Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa27858; 23 Aug 94 18:15 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA16470; Tue, 23 Aug 94 13:20:16 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA16463; Tue, 23 Aug 94 13:20:12 CDT Date: Tue, 23 Aug 94 13:20:12 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9408231820.AA16463@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #351 TELECOM Digest Tue, 23 Aug 94 13:20:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 351 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson EPIC Statement on FBI Wiretap Bill (Dave Banisar) North American Electronic Phone Directory (Mona Brennan-Coles) Book Review: "The Internet Unleashed" (Rob Slade) Joining Two Networks Over Dialup or Dedicated Phone Line (Martin Loeffler) LDDS Byys Wiltel (Daily Oklahoman via Wes Leatherock) Add an External Antenna to Prevent Drop Out (Yang Yu-shuang) Re: Personal ACD vs. Telemarketers? (Steve Cogorno) Re: Personal ACD vs. Telemarketers? (John Higdon) Re: Personal ACD vs. Telemarketers? (John David Galt) Re: Personal ACD vs. Telemarketers? (Robert J. Woodhead) Re: Companies Protest Illinois 630 Overlay (John Nagle) Re: Companies Protest Illinois 630 Overlay (Stan Schwartz) 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. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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, 23 Aug 1994 16:42:34 GMT From: Dave Banisar Subject: EPIC Statement on FBI Wiretap Bill EPIC Statement on Digital Telephony Wiretap Bill The digital telephony bill recently introduced in Congress is the culmination of a process that began more than two years ago, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation first sought legislation to ensure its ability to conduct electronic surveillance through mandated design changes in the nation's information infrastructure. We have monitored that process closely and have scrutinized the FBI's claims that remedial legislation is necessary. We have sponsored conferences at which the need for legislation was debated with the participation of the law enforcement community, the telecommunications industry and privacy advocates. We have sought the disclosure of all relevant information through a series of requests under the Freedom of Information Act. Having thus examined the issue, EPIC remains unconvinced of the necessity or advisability of the pending bill. As a threshold matter, we do not believe that a compelling case has been made that new communications technologies hamper the ability of law enforcement agencies to execute court orders for electronic surveillance. For more than two years, we have sought the public disclosure of any FBI records that might document such a problem. To date, no such documentation has been released. Without public scrutiny of factual information on the nature and extent of the alleged technological impediments to surveillance, the FBI's claims remain anecdotal and speculative. Indeed, the telecommunications industry has consistently maintained that it is unaware of any instances in which a communications carrier has been unable to comply with law enforcement's requirements. Under these circumstances, the nation should not embark upon a costly and potentially dangerous re-design of its telecommunications network solely to protect the viability of fewer than 1000 annual surveillances against wholly speculative impediments. We also believe that the proposed legislation would establish a dangerous precedent for the future. While the FBI claims that the legislation would not enhance its surveillance powers beyond those contained in existing law, the pending bill represents a fundamental change in the law's approach to electronic surveillance and police powers generally. The legislation would, for the first time, mandate that our means of communications must be designed to facilitate government interception. While we as a society have always recognized law enforcement's need to obtain investigative information upon presentation of a judicial warrant, we have never accepted the notion that the success of such a search must be guaranteed. By mandating the success of police searches through the re-design of the telephone network, the proposed legislation breaks troubling new ground. The principle underlying the bill could easily be applied to all emerging information technologies and be incorporated into the design of the National Information Infrastructure. It could also lead to the prohibition of encryption techniques other than government-designed "key escrow" or "Clipper" type systems. In short, EPIC believes that the proposed digital telephony bill raises substantial civil liberties and privacy concerns. The present need for the legislation has not been established and its future implications are frightening. We therefore call upon all concerned individuals and organizations to express their views on the legislation to their Congressional representatives. We also urge you to contact Rep. Jack Brooks, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to share your opinions: Rep. Jack Brooks Chair, House Judiciary Committee 2138 Rayburn House Office Bldg. Washington, DC 20515 (202) 225-3951 (voice) (202) 225-1958 (fax) The bill number is H.R. 4922 in the House and S. 2375 in the Senate. It can be referred to as the "FBI Wiretap Bill" in correspondence. Electronic Privacy Information Center 666 Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E. Suite 301 Washington, DC 20003 (202) 544-9240 (voice) (202) 547-5482 (fax) EPIC is a project of the Fund for Constitutional Government and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. ------------------------------ From: boris@uwovax.uwo.ca Subject: North American Electronic Phone Directory Date: 23 Aug 94 05:45:02 EDT Organization: CCS, UWO, London, Ontario, Canada Hello: My name is Mona and I am the analyst/programmer for Telecommunications at The University of Western Ontario. We now spending approximately $25,000 for North American Long Distance and Local Directory Charges. We are currently investigating alternatives to provide Directory Assistance to our users via our Switchboard. I am aware of "CanadaPhone" -- a CD-ROM listing of ten million Canadian Households and Businesses -- from Pro CD Inc., Marblehead, Maine. This company also produces a multi-CD US wide directory plus separate 1-800 and European Business Lists. These products with quarterly updates would cost us approximately $2500 annually. Our initial investment for hardware for four operator positions would be approximately $20,000. This system would pay for itself in one year and generate significant cost savings after that. For the initial $500 investment for all products, we were planning to order the disks and try it out. However, in the August 11,1994 edition of {The Toronto Star}, Gerry Blackwell discusses this product and its limitations -- out of date, Windows program driving the first version is buggy and causes "frequent, not nice" crashes. I am contacting the author for more details and the company for their comments to this article. My questions are: 1. Has anyone used this product? What was your experience? 2. Has anyone used another product? I will summarize the responses I receive plus any other information I collect if anyone is interested. Mona Brennan-Coles ITS-Telecommunications Natural Sciences Centre 211C INTERNET: brennan-coles@uwo.ca The University of Western Ontario FAX: 519-661-4304 London, Ontario CANADA N6A 5B7 VOICE: 519-661-3323 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Aug 1994 01:52:07 MDT From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "The Internet Unleashed" BKINTUNL.RVW 940520 Sams Publishing 11711 N. College Ave., Suite 140 Carmel, IN 46032-5634 317-573-2500 317-581-3535 800-428-5331 800-428-3804 or 201 West 103rd St. Indianapolis, IN 46290 317-581-3718 fax: 317-581-4669 hayden@hayden.com haydenbks@aol.com 76350.3014@compuserve.com "The Internet Unleashed", various, 1994, 0-672-30466-X, U$44.95/C$58.95 At over 1400 pages in total, this book weighs in as the most massive Internet tome received to date. It is "net-like" in another way: it seems to have been produced the way the Internet is run, by consensual anarchy. No one is taking responsibility here; there isn't even an editor listed. Individual items in the book are excellent. Overall, there is a tremendous resource of Internet information. Unfortunately, there are also inconsistencies in the quality, style, audience, and technical level of the material. One chapter may contain an in-depth analysis of certain RFCs and specifications, while the next is a "gee-whiz-isn't- this-neat" puff piece. There are sixty-two chapters, and a detailed table of contents which takes up thirty-two pages, alone. The five chapters of parts one and two are the usual conceptual and historical introduction. Part three is a guide to access and connection, and generally pretty useful. Part four covers communication, including mail, mailing lists, Usenet news and real time chat systems. Some of the chapters give great detailed documentation on, for example, various UNIX mail readers, but related chapters give little coverage of the use of mail for information gathering and dissemination. Part five should probably have been two parts, as it deals with both access tools for obtaining information, and resource tools for finding information. True, there is a reason for linking related access and resource tools, but that is not how the chapters are organized in any case. Parts six to nine look at specific uses for business, libraries, education, and community purposes. A good idea, but mostly weak material. Part ten looks at issues and controversies; by no means exhaustive, and inconsistent in quality. Part ten lists diversions. The appendices contain some solid information; the PDIAL list, handy Internet tools, UNIX basics; and some miscellaneous stuff. The volume of paper does not correspond to an equal volume of material. There is much duplication of content. Chapter two covers the growth of the Internet and acceptable use policies -- topics which spawn two later chapters (thirty-five and thirty-seven) with almost identical information. Chapter fourteen, on internetwork addressing, has a very helpful and practical section on finding email addresses. This is also the topic of chapter twenty, which has a broader range of directory tools, but is far less helpful, and misses a number of the most useful. There are also a number of holes in the coverage. The chapter on the use of mailing and distribution lists concentrates almost exclusively on the BITNET LISTSERV system, with only token mention of the others. These and other gaps should have been filled, rather than wasting forty pages giving sample gopher screens, or the two chapters which are little more than advertising for commercial systems. There is some good information and a few great pieces. The tips on how to set up a mailing list or gopher could be very useful, and the list of Internet related tools is first rate. However, there are also holes, errors and dross. I would recommend this as a resource, but not necessarily as a sole source. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKINTUNL.RVW 940520. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '95, Toronto, ON, February 13-17, 1995, contact: rulag@decus.ca ------------------------------ From: Martin Loeffler Subject: Joining Two Networks Over Dialup or Dedicated Phone Line Organization: UTCC Public Access Date: Tue, 23 Aug 1994 11:30:09 -0400 I'm trying to pass ip and ipx packets between an ethernet network and a localtalk network over a phone line, and need suggestions on ways to do this. The set up has to pass both ip and ipx packets only. Appletalk would be good, but is not manditory. The connection would be low bandwidth, with little or no sustained continuous throughput, and would serve about 20 people. My first thought is to connect a netblazer on the ethernet end to a 28.8 modem, and then to another 28.8, but I don't know much about what I'd connect to the localtalk end of things, nor do I know if a netblazer would pass ipx. For background, we have two buildings. One building is on campus and will be connected to the campus ether backbone. The other building is older, and off campus. It has an existing localtalk network, and would like to be able to access the net (telnet, mosaic, etc) and our mail system (First Class, for which we have an ipx module, and for which no ip module is yet available). Please reply via email, I will summarize if there's any interest. Thanks for any and all suggestions. Martin Loeffler loeffler@utgpu.utoronto.ca (The University of Toronto HELP 978-7879 (The Faculty of Education OFFICE 978-7880 (The Technology for Enhancing Learning Centre FAX 978-6775 (Computer Operations)))) FE 346a ------------------------------ From: wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu Date: Tue, 23 Aug 1994 09:16:48 Subject: LDDS Buys Wiltel From The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) for Tuesday, August 23, 1994 Most of Tulsa-based WilTel Inc. will be sold to Mississippi's LDDS Communications Inc. in a $2.5 billion cash deal, officials with both companies said Monday. ....... LDDS, the nation's fourth-largest long-distance phone company, will buy WilTel Network Services, the long-distance operations of rival WilTel. The purchase comes after almost three months of financial courtship. [WilTel is a subsidiary of Tulsa-based Williams Cos. Inc.] ....... Last year WilTel had $663.8 million in revenues. In the first six months of this year, the company has recorded $413.4 million in revenues, [Linda] Laughlin [a WilTel spokewoman] said. ....... Williams will retain WilTel Communications Systems, a supplier of telecommunications equipment and services in Woodland [sic], Texas, and Vyvx, the Tulsa-based operator of a national video network used by TV broadcasters. LDDS officials said the company had a $3.25 billion underwriting commitment from a bank group managed by NationsBank to finance the purchase. The group also will back LDDS in refinancing $550 million in existing debt. The transaction ends LDDS overtures for WilTel. Williams earlier refected a $2 billion offer for all of WilTel's operations. ....... LDDS surpassed $1 billion in revenues last year.... ....... LDDS is WilTel's second largest customer. Combining LDDS and WilTel networks will create a state-of-the-art digital system of 15,000 miles, Bernard Ebbers, LDDS president, said in a prepared statement. ....... The sale is subject to expiration of a federal anti-trust waiting period. While it must also win approval from the Federal Communications Commission and state public service agencies, WilTel's Laughlin said approval may come in 90 to 120 days. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu ------------------------------ From: yang@mundoe.maths.mu.OZ.AU (Yang Yu-shuang) Subject: Add an External Antenna to Prevent Drop Out Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia Date: Tue, 23 Aug 1994 08:51:03 GMT Dear friends, I am using a Voxson 899 analogue handheld phone (I think it is a local version of a AT&T model). The problem with it is that I am having a lot of drop outs. The signal strength in my office registers for two segments (out of four) on the phone display. Each time someone ring me up, the first thing for me to do is asking their number and then call back using a normal landline phone. The problem became serious about two months ago. Usually, the drop outs happen about 45" - 1.30" after the connection. The other party's voice is replaced with white noise. After that, the white noise will continue for a few seconds and the timer still goes. Then, the phone will return to standby mode. It makes no difference whether I originated the call or just to receive a call. I don't have the problem in area with a stronger signal. The questions I am asking are: (1) What is likely to be wrong, the phone itself or the network? What kind of problem it could be? (2) As I don't have problem when the signal is stronger, I am thinking of get an external antenna. A car kit would be too much just for that. Is there a simple way to connect an external antenna? At the bottom of the phone, it has a socket. It has a flat part with six metal straps on one face and five on the other. It also has a round connect which looks like a co-axial connector. Is this co-axial connector for the external antenna? If the answer is yes, how do I get it connected to an antenna? The socket looks like the following: ------------------------------------- | | | | I I I I I /^\ | | ( O ) | | | | | | | \./ | | | ------------------------------------- Any help or information would be appreciated. Thanks, YS Yang yang@maths.mu.oz.au ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Personal ACD vs. Telemarketers? Date: Tue, 23 Aug 1994 09:54:11 PDT Alan Boritz said: > Do you honestly believe that just because you ring my phone, that I > HAVE to talk to you? After a dozen or so telesleaze calls in one > morning, I'd find that opinion laughable, at best. I can't believe telemarketing is really this big of a problem. Do people really get daily (or even more frequent) calls? I have had this phone number for almost four years and the only telemarketing/ annoyance calls have been the local newspaper calling everytime I move to ask about the paper, and a collection agency that wanted me to spy on my neighbor. (Don't know where they got my number.) I would say I have received < five telemarketing calls over four years. Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Aug 1994 21:13:36 -0700 From: john@bovine.ati.com (John Higdon) Subject: Re: Personal ACD vs. Telemarketers? Paul A. Lee writes: > Part of the audio analysis done by the software is to use cadence and > stress patterns to detect answering machines and intercept messages, > to prevent switching a non-productive call to an agent. It's *very* > likely that the canned announcement being proposed in Laurence's plan > would be sensed as a non-productive answer. A bit of PE (Personal Experience) here: I have had a simple front end on my home phone since 1987. You get three choices: leave a message, ring through, activate a pager. This gives a caller the opportunity to leave a message in the middle of the night without waking me up. But the caller always has the opportunity to determine for himself how important his call might be. What you may find unbelievable is the fact that in nearly seven years, I have yet to have one single telemarketing call penetrate the front end. Not one! Make no mistake: my private, unlisted numbers which are unscreened, get plenty of random telemarketing pitches. This is primarily why a smile comes to my face when someone tells me that he has an unlisted number to avoid junk calls. It would appear that the dialer of the call, be it human or machine, determines early on that the number with the front end is a dead end, saleswise. John Higdon | P.O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Personal ACD vs. Telemarketers? Date: Mon, 22 Aug 94 18:24:47 PDT > to have a secret code *which only his friends know about to start with* > which is not announced on the recording. That's the way my 800 number > that I got from MyLine works: If you press the proper code number during > the greeting your call gets automatically forwarded to where I am at; > otherwise you go to voicemail. The thing is, I don't tell the caller > that ahead of time -- they have to know about it. MyLine is a very good If only I could get this feature on a regular, non-800 line, I'd switch to it in an instant. For a long time I have wanted to build a device which would do the same thing on a POTS line. If there is an EE out there who could design it, I may want to hire you. John David Galt 510 278-8392 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, the people at MyLine will give you a local San Luis Obispo number (is that 804?) which terminates on their switch -- they don't care. You pay the same rates I think, meaning it gets a bit more expensive considering the caller is paying to reach you also. The local dialup would work the same way as if it had gone in there on an 800 number; same forwarding, voicemail, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: trebor@foretune.co.jp (Robert J Woodhead) Subject: Re: Personal ACD vs. Telemarketers? Date: 23 Aug 1994 11:02:01 GMT Organization: Foretune Co., Ltd. In john (j.m.) clarke writes: > Of course, I know this letter will hit the bit bin with all the other > articles that point out PAT's errors, but I thought I'd try. I have to take issue with this. In my experience, the _easiest_ way to get published in the digest it to point out PAT's errors or opine that he is full of it. He feels morally compelled in most cases to publish them. However, form is important. When slamming Pat, a certain amount of civility is considered good form. BAD : Pat, you're a know-nothing phone-card-selling sleaze. GOOD: Our esteemed moderator is a underinformed overopinioned marketer of long distance services. (Of course, PAT might just not print this just to be contrary -- and if I said "I bet he will" he probably won't, so I wont!) Robert J. Woodhead, Biar Games / AnimEigo, Incs. trebor@forEtune.co.jp ALL GENERAL ANIMEIGO QUERIES SHOULD GO TO 72447.37@compuserve.com. PLEASE [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It also helps if you are full of it and if I need a good laugh for the day. PAT] ------------------------------ From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) Subject: Re: Companies Protest Illinois 630 Overlay Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 23 Aug 1994 17:05:31 GMT Carl Moore writes: > So what would those protesting companies do regarding the crowding in > present area 708? I take it those "wireless" services do get incoming > calls, so if those services go to area code 630, some people will have > to send out word to those who call them. It's time to go to eight-digit local numbers, as France and Japan have done. If they did it, the US can do it. John Nagle ------------------------------ From: stans@panix.com (Stan Schwartz) Subject: Re: Companies Protest Illinois 630 Overlay Date: 22 Aug 1994 21:01:38 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: All that would change is the area code > of the cellular/pager device, not the number itself. In other words if > your cellular number was 708-234-5678 it would become 630-234-5678. Unless you know that for a fact, Pat, that's not always the case. In NY, CellOne NY/NJ is busy changing 212 numbers to 917 (forced 718 to 917 is still to come for their customers). One of your options is to bring your phone to where you bought it for re-programming. It would be impossible to guarantee everyone the same number in the overlay area code. Here's why: - What are the odds that CellOne was allocated the same prefixes in 917 as they were in 212/718? - If CO/NY actually GETS the same prefixes, what are the odds that every dealer is allocated the same numbers that the all had in 212/718? - What if my CellOne number is 212-555-1234 and some other guy has 718-555-1234. Who gets 917-555-1234? Whoever doesn't gets a NEW cell number. - Stan [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When 708 was split from 312 a few years ago, the prefixes were simply carried intact out of 312 into the new code. Then, after an interval of six months or so, they started using the prefixes (which had gotten moved to 708) all over again in 312. I am told there is very little overlap or duplication of *cellular* prefixes between 312 and 708. That is, if 312-xxx exists as a cellular prefix then there is no 708-xxx, and vice versa. There are exceptions. The 312 cellular prefixes and 708 cellular prefixes will be 'woven together' into 630. Duplication of prefixes will be rare and where duplication of prefixes does occur, duplication of numbers *within the prefix* will be rarer still. In other words, maybe there is both a 312-xxx and a 708-xxx, both in cellular service. Will there then also be 312-xxx-yyyy and 708-xxx-yyyy? I believe in the couple of instances where 312 and 708 both have the same prefix in cellular service that 'both sides' of the area code boundary are assigned to the same carrier, meaning then it will only be a matter of possibly having to untangle a few subscribers. Furthermore, I am given to understand that the new 630 will be sophisticated enough that calls can be sorted out to carriers all the way to seven digits, like 800 calls are now. I don't think it will be necessary to have entire prefixes assigned to any certain carrier, although that might be useful and handy where billing purposes are concerned. If necessary, I am told xxx-0001 can be routed to one carrier and xxx-0002 can be routed to the other carrier for example. Despite all this there may be a few overlaps but they should be rare. I think IBT quit duplicating cellular prefixes between the 312/708 areas some time ago when they began planning the eventual merger of the two into 630. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #351 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15588; 24 Aug 94 16:59 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05630; Wed, 24 Aug 94 11:55:12 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05623; Wed, 24 Aug 94 11:55:09 CDT Date: Wed, 24 Aug 94 11:55:09 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9408241655.AA05623@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #352 TELECOM Digest Wed, 24 Aug 94 11:55:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 352 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Multi-User Real-Time Environments (Virtual Universe Product Information) Sony or Northern Telecom Speakerphone Sources? (Gary L. Dare) FCC To Hold Broadband PCS Press Conference (Bob Keller) Ameritech Cellular in Chicago Down For 30 Minutes (John Gilbert) Re: Why Can't I Keep a V.32 Connection Up? (John Lundgren) Re: Why Can't I Keep a V.32 Connection Up? (Richard L. Barnaby) Re: Why Can't I Keep a V.32 Connection Up? (John Levine) Re: Call Waiting on Error-Correcting Modems? (John Lundgren) Re: Call Waiting on Error-Correcting Modems? (Seth B. Rothenberg) Re: Call Waiting on Error-Correcting Modems? (Brian Nunes) 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. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: info@virtual.cuc.ab.ca (Virtual Universe Product Information) Subject: Multi-User Real-Time Environments Organization: Virtual Universe Corp Date: Tue, 23 Aug 1994 18:55:37 GMT *PRODUCT RELEASE* THE PARALLEL UNIVERSE WHAT IS THE PARALLEL UNIVERSE ? The Parallel Universe is a real-time, many-user Shared Virtual Reality (SVR) server designed to be accessed using standard dial-up telephone lines. Applications do not run on the server itself. Rather, a user's application runs on their local computer and communicates with other users sharing the same virtual space(s) through The Parallel Universe. Users working within a common virtual space do so interactively. Changes made by one user are reflected in real-time in the displays of users sharing the workspace. Multiple applications and virtual spaces can operate concurrently on the system, to a practical maximum of 100 users at once (in a full commercial system with all operating with spatially-relative voice communications. Development platforms are 10-user only.). The Parallel Universe accepts each user's data stream via conventional high-speed modem, processes it using proprietary algorithms to determine relevance to other users, and then directs all or part of the data stream to those relevant users. User relevance is fundamental to system operation as it allows the user to have the illusion of having all information available from all other users at all times without the expensive communications bandwidth requirements normally associated with this type of data availability. The Parallel Universe, in full system form, is enhanced by spatially-relative audio teleconferencing. This allows users to communicate with each other, speaking naturally while operating within the same workspace. The audio teleconferencing features distance attenuation designed to emulate "real world" behaviour, and stereo panning using a proprietary system called "Steereo". The Parallel Universe has been designed to operate using a single standard telephone line in order to access the widest possible user base. This design allows developers to present real- time, fully interactive applications to the end-user in the home and/or workplace. WHY USE THE PARALLEL UNIVERSE? IF YOU ARE A TELEPHONE COMPANY: COST and MARKET PENETRATION. The Parallel Universe can deliver real-time interactive services over low bandwidth media so current potential users are not forced to purchase high bandwidth service, such as ISDN, in order to access this type of service. This broadens the user base dramatically and acclimatizes the user to these types of applications. Once the users are accustomed to using these type of services, they are more likely to accept the cost of increased bandwidth for enhanced on- line services. One of the big obstacles in the way commercialization of interactive services is the lack of "content" on the real-time interactive networks. Content providers are demanding a large customer base on the networks prior to committing resources while the networks are insisting that they need content before they can get customer base. The Parallel Universe breaks this impasse by allowing the telephone companies an opportunity to provide a substantial user base to the content providers and thereby facilitating the creation of content for the network. IF YOU ARE DEVELOPING CONCURRENT ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS: COST and COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE. Each year greater than $750 million is spent in the U.S. alone for the sole purpose of putting design engineers in the same room to collaborate on the design phase of projects. To put people in the same room costs money in the form of airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, and lost time. Currently, engineering companies are moving people carrying data rather than moving only the data. The Parallel Universe allows engineers in many different locations to "travel" to a common virtual "location" without the expense associated with transport of the engineers themselves. This ability is particularly useful in 3-dimensional design tasks. Furthermore, because The Parallel Universe can use a standard telephone line to accomplish this, costs are significantly reduced. Companies using The Parallel Universe will enjoy a distinct competitive advantage. IF YOU ARE A VIDEOGAME DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER: MARKET PENETRATION AND EXTENDED SHELF LIFE. There is currently a shift occurring toward networked, many-player videogames as an alternative to stand-alone videogames. This shift is partially the result of games developers desire to extend the "shelf life" of their products but there is also a consensus amongst games developers that the stand-alone videogame market may have reached its peak. Many of these same games developers believe that networked many-player games are a growth market with little competition. A typical videogame will have a shelf life of only 6-8 months where the majority of product sales will occur. After this time the revenue stream decreases dramatically. This happens because most people that are going to purchase a videogame do so within 6-8 months of its release. Typical stand-alone videogames provide few incentives for users to keep playing after having mastered the game and, as they move on to other games, their word-of-mouth advertising shifts from "old" product to "new" product. Word-of-mouth advertising is the prevalent reason why people buy particular videogames. The main problem is that the user gets bored by the game after he or she has mastered it; mastery of a game is usually a function of memorizing the pre-programmed play of the game. In network play the user never truly masters the game because the actions of other users are not predictable and therefore not memorizable. Each session of a networked many-player game is different than the one before so the user does not easily get bored. This extends the shelf life of the product in two ways: 1. The initial users continue their play and word-of-mouth advertising; and 2. New users are required to purchase the game in order to become part of the networked experience. Recognition of the advantages (i.e. increased shelf life) of networked many-player games has created a need amongst the games developers for a development platform upon which to develop these networked games. Until now there have been no commonly available network development platforms and games developers have been forced to use non-economical networking schemes, such as high bandwidth ethernet, to provide networked play. Since virtually no-one has ethernet bandwidth in their home, the market has been severely limited for these products. The Parallel Universe development platform addresses this bandwidth problem and allows games developers to develop products for the networked, many-user, in-home game market *NOW*. IF YOU ARE A VIRTUAL REALITY DEVELOPER: COST and MARKET PENETRATION Get your application into the home NOW. With the availability of real-time 3D renderers such as Renderware and RealityLab, VR in the home can now be a reality. With The Parallel Universe you can network these VR generators in the home and have access to a larger market. And you don't have to wait for fiber or ISDN! The Parallel Universe gets into the home now at a price that the users have said they will pay. The Parallel Universe is available now as a software only development platform, complete with PC API, that is ideal for companies wishing to capitalize on the increasing demand for true real-time many-player games and concurrent CAD-type applications using PC's as the user node. The Parallel Universe development software is expandable to a full voice-enabled commercial system. Customers are advised that voice-capable systems require custom hardware and are built when ordered. Pricing is quoted at time of order. FEATURES 1. Data Filtering This function substantially reduces network traffic by separating motion packets (motion packets are the ones primarily responsible for network saturation) from other types of packets and only sending the motion packets where they are actually needed by a user at any specific point in time. 2. Internal Object and User Database The server keeps lists of all "objects" and "users" within any number of "universes". Objects may be points, vertices, animations, colours, textures, or user defined. The server holds the current "state" of each universe for updating users as they log on. 3. PC Application Programmers Interface The PC is a large potential market due to the large installed base. Most applications that run on a PC can be ported to The Parallel Universe. A Silicon Graphics API is planned. 4. Low Latency Typical system lags are less than 100 ms with system updates at 25hz. 5. Low/High Bandwidth Capability If real-time interactive, multi-user applications are to reach users in their homes, studies have shown that they must be at a very low cost. This requirement rules out the expense of high bandwidth communications. Since The Parallel Universe can use either low or high bandwidth, developers can get their applications into the home or business without having to wait for high bandwidth installation. 6. Spatially-relative Voice Why bother with a second telephone line or separate teleconferencing service to speak to other users in a multi-user session? The Parallel Universe features fully integrated multi-source voice communications enhanced with distance attenuation and left-right cuing. This is possibly the most advanced voice conferencing bridge available today. 7. Commercialization Path The Parallel Universe allows developers to create applications using a low cost development platform that is the same underlying software as the commercial systems use. This means that developers with market ready applications do not need to wait for further development of The Parallel Universe to commercialize their products. Full system R&D is already complete! If an application is ready for commercialization, so is The Parallel Universe. Royalty rates are low and vary dependant upon application. PLATFORM REQUIREMENTS SUN SPARC running SUNOS 4.1.3 with up to 10 serial ports with 9600bps or faster modems to act as the central server. 80386-or-better-based PCs act as application platforms. PRICING Pricing ranges from US$ 3,500 for a 10 user, software-only, development platform up to US$ 250,000. for a full 100-user commercial system. Many intermediate custom configurations are available. Customers will have a 30 day, full refund trial period on entry level software platforms. Royalty rates on commercial systems are dependant on the application. Please contact the Company for details. Virtual Universe Corporation is a public company trading on The Alberta Stock Exchange (symbol VRX). Virtual Universe Corporation Suite 510, 700-4th. Ave. SW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 3J4 Voice: (403) 261-5652 Fax: (403) 237-0005 Internet: info@virtual.cuc.ca.ab ------------------------------ From: gld@prairienet.org (Gary L. Dare) Subject: Sony or Northern Telecom Speakerphone Sources? Date: 24 Aug 1994 04:14:17 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Reply-To: gld@prairienet.org (Gary L. Dare) I'm looking for sources of new or refurb speakerphones from either Sony or Northern Telecom. The NT models that I've come across in the business world are particularly impressive and if they're not full duplex, their transitions are so smooth that it was not noticeable ... Gary L. Dare formerly gld@columbia.edu gld@prairienet.org uk960@freenet.victoria.bc.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Aug 1994 13:30:25 EDT From: Bob Keller Subject: FCC To Hold Broadband PCS Press Conference MEDIA ALERT August 22, 1994 Media contacts: Audrey Spivack and Susan Lewis Sallet at (202) 418-0500 BROADBAND PCS AUCTION SEMINAR PRESS CONFERENCE WASHINGTON, D.C. ON AUGUST 29 The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold a press conference at Atlantic Studios on August 29 at 4 p.m., immediately following the Commission's broadband Personal Communications Services (PCS) seminar. The press conference will feature FCC auction staff experts who can address media questions regarding the auction process. This seminar and those held in Chicago, Denver and San Francisco are designed to educate the public on the rules and procedures involved in auctions for licenses to provide broadband PCS in the 2 GHz. All seminars are open to the press. The broadband PCS seminar will be held at Atlantic Studios, 650 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM EDT. This seminar will also be transmitted nationwide via satellite (SBS 6, Transponder 16) to remote sites in Atlanta, Dallas and Seattle. WHO: FCC Auction Experts WHAT: Broadband PCS press conference WHERE: Atlantic Studios, 650 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Rehearsal Room 5, Washington, D.C. WHEN: Monday, August 29, 1994 - 4:00 PM -FCC- Bob Keller Robert J. Keller, P.C. Tel +1 301 229 5208 rjk@telcomlaw.com Telecommunications Law Fax +1 301 229 6875 finger me for FCC Daily Digests and miscellaneous FCC releases ------------------------------ From: johng@ecs.comm.mot.com (John Gilbert) Subject: Ameritech Cellular in Chicago down for 30 Minutes Organization: Motorola, LMPS Date: Wed, 24 Aug 1994 08:18:23 -0500 Last Saturday morning (8/20) at about 12:15 AM, I got in my car and noticed I had the no-service indicator lit on my cellular phone. I got out and checked my antenna thinking that someone might have pulled it off. My antenna is still attached. I select Cellular one from the keypad and I see that they are on the air an that my phone roams over to them just fine. It appears that my phone is OK. Ameritech must have lost a cell site. I drive through several cells and I still have a no-service light. I am really wondering about the extent of the trouble now, so I picked up my SMR handset and place a call to Ameritech Chicago customer service. The CSR first tells me that "We have lost a cell site and hope to be back on the air shortly." After I tell him that I have driven ten miles and have been out of service the whole time, he admits, "The whole Chicagoland system is down and has been down for the last 20 minutes!" The system came back up at 12:21 AM. I have seen many articles recently where cellular is promoted for critical communications needs such as police and emergency medical service patient telemetry (not to mention personal safety needs). I wonder how many of these customers realized that they were without service for approximately 30 minutes the other night. John Gilbert johng@ecs.comm.mot.com KA4JMC ------------------------------ From: jlundgre@kn.PacBell.COM (John Lundgren) Subject: Re: Why Can't I Keep a V.32 Connection Up? Date: 24 Aug 1994 16:53:26 GMT Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network Maybe someone could clarify my understanding of what goes on in the CO and between COs during a modem session. At one time, many trunks between COs had voice compression so that more channels could be squeezed in. When a data call was made, the voice compression was disabled so that it wouldn't affect the data. Many trunks have been upgraded to digital carrier equipment, and some of the trunks are no on Fiber Optics. One of the 'pair gain' equipment I hear the telco people mention is the SLIC 5. I've never asked our reps how all this is done today. I suppose that things may have changed and the voice compression no longer is used. The reason behind this is that I often hear our Computer Club members complain that they have problems dialing into the club's BBS, and yet I don't have a problem. They find that they can call other BBSs no problem, but only certain modem lines like ours has the problem. The sysop has had some things to say about this too. He said that Pac Bell replaced the cables around his neighborhood in the last few years, and that cleared up most of the problems he had been having. Recently, the CO cut over to a 5 ESS switch, so this may be another variable. He also says that he has had other complaints from users in the same general area, and thinks it has something to do with the telco, and not with the lines from the user's house to the CO or the sysop's modem lines to the CO, since they work Ok for other users. I have suspected that it might have something to do with the voice compression equipment not being taken out of the trunk during the data session. Or maybe the routing of the call has something to do with it. I've heard that sometimes the following routing happens. The trunks between two COs are all busy so the call is routed to a regional CO and then back out to the other CO. This is an acceptable circuit for voice, but for data, it possibly has some problem. Thanks for any input. John Lundgren - Elec Tech - Info Tech Svcs Rancho Santiago Community College District 17th St. at Bristol \ Santa Ana, CA 92706 jlundgre@pop.rancho.cc.ca.us\jlundgr@eis.calstate.edu ------------------------------ From: barnaby@world.std.com (Richard L Barnaby) Subject: Re: Why Can't I Keep a V.32 Connection Up? Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Wed, 24 Aug 1994 18:18:23 GMT johnl@iecc.com (John Levine) writes: > I'm here at my summer headquarters at the beach in New Jersey, and I'm > having incredible trouble getting a reliable modem connection. Half > the time, the modem won't even shake hands, the other half of the time > the connection dies after somewhere between one and fifteen minutes. I'd suspect TELCO. Probably noisy lines. There are many Telebits. Are you using V.32? If so, probably not Telebit. If using Telebit's proprietary PEP protocol, I have not had good luck with that protocol over adverse lines, and have recently replaced all Telebits (older Trailblazers) with Hayes V.32. > I've tried this with two different modems, a Megahertz PCMCIA and a > GBC (or maybe GVC, it's an OEM version without a label) external modem. > The other end is a bank of five Telebits. I'm trying to connect at > 14.4K V.32bis. I agree with Moderator here, back off to 9600 and try. IMHO you need to place a trouble call with TELCO and let them "put the meter" on the circuit. > I'm in Harvey Cedars NJ (609-361), the other end is in Pleasantville > (609-485) which is a local call albeit a different CO. Both COs have > modern electronic switches. I have two phone lines here and have > about the same amount of trouble with either. Things work best in the > morning, worst around midnight. (Strange but true.) There is no > audible noise that I can hear on the line. I had the same problem > last year but though that it was due to the cheapo Sportster modem I > was using. I've had many "strange" occurances that turned out to be "noise" on the lines. The fact that it is time-of-day-sensitive might point to external sourced noise. For example, around here in Vermont, we have electric fences for cows. If the grass isn't cut or eaten near the fence (who wants to mow next to an electric fence, or what cow wants to eat next to one) then on rainy days, the wet grass hits the fence and puts a pulse directly to ground. This click-click noise is not audible except on my ultra-sensitive-headset, but can be seen on the TELCO's meter (the meter swings about once per second). Another time, a client of mine in Paramount, CA was having modem problems at 10:00 AM every morning. As I drove to his site, I noticed a large transformer on the telephone pole next to his office. At 10:00 I went outside, and heard a very loud humming from the transformer. After calling the power company, and getting the transformer replaced, the "strange modem problem" at 10:00 AM went away. The transformer didn't have much load, but at 10:00, \a neighboring industry began some process that took the load to overload, and the weak transformer was so noisy. PS: I actually could "hear" the noise at 10:00, by listening to the line Check your cable from your "Summer headquarters" at the beach. Often, beach connections will deterioriate with salt air and water and water in your lines (through a crack in the insulation) can\ cause "intermittent" problems (bad on days after it rains) > Any suggestions? If I shelled out for a Telebit would it be > likely to work any better? Any magic things I can say to repair > service beyond "my fax machine keeps hanging up" ? Don't buy a Telebit to solve a noise line. If you want a Telebit anyway mine is for sale, make an offer Telebit Trailblazer Plus. Tell your repair service that you want to check the resistance on the lines to be sure that there are no "leaks" (Electron leaks), and check the physical routing of your cable to the Telephone company demarc. Is it underground? How old is it? What kind of cable is it? Is it proper cable (Sometimes people use non-underground type cable because it's "just a short run". See what other lines are nearby? Do other telephones work, any neighbors you can try out? Power cables/Transformers? Any Industry nearby? (Look for large overhead power wires). Ask if there is any "digital" service that might be less prone to noise. We people, unfortunatly, have come to believe that our digital modems are "just-ones'and-zeros", but the reality is that modems are analog devices, and subject to all the sins and deficiencies of the "real world" (as opposed to cyber-world). In other words Noise-is-a-bitch. Good Luck. Barnaby barnaby@world.std.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Aug 94 11:42:00 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John Levine) Subject: Re: Why Can't I Keep a V.32 Connection Up? > I'm here at my summer headquarters at the beach in New Jersey, [and I can't > get a modem connection to work ...] Re lots of helpful suggestions, connections don't stay up a heck of a lot better at 2400 bps than they do at 9600 or 14.4K. Someone suggested that MNP is more robust than V.42; that seems to help a little. Lots of people pointed out that Telebit V.32 (the other end is a bank of Telebits) is not hugely compatible with everyone else's V.32. I'll try to borrow a T2500 and see if that works any better. I told the telco that I had fax problems, by the way (which was true, faxing to their fax machine doesn't work very well, either.) After a few calls back and forth, one of the telco guys said "faxes send data, we don't promise they'll work on voice lines." Of course, there's no other kind of line you can order. Welcome to New Jersey, home of the Information Rutted Dirt Track. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com Primary perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" ------------------------------ From: jlundgre@kn.PacBell.COM (John Lundgren) Subject: Re: Call Waiting on Error-Correcting Modems? Date: 24 Aug 1994 17:04:48 GMT Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network Brian Nunes (bnunes@netcom.com) wrote: > I have a bizarre question, if reading the rest of the posts is any > indication. I have a 14.4 bps modem and I have call waiting, but my > question is not how to turn off the call waiting, but how to let the > second call get through. Apparently the "click" or "beep" to let me > know I have a second call is seen as "noise" by the modem, which then > error-corrects it away. > There are times when I *WANT* a voice call to come through, so I > specifically DO NOT TURN OFF call waiting. Sometimes it will knock me > offline, but quite often I later find out that my line just rang and > rang with a second call, and I had no idea (no weird characters on the > screen, no loss of carrier). > Any idea how I can make my modem "more sensitive" to the call-waiting > beep, without disabling error-correction? If you add up the monthly cost of the call waiting and other features on your line, and subtract them from the cost of another separate line, I would say that the difference isn't that much more. It's probably a better idea to get a separate line for your modem. Another way to go is to call forward your calls to another number, maybe a voice mail service, so that you won't miss any call. Obviously you can't have an answering machine on the line since it's busy with the modem. I wouldn't want the call waiting to interrupt my modem session, because it slows it down and can possibly interrupt and/or corrupt the data. In the case of a .ZIP file, some small error can ruin the whole file. It's foolish to risk this. And some sysops get riled when you terminate a call by hanging up on their equipment. John Lundgren - Elec Tech - Info Tech Svcs Rancho Santiago Community College District 17th St. at Bristol \ Santa Ana, CA 92706 jlundgre@pop.rancho.cc.ca.us\jlundgr@eis.calstate.edu ------------------------------ From: rothen+@pitt.edu (Seth B Rothenberg) Subject: Re: Call Waiting on Error-Correcting Modems? Date: 24 Aug 1994 14:19:45 GMT Organization: University of Pittsburgh In article bnunes@netcom.com (Brian Nunes) writes: > I have a bizarre question, if reading the rest of the posts is any > indication. I have a 14.4 bps modem and I have call waiting, but my > question is not how to turn off the call waiting, but how to let the > second call get through. Apparently the "click" or "beep" to let me > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No, there isn't any way to do it. I > don't know how many times over the years here there have been articles > asking how to *avoid* being knocked off by call waiting; this seems > to be the first saying the person wants to be knocked off. I suggest > its impossible to have it both ways. I have read about a patent issued for a modem that does exactly what was described. The modem recognizes the 'call waiting' tone, and negotiates with the remote modem to "hold on." Then, it flashes, and let's the user talk. I assume there's a protocol for resuming also. Seth [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have never heard of any way to negotiate with a distant modem telling it to 'hold on'. Either the carrier is present or it is not present. If carrier is lost the other end disconnects. If you are on a call waiting, you can't very well send carrier to the first party at the same time. And anyone who was willing to have their modem configured in such a way that lacking carrier it was still willing to sit patiently on the line is a fool. I'll call every modem I know of and tell them to 'hold on' until infinity then disconnect the line. Please give us more details on this Seth. I would love to know of a modem that does not require a carrier to sit off hook patiently forever waiting for its original caller to return -- with carrier -- to the line. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bnunes@netcom.com (Brian Nunes) Subject: Re: Call Waiting on Error-Correcting Modems? Organization: This Way Out, the int'l lesbian & gay radio magazine Date: Wed, 24 Aug 1994 04:13:09 GMT On Wed, 17 Aug 1994 06:00:00 GMT I asked: > Any idea how I can make my modem "more sensitive" to the call-waiting > beep, without disabling error-correction? Despite some pessimists' protestations that it couldn't be done, quite a few people e-mailed me privately on how to do it. Basically, change your S9 register to 6 and the S10 register to 1 (both numbers have to be small, and the S9 register has to be higher). This has worked for me over the past week just fine! The way it works is that S10 (how long carrier needs to be absent before hanging up, in 1/10ths of a second) needs to be smaller than S9 (the minimum amount of time carrier needs to be present to make a connection, in 1/10ths of a second). Both these registers default to rather high numbers, so by making the tolerances smaller, I get more sensitivity to call-waiting. Hope this works for other people! Brian ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #352 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa09398; 25 Aug 94 18:15 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA28563; Thu, 25 Aug 94 13:01:25 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA28554; Thu, 25 Aug 94 13:01:23 CDT Date: Thu, 25 Aug 94 13:01:23 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9408251801.AA28554@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #353 TELECOM Digest Thu, 25 Aug 94 13:01:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 353 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Companies Comment on N11 Codes (Greg Monti) User Interface Strategies '95 (Run O.J. Run) Report on Public Key Infrastructure (Michael S. Baum) TCA Conference (Bob Hamilton) Phones For High Noise Areas (J. DeBert) Internet Junk Mail (Ken Levitt) AT&T Countering 1 800 COLLECT? (Judith Oppenheimer) Need Help With T1 (Michael J. Logsdon) Traffic Quality Monitoring Equipment Vendor - Settel (?) (Jim Maguire) AT&T True Connections Flyer (Jeffrey W. McKeough) International Modem Communication (Julian Daley) 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. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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, 25 Aug 1994 12:44:52 EDT From: Greg Monti Subject: Companies Comment on N11 Codes The publication {Communications Daily} is reporting in its August 25, 1994, edition on the comments the FCC has received on assignment of N11 codes to telephone-delivered information services. A summary of the article [with a few comments]: 1. Everybody wants the FCC to take action, but nobody agrees on what it should be. 2. Newspapers and publishers want the FCC to break the "logjam" and to force state regulators to force local telcos to assign N11 codes soon. 3. GTE wants N11 codes to be used only for "public service" purposes, not commercial ones. 4. Caddo Parish (County), Louisiana, complained that that state's PSC had assigned a 311 code to a private ambulance company and customers are confusing it with 911. The Parish doesn't want the usefulness of the 911 service destroyed in people's minds. 5. There are only eight N11 codes and four of them have been reserved by the North American Numbering Plan for internal telephone company use or public service needs. [I count three: 411 (DA), 911 (PSAP) and 611 (repair).] 6. Bell Atlantic, noting that demand exceeds supply, suggested that the FCC assign a few N11 codes as gateways to menus of services. [Gee, if it takes four more key presses to get through the menus to the service you really want, you might as well have dialed a seven-digit number.] 7. GTE and Bell Atlantic agreed that the FCC should pre-empt state assignments of N11 codes so that they are all national, like 411 and 911. 8. GTE said assignment of N11 codes to individual commercial companies would not give the public better access than existing 976, 800 or 900 numbers. It would only give some competitors a leg up on others. 9. Media companies said that assignment of N11 codes to themselves was a "best hope" for bringing "innovative" services. And complained that most LEC's have "resisted efforts to make N11 service available" because they "don't want to give up their monopoly on N11 numbers." They also said that existing N11 services in West Palm Beach and Atlanta "have produced no ill effects, including no consumer confusion between the N11 services and either 411 or 911." 10. The National Newspaper Association urged the FCC not to mandate nationwide or statewide assignment but to allow N11 codes to be assigned locally, protecting local newspapers against national competition. 11. BellSouth said the FCC shouldn't do any assigning. The FCC should "rely on industry processes to identify the optimal balance of relevant technological, economic and marketplace factors for N11 applications." [In other words, just let the telcos assign the codes.] BellSouth also made a significant point, that there is no single N11 code that is not currently in use for either internal use by an LEC, a public service use or a commercial use. So, no national assignments can be made until somebody's existing service is reassigned. 12. MCI suggested giving national asssignments priority over local uses, and to do it "first come, first served." 13. Most of the telcos and information providers advised against assigning any codes to the US Government or to state governments, which were the proposals that spawned this inquiry in the first place. Greg Monti, Tech Mgr, FISPO, Distribution Division National Public Radio Phone: +1 202 414-3343 635 Massachusetts Av NW Fax: +1 202 414-3036 Washington, DC 20001-3753 Internet: gmonti@npr.org ------------------------------ From: buzzroll@wam.umd.edu (Run O.J. Run) Subject: User Interface Strategies '95 Date: 25 Aug 1994 15:39:26 GMT Organization: University of Maryland College Park Information Superhighway Seminar! You and members of your organization are invited to participate in a special seminar titled: User Interface Strategies '95: The Information Superhighway Tuesday, December 13, 1994 11 AM - 5 PM Eastern Presented by Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland Frank Stein, IBM H. Rex Hartson & Deborah Hix, Virginia Tech Kent Norman, University of Maryland Five leaders in the field of human-computer interaction present their views on the emerging information superhighway. The topics the presenters will discuss include new and improved user interface strategies, the reality behind the hype of interactive television, the implications in reshaping training and education, and the development of usable interfaces. They emphasize the information superhighway as a central focus for expanding applications of computers in business, education, and the home. They o ffer their vision and suggest exciting technological developments for the new decade. Benefits You will: % Learn and understand the Visual Information Seeking principles (VIS) % Receive insights on the current status of interactive television and the future technology that will lead to the envisioned Information Superhighway; % Perceive education and training as a key component of the Information Superhighway to achieve both professional and personal goals; % Feel assured about the ease and efficiency of the Information Superhighway. Intended Audience User interface designers, programmer, software engineers, interface evaluators, managers in the computing and communications fields, technical writers, human factors specialists, trainers, and marketing personnel. The seminar will benefit all those who need to understand the Information Superhighway and its implications for the future. Biographies Ben Shneiderman is the Head of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory, a professor of Computer Science, and a member of the Institute for Systems Research all at the University of Maryland in College Park. His books include Designing the User Interface (2nd Edition), Software Psychology, Hypertext Hands-On!, and Sparks of Innovation in Human-Computer Interaction. Frank Stein, employed by IBM, is responsible for the development of IBM's Video Server software in the Networked Multimedia Division in Bethesda, MD. He has degrees from Carnegie-Mellon, Stanford, and George Washington Universities. He has worked at Bell Laboratories, SBS, and MCI on new communications systems, intelligent networks, advanced user interfaces, and video servers. Kent Norman is an Associate Professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Maryland, a charter member of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab, and a member of the Steering Committee for Teaching Technologies. He has taught in electronic classrooms for three years and is the creator of HyperCourseware, an integrated environment for education. He is the author of The Psychology of Menu Selection: Designing Cognitive Control at the Human/Computer Interface. H. Rex Hartson is a professor of Computer Science at Virginia Tech and the founder and principal investigator of the pioneering Human-Computer Interaction research project there. He is also the co-author of Developing User Interfaces: Ensuring Usability through Product & Process. Deborah Hix is a Research Computer Scientist for both Virginia Tech and the Naval Research Laboratory located in Washington DC. She is also the co-principal investigator of the Virginia Tech HCI research project and the co-author of Developing User Interfaces: Ensuring Usability through Product & Process. Course Outline and Learning Objectives 11:00-12:00 User Interfaces for Information Visualization: Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland % Define Visual Information Seeking principles % Modify video-on-demand, digital libraries, on-line databases, and organizational directories with map-like overviews % Identify necessary resources 12:00-12:30 Lunch Break 12:30-1:25 Interactive TV: Reality Behind the Hype: Frank Stein, IBM % Discuss the current status of interactive television % Describe the system architecture % Explain necessary technological developments % Predict the future of interactive television 1:35-2:30 Reshaping Training and Education: Kent Norman, University of Maryland % Summarize the importance of interactive television in education and training % Diagram the electronic classroom % Estimate the impact of multimedia, interactivity, and collaborative learning on performance measures 3:00-3:55 The Process for Developing Usable Interfaces: H. Rex Hartson and Deborah Hix, Virginia Tech % Demonstrate ease and efficiency of the Information Superhighway % Control and redesign the iterative process % Ensure universal access 3:55-4:05 Short Break 4:05-5:00 Panel Discussion: Utilization of the Information Superhighway in the Future Enrollment: For more information on how to enroll for this course send your email address to gb24@umail.umd.edu, or call ITV Marketing at (301) 405-4905. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Aug 1994 16:39:21 EDT From: Michael S Baum Subject: Report on Public Key Infrastructure ***NEW INFO. SECURITY BOOK ON PUBLIC KEY LAW & POLICY*** FEDERAL CERTIFICATION AUTHORITY LIABILITY AND POLICY Law and Policy of Certificate-Based Public Key and Digital Signatures by MICHAEL S. BAUM, J.D., M.B.A. Independent Monitoring, Cambridge, MA baum@im.com Published by the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Institute of Standards and Technology Produced in support of the Federal Government's public key infrastructure study, this book identifies diverse technical, legal and policy issues affecting a certificate-based public key cryptographic infrastructure utilizing digital signatures supported by "trusted entities." It examines potential legal implications, surveys existing legal paradigms and the structures and roles of relevant governmental agencies and presents various institutional approaches to controlling liability. It considers the underpinnings of a legal and policy framework which might serve as a foundation for security policies and their implementation and concludes with a series of recommendations, both general and specific concerning certificate-based public key. Both public and private sector issues are addressed. SUMMARY OF CONTENTS - PREFACE - ACKNOWLEDGMENTS - TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. SCOPE III. DEFINITIONS IV. ASSUMPTIONS V. SURVEY OF FCA ACTIVITIES CREATING LIABILITY EXPOSURE VI. LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS VII. FCA INFRASTRUCTURE - PROPOSALS AND PARADIGMS VIII. SURVEY OF, AND APPROACHES TO, TRUSTED ENTITY LIABILITY IX. OTHER APPROACHES TO MITIGATE LIABILITY X. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS XI. APPENDICES XII. GLOSSARY XIII. INDEX ORDERING: National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161. Tel: (703) 487-4650. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michael S. Baum is Principal of Independent Monitoring, a consultancy focused on electronic commerce and information security law. He serves as Chair of the EDI and Information Tech. Div., Section of Science and Technology, American Bar Association and its Information Security Comm.; Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Working Party on Legal Aspects of Electronic Commerce; and an ICC Delegate to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). ------------------------------ From: bob hamilton Subject: TCA Conference Date: Wed, 24 Aug 1994 21:55:19 GMT Organization: Hewlett Packard -- Greeley site I've heard there is a pretty good telecom conference held in San Diego each year called the TCA (TeleCommunication Association) Conference! Does anyone have any details? I heard it was first week of October or something?? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: onymouse@netcom.com (J. DeBert) Subject: Phones For High Noise Areas Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Wed, 24 Aug 1994 20:42:43 GMT I'm helping (unofficially) the Safety and Facilities departments at my Real Job to get phones for high noise areas at our facility. One particular area is a huge enclosed room full of equipment -- pumps, fans, recirculating coolers, et cetera, which produce high levels of wideband, low frequency and impulse-type noise ranging from 70 to 95dB in the entire area as well as 100dB noise from a 10-inch water supply main valve in one spot. This is causing problems with telephone communications within the area: It is very difficult to hear whom one is talking to on the phone and, sometimes, the other party cannot hear, either. Clearly a safety problem, especially when miscommunication can occur, leading to unsafe equipment operation and when emergency communications are needed. The sets in use are 2554 "Trads" and ATT 3103 wall sets hooked to a 5ESS PBX. Some of the 2554's have amplified handsets and none have nose-suppressing transmitters. (BTW, the 3103's are not type-accepted. Intended solely for use on ATT PBX's, I guess.) I've changed some of the 2554's by adding noise-cancelling transmitters but these are being replaced with 3103's, which have the K-style handsets which the transmitters do not fit. ATT does not offer a noise-cancelling amplified handset for their 3103's. Walker has a "universal" K handset that requires external power. There is no means of providing external power for these and it is neither practical to do so nor is it desired, particularly due to safety considerations (should power in the building fail, then the sets also fail, cutting 1/3 of the building's phone service--if all the sets used them. I've found no other source of sucuh equipment. SO what I'm looking for is either a noise-cancelling, amplified K-style handset that requires no external or battery power for use on the ATT3103 sets or a similar set that is designed for use in high-noise areas. I've seen explosion-proof sets that have these features but they have been unreliable in the past and expensive. Besides, they are not needed. All that is needed is to have sets that can provide reliable communications in a high-noise area and are line-powered. Has anyone ever run into these kinds of sets? Thanks, jd onymouse@netcom.com Box 51067 Pacific Grove, CA, 93950-6067 USA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Aug 94 17:53:35 EDT From: levitt@zorro9.fidonet.org (Ken Levitt) Subject: Internet Junk Mail Today I received an Internet junk mail advertisment for some book. The message came from Ed Isper of the Isper Publishing Company. I have had no prior correspondence or relationship with this person or company. This message appears to be a mass mailing of commercial material over the Internet. I called the 800 order number to complain, but the number goes to some order processing company. I suggested to them that they stop doing business with such a slime ball company. I suggest that anyone getting this message should call 800-247-6553 and tell them to stop doing business with the Isper Publishing Company. 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: producer@pipeline.com (Judith Oppenheimer) Subject: AT&T Countering 1 800 COLLECT? Date: 24 Aug 1994 21:07:19 -0400 Organization: The Pipeline I just saw an AT&T ad on TV for 1 800 ATT TIES - "for when you're away and want to call home" (they never say the word "collect".) I got curious, and dialed. And dialed. And dialed. Busy! How about 1 800 ATT TRIES?! J. Oppenheimer Producer@pipeline.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Aug 1994 11:42:53 -0400 From: am339@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael J. Logsdon) Subject: Need Help With T1 Reply-To: am339@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael J. Logsdon) We are here in Ameritech land in Cleveland. We have two SRX phone systems located six miles apart, in different CO's. We have voicemail at one location and want to offer it to the other. I've been told that E&M circuits are the way it is best done. Now I'm reading that T1 and 24 circuit capability and that E&M can be done on T1. I need general help with the jargon and what sort of end equipment we will need. Mike Logsdon University School Cleveland 216-831-2213 ------------------------------ From: Jim Maguire Subject: Traffic Quality Monitoring Equipment Vendor - Settel (?) Date: 25 Aug 1994 02:19:00 GMT Organization: Telstra Australia Is there a vendor of voice traffic monitoring equipment called something like Settel? The equipment would connect to traffic bearers and signalling bearers and collect call quality information. Thanks, Jim Maguire Telstra, Sydney, Australia ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Aug 1994 03:07:31 -0400 From: jwm@student.umass.edu (Jeffrey W. McKeough) Subject: AT&T True Connections Flyer Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst I just received a flyer from AT&T about their new 500 number service. The text follows: [begin included text] If you're a person on the move, you need a number that moves with you. AT&T is pleased to bring you AT&T True Connections(sm) -- a new and innovative 500 number service that will help you stay connected to the important people in your life, as well as provide you with access to the latest AT&T technologies. We'll send you complete enrollment information once our tariff is filed with the FCC and approved, and once 500 number access is provided by all local exchange companies. If you've already requested a specific AT&T 500 number, we'll do what we can to accommodate your request. There's been a lot in the press lately about this exciting new way to keep in touch. Here are all the latest details: Q. "What is a 500 number and why should I get one? A. A 500 number is a personal, unlisted number that you can get from AT&T. You, alone, decide who to give it to and when and where people will be able to reach you. With an AT&T 500 number, you can forward your calls to virtually any phone, virtually anywhere in the world, any time of the day or might. So instead of having to give out your home, office, car, cellular and other numbers, you can simply give out your AT&T 500 number and people can reach you without having to know where you are. Q. "Do I have to be an AT&T customer to get a 500 number from AT&T?" A. Yes. At this time, your long distance phone service must be through AT&T. If it's not, we can easily switch you to AT&T when you call to activate your AT&T 500 number. We'll even pay any switching fee your local telephone company may charge you. Q. "Who pays for the calls to an AT&T 500 number?" A. You decide. You can give callers the option to bill their calls to the phone they're calling from or to charge them to their calling card. Or you can give a PIN (personal identification number) to special people whose calls you'd like to pay for -- your child away from school, your mother overseas -- and they'll be able to bill their calls back to you. Q. "What are the costs associated with an AT&T 500 number?" A. The final price structure is pending tariff filing and final approval by the FCC. The way it's designed now, the pricing will be flexible depending on what features you want. That way you only pay for the features you need. As for the cost of calls to your AT&T 500 number, your callers can expect to pay postalized rates comparable to average AT&T Long Distance rates for domestic calls. Q. "If I ever change my home number, will I have to change my 500 number, too?" A. No. Your 500 number will stay the same no matter how many times you move. Q. "Can I get a personalized number like 1 500 FIND-SUE?" A. Yes. There are a limited number of vanity numbers available at this time, but we'll do what we can to accommodate your request. AT&T TRUE CONNECTIONS(sm) MAKES IT EASY TO STAY CONNECTED, EVEN IF YOU NEVER STAY IN ONE PLACE. LOOK FOR OUR ENROLLMENT PACKAGE IN YOUR MAIL, OR CALL NOW TO RESERVE YOUR AT&T 500 NUMBER: 1 800 870-9222. [end included text] Comments: 1) Given the talk of tariffs and local exchange companies, either the usual marketing folks didn't produce this, or they are actually targeting an audience with fairly advanced knowledge of telephony. 2) The question about being an AT&T customer says that you must be one _at this time_. My guess is that they're going to bill this service the same way they do for EasyReach, on the AT&T portion of your phone bill. However, it looks like they're anticipating providing service to non-presubscribed customers. Perhaps when 500 goes portable? 3) I wonder if "your mother overseas" will be able to dial +1 500 NXX XXXX, or if she'll have to go through USA Direct, as with EasyReach. On the one hand, there's no need to specify a carrier, since there is no duplication within the NPA, as with 700. The prefix should allow the calls to be routed to the correct carrier. (Right?) OTOH, if 500 goes portable, there'd have to be a database lookup in order to determine routing. Would that present difficulties in IDDD? 4) What are "postalized rates?" Will the caller have to be weighed in order to determine pricing? :) 5) The flyer says that your 500 number won't change no matter how many times you move, but it doesn't explicitly guarantee a number for life as EasyReach did. I was able to reserve a 500 number by calling the number listed in the flyer. AT&T is offering numbers in three prefixes: 367 (Spells FOR), 346 (Spells FIN. Add a 3 and you have FIND. This combo also spells EGO ;-) , and 677 (Spells MRS). I thought the auction allowed a company to reserve four prefixes. Perhaps they're saving the other one for a later promotion. BTW, there was no fee for reserving a number, but I couldn't be guaranteed that there would be no startup fee in the future. Jeffrey William McKeough jwm@student.umass.edu ------------------------------ From: uclyjjd@ucl.ac.uk (Julian Daley) Subject: International Modem Communication Date: Wed, 24 Aug 1994 10:03:18 GMT Organization: University College London I am trying to establish image transfer between the UK and a selection of other sites in Europe, Africa and Asia. The useage will only be intermittent, so a dial up link is likely to be the most cost effective. Where ISDN is available, this would seem the most appropriate option, but according to the BT ISDN help desk, ISDN is not available to several of the countries with which I wish to communicate. I am considering alternative options. The first would be to use high speed modems. However, even with just a 14.4kbaud modem, I have experienced very low transfer rates and poor reliability over digital compressed international lines. I have been unable to get hold of anyone at BT who can advise me about availability of non-compressed lines to the countries I am interested in. The second alternative would be Inmarsat data links. However the cost of the inmarsat equipment with the "high speed data" option is in excess of #20k, which becomes a large number when multiplied by the number of sites I need to communicate with. This is being posted by a colleague (my news server is currently dead), so I would be grateful if you could send any suggestions to: D.Hill@umds.ac.uk Derek ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #353 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05547; 26 Aug 94 19:22 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA17051; Fri, 26 Aug 94 15:03:15 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA17044; Fri, 26 Aug 94 15:03:13 CDT Date: Fri, 26 Aug 94 15:03:13 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9408262003.AA17044@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #354 TELECOM Digest Fri, 26 Aug 94 15:03:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 354 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Fire in Orangeburg Telco Exchange (A. Padgett Peterson) Hacking, Viruses, and Computer Underground Congress (Fernando Bonsembiante) MCI Announces 'Xstream' Brand Name (Stephen Goodman) Re: Companies Comment on N11 Codes (Stan Schwartz) Re: Companies Protest Illinois 630 Overlay (Robert L. McMillin) Observations About my Phone Bill (Nevin Liber) Fire Safety On Internet (Brian Moura) Re: EPIC Statement on Digital Telephony Wiretap Bill (Eric N. Florack) 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. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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, 26 Aug 94 09:09:36 -0400 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: Fire in Orangeburg Telco Exchange Last Sunday I went on a business trip to NYC and for various reasons stayed at the Orangeburg Holiday Inn, on the west side of the Hudson about 20 miles north of the GW Bridge. Early Tuesday morning when I cam out to the lobby, dense black smoke was coming from a bare red brick building across a side street from the HI parking lot. Within minutes the parking lot had become a staging area for the firefighters and the NYNEX personnel (do not know who arrived first). The firemen had blocked off the immediate area and were not allowing anyone (including the NYNEX personnel) across this. The firemen were all using oxygen tanks (do not know if this is SOP). When I left for the city the volume of smoke was reduced but still considerable. On return about seven thirty that evening, the lot was completly full of both Fire and NYNEX equipment however the firefighters had not yet allowed any NYNEX personnel on the site. About nine pm they were allowed to enter the building. In conversation with some of the people, the subject of Hillsdale came up and I was told that this was the end switch for the local exchange and only had limited impact. Wedenesday morning the Holiday Inn had been taken over as a command center with NYNEX personnel working all night under 50 foot high searchlights. Again I was able to ask a few questions and was told that it looked as if the switch had not been damaged. The major difference was that the halls in the Holiday Inn were now full of cables. On my return that evening the volume of personnel was reduced somewhat and telephone service to the rooms had been restored though was very noisy (modem kicked out numerous times). I was told that a trailer with a bank of pay phones had been setup in the parking lot around noon. I do not know but suspect that a temporary switch may have been setup in the Holiday Inn since several semi-trailers and a large crane were at work at the switch building. When I left Thursday morning, things were near normal again. ------------------------------ From: fernando@ubik.satlink.net (Fernando Bonsembiante) Reply-To: fernando@ubik.satlink.net Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 10:51:06 -0200 Subject: Hacking, Viruses, and Computer Underground congress Note: Copied (from: alt.2600) by Fernando Bonsembiante using timEd. Note: Copied (from: ALT.PRIVACY.CLIPPER) by Fernando Bonsembiante using timEd. Note: Moved (from: alt.2600) by Fernando Bonsembiante using timEd. Hola all! Hacking and Virus congress in Buenos Aires First international congress about Virus, Hacking and Computer Underground. Organized by Virus Report Magazine Buenos Aires, Argentina, october 7, 8 and 9, 1994, 3 PM to 9 PM. At the Centro Cultural Recoleta, Junin 1930. The admission to all days, all events will be FREE. The congress will be oriented to discuss subjects related to hacking, viruses, and the technology impact in the society of now and in the future. We will also have discussions about cyberpunk, virtual reality, the internet, the phone system, programming, etc. The speakers will be both from the 'official' world, and the 'underground' world. Emmanuel Goldstein (2600 magazine) and Mark Ludwig (Little Black Book of Computer Viruses), will be our special guests. The people coming from other countries will be offered free rooming at volunteer's homes. We can't afford plane tickets for anyone, so the travel expenses are up to you. The official languages will be spanish and english, with simultaneous translation. We expect the congress to be as open as possible, offering freedom to speak to all attendants, being from the 'bad' or 'good' side of the discussed issues. As we in Argentina don't have yet laws against hacking or virus writing or spreading, we think it is very important to discuss all those items as freely and deeply possible. Information: E-Mail: fernando@ubik.satlink.net Fidonet: 4:901/303 Phone: +54-1-654-0459 Fax: +54-1-40-5110 Paper-Mail: Guemes 160, dto 2. Ramos Mejia (1704) Provincia de Buenos Aires Republica Argentina Saludos, { Fernando Bonsembiante } { Guemes 160 dto 2 Tel: (54-1) 654-0459 } { Ramos Mejia (1704) Fidonet: 4:901/303 } { Republica Argentina Internet: fernando@ubik.satlink.net } ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Aug 94 21:23 EST From: Stephen Goodman <0003945654@mcimail.com> Subject: MCI Announces 'Xstream' Brand Name MCI TO MARKET VALUE-ADDED SERVICES UNDER NEW "XSTREAM" BRAND NAME -- Introduces simplified pricing structure Atlanta, GA, August 23, 1994 -- MCI today announced a new package of value-added services that will be marketed under the brand name "Xstream." Formerly part of the BT North America Tymnet services, the new services are packaged as a bundled data solution and include an attractive and simpler per minute pricing structure for X.25 packet switched services. "MCI is changing the way the industry looks at Value Added Network (VAN) services," explained Nancy Jenks, MCI's director of applications services marketing. "We've made the pricing easier to understand and very competitive. With the elimination of all fixed charges normally associated with a packet switched service, the barrier to entry for many smaller companies has been virtually removed." Historically packet switched services have been priced by the hour and have had separate pricing components for dial-up connect charge, network connection charge, installation fee, dial backup charge, workstation software, and a fee for monthly session summary reports. MCI has repackaged the Xstream services to include all of the previously separate charges and reduced the list price for the services by 40 percent to about eight cents per minute. In addition, the new pricing structure includes an automatic volume discount as well as one-, two- and three-year term discounts. "The per minute list price for Xstream services starts at a rate less than the previous rate for the dial access piece alone," said Jenks. "We have made VAN services much more attractive for many smaller companies. Comprehensive bundled solutions, no fixed charges and competitive per minute pricing add up to a big win for our customers." With MCI's Xstream Service, a company's host computer or X.25-capable LAN is linked to the MCI data network via a private line. Remote users can then access applications (e.g. electronic mail, order entry, inventory, customer records) on the host or LAN by placing a local call in over 1100 cities to the nearest MCI point of presence in the U.S. and Canada. The service supports dial access at speeds up to 9600 bps, and is economical for companies with as little as 15,000 minutes (250 hours) of usage per month. MCI Business Markets is based in Atlanta and provides long distance voice, data and video telecommunications to America's businesses. MCI Communications Corporation, headquartered in Washington, D.C., offers a full range of domestic and global telecommunications services through one of the world's largest state-of-the-art networks. With 1993 revenue of nearly $12 billion, the company is the second largest long distance provider in the United States and has more than 65 offices in 60 countries and places. ------------------------------ From: stans@panix.com (Stan Schwartz) Subject: Re: Companies Comment on N11 Codes Date: 25 Aug 1994 22:57:03 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Greg Monti (GMONTI@npr.org) wrote: > 5. There are only eight N11 codes and four of them have been reserved > by the North American Numbering Plan for internal telephone company > use or public service needs. [I count three: 411 (DA), 911 (PSAP) and > 611 (repair).] Greg: Here in NPA 516 (NYNEX - Long Island), we don't have any commercially-assigned N11 codes, but the ones we _DO_ have are as follows: 211 - LEC Credit for Mis-dialed numbers 311 - Emergency TDD (not yet working in all areas) 411 - Directory Assistance 511 - Reads back your own number (like 958, but a different voice) 611 - LEC Repair Office 911 - Emergency 711 seems to be a valid prefix (dialing 711-XXXX gets us an intercept stating that 711-XXXX is not a working number in area code 516, rather than "Your call cannot be completed as dialed"). I would guess that 211 is used for "Credit" in other NPA's outside of NY, thereby giving you the fourth reserved code. Stan ------------------------------ From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Re: Companies Protest Illinois 630 Overlay Organization: Surf City Software/TBFW Project Date: Fri, 26 Aug 1994 03:44:05 GMT On 23 Aug 1994 09:05:31 PST, nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) said: > Carl Moore writes: >> So what would those protesting companies do regarding the crowding in >> present area 708? I take it those "wireless" services do get incoming >> calls, so if those services go to area code 630, some people will have >> to send out word to those who call them. > It's time to go to eight-digit local numbers, as France and Japan > have done. If they did it, the US can do it. Why? Name one good reason when we're not even using our existing NPA numbers well? The companies protesting the 630 overlay are a bunch of whining crybabies. They'd cry just as much if they had to use eight digit numbers. Growth hurts. Get used to it. Robert L. McMillin | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Netcom: rlm@netcom.com Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Bubba! | Jail to the Chief! ------------------------------ From: nevin@cs.arizona.edu (Nevin Liber) Subject: Observations About my Phone Bill Date: 26 Aug 1994 02:55:00 -0700 Organization: University of Arizona CS Department, Tucson AZ I just thought that I would share a few observations about my recent phone bill with you: I have two phone lines; one with AT&T as my long distance carrier, and MCI on the other. Last month I made two simultaneous calls to two different friends, and attempted to use my AT&T 5352 two-line cordless phone to bridge the calls together into one three-way call. Unfortunately, the phone dropped the three way call approximately every 16 minutes, requiring me to redial. Each time I did this, I switched which phone line I used to dial each of my friends. For an evening 16 minute call from Tucson, AZ to Natick, MA, the cost difference (before my True USA kicked in) of MCI over AT&T was 1 penny ($2.71 vs. $2.72). Spot checking the rest of my bill, it appears that AT&T charges $.17 a minute for evening long distance calls, and MCI charges $.17 a minute, but subtracts a penny from the total for that call. This was also the first time I used my MCI line to make a long distance call. On the MCI portion of my bill, it has an account number and the name Michael Obert. I have no idea who Michael Obert is. Why is he listed on my phone bill? Am I legally responsible for the phone calls, or is he? How often does MCI make this kind of mistake? Nevin ":-)" Liber nevin@cs.arizona.edu (602) 293-2799 +++ (520) after 3/95 summer office: (602) 621-8112 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: How long have you had the phone number used for the MCI part of the calls? Possibly Michael Obert was the previous subscriber to that phone number. It frequently happens that the first time a number is used by a subscriber to dial through MCI on a long distance call, MCI gets the *current* billing information for that number, then they never bother to update the records. They probably never were told Michael Obert no longer has the number. Once it gets reported, his name will be taken off and your name inserted in the record instead. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 25 Aug 94 02:28:15 EDT From: Brian Moura <76702.1337@compuserve.com> Subject: Fire Safety On Internet CITY OF SAN CARLOS Press Release For More Information, Call: Brian Moura, Assistant City Manager For Release 9:00 a.m. (415) 802-4210 August 25, 1994 Internet E-Mail: scarlos@crl.com Internet Web Server: http://www.abag.ca.gov/abag/local_gov/city/san_carlos/schome.html SAN CARLOS PROVIDES ON-LINE FIRE SAFETY TIPS Internet Web Pages Show How to Protect Your Home from Fire SAN CARLOS, CA -- August 25, 1994 -- The City of San Carlos announced today that it has posted a fire safety tutorial on the Internet. The information teaches San Carlos citizens how to prevent hillside brush and wildland files as well as tips for fire safety in all parts of the City. It also includes a full color diagram on how to create a proper fire break for hillside residents. Mayor Tom Davids said "We are very pleased to be presenting information on how to make your home fire safe on the Internet. It is our hope that distributing this information on the Internet will reach people who may not have seen the earlier fire safety brochure from South County Fire on this important topic. As an added bonus, our efforts may protect homes in other communities which can be very important during a dry fire season such as the one we are experiencing this year." City Manager Michael Garvey stated that "The South County Fire Authority has been a leader and innovator in the fire profession for many years. We were very impressed with their fire safety materials and decided to make them available to a wider audience through the Internet. I am pleased that we can offer this fire safety information to the public in this new format." Assistant City Manager Brian Moura who was responsible for reformatting the information for use on the Internet said: "I think this is a very interesting demonstration of the power of the Internet. It shows how the City of San Carlos can publish important safety information and have it reach a very wide audience. We look forward to the hearing from the public to see if they would like more information of this type on our Internet area." Accessing the Fire Safety Information The fire safety tips and tutorial are available on the City of San Carlos World Wide Web server pages on the Internet. Users with Internet access should select "Fire Safety Tips and Fire Department News" from the City of San Carlos Home Page to see this information. The City of San Carlos Web server is at: http://www.abag.ca.gov/abag/local_gov/city/san_carlos/ schome.html) and the City Hall Internet E-Mail box is at scarlos@crl.com. Other World Wide Web/Mosaic Information Available The City of San Carlos area on the World Wide Web (WWW) is part of a pilot project with the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) called "ABAG On Line". It is designed to see if the Internet can be used by all government agencies in the Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area to better inform the public and work with business. In addition to the fire safety tutorial unveiled today, the City of San Carlos Web server also includes a number of other items of interest. These include information on Parks and Recreation services and events, how to obtain a City business license, projects underway to make San Carlos a better place to live, public transportation schedules, surplus City equipment for sale, a letter from the Mayor and two Police Department suspect wanted posters. About South County Fire Authority South County Fire Authority is a Joint Powers Agency (JPA) formed by the cities of San Carlos and Belmont to provide fire department services. South County Fire Authority serves the communities of San Carlos, Belmont, Redwood Shores and the Harbor Industrial Area. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Aug 1994 05:24:07 PDT From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: EPIC Statement on Digital Telephony Wiretap Bill Dave Banisar says: > We have monitored that process closely and have scrutinized the > FBI's claims that remedial legislation is necessary. We have > sponsored conferences at which the need for legislation was debated > with the participation of the law enforcement community, the > telecommunications industry and privacy advocates. We have sought the > disclosure of all relevant information through a series of requests > under the Freedom of Information Act. Having thus examined the issue, > EPIC remains unconvinced of the necessity or advisability of the > pending bill. I, for one, would bemost interested in your disclosure of what it is that /WOULD/ so convince you. > As a threshold matter, we do not believe that a compelling case has > been made that new communications technologies hamper the ability of > law enforcement agencies to execute court orders for electronic > surveillance. For more than two years, we have sought the public > disclosure of any FBI records that might document such a problem. To > date, no such documentation has been released. Without public > scrutiny of factual information on the nature and extent of the > alleged technological impediments to surveillance, the FBI's claims > remain anecdotal and speculative. Indeed, the telecommunications > industry has consistently maintained that it is unaware of any > instances in which a communications carrier has been unable to comply > with law enforcement's requirements. Under these circumstances, the > nation should not embark upon a costly and potentially dangerous > re-design of its telecommunications network solely to protect the > viability of fewer than 1000 annual surveillances against wholly > speculative impediments.<< How much common sense does it require to realize that a wholly digital network takes far more technology to 'tap'? (More, apparently, than opponants of this bill possess!) Is it 'speculation' to understand that without standards such as your much hated 'Clipper', the sheer mound of technology would make many government monitor operations too costly to pursue? With the polls suggesting that crime (and not healthcare) being the number one issue in the country today, does it make sense to pursue a policy which hampers law enforcement efforts? > We also believe that the proposed legislation would establish a > dangerous precedent for the future. While the FBI claims that the > legislation would not enhance its surveillance powers beyond those > contained in existing law, the pending bill represents a fundamental > change in the law's approach to electronic surveillance and police > powers generally. The legislation would, for the first time, mandate > that our means of communications must be designed to facilitate > government interception. The FBI is correct; all this bill does is hold the status quo ... a situation which seems to infuriate such groups as your own, as well as such as EFF, CPSR, and so on. Because of the nature of the network, the FBI and other police groups have always had the ability to tap with minimal technology and cost. With the new systems, however, that ability will be hampered. All the bill seeks to do is to maintain what the above named groups, your own included, seem to fear most: The government's ability to monitor. Yes, it's quite true that /legally/, the government will still be able to monitor, but with the sheer wall of technology and the costs involved ... (and the government's inability to pay for such technology ... since when is law enforcement on the leading edge of ANY technology?) ... will prevent the government from using the ability it's always had. It's rather like someone rasing the speed limit on the freeways to 300 MPH. Great. Now, all I have to do is get rid of this Ford Festiva so I can take advantage of it. The barriers being removed by this bill are not philosophical, nor are they legal. These barriers, (The only ones we've been dealing with for the last 70 years) remain. The only barrier being altered by this bill is the one your group, and the others mentioned, seek to impose on the government; that of prohibitive cost. CPSR (and it's EPIC persona) seek to place added limits to government monitoring, by the defeat of this bill. It's really that simple. EPIC claims that restructuring the networks to comply with the bill will be costly. EPIC should provide proof of such claims. EPIC should also provide an answer to the question of how much the added crime from lack of ability to enforce our laws, will cost us, and balance the two issues. I suggest they have not made their case. The bill should pass as it stands. /E .CC Jack Books, via FAX ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #354 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa24750; 29 Aug 94 16:14 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA14722; Mon, 29 Aug 94 11:16:18 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA14715; Mon, 29 Aug 94 11:16:15 CDT Date: Mon, 29 Aug 94 11:16:15 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9408291616.AA14715@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #355 TELECOM Digest Mon, 29 Aug 94 11:16:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 355 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson CBS Radio Piece About New Area Codes (Linc Madison) Re: CBS Radio Piece About New Area Codes (Carl Moore) Re: CBS Radio Piece About New Area Codes (R. Fergus) Book Review: "Data Communications, Networks and Systems" (Rob Slade) ACD / Overlay Number (James E. Bellaire) MCIMail's Internet Fax Service (James H. Cloos Jr.) Curious How Many Carriers Own Cross-Continental Lines (Bradley Allen) Need Eight to Ten Cent Flat Nationwide Rate (krazykev@panix.com) Leased Network Manager Position Available (Owen Crowley) Windows Telephony API Sample Applications (Frank Xu) Need Information on ASN.1 (Hareesh K. Boinepelli) Cellphone 911 For Reporting Traffic Problems (David H. Close) International Conference on Software Engineering - Telecom (F. Depuydt) Sony SPP40 Cordless/Answering Problem (Paolo Bellutta) Last Laugh: Make Money Fast FAQ (Nathan Palovcik via Stefan Bethke) 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. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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, 29 Aug 1994 00:25:41 -0700 From: LincMad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: CBS Radio Piece About New Area Codes The following is a transcript of a piece that aired on the "Dan Rather Reporting: News, Commentary, and Analysis" segment on CBS radio on Thursday, August 25, 1994. In the San Francisco area, "Dan Rather Reporting" airs at 3:35 p.m. weekdays on KCBS-AM 740; check with your local station for air time. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Hello, everybody. It's the end of an era -- a milepost to measure our age. It indicates how far we've come, where we're going, and it's all embodied in a three-digit number: it's the area code, that three-digit number that connects us to the rest of the country, that allows us to communicate with relative ease just about every time we pick up the telephone. For most of us, the area code has been as much a part of our lives as a street address or a social security number. It's a bit startling to realize the system was introduced just fifty years ago. At that time, the area code was presented to provide a bit of breathing space for the country's flourishing phone system. Three-digit combinations were assigned as communities grew. As developed by Ma Bell, the area code would always have a 1 or a 0 as the middle number. That would allow 144 combinations. The phone company confidently predicted all community needs could be met to the turn of the century this way. Well, the rush onto the information superhighway has already caused phone company detours. It may be the beginning of a traffic jam. What's about to happen, what will start next summer, is the introduction of a whole new age of area codes. The nation has run through all current combinations. The new codes will look a bit different. Residents in several states will get the new-style codes. In northern Virginia, the code will be 540. These are the first area codes offered without a middle 0 or 1. Now, other than a new number to memorize, it would seem to be a small matter. Cities have already been split into new area code sections; that's of no major concern. What *is* of concern is how electronic devices will memorize and read those numbers. The problem is this: telephone software and switches are set to read area codes with a middle 0 or 1. All those switches and all that software will now have to be changed, be modified to accept the new area code system. That's hundreds of thousands of switches, millions of customers to notify. Without modification, one reporter suggested, there could be a frightening number of fender-benders on the infobahn, a phenomenal number of misdirected calls. Government officials and entrepreneurs offer a wonderful vision of the information superhighway -- they talk about progress, they talk about its promises. It now seems it may be a mighty bumpy ride on that road to the future. Now please, this message. [commercial] Dan Rather reporting, from area code 212, CBS News. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Pretty good report, all in all. Minor points: 540 isn't the first, and the new-style codes will begin in January, not next summer. Slightly more off the mark is the linking of the information superhighway with the area code shortage. There is some connection, but I don't really consider faxes, DID lines to every desk, or cell-phones to be part of the "infobahn." Still, most of the overall view is on target, especially about the *effect* of the introduction of the new area codes. Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Aug 94 14:17:11 GMT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: CBS Radio Piece About New Area Codes He didn't say 540 was the first area code not to have 0 or 1 as the middle digit. All I can tell from the article alone is that 540 is one of the first of such codes (maybe it got attention because it will be rather close to Washington, although he was reporting from New York). Could he have had the July 1, 1995 deadline in mind for the system to be ready for the NNX area codes? That deadline, which would fit "next summer" (1995) was noted in telecom as being moved to six months earlier (Jan. 1, 1995). ------------------------------ From: rfergus@aol.com (RFergus) Subject: Re: CBS Radio Piece About New Area Codes Date: 27 Aug 1994 11:41:03 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) According to Emmanuel Goldstein of WBAI's (99.5FM, NYC) "Off the Hook" radio program (and "2600 Magazine," which I have not seen), phone companies have already developed the capability for handling area codes that do not include a '0' or a '1' as the second digit. Therefore, expanding the area codes will not be a problem. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not for the telcos, it generally won't be a problem. The problem will be mainly for those subscribers who use privately maintained toll-restriction/toll fraud prevention devices which rely on the 'zero/one as second digit' to detect whatever they are looking for. Some of them will be hurting. With their 'protection' in place, they'll be unable to call many of the places they might want to call and with their security schemes suspended they'll be exposed to all kinds of fraud. New software will be needed which examines the number dialed in a different light. Now they are going to have to look at all the digits dialed and examine the digits in their context to one another. That is, if a particular user is permitted to place long distance calls, then look at all the digits dialed and interpret them. If a '1' is dialed first, then interpret the ten digits which follow and restrict based on entries in a table. If '1' is not the first digit, then truncate the dialing string after the first seven digits and interpret those by themselves, etc. Be alert for certain three digit combinations as they might appear in the string of digits dialed. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 19:37:17 MDT From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Data Communications, Networks and Systems" by Bartee BKDCMN&S.RVW 940706 SAMS 11711 N. College Ave., Suite 140 Carmel, IN 46032-5634 317-573-2500 317-581-3535 800-428-5331 800-428-3804 hayden@hayden.com haydenbks@aol.com 76350.3014@compuserve.com "Data Communications , Networks, and Systems", Bartee, 1991, 0-672-22790-8, U$49.95/C$64.95 It is very difficult to determine the purpose, objective, or audience for this book. There is not much specifically wrong with the information, but it is hard to tell who might need this particular presentation. The back cover blurb speaks of the growth in personal computers, and talks of "suggestions for high profile results". This could be seriously misleading, as little of the material is of direct use to those working with personal computers, and the papers tend towards a generic background overview, rather than specific practicalities. The preface opens by stating that the book contains the latest information in the important areas of digital communications, networks and systems. In fact, the book contains ten essays by different authors, generally addressing topics basic to data communications. The papers vary in audience and technical level. Most are relatively non-technical (and non-specific) but some assume a fairly solid grasp of higher mathematical concepts. Because of the differing authorship, little information can be developed from chapter to chapter, and some topics are repeated, while others are missed. Transmission media, in chapter one, is given a thorough but basic background. Chapter two, on carriers and regulations, is solely concerned with the US, an attitude which carries over into modems (chapter three), which lists modems only by the Bell standards. This is a rather dated reference, as is the continual discussion of RS-232C which, as the book notes once, was superseded by RS-232D in 1987, four years before the *first* publication of the book. Chapters four and five discuss basic ideas in protocols, and integrated voice and data networks. Chapters six, seven and nine talk about baseband, broadband and standards in local area networks, oddly separated by security in chapter eight. The book closes with a very mathematical discussion of error control. While sections are good (chapter six, on LANs, is excellent), overall the book lacks focus. Trying to give the "latest" information in a book tends to date it quickly. In this case, even in 1991 the material would have been quite pedestrian. None of the material looks at technologies that would have been "new advances" in the fields. McNamara's "Introduction to Data Communications," whose most recent version was three years earlier, outdoes this work in many areas. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKDCMN&S.RVW 940706. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 DECUS Symposium '95, Toronto, ON, February 13-17, 1995, contact: rulag@decus.ca ------------------------------ Date: 29 Aug 94 18:21:27 EDT From: James E Bellaire <73177.1452@compuserve.com> Subject: ACD / Overlay Number A few notes on recent TELECOM postings: Automatic Call Direction for the home - Yes -- I am one of those telcom junkies who would attach a fax/voicemail board to my computer even when no one has ever faxed me or left a message other than on an answering machine. I like having the technology there, even if no one uses it. (I even have a personal 800 number for calling myself to check the non-existant messages!) Yes -- The two lines into my home ring constantly with tele-sleeze, based on which credit card company you do business with, or book company, or gas company, or shoe size, or whatever. Four to five calls per day on line one is normal, two to three per week on line two. One of my credit cards calls me on line one with garbage and line two with collections. I recieved calls for over two years from one woman who kept asking for Mrs. Bellaire and promising to call back when I said she was not here. She never stayed on the line long enough for me to tell her that Mrs. Bellaire had died. (I was about ready to give the cemetery as her new address!) 630 (and other) Overlay Numbers - I prefer using an overlay for special services. The major growth area is there so it makes more sense to give them the new numbers. Landline home phone users have been bumped between area codes for years because of the non-landline uses. It's time for cellular, paging and corporate PBX exchanges to take the licks their expansion causes. A single NPA overlay for cellular/paging/full exchange PBX would make dialing the numbers easier for callers too. You could say "Call me on my car phone, 550-xxxx" in Chicago and the caller would not have to remember if you said 708 or 312 since all car phones would be 630. I wouldn't mind seeing entire states take an overlay for this purpose. Eight Digit Dialing - This would require more planning than the telcos have done. It would have to replace seven digit dialing in affected areas and would confuse people who move and their children, unless the entire country went to it. Don't expect it to happen this year. Ten digit dialing makes more sense with some PUC rule that telcos not charge more for ten digit dialed or 1+ ten digit dialed calls than seven digit dialed calls. Which reminds me, I can dial 616-450-xxxx, a 100 mile long distance call by using seven digits. The telco bills me as long distance. Gotta get that fixed! Cell Phone Emergencies - The cellcos could always allow calls to 911 despite the access level. The "emergency" calls that should not go through would be car phone calls to brokers, ordering a buy/or sell of stocks based on what was destroyed in the disaster. Remember Lucy's emergency? What is urgent for you is not always urgent for the general public. (BTW - Party line service is still the only service in a lot of rural telcos around here.) Thank you for your time ... James E. Bellaire ------------------------------ From: James.Cloos@Rahul.NET (James H. Cloos Jr.) Subject: MCIMail's Internet Fax Service Organization: a2i network Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 04:47:17 GMT Weeks ago I signed up on the mailing list MCI set up for announcements on the fax mailboxes they planned to make available to internet customers. (Ie., you would get your faxes by, I assume, telnetting in rather than phoning up. Also, you could use email to send an outgoing fax at std MCIMail rates.) I never got any info from the list. Did anyone else? Does anyone know if the planned service was dropped or just delayed? TIA. James H. Cloos, Jr. include James.Cloos@Rahul.NET include (cloos@io.com) URL: http://io.com/user/cloos Finger for pgp pub key. Snail: Box 1111, Amherst, NY 14226-1111 ------------------------------ From: ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Allen) Subject: Curious How Many Carriers Own Cross-Continental Lines Date: 29 Aug 1994 00:01:11 -0400 First, by my VERY rough calculations from traceroute times, Sprint's lines from Washington, DC to Stockton, California are .8 efficient in terms of directness. While at first I was very impressed, I realized this is just somewhat impressive, considering some railroad right of ways are basically this direct already. Anyway, on to questions. Where is there a FAQ answer to "who owns the physical long distance data pipes in the USA and worldwide"? Not that it's that important, but I was disagreeing with one of my clients about this trivia (don't worry, not a computer business client). I think the topic came up in response to the rates charged and who gets to set those rates. I was arguing the side that after breaking even on the installation investment and budgeting for both maintenance and technological advancement, there could be a significant price drop if the service personnel were severely cut back ... not that I was advocating this, since I don't know the answer to the question, what to do with people in an almost totally automated world ... But, I mean, what's to keep me from making a phone company where I don't require people to "turn off" their service when they move out, and "turn on" when they move in; if I just charge for absolute equipment all up-front. "Key in your address on the touch tone pad ... key in your VISA ... that will be $756.48, with a twenty year full warranty and no further charges, installation included within two hours ... press 1 to accept, or 2 for a longer warranty period". I would pay for it! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Regards the directness of routing in the example you gave of Sprint, you should bear in mind that Sprint had its beginning in the late 1970's as the telecommunications department of the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was that railroad's desire to modernize and upgrade its (then) very obsolete telecom network which led to the upgrading which later became Sprint when the railroad decided to sell the excess capacity created in the modernization. Sprint is an acronym for outhern

acific ailroad nternal etwork elecommunications. Fifty to sixty years ago, all railroads operated telecom links between their stations coast to coast, with trackside telephones every ten miles or so in case the trains got into trouble. The wires ran on poles along side the track on the railroad right-of-way. So the first public (non- railroad) customers of Sprint were able to call anywhere the railroad went, which made it largely a south/southwestern USA system. AT&T largely 'followed the tracks' also around the start of this century. It was easier for them to cut deals with a few large railroads than with every farmer in their path between New York and (eventually, as of about 1921) the West Coast. Somewhere around here I have the historic photo of the AT&T crews as they worked from the west coming east and the other way around when they met and connected the wires making nationwide long distance possible for the first time. Everyone has probably seen it, along with the photo of the railroad crews doing the same thing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: krazykev@panix.com Subject: Need Eight to Ten Cent Flat Nationwide Rate Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 02:32:10 -0500 Does anyone represent or know of a telephone company which offers a flat rate of eight to ten cents for nationwide USA calling, even if only in the evening, without a T-1 commitment; in other words, for regular switched access? Must have six second minimum, six second increments for all calls. Would appreciate any information you have. Thanks. Sincerely, krazykev@panix.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Some will do it without T-1, but they set a monthly minimum usage requirement which is very high, and often times the rates are higher with a discount off the total monthly bill bringing the effective rate per minute back to the amount you are seeking. PAT] ------------------------------ From: owen@hodes.com (Owen Crowley) Subject: Leased Network Manager Position Available Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 10:14:03 -0500 Organization: Bernard Hodes Advertising MANAGER OF LEASED NETWORK Outstanding career opportunity with a premiere and rapidly growing InterExchange Carrier. Join a friendly and competent team in an attractive and low-cost city. You will be responsible for achieving the optimization of leased network facilities. To qualify, you must have a similar background to the Director of Network Analysis, with emphasis on managing the use of leased inter-exchange facilities, contractual relationships, developing projects in facility consolidations and leased network acquisition synergies. This position requires math, engineering, telecomm, or business degrees. Attractive compensation, benefits and relocation packages are being offered. For confidential consideration, please call or send your resume including salary history to: Craig Williamson, Inc., Executive Recruiters, 6701 Rockledge Drive, Suite 250, Bethesda, MD 20817, Fax (301) 897-5839, Phone (301) 897-9566. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 05:01:22 GMT From: fdxu1@staff.monash.edu.au Subject: Windows Telephony API Sample Applications Organization: Monash University Has anyone tried the telephony sample programs (answering machine and dialdemo) from the 93 December issue of {Microsft Systems Journal}, which you can download from the ftp site of Microsoft? If you have, could some tell me have you had any success to make it working? I have trouble trying to run both programs, I think because of WAVE device ID. Any advice and help will be greatly appreciated! Frank Xu Research Assistant Monash University fdxu1@mfs01.cc.monash.edu.au ------------------------------ From: boinepel@enws196.eas.asu.edu (Hareesh K. Boinepelli) Subject: Need Information on ASN.1 Reply-To: boinepel@enws196.eas.asu.edu Organization: Network Systems Lab, Arizona State University Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 06:05:12 GMT Hi everyone, I need some pointers on the journals or articles to look at for information on the Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1). Thanks in advance, Hareesh Kumar Boinepelli Network Systems Lab Electrical Engineering Arizona State University boinepel@enuxsa.eas.asu.edu Tempe, Arizona ------------------------------ From: dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu (David H. Close) Subject: Cellphone 911 For Reporting Traffic Problems Date: 29 Aug 1994 05:42:21 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena A local news story says the CHP has requested travellers with cellphones to use them to report traffic problems. Explicitly included were dangerous drivers. Explicitly excluded were speeders (CHP: that would overload the system since 99.9% of drivers are exceeding the speed limit). The story states that problems can be reported by calling 911 from a cellphone. My question: does the system identify the caller's location or are all calls routed to the CHP? How does this work? Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu dave@compata.ccss.com ------------------------------ From: fdepuydt@innet.be (Francis Depuydt) Subject: International Conference on Software Engineering - Telecom Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 10:32:02 Organization: INnet NV Does someone know where and when the next International Conference on Software Engineering for Telecommunications Switching Systems is held? Who is the contact person for that conference? Thanks, Francis ------------------------------ From: bellutta@portofino.ai.mit.edu (Paolo Bellutta) Subject: Sony SPP40 Cordless/Answering Machine Problem Date: 29 Aug 1994 11:32:09 GMT Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab Hi, when I was living in the US I got a Sony SPP40 Cordless Phone with Answering Machine, which worked fine there. Now I moved to my home country (Italy) and have a problem with the answering machine. When somebody calls, the message is recorded but after the person hangs up the busy signal is recorded for the remaining period of max recording time (which I set to one minute). This is quite annoying because if you want to listen to the time stamp you have to listen to the busy signal for all that time. I also tried to change the CPC (calling party control?) switch, but nothing changed. I guess that in the US there is a signal sent over the line after somebody hangs up and the machine senses it. Probably here in Italy such signal is not used. Any hint on how to solve the problem? Paolo Bellutta Internet: bellutta@ai.mit.edu ------------------------------ From: stefan@transit.hanse.de (Stefan Bethke) Subject: Last Laugh! Make Money Fast FAQ Date: 29 Aug 1994 02:28:02 +0200 Organization: Hanse e.V. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This one could be re-titled "Hints for Usenet participants". PAT] [ Article crossposted from comp.sys.mac.misc ] [ Author was Matthew J. Bernhardt ] [ Posted on 15 Aug 1994 14:52:04 GMT ] Nice thing, this faq. Might be worth a laughth or two... StB Well, it's about that time of year when many universities are starting up, and many newbies will soon descend upon the net. Therefore, I think it is time for a good stiff dose of preventative medicine: Really From: npalovci@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca (Nathan Palovcik) Subject: MAKE.MONEY.FAST(FAQ) Date: 6 Apr 1994 18:14:18 GMT This FAQ is for the benefit of those who have never experienced the advertisement MAKE.MONEY.FAST. Here are some answers to some questions frequently asked. 1. Does MAKE.MONEY.FAST really work? Not in the sense that you'll make money fast, but you'll make a lot of enemies fast. 2. If I forward or repost MAKE.MONEY.FAST, will I get a lot of mail? Yes, hate mail, flames, etc. 3. How can I get my account cancelled? Post MAKE.MONEY.FAST. 4. How can I get my system administrator mad at me? Post MAKE.MONEY.FAST. His mailbox will be so full of complaints, it'll take him/her a week to sort through all of them. 5. Who is Dave Rhodes? Salmon Rushdie's roommate. Just about every administrator wants to kill him so he had to go in hiding. 6. How can I assure I have a long and prosperous life? Well, nobody can guarantee that, but it can be guaranteed that if you post MAKE.MONEY.FAST you're life may be cut short by accident (hee hee). 7. Just how does one have to never work again after posting MAKE.MONEY.FAST? Well, MAKE.MONEY.FAST is a Ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes are illegal. Ponzi schemes are a form of fraud. Some of these net interchanges go over telephone wires, optic fibers, and microwave transmissions all regulated by the FCC. If you repost MAKE.MONEY.FAST over the net, and someone at the FCC wanted to get nasty, they may want to prosecute you for WIRE fraud. Once you're in jail, you never have to pay rent, your meals are free. Anal injections are free. MAKE.MONEY.FAST has a lot of side benefits. 8. How can I help to stop the spread of MAKE.MONEY.FAST? When some netter newbie blunders and posts MAKE.MONEY.FAST on the net, just send him a polite letter to not do it again (remember, the newbies act out of ignorance) then write the root@domain and request they inform all their users not to perpetuate this drivel. Forward this FAQ to at least 2 of the news groups you like to read. Nathan Palovcik (Cardinal Fang) npalovci@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca -- Matt Bernhardt University of Georgia Fools multiply folly. bernhardt@bscr.uga.edu mbernhar@phoenix.cs.uga.edu -- Stefan Bethke stefan@transit.hanse.de D-22087 Hamburg +49-40-25 19 04 60 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #355 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10143; 30 Aug 94 20:05 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11951; Tue, 30 Aug 94 14:01:06 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11942; Tue, 30 Aug 94 14:01:03 CDT Date: Tue, 30 Aug 94 14:01:03 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9408301901.AA11942@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #356 TELECOM Digest Tue, 30 Aug 94 14:01:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 356 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: EPIC Statement on Digital Telephony Wiretap Bill (Brad S. Hicks) Re: EPIC Statement on Digital Telephony Wiretap Bill (Sean Donelan) Re: EPIC Statement on Digital Telephony Wiretap Bill (Carl Moore) Re: AT&T True Connections Flyer (Kevin McConnaughey) Re: AT&T True Connections Flyer (Wes Leatherock) Re: Cellular Phone Use in Emergencies (odn@ucssun1.sdsu.edu) Re: Companies Comment on N11 Codes (Mike Morris) Re: Call Waiting on Error-Correcting Modems? (Paul Lee) Re: Why Can't I Keep a V.32 Connection Up? (Paul Lee) NYNEX Eliminated Roam Charges (Doug Reuben) Stratacom and Frame Relay (Sydney Quocsi Tran) Extent of GSM Coverage in USA? (thor@sushi.uib.no) Kosova: Serb Police in Mass Telephone Seizures (Nigel Allen) Motorola Radius PR-3000 Pager (Chris Cappuccio) .wav to Dialogic ADPCM Conversion Software Wanted (Ira Hochman) 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. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: /G=Brad/S=Hicks/OU1=0205925@mhs-mc.attmail.com Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 10:59:04 -0500 Subject: Re: EPIC Statement on Digital Telephony Wiretap Bill > How much common sense does it require to realize that a wholly digital > network takes far more technology to 'tap'? (More, apparently, than > opponants of this bill possess!) You want to tap a digital phone? Put a bug in the mouthpiece. Cheap and 100% effective. If you can't do that, use surveillance gear to bug the room; more expensive and more difficult, but a LOT cheaper than $500,000,000. "The Dapper Don" John Gotti suspected his phones were tapped, so he didn't discuss business on the phone. So the government found out where he DID discuss business (pacing the sidewalk outside) and bugged the lamp poles. > Is it 'speculation' to understand that without standards such as your > much hated 'Clipper', the sheer mound of technology would make many > government monitor operations too costly to pursue? With the polls > suggesting that crime (and not healthcare) being the number one issue in > the country today, does it make sense to pursue a policy which hampers > law enforcement efforts? By the government's own figures, even as cheap and easy as it is today, wiretapping produces usable evidence in only a few hundred cases a year. Wiretapping isn't now and never was a cost-effective way to catch common criminals. Real police agencies seldom use wiretaps, they rely on informants (paid, or bargained with reduced sentences). And I'm a little tired of "war on crime" rhetoric, when in every category except murder the crime rate has gone down almost every year since the mid 1970s. The murder rate would go down, too, if we would just end Prohibition ... but no, we'd rather waste hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds, maybe thousands of lives, than have people perceive that the government was permitting people to screw up their lives with drugs that don't have corporate sponsors. If you're not willing to see the end of Prohibition, or not (at least) willing to testify when you witness a crime, don't you DARE come whining to me about crime problems. (Even if you are foolish enough to live in a dirtbag rust belt hellhole like Chicago.) Because those are the only two things that have a hope in aitch-ee-double-toothpicks of actually reducing crime; Clipper and "assault weapon" bans and FBI Digital Telephony and federal carjacking laws and Midnight Basketball and the Brady Bill and three strikes are all just ways for Congress and the President to FOOL you (and maybe fool themselves) into thinking that they're doing something about the (mostly non-existent) Crime Problem. J. Brad Hicks Internet: mc!Brad_Hicks@mhs.attmail.com X.400: c=US admd=ATTMail prmd=MasterCard sn=Hicks gn=Brad ------------------------------ From: sean@sdg.dra.com (Sean Donelan) Subject: Re: EPIC Statement on Digital Telephony Wiretap Bill Date: 29 Aug 94 04:04:46 CDT Organization: Data Research Associates, St. Louis MO In article , Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox. com writes: > How much common sense does it require to realize that a wholly digital > network takes far more technology to 'tap'? (More, apparently, than > opponants of this bill possess!) Oh, phooey. DTMF (aka TouchTone) dialing made the FBI's old analog pen registers obsolete. The poor FBI had to go out and buy new equipment. They didn't fine the phone company $10,000 a day and demand the right to approve new technology. If they had that power back then, we would probably still be using rotary phones. Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO Domain: sean@dra.com, Voice: (Work) +1 314-432-1100 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Aug 94 21:48:43 GMT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: EPIC Statement on Digital Telephony Wiretap Bill Did you mean U.S. Representative Jack Brooks? If so, you left out the "r" in "Brooks". Sometimes a person's name will be somewhat modified to poke fun, as in a case (where I am leaving out the first name and city) where a Mr. Garbis had a reputation for being a slumlord and thus was nicknamed Mr. Garbage. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That was an accidental error, not a deliberate thing. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: AT&T True Connections Flyer From: kevin@realtyme.com (Kevin McConnaughey) Date: Mon, 29 Aug 94 13:55:54 EDT Organization: Retrograde Motion BBS - Oakton, VA. jwm@student.umass.edu (Jeffrey W. McKeough) writes: > I just received a flyer from AT&T about their new 500 number service. > The text follows: > Text on AT&T 500 Service deleted here > Comments: > 3) I wonder if "your mother overseas" will be able to dial +1 500 NXX > XXXX, or if she'll have to go through USA Direct, as with EasyReach. > On the one hand, there's no need to specify a carrier, since there is > no duplication within the NPA, as with 700. The prefix should allow > the calls to be routed to the correct carrier. (Right?) OTOH, if 500 > goes portable, there'd have to be a database lookup in order to > determine routing. Would that present difficulties in IDDD? You are correct that there is no need to specify a carrier but there is a BIG problem of routing from foreign destinations. Most PTTs route on the first three digits after the international access code (the country code). In the case of the North American dialing plan the carriers usually route down to the NPA level. No PTT that I am aware of yet implements routing at the NXX (or NNX) level. If there was a financial justification I suppose that they might but the US carriers have not been able to get this sort of cooperation for toll free services (800 in the USA) which is a very large revenue service, much less other newer and unproven services. I am aware that a number of PTTs are looking to implement area code 456 routing with specific NXXs routed to specific US carriers and this might be used as a "follow me" type service as described. There are also the 1XX "NPAs" (I use quotes because they are not strictly NPAs) that are being used by all three US carriers in conjunction with cooperating PTTs to route carrier specific traffic such as audiotext internationally. Two key issues from the non-US carriers' point of view are: 1) Non US carriers have lots of other things to worry about than implementing a highly complex routing system when the potential revenues are unproven and the major beneficiaries are US carriers and their customers. 2) There are several apparently competing concepts for carrier specific routing now being proposed -- which will gain the most credibility and customers is still to be seen. > 4) What are "postalized rates?" Will the caller have to be weighed in > order to determine pricing? :) "Postalized rates" just refers to the practice of averaging rates to simplify the rate schedule. A prime example is US domestic postal rates for first class mail. A regular letter costs 29 cents to send anywhere in the US. Most telephone tariffs try to take into account distance and do not have a flat "postalized rate". From your description of this service it is not clear whether the rates are postalized for the whole US or if the proposed structure is more complex. kevin@realtyme.com (Kevin McConnaughey) Retrograde Motion BBS - Oakton, Virginia +1-703-758-9084 ------------------------------ From: wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu Date: Mon, 29 Aug 94 12:12:13 Subject: Re: AT&T True Connections Flyer jwm@student.umass.edu (Jeffrey W. McKeough) wrote: > I just received a flyer from AT&T about their new 500 number > service. The text follows: ... [text deleted] ... > "As for the cost of calls to your AT&T 500 number, your callers > can expect to pay postalized rates comparable to average AT&T > Long Distance rates for domestic calls." ... [text deleted] ... > 4) What are "postalized rates?" Will the caller have to be > weighed in order to determine pricing? :) Ordinarily the term "postalized rates" means that the rate is the same regardless of distance, like 29 cents for a one-ounce letter whether it is going across the street or to Alaska or Hawaii. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu ------------------------------ From: odn@ucssun1.sdsu.edu (Jason) Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Use in Emergencies Date: 29 Aug 1994 12:17:32 GMT Organization: San Diego State University Computing Services Motorola officially defines Access Overload as: Access Overload Class: This is a number (0-15) which specifies the level of priority the cellular telephone has when accessing the system. There is no coreelation between numbers and priority; i.e., higher numbers do not necessarily mean higher priority. LA Cellular (a Cellular One company) officially assigns 15 to all of its customers. As far as I know, the overload numbers are not implemented at all at the switch. I mean really, any idiot can reprogram the NAM on any phone that does not require a NAM chip programmer (read swap the prom). It would be absurd to actually expect this to work; every kid in town would have high priority on his phone. Then again ISI put source routing in the IP protocol, so go figure. Jason ------------------------------ From: morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Mike Morris) Subject: Re: Companies Comment on N11 Codes Organization: College Park Software, Altadena, CA Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 12:00:50 GMT Greg Monti writes: > The publication {Communications Daily} is reporting in its August 25, > 1994, edition on the comments the FCC has received on assignment of > N11 codes to telephone-delivered information services. A summary of > the article [with a few comments]: [snip] > 5. There are only eight N11 codes and four of them have been reserved > by the North American Numbering Plan for internal telephone company > use or public service needs. [I count three: 411 (DA), 911 (PSAP) and > 611 (repair).] 811 was used in the Los Angeles area as the access to the 911 system while it was being installed. After 911 was turned on, 811 was set up as a universal access to Pacific Telephone's own system -- I dial 811-7000 for example to get a customer disservice rep. The are a few more 811- numbers in the phone book, but -7000 is all I can remember at this moment. Lastly... The only n11 service I can see a real need for is a service where I can look up my own DA via modem (including a grep function), if I was forced to come up with another service, I'd like to be able to download my last bill in case I want to do a compare with my SMDR. But neither requires a three digit number. I say let's just reserve some x11 numbers for future use. Why spend your assets? Look at the situation with radio spectrum -- they had to sacrifice UHF TV channels to make room for cellular -- lets save some "dialing plan spectrum" for the future. Who knows what we will need five or ten years from now? Mike Morris WA6ILQ PO Box 1130 Arcadia, CA. 91077 818-447-7052 evenings ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 00:48:07 -0400 From: Paul A. Lee Organization: Woolworth Corporation Subject: Call Waiting on Error-Correcting Modems? In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 Issue 347, Brian Nunes wrote (in part): > Any idea how I can make my modem "more sensitive" to the call-waiting > beep, without disabling error-correction? Check your modem's S-registers for a "Loss of Carrier" time setting. It's usually factory default set at 250 milliseconds or so. Reducing the setting may make the modem more sensitive to the Call Waiting click by sensing the interruption of the remote carrier that results when the talk path is broken. It may also make the modem more sensitive to other types of noise. Paul A. Lee Voice 414 357-1409 Telecommunications Analyst FAX 414 357-1450 Woolworth Corporation CompuServe 70353,566 INTERNET ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 27 Aug 1994 01:38:39 -0400 From: Paul A. Lee Organization: Woolworth Corporation Subject: Why Can't I Keep a V.32 Connection Up? In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 Issue 347, John Levine wrote (in part): > I'm here at my summer headquarters at the beach in New Jersey, and I'm > having incredible trouble getting a reliable modem connection. Half > the time, the modem won't even shake hands, the other half of the time > the connection dies after somewhere between one and fifteen minutes. > I've tried this with two different modems, a Megahertz PCMCIA and a > GBC (or maybe GVC, it's an OEM version without a label) external modem. > The other end is a bank of five Telebits. I'm trying to connect at > 14.4K V.32bis. > I'm in Harvey Cedars NJ (609-361), the other end is in Pleasantville > (609-485) which is a local call albeit a different CO. Both COs have > modern electronic switches. I have two phone lines here and have > about the same amount of trouble with either. Things work best in the > morning, worst around midnight. (Strange but true.) There is no > audible noise that I can hear on the line. I had the same problem > last year but though that it was due to the cheapo Sportster modem I > was using. Do you have the same problem when trying to connect to other remote locations? I'm going to run a bit with the clues I have here: Beach (corrosive air); same trouble on both phone lines; bad at midnight, better in the morning; New Jersey (eastern exposure with morning sun). The noise doesn't have to be audible to screw up v.32 quadrature detection. Inaudible hash from capacitive loading or RF rectification (both can result from corrosion of the cable plant or drop), induced signals from a poor made electrode ground (corrosion also a possible cause), or local RF interference (strongest at night, and weakest when competing with atmospherically filtered sunlight) could cause your problem, right at your house. Try making full-speed connections to other locations. If you still have the same problems, you've at least determined which end they're at (from your CO out to your modem). Then, try connections from a neighbor who lives in a house with newer phone service or who lives inland, but is served by the same CO. This kind of testing will help isolate the source of the problem. My first bet is still grounding and/or cable plant corrosion that makes your drops more susceptible to noise or spurious voltage. Even your wall jacks or other inside wiring components could be contributing to the problem. Let us know what you find out. Paul A. Lee Voice 414 357-1409 Telecommunications Analyst FAX 414 357-1450 Woolworth Corporation CompuServe 70353,566 INTERNET ------------------------------ From: dreuben@netcom.com (Cid Technologies) Subject: NYNEX Eliminated Roam Charges Date: Mon, 27 Aug 1994 01:51:36 PDT I was waiting to see if someone mentioned it here (I was moved to Bell Atlantic and figured NYNEX customers would find out first), but since no one directly mentioned it: NYNEX/NY customers can now roam ANYWHERE in the US (and I think Canada) and NOT pay a daily roam charge, which is usually $3. This is similar to SNET's (CT-B) "Roam USA" where you have no daily roam charges on any B system in the US and Canada, with a flat rate of 75 cents per minute. In many ways, it's unusual for NYNEX, which is usually pretty slow and lethargic as compared to its McCaw owned competitor Cell One/NY, to offer a roaming package which outdoes Cell One's. Cell One/NY customers enjoy home airtime rates from DC up I-95 to all of DE, Southeastern PA, NJ, all the way to Poughkeepsie and onward to all of CT, RI, and Mass and small part of seacoast NH. However, when they roam outside this area, e.g., north of Poughkeepsie, west of NJ towards Allentown, north of Mass to VT, etc., they will usually pay a $3 per day roaming charge and NOT have auto call delivery or any call delivery (CO/NY does not offer Nationlink to its customers, not that I'm a big fan of that anyhow). Besides allowing NYNEX customers to not worry about roam charges, having no daily fee eliminates the problem of border customers getting hit by roam charges simply because they live near another cellular system and sometimes pick up that signal, thus incurring a daily roam charge. Since there is no daily charge at all, this is no longer a problem for NYNEX customers. Additionally, a NYNEX customer traveling on a long trip through multiple systems doesn't have to keep track of which systems he made calls in so as to avoid paying $3 dailies in all of them. I normally put NYNEX down for their poor service -- a *glaring* example of this is how their AT&T Autoplex switch will ANSWER a call to my .6 watt handheld when it is in a marginal area, when no one presses SEND to answer the call! (No, I don't have auto answer "on", and no, the .6 watt is fine -- it never does this in BAMS/Philly [also an Autoplex], nor in Boston on CO/Boston [an EMX], its just NYNEX's crazy way of doing things ... they don't really seem to have very good "quality control"; I don't think its an inherent flaw in the Autoplex.) However, although eliminating roaming charges does not make up for their otherwise poor service and their "We don't care, we're the phone company" attitude, it does go to show that at least *some* people there are in tune with their customers needs and are willing to take a bit of a cut in revenues to attract a larger and more loyal customer base. It's about time we simply got rid of daily roam charges -- no matter what cell companies will tell you, they are simply designed to rake in a LOT of money from a nearly captive user base. Many Cell Cos will drag out that old "fraud" argument, which they use for everything from why SW Bell Mobile charges a $2 "Administrative Fee" above the roam charges for Boston customers all the way to why NYNEX/NY won't offer Call Forwarding features in *some* other NYNEX properties and in SNET/CT's territory. I've never heard more specious arguments in my life! The fact is that most MSA Cellular Operators are making a killing as it is on cellular, and dailies only add to the pot. This is not to say there isn't a considerable degree of expense in operating and augmenting a cellular system, but the roam charges have nothing to do with fraud (any more than do any other charges), and they are just a device which the industry uses to increase revenues, the same way they raise airtime rates or reduce off-peak calling periods. The $3 daily simply discourages many people from calling at all, which I think in the long run hurts the industry, especially which the emergence of alternate wireless providers such as NexTel (sp?) and PCS. Moreover, its totally out of proportion which the cost of providing service to roamers -- why should roamers pay $3/day and $.99 per minute (and with SW Bell's inane system, home airtime for call delivery :( ) using Roaming Carrier "A" when Roaming Carrier "B" doesn't charge any of the above charges and gives roamers a decent airtime rate? If B could do it, why can't A? Its got nothing to do with cost, but with the priorities of the roaming carriers, and their overall policy on how they treat their customers. Thus, I'm glad to see that NYNEX, one of the largest "B" side carriers, has chosen to be an industry leader and eliminate the $3 daily charge for its customers who roam (do they eat it themselves?). The next step is to get the $.99 per minute rate more in line with the cost of providing the service, but the elimination of the $3 is a positive step and one which I wholeheartedly applaud. Doug CID Technologies (203) 499 - 5221 ------------------------------ From: sydtran@wam.umd.edu (Sydney Quocsi Tran) Subject: Stratacom and Frame Relay Date: 29 Aug 1994 19:26:19 GMT Organization: University of Maryland College Park Hi all, I am looking for a phone number, e-mail address of Stratacom (a (California baed company). I am doing a paper on Frame Relay Switches and if I am not mistaken Stratacom and Wellfleet are the two companies who dominate this area of market. Any info is greatly appriciated. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: thor@sushi.uib.no Subject: Extent of GSM Coverage in USA? Date: 29 Aug 1994 21:23:27 GMT Organization: University of Bergen, Norway Reply-To: edmtl@edb.uib.no I would like any references to maps or descriptions which highlight the current and planned coverage of the GSM standard in the USA. Here in europe it is been quickly built up and coverage is very good. I have seen posts from Australia asking about coverage in San Francisco, and would like more specific info about covered areas, planned coverage, etc. How is the market in USA seeing the GSM system? Are many companies commiting to it? Any references to companies currently supporting GSM system and selling GSM services would be appreciated (especially in California). Please e-mail replies. Regards, Thor Legvold NorNeXT User Group leader University of Bergen NORWAY ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 17:49:19 -0400 Subject: Kosova: Serb Police in Mass Telephone Seizures From: ndallen@io.org (Nigel Allen) Organization: Internex Online (io.org) Data: 416-363-4151 Voice: 416-363-8676 Kosova (sometimes written Kosovo) is a district of Serbia adjacent to Albania, with a predominantly ethnic Albanian population but ruled as an integral part of Serbia. The following item, was posted to soc.culture.yugoslavia and soc.culture. europe by cla04@cc.keele.ac.uk (A.T. Fear), and I thought it would be relevant to this newsgroup. KOSOVA COMMUNICATION Bulletin of the Ministry of the Information of the Republic of Kosova 3rd Year; No 184; 22 August 1994 Serb Police in Mass Telephone Seizures The presence of cordless telephones in numerous private Albanian homes has been of great concern to Serbian police authorities with the revelation that in some cases, police wave bands can be overheard. Consequently Serbian police have embarked upon a mass search of Albanian homes throughout communes of Kosova in order to seize telephones which police believe are being used to eavesdrop on police communication frequencies. In many cases, families found in possession of such phones have been subjected to physical maltreatment. Incidents of this type have been reported in the communes of Decan and Kamenica with over 54 telephones seized, each seizure accompanied by maltreatment of Albanian residents. Albanians affected by this police action have pointed out that they had purchased the phones legally and with the full knowledge of Serbian telecommunication authorities and had paid up to 2,500 DM in order to be connected. (Note from NDA: Tragedy is soemthing that happens daily in the former Yugoslavia, and I don't want to trivialize the killings in Bosnia by comparing them to anything happening in Kosova today. The Serbian authorities are behaving badly in Kosova, but a shooting war hasn't started there yet. Still, things are very bad in Kosova, and are likely to get worse.) ------------------------------ From: ccappuc@satelnet.org (Chris Cappuccio) Subject: Motorola Radius PR-3000 pager Date: 29 Aug 1994 20:54:46 -0400 Organization: SatelNET A friend who works at the local hospital got a brand new pager, a Motorola Radius PR-3000 voice pager from the hospital. Like most hospitals, they have their own paging system (tower, stuff to program the pagers, etc...) Anyways, this is just like a normal voice pager, it has volume and on/off and stuff. But one thing which I couldin't figure out, is why it has this white button, and when you press it, you hear everything (static when nothing is being broadcast, or tones then voice when a page is going on) on the freq that the crystal in the pager is tuned to. What would the point of having a button where you could hear any page be? You have to hold down the button and you hear whatever is on the frequency that it is tuned to, and when you let go, it stops. Someone suggested to me that it was used in emergencies or in situations when the hospital wanted to broadcast to everybody, but I figured, you would have to know when to hit the button, and you can't exactly predict emergencies. Any suggestions? Peace, Chris ------------------------------ From: iracle@lcs.mit.edu (Ira Hochman) Subject: wav to Dialogic ADPCM Conversion Software? Date: 29 Aug 94 14:06:25 Can anyone point me to software that can convert, in a "batch" mode, wav sound format files to one of the Dialogic ADPCM formats? The application is one where a user at a PC records a message in .wav format which is then converted into Dialogic format and stored on a server. Thus, the conversion needs to be callable by a windows program without user intervention. Please respond directly via email. I will post a summary of replies for the benefit of the net. Ira Hochman iracle@lcs.mit.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #356 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10380; 30 Aug 94 20:26 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA13724; Tue, 30 Aug 94 15:06:12 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA13717; Tue, 30 Aug 94 15:06:08 CDT Date: Tue, 30 Aug 94 15:06:08 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9408302006.AA13717@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #357 TELECOM Digest Tue, 30 Aug 94 15:06:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 357 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson GSM Phones in Europe (Robert Hoare) ISDN Phones in Europe (Alfredo E. Cotroneo) CompuServe Kicked Out of Court (Richard Patterson) Request For Comment - Government Electronic Documents (Tom Worthington) The Network Side of Cellular Mobile Radio (Tobias Oetiker) French Numbering System to Change (Clive D.W. Feather) Security Deposit From Local Phone Carrier (dong@umiacs.umd.edu) Reviews of Echo-Cancellers For Teleconferencing (Geir Pedersen) RF Transmitter and Our Health; Looking For Papers (Daniel JungYue Chun) Last A+B Box Vanishes (Clive D.W. Feather) Cellular Phone Plus Modem (Jonathan Lundell) Re: Need Help With T1 (David W. Kay) Re: Sony or Northern Telecom Speakerphone Sources? (David W. Kay) Re: Phones For High Noise Areas (Scott Falke) Re: Phones For High Noise Areas (Dale Farmer) 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. