Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14109; 19 Apr 95 16:38 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id IAA19064 for telecomlist-outbound; Wed, 19 Apr 1995 08:21:22 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id IAA19055; Wed, 19 Apr 1995 08:21:20 -0500 Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 08:21:20 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504191321.IAA19055@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #201 TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 Apr 95 08:21:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 201 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Please Help With Weird Telco Problem (Cliff Yamamoto) New Country Code 380 For Ukraine (Bob Goudreau) British Editor/Tech Writer Needed Immediately (Eric Johnson) Need a Baby PBX For Modem Testing, Modem Class (Phillip Remaker) Fax Card Query (John Radisch) Switched 56, and Switched 56 Frame (Sarah Sorenson) Help Wanted With DTMF (Andrew R. Mark) POCSAG Standard For Paging Systems? (Thomas Diessel) GSM Overview on Web (John Scourias) Final U.S. Coast Guard CW Broadcast (Ben Heckscher) Kermit News #6 Available on the Web (Frank da Cruz) Tele-Go Description (Allan J. Langfield) Photo Caption Contest on Web (Eileen Lin) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: cyamamot@kilroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Cliff Yamamoto) Subject: Please Help With Weird Telco Problem Date: 18 Apr 1995 03:10:43 GMT Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA USA Hello ... I have a problem that I can't explain but need to in order to get it resolved. Situation : New V.34 modem connected to phone line. Power adapter NOT connected. RS-232 cable IS connected to computer. Problem : 60Hz hum heard on all phones in house. Hum goes away when RS-232 cable is disconnected from modem. Computer is connected to 3-prong grounded outlet. Knowns : Current computer setup with old Hayes Ultra 96 modem is just fine. V.34 modem is a USR Courier which was to replace Hayes. With Hayes connected to phone line and RS-232 connection to computer, no hum has ever been heard in any phone extension. Attempted : Tried USR modem at other homes. No problem. Modem connected fine to other modems and did not introduce hum on other phones within each given house. Used a different computer at my house in a different room. Hum problem still persists. With the RS-232 cable disconnected from the USR modem, but the telco wire in place, I can connect RS-232 Pin 7 (signal ground) of the USR modem to ground (the ground offered by the 3rd pin on the wall outlet) and the hum will again appear on all phones in the house. I am at a loss. How do I explain this problem to my telco to get it fixed? I believe it is a telco problem because I have a friend only two blocks away and my USR modem worked fine at his house. Is there something in my junction box besides the lightning arrestor that should somehow ground my telco wiring to prevent ground loops? Please help as I need to contact my local telco soon while I have the chance to wait around from 8AM to 5PM for the service tech to show up. Thanks, Cliff [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't *think* this is a telco problem. Not if it is on your side of the demarc at least. That's not to say they won't possibly come out and fix it, but if they do it will cost you $$$. I think the trouble is in the wiring in your house. Is your phone wiring the conventional four wire/two pair setup? Do you have two phone lines with one on each pair going throughout your house? If not, what is the second pair used for, if anything? Does your new modem have a dip-switch setting (or software setting) for A/A1 supervision? That's where the second pair in the modem is used to latch the relay which illuminates the lamps on multi-button phone lines. Are you using the phone patch cord which came with the modem? Is it a single pair/two wire cord or a four wire/ two pair cord? Something is getting from the modem out to the phone line which is happening only because of the way your phone lines are set up *internally*, which means telco technically has no responsibility for it. Disconnect yourself at the demarc from the CO side entirely and see if the hum can still be heard. Depending on the complexity of the phone wiring at your house, this may not be practical, but try (once you are disconnected at the demarc) to isolate the problem even further. There may be a point in your house where the electric wires are very very close to the phone wire and there is induction going on. I am reminded of a situation about 25 years ago. I was asked to look into a small problem with the phones at the First Unitarian Church of Chicago by a friend on the 'building and grounds committee' there. They had five line/six button phones throughout the building with four outside CO lines (312-FAirfax 4-4100 hunting upward) and the fifth button was a dial intercom with about a dozen stations. All of a sudden one day the same 60 cycle hum showed up on all the outside lines. Lift the receiver, you heard the hum in the background until dial tone came on the line; call in from outside and the hum was heard by the caller in the background until they answered; then it went away, or at least got walked over pretty well so you could not hear it any longer. On the intercom line it was there all the time. After quite a bit of looking I could not find it, and not knowing they had already called telco repair, I put in a call. About 30 minutes later I got a call back from this old frog at repair; at least he sounded like a frog the way he croaked at me when talking: "Calling from First Church, eh? I was out there two weeks ago and told you people to get your Edison line away from my conduit! Whoever repaired that flourescent light on your payphone should have known better! If I have to come over there to the church again I'll turn you in to the Business Office; they'll disconnect you!" Well ... properly admonished although I had nothing to do with it, I went to the basement closet where the phone wires came in. Sure enough, somone had stuffed an electric wire in the conduit which went underground out to the sidewalk in front where there was a payphone with a flourescent light attached to the little metal box it was in. The ballast was bad for the flourescent tube; it backed up through the whole system. That's saying nothing about the electric wire running in the same conduit as the phone wire, also a no-no. I guess they did not want to dig up the front yard to lay another conduit out to the phone. Turn the light off to that payphone, the hum went away. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Apr 1995 23:42:04 -0400 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: New country code 380 for Ukraine I noticed the following advertisement in this week's (April 15th) issue of the {Economist} magazine: Ukraine New Country Code 380... On April 16 1995 Ukraine implements a new country code. For more information please call your international operator. *Current dialing procedure from CIS countries will not be affected: Armenia, Azerbaijani Republic, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. This information is provided by Utel, Ukraine's operator of international communications. I must admit I'm a bit surprised by the assignment of this particular number (380) to Ukraine. I would have expected it to get a 37x code, as did the other non-Russian European successor states to the Soviet Union: Lithuania with 370, Latvia with 371, Estonia with 372 and Moldova with 373. The 37x series was opened up for assignment a few years ago when East Germany's old code of 37 was freed up by German reunification, and there's still plenty of room in it for Ukraine and (if it ever wants a separate code) Belarus. The 38x series came into existence a bit later as a result of the fission of Yugoslavia and its old 38 code, and the five successor states were assigned new codes: 381 for the rump Yugoslavia of Serbia and Montenegro, 385 for Croatia, 386 for Slovenia, 387 for Bosnia & Hercegovina, and 389 for Macedonia. It's odd that a former Soviet republic received one of the spares from the Yugoslav range. This means that no more than 10 of the 15 former Soviet states now remain under the umbrella of World Zone 7. But I could have sworn that I recall reading somewhere about at least one of the non-European states receiving a new code in the previously-vacant 99x series in Zone 9 (western Asia). However, I can't find any reference to this in the Telecom Archives' country code lists, so I may be mistaken. The Asian former republics of the USSR are Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, all in the Caucasus; and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, all in Central Asia. (Actually, small bits of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan extend into Europe, but the bulk of each one lies in Asia.) Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA ------------------------------ From: eajohnso@nyx10.cs.du.edu (Eric Johnson) Subject: British Editor/Tech Writer Needed Immediately Date: 17 Apr 1995 12:04:29 -0600 Organization: University of Denver, Math/CS Dept. British editor needed immediately for telecommunications localization project. International Language Engineering Corp. in Boulder, CO, USA, seeks an experienced British technical editor/writer with background in telecommunications for contract work. We prefer someone who resides in USA to facilitate speedy delivery of project materials. Address all inquiries to: Eric Johnson ILE Recruiting 1600 Range Street Boulder, CO 80301 Tel: 303-546-8266 800-998-4532, x266 Fax: 303-546-8290 ------------------------------ From: remaker@remaker-sun.cisco.com (Phillip Remaker) Subject: Need a Baby PBX For Modem Testing, Modem Class Date: 17 Apr 95 18:48:59 GMT Organization: cisco Systems I need a small PBX (cheap) that can provide dialtone and simple calling between 6 to 12 2-wire ports (tip/ring) with attached modems. This unit will be carried around to hotels in various cities to teach classes on modems. We would like to demonstrate how modems call each other and 'train.' Would like it very much if each extension provided dialtone, and allowed each extension to call the other with a few DTMF digits. Motiviation: Try to get 12 real phone line from a hotel. $$$$$ ! Also should be ably to carry "data grade" voice 8-). I imagine such things exist, especially for the labs of modem manufacturers. Would be nice to have in our labs, too, since we currently consume about 20 PBX lines on the corporate PBX. There is no need to patch out to "outside: extensions, but that would probably be a cool feature. Any suggestions on where to buy such a beast? Phillip A. Remaker Customer Engineering Analyst E-mail:remaker@cisco.com Cisco Systems, Inc. 170 West Tasman Drive San Jose, CA 95134-1706 +1 408 526 7209 (TAC) +1 408 526 8614 (Direct) +1 408 526 8787 (FAX) ------------------------------ From: radcom@intacc.net (John Radisch) Subject: Fax Card Query Date: 18 Apr 1995 04:38:45 GMT Organization: RadCom Technologies I have a fax card that can FCLASS using type 1 or 2. At times using the stable WINFAX Version 3 I experience difficulties with faxes chopping or skewing at 14400 speeds. Does anyone know the correct init codes using AT+F commands to force the negotiation to stay at G3/9600 bps or even downshift to G2. I know that 14400 is useful and it works, about 40% of the time when the Moon and Sun align and there are no Sun particles raining down or whatever. I depend on the FaxMail getting through, I don't mind waiting for a regular bit rate to complete. Perhaps someone knows that WINFAX 4 works this miracle better? Perhaps someone knows the Fax CLASS1 or CLASS2 trick to force the negotiation to top out at 9600? Reply back by email or follow up. ------------------------------ From: srensn_s@cc.dixie.edu (Sarah Sorenson) Subject: Switched 56, and Switched 56 Frame Date: 18 Apr 1995 05:04:18 GMT Organization: Dixie College - St. George, Utah I would like to know the difference between switched 56kbps and switched 56kbps frame. I know that the straight 56kbps costs $3400 for the setup fee with netcom, and the frame cost $1995 setup with both at $400 monthly. I will be setting up a server on the internet, so what is best for me. Thanks. Replying in email is fine. ------------------------------ From: andrewm@interport.net (Andrew R. Mark) Subject: Help Wanted With DTMF Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 01:09:30 GMT Organization: STI I'm looking for a PC-based interface/analysis system which will allow me to analyze the dtmf signals which are being recieved. We want to get the frequencies, recieved levels of the fundamentals, in-band noise, etc. Any suggestions? Andrewm@interport.net ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Apr 1995 17:44:31 +0200 From: diessel@informatik.unibw-muenchen.de (Thomas Diessel) Subject: POCSAG Standard For Paging Systems? Organization: University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich Where can I find information about the POCSAG standard for paging systems? Thomas Diessel University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich Computer Science Department - D-85577 Neubiberg, Germany ------------------------------ From: jscouria@neumann.uwaterloo.ca (John Scourias) Subject: GSM Overview on Web Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 03:02:20 -0400 Hi everyone, For all the previous posters requesting information of GSM (and anyone else interested), I HTMLed an extended abstract I wrote for a presentation entitled "An overview of the GSM cellular system". It can be found at: http://ccnga.uwaterloo.ca/~jscouria/trio.html Check out the telecommunications-related section of my homepage for a longer GSM paper and other information. Regards, John Scourias http://ccnga.uwaterloo.ca/~jscouria University of Waterloo jscouria@neumann.uwaterloo.ca Waterloo, ON, Canada ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Apr 95 09:00 EST From: Ben Heckscher <0003094996@mcimail.com> Subject: Final U.S. Coast Guard CW Broadcast Patrick, Here's a piece of history for your readers -- a transcript (if this is the correct term for recording this type of communication) of the last US Coast Guard (USGC) morse code transmission from USGC station NMC SFO. According to published reports, the USGC officially abandoned all CW radio transmission and reception on 1 April 1995. You may want to reflect on this moment in US communications history, as I have seen you do you do so well on so many other issues. Please keep up the great work. Regards, Ben Heckscher MCI Nr.1 CQ CQ CQ DE NMC NMC NMC QSX 8/16 MHZ USCG WILL CEASE ALL HF CW AT 0001UTC 1 APRIL 95. WCC/KPH/KFS/WLO QSP AMVER. QSO NMC SITOR OR VOICE. DE NMC QRU? 312354GMT /OLE/ NR. 2 VVV VVV VVV DE NMC NMC SVC WAIT...: CQ CQ CQ DE NMC NMC NMC SVC USCG CAMSPAC SAN FRANCISCO CKNC 31 2345UTC ALL BRASS POUNDERS U.S. COAST GUARD RADIO SAN FRANCISCO / NMC STARTED PROVIDING CW SERVICES TO THE MERCHANT FLEET AND THE MARITIME PUBLIC ON FEBRUARY 1, 1937. THIS IS THE LAST MORSE TRANSMISSION TO BE MADE FROM NMC AND BRINGS TO AN END FIFTY FIVE YEARS OF CONTINUOUS WAVE SERVICES. THOUGH ONCE KING, TECHNOLOGY HAS MOVED CW FROM THE FOREFRONT. IT WILL REMAIN THE CORNERSTONE UPON WHICH OTHER COMMUNICATION MEDIUMS ARE BUILT. CW OPERATORS HAVE AND, UNTIL THE LAST DIT IS SENT, WILL SET THE STANDARD FOR ALL COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONALS TO FOLLOW. PROVIDING CW SERVICES FROM NMC OVER THE PAST 55 YEARS HAS BEEN OUR PLEASURE. WE WISH YOU ALL FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS. THE CREW USCG CAMSPAC 17000 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE BLVD. PO BOX 560 PT REYES STATION CA USA 94956 QSL? DE NMC 01 0010GMT APRIL 1995 NMC DE KPH/WCC QSL TKS ES BV STOP [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What can I add? Yes, technology moves on, at sometimes an alarming rate. We see the flurry right now with Internet as one example; now not a day goes by that the papers are not full of stories, tutorials, etc. Books being published about it by the dozens ... I barely remember when television started but I remember all the controversy about it; the evils predicted by people in those days if television was 'allowed to' expand and become popular. In a way I wish I had been around a century ago; wouldn't it have been exciting to be part of the new device they called the telephone? Can you imagine how people must have felt in the 1880's and 1890's as they saw the new invention become more and more common? As the days and months went by more or more of the little black talking boxes began appearing everywhere ... do you have a telephone yet they would ask their neighbors and friends ... just as we now watch *all sorts of people, businesses and organizations* coming on line. So now the Coast Guard CW services are gone. Western Union is gone ... and you know what? Something knaws inside me saying given another fifteen, maybe twenty years, AT&T will be gone ... at least gone as we know it today ... I don't know why I feel that way; I just think there are still to come some massive changes in telecom that none of us now could imagine in our wildest dreams. PAT] ------------------------------ From: fdc@watsun.cc.columbia.edu (Frank da Cruz) Subject: Kermit News #6 Available on the Web Date: 18 Apr 1995 14:42:10 GMT Organization: Columbia University Issue 6 of the printed journal of Columbia University's Kermit project, Kermit News, is in the mail to our subscribers, and should have been delivered to most addresses in the USA by now (West coast takes a bit longer), and will be arriving in other countries in the fullness of time :-) Kermit News #6 contains articles about the latest Kermit releases as well as discussions of new features like auto up/download, file transfer recovery, etc, and some interesting world news -- such as: . The role of Kermit software in the Brazilian national election, . How to install Kermit protocol on BBSs . How to use Kermit software to access Web pages and newsgroups that are written in character sets that are not supported by your news reader or Web browser, etc. This issue (along with several previous ones) is now available in hypertext form on the World Wide Web at URL: http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/news.html The main entrance of the Kermit "Web-World" is: http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/ Frank ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 01:32:05 -0400 From: ALLAN.J.LANGFIELD@gte.sprint.com Subject: Tele-Go Description > A new service is advertised locally by GTE that is billed like a Super > Cordless phone that you can take with you to the car, golf course, > etc. No word like the dreaded 'cellular' is used anywhere. The phone > can be used from home as well. > The ad says you don't buy the phone ('no expensive phone to buy'). No > more details other than that. Here is a GTE written/released piece... Tele-Go introduced in Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex GTE Telephone Operations is introducing Tele-Go service in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. The service combines a high quality cordless phone for use around the home with the transportability of wireless technology. GTE is the first to tap into the new personal communications service market both locally and on a national level. The first-of-its-kind service makes it possible to make and receive calls almost anywhere in north central Texas and is available to customers of any local