Varney has written an article to bring this topic up to date, and it appears next in this issue. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Mar 94 11:37:40 CST From: varney@uscbu.att.com Subject: Re: SIT Tones - Where in the Archives? Organization: AT&T Network Systems In article Proctor & Associates <0003991080@ mcimail.com> writes: > I thought there was a reference to SIT tones in the telecom archives > somewhere, but I can't find it. These are the three tones that one > hears at the beginning of a toll network announcment (We're SORRY! > All circuits are BUSY now ...) > Does anyone have the specs on these? Paul, these aren't just for the toll network, the tones have an International usage and intra-LATA as well. Documentation is in: ITU-T E.180 (or Q.35) -- lists the frequencies only, and suggests using SIT for everything other than BUSY and NO CIRCUIT call failure situations. Bellcore TR-674 -- lists frequencies and the short/long durations that encode various "codes" into the tones. Bellcore TR-675 -- has level/volume requirements for SIT/announcements. Bellcore SR-2275 ("Notes on the Network") -- Section 6 shows SIT usage in the intra-LATA and inter-LATA networks, the assignment of specific meaning the "codes" and attempts to explain usage. I'd recommend reading "Notes" and using the others only if you need to fill in some missing information. Al Varney ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Mar 1994 12:11:38 EST From: mcharry@cwc.com (McHarry) Subject: Re: International Free Numbers Cable and Wireless also offers international "800" service from a large number of countries. I think the other major carriers do likewise. In the UK, Mercury Free Call numbers look like 0500 xxxxxx. I think the BT equivalent looks like 0800 xxxxxx. In France, they appear to start with 05. John McHarry (mcharry@cwc.com) ------------------------------ From: Kenn Krasner Subject: Re: Alphanumeric Pager Software Organization: Mordor International BBS Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 10:06:14 GMT I have used the same system from Motorola and the software is very similar. We used it to page staff on-site. Check with Bell South Mobile, they are the folks we got the software from. It allows you to send messages to individuals or groups. The message length was 256 characters. One 3.5 disk was all it was. The docs were funky though. Get the tech support numbner from your pager provider; they will be able to help you. Kenn Krasner, Sr. Consultant One Equals On kkrasner@mordor.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yep, 'one equals on' is the way he wrote it. Its not my typo! Maybe Kenn will explain it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mann9609@utdallas.edu Subject: MCI and Sprint Information Needed Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 11:46:10 -0600 Organization: The University of Texas at Dallas Could anyone please tell me an address or phone number where I can get information on MCI and Sprint about their various residential long distance plans? Email preferred. Toodles! Shirley [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: They are both listed with 800-555-1212. Ask for the number for their respective customer service offices. PAT] ------------------------------ From: steyn@odie.ee.wits.ac.za Subject: SS7 Information Wanted Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 06:03:25 GMT Organization: Wits Electrical Engineering (Novell Users). I am looking for information on Signaling System No. 7 and performance models related to this field. If anyone con supply me with technical information, e-mail addresses or references, please contact me. Any response will be most welcome. Regards, Graeme Steyn ------------------------------ From: Jim Cluett Subject: Who Paid For My 550? Organization: MV Communications, Inc. Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 17:25:06 GMT Can anyone explain the economics of the $50 Motorola 550? The 550 is selling locally at a discount department store for $50. Motorola can't build 'em for that. The department store is acting as an agent for both an A and a B carrier, but I don't think they can recover enough from a year's contract to make up the difference. Who's subsidizing this? It's probably me, but I don't quite see how. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: karunix@accesspt.north.net Subject: Questions on Shannon's Law Date: 23 Mar 1994 12:43:59 -0500 Organization: Delrina Technology Reply-To: karunix@accesspt.north.net I am hoping that someone may be able to help me with the following question related to the maximum capacity of a channel. (Shannon's Law). As most of you know, Shannon proved that a channel has a finite maximum capacity as per the following formaula: C = W log2 (1 + S/N) where W = bandwith of a channel, and S/N is the Signal-to-Noise ratio of white noise (random, Gaussian). So for a quick example, if I had a telephone line with a 20db S/N ratio, and the available bandwith is 2600Hz, substituting in the formula above: C = 2600 log2 (1 + 100/1) log2 x = (log2 10)(log10 x) = 3.32 log10 x then C = 2600 x 3.32x log10 (101) = 17,301 bps then the maximum possible rate at which data could be transmitted over this voice line is roughly 17,300 bps. Probably a S/N ratio of 30dB is more realistic, so this works out to: C = 2600 log2 (1 + 1000/1) = 25,900bps I also realize that increasing bandwith or signal power or decreasing the noise will increase the bps rate. However in practice this would probably be economically prohibitive. My confusion arises out the following: An analog wire-pair line can be changed to a digital line by adding digital repeaters in lieu of analog amplifiers, and the bit rate transmitted is much higher than if all the analog telephone channels on a wire transmitted at the Shannon limit. So if we transmit 1.544Mbps or 2.048Mbps over a telephone pair, isn't this a violation of Shannon's Law? Also, how does this tie into the new modems that support the V.Fast standard at 28,800bps? If the bandwith for normal voice grade lines (300-3300Hz) and S/N ratios are taken into consideration into the Shannon's formula, there is again violation of the maximum bps rate with a 28.8kbps modem. Also, out of curiosity, I assume the noise calculations in Shannon's formula are based on the physical medium used for transmission? - i.e.: copper wire for analog telephone transmission - thus, thermal, gaussian, etc noise on copper wire itself. Is there a limit then to transmitting over conductors that are copper as opposed to say fibre optic (glass) as a transmission medium, and hence would the noise be less on a fiber (silica)...? If this is true, then because the noise decreases, bandwith increases (as is true on optical fibers), and hence this doesn't contradict Shannon's Law? (because capacity increases proportionally to bandwith) I find this a little confusing -- any feedback would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance. Karim Ismail Delrina Technology Fax: +1-416-441-4650 Support Analyst 895 Don Mills Rd, 500-2 Vox: +1-416-441-3676 Fax/Data Comms Don Mills, ON M3C 1W3 Internet: karunix@accesspt.north.net ------------------------------ From: whs70@cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Subject: Bell South ISDN Announcement Date: 23 Mar 1994 12:39:50 -0500 Organization: Bell Communications Research (Bellcore) 3/21/94 Release from Bellsouth: BELLSOUTH ANNOUNCES LARGEST GEOGRAPHIC DEPLOYMENT OF ISDN IN THE NATION Advanced telecommuting telemedicine and education applications will become the most widely available in the nation as a result of a technology deployment plan announced today by BellSouth Telecommunications. The nine-state introduction of a new way to provide Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), which combines voice, data and video services, begins in June 1994. ISDN can use advanced fiber optic cable or traditional copper cable to transmit multiple services. Until now, a customer who wished to use ISDN needed to be served by a telephone office that was ISDN capable. With the innovative approach by BellSouth, a customer can obtain the benefits of ISDN through an alternate serving arrangement which eradicates geographic boundaries. "Expanded access to ISDN will facilitate customer-oriented applications since there are fewer technological and geographic limitations on availability," said Larry Carter, assistant vice president of product management for BellSouth Telecommunications. This announcement is the latest in a very aggressive deployment strategy for ISDN. -- In July 1992, Bellsouth announced the nation's first metropolitan- wide deployment of ISDN in the cities of Huntsville and Madison, Ala. -- Six months later, South Central Bell customers throughout the state of Tennessee were offered ISDN Individual Line Service and now ISDN availability is being expanded region wide. This announcement significantly increases the percentage of customers with access to ISDN capabilities and will ultimately lead to 100% of BellSouth customers. Until now, 50% of BellSouth's customers in major metropolitan areas had direct access to ISDN and 320 central offices were equipped with ISDN. The expanded access applies to ISDN Individual Line (2B+D) and MegaLink (SM) ISDN Service which is BellSouth's primary rate (23B+D) offering. "Previously, you had to be served directly by a central office switch equipped with ISDN capability. Under this new alternate serving arrangement, ISDN capabilities can be routed from a nearby ISDN-capable switch to your home or office -- at no additional charge. This arrangement is a cost-effective and expeditious method of deploying ISDN region wide," Carter said. ISDN availability is an important part of the information superhighway providing access at lower speeds. For example, through distance learning, advanced classes could be transported at very high speeds to a customer's city on the information highway from a university in another city. This high speed signal is then divided into lower speeds and redistributed within the city. ISDN would make these classes available to any school anywhere. Dr. Ira Denton, chief surgeon at Crestwood Hospital in Huntsville, Ala., has used ISDN to send, receive and annotate X-rays and video images while talking to other physicians. Because ISDN is available citywide and there are no geographic restrictions, physicians can communicate through ISDN from any of their offices and even their homes. "Health care specialists as well as any other businesses that have multiple locations within a metropolitan area can benefit from this new capability," Carter added. "The education industry will especially benefit from applications including distance learning, security and truancy monitoring." To aid in marketing ISDN, last year BellSouth announced the "ISDN Applications and Solutions Plus" (IAS+) initiative where strategic marketing alliances are formed in major metropolitan areas to provide customers with complete and innovative solutions. This initiative in addition to the expanded access will make ISDN applications more readily available for BellSouth customers. BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc., with headquarters in Atlanta, provides telecommunications services in the BellSouth (NYSE: BLS) region. BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. does business as Southern Bell in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and as South Central Bell in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. These companies serve more than 19 million local telephone lines and provide local exchange and intraLATA long distance service over one of the most modern telecommunications networks in the world. CONTACT: Karen M. Roughton of BellSouth Telecommunications, 404-529-6514 BellSouth National ISDN HotLine, 1-800-428-4736 Posted by Bellcore ISDN Hotline 1-800-992-ISDN ------------------ Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.) Morristown, NJ email via UUCP bcr!cc!whs70 201-829-2879 Weekdays email via Internet whs70@cc.bellcore.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 9:22:42 MST From: John Shaver Subject: Last Laugh! Bauds, Baudlets, Baudettes, Baby Bauds and Such wbloss@delphi.com wrote, Re: Transborder Local Calls: > John Botari writes: >> concerning a local calling area that crosses an international boundary >> ... Baudette, MN - (218) 634-xxxx, and Rainy River, ON - (807) 852-xxxx > Is a Baudette a small Baud? > Wally Bloss > A Human TELECOM Digest Editor added his two cent's worth: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No, a baudette is a female baud. A > baudlet is a baby baud. :) PAT] I thought that a Baudlet was an earthy song. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #143 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa28019; 24 Mar 94 5:37 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA21615; Thu, 24 Mar 94 02:29:31 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA21606; Thu, 24 Mar 94 02:29:30 CST Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 02:29:30 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403240829.AA21606@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #144 TELECOM Digest Thu, 24 Mar 94 02:29:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 144 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Cellular Privacy System (David R. Arneke) Re: BT Phone Numbering (Linc Madison) Re: BT Phone Numbering (Carl Moore) Re: BT Phone Numbering (Richard Cox) Re: New Area Code 630 (Carl Moore) Re: New Area Code 630 (Steven H. Lichter) Re: New LA Area Code (James Taranto) Re: New LA Area Code (Arthur Rubin) Re: New LA Area Code (Rich Greenberg) Re: New Area Code For Los Angeles (Steven H. Lichter) Lots of L.A. Area Codes (Lauren Weinstein) Area Code 917 (was New LA Area Code) (Carl Moore) Re: Who Paid For My 550? (David Crane) Re: Who Paid For My 550? (Mark Earle) Specs For CDPD, Embarc, RAM, Ardis Wanted (Bill McMullin) Re: Cellular Phone Hacking (Russell E. Sorber) Re: MS-Kermit Keyboard Commands (Frank da Cruz) World's Least Necessary 800 Number (Mark Colan via 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: darneke@attmail.com (David R Arneke) Date: 23 Mar 94 13:11:22 GMT Subject: AT&T Cellular Privacy System AT&T SECURE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS NEWS RELEASE FOR MEDIA INQUIRIES: David Arneke, AT&T 910 279-7680 (office) 910 273-5687 (home) !darneke (ATTMAIL) or david.arneke@att.com (Internet) AMERITECH CELLULAR PRIVACY SERVICE USES AT&T TECHNOLOGY GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Ameritech Cellular Services in Chicago has become the first cellular telephone system in the country to offer voice privacy service using the AT&T Advanced Cellular Privacy System. Ameritech launched its Enhanced Voice Privacy service in Chicago this month. "This technology adds to the productivity and value that Ameritech cellular service provides to its customers," said Thomas A. Brooks, AT&T Paradyne senior vice president, Secure Communications Systems. "And, by helping the carrier provide value to the cus- tomer, AT&T cellular privacy technology adds value to the carrier as well." The AT&T technology scrambles the cellular telephone's over-the-air signal. The signal is descrambled at Ameritech's cellular switch, transmitting a conventional phone signal to the recipient. If the scrambled over-the-air signal is intercepted, the eavesdropper will hear only a chirping sound. AT&T's advanced privacy technology renders the over-the-air signal unintelligible. The system already is in wide use in Japan in the cellular system of one of the two major Japanese telephone companies. The AT&T Cellular Privacy System offers cellular users a variety of benefits. -- Its technology is small enough and light enough to be embeddable in today's small, portable phones. -- The system features an unmatched combination of high voice quality and an advanced level of privacy. -- It is applicable to all three types of cellular telephones -- portable, transportable ("bag phones") and mobile (car phones). The system has two components. The AT&T privacy unit attaches to the phone and scrambles the phone's signal. Voice privacy modules are available for several brands of cellular telephones, among them AT&T models, including the AT&T Privacy-Capable Portable Telephone 9000; the Audiovox 3200 series; Mitsubishi models using the Model 1200 transceiver; the Motorola 2600; the NEC 3800B and 4800; the Oki 800 series; and the Toshiba 3200 series. Modules for other brands and models are in development. The Mobile Telephone Office Switch (MTSO) unit is installed at the cellular carrier's switch and descrambles the signal. Because the privacy system scrambles only the over-the-air portion of the call, no matching unit or special equipment is required at the receiving phone. The AT&T Paradyne Cellular Privacy System was developed by AT&T Secure Communications Systems, a world leader in the design, manufacture and integration of encryption and privacy products. It is a primary supplier of secure products to the governments of the United States and other nations as well as corporations around the world. For more information, contact David Arneke of AT&T at 910 279-7680. ------------------------------ From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: BT Phone Numbering Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 00:36:31 GMT Bill Buchan (lwb@dcs.ed.ac.uk) wrote: > [in small town in Britain, phone numbers have changed from XXXX to 47XXXX] > Is BT trying to standardize six-digit numbers outside the > cities, or is this something to do with the new area codes next year -- > there are only 20000 people in my parent's town, so surely they don't > need the option of a million phone numbers! You are correct -- BT is standardizing to six-digit numbers except in the large cities which have seven-digit numbers and an STD code that is one digit shorter. (Currently, either 0XX-XXX XXXX or (0XXX) XXXXXX; after the renumbering next year, change the initial 0 to 01.) In essence, the total number of digits will be standardized. In the process, some small area codes will be merged. Most if not all "convenience dialing" arrangements (e.g., dial 93 + number for a neighboring town, instead of the full STD code + number) will disappear. The new system will make the total length of a British telephone number 12 digits, from the perspective of the international phone system: 44 + 1XXX + XXXXXX. This pushes the limit of agreed international standards (recommended 11-digit maximum, absolute 12-digit max.), but it allows BT to provide numbering space for personal phone numbers, fax machines galore, direct-dial Centrex, and whatever else. With the new area codes, BT will have a numbering space as large as North America's. Even with all this, London is expected to need at least one more area code split by 2010 or 2015, possibly even 2005. Personally, I think they should've put 01 back in use for London, changing 071-XXX XXXX to 01-7XXX XXXX and similarly for 081 to 01-8XXX XXXX, to more realistically provide for London's growth. Alternately, they could've used 011 for London and then 01X for the five cities that are moving from six-figure to seven-figure numbers next year. London will need 8-figure numbers early next century anyway, and there's no need to make everyone's number longer. Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 16:16:16 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: BT Phone Numbering Well, not quite four years ago, London city code 1 was discontinued and replaced by TWO new codes (71 and 81), and when I asked (in this Digest) if this was being done to standardize phone number length, someone said yes. So I take it the city code and the local number (prior to the 1995 "phoneday") are, taken together, to be nine digits long (omitting the leading 0, which is used on calls within the UK). ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 13:31:34 -0800 From: richard@mandarin.com Subject: Re: BT Phone Numbering Bill Buchan asked: > A few years ago British Telecom added a prefix 7 to all the four-digit > phone numbers in my parents' area. At the time we assumed this would > increase the scope of available numbers (ie. 0XXXX-6XXXX & 8XXXX-9XXXX) > but no such numbers have ever been introduced. This year they have > introduced a further prefix 4, so that now all the numbers are in the > form 47XXXX - why add yet another prefix when the previous one has not > been needed? Number changes are planned over a long period of time. The move from xxxx to 7xxxx would have *doubled* the available numbers for that area (previously numbers there were in the range 2000-6999; prefixing with a 7 meant that numbers could now range from 70000-79999. (In the UK as in most places, local numbers do not begin with a 0 or a 1, and the digits 9 (and in many cases 8) are kept for use as routing codes between exchanges. So when the only digit left was a 7, the planners could either fill up with 7xxx, or expand to seven digits by prefixing all numbers with a 7.) They didn't need to use any of the other digits because they had enough numbers in the 7xxxx range. You may also find -- if you haven't already -- new numbers starting to be introduced on that exchange, in the 48xxxx range. >> Is BT trying to standardize six-digit numbers outside the cities In most cases yes: the less dialling codes user have to remember, the better! Exceptions are in Northern Ireland, the Lake District, and some other places. Obviously the "slot" that had been reserved in the wide area numbering scheme for that particular exchange, was 47xxxx. The numbers could not have changed straight from xxxx to 47xxxx because this would have caused much misdialling. It's important, when an exchange *increases* its number length, to trap all calls to the old number and send them to an announcement - otherwise callers will dial the old (shorter) number hoping to get through, and the registers will sit there for, say, 20 seconds, waiting for the last digit(s). On that basis the exchange is going to run out of registers very quickly until the majority of users stop trying to dial the old numbers, and callers will find there's no dial tone because other people are just sitting on the registers. So if 4751 was changed straight to 474751, callers dialling 4751 would have the register waiting for two more digits which will never come. However if it simply changes to 74751, all the digits 2-6 can be routed to announcements or reorder. That gets the callers off the habit of using the old numbers. The idea of protecting registers like this is quite new to the UK, as in the days of Strowger (SxS) each step had in effect its own register, and holding a chain of steps in error did not have so significant an impact on traffic handling at that exchange. >> or is this something to do with the new area codes next year Nothing to do with that at all -- that's a separate disaster in its own right! Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, P.O. Box 111, Penarth, South Glamorgan, Wales: CF64 3YG Voice: 0956 700111 Fax: 0956 700110 VoiceMail: 0941 151515 Pager 0941 115555 E-mail address: richard@mandarin.com - PGP2.3 public key available on request ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 16:40:40 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: New Area Code 630 TELECOM Digest Editor notes: > I've a feeling that once the new-style area codes become official and fully available for assignment we are going to be seeing a *massive* influx of them all over the USA. I've a feeling once they start getting assigned on a regular basis, there will be all sorts of them almost all at once. As is the case with any split, keep me posted as to what is going on. Just today, I have received note of 630 in Illinois and 562 in California (can't be implemented until the system can handle NXX area codes, not just N0X/N1X). References such as the zip/area directory may have to be limited to landlines, and as far as I can tell from telecom: 630 might get landlines (that would affect some people who shifted from 312 to 708 only in November 1989); 562 will only be cellular/pager overlay. ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: New Area Code 630 Date: 23 Mar 1994 19:31:35 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) I would guess it will be another overlay area code like Los Angeles and the current one in New York City and will be used for cellular and pagers. 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: taranto@panix.com (James Taranto) Subject: Re: New LA Area Code Date: 23 Mar 1994 22:53:52 GMT Organization: The Bad Taranto > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well the New York City metro area has quite > a few now: 212/718/914/907, what else? Are we counting New Jersey? PAT] 907 is Alaska. New York City alone has 212, 718, and 917, and the metro area, broadly defined, includes part or all of 516, 914, 201, 908, 609, 203, and 717. Cheers, James Taranto taranto@panix.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, thank you, I meant 917 and the Alaska area code got in there by error. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: New LA Area Code From: a_rubin%dsg4.dse.beckman.com (Arthur Rubin) Date: 24 Mar 94 00:04:46 GMT Reply-To: a_rubin@dsg4.dse.beckman.com In richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) writes: > Pacific Bell & GTE just anounced that in 1996, LA will get its fourth > area code. 562 will overlay the present 213-818-310 areas, and will > be used for cellular phones and pagers. > Four area codes in one metro area. Can anybody beat that? What's a "metro area"? I thought 714 and 909 are (partially) in the LA metro area. 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) My opinions are my own, and do not represent those of my employer. ------------------------------ From: richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: New LA Area Code Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 02:16:04 GMT In article richgr@netcom.com writes: > Four area codes in one metro area. Can anybody beat that? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well the New York City metro area has quite > a few now: 212/718/914/907, what else? Are we counting New Jersey? PAT] [Original posters note to the TELCOM Digest Editors note: (whew)] Well Pat, if you are going to count Nuuuu Joooooisy as part of Metro New York, then I can throw in 714,909, 805, and mabe a slice of 619. Total 7.5. Within the city limits of L.A. there are three and soon to be four NPAs. And is 907 a split I hadn't heard of or your typo? Rich Greenberg Work: ETi Solutions, Oceanside & L.A. CA 310-348-7677 N6LRT TinselTown, USA Play: richgr@netcom.com 310-649-0238 Pacific time. I speak for myself and my dogs only. Canines: Chinook & Husky [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: 907 was my typo. 917 was intended. PAT] ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: New Area Code For Los Angeles Date: 23 Mar 1994 19:25:57 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) There are going to be several options on this, but what it all amounts to is all cellular users in the 310 area code that 310 area code numbers after a set date will do so with the knowledge that they will be changed to the 562 area code. On this point it should also be noted that the growth in the 310 area code is the fastest in the country. The above are my comments and have nothing to do with my employer. 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: Wed, 23 Mar 94 16:52 PST From: lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Lots of L.A. Area Codes Actually, the L.A. metro area eats up more area codes than you can shake a stick at. Outside of 213/818/310 and soon 562 which all include different portions of the city of L.A. (among other areas), codes such as 805, 714, and the new 909 also are part of the metro area. So it's really seven. Overlay codes are a great idea since they avoid disrupting existing customers with area code splits. Local reports are claiming that regular landline customers may be assigned numbers in 562 before the year 2000 (not that far off, fun seekers). This would probably introduce the practical necessity of 10 digit dialing for all local calls to be politically feasible, which, as I've pointed out in this forum before, seems to be necessary for a large proportion of local calls now given the number of codes already present! --Lauren-- P.S. I haven't seen mentioned here that Pacific Bell is abolishing toll calls in California! That's right, no more tolls! Oh, well, actually, they're just changing the name. They won't be "toll" anymore. Now they'll be called "Local Plus (sm)". So there'll be local, zum, and local plus. A rose by any other name? --LW-- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 16:29:35 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Area Code 917 (was New LA Area Code) TELECOM Digest Editor notes: > TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well the New York City metro area has quite > a few now: 212/718/914/907, what else? Are we counting New Jersey? PAT I think you mean 917 instead of 907, which is in Alaska. Besides, how do you arrive at area code 914 being included in the area being overlaid? The only previous information I received said that 917 was overlaid on 212 and 718. If the inclusion of 914 is correct, let me know when it was done. (914 includes Westchester, and 516 is found in Long Island suburbs.) ------------------------------ From: dcrane@lonestar.utsa.edu (David Crane) Subject: Re: Who Paid For My 550? Organization: University of Texas at San Antonio Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 19:18:26 GMT In article Jim Cluett writes: > Can anyone explain the economics of the $50 Motorola 550? The 550 is > selling locally at a discount department store for $50. Motorola can't > build 'em for that. The department store is acting as an agent for > both an A and a B carrier, but I don't think they can recover enough > from a year's contract to make up the difference. Who's subsidizing > this? It's probably me, but I don't quite see how. The cellular phone company is subsidizing it. In fact, they are usually free, so $50 is a rip-off. You cannot buy one without signing a one-year contract for cellular service, or similar high-priced "option". Most folks don't mind because they need the service to use the phone but I dare you to go in and tell them you dropped your old one in a sewer grating and all you want is a new piece of hardware programmed like your old one. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 15:31:55 CST From: mearle@cbi.tamucc.edu (Mark Earle) Subject: Re: Who Paid For My 550? Here's roughly, in one market, how the cellular phones are sold for $1, $50, or .99, or free, but always with "activation extra, programming fee may be required, credit approval required" you get the idea. The agent gets some percent of your bill. Three years ago, when there were few agents (more risk -- will these things really sell?) the agents paid a franchise fee (about $45,000) and then received 10% of the customer's gross bill, forever. Newer agents now pay almost nothing for a franchise fee. Essentially, their cost to join covers training and programming books, jigs, cables, etc. But, they get a much smaller percent of the gross, and it's for a limited term. So, anyhow, wholesale, a phone costs, let's say, $300. Average BASE phone bill under a qualifying plan is $40/month. 10% of (40 x 12=$480/yr) = $48. PER phone activated, the carrier gives the agent a fixed fee -- typically, $250. So, the $300 phone is paid for. The agent is gambling several things: 1. You'll stay on longer than one year; 2. You'll use more than $40/month in services. Newer agents get less than $48, but still get the $250 acttivation. Both new and old agents charge you $25 "activation fee" and a $25 "programming fee" which is mostly profit; and they may charge other fees. Other things they gamble on are that you'll buy extra batteries, cases, antennas, etc, all at considerable mark-up. Also, lately, phones have gotten cheaper. Finally, most one year contracts carry an enforcable clause which states if you turn off service before the year is up, you pay the remaining monthly fees in a lump sum. So the agent comes out even or slightly ahead. In reality (I know an 'older agent') it's a safe wager. Most customers spend $80 or more/month; most stay on more than a year; most buy many accessory items; and most have account changes (i.e, go from the $40 plan to the $50/month plan, etc) so the agent makes lots of $. It's sort of like Las Vegas. You may win, but overall, the house (agent) does. Of course, the cellular carrier doesn't do too badly either; they don't have to deal that much with the public, the agent being their buffer. Who would have believed / predicted the growth of this market two or three years ago? mearle@cbi.tamucc.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 15:13:55 -0500 From: bmcmulli@fox.nstn.ns.ca (Bill McMullin) Subject: Specs For CDPD, Embarc, RAM, Ardis Wanted Would anyone know where I could find the specifications and/or communications protocols for communicating with CDPD, Embarc, RAM, and Ardis terminals? Bill McMullin InterActive Telecom Ph: 902-832-1014 1550 Bedford Hwy. Fx: 902-832-1015 Sun Tower Suite 304 Em: bmcmulli@fox.nstn.ns.ca Bedford, Nova Scotia B4A 1E6 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 14:42:44 CST From: sorbrrse@wildcat.cig.mot.com (Russell E. Sorber) Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Hacking Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group In article Bob Zigon writes: > Is this the right newsgroup to ask questions about Cellular Phone > Hacking? If not, could you please suggest a newsgroup? If this is the > right group, are there any ftp sites that contain documents about how > cellular phones work? How to clone phones? > Bob Zigon Sr. Software Engineer Truevision, Inc. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is against the law to clone cellular > phones. Illegal activities are not condoned here, although you might > find a newsgroup here and there on Abusenet where they talk about such > things in lurid detail. There is an alt group for phreaks (or do you > pronounce it freaks?) but I forget its name. The Telecom Archives has > some stuff on cellular phones (use anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu, then 'cd > telecom-archives') and some stuff on toll fraud but nothing specifically > on how to clone cellular phones. Probably someone reading this will know > the name of the alt group and tell you what it is. PAT] Wait ... before Bob goes running off to another newsgroup, how about if he provides documents or other information on how to best steal goods or services from HIS company? If there is no way to steal from Bob's company electronically, perhaps there is an unlocked door or an unguarded loading dock where the stealing can be done the old fashioned way? Please post details. Russ Sorber Software Contractor - Opinions are mine, Not Motorolas! Motorola, Cellular Division Arlington Hts., IL (708) 632-4047 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ah, but they never think of it that way, Russ. Your comments remind me of the cartoon a few years ago showing this teenage fellow sitting at his computer looking at the blank screen with kind of a bewildered look on his face. His mother is standing there talking to his father and she says, 'during the night, a major corporation broke in through his modem; wiped out and formatted his hard disk ...'. Generally they do not even consider it stealing and they have all kinds of ways to philisophically skirt around it with one rationale or another. PAT] ------------------------------ From: fdc@fdc.cc.columbia.edu (Frank da Cruz) Subject: Re: MS-Kermit Keyboard Commands Date: 23 Mar 1994 23:18:00 GMT Organization: Columbia University In article Mark writes: > I am running MS-Kermit on my 386 PC, connecting to a VAX 8550 cluster > running VMS. The VAX is running All-In-One Office Automation Package > and WPSPLUS editor. The WPSPlus requires the use of certain keys on > the PC-Keypad for some of its editing and curso n control features. > MS-Kermit doesn't seem to want to send those control sequences to the > VAX. It just sends the numeric keypad characters. I am running > MS-Kermit in the VT320 emulation mode. Is this just something not > supported by MS-Kermit, am I miss ing a file, or have I set something > up wrong? MS-DOS Kermit (current version = 3.13) will send anything you want it to send, but you have to tell it. The default key mappings are listed in Appendices I and II of "Using MS-DOS Kermit". One of the unique features of Kermit is that the special DEC keys (editing and arrow keys, F keys, PF keys, numeric keypad keys, etc) are identified by "verbs", whose actions are context-dependent -- which terminal is being emulated and which mode it is in -- and which can be assigned to the PC keys of your choice. Since most Kermit users do not access applications that make heavy use of the DEC VT220-and-above keyboard, not all of these verbs are assigned to PC keys by default. If you had glanced at the READ.ME file that comes on the MS-DOS Kermit diskette, you would have noticed a VT300.lNI file, which does, indeed, make a full mapping for you. This full mapping is, of course, only one of many possible ones. Some people prefer to map keys by position, others by keytop legend, etc. Also included on the distribution diskette is a TSR called GOLD.COM, which allows Num Lock to be used as the DEC Gold Key. Frank ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 16:33:16 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: World's Least Necessary 800 Number Forwarded FYI: Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 14:27:24 EST From: Rod.Holland@East.Sun.COM (Rod Holland - Sun BOS Software) Subject: where was this last week, when we needed it? Topic: Nomination: world's least necessary 800 number Author: Mark Colan Category: MCI seems to have lost it's mind. (from the big net in the sky:) In case you haven't seen or heard this yet, MCI has created the wackiest, most useless 800 number around. I can't describe it except to say you must call: 1-800-969-4874 [1-800-WOW-IT'S-HOT] (from a touchtone phone). Very Pink, and yet Slackful. I call on my speaker phone and let the dulcet tones fill my office with ... oh, you'll see ... and it's FREE! ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #144 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01021; 24 Mar 94 15:14 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA27967; Thu, 24 Mar 94 11:06:21 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA27958; Thu, 24 Mar 94 11:06:20 CST Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 11:06:20 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403241706.AA27958@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #145 TELECOM Digest Thu, 24 Mar 94 11:06:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 145 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Frequently Asked Questions About Caller-ID (A. Padgett Peterson) CATV Modems (Dominique Gabioud) FCC Gopher Service (Robert Keller via Peter M. Weiss) Re: Country Code For San Marino (Carl Moore) Re: Country Code For San Marino (Bob Smeets) Information Wanted on Women and Telecom (Melanie Spencer) Request For Info: Strategic Planning For Local Exchange Carrier (J. Lovell) Re: Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal' (David McCord) Re: Who Paid For My 550? (Terry Gilson) Re: Area Code 562 (Dave Niebuhr) Re: Telecom Business Idea (Jonathan Welch) Re: International Toll Free Numbers (Thierry Samama) Obtaining Files From International Telecommunications Union (Carl Law) 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, 24 Mar 94 08:57:28 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Frequently Asked Questions About Caller-ID [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This file will become a permanent entry in the Telecom Archives. PAT] Frequently Asked Questions About Caller-ID v1.0 Mar. 1994 1) What is Caller-ID ? First ask "What is ANI" 2) OK, What is ANI ? ANI or Automatic Number Identification is a mechanism by which the different telephone companies determine what account is to be charged for a call, This information is passed between Telcos and was originally for billing purposes. Since the Telcos had it anyway, the decision was made to make it available to authorized parties such as 911 service and law enforcement agencies. ANI is also used to let a Telco operator know who is calling. More recently, ANI is used to report to 800 and 900 subscribers, who made the calls they have received, in the first case so that the 800 subscriber knows who the charge is for, and so that 900 number subscribers know who to charge. 3) Now (maybe) what is Caller-ID ? Caller-ID (more properly CNID or Calling Number IDentification)is a Telco service that is a byproduct of (but not exactly the same as) ANI. In this case, only those numbers reported by subscribing exchanges are returned, exactly which are and which are not is at the Telco's discretion (in theory, since the Telco has all of the numbers via ANI, *something* useful could be reported for any call. Most Telcos do not). The Federal Government has stated that it is their intent that nationwide CNID be available by mid-1995. Currently there are two types of Caller-ID. The first (often referred to as "basic" service) just returns the calling number or an error message and the date/time of the call. The second ("enhanced" Caller-ID) also returns the directory information about the calling number. 4) How is the Caller-ID information provided ? As a 1200 baud, 7 data bits, 1 stop bit data stream usually transmitted following the first and before the second ring signal on the line. The signal is provided before the circuit is complete: picking up the receiver before the data stream is finished will stop/corrupt the transmission. Currently there are two types of information returned: a "short form" which contains the date/time (telco and not local) of the call and the calling number or error message. The "long form" can also contain the name and/or address (directory information) of the calling phone. The "short form" stream consists of a set of null values, followed by a two byte prefix, followed by the DATE (Month/Day), TIME (24 hour format), and number including area code in ASCII, followed by a 2s compliment checksum. Most modems/caller id devices will format the data but the raw stream looks like this : 0412303232383134333434303735353537373737xx or (prefix)02281334407555777(checksum) A formatted output would look like this: Date - Feb 28 Time - 1:34 pm Number - (407)555-7777 5) Can a Caller-ID signal be forged/altered ? Since the signal is provided by the local Telco switch and the calling party's line is not connected until after the phone is answered, generally the signal cannot be altered from the distant end. Manipulation would have to take place either at the switch or on the called party's line. (never say "never") 6) What is "ID Blocking" ? Most Telco's providing Caller-ID have been required to also provide the ability for a calling party to suppress the Caller-ID signal. Generally this is done by pressing star-six-seven before making the call. In most cases this will block the next call only however some Telcos have decided to implement this in a bewildering array of methods. The best answer is to contact the service provider and get an answer in writing. Currently this is supplied as either by-call or by-line blocking. By-Call is preferred since the caller must consciously block the transmission on each call. By-Line blocking as currently implemented has the disadvantage that the caller, without having a second caller-id equipped line to use for checking, has no way of knowing if the last star-six-seven toggled blocking on or off. 7) What happens if a call is forwarded ? Generally, the number reported is that of the last phone to forward the call. Again there are some Telco differences so use the same precaution as in (6). If the forwarding is done by customer owned equipment there is no way of telling but will probably be the last calling number. 8) What happens if I have two phone lines and a black box to do the forwarding ? If you have two phone lines or use a PBX with outdialing features, the reported number will be that of the last line to dial. Currently there is no way to tell a black box from a human holding two handsets together. 9) I called somebody from a company phone (555-1234) but the Caller-ID reported 555-1000. Often a company with multiple trunks from the Telco and their own switch will report a generic number for all of the trunks. 10) I run a BBS. How can I use Caller-ID to authenticate/log callers ? There are two ways. The first utilizes a separate Caller-ID box with a serial cable or an internal card. This sends the information back to a PC which can then decide whether to answer the phone and what device should respond. Some of these are available which can handle multiple phone lines per card and multiple cards per PC. The second (and most common) is for the capability to be built in a modem or FAX/modem. While limited to a single line per modem, the information can be transmitted through the normal COM port to a program that again can decide whether or not to answer the phone and how. There is a FreeWare Caller-ID ASP script for Procomm Plus v2.x available for FTP from the Telecom archive. Most such software packages will also log each call as it is received and the action taken. Of course for true wizards, there are chips available (one of the first was the Motorolla MC14544TP) that can recognize the CNID signal and tranform it into a proper RS-232 (serial) signal. 