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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, 30 Aug 94 20:04:15 GMT From: rh@rh.eunet.be (Robert Hoare) Reply-To: rh@rh.eunet.be Subject: GSM Phones in Europe Late this year or early next year, when the networks are a bit more complete, I'm planning to get a GSM phone for Europe, and I'm starting to look at the alternative carriers, deals etc. Is there a FAQ/Info file on GSM anywhere on the net or in a recent magazine? I want to use the phone in France, UK and (probably) Benelux, without excessive charges for incoming calls. Outgoing charges are not that important, I could use a callback service if incoming calls are free. Do any of the carriers in those countries allow international roaming without charging (me) extra for incoming calls? Or do I always have to pick up the costs from my home country number to the overseas phone location? Presumably it'll roam to me without the caller knowing? Also, do any of the carriers have a voicemail service for when the phone is out of range or switched off? Can it be accessed whilst roaming outside that country? Can calls be redirected to a terrestial phone overseas? Or am I expecting too much? As an alternative, is it possible to use multiple smart cards, so the same phone thinks it is a French, British and Belgian phone, ideally at the same time? Finally, are there any GSM phones, available for use on all networks, that handle data? Rob rh@rh.eunet.be AND rh@mann.demon.co.uk (roaming for internet would be nice also!) ------------------------------ From: 100020.1013@compuserve.com (Alfredo E. Cotroneo) Subject: ISDN Phones in Europe Date: 30 Aug 1994 09:13:14 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway I am looking for sources of ISDN phones which can be used (possibly certified) in Italy. It seems to be quite hard to find ISDN phones here, an SIP does not have a large choice of models (actually only two, and will take weeks to have one after the order). Thanks for any pointer. Please answer by email since I may not read this newsgroup. Alfredo Cotroneo, Milano, Italy FAX: +39-2-706 38151 / Ph: +39-337-297788 email: 100020.1013@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Subject: CompuServe Kicked Out of Court From: richard.patterson@yob.com (Richard Patterson) Date: Tue, 30 Aug 94 13:31:00 GMT Organization: Ye Olde Bailey BBS - Houston, TX - 713-520-1569 Reply-To: richard.patterson@yob.com (Richard Patterson) On August 11, 1994, the US District Court, for the Southern District of Ohio, entered an Order and Opinion [17 pages], dismissing CompuServe v. Patterson, Case No. C2-94-91, for want of personal jurisdiction. A "scanned" copy of the order and opinion are available on CompuServe's Legal Forum (LAWSIG) and America Online Legal Sig (LEGALSIG), in the file named CIS3OH.ZIP. CIS sued an individual Texas shareware author and long time service subscriber in the Ohio District Court, attempting to convince the court that all subscribers to CIS and shareware authors using its online service to distribute shareware programs, send messages, or upload other "content" consent to jurisdiction and venue in the Columbus Ohio courts (where its central computer is located). The court rejected this argument, although CIS reraised it on a Motion for Rehearing filed Auguse 22, 1994. This case is one of the first to reference the "information superhighway," and provides a detailed discussion of the application of International Shoe, the due process clause and the state long-arm statutes as they relate to users of online services and brings them into the "information age." It should be of interest to users of any telecommunications network and certainly to all Shareware authors. Ye Olde Bailey BBS Zyxel 713-520-1569(V.32bis) Hayes 713-520-9566 (V.FC) Houston,Texas yob.com Home of alt.cosuard ------------------------------ From: tomw@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au (Tom Worthington) Subject: Request For Comment - Government Electronic Documents Organization: Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia Date: Tue, 30 Aug 1994 07:43:13 GMT This is to request comments on the draft of: "Implementing Effective Procedures for the Management of Electronic Documents in the Australian Public Service" Available at URL:ftp://archie.au/ACS/implguid.html (about 111KBytes) Send comments to: tomw@adfa.oz.au The draft report, containing guidelines for implementing effective procedures for the management of electronic documents, has been produced by a subcommittee of the Commonwealth Government's Information Exchange Steering Committee (IESC). The IESC is an advisory body, responsible for providing guidance to Commonwealth agencies on policies and strategic directions relating to Information Technology and related issues, including telecommunications. For further details of the IESC contact Max McGregor (e-mail: max.mcgregor@finance.ausgovfinance.telememo.au, ph: +61 6 263 3553, fax: +61 6 263 2276). The report is aimed at providing further assistance in putting those management principles into practice. Although the report has been produced primarily for the guidance of Commonwealth Agency records managers, the basic principles can be equally applied throughout any organisation that maintains electronic records. Note that this is a working draft only. It is considered less than 20% complete. However the committee would welcome your input to make it a better document. Table of contents from "Implementing Effective Procedures for the Management of Electronic Documents in the Australian Public Service": 1. Foreword 2. Background/Environmental Scan 3. Objectives of these Guidelines 4. Basic Groundwork - Corporate Information Management Commitment and Resources 5. Best Practices in Electronic Document Management 6. Security of Electronic Documents - Sharing Information 7. Preserve Your Records - The Archival Process 8. Other Legal Requirements 9. Planning for Further Change 10. Information Management Technology 11. Personal Information Management Practices APPENDICES A. GLOSSARY B. BIBLIOGRAPHY C. CASE STUDIES D. INDEX PS: Don't miss (because I am talking at it): Playing for Keeps: An electronic Records Management Conference Hosted by Australian Archives Canberra Australia 8-10 November 1994 For details e-mail: acts@ozemail.edu.au Phone: +61 6 2573299 or Fax: +61 6 2573256 Posted by Tom Worthington Chair of the IESC Electronic Document Management Subcommittee & Senior Policy Advisor, Data Administration Standards Communications and Information Systems Engineering Branch Department of Defence Room B-3-25, Russell Offices, Canberra ACT 2600, Australia Ph: +61 6 2651258, Fax: +61 6 2653601, Pager: +61 6 2856209 X.400: G=Tom;S=Worthington;OU=CM-DIMP;O=HQADF;P=ausgovdefencenet;A=telememo;C=au 30 August, 1994 ------------------------------ From: tobias@haydn.ethz.ch (Tobias Oetiker) Subject: The Network Side of Cellular Mobile Radio Date: 30 Aug 1994 12:36:23 GMT Organization: Electronics Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Reply-To: tobias@ife.ee.ethz.ch Hello, I just started working with the network resarch group ad DMU in Leicester . My task is to give an overview on recent developments in the area of digital cellular mobile radio (GSM, ...) and to identify possible research projects. Currently I am working through a load of papers from 1990 to 1992 on the subject. But to get really up to date information I would be glad to get your input: - What happened in cellular digital communications in '93 and '94. - Where do you see network related questions that would need further investigation. Thanks for you help; I will post a summary if I get some answers. Cheers, Tobias Oetiker 55 Windermere St tobias@ife.ee.ethz.ch * Phone 0533 55 09 43 ====== UK ========= ------------------------------ Subject: French Numbering System to Change Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 20:27:29 BST From: Clive D.W. Feather According to a poster on uk.telecom, France is to switch from eight to ten digit numbering in just under two years time: I though the leaflet included with my France Telecom phone bill on Saturday might be of interest. It is headed '10 digit dialling', and goes on to explain that due to the exhaustion of number capacity due to faxes, mobile phones, etc., France will go to 10-digit dialling as of "spring 1996". The old Paris/province split will vanish, along with the need to know where the number you are calling is in order to know if you need to use the 16 or 16 1 prefixes. Instead Greater Paris numbers will all be prefixed 01, and all other numbers will get a prefix 02, 03, 04 or 05, depending on which geographical quadrant of the country they are in. All calls will now need to dial all 10 digits. At the same time the international code will change from 19 to 00. No mention of the 112 emergency number, nor of whether incoming international calls drop the leading zero. ---------------------- Clive D.W. Feather | Santa Cruz Operation clive@sco.com | Croxley Centre Phone: +44 1923 813541 | Hatters Lane, Watford Fax: +44 1923 813811 | WD1 8YN, United Kingdom ------------------------------ From: dong@umiacs.umd.edu Subject: Security Deposit From Local Phone Carrier Date: 30 Aug 1994 01:05:29 -0400 Organization: UMIACS, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 Does anybody know any information about the regulation for local phone company charging security deposits? I am trying to get a phone connection for my new home. The local phone company (Bell Atlantic) wants to charge me $50 deposit and $70 prepaid for the first month's bill, plus other switch on fees. I think there were a regulation on how the local company can charge deposits. I remember I had a telephone five years ago and somehow I managed to get rid of the deposit by telling them a regulation. It has been a long time that I already forget the details. Could someone remind me of that? From the conversation I had with the operator, I know some people do not have to paid deposits. But she won't tell me how to qulify that. Also, another operator only want charge me the $50 and switch on fee. So I think they probably don't know what they were talking about, and just want to charge whatever they can. Please email to me. Thanks, DC [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The telco is entitled to take reasonable actions to insure they are paid for their service. Unlike many businesses, telco is regulated under a rule which says they *must* provide service on demand to all qualified applicants without delay. In this context, a qualified applicant is one who has demonstrated the ability and willingness to pay for the service. To demonstrate your 'ability and willingness' to pay, a security deposit and/or advance payment can be required. A deposit is an amount of money held in escrow for some period of time upon which telco is required to pay interest. It is forfeited in the event of a default in your payments. An advance payment on the other hand does not draw any interest and is immediatly applied as a credit on your account to cover the cost of the first month's service in advance and installation fees. Whether or not a security deposit and/or advance payment is required cannot be detirmined arbitrarily, nor can such requirements be made on the basis of any illegal criteria such as the applicant's race, sex, nationality or living arrangements. Such a requirement can be made based on telco's own records of prior service to the applicant, or the records of other telcos shared in common. It can be made on the basis of a report from a credit bureau. Some latitude is given to low-level employees in detirmining the amount or nature of any advance payment required; they are to balance customer goodwill with the best interests of the company. A security deposit equal to a month or two month's estimated billings is considered reasonable as is an advance payment equal to the estimated cost of installation and a month of service. There is no regulation or requirement that telco give its services away without some assurance of payment, although careful and courteous negotiation will often times reduce the amount demanded. That, plus of course a good credit history with telco itself. PAT] ------------------------------ From: geir.pedersen@usit.uio.no (Geir Pedersen) Subject: Reviews of Echo-Cancellers For Teleconferencing Date: 30 Aug 1994 06:00:52 GMT Organization: University of Oslo I am looking for reviews of echo-cancelers for teleconferenceing, e.g. the units from Shure and Coherent. Are there any trade magazines or other sources that are likely to publish this type of material? Thanks, Geir Pedersen University of Oslo ------------------------------ From: dchun@HK.Super.NET (Mr. Daniel JungYue Chun) Subject: RF Transmitter and Our Health; Looking For Papers Date: 30 Aug 1994 16:31:57 GMT Organization: Hong Kong SuperNET What published research is available on this topic? Best Regards, Daniel J Y Chun 39A Tin Hau Temple Rd | Tel/Voicemail: +852 571 5345 | Pager +852 1107445444 2/F Causeway Bay | Fax/Data: +852 571 5345 | Office +852 738 7170 Hong Kong | Internet: dchun@hk.super.net | CompuServe: 100267,712 ------------------------------ Subject: Last A+B Box Vanishes Date: Tue, 30 Aug 1994 02:34:50 BST From: Clive D.W. Feather Pat - this just appeared on uk.telecom; you might like to put it in the Digest. From: A.L.Radtke@bradford.ac.uk (Drew Radtke) Subject: Para Stour 224; last A+B phone box in UK Date: Fri, 26 Aug 1994 22:40:08 GMT I've just watched News at Ten and noticed the '...and finally' story about the last phone box in the UK that still had the A+B buttons. Those are the ones were you put a coin in, and if the person answers you press A and the call is connected, or you press B and get you money back if you get no reply. It had been in service since the 1930s, and it was on Papa Stour on the Shetland Islands. I say was, as today BT replaced with with one of the latest digital pay phones. The number is Papa Stour 224. I love those sort of phone numbers don't you? Clive D.W. Feather | Santa Cruz Operation clive@sco.com | Croxley Centre Phone: +44 1923 813541 | Hatters Lane, Watford Fax: +44 1923 813811 | WD1 8YN, United Kingdom ------------------------------ From: jlundell@opus.com (Jonathan Lundell) Subject: Cellular Phone Plus Modem Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 30 Aug 1994 01:34:43 GMT I mentioned recently that I've been using an Air Communicator combo cellular phone and 14.4 modem (with a Mac Duo). I like it so far. Several folks have asked for contact info, so I asked AC. They said: 1-800-AIR-DATA or AIRSALES.MKT@AppleLink.Apple.COM There's both Windows and (somewhat less) Mac support. The people there have been helpful so far. The phone's quite a bit bigger than, say, a Moto flip, but quite a bit handier than phone+adapter+modem. Also, the modem works with a land line (the phone has an RJ11 jack). Jonathan Lundell jlundell@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: david (d.w.) kay Subject: Re: Need Help With T1 Organization: BNR Date: Tue, 30 Aug 1994 12:20:00 GMT In article , am339@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael J. Logsdon) says: > We are here in Ameritech land in Cleveland. > We have two SRX phone systems located six miles apart, in different > CO's. We have voicemail at one location and want to offer it to the > other. I've been told that E&M circuits are the way it is best done. > Now I'm reading that T1 and 24 circuit capability and that E&M can be > done on T1. I need general help with the jargon and what sort of end > equipment we will need. Mike: Can you give some more details? E&M is NOT the way to go. It is one of the oldest methods of doing long distance (Like from the 1930's) and requires a minimum of 4 (but more likely 8) wires from one switch to another. T1 at least gives 24 multiplexed lines on one twisted pair of wires. Can you give more details as to what equipment you have and what your voice mail system requires. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Aug 1994 12:46:00 -0400 From: david (d.w.) kay Subject: Re: Sony or Northern Telecom Speakerphone Sources? Organization: BNR In article , gld@prairienet.org (Gary L. Dare) says: > I'm looking for sources of new or refurb speakerphones from either > Sony or Northern Telecom. The NT models that I've come across in the > business world are particularly impressive and if they're not full > duplex, their transitions are so smooth that it was not noticeable ... Dial 1-800-NORTHERN in Canada or 1-800-842-7439 in USA You can order directly from them ... Regards. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Aug 94 10:24:51 -0700 From: scott@csustan.csustan.edu (Scott Falke) Subject: Re: Phones For High Noise Areas Organization: CSU Stanislaus In article onymouse@netcom.com (J. DeBert) writes: > I'm helping (unofficially) the Safety and Facilities departments at my > Real Job to get phones for high noise areas at our facility. > One particular area is a huge enclosed room full of equipment -- pumps, > fans, recirculating coolers, et cetera, which produce high levels of > wideband, low frequency and impulse-type noise ranging from 70 to 95dB > in the entire area as well as 100dB noise from a 10-inch water supply > main valve in one spot. > This is causing problems with telephone communications within the > area: It is very difficult to hear whom one is talking to on the phone > and, sometimes, the other party cannot hear, either. Clearly a safety > problem, especially when miscommunication can occur, leading to unsafe > equipment operation and when emergency communications are needed. [[[snip]] > I've seen explosion-proof sets that have these features but they have > been unreliable in the past and expensive. Besides, they are not > needed. All that is needed is to have sets that can provide reliable > communications in a high-noise area and are line-powered. It sounds like you've covered most of the options; maybe painted yourself into a corner, but here's a few ideas. Although an XP set, have you looked at the fairly new Crouse-Hinds model? I'm fairly sure the set has a line-powered amplifier, and big buttons for use with gloves. It's also somewhat corrosion proof, if that's an issue. Is the area the phones are located conducive to small, sound-absorbent kiosks? I've seen this used as an effective supplement to the noise-cancelling handsets. I can locate a manufacturer or two if you would like. Email as desired. As a alternative to phones, how about non-audio signalling such as something like DTMF keypads and displays on portable 2-way radios? Heck, maybe Morse code -- you could glue a key on each hard hat. Even head-mounted xenon flashers ... Finally, although possibly a little out of scope, has your safety group at all considered noise mitigation at the source? In the past I have read that Dow {or is it Dupont?} consider noise mitagation in the industrial setting as having exceptional safety benefits; on both acute and chronic bases. substation scott ------------------------------ From: dale@access1.digex.net (Dale Farmer) Subject: Re: Phones For High Noise Areas Date: 30 Aug 1994 00:36:49 GMT Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA J. DeBert (onymouse@netcom.com) wrote: > I'm helping (unofficially) the Safety and Facilities departments at my > Real Job to get phones for high noise areas at our facility. > One particular area is a huge enclosed room full of equipment -- pumps, > fans, recirculating coolers, et cetera, which produce high levels of > wideband, low frequency and impulse-type noise ranging from 70 to 95dB > in the entire area as well as 100dB noise from a 10-inch water supply > main valve in one spot. > This is causing problems with telephone communications within the > area: It is very difficult to hear whom one is talking to on the phone > and, sometimes, the other party cannot hear, either. Clearly a safety Depending on the decibel level of the noise in the room your may want to investgate the "noise booths" That you find in industrial telecom catalogs. These are fairly pricey though, but when I have used them they are far superior to the various noise-cancelling handsets. Another consideration is if it is a hazardous noise area OSHA regulations may require you to provide a telephone that workers can use without removing their hearing protection (plugs/muffs), or in a location, such as the booth, where they can safely remove their hearing protection while using the phone. You can build a lower grade one of these things by making an imitation phone booth out of plywood. Don't bother with a door for it. and lining the inside with a layer of accustic foam. (those "eggcrate" type foam mattress pads work fine) Hang the phone on the outside of the booth, with a long enough handset cord to reach inside. It is amazing how (relatively) quiet it is inside one of these things. Materials cost about $100 at local stores, plus a couple hours and some carpenters tools. Dale Farmer ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #357 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa07138; 1 Sep 94 16:40 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA03932; Thu, 1 Sep 94 13:06:34 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA17293; Tue, 23 Aug 94 13:53:25 CDT Date: Tue, 23 Aug 94 13:53:25 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9408231853.AA17293@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #351 Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa08076; 1 Sep 94 17:49 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA03740; Thu, 1 Sep 94 13:00:39 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA03733; Thu, 1 Sep 94 13:00:35 CDT Date: Thu, 1 Sep 94 13:00:35 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409011800.AA03733@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #358 TELECOM Digest Thu, 1 Sep 94 13:00:30 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 358 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Senate Bill Making Carriers Responsible For Info Content (John Sullivan) Second International Conference on Data Transmission (John Coupland) Millennium Goes to Prison (Henry Troup) Europe: Unlimited Residential Service (quioqy@satelnet.org) Bell Canada Plans For 500 Portability Service (David Leibold) Name Display, Extra Call Blocking Coming to Bell Canada (David 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. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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, 1 Sep 1994 11:21:46 -0500 From: sullivan@geom.umn.edu Subject: Senate Bill Making Carriers Responsible For Info Content [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: John Sullivan, a long time, very loyal and helpful participant here in this Digest has forwarded the following which originally appeared in RISKS. My thanks to John for thinking of us and passing it along. PAT] This is long, and forwarded from RISKS: Date: Thu, 25 Aug 1994 14:32:40 -0600 From: djw@eff.org (Daniel J. Weitzner) Subject: New indecency rules proposed for all online services (900#s in cyberspace) I. Overview During the final hours before the Senate telecommunications bill (S.1822) was marked-up by the Senate Commerce Committee, a provision was added which would expand the current FCC regulation on obscene and indecent audiotext (900 number) services to virtually all electronic information services, including commercial online service providers, the Internet, and BBS operators. This proposal, introduced by Senator Exon, would require all information service providers and all other electronic communication service providers, to take steps to assure that minors do not have access to obscene or indecent material through the services offered by the service provider. Placing the onus, and criminal liability, on the carrier, as opposed to the originator of the content, threatens to limit the free flow of all kinds of information in the online world. If carriers are operating under the threat of criminal liability for all of the content on their services, they will be forced to pre-screen all messages and limit both the privacy and free expression of the users of these services. Senator Exon's amendment raises fundamental questions about the locus on liability for harm done from content in new digital communications media. These questions must be discussed in a way that assures the free flow of information and holds content originators responsible for their actions. II. Summary of Exon Amendment The Exon amendment which is now part of S.1822, expands section of the Communications Act to cover anyone who "makes, transmits, or otherwise makes available" obscene or indecent communication. It makes no distinction between those entities which transmit the communications from those which create, process, or use the communication. This section of the Communications Act was originally intended to criminalize harassment accomplished over interstate telephone lines, and to require telephone companies that offer indecent 900 number services to prevent minors from having access to such services. The 900 number portions are known as the Helms Amendments, having been championed by Senator Jesse Helms. These sections have been the subject of extension constitutional litigation. If enacted into law, these amendments would require that anyone who "makes, transmits, or otherwise makes available" indecent communication take prescribed steps to assure that minors are prevented from having access to these communications. In the case of 900 numbers, acceptable procedures include written verification of a subscriber's age, payment by credit card, or use of a scrambling device given to the subscriber after having verified his or her age. Failure to do so would result in up to a $100,000 fine or up to two years imprisonment. III. Carrier Liability and Threats to the Free Flow of Information These provisions raise serious First Amendment concerns. (Note that we use the term 'carrier' here to refer to a wide range of information and communication service providers. This does not suggest that these entities are, or should be, common carriers in the traditional sense of the term.) Overbroad carrier liability forces carriers to stifle the free flow of information on their systems and to act as private censors If carriers are responsible for the content of all information and communication on their systems, then they will be forced to attempt to screen all content before it is allowed to enter the system. In many cases, this would be simply impossible. But even where it is possible, such pre-screening can severely limit the diversity and free flow of information in the online world. To be sure, some system operators will want to offer services that pre-screen content. However, if all systems were forced to do so, the usefulness of digital media as communication and information dissemination systems would be drastically limited. Where possible, we must avoid legal structures which force those who merely carry messages to screen their content. Carriers are often legally prohibited from screening messages. In fact, under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, electronic communication service providers are generally prohibited from examining the contents of messages or information carrier from one subscriber to another. Extension of the 900 number rules to all electronic information services may be unconstitutional The regulation of indecent 900 number programming was only accomplished after nearly a decade of constitutional litigation, with rules being overturned by the Supreme Court. The regulations were finally found constitutional only after being substantially narrowed to meet First Amendment scrutiny. Since the access methods offered by online service providers are significantly different than simple telephone access to 900 services, we doubt that the same constitutional justifications would support the newly expanded rules. This issue requires considerable study and analysis. Content creators, or those who represent the content as their own, should be responsible for liability arising out of the content. In sum, it should be content originators, not carriers, who are responsible for their content. Any other approach will stifle the free flow of information in the new digital media. IV. Next Steps Having only just received the language offered by Senator Exon, EFF still needs to do further analysis, and consult with others in the online community. We also hope to speak with Senator Exon's staff to understand their intent. Another important hearing will be held on S.1822 in mid-September by the Senate Judiciary Committee. By that time, we hope to have this issue resolved. While we agree that these carrier liability problems are in need of Congressional consideration, we do not believe that the time is ripe to act. Before any action is taken, hearings must be held and careful evaluation of all the issues, not just indecency, must be undertaken. Daniel J. Weitzner, Deputy Policy Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation, 1001 G St. NW Suite 950 East, Washington, DC 20001 +1 202-347-5400(v) ------------------------------ From: Coupland, John Subject: Second International Conference on Data Transmission Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 11:35:00 PDT Second International Conference on "Data Transmission - Advances in data communication, technology and applications" IEE, Savoy Place, London: 27 February - 1 March 1995 CALL FOR PAPERS AIMS The second IEE International Conference on Data Transmission will review new developments in data communications in terms of theoretical work, technology and applications. The aim of the conference is to bring together users and technologists in a forum which will encourage user awareness of new technologies and provide feedback on the practical applications and issues of concern. Much of the discussion involved in the development of these new technologies occurs in standards committees in which manufacturers rather than users set the requirements. This conference will provide a forum where a broader audience can comment on such topical issues. A specific aim is to improve the understanding of how modems and ISDN will evolve and co-exist with other technologies, such as wireless systems, over the next few years. The conference will help: Telecomms managers to develop their data communications strategy and to improve their interactions with suppliers. Data communications manufacturers to match their product strategy to users' requirements. Computer hardware and software developers to understand trends in data transmission. Telecomms service providers to introduce new services so that they are closer to the users' needs and within the technology available. Academics to discuss their recent work with colleagues and choose directions for future work. The conference papers will be of a reasonable technical level and will address both technology and applications. A number of panel sessions will be used to bring out key discussion points and to encourage communication between conference delegates. SCOPE Contributions should be technical in nature but, where possible, of a level that users will find informative. Papers are requested on any of the following topics but papers on other closely related areas will also be considered. Analogue Technology Recent advances in modem and fax transmission technology. Experience in the implementation and use of the techniques in V.34 modems will be particularly welcome. Signal-processing techniques used in high-speed modems. Modem hardware and software components. Modem performance measurement. Modem management and diagnostics. Digital Technology New advances in ISDN terminal adapters. Use of ISDN basic rate and primary rate for data transmission. ISDN channel aggregation and bandwidth management. ISDN/PSTN inter-working issues and solutions. Data compression techniques. Schemes for compression of synchronous data. High-speed transmission in the local loop - HDSL and ADSL. Communications Hardware and Software The PC as a multi-mode communications platform. High performance serial interfaces. Command languages for data, voice and fax devices. Communications APIs. Access security and encryption mechanisms. Wireless Technology Access to LANs and PBXs. Access to public data networks. Replacement for copper local loops. Point-to-point and multipoint data systems. Data transmission over analogue and digital cellular systems. Applications Transmission of voice, video and data using modems, ISDN or wireless technologies. Audiographics conferencing. Teleworking. PC-Host communications. LAN-to-LAN interconnection. Remote LAN workstation techniques. CONTRIBUTIONS The Organising Committee invites offers of contributions and review papers for consideration for inclusion in the conference programme. Those wishing to offer a contribution should submit a synopsis of up to 1 side of A4 paper, to be received by the Secretariat on or before 5 August 1994. The synopsis should include the main points of the paper and should indicate its innovative contrib ution and the inclusion of practical results. Authors whose synopses are selected for development into full contributions for further consideration will be requested to provide a typescript of a maximum of 5000 words of text, (less if illustrations are included) for assessment by 4 November 1994. Final versions of all papers will be published by the IEE, and copies of the proceedings will be provided to all Conference Delegates. DEADLINES Receipt of synopsis 5 September 1994 Notification of acceptance September 1994 Receipt of camera ready manuscript 4 November 1994 WORKING LANGUAGE The working language of the Conference is English which will be used for all printed material, presentations and discussions. VENUE The Conference will be held at the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Savoy Place, London WC2, UK. EXHIBITION It is proposed to arrange a small technical exhibition in association with the Conference. Those requiring further details of layout and charges should so indicate on the attached reply-form. SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME Student IEE Members and Younger IEE Members presenting papers at this Conference may be eligible for an IEE Scholarship to assist with the cost of registration fees and reasonable accommodation charges. Please contact the IEE's Scholarship Department fo r further details. PROGRAMME AND REGISTRATION Registration forms and further programme details will be published a few months before the event and will be sent to those who complete and return the attached reply-form. ORGANISERS The Conference is being organised by the Electronics Division of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in association with: British Computer Society Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (UKRI Section and Communication Chapter) Telecommunications Managers Association Telecommunication Users' Association UK ISDN User Forum CONFERENCE ORGANISING COMMITTEE Mr W L Pechey, Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc (Chairman) Mr J Brownlie, Consultant Mr J P Edney, Symbionics Ltd Professor P G Farrell, University of Manchester Mr C N Firth, Racal Research Mr J Haine, Ionica Professor B Honary, University of Lancaster Mr M Jones, Consultant Mr M J Maundrell, DRA Mr J L Moughton, Cray Communications Ltd CORRESPONDING MEMBERS Dr M Blaum, IBM, USA Dr A Clark, Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc, USA Mr G D Forney Jr, Motorola, USA Mr K Krechmer, ACTION Consulting, USA Professor Dr-Ing J Lindner, Universitat Ulm, Germany SECRETARIAT DT95 Secretariat Conference Services Institution of Electrical Engineers Savoy Place London WC2R 0BL Tel: 071 344 5477 International +44 71 344 5477 Fax: 071 497 3633 International +44 71 497 3633 Telex: 261176 IEE LDN G Email:sgriffiths@iee.org.uk (please quote DT95 in message) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 15:07:00 -0400 From: henry (h.w.) troup Subject: Millennium Goes to Prison KINGSTON, Ontario -- The success of a recent trial of the Northern Telecom Millennium pay phone at Collins Bay Prison in Kingston, Ontario, may mean the system is set to go to prison for life. Northern Telecom partnered with the Canadian Federal Correctional Services, telephone consortium Stentor, and Bell Canada, to customize the flexible Millennium system architecture to fit the unique demands of a prison setting. The resulting "Millennium Inmate Solution" includes real-time management of inmate phone traffic to allow or restrict numbers, and enhance fraud control. Production on the Millennium Inmate Solution is slated to begin in Calgary by year-end, after final reviews by Stentor and the federal government. Roll out to federal prisons coast to coast is planned for the first quarter of 1995. The new prison phone system was also very well received by the American Correctional Association when it was shown at their conference this month in St. Louis, Missouri. ------------------------------ From: quioqy@satelnet.org (Quioqy) Subject: Europe: Unlimited Residential Service Date: 1 Sep 1994 04:16:00 -0400 Organization: SatelNET > "Freedom of information" = cost of internet host + cost of local call. Thanks everybody for your response. Here are some highlights: Daytime Nite&Hol "F_of_Info" Telco Telecom Telcom IntHost IntHost Total_90_hrs US$/mo. US$/hr US$/hr US$/mo. US$/hr US$/mo. Germany 1.50 0.75 20-30 0.0 97-165 rural 9.00 4.50 " " 435-840 France 2.50 0.90 20-50 0.0 111-255 rural 24.00 4.80 " " 462-2200 Britain 1.80 17.50 0.0 179 rural 10.00 3.70 " " 350-917 Sweden 0.60 7.00 1.0 151 rural UnitSta 13-15 0.0 0.0 0-30 0.0 30-40 rural 13-15 8.40 8.40 -786 Here are some of the comments received: Sweden: "..perhaps the most deregulated market in the world. Anyone may start his own telecom and carry which ever service, he likes..." Germany: "..the monopolistic Deutche Telecom, fearing upcoming competition starting as late as 1998, plan to charge 100% !!! more as of 1996 (or 1995?)." France: "..the above prices are for someone living in the Paris area. A long distance call before 6 pm and of more than 60 miles is US$ 0.43 per min.." to which a US caller responds "..that is quiet expensive, indeed for US$ 0,43 per min I can call Paris from here.." Britain: "British Telecom is launching an internet service shortly, but costs are not available yet." United States: "In the U.S. unlimited service means free local calls. For example I have unlimited service here at my beach cottage so I can call the Cisco router I connect to, which is about 50 km from here, but considered to be local at no charge. I can (and do) stay on the phone 14 hours per day without paying more than my regular monthly flat rate service which is US$ 10.45 + 9 % tax." (The respondent is a writer who works with internet information.) Flat residential rates: It appears that the U.S. and Hongkong are the only areas where flat residential rates prevail. However, some areas like New York and Chicago charge per call. In New York it is US$ 0.10 per call, but there is no limit on the length of a call. !!Hongkong based netters, please confirm the rates in the city state!! ??Are there any other areas out there with flat local rates?? More comments will be presented in the next posting. And your opinion? PS. One respondent seeks an internet host in Toulouse. Please reply.!! ------------------------------ From: woody Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 23:16:23 -0400 Subject: Bell Canada Plans For 500 Portability Service [from Bell News, 29 Aug 1994] Coming in '95 - 500-numbers for 'gadabouts' For the Toronto-based sales person who is 'on the road' throughout Canada and the U.S. more often than he's at home, we'll soon be able to offer a phone number that will allow him to be called wherever he hangs his hat. It's called a 500 number. With such a number, the customer can be reached whether he's in Moose Jaw or Milwaukee. Bell Communications Research Inc. (Bellcore), which administers the North American telephone numbering plan, is now assigning blocks of personal "go anywhere" numbers to telephone companies and wireless carriers across the U.S. and Canada. These personal numbers all conform to the following format: 1-500-NXX-XXXX where N can be any number from 2 to 9, and X can be any number from 1 to 9. [DL note: actually that should be 0 to 9] Bellcore is assigning the NXX prefix codes, each of which gives its owner access to 10,000 different numbers (derived from combinations of the four-digit XXXX suffix). Stentor Resource Centre Inc. on behalf of Bell has applied to Bellcore for blocks of 500-number prefix codes. Mobility Canada also applied for numbers on behalf of its members which include Bell Mobility. Although we're gearing up to offer 500-number service in 1995, development is still in the initial stages. Portability - an inevitable thorn. Portability - the ability to use the same personal number regardless of one's carrier - muddies the 500-number waters. Initially, the 500-number system will hunt for subscribers based on vendor-specific prefix codes, the premise being that if the network knows who supplied a given number, it will be easier to find its user. But if a 500-number customer switches carriers, were portability in effect, his 500-number would go with him, and the network would no longer be able to use the prefix code to identify his carrier. The network must then look at all ten digits of a 500-NXX-XXXX number to find the carrier. This increases the complexity of the search and puts more demands on the network. Given those difficulties, portability will be offered, although likely not until the network has been up and running for some time. We're currently offering PrimeLine service which allows one number to reach customers anywhere *within a local area*. This service employs less efficient call routing than upcoming AIN-based systems. Members of Mobility Canada offer a similar service called PrimeLine Direct. --- The technology: 500-number service will employ AIN (Advanced Intelligent Network) technology that permits calls to be directed efficiently through a North American-wide network of databases and customer-specified call routing instructions. The service uses computers to search for 500-number customers in a sequence programmed by users. For instance, a call might be routed first to the office, then to the car, then to the home, and finally to the cottage. In the evening, calls could be routed to the home first. ------------------------------ From: woody Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 23:18:15 -0400 Subject: Name Display, Extra Call Blocking Coming to Bell Canada [from Bell News, (Bell Canada/Bell Ontario), 29 August 1994] New options will preserve privacy. Privacy is a red hot social issue these days. That's why we're anticipating a high level of interest in the name display option that we'll be offering our customers starting October 24. Name display - an option for use with Call Display, one of our SmartTouch[tm] services - will allow customers to see the name in addition to the telephone number of the person or business calling them. Aware of the sensitivity of the issue when it granted Bell approval in June to offer the name display option, the CRTC also approved our proposal to extend "Per-Call Blocking" to all our customers (where technically possible) free of charge. The CRTC also asked us to extend the availability of "Per-Line Blocking" and to offer a "Private Name" message option. What do these options add up to? To ensuring the privacy rights of callers which are viewed by Bell and the CRTC as "equally important" as the rights of persons called. To protect the privacy of callers, we are offering blocking choices that stop or block the number and name of callers from being seen by the people they call. Per Call-Blocking, for example, satisfies the need to block the occasional call. "Per-Line Blocking," which is also free will be offered by request (with a call to the Bell Customer Service Centre). It is geared to shelters for victims of domestic violence, crisis lines, social service agencies as well as victims and potential victims of violence. "Private Name" Message replaces the caller's name with the message "PRIVATE NAME" which will appear on the display screen of the called party's phone set or the add-on Bell 415 unit. All these options, plus other privacy safeguards, are outlined in an account insert which is being mailed out to customers beginning this week. Bell has also produced a brochure, Privacy and Your Telephone - A Guide for Bell Canada Customers. It's available in our Bell Phonecentre stores or by calling the Bell Customer Service Centre at the number shown on the front of our customers' account. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #358 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa09546; 1 Sep 94 19:40 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11232; Thu, 1 Sep 94 15:34:16 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11223; Thu, 1 Sep 94 15:34:10 CDT Date: Thu, 1 Sep 94 15:34:10 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409012034.AA11223@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #360 TELECOM Digest Thu, 1 Sep 94 15:34:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 360 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Understanding Pay TV - A One Day Course (Stuart Glanfield) Excel Telecommunications (Mark Glenn) Wide Area Network Connectivity Using Lotus Notes (D. Seshagiri) Wanted! One Channel Voice/Fax/Modem PC Cards and Supplier Info (M. Rubinov) Where Do I Pay my NYNEX Bill? (Bradley Allen) QModem 4.5 Experiences Wanted (Donald Parriott) Two Communications Items (Compuserve, Bell Atlantic) (Paul Robinson) Connection Between Distant Appletalk Networks (Giot Renaud) Seeking Telephone Historians (Arnold L. Cornez, J.D.) Re: Security Deposit From Local Phone Carrier (James Deibele) Re: Security Deposit From Local Phone Carrier (Nigel Allen) Re: Security Deposit From Local Phone Carrier (John Levine) Re: CBS Radio Piece About New Area Codes (Linc Madison) Re: CBS Radio Piece About New Area Codes (Mitch Weiss) Re: CBS Radio Piece About New Area Codes (jdl@wam.umd.edu) Re: Curious How Many Carriers Own Cross-Continental Lines (YS Gutfreund) Re: Curious How Many Carriers Own Cross-Continental Lines (K McConnaughey) 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. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: eef@ee.su.oz.au Subject: Understanding Pay TV - A One Day Course Reply-To: eef@ee.su.oz.au Organization: Electrical Engineering, The University of Sydney, Australia Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 02:55:37 GMT A ONE DAY COURSE PROGRAM Friday, 16 September 1994 0830-0900 Registration and Coffee Session 1: Transmission Technologies 0900-0920 Welcome Prof Trevor Cole, Head of Department, Sydney University Electrical Engineering 0920-1000 MDS - The "Wireless Cable" Solution David Ingham, Director, David Ingham Communications and Course Designer Aim: To explain the strengths and weaknesses of this low-cost solution to Pay TV. 1000-1040 ADSL - Asymetric Digital Subscribers Loop Ross Halgren, Technical Manager - Transport and Communication, AWA Communications Aim: To bring participants up to date with the use of the subscriber loop to provide Pay TV. 1040-1110 Morning tea 1110-1150 Fibre/Cable - Telecom's Interim Solution Dr John Semple, Project Leader, Telecom Research Laboratories Aim: To provide an introduction to the architecture of a fibre cable network. 1150-1230 Satellite - The Mandated Delivery System Dr Mark Harwood, Sales Manager, Media and Communications, Optus Communications Aim: To explain how digital transmission will improve capacity. 1230-1330 Lunch Session 2: Carrier and Operator Issues 1330-1410 Common Carrier Issues David Havyatt, General Manager, Media, Telecom Australia Aim: To provide an overview of how Telecom sees itself in the Pay TV market. 1410-1450 Spectrum Management Issues of Pay Television Roger Smith, Executive Manager, Business Directions, Spectrum Management Agency, Canberra Aim: To provide an introduction to the issues of spectrum management in Pay TV. 1450-1520 Afternoon tea 1520-1600 The Role of the National Broadcaster Rosemary Sinclair, Director, Strategic Development, Australian Broadcasting Corporation Aim: To explain how the new Broadcasting Services Act creates opportunities for a national broadcaster. 1600-1630 Summary David Ingham Further Information: Stuart Glanfield, phone: (02) 692 3659, fax: (02) 552 4920, email: eef@ee.su.oz.au. ------------------------------ Subject: Excel Telecommunications From: mark.glenn@cccbbs.cincinnati.oh.us (Mark Glenn) Date: Thu, 01 Sep 94 11:31:00 -0500 Organization: Cincinnati Computer Connection - Cincinnati, OH - 513-752-1055 Reply-To: mark.glenn@cccbbs.cincinnati.oh.us (Mark Glenn) To anyone interested in joining the fastest growing long distance company in the country, Excel Telecommunications, call George Preston @ 513 752 7391. We are currently looking for people interested in sales/marketing. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What makes your company the 'fastest growing'? That is a claim I hear often. If you ask me, there are so many players in this game now the margin of profit for any independent sales rep in telecom has been almost entirely squeezed away. PAT] ------------------------------ From: seshagiri@qdov01.enet.dec.com Subject: Wide Area Network Connectivity Using Lotus Notes Date: 01 Sep 1994 12:00:00 GMT Organization: DEC, New Delhi, India Hello: My name is Seshagiri and I am working in areas of Networks and Operating Systems for Digital Equipment India Limited, (Indian Subsidary of Digital Equipment Corporation) in New Delhi India. Our client uses Lotus Notes Rel 3.0 as a Work group for Windows environment and the offices world wide are connected over Dial up lines. The users at one site compose the mail docs locally and the messages are sent across over dial up lines to other locations. My questions are: 1. Can Lotus Notes offer remote logins? 2. Has anyone used Lotus Notes on X25 and leased lines? What is the experience? I will summarize the responses I receive plus any other information I collect if anyone is interested. D. Seshagiri Digital Equipment India Limited 6 Floor Tolstoy House Tostoy Marg New Delhi 110012 INTERNET : seshagiri@qdov01.enet.dec.com FAX: 91-11-3322399 VOICE:91-11-3715324 ------------------------------ From: rubinovm@pizzabox.dialogic.com (Michael Rubinov) Subject: Wanted! One Channel Voice/Fax/Modem PC Cards and Supplier Info Organization: Dialogic Corporation, Parsippany NJ Date: Thu, 01 Sep 94 17:17:46 GMT Hi all! I am interested in getting information about suppliers and manufacturers of: 1 or 2 channels VOICE + FAX/MODEM PC cards with the following features: - Windows driver. - Library support for API development. - With features: Call progress, DTMF detection, PLAY/RECORD. I am sure that cards like this exist. If you have any information about it please let me know. Thanks! Michael ------------------------------ From: ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Allen) Subject: Where Do I Pay my NYNEX Bill? Date: 31 Aug 1994 18:40:25 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Does anybody know where to send my payment for my NYNEX bill? I have all this cash and a NYNEX account that's due around now, and I can't find an address to pay it. I'm worried they're going to turn off my phone! The billing line, 212-890-2100, is busy every time I call. I called the administrative offices, and after holding for 25 minutes, they told me an address at 412 W. 36th St. I went there and it was closed. I can pay cash or money order. I live right next to the 24 hour United States Post Office. Someone please help! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't really believe some of the mail I get from one day to the next. This is a good example. I would suggest to our correspondent that you wait until NYNEX renders a bill for the service. There will be an envelope enclosed to be used for payment, and an address on the statement enclosed. I don't really think they are going to cut you if you wait until their bill arrives and then pay it in a timely way upon presentation. Is there something I am missing here somewhere? PAT] ------------------------------ From: parriott@earth.planet.net (Donald Parriott) Subject: QModem 4.5 Experiences Wanted Date: 30 Aug 1994 01:14:50 GMT Organization: Planet Access Networks - Stanhope, NJ If anyone is using QModem 4.5, I'd like to hear from you (via e-mail please! I'm having a problem using it in VT100 mode. Don Parriott Internet Address: PARRIOTT@PLANET.NET ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 11:31:52 EDT From: Paul Robinson Reply-To: Paul Robinson Subject: Two Communications Items (Compuserve, Bell Atlantic) Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA From the Business Digest, {Washington Post}, Wed Aug 31, 1994, Page F1: Bell Atlantic said Lands' End, Nordstrom and J.C. Penney have agreed to sell their goods next year in a proposed trial of the telephone company's video-shopping service in Northern Virginia. If federal regulators approve the company's "video dial tone" service, the home-shopping trial will reach 1,000 Bell Atlantic customers. Compuserve, the commercial on-line information service, plans to provide business customers with direct access to the Internet in November. It will also upgrade consumer subscribers' access starting late this year, with direct Internet access scheduled for next year. In addition, it is funding a new company to develop other Internet services. ------------------------------ From: Giot@gebi.ucl.ac.be (Giot Renaud) Subject: Connection Between Distant Appletalk Networks Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 17:50:49 +0100 Organization: UCL/CABI/GEBI I try to connect (cheaply) three distant Macintosh networks to a principal one with permanent telephone lines (no dialing up): one line (and consequently two modems) for each connection between networks. The objective to do this is to permit the connection of distant 4Dclient to a unique 4D server in the principal network. To do this, each distant network must see the principal network and the principal network must see each computer of the distant ones. I think it must be possible with Apple Internet Router, but how is it possible to connect without dialing? Other problem: how increase the amount of serial modem port on the same computer? Doesn't it tell problems in terms of performence? It is perhaps possible by using Apple Remote Access, but in this case will each network see the others? Perhaps are there other solutions? Thanks in advance. Giot Renaud Unit of Bioengineering - Catholic University of Louvain Place Croix du Sud, 2/19 B-1348 Louvain-La-Neuve Belgium Tel.: +32-(10)-47.36.557 Fax.:+32-(10)-45.30.62 Email:giot@gebi.ucl.ac.be ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 10:27:44 -0700 From: arniec@hopf.dnai.com (Arnold L. Cornez, J.D.) Subject: Seeking Telephone Historians Attention *old timers* or telephone historians: I came across an old business card for my wife's grandfather's business formerly located in Charleroi, PA. The card gives the phone number as: Bell Phone 698J I have an academic curiousity of what the number meant and of the strange numbering systems. Sounds a lot more charming than the present 1 plus ten digits. Any help? Thanks, Arnold L. Cornez, J.D., Cornez & Associates Voice: 1-800-541-1441 International Financial & Business Consultants Fax: 1-408-738-3700 E-mail: arniec@hopf.dnai.com Snail mail: (Silicon Valley) 333 W. Maude Av., Ste. 112, Sunnyvale, Calif. 94086, U.S.A. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It was a small town switchboard, probably with only a few hundred subscribers, or maybe a couple thousand subscribers at best. All subscribers had numbers consisting of one to four digits. Usually the original, or charter subscribers had the lowest numbers with one, two or three digits. Sometimes 'important subscribers' had the single digit numbers with the long term subscribers since the early days having two digit numbers, etc. For example in those long ago times in Whiting, Indiana, the Town Clerk was 'Whiting 1', the Mayor's Office was 'Whiting 2'. The Walgreen Agency Drugstore, which had been there since sometime in the 1920's was 'Whiting 89'. Oddly enough, the Whiting Refinery, a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Division of Amoco Oil Corporation, which started in 1890, holds massive amounts of real estate all over town and was the only reason the town of Whiting ever existed -- then and now -- had the number 'Whiting 2111' for their PBX operator, although the important people at the refinery had their own private lines, such as 'Whiting 6' in the superintendent's office, etc. Police and fire were just generally 'police' and 'fire' when requested through the operator, although I think officially they were numbers 3 and 4 respectively. At the Hoosier Auditorium Theatre, which was sort of the community hall, an answering machine (yes, one of the real old fashioned kind that weighed a hundred pounds in the big cabinet with the large round spinning drum coated with mylar) answered with recorded announcements of events going on, movies in the theatre and other news on the number 'Whiting 1234'. The Western Union office was 'Whiting 4321', but that was because WUTCO always had a sweetheart relationship with Bell and they always had exchange-4321 as the number to call in telegrams over the phone in every community. If a letter followed the number, as in your example '698-J' that indicated it was a party line. There were probably four (or maybe two) subscribers with the number 698, and the letter indicated which one was to be signalled on incoming calls. I think the party line letters everywhere were 'H', 'J' 'M' and 'R'. If the operator was requested to ring one of those numbers she had to press down the associated button H/J/M/R at the same time she pulled the ringing key in order to ring the correct phone and not the others. If the phrase 'Bell' appeared as part of the number then possibly there was a competing phone exchange in the community; the calling party has to indicate *which company's* '698' he was trying to reach; although frequently the competing companies agreed not to duplicate numbers in order to avoid confusion. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jamesd@teleport.com (James Deibele) Subject: Re: Security Deposit From Local Phone Carrier Date: 31 Aug 1994 21:55:03 -0700 Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 In dong@umiacs.umd.edu writes: > Does anybody know any information about the regulation for > local phone company charging security deposits? > I am trying to get a phone connection for my new home. The local phone > company (Bell Atlantic) wants to charge me $50 deposit and $70 prepaid [...] > [customer goodwill with the best interests of the company. A security > deposit equal to a month or two month's estimated billings is considered > reasonable ... PAT] Count your blessings: I've been running a public access site for five years. During that time the business was a sole proprietorship. We're now incorporated and are moving things from my DBA to the corporation. One of the things I wanted to move was the phone lines. Because it's a new corporation with no track record, US West wants a deposit equal to two months charges ... on 133 phone lines, soon to be 161. Our phones cost about $30/month each. And that doesn't include the T1, the 56Ks, the voice lines, etc. jamesd@teleport.com Full internet (ftp, telnet, irc, ppp) available. Voice: (503) 223-4245 Portland: (503) 220-1016 2400, N81. Login as "new" to setup an account. Vancouver: (206) 260-0330 Salem: (503) 364-2028 FAX: (503) 223-4372 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In lieu of a deposit, telco would probably accept your personal guarentee in writing since you do already have a track record with them. The day you called telco to tell them you were incorporating, the rep you spoke with probably thought to herself, "Do we look like a bunch of fools?" ha ha ... they know the corporation can go out of business leaving telco holding the bag and no one individually responsible. As them to accept your personal guarentee. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 02:36:03 -0400 From: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) Subject: Re: Security Deposit From Local Phone Carrier Organization: 52 Manchester Avenue, Toronto M6G 1V3 Reply-To: ae446@freenet.carleton.ca dong@umiacs.umd.edu writes: > Does anybody know any information about the regulation for > local phone company charging security deposits? This varies from telephone company to telephone company, and individual state public utility commissions may have their own rules as well. In Canada, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission says that telephone companies under its jurisdiction can only require a security deposit if the customer: (a) has no credit history with the telephone company and will not provide satisfactory credit information; (b) has an unsatisfactory credit rating with the telephone company due to payment practices in the previous two years regarding the telephone company's servics; or (c) clearly presents an abnormal risk of loss. The CRTC also requires the telephone company to notify the applicant or customer of the specific reason for requiring a deposit, and of the possibility of providing an alternative for a deposit, such as arranging for third party payment, a bank letter or credit or a written guarantee from a third person whose credit is established to the satisfaction of the telephone company. [Source: Bell Canada, Terms of Service, Article 7. Other telephone companies in Canada have nearly identical terms of service.] Public utilities commissions have to balance the risk of losses from unpaid bills against the need to provide universal service. My impression is that state public utilities commissions in the U.S. are generally more willing to allow telephone companies to impose security deposits than is the CRTC. For people on limited incomes, high security deposits or installation charges can be more of a barrier to telephone service than the monthly cost of service. Nigel Allen ae446@freenet.carleton.ca ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 18:20 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John Levine) Subject: Re: Security Deposit From Local Phone Carrier I love telcos that want security deposits. As far as I'm concerned, the more the better. In Massachusetts, they pay 7%/yr. In Vermont, they pay an astounding 10%/yr. Where else can you get interest like that on your money? And with almost no risk? Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com Primary perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" ------------------------------ From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: CBS Radio Piece About New Area Codes Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 16:31:49 PDT Carl Moore writes: > He didn't say 540 was the first area code not to have 0 or 1 as the > middle digit. All I can tell from the article alone is that 540 is > one of the first of such codes (maybe it got attention because it > will be rather close to Washington, although he was reporting from > New York). Yes, I was just nitpicking on the "first" issue. Probably he mentioned 540 because of its proximity to Washington and because it's been in the news more the last couple of weeks than 334 and others. > Could he have had the July 1, 1995 deadline in mind for the system > to be ready for the NNX area codes? That deadline, which would fit > "next summer" (1995) was noted in telecom as being moved to 6 months > earlier (Jan. 1, 1995). Yes, he was probably just working from outdated information there. I'm sure that between now and the end of January, people will begin to realize that the changes won't be waiting for summer. At least, in certain parts of Alabama, Washington, Arizona, and other states ... Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ From: mweiss@interaccess.com (Mitch Weiss) Subject: Re: CBS Radio Piece About New Area Codes Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 21:19:30 Organization: IAC > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Not for the telcos, it generally won't > be a problem. The problem will be mainly for those subscribers who use > privately maintained toll-restriction/toll fraud prevention devices > which rely on the 'zero/one as second digit' to detect whatever they > are looking for. The problem with the new area codes is not only for toll fraud detection systems. Most PBX's will require upgrades. Depending on the PBX, it may be just a simple and relatively inexpensive software upgrade. For some companies, however, it could be quite expensive. I have talked to a person who has a rather old Northern Telecom SL1 PBX. He will have to spend about $30,000 on hardware upgrades just to get the hardware needed to run the new software release. The new area codes are also an issue for all people who have telephone call accounting systems. For example, the Chicago Suburbs will have a new code 630. If an old call accounting system sees a number 630-234-5678, most without the software upgrades will price it as a call to the local 630 exchange (it will assume the number is 630-2345) since it tosses the extra digits to handle things like pagers and voice mail. Without a software upgrade (that can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars) they will not price calls correctly. And, as you stated, it also affects toll fraud software. Many vendors are treating the new area codes as a cash windfall. It is not often that you can "force" your entire installed base to upgrade their software or hardware for a hefty price. Mitchell Weiss mweiss@interaccess.com ------------------------------ From: Jonathan Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 22:27:17 -0400 Subject: Re: CBS Radio Piece About New Area Codes Linc Madison wrote that Dan Rather said: > In Northern Virginia, the code will be 540. Actually, I believe that the 540 area code will cover all areas currently part of area code 703 but not in the metropolitan Washington region. Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC will keep the 703 area code. ------------------------------ From: sg04@gte.com (Yechezkal-Shimon Gutfreund) Subject: Re: Curious How Many Carriers Own Cross-Continental Lines Date: 31 Aug 1994 18:04:27 GMT Organization: GTE Laboratories, Inc. Reply-To: sg04@gte.com My curiousity is more focused on trying to figure out how much spare capacity we have in the long-haul network (both intercontinentally and to various overseas locations). That is, given a 2%/month growth in Internet Traffic, when will we run out of headroom given the current installed national and transnational grid? Yechezkal-Shimon Gutfreund sgutfreund@gte.com [MIME] GTE Laboratories, Waltham MA ftp://ftp.gte.com/pub/circus/home/home.html ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Curious How Many Carriers Own Cross-Continental Lines From: kevin@realtyme.com (Kevin McConnaughey) Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 22:51:49 EDT Organization: Retrograde Motion BBS - Oakton, VA. ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Allen) writes: > First, by my VERY rough calculations from traceroute times, Sprint's > lines from Washington, DC to Stockton, California are .8 efficient in > terms of directness. While at first I was very impressed, I realized > this is just somewhat impressive, considering some railroad right of > ways are basically this direct already. You have picked two sites that are near major hubs for Sprint. Both the fiber transmission network and the switched network have key sites in these two locations. I do not understand your point about railroad rights of way and "directness". From the point of view of the switched voice network Sprint has an almost flat architecture -- almost every switch is directly connected to all other switches. But I don't think that is related to your measurement. I assume the statistic you quote is related to performance over the TCP/IP network. I believe performance in that network should be more closely related to the number of data switches and routers the data travels through rather than the (relatively) smaller differences due to actual physical transmission path length. (stuff deleted here) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Regards the directness of routing in the > example you gave of Sprint, you should bear in mind that Sprint had its > beginning in the late 1970's as the telecommunications department of the > Southern Pacific Railroad. It was that railroad's desire to modernize > and upgrade its (then) very obsolete telecom network which led to the > upgrading which later became Sprint when the railroad decided to sell > the excess capacity created in the modernization. Sprint is an acronym > for outhern

acific ailroad nternal etwork elecommunications Pat, I don't think the origin you have for "SPRINT" is quite correct. The story related to me by fellow former SPCC employees who were there was: SPCC (Southern Pacific Communications Co.) needed a name for a new service product. An internal naming contest was held to generate names for the service. An unofficial, unwritten rule was that the first two letters of the service name would be SP. There was apparently more than one entry with the name "SPRINT". I do not know who the people were that suggested Sprint as the name. It was not an acronym. There were attempts to create acronyms after the fact. Several that I have heard in addition to your suggestion are: outhern

acific ailroad nternal ework outhern

acific ailroad ternal elecom... Unfortunately I do not have any written documentation of this genesis of the Sprint name but I do trust the memories of those that told me. By the way, when I first joined SPCC there was a product called Sprint LTD. It was for residential users and they could call only during "limited" off-peak hours. This limited access was physically enforced rather than by an economic, pricing mechanism. LTD users' access codes were only functional certain times of the day. Another oddity for the historical archives of deregulation and change in the industry over the last 15 years. kevin@realtyme.com (Kevin McConnaughey) Retrograde Motion BBS - Oakton, Virginia +1-703-758-9084 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #360 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15614; 4 Sep 94 11:37 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA24237; Sun, 4 Sep 94 08:22:21 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA24231; Sun, 4 Sep 94 08:22:19 CDT Date: Sun, 4 Sep 94 08:22:19 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409041322.AA24231@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #359 TELECOM Digest Thu, 1 Sep 94 13:58:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 359 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson ComCast Cellular Finally Upgrades its Software (Doug Reuben) UC Berkeley Short Courses on Communications (Harvey Stern) AT&T Can't Take "Yes" For an Answer (Greg Trotter) Internet/MBone Access From Ship (Jim Hendee) Wanted: Info on Internet Use by Securities Firms (Masanori Ashizawa) URL Sources for Telecom (Great Sources) (Julie Johnson) WilTel Opens New Office in Cyberspace (David Cordeiro) 900 Mhz Cordless Phone Evaluations (Chris Campbell) MCI and $25 Checks: My Experience (Michael P. Deignan) 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. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: dreuben@netcom.com (Cid Technologies) Subject: ComCast Cellular Finally Upgrades its Software Date: Wed, 31 Aug 1994 03:21:20 PDT I mentioned a number of months ago how an older version of Motorola's EMX switch software (cellular) prevented many roamers from getting call-waiting indication tones while roaming in EMX-based systems. A couple of good examples where this was/is a problem is for GTE Mobilnet customers roaming on Pac*Bell's system, and Cell One/NY's customers roaming on the ComCast EMX system to the south and the Bell Atlantic (Metro Mobile) system to the north. If you are on the phone in one of these EMX areas, callers who dialed your number will (usually) hear a *single* busy tone, and then get bounced to voicemail (depending on if the cellco uses IS-41A, which I think they both do). YOU never have any idea that anyone has just called, and at least with GTE you will have to pay airtime for the call as well. (CO/NY has a similar billing problem -- if you are currently on the phone in ComCast NJ/DE/PA and you get a call, it is bounced back to voicemail, but the billing systems sees this as you trying to access voicemail by calling yourself, and bills airtime for it. You USED to be able to call your own number and get voicemail (as you can in the CO/NY 00025 system), but now it varies, and in a few weeks you will only get a busy signal. But to the billing system, if you call yourself or if someone else calls and your phone busy then both calls *appear* to be the same, and thus an airtime charge is incorrectly incurred in the later case.) Since ComCast is an NACN system, all features, including CW, are supposed to work, and I presume in order to conform to the NACN standards, ComCast is implementing the new EMX software soon to ensure that it becomes fully NACN compliant. Note that Metro Mobile (which I believe is also using IS-41 now to/from NY) is NOT an NACN system. I suspect that they will join the NACN if and when McCaw's recently acquired Litchfield system joins so that they can get full state coverage/call-delivery, which only SNET (B-side) currently offers. However, presently, they do not need to conform to the NACN standards and call-waiting will not work in CT for NY customers (or Boston customer who roam into CT for that matter, as Boston also has automatic call-delivery to CT.) Metro Mobile did implement a moderate interim solution: If you are on the phone, and in their system, your caller gets a regular busy signal, and the call doesn't transfer to voicemail, thus no erroneous airtime charges as one would currently get in ComCast. I'm glad to see that ComCast is getting the proper software upgrade so as to provide Call-Waiting to NACN roamers in their system (although a call which comes in as a call-wait seems NOT to go to voicemail; ie, if you don't answer the call-waiting tones the calling party gets an "Out of Vehicle" message; why can't the call go to voicemail as well?). I would hope that Pac*Bell gets with it an upgrades so CWs will occur when GTE customers roam on their system, and for that matter, that most EMX systems upgrade so that as interconnectivity increases there won't be these pockets of selective "outages" which limit the usefulness of one's cellular service. ComCast should be fully upgraded by October, if not sooner. (Great, just in time for Boston to get on the NACN, only four months late ... Let's hope they upgrade their software PRIOR to NACN admission, so CW will work in Boston immediately!) Doug dreuben@netcom.com / CID Technologies / (203) 499 - 5221 ------------------------------ From: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: UC Berkeley Short Courses on Communications Date: 31 Aug 1994 16:59:27 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces 5 Short Courses on Broadband Communications, Wireless Networks, and Video Compression MODERN TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Wide Area Networks, Personal Communication Systems, Network Management and Control, and Multimedia Applications (September 22-23, 1994) This course is designed as a gentle but comprehensive overview of telecommunications including current status and future directions. This course traces the evolution of telecommunications, starting from its voice roots and progressing through local, metropolitan, and wide area networks, narrowband ISDN, asynchronous transfer mode, broadband ISDN, satellite systems, optical communications, cellular radio, personal communication systems, all-optical networks, and multimedia services. 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. SONET/ATM-BASED BROADBAND NETWORKS: Systems, Architectures and Designs (October 19-21, 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. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. 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 (October 17-18, 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. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. 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. NETWORKS FOR DIGITAL WIRELESS ACCESS: Cellular, Voice, Data, Packet, and Personal Communication Systems (October 3-5, 1994) This comprehensive course is focused on the principles, technologies, system architectures, standards, and market forces driving wireless access. At the core of this course are the cellular/microcellular/ frequency reuse concepts needed to enable adequate wireless access capacity for Personal Communication Services (PCS). Presented are both the physical-level issues associated with wireless access and the network-level issues arising from the inherent mobility of the subscriber. Standards are fully treated including GSM (TDMA), IS-54 (North American TDMA), IS-95 (CDMA), CT2, DCT 900/CT3, IEEE 802.11, DCS 1800, and Iridium. Emerging concepts for wireless ATM are also developed. 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. VIDEO COMPRESSION AND VISUAL COMMUNICATION (October 13-14, 1994) Video Compression and Visual Communication is a rapidly evolving multidisciplinary field focussing on the development of technologies and standards for efficient storage and transmission of video signals. It covers areas of video compression algorithms, VLSI technology, standards, and high-speed digital networks. It is a critical enabling technology for the emerging information superhighway for offering various video services. In this course, we will fully treat video compression algorithms and standards, and discuss the issues related to the transport of video over various networks. Lecturers: Ming-Ting Sun, Ph.D, is director of Video Signal Processing Research, Bellcore. Dr. Sun has published numerous technical papers, holds four patents, developed IEEE Std 1180- 1990, was awarded the Best Paper Award for IEEE Transactions Video Technology in 1993 (with Tzou), and an award for excellence in standards development from the IEEE Standards Board in 1991. He is currently the express letter editor, IEEE Transaction on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology (CSVT), and associate editor, IEEE Transactions of CSVT. He was chairman and now serves as secretary of the IEEE CAS Technical committee on Visual Signal Processing and Communications. Kou-Hu Tzou, Ph.D., is manager of the Image Processing Department, COMSAT Laboratories. Dr Tzou won the Best Paper Award for IEEE Transactions Video Technology in 1993 (with Sun). He holds 6 patents, has served as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, is currently associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, and served as a guest editor for Optical Engineering Journal special issues on Visual Communications and Image Processing in 1989, 91, and 93. He is the committee chair of the Visual Signal Processing and Communication Technical committee, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. 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 ------------------------------ From: greg@gallifrey.ucs.uoknor.edu (Greg Trotter) Subject: AT&T Can't Take "Yes" For an Answer Date: 31 Aug 1994 18:22:16 GMT Here's something that happened to me a few weeks ago that the readership might enjoy. I was sitting at home on a Thursday night about 7:30 when the phone rang. It rang on my distinctive ring number, not the main number. "Hello?" "May I speak to Paula Woods, please?" "There's nobody here by that name. Paula Woods hasn't had this number for at least two years." At this point, I establish that the caller is a sales rep for AT&T, and inform the salescritter of my name and yes, I do make LD decisions for the household. "Well, sir, I'm calling about your long distance service." The standard AT&T speil comes across the phone. "Would you like us to switch your service tonight?" "Well, no, not really. I am an AT&T customer." "Well, sir, our records show that you currently use another long distance company as your primary carrier." "Yes, but your records also show that my name is Paula Woods." At this point, I engage in a futile attempt to explain to this critter that she rang my DR number, and no calls are billed to it. I can hear the concept flying over her head. "OK, sir. I understand. Let me connect you to an independent auditor to verify your account information." "But..." "Hello, Mrs. Woods?" Same speil again. I'm not Paula. I'm Greg. I try again to explain the distinctive ring. And yes, I already use AT&T for my 1+ dialing. "So, you are satisfied with your AT&T service?" "Yes, I am." "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, sir. May I verify some information so that this confusion won't happen again?" "Sure." (Gladly!) Name, phone number, address, and the like are exchanged. "OK, sir, that's almost everything. I just wanted to remind you that AT&T will pay for the switchover fee..." "But I'M ALREADY A CUSTOMER!" "Well, then, that wouldn't apply to you. The last thing I need from you is a secret code so your local phone company can verify that you authorized the change." "What change? I'm happy with my service! This is worthless!" I have family members with horror stories about AT&T not being able to take no for an answer; it seems they aren't satisfied with yes, either. Greg Trotter ------------------------------ From: hendee@manoa.aoml.erl.gov (Jim Hendee) Subject: Internet/MBone Access From Ship Date: 31 Aug 1994 18:26:56 GMT Organization: U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA/AOML Is there an inexpensive (i.e., < $15,000) system for a ship to access the Internet from a research vessel? We would like to implement an MBone (multicast backbone) system from ship to/from lab, but have been daunted as of late at ESD's price tag of > $350K. Data transmission would have to be greater than via standard modem speeds, e.g., wireless of some sort. Any ideas out there? Many thanks, James C. Hendee Internet: hendee@aoml.erl.gov Data Manager Voice: 305 361-4396 Ocean Chemistry Division Fax: 305 361-4582 NOAA/AOML COASTAL RBBS: 305 361-4524 ------------------------------ From: dira@pipeline.com (Masanori Ashizawa) Subject: Wanted: Info on Internet Use by Securities Firms Date: 1 Sep 1994 12:58:43 -0400 Organization: The Pipeline I am interested in how Internet is utilized at US securities firms. I am concerned with five areas of interest: 1 - What kinds of firms use Internet? 2 - What divisions/departments use Internet? 3 - What type of connection is used (dedicated, POP, SLIP, dial-up)? 4 - What applications are used on Internet? 5 - How often is Internet used? If any Net'rs know of any articles or other resources that address these questions, kindly forward me the information. I'll provide the information to any other parties interested in the topic too. Thanks in advance. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, they use the Internet to send out mass mailing solicitations to purchase their securities; they use it to compile names/net addresses for possible future contact in a mass mailing, after investigating which of the names thus compiled have the required wherewithal (in other words cash, dummy!) to have time spent on them making such a pitch. There are two such applications, and they use the Internet frequently. "Divisions/departments" using the Internet would include the latest breed of telemarketers, those who sit on chat systems all day/night (such as IRC, Compuserve CB, the People Connection on AOL, etc) soliciting likely prospects to go into private chat with them for the purpose of making an old-fashioned telemarketing pitch for whatever they are selling, etc. Telemarketing by phone? That's getting to be old ... do it via computer chat programs and email instead! The next time you get a message that someone wants to chatm don't assume they are after your cyber-body. Maybe they are after your credit card number and your okay to send out information on whatever they are selling. You don't believe me? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Julie Johnson Subject: URL Sources for Telecom (Great sources) Date: 31 Aug 1994 15:13:11 GMT Organization: Fujitsu Here is a clipped set of URLs from a home page we are creating (no public access yet) including lots of telecom, govt reg, and association information. Please reply with any other URLs that aren't here. I'll repost a revised list. This is in HTML format but you can grab the URLs as is.

Telecommunications Sources

Companies

Telecommunications Associations

Government Sources

Julie Johnson JAJ@FNS.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 9:35:55 CDT From: david_cordeiro@wiltel.com Subject: WilTel Opens New Office in Cyberspace WilTel Opens New Office in Cyberspace WilTel, the pioneer in commercial data telecommunications, has become the first company in Oklahoma to put a commercial WWW server on the Internet. "This is a natural move for WilTel," says Russ McGuire, the initiator of WilTel+s Internet server. "Our server puts us one step closer to our Internet-using customers and opens WilTel up to a huge potential client base." WilTel's server offers information on the company as well as detailed information about all of its telecommunications products. In keeping with WilTel's corporate values, other services are also planned to add value to the Internet community and WilTel's home city of Tulsa, OK. Gordon Martin, WilTel's director of product marketing, believes this project puts WilTel on the leading edge of high-tech marketing. "This is exactly where we need to be. Our leading-edge products and services are perfectly matched to this leading-edge media," he says. As future Internet technologies develop, WilTel is committed to remaining on the cutting edge of this exciting frontier. WilTel's server can be reached by Internet users at the Universal Resource Locator (URL) -- http://www.wiltel.com/ Contact: David Cordeiro David_Cordeiro@wiltel.com ------------------------------ From: dsrekcc@prism.gatech.edu (Chris Campbell) Subject: 900 Mhz Cordless Phone Evaluations Date: 31 Aug 1994 23:41:26 -0400 Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology I am starting to research 900 MHz cordless phones, planning to purchase before Christmas. Since this is turning into a pretty hot market segment, I figure there's a bunch of folks out there who would be interested in the information I gather. I am writing a fact sheet for 900 MHz cordless phones. Please send me the appropriate information if: - Somebody has already done this kind of compiling and I can get to it on the Net (i.e. I don't need to repeat someone else's work) - There is another newsgroup besides the following that I should be monitoring for information: alt.2600 alt.cellular-phone-tech comp.dcom.telecom comp.dcom.telecom.tech rec.radio.scanner sci.electronics - You own a 900 MHz cordless phone. I am interested in information such as: quality of sound (echo, compander clamping), range, scannability (audio leakage on other bands), battery life, digital 'encryption', even the weight. I am interested in the digital scheme only as it relates to security against scanner reception. Note 1: If you've posted to rec.radio.scanner in the past month or so, I already have your information. Note 2: The Tropez model is fairly common, and I've already got info on it (largely negative), so I'm less interested in that one. These are the models that I am aware of: AT&T 9100 AT&T 9120 BEL 900LX Escort 9000 Escort 9020 Motorola models (pricey) Panasonic KX-T9220 Sony SPP-ER1 Tropez 900 DL Uniden EXP9100 Uniden EXP9200 Western Union WC9000 If you have any experience or other information, please let me know. I will be compiling the information and reposting, so you can mail directly to me at the address below, or post it to one of the above newsgroups, if you feel that your post is of immediate importance to the public. My alt.newsgroup access is haphazard these days, so I may not receive a post on alt.newsgroups. My e-mail address is: dsrekcc@prism.gatech.edu Chris Campbell dsrekcc@prism.gatech.edu ------------------------------ From: md@pstc3.pstc.brown.edu (Michael P. Deignan) Subject: MCI and $25 Checks: My Experience Date: 31 Aug 1994 00:53:25 GMT Organization: Brown University Over the past year since long distance carriers started sending out checks for $25, $50, and $75 to intice us over to their respective services, I've almost been able to make a decent living just cashing their checks and switching back and forth between LD carriers. I have to keep wondering where they get my name from, since I make $5 worth of long distance calls per year, if I'm lucky. But hell, its their money, so who am I to tell them differently? Well, my latest excursion started when MCI sent me a check for $25. This one was a little different than the others. This time, you had to call them at an 800 number and give them some information, and you get a "code" to write-in on the check to "activate it". I thought I'd be a wise ass when I called: MCI woman: "And how much do you spend each month on LD Mr. Deignan?" Me: "Oh, next to nothing. I don't make long distance calls. I hate all my relatives." MCI: "So, you don't have anyone in your calling circle now..." Me: "No, like I said, I don't call any of my relatives, and I don't have any friends. I hate everyone." MCI: "Okay, so there's nobody you want to put in your calling circle then." Me: "Oh yes, absolutely. In fact, I hate my relatives so much that I'm going to write all their names and numbers down on a sheet of paper and mail it to you. I can't think of a better present to give them than one of your reps calling them at all hours attempting to get them to switch ... Hehehehehe ... I really hate them. And what a better way to show them ..." MCI: "Oh okay, that sounds good. Here's your code ..." Summary: MCI reps don't recognize sarcasm when it hits them broadside across the head. MD -- The best way for Bill Clinton to keep his legal -- fees down is to keep his pants zipped up. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Har har har ... both to your message and your .signature quote. Thanks for making my day! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #359 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01359; 7 Sep 94 20:08 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA15941; Wed, 7 Sep 94 14:14:14 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA15933; Wed, 7 Sep 94 14:14:10 CDT Date: Wed, 7 Sep 94 14:14:10 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409071914.AA15933@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #361 TELECOM Digest Wed, 7 Sep 94 14:14:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 361 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson First French Book on Internet (Jean-Bernard Condat) France Numbering Changes (Dave Leibold) Disaster Discussion Groups (Dave Sellers) New Wireless Journal; Call For Papers (Chester A. Ruszczyk) Looking For CLASS Serial Port Device (Dan Dodson) Modems in Germany (Tom Satterfield) Paging Systems and Hardware (orfanosg@aol.com) 1957 Note on Pagers (Carl Moore) Radius Pager Question (rosman@swri.edu) Mitel SX200 Light Pinouts (Joe Terry) Forcing Calling Card Provider to Refund Credit Balance (Eric DeMund) On-line Information About ISDN Available Free via WWW (Daniel R. Kegel) New Fiber Service in Oklahoma (Wes Leatherock) New Area Code in East TN (David Marks) 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. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: 07 Sep 1994 11:55:47 GMT From: JeanBernard_Condat@Email.FranceNet.fr (JeanBernard Condat) Organization: FranceNet Reply-To: JeanBernard_Condat@Email.FranceNet.fr Subject: First French Book on Internet New Book in French Language: INTERNET Internet is now available from Editions JCI, Inc. (2700 Joliette #201, Montreal, Quebec, H1W 3G9, Canada) The *Internet* book goes beyond all business school case studies and descriptions of Internet tools, teaching French readers how to effectively use the Internet to boost sales and cut costs. Through real world examples and expert advice, you'll learn how to use the Internet to build European/international market share, track down business leads, communicate with colleagues, search online databases, provide cost- effective customer support and access time-critical information. You'll also explore the many business opportunities now available on the Internet and get tips on shopping for the best deal on Internet access and cyber-mail space. Just as importantly you'll learn about the culture of the Internet, find out what type of advertising is acceptable and can generate a positive response, and which forms are verboten and can provoke community hostility (the famous 'netiquette'). The *Internet* also contain detailed descriptions of the author's first-hand and experienced experience in doing business on the Internet. Co-author Jean-Bernard Condat is a veteran information science writer and publisher of electronic newsletter that tracks trends and developments in electronic newspaper and magazine publishing. Co-author Nicolas Pioch is the conceptor of WebLouvre--Paris, the first consulted WWW in Europe (http://www.enst.fr/~pioch). Here's the basic information: Jean-Bernard Condat & Nicolas Pioch, "Internet", J.C.I. Inc., Oct. 1994, 224 pages, 195 FF (CAN$29.95), ISBN 2-921599-06-6. Table des Matieres: 1. Preface; 2. Premieres notions; 3. Documentation Internet; 4. Le courrier electronique; 5. Smileys (emoticons); 6. telnet; 7. Formats de fichiers; 8. FTP; 9. Archie; 10. Prospero; 11. Usenet/newsgroups; 12. Netiquette; 13. WAIS; 14. Gopher; 15. WWW; 16. cryptographie; 17. Adresses utiles; 18. MacTCP/PPP; Index. Note that you can receive more information on this publication by ordering it direct from: - Diffulivres, Canada: +1 514 738 2911, fax: +1 514 738 8512; - Distique, France: +33 37 34 84 84, fax: +33 37 30 78 65; - Context SA, Belgium: +32 41 40 19 82, fax: +32 41 490 19 82; - Micro-Distribution, Switzerland: +41 227843482, fax +41 227840945. Don't hesitate to contact us for more information on Internet ... in France. Jean-Bernard Condat, 47 rue des Rosiers, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France Tel: +33147874083, Fax: +33149450129, Alphapage: +3336605050 code 0030006 Email: JeanBernard_Condat@Email.FranceNet.FR *or* an113309@anon.penet.fi ------------------------------ From: dave.leibold@gvc.com Organization: GVC Technologies - The Name you can Trust. Public ACCESS Date: Wed, 07 Sep 94 05:59:11 -0400 Eastern DST Subject: France Numbering Changes France will be changing its numbering plan to have an area code for all regions, effective in 1995. The area codes (as posted before) will be: 1 Ile-de-France (Paris, ...) 2 Northeast France 3 Southeast France 4 Southwest France 5 Northwest France The change also apparently means dialing will be done as 0 + area code + number, rather than the 16+ that was in use. However, there are toll-free numbers with the format 05+number. What will be happening to those numbers if 05 means calls to Northwest France? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Sep 94 07:57:30 EDT From: sellers@on.bell.ca (Dave Sellers) Subject: Disaster Discussion Groups Question folks, Is there a discission group for disaster planning? I'm sure businesses and Telco's all have some plans, and would like to pass ideas on from time to time. I haven't been able to locate such discussions except from time to time in this Digest. The recent report here of the fire in the telco building has raised my interest in this. If there is one, please direct me to it. Thanks in advance ... Dave Sellers, Managing Consultant Bell SYGMA - Telecom Solutions Floor 17 Grey, 160 Elgin St. Ottawa, Ont., Canada, K2P 2C4 sellers@ON.Bell.ca VOICE= (613) 785-2694 IIS= SELLERS ENVOY= DA.SELLERS ------------------------------ From: ruszczyk@risky.ecs.umass.edu (Chester A Ruszczyk) Subject: New Wireless Journal; Call For Papers Date: 2 Sep 1994 15:41:02 GMT Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst Editor-in-Chief: I. Chlamtac, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA 01003, USA ANNOUNCEMENTS AND CALL FOR PAPERS for forthcoming special issues: (If interested in receiving the full call for paper contact: ruszczyk@bruha.ecs.umass.edu) ****** SPECIAL ISSUES ****** Title: Issues in Wireless Multimedia Networking Guest Editors: Georges Makhoul (georges@ctr.columbia.edu) Zhensheng Zhang (zhang@ctr.columbia.edu) The Center for Telecommunications Research, Columbia University, Rm 801, 530 W, 120th Street New York, NY 10027-6699, USA Title: Error Control in Wireless Packet Networks Guest Editors: Magda El Zarki, Department of Electrical Engineering University of Pennsylvania 200S. 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA Sanjay Gupta Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering Illinois Institute of Technology 3301 S. Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL 60616, USA Title: Performance Evaluation Methods for Wireless Networks Guest editors: Stephen S. Rappaport (rappaport@sbee.sunysb.edu) Thomas G. Robertazzi (tom@sbee.sunysb.edu) Department of Electrical Engineering SUNY at Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA Title: Routing in Mobile Communications Networks Guest editors: Martha Steenstrup (msteenst@bbn.com) Ram Ramanathan (ramanath@bbn.com) Bolt Beranek & Newman Inc. Title: Hybrid and Satellite Communication Networks Guest editor: Anthony Ephremides (tony@eng.umd.edu) Univ. of Maryland College Park, MD 20742, USA Title: Channel Access in Wireless Networks Guest editors: Ioannis Stavrakakis (ioannis@cdsp.neu.edu) Lazaros Merakos (merakos@neu.edu) Title: Free-Space Optical Local-Area Networks Guest editors: Joe Kahn (jmk@eecs.berkeley.edu) Georgia Inst. of Technology John Barry (barry@ee.gatech.edu) Univ. of California at Berkeley ****** JOURNAL DESCRIPTION ****** Aims & Scope: The wireless communication revolution is bringing fundamental changes to data networking, telecommunication, and is making integrated networks a reality. By freeing the user from the cord, personal communications networks, wireless LAN's, mobile radio networks and cellular systems, harbor the promise of fully distributed mobile computing and communications, any time, anywhere. Numerous wireless services are also maturing and are poised to change the way and scope of communication. The journal will fill an existing gap by focusing on the networking and user aspects of this field. It will provide a single common and global forum for archival value contributions documenting these fast growing areas of interest. The journal will publish refereed articles dealing with research, experience and management issues of wireless networks. Its aim will be to allow the reader to benefit from experience, problems and solutions described. Regularly addressed issues will include: Network architectures for Personal Communications Systems, wireless LAN's, radio, tactical and other wireless networks, design and analysis of protocols, network management and network performance, network services and service integration, nomadic computing, internetworking with cable and other wireless networks, standardization and regulatory issues, specific system descriptions, applications and user interface, and enabling technologies for wireless networks. The journal will also publish special issues devoted to topics of particular interest to the readers. Proposals for special issues can be submitted to the Editor-in-Chief. Article submission: Manuscripts must be submitted in five copies to the Editor-In-Chief: Professor I. Chlamtac, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA 01003, USA All manuscripts will be refereed. The final decision of publication will be taken by the Editor-In-Chief. Manuscripts for publication must be written in English and typed double-spaced on one side of the page only with wide margin. They must begin with the title, the authors' names and addresses, and a self-contained abstract. The same manuscript must not be submitted, in any language, for publication elsewhere. The copyright of a paper accepted for publication transfers automatically to the Publisher. 25 reprints will be made available free of charge to authors. After acceptance of their paper, authors are invited to send a diskette with the TEX (or LATEX or AMS-TEX) source of their paper together with a hard copy including the letter of acceptance to the Editor-in-Chief. Editorial Board Anthony S. Acampora (Columbia University, New York, USA) Hamid Ahmadi (IBM, Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights NY, USA) Ian Akyildiz (Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta GA, USA) Robert R. Boorstyn (Polytechnic Inst. of NY, New York, USA) Jin-Fu Chang (National Taiwan University, Taiwan) Magda El Zarki (Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA, USA) Anthony Ephremides (Univ. of Maryland, College Park MD, USA) Luigi Fratta (Polytecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy) Robert Gallager (MIT, Cambridge MA, USA) Bezalel Gavish (Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN, USA) Mario Gerla, (UCLA, Los Angeles CA, USA) Zygmunt Haas (AT&T, Holmdel NJ, USA) Pierre Humblet (Eurocom Institute, Sophia Antipolis, France) Chih-Lin-I (AT&T, Holmdel NJ, USA) Leonid Kazovsky (Stanford, Stanford CA, USA) Shay Kutten (IBM, Yorktown Heights NY , USA) Leonard Kleinrock (UCLA, Los Angeles CA, USA) Hisashi Kobayashi (Princeton University, Princeton NJ, USA) Victor Li (USC, Los Angeles CA, USA) Jon Mark (Univ. of Waterloo, Waterloo ONT, Canada) Laszlo Pap (Tech. U. Budapest, Budapest, Hungary) P. Papantoni-Kazakos (University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) Raymond Pickholtz (George Washington Univ., Washington DC, USA) Stephen S. Rappaport (SUNY, Stony Brook NY, USA) Tom Robertazzi (SUNY, Stony Brook NY, USA Raphael Rom (Technion, Haifa, Israel) Izhak Rubin (UCLA, Los Angeles, USA) Krishan Sabnani (AT&T, Murray Hill NJ, USA) William Sander (Army Research Office, NC, USA) M. Schwartz (Columbia Univ, New York NY, USA) Nachum Shacham (SRI Intnl, Menlo Park CA, USA) Moshe Sidi (Technion, Haifa, Israel) Khosrow Sohraby (Univ. of Missouri at KC, MO, USA) F.A. Tobagi (Stanford Univ., Stanford CA, USA) Andrew J. Viterbi (Qualcomm Inc., San Diego CA, USA) ------------------------------ From: dandodson@aol.com (Dan Dodson) Subject: Looking For CLASS Serial Port Device Date: 7 Sep 1994 11:31:06 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) I'm looking to OEM an inexpensive CLASS device to support Caller Line ID and autodialing from a PC. We will bundle it with our Mac and PC software. A driver will be written to integrate the capabilities of the device into our software product. I'm with a large telecommunications firm and would appreciate all correspondence via E-Mail to dandodson@aol.com. Thansks, Dan ------------------------------ From: ladybug040@aol.com (Ladybug040) Subject: Modems in Germany Date: 7 Sep 1994 09:56:11 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) please reply to ******* satterfield@conti.de Hi I'm an American recently assigned to Germany for my company for one year. As I have not yet been able to reestablish direct Internet access this is being posted on my behalf by a friend. The subject of this message is the reason why I do not yet have direct net access. Anyway, after resolving all sorts of problems with getting my American computer operational here in Germany (problems mostly related to different electrical standards) my computer is now working more or less satisfactorily EXCEPT that I can't get the modem to connect through the German phone system. I need some clues and advice on what to try to resolve this and have a few questions. Can I expect any problems with operating an American modem with the German phone system? If I replace my modem should I replace it with one of a German source or can I order one from America? Will a German modem work with my American computer? Will it work with the American phone system? The initial error I was recieving from my modem is "no dial tone" yet the phone appears to be working fine otherwise. Are my problems software or hardware related or some combination thereof? (operator error?) Please, I am suffering severe online withdrawal and have GOT to get reconnected!! Any advice or suggestions gratefully appreciated. Please reply to: satterfield@conti.de Thank you, Tom Satterfield ------------------------------ From: orfanosg@aol.com (Orfanosg) Subject: Paging Systems and Hardware Date: 7 Sep 1994 15:55:04 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Can anyone provide (or tell me where to get) info on paging systems and hardware? I am looking for full system configuration/tech. specs/pricing and regulatory info. Thanks for your help. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Sep 94 10:24:50 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: 1957 Note on Pagers Wilmington (Del.) Morning News, Tuesday, April 9, 1957; page 27, column 6 of 8 CALLING DR. KILDARE. BOSTON (AP) -- A $10,000 doctor-radio paging system has been installed at Beth Israel Hospital. Pocket radios are now standard equipment for all physicians serving the hospital. A doctor's code number is beeped to the radio clipped to his pocket. This signal comes from a transmitter installed near the telephone switchboard. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My first experience with pagers was around 1960 or so when I was working at the University of Chicago and they installed a paging system in the hospitals. My first personal pager was a few years after that when Illinois Bell started selling a service called 'Page Boy'. It was just a beeper without voice or text capability. Around 1970 or so I got one of the (then) new 'talking pagers'. On those the caller's voice actually came out through the speaker. Everyone had to dial the same seven digit number if they had touchtone service, and then enter the five digit number of the paging unit. After a 'beep tone' they had ten seconds to record a message which was then relayed over airwaves to the pager a few seconds to a minute later as air traffic permitted. After getting the message you had to press a little button on the unit to squelch it again; otherwise you got to listen to all the other pages which followed yours, along with dead air (what little there was of it). There were only a couple of answering services in Chicago which offered paging services. If your answering service did not offer paging, then they brokered it for you from an answering service which did. I subscribed to Annex Answering Service for a couple of years and they had pagers. Their antenna was on the roof of the Chicago Temple Building, which was also the building where Annex Answering Service was located. There was only one frequency for all voice paging units, and it was quite busy. If you left your unit unsquelched just to listen, there was rarely any dead air except maybe in the middle of the night. The answering service operators would never shut up, and they had to contend for air time with each other and with the general public using touchtone phones to page directly. Rotary dial users called a certain number which went to Rogers Radio Paging and passed their message to operators who repeated it over the air for them. The frequency was so busy that sometimes pages were delayed 5-10 minutes in getting out; even the ones sent directly via touchtone phone in the caller's voice would get backlogged in the machine, which itself contended with the live operators ... and those women were fast at seizing the circuit going across town to Annex's tower on the Chicago Temple Building downtown. To make it worse, the frequency was shared by two mobile phone users who had some type of radio equipment long pre-dating cellular phones. There were just two of them, but they would sometimes makes calls from their car and tie up the frequency for five minutes or so. I gave myself a test page one day and five minutes later it had not come through the unit I was carrying, so I opened the squelch to see what was going on. This guy with his car phone was talking! He gave some sort of signal to the answering service serving him that he was finished. The operator came on, "This is Rogers are you clear?" No he says, I need to make another quick call. He passed that number to her and she dialed it then must have gotten busy and forgotten to supervise the call, since the number turned out to be disconnected and an intercept recording came on. He hung up right away, but the answering service operator forgot all about him and that blasted intercept recording played for five minutes over and over and over .... 'the number you have dialed is not in service please check the number and dial again.' Someone must have called from one of the other answering services and told them to pull the cord down; after endless repeats of the 'not in service' recording all of a sudden it stopped and a woman's voice came over the pager, "This is Rogers are you clear?" and getting no response after asking a second time saying "Rogers is clear, KOH761 the Rogers Telephone Answering Service is clear" ... Of course *instantly* it was seized again and the long backlog of pages pushed through the circuit. All the operators from Annex, General Telephone Answering Service, Illinois Bell and everyone else with pager subscribers started their stuff moving; stuff that had been sitting for 15-20 minutes in the queue waiting. My test page came through about 15 minutes after that. The operators all had a little light on their switchboard which illuminated when the circuit to the tower was in use. They'd sit there staring at that little light; when it went out the one with the fastest response to the keys on her switchboard was the winner and got her page out next. The automated machine for touchtone subscribers was the fastest of all. It always got the circuit first if it had stuff waiting. Some days the system did not work right at all; in theory the person getting the circuit to the tower excluded everyone else in the process; if that did not work the answering services would keep a radio turned on listening for dead air to get their chance; but the operators did not care. Very discourteous at times and overwhelmed with pages, they would walk all over each other's transmissions; some would just open the key and start talking. Individual, or DID numbers for pagers did not start until sometime in the 1980's. Before then it all went through answering services on a single switchboard number at each service, and until the middle or late 1970's to a tower-in-common shared by all and actually owned by Annex, at least here in Chicago. The individual units we carried weighed about five pounds and were about six inches long by two inches or so wide. We used big Ni-Cad batteries that sort of resembled 'C' batteries today. You put the unit in the charger at night and got 10-12 hours of use the next day provided you did not leave the squelch open all the time to snoop on other subscribers and the messages they were getting. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 8:19:26 CDT From: ROsman@swri.edu Subject: Radius Pager Question > it has volume and on/off and stuff. But one thing which I couldin't > figure out, is why it has this white button, and when you press it, > you hear everything (static when nothing is being broadcast, or tones > then voice when a page is going on) on the freq that the crystal in > the pager is tuned to. What would the point of having a button where > you could hear any page be? You have to hold down the button and you > hear whatever is on the frequency that it is tuned to, and when you I think that the pager you reference opens the speaker for a fixed time period and the button allows the user to hear long pages. In the early days of paging your pager beeped and you had to hold a button down to hear the page. Users got in the habit of using that button for setting volume, too. Later (still first generation) pagers would beep, and then open the speaker automatically. The button then did double duty, open the speaker (squelch, if you like) and reset the circuit closing the speaker. Later generation pagers auto-reset after a fixed (often programmable) time. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: On ours, the speaker would stay open forever, unsquelched once the answering service set it off until/unless the subscriber pressed the button to silence it again. Once I was riding home from downtown in a cab and forgot my pager which I left laying on the back seat of the cab. I no sooner got in my house than I realized what I had done. Solution: called the pager and gave a message saying, "cab driver! please drive back here immediatly with the pager and I will pay the fare for your trip." I called the pager two or three times with that message and sure enough in five minutes or so the cab driver pulled up to my door. The answering service contracts all warned against leaving the speaker open to monitor others. It was, they said, in violation of the tariff to spy on other subscribers and cause for your service to be terminated. PAT] ------------------------------ From: joet@xmission.com (Joe Terry) Subject: Mitel SX200 Light Pinouts Date: 7 Sep 1994 10:34:27 -0600 Organization: XMission Public Access Internet (801-539-0900) I am in the process of moving a Mitel PABX this weekend and nee some pinout/configurations information to hook up telephones, T1's, etc. Is there anyone out there in netland that could fax or email me some information or perhaps give me some phone assisstance. Please let me know via email. Thank you very much. Joe Terry Sandy, Utah joet@xmission.com ------------------------------ From: ead@netcom.com Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 10:11:16 -0700 Subject: Forcing Calling Card Provider to Refund Credit Balance Reply-To: Organization: Netcom Folks, I've got a credit balance on one of my long distance calling cards. The calling card provider all but refuses to refund this balance to me. I have not used this card in at least a month, and don't intend to use it until they refund this balance. They're located in Ohio and I'm located in California. Which state's public utilities commission do I file a complaint with? I'm certain this practice must be in violation of their tariff, if not the law. (They say they will not refund the balance unless I close the account.) Thank you, Eric De Mund [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Before complaining, check your contract with that carrier and see if they are required to refund credits on still open accounts. Under the rules, they may not have to. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dank@alumni.caltech.edu (Daniel R. Kegel) Subject: On-Line Info About ISDN Available Free via WWW Date: 7 Sep 1994 23:38:47 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Those interested in ISDN might find my WWW page a good place to start when looking for vendors, carriers, or technical info. You'll need Internet access and Mosaic or any other Web browser; it's at http://alumni.caltech.edu/~dank/isdn/. Enjoy, Dan ------------------------------ From: wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu Date: Wed, 07 Sep 94 08:50:36 Subject: New Fiber Service in Oklahoma {The Daily Oklahoman} (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) for September 3, 1994, reports that another competitive access provider is building a fiber optic network in Oklahoma City. Brooks Fiber Properties, Inc., of St. Louis said it is building a fiber optic network of 33 route miles that will connect to more than 50 Oklahoma City office buildings. Brooks Fiber joins Cox Fibernet and Southwestern Bell Telephone Company as access providers in Oklahoma City. Cox Fibernet, a division of Cox Cable of Oklahoma City, a cable television company, announced earlier this week that it would offer competitive access to long distance companies over its fiber optic network. Brooks Fiber said it should have its Oklahoma City network completed by the fourth quarter of this year. It said it is currently operating or building competitive access networks in Springfield, Mass.; Hartford, Conn.; Sacramento and San Jose, Calif., and Providence, R.I. The general manager of Brooks Fiber's Oklahoma City operation will be Chris Hugman, who the company said has seven years of experience with WilTel and Southwestern Bell Corp. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu ------------------------------ From: tijc02!djm408@uunet.uu.net (David Marks) Subject: New Area Code in East TN Organization: Siemens Industrial Automation, Johnson City TN Date: Wed, 7 Sep 94 12:38:27 GMT I recently posted to this group an article concerning a change to the 615 area code wherein East TN was being split off to a new code to be implemented in 1996. Details were sketchy and the proposed area code numbers were either 931 or 249. Well, as reported this morning (9/2) in the {Johnson City Press}, the decision has been made: the new area code for East TN will be 423. It was decided that 249 was "too close to some exchanges in Kingsport" and that 931 "could be confused with the 901 area code for Memphis". The new area code will take effect September 1, 1995, and there will be a permissive dialing period where both the old and new codes will be in effect until February 1, 1996, after which only the new code will be in effect. Middle TN will continue to use 615. Exact boundaries were not stated, but almost certainly Knoxville and the Tri-Cities of Kingsport, Johnson City and Bristol will in the 423 area code. This is the second area code change announced for this region: SW VA is being split off from 703 to 540 as of 6/95. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #361 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01775; 7 Sep 94 20:31 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA19775; Wed, 7 Sep 94 15:59:26 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA19765; Wed, 7 Sep 94 15:59:23 CDT Date: Wed, 7 Sep 94 15:59:23 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409072059.AA19765@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #362 TELECOM Digest Wed, 7 Sep 94 15:59:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 362 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: GSM Phones in Europe (Sam Spens Clason) Re: GSM Phones in Europe (Rob Parker) Re: Extent of GSM Coverage in USA? (Gerald Serviss) Re: Phones For High Noise Areas (J. DeBert) Re: Will an Australian Cellular Phone Work in USA? (David McLauchlan) Re: Motorola Radius PR-3000 Pager (Rob Lockhart) CNET DCC N.T. OC12 Cable Pinout? (Dino Moriello) Speech Recognition Training: Please Call! (Johannes Keihl) HDLC Processor Help Wanted (Jim Dixon) Secretary, Dept. of Telecom (India) Replaced (Anil Garg) Directory Database For Demo Purposes? (Ian Service) Can't Place Intra-LATA Calls Thru LEC From This Phone! (Ed Gehringer) Forwarding, Tariffs, Intent, and Telco's View of the Law (Jerry Leichter) 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. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: d92-sam@somme.nada.kth.se (Sam Spens Clason) Subject: Re: GSM Phones in Europe Date: 07 Sep 1994 12:39:32 GMT In rh@rh.eunet.be (Robert Hoare) writes: > I want to use the phone in France, UK and (probably) Benelux, without > excessive charges for incoming calls. Outgoing charges are not that > important, I could use a callback service if incoming calls are free. > Do any of the carriers in those countries allow international roaming > without charging (me) extra for incoming calls? Or do I always have to > pick up the costs from my home country number to the overseas phone > location? Presumably it'll roam to me without the caller knowing? You pay the cost of routing the call from your home operator to your (roaming) phone. > Also, do any of the carriers have a voicemail service for when the phone > is out of range or switched off? Can it be accessed whilst roaming > outside that country? Can calls be redirected to a terrestial phone > overseas? Or am I expecting too much? If you have voicemail with your home operator that's the one used. You can have call forwarding when out of reach, no reply etc. Just as on your home net, but extremely expensive. Scenario: You have a Belgian phone, roam in Holland, have no reach to your v-mail active and someone calls you from Holland. Holland -> Belgium He pay int'l rate Belgium -> Holland You pay int'l rate Holland -> Belgium (v-mail) You pay int'l rate + 0 <= surcharge <= 15%. Varies between operators. N.b. this doesn't apply to unconditional forwarding. Then the call goes Holland -> V-mail, only the dutchman pays. Optimal routing is technically but not administratively possible. The telcos would have to trust one another without really being able to check telco-telco billing. When? I don't know, would like to though. > As an alternative, is it possible to use multiple smart cards, so the > same phone thinks it is a French, British and Belgian phone, ideally > at the same time? Of course you could have several SIM-cards, but only one in at the time. > Finally, are there any GSM phones, available for use on all networks, > that handle data? GSM is a standard. If both phone and network are capable of sending data it works. Buy a new phone and the call the opertors and ask if they handle data (and "data roaming"), if they do you're ok. Sam Sam Spens Clason ------------------------------ From: rob@dxcern.cern.ch Subject: Re: GSM Phones in Europe Organization: CERN European Lab for Particle Physics Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 07:30:05 GMT > Late this year or early next year, when the networks are a bit more > complete, I'm planning to get a GSM phone for Europe, and I'm starting > to look at the alternative carriers, deals etc. Is there a FAQ/Info > file on GSM anywhere on the net or in a recent magazine? Not that I know of on Internet. (Note to Pat: maybe there should be one. GSM is taking off rapidly in Europe. Maybe we could also have tariffs, coverage maps?) > I want to use the phone in France, UK and (probably) Benelux, without > excessive charges for incoming calls. Outgoing charges are not that > important, I could use a callback service if incoming calls are free. > Do any of the carriers in those countries allow international roaming > without charging (me) extra for incoming calls? NO > Or do I always have to pick up the costs from my home country number > to the overseas phone location? Yes. If you have a UK subscription you have a UK number, and callers pay the rate to the UK. If you are in the UK you pay nothing to receive the call. If you are outside the UK you pay. > Presumably it'll roam to me without the caller knowing? Generally yes. But if you go out of range or switch the phone off the announcement to say you are unreachable come from the message centre where you were last; sometimes the message can give the caller an idea of where you are. > Also, do any of the carriers have a voicemail service for when the phone > is out of range or switched off? Depends on the carrier, but most of them have or are planning it. > Can it be accessed whilst roaming outside that country? Depends on the carrier. > Can calls be redirected to a terrestial phone overseas? Or am I expecting too much? Calls can be redirected on various conditions: busy, no reply, unreachable, when abroad (so you don't have to pay for international rerouting if you don't want). You can reroute anywhere, but you pay of course. And some operators charge a subscription for the ability to reroute. > As an alternative, is it possible to use multiple smart cards, so > the same phone thinks it is a French, British and Belgian phone, > ideally at the same time? Yes, but not at the same time. The card identifies the subscription, and defines the phone number (and stores your preferences, abbreviated numbers etc). But of course, you then pay multiple subscriptions. > Finally, are there any GSM phones, available for use on all networks, > that handle data? All of the GSM phones I know of can be connected to a standard modem. However, since GSM is digital, it is presumably possible to bypass the analog part as in ISDN. You probably can only call another GSM phone that way though. Rob rh@rh.eunet.be AND rh@mann.demon.co.uk (roaming for internet would be nice also!) Rob Parker Tel: + 41 22 767 5765 SL Division Fax: + 41 22 767 5800 CERN email: rob@dxcern.cern.ch CH-1211 Geneva 23 Switzerland [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, a GSM section in the Telecom Archives would be a nice thing. I am hoping soon to have another patron/sponsor for the Digest which will allow me to work full time on this publication and make such additions as you suggest. PAT] ------------------------------ From: serviss@tazdevil.cig.mot.com (Gerald Serviss) Subject: Re: Extent of GSM Coverage in USA? Date: 07 Sep 1994 14:34:34 GMT Organization: Cellular Infrastructure Group, Motorola In article , wrote: > I would like any references to maps or descriptions which highlight > the current and planned coverage of the GSM standard in the USA. Here > in Europe it is been quickly built up and coverage is very good. I > have seen posts from Australia asking about coverage in San Francisco, > and would like more specific info about covered areas, planned > coverage, etc. I am aware of NO 900Mhz GSM coverage in the USA. There are plans for 1.8GHz GSM for use in PCS applications. The person in Australia has an AMPS (US analog) phone. Australia is somewhat unique in that its analog system is AMPS and its digital system is GSM. Jerry Serviss Motorola Inc serviss@cig.mot.com ------------------------------ From: onymouse@netcom.com (J. DeBert) Subject: Re: Phones For High Noise Areas Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Wed, 07 Sep 1994 13:46:42 GMT Scott Falke (scott@csustan.csustan.edu) wrote: > Although an XP set, have you looked at the fairly new Crouse-Hinds > model? I'm fairly sure the set has a line-powered amplifier, and big > buttons for use with gloves. It's also somewhat corrosion proof, if > that's an issue. I have not seen the Crouse Hinds sets. But that is another item I should pass onto Safety. There are XP sets that are nearly impossible to use with acid and solvent gloves and, of course, are not chemical resistant. > Is the area the phones are located conducive to small, sound-absorbent > kiosks? I've seen this used as an effective supplement to the > noise-cancelling handsets. I can locate a manufacturer or two if you > would like. Email as desired. Very few phones are located in such areas at present. There is still construction going on and things get moved around a lot. It is more prudent to avoid "cluttering" by adding booths, etc. > As a alternative to phones, how about non-audio signalling such as > something like DTMF keypads and displays on portable 2-way radios? > Heck, maybe Morse code -- you could glue a key on each hard hat. Even > head-mounted xenon flashers ... Radios are discouraged because of theft and interference with equipment (all the U.S. made equipment is prone to failures and dangerously unpredictable behaviour when exposed to RF). There are exactly two terminals in the area, bigger than a football field and most people don't know how to use talk, chat and phone. > Finally, although possibly a little out of scope, has your safety > group at all considered noise mitigation at the source? In the past I > have read that Dow {or is it Dupont?} consider noise mitagation in the > industrial setting as having exceptional safety benefits; on both > acute and chronic bases. Supposedly the noise levels are below OSHA standards for hearing protection. However the noise does have a noticeable effect on hearing, particularly after periods of more than ten minutes. Most of the loudest noise is impulse-type. Using weighted measurements as specified in some regulations, understates the actual SPL, unfortunately, and there seems little inclination to do anything beyond what is required by regulation. Most of the equipment is enclosed in insulated cabinets which do mitigate the noise. (Many pumps, Edwards dry pumps, have noise levels of 100dB+ when the cabinets are opened. I see that I neglected to describe the 3100 series sets that ATT is giving us. They look exactly like 2554 "trads" except that they have K handsets and are electronic. While handsets for 500/2500 series sets work, the sound from the transmitter is very weak. The stock handsets have electret microphones. Of all the various handsets tried, the best choice seems to be amplified listen/noise-cancelling. Varying connection conditions have adverse effects on conversations using all the others. ATT has no amplified noise cancelling handsets for these sets. They do have everything else, though. Walker and Hello Direct also have nothing except sets requiring external power. Maybe I'm too critical but I definitely prefer to be able to hear someone on the phone clearly and with a minimum of background noise. Thanks to all who replied via mail and in the group. jd onymouse@netcom.com Box 51067 Pacific Grove, CA, 93950-6067 USA ------------------------------ From: davemac@adam.com.au (David McLauchlan) Subject: Re: Will an Australian Cellular Phone Work in USA? Date: 7 Sep 1994 10:30:50 +0930 Organization: ADAM Pty Ltd. Glen K Moore (gkm@uow.edu.au) wrote: > 1. an Australian cellular phone (Motorola Microtac Ultralite) will > work in the USA. I talked to various people at both Telecom, and Optus about this, so I'll try and relate what happened! Firstly, if the phone is digital (ie: GSM) the answer is definately not. It sounds like that particular model is analogue so you pass the first test. Telecom said you have to notify them of where in the US you are going, and they will get in contact with the various providers in the states you are going to. Unfortunately you will find the Telecom people give different answers -- some say you have to call the US provider yourself, others say Telecom will do it. I suspect that because I was only enquiring out of curiousity the staff weren't too keen to find out ... > It seems Australia has reciprocal agreements in every country (almost) > except the USA. The reason usually given is the large number of > different carriers in the USA. In Australia, until recently, we had > only one. Australia has reciprocal agreements for quite a few countries that I am aware of. Once again however, the phone system for international travel is GSM -- although the US has adopted a different system along with Japan. One sentiment that was clear from Telecom was that if you are continually moving between states, things could get very messy ... Fidonet: 3:800/805 CompuServe:100236,420 David McLauchlan Internet: 100236.420@compuserve.com davemac@adam.com.au (preferred) ------------------------------ From: rlockhart@aol.com (RLockhart) Subject: Re: Motorola Radius PR-3000 pager Date: 07 Sep 1994 12:16:08 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) In article , ccappuc@satelnet.org (Chris Cappuccio) writes: > A friend who works at the local hospital got a brand new pager, a > Motorola Radius PR-3000 voice pager from the hospital. Like most > hospitals, they have their own paging system (tower, stuff to program > the pagers, etc...) Anyways, this is just like a normal voice pager, > it has volume and on/off and stuff. But one thing which I couldin't > figure out, is why it has this white button, and when you press it, > you hear everything (static when nothing is being broadcast, or tones > then voice when a page is going on) on the freq that the crystal in > the pager is tuned to. What would the point of having a button where > you could hear any page be? You have to hold down the button and you > hear whatever is on the frequency that it is tuned to, and when you > let go, it stops. Someone suggested to me that it was used in > emergencies or in situations when the hospital wanted to broadcast to > everybody, but I figured, you would have to know when to hit the > button, and you can't exactly predict emergencies. Any suggestions? Chris, perhaps, in this instance, it's not all that useful a feature, but in some instances the ability to monitor the channel for other, perhaps related traffic on a shared two-way channel is quite beneficial. There are applications where a light weight selective monitoring device comes in quite handy .. e.g., police, fire, EMS. Rob Lockhart, Resource Manager, Interactive Data Systems Paging Products Group, Motorola, Inc. Desktop I'net: lockhart-epag06_rob@email.mot.com Wireless I'net (<32K characters): rob_lockhart-erl003e@email.mot.com ------------------------------ From: dino@CAM.ORG (Dino Moriello) Subject: CNET DCC N.T. OC12 Cable Pinout? Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 19:56:52 EDT Organization: Communication Accessible Montreal Would anyone happen to have the Pinout for a DE-9 CNET link cable that goes between two Northern Telecom OC-x ATM shelves? I checked the NTP and of course they show nothing of the sort. I'd like to make up a cable for an upcoming project, and can't wait for NT's delivery to here. Thanks, Dino Moriello (Telecom Tech) Internet: dino@cam.org Packet: VE2DM@VE2FKB Please E-mail all USENET replies James Bay, Quebec, CANADA ------------------------------ From: hannes@xs4all.nl (hannes) Subject: Speech recog training: Please call! From the Netherlands: (03404) 209 16 From any other place: ++31 3404 209 16 You can select from "Deutsch", "Francais" and "English" simply by answering "yes" or "no" to the language questions. You should be a native speaker of the language you choose! for | English French German ----+--------------------------------- 1. | yes oui ja 2. | no non nein 3. | English francais deutsch 4. | error erreur Fehler 5. | assistance assistance Hilfe If you make a mistake, never mind. Just go on with the next word. 1. Tokyo 2. Zavinul 3. Algebra 4. Alfredo 5. Axel 6. Pas-De-Deux 7. Pickwick 8. Quotient 9. Benjamin 10. O'Hara The computer gives you an example how to do it! Again never mind if you (or the program) make any mistakes. The winners will be drawn from all calls correctly made. The maximum recording time is 15 secs. huisje, boompje, Johannes Kiehl, stagiaire bij Comsys b.v. beestje! hannes2@dds.hacktic.nl / / kiehl@ldv01.uni-trier.de ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Sep 94 18:33:21 GMT From: jdd@aiki.demon.co.uk (Jim Dixon) Organization: AIKI Parallel Systems Ltd Reply-To: jdd@aiki.demon.co.uk Subject: HDLC Processor Help Wanted We would be immeasurably grateful if someone could point us to a source for information on the Thomson MK5025 HDLC processor, supposedly used in high performance routers. Our local SGS Thomson rep denies all knowledge of the part. Jim Dixon Compuserve: 100114,1027 AIKI Parallel Systems Ltd + parallel processing hardware & software design voice +44 117 9291 316 | fax +44 117 9272 015 ------------------------------ From: anil@axcess.net.in (Anil Garg) Subject: Secretary, Dept. of Telecom (India) Replaced.. Organization: National Centre for Software Technology, Bombay Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 18:51:11 GMT Just a few hours ago, the Government of India reshuffled secretaries to the various departments. Perhaps the most surprising change was that relating to the Department of Telecommunications which has been in the news for the last several months, due to it's (vocal) (ex) secretary, the Chairman of the Telecom Commission, India, for his progressive (read heretic) reform agenda. N. Vittal has been replaced by A.K. Thakkar. Vittal will go back to his earlier full-time job as the Secretary of the Department of Electronics. Anil Garg aXcess : anil.biginfo (aXcess is a regd. TM of BI InfoTech) Internet: anil@axcess.net.in, anil.biginfo@axcess.net.in, : anil@shakti.ncst.ernet.in Phones : +91 22 493 7676/+91 22 493 2806 [work] : +91 22 972 7676 [messages] Fax : +91 22 493 6578/+91 22 287 5671 [work] Post : Anil Garg, Vice President, Business India InfoTech. Ltd., 2nd Fl., Phoenix Mills Compound, 462 Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Bombay - 400 013, INDIA ------------------------------ From: iservice@.sw.stratus.com (Ian Service) Subject: Directory Database For Demo Purposes? Date: 7 Sep 1994 16:45:42 GMT Organization: Stratus Computer Anyone know of any sort of freely available directory of almost anything interesting that is available for me to use to demonstrate some programs. 800 numbers or something like that would be great, especially if they were in a flat file. I do know of some of the commercial CD-ROM's and the like and those are interesting but I was looking for something simple, cheap and unencumbered. All opinions are my own and do not represent anyone else. Ian Service iservice@gourock.sw.stratus.com Isis Distributed Systems (A subsidiary of Stratus Computers) M/S M3-2-ISI, 55 Fairbanks Boulevard TEL (508) 460-2352 Marlboro MA 01752-1298 FAX (508) 481-9274 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 00:17:28 -0400 From: gehringe@eos.ncsu.edu Subject: Can't Place Intra-LATA Calls Thru LEC From This Phone! A few months ago, I got a Southern Bell calling card to place toll calls within the "Triangle J" calling region. On such calls during off-peak hours, Southern Bell gives a rate of 4c-5c/min., compared with the 12c-22c/min. charged by IXCs. Yesterday I attempted to place such a call, but to my surprise, heard the AT&T boing instead of the Southern Bell boing. I queried the telecommuncations office at our university. They told me that they had recently concluded an exclusive agreement with AT&T to carry all 0+ calls from the university, in exchange for a kickback. Further queries yielded instructions on how to force my call to go by Southern Bell: Even though the boing says AT&T, just punch in my Southern Bell calling-card number; then the call would be carried by Southern Bell. Well, it so happens that the first time I tried this, the number was busy. And lo and behold, I got the AT&T message: "The number you are calling is busy. To leave a message for a fee ..." Pretty good proof that the call went via AT&T. (I should have known better than to believe their explanation!) So, can someone answer the following questions: - How can an agreement between the university and an IXC supersede the LEC's right to carry intra-LATA calls? - Is there a 10xxx number (I forgot the technical term for these) that I can use to be sure my call goes via Southern Bell? Thanks for any help, Ed [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Such an agreement can exist simply because a telephone subscriber (in this case the university) can choose pretty much what it wants to do with its phones. Regardless of what *you* dial, the phone system there is picking it off and routing it as it pleases, in accordance with however the university has it programmed. Now if you are an employee of the university, you probably have no rights in the matter at all. If you are a student, then I believe there are regulations about phone service for transient populations which have to be observed, including the right to use alternate carriers, etc. You might ask Southern Bell if they have a code of the 10xxx form you can use; also you might try dialing whatever you call for an outside line then dialing 0 for an operator to see if you can get Southern Bell that way. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Sep 94 11:20:23 EDT From: Jerry Leichter Subject: Forwarding, Tariffs, Intent, and Telco's View of the Law In recent issues of the Digest, OEM (Our Esteemed Moderator) has: a) Defended the practice of some Telco's in refusing to provide both measured and unmeasured service at the same location on the grounds that this would let people choose the cheaper alterna- tive on a call-by-call basis, which is not the "intent" of the various charging schemes; b) Claimed that it would be illegal (or at least in violation of the tariffs) to use call forwarding to turn a single toll call into a two-hop toll-free call. His reasoning is again that the "intent" of the call forwarding service is to make it possible to receive calls at convenient locations, not to avoid tolls. I go into my local supermarket and find a special sale on single cans of beer. I buy 12 singles instead of two six-packs, as I can save a few bucks that way. The store tries to charge me for two six-packs - they claim the "intent" of the sale was to get people to try the beer, not to save me money. If I insist, who wins? Not the store! They are certainly free to establish business practices; they can post a sign limiting sales of singles to, say, four to a customer. What they can't do is come along afterward and say "oh, we never *meant* for you to do that". In placing beer out on the shelves with a particular price marked, they've made an offer; I've accepted that offer. We have a contract, and I expect them to fulfill their end. If they wanted to make a different offer -- up to four singles only -- they were free to do so. If they didn't, it's their problem, not mine. The tariffs define the terms under which the Telco's are offering to do business. If they've written into the tariff a restriction that classes of billing cannot be mixed at one address, that may be silly, that may be poor public policy, but it's there in the tariff. The "intent" of the Telco is not at issue, and a customer is under no obligation to try to determine the intent -- the tariff is, at least in principle, right there for anyone to see. Telco's have a long history of distorting this issue. First off, they'll always say "Oh, we can't do that because the Public Utility Commission -- or whatever the local regulatory body that approves tariffs happens to be called -- won't let us; see, they put it in the tariff". In fact, the tariffs are written by the Telco's and mainly rubber-stamped by the PUC's -- but you'll never hear them admit that they were the ones who wrote that particular piece of language. At other times, Telco's have been known to claim that some restriction they find convenient is "in the tariffs", though of course it's your problem to find it there -- something you won't succeed at, because there is in fact no such restriction. Finally, since Telco's are big companies with expensive lawyers on retainer, they are quite ready to simply claim the law is on their side, knowing full well that you are unlikely to have the resources to do anything to rebut their claim. Claiming that the "intent" of some service, never defined anywhere in the tariffs, was different from what you wanted to use it for, thus making your actions illegal, is an example. It's curious that OEM is convinced that the economic intentions of the Telco have the force of law -- but at the same time has himself ridiculed Telco claims that learning, much less publishing, anything about the technical inner workings of Telco equipment is illegal. Telco's used their expensive lawyers to bludgeon people into believing that particular bit of nonsense for many years, and they continue to try it to this day. Suppose a Telco argued that the "intent" of providing service under the tariffs was for you to use it to make phone calls, not to learn about the workings of the telephone system -- and that any use of your telephone instrument with the goal of learning about the inner workings was in violation of the "intent" of the tariffs. Would OEM then support the Telco's right to deny him all telephone service because, in publishing this Digest using a dial-up connection, he was clearly violating the "intent" of the tariffs under which the Telco had graciously consented to provide him with a telephone? Jerry [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, heh heh! You spot a little inconsistency now and then coming from this pulpit, eh? The best response I can give you is the one provided by the Reverend Bob Dobbs, pastor of the Church of the Sub-Genius: he once said, "The reason I don't practice what I preach is because I'm not the kind of person I am preaching to." Then another time in his weekly Hour of Slack Radio Ministry he once commented, "F--- 'em if they can't take a joke." Praise Bob! I'll overlook your heresy this time, but the Telephone Inspectors may find it necessary to do an audit of your premises sometime soon, looking for violations of what they intended in the tariff. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #362 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03212; 9 Sep 94 18:16 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10751; Fri, 9 Sep 94 13:33:05 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10744; Fri, 9 Sep 94 13:33:01 CDT Date: Fri, 9 Sep 94 13:33:01 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409091833.AA10744@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #363 TELECOM Digest Fri, 9 Sep 94 13:33:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 363 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "On Internet '94" by Dern/Abbott (Rob Slade) ISLIP'94 Final Program Announcement (R. Jagannathan) Cell One NY/NJ is becoming "Hell One" (Stan Schwartz) Free Demo - Multi-User Virtual Reality (Jim Durward) Novel TeleMarketing Dialing System Needed (Rich Williams) Help: Computer Voicemail Hard/Software (Peter Salzman) Cable & Wireless Won't Give Me Their Rates (Alan Boritz) Wanted: Information on CTI (Dermot Wall) Help: Universities to Pursue Telecomm Managemant Grad Studies (D. Nyarko) Audiovox MXT-950 900 MHz Phone (Dick Kalagher) Area Code 562 May Arrive Early (Craig Milo Rogers) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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, 09 Sep 1994 11:20:55 MDT From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "On Internet '94" by Dern/Abbott BKONIN94.RVW 940606 Mecklermedia 11 Ferry Lane West Westport, CT 06880 "On Internet 94", Dern/Abbott, 1994, 0-88736-929-4, U$34.95/C$44.95 ddern@world.std.com meckler@jvnc.net This is a set of resource listings of mailing lists, texts and archives, systems, services, newsgroups and WAIS databases on the net. Of great value to those who act as Internet guides within their own institutions, this is promised to be an ongoing service, updated on a yearly basis. The largest section of the book is devoted to mailing lists and electronic journals, in chapters one and two. The distinction is not readily apparent other than in degree of moderation, and this may account for the fact that a number of lists appear in both chapters. (Indeed, some entries appear, in slightly different terms, more than once in a given chapter, since most are listed by list name, but some are listed by descriptive name.) Another odd division is the separation of the reviewed mailing lists to an appendix at the end of the book. This work relied upon returns from a questionnaire sent out by Meckler, which had both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, if full details were returned, there are some very interesting datum points which you are not likely to find in the list of lists. On the other hand, it is obvious that many list owners sent back very terse entries largely with insufficient instruction on how to get or use the lists. Some lists are startling by their absence, and I therefore assume that the returned questionnaires were the sole source used. I would hope to see more editing in future editions. Chapter three refers to electronic texts, archives, ftp sites, and resource guides. Obviously, this had to be very selective. Like the "catalog" of the Krol book, it is interesting, useful, and even fun, but definitely limited. Chapters four, five and six list community, campus, and commercial systems which may allow greater or lesser degrees of public access. Chapter seven is the annotated Usenet newsgroup list by Spafford and Lawrence. The final chapter is a list of WAIS servers. It is certainly handy having all this information in hard copy, and the research, particularly in the mailing lists, can be quite useful. At the same time, some general editing needs to be done. Access methods still need a bit of work. The index, for example, at least has a "Mystery" entry for the DOROTHY-L list, but nothing under "Literature" or "Writing" (even though these categories exist). Tech support types will find no entries at all for desktop, IBM, Mac, MS-DOS, personal computer or PC. In spite of the gaps, this first effort at "On Internet" shows significant promise beyond the comparable "Internet: Mailing Lists" (cf. BKINTMAL.RVW) and I look forward to the 1995 edition. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKONIN94.RVW 940606. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newgroups/mailing lists. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Sept. '94) Springer-Verlag ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Sep 94 17:12:08 -0700 From: R. Jagannathan Subject: ISLIP'94 Final Program Announcement ISLIP '94 SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON LUCID AND INTENSIONAL PROGRAMMING FINAL PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT STARTS Monday September 26th at 9 AM; ENDS Tuesday September 27th at 530 PM. WHERE: At SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, California. A building, Conference Room B PROGRAM Talks should take 30 minutes, plus 10 minutes for questions. Monday, September 26 9:00 Welcoming remarks Jaggan Jagannathan and Ed Ashcroft 9:20 Multidimensional Declarative Programming: The Book Ed Ashcroft 10:00 Hyperindexical Pandimensional Beings Bill Wadge 10:40 Break 11:10 Prescription for Modelling Time in Databases Mehmet Orgun 11:50 On the Design of an Indexical Query Language Joey Paquet and John Plaice 12:30 Lunch 1:50 Objectflow - Adding Objects to GLU Weichang Du and Tony Faustini 2:30 Object-Oriented Implementation of Intensional Languages Weichang Du 3:10 Break 3:40 Developing Scientific Applications in GLU Pushpa Rao and Jaggan Jagannathan 4:20 Particle Simulation with Lucid John Plaice 5:00 End of program for Monday Tuesday, September 27 9:00 Observations on Spreadsheet Languages and Dataflow Alan G. Yoder and David L. Cohn 9:40 Adding Eagerness to Eduction Jaggan Jagannathan 10:20 Break 10:50 Isomorphisms between Two Groups: An Experiment in Program Synthesis and Transformation F. Esfandiari and C. T. P. Burton 11:30 Transforming First-Order Functional Programs into Intensional Programs of Nullary Variables: Theoretical Foundations Panos Rondogiannis and Bill Wadge 12:10 Lunch 2:00 Standard Cell Designs for Hardware Synthesis with Lucid Operators Abhay Kejriwal and Ben Huey 2:40 An Object-Oriented Visual Dataflow Language Da-Quian Zhang, Sute Lei, and Kang Zhang 3:20 A Visual Programming Environment for GLU Dhanraj Rajender and Tony Faustini 4:00 Break 4:30 Panel Discussion 5:30 End of ISLIP 94 HOW TO GET TO SRI: From San Francisco or San Jose Airport, take Highway 101 to Willow Road (Menlo Park). Go west on Willow Road to Middlefield Road, right on Middlefield to Ravenswood Avenue (2nd stop light), left on Ravenswood to 333 Ravenswood (main entrance). PARKING: Park in visitors lot in front of building A REGISTRATION: Registration by mail recommended (by September 19th, 1994) On-site registration possible as a last resort. Registration form follows. ACCOMMODATION: Information on places to stay near SRI follows. ISLIP '94 REGISTRATION September 26-27, 1994 SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., USA Name _____________________________________________________________ Institution ______________________________________________________ Address __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Phone __________________FAX ________________ email________________ Registration fee: $15.00 Send registration (by September 19th) to: Judith Burgess ISLIP 94 Computer Science Laboratory SRI International 333 Ravenswood Ave. Menlo Park, CA 94025 Tel. (415) 859-5924, FAX (415) 859-2844 email: burgess@csl.sri.com Please enclose check or money order in US dollars, payable to SRI International. No credit cards. Registration includes break refreshments -- lunch is on your own. ACCOMMODATIONS Note: Prices not guaranteed and not necessarily current. Saying you are attending a conference at SRI *may* get you a better rate. Holiday Inn 625 El Camino Palo Alto, CA (415) 328-2800, fax 327-7362 (800) 465-4329 SRI 89/99, gov`t 69/79 if avail. Menlo Park Inn 1315 El Camino Menlo Park, CA 94025 (415) 326-7530, FAX 328-7539, res 800-327-1315 SRI/gov't 57.00/62.00 (walking distance) Mermaid Inn 727 El Camino Menlo Park, CA (415) 323-9481 $48/$58, $60/70 w/kitchen $62 2bed double (walking distance) Riviera Motor Lodge 15 El Camino Real Menlo Park, CA 94025 321-8772, FAX 321-2137 $44/52 (long walking distance) Red Cottage Motel 1704 El Camino Redwood City, CA (415) 326-9010 Reg. S=$50, D=$60-65 Govt S=$45, D=$55 No tax (5-10 min. drive) Stanford Park Hotel 100 El Camino Real Menlo Park, CA 94025 (415) 322-1234 S=$148-225; D= $158-225 (walking distance) ------------------------------ From: stans@panix.com (Stan Schwartz) Subject: Cell One NY/NJ is Becoming "Hell One" Date: 8 Sep 1994 21:06:15 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC A couple of months ago, I posted my dissatisfaction with attempting to use my cell phone in Montreal, Canada while roaming from NY with a "Fraud Protection Feature" on my account. To Cell One's credit, one of their representatives read the Digest and contacted me directly to discuss my problem. The resolution was to: A: Have me call customer service before I plan to travel to Canada again to have them remove my FPF before I travel there. B: Make a notation on my account so that when I call under condition "A" I won't get a hard time. So I believed them. Last Thursday, I called customer service to have them remove my FPF before my trip to Toronto. The rep didn't want to do this and when I insisted and explained myself, I got the pleasure of holding for five minutes. When she returned, after checking with the "technical department", she confirmed that there is still a problem with the FPF in Canada and that she would remove the feature. She begged me to call back when I returned to re-activate the feature. She also told me that Toronto was a NACN city and I should have no problem using my phone. Saturday night in Toronto, I tried to make a call and I alternately got a re-order or a CanTel operator. When trying to call in from a pay phone, I got my voice mail. I tried to activate call delivery (*350) and that code was not valid in Toronto. The CanTel rep couldn't tell me what the equivalent code was there and he wouldn't/couldn't connect me to Cell One NY. I went down to a pay phone (Bell Canada, with the neat two-line display), and I called 1-800-242-7327 (CellOne NY customer service). I got the menu choices and was holding for a rep for about 30 seconds when a recording came on to tell me that the number I dialed could not be reached from my calling area. BUT I HAD!!! I tried this a couple more times, only to resign myself to the fact that this was the strangest supervision I had ever encountered. I called Cell One's Paramus number and was lucky enough to find that their switchboard has a voice response option to reach customer service. The rep there tried calling my phone a few times (at one point she said, "Let me try another way. Hold on."), put me on hold, and returned to tell me that Toronto IS a NACN city, but because of the large amount of fraud in the NYC area, I am in a "Pooled Region". This means that CanTel's system sees that my home area code (516) is in a high-fraud area and won't complete calls. Nice, eh? "Imagine No Limits" indeed!!! (The limit is when you reach the Canadian border). I called CellOne today to make sure that I won't have the same problem on my next trip to Denver next week. My conversation went something like this: Me: "I'm calling to see if a couple of cities are in the NACN." CellOne: "Sure, what cities?" Me: "Denver and Toronto." [ I _HAD_ to see what answer I'd get ;-) ] CellOne: "Yes, sir, those are both NACN cities, which means that your callers won't have to use a roamer access number to reach you." Me: "But I was in Toronto last week and I was unable to make calls." CellOne: "That shouldn't have been a problem." .....insert above situation here..... CellOne: "A pooled region is where Canada's phone companies won't let THEIR customers make calls here. None of our customers are in a pooled region. " Now I'm fuming. Josie (the customer service rep) was kind enough to do some research, call me back, and file a trouble report. I'm just not feeling safe depending on the phone anymore while roaming. CellOne NY/NJ is probably _THE_ most expensive carrier in the country, doesn't offer discounted/unlimited weekends, and they can't provide dependable roaming. What's the deal!?? Stan ------------------------------ From: jim@virtual.cuc.ab.ca (Jim Durward) Subject: Free Demo - Multi-User Virtual Reality Organization: Virtual Universe Corp Date: Thu, 8 Sep 1994 20:11:45 GMT VIRTUAL UNIVERSE CORPORATION Suite 510, 700 - 4th. Ave. S.W. Calgary, Alberta T2P 3J4 Tel. (403) 261-5652, Fax. (403)237-0005 Internet Address - jim@virtual.cuc.ab.ca S.E.C. Rule 12g3-2(b) File number 82-3467 Alberta Stock Exchange Symbol - VRX September 8, 1994 NEWS RELEASE The Company is pleased to announce that it has entered into a development agreement with Virtual Games Inc.