telephone company in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. "This is the first service that lets someone call a person, not a place," said Kathy Harless, regional president - Texas/New Mexico. "It provides the security of having instant access wherever you are." Ed Sandlin, general manager-consumer wireless services, said the Tele-Go handset operates as a high-performance cordless instrument at home, placing and receiving calls over the local telephone network through a GTE-developed base station. The Tele-Go monthly service charge of $24.95 includes the phone and cordless base station equipment. As with any cordless phone, there is no per-call or per-minute charge when used within the range of the cordless base station. Once the phone moves out of the range of the base station, it begins operating on the wireless/cellular network with calls billed at 29 cents a minute. GTE telephone customers will receive only one bill for both their regular telephone service and Tele-Go service. Customers served by other local telephone companies will receive their regular telephone bill from that company and a separate bill from GTE for their Tele-Go service. Sandlin said one of the primary advantages is that a customer can always make or receive calls from their friends or family, no matter where they are in the Metroplex. "For example, a child with the Tele-Go number can reach mom or dad at home, work, driving or shopping," he said. He explained the Tele-Go number rings whether the phone is mobile or within the cordless base-unit range. In addition, he said customers who are expecting an important call at the residential number, but who must leave the cordless range can be reached by forwarding calls to their Tele-Go unit. Sandlin said the service area for the phone when it is in the wireless operating mode will include most of the area south of the Red River to Waxahachie and Buffalo, westward to Cisco and Breckenridge, and eastward to near Paris and Sulphur Springs. The service is available through GTE Phone Marts in Garland, Irving, Lewisville and Plano, or by calling GTE at 1-800-483-5346. ----------------------------------- I don't directly work with this product, so the following clarifications come from me as a consumer. * When in range of the base station (75ft. urban to >150ft. rural) the Tele-Go handset places and receives calls as a cordless extension on your home wireline phone connection (using your normal home wireline number). * When outside of the range of the base station, the Tele-Go handset places and receives calls as a cellular phone via its own number (different than your home wireline number). * When the handset is within range of the base station, inbound calls made to the Tele-Go number are automatically forwarded to your home wireline number. * When within range of the base station, you can manually set the handset to place a call using the cellular network if you wish to use it as a second line. * There is no call hand-off. You cannot go from cordless to cellular or vise-versa during a call. * Both GTE and Southwestern Bell Customers in the D/FW area may subscribe to this GTE product. * In the D/FW area, Tele-Go utilizes Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems' cellular network. Hope this helps, Allan Langfield [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It sounds like a really nice idea. I wish we had something like this here in Ameritech territory. PAT] ------------------------------ From: eileen@telebit.com (Eileen Lin) Subject: Photo Caption Contest on Web Organization: Telebit Corporation; Sunnyvale, CA, USA Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 08:54:55 GMT EVERYBODY'S A WRITER IN PHOTO CAPTION CONTEST ON INTERNET Telebit Photo Caption Contest Draws on Netters' Creativity, Awards V.32bis Modems SUNNYVALE, CA -- April 10, 1995 -- Everybody's a writer, or at least a caption writer, in the Telebit Photo Caption Contest on the Internet. As part of its new World Wide Web site, the company is conducting a monthly on-line contest that gives users of the Telebit Web Site the opportunity to wield wit and win a new Telebit(r) QBlazer Plus(r) V.32bis modem. Each month, users of the Telebit Web Site (http://www.telebit.com), which highlights Telebit's remote-access LAN solutions and company news, can view a rather unusual photograph with a notable data communications flavor to it. They can then submit their best captions electronically to the Telebit Web Site. All entries will be judged by Telebit's Caption Connoisseurs, after which the QBlazer Plus modem winner's name and winning caption will be displayed on the Telebit Web Site at the beginning of the next month. "Whoever said a web site has to be boring or lack interactivity?" asked Steve Dick, Telebit's vice president of marketing. "We want to give the Internet users who view the Telebit Web Site the opportunity to have a little fun, share their wit and maybe win a pretty cool little modem." ON-LINE ENTRY Entries are submitted electronically to the Telebit Web Site by the end of each month. No late entries will be accepted because, after all, great writers have their deadlines. Telebit Corporation is a global market leader in developing and manufacturing on-demand, remote-access solutions for multi-platform computer networks. The company's dial-up routers and modems are especially well-matched to five key market segments: telecommuting, business-to-business on-demand routers, nomadic computing, network access providers, and industrial WANs. Founded in 1982, Telebit invented dial-up routing with the original NetBlazer(r) router, opening the door to on-demand remote access. The NetBlazer family and Telebit's broad line of high-speed modems are used by Fortune 1000 customers worldwide for financial, industrial, medical, retail, government, and academic applications. The company has offices in the United States, Europe and Asia, and markets its products worldwide through value-added resellers, wholesale distributors and OEMs. Telebit and QBlazer Plus are registered trademarks of Telebit Corporation ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #201 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14523; 19 Apr 95 16:52 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA21121 for telecomlist-outbound; Wed, 19 Apr 1995 09:23:36 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA21113; Wed, 19 Apr 1995 09:23:33 -0500 Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 09:23:33 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504191423.JAA21113@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #202 TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 Apr 95 09:23:30 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 202 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Disney, Three Bells In Venture (Steve Geimann) Book Review: "Local Area Network Reference" by Chorafas (Rob Slade) USR V34 Sportster RS232 Cable (Ouajid Younes) Impact of Satellite on Indonesian Society (Olivier Vandeloo) Caller-ID Service in Europe? (Yong Kuck Jong) Product to Improve Telephone Quality (scplai@csie.nctu.edu.tw) Courier v34 Modems (Scott Williamson) North American Modems in Britain (John Bowler) Re: MCI Commercial is in Bad Taste (Wally Ritchie) Re: MCI Commercial is in Bad Taste (defantom@aol.com) Re: My Computer Made Me Sick - Positive Ions (John DeHoog) Re: My Computer Made Me Sick - Positive Ions (Tad Cook) Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That (Linc Madison) Correction: Re: 500 Prefixes Currently Assigned (Allan J. Langfield) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: Geimann@aol.com Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 07:07:12 -0400 Subject: Disney, Three Bells In Venture Steve Geimann, Senior Editor, {Communications Daily} Ameritech, BellSouth and SBC Communications signed definitive agreement with Disney Tuesday to spend $500 million on video and interactive projects over five years. Group said it plans to license services outside service territories and will develop and support crucial navigation software. Partners would embrace investment from other companies but wouldn't comment on speculation GTE could join still-unnamed venture. Video services could begin by year-end in Ameritech region, probably Troy suburb of Detroit and near Chicago. Executives were reluctant to pin down start date for interactive features and on-demand services, but said they were unlikely to begin before second half of next year. Set-top box availability remains stumbling block and industry is "a little ways away in terms of cost-effective technology," said William Reddersen, BS senior vp-broadband networks. Officials wouldn't compare venture with Bell Atlantic, Nynex and Pacific Telesis partnership with Creative Artists, which is spending $300 million over three years on video-interactive production. "We're not in competition with that venture," said Disney Exec. Vp John Cooke. He also said group is interested in license agreement outside RHC's regions, which could put project in direct competition with BA-Nynex-PT venture. Each RHC has plans for deploying video services and each is using different technology and delivery system. Ameritech has unveiled most aggressive process, with $475 million deployment in five-state region using Scientific-Atlanta and Digital Equipment systems. SBC is working with Microsoft and Lockheed for network integration and is using Tiger software. Executives said venture will create open architecture "buffer" where different applications can be supported on multiple systems and each will use venture with Disney for programming. Wariness about customer acceptance of interactive services also will be factor introducing enhanced services, said Patrick Campbell, Ameritech exec. vp-corporate strategy. "If we overprice and overhype the interactive portion, it could be a negative." Partners must find "a delicate balance" for bringing such services on line, he added. Transactional service also is likely to be featured when new level of services is added, officials said. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 13:06:16 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Local Area Network Reference" by Chorafas BKLANREF.RVW 950316 "Local Area Network Reference", Dr. Dimitris N. Chorafas, 1989, 0-07-010889-7 %A Dimitris N. Chorafas %C 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 %D 1989 %G 0-07-010889-7 %I McGraw-Hill %P 626 %T "Local Area Network Reference" This work is probably best suited to the manager responsible for the design of a very large (thousand node and above) network. While students of network communications could also benefit, there is a definite "business" tone to the language. Early chapters look at business case considerations, while the final two cover cost effectiveness and benefits. The material is quite abstract, and does not apply directly to local area networks as most people would think of them. The average small LAN builder is primarily concerned with what NIC (network interface card) and NOS (network operating system) to buy. The book does speak to this, but on a conceptual level. The material is practical, but is not at the "Here, buy this!" level desired by the implementor of small systems. At the level of abstraction the book assumes, "local" as opposed to "wide", and "workstation" as opposed to "mainframe", are not vital distinctions. Those who are looking for a "how to" on PC networking may therefore see the book as being about "big iron". copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKLANREF.RVW 950316. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 RSlade@cyberstore.ca Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94311-0/3-540-94311-0 ------------------------------ From: ouajid@cett.alcatel-alsthom.fr (OUAJID Younes) Subject: USR V34 Sportster RS232 Cable Date: 19 Apr 1995 12:33:38 GMT Organization: Alcatel CIT Le Pecq, France Hi, I have just bought a USR 28800 V34/Fax modem. My question is: Can somebody help me by giving me the pin configuration for RS232 cable to use between my PC and modem? Thanks a lot for your help. Younes Internet is not a spectator game e-mail : ouajid@cett.alcatel-alsthom.fr (FRANCE) ------------------------------ From: hw40095@vub.ac.be (VANDELOO OLIVIER) Subject: Impact of Satellite on Indonesian Society Date: 19 Apr 1995 12:55:34 GMT Organization: Brussels Free Universities (VUB/ULB), Belgium Hello, I'm looking for information about the impact of satellite-technology on Indonesian society. Is the use of satellite a step forward for the development of rural Indonesia? How many Indonesians have for example the possibilty to use a telephone? If you have information about this subject please let me know. Thank You! hw40095@is1.vub.ac.be (VANDELOO OLIVIER) Student Communicatiewetenschappen Vrije Universiteit Brussel ------------------------------ From: Yong Kuck Jong Subject: Caller-ID Service in Europe? Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 14:29:17 +0800 Organization: National University of Singapore I would like to know which European countries have Caller ID service on analog CO lines? I learned that Sweden introduced Caller ID in January this year. What is the standard / specifications European Caller ID uses? Is it the Bellcore specification? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: cplai@csie.nctu.edu.tw Subject: Product to Improve Telephone Quality Date: 19 Apr 1995 07:05:50 GMT Organization: Dep. Computer Sci. & Information Eng., Chiao Tung Univ. Taiwan Hi, I'm looking for products that can improve the quality of cordless phones and regular phones. Things that eliminates noise, radio interference and amplify sounds. Any information, e-mail me please. Thanks, scott ------------------------------ From: scott@memex.co.uk (Scott Williamson) Subject: Courier v34 Modems Date: 19 Apr 1995 11:27:57 +0100 Organization: MR-Memex Ltd, East Kilbride, Scotland What's the current street price in the US for a US Robotics Courier v34? I will be visiting next week and want to know whether it's worth my while getting one there. Thanks, Scott ------------------------------ From: jbowler@biostats.uwo.ca (John Bowler) Subject: North American Modems in Britain Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 17:30:27 GMT Organization: Clinical Neurological Sciences, UWO, Canada Reply-To: jbowler@biostats.uwo.ca I have two US Robotics internal 14400's and am moving from Canada to the UK in July. The USR manual mentions some configuration changes that are needed for Britain. Will the modems then be OK? I think that the sockets are physically different. Are adapters available? What do people with portable computers do to use North American equipment in the UK? Any help much appreciated. John Bowler jbowler@biostats.uwo.ca Clinical Neurological Sciences Phone: (519) 663-5777 Ext.4251 University Hospital Fax: (519) 663-3982 University of Western Ontario London, Ontario N6A 5A5 CANADA ------------------------------ From: writchie@gate.net Subject: Re: MCI Commercial is in Bad Taste Date: 19 Apr 1995 03:23:25 GMT Reply-To: writchie@gate.net In , Wolf writes: > I have to ask, does anyone believe that the actor that MCI uses in > their commercials as the snotty (not my first choice of words, but > more socially acceptable) operator actually helps them? Is this > supposed to representable of their regular operators? Most people I > asked said they thought this woman sounded like the biggest &$^#% they > ever heard. At least AT&T's adds are pleasant to look at! > Note: I say this as a user of neither service (actually, either service; > whatever happens to be cheapest among the three or four I use for the > type of call I'm making). If you're talking about the "put in writing" girl I happen to think that she's an absolute doll and perhaps the most talented actress I've ever seen in a commercial. These are tounge in cheek spots and perhaps if you don't have all the context the skill and humor of the writers, directors, and actress are all for nought. Whether the ads are effective I can't say, but I think they're excellent and I know other that agree. Wally Ritchie Ft. Lauderdale, Florida ------------------------------ From: defantom@aol.com (DeFantom) Subject: Re: MCI Commercial is in Bad Taste Date: 19 Apr 1995 09:35:20 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: defantom@aol.com (DeFantom) cmwolf writes: > I have to ask, does anyone believe that the actor that MCI uses in > their commercials as the snotty (not my first choice of words, but > more socially acceptable) operator actually helps them? Actually she is not an operator, she is a customer service rep. But anyway, according to an article written in one of the advertising magazines, 'Jeannine' is supposed to represent the sweet, innocent, MCI rep who has to deal with big, bad AT&T and all its 'mean' and incorrect ads. (AT&T has been bashing F&F 2, saying there is a charge to use it, but in fact MCI no longer sells Friends and Family II. The new F&F does not charge any kind of fee except on the International Product ... at least according to the consumer watch dog groups which oversee the telecom industry.) Bad tast? No. Annoying? A little. Cute? Depends on your point of view. Take it easy! defantom@aol.com ------------------------------ From: dehoog@st.rim.or.jp (John DeHoog) Subject: Re: My Computer Made Me Sick - Positive Ions Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 13:30:43 +0900 Organization: TNI K.K. In article , daniels222@aol.com (DanielS222) wrote: > In doing the research, I found that negative ions have [been] shown to be > therapeutic for stress, irritability, fatigue, depression, etc. So I > purchased a small, high density generator and it has given me > substantial relief from my symptoms. A long time ago I was at a party where there were several people who normally didn't get along well. Bad vibes, so to speak. Yet on this occasion everyone was in a great mood and feeling great. It just so happened that the people giving the party had placed ion generators in strategic locations throughout the house. I have also heard of hospitals using them in their surgery rooms. And another source of positive ions is said to be air conditioning ducts with lots of bends in them, which is true of many office buildings, etc. I agree that being in front of my computer makes me irritable. Up to now I thought it was all the work and tight deadlines. John De Hoog, Senior Partner, TransNet International K.K. Tokyo, Japan ------------------------------ From: tadc@seanet.com (Tad Cook) Subject: Re: My Computer Made Me Sick - Positive Ions Date: 18 Apr 1995 19:22:12 GMT Organization: Seanet Online Services, Seattle WA DanielS222 (daniels222@aol.com) wrote: > I became very interested because I have suffered from depression and > anxiety for years, and I did some research on the benefits of negative > ions. Is this a spam? This same message has turned up on a couple of listservers I subscribe to. Maybe this guy is selling "negative ion generators." > This research turned out to be especially interesting to me because I > found a newspaper article discussing the fact that computer monitors emit > positive ions -- the opposite of negative ions. The article says computer > monitors give off large amounts of positive ions and can actually cause > depression, stress, fatigue, etc. in people who sit in front of computers > a lot -- like all of us Netters -- and that we need negative ion > replenishment. Positive ions? I thought CRTs fired electrons (which have a negative charge) from an electron gun at the back of the tube. With all those electrons being fired at your face as you look into the monitor, this should be a good high energy source for negative ions, no? > After reading the article, I realized that I always felt especially > irritable, stressed, and depressed after long days in front of my > computer. I get that way too. Maybe I have my monitor too far away, so I don't get the benefit of all those negative ions fired at the screen. The best solution is to develop some outside interests besides constant net.surfing. Go ride a bike or take a walk around the block. > If any of you would like me to e-mail you that newspaper article, the > transcript of the CBS news story, as well as the other research that I > have compiled, just e-mail me at DanielS222@aol.com. Would you be emailing back an offer for sale of "negative ion generators"?? Tad Cook tadc@seanet.com or tad@ssc.com or 3288544@mcimail.com Seattle, WA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Does anyone remember a few years ago when one of the fancier mail order catalogs -- maybe it was Sharper Image -- was selling those 'negative ion generators'? They looked pretty worthless to me. Just little boxes, you plugged them in then sat them on a shelf somewhere and left them there. Supposedly they are great for your health, at least according to the mail order catalog. They seemed rather expensive also, but Sharper Image was never a cheap company. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 19:22:36 GMT Tim Gorman (tg6124@tyrell.net) wrote: > Wait a minute. NYNEX's service is a thoroughly MEDIOCRE service but it > KILLED the competitive voicemail market? Sounds to me like there > wasn't much of a market to begin with. You are trying to make it into > a killing of a major market but then describe the market as almost > non-existant. You can't have it both ways, you know. Yes, you can have it both ways, as NYNEX did. Their service is MEDIOCRE, because it doesn't offer a great many features that one might want. However, it is killing the competitive voicemail market because NYNEX has deliberately withheld from its competitors the ability to provide competitive services. For example, stutter dialtone and forward on busy/no answer. These are services that NYNEX charges itself far less for than they charge their competitors. That's the whole point of this discussion: NYNEX does not provide a level playing field from its local service arm to voicemail providers, including itself. It gives its own operation an enormous financial and competitive advantage by charging far below market rates (if anything at all) for features like stutter dialtone and FBNA. >> There are all sorts of features that I'd like from a voicemail system: >> forwarding among mailboxes, outdialing to other phones or pagers, delivery >> as a voice attachment to e-mail, stuff like that. But there's no way I'm >> going to get it, because NYNEX doesn't offer them, and lacking FBNA none >> of the competing voice mail systems are very interesting. > Right. Not much of a market, at least in the way you describe it. Yes, BECAUSE of the fact that NYNEX has priced FBNA in a predatory fashion specifically to prevent the creation of a competitive market. You've shot your own argument in the foot right here, Tim. > John, you still haven't shown me that you know how stutter dial tone > is provided. As a clue, you need a system that is connected to the > central office switch using a "input/output" link. In essence, the > voice mail system becomes an extension of the central office with > messaging being passed between the two systems. It is this messaging > link that allows messages to be passed to the central office switch > from the voice mail system to condition the switch to return stutter > dial tone. Input/output channels are expensive to provide in central > offices. This causes a high price to be put on them. This may be why > no voice mail services have purchased such an arrangement. The voice > mail providers would have to provide for one of these links for every > central office in which they have subscribers. Quite expensive. > So, assuming that most voice mail providers are not going to buy such an > expensive arrangement just to get dial tone, this leaves only CFBDA as the > service in question. So why isn't it so terribly expensive for NYNEX to provide these services for its own voicemail product? I'll give you a hint: it isn't because the voicemail facilities are colocated with the switch. In some cases, they may be, but you'd better bet that NYNEX has a lot more COs than it has voicemail machines. The answer is, because NYNEX predatorily provides these services to itself at far below market cost. Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ From: ALLAN.J.LANGFIELD@gte.sprint.com Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 17:27:39 -0400 Subject: Correction: Re: 500 Prefixes Currently Assigned cmoore@arl.mil pointed out - > Oops, is that a 488 instead of that second 448? Please advise. Sorry, you are right. The listing should have read: AT&T (500 service available) 288 445 673 346 446 674 367 447 675 437 448 677 442 449 679 443 488 Allan ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #202 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa29670; 20 Apr 95 21:34 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id OAA01702 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 20 Apr 1995 14:34:11 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id OAA01691; Thu, 20 Apr 1995 14:34:07 -0500 Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 14:34:07 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504201934.OAA01691@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #203 TELECOM Digest Thu, 20 Apr 95 14:34:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 203 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson We Will Find the People Who Did This (TELECOM Digest Editor) Boom! (Oklahoma City/Waco/World Trade Center) (Paul Robinson) Boom! (Second Report) (Paul Robinson) Book Review: "Internet Access Essentials" by Tittel/Robbins (Rob Slade) Global Access Goes to Battle (Alex Van Es) Survey: Long Term Telecommunication Needs For Software (Ted Davis) Evaluation Criteria For Commercial TMN Platforms (Carmen G. Lopez) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 20 Apr 1995 13:16:44 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: We Will Find the People Who Did This What kind of animals would have killed all those innocent babies and small children? I don't give a damn what kind of gripe they had or have with the government; who in their right mind would have caused such carnage? Like many others, I sort of stumbled into the middle of it, shortly after it occurred. At Mages, a local fast-food lunch place in Skokie I went in for lunch at 11:30 yesterday morning and saw a crowd of people standing around the television set silently, watching the incredible scene of destruction and death. Throughout the afternoon I listened to NewsRadio 67 as coverage continued. A few years ago following the bombing at the World Trade Center, I said in this Digest and elsewhere I believed we were entering a new era in the USA; an era in which terrorist attacks and even possibly war on American soil would become commonplace. We no longer live in a time in which attacks take place 'somewhere else'. For how many ever years we here sat sort of removed from it all. We'd see the people in Ireland killing one another and sort of dismiss it with a wave of our hand; we'd see the events in the Middle East as the extremists of one faction would bomb, burn and loot the sacred places of other groups; it got to the point it was not even newsworthy any longer -- in the newspapers one day and replaced by some other story the next day. When the World Trade Center incident occurred, it was easy enough to brush off as an isolated incident, 'being New York City' and all the connotations and excess baggage that go along with being part of that community. But Oklahoma City? A bunch of tiny babies and small children left by their trusting parents in the custody of the government while they were at work? Hundreds of federal employees who -- while their work is equally important to that of their counterparts in Washington, DC -- have about as little to say regards government policies and international law and order as I do, or you do? Why didn't they aim for President Clinton, or Janet Reno, or ATF/FBI headquarters if that's who their grudge is against? Why not the White House or the Congress or the Supreme Court? All of them have powerful and fanatical enemies. Why was Oklahoma City -- prime example of middle class America, relatively quiet, safe place to live, mostly trusting people with virtually no security at all required, and several hundred ineffectual (no insult intended, please understand my intentions here) federal employees chosen for this cowardly deed? ... I think the message being delivered is that it can happen anywhere, at any time. Yes, when the WTC bombing took place I said 'within a few months to a year it will become commonplace' ... so my timing was off a little. I will again suggest we have not seen the end of this reign of terror. This time I won't be so brash as to indicate a time frame. Prior to Wednesday's incident, the most severe terrorist incident in the United States took place Thursday, September 16, 1920 when a bomb exploded in New York City's Wall Street area. In that incident, 40 persons were killed and 700 were seriously injured. No one was ever apprehended or convicted in the bombing which {The New York Times} blamed on 'anarchists'. Prior to the 1920 incident, the most severe terrorist incident occurred in Chicago, Monday, May 24, 1886. During a labor union rally in the Haymarket neighborhood of Chicago, a bomb explosion left seven Chicago Police officers dead along with four workers. Another 66 persons were seriously injured. On New Year's Eve in 1975, a bomb in a locker at LaGuardia Airport in New York City exploded killing eleven persons and injuring 75 others including a reporter from the {Chicago Tribune}. But never before, an attack of the magnitude of yesterday within the United States itself. President Clinton stated very plainly, "We will find the people who did this ..." I hope everyone will for now put aside differences they may have with Clinton and send a note of support to 'president@whitehouse.gov' saying simply that in this we are united: find, and severely punish the people involved. Janet Reno stated that the federal death penalty is appropriate. I believe it is also. Let Clinton know how you feel. ============================= I hope readers of the Digest in the Oklahoma City vicinity will share news with us as it becomes available to them. Telephone service was particularly slow and sluggish all day Wednesday all over the USA, but virtually ceased to operate at all for a few hours in Oklahoma's capitol city. Updates on the telecom situation there will be especially appreciated. Paul Robinson has sent some comments which appear next. Pat Townson ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 12:05:18 EST From: Paul Robinson Subject: Boom! (Oklahoma City/Waco/World Trade Center) Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Preliminary and interim reports regarding an explosion in Oklahoma City. A building housing U.S. Federal Government offices was irreparably damaged as the result of an explosion which has been confirmed as a bomb blast. Authorities report a secondary device has been disarmed. Today is the second anniversary to the day of the ATF invasion of a religious organization's commune in Waco, Texas. The Federal Building damaged in the explosion also houses the ATF office for that region. The group currently claiming responsibility - the name escapes me at the moment - is also the same Muslim Religious-based organization whose leader is currently on trial in New York City for the bombing of the World Trade Center Building. Many people have been injured including children that were at a day care center located in that building. Red Cross and local authorities are helping out, but are requesting donations of blood. Most of the injured have been taken to St. Anthony hospital. My mother is a Catholic, and I know that St. Anthony is the saint who is the finder of lost objects, things, or people, according to her. Being an agnostic, I do not believe this, but I have seen some amazing coincidences, which I accept as purely coincidences, nothing more. Due to my name, I noticed that the blast occured at the Federal Building at the corner of 5th and Robinson in downtown Oklahoma City. Southwestern Bell and Local TV Stations are requesting that people stay off the telephones and Cellular Phones. One person reported that they were on the phone to an attorney (U.S. Attorney or a Defense Attorney) in that building at the instant the bomb exploded. They heard womens screams in the background, and the phone was apparently hung up after that, then phone service became unavailable shortly thereafter. (Probably due to people jamming the phone lines.) My personal opinion: If the people who did this consider the ATF to be at war with them and caused this explosion as retaliation, it would have been much more moral to either inform innocent bystanders to get out of the way by phoning or faxing a bomb threat to the police or FBI, or by setting off the explosion at 3am in the morning when innocent personnel would not be present. It is my opinion the ATF had neither jurisdiction nor reason to be at the Waco Compound anyway; the alleged reason for the attack was over child abuse which is a state crime, not federal, and if there was an issue over a state crime, the Texas National Guard should have been used. I have correspondence with someone who knows an FBI agent and a retired Federal Judge, and what was passed to me was the following: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is one of the worst managed and incompetent law enforcement agencies in the country, making the Keystone Kops a model of efficiency in comparison. My analysis of the comments was, "So, in effect, they are the equivalent of an armed mob (as in a group of people who are undiciplined and untrained and thus not only dangerous to themselves but each other)." That comment was affirmed. That is why I say it would have been "more moral" for this to be done when no innocent bystanders are present. It is not for me to decide whether some organization considers the ATF or any branch of the government to be in a state of war with them. That they will do for themselves whether other people agree with them or not. They must take the consequences of such a decision and the responsibility for such a decision. Clearly, their injuring of bystanders represents irresponsible behavior. My associate who told me about the commentary I received from "reliable sources" formerly with Federal Law Enforcement asked me why these people did not bomb the ATF office covering Waco. It was my opinion that in view of the circumstances, that office was probably on alert and ready for a possible attack. Also, the Oklahoma City office was preparing a memorial or some meeting in memoriam for the bloody nose it got when 4 ATF agents were killed in the assault on the Waco Compound. What they shouldn't be surprised is that some of their people got killed, what they should be surprised at is the LOW NUMBER of agents killed. Had those people been brutal, there could have been hostages taken or several orders of magnitude more casualties. A book entitled "The Great Reconing" says that the next thing to watch out for is the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism with the vacuum of power created by the loss of the Soviet Union. The book was written two years ago. More details will be available by others as found, or by me if I see something else to comment about. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 15:12:54 EST From: Paul Robinson Subject: Boom! (Second Report) Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA Reports ranging from 17 (15 children, 2 adults) from (ABC NEWS and CNN) to 78 (Associated Press) dead from a bomb blast at the Alfred Munroh (Pronounced Monroe) Federal Courthouse in Oklahoma City, OK. at 9:00 AM today, Central Daylight Time (GMT +6). At least one additional, and possibly a second additional incendiary device was reported. Emergency workers estimate 80 people dead. Confirmed reports are 17 dead including 6 children. An estimated 1,000 to 1,200 pound bomb in a car outside the building, destroyed 9 floors, carving a hole from the roof down, over about 45% of the building. An 8-foot crater occurred outside the building. The floors collapsed in "pancake" format, in which the floors plain collapsed one on top of another similar to a stack of pancakes. No survivors can be expected in such cases. It's reported that the man in charge of rescue operations has requested shipments of "over a hundred" body bags, which he would not ask for if he didn't need them. Two additional survivors were found in the building, all remaining persons are assumed dead due to the blast or subsequent building damage. Coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial has been postponed. At 3:18 PM, a report on CNN by Dr. Carl Spangler, a 3-year resident at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center announced that FBI was informed that there are at least two more unexploded bombs still in the building, which are believed to be hoaxes. Ron North, the mayor of Oklahoma City will make a nationally televised announcement at around 3:30 EDT (GMT +5), and President Clinton is expected to speak later today. The Courthouse also had offices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) as well as the Social Security Administration. CNN has carried continuous live coverage using feeds from Local Stations in Oklahoma City. Clouds of smoke and dust from the explosion are visible for miles. Blast vibrations were felt as earthquake tremors as far away as Norman, OK, 20 miles from the blast site. Pictures of the area show automobiles destroyed, and the building looks like a chocolate layer cake cut down the middle. Police have evacuated the immediate area. Oklahoma Natural Gas Company stated it believes that it has shut off Gas supplies to the building, but there is a danger of secondary explosions due to possible pockets of gas in the building. WUSA Channel 9 in Washington, DC held a text crawl to inform viewers that heightened security is in effect at the Capitol Building, the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the offices of the ATF. Traffic in the downtown Oklahoma City area is extremely heavy. Local Stations are advising people to stay out of the area unless they have a specific reason to be there, such as being involved in rescue operations, and hampering movement of emergency vehicles. Local telephone service remains jammed, including police and rescue telephone lines, who are asking people to stay off phones and not call emergency services to allow calls from downtown to be received. 3 Male Suspects, Middle-Eastern, 20-25 are wanted in suspicion for the bombing. The Driver of the getaway van, described as brown in color with a bug shield in front, was not identified. "The front of the building was completely wiped out, obliterated" according to a witness on site. More details later. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have not received anything further from Paul as of this time; by now much of what he states above has become pretty common knowledge. Indeed, the trial of Mr. Simpson did not make front page news in the papers today. I'll suggest again that your email showing support and unity to President Clinton would be deeply appreciated at this time. I've already sent off a note and encourage you to do the same. Putting aside a multitude of differences for the moment, give the government your support during this time of crisis by writing to 'president@whitehouse.gov'. Thanks much!! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 12:37:21 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Internet Access Essentials" by Tittel/Robbins BKINACES.RVW 950315 "Internet Access Essentials", Tittel/Robbins, 1995, 0-12-691393-5, U$24.95 %A Ed Tittel 76376.606@compuserve.com etittel@zilker.net %A Margaret Robbins 75730.1451@compuserve.com mrobbins@bga.com %C 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495 %D 1995 %G 0-12-691393-5 %I AP Professional %O U$24.95 619-699-6362 619-699-6735 fax: 619-699-6380 app@acad.com %P 374 %T "Internet Access Essentials" The title, and particularly the word "access", suggests a book about getting connected, or "onto" the Internet. Maybe a little demystification of dial- up IP. Having reviewed two previous "Essentials" books, I suspected a book on how to connect your LAN to "the big one". A book of either description would be a valuable addition to the Internet library, but such is not to be, at least not yet. The preface states that what distinguishes the book is that (a) it is for beginners, and (b) it doesn't list everything, just the tools for you to find stuff. Sorry, but these are *not* distinctives. You will find the usual material here. History, concepts and background; the applications; miscellaneous stuff; the December, 1993 PDIAL list of access providers. Part three, titled "Resource Guide", is not a catalogue or list of resources; it's a rather random assortment of informaiton covering directory types services, access providers, once over lightly on dial-up IP software and a second run at Usenet and Gopher. The content is not hard to follow, but neither is it particularly easy for beginners. Block diagrams of IP, UDP and RARP (Reverse Address Resolution Protocol) are not going to contribute to a neophyte's understanding. Experienced users will realize that such knowledge is not required for use of the net, and TCP programmers will have to go to other books, anyway. The information is basically good (although Internet experts will be startled to learn that "sendmail" is a "mail reader" at the user agent level). Compared to "Zen and the Art of the Internet" (cf. BKZENINT.RVW), however, one finds that the smaller book has the same amount of hard information, and more precise references to network resources. Compared to a similarly-sized work, such as "The Internet Navigator" (cf. BKINTNAV.RVW), ... well, there isn't much comparison. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKINACES.RVW 950315. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. 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" 0-387-94311-0/3-540-94311-0 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 18:51:54 +0200 From: Alex@Worldaccess.NL (Alex) Subject: Global Access Goes to Battle Like many European countries the Dutch telecommunications are ran by one major company, in this case PTT Telecom. For years PTT Telecom had a monopoly on everything that had to do with phones. Due to the changes in national and international law, this position has changed and PTT Telecom has been privatised, opening chances for new compangies to do business in the Netherlands. Licenses have already been given to set up a second GSM network called MT-2. A major problem PTT had to deal with for the past few years was that the costs of calling within the Netherlands where much higher then the customer would be billed for. In order to fill up the gab, PTT Telecom used it's profits that were made by international calls. So far PTT Telecom has always used this as an excuse to keep the rates up. In other countries (e.g. the USA) this mis-balance is not there, and that is why their international phoning rates stayed lower then ours. This is the reason why some small companies are setting up a call-back system now in the Netherlands so people can phone at the (much lower) American rates. How does it work? Imagine you want to make a call to your friend in Alaska. You pick up the phone, dial a number in the USA (directly), let it ring once and disconnect. After about ten seconds a voice response computer will call you from the USA and you can enter the number you want to call. Within seconds you will be connected. And there you go ... phoning at the American rates. Of course when you call to Alaska, you are actually being charged for two calls. First of all the call from the USA to the Netherlands, secondly the call from one US state to the other (I doubt their office is located in Alaska). Nevertheless, these rates are so low that you will still save money compared to our PTT Telecom rates. Calling to Alaska will be 77% cheaper with Global Access then with PTT Telecom. Even destinations relatively close (like France) to the Netherlands will be cheaper with Global Access. Reality. Many people still consider their phone equal to PTT Telecom and don't trust those little companies to much. PTT Telecom has been there for nearly a hunderd years, and they build up quite a reputation. Big companies like Xerox and General Electric already made the step.; who will follow? Alex van Es / Apeldoorn, The Netherlands / +31-55-421184. Alex@Worldaccess.NL, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Callback services have been popular for about three years now, but as the mainstream carriers reduce their rates to meet the new competition, the value of callback schemes has been reduced somewhat. You can still save money using them many times how- ever, particularly from countries where the internatinal rates are so high. I worked with a service called Telepassport for about a year; they are a division of US Fibercom in New York City. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ted Davis Subject: Survey: Long Term Telecommunication Needs For Software Organization: Software Productivity Consortium, Herndon, Virginia Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 19:35:22 GMT I am conducting an investigation on the long term needs of the telecommunications industry with respect to systems/software development/support. The purpose of this study is to get a better understanding of the telecommunications industry needs to improve our ability in addressing these needs. I am seeking knowledgeable personnel from the telecommunications industry to voluntarily participate in a survey/interview. For your participation, I will provide you a copy of the compiled results. A copy of the survey is attached below. You may complete the survey and email the results back to me, or if you prefer to discuss this verbally, you can email me your telephone number and I will contact you. Ted Davis Software Productivity Consortium (703) 742-7335; fax: (703) 742-7200 davis@software.org ****************************** Telecommunications Survey Please provide your personal information: Name: Title: Phone number: Company/Division: Please indicate whether we may attribute the information in this questionnaire to: o You, by name/title/company o Company only o No attribution at all PART A. Influencing Trends That Affect Your Business and Influence Your Needs 1. What technology trends in telecommunications do you see occurring that are critical to your company's future in systems/software? Over the next 2 years? In the year 2000? 2. Are there other technology trends that are important, but not as critical? Over the next 2 years? In the year 2000? 3. What external influences will have the most effect on your systems/software approach in the following areas? 3.1 Government or DoD policies/actions/regulations, over the next 2 years? In the year 2000? 3.2 Commercial business trends or standards (such as ISO 9000), over the next 2 years? In the year 2000? 3.3 Other factors, over the next 2 years? In the year 2000? PART B. Most Critical Needs Name the 3 top needs that your company has in the telecommunications systems and software arena. Rank each one's importance to your company (1=Important, 2=Very Important, 3=Critical). 1. #1 Need, Rank: Over the next 2 years? In the year 2000? 2. #2 Need, Rank: Over the next 2 years? In the year 2000? 3. #3 Need, Rank: Over the next 2 years? In the year 2000? 4. In addition to the above needs, are there special needs that your company has in software or systems processes and/or methods? Over the next 2 years? In the year 2000? PART C. Life-Cycle Productivity Areas 1. Are there particular parts of the development life-cycle that are causing your company the most problems, either in cost, schedule, or quality? What are the problems (over the next 2 years, in the year 2000)? 1.1 Operational Concept/User Needs 1.2 Requirements 1.3 Design 1.4 Coding (or manufacturing for systems) 1.5 Integration 1.6 Test 1.7 Deployment 1.8 Maintenance PART D. Cultural Environment 1. Describe any unique needs that derive from your company's cultural environment (e.g., resistance to change, motivation for improvement, management support for improvement, etc.). Thanks for your participation! Ted Davis Software Productivity Consortium (703) 742-7335; fax: (703) 742-7200 davis@software.org ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 19:14:36 +0000 From: clopez Subject: Evaluation Criteria For Commercial TMN Platforms Hi, We are evaluating some commercial TMN platforms in order to choose the appropriate platform that will be the base to develop over it the Corporate Telecommunication Network Management System of an electric company. The commercial platforms that we are evaluating are: - Openview (H&P) - Solstice Enterprise Manager (Sun Microsystems) - TMN/6000 (IBM) I would appreciate some help to elaborate a list of evaluation criteria for this kind of platforms. A first list of evaluation criteria (to be discussed) are the following: * Automatic Topology Discovery and Configuration * Notification Methods * Inteligent Monitoring * Degree of Control * Support for Trouble Ticket Systems * Flexibility and Customizacion * Multivendor Integration * Access Control * Architectural Issues * User Friendliness and Customization * Programming Interfaces * Reporting and Custoization * Customer Service * Pricing Please, send me some contribution to elaborate the most completely and suitable evaluation criteria list. Please, send me the reply by e-mail too. Thanks in advance, Carmen Guerrero Lopez e-mail: clopez@eii.uam.es CESAT (Center for Open Real Time Systems) Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain) http://indurain.eii.uam.es Tfn:+(34).1.397.55.63 Fax:+(34).1.397.52.60 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #203 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01208; 20 Apr 95 23:35 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA08938 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 20 Apr 1995 17:56:47 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA08930; Thu, 20 Apr 1995 17:56:45 -0500 Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 17:56:45 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504202256.RAA08930@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #204 TELECOM Digest Thu, 20 Apr 95 17:56:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 204 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Interuppt" by Toni Dwiggins (Rob Slade) Videoconferencing (Cindy Goovaerts) New Multi-Natl European Telco Consortium? (Dennis Shen) Cellular and Health (Stewart Fist) Looking For Alternatives to Cyberlink (Ted Koppel) Information Wanted on Orbcomm (Donald R. Newcomb) Re: Will a T1 Improve the Quality of our Modem Lines? (Wally Ritchie) Re: Will a T1 Improve the Quality of our Modem Lines? (synchro@digex.net) Panasonic KXT-9500 Comments Wanted (Dick Rhoads) Ten Digit Dialing Not Onerous (Christopher Osburn) Re: What is TELEGO Service? (Scott Townley) Re: Can my Modem Talk to TTY Machines For the Deaf? (Linc Madison) Re: Can my Modem Talk to TTY Machines For the Deaf? (Tad Cook) Re: Old Phone Number Format Question (rconnewa@spry.com) Re: AT&T $5 Minimum Monthly Charge (bkron@netcom.com) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 20 Apr 1995 14:19:17 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Interrupt" by Toni Dwiggins BKINTRPT.RVW 950315 %A Toni Dwiggins %C 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010 %D 1993 %G 0-812-52037-8 %I TOR/Tom Doherty Associates, Inc. %O U$4.99/C$5.99 %P 319 %T "Interrupt" "Interrupt", Toni Dwiggins, 1993, 0-812-52037-8, U$4.99/C$5.99 The telephone system is a favourite target for thriller writers. Recent phone outages have made the public slightly more aware of the dependence we have in the reliability and ubiquity of voice communications. Most books about attacks on the system have little bearing on reality. Dwiggins, though, has put some research into this. The attack scenario is technically plausible. It is an inside job, requiring insider access and knowledge. Social engineering is dealt with, albeit briefly. These remain the two primary computer security problems. One of the early attacks is put down to a virus: that idea is squelched on very solid grounds. The central concept of the attack is one posited by no less a luminary than Ken Thompson. Dwiggins' inexperience does show in places. I almost missed the Thompson reference, as it was introduced by postulating something "deeper" than object or machine code. (To a nerd, this implies microcode.) Then, the discussion turns to the "interpreter", which is logically similar to, but operationally distinct from, a compiler. Also, as in "For the Sake of Elena" (cf. BKSELENA.RVW), the plot hinges on the inability of an experienced TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) user to identify a (well) known correspondent in a live chat. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKINTRPT.RVW 950315. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z1/ User .fidonet.org Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ From: hw45805@is1.bfu.vub.ac.be (GOOVAERTS CINDY) Subject: Videoconferencing Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 17:04:48 DST Hi, I am a student at the Free University of Brussel and I am making a paper about videoconferencing. What are the possibilities, do people prefer having videoconferencing contact over face-to-face communication? If someone has information, please mail. Thanks, hw45805@is1.vub.ac.be (GOOVAERTS CINDY) Student Communicatiewetenschappen Vrije Universiteit Brussel ------------------------------ From: dshen@interserv.com Subject: New Multi-Natl European Telco Consortium? Date: 20 Apr 1995 15:24:12 GMT Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, US Reply-To: dshen@interserv.com Does anyone know of a recently formed consortium of multinational companies in Europe whose purpose is to influence telecommunications providers and participate in development plans? I am looking for the name of the group, verification of their stated purpose, and member names or a contact person for the group. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Dennis Shen dshen@interserv.com ------------------------------ Date: 20 Apr 95 11:33:22 EDT From: Stewart Fist <100033.2145@compuserve.com> Subject: Cellular and Health I am interested in following up on the work of the CTIA committee which looked at the possibilities of cellular phone radiations producing adverse health effects. I know the brain-tumour idea was pretty substantially discounted, but there's now a growing body of evidence for other effects in laboratory studies, if not in the community. If anyone has any knowedge of research work or useful published or unpublished papers, I'd like to know about it. I've got quite a bit already, so I'll put something together for the Digest in a few months. I'd also like to make e-mail contact with the following people who sat on the CTIA review committee. Can anyone help me with e-mail addresses. All I have is old university contacts, and apparently this list is well out of date. Patricia Buffler, University of California Berkeley; Philip Cole, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Om P. Gandhi, University of Utah; Saxon Graham, State University of New York at Buffalo; Don Justessen, University of Kansas and VA Medical Center; Richard Monson, Harvard University; Dimitrios Trichopoulis, Harvard University; Gary Williams, American Health Foundation. ------------------------------ From: tkoppel@carl.org (Ted Koppel) Subject: Looking For Alternatives to Cyberlink Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 21:58:00 MDT Organization: CARL Corporation (Atlanta) / The UnCover Company Reply-To: tkoppel@denver.carl.org Our company sends significant numbers of faxes (500+/day) to international destinations, on a 24-hour basis, seven days a week. (No, these aren't junk faxes; they are the full text of articles that customers have ordered from our online database). Until recently, we were using Cyberlink as our international delivery carrier because of its significantly lower rates to international destinations. (Our software called Cyberlink's 800 number, waited for their second dial tone, and then dialed the international fax phone number and delivered the fax.) About three weeks ago Cyberlink's switch ceased working, at least in terms of 'hearing' our fax modem's second string of characters (the actual destination phone number). Manually dialed calls go through just fine; calls dialed from our fax modem rack (Multitechs) do not. We have been in contact with Cyberlink and have heard promises, but no fix yet, so we have reverted to fax delivery over a higher cost mechanism. Can anyone suggest alternatives to Cyberlink? An acceptable alternative would be: 1) low cost; 2) capable of handling volume above and growth; multiple simaltaneous calls; 3) capable of reaction to calls from fax modems; 4) access through either 800- or local access number with second dial tone. Your advice is appreciated. Ted Koppel * The UnCover Company * The CARL Corporation * tkoppel@carl.org Work: 404 242 8733 Fax: 404 242 8511 ------------------------------ From: dnewcomb@whale.st.usm.edu (Donald R. Newcomb) Subject: Information Wanted on Orbcomm Date: 19 Apr 1995 22:56:16 -0500 Organization: University of Southern Mississippi Can anyone give me an e-mail contact or phone number for Orbcomm (Orbital Communications)? Donald R. Newcomb * University of Southern Mississippi dnewcomb@whale.st.usm.edu * "The God who gave us life gave us liberty dnewcomb@falcon.st.usm.edu * at the same time." T. Jefferson (1774) ------------------------------ From: writchie@gate.net Subject: Re: Will a T1 Improve the Quality of our Modem Lines? Date: 19 Apr 1995 05:28:00 GMT Reply-To: writchie@gate.net In , Ken Mayer writes: > Our company has about 50 analog telephone lines that we use for fax > machines, modems, etc. of which I use 16 for dial in terminal service. > Although we purchased some good quality MultiTech modems, more than > 50% of the people dialing can't sync up and get a carrier on the first > call. Some days are worse than others. Our company telecom guy says > that there is a lot of noise on the line coming from the CO, even when > the phone is on-hook. > Several weeks ago we were discussing future expansion requirements and I > mentioned the line quality problem. (I am planning to install v.34 modems > in the next fiscal year and would like them to be "useful.") One thought > was that if we eliminated the last *analog* mile from the