11) How is security enhanced by using Caller-ID over a Call-Back service or one-time-passwords for dial-up access ? Caller-ID has one great advantage over any other mechanism for telephone lines. It allows the customer to decide *before* picking up the receiver, whether to answer the call. Consider hackers, crackers, and phreaks. Their goal in life is to forcibly penetrate electronic systems without permission (sounds like rape doesn't it ?). They employ demon dialers and "finger hacking" to discover responsive numbers, often checking every number in a 10,000 number exchange. If they get a response such as a modem tone, they have a target and will often spend days or weeks trying every possible combination of codes to get in. With Caller-ID answer selection, the miscreant will never get to the modem tone in the first place, yet for an authorized number, the tone will appear on the second ring. Previously the best solution for dial-ups was to set the modem to answer on the sixth ring (ats0=6). Few hackers will wait that long but it can also irritate customers. 12) What error messages will Caller-ID return ? a) Out of Area - (Telco) the call came from outside the Telco's service area and the Telco has chosen not to return the ANI information. b) Blocked or Private - (Telco) the caller either has permanent call blocking enabled or has dialed star-six-seven for this call. You do not have to answer either. c) Buffer Full - (device manufacturer) there are many Caller-ID devices on the market and exactly how they have chosen to implement storage is up to the manufacturer. This probably mans that the divide has a limited buffer space and the device is either losing the earliest call records or has stopped recording new calls. 13) Why are so many people against Caller-ID ? FUD - Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt or 10,000,000 lemmings can't be wrong. There were some justifiable concerns that some people (battered wives, undercover policemen) might be endangered or subject to harassment (doctors, lawyers, celebrities) by Caller-ID. As mentioned above there are several legitimate ways to either block Caller-ID or to have it return a different number. It is up to the caller. The advantage is that with Caller-ID, for the first time, the called party has the same "right of refusal". Expect yet another Telco service (at a slight additional charge) to be offered to return an office number for calls made from home. Crisis centers could return the number of the local police station. Compiled by Padgett Peterson. Constructive comments to: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com Brickbats >nul. ------------------------------ From: gabioud@uni2a.unige.ch Subject: CATV Modems Organization: University of Geneva, Switzerland Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 08:12:15 GMT A CATV cable has a huge bandwidth available. A part of it is usually not used for TV channels and could be used (at least from a technical standpoint) for data transmission, if a return channel is available. Do you know any equipment (modem, remodulator, ...) that allows data communication over the CATV cable. On the user side, the modem should feature a well-known interface (RS232C, Ethernet, ...). Dominique Gabioud gabioud@uni2a.unige.ch ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 07:21:10 EST From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: FCC Gopher Service Organization: Penn State University I don't recall seeing this posted here (pete-weiss@psu.edu) -- Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 17:12:09 -0600 From: Bob Keller To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Finger FCC Releases Taking a page from John Higgins' book, I will be temporarily putting five days' worth of FCC Daily Digests pulled from ftp.fcc.gov in my .plan file so that it can be accessed by fingering . This is being done for experimental purposes, but if anyone finds it useful in the meantime, so much the better. Be sure to open your capture buffer first, as the file is many screens long. It is also possible to Gopher to the FCC site [Gopher fcc.gov] as well a regular old ftp. Reportedly, the FCC is planning eventually to have an e-mail server and/or mailing list for accessing documents. Bob Keller Robert J. Keller, P.C. Internet: rjk@telcomlaw.com ---------- Federal Telecommunications Law Telephone: +1 301.229.5208 KY3R 4200 Wisconsin Ave NW #106-261 Facsimile: +1 301.229.6875 Washington, DC 20016-2143 USA CompuServe UID: 76100.3333 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 16:44:47 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Country Code For San Marino +39 549 does appear in the Telecom Archives as "supplied by British Telecom" or words similar. ------------------------------ From: smeets@duttncb.tn.tudelft.nl Subject: Re: Country code for San Marino Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 13:18:41 MET Bill Hofmann writes: > Well, I checked with Sprint, they told me 378, however, I received a > private communication from someone in Rome who told me that as of > 1990, San Marino had been split from 541 and now has Italian city code > 549, and that further both country codes 295 and 378 are disallowed > from Rome. Can some folks in other countries check this out? The Dutch telephone authorities mention +39 549 for access to San Marino. Bob Smeets ------------------------------ Subject: Information Wanted on Women and Telecom Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 15:18:52 EST From: Melanie Spencer I'm looking for information on women in telecommunications -- particu- larily statistics on participation and any cases of discrimination. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In the past, women generally were in the front office -- line of fire -- positions directly interacting with the subscribers as service representatives and operators while men were in management and research. That is still true today, although not to as great an extent as a half century ago. Which jobs are 'more important'? I guess since the subscribers are the ones paying the bill, their inter- action with the 'phone company' through the operators and service reps is the most important consideration in how telco functions in my opinion, yet their wages and the way they are treated does not always reflect that, sorry to say. PAT] ------------------------------ From: clearlake@ins.infonet.net Subject: Request For Info: Strategic Planning For Local Exchange Carrier Date: 23 Mar 1994 22:54:50 GMT Organization: INFOnet - Iowa Network Services, Inc. Reply-To: clearlake@ins.infonet.net I am asking for any resource info anyone might have regarding strategic planning models for local exchange carriers (telephone companies), specifically rural telephone companies.. I am working on a thesis for a master's in telecommunications and my topic is to prepare a strategic planning model for rural Iowa independent telephonies in a competitive environment. If there is info on strategic planning in a metro environment for telcos, that would be welcome as well. I would appreciate anything -- books, thesis materials, journals, etc. for my literature search and to ensure that nothing has been done on this same topic previously. Please leave any info in my email. Thanking you in advance. Jan Lovell, Assistant Manager, Clear Lake Independent Telephone Company, Clear Lake, Iowa ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 15:38:10 -0800 From: david_mccord@INS.COM (David McCord) Subject: Re: Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal' Steve wrote: > Could someone explain what this term means. Please email. I guess these is a corrupted reference to "streaming terminal." On a multipoint data communications line, if two or more devices attempt communications simultaneously, transmission fails. To avoid this, a typical protocol arrangement provides for devices to transmit ONLY when specifically requested to do so. A streaming terminal is one that is in violation of this arrangement, usually in a manner so that it is constantly transmitting and thereby fouling operation of the entire line. This can be a serious problem. david_mccord@ins.com International Network Services + 1 415 254 4229 voice Mountain View, California, USA + 1 415 967 3247 fax ------------------------------ From: tgilson@DELPHI.COM (Terry Gilson) Subject: Re: Who Paid For My 550? Date: 24 Mar 1994 08:18:54 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation On Wed, Mar 23, Jim Cluett Can anyone explain the economics of the $50 Motorola 550? The 550 is > selling locally at a discount department store for $50. Motorola can't > build 'em for that. The department store is acting as an agent for > both an A and a B carrier, but I don't think they can recover enough > from a year's contract to make up the difference. Who's subsidizing > this? It's probably me, but I don't quite see how. I'm not sure what it costs Motorola to make the 550, however, the current wholesale price to the Cellular Industry is from $250 to $280 depending on where you get it, and deals with certain carriers bring it down lower than that. The department store you bought the phone from probably does not make anything from the on-going use of the phone, instead they may get a one-time commission for the activation of a number. This commission can run from $75.00 to $300.00+ depending on the rate plan and part of the country. It is the commission from the carrier that usually brings the phone prices way down. Gillette's theory ... give away the razor but charge a lot for the blades. In states where the cellular industry is regulated, such as California, the dealers can only sell up to $25.00 below their cost, and a quick glance through the newspaper advertisements will give you a pretty good idea of the cost of each phone. In my area, which is Southern California, our average phone bill is now around $135.00 per month including access charge and airtime. Most Carriers can recoup the commission paid for a number within the first year and still make some decent, or indecent ;-), profit. Terry Gilson tgilson@eis.calstate.edu DCN Cellular 805-379-3333 71220.2040@compuserve.com Westlake Village, CA tgilson@delphi.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 06:02:14 EST From: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) Subject: Re: Area Code 562 In a recent TELECOM Digest Issue richgr@netcom.com (Rich Greenberg) wrote: > Pacific Bell & GTE just anounced that in 1996, LA will get its fourth > area code. 562 will overlay the present 213-818-310 areas, and will > be used for cellular phones and pagers. > Four area codes in one metro area. Can anybody beat that? and thus did the Editor write: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well the New York City metro area has quite > a few now: 212/718/914/907, what else? Are we counting New Jersey? PAT] ^^^ ^^^ 907 is Alaska; it is 917 914 is metro NYC covering Rockland, Westchester, part of Orange and possibly Dutchess and Putnam counties. Add AC 516 (Long Island) and parts of ACs 201/708 (NJ) and part of AC 203 (Ct.) With the exception of NJ, all of the ACs listed are part of the NYC LATA. 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: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 07:09:22 -0500 From: Jonathan_Welch Subject: Re: Telecom Business Idea In article , voorst@dordt.edu (Dale Van Voorst) writes: > I am looking for input on a telecommunications business idea that I > have. I live in a relatively small town that does not have local > access numbers for any of the on-line services (Compuserve, Prodigy, > AOL, etc). If you want to access these services, you must pay long > distance charges on top of your normal membership fees. If you're going to go to the trouble of leasing a line you might be better off setting up a 486DX50 pc running linux and lease the line to an internet provider. You'd then sell accounts on your machine for a flat monthly rate. You'd have to be sure your local calling area encompases enough subscribers so you don't end up losing money. Jonathan Welch VAX Systems Manager Umass/Amherst JHWELCH@ecs.umass.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 14:11:54 +0100 From: Thierry.Samama@aar.alcatel-alsthom.fr (Thierry Samama) Subject: Re: International Toll Free Numbers Reply-To: samama@aar.alcatel-alsthom.fr Organization: Alcatel Alsthom Recherche (France) In article 7@eecs.nwu.edu, theone@email.teaser.com (Rachid Benzaoui) writes: > How would it be possible to know the French equivalent numbers of American > international toll-free numbers? In France, international toll free numbers are of the form 05 90 mc du, where 05 is the usual toll free prefix. Also, I believe (but that would need to be confirmed) that toll free choke numbers are 05 70. ------------------------------ Subject: Obtaining Files From International Telecommunications Union Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 09:06:11 CST From: Carl Law Reply-To: claw@cix.compulink.co.uk I am a new user on Usenet. I write telecom articles for various journals and for the {Financial Times} in London, but live in Northern Ireland where, so far, I cannot track down the ITU yearbook and analogous publications. Could you possibly tell me the command sequence on Usenet to punch thru to their computer in Geneva? Regards, Carl Edgar Law in Belfast, N. Ireland. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, first of all, we do not want to confuse 'Usenet' (a collection of newsgroups circulated via 'Internet', a network which joins together computers and other networks around the world with the Internet itself. The Internet is much, much larger than just the component we call Usenet, which coincidentally is just one of a few different collections of newsgroups. There is also a collection of newsgroups in a system called 'alt' -- they're not technically part of Usenet -- and there are numerous regional and local collections of newsgroups with limited circulation. What you want to know, I think, is how to connect to the computer at ITU using the facilities of your local site in conjunction with the Internet. Usenet has nothing to do with it. The network address of the International Telecommunications Union is 'itu.ch'. The 'ch' stands for Switzerland, and the ITU is located in Geneva. For starters, you need to be using a computer (or connected through your personal PC or terminal to a computer) which is connected to the Internet in one way or another. If a realtime, live connection exists, then you can connect to ITU using 'anonymous ftp', and perhaps using other similar services such as Gopher or WEB. The instructions for those services are detailed, and I won't cover them here right now. Without having a realtime online Internet connection, then the thing you would have to do is send email provided ITU has an automated program running to process email *as though it were coming via ftp*. At this point I will defer to our friends at ITU since we have not heard from them in awhile anyway, and perhaps Lucio or someone else there will forward a file dealing with the ITU public documents and how to obtain them. I am making this deferral since I believe in the next few days there will be an important announcement to share with all readers of TELECOM Digest (jointly by the ITU and myself) and it would be good to do it all at the same time. In the meantime, Carl, what you should do is make inquiries of your system administrator regards remote connectivity to other computers using ftp, Gopher and similar services. The way it is done is universal, meaning not only are the instructions pertinent to connecting with ITU, but to any site where there may be documents you wish to obtain. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #145 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05952; 25 Mar 94 3:42 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA13896; Fri, 25 Mar 94 00:29:17 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA13887; Fri, 25 Mar 94 00:29:16 CST Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 00:29:16 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403250629.AA13887@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #146 TELECOM Digest Fri, 25 Mar 94 00:29:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 146 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cell One/NY Billing Errors, Also DC (Douglas Scott Reuben) New Book Announcement (Kathleen M. Billus) Cell One Switches Toll-Digit Dialing (Monty Solomon) Dying Telephones (Doug Taylor) Pager Scam Resurfaces (Stephen Goodman) Jobs Offered - Telecom Analysts (Ernie Garcia) Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire (Mark Brukhartz) Re: Bell South ISDN Announcement (Tom Horsley) Re: Hush-a-Phone (Brian J. Cecil) Re: Area Code 562 (K. M. Peterson) Re: Area Code 562 (Linc Madison) Re: Area Code 562 (Alan M. Gallatin) 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: 24 Mar 1994 16:12:59 EST From: Douglas Scott Reuben Subject: Cell One/NY Billing Errors, Also DC Just got my bill from Cell One/NY, and noticed the "airtime for voicemail" problem (where calls to voicemail are billed airtime) is still occurring. These calls do NOT look like voicemail calls; rather, they are itemized as "INCOMING". They are NOT free -- they are billed full airtime rates! They seem to occur randomly -- I distinctly remember making a number of calls to my voicemail on Feb 15, yet only SOME are showing up (all of them usually do), and only SOME of those are being billed airtime. (Note that NONE of these are voicemail calls frm my carphone, which do incur airtime). I must have like $100 worth of "INCOMING" charges which are really FREE voicemail calls, and the thing that is so insidious about all this is that I am sure that if anyone else does have the same billing problem, they may very well *never* notice it because they have fewer voicemail calls than I do, and figure "Oh well, guess I got a lot of incoming calls this month ..." and just pay the bill without careful scruitinization (which no one should have to do anyhow). So if you have voicemail with CO/NY, CHECK your bills for suspicious "INCOMING" calls! On a different note: CO/DC (and I believe Chicago as well) have been added to the NACN. CO/NY customers who travel to DC (and Chicago?) can get calls and features in these markets, with the usual McCaw-is-occassionally-brain-dead caveat that calls will NOT bounce back to voicemail if you don't answer your phone. (Like, err, do they anticipate sort of addressing this issue within the next DECADE or so? ;( ) And of course for some reason NY doesn't have No-Answer-Transfer (other Ericssons do, right?) which is user-selectable, so that obviously won't work in DC or Chicago either. (Altghough DC and Chicago customers who have NAT should be able to use the feature in NY -- it won't do much good, for the same reason calls can not bounce back to voicemail on the NACN. Calls will just come to NY, and if unanswered, they will NOT transfer ... nice, eh?) Finally, Call-Waiting is STILL not working on any of the Motorola EMX 500/2500 switches locally connected to the NY system. These are CT/W. Mass (00119), ComCast NJ (00173,00575,01487), Philly PA (00029, on the NACN!) and northern Delaware (00123, also on the NACN!). They've tried for months to get this working, and it still won't. If you are on the phone in any of these markets, callers will get bounced to voicemail right away, and you will have no idea that they called. I would think that at MINIMUM it could be set to get a busy signal as an interim sort of solution, so that callers would try to call you back, but so far, they can't even manage that. So, if you are expecting a call, you are basically stuck if you want to use your phone at the same time -- you need to check your voicemail after you get off the phone to be sure you didn't miss any calls. Neat revenue generator there, eh? :( This does, however, allow customers who wish to switch to NYNEX (WHY?!, they are worse ... MUCH worse!) or Bell Atlantic Mobile to EASILY get out of their annual service agreements, or even their agreement to stay online for "X" months else they have to pay the $400 commission the dealer gets from CO/NY for a new ativation (which is why you can get a pocket phone for $29). Just call up CO/NY, and say "Hey, when I signed up, both the dealer and/or your service reps authoritatively told me that when I roamed to CT/NJ/DE/PA that I could get call waiting, and that I wouldn't have to check my voicemail all the time. This was one of the main reasons why I signed up with you! I noticed that this was not working over six mnths ago, and you have had plenty of time to correct the problem, which you have not done. As a result, you are not fulfilling the terms of our agreement, and due to your failure to correct these problems in any semblance of a timely manner, I am repudiating our agreement, and refuse to pay any "penalty"/cancellation charges." They may make a fuss over this, but their legal department will tell them you are essentially correct. Make sure you emphasize that one of the main reasons why you signed up was because you traveled to the above markets a lot and wanted to be sure you could always get calls. Tell them "Had I known then what I know now, I would have gone with NYNEX instead, becuase their system does indeed work this way, while yours, despite your explicit assurance, does not." I think they will fix this quickly enough if they have to eat a few $400 commissions! :) And, as a matter of fact, as long as you are a customer of *any* NACN system and want to get out of your contract, you may be able to pull this as well. Simply say you signed up becuase you travel to Philly and/or Delaware a lot, and specifically wanted call-waiting, which you of course are not getting. A bit of a stretch, but it may work! (BTW, I do like CO/NY and think they provide pretty decent service. It's just frustrating that I have to sit here and go over all of our bills with them to make sure we weren't charged for voicemail calls, or for that matter to keep having to check my voicemail while in Philly after I have been on the phone for a while -- I have better things to do with my time.) Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One good thing here is that if you have something waiting in voicemail, the cellular phone gives three little tone spurts (sort of like the stutter dial tone if you are on a land line) when you press SEND. So instead of actually having to place a call to voicemail (with the resulting charges and waste of time) you can just press SEND. As soon as you are on the air, either you will hear those three short tone spurts or you will not. If you don't then don't bother calling voicemail. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kbaw@world.std.com (Kathleen M Billus) Subject: New Book Announcement Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 21:44:57 GMT The Internet Connection: System Connectivity and Configuration by John S. Quarterman and Smoot Carl-Mitchell ISBN 0-201-54237-4, 1994 Published by Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. "... it's a book I would buy even though I am very experienced at all this. It would be good to have a reference like this on the shelf. ... pulling together a lot of practical information into one place ..." Barry Shein, Software Tool & Die "The book is very clear and very easy to read. It brings the reader into the Internet at a good pace. It has enough details to be able to configure machines, but not enough to scare away nervous newcomers." Michael Barrow, Boston Computer Society Internet How do I connect to the Internet? What equipment do I need? What software do I need? How do I configure it? What forms need to be filled out? Where do I send the check? Where do I find this information? "The Internet Connection: System Connectivity and Configuration" is *the* reference guide that will explain how to become a part of a community where global communication, resource discovery, and resource sharing are brought to your desktop through the Internet. This book serves as the central source of information about the Internet from technology questions to administrative questions. Access to the Internet, the global network of networks, is becoming a must for business today. Expanding at an accelerated rate, and promising to be the foundation for future "information superhighways," the Internet is changing the way individuals and corporations communicate. "The Internet Connection: System Connectivity and Configuration" is the first clear and concise reference for system designers, system administrators, as well as individuals trying to gain access to the Internet. HIGHLIGHTS: o Gives step-by-step instruction on connection to the Internet for system designers, system administrators and their managers. o Offers assistance in setting up naming, mail and news systems o Explains the use of common Internet services such as archie, WAIS, and Gopher About the Authors: John S. Quarterman is Senior Technical Partner of Texas Internet Consulting, which consults in networks and open systems with particular emphasis on TCP/IP networks, UNIX systems, and standards. Smoot Carl-Mitchell is Managing Partner of Texas Internet Consulting. He has consulted on numerous projects including network design, installation, and debugging. He, along with his partner, also gives seminars on networking issues related to the growth, development,and use of TCP/IP. Co-authors of "Practical Internetworking with TCP/IP and UNIX", a comprehensive tutorial reference, Quarterman and Carl-Mitchell also publish *Matrix News*, a monthly on-line and paper newsletter about cross-network issues. * Available wherever fine technical books are sold. * For direct orders to Addison-Wesley, please call 1-800-822-6339 and have your credit card handy. * To be included on the Addison-Wesley on-line information server, please send an email message to awbook@aw.com. The subject line should be 'information' and the body of the message should be 'send information'. Adding your name to this listing will enable us to keep you informed of all new titles. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 19:49:03 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cell One Switches To11-Digit Dialing Effective March 1, 1994, Cell One/Boston has switched to eleven-digit dialing (from 10) for long distance calls outside of A/C 617 or 508. ------------------------------ From: b17news!dvtaylor@ingr.com (Doug Taylor) Subject: Dying Telephones Reply-To: b17news!dvtaylor@ingr.com (Doug Taylor) Organization: "Imaging systems, Intergraph Corp, Huntsville AL" Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 21:41:34 GMT We have had three phones die at our house in the last few months. Phone number one was a cheap GE wall phone with a built-in digital answering machine. It lasted over two years and then died about five months ago. The answering machine was still working, but not the phone. Since we had other phones in the house (described below), we didn't replace it until ... Phone number two was an expensive Toshiba cordless, also with a built-in digital answering machine. It lasted less than three weeks. Again, the answering machine still worked, but not the phone. We were able to trade this one back in for ... Phone number three was again an expensive Toshiba cordless, but without a built-in answering machine. Instead, we got a separate AT&T digital answering machine. This phone died today while my wife was using it. The other three phones in the house have been there forever. Phone number four is a very cheap phone we keep out in the garage. Phone number five is a good, solid rotary phone. Phone number six is a good, solid, old, office push-button phone. All three of these continued to work just fine. The dead phones did not work on other phone jacks inside our house. Got any ideas why the phones keep dying? Only emailed responses are likely to reach me. Doug Taylor dvtaylor@ingr.com MailStop IW17D1 (205) 730-6875 (w) Intergraph Corp. 730-9550 (fax) Huntsville, AL 35894-0001 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 12:42 EST From: Stephen Goodman <0003945654@mcimail.com> Subject: Pager Scam Resurfaces FYI for the readers of TELECOM Digest! !!!PAGER SCAM ALERT!!! Be aware that the pager scam using area code 212/540-XXXX has resurfaced. If you receive a page to call this number, DON'T return the call. The 212/540 is translated to a 900 number and you/we can be billed $50.00 or more per call. Please pass on to your employee base, noting that this scam recurs occassionally. sgoodman@mcimail.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I'm sure our readers ** in the metro New York City area ** appreciate the reminder, but bear in mind that ** no one ** outside the NYC area (212/718, maybe 914/516 ?) can reach this number even if they were paged. '540' is a very local, restricted prefix for the simple reason that the telco in New York has no way to collect on calls outside their area. Dialing 212-540-anything from Chicago for example on MCI gets an intercept saying 'MCI does not complete calls to 976 numbers at this time' ... and via AT&T it just goes to a re-order. I'm not certain, but I think if it is dialed via 10xxx or 1+ , it won't even leave the local CO if outside of NYC and environs. So if anyone chooses to copy out your message and post it as a warning in a company newsletter, etc, I hope they'll include my note as well. Essentially outside of NYC, this is a non-issue, and in my opinion, New Yorkers are entitled to whatever they get themselves into! It is even doubtful if the operator of this scam is breaking the law, as sleazy as it may be. Yes, he is requesting that you call a premium- priced phone number, but so do countless other advertisers on radio and television each day. No one is making you call the number and the presumption is you should know where you are calling before you dial. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 10:19:32 -0800 From: garciae@tahoma.cwu.edu (Ernie Garcia) Subject: Jobs Offered - Telecom Analysts Organization: Central Washington University Central Washington University invites applications for: TELECOMMUNICATIONS ANALYST I: $2143-$2728 TELECOMMUNICATIONS ANALYST II: $2355-$3011 Enjoy the sun and rural life of Ellensburg, Washington, population 13,000. Our Telecommunications Analysts are responsible for various project related work, including analysis of equipment malfunction, configuration revisions and installations. Requires minimum of two years of telecomm training and two years experience in CENTREX and or PBX systems for the I-level; two additional years of routine Analyst I-level work for the II-level position. At least one year experience must be with Northern Telecom SL-1/Meridian 1 PBX, including Northern Telecom training certifications. For application materials, contact Central Washington University, Personnel Services, Ellensburg, WA 98926. Phone: (509) 963-1202. OPEN UNTIL FILLED. CENTRAL IS AN AA/EEO/TITLE IX EMPLOYER. WOMEN AND MINORITIES ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY. Ernie Garcia VOICE:(509) 963-3046 Central Washington University FAX :(509) 963-1385 (CaTS) Computing & Telecom. Services Ellensburg, WA 98926 email: garciae@tahoma.cwu.edu OR garciae@hebron.connected.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 13:28:33 -0600 From: mark_brukhartz@il.us.swissbank.com (Mark Brukhartz) Subject: Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire There were strong winds and intense thunderstorms across northern Illinois on the day of the Hinsdale fire. The monitoring station ignored the first alarms because the weather was causing periodic false alarms in the area. Once they suspected trouble in Hinsdale, they were unable to reach a wide area around Hinsdale by telephone. The Hinsdale office was a regional hub for inter-office and inter-LATA calls, and there was no backup hub. The station personnel reached a supervisor in northern Indiana, who made the 45 minute drive to Hinsdale. He is said to have stood at the door and asked passers by to contact the fire department. The Hinsdale switching office lies just beyond Hinsdale's quaint suburban downtown, where stores are largely closed on Sundays. Pedestrians had to be few and far between. Once the fire department arrived, they asked the supervisor to cut the power. That critial step took a couple of hours. The switches for the utility feed, generators and batteries were distributed around the building. The supervisor couldn't reach them through the smoke, and they weren't clearly labelled for the firefighters. No water was applied to the fire for these hours. During the delay, the fire got close to the large underground cable vaults. The fire chief ordered the cables cut to prevent a spread. That extended the subsequent repair time. Hinsdale Hospital had Centrex service, and thus lost internal phone service service when the switch burned. They restored limited communications with portable radios, and soon installed an NT Meridian PBX. By the way, my home is served by the Hinsdale switch. We had no dialtone for almost a month. During that time, radio equipped personnel manned the street corners 24 hours per day to take emergency calls. Mark [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you for telling it just the way it happened. Reasonable people might disagree on some of the chronology just as you described it, but the fact is the fire burned a long time before anyone notified the fire department, procedures put in place by Jim Eibel (VP at Illinois Bell) stunk to high heaven and yes, there was no dial tone in Hinsdale for a month. Some other communities got dial tone back after a *mere two weeks*. Cellular service (both A and B) and pagers were out here for about two weeks. 911 was out for several days in many western suburbs. You see, Hinsdale was the hub for it all. Cellular service for northern Illinois; long distance switching for AT&T/Sprint/MCI/whoever; extremely important and critical circuits for the Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control at Ohare Airport; 911 service for several communities; plus local service for Hinsdale and a couple nearby communities of course. It all went through Hinsdale, and Hinsdale burned down ... what the fire did not destroy, the firemen did in the process, ie. the cables which had to be cut. The place was almost gutted top to bottom. They tried to save the switch -- Lord knows they wanted to save it if they could, but a couple weeks into the restoration when they got the switch up and running it was so corroded from water damage they had to junk it as well and order a new one post-haste which got diverted from wherever it was intended for and sent to Hinsdale on a rush basis, adding another week to the repairs. What's past is past. Please, whoever controls these things: don't let it happen again. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tom@travis.csd.harris.com (Tom Horsley) Subject: Re: Bell South ISDN Announcement Date: 24 Mar 1994 18:30:41 GMT Organization: Harris Computer Systems Division > BELLSOUTH ANNOUNCES LARGEST GEOGRAPHIC DEPLOYMENT OF ISDN IN THE NATION > CONTACT: > Karen M. Roughton of BellSouth Telecommunications, 404-529-6514 > BellSouth National ISDN HotLine, 1-800-428-4736 I get phone service from BellSouth, and despite the constant series of ISDN announcements from time to time (I seem to recall attending a meeting at work about ten years ago with phone company marketeers talking about the benefits of the soon to appear ISDN service :-), I have yet to call the local business office and find anyone on the other end of the phone who ever even heard of ISDN, much less knew anything about the price of a connection ... If fact, could someone who has done this post a typical transcript of a conversation? How many times do you have to say "Could I speak to your supervisor?" before getting to someone who has heard of ISDN? I'll have to try calling the BellSouth hotline and see if I get anywhere. Tom Horsley email: tahorsley@csd.harris.com Harris snail: 511 Kingbird Circle Computer Systems Delray Beach, FL 33444 ------------------------------ From: Brian J. Cecil Date: 24 Mar 94 13:13:20 EST Subject: Re: Hush-a-Phone > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Over the years, AT&T really brought > on a lot of their own problems that they are having today didn't they. > Imagine how much different things would be today had AT&T taken much > less miltant stance with the Carterphone/Hush-a-Phone cases and with > MCI in its early days. It is likely the whole industry would be > entirely different. And yes, AT&T did once sue the publisher of the > plastic directory covers with a claim that such 'unauthorized > attachments' might cause people to complain to the phone company about > the quality of the directory. They lost that case also. PAT] What the FCC was doing was allowing AT&T to have a controlled monopoly in orderto get a centralized phone system in the USA. They realized that if there was one phone company, that company would be able to build a high quality nationwide phone system instead of the numerous mom and pop systems that were scattered all over the country. Because of this, the FCC went along with some stupid arguments that AT&T brought before them. I believe that if the FCC did not protect AT&T and this monopolized network in its early stages, our phone system would not be as advanced as it is today. Of course the monopolized phone company is a thing of the past, and it was good to break it up when they did. However, I believe the government will be using this strategy again with the National Information Highway. Brian Cecil [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh, there is no doubt in my mind that the superior telephone service we enjoyed in the USA for many decades (and still have to a large extent) would not have been possible had things gone any other way in the early days. The credit for the many wonderful things about the Bell System which we counted on goes to Theodore Vail, Chairman of AT&T at the start of the twentieth century. He is the person who coined the phrase, 'One System ... one way of doing things ...' and the unspoken words appended to that, '... my way ...'. Ted Vail was one tough old bird -- even Alex Bell hated him -- but AT&T clear up to the early 1980's was the way it was because of Vail's influence and decisions. Too bad things turned out the way they did though. Surely something less drastic would have been workable also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kmp@tiac.net (K. M. Peterson) Subject: Re: New Area Code 562 Date: 24 Mar 1994 16:39:44 GMT Organization: KMPeterson/Boston Have I been asleep? Is this the first NXX areacode/NPA? K. M. Peterson email: KMP@TIAC.NET phone: +1 617 731 6177 voice +1 617 730 5969 fax [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Good morning! Wake up and smell the coffee cooking ... no it is not first. Alabama was the first to get one with 205 being split, and a couple others have been assigned. The one in California is third or fourth in what will soon be a flood of them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Area Code 562 Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 01:47:14 GMT Dave Niebuhr (dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov) wrote: > 907 is Alaska; it is 917 > 914 is metro NYC covering Rockland, Westchester, part of Orange and > possibly Dutchess and Putnam counties. > Add AC 516 (Long Island) and parts of ACs 201/708 (NJ) and part of > AC 203 (Ct.) ^^^ ^^ PAT, I'm surprised you missed the typo in the correction to your typo! As you might be aware, area code 708 is not in New Jersey. Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@Netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ah shucks, twarn't nothing ... I guess he meant 908. Yeah, I might be aware of 708. I think that is where I live. :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: amg@panix.com (Alan M. Gallatin) Subject: Re: Area Code 562 Date: 24 Mar 1994 17:01:29 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In a previous article, dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) wrote: >> Four area codes in one metro area. Can anybody beat that? >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well the New York City metro area has quite >> a few now: 212/718/914/907, what else? Are we counting New Jersey? PAT] > 907 is Alaska; it is 917 > 914 is metro NYC covering Rockland, Westchester, part of Orange and > possibly Dutchess and Putnam counties. > Add AC 516 (Long Island) and parts of ACs 201/708 (NJ) and part of > AC 203 (Ct.) 708 (as most Digest readers will know) is Illinois ... * 908 * (as most Bellcore people will know :-)) is Mid-Jersey :-)) amg@panix.com Alan M. Gallatin amg@israel.nysernet.org amg@jerusalem1.datasrv.co.il [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You know, this is getting to where it isn't even funny any more. Thirty years ago I knew every area code and where it was located. Now I can't remember half of them ... and wait until next year when all those strange ones start popping up everywhere. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #146 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10558; 25 Mar 94 16:41 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA24460; Fri, 25 Mar 94 12:44:44 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA24451; Fri, 25 Mar 94 12:44:43 CST Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 12:44:43 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403251844.AA24451@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #147 TELECOM Digest Fri, 25 Mar 94 12:44:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 147 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Hunt Groups/Ring-No-Answer-Call-Forwarding (Scott M. Pfeffer) ISDN PC-Boards and Supplementary Services (Svein-Ivar Lillehaug) Digital Audio Conference Bridges (MCUs) (Svein-Ivar Lillehaug) Will Widespread Use of Cell Phones Reduce Crime? (Howard Gayle) Telex / Telephone / Country Code List (Paul Robinson) Phone Equipment Catalogs (mwolf@pattie.wellesley.edu) "Fooling" Caller-ID (A. Padgett Peterson) Modem-Connectable Cell Phones? (bobfromtn@aol.com) Info Needed About Local LD Carriers in Turkey (Henry Griner) Pacific Bell Voice Mail Types (Keith Laaks) One Equals On (John Starta) Area Code 215 Changed to 610, Why? (Juha Veijalainen) Sprint 800 Outage From 201 Area Code? (Paul R. Coen) Re: Pager Scam Resurfaces (Christopher Zguris) Re: Pager Scam Resurfaces (David Jones) Re: CATV Modems (Garrett Wollman) Re: CATV Modems (George Gilder) Re: CATV Modems (Tony Harminc) Re: CATV Modems (Aaron Leonard) Internet Address Wanted (Patrizio Menchetti) 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: sp9183@swuts.sbc.com (Scott M. Pfeffer) Subject: Hunt Groups/Ring-No-Answer-Call-Forwarding Date: 25 Mar 94 04:01:30 GMT Organization: Southwestern Bell Telephone Company Anyone watching this newsgroup worked with hunt groups a lot? I am trying to figure out how to do the following, and would really appreciate input from folks with experience in this area: The basic idea is to provide 32 dialup modem lines with a backup configuration in case a modem goes bad or the rack containing half the modems goes bad. Simply, speaking something like this would be nice: If the line chosen by the switch is one of the first sixteen, but there is no answer after two rings, find a line in the second sixteen and ring it instead. This way, if I have a rack of modems on the first sixteen go down, or a bad modem is hit on the first rack, the rack on the second sixteen will receive the call. Likewise, if the line chosen by the switch is one of the second sixteen, but there is no answer after two rings, find a line in the first sixteen and ring it instead. This way, if the second rack goes down or a bad modem is hit on the second rack, the rack on the first sixteen will receive the call. Finally, if possible, I'd like a backup arrangement to the backup arrangement. A few ideas have been sent my way, but I am not sure what makes the most sense ... A few folks I know have come up with some possibilities, but still I am not sure. Here are some ideas. What do you think? 1. Provide a simple 32-line distributed line hunt group. Then a dial-in user may fail on the first call, but will eventually be able to get in after multiple retries. Am I correct that Distributed Line Hunting will choose the "least recently used" line? Limitation: User will have to redial to get in if there is no answer. It may take up to 16 calls to get to the OTHER rack. 2. 