(VGI) whereby VGI will port its STIMSLUM videogame to The Parallel Universe. This represents a major step forward as this will be the first commercial application to run on The Parallel Universe and is expected to be a showcase for the leading edge technology of both companies. VGI's videogame is a first person perspective, three dimensional texture-mapped, real-time game that takes place in the future on an abandoned space station. The game is specifically designed to be playable as a networked game and focuses on a rich playing environment versus a linear storyline, to provide the players with enhanced roleplaying interactivity in an alternate virtual society. Players can speak to each other anonymously and are able to select and modify body types and game playing instruments. As Director and Chief Programmer at VGI, Anselm Hook has extensive videogame experience including the programming of hit titles such as Sword of Sodan (SEGA), Dragon's Lair (PC and 3D0), and Maelstrom (PC). The initial STIMSLUM target platform is the PC-CDROM due the large installed base and the strong growth in the CDROM market. The Company believes that the release of STIMSLUM with The Parallel Universe will represent the dawning of a new age in real-time networked videogames. The Parallel Universe allows multiple users, regardless of physical location, to enter into a common networked three dimensional environment and fully interact with each other in real-time. The system is enhanced with spatially-relative voice using a proprietary process dubbed "Steereo". To the company's knowledge, this system is the only one of its kind in the world and has the significant advantage of allowing fully interactive three dimensional Virtual Reality delivery to home, business, or arcade-based computers over standard telephone lines. The Company continues to seek strategic partners in order to implement its long term plan of worldwide deployment of The Parallel Universe. On behalf of the Board of Directors, "Ian T. Tweedie" Ian T. Tweedie C.A. President The Alberta Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved this news release and the Company takes full responsibility for its accuracy and content. FREE VIRTUAL UNIVERSE DEMO SOFTWARE AVAILABLE BY EMAIL. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of The Parallel Universe, Virtual Universe is making available a simple demo program that is a sort of multi-player tankwar. When you enter into the Parallel Universe using this demo, you are represented as a tank and you can drive around the playing field while firing at others. You can speak to the other players while you are playing. The graphics rendering is basic as a result of the use of the public domain renderer called VR386. The demo runs on PC only and requires 386/387 or 486. USERS ARE ASKED TO CONCENTRATE ON THE SYSTEM CAPABILITIES, NOT THE GRAPHICS. Commercial applications such as STIMSLUM will have a much higher resolution and speed and will be texture-mapped. If you wish to have the demo emailed to you, please request it from: info@virtual.cuc.ab.ca Jim Durward Virtual Universe Corporation jim@virtual.cuc.ab.ca voice: 403-261-5652 fax : 237-0005 ------------------------------ From: rvw@laplace.math.purdue.edu (Rich Williams) Subject: Novel TeleMarketing Dialing System Needed Date: 8 Sep 1994 22:49:31 GMT Organization: Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana I am looking for a Automated Dialing system that can be driven by a Novel Network based database. This is one of those pain in the *ss tele-marketing system, that take input from a database dials and once a real voice is detected switches the phone over to a Lot Lizard. I know of Unix based versions of this, but these folks want a Novel system version as the database and network already exist. So if you sell or know of someone who sells these systems let me know please. Contact me at rvw@cs.purdue.edu or (317) 494-4246. Thanks, Rich Williams rvw@math.purdue.edu Purdue University (317) 494-4246 Department of Mathematics #include West Lafayette, IN 47907 ------------------------------ From: psalzman@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu (Peter Salzman) Subject: Help: Computer Voicemail Hard/Software Date: 8 Sep 1994 08:42:02 GMT Organization: California State University Sacramento I am desperately looking for the needed hardware and software that is used in computer voice mail and telepersonals services. Specifically, my roomate and I would like to start a telephone dating service where people call up, leave messages in other peoples boxes, record their own messages, etc etc. Would some kind soul tell me what I need for this? If someone has actually done this I would be appreciative of any tips you can give me, like system requirements, drive requirements, etc. Since I cross posted this to a slew of groups, the best thing would be to email me. If anyone wants the information, I'd be glad to forward it. Thanks so much, peter ------------------------------ Subject: Cable & Wireless Won't Give Me Their Rates From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Reply-To: uunet!drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Date: Fri, 09 Sep 94 08:08:02 EDT Organization: Harry's Place - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 Called this LD provider about DDD service and they wouldn't even talk to me about rates until they saw a copy of my phone bill! I was impressed when I found out that they deliver ANI on interstate calls, but now I'm not so sure if I'm still "impressed." Ignoring for the moment that they stand a good chance of losing a customer every time I audit a customer's long distance billing where Cable & Wireless is the PIXC, would anyone be familiar with this vendor's switched-access wats rates? aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Sep 1994 13:34:16 +0000 From: dermot@nt.com Subject: Wanted: Information on CTI Reply-To: dermot@nt.com Organization: Northern Telecom, GALWAY, Ireland [Please note correct email reply address is gidxw01@nt.com] I am interested in finding some information on computer telephony, eg TAPI etc and wonder if anyone could point me to where I could find some, ideally in the vein of "An Idiot's Guide ...". Thanks for the help, DERMOT WALL EMAIL : gidxw01@nt.com Northern Telecom Galway Ireland ESN : 570 3334 ------------------------------ From: nyarko@ee.ualberta.ca (David Nyarko) Subject: Help: Universities to Pursue Telecomm Managemant Grad Studies Date: 9 Sep 1994 14:21:24 GMT Organization: Computer and Network Services, U of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Hi, Could I have some pointers to Universities in Canada and the US for pursuing a postgraduate program in Telecomms Management. Please email responses. This posting is on behalf of a friend without internet access. David Nyarko email: nyarko@bode.ee.ualberta.ca Dept. of Electrical Engineering Tel:(403)-492-5877 (Office) University of Alberta, (403)-431-0408 (home) Edmonton, AB, CANADA Fax:(403)-492-1811 ------------------------------ From: kalagher@mitre.org (Dick Kalagher) Subject: Audiovox MXT-950 900 MHz Phone Date: Fri, 09 Sep 1994 13:43:49 -0500 Organization: The MITRE corporation Has anyone tried this phone? I saw it at the Price Club and it looks really nice. Its a small flip phone (smaller than the Panasonic, I think) that would easily go in shirt pocket. It has an LCD display that apparently lets you store names for speed dialing. Claims to have 40 cahnnels but it doesn't say whether it hops over the channels or somehow selects the best one. Even has nine different ringer tones and music while on hold (don't know how this works, though). The best part is it is only $199 which is a great price for a 900 MHz phone. ------------------------------ Subject: Area Code 562 May Arrive Early Date: Thu, 08 Sep 94 21:08:49 PDT From: Craig Milo Rogers According to an item on p. D2 of the Thu 8 Sep 1994 edition of the {Los Angeles Times}, areac code 310 is in jeopardy of running out of numbers. Consequently, area code 562 may be activiated within a year. Craig Milo Rogers ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #363 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa22712; 14 Sep 94 18:40 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA12612; Wed, 14 Sep 94 13:31:53 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA12604; Wed, 14 Sep 94 13:31:50 CDT Date: Wed, 14 Sep 94 13:31:50 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409141831.AA12604@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #364 TELECOM Digest Wed, 14 Sep 94 13:31:30 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 364 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Symposium - Personal Communication Systems (Carl E. Krasnor) Jeffrey Smulyen to Chair U.S. Delegation to ITU Conference (Nigel Allen) Status of V5.1 V5.2 Development/Deployment (Larry Svec) Information Needed for Frame-Relay Device Driver (Pete Kruckenberg) Transatlantic Cellular (Raymond Okonski) Mixed Services, Same Premises (T. Stephen Eggleston) ICRC Bosnia Appeal (NetSurfer) Help Needed on Losing Telephone Connection (Peter Li) Book Review: "Netiquette" by Shea (Rob Slade) 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 America OnLine. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: krasnor@mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca (Carl E. Krasnor) Subject: Symposium - Personal Communication Systems Date: 13 Sep 1994 15:17:44 -0400 Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada PERSONAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS (PCS) A One-Day Symposium Friday, September 30th, 1994. McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario CANADA Health Sciences Centre Room 1A1 Ewart Angus Centre 8:30 am - 4:00 pm Sponsored by the Telecommunications Research Institute of Ontario (TRIO) and the Communications Research Laboratory (CRL) at McMaster University 1. PURPOSE: Personal Communication systems (PCS) are becoming an important element of the world's Wireless Communication Network. This Seminar is designed to brief participants on the origins of these systems, on the status of their deployment in the world, and on the future directions they may take. Participants will be specifically informed about the current R & D on which the development of these systems depends. 2. FORMAT Experienced speakers will make presentations on the various issues that are relevant to PCS. Many opportunities will be given to participants to address questions to speakers. A roundtable discussion on the future trends of PCS involving leading technology developers and planners will be followed by exchanges with participants. All will have a chance to see, touch, and experiment with an operational Personal Communications System as part of the CRL Tour. 3. PARTICIPANTS This symposium is recommended for all persons in industry, government, or academe, who are concerned with the planning, development, deployment management and marketing of PCS. 4. PROGRAM 8:30 am Breakfast - Blue Cafeteria, Ewart Angus Centre "Wireless Communications Opportunities in China" Keynote Speaker: Prof. Song Junde Dean of Graduate School Beijing Univ. of Posts & Telecommunications (BUPT) Beijing, PRC. AM PROGRAM ROOM 1A1 EAC McMaster Health Sciences Centre 10:00 Welcome & Intro. Mr. Peter Leach TRIO Dr. John Litva CRL, McMaster 10:15 Dr. John Litva CRL Director "Origins of Personal Communications" 10:45 Coffee Break 11:00 "Future Directions" (Round Table discussions) Chairman: Dr. John Litva Dr. Tony Bailetti Dr. Andrew Beasley Prof. Song Junde Mr. P. J. Quelch Mr. Mike Lazaridis Mr. Peter Leach MID DAY 12:00 - 2:00 PM CRL Tour Demonstration of Operational PCS Hands-on PCS for Participants Sandwich Lunch CRL B102 PM PROGRAM 2:00 pm "Intelligent Antennas for PCS" Dr. John Litva CRL Director, and Prof. Elect. & Computer Eng. McMaster University 2:30 pm "Microstrip Antennas for Wireless Communications" Prof. David Pozar Electrical Engineering and Computer Science University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA 3:00 pm "Signal Processing Techniques for PCS" Dr. Max Wong Professor, Elect. & Computer Engineering, and CRL McMaster University. 3:30 pm "Unified Approach to Predicting Propagation in an Urban Environment" Dr. Henry L. Bertoni Center for Advanced Technology in Telecommunications, Polytechnic University Brooklyn, NY. 11201, USA. REGISTRATION FORM September 30th, 1994 PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS NAME: _____________________ COMPANY:___________________ ADDRESS:__________________ CITY: ___________ PROV.:____ POSTAL CODE:______________ TELEPHONE:_________________ FAX:_______________________ E-MAIL:____________________ SYMPOSIUM FEES: - TRIO Affiliates $100.+ GST - Non-Affiliates $200.+ GST - Grad Students $ 50. + GST Please send this form with cheque to: Kathy Mhoney, Conference Registrar Telecommunications Research Institute of Ontario (TRIO), 340 March Road, Suite # 400, Kanata, Ontario. K2K 2E4. Phone: 613-592-9211 Fax: 613-592-8163 Carl Krasnor, Communications Research Lab, McMaster U., Hamilton, Ont. CANADA krasnor@McMaster.CA VA3CK Tel:(905) 525-9140 x24171 FAX:(905) 521-2922 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Sep 1994 03:42:56 -0400 Subject: Jeffrey Smulyen to Chair U.S. Delegation to ITU Conference Organization: Internex Online, Toronto From: ndallen@io.org (Nigel Allen) Here is a press release from the White House that may be of some interest. I downloaded it from the PR On-Line BBS in Maryland at 410-363-0834. I do not work for the U.S. government. President Clinton Names Smulyan to Chair Delegation to the International Telecommunication Conference at State Department Contact: White House Press Office, 202-456-2100 WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 -- President Clinton today announced his intention to appoint Jeffrey H. Smulyan with the personal rank of Ambassador during his tenure of service as the Head of the United States Delegation to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference in Yoto, Japan, September 19 - October 15, 1994. In his capacity as Head of the United States Delegation, Mr. Smulyan will advance U.S. proposals to the Conference and promote U.S. interests in the development of international telecommunications. The ITU is the United Nations specialized agency devoted to telecommunications standardization, radio frequency management, and telecommunications development. Mr. Smulyan is founder and Chairman of the Board of Emmis Broadcasting Corporation, which currently owns seven radio stations in the United States. Mr. Smulyan was born April 6, 1947 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in history and telecommunications from the University of Southern California in 1969 and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Southern California School of Law in 1972. -30- Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ndallen@io.org ------------------------------ From: svec@rtsg.mot.com (Larry Svec) Subject: Status of V5.1 V5.2 Development/Deployment Date: 13 Sep 1994 14:28:55 GMT Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group I am looking for information on the implementation of the V5.1 and V5.2 interconnect standards such as the following: 1) Are there any PTTs or Switch vendors who have deployed trial systems or commercial systems using either interface? 2) Are there any switching or other products available now that utilize this standard? 3) The V5 specs are quite substantial in features and functionality; are there any recommendations being made as to a subset or rollout of features that are being implemented by PTTs and switch vendors. Any information in general regarding these specifications would be appreciated. I would also like to talk to or correspond with other people involved in the development and deployment of this spec. Thank you in advance, Larry D. Svec - Motorola Inc. work: 708-632-5259 fax: 708-632-5213 home: 708-526-1256 e-mail: svec@sand.cig.mot.com ------------------------------ From: kruckenb@sal.cs.utah.edu (Pete Kruckenberg) Subject: Information Needed for Frame-Relay Device Driver Date: 14 Sep 1994 12:51:20 GMT Organization: University of Utah Computer Science Department I'm going to be writing a driver for use with the freeware Unix clone, Linux, using a v.35 ISA board. I need to get as much information as possible about frame-relay, including standards, specs, as well as "lay-man" descriptions of it. Also very valuable would be any sample code in C, Basic, Pascal, Modula, assembler, or pretty much any other language which pertains to frame-relay, regardless of which platform or OS it was written for. I would also like to know of any other frame-relay-related Internet resources (newsgroups, mailing lists, etc) that are available. I would appreciate any help I can get in finding this information as soon as possible. Also, anyone who would be interested in coaching me through some of the questions I might have is encouraged to contact me with their suggestions and advice. Please respond by private email to pete@dswi.com, or the address on this message. I will keep these newsgroups posted on my progress. Thank you, Pete Kruckenberg School: kruckenb@sal.cs.utah.edu University of Utah Work: pete@dswi.com Computer Engineering For even more addresses, "finger pete@dswi.com" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 Sep 94 19:32 BST From: buzby@cix.compulink.co.uk (Raymond Okonski) Subject: Transatlantic Cellular Reply-To: buzby@cix.compulink.co.uk We all know that when crossing the Atlantic (in either direction) there are going to be problems with fixed or mobile comms systems. I have a UK collection of cellular phones: Analogue ETACS (an AMPS derivative), Digital GSM 900MHz and DCS 1800MHz. None of which will work if I take them across the 'pond'. With so many active cellular accounts, I am unwilling to purchase yet another phone, but when I come over to the US, I want the flexibility of mobile comms, but am unsure as to the best course of action - arrange a reciprocal deal to anyone coming to Europe (so they can borrow one of mine - *and* pay the bill!) or attempt to source one of those Airport booths and try to rent one for the duration. I'll be spending a month in the Georgia/Florida areas later this year, if anyone can recommend the best way to obtain a loan/rented phone for the duration and the network covering the area, I would be most grateful. I can be contacted at bbuzby@cix.compulink.co.uk. Raymond Okonski ------------------------------ From: nuance@access.digex.net (T. Stephen Eggleston) Subject: Mixed Services, Same Premises Date: 14 Sep 1994 11:41:21 -0400 Organization: Nuance Data Systems, Alexandria, VA 22304 Reply-To: nuance@access.digex.net In article , Jerry Leichter wrote: > In recent issues of the Digest, OEM (Our Esteemed Moderator) has: > a) Defended the practice of some Telco's in refusing to provide both > measured and unmeasured service at the same location on the > grounds that this would let people choose the cheaper alterna- > tive on a call-by-call basis, which is not the "intent" of the > various charging schemes; [deletia] My local carrier did not want to install a measured phone in my residence, which already has three unmeasured lines. The new phone was for my daughter, who is living here while she is in college, and would be in her name, not mine. The explanation was that the two services would not be provided in the same RESIDENCE. I faxed them a copy of a cancelled check from my daughter for her RENT. (50.00 per month) Still, they said that it was in the same physical building. I told them, that she had her own entrance, but they said that doesn't matter, since I was the owner. Then, I asked ... So, if I own a multi-family residence, I can't mix services, correct? YES, was the reply. When I asked them about apartment buildings, duplexes and boarding houses, the lady got very confused. She told me "that was different," but could not explain the difference. I GOT the line. (NOT for the purposes of avoiding charges, but I COULD run an extension into MY part of the house if I wanted to.) Just another $.02 from The Eggman Steve Eggleston Internet:nuance@access.digex.net Nuance Data Systems (703)823-8963 CIS:72040,713 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 05:46:40 HST From: NetSurfer Subject: ICRC Bosnia Appeal [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Although not telecom related, I thought this was important enough that it should be passed along. If it annoys you, then ignore it. If you are as concerned as many of us, then give some consideration to what *you* can do to help. PAT] ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 8 Sep 1994 23:11:38 +0100 (WET DST) From: Michel Veuthey To: peace@csf.colorado.edu Subject: ICRC BOSNIA APPEAL Address by the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross to Ambassadors and Representatives of Permanent Missions at Geneva 7 September 1994 Bosnia-Herzegovina: civilians hostages of political interests The conflict in the Balkans has been going on for three years now - three long years of terror and suffering for the civilian population, but also three years of tireless endeavour on the part of the humanitarian agencies. Three years during which the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been working alongside other organizations to try and alleviate the suffering endured by the countless victims of the conflict. Sadly, the many efforts made by the ICRC have failed to meet with the response it had hoped for. This state of affairs is unacceptable. I solemnly wish to declare this to the international community as a whole, through you. For three years now, civilians have been the bargaining chips in what is known as the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. The population is being terrorized, threatened and subjected to constant harassment. People are being forcibly displaced, transferred and exchanged. For three years now, the arbitrary detention of civilians, hostage-taking, summary executions, forced labour of civilians on the front lines are taking place with total disregard for the most elementary principles of humanity. Despite the ceaseless efforts made by the ICRC, which remains at the disposal of the parties to find humanitarian solutions to these problems, horror is still a daily fact of life in Bosnia-Herzegovina. More than 2,000 people have been forced to leave the town of Bijeljina in recentweeks. They have been driven from their homes in terror, stripped of everything they owned, subjected to brutal treatment and compelled to cross the front line. In the Banja Luka area, minorities are being subjected to harassment and discrimination every day. Having lost all hope for the future, they have no choice but to leave. In Central Bosnia, too, minorities left without any prospect of an acceptable life are leaving the Zenica region. In other places like Gorazde and Srebrenica, entire populations are encircled, confined to a few square kilometres of land and forced to survive in appalling psychological and material conditions. In the Bihac area, tens of thousands of displaced civilians are hostage to the belligerents' political interests. In most of these situations it is the Muslim civilian population that is the principal victim of an abominable policy. These facts are extremely serious, and that is why I have taken the liberty of asking you to come to the ICRC today so that I could tell you this myself. The very way in which this war is being waged constitutes a negation of the roots of humanitarian law. The fact that these odious practices are repeatedly being committed, coupled with the absence of any prospect of a solution, is gradually turning human suffering into a routine occurrence, thereby dulling people's conscience and threatening to undermine the very foundations of humanity. We cannot accept a policy that advocates the forcible exclusion of minorities. What indeed will become of them, prevented as they are from seeking refuge abroad and abandoned to their fate among an often hostile majority, if nothing is done to ensure that their rights are respected in the places where they live or if nothing is done to enable them to leave in total safety, freedom and dignity? In the face of this intolerable situation, the ICRC once again calls upon the parties to the conflict, and in particular their respective leaders and populations, to assume their moral and political responsibilities. Above all it appeals, through you, to the community of States to see that there is an immediate end to these crimes, whose gravity and magnitude amount to a negation of humanitarian law and of the most fundamental human rights. It is of the utmost urgency that the international community find solutions taking due account of the inalienable rights of the individual. The International Committee of the Red Cross reminds all the States Party to the Geneva Conventions of their collective obligation to ensure that the provisions of humanitarian law are respected in all circumstances. We cannot continue to watch the erosion of the very foundations of the law without taking practical action. The ICRC is counting on a prompt and determined reaction on the part of the international community. ------------------------------ From: peterli@dev.gdb.org (Peter Li) Subject: Help Needed on Losing Telephone Connection Organization: The Johns Hopkins University - Genome Data Base (GDB) Date: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 04:10:42 GMT Hi folks, I have this problem with my telephone line, it drops everynight around 11:00pm. I wonder if someone on the net can help me out. Here is the scenerio: I have two lines to my house; two pairs of wire on a single four wire cable. I use a modem on one of the lines to dial in to my system at work. Every night, the line is dropped, then for about one minute, I could not get a dialtone. Bell Atlantic sent out technicians during daytime twice and found no problems with the line. I have unplugged all extensions and answering machines, and the problem still happens. I tried a "loop-back" test, i.e. using the bad line and called my other line, no modem, just voice, and the line is still dropped. So the problem is not modem related. And the most peculiar thing is that the line is always dropped around 11:00 pm. After the line recovers, everything is fine for hours. My suspicion is that nothing is wrong physically with the wire, but something is happening at the switching center in the telephone company. The people who answer the problem number (611) doesn't seem to know anything about it and nor do I. If any of you have an idea why this is occurring, please respond so that I might be able to jarr some engineer in Bell Atlantic to get this fixed. (Switching to use the other line is out of the question, that one is my wife's line :-). Thanks in advance, Peter Li email: peterli@gdb.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am curious ... during the minute or so when you get dropped and cannot get dialtone on the one line, what is the status of the other line? What happens if you dial the (dropped, no dialtone) line from your other one? Rapid busy signal perhaps, or a regular busy signal? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 18:51:15 MDT From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Netiquette" by Shea BKNTQUTT.RVW 940601 Albion Books 4547 California Street San Francisco, CA 94118 info@albion.com "Netiquette", Shea, 1994, 0-9637025-1-3, U$19.95 ms.netiquette@albion.com The word, "etiquette," we are told in the book, comes from the French word for "ticket". It is your entree, or passport, to proper society. Given the human propensity for exclusivity, however, large sections of the populace take great pride in a reverse snobbery by proving that they don't care about the "right" society, and have no intentions of following its rules. Rebels have a disproportionately high representation on electronic networks. All that this proves, of course, is that different cultures have different specifics in terms of etiquette: netiquette can be much more rigid and picayune than arguments about which fork to use. Nevertheless, as Shea points out, there are some common sense guidelines that form the basis of netiquette. The fundamental principles could be applied to entering any society: lurk (use your eyes and ears first), learn (pay attention to what is going on and find the acceptable, and unacceptable, patterns), and, live and let live. The contents, after an introduction to networking concepts, cover the usual basics of netiquette with the usual list of rules, some discussion of email, email style, discussion groups, and flames. It expands beyond that, however, to information retrieval, significant violations, corporate, home and school etiquette, and discussions of sexual relationships, privacy and copyright. (It is interesting to read the coverage of advertising on the net from a work published just prior to the deluge from Canter and Siegel, who, in their refusal to abide by net dictates, or to admit the net could *have* dictates, give a whole new meaning to the term "self-centred".) Shea's treatment is not, as the cover blurb states, the only book to offer guidance in this area, but is certainly the most complete. While the material is definitely of use to the newcomer, long time net denizens will note a lack of familiarity with certain aspects of computer mediated communications. The advice, for example, to wait a few days before replying to a flame, or composing a flame in reply to an "ignorant" message, is of no use to busy net communicators. The standard time management advice applies -- once you pick it up, don't put it down until you've dealt with it. I tend to get one or two flames per week in response to these reviews, and, inevitably, the messages betray the fact that the flamer hasn't even read the message. However, after a careful review to ensure that there isn't some point to take, I'd rather delete such messages without replying, instead of wasting my time composing a reply in order to try to convince the Internit that he, she or it was wasting my time. (Alternately, if you don't like my solution, forward the flame to Canter and Siegel, thus killing, or at least aggravating, two nits with one flame.) There is also little analysis of the social forces behind flammage. Users are often told to be temperate, don't flame, use smileys and don't be abusive. The "rules of correspondence" too often fail to demonstrate how easily electronic communications can generate misunder- standings. Shea's book is better than most because it covers more related territory, but some up-front explanation of the mechanics involved would have been helpful. Although a brief discussion of netiquette is now a standard fixture in net guides, a work of this larger scope is long overdue. A note asking for suggestions implies corrections and additions in a later version. I look forward to such future editions and the salutary effect on net traffic that this, and they, will have. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKNTQUTT.RVW 940601. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Sept. '94) Springer-Verlag ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #364 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa08465; 15 Sep 94 18:29 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA06473; Thu, 15 Sep 94 12:43:06 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA06466; Thu, 15 Sep 94 12:43:02 CDT Date: Thu, 15 Sep 94 12:43:02 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409151743.AA06466@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #365 TELECOM Digest Thu, 15 Sep 94 12:43:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 365 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Help Needed on Losing Telephone Connection (Chris Hardaker) Re: Help Needed on Losing Telephone Connection (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Help Needed on Losing Telephone Connection (Travis Russell) Re: 1957 Note on Pagers (Martin McCormick) Re: 1957 Note on Pagers (David Breneman) Re: 1957 Note on Pagers (John Botari) Re: Mixed Service, Same Premises (Noel Moss) Re: Secretary, Dept. of Telecom (India) Replaced (H. Shrikumar) Re: Cell One NY/NJ is Becoming "Hell One" (clawsona@yvax.byu.edu) Re: Cell One NY/NJ is Becoming "Hell One" (Bradley Allen) Re: Cell One NY/NJ is Becoming "Hell One" (museums@aol.com) Re: Cell One NY/NJ is Becoming "Hell One" (Douglas Reuben) Re: Security Deposit From Local Phone Carrier (Carl Oppedahl) Eye Catching Names (Andrew C. Green) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Help Needed on Losing Telephone Connection From: HARDAKER@clear.co.nz (Chris Hardaker) Date: 15 Sep 94 08:35:34 EDT In response to Peter Li's trouble -- Telecom In New Zealand has deployed a cute little system called MITS (Don't ask me what it stands for). This system consists of one test set per 10000 lines (This lines are grouped by equipment not phone number). This little system accesses the line via the test cross connect found on the mother board of all Line Modules (NEAX 61 Generic siwtches) and runs a routine test of the cable and terminal block. This test consisits of capacitance, A-B A-Ground and B-Ground resistance and noise. During this test the line is unavailable to the customer. During deployment of this system Telecom had two major problems with the system. The first was during the capacitance test, the older phone bells 'tinkled' and the second was some systems ignored the busy line condition and just interupted the call in progress. To achieve it's test schedule (one test per night per line) the system kept a rigid schedule and you could set your watch by your phone 'tinkle'. If your local service provider has something similar, this could be a line of investigation. Chris Hardaker Network Management CLEAR Communications Auckland New Zealand Ph +64 9 9124286 DDI Fax +64 9 9124451 Email HARDAKER@CLEAR.CO.NZ ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Help Needed on Losing Telephone Connection Date: 14 Sep 1994 18:13:58 -0400 Organization: Oppedahl & Larson In peterli@dev.gdb.org (Peter Li) writes: > My suspicion is that nothing is wrong physically with the wire, but > something is happening at the switching center in the telephone > company. The people who answer the problem number (611) doesn't seem > to know anything about it and nor do I. If any of you have an idea why > this is occurring, please respond so that I might be able to jarr some > engineer in Bell Atlantic to get this fixed. (Switching to use the > other line is out of the question, that one is my wife's line :-). Yes, I suspect that there is some sort of automated line testing going on. You will *never* get a meaningful response from 611 on this sort of thing, I predict. Call 611, and ask them to arrange for a frame foreman to call you back. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY oppedahl@patents.com ------------------------------ From: russell@tekelec.com (Travis Russell) Subject: Re: Help Needed on Losing Telephone Connection Date: 15 Sep 1994 12:50:35 GMT Organization: Tekelec, Inc. In article , peterli@dev.gdb.org (Peter Li) says: > I have this problem with my telephone line, it drops everynight around > 11:00pm. I wonder if someone on the net can help me out. Here is the > scenerio: I have encountered many strange problems such as this one, and have never had any success in getting them fixed through the normal channels. I have since developed a standard rule of thumb. If 611 cannot fix the problem after two visits, I ask for the first line supervisor. This draws a lot of attention within the rank and file. I then explain the problem to them. Chances are, they are checking your line at the wrong end. There needs to be some testing at the other end. If the first line supervisor cannot find the problem, and the trouble occurs again, I then escalate to the second level manager. This raises big flags in the C.O. and almost always has positive results. Problems of this nature are difficult to find. When a technician gets dispatched on this type of problem, they have no other recourse but to test the line and log a NTF (No Trouble Found). Thats how the system works. Escalation puts more visibility on your unique problem, and will get the necessary resources at the 11th hour to at least monitor the problem from the C.O. Frankly, I am a little surprised (not really) that the telco did not do this already, since this is a repeat trouble. Good Luck! Travis Russell russell@tekelec.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Sep 94 15:58:58 CDT From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu (Martin McCormick) Subject: Re: 1957 Note on Pagers Organization: Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK Date: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 20:58:53 GMT One of the very popular paging systems between the late fifties and early eighties was a system in which the transmitter plaid a continuous loop of tape which ran for 30 seconds or so in which the answering service operator read a list of subscriber's ID's with short messages for them. The tape for the RadioCall paging Service in Oklahoma City which used to be on 35.58MHZ went something like: "This is RadioCall Paging Service in Oklahoma City paging: 124R Call home. 316 Call Bill at 555-2703. 614 813 257 Over." The transmitter used 250 Watts of AM and frequently interfered with any sound systems in the down-town area that weren't well protected against RF. The voice messages were supplemented with tone-only signalling which was sent, as needed. I don't believe that there were any receivers which used a tone-activated muting circuit so the tones were for a different class of service such that when the beeper went off, one had to call the answering service to find out the message. In the sixties and seventies, there were four frequencies which were used for these systems. They were 35.22, 35.58, 43.22, and 43.58 Megahertz. When sporadic E skip caused the VHF low band to open wide, I can remember hearing paging systems from all over the United States and even one in South America, maybe Chile or Argentina since there was a 50HZ power supply hum on it. As a shortwave listener and later a ham, it was a great way to tell when the band was open and to where because most of the tape-loop paging systems identified themselves as to their city. By the mid to late seventies, the tape loop systems began to go out of service in droves. They were replaced by the kind of direct-dial access services that we have, today. I can remember that by 1980, when there was a sporadic E opening, one could hear all kinds of dial-up systems, but no more continuously-running tape loops. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ From: daveb@jaws (David Breneman) Subject: Re: 1957 Note on Pagers Date: 14 Sep 94 22:51:50 GMT Organization: Digital Systems International, Redmond WA Carl Moore (cmoore@ARL.MIL) wrote: > Wilmington (Del.) Morning News, Tuesday, April 9, 1957; page 27, > column 6 of 8 > CALLING DR. KILDARE. BOSTON (AP) -- A $10,000 doctor-radio paging > system has been installed at Beth Israel Hospital. Pocket radios are > now standard equipment for all physicians serving the hospital. A > doctor's code number is beeped to the radio clipped to his pocket. > This signal comes from a transmitter installed near the telephone > switchboard. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My first experience with pagers was > around 1960 or so when I was working at the University of Chicago and > they installed a paging system in the hospitals. My first personal pager > was a few years after that when Illinois Bell started selling a service > called 'Page Boy'. It was just a beeper without voice or text capability. ^^^^^^^^ Sure that wasn't "Bell Boy"? That's what US West called theirs, anyway. And, of course, it was a nice tie-in because it had the once-familiar Bell logo on it! The one my mother had (she ran the local blood bank lab, and they all took turns being "on call" in case of an emergency -- the person on call got the pager) was about the size of a current VCR remote control, and had to be left in a charger base over night. David Breneman Email: daveb@jaws.engineering.dgtl.com System Administrator, Voice: +1 206 881-7544 Fax: +1 206 556-8033 Product Development Platforms Digital Systems International, Inc. Redmond, Washington, U. S. o' A. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yep that was my error. "Bell Boy" was the telco name for the unit on a national basis. All the telcos were then in the Bell System and they all used "Bell Boy". The pager itself came from Motorola, and Motorola's name for the unit was "Page Boy". Very same unit; just a different metal cover on the front with a Bell logo and telco's name for the device. If you got yours through an answering service which bought them direct from Motorola then it said "Page Boy". If you got your unit from the telco -- even though it was identical, and in some instances on the very same frequency, but with different 'cap codes', then it had their logo and name instead. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Botari Subject: Re: 1957 note on pagers Date: Thu, 15 Sep 94 10:31:47 CST Back around 1986/87, when I was living in Toronto, a friend of mine (who worked for what was, at that time, still CNCP Telecommunica- tions -- now Unitel) still had one of those early tone-only pagers referred to by Pat in his comments. His was a Bell Canada "Bellboy"; Bell had gone out of marketing its pager service some years previously, but they were still supporting their few remaining users ... and the pager truly was quite large -- about 6 x 2 x 1 inches, so the only practical place to carry it was in the inside pocket of a blazer or suit jacket. (Even so, it lent one a bit of a lopsided look ...) My friend had evidently been carrying the same one since the late '60s (he was one of the technical people in CNCP's store-and-forward mes- sage switching division ... but _that's_ another by-gone technology ...) John Botari Environment Canada - Informatics Saskatoon, SK, Canada jb@desoto.wxe.sk.doe.ca [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, they were quite large by today's standards. My tone-only pager was a very long (six inches?) rather slender thing; when I got a voice unit it was rather large and bulky and weighed about a pound. PAT] ------------------------------ From: nmoss@slacc.com Subject: Re: Mixed Service, Same Premises Organization: SLACC STACK BBS - St. Louis, Missouri Date: Thu, 15 Sep 94 09:10:59 EST In issue 364 of the digest, T. Stephen Eggleston related his problems in obtaining both measured and flat rate service on the same premises. I am in Southwestern Bell territory and operate a BBS for a local computer user group. The system is located in my residence. Approximately one year ago, I contacted SWBT to inquire about converting five of the lines used by the system to measured service from flat rate service (These lines are in a hunt group). I anticipated difficulty with the request but the SWBT rep stated that it would not be a problem if those five lines were billed on a separate bill under the pilot number for the hunt group. Consequently, I have two flat rate lines and five measured lines at the same premises and receive two separate bills. No problems and no hassle from SWBT! Noel Moss nmoss@slacc.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 20:03:37 -0400 From: H. Shrikumar Subject: Re: Secretary, Dept. of Telecom (India) Replaced Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Systems Bombay India In article anil@axcess.net.in wrote: > Just a few hours ago, the Government of India reshuffled secretaries > to the various departments. Perhaps the most surprising change was > that relating to the Department of Telecommunications which has been > in the news for the last several months, due to it's (vocal) (ex) > secretary, the Chairman of the Telecom Commission, India, for his > progressive (read heretic) reform agenda. So it did finally happen ! Yup .. Vittal was also very high profile, (as was Sam Pitroda before him). But Vittal was an old hand at the Indian style of bureaucracy, and knew how to work it in its unique way, so one thought he would last longer. > N. Vittal has been replaced by A.K. Thakkar. Vittal will go back to > his earlier full-time job as the Secretary of the Department of > Electronics. I wonder if it means that the Dept. of Telecom would go back to its earlier full-time role of a ordained-monopoly-with-guaranteed-profitability- no-matter-what. And if the Department of Electronics will go back to its earlier fulltime job as ordained-foil-to-the-DoT ! I would suppose it is too late for that (thankfully). Already it is getting competitive to complete a Delhi-Bombay call via the US. (No kidding, I have actually done that! And you get a free conference with a soul in the US as a bonus :-) And during the brief telecom-spring just past, enough resources have been invested by more than one multi-national-in-partnership, in lobbying for various basic voice service proposals, which run into several billions of dollars. The giant machinery of a mega-corp like Reliance is on the act, ... so the combined forces are probably too strong to counter. However, the loss of a vocal arguer, especially one who preferred bringing high visibility to discussions, rather than parleys behind the closed teak door, would be surely felt. The coming months will say ... Compared to these swinging of the bureaucratic yo-yo, the big cable-IXC-LEC wars in the US seem like a straight Greek play -- build-up, climax and conclusion. Someone will buy the other, and they will live happily ever after. Out there, what you have is more like a unending soap, season after season of the same stuff -- changing relationships, swinging partnerships, with no purpose other than to keep sponsors pouring in, ... and no scriptwriter in his right mind wishing to scribe an end-game. :-) shrikumar ( shri@cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in, X.400 G=Shrikumar S=Hariharasubrahmanian P=itu A=arcom C=CH (yea right :) ------------------------------ From: clawsona@yvax.byu.edu Subject: Re: Cell One NY/NJ is Becoming "Hell One" Date: 14 Sep 94 18:35:43 -0700 Organization: Brigham Young University Well, you have a couple of options with your problem. The easiest is to just leave the phone at home and get a pager. Really. What possible consequence would stem from not being able to talk to somebody for the five minutes that it would require to find a pay phone? That way would be cheaper as well ... ------------------------------ From: ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Allen) Subject: Re: Cell One NY/NJ is Becoming "Hell One" Date: 14 Sep 1994 22:43:15 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC At least Cellular One is better than LA Cellular in regards to fraud prevention, in my experience: I was a paying customer of LA Cellular, and regularly could not receive, or even make, calls using the >only< cell tower I ever used, simply because I had the combination of living, working, playing, eating, shopping, bureaucrating and breathing exclusively in western Hollywood and eastern West Hollywood. I remember many times standing at a payphone and calling my own number ten times with signal strength high and call contention low, and two out of the ten calls would sometimes actually ring on my phone. Replacing the phone with an identical model once, and with another model another time, didn't help. I currently have a claim with the CPUC -- apparently the first with LA Cellular according to the Accounting Dept?! I hardly think so ... anyway, I have to call and see its status. While I get some strange behaviors such as this from Cellular One NYC, thank God it is not >nearly< as bad at LA Cellular, seeing as how 100% of my income comes via calls placed >to< my cellular phone. BTW, the failures usually come in various forms -- with LA Cell, it was trunk busy, forward to voicemail, or an intercept saying I'm not in the coverage area (the last one was rare) when receiving, or no-circuit-available tone when originating, or being unable to reset the forwarding during non-daylight times (the worst!). With Cell One, it is mostly in the form of intercepts saying I'm not in the coverage area (even though I have voicemail) receiving, and my problems with Cell One have been so much less than LA Cell that I can't even remember what other kinds of problems I've had (although I have had a few others). While NYNEX seems to have better coverage in some areas of Manhattan (my primary everything area), I'm scared to deal with them. Bradley Allen , desperately waiting for a land line so I don't have to pay for $600 monthly local receiving call bills ... or for calling-party-pays-call cellular receive or CID or ... ------------------------------ From: museums@aol.com (MUSEUMS) Subject: Re: Cell One NY/NJ is Becoming "Hell One" Date: 14 Sep 1994 23:44:08 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) I am sorry that you are having so many problems. I am just starting a job with the company and I was not aware that there was such a serious problem. Maybe they should do a thorough check to see if your ESN is on some sort of barring lists. I knew that *350 does not work in Canada ... it is in the book ... but you can call customer service to turn that on. What is the fraud protection thing? Do they make you turn it on ... please explain it throughly. I don't know what it is. Thanks, Richard ------------------------------ From: dreuben@netcom.com (Cid Technologies) Subject: Re: Cell One NY/NJ is Becoming "Hell One" Date: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 15:25:45 PDT On Thu Sep 8 18:06:15 1994, stans@panix.com (Stan Schwartz) wrote: > A couple of months ago, I posted my dissatisfaction with attempting to > use my cell phone in Montreal, Canada while roaming from NY with a > "Fraud Protection Feature" on my account. [...] The resolution was to: > A: Have me call customer service before I plan to travel to Canada > again to have them remove my FPF before I travel there. > B: Make a notation on my account so that when I call under condition "A" > I won't get a hard time. > So I believed them. [...] > Saturday night in Toronto, I tried to make a call and I alternately > got a re-order or a CanTel operator. When trying to call in from a > pay phone, I got my voice mail. Ok ... if you tried to dial OUT and got a re-order/fast busy or operator, then I would say that they just didn't remove the Fraud Protection Feature. But you SHOULD have been able to RECEIVE calls and use the Do Not Disturb commands of *350/*35. They DO work in Canada, and all over the NACN, for that matter. (And also in CT and Western Mass for CO/NY customers roaming on Bell Atlantic/Metro Mobile). Did you have Do Not Disturb set to not allow calls while roaming, ie, *35? This would explain why your calls went to voicemail. Yet you SHOULD be able to hit *350 EVEN IF you have the Fraud Protection Feature engaged, and thus bring calls into the Cantel/Toronto system. > I tried to activate call delivery (*350) and that code was not valid in > Toronto. The CanTel rep couldn't tell me what the equivalent code was > there and he wouldn't/couldn't connect me to Cell One NY. The code IS *350 to turn on call delivery. Note that you and most everyone else would NOT need to use this if McCaw were to show a bit more elacrity in having unanswered calls in roaming markets bounce back to your home voicemail. I've found that even in US NACN systems like Albany that frequently the *350/*35 mechanism is either slow or totally inoperative, and thus can't receive calls or force them back to voicemail based on my current needs. This would all *not be necessary* if calls were to bounce back to voicemail between markets where the DOJ does not prohibit this, and NYC <-> Albany would be one of them. > I went down to a pay phone (Bell Canada, with the neat two-line display), > and I called 1-800-242-7327 (CellOne NY customer service). I got the > menu choices and was holding for a rep for about 30 seconds when a > recording came on to tell me that the number I dialed could not be > reached from my calling area. BUT I HAD!!! Unless the Millenium (?) Bell Canada phone was defective, I can't understand why you got that. I've called CO/NY a number of times from Quebec and Ontario, and always got through. Can someone verify that it still works? If not, I'll call them and ask them when they removed it when they are obviously having so many problems in Canada. > [...] I called Cell One's Paramus number and was lucky enough to find that > their switchboard has a voice response option to reach customer > service. Send Cell One/NY the bill for these calls, and explain to them that you couldn't call them any other way. > The rep there tried calling my phone a few times (at one > point she said, "Let me try another way. Hold on."), put me on hold, > and returned to tell me that Toronto IS a NACN city, but because of > the large amount of fraud in the NYC area, I am in a "Pooled Region". > This means that CanTel's system sees that my home area code (516) is > in a high-fraud area and won't complete calls. Nice, eh? "Imagine No > Limits" indeed!!! (The limit is when you reach the Canadian border). Sounds like nonsense to me. I would suggest: 1. Next time you get a rep who doesn't seem too helpful, immediately ask to speak their manager and/or someone in the tech department. Although most CO/NY customer service reps are above average for the cellular industry, very few of them ever seem to use their phones, let alone use them while roaming, and have very little knowledge of what goes on out there. 2. If you are indeed being denied service due to fraud, call CO/NY, tell them the reason you got service with them is because you wanted to receive calls automatically in Toronto, and that whether or not there is a lot of fraud on your range of numbers, YOU want YOUR phone active there. (They can do this, for a very limited range with YOUR number in it.) If they chose not to allow you to automatically roam there due to fraud, tell them they are modifying their contract with you and that you wish to cancel service immediately with NO cancellation penalty to you. (I doubt it will come to this, but just in case...) 3. It sounds to me like you are having a problem with the Fraud Protection feature in addition to the problem with *350/*35 for call delivery which I reported in the Digest over a year ago has not yet been fully fixed. When I was trying out the feature, I noticed a degree of conflict between the two (Fraud Protection and Do No Disturb), but there wasn't a high enough correlation to determine any sort of pattern which I could report to CO/NY. But when I got rid of the Fraud Protection Feature, things went back to more or less normal, and I am encountering only sporadic (although highly annoying) *350/*35 problems in Canada and elsewhere on the NACN. I would suggest that you tell CO/NY to once and for all REMOVE the fraud protection feature from your account PERMANENTLY, or at least until they get their system fixed. I did this, and they totally understood why I was asking to do it and agreed that since I did roam a lot it made sense to do it. You can verify that the feature has been removed if you try to activate/deactivate it in the NY (00025) system and get an error recording. In general, the Fraud Protection Feature has always been buggy -- CO/NY initially wanted it to work everywhere (or everywhere that had auto call delivery). But when they instituted this feature last year, their customers could not place calls in Philly and the rest of ComCast, Connecticut/Western Mass, and some other NACN markets (I had trouble in LA, but LA Cellular was very happy to bill me for lot of calls that just got a re-order ... utter slime down there! LA Cell is an embarrassment to the industry and if they fall into the Pacific as a result of the next unfortunate quake we can take some solace in the fact that it wasn't a total loss! :( ). So eventually CO/NY (which I believe is the east coast test market for the fraud protection feature) decided to implement the feature ONLY within their system. Presently, it should only have an effect on CO/NY customers in the CO/NY system. It may also work in other *Ericsson-based* NACN systems, but it will not have any effect systems operating on other switches, like the Motorolas in ComCast's system. I'm not even sure why they have Fraud Protection -- anyone can clone a phone in NY and then drive to ComCast and make free call from there! Perhaps its easier to spot roamer fraud? I've suggested in the past that McCaw make greater strides towards having ALL NACN markets respond appropriately to the Fraud Protection codes and have a HIGH degree of confidence in the reliability of the feature while roaming before rolling it out. Yet my experiences with the feature were so disapointing that I immediately cancelled it, and its a shame to see that so little progress had been made. The feature is a useful one, and had I been in charge of the project (:) ) I'd make a more diligent effort to implement it in the US and Canada without any of the problems which initially occurred. > CellOne NY/NJ is probably _THE_ most expensive carrier in the country, You should be glad you don't live in LA! Pac*Hell and LA Cell are THE WORST carriers the country -- the FCC should throw away their licenses and start all over again. (Pac*Bell is *slightly* better than LA Cell, though ...) > doesn't offer discounted/unlimited weekends, and they can't provide > dependable roaming. What's the deal!?? Well, I wouldn't go that far: CO/NY has the most comprehensive and low-cost roaming airtime package in the northeast (home airtime, no dailies from Boston to Poughkeepsie to NYC to DC), with reliable call delivery to most of these markets (except Boston, which is WAY behind schedule; Litchfield, CT, which McCaw owns, beats me why no call delivery; and Poughkeepsie. NYNEX has delivery to all of these markets.) CO/NY also offers the use of all of your features in MOST of these markets (no call-waiting in CT yet :( ), AND, if you are in NJ or any ComCast system unanswered calls received while roaming WILL bounce back to voicemail, which is something that NYNEX can't offer. (NYNEX NY also has some pathetic excuse about not offering call forwarding while roaming due to fraud ... yeah, right ...) So I wouldn't say that Cell One/NY is all that bad. What I will say is that despite the good deal of progress which they have made towards making roaming more seamless, they still have a long way to go. The fact that they are STILL having problems with Do Not Disturb (*350/*35) and/or Fraud Protection in Canada many months if not years after being put on notice about this is inexcuseable. What's even more inexcusable is run-around you got when you tried to call them and assist them in correcting the problem for you. All I can say is that if and when *I* run my own cellular company (sure...:) ) my customers will never get silly, ill-informed answers, and I will make sure that advertised features, such as call delivery, worked properly BEFORE I enticed customers to subsribe to my service. Doug Reuben dreuben@netcom.com / CID Technologies / (203) 499 - 5221 P.S. If anyone else is experiencing problems like the above in Canada or in other NACN markets, I'd be interested in hearing about it. Thanks! ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Security Deposit From Local Phone Carrier Date: 14 Sep 1994 17:36:44 -0400 Organization: Oppedahl & Larson In ae446@freenet.carleton.ca (Nigel Allen) writes: > dong@umiacs.umd.edu writes: >> Does anybody know any information about the regulation for >> local phone company charging security deposits? > This varies from telephone company to telephone company, and > individual state public utility commissions may have their own rules > as well. In New York State, the PSC has set a standard list of questions the telco is allowed to ask, and if they get the requisite answers no deposit may be imposed. (The PSC regs list exactly how the answers are to be scored.) In recent years, however, various rules have changed so that the telco is no longer at risk for unpaid long-distance bills -- the long-distance carrier takes the risk. Thus the telco is only at risk for the local calls. This, I believe, is the simplest explanation for why New York Telephone no longer bothers to ask the questions, and yet does not bother to ask for a deposit. Despite all this, New York Telephone is quite insistent that the potential new customer reveal his or her Social Security Number. The customer who wants to get new service without having to reveal the number has to put up quite a fight. Generally the way to shut up the representative who is so pushy about the SSN is to (!) offer to pay a deposit instead. Since New York Tel apparently no longer has convenient mechanisms in place for taking deposits, the rep is stuck, unable to pass the red-faced test; unable to fabricate a compelling reason, given the willingness to pay a deposit, why it is essential to get the SSN. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY oppedahl@patents.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 05:46:02 CDT From: Andrew C. Greeb Subject: Eye Catching Names woody writes (quoting from Bell News, Bell Canada/Bell Ontario, 29 August 1994): > Name display - an option for use with Call Display, one of our > SmartTouch[tm] services - will allow customers to see the name in > addition to the telephone number of the person or business calling > them. Idle thought occurs: Presumably the name displayed is the official billing name of the calling party? Is there a character limit to the length of the displayed text? If I were a telesleaze marketer, it would be nice to take advantage of this feature by going into business under the name "POLICE DEPARTMENT Services, Inc.", "FEDERAL GOVERNMENT Calling, Inc.", or perhaps the more desperate "ANSWER THIS PHONE, Inc." Just wondering. :-) Andrew C. Green (312) 266-4431 Datalogics, Inc. Internet: acg@dlogics.com 441 W. Huron Chicago, IL 60610-3498 FAX: (312) 266-4473 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It has been tried, but the company always loses. Federal law forbids the use of any name which implies, to any person with reasonable intelligence, that the user of the name is connected in any way with the federal government. Nor can you use acronymns or abbreviations which make that implication. For example, a company known as Fat Boy, Inc. could not use 'FBI' as an abbreviation. Here in Chicago several years ago, a fellow started a company called 'The Phone Company' and ran a boiler room operation getting people to sign up for extended warranties on the phones they owned. If you bought one of his warranties you got a monthly bill which very closely resembled your bill from Illinois Bell, even to the extent of having such verbiage as 'other charges and credits' and 'monthly service in advance' (for your warranty coverage) printed on it. As might be expected, Illinois Bell sued him and won the case. They admitted he had the right to repair telephone instruments and offer warranties for the same -- subject to other applicable laws and regulations -- but they vigorously objected to his use of the name 'The Phone Company', which, as it turns out they do not have copyrighted. Telco does not own the phrase 'The Phone Company', but the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Bureau here none the less contended that such a name was misleading, and forbade him to use it. This story appeared in detail here in TELECOM Digest in 1989. Whatever else you do in life, one thing you do NOT do is claim to be a police officer or a government employee/agent unless you really are one. And where large companies and/or utility services like telco, gas, electric and water are concerned, you tread very lightly when it comes to making claims or using similar sounding names. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #365 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa09990; 15 Sep 94 20:55 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11902; Thu, 15 Sep 94 14:55:11 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11892; Thu, 15 Sep 94 14:55:06 CDT Date: Thu, 15 Sep 94 14:55:06 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409151955.AA11892@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #366 TELECOM Digest Thu, 15 Sep 94 14:55:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 366 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson New Members of Ontario's Information Council (Joan McCalla) Colorado NPA 303 Split (Jim Hebbeln) Colorado Assigned New Area Code (Jeff Shaver) 24-Hour Callback Lines Needed (Bruce Hahne) EDI Recommmondation (Phil Khan) Modem Handshake Between Canada and Chile (James Piercy) The Deep Jungle: PLUS, CIRRUS, etc. (Michael O'Brien) Singapore Reaches Digital Milestone! (Thomas Ho Inn Min) Block Local Calls to 800 Number (James Deibele) GTE Mobilnet Woes (Dave Rand) ADSL - What Does it Stand For (Ken Adler) Using Non-ISDN Modems and Fax Machines With ISDN? (Andrew E. Page) Re: Where Do I Pay my NYNEX Bill? (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Where Do I Pay my NYNEX Bill? (Stan Schwartz) Re: Where Do I Pay my NYNEX Bill? (Wes Leatherock) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: mccallj@gov.on.ca (Joan McCalla) Subject: New Members of Ontario's Information Council Organization: Government of Ontario Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 14:06:49 GMT FOUR NEW MEMBERS EXPAND INFORMATION COUNCIL TORONTO - Four new members have been appointed to the Council for an Ontario Information Infrastructure, reflecting its expanded role to include the computing sector, Economic Development and Trade Minister Frances Lankin announced today. "These new appointments will add a wide range of computing industry expertise and knowledge to the council. This will link computing and telecommunications to help build an information infrastructure for Ontario's future economic and social well-being," she said. "Assisting these high tech industries is one of several initiatives we have undertaken to foster the growth of various sectors of the economy by helping them become more competitive and create the high skill, long- term jobs of the future." New members on the 20-member council are: Jim Hayward, Vice-President, Consulting of CGI, Toronto Benjamin J. Mair, President and Founder of Quantum Leap Inc., Toronto Ruth Songhurst, Vice-President of Marketing and Sales for Mortice Kern Systems Inc., Waterloo Jean-Pierre Soubli Ottawa. "We welcome these industry leaders to our council and look forward to their valuable contributions to advancing Ontario's information technology sector and the development of the province's information infrastructure," said council chair Jim Coombs. Representing a partnership between business, labour, and communities, the council is an advisory body to the provincial government on developing strategies to promote the development and use of information technologies. The council recently released its first annual report, Full Speed Ahead, linking telecommunications and computing. The council will also launch a public awareness campaign about the importance of building on the information infrastructure. Bios of the new members are attached Contact: Lucy Rybka-Becker Minister's Office MEDT (416) 325-6909 Martine Holmsen Marketing & Public Affairs Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (416) 325-6687 Joan McCalla Information Infratrsucture Branch MEDT (416) 326-9627 New Members of the Council for an Ontario Information Infrastructure Jim Hayward With a background in engineering, psychology and management consulting, Jim Hayward is Vice-President, Consulting of CGI in Toronto. Jim served as Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Computing Sector Strategy for Ontario and is Acting Director of Information Systems for Spar Aerospace. He has worked on organizational development and training in information systems for such companies as Noranda, Bramalea and Ferranti-Packard as well as Canada's nuclear power industry. Jim is co- founder of Gellman, Hayward & Partners and is active as a member of several charitable boards and committees. Benjamin J. Mair Benjamin Mair is President and Founder of Quantum Leap Inc. of Toronto, a leading interactive multimedia company serving the consumer and professional markets. Prior to 1989, he was a co-founder and Vice-President, Marketing for Heritage Communications Inc. following extensive sales and engineering experience with such companies as LSI Logic Corp., Intel and Litton Systems of Canada. He is co-founder and Chair of the International Multimedia Development Association. Benjamin served on the advisory committees developing strategies for two Ontario sectors, the computing and cultural industries, and is a member of an advisory committee to Canada's Information Highway Advisory Council. Ruth Songhurst Ruth Songhurst is a principal and Vice-President of Marketing and Sales for Mortice Kern Systems Inc., a high-profile Waterloo-based software development firm. Under her leadership, MKS launched Internet Anywhere, a mass market software program to provide easy Windows access to Internet mail and news. Ruth was active in forming a computer technology network in Canada's "technology triangle" of Guelph, Cambridge and Kitchener- Waterloo. Her firm, MKS, has been cited for three consecutive years by Profit magazine as one of Canada's fastest-growing companies and by Software magazine as one of the top 100 software companies to watch. Jean-Pierre Soubli Jean-Pierre Soubli International in 1994 following a 17-year career with the company. During this period he occupied a series of increasingly responsible management positions. Prior to joining SHL, he worked for Canada Post Corp., Carleton University and Northern Telecom. Jean-Pierre is active in a wide range of business, university and charitable organizations. He is on the Board of the Canadian Advanced Technology Association, the Carleton Education Network and the Ottawa-Carleton Development Corporation. He is also a member of the Carleton University Presidential Advisory Council and served as campaign chair of the United Way/Centraide Ottawa-Carleton in 1989-90. Backgrounder: The Council for an Ontario Information Infrastructure An advisory committee to the Minister of Economic Development and Trade on developing an information infrastructure (computing and telecommunications); Consists of 20 business, labour and community representatives; Established in 1993; held inaugural meeting May 28, 1993; Original mandate: to campaign for an Ontario information infrastructure under the province's telecommunications strategy; Mandate later broadened, on recommendation of the Computer Sector Advisory Committee, to include computing sector strategy; Issued first annual report, Full Speed Ahead, in July 1994. New, broadened mandate: Raise public awareness of information technology; Advise on development of Ontario's information infrastructure and development of information technology industries; Recommend new computing and telecommunications initiatives under the government's Ontario Network Infrastructure Program, the Sector Partnership Fund and similar programs; Advise on the Ontario government's use of information technology; Four members from computing industry added to council in Sept. 1994 to support new mandate. The Council for an Ontario Information Infrastructure Membership List Chair: Jim Coombs, former President and Chief Executive Officer ofSaskatchewan Telecommunications (SaskTel). Vice Chair: Don Tapscott, President of New Paradigm Learning Corporation. Vice Chair: Sheelagh Whittaker, President of EDS Canada. Members: Andrew K. Bjerring, President and Chief Executive Officer of CANARIE (Canadian Network for the Advancement of Research Industry and Education). Dr. Barbara Cameron, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Atkinson College in York University. Kim Cameron, a co-founder and the Vice-President of Technology of ZOOMIT Corporation and BCH Information Systems Inc. Desmond Cunningham, Chairman of Gandalf Technologies Inc. and past Chairman of the Canadian Advanced Technology Association. Douglas Cunningham, Vice President and Director, Investment Banking of Wood Gundy Inc. Brian Davey, a Deputy Grand Chief for the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation. Jim Hayward, Vice-President, Consulting of CGI. Richard Long, Administrative Vice-President, Ontario Region of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP). John D. MacDonald, retired senior executive in information technology with Bell Northern Research, Northern Telecom Canada Ltd and NT Limited. Benjamin Mair, President and Founder of Quantum Leap Inc. and Chair of the International Multimedia Development Association. Janice M. Moyer, president and chief executive officer of the Information Technology Association of Canada. Hasan Y. Naqvi, President/owner of CM Inc. Rory O'Brien, Programme Manager at Nirv Community Resource Centre in Toronto. Kirk Reiser, Manager of the Computer Braille Facility at the University of Western Ontario. Ruth Songhurst, a principal and Vice-President of Marketing and Sales for Mortice Kern Systems Inc. Jean-Pierre Soubli Harriet Velasquez, Vice President, Delivery Program at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 08:16:59 From: jim@Telcom.OTC.ColoState.EDU (Jim Hebbeln) Subject: Colorado NPA 303 Split U S West announced September 14, 1994, that Colorado Area Code 303 will be split into two NPAs 303 and 970. Permissive dialing to NPA 970 will begin April 2, 1995. Mandatory dialing of NPA 970 then begins October 1, 1995. NPA 303 will continue to serve the Denver Metro calling area, Boulder, Longmont, Fort Lupton, and surrounding suburbs. (Relative to the rest of the state, this is a "little" circle about 80 miles across.) New NPA 970 will serve Northern Colorado (Fort Collins, Loveland, Greeley, Sterling) and the Western Slope (Grand Junction, Durango, Aspen, Vail, Steamboat Springs). Jim Hebbeln 303-491-1014 (970-491-1014!) Colorado State University Telecommunications Fort Collins, CO 80523 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 22:37:34 -0600 (MDT) From: Jeff Shaver Subject: Colorado Assigned New Area Code According to the late news on KCNC TV (Denver, Colorado) 9/14/94, Colorado has been assigned an additional area code. The map indicated that 303 will shrink to serve mainly the Denver metro area. Everything else that was previously served by 303 will be switched to the new area code, 970 (basically all of northern and western Colorado). Area code 719 will not be affected. The change is to take effect beginning April 2, 1995. jshaver@panesu.esu14.k12.ne.us ------------------------------ From: hahne@netcom.com (Bruce Hahne) Subject: 24-Hour Callback Lines Needed Date: 15 Sep 1994 05:16:34 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway I'm doing some investigation on behalf of a company which wants to purchase two to four callback accounts (more in the future) which will be used 24 hours a day to call from Japan to the U.S. They want to pay one flat monthly fee in exchange for the right to use the call-back circuits continuously. I'm aware of numerous companies offering per-minute rates, but I don't yet know of anybody offering the same at a per-month rate, hopefully with a sizable discount over the standard per-minute rates. If you work for a company which could offer such a flat rate for callback accounts, please feel free to contact me. Yes, I'm aware that normal human beings in this situation would go talk to the phone company to get leased lines, but due to numerous stupidities in Japanese telecommunications law, this needs to be done via call-back technology or something very similar. These lines will be used to bring Internet access into Japan, so if you can offer this service you'll be helping us poor net-deprived folks in Japan to get more connected. Thanks, Bruce Hahne hahne@acm.org Work: +81-3-5330-9380 Fax: +81-3-5330-9381 ------------------------------ Subject: EDI Recommmondation From: phil.khan@uttsbbs.ness.com (Phil Khan) Date: Tue, 15 Sep 94 08:59:00 -0800 Organization: The Transfer Station BBS, Danville, CA - 510-837-4610/837-5591 Reply-To: phil.khan@uttsbbs.ness.com (Phil Khan) Hello All ! Does anyone know a good PC EDI package (under dos or windows) that can be used to receive orders from other EDI packages "Directly"? P.S. "Directly" <==> Does not need to retrive them from third party EDI mail box (IBM EDI info exchange for example). Your recommendation is greatly appreciated. The Transfer Station BBS (510) 837-4610 & 837-5591 (V.32bis both lines) Danville, California, USA. 1.5 GIG Files & FREE public Internet Access ------------------------------ From: jpiercy@nbnet.nb.ca (James Piercy) Subject: Modem Handshake Between Canada and Chile Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 08:37:53 GMT Organization: NB*Net Here's a question that I am sure has a simple answer. One of our computers is now in Chile. It has a 14400 Sportster modem (internal) being controlled by PcAnywhere for Windows. This hookup worked fine here in Canada at 14400 V42.BIS. The computer is now installed in Chile and the modems will not handshake. There was one exception when we did manage a handshake and established a PcAnywhere session at 9600 BAUD (Modem speed set back from my end). The software worked flawlessly throughout this session. Handshake did not sound normal on this occassion however, but we did hear the "white noise" of the digital communication. Have tried many times since with no "white noise" and no joy. Audio quality on the line is good. Answer tone sounds normal, but gets cut off prematurely and is followed by a steady tone for 30 seconds or so and then the dial tone on my end. Oh yes, the Chileans have been able to dial into the modem from within Chile, and get as far as the request for a password, so they are definitely past the modem handshake. They report no problem to do this. I would really appreciate any input that I can get on this. Thanks, Jim Piercy ------------------------------ From: obrien@aero.org (Michael O'Brien) Subject: The Deep Jungle: PLUS, CIRRUS, etc. Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 13:57:05 GMT Organization: The Aerospace Corporation I recently took a trip up through Nevada and Utah and discovered a highly unpleasant fact: Banks in that strip of territory have started putting fees on their ATM machines up front. In the past, fees for ATM transactions have generally been levied by one's own home bank. But with these banks, you can get hit up both at the front end AND the back end. I decided that a little consumer advocacy was called for, and called my credit union to see if they wouldn't register a complaint with Cirrus. Not only wouldn't they do that, they wouldn't even give me the phone number of the Cirrus network. In fact, they didn't even seem to see what my point was. Their attitude was that banks could join any network they pleased, and the notion that the network might require certain things of these banks (like, no front-loaded fees) was so completely alien to them that they didn't even know what I was talking about. That's when it occurred to me that the operations of networks like PLUS, Cirrus, et al. are closed shops. The public never sees them and we never see them. On this list we know that ATM machines are (or at least used to be, last I heard) gussied-up 4270 terminals running the old IBM polling protocol, but about Cirrus and the like, I've not heard a word. Anybody got the skinny on these nets? Phone numbers? Advocacy groups? Is there any oversight at all? Mike O'Brien obrien@aero.org ------------------------------ From: tho@iscs.nus.sg (Thomas Ho Inn Min) Subject: Singapore Reaches Digital Milestone! Date: 15 Sep 1994 01:06:26 GMT Organization: National University of Singapore From a recent issue of {Straits Times}, Friday, Sept 2 1994, p. 2 (Life! section): "Telecom goes 100 per cent digital" Singapore's telecommunications system took another big step towards the 21st century yesterday. At a ceremony officiated by Mr. Mah Bow Tan, Minister for Communications and the Environment, Singapore Telecom commemorated the total digitalisation of its telephone network. This makes the Republic one of the first countries to have such a network. Telecom's transmission network and all its 28 telephone exchanges are now digital. Dr. Thomas I. M. Ho WWW WWW http://biomed.nus.sg:80/people/tho.html WWW WWW Senior Fellow National University of Singapore Department of Information Systems & Computer Science Internet: tho@iscs.nus.sg ------------------------------ From: jamesd@teleport.com (James Deibele) Subject: Block Local Calls to 800 Number Date: 15 Sep 1994 15:32:41 -0700 Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 We have been asked to submit a bid to a government agency that wants to make information available all over the state. We currently have service in two major cities (well, as Oregon goes -- this ain't New Yawk) and hope to be in others by the end of the year. In the interests of cutting costs, we'd like to things up like so: we publicize a voice 800 number. The voice 800 number gives the Portland number, the Salem number, and a data 800 number for people who don't live in Portland or Salem. So far so good. The cost reduction comes (we hope) by not allowing someone in Portland or Salem to use the data 800 number. We supply (if necessary) a list of prefixes that we don't want used to the phone company providing the 800 data number. If someone in Portland tries to use the 800 number they get a recording or a busy signal or something. They never get through. There are a lot of advantages to having an 800 number -- a data line -- to promote. But I'm afraid that it will be very expensive and a lot of people who call a local number either won't realize it or just not care -- it's "free" right? I'd appreciate hearing whether this is possible and who might be able to deliver it. I thank you and the taxpayers will thank you. :-) jamesd@teleport.com "7104 newsgroups & nothing on ..." Full internet (ftp, telnet, irc, ppp) available. Voice: (503) 223-4245 Portland: (503) 220-1016 2400, N81. Login as "new" to setup an account. Vancouver: (206) 260-0330 Salem: (503) 364-2028 FAX: (503) 223-4372 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Restricted 800 numbers, available from only certain areas, are very common. This should provide no problem for your local telco to implement. Callers not entitled to reach the number usually get an intercept saying 'the 800 number you have called is not dialable (or reachable) from your calling area.' PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Sep 94 06:04:00 PDT From: dlr@daver.bungi.com (Dave Rand) Subject: GTE Mobilnet Woes I currently subscribe to Cellular One for my cellular telephone service. Recently, I purchased a new telephone for my wife, and (on the advice of the dealer), signed a one year contract for GTE Mobilnet service. When I first started out using cellular telephones, about two years ago, I used GTE. I found at that time that they were charging two to three TIMES the AT&T standard rate for intra-state calls, and also had a significant markup on international calls. I was told by GTE (then as now) that GTE does not rate long distance calls, but simply passes on the bill to the consumer from AT&T. This is not true. I was finally able to convince a GTE supervisor to call AT&T to verify the rates on a number of my calls, and they were very surprised to find that I was correct, GTE was in fact billing several times the AT&T rate. The error was dismissed as having "an old billing tape loaded". I was issued a credit of over $100 -- for calls dating back at least ten months. Can you imagine a billing tape loaded incorrectly, for ten months? I then asked about correcting the bills of the thousands of other customers affected by this "error", and I was told that it would be too hard to do. When I subscribed with GTE again, I was very suspicious. I called multiple times, and was given various conflicting information. Each person that I spoke to was absolutely convinced that they were correct. 1. We use AT&T for our long distance service, and you are billed by them - call AT&T for rate information. 2. You are billed your regular airtime rate, plus your regular airtime rate for long distance (ie: 0.75/min airtime plus 0.75/min LD for a call to Australia!). 3. We use AT&T or Sprint, whichever is cheaper for the call you make. We look at the time of day, and the place that you are calling, and make the selection for you, based on the cost of the call. (But they were unable to tell me how much any call in particular would cost -- the CSR got very upset when I pointed out that they could not route the call the cheapest way unless they knew how much it would cost). 4. You may select either AT&T or Sprint for your long distance service, and be billed directly by them. You may also use a calling card. 5. We charge the AT&T business rate plus a 3% surcharge. 6. We buy time in bulk from AT&T and Sprint, and bill you for the time that you use. But we don't know exactly how much we charge (the only correct answer). This one was from a supervisor. Since those conversations, I have asked for a copy of the rate tariff that GTE uses to bill calls. GTE Mobilnet sent me a copy of the California intrastate portion of the tariff, and I have confirmed that this agrees with the current AT&T rate information for calls within California (rougly 0.15/0.14 day, 0.13/0.11 evening and 0.12/0.10 night). They told me (verbally, and on the FAX) that they are not required to file a tariff for interstate and international calls. I find this unlikely, but I do have it in writing. They have still been unable to tell me how much three sample calls that I have provided will cost me. I have confirmed that GTEM does resell long distance, and should be able to provide long distance rate information. Further, GTEM does not offer Equal Access, and has no plans to do so. If anyone else subscribes to GTE Mobilenet in the Bay Area, and uses long distance services (including Follow-Me-Roaming), please get in touch with me for the latest information. ------------------------------ From: ken@hk.net (Ken Adler) Subject: ADSL - What Does it Stand For? Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 01:09:07 Organization: Penril Datability Networks (Asia/Pacific) In the context of teleco network ... which is the proper translation of this acronym: asynchronous digital subscriber loop asymetric digital subscriber line. A short explanation of each would be appreciated. Thanks, Ken [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is just a reminder to readers that the Telecom Archvies has several acronymn/glossary files available. If you want them, you can use anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu to get them. When logged in, cd telecom-archives/glossaries. On the other hand you can also use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service to request individual entries from the glossary files. Your entry would look like this: mail to tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu. The subject does not matter. REPLY yourname@site (this must be first) GLOSSARY argument GLOSSARY argument END (this must be last) 'argument' is the acronymn you are searching for, as in this example: GLOSSARY MFJ or GLOSSARY ISDN. Do not use periods or spaces between the letters. When your email hits the script at MIT which handles the archives inquiries, several of the glossary files will be grepped looking for what you want, and the answers returned in email to you, generally within minutes or less. Try it out for fun. If you need a copy of the help file showing how to use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service in general, just write me and ask for a copy. I will probably print it here soon anyway. PAT] ------------------------------ From: aep@world.std.com (Andrew E Page) Subject: Using non-ISDN Modems and Fax Machines With ISDN? Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 16:57:10 GMT I am going to be adding a second phone line to my office. I'm considering ISDN since I've checked and it is available in my area. However there are a couple of things that I need to know. Can exising(e.g. non-ISDN) modems (V.42bis etc) and fax machines be used with ISDN voice channel? Many of my online services, clients and colleagues do not have ISDN. In order to communicate with them I would need to be able to use non-ISDN modems and faxes. Andrew E. Page (Warrior Poet) Mac Consultant Macintosh and DSP Technology ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Where Do I Pay my NYNEX Bill? Date: 15 Sep 1994 07:40:35 -0400 Organization: Oppedahl & Larson In ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Allen) writes: > Does anybody know where to send my payment for my NYNEX bill? > I have all this cash and a NYNEX account that's due around now, and I > can't find an address to pay it. I'm worried they're going to turn > off my phone! > The billing line, 212-890-2100, is busy every time I call. > I called the administrative offices, and after holding for 25 minutes, > they told me an address at 412 W. 36th St. I went there and it was > closed. The Manhattan telephone directory has a place (pages 33 and 34) that lists all the places you can go to pay your bill in person. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY oppedahl@patents.com ------------------------------ From: stans@panix.com (Stan Schwartz) Subject: Re: Where Do I Pay my NYNEX Bill? Date: 15 Sep 1994 08:40:59 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't really believe some of the mail > I get from one day to the next. This is a good example. I would suggest > to our correspondent that you wait until NYNEX renders a bill for the > service. There will be an envelope enclosed to be used for payment, and > an address on the statement enclosed. I don't really think they are > going to cut you if you wait until their bill arrives and then pay it > in a timely way upon presentation. Is there something I am missing here > somewhere? PAT] Pat: Maybe this person has a past due bill. I don't know how Ameritech works, but NYNEX has become fairly strict about due dates and service restrictions. They also no longer publish payment center locations in the local directory (they're usually stationery stores and supermarkets and they change very often). Bradley: Call the NYNEX President's Help Line at 1-800-722-2300. I'm sure that someone there will have a location list for you. Stan ------------------------------ From: wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu Date: Thu, 15 Sep 94 10:19:28 GMT Subject: Re: Where Do I Pay my NYNEX Bill? Have you looked in the telephone directory? Many telephone companies have a list of offices which accept payment and payment agencies in the information pages at the front of the directory. Many telephone company business offices have a "night depository" (but usually available day and night) where bills can be paid; often there is such a depository at the administrative offices. As a matter of fact, probably the question most asked of the security desk at the administrative office is "where can I pay my bill?" But of course Pat's correct; if they haven't even sent a bill yet, and haven't called asking for advance payment because of high toll, it's unlikely they're worried at all or planning to cut off your service. In any event, the Public Service Commission undoubtedly has rules requiring notice to, probably in writing, before they can cut off your service. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Around here, you can either go to one of a couple actual telephone company offices to pay or you can pay at an agency. Usually the agencies handle all utilities, not just phone. A few are 'online' with the utilities, meaning as soon as you pay them it is immediatly recorded at the telco business office. Most agents however are 'manual' and they have to submit batch payments to the utility companies each day. The trick, for an old deadbeat like me is to pay at an online agency so the payment will be recorded immediatly (thus avoiding a service cut) but the check does not get deposited until it actually reaches telco sometimes a week later! I generally go to the Howard/Ridge Currency Exchange to pay my utility bills. The agent there has an online terminal to IBT. I pay by check and take my reciept over to the payphone to call the IBT collection office to give them the payment advice, 'transaction XXX by agent YY in the amount of $$$'. The IBT collector looks it up on his terminal at the same time. That of course prevents the cut which was pending, usually for the same or next day; or if I was cut it gets me turned back on usually within an hour or two. But Howard/Ridge *used to* only batch the paperwork and checks twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday. I'd pay on Tuesday just after the batch was cut so my check got held over until Friday, with IBT actually getting it the following Tuesday. If they were running behind in the remittance room, the check would not hit my bank until a few days later. It took no effort at all to get seven to ten working days 'float', meaning I paid my phone bill whether the money was in the bank or not! Then one day Howard/Ridge had a sign posted on the wall: "No More Stalling!" with a smiley face drawn on the sign. It said henceforth all checks in payment of Illinois Bell accounts would be deposited *same day* direct to the Federal Reserve without recourse to Howard/ Ridge. Sure enough, I paid on Tuesday and the check *hit my account on Wednesday, with Illinois Bell getting the NSF condition on their system on Thursday*. Even though I made the check payable to IBT (Howard/Ridge refuses to accept checks payable to themselves for any of their utility clients) the agent had deposited it direct. The endorsement on the back said 'pay to the order of the payee named, Howard/Ridge as agents of payee, no recourse'. The federal reserve endorsement was there as well. When IBT called me just two days later to say my check had not cleared and I had until five that afternoon to show up with cash in hand at the agency I was astounded. I went with the money, but it happened to be one of the days each month when the State of Illinois welfare checks are issued (Illinois Department of Public Aid is also a client of Howard/Ridge) and even with four agents on duty the line stretched out the door and down Howard Street for half a block as the welfare mothers with their squalling brats and the food stamp recipients waiting to get their money and rations for the month stood in line with all the deadbeats waiting to get their phone or gas/electric service turned back on. No more stalling, indeed! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #366 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10213; 15 Sep 94 21:07 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA12969; Thu, 15 Sep 94 15:25:07 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA12961; Thu, 15 Sep 94 15:25:02 CDT Date: Thu, 15 Sep 94 15:25:02 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409152025.AA12961@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #367 TELECOM Digest Thu, 15 Sep 94 15:25:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 367 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson First Northwest Internet Business Conference (Internet Group) New NACN Systems in NY With Voicemail; Some Bugs (Douglas Reuben) AT&T "You Will" Ads on Internet (Andrew B. Myers) NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Sanjiv Narayan) Cellphones and Smoke Alarms (John R. Covert) Looking For DTMF to Ascii Encoding Schemes (Goh Tiong Hwee) Old Western Electric/Telephone Items for Sale (Russ Pate) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: igi@halcyon.com (Internet Group) Subject: First Northwest Internet Business Conference Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 02:58:49 -0800 Organization: Internet Group THE INTERNET WAY OF BUSINESS At last the business conference like no other ... learning to sell services and products via the global Internet. The Internet Way of Business will be an overview for entrepreneurs seeking a clear, forthright presentation on commercial use of the most powerful information and communications tool in the world -- the Internet. September 21, 1994 8:30 am to 3:30 pm Shoreline Community College Free parking 16101 Greenwood Avenue North Check-in : 7:45 Seattle, Washington 98133 USA Lunch 12:30 pm Sponsors: Internet Group, Inc. Microsoft Digital Equipment G.T.E. Corporate Computer,Inc Northwest Nexus NovX Systems Integration Ballard Computer KUOW 94.9 FM Puget Sound Business Journal Shoreline College Foundation Participants will join other professionals and executives to * grasp the Internet as a strategic business tool * witness local firms creating revenues on the Internet * reach beyond boundaries to a new customer base * observe Internet technology applied in daily commerce * conduct toll-free intercontinental business research * recognize Seattle as the port of Internet trade * clarify pending telecommunications legislative issues * win software, services, books, and other prizes * locate Internet training consultants and facilities * find ways to reduce their communications overhead * learn why their enterprises may be Internet ready Presented by Internet Group, Inc. POST: 93 Pike Street, Suite 308 Seattle, WA 98101 USA E-MAIL: igi@halcyon.com GOPHER: gopher.seattle.wa.us TEL: 206.236.9559 or 206.780.2245 FAX: 206.842.6974 SEATTLE AREA LODGING Ramada Inn (North Seattle, off hwy.I-5) 2140 N. Northgate Way; Rates $86-99;Tel 1.800.228.2828 or 206.365.0700 Edgewater Inn (Seattle waterfront) Pier 67;Rates $145; Tel 1.206.728.7000; Mayflower Park (downtown Seattle) 4th & Olive Way;Rate $100-110; Tel 1.800.426.5100 Stouffer Madison (downtown Seattle) 515 Madison; Rates $119-164; Tel 1.800.468.3571 --------------COPY & E-MAIL REGISTRATION---------------- THE INTERNET WAY OF BUSINESS September 21, 1994 Seattle, Washington USA Name__________________________Title_______________Company___________________ Address_____________________________________________________________________ Nature of Business_________________________________________________________ Telephone_____________________________FAX___________________________________ E-Mail________________________________ Names of additional attendees: ________________________________________________ Size of company (Check one) : __1-10 __10-50 __50-100 __100-200 __ 200+ FOR RESERVATIONS: CALL: (206) 236-9559 or (206) 780-2245 FAX (206) 842-6974 MAIL : INTERNET GROUP,INC., 93 Pike St., Suite 308, Seattle, WA 98101 Fee: $125 per person (lunch included). After Sept. 14, fee $150. Payment for each attendee required with reservation. Total paid $_________ ____Check enclosed, payble to Internet Group, Inc. ____Charge to credit card Name on Card :_________________ Exp. date ______ ____MasterCard___VisaCard #__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ _ Refunds are only applicable to cancellations received in writing by 9/14/94. THE INTERNET WAY OF BUSINESS: FEATURED SPEAKERS: Bret Arsenault Architecture Engineer, Microsoft Mr. Arsenault's extensive knowledge of multiple operating systems and networking technologies accounts for his strategic role in assisting Microsoft in their overall enterprise networking strategy. Bruce Chapman President, Discovery Institute Mr. Chapman's long career in public life has included service as director of the U.S. Census Bureau, Ambassador to the United Nations Organizations in Vienna, Austria, and head of the White House Office of Planning and Evaluation. Doug Dix Publisher, Communicating As a former Bell Labs communications expert, Mr. Dix's early Internet experience was with the original ARPANET. Communicating is published bi-monthly for the Puget Sound region. Herb Effron President, Seagopher Inc. After a military and defense career,Mr. Effron currently seeks to enable the Seattle public and commercial interests successful access to Internet communications. Rex B. Hughes VP Marketing, Corporate Computer Inc. Specializing in systems and market integration for premier northwest firms, Mr. Hughes has keen interest in showing US businesses how to re-define themselves for a worldwide Internet presence. Stan Kopec, Jr. Network Consultant, Network Integration Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) With twelve years of LAN/WAN networking experience Mr. Kopec currently delivers presales consulting to Digital's clients. Jenni Livingston Product Manager Business Network Services, G.T.E. Ms. Livingston is responsible for strategy development and implementation of GTE's Internet programs. She was a featured speaker at Spring Internet World '94 and Interop '93. Ed Morin Founder & President, Northwest Nexus Mr. Morin directs the full service Internet connectivity of Northwest Nexus, a major regional Internet provider. He has administered network infrastructure for major corporations such as Motorola, McCaw, Tektronix, and University of Washington. Bob Rican G.T.E., Network Technologies Solutions Consultant An EE consultant currently assisting GTE sales force with planning long range technology solutions, Mr. Rican brings broad experience within the Northwest telecommunications industry. Martin Rood CEO, Rood Nissan Volvo Mr. Rood has established Dealernet on the Internet for automobile dealers to provide information about products and services to present and potential customers. Tom Rose Senior Applications Engineer, G.T.E. Northwest As an applications engineer Rose works in support of all GTE consultants. With 25 years experience, he develops vital technical solutions for major GTE projects. Walter Taucher President, Corporate Computer Inc. Mr. Taucher designed and implemented the largest Microsoft LAN Manager (district wide Internet) for Issaquah School District. His company built and managed the network infrastructure for the 1992 Goodwill Games, Seattle. Dr. John G. West, Jr. Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute Director of educational programs at Discovery Institute, Dr. West heads Discovery's program on religion, liberty, and civic life. Stuart White President, NovX Systems Integration Mr. White, former domestic account manager for Perot Systems, directs one of the first national integrator, NOVX, a subsidiary of Spry, Inc. ------------------------------ From: dreuben@netcom.com (Cid Technologies) Subject: New NACN Systems in NY With Voicemail; Some Bugs Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 03:02:37 PDT I just got finished in a recent TELECOM Digest submission noting how there were still problems with the NACN in terms of turning on and off Call Delivery via *350/*35 and how this would not be necessary if roaming calls bounced to voicemail, and the VERY next day I find two new systems on the NACN which seem to do this! I noticed that the Cellular One of Upstate NY (01513) and Cell One/Orange County, NY (00479, a Vanguard Cellular Property) are now on the NACN! Cell One/NY and other NACN customers can now get call delivery in these two areas automatically. These two systems mainly cover the Western side of the Hudson River from the CO/NY (00025) system to the hick Catskills (01515) system just below McCaw Cell One/Albany (00063) system. There is a good deal of spillover to the Eastern side of the Hudson, into the Cell One/Dutchess County system, particularly north of Poughkeepsie. The Cell One of Upstate NY (01513) system is located in Kingston, NY, about 25 miles north of Poughkeepsie and on the western side of the river. It's coverage extends pretty far west and covers the New York State Thruway (I-87) from south of where the Catskills system leaves off to where the Orange County system begins (I think Cell One/Dutches may bleed in a bit between the two). It also comes in on the east of the river immediately north of Poughkeepsie. This system has all the standard McCaw recordings with the standard male voice, and all switch codes begin with "KI", and in "KI-32", etc. (Is it a McCaw system, or a recently acquired one? I don't remember the same switch messages from a month or two ago ...) The Cell One/Orange County (00479) system as starts just north of where the CO/NY (00025) system leaves off, in a line running more or less along US-6, near Bear Mountain, all the way north until the Catskills (01515) system. (01515 is a little hick system which for the longest time didn't have Nationlink/Roam America, and basically sat on Thruway/US-9 corridor roamer traffic. CO/NY customers don't get Nationlink anyhow, but I would have used it with my other accounts until the equally lousy "B" side (Valley Cellular, 01516) got Follow-Me-Roaming, which they recently did, thankfully! But of course no connection with NYNEX's auto-call delivery network, God-forbid! ;) ). I didn't notice the McCaw switch recordings on the Orange County system, although they may also have them. All features work VERY nicely in both systems -- they are truly seamless, and you would be hard-pressed if you didn't know the SIDs to tell that you weren't in the NY/00025 system! (They don't seem to be Ericssons as far as I can tell, and no clicks, so not a Motorola EMX; maybe some Northern Telecoms?) Call-delivery is instant: once you register your calls come up to you immediately. Call-Waiting works very nicely, and there isn't that IS-41 RevA problem where if you get two calls within a minute or so the second one gets bounced right to voicemail (as happens with Philly which is connected via IS-41 RevA). The call-waiting tones are slightly different -- two short Motorola-like beeps, but much faster and more "clean" sounding. Call-Forwarding is also excellent, and response time, like the rest of the NACN is immediate. (Well, almost , see below...) BUT the best part -- which solves something I've been complaining about for a long time -- is that unanswered calls WILL go back to voicemail! This also includes unanswered Call-Waiting calls, which is something new to me. (In ComCast, the only other system(s) on the NACN which I know of that do this, the new EMX 7.2 software they have been trying out in conjunction with IS-41 RevA will NOT let a call-wait bounce back to voicemail, which can be annoying if you are on an important call and don't want to interrupt it to answer the call-waiting/second call.) I tired this extensively in both systems and it works VERY well. Thus, if you take your phone and roam on either system, it will function in EVERY WAY the same as it would in your home NACN market, which in my opinion is a very important and productive step forward! So finally Cell One/NY is catching up with NYNEX, which has had its (pathetically slow and awkward) version of call-delivery set up for a long time, especially to Orange County. It is now possible to drive up from Wilmington, DE to NYC and then up the Thruway all the way to Albany and get automatic call delivery and all your features AND unanswered calls bounce back to voicemail! (Well, some things like Call Waiting still don't work south on NYC, but as soon as ComCast puts in EMX generic 7.2 [when?] this should be fixed. In addition, unanswered calls while in Albany will NOT bounce back to voicemail, unless things have changed since last month.). There is of course that gap at the Catskills system where nothing will work, but other than that you are pretty much covered all the way! As to the bugs: 1. The Upstate 01513 system hasn't put in the correct confirmation codes: Each time you enter a feature-code (sorry for the EMX lingo :) ) like *71,*72,*350, etc, you get a "KI-32" error code, yet your home NACN switch will respond and obey whatever command you issued. IE, it just SEEMS like your command wasn't processed, when in fact it was. 2. The amount of ring time is a BIT too short. I don't mind it too much -- I usually answer on the first ring or so, but normally you get five carphone rings (what you in the car hear) before it bounces to voicemail. In the two systems here, there are usually only four. Not a big deal, it just may take getting used to. 3. The *350/*35 codes aren't EXACTLY immediate. I'm noticing a one-minute or so lag time between issuing the command and having call-delivery turned "on" or "off". This is NOT a big issue here since you don't really need to use the feature: As I noted above, calls DO bounce back to voicemail, so I doubt many people will use it. (As if many people use *350/*35 anyhow.. :( ) 4. The most notable "bug" seems to involve registration back in your home system. I tried this three times, ie, register in the Orange County/00479 system and then come back to the NY/00025 system and see if I get calls. Each time, I didn't, and calls were STILL being sent up to the Orange County system even though I was in the NY/00025 system. I even placed a call to 611 (Customer Service), and then called myself while on hold, and got Call-Waited just fine. However, any call placed to me when I was not actually on CO/NY's air STILL went up to Orange County. I tried *35, and all this did was force calls to voicemail and then after I turned delivery back on calls went right back to Orange County. I recall a similar problem with cross-Long Island Sound registrations between the NY and the Rhode Island (00119) system, and having a similar problem. For some reason, the Home Location Register (?) seems to lose track of you, and you stay registered in the last system you were roaming in even though you came back to NY and registered and even forced a registration by placing a call! This was also a frequent problem a few months ago if you were caught roaming in Philly or DE at the same time CO/NY was doing switch work back home. You'd get back to NY, but no matter what you could not get calls -- they would all go down to Philly and then bounce over to your voicemail (unless you were ON the phone in NY, in which case for the duration of the call you could get calls via Call-Waiting). An easy way to correct this is to turn your phone completely off for at least ten minutes, and then power back up again. You should then be correctly registered in the NY system and be able to receive calls normally. This is a bit awkward, however, and it would be nice if they could work on this so that the above procedure is not necessary in the future. (The CO/NY system was having trouble this weekend, so I may have been caught in Orange County during system work in NY, I dunno. This may no longer happen once the problems are cleared away in NY.) I assume roaming charges are standard NACN: no daily, 99 cents per minute at all times. However, it would be in CO/NY's interest to add the 00479 system to its "Extended Home Rate" area, as it already has done with the non-call delivery (yet..) US Cellular/Poughkeepsie (00503) market. NYNEX gives its customers a slight discount in their Orange County (00404) system. Anyhow, overall, a VERY impressive addition to the NACN. I'm glad to see that McCaw and I have similar interests in terms of total- seamlessness, especially when it comes to unanswered calls bouncing to voicemail. Now let's see if they can get their software upgraded so that they can do this on the NACN's Ericssons! :) (I've been told that the software for either the Ericsson or the SS7 links between them won't currently allow for this, yet Cantel does it within Canada and non-SS7 (?) linked Ericssons, such as NY<->Newton, NJ seem to do this just fine, so why can't whatever software be upgraded so all non-DOJ constrained NACN sites do this as well?) BTW, I think ALL of Vanguard is going on to the NACN. I was driving over the I-95 Havre deGrace bridge where you pick up the Harrisburg system for a second it IT responded to *350 with a confirmation tone! So many other systems (DE 00123, PA 00029 and DC/Baltimore 00013) mesh with each other there that it was hard to tell what was going on, though. I'll try out the Vanguard properties in northeastern PA (00103, the old "Vanguard/Cellular One Supersystem") and see if they are on the NACN as well. Maybe I'll stop at Havre deGrace on the way down to DC next time and see if Harrisburg is on the NACN if I can get a clear signal. Doug Reuben dreuben@netcom.com / CID Technologies / (203) 499 - 5221 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Sep 94 15:10:08 EDT From: myers@hogpa.ho.att.com (Andrew B Myers) Subject: AT&T "You Will" Ads on Internet AT&T YOU WILL ADS ON INTERNET; USERS CAN ENTER SWEEPSTAKES NEW YORK, Sept. 14, 1994 -- AT&T's YOU WILL(SM) ad campaign, which has captured the nation's attention in magazines, and on TV and radio for the past two years, has a new home in cyberspace. It's called "youwill.com." The YOU WILL campaign, created by N W Ayer, New York, is now appearing on the Internet, where users not only can watch and listen to the award-winning ads on their computers, but also look at AT&T products, locate nearby AT&T Phone Centers and enter a sweepstakes to win a trip and prizes. Featuring the voice of actor Tom Selleck, the YOU WILL campaign takes a whimsical look into the near-future when information technologies now being developed at AT&T will soon enhance the way people work, live and play. For instance, have you ever renewed your drivers license at an ATM? Have you ever studied with a classmate thousands of miles away? Have you ever installed a phone on your wrist? "You will," say the ads, as they dramatize what technology can do for you. The various capabilities in the YOU WILL campaign are based on actual technologies under development by AT&T. The new AT&T Internet site was created by Adam Curry, formerly of MTV, now an independent producer and head of OnRamp, Inc., a New York-based agency. Internet "surfers" can access the youwill.com site directly through the Internet's most user-friendly multimedia resource, the World Wide Web (http://youwill.com/), via the popular Metaverse site (http://metaverse.com/) and through several well-known "What's New" lists, including: o Stanford University's Yahoo Net Lists: Commercial Contests (http://akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo/Economy/Business/Corporations/Contests) o Commercial Services on the Net (http://tns- www.lcs.mit.edu/commerce/whatsnew.html) o Yellow Pages of Internet Commercial Sites (http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Yellow/Overview.html) o Global On-Line Directory (http://www.cityscape.co.uk/cgi- bin/srch2html?type=Any&Field=Business&Location=Any) Sweepstakes winners will be selected in a random drawing from among all entrants received either via the Internet or by mail. A drawing will be held on Oct. 3 by MediaAmerica Promotions, Inc., an independent judging organization. The grand prize is a five-day, four-night trip for two to experience the Chameleon motion-based activity simulator in a U.S. location to be determined at a later date. The trip includes round-trip air transportation, ground transfers, first class hotel accommodations and local sightseeing, as well as the virtual reality ride (total value approximately $4,000). AT&T YOU WILL T-shirts will also be awarded in 31 daily sweepstakes drawings. Odds of winning will depend on the number of entrants. Since the site was set up Aug. 31 on the Internet, where news travels quickly, more than 30,000 Internet users have stopped by to check out youwill.com. Users looking for a nearby AT&T Phone Center supply their area code and are presented with a list of stores in their area. The site also provides descriptions and full color images of five popular AT&T consumer products, including a Speakerphone 870, a Digital Answering System Speakerphone 1545, a Mobile Cellular Telephone 3050, a Cordless Telephone 9100 and a Digital Cordless Telephone 9120. AT&T's corporate YOU WILL campaign broke last year and was extremely successful in showcasing the information superhighway and branding AT&T as a technologically innovative company. In addition to raising awareness for AT&T technologies, it was named one of the top 25 commercials of 1993 by consumers in a survey by Video Storyboard Testing, and so far has won two ADDYs, the first annual David Ogilvy Award for the most effective campaign supported by research, and the 1994 PCIA (Personal Communications Industry Award). # # # CONTACTS: Andrew Myers - AT&T, 908-221-2737 (office), 908-522-9485 (home) Kevin Tedesco - Ayer, 212-474-6003 (office), 908-654-7325 (home) ------------------------------ From: Sanjiv Narayan Subject: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Date: 15 Sep 1994 12:27:37 -0700 Organization: UC Irvine Department of ICS I have noticed a strange thing here since I became a NYNEX customer in Marlboro, MA. They have a local calling area (approximatly five mile radius) within which I can place unlimited calls for a flat charge. However if I call a number outside my local calling area (but still ** within ** my 508 area-code), a recording asks you to redial with a '1' prefixed before the seven-digit number I am calling. Here's my question: If the NYNEX switching equipment is smart enough to figure out that I need to dial a '1', why does it not go ahead and complete the call anyway. I am willing to pay for the call regardless of whether I redial with a '1' prefix or they complete it for me, right !!? It becomes very cumbersome when you have to redial the number with the '1' prefixed. I never had a similar problem with Pacific Bell in So. California. The only time a '1' was required was when I dialed a number in another area code. If a number was outside your local calling area, Pacific Bell simply billed you for it. No redialing was ever required. The NYNEX customer service person I spoke to simply said that is the way things are set up. Anybody know why NYNEX will not complete a call outside my local calling area (but within the same area code), unless I dial a '1'. Sanjiv Narayan Viewlogic Systems Inc. Marlboro MA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Sep 94 17:41:56 EDT From: John R. Covert Subject: Cellphones and Smoke Alarms So here I am, sitting in a waiting room, and my pocket rings. So I answer the phone and step out into the hallway to talk to the caller. It's some idiot looking for Jim Covert and wondering if I know him. I don't. Fire alarm goes off and I head for the door. While I'm outside, various doctors come out to look and see if they can see smoke, and ask me if I've seen any. Not many people come out; apparently the building has a lot of trouble with false alarms. I take a look at the alarm annunciator, and it indicates the hallway I was in when the alarm went off. Hmmmmm. Concord firemen arrive, and I ask them, as they're getting out of the truck, if they have ever known a cellular phone to set off a smoke detector. They say, "No, but it's an interesting theory." We head for the hallway indicated by the annunciator, and note that the red LED is blinking on the smoke alarm right where I was standing. john ------------------------------ From: thgoh@iss.nus.sg (Goh Tiong Hwee) Subject: Looking For DTMF to Ascii Encoding Schemes Date: 15 Sep 1994 08:35:09 GMT Organization: Institute Of Systems Science, National University Of Singapore. Hi, I am looking for pushbutton phone (DTMF) to alphanumeric conversion schemes used for say alhpanumeric pagers. For example to transmit "A" press "*2", "B" press "02" , "C" - "#2" and so on. My phone has the letters "ABC" above 2, "DEF" above 3 and so on. Dont know what happened to the "Z" though, can't find it anywhere. I need schemes for "A-Z", "0-9", end-of-line, space, backspace. What I am looking for are schemes already in use. Hence copies of actual manuals or instruction sheets or pages of phone books would be most helpful. As I need the info urgently, I am willing to pay a small amount for cost and trouble. Please email me directly. Thank you for your kind attention. TH Goh [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Most voicemail systems use '1' for the letters Q and Z. PAT] ------------------------------ From: news@mlb.semi.harris.com Date: Thu, 15 Sep 94 07:44:44 EDT From: rmp@cica.mlb.semi.harris.com (Russ Pate) Subject: Old Western Electric/Telephone Items for Sale Date: Mon, 12 Sep 1994 11:44:38 GMT Organization: Harris Semiconductor, Melbourne FL Old Western Electric/Telegraph Items for Sale Western Electric Tubes Rare 1918 WE 215A "Peanut Tubes" 1 New in original WE boxes, $25 each 1 used , good filament, $15 1 used, questionably good, $10 1 socket for above, $10 9 pin tubes - $1.25 each or offer 10 X 417A, 7 in original WE boxes 3 X 403A (6AK5) 1 X 420A Other Tubes 1 WE 323B in Original WE Box $5 Telephone Operator's Breastplate/Headset Old switchboard operator's breastplate/headset with neck straps, plugs and cloth covered cords, well marked as Western Electric and never used from the late 1930's I would expect. $30 each for a complete set. I also have two floor-type switchboards that these would go with. They are large and heavy and are $250 each, tough to ship. Telegraph Keys Several J-44 military keys: One Complete - $25 Several Complete except for grip knob, $20 each. About 10 missing the entire lever assembly, but otherwise complete, $10 each. Some of these military keys have a switch on them marked voice/code. All prices plus postage/shipping PS. I also collect/restore old telephones. I have a number of candlestick, cradle and wall phones available for sale. Send SASE for list/brochure on old telephones or email inquiries: Some examples of telephones currently for sale: 1924 Mongomery Ward oak wall phone, working with dial mounted inside - $285 1915 Kellogg all original, not modified to work, $300 1923 Black Automatic Electric dial Candlestick working, $300 1924 Western Electric 202 oval base desk cradlephone working $175 Please email or call collect with any old telephone items for sale (pre 1950). Russ Pate, WB4VVN 235 Sandpine Road Indialantic, FL 32903 (407) 777-1759 email - rmp@mlb.semi.harris.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #367 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa23981; 16 Sep 94 20:09 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05763; Fri, 16 Sep 94 15:39:06 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05756; Fri, 16 Sep 94 15:39:03 CDT Date: Fri, 16 Sep 94 15:39:03 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409162039.AA05756@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #368 TELECOM Digest Fri, 16 Sep 94 15:39:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 368 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson UCLA Short Course on Adv Comm Sys Using DSP (William R. Goodin) UCLA Short Course on Optical Fiber Communications (William R. Goodin) The Industry of the Future? (Sid Shniad) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Daniel E. Ganek) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Fred Goldstein) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Paul A. Lee) Some Bell Canada International Rates Change (Dave Leibold) Bell Canada Goes A-Trashing (Dave Leibold) Re: Cellphones and Smoke Detectors (Douglas Reuben) Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: BGOODIN@unex.ucla.edu (William R. Goodin) Subject: UCLA Short Course on Adv Comm Sys Using DSP Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 12:42:02 Organization: UCLA Extension UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Advanced Communication Systems Using Digital Signal Processing", November 14-18, 1994, on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructors will be Bernard Sklar, Communications Engineering Services, and Frederick Harris, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, San Diego State University. This course provides comprehensive coverage of advanced digital communications. It differs from other communications courses in its emphasis on applying modern digital signal processing techniques to the implementation of communication systems. This makes the course essential for practitioners in the rapidly changing field. Error-correction coding, spread spectrum techniques, and bandwidth-efficient signalling are all discussed in detail. Basic digital signaling methods and the newest modulation-with -memory techniques are presented, along with trellis-coded modulation. Topics that are covered include: signal processing overview and baseband transmission, bandpass modulation and demodulation, digital signal processing tools and technology, non-recursive filters, channel coding: error detection and correction, modulation and coding trade-offs and bandwith-efficient signaling, signal conditioning, adaptive algorithms for communication systems, spread spectrum techniques, and multiple access and cryptographic techniques. Each participant receives a copy of the text, "Digital Communications-Fundamentals and Applications", by Bernard Sklar. ___________________________ For additional information and a complete course description, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: (310) 825-1047 (310) 206-2815 fax mhenness@unex.ucla.edu ------------------------------ From: BGOODIN@unex.ucla.edu (William R. Goodin) Subject: UCLA Short Course on Optical Fiber Communications Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 18:29:45 Organization: UCLA Extension On October 25-28, 1994, UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Optical Fiber Communications: Techniques and Applications", on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructors are Tran V. Muoi, Optical Communication Products, Del Hanson, Hewlett-Packard, and Richard E. Wagner, Bellcore. This course offers a review of optical fiber communications fundamentals, then focuses on state-of-the-art technology and its applications in present and future communication networks. The course begins with the major building blocks of optical fiber communications systems ( fiber and passive components, sources and transmitters, detectors and receivers). Actual design examples of fiber optic links for short-haul and long-haul applications are studied, and recent technological advances in addressing problems due to fiber loss and dispersion are presented. Recent developments in local and metropolitan area networks to support multimedia traffic and their evolving architectures and standards are fully covered. The treatment on telecommunications systems includes various technological options for subscriber networks, exchange networks, and the global undersea networks. Network architectures evolving from the traditional telephone and CATV networks are contrasted. Technology trends and directions for realizing the so-called information superhighway are examined as well. Finally, optical networks using wavelength routing and multi-wavelength cross-connects are presented. For additional information and a complete course description, please contact Marcus Hennessy at: (310) 825-1047 (310) 206-2815 fax mhenness@unex.ucla.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 08:58:15 -0700 Reply-To: pen-l@ecst.csuchico.edu From: D Shniad Subject: The Industry of the Future? Turmoil in de-regulated phone industry -- "On the eve of divestiture [in 1984], AT&T was the world's largest private employer with over one million employees ... Since divestiture AT&T has eliminated some 140,000 bargaining unit jobs, while it has established and purchased major nonunion subsidiaries ... Since October 1993, major corporate restructurings accelerated [among the Regional Bell Operating Companies or RBOCs, the companies that were created as a result of the AT&T divestiture] ... US West announced the elimination of 9,400 jobs ... Bell South said it was eliminating 10,800 jobs ... GTE announced the elimination of 17,000 jobs ... Pacific Telesis said it would downsize by 10,000 jobs at Pacific Bell ... AT&T declared it would eliminate another 15,000 jobs on top of already scheduled force reductions of 6,000 operator and call servicing positions and 7,500 jobs at Global Information Solutions, formerly NCR ... Ameritech said it would reduce its workforce by 6,000 ... NYNEX ... scaled back its plans to eliminate 22,500 jobs to 16,800 positions ... "From the standpoint of labor-management relations, this massive industrial restructuring is in jeopardy of severing the traditional link between high productivity growth through rapid technological change and rising employee incomes with employment security. When compared to the decade prior to divestiture, post-divestiture productivity growth has fallen by one-half as networks are duplicated and many of the one million employees in the industry now face chronic insecurity, displacement, and stagnating incomes. Breaking the industry's social contract through this uncoupling may have serious long term consequences for productivity, service quality, and stable labor-management relations." "Telecommunications Labor-Management Relations One Decade After the AT&T Divestiture," a paper presented by Jeffrey Keefe, Institute of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, and Karen Boroff, Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, at the conference on "International Developments in Workplace Innovation: Implications for Canadian Competitiveness," Park Plaza Hotel, Toronto, June 15 and 16, 1995, pages 1-5. Sid Shniad [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Sid, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the changes in the telephone industry over the past decade have never been seen before and will never be seen again. Even with the massive reductions in work force over the past decade, telco still remains the largest employer anywhere. Trying to simply grasp the numbers involved is difficult. Where do you think it will go from here? Will there still be further cutbacks, or 'downsizing'? Will it finally get to the point all the telcos in the world eventually employ only a dozen or so people among them with the computers doing all the rest of the work? PAT] ------------------------------ From: ganek@apollo.hp.com (Daniel E. Ganek) Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 14:34:31 GMT Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA In article Sanjiv Narayan writes: > Here's my question: If the NYNEX switching equipment is smart enough > to figure out that I need to dial a '1', why does it not go ahead and > complete the call anyway. I am willing to pay for the call regardless > of whether I redial with a '1' prefix or they complete it for me, > right !!? In NE dialing "1" first means it's a toll call, i.e. it'll cost you something extra. Be glad they now tell you exactly what they're looking for. Less than a year ago the message was "Your call can not be completed as dialed, please try again". Of course, I would I'd get flustered and would forget whether I had dialed a "1" or not. It would usually take me three tries to get it right. :-) dan ------------------------------ From: Fred Goldstein Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Date: Fri, 16 Sep 94 12:18:23 EDT > However if I call a number outside my local calling area (but still ** > within ** my 508 area-code), a recording asks you to redial with a '1' > prefixed before the seven-digit number I am calling. > Here's my question: If the NYNEX switching equipment is smart enough > to figure out that I need to dial a '1', why does it not go ahead and > complete the call anyway. I am willing to pay for the call regardless > of whether I redial with a '1' prefix or they complete it for me, > right !!? > Anybody know why NYNEX will not complete a call outside my local > calling area (but within the same area code), unless I dial a '1'. You're dealing with the intersection of two issues. The more important one is the North American Numbering Plan, which changes at year-end. In the past, area codes could not have "0" or "1" in the middle, so the phone company could usually tel by the second digit whether you were calling in-area or out-of- area. IF your local area had "interchangeable" (0/1 in middle) prefix codes, this didn't work, but neither Massachusetts 508 nor some northern California areas did this. As of 1/1/95, area codes can "look like" prefix codes. Thus Alabama will get 334, Colorado 970, etc. Thus it is NECESSARY for area code calls to be preceded by a "1", so that "334" is interpreted as "local area 334" and "1334" is interpreted as "area code 334". What is PROHIBITED is the use of "1+prefix" for in-area long distance. Thus 1334 now means, in Mass., "a toll call to prefix 334 in my home area", but as of 10/15 that's verboten. There are two practical ways to implement this. One is to use "1+" for area code calls only, while in-area toll never dials 1. The other is to use "1+area code" for all TOLL calls and all OUT OF AREA calls (even local, as in 508 to 617 near the border), and 7-digit for LOCAL in-area only. NYNEX wanted to do the former but got pressured into the latter. Thus you will dial 1-508-369 to dial Concord 369 from Marlboro, rather than today's 1-369. Given this new numbering plan, NYNEX' switching systems will no longer be able to tell you "you need to dial 1" when it's unambiguous what you mean. Today, the dial-1 restriction is simply an artifact to prevent people from making toll calls without knowing it. Soon, it'll be that OR, at times, a way of indicating that the next three digits are an area code, local or not. Fred R. Goldstein k1io fgoldstein@bbn.com <- note new address! Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 15:31:55 -0400 Subject: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls From: Paul A. Lee Organization: Woolworth Corporation Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 Issue 367, Sanjiv Narayan wrote (in part): > ...if I call a number outside my local calling area (but still ** > within ** my 508 area-code), a recording asks you to redial with a '1' > prefixed before the seven-digit number I am calling. > Here's my question: If the NYNEX switching equipment is smart enough > to figure out that I need to dial a '1', why does it not go ahead and > complete the call anyway. I am willing to pay for the call regardless > of whether I redial with a '1' prefix or they complete it for me, > right !!? > It becomes very cumbersome when you have to redial the number with the > '1' prefixed. I never had a similar problem with Pacific Bell in So. > California. The only time a '1' was required was when I dialed a > number in another area code. If a number was outside your local > calling area, Pacific Bell simply billed you for it. No redialing was > ever required. The use of a '1' as a dialing prefix varies, depending on LEC practice, local calling area layout, and regulatory requirements. In many parts of the country, prepending long distance dialed numbers with a '1' has always been required as an indication to the caller that toll charges would be incurred. However, the practical use of the initial '1' has been to flag the three-digit string that follows it as an area code. In many instances, until recently, the pattern of area code numbers (NPAs) and exchange numbers (COCs) has made it possible to keep '1+' dialing as an indication to the caller that a given call is either local or toll. Originally, NPAs all had a first digit of 2-9, a second digit of 0 or 1, and a third digit of 0-9. COCs had 2-9 for the first AND second digit, and 0-9 for the third. In the early 1970s, areas that were then running short of available phone numbers started assigning COCs with a second digit of 0-9 -- overlapping the pattern used for NPAs. In some metropolitan areas, careful coordination of number assignments makes 10-digit local calls to adjoining area codes possible. The proliferation of phone numbers for "new technology" services has brought about geographically smaller NPAs and overlay NPAs, and has accelerated the upcoming deployment of interchangeable NPAs (no longer requiring that the second digit be '0' or '1'). With the distinction between NPAs and COCs gone, the use of an initial '1' to flag an area code in the dial string becomes crucial. Conversely, *absence* of the initial '1' denotes a seven-digit phone number. With the imminent revisions to the North American Numbering Plan, the use of the initial '1' as a toll call flag had to be reconsidered by telcos and by state regulators. Number assignments and patterns were determined by Bellcore under the auspices of the FCC, but the means of dialing those numbers was left up to each LEC, subject to state regulatory requirements. Some state PUC/PSCs relented and dropped the requirement that a toll call begin with a '1', while others continued to require the distinction, and still others allowed either means. The regulatory requirements then have to be addressed by the telcos, based on the numbers assigned in their service area. Here in Wisconsin, for instance, the '1' is held to indicate a toll call AND an area code, so toll calls within a given area code must be dialed with '1' plus all 10 digits, and local calls to a different area code must also use 1+10. In Pennsylvania, the option was left to the telcos, so there are parts of the state where a toll call within the same area code can be made with just the seven-digit number, and other parts where 1+10 digit dialing is required for toll calls within the same area. Throughout World Zone 1 (Canada, the U.S., and most Caribbean islands), you should be able to minimize dialing frustrations and wrong numbers by trying your call according to the following: If the call you wish to make is to a number in the same area code, dial seven digits. If the area code is different, or if seven digits doesn't work, dial 1+10 digits. If your call gets intercepted and the intercept message does not give dialing instructions, try dialing 10 digits. And, if all this seems complicated or frustrating, just remember that this is STILL the world's least complicated numbering plan and dialing plan for the size of the phone network and the geographic area involved. Paul A. Lee Voice 414 357-1409 Telecommunications Analyst FAX 414 357-1450 Woolworth Corporation CompuServe 70353,566 INTERNET <=PREFERRED ADDRESS* ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 16 Sep 94 07:18:58 -0500 Subject: Some Bell Canada International Rates Change Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Bell News, 12 Sept 94] Overseas rates revised -- Some went up, some went down. We're talking overseas rates to six destinations that took effect on September 1, following interim approval from the CRTC. Rates decreased by 13 per cent on calls to Hong Kong, one of Canada's most frequently called overseas destinations. Rates to Ireland decreased by 16 per cent. Rates increased for calls to: Vietnam (9 per cent), Iran (14 per cent), Saudi Arabia (22 per cent), and Cuba (36 per cent). We're advising customers to minimize the impact of the increases by calling during discount periods and by using our long distance savings plans such as Teleplus Overseas[tm] or Advantage Preferred[tm]. The changes reflect Teleglobe Canada's recent rate revisions to its International Globeaccess Service Tariff (GAT). The GAT represents the wholesale rates charged by Teleglobe to Canadian carriers, including Bell, for carrying overseas traffic. ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 16 Sep 94 00:31:38 -0500 Subject: Bell Canada Goes A-Trashing Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Bell News, 12 Sept 94 - content is Bell Canada's] Knowing our competitors can be a trash-act -- One person's trash is another person's treasure. And we're recycling our competitors' trash into 'gold'. That's right, the sales team, MCSs, associates and other employees in the 905 area code now have a systematic way of sharing competitive information gathered from customers, friends and other sources. It's called the Competitive Trash-Bin. "The information will be collected locally and funneled to your FMS (Field Marketing Specialist) team who, in turn, will feed the information up into the company to departments like product management who can then better support our people with superior sales tools and realistic pricing," says Bruce Simpson, of the 905 FMS team. And so far, more than 200 pieces of paper with competitor information have been collected. "Along the way we are building a district library of competitive knowledge, initiating local marketing campaigns and developing training which is both focused and relevant," says Bruce. The team is looking for any kind of information, from proposals, contracts, competitors propaganda, letters, advertisements, brochures, bills and even newspaper clippings. "Terminal or network, business or residential, big or small, we want it all," says Bruce. Employees in the 905 area can pick up a Competitive Trash-Bin label (bright red) in any one of six sales offices. All they have to do is fill it out, attach it to the 'trash', and drop it in the bin. You can block-out the customer's name or add any comments regarding the situation or your approach. There are also trash-person-of-the-month awards, with cash prizes rewarded to frequent contributors. "We are really going to be able to help everyone keep current with what's happening behind enemy lines," says Bruce. ------------------------------ From: dreuben@netcom.com (Cid Technologies) Subject: Re: Cellphones and Smoke Detectors Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 02:24:43 PDT On Thu Sep 15 14:41:56 1994, covert@covert.enet.dec.com (John R. Covert) wrote: > So here I am, sitting in a waiting room, and my pocket rings. [...] > Fire alarm goes off and I head for the door. While I'm outside, > various doctors come out to look and see if they can see smoke, and > ask me if I've seen any. Not many people come out; apparently the > building has a lot of trouble with false alarms. > I take a look at the alarm annunciator, and it indicates the hallway I > was in when the alarm went off. Hmmmmm. > Concord firemen arrive, and I ask them, as they're getting out of the > truck, if they have ever known a cellular phone to set off a smoke > detector. They say, "No, but it's an interesting theory." Happens to me all the time at Brown University. They used to have a detector very low, near a payphone. While I was on the payphone, I got a call, and the alarm went off. This happened a few times; we finally figured out it was the .6 watt cellphone. They have since moved the detector elsewhere, generally to high ceilings where the signal is so attenuated so that it will not set the detectors off. It also happens near "safety outlets" in bathrooms, which have a trip in case you drop an AC appliance into water. Interrogations, incoming, and outgoing calls (especially on the three watt models) tend to set these off. Doug dreuben@netcom.com / CID Technologies / (203) 499 - 5221 ------------------------------ From: nsayer@quack.kfu.com (Nick Sayer) Subject: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Organization: The Duck Pond public unix: +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest'. Date: 16 Sep 1994 03:43:30 GMT AT&T's latest "True Fraud^H^H^H^H^HVoice" ad has reached a new low in deceptive practices. The add features a rediculous sort of "control room" full of CRTs showing silly waterfall displays of a lady singing their "True Voice" song, though the audio of her singing is quite low in level and has the bass attenuated slightly. This is supposed to be characteristic of a telephone call. They then engage in a before and after. At the point of change, the following all happen: The volume jumps up by probably 20-30 dB. A choir jumps in and starts accompanying the singer. The singer hits a high point in the song. The attenuated bass is put back. The result is a beautiful, broadcast-quality stereo sound. If they're trying to imply that that is what a long distance phone call sounds like (which _despite_ truevoice is _still_ constrained to roughly 300-3000 Hz), then it's nothing short of outright fraud. Business as usual, eh AT&T? Nick Sayer N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest' URL: http://www.kfu.com/~nsayer/ ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #368 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03621; 20 Sep 94 17:23 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10696; Tue, 20 Sep 94 11:25:15 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10688; Tue, 20 Sep 94 11:25:12 CDT Date: Tue, 20 Sep 94 11:25:12 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409201625.AA10688@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #369 TELECOM Digest Tue, 20 Sep 94 11:25:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 369 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Yet Another NYNEX Blunder (Wes Leatherock) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (John Dean) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Al Varney) Multi-User Demo Update (Jim Durward) Vanguard NACN Addition - Roaming Ripoff! (Cid Technologies) First Virtual: Address Required (Kim Prisk) Special Wireless Workshop (Terry Sterkel) Satellite Comms Problems (Abdul Rehman Gani) Historical Revisionism by Pacific Bell (Linc Madison) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu Date: Mon, 19 Sep 94 19:44:23 Subject: Re: Yet Another NYNEX Blunder In article <779506137snz@detroit.freenet.org> aa931@detroit.freenet. org writes: > One other point... this is in response to a previous comment, but I don't > remember who wrote it: When the telco says that they cannot or do not do > something because it is prohibited by tariff, _ask them to FAX or send you > the page(s) from the tariffs that contain that prohibition_. You have the > right to see this information, and in at least one case I was able to call > a telco's bluff by asking them to send me the tariff that justified an > action they had taken (wrongly, as it turned out). -=> Quoting John Higdon <=- JH> This is excellent advice. Some years ago, some irate parent complained JH> about my "voice BBS" which is inhabited primarily by loser teenagers. ... [text deleted] ... JH> I asked the gentleman to fax me the appropriate tariffs and we would JH> read them together. This he did, and after examining the five JH> applicable pages that described business vs residence service, he had JH> to conclude that my operation fully qualified as residence service. Many LECs will not send you a copy of the tariff or parts of it. It varies by company and often by the individual you talk to (and that's often because of the particular circumstances). They take the position that you can inspect the tariff in their offices or at the commission, but they are not required to make you a copy. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.ed ------------------------------ From: bd80519@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu (John Dean) Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Date: 20 Sep 1994 02:27:46 GMT Organization: Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY Sanjiv Narayan (narayan@thoth.ICS.UCI.EDU) wrote: > Here's my question: If the NYNEX switching equipment is smart enough > to figure out that I need to dial a '1', why does it not go ahead and > complete the call anyway. I am willing to pay for the call regardless > of whether I redial with a '1' prefix or they complete it for me, > right !!? Hello, The reply you received from 'ganek@apollo.hp.com' was exactly what I was going to say. I live in a small rural town that has always required a '1' to be dialed for any call that is a toll call within and out of my area code. Just recently, they have eliminated that, allowing me to dial just the seven-digit number as long as it is still in my (914) area code ... Bye, Paul ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Sep 1994 21:00:30 +0500 From: varney@uscbu.ih.att.com Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Organization: AT&T Network Systems In article Sanjiv Narayan writes: > Here's my question: If the NYNEX switching equipment is smart enough > to figure out that I need to dial a '1', why does it not go ahead and > complete the call anyway. I am willing to pay for the call regardless > of whether I redial with a '1' prefix or they complete it for me, > right !!? The problem isn't NYNEX, it's NYNEX doing business in Massachusetts. The MA PUC believes most customers want to use "1+" as an indication of "I know I am making a non-free call". Thus some callers will receive the announcement and say "I'm not calling that number unless it's FREE!!". On the other hand, NYNEX doing business in New York, Maine and New Hampshire uses "1+" solely to indicate a ten-digit call is being placed. Rhode Island follows the lead of Massachusetts on this issue, even though they must be tempted to declare the whole state "local". > It becomes very cumbersome when you have to redial the number with the > '1' prefixed. I never had a similar problem with Pacific Bell in So. > California. The only time a '1' was required was when I dialed a > number in another area code. If a number was outside your local > calling area, Pacific Bell simply billed you for it. No redialing was > ever required. Your prior experience was with Pac Bell doing business in California. The California PUC believes most callers don't care about local vs. nearby "toll" call charges, so 1+ is reserved to indicate a 10-digit call (which could be to the NPA you are calling from). This matches the history of California metro areas, which were not stuck with SXS switches when DDD dialing was introduced. Pac Bell doing business in Nevada (the forgotten step-child of Pac Bell) uses "1+" for Toll calls. (Opinion: The real reason "1+" EVER meant Toll was the decision of the Bell System to save their customers lots of money by not modifying SXS in 1958 to support billing and Toll routing. Instead, they were forced to dial the 1+ for any billed call -- and then give their number to the Operator for billing.) > Anybody know why NYNEX will not complete a call outside my local > calling area (but within the same area code), unless I dial a '1'. Talk to the PUC -- explain that your views are just as valid as the hundreds of advocates that pleaded for "1+ means Toll". Enough vocal migrants from California, Illinois and NY and the PUC could change its mind. Journey west from Boston to San Francisco: Massachusetts -1+ means Toll Connecticut - 1+ means Toll New York - 7-digit Toll New Jersey - 7-digit Toll Pennsylvania - 7-digit Toll Ohio - 1+ means Toll Indiana - 1+ means Toll Illinois - 7-digit Toll Iowa - 1+ means Toll Nebraska - 1+ means Toll Colorado - 1+ means Toll Utah - 1+ means Toll Nevada - 1+ means Toll California - 7-digit Toll About 2:1 in favor of the "1+ means Toll" method by counting States. By population, it's about the other way around. That's the advantage of a "seamless, integrated" numbering plan -- it's so consistent. (Not a dig at the NANPA or INC folks -- you inherited it ...) Al Varney - just MY opinion ------------------------------ From: jim@virtual.cuc.ab.ca (Jim Durward) Subject: Multi-User Demo Update Organization: Virtual Universe Corp Date: Mon, 19 Sep 1994 19:53:57 GMT If you have requested the Virtual Universe VR386 multi-player virtual reality demo from info@virtual.cuc.ab.ca, please read the following: We have been inundated with requests with over 500 received so far. This has presented two problems for us: 1. We only have one line on our server dedicated for the demos so many of you have not been able to get into the system. We apologize for this but we never expected so many responses. We use the server constantly for in-house development and commercial purposes, so we cannot dedicate more lines for general purpose demos. Please keep trying and, once again, our apologies. 