connection, we > would get better quality for our dial-in pool. We can purchase a T1 card > for our telephone switch and get 25(?) phone lines that way. > Would we get better quality service with a digital connection to the CO? > In the long run, it is *cheaper* to run our modems and fax machines > through T1 card's but the break even point is +3 years (includes the > capital investment of the T1 cards for the telephone switch). My system is > growing and I need to expand my dial-in terminal service, but I also need > to improve the quality. If the quality of your analog lines is in fact poor and subject to degrada- tion in bad weather then T1 would likely be a major improvement. V.34 can sometimes work better over good analog lines in local to local connections but in general T1 is preferable. Whether you should run the lines through your switch is another matter. Depends on the switch. Unless the lines are shared, you might want to use T1 to a channel bank and connect the modems directly to channel bank. Hope this helps. Wally Ritchie Ft. Lauderdale, Florida ------------------------------ From: synchro@access5.digex.net (Steve) Subject: Re: Will a T1 Improve the Quality of our Modem Lines? Date: 20 Apr 1995 10:46:47 GMT Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA Assuming that the location of your application is Fairfax, VA, this places you in Bell Atlantic land. The lines from them certainly originated free from noise; however, sometimes there are noise sources such as power line induction and poor building wiring. A T1 is a good way to go to ensure that your 24 v.34 modems are clean on your side of the call. Take it easy, Steve ------------------------------ From: rsr@hpuerca.atl.hp.com (Dick Rhoads) Subject: Panasonic KXT-9500 Comments Wanted Date: 15 Apr 1995 20:36:44 GMT Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Atlanta Tech. Center Reply-To: dick_rhoads@hpatc.desk.hp.com Panasonic has a new cordless phone I have just seen. The model is KXT-9500. It is small, sort of handheld cellular sized, and provides a "dual-battery" system (the base unit can store and charge a second battery). This is a 900-MHz phone. Does anyone have experience with / comments on this model? Dick Rhoads Hewlett-Packard Company dick_rhoads@hpatc.hp.com Atlanta Technology Center ------------------------------ From: spiff@eskimo.com (Christopher Osburn) Subject: 10 Digit Dialing Not Onerous Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 12:59:07 PDT Hi All! I've been hearing objections to ten- (or eleven-) digit dialing, one of which is the memorization problem. It is more difficult to remember ten digits that seven. Well, yes, but what are you really memorizing? ten digits? No, you're memorizing seven digits plus an area code. How is this different? You are picking one area code from a memorized list of two or three which is easier than brute force memorizing of three extra digits. Doesn't sound too hard to me. Chris Osburn spiff@eskimo.com ------------------------------ From: nx7u@primenet.com (Scott Townley) Subject: Re: What is TELEGO Service? Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 07:50:23 MST Organization: Primenet In article tonyc@amwbbs.rain.com (Anthony Campbell) writes: > Spiros Triantafyllopoulos (c23st@kocrsv01.delcoelect.com) wrote: >> A new service is advertised locally by GTE that is billed like a Super >> Cordless phone that you can take with you to the car, golf course, >> etc. No word like the dreaded 'cellular' is used anywhere. The phone >> can be used from home as well. > Tele-Go was offered here in Portland Oregon for awhile last year. $15 per > month plus usage, $.26 per minute, I believe. > I was intending to get one for my girl friend, finally got around to > some months later, only to have GTE tell us that the Tele-Go service > was withdrawn due to some on-going, unspecified, negotiations with > USWest, the local POTS provider. > Any, GTE said it would continue providing Tele-Go to the 30k (!) > subscribers already installed. Yeah, USWest *Cellular* swapped their San Diego market with GTE for Portland and other Oregon RSAs (Rural Service Areas). So there is no GTE in Portland anymore. GTE also offers TELEGO in their Houston-Austin market, according to my mom :-). Scott Townley nx7u@primenet.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 10:15:42 -0700 From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Can my Modem Talk to TTY Machines For the Deaf? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) In article you wrote: > I have a friend who is deaf and I would like to be able to call his > TTY machine with my modem, but so far, I have been unsuccessful using > standard terminal software. Does anyone know if this is possible, or > if there is software available for this purpose? > I use a Macintosh and a Supra 14.4LC. You cannot (i.e., it is technologically impossible) use your setup to originate a "Baudot-mode" TDD call. The frequencies used are different, the modulating scheme is different, and the TDD standard doesn't even have a carrier tone. The hardware is incompatible. That's the bad news. The good news is that, unless your friend's TDD is *VERY* old, it will probably be able to do "ASCII mode" at 300 or maybe even 1200 baud. The TDD will need to be switched to "ASCII mode" for the call to complete, so what you will probably need to do is something like this: (1) Get your computer set up and ready to dial out. It's probably a good idea to find out the command to set your modem to default to 300 baud, since it may take a long time to train down, trying 14400, 12000, 9600, 7200, 4800, 2400, 1200, 600, and finally 300. Don't worry, though -- you'll be hard pressed to type faster than 300bps (about 360 words per minute, which is about 160% of the fastest typing speed on record). You'll also want to be in half-duplex mode. As for bits/parity, I'm not sure; you can try 7-N-1 or 7-E-1. (2) Using a regular telephone, call your friend through the deaf relay service in your state. There should be information about this service in the front of your phone book; every state has one. Calling out of state can be a little dicier, but I think since the passage of the ADA this is now at least less of a problem. I believe that the Canadian provinces also have relay services. (3) Ask your friend, "Does your TDD have ASCII mode?" If his answer is yes, tell him that you would like to try it. Tell him that you will call him right back, and he should answer with the TDD in ASCII mode. Be sure to ask him if he knows any of the connection particulars (baud rate, parity, etc.) for his unit in ASCII mode. (4) Use your Mac to dial his number and connect. Of course, the relay service (step 2) isn't a bad alternative. The operators at the relay service are trained professionals, and I've carried on lengthy and involved conversations through them. They're there to give hearing-impaired folks full access to anything you or I get by telephone -- calling the doctor for an appointment or just chatting about this week's "Melrose Place." BTW, a guide to acronyms: TTY = TeleTYpewriter, TDD = Telephone Device for the Deaf, and TT = Text Telephone (the newest term). CUL8R (See you later) GA TO SK (Go Ahead TO Stop Keying; i.e., "bye") SK SK (Stop Keying; i.e., "really, bye") Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ From: tadc@seanet.com (Tad Cook) Subject: Re: Can my Modem Talk to TTY Machines For the Deaf? Date: 14 Apr 1995 18:59:51 GMT Organization: Seanet Online Services, Seattle WA Henry Wertz (Henry@chop.isca.uiowa.edu) wrote: > In note , mturner@haverford.edu (Maximilien N. > Turner) writes: >> I have a friend who is deaf and I would like to be able to call his >> TTY machine with my modem, but so far, I have been unsuccessful using >> standard terminal software. Does anyone know if this is possible, or >> if there is software available for this purpose? > TTY's use 5 bit BAUDOT code. Find a packet radio program 8-). There > might also be the problem that at least real TTYs run at something like 50.5 > baud. A packet radio program wont help (OK, so there was a smily!). It emulates an AX.25 Terminal Node Controller, not a Baudot TTY interface. You have two problems. One is that with a conventional modem you are sending ASCII instead of Baudot, and the other is that even if you use software to emulate Baudot, the tones that the modem uses are not compatible with the TTY. Many of the newer TTYs for the hearing impaired have an ASCII switch that allows you to use 300 baud ASCII. I've used this to communicate with conventional TTYs with my modem. Another alternative is to use a TTY modem for your computer manufactured by one of the TTY companies. But expect to pay a big price. They manufacture few of these, and so don't have the economies of scale that we have come to expect from modem manufacurers. Tad Cook tadc@seanet.com or tad@ssc.com or 3288544@mcimail.com Seattle, WA ------------------------------ From: rconnewa@spry.com Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 22:51:14 -0700 Subject: Re: Old Phone Number Format Question > The following question appeared recently in the Old Time Radio > Digest mailing list, and seems tailor-made for an answer from this > forum. > From: "Richard M. Weil" > The number for the store in Rockford was curiously 8-22-47. I'm > too young to know anything about 5 digit phone numbers. Is that > how it was back then in small cities? And someone responded in TELECOM Digest: > Gee, all this talk of 5-digit numbers makes me feel old! I grew up in a > small town in western Pennsylvania, and in the late 1940's, our phone > number was 849M. No idea why the "M" instead of a fourth number, but > the line was a four-party line (private lines were extremely rare -- most > everybody I knew had a party line). The phone would ring when any one > of the party-line subscribers were called ... each had his own distinctive > ringing pattern. Ours was two longs and two shorts, or some such thing. > The only way to tell if the line was in use was to pick up the receiver > and listen. One of the other subscribers on our line had a daughter > quite a few years older than I, and I must admit that I didn't always > hang up when I heard her on the phone. Never listened long, though, > because I found "girl talk" boring ... "mushy" was the word used in those > days, I believe. "Crossed connections" were not uncommon in the days of > mechanical CO's (anybody remember the cats' eyes?), either, so we > frequently got to listen to conversations between other subscribers, as > well. No taps, no bugs, no scanners: the telephone was a source of > entertainment as well as a means of communications. > I don't know what the laws were then, but I probably committed my > first felony, or at least misdemeanor, before I was five years old! > As we got older, we found another way to use the phone for entertainment: > "prank" calls. Call the local drugstore ... "Do you have Prince Albert > in a can?" ... 'Yes, we do.' ... "Well, you'd better let him out before > he suffocates!" Such shenanigans are a thing of the past, killed by > ANI, CID, auto call-back, auto call-trace, and the like ... perhaps it's > just as well. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For those unaware, 'Prince Albert' was a > type of smoking tobacco used in a pipe. I guess they still make it. The > other variation on this was to call someone late at night and claim to > be the Electric Company, asking 'is your refrigerator running?' Some fools > would actually put the phone down and go into the kitchen to see, then > come back and say it was. "Then you better stop it before it runs away > and you never see it again ...". To five and six year old children, > those jokes are very funny, especially when played on an 'old person' > late at night, after the 'old person' was already in bed asleep and the > child should have been but wasn't. The 'M' (like J, W, and R) were just > keys to tell the operator which party on the line was to be rung. The > switchboards had four buttons marked M,J,W,R and the operator would press > down on one of these buttons while pulling the ringing key. Whichever > one she pressed sent the current one way or another down the party line > to ring the one bell, and only the one bell similarly wired. Other places > had the 'short/long' ringing system as you mentioned, where all bells were > wired in common, and the subscriber was relied upon to know which to > answer and which to ignore. PAT] Seems that another name/number convention used that was popular was for example Garfield 45789, where the first two letters were used with the numbers. If I remember right, there was a song back in the 60's that referenced a number called Beechwood 45789, anyone remember the song? One of our favorite prank calls was to call a local tavern (a neighborhood bar where you knew the barkeep and patrons was best) and ask if any of the Walls were there yet. You explained that they were to meet there that night. You could hear the poor fellow ask if any of the walls were there, and when he replied that none of the walls were there, you would say "if none of the walls are there, what the heck is holding up your roof". Many times you could hear the sound of laughter in the background when they were asked if any of the walls were there. Another good one was to ask for your aunt Ima ....... something. Such as Ima Woos or Ima Redpecker. If the bartender didn't catch on right away, and just called out the name, which was common, it always created a chorus of laughter and catcalls in the background and always embarassed the speaker. Great entertainment for rainy unsupervised evenings. Bart Simpson stuff isn't all that new. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The use of 2L-5D went on for a few years between the era of full exchange name plus four digits and the complete conversion to seven digit dialing which was during the early to middle 1960's. Phone books of that era had a mix of both types (7D and 2L+5D) with new subscribers getting all digits and existing subscribers grand- fathered until they otherwise required a change in their listing in the directory. Putting together perfectly legitimate first and last names to make a full name which when taken as a whole has a lewd connotation is a favorite pasttime of many kids. I don't know if anyone actually names their kids in that way without realizing 'the way it comes out sounding' or not. One joke involves leaving a message for someone to return a call (that of course was never received) from someone at the IRS (or some other burdensome government agency) by the name of Ben Dover. And as kids we used to become hysterical whenever someone would fall for our prank to return a call from Ella Phant or Miss Lyon or Mr. Don Key or Mrs. Byrd or Mr. Katz at the phone number LIncoln-9-3000 which was the switchboard at the Lincoln Park Zoo. The phone operator at the zoo once said she got a couple dozen calls like that day in and day out from unwitting people tricked by young children (or sometimes older people but kids at heart). The caller was never listening when the operator answered the line; they'd go right ahead ask to speak to Don Key. She would say, "You have reached the Lincoln Park Zoo. We do not have a Mr. Key (or Miss Phant, or whoever) employed here." Humiliated or embarassed, the caller would usually just hang up the receiver. We did once find an actual person listed in the Chicago phone book with the name Mike Hunt; and would, I suppose, have tormented him but we never got an answer on that phone number. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bkron@netcom.com (BUBEYE!) Subject: Re: AT&T $5 Minimum Monthly Charge Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 22:37:43 GMT jeffb65582@aol.com (JeffB65582) writes: > Now, as a non-AT&T user, I'm no longer helping to pay for the annoying > and abundant AT&T commercials. Don't be so sure. AT&T's largest customer is MCI. If Sprint also uses the AT&T network for their traffic like MCI does, your Sprint money will still end up annoying you. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's why it is so silly at times to worry about who your carrier happens to be. Just go with whichever one offers the biggest rebate checks for switching to them. Not only is MCI the largest customer of AT&T, but AT&T is also the largest customer of MCI ... truely, they are each other's largest customer. Sprint is the second largest customer of AT&T and MCI. All three may squabble and fuss among themselves; they are always suing each other and tattling on each other to the Commission, each pointing their fingers to say the other ones started the commotion. When it suits them, they are like two peas in a pod, or three peas in a pod. Remember the old Laurel and Hardy movie where Hardy tries to explain about two peas in a pod to Laurel who listens carefully, then scratches his head and says 'two peas in a pot'. Disgusted, Hardy corrects him, "Not pot! Pod! With a \d\ ... pod-uh." Laurel thinks about it again and repeats, "Pod-uh! Pod-uh!" So go with whichever one is the most liberal in handing out those checks or 'pay to the order of the telephone company' gift certificates. Not that that really matters either I suppose; after all it was about a year ago that one large regional Baby Bell's accounting department batched up almost a million dollars worth of those MCI 'pay to the order of the telephone company' certificates sent in by customers with their bills and sent them through inter-company settlements for credit to *AT&T* in error. And the cute part? AT&T accepted the chargeback, not even looking at the paperwork until a couple months later when some droid in accounting sees that they paid off thousands of MCI's 'we will switch you to MCI for free' coupons. Among themselves they swap millions of dollars daily while arguing publicly about what liars the other ones are. My suggestion: get your share of the loot, and when they call asking you to switch companies tell them they need to speak with your telecom consultant Ben Dover. Sure enough, watch when a day or two later, a telemarketer calls. You answer the phone and he says, "Ben Dover please". PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #204 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01679; 21 Apr 95 0:44 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA10064 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 20 Apr 1995 19:03:07 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA10053; Thu, 20 Apr 1995 19:03:03 -0500 Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 19:03:03 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504210003.TAA10053@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #205 TELECOM Digest Thu, 20 Apr 95 19:03:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 205 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine (Mark Cuccia) Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine (Dik Winter) Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine (Clive D.W. Feather) Re: My Computer Made Me Sick - Positive Ions (geneb@ultranet.com) Re: My Computer Made Me Sick - Positive Ions (Scot E. Wilcoxon) Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That (Lars Poulsen) Re: AT&T 6650 Cellular Phone Question (Mike Borsetti) Re: Telephone Line Conditioner (Lars Poulsen) Re: Please Help With Weird Telco Problem (Chris J. Cartwright) Re: Please Help With Weird Telco Problem (Bill Garfield) Re: AT&T $5/Month Minimum (Wayne Huffman) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: Mark Cuccia Subject: Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine Date: Wed, 19 Apr 95 17:32:00 GMT According to Bellcore's Local Exchange Routing Guide, Country Codes section (and also a Telecom France dialing instructions booklet my Dad picked up for me on my Parents' trip to Paris last Fall): Azerbaijan is 994 BTW, South Central Bell's Class 5 local switches will cut you off with a reorder or a 'Your Call Cannot Be Completed as Dialed" upon dialing 011/01 + NXX if the NXX is an UNassigned Country Code; Before I began repurchasing the LERG from Bellcore TRA (it CAN be cost-prohibitive for me) and before my Parents' trip to Paris, I was NOT cut off with a reorder or 'call cannot be completed as dialed' from any SCBell local class 5 switches upon dialing 011/01+994. I would dial (10(10)-288)+01+994+five-to-seven digits +(# if at a tone phone), and I would go to "bing-bong/jingle/AT&T" and then HANG UP; The AT&T operator, however, could NOT give me any info when I would ask about any assignment for Country Code 994; On some NON-dial Country Codes (or unexplained codes, such as 296 for Trinidad/Tobaggo), I would go to an AT&T recording on 011/01+, followed by THAT code, plus five to seven digits (+#) stating 'Your (International) Call Cannot Be completed as Dialed - Please check the number ... or call your AT&T operator for assistance; 504-2T (if dialed 011+), 601-0T (if dialed 01+). In the LERG, there are also listed Country Codes for Monaco (377, to go into effect late 1995). Vatican (379, no reference given), Eritrea (former province of Ethiopia, code 291), Andorra (376, eff.12/94) Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@law.tulane.edu Tel.