32-line hunt group. Each line N in the hunt group will have busy call forwarding and ring-no-answer call forwarding to another line. This way, if a call comes in to a bad modem or rack, the call gets immediately sent to the other rack. If THAT rack has a bad modem or if the line is busy, the call gets sent to the next line in the first rack. The cycle will continue in this sequence: N --> N + 16 --> N + 1 --> N + 17 --> N + 2 --> N + 18 --> N + 3 ^ --> N + 19 --> N + 4 --> N + 20 --> N + 5 --> N + 21 --> N + 6 | --> N + 22 --> N + 7 --> N + 23 --> N + 8 --> N + 24 --> N + 9 | --> N + 25 --> N + 10 --> N + 26 --> N + 11 --> N + 27 --> N + 12 | --> N + 28 --> N + 13 --> N + 29 --> N + 14 --> N + 30 --> N + 15 | --> N + 31 --> N + 16 --> N + 32 --: |_____________________________________| 3. Part 1: A 32-line distributed line hunt group. Numbers N through N+31. Part 2: A 15-line distributed line hunt group. Numbers N+1 through N+15. Part 3: A 16-line distributed line hunt group. Numbers N+16 through N+31. Part 4: Ring-no-answer for line N through N+15 goes to hunt line N+16. Part 5: Ring-no-answer for line N+16 through N+31 goes to hunt line N+1. Then, if a caller gets ring-no-answer, they get routed back and forth between the first 16 lines and the second 16 lines. Very similar results to solution 2? As I am new to these features (although I understand the basics), can anyone shed some light as to how far off the track I am with this and tell me how to get to Grandma's house? Thanks, Scott Pfeffer Information Services, Southwestern Bell Telephone ------------------------------ From: sveini@mack.uit.no (Svein-Ivar Lillehaug) Subject: ISDN PC-Boards and Supplementary Services Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 15:09:00 GMT Organization: University of Tromsoe, Norway The 1989 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) identifies 25 supplementary services as priority 1 and 2 (5 + 20) for Euro-ISDN. ISDN adapters may access supplementary services through either the Facility Information Element (IE) or the Keypad IE on D-channel messages. The Facility IE supports identification of specific supplementary services according to standards. The Keypad IE identifies strings of keypad codes according to the Keypad Protocol (for example *21*#). Applications can map high level user interface menu choices to keypad codes. In addition, tone signalling such as DTMF (Dual Tone Multiple Frequency) is desirable in some cases (for example for remote operation of videophones). Unfortunately it seems like (most?) ISDN adapters only support a limited number of the services described above. Hopefully I am wrong - therefor I wonder if anyone out there are aware of ISDN boards that offer all (or most -- or as many as possible) of the 25 supplementary services through their APIs (or CAPI / ETSI-PCI). The access obviously has to go through the Keypad IE or the DTMF , signalling. Regards, Svein-Ivar ------------------------------ From: sveini@mack.uit.no (Svein-Ivar Lillehaug) Subject: Digital Audio Conference Bridges (MCUs) Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 15:12:40 GMT Organization: University of Tromsoe, Norway I am interested in manufacturers (name, address, phone and fax numbers) of digital audio MCUs. To be more specific (and exclude some products) an interesting product must support the following functionalities: * Signal interfaces: Digital line signalling DTMF * Possibilities for subscribers to set up the conference * Allow for parallel conferences and up to 30 (or 50) conference participants at the same time. * Allow for dynamic management of conferences (hang ups as well as including new participants during the conference). * Direct operation through a PC interface for set up of conferences, registration and administration of subscribers and cost charges. What is a reasonable price for equipment like this? Thanks in advance, Svein-Ivar ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 07:25:29 PST From: howard@hal.com (Howard Gayle) Subject: Will Widespread Use of Cell Phones Reduce Crime? Reply-To: howard@hal.com A friend suggested to me that, sometime in the future, almost everyone will carry around a cellular phone almost all the time. She thinks this will significantly reduce the amount of crime, because it will be very easy to report a crime or other suspicious behavior that one observes. I'm skeptical, but it seems like an interesting topic for discussion. howard@acm.org ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 11:26:36 EST From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: Telex / Telephone / Country Code List Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA The following is a correction to a prior message. In a prior issue of TELECOM Digest I noted that a listing of three- digit telex codes, telex answerbacks, worldwide telephone area codes, and ISO 3166 country codes was listed in my Internet RFC 1394. The correct location for RFCs is on site DS.INTERNIC.NET (in addition to other sites that keep a complete set) and not on RS.INTERNIC.NET. 'RS' only has a limited subset of the RFCs. The complete collection is on 'DS' in the /rfc directory. I have just checked, and the file is there. Please excuse any inconvenience this may have caused you. Paul Robinson - Paul@TDR.COM ------------------------------ From: mwolf@pattie.wellesley.edu (MUR) Subject: Phone Equipment Catalogs Organization: WELLESLEY COLLEGE Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 16:45:12 GMT I'm looking for a mail order outfit, other than Hello Direct, that carries a wide variety of phone accessories such as caller ID boxes, auto-dialers etc.. I only excluded Hello Direct, as they are already sending me a catalog. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 08:55:59 -0500 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: "Fooling" Caller-ID Since my FAQ posting on Caller-ID, several people have written to say that they have heard of a box that can produce an erroneous record via a data burst on DE Pickup. None provided details. My understanding is that the Motorola chip and most Caller-ID boxes are designed to only accept data *before* pickup and to stop listening when the line is answered. Further, the through connection is only made once the line has been answered. For this reason there should not be a problem. Further, I have understood that a Caller-ID box would only accept one valid sequence per call. Two logical possibilities arise: 1) Some Caller-ID boxes might have a lag between call pickup and last acceptance of digits. 2) Some switches may connect through before pickup. If anyone *knows* of any instance where this is true (other than party lines or COTS PBX equipment), I would like to know. Warmly, Padgett padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com ------------------------------ From: bobfromtn@aol.com Subject: Modem-Connectable Cell Phones? Date: 25 Mar 1994 01:03:02 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Does a FAQ exist with comprehensive list of cell phones and features? Specifically I am seeking a phone which will connect to an existing modem (not PCMCIA-based). ------------------------------ From: Henry Griner Subject: Info Needed on Local LD Carriers in Turkey Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 00:54:01 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) I need information about who the LD carriers are in Turkey. Also, I had something about the rates going up by 100% or more in the near future. I would also like to contact anyone in business in Turkey to discuss this further. Any leads or help would be great. Thanks, Henry ------------------------------ From: itbkl@puknet.puk.ac.za (Keith Laaks) Subject: Pacific Bell Voice Mail Types Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 09:36:36 GMT Organization: ITB Department, University of Potchefstroom Hi, Don't you just love it when you can't access the information you want because the information hotline number you have is a Toll-Free number in another country? I see that Pacific Bell's Voice Mail for Business comes in two flavours: a) Standard ($19.95) b) Deluxe ($29.95) Can anybody tell me how these two mailbox types differ? Do they also provide a residential Voice Mail/Call Answer service? Also, do Telco's provide voicemail to customers with their own PABX? If so, how are the calls routed to the Voicemail equipment? I take it the Telco will have a centralized VoiceMail node, and will route (divert) calls from the business to such equipment. Is Voice Mail a regulated service? If so, what are these regulations? Keith Email: itbkl@puknet.puk.ac.za Potch Univ. Email : Tel: Potchefstroom itbkl@puknet.puk.ac.za Voice (0148) 992126 West Transvaal South Africa FAX (0148) 992799 ------------------------------ Subject: One Equals On From: tosh!starta@enuucp.eas.asu.edu (John Starta) Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 19:57:43 MST > Kenn Krasner, Sr. Consultant One Equals On kkrasner@mordor.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yep, 'one equals on' is the way he > wrote it. Its not my typo! Maybe Kenn will explain it. PAT] If I had to guess I would say that Kenn's company name is a reference to the state of a bit in binary; 0 is off, 1 is on. john starta [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Good guess! That had not occurred to me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: JVE%FNAHA@eccsa.Tredydev.Unisys.com Date: 24 MAR 94 18:45 Subject: Area Code 215 Changed to 610, Why? The other day I managed to dial a non-existing number in the USA. Area code was 215 and number 385 xxxx. The error message said I called area code 610 and number 385 xxxx and, of course, that the number did not exist. Is area code 215 being changed, split or what. Once I got the correct number, I could complete my call with 215. Juha Veijalainen System analyst, tel. +358 40 5004402 Unisys Finland Internet: JVE%FNAHA@eccsa.tredydev.unisys.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Area 215 has been/is being split into two parts with one part called 610. Carl Moore is around that area and keeps track of these things extensively; maybe he will fill you in. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 12:23:32 EST From: Paul R. Coen Subject: Sprint 800 Outage From 201 Area Code? Organization: Drew University Academic Technology I had some trouble getting through to one of our software vendors today. Whenever I called their 800 number, I got a "all carrier circuits are busy, please try later. 1C201" intercept. Anyway, I figured it wasn't AT&T, because we have AT&T long distance service. So one of my co-workers tried Sprint's FON card access number (800) 877-8000 -- same intercept. MCI seems to be okay. Looks like Sprint's 800 service is out from this area. Anyone know what is going on? I don't know if this is true on regular Sprint long distance, either. I'll try it later on from a payphone. I suppose the problem could be Bell Atlantic/NJ Bell, as well, but I would expect it to be causing other problems. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 08:29 EST From: Christopher Zguris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Pager Scam Resurfaces > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I'm sure our readers ** in the metro > New York City area ** appreciate the reminder, but bear in mind that > ** no one ** outside the NYC area (212/718, maybe 914/516 ?) can reach > this number even if they were paged. '540' is a very local, restricted > prefix for the simple reason that the telco in New York has no way to > collect on calls outside their area. Dialing 212-540-anything from > Chicago for example on MCI gets an intercept saying 'MCI does not > complete calls to 976 numbers at this time' ... and via AT&T it just > goes to a re-order. I'm not certain, but I think if it is dialed via > 10xxx or 1+ , it won't even leave the local CO if outside of NYC and > environs. So if anyone chooses to copy out your message and post it as > a warning in a company newsletter, etc, I hope they'll include my note > as well. Essentially outside of NYC, this is a non-issue, and in my ----------- ------- -- --- ---- -- - --- ----- --- -- -- > opinion, New Yorkers are entitled to whatever they get themselves into! ------- --- ------- --- -------- -- -------- ---- --- ---------- ---- Do you write this stuff to intentionally tick people off? Besides being obnoxious, this info is wrong to some degree. I know for a fact that the Pennsylvania lottery operates a 976-xxxx or similar number that is billed at a higher rate than a standard call. If they have that, than isn't it possible they have other numbers with the same higher-priced billing? Are you saying NYC is alone on this continent in its' ability to provide non-900 numbers billed at higher rates? Residents of _any_ city (or state) that have 976-xxxx or similar numbers and pagers should be aware of this. > It is even doubtful if the operator of this scam is breaking the law, > as sleazy as it may be. Yes, he is requesting that you call a premium- > priced phone number, but so do countless other advertisers on radio and -- -- --------- ----- ----------- -- ----- --- > television each day. No one is making you call the number and the ---------- ---- --- The ones I have heard on radio and TV _advertise_ the price for the call as well as the number, last I heard that was the law. > presumption is you should know where you are calling before you dial. PAT] With continuous area code splits (some for local calls, some for long distance) that will be a neat trick! Christopher Zguris czguris@mcimail.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I said nothing about New York being alone in its ability to do anything. I did say (and we have discussed here in the past) that telcos seem to have an understanding with each other not to allow calls to each other's premium lines *of the 976 type*. '540' is just a variation on '976' in NYNEX-land. Ditto where 900 service is concerned to some extent: Long distance carriers will not handle each others calls. That is you cannot use MCI to call an AT&T 900 number. You cannot use any LD carrier to call a local telco's 900 number. You *can* use any telco to call a long distance carrier's 900 number however unless your line is blocked from same. The Information Provider does not want his lines full of non-revenue (to him) calls from other areas of the country, and the phone companies cooperate with that request. You mention the PA Lottery. Certainly, almost every metro area of the USA has 976 service (or in NYNEX's case 540 and 976 service). We have dozens of such 'services' here ... try calling a Chicago area 976 number in New York ... a few, very benign services, i.e. weather and time of day *may* be permitted (I do not have a list of who is what) ... but I'll guarentee you the sex-chat and high-priced telemarketing ones never arrive here, nor in reverse. The other thing which makes this 'modem scam resurfaces' thing fishy in my opinion is that suppose you have a pager and get such a call. Where do you usually go to return the call? Either a pay phone or you use your cell phone ... and telcos do not connect to 976 or 900 numbers from pay phones either. How are they gonna get paid; are you gonna stand there and deposit fifty dollars in quarters in the box? And cellphone carriers also typically disallow 976 and 900 calls. Usually the only place you can complete these calls is from a private phone within the LATA. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dej@eecg.toronto.edu (David Jones) Subject: Re: Pager Scam Resurfaces Organization: University of Toronto, Computer Engineering Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 09:51:24 -0500 In article Stephen Goodman <0003945654@ mcimail.com> writes: > Be aware that the pager scam using area code > 212/540-XXXX What happens if this number is called from a payphone in NYC? This may be a way to cut your losses to 25 cents. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What happens if it is called from a payhone is (if NYNEX treats 540 the same way other telcos treat 976/900, and I cannot see why they would not) is the call goes to intercept with a message that the call 'cannot be completed from the phone you are using; and an operator will not be able to complete the call for you ...'. All payphones have 900/976 blocking on them which I assume includes 540; it must because when you try 212-540-anything via MCI for example, you are told MCI won't connect to 976 numbers (their words) if in fact the 540 you dialed exists; otherwise you just get a not in service message. Local premium service by whatever name (sometimes local telcos even have their own 900 service) never can be called from outside the LATA. Now this was not always true ... until maybe five years ago people in the San Fransisco area for example who dialed 976-GAYS were told the call would cost 'just two dollars for up to three minutes of lively adult conversation ... have fun!' while people in Chicago who dialed 1-415-976-GAYS heard the same message but could safely ignore it knowing they would only pay toll charges of 12 cents per minute during the night. It got to the point where no one called their local hot-chat; why pay two or three dollars when they could call one in another city for only the cost of the toll charges since telcos had no way to bill those out of the LATA? The hot-chat lines were packed; the locals could not reach their own service if they wanted to with all the out of town callers on board; the information providers were making zero since they relied on telco commissions (there were none, the calls were all long distance); and the telcos finally put an end to it at the urging of the IP's. End result and bottom line today: you can't call 976/540 unless you are within the reach of the local telco. No payphone connections, no credit card billings, no collect calls, no third-numbers, etc. That is why the 'pager scam' can cause limited damage if it is still going on. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wollman@ginger.lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: CATV Modems Date: 24 Mar 1994 19:31:49 GMT Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science In article , wrote: > Do you know any equipment (modem, remodulator, ...) that allows data > communication over the CATV cable. On the user side, the modem should > feature a well-known interface (RS232C, Ethernet, ...). When I was at UVM, we used aging Ungermann-Bass equipment which did this, running at 5Mbit/s per direction per channel. We used two channels in each direction (3P forward/Q reverse, 4A forward/R reverse). We were contemplating replacing this equipment with 10-Mbit equipment from Chipcom, but decided instead to decommission the broadband data network. Garrett A. Wollman wollman@lcs.mit.edu formerly known as wollman@emba.uvm.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 09:28 EST From: George Gilder <0004091174@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: CATV Modems Digital Equipment in Littleton, Massachusetts, offers a CATV modem called Channelworks that offers full duplex 10 megabit per second Ethernet services of up to 70 miles over two cable channels. Intel, General Instrument, and Hybrid Technologies have announced an asymmetrical CATV modem which receives at 10 megabits per second but sends at 256 kilobits, with plans for upgrades to a megabit. Cable coax, reaching 63 percent of the nation's homes and passing some 90 percent, is a huge untapped resource for computer communications and in the future, I predict, will be used more by computers than by TVs. Each cable has a two-way potential of one gigahertz. Because CATV operates at over 50 decibels of signal to noise, however, it can accomodate as many as 16 bits per hertz, for a total capacity of some 16 gigabits per second. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 15:51:05 EST From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: CATV Modems gabioud@uni2a.unige.ch wrote: > A CATV cable has a huge bandwidth available. A part of it is usually > not used for TV channels and could be used (at least from a technical > standpoint) for data transmission, if a return channel is available. > Do you know any equipment (modem, remodulator, ...) that allows data > communication over the CATV cable. On the user side, the modem should > feature a well-known interface (RS232C, Ethernet, ...). There is all sorts of gear available to use the CATV plant for data transmission. Probably the most prominent vendor is Scientific Atlanta (you guess where they're based :-) ). But you must understand that there is no end-user widget you can just attach to your end of the cable that will do anything useful along these lines. The entire cable plant has to be engineered for data transmission. SA has a set of gear that can provide a POTS or ISDN connection as well as the RG59 TV signal via a black box that attaches to the side of your house. Probably they'd be happy to send you the glossies. Tony H. (I have no connection with SA, etc...) ------------------------------ From: leonard@telcom.arizona.edu (Aaron Leonard) Subject: Re: CATV Modems Date: 24 Mar 1994 23:37:02 GMT Organization: University of Arizona Telecommunications Reply-To: Leonard@Arizona.EDU In article , gabioud@uni2a.unige.ch writes: > A CATV cable has a huge bandwidth available. A part of it is usually > not used for TV channels and could be used (at least from a technical > standpoint) for data transmission, if a return channel is available. > Do you know any equipment (modem, remodulator, ...) that allows data > communication over the CATV cable. On the user side, the modem should > feature a well-known interface (RS232C, Ethernet, ...). DEC (excuse me, Digital Equipment Corp.) sells a box called a ChannelWorks bridge, which bridges Ethernet at full 10Mbps over two CATV channels. It's priced in the middle four figures, and is quite fast (in terms both of latency and bandwidth). However, it's rather finicky in terms of how clean the cable signal must be for it to work well. I understand that Zenith also has (or is working on) such a device, although Zenith's is cheaper and only provides .5Mbps. Aaron Leonard (AL104), University of Arizona Network Operations, Tucson AZ 85721 ------------------------------ Subject: Internet Address Wanted Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 12:22:19 CET From: Patrizio Menchetti Can anybody tell me if the Secretary of State of the State of New York has an Internet address? Thank you in advance. Patrizio Menchetti ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #147 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11024; 25 Mar 94 17:34 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA26262; Fri, 25 Mar 94 13:43:28 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA26249; Fri, 25 Mar 94 13:43:26 CST Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 13:43:26 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403251943.AA26249@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #148 TELECOM Digest Fri, 25 Mar 94 13:42:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 148 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson 1994 Discover Awards *** Last Call *** (Darlene Quinn) Re: New LA Area Code (David Esan) Re: Area Code 562 (Mark Rudholm) Re: New LA Area Code (Drew Dean) Re: AT&T Cellular Privacy System (Steven King) Need Information on ATM Hookups and Equipment (Timothy C. Wilson) Re: Telecom Business Idea (Mike Lanza) Re: Alphanumeric Pager Software (Bonnie J. Johnson) Re: Alphanumeric Pager Software (Steve Brack) Re: Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal' (wjhalv1@pacbell.com) Re: Who Paid For My 550? (Gregory Youngblood) Re: Extension Cord For Cell Phone (David Tse) Re: Information Wanted on Women and Telecom (Gregory Youngblood) Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update (Martin McCormick) Re: Hush-a-Phone (Pawel Dobrowolski) Humorous Names For The RBOCs (David Aus) 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: disaward@netaxs.com (Media Management Services, Inc.) Subject: 1994 Discover Awards *** Last Call *** Date: 25 Mar 1994 18:10:12 GMT Organization: Net Access - Philadelphia's Internet Connection The 1994 DISCOVER Awards for Technological Innovation --------------------------------------------------------- Presented by Epcot '94 at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida DISCOVER Magazine is pleased to announce that it is now accepting nominations for the fifth annual DISCOVER Awards program. These awards recognize breakthrough technologies in science and honor the men and women whose creative genius improves our quality of life. Companies, research institutions, and individuals are invited to nominate innovations in seven categories: 1. AUTOMOTIVE & TRANSPORTATION 2. AVIATION & AEROSPACE 3. COMPUTER HARDWARD & ELECTRONICS 4. COMPUTER SOFTWARE 5. ENVIRONMENT 6. SIGHT 7. SOUND Winning innovations and their inventors will be featured in a special October 1994 DISCOVER Awards issue. Plus, all finalists and winners will be showcased at "Innoventions," a new attraction opening at Epcot '94 at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. If you would like to receive a nomination package, please contact Darlene Quinn via the internet at: disaward@netaxs.com 1994 DISCOVER AWARDS Phone #: (800) 637-8509 c/o Media Management Services, Inc. Fax #: (215) 579-8589 105 Terry Drive Suite 120 E-Mail: disaward@netaxs.com Newtown, PA 18940 ------------------------------ From: de@moscom.com (David Esan) Subject: Re: New LA Area Code Date: 24 Mar 94 20:04:02 GMT Organization: Moscom Corporation, Pittsford NY In article the MODERATOR wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well the New York City metro area has quite > a few now: 212/718/914/917, what else? Are we counting New Jersey? PAT] Now I know that people in the Second City (now the third city, and sliding) have complete disdain for New York City. We certainly do in Western New York. However, New York City proper contains 212, 718 and 917. The Long Island suburbs are in 516. The northern suburbs (Westchester and part of Rockland counties) are in 914. LATA 132 encompasses all of 212, 718, 917, all of 516 except Fisher's Island, and the southern portion of 914. All calls in the LATA are local, meaning that the local calling area has FIVE area codes. Also note that 212 is high on the list of unsplit area codes, and the city will soon have six area codes. David Esan de@moscom.