2. We have been made aware that the instructions for installing and connecting may not be totally clear. Before you try to connect, please ensure that: a) The modem is on COM 2. b) The FOSSIL driver has been installed in the config.sys file. c) If you are going through a PBX, you MUST add the requisite additional numbers to get past the PBX on the dial out strings. d) Make sure your modem is turned on. e) For the VOICE side of the connection, dial the number supplied with the demo, then wait for a tone; when the tone ends, hit the # key and wait for another tone to end; then enter the code that is on the screen. If nobody is within your audio range you will not be able to communicate until they are within range. Note the numbers of users on-line that is posted to your screen. Drive around and find them. NOTE: We recommend that you install a RAMDISK as VR386 will sometimes lock up if you get "hit" by another player and the system creates node disk activity. This is a problem of the demo software, NOT the server. NOTE: There is also a "typo" in the readme of the demo. In the fourth point of the README file, there is a statement that says: MKDIR C:\X00 COPY X00.ZIP C:\X00 The second line should be: COPY X00.EXE c:\X00 If you still have problems, call us our office at (403) 261-5652 between 2 and 4 pm Mountain time. Jim Durward Virtual Universe Corporation jim@virtual.cuc.ab.ca voice: 403-261-5652 fax : 237-0005 ------------------------------ From: dreuben@netcom.com (Cid Technologies) Subject: Vanguard NACN Addition - Roaming Ripoff! Date: Mon, 19 Sep 1994 15:06:06 PDT I recently posted that most (all?) Vanguard Cellular properties were added to the NACN, MCCaw's automatic call delivery system. In the northeast, this includes southern Maine (00499, 00501), Orange County NY (00479), Northeast PA (Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton 00103), Scranton (01619?), Harrisburg (SID ?), and maybe the Kingston NY (01513) system, although the switch there sounds different than Vanguard's Northern Telecom switches found in its other above markets. I my post, I noted how well integrated these switches were into the NACN system (except for the confirmation tones at Kingston, which seem to be working fine now). I *especially* like the ability to "bounce" or re-direct unanswered calls back to voicemail. Now for the bad news -- although these systems are on the NACN, the CO/NY roaming department informed me that you WILL still pay a $3 daily fee to use any of the Vanguard systems, even the 479/Orange County system directly north and adjacent to NY's system :( . I was under the impression that besides being a protocol for call-delivery and use of features while roaming, the NACN had a requirement for admission that roamers from other NACN markets would NOT incur a $3 daily charge. There were a few early exceptions (like Binghamton, NY), but these were incorporated into the NACN during its inception, and were considered exceptions. Now I find that even new additions to the NACN can *also* asses this fee, which is disappointing to say the least! I certainly will not be using them! This is especially troublesome for Cell One/NY customers who live near Orange County or who travel there a good deal. If a call comes in near Orange County, the customer will NOT know what he or she will pay for the call. Will it be 80 cents per minute peak NY airtime, or will it be $3 and $.99 for roaming on the Vanguard/Orange County system? There is no reliable way to tell -- the ROAM indicator does not update frequently enough to make an accurate determination. McCaw's cellular properties make a big issue of the NACN, and promote the (quite high, but better than $3/day) $.99 per minute rate as if it were standard over the NACN. To my knowledge, they have never made a clear statement in the roaming literature which I've received from our accounts in NY, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh that there ARE exceptions to the "no daily" ($3) rate. This is not to say they try to deliberately hide it, but in their print ads and other literature there is nothing to indicate that this is indeed the case. Moreover, now that all of NYNEX has eliminated roam charges, so that the maximum rate you will pay ANYWHERE in the US or Canada is $.99, I can't see why McCaw doesn't do the same. To use the example I have from above, a NYNEX customer who lives near the Orange County, NY line wouldn't have to worry about answering a call -- he may even pat LESS to answer it while roaming than he would in the NY/00022 "home" system. (Under NYNEX's new rate plan, the rate would be $.59 per minute.) Also note that NYNEX has had automatic call delivery to Orange County for quite some time, whereas Cell One/NY just implemented it. It would behoove Cell One/NY, as a latecomer, to drop the $3 charge, and to reduce the $.99 cent charge to something comparable to the rest of their New England/Mid Atlantic rates. Also note that CO/Syracuse has set up $.50 per minute roaming throughout NY, no daily, so it *IS* possible to work out agreements on roam rates with Vanguard and the other $3 NACN systems in NY (Binghamton, Kingston, etc). I don't think CO/Syracuse "eats" the $3 charge, so if CO/Syracuse can set up this sort of roaming regime I would think that McCaw's "flagship" market on the east coast can command similar rates as well. Overall, despite the excellent technical achievement of Vanguard's addition to the NACN and the use or re-directs to bounce unanswered calls to voicemail, the high rates make this all worthless to me. (I have an SNET/CT account where I pay $.75 per minute anywhere, no daily roam, so I rarely use services which charge me anything higher, like $.99 per minute or $3 daily charges.) I know I've said this before, but it seems obvious to me to keep up with what your competitor(s) do, and to at least *try* to match or hopefully beat them. I'm not suggesting that McCaw match NYNEX's rate market for market where NYNEX is cheaper, but the elimination of ALL $3 charges is an idea who's time has come, and it is a shame to see that McCaw has not recognized this. I suspect that when they do, the loss to their already sizeable revenue will not be so great as expected, and they may even see higher returns as a result of an increased willingness of their customers to use their phones while roaming and the resultant spillover effect in the home market as customers become comfortable with increased use of their cellular service in general. Doug Reuben dreuben@netcom.com / CID Technologies / (203) 499 - 5221 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 10:17:26 GMT+1200 From: Kim Prisk Subject: First Virtual: Address Required Reply-To: k.prisk@auckland.ac.nz Organization: The University of Auckland The following article appeared in Edupage: > JUMPSTART ON MULTIMEDIA > An entrepreneurial venture started just 10 months ago has spawned a set of > products based on ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) technology that allow > PCs to receive high-quality video, graphics and sound over existing > networks. First Virtual's products are priced between $500 and $800, well > below the $2,000 to $4,000 charged currently for similar capabilities, and > they don't require fiber optic cabling. (Investor's Business Daily 9/14/94 > A6) Would somebody please email me an email address, or fax number, for First Virtual. Kim Prisk Internet: K.Prisk@Auckland.Ac.NZ Project Engineer University of Auckland Works Registry Phone numbers: Private Bag 92019 Work: IDD + (64 9) 373 7599 ext 7876 Auckland Home: IDD + (64 9) 378 6557 NEW ZEALAND Fax: IDD + (64 9) 373 7456 ------------------------------ From: tsterkel@pipeline.com (Terry Sterkel) Subject: Special Wireless Workshop Date: 20 Sep 1994 10:56:30 -0400 Organization: Road Warrior Reply to: nbukar+asbadc3%sbadc\@mcimail.com The First Annual User PCS Workshop User PCS: Time out for Dialogue "The Nuts and Bolts of How to Use the Spectrum" October 17 -- 19, 1994 Harvey Hotel, Dallas, TX We are pleased to announce a unique Wireless workshop, that brings together for the first time the experts from ANSI, IEEE, TIA, UTAM, Inc. with the planners and regulators of Canada and the United States. The forum is in the workshop form with extra time for questions and interactions. >>Please see the end of this note for contact information<< Why is WINForum presenting this workshop? A lot has happened this past year. Much has been made about the new telecommunications era with Personal Communications Services and the Infobahn. There are conferences nearly every week on these topics. Unfortunately, the conferences concentrate on either highly theoretical future thoughts or are forums to review once again what is not working. This workshop, for the first time, offers a dialogue-oriented practical review of what has been done by the authors of the Spectrum Etiquette and rule makers and what is being done to deliver User PCS to North America. Unique among these conferences, we are bringing together the decision makers from ANSI, IEEE, TIA, UTAM, the Canadian and United States Governments. The cross discussions between these practitioners will be unprecedented and there will be ample time for participants to share in workshop settings. Who Should Attend? * Product Managers seeking to bring wireless product to the market. * Technical Experts seeking to understand the latest developments. * Anyone wishing a cost effective update of the North American regulatory, and standards efforts. What will be presented? Day 1: Tutorial WINForum presentation on the Spectrum Sharing Etiquette Day 2: Keynote speech by FCC Day 2: Workshop 1/Wireless Equipment Certification ANSI/IEEE C63 SC7, FCC and UTAM equipment certification Day 2: Workshop 2/IEEE 802.11 Standards and Industry perspectives on Asynchronous PCS (Data PCS) IEEE, ETSI, and independent evaluations Day 2: Special Dinner Speech by Industry Canada Day 3: Workshop 3/TIA TR41.6 Standards and Industry perspectives on Isochronous Standards for User PCS TR41.6 Customer Premises Standards and independent evaluations. Day 4: Workshop 4/Interim Technical Dialogue The UTAM, Inc. process and rules for non-nomadic deployments. Day 4: Summary of Events SPECIAL RATES FOR PRE-REGISTRATION AND GROUPS Prior to October 1, 1994! $450.00 per attendee includes tutorial, workshops, and dinner. >>Contact: Nancy Bukar Program Director WINForum, The User PCS Industry Association 1200 19th Street, NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20036-2401 Tel: 202 429 5138 Fax: 202 223 4579 E-mail: nbukar+asbadc3%sbadc\@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: cat@olddaisy.ee.und.ac.za (Abdul Rehman Gani) Subject: Satellite Comms Problems Date: 19 Sep 1994 12:55:30 GMT Organization: Consultancy in Advanced Technology Hi, I am building a facsimile system that provides extra facilities from that provided within the ITU recommendations. However, to do this, I need to exchange data between the facsimile machines at the start of the session. There is a large amount of data, so I am using V.27ter 2400bps signalling to transfer the data. Each unit sends data to the other. This works when using PSTN lines, however, when using satellites, the initial data is corrupted in the direction from the called unit to the calling unit. The data is fine when sent from the calling unit to the called unit. Currently I am using INMARSAT for the link. Can anybody help with the following questions:- 1. Why is data at 2400 corrupted when sent from the called unit? If I use V.21 channel 2 at 300bps, the data is fine. 2. I suspected that the echo canceller might not be turned off, but wouldn't that effect both directions? 3. Does INMARSAT limit the bandwidth of the channel between the called unit and the calling unit? Do other satellites? 4. Where else can I get more information to help me? Thanks, Abdul Rehman Gani ------------------------------ From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Historical Revisionism by Pacific Bell Date: Mon, 19 Sep 1994 17:12:47 PDT Well, whaddaya know, the new San Francisco phone books have hit the street, and there are some amusing bits of trivia to be found. They still list only three area code splits (Arizona, Alabama, and Washington) as occurring in the next year. Their area code map, by the way, still reflects the little-noticed secession of the eastern third of Iowa from the rest of the state, plus the annexation by Wisconsin of the border area of Michigan and the annexation by Illinois of adjacent areas of Indiana, plus the fact that Delaware is now wider east-west than north-south. Residents of Seattle and Olympia will be surprised to learn that they now hold dual residency in Washington and Virginia, according to the text listings, although the area code is 206 in both cases. Of greater effect on the global economy, however, are some of the international boundaries redrawn by Pacific Bell. In a surprise move, Pacific Bell announced that it has merged the former Soviet republic of Georgia into the new, unified Germany. Rangoon, formerly located in the republic of Burma, also known as Myanmar, is now located in Mexico. However, the international listings have been expanded to include a number of new destinations, including recent splits of former Eastern Bloc countries. Yugoslavia now reflects country code 381, with Bosnia and Croatia listed as 387 and 385, respectively. The Czech Republic and Slovakia are listed separately, as are Azerbaijan (still country code 7) Armenia (also 7), Estonia (372), Latvia (371), and Lithuania (370), but Baku is listed under both Azerbaijan and Russia. A number of other countries that weren't listed just a few years ago are now included, mostly in Africa, Asia, and eastern Europe: Albania, Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cambodia, Zambia, and others. However, the listings for France still show city codes for Bordeaux, Cannes, Grenoble, etc., although the listing for Denmark finally correctly shows no city codes. Norway still shows city codes, but that is only just out of date. No footnote regarding the numbering change in the U.K. that will occur during the life of this directory. Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #369 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa28779; 21 Sep 94 16:30 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA06207; Wed, 21 Sep 94 11:32:20 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA06200; Wed, 21 Sep 94 11:32:17 CDT Date: Wed, 21 Sep 94 11:32:17 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409211632.AA06200@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #370 TELECOM Digest Wed, 21 Sep 94 11:32:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 370 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Central Office Co-location Tariff (Myron Borys) Announcing The Telephone Customer's Corner (Mather White) SVNet Meeting September 21, 1994: ISDN Technology, Costs, Uses (P Fronberg) Wiretap Emergency (jdwilson@gold.chem.hawaii.edu) Data Connectivity to Kiev, Ukraine? (Bruce Taylor) BAMS/NYNEX Monopoly in Rhode Island? (John R. Levine) ISO Peer Learning Coordinator (David Rader) New Mailing List: Old Time Radio (William E. Pfeiffer) AT&T You Will Sweepstakes (Andrew B. Myers) Re: AT&T You Will Sweepstakes (Laura Gillespie) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: mborys@edtel.alta.net (Myron Borys) Subject: Central Office Co-location Tariff Date: 21 Sep 1994 14:13:57 GMT Organization: ED TEL Edmonton Telephones (ED TEL) is in the process of developing a policy and tariff for co-location of customer and/or carrier owned telecommun- ications equipment in our Central Offices. ED TEL is the 7th largest telco in Canada, and the largest independent telco in Canada, with revenues of $311 million in 1993, and 400,000 access lines. ED TEL provides local telephone service within the boundaries of the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I am seeking input from the following: 1) Customers in the US and Canada who have co-located equipment, or desire co-location. What are the terms and conditions of the co-location? What are your desired terms and conditions? 2) Telcos in the US and Canada. A brief statement of your co-location terms and conditions, and perhaps information on how I can get a copy of your tariff/policy. You can email me at mborys@edtel.alta.net, or reply to TELECOM Digest. Thanks, Myron Borys (403) 441-2610 (403) 428-0917 (FAX) ------------------------------ From: mw@teleport.com (Mather White) Subject: Announcing The Telephone Customer's Corner Date: 21 Sep 1994 01:22:08 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway For those of you interested in getting the best telephone deals, I have just started a web site for that purpose. The Telephone Customer's Corner has information on and pointers to some of the best telephone deals available. Right now it has information on several phonecards that I am aware of and use, information on a couple of discount long distance companies, telephone company 800 numbers to help you do your own comparisons, and a some pointers to the FCC, AT&T, and other telephone-related sites. I hope that lots of you will take a look at it, and, if you know of deals that are better than those you see, please write, and I will add that information. To access the Telephone Customer's Corner: By WWW: Open URL http://www.teleport.com/~mw/cc.html By Telnet: Telnet to info.cern.ch and then type: go http://www.teleport.com/~mw/cc.html By Gopher: Gopher to "All the Gophers in the World" and then choose this sequence of menus: Europe/Switzerland/Gopher About the World Wide Web(CH)/ World Wide Web Clients Demo/Line-mode browser. Once connected, type: go http://www.teleport.com/~mw/cc.html By Email: Send email to listserv@info.cern.ch with no subject and the one line message: send http://www.teleport.com/~mw/cc.html ------------------------------ From: paulf@panic.Eng.Sun.COM (Paul Fronberg) Subject: SVNet Meeting September 21, 1994: ISDN Technology, Costs, Uses Date: 20 Sep 1994 20:45:09 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc., Mountain View, CA SVNet UNIX Users Group Meeting, Wednesday, Sep 21, 1994 7:30pm SVNet is a SF Bay area UNIX and Open Systems user's group which sponsors technical presentations at its monthly meetings. The meetings are free and open to the public. The next presentation will be: *************************************************** * * * ISDN, The Technology, Its Costs and Uses * * * *************************************************** WHAT: ISDN, The Technology, Its Costs and Uses After years of wallowing around in the backwater of promissing network (in its broadest sense) technologies, ISDN is finally becoming an installed reality. Tonight's speaker will provide us with a view of what ISDN means in the Bay Area. What does the technology really do, how much does it cost, and what are the potential uses that are of interest to us. The speaker's bullets: Pacific Bell ISDN tariff offerings and deployment for Basic Rate and Primary Rate ISDN ISDN technology overview Pacific Bell ISDN network overview ISDN Access to the Internet and customer premises equipment overview Commercial ISDN application discussion on demand networking, large files - graphics, advertising agency, graphic designers, groupware Audience participation is welcome We also hope to have representatives from one or more Bay Area Internet service providers present to augment the discussion of current ISDN availability and use. WHO: Anita Freeman, Pacific Bell Anita Freeman received an Electrical Engineering degree from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Anita has worked with ISDN since 1987 both from a design and networking aspect and is currently employed by Pacific Bell as an Applications Engineer in the ISDN Applications Lab. Anita provides network designs for end user applications, supports implementation of ISDN lines and applications, and interfaces with the ISDN CPE vendor community. WHERE: Sun Microsystems Bldg 6, 2750 Coast Avenue, Mountain View Coast Ave appears to be just a driveway next to Bldg 5 on Garcia Ave between Amphitheatre Pkwy and San Antonio, so don't get confused. For more information, please call either Paul Fronberg at (415) 366-6403 or Ralph Barker at (408) 559-6202. SVNet is a UNIX and open systems user group supported by member dues and donations. SVNet Meetings are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. UNIX is now a registered trademark of X/Open Ltd. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am sorry this message was delayed in reaching me causing such a short notice to appear before the meeting. Perhaps it will be of benefit to our west coast readers however. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 16:06:50 HST From: NetSurfer Subject: Wiretap Emergency (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 21:05:42 -0500 (CDT) From: Subject: Wiretap Emergency To: I just spoke with Joe Barton (R) from Texas about the FBI wiretap bill. He is on a subcommittee that is hearing the bill. He has heard _no_ citizen opposition to it. I was not prepared, but he did invite me to send him my concerns :-D Congressman Joe Barton 1514 Longworth Building Washington, D.C. 20515 p:202-225-2002 f:202-225-3052 Folks, if we can generate a few hundred calls and well-thought-out faxes tommorrow, we might have some effect. I don't know a lot about him, but he seemed to be of the opinion that he didn't really know that much about the bill. It's up to us to educate him. ========================= [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Then on the other hand, maybe there is no real citizen opposition to the proposal. Not everyone necessarily thinks the wiretap bill is bad. Readers might want to express their opinions one way or the other to Congressman Barton as well as their own representatives. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Sep 1994 10:44:28 EDT From: Bruce Taylor Subject: Data Connectivity to Kiev, Ukraine? Here's an odd one: I've been asked to find a way to set up videoconferencing from my university in Pittsburgh PA USA to an school in Kiev, Ukraine. Our first idea is to use PictureTel units, with some sort of 112 or 128 kbps data connectivity -- but we're having a heck of a time finding *anyone* who admits to having data links to the Ukraine. Now I'm wondering about VSAT networks in Europe, and other weird ideas. Anyone have any ideas? Bruce Taylor (blt@cmu.edu) Carnegie Mellon University Telecommunications ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: BAMS/NYNEX monopoly in Rhode Island? Date: Tue, 20 Sep 94 16:20:15 EDT Now that NYNEX and Bell Atlantic have agreed to merge their cellular subsidiaries NYNEX Mobile and Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems (BAMS) I have a question: I note that in Rhode Island, BAMS is the A carrier and NYNEX is the B carrier, so once merged therer would be monopoly cell service there. I presume this is illegal, otherwise the wireline carriers would have all bought up the competing A carriers in their areas. I don't see anything in BA's press release saying whether they're planning to sell one of their R.I. properties. I'd expect it'd be more likely they'd sell the BAMS system since the B system is closely integrated into the NYNEX Boston system. For that matter, BAMS is the A carrier in Connecticut and NYNEX has a minority interest in the SNET Cellular system, due to its also operating in NYNEX territory in west central Massachusetts. They might have to divest there, too. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: darader@novare.com (David Rader) Subject: ISO Peer Learning Coordinator Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 15:40:38 Organization: Novare Management Group, Inc. ** ISO Peer Learning Coordinators *** What is Peer Learning? Peer learning is an innovative approach to continuing education. Started by universities such as Northwestern, Harvard, Yale and Duke, Peer Learning has no grades, exams or papers. The classes do have interesting and active members who read and discuss a common body of material in order to further their own knowledge and understanding of a topic. What is a Peer Learning Coordinator? A coordinator is both a member of the class and the class organizer. The coordinator selects the topic, reading materials, and sets the discussion outline. The coordinator also acts as the discussion moderator and sets the pace for the class. Coordinators allocate discussion topics among the class members so that the preparation workload is shared. Coordinators, as class members themselves, do not need prior experience or academic credentials. Coordinators do need enthusiasm, focus, and willingness to commit the time to structure and nurture effective conversations. How do the classes work? Each class is conducted "electronically" over ten to 16 weeks (each class sets its own schedule). Each class has a specific question or issue to be addressed (e.g., what is the pattern of US intervention in the Caribbean? or The emergence of monotheism and continuing presence of polytheism). What's the point? Each class produces a collective "point of view" regarding its topic of study. An archive of topics, recommended readings, discussion outlines and collective points of view will be available as a resource to future classes. Quality and Satisfaction Each class is rated by its members for content, style, participation and effectiveness of learning. Coordinators of classes rated above the median share in the fees generated by the class. Similarly, coordinators are able to recognize and reward class members who contribute to class success through participation, quality comments and learning progress. For more information: If you would like to be a Peer Learning Coordinator, please send an email message describing the kind of course you would facilitate and a brief statement about your interest in the topic and why you would be a good coordinator. The email message should be sent to: darader@novare.com Thanks for your interest. ------------------------------ From: rrb@deja-vu.aiss.uiuc.edu (Airwaves E-Publishing) Subject: New Mailing List: Old Time Radio Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 22:14:52 CDT ___ _ / _ \ _ __ _ __ ___ _ _ _ __ ___(_)_ __ __ _ | |_| | '_ \| '_ \ / _ \| | | | '_ \ / __| | '_ \ / _` | | _ | | | | | | | (_) | |_| | | | | (__| | | | | (_| | |_| |_|_| |_|_| |_|\___/ \__,_|_| |_|\___|_|_| |_|\__, | |___/ OTR (OLD-TIME-RADIO) Newsletter Created OTR, the noncommercial, electronic newsletter for folks who enjoy collecting and listening to nostalgic radio programs is proud to announce the acceptance of charter subscriptions. OTR was founded after discussion in Usenet newsgroups and email exchanges, indicating the desire of a number of Usenet users to have a forum dedicated to the hobby of listening to old-time radio (OTR) programming. -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o- Some of the anticipated topics include (but are not limited to): Lists of AM radio stations broadcasting OTR. Lists and critiques of OTR tape vendors. Contents of personal libraries / collections. Offers to privately exchange recordings. Critiques of individual or serialized programs. Discussions about radio dramas / mysteries / adventures. Hints on re-recording and preserving audio quality. -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o- If you fondly reminisce about some of the programs you heard during the "golden age of radio", would like to learn more about programming on the "TV without a tube" that fascinated your parents, or would like to contribute your topical expertise, send in your subscription request now. Are you interested in the "Modern Day" radio dramas and how they compare and contrast to the 'Golden Age" of radio? If so, then OTR is for you. Subscribers will receive periodic emailings of contributed articles. in a daily digest format (as news warrants). You may enjoy reading OTR while listening to your favorite radio dramas. An enjoyable example of sensory multiplexing :-). -o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o- To subscribe, send an email message in the following format: To: otr-request@airwaves.chi.il.us Subject: SUBSCRIBE You will receive a 'welcome' message with even more information. --------------------- OTR is brought to you courtesy of -Airwaves Radio Journal and Lou Genco, who actually remembers some of the original programs |-). | info@airwaves.chi.il.us ___/ /| | Publishers of Internet E-Mail Digests |___/ | | AIRWAVES RADIO JOURNAL * TALKIN TECH * LOOPLIST * KID MEDIA * Old Time Radio| '------------------------- William Pfeiffer (That's Me) ----------------------' [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Gee whiz Bill, to think that *I* was the person who first seduced you and got you started in computers; what was it, five years ago ... we've come a long way together, you and I, in the twenty years we have been aquainted, and I hope your recent relocation to Springfield, Missouri from Chicago has worked out well. To the rest of the readers, I hope you will pardon this digression today. Bill and I go back a long way. Starting from nothing, he has established several very nice e-journals in the past couple of years, and I wish him the best with this latest addition. Write him direct for information. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Sep 94 23:49:07 EDT From: myers@hogpa.ho.att.com (Andrew B Myers) Subject: AT&T You Will Sweepstakes I've gotten a request to post the snail mail address to enter the AT&T You Will Sweepstakes for those who cannot access the youwill.com domain (http://youwill.com/). Note that you may also enter by email. The following comes right from the official rules: OFFICIAL RULES - NO PURCHASE NECESSARY 1. To enter, input your name, address, zip code, email address, phone number, and age on the online entry form at youwill.com on the Internet; or email your name, address, zip code, email address, phone number, and age to sweepstakes@youwill.com. You may also enter by handprinting your name, address, zip code, phone number and age on a piece of paper and mailing it to: AT&T SWEEPSTAKES, P.O. Box 1998, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163-1998. You may enter once per day on the internet, or you may enter as often as you wish via mail, but each entry must either be mailed separately, or input via the Internet, on or before September 30, 1994. 2. Winner will be selected in a random drawing from among all entries received. Drawing will be conducted on or about October 3, 1994 by MediaAmerica Promotions, Inc., an independent organization whose decisions are final on all matters relating to this sweepstakes. (1) Grand Prize: A 5 Day/4 Night trip for two to experience the Chameleon motion-based activity simulator in a location within the Continental U.S. (location to be determined by the Sponsor at a later date). Trip consists of roundtrip coach air transportation from nearest major airport to winner's home, first class hotel accommodations, airport/hotel transfers, briefing session and rides on Chameleon, Chameleon Collector's Cap for winner and guest, photo of winner and guest at Chameleon site, and area sightseeing (approximate retail value = $4,000.00); (31) Daily Prizes: An AT&T "You Will" T-Shirt (approximate retail value = $10.00). Odds of winning will depend upon total number of eligible entries received. Prizes will be awarded and winners will be notified by mail. Prizes are nontransferable and no substitutions or cash equivalents allowed. Taxes on the Grand Prize are the responsibility of the individual winner. Grand Prize winner and travel companion must each submit a signed affidavit of eligibility and release. Trip must be taken on dates specified by Sponsor. Grand Prize Winner and travel companion consent to the use of their names and likenesses for publicity or trade purposes without further compensation. (Tennessee residents are exempt from publicity requirement). No responsibility is assumed for lost, misdirected or late entries or mail. All entries become the property of the sponsor. 3. Sweepstakes open to residents of the Continental U.S., 18 years of age or older, except employees and their families of AT&T, its affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising agencies, MEDIAAMERICA PROMOTIONS, iNC., MEDIA AMERICA, INC., its affiliate radio stations, and program suppliers. This offer is void wherever prohibited, and subject to all federal, state and local laws. 4. For the name of the Grand Prize Winner, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: AT&T WINNER, P.O. Box 1992, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163-1992. ------------------------------ From: laurag@ritz.mordor.com (Laura Gillespie) Subject: Re: AT&T You Will Sweepstakes Organization: Mordor International BBS - Jersey City, NJ Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 16:45:43 GMT [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This submission, from the 'I Get Letters' Department, could be retitled, "Usenet Reader Expresses Righteous Indignation". Hope you enjoy it! PAT] In article , Andrew B Myers wrote: > AT&T YOU WILL ADS ON INTERNET; USERS CAN ENTER SWEEPSTAKES > NEW YORK, Sept. 14, 1994 -- AT&T's YOU WILL(SM) ad campaign, > which has captured the nation's attention in magazines, and on TV and > radio for the past two years, has a new home in cyberspace. It's > called "youwill.com." Hey, you JERK! This group is specifically NOT for any commercial ads. Being from AT&T, you should know damned well the long-established netiquette commandment against ads except in appropriate biz hierarchy groups of others whose charter specifically allows them; most of these groups have 'biz' or business somewhere in their hierarchical name. I know you know this, as AT&T practically invented the net. The gurus of the AT&T networks never let Marketing twits do this kind of thing in the past. They've got sophisticated software set up to avoid stupid mistakes by the uninitiated. Therefore, there remains one glaring possibility: AT&T has done this deliberately. This is a 'net.sin'!! AT&T is deliberately thumbing its nose at the Usenet. Well, THANKS A HELL OF A LOT, f-ing AT&T. I'm going to change to Sprint, you evil creeping monster. Have you ever read "The Octopus"? It's a perfect analogy for AT&T! You know, even AT&T can be kicked off the net. We can update the network software to specifically forbid connection to or from AT&T sites; we can keep YOU from being fed. I call for a deliberate EXCOMMUNICATION of AT&T from the Usenet/Internet community. I would only add that we should make it reviewable for possible probation after a minimum of 5 years of utter banishment. I'm an old-time member of the Usenet community (since 1978 -- I was at U.C. Berkeley at Usenet's inception), and I'm RIGHTEOUSLY INDIGNANT. I don't get this way about miscellaneous businesses who do this kind of thing. Others handle these better than I. However, I must raise my voice when a trusted, pioneering member and former backbone site begins to behave in this manner. Laura Gillespie laurag@ritz.mordor.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Back Talk: Laura sweets, you sure are beautiful when you get angry. As for AT&T's behavior, they have done more for the Internet in general in a month than you'll do in your lifetime. And regards Usenet specifically -- Usenet is but one small part of the overall Internet -- there are lots of people who thumb their nose at it. After all, it has become pretty much of a joke; a cesspool, an open sewer that has become clogged up and running over. What are there now, some seven thousand 'news' groups? Ranting and raving, screaming and squalling, flaming and endless rebuttals; text of former messages quoted ad infinatum. Like yourself, back in the early 1980's I read and participated on a regular basis, but unlike yourself about five years ago or so I quit participating in other than a cursory fashion. You see, I have a life ... and, I would hope, a realistic view of where the 'net' is heading in the next few years. Usenet is not where its at, sorry. As they say, first come anger and denial, then finally acceptance. Get over your anger and denial and accept things the way they really are. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #370 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa29680; 21 Sep 94 17:19 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA07638; Wed, 21 Sep 94 12:27:05 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA07631; Wed, 21 Sep 94 12:27:02 CDT Date: Wed, 21 Sep 94 12:27:02 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409211727.AA07631@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #371 TELECOM Digest Wed, 21 Sep 94 12:27:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 371 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson UC Berkeley Short Courses on Broadband Communications (Harvey Stern) UC Berkeley Short Course on Networks for Digital Wireless Access (Stern) PCS for Small Business (Robert Kyle via Stu Jeffery) Motorola Digital Phone Incompatibility (gerryab@aol.com) Kermit Control Parameters (Jose Canales-Giron) Free Book Offer (Bryan Wallace) "Cost of Call" Indication? (Lee Ziegenhals) Newsletter on Internet Business (Robert Hertzberg) EIA/TIA 568 Standards (Vic Franco) REN For Old Equipment (Stu Whitmore) Football/Sports Phone Card?? (buffalo@panix.com) Problems Getting a 56kb Leased Line (Barry Lustig) Question About Australian Pay Phones (Ross Symons) Germany's Cellular System Used by BMW (Ken Ong) TDD Access via PC - What's Out There? (Michael A Leo) Telephone Headset Recommendations Wanted (Craig A. Heilman) Telecommuting Law (Ralph Warren) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: UC Berkeley Short Courses on Broadband Communications Date: 20 Sep 1994 22:34:44 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces 2 Short Courses on Broadband Communications SONET/ATM-BASED BROADBAND NETWORKS: Systems, Architectures and Designs (October 19-21, 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. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. 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 (October 17-18, 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. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. 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. 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 ------------------------------ From: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: UC Berkeley Short Course on Networks for Digital Wireless Access Date: 20 Sep 1994 22:39:35 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces A Short Course on: NETWORKS FOR DIGITAL WIRELESS ACCESS: Cellular, Voice, Data, Packet, and Personal Communication Systems (October 3-5, 1994) This comprehensive course is focused on the principles, technologies, system architectures, standards, and market forces driving wireless access. At the core of this course are the cellular/microcellular/ frequency reuse concepts needed to enable adequate wireless access capacity for Personal Communication Services (PCS). Presented are both the physical-level issues associated with wireless access and the network-level issues arising from the inherent mobility of the subscriber. Standards are fully treated including GSM (TDMA), IS-54 (North American TDMA), IS-95 (CDMA), CT2, DCT 900/CT3, IEEE 802.11, DCS 1800, and Iridium. Emerging concepts for wireless ATM are also developed. 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: Wed, 21 Sep 1994 08:33:35 -0800 From: Robert Kyle <70353.241@compuserve.com> Subject: PCS for Small Business Association Provides Information to Small Businesses Interested in PCS. The Small Business PCS Association has been asked by Bellcore and the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) to sponsor a seminar for the RBOCs to brief small, minority, and women-owned businesses on an approach for establishing viable Personal Communication Service (PCS) operations with minimum capital investment. Participating in the seminar willbe Bellcore, Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, and U S WEST. PCS is very much like the cellular telephone systems in use today. But, because of design and engineering advances it is expected that PCS will offer wireless telephone service for about half the price of existing cellular. The FCC will award the new PCS licenses in a series of auctions that will begin in December 1994 and extend through much of 1995. To create a level playing field for the auctions, the FCC has established a number of advantages for small, minority and women-owned businesses. There are two licenses in each service area that are reserved exclusively for these companies. Because of the future importance of these small businesses in the marketplace, a number of large telecommunications companies are lining up as potential partners. Bellcore and the RBOCs have identified a concept called wholesale PCS. With this approach a part of the PCS infrastructure will be provided by the RBOC and paid for by small company service providers through wholesale rates. The infrastructure provided could range from switching toan entire system, including base stations and trunking. "The Small Business PCS Association's charter is to make PCS information available to small businesses. At this time we are not endorsing any particular approach," says Robert Kyle, Chairman. "However, we think this is a very viable alternative to consider for small businesses, especially those who are having difficulty raising money in the financial markets." This symposium will be held in the Washington, D.C. area on October 4 at the Hyatt Arlington Hotel and is open to the public. There is a fee for attendance. Interested parties should call the SBPCS Association at 415-851-0292. The symposium is being held the day before the SBPCS national meeting on October 5 where an attempt will be made to put everything in perspective for small business. Presentations on October 5 will include FCC rules for PCS, the cost of deploying a small business PCS network, and major equipment manufacturers' recommendations for PCS systems. The Small Business PCS Association (SBPCS) is composed of 65 companies that plan to participate in the PCS auctions as small, minority, or women-owned businesses. The SBPCS was founded by Robert Kyle who is president of Kycom, Inc., a small business in California that was formed expressly to provide Personal Communications Service. His own company's need for a national presence to compete against large, well financed competitors prompted the founding of SBPCS. The nonprofit Association provides extensive support to qualified parties interested in bidding at the auction. This includes data on the PCS service areas as defined by the FCC, establishment of a national roaming network for the small businesses of the country, volume buying coalitions, bidding consortia, and other services. ------------------------------ From: gerryab@aol.com (GerryAB) Subject: Motorola Digital Phone Incompatibility Date: 21 Sep 1994 11:43:04 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) I totally destroyed my Motorola Micro Tac Lite phone and needed a replacement. The Motorola / Cellular One deal in Northern California seemed like a deal. The new digital Motorola phone cost about $450.00. Cellular One would rebaste me $50 per month for 6 month. The the replacement phone would end up costing me only about $150.00. Plus, the monthly base rate of Cellular One service would be $10.00 cheaper. But ... After activating the service and paying for the phone, I discovered that the Motorola Digital Cellular Telephone is not compatible with the Motorola voice operated car kit (It extends the power to three watts and allows voice activated dialing and battery charging when a Micro Tac is inserted in it's cradle).. It took the dealer about 30 minutes on their own service line to get Motorola to agree that there was no way they would work togather. They must be taking their cues from the computer industry! ------------------------------ From: joseg@wam.umd.edu (jose canales-giron) Subject: Kermit Control Parameters Date: 20 Sep 1994 19:02:38 GMT Organization: University of Maryland College Park I need some help please. I'm downloading files from the internet and I keep getting file is corrupted when unzipping them. Here is my set up: (using Procom for dos) A. CONTROL QUOTE CHARACTER...35 (ASCII VALUE) B. MAXIMUN PACKET SIZE...1024 C. PAD CHARACTER...0 D. NUMBER OF PAD CHARACTERS...0 E. 8TH BIT QUOTE CHARACTER...38 F. HANDSHAKE CHARACTER....0 G. END OF LINE CHARACTER....13 H. FILE TYPE ....BINARY I. BLOCK CHECK TYPE....1 BYTE CHECKSUM J. BLOCK START CHARACTER....1 I'm just not sure what I'm doing wrong because when I unzzip them it says the file is bad and it does this for every file (Binary). This is when downloading from gopher. Please help me! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 15:59:21 +0500 From: wallace@eckerd.edu (Bryan Wallace) Subject: Free Book Offer In an effort to communicate interesting arguments, I will send a 311KB ASCII email copy of my current book to anyone who sends a request to my below email address. This book is my independent work and not the opinions of the physics department. Of the many interesting comments on the book that I've received to date, John Archibald Wheeler of Princeton University wrote: "A dynamic ether, a compressible fluid that could move at the speed of light." I am delighted you take such a deep interest in a subject so important. Kurt Pagels of Germany wrote: The reading of this book was for me very interesting and very informative! The factual material and the wealth of ideas is in your book in such a manner great, that a second and third reading is needed, therewith all arguments come to consciousness. But the comment I liked the best came from Rudolf Nedved of Czechoslovakia, who wrote: I have studied up the preprint of your book "The Farce of Physics" and am very surprised. For me, it was better than a thrilling crime novel. Steven L. Mitchell, the Editorial Director of Prometheus Books wrote: Thank you for sharing with us your manuscript titled "The Farce of Physics." The idea of publishing an internal critique of the scientific mindset is most intriguing. Naturally, it would run counter to many prevailing opinions and this could negatively effect the market. Since the audience for your book would be the dedicated reader of science, the risks facing publication are considerable. Mitchell wanted a substantial grant to assist publication and share the risks, and I am currently trying to find a publisher that will give me better terms. Bryan G. Wallace wallace@eckerd.edu ------------------------------ From: lcz@dptspd.sat.datapoint.com (Lee Ziegenhals) Subject: "Cost of Call" Indication? Organization: Datapoint Corporation, San Antonio, TX Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 21:43:12 GMT The "NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls" thread got me to thinking about how to tell whether a call is costing you LD charges or not. With my telephone company, a LD toll call is always preceded by a '1'. I've gotten rather used to it, and I'd miss it if I moved somewhere where it wasn't done that way. On the other hand, it seems the idea of a toll call is rather vague these days. A call might be "local" but still be metered in some way, either due to a special prefix or just metered local service. I'm wondering whether there is any work being done on a real-time display of the cost of a call. I'm thinking of something like a display on your telephone that shows the cost of a call in progress. It would be updated continuously (except for fixed-cost calls) until you hang up. I'd like to see this for all types of metered calls, whether local metered, long distance, 900 numbers, etc. Implementation at the local loop shouldn't be too difficult. ISDN would be relatively easy since the rate information could be passed over the D channel. For POTS lines, the rate information would have to be transmitted somehow at the beginning of the call, perhaps using a technology similar to what's used for CID. Is such a thing feasible? I know absolutely nothing about how billing systems are implemented within the telephone network. Is this information even available in real time to the local telephone company? For that matter, am I the only one who would find this useful? :-) ------------------------------ From: hertz@panix.com (Robert Hertzberg) Subject: Newsletter on Internet Business Date: 20 Sep 1994 13:46:58 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC The September issue of {Internet Business Report} newsletter is now available. Highlights include: *Countdown To An Early Liftoff: Mosaic Start-Up Will Launch Products Ahead of Schedule." An article detailing the new plans of Jim Clark's Mosaic Communications, including its promise to start production shipments of server versions of Mosaic within the next two months. *Dun & Bradstreet Building Web Site With All Due Haste." An exploration of D&B's decision to introduce an Internet version of its credit service. The key, D&B executives believe, is keeping the price low. *Placing Orders: Still A Low-Tech Affair. (You Call This Cyberspace?)" One of the big ironies of trying to buy anything over the Web is that customers generally find themselves booted out of Cyberspace right back into the low-tech world of mail order. A few companies are starting to address this irony. *That Citation You Need, Counselor, Is Online." An article on New York Law Publishing Company, which is readying an electronic service for a decidedly low-tech profession--attorneys. New York Law will double as an access provider for the legal industry. Those who have never received a free copy of Internet Business Report before can get a free copy of this issue by sending E-mail to ibr-september@ost.com. Include your name and postal address since IBR is not available on-line. So you aren't surprised, I should add that the people who send you the free issue will try to sign you up as a subscriber. That's their job. (A one-year subscription to the newsletter costs $279 within the U.S., $379 outside of it.) Rob Hertzberg Editor Internet Business Report ------------------------------ From: Vic.Franco@lambada.oit.unc.edu Subject: EIA/TIA 568 Standards Date: Wed, 21 Sep 94 00:14:18 PDT Organization: University of California, Irvine Hi, My name is Victor Franco and I'm a Communications Tech with the City of Los Angeles. Does anyone know if the new EIA/TIA 568 standard has been set, and where can I retrieve it on the Internet? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Sep 1994 11:01:17 -0700 From: whitmore@tahoma.cwu.edu (Rattlesnake Stu) Subject: REN For Old Equipment Organization: Central Washington University I'd like to know if there is a way to determine a Ring Equivalance # (? REN) for old equipment that isn't marked with such info. I was trying to add up what I have at home after another gadget-buying binge at Radio Shack, but an old phone my wife refuses to get rid of has virtually zero information on it. It looks like it dates back to the 40s ... big, heavy, black, real rotary dial, and a bell that reminds one that phones used to really _ring_ (not beep or say "You have a telephone call"). Any ideas? Should I assume REN = 1? I'm not very well versed in telephone terms, so please write any replies in "layman's terms" if you would! TIA... Stuart Whitmore: whitmore@tahoma.cwu.edu, Arcane.Wisdom@UniNova.COM ------------------------------ From: buffalo@panix.com (C man) Subject: Football/Sports Phone Card?? Date: 20 Sep 1994 16:51:08 GMT Organization: c notes interactive I was watching cable TV last night and a commercial appeared regarding a collectible, football/sports, long distance telephone card. Did anyone see this or have any information about it? Please email. Many thanks, Mike ------------------------------ From: Barry Lustig Date: Tue, 20 Sep 94 12:54:43 -0400 Subject: Problems Getting a 56kb Leased Line My company has recently set up a small frame-relay based network to support some of our national marketing employees. One of our employees lives in Overland Park, Kansas (a suburb of Kansas City). When Wiltel tried to procure the 56kb local loop to this person's home, Southwestern Bell said that their facilities could not support a 56kb connection (all they have is 26 gauge copper on a 30,000 foot run into the neighborhood). They said they would be happy to install the circuit as long as we were willing to pay approximately $250,000 to upgrade the copper into the neighborhood. Does anyone know if Southwestern Bell is required, via tariff, to provide the necessary facilities to support this connection? Are they only required to provide DDS service to businesses? Do they have to provide any DDS service at all if the facilities aren't up-to-snuff? I'm asking because when Nynex was out to my home in semi-rural part of Massachusetts, the Special Services installer said that Nynex policy is to provide whatever infrastructure is necessary to install the circuit, business or residence. Thanks, Barry Lustig barry@nacm.com Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management ------------------------------ From: rsymons@werple.apana.org.au (Ross Symons) Subject: Question About Australian Pay Phones Date: 22 Sep 1994 00:13:55 +1000 Organization: werple public-access unix, Melbourne Hi, just wondered if anybody had any information regarding finding out the number of public phone boxes in Australia, and whether they can be called. Ross ------------------------------ From: kenong@singnet.com.sg (Ken Ong) Subject: Germany's Cellular System Used by BMW Date: 20 Sep 1994 14:24:34 GMT Organization: Singapore Telecom Internet Service I am about to place an order for the new BMW 730i which features a standard built-in car-phone made by Siemens for the German market. The BMW agent in Singapore claims that this cellular phone is not compatible with the systems we have in Singapore. We have AMPS, ETACS, and GSM. As a result, all the models shipped to Singapore does not have this built-in car-phone. I am willing to do a special order for the 730i which includes the Siemens car-phone. I need to know what cellular system is used by this Siemens phone. Can anybody help me? Thank you, Ken Ong Internet email : kenong@singnet.com.sg ------------------------------ From: mal@adc.com (Michael A Leo) Subject: TDD Access via PC - What's Out There? Date: 20 Sep 1994 15:11:36 GMT Organization: ADC Telecommunications Hi, A friend of mine would like to know if her PC could be used as a TDD device. I didn't know the answer, but I suspect it could. Anyone out there who could point me in the right direction? Thank you, Michael Leo ADC Telecommunications (612) 936-8305 (voice) mike_leo@adc.com ------------------------------ From: craigh@fullfeed.fullfeed.com (Craig A. Heilman) Subject: Telephone Headset Recommendations Wanted Organization: Bugaboo Software Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1994 11:24:14 GMT Hi all, I'm in serious need of a telephone headset. I'm looking for one that attaches to a regular telephone (no pbx) - probably one that simply replaces the handset. I've seen several types in a "Hello Direct" catalog as well as the new Jabra 1000 (an earplug that contains the speaker as well as the microphone). Any recommendations? Thanks, Craig A. Heilman bugsoft@fullfeed.com Bugaboo Software (608) 274-2003 Software Engineering & Consulting ------------------------------ From: rwarren@Cayman.COM (Ralph Warren) Subject: Telecommuting Law Date: 20 Sep 1994 18:22:31 GMT Organization: Cayman Systems, Inc. Is the federal govt proposing a telecommuting law requiring large businesses in metro areas to have a certain percentage of telecommuters? I know that California businesses can get tax breaks if they have a certain percentage, but this would allow for fines to be issued to companies that don't. Ralph Warren rwarren@cayman.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've not heard of any proposed law to fine companies which don't have telecommuters, but I do know that this is being strongly urged in certain areas. They say they are meeting some resistance in finding workers interested in doing it ... personally I love working at home and would hate to go back to a large office all day, plus the trouble of getting to and from the place. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #371 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11939; 23 Sep 94 16:58 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11901; Fri, 23 Sep 94 11:09:13 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA11894; Fri, 23 Sep 94 11:09:09 CDT Date: Fri, 23 Sep 94 11:09:09 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409231609.AA11894@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #372 TELECOM Digest Fri, 23 Sep 94 11:09:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 372 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Steve Cogorno) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Nick Sayer) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Jeffrey Fritz) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Michael Guslick) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (David Adams) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Robert Springer) True Voice ... True Difference? (Rakesh Bharania) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Jeff Hibbard) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Bob Goudreau) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Carl Oppedahl) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (museums@aol.com) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Henry Wertz) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Carl Moore) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (clawsona Re: Yet Another NYNEX Blunder (Tony Pelliccio) Re: Yet Another NYNEX Blunder (Alan Boritz) Re: Cellphones and Smoke Detectors (David S. Channin) Re: 24-Hour Callback Lines Needed (Doug Gurich) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: Thu, 22 Sep 1994 10:15:05 PDT Nick Sayer said: > If they're trying to imply that that is what a long distance phone > call sounds like (which _despite_ truevoice is _still_ constrained to > roughly 300-3000 Hz), then it's nothing short of outright fraud. They aren't, it's a commercial. > Business as usual, eh AT&T? This is no more of a lie than MCI saying in their Friends and Family II commericials that the average cost of a long distance call costs half as much as it did ten years ago (before the Bell breakup). Then the Rep says "Who do you think was responsible for that?" Hundreds of people shout out "MCI!" BUT they fail to mention that it was the breakup of the Bell System which lowered these call costs. (Which also increased the cost of local calls by a large percentage.) Steve cogorno@netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Steve, your point is a very good one. Especially so since the average American phone user merely sends one check each month to pay the phone bill. He's seen his long distance bill (which he uses very little of) go down and his local calling bill (which he uses a lot more) go up. Overall, telephone bills are higher now -- disproportionatly so -- than ever before. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Nick Sayer Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: Thu, 22 Sep 1994 10:20:22 PDT Steve Cogorno writes: > Nick Sayer said: >> If they're trying to imply that that is what a long distance phone >> call sounds like (which _despite_ truevoice is _still_ constrained to >> roughly 300-3000 Hz), then it's nothing short of outright fraud. > They aren't it's a commercial. And that excuses the fraud? >> Business as usual, eh AT&T? > This is no more of a lie than MCI saying [...] Who said MCI was any better? I said nothing about any other long distance company being superior, inferior, or anything else. I am saying simply that the AT&T ad is fraudulent. Nick Sayer N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest' URL: http://www.kfu.com/~nsayer/ ------------------------------ From: jfritz@wvnvm.wvnet.edu (Jeffrey Fritz) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Organization: West Virginia University Date: Thu, 22 Sep 1994 17:44:38 GMT In article , nsayer@quack.kfu.com (Nick Sayer) wrote: > If they're trying to imply that that is what a long distance phone > call sounds like (which _despite_ truevoice is _still_ constrained to > roughly 300-3000 Hz), then it's nothing short of outright fraud. > Business as usual, eh AT&T? I heard a rumor (perhaps untrue) that Bellcore had developed a technology for boosting the bass on phone calls. No one was interested and it laid around in the lab for quite a while. AT&T marketing discovered it and, zap, instant "True Voice." BTW, the telephone network supports a 300 - 3 kbps bandwidth for a reason -- understandability. If you listen to the True Voice demos, the increased base sounds nicer, but makes it harder to clearly hear the person on the other end. Just my two cents ... Jeffrey Fritz jfritz@wvnvm.wvnet.edu West Virginia University ------------------------------ From: michaelg@alpha2.csd.uwm.edu (Ralph the Wonder Llama) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: 23 Sep 1994 12:48:22 GMT Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Computing Services Division I tried calling the 800 number for the "True Voice" demo (anybody have the number? I can't seem to remember it now ...), and was not at all impressed. The bass gets turned up by a wee bit. Big deal. Those commercials are really fraudulent ... Michael Guslick USnail: 711 Hwy. C NAR #53962 Grafton, WI 53024 michaelg@alpha2.csd.uwm.edu SR-71 Blackbird ph.: (414) 377-4428 ------------------------------ From: david@uslink.net (David Adams) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: 23 Sep 1994 06:10:31 GMT Organization: USLink Communications Nick Sayer (nsayer@quack.kfu.com) wrote: > AT&T's latest "True Fraud^H^H^H^H^HVoice" ad has reached a new low in > deceptive practices. The add features a rediculous sort of "control > room" full of CRTs showing silly waterfall displays of a lady singing > their "True Voice" song, though the audio of her singing is quite low > in level and has the bass attenuated slightly. This is supposed to be > characteristic of a telephone call. > If they're trying to imply that that is what a long distance phone > call sounds like (which _despite_ truevoice is _still_ constrained to > roughly 300-3000 Hz), then it's nothing short of outright fraud. It would be real interesting if somebody ran the same test as in the AT&T ad with the same song as an audio source and then post the results. Dave ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 11:30:42 -0500 From: Robert Springer Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice You may be interested in trying AT&T's True Voice Demonstration (I unfortunately do not have the 800 demo number). When several of us at NYNEX tried their demonstration, we actually preferred the "Before" condition without 'True Voice' enhancement. Robert Springer NYNEX Science and Technology ------------------------------ From: densaer@kaiwan.com (Rakesh Bharania) Subject: True Voice ... True Difference? Date: 23 Sep 1994 09:50:14 -0700 Organization: KAIWAN Internet (310/527-4279,818/756-0180,714/741-2920) Several months ago, I called the True-Voice demo line when it first went up (I forgot where I got the number from), and I couldn't tell one whit of difference between the normal voice and the "enhanced" one. Several days ago, I saw the Whitney Houston commercial and decided to try again (hey, the line was new .. maybe it wasn't fully working, right?) Again, I couldn't tell the difference. I even got my dad to call this up, and HE couldn't tell the difference. So is "True Voice" an actual technology or just a marketing move? Rakesh Bharania densaer@kaiwan.com ------------------------------ From: jeff@bradley.bradley.edu (Jeff Hibbard) Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Date: 23 Sep 1994 02:21:39 -0500 Organization: Bradley University varney@uscbu.ih.att.com writes: > Illinois - 7-digit Toll The above is true in Ameritech territory. However, those of us chosen to participate in the Great Telephone Experiment current must dial 1+7D for toll calls within the NPA and will soon have to dial 1+10D for them. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Sep 1994 16:56:20 -0400 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Al Varney writes: > About 2:1 in favor of the "1+ means Toll" method by counting > States. By population, it's about the other way around. I beg to differ. Greg Monti's excellent "NPA Readiness for 1995" table shows that the places using 7D dialing for intra-NPA long distance are overwhelmingly outnumbered on all possible counts (number of states & provinces, number of NPAs, and population) by places using 1+10D dialing. The roster of 7D locales includes no Caribbean countries or Canadian provinces, and only 8 US states (CA, NY, NJ, PA, IL, ME, NH, and WV). These 7D areas contain less than one third of the NANP's total population, and only 33 out of its 143 NPAs. You may not like it, but 1+10D is the norm, not the exception. Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Date: 23 Sep 1994 06:16:58 -0400 Organization: Oppedahl & Larson In Sanjiv Narayan writes: > I have noticed a strange thing here since I became a NYNEX customer in > Marlboro, MA. They have a local calling area (approximatly five mile > radius) within which I can place unlimited calls for a flat charge. > However if I call a number outside my local calling area (but still ** > within ** my 508 area-code), a recording asks you to redial with a '1' > prefixed before the seven-digit number I am calling. > Here's my question: If the NYNEX switching equipment is smart enough > to figure out that I need to dial a '1', why does it not go ahead and > complete the call anyway. I am willing to pay for the call regardless > of whether I redial with a '1' prefix or they complete it for me, > right !!? The reason is simple. Right *now* the system is able to figure it out. But there will be some future time when the system will not be able to, and the "1" will be quite necessary. The goal is to change your behavior between now and then. The reason the system won't be able to figure it out someday is a function of all those phone numbers that start with area codes, etc. Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY oppedahl@patents.com ------------------------------ From: museums@aol.com (MUSEUMS) Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Date: 22 Sep 1994 20:53:08 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Well they are going to have to change things awfully soon because of the numbering changes going on. I personally believe that seven digit dialing for toll calls should be optional. They should force you dial 1 and your own area code for long distance, or just the seven digits or give you the option for only 1 + area code. 1 + seven digits will have to be gone because of the new area code schemes. Some places like NJ have had seven digits for a really long time, because NJ is loaded with NNX's that are old traditional NPA; prefixes are like 315, 407, 305 ... etc ... etc. The tradional numbering system setup in the 1950's is going to be a thing of the past ... I really don't mind it. What is weird is that on Long Island, area code 516, they still don't dial 1's for anything. I guess they can dial 800-xxx-xxxx or area code-xxx-xxxx. I guess this means they don't have any NPA's as prefixes, or there is special software. Richard [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I must beg to differ with you. Prefixes like 417 and 305 are *not* old and traditional. Originally prefixes were the exact opposite of area codes: area codes always had a one or zero as the middle digit with two through nine as the first digit. Prefixes *never* had zero or one as the middle digit and *never* had zero as the third digit. Of course, area codes never had zero as the third digit either with the exception of 800, which is not really an 'area code' anyway and is the grandfather of the various special service codes one can dial before a seven digit number. I first remember seeing an 800 number about 1966 when the use of 800 began to replace 'Enterprise' and 'Zenith' numbers. Not only were zeroes and ones never used as the middle digit of prefixes until starting about ten years ago, any prefix appearing in one area code was never duplicated in the area code on either side of it. That is, since 659 was (is) a valid prefix in northern Indiana, it was not assigned until very, very late in 312. That way, telco was able to allow 'community dialing' when a community straddled a state line as in the case of the south Chicago/northern Indiana metropolitan area. Chicagoans could dial seven digits to get the northern Indiana area and likewise out there seven digits could be used to reach up here. That luxury, of never having the same prefix in two ajoining area codes, had to be eliminated by sometime in the 1970's. So, there was another use for '1' on the front end. Without it it meant give me the local exchange by this number; with it it meant give me the exchange by this number in Chicago (or vice versa). Until recently, subscribers in Antioch, Illinois on 708-396 could dial their next door neighbors in North Antioch, Wisconsin (404-397) by merely dialing 397 plus the last four digits. Of course that meant they had to dial '1' as a leading digit to reach 708-397, in the southern part of the area code in Blue Island, Illinois. In fact, people in Antioch had to dial '1' to call anywhere outside of Antioch/North Antioch, even if in 708. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Henry Wertz Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Date: 23 Sep 1994 01:41:30 GMT Organization: U of Iowa Panda System Reply-To: Henry@chop.isca.uiowa.edu In note , Sanjiv Narayan writes: > It becomes very cumbersome when you have to redial the number with the > '1' prefixed. I never had a similar problem with Pacific Bell in So. > California. The only time a '1' was required was when I dialed a > number in another area code. If a number was outside your local > calling area, Pacific Bell simply billed you for it. No redialing was > ever required. Actually, this is the standard, not the exception. Here, we just switched to having to dial 1 + area code + phone number for *anything* outside local calling area, even in the 319 area code. I saw a file in the Telecom Archives about this, and there were only a few area codes that *didn't* use a 1+. I got the bad luck of being in one. I wanted to know if some BBSs were local, and there was no easy way to tell. I had to look in the phone book and look it up. For *me*, it would have been easier to just dial 'em and listen for the "dial 1" recording. I would be really pissed if they took it out here; then it would be IMHO too easy to unknowingly dial LD numbers. I know they're in the book, but it's much easier to notice when you get the recording than memorize the local prefixes (which I have ... 351, 354, 337, 338, 339, 336, ... actually, I think there's a couple others.) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Sep 94 05:29:01 GMT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls I did earlier notice that Massachusetts has 1+NPA+7D for all long distance and for local calls to other area code. This is unusual. Normally, if an area has gone to 1+NPA+7D for long distance within an area code, it gets to continue using 7D for local calls to other area code; Delaware (where 1+7D is not yet turned off at this writing) and Maryland have this EXCEPT for end these local calls originating in Maryland and using NPA+7D: 1. DC area (to DC and Virginia) 2. across 301/410 border ------------------------------ From: clawsona@yvax.byu.edu Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Date: 23 Sep 94 05:38:43 -0700 Organization: Brigham Young University Uhhhh ... excuse me? In the past, area codes could not have a 1 or a 0 in the middle? Ummmm ... I can't think offhand of any area codes that DON'T have a 1 or a 0 in the middle: 313, 801, 810, 212, 213, 202, 617, 517.... Are you sure that's what you meant to say? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It was *prefixes* which never had zero or one in the middle and never had zero as the third digit. Area codes *always* had zero or one as the second digit and never had zero as the third digit. The prefix rule was broken first, several years ago, and now the area code rule is about to be broken in the next year. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony_Pelliccio@brown.edu (Tony Pelliccio) Subject: Re: Yet Another NYNEX Blunder Date: 22 Sep 1994 17:18:26 GMT Organization: Brown University -- Providence, Rhode Island USA In article , wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom. uoknor.edu wrote: > Many LECs will not send you a copy of the tariff or parts of > it. It varies by company and often by the individual you talk to (and > that's often because of the particular circumstances). They take the > position that you can inspect the tariff in their offices or at the > commission, but they are not required to make you a copy. Yeah sort of like NYNEX. The copy of the tarrif for my area is in Boston of all places. If you think I'm going to drive up to Boston just to look at it you're nuts. But then, Telco has all the eggs in their basket don't they? Tony Pelliccio, KD1NR - Brown University ADIR Computing Services Box 1908, Prov, RI 02912 Tel. (401) 863-1880 Fax. (401) 863-2269 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Yet Another NYNEX Blunder From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Reply-To: uunet!drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Date: Thu, 22 Sep 94 20:24:30 EDT Organization: Harry's Place - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu writes: >> I asked the gentleman to fax me the appropriate tariffs and we would >> read them together. This he did, and after examining the five >> applicable pages that described business vs residence service, he had >> to conclude that my operation fully qualified as residence service. > Many LECs will not send you a copy of the tariff or parts of > it. It varies by company and often by the individual you talk to (and > that's often because of the particular circumstances). They take the > position that you can inspect the tariff in their offices or at the > commission, but they are not required to make you a copy. MCI took that position with me, and they don't get much of my business any more. ;) I think that you need to speak with the right person, and in the right manner, to get a copy of what you need, since regular cs reps are typically too busy to handle such a request, or might not even know where to look for what you need. If I have to begin a service audit with retrieving a copies of tariffs via a third-party vendor, you can pretty much count on my being twice as nasty about getting money back. aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ From: dsc@xray.hmc.psu.edu (David S. Channin) Subject: Re: Cellphones and Smoke Detectors Date: 23 Sep 1994 02:39:24 GMT Organization: Dept. of Radiology, Hershey Medical Center, Hershey PA Our medical center currently has a ban on the use of cellphones within the building because they do activate the fire alarms. dsc ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Sep 94 02:06:21 CST From: Doug_Gurich@fcircus.sat.tx.us (Doug Gurich) Subject: Re: 24-Hour Callback Lines Needed Bruce, GlobalCom International can provide you with the 24 hour connection you are seeking from Japan to the U.S. We can offer you a solution that would provide six full-time, 24-hour dedicated lines for only approximatly $12,500/month (if you terminate on the west coast). This would effectively give you a per minute rate of only about $0.047 per minute (if you were to use each line continuously). Now, this is a leased line solution and your message indicated that leased lines would pose a problem. However, GlobalCom has a great deal of experience in providing international leased lines, as well as a great deal of experience in dealing with PTT's. Your company would not have to worry about the Japanese PTT (all contact would be directly with GlobalCom). If however, you must use a call back connection, we can also provide that to you. However, the cost would be significantly higher (at least eight times higher). I do believe you should consider the leased line option. GlobalCom personnel have a significant background in providing such service to the US military and multi-national corporations. In fact we are currently providing similar service between the US and Japan right now. We can also handle the Internet connection for you as well (if so desired). Doug Gurich GlobalCom International +1 210 525 7969 +1 210 525 7959 (fax) 71650.3012@compuserve.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #372 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14160; 23 Sep 94 18:37 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA15520; Fri, 23 Sep 94 13:10:06 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA15513; Fri, 23 Sep 94 13:10:03 CDT Date: Fri, 23 Sep 94 13:10:03 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409231810.AA15513@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #373 TELECOM Digest Fri, 23 Sep 94 13:10:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 373 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson FBI Wiretap Bill -- WTF? (Mahatma Kane-Jeeves) I Want to Be an LD Rep (interbiz@aol.com) Coming Soon: Son of 800 (Greg Monti) Three Prefixes Moved From 215 to 717 (Carl Moore) Programming an AT&T ISDN Phone (Alex Cena) Where Can I Locate Telecom Documents? (ds3man@delphi.com) Free Calls Offered to Service Members (Bert Roseberry) AT&T and McCaw Merger (pault@panix.com) Need Help With Fax and Answering Service (Alan N. Canton) EIA/TIA 568 Standards (Wilson Mohr) Internet Windows Interface Job Offer (Murray Gordon) Need California PUC IRD Information (Al Cohan) Book Review: "The Elements of E-mail Style" by Angell/Heslop (Rob Slade) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: mkj@world.std.com (Mahatma Kane-Jeeves) Subject: FBI Wiretap Bill -- WTF? Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 05:09:56 GMT I imagine most of you here have heard about the FBI's Digital Telephony proposal, aka the Digital Wiretap bill, by now. (If you haven't, please check out the EFF, CPSR, EPIC, and sources of Voters Telecom Watch info.) I thought this group might be a good place to ask for some technical insights into the bill's rationale. The FBI has claimed (but has offered scant evidence) that advances in "digital technology" are making the telephone system impossible to tap. Personally, I don't get it. What kinds of taps are they talking about? As far as I know, you can still tap most phones the old-fashioned way -- by going up the pole or down into the basement with a pair of alligator clips, right? More to the point, you can tap any phone by going to the carrier with a proper warrant and getting their cooperation (in fact, the major carriers have claimed that there has NEVER been a case where a legitimate agency has come to them with a proper warrant and not gotten a tap). So I'm trying to figure out, just what is this bill about -- REALLY? My own theory -- based on almost NO real knowledge, I admit -- is that the problems the FBI is having with digital communications must be in connection with either (1) doing taps without proper authorization, or (2) doing general surveillance on trunks (which used to be easy-to-intercept microwave links but are lately being replaced with difficult-to-intercept optical fiber). I'd appreciate it if anybody here with a better technical grasp of the situation could enlighten me further. What the @#$%&! are they talking about? Am I too paranoid, or not paranoid enough? Thanks in advance for any insights. mkj [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My own opinion is that the people making the protests are by and large over-reacting. I've included some of their press releases and 'write your congressperson' requests here in this Digest in an effort to be fair about it and give their side of the story, but honestly, I can't see what they have gotten in such an uproar over. The other day someone sent in something saying 'congressman so-and-so says he has not received a single letter from citizens in opposition to the bill ...', and while some of that lack of letter writing may be due to the ignorance of the general public on 'how telephones work', I do beleive some of it is also due to the fact that most people don't feel as threatened by these things as do the denizens of EFF and various privacy advocates on the net. Of course a fair rebuttal to that might be that it is precisely because of that general ignorance of telephone operations that people are not alarmed; that if the public in general knew as much about telephone networks and systems as a few of us do, they too would be greatly concerned and busy letter writing, etc. Like yourself, I find its simply too easy to tap telephones without being caught at it to concern myself with some new legislation on the subject. In any large older urban area, illicit tapping of telephones is child's play. Just get your alligator clips and go do it at any one of a dozen demarcs between the subscriber and the central office where the cable pairs are multipled, or available. I am not saying I *do that*; I do not do it, and I think it ethically wrong, but anyone can do it very easily. Between the many cellular/cordless phone snoops out there listening and the other easy ways there are of listening to phones, why should anyone care about still new proposals, government or otherwise? PAT] ------------------------------ From: interbiz@aol.com (InterBiz) Subject: I Want to Be an LD Rep Date: 23 Sep 1994 01:30:02 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) I am interested in being a rep for selling long distance. However, I have a few requirements: 1) I don't want to sell an MLM. My goal isn't to find 50 motivated people, it is to sell long distance with very good rates. I'd like the product to sell itself. I don't want to go to Amway-type prayer meetings where the discussions are how we will someday be rich. 2) I want to have the lowest or one of the lowest rates consumers can get. I want the rates to be impressive, so the service can sell itself. Is it possible to become a rep without being entangled with the MLM organization? Can one sell direct for a company and bypass all the middlemen of an MLM (I would think this would allow giving better rates to consumers). Please E-mail me any info that meets my requirements. Thanks. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you don't like the Amway style of doing things then select one of the countless other large 'switchless resellers' of the major carriers. There are too many out there to even begin naming them. In fact, there are so many out there -- many not at all like Amway -- the profit margin on this has been squeezed dry. You've got to get literally thousands of accounts under your control to reach the point where your tiny fractional part of the whole pie amounts to anything more than maybe a hundred dollars a month. After all the work I did on Orange Card a couple years ago for example, I have finally gotten to the point they send me around fifty dollars every month as residuals for the customers I sent their way. None of them will pay you an actual salary -- that is, unless you are on their payroll and under their direct supervision -- it will always be straight commission on traffic generated, generally with a delay of sixty to ninety days following the traffic to allow the customer to pay them and then in turn for them to pay you. You should plan on working three or four months virtually full time receiving *no money at all* from the carriers before the comissions -- what there are of them -- start coming in. You'll have to answer lots of time-consuming questions for comparison shoppers who won't ever sign up with you anyway. If you plan on doing this full time, you'll need a few thousand dollars in reserve to live on while waiting for the orders to go through, get turned on and the traffic to start, to say nothing of hoping to Goddess the people pay their bills to the carrier and are not deadbeats. Yes, many of the carriers have recourse to you as the independent agent in the event the bills are not paid. And if you only do it as a part time thing while keeping another full time job to live on, it will take ten times as long to reach the point where your commissions or residuals on traffic amount to anything meaningful. Plan on spending all your weekends and every night answering email and filling out paperwork. Seriously, I would not want to go back to doing that. I tried it for a year or so; I am still starving and trying to catch up financially in my personal life. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 7:30:43 -0400 (EDT) From: Greg Monti Subject: Coming Soon: Son of 800 A brief article in {Business Week} magazine, September 26, 1994, issue under the name "I-Way Patrol" and entitled "Coming Soon, Son of 800," says that the 800 code is running out of telephone numbers. 800 numbers went from zero in 1967 to to 3.1 million in 1993. The one-year step from 93 to 94, brought it to 4.1 million numbers. The capacity of the code is supposedly 7.6 million numbers, which will be reached by 1996. The article notes that business voice-response systems and inexpensive personal 800 number users are among the trends that soak up numbers. The Industry Numbering Committee is chewing over the idea of supplementing 800 with a second code, probably 300 or 400. Cute graphic accompanies: a telephone with what looks like an automobile odometer on it, reading 1 800 999 9999, with the 999 9999 part about to "turn over" like a car that hits a million miles. Greg Monti, Tech Mgr, FISPO, Distribution Division National Public Radio Phone: +1 202 414-3343 635 Massachusetts Av NW Fax: +1 202 414-3036 Washington, DC 20001-3753 Internet: gmonti@npr.org ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Sep 94 14:18:53 GMT From: Carl Moore Subject: Three Prefixes Moved From 215 to 717 Thanks to Paul A. Lee (email address /DD.ID=JES2CAOF.UEDCM09/@smx.sprint.com) I have received the following copies of letters regarding prefixes moving from 215 to 717 (not to 610), because their telephone companies also serve adjacent exchanges in area 717. A while back, there was the blurb about Denver 267 and Adamstown 484 going to 717 (Denver using 717-336 because 717-267 is in use at Chambersburg), but there is new information: that 445 Terre Hill has moved to 717. Before I learned that Terre Hill had moved to 717, I thought Terre Hill had dropped 1 for long distance within area code and that Enterprise Telephone's area 717 part had also done so. ******* (letter regarding Denver and Adamstown) January 11, 1993 Our Denver, PA., and Adamstown, PA., exchanges are presently in the 215 area code. On January 1, 1994, Bell of PA. is splitting the 215 NPA into 215 and 610. Also, the state of Pennsylvania is going to implement a new dialing pattern for intra-NPA calls. Because of these two changes, the Denver and Ephrata Telephone and Telegraph Company has decided to move both the Denver and Adamstown exchanges from the 215 NPA into the 717 NPA. Our Adamstown exchange is presently 215-484 and will become 717-484. Our Denver exchange is presently 215-267 and will become 717-336. The reassignment of these two exchanges from NPA 215 to NPA 717 will take effect at 12:01 a.m., Thursday, July 1, 1993. From July 1, 1993, until April 1, 1994, we will accept incoming calls to either the 215 or 717 NPA codes. As of April 1, 1994, we will only accept incoming calls to the 717 NPA code. As of July 1, 1993, the 10 digit Automatic Number Identification (ANI) from these two exchanges will be 717-484-XXXX for Adamstown and 717-336-XXXX for Denver. Please make any required preparations within your company for these changes. Thanks you in advance for your assistance. Very truly yours, Leonard A. Burns Manager, Central Office Engineering (Denver and Ephrata Telephone and Telegraph Company) ******* (letter regarding Terre Hill) March 26, 1993 With the announcement from Bell of PA that the 215 NPA will split in January of 1994, Enterprise Telephone Company has decided to reassign our Terre Hill Exchange (NXX 445) to the 717 NPA. Customer notification began in January of 1993. Please use this letter as your company's official notice that this number change will be effective 1/94, coinciding with the Bell of PA 215 split. Sincerely, John H. Gehr General Manager (Enterprise Telephone) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Sep 94 10:24:58 EST From: Alex Cena Subject: Programming an AT&T ISDN Phone I recently signed up for an ISDN service to my home. It was a nightmare to have the company deliver the service since there are very few people who trained to help you and the current downsizing does not help. After Bell Atlantic agreed to install the line, it took thirty days for the first installer to arrive and one and a half weeks before the service was actually working properly. It took no less than two technicians at a time to finally have it working. Now for my problem. The ISDN station set arrived by mail. It's an AT&T ISDN 7506 API. The phone works fine, but a programming manual did not come with the phone for reasons unknown to me so I have to call an AT&T help desk every time I need help. They in turn have to page an engineer to help me out. Can someone help me program this phone for use as three phantom lines and program some of he basic buttons to work. i.e. drop, hold, conference. If I want to use it as two voice and one data, how? Where can I find a programming manual for this darned thing? Regards, Alex M. Cena, Lehman Brothers, acena@lehman.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you have not yet paid for the phone which arrived in the mail, the easiest thing to do at this point is not pay for it until the documentation arrives. If you have already paid try stopping the credit card charge if that's still possible on the premise that the order was shipped incomplete. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ds3man@delphi.com Subject: Where Can I Locate Telecom Documents? Date: Thu, 22 Sep 94 22:31:38 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Does anyone have a good FTP address or telnet address for telecom documents? I am mainly looking for standards or tutorials on subjects like X.25, SS7, etc. Thanks a lot. ------------------------------ From: Bert Roseberry Subject: Free Calls Offered to Service Members Organization: Digital Equipment Computer Users Society Date: 22 Sep 94 23:32:29 -0400 I thought others might be interested in this offer from AT&T. -------------- Navy News Service - NAVNEWS BY EMAIL - navnews@opnav-emh.navy.mil NAVY NEWS SERVICE - 22 SEP 94 - NAVNEWS 057/94 NNS617. Free Calls Home Offered to Service Members in Caribbean WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Free three-minute phone calls home are being offered by AT&T to service members deployed on board U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships involved in Cuba/Haiti operations in the Caribbean. Sailors and Marines can place calls to the U.S. mainland, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The free offer will begin at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday, Sept. 24 and end on 11:59 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 26. The AT&T High Seas Radiotele- phone Service can be used by an any vessel with high frequency, Single Side Band (SSB) radiotelephone service, often referred to aboard ships as Military Affiliated Radio Service (MARS). To place the free phone calls, each ship's radio officer will select a channel to call one of AT&T's coast stations (WOM in Florida or WOO in New Jersey). When the signal is clear, the technician at the coast station will pass the call to an AT&T operator. The service member will tell the operator the number she or he is trying to reach and the call will be connected. When that service member's time is up, the phone will be passed to the next person and they will give their number to the operator. This way, a channel does not have to be obtained for each individual call. When U.S. military personnel arrive in Haiti, long distance service to the U.S. is available. Bert Roseberry roseberry@eisner.decus.org -or- US Coast Guard roseberry@duane.comdt.uscg.mil ------------------------------ From: pault@panix.com (Paul) Subject: AT&T and McCaw Merger Date: 22 Sep 1994 21:13:56 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC I would like to know what you all think of the merger between AT&T and Mccaw. a: Do you believe that this will lower cellular rates in Mccaw markets? b: Do you believe that it will effect employment in both companies? Any responses would be greatly appreciated. ------------------------------ From: acanton@delphi.com Subject: Need Help With Fax and Answering Service Date: Fri, 23 Sep 94 00:10:43 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Our answering service wants to auto-fax messages to our business. Our Brother 600 fax machine has a telephone answering device interface, so we connect an AT&T (two tape) answering machine to it. With everyone else on the planet, the system works fine. The answer machine comes on and then shuts down and the fax is received. However, with the answering service, most of the time the answering machine comes on, clicks off and the line is dropped. The fax is not received. It does work every once in a while. Can anyone give me some suggestions (besides getting a dedicated fax line ... too expensive) on what to do ... if anything. Please e-mail. Alan N. Canton ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Sep 94 11:48:23 CDT From: mohr@orange.rtsg.mot.com (Wilson Mohr) Subject: EIA/TIA 568 Standards Vic.Franco@lambada.oit.unc.edu writes: > Does anyone know if the new EIA/TIA 568 standard has been set, and > where can I retrieve it on the Internet? Well, Toby Nixon of Hayes Mirocomputer Products (tnixon%hayes@uunet.uu. net) provided this information back in November, 1992. Quote: The Electronic Industries Association (EIA) and Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) have contracted out the distribution of their published standards to Global Engineering Documents. All orders for EIA or TIA standards should now be directed to Global Engineering Documents instead of the EIA/TIA Sales Department (although EIA/TIA still handles proposed standards and other work in progress). Global Engineering Documents can be reached at: For inquiries from within the USA: Global Engineering Documents 1990 M Street NW, Suite 400 Washington DC 20036 800-854-7179 Voice 202-331-0960 Fax For inquiries from outside the USA: Global Engineering Documents 2805 McGaw Avenue Irvine CA 92714 +1-714-261-1455 Unquote: The EIA and TIA documents are not "freeware" (for lack of a better term) as far as I know. They are meant to be purchased. As a datapoint, I did call them this morning on an unrelated issue. Their current cost for the 568 standards is $80 plus 5% Shipping and Handling plus applicable local sales tax. They also have a version of the new proposed 568 standards revision for $122 plus (et.al). The mailing address they gave me was: Global Engineering Documents 7730 Carondelet Avenue Suite 407 Clayton, Missourri 63105 Wilson Mohr mohr@cig.mot.com Strategic Quality - Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group 1501 W. Shure Drive - Rm 3C9, Arlington Heights, IL 60004 USA ------------------------------ From: quetzal@panix.com (Murray Gordon) Subject: Internet Windows Interface Job Offer Date: 23 Sep 1994 13:31:06 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC INTERNET/WINDOWS Programmers wanted: We need to get some experienced Windows programmers on board soon, for a project for a client, who wants to create a Windows interface for accessing the Internet. (Similar to Pipeline) If you have experience in writing for Windows (probably Visual C++, but we might consider other languages for this development project), and hopefully you know the "ins and outs" of the Internet reasonably well, then: Contact: Murray Gordon Quetzal Computers 1708 E 4th St. Brooklyn, NY 11223 Phone 718-375-1186. Fax 718-645-1496, or respond via CIS mail, or via the Internet to Quetzal@panix.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Sep 94 11:47 EST From: Al Cohan <0004526627@mcimail.com> Subject: Need California PUC IRD Information I understand that sometime last week the California PUC approved a sweeping rate change for both Pac Bell and General Telephone. I have heard that base rates have dramatically increased and ZUM 3 and local service area long distance has decreased as much as 50%. This PUC decision sets the terms for Intra-Lata toll traffic competition. Does anyone have a synopsis of the new rates? or a copy of the decision? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Al ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Sep 1994 15:46:37 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "The Elements of E-mail Style" by Angell/Heslop BKMALSTL.RVW 940526 Addison-Wesley Publishing Company P.O. Box 520 26 Prince Andrew Place Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 73171.657@Compuserve.com tiffanym@aw.com bobd@aw.com johnw@aw.com keithw@aw.com lisaro@aw.com "The Elements of E-mail Style", Angell, 1994, 0-201-62709-4, U$12.95/C$16.95 dangell@shell.portal.com bheslop@shell.portal.com On the one hand, electronic mail is simply another form of written communications. On the other hand, email's very earliest beginnings lie only twenty years back. Ten years ago, less than a million people in the world had access to the medium, and the rapid growth in the popularity of email, while it means there are many current practitioners, also means that few users have any depth of experience. In addition, the speed and ease of electronic communications allow the unwary to get themselves into considerable trouble. There is, therefore, a need for an email style guide. That is not to say that it need be this one. Indeed, it is very difficult to say that this is an email guide, at all. It is simply a writing and style guide, and, for those in the market for such an item, it may be suitable as a quick reference. As far as email goes, however, while mention is frequent, material is scant. The content would seem to indicate that the authors, while they have some familiarity with the use of email, have very little experience with the broad range of online communications systems, and no feel for computer mediated communications as a whole. The limited exposure shows up in areas such as the coverage of, for example, flaming (the generation of abusive messages). Their suggestions, while not inappropriate, are not particularly helpful, either. Read your message twice. (From experience, this just tends to increase your determination.) Would you say this to the person's face? (Heck, yes! I'm mad!) A more practical alternative is to write it, hold it, and then re-read the original message before sending it. (And remember, if the original message isn't worth re-reading, it isn't worth a response, either.) Another indication of limited experience is the use of specific suggestions rather than general principles. Line length and font styles are mentioned in regard to terminal characteristics, but there is no discussion of common terminal characteristics or alternative forms of emphasis. We are told not to say "no" to an offer from a Japanese correspondent but with no other examples of cultural diversity, this is of little use. Chapter one is a list of the standard email do's and don'ts. The points are generally good, but the supporting text is less than useful. Chapter two *is* useful; a very cogent list of suggestions for structuring email text for greatest impact. Chapters three to seven, covering vocabulary, tone, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation, could be summed up in two words: learn English. The material specific to email from all five chapters is, in total, less than the space devoted to one list of frequently misspelled words. Chapter eight gives some recommendations on the use of formatting and special characters. Some points are good; many (such as the use of tabs for column alignment) are not. (Many systems use eight character cells for a tab character, but some use other alignments and thus, tabs can be more trouble than help.) Most of the chapter, however, is dedicated to the promotion of ASCII art and the use of special characters. The special characters are those that use the eighth bit. These are sometimes called "high ASCII" or "upper ASCII" and are, in truth, not ASCII or any other standard. Fidonet echo rules often expressly forbid the use of such characters, since they may be deleted by mail transfer agents, be incomprehensibly different on the end user's system, or, in the worst case, be system control characters. A glossary is included which would have been more useful if it had more terms from email (IMHO) than from English class. An appendix about Internet posting conventions talks only about Usenet and basically recaps suggestions made earlier. For those completely new to email and net systems, this does contain points to ponder, with some shortcomings in terms of practical advice. For the B1FFs of the world, they could certainly stand to learn English but probably won't. For those interested in a serious examination of the email field, this will be disappointing. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKMALSTL.RVW 940526. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Sept. '94) Springer-Verlag [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I rarely comment on anything in Mr. Slade's reviews, but something definitly needs correction this time. Email did NOT begin 'only twenty years back'. If Telex and TWX were not considered email, then I don't know what you would call them. Telex and TWX were both essenti- ally the same product with the former having been developed by Western Union more than half a century ago. TWX (yperiter Echange) was developed by AT&T in the 1950's when they decided to try and encroach on Western Union's territory. Both involved machines with modems which had keyboards and printers. An operator at one end typed on the keyboard and the resulting message printed out on the paper at the other end. It is true the term 'email' itself came into usage only about twenty years ago and into common usage during perhaps the past decade, but we have had the essence of email for a long time. Long before 'every business can have their own telegraph operator' as someone at WUTCO once commented during the Second World War era, every town large and small had a public telegraph office. These functioned as sort of community email places where operators sat at keyboards entering messages which came out on the printers of similar devices in distant cities. To be sure, we called them 'telegrams' rather than the modern term 'email' ... but it existed none the less. After AT&T began marketing TWX, they got sued by Western Union to force them out of the business with WUTCO claiming the voice traffic belonged to AT&T while the written traffic should be the exclusive property of WUTCO ... a court agreed and AT&T had to divest themselves of TWX. That was in the middle 1960's I guess. Those Western Union public offices were really something else. I'll print something about them here in the Digest soon. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #373 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15982; 23 Sep 94 20:02 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA20450; Fri, 23 Sep 94 15:22:05 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA20442; Fri, 23 Sep 94 15:22:01 CDT Date: Fri, 23 Sep 94 15:22:01 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409232022.AA20442@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #374 TELECOM Digest Fri, 23 Sep 94 15:22:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 374 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Sprint Workers Fight Back (People's Weekly World via Tad Cook) Sprint Workers Win NLRB Ruling (People's Weekly World via Tad Cook) Okay, So I Want to Start My Own Local Telco ... How? (Peter Rukavina) California 562 Code to Overlay Only 310 (Greg Monti) New Owners For Western Union (Nigel D. Allen) From the Past: Western Union Public Offices (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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: Tad Cook Subject: Sprint Workers Fight Back Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 09:10:11 PDT From: Scott Marshall Subject: PWW: Sprint workers fight back **Sprint workers: 'We only wanted a union'** (Reprinted from the September 17, 1994 {People's Weekly World}. For subscription information see below - all rights reserved.) By Marilyn Bechtel SAN FRANCISCO - Earlier this month City Hall's staid legislative chambers became a stage for labor fight-back, as workers from Sprint's La Conexion Familiar (The Family Connection) -- abruptly closed last July just days before a union representation election -- recounted the impact of their firing on the families they supported on $7 an hour. LCF is Sprint's telemarketing subsidiary to the Spanish-speaking community in California and elsewhere in the U.S. Its 235 employees were mostly Latino and 80 percent were women. After a February meeting with organizers for the Communications Workers of America (CWA), workers at LCF launched an organizing drive. Early in June CWA filed a petition for union recognition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on behalf of about 70 percent of union-eligible workers. An election was set for July 22. But on July 14, Sprint suddenly shut the facility. Nine fired workers, most testifying in Spanish, told their stories to a Sept. 8 hearing of the Government Efficiency & Labor Committee of the Board of Supervisors. Supporting testimony came from their union, the California Labor Federation and the San Francisco Labor Council and from community organizations. A hundred fired Sprint workers in the audience repeatedly burst into applause as their co-workers laid bare Sprint's union-busting tactics and refuted management claims that LCF closed because of financial losses. "When the announcement was made, the first thing I thought of was my daughter who had just graduated, the bills I had to pay and the rent that would be due," said Teresa Rosario Dadin. She told how she fainted following the announcement, made to 100 Sprint workers hastily assembled in a locked room. Dadin, who did not regain consciousness until she was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, said her doctor has asked Sprint to pay for more medical tests to learn what damage may have been caused by her prolonged unconsciousness. Nancy Louks, a widow and sole support of her 10-year-old son, told of the constant abuses the workers suffered. Last April, she said, Sprint imposed changes in work rules such as calling on workers "to restrict fluid intake so we would not have to go to the bathroom." When workers spontaneously refused free hot dogs brought them as an incentive, management abruptly fired a middle-aged woman worker they blamed for the protest. Louks said the woman left with supervisors "screaming at her to get out, and threatening to call the police." When Louks burst into tears and protested the firing, she said, "I was immediately taken aside by my department head and told behind closed doors something that I cannot ever forgive. She told me, 'You should keep in mind that you are a widow with a child and that it would be hard for you to get another job.'" In a telephone interview, fired worker Elisa Lopez described Sprint management's racist attitudes. "When we asked for higher pay," said Lopez, "the bosses said, what the hell do you want, you're getting $7 an hour, that's way too much for Latinos. Every time the workers raised something, that's how the company responded: 'You're just Latinos and it doesn't matter.'" Lpez said many of the workers were single mothers and fathers. Some, including herself, had been on welfare, and were very proud to have gotten jobs so they could care for their families. "So for all these people, losing this job hurts a lot," she added. Her co-worker, Alma Lopez, told the hearing that before going to work for LCF, she lived in a women's shelter with her two children, ages one and four. Then, she said, "I was able to leave the women's shelter and rent a studio. Although it was very hard to survive on my $7 an hour wage ... I was very proud that I could get ahead on my own with my children and be independent." Now, Lopez said, she and the children are back in the shelter. Sprint Assistant Vice President Jill Ferrel portrayed the company as having reluctantly decided to close LCF because it was losing customers to the competition. She claimed Sprint gave the workers 60 days' pay in lieu of the required 60-day notice because the service was terminated. But Marie Malliett, president of CWA Local 9410, the local organizing the workers, pointed out that Sprint had just spent $1 million remodeling LCF's executive suite, had hired a new president for the company on June 1 and had continued to hire and train workers up to the end. "The only intervening fact," said Malliett, "which led to the sudden closure of Sprint, was that its work force was about to vote for a union." Under questioning from committee chair, Supervisor Terence Hallinan, Ferrel admitted that Sprint had falsified documents to bolster its claim that LCF closed for economic reasons. Nor did the workers let stand Sprint's claim that it provided a "career center" to help them find new jobs. "They tried to make it seem like they were going to help us, having a career center," Raul Posada told the World after the hearing. "But I, myself, went to the career center. What they told me was, 'Have a seat, here's a newspaper, call up any office, what jobs do you have today?' That's a big joke!" Ex-telemarketer Priscila Velasquez said during the hearing that there was "not even one word" about available positions within Sprint in the packet given them by the company. All the workers had great praise for the CWA. Elisa Lopez said,"The union was right there, supporting us, got pizza for us, talked with us," when she left the building after the firing. Lopez said the union loaned her the money for her August rent. and added that the local is helping families to get food and school clothing for the children and is referring the workers to various agencies for help. "This is true support, not just lip-service," she added. As he concluded the hearing, Hallinan pledged to introduce legislation "condemning Sprint for this callous closure, urging Sprint to rehire 235 people who lost their jobs, and resolving that until they do so, the City of San Francisco will have no further written contracts" with the company. This campaign has significance far beyond the ranks of the fired workers, Local 9410 spokesperson Debra Simcovich told the World. "A victory here would mean that Sprint Long Distance Services would be able to organize for the first time ever. That's a major issue here because Sprint has consistently denied that right to its long distance workers," she said. ******************** Read the Peoples Weekly World Sub info: pww@igc.apc.org 235 W. 23rd St. NYC 10011 $20/yr - $1-2 mos trial sub ------------------------------ From: Tad Cook Subject: Sprint Workers Win NLRB Ruling Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 09:10:43 PDT From: Scott Marshall Subject: PWW: Sprint workers win NLRB ruling **NLRB ruling favors Sprint workers** From {People's Weekly World} - see subscription information below. SAN FRANCISCO - Fired Sprint workers and their families made the Marine Firemen and Oil Workers Hall ring with applause Monday as Communications Workers of America (CWA) leaders announced their victory over Sprint's union-busting campaign. Janice Wood, CWA international vice president, said the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found top management of Sprint/La Conexion Familiar had broken the law on "at least 50 to 70 different points" as it tried to halt their organizing. CWA national counsel Antonio Salazar-Hobson said the NLRB's "comprehensive and unprecedented" complaint means the full force of the federal government will be used to reopen LCF, compel the rehiring of all workers with full back pay and benefits, and ensure a CWA union election. He said the union expects an immediate response to its request for an injunction to restore the workers' jobs pending NLRB proceedings in Washington. "Not only is it evident to us that there is need for international solidarity, but that there is a worldwide need because what happened here can happen elsewhere tomorrow and the day after," said Gephardt Gotterbaum of the German Telecommunications Workers Union. The union is represented on the board of German Bundespost Telekom, which is involved in a pending $4.2 billion deal with Sprint. The union pressed Sprint to recognize the LCF workers' rights. John Henning, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, called this solidarity a "reminder of the need for the workers of the world to be united" in the face of international capital. He reminded the LCF workers that without CWA Local 9410 they would have no victory. Citing anti-union efforts by other firms, and the emergence of new competitors, CWA Vice President Wood said the NLRB decision "has enormous significance to workers throughout the telecommunications industry."The decision belongs to you," CWA Local President Marie Malliett told the workers. "Sprint made a terrible mistake ... they thought you were going to be alone and isolated. You were not and are not." Many days of struggle lie ahead, she said, "but this is the most important step on the way to achieving justice." ************** Read the Peoples Weekly World Sub info: pww@igc.apc.org 235 W. 23rd St. NYC 10011 $20/yr - $1-2 mos trial sub ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 17:20:19 GMT From: Peter Rukavina Subject: Okay, So I Want to Start My Own Local Telco ... How? If I read the news correctly, the Canadian local telephone service market has just been opened up for competition by the CRTC. When telephones first came to Prince Edward Island, the house that I now live in was served by the Kingston Rural Municipal Telephone Company with, at one time, one line serving some 68 households. As with small rural exhcnages in the rest of North America, the company was eventually consumed by the Island Telephone Company and is now part of their New Haven telephone exchange. I'm interested in knowing, on a broad but somewhat technical level, what the challenges to creating a local telephone company in my neighbourhood again would be ... let's say, for example's sake, a group of ten to fifteen houses all located within a circle with a radius of two miles. Is such an arrangement workable on a small, cooperative, cost-effective basis with commonly available equipment? Has this been done in other jurisdictions? Thanks, Peter Rukavina, Information Manager, PEI Crafts Council, Charlottetown, Canada TEL: +1 902 566-1584 FAX: +1 902 628-8740 EMAIL: peter@crafts-council.pe.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 12:20:14 EDT From: Greg Monti Subject: California 562 Code to Overlay Only 310 The newsletter {Communications Daily}, in its September 8, 1994, edition, published a story saying that implementation of the 562 overlay area code in the Los Angeles area would be sped up and altered. The story notes that area code 310 has only two million unused numbers left and that demand for numbers has increased in 310 by 50% over earlier predictions. Bellcore has declared that 310 is in jeopardy. New code 562 will go into service in September, 1995, instead of March, 1996. The earlier plan for 562 to take over wireless customers who currently have 213, 310 or 818 numbers will be scrapped. There will be a two-phase cutover, with wireless customers with 310 numbers moving to 562 first. Then, in a second phase, new landline prefixes within the land area now occupied by 310 will be assigned to new code 562. A Pacific Bell spokesman, interviewed in the story, said that doing 562 as an overlay of 310 would prevent "the need for a traditional area code split, which would require millions of customers to change their numbers." Contributor's note: So, 562 will become an overlay of 310 only and will not be primarily a wireless area code. This is the first overlay to do this. Neighbors within the affected area will eventually have a mix of 310 and 562 numbers which, for call-rating purposes, would become equal. Whether 562 will ever be equal to 310 in the minds of consumers is another question. 213 and 818 will no longer be affected by this plan and would, presumably, undergo splits later. Greg Monti, Tech Mgr, FISPO, Distribution Division National Public Radio Phone: +1 202 414-3343 635 Massachusetts Av NW Fax: +1 202 414-3036 Washington, DC 20001-3753 Internet: gmonti@npr.org ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 13:15:06 -0400 Subject: New Owners For Western Union From: ndallen@io.org (Nigel D. Allen) Organization: Internex Online (io.org), Toronto, Canada The Associated Press reports that First Financial Management Corporation of Atlanta has purchased what is left of Western Union: the money order and telegram/Mailpost services, known as Western Union Financial Services Inc. The purchase was made at a bankruptcy auction, from New Valley Corporaton, a holding company that had been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Western Union's other assets -- long distance, Telex, e-mail, even its once-again valuable network of urban conduits -- had been sold to other companies over the past decade. Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ndallen@io.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So is there now anything left which is legitimatly called 'Western Union' or not? It boggles my mind to think of what was once the second largest company in the world -- coming only behind AT&T, hint! hint! -- having met this fate. WUTCO and AT&T had been so intertwined over the years in the first half of this century. Like AT&T, WUTCO was absolutely *huge* in terms of facilities and personnel. Like AT&T, which in its early formative years grew to the size it was by constantly aquiring and gobbling up small telephone competitors all over the USA (once the patent on the telephone ran out early this century AT&T started furiously grabbing everything they could), WUTCO was literally a union of mostly small telegraph companies obtained under -- umm -- some would say dubious circumstances during the end of the nineteenth century. I wonder if someday in this Digest maybe fifty years hence a contributor will write to tell us that 'what remains of AT&T after their bankruptcy was sold today to ....'. After all, in 1950 I am sure no one thought there would ever be a world without Western Union ... will there ever be a world without 'the telephone company'? PAT] ------------------------------ From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: From the Past: Western Union Public Offices Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 13:45:00 CDT Nigel Allen's note discussing the sale of the remains of WUTCO brings to mind the way Things Were Done a half century and more ago where email -- but then we called them 'telegrams' -- was concerned. Every town large and small had a Western Union Telegraph Office. These offices were sometimes owned by the company itself in the case of larger cities, or were more often than not independent agencies licensed to use the Western Union name and network for sending electronic messages at the speed of light around the nation and the world. The independent agencies received a commission from WUTCO and other carriers for the telegraphic traffic they generated and received at their locations. Generally these public telegraph offices were open 24 hours daily, and as often as not located in a central area of the community, frequently in the same location as the community bus station or train depot. A typical telegraph office had lots of marble: marbletop counters, marble floors, marbletop tables where the public would sit to compose messages they wanted sent over the wire. Overhead fans swirling slowly, very comfortable overstuffed chairs in a waiting room where people would wait for messages they were expecting, and always a few of the 'telegraph office clocks' ... the wall clocks with pendulums, spring driven and the Western Union logo on them ... Naval Observatory Time, mind you ... They were always very noisy places. The telephone rang constantly in smaller offices where a single, usually harassed and frequently cranky counter clerk both took telegram requests over the phone and from walkup customers at the counter. Behind the clerk were the telegraph machines; smaller offices had two or three and larger offices might have a dozen or so. Since they were large mechanical devices, they were quite noisy at times as the keys would strike the ribbons and the paper printing out messages. They looked like giant, old fashioned typewriters, which is all they really were, but with the ability to operate by themselves in response to electrical impulses sent to them over the wire from some other office in another town, somewhere. Their size was about three feet wide by four feet tall by about three feet deep. Each had a regular keyboard on the front with the keys mechanically interconnected to the inside of the machine. Usually the counter clerk had a helper who worked the machines while the clerk took phone calls and customers at the counter, but not always. Sometimes the single clerk had to operate the machines while handling the phone calls and counter customers as well, depending on the size of the office and the community. Of course in large cities like Chicago, there would be several counter clerks and several telegraphers all working on each shift. WUTCO had a relationship for many years that was [thisclose] to AT&T and the Bell System. In every community, WUTCO had the telephone number -4321 as the number to call to send telegrams over the phone and have the telegram charged to your phone bill; that is unless you were calling from a pay phone, then you were supposed to ask the operator for 'Western Union'. The operator would ring up the telegraph office and tell the clerk 'this is a coin phone calling' ... and once you had finished dictating your message, the clerk would tell you to flash to have the operator come back on the line and the clerk would then tell the operator the amount of money to be collected and deposited in the payphone coin box. Using information services by phone and having the charges put on your phone bill did not start with 900/976. It began eighty years ago with Western Union collecting for telegrams sent over the phone! Meanwhile in the public office, the cranky counter clerk just finished taking a phone message and her hand had not yet left the phone receiver when the phone would ring again with another customer ... but ignoring it to the extent of maybe twenty or thirty rings she would instead take a couple of customers at the counter, then go back for another phone call, etc. So you wanted to send a telegram: your son or daughter had just graduated high school and you wanted to notify grandma and grandpa in another town. Or the flip side of the coin, grandpa has just passed and you tearfully went into the telegraph office to notify a family member living halfway across the continent. Or you got a telegram saying you had received the new job you were seeking in the big city, or whatever. You began by going to one of the 'writing tables' and getting the proper blank form to be filled out. You composed your message on that form and took it to the counter clerk. Like a school teacher correcting homework, the counter clerk would read it over and pencil in words that were deemed to be hard to read or illegible. "What's this say here?", she would ask, and you would tell her what the word or sentence was she could not decipher if your handwriting was bad. Properly joyful if the message contained good news, and sympathetic or reverent if the message contained bad news, the clerk would count up the number of words to be sent and the class of service desired (delivery to the other end or to be picked up in the office at the other end, etc) and tell you the charges. You could also pay extra and get a receipt showing delivery had been made at the other end, and you could send your message 'collect' if desired. "That'll be eighty five cents, hon ....". Customers were always 'hon' if they were female or 'sir' if they were male ... at least that's how I remember the clerks around here. You'd give her the eighty five cents or the dollar bill, she would open the cash box and make change if needed, then proceed to rubber stamp various indica on the paperwork. It had to be recorded in the daily traffic logbook of course, and then it was handed over to the telegrapher, usually a man sitting at the machines behind the counter. He would read the message, set the scrap of paper on a clipboard in front of him and start typing it into the network. In the meantime, the phone would ring again; the clerk would roll her eyes in disgust, take another drag on her cigarette, put it down and answer the phone to take another called in telegram. The telegraph machines were wired in rotary hunt so that if one was in use for incoming or outgoing traffic further messages would 'hunt' for the next available machine in the office. One telegrapher would usually handle four or five machines, ripping off sheets of paper as new messages arrived in the town and in the meantime typing outgoing messages at one of the machines. Arriving messages were given to the counter clerk who logged them in the logbook and then dutifully called out the name given: "Is there a Johnson waiting here to get a message?". Mrs. Johnson would get up and walk over to the counter and the clerk would hand the paper to her. Unless it was collect of course, in which case the clerk would tell her it came collect, "that will be a dollar ten cents, hon, it came collect. Yawanna pay for it or refuse it and send it back?" Mrs. Johnson, and maybe her husband and children would shell out the money if necessary and the clerk, who of course had already read the message would become appropriatly joyous or sorrowful. "I'm sorry to have to give you this bad news, hon .... " as the recipient stood there and read that grandpa had passed the night before, and would they be coming to the funeral, etc. The public telegraph offices were always noisy places due to the machinery. There always was a din in the background from the keys of the typewriter machines clacking as they conveyed the happy news and sad news from one place to another. Always, clack clack clack in the background. But then rarely, maybe once in an hour, all the machines would fall silent at the same time with no traffic going in either direction and the office would seem strangely quiet. Then as suddenly as it became silent, perhaps a minute or two later, or maybe just ten seconds later you'd hear that 'whirr .....' as the motor started running on one of the machines before the clutch would engage and the typewriter began to tell yet another tale ... in the middle of the night, the sole person there functioning as clerk and telegrapher would sit, listening to the radio and endlessly smoking cigarettes; he had paperwork to do with the ledger book for the day, but the telegrams would be few and far between ... but after several minutes of silence it would never fail; brrrrummm ... one of the machines had kicked in and was starting to print some inbound traffic. The night agent would blink his eyes, sit up, and walk over to look at it and pull the paper off ... "Is there a Smith waiting here to get a message?...." Eventually around 1960 or so, WUTCO began closing the less profitable public offices, having customers call on the phone instead to a central location down around St. Louis somewhere. They still kept company offices open in major cities for several years after all the small town telegraph agencies had been closed, but by somewhere in the middle 1970's all that was gone as well with just the telephone center in St. Louis handling what little traffic was still coming that way. Does anyone remember when 'The Telephone Company' *used to have* public walk in offices in every town across America also ... it's true, they did ... and now people ask where can I go to pay my bill in person? So WUTCO is now gone entirely, eh? As iconcievable as it sounds now, by the year 2050 will anyone remember AT&T? Don't say it can't happen! That's what they said at Western Union back in the 1940-60 era. Have a nice weekend; talk at ya in a couple days again. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #374 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16443; 26 Sep 94 17:52 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA04634; Mon, 26 Sep 94 12:17:13 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA04622; Mon, 26 Sep 94 12:17:10 CDT Date: Mon, 26 Sep 94 12:17:10 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409261717.AA04622@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #375 TELECOM Digest Mon, 26 Sep 94 12:17:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 375 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson S. 1822: Sen. Hollings and Others' Reactions (Jeff Richards) Another Civil Liberty Group (Dave Banisar) Re: FBI Wiretap Bill -- WTF? (Eric N. Florack) Re: FBI Wiretap Bill -- WTF? (Michael Chui) Re: FBI Wiretap Bill -- WTF? (John Higdon) Re: FBI Wiretap Bill -- WTF? (Tom Horsley) Re: Wiretap Emergency (Steve Granata) Re: Telecommuting Law (Travis Russell) Re: Telecommuting Law (Bob Elliot) Re: Telecommuting Law (Bob Keller) Re: Telecommuting Law (Steve Cogorno) Re: Telecommuting Law (Jonathan Liu) Re: Telecommuting Law (Jim Burkit) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: mfjtf@bell.com (special) Subject: S. 1822: Sen. Hollings and Others' Reactions Date: 26 Sep 1994 15:19:47 GMT Organization: Capital Area Internet Service email info@cais.com On September 23, 1994, Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC) Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee announced his decision to withdraw from further consideration S. 1822, the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1994. In a written statement, Senator Hollings explains his reasons for taking this action. This has triggered a number of responses. An initially comprehensive set of statements by key players and third parties is now available by gopher and WWW on bell.com. These include: Senator Hollings Statement Senator Dole's Statement MFJ Task Force Reaction Sprint Reaction American Telemedicine Association Reaction National Association of Development Organization Reaction Access2000 (Independent Film & Video Producers) Reaction Access instructions: ftp://bell.com/pub/Announcements_on_S.1822_Withdrawal gopher://bell.com http://bell.com For questions or copies via mail (e-mail or snail mail), send request to . Jeff Richards MFJ Task Force Internet: mfjtf@bell.com 1133-21st Street, NW # 700 Washington, DC 20036-3349 ------------------------------ Organization: Electronic Privacy Information Center From: Dave Banisar Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 02:07:10 EST Subject: Another Civil Liberty Group Opposes Wiretap Bill The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today wrote to Rep. Jack Brooks, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, "to express the ACLU's opposition to the FBI Wiretap Access Bill, H.R. 4922." The organization's position is the latest indication that the legislation is running into serious trouble in Congress for several reasons, including strong opposition from civil liberties and privacy advocates. The bill's proponents had initially hoped to bring it to a vote on the floors of the House and Senate by mid-September. Instead, the bill remains in committees of both houses and is the object of a grassroots campaign to prevent its enactment. Excerpts from the ACLU letter: "The principal problem remains that any digital telephone bill which mandates that communications providers make technological changes for the sole purpose of making their systems wiretap-ready creates a dangerous and unprecedented presumption that government not only has the power, subject to warrant to intercept private communications, but that it can require private parties to create special access. It is as if the government had required all builders to construct new housing with an internal surveillance camera for government use. ... "Moreover, the FBI has not borne the burden of proving why such an extraordinary requirement is necessary. ... "H.R. 4922 proposes a radical and expensive change in our telecommuni- cations structure. The threats it poses, now and prospectively, are real, but the need for it is far less than evident or proven. We urge that your Committee not rush into consideration of this far reaching measure with so little time left in the session." The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is urging all concerned individuals and organizations to contact the following members of Congress immediately: Rep. Jack Brooks Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (202) 225-6565 (voice) (202) 224-7494 (voice) (202) 225-1584 (fax) (202) 224-5474 (fax) For more information about the FBI Wiretap Bill, check the Voters Telecomm Watch (VTW) gopher site (gopher.panix.com) or send e-mail to . ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 06:34:38 PDT From: Eric_N._Florack.cru-mc@xerox.com Subject: Re: FBI Wiretap Bill -- WTF? Pat: You recently responded to mkj@world.std.com (Mahatma Kane-Jeeves) regards the FBI's position on Wiretapping the Digital network. My own views on this subject are fairly well known to the regulars here, having recently been posted in this list. Imagine my surprise on reading your response. It certainly explained why my computer room clock had stopped: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My own opinion is that the people making > the protests are by and large over-reacting. I've included some of their > press releases and 'write your congressperson' requests here in this > Digest in an effort to be fair about it and give their side of the story, > but honestly, I can't see what they have gotten in such an uproar over.<< We seem to agree, here. > The other day someone sent in something saying 'congressman so-and-so > says he has not received a single letter from citizens in opposition to > the bill ...', and while some of that lack of letter writing may be due > to the ignorance of the general public on 'how telephones work', I do > beleive some of it is also due to the fact that most people don't feel > as threatened by these things as do the denizens of EFF and various > privacy advocates on the net. Of course a fair rebuttal to that might be > that it is precisely because of that general ignorance of telephone > operations that people are not alarmed; that if the public in general > knew as much about telephone networks and systems as a few of us do, > they too would be greatly concerned and busy letter writing, etc. Frankly, Pat, I rather doubt the latter. The people are simply not as concerned as the EFF is about such things. > Like yourself, I find its simply too easy to tap telephones without being > caught at it to concern myself with some new legislation on the subject. > In any large older urban area, illicit tapping of telephones is child's > play. Just get your alligator clips and go do it at any one of a dozen > demarcs between the subscriber and the central office where the cable > pairs are multipled, or available. I am not saying I *do that*; I do not > do it, and I think it ethically wrong, but anyone can do it very easily. You certainly can right now, but I wonder about the near future. Allow me a question: Do you see us going end-to-end digital at any time soon? Once that happens, it's going to be quite a feat to tap in so simple a manner. Hence the need for the bill. (Among a host of other reasons.) EFF's noisemaking is just that; much ado about nothing, and little else but an attempt to keep themselves in the spotlight. (Of course, given the scorching of my mailbox the last time I mentioned this stand on this issue, it would seem the EFF is quite good at marshalling it's forces ... I fully expect more of the same, from this post.) E [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is not politically correct to ever criticize the EFF or the ACLU, both of whom have graced (or would you say defaced?) these columns with their remarks from time to time. One must never assume anything but the noblest intentions by both organiza- tions we are told. I haven't heard much lately from another of their kind, the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. Never having been, nor had any desire to be socially responsible, I used to run their press releases from time to time more as curiosities than anything else. Will we go end-to-end digital anytime soon in any large scale way? Personally, I doubt it. I think we can rely on our alligator clips and lineman's headsets for quite awhile. But another writer today doesn't think so. A note from John Higdon later in this issue claims things are changing rapidly. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 21:20:03 -0500 From: Michael Chui Subject: Re: FBI Wiretap Bill -- WTF? Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University PAT: In article you write: > Like yourself, I find its simply too easy to tap telephones without being > caught at it to concern myself with some new legislation on the subject. [snip] > Between the many cellular/cordless phone snoops out there listening and > the other easy ways there are of listening to phones, why should anyone > care about still new proposals, government or otherwise? PAT] Well, this particular proposal has some rather specific provisions which I find troubling. It requires common carriers to re-engineer their networks in order to make wiretapping easy. The cost for this re-engineering is to be paid for by federal tax dollars. Nobody has been able to quantify this cost (oh, great), and you probably would have some better idea what kind of figures are reasonable than I would, but the $500 million FBI estimate is generally considered to be low. And if the law were returned to its original form (no federal money -- just a mandate that common carriers re-engineer their networks for easy wire- tapping), ratepayers would bear the cost of redesigning the phone network as a ready-made surveillance system. As you mention, legal wiretaps have not yet been substantially hindered by the deployment of new technology (the FBI has been unable to substantiate their claims that it has -- they have only been able to count less than 200 cases, and even that number has been a shifty target). So why should we have to pay, either as taxpayers, or ratepayers, for the provisions of this bill? Michael Chui mchui@cs.indiana.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So we get it either way. Uncle Sugar says telco has to pay; they pass it on to you, the ratepayer. Or Uncle Sugar says the Federal Bastion of Inquisition (FBI) has to pay; the bill gets sent to you, the taxpayer. They got it made. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 03:37:00 -0700 From: John Higdon Subject: Re: FBI Wiretap Bill -- WTF? In response to an article from mkj@world.std.com (Mahatma Kane-Jeeves), the Telecom Digest Editor writes: > Like yourself, I find its simply too easy to tap telephones without > being caught at it to concern myself with some new legislation on the > subject. In any large older urban area, illicit tapping of telephones > is child's play. Just get your alligator clips and go do it at any one > of a dozen demarcs between the subscriber and the central office where > the cable pairs are multipled, or available. This is more and more becoming less and less true. In an effort to maximize facilities and to avoid the installation of more copper, telcos are rapidly putting customers on digital facilities. Existing copper pairs are being graced with T1 and newly constructed facilities are fiber cable, not copper. Indeed, if you wanted to tap my service (and I certainly am not GE or General Motors), you would need considerably more than a butt set and alligator clips. You would need a T1 test set capable of drop/insert. To do it "undetected" you would have to avoid damaging the stream enough to prevent the various "color" alarms. In other words, tapping such a line would require specialized equipment at any cable distribution point between the CO and the customer premises. It is not unusual for a customer to have a span for POTS, another for "internal use" connectivity between locations, and yet another from an IXC. I know of many companies who have no analog service entry whatsoever. > Between the many cellular/cordless phone snoops out there listening and > the other easy ways there are of listening to phones, why should anyone > care about still new proposals, government or otherwise? PAT] While on its face it might seem that cellular calls are particularly easy to intercept, the FBI is not expecially interested in listening to random snippets of calls. It wants to monitor all calls to and from a particular cellular telephone. This is no small matter. Monitoring over the air is impossible, since the phone could be anywhere in the geographic area and local cells could easily obliterate any reception from afar. And monitoring in the MTSO is not currently feasable since most systems are highly distributed in nature and the audio, digitized or otherwise, does not pass reliably through any central point in the system. So there is some validity to the FBI's expressed concern. My fear is that in order to accomodate and facilitate monitoring of digital facilities we will go too far and create a CENTRALIZED monitoring facility. After all, with the networks available now in this country, geography is of little concern. While court orders might still be technically necessary, if the FBI has the ability to punch in a couple of numbers to monitor any phone in the nation, there could be an awful lot of "nudge-nudge, wink-wink" if someone asks if a warrant was obtained. John Higdon | P.O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | 10288 0 700 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: tom@ssd.csd.harris.com (Tom Horsley) Subject: Re: FBI Wiretap Bill -- WTF? Date: 26 Sep 1994 13:59:58 GMT Organization: Harris Computer Systems Division Reply-To: Tom.Horsley@mail.csd.harris.com > [...Between the many cellular/cordless phone snoops out there listening and > the other easy ways there are of listening to phones, why should anyone > care about still new proposals, government or otherwise? PAT] Because the FBI wants to spend $500 million of your tax money to do something you just described as trivial (and the phone industry says it will cost even more than that). If they really only have about 1000 authorized taps in a year and you figure 10 to 20 years of use for the current phone technology that comes to around $10000 to $20000 per tap (not counting the cost of the people listening to the tapes, making transcripts, etc). It seems like a fantastic amount of money to spend on a non-problem. Tom.Horsley@mail.csd.harris.com Home: 511 Kingbird Circle Delray Beach FL 33444 Work: Harris Computers, 2101 W. Cypress Creek Rd. Ft. Lauderdale FL 33309 Take the pledge! No votes for Ollie North supporters! NO POND SCUM! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But Tom, the government is very good at spending fantastic amounts of money on non-problems. Remember a few years ago when some government agency spent a hundred dollars for a screwdriver, and how much was it -- $700.00 ?? -- for a toilet seat? And how many times have we read or heard about 'cost overruns' in the budget of some Defense Department contractor? Millions and millions of dollars squandered and unaccounted for each time around ... non-problems are what the govern- ment is good at solving. The telcos are no better; they have legions of accounting clerks in back-offices across the land yet at any given time they have no earthly idea what's going on. Uncle Sugar and the telcos are like two peas in a pod; they are perfect for each other. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Sep 94 10:26:54 EST From: Steve.Granata@GSA.GOV Subject: Re: Wiretap Emergency > I just spoke with Joe Barton (R) from Texas about the FBI wiretap > bill. He is on a subcommittee that is hearing the bill. He has > heard _no_ citizen opposition to it. [snip] > Folks, if we can generate a few hundred calls and well-thought-out > faxes tommorrow, we might have some effect. I don't know a lot about > him, but he seemed to be of the opinion that he didn't really know > that much about the bill. It's up to us to educate him. Last Tuesday I attended the House Telecommunications Subcommittee hearing on digital telephony and wiretapping, concerning the provisions of H.R. 4922, the bill to which the writer above referred. Mr. Barton's House colleague and fellow Texan, Rep. Jack Fields (R-TX) is one of the bill's cosponsors. For the record, none of the parties to the hearing were concerned about the wiretapping provisions of the bill. All subcommittee Members present spoke in favor of the wiretapping provisions, as did panels of industry and government witnesses, including FBI Director Freeh. The only outstanding legislative issues concern the cost of building equipment that is digital-wiretap-ready, and the scope of H.R. 4922, which covers only common carriers. Steve Granata (Steve.Granata@GSA.GOV) Contract Specialist FTS2000 Network Enhancements Branch ------------------------------ From: russell@tekelec.com (Travis Russell) Subject: Re: Telecommuting Law Date: 26 Sep 1994 12:18:41 GMT Organization: Tekelec, Inc. In article , rwarren@Cayman.COM (Ralph Warren) says: > I know that California businesses can get tax breaks if they have a > certain percentage, but this would allow for fines to be issued to > companies that don't. In the city of Los Angeles, all companies with more than 50 employees are required by law to put into place a ride sharing program for their employees. The companies must show evidence that they have done such, and show they have provided incentive for their employees to participate. Failure to comply to this law will result in fines. I have heard fines up to $25,000 for non-compliance. Telecommuting is one of the options that a company in Los Angeles can provide, but is not a requirement. Many companies have gone to a 4/40 work week, which gets their employees on and off the freeway system outside of rush hour, or so the theory goes. As a former LA commuter, rush hour begins at 5:30 AM and ends around 7:00 PM at night. I too would have welcomed telecommuting options, but part of the problem is the lack of technology from the telephone company to make this feasible. PacTel has recently announced plans to put fiber and coax into place at every residence by the end of this decade, which will greatly increase the number of telecommuters in this region. Lets hope so anyway. Travis Russell russell@tekelec.com ------------------------------ From: eti@starbase.neosoft.com (Bob Elliot) Subject: Re: Telecommuting Law Date: 26 Sep 1994 11:15:41 GMT Organization: NeoSoft Internet Services +1 713 684 5969 Ralph Warren (rwarren@Cayman.COM) wrote: > Is the federal govt proposing a telecommuting law requiring large > businesses in metro areas to have a certain percentage of telecommuters? > I know that California businesses can get tax breaks if they have a > certain percentage, but this would allow for fines to be issued to > companies that don't. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've not heard of any proposed law to > fine companies which don't have telecommuters, but I do know that this > is being strongly urged in certain areas. They say they are meeting > some resistance in finding workers interested in doing it ... personally > I love working at home and would hate to go back to a large office all > day, plus the trouble of getting to and from the place. PAT] You've got to be joking! At least we in Texas would fight any such proposed law by the Federal Government. That would interfere with the Right to Work law in this State. And it would interfere with my choice of choosing to commute or telecommute. Bob Elliott RTNs eti@starbase.NeoSoft.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is not clear to me *who* you think is joking ... Mr. Warren with his original comments or me in my reply. I would think that telecommuting would enhance Right to Work where it exists simply because how's the union going to get all those homeworkers signed up? And given the choice of driving through rush hour traffic at 5:30 in the morning or rolling over and going back to sleep until 8:00 AM, then making a pot of coffee and waddling off to your home terminal and logging in, which would *you* choose? Yes, I guess some people actually like getting dressed and fighting the traffic and sitting in an office full of half-witted people all day, but it certainly is not for me. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 09:17:37 EDT From: Bob Keller Subject: Re: Telecommuting Law In TELECOM Digest V14 #371, rwarren@Cayman.COM (Ralph Warren) asked: > Is the federal govt proposing a telecommuting law requiring large > businesses in metro areas to have a certain percentage of telecommuters? It may be worth your time to call Mr. Steven N. Teplitz (of Fleischman and Walsh in Washington DC) at 202-939-7921 and run this question by him. A former Captiol Hill staffer, he helped to found and is now General Counsel to some sort of telecommuting trade association (I forget its exact name) whose members tend to be large companies (e.g., Bell Atlantic). He ought to know if there is any such move afoot. Bob Keller Robert J. Keller, P.C. Tel +1 301 229 5208 rjk@telcomlaw.com Telecommunications Law Fax +1 301 229 6875 finger me for FCC Daily Digests and miscellaneous FCC releases ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Telecommuting Law Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 11:11:56 GMT I haven't heard of a federal law to this effect, but California will be implementing a program that requires employers to pay the state (or county agency that serves as the state's designee) for each car that is parked at its facility. This is to promote carpooling and telecommuting. I guess you could call it an "indirect" telecommuting requirement. Steve cogorno@netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That sounds a lot like the infamous 'head tax' the Democratic politicians put in place here in Chicago many years ago which is still in existence. All employers in Chicago have to pay a certain tax per person/month for each employee who *lives outside Chicago* but commutes to work. The theory is if the person actually lived here, the politicians would be able able to tax them directly everytime the person took a breath. Since people from outside the city don't get the 'privilege' of paying taxes that are as high as those who do live in the city, the politicians wanted to make it up to them somehow. :) As large employers began to flee the area several years ago the response by our city fathers was 'what ingratitude!' ... you see, its a privilege to be able to come to Chicago to work everyday. I guess the same is true of New York and Los Angeles. If telecommuting really catches on, watch the local yokels figure out a way to put the squeeze on both the home workers and the companies they work for. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jdl@wam.umd.edu (Jonathan) Subject: Re: Telecommuting Law Date: 26 Sep 1994 00:47:17 GMT Organization: University of Maryland, College Park I oppose a federal law which would force businesses to do this, but I support state initiatives to reduce traffic and traffic-related pollution, and in general I prefer the use of tax-incentives to criminal sanctions; charging a state commuter tax on businesses would force businesses to pay part of the costs of roads, pollution, etc. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Sep 1994 10:47:10 GMT From: JIM BURKIT Subject: Re: Telecommuting Law > Is the federal govt proposing a telecommuting law requiring large > businesses in metro areas to have a certain percentage of telecommuters? I think that the federal govt has directed some or all states to reduce auto travel (Clean Air Act) but leaves how that is done to the states. In NY large companies have to basically reduce the number of cars in there parking lots. Companies can be fined if the number of auto trips isn't reduced by some amount (I think the number is 25 percent). This can be done by telecommuting, reducing the number of working days, etc. NY only counts the last leg of the commute and therefore a company could close a location where everyone only commutes say three miles by car and open a location where everyone has to commute thirty miles by train plus five miles by car to get to the train. This would count as an improvement of 100% even with more auto miles. My building is closing next year and we have to move to a location in midtown Manhattan. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is referred to as 'games politicians play'. Yes, you are correct in how the statistics would then be calculated. Why be straight-forward in trying to solve problems when you can manipulate statistics a little and make it seem like a goal has been reached. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #375 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa18776; 26 Sep 94 19:35 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA08328; Mon, 26 Sep 94 14:03:14 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA08315; Mon, 26 Sep 94 14:03:09 CDT Date: Mon, 26 Sep 94 14:03:09 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409261903.AA08315@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #376 TELECOM Digest Mon, 26 Sep 94 14:03:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 376 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (John R Levine) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Thor Lancelot Simon) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Glen Ecklund) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Robert Koskovich) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Dave Niebuhr) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Barry Margolin) Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls (Carl Moore) Re: Yet Another NYNEX Blunder (Carl Oppedahl) Re: Yet Another NYNEX Blunder (Wes Leatherock) Re: Yet Another NYNEX Blunder (Paul Robinson) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Stephen Satchell) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Bob Smith) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Tom Limoncelli) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (B. Jones) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (John Dean) AT&T Lying, TV a Fake and Other Slander (John J. Butz) Re: True Voice ... True Difference? (Paul R. Paradiso) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Christian Weisgerber) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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, 26 Sep 94 12:16 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > That luxury, of never having the same prefix in two ajoining area > codes, had to be eliminated by sometime in the 1970's. So, there was > another use for '1' on the front end. ... Amazingly, in New Jersey, Land of Perfect Dialing, they still manage to protect prefixes so that all in-state local calls can be dialed with seven digits, even across 609/908/201 boundaries. Local calls into Pennsylvania and New York require eleven digits, though there are a lot fewer of those than there are 201/908 and 908/609. Of course, all calls within your NPA can be dialed either with seven digits or with eleven, regardless of whether they're local, intra-LATA toll, or inter-LATA toll. At my beach cottage in Ocean County, which is in what I believe is the only county in the U.S. that straddles three separate LATAs, if we had to remember 1+ for toll, the phone would be unusable. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, 1037498@mcimail.com Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Date: 26 Sep 1994 12:36:24 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC In article , MUSEUMS wrote: > What is weird is that on Long Island, area code 516, they still don't > dial 1's for anything. I guess they can dial 800-xxx-xxxx or area > code-xxx-xxxx. I guess this means they don't have any NPA's as > prefixes, or there is special software. That *was* true for our entire LATA except NYC itself (Long Island, Westchester, and Putnam counties) until this morning. As of this morning, 1+ is required for calls to other area codes, even within the LATA, at least at my switch. (Tuckahoe CO in Westchester) The switch foreman says this will be a LATA-wide change, though he doesn't know if all the other switches cut over today like mine did. Broke a lot of my dial scripts, it did ... Thor Lancelot Simon tls@panix.COM ------------------------------ From: glen@cs.wisc.edu (Glen Ecklund) Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Date: 26 Sep 1994 10:33:14 GMT Organization: University of WI, Madison -- Computer Sciences Dept. oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) writes: > In Sanjiv Narayan EDU> writes: >> I have noticed a strange thing here since I became a NYNEX customer in >> Marlboro, MA. They have a local calling area (approximatly five mile >> radius) within which I can place unlimited calls for a flat charge. >> However if I call a number outside my local calling area (but still ** >> within ** my 508 area-code), a recording asks you to redial with a '1' >> prefixed before the seven-digit number I am calling. >> Here's my question: If the NYNEX switching equipment is smart enough >> to figure out that I need to dial a '1', why does it not go ahead and >> complete the call anyway. I am willing to pay for the call regardless >> of whether I redial with a '1' prefix or they complete it for me, >> right !!? > The reason is simple. Right *now* the system is able to figure it > out. But there will be some future time when the system will not be > able to, and the "1" will be quite necessary. The goal is to change > your behavior between now and then. > The reason the system won't be able to figure it out someday is a > function of all those phone numbers that start with area codes, etc. Nope. The reason is: 1 means "long distance." OK, you are willing to pay for the call, but if I make the call I want to know whether it is long distance. This will change soon, and 1 + 7D will no longer be allowed. It will change to either 1 + 10D, or just 7D. 1 will mean "area code (or other special code) follows." Glen Ecklund glen@cs.wisc.edu (608) 262-1318 Office, 262-1204 Dept. Sec'y Department of Computer Sciences 1210 W. Dayton St., Room 3355 University of Wisconsin, Madison Madison, Wis. 53706 U.S.A. ------------------------------ From: kosko@iii.net (Robert Koskovich) Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Date: 26 Sep 1994 18:16:37 -0400 Organization: intuitive information, inc. Sanjiv Narayan (narayan@thoth.ICS.UCI.EDU) wrote: > It becomes very cumbersome when you have to redial the number with the > '1' prefixed. It'll become all that much more cumbersome when, on October 15, you're required to dial "1-508" to place toll calls within your area code. (You obviously haven't gotten NYNEX's bill stuffer yet.) Bob Koskovich Matick, MA ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 7:42:54 EDT From: Dave Niebuhr Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls In TELECOM Digest V14 #372 museums@aol.com (MUSEUMS) Richard writes: > What is weird is that on Long Island, area code 516, they still don't > dial 1's for anything. I guess they can dial 800-xxx-xxxx or area > code-xxx-xxxx. I guess this means they don't have any NPA's as > prefixes, or there is special software. As of today, Sept. 24, 1994, Area Code 516 is 1+10D for anything other than 516 and 7D for anything inside it. Dave Niebuhr Internet: dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov niebuhr@bnlcl6.bnl.gov (preferred) niebuhr@bnl.gov / Bitnet: niebuhr@bnl Senior Technical Specialist, Scientific Computing Facility Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973 1+(516) 282-3093 FAX 1+(516) 282-7688 ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls Date: 26 Sep 1994 12:18:31 -0400 Organization: NEARnet, Cambridge, MA In article varney@uscbu.ih.att.com writes: > The MA PUC believes most customers want to use "1+" as an indication > of "I know I am making a non-free call". Unfortunately, they don't apply this rule consistently. Last month I had a $470 NYNEX phone bill, and didn't dial 1+ for any of those calls. The reason is that NYNEX in Massachusetts has various forms of flat rate service. For those of us in the Boston metropolitan area (I live in Arlington, five miles outside of Boston), the relevant forms are Unlimited Service and Metropolitan Service. Every city has two sets of calling areas, called Zone 1 and Zone 2. If you have ordinary Unlimited Service, you get flat rate calling to Central Boston and Zone 1; to get Zone 2 included you have to get Metropolitan Service. If you only have Unlimited Service (as I did until this month), you can call Zone 2 without any prefix, but you're still charged around $.06/minute. Last month I got laid off and got an account on Netcom (stop laughing!), and dialed up their Boston POP. Since I didn't have a job, I spent vast amounts of time dialed up to Netcom (about 110 hours over two weeks). I never bothered to check my phone book to see whether this was in my unlimited calling area -- I assumed that since they called it the Boston POP that it was in a Boston exchange, and I have unlimited calling to Boston. When the phone bill came I checked. It turned out that it was in Wellesley, one of about 5 cities in the Boston metropolitan area that are in my Zone 2. This was worse than the time I came back from a business trip and discovered that someone had tapped into my phone line and used it to make hundreds of dollars of 976 calls. I guess they don't want to make the necessity of dialing 1+ for toll calls dependent on the service plan you've chosen. I think all the areas in eastern Massachusetts that require 1+ dialing from the Boston metropolitan area are in the 508 area code that was added a few years ago, so they don't have any "1+seven-digits" in 617 any more. And as part of the NANP change, they're replacing 1+seven-digits in 508 with 1+508-seven-digits there. The story has a happy ending, though. When I called NYNEX to upgrade my service, I was lucky to get a very helpful service rep. I asked if I could have the upgrade made retroactive to the current billing period, since the bill didn't come until about two weeks into the period. Not only did she do that, but she made it retroactive to the *previous* billing period, and gave me a credit for most of that huge phone bill. Barry Margolin BBN Internet Services Corp. barmar@near.net ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Sep 94 10:34:21 GMT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls museums@aol.com writes: > What is weird is that on Long Island, area code 516, they still don't > dial 1's for anything. I guess they can dial 800-xxx-xxxx or area But to prepare for the coming of the NNX area codes, 516 has to start enforcing 1 in front of area code; long distance within area code can stay at 7D. In the TELECOM Digest Editor's Note, there are some corrections: > Prefixes like 417 and 305 are *not* old and traditional. No, the body of the message said "NNX's (should be NXX's) that are old traditional NPA", and my history file refers to these as N0X/N1X prefixes. > door neighbors in North Antioch, Wisconsin (404-397) by merely dialing That is 414, not 404 in southeastern Wisconsin. ------------------------------ From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl) Subject: Re: Yet Another NYNEX Blunder Date: 26 Sep 1994 15:48:11 GMT Organization: Oppedahl & Larson In wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor. edu writes: > In article <779506137snz@detroit.freenet.org> aa931@detroit.freenet. > org writes: >> One other point ... this is in response to a previous comment, but I don't >> remember who wrote it: When the telco says that they cannot or do not do >> something because it is prohibited by tariff, _ask them to FAX or send you >> the page(s) from the tariffs that contain that prohibition_. You have the >> right to see this information, and in at least one case I was able to call >> a telco's bluff by asking them to send me the tariff that justified an >> action they had taken (wrongly, as it turned out). >-=> Quoting John Higdon <=- > JH> This is excellent advice. Some years ago, some irate parent complained > JH> about my "voice BBS" which is inhabited primarily by loser teenagers. > ... [text deleted] ... > JH> I asked the gentleman to fax me the appropriate tariffs and we would > JH> read them together. This he did, and after examining the five > JH> applicable pages that described business vs residence service, he had > JH> to conclude that my operation fully qualified as residence service. > Many LECs will not send you a copy of the tariff or parts of > it. It varies by company and often by the individual you talk to (and > that's often because of the particular circumstances). They take the > position that you can inspect the tariff in their offices or at the > commission, but they are not required to make you a copy. Yes, it's true. Many telcos will not send you tariff pages. Here in New York, one of the rare pro-customer moves by the PSC is a relatively new rule that the PSC has to give you copies of tariff pages (and lots of other things) for free as long as it is less than some number of pages (25 as I recall). Carl Oppedahl AA2KW Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers) Yorktown Heights, NY oppedahl@patents.com ------------------------------ From: constellation!mom!tranquil.torii.nova.com!Wes.Leatherock (Wes Leatherock) Date: 26 Sep 94 10:56:26 -0600 Subject: Re: Yet Another NYNEX BQA@Llunder Organization: Fidonet: Quoting John Higdon: > I asked the gentleman to fax me the appropriate tariffs and we would > read them together. This he did, and after examining the five > applicable pages that described business vs residence service, he had > to conclude that my operation fully qualified as residence service. Many LECs will not send you a copy of the tariff or parts of it. It varies by company and often by the individual you talk to (and that's often because of the particular circumstances). They take the position that you can inspect the tariff in their offices or at the commission, but they are not required to make you a copy. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.ed wes.leatherock@tranquil.nova.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 05:26:51 EST From: Paul Robinson Subject: Re: Yet Another NYNEX Blunder Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Tony Pelliccio , writes: > wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu writes: >> Many LECs will not send you a copy of the tariff.. > Yeah sort of like NYNEX. The copy of the tarrif for my area is > in Boston of all places. If you think I'm going to drive up to > Boston just to look at it you're nuts. But then, Telco has all > the eggs in their basket don't they? I don't know if you are simply posting from Brown or actually there, but if NYNEX operates in Rhode Island, they have to have offices there and certainly there has to be a copy filed with your state's commission. In California, for example, every telephone company office -- which included offices for paying bills -- had to have a complete copy of the entire 15 volume tariff set. Both GTE and Pacific Bell had their own tariffs on file at each office which accepted payments from the public. Here in the Washington, DC area, there is a set of tariffs for all three offices for Bell Atlantic and at their payment center for the metro area which is located at 13th & G NW in DC. Also, Bell Atlantic has filed a copy of their tariff schedule with the main branch of the public library in every county in Maryland. I do not know what they do in Virginia, I've never had phone service there. I do know that a telephone company does not like having to let people know what the tariffs actually say, and will do anything they can not to have to let you see them. By law they must make them available and cannot require you to have a reason for seeing them. One way to get some response from the company is to make your next telephone bill payment to the Public Utilities Commission, stating that you believe your bill to be in error, but cannot prove it because the phone company refuses to provide any reasonable access to their tariff schedules in order for you to discover what you suspect is an error. While you may or may not get a satisfactory response from the PUC, you can bet that someone from the Telephone Company will contact you immediately after your letter reaches them, even if the PUC decides to deny your request. One time I wanted to program a long distance number including the 10xxx code into a speed-dial number but the telephone company's computer refused it, so I called 611 and nobody could tell me what was wrong. So I sent my bill for GTE of California and the check to the Public Utilities Commission explaining the circumstances. The CalPUC returned my check explaining they could not accept my payment since the issue was over service problems rather than a billing question. But it was right after this that a helpful supervisor from GTE called me and was very patient in explaining that their switch would not allow a 10xxx code to be programmed into a speed dial number and they would pass my complaint onto the manufacturer (which was probably also GTE, but that's another story). This was a piece of information that nobody at repair service seemed to be able to provide me until AFTER I had sent in a protest to the PUC. I wonder if that had anything to do with it. :) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Interesting you mention the problem using 10xxx with Speed Dialing. One peculiar thing here is the inability to call forward to an international number. We cannot get 011-anything programmed following *72 ... and telco acts like they have no idea what I am talking about when I mention it to them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ssatchell@BIX.com (ssatchell on BIX) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: 26 Sep 94 14:59:06 GMT Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation > Nick Sayer said: >> If they're trying to imply that that is what a long distance phone >> call sounds like (which _despite_ truevoice is _still_ constrained to >> roughly 300-3000 Hz), then it's nothing short of outright fraud. Sorry, I have to take exception to the claim that the bandwidth for all telco customers is still 300-3000 Hz. If that were true, then there is no way for V.34 modem owners to achieve 28.8 kilobit/s carriers with the modems -- they'd be constrained to 21.6 kilobits/s. Since I do achieve 28.8 kilobits/s in calls between Incline Village, Nevada and various locations in Georgia, Mass, and NYC, then either the bandwidth is wider than you claim or the laws of physics have been repealed. Also, I've seen surveys (unscientific) produced by several parties which show that the actual bandwidth is wider than the 2700 Hz you claim. Even Bellcore and IEEE P743 recognize that things are wider. In the case of P743, the new 23-tone test which should be a standard by the end of the year sends out tones way outside the 300-3000 Hz bandswidth (100-3700 Hz based on an early draft of the proposed IEEE-743 replacement) which would be stupid if the old rules still held. We don't have to protect *any* in-band network signalling any more. That whistle that John Draper found in the box of Capt'n Crunch cereal all those years ago DOESN'T WORK in the modern network. Trunk circuits, even the now-outmoded N-series trunks, were designed with channels 4 KHz wide. The frequency constraints, if memory serves, were to improve speech quality by suppressing low-end frequencies which don't contribute to intelligibility and "protecting" network signalling at the high end. Oh, there are a small number of older trunks still in use, and they will block signals outside of the old passband. They are being replaced with digital trunks as quickly as the capital improvement programs allow. This isn't just in the United States, either -- we are talking about a world-wide event. Stephen Satchell, Satchell Evaluations ssatchell@bix.com Testing modems for magazines and industry since 1984 sts@well.sf.ca.us Publisher of SEPTeL modem testing journal 70007.3351@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: bobsmith@coho.halcyon.com (Youth Alive International) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: 26 Sep 1994 05:24:33 GMT Organization: NWNEXUS, Inc. - Making Internet Easy In article , David Adams wrote: > It would be real interesting if somebody ran the same test as in the > AT&T ad with the same song as an audio source and then post the > results. That was already done. Back when True Voice was just being demo'd, before actual implementation, someone on the net did a bunch of sound tests on (I believe) the demo, and demonstrated that the only thing happening was the low bandwidth filter was being removed. Perhaps the moderator has this archived somewhere. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Persons interested in the results of that testing can check the Telecom Archives. Go to the /technical sub-directory and read the file on True Voice. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tal@plts.org (Tom Limoncelli) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: 25 Sep 1994 22:43:43 -0400 Organization: PLTS, Somerville, NJ USA In cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) writes: > BUT they fail to mention that it was the breakup of the Bell System > which lowered these call costs. (Which also increased the cost of > local calls by a large percentage.) Actually, the price was dropping anyway. The use of satelites was causing a price implosion. Tom Limoncelli -- tal@plts.org (home) -- tal@big.att.com (work) Write to me for info about internet mailing lists on these topics: Drew University Alumni/ae, IXO/tpage users, New Jersey Unix Sysadmins' Group (like SAGE), New Jersey motss, North East motss, BiNet/New Jersey, and more! ------------------------------ From: bjones@bilbo.pic.net (B. Jones) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: 26 Sep 1994 04:08:35 GMT Organization: PICnet They did a demo in my area a couple of months ago. I thought that it sounded better; a fuller sound (probably a low frequency boost. I read some tech paper in a magazine once ... simply sounded better to me. Sort of like Boise Sound Systems; I can't figure how they work, low freq sound wave propogation lengths and such. But the little box tricks my ears ... great! ------------------------------ From: bd80519@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu (John Dean) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: 26 Sep 1994 02:30:01 GMT Organization: Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY The TV consumers today will believe anything that has to do with computers. But they are more attracted when silly graphics and screens are added which really don't have any meaning to us 'real power' users ... (Are we still the minority?) Oh well ... ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Sep 94 18:15:04 EDT From: jbutz@hogpa.ho.att.com (John J Butz) Subject: Re: AT&T Lying, TV a Fake & Other Slander Folks must be a little tone deaf. I can tell right away when TrueVoice is on my call or not. Now that 10288 works for all my intra-lata toll calls, TrueVoice is added to every non-local call I make. In fact, this is a great little way to test TrueVoice. Place a call to your favorite SO on Bell Atlantic followed by a call on AT&T, then note the difference. (BTW, 10288 is not only a great way to save on intra-lata toll, using it defeats *69 Return Call and Caller ID.) I don't disagree that the TrueVoice television ads have a lot of that Madison Avenue glitz (ie. back-up singers belting in when True Voice activates, 3D spectrographs, sharply dressed and intelligent AT&T employees ... like myself :-|, etc.), but it's really not fair to state that what is heard on a TV set, is what will be heard on a phone handset. To that end, I noticed that ads are labeled "Simulated TrueVoice Effect." For a real comparison, the TrueVoice demo line can be reached by dialing 1-800-932-2000. Calls to this number are processed by the same piece of equipment that provides TrueVoice in the network, so what a caller hears IS the real TrueVoice. (The voice on the demo is that of James Naughton.) Since reading TELECOM Digest is so enjoyable, I wish I had more time to peruse and reply to Digest postings, but I've been totally overwhelmed by current assignment. Later. John Butz jbutz@hogpa.att.com AT&T - CCS PS. What's the latest with the TrueVoice patent review? It's nice to know that someone else shares my hobby of reading yellowing, vintage 1920's, Bell Telephone Laboratories Technical Journals. (The one about Operators on Rollerskates is my favorite!!!!!!!) ------------------------------ From: bd80519@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu (Paul R. Paradiso) Subject: Re: True Voice ... True Difference? Date: 26 Sep 1994 02:00:32 GMT Organization: Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY Hello. Actually, at this point I would like to believe that there IS a difference. The difference will probably be noticed in data communications such as Modems, Fax, etc. It is amazing at how fast the CPS rates can go up when the lines get clearer and clearer. I have tested my modem on a line and when it picked up the line thru an "ATA" command, all I heard was static, but was perfectly fine for Voice. Since modems and fax, etc. send their tones at such a higher speed today, they need as little blockage as possible. Hopefully this will help, if not, I'm not surprised ... bd80519@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu Paul R. Paradiso ------------------------------ From: naddy@mips.ruessel.sub.org (Christian Weisgerber) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: 26 Sep 1994 12:01:08 +0200 Reply-To: naddy@mips.lu.pfalz.de jfritz@wvnvm.wvnet.edu (Jeffrey Fritz) writes: > BTW, the telephone network supports a 300 - 3 kbps bandwidth for a > reason -- understandability. 300 .. 3000Hz? Natural capacity of the line, Poupin coils, bandwidth restrictions for analog multiplexing, bandwidth restrictions to accommodate the Nyquist limit. BTW, actual bandwidth in the modern digital PSTN is about 200 - 3700Hz. Christian 'naddy' Weisgerber, Germany naddy@mips.ruessel.sub.org / naddy@mips.lu.pfalz.de ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #376 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11720; 27 Sep 94 18:40 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05224; Tue, 27 Sep 94 13:08:08 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05217; Tue, 27 Sep 94 13:08:06 CDT Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 13:08:06 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409271808.AA05217@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #377 TELECOM Digest Tue, 27 Sep 94 13:08:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 377 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Network Security Observations (nso@delphi.com) Biennial Conference on Telecommunications in South Africa (Merryl Hastie) Network Map Software (Juha Riissanen) Card Call Ripoffs; Calling China Cheap (Wm. Randolph Franklin) Bell Canada to Expand Video on Demand (Dave Leibold) Need California PUC IRD Information (Bob Schwartz) Help: PC Telco Switch Information (Timothy J. Somadelis) Northeastern University and MCI (Scott Mehosky) Cellular Digital vs. Analog (Ron S. van Zuylen) Recommendations For Answering Machines? (Michael Rosen) Conference: Enterprise Management Summit '94 (Tim Bostwick) Telefonica de Argentina (Randy Gellens) Telecommunications in Europe (Mikko Usvalehto) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: nso@delphi.com Subject: Network Security Observations Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 03:56:23 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) November 1994 NETWORK SECURITY OBSERVATIONS will be out with its inaugural issue. NETWORK SECURITY OBSERVATIONS is expected to be the leading international journal on computer network security for the science, research and professional community. Every annual volume contains five issues, each offering ample space for vigorously reviewed academic and research papers of significant and lasting importance, and a wealth of other network security information, including security patches and other technical information supplied by manufacturers, related governmental docu- ments (international), discussions about ethics and privacy aspects, the Clipper chip and other cryptologic issues, viruses, privacy enhanced mail, protocols, harmonization of computer security evaluation criteria, information security management, access management, transborder data flow, edi security, risk analysis, trusted systems, mission critical applications, integrity issues, computer abuse and computer crime, etc. etc. If and when appropriate reports of major international conferences, congresses and seminars will be included, as well as information made available by governments, agencies, and international and supra national organizations. Network Security Observations is published in the English language, and distributed Worldwide. The publication does NOT feature commercial announcements. National and international organizers of dedicated conferences, etc. can offer calls for papers and invitations to participate. Relevant posting from other publishers announcing new relevant books, etc are welcomed as well. NETWORK SECURITY OBSERVATIONS provides the in depth and detailed look that is essential for the network system operator, network system administrator, edp auditor, legal counsel, computer science researcher, network security manager, product developer, forensic data expert, legislator, public prosecutor, etc., including the wide range of specialists in the intelligence community, the investigative branches and the military, the financial services industry and the banking community, the public services, the telecom industry and the computer industry itself. Subscription applications by email or fax before November 1, 1994 are entitled to a special rebated subscription rate. Special academic/educational discounts, and rebates for governmental personnel, and other special groups, are available upon request. Network Security Observations is a not-for-profit journal, and therefore we are sorry to reject requests for trial orders. For further information please contact: by email> NSO@delphi.com Or by fax> +1 202 429 9574 Or alternatively you can write to: Network Security Observations Suite 400 1825 I Street, NW Washington DC, 20006 United States ------------------------------ From: mhastie@infocomp.csir.co.za (Merryl Hastie) Subject: Biennial Conference on Telecommunications in South Africa Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 14:53:01 Organization: CSIR BIENNIAL CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA At Gallagher Estate, Midrand 27 to 29 March 1995 For more info and the opportunity to register online, have a look at the URL: http://crux.csir.co.za/commercial/telkom/telkomz.html Your opportunity to attend the premier event on South Africa's telecommunications calendar to be held in Johannesburg (Midrand), exciting city of gold and the powerhouse of the South African economy. As home-base to most major domestic and multinational corporations, and the most dynamic growth area on the African continent; the proud new capital of the PWV reflects the entrepreneurial spirit and technological excellence of the people and products involved in the telecommunications and networking fields in Southern Africa. TELKOM '95 will be jointly hosted by Telkom SA Limited and the Computer Society of South Africa (CSSA). ------------------------------ From: riissanen@ntc.nokia.com (Juha Riissanen) Subject: Network Map Software Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 14:13:33 Organization: Nokia Telecommunications I'm looking for a development tool with which to create user modifiable interactive network maps to be used as the main user interface in a MS Windows based telecommunications network management software. The tool would need to be able to: - create and modify the network map interactively with mouse - manage and display a network map consisting of up to 2000 distinct elements. - zoom in and out of the network map to show both a detailed view of a part of the network and a birds eye view of the whole network. - combine the elements into aggregates (and into aggregates of aggregates), e.g. all network elements that are at a location should be displayable as one symbol - 'explode' an aggregate symbol to show its components - store event information for each network element and allow the information to be searched, shown and updated (acknowledge an event, cancel an event, export events for archival) - update the network map in real time based on the events stored, e.g. turn a symbol on map red if an alarm has been set on the corresponding network element (or on one of its component elements) - have an API for us to interface in order to store events for network elements and change existing events - show the linking between the elements Thank you for any leads and suggestions.. (VBXs, DLLs, commercial / shareware / freeware, source code to be licensed, GIS databases to be abused, SNMP LAN management software to be modified, anything.) Somebody somewhere must have already created software that does most of what I need and it would be silly for me to re-create the old wheel once again.. Thanks, Juha Riissanen juha.riissanen@ntc.nokia.com Nokia Telecommunications, P.O.Box 12, 02611 Espoo, Finland ------------------------------ From: wrf@ecse.rpi.edu (Wm. Randolph Franklin) Subject: Card Call Ripoffs; Calling China Cheap Date: 27 Sep 1994 04:47:21 GMT Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY, USA Reply-To: wrf@ecse.rpi.edu (Wm. Randolph U Franklin) What is the best way to call China, particularly using a calling card? I've spent well over an hour talking to ATT, MCI, and Sprint. Their rates are so close to each other, yet so byzantine, that they appear deliberately designed to confuse the customer and prevent competition. Using a calling card can cost over $5 more for the first minute than calling from home, as well as, sometimes, a lot more per minute. Are there small carriers who do better? What's the reason for this difference? Is there that much fraud with cards? Conversation I had yesterday: Me, "What's it cost to call China?" MCI International Calling rep, "China? Is that the place where the seasons are reversed?" Me, "?!? Uh, I think that's Australia." (It reminds me of another conversation I once overheard where a woman expressed surprise that her friend had visited such distant places as Switzerland and Italy in the same trip.) Wm. Randolph Franklin, wrf@ecse.rpi.edu, (518) 276-6077; Fax: -6261 ECSE Dept., 6026 JEC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst, Troy NY, 12180 USA For more info, including PGP and RIPEM keys, finger -l wrf@ecse.rpi.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is no such thing as a cheap call to China. The rates are quite high, anytime day or night where calling cards are concerned, as well as with call-back schemes. I don't know why this is, other than perhaps the telecom administration in China and the carriers here have some difficulty in reaching mutually acceptable terms. Regards your comment on the representative who thought that the 'seasons are reversed' in China, that is so typical of how ignorant many/most Americans are where geography is concerned. A telephone operator in Australia once mentioned to me how amusing it was to get calls from operators in the USA with customers seeking assistance in dialing local (Australian) numbers 'because it is a business, and there is no answer when I ring their phone ...' The American callers assumed the telephone must be out of order; after all, why would there be no answer from a business place? The Australian operator would reply to the American operator, "is your party aware that it is three in the morning here?" ... and the American caller would be so surprised to hear that. And all the more pity it is that the AT&T operator in this country could not advise the customer in the same way without having to call Australia to find out. But with very few Americans these days able to correctly fill in place names on a blank map of this country it is unrealistic to assume they will know the time of day in Australia, or whether the 'seasons are reversed' in China. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 27 Sep 94 00:22:32 -0500 Subject: Bell Canada to Expand Video on Demand Organization: FidoNet Nameserver/Gateway [from Bell News (Bell Canada/Ontario) 26 Sept 94] Leading-edge Video on Demand trial enters new, city-wide phase Things are starting to move quickly on Bell's portion of the information highway. As part of Stentor's overall Beacon Initiative to develop products and services for information highway customers, Phase II of the Business Video on Demand (VOD) trial will begin in Ottawa on October 3. Phase I of the trial, which tested the underlying technology and design of the user interface, offered video on demand from key locations at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. Phase II expands on the earlier test by simulating a city-wide environment, serving more customers and testing operational methods and procedures and an enhanced user interface. The trial, scheduled to last until May 1995, will connect a minimum of 14 sites in the Ottawa area, including eight elementary schools and three RCMP locations. At the schools, students will be able to access educational videos through personal computers in libraries. The RCMP will be able to access training videos in a similar manner. Users will have full VCR-like controls such as rewind, fast-forward, pause, etc. The trial is funded by Bell and Stentor with technical assistance from Bell-Northern Research and MPR Teltech. The first VOD services for business customers should be available starting in late 1995 or early 1996. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Need California PUC IRD Information From: bob@bci.nbn.com (Bob Schwartz) Date: Mon, 26 Sep 94 11:06:38 PDT Organization: Bill Correctors, Inc., Marin County, California Al Cohan <0004526627@mcimail.com> writes: > I understand that sometime last week the California PUC > approved a sweeping rate change for both Pac Bell and General > Telephone. I have heard that base rates have dramatically increased > and ZUM 3 and local service area long distance has decreased as much > as 50%. > This PUC decision sets the terms for Intra-Lata toll traffic competition. > Does anyone have a synopsis of the new rates? or a copy of the decision? Al, Rate-wise, 1995 is looking like a whole new ballgame for California. Monthly service charges up to $twelve something from $eight something ... Service Area calling down to well under ten cents per minute!!!!! Great for business not so great for grandma ... but done after about six years in the making the IRD under The Alternative Regulatory Framework (ARF) for Local Exchange Carriers. The decision is loaded with all sorts of new rate for circuits, lines and special services. We expect that users will need consultants more than ever, just to wade through the new options, so we're on it in a big way. It sets the path for a whole new method of regulating Pacific Bell and GTE in California. To get a copy you can go directly to the PUC. When I ordered mine they told me the cost was twenty cents per page plus sales tax. The document is 538 pages. You can also get it from this office PREPAID for $94.25 which includes sales tax (5.80) and first class or priority mailing. Checks to : V. Kushner / PO Box 316 / Woodacre CA 94973. Regards, *BOB*/a Bob Schwartz bob@bci.nbn.com Bill Correctors, Inc. +1 415 488 9000 Marin County, California ------------------------------ From: soma@world.std.com (Timothy J Somadelis) Subject: Help: PC Telco Switch Information Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Mon, 26 Sep 1994 17:52:29 GMT I need some info regarding a small semi-smart telephone switch to front end a voice response/voice mail/automated attendant application on a PC. This switch should provide basic PBX/Centrex functionality for performing call transfer/monitoring for auto-attendant and v-mail. The system will probably consist of a serial port for control from the IVR PC. The switch must not be high in price otherwise a PBX or Centrex would suffice. The purpose is to provide PBX like functions at non-PBX prices. Ideally, the price should be comparable for a PC component. The number fo phone lines this should handle is anywhere from two lines to sixteen lines possibly up to twenty-four lines. My questions are: 1) Is there such a beast? 2) If so, who do I call for more information or purchasing? 3) Are there telco restrictions to connecting one of these things to the phone lines without notifying the Telco? 4) If there is no such beast, is there a place to call for manufacturing one? Thanks in advance for any information. ------------------------------ From: yidam@zork.tiac.net (yidam) Subject: Northeastern University and MCI Date: 25 Sep 1994 21:51:56 GMT Organization: The Internet Access Company I am a student at Northeastern University in Boston, and recently the university embarked upon new contracts with MCI and NYNEX for student long distance and CENTREX service. Under the new contracts students are required to have MCI as our primary long distance carrior. However, instead of dialing long distance calls with 1+ the area code students must now dial *8 to reach an MCI recording prompting for an authorization code. After that we must dial the area code and number. If I attempt to escape to POTS and just dial 1+ the area code and number I receive a fast busy signal indicating to me that NYNEX has put a block on long distance calls. Because if this deal I am missing out on certain services such as the ability to get 800, 700, and 500 numbers. Also I am no longer eligable for certain calling programs available with other carriors. Although I am given the option to use carrior access codes to reach other long distance companies I feel that I am being cheated out of my right to equal access because I can't get certain deals and services from AT&T or SPRINT. Scott Mehosky yidam@scott.tiac.net ------------------------------ From: ron@pyro.wro.dec.com (Ron S. van Zuylen) Subject: Cellular Digital vs. Analog Date: 25 Sep 1994 01:59:58 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation - Santa Clara, CA Reply-To: ron@pyro.wro.dec.com I'm looking for some feedback on digital cellular service. Cellular One in the San Franscisco Bay Area has recently lowered their digital service prices to an acceptable level; it is slightly lower than the analog service now. They are also in the process of increasing their digital coverage. Cellular One is trying to make digital more attractive by offering a $300 service credit. (Apparently to offset the increased cost of a digital dual-mode (TDMA) phone.) They're also offering free incoming until 1995. Is it truely "improved cellular service" or is it more of a benfit to the service provider? (Less frequency bandwidth, correct?) In my search, I have found very few digital phones. A Motorola Flip (similar to the DPC-550), a AT&T 6650, and a Technophone (which seems to be the AT&T unit in a different case). These units are all around 10 ounces. There is also a top-of-the-line (~$1250) Motorola Elite with everything the Ultra Lite has and more (and even weighs less); I haven't seen this unit. Low weight (and VibraCall) is attractive, but the choice is slim and expensive in the digital arena. :-) If we used analog, we could use the ~$550 Motorola Ultra Lite instead of the ~$1250 Elite (minus the $300 service credit). Any comments would be appreciated. Ron S. van Zuylen -- Digital Equipment Corporation - Santa Clara, CA USA ron@pyro.wro.dec.com -- "The bleeding edge in employee reduction technology..." ------------------------------ From: mrosen@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Michael Rosen) Subject: Recommendations For Answering Machines? Date: 25 Sep 1994 14:59:49 -0600 Organization: University of Denver, Math/CS Dept. I'm considering buying an answering machine as opposed to paying a monthly fee to Bell Atlantic for their Answer Call voice mail system. Sure the latter is convenient if I'm busying up my line since it'll take the message but is it worth $6.50 a month? An answering machine will pay for itself in a little over a year. I was looking at AT&T's digital answering machines today. The only thing they don't have that I kind of like is the ability to skip the OGM. I like that someone's machine has that when I'm calling so I can hit * and abort the message if I don't feel like waiting. I'd like to extend that courtesy to people calling me (that is if they know it exists which not all do). I do want a machine that has a time stamp and remote access. The AT&T model I was looking at has voice prompting for the remote access. Is it worth the extra cost to go digital versus tape? Michael Rosen, CPA mrosen@nyx.cs.du.edu George Washington University (Fall '92) Tau Epsilon Phi, Tau Theta 381 ------------------------------ From: summit@ix.netcom.com (Tim Bostwick) Subject: Conference: Enterprise Management Summit '94 Date: 23 Sep 1994 19:59:17 GMT Organization: Netcom The Enterprise Management Summit '94 will be held at the Santa Clara Convention Center, November 14-18, Santa Clara, California. This conference and exhibition will present solutions for managing the ever growing, ever more complex enterprise management Monster. There will be 36 technical sessions addressing the full spectrum of enterprise management (networks, systems, applications, and databases) and two full days of tutorials. In addition, there will be over 40 exhibitors. Featured will be an Enterprise Management Theater with a live enterprise network that includes: SNA, DECNet, NetWare; Systems like MVS, VMS, DOS, UNIX; Windows, NT, desktops, distributed applications and databases. During Summit '94, we will let the Monster go crazy, causing nightmares like traffic congestion, alarm floods, broadcast storms, applications that hang mysteriously, lost host connections, locked terminals, forgotten passwords, etc. We then ask leading vendors to fix what we broke. Vendors will NOT be allowed to give demos in the theater. Rather they must make all the nightmares go away. A live audience will evaluate how successful each vendor is. Our goal is to make this theater as realistic as possible and minimize the sales hype. We would appreciate any comments you may have that will help us accomplish this goal. Please direct your comments to Summit '94. Phone: 1-800-340-2111. (Outside the US, 415-512-0801. Fax: 415-512-1325. Email: emiinc@mcimail.com. You may also obtain information and an Advance Program at the above numbers. ------------------------------ From: RANDY@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 26 Sep 1994 19:36:00 GMT Subject: Telefonica de Argentina Saw this in a recent press release: Telefonica de Argentina, one of the two private telephone companies in Argentina, awarded Unisys a $1.4 million Network Applications Platform (NAP) contract. Telefonica de Argentina, headquartered in Buenos Aires, provides regular telephone services to three million customers. The new Unisys NAP solution will provide call completion services for 15,000 customers, automatic call services for 12,000 customers and offer calling card services for 30,000 Telefonica users. In addition, foreign journalists attending the Panamericanos Athletic Games in March 1995 will be able to take advantage of the new calling card application to relay coverage results. Randall Gellens randy@mv-oc.unisys.com (714) 380-6350 fax (714) 380-5912 Mail Stop MV 237 Net**2 656-6350 ------------------------------ Subject: Telecommunications in Europe From: Mikko Usvalehto Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 10:46:32 +0200 I'm currently collecting information on subject: Telecommunications in Europe: manufacturers, operators, users, consulting, research, education etc ... If there is somebody (in TELECOM Digest readers group) interested in the same subject, please send e-mail message to following address: mikko.usvalehto@hut.fi Mikko Usvalehto, TechNet Helsinki University of Technology, Lifelong Learning Institute Dipoli address: FIN-02150 ESPOO tel.: +358 0 451 4492 fax: +358 0 451 4487 internet: mikko.usvalehto@hut.fi x.400: G=mikko; S=usvalehto; O=hut; A=fumail; P=inet; C=fi ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #377 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13039; 27 Sep 94 19:52 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA08452; Tue, 27 Sep 94 14:29:36 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA08445; Tue, 27 Sep 94 14:29:33 CDT Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 14:29:33 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409271929.AA08445@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #378 TELECOM Digest Tue, 27 Sep 94 14:28:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 378 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Reselling From the Ground Up (Jeff Bornstein) Programming an AT&T ISDN 7506 API (Alex Cena) V.34 from ITU-T (Tannil Lam) 919/910 DA Problem (Scott D. Fybush) Becoming an Internet Access Provider (Jeffrey Graham) PBXs and NANP (Stephen Polinsky) Motorola Digital Cellular Phones (Brian Totty) Modem Pool in Neighboring Telco Exchange (Dave Morschhauser) Please Help Our Reaseach! (wanglad@admin.ci.seattle.wa.us) Cordless Phone Security (boonkang@bcsc02.gov.bc.ca) Call Forward to Rotary (Dave Morschhauser) AT&T's Project in Saudi Arabia (husama@ee.ubc.ca) Universities with Telecoms and Multimedia Management Studies (James Wilson) NetworkMCI Business (Stephen Goodman) Information Wanted on Telegroup Inc. (David S. Neiger) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: Tcomdemand@aol.com Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 13:07:57 EDT Subject: Telecom Reselling From the Ground Up The following is the first in a series of articles that will appear in DLD Digest written by Jeff Bornstein, President of Telecommunications On Demand, a Long Distance Brokerage Service that matches up telecommunications agents with qualified resellers and long distance carriers. ------------------- The relationship between a Long Distance Marketer (LM) and Service Provider (SP) is not sacrosanct. As a matter of fact, if LM's continue to allow themselves to be solely driven by price and commission, in an attempt to provide the "Ultimate deal to the end-user," then they are setting themselves up to earn more industry battle scars (see: "The Joy of Selling AT&T SDN - circa 1989-1992"). If you are a serious LM, with the ability and wherewithal to produce a MINIMUM of $25K of annual long distance billings, then you should consider a DIRECT DEAL with a SP. Incidently, I DO NOT consider large marketing companies with tons of agents, disgruntled and otherwise, to necessarily be SP's. In an attempt to weed-out "Service Provider Wannabees," TOD reccomends that you find out the following (actually this is most of the screening process that we utilize to protect our Marketing Clients): (1) HISTORY: How long has the SP been in business? (2) D&B REPORT (THE NARRATIVE TYPE REPORT): Any pending or successful lawsuits against SP? (3) Ask for Financial Statements. Make certain that the SP DOES NOT plan on "factoring" your accounts. (4) Is SP a member of TRA? If not, why not! (5) Is SP Certified and Tariffed? Does SP do its own billing? (6) Does SP pay commissions on billing? (7) Does SP have Facilities/Carrier Status? If not, does SP have a DIRECT RELATIONSHIP WITH A CARRIER? (this is essential!!) (8) Does SP have a "Backroom"? - Does SP provide Agent/ Dealer support as well as End-User support? PLAN ON PERSONALLY VISITING THE PROVIDER (Why not... It's only your hard-earned commissions at stake!) (9) Does SP provide quality, UP-TO-DATE (relevant) Marketing Materials? (10) Does SP provide tracking and bill analysis software? (11) Ask to see actual LEC, Provisioning, Status, Aging, and Commission Reports. Can you communicate electron- ically with SP? Does SPs customers go on-line in a timely fashion? Next week I will provide more specific tips on how to secure a safe deal with an SP. I want to make it clear that most SP's are reliable. I also feel that for many modest producing LM's there is nothing wrong in contracting with REPUTABLE Marketing Firm that represents a SP. However, I reccomend even more due diligence and EXTREME CAUTION when preceeding. Did you ever hear the tale of woe from a so-called Provider ... "I can't pay you, because the guy above me didn't pay me." Remember, the further you are from your commissions, the more you are at risk! Best of luck, Jeff Bornstein If you would like more Information on "TODs" BROKERAGE SERVICE feel free to contact TELECOMMUNICATIONS ON DEMAND, INC., Suite 7, Orwigsburg, PA 17961; (800) 754-4411; FAX (717) 366-1827 internet: tcomdemand@aol.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Sep 94 13:12:46 EST From: Alex Cena Subject: Programming an AT&T ISDN 7506 API This is a follow up on a question I posted requesting help on programming my AT&T ISDN 7506 station set at home. Many of you were kind enough to forward some advice. But here is the short answer. It seems the amount of end-user programming is dependent on the type of switch at your local central office. Some people are lucky enough to be connected to a central office with the latest switching technology. In that case, its a matter of calling your phone rep to have your phone set at the CO for three appearances. It took myself, my Bell Atlantic sales rep, AT&T and a Bell Atlantic CO engineer more than an hour to program my phone for three appearances. Everytime changes were made at the CO, I had to reprogram my phone. After numerous tries, we finally were able to make it work. I am not looking forward to the day I am ready to hook up a digital modem to this thing. I have to hand it to my sales rep Dennis Fitzgerald though for getting all those people on a conference call to settle this thing once and for all. Now if they can only make my conference call button work. BTW, I was informed by the AT&T rep that the user's manual costs an extra $90!!! Can you believe it? No wonder most people refer to ISDN as I still don't know! AT&T even had to show me how to program my speakerphone. If they would give me the darn manual for free, I may not have to tie up their people so much. Alex M. Cena, Lehman Brothers, acena@lehman.com ------------------------------ From: tannil@tcl.com.hk (Tannil Lam) Subject: V.34 From ITU-T Date: 26 Sep 1994 21:37:02 GMT Organization: Internet OnLine HONGKONG Ltd. Please advice the newest status of V.34 from ITU-T. I hope to know whether V.34 has been official approved for modem manufacturers to produce their V.34 products or not. Thanks for all the attention. Best regards, Tannil Lam [TCL Technology Limited] (Hong Kong) [Email:info@tcl.com.hk] [TEL:+852 891 3281] ZyXELNET 17:31/0 [FAX:+852 891 6335] FIDO - 6:700/13 ------------------------------ From: fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) Subject: 919/910 DA Problem Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 02:11:39 GMT I don't know if this is how Southern Bell did it for previous splits, but... I had to get a number in Winston-Salem NC today, and without remembering clearly whether it fell on the 910 or the 919 side of the split, I dialed 1-919-555-1212 and asked for the number. DA read off a seven digit number, didn't mention anything about it being in 910, so I dialed 1-919-XXX-XXXX only to get the "Area code you are calling has been changed" recording. So I redialed with 1-910-XXX-XXXX and all was fine. Buuutttt .... Couldn't/shouldn't Southern Bell either: a) modify the DA to read off "910-XXX-XXXX" as appropriate? or b) flag the DA operator to mention to the customer that the number is now in 910? They _must_ have some way of knowing that I dialed 919-555-1212, even if 919 and 910 DA are the same bureau. Scott Fybush - fybush@world.std.com ------------------------------ From: aspgd21!dtcjsg1%cmxb001.gteds.com@uunet.uu.net (Jeffrey Graham) Subject: Becoming an Internet Access Provider Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 15:11:58 GMT Organization: GTE Data Services Hello everyone: I want to become an internet access provider, providing dialup slip and ppp access to 32 concurrent users at 28.8. What do you think is the best way for my unix host to be permanently connected to the internet? Do you think ISDN BRI would be enough? I guess I need options (T-1,ISDN BRI,ISDN PRI,ATM,etc) and pros/cons as an answer. Thanks, Jeff ------------------------------ From: tele_steph@ohio.gov (Stephen Polinsky) Subject: PBXs and NANP Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 11:20:40 -0600 Organization: OARnet Regarding PBX upgrades for the new NANP, if, when a user dials "9", and pulls tone from the CO, why would someone need to upgrade a PBX at all. The user would simply dial the digits directly into the CO, right? Are there PBXs that hold the digits until dialing is complete, and then outpulse them to the CO? I thought that this would only happen if the PBX is using some sort of alternate routing algorithm. Thanks for any help, Stephen Polinsky tele_steph@ohio.gov ------------------------------ From: bri@sea-monkey.engr.sgi.com (Brian Totty) Subject: Motorola Digital Cellular Phones Organization: Silicon Graphics, Mountain View, CA Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 01:43:32 GMT I've never had a cellular phone before, but am strongly considering getting one, especially now that digital services coming on line. Cellular One is apparently running a promotion, at least in the Bay Area of California, offering $50/month discount for six months ($300 off) if you buy a digital phone and join their service. My question relates to what phone to get. I really like the ultra-lightweight Motorola flip phones, and I also like the "vibracall" silent ringer. I have been told that Motorola does not have such a digital phone currently available, but it shoudl be released relatively soon as the "Micro TAC deluxe" digital phone. At this point, I'm totally confused at what digital flip phones Motorola currently makes, how they relate to their analog brethren, and what features they provide. Cellular phone sales still seems pretty anarchic -- I'm having trouble finding a single store selling a wide variety of cell phones & services, where I can browse, and otherwise enlighten myself. In the absence, would some kind soul be willing to post about what my choices are for digital phones (especially the Motorola phones), as well as any info on when lightweight "vibracall" phones might be available? I would very much appreciate it! ------------------------------ From: dmorschh@ecn.uiowa.edu Subject: Modem Pool in Neighboring Telco Exchange Date: 27 Sep 1994 12:26:56 GMT Organization: InterWorks Inc. Does anyone have any advice on the most efficient way to establish a multiple line modem pool in a neighboring telco exchange (approx. 1515 miles away)? I would apprecieate any assistance regarding type of service to request from the telco, as well as additional info regarding how to support up to 8 14.4 kbps modems, or 8 28.8kbps modems. BTW, I have been lurking in this newsgroup for a couple of months; is there a faq which describes the different telco line categories and uses? Thanks, Dave Morschhauser morschha.d@connline.net ------------------------------ From: wanglad@admin.ci.seattle.wa.us Subject: Please Help Our Reaseach! Date: 27 Sep 1994 14:18:44 GMT Organization: NovX InterServ News Service Another intern and I got a project to research Voice/E-mail Integration. We are specifically looking for materials on products that can interface with Northern Telecom Meridian 1 telephone system, which is what we have. We were told to reaserch Northern Telecom's MSM and Visit, as well as Octel and Centigram. After several days reseach on Computer Select and local library's database, we couldn't find much on these products. Can anyone offer us some tips? Thanks very much! ------------------------------ Subject: Cordless Phone Security From: BOONKANG@bcsc02.gov.bc.ca Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 10:26:32 PDT Organization: BC Systems Corporation I seem to have read somewhere about the risk of having someone dialing up on your phone line (and charging long distance calls on your phone account) when the handset is not sitting at the base-station cradle of your cordless phone. Can those experts on cordless phones provide me with an update on this issue? B.C. Systems Corp. ||PROFS: BCSC02(BOONKANG) 4000 Seymour Pl, W169BLUE ||INTERNET:BOONKANG@BCSC02.GOV.BC.CA Victoria,B.C. Canada V8X 4S8||IBMMAIL: CABCSTFS@IBMMAIL.COM 604 389-3991(V)389-3916(FAX)||*** Opinions are MINE solely *** ------------------------------ From: dmorschh@ecn.uiowa.edu Subject: Call Forward to Rotary Date: 27 Sep 1994 10:15:53 GMT Organization: InterWorks Inc. Has anyone ever used call forwarding to forward calls into a multi-line rotary? Specifically, will the forwarded number continue to forward calls into the rotary until all the lines in the rotary are used up? Also, how long will a call forward remain in effect before it has to be reinitialized? Next question: Consider three exchanges A, B, and C. It is long distance from A to C, but not from A to B or B to C. A number in B is setup to forward all incoming calls to a number in C. If a caller from A dials the number in B, which is forwarded to C, who pays the long distance charges? *Are* there any long distance charges? Dave Morschhauser morschha.d@connline.net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In your example given, there are no long distance charges incurred. If your *intent* in forwarding calls in this fashion is to avoid toll charges, then your use of call- forwarding is illegal. If it is merely more convenient for party B to receive his calls at C and party A is generally unaware of this at the time he forwards to B, then it is not an illegal avoidance of toll charges. In some exchanges with older generics, the software is programmed so that A stops at B regardless of what B does. That is, a person dialing B direct does in fact forward to C, but a person dialing A is dumped on B no matter what B has chosen to do with calls sent directly to him. It all depends on how your switch is programmed. Take care in attempting to devise a scheme to reduce or eliminate toll charges through chain forwarding; it seldoms works out to your financial advantage since the cost of two local calls frequently exceeds the cost of a single 'long haul' call to the final destination. If A forwards to B, and B has several lines in rotary hunt, then calls to B via A will land on whichever line of B is available and next to receive calls. A does not have unlimited forwarding (to the extent of B's capabilities) however; often times the software in the switch is programmed to allow only one call through at a time with subsequent calls to A being returned busy. Often times telco has it set up so you must specifically purchase (or apply for) additional 'paths' if you want the ability to have more than one call at a time forwarded from A to B. Also bear in mind that where C is concerned, call-forwarding and hunt-on-busy are not compatible without a lot of tricking around. B needs to have call-forwarding on all his lines; else the first call sent from A will land on line one of B and get forwarded; subsequent calls from A (assuming A has more than one 'path' permitted to him) will get bumped up the line in B's hunt group and land on a line which does not have call-forwarding. In other words, call-forwarding is not a system feature based on B's main number. If B only has one path allowed to him and A is already using it, then subsequent calls to B from whatever direction will first land on the main number, get returned busy due to the call being forwarded; start hunting for another line in B's group and park there instead lacking (on that second or subsequent line) call-forwarding instructions. People sometimes try to combine call-forwarding with call-waiting and hunt-on-busy on the same line (or group of lines) with unpredictable and curious results. PAT] ------------------------------ From: husama@ee.ubc.ca (husam) Subject: AT&T's Project in Saudi Arabia Date: 27 Sep 1994 06:37:36 GMT Organization: UBC Electical Engineering Hi, I have some questions about the deal AT@T signed with Saudi Arabia. Are they going to use ATM (asynchronous Transfere Mode) and B-ISDN there in Saudi Arabia? I would love to get the address of AT@T's office which operates this project. Please send email directly to husama@ee.ubc.ca. Thanks in advance, Husam :) ------------------------------ From: jkw@toshiba.dircon.co.uk (James Wilson) Subject: Universities with Telecoms and Multimedia Management Studies Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 14:43:05 Organization: Toshiba Corporation The President of Helsinki University would like to develop a new MBA concentration on "Telecommunications and Multimedia Management", and I would like to help him to obtain the contact telephone and fax numbers of all leading US and European Universities which are conducting research or offering undergraduate/graduate courses in these fields, especially Multimedia. Could any members of this forum please send details of universities and the courses offered or research undertaken to me by EMAIL? Messages can be sent directly to jkw@toshiba.dircon.co.uk or to 100074,3176@compuserve. Any help which you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Regards, James K Wilson Toshiba Europe Office ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 14:24:00 EST From: Stephen Goodman <0003945654@mcimail.com> Subject: NetworkMCI Business Mark Pettit Frank J. Walter MCI Business Markets 1-800-644-NEWS MCI LAUNCHES networkMCI BUSINESS First Software Package to Bring Power of Information Superhighway to the Desktop NEW YORK -- September 12, 1994 -- Delivering the promise of the Information Superhighway to the desktops of businesses nationwide, MCI today launched "networkMCI BUSINESS" -- a first-of-its-kind integrated information and communications software package. networkMCI BUSINESS is the nation's first single source package to contain e-mail and fax messaging, information services/automated news monitoring, document sharing and videoconferencing, online multimedia business catalogs and access to the Internet. A Windows-based package, networkMCI BUSINESS is easy-to-use and designed to help businesses of all sizes. networkMCI BUSINESS can be ordered today. "networkMCI BUSINESS is the breakthrough business tool of the '90s," said Gerald H. Taylor, president and chief operating officer of MCI Communications Corp. "It frees business people from information overload--allowing them to work together when they want, from where they want, whenever they want." Taylor added, "networkMCI BUSINESS is the first product to harness the powerful convergence of telecommunications, computers, information services and entertainment. The force of that convergence is making businesses more competitive. Now networkMCI BUSINESS delivers that power to the millions of non-technical users through their personal computers." networkMCI BUSINESS targets the burgeoning business PC market. The number of PCs in the U.S. now exceeds 75 million. Industry analysts estimate that the market for the overall convergence of telecommunications, computing, entertainment and information services represents a $1 trillion business opportunity. "With our first business software offering, MCI brings to this market our considerable communications expertise to set a new benchmark for helping businesses improve productivity," said Timothy F. Price, president of MCI Business Markets. Unique Features Packed into Single-Source 'Power' Tool While compelling as an integrated package, networkMCI BUSINESS is also a "power" tool because of its innovative components. Breaking new ground, networkMCI BUSINESS integrates e-mail, fax and a news information service, or intelligent agent, called infoMCI. "Business people don't have time to be information archaeologists, digging through cumbersome, expensive on-line databases. They need customized, relevant information. infoMCI delivers just that, twice a day along with breaking news as it happens," said Price. Another unique feature of networkMCI BUSINESS, marketplaceMCI, is an online multimedia catalog, allowing businesses of all sizes to market their goods and services electronically. "marketplaceMCI gives our customers a completely new arena where business people can distribute, browse for and purchase products and services without leaving their desks -- the electronic business-to-business mall has opened," said Price. The conferenceMCI application allows business people to work together, sharing ideas and images (also known as collaborative work) over regular analog phone lines. As an added option, MCI is marketing high-quality desktop videoconferencing equipment that works over high speed (ISDN) phone lines. Core Solution Plus Optional Features networkMCI BUSINESS provides the following features in a single, cost-effective core package: o infoMCI: A personalized business information service, infoMCI monitors more than 180 news sources and databases to deliver twice-daily, on-screen summaries of critical news items. MCI also provides instant "news flashes" of breaking news items during the day. Users define the information received by completing a personal profile of industry categories and concepts, which the user ranks in importance and revises as often as needed. o conferenceMCI: This point-to-point collaborative work tool includes the only document conferencing software that supports the industry standard (pending ratification) T.120. Two users in different locations can review and update the same document in real time. o e-mailMCI: Using the global MCI Mail network, e-mailMCI offers an easy-to-use Windows environment, tailored specifically for MCI. networkMCI BUSINESS/3 o faxMCI: This application allows businesses to send and receive faxes from a PC in any Windows application. faxMCI features include fax broadcast capability, an address book and scheduling options. o marketplaceMCI: A feature unique to networkMCI BUSINESS, this is a new multimedia on-line catalog and business purchasing service. It offers businesses a new way to distribute product information and facilitate on-line sales. MCI will offer a turnkey solution to companies that want to sell goods to the subscribers of marketplaceMCI or through custom-designed electronic kiosks. o internetMCI: With the click of a mouse, networkMCI BUSINESS allows quick and easy access to the world's largest and most powerful computer network. Pricing for the core networkMCI BUSINESS package is $100 for the software itself plus a $65 monthly charge that includes the daily infoMCI newsfeed. Existing and new MCI Preferred, Vision and Vnet customers will have a reduced monthly rate of $50. As an optional feature of networkMCI BUSINESS, MCI is marketing a high-quality desktop video conferencing system: o desktop video from MCI: This application allows two users to see each other, while they also see the document they're working on. The application works on industry standard technology. And desktop video from MCI is compatible with MCI's multipoint videoconferencing service called VideoNet. MCI will lease the desktop videoconferencing equipment under a three-year agreement for as low as $110 per month, including desktop video camera, speakerphone and video and audio boards. "We assembled the components of networkMCI BUSINESS based on ease-of-use and value in solving day-to-day business needs," said Price. "What's also important about networkMCI BUSINESS is its compatibility with industry, not proprietary, standards. Customers can use this package with common software packages, so their previous software investment is not lost." To assist in the development of networkMCI BUSINESS, MCI assembled a premier line-up of industry leaders, including PictureTel Corporation, ConnectSoft, DataBeam Corporation, Delrina Corporation, FYI Online, and Image Technology, Inc. (ITI). Customers have the option to have charges billed to their credit card or receive an invoice directly from MCI. Existing MCI Preferred, Vision or Vnet customers can also chose to include these charges on their monthly invoice. For more information or to purchase networkMCI BUSINESS, individuals may call 1-800-955-5195. With 1993 revenue of nearly $12 billion, MCI Communications Corporation is the one of the world's largest communications companies. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., MCI has more than 65 offices in 58 countries and places. The company's Atlanta-based MCI Business Markets provides a wide range of communications and information services to America's businesses, including networkMCI BUSINESS, long distance voice, data and video services and consulting and outsourcing services. ------------------------------ From: neiger@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU (David S Neiger) Subject: Telegroup Inc. Date: 27 Sep 1994 23:19:09 +1000 Organization: University of Melbourne Hi, Recently I joined Telegroup Inc's Global Callback facility to cut the cost of my calls to the US from Oz. So far I am satisfied with the service however I am concerned that Telegroup has my VISA card number and an authority to debit my account. Has anyone any experience with dealing with Telegroup and confirm that: 1) They are a reputable company; 2) They are ligitimate (I would suspect so considering how much it must cost to set up a global callback system); 3) They are using Telegroup's service and have found them to be O.K. Any confirmations or horror stories would be greatly appreciated. Please mail and I will post a summary. David Neiger - Solicitor Law Office Technology Consultant NEIGER@ARIEL.UCS.UNIMELB.EDU.AU or NEIGER@VAXC.CC.MONASH.EDU.AU ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #378 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13608; 27 Sep 94 20:20 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10184; Tue, 27 Sep 94 15:18:35 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10177; Tue, 27 Sep 94 15:18:32 CDT Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 15:18:32 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409272018.AA10177@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #379 TELECOM Digest Tue, 27 Sep 94 15:18:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 379 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: AT&T Lying, TV a Fake and Other Slander (Ken Kopin) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Nick Sayer) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Ken Kopin) Re: AT&T Lying, TV a Fake & Other Slander (Nick Sayer) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Tony Kennedy) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Michael G. Katzmann) Re: Coming Soon: Son of 800 (Clarence Dold) Re: Coming Soon: Son of 800 (Clive D.W. Feather) Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (Glen Ecklund) Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (Antoin O. Lachtnain) Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (Jonathan Liu) Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (Ole Hellevik) Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (David Newman) Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (Peter Knoppers) Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (Wes Leatherock) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: aa377@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ken Kopin) Subject: Re: AT&T Lying, TV a Fake and Other Slander Date: 27 Sep 1994 19:45:54 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) In a previous article, jbutz@hogpa.ho.att.com (John J Butz) says: > I don't disagree that the TrueVoice television ads have a lot of that > Madison Avenue glitz (ie. back-up singers belting in when True Voice > activates, 3D spectrographs, sharply dressed and intelligent AT&T > employees ... like myself :-|, etc.), but it's really not fair to > state that what is heard on a TV set, is what will be heard on a phone > handset. To that end, I noticed that ads are labeled "Simulated > TrueVoice Effect." Are you proposing that telephone receivers are somehow BETTER for hearing sound than, say, your average television set? Now, I'm sure the high end stuff is real nice, but most of us peons have the 19.95 CheapFone (TM) or better yet, the one that came free with our paid subscriprion to TIME Magazine. (YOU remember, the one that used a Piezo (SP) speaker. :-) > For a real comparison, the TrueVoice demo line can be reached by > dialing 1-800-932-2000. Calls to this number are processed by the > same piece of equipment that provides TrueVoice in the network, so > what a caller hears IS the real TrueVoice. (The voice on the demo is > that of James Naughton.) Huh? Since when? I coulda swore that was Tom Selleck I was hearing. Ken Kopin Internet: aa377@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu ------------------------------ From: nsayer@quack.kfu.com (Nick Sayer) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Organization: The Duck Pond public unix: +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest'. Date: 27 Sep 1994 15:46:06 UTC ssatchell@BIX.com (ssatchell on BIX) writes: >> Nick Sayer said: >>> If they're trying to imply that that is what a long distance phone >>> call sounds like (which _despite_ truevoice is _still_ constrained to >>> roughly 300-3000 Hz), then it's nothing short of outright fraud. > Sorry, I have to take exception to the claim that the bandwidth for > all telco customers is still 300-3000 Hz. If that were true, then > there is no way for V.34 modem owners to achieve 28.8 kilobit/s > carriers with the modems -- they'd be constrained to 21.6 kilobits/s. 1. I said 'roughly' .3-3 kHz. 2. You're missing the point by _miles_. The bandwidth of the singer and her orchestra after the "true fraud" is turned on in the ad is nothing short of roughly .05-15 kHz, which can't even begin to be approached over a 64 kbps communications channel regardless of what its audio bandwidth is. [irrelevant verbiage snipped] Nick Sayer N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest' URL: http://www.kfu.com/~nsayer/ ------------------------------ From: aa377@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ken Kopin) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: 27 Sep 1994 19:31:10 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Reply-To: aa377@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Ken Kopin) If you listen closely to the commercial, than what AT&T is really saying is that when True Voice is implemented, you will get background singers! (Or talkers... Hm...) and the volume will increase (at least according to that little bouncy arrow thing at the side of their nifty 3D voice map.) Also, please don't kill me if this has been hashed to death, cause I looked first and couldn't find it. Will this True Voice do anything bad to data communications? Ken Kopin Internet: aa377@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu ------------------------------ From: nsayer@quack.kfu.com (Nick Sayer) Subject: Re: AT&T Lying, TV a Fake & Other Slander Organization: The Duck Pond public unix: +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest'. Date: 27 Sep 1994 15:56:51 UTC jbutz@hogpa.ho.att.com (John J Butz) writes: > Folks must be a little tone deaf. No, we just have an aversion to fraudulent advertising. > I can tell right away when TrueVoice is on my call or not. [snip] That's not the issue. True Voice may very well be a nice thing. Personally, I don't care one way or another, since I listen more to what the person on the other end is _saying_ than how he sounds, but again, that is a digression from the real issue here. > I don't disagree that the TrueVoice television ads have a lot of that > Madison Avenue glitz (ie. back-up singers belting in when True Voice > activates, 3D spectrographs, sharply dressed and intelligent AT&T > employees ... like myself :-|, etc.), but it's really not fair to > state that what is heard on a TV set, is what will be heard on a phone > handset. To that end, I noticed that ads are labeled "Simulated > TrueVoice Effect." That merely carries the point home. How can you simulate a slight bass boost by changing from telephone quality audio to full broadcast quality stereo? No, that ad was not a simulation of True Voice. Hence their labeling it as such merely piles on more True Fraud. Nick Sayer N6QQQ @ N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA.USA.NOAM +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest' URL: http://www.kfu.com/~nsayer/ ------------------------------ From: adk@scri.fsu.edu (Tony Kennedy) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: 26 Sep 94 18:44:45 Organization: SCRI, Florida State University Steve Cogorno writes: > This is no more of a lie than MCI saying in their Friends and Family > II commercials that the average cost of a long distance call costs > half as much as it did ten years ago (before the Bell breakup). Then > the Rep says "Who do you think was responsible for that?" Hundreds of > people shout out "MCI!" > BUT they fail to mention that it was the breakup of the Bell System > which lowered these call costs. (Which also increased the cost of > local calls by a large percentage.) I thought that the breakup of the Bell System was (at least partially) a consequence of a lawsuit brought by MCI. I am sure Pat would love to enlighten us at length on the details of the lawsuit (was it an antitrust case?), and the relative importance of AT&T's desire to enter other marketplaces versus MCI's desire to compete equally in the long-distance market. Surely, however, it is not unreasonable to claim that MCI was in part responsible to the Bell breakup, which in turn was in part responsible for the reduction in average long distance prices. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It was handled as an antitrust case with the United States Justice Department doing battle with AT&T. There were a lot of angles to the case, and there had been litigation with MCI at one time or another in the past also. There were several active players and a number of theories as to who benefitted the most. PAT] ------------------------------ From: opel!vk2bea!michael@uunet.uu.net (Michael G. Katzmann) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: 27 Sep 94 14:19:18 GMT Reply-To: opel!vk2bea!michael@uunet.uu.net (Michael G. Katzmann) Organization: Broadcast Sports Technology, Crofton. Maryland. In article nsayer@quack.kfu.com (Nick Sayer) writes: > AT&T's latest "True Fraud^H^H^H^H^HVoice" ad has reached a new low in > deceptive practices. > They then engage in a before and after. At the point of change, the > following all happen: > The volume jumps up by probably 20-30 dB. > A choir jumps in and starts accompanying the singer. > The singer hits a high point in the song. > The attenuated bass is put back. > The result is a beautiful, broadcast-quality stereo sound. I don't know about the choir (maybe that's due to the mystical experience), but "True Voice" does up the average level and equalizes the LF. (See many previous articles in comp.dcom.telecom) So comparing the two passages, one does get the idea of what T.V. does. As far as the control room stuff goes, that's Madison Avenue for you. It reminds me of a story that Robert Lucky told in IEEE Spectrum many years ago. The ad agency wanted Cliff Robertson to do an advertisment with engineers hard at work in the background, however when the engineers assembled for the assigned task, the producer didn't think they looked like engineers and replaced them all with actors! We engineers "don't get no respect"!!! Michael Katzmann ( NV3Z / VK2BEA / G4NYV ) Broadcast Sports Technology Inc. Crofton, Maryland. U.S.A. michael%vk2bea@secondsource.COM ------------------------------ From: Clarence Dold Subject: Re: Coming Soon: Son of 800 Organization: a2i network Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 12:02:53 GMT Greg Monti (GMONTI@npr.org) wrote: > A brief article in {Business Week} magazine, September 26, 1994, issue > under the name "I-Way Patrol" and entitled "Coming Soon, Son of 800," > says that the 800 code is running out of telephone numbers. > 800 numbers went from zero in 1967 to to 3.1 million in 1993. The > one-year step from 93 to 94, brought it to 4.1 million numbers. The > capacity of the code is supposedly 7.6 million numbers, which will be > reached by 1996. The SMS, keepers of the 800-database, sent out a notice recently, using these same numbers, requesting that "unused" 800 numbers be returned to the pool, while they figure out what to do. Seems that one of the newly available 8xx NPA would be the most sensible. 888 sounds like a good one to me. Clarence A Dold - dold@rahul.net - Pope Valley & Napa CA. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Coming Soon: Son of 800 Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 14:20:55 BST From: Clive D.W. Feather Quoth Greg Monti: > 800 numbers went from zero in 1967 to to 3.1 million in 1993. The > one-year step from 93 to 94, brought it to 4.1 million numbers. The > capacity of the code is supposedly 7.6 million numbers, which will be > reached by 1996. Why isn't the capacity ten million? Since no-one has local calls from 800 numbers, why can't every possible number be used? After all, in the UK we have numbers like 0800 000 000 and 0345 123 456. Clive D.W. Feather | Santa Cruz Operation clive@sco.com | Croxley Centre Phone: +44 1923 813541 | Hatters Lane, Watford Fax: +44 1923 813811 | WD1 8YN, United Kingdom [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: While what you say is true, I think someone felt consistency with the other 'area codes' (in how prefixes and suffixes were used) was more important, at least back when the 800 code was first established. This need for consistency in numbering therefore does not allow 800 to have any more combinations than any of the others. PAT] ------------------------------ From: glen@cs.wisc.edu (Glen Ecklund) Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? Date: 27 Sep 1994 11:59:27 GMT Organization: University of WI, Madison -- Computer Sciences Dept. lcz@dptspd.sat.datapoint.com (Lee Ziegenhals) writes: > I'm wondering whether there is any work being done on a real-time > display of the cost of a call. I'm thinking of something like a display > on your telephone that shows the cost of a call in progress. It would > be updated continuously (except for fixed-cost calls) until you hang up. > I'd like to see this for all types of metered calls, whether local > metered, long distance, 900 numbers, etc. One problem is that neither the local telco nor the LD carrier would probably find this in their interest. They don't want to encourage you to hang up sooner. Glen Ecklund glen@cs.wisc.edu (608) 262-1318 Office, 262-1204 Dept. Sec'y Department of Computer Sciences 1210 W. Dayton St., Room 3355 University of Wisconsin, Madison Madison, Wis. 53706 U.S.A. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Its the same kind of thinking where online commercial services are concerned: you never see a clock -- digital or otherwise -- displayed right on your screen in front of you all the time with the elapsed time and charges. You can ask for the detail of course through some menu item, but it will never be on display on the top or bottom line of your screen. They don't want you to become discouraged or eager to disconnect. Perhaps you have noticed also that very few taverns have a clock on the wall readily visible to patrons. They want you to take your time and stay awhile longer. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Antoin O Lachtnain Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? Organization: University of Dublin, Trinity College Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 17:34:44 GMT In lcz@dptspd.sat.datapoint.com (Lee Ziegenhals) writes: > The "NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls" thread got me > to thinking about how to tell whether a call is costing you LD charges > or not. With my telephone company, a LD toll call is always preceded > by a '1'. I've gotten rather used to it, and I'd miss it if I moved > somewhere where it wasn't done that way. > I'm wondering whether there is any work being done on a real-time > display of the cost of a call. I'm thinking of something like a display > on your telephone that shows the cost of a call in progress. It would > be updated continuously (except for fixed-cost calls) until you hang up. > I'd like to see this for all types of metered calls, whether local > metered, long distance, 900 numbers, etc. > Implementation at the local loop shouldn't be too difficult. ISDN > would be relatively easy since the rate information could be passed > over the D channel. For POTS lines, the rate information would have > to be transmitted somehow at the beginning of the call, perhaps using > a technology similar to what's used for CID. > Is such a thing feasible? I know absolutely nothing about how billing > systems are implemented within the telephone network. Is this > information even available in real time to the local telephone > company? For that matter, am I the only one who would find this > useful? :-) In Europe, (at least in Ireland and the UK) you can get a service hooked up so that a pulse is sent from the exchange to the phone, over the regular POTS line, to tell the phone that a new billing unit has been accrued to the bill. This is mostly used in payphones -- whenever the payphone gets the pulse, it demands more money from the user. But I have also heard of it being used to keep track of the bill. I must say that I don't think it'd work very well if there were a choice of service providers, 'cos they'd all be likely to have different unit values. Transmitting the information from the service provider's exchange to the local exchange might also present a problem. Antoin O Lachtnain, Trinity College, Dublin. mail: aolchtnn@unix1.tcd.ie ------------------------------ From: jdl@wam.umd.edu (Jonathan) Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? Date: 27 Sep 1994 00:32:12 GMT Organization: University of Maryland, College Park One possible solution to the toll-alerting controversy is to allow each individual customer to decide whether or not he or she wants toll-alerting. When somebody orders new service, then the phone company can ask, "Do you want us to require you to dial 1 plus the area code before all non-local calls?" On pay phones 1+ alerting is probably not necessary because if calls are toll then a voice asking for money comes on the line. Also, the phone book can explain that whether or not you dial 1 plus the area code before an intra-NPA long-distance call depends on your request. If this complicates things too much, then let me be on the record as being in favor of requiring 1+ before toll calls, including 976 and similar premium services. Telephone companies probably won't bother with a cost-of-call display because this may reduce their revenues. With the advent of competition such an idea is not so far-fetched, however. There is one way to get indication of call-cost when you make the call: dial 0 plus the area code and the number and ask the Operator for "Rates and Charges." Remain on the line after the call is over. The operator will quote the cost of the call. There is a substantial extra charge for this. A better way is to ask the phone company for the rate before calling, and then to use a stopwatch and a calculator. ------------------------------ From: oleh@eskimo.com (Ole Hellevik) Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? Organization: Eskimo North (206) For-Ever Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 15:28:44 GMT Lee Ziegenhals (lcz@dptspd.sat.datapoint.com) wrote: > I'm wondering whether there is any work being done on a real-time > display of the cost of a call. It has been available (for a quarterly fee) in Norway for as long as I can remember, a little box next to the phone with two counters, on resettable, one not, indicating number of 'periods' (One period always has the same price whether the call is local or LD, but the length in time would be different.) This box would receive a pulse from the local switch when you enter a period, and would in effect be parallell with a similar counter in the local exchange. This box is most common in places where people other than the subscriber would use the phone, such as the lunch room in a small company. Before making a call, an employee would reset the counter, and after the call place one krone (approx price per period) for each period displayed, in a piggy bank next to the phone. Ole C. ------------------------------ From: dnewman@cse.unl.edu (David Newman) Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? Date: 27 Sep 1994 15:52:38 GMT Organization: Dept of CS&E -- University of Nebraska-Lincoln As one who has done some work on the billing/measurement part of a local telco's end of long-distance call-handling, I can tell you that at present this in *not* technically feasible. When the entire world is connected via SS7/AIN and everybody in the world agrees to share their databases with each other and when speeds increase to the point where the so-called "database dip" wouldn't slow connection time to a crawl, then it may happen -- but don't hold your breath. This is not meant as a flame. The question is reasonable enough, but the implementation of the solution is definitely not, considering that quite a few local telcos are still using mechanical switching on the local loop (my employer included). Even in a more up-to-date environment, the billing rates are generally applied to the time and duration of the call, using the records generated by the particular switch -- long after the call is history. David M. Newman dnewman@cse.unl.edu Programmer/Analyst Perpetual Student Consolidated Telephone Co. University of Nebraska - Lincoln Lincoln, Nebraska ------------------------------ From: knop@duteca8.et.tudelft.nl (Peter Knoppers) Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? Date: 27 Sep 1994 16:32:37 GMT Organization: Delft University of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering You've more or less described the telephone cost counter as it has been available here in the Netherlands for at least 25 years. For a fee of DFL 1 per month, the phone company sends a you signal when the next cost unit (DFL 0.15) starts. The signal that can be detected and counted by a simple counter. This counter can be bought or rented from the phone company, or bought elsewhere. Some PBXs can detect and count the signal. Pay-phones also operate using this signal. For the technically inclined: The cost pulse is a short AC common mode signal, about 60 Volts, about 50 Hz. Duration of the pulse is about 0.5 seconds. Normal phones are immune to common mode signals, therefore you should not be able to hear it. Greetings from Delft, the Netherlands Peter Knoppers - knop@duteca.et.tudelft.nl ------------------------------ From: wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 07:13:49 GMT Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication Depending on the circumstances, much of this information is not available to the local telephone company at all. Unless the IXC is billing you on your LEC bill, the local telephone company will never get any information on what the charge is. In fact, if competition in intraLATA toll is allowed in your area, the other company may wish to prevent the LEC -- a competitor -- from even knowing what rate they are charging you. Even your local telephone company ordinarily does not have information about its own calls in real time. Its information is in the form of called and calling number, connect time, disconnect time. After the information reaches the Accounting Department -- or whatever it's called now -- these entries will be matched with each other, the rate period determined, and the charge calculated. Usually the local telephone company is not allowed to charge different rates to different customers, but other carriers are, and it may be in the future the LEC will also have freedom to cut deals, in which case they would tend to regard those rates, too, as proprietary information, and certainly would hesitate to disclose them in real time without a non-disclosure agreement. As far as 900 services go, they are usually billed by the service provider at whatever rate they choose to set through an IXC, so the local telephone company here is at least two companies away from where the charge originates. Local measured service in most places is provided on the basis there is no detail billing. Where detail billing is available, it is usually an extra cost option. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #379 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01142; 28 Sep 94 16:14 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA00562; Wed, 28 Sep 94 10:47:11 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA00553; Wed, 28 Sep 94 10:47:07 CDT Date: Wed, 28 Sep 94 10:47:07 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409281547.AA00553@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #380 TELECOM Digest Wed, 28 Sep 94 10:47:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 380 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (Niall Gallagher) Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (John R. Levine) Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (Sam Spens Clason) Re: Cellular Digital vs. Analog (Brian Totty) Re: Cellular Digital vs. Analog (Alex Cena) Re: Cellular Digital vs. Analog (Dan Goldberg) Re: Motorola Digital Cellular Phones (Mark Solsman) Distance Between Two Points (Steve Edwards) Telrad Key-BX (Alan Boritz) Fax DID Technologies - What is E&M (Stuart McRae) Ameritech to Offer SLIP, PPP; What's Their Correct WWW? (Walt Lillyman) FCC Reort on LD Carrier Code Assignments (Bob Keller) ATM OC Specifications (Christopher Wolf) New 800 Services (Steven Friedlander) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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, 28 Sep 1994 09:16:00 -0400 From: niall gallagher Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? Call Metering (known as Periodic Pulse Metering, PPM, or Subscriber Premises Metering, SPM) is used extensively outside North America. Each meter pulse provides the user with an indication that one charge unit has been consumed. For analog lines the pulse can be sent using (a) 12 KHz tone, (b) 16 KHz tone, or (c) a 50Hz balanced tone. Each market tends to have specific requirements for tone level and duration. For ISDN, there is a service call Advice of Charge, which provides similar functionality. The reason that North America never adopted PPM goes back to the initial philosophy of call billing. In North America, it was the standard practice for local calls to be unmeasured or flat-rate and for all long distance calls to be charged. The customer was provided with an itemised bill listing all the calls and the amount charge. Any billing dispute could be discussed on the basis of the itemised bill. In Europe and European-influenced markets, all calls were charged and long distance was not itemised. Before modern SPC switches, the meter pulses were generated at a transit exchange and were counted be mechanical counters at the local exchange. Each month, the PTT would take a photograph of the subscribers' meter and send this as input to the billing process. The subscriber got a bill saying that they had used nnn units -- please pay xxx. In order to assuage feelings that they were being overcharged, the PTTs offered the metering pulses to the subscriber's premises -- real-time indication of call costs. Instant gratification; although as Pat says, this indication of call costs did tend to reduce usage and was not marketed hard by the PTTs. Billing philosophies are changing now (new equipment, competition etc.) and many PTTs (or PTOs as they now like to be known) provide itemised bills. Some even offer this as a no-charge service! Regards, Niall Gallagher niall@bnr.ca Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Sep 94 10:04 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > I'm wondering whether there is any work being done on a real-time > display of the cost of a call. No. Toll billing in North America has always been retrospective. That is, at the time of the call they collect the raw data on times and number called, but they don't actually compute the price until they send you the bill. Indeed, with various volume discount plans, there's often no way to know what the price will be until the end of the month anyway. Furthermore, (as has been noted in a forum in the Digital Dungheap That May Not Be Named Here) in many cases the IXCs and LECs are now and will shortly be in competition, and the IXC really does not want to give the LEC per-call pricing info. Outside North America, real time pricing is trivial, because the billing is done with impulses. Each impulse costs the same (on the order of a dime in European countries) but the time you get for one ranges from 15 minutes for a local call at night to a second or two for an international call during the day. The impulse can be superimposed on the subscriber's phone line, and mechanical impulse counters have been available for decades. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, 1037498@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: d92-sam@dront.nada.kth.se (Sam Spens Clason) Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? Date: 28 Sep 1994 12:52:35 GMT In oleh@eskimo.com (Ole Hellevik) writes: > Lee Ziegenhals (lcz@dptspd.sat.datapoint.com) wrote: >> I'm wondering whether there is any work being done on a real-time >> display of the cost of a call. > It has been available (for a quarterly fee) in Norway for as long as I > can remember, a little box next to the phone with two counters, on > resettable, one not, indicating number of 'periods' (One period always > has the same price whether the call is local or LD, but the length in > time would be different.) This box would receive a pulse from the > local switch when you enter a period, and would in effect be parallell > with a similar counter in the local exchange. Same thing in neighbouring Sweden. Until a couple of years ago all calls were measured in 0,29 krona units, just as in Norway. But nowadays everything except local calls is either billed by the second or has a fixed price-tag (calling a pager is 1,5 or 6 krona "flat rate"). This applies to ~2/3 of the Swedish PSTN. I don't know if the old unit measurers understands this kind of billing. Knowing the exact cost is nice, but knowing what kind of call (local, long-distance, etc) is halfway there. It would help avoiding surprises and give a rough estimate of the cost. In Australia (I was there three years ago) the exchange tells you what kind of call you're placing. Calling within an area codes doesn't necessarily mean that you're placing a local (flat rate) call. Having dialed a long-distance call (STD?) there is an "STD-tone" before the call goes thru so the customer knows. The ideal is of course is that the customer could switch this service on and off at will. Couldn't this be implemented quite easily? Does it still exist in Oz; does it exist anyhwere else? Sam Sam Spens Clason ------------------------------ From: bri@sea-monkey.engr.sgi.com (Brian Totty) Subject: Re: Cellular Digital vs. Analog Organization: Silicon Graphics, Mountain View, CA Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 08:54:31 GMT In article , ron@pyro.wro.dec.com (Ron S. van Zuylen) writes: > I'm looking for some feedback on digital cellular service. Cellular > One in the San Franscisco Bay Area has recently lowered their digital > service prices to an acceptable level; it is slightly lower than the > analog service now. They are also in the process of increasing their > digital coverage. I bought a Motorola 950 Digital two days ago. I wanted a cellular phone, and the dual-mode phone can do analog anyway, so it seemed like a reasonable idea. The Cellular One promotions made the decision for me. Their "digital flex plan" has lower monthly and per minute rates than most analog plans, and the price is the same whether you connect in digital or analog mode. I haven't used the phone enough to have too many observations. Both analog and digital seem clear in the Palo Alto -> San Jose area. However, I did do a test, calling my office phone in both analog and digital modes. I made a sound in one phone and listened in the other. Analog mode delivered the sound nearly instantaneously while digital mode had a noticable delay. The delay's not as bad as satellite latencies, but it is mildly irritating. Perhaps a tenth of a second? I actually wanted to wait until the Motorola Micro TAC deluxe digital phones became available, with tactile ringer, etc. but these are apparently behind schedule, and I wasn't sure how long the Cell One promotion would last. Brian Totty Silicon Graphics, MS 580 2011 N. Shoreline Blvd Mountain View, CA 94043-1389 email: bri@sgi.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Sep 94 08:58:15 EST From: Alex Cena Subject: Re: Cellular Digital vs. Analog ron@pyro.wro.dec.com (Ron S. van Zuylen) wrote: > I'm looking for some feedback on digital cellular service. Cellular > One in the San Franscisco Bay Area has recently lowered their digital > service prices to an acceptable level; it is slightly lower than the > analog service now. They are also in the process of increasing their > digital coverage. Do you know how much they are increasing their footprint and over what time frame? I thought the footprint was only the Bay Bridge and parts of Hwy 101. If they are willing to price it below analog, it tells you a little bit about how much its worth relative to analog. As the old saying goes "If its not worth paying for, then..." > Is it truely "improved cellular service" or is it more of a benfit to > the service provider? (Less frequency bandwidth, correct?) Cellular One or Bay Area Cellular is owned 51% by McCaw and 49% by AirTouch and is composed primarily of infrastructure from Ericsson, which only has TDMA-based equipment. CDMA-based equipment is available from Motorola, AT&T and Northern Telecom. The benefit for the carrier is increased call capacity of up to 3x per voice channel in a TDMA environment and 10x-20x in a CDMA so they can amortize the cost of the infrastructure over a broader base of subscribers. CDMA offers the additional benefit of requiring fewer cell sites than an analog network, resulting in up to 60% savings in site acquisition costs. Based on a marketing study conducted by Ameritech using focus groups comprised of their high usage customers, most users rated analog as either worst than analog or as good as analog, while most CDMA rated very good relative to analog. The comment I hear most often even from TDMA proponents is that "the voice quality is getting better and is almost as good as analog." The benefit to you however, is increased call privacy when you are using the phone in a cell with the service. So why is McCaw, Bell South, Southwestern Bell rolling out TDMA if CDMA has the benefits of increase call capacity, cost savings and improved call quality. It was time to market and capacity constraints. The first CDMA service in the US will first become available starting in the first half of 1995 from carriers such as US West, AirTouch, Sprint, GTE and NYNEX. Having said that, my "personal" opinion would be to buy a good analog phone instead. BUT, don't take my word for it. Borrow a digital phone from someone and drive around and make a decision for yourself. Just be sure you are using it in a digital cell otherwise you may think you are on a digital voice channel when you are really on an analog. Regards, Alex M. Cena, Lehman Brothers, acena@lehman.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 02:54:00 +0100 From: ERU ERUDYG Subject: Re: Cellular Digital vs. Analog > Is it truely "improved cellular service" or is it more of a benfit to > the service provider? (Less frequency bandwidth, correct?) I have been workig with TDMA digital systems throughout North America for over two years, mostly with system optimization (from an RF and performance standpoint). I would say that TDMA digital is truely improved cellular service for the provider and the end user, here are some reasons. 1) Security. It is MUCH more difficult for amateur scanner junkies to listen to your phone call. There are very few devices available, and those that are are quite expensive (QUITE EXPENSIVE). Not that the coding and air-spec are secret, but with the need for the special RF detectors, VoCoders, etc. I think the price is to expensive for the average scanner hobyist. 2) Special Services: Look for special services in the near future for subscribers with dual-mode (TDMA/AMPS) phones. The technology makes much more available to subscribers with the right equipment. (Can't give any specific comments at this time) 3) Battery Life: Your phone only transmits 1/3 the time in digital mode. Although the battery life is not increased three-fold over analog, it is extended notably (I think 1.5 to 2.5 times, depending on model of phone, when your phone is operating in digital mode). 4) Robust communication in low signal areas: There are two things which ruin voice quality on analog and digital from an RF standoint, Interference, and Low signal strength. Both Analog and Digital have about the same (+- 3dB C/I) degredation when comes to interference. But when it comes to low signal strength (for instance: in building), my experience is that TDMA digital kicks ass. Obviously, there is no static, and with limited interference, I have staved off the effects of a low quality digital call at signal levels lower than -100dBm. 5 Whats good for the operator can also be good for you: Even you said the price on digital service is a tad lower than analog service in San Fran. I would expect this trend to continue. Dan Goldberg ------------------------------ From: solsman@ra.nrl.navy.mil (Mark Solsman) Subject: Re: Motorola Digital Cellular Phones Date: 28 Sep 1994 00:41:05 GMT Organization: Naval Research Lab, Washington, DC In article <> bri@sea-monkey.engr.sgi.com (Brian Totty) writes: > In the absence, would some kind soul be willing to post about what my > choices are for digital phones (especially the Motorola phones), as > well as any info on when lightweight "vibracall" phones might be > available? I would very much appreciate it! Well, I will list all the digital handheld phones I know of. I have some limited information on each phone, so email me if you would like to hear it. DIGITAL PORTABLE PHONES: Blaupunkt TC-242 11.2oz ? DiamondTel DT25X 10.8oz $995 Ericsson DH-398 12.0oz ? Ericsson DH198 11.6oz ? GE DT-400 11.6oz ? Hughes P8100 11.6oz $995 Motorola Mic Dig Lt 7.9oz ? Nokia 2120 8.3oz $899 Qualcomm CD-7000 12.2oz ? Technophone TD815 8.3oz $899 The prices are MSRP. I got my Nokia 2120 for < $400 from Cellular World 800-TALK-NOW I have no connection with any of the above. I state where I got my phone from, how much, and the telephone number only to prevent people from emailing me with such questions. I mention Cellular World because if you call them, they will assist you. They are not always the least expensive. (Hughes M6100 cell world=$350, cell one washington dc = $275) Mark Solsman Building 1, Code 5160 United States Naval Research Laboratory solsman@ra.nrl.navy.mil Washington, DC (202) 767-5769 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 00:44:10 PDT From: Steve Edwards Reply-To: Steve Edwards Subject: Distance Between Two Points One of my current projects involves calculating the distance between two points on the Earth (or at least within the continental United States). My initial thought was to use the V & H data from the telco. I discussed this with a friend who knows more than I. He says that the V & H tapes give the coordinates of "rate centers" which would not give me the resolution that I need. I need to tell the distance between a subscriber and the local doctors and hospitals. Thus, I need accuracy down to a very small number (like one mile). I've got the TIGER database from the US Post Office. This tells me the longitude and latitude of a single ZIP+4 delivery point. Thus, I should be able to tell the distance between you and your neighbor (assuming I have ZIP+4 for both of you). My problem is that I need the algorithm to calculate the distance between two points given the longitude and latitude of the points. I've exhausted my library and that of the local bookstores. I think it involves something called "great circle navigation" and can be simplified by converting the longitude and latitude into radians. Any clues would be greatly appreciated. Email would be preferred since it cuts a day off your reply. Thanks in advance, Steve Edwards Internet: steve@newline.com Voice: +1-619-723-2727 Newline CompuServe: 73677,3561 Fax: +1-619-731-3000 ------------------------------ Subject: Telrad Key-BX From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Reply-To: uunet!drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Date: Wed, 28 Sep 94 07:08:13 EDT Organization: Harry's Place - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 Would anyone be familiar with this dinosaur? Would anyone be familiar with what kind of maintenance port it has and how to program it? Better yet, would anyone have programming documentation and/or instruments with which they might want to part? aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ Date: 28 Sep 1994 07:42:07 EDT From: McRae, Stuart Subject: Fax DID Technologies - What is E&M I am researching technologies to allow DID use with the Fax Modems we currently use for inbound fax routing. One solution I have founded uses an interface called "E&M" which is available on some PABXs. It appears to be some sort of variation of the DID protocol used for telco lines. Can someone explain what the E&M interface is, who defines it, where I can get the definition, and how it works? Also, our fax modems can support "DTMF" routing. Ascom in the UK recently announced a FaxRouter which uses a basic rate ISDN connection to the telco and an analog connection to two fax modems using DTMF. This allows us to use our current fax modems for inbound routing (or any other modems that support DTMF). Are there any other products which will do this? Do any PABXs have the capability to generate DTMF in this way? Are there any vendors offering other DID solutions (anywhere worldwide, PABX based or stand alone) which will connect to a fax modem supporting DTMF? Thanks, Stuart McRae Lotus Development ------------------------------ From: swhlill@slvaxa.umsl.edu (Walt Lillyman) Subject: Ameritech to Offer SLIP, PPP; What's Their Correct WWW? Date: 28 Sep 1994 14:05:22 GMT Organization: University of Missouri-St. Louis, Continuing Ed., Microcomputers Iparaphrase from {PC Week}, 9/26/94, page 59: Ameritech of Chicago (one of Illinois' telephone providers) is offering Internet access sevices including SLIP, PPP and ISDN to corporate customers. They'll eventually offer these to individual customers. Individual SLIP/PPP access "will cost $20 to $30". The article gives Ameritech's WWW server address: http://www.qads.net I can't connect to this site. DNS can't resolve the address. Does anyone know the correct WWW server address for Ameritech? Thanks, Walt Lillyman, swhlill@slvaxa.umsl.edu University of Missouri, St. Louis College of Arts & Sciences, Continuing Education-Extension: Microcomputers ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 18:12:02 EDT From: Bob Keller Subject: FCC Reort on LD Carrier Code Assignments FCC RELEASES REPORT ON LONG DISTANCE CARRIERS AND THEIR CODE ASSIGNMENTS The FCC has released the latest available data on the number of long distance carriers offering equal access to the public and the geographic areas they serve. Also included in this report is information on Carrier Identification Codes, 900 service, and 800 service. In addition, the report contains data on the number of Carrier Identification Codes assigned, a list of companies with codes, and their respective code assignments. The report shows the number of 900 codes assigned by Bell Communications Research and the carrier holding each code as of June 30, 1994. Similar information is shown for 800 service as of April 30, 1993, just before 800 portability. The report is available for reference in the Industry Analysis Division Reference Room, Common Carrier Bureau, 1250 23rd Street N.W., Plaza Level. Copies may be purchased by calling International Transcription Services, Inc. (ITS, Inc.) at (202) 857-3800. The report can also be downloaded from the FCC- State Link computer bulletin board at (202) 632-1361. For further information, contact Katie Rangos (202) 418-0954. Robert J. Keller, P.C. (Federal Telecommunications Law) Tel: 301-229-5208 Fax: 301-229-6875 4200 Wisconsin Ave NW #106-261 Washington DC 20016-2146 finger me for info on F.C.C. Daily Digests and Releases ------------------------------ From: cmwolf@cs.mtu.edu (Wolf) Subject: ATM OC Specifications Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 19:21:47 EDT Reply-To: cmwolf@cs.mtu.edu Could you or any of your readers point me to or give me information about the OC-XX data transfer rates for ATM? I'm looking for the technical specification of how OC-XX is accomplished on a particular line. Christopher Wolf, consumer of time, occupier of space. ------------------------------ From: stevenf624@aol.com (StevenF624) Subject: New 800 Services Date: 27 Sep 1994 21:09:01 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Arch Telecom adds new "Dealer Locater" and "Fax-on-Demand" service to it's feature rich 800 service. Call their demo FOD line @ 1.800.882.1826 and reqest documents: Dealer Locater Doc# 6064 Fax-on-Demand Doc# 6061 All features Doc# 6065 Steve Friedlander 1.800.ARCHTEL [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes indeed, Arch is another good one where enhanced 800 service is concerned. Unlike years ago when all you could get in the way of 800 service was a dedicated line terminated at your premises with an 800 number (and that still seems to be all the big three carriers offer for service), now all kinds of variations are available, including having your 800 number forwarded to you wherever you are at, and other services such as Steve describes in this message. If you don't yet have an 800 number, or are using one of the old, plain types from AT&T, Sprint or MCI, I strongly recommend you check out Arch or one of the other newer and smaller players. Their rates are quite competitive. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #380 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa02987; 28 Sep 94 17:40 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA02214; Wed, 28 Sep 94 11:28:06 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA02198; Wed, 28 Sep 94 11:28:02 CDT Date: Wed, 28 Sep 94 11:28:02 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409281628.AA02198@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #381 TELECOM Digest Wed, 28 Sep 94 11:28:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 381 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson DirectlineMCI (Stephen Goodman) Re: Cellular Digital vs. Analog (Mark Solsman) Re: FBI Wiretap Bill -- WTF? (Paul Callahan) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (trudel@aramis.rutgers.edu) Recommendation V.34 is Now in Force (Fernando Lagrana) Wanted: FAX Software For UNIX Recommendations (system@decode.com) OSI OM-Related Tools (Andrew Lavigne) List of CO Types Wanted (Kenneth G. Rehor) Re: The Industry of the Future? (Bob Allison) Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (Henry Wertz) Re: NYNEX Eliminated Roam Charges (David Sheafer) Re: Okay, So I Want to Start My Own Local Telco ... How? (Paul Robinson) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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, 27 Sep 94 15:18 EST From: Stephen Goodman <0003945654@mcimail.com> Subject: DirectlineMCI IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: David Sutton MCI Business Markets (404) 668-6234 MCI TO PROVIDE NATIONWIDE 'FIND ME/FOLLOW ME' COMMUNICATIONS SERVICE FOR BUSINESS 'directlineMCI' Integrates Phone, Fax, Cellular, Voicemail and Paging for the Mobile Professional ATLANTA, GA, September 27, 1994 -- MCI today announced plans to launch an innovative voice communications service that will give business people the ability to manage multiple communications and messaging services through a single telephone number. MCI's new offering, directlineMCI, will provide the most comprehensive integrated communications service available for the mobile professional. The new product, directlineMCI, works by linking all messaging services -- standard telephone, cellular service, fax, voice mail and paging needs -- to a single 800 number. With directlineMCI, business people can manage time efficiently, while remaining accessible to customers, coworkers and family. Its "find me/follow me" service is unique in that it can be accessed anywhere, for domestic or international calls, and at any time through MCI's ubiquitous network. Said John Donoghue, vice president of marketing, "directlineMCI is the all-in-one business card number of the future. No longer will a realtor, doctor, sales executive, home-based entrepreneur or other business person have to list as many as three or four 10-digit numbers on their business card. This product offers business customers a competitive differentiator for staying in touch with their most valued customers, prospects and colleagues." How it Works Each subscriber to directlineMCI is provided a unique 800 number. The subscriber establishes the desired routing plan for incoming calls and can, at any time, change the call routing sequence to accommodate special situations. A subscriber can program up to three different telephone numbers that directlineMCI would try in order to connect the caller. For example, a busy manager may program the system to first try their own office number. If there is no answer, the system could then try the subscriber's cellular phone and then the home phone if necessary, and in any sequence the subscriber prefers. If the system is unable to locate the subscriber after trying the final number in the sequence, the call can be routed to a prompt that allows them to select either voice mail or paging options. A typical example may have calls entering the directlineMCI platform answered by an initial greeting before any attempts are made to locate the subscriber. This lets the caller know that they have dialed the correct number and informs them how the call is being handled. Subsequent attempts in the call sequence are also announced to the caller to let them know the system is still trying to locate the subscriber. Unique Service Features Include Fax and Voice Mail As an added advantage, directlineMCI eliminates the frustrations of missed fax messages and the inability to receive faxed information in a timely manner or at a remote location. The service allows subscribers to receive faxed messages at any time and to retrieve the messages when it is convenient. Callers are able to send faxes to a subscriber's directlineMCI number without any caller interaction. The system immediately recognizes fax tones and routes the call to a fax mailbox where the fax is stored for later retrieval. Fax messages can be sent from regular fax machines, PCs equipped with fax capable modems or from e-mail systems. Faxes can then be retrieved later and can be routed to both a regular fax machine or to a PC equipped with a fax modem. Callers can also attach a voice message to the fax to note or detail pertinent information. Also, directlineMCI also incorporates a voice mail capability to store caller messages when the subscriber is unable to answer their calls personally. This feature provides the ability to define a "community of interest" that allows users to share voice mail messages, therefore utilizing directlineMCI as a network-based voice mail system. Subscribers can forward voice mail messages to other individuals or they can broadcast them to a number of individuals within their group. Other key features of directlineMCI include alternate routing functions, call screening, music-on-hold and call queuing. directlineMCI Targets Home-Based Businesses and Mobile Professionals MCI said directlineMCI has been designed to address the needs of today's highly mobile and communications-intensive business environment. The home office market alone is growing dramatically, with the number of home office and telecommuting households expected to increase from 8.5 million in 1993 to 13.5 million in 1996. Because this group tends to move back and forth between the office and home, they own a higher proportion of laptop computers, modems, beepers and fax machines.* The potential benefits to these and other businesses that use directlineMCI are many. Companies that have a requirement for real-time access to their most mobile employees will benefit from directlineMCI. Home office workers, travelling executives, regional salespeople, realtors, service technicians, telecommuters, physicians, health care workers and others will enhance the ability to provide professional, personalized service to their most important callers. And, callers benefit by eliminating "phone tag" when attempting to complete their most urgent calls. Also, the convenience of fax store and forward with voice message attachment simplifies and reduces notification and follow up regarding faxes. Plus, callers have only one number to record and remember when attempting to communicate with the subscriber. Added Donoghue, "directlineMCI's real-time, 'find me/follow me' features mean that business people will never again miss an important call. The service is as easy to use as your television remote control. By pressing a series of simple key strokes on a pushbutton phone, you take control of your communications." MCI said directlineMCI is scheduled for availability to U.S. businesses in December. For more information on directlineMCI, call 1-800-570-7870. With 1993 revenue of nearly $12 billion, MCI Communications Corporation is the one of the world's largest communications companies. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., MCI has more than 65 offices in 58 countries and places. The company's Atlanta-based MCI Business Markets provides a wide range of communications and information services to America's businesses, including networkMCI BUSINESS, long distance voice, data and video services and consulting and outsourcing services. * Source: the Yankee Group ------------------------------ From: solsman@ra.nrl.navy.mil (Mark Solsman) Subject: Re: Cellular Digital vs. Analog Date: 28 Sep 1994 00:25:39 GMT Organization: Naval Research Lab, Washington, DC Well, I would advise you to be very careful with digital service. I am a subscriber to digital phone service from Cellular One of Washington DC. I recommend that digital service is not meant for handhelds. Sure, it is great at extending battery life (almost 2x in digital mode), but it is near impossible to hold a conversation. With analog service, when you get lousy reception, you get static. Digital service offers a no-static solution. When there is lousy reception, there is nothing, not even voice. Your called party should be told that you are using the new digital service and there are times in which they will not hear you at all. The digital phones even go into half-duplex mode whenever you are not camping under a tower. There is also the risk that you will become the victim of a network weenie. In Washington DC Cell One tests their digital service by switching it on and off again and again. One day my Nokia switched from analog to digital and back six times before I was finally dropped. I was within 1/2 mile from the tower. I don't think that it is a telephone problem, since this is the third phone I have had. All act the same way. Cell One says it is the phone, and Nokia says that I must live in a fringe area. (I'll invite them to DC sometime.) But don't let me slam the digital system too much. There are alot of advantages of digital service. Some are caller id, selective call accept / reject, encryption, message wait light, ability to program and control call forwarding and call waiting from the handheld. Of course, don't think of asking for these features. They arn't real in my network. Cellular One customer service needs education on these services, and their network engineers need a deadline. It is also neat to hear your voice get digitally distorted when your signal gets lousy. And how can I forget -- sometimes, if you are lucky, you can hear your own echo up to 1.5 seconds later! Try and keep focused on what you are saying when you can hear yourself echo a second later. All in all, I recommend to wait for the technology to mature a little bit. Of course, if my network would offer a $300 offer I may just do it now, but with a three watt phone. In my opinion, today's cellular network is built on a three watt model. Every time you hear static on your handheld, that is where you wouldn't hear what your calling party is saying. Of course you could always do what I have learned to do -- switch your dual-mode phone into analog mode. And if you plan on purchasing a phone, shop around. The prices quoted in this thread's origional article were extremely high. You may want to try to call Cellular World @ 800-TALK-NOW. There is also Unplugged, located in CA. They offer nationwide activation prices. I have no connection with either company, except being a happy customer. If you call Cell World, ask for Sean; he is good. And if anyone wants to purchase a Nokia 2120 used, drop me a line. I wan't to switch back to my old 3 watt OKI. (I also hate my Mitsu 4000). In article ron@pyro.wro.dec.com writes: > In my search, I have found very few digital phones. A Motorola Flip > (similar to the DPC-550), a AT&T 6650, and a Technophone (which seems > to be the AT&T unit in a different case). These units are all around > 10 ounces. There is also a top-of-the-line (~$1250) Motorola Elite > with everything the Ultra Lite has and more (and even weighs less); I > haven't seen this unit. The Motorola Flip is huge. A technophone isn't an AT&T, but a Nokia. A Nokia 2120 weighs around 8oz, and is less that $400 activated. Mark Solsman Building 1, Code 5160 United States Naval Research Laboratory solsman@ra.nrl.navy.mil Washington, DC (202) 767-5769 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 16:05:22 CDT From: wpcallah@rwasic17.aud.alcatel.com (Paul Callahan) Subject: Re: FBI Wiretap Bill -- WTF? A scattering of thoughts here: 1. Why does everyone think the FBI is the prime, *and* only mover here? As I recall, there are other feds who don't need no stinkin warrant, and they *do* want to have a neat, national, way to intercept calls. Sure Rockwell is building a several million sq feet building in DC, it's got their name on it? Right? 2. I'm sure many nasties understand the difficulties of following a cellular call, and use it. The FBI is not going to say, the present investigation of Joe Mafia is hurtting 'cause we can't follow all his calls. They can only talk about past cases. And, do they ever want to say who they have tapped, and failed, or just not gotten any info ... 3. POTS is still easy to get to, the many ways listed, but what of business? My wife's small business talks T1, all lines. That's the way GTE (or any name here) wants it, less copper, perhaps no copper. I work at a much larger company, and none of our regular lines are analog outside our buildings. We talk dirrect to a switch, and it's fairly common. Even avoiding the nasty point regarding the un-blemished record of only legal, criminal, investigations the FBI has done -- they would have a bit of a problem hooking up to one of our ISDN phones. They COULD, but with complex equipment (well, I'd say T1 is a bit down from SONET, but outsiders would be a bit perplexed). So, how complex does our police equipment need to be (can they understand *how* to use it) and how should they tap a digital business line? Paul Callahan ------------------------------ From: trudel@aramis.rutgers.edu (Jonathan) Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: 27 Sep 1994 17:04:54 -0400 Organization: Rutgers University LCSR opel!vk2bea!michael@uunet.uu.net (Michael G. Katzmann) writes: > In article nsayer@quack.kfu.com (Nick > Sayer) writes: >> The result is a beautiful, broadcast-quality stereo sound. > I don't know about the choir (maybe that's due to the mystical > experience), but "True Voice" does up the average level and equalizes > the LF. (See many previous articles in comp.dcom.telecom) So comparing > the two passages, one does get the idea of what T.V. does. As far as > the control room stuff goes, that's Madison Avenue for you. One thing that you have to realize (and since it isn't mentioned in either post above, one can presume you may not be aware of it) is that many (but not all!) television stations muck around with the audio they broadcast -- they compress the audio track down so that the volume between, say, background noise and an explosion, is not that different. One could suspect that they enhanced the audio of the call to work around this quirk. The time-based spectrum 'analysis' of the signal in the commercial might be more demonstraative of what they were trying to accomplish. Didn't they up the volume range as well as perform bass boost? By the way, the True Voice Demo (1-800-932-2000) has a new voice, and isn't Tom Selleck anymore. Jon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 08:46:22 CET From: lagrana@itu.ch (Fernando Lagrana) Subject: Recommendation V.34 is Now in Force Organization: International Telecommunication Union I am glad to inform the telecommunication community that ITU Members have formally approved the four Recommendations submitted to their vote in TSB Circular 82. Thus, Recommendations V.8, V.18, V.34, V.58 are now in force. My service (editing) is currently fine tuning the manuscript for publication (taking into account the last comments of our Members; aligning the three versions - English, French and Spanish; finalizing the layout according to our publication rules, etc.). I plan to have those four Recommendations published before the end of October. Regards from Geneva, Fernando Lagra International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Bureau Editor, Catalogue of Recommmendations Coordinator, Electronic Document Handling Internet: fernando.lagrana@itu.ch Voice: + 41 22 730 58 94 Fax: + 41 22 730 58 53 X.400: SURNAME=lagrana, PRIVATE_DOMAIN=itu, ADMIN_DOMAIN=arcom, COUNTRY=ch ------------------------------ Subject: Wanted: FAX Software For UNIX Recommendations From: System Operator Date: Wed, 28 Sep 94 10:19:15 EDT Organization: American Cryptogram Association Hello, I'm looking for recommendations on FAX software for HP-UX 9 (UNIX) on 9000/800 series machines. I'm familiar with Devcom's FaxFX, and am not happy with the support. I'm looking for solid, quality software that is supported very well. One of our major clients receives 350 to 400 faxes per day, each of which is multiple pages of technical drawing specifications. It is critical for this customer to receive clear faxes all day, every day. If you have had good experience with a solid Fax package that would run and is supported on a Hewlett-Packard 9000/800 series machine under HP-UX, please e-mail at dan@decode.com. Thanks for your time. Dan system@decode.com (System Operator) Cryptography, Security, Privacy BBS +1 410 730 6734 Data/FAX ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 11:37:00 -0400 From: andrew lavigne Subject: OSI OM-Related Tools I've been looking for information on the availability of OSI Object Model Management-related toolkits and compilers (ASN.1/GDMO compilers, object class inheritance display tools, browsers, etc). Does anyone know of such tools and/or where I can get more information on them? Thanks in advance for any information. Andrew Lavigne alavigne@bnr.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Sep 94 11:57 CDT From: krehor@research.att.com (Kenneth G. Rehor) Subject: List of CO Types Wanted Pat, I recall hearing that Bellcore sells a list of all Central Office switch types on a diskette. Do you know how I can get this? Thanks, Ken Rehor krehor@research.att.com ------------------------------ From: boba@wwa.com (Bob Allison) Subject: Re: The Industry of the Future? Date: 27 Sep 1994 12:57:28 -0500 Organization: WorldWide Access - Chicago Area Internet Services 312-282-8605 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Sid, there is absolutely no doubt > in my mind that the changes in the telephone industry over the past > decade have never been seen before and will never be seen again. Even > with the massive reductions in work force over the past decade, telco > still remains the largest employer anywhere. Trying to simply grasp the > numbers involved is difficult. Where do you think it will go from here? > Will there still be further cutbacks, or 'downsizing'? Will it finally > get to the point all the telcos in the world eventually employ only > a dozen or so people among them with the computers doing all the rest > of the work? PAT] I would imagine that if they can, they will find a way to have the entire phone compnay be made up of computers, plus a few marketers, accountants, and lawyers, with an outside advertising agency, and 'temporary' repair workers, who can be fired when their pay reaches a certain point. When they get voice recognition down, the directory assistance operators will get kicked out. ASCII ART FTP: ftp.wwa.com/pub/Scarecrow - InterNet group: rec.arts.ascii Email and requests: boba@wwa.com - ASCII ART FAQ finger: asciifaq@wwa.com WWW: -- Bob Allison's Home Page -- ------------------------------ From: Henry Wertz Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? Date: 28 Sep 1994 03:48:23 GMT Organization: U of Iowa Panda System Reply-To: Henry@chop.isca.uiowa.edu In note , lcz@dptspd.sat.datapoint.com (Lee Ziegenhals) writes: > The "NYNEX Makes You Dial '1' For Same Area-Code Calls" thread got me > to thinking about how to tell whether a call is costing you LD charges > or not. With my telephone company, a LD toll call is always preceded > by a '1'. I've gotten rather used to it, and I'd miss it if I moved > somewhere where it wasn't done that way. > On the other hand, it seems the idea of a toll call is rather vague > these days. A call might be "local" but still be metered in some way, > either due to a special prefix or just metered local service. > I'm wondering whether there is any work being done on a real-time > display of the cost of a call. I'm thinking of something like a display > on your telephone that shows the cost of a call in progress. It would > be updated continuously (except for fixed-cost calls) until you hang up. > I'd like to see this for all types of metered calls, whether local > metered, long distance, 900 numbers, etc. I don't think it is actually too likely. The phone companies have lots of switches, and there are lots of phones, and the phone company really wouldn't want to have to change all this stuff. I have seen lots of modem programs that kept logs of time, and some also calculate the cost by well ... multiplying the time by rate 8-). I would figure it would be *much* easier for the phone manufacturers and phone company to make phones with a little processor that listens in on the tones, and runs it through a number parsing program ... "that is a 555 ... that's $.15/minute. That's local, no charge. That is operator, $2.00 flat charge." etc.. Either make it easy enough so you can set in in, or have the local phone cos do it on request. Now this wouldn't work for 900's, but for most things it would work fine. You could set a microprocessor to detect LD even on the seven digit LD places > Implementation at the local loop shouldn't be too difficult. ISDN > would be relatively easy since the rate information could be passed > over the D channel. For POTS lines, the rate information would have > to be transmitted somehow at the beginning of the call, perhaps using > a technology similar to what's used for CID. Well, here, if the other person is quick with the phone, you can have an answer without a ring ... there isn't necessarily time for the phone company to transmit that type of information. > Is such a thing feasible? I know absolutely nothing about how billing > systems are implemented within the telephone network. Is this > information even available in real time to the local telephone > company? For that matter, am I the only one who would find this > useful? :-) I'd find it useful too ... not as big a problem here with 1 + ten digits for all LD, even within area code but would still be good to have to know the exact rates. ------------------------------ From: David Sheafer Subject: Re: NYNEX Eliminated Roam Charges Date: Wed, 28 Sep 94 07:41:46 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) In regards to the NYNEX eliminating the daily roaming fees, they have also established a total of three rates that will be charged to NYNEX Mobile customers: Roaming charges via Nynex; in NY State and New England $.59/minute in Southern NJ through Philadelphia to Washington DC $ .79/minute The rest of North America $ .99/minute With NYNEX's automatic Call Delivery in just about all of New England and I believe it now extends to BAMS plus their follow me roamiing capability in 99% of the B carriers that are not on Call Delivery yet, I think this is a great service, and now will not have to worry where I will and will not get charged that $3.00 daily fee as it doesn't exist, have any other carries done anything similar? David Sheafer dsheafer@delphi.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Sep 1994 05:57:33 EST From: Paul Robinson Subject: Re: Okay, So I Want to Start My Own Local Telco ... How? Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Peter Rukavina wants to know how to set up a cooperative telephone company for a small group within a rural area. I can give him some ideas but if he's looking for something not very expensive he's going to have a problem. Average rule of thumb for a company deciding to put in its own PBX is US $1000 per line plus about US $4 a month per line to cover damage to equipment. Since he's talking about an area of about 12 people, he could probably get one of those inexpensive office PBX systems that sell for about US $2000 to handle 16 stations. He would then have to have the other telephone company supply him with enough trunk lines based on average usage, say two or three incoming and outgoing, plus phone numbers. Either they would provide a connection like they would to a foreign telephone company or they would provide a DID connection (I'm not exactly certain of the technical background, for all I know a connection to another telephone company's trunks is the same as a DID connection). If most of the calls in the area are to the people in that group, then the internal PBX will provide better service; if the problem has been insufficient lines for the people in that area to call the outside world, this isn't going to help much. The next step is to write or purchase a set of tariff schedules, which even for a small company will require at least a 2 1/2" three-ring binder, covering such matters as liability, service charges, etc. Then you have to file these tariffs with the state (and pay filing fees) unless your service is considered so small that it doesn't have to file (with less than 50 subscribers it probably doesn't, but don't depend on that). Then you have to figure how some of the usual services are going to be provided. When someone dials "0" is it going to come into an operator's console in your living room or do you get the other telephone company to provide operator services? Who is liable if someone runs up $8,000 in long distance calls to Zanzibar? Is it a cooperative where the telephone subscribers are the owners or is it a non profit organization or is it a for profit corporate entity? The U.S. Department of Agriculture (yes, Agriculture) handles certain controls over rural electric and telephone companies and they may be worth contacting for information as to how things are done here. (Mainly because rural utilities are entitled to certain subsidies and special loans.) You might want to see if there's a Canadian organization handling rural utilities and cooperatives, if any such thing exists. Paul Robinson - Paul@TDR.COM Reports on Security Problems: To Subscribe write PROBLEMS-REQUEST@TDR.COM ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #381 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa27003; 30 Sep 94 20:02 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA21077; Fri, 30 Sep 94 15:19:05 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA21067; Fri, 30 Sep 94 15:19:02 CDT Date: Fri, 30 Sep 94 15:19:02 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9409302019.AA21067@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #382 TELECOM Digest Fri, 30 Sep 94 15:19:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 382 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson T1<->23 or 24 BRI Equipment? (Bob Ames) Switch to Sprint Check/ *Must* Keep Them 160 Days (D. Castillo) EDI Billing (Rajiv Gupta) What Is # Called? (Wes Leatherock) MF Digit Grabber Wanted (Paul Cook) RI Installs Speed-Bumps For the Information Superhighway (Michael Deignan) UDI vs RDI in ISDN (psyche@metronet.com) Internet en Mexico (Robert L. McMillin) Revenue Sharing Between Operators in a Network (Sharad Ketan) Help CCITT 16kb/s LD-CELP G728 (Ya-di Lin) UC Berkeley Short Courses on Broadband Communications (Harvey Stern) Call For Papers: Malaysian Communications Conference (Mazlan Abbas) Need Amp to Boost DTMF Strength (htcink@teleport.com) Zmodem for Sparc, no XWindows (Ed Martini) Help Needed With Meridian 9216 (Florence M. Hurley) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: bob@ccnet.com (Bob Ames) Subject: T1<->23 or 24 BRI Equipment? Date: 30 Sep 1994 10:37:39 -0700 Organization: Creative Computer Solutions What is available to connect two remote offices via T1? Ideally, I'd like to use a T1 on each end and provide: *) Intercom service, *) TCP/IP traffic (Ethernet), *) (One/Several?) ISDN S/T or U lines. I'd like to be able to use ISDN phones on one end and on the other end connect to the Intercom system or to the LD Company via POTS or ISDN. Or to use, say, a Waverunner on one side and get thru the T1 to the main office, and then routed into the Ethernet on the other side. *) Anything else ISDN provides, like FAX. Do I need a PBX for all of this? Certainly some kind of switch-like routing seems necessary. Perhaps just a device which converts T1 into 24 ISDN B channels, and looks like an ISDN switch and provides, say, some S/T jacks. How much traffic can fit on an S/T? For example, can I put all 24 B channels on the S/T bus concurrently without degradation or failure? (I doubt it) Bob Ames UNIX & Telecom Administrator Creative Computer Solutions bob@ccnet.com <