(work) 504-865-5954 (Tulane Univ.Law School Library) FAX 504-865-5917 Tel.(home) 504-241-2497 (will forward over to Cell Phone, which forwards upon no answer to voice mail) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 01:35:06 +0200 From: Dik.Winter@cwi.nl Subject: Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine > I would have expected it to get a 37x code, as did the other > non-Russian European successor states to the Soviet Union: Lithuania > with 370, Latvia with 371, Estonia with 372 and Moldova with 373. But 37x is already filling up with 378 in use for San Marino. As far as I know the following codes are assigned but not yet in use: 374 Armenia, 375 Belarus, 376 Andorra, 379 Vatican City, leaving 377 as only free code. > But I could have sworn that I recall reading somewhere about at > least one of the non-European states receiving a new code in the > previously-vacant 99x series in Zone 9 (western Asia). I understand that the following codes are assigned, but also not yet in use: 994 Azerbaijan, 995 Georgia. > Asian former republics of the USSR are Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, > all in the Caucasus; and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, > Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, all in Central Asia. Apparently assignments have been made for the Caucasian republics (one in the 37x series, the remainder in 99x). I have no information about assignments for the Central Asian republics. However, you never know about those assignments. Before it got 378 San Marino had apparently 295 assigned, but that one has never been used. Moreover, I do not know about assignments made for Monace and Liechtenstein (which I would expect). dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj amsterdam, nederland, +31205924098 home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn amsterdam, nederland; e-mail: dik@cwi.nl ------------------------------ Subject: Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 20:38:33 +0100 (BST) From: Clive D.W. Feather Quoth Bob Goudreau: > But I could have sworn that I recall reading somewhere about at > least one of the non-European states receiving a new code in the > previously-vacant 99x series in Zone 9 (western Asia). Azerbaijan = 994 Clive D.W. Feather clive@stdc.demon.co.uk [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you suppose one of these days as the global community changes; new countries are formed and old ones go out of existence that the international numbering scheme will get all messed up the way USA area codes got messed up, out of sequence, etc? Will we some day run out of country codes the way the USA ran out of area codes and have to come up with some new numbering scheme for the whole world? PAT] ------------------------------ From: geneb@ultranet.com Subject: Re: My Computer Made Me Sick - Positive Ions Date: 20 Apr 1995 02:33:32 GMT Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc. Reply-To: geneb@ultranet.com In , tadc@seanet.com (Tad Cook) writes: > DanielS222 (daniels222@aol.com) wrote: > Is this a spam? This same message has turned up on a couple of > listservers I subscribe to. > Maybe this guy is selling "negative ion generators." > I get that way too. Maybe I have my monitor too far away, so I don't > get the benefit of all those negative ions fired at the screen. > The best solution is to develop some outside interests besides constant > net.surfing. Go ride a bike or take a walk around the block. Most workstation problems can be more easily attributed to: Bad Air (not enough changes/hour); Bad Monitors (fuzzy, low refresh, interlaced); Bad Lighting (glare); Bad Ergonomics/Posture. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Does anyone remember a few years ago when > one of the fancier mail order catalogs -- maybe it was Sharper Image -- > was selling those 'negative ion generators'? They looked pretty worthless > to me. Just little boxes, you plugged them in then sat them on a shelf > somewhere and left them there. Supposedly they are great for your health, > at least according to the mail order catalog. They seemed rather expensive > also, but Sharper Image was never a cheap company. PAT] Negative ion generators also tend to produce ozone, which is fine high up in the whateversphere, but is considered pollution on the ground. They also tend to charge dust particles, which then stick to everything (walls, monitor screens, etc.) The air gets less dusty, everything else gets covered. Gene ------------------------------ From: sewilco@fieldday.mn.org (Scot E. Wilcoxon) Subject: Re: My Computer Made Me Sick - Positive Ions Date: 20 Apr 1995 01:13:43 -0500 Organization: FieldDay DanielS222 wrote: > found a newspaper article discussing the fact that computer monitors emit > positive ions -- the opposite of negative ions. The article says computer Negative ions (electrons) are fired at the CRT screen. Is a CRT screen maintained at a positive charge, rather than a negative charge, by the design of the CRT? (I don't have a tool to measure polarity of a static charge). And what newspaper had this article, and what was the reporter's source? Scot E. Wilcoxon sewilco@fieldday.mn.org ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.RNS.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That Date: 20 Apr 1995 13:19:18 -0700 Organization: Rockwell International - CMC Network Products In article Tim Gorman writes: > You are just asserting that forward on busy/no answer is a > predatory service offered by the RBOC. No the issue is not that the RBOC offers busy/no answer forwarding, but that they price this service by itself higher than the voicemail offering that includes it. THAT is predatory pricing. A public service commission that understands the issues and wants to foster competition will insist that unregulated services -- like voicemail -- are not offered by the LEC itself, but by an arms-length subsidiary which has to purchase the switch support features from the regulated LEC at the same price as the competitors. I don't know of many instances where the regulators have competently done this. The prior poster also said: >> There's no technical reason why all three of those features can't be >> offered fairly to all comers (even stutter dialtone, which is controlled >> from outside the CO now, since telco voicemail isn't built into the switch. >> I believe that PacTel offers it as an overpriced ONA feature. No, I don't >> have the order code.) And they price all this at about half of what the >> independents charge, even though it's technically more complex. Doesn't >> that seem a teensy, weensy, itsy bitsy little bit predatory? I agree with this. Tim Gorman replies: > In essence, you are making the claim that the RBOC's can not possible > do ANYTHING cheaper or better than competitors and that if they are > offering ANY service cheaper than competitors it must be predatory, > illegal, immoral, unethical, and unfair. Patently wrong. For a competitor to provide a voicemail service equivalent to the one offered by the LEC, they need to have the LEC provide: - forward on busy/no answer - remote control of stutter dialtone If the telco charges as much for those supporting features as they do for the service that includes them, I would call it predatory. > BTW, the split between interLATA and local is NOT complete. Go look at > the interLATA carriers hollering that their access charges are too > high and that the local rates should be raised even higher. In my book, the IXCs access charges should be the same as the price of a local business call. The IXC is a business, as far as the LEC is concerned. The LEC's subscriber is placing a call to the IXC (assuming for the moment 950-xxxx access) and on the terminating end, the IXC is placing a call to the terminating subscriber. In most places, the access charges are 2-3 times the local business call rates. This is not a fair price. It seems reasonable to allow for a higher access charge on the originating end to pay for the database processing to record PICs for 1+ dialing, so long as 950-xxxx access is still available at the basic charge, though. I want to publicly commend Tim Gorman for being willing to speak on behalf of an LEC in this forum. I also want to praise SW Bell for not muzzling him. (My own LEC is GTE; I have been astounded to hear GTE radio ads trumpeting GTE as a Baldridge award winner; my faith in offical "Total Quality Management" is severely shaken, and my heart goes out to Steven Lichter and other GTE employees who still manage to be points of light in an increasingly dim company.) Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@RNS.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: Mike Borsetti Subject: Re: AT&T 6650 Cellular Phone Question Date: 20 Apr 1995 10:28:10 GMT Organization: CompuServe Incorporated dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) wrote: > I just began using an AT&T 6650 pocket-sized cellular telephone. > In wandering around its extensive nested menus, I came upon the FIELD > TEST MODE option. This one is not explained in the Owner's Manual. > Can anybody tell me what the s, d, l, and a fields indicate? This is my cheat sheet for the AT&T 6650/Nokia 2120/Technophone 815TD. Please let me know if anyone has any updates. TEST MODE: ========== Turn test mode on/off from within program mode. Select "Field test" (11) and enable or disable at will. Once you have test mode enabled, you have access to 4 screens of detailed info. Use the arrows to select the screens. Notice that screen 4 is "Not implemented" Tip: at anytime press the "ABC" button to get a cheat-sheet on what's the content of the test mode screen you are viewing. Screen 1 maps as follows: ANALOG: 01 rrrr s d cccc l a CS-state Where: rrrr = received signal strength (in dBm) s = SAT color code (0,1,2; -=not locked) (linked to cell sector) d = data receiving status (0=no sync/no data signal; 1=synched, cannot read; 2=reading, correcting; 3=reading, no corrections) cccc = channel number (control when idle, voice when transmitting) l = transmit power level (2=0.6W, 7=lowest analog) a = audio state (0=off; 1=on) CS-state = state of the phone: SCAN_PDCH, SCAN_PCH, IDLE, ACCESS, CONVERSAT, TCH, VCH, OOR (out of range) DIGITAL: 01 rrrr DDD d cccc l a S BB TT Where: rrrr = received signal strength (in dBm) s = SAT color code (0,1,2; -=not locked) (linked to cell sector) d = data receiving status (0=no sync/no data signal; 1=synched, cannot read; 2=reading, correcting; 3=reading, no corrections) cccc = channel number (control when idle, voice when transmitting) l = transmit power level (2=0.6W, 7=lowest analog) a = audio state (0=off; 1=on) S = channel slot BB = bit error rate in % TT = last received time alignment value (0 thru 30) Screen 2 maps as follows: 02 ENCR CIPH DTX XSTBY CS-state Where: ENCR = most likely has to do with the availability of encription CIPH = similar to above DTX = discontinuous transmission (VOX) XSTBY = ????, have seen it on after long idle time CS-state = state of the phone: SCAN_PDCH, SCAN_PCH, IDLE, ACCESS, CONVERSAT, TCH, etc. (same as screen 1 in analog) Screen 3 maps as follows: 03 bVo mod bs Tbat1 Tb2 Wpmw FCmAh Where: bVo = battery voltage mod = charge mode: FAS = fast; MAI = maintenance; TXO = transmit operation bs = ????--only seen ** or DV Tbat1 = temperature of battery (deg. F * 10?? -- of caliber??) Wpmw = charge current in mW FCmAh = mAh of the last battery charge; very useful to determine if the battery needs to be changed Screen 4 maps as follows: 04 ChargV:NNN ST hex des B:LLLL KKK But has not been implemented! mike.borsetti@bactc.com Cellular One of San Francisco +++ oOD Digital Network +++ >> Call 1-800-64-DIGITAL or +1 415 827-5914 to hear the Digital Difference! << ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Apr 95 22:54:08 PDT From: lars@RNS.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Telephone Line Conditioner Organization: Rockwell International - CMC Network Products In article is written: > I have a problem with my analogue line at home, sometimes only able to > get 9600 b/s with a 28.8kb/s modem. I've heard that there are line > conditioners to clean up noisey lines. Does anyone know about these > devices? Who makes them and what the high and low cost is? There are line conditioners that will make such lines nicer to listen to (they contain digital signal processors that remove some signal bands plagued by noise). They will NOT make modems work better: The added filtering actually removes some signalling bandwidth from the channel. The modem DSP is already doing its best to avoid the troubled bands. A line bad enough to get down to 9600 bps for a V.34 modulation is probably out of spec for a voice grade line (unless you are way out in a rural area where the Utility Commission will allow a lower grade of service in the interest of affordable universal service). Have you discussed the problem with telco repair service? Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@RNS.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: dsc3cjc@imc220.med.navy.mil (Chris J. Cartwright) Subject: Re: Please Help With Weird Telco Problem Organization: {not speaking for the } National Naval Medical Center Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 15:53:03 GMT Cliff, I think this one is similar to some things I've seen with some of the older Hayes modems I used to play with. There are two things known as frame ground (FG) and chassis ground (CG) on most electronic equipment. Sometimes these are tied together via a jumper. If you can pry the modem open and look around inside I'm willing to bet you'll find a jumper that is labeled FG/CG or somesuch. As there are probably capacitors from the tip/ring lines to ground this leaves at least one path to introduce the noise. Moving that jumper may help. Some other things to check. Look at the RS232 connectors on the back of the modems, does one have a metal shell (the USR) and the other have a plastic one. The whole FG/CG discussion may apply to your PC as well. I assume that you are using the same RS232 cable for both modems. The FG of the 232 spec is that the shield (connector shell) and pin 1 should be tied together, this may be how the hum is getting to the phone line from the PC when no modem power is applied. Lastly, are you sure the "ground" at the outlet is really at ground? You can get one of those three light testers at the hardware store ($6-$10??) that you plug into the outlet and it will tell you if the polarity is reversed or the ground is bad. I would also follow the wire from the fuse panel to the point it grounds. This may be a cold water pipe or a copper rod driven into the ground near where your electric meter is. If it's the cold water pipe this may be the problem. My "ground" for the electric, phones, cable TV, etc was tied to a cold water pipe in the basement. It was only after a month of looking, testing, prying, and swearing that I found out that the copper in the house was tied to plastic pipe about four inches outside the house. As I remember plastic doesn't conduct too well no matter how much dirt it's buried in. ;) After putting in a "true" grounding rod at the electric meter I lost all sorts of hum, flicker, static, fuzzy TV, and other intermittent problems that had been in the house since day one. Let the Digest know what it turns out to be. Regards, Chris Cartwright, Technical Engineer Mail dsc3cjc@imc220.med.navy.mil ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Please Help With Weird Telco Problem From: bill.garfield@yob.com (Bill Garfield) Date: Wed, 19 Apr 95 22:33:00 -0600 Organization: Ye Olde Bailey BBS - Houston, TX - 713-520-1569 Reply-To: bill.garfield@yob.com (Bill Garfield) In article: Cliff Yamamoto wrote: > Situation : New V.34 modem connected to phone line. Power adapter NOT > connected. RS-232 cable IS connected to computer. > Problem : 60Hz hum heard on all phones in house. Hum goes away when > RS-232 cable is disconnected from modem. Computer is > connected to 3-prong grounded outlet. > Knowns : Current computer setup with old Hayes Ultra 96 modem is just > fine. V.34 modem is a USR Courier which was to replace Hayes. > With Hayes connected to phone line and RS-232 connection to > computer, no hum has ever been heard in any phone extension. I strongly suspect a serious (potentially dangerous) grounding problem with the AC power in the home. The problem is not showing up with the old Hayes because it has a line relay that physically opens the phone line except when "off hook" and in use. By contrast, early production USR Couriers (those upgraded to V34 via a daughterboard swap) used opto-isolators in the phone circuit and are thus electrically connected to the phone line (since changed in later production). The AC hum you're hearing is leakage from the "high" ground on your power lines. (This is not a modem problem). This could be caused by an open or poorly connected neutral at your electric meter or weatherhead, or out at the power pole, or a bad ground at your distribution/breaker panel. In any event, I would not hesitate in getting it checked asap. Your electric power utility company is the place to start, as they're only too happy to check out things like this *without charge* (in the interest of everyone's safety). If the problem turns out to be wiring in the home, you'll need to retain the services of a competent electrician, as most elect utility companies cannot make repairs inside the customer's home. Don't forget the water meter if it's at the house or inside the home - it should have a heavy guage copper wire bonding the inlet pipe to the outlet pipe at the meter. Most water meters in use these days are made of non-conductive materials, effectively isolating the formerly trustworthy "waterpipe ground". If this is the case, it's a job for a competent electrician. Don't attempt it yourself. The terminology for what I suspect is the problem is a "high neutral" or "high ground" meaning that the ground or neutral is not well connected or well grounded, resulting in their being a voltage present on the AC ground where there should be none. Std. disclaimer applies. I do not represent my employer in this forum. Do not attempt repairs yourself. Obtain the services of professional electrical craftspersons. Bill Garfield BETA SITE for USRobotics Courier, Sportster & rackmount modems Ye Olde Bailey BBS Zyxel 713-520-1569(V.32bis) USR 713-520-9566(V.34/FC) Houston,Texas yob.com Home of alt.cosuard ------------------------------ From: whuffman@ix.netcom.com (Wayne Huffman) Subject: Re: AT&T $5/Month Minimum Date: 20 Apr 1995 01:19:14 GMT Organization: Netcom In brown@NCoast.ORG (Stan Brown) writes: > Today in my bill from AT&T I got a flyer that said AT&T will begin > charging $5/month minimum for long distance, possibly as early as the > next bill. I called the number on the flyer for questions, and the > rep on the other end confirmed that "to serve you better" the minimum > would be billed even in a month when I had no long distance charges. > As it happens, the line involved almost never dials out long distance; I > use it for local data calls almost exclusively. So this is quite a bad > deal for me. I called Ameritech and found that a change to "no default > LD provider" is free on my line, so I made that change. I used to sell AT&T LD to small businesses, and we got a list from Bell Atlantic (I'm sure AT&T bought the list) of businesses that had not chosen a primary LD carrier. These so-called no-PIC customers were probably driven crazy by all of the LD companies! You may find that your mailbox will fill up with LD company junque mail, and the telemarketing departments will call you incessantly trying to get you to "PIC" them. This can work to your advantage, though. A friend of mine selected "no carrier" when he had his phone installed. AT&T sent him a $75 check that, when cashed, authorized AT&T to 'switch' him. He cashed it, waited until AT&T sent the $5 gift certificate for the change charge, and called Bell Atlantic to change him back to 'no PIC' Cash in pocket, $65, $5 of AT&T service. not too bad for two phone calls and 20 minutes of time. He's waiting for the next offer from whoever. BTW, he makes about $3-5 in LD calls per month. Makes you wonder ... 