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 10:40:48 -0800 From: rudholm@aimla.com (Mark Rudholm) Subject: Re: Area Code 562 Dave Niebuhr writes: >> Four area codes in one metro area. Can anybody beat that? > and thus did the Editor write: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well the New York City metro area has quite >> a few now: 212/718/914/907, what else? Are we counting New Jersey? PAT] > 907 is Alaska; it is 917 > 914 is metro NYC covering Rockland, Westchester, part of Orange and > possibly Dutchess and Putnam counties. > Add AC 516 (Long Island) and parts of ACs 201/708 (NJ) and part of > AC 203 (Ct.) > With the exception of NJ, all of the ACs listed are part of the NYC > LATA. Yes, but 213, 310, 818, and 562 will all fall within the corporate limits of the _city_ of Los Angeles, not just the metro area. With the addition of 310, LA City was, according to Pacific Bell, the first single city in the US to have three area codes. Unless NYC gets another area code before 562 goes on-line, we will also be the first with four. The following area codes fall entirely or partially within the metro area but outside the city of LA; 714, 805, 909, and 619. All of those area codes are entirely within the LA LATA except 805 and 619, which are only partially within the LATA. Mark D. Rudholm Philips Interactive Media rudholm@aimla.com 11050 Santa Monica Boulevard +1 213 930 1449 Los Angeles, CA 90025-7511 ------------------------------ From: ddean@robadome.com (Drew Dean) Subject: Re: New LA Area Code Date: 24 Mar 1994 18:47:11 -0800 Organization: ROLM - A Siemens Company In article , Rich Greenberg wrote: > Well Pat, if you are going to count Nuuuu Joooooisy as part of Metro > New York, then I can throw in 714,909, 805, and mabe a slice of 619. Uh, 619 is San Diego and other parts of California (having grown up there, I remember the split from 714). Did you perhaps mean 609, which I believe is in New Jersey? Drew Dean (408) 492-5524 ddean@robadome.com ROLM, a Siemens company [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh dear, another one. Sigh ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: king@wildebeest.cig.mot.com (Steven King) Subject: Re: AT&T Cellular Privacy System Date: 24 Mar 1994 17:16:12 GMT Organization: Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group Reply-To: king@wildebeest.cig.mot.com darneke@attmail.com (David R Arneke) publicly declared: > AT&T SECURE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS NEWS RELEASE I have a few questions about this system. (This is genuine curiosity, not veiled criticism of what sounds like a very beneficial feature.) 1) What scrambling technology is used? Is it a simple inversion such as used in the Motorola Secure-Clear cordless phones? 2) Is the signalling channel also scrambled? How about the blank-and-burst signal sent on the voice channel to change power level or to do a handoff? 3) Is the SAT tone affected? If so, what does this do to system planning? 4) How does the mobile recognize that it's in a scrambler-capable system? How does the base site recognize that a mobile has a scrambler attached? Does the mobile scrambling unit recognize when the mobile is roaming into an incompatible system and turn itself off? 5) Is the MTSO scrambler unit part of the base site or part of the switch? If it's part of the base site, can a scrambled call be handed off into a cell with no scrambler unit attached? 6) If there are no MTSO scrambler units available when a call is placed (or handed off), does the subscriber get any indication that the call is being sent in the clear rather than scrambled? 7) Bottom line -- What is Ameritech charging for the feature? I've sent this note to the TELECOM Digest and to David Arneke directly. Hopefully Mr. Arneke will respond to the Digest, or give me permission to post his answers if he responds directly to me. Steven King -- Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 12:17:10 EDT From: Timothy C. Wilson Subject: Need Information on ATM Hookups and Equipment Greetings from the snow belt, I am preparing a presentation for a Switching Technology class on connecting various inputs (video, voice and data) from an in-house LAN to a remote site via ATM transmission. I would appreciate any information on equipment, cards, or other information suitable for this application. I am planning this project using GTE SPANet, but am open to other suggestions. Any vendor reps out there that would like to send me some propaganda, that is most welcome. Thank you in advance, Timothy C. Wilson tcw5443@rit.edu Rochester Institute of Technology 716-475-7226 Rochester, NY ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 10:20:17 GMT From: Mike Lanza Subject: Re: Telecom Business Idea > Since many people are buying computers with modems and software (and often > trial Compuserve memberships), I feel there may be a market for providing a > local access number that would give them a dial-tone in a neighboring city, > thus allowing them to dial the service of their choice. If the economics were there to do this, I don't see why the packet networks wouldn't have already done it. Besides, it seems to me that the most cost-effective way to get this done is either through 800 access or 950 access for those who do not have a local access number. At low volume, 800 service (w/ T1 at the receiving end) goes for about 14 cents a minute, while 950 access goes for around 18 cents a minute, but the latter should definitely come down as its traffic increases. This compares to about eight or nine cents a minute for packet access. (Of course, keep in mind that the quantity discount for packet access is greater since there is no fixed cost of local access -- four cents a minute -- to account for.) Another issue with this idea -- many RBOCs (e.g. PacBell) have applied for, and will soon receive, authorization to dramatically decrease their charges on inter-LATA calls. As I recall, PacBell's proposal would decrease these rates about 40% or so. Sorry for being a naysayer on this one, but telecom costs for online services is an issue that I've thought a lot about. Mike Lanza ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 13:15:16 EST From: Bonnie J Johnson Subject: Re: Alphanumeric Pager Software I use Notify. Reasonably priced at about $90 and there is a Mac and Windows version. They are working on a network version now. I have been happy with it. Contact Scott at 800-238-4738. bj ------------------------------ From: sbrack@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu (Steve Brack) Subject: Re: Alphanumeric Pager Software Organization: University of Toledo Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 01:09:11 GMT Kenn Krasner (kkrasner@ritz.mordor.com) wrote: > Kenn Krasner, Sr. Consultant One Equals On kkrasner@mordor.com >[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yep, 'one equals on' is the way he > wrote it. Its not my typo! Maybe Kenn will explain it. PAT] Doing consulting on IBM's I always have to tell people that 1 is "on" and 0 is "off." Lots of power switches are marked that way. Steven S. Brack sbrack@jupiter.cse.utoledo.edu Toledo, OH 43613-1605 STU0061@UOFT01.BITNET MY OWN OPINIONS sbrack@maine.cse.utoledo.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is what I was told earlier by a couple other people. It is a sensible answer. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wjhalv1@pacbell.com Subject: Re: Please Explain the Term 'Steaming Terminal' Date: 23 Mar 94 16:44:27 GMT Organization: Pacific * Bell In article , writes: > Could someone explain what this term means. Please email. I offer two examples of "streaming terminals": 1. In a WAN: A device attached to a multi-point circuit can fail in a way that makes it transmit garbage data. Multi-point circuits are like giant antennas: the device would broadcast its garbage onto the circit, effectively killing any useful communication between the "master" [FEP, in IBM jargon], and the "slaves" [Cluster controllers, in IBM jargon]. 2. In a LAN: Say your ethernet machine has a problem -- maybe it continually transmits ICMP packets because its PING code is buggy -- so it just "babbles databits" onto the LAN. How does Ethernet deal with this by itself? Ultimately somebody has to figure out which machine is causing the problem and turn the machine off. Hope this helps. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Who Paid For My 550? From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Thu, 24 Mar 94 09:32:38 PST Organization: TCS Computer Systems > So, anyhow, wholesale, a phone costs, let's say, $300. Average BASE > phone bill under a qualifying plan is $40/month. 10% of (40 x 12=$480/yr) > = $48. PER phone activated, the carrier gives the agent a fixed fee -- > typically, $250. So, the $300 phone is paid for. The agent is > gambling several things: > 1. You'll stay on longer than one year; > 2. You'll use more than $40/month in services. > Newer agents get less than $48, but still get the $250 acttivation. This varies with carrier to carrier. Some carriers offer the residuals (the percentage of the bill) others have straight commissions. For example, if an agent activates x number of phones in a month, he qualifies for commission plan a, which might be $200 or 250 for the activation, but if he can sell y number of phones in one month, he'll get bumped up to the next commission plan. It's difficult to know how things are actually, done, but you get a pretty good idea if you look at the fine print, "Activation required, Add $300 without activation." Which of course maintains their profit margin. :) CA on the other hand has a law that service and equipment can not be bundled, so your free phone elsewhere might cost you $150 or so in CA. But, that's also $150 with or without service. :) > Of course, the cellular carrier doesn't do too badly either; they > don't have to deal that much with the public, the agent being their > buffer One thing to remember too, is that since the beginning of cellular, it has been marketing and sales driven. With the penetration that cellular has achieved, look to see cellular operations change gears and move to become operations and customer service driven. With the fill dates coming up for a lot of the RSAs the engineering and operations people have to build the network to save the territory. Once the network is built then actual construction will decrease substantially and it will be a maintenance job. Around the same time this happens, look to see carriers become customer service oriented, since it is cheaper to maintain a happy customer base than to dump money into marketing for new activations and the new activations would probably be your low use, emergency plan people which don't generate a lot of revenue. To think about how much revenue these carriers are making, look at companies like McCaw which has got to have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of subscribers. For example, say 500,000. If they collect an average of $25/month from all subscribers JUST for monthly service charges, NOT airtime, etc, that's 12,500,000 *each month* right off the top. Greg The Complete Solution BBS Allfiles List: Anonymous UUCP Calls Accepted 707-459-4547 (24hrs, v.32) ~/tcsbbs.lst Login: nuucp Password: nuucp Telemate Distribution Site zeta@tcscs.com Cellular Telephony Groups ------------------------------ From: a10554@giant.rsoft.bc.ca (David Tse) Subject: Re: Extension Cord For Cell Phone Date: 25 Mar 94 09:38:36 GMT Organization: MIND LINK! Communications Corp. MTOVAR@KUHUB.CC.UKANS.EDU writes: > Can anybody tell me where I can purchase an extension cord for my > cellular phone? I tried my local Radio Shack but they don't carry > this. It appears to be an 8 wire connection. I happened to pick up an extension handset with a rather long extension cord (about 15 feet?) to be used for some older Radio Shack mobile cellular phones at our local (Vancouver, B.C., Canada) Radio Shack clearance centre where this (last one) thing has been sitting on the shelf for more than a year I have seen it. I modified the handset inside to make it to work as a handset for my amateur radio equipment in my car, particularly useful doing full duplex phone patch on an autopatch repeater. Or, the short answer is: it is somewhat available, but because it's hard to find, you might have to do some homework. However, the extension cord should be much easier to get than the extension handset I have. Most brands share similar design jacks for the cord. (Flat eight wires phone jack type.) > In case you are wondering, I'm not crazy :). My boyfriend lives in a > city thats a local call on cellular, but LD from my home. And, of > course, my cell phone is mounted in the car. I'm looking for a way to > stretch it into the house. Many cellular systems have wider local areas than the landline does. (But call forwarding on the cellular I think could be caught and they'd charge the toll on the landline bill, as I experimented some years ago while living in San Diego, served by PacBell and PacTel Cellular (same parent). Good luck, David Tse, VE7MDT Internet: a10554@giant.rsoft.bc.ca Do not use: dtse@rflab.ee.ubc.ca or David_Tse@mindlink.bc.ca Note: for large e-mail please send to dtse@rflab.ee.ubc.ca Snail-Mail: P.O. Box 26052, Richmond, B.C., V6Y 2B0, Canada. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Information Wanted on Women and Telecom From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 07:39:19 PST Organization: TCS Computer Systems Melanie Spencer writes: > I'm looking for information on women in telecommunications -- particu- > larily statistics on participation and any cases of discrimination. I personally know of two women that are out in the field working on cellular cell sites and switches. One has been doing it for about three to five years I guess, and is now due to have a baby any week, and the other has been working on Ericson for about nine years. Both of these ladies are very sharp at what they do, and I've seen some try to give them a hassle, but, they know how to take care of those people. Also, a project manager of ours is also female, and she has got to be one of the better project managers I've ever worked around. Until I had seen these ladies, I had never seen a female out in the field with their kind of responsibilities ... glad they are out here in my region. :) Greg The Complete Solution BBS Allfiles List: Anonymous UUCP Calls Accepted 707-459-4547 (24hrs, v.32) ~/tcsbbs.lst Login: nuucp Password: nuucp Telemate Distribution Site zeta@tcscs.com Cellular Telephony Groups ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 11:23:41 CST From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu (Martin McCormick) Subject: Re: Los Angeles Phone Fire Update Organization: Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 17:23:39 GMT One factor which wasn't mentioned in all these discussions of the Chicago telephone fire in 1988 was whether or not any of the alarms being received in Springfield were specifically fire alarms or just alarms caused by damage from the fire. The few remote fire alarm circuits that I have ever heard any technical information about signal both a fire alarm condition and a trouble condition if the telephone line is disrupted. One would think that if there was a dedicated fire alarm system and it showed a possible fire, then it's time to call the fire department and check things out. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ From: dobrowol@husc8.harvard.edu (Pawel Dobrowolski) Subject: Re: Hush-a-Phone Date: 25 Mar 1994 17:39:25 GMT Organization: Harvard University Science Center > They realized that if there was one phone company, that company > would be able to build a high quality nationwide phone system instead > of the numerous mom and pop systems that were scattered all over the > country. You're confusing a technological truth (one country needs one telephone network) with a supposed economic truth (one telephone company for one country). I don't have the data with me right now (I just suffered a huge HD crash) but if you look at the number of telephones connected after the Bell patents lapsed c.a. 1894 you will notice that competition brought more phones faster while at the same time rates kept falling. Non-Bell companies started serving poor urban neighborhoods and rural areas Bell wasn't interested in serving while it still had the original phone patent monopoly (1877-1893). [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way AT&T handled things right after the patent ran out and everyone started making phones was to first go into a town where non-Bell stuff was being used and politely try to buy them out. If that failed -- and it frequently did because even back then the local leaders in many small towns had genuine feelings of dislike for the AT&T monopoly -- then AT&T's response was to refuse interconnection. They'd say well if you think your phones are so good, see how good they are when you cannot make any calls outside your local exchange because we are not going to carry your traffic. Then they'd go into the same town, set up an exchange and give the service away for free if necessary, including long distance service until sufficient numbers of the citizens had signed up for Bell service instead of the competitor's. Once the competitor was almost out of business, AT&T would go back and offer him maybe ten percent of what they had originally offered a year earlier and of course he was a fool if he did not take it. GTE was originally a lot of small independent telcos which had banded together for protection and mutual assistance when AT&T started hasseling them. Regards rural telephony, AT&T refused to touch it claiming the costs were too high. They scream in recent years about MCI 'skimming the cream' where the high-volume, very profitable east coast corridor traffic is concerned, but you should have seen *them* back in the 1930's ... President Franklin Roosevelt established the REA (Rural Electrification Administration) to bring electricity and telephones to the farmers. He also hated AT&T, you know ... AT&T had nothing to do with the hundreds of Telephone Cooperative Societies all over the USA in those years; they struggled along the best they could with the mortgage money they got from the REA, and somehow survived during the great depression and the years which followed. Then comes the 1950's; their mortgages are paid off and they are starting to make a bit of money for their farmer-owners. All of a sudden AT&T is in the picture again, buying them up left and right, 'for the good of the public telephone network' you know ... A lot of them still refused to deal with AT&T and went into other telephone consortiums instead. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 24 Mar 94 14:55:22 EST From: DAVID AUS <71742.1102@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Humorous Names For the RBOCs When the Bell System was broken up, some wags came up with a cute name for each of the then new RBOCs. I think I remember some of them: Ameritech ? Bell Atlantic Liberty Bell Bell South Southern Belle Nynex ? PacTel Tinker Bell Southwestern Bell Mission Bell US West Taco Bell Does anyone remember all the names? David A. Aus 71742.1102@compuserve.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Such a 'LATA map' appeared a few years ago in Harry Newton's {Teleconnect Magazine}, but he had it broken down by geographic areas of the USA rather than BOCs. For example, his map had Texas shown as 'Taco Bell'. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #148 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa20297; 27 Mar 94 14:03 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA23890; Sun, 27 Mar 94 10:54:49 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA23879; Sun, 27 Mar 94 10:54:48 CST Date: Sun, 27 Mar 94 10:54:48 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403271654.AA23879@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #149 TELECOM Digest Sun, 27 Mar 94 10:55:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 149 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson The Day 905 Went Solo (David Leibold) FAX Questions From a New User (Jeff Shore) Sprint Response to Edison, NJ Gas Pipeline Disaster (Bill Garfield) Ethernet Voice - Bandwidth Control (Matt Young) Direct Modem / Cellular Links (bobfromtn@aol.com) Information Wanted on ERMES Project (Lars Kalsen) New BT Advertising is No Yolk (Dave Leibold) Stentor Joins Consortium (Dave Leibold) ATM on FDDI, DQDB, SDH (Carlos Carvalhal) Drivers Using NDIS (Carlos Carvalhal) Urgent Need For British Telecom Technology Journal (Ken K.P. Lo) Voice and Data Through PBX (Thomas Humphreys) Re: Will Widespread Use of Cell Phones Reduce Crime? (James, Slupsky) Re: Will Widespread Use of Cell Phones Reduce Crime? (Peter M. Weiss) Re: Pacific Bell Voice Mail Types (wjhalv1@pacbell.com) Re: Seeking CATV List (Nick Sayer) 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: djcl@io.org Date: Sat, 26 Mar 1994 00:16:57 -0500 Subject: The Day 905 Went Solo Friday (25 Mar) was the last official day of Bell Canada's permissive dialing period for the 416/905 area code split in the Toronto region. This means that calls to 905 points will no longer be processed using the 416 area code. 416 is only valid for Metro Toronto now. Bell Canada literature did acknowledge that a few areas might still enjoy permissive dialing for a short time, though. This switchover includes the new ten digit local calling scheme across the 416/905 boundary (similar to what Washington DC had to implement a few years ago). For the past month or so, Bell Canada had a recording that would randomly happen when a cross-border local call was dialed. It would start "This is Bell Canada. Do not hang up. Your call will be completed as dialed. In the future, please dial <416 or 905 as appropriate> before the seven digit local number you are calling. Thank you." A few folks wanted to go after the guy who did the recording, deeming him to be a bit of a nuisance :-| I just tried the (905)676.3066 for Environment Canada's weather office ... as of 00h18 local time, the call still completed as seven digits (without Bell's intervening recording), but no doubt this will change. Interestingly enough, Bell Canada has already set up 416-210 and 905-210 as separately functioning NXXes. The 210 is primarily used for Bell's voice messaging service. Someone had determined that dialing 210 had different results depending on whether the call was placed as 416 or 905. Ten digit local calling can be used within an area code (optionally). That is, someone in 416 can dial elsewhere in 416 (Toronto) as 416 + seven digits, as well as just the seven digits. David Leibold ------------------------------ From: jhs@elvis.dr.att.com (Jeff Shore) Subject: FAX Questions From a New User Organization: AT&T Date: Sun, 27 Mar 1994 11:13:34 GMT I am a new owner of a PC that has fax capability. As a "newbie" with fax, I have not looked for any previous fax discussions, so please bear with me if someone has previously posted answers to my questions (I have read the posts current as of 3/25/94, but did not see anything current that addressed my problem). If that is the case, please e-mail responses to spare other folks, or you can post your replies if you prefer. On to the basic situation and questions: I recently bought a 486 (Gateway 2000 4DX2-66P aka P4D) equipped with an internal 14.4 Kbps data/fax modem (Telepath II) DOS 6.21, Windows 3.11, MS-WORKS and the "Entrepnneur" suite (which the MS Works may be in). I think I can receive and send any faxes created on the system with the config and SW apps I now have without further upgrades (I just fired the system up so I have a lot of "playing" to do to get familiar with everything). So, all things being equal, that still leaves one major outage as I see it: How can I send a fax of a hard-copy document (i.e., something not already on-line)? While I could type in text (and graphics, too, I suppose?), that gets real tedious real fast beyond one page, and defeats the efficiency of the whole setup anyway. Since I don't really want to have to buy a fax machine now (read: no $$$ for now) just for sending hard-copy, would getting a scanner be a good option? [BTW: Any cautions or suggestions about sending graphics (whether in the hard-copy or that I create) in a fax, especially PC-fax?] I don't recall any specifics, but I seem to remember seeing some full page B/W scanners for very reasonable prices. Would getting a visual scanner be a practical and cost-effective alternative to buying a real fax machine just for transmission purposes? Are there any potential problems with getting hard-copy into the system in a compatible way so I can then fax that material? Are there any good options I might be overlooking? Are there any severe limitations or drawbacks to using a scanner? What sorts of additional hardware (interfaces, ports, etc.) and software are required to support a scanner? And in the end, might I still be better off (for fax applications) to just go ahead and pick one up? Yes, it *is* true that if I gat a scanner, I would be able to enter lots of other stuff from different media, too, I suppose, but for now, I am more concerned with immediate fax use and cost effectiveness Thanx for any suggestions or ideas anyone can provide on this. Jeff Shore jhs@elvis.dr.att.com (303) 538-4195/(303) 465-4052. ------------------------------ Subject: Sprint Response to Edison, NJ Gas Pipeline Disaster From: bill.garfield@yob.com (Bill Garfield) Date: Sat, 26 Mar 94 23:05:00 -0600 Organization: Ye Olde Bailey BBS - Houston, TX - 713-520-1569 Reply-To: bill.garfield@yob.com (Bill Garfield) As there have been occasional brickbats tossed at the various IXCs, I thought I'd share a positive experience I recently had with US Sprint. At approximately 12:05 AM (EST) Thursday 3/24/94, a 36" diameter high pressure underground natural gas pipeline ruptured and burst into flames in Edison, NJ. That pipeline is owned and operated by Texas Eastern Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of my employer, Panhandle Eastern Corporation. I did not learn of the disaster until arriving for work at 07:00 (CST) that day. I had no sooner slid my badge through the cardreader lock to enter the communications room when one of my executive vice presidents called for me to attend an emergency meeting in our Gas Control room. The v.p. needed an 800 number -ASAP- into our South Plainfield, NJ area office, which was nearest the disaster site and had been designated to become the disaster coordination center. Referring to our emergency callout list, I paged my US Sprint account representative at 07:30. At 07:34 he returned my page -- from his home! I quickly summarized the situation. By 07:45 we had a conference call up between my Sprint rep's home, myself, and a Sprint programmer in Dallas. At 08:07 we had a brand spanking new 800 number up and working, just 37 minutes from the time I first paged my Sprint representative. Thank you -US SPRINT-, and all your employees behind the scenes on this one, for a job very well done! Bill Garfield - the pbx guy - Panhandle Eastern Corp - Houston, TX Ye Olde Bailey BBS Zyxel 713-520-1569(V.32bis) Hayes 713-520-9566 (V.FC) Houston,Texas yob.com Home of alt.cosuard [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What a great report! Isn't it always true that the strongest link in any large corporation are its best employees and its weakest link are the worst ones. For every horror story we hear about a long distance carrier, one good report like yours makes up for a few of the bad ones. Your Sprint rep is to be commended. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kyma@netcom.com (Matt Young) Subject: Ethernet Voice - Bandwidth Control Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Date: Sat, 26 Mar 1994 18:38:43 GMT Netters: I originally put out a post regarding ethernet bandwidth control which allows existing ethernet users to make normal telephone calls throught ethernet. My error was posting the wrong message, which appeared out of context. Hence I am re-posting a summary of the project. The bandwidth control protocol over ethernet is under study by several major ethernet providers. Below is a quick summary: The intent of applying bandwidth control to ethernet is to allow ethernet connected desktops to make voice calls through ethernet using their desktop sound systems. The project is being pushed by me, who works for a consulting company called KYMA, and is being pitched to ethernet adapter card vendors. The bandwidth control protocol does not require any change to the ethernet repeater hub, and still uses collisions as the access method for gaining access to the ethernet media. The protocl does however, require a change in the adapter card set. The principle behind ethernet bandwidth control is to apply an SNMP based protocol for assigning reserved bandwidth to applications making voice calls. The protocol informs each desktop about the amount of reserved bandwidth, and each desktop ethernet driver will be programmed to make sure that reserved bandwidth demands are met before using the ethernet for normal usage. An outline of the protocol is available from me at: kyma@netcom.com. However, the implementation details are being worked on by the ethernet adapter vendors, and I expect them to form some industry group to standardize the procedure. For the end users, they will be able to support full voice/data conferencing within an ethernet segment, and will have this capability extended throughout the interprise as new bandwidth controlled routers and switches are implemented. Normal data traffic will not be effected except that as bandwidth is reserved ethernet voice, less will be available for normal data. Additionally, public networks can be accessed for normal voice traffic via call set up capability available from Novell, IBM, and Microsoft. However, all voice on the ethernet is naturally packet voice, and conversion to a switched telephone line must be an add-on product to existing hubs. The original schedule for introduction is within six months, however, as a consultant I have little power to enforce the schedule and you must contact your ethernet adapter individually for pricing and availability. Thank you, Matt Young KYMA kyma@netcom.com 408 741 1944 ------------------------------ From: bobfromtn@aol.com (BobFromTN) Subject: Direct Modem / Cellular Links Date: 27 Mar 1994 00:51:03 -0500 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Earlier I posted a question about this; I've continued to research. Here's what I've learned. Most phone manufacturers, if they support a data link, insist you buy a usually expensive car kit. Personally, I plan to use data link with my home desktop computer on my unlimited weekend time. Here's what I've found with third party solutions: ORA Electronics makes a "Cellular/Data Link" Chatsworth CA 818 772-2700 which is sold mail order by Cellular World 800-825-5669 for $240. My dealer's distributor carries the product and is selling it to me for $185. It works with: NEC: P200,201, 300, 400,401,301, 600,601 OKI 900, 910, 1150, 1145 ATT 3710, 3730, 3760 Diamontel 20X, 22X Kenwood KMP-H700 Mitsubishi 3500, 4000 Motorola 8000, 4000, MicroTAC (All) Pioneer PCH PCC700,900 A competitor's product is made by AXCELL, but I have no other information about this product. These products are for direct links between RJ11 jack and the cellular phone. Perhaps other/better products are available? ------------------------------ From: dalk@login.dkuug.dk (Lars Kalsen) Subject: Information Wanted on ERMES Project Date: 27 Mar 94 09:29:25 GMT Organization: DKnet Hi, I would like to recieve any information about the ERMES project: - ongoing projects on implemenation. - equipment - services - broad concepts - anything else related to the prtoject. Greetings from Denmark! Lars Kalsen dalk@login.dkuug.dk ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 27 Mar 94 00:59:44 -0500 Subject: New BT Advertising is No Yolk Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada {Reuter} reports that British Telecommunications PLC will advertise on eggs. The idea of "eggvertising" is that non-toxic ink is applied to the egg shells. In this case, BT wants to plug reduced daytime call charges. The report didn't state how much BT will shell out for this campaign. One has to wait to see if this marketing is what it's cracked up to be, being in a scramble to poach on its competition. (ref: {The Toronto Star} 25 March 1994) ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 27 Mar 94 11:40:20 -0500 Subject: Stentor Joins Consortium Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Infocom, Bell Canada, February 1994, Current Issues part] Stentor Joins TINA-C Consortium to Help Develop a World-Wide Information Marketplace Canadian telecommunications customers are one step closer to an open, international public network that provides access to information anywhere, anytime, in any form. This advance was made on January 24, 1994, when the Stentor alliance joined the Telecommunications Information Networking Architecture Consortium (TINA-C), a group formed to define a consistent approach to telecommunications software architecture that will advance the evolution of an international information marketplace. Normally, for different systems and computer applications to work together (known as interoperability) a single technical standard must be agreed upon. TINA-C plans to overcome this requirement by defining a set of rules which will facilitate interoperability among applications using different standards. To define these rules, TINA-C is combining the research efforts of several international telecommunications and computing companies into the development of the TINA architecture. The TINA architecture is a set of specifications that will merge modern network and computer standards with technology. This will allow for consistent open telecommunications, eliminating a user's choice of technology as an impediment to getting the information they need. The Stentor alliance as a member of the TINA Consortium is playing a major role by lending its expertise to a team dedicated to defining the benefits of adopting the new architecture in public networks and in practical business applications. Stentor is committed to this research. Open telecommunications systems promote competition, innovation and international sharing. These are concepts which benefit our customers and ultimately strengthen the industry as a whole. The group plans to create the first set of architecture specifications before the end of 1994 and complete its work by 1997. All specifications will be placed in the public domain for use by vendors and suppliers who will develop their own products and services to meet their marketing strategies and customer needs. Other prospective members of the TINA Consortium are Bellcore, AT&T, Northern Telecom, Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett Packard, British Telecom, NYY and other major computer and telecommunications companies around the world. ------------------------------ From: et306@ua.pt (C.CARVALHAL) Subject: ATM on FDDI, DQDB, SDH Date: Sat, 26 Mar 1994 21:30:20 GMT Organization: Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal Could someone tell me how can I transmit ATM cells on FDDI, DQDB and SDH? It would be of great help some information about articles and books related with it. My E-MAIL address is: et306@zeus.ci.ua.pt Thank you in advance for all the information you can send to me. Carlos Carvalhal ------------------------------ From: et306@ua.pt (C.CARVALHAL) Subject: Drivers Using NDIS Date: Sat, 26 Mar 1994 21:50:50 GMT Organization: Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal I need some examples about drivers (for any board) develloped with Network Device Interface Specification (NDIS). Could someone tell me where can I find information about it? Thanks in advance for all the hints you can give me. Please, send it to: et306@zeus.ci.ua.pt Carlos Carvalhal ------------------------------ From: KKPLO@ELECTRICAL.watstar.uwaterloo.ca (Ken K P Lo) Subject: Urgent Need for British Telecom Technology Journal Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Sat, 26 Mar 1994 22:59:49 GMT Hi everyone, I am in URGENT need for an issue of the BT (British Telecom) Technology Journal for my school project. The issue is 1992, vol. 10, Issue 1. It is a special issue on Digital Signal Processing in Telecommunications. If anyone has a copy, I am wondering if you would be kind enough to send me a copy by either fax or express mail. I will be willing to pay for the phone/mail charges plus a small for your service. Please reply ASAP! Thanks in advance! Ken K P Lo S3 Rm 105 Box 460 A Student of University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario (519) 725 - 6332 kkplo@electrical.watstar.uwaterloo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Mar 1994 06:39:17 EST From: Thomas Humphreys Subject: Voice and Data Through PBX I have asked the question "Would you recommend running both voice and data (LAN) traffic through a PBX?" of 11 individuals. 4 said yes, 7 said no. I am interested in what the readers of this newsgroup think about this issue. ------------------------------ From: jim@isnpo1.pwss.gov.ab.ca@math.fu-berlin.de(James, Slupsky) Subject: Re: Will Widespread Use of Cell Phones Reduce Crime? Organization: Government of Alberta - Telecom Date: Sat, 26 Mar 1994 23:58:32 GMT In article , howard@hal.com (Howard Gayle) writes: > A friend suggested to me that, sometime in the future, almost everyone > will carry around a cellular phone almost all the time. She thinks > this will significantly reduce the amount of crime, because it will be > very easy to report a crime or other suspicious behavior that one > observes. I'm skeptical, but it seems like an interesting topic for > discussion. I seriously doubt that crime will be reduced. A lot of people in society today avoid "getting involved". Why would the sudden availability of communications change them? jslupsky@pwss.gov.ab.ca [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Here in the USA, you have to be very careful about getting involved. It is best not to, since if you do, you are often treated like a criminal and the (true) criminal like the victim. It goes against my grain to say it, but you are better off not getting involved unless the crime is against you personally. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Mar 1994 10:36:02 EST From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: Re: Will Widespread Use of Cell Phones Reduce Crime? Organization: Penn State University This pre-supposes that the crimes reported are the ones in which an active police response will be generated. I wonder if a parallel answer can be extrapolated based upon CB radio and/or cell phones on the highways? Pete-Weiss@psu.edu ------------------------------ From: wjhalv1@pacbell.com Subject: Re: Pacific Bell Voice Mail Types Date: 27 Mar 94 09:20:02 GMT Organization: Pacific * Bell In article , writes: > Don't you just love it when you can't access the information you want > because the information hotline number you have is a Toll-Free number > in another country? > I see that Pacific Bell's Voice Mail for Business comes in two flavours: > a) Standard ($19.95) > b) Deluxe ($29.95) > Can anybody tell me how these two mailbox types differ? Do they also provide > a residential Voice Mail/Call Answer service? Residential VM is available under a different name "Message Center" for about $5.00/month. I think the difference between the Standard and Deluxe versions have to do with the maximum number of messages the box can store. > Also, do Telco's provide voicemail to customers with their own PABX? Possible but unwieldy. The PABX would have to have additional trunks back to the CO where the Telco's VM box is. > If so, how are the calls routed to the Voicemail equipment? I take it > the Telco will have a centralized VoiceMail node, and will route (divert) > calls from the business to such equipment. Companies wanting VM usually want a personalized greeting for each employee. To do this there has to be a way to pass the digits of the employee's phone to the VM machine on a per-call basis. A more simple solution is to associate additional trunks with the PBX's main number, but terminate them onto the VM machine. In this case personalized greetings are not possible. > Is Voice Mail a regulated service? If so, what are these regulations? Voice Mail is a "quasi-regulated" service. The organization that created it originally thought the service would be non-regulated; things have changed and now they are pursuing the regular "tariff" approach. But this could change too, as there is much talk about completely de-regulating ALL telecommunications companies in CA by 1997. A discussion of "Regulations" would take too long to conduct over the internet. Are we a model you are entertaining for your own VM service? ------------------------------ From: nsayer@quack.kfu.com (Nick Sayer) Subject: Re: Seeking CATV List Organization: The Duck Pond public unix: +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest'. Date: 27 Mar 1994 04:24:31 UTC John Conwell writes: > I am interested in following the discussions on this List, but am also > curious about a possible List specifically for Cable TV, or land-line > video transmissions. If anyone knows of such a list, I would > appreciate the information. Thanks :} I used to run the catv mailing list. It has been dead for nearly two years now. I am constantly astounded by the number of folks who still send mail to me commenting that there must be something wrong with my mailer because their mail to catv-request is being bounced. *sigh* If anyone sees catv on any list of mailing lists, please educate the keeper of the list that they really ought to try and keep it up to date. Such education preferably should be administered with a two-by-four. :-( Maybe I should start telling folks that the catv list is run by Craig Shergold. Nick Sayer N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest' PGP 2.2 key and geek code via finger [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh, Craig! You mean that poor little fellow in the UK (or was it in Missouri, I forget where he is) we are all supposed to send 'get well' cards to. :) ... Have a nice weekend, all, and a joyous Passover. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #149 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa25052; 28 Mar 94 11:23 EST Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA04694; Mon, 28 Mar 94 07:23:27 CST Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA04685; Mon, 28 Mar 94 07:23:25 CST Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 07:23:25 CST From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <9403281323.AA04685@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #150 TELECOM Digest Mon, 28 Mar 94 07:23:00 CST Volume 14 : Issue 150 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Bellcore Goes Crypto (Van Hefner) Switch-O-Mania (Van Hefner) Re: Urgent Need For British Telecom Technology Journal (Richard Cox) Telco Overcharges (Richard Cox) Telco List in Canada Wanted (Dave Carpentier) Caller ID Flaw? (John Conwell) Leased Line Connectivity Question (Christopher Kostick) AT&T Will Close Center in Naperville, Illinois (TELECOM Digest Editor) Digital Cordless Phones -- How Private? (Michael J. Kobb) Re: Alphanumeric Pager Software (Nick Sayer) Re: Specs For CDPD, Embarc, RAM, Ardis Wanted (Tom Kee) Re: Cellular Roaming Charges (Nick Sayer) Re: Cell One Switches To11-Digit Dialing (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: vantek@aol.com Date: Sun, 27 Mar 94 12:32:44 EST Subject: Bellcore Goes Crypto Bellcore spins off new company to offer service. LIVINGSTON, N.J. (MARCH 22) BUSINESS WIRE - March 22, 1994 -- A new company which is employing Bellcore-developed technology is expected to have a far-reaching impact on electronic record keeping and on controversies ranging from authenticity of business records to false retouching of digital photographs. The new company, Surety Technologies, Inc., will offer its Digital Notary service that can affix a tamper-proof time-stamp seal to any electronic document. The new time-stamping service could also make it possible to quickly settle "who invented it first" patent disputes. Former Bellcore researchers Stuart Haber and Scott Stornetta, inventors of the technology while at Bellcore, will head the new company under an exclusive licensing agreement from Bellcore, owner of the patents on the technology. Under the terms of the agreement, Bellcore received a small equity position in the company, and will collect royalties on the use of its patents. According to Bob Lucky, Vice President of Applied Research at Bellcore, "The launch of Surety Technologies marks an important step in Bellcore's efforts to commercialize and market its research products." The new company was announced recently at the computer security industry's annual RSA Data Security Conference in Redwood Shores, Calif. Jim Bidzos, President of RSA Data Security, noted, "This company offers an exciting new technology that is complementary to RSA's public-key technology. We look forward to great synergy between RSA and Surety Technologies." Digital time-stamping technology can be used to provide a tamper-proof time seal for any electronic document. It can be applied to documents of any length, including text and data, as well as digitized audio, video, and photographs. "As long as a document, photograph, recording, or videotape can be put in digital form, it can be time-stamped," said Haber, Chief Scientist at the new company. "The process could provide tremendous peace of mind to those who deal with, or look after, digital information. Imagine having the ability to lock in time, permanently and securely, all business and medical records, still-frame and video imagery, banking and real estate transactions, and other digital creations. You wouldn't even have to disclose the contents!" The new technology has been developed around a unique application of established one-way hash coding technologies. The patented method was invented by Haber and Stornetta in 1990 while they were at Bellcore. It was named winner of Discover Magazine's "Discover Award for Technological Innovation in Computer Software" in 1992. Surety Technologies expects the popularity of its Digital Notary system to spread to a broad following of scientists, medical professionals, writers, lawyers, bankers, archivists, and others who need to certify the date and time their digital documents were created. The banking and legal communities have expressed interest in the system, especially for paperless record management and intellectual property applications. "The rapid expansion of the Internet and plans for a National Information Infrastructure have prompted increased interest in cryptographic techniques to enhance the integrity and security of electronic documents," says Stornetta, President of Surety Technologies. "Existing digital signature technology is able to certify questions about 'Who and What' when it comes to documents. Digital Notary technology will add the capability to secure 'When and What' concerns." "Our system will provide an inexpensive and trusted means of certifying the creation of documents in digital form, thereby smoothing the transition to the paperless office," adds Haber. At the core of the time-stamping technology is an innovative application of software that generates a characteristic "digital fingerprint" for any document. Digital time-stamping prototypes that have been running at Bellcore since April 1991 work as follows: When a user seals a document, computer software generates the document's fingerprint and sends it as a "time-stamp request" to a Digital Notary server, which immediately sends back a "time-stamp certificate" for the document. At regular intervals, a central coordinating service bureau weaves all the world's time-stamp requests into a mathematical fabric, and broadcasts a summary number that condenses the entire fabric. Because of the cryptographic strength of the process that generates the fingerprints and summary numbers, it is virtually impossible for anyone to produce back-dated certificates. Any attempt to pass a false certificate will be detected by the validation software. In this way, the Digital Notary system provides a universal, interoperable, and unimpeachable guarantee, both of time and of data integrity. Surety Technologies welcomes developers and corporations who are interested in testing the system and serving as beta sites for Digital Notary software. Call Surety Technologies, Inc. at (201) 993-8178; fax number is (201) 993-8748. Information is also available on the Internet at infonotary.com. Bellcore provides research and other technical services to the telecommunications companies of Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, Southwestern Bell Corp. and U S WEST, as well as Cincinnati Bell, Inc., The Southern New England Telephone Company, and other leaders in industry and government. Digital Notary is both a trademark and a service mark of Surety Technologies Inc. CONTACT: Bellcore Barbara Kaufman, 201/740-4324 or Surety Technologies Inc. Ellen Fishter, 201/993-8178 Van Hefner Vantek Communications vantek@aol.com ------------------------------ From: vantek@aol.com Date: Sun, 27 Mar 94 14:06:41 EST Subject: Switch-O-Mania I saw this article recently in an online version of WORTH magazine. DEC/JAN 94 WORTH Magazine WINNING THE LONG-DISTANCE WAR --Emanuel Howard With long-distance phone companies ever more desperate to boost market share, smart customers can make an easy buck. The trick is being willing to switch carriers. For many people, the long-distance wars are intimidating: Cheap call plans are fiendishly complex, and it often seems easier to stick with a known quantity. That's a mistake. These days, all three major carriers offer big incentives to switch -- AT&T, for example, sends some callers checks for as much as $100. Cashing AT&T's check authorizes a switch to its long-distance service. Switching again when MCI or Sprint dangles a deal -- usually $30 to $50 worth of free calls -- boosts the return of this strategy. And AT&T has been known to send a second check to regain deserters. Switching is seamless, with no extra digits to dial. AT&T and MCI even pay the switching fee of five to eight dollars. And all three carriers offer plans that are broadly comparable, so a well-planned switch won't make much difference -- especially if it's brief. In the long term, consumers still should find a plan that matches their calling patterns. Sprint favors people who call one number a lot, for example; MCI favors calls to other MCI customers. But in the short term, switching can make a big dent in long-distance bills. And remember, it's reversible, sometimes for more money. Naturally, the carriers hate service switchers. For some customers, that could mean the sweetest deal yet: In a little-publicized move, MCI has started cashing AT&T's incentive checks so customers won't switch. For MCI users, that's free money. Van Hefner Vantek Communications vantek@aol.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: MCI has *not* started 'cashing' the checks from AT&T ... that would be forgery and/or fraud. What they have been doing is crediting the customer for the amount of the check, and charging it to their own goodwill or marketing expense. Cashing the AT&T checks requires a specific agreement, one that obviously MCI is unwilling to meet. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Mar 1994 17:00:39 -0800 From: richard@mandarin.com Subject: Re: Urgent Need For British Telecom Technology Journal KKPLO@ELECTRICAL.watstar.uwaterloo.ca (Ken K P Lo) said: > I am in URGENT need for an issue of the BT (British Telecom) Technology > Journal for my school project. The issue is 1992, vol. 10, Issue 1. > It is a special issue on Digital Signal Processing in Telecommunications. I have a copy right here on my study desk: as I have of most issues of the BTTJ that are not already out on loan. I have mailed Ken directly, to see if I can help. Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, P.O. Box 111, Penarth, South Glamorgan, Wales: CF64 3YG Voice: +44 956 700 111 Fax: +44 956 700 110 VoiceMail: +44 941 15 15 15 E-mail address: richard@mandarin.com - PGP2.3 public key available on request ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Mar 1994 13:35:59 -0800 From: richard@mandarin.com Subject: Telco Overcharges We've had some interesting cases of telco overcharging in the UK recently; two of them involve our largest phone company, British Telecom (now known as just "BT"). In the most recent case, customers found (or, in many cases DIDN'T find -- because they didn't check) that on one or more of their lines, BT had got the arithmetic wrong. Instead of the current period's metered units being the difference between the meter reading at the end of the period and the reading at the start of the period, it was exactly just 10,000 units more. That, at BT's standard charge per meter unit, meant an extra 420 pounds on the customers' bills. BT's initial explanation for this was unconvincing: they said that an engineer had "reset the meters in error". Later they added a further explanation that, because the meter had been reset, the accounts computer had "assumed" that as meters don't go backwards, the meters must have gone "round the clock", and so it added on the extra units. In the course of our investigations, we discovered that the meters in the BT exchanges concerned didn't actually exist as meters, but were electronic registers in a computerized system. And they all had eight digits. Later BT also claimed that "sometimes only five of the digits are actually used". But whether a meter uses five or eight digits, if it goes "round the clock" it will produce an error of 100,000 or 100,000,000 units respectively: NOT 10,000 units. So those customers are still waiting for BT to offer them an explanation that is more plausible -- and wondering why they couldn't have been given the proper explanation in the first place. Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, P.O. Box 111, Penarth, South Glamorgan, Wales: CF64 3YG Voice: 0956 700111 Fax: 0956 700110 VoiceMail: 0941 151515 Pager 0941 115555 E-mail address: richard@mandarin.com - PGP2.3 public key available on request ------------------------------ From: dave.carpentier@oln.com Organization: OnLine Now BBS Date: Sun, 27 Mar 1994 09:25:31 -0500 Subject: Telco List in Canada Wanted Hi, I've searched the archives for a listing of telco's in Canada, but it doesn't seem to exist ! Could someone perhaps compile a 'carriers/ telco.name.list-canada'? It would be much appreciated. Dave Carpentier (dave.carpentier@oln.com) ------------------------------ From: John Conwell Subject: Caller ID Flaw? Date: Sun, 27 Mar 1994 16:37:23 EST A friend of mine who has Caller ID received a collect call. At the pause for the caller to state their name, the person breathed heavy and made lewd comments. No number appeared on the Caller ID device, and the operator stated that it would not be possible to trace the call since it was a collect call. This strikes me as odd since a collect call number appears on your bill when you do accept, why can't it be traced when my friend did not accept the call? Just curious. :-) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The reason is that when the call is accepted, a ticket is started and exists later in the accounting records of telco. If the call is not accepted, and the caller chooses not to pay to continue the connnection -- I am sure your anonymous caller did not continue -- then no accounting ticket is started, thus no record. Calls via the operator -- even a highly automated 'operator' such as is used for collect and third number calls these days -- will never show Caller ID. Calls from the operator (and it was really the operator calling your friend) are always 'out of area'. The system depends on this information (calling number) being available to the operator who will pass it along on request. Ditto with calls to 911 which go through the operator; she is *supposed* to stay on the line and pass your number verbally to the 911 dispatcher, since all 911 shows in those cases is that the call 'came from the operator'. Once the number is verbally passed, then the 911 dispatcher can force it in by hand to pull the record, and I suppose you, as the recipient of a collect call have the right to tell the operator you will accept it but need the calling number for your records. Obviously under the circumstances you do not press any buttons to comply with the automated request, you just sit there ... a live operator will be along shortly thereafter to see what you and calling party are up to. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kostick@umbc.edu (kostick christopher) Subject: Leased Line Connectivity Question Date: 27 Mar 1994 22:33:35 -0500 Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County I have some questions. I am more of a LAN person and this WAN stuff is new to me. Before I approach vendors and providers about equipment and connectivity, I like to have some knowledge of what I'm talking about, and the net seems to be the place. Two offices need connectivity. I was thinking through a leased line of 56Kbps. I'm in the Bell Atlantic region, would I talk to them? AT&T? MCI? Sprint? Anyone of them? What kind of equipment would be necessary? I've heard of these CSU/DSU devices? Do I need one? Here's my imagined environment: | | | | Ethernet | Ethernet | |------------ Router ---------------/\/---------- Router -------| ------ 56kbps line ^ ------ | Interface? What Kind? Is this set up possible? Do vendors make routers that connect to a leased line on one side, and a LAN on the other? Or would I have to have something else in front of the router? If so, what? Can anyone give me some ballpark prices for the equipment I'd need? Are there any significant changes if the line is a T-1? I may be missing important questions also. Please feel free to fill in the gaps. Thanks in advance. chris kostick@umbc8.umbc.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Mar 94 21:33:47 CST From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: AT&T Will Close Center in Naperville, Illinois AT&T announced this past week that it will close the operator services center in Naperville, Illinois on October 14, putting 142 people out of work. AT&T cited customer's decreased use of operator assistance services for the decision to close the center, as a result of increased use of cellular telephones, calling cards and personal 800 numbers combined with the continuing trend of customers dialing their own calls in most instances. AT&T Vice President David Carney noted, "We are also streamlining our operations to increase effeciency, improve customer service and reduce costs in a highly competitive business." The Naperville Operator Services Center -- the only one in the Chicago area -- has operated since 1979. The center's closing will leave the Chicago area with no operators at all in any local proximity; operator services for AT&T will come from other centers around the USA. Non-management works will be eligible for severance packages that include up to 104 weeks of pay, depending on length of service with AT&T. Management employees could receive up to 42 weeks of pay under similar arrangements. PAT ------------------------------ From: Michael J. Kobb Subject: Digital Cordless Phones -- How Private? Date: 28 Mar 1994 01:55:29 GMT Organization: Apple Computer, Inc. Greetings! Now that digital cordless phones are starting to become available, I've been thinking of switching to one so that I don't broadcast my conversations "clear". So, here's my question: just how "secure" are these phones? Assuming for the moment that FBI, CIA, NSA or any of those fine folks can wiretap me no matter WHAT I do, how about the casual snoop or pseudo-professional type (e.g. private-eye)? What's required to decode one of these conversations? I suppose it'd be too much to ask for the communications to be encoded with a unique ID number that only the phone and handset share ... As a specific question, I saw a Uniden EXP-9100 cordless at the store yesterday: 900MHz, spread-spectrum digital w/30 channels. It looked really nice, particularly for a feature-fiend like myself. I didn't get a chance to try it to evaluate it for sound quality, but I'm planning to go back. Does anybody know anything about this phone? It says "Secure communications" on the feature sticker. Are they claiming anything beyond the fact that it's digital and therefore not clear speech? Oh, while I'm asking about 900MHz, one thing has always confused me. They advertise superb range as a big feature of these phones. But, doesn't that increase the likelihood of interference, since your neighbors 1000 feet away are now actually a possible interference source? Thanks! Mike PS: Reply by email if possible, please. I only get to check news once or twice a week. I'll post a summary if I get enough replies! ------------------------------ From: nsayer@quack.kfu.com (Nick Sayer) Subject: Re: Alphanumeric Pager Software Organization: The Duck Pond public unix: +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest'. Date: 27 Mar 1994 15:29:21 UTC Does anyone have a description of the protocol used by such software? Not everyone is saddled with x86 ISA machines running an OS that was obsolete ten years ago at its introduction, which probably means we have to write our own software for alpha paging. If it's possible to write such a program, then an e-mail -> alpha page gateway is not out of the question ... Nick Sayer N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest' PGP 2.2 key and geek code via finger ------------------------------ From: tom.kee@mccaw.com Subject: Re: Specs For CDPD, Embarc, RAM, Ardis Wanted Date: Sun, 27 Mar 94 13:54:52 PDT Organization: McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. In article , writes: > Would anyone know where I could find the specifications and/or > communications protocols for communicating with CDPD, Embarc, RAM, and > Ardis terminals? CDPD is SLIP; RAM is MASC for the device; Mobitex for the network. (call RAM in New Jersey for Programmer's Interface); Ardis is Native Mode for the device; MDC 4800/MG Protocol for the network (call Motorola in Bothell, WA (206) 487-1234; they also have info for their devices for RAM); -EMBARC not quite sure (Motorola in Boynton Beach, Florida). Regards, Tom Internet:tom.kee@mccaw.com ------------------------------ From: nsayer@quack.kfu.com (Nick Sayer) Subject: Re: Cellular Roaming Charges Organization: The Duck Pond public unix: +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest'. Date: 28 Mar 1994 02:15:44 GMT Lars Nohling writes: > Are then any tricks to cutting costs on the high roaming rates many > cellular carriers charge? > Any sort of Resellers who provide discounts like in the Long Distance > business ? In any given area there can be up to two cellular companies. One of them will probably be some sort of variation on "Cellular one", one is very likely to be either some variation of GTE or a BOC. Your only choice in the matter is if you are in an area where there are two services. My phone is a Motorola 550 (one of the more popular ones, so they tell me. It's a "flip fone" sort of reminiscent of Star Trek TOS communicators). I can, using RCL * set up how it roams by telling it which of the two services in a given area it should check first for roaming. I can change this on the fly (not during a call, though). So I could conceivably call *611 and ask whoever answers what their roaming rates are, then switch to the other service and ask them the same question. If I don't like the second answer better than the first, then I will switch back to the first provider and there you go. I have not yet roamed, so I don't know how successful this algorithm will be. Hell, for that matter, I haven't yet gotten my first bill yet. :-) I suspect, however, that I'll switch plans, if not companies. I am on the only GTE plan I can get (here in the bay area) on a month-to-month basis without extra cost. For any of the other plans they want me to sign up for a year at a time. Yeah, right. Nick Sayer N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest' PGP 2.2 key and geek code via finger ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Mar 94 15:05:26 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Cell One Switches To11-Digit Dialing Monty Solomon writes: > Effective March 1, 1994, Cell One/Boston has switched to eleven-digit > dialing (from 10) for long distance calls outside of A/C 617 or 508. How have calls been dialed from that system? (It is not covered by the history file.) Was it like that airplane phone where I dialed only the area code and 7 digit number? How are other calls dialed? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #150 ******************************