Quoting Patrick Hoepfner hoepfner@haiti.gsfc.nasa.gov <=- PH> In article <779663044snz@bigbear.demon.co.uk>, PH> Susan@bigbear.demon.co.uk wrote: > In article > Craig.Williamson@ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM "Craig Williamson" writes: > > >Rattlesnake Stu (whitmore@tahoma.cwu.edu) wrote: > > >: -] >The airlines call it a "Cross of Lorraine". I know not why. > > >What's wrong with octothorpe? > > Well that works except that many people would look at you and say > > "Huh?" I would think that you could call it the number sign since it > > used for that also. PH> I agree. But another problem is that takes to long to say. When PH> calling out a Un*x regular expression how many times do you hear people PH> say "bang" rather than "Exclamation Point". I think the same goes for PH> "octothorpe" or "Cross of Lorraine" versus something like "pound". And PH> since Un*x permeates the net (for better or worse) it is in more common PH> usage that other "national" languages here. And besides, "octothorpe" PH> doesn't even show up in my dictionary. How many people are going to PH> know what it is? > I always call '#' Hash. Isn't that what it is? While those reading this newsgroup undoubtedly are very Unix literate, etc., much of the world is not. Every system I have ever called with a voice response unit, such as those used to route calls to departments or extensions, banks' systems that allow you to get your balance, lists of transactions, etc., and various other functions, always call it the pound sign. I am pretty well resigned to calling it the pound sign because, after all, I rarely have occasion to use any word to describe it on the computer (I simply hit the key or read the symbol), but I often have occasion to use voice response units. ... [text deleted] ... PH> .... But PH> whenever I see the * symbol I think of the mark left by a bug on a PH> car's windshield! Once it gets in your mind it is kind of hard to PH> forget it. That symbol is always called "star" in voice response units I have listened to. As far as the exclamation point goes, it does not occur on voice response units because there is no key for it on a touch tone telephone, so the only time it has to be called anything is when you are *talking* to another computer user. So "bang" is as good as anything there. ("Bang" is not limited to Unix users; MS-DOS users call it that, too.) (But if you're talking to a writer, editor, printer, typesetter, etc., you'd better call it an exclamation point. They don't understand "bang".) Wes Leatherock ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Sep 94 12:25:00 EST From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: MF Digit Grabber Wanted I'm looking for a hand held MF Digit Grabber, a device that can display MF (not DTMF) digits monitored on a trunk. Can anyone point me to a manufacturer? Paul Cook 206-881-7000 Proctor & Associates MCI Mail 399-1080 15050 NE 36th St. fax: 206-885-3282 Redmond, WA 98052-5378 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: md@pstc3.pstc.brown.edu (Michael P. Deignan) Subject: RI Installs Speed-Bumps For the Information Superhighway Date: 30 Sep 1994 16:28:16 GMT Organization: Population Studies & Training Center Here's the latest from our fine RI legislators: General Laws Pertaining to Telecommunication Licensing RIGL 5-69 Withstanding the exceptions contained in section 5-69-7 of the general laws of the state of RI -- only licensed telelcommunications contractors, licensed telecommunications system technicians, and licensed telecommunications system installers shall engage in, or design, install, alter, service, or test telecommunication systems in the state of RI. Categories requiring licensure are as follows: Data communications Telephony Video Communications Sound A "grandfather period" is in effect from July 12, 1994 until January 12, 1995, after that date all applicants for licensing must pass a written examination. I guess you have to be licensed to sell modems in computer stores now. MD The best way for Bill Clinton to keep his legal fees down is to keep his pants zipped up. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 23:00:26 -0500 From: perpetual psycheness Subject: UDI vs RDI in ISDN Organization: Texas Metronet, Internet for the Individual 214-705-2901 (info) In the world of ISDN, what exactly does UDI and RDI mean? And when would a person know which one to use? (e.g. you try making a UDI call and then realize that it doesn't work, so then you try RDI? What kind of indications does the network use to determine what to do?) I think that UDI is supposed to be a 64kbps clear channel xmission (and I think you can have an RDI call over a trunk conditioned for UDI). And I think that RDI means that the data is restricted in the sense that you can't have some number of contiguous 0's, which effectively reduces the maximum bit rate to 56kbps, right? But then, could you try sending data at 64kbps for an RDI call or is one of the bits for each channel used to keep sync (I'm assuming this is over T1 type trunks for RDI; I guess E1 type trunks don't have this problem and are 64kbps clear channel trunks by nature?). But, 64kbps or 56kbps doesn't necessarily mean UDI and RDI, respectively, does it? And how does rate adaption come into the picture? Is it possible to have 9600bps data stream rate adapted up to 56kbps for RDI? or up to 64kbps for UDI? Is V.120 or V.110 common in the U.S.? What is commonly used overseas? What are the advantages of V.120 over V.110 or are there not any? A lot of questions... ;) Thanks for any information you can provide.... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Sep 94 09:31 PDT From: rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) Subject: Internet en Mexico Perhaps of some interest to the readers of this forum. I've heard of a few people wanting Internet access across the border. Here's one provider. ------- Start of forwarded message ------- From: marior@nic.cerf.net (Lic. Silvia V. Vargas Gutierrez) Newsgroups: la.forsale Subject: INTERNET EN MEXICO Date: 29 Sep 1994 15:13:32 PST Organization: CERFnet Dial n' CERF Customer Solo una breve nota para notificar a todo el mundo que Internet ya esta en MEXICO. Si estas interesado pide informes a: silviav@ci.seinet.net.mx o a los telefonos: (525) 211 22 82 (525) 211 23 91 ------------------- Just a brief note to tell everybody that now you will be able to connect to Internet in Mexico. If you are interested drop an email: silviav@ci.seinet.net.mx or by phone: (525) 211 22 82 (525) 211 23 91 ------- End of forwarded message ------- ------------------------------ From: sharad@cdotp.ernet.in (sharad ketan) Subject: Revenue Sharing Between Operators in a Network Date: Fri, 30 Sep 94 12:26:52 GMT Hello Everybody, I am interested in knowing the process of revenue sharing between telecom operators in a network which has two or more operators. Actually this information is required for the Indian network which till now had only one (Govt. controlled) operator. But now private operators are also allowed in the network. For revenue sharing between different operators, some additional data should be required to be stored at both the ends of interworking telecom switches. I feel that the data should at least include the total time duration, number of calls. Should it include per call parameters like time of seizure, units charged, duration of calls etc.? Or any other data? Thanks in advance for any info/pointers. [Sharad Khetan] sharad@cdotp.ernet.in ------------------------------ From: yadilin@monitor.rutgers.edu (Ya-di Lin) Subject: Help CCITT 16kb/s LD-CELP G728 Date: 30 Sep 1994 13:04:00 -0400 Organization: Rutgers University I am looking document and sample source code for CCITT 16kb/s LD-CELP G728. Any help is appreciated! Eddie ------------------------------ From: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: UC Berkeley Short Courses on Broadband Communications Date: 30 Sep 1994 18:14:11 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces Two Short Courses on Broadband Communications SONET/ATM-BASED BROADBAND NETWORKS: Systems, Architectures and Designs (October 19-21, 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. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. 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 (October 17-18, 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. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. 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. 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: Fri, 30 Sep 94 16:15:54 PDT From: mazlan@elek.fke.utm.my (mazlan) Subject: Call For Papers: Malaysia Communications Conference Welcome to Langkawi Island, Malaysia Call for Papers MICC'95 2nd IEEE Malaysia International Conference on Communications 1995 Langkawi Island, Malaysia November 20-23, 1995 * Communications - Gateway to Global Village * ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: General Chairman: Borhanuddin Mohd Ali, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (borhan@ece.upm.my) Vice Chairman: Nor Haminuddin Abdul Manaf, Jabatan Telekom Malaysia Technical Program: Mazlan Abbasv, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (mazlan@elek.utm.my) Secretary and Finance: Nor Kamariah Noordin, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (norkay@ece.upm.my) Publicity and Publication: Mohd Zarar Mohd Jenu, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (zarar@elek.utm.my) Public Relations and Local Arrangement: Kamaruzzaman Seman, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (kama@elek.utm.my) Tutorial Session Chairman: Ahmad Hairi Abu Bakar, Institut Teknologi Mara Committee Members: Ahmad Fadhil Hani, Universiti Sains Malaysia Dzaharuddin Mansor, Celcom Malay R. Mukherjee, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia Tham Weng Hoa, Binariang Zainal Aripin Zakariah, Telekom Malaysia Berhad Zulkifli Hassan, Celcom INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE: H. Akimaru, Asahi University, Japan S. Duranni, Computer Science Corporation, USA A. L. Garcia, University of Toronto, Canada F. Halsall, University College of Wales, Swansea, UK I. Ismail, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia A. Jhunjhunwala, IIT Madras, India. B. Kapilevich, , Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia A. Lazar, Columbia University, USA B. Mukerjee, UC Davies, USA Z. Niu, Tsinghua University, People's Republic of China D.E. Pearson, University of Essex, UK R. Prasad, Delft Technical University, Netherland T.A. Rahman, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia H. Saito, NTT, Japan J. M. Senior, Manchester Metropoliton University, UK R. Steele, University of Southampton, UK T. Suda, UC Irvine, USA YOU ARE INVITED to submit original extended abstract addressing topics of interest for presentation at the conference and for publication in the conference proceedings. Submissions should be in-depth, technical papers describing communications research an d development results. TOPICS may include, but are not limited to: * Switching, Transmission, and Signalling * Lightwave Systems and Networks * Optical Devices * Network Protocols and Architectures * Personal Communications Networks and Systems * Wireless Data Communications * Radio Propagation and Channel Modeling * Antennas and Arrays * Satellite and Mobile Communications * Network Management and Testing * Video and Audio Compression and Coding * Signal Processing for Communications * VLSI for Communications * ATM Systems , Services and Networks * Testbeds and Trials of Networks and Services * Routing and Control of Congestion, Admission and Flow * Intelligent Networks and Operations Presenters for tutorial sessions on Optical Communications, Mobile Radio Communications and Broadband ISDN are very much welcome. INSTRUCTIONS The title page of submission must include: (a) the name, complete return address, telephone and fax numbers of the author to whom all correspondence will be sent and email (if possible) (b) an extended abstract (1000 words) (c) the designation of the Technical Subject Area (see listing above) to which the paper is mostly closely related. Send two (2) copies of the manuscript, in English to: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mazlan Abbas MICC'95 Technical Program Chairman Faculty of Electrical Engineering Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Jalan Semarak, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA Phone:+603-2904555 , Fax:+603-2904267, +603-2904555 Email: micc95@elek.utm.my SCHEDULE Presenters for tutorial sessions: November 15, 1994 Extended Abstract: March 1, 1995 Notification of Acceptance Mailed: May 31, 1995 Camera-Ready Copies Due: September 1, 1995 ------------------------------ From: htcink@teleport.com (htc) Subject: Need Amp to Boost DTMF Strength Date: 29 Sep 1994 20:31:50 -0700 Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 I need an inexpensive in-line amplifier circuit capable of boosting dB level of DTMF generated from newer ("non-network") telephone sets (mfg'd by Panasonic, Sony,...) Telephone sets connect to a PBX board (in IBM PC) that causes a slight loss of signal strength. Usually only column 2 (i.e. 2,5,8,0) is too weak. Any suggestions/help or schematics would be greatly appreciated. fax: (503) 645-3566 TIA, CHRIS (6994868@mcimail.com) htcink@teleport.COM Public Access User --- Not affiliated with Teleport Public Access UNIX and Internet at (503) 220-1016 (2400-14400, N81) ------------------------------ From: emartini@netcom.com (Ed Martini) Subject: Zmodem For Sparc, no XWindows Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Thu, 29 Sep 1994 23:50:59 GMT I'm looking for a simple program to use to upload and download binary files over a modem connected to a serial port of a sparcstation. I tried pcomm, but I had a lot of problems compiling, and even more trying to connect. If someone has a working sparc binary of pcomm, I'd be interested. Ed Martini Senior Software Engineer Digital Video Systems Sunnyvale, CA ------------------------------ From: fhurley@calvin.stemnet.nf.ca (Florence M. Hurley) Subject: Help Needed With Meredian 9216 Date: 30 Sep 1994 14:28:27 GMT Organization: Memorial University of Newfoundland Can anyone tell me of any hidden menus or a diagnostics mode on this phone? I know there is such a mode but can't find it anywhere ... Florence F. Hurley Fhurley@Calvin.Stemnet.ca ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #382 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa09869; 3 Oct 94 21:13 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA07754; Mon, 3 Oct 94 13:32:05 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA07745; Mon, 3 Oct 94 13:32:01 CDT Date: Mon, 3 Oct 94 13:32:01 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410031832.AA07745@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #383 TELECOM Digest Mon, 3 Oct 94 13:32:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 383 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Mass Telecom Conference (adrion@freya.cs.umass.edu) Special Multi-Industry Wireless Workshop (Terry Sterkel) Malaysia Telecom Employment (Paul Robinson) Minitel -> BTX Gateway? (Bardo Muller) Can an Aussie Phone Work in US - Yes But No! (Glen K. Moore) National Cultural Information Infrastructure (Jay Jaroslav) Calling Booths For Hispanic Market (Chris Walworth) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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, 3 Oct 1994 09:57:42 -0400 From: adrion@freya.cs.umass.edu Subject: Mass Telecom Conference TECHNICAL CONFERENCE ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS R & D IN MASSACHUSETTS Conference Date: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25,1994 Conference Time: 7:30AM-5:30PM Held at: UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL ONE UNIVERSITY AVE. LOWELL, MA Contact: Katherine Raphaelson, Executive Director Massachusetts Telecommunications Council (617) 439-8600 THE CHALLENGE: Technology Convergence. Massachusetts is recognized as a leading international center for innovation in telecommunications research and development. How do our industry and university research laboratories stack up against the competition to design, build, navigate, and lead the way down the future Information Superhighway? PURPOSE: The Massachusetts Telecommunications Research and Development Conference will focus on innovative research and technical developments in telecommunications. The purpose is to provide a forum for universities, industry and government to disseminate information on the results of ground-breaking work impacting future applications. FORMAT: There will be three components to the conference: addresses, technical presentations and panel discussions focused on key areas in telecommunications research. INVITED SPEAKERS: William F. Weld, Governor, Commonwealth of Massachusetts will open the conference by discussing "The Future of Telecommunications and the Massachusetts Economy"; Dr. Robert Kahn, President of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives and a nationally known expert on telecommunications, will give the keynote address titled "Enabling the National Information Infrastructure" and Edward M. Kennedy, United States Senator, Massachusetts, will speak to the attendees on "Creating the Communications Future in Massachusetts". TECHNICAL SESSIONS: A series of technical sessions will cover seven important areas and will feature research scientists from Massachusetts' leading universities and industrial labs discussing their current work in a panel format. Proceedings including submitted papers and abstracts will be distributed to the registrants. SCHEDULE: |------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | 7:30A| | |------| REGISTRATION | | 8:00A| | |------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | 8:30A| | |------| BREAKFAST | | 9:00A| Governor William Weld | |------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | 9:30A| | |------| Dr. Robert Kahn | |10:00A| | |------|-------------------------------------------------------------| |10:30A| BREAK | |------|-------------------------------------------------------------| |11:00A| | | | | |------| Audio/Spch I | Scrty/Prvcy I | Wireless I | Multimedia I | |11:30A| | | | | |------|-------------------------------------------------------------| |12:00N| | |------| | |12:30P| LUNCH | |------| Senator Edward Kennedy | | 1:00P| | |------| | | 1:30P| | |------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | 2:00P| | | | | |------| Audio/Spch II | Scrty/Prvcy II| | Multimedia II| | 2:30P| | | Appls I | | |------|-------------------------------| |--------------| | 3:00P| BREAK | | BREAK | |------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | 3:30P| | | BREAK | | |------| | |--------------| | | 4:00P| | | | | |------| Wireless II | Broadband I | | Protocols I | | 4:30P| | | Appls II | | |------| | | | | | 5:00P| | | | | |------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | 5:30P| | |------| RECEPTION | | 6:00P| | |------|-------------------------------------------------------------| AUDIENCE: Conference attendees will include corporate executives, research scientists, industry analysts, technology students, entrepreneurs, and investors. TECHNICAL TRACKS: TRACK 1. Applications Layer Support, Chairs: Laszlo A. (Les) Belady, Mitsubishi Electric Res. Laboratory and Ron Ribitzky, UMASS Medical Center/Worcester Topics includes: PAX agent system: ATM support for telemedicine; ATM/SONET access technology; business intelligence software; collaborative design; home health care; medical information infrastructure; quality of service models; multimedia and telecomputing in the factory; discrete event simulation; transactional data inference; models for high variability in data traffic. Speakers include: F. Vitallano (VMX Technologies); J. R. Nicol, et al (GTE Laboratories); J. Babish, et al (Raytheon); P. Puzzanghera, et al (Legacy Technologies); R. Lechner (UMASS/Lowell); R. Chiang (Merimack College); R. Ribitzdy, et al (UMASS/Worcester); I. Goldstein (Open Software Foundation); B. Lock (Hewlett Packard); R. Greenes (Harvard Medical School/Brigham & Women's Hospital); C. E. Wills (WPI); H. Liu (UMASS/Dartmouth); P. Kolak (UMASS/Lowell); P. Varhol (Rivier College); S. Mulpur, et al (UMASS/Lowell); K. Chandra (AT&T Bell Laboratories); L. Jones (UMASS/Lowell); P. E. Wirth (AT&T Bell Laboratories). TRACK 2. Audio and Speech Processing, Chairs: Charles Thompson, UMASS/Lowell and Mark Randolph, AT&T Bell Laboratories Topics include: speech recognition; production and coding; analysis of teleconferencing environments; acoustic devices for teleconferencing; audio and video teleconferencing; teleconferencing applications. Speakers include: J. West (AT&T Bell Labs); C. Thompson, et al (UMASS/Lowell); M. Randolph (AT&T Bell Labs); R. McGowan (Haskins Laboratories); T. Horrall (Acentech); R. Malvar (Picture Tel); B. Allen (Multilink); D. Baker (Dragon Systems). TRACK 3. Wireless Information Networks, Chairs: Kaveh Paahlavan, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and David R. Oran, Digital Equipment Corporation Topics include: discrete multitone modulation; over the horizon communication; mobile and personal communications; advanced vessel tracking systems; stochastic models for space and time dynamics; composite spread-spectrum modulation; wide area communication architectures; spread-spectrum and waveform coding; VHF, UHF and troposcatter transmission; Mobile IP systems; enabling technologies. Speakers include: K. Pahlavan (WPI); S. D. Sandberg, et al (Aware, Inc.); J. M. Zagamie, et al (Signatron Technology Corporation); P. E. Wirth (AT&T Bell Laboratories); M. J. Moroney, et al (Volpe National Transportation Systems Ctr.); W. A. Massey (AT&T Bell Laboratories); D. M. Haines (UMASS/Lowell);J. Wietzen, et al (UMASS/Lowell); H. T. Kung, et al (Harvard University); K. J. H. Hodges (Telco Systems); M. Krishna, et al (UMass/Amherst). TRACK 4. Visual Multimedia, Chairs: Behzad Shahraray, AT&T Bell Laboratories and John Buford - UMASS/Lowell Topics include: bi-directional video distribution systems; user interfaces; structured multimedia information; document architectures; interactive multimedia; intelligent video processing; multimedia video servers; multimedia delivery; Speakers include: J. Harward et al (MIT); R. Sacilotto (Avid Technology); T. D. C. Little (Boston University); R. Price (IBM France); C. Gopal (UMASS/Lowell); E. O. Tunmann (T. E. Consulting, Inc.); R. Platt (InteCom); C. J. Lindblad, et al (MIT). TRACK 5. Network Protocols, Signalling, Control, Management & Performance, Chairs: Steve Willis, Wellfleet Communications and Don Towsley, UMASS/Amherst Topics include: traffic control in ATM networks; reliable multicast; credit-based flow control; ST2 network management; ATM PNNI routing. Speakers include: B. G. Kim (UMASS/Lowell); H. T. Kung (Harvard University); B. Hawe (DEC); R. Upton (TASC); P. Goransson (Meetinghouse Data Communications); S. Pingali (WPI); D. Towsley, et al (UMASS/Amherst); R. Callon (Wellfleet Communications); S. Kheradpir (GTE Laboratories). TRACK 6. Broadband Networks and Switching Technologies, Chairs: Ira Richer, MITRE and Peter O'Reilly, GTE Laboratories Topics include: optical switching; broadband trials to the home; desk area networking; ATM switch architectures; Switch design, buffer design and management; Flow control; Speakers include: A. Bonde, et al (GTE Government Systems); H. C. Lauer, et al (Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs); H. T. Kung (Harvard University); M. Cooperman, et al (GTE Labs); I. Richer (MITRE); S. Dixit (NYNEX Science\ & Technology); H. H. Houh, et al (MIT). TRACK 7. Security/Privacy, Chairs: Stephen Kent, BBN and Susan Landau, UMASS/Amherst Topics include: security and privacy issues in electronic communications; internet security standards; commercial uses of security; legal standards for public-key certification; ethical issues. Speakers include: M. Baum (Independent Monitoring); R. Juenenman (GTE Labs); S. Kent (BBN); R. Rivest (MIT); J. Schiller (MIT); V. White (UMASS/Amherst). GENERAL CHAIRS Sidney Topol, Chairman, Massachusetts Telecommunications Council Michael K. Hooker, President, University of Massachusetts CONFERENCE STEERING COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS W. Richards Adrion, UMASS, Amherst Howard Salwen, Telco Systems COMMITTEE Michael R. Brown, Mitre Corporation Thomas M. Costello, UMASS/Lowell C. Eric Ellingson, GTE Govt. Systems Michael G. Hluchyj, Summa Four H. T. Kung, Harvard University James F. Kurose, UMASS/Amherst Tom D.C. Little, Boston University Paul J. Tanzi, Raytheon David Tennenhouse, MIT COORDINATOR AND LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS Charles Thompson, UMASS/Lowell REGISTRATION FORM CORPORATE $195 ACADEMIC $150 MASS TELECOM COUNCIL MEMBER $100 *STUDENT $ 25 No refunds after October 19, 1994 PLEASE COMPLETE AND MAIL/FAX TO: Massachusetts Telecommunications Council One Financial Center, 17th Floor Boston, MA 02111 FAX: (617) 439-3190 I am enclosing a check for $ _________for ________ people from my organization to attend the conference. I am most interested in technical sessions (please circle): 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Name:_____________________________Title:___________________________ Company name: ____________________________________ Address:__________________________________________ __________________________________________ Telephone: _____________________FAX:____________________________ Additional Registrants: Name:_____________________________Title:___________________________ Sessions of interest: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Name:_____________________________Title:___________________________ Sessions of interest: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Name:_____________________________Title:___________________________ Sessions of interest: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 * There may be a limited number of scholarships for students, please contact: Katherine Raphaelson, Executive Director Massachusetts Telecommunications Council (617) 439-8600 ------------------------------ From: tsterkel@pipeline.com (Terry Sterkel) Subject: Special Multi-Industry Wireless Workshop Date: 3 Oct 1994 02:47:52 -0400 Organization: Road Warrior Subject: Special Multi-Industry Wireless Workshop >>The First Annual User PCS Workshop<< >User PCS: Time out for Dialogue< >"The Nuts and Bolts of How to Use the Spectrum"< >October 17 -- 19, 1994<>Harvey Hotel, Dallas, TX< We are starting to fill up. Sign up with the Program Director quickly to get the discount, and ensure space! Program Director: Nancy A. Bukar Tel: 202 429 5138 Fax: 202 223 4579 E-mail: nbukar+asbadc3%sbadc@mcimail.com 1. Current Line-up and Special Features * Keynote Speakers from US. FCC, and Canada's Industry Canada Spectrum Engineering Director * Speakers from US NSA, and all relevant North American Standards Committees dealing with User PCS: * ANSI/IEEE C63 SC7, IEEE 802.11, TIA TR41.6, ETSI RES3, ETSI RES10. * Special Tutorial of the new Spectrum rules by the authors of those rules. * Participation by UTAM, Inc. * Participation by FCC technical experts * Special Demonstrations for US Equipment Certification by Hewlett Packard 2. Current Agenda Monday 17 October 1994 1:00PM Tutorial (by WINForum WINTech Committee) T. Sterkel, WINTech Chair 1:15PM Power/Spectrum Measurements K. Teo/NTI and D. Johnson/AT&T GIS 1:45PM Isochronous Spectrum Access T. Ohlsson/Spectralink 2:15PM Asynchronous Spectrum Access J. McKnown/Motorola 2:45PM UTAM's Role in Certification J. Leonard/Motorola 3:00PM Open Questions and Answers T. Sterkel, moderator 4:00PM Special Equipment Certification Demonstration J. Nutting/Hewlett Packard Tuesday 18 October 1994 7:00AM Breakfast 8:30AM WINForum Welcome J. Leonard, President 8:40AM WINForum Workshop Welcome T. Sterkel, Workshop Chair 8:45AM Workshop Administrative/Logistics N. Bukar, Program Director 9:00AM Key Note Speech J. Knapp, FCC Director 9:30AM Work Shop 1 on Equipment Test, Measurement and Certification (by ANSI/IEEE C63 SC7 Committee) A. H. Light, ANSI/IEEE C63 SC7 Chair P. Inglis/FCC A. Tsaliovich/AT&T-NS K. Teo/NTI D. Steer/NTI D. Johnson/AT&T-GIS 11:00AM Open Question/Answer Session A. H. Light, moderator 12:00PM Special Equipment Certification Demo H. Nutting/Hewlett Packard 12:00PM Lunch 1:30PM Work Shop 2 on Asyncronous Devices (by IEEE 802.11 Committee) V. Hayes, Chair of IEEE 802.11 1:45PM IEEE 802.11 Jerry Loraine/Symbionics Ltd 2:00PM ETSI Hiperlan V. Hayes/AT&T-GIS 2:15PM Wireless ATM C. Rypinski/Lace 2:30PM Network Security Leon Scaldeferri/US NSA 2:45PM Open Question/Answer Session V. Hayes, moderator 5:00PM Equipment Certification Demo (continued) H. Nutting/Hewlett Packard 6:30PM No Host Reception 7:00PM Dinner Dinner Speaker, Dr. V. Rawat, Industry Canada Wednesday 19 October 1994 7:00AM Breakfast 8:30AM Workshop Logistics N. Bukar 8:45AM Work Shop 3 on Isochronous Equipment P. Bligh, Chair of TIA TR41.6 9:00AM WCPE T. Sterkel/AT&T-GBCS 9:15AM CPI D. Murashige/NTI 9:30AM WACS-WUPE R. Ziegler/Bellcore 9:45AM PACS-WUPE B. Scales/Hitachi 10:00AM Open Question/Answer Session P.Bligh, moderator 12:00PM Lunch 1:30PM Work Shop 4 on Interim Technical Issues S. Abramson, President UTAM J. Leonard/Motorola 2:00PM Open Question/Answer Session S. Abramson moderator 3:30PM Wrap up and Summary Terry Sterkel 4:00PM Workshop Ends Why is WINForum presenting this workshop? A lot has happened this past year. Much has been made about the new telecommunications era with Personal Communications Services and the Infobahn. There are conferences nearly every week on these topics. Unfortunately, the conferences concentrate on either highly theoretical future thoughts or are forums to review once again what is not working. This workshop, for the first time, offers a dialogue-oriented practical review of what has been done by the authors of the Spectrum Etiquette and rule makers and what is being done to deliver User PCS to North America. Unique among these conferences, we are bringing together the decision makers from ANSI, IEEE, TIA, UTAM, the Canadian and United States Governments. The cross discussions between these practitioners will be unprecedented and there will be ample time for participants to share in workshop settings. Who Should Attend? * Product Managers seeking to bring wireless product to the market. * Technical Experts seeking to understand the latest developments. * Anyone wishing a cost effective update of the North American regulatory, and standards efforts. What will be presented? Day 1: Tutorial WINForum presentation on the Spectrum Sharing Etiquette Day 2: Keynote speech by FCC Day 2: Workshop 1/Wireless Equipment Certification ANSI/IEEE C63 SC7, FCC and UTAM equipment certification Day 2: Workshop 2/IEEE 802.11 Standards and Industry perspectives on Asynchronous PCS (Data PCS) IEEE, ETSI, and independent evaluations Day 2: Special Dinner Speech by Industry Canada Day 3: Workshop 3/TIA TR41.6 Standards and Industry perspectives on Isochronous Standards for User PCS TR41.6 Customer Premises Standards and independent evaluations. Day 4: Workshop 4/Interim Technical Dialogue The UTAM, Inc. process and rules for non-nomadic deployments. Day 4: Summary of Events SPECIAL RATES FOR PRE-REGISTRATION AND GROUPS Prior to October 1, 1994! $450.00 per attendee includes tutorial, workshops, and dinner. >>Contact: Nancy Bukar Program Director WINForum, The User PCS Industry Association 1200 19th Street, NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20036-2401 Tel: 202 429 5138 Fax: 202 223 4579 E-mail: nbukar+asbadc3%sbadc\@mcimail.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Oct 1994 09:12:14 EST Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA From: Paul Robinson Subject: Malaysia Telecom Employment The following ad appeared in Sunday's {Washington Post} Professional Opportunities for Oct 2, Pg H9 Join Us in Building the Future Malaysia is a nation achieving order of magnitude advances in industrial development. What was an agrarian economy a generation ago is now a prime example of the capacity of developing nations to 'leapfrog' technological hurdles towards full development. Nowhere is this more dramatically displayed than in communications technology. TIME Telecommunications, part of a leading Malaysian infrastructural and engineering group, is establishing this country's fibre-optic communications network. The infrastructure has been built to the highest standards and is geared to meeting the needs of the global information superhighway into the next millenium. We need a corresponding level of expertise to help us develop, manage and operate these state of the art systems. We are scouring the globe for the best talent we can find, specifically in: CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER To assume overall responsiblity for the company's operations, reporting to the Chief Executive Officer. STRATEGIC & CORPORATE PLANNING To develop marketing and platform strategies; identify, assess and develop market opportunities; develop and implement the company's business strategy. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT To translate concepts into marketable products with tactical marketing, product management and the activation of platform components such as network, systems and organizations. SERVICE ACTIVATION To assign, configure and activate network elements, along with all installations necessary for such activation. SERVICE ASSURANCE To maximize network reliability and minimize customer downtime by proactive network management, fault-free customer services and rapid response to network faults. CHARGING & BILLING To collate, rate and present product charges and telemanagement information to customers, satisfying their accounting needs and ensuring prompt payment of amounts due. To monitor product and customer revenue and manage customer receivables and payments. CUSTOMER CARE To provide our customers a single contact for their telecommunications needs. To enable customers to enhance or modify their services and report faults. To respond to enquiries with accurate customer, product and network information. CORPORATE SUPPORT To provide efficient service support to the company's activities in Accounting & Finance, Materials Management, Human Resources, Legal & Regulatory, and Business Infrastructure. The expertise we're looking for will have had on average ten years' related experience, preferably in telecommunications and information technology. If you have what we need, we will offer you not only attractive packages in remuneration and benefits, but the chance of a lifetime: To be part of a prosperous and dynamic young nation's drive to the future. Write To: THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER TIME TELECOMMUNICATIONS SDN BHD P O BOX 13400 50808 KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIA or fax us at 603-241-2600 TIME telekom the light touch -------------- This message posted here as a courtesy to TELECOM Digest subscribers; please DO NOT RESPOND BY EMAIL. Respond *only* as directed in the text of the message. ------------------------------ From: bardo@ief-paris-sud.fr (Bardo Muller) Subject: Minitel -> BTX Gateway Date: 3 Oct 1994 08:20:29 GMT Organization: Universite de Paris Reply-To: bardo@ief-paris-sud.fr Hi, I would like to inquire about the gateway between the French and German teletext system, expecially the access of the German telefonbuch. Thanks, Bardo MULLER Phone : [33] [1] 69 41 78 50 Institut d'Electronique Fondamentale Fax : [33] [1] 60 19 25 93 Bat. 220 Universite Paris Sud p.029 e-mail : bardo@ief-paris-sud.fr 91405 ORSAY CEDEX FRANCE ------------------------------ From: gkm@uow.edu.au (Glen K Moore) Subject: Can an Aussie Phone Work in US - Yes But No! Date: 3 Oct 1994 23:14:59 +1000 Organization: University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. Recently I had the need to use (receive overseas calls) my cellular phone while working in the USA. Contary to some advice I received there is no technical difficulty in doing this. There are, however, other difficulties. Since there were two active and apparently cooperative networks in the city where I was to work it seemed that it would be a formality to get an account for my phone. However the problem for Australian visitors to the USA (and I guess for any other nationality) is that regardless of your position in your home country (my account is with a University and payment is via a University Mastercard) I found that I could not get an account without a US credit rating and thus without a large deposit of the order of $500 to $1000 even for a stay of only for a few weeks. You could get a 'loan' phone but the deposit will not be any smaller unless you have a US credit rating. I had an authorization from the Finance Manager of my University but that was still not sufficient. I am posting this advice since I wasted an enormous amount of time seeking this info on the net and substantial $$ on phone and fax prior to visiting the USA. The two carriers I dealt with were extremely pleasant but and apparently cooperative BUT no depost, no phone -- so be warned. No. I never got my phone hooked up. I gave up after two weeks and I survived with the email -- it asked no questions and cost me a lot less $$ and frustration. Glen Moore Director Science Centre, Wollongong g.moore@uow.edu.au [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well it would seem to me that by using your MasterCard as payment, the requirments for a credit history might have been waived under the circumstances. You did offer to pay that way I assume, and allow the carrier to place a hold on perhaps several hundred dollars of that credit line during your stay here ... Perhaps I assume wrong. Any ideas from other readers? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Oct 94 03:15:26 PDT From: Jay Jaroslav Subject: National Cultural Information Infrastructure TO: ARTISTS, WRITERS, AND OTHERS CONCERNED WITH CULTURAL LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY. Dear Colleague: On October 14-16, 1994, some of the smartest and most creative people in America will come together to lay the groundwork for a NATIONAL CULTURAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE. I urge you to attend the conference and participate in the process. Sincerely, Jay Jaroslav, Convergence Conference Director [For more information call Peter Schlessinger at the New Art Center (617-964-3424) or myself at the number listed below.] Jay Lee Jaroslav, Director Center for Art Research Information Infrastructure Project http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/jaroslav/jaroslav.html MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory 545 Technology Sqare, Room NE43-795 Cambridge, MA 02139-4301 617.253.5814 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Would you tell us please a little more about your agenda and its direct relevance to the telecommunications side of the 'superhighway' now under construction in the USA? PAT] ------------------------------ From: htcink@teleport.com (htc) Subject: Calling Booths For Hispanic Market Date: 3 Oct 1994 06:25:47 -0700 Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 Inquiries regarding Calling Booth hardware/software for use in the Hispanic market should contact: Chris Walworth at HTC, Inc. 6994868@mcimail.com (503) 645-3566 - fax HTC has developed HTC-PBX for use in this market. htcink@teleport.COM Public Access User --- Not affiliated with Teleport Public Access UNIX and Internet at (503) 220-1016 (2400-14400, N81) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I guess this shows how dumb I am and out of touch with the world, but what makes an Hispanic phone booth any different than any other phone booth except for the signs posted inside it and the language which is spoken by the caller and callee? I thought phone booths were mostly things of the past. It seems around here you never see them anymore. Now, its just a payphone hanging on a wall, sometimes with a couple little wings sticking out on either side of it for privacy, and sometimes not. So what exactly is an Hispanic phone booth? I am eager to find out. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #383 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10315; 3 Oct 94 21:22 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA09034; Mon, 3 Oct 94 14:12:26 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA09027; Mon, 3 Oct 94 14:12:23 CDT Date: Mon, 3 Oct 94 14:12:23 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410031912.AA09027@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #384 TELECOM Digest Mon, 3 Oct 94 14:12:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 384 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: T1<->23 or 24 BRI Equipment? (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: RI Installs Speed-Bumps For the Information Superhighway (Paul Lee) Re: Switch to Sprint Check/ *Must* Keep Them 160 Days (Clarence Dold) Re: Switch to Sprint Check/ *Must* Keep Them 160 Days (Hugh A. Pritchard) Re: Switch to Sprint Check/ *Must* Keep Them 160 Days (SLD9Q@cc.usu.edu) Re: Switch to Sprint Check/ *Must* Keep Them 160 Days (Corky Sarvis) Re: V.34 From ITU-T (John LaCour) Re: Coming Soon: Son of 800 (John R. Levine) Re: Coming Soon: Son of 800 (SLD9Q@cc.usu.edu) Microsoft's TAPISDK (Keith Willett) High Tech Books For Sale (Tuan Thanh Ho) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: fgoldstein@bbn.com] (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: T1<->23 or 24 BRI Equipment? Date: 3 Oct 1994 15:54:48 GMT Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. In article , bob@ccnet.com (Bob Ames) wrote: > What is available to connect two remote offices via T1? Good question, actually, but one that opens up so many options! (It gives us consultants a good living.) > Ideally, I'd like to use a T1 on each end and provide: > *) Intercom service, What do the two offices have for telephone service now? If there are PBXs, then tie lines via the T1 will do it. Even without a PBX, there are ways to derive voice channels from a T1, to mate different types of telephone system. > *) TCP/IP traffic (Ethernet), > *) (One/Several?) ISDN S/T or U lines. I'd like to be able to use > ISDN phones on one end and on the other end connect to the > Intercom system or to the LD Company via POTS or ISDN. Or to > use, say, a Waverunner on one side and get thru the T1 to the > main office, and then routed into the Ethernet on the other side. > *) Anything else ISDN provides, like FAX. > Do I need a PBX for all of this? Certainly some kind of switch-like > routing seems necessary. Several types of equipment terminate a T1. A few examples: * A PBX. These typically handle 64 kbps data calls (period) too. * A Data Service Unit. This takes all of the bandwidth and makes it into one fat data channel. Fractional-T1 DSUs operate on a subset of the 24 channels, as you specify. * A channel bank. This is a static (configure by plugging in cards) multiplexor. Option cards of all sorts are available. Each of the 24 channels is picked up by one card or another. * A nodal processor. This is like a fancy channel bank with software configurability, multi-T1 networking, etc. Overkill for two sites but worth it for larger networks. * A drop-and-insert mux. This generally lets you pick off a couple of data channels (n*64k) while feeding the remaining channels into a PBX, Fractional-compatible Data Service Unit or whatever. > How much traffic can fit on an S/T? For example, can I put all 24 B > channels on the S/T bus concurrently without degradation or failure? > (I doubt it) The ISDN Basic Rate S/T bus handles exactly two B channels (one BRI). T1 is a different animal. One common way to go: Get a T1 to your long-distance company. Designate some channels for access to their network ("WATS"-style services.) Run others into a Fractional T1 for your site-to-site needs (data, maybe some voice, etc.). They can deliver ISDN Primary Rate using one D channel and however many B channels you designate (the rest used for "FT1" or individual-channel services). If you have an ISDN system at one end and want for some odd reason to remote a Basic Rate channel, you can use a channel bank equipped with Adtran's BR1TE cards. These take 3 channels and map 2B+D onto them. They fit into standard D4-family banks so you can mix and match, or use 8 to fill a T1. That's a common way to deliver "virtual ISDN". Fred R. Goldstein k1io fgoldstein@bbn.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 12:20:34 -0400 Subject: RI Installs Speed-Bumps For the Information Superhighway From: Paul A. Lee Organization: Woolworth Corporation In TELECOM Digest Volume 14 Issue 382, Michael P. Deignan wrote (in part): > Here's the latest from our fine RI legislators: > ... only licensed telelcommunications contractors, licensed > telecommunications system technicians, and licensed telecommunications > system installers shall engage in, or design, install, alter, service, or > test telecommunication systems in the state of RI. > I guess you have to be licensed to sell modems in computer stores now. Sounds like one of the following must have happened in Rhode Island: 1) The state government let a telecommunications equipment contract go to the lowest bidder, who botched the job 2) A legislator had some phone installation work done, and the installer butchered some trim in the fine old house 3) An interconnect company that has the attention of an influential legislator has been getting a lot of competition lately 4) The state sees explosive growth ahead in telecommunications and wants to control the direction and gain some revenue from licensing I would be interested in whether Rhode Island is promulgating a practice code or a set of standards for licensees, and whether state or commercial review or inspection will be required for designs and installations. Licensing only provides some indication of basic competence -- it does not provide a means of review and accountability. Based on my experience with other licensees who are not subject to review and inspection -- and even some who were -- licensing is no assurance whatsoever that the work will be done correctly or even competently. Government license programs that do not include practice standards and review or inspection mechanisms are nothing more than venting of wrath, establishment of "old boys" clubs, or revenue grabs. And, unless the standards, the review process, and the inspection process are themselves subjected to outside review and revision, then the government-sanctioned process will almost inevitably deteriorate into meaninglessness and corruption. Paul A. Lee Voice 414 357-1409 Telecommunications Analyst FAX 414 357-1450 Woolworth Corporation CompuServe 70353,566 INTERNET <=PREFERRED ADDRESS* ------------------------------ From: Clarence Dold Subject: Re: Switch to Sprint Check/ *Must* Keep Them 160 Days Organization: a2i network Date: Sun, 2 Oct 1994 22:38:32 GMT D. Castillo (castillo@unm.edu) wrote: > I just got one of those $50 "cash this and Sprint will be your LD > company." checks. I had gotten one from ATT about one month before, > and cashed that one, planning to switch back to MCI as soon as I was > switched to ATT. I carefully read all the small print on the ATT > check, and it was just standard stuff. I got one of these checks as well. It was addressed to my new home, but has the phone number of my last residence. I could switch, and continue to 10xxx the carrier of my choice, especially if they let me "switch" my disconnected number ... But. Although it looks like a check, it does specifically mention a term, and "credit" applied to your bill when the term expires. By signing a contract for a term plan, you are liable to uphold your end of the term. My current carrier gives me an 8.x% discount, equal to one month free, on average, every time I renew for a year. If I switch, I am liable to pay back the discounts that have been applied so far, or at least it says so in the very clearly worded contract I signed. The other "but" is that I don't really want to scam anybody. Silly me. Clarence A Dold - dold@rahul.net - Pope Valley & Napa CA. ------------------------------ From: Hugh A. Pritchard Subject: Re: Switch to Sprint Check/ *Must* Keep Them 160 Days Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 10:00:44 EDT Reply-To: hugh@snm.com Organization: Smoke N' Mirrors, Herndon, Virginia, (703)318-1440 > From: castillo@unm.edu (D. Castillo) > Now this Sprint check has in fine print under the endorsement line "I > agree to remain with Spring for a minimum of 180 days". I have LD service with Sprint. I've been sending in those "checks" from MCI and AT&T for credit against my Sprint bill. Recently, though, Sprint Customer Service told me that they would only give me credit for ONE "check" from a competitor each six months. Hugh Pritchard, Smoke N' Mirrors, 703/318-1440, hugh@snm.com ------------------------------ From: sld9q@cc.usu.edu Subject: Re: Switch to Sprint Check/ *Must* Keep Them 160 Days Date: 3 Oct 94 10:06:13 MDT Organization: Utah State University In article , castillo@unm.edu (D. Castillo) writes: > Now this Sprint check has in fine print under the endorsement line "I > agree to remain with Spring for a minimum of 180 days". Is this > legal? I was under the impression that no long distance company could > force you to keep them as your carrier. I want to cash this check as > reimbursement for having to watch Candice Bergen over and over again, > and then switch back to MCI. Is there any (legal) way they can go > after me if I cash it and switch to MCI anyway? Once the check is > cashed, they can't take their $50 back, so what are they going to do? > Sue me? (what's the number for the FCC folks?) Sure seems like a lot of hassle for $50. You don't mind having to deal with three different companies for your long distance? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 11:57:26 CDT From: Corky Sarvis Subject: Re: Switch to Sprint Check/ *Must* Keep Them 160 Days I couldn't help but get a bit of a chuckle concerning your letter on LD carriers. First, I am a devout MCI user and won't change no matter what. I've got cell phones and home phones and fax phones all on MCI on one bill. I've got LD Cards for the wife and I, separate account codes. The good news is that it all comes in on one bill, once a month, all separated out for easy bookkeeping [wife and I have a business we run out of our home]. Every time I get one of these "sign-here-and-change-checks" in the mail, I call MCI and ask them how they want me to handle it. Usually, they send me a savings certificate for 90-180 days in an amount equal to the amount of the check amount. I send MCI the check I received and they in turn send me the savings certificate. I remain an MCI customer. AT&T and those other low-life carriers stay out of my face AND we get a bit of cash 90-180 days "down range" so to speak. I have three of these savings certificates working at present. (I have had as many as five working at one time!) When they come in, wife and I usually save the $25-$30 or whatever until we have $75-$100 and then go out to a really nice restaurant and laugh about how AT&T is buying our dinner. Of course, they really aren't. However, it makes us feel great! Robert J. "Corky" Sarvis, MBA E-MAIL: sarvis@ollac.ollusa.edu Our Lady of the Lake University ----------------------------------- San Antonio, Texas, USA Weekend College & Special Programs ------------------------------ From: jlacour@usr.com (John LaCour) Subject: Re: V.34 From ITU-T Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 10:34:31 Organization: U.S. Robotics, Inc. In article tannil@tcl.com.hk (Tannil Lam) writes: > Please advice the newest status of V.34 from ITU-T. I hope to know > whether V.34 has been official approved for modem manufacturers to > produce their V.34 products or not. V.34 has been ratified. There are several vendors already selling V.34 modems including USRobotics, Multitech, and Motorola Codex. Many more will be delivering product in the near future. Regards, John LaCour +1 708 982 5252 USRobotics, Inc. +1 708 982 0823 FAX Systems Product Support jlacour@usr.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A bit off the subject, but US Robotics related none the less -- USR's offices and plant are located right here in our village, Skokie Illinois. In fact they are down the street about a mile from my house on McCormick Boulevard. It was to my dismay I read about a week ago in our local newspaper {The Skokie Life} that US Robotics had a fire in their building recently. In addition, an officer of the company wrote to the newspaper expressing appreciation to the Skokie Fire Department for its efforts in saving the plant and minimizing the damage. I hope everything is back to normal there, and am sure the Digest readers join me in wishing the company well. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Oct 94 00:49:00 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Coming Soon: Son of 800 Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > Why isn't the capacity ten million? Since no-one has local calls from > 800 numbers, why can't every possible number be used? It turns out that there are a lot of places in North America where calls of the form XXX-1XX-XXXX and XXX-0XX-XXXX are trapped and sent to a recording. At the tiny telco in Vermont owned by my cousins, AT&T insisted that they trap such calls and not send them to AT&T. (They weren't thrilled, since this made their routing tables a lot bigger.) So even though there's no ambiguity problem with 800-1XX and 800-0XX, there are probably a lot of places that trap such calls, and it'd be a major effort to find and fix all of them. Since it'd probably only defer 800 exhaustion by a year or so, it hardly seems worth the effort. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, 1037498@mcimail.com Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" ------------------------------ From: SLD9Q@cc.usu.edu Subject: Re: Coming Soon: Son of 800 Date: 3 Oct 94 09:59:22 MDT Organization: Utah State University In article , Clarence Dold writes: > The SMS, keepers of the 800-database, sent out a notice recently, > using these same numbers, requesting that "unused" 800 numbers be > returned to the pool, while they figure out what to do. > Seems that one of the newly available 8xx NPA would be the most > sensible. 888 sounds like a good one to me. How about we keep 800 as the really TOLL-FREE NPA, and let the scammers who charge for "information" have the 888? Then we'll all know exactly where we stand ... Travis ------------------------------ From: keithw@access.digex.net (Keith Willett) Subject: Microsoft's TAPISDK Date: 3 Oct 1994 13:29:26 -0400 Organization: Wye Technologies Has anyone downloaded Microsoft's telephony application software development kit? I've downloaded both the TAPISDK and the VMAIL software. I've installed the TAPISDK without a problem and have configured it to place outbound calls via modem. I'm attempting to install and use the VMAIL system and am having trouble with activating the mciatv.drv driver. Any clues are greatly appreciated. Thanks. FYI: The sofware I'm speaking of is available from ftp.microsoft.com:/pub/developr/tapi. ------------------------------ From: tho@carbon.denver.colorado.edu (Tuan Thanh Ho) Subject: High Tech Books For Sale Date: 3 Oct 1994 12:14:59 -0600 Organization: University of Colorado at Denver I have the following books for sale: Please note the book condition: Excellent/Brandnew = (****) Good/almost new = (***) Good/Average = (**) Average/Poor = (*) - C. E. Rohrs, J. L. Melsa, and D. G. Schultz, Linear Control Systems, McGraw Hill, 1993, $40 (****). - M. L. Skolnik, Introduction to Radar Systems, 2nd ed., McGraw Hill, 1980, $29 (****). - W. G. Chambers, Basics of Communications and Coding, Oxford Science Publications, 1985, $35 (****). - E. C. Jordan and K. G. Balmain, Electromagnetic Waves and Radiating Systems, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, 1968, $39 (****). - G. M. Jenkins and D. G. Watts, Spectral Analysis and its applications, Holden-Day, 1968, $25 (***). - C. L. Phillips and H. T. Nagle, Digital Control System, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, 1990, $28 (**). - C. L. Phillips and R. D. Harbor, Feedback Control Systems, Prentice Hall, 1988, $28 (****). - F. Halsall, Data Communications, Computer Networks and Open Systems, 3rd ed., Addison Wesley, 1992, $28 (****). - B.C. Kuo, Automatic Control Systems, 4th ed., Prentice Hall, 1982, $28 (****). - P. M. Derusso, R. J. Roy, and C. M. Close, State Variables for Engineers, John Wiley & Sons, 1965, $19 (**). - W. Kaplan, Operational Methods for Linear Systems, Addison Wesley, 1962, $19 (**). - C. W. Merriam III, Optimization Theory and the Design of Feedback Control Systems, McGraw Hill, 1964, $19 (**). - D. Middleton, An Introduction to Statistical Communication Theory, McGraw Hill, 1960, $19 (**). - C. E. Shannon and W. Weaver, The Mathematical Theory of Communication, The University of Illinois Press, 1959, $19 (**). - J. D. Gibson, Principles of Digital and Analog Communications, 2nd ed., Macmillan, 1993, $39 (****). - M. Schwartz, Information Transmission, Modulation, and Noise, McGraw Hill, 1980, $25 (***). - L. W. Couch II, Digital and Analog Communication Systems, Macmillan, 1983, $25 (***). - D. R. Smith, Digital Transmission Systems, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985, $20 (****). - W. S. Meisel, Computer-Oriented Approaches to Pattern Recognition, Academic Press, 1972, $25 (***). - R. C. Dixon, ed., Spread Spectrum Techniques, IEEE Press, 1976, $20 (***). - M. Barkat, Signal Detection and Estimation, Artech House, 1991, $35 (****). - M. E. Valkenburg, Introduction to Modern Network Synthesis, John Wiley & Sons, 1960, $25 (***). - S. Haykin, Communication Systems, 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons, 1983, $35 (****). - Proceedings ICASSP 85, IEEE International Conference on Acoustic, Speech, and Signal Processing, 1985, $49 (4 volumes, ****). - T.W. Weber, An Introduction to Process Dynamics and Control, John Wiley & Sons, 1973, $35 (***). - W. A. Spivey and R. M. Thrall, Linear Optimization, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1970, $29 (***). - T. L. Vincent and W. J. Grantham, Optimality in Parametric Systems, John Wiley & Sons, 1981, $42 (***) (reg. $90). - A. Ginzburg, Algebraic Theory of Automata, Academic Press, 1968, $37 (***) (reg. $64). - L. Gorney, Queueing Theory: A Problem Solving Approach, Petrocelli Books, $32 (***). - R. A. Gabel and R. A. Roberts, Signals and Linear Systems, 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons, 1980, $32 (***, reg. $59.95). - D. M. S. Baggatey, Electromagnetism and Linear Circuits, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1973, $28 (**). - G. F. Franklin, J. D. Powell, and A. E. Naeini, Feedback Control of Dynamic Systems, Addison-Wesley, 1986, $25 (**). - L. Breiman, Probability and Stochastic Processes with a View Toward Applications, 2nd ed., The Scientific Press, 1986, $42 (****). - F. J. Hale, Introduction to Control System Analysis and Design, Prentice Hall, 1973, $28 (***, reg. $57). - M. Brawn, Differential Equations and Their Applications, 2nd ed., Springer Verlag, 1975, $24 (***). - T. F. Bogart, Laplace Transforms and Control Systems Theory for Technology including Microprocessor-Based Control Systems, John Wiley & Sons, 1982, $32 (***). - G. H. Hostetter, C. J. Savant and R. T. Stefani, Design of Feedback Control Systems, Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1982, $32 (***). - J. Millman, Micro-Electronics: Digital and Analog Circuits and Systems, McGraw Hill, 1979, $35 (***). - R. Saucedo and E. E. Schiring, Introduction to Continuous and Digital Control Systems, Macmillan, 1968, $15 (**). - W. K. Chen, Passive and Active Filters: Theory and Implementations, John Wiley & Sons, 1986, $40 (***). - P. R. Gray and R. G. Meyer, Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits, 2nd ed., John Wiley & Sons, 1984, $30 (***). - J. G. Graeme, Applications of Operational Amplifiers, Third Generation Technique, Burr-Brown Electronics Series, McGraw Hill, 1973, $27 (***). - G. J. Murphy, Basic Automatic Control Theory, D. Van Nostrand Co., 1966, $10 (**). - J. W. Wilson, Electric Circuits, 3rd ed., Addison Wesley, 1990, $25 (****). - W. H. Beyer, Standard Mathematical Tables, 26th ed., CRC Press, 1981, $20 (****). - W. A. Davis, Microwave Semiconductor Circuit Design, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1984, $30 (***). - C. D. Johnson, Microprocessor-Based Process Control, Prentice Hall, 1984, $25 (****). - R. C. Johnson and H. Jasik, Antenna Engineering Handbook, 2nd ed., McGraw Hill, 1984, $60 (****, reg. $120). - W. A. Lynch and J. G. Truxal, Signals and Systems in Electrical Engineering, McGraw Hill, 1962, $12 (***). - J. G. Truxal, Control System Synthesis, McGraw Hill, 1955, $12(***). - Digital Signal Processing Committee, Programs for Digital Signal Processing, IEEE Press, 1979, $25 (***). - G. F. Franklin and J. D. Powell, Digital Control of Dynamic Systems, Addison-Wesley, 1981, $25 (***). - A. B. Carlson, Communication Systems: an Introduction to Signals and Noise in Electrical Communication, 2nd ed., McGraw Hill, 1975, $20 (**). - R. C. Dorf, Modern Control Systems, 4th ed., Addison-Wesley, 1986, $20 (**). - J. J. D'Azzo and C. H. Houpis, Linear Control System Analysis and Design, 2nd ed., McGraw Hill, 1981, $30 (****). - Z. Kohavi, Switching and Finite Automata Theory, 2nd ed., McGraw Hill, 1978, $35 (****). - W. I. Orr, Radio Handbook, 22nd ed., Howard W. Sams & Co., Inc.,1981, $30. (****). - D. L. Babcock, Managing Engineering and Technology, Prentice Hall, 1991, $30 (****). - E. B. Saff and A. D. Snider, Fundamentals of Complex Analysis for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering, Prentice Hall, 1976, $25 (****). - S. I. Pearson and G. J. Maler, Introductory Circuit Analysis, Krieger, 1977, $20 (****). - Peerless Engineering Service, BASICA Scientific Subroutine Library, John Wiley & Sons, 1985, $60 (Manual & 2 Disks) (****). - F. R. Ruckdeschel, BASIC Scientific Subroutines Vol. I & II, McGraw Hill, 1981, $35 (2 volumes) (****). - G. M. Schneider and S. C. Bruell, Advanced Programming and Problem Solving with Pascal, Jonh Wiley & Sons, $25 (****). - A. E. Fitzgerald, C. Kingsley, and S. D. Umans, Electric Machinery, McGraw Hill, 1983, $30 (***). - D. E. Johnson, Introduction to Filter Theory, Prentice Hall, 1976, $25. (***). - A. S. Willsky, Digital Signal Processing and Control and Estimation Theory, Points of tangency, Areas of Intersection, and Parallel Directions, MIT Press, 1979, $25 (****). - S. T. Berberian, Lectures in Functional Analysis and Operator Theory, Springer-Verlag, 1974, $25 (****). - J. M. Mendel, Discrete Techniques of Parameter Estimation, Marcel Dekker, 1973, $80 (****) (reg. $135). - G. Keiser, Optical Communications, McGrawHill, 1983, $20 (****). - C. Johnk, Engineering Electromagnetic Fields and Waves, John Wiley & Sons 1975, $25 (****). - P. Bickel and K. Doksum, Mathematical Statistics: basic Ideas and Selected Topics, Holden-Day, Inc., 1977, $25 (****). - T. Hungerford, Algebra, Springer-Verlag, 1974, $25 (****). - W. Stallings, Data and Computer Communications, Macmillan, 1985, $20 (****). - L. Balmer, Signals and Systems: An Introduction, Prentice Hall, 1991, $25. (****). - M. O'Flynn, Probabilities, Random Variables, and random Process, Harper & Row publishers, 1982, $25 (****). - E. A. Walker, Introduction to Abstract Algebra, Random House, 1987, $30. (****). - J. V. Wait, L. P. Huelsman, and G. A. korn, Introduction to Operational Amplifier Theory and Applications, McGraw Hill, 1975, $25 (***). If interested, Please e-mail me at: tho@carbon.denver.colorado.edu or Phone me at : (303) 364-4426 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #384 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16079; 4 Oct 94 19:20 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA06222; Tue, 4 Oct 94 13:49:18 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA06214; Tue, 4 Oct 94 13:49:15 CDT Date: Tue, 4 Oct 94 13:49:15 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410041849.AA06214@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #385 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Oct 94 13:49:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 385 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (Patrick Townson) CFP: Journal of Network and Systems Management (Jane Fraser) SNET/CT Announces New Regional Roaming Rates (Douglas Reuben) WindoWatch Preview Issue (Lois Laulicht) Bill Insert: Final Reminder For Dialing Changes in 508 Area Code (J. Welch) British Telecom Caller ID (Julian Thornhill) AT Modem Commands to Connect Without Dialing (Andy Ulrich) Information on Interconnection and State Regulation (Eric de Fontenay) 910 and 919 Both Useable (Carl Moore) Pager For Kids (David Esan) Script to Download Unix Mail (Robert Shain) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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, 4 Oct 94 12:47:54 CDT From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (Patrick Townson) Subject: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud Felony charges of access device fraud involving over one hundred thousand telephone calling cards -- mostly those of MCI customers but including cards of local telcos and in a few instances AT&T and Sprint have been filed against Ivy James Lay of Charlotte, NC. Lay, employed as a switch engineer by MCI in its Charlotte switching center until his arrest and indictment at the end of last week, is also known by his phreak name 'Knightshadow'. He was fired late last week when MCI concluded its investigation into his activities. According to Secret Service Special Agent Steven Sepulveda, Lay had installed special software in MCI switching equipment which trapped the calling card numbers and personal identification codes of callers. He then sold these stolen calling card numbers to other phreaks all over the USA and Europe. MCI claims that about one hundred thousand of its customers' calling cards have been compromised as a result. In addition, several thousand calling cards issued by AT&T, Sprint and/or local telephone companies have been compromised as a result of traffic from those carriers being routed for whatever reason through the MCI center in Charlotte. The dollar value of the fraud is estimated to be fifty million dollars by the Secret Service and MCI. Some of the fraud traffic occurred as recently as the last two weeks and has not yet been billed to customers. According to MCI and the federal indictment, Ivy James Lay is the leader of an international fraud ring operating in Los Angeles and several other US cities as well as Spain, Germany and the UK. The indictment claims he supplied stolen calling card numbers to phreaks all over the USA and other parts of the world. A spokesperson for the Secret Service called the case unprecedented in its sophisticated use of computers and the manner in which the fraud ring coordinated its activities on a global scale. MCI spokesperson Leslie Aun characterized the case as the largest of its kind in terms of known losses, both in dollar amount and number of customers who were victimized. Ms. Aun added that Ivy James Lay was immediatly fired once the joint investigation by MCI and the Secret Service was finished late last week. In raids conducted simultaneously at the homes of Mr. Lay and other co-conspirators last week, agents seized many items including six computers with pirated commercial copyrighted software and many boxes full of computer disks with thousands of calling card numbers on each. Telephone toll records of Mr. Lay and other phreaks involved in the scam have also been obtained showing examples of fraudulent traffic. Spokespersons for Sprint, AT&T and MCI are encouraging customers who believe their calling cards were compromised in the scam to contact the appropriate customer service department immediatly so their cards can be cancelled and re-issued. Customers should bear in mind that the vast majority of the fraud was against MCI customers whose traffic went through the Charlotte center. If convicted, 'Knightshadow' as he known to other phreaks and his co-conspirators face ten years in a federal penitentiary. It must be remembered that in the United States, our constitution requires a presumption of innocence on the part of Ivy James Lay and the other phreaks involved until their guilt is proven by the government in a court of law. ------------------- In certain other prominent e-journals on the Internet, we have read in recent days that computer crime is not nearly the serious matter the government claims it to be. It sounds to me like the sneak-thievery of a hundred thousand plus calling card numbers and fifty million dollars in phreak phone calls is serious enough. We have long known about telco employees who themselves are as corrupt as the day is long; who think nothing of taking bribes for providing confidential information about their employer and its customers. But most of it to-date has been petty ante stuff; a few dollars under the table for a non-pub phone number, or maybe a hackerphreak who gets a job with telco then uses information and technology at his (legitimate) disposal to cover his own tracks where obscene/harassing calls are concerned. But a hundred thousand calling cards and fifty million dollars in traffic???? At what point are certain publishers/editors on the Internet going to wake up? Computer crime is growing expotentially. I think it is time to have another massive crackdown, similar to Operation Sun Devil a few years ago. Let's start getting really tough on hackers and phreaks. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Oct 1994 10:55:56 EDT From: fraser@ccl2.eng.ohio-state.edu Subject: CFP: Journal of Network and Systems Management CALL FOR PAPERS JOURNAL OF NETWORK AND SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT Special Issue on Routing in Broadband Networks During the past decade, major efforts have been focused on developing transmission and switching technologies in order to satisfy the growing demand for broadband services. While the service providing capability of broadband networks has been significantly improved through these technologies, it is far short of allocating unlimited bandwidth on request. Efficient management mechanisms that control the use of bandwidth to best match the traffic patterns of the service requests are needed to support the transmission and switching technologies. Routing is one of the key functions in the management of communication bandwidth, whose nature becomes considerably more complicated in broadband networks. Broadband networks carry multi-grade, multi-media, and multi-rate traffic whose combined characteristics are not adequately understood, especially in the presence of multi-point connections. This special issue is intended to bring about a wide range of topics and perspectives in examining the specific challenges posed by routing in broadband networks and their relationship to network and systems management. The special issue will be a mix of invited papers, wherein selected authorities will be requested to articulate their viewpoints, and papers solicited from researchers through this call. The scope of the special issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics: - Multicast and multi-path routing - Integration of routing with congestion and flow control - Impact of routing on QOS requirements of heterogeneous services - Stability of network traffic patterns - Multi-rate and bursty nature of traffic - Fault tolerance and recovery - Topological design with routing considerations - Implementation issues Instructions to Authors ----------------------- Authors are requested to send four copies of their manuscripts, not exceeding 20 double-spaced type-written pages, with figures used sparingly, to: Professor Paul S. Min Department of Electrical Engineering Campus Box 1127 Washington University St. Louis, MO 63130 email: psm@ee.wustl.edu, tel: 314-935-8584 Schedule: Manuscript due: January 15, 1995 Notification of acceptance: May 15, 1995 Publication date: 3rd quarter 1995 Guest Editors: Manju Hegde, Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge. Kazem Sohraby, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel. Paul S. Min, Washington Univ., St. Louis. ------------------------------ From: dreuben@netcom.com (Cid Technologies) Subject: SNET/CT Announces New Regional Roaming Rates Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 02:22:19 PDT In a further move to lower the costs associated with roaming throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic area, SNET recently reduced roaming rates from Maine to Washington, DC. Previously, customers who were not on their "Roam USA" $.75/minute-no daily surcharge plan paid from $.75 to $.99 per minute in most seacoast New England and Mid-Atlantic systems. As a result of SNET's new plan, roaming rates in these areas are a flat $.60 per minute, with no daily charge. Not all SNET customers get this -- if you are on their security/budget plan ("Linx Lite") you pay $.99 and $3 daily, but you can purchase the Roam USA plan for $9.95 per month, giving you 60 cents as above, but also 75 cent/no daily roaming everywhere else. SNET is thus very competitive with Bell Atlantic (Metro Mobile) on the A side, offering virtually the same rates for roaming in NY, $.15/min less for Boston, and significantly lower rates for Maine, southern NJ, DE, PA, and DC -- namely, 60 cents per minute for SNET customers compared to $3 day/ $.99 min for Metro Mobile customers. If you also include the Roam USA plan, SNET customers also do better just about everywhere else, too! Note that SNET is also the only carrier in CT to cover the *whole* state, while Metro Mobile and McCaw's Litchfield, CT system haven't introduced any sort of call-delivery or for that matter reasonable roaming rates between the two! :( (Although, the service offered by both carriers in Litchfield is so pathetic I wonder if someone will soon contest the current carriers' licenses!) SNET also has automatic call delivery from Maine to Albany to NYC to Allentown, PA to Philly to Delaware and all of the Baltimore/DC system. Metro Mobile has call delivery from Boston to Delaware, but NOT to Albany nor Allentown, and NOT to many of the smaller cellular outfits in New Jersey. The bad news with SNET is that their call delivery is 500% *SLOWER* than Metro Mobile's, which is a hassle. I'm comparing systems now and will soon post my results as to "A" vs "B" call-delivery in the Northeast, but already it's obvious that the "B" side is tremendously slower, and for no apparent reason at all. (Both CT carriers are bound by DOJ rules, yet the "A" side has a MUCH more "seamless" automatic call delivery system than does the "B".) Further bad news with SNET: They are one of the few carriers in the Northeast which still charge airtime for voicemail DEPOSITS! Thus, people calling you and hanging up will bill you airtime! :( Not a very fair system, and I have no idea why SNET still does this. All I can say is that they are losing $150 per month on me alone since I use Metro Mobile mainly due to their voicemail being free for deposits, and in all likelihood a lot of other potential customers are deterred by these unfair voicemail pricing practices. But if you can manage w/o voicemail, SNET's new roaming rates are vastly superior to anything which Bell Atlantic/Metro Mobile offers. Doug dreuben@netcom.com / CID Technologies / (203) 499 - 5221 ------------------------------ Subject: WindoWatch Preview Issue From: lois.laulicht@channel1.com (Lois Laulicht) Date: Tue, 4 Oct 94 10:28:00 -0400 Organization: Channel 1(R) 617-864-0100 Info The Preview Edition of WindoWatch online magazine is out dated October 1. The Windows Format is being published using the new authoring tool Envoy by WordPerfect. I think a much nicer product than the normal *hlp engine. Interested in feedback from readers.Also available in the ReadRoom (*TOC) format for DOS. Call Channel 1 at 617-354-3250. Non-members can get their co[pies by J Free! WWPRVWIN.ZIP (Windows) WWPRVDOS.ZIP (DOS) Inside you'll find: Gregg Hommel with a Procomm for Windows review Angela Lillystine revewing CrossTies one of the new PIM's Jerry Laulicht with Education Tools for Kids. Houmor by Peter (Alice) Neuendorffer and Derek Buchler and a few bits and bytes on the Internet. NEXT! *The Premiere Issue Herb Chong discussing Windows Bloat and Paul Williamson "Is there a DOS in Your Future?" Internet:lois.laulicht@channel1.com | at the CH1 anonymous ftp site windowatch@ins.infonet.net | ftp.channel1.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Oct 1994 07:32:57 -0500 From: Jonathan_Welch Subject: Bill Insert: Final Reminder For Dialing Changes in 508 Area Code FINAL REMINDER ABOUT DIALING CHANGES FOR MASSACHUSETTS CUSTOMERS IN AREA CODE 508 EFFECTIVE OCTOVER 15, 1994 Beginning October 15, 1994 there will be a permanent change in the way NYNEX telephone customers in Massachusetts will dial calls within the 508 area code that are beyond their local calling area (toll calls). The new, permanent dialing method for these calls is: "1" plus the 508 area code and the 7-digit number ("1" + 508 + 7-digits). This new method of dialing has been available since July 15, 1994 and will replaee the "1" + 7 digits method of dialing toll calls. Following is information on how you will dial all calls -- both local and toll -- within the 508 area code. DIRECTLY DIALED CALLS TO ANOTHER NUMBER IN THE 508 AREA CODE Within your local calling area, dial the 7-digit number only. This is the same way you dial these calls today. Beyond your local calling area (toll calls), dial "1"+ 508 + the 7-digit number. ALL DIRECTLY DIALED OPERATOR-ASSISTED AND CALLING-CARD CALLS To any number (including local calls) within the 508 area code, dial "0" + 508 + the 7-digit number. Dialing methods for calls to numbers outside the 508 area code will not change. All directly dialed calls to numbers outside the 508 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 508 area eode wil1 eontinue to be dialed "0" + the area code + the 7-digit number. Although the way you dial toll calls within the 508 area code will change, rates, local calling areas, and the rates you pay for calls included in Optional Calling Plans such as, Circle Calling and Bay State East will not change because of the introduction of this new dialing method. A local call still will be a local call, a toll call still will be a toll call, and if you have an Optional Calling Plan, you can call the same areas as before. You can find information about your local calling area in the introductory White Pages of your NYNEX telephone directory. Until October 15, 1994, you can dial calls using either the new or old dialing methods. Beginning October 15, 1994, you must dial all toll calls within the 508 area code "1"+508+7-digits. If you dial toll calls using the old " 1 " + 7-digit method they 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: A change in the way you dial toll calls is necessary because North America has run out of area codes, such as 617 and 508. As a result, new area codes introduced in North America after January 1, 1995 will not look like traditional area codes. These new area codes, which will be introduced as the telephone number capacity 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 introduce 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 caUs within the 508 area code must be dialed using the "1"+ the 508 area code + 7-digit method. NYNEX implemented these same new dialing methods in western Massachusetts earlier this year. Some Steps You May Need to Take: Before these new dialing methods become permanent in the 508 area code beginning October 15, 1994, please check all automatic dialing devices and/or services 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 October 15, 1994 or your calls will not be properly completed. And don't forget to check alarm or medical dialers, fax machines and computer modems to see if they need reprogramming, as well. Emergency Calling Reminder: If you currently dial "1" + the 7-digit number to reach police, fire or other emergency service providers, please remember that beginning October 15, 1994 you will have to dial these calls "1" plus the 508 area code + the 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 508 area code that are dialed using the "1" + 508+ 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(r) Packet Switching Service also may need to reprogram their equipment to accommodate these new dialing patterns. If you're a NYNEX Centrex service customer, any necessary changes vill be made for you at our central office. We suggest that you review your telecommunications 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 October 15, 1994 to test your equipment and determine if any modifications are needed. In Summary: Type of Call Old Dialing Method New Dialing Method Local within your area code 7-Digits7-Digits (no change) Toll within your area code "1"+7-Digits "1"+508+7-Digits Operator-Assisted & Calling Card within your area code "0"+7-Digits "0"+508+7-Digits Questions? Residence customers with questions about these dialing changes should call us at 1 800 555-5000. TTYusers can call us at 1800 974-6006 (V/TTY). Business customers vith questions about these dialing changes should call us toll-free at the telephone number listed for questions about service at the top of page one of the "Itemization of Account" section of your monthly telephone bill. We want to make this transition as easy as possible for you. NYNEX MA (508) 8/94 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Oct 94 08:51:54 +0100 From: jth@ion.le.ac.uk (Julian Thornhill) Subject: British Telecom Caller ID Does anyone know how the caller ID system that British Telecom is going to introduce in November works? More specifically, how is the information delivered to the phone? I am told that it differs to the US system. Regards, Julian Thornhill Email to jth@ion.le.ac.uk Physics Department Tel 0116 2523566 FAX 0116 2523555 Leicester University +44-116-2523566 (international) University Road Leicester LE1 7RH ------------------------------ From: lleo@vnet.net (Andy Ulrich) Subject: AT Modem Commands to Connect Without Dialing Date: 4 Oct 1994 11:23:29 GMT Organization: Vnet Internet Access, Inc. - Charlotte, NC. (704) 374-0779 I know this can be done, but I can't seem to remember or find how to do it. I'm trying to get a computer to connect, via modem, to another computer. I had trouble getting the modem to dial the number (using tones and pulses). So I wanted to pick up my phone, dial the number, and then enter a command to let my computer take over after that so that it would respond to the other computer's modem tone. But nothing I tried works. If I just go off-hook (ATh1) the modem stays in command mode. If I type ATDT without a number, the modem says "no dialtone". Anyone have any idea? ------------------------------ From: fontenay@muguet.univ-tlse1.fr (Eric de Fontenay) Subject: Info on Interconnection and State Regulation Date: Tue, 4 Oct 94 12:18:15 MET I am looking for information on the economic aspects of interconnection between networks as well as descriptions of cases in various countries. I am also looking to compile a list of regulatory, legislative and judicial decisions on tariff regulation and competitive entry. If anyone could point out where on Internet I can find the information, I would really appreciate it (I cannot use gopher or www for now but can ftp.) Eric Bourdeau de Fontenay fontenay@gremaq.univ-tlse1.fr ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Oct 94 8:58:03 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: 910 and 919 Both Useable I made calls to Greensboro, NC on the Orange Card, one in area 919 and one in 910. This was done on Sept. 15; according to my notes, the full cutover to 910 was seven months ago. ------------------------------ From: de@moscom.com (David Esan) Subject: Pager For Kids Date: 4 Oct 94 12:36:56 GMT Organization: Moscom Corporation, Pittsford NY My children are now of the age that they are beginning to disappear into the various backyards of their friends in suburbia. This does make it difficult to find them if they are needed, or it makes me sound like some hillbilly hootin' and hollerin' until I can find them rascals. I thought that a short range pager, nothing fancy, just a beep, must be an easier way to summon them home. Can a person set up a paging system like this (say a one mile range) or would I have to contact a real company and pay big $$? Thanks for any help. David Esan de@moscom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Radio Shack has just what you are looking for. They sell a complete paging system with both a base unit and receiver. You can buy additional receivers as desired, and the recievers can be individually addressed. They operate on seven watts of power and Radio Shack says the range can be up to two miles under average conditions. If you put an antenna on your roof (CB antenna will work fine) then the range can be even better. I think you can get up to a hundred receivers on the system since each has a unique two digit code which is punched in at the base to send a signal. These are nothing fancy at all, just tone- only beepers. PAT] ------------------------------ From: pingpong@netcom.com (Robert Shain) Subject: Script to Download Unix Mail Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 14:36:47 GMT I am looking for a script for Procomm that will download UNIX mail from the Internet. I think the new version of Wincomm has this built in. Bob ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #385 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa17290; 4 Oct 94 20:56 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10241; Tue, 4 Oct 94 16:07:13 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA10216; Tue, 4 Oct 94 16:07:03 CDT Date: Tue, 4 Oct 94 16:07:03 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410042107.AA10216@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #386 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Oct 94 16:07:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 386 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Information Superhighway - GAO Report (Keith Bonney) Usenet Newsgroups on TV Cable - Why Not? (sp@questor.org) Meridian and NANP (Paul Samuelson) AT&T Easylink Information Wanted (Merryl Hastie) Mega-Comm 1-800 ANI (Tod Bjorkman) Cellular From a Small Plane (Linc Madison) Freestanding Fax Modem/Printerless Fax Machine (Anthony E. Siegman) Northern Telecom Phone Number Wanted (Marco M. Panzanella) Questions on Using GPS Time Codes For Network Timing (Mike Foltz) Answering Machine With Modem Recognition (Jan Mandel) Roaming Report - SF Bay Area to New Zealand via GTE (Laurence Chiu) Summary of Replies: Cell One is Becoming ... (Stan Schwartz) Does Anyone Know Where to Find ... (Pawel Dobrowolski) Internet From Argentina (James Madsen) Re: Telecommuting Law (John E. Lundgren) Re: PBXs and NANP (Richard Newman) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: gao-docs@MAILHOST.GAO.GOV (gao-docs) Subject: Information Superhighway - GAO Report Date: 4 Oct 1994 13:23:38 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway The U.S. General Accounting Office, the Congressional watchdog agency, has recently released the following report: INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY - ISSUES AFFECTING DEVELOPMENT (GAO/RCED-94-285) September 30, 1994 This report is available both in print and electronically. ***************** ELECTRONIC ORDER INFORMATION **************** To access the reports as FULL TEXT ASCII electronic files from the Government Printing Office (GPO) BBS, follow these steps: 1) TELNET to and designate "port 3001" or dial 202-512-1387; (***NOTE*** Depending on how your system accesses the TELNET feature, you may need to TELNET to this address: ^^^^^ and hit return a few times after connecting. 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To order a FREE copy, see PRINTED COPY ORDER INFORMATION section above. SUBSCRIPTION: GAO'S MONTHLY CATALOG OF REPORTS & TESTIMONY Each month, GAO issues a catalog titled "Reports and Testimonies Issued in Month/Year". This catalog includes abstracts of the items issued that month, arranged by subject. The catalog also includes an order form and order information. Subject areas include: Health, Defense, Environment, Transportation, Education, International Affairs, Budget, Tax, and many other subject areas involving federal spending. For a FREE mail subscription to GAO's "Reports and Testimonies Issued in Month/Year", please send a request via one of the modes described above in the PRINTED COPY ORDER INFORMATION section. *************************************************************** GAO REPORTS CATALOGED ON OCLC All current GAO reports are cataloged on the OCLC system. *************************************************************** SUGGESTIONS/COMMENTS GAO is very interested in your feedback on products and services. We welcome any suggestions you might have to help improve our services. Because of the volume of inquiries, we are unable to directly respond to each suggestion. However, we can assure you that all comments posted will be read and passed on to the appropriate GAO office. Please forward comments and suggestions to: Thank you. BACKGROUND The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) is a nonpartisan agency within the legislative branch of government. GAO conducts audits, surveys, investigations, and evaluations of federal programs. This work is either self initiated or done at the request of congressional committees or members. GAO's findings and recommendations are published as reports to congressional members or delivered as testimony to congressional committees. ************************************************************* Thank You. Keith Bonney Information Services Center Office of Information Management and Communications U.S. General Accounting Office Room 6530 Washington, DC 20548 202-512-4448 VOICE 202-512-3373 FAX ------------------------------ From: sp@questor.org Subject: Usenet Newsgroups on TV Cable - Why Not? Date: 4 Oct 1994 10:55:54 -0700 Organization: The Questor Project, Vancouver, BC - voxfon: +1 604 687 4777 With all the talk about the "Information Superhighway", this may sound like a simple solution to cutting down on the net bandwidth, but: Why not make all the Usenet newsgroups available on a sub-carrier on local tv-cable systems? It seems to me that the entire newsfeed could easily be made available as a constant serial bitstream, say at 14.4kbps (or even at v.34 28.8kbps). All anyone would need to receive the data would be a cheap FM receiver module tuned to the carrier frequency, and a cheap RS-232 interface. Appropriate software would grab only the wanted newsgroups for writing to disk and reading at one's leisure. The cost could be almost free, and a receiver could be made available as a kit for less than $50. Going a bit further, premium newsgroups like "Clarinet" could be encrypted and also supplied, as well as FidoNet, et alia. The phone lines could then be used to only *input* news articles and replies, and to exchange e-mail. This is already being done on a commercial basis via some cable companies, to supply commercial (i.e. UPI) newsfeeds, under the name "Xpress News Service". It is also being done via satellite, so why not on local cable? Steve Pershing FREE ACCESS TO E-MAIL & NEWS - INFO on Environment, Science, Medicine, AIDS, Native (Indigenous) Issues and more. We sellZyXEL and other products world-wide to support this Free service. :::::> Info from: mail-server@questor.org <::::: [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One mistake in your letter deals with equating Clarinet and Fidonet. They are as different as night and day. The former is a subscription news service which travels around the internet using the same transport mechanisms as Usenet. It consists of many various news groups also. On the other hand, Fidonet is a cooperative network consisting of many small, mostly independent BBS operators for the exchange of email between BBS' and their own news groups which they call 'echomail'. There are gateways between the Internet and Fidonet. All these names with 'net' as the suffix in them get confusing at times, don't they? ... for example, I try to tell people there is both the (uppercase 'I') Internet and something different called the (lowercase 'i') internet, but it seems to be a hard concept for many people to grasp. The Internet is one of several networks cooperating on the internet. The internet is all of us no matter what site or network (i.e. Fidonet, Bitnet, UUCP -- is it still around; for that matter is Bitnet still around? -- MCI Mail, etc. Internet is a specific group of networks known as .edu, .com, .mil, and others. The various 'domains' of .edu .com and others use the Internet as their gateway or exchange to each other. In turn, Internet uses the internet to pass its collected (from .edu .com etc) traffic to various other networks such as Fidonet, Bitnet, MCI Mail, etc. Lots of things happen on these various networks, and naming conventions in recent years have become so blurred that it gets hard at times to understand all the differences. For example, the '.us domain' of Internet is really not a domain at all ... its a short-cut or alias addressing scheme which really refers to a lot of sites which used to be UUCP connected. UUCP of course means 'unix to unix copy protocol'. Then we have Usenet, which is simply a collection of newsgroups that propogate around the various networks but is not a network at all. I think what's wrong with the suggestion made is that the cable television operators would want too much money and control over the whole thing. But who knows? It might work out quite well. Other comments? PAT] ------------------------------ From: pss@aol.com (PSS) Subject: Meridian and NANP Date: 3 Oct 1994 23:12:06 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) I have a Meridian SL-1, Option 21E, Release 19 and need to program it for the dialing plan changes. Specifically, here in ND we now need to dial the 701 NPA for all non-local calls. What I have done so far, which seems to work, is remove the 1701 HNPA and add a 1701 NPA. That allows me to use digit manipulation and routing in my own NPA. Is that the correct way? Is there a better way? Thanks in advance, Paul Samuelson ------------------------------ From: mhastie@infocomp.csir.co.za (Merryl Hastie) Subject: AT&T Easylink Information Wanted Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 14:00:44 Organization: CSIR Does anyone know what exactly AT&T Easylink is and what services it offers. Apparently it is some kind of commercial service available in Kenya. Is it something like the Internet? Thanks in advance, Merryl [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: AT&T Easylink is one of the older email services here in the USA, having started in the early 1980's. Originally it was Western Union Easylink, and was a 'paperless' telex network WUTCO devised to try and re-capture some of the business it was rapidly losing to computers and modems fifteen years ago. Instead of having to install an old-fashioned Telex or TWX machine at your place of business you could get just a terminal and modem. You could add a printer if you wanted. Users could send and receive messages from any Telex or TWX machine in the world, just like the much older telegraph machines. It also had a news service called FYI (For Your Information) and other premium services. AT&T bought it from WUTCO a decade ago and ran it for awhile parallel to its own AT&T Mail service. (By the way, AT&T Mail originally -- twenty years ago -- was strictly an internal email network for the old Bell System.) I think Easylink was eventually merged into AT&T Mail, and honestly, your letter today was the first time I had heard of the system in at least a couple years. Is AT&T still operating Easylink as a stand-alone product in some parts of the world? I guess there are countries where Telex is still the primary way of doing email. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Oct 1994 18:37:57 +0800 From: tbjorkm@nma.mnet.uswest.com (Tod Bjorkman) Subject: Mega-Comm 1-800 ANI Hi, I'm looking for information on hardware that is compatable with AT&Ts "Mega Com" service. From what I hear, this service gives the subscriber access to the ANI of an incoming 1-800 call. Any information would be appreciated. Tod Bjorkman Lan Admin. US WEST Tel 206-447-2854 tbjorkm@nma.mnet.uswest.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 00:54:57 -0700 From: LincMad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Cellular From a Small Plane As I was driving through San Francisco the other day, I saw a dealer of cellular phones with a sign painted in the window with a biplane trailing a banner announcing that you could use their cellular phones from any small plane. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to make a note of the dealer's name, nor whether the carrier was Cellular One (Pacific Bell) or GTE Mobilnet. I was under the impression that using a cellphone from any sort of an airplane was a bad idea, if not outright illegal. Certainly a little Cessna isn't likely to be up at 39,000 feet, but there are "small planes" that can go well above 10,000 feet, from which altitude they could easily reach a good many cells in a populated area like San Francisco. Even from an altitude of just 3,000 feet, you're clear of all the hills and buildings in most of the Bay Area. Linc Madison * Oakland, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Oct 94 8:47:42 PDT From: Anthony E. Siegman Subject: Freestanding Fax Modem/Printerless Fax Machine Is there such a thing as a "free standing" fax modem with a modest amount of memory, or a small fax machine with no scanning or printing engine, that can receive (small) faxes and store them until one turns on a computer and pulls off the received data? I have a TelePort Gold fax modem on my Mac at home which works fine for sending and receiving very occasional faxes; but I don't like to have to leave the Mac powered up and the HDs spinning all the time... siegman@ee.stanford.edu ------------------------------ From: mmp@acsu.buffalo.edu (Marco M. Panzanella) Subject: Northern Telecom Phone Number Wanted Organization: UB Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 16:59:14 GMT I am looking for the telephone and/or address for NORTHEN TELECOM which is located in Canada. Specifically, I need to obtain their protocal information for Type-3 Switched 56 PSDS. Any info is very appreciated. Thanks! Marco mmp@eng.buffalo.edu ------------------------------ From: foltzmik@sgate.com (Mike Foltz) Subject: Questions on Using GPS Time Codes For Network Timing Date: 4 Oct 1994 18:18:21 GMT Organization: Southgate Internet Host I have a couple of questions regarding GPS and IRIG time code signals. I also don't have any indepth knowledge of GPS. We are looking at the use of GPS as a network timming reference. Is GPS and IRIG considered separate time code signals? What is the difference between them? Is one better than the other? What makes GPS so special for being a timming reference? Any experiences with using GPS or Loran as timming references? Is there any literature available that I can be directed to in order to understand more about GPS and its usage as a timming reference? Thank you, Mike Foltz 703-803-8361 foltzmik@sgate.com ------------------------------ From: jmandel@carbon.denver.colorado.edu (Jan Mandel) Subject: Answering Machine With Modem Recognition Date: 04 Oct 1994 21:50:00 -0600 Organization: University of Colorado at Denver Anyone can recommend answering machine that would pick up only voice calls and pass modem calls to a modem? TIA, Jan Mandel, Center for Computational Math, University of Colorado at Denver jmandel@colorado.edu ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Roaming report - SF Bay Area to New Zealand via GTE Date: 4 Oct 1994 13:39:44 GMT Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] I recently made a trip to New Zealand and wanted to use my phone there (I am a GTE Mobilnet subscriber). Though this part took some time since I never managed to reach the right person at GTE, eventually GTE arranged with Telecom NZ so that I could roam and gave me a new phone number to be used in NZ only. My phone did not need to be programmed. Upon arriving in NZ I noticed my Roam light was on and I could make and receive calls locally. Quite impressive. Cost was $3/day roaming charge and $1.50/minute for outgoing calls (NZ$ ) I think the exchange rate is about NZ$1= US$0.6). A bonus was no charge for incoming calls and since I used it more for receiving then making calls it was a worthwhile exercise. Just my experiences. Laurence Chiu | lchiu@crl.com Walnut Creek, California | Tel (work) (510)412-4730 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: An interesting new form of cellular fraud came to my attention recently. It seems that many/most cellular companies handle roamers by assigning them a temporary phone number to use while in their territory. If you subscribe to a service such as 'follow me' or Fast Track as Ameritech calls it, then when you activate that feature in another city, the carrier in that city assigns you a number and tells your home carrier what number is to be used for call-forwarding purposes. Well ... it seems like some carriers use the same old numbers over and over again for roamers in their territory, and on those numbers for the sake of administrative convenience, the ESN is not checked or verified like it would be for their own customers with calls to/from their own numbers. So some people have found that if you learn the block of numbers used by, let's say, Cellular One Chicago over and over for roamers here, all you need to do is program your own phone to one of those numbers and make/receive calls with impunity at no charge. The same gag used to work with Radio Shack's cellular demo line. All RS stores had a cellular phone number they could use to demo their products. Any phone in their stock would work for the simple reason the carrier did not verify the ESN ... how could they if the dealer had dozens of phones in stock to be displayed, demoed and hopefully sold? Of course since any phone in their stock could make calls when programmed to that phone number, so could *anyone else's phone* when programmed to that number. Also there are phones laying around all over the place in the carrier's customer service office and technical office. A bunch of phone numbers are available, but the ESN is not checked as a matter of administrative convenience. A tech going out to a job wants to grab a phone and go. To have to program the ESN to a given phone number each time around is too much of a hassle. So phreaks began learning the phone numbers (a) used by the carriers for day-to-day temporary assignment to roamers, (b) used for administrative and testing purposes by the carrier itself, and (c) used by very large dealers like Radio Shack for demonstrations. Needless to say, a good time was had by all. There were limitations on the numbers which could be dialed -- not technical limits, but certainly pragmatic considerations. Radio station request lines, hotel switchboards, pay stations, etc; those were all okay but *never* a call to a private residence or your home. After all, when 'they' got a bellyfull of it, and got hit with loads of long-distance and international calls, 'they' started auditing the bills a little closer. Would you want 'them' to call your mother and ask her who she spoke to in Kansas City on a cellular phone a month ago? "... Just an error in our bookkeeping ma'm, we are trying to straighten out the billing and get the bill to the right person ..." and mom replies, "Oh! You must mean my son! .... such a good boy! and so smart with computers and telephones .... " ... "Thank you madam, that's all we need to know ...". None the less, I think the scam is still going on where the roamer temporary numbers and the carrier admin numbers are concerned. PAT] ------------------------------ From: stans@panix.com (Stan Schwartz) Subject: Summary: Cell One is Becoming ... Date: 4 Oct 1994 00:37:06 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC I received a number of responses to my CellOne NY/NJ problems and I have condensed them here. Sorry about the delayed response. From: clawsona@yvax.byu.edu > Well, you have a couple of options with your problem. The easiest is > to just leave the phone at home and get a pager. Really. What possible > consequence would stem from not being able to talk to somebody for the > five minutes that it would require to find a pay phone? That way would > be cheaper as well ... Actually, in the NY area, I only give out my pager number. That way, I have option of paying to speak with someone. Out of area, it doesn't pay for me to pay for national paging - that's why I depend on the cell. From: dreuben@netcom.com (Cid Technologies) > Saturday night in Toronto, I tried to make a call and I alternately > got a re-order or a CanTel operator. When trying to call in from a > pay phone, I got my voice mail. > Ok ... if you tried to dial OUT and got a re-order/fast busy or > operator, then I would say that they just didn't remove the Fraud > Protection Feature. But you SHOULD have been able to RECEIVE calls and > use the Do Not Disturb commands of *350/*35. They DO work in Canada, > and all over the NACN, for that matter. (And also in CT and Western > Mass for CO/NY customers roaming on Bell Atlantic/Metro Mobile). They DID remove the FPF - I haven't yet had them put it back on. > Did you have Do Not Disturb set to not allow calls while roaming, ie, > *35? This would explain why your calls went to voicemail. Yet you > SHOULD be able to hit *350 EVEN IF you have the Fraud Protection > Feature engaged, and thus bring calls into the Cantel/Toronto system. No, I was receiving calls while I was still in Buffalo. >> I went down to a pay phone (Bell Canada, with the neat two-line display), >> and I called 1-800-242-7327 (CellOne NY customer service). I got the >> menu choices and was holding for a rep for about 30 seconds when a >> recording came on to tell me that the number I dialed could not be >> reached from my calling area. BUT I HAD!!! > Unless the Millenium (?) Bell Canada phone was defective, I can't > understand why you got that. I've called CO/NY a number of times from > Quebec and Ontario, and always got through. Can someone verify that it > still works? If not, I'll call them and ask them when they removed it > when they are obviously having so many problems in Canada. I also tried the number from my hotel room, with the same results. > I would suggest that you tell CO/NY to once and for all REMOVE the > fraud protection feature from your account PERMANENTLY, or at least > until they get their system fixed. I did this, and they totally > understood why I was asking to do it and agreed that since I did roam > a lot it made sense to do it. I have, and they did. ----------- Once again, Cell One's reps have read the Digest and contacted me directly. The representative that Doug and I have both spoke with is quite helpful, and wants to make every attempt to work things out. Sometimes it seems that we are beta testers for their service. I would like to add that I recently travelled to Colorado, and I received SEAMLESS NACN call delivery (to the same phone that Canada wouldn't talk to). Kudos for that one! ------------------------------ From: dobrowol@husc7.harvard.edu (Pawel Dobrowolski) Subject: Does Anyone Know Where to Find ... Date: 4 Oct 1994 00:46:30 GMT Organization: Harvard University Science Center Hi folx! Does any kind soul out there know where to find: (1) Data regarding the fixed costs for the local loop of a wireline network and the fixed costs of the local loop of a stationary wireless network; (2) The coordinates of the US office of Deutsche Telekom (I tried directory assistance for NYC and Washington, DC but that didn't work). Many Thanx, Pawel ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 11:25:44 -0700 From: jmadsen@qualcomm.com (James Madsen) Subject: Internet From Argentina Can anyone recommend how one can connect to the Internet from Argentina? Preference would be from Cordoba (the country's second largest city), but any info would be appreciated. ------------------------------ From: jlundgr@eis.calstate.edu (John E. Lundgren) Subject: Re: Telecommuting Law Date: 04 Oct 1994 13:56:14 -0700 Organization: California Technology Project of The Calif State Univ cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) writes: > I haven't heard of a federal law to this effect, but California will > be implementing a program that requires employers to pay the state (or > county agency that serves as the state's designee) for each car that > is parked at its facility. This is to promote carpooling and telecommuting. > I guess you could call it an "indirect" telecommuting requirement. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That sounds a lot like the infamous 'head > tax' the Democratic politicians put in place here in Chicago many years > ago which is still in existence. All employers in Chicago have to pay a > certain tax per person/month for each employee who *lives outside Chicago* > but commutes to work. The theory is if the person actually lived here, > the politicians would be able able to tax them directly everytime the > person took a breath. Since people from outside the city don't get the > 'privilege' of paying taxes that are as high as those who do live in the > city, the politicians wanted to make it up to them somehow. :) As large > employers began to flee the area several years ago the response by our > city fathers was 'what ingratitude!' ... you see, its a privilege to > be able to come to Chicago to work everyday. I guess the same is true > of New York and Los Angeles. If telecommuting really catches on, watch > the local yokels figure out a way to put the squeeze on both the home > workers and the companies they work for. PAT] Somehow I detect some sarcasm in Pat's message. I've not read any of the political goings-on in Chicago, so I can't tell if the statements are serious or what. Like "privelege .. come to Chicago.." statement. I remember some required reading in a cass, I believe it was called "The Jungle", and it was about turn of the century Chicago, and the bad life that people had there. It's not that bad today, and probably will never go back to being that bad. But then look at Bosnia and Haiti ... I recently read that smog credits are being bought and sold in the L.A. basin. Like I'll sell you some of my excess pollution credits or something like that. What else will they think of ... But the AQMD is serious here, and if you don't get your smog stuff together they will fine you. ANd if they don't do their job, it affects us all with smoggy days and health problems. There were stories recently in the press about the fast food places were going to be required to get catalytic converters for their grills. The amount of smog put out by these businesses is evidently substantial. There is also the attempt at reducing the use of charcoal lighter fluid because it causes smog. I'm not sure if I like all these regulations that seem to curtail the simple freedoms others take for granted. But it has definitely made a difference in the amount of pollution in the air. I hope telecommuting will have the same or greater effect on the smog. John Lundgren $$$$$$ jlundgr@eis.calstate.edu $$ jlundgr@ctp.org $$ jlundgre@rsc.rancho.cc.ca.us $$$$$$ Standard Disclaimers apply. $$ Rancho Santiago College - 17th St. at Bristol - Santa Ana, CA 92706 ------------------------------ From: ricardo@netcom.com Subject: Re: PBXs and NANP Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 03:10:11 GMT Dear Stephen, The issue here is how the PBX was initialy setup to restrict long distance and what 'class of services' were requested by the customer. Example: A business may have initialy requested that some telephones be able to make calls within the lata only and other phones be able to make calls to North America but not international calls. So this would probably require 3 class of services. The first class of service would be 1. It would allow any calls at all. Local, Intralata, Intralata and international. This class of service would probably drop the pbx's dtmf reciever as soon at the trunk group access code was dialed because no control is needed. This class of service will not be changed or affected by the 95 numbering plan change. The second class of service would be intralata calls only. This would allow local and intra lata calls (probably dialed 1+7 or 1+home area code+7). This class would be affected to the point where service to these phones would be reduced to local only (if +7 dialing was set up) because most operating companies will require that the home area code now be dialed for intra lata calls and since the pbx is using the number of digits to decide if the call should be allowed or not it would not allow these intra lata calls even though it should. The last class of service would be North America only. This class would allow 1+10 and 0+10 but not 011. This is a real gotcha. The pbx is usualy programmed to look at the first and second digits of the area code to make a decision. It is programmed to allow any digit in the first area code digit to be 2 through 9 and also be sure that the digit in the second area code digit be 0 or 1. Now here is another gotcha. The new 95 numbering plan says that the first digit in an area code can be a 1 and the second digit in the area code can be a 0 or a 1. The pbx's simple comparison method no longer works. This class of service will not be affected until the customer actualy wants to dial one of the new area codes at which time they would be denied by the pbx. There are some simple solutions to the numbering plan change. PBX's with sophisticated software (MITEL later revisions, most AT&T including older Dimensions and Horizons and all 75/85 products, Northern Telecom later revistions) can be reprogrammed by the maintenance personell to allow the new numbering plan and still enforse the customers restriction requirements. Older pbx's or key systems without advanced and configurable software will require that the internal toll restriction be disabled completely and the toll control functions would have to be enforced by using an external dialer that goes between the pbx and the co's. Individial class of restriction will have to be done using Positive Account Code dialers which can enforce selectable restriction on an account code dialed after the number is dialed, if it is long distance or billable. This was a rather long winded explanation of a simple concept but I hope that the background and example will help some to see where the issues realy apply and where they will not when the numbering plan becomes effective. If there are any additional questions or you with to discuss a specific application or site I am available professionaly to advise you. Please EMAIL your request for consultation and I will return voice telephone number by reply mail. Best wishes and luck, Richard Newman ricardo@netcom.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #386 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04687; 5 Oct 94 17:24 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA26979; Wed, 5 Oct 94 11:02:13 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA26967; Wed, 5 Oct 94 11:02:08 CDT Date: Wed, 5 Oct 94 11:02:08 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410051602.AA26967@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #387 TELECOM Digest Wed, 5 Oct 94 11:02:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 387 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson US Cellular/Poughkeepsie Added to NACN? (Douglas Reuben) Re: Cell Phones froom Airplanes (Steve Cogorno) Infobahn CD-ROM (Ronald Luitwieler) Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? (Stew Pelegan) Re: British Telecom Caller ID (Martin Cook) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (Greg Monti) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (Jason Hillyard) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (Tim Gorman) Re: Usenet Newsgroups on TV Cable - Why Not? (Paul J. J. Harrington) Re: Usenet Newsgroups on TV Cable - Why Not? (Yves Blondeel) Paper Released on Costing Residential Broadband Networks (Steven Byrne) Re: Telecommuting Law (Eric Adamson) Re: Telecommuting Law (John E. Lundgren) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: dreuben@netcom.com (Cid Technologies) Subject: US Cellular/Poughkeepsie Added to NACN? Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 20:44:07 PDT After the recent additions of the Vanguard Cellular northeast (and other?) properties to the NACN, I noted in passing that the Poughkeepsie, NY system (00503) still did not have automatic call delivery, even though it had Cell One/NY's "home rate" roaming (where you pay only your home airtime package's rates, no surcharges or daily charges, etc). This weekend I was in the Poughkeepsie system, and noticed that the standard NACN codes for Do Not Disturb and Call Forwarding *are* working, and that there is indeed automatic call delivery! All features like forwarding and call waiting work fine, and what I welcome as an increasingly common feature with CO/NY's partner systems, all unanswered calls have redirect (bounce back) to voicemail. (CO/NY for some reason doesn't offer No Answer Transfer, unfortunately, but if your NACN system does and Poughkeepsie IS indeed on the NACN, then NAT should also work the same way.) Call-delivery time is also excellent, with only a few extra seconds required to send your call to Poughkeepsie after someone dials your CO/NY number. In almost all cases, callers will not even be able to tell that your call is being sent to another system -- it's quite seamless to them. Compare this to the B side auto call delivery system, where as a NYNEX customer it can take from *35 to 40 seconds* from the time someone dials your local number to the time your phone starts ringing! Many callers complain about the delay, and/or the "Please hold on ... your party is being located" time-killer message, and a lot of them just hang up. I really don't like using the B side delivery system because it is so *unecessarily* slow (its not really a DOJ issue which causes the delay, SWBell/DC, an A-side B-owned company with the same switch that NYNEX, BAMS and SNET uses doesn't have this delay, nor does GTE/SF, so WHY on earth do NYNEX,BAMS, and SNET want to make callers wait so long just to get a hold of a roaming mobile?). But anyhow, I'm not sure if USCell/Poughkeepsie is truly on the NACN because I haven't gotten any NACN-type error messages from them yet. CO/NY may have just set up call-delivery there to be competitive with NYNEX (and to get me to stop whining! :) ). If anyone else from the NACN ventures there, please let me know if your calls are delivered to you too. Presently, you need to be careful in downtown Poughkeepsie, as the next system to the north, Vanguard/Kingston (01513), does not have a "home rate" program with CO/NY. If you receive a call and you accidentally register on the Kingston system, and you answer it, you will pay a daily $3 charge and $.99 per minute. As an aside, I noticed that the Kingston 01513 system is STILL giving you error recordings when you enter valid NACN codes, like *350, *710, etc. These codes to work and do effectuate a change on your home switch, yet Kingston is returning "KI-32" error recordings instead of correctly returning confirmation tones. I also noticed that McCaw's Cell One/Albany (00063) *still* is not doing redirects for unanswered calls. If your phone goes unanswered or for some reason you can not be paged but are still registered in Albany, then callers gets 3 or 4 rings, and then a weird tone, and then a standard "Not in Vehicle" NACN message. If the non-McCaw systems in the Hudson Valley can do redirects, why can't the McCaw system in Albany? I was under the impression that it's a matter of a software upgrade. I'd think they'd want to get Albany set up for this as quickly as possible! Finally, on a totally non-Telecom related note (sort of), did anyone else see the aurora over the mid-Hudson area of Sunday night? I saw it from about 12:30 to 1AM (and then had to get moving). It was a bright green color and spread all over the sky, from east to west, more or less. I've only seen it once before in my life (February 1989 in Greenwich, CT and Westchester County, NY), and each time it was a truly impressive sight. Hope a few others caught it! Doug dreuben@netcom.com / CID Technologies / (203) 499 - 5221 ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Cell Phones From Airplanes Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 22:00:25 PDT Linc Madson said: > I was under the impression that using a cellphone from any sort of an > airplane was a bad idea, if not outright illegal. Certainly a little > Cessna isn't likely to be up at 39,000 feet, but there are "small > planes" that can go well above 10,000 feet, from which altitude they > could easily reach a good many cells in a populated area like San > Francisco. Even from an altitude of just 3,000 feet, you're clear of > all the hills and buildings in most of the Bay Area. I have used a cell phone from a plane on occassion, and it wasn't very pretty. It worked OK, but the last time I was coming over the Altimont Pass, where cell coverage is fairly light. The cell handoffs were brusk; I got cut off a couple of times. The other party heared me fine, and I had a bit of static with occasional bursts of noise. I assume that the cell phone would not affect the plane's instruments, as the pilot gave me the phone to use :-) BTW, it was a Cessna King Air 8 Passenger. The main purpose of the cell phone is to control runway access. Our runway is FAA registered (Wallom Field, CA) and to ensure safety, access must be restricted. However, we needed to allow cross traffic, because there is a service road that crosses the runway. Believe it or not, when preparing for a landing, someone uses the cell phone that is present in all of the planes, and dials a special number. The PBX bridges this line right to the automatic gate, and we can control it remotely to close the access road. There are also warning lamps that go on at each entrance. Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Oct 1994 11:45:59 GMT From: 104836@pc-lab.fbk.EUR.NL (Ronald Luitwieler) Subject: Infobahn CD-ROM Organization: Faculteit Bedrijfskunde, Erasmus University Rotterdam Dear reader, give me the opportunity to introduce myself. I am a student at the Erasmus University Rotterdam and I am currently working on a CD-ROM project. The goal of me and my group is to develop a marketing strategy for a new CD-ROM product (which is briefly outlined below). This CD-ROM offers the possibility to research the impacts of the 'Infobahn' on the environment (businesses, changing markets etc.). The CD will be on the US market early next year, and will be available in Europe (in a modified version) some time later. Our problem now is to get contacts throughout Europe who can help us with this project -- because somehow we have to research the 'market' (which we don't know at this point of time). So if you know people working in this area or people who may be interested in the product, PLEASE CONTACT ME! Brief description of the product: The NII Report is a CD-ROM project covering all aspects of US developments in broadband communications. A CD-ROM published 3 times annually, and accompanied by a book of articles with a overview/exec- utive summary. The book of articles will be around 250 pages. The CD-ROM will be structured around 4 levels of analysis: LEVEL 1: The overview - A summary of all the key developments, based on input from a number of commissioned expert studies. The overview will be around 50 pages of text. LEVEL 2: Commissioned reports - covering both analytic aspects of the NII and specific industrial sectors: (markets, regulation, government policy, technology, corporate strategy, costs/financing, telcos, cable TV, entertainment, nonprofit sector, satellites, drivers.) These commissioned reports will be provided by experts in each of these areas. Each report will be around 20 pages. LEVEL 3: Published articles - on the recommendation of the experts involved providing commissioned reports, there will be but reprint rights to the key articles in each of the twelve areas. In the beginning there will be a base of 100 articles, more in each edition. LEVEL 4: Sources - the huge capacity of the CD-ROM means that large number of key sources can be included in the publication. Key sources will include: Government reports and statements - Congressional papers, including bills, legislative records, reports, testimony - Corporate publications and speeches - Nonprofit reports and documents The report will include a paper publication to act as a portable reference manual and guide. However, its power and usefulness will come from its use as a CD-ROM product. This approach allows the simultaneous development of a powerful menu-driven structure, which allows even neophyte researchers easy access to any part of the report; and massive searching capabilities, both within and across issue areas. It also offers export capabilities: ties to the 'Write' program, cutting to the clipboard, pasting into other applications, or saving to file, or printing. ------------------------------ From: spelegan@csc.com, [Stew Pelegan]@csc.com Subject: Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? Date: 5 Oct 1994 14:52:28 GMT Organization: Computer Sciences Corporation - System Sciences DIvison Reply-To: spelegan@csc.com We have a commercial customer who's asked us to setup a BBS system for them. They've asked us to recommend a telecom option for them to use that best suits their needs. They'd like to start out with 8 lines going into the BBS with the ability to move up to 16, 24, etc. They'd like their customers to have one 800 number to call to reach this BBS, no matter where they are in the US. Their customers will have off-the-shelf modems, ranging from 1200-14.4 baud. My initial recommendation was for T1 if they expected heavy usage (>$3K/month in long distance charges). But I've seen enough articles recently about ISDN and frame relay to be hesitant in putting my recommendation in stone. I know very little about telecommunications, only what I've picked up during conversations with long distance carrier sales people. My brief education on ISDN tells me that if I wish to implement this scenario, people who want to call into our customer's BBS will have to have a special terminal and their local Ma Bell has to offer ISDN. I'm even more cloudy on Frame Relay. Can I have one 800 number with Frame Relay? Do you need a special terminal/modem to dial into a frame relay network? How does it compare to T1? vs. T1 cost? vs. T1 reliability? Please correct any assumptions that I've made T1, ISDN, and Frame Relay. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Stewart Pelegan Environmental Services Computer Sciences Corporation (301) 572-3784 ------------------------------ From: cook@SHAGGY.gfms.bt.co.uk (Martin Cook) Subject: Re: British Telecom Caller ID Date: 5 Oct 1994 12:20:13 GMT Organization: BT Development & Procurement Reply-To: cook@gfms.bt.co.uk Julian Thornhill (jth@ion.le.ac.uk) wrote: > Does anyone know how the caller ID system that British Telecom is > going to introduce in November works? More specifically, how is the > information delivered to the phone? I am told that it differs to the > US system. The following is an extract from part 3 of the uk.telecom FAQ, which is in turn based on an earlier posting to that group my myself: Q: How does Caller Display work? {*} [For a more detailed discussion see 'Caller Display and Call Return' by William Dangerfield, Simon Garrett and Melv Bond in British Telecommuncations Engineering; Volume 12 part 3 (October 1993). Also See Supplies Information Note (SIN) 227.] The system described here is that developed by BT for use on the UK PSTN. It is based on the Bellcore 'CLASS' standard. This has the benefit of allowing CPE manuafacturers to base their UK models on those developed for the North American Market. Most of BT's customers are connected to System X, AXE 10 or TXE4 exchanges and these exchanges are digitally interlinked using CCITT C7 signalling. C7 provides a way of passing the number of the calling number to the distant exchange (this information is used during call tracing). When a call is made to a customer with Caller Display the distant exchange requests the number of the caller originating the call from the exchange at the other end of the C7 link. If the call is not routed totally over C7 links (e.g. the caller is on an old analogue exchange), or the caller is on an interconnected network for which no agreement for the exchange of additional call information is in force, the number will not be complete. In this case customer with Caller Display will get a 'Number Incomplete Message' If on the other hand the caller has deliberately withheld the number, by use of the 141 prefix the Caller Display Customer will get a 'Number Withheld' Message. If the number is complete, and not withheld by the caller the number is routed on to the Caller Display customer over the local access network. For this purpose a V.23 sender has to be installed at every exchange concentrator. When a line is about to receive a call the polarity of the line is reversed prior to the ringing current being applied. If the customer has Caller Display additional messages are interspersed between the polarity reversal and the application of the ringing current. First a tone alert signal is sent and then an alternating series of '0's and '1's lasting 250ms is sent by the V.23 sender to assist the CPE in detecting the imminent arrival of the Caller Display message. The Caller Display message itself contains the following information: - The number of the caller - Reason for absence of number (e.g. number withheld) - Time and Date (Can be used to auto-set CPE clocks) - Caller/Name Text (Intially only used for designating calls from payphones) - Reason for absence of caller name - Call type The Caller Display message takes roughly 0.75 seconds to send, after which the normal ringing current is applied to the line. Martin Cook, E-mail cook@gfms.bt.co.uk Tel +44 1473 224594 Fax +44 1473 255130 Software Engineer, Test Management Applications, BT Development & Procurement. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 18:43:41 EDT From: Greg Monti Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud On page C1 of the October 4, 1994, {Washington Post} is a story noting that Ivy James Lay (aka "Knight Shadow") was arrested in connection with the theft of 50,000 telephone calling card numbers. The card numbers were sold and were eventually used to make $50,000,000 worth of free calls. He's out on bail. The Secret Service said that Lay had used software which he installed at his workplace, a telephone switching facility in Cary, North Carolina, to capture calling card numbers as they were dialed. Numbers of Sprint, AT&T, and local company cards were stolen along with MCI card numbers. Some of the stolen numbers were ordinary credit cards that allow calls to be charged to them. The story says that other search warrants were served and that further arrests (of 9 to 12 others) are expected. The story implies that AT&T, Sprint and MCI all noticed an increase in fraud charged to cards that had been used in Spring, 1994, from phones in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area. The companies reported the fraud pattern to the Secret Service in May. Greg Monti, Tech Mgr, FISPO, Distribution Division National Public Radio Phone: +1 202 414-3343 635 Massachusetts Av NW Fax: +1 202 414-3036 Washington, DC 20001-3753 Internet: gmonti@npr.org ------------------------------ From: upsetter@mcl.ucsb.edu (Jason Hillyard) Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud Date: 5 Oct 1994 00:08:25 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Barbara > But a hundred thousand calling cards and fifty million dollars in > traffic???? At what point are certain publishers/editors on the > Internet going to wake up? Computer crime is growing expotentially. > I think it is time to have another massive crackdown, similar to > Operation Sun Devil a few years ago. Let's start getting really > tough on hackers and phreaks. I wonder if the long distance companies will ever wake up. This kind of crime is only possible because of the utter lack of security inherent in calling cards. Why are the long distance companies so cheap when it comes to implementing secure billing systems? In your reference to Operation Sundevil, which part of the crackdown would you like to see repeated? The illegal Secret Service raids? People having their equipment seized without any charges pressed? The insignificant number of convictions? Jason ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Oct 94 07:18:00 PDT From: Tim Gorman Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > traffic???? At what point are certain publishers/editors on the > Internet going to wake up? Computer crime is growing expotentially. > I think it is time to have another massive crackdown, similar to > Operation Sun Devil a few years ago. Let's start getting really > tough on hackers and phreaks. While I am very, very disappointed that a fellow telecommunications employee would stoop to such crime, I must also point out that the problem here is not the amount of crime but the amount of this individual crime. Any response to this type of crime should be tempered by this realization. Tim Gorman tg6124@ping.com ------------------------------ From: phrrngtn@dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk (Paul J. J. Harrington) Subject: Re: Usenet Newsgroups on TV Cable - Why Not? Date: 5 Oct 1994 14:37:13 GMT Organization: University Of St. Andrews sp@questor.org writes: > Why not make all the Usenet newsgroups available on a sub-carrier on > local tv-cable systems? I don't know if it has been done yet, but cable may be a good place to use multicast IP and there is a mechanism for getting Usenet via multicast: Muse (archie for usenix-muse.ps). for more details/objections c.f. endless past discussions on Usenet over radio, teletext, satelite, CD ... Pat wrote: > different called the (lowercase 'i') internet, but it seems to be a > hard concept for many people to grasp. The Internet is one of several > networks cooperating on the internet. The internet is all of us no > matter what site or network (i.e. Fidonet, Bitnet, UUCP -- is it still To which I respectfully say 'Bzzt, wrong answer'. An internet is a network of networks. The Internet is an internet which runs IP. The 'internet' which which you mention is usually called 'The Matrix' (or is that 'the matrix') -- a term coined by John S. Quarterman. Paul Harrington, phrrngtn@dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk +44 334 463261 Division of Computer Science, St Andrews University, Scotland KY16 9SS ------------------------------ From: yves.blondeel@fundp.ac.be (Yves Blondeel) Subject: Re: Usenet Newsgroups on TV Cable - Why Not? Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 14:27:51 Organization: FUNDP, Namur, Belgium In article sp@questor.org writes: > Why not make all the Usenet newsgroups available on a sub-carrier on > local tv-cable systems? (** extract from responses I got to a related question a week ago **) Continental Cablevision (Cambridge Massachussets) and PSI Cable Internet (Performance Systems International) started providing corporate IP connections via CATV in March 1994. Individual connections to homes will start mid-October. Boston College is working with them to provide the same throughout the campus. The system is in test now and will come online as Project Agora in September 1995. CABLEVISION in New York (City) is working on providing a multimedia front-end for their subscribers that includes Internet as well as online service options such as Compuserve and America On Line, etc ... Yves Blondeel yves.blondeel@fundp.ac.be ------------------------------ From: Steven=Byrne%CFP%BTCE@smtpgate.dotc.gov.au Date: Wed, 5 Oct 94 11:09:34 EST Subject: Paper Released on Costing Residential Broadband Networks Pat: I thought TELECOM Digest readers may be interested to hear about the release of some recent work of ours about costing the deployment of residential broadband networks. I would be grateful if you could pass this on to the readers of the Digest. Thanks, Steven Byrne Principal Research Officer Communications Futures Project ______________________________________________________ Australian Communications Futures Project ______________________________________________________ The Communications Futures Project (CFP) has recently released another in its series of Work-in-Progress papers. The paper, reporting on work the CFP has undertaken to examine the cost of deploying residential broadband services in Australia, is now available free in either hard copy form or on-line for anonymous FTP in a variety of formats (see below). A summary of the paper follows: COSTING NEW RESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS CFP Work in Progress Paper No. 5 This paper reports on one aspect of work being undertaken by the Communications Futures Project on likely market and network developments for information services in Australia over the decade from 1995 to 2005 and beyond. It presents the results of an examination of the costs of providing residential information services using a range of delivery platforms. It was foreshadowed in CFP paper DELIVERY TECHNOLOGIES IN THE NEW COMMUNICATIONS WORLD that the CFP would undertake further analysis of the relative costs of providing these services on a range of delivery platforms. This paper reports preliminary results of this analysis. It presents broad estimates of the costs of rolling out various delivery platforms, although much of the discussion in this paper focuses on HFC networks. METHODOLOGY AND SCOPE The approach taken in this paper involves estimating the costs of the various components of each of the platforms. An estimated cost per household was derived for 1994 for each of the platforms identified in the earlier work. That is: wireless platforms * direct broadcasting to the home by satellite (DBS) using digital signals, and * microwave multipoint distribution systems (MDS) cable-based systems * optic fibre systems, particularly hybrid optic fibre - coaxial cable (HFC) systems, and * the asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) system using existing twisted pair telephone lines. Estimates were made of the likely movements in component costs over time and between different geographic areas. Using a spreadsheet based model cost estimates were then derived for all households in different geographic areas and in Australia in total for each year form 1995 to 2005. This approach is part of a structured modelling approach to costs to be revealed more fully in a subsequent paper. For hard copies, either: write to: Research Manager Communications Futures Project Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics GPO BOX 501 CANBERRA ACT 2601 AUSTRALIA or fax (+61) 6 274 7170 or telephone (+61) 274 6016. or email Steven=Byrne%cfp%btce@smtpgate.dotc.gov.au For on-line versions of the paper, look in the directory 'cfp_documents' on the following anonymous FTP site: happy.dotc.gov.au View the file !index!.txt to see what is available in the CFP directory, and in what formats. Steven Byrne. Communications Futures Project. Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics. Canberra, Australia. Internet: Steven=Byrne%cfp%btce@smtpgate.dotc.gov.au ------------------------------ From: Eric Subject: Re: Telecommuting Law Date: Tue, 4 Oct 94 21:05:58 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) I seriously doubt that even if a federal law mandating telecommuting were to reach the floor, it would be poorly received by all parties, and would readily be voted down. The possibility of incentives being offered would likely be welcome by most parties involved. The social impact of telecommuting will be deep and has far-reaching implications. I have heard mostly environmental arguments for telecommuting, and it seems quite reasonable that even with the resulting increase in power con- sumption from computers & networks, this would be much more efficiently used power. The mammoth task will be to predict the impact on industries that are supported by the business sector. If telecommuting were accepted, and taken to an extreme, which is highly unlikely at present, we could expect to see revenues dropping for oil companies, garment manufacturers, and food franchises. While prices may favor the consumer as demand falls, this would likely be short-lived, and would be offset eventually by layoffs, and a resulting drop in the GNP. This is, of course, a very narrow look at what could be expected, and as I am only an armchair economist, I cannot account for all the factors involved. I DO, however, feel that the social impact would be positive. People do not need the workplace as a means of forcing them to socialize. Given the extra time that telecommuting offers, they would readily seek other, more beneficial forms of socializing. The mere ability for working parents to more easily accomodate the needs of their children, is likely to have a more positive social benefit, by allowing the family unit to function more naturally. I seriously doubt that the effect of removing adults, who are already developed and in no need of further socialization, would outweigh the benefit of having hildren who have received the proper amount of love and attention from their parents, in their formative years. Of course, telecommuting is not a valid alternative to a great majority of occupations, and it is obvious that the benefits of telecommuting would be enjoyed by only a relatively confined portion of society, who, unfortunately, can already considered among the advantaged. So, it's not exactly a social panacea, but it is definitely the direction of things to come. (My apologies for not starting a new thread ... I didn't realize I would have this much to write! Perhaps those who reply would consider starting one, as I have definitely strayed from the point of the initial post. My apologies, again.) Eric Adamson ------------------------------ From: jlundgr@eis.calstate.edu (John E. Lundgren) Subject: Re: Telecommuting Law Date: 03 Oct 1994 18:33:02 -0700 Organization: California Technology Project of The Calif State Univ russell@tekelec.com (Travis Russell) writes: > In article , rwarren@Cayman.COM (Ralph > Warren) says: > Failure to comply to this law will result in fines. I have heard fines > up to $25,000 for non-compliance. Telecommuting is one of the options > that a company in Los Angeles can provide, but is not a requirement. Our college district is subject to a $25,000 fine *per day* for non-compliance. I've heard rumors that we have been fined, but I've nothing on paper. I personally think that telecommuting and higher bandwidths, either by fiber or ADSL, will change the way we work. Right now, we've had to suffer through several years of commuting detours while the I-5, the main thoroughfare thru L.A. and Orange Counties, gets widened and HOV lanes added. I think that I will live to see the same freeway lanes turned into parking lots when people have taken advantage of the telecommuting and other options. (I'm not holding my breath, though.) John Lundgren $$$$$$ jlundgr@eis.calstate.edu $$ jlundgr@ctp.org $$ jlundgre@rsc.rancho.cc.ca.us $$$$$$ Standard Disclaimers apply. $$ Rancho Santiago College - 17th St. at Bristol - Santa Ana, CA 92706 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #387 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa07186; 5 Oct 94 19:31 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA28559; Wed, 5 Oct 94 11:32:04 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA28551; Wed, 5 Oct 94 11:32:00 CDT Date: Wed, 5 Oct 94 11:32:00 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410051632.AA28551@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #388 TELECOM Digest Wed, 5 Oct 94 11:32:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 388 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Communications In/After a Disaster (Kevin Jessup) Free E-Mag Covers Wireless, ATM, Frame Relay, SMDS, FDDI (David S. Lewis) Correction: 310 Overlay Details (Greg Monti) networkMCI Wants to do Local Dial Tone (Greg Monti) Re: Card Call Ripoffs; Calling China Cheap (Laurence Chiu) TAPISDK/ATVSP.TSP Problem (Douglas H. Quebbeman) Re: Recommendations For Answering Machines? (Al Varney) Re: Okay, So I Want to Start My Own Local Telco ... How? (Al Varney) Re: NYNEX to Stop Charging For Touch-Tone! (Wes Leatherock) Re: Fax DID Technologies - What is E&M (Garry Gruenke) Re: True Voice ... True Difference? (Henry Wertz) Re: True Voice ... True Difference? (Ken Krechmer) Re: British Telecom Caller-ID (Ed Ellers) Re: Questions on Using GPS Time Codes For Network Timing (Ed Ellers) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: kevin.jessup@mail.mei.com (Kevin Jessup) Subject: Communications In/After a Disaster Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 11:24:13 GMT Organization: marquette electronics, inc I'm interested in your experiences and opinions regarding emergency telecommunications employed in the event of a disaster. Disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tornados, even riots. I'd like any info/opinions you have regarding the survivability of the commercial telecommunications infrastructure after such events and any experience you have on how fast service was restored after the event. I'm aware of the importance of amateur radio when all access to commercial telecomm fails. I won't discount the occaissional ;-) usefullness of Citizens Band either. What I am looking for is your experiences using cell phones or even internet services such as Internet Relay Chat after a disaster hits. I have both cellular phones and VHF/UHF amateur radio for my use. Having lived in Wisconsin all my life, I have only experienced a "small" tornado. I'm looking for opinions from those who have had to deal with a more wide-spread event. How robust is the cell phone infrastructure? In a very localized disaster (tornado) you can still probably hit more than one cell site (with your cell phone) even if one or two towers (receive sites) are wiped out. Also, assume here that local land-line communication is dead or overloaded. In that case, does having a cell phone make any difference (the cell sites eventually access the land-lines anyway)? I also understand that cell phones are auto- matically given alternating priority (via the Access Overload Class value burned into every cell phone) in the event of system overload. Did you experience this priority switching? Were you able to access during certain hours but but others? How important and responsive were local government emergency services to your IMMEDIATE emergency COMMUNICATIONS needs? If you utilized an amateur radio operator's help (perhaps via an Amateur Radio Emergency Services station), do you feel it served your purpose (provided help or relayed the message) in a timely fashion? Had you NOT used it or used an alternative method, would/did help have arrived (or would the message have been delivered) any faster (or at all)? What about evolving commercial telecomm? Cell sites will shrink in size and power requirements as technology advances. The Steinbrecher mini-cell fits in a large trunk and costs 1/10th a conventional sell site. This make battery/generator back-up more feasible. Will commercial telecomm do that? The mini-cell also encourages more densely packed cells resulting in better coverage and redundancy. Looking into the future, are there any opinions on the ambitious (some much more so than others) LEOS (Low Earth Orbitting Satellite) projects and their promise of hand-held coverage immune to local disasters? How dependent will the various LEOS be on ground stations? How many ground stations are actually required? Finally, amateur radio usually (only?) provides text (files and keyboard-to- keyboard) and voice (even if via Morse code) communication. If multimedia services were available via amateur radio (high-speed file transfer, fax) would you have used them? Note that "business related" traffic is NOT legal via amateur radio. Only personal ("Hi honey. We're just fine.") and emergency ("She's trapped and has a broken leg!" or "The dam is about to burst!") traffic is allowed. I've found no shortage of articles on the importance of amateur radio in an emergency situation in the amateur radio related publications (QST, 73, Amateur Radio, etc). I agree with them. However they are seldom self- critical. On the other hand, consumer publications such as Mobile Office now regularly carry stories on how cell-phones and cell-phone-based fax and data modems did the job after disasters. Just how much of this is hype and how much is true? All serious commentary is welcome. I also would enjoy reading your speculations on the future. Thanks. This really isn't a survey. Just looking for opinions and hoping to stimulate a little discussion. :-) No flame-wars please. kevin.jessup@mail.mei.com Marquette Electronics, Inc. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA N9SQB, ARRL, Amateur Radio ------------------------------ From: callewis@netcom.com (David Scott Lewis) Subject: Free E-Mag Covers Wireless, ATM, Frame Relay, SMDS, FDDI Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 11:39:10 GMT The long-awaited (and long overdue) second part of Issue 940425 will be transmitted over the next several days. As a reminder, the HOTT (Hot Off The Tree) Internet-based e-magazine is a FREE, monthly (10/year) update on the latest in VR, telepresence & intelligent user interfaces; AI & "intelligent" agent-oriented software; interactive multimedia & game development; wireless communications & PCS; mobile, portable & handheld computing devices; neural, fuzzy & genetic systems; nanotechnology, bio/microsensors & molecular electronics; voice I/O & handwriting recognition; HDTV & I-TV; ATM, frame relay & FDDI; visual programming, object-oriented databases & client/server application development; fractals, wavelets & quadtree data structures for image & signal processing; ULSI circuits & megacells; optical computing & erasable optical disks; PC telephony & PC TV; animats & micro/telerobotics; and, other bleeding-edge technologies. For a FREE subscription, send a request TODAY to listserv@ucsd.edu . The "Subject" line is ignored; leave it blank or type in whatever you'd like. In the body of the message, input: SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST . Do NOT include first or last names following "SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST"; this is a quirk of the UCSD listserv software. You will receive subscription confirmation from the UCSD host site. Disclaimer: Please note that although the mailing list is currently maintained at UCSD, there are no official ties between HOTT and the University of California. TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= *************************************************************************** * SPECIAL: A FULL-TEXT TUTORIAL ON GENETIC & EVOLUTIONARY PROGRAMMING * * (see item [Z], the last article in Part 2) * *************************************************************************** VIRTUAL REALITY IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications: Special Issue on VR ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ [1] Virtual reality (introduction to the special issue) [2] What are virtual environments? [3] Human factors in the design of an immersive display [4] Teaching your system to share (PC-based VR) [5] Resource file: Other contacts from the CG&A special issue [6] Visualization and analysis using virtual reality [7] Virtual reality as it really is [8] Inching closer to reality (emerging markets profile) [9] Engineers develop real-world apps for VR (medical applications) MOBILE & WIRELESS COMPUTING *************************************************************************** * SPECIAL: TEXT OF SPEECH PRESENTED AT MOBILE '94 BY THE PRESIDENT & CEO * * OF PHILIPS SEMICONDUCTORS * * (see item [X], the second to last article in Part 2) * *************************************************************************** [10] No computer is an island (data transfer for road warriors) [11] A special report from The (London) Financial Times on PDAs [12] The wireless office [13] The cost of wireless data [14] Computing out of bounds (tools for the fully-armed road warrior) [15] Better batteries INTERACTIVE TV [16] The interactive TV crusade [17] Real-time OS, services drive TV decoders NEURAL NETWORKS & SEVENTH GENERATION COMPUTING ^^^^^^^ [18] IBM writes plan for neural networks (handwriting recognition app) [19] Neural networks tackle manufacturing [20] Heaven in a chip (computing, circa 2020) INFOBAHN (hmmm, in Part 1 this section was titled "Information Superhighway") [21] Curtain's rising on a third generation of on-line services [22] A protest song -- '90s style (music on the 'Net) SPEECH RECOGNITION [23] Conversations with my PC [24] Say the word! (home automation apps) NANOTECHNOLOGY & MICROELECTROMECHANCIAL SYSTEMS (MEMS) IEEE Engrng in Medicine & Biology: Special Issue on Molecular Electronics ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ [25] Molecular electronics: Science and technology for the future [26] Resource file: Other contacts from the EMB special issue [27] Mirror, mirror (microscopic mirrors & MEMS for HDTV) COMPANY PROFILE [28] A juicy new Apple? SPECIAL FULL-TEXT REPORTS [X] Text of speech presented at Mobile '94 by the President & CEO of Philips Semiconductors [Z] Tutorial on genetic & evolutionary programming David Scott Lewis Editor-in-Chief and Book & Video Review Editor IEEE Engineering Management Review (the world's largest circulation "high tech" management journal) Internet address: d.s.lewis@ieee.org Tel: +1 714 662 7037 USPS mailing address: POB 18438 / IRVINE CA 92713-8438 USA ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 10:35:08 EDT From: Greg Monti Subject: Correction: 310 Overlay Details After a piece I wrote appeared in the Digest saying that the 562 area code overlay would be restricted to existing California area 310 appeared, I received a very helpful message and fax from Marc O'Krent or of Marina Del Rey, CA. A 13-page fax from Pacific Bell to Marc tells a complicated tale. The new 562 code was once intended to be for wireless services only, which would migrate from the existing 310, 213 and 818 area codes. The change now is that 562 will also be used to relieve number exhaustion for *landline* phones in the 310 area and may be used to relieve landline NXX exhaustion elsewhere. The 310 landline overflow to 562 is *in addition to*, not instead of, wireless users from 213 and 818. Any kind of user from 213 and 818, not just wireless ones, may also end up in 562 someday. Phase I of the change, beginning 2 Sept 1995, has 562 being used to implement new NXX codes of *tandem* users that would otherwise have been in 310. I assume a "tandem" user is one who connects to the landline telephone network via trunk-side, rather than line-side interconnection. I suspect that cellular, beeper, PCS and large corporations are typical tandem users. In Phase I, no existing numbers would be changed. Phase II will include all services from both tandem and end-office switches in the 310 land area. During phase II, there may be a *third* step: enlarging the overlay to include "all services" in the 818 and 213 areas. Thus 562 could be used to relieve up to three other area codes, which should hold the LA basin until 2000. A note in the Pacific Bell copy also notes that 619 will likely split within five years. Greg Monti, Tech Mgr, FISPO, Distribution Division National Public Radio Phone: +1 202 414-3343 635 Massachusetts Av NW Fax: +1 202 414-3036 Washington, DC 20001-3753 Internet: gmonti@npr.org ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 18:32:33 EDT From: Greg Monti Subject: networkMCI Wants to do Local Dial Tone According to a story on page C1 of the October 4, 1994, {Washington Post}, and in other media, MCI's local service division, networkMCI, has applied for franchises to provide local dial tone service in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Washington state, Michigan and Illinois. networkMCI intends to serve mainly businesses, although they applied for the residential market in Michigan as well. MCI would provide dial tone, directory assistance, call waiting, call forwarding and 911 emergency, among others. MCI already has such authority in two states, New York and Massachusetts. An MCI spokesman said that the company is applying for regulatory authority state by state since the telecom bill did not pass in Congress this year. MCI has requested that all involved states require the Bell Operating Companies serving them to provide number portability so customrs can change local phone companies and keep their numbers. The article notes that the biggest issue still unresolved is how much MCI and the other local company will charge each other to transport (local) calls between companies. Greg Monti, Tech Mgr, FISPO, Distribution Division National Public Radio Phone: +1 202 414-3343 635 Massachusetts Av NW Fax: +1 202 414-3036 Washington, DC 20001-3753 Internet: gmonti@npr.org ------------------------------ From: lchiu@crl.com (Laurence Chiu) Subject: Re: Card Call Ripoffs; Calling China Cheap Date: 4 Oct 1994 19:20:53 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [login: guest] In article , Wm. Randolph Franklin wrote: > What is the best way to call China, particularly using a calling card? > I've spent well over an hour talking to ATT, MCI, and Sprint. Their > rates are so close to each other, yet so byzantine, that they appear > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is no such thing as a cheap call > to China. The rates are quite high, anytime day or night where calling > cards are concerned, as well as with call-back schemes. I don't know > why this is, other than perhaps the telecom administration in China and > the carriers here have some difficulty in reaching mutually acceptable I guess it depends upon what you mean cheap. At the moment via MCI and using their International Friends and Family scheme I get a rate of $0.73/minute during week days and $0.49/min during weekends. This is to one number only but I could designate two others. One is enough for me at the moment. This rate is good until Nov 6 when it changes to $0.98 8pm-2pm and weekends and $1.35 otherwise to that number. At that time I will switch back to AT&T who had pretty decent rates also. Of course using a calling card might raise those rates somewhat. Laurence Chiu lchiu@crl.com Walnut Creek, California Tel (work) (510)412-4730 ------------------------------ From: dougq@iglou.iglou.com (Douglas H. Quebbeman) Subject: TAPISDK/ATVSP.TSP Problem Organization: IgLou Internet Services Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 15:58:15 GMT I have problems getting the MCI Voice driver going, as well as the ATVSP.TSP driver. Comparing the source code of the version resource for the TAPI Dialer driver (VERSION.RC) with the source for the version resource for the Voice driver (SHIPVER.RC) shows some differences that may be implicated. The version resource must be in an acceptable format for the control panel thingie to load it. Anybody licked this problem yet? Douglas H. Quebbeman (dougq@iglou.com) ------------------------------ From: varney@usgp4.ih.att.com (Al Varney) Subject: Re: Recommendations For Answering Machines? Organization: AT&T Network Systems Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 04:36:02 GMT In article , Michael Rosen wrote: > I'm considering buying an answering machine as opposed to paying a > monthly fee to Bell Atlantic for their Answer Call voice mail system. > I was looking at AT&T's digital answering machines today. The only > thing they don't have that I kind of like is the ability to skip the > OGM. I like that someone's machine has that when I'm calling so I can > hit * and abort the message if I don't feel like waiting. I'd like to > extend that courtesy to people calling me (that is if they know it > exists which not all do). But the AT&T digital machines DO HAVE the ability to skip the OGM!!!! The documentation is crummy, but the machine is NICE. (I have the combined phone/answering machine called the "1545". The machine-only digital version should have the same features....) Anyway, on the pages where the "Examples of Mailbox Use" are described, you can do it TWO ways: 1) Have the caller press "1" during the OGM. It will abort the OGM and give the caller a BEEP. Record message normally. (I tested this ONE TIME, based on the use of 2, 3 and 4 for other mailboxes. Test it before you buy -- cause there's no reason to believe later versions won't change the un-documented behavior. And any such "1" should be more than just a brief tap of the button -- hold it down for a 1/2 second or so.) 2) Record an OGM for Mailbox 1, but none for boxes 2, 3 or 4. Tell your frequent callers to punch "2", "3" or "4" to interrupt your OGM -- normally this would switch them to the OGM for mailbox 2, 3 or 4, but since there isn't an OGM for those boxes, they just get a BEEP. And you get a display that shows the number of messages in EACH mailbox -- handy if you tell "4" to only one individual, for example. > I do want a machine that has a time stamp and remote access. The AT&T > model I was looking at has voice prompting for the remote access. > Is it worth the extra cost to go digital versus tape? IMHO, yes. Very clean sound, no wear. After 1 year, I've had to RESET the system once after my kids briefly interrupted power (no announcements or messages were lost due to power outage -- but it happened when they were playing with the machine and the "new messages waiting" indicator ended up stuck in an always-on state. Messages/announcements are safeguarded with battery-backup, but the state of the indicator must not be ...). Other than that, it works GREAT -- but I do need to get a longer handset cord. Al Varney ------------------------------ From: varney@usgp2.ih.att.com (Al Varney) Subject: Re: Okay, So I Want to Start My Own Local Telco ... How? Organization: AT&T Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 16:07:53 GMT In article , Paul Robinson wrote: > Peter Rukavina wants to know how to set > up a cooperative telephone company for a small group within a rural > area. > I can give him some ideas but if he's looking for something not very > expensive he's going to have a problem. > Average rule of thumb for a company deciding to put in its own PBX is > US $1000 per line plus about US $4 a month per line to cover damage to > equipment. IMHO, a PBX COULD BE a mistake, unless it is designed to support real outside plant analog/digital loops. One major difference between a typical PBX and a typical CO switch is in the expectation of high voltage/current spikes on lines. Even "campus-wide" PBX applications have to look at loop protection. But rural areas really need it. REA has lots of information regarding this area, and "lists" several CO switches it is willing to support with loan programs. You also need to think seriously about administrative/maintenance systems, which might cost more than the switch -- billing, tracking outside plant, repair orders, complaints, payroll, taxes, records, records, records ... Al Varney ------------------------------ From: Wes.Leatherock@f2001.n147.z1.fidonet.org (Wes Leatherock) Date: 03 Oct 94 10:08:01 -0500 Subject: Re: NYNEX to Stop Charging For Touch-Tone! Organization: FidoNet Nameserver/Gateway Quoting roy@mchip00.med.nyu.edu (Roy Smith): > There is an article in today's NYTimes saying that as one part of a > complex NYNEX-PSC agreement, starting January 1st, 1995, NYNEX will no > longer charge for touch-tone service. I can't believe it, after only > 27 years, they have finally come to the conclusion that touch-tone is > not a premium service anymore. Amazing. Rate design is a complex subject and Public Service Commissions, being at least partly political bodies, try to set rates in the way most palatable to customers, the great majority of whom are not big customers but modest residential users. > Am I the only person in the world who still doesn't have touch-tone, > because I don't want to pay the extra $0.50/month, or whatever it is? According to which figures you want to use, between 20 and 25 per cent of all telephones in the United States are still rotary dial. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu wes.leatherock@tranquil.torii.starship.com ------------------------------ From: garrenke@deepcove.com (Garry Gruenke) Subject: Re: Fax DID Technologies - What is E&M Date: 4 Oct 1994 15:12:16 -0600 Organization: DeepCove BBS McRae, Stuart writes: > I am researching technologies to allow DID use with the Fax Modems we > currently use for inbound fax routing. One solution I have founded > uses an interface called "E&M" which is available on some PABXs. It > appears to be some sort of variation of the DID protocol used for > telco lines. > Can someone explain what the E&M interface is, who defines it, where I > can get the definition, and how it works? > Also, our fax modems can support "DTMF" routing. Ascom in the UK > recently announced a FaxRouter which uses a basic rate ISDN connection > to the telco and an analog connection to two fax modems using DTMF. > This allows us to use our current fax modems for inbound routing (or > any other modems that support DTMF). > Are there any other products which will do this? Do any PABXs have the > capability to generate DTMF in this way? Are there any vendors offering > other DID solutions (anywhere worldwide, PABX based or stand alone) > which will connect to a fax modem supporting DTMF? The E&M interface uses some extra wires for signalling E (ear) M (mouth). There are several types of E&M interfaces, 2-wire and 4-wire refer to the number of wires needed for the voice portion, with a 2-wire interface you would have 2 wires for transmit and recieve and 2 or 4 more wires for the E&M leads. With the 4-wire interface you would have 2 wires for transmit and 2 wires for recieve and 2 or 4 more wires for E&M leads. Type I E&M uses 1 wire for an E-lead and 1 wire for an M-lead. Type II E&M uses 2 wires for E-leads and 2 wires for M-leads. An incoming seizure is signalled by a ground on the E-lead (Type I) or a short on the E-lead pair (Type II). An outbound seizure is signalled by battery on the M-lead (Type I) or a short on the M-lead pair ((Type II). There is more but this is the real meat of the interface. garry.gruenke@deepcove.com ------------------------------ From: Henry Wertz Subject: Re: True Voice ... True Difference? Date: 4 Oct 1994 18:06:56 GMT Organization: U of Iowa Panda System Reply-To: Henry@chop.isca.uiowa.edu In note , bd80519@bingsuns.cc.binghamton. edu (Paul R. Paradiso) writes: > Hello. Actually, at this point I would like to believe that there IS > a difference. The difference will probably be noticed in data > communications such as Modems, Fax, etc. It is amazing at how fast > the CPS rates can go up when the lines get clearer and clearer. I > have tested my modem on a line and when it picked up the line thru an > "ATA" command, all I heard was static, but was perfectly fine for > Voice. Since modems and fax, etc. send their tones at such a higher > speed today, they need as little blockage as possible. Hopefully this > will help, if not, I'm not surprised ... I doubt it ... the low frequencies have always been iffy, so most equipment leaves that 300hz down alone. I don't think it'll make a difference. In fact, it might cause a problem, since emphasizing one particularchunk of frequencies is not what a modem counts on 8-). ------------------------------ From: krechmer@ix.netcom.com (Ken Krechmer) Subject: Re: True Voice ... True Difference? Date: 4 Oct 1994 22:09:56 GMT Organization: Netcom In densaer@kaiwan.com (Rakesh Bharania) writes: > Several months ago, I called the True-Voice demo line when it first > went up (I forgot where I got the number from), and I couldn't tell > one whit of difference between the normal voice and the "enhanced" > one. Several days ago, I saw the Whitney Houston commercial and > decided to try again (hey, the line was new .. maybe it wasn't fully > working, right?) Again, I couldn't tell the difference. I even got > my dad to call this up, and HE couldn't tell the difference. > So is "True Voice" an actual technology or just a marketing move? The specification released by AT&T is Technical Reference 50150 Issue 2.0 March 1994. It shows the base boost around 300 Hz and also a full band gain boost of 4dB when level is below -17dBm0 for 1 second. If it sounds better or not I leave to others to decide. Ken Krechmer Technical Editor Communications Standards Review e-mail: kkrechmer@attmail.com ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: British Telecom Caller ID Date: Wed, 5 Oct 94 12:10:12 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Martin Cook writes: > When a line is about to receive a call the polarity of the line is > reversed prior to the ringing current being applied. If the customer > has Caller Display additional messages are interspersed between the > polarity reversal and the application of the ringing current. Now that's definitely different from North American practice -- here the CNID data burst is sent between the first and second rings. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And typically, immediatly following the first ring, with some dead space following the end of the transmission and the start of the second ring. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Questions on Using GPS Time Codes For Network Timing Date: Wed, 5 Oct 94 12:16:32 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Mike Foltz writes: > What makes GPS so special for being a timing reference? Probably that it's the only time signal source at present that is available nationwide (and worldwide) over a line-of-sight signal path; other sources in various countries are either shortwave (like WWV, CHU or JJY), long wave (like WWVB or WWVL, or the BBC's Radio 4 UK) or even local medium wave AM stations (such as Cuba's Radio Reloj network), and none provides 100% reliable 24-hour nationwide coverage. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #388 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16222; 7 Oct 94 18:17 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA27002; Fri, 7 Oct 94 12:37:23 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA26993; Fri, 7 Oct 94 12:37:18 CDT Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 12:37:18 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410071737.AA26993@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #389 TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Oct 94 12:37:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 389 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson GTE Airphone Begins Ground-to-Air Service (For Free!) (Doug Reuben) FCC Celebrates Communications Act's 60th Birthday (Bob Keller) Announcement: New WWW Telecom Info Page (David Moon) Book Review: !%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing" (Rob Slade) Splits Pending (Clive D.W. Feather) ISDN-BRI Central Office Emulator (comp.newprod via Monty Solomon) Rockwell's RIFP Software for Multi-Function Peripherals (Monty Solomon) Using a Modem in Israel (John Inkman) FTP Site for lssgr/iatf? (jwh@panix.com) Is There Still a Usenet? (Not as Facetious as it Sounds) (T. M.P. Lee) Possible to Install Jack Incorrectly? (Dennis Gehris) Looking For Dialing Board For PC (Pete Kruckenberg) Telecom Regulatory Environment (Michael Honeth) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: 7 Oct 1994 05:07:58 GMT From: DREUBEN@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU Subject: GTE Airphone Begins Ground-to-Air Service (For Free!) Just got some mail from GTE Airphone. It appears that starting October 15th, callers anywhere who can reach Airphone's 800 number (1-800-AIRPHONE) can reach *you* at your seat while flying aboard Aeromexico, Delta, Mexicana, Reno Air, TWU, United, and the USAir Shuttle (but not American ! :( ). GTE assigns you a code in the format XXX-XXX-XXXX+YYYY, and it is printed on a card which GTE mails to you. This card can NOT be used to pay for calls, it only serves to identify you in their system. The XXX ... part is printed on your card, while the YYYY is your four-digit PIN, and is not printed on your card. (Basically like a calling card -- maybe GTE has future plans for this card, e.g., no need for credit card billing, use on the ground as a regular calling card, etc.) When you sit down at your seat, you either enter the code + PIN manually into the digital phone unit (it won't work on the older analog ones, it seems), or you can slide your card in and enter your four digit PIN afterwards. This tells the system that you want to be able to receive calls. You will be billed a $2 "registration fee" for this (waived until Jan 1st, 1995). You will thus need to enter your credit card (slide it through the side of the digital phone) so you can be billed the $2 (apparently even during THIS year when you won't be charged -- the system probably needs the "swipe" to activate even though you aren't currently charged.) Callers dial 1-800-AIR-PHON(E), wait for a voice menu, choose "Call Customer in Flight", and enter your Aircall code number. You will get a flashing message on your digital phone's screen saying: "Incoming Call for Seat 12F". When you see this, you can either (A) RE-enter your PIN number (so someone else can't answer the call while you are away from your seat) to accept the call, or (B) reject it and have the caller's number stored. If you don't do anything, after a minute or so, the caller's number is automatically stored. So if you are away from your seat when a call comes in, you can see who called you and try to call him/her back. (I'll bet they will add voicemail soon, too ...) If you chose to answer the call, you first get a chance to see who is calling you, ie GTE transmit's the ANI from the 800 number to your seat. You then can answer the call and start paying $2.50 a minute (plus $2.50 set-up charge, unless you use a pre-paid $15 GTE Airphone card, where you never pay a set-up charge). However, ALL FEES ARE WAIVED FROM OCT 15TH TO NOV 3OTH, so you can receive as many calls as you like totally for free! If you see the call is from someone who you don't want to talk to, you can chose to reject the call, and pay nothing. According to GTE, you will NEVER pay for screening the call, ie, seeing the number of your caller. Thus, you can pay $2 up front to "register" (waived till Jan 1st, 1995), have your friends call you, and return the calls when you get to the ground; sort of like a (very cumbersome) in-flight paging system. Overall, sounds interesting, and worth a try when it's free. However, I don't like the idea of an 800-only number -- what if international callers wish to reach me? (Maybe they can come in through Airphone's Illinois number? No ANI, though ...). I am also wondering if they can have an option where the caller on the ground pays for the call, although this opens up a lot of possibilities for fraud -- at least when YOU pay for it in the plane they have you swipe your actual card through, which is a lot safer. And what about people who just stroll onto the plane and DON'T have an Aircall Card number and PIN? Can the system generate one for them, or are they out of luck and need to order one and wait for it to come in the mail? I also don't like the idea of paying $2 "up front" just for the privilege of being registered on their system. It's not much, but this charge discourages my using it on short flights and/or when I don't really expect anyone to call me. I'd only use it if I absolutely needed to have someone call me, such as if I paged someone and had to have them call me back. If there were no charge, I'd just slide my card through, and scan inbound calls. I'm sure I'd answer at least one, so GTE would make money off of me. The $2 charge is like a daily $3 roam charge -- it discourages me *initially* from using the service so GTE makes nothing from me at all, whereas if they were willing to risk that for the slight incremental cost of registering me for free they MAY get some of money from my answering an anbound call, ( ie, GTE would do better in the long run). And from the utter non-use I've seen of most on GTE Airphone's system (I rarely see people use it that much these days, probably because it costs too much and service is usually awful), I'd think they'd WANT to encourage people to receive calls and try out their new digital service on a permanent basis. Moreover, when I fly, I tell people to call my pager, and I usually get the pages reliably (I have nationwide coverage and regional east coast coverage on my two pagers). So why would I really want to have to have them go through the burden of calling Airphone's Aircall system, enter some NEW code number (like the EasyReach 700 nonsense wasn't enough for them already! :( ), and then wait for me to answer, when they can just page me a few times and in all likelihood I'll get back to them? I can't even forward my 700 number or other numbers to GTE's service (caller's generally won't know what to do and/or what my code number is), so it's not like most people will even KNOW how to reach me on Airphone, and will just call my pager(s) instead. With this in mind, I probably wouldn't use the inbound system unless they eliminated the $2 charge after Jan 1st, 1995. I'm sure to most travelers this is a petty point, so I won't dwell upon it any longer. Overall, a welcome enhancement to their system. I'm anxious to try it! BTW, GTE also noted in their letter that they will soon be introducing FAX service and that on some United and Air Canada flights callers can access their Satellite system when they are away from North America. No mention of costs, but hopefully they will make things nice and simple and charge the same rate that they currently do when placing calls over North America. GTE Airphone also has a program where you can give them two credit cards and two phone numbers and you pay a lower set-up charge ($1.83 or something?) and the same lower rate per minute for US/Canada calls. You must use either of the two cards, and call only those two numbers, though. I signed up and never used it, but I'd be more likely to use it if I can get on a flight with digital service, as the current analog (non-Aircall) system is really pathetic -- it always sounds like there's a bunch of ducks quacking on the other end! Doug dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 11:31:26 EDT From: Bob Keller Subject: FCC Celebrates Communications Act's 60th Birthday FCC CELEBRATES 60TH ANNIVERSARY At a standing room only Commission meeting room October 6, Chairman Hundt and Commissioners Quello, Barrett, Ness and Chong cut a huge chocolate birthday cake to celebrate the FCC's 60th Birthday. As part of the festivities, Commissioner Rachelle Chong read the following poem: A Poem to the Communications Act By Henry Gibson (actually Jane Mago, Senior Poem Advisor) How old is the Communications Act? 60 years, to be exact. It has provisions old and new, 2(b), 4(i) to name but two. Now OGC, they love 4(i) For it grants discretion on the fly. The Act has served these many years to fill some dreams and strike some fears. It's been amended quite a lot To fix some jiggles and some jots. In Title II, it deals with phones it strives for service to every home. In Title III, on radios, it tells you where your station goes. In Title IV, the Admin. Part has many rules to take to heart. From Title V -- on penalties we get the power to make you freeze. In Title VI, we deal with cable. Congress asked us to keep rates stable. With Susan, Jim, Andy and Reed We fill your every lobbying need. No, my job is to read the Act, apply the law based on the facts. So, I promise I will do my best to serve the public interest. - FCC - FCC documents ported from ftp.fcc.gov by: Robert J. Keller, P.C. (Federal Telecommunications Law) Tel: 301-229-5208 Fax: 301-229-6875 4200 Wisconsin Ave NW #106-261 Washington DC 20016-2146 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Happy birthday to the FCC! PAT] ------------------------------ From: moon@gdc.com (David Moon) Subject: Announcement: New WWW Telecom Info Page Date: 6 Oct 1994 14:48:17 GMT Organization: General DataComm, Inc. A new WWW page "Telecom Information Resources on the Internet" is now available. The URL is: http://www.ipps.lsa.umich.edu/telecom-info.html This page is a high-level list of pointers to other resources, including technical, policy, and economic aspects of telecom. It also includes pointers to companies, organizations, and academic sites. This page was compiled by me with much help from subcribers to the "telecom-reg" mailing list. The page is being hosted by Prof. Jeff MacKie-Mason (Dept. of Economics and Institute of Public Policy Studies, University of Michigan), who will be taking over its maintenance and further evolution. We hope that the page will also be mirrored at the Computer Board of Singapore -- details are still being worked out. Check it out -- we look forward to your comments and suggestions. David Moon moon@gdc.com General Datacomm, Inc. ATTMail: !dmoon Middlebury, CT 06762 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 06 Oct 1994 13:31:09 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "!%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing" BKDEMAN.RVW 940731 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. 103 Morris Street, Suite A Sebastopol, CA 95472 800-998-9938 707-829-0515 fax: 707-829-0104 info@ora.com "!%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing and Networks", Frey/Adams, 1-56592-046-5, U$9.95 donnalyn@frey.com Prince-like, this book insists on an unpronounceable title. In the interests of usable referents, might we dispense with the suggested "that darned book" and possibly come up with "Bang-Through-At-For"? This book is a reference work. It details the various computer networks with mail links or gateways to the "true" Internet. It is common to cite such works as "indispensable": in fact, most users, and even site managers, muddle along quite happily without it. Quick reference "electronic" versions exist of very similar documents, which provide the addressing schemes for the more common network and commercial service gateways. Also, once you know one CompuServe Internet address, you know 'em all. Frey and Adams have, however, put together a very complete and interesting reference, and I do suggest it to anyone managing, or using, extensive email correspondence. The bulk of the book is a set of listings very similar to Part Two of "The Matrix" (cf BKMATRIX.RVW). The number of listings is substantially greater, while the major emphasis in each listing is the email addressing scheme. Most of the rest of the book is supporting material, such as the indices to networks by country, name and notation. More than two hundred and fifty pages are devoted to listings of US and international domains for companies, organizations and institutions. Of the sites that I personally know, only one was not listed (although one Canadian company was mysteriously transferred south of the border). Chapter one is an essay devoted to Internet email addressing, and the various "perversions" of "To:" lines. Internet aficionados have probably figured out most of the topics covered but it makes an excellent introduction for newcomers. As a user of electronic mail, or the manager of a small Internet node or UUCP site, it would be hard to say that you "need" this book. If, however, you are at all interested in the topic of email, you will find this fascinating and useful. For those trying to "push the envelope" of email access, this book will be very useful indeed: perhaps indispensable is not too strong. Even those not directly concerned with the technical management of email will find useful material here. The expanded sub-domain listings alone should make salespeople salivate. At the new reduced price (which seems to become something of a standard for O'Reilly re-issues) this has become something to recommend that *all* Internet users get as a resource. The book seems to go through corrections or a new edition about once a year. I wonder if you can get on a mailing list for it? Hmmm. Must drop a line to gnn.com or ora.com (page 533) ... copyright Robert M. Slade, 1993, 1994 BKDEMAN.RVW 940731. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. Vancouver p1@arkham.wimsey.bc.ca | You realize, of Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | course, that these Research into rslade@cue.bc.ca | new facts do not User p1@CyberStore.ca | coincide with my Security Canada V7K 2G6 | preconceived ideas ------------------------------ Subject: Splits Pending Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 13:23:57 BST From: Clive D.W. Feather I have the following information on pending NANP area code splits. Can anyone let me know any further information (I am only interested in the *first* day of parallel running): 1995 Jan 15 206 splits into 360 1995 Mar ?? 602 splits into 520 1995 Apr 02 303 splits into 970 1995 May 28 813 splits into 941 1995 Jul 15 703 splits into 540 1995 Sep 01 615 splits into 423 1995 Sep 02 213, 310, and 818 are overlaid by 562 1995 ??? ?? 205 splits into 334 1995 ??? ?? 708 splits into 630 1995 ??? ?? 713 splits into 281 In addition, are the details of the last split (713/281) known yet ? Clive D.W. Feather | Santa Cruz Operation clive@sco.com | Croxley Centre Phone: +44 1923 813541 | Hatters Lane, Watford Fax: +44 1923 813811 | WD1 8YN, United Kingdom ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 04:30:01 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: ISDN-BRI Central Office Emulator Forwarded to the Digest FYI: From: JGFIELDS@delphi.com Newsgroups: comp.newprod Subject: ISDN-BRI Central Office Emulator Date: 3 Oct 1994 13:27:46 -0400 Organization: UUNET Communications The ISDN 2000A Central Office Emulator offers a convenient and inexpensive way to simulate the operations of an ISDN Basic Rate Interface (BRI) Local Exchange Carrier (LEC). The emulator may be used to develop, test, and demonstrate ISDN-BRI communications devices without connecting to a PBX or to outside lines. An ECN Product Design award winner, the emulator incorporates the actual circuits and specifications used for public ISDN interfaces and switch fabric in a portable, stand-alone package. Features: o Two Line, End-To-End Operation o U and S/T Interfaces o Point and Multipoint Configurations o B Channel Circuit Mode Voice and Data o D Channel Packet Mode Data o Multiple Switch Protocols o Supplementary Services o Primary Power and In-Band Tones o Monitor and Trace Functions The emulator provides timing, power, and tones on either the U interface (2B1Q) or the S/T interface (ASI Bipolar) for up to four terminating equipment. Physical layer synchronization, status, and loopback conditions may be monitored on the 4 by 20 inch display. Terminal Endpoint Indentifier (TEI) management and other data link layer (layer 2) functions are performed in real time and captured in a wrapping trace buffer for review. Service Access Point Identifiers (SAPI) 0, 16, and 63 are supported. Call control operation at layer 3 may be selected from one of several protocols, including National ISDN-1, AT&T 5Exx, and Northern Telecom DMS-100. Network management functions for Service Profile ID (SPID) initialization are performed, as well as basic supplementary services, such as Hold, Drop, Call Appearance Call Handling (CACH), Display Text, Caller ID, and Additional Call Offering (ACO). Call control messages may also be stored in a wrapping trace buffer and printed using the optional built-in printer. Prices (U.S.) ISDN 2000A Emulator: $2,995.00 Optional Printer: $ 480.00 Carrying Case: $ 99.00 Available: Now MERGE Technologies Group, Inc. 211 Gateway Road West, Suite 201 Napa, CA 94558-6274 800.824.7763 707.252.6687 FAX ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 04:30:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Rockwell's RIFP Software for Multi-Function Peripherals Forwarded to the Digest FYI From: palm@tokyo.rockwell.com (Stephen [kiwin] PALM) Newsgroups: comp.newprod Subject: Rockwell's RIFP Software for Multi-Function Peripherals Date: 3 Oct 1994 13:23:57 -0400 Organization: Rockwell Rockwell Telecommunications today introduced the Rockwell Integrated Fax Protocol (RIFP), a new software development tool that allows OEMs to create multi-function peripheral products (MFPs) by adding send/receive facsimile functionality to printers or copiers, while reducing development time and costs. RIFP provides OEMs with sample hardware and a software Application Program Interface (API). The API is written in C software, so it can be ported to a variety of host environments, and provides T.30 and T.4 communications protocols and a Class 1 interface. The API also includes modem control code to interface with the Rockwell R96DFXL and R144EFXL facsimile modems, which satisfy ITU (formerly the CCITT) V.29 (9600 bps) and V.17 (14400 bps) standards. RIFP source code includes advanced features such as Error Correction Mode and binary file transmission during a fax call. The software also provides resolution conversion between common printer resolutions (up to 600 dots per inch) and facsimile resolutions (200 dots per inch). For more information or technical documentation, please call (800) 436-9988, fax (818) 365-1876 or email: scott.bibaud@nb.rockwell.com. Inquiries to: Digital Communications Division 4311 Jamboree Rd., M/S 501-300 Newport Beach, CA 92658-8902 Editorial contacts: Julie Seymour (714) 833-4379 Internet: julie.seymour@nb.rockwell.com Eileen Algaze (714) 833-6849 Internet: eileen.algaze@nb.rockwell.com Stephen [kiwin] Palm TEL (Voice mail): +81-3-5371-1564 Rockwell - Digital Communications Division COMNET: 930-1564 Japan Engineering Design Center FAX: +81-3-5371-1507 palm@tokyo.rockwell.com s.palm@ieee.org spalm@cmu.edu NIHON::PALM ------------------------------ From: interaccess!jinkman@uunet.uu.net (John Inkman) Subject: Using a Modem in Israel Date: 6 Oct 1994 19:15:09 GMT Organization: IAC Reply-To: jinkman@interaccess.com I want to send my old 2400b modem to sister in Israel. Will it work? Do they use same phone line type over there? If replying, please send email to me; I am not yet familiar with Usenet. ------------------------------ From: jwh@panix.com Subject: FTP Site For lssgr/iatf? Date: 6 Oct 1994 20:37:46 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Is there an FTP site for lssgr and/or iatf specs? Please reply by e-mail. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: tmplee@MR.Net (T. M.P. Lee) Subject: Is There Still a Usenet? (Not as Facetious as it Sounds) Date: Fri, 07 Oct 1994 09:06:57 -0600 Organization: Minnesota Regional Network Seeing as there has been some frequent chatter here recently about the demise of old familiar ways of doing things, a not quite entirely idle question came to mind. Other than as the way the news protocol keeps track of the provenence of traffic, is there still any significant use of usenet ("bang") addresses anywhere? Are there still any significant number of systems that still actually dial each other up and exchange mail with UUCP? Ted Lee Consultant in Computer Security PO Box 1718 tmplee@MR.Net Minnetonka, MN 55345 612-934-4532 ------------------------------ From: Dennis Gehris Subject: Possible to Install Jack Incorrectly? Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 11:21:15 EDT Organization: Bloomsburg University I purchased a Voltage Spike Protector because for my phone line that I use for my modem on my computer. (I had experienced voltage surges that destroyed my modem.) The devise has a test button. The instructions state that if a red light appears that the jack's red and green wires are reversed. Is it possible to have these wires reversed and still have all phones operating properly? Would this cause surges to occur? Please respond to me at the email address below.... Thanks! Dennis O. Gehris, Ed.D. INTERNET: dg@planetx.bloomu.edu Associate Professor or dg@neptune.bloomu.edu College of Business Bloomsburg University OFFICE: 717-389-4771 Bloomsburg, PA 17815 FAX: 717-389-3892 ------------------------------ From: pete@dswi.com (Pete Kruckenberg) Subject: Looking For Dialing Board For PC Date: 6 Oct 1994 20:57:00 GMT Organization: University of Utah CS Dept Hi. I need to find out if there is a product that will do the following functions on a PC: Receive in-coming call and notify PC Play some tones (like auto-credit-card-operators) Decode touch-tone input and send to PC Make touch-tone when instructed to do so by PC Do a "Flash" Do on/off hook Optionally, plan some messages (greeting, errors, etc). These may be stored on-board, or played from the PC directly If there isn't one available commercially (either pre-constructed or in kit form), could you recommend some pieces (integrated circuits, etc) that could be put together to do this? Basically, this will be used in an in-bound/out-bound dialer that must work with three-way calling. Thanks for your help. Pete Kruckenberg School: kruckenb@sal.cs.utah.edu University of Utah Work : pete@dswi.com Computer Engineering For even more addresses, "finger pete@dswi.com" ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 12:48:56 +0500 From: mhoneth@inforamp.net (Michael Honeth) Subject: Telecom Regulatory Environment Help! I am preparing a management briefing on the regulatory environment in telecomm in Canada. I would appreciate any discussions anyone could pass on regarding recent developments across North America. Thank you! mhoneth ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #389 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa17113; 7 Oct 94 18:45 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA00631; Fri, 7 Oct 94 13:45:18 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA00623; Fri, 7 Oct 94 13:45:14 CDT Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 13:45:14 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410071845.AA00623@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #390 TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Oct 94 13:45:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 390 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: UDI vs RDI in ISDN (Al Varney) Modem Saver Devices (Dan Ts'o) Re: Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? (Michael Gray) Re: Cellular From a Small Plane (Bob Keller) Re: Cellular From a Small Plane (John Gersh) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (Aaron Woolfson) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (styri@nta.no) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (Carl Moore) $50 Million in Quarters? (A. Padgett Peterson) "$50 Million" Fraud (Will Martin) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: varney@usgp4.ih.att.com (Al Varney) Subject: Re: UDI vs RDI in ISDN Organization: AT&T Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 12:11:44 GMT In article , perpetual psycheness wrote: > In the world of ISDN, what exactly does UDI and RDI mean? And when > would a person know which one to use? (e.g. you try making a UDI call > and then realize that it doesn't work, so then you try RDI? What kind > of indications does the network use to determine what to do?) UDI = unrestricted digital information -- also called 64U or "64 clear" or 64C RDI = restricted digital information -- also called "64 restricted" or 64R or sometimes 64I An ISDN user does not make a UDI or RDI call. UDI/RDI is one part of the Bearer Capability information passed to/from the network. Specifically, the "information transfer capability" can be set to either UDI or RDI. The "information transfer rate" for a data call would then be set to "64 kbps". Together, the two parts are used to request 64K IDSN data calls, commonly abbreviated as 64U or 64R calls. Sometimes the 64U calls are calls "64 clear" or 64C; the "clear" signifies that the channel is "clearly" or transparently carrying all data values. The 64R calls can be used to allow calls over facilities (or trunks or circuits) that are not capable of transporting all data values -- specifically the 8-bit value "0" (or "11111111" if you are inverting data before transmission) cannot be carried. The requester of an RDI call is responsible for ensuring no "0" values are transmitted -- if they occur, the network will alter at least one bit to enforce the restriction. The "network" attempts to complete calls using the information in the Bearer Capability you provide and information provided by the operator of the network. If you request UDI, the call will route (or attempt to route) over facilities that have been designated by the operator as supporting UDI. If the facilities don't, in fact, support UDI -- you get some of your bits mangled. But this is no different TO THE NETWORK than routing you over a bad facility -- the facility is not working as the switches have been told it does. > I think that UDI is supposed to be a 64kbps clear channel xmission > (and I think you can have an RDI call over a trunk conditioned for UDI). If you request RDI, then the network (switches) will route over facilities designated to support RDI, and will use UDI routes if no RDI facilities are available. Regardless of what that switch selects, the switch at the other end of the selected facility will receive the same Bearer Capability you originally requested, so that it can attempt to select a trunk from all the original possibilities. The above "rules" apply to SS7-connected switches which are carrying the selected UDI/RDI request via SS7 signaling. I understand RDI can be a problem when calling out of or into the USA, since many countries use E1 (vs. T1) facilities that do not have a data value restriction. > And I think that RDI means that the data is restricted in the > sense that you can't have some number of contiguous 0's, which > effectively reduces the maximum bit rate to 56kbps, right? But then, ^^^^^ NO! > could you try sending data at 64kbps for an RDI call or is one of the > bits for each channel used to keep sync (I'm assuming this is over T1 > type trunks for RDI; I guess E1 type trunks don't have this problem > and are 64kbps clear channel trunks by nature?). The 56 kbps bit rate vs. RDI is confusing. I can't assure you that I can un-confuse the issues. RDI is a restriction on 8-bit data values; the value "00000000" is prohibited. But there is no rate adaption or change to the data rate implied by RDI. You send at 64 kbps, period. The reason for RDI is due to T1 facilities that don't use B8ZS or other schemes to remove the original T1 restriction that no more than 15 "0"s could be sent over the facility -- more "0"s meant loss of sync. (Some pre-B8ZS schemes used non-adjacent channels for data or borrowed bits from a control channel to remove the RDI restriction.) The use of 56 kbps in the USA/Canada and a few other T1 countries came about because one bit of the channel was sometimes used as a signaling bit (on-hook,off-hook indicator). In standard T1, this happens in every sixth frame. Because the sixth frame on one circuit isn't the sixth frame on another, the 1-out-of-6 position cannot be predicted end-to-end. This effectively removes the ability to use 8 bits -- 7 bits at the 8000 frames/second T1 rate yields 56 kbps. When SS7 signaling is used, switches don't need the signaling bit in the T1 channel. For some switches, this permits 64 kbps over RDI as soon as SS7 is implemented between 2 switches. Others require hardware upgrades to remove the "hard-coded" signaling bit. But even when the signaling bit is removed, the T1 transport facility still can't handle unrestricted data -- that requires a change to the facility (sometimes a hardware upgrade, sometimes just changing data in the facility). From an ISDN end-point, 56 kbps is a V.120 rate adaption scheme. The network knows which bit to ignore (and force to a "1"). The far end end-point will get 64 kbps data, and will ignore the eighth bit. > But, 64kbps or 56kbps doesn't necessarily mean UDI and RDI, respectively, > does it? Correct. You can, in theory, use UDI or RDI with 64 kbps calls. Or you can use UDI or RDI with 64 kbps calls rate adapted to 56 kbps. To confuse the issue, Bellcore requirements for ISDN don't recognize RDI, so they only talk about 64 kbps via UDI and 56 kbps rate adaption over 64 kbps via UDI. Unfortunately, there are some vendors who adopted the rule that 56 kbps calls would use an "information transfer capability" of RDI. When connecting to networks/equipment that only recognizes an "information transfer capability" of UDI, the call will be refused. Also, some carriers (LEC and IXC) may still have some 56Kbps facilities (trunks and "switched 56" customers). If such trunks are in the path of the call (which could start out 56 kbps with UDI or with RDI, the switches/customer beyond the 56Kbps facility receive only the called number -- and must assume a value of UDI or RDI for your 56Kbps call. The value assumed depends on the network, the switch and lots of other semi-random information. > And how does rate adaption come into the picture? Is it possible to > have 9600bps data stream rate adapted up to 56kbps for RDI? or up to > 64kbps for UDI? Is V.120 or V.110 common in the U.S.? What is > commonly used overseas? What are the advantages of V.120 over V.110 > or are there not any? V.120 common in USA. V.110 common in Europe. V.120 is more flexible, but has some added overhead. V.110 has less overhead if you can keep its fixed sub-channels full of data. 9600 bps is supported by both. Since 56 kbps is itself a rate adaption, it's hard to say 9600 bps is supported by 56 kbps -- I believe you could indicate 56K in the Bearer Capability rate adaption and would use LLC to indicate the actual partitioning of one or more 9600 bps over the 64 kbps B-channel. (Keep in mind that the ISDN end-points never actually transmit at anything other than 64 kbps.) If I remember correctly, V.120 rate adaption for 9600 bps forces 1 out of the 8 bits to a "1", so the same bit pattern would work over both 56 kbps or 64 kbps calls, whether UDI or RDI. Asking a more specific question on comp.dcom.isdn might get you a more correct (and shorter) answer ... Al Varney - just my opinion ------------------------------ From: tso@cephalo.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu (Dan Ts'o) Subject: Modem Saver Devices Date: 7 Oct 1994 07:03:59 GMT Organization: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston,Tx [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The original message on this did not appear in the Digest. It was ported here from some other news group where it appeared under the title "Digital Phone Lines Spell D-A-N-G-E-R". Thanks to Dan for passing it along. PAT] In article santra@netcom.com (Sandy Santra) writes: > Digital phone systems run current through their phone lines. > This current is capable of *frying* modems, including PCMCIA > modems--as in: PLUG THIS IN AND YOU CAN KISS YOUR MODEM GOODBYE. > One alternative is to buy a Modem Saver, a product which you can > use to test a phone line before connecting it to your laptop's > modem. IBM makes the Modem Saver, and you can order it by > calling 1-800-388-7080. Ask for part #73G5395. It's $25. > The Modem Saver will tell you whether the phone line you have > connected it to is a (1) normal line, (2) a reversed polarity > line, or (3) a digital line (with a current of more than 90 > milliamps). If it registers as a digital line, you should NOT > plug your modem into the line. It will destroy it. If the > voltage is below 90 milliamps, it apparently may register as a > "normal" line, but at least you know that plugging the line into > your modem won't damage it. Radio Shack sells a similar device without the high current function. It detects one or two lines on an RJ-11 and tells you its polarity. It costs $6. The schematic is: --------+----------+ \ | Line 1 / V red/green LED \680ohms | / .5W | --------+----------+ The circuit for Line 2 is identical. Note that each red/green LED comes standard as reverse wired (red LED "forward", green LED "reversed). Based on the above, I think an appropriate modification to include a high current indicator would be: (I've tested it) 20ohm --+-\/\/\/--+-----------+----------+ | | \ | +--->|----+ / V red/green LED red/green \680ohms | LED / .5W | ------------------------+----------+ You can adjust the 20ohm resistor value to set what is considered "high current". 20ohms lights the LED at around 90ma. Total parts costs <$4, or if you use Radio Shack's $6 line tester and add the above resistor and LED, then <$7. (I'm not faulting IBM for charging $30). This whole issue really bothers me, because it means that I can't bring a PCMCIA modem with me on trips and count on it working at any given hotel. That means I should carry around my pocket modem just in case. So then what's the point of having the PCMCIA modem! Cheers, Dan Ts'o Div. Neuroscience 713-798-3331 Baylor College of Medicine 1 Baylor Plaza S553 dan@dna.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu Houston, TX 77030 tso@cephalo.neusc.bcm.tmc.edu ------------------------------ From: misha@panix.com (Michael Gray) Subject: Re: Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? Date: 7 Oct 1994 10:50:13 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC spelegan@csc.com wrote: > We have a commercial customer who's asked us to setup a BBS system for > them. They've asked us to recommend a telecom option for them to > use that best suits their needs. They'd like to start out with 8 > lines going into the BBS with the ability to move up to 16, 24, etc. > They'd like their customers to have one 800 number to call to reach > this BBS, no matter where they are in the US. Their customers will > have off-the-shelf modems, ranging from 1200-14.4 baud. > My initial recommendation was for T1 if they expected heavy usage > (>$3K/month in long distance charges). But I've seen enough articles > recently about ISDN and frame relay to be hesitant in putting my > recommendation in stone. > I know very little about telecommunications, only what I've picked up > during conversations with long distance carrier sales people. My > brief education on ISDN tells me that if I wish to implement this > scenario, people who want to call into our customer's BBS will have to > have a special terminal and their local Ma Bell has to offer ISDN. > I'm even more cloudy on Frame Relay. Can I have one 800 number with > Frame Relay? Do you need a special terminal/modem to dial into a > frame relay network? How does it compare to T1? vs. T1 cost? vs. > T1 reliability? Please correct any assumptions that I've made T1, > ISDN, and Frame Relay. I am no expert in this field, but my guess is that for long distance costs, the T1 would offer the most savings. There is a lot of compitition for long distance traffic in the T1 market. T1s can be had directly from long distance carriers with 800 services at better prices than can be had on POTS lines. I don't know if there exists modem hardware that connects directly to T1 lines. You would probobly need some expensive switching equipment to switch calls from a rack mounted array of modems to the T1. I would recommend purchasing only V.34 28.8Kbs modems, since they WILL be the new standard and if you are purchasing them in bulk, the costs will not be as great as you may think. You will also pay less in long distance time by sending data faster. ISDN connections would allow you to connect to BOTH customers with POTS (Plain Old Telephone Services) services and with ISDN services, however you need separate ISDN modems and 28Kbs modems, special equipment to hook the 28.8Kbs modems to the ISDN lines. Also the equipment costs may be higher. This would allow you to recieve calls from people with dial-up modems and people who have ISDN service. The ISDN customers could connect at speeds of 64Kbs. If you don't need this high bandwith, then don't go with ISDN. I am not sure what Frame Relay is. I think they are talking about X.25 service. I don't know the specs on this. I think that it is a low bandwidth connection. It sends data across shared packet switch networks so the cost of such services is low, usually lower than standard long distance POTS services. It does require special hardware and connectivity at the customers end, but is generally cost efficient for low bandwidth dedicated lines. If I am wrong, maybe someone in Netland will correct me. Hope this helps some. Mike ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 22:03:19 EDT From: Bob Keller Reply-To: Bob Keller Subject: Re: Cellular From a Small Plane On Tue, 4 Oct 1994, in TELECOM Digest (Vol 14 Iss 386) Linc Madison wrote: > I was under the impression that using a cellphone from any sort of an > airplane was a bad idea, if not outright illegal. It _is_ outright illegal. FCC regulation prohibits the use of any cellular unit once an aircraft (large or small, jet or prop, hot air balloon or glider) is airborne. The FCC has further clarified that "airborne" means off the ground, so it matters little whether the plane flies at 30,000 feet or at 500 feed for purposes of this regulation. The FAA and the commercial airlines have their own ideas and their own separate requirements (hence the admonition on most commercial flights that you can't use your cellular phone -- although I notice they are now calling them wireless telephones -- at _any_ time on the aircraft, airborne or on the ground), but as far as the FCC is concerned it is prohibited only in the air for precisely the technical reasons expressed in Linc's post. Robert J. Keller, P.C. (Federal Telecommunications Law) Tel: 301-229-5208 Fax: 301-229-6875 4200 Wisconsin Ave NW #106-261 Washington DC 20016-2146 finger me for info on F.C.C. Daily Digests and Releases ------------------------------ From: John_Gersh@aplmail.jhuapl.edu (John Gersh) Subject: Re: Cellular From a Small Plane Date: Fri, 07 Oct 1994 11:47:02 -0400 Organization: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab In article , LincMad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) wrote: > As I was driving through San Francisco the other day, I saw a dealer > of cellular phones with a sign painted in the window with a biplane > trailing a banner announcing that you could use their cellular phones > from any small plane... > I was under the impression that using a cellphone from any sort of an > airplane was a bad idea, if not outright illegal... It is illegal, or at least contrary to FCC regs, to use a cell phone from an aircraft *while airborne* 47 CFR 22.911(a)(1) says: (1) Cellular telephones shall not be operated in airplanes, balloons or any other aircraft capable of airborne operation while airborne. Once the aircraft is airborne, all cellular telephones on board such vehicles must be turned off. The term airborne means the aircraft is not touching the ground. Cellular telephones may be installed in aircraft. A cellular telephone which is installed in an aircraft must contain a posted notice which reads: "The use of cellular telephones while this aircraft is airborne is prohibited by FCC rules, and the violation of this rule could result in suspension of service and/or a fine. The use of cellular telephones while this aircraft is on the ground is subject to FAA regulations." [Parsing that first sentence was fun, wasn't it?] To be as charitable as possible toward the dealer (perhaps more charitable than warranted), the sign is technically correct in that "you could use their cellular phones from any small plane," as long as the plane is still on the ground. It would be interesting to see if the dealer actually spells out the regulation to purchasers and offers them placards of the official notice with the phones. John R. Gersh John_Gersh@aplmail.jhuapl.edu The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Laurel, MD 20723 +1(301)953-5503 ------------------------------ From: awoolfso@uop.edu (Aaron Woolfson) Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud Date: 6 Oct 1994 18:58:31 -0700 Organization: University of the Pacific Well ... I sit here looking over an inter-exchange carrier switching system at our carrier and am thinking to myself: WAS that really $50,000,000 lost or was it just $50,000,000. not collected? It somehow just doesn't seem the same as someone getting on to some scheme to actually steal money. Does anyone know that the telephone network is ALWAYS transmitting to it's maximum capacity, regardless of the information placed over it? T1's are hooked up between locations and all the data is placed over those facilities in the form of 0's or 1's. If there are 1's and the A&B bits over the T1 show that there is traffic there, then a circuit gets billed. That's how simple it really is. I know that I will probably get a lot of heat from people within the telephone industry and especially the companies who we build fraud detection devices for just for saying this. But I just do not see how it can possibly really be hurting MCI. 1) MCI has FIXED costs for leasing the T1's between the POPs. 2) If a circuit logs 10 or 10,000 minutes of billable time, MCI is paying the same amount anyway. 3) Perhaps if the calls were being terminated to locations where MCI is using WilTel's or AT&T's facilities, there may be some nominal termination charges. Although I am not suggesting that it is not a big deal what happened, I just don't see how MCI can be running around and crying that they are losing all this money, when THEY REALLY AREN'T! They are just not collecting nearly as much revenue as before. Aaron Woolfson awoolfso@unix1.cc.uop.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 02:11:15 +0100 From: styri@balder.nta.no Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud upsetter@mcl.ucsb.edu (Jason Hillyard) writes: > I wonder if the long distance companies will ever wake up. This kind > of crime is only possible because of the utter lack of security > inherent in calling cards. [...] It's worrying, that kind of argument. In most cases of calling card fraud the fraudsters seem to have made some effort. Making it harder to break the law doesn't make it more wrong to do so, does it? Saying it's "only possible because of the utter lack of security" is a pretty one-sided view. (Not that it's anything wrong with improving security.) Haakon Styri styri@nta.no ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 13:30:24 GMT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud Cary, NC? That's in the Raleigh-Durham area, quite far from Charlotte. Earlier article from you said he was employed in the Charlotte switching center. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The version I got referred to Charlotte. My source was the {Los Angeles Times} and a couple other places where raids took place last week. Now I believe the {Chicago Tribune} account which was used in the Computer Underground Digest placed it in Cary, as did the report in the papers in New York. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 09:20:35 -0400 From: padgett@tccslr.dnet.mmc.com (A. Padgett Peterson) Subject: $50 Million in Quarters? > I wonder if the long distance companies will ever wake up. This kind > of crime is only possible because of the utter lack of security > inherent in calling cards. Why are the long distance companies so > cheap when it comes to implementing secure billing systems? Unfortunately the answer is simple -- the courts have repeatedly agreed with the service providers that *their customers* are responsible for the charges. Thus there is no financial incentive (and some disincentives) for the providers to do anything. We are just fortunate that some telco's do provide some management as a part good customer relations. What I would like to know is "if the telco/gov knew early in the year that numbers had been compromised, was anything done to notify the people whose numbers were involved *then* ?" Warmly, Padgett [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Padgett, what I do not understand and believe to be wrong about the court rulings you cite is the apparent conflict with federal regulations pertaining to fraud and misuse of credit cards generally. To the extent that telephone calling cards are credit cards -- and they are intended to allow you to pay 'later' -- how can the user be held responsible for more than some minimal amount -- usually fifty dollars -- in damages? Federal regulations pertaining to credit cards are quite clear that the card holder will not suffer as a result of fraud when the cardholder had nothing to do with it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 8:38:33 GMT From: Will Martin Subject: "$50 Million" Fraud While I make no defense of this thievery, and I think this particular method of stealing LD service is particularly wicked, because the charging of such phraud calls to legitimate customers' calling card numbers causes all those thousands of innocent people untold annoyance and bother to get the call-billing reversed if they notice it, and their own money if they don't, I always have a problem with the telco or the prosecutors throwing around these large numbers and claiming that these are the actual amount of the theft. The "$50 million" cited is what the billing for all these calls would have been if they had been made legitimately. That is NOT what was actually stolen. What was stolen was the cost to the company of providing these calls, not what they would have charged a customer for them. The amount of theft should be judged at the wholesale level, not the retail level. I venture to say that the actual amount stolen for a call billed at $10 is actually only a few mills' worth of electricity that MCI paid on its various utility bills at the sites through which the call traveled. The amount that MCI charges a regular customer for this exact same call is a largely fictitious number, created with little (if any) relationship to MCI's actual costs for completing that call. One could claim that some overhead factor should be applied that amortizes a share of the costs of all the physical plant, the labor expenses for all MCI employees, the cost of depreciation of the switches and other equipment, etc. But this is merely an accounting exercise -- those costs would all have been incurred whether or not these stolen calls were made. One could state that these stolen calls increased the calling level to a point where new additional switches needed to be bought or lines strung. If this can be proven to have happened -- that these specific stolen extra calls increased a service-usage level to that degree in some specific area(s) -- then I would accept those costs as being applicable to this theft. But I doubt that this will be asserted or proven. I predict that these stolen calls are subsumed in the sea of legitimate calls, and did not, in and of themselves, necessitate any such increased support costs. There ARE other costs that should be charged, though -- all the expenses incurred by the billing department in answering customer inquiries about these phraud calls that appeared on their bills, and the costs involved in reviewing the claims and processing the reverses. Each customer so inconvenienced has a claim on the thieves, too. A class-action civil suit following the criminal case's conclusion seems called for, if the defendants, after being found guilty, have any assets that could be seized. The other factor to consider, if MCI claims that the amount stolen was the retail price of these calls, is whether or not the calls would have been made if they had NOT been stolen and thus free to the caller. If the call really would have been made regardless, and the caller simply opted to steal it by using a phraudulent calling-card number, then I accept that the value of the theft is the amount the caller avoided paying. But I doubt that many of these calls fall into that category. I will venture to say that the vast majority of phraud calls that are made are made simply BECAUSE they are phraud and therefore free. People call the weather numbers in Australia; they call international phone-sex lines all over; they make data calls to some obscure BBS across the country; they make harassing calls to celebrities or political organizations; etc. -- all of which they do ONLY because these are "free" calls to them. They would not have made the call otherwise. MCI would NOT have gotten the income from these calls made legitimately because the calls would never have been made. This doesn't excuse the theft. The callers are not in any way exonerated by this fact. But it does belie the telco claim of "lost revenue" in such phraud cases. They would not have had the revenue in any case. So in short, these phreaks and crackers deserve severe penalties. In today's legal climate, it is doubtful that they'll get it. But let us all be objectively realistic in evaluating exactly what was stolen and not encourage the "sound bite" mentality of prosecutors and law enforcement who love to throw around large numbers to indicate the severity of a case or to help justify their expenditures at the next budget hearing of their legislative overseers. Will Martin ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #390 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa20323; 7 Oct 94 20:42 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA06032; Fri, 7 Oct 94 16:11:06 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA06025; Fri, 7 Oct 94 16:11:00 CDT Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 16:11:00 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410072111.AA06025@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #392 TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Oct 94 16:11:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 392 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson 281 Overlay of NPA 713 (Was: Splits Pending) (A. Alan Toscano) Book Review: "Driving the Infohighway" by Neufeld (Rob Slade) Re: Pager For Kids (William H. Sohl) New Country Code: 995 Georgia (Greg Monti) BigMouth - Good or Bad? (Eugene Bylinin) WilTel Opens New Office In Cyberspace (Monty Solomon) Re: Can an Aussie Phone Work in US - Yes But No! (Mark Gabriele) Re: Cordless Phone Security (Boonkang@bcsc02.gov.bc.ca) Re: AT&T Lying, TV a Fake & Other Slander (Jon C. Russo) Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice (Henry Wertz) Re: Help CCITT 16kb/s LD-CELP G728 (H. Shrikumar) Re: Cordless Phone Security (Henry Wertz) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: atoscano@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM (A Alan Toscano) Subject: 281 Overlay of NPA 713 (Was: Splits Pending) Date: 7 Oct 1994 13:14:55 -0500 Organization: NeoSoft Internet Services +1 713 684 5969 In article , Clive D.W. Feather wrote: > I have the following information on pending NANP area code splits. Can > anyone let me know any further information (I am only interested in > the *first* day of parallel running): > [...other splits deleted...] > 1995 ??? ?? 713 splits into 281 > In addition, are the details of the last split (713/281) known yet ? Area Code 281 will enter service on 3/1/95 as an overlay of Number Plan Area 713. For its first year, it will serve only wireless services, such as pager and cellular. Houstonians with 713 numbers will still dial seven digits to reach local 713 numbers but ten to reach local 281 numbers. (I have not learned what 281 cellular customers will dial to reach either 713 or 281 numbers, but my guess would be that they will dial ten digits for all local calls. I've made that guess based upon a provision of the NEXT paragraph.) Beginning 3/1/96, 281 will be opened up to non-wireless services as well as wireless. AT THAT TIME, HOUSTON CUSTOMERS WILL DIAL *TEN* DIGITS TO REACH ANY OTHER LOCAL NUMBER, REGARDLESS OF THE AREA CODES OF CALLING AND CALLED NUMBER. Needless to say, that part of the plan was not well recieved by the public. Just the same, I personally think it is the right way to go, and suspect that within ten years or so, will become the dominant method of local dialing throughout the NANP. A Alan Toscano -- P O Box 741982 -- Houston, TX 77274 -- 713 415-9262 or ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Oct 1994 16:29:21 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Driving the Infohighway" by Neufeld BKDRVINF.RVW 940812 New Fields Publishing Box 14, R.R. 3 Brandon MB R7A 5Y3 (204) 729-8943 "Driving the Infohighway", Neufeld, 1994, 0-920436-54-4, C$24.95 Neufeld@BrandonU.CA Neufeld's book is an institution-specific (in this case, Brandon University) guide to the Internet. As such, it is not, strictly speaking, suitable as a general Internet guide. There are, however, some compelling reasons for those outside of Brandon to be interested in it. For one thing, it is excellent, and Neufeld is willing to take on projects for other institutions. For another, it demonstrates what can be done in a non-UNIX and non-workstation environment (VAX/VMS). Finally, even having to weed out the Internet stuff from the Brandon material, it does make for a very decent Internet guide. After an initial introduction to the Internet, three chapters deal with access topics specific to Brandon University, while the fifth gives new users some orientation to the VAX. Chapter six starts the Internet "how to" with email. One aspect of the book is the seamless integration of the site-specific information to the Internet content. Thus, this, the subsequent chapters on Usenet, archie, ftp, file transfer, file archiving, telnet, chat (using PHONE, talk and IRC), advanced email, mailing lists, finding email addresses, gopher, WAIS, and World Wide Web might be difficult for a non-Brandon user to disentangle, but must provide a terrific introduction for BU users. Chapter twenty closes with a look at the growth and future of the Internet. Appendices give a glossary and some (mostly gopher) resources, plus more details on VAX topics. While there are occasional problems (I noticed one file specification which actually points to a directory, in one important resource), the material is generally of superior quality and arrangement. I have reviewed a number of more costly and supposedly more generic books which give far less than this value and content. If you want a site-specific manual, get Neufeld to do it for you. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKDRVINF.RVW 940812. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated mailing lists/newsgroups. DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Oct. '94) Springer-Verlag ------------------------------ From: whs70@cc.bellcore.com (sohl,william h) Subject: Re: Pager For Kids Date: 7 Oct 1994 15:17:45 -0400 Organization: Bell Communications Research (Bellcore) In article , David Esan wrote: > My children are now of the age that they are beginning to disappear > into the various backyards of their friends in suburbia. > Can a person set up a paging system like this (say a one mile range) or > would I have to contact a real company and pay big $$? Actually, many pagers aren't all that expensive on a monthly basis, you might want to check some of the company's offerings. One note of caution, at least one state (New Jersey) has made it illegal for minors to have pagers. The alleged reason is to prevent drug dealers from using minors as drug runners because minors draw lower jail sentances if caught. Nothing like NJ punishing the many for the ill deeds of the few. Just to be sure there's no doubt as to where I stand, I live in NJ, I detest drugs, drug dealers and drug users. I also detest stupid legislation that outlaws the legitamate use of technology just to keep it out of the hands of criminals ... and we all know the criminals don't care anyway. 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 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, you could always live in Chicago where stupidity reigns supreme where our city council is concerned. Talk about dumb laws ... they got dumb laws in Chicago with pay phones. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 14:34:59 EDT From: Greg Monti Subject: New Country Code: 995 Georgia Sprint has announced direct dial service to the (former Soviet) Republic of Georgia. Georgia now has a country code separate from the Commonwealth of Independent States. Georgia's is 995. Greg Monti, Tech Mgr, FISPO, Distribution Division National Public Radio Phone: +1 202 414-3343 635 Massachusetts Av NW Fax: +1 202 414-3036 Washington, DC 20001-3753 Internet: gmonti@npr.org ------------------------------ From: lerusse@aol.com (LeRusse) Subject: BigMouth - Good or Bad? Date: 7 Oct 1994 15:28:01 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Hi! I just found some information on telemarketing system called BigMouth from Talking Tech. in CA. , at $295 plus $90 for "targeted" outbound-call telemarketing extension. If you are familiar with that system (or have used another exeptionally good/bad system), I would very much appreciate your comments/impressions/thoughts/suggestions. Eugene Bylinin ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 05:00:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: WilTel Opens New Office In Cyberspace Forwarded FYI to the Digest: From: David_Cordeiro@wiltel.com (David Cordeiro) Subject: WilTel Opens New Office In Cyberspace Date: 30 Sep 1994 14:35:32 GMT Organization: WilTel For Immediate Release WilTel Opens New Office in Cyberspace WilTel, the pioneer in commercial data telecommunications, has become the first company in Oklahoma to put a commercial WWW server on the Internet. This is a natural move for WilTel, says Russ McGuire, the initiator of WilTel's Internet server. Our server puts us one step closer to our Internet-using customers and opens WilTel up to a huge potential client base. WilTel's server offers information on the company as well as detailed information about all of its telecommunications products. In keeping with WilTel's corporate values, other services are also planned to add value to the Internet community and WilTel's home city of Tulsa, OK. Gordon Martin, WilTel's director of product marketing, believes this project puts WilTel on the leading edge of high-tech marketing. This is exactly where we need to be. Our leading-edge products and services are perfectly matched to this leading- edge media, he says. As future Internet technologies develop, WilTel is committed to remaining on the cutting edge of this exciting frontier. WilTel's server can be reached by Internet users at the Universal Resource Locator (URL) -- http://www.wiltel.com/ Contact: David Cordeiro David_Cordeiro@wiltel.com ------------------------------ From: gabriele@rand.org (Mark Gabriele) Subject: Re: Can an Aussie Phone Work in US - Yes But No! Date: Thu, 06 Oct 1994 17:15:17 -0800 Organization: The RAND Corporation In article , gkm@uow.edu.au (Glen K Moore) wrote: > No. I never got my phone hooked up. I gave up after two weeks and I > survived with the email -- it asked no questions and cost me a lot less > $$ and frustration. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well it would seem to me that by using > your MasterCard as payment, the requirments for a credit history might > have been waived under the circumstances. You did offer to pay that > way I assume, and allow the carrier to place a hold on perhaps several > hundred dollars of that credit line during your stay here ... Perhaps > I assume wrong. Any ideas from other readers? PAT] I can give a true-life experience ... when I got my cellphone hooked up, I declined to provide a Social Security number so that they could do a credit check. They stated that there would be a deposit required -- $1000 (this was AirTouch cellular in LA, formerly PacTel Cellular). When I pointed out that there was also a space on the application form for a passport number and offered to provide that to them, the rep (who seemed to know his business) assured me that it would be acceptable, as long as I also gave them a $1000 deposit. There is apparently no exception -- if you want cellular service (at least in LA) and don't a credit check, they want a deposit to hold for one year until you have established credit with them. This makes some sense, really. Since cellphones are inherently mobile, what is to prevent an unscrupulous person from providing a false address and charging up a storm, then calling up their credit card company amd disputing the charges? I sympathize about the failure of a letter from the university finance officer, but such a thing could, of course, be trivially faked, and the fact that it comes from a university on the other side of the planet makes it non-trivial to check up on. Mark (gabriele@rand.org) ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Security From: BOONKANG@bcsc02.gov.bc.ca Date: Fri, 07 Oct 94 13:22:56 PDT Organization: BC Systems Corporation In article BOONKANG@bcsc02.gov.bc.ca writes: > I seem to have read somewhere about the risk of having someone dialing > up on your phone line (and charging long distance calls on your phone > account) when the handset is not sitting at the base-station cradle of > your cordless phone. Can those experts on cordless phones provide me > with an update on this issue? I received responses from my above posting. They all expressed the awareness of such security exposure but none offered any concrete case of expoesure or any technical explanation. Last week, I saw a new 900 mhz cordless phone (Sanyo ?) which claimed the feature of 1 million security codes to prevent un-authorized use. My own cordless phone (Cobra) features an 8-bit security code (= 256 combinations). I take this to mean that these cordless phone will check the matching codes between the handset and base machine before transmitting the data between them. Since my phone has only 256 combinations, it is relative easy to use a gadget to crack the security code of my phone and obtain a dialup on it. Is my observation correct ? Anyway, I also found a partial solution for this potential security problem: Radio Shack sells a device called Phone-lock which will prevent dialout when locked. It will still allow receiving of phone-call. You have to turn the key to unlock the phone if you want to dial out, this is not necessarily a problem because we can use other corded phones to dial out. B.C. Systems Corp. ||PROFS: BCSC02(BOONKANG) 4000 Seymour Pl, W169BLUE ||INTERNET:BOONKANG@BCSC02.GOV.BC.CA Victoria,B.C. Canada V8X 4S8||IBMMAIL: CABCSTFS@IBMMAIL.COM 604 389-3991(V)389-3916(FAX)||*** Opinions are MINE solely *** ------------------------------ From: jrusso@hannibal.atl.ge.com (Jon C Russo) Subject: Re: AT&T Lying, TV a Fake & Other Slander Date: 7 Oct 1994 13:07:09 GMT Organization: GE Aerospace, Advanced Technology Labs > For a real comparison, the TrueVoice demo line can be reached by > dialing 1-800-932-2000. Calls to this number are processed by the > same piece of equipment that provides TrueVoice in the network, so > what a caller hears IS the real TrueVoice. (The voice on the demo is > that of James Naughton.) I was just wondering what this "piece of equipment" was the provides the TrueVoice effect. I have obtained similar harmonic modification using a few resistors and capacitors. Pickup was done at the earpiece. Perhaps AT&T's True Voice is some 256-tap digital filter. Perhaps it's some kind of new-fangled adaptive filter. Each of these has an NRE of about $100 to prototype, if you use an experienced engineer. Disribute this cost across millions of subsribers, and the added value is somewhere around $(1e-4) per person. Whatever the approach that AT&T used, one thing is for sure--a low cost graphic equalizer would produce a similar effect. On the side of AT&T: Marketing's job is to make impressive presentations. I surmise that, in marketting "True Voice", AT&T did not target net-hangers, scientists, and engineers. The were targetting (certain, but not all) politicians, lawyers, and artists. (This is a joke, so don't come after me. In fact, I disclaim this whole message.) What would be really cool is a phone with a built in graphic equalizer. Hell, I want do talk to my girlfriend in full Dolby (TM) surround sound! It's time to bring out phone for audiofiles! Give me a T1 and a phased array handpiece! Jon C. Russo e-mail: jrusso@atl.ge.com Martin Marietta Corporation phone: (609) 866-6546 Advanced Technology Laboratories dial comm: 8*777-6546 Building 145-2 FAX: (609) 866-6397 Moorestown, NJ 08057 ------------------------------ From: Henry Wertz Subject: Re: Now AT&T is _Lying_ About True-Voice Date: 7 Oct 1994 17:53:15 GMT Organization: U of Iowa Panda System Reply-To: Henry@chop.isca.uiowa.edu In note , david@uslink.net (David Adams) writes: > Nick Sayer (nsayer@quack.kfu.com) wrote: >> AT&T's latest "True Fraud^H^H^H^H^HVoice" ad has reached a new low in >> deceptive practices. The add features a rediculous sort of "control >> room" full of CRTs showing silly waterfall displays of a lady singing >> their "True Voice" song, though the audio of her singing is quite low >> in level and has the bass attenuated slightly. This is supposed to be >> characteristic of a telephone call. Of course, they also sit there cheering as though they "discovered" something new and great, even though it was developed by for (or was it by?) Bellcore in the 1950's, and just not implemented for 40 years. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 13:57:56 -0400 From: H. Shrikumar Subject: Re: Help CCITT 16kb/s LD-CELP G728 Organization: UMass, Amherst MA + Temporal Systems Bombay India In article is written: > I am looking document and sample source code for CCITT 16kb/s LD-CELP > G728. There is an implementation of the GSM 13kbps standard. Here is a pointer ftp://tub.cs.tu-berlin.de:/pub/tubmik/gsm-1.0.tar.Z European GSM 06.10 provisional standard for full-rate speech transcoding, prI-ETS 300 036, which uses RPE/LTP (residual pulse excitation/long term prediction) coding at 13 kbit/s. This implementation however pads frames to octet boundaries, a small overhead, so it clocks 1650 Bytes/sec. I have not been able to access that site, but archie did show up other sites that had it. I tried it out, works quite ok. Very intelligible, speaker recognizable. And if you are careful, you can notice the very slight "sloshed" feel any vocoder/CELP type compressor gives to plosives in the voice. It works better than real-time on my better MIPS DECstation, but just a bit less than real time on a lesser endowed DECstation. I would like to carry voice over 14.4 (aka an ubiqutous Internet drop, from you friendly neighbourhood ISP :-), and would like to use 286 class machines to do the codec. The only solution I have right now is a CVSS style ADPCM that I threw together one evening, starting from first principles. It works OK, sounds like a scratchy shortwave SSB channel, (without the donald-duck effect of course, so I would be more precise if I said HF-AM ... but you know what I mean.) but hey it works at 14.4 kbps even on my hp100lx, uses hardware consisting of some 8 resistors and a couple of opamps ... so I wont complain :-) Does someone have an old Mitel handbook around ? I know Mitel had a CVSS chip. If I could get a table of coefficients that I could use to improve my ADPCM quantiser, I would be much obliged ! If someone has pointers to a better one, (perhaps the G.726 16kbps 2bit ADPCM, which I suspect should run both Coder and Decoder in real-time on a 12 MHz 286), please do drop a pointer ! There is the G.721-G.723 ITU-T reference implementation from Sun, but that does only 32 and 24 kbps. The 16kbps seems sufficiently different from its higher speed cousins, from my readings of the G.726 standards, I think it would take more than one evening to hack the Sun implementation to do the 16kbps. (Note of course, I am talking about the 16kbps G.726 ADPCM, and not the 16kbps LD/CELP ... that one is a bigger cookie in itself! ) Thanks, shrikumar ( shri@cs.umass.edu, shri@shakti.ncst.ernet.in, X.400 G=Shrikumar S=Hariharasubrahmanian P=itu A=arcom C=CH (yea right :) ------------------------------ From: Henry Wertz Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Security Date: 7 Oct 1994 18:41:10 GMT Organization: U of Iowa Panda System Reply-To: Henry@chop.isca.uiowa.edu In note , BOONKANG@bcsc02.gov.bc.ca writes: > I seem to have read somewhere about the risk of having someone dialing > up on your phone line (and charging long distance calls on your phone > account) when the handset is not sitting at the base-station cradle of > your cordless phone. Can those experts on cordless phones provide me > with an update on this issue? All the portable phones I have seen have at an at least 8-bit, and sometimes up to 16-bit code or more. (That is a minimum of 256 possibilites, and up to 4096+..) One older one I used had it on DIP-switches on back, and lots you just hang it up, and press a button for a second or two and it sets it. I really don't thing people getting on your line and dialing out is a problem anymore. The big problem is people listening in. Before my mom was just about to order something on the phone. It's like broadcasting a for 1/5th of a mile, and she's sitting there saying "my credit card number is ..." Great. I'm glad we don't have anything here but three year olds and 80 year-olds, or that could have caused a problem 8-). ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #392 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa20485; 7 Oct 94 20:43 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05112; Fri, 7 Oct 94 15:40:27 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05093; Fri, 7 Oct 94 15:40:22 CDT Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 15:40:22 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410072040.AA05093@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #391 TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Oct 94 15:40:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 391 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Chicago Taking Out Payphones (USA Today via Will Martin) IBX System (Zanna Martin) Question About AMI Modulation (despatie@hookup.net) Re: "Sprint Check/160 Days" (DICKTER@delphi.com) Re: Area Code Info Needed (Wes Leatherock) Re: OSI OM-Related Tools (Herb Calhoun) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (G. Youngblood) Re: Roaming Report - SF Bay Area to New Zealand via GTE (Greg Youngblood) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 13:55:24 GMT From: Will Martin Subject: Chicago Taking Out Payphones An article on the front page of the Wednesday, Oct 5 94 issue of {USA Today}: CHICAGO READY TO HANG UP ON CORNER DRUG DEALERS by Debbie Howlett The City Council, in an effort to pull the plug on street corner drug dealers, today votes on a sweeping ban on pay phones. The measure, proposed by Mayor Richard Daley and widely supported on the council, would disconnect as many as 15,000 of the 60,000 pay phones, mainly on the poorer South and West sides. "People are outraged. They see drug dealers using those phones 24 hours a day, seven days a week in front of their homes," Daley says. A South Side alderman and Ameritech, largest of 67 companies operating pay phones in the city, say the idea is superficial and disproportionately affects poor people. While 88% of city residents have phone service, barely one in five residents in some of the targeted areas do. In those areas, pay phones are lifelines, says Alderman Dorothy Tillman. Daley defends the ban as the solution for residents who are fed up with dealers; one group of neighbors counted 72 phones in a ten-block area. "You can get rid of every damn pay phone in the city," Tillman says. "It won't stop drug dealing." ******* That issue of {USA Today} also has a supplemental story on page 3A; here are excerpts: BUSY SIGNAL: PHONES AS CRIME CENTERS The pay phone hanging on the wall of the building near Nancy Glover's home on the West Side seemed oddly out of place. It faced a dark alley and wasn't very well lighted. She couldn't imagine who would use it. Within a week, she says, eight boys in gang colors were hanging out for hours, using the pay phone to return pages from their beepers. "It was a real problem," Glover says. .... [Deleted paragraphs that essentially repeated the first story.] Other measures aimed at the pay phone problem haven't been successful. Restrictions on incoming calls, tougher rules for phone companies, phones that don't take coins at night -- nothing curbed the crowds that gathered. Some of the dealers' favorite spots even seem tailored to their purpose: a bank of seven or eight phones set up over a vacant lot that offers an unobstructed view of police patrols. Daley's "ban" won't affect 75% of the city's 60,000 pay phones -- those inside an office, store, or other building. It will, however, allow the city to regulate phones on or overhanging public property. But the pay phone ban has several opponents -- including phone companies. Ameritech, the largest phone company in Illinois, stands to lose 3,000 phones and 80% of its pay phone revenues. [Concluding paragraphs cover statements from the alderman quoted in the first story and from the Ameritech spokesman to the effect that this action won't affect crime.] ******* [Editorial comment: Will this become known as the "Cellular Phone Windfall Act of 1994" in the future? Surely drug dealers can afford cellphones and they'll just switch over to those if they need phone communications ... I've never quite figured out why drug dealers need to make phone calls in the first place. It never struck me as a business conducted by phone-order ... :-) I always thought you needed to go in person with cash money. Can you call up and order by phone with your Visa or MC now? And how do drug dealers use beepers? Do they make house calls to deliver drugs like the pizza man? :-) Pat, please add a follow-up that tells what the result of the vote was, since this is local to you there ...] Regards, Will [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The final result was a hodge-podge; a stupid compromise which will help no one and hurt lots of people. The Chicago City Council has always been known for its corruption and stupid members, so this latest thing is not a big surprise. Now they have decided to ban public phones which are *outside, but on private property*, such as convenience store parking lots, etc. As the article points out, only about one in five residences on the west side of Chicago have private phone service. Too bad for them, eh? Question: How do you tell when a formerly great city is rapidly on the way to its death? Easy ... that's the time when the politicians and lawyer-judges become even more oppressive toward the few stable and tax-paying citizens still remaining. No industries want to set up factories and offices in your town? Then respond by taxing the hell out of the ones who do remain and putting all kinds of oppresive regulations in place against them. No large chain of stores wants to operate on the south and west sides of Chicago because of the high rate of very violent crime? That's cool ... just take the Korean merchants who are willing to operate there and oppress them severely instead; drive them out of business by government fiat and all kinds of cock-eyed regulations even the lawyers don't understand. Not that many parents left who want their kids to go to a public school if there is any possible way to avoid it? Don't worry, just take the few bright and intelligent children who are still in public schools and force them to be bussed ten miles each way through city traffic to a penitentiary masquerading as a public school on the other side of town. The longer the bus ride each day the less time there will be to spend in class and the more opportunity for the bus driver to sell them drugs and sexually molest them. Their parents will learn soon enough. It appears voter registration this time around is at an all-time low. Apparently only a few fools here are bothering to vote any longer. For the past couple months the newspapers and politicians have been exhorting people to register to vote, but it appears less than half the eligible voters have done so this time. Watching the political scene in Chicago is such a gas ... its only a matter of time until the city collapses. *GOD*, I am so glad I moved away a year ago. I would never move back to Chicago for any reason, even if I am only 20 miles or so north. I have to have a decent and safe place for our five-year old to live, and Chicago just won't do. So the payphone situation? What else is old? Just the dumbest (many have little formal education) and most criminal (a dozen members convicted and sent to prison in the past decade) bunch anywhere -- the Chicago City Council -- doing its thing. Not to worry though; there will still be outside payphones at the Chicago Housing Authority slums and the Transit Authority stations. Even though technically 'private property', the lawyers for the Housing Atrocity and the Transit Atrocity did a better job of sucking up to the Council than the lawyers for the Korean Merchants Association or the Chicagoland Association of Black McDonald's Restaurant Owners. Some outside payphones on private property will still remain if you say pretty-please and you allow them to have one hand in your pocket while the middle finger on their other hand is inserted somewhere else at the same time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: zanna@problem_with_inews_domain_file.et.tudelft.nl (Zanna Martin) Subject: IBX System Date: 7 Oct 1994 18:13:50 GMT Organization: Delft University of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering Anyone have any info on an IBX system by Intecom Inc? I am attempting to interface a modem this system and understand that an interface is available for $$$, however I want to do it myself ... any technical specs or schematic diagrams would be appreciated. Thanks, Tom ------------------------------ From: despatie@hookup.net Subject: Question About AMI Modulation Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 13:50:42 GMT Organization: HookUp Communication Corporation, Oakville, Ontario, CANADA Does anyone have any information on AMI type modulation used on digital lines? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Oct 1994 11:39:01 EDT From: DICKTER@delphi.com Subject: Re: "Sprint Check/160 Days" As a copywriter assigned to a major L.D. account, I'm all too familiar with checks and their role in acqauiring new customers. Basically, no one can prevent a customer from switching to another lond distance copany -- on matter how scary the LOA language on the back of the check sounds. While these devices may sound is (as) if drafetred (drafted) my (by) a legal SWAT team, they are merely marketing attempts to keep churn levels douwn. Since AT&T fired the first check salvo two years ago, the check wars continue to breed a climate of switchers and money-seeking treasure hunters. And who can blame them? You get a check from one company, cash it, and two kweeks later you receive another check from the competition. You cash that, and the process starts anew. The result has been an eroding base of loyal customers -- and an unwillingness of customers to stay with one company and see how much they can save on savings programs., lower rates, etc. For marketers like myself, checks have served to frustrate long-term strategies and prevent other messages from entering the prospect's decision-making process. And while customers may think cahsing the check is a smart morve, the irony is that everyone (including them) ends up paying for it through more promo dollars being thrown against more and more check mailings. So what's the bottom line? It's time to stop using cash as the ultimate carrot-on-stick marketing tool -- and time to destroy the climate of switchers costing l.d. companies millins in misspent promo dollars and switching fees. In a better world, customers would choose a l.d. company based on benefits and savings -- then leave if those benefits were not begin provided or of (if) another companyu promises even o(more.) But that cannot happen until customers are refocused to look for comparitive strength and not the largest dollar amount on the "ay Pay to the order of" line. Ang again, no one can stop you from switching again -- but can you blame Sprint from trying to keep you around for a few months in the desparate hope that they can recover some of the expenses incurred in getting you through their door? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are correct that they cannot prevent you from switching carriers. What they can do, if it seems cost-effective and not counter-productive is sue you for breaking your promise to remain with them for some set period of time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Wes.Leatherock@f2001.n147.z1.fidonet.org (Wes Leatherock) Date: 06 Oct 94 21:11:21 -0500 Subject: Re: Area Code Information Needed Organization: FidoNet Nameserver/Gateway Quoting Joseph Singer (joseph.singer@stage.com): ... [text deleted] ... > battery central offices. Also even the places that had DDD had > different procedures to access it. In many places such as New York > and New Jersey you would just dial the telephone number or an area > code plus phone number whereas most people dialed "1" plus a number > within an area code or 1 plus area code and phone number. Other > places had you dial 112 before the area codes while yet other > companies (mostly independents) made you dial extra digits. When Sherman, Texas, (served by GTE) originally went to DDD, you dialed 70 (seven zero) plus number or area code and number. Quoting Robert Casey: > Talking about area code history, I think NJ was all 201 a long time > ago. 201 is the lowest area code number, probably due to the fact that > there many Bell Labs sites in NJ, and probably the place where the area > code concept was developed was one of those. The area codes were originally assigned on the basis of the largest cities getting the lowest area codes. This was in the days of rotary dial, so a zero is actually ten, and 201 was not a low number. The lowest numbered area code (takes the fewest dial pulses) is 212 (211 was, of course, reserved for calling the long distance operator). New York City's area code was and is 212, of course. The next lowest numbers are 312 (which is Chicago) and 213 (which is Los Angeles). Quoting Bill Garfield (bill.garfield@yob.com): > Same here, except is was as late as 1966. I was working in > Scottsbluff, NE and carrying on a "LONG DISTANCE" relationship with a > young lady in Hoopeston, IL. It only took a few times calling before I > too was able to give the "route" to the LD operator... "2-1-7 > 2-8-3, 2-1-7 Plus 0-2-8 and the same for operators". Life > certainly seemed simpler back then. :-) The usual way this was given, I think, was (for example) "2-1-7 Plus 0-2-8 and the same for operators (pause) MARK 2-1-7 2-8-3." The originating operator actually dialed 217+028 and this sent the call to the Hoopeston operator, who would manually plug into the jack for the desired number or the desired operator (such as Directory Assistance). 217-283 was the assigned prefix for Hoopeston, and the operator marked the toll ticket (done by hand) with a conductive pencil in the bubbles for those numbers so it would be machine readable. Even though the prefix was assigned, Hoopeston was, obviously, not dialable as a manual office. If there was not a prefix assigned (either theoretical or future, the instruction would be "Mark 'Other Place'." (There was a bubble so named, and that would kick the ticket out to be rated and billed manually in the Telco accounting office.) There were places that the operator could dial but not the customer, for any one of a number of reasons, most commonly that there were not enough incoming trunks to meet the DDD standard for all-trunks- busy during the busy hour. In this case the instruction would be simply "2-1-7 Plus 283 PLUS." And there were various other combinations possible, including even the operator office being in another state (and with a different area code). Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu wes.leatherock@tranquil.torii.starship.com ------------------------------ From: calhoun@mot.com (Herb Calhoun) Subject: Re: OSI OM-Related Tools Organization: Motorola Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 18:23:07 GMT In article , andrew lavigne wrote: > I've been looking for information on the availability of OSI Object > Model Management-related toolkits and compilers (ASN.1/GDMO compilers, > object class inheritance display tools, browsers, etc). > Does anyone know of such tools and/or where I can get more information > on them? DSET provides a GDMO/ASN.1 raw compiler, as does RETIX. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Fri, 07 Oct 94 09:46:07 PDT Organization: The Complete Solution TELECOM Digest Editor noted: > In certain other prominent e-journals on the Internet, we have read > in recent days that computer crime is not nearly the serious matter > the government claims it to be. It sounds to me like the sneak-thievery > of a hundred thousand plus calling card numbers and fifty million > dollars in phreak phone calls is serious enough. We have long known > about telco employees who themselves are as corrupt as the day is > long; who think nothing of taking bribes for providing confidential > information about their employer and its customers. But most of it > to-date has been petty ante stuff; a few dollars under the table for > a non-pub phone number, or maybe a hackerphreak who gets a job with > telco then uses information and technology at his (legitimate) disposal > to cover his own tracks where obscene/harassing calls are concerned. > But a hundred thousand calling cards and fifty million dollars in > traffic???? At what point are certain publishers/editors on the > Internet going to wake up? Computer crime is growing expotentially. > I think it is time to have another massive crackdown, similar to > Operation Sun Devil a few years ago. Let's start getting really > tough on hackers and phreaks. In this avenue I have to say that while I agree with the idea expressed here, lets not get carried away. Operation Sun Devil did it's good in that it caught and shut down a lot of hackers and phreaks ... but not without its mistakes. I notice you say similar to Operation Sun Devil. In what manner? If your going after phreaks (and some hackers who go along with the phreaking), then why not seed their files with bogus calling card numbers that various carriers agree to allow for this type of usage with the intent of letting the phreaks distribute that number. Then after a perioud of time, arrange a large scale bust arresting all those utilizing those seeded calling card numbers. In fact, why not take some of the known calling card numbers that have already been stolen, keep them in operation (though not for that customer but for this very purpose) so that way it adds another element to the sting ... actual live card numbers switched over from a customer as a sting rather than cutting the number off. It would seem that doing this would add even more risk to the phreaks since they would never know at what point the calling card was switched over etc. Perhaps I am just showing my own ignorance in the whole scene ... but large scale busts like Sun Devil will also pull in innocent people likely. I dont recall if Sun Devil was the operation that started the whole Jackson Games ordeal or if it was something else, but in any large scale operation like your proposing, the net will also fall around innocent people. Especially if the officers involved are not trained properly and dont really know what they are going after, which in high-tech crimes seems to be the case some of the time. That was particularly the problem with the Jackson Games mess ... (btw, how did that end? I saw a report or two from the trial, but I don't recall getting the final verdict and such ...) The large-scale computer crimes like this one are the ones the medias get a hold of and glamorize and exagerate the risks and potentials to mass audiences ... no wonder a lot of people are still afraid of computers. In this case, 100,000s of calling cards. Even from the glamorized reports of other capers, none seem to be as large-scale as this operation was. These large scale operations seem to be somewhat rare. But at least this one is shut down now. While I will agree computer crime is getting to be more of a problem and is growing, I also urge caution in how things are done to resolve it, especially in the spotlight of the media, and the public. Not to hide anything, but to prevent politicians from trying to protect us from ourselves in such a way that will hinder networks such as the Internet and others. With the information superhighway the buzzword in DC and with high press coverage of the exception rather than the norm, it can easily create more hassles and problems for (what I hope is) the majority of honest ones on the net, limiting or cutting off access entirely resources currently available. In short, I'm just urging caution in finding a solution to the problem of growing computer crime. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Roaming Report - SF Bay Area to New Zealand via GTE From: zeta@tcscs.com (Gregory Youngblood) Date: Fri, 07 Oct 94 10:04:21 PDT Organization: The Complete Solution > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: An interesting new form of cellular > fraud came to my attention recently. It seems that many/most cellular > companies handle roamers by assigning them a temporary phone number > to use while in their territory. If you subscribe to a service such > as 'follow me' or Fast Track as Ameritech calls it, then when you > activate that feature in another city, the carrier in that city > assigns you a number and tells your home carrier what number is > to be used for call-forwarding purposes. Well ... it seems like some > carriers use the same old numbers over and over again for roamers > in their territory, and on those numbers for the sake of administrative > convenience, the ESN is not checked or verified like it would be for > their own customers with calls to/from their own numbers. So some > people have found that if you learn the block of numbers used by, > let's say, Cellular One Chicago over and over for roamers here, > all you need to do is program your own phone to one of those numbers > and make/receive calls with impunity at no charge. > > The same gag used to work with Radio Shack's cellular demo line. All > RS stores had a cellular phone number they could use to demo their > products. Any phone in their stock would work for the simple reason > the carrier did not verify the ESN ... how could they if the dealer > had dozens of phones in stock to be displayed, demoed and hopefully > sold? Of course since any phone in their stock could make calls when [Portion of R.S. summary deleted] > So phreaks began learning the phone numbers (a) used by the carriers > for day-to-day temporary assignment to roamers, (b) used for administrative > and testing purposes by the carrier itself, and (c) used by very large > dealers like Radio Shack for demonstrations. Needless to say, a good > time was had by all. There were limitations on the numbers which could > be dialed -- not technical limits, but certainly pragmatic considerations. > Radio station request lines, hotel switchboards, pay stations, etc; those > were all okay but *never* a call to a private residence or your home. > After all, when 'they' got a bellyfull of it, and got hit with loads > of long-distance and international calls, 'they' started auditing the > bills a little closer. Would you want 'them' to call your mother and > ask her who she spoke to in Kansas City on a cellular phone a month > ago? "... Just an error in our bookkeeping ma'm, we are trying to > straighten out the billing and get the bill to the right person ..." > and mom replies, "Oh! You must mean my son! .... such a good boy! > and so smart with computers and telephones .... " ... "Thank you > madam, that's all we need to know ...". None the less, I think the > scam is still going on where the roamer temporary numbers and the > carrier admin numbers are concerned. PAT] I have to jump in here ... it isn't often that I feel a need to jump in and clarify certain points. While I am not well versed on software and switches beyond a couple, I can tell you about the systems I've worked on and worked with. Your first part refers to the Temporary Directory Number that a roamers MIN (Mobile Identification Number) is assigned to in certain types of automated roaming, such as Follow Me Roaming or NationLink etc. I won't go into some details in case the problem is more severe than I personally realize, but suffice it to say, when the TDN is assigned for a MIN by the automated roaming system, and ESN is usually assigned as well. In essence in the market where the phone is being used, that MIN is activated like a regular home subscriber, except that the direct dial phone number (or the TDN) is not the same as the cellular's MIN. If you were able to get your TDN you could just as easily give people in the market your roaming in your TDN and receive calls just as a home sub in that market without having to pay the long distance charges to your home carrier for forwarding your calls as well. In the switches I work with, the ESN is also included so that, just like a regular home sub, the ESN is checked with that MIN. Also, when a new number is activated the new MIN's ESN is included in the activation. [Just to be on the safe side I will be checking my switches to verify that this is indeed happening ...] And, in my opinion if the carriers are not utilizing the ESN when assigning TDN's, they are asking for a whole can of worms, and I'm surprized it didn't get caught sooner ... The next item you mentioned was Radio Shack.. In '90 or '91 Radio Shack implemented the rule- ONLY ONE DEMO NUMBER PER STORE. Seems managers were getting free portables and free service. The stores where I knew the managers told me about the switch over and how they couldn't sell the one phone they had on display because that was their only demo number. I also know that in the markets I've been around, the carrier would not activate a "zeroed" out ESN no matter what the agent/dealer wanted. Perhaps if the agent/dealer agreed ot assume all liability created by opening up the number they might ... but still I think you see the security risks here. I've since moved away and have really not kept in touch with these people, so it is possible that in some markets or with Tandy's influence, some carriers opened up the ESN ... I would sure hope not. Lastly, I don't know how many carriers still allow zeroed ESN for their administrative calls. I know that I don't know of any personally. For a while this was the case, but that was four to six years ago and since then those were the first security holes closed when fraud started to become a larger problem for the carrier. Perhaps I misunderstood ... I thought the initial message was started out as what is being done right now by the cellular phreaks out there. If not, then I just wasted some bandwidth. The TDN problem is a new one to me, and I will go and double-check my systems to verify it operates the way it is supposed to, but beyond that, the zeroed (sp?) ESN activated in a switch is virtually nonexistant (unless a tech or switch person went against a company's policy??) Greg [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It was three or four years ago that Cellular One here in Chicago started cleaning up that mess. They had a whole bunch of numbers with zeroed out ESNs in the 312-659 range for several years. I guess they got eaten alive like many other carriers and found out the hard way. Of course, 312-659 was the very first cellular prefix used here, and that was/is where Cell One had/has all their own admin, testing and customer service numbers. In our local Radio Shack District here (Chicago North) they tightened up on the scam a few years ago, but I don't know about other Radio Shack Districts. Cellular carriers still leaving that back door open for their own convenience should at least review it and make sure the fraud level is tolerable. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #391 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa17761; 9 Oct 94 14:59 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA12441; Sun, 9 Oct 94 11:45:28 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA12434; Sun, 9 Oct 94 11:45:23 CDT Date: Sun, 9 Oct 94 11:45:23 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410091645.AA12434@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #393 TELECOM Digest Sun, 9 Oct 94 11:45:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 393 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: $50 Million in Quarters? (Ed Ellers) Did MCI Really Lose $50M? (Mike King) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (Haakon Styri) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (Barry Pryde) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (J.F. Shumway) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (Bob Goudreau) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (Dave O'Shea) Electronic White-Pages (EWP/DA) Directory Assistance Software (htcink) New Abyss Bankruptcy Plan (For Those With a Morbid Interest) (James Haynes) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: $50 Million in Quarters? Date: Sat, 8 Oct 94 13:41:27 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to A. Padgett Peterson : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Padgett, what I do not understand and > believe to be wrong about the court rulings you cite is the apparent > conflict with federal regulations pertaining to fraud and misuse of > credit cards generally. To the extent that telephone calling cards are > credit cards -- and they are intended to allow you to pay 'later' -- > how can the user be held responsible for more than some minimal > amount -- usually fifty dollars -- in damages? Federal regulations > pertaining to credit cards are quite clear that the card holder will > not suffer as a result of fraud when the cardholder had nothing to > do with it. PAT] My understanding is that the FTC has *already* ruled that these calling cards are "credit cards" under Federal law, meaning (among other things) that carriers can't just send out cards to customers without an actual request for them. ------------------------------ From: mk@TFS.COM (Mike King) Subject: Did MCI Really Lose $50M? Date: Sat, 8 Oct 1994 22:43:28 PDT In TELECOM Digest V14 #390, there was discussion as to how much money MCI might have lost as a result of the Calling Card Fraud perpetuated by one of its employees. Discussions about this amount included: awoolfso@uop.edu (Aaron Woolfson) wrote: > Does anyone know that the telephone network is ALWAYS transmitting to > it's maximum capacity, regardless of the information placed over it? [...] > 3) Perhaps if the calls were being terminated to locations where > MCI is using WilTel's or AT&T's facilities, there may be some > nominal termination charges. > Although I am not suggesting that it is not a big deal what happened, > I just don't see how MCI can be running around and crying that they > are losing all this money, when THEY REALLY AREN'T! They are just > not collecting nearly as much revenue as before. Will Martin wrote: > I venture to say that the actual amount stolen for a call billed at $10 > is actually only a few mills' worth of electricity that MCI paid on > its various utility bills at the sites through which the call traveled. There IS one factor that hasn't been mentioned yet: transport fees to the LECs. For each minute of connection, there's a meter running at *both* ends of the connection. This is real money that MCI must pay to the LECs, whether the calls were phraudulent or not. I'm not up-to-date on the costs for interconnection, but I remember seeing figures of 3-4 cents a minute. Double that, and multiply by the total number of minutes of connection, and there's a real cost to MCI. Mike King mk@tfs.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Oct 94 03:50:39 +0100 From: styri@balder.nta.no Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud In Telecom-Digest: Volume 14, Issue 390, awoolfso@uop.edu (Aaron Woolfson) writes: > 2) If a circuit logs 10 or 10,000 minutes of billable time, > MCI is paying the same amount anyway. > 3) Perhaps if the calls were being terminated to locations where > MCI is using WilTel's or AT&T's facilities, there may be some > nominal termination charges. If the amount of "free" calls increase to the extent that the operator must add a new circuit I'm afraid your statement is wrong. The news reports say that card numbers have been distributed in Europe, naming at least Germany and Spain. At present it's very likely that any US operator will have to pay for this kind of calls that originates in Europe. For calls terminating outside the US the same situation will occur. (Or, to make my comment really short: There are a few other operators out there.) I'm afraid that the "we're just using surplus capacity anyway" argument isn't any good. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe I read something about one or two US operators increasing the price of calling card calls due to an increased level of fraud earlier this year. (I think it was in Telecom Digest, but I may be wrong about that.) To me that sounds like somebody's losing real money. It may of course be the world-wide telco conspiracy. Haakon Styri ------------------------------ Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud From: barry.pryde@ltn.com (BARRY PRYDE) Date: Sat, 08 Oct 94 08:13:00 -0400 Organization: London Telecom BBS - Hamilton, Ontario 905-570-8956 Reply-To: barry.pryde@ltn.com (BARRY PRYDE) > MCI has FIXED costs for leasing the T1's between the POPs. If a > circuit logs 10 or 10,000 minutes of billable time, MCI is paying the > same amount anyway. You are right it is a fixed cost but the problem is when T1's become full then you're customers get mad. This forces you to install more facilities. If you could get rid of all the fraud from the existing facilities then you would have more connections available for your paying customers. So i guess we can call INDIRECT cost of fraud. I would think they are thinking FACILITIES and not MINUTES. Barry Pryde MIS: London Telecom Network SYSOP: London Telecom BBS E-Mail: barry.pryde@ltn.com ------------------------------ From: phread@trojan.nw.att.com (J.F. Shumway) Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud Reply-To: j.f.shumway@att.com Organization: AT&T Date: Sat, 8 Oct 1994 04:50:33 GMT In article , Aaron Woolfson wrote: > WAS that really $50,000,000 lost or was it just $50,000,000. not > collected? It somehow just doesn't seem the same as someone getting > on to some scheme to actually steal money. >1) MCI has FIXED costs for leasing the T1's between the POPs. >2) If a circuit logs 10 or 10,000 minutes of billable time, > MCI is paying the same amount anyway. >3) Perhaps if the calls were being terminated to locations where > MCI is using WilTel's or AT&T's facilities, there may be some > nominal termination charges. > Although I am not suggesting that it is not a big deal what happened, > I just don't see how MCI can be running around and crying that they > are losing all this money, when THEY REALLY AREN'T! They are just > not collecting nearly as much revenue as before. The IECs like MCI pay very significant sums as access charges to LECs like Southern Bell for terminating calls through their local network. Presumably some portion of the calls fraudulently billed to these cards did terminate in a LECs network. I seem to recall from AT&T's annual report that something like 1/3 of the revenue collected from long distance consumer billings was returned to the LECs as access charges. This is big bucks that leaves the books of the defrauded carrier and not just an operating inefficiency due to underutilizing fixed cost timeslots. But don't get me wrong I wouldn't be the least bit suprised if MCI and the SS estimated these revenue loses very liberally to fan the flames of public outrage and encourage the notion that nothing short of public executions (and increased funding for law enforcement) will temper the wicked designs of the wily hacker. It would be interesting to know just how this loss figure was estimated. It certainly wasn't from contested billings as the IECs are only now contacting effected customers. Jesse Fred Shumway post: AT&T, 2600 Warrenville Rd., Lisle, IL, 60532 voice: (708) 224-7880 fax: (708) 224-6764 email: j.f.shumway@att.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Oct 1994 18:34:22 -0400 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud Carl Moore asks: > Cary, NC? That's in the Raleigh-Durham area, quite far from > Charlotte. Earlier article from you said he was employed in the > Charlotte switching center. Our Moderator responds: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The version I got referred to Charlotte. > My source was the {Los Angeles Times} and a couple other places where > raids took place last week. Now I believe the {Chicago Tribune} account > which was used in the Computer Underground Digest placed it in Cary, > as did the report in the papers in New York. PAT] As a Cary resident, I'll add my two cents as well: From the reports I've read, the employee is alleged to have started his fraud scheme while working in Charlotte (which is indeed a good couple of hundred miles west of Cary). Later, he transferred to MCI's new operations center in Cary, which was built and opened only recently. The accused himself is currently a resident of Haw River, an unincorporated community near Burlington (east of Greensboro). Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA ------------------------------ From: dos@spam.wdns.wiltel.com (Dave O'Shea) Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud Date: 8 Oct 1994 22:37:55 GMT Organization: WilTel Reply-To: dave_oshea@wiltel.com Aaron Woolfson (awoolfso@uop.edu) wrote: > Well ... I sit here looking over an inter-exchange carrier switching > system at our carrier and am thinking to myself: > WAS that really $50,000,000 lost or was it just $50,000,000. not > collected? It somehow just doesn't seem the same as someone getting > on to some scheme to actually steal money. Depends how you count it. But you can be pretty certain it added to the company's costs without increasing their revenues. > Does anyone know that the telephone network is ALWAYS transmitting to > it's maximum capacity, regardless of the information placed over it? No, I didn't know that. And while I don't work for WilTel's long distance unit, I suspect they don't know that, either. > T1's are hooked up between locations and all the data is placed over > those facilities in the form of 0's or 1's. If there are 1's and the > A&B bits over the T1 show that there is traffic there, then a circuit > gets billed. That's how simple it really is. You're leaving out a number of things here: 1. IXC's (Long distance carriers) have to pay for the usage of local loops -- by the minute. These charges make up a significant part of what they bill back for long distance usage. The fact that a call was made fraudulently doesn't mean that NYNEX or whoever isn't still going to be looking for usage charges. 2. All those T1s and such cost money. T1 channels occupied by non-revenue calls mean that they aren't available for paying customers. Ditto for expensive switch ports and monitoring equipment. 3. The equipment used by thieves still has to be maintained and upgraded. The costs are absorbed by stockholders, employees, and paying customers in the form of lower profits, more work, and higher LD costs. > I know that I will probably get a lot of heat from people within the > telephone industry and especially the companies who we build fraud > detection devices for just for saying this. But I just do not see how > it can possibly really be hurting MCI. If you have long distance service, it's hurting *you*. YOU are paying for all that local loop time. YOU are paying for extra capacity. YOU are paying for the call-fraud systems. > 1) MCI has FIXED costs for leasing the T1's between the POPs. Even if this is true, it does not take into account switched facilities and the cost, again, of adding T1s just for use by thieves. If 5% of a transmission network is used fraudulently, that capacity is not available to the legitimate users. Busy signals or higher costs are your options. > 2) If a circuit logs 10 or 10,000 minutes of billable time, > MCI is paying the same amount anyway. Again, you're thinking just of feeding data into a DS0 on a channel bank and pulling it out at the other end. You're not taking into account any of the other costs. You probably only use your car for, say, an hour a day. Would you have any objection to other people borrowing it -- without your permission -- for the other 23 hours? "But," you say, "Who's going to pay for the gas? And what if they crash and my insurance rates go up? And suppose *I* need the car while they're using it!" Well, you'll just have to buy a spare car. How about your house? Just mail me a copy of the keys, and I'll even promise to clean up after myself in the kitchen. I like steaks, so make sure there are plenty in the freezer, eh? And if I'm watching "Cops" when you want to watch "L.A. Law", you'll just have to wait. And while you're at it, could you create a "guest" account on your computer and give it an unlimited disk and CPU quota? > 3) Perhaps if the calls were being terminated to locations where > MCI is using WilTel's or AT&T's facilities, there may be some > nominal termination charges. Unless you're willing to cough up those "nominal" charges out of the goodness of your heart, you really don't have any say in how MCI spends it's money. > Although I am not suggesting that it is not a big deal what happened, > I just don't see how MCI can be running around and crying that they > are losing all this money, when THEY REALLY AREN'T! They are just > not collecting nearly as much revenue as before. Well, great! I'm going to be taking 5% of your paychecks in the future, okay? It won't be like I'm really _stealing_ money from you, you simply won't get as much as you did before. Dave O'Shea dave_oshea@wiltel.com Sr. Network Engineer 201.236.3730 WilTel Data Network Services Did I *say* I'm a WilTel spokesman? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yours is probably the best rebuttal I have received to date to the original commentary by Aaron. A lot of folks who accept the sort of fraud that the accused is said to have pulled on MCI do so in a very casual, uncaring, or disinterested third- person sort of way. It is hard for many people to feel much sympathy when the victim of a crime is a huge monolithic entity like AT&T or MCI. There has to be some actual person they can point to before they are willing to accept the seriousness of the crime. Now, when you put it to them as you did, i.e. 'suppose I borrow your car without your permission for 23 hours per day since you are not using it anyway', or 'suppose I open an account on your personal computer without your knowledge or approval' ... then listen to them squeal like a bunch of pigs on their way to market. Does anyone remember the cartoon which appeared in {Playboy Magazine} a few years ago showing the little kid sitting in front of his computer -- screen totally blank -- with a very mystified and angry look on his face? His mother and father are standing there and one says to the other, "during the night a huge corporation broke in and erased all his files and reformatted his disk." Turn-about, you see, is not fair play where hackerphreaks are concerned. Their supporters and bosum-buddies at the EFF and similar organizations will give you the bull jive about how we are simply dealing with 'excess capacity not being used'; but they neglect to point out *whose* excess capacity they are stealing, and what gives them the right to be there in the first place. In summary Dave, very good response. Thanks for writing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: htcink@teleport.com (htc) Date: 8 Oct 1994 14:50:30 -0700 Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 Subject: Electronic White-Pages (EWP/DA) Directory Assistance Software Dear Internet user, My company has developed an Electronic White-Pages software product for use under DOS named "HTC-EWP." HTC-EWP interfaces with the LEC (Local Exchange Carrier/RBOC) EWP system via pull- down menus. By utilizing EWP, companies can reduce their EWP/DA cost-per-lookup significantly while they increase their productivity. HTC-EWP has been tested successfully with USA LEC/RBOC EWP systems including PacBell, USWest, BellSouth ... HTC-EWP will execute under Windows. The RBOCs charge a one-time account set-up fee and a fee of up to about $.15 per search screen. I am pleased to offer HTC-EWP software run-time and source code (including libraries and all header files) for a flat fee of $5000.00 (five thousand dollars USA.) This source code can be compiled and linked using Microsoft 'C' or Quick 'C'. The end- user must agree not to resell or distribute any of HTC-EWP source code -- Executable files may be distributed organization-wide. THIS OFFER IS MADE TO USA COMPANIES AND ORGANIZATIONS THROUGH THE END OF OCTOBER, 1994, AND MAY BE WITHDRAWN AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE. Companies that wish to test a sample copy of the run-time HTC- EWP before the purchase the source code, can order one run-time copy (with manual) for $250.00 USA from the address listed below. This fee will be refunded upon the purchase of the HTC-EWP source code package. Payments shall be accepted through October 31, 1994. HTC, Inc. 19625 NW Melrose Dr. Portland, OR 97229 (503)690-8391 (503)645-3566 - fax E_MAIL REPLY TO: 6994868@mcimail.com -or- htcink@teleport.com Please fill-in the blanks of the following contract, and fax back to HTC to expedite your order. ------------------------------------- HTC, Inc. 19625 NW Melrose Portland, OR 97229 HTC, Inc. (503)690-8391 HTC-EWP License Agreement (503)645-3566 - Fax This agreement is made and entered into as of this ____ day of October, 1994 by and between HTC, Inc. (hereinafter called "HTC"), and ____________________ (hereinafter called "Customer") HTC agrees to provide "HTC-EWP" source code, Header files, and libraries (hereinafter called "Software") required to allow the customer to re-compile or re-link an executable copy of the HTC- EWP software system. Customer agrees to pay HTC, Inc. the amount of $5000.00 (five thousand dollars) for the Software. Customer agrees not to distribute or allow the distribution of the Software or parts of the Software outside of Customer's business or organization, without first obtaining HTC's express written permission. This agreement shall be interpreted, construed, and enforced in all respects in accordance with the laws of the State of Oregon without reference to its principles of conflicts of law. In the event that any provision of this contract conflicts with the law under which this agreement is to be construed or if any such provision is held invalid by a court with jurisdiction over the parties of this agreement, such provisions shall be deemed to be restated to reflect as nearly as possible the original intentions of the parties in accordance with applicable law, and the remained of this Agreement shall remain in full force in effect. In witness whereof, the parties have executed this Agreement as of the date first written above. _________________________ ______________________________ (company) HTC, Inc. _________________________ ______________________________ (Sign - Company Officer) C. Walworth, Pres HTC, Inc. _________________________ ______________________________ Date Date ----------------------------------------------------------------- Company officer must sign, and return via fax to HTC, Inc. htcink@teleport.COM Public Access User --- Not affiliated with Teleport Public Access UNIX and Internet at (503) 220-1016 (2400-14400, N81) ------------------------------ From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (James H. Haynes) Subject: New Abyss Bankruptcy Plan (For Those With a Morbid Interest) Date: 8 Oct 1994 07:30:12 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz I received a thick packet in the mail today from New Valley Corp. concerning the proposed bankruptcy settlement and sale of Western Union Financial Services to First Financial. There's a two-page letter from New Valley Corp. announcing and supporting the plan. There's a two-page letter from the "statutory committee of unsecured creditors" also supporting the plan. This committee consists of seven members representing the creditors. There's a one-page letter from the "statutory committee of senior secured noteholders" also supporting the plan. And there's a 5-page letter from the "official committee of equity holders" recommending rejection of the plan. Their points are: (1) the company is worth more than has been offered, by at least $150 million. (2) The plan unfairly favors creditors, paying some disputed claims, paying interest on interest, and leaving the part not sold to First Financial under the control of Bennett LeBow. (3) The plan leaves New Valley without enough income to pay its expenses. (4) The plan penalizes holders of certain shares who vote against it. (5) Approval of the joint plan may result in the termination of pension plans. (6) The joint plan eliminates a lawsuit against LeBow and other insiders. (7) The committee thinks it has a better plan. "The holders of common stock and certain other securities will receive no distribution ... and are therefore deemed to have rejected the Joint Plan wihtout the need for a solicitation of their votes." Some other things: "New Valley was organized under the laws of the State of New York in 1851" [Of course that wasn't its name then.] ..."conducts its operations through its wholly owned subsidiary, FSI, which provides a variety of financial and messaging services." ...has approx. 18,000 agents in the U.S. and another 6,000 in the rest of the world. Agents operate under exclusive contracts with FSI to provide Western Union services... Approx. 1800 full-time employees of FSI receive 44 million incoming telephone calls process 40 million money transfers, move $7.8 billion in 1993. A new division Western Union Information Services formed in December 1993 to manage the service centers (in Bridgeton, MO, Reno, NV, and Dallas, TX) and computer facilities. Following asset acquisition [if the deal goes through] the business of the reorganized company will consists of the messaging services business, including Mailgram, Telgram, Priority Letter, Hotline, Automated Voice Telegram, Commercial Telegram, Custom Letter, Cablegram and Opiniongram. It will license the Western Union name from First Financial. goes on to describe all the money transfer services and then all the messaging services. an excerpt: "Automated Voice Telegram (AVT) is a service through which telephone operators verify recipient names, addresses and telephone numbers and deliver high-impact messages for credit-and-collection and direct-marketing applications." So the next telemarketing call you get might be under the Western Union banner. Then there's a lot of history of the bankruptcy case. Then a bunch of details of the plan and its financial and tax consequences. Then a description of New Valley after the deal goes through. As noted above New Valley keeps the message part of the business, licenses the Western Union name, and there are other details between the two companies so that business keeps going. First Financial may contract to take over the marketing of services for the Message Company. The reorganized New Valley will have about 130 full time employees, which will be reduced to 90 if First Financial takes over marketing. Threatens that if the plan is not approved the company may be liquidated under Chapter 7. In any case the revenues from messaging services are expected to continue declining. Then a bunch of financialese and legalese, and finally ballots for the owners of preferred stock to vote to accept or reject the plan. The hearing on confirmation of the plan will take place Nov. 1. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #393 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa27302; 13 Oct 94 3:17 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA21160; Wed, 12 Oct 94 11:39:18 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA21151; Wed, 12 Oct 94 11:39:15 CDT Date: Wed, 12 Oct 94 11:39:15 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410121639.AA21151@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #394 TELECOM Digest Wed, 12 Oct 94 11:39:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 394 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Summit '94: Technical Sessions (summit@ix.netcom.com) 25 Years of Call Waiting (Jeffrey W. McKeough) Class Use of Telephone (Stuart Whitmore) UNC-CH Faculty Position Available (Scott Barker) 900 MHz Cordless Phone Evaluations (Chris Campbell) NANP Nightmare (The Boston Globe via Van Hefner) Book Review: "The RS-232 Solution" by Campbell (Rob Slade) Request: New UK Dialing Codes (Adam Ashby) GSM SIM Card: Different? (Anto Daryanto) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: summit@ix.netcom.com (Summit '94) Subject: Summit '94: Technical Sessions Date: 12 Oct 1994 05:14:54 GMT Organization: Netcom (T9) Managing High Speed Networks Abstract: Broadband networking services are arriving rapidly. Managing intelligent, flexible, high-speed networks demands new management approaches. This half-day tutorial offers a unique combination of a tutorial and a panel with leading vendors to give you their perspective on their management offerings. Areas covered include * High-speed networks:SMDS, Frame Relay, BISDN, ATM * Management Challenges, Problems, and Solutions Switched connections vs. datagrams Connection management systems Emerging virtualization Application management * Customer Network Management:Rationale, Architecture, Functions, ATM, Frame Relay,SMDS, BISDN * Panel Discussion: How to Deploy a Manageable High Speed Network Instructor: John McConnell, McConnell Consulting, Inc. (S4) Expanding Your WAN: Strategies for Cost-Effective WAN Expansion Abstract: Wide area networks with inherent growth demands, whether consistent or in spurts,present unique challenges to the network designer. When adding new locations to a network, the network designer must add them somewhat in their order of arrival. However, if the new locations can be grouped, the designer can achieve certain network efficiencies because of greater optimization opportunities. This session shows you the costs of different approaches. Presenter: Gary Schilling, Quintessential Solutions (S7) Integrating the Workgroup and the Enterprise Abstract: This session illustrates ways to provide enterprise management capabilities for large centralized mainframe environments, WAN/LAN management, and emerging workgroup, branch office, home, and mobile computing environments. Topics covered include: Enterprise Management Consoles, Infrastructure Management Frameworks, Network and Systems Management Platforms, LAN Management Platforms, Network Utilities, Network and System Management Services. Presenter: Chris Thomas, Intel Corporation (S9) Defining Response Time Service Levels on Inter-Networked LANs and WANs Abstract: In the "old" environments (single architectures and protocols) you could monitor the performance of network devices as well as the response time "service levels" that your users were receiving. However, performance management tools in "new" multiprotocol, multi-vendor internetworks are limited to simply managing devices not service levels. This lack of service level data can cause peculiar and embarrassing problems for the IS manager. This session shows how to develop a rich database of users' response time data that will provide strategic information for network designers. Presenter: Warren Sullivan, Network Telemetrics (S17) Panel: Building and Managing Virtual Networks Abstract: In an increasingly mobile world, managing change has become one of the biggest administration headaches in a network. The evolution of switched LANs, TCP/IP, and management tools have opened up the opportunity to integrate these technologies to build a network that will dynamically adapt to network, applications and end-user changes and demands. This session explores how to: unleash a new level of power and flexibility through virtual networking; design and manage virtual networks; dramatically reduce the cost of moves/adds/changes; and reconfigure LANs through software control. Moderator: Frank Hiatt, Chipcom Corporation Panelists: David Fowler, FTP Software; Asheem Chandna, Synoptics (S24) What the Heck Is a Protocol Analyzer Good for Anyway? Abstract: As corporate networks continue to expand, distributed analyzers will play a key role in monitoring network utilization, traffic flow, and security across multiple subnets. This session shows how network analyzers can isolate low level problems such as errors due to faulty cable plant, packet congestion, jabbering repeaters, malformed packets, as well as higher level problems such as peer-to-peer or client/server networking software, host configuration errors, traffic latency and timeout settings, and routing errors. Presenter: Jeanne Abmayr, FTP Software ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 02:02:42 -0400 From: marya@titan.ucs.umass.edu (jwm) Subject: 25 Years of Call Waiting Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst Here's the text of a little card that I got in the mail from NYNEX: [front] Millions of people have already ordered Call Waiting. Here's the reason you should order yours today ... [cartoon of an airplane carrying a banner stating: FREE INSTALLATION UNTIL OCTOBER 31, 1994] [back] Discover why Call Waiting has been our most popular service for more than 25 years. A long-distance friend, an important business associate or a family member during an emergency ... you wouldn't want any of these people to be stranded listening to a busy signal. For 25 years, NYNEX has helped millions of people find the solution: Call Waiting. Conversations with our customers have shown that most people don't mind being put on hold. In fact, they see an advantage in being able to get through to you when you're already on the phone with someone else. Call Waiting costs just $2.58 a month. And until October 31st we're offering FREE installation. (You'll save $7.60!) So, don't let anyone you care about ever feel stranded again. Call and order today! 1-800-499-5200, Ext. 345, Mon. through Fri., 7 am - 9 pm; Saturday, 9 am - 3 pm. NYNEX NYNEX Recycles [end of card] 1) I wasn't aware that NYNEX did much of anything before 1984. (O.K. So I'm nitpicking.) 2) I have an ad around here someplace from a 1967 National Geographic, in which the Bell System promises a bold new future that includes all of the custom calling features (call waiting, 3-way calling, speed calling, and call forwarding). Were these features really deployed as early as 1969? What switches at the time supported them? Did anyone out there have Call Waiting from New England Telephone and Telegraph Co. in 1969? 3) Nice spin on the people-love-to-hold thing. Most people I know *hate* to be on hold, but they figure that the benefit of getting through outweighs the evil of holding. 4) I have three lines. Two of them have call waiting. This was sent to the billing address of one of those two lines. Using recycled paper is lovely, but if it serves no useful purpose it's still a waste. Perhaps they should cross-reference their marketing databases with their billing databases to save a recycled tree. 5) I always feel silly when I call a company, and they ask for an "extension." We all know that there is no need to transfer the call, but I've run into cases where the rep was frozen in his/her tracks when I couldn't come up with a pseudo-extension number for the record. If they must track their advertising, why not use multiple 800 numbers, as the LD companies do in their TV ads? Jeffrey W. McKeough marya@titan.ucs.umass.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The earliest electronic switching system installations were in 1968-69. It was installed somewhere in New Jersey but the one I specifically recall was the initial test site in my part of the country, in Morris, Illinois. The near north side neighborhood in Chicago has ESS/Custom Calling features available in 1972, and the downtown Chicago area had them available in 1973. At the time, my office downtown was served by a very old panel office, or maybe it was a stepping switch dating from the 1920's on the WEbster-9 exchange. I knew a couple of people who had custom calling features in 1972 but can't think of anyone before that. I had the features put on my phone once they became available in 1973 (maybe 1974?). PAT] ------------------------------ From: stuart.whitmore@uninova.com (Stuart Whitmore) Subject: Class Use of Telephone Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 05:20:59 GMT Organization: UniNova Sup't BBS (509)925-3893 I had an interesting experience the other day in one of my classes here at Central Washington University, and I figured others might also find it noteworthy. One of my professors brought into class one of those conference telephones like you find in the Hello Direct catalog (in fact, that might be where he got it, I don't know), and the whole class made a call to a retired person who could speak as an authority on the class topic. I've never had a telephone used in a class like that before, but now I think it's a great idea. Students were able to get the benefit of having a guest speaker without having him travel several hours just to get to the CWU campus. We generated some questions before calling, so we didn't waste any long distance time, and it was a good experience. I don't know how many teachers read the TELECOM Digest, but I recommend this kind of experience for students. It sure beats the old overhead projector! My prof mentioned that we'd be making more calls later in the quarter, so he's apparently integrated it into his teaching beyond just testing it out. Anyway, I just figured it was an unusual use of telephones that was worth sharing here. Stuart Whitmore (stuart.whitmore@uninova.com) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It certainly sounds like a great idea for a presentation to a class; having authorities meet with the class via speakerphone. PAT] ------------------------------ From: scott@ils.unc.edu (Scott Barker) Subject: UNC-CH Faculty Position Available Date: 12 Oct 1994 14:31:39 GMT Organization: Univ. of North Carolina, Information/Library Science The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announces a tenure-track position (assistant/associate professor) in the School of Information and Library Science. The School seeks applications from scholars whose research and teaching interests address telecommunications and networking, and/or multimedia/hypermedia systems. Faculty members are expected to engage in research and to report new insights through publication and teaching. Faculty members also advise masters and doctoral students and serve on School and University committees. Minimum qualifications include an earned doctorate by the starting date, a research agenda, and evidence of teaching competence. Minimum salary is $40,000 for assistant; $45,000 for associate. The review process will begin Jan. 15, 1995; preliminary interviews are planned for the following conferences: ASIS (Alexandria, VA, October 1994); ALISE (Philadelphia, February 1995); and ACM Computer Science Conference (Nashville, TN, February 1995). Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Preferred starting date is August 1995. Send letter of application, resume, and names of three references to: Barbara M. Wildemuth, Chair, Faculty Search Committee School of Information and Library Science CB # 3360, 100 Manning Hall University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360 Phone: 919-962-8366; Fax: 919-962-8071 email: wildem@ils.unc.edu The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. ------------------------------ From: dsrekcc@prism.gatech.edu (Chris Campbell) Subject: 900 MHz Cordless Phone Evaluations Date: 11 Oct 1994 01:08:58 -0400 Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology About a month ago I put out a call on the net for your comments and experiences with 900 MHz cordless phones. The following is what I finally distilled out of those responses. Note that these are actual experiences, not rumor or manafacturer's claims (nor mine). If your phone does not exhibit the performance problem indicated here, well, great. Below is a table of some basic performance comments, followed by more lengthy comments on each model. I received over 2000 lines of comments, and have edited _that_ down to 1200+ lines (~60K). Since posting those comments would be an ENORMOUS waste of bandwidth, I will e-mail a copy of that file to whoever really wants it. If you have comments about your experiences with your phone, e-mail me and I will include it in the final draft of this. I am of course interested in data that is absent in the table below (e.g. Uniden duration). Please don't e-mail just to "ditto" comments made here. Thanks. Talk Handset MODEL #R SS Sound Quality Range (ft) Duration Size AT&T 9100/9120 5 Yes hissy, tinny "Good" Wide BEL 900 1 No crystal clear "1 block" Escort 9000/9020 4 Yes good, crappy 2.0 hrs Panas. 9000/9220 6 No excellent "few 100" 0.5 hrs Flip Sony SPP-ER1 1 No Big Tropez 900 DL/DX 15 No* noisy, artifacts 300-1000 1.5 hrs Difficult Uniden 9100/9200 13 Yes good but echo 500 Good #R : Number of responses I got about this phone SS : Spread spectrum encoded - This means that you're not broadcasting your voice across the neighborhood, for all scanners to hear. While a few people might be able to decipher it now, and some scanners may do it in the future, you are at least secure from 95% of the "snoopers" out there. Me included. If it's not SS, then you _can_ pick it up with a simple scanner. COMMENTS: AT&T - 9120 is a speakerphone - AT&T phone is OEM'd from VTech, the company that makes the Tropez. The ergonomics are better, but the performance is about the same. Escort - The "good, crappy" comment in the table means I got conflicting responses. Panasonic - Flip-phone style - Dual batteries; extra battery does NOT power base in power outage. Tropez Note: while many people disliked the Tropez, some vehemently, I should say that I received a few responses defending it. - 900 DX is a speakerphone - Range is apparently very good, at 1000 feet or more. - The Tropez models are NOT spread spectrum. They use a single channel 16 kHz PCM signal about 100 kHz wide. While this means that Joe Scanner can't pick up an easy FM signal, it also means that it is not quite the level of security offered by spread spectrum. The digitized audio is apparently coded to a random, shifting key (64K combinations), so interception is still unlikely. On a plain scanner, your voice is indeed unrecognizable (digital). - It has been reported that clear audio (FM) leaks at around 430 MHz. Uniden - 9200 is two-line speakerphone with ability to charge extra battery. Extra battery WILL power base in power outage. - Almost everyone liked their Uniden, except for the echo. The echo (and some said clipping and distortion) appears only in _your_ earpiece; the other person can't hear it, although you may find it very irritating. Miscellaneous - Radio Shack and NorthWestern Bell models are possibly OEM'd, but I have conflicting information on that. They are apparently not spread spectrum, but just broadcast your audio in the clear (FM). - Motorola makes a 49 MHz cordless phone that reverses the audio into something unrecognizable on scanner. There's one of these in my neighborhood; a plain scanner won't work on it, but it is pretty simple to build a circuit to un-reverse the audio (see rec.radio.scanner). The Motorola 49 Mhz apparently goes for around $400. - From the FAF - Frequently Asked Frequencies file on oak.oakland.edu - Panasonic KX-T9000 base 902.100-903.870 { 60 channels handset 926.100-927.870 { 30 kHz spacing VTech Tropez 900DX base 905.600-907.500 { 20 channels (digital) handset 925.500-927.400 {100 kHz spacing AT&T #9120 902.0-905.0 / 925.0-928.0 } OTRON CORP. #CP-1000 902.1-903.9 / 926.1-927.9 } unconfirmed SAMSUNG #SP-R912 903.0 / 927.0 } Chris Campbell dsrekcc@prism.gatech.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Oct 94 00:20:54 PDT Reply-To: vantek@sequoia.northcoast.com (Van Hefner) From: vantek@sequoia.northcoast.com (Van Hefner) Subject: NANP Nightmare Boston Business Misses Phone Calls Due to Bungled Exchange By Alex Pham, {The Boston Globe} Oct. 8 -- Lori Moretti lives to hear the phone ring. But since she recently moved her public relations firm to its new Boston locale near Fort Point Channel, the lines have been unusually quiet. The six-member crew of her firm, CM Communications, weren't used to sitting through long stretches of silence. First they blamed the weather, then the economy, then the time of year. Eventually they found out why. Few businesses they dealt with were able to dial the company's new exchange (the first three digits of their telephone number). "We kept getting complaints that people couldn't reach us," Moretti said. "They had to get an operator to reach us. So we called Nynex, and they told us that it was because our phone number was a new exchange." Many of the high-tech phone systems at area companies, including some that CM said were vital to its business such as the Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe and the Hynes Convention Center, simply didn't recognize the new 946 exchange as a valid number. "That was ridiculous," moaned Moretti. "Here we are, a public relations firm, and two of the city's biggest newspapers couldn't call us." She and her business partner, Michael Caglianone, gave Nynex an earful. But the phone company insisted that the number was a "viable exchange." "Well, bottom line is it hasn't been a viable exchange for our business," said Moretti, who estimates it would cost more than $5,000 to switch back to an established exchange when the cost of reprinting stationary, business cards and adress notifications are included. "To this day, I lie awake at night wondering what calls we've never gotten. How many businesses are out there with that exchange? Are they not getting calls, too?" Nynex officials concede there have been some problems with the new exchange but contend most businesses were not adversely affected. They said CM and other companies with the new exchange really didn't miss that many calls and the problems have been corrected. The phone company said that 4,000 of its customers were recently issued the new 946 exchange. Whenever a new exchange is created, residential customers and businesses that use Nynex phone equipment are automatically programmed to recognize the new numbers. But businesses that don't use Nynex equipment must individually program their machines to accept the new exchanges. Should human error cause an exchange to be missed, calls to that exchange will not connect. Oddly enough, technological progress may be the root of the problem. Because of the explosion of pagers, FAX machines, cellular phones, modems and online services, Nynex is being flooded with unprecedented demand for new numbers. There are 12.1 million phone numbers in use in Massachusetts, a 2.5 percent increase in the last quarter alone, said Susan Butta, a Nynex spokeswoman. That means one to two new exchanges must be added within the 617 and 508 area code each month to handle the new numbers. The demand for new numbers has also led Nynex to introduce an added layer of complexity. Beginning next Saturday, callers making a toll call within their area code must dial 1, the area code, then the seven-digit phone number. Thus, a caller in Boston must dial 617 first when they call Woburn, even though Woburn is still within the 617 area code. Now callers just dial 1 plus the phone number. Confusing? "The irony in all this was that Nynex went out of its way to give us a number that was easy to remember and easy to dial," Moretti said. Van Hefner *** VANTEK COMMUNICATIONS *** Eureka, California *** [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: NYNEX cannot really be blamed because the proprietors of some private phone systems at large companies, universities, etc are klutzes. People wanted a telephone network where everyone did thier own thing, so that's what they got now over ten years ago. I used to work for a large department store downtown on a part time basis trying to straighten out the mess that predecessors had made of the Rolm PBX there. It was a mess! There were lots of exchanges they could not dial. The fact that the situation described in this newspaper account is quite common when new exchanges are cut in is not the fault of telco. If you want to run a PBX or a large private phone service, then you either know what you are doing or step out of the way and let someone else do it. Oh, I suppose it is easier to just ignore complaints and treat the users like ignoramuses and crackpots. Sometimes the telcos do not communicate with each other as they should though ... a case about five years ago involved a new exchange cut in by a telco in Wisconsin. Illinois Bell did not have it in their tables for several months afterward, and no amount of talking could get anyone at IBT to listen. Finally someone at AT&T twisted their arm, and found someone at IBT who understood what was wrong. So yes, it can be telco's fault where other telco's are concerned. I would not be surprised if there are people in other parts of the USA who are unable to get the 946 prefix discussed simply because *their* telco was not up to date. But still, where local service is concerned, the guys who run the private phone systems are the ones who need to get their act together. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 00:41:38 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "The RS-232 Solution" by Campbell BKRS2SOL.RVW 940811 Sybex Computer Books 2021 Challenger Drive Alameda, CA 94501 USA 510-523-8233 800-227-2346 Fax: 510-523-2373 or Firefly Books 250 Sparks Avenue Willowdale, Ontario M2H 2S4 416-499-8412 Fax: 416-499-8313 "The RS-232 Solution", Campbell, 1989, 0-89588-488-7, U$24.95/C$32.95 Most computer users, even those dealing with communications and modems, will not have to deal with the intricacies of the RS-232 (or EIA-232E) interface standard for serial communications. You buy a cable, plug in the modem, and that's the end of it. For those who do want to know more, this book is fascinating -- as well as being completely accessible for the non-technical reader. Part one deals with the interface, reasons for an interface standard, and the general concepts and tools needed to attack an interface problem. Part two is primarily a series of "case studies" and specialized examples. Interestingly, Campbell nowhere gives a full listing of the RS-232 pin assignments, concentrating on the "Big Eight" which do form the foundation of almost all serial communications. The chapter on the Mac is most interesting -- the Mac does *not* have an RS-232 port, relying instead on a subset of the EIA-422 standard. Some notes are odd, however. The juxtaposition of a marginal note complaining about the IBM PC asynchronous (serial) port is placed, without comment, next to a discussion of male and female connector assignments. Read carefully, it indicates that IBM was right, but it may confuse some readers. Those who want the full technical details of the interface specification will have to get them elsewhere. Few will want as much detail on printers as is given here. For those hobbyists truly interested in the interface, this is an intriguing, and potentially quite useful, source. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKRS2SOL.RVW 940811. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated newsgroups/mailing lists. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into rslade@cue.bc.ca User p1@CyberStore.ca Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 10:49:00 +0100 From: adam ashby Subject: Request: New UK Dialing Codes The new UK dialing codes (prefixing all current codes with 1, plus a couple of entirely new codes) are now in operation and have been since August 1st. I was wondering if anyone has yet updated the UK area codes and made them available. The archives have the old codes, but with reference to the new codes. I could easily edit the old file - just wondering if anyone else had already done it. As a related aside -- all NT DMS switches in the UK were ready for the new codes before August 1st. And another one - OfTel (the regulatory body) is currently discussing a new (proposed) numbering plan for the UK :- 00 - International (current) 01 - PSTN (current) 02 - possible netowrk expansion (new) 03 - New mobile allocations (new) 04 - New mobile allocations (new) 05 - FreePhone numbers (new) 06 - FreePhone numbers (new) 07 - Personal numbers (new) - what are those??? 08 - Premium rate (new) 09 - Premium rate (new) Adam Ashby | 1560442@bnr.ca | BNR Europe Ltd. +44 1628 794622 | FAX | Maidenhead, ESN 590 4622 | +44 1628 794381 | England, SL6 4AG ------------------------------ From: anto@anggrek.inn.bppt.go.id (Anto Daryanto) Subject: GSM SIM Card: Different? Date: 11 Oct 1994 20:37:11 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway Hi, I just talked to the Motorola GSM handphone provider in Jakarta (PT Satelindo) about their new service offering, GSM network in Jakarta. They said that to be able to use their handphone (Motorola 5200 and 7200) you have to use SIM card, OK, it's all right. But then they said that their SIM card can not be used in other handphone, such as Phillips, as they informed me. Is this true? As I understand, with only one SIM card you can use any GSM handphone in any country (of course as long as the countries have roaming agreement). Antonius Daryanto | Direktorat TEI a.daryanto@inn.bppt.go.id | BPPT Teknologi | Jakarta, INDONESIA ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #394 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14309; 13 Oct 94 20:08 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA26070; Thu, 13 Oct 94 13:34:17 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA26057; Thu, 13 Oct 94 13:34:06 CDT Date: Thu, 13 Oct 94 13:34:06 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410131834.AA26057@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #395 TELECOM Digest Thu, 13 Oct 94 13:34:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 395 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? (Lars Poulsen) Re: Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? (lawrim@inforamp.net) Re: Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? (Greg Ruml) SONET/ATM, Video Compression Short Courses -- UC Berkeley (Harvey Stern) Re: 25 Years of Call Waiting (Danny Burstein) Re: GSM SIM Card: Different? (Stephen Ermann) BCH 3/5 Error Detection Modules (Allan Rypka) Re: V.34 From ITU-T (John E. Lundgren) Re: V.34 From ITU-T (Ken Krechmer) Dialstrings on DMS-100 (George L. Sicherman) Re: UDI vs RDI in ISDN (Kevin Paul Herbert) Re: Need Amp to Boost DTMF Strength (Les Reeves) Re: OSI OM-Related Tools (Grover McCoury) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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@spectrum.RNS.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? Date: 13 Oct 1994 10:35:37 -0700 Organization: Rockwell Network Systems A couple of recent contributions indicate that there is some confusion about contemporary data communications options. spelegan@csc.com wrote: > We have a commercial customer who's asked us to setup a BBS system for > them. They've asked us to recommend a telecom option for them to > use that best suits their needs. They'd like to start out with 8 > lines going into the BBS with the ability to move up to 16, 24, etc. > They'd like their customers to have one 800 number to call to reach > this BBS, no matter where they are in the US. Their customers will > have off-the-shelf modems, ranging from 1200-14.4 baud. The requirement here is for an economical way to accept POTS calls for modem traffic. This means that X.25 service, Frame Relay, ISDN etc are all outside of the scope of this query. That will not prevent me from getting back to them at the end, though. The simple, easy solution is to get 8 lines (in a hunt group) from your local exchange carrier, and arrange for an 800-number from a competitively priced long distance company which forwards to these lines. If you have really high volume, you may save a couple of cents per minute bypassing the local carrier and installing a T1 line directly to the long distance carrier's POP, but then you will need a channel bank to split the lines back out to individual lines before they go into your modems. Any modems installed today should be 28800 bps models; either V.FC or V.34. V.34 may still be hard to get at a reasonable price, though. And now a word about ISDN: In article misha@panix.com (Michael Gray) writes: > ISDN connections would allow you to connect to BOTH customers with > POTS (Plain Old Telephone Services) services and with ISDN services, > however you need separate ISDN modems and 28Kbs modems, special > equipment to hook the 28.8Kbs modems to the ISDN lines. In Europe, it is not uncommon to find ISDN adapters that include a V.32bis (14400 bps) modem, so that they will accept connections using either V.32bis (from customers with ordinary phone lins and ordinary modems) or V.110 asynchronous rate adaptation (from customers with compatible ISDN adapters). In the US, these dual-mode adapters have not been very popular. If they could be had, the cost would be nearly USD 2000 per port. My conclusion is that it is not worth it yet, and when you do gear up for ISDN, you will probably be better off with separate ports / separate lines for ISDN access.. Sp> I'm even more cloudy on Frame Relay. Can I have one 800 number with Sp> Frame Relay? Do you need a special terminal/modem to dial into a Sp> frame relay network? How does it compare to T1? vs. T1 cost? vs. Sp> T1 reliability? Please correct any assumptions that I've made T1, Sp> ISDN, and Frame Relay. Frame relay is sort of similar to X.25, sort of similar to leased 56 kbps lines. The physical jack is a leased 56 kbps (or 384 kbps) line into the carrier's Frame Relay switch. This line is shared by connections to multiple, presubscribed locations. So if you have 4 sites, you can have them all talk to each other by giving each of them a leased line into the telephone company's FR switch, instead of needing 6 lines to connect them all. The equipment at all locations must understand the FR multiplexing protocol. Finally: You should give serious consideration to putting such a BBS on the Internet. Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@CMC.COM Rockwell Network Systems Phone: +1-805-562-3158 7402 Hollister Avenue Telefax: +1-805-968-8256 Santa Barbara, CA 93105 Internets: designed and built while you wait ------------------------------ From: lawrim@inforamp.net Subject: Re: Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? Date: 13 Oct 1994 01:10:26 -0400 Organization: InfoRamp, Toronto Ont. (416) 363-9100 Reply-To: lawrim@inforamp.net T1 service is getting cheaper by the month.I have seen prices here in Toronto range from $750.00 to $1500.00 (Canadian) ISDN is offered by Bell Canada very cheap.There Megalink service for example can be had for $78.00/mo.This isfor basic services providing what is called 2B+D,2-64k channels and one 16k channel. Frame Relay is a high speed packet switching network.Each packet of data carries a much higher payload then X.25 packets.You usually pay a monthly port charge and usage based on a committed information rate (CIR).Access is 56k and the CIR is a portion or all of it.Frame relay applications are generally used in a multipoint situation. Other options could be centrex data and dial-up X.25.A competant data provider should have no problem costing out the various applications mentioned. Good Luck, Lawrie ------------------------------ From: gruml@buscomm.mts.mb.ca (Greg Ruml) Subject: Re: Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? Date: Tue, 11 Oct 1994 15:49:20 -0400 Organization: MTS For your application you are suggesting 800 service. 800 service is a voice service by definition where the subscriber pays the long distance charges. Frame relay is not your answer. I have heard that some of the carriers will have dial access to frame relay, but I don't believe it is available yet. Frame relay is a dedicated data service at speeds of 56,000 bps or 64,000 bps (and multiples thereof). Frame relay requires a device called a FRAD. This device packetizes the data into frames, putting a header and trailer around a block of data. The FRAD also checks the data when it is sent and then when it arrives to ensure the data is without errors. These FRADs required cost $1000 and up. Your answer really depends on what equipment your client has today. If they have a PBX with T1 ISDN PRI capability, it may make sense to put these lines on ISDN. ISDN is a voice and data service that is a digital signal and therefore you get a higher grade of service. ISDN, because it is digital, is less susceptible to interference from traditional noise sources (ie. motors, signal induction from other cables, etc.). If they just have an analog key system today it may make sense just to keep adding standard dial-up lines. Hope this helps. Greg Ruml ------------------------------ From: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: SONET/ATM, Video Compression Short Courses -- UC Berkeley Date: 12 Oct 1994 17:06:17 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces 3 Short Courses on Broadband Communications, and Video Compression SONET/ATM-BASED BROADBAND NETWORKS: Systems, Architectures and Designs (October 19-21, 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. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. 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 (October 17-18, 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. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. 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. VIDEO COMPRESSION AND VISUAL COMMUNICATION (October 13-14, 1994) Video Compression and Visual Communication is a rapidly evolving multidisciplinary field focussing on the development of technologies and standards for efficient storage and transmission of video signals. It covers areas of video compression algorithms, VLSI technology, standards, and high-speed digital networks. It is a critical enabling technology for the emerging information superhighway for offering various video services. In this course, we will fully treat video compression algorithms and standards, and discuss the issues related to the transport of video over various networks. Lecturers: Ming-Ting Sun, Ph.D, is director of Video Signal Processing Research, Bellcore. Dr. Sun has published numerous technical papers, holds four patents, developed IEEE Std 1180- 1990, was awarded the Best Paper Award for IEEE Transactions Video Technology in 1993 (with Tzou), and an award for excellence in standards development from the IEEE Standards Board in 1991. He is currently the express letter editor, IEEE Transaction on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology (CSVT), and associate editor, IEEE Transactions of CSVT. He was chairman and now serves as secretary of the IEEE CAS Technical committee on Visual Signal Processing and Communications. Kou-Hu Tzou, Ph.D., is manager of the Image Processing Department, COMSAT Laboratories. Dr Tzou won the Best Paper Award for IEEE Transactions Video Technology in 1993 (with Sun). He holds 6 patents, has served as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems, is currently associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, and served as a guest editor for Optical Engineering Journal special issues on Visual Communications and Image Processing in 1989, 91, and 93. He is the committee chair of the Visual Signal Processing and Communication Technical committee, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. 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 ------------------------------ From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: Re: 25 Years of Call Waiting Date: 13 Oct 1994 00:19:44 -0400 Organization: mostly unorganized In marya@titan.ucs.umass.edu (jwm) writes: advert from Nynex about call waiting being in existence for twenty-five years > Discover why Call Waiting has been our most popular service for more > than 25 years. > really deployed as early as 1969? What switches at the time supported > them? Did anyone out there have Call Waiting from New England > Telephone and Telegraph Co. in 1969? I was one of the first public customers for call waiting in NYC. In fact, I picked up call waiting, call forwarding, and three way calling as soon as I could in mid 1975. Back in those days I used to call New York Telephone's semi-internal Newswire which had all sorts of interesting, sometimes technical, sometimes amusing, material in it. (It also had the AT&T stock market price as well as the weather report, and it was a free call...) Anyway, they mentioned in the report that their internal tests had just been finished and it was being rolled out to the public. So the initial NYC public offering was in 1973/early 1974. I had to wait a bit until I left campus residential housing before I could get my own phone, and when I did, I got the features installed. (BTW this had the side effect of leaving me with one of the older switches in NYC - i.e., since it was a 'new' one in 1974, it's not being replaced anytime soon ...) Back then they were called CSS for Custom (something) Sevices, and trying to get it ordered for my phone line was one of my early experiences in telco frustration. But I did get it. Back in those days, by the way, the codes used for implementing forwarding were different than the ones used today (I -think- it was '1191' to start it and '1193' to end). The call forwarding was the more interesting of the features. Back then I would forward the number to the (last hunt line) of where I was working. So if a call came in on that line, we all knew it was (probably) a private call for one of us and answered appropriately. (After I had the service for a few weeks, the other people also got call forwarding on their lines). Keep in mind, by the way, that in 1975 telephone answering machines were a lot clunkier and more expensive, and remote message retrieval was not readily available. And a unit with remote message changing cost me about six-hundred dollars a few years later. Yes, really, and that's when $600 was real money ... So it's -just- possible that it was available to a few select areas on the early #1-ESS machines in 1969, but certainly not on a widespread basis. Oh, another point: In those days telco equipment was amortized over a -looonnngggg- period, so a central office would not be replaced simply becuase something newer and better was out there. In fact, it's only in the few years that the last mechanical exchanges in the NYC area were retired. Oh, yet one more point: The first area of NYC to get fully computerized equipment was the lower east side/Gramercy Park neighborhood. You see, New York Tel had a bit of a fire at their 13th street and 2nd avenue office which put Hinsdale to shame. In the space of a month they had completely replaced all the equipment in teh building with what were then brand-new ESS's. danny burstein dannyb@panix.com (or dburstein@mcimail.com) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't think the New York fire in the early 1970's was as severe as Hinsdale, but I guess that's a matter of each person's judgment. Hinsdale certainly handled a wider scope of services and geographical territory than the office in Manhattan. You are correct about the 1191 and 1193 codes. 11 (pronounced 'eleven' in this application) was to be used by people with older touch tone pads that did not include the * and # buttons. You may recall the original touch tone pads only had ten buttons with the bottom row only having the zero/operator key and nothing on either side of it. So you turned on forwarding with 1191 or *91 and turned it off with 1193 or *93. I was one of the first subscribers here in 1973 or 1974, I forget which. The interesting thing about the original call forwarding here was that chain forwarding would not work at all. A would forward to B and B would forward to C for example ... but calls to A absolutely stopped at B regardless of what B was doing with calls directly sent to him. The idea was B is entitled to forward to C but B has no authority to assume A is willing to have his calls go to C. Apparently the switch was able to tell when a call hit B from whence it came, and respond accordingly. If you were actually looking for B, you were sent on to C as instructed but if you were looking for A and got sent to B in the process you stopped there. Also, the early version of call waiting had no provision to suspend the service for those calls you did not want interuppted. If you had call waiting on the line you were stuck with it. Of course modems were pretty rare in the middle 1970's so it was not a big problem with data as it would be today if suspend call waiting (usually *70 before the dialing string) were not available. PAT] ------------------------------ From: 100111.1007@compuserve.com Date: 13 Oct 94 03:24:30 EDT Subject: Re: GSM SIM Card: Different? >> Is this true? As I understand, with only one SIM card you can use any >> GSM handphone in any country (of course as long as the countries have >> roaming agreement). Well, yes and no: The SIM card exists in two physical formats: large (credit-card sized) and small (chip sized, 1cm x 1.5cm). The Motorola 5200 & 7200 use the large card, while most other manufacturers use the small one in most models to my knowledge. The chip itself seems to be the same, as when I switched from a Motorola 5200 to a Nokio 2110, I just cut the SIM card to the right size and inserted it. So to answer your question: you can use any SIM card in any GSM phone, as long as it has the same form factor. Regards, Stephen Ermann Switzerland ------------------------------ From: pp000762@interramp.com Subject: BCH 3/5 Error Detection Modules Date: Thu, 13 Oct 94 23:04:22 EDT Organization: PSI Public Usenet Link Can anyone provide the name/number of firms producing pre-programmed off the shelf BCH 3/5 forward error correction modules for use in data transmission systems? Thanks in advance, Allan Rypka Focused Research ------------------------------ From: jlundgr@eis.calstate.edu (John E. Lundgren) Subject: Re: V.34 From ITU-T Date: 13 Oct 1994 07:50:50 -0700 Organization: California Technology Project of The Calif State Univ tannil@tcl.com.hk (Tannil Lam) writes: > Please advice the newest status of V.34 from ITU-T. I hope to know > whether V.34 has been official approved for modem manufacturers to > produce their V.34 products or not. I read a post saying that a vote had been taken and it had been approved, and it will be published in late October. John Lundgren $$$$$$ jlundgr@eis.calstate.edu $$ jlundgr@ctp.org jlundgre@rsc.rancho.cc.ca.us $$$$$$ Standard Disclaimers apply. Rancho Santiago College - 17th St. at Bristol - Santa Ana, CA 92706 ------------------------------ From: krechmer@ix.netcom.com (Ken Krechmer) Subject: Re: V.34 From ITU-T Date: 12 Oct 1994 22:20:03 GMT Organization: Netcom In tannil@tcl.com.hk (Tannil Lam) writes: > Please advice the newest status of V.34 from ITU-T. I hope to know > whether V.34 has been official approved for modem manufacturers to > produce their V.34 products or not. The V.34 and associated V.8 Recommendations are approved. The ratification cycle ended about two weeks ago. Ken Krechmer Technical Editor Communications Standards Review e-mail: kkrechmer@attmail.com ------------------------------ From: George.L.Sicherman@att.com Subject: Dialstrings on DMS-100 Organization: AT&T Network Systems Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 14:23:50 GMT How does Northern Telecom's Digital Multiplex Switch 100 (DMS-100) treat fourth-column dialed digits? The AT&T #5 Electronic Switching System accepts them pretty much wherever it accepts Star and Box; it calls them O, S, I, and P, apparently following AutoVON usage. (Nowadays I think they are more commonly called A, B, C, and D.) The DMS-100 can be programmed to accept "overdecadic" digits from A to C, or from A to F. Can anybody explain how (if at all) they correspond to the fourth-column tones? Col. G. L. Sicherman gls@hrcms.ATT.COM ------------------------------ From: kph@cisco.com (Kevin Paul Herbert) Subject: Re: UDI vs RDI in ISDN Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 07:46:26 -0700 Organization: Cisco Systems, Ashland, OR RDI is a 64K channel on which you are expected to maintain a particular ones density. This can be used to transmit HDLC data if you invert the bits; HDLC has a different reason for avoiding 6 one bits in a row; by inverting this, you can assure that there are never 6 zero bits in a row. I'm not sure if RDI is actually supported anywhere. Kevin ------------------------------ From: lreeves@crl.com (Les Reeves) Subject: Re: Need Amp to Boost DTMF Strength Date: 13 Oct 1994 08:41:42 -0700 Organization: CR Labs htc (htcink@teleport.com) wrote: > I need an inexpensive in-line amplifier circuit capable of boosting dB > level of DTMF generated from newer ("non-network") telephone sets > (mfg'd by Panasonic, Sony,...) Telephone sets connect to a PBX board > (in IBM PC) that causes a slight loss of signal strength. Usually > only column 2 (i.e. 2,5,8,0) is too weak. Any suggestions/help or > schematics would be greatly appreciated. fax: (503) 645-3566 WATS resellers used the R-TEC (Reliance Comm/Tec) VFR5050 2-Wire to 2-Wire repeater for boosting signals. The repeater is easy to set up, and unconditionally stable. It automatically disables itself when data carriers of any sort are detected. It is widely available on the secondary market for about $100. I keep one connected to my line all the time. My IVR system is able to get my DTMF signals under the worst conditions with the help of this repeater. The VFR 5050 requires a type 400 shelf for mounting. R-TEC (AKA Lorain): (817) 267 3141 Les lreeves@crl.com Atlanta,GA 404.874.7806 ------------------------------ From: gcm@fep50.fns.com (Grover McCoury) Subject: Re: OSI OM-Related Tools Date: 13 Oct 1994 07:31:07 GMT Organization: Fujitsu Network Switching In article , andrew lavigne writes: > I've been looking for information on the availability of OSI Object > Model Management-related toolkits and compilers (ASN.1/GDMO compilers, > object class inheritance display tools, browsers, etc). > Does anyone know of such tools and/or where I can get more information > on them? DSET Corp. provides a set of tools to handle ASN.1 types in C++. The toolkit is called "ASN.C++" and includes an ASN.1 compiler among other tools. DSET Corp. 1011 Rt. 22 West Bridgewater NJ 08807 (908)526-7500 Grover C. McCoury III Fujitsu Network Switching Of America, Inc. physical: 4403 Bland Road Raleigh, NC 27609 audio: 919-790-3111 electronic: gcm@fns.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #395 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15177; 13 Oct 94 20:59 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA00971; Thu, 13 Oct 94 15:16:24 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA00912; Thu, 13 Oct 94 15:16:01 CDT Date: Thu, 13 Oct 94 15:16:01 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410132016.AA00912@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #396 TELECOM Digest Thu, 13 Oct 94 15:16:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 396 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Information Wanted About Indiana Bell (Christopher Vaz) Unity Phones and SL1 - What's Good? (Christopher Hudel) PTT Rates Repository (Emmanuel Disini) Followup on EasyLink (Jeffrey Race) Plessey Tellumat (Graham Ross) Calculating Cost of Cellular Call While Roaming (Sheldon W. Hoenig) 800-CALL-INFO (Dave Levenson) MCI's 1-800-CALL-INFO (Mike Borsetti) Testing 1-800-CALL-INFO (Les Reeves) ISDN-Based Internet Service (Alex Cena) ISDN - International From Calif/PacBell (Mike McCrohan) T1 -> 24x V.32 -> RS232 Packages (Lance Ellinghaus) Wanted: Information on Nationwide Paging Services (Lance Ware) Looking For Ringer Light (Marcos H. Woehrmann) Telecom Billing Software for DOS PC - Cost Flat LD Files (htc@teleport.com) Need Information on State Telecom Equipment Procurement (Ashok Mirchandani) Looking For Info/API's/Code Samples - NASI/NACS/Int14 Redirection (Duksta) Seeking Veteran RS-232 Experts (burt@clark.net) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: Christopher Vaz Subject: Information Wanted About Indiana Bell Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 05:12:13 EDT Organization: City University of New York/University Computer Center I am currently writing my dissertation on productivity in the telephone industry. Does anyone have any references for Indiana Bell's performance since the break-up of AT&T, short of actually contacting the company directly? Thanks, Christopher Vaz cvzqc@cunyvm.cuny.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A great deal of northern Indiana was part of Illinois Bell until about twenty years ago, then AT&T decided for whatever reason to move the northwestern part of the state -- the heavy industry area -- away from Illinois Bell and over to Indiana Bell. It was just an accident of history that Hammond/Gary/Whiting/East Chicago had been with Illinois Bell. In the late 19th century as the industry in the area began to develop including Rockefeller's Whiting Refinery, the US Steel Gary Works and George Hammond's meat processing operation, all those guys had their corporate headquarters in Chicago, and it made sense for them to get the new-fangled invention wired up between their plants on the southern shore of Lake Michigan and their offices in Chicago. Illinois Bell's predecessor company -- The Chicago Telephone Company -- was more than happy to oblige, and so cables were extended down there in the 1890's. During the 1920's when AT&T was busily grabbing up all the telcos they could get, Chicago Telephone Company was sold to AT&T, and the northern Indiana area went along as part of the deal. AT&T purchased a bunch of small telcos operating throughout Indiana (or stole them if you prefer, depends on which historian you talk to!) during the first twenty years or so of this century which they put under the umbrella they called 'Indiana Bell'. For whatever reasons, it took them about half a century to decide that Illinois Bell should 'sell' its northern Indiana holdings to Indiana Bell. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hudel@waterloo.hp.com (Christopher Hudel) Subject: Unity Phones and SL1 -- What's Good? Date: 13 Oct 1994 14:42:09 GMT Organization: Hewlett Packard (Panacom Division) Howdy, We have Unity business phones (Northern Telecom) hooked up to our Meridian SL1 system. The phone gurus seem very very tight-lipped about what all the features are in these little babies and it took quite a while before I managed even to find that Call Forward is "#1". Does anyone have a list of standard SL1/Unity features and their corresponding key-dials to active them? Thanks, Christopher Hudel -- hudel@waterloo.hp.com -- (519) 883-3013 ------------------------------ From: D1749@AppleLink.Apple.COM (Disini SW, Emmanuel Disini,CST) Subject: PTT Rates Repository Date: 12 Oct 1994 08:28:19 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway Greetings! Does anyone know where there might be a repository of PTT rates worldwide? Please cc responses to d1749@applelink.apple.com Thanks, Joel Disini ------------------------------ From: Jeffrey Race <62075697@elm.attmail.com> Subject: Followup on EasyLink Date: 13 Oct 1994 13:00:00 CDT Some comments appeared in the Digest recently about EasyLink, a service started by Western Union. The story is briefly that EasyLink is secretly alive, well, and extremely useful. It would be even more useful to a lot of people interested in Internet access except AT&T does not promote it. Details follow: (a) The original EasyLink system, as you wrote, was a 300 baud network operat- ed by Western Union and then bought by AT&T. Subscribers are uniquely iden- tified by an 8-digit number beginning with 62 (like mine!). The system was subsequently upgraded to 2400 baud although one can access down to 300 baud. There is a single 800 number for access thoughout the U.S.A. The monthly subscription is $25.00. (b) This system was adapted to support Telex subscribers (the old 50 baud system, which is still widely used around the world because it is very reliable, though expensive). The old Model 32 teleprinters hard-wired to the telex exchanges were replaced by dedicated computers/modems served with dial-up service. Thus for the same price one had his old telex number as well as a new EasyLink number. (c) This system lets one send telex messages, fax messages, EasyLink messages and all kinds of other things like postal mail, cables and X.400 messages to systems throughout the world; one can also access OAG and many other databases. There are two ways to configure one's subscription: store-and-forward or real-time. If one configures real-time (known as "virtual telex"), one also has access to the store-and-forward functionality. For example, one can send more than one message (in a batch mode). AT&T sells software but I just use Procomm which works fine. (That is, I have a dedicated terminal in Boston for incoming traffic, which I can also use for outgoing, but I mostly transmit from my notebook computer using Procomm and calling the 800 number.) (d) AT&T also had its own system called ATTMAIL, which uses alphabetic addresses and is only store-and-forward. Subsequently this also came to be called EasyLink and the two systems are now distinguished as follows: The old WUTCO system (62 numbers) is called EasyLink IMS and the ATTMAIL system is called EasyLink GMS. I infer from many conversations with ATT personnel that the IMS system is no longer promoted. (e) Why might this be interesting to Net enthusiasts? Because: (1) everyone who has a 62 address has an Internet address (e.g. mine which is 62075697@eln.attmail.com) and also an X.400 address; (2) one can configure the subscription to force-feed all incoming traffic. This is what is so wonderful for me: all my incoming traffic (regardless of whether X.400, telex, EasyLink, or Internet) is dumped on my terminal as soon as received by AT&T! I never have to call in for anything. And I can access this system anywhere in the world using a packet switch. At $25 per month it seems quite reasonable. It is also possible to configure so incoming traffic goes to a mailbox (for dial-in retrieval) or goes to a facsimile machine. There is 24-hour technical control support facility as well. 3. Because AT&T does not promote very actively I had to spend quite a lot of time researching the above but now that I have it set up, it works very well for me. Two AT&T people who are well informed about it are: Mr. Fred Erman AT&T Easylink Services 400 Interpace Parkway Parsippany NJ 07054 Mr. Peter Lynch AT&T International Network Deployment ATTMAIL address: PLYNCH 4. By the way my posting for "Telecom Design Tricks" pulled about 500 enquiries from all over the world. Thanks for your good work. 5. Another subject: I saw some traffic a while back about fax switches. The problem is that no fax switch in the market will correctly route a manual fax call (unless you have something like distinctive ringing). I have developed a solution which lets me put my EasyLink terminal and a fax machine on the same line and which correctly routes manual fax calls (which 50 % of them are). I expect a lot of people would like to put their modem and fax on the same line but can't because of the manual fax call problem. I am toying with the idea of commercializing this. If you have any bright ideas, let me know or pass on to someone who is interested. If I don't hear, I will understand you are swamped with work. Kind Regards, JEFFREY RACE [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for your followup. I used to subscribe to WUTCO EasyLink about ten years ago; I don't know why I let it expire, except that I was not using it that much. It is exactly as you describe it and a very useful service for people who want the essence of a telex machine on line at all times. Now with its link through attmail.com it seems like 'virtual telex' would be more useful than before since news and email would be sent through as it arrives right to your terminal. You are right about being swamped with work here; the Digest mailing list is larger than ever and the mail is rolling in in excess of a couple hundred items per day. I don't get time to do much other than go out to work each day, stop at the IHOP to eat on my way home, then work on the Digest for a few hours. I'm surviving, with the help of the folks at ITU and other friends of the Digest. PAT] ------------------------------ From: gingo@cix.compulink.co.uk (Graham Ross) Subject: Plessey Tellumat Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 19:46:48 GMT Plessey Tellumat. Anybody have any info regarding the above company? Graham Ross gingo@cix.compulink.uk Aberdeen Scotland UK ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 13:56:51 EDT From: Sheldon W. Hoenig Reply-To: hoenigs@gsimail.ddn.mil Subject: Calculating Cost of Cellular Call While Roaming My daughter and my wife are going to travel to a number of colleges in the midwest in a few weeks so that my daughter can be interviewed for grad school. When each interview is complete, my daughter wants to call my wife on the cellular telephone so that my wife can pick her up. The cellular telephone has a 703 area-code telephone number. If the telephone is set for roaming in each city, what type of call -- local or long distance -- will be charged to the cellular telephone number and to my telephone credit card for the pay-phone call that my daughter will make? I assume that my daughter will dial the true cellular telephone number which, of course, will be a long-distance telephone number. I asked this question twice of my Cellular-1 supplier and I received two vastly different answers. 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: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: 800-CALL-INFO Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 14:15:16 GMT This number has recently gotten a whole lot of prime-time radio and TV advertisement. This appears that the latest non-toll-free 800 trap. Not only do they charge the directory-assistance information charge of $0.75 to the calling telephone number, they also offer to connect the caller with the number requested, and to charge the calling number for that call. The 0.75 charge is not mentioned at any time during a call for directory assistance. If your PBX or other toll-diversion equipment is not already programmed to watch for this, I suggest that you block access to this number. If your equipment is not sophisticated enough to allow blocking a specified 800+ number, then block access to all 800+ numbers. If your equipment doesn't allow you to block access to the 800 area code, too bad. If you bought yourself (or your business) a toll-free number to encourage lots of prospective customers to give you a call, well, sorry about that. The industry seems to have substantially lowered the value of such numbers by allowing others to make them non-toll-free, and thereby making callers suspicious of them. How about it MCI? AT&T? SPRINT? et al. You can't have it both ways. Either go back to the original design and guarantee the calling party that calls to 800 numbers are toll-free, or don't charge your 800 customers a premium for using them. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: uunet!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 08:46:10 PDT From: Mike Borsetti Subject: MCI's 1-800-CALL-INFO Reply-To: mike.borsetti@bactc.com I've read in yesterday's {Wall Street Journal} that MCI has started a new, nationwide directory assistance service with call completion. Here is how it works: 1) Call 1-800-CALL-INFO. 2) No need to know the area code -- just tell where the person lives, and they'll give you the complete number with the area code. 3) The service costs 75c. 4) If you want, they'll *connect* you to that number and you pay "regular MCI rates". You *do not* have to be an MCI subscriber in order to use the service. This whole thing raises a few questions: 1. You are being billed 75c to call an 800 number. I believe that generally this practice is frawned upon. 2. How does the billing happen? What if you are at a payphone? 3. The idea of not having to know the area code in order to get directory assistance makes a lot of sense. Bravo MCI! Mike.Borsetti@bactc.com Cellular One / San Francisco [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Let's find out what happens if the number is called from a payphone; or if you want to deal with two sources of ill-will at the same time, try calling from your favorite COCOT. Let's see if the call completes and who has to pay for it. By all means, let's ask them to complete the call for us 'at MCI rates'. I'd venture to say they are checking the database on incoming calls to catch such things and if they are, then the COCOTS who are listed as coin with the local telco will probably be protected also ... the COCOTS using regular service may not be protected. I agree it is pretty awful that we can no longer count on 800 service to be toll-free to the caller. It looks like the only really workable fraud prevention devices these days are those that screen full ten-digit numbers. None of the old areacode/prefix screening techniques will work effeciently any longer. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Oct 1994 09:35:02 -0700 (PDT) From: Les Reeves Subject: Testing 1-800-CALL-INFO MCI has announced a new service, 1-800 CALL INFO. It is touted as a nation-wide directory assistance service. You are charged $0.75 per call for two searches. As a test, I called and asked for the number of a Patrick Townson in Chicago, IL. I figured this was a good test since Pat has moved in the past year and I wasn't even sure he was still in Chicago proper. After giving the operator Pat's name and city, and waiting about 45 seconds, I was told that there were two listings, one non-published and one unlisted. Hmmm. I asked for another name and the operator informed me that I had used up my two searches. 800 CALL INFO is eleven digits. The extra O must be for overcharge!! Les lreeves@crl.com Atlanta,GA 404.874.7806 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, well my non-published number is for bill collectors trying to get ahold of me and my unlisted number is for use when I call hot-chat lines. ... Seriously, I am curious how they get their information and how they have it organized. If you asked for me in 'Chicago' (312) then I am not there, period however there is a Patrick Townsend (no relation, no connection) who by coincidence lived only a few blocks away from me when I was living in Rogers Park (Chicago neighborhood) until about a year ago. I am told he had to get his number non-pub out of self defense because so many people were calling him looking for me! If you asked for me in 708 or "Chicago North Suburbs" then maybe the response would have been different. I wonder if MCI is using any sort of legitimate data- base from the local telcos or if they have strung together some sort of outdated cross-reference books where half the entries are out of date and a couple years old. Sounds like a ripoff to me; best limit use of the service to coin phones (Genuine Bell or COCOT, I don't care) and of course be prepared to deposit the 75 cents in coins when the operator requests it ... but then, how were *you* to know a call to an 800 number costs you money? ... remember the astrologers a couple years ago operating on an 800 number and how Digest readers took a sudden interest in the subject? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Oct 94 08:31:19 EST From: Alex Cena Subject: ISDN-Based Internet Service Can someone recommend an Internet service provider with a good user interface and ISDN access for the New York City/Newark area. Preferably in the 908 area code. I contacted one that wanted over $200 just to sign up for the service, which I found somewhat expensive given that they want another $40 minimm + usage each month. Regards, Alex ------------------------------ From: Mike McCrohan Subject: ISDN - International From Calif/PacBell Date: 13 Oct 1994 00:41:17 +0100 Organization: Tada, tuigeann tu? Reply-To: mccrohan@iol.ie Has anyone experience in commissioning ISDN BRI from PACBELL territory in southern California for international communications (to/from Ireland)? We have installed ISDN service here in Ireland and at a location in S Calif, but cannot seem to be able to connect with the Calif end. I have been told that sometimes service is not enabled for international access, or whatever. What are the things I need to look out for? What questions do I need ask the Telco to ensure that the service is configured appropriately to allow us do what we need to do? Thanks in advance for any and all advice, Mike McCrohan mccrohan@iol.ie Cloon, Claregalway, mike.mccrohan@iol.ie Co. Galway, Ireland +353 91 98556 ------------------------------ From: Lance Ellinghaus Subject: T1 -> 24 x v.32 -> RS232 Organization: Mark V Systems Limited, Encino, Ca. Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 08:21:52 GMT A company called Primary Access has a product that will take a T1 (24 VOICE channels) and interpret the DS0 channels as modem connections (v.32, v.42bis, etc..) and output standard RS232 to hook to a system. What other companies have something like this? Comments on their products? Contacts to get more information? PLEASE EMAIL me. I don't have Usenet at home right now; only email. Thank you! Lance Ellinghaus lance@markv.com ------------------------------ From: lware@homer.voxel.com (Lance Ware) Subject: Wanted: Information on Nationwide Paging Services Organization: VOXEL Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 00:43:40 GMT I am interested in getting pricing on nationwide paging services, for both simple numerica paging, and also alpha-numerc/text. Any pointers would be appreciated. Lance Ware IS Manager & VOXEL Guru ------------------------------ From: marcos@netcom.com (Marcos H. Woehrmann) Subject: Looking For Ringer Light Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 00:45:40 GMT Hi, I'm looking for a company that makes a device that turns on a light when a phone rings. I have found two things that are almost right, one flashes a light (the light is only on when the ring voltage is present) and the other flashes a strobe light (presumably using the ring current to charge the circuit); but for my application the light needs to stay on until the phone stops ringing (I relize I could modify the flashing device by adding a timed relay to the output, but I need a bunch of these and would rather buy them then make them). I'm sure I've seen this sort of device listed in telphone equipment catalogues in the past, but as usual, when looking for something I can't find it. Marcos H. Woehrmann marcos@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: htcink@teleport.com (htc) Subject: Telecom Billing Software for DOS PC - Cost Flat LD Files Date: 12 Oct 1994 18:02:14 -0700 Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 Dear Telecom Provider, My company has software available to cost flat files received from various LD companies. Software runs on your PC, and can be configured as you require. The program is written in the 'C' Language and costs $2500.00 with modifications to meet your specific requirements extra. The program also has an optional invoice-generation program to help you re-bill your clients. Please contact Chris at: HTC, Inc. 19625 NW Melrose Portland, OR 97229 (503) 690-8391 (503) 645-3566 -fax 6994868@mcimail.com htcink@teleport.COM Public Access User --- Not affiliated with Teleport Public Access UNIX and Internet at (503) 220-1016 (2400-14400, N81) ------------------------------ From: ashokm@cs.tamu.edu (Ashok G Mirchandani) Subject: Need Information on State Telecom Equipment Procurement Date: 13 Oct 1994 15:42:36 GMT Organization: Texas A&M Computer Science Department, College Station, TX Hello, I need information about how each individual State Government in the US procures telecommunications services and equipment. I also need information on the mechanism for representation of State telecommunication positions and interests before the state utility regulatory body in each state. Can someone please guide me to a proper source? Thank you in advance. Please email your responses. Ashok Mirchandani Ph: (409) 846 1543 Internet: ashokm@photon.cs.tamu.edu ------------------------------ From: jduksta@panix.com (John C.C. Duksta) Subject: Looking For Info/API's/Code Samples For NASI/NACS/Int14 Redirection Followup-To: jduksta@panix.com Date: 13 Oct 1994 11:09:18 -0400 Organization: Coherent Technologies, Inc. To all of those in the know: I'm looking for information, sample code, availability of API's for Netware Async Services Interface (NASI) from the server point of view. Any related information would also be helpful. We're kind of under pressure here (so what's new?), so expedient responses would really be great. TIA John C.C. Duksta Technical Support Analyst Digital Communications Associates, Inc. ------------------------------ From: burt@clark.net Subject: Seeking Veteran RS-232 Experts Date: 13 Oct 1994 14:34:45 -0400 Organization: Clark Internet Services, Inc., Ellicott City, MD USA SEEKING Veteran RS-232 Experts - I am searching for people who are very familiar with the EIA-RS-232 interface standard and its historical uses and applications during the 1960's and 1970's. I am willing to pay money to folks who have this knowledge and can assist me in locating information and/or companies who utilized this interface creatively. If you are interested in more details of my proposition, please reply by E-Mail to burt@clark.net. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #396 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13379; 14 Oct 94 18:22 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA00855; Fri, 14 Oct 94 12:43:41 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA00848; Fri, 14 Oct 94 12:43:36 CDT Date: Fri, 14 Oct 94 12:43:36 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410141743.AA00848@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #397 TELECOM Digest Fri, 14 Oct 94 12:41:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 397 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Calculating Cost of Cellular Call While Roaming (Bob Beck) Re: Calculating Cost of Cellular Call While Roaming (Robert Virzi) Re: Calculating Cost of Cellular Call While Roaming (Bob Keller) Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (Pawel Dobrowolski) Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (Olaf Seibert) Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? (Kaita Seikku) Re: 1-800-CALL-INFO (Jody Kravitz) Re: 1-800-CALL-INFO (Daryl Gibson) Re: MCI's 1-800-CALL-INFO (Brian Brown) Re: NANP Nightmare (Daniel E. Ganek) Re: NANP Nightmare (Joe Haggerty) Re: NYNEX to Stop Charging For Touch-Tone! (Russell E. Sorber) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 08:45:12 -0500 From: rab@vienna.ssds.com (Bob Beck) Subject: Re: Calculating Cost of Cellular Call While Roaming Over the summer I took my family on a two week trip from the Washington DC suburbs of Virginia to Denver and back. Since we were traveling with four kids, it was difficult to determine how far we could drive each day and be certain that we would get to a hotel/motel where reservations had been previously made. Hence we decided not to make reservations prior to departure and, instead, made reservations on the road using our cell phone in the van (which has a 703 area code) to locate overnight accomodations. Our route to/from Denver was primarily Interstate 70. I just received the bill from my service provider, Nationwide Cellular. For each "service area" where we used our cell phone there is a corresponding "service charge" of $3. In addition to the service charge, there are the local air time charges for that area, and associated state and local taxes. During the trip we received two calls. Each time it was a commercial announcement from the local service provider instructing "roamers" on how to contact authorities and encouraging you to use their system. After getting the bill, I see why. Bob Beck SSDS, Inc. 8150 Leesburg Pike, #1100 Vienna, VA 22182 703.827.0806 x152 703.827.0716 FAX ------------------------------ From: rv01@gte.com (Robert Virzi) Subject: Re: Calculating Cost of Cellular Call While Roaming Date: 14 Oct 1994 12:49:07 GMT Organization: GTE Laboratories, Waltham, MA In article , Sheldon W. Hoenig wrote: > My daughter and my wife are going to travel to a number of colleges in > the midwest in a few weeks so that my daughter can be interviewed for > grad school. When each interview is complete, my daughter wants to > call my wife on the cellular telephone so that my wife can pick her > up. The cellular telephone has a 703 area-code telephone number. If > the telephone is set for roaming in each city, what type of > call -- local or long distance -- will be charged to the cellular > telephone number and to my telephone credit card for the pay-phone > call that my daughter will make? > I assume that my daughter will dial the true cellular telephone number > which, of course, will be a long-distance telephone number. My understanding of this is that it depends, on how you roam. If you are using Follow-me-roaming (or one of its equivalents like automatic call delivery) two long distance charges will apply. (1) is your daughters call to 703. The other is a LD charge by your cellular company to forward your call from 703 to the area code your wife is in. A cheaper alternative is to use the roamer access port in the city your family is in. Your daughter would then make a local call to the access number, then enter your cellular phone number. You would not be charged a long distance call on the cellular side because the call isn't being fowarded from 703 to the traveling city. For this to work, you need to use the older variant of roaming, not FMR or ACD. You may also want to check on differences in daily roamer surcharges. In some circumstances (don't ask me to explain, its too obscure) it may be cheaper to use ACD because the roamer charges are less/dropped. Best thing to do is to call your cellular provider and ask about the rates for the various kinds of roaming in the specific cities of interest. If regular roaming is cheapest, be sure to get the roamer access numbers in those cities and give them to your daughter. Find out if you have to disable FMR/ACD when travelling to those cities. Not bad for someone that doesn't even have cellular service, huh? Bob Virzi rvirzi@gte.com +1(617)466-2881 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 10:14:39 EDT From: Bob Keller Reply-To: Bob Keller Subject: Re: Calculating Cost of Cellular Call While Roaming In TELECOM Digest V14 #396 Sheldon W. Hoenig inquired about roaming charges. From the message I gather that these calls would be placed by your daughter _from_ a landline phone in the midwest _to_ your wife on a 703 area code (VA) cellular unit roaming in the midwest. If that understanding is correct, the charges will most likely be as follows: Long Distance: If your daughter dials the 703 cellular number directly, she would incur a toll charge for a call from the midwest to 703, which means she will need a calling card, reversed charges, third party billing, or a bucket of quarters. In addition, since that call will be going into the cellular switch back in 703, your wife's cellular account will most likely get charged for a long distance call to route the call back from 703 to the midwest. One call, two LD charges ... such a deal! The way to avoid this is to find out the local roamer port number for the system where your wife will be at the time. Then, your daughter would call this number (which might even be a local number, depending on where she will be vis-a-vis the cellular system your wife is roaming on) and, when she hears the tone, dial in the 703 cellular number (sort of like the early days of competitive long distance carriers, or the current days of many calling card arrangements). The roam port number for most cellular carrier is AC + NXX + 7626, where AC + NXX is the area code and exchange assigned to most of the local cellular subs on the system, and 7626 is ROAM. There are exceptions, however, so you will have to check in advance. 2. Roaming Charges: No matter which calling method is used by your daughter, your wife will still incur cellular roaming charges. These range anywhere from merely usurious all the way up to $3 per day plus 99 cents per minute. (Depending on the arrangements, if any, between your wifes 703 carrier and the midwest system(s) where she will be roaming, you might get away for no daily surcharge and only 75 cents or 50 cents a minute, but don't hold your breath. Even if you decide to grin and bear it, you should still prepare yourself for sticker shock when the bill arrives (which, BTW, will be on the local 703 cellular bill, but will probably not show up until 1 or 2 billing cycles _after_ the trip due to the lag time involved in the carriers clearing roaming data back and forth). In addition to a minute seeming a lot shorter when you are talking than it does when your are looking at the bill , you may be surprised to find multiple $3 surcharges on a single day. This will almost certainly be true if they will be moving any considerable distance in a single day. The daily surcharge applies to each system, and the cellular carrier's use their own logic in deciding that the area covered in a nearby county, even though it is otherwise integrated into the system serving the neighboring big city, is still considered a separate system for roaming purposes. I use my cellular phone constantly, regardless of where I am on the road, and it is darned convenient. But it sure as hell ain't cheap! I am fortunately in a line of work where the majority of my income is computed on the basis of an hourly billing rate, thus making the payment of even $3 per day and 99 cents per minute justifiable in most cases. But I honestly believe there is a HUGE number of potential roamer usage minutes out there that the cellular industry is losing even at no daily surcharge and 45 cents a minute. But, then again, if I knew only half as much about business as I thought I did, I guess I would not still be working for a living . Robert J. Keller, P.C. (Federal Telecommunications Law) Tel: 301-229-5208 Fax: 301-229-6875 4200 Wisconsin Ave NW #106-261 Washington DC 20016-2146 finger me for info on F.C.C. Daily Digests and Releases ------------------------------ From: dobrowol@fas.harvard.edu (Pawel Dobrowolski) Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? Date: 14 Oct 1994 14:41:17 GMT Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Its the same kind of thinking where online > commercial services are concerned: you never see a clock -- digital or > otherwise -- displayed right on your screen in front of you all the time > with the elapsed time and charges. You can ask for the detail of course Not entirely true. When I log onto Compuserve I get a clock that shows time since log in. And I am sure that if enough people threatened to leave Compuserve unless it started to show a number for total charges incurred in a single sesion they would give it to us. ------------------------------ From: rhialto@mbfys.kun.nl (Olaf Seibert) Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 01:00:09 GMT In knop@duteca8.et.tudelft.nl (Peter Knoppers) writes: > For the technically inclined: > The cost pulse is a short AC common mode signal, about 60 Volts, about > 50 Hz. Duration of the pulse is about 0.5 seconds. Normal phones are > immune to common mode signals, therefore you should not be able to > hear it. To this I may add that this is going to be/has been changed. The new system uses 15 kHz tones, as I read somewhere. Personally I suspect this is being done to make old mechanical counters useless. Oh, the joys of a state monopoly going commercial, combining the worst of both worlds. Olaf 'Rhialto' Seibert rhialto@mbfys.kun.nl Ooey-Gooey-Fluffy-Barfie ------------------------------ From: spk@proffa.cc.tut.fi (Kaita Seikku) Subject: Re: "Cost of Call" Indication? Date: 14 Oct 1994 09:15:46 GMT Organization: Tampere University of Technology, Computing Centre Sam Spens Clason (d92-sam@dront.nada.kth.se) wrote: > In oleh@eskimo.com (Ole Hellevik) writes: >> Lee Ziegenhals (lcz@dptspd.sat.datapoint.com) wrote: >>> I'm wondering whether there is any work being done on a real-time >>> display of the cost of a call. >> It has been available (for a quarterly fee) in Norway for as long as I >> can remember, a little box next to the phone with two counters, on >> resettable, one not, indicating number of 'periods' (One period always >> has the same price whether the call is local or LD, but the length in >> time would be different.) This box would receive a pulse from the >> local switch when you enter a period, and would in effect be parallell >> with a similar counter in the local exchange. > Same thing in neighbouring Sweden. Until a couple of years ago all > calls were measured in 0,29 krona units, just as in Norway. But > nowadays everything except local calls is either billed by the second > or has a fixed price-tag (calling a pager is 1,5 or 6 krona "flat > rate"). This applies to ~2/3 of the Swedish PSTN. I don't know if > the old unit measurers understands this kind of billing. This seems to be a chorus of Nordic people telling the U.S. guys they should get some REAL telecom equipment... ;-) -- Here in Finland the service has been available for tens of years, too. Unfortunately only if you order it. Techincal implementations is that subscriber lines are moved to a special register that repeats the charging events to the subscriber line as short pulses of 16 kHz tone, which are detected and counted by a small box at the subscribers end. internet : spk@proffa.cc.tut.fi voice-mail ->pager : +358 -40 498 0297 real life: Seikku P. Kaita phone (or FAX) : +358 -31 265 6865 visit at : Saastajankuja 4b32 TAMPERE On The Air : OH3NYB ^^ ^ ^ ..these four a's should have double dots above them, since they are front vowels (as in word 'that'). Isn't it a pity that in English the word GHOTI can be pronounced like word FISH. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 94 00:12:41 PDT From: kravitz@foxtail.com (Jody Kravitz) Subject: Re: 1-800-CALL-INFO I saw the first ad for 1-800-CALL-INFO last night on TV. Just 75 cents/call, billed to the _CALLING_ number. I called today and bugged both Pacfic Bell's "business services" office and MCI's "business services" office complaining about the erosion of 800 services into a "you can't count on it to be free so Hotels, Pay Phones, business PBX's, etc will have to block ALL calls to 800 numbers" and that I went on to complain that this would reduce the value of the 800 number I had planned on getting for my business. Neither gave me a particularly good answer, so this evening I tried some experiments. Calling from a COCOT near my house that has in the past worked remarkably "correctly", it allowed the call to go through. But the operator requested "how do you want this call billed ?" and insisted on a 3rd number billing or credit card (don't remember if she asked for a telco credit card or just credit card). I asked why she asked for a billing method and was told I was on a "restricted line". I explained what I was up to, thanked her, and told her that I had to find out how to restrict my business lines. I then went home and tried the same experiment from my unlisted business number. Call went through without a problem. I was prepared with a couple of really hard to look up numbers for them. With these searches I've determined that 1) they don't get numbers for 30-60 days after the telco's directory assistance gets them (by admission when asked), and 2) they don't deal very well with "slightly out-of-area" requests (I specified "in-or-near LA" for a company with a unique name which was actually located in Anaheim). I'm unimpressed with the service. I'm wondering how to "restrict" my phones. I'm also wondering if there are any interested parties in politically high places who might like an earful (or a long fax) about what I think about the degraded value of 800 service as a way to reach businesses. Comments? Jody [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I went out yesterday afternoon and tried it also to see what payphones around here would do. I got through and got the request to provide billing information in the form of a credit card number or third party phone number. When I asked why there was a charge for a call to an 800 number the answer I got was that the call itself is free; what I would be paying for was the information provided as a result. This is basically the answer all the information providers via 800 phrase their answer: carriage itself is indeed 'free' or reverse charged. You pay for the information we give you while chatting. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 17:55:23 MST From: Daryl Gibson Subject: Re: 1-800-CALL-INFO TELECOM Digest Editor queried: > I wonder if MCI is using any sort of legitimate data-base from the > local telcos or if they have strung together some sort of outdated > cross-reference books where half the entries are out of date and a > couple years old. {The Wall Street Journal} indicates they are getting their information from the Post Office, direct marketers, and credit card companies ... Daryl (801)378-2950 (801)489-6348 drg@du1.byu.edu 71171.2036@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: bfbrown@teal.csn.org (Brian Brown) Subject: Re: MCI's 1-800-CALL-INFO Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc. Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 15:58:08 GMT FYI, a LD carrier can provide two "information" digits in addition to ANI via digital lines -- although, for some mysterious, unexplainable reason (someone comment please), they must do this via MF, not DTMF. The two-digit code for payphones is "27". In fact, MCI can look at the two ANI description digits before deciding to go off hook, and simply not answer the call. I would be interested to know what happens when you call from a payphone. Incidentally, the two MF digits make the ANI-DNIS string look like: *AABBBCCCDDDD*EEEFFFF*, a total of 22 digits outpulsed!!! Is it possible that MF can outpulse faster than DTMF? It seems strange that MF is necessary for this service, but it definitely is. You may be able to get some employee at a carrier to agree to give you this info via DTMF, but they will soon learn that they can't and apologize to you. One more thing -- these desription digits can also tell you when the ANI represents a hotel, hospital, prison, cellular, business or residential site, and who knows what else. By the way, phone sex companies have been charging on 800 #'s for quite a while. Just like with 900 numbers, though, it's actually pretty easy to get your bills for 900 or 800 numbers cleared by protesting them. And the companies who provide the billing for such operations will put you on their "bad ANI" list, which they distribute to the service providers, who are informed that anyone on that list will not be billed, so don't give them any "services". Please don't ask how I know all this. BB ------------------------------ From: ganek@apollo.hp.com (Daniel E. Ganek) Subject: Re: NANP Nightmare Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 14:25:25 GMT Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA In article vantek@sequoia.northcoast. com (Van Hefner) writes: > Boston Business Misses Phone Calls Due to Bungled Exchange > Oct. 8 -- Lori Moretti lives to hear the phone ring. But since she > recently moved her public relations firm to its new Boston locale near > Fort Point Channel, the lines have been unusually quiet. [ Story about a company losing business because of a new phobe exchange] > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: NYNEX cannot really be blamed because > the proprietors of some private phone systems at large companies, > universities, etc are klutzes. People wanted a telephone network where > everyone did thier own thing, so that's what they got now over ten > years ago. I used to work for a large department store downtown on a > part time basis trying to straighten out the mess that predecessors > had made of the Rolm PBX there. It was a mess! There were lots of [ etc. ] Question: Why do private systems require such programming at all? If I dial an unused exchange NYNEX tells me. Why don't private systems just put the call thru and let the CO handle it?? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: They rarely 'require' such programming and can in fact be configured to just let everything past unchecked. The reason this is not often done is because the owner of the private system has no convenient method of collecting the charges from his users, so rather than lose large amounts of money from users who would otherwise get a free ride on his phone system, all sorts of obstacles are programmed into the switch to make 'unauthorized' calls difficult or impossible to complete. Where the problem comes in is that telco can't (usually) be counted on to refuse to complete calls with toll charges attached. Usually whatever protection the PBX has against fraud and misuse has to come as a result of the owner installing it. Deciding which outgoing calls are going to result in simply reaching a telco intercept and which are going to result in big $$ billed to the owner is difficult; thus the owner has to take on the burden of sorting it all out. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joe_Haggerty Subject: Re: NANP Nightmare Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 11:42:21 EDT Organization: News & Observer Public Access I agree that it's the businesses that are "slow" with the new NXXs, or sometimes they wait and only add new ones upon complaint. I was recently at the IBM office in Raleigh, NC and attempted to dial a local cellular number 919-801-xxxx. The calls went to a recording. The local switchboard operator couldn't help, and they were not allowed to connect me to an "outside" operator. But, they gave me the number of the techie that handles their PABXs. It was a local tie line number; this guy was somewhere in Texas. After explaining the problem to someone with the right knowledge, he had it fixed in time for the next break. Also, I worked for a telco in Virginia in the early '70s, and one night discovered that they had never put NPA 809 in their switch. No one could direct dial to 809, but nobody ever complained (or their complainets never reached the right people?) Joe Haggerty, Wake Forest, NC 27587-5900 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There was a small town in Wisconsin which cut in a new exchange a few years ago which never made it into the tables at Illinois Bell for close to two years afterward. Placing the call as 1 + ten digits always sent me to a local telco intercept as did dialing the call 10-anything + 1 + ten digits. But get this: dialing through any carrier's 800 number then out of their switch -- in effect bypassing the local Illinois Bell network -- allowed the call to complete. Like many or perhaps all local telcos, IBT squats right there in the middle, watching every digit dialed and rejecting the call out of hand when *they* can't deal with it without bothering to ask the long distance carrier what to do. Telling repair service anything is like trying to bail out the ocean with a bucket. I finally got someone at AT&T who understood the problem, and got a call back from an AT&T guy in Denver, I think, who said he would deal with it. When I asked him his position with the company, he said his job was 'fighting with local telcos about stuff like this'. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 94 10:01:27 CDT From: sorbrrse@wildcat.cig.mot.com (Russell E. Sorber) Subject: Re: NYNEX to Stop Charging For Touch-Tone! Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group In article Wes Leatherrock writes: > Quoting roy@mchip00.med.nyu.edu (Roy Smith): >> Am I the only person in the world who still doesn't have touch-tone, >> because I don't want to pay the extra $0.50/month, or whatever it is? > According to which figures you want to use, between 20 and 25 > per cent of all telephones in the United States are still rotary dial. The numbers also vary greatly by region of the US. According to a {Wall Street Journal} article about two months ago, NYNEX was far and away the winner in terms of percentage of customers using rotary dial (The story broke down the percent of rotary users by Baby Bell region). I think the number quoted in the WSJ was more than 30% of existing NYNEX customers using rotary, with about 10% of new subscribers refusing to pay for touch-tone service. Ameritech and the Illinois Commerce Commission also just announced a deal that, among other things, would eliminate Ameritech's monthly touch-tone surcharge for Illinois customers. Russ Sorber Software Contractor - Opinions are mine, Not Motorolas! Motorola, Cellular Division Arlington Hts., IL (708) 632-4047 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #397 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16149; 14 Oct 94 19:57 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05874; Fri, 14 Oct 94 15:07:06 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA05866; Fri, 14 Oct 94 15:07:01 CDT Date: Fri, 14 Oct 94 15:07:01 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410142007.AA05866@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #398 TELECOM Digest Fri, 14 Oct 94 15:07:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 398 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson BCI, MCI Get Greater Share of Clear Communications (NZ) (Dave Leibold) Canadian Long Distance Contribution Controversy (Bell News via D. Leibold) CFP: Applied Informatics (Dennis Warwoda) Analog Dial-up Video Conference Packages? (Robyn Rudisill) Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Loop Technology (Thoo Chin Choy) Billable 800 Service (John Steele) How Can I Get a Good International Circuit (Julian Thornhill) Need Information on State Telecom Equipment Procurement (Bob Beck) Book to Help in Dealing With Phone Companies (Hon Wah Chin) TeleCon in Toronto (David McKellar) UNC-CH Faculty Job Opening (Scott Barker) A Question Concerning Fax Broadcasting (Keith George Long) Re: Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? (Pete Farmer) Re: Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? (James D. Wilson) Re: GTE Airphone Begins Ground-to-Air Service (For Free!) (Phil Gladstone) Re: GTE Airphone Begins Ground-to-Air Service (For Free!) (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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: 13 Oct 94 23:24:10 -0500 Subject: BCI, MCI get greater share of Clear Communications (NZ) Organization: FidoNet Nameserver/Gateway [from Bell News, 10 Oct 94, content is Bell Canada's] BCI improves stake in New Zealand's Clear NZ Rail Ltd. sold its 15 per cent stake in Clear Communications Ltd., a major reseller, to four other shareholders, among them MCI Communications Corp. of Washington and Bell Canada International. Each of the four now owns 25 per cent of Clear. ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n250.z1.fidonet.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 13 Oct 94 23:24:02 -0500 Subject: Canadian Long Distance Contribution Controversy Organization: FidoNet: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Bell News, 10 Oct 94, content is Bell Canada's] Sprint and Unitel appeal contribution aspect of landmark CRTC decision Alternative long distance carriers - Unitel and Sprint - are appealing portions of the CRTC's landmark decision (94-19) which changed the way telecommunications in Canada will be regulated in the future. As part of its decision, announced on September 16, the CRTC ordered changes to the way in which contribution to support basic telephone service is paid by long distance carriers, including the telephone companies. Unitel (on Friday, September 30) and Sprint (on Monday, October 3) formally requested the CRTC review and stay portions of this decision. In their application, they claim they cannot afford to subsidize local service according to the Carrier Access Tariff (CAT) method set out by the CRTC. The CAT method is based on a fixed charged for each minute of long distance traffic carried over the local network. CAT will apply to all inter-exchange carriers *including* Bell. Before the decision, alternate carriers paid a contribution based on the number of trunks they leased or owned. Under the per-trunk method, alternate carriers were able to offer huge LD discounts (mainly to residential customers) to keep their lines busy in the slower, non-business hours. Under the CAT method of calculating contribution, the busier their lines, the greater their contribution will be. The appealing carriers claim they should pay no contribution on off-peak minutes and the telephone companies should pay on all minutes. Bell was taken aback by the appeals, accusing Unitel and Sprint of "sending mixed signals." Said a Bell spokesperson: "On the one hand both of these companies have been publicly touting their success in the long distance market and their financial viability. On the other, they claim to the CRTC their ability to serve customers is under threat." And as to the issue of per-trunk versus per-minute contribution, it's "not new, " claimed the spokesperson. "It has been discussed in four regulatory proceedings in the last two years. "What the CRTC has done is to close a loophole that competitors were using to their advantage to avoid paying a fair but reduced (compared to the telephone companies) share of the local service subsidy." ------------------------------ From: warwodad@cuug.ab.ca (Dennis Warwoda B288-1195 H293-5227) Subject: CFP: Applied Informatics Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 13:10:10 -0400 Organization: Calgary UNIX User's Group CALL FOR PAPERS Twelfth IASTED International Conference APPLIED INFORMATICS February 20-23, 1995 Innsbruck, AUSTRIA SPONSORS: The International Association of Science and Technology (IASTED) * Technical Committee on Modelling and Simulation * Technical Committee on Computers LOCATION: Congress Innsbruck Igls, Postfach 533, Rennweg 3, A-6021 Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria SCOPE: Main areas to be covered: * COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE * DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING * SOFTWARE * APPLICATIONS * ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE * NETWORKS * SYSTEMS * SIMULATION INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE: K. Adamson Northern Ireland B. Furht USA J.L. Houle Canada J. Keane UK E. Luque Spain G. Mastronardi Italy J. Malko Poland L. Miller USA C. Pellegrini Switzerland J.A. Peperstraete Belgium S. Pulko UK M. Yaacob Malaysia SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS: The abstracts submitted for review should be prepared for "regular" or "short" papers. The "regular" papers should be up to the standard expected for publication in an international journal. An abstract of a regular paper should be at least 500 words in length, should present a clear and concise view of the motivation of the subject, give an outline of the paper, and a list of references. For "short papers" the abstracts should have a maximum of 250 words. Three copies of the abstracts for both categories of papers should reach the IASTED Secretariat in Zurich, Switzerland (Fax: (01) 261-0083) before OCTOBER 30, 1994. Authors should provide a maximum of five key words describing their work, and must include a statement confirming that if their paper is accepted one of the authors will attend the conference to present the paper. Please include the full name, affiliation, full address, fax number, and e-mail, if available. Notification to the authors will be mailed by NOVEMBER 18, 1994. Authors of an accepted paper are requested to make an advance payment of SFr 300 to IASTED by JANUARY 2, 1995. All accepted papers, regular and short, will be published in the proceedings. The papers must be received at the conference prior to presentation. ****** IMPORTANT DATES ****** October 30, 1994 - Abstracts due in Switzerland November 18, 1994 - Notification to the authors mailed January 2, 1995 - Advanced payment of SFr 300 due CONFERENCE SECRETARIAT: IASTED Secretariat Switzerland IASTED Secretariat Canada P.O. Box 354 4500 - 16th Avenue N.W. CH-8053 Zurich Unit #80 Switzerland Calgary, Alberta Fax: +41-1-261-0083 Canada T3B 0M6 Fax: (403) 247-6851 Tel: (403) 288-1195 E-mail: iasted@istd.cuug.ab.ca ------------------------------ From: Robyn Rudisill Subject: Analog Dial-up Video Conference Packages? Date: Fri, 14 Oct 94 10:30:00 PDT Has anyone out there ever used an analog video conference package? If so, which one did you use and what did you think of it. I am looking for a low cost solution, but with decent speed. Thanks in advance. robynr@shapeware.com ------------------------------ From: s2ccthoo@iss.nus.sg (SE2 Thoo Chin Choy) Subject: Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Loop Technology Date: 14 Oct 1994 17:53:36 GMT Organization: Institute Of Systems Science, NUS Hello everbody, I am posting this on behalf of my friend who is writing a paper on Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Loop (ADSL) technology for one of his graduate projects. This new access technology is a series modem-type technologies which can turn a stabdard copper telephone circuit into a high-speed digital service. It operates at different frequencies to the normal telephony and therefore both can coexist on the existing twisted pair telephone. He needs information on the following areas regarding ADSL: 1. What are some of the technical difficulties faced when exploiting ADSL? 2. What are some of the techniques that may be employed to overcome the problems (identified in 1)? 3. Any good reference on this subject (journals, books, etc)? Any info regarding the subject is very much appreciated. Please email to . Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 13:56:25 -0400 From: jsteele@gate.net (John Steele) Subject: Billable 800 Service I have been following with interest the billable-800 service nonsense. Most recently the appearance of 800-CALL-INFO to get a number. I recall recently seeing an interview with the Chairman of the FCC (as I recall it was him, could have been another member). In this interview he took the position that the FCC could not take action to prevent the 800 billing matter without new legislation from Congress. This attitude is typical of the bureaucracy. When they want to do we're not going to like they assert that "Congress told us to". When they don't want to get involved they say "Congress will have to authorize it". I would contend that the FCC has sufficient authority to prohibit this practice based simply on precedent ... there are literally decades of common practice for the 800 service being billed only to the subscriber/ owner. This has created a common perception and attitude among people that they do not pay for 800 calls. In fact, I would assert that the "toll free 800 call" has long since stopped being common carrier provided service and has passed into the culture as a concept, much like the "xerox" machine ... it is no longer identifiable as a specific service or product. Clearly, the common carriers have provided merchants a mechanism to charge customers "whatever the traffic will bear" when they created the 900 & 976 services. Prohibiting the subversion of the 800-system would not unduly restrain merchants from having a way to conduct their "business" at the customer's expense. There are reams and reams of case law based on common law, which is nothing more than codified common practice. The FCC could simply outlaw the practice ... the burden of change, either through the courts of the legislature, would then fall on the scam artists who are benefiting from this. John Steele information systems technology, inc. miami [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In fairness though to the companies which are the subject of your complaint, is it not true that since the beginning of 800 service -- and even with its predecessor service 'Enterprise' and 'Zenith' -- people have called those numbers wishing to order merchandise or services and have paid with credit cards for the merchandise or services rendered? For example, we call 800 numbers *at no charge* to order books and magazines *for which we expect to pay* usually via credit card. We call 800 numbers to order a variety of goods and services; why not to order 'information' to be delivered by phone? The companies using this technique rightfully contend that the cost of carriage -- the telephone call itself -- is 'free' to the caller, with the costs borne by the recipient. I think you will find that even when the astrologers, the sex purveyors and the others answer the phone even for the purpose of saying they will not provide you with the information requested because you are (a) calling from a payphone with no other method of payment or (b) have previously refused to pay they are still charged for the carriage. They still pay the 10-15 cents or whatever for the minute of conversation required to tell you they will not service you for whatever reason. With that in mind, that the recipient of an 800 call does pay for the call itself -- regardless of whether or not some transfer of merchandise or 'information' takes place as a result -- the companies doing this are not any different than the company which takes your order for airline tickets by phone or the customer service representative at the book or magazine order center. They agree (using an 800 number) to pay for your call as a way to encourage you to call them and purchase whatever it is they have for sale. The gripes and complaints seem to arise owing to the nature of what is being sold (information by telephone) and the method of payment most commonly used (charge to local telephone bill). There is a question in my mind as to the propriety of charging *anything* via telephone bills except for the cost of carriage (or connection) itself, and that includes the use of 900/976 numbers. The precedent for 'charge to phone bill' began about sixty years ago with Western Union and its close relationship to the old Bell System. For that matter, when WUTCO changed to an 800 number and had all calls funnelled through its central message center in St. Louis you could still charge the telegram to your phone bill, so even having 800 as a factor in this is not all that new. Ah, but you say naughty children do not call up Western Union in the middle of the night -- if they even heard of the grand old company -- and place telegrams charged to their parent's phone bill, nor do university students suffering from post-midnight sleeplessness and certain other psychological tensions best left unnamed use WUTCO services. They *do* however enjoy using other services sold these days by telephone with the hope that when it comes time to pay for the services rendered someone else will get the bill. *That is the problem, in a nutshell*: The immense popularity of 'certain kinds' of information and the propensity of the people benefitting from that 'information' to not have to pay for it at all if they can avoid it. Did you hear the one about the prostitute who goes into the bank to get change for a hundred dollar bill? The bank teller looks carefully at the money and says, "this bill is counterfeit." The prostitute becomes outraged and screams, "My God, I was raped!" To avoid the legal raping most information providers were getting via 900/976 and telco's very liberal 'write it off, no questions asked' policy (and they meant the IP can write it off, not us, heh! heh!) -- peculiar only to 900/976 I might add -- and to avoid the detours in the road leading to their electronic houses of ill-repute put in the way by telecom administrators who had gotten a bellyfull of paying for someone else's good times and Christian parents who were angry about anyone having a good time at all, the information providers built a new expressway leading right up to their front door and agreed to pay the tolls to get there, factoring the tolls into their overall costs of operation. You can take 'interstate 800' right to the ranch now. "Now let's see those university administrators and corporate PBX guys and Christian parents put up a blockade in the way," they chortled ... "what are you gonna do, block out access to all of 800 as well ..."? The answer is quit allowing ANYTHING to be billed to telephone accounts except for *telephone calls*, period. No telegrams, no flowers, no cable television premium movie, no sex, nothing. Require information providers to bill however they want otherwise, by credit card or open account or prepayment. Then, everyone should be happy. Everyone, that is, as the IPs are quick to point out, except the weather forecast, time-of-day, and certain other 'quick recorded message' IPs -- the 'clean' side of the industry -- for whom anything other than telco billing would be extremely inconvenient and almost impossible. But then, by comparison, no one calls those guys anyway ... ... so who cares? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 16:17:40 +0100 From: jth@ion.le.ac.uk (Julian Thornhill) Subject: How Can I Get a Good International Circuit I want to regularly set up a modem link between UK and Finland using 28.8kbps modems. Obviously I am only going to get this speed if I get a good circuit. Is there any way that the UK telco (BT or Mercury) can set up a "good" circuit routing for me or is it in the lap of the computers? If it is technically possible I'll get on to them but I would like to be forearmed before I ask. I have considered ISDN but the call costs are twice as much for only just over twice the bandwidth and I'll have to buy some expensive bits of hardware so I'd rather stick with my modems for the time being. Regards, Julian Thornhill Ionospheric Physics Group Leicester University University Road Leicester LE1 7RH, UK Tel 0116 252 3566 Fax 0116 252 3555 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 09:00:43 -0500 From: rab@vienna.ssds.com (Bob Beck) Subject: Re: Need Information on State Telecom Equipment Procurement Public Technology, Inc. (PTI) and MCI offer a service called PTS 2000, a local government long distance telecommunications network. Ten state municipal leagues are using PTS 2000 currently: Arkansas Indiana Iowa Kansas Louisana Maine Mass. Minnesota Missouri South Carolina PTI is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC that develops technologies to support local governments. By pooling the buying power of local governments across the country, PTS 2000 gives pricing and service advantages to these local governments. Bob Beck SSDS, Inc. 8150 Leesburg Pike, #1100 Vienna, VA 22182 703.827.0806 x152 703.827.0716 FAX ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 10:10:18 -0700 From: Hon Wah Chin Subject: Book to Help in Dealing With Phone Companies Reply-To: hwc@kalpana.com Does anyone have a suggestion for a reference or text book that would help a fledging facilities person who got saddled with the phone/telecom issues? This is to help a novice to support a company with a PABX with ~150 lines, voicemail, a T1 to the CO and a long distance carrier. (ie more than residential stuff but not a BIG network) The main requirement is enough explanation and glossary to help in talking to the installers, repair people and sales and marketing types. Hon Wah Chin hwc@kalpana.com ------------------------------ From: dmntor!djm (David McKellar) Subject: TeleCon in Toronto Organization: Digital Media Networks, Toronto, Canada Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 22:05:29 -0400 I visited a show called TeleCon in Toronto today. All the usual suspects were there. I'll just mention some things I found interesting ... I watched Howard Reingold (of Wired magazine) get interviewed and interviewed. He was wearing a neato green suit and wow shoes. What did he say? Well among other things, in response to a question from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp) he said "Canada was the most exciting place to be now". Aw shucks. I went on a tour of a working Northern Telecom Central Office in a transport trailer. Without much coaxing the tour guide/operator pulled out a trunk circuit board carrier about 800 calls and we watched the redundant backup board kick in. The fellow seemed to really like the the switch and I liked that. I talked to my colleague via frame relay and thru a fiber optic test set. Unitel (the number two long distance carrier here) had about ten booths offering free calls in Canada. ACC had something better -- free calls to England but I don't know anyone there. On the tired highway metaphore front: I counted four cars at booths. Motorola had the most dramatic racing car. Bell had this Info Highway room room complete with road-type signs. But when I got there 30 minutes before the show closed this room was closed. What did I miss? I wonder if anyone has any other comments about this show? D a v e M c K e l l a r d j m @ d m n t o r . U U C P ------------------------------ From: scott@ils.unc.edu (Scott Barker) Subject: UNC-CH Faculty Job Opening Date: 13 Oct 1994 22:27:41 GMT Organization: Univ. of North Carolina, Information/Library Science The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill announces a tenure-track position (assistant/associate professor) in the School of Information and Library Science. The School seeks applications from scholars whose research and teaching interests address telecommunications and networking, and/or multimedia/hypermedia systems. Faculty members are expected to en- gage in research and to report new insights through publication and teaching. Faculty members also advise masters and doctoral students and serve on School and University committees. Minimum qualifications include an earned doctorate by the starting date, a research agenda, and evidence of teaching competence. Minimum salary is $40,000 for assistant; $45,000 for associate. The review process will begin Jan. 15, 1995; preliminary interviews are planned for the following conferences: ASIS (Alexandria, VA, October 1994); ALISE (Philadelphia, February 1995); and ACM Computer Science Conference (Nashville, TN, February 1995). Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Preferred starting date is August 1995. Send letter of application, resume, and names of three references to: Barbara M. Wildemuth, Chair, Faculty Search Committee School of Information and Library Science CB # 3360, 100 Manning Hall University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360 Phone: 919-962-8366; Fax: 919-962-8071 email: wildem@ils.unc.edu The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. ------------------------------ From: kglong@whale.st.usm.edu (Keith George Long) Subject: A Question Concerning Fax Broadcasting Date: 14 Oct 1994 00:32:57 GMT Organization: University of Southern Mississippi Hello, Would anyone out there happen to know the FCC rules/regulations concerning unsolicited fax broadcasting? Are these regulations enforceable? How? I recently read that if a recent FCC ruling were upheld, it could mean a $500 (per fax) fine. Any information/discussion on this issue would be most welcome. Sincerely, Keith kglong@whale.st.usm.edu ------------------------------ From: pete@tetherless.com (Pete Farmer) Subject: Re: Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 15:31:45 -0800 Organization: Tetherless Access Ltd. In article , lars@spectrum.RNS.COM (Lars Poulsen) wrote: > spelegan@csc.com wrote: >> We have a commercial customer who's asked us to setup a BBS system for >> them. They've asked us to recommend a telecom option for them to >> use that best suits their needs. They'd like to start out with 8 >> lines going into the BBS with the ability to move up to 16, 24, etc. >> They'd like their customers to have one 800 number to call to reach >> this BBS, no matter where they are in the US. Their customers will >> have off-the-shelf modems, ranging from 1200-14.4 baud. > The requirement here is for an economical way to accept POTS calls for > modem traffic. This means that X.25 service, Frame Relay, ISDN etc are > all outside of the scope of this query. That will not prevent me from > getting back to them at the end, though. Well, X.25 service is not necessarily out of the question. If the customer needs nationwide (or even international) access to the BBS with a local telephone call, it might make sense to contract with the CompuServe Packet Network, with MCI XStream (nee Tymnet), or with SprintNet. These outfits can provide local dial-up access to their X.25 nets and drop the traffic to the customer's doorstep through a single pipe. This can be a lot more hassle-free than operating a modem bank. > Finally: > You should give serious consideration to putting such a BBS on the > Internet. I agree -- *especially* when the BBS is to be accessed by people *outside* of their company. Peter J. Farmer Internet: pete@tetherless.com VP - Marketing Voice: 415-843-6880 ext. 16 Tetherless Access Ltd. Fax: 415-843-6890 2468 Embarcadero Way Palo Alto, CA 94303 Visit our WWW site! URL=http://www.tetherless.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 18:36:09 HST From: NetSurfer Subject: Re: Frame Relay vs. ISDN vs. T1 vs. ???? In Hawaii, you can get 56KB with an install of $95 and monthly recurring of $200 per site and 1 PVC (permanent virtual circuit.) HawTel does not specify prices per commited bandwidth, but would generally suggest the next higher bandwidth rate above 80%. Frame relay support on routers tends to be a simple software option (if not standard support.) The big advantage of frame relay here is that it is not distance based i.e. it costs the same to have a circuit between Honolulu and Waikiki (all on Oahu) as between Honolulu and Hilo (190 miles apart and on the Big Island of Hawai'i) As a service point we can have a standard monthly recurring with each additional site carrying their own monthly recurring charges. All we have to do is ensure that we support a high enough bandwidth for peak tx times from multiple sites. James D. Wilson |V.PGP 2.7: 512/E12FCD 1994/03/17 P. O. Box 15432 | finger for full PGP key Honolulu, HI 96830 |================================== Serendipitous Solutions| Also NetSurfer@sersol.com ------------------------------ From: Philip.Gladstone@mail.citicorp.com (Philip Gladstone) Subject: Re: GTE Airphone Begins Ground-to-Air Service (For Free!) Date: 13 Oct 1994 10:08:32 -0400 Organization: Citicorp Reply-To: Philip.Gladstone@mail.citicorp.com DREUBEN@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU wrote: > Just got some mail from GTE Airphone. [Interesting stuff about free inbound calls to AIRPHONEs on certain flights deleted] At the end of last month, on the USAIR Shuttle, AIRPHONE were running a promotion for a free five minute call if you filled out one of their comment cards. This was to try out their new digital service. Personally, I thought that the quality was terrible -- certainly worse than the old analog system. I guess that the voice was compressed down to 4.8k. It sounded as though the other party was underwater, and you could only just recognize the other speaker. The voice lag was very noticeable -- this was probably satellite delay. All in all, if I had paid for the call, I'd want my money back! Philip Gladstone - Consultant Citicorp Global Information Network ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 94 00:33 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: GTE Airphone Begins Ground-to-Air Service (For Free!) Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > If you chose to answer the call, you first get a chance to see who is > calling you, ie GTE transmit's the ANI from the 800 number to your > seat. ... Turns out that's not what happens. For an incoming Airphone call, the caller calls the 800 number, hits 1 to say make incoming call, dials the ten-digit customer number (the one on the card the person in the air has swiped through his reader), then dial your own number and optionally an extension number. Then it hangs up. If the person in the air accepts the call, it calls you back. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, jlevine@delphi.com Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #398 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16844; 14 Oct 94 20:18 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA07083; Fri, 14 Oct 94 15:49:12 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA07072; Fri, 14 Oct 94 15:49:04 CDT Date: Fri, 14 Oct 94 15:49:04 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410142049.AA07072@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #399 TELECOM Digest Fri, 14 Oct 94 15:49:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 399 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Testing 1-800-CALL-INFO (Mark Pulver) Re: MCI's 1-800-CALL-INFO (Carl Moore) Re: Calculating Cost of Cellular Call While Roaming (Andrew Laurence) Re: Calculating Cost of Cellular Call While Roaming (Paul Beker) Re: AT&T Easylink Information Wanted (Paul Robinson) Re: Class Use of Telephone (Alan Boritz) Re: Class Use of Telephone (Martin McCormick) Re: RI Installs Speed-Bumps For the Information Superhighway (Alan Boritz) Re: GSM SIM Card: Different? (Timo M. Ahomaki) Re: UDI vs RDI in ISDN (Chip Sharp) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (Haber-Schaim) Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud (Tom Kunselman) Re: $50 Million in Quarters? (Stan Brown) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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: mpulver@netcom.com (Mark Pulver) Subject: Re: Testing 1-800-CALL-INFO Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 17:47:51 GMT Les Reeves wrote: > As a test, I called and asked for the number of a Patrick Townson in > Chicago, IL. I figured this was a good test since Pat has moved in > the past year and I wasn't even sure he was still in Chicago proper. > After giving the operator Pat's name and city, and waiting about 45 > seconds, I was told that there were two listings, one non-published > and one unlisted. Hmmm. I asked for another name and the operator > informed me that I had used up my two searches. This is a bit on the side of the topic, but I offer this as an example of other way to get this information, (since Pat had added to this message a query of how MCI is able to do this in the first place ...). Compuserve has the PHONE*FILE databases online. These are commercially available databases that have more info on you than you would generally like the public to have. To play, do GO MET-4 from a CIS menu ... Anyway ... I fed PHONE*FILE a state of "IL" and a surname of "TOWNSON". What I got back was: Last Name: TOWNSON MARION G 708/824-xxxx DES PLAINES, IL 60016 ALLEN 708/244-xxxx GURNEE, IL 60031 M J 708/675-xxxx SKOKIE, IL 60076 CAROLE S 312/664-xxxx CHICAGO, IL 60614 DARRYL W AND KERMIT 312/221-xxxx CHICAGO, IL 60617 HELEN 309/444-xxxx WASHINGTON, IL 61571 FRED W 309/698-xxxx EAST PEORIA, IL 61611 I've delete the street addresses and the last four digits of these folks phone numbers, but trust me, they're all there. While this information is garnered from public records like mortage documents, phone book listings, etc, it's the power of the search engine that scares me. With only knowing someone's state and last name, you can have their full address, phone number, length of residence and spouses name, (that data was not directly in this search result, but it's available if you start from knowing the phone number). Oh ... another side, (bringing this back to the MCI CALL-INFO issue ...), This search took me less than five minutes to do (shelled out of my reader, telnet'd to CIS, did the query and blew out), and had a CIS service surcharge of 50 cents. Wild stuff ... mpulver@netcom.com -or- analog analog analog and um, analog mpulver@lante.com Voyetra 8, Xpander, P5, MKS-70, other toys [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Some of those are very distant cousins of mine I think. I know Carole is related distantly, with our common ancestor being a g.g.g.grandparent in the early 1800's. I don't know any of those people at all otherwise. The last name spelled with /son/ is not that common; /send/ is a much more likely spelling. In my family it was /send/ until the late 1800's, then the branch that came via my g.g.grandfather went with /son/ for whatever reason. There is a person named Patrick Townsend in Chicago presently -- in my old neighborhood in fact -- I have no idea who he is other than seeing his name in the phone book a few years ago. He was listed *once* in the phone book and since then has been non-pub; I wonder why? ... grin ... there is, or was a few years ago, a Patrick Townson in Fruitland, Idaho. (?!?) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 94 18:34:03 GMT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: MCI's 1-800-CALL-INFO OK, I tried it from a Bell Atlantic phone here in Maryland and got an operator who said "1 800 CALL INFO, how would you like to bill your call?". So the phone I used was indeed noted as a pay phone. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So was the one I tried here. PAT] ------------------------------ From: laurence@netcom.com (Andrew Laurence) Subject: Re: Calculating Cost of Cellular Call While Roaming Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 17:57:39 GMT Sheldon W. Hoenig writes: > My daughter and my wife are going to travel to a number of colleges in > the midwest in a few weeks so that my daughter can be interviewed for > grad school. When each interview is complete, my daughter wants to > call my wife on the cellular telephone so that my wife can pick her > up. The cellular telephone has a 703 area-code telephone number. If > the telephone is set for roaming in each city, what type of > call -- local or long distance -- will be charged to the cellular > telephone number and to my telephone credit card for the pay-phone > call that my daughter will make? The land-line to cellular call that your daughter makes will be billed by the long-distance carrier as a call from that phone to the home location of the cellular phone (area code 703). The cellular phone company will then charge you airtime plus roaming fees plus long-distance charges from area code 703 to the physical location of the cellular phone. Roaming fees vary widely, and you should pick up a copy of The Cellular Travel Guide (a very thick $20 book) which shows maps, roaming fees, and which cellular companies have roaming agreements with which other cellular companies. Some areas have a daily roaming charge which is tacked onto the first call of that calendar day. > I asked this question twice of my Cellular-1 supplier and I received two > vastly different answers. Interesting. What were the two answers? Andrew Laurence Oakland, California USA laurence@netcom.com Pacific Daylight Time (GMT-7) ------------------------------ From: pbeker@netcom.com (Paul Beker) Subject: Re: Calculating Cost of Cellular Call While Roaming Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 20:01:13 GMT Hmmm. Well, there are two vastly different ways to do this. Method #1 (and costs): o Turn on "Follow Me Roaming" or "Nationwide Call Delivery" or whatever it's called by your cellular provider. This is, typically, done by dialing *18 or *350 on your cellular phone once you're in the market where you want to be reached. o Your daughter will call your "home" cellular number from a payphone using a calling card; then the network will forward the call to your location, and your cellular phone will ring. o Costs: (approximate) Calling card surcharge: $0.85 Call Card LD Loc -> 703: actual LD minutes used Cellular LD 703 -> Loc: actual LD minutes used Roaming airtime: $0.65 - $1.09 / minute "Daily roamer charge": $0 - $3 / day Method #2 (and costs): o Get a copy of your cellular provider's Roaming Information Guide. This book will list "Roamer Access Numbers" for every cellular system in North America, based on the Band your phone is homed in (A or B - you must know this info - your cellular provider should give you the info, where A="Wireline", and B="landline"). These roamer numbers are LOCAL calls from each market that they serve. Also, calling a roamer access number directly will usually (not always) get you "home" airtime charges instead of "roamer" airtime charges. This, of course, depends on the two cellular providers involved. o When your daughter needs to call you, she will use the payphone to dial the roamer access number (a local call - $0.25). o When the access number answers, she will hear either a second dial tone, or a series of beeps. Either way, your daughter should then dial the full 10-digit "real" cellular number of your phone (703-XXX-XXXX). Assuming your phone is on, the call should go through normally. o Costs: (approximate) Local call - payphone: $0.25 Airtime (see above): $0.18 - $1.09 / minute "Daily roamer charge": $0 - $3 / day Good luck! Paul Beker pbeker@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Oct 1994 22:34:34 EST Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA From: Paul Robinson Subject: Re: AT&T Easylink Information Wanted > Does anyone know what exactly AT&T Easylink is and what > services it offers. Apparently it is some kind of commercial > service available in Kenya. Is it something like the Internet? TELECOM Digest Editor noted in reply: > AT&T Easylink is one of the older email services here in the USA... > Is AT&T still operating Easylink as a stand-alone product in some > parts of the world? I guess there are countries where Telex is > still the primary way of doing email. AT&T Easylink is still operational in the U.S. If you want a standard telex number of either seven digits or a 710 number, you use Easylink. One reason for having it is the Western Union Datagram service where you can allow people to call an 800 number in the U.S. and send a collect telex to you. It is useful for accepting written instructions. Easylink isn't cheap either. It's US $25 a month plus any transmissions. Datagram Service is an additional $50 a month in minimum transmission charges. One thing it does provide which if you need it for large volumes is cheaper than any other way is a means to have E-Mail delivered to a fax machine. AT&T Easylink will allow you to dial up their computer and download your messages, or at no extra charge, will send messages to a fax machine. There can be additional reasons for continuing to keep telex service. In some places, outgoing international telephone calls are very expensive while international telex service is relatively cheap; in the U.S. it's the exact opposite. So, what some people do is set up an incoming telex number in the U.S. for that party to send messages to. They then _fax_ responses back to them. I helped one party test this by offering to let their correspondent send me a telex and I would forward it to their E-Mail address. It worked, and it convinced them to obtain an account. For persons in the U.S. who want the ability to receive telexes, a much cheaper alternative is MCI Mail. For a $30 a year subscription fee, the user gets a mailbox that has both an Internet account, can send facsimiles and can send and receive telexes. For example, I have the additional Internet address 0005066432@MCIMAIL.COM By changing the '000' to 650, this becomes my telex number: 6505066432 There is no charge to receive messages, and telex rates are about the same with all carriers. MCI will charge for messages forwarded to a fax machine which makes it inappropriate if the account is heavy volume traffic; for light traffic it may be considerably cheaper than AT&T. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Class Use of Telephone From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Reply-To: uunet!drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Date: Thu, 13 Oct 94 08:13:54 EST Organization: Harry's Place - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 stuart.whitmore@uninova.com (Stuart Whitmore) writes: > One of my professors brought into class one of > those conference telephones like you find in the Hello Direct catalog > (in fact, that might be where he got it, I don't know), and the whole > class made a call to a retired person who could speak as an authority > on the class topic. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It certainly sounds like a great idea > for a presentation to a class; having authorities meet with the class > via speakerphone. PAT] New York Telephone was pitching (though not very heavily) the enormous speakerphone as a conference tool in the late sixties. An FCC official spoke, via a speakerphone device, at a conference, I attended about ten years ago. The speakerphone didn't seem to catch on until (it seemed) the public had a greater awareness of ALL teleconference possibilities. aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ From: martin@datacomm.ucc.okstate.edu (Martin McCormick) Subject: Re: Class Use of Telephone Organization: Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 10:18:42 GMT In 1973 or 74, one of the Journalism and Broadcasting courses I took at Oklahoma State University held a conference with a person in Washington, D.C. who was able to discuss various issues concerning mass communications laws and how they were changing. This is a very good way to use telecommunications and I seem to recall that everything went nicely. I was impressed with the telephone which must have been fairly state of the art at the time. It had two hand-held microphones which the instructors brought to students when they wanted to ask a question and the system changed cleanly from receive to transmit mode based on whether the audio was coming from the microphones or the wire. There was no feedback and the transmit/receive function seemed to be an electronically-based circuit rather than a relay. Today, O.S.U. is very involved in this sort of thing, but the technology has evolved to video teleconferencing rather than just audio. We use various portions of a T1 line for educational television instruction and most people say that they like it. While it is possible to set the CODECS to use anything from 64Kb/s to half of the T1 or about 750Kb/s, the best video comes from the highest speeds. The audio is delayed so that the sounds always correspond to the picture. The sound is fairly good, if a little scratchy, and the picture is excellent as long as there is not a tremendous amount of movement in it. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK O.S.U. Computer Center Data Communications Group ------------------------------ Subject: Re: RI Installs Speed-Bumps For the Information Superhighway From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Reply-To: uunet!drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Date: Thu, 13 Oct 94 22:01:47 EST Organization: Harry's Place - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 Paul A. Lee writes: >> Here's the latest from our fine RI legislators: >> ... only licensed telelcommunications contractors, licensed >> telecommunications system technicians, and licensed telecommunications >> system installers shall engage in, or design, install, alter, service, or >> test telecommunication systems in the state of RI. > I guess you have to be licensed to sell modems in computer stores now. > Sounds like one of the following must have happened in Rhode Island: > 1) The state government let a telecommunications equipment contract go > to the lowest bidder, who botched the job > 2) A legislator had some phone installation work done, and the installer > butchered some trim in the fine old house > 3) An interconnect company that has the attention of an influential > legislator has been getting a lot of competition lately > 4) The state sees explosive growth ahead in telecommunications and wants > to control the direction and gain some revenue from licensing Any one of your examples could have been a contributing factor, but plain 'ole greed is probably the most contributory. Here are the *annual* license fees, from an application my boss handed to me today: Telecommunications System Contractor $100* Telecommunications System Technician $ 60 Telecommunications System Limited Installer $ 30 Telecommunications Apprentice $ 20 The contractor's license is held by an officer of the contractor corporation, however an additional "corporation" license is also required (along with registration with the RI Secretary of the State, and the Dept. of Finance). Unfortunately, there is no information available yet on exactly what it is or what the (inevitable) license fee will be (they're sending me the law, so I'll have it shortly). There is only one telecommunications license per category (contractor, technician, etc.), but there are four sub-categories that may be held concurrently: Data, Video, Telephony, and Sound. Applicants must submit proof that they've completed three projects of each sub-category for which they're requesting a license. In addition, a Contractor or Apprentice must submit proof that they've *already* had three years experience in those sub-categories, and an apprentice must submit a notarized letter from a RI licensed telecom contractor stating that they are employed by that contractor. The application also states that the employer or customer references may be sent forms to attest to the truthfulness of all statements on the application, and those forms must be notarized and returned before action will be taken on the application, if requested. It should be easy to think up some really foolish scenarios with that provision, especially when the applicant moves into the state of Rhode Island to start a new job, and he can't get his former employer, or his former employer's customers, to go to the trouble of filling out and notarizing all those forms. Another interesting note is that a technician can not be licensed until AFTER the technician's EMPLOYER is licensed. There are no "freelance" technicians in this program, since a technician who works for himself is a CONTRACTOR (read: higher license fee, registration with the State for tax purposes, etc.). > I would be interested in whether Rhode Island is promulgating a > practice code or a set of standards for licensees, and whether state > or commercial review or inspection will be required for designs and > installations. Licensing only provides some indication of basic > competence -- it does not provide a means of review and > accountability. I wouldn't expect too much in the way of quality inspection with this program. The person with which I spoke today at the Rhode Island Dept. of Labor said that they basically take the applicant's word for his qualifications (no examination is necessary until 1/13/95). And while there's lots of specifications on how to register, and the fees to be paid, there's no information available on what circumstances (if any) such a license can be revoked, or the enforcement activities that will monitor compliance. This licensing push really looks like an attempt to do away with all cottage-industry telecom contractors and collect taxes and license fees that they couldn't collect before. aboritz%drharry@uunet.uu.net or uunet!drharry!aboritz Harry's Place (drharry.UUCP) - Mahwah NJ USA - +1-201-934-0861 ------------------------------ From: ahomaki@tne01.tele.nokia.fi (Timo M. Ahomaki) Subject: Re: GSM SIM Card: Different? Date: 14 Oct 94 08:34:42 EET Organization: Nokia Telecommunications. In article , 100111.1007@compuserve.com writes: >> Is this true? As I understand, with only one SIM card you can use any >> GSM handphone in any country (of course as long as the countries have >> roaming agreement). > Well, yes and no: The SIM card exists in two physical formats: large > (credit-card sized) and small (chip sized, 1cm x 1.5cm). The Motorola [snip] The SIM chip itself is (or at least should be, otherwise your phone does not fullfill the spec.) the same. There exists an adapter to allow one to use the small SIM in a phone requiring the large variety. This is simply a piece of plastic with a hole for the SIM in the right place. If I were buying a SIM now, I would definitely take the small one and then buy this adapter. Timo Ahomaki, System Engineer Nokia Cellular Systems * Tel: +358 0 5619 9800 System Concept Development * Fax: +358 0 5619 9826 P.O.Box 44, FIN-02601, Espoo * Email: timo.ahomaki@ntc.nokia.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 94 09:51:22 EDT From: hhs@teleoscom.com (Chip Sharp) Subject: Re: UDI vs RDI in ISDN > I'm not sure if RDI is actually supported anywhere. The standards bodies (i.e., Committee T1 in the US) have been trying to get rid of RDI as a choice for placing a call. Instead, they will require the user to use Unrestricted Digital Information rate adapted to 56 kbit/s. Hascall H. ("Chip") Sharp Teleoscom Sr. Systems Engineer 2 Meridian Road Eatontown, NJ 07724 USA voice: +1 908 544 6424 fax: +1 908 544 9890 email: hhs@teleoscom.com ------------------------------ From: habersch@scunix1.harvard.edu (Oren Haber-Schaim) Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud Date: 11 Oct 94 22:51:05 GMT Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts TELECOM Digest Editor noted: > If convicted, 'Knightshadow' as he known to other phreaks and his > co-conspirators face ten years in a federal penitentiary. > It must be remembered that in the United States, our constitution > requires a presumption of innocence on the part of Ivy James Lay and > the other phreaks involved until their guilt is proven by the > government in a court of law. True, but of course the U.S Constitution does not bar citizens from drawing their own conclusions as to what is most likely the truth. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is correct, it does not. It merely states the posture which must be taken by the government. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tom E Kunselman Subject: Re: MCI Employee Charged in $50 Million Calling Card Fraud Date: 14 Oct 1994 14:48:10 GMT Organization: University of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences awoolfso@uop.edu (Aaron Woolfson) writes: > detection devices for just for saying this. But I just do not see how > it can possibly really be hurting MCI. ... > Although I am not suggesting that it is not a big deal what happened, > I just don't see how MCI can be running around and crying that they > are losing all this money, when THEY REALLY AREN'T! They are just > not collecting nearly as much revenue as before. I agree, that it isn't hurting MCI. Who it is hurting is the MCI consumers. If people payed for the services they used, instead of stealing them, then they share in the maintenance cost of the MCI system. The more people using a system that is not filled to capacity, means that MCI could lower their charges to individuals and still maintain the same amount of profit. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Oct 94 13:53:00 EDT From: brown@ncoast.org (Stan Brown) Subject: Re: $50 Million in Quarters? Organization: nej tak! In article is written: > Unfortunately the answer is simple -- the courts have repeatedly > agreed with the service providers that *their customers* are > responsible for the charges. Thus there is no financial incentive > (and some disincentives) for the providers to do anything. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Padgett, what I do not understand and > believe to be wrong about the court rulings you cite is the apparent > conflict with federal regulations pertaining to fraud and misuse of > credit cards generally. To the extent that telephone calling cards are > credit cards -- and they are intended to allow you to pay 'later' -- > how can the user be held responsible for more than some minimal > amount -- usually fifty dollars -- in damages? Federal regulations > pertaining to credit cards are quite clear that the card holder will > not suffer as a result of fraud when the cardholder had nothing to > do with it. PAT] I'm not a lawyer, but I believe PAT is confusing "credit cards" with "bank credit cards". The $50 rule that PAT cites applies to bank cards but as far as I know it does not apply to T&E cards like American Express or to other forms of credit cards like oil-company and telephone credit cards; it also does not apply to bank debit cards. That's not to say that I agree with the anomaly; I don't. But I'm pretty sure it exists. Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems brown@Ncoast.ORG Can't find FAQ lists? ftp to 'rtfm.mit.edu' and look in /pub/usenet (or email me >>> with valid reply-to address <<< for instructions). I can also send "newbie" information on Usenet--just ask if you want it. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #399 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa27712; 18 Oct 94 18:43 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA19841; Tue, 18 Oct 94 12:34:09 CDT Return-Path: Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (4.1/SMI-4.0-proxy) id AA19823; Tue, 18 Oct 94 12:34:05 CDT Date: Tue, 18 Oct 94 12:34:05 CDT From: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson)) Message-Id: <9410181734.AA19823@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V14 #400 TELECOM Digest Tue, 18 Oct 94 12:34:00 CDT Volume 14 : Issue 400 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson FCC Finalizes Rules for Big LEO's (Bob Keller) Journal Review: Communications Standard Review (Elaine Baskin) New UK Dialing Codes (Richard Cox) Data Scopes and DSU's (Craig Hollenbaugh) Various Telephone Questions (Andrew A. Poe) NYNEX/MA and NXX Assignments (Scott D. Fybush) T-1 is Much Better Than Frame Relay (Jeff Buckingham) 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 America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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 edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: 9457-D Niles Center Road Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 708-329-0571 Fax: 708-329-0572 ** 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 partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Additionally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. 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, 17 Oct 1994 17:07:22 EDT From: Bob Keller Subject: FCC Finalizes Rules for Big LEO's Report No. DC-2660 ACTION IN DOCKET CASE October 14, 1994 COMMISSION ADOPTS FINAL RULES AND POLICIES FOR "BIG LEOS" (CC DOCKET 92-166) The Commission has adopted final rules for the licensing and operation of low earth orbit mobile satellite systems above 1 GHz ("Big LEOs") to provide a variety of voice and data mobile services worldwide. The systems will operate in the 1610-1626.5/2483.5-2500 MHz frequency bands. Big LEO service can offer an almost limitless number of services, including ubiquitous voice and data mobile services, position location services, search and rescue communications, disaster management communications, environmental monitoring, paging services, facsimile transmission services, cargo tracking, and industrial monitoring and control. This service will help meet the demand for a seamless, nationwide, and eventually global communications system that is available to all and that can offer a wide range of voice and data telecommunications services. In addition to enhancing the competitive market for mobile telecommunications services in areas served by terrestrial mobile services, this new mobile satellite service will offer Americans in rural areas that are not otherwise linked to the communications infrastructure immediate access to a feature-rich communications network. Moreover, Big LEO systems can extend these benefits throughout the world, and can provide those countries that have not been able to develop a nationwide communications service with an "instant" global and national telecommunications infrastructure. This network can be used to provide both basic and emergency communications virtually anywhere in the world. Operation outside the United States, however, will be subject to the regulatory requirements of the countries in which these systems may seek to operate. The United States has led the world in developing and implementing satellite technology and the Big LEO service represents an opportunity for the United States to continue its leadership role. The Big LEO service has the potential to stimulate enormous economic growth both here and abroad. It is potentially a multi-billion dollar industry, with opportunities for economic growth in a variety of markets and sub-markets. Estimated costs to construct the space segments range from $97 million to over $2 billion each. Ground segments will cost hundreds of millions of dollars more. As the service becomes operational, there will be research and development, production, marketing and service administration, as well as related jobs in industries manufacturing the necessary hardware. As of the June 1991 cut-off date, the Commission had received six applications for Big LEOs. The applicants are: Ellipsat Corporation (now doing business as Mobile Communications Holdings, Inc.); Motorola Satellite Communications, Inc.; Constellation Communications, Inc.; Loral Cellular Systems Corp. (now doing business as Loral Qualcomm Partnership); TRW, Inc.; and AMSC Subsidiary Corporation. These applicants will be given an opportunity to file amended applications that conform with the new rules. Amended applications, requesting construction, launch and operating authority, must be filed by November 16, 1994, in order to receive continued consideration. However, applicants will be given until January 1996 to demonstrate compliance with the financial standard adopted by the Commission. The Commission noted, however, that complete applications filed on November 16, 1994 will be processed immediately, with action anticipated by January 31, 1995. The Commission adopted the spectrum sharing plan proposed in its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in this docket, which will allow for licensing of five systems. The plan will assign code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems to 11.35 MHz of shared bandwidth at 1610-1621.35 MHz and a time division/frequency division multiple access (TDMA/FDMA) system to 5.15 MHz of dedicated bandwidth at 1621.35 -1626.5 MHz. The Commission also adopted an interim plan to be used in the event that the operations of GLONASS, the Russian Global Navigation System, interferes with MSS operations in the lower frequency portion of the 1610-1626.5 MHz band. The interim plan will permit the CDMA licensees to expand by 1.25 MHz into the designated TDMA/FDMA band at 1621.35-1622.60 MHz. The Commission also stated that if only one CDMA system is implemented, the system's assignment would not be automatically reduced to 8.25 MHz, as proposed in the Notice. Rather, the Commission stated that any decision would be deferred until, and if, the need arises. The plan also allows CDMA systems to share the entire 16.5 MHz of downlink spectrum at 2483.5-2500 MHz. If all six applicants are found to be qualified, the licenses will be auctioned. The Commission has adopted qualification criteria designed to ensure that those granted licenses are capable of expeditiously implementing state-of-the-art systems that will serve the public interest. The requirements include: -- A low-Earth orbit design; -- The capability of providing global service; -- The capability of providing continuous service throughout the United States; -- A stringent financial showing identical to the one used in the Domestic Fixed-Satellite Service; and -- A construction timetable with a reporting requirement. If an auction is necessary, the Commission will conduct simultaneous multiple round bidding of small (2.0625 MHz) band segments, in which entities will be permitted to acquire up to four band segments each, assuring at least two licensees. The Commission also adopted technical coordination rules to achieve sharing between MSS and other services operating in the band or in adjacent bands. The Commission plans to begin to issue conditional licenses in January 1995, although it probably will not be able to authorize feeder link frequencies at that time. The Commission also determined that Big LEO space segment capacity may be offered to commercial mobile service providers on a non-common carrier basis, provided that the Big LEO service offering does not meet the definition of a common carrier service. Action by the Commission October 13, 1994, by Report and Order (FCC 94-261). Chairman Hundt, Commissioners Quello, Barrett, Ness, and Chong. News Media contact: Susan Lewis Sallet or Audrey Spivack at (202) 418-0500. Common Carrier Bureau contact: Fern Jarmulnek at (202) 634-1682. - FCC - Robert J. Keller, P.C. (Federal Telecommunications Law) Tel: 301-229-5208 Fax: 301-229-6875 4200 Wisconsin Ave NW #106-261 Washington DC 20016-2146 finger me for info on F.C.C. Daily Digests and Releases ------------------------------ Date: 17 Oct 94 16:59:00 EDT From: Elaine Baskin <72540.113@compuserve.com> Subject: Journal Review: Communications Standard Review [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This article might be called a 'review of a review' ... a look at two publications from the Communications Standard Review, edited by Elaine Baskin. If you believe Ms. Baskin's work might be helpful in your own, contact her for a subscription. PAT] Two standards journals can help you stay informed about telecom standards-in-progress: Communications Standards Review (CSR) reports on US (Telecommunications Industry Association - TIA) and International Telecommunications Union, Telecommunications Sector (ITU-T, formerly CCITT) Standards Committee meetings in Wide Area Network data communications, both wire and wireless, since 1990. CSR provides detailed technical information to assist in communications product planning and specification. The journal is published ten times per year. Committees covered include: TIA TR-29 Facsimile Systems & Equipment TIA TR-30 Data Transmission Systems and Equipment TIA TR-41 User-Premises Telecom Requirements TIA TR-45 Public Wireless 800 MHz Standards TIA TR-46 Wireless & Personal Comm. 1800 MHz ITU T Study Group 8 Telematic Services (including Facsimile) ITU T Study Group 14 (Formerly SG XVII) Data Communications over the GSTN (PSTN) ITU T Study Group 15 Transmission Systems and Equipment These committees cover: * Facsimile (incl. Class 1 and 2 interfaces) * Telephone line modems (V.34) * Digital interfaces (e.g., EIA/TIA 232) * FCC Part 68 technical issues * Analog/digital cellular standards * Communications Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) * 56 kbit/s & 64 kbit/s DSU/CSUs * Telematic terminals * ISDN rate adaption * Cellular data communications * Personal Communications Systems (800 MHz & 1800 MHz) For even more detail on specific work, subscribers may use the CSR library for a fee. Subscribers may order copies of public work-in-progress documents referenced in CSR. Such orders can be delivered quickly via overnight carrier or facsimile. (Completed standards should be ordered from the appropriate standards organization or distributor.) Communications Standards Summary (CSS) is a TIA-authorized publication, first published in February, 1994. CSS reports the status all TIA TR- committee active projects and recently completed standards four times per year. You can track the standards work of nine TIA committees (and 34 subcommittees), and hundreds of standards projects. TIA Committees projects in CSS: TR-8 Land Mobile Services TR-14 Point to Point Communications TR-29 Facsimile Systems & Equipment TR-30 Data Transmission Systems and Equipment TR-32 Personal Radio Equipment TR-34.2 Earth Station Satellite Antenna TR-41 User-Premises Telecom Requirements TR-45 Public Wireless 800 MHz Standards TR-46 Wireless & Personal Comm. 1800 MHz Information about each project includes: Project Number / committee Title and description of the Project Expected publication ID, if available Editor's name, company affiliation Current project status Related work in other committees In summary: CSR provides timely detailed coverage of the lower layer (OSI layers 1-3) wide area networking (WAN, below 1 Mbit/s) technical standards committee work, in TIA and ITU-T. The price is $795.00 per year. CSS provides a quarterly summary of all TIA TR-committee active projects and recently completed standards. The price is $250.00 per year. To request a sample copy of either or both journals (no obligation), contact Elaine Baskin at: Communications Standards Review 757 Greer Road Palo Alto, CA 94303-3024 USA Tel: +1 415 856-9018 Fax: +1 415 856-6591 e-mail: 72540.113@compuserve.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Oct 1994 07:02:54 -0400 From: richard@mandarin.com Subject: New UK Dialing Codes adam ashby wrote: >> I was wondering if anyone has yet updated the UK area codes >> and made them available. We are working on this now. Unfortunately Oftel keep announcing new codes, and as soon as we have a definitive list, we find it is out of date! That wouldn't be too bad, since all lists of codes suffer from a similar problem, but there are a block of allocations which Oftel haven't yet published (allegedly because the allocations were made by BT before Oftel took over responsibility for the allcoation process). We'll have a new list out on the 'Net, just as soon as we can. For geographic codes, in most cases the translation is to put a "1" before the active part of the code. For example, 0222 becomes 01222. In five of our larger cities (Bristol, Sheffield, Leeds, Nottingham and Leicester) the code changes completely and local numbers will also change from six to seven digits. In Hull and Jersey local numbers also change from five digits to six. >> As a related aside -- all NT DMS switches in the UK were ready >> for the new codes before August 1st. But were they ready for Caller ID, due to be introduced here in just a few weeks time (November 5th) ? >> OfTel (the regulatory body) is currently discussing a new >> (proposed) numbering plan for the UK :- >> 00 - International (current) >> 01 - PSTN (current) >> 02 - possible netowrk expansion (new) >> 03 - New mobile allocations (new) >> 04 - New mobile allocations (new) >> 05 - FreePhone numbers (new) >> 06 - FreePhone numbers (new) >> 07 - Personal numbers (new) - what are those??? >> 08 - Premium rate (new) >> 09 - Premium rate (new) I suspect there are a few inaccuracies here. 02 is intended for a new form of "regional" numbering to run in parallel with 01, rather than for expansion (in fact there is very little room for expansion on 01 (a fact that worries many of us because we see it as a way to force people to change against their will to 02, due to another "shortage of numbers" - and 02 numbers may well be on a different tariff basis). Mobile and Pagers were to go to 03 but this has now been changed to 04. 07 is indeed for personal numbers: i.e. numbers that translate to other numbers, where the translation can be changed remotely by the customer. 08 will be used for all specially tariffed services, whether Freefone (our 0800), or Premium Rate: with 03, 06, and 09 being kept in reserve. The jury is still out on what will happen to 05. Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, PO Box 111, Penarth, South Glamorgan CF64 3YG Voice: 0956 700111; Fax: 0956 700110; VoiceMail: 0941 151515 e-mail address: richard@mandarin.com; PGP2.6 public key on request ------------------------------ From: csh@alert.com (Craig Hollenbaugh) Subject: Data Scopes and DSU's Date: Tue, 18 Oct 1994 11:24:03 GMT Reply-To: csh@alert.com Organization: Alert Centre, Inc. Help - I've been doinking with this one for a while, hopefully, someone has seen it before. I'm using Comsphere 3610 DSU's for a 56k SDLC circuit. My problem is: The only way I can keep the circuit up (RTS/CTS) is to have the datascope plugged into the circuit and turned on. Turn off the scope, RTS goes away. Has anyone seen this kind of reaction before? I've tried all the options on the DSU that would seem to matter, but no luck. BTW - Host is MVS, my end is an R/S 6000 running SNA. Craig Hollenbaugh csh@alert.com 303-488-7738 Alert Centre, Inc ------------------------------ From: Andrew A. Poe Subject: Various Telephone Questions Date: Tue, 18 Oct 1994 10:36:25 EDT Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept. OK, I've got some questions here about this wonderful device known as the telephone. 1. 800 numbers. I got this letter from Ameritech (my local phone company) apologizing profusely for the fact that certain 800 numbers are now billable. From what I've read here, I get the impression that the calls themselves are not billable, but the information received through such calls are. Is this true? This makes sense. Ameritech announced that an 800 number must describe its rates in the first minute of the conversation, and that if you hang up before the rates are described, you will be billed nothing. 2. 900/976 numbers. What's the difference here? The only thing I know about these numbers is that I've seen commercials for them, some phone sex lines, some astrology hotlines, and so forth. Who determines the rate? The carrier? The service? 900 is an "area code," right? While 976 is an "exchange?" 3. Every so often, I see an ad for a phone service that doesn't have a 900 or a 976. What are these? I've heard stories that these places will take your number and call you back collect, or will take a credit card number and bill to your credit card (sounds risky to me). If they call you back collect, who determines the rate of the call? The carrier? The service? How can you call someone collect and charge more for the call? Or is there some way you can use some non-900, non-976 number to charge the caller an exorbitant sum? 4. How old are area codes/direct dialing? 5. 800 numbers overseas. My overseas calling card has an AT&T 800 service, where you can call AT&T 800 numbers from anywhere in the world; of course, the calls are not toll free overseas, which seems perfectly reasonable. Is there a way to dial any 800 number overseas, provided you're willing to pay for the call? How about 900 numbers? 6. Toll lines specifically by carrier. Getting back to phone ads; I've seen some phone sex ads that say just dial 10333-1-xxx-xxx-xxxx. As this is the Sprint access code, I assume that Sprint is the one that charges you an arm and a leg. But what if I were to dial that number via AT&T? Would it even work, or would I get some message saying "You may only dial this number via Sprint!" 7. How come there aren't any area codes numbered x11? Are they forbidden, or is it just that no one has gotten around to assigning them yet? 8. Does Mexico have area codes or doesn't it? I have two 1993-4 phone books, from different companies. One has the country code of Mexico as 52. The other has it as 1, like the US and Canada, and lists area codes for different parts of Mexico. Thanks for responses to this rambling information. I greatly appreciate it. Andrew A. Poe 522 HILL ST ANN ARBOR MI 48104-3223 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA +1 313 665-4920 andrew.poe@umich.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, you certainly squeezed a lot of questions into one message. Let me try to answer a few for you. I will defer on question one (billable 800) simply because later today or tomorrow I shall have an issue of the Digest devoted to that topic. The main difference between 900/976 is that 900 is usually (but does not have to be) national in range, while 976 is usually limited in reachability to a specific community. 976 is usually limited to one- way outbound recorded messages while 900 can be interactive. 900 is a service code, not technically an 'area code'. 976 is a 'prefix'. Information Providers who use regular numbers have to have some way of billing the caller. They do so by credit card frequently, and some have an arrangement with a telephone company to enter the charges into the telephone billing system. With credit cards, as you point out, it is quite risky: the information providers are constantly being defrauded by people using bogus card numbers, etc. Oh? You meant it the other way around; that there is a risk to the consumer of the services? Yes, that happens also. If they collect their money by calling back 'collect' then they have an arrangement with some telco or long distance carrier to put the 'collect charges' into the billing system at whatever amount is specified. Area codes were devised in the late 1940's and came into common use during the middle to late 1950's as automatic phone service (that is, subscriber dials call) became common and manual service was being phased out. A lot of carriers have gateway points in the USA where you can connect for the purpose of dialing an 800 number in the USA. 900 numbers are strictly for use in the USA; there is no way to call one from outside this country. If an information provider can guarentee to a long distance carrier a certain amount of traffic per month on an *exclusive basis* -- typically many thousands of dollars per monnth in traffic -- the carrier may find it to its advantage to bypass the local telco in the process, and the resulting termination fees the local telco gets paid. The carrier then is wired direct to the subscriber and the carrier shares the savings with the IP. The IP makes his living from this sharing of the savings the long distance carrier receives on termination fees. In turn, the IP must refuse to accept calls sent through any other carrier; he won't get paid for those calls. There are no area codes numbered 'x11' because it is a dumb idea. How would you like to live in area code 911 or area code 411? As far as Mexico is concerned, I have no idea what they do there and anyway, this response is getting too long. Next time you write, please confine your message to one topic at a time. That applies to other writers also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush) Subject: NYNEX/MA and NXX Assignments Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Date: Tue, 18 Oct 1994 04:15:34 GMT As with every other telco, NYNEX here in Massachusetts has been assigning a lot of new NXX's lately, what with all the fax machines and cellular phones and pagers and such. But I have to wonder sometimes whether anyone's awake at the switch when it comes to deciding WHICH NXX to assign where. 617-647 has long been assigned to the Waltham CO (my home CO, as it happens, though I'm on one of the old TWinbrook/89X NXXs). The Waltham CO serves the entire city of Waltham and much of the adjacent town of Weston, Mass. Weston shares a small, but significant boundary with the town of Natick. That boundary is also the 508/617 line. And now, NYNEX has assigned 508-647, in, you guessed it, Natick! I can only imagine the confusion this is likely to cause among the many people who travel between the Natick area and the Waltham area daily. It's even possible that two adjacent homes along Mass. Route 30 could end up having similar or even identical 647-XXXX numbers, one in 508, the other in 617. What makes it all the more puzzling is that there are so many available NXXs left in 508, including 652, 654, and 659, all of which would fit the established 65X pattern for Natick exchanges (651, 653, and 655 are the current Natick NXXs.) Anyone have a good explanation for this one? Scott Fybush - fybush@world.std.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The line has to be drawn somewhere, and invariably some people in one area code will sit fifty feet away from some people in the other area code. In large metropolitan urban areas, there is no easy way to avoid some very arbitrary boundary lines these days. It would be different had there been some advance planning forty years ago in how prefixes were assigned and boundaries laid out. But now, to avoid massive confusion for everyone, things are done the way they are done. I could show you as an example the northwest side of Chicago (the city itself) were a very ragged and at times obscure boundary line separates the city itself (312) from the suburbs (708). It should be so simple that one side of the street is 312 and the other side is 708; that would be *easy* ... and in fact that is usually how it occurs, but as you inch right up on the boundary line itself you'll find (in our case here on the northwest side) the city limits and thus the area code for the subscriber goes house by house, with the boundary cutting down alleys and through the middle of a block. Sometimes even between two houses side by side where for whatever reason one is in the city and the other is technically in a suburb or perhaps an unincorporated area. We have two small villages (Harwood Heights and Norridge, Illinois) which are completely surrounded on all sides by the city of Chicago, yet are not part of the city and thus are in area 708, completely surrounded on all sides by area 312. David Tampkin is much more knowledgeable than I on the precise boundary lines on the northwest side of the city and I would defer to him for any specifics in the event anyone is interested. There is also a little community with people, and stores, etc which is not part of anything over there -- neither the city or a suburb -- called 'Unincorporated Norwood Park Township' -- serviced governmentally by Cook County. Some of it is considered 312 and some 708. To compound matters, there are two telcos in the area: Illinois Bell and Centel. Both telcos use both area codes; both telcos have a very arbitrary boundary line for who services what area geographically, to say nothing of *which area code* each one uses. So Unincorporated Norwood Park Township has two telcos interchangeably using two area codes serving a couple thousand people at most over an area maybe a mile wide by a mile long. So imagine if you will that you are on Illinois Bell in 312 and the house next door to you is in Centel 708. Across the street is a guy in Illinois Bell 708 and next to him is someone in Centel 312. All the Illinois Bell customers regardless of 312/708 are serviced out of a central office known as 'Chicago-Newcastle'. Centel also refers to *their* 312 customers as 'Newcastle', but they are serviced out of a central office in Des Plaines, Illinois that is otherwise strictly 708. But where IBT treats some of the Unincorporated Norwood Park Township people 'as though' they were in Chicago for numbering purposes, they have to have an exchange all their own not otherwise available in area 312. Why? Well because of the hook to 911 and Chicago police. On that sole exchange in 312, calls to 911 have to go to intercept since the county sheriff does not have 911 service as do many of the individual police departments. One of the reasons serial killer John Wayne Gacy got away with -- well, murder -- for so long was the fact that the block of Summerdale Avenue on which he lived is mostly unincorporated. A couple houses on the block are within the city of Chicago and I think maybe part of the block is within Des Plaines, Illinois, but not his house. It was finally the Des Plaines police who put him away; Chicago police had no involvement in the case at all. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jbucking@pinot.callamer.com (Jeff Buckingham) Subject: T-1 is Much Better Than Frame Relay Date: 18 Oct 1994 02:29:58 GMT Organization: Call America, San Luis Obispo CA USA Earth Sol We had an interesting experience at Call America triing to buy Frame Relay. We needed to connect offices in Salinas, Fresno, Bakersfield, and Santa Barbara with our Main office in San Luis Obispo. We had planned to connect to frame relay at the T-1 level from San Luis Obispo. The other offices were going to be connected at the 56k level. The bids we got from AT&T, MCI, and Sprint were about $6700.00 per month. We then discovered that we can purchase T-1's to each office for about $2000.00 per month. This was very interesting because we were able to buy 24 times the bandwidth for 1/3 of the price. We are a long distance carrier and we do purchase T-1's for about 7-15 cents per circuit mile (each T-1 has 24 circuit miles per mile of distance) so our situation may be different from some end users but I really think that the whole frame relay thing is vastly over hyped and many companies are being sold frame relay who do not really need it. Jeff Buckingham (jbucking@callamerica.com) Call America 4251 South Higura Street, Suite 800, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 805-545-5100 (Voice) 805-541-7007 (Fax) ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V14 #400 ******************************