'Jester' '94 FXR Wayne Huffman - whuffman@ix.netcom.com Sons of God MC - No. VA road captain ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #205 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa08548; 21 Apr 95 15:46 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id IAA19552 for telecomlist-outbound; Fri, 21 Apr 1995 08:04:16 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id IAA19543; Fri, 21 Apr 1995 08:04:13 -0500 Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 08:04:13 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504211304.IAA19543@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #206 TELECOM Digest Fri, 21 Apr 95 08:04:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 206 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That (Tim Gorman) Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That (John R. Levine) AP Story on NPA: 'Black Holes' (James E. Bellaire) Internet Virus is April Fools' Day Joke (Paul Robinson) Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine (Tor-Einar Jarnbjo) Re: Will a T1 Improve the Quality of our Modem Lines? (Jeff Box) Re: Tele-Go Description (Andrew C. Green) Re: GSM - Revised Operator List (Sam Spens Clason) 334 Prefix Next Door to 334 Area Code (Carl Moore) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 20 Apr 1995 22:21:19 -0500 From: Tim Gorman Subject: Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) writes in Telecom Digest V15 #202 : > Tim Gorman (tg6124@tyrell.net) wrote: >> Wait a minute. NYNEX's service is a thoroughly MEDIOCRE service but it >> KILLED the competitive voicemail market? Sounds to me like there >> wasn't much of a market to begin with. You are trying to make it into >> a killing of a major market but then describe the market as almost >> non-existant. You can't have it both ways, you know. > Yes, you can have it both ways, as NYNEX did. Their service is > MEDIOCRE, because it doesn't offer a great many features that one > might want. However, it is killing the competitive voicemail market > because NYNEX has deliberately withheld from its competitors the > ability to provide competitive services. For example, stutter > dialtone and forward on busy/no answer. .... (snip) .... As I pointed out in another message, merely saying that NYNEX has withheld call forward on busy/no answer on a tariffed basis does NOT mean it is being withheld from competitors. Each and every RBOC has a method available for non-tariffed services to be ordered. Refusal to provide such services on a special quote or use of predatory, non-cost related pricing is easily taken up with the PUC's. This happens every day in each and every jurisdiction I am aware of. In other words, you have NOT shown that CFBDA has been withheld from competitors, no more than John did. All you have shown is that the feature is not offered on a tariffed basis. What do you expect to happen in a fully competitive environment where prices and services are tendered to customers based on individual costs and individual requirements rather than average costs and industry-wide service offerings? > These are services that NYNEX charges itself far less for than they > charge their competitors. That's the whole point of this discussion: > NYNEX does not provide a level playing field from its local service > arm to voicemail providers, including itself. It gives its own > operation an enormous financial and competitive advantage by charging > far below market rates (if anything at all) for features like stutter > dialtone and FBNA. Once again, do you have any proof of this assertion or is this just more use of emotional appeals as arguments? If, in fact, they have truly withheld these features as you claim above then this claim is totally unprovable since they have not charged their competitors ANYTHING. So how could NYNEX have charged themselves LESS than nothing? >>> There are all sorts of features that I'd like from a voicemail system: >>> forwarding among mailboxes, outdialing to other phones or pagers, >>> delivery as a voice attachment to e-mail, stuff like that. But there's no >>> way I'm going to get it, because NYNEX doesn't offer them, and lacking >>> FBNA none of the competing voice mail systems are very interesting. >> Right. Not much of a market, at least in the way you describe it. > Yes, BECAUSE of the fact that NYNEX has priced FBNA in a predatory > fashion specifically to prevent the creation of a competitive market. > You've shot your own argument in the foot right here, Tim. Actually, as I have pointed out above, it is yours and John's argument that has the big hole somewhere. Either NYNEX is offering stutter dial tone and CFBDA and are overcharging out the wazoo for it or they are playing predator and not offering it anywhere for any price. Which is it? You need to decide on one or the other before the discussion can continue in a logical fashion. >> So, assuming that most voice mail providers are not going to buy such an >> expensive arrangement just to get dial tone, this leaves only CFBDA as the >> service in question. > So why isn't it so terribly expensive for NYNEX to provide these services > for its own voicemail product? I'll give you a hint: it isn't because the > voicemail facilities are colocated with the switch. In some cases, they may > be, but you'd better bet that NYNEX has a lot more COs than it has voicemail > machines. The answer is, because NYNEX predatorily provides these services > to itself at far below market cost. Huh? The voice mail system doesn't have to be in the CO. That is not what I said. You need a separate input/output channel from each Central Office where you are going to provide voice mail and stutter dial tone. These may be carried to remote locations using private line facilities. Who said it isn't expensive for NYNEX to provide these services? They have to provide input/output channels for their system just as any other provider would. They have to provide links out of every CO where they offer voice mail to their voice mail system. And you still need to provide some objective proof that NYNEX is using predatory pricing when providing this service. What I suspect you will actually find is that exactly the same costs are used to price the service for NYNEX customers as is used to price the service offerings to the competitors. It would truly take a grand conspiracy to keep people from comparing these costs to see if predatory pricing were taking place. What I truly think I see here is a total disbelief that an RBOC could possibly be the low cost provider of ANY service. There seems to be a total disconnect from reality that a company the size of an RBOC could purchase a voice mail system at a cost far below that available to a fourteen year old boy wanting to start a voice mail system in his garage and could therefore be able to beat out the price of the service. That is when we begin to see the contradictory arguments based on emotional appeals begin to show up. "They aren't offering the feature ... They offer the features at an exorbitant price compared to internal prices" The truth of the matter is who is going to get a better price on merchandise, Walmart or Joe's Hardware with a 1500 sq. foot store? What you are doing is railing against economic reality. In a labor intensive operation, the RBOC is usually always going to get beat out because of the cost of labor and overhead. When it comes to application of technology that argument is not going to be always true. Continuing to accuse the RBOC's of predatory pricing in each and every case will sooner or later cause the phenomenon of Peter and the Wolf to come into play -- no one is going to believe ANY accusation. Tim Gorman tg6124@tyrell.net Southwestern Bell Tel. Co ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Apr 95 22:11 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > No the issue is not that the RBOC offers busy/no answer forwarding, > but that they price this service by itself higher than the voicemail > offering that includes it. THAT is predatory pricing. Actually, in the letter of mine to which Tim was responding (you didn't see it because it was private mail, sigh) I was describing NYNEX's voice mail in Boston where you can't get B/NA forwarding at all. Same conclusion, of course. > In my book, the IXCs access charges should be the same as the price of a > local business call. Turns out that part of the per-minute access charges, like the $3.50 line access charge, go into an equalization fund that subsidizes high-cost rural telephony, so there's actually a reason it costs more than a POTS call. On the other hand, that's a very messy economic transaction and it'd be a lot fairer just to charge a flat per minute equalization fee either to the IXC or the end user and fund the rural subsidy from that. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 21:50:11 CST From: bellaire@barnabas Subject: AP Story on NPA: 'black holes' This story from The Associated Press, as printed in {The Indianapolis Star} shows the problems with pbx equiptment that has not been upgraded. Sent for your enjoyment ... (personal comments at end of article). *** Area codes create 'black holes' of missed calls and lost profits *** By David Foster - Associated Press Olympia, Wash. -- His phone stopped ringing in January, and in the silence William Boubel hears his business dying. He has fallen victim to a technological change that soon may reach out and touch millions of Americans: He has been assigned a new area code that a lot of people cannot dial because it doesn't have a 1 o 0 as its middle digit. "Almost every one of my sales is preceded by a phone call," says Boubel, who designs computer software for the paper industry. "When the phone doesn't ring and the fax doesn't ring, I'm out of business." By year's end, millians of phone customers in at least 11 states will have new area codes that millions of other callers won't be able to reach unless they make costly changes to their phone systems. The new area codes - the first that don't have a 1 or 0 as the middle digit - are being implimented to meet the nation's exploding demand for phone numbers created by fax machines, cellular phones, pagers and modems. Trouble is, many businesses and government offices have switchboards - called private branch exchanges, or PBXs - that aren't programmed to recognise such area codes. The new area codes have already been implimented in five states: 360 in western Washington, 334 in southern Alabama, 520 in Arizona, 970 in Colorado, and 281 in Houston. The complaints are loudest in Washington and Alabama, the first states affected. They got new area codes Jan. 15, and their phase in period, during which callers can use the old or new codes, ends next month - May 13 in Alabama, May 21 in Washington. Businesses dependent on calls from out of state are dreading the deadlines. "We're being thrown to the wolves," says Ben Hargett, president of DeVan Inspection Co., which inspects cargo in Mobile, Ala. So many customers can't reach his new 334 number that Hargett says he may have to move his business to a "more stable area code." AT&T Global Business Communications Systems, a leading PBX manufacturer, says it has been warning customers since 1992 to prepare for the new area codes. But only half have upgraded their systems, says AT&T spokeswoman Patricia Sieh. A PBX can serve anywhere from 20 to 25,000 phones. Upgrading small or medium systems to handle the new area codes typically costs $850 to $6,000, and a few customers with older PBXs may have to spend up to $15,000, Sieh says. Replacing a bix PBX with a whole new system can run $100,000. "This is not a suprise for any of our customers," Sieh says. "If they've decided not to upgrade, that's a conscious decision." For some PBX owners, a bit of geographic snobbery is involved: Who wants to call western Washington or southern Alabama, anyway? But that attitude will backfire, predicts Ken Branson, spokesman for Bellcore, the Livingston, N.J., company that administers North America's area codes. "There will be bigger and bigger telephonic black holes to which they can't dial," he says. "At some point they may want to call Los Angeles or Chicago or Miami. We're assigning 13 to 14 of these new area codes this year, and we see no end to this trend." (End of quoted article) Unfortunately it looks like the companies that do not upgrade their systems won't be doing business with these 'black hole' areas. Unless they can call that company's 1-800 number (and not the new 1-888 numbers). It's a shame that certain areas are affected first, but I hope that the spread of NNX area codes will convince the companies that have not changed to fix their systems. I don't agree that 'millions' of people cannot call these numbers, but do see 'thousands' affected. Anyone out there designing a tack-on PBX to defray the cost of upgrading? Even old PBX's have a provision for extensions for dialing from inside only. They could use these extensions as bridges to an outside line. Worth a thought ... James E. Bellaire (JEB6) bellaire@tk.com Twin Kings Communications [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't feel sorry for those fools at all. And to blame it on telco, as they will invariably do, is just plain stupid. Every one of them has been told time, and time again over the past two years what is going on. I myself have counseled a couple organizations I am in contact with about this. Did they do anything? Oh no, their PBX admins know so much more about this than anyone else. A couple times I raised this in very pointed discussions with a department store I've done some work for in the past. They would not listen to anything anyone told them at all. Good! Now their PBX is broken, their employees are screaming at them and they have to run over to a payphone to make simple calls to other places. The gentleman who complains 'his phone stopped ringing in January' needs to recognize the problem is with his customers, or more precisely with the overpaid idiots who run his customer's phone networks. Now many of these guys will remove what safeguards they had on their lines in order to allow legitimate calls to get through and that will cause them to get freaked and hacked, and of course that will be telco's fault also in their opinion. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 05:05:08 EDT From: Paul Robinson Subject: Internet Virus is April Fools' Day Joke. Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company - Silver Spring MD USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Paul writes about a message which has made the rounds on various Usenet newsgroups. The message he discusses is printed in full here not because it has any legitimacy at all, but so that you can be aware of it. PAT] ------------------- Actually it was sent on April 1, as an April Fool's Day joke. There are a number of issues, but most of the information in this note is either sick humor or a mismash of misunderstandings and errors. On Thu, 20 Apr 1995, Jan Kelman wrote: TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: The following letter was received on April 20, concerning a new Internet virus, please read. Alan Kelman Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 11:57:49 -0700 From: Irene Luna Guzman To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Virus in the net? Hello everybody, I got an e-mail about a virus in the net. Spread the word in your departments. There is a computer virus that is being sent across the Internet. If you receive an e-mail message with the subject line "Good Times", DO NOT read the message, DELETE it immediately. Please read the messages below. Some miscreant is sending e-mail under the title "good times" nation-wide. If you get anything like this, DON'T DOWNLOAD THE FILE! It has a virus that rewrites your hard drive, obliterating anything on it. Please be careful and forward this mail to anyone you care about -- I have. Date: 12/2/94 11:59 AM Subject: INTERNET VIRUS Thought you might like to know... The FCC released a warning last Wednesday concerning a matter of major importance to any regular user of the InterNet. Apparently, a new computer virus has been engineered by a user of America Online that is unparalleled in its destructive capability. Other, more well-known viruses such as Stoned, Airwolf, and Michaelangelo pale in comparison to the prospects of this newest creation by a warped mentality. What makes this virus so terrifying, said the FCC, is the fact that no program needs to be exchanged for a new computer to be infected. It can be spread through the existing e-mail systems of the InterNet. Once a computer is infected, one of several things can happen. If the computer contains a hard drive, that will most likely be destroyed. If the program is not stopped, the computer's processor will be placed in an nth-complexity infinite binary loop - which can severely damage the processor if left running that way too long. Unfortunately, most novice computer users will not realize what is happening until it is far too late. Luckily, there is one sure means of detecting what is now known as the "Good Times" virus. It always travels to new computers the same way in a text e-mail message with the subject line reading simply "Good Times". Avoiding infection is easy once the file has been received - not reading it. The act of loading the file into the mail server's ASCII buffer causes the "Good Times" mainline program to initialize and execute. The program is highly intelligent - it will send copies of itself to everyone whose e-mail address is contained in a received-mail file or a sent- mail file, if it can find one. It will then proceed to trash the computer it is running on. The bottom line here is - if you receive a file with the subject line "Good TImes", delete it immediately! Do not read it! Rest assured that whoever's name was on the "From:" line was surely struck by the virus. Warn your friends and local system users of this newest threat to the InterNet! It could save them a lot of time and money. Irene Luna-Guzman Food Science Grad Student Rep 126 Food Science and Technology Bldg. UCDavis Davis CA 95616 Campus phone # 2-2585 **** [Paul continues]: NOTICE: I reserve the right to ignore or PUBLICLY POST any vicious or nasty E-Mail; notwithstanding any statements in your messages to the contrary; by sending responses in violation of this paragraph you unconditionally consent to this condition. You have been warned. Ask me about Listmgr - the first PC-Based mailing list manager for E-Mail. Reports on Security Problems: To Subscribe write PROBLEMS-REQUEST@TDR.COM Paul Robinson - paul@tdr.com / tdarcos@MCIMail.com / tdarcos@access.digex.net Voted "Largest Polluter of the (IETF) list" by Randy Bush [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Who is this Irene Luna-Guzman person? Maybe I could get her a job adminstering a large PBX at a company here in Chicago. She could program the PBX to disallow any calls to numbers seen written in messages which start out 'for a good time, call ...'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bjote@cs.tu-berlin.de (Tor-Einar Jarnbjo) Subject: Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine Date: 21 Apr 1995 11:37:28 GMT Organization: Technical University of Berlin, Germany Bob Goudreau (goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com) wrote: > I noticed the following advertisement in this week's (April 15th) issue > of the {Economist} magazine: > Ukraine > New Country Code 380... > On April 16 1995 Ukraine implements a new country code. > For more information please call your international operator. > This means that no more than 10 of the 15 former Soviet states now > remain under the umbrella of World Zone 7. But I could have sworn > that I recall reading somewhere about at least one of the non-European > states receiving a new code in the previously-vacant 99x series in > Zone 9 (western Asia). However, I can't find any reference to this in > the Telecom Archives' country code lists, so I may be mistaken. The > Asian former republics of the USSR are Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, > all in the Caucasus; and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, > Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, all in Central Asia. (Actually, small > bits of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan extend into Europe, but the > bulk of each one lies in Asia.) According to the Norwegian phone-books (1995-edition) the former Sowiet-republics in Asia have been assigned country-codes 99x, though since I don't have the books here, I can't quote the correct codes. Tor-Einar Jarnbjo [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One place you might try looking is at the 'country.codes' file in the Telecom Archives from time to time for mostly complete lists like this. Of course I don't put up those massive files in the Archives expecting anyone to actually read them or use the for research before writing to the Digest; I put them there for my health and because I have such a large amount of time to waste each day. Gee, I certainly woke up cranky this morning. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jeffb65582@aol.com (JeffB65582) Subject: Re: Will a T1 Improve the Quality of our Modem Lines? Date: 20 Apr 1995 15:09:12 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: jeffb65582@aol.com (JeffB65582) IMO you will find that the T1 connection will substantially improve the performance of your modems for two reasons, especially if you have a digital C.O.. 1. The T1 link provides complete isolation of the transmit and receive paths between your PBX and the central office. I am referring to the two to four wire hybrid networks that exist on the analog station and analog trunk cards of digital PBX and central offices. With your PBX/analog trunk combination, you will encounter three of these in the path to the C.O. digital matrix. One on the PBX line card, one on the PBX trunk card, and one at the C.O. line card. The T1 connection eliminates two of them. Each of the hybrids contributes a certain amount of distortion for the modem to deal with. Each also contributes an echo signal, which the modem must attempt to cancel out with its internal line equalizer. Even if you have an analog C.O., the performance of the hybrids can be better when the analog characteristics of the loop are eliminated at the hybrid balance points, (assuming the C.O. people know how to properly apply the equipment). 2. The T1 is essentially a "lossless" connection. Since the analog path to the C.O. has variable losses, the modem has to cope with these. Sometimes, it doesn't work too well, especially if you have long loops. With the T1, you will be closer to optimum signal levels. In some parts of the country, the cost of a T1 with 24 trunk equivalents is cheaper that 24 analog lines. This may help in your payback analysis. Jeff Box ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 17:12:18 CDT From: Andrew C. Green Subject: Re: Tele-Go Description Allen J. Langfield (ALLAN.J.LANGFIELD@gte.sprint.com) writes: > * Both GTE and Southwestern Bell Customers in the D/FW area may > subscribe to this GTE product. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It sounds like a really nice idea. I > wish we had something like this here in Ameritech territory. PAT] How time flies! We did have this, albeit temporarily, back in 1992-93 when Ameritech conducted an 18-month test of their newfangled PCS system. Regular Telecom Digest readers may recall my Ameritech PCS Trial Update series which related my experiences in the test. The description forwarded by Allen appears to be an exact match of the Ameritech effort, with the single exception being that the GTE product is said to switch automatically from air to base unit (land line) when it comes within range of its base unit; the Ameritech phone, a Motorola CT2 SilverLink, if memory serves, had to be switched manually. I don't know what lessons Ameritech took away from its test (weak trans- mission power was _my_ chief complaint); the test ended in December of 1993, but I would guess that they are hard at work on their next PCS incarnation to roll out here in the Chicago area in the near future. Andrew C. Green (312) 266-4431 Frame Advanced Product Services 441 W. Huron Internet: acg@frame.com Chicago, IL 60610-3498 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ From: d92-sam@hotblack.nada.kth.se (Sam Spens Clason) Subject: Re: GSM - Revised Operator List Date: 20 Apr 1995 18:21:25 GMT In etxlndh@eua.ericsson.se (Robert Lindh) writes: > (Changes in the list marked by "*") > Country Operator name Network code Tel to customer service > ------ ------------- ------------ ----------------------- > Namibia The company's name is MTC and they're scheduled to launch commercial service today! Sam www.nada.kth.se/~d92-sam, sam@nada.kth.se, +46 7 01234567 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Apr 95 10:28:04 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: 334 Prefix Next Door to 334 Area Code I have just checked the Eufaula (Alabama) phone book and called Southern Bell. A call between Eufaula and Georgetown (Georgia) is local, with seven digits. The prefixes in question are these (notice the use of 334 as a prefix and as an area code): Eufaula (area 334, with 205 to be turned off 13 May 1995): 616,687 Georgetown (area 912): 334 So an N1X prefix is a seven-digit local call from a place in area 912. I have received two email references (apparently wrong) to 334 prefix at Eufaula. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #206 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa09662; 21 Apr 95 17:21 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA21616 for telecomlist-outbound; Fri, 21 Apr 1995 09:24:17 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA21608; Fri, 21 Apr 1995 09:24:14 -0500 Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 09:24:14 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504211424.JAA21608@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #207 TELECOM Digest Fri, 21 Apr 95 09:24:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 207 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: We Will Find the People Who Did This (James E. Bellaire) Re: Boom! (Second Report) (Carl Moore) Re: Boom! (Oklahoma City/Waco/World Trade Center) (Mike Frere) Re: We Will Find the People Who Did This (Eric Florack) Re: Boom! (Second Report) (Paul Robinson) Re: We Will Find the People Who Did This (Bill Hensley) Re: We Will Find the People Who Did This (Adam Ashby) Re: We Will Find the People Who Did This (Ken Stox) Re: Exchange Names Aid Memory, Especially With NPA Splits (Robert Casey) Re: Information Wanted on DSP Chip Modems (Lars Poulsen) New Improved Regulations For Cordless Phones (Paul Gloger) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 21 Apr 1995 06:04:38 -0500 From: bellaire@tk.com (James E. Bellaire) Subject: Re: Boom! (Oklahoma City/Waco/World Trade Center) In TELECOM Digest Vol 15 # 203 TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > A few years ago following the bombing at the World Trade Center, I > said in this Digest and elsewhere I believed we were entering a new > era in the USA; an era in which terrorist attacks and even possibly > war on American soil would become commonplace. We no longer live in > a time in which attacks take place 'somewhere else'. For how many ever > years we here sat sort of removed from it all. We'd see the people in > Ireland killing one another and sort of dismiss it with a wave of our > hand; we'd see the events in the Middle East as the extremists of one > faction would bomb, burn and loot the sacred places of other groups; > it got to the point it was not even newsworthy any longer -- in the > newspapers one day and replaced by some other story the next day. Too true. Americans have been so used to seeing 'the other nations' have wars and terrorist attacks. Even attacks on American targets usually took place outside of America. Now that its our turn to be the targets Americans might understand how needless murder hurts the entire world. > Why didn't they aim for President Clinton, or Janet Reno, or ATF/FBI > headquarters if that's who their grudge is against? Why not the White > House or the Congress or the Supreme Court? All of them have powerful > and fanatical enemies. The aim was correct. Notice how quickly the World Trade Center bombing faded from memory. It's not our problem in the American midwest, its theirs. Washington has turned into a fortress of concrete barriers, no parking zones and strictly limited access to the sites needed for a bomb to have this effect. Oklahoma city was not. The bombers picked an easy target that would make the biggest impression. I DO NOT SANCTION IT, but it sounds like a good advertising plan to me. > Why was Oklahoma City -- prime example of middle class America, > relatively quiet, safe place to live, mostly trusting people with > virtually no security at all required, and several hundred ineffectual > (no insult intended, please understand my intentions here) federal > employees chosen for this cowardly deed? ... I think the message > being delivered is that it can happen anywhere, at any time. > [SNIP} "Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain. Where the waving wheat can sure smell sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain." Rogers and Hammerstein described it as it was, peaceful and safe. ANYWHERE ANYTIME, terror on YOUR doorstep. The bomber's message was clearly sent. Paul Robinson wrote: > My personal opinion: If the people who did this consider the ATF to be > at war with them and caused this explosion as retaliation, it would > have been much more moral to either inform innocent bystanders to get > out of the way by phoning or faxing a bomb threat to the police or > FBI, or by setting off the explosion at 3am in the morning when > innocent personnel would not be present. That would be a kind decent thing to do. When was the last time a terrorist was kind or decent? Wars have casualties that are civillian. If the bombers are declaring war on the ATF or FBI killing civillians is part of their plan. Civilized countries like America try to avoid killing civilians in their wars. A 3am blast would have been considered 'a close call' for America, as close as the World Trade Center bombing. The memories fade. All three newspapers I bought today had large colored pictures of different surviving babies being carried out of the rubble. All three were smeared with blood. That is a strong message to America. But what do we do? Remove all the foreign nationals from America? Gee then this country would be populated by American Indians since most Americans can easily trace their roots outside America. We cetainly cannot give into the demands of bombers either. Their message was sent and recieved. I suppose we all would wish that they would have used a more accepable means. I noticed a small mistake in the one that reminds me of America's reaction to any disaster. Paul Robinson wrote: > Traffic in the downtown Oklahoma City area is extremely heavy. Local > Stations are advising people to stay out of the area unless they have > a specific reason to be there, such as being involved in rescue ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ > operations, and hampering movement of emergency vehicles. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ America's pasttime. James E. Bellaire (JEB6) bellaire@tk.com Twin Kings Communications - Sturgis, MI [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: 'Oklahoma!' was one of the biggest hits on Broadway for several years in the late 1940's. O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A ... Oklahoma! I've got the recording here; an old RCA Victor release. You are not the only person to catch that bit of poor writing/editing. Carl Moore *always* catches these things and writes me about them, and he comments in the next item in this issue. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Apr 95 18:36:08 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Boom! (Second Report) The last part of the following was badly written. Hampering movement of emergency vehicles is not a reason to be IN the area, but rather a reason to STAY OUT. > Traffic in the downtown Oklahoma City area is extremely heavy. Local > Stations are advising people to stay out of the area unless they have a > specific reason to be there, such as being involved in rescue operations, > and hampering movement of emergency vehicles. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But as Mr. Bellaire points out, an American pasttime is going to the scene of an incident like this to gape and gawk at the ruins and the misery. There's nothing like seeing a mother cut up and bloody walking in a daze down the street carrying her decapitated baby to get you ready for a hearty lunch, eh? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mfrere Subject: Re: Boom! (Oklahoma City/Waco/World Trade Center) Date: 20 Apr 1995 22:32:29 GMT Organization: Solect Technology Group Paul Robinson wrote: > Clearly, their injuring of bystanders represents irresponsible behavior. Being late for work on a regular basis is irresponsible behavior. 2000 pounds of explosives in the back of a truck and blowing up a building with over 300 people is terrorism! Mike ------------------------------ From: Eric_Florack@mc.xerox.com Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 13:51:27 PDT Subject: Re: We Will Find the People Who Did This Pat, you say: > What kind of animals would have killed all those innocent babies and > small children? I don't give a damn what kind of gripe they had or > have with the government; who in their right mind would have caused > such carnage? I agree, but add, as does another author: > My personal opinion: If the people who did this consider the ATF to > be at war with them and caused this explosion as retaliation, it would > have been much more moral to either inform innocent bystanders to get > out of the way by phoning or faxing a bomb threat to the police or > FBI, or by setting off the explosion at 3am in the morning when > innocent personnel would not be present. I would add to both of these that I FOUND the Waco thing to be just as dreadful, and on that basis I find Clinton and Reno both whining about how these people would be treated as killers, to be particularly hypocritical ... and this hypocrisy can best be demonstrated by the fact that the passage of yours that I quoted could also be attributed to the ATF, and the FBI's HRT, both in the WCO massacre, but also in the case of Randy Weaver's wife, friend and son. Do I deplore the violence in OKC any less because the government's actions? No!! NOT BY ANY MEANS ... I WANT TO BE PARTICULARLY CLEAR ON THAT! But it's damn hard to take the self righteousness of Clinton, et-al seriously, given the context. > Clearly, their injuring of bystanders represents irresponsible behavior. No question,and I agree, wholeheartedly. At the same time, I confess to a nagging voice in the back of my head that suggests that one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter ... and the difference between them, given the recent attitudes displayed all to clearly by the White House is apparently who wins. Clinton said: "Let Waco be a lesson to all Americans." Sad that he's not identified the people who need the lesson ... namely himself and his subordinates. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I'm sure the people in Oklahoma City appreciate your comments this morning on the second day after the tragedy and as the horror is beginning to sink in. Yes, I also thought the government's actions in Waco were terribly wrong but the one does not offset the other. Maybe Clinton and Reno have learned something as a result of this; it is tragic if they had to learn the hard way. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 04:38:36 -0400 (EDT) From: Paul Robinson Subject: Re: Boom! (Second Report) Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company - Silver Spring MD USA On Thu, 20 Apr 1995, Carl Moore wrote: > The last part of the following was badly written. Hampering movement > of emergency vehicles is not a reason to be IN the area, but rather a > reason to STAY OUT. >> Traffic in the downtown Oklahoma City area is extremely heavy. Local >> Stations are advising people to stay out of the area unless they have a >> specific reason to be there, such as being involved in rescue operations, >> and hampering movement of emergency vehicles. Hehehe. Yes, that's right. I should have said 'and being there is hampering'. Pat, I have a quote that fits both my error, where you used to live, and a point about the "increased security". Mayor Daley of Chicago addressed the infamous 1968 Democratic Convention - it spawned the incident leading to the trial of the notorious "Chicago Seven," where Judge Hoffman made so many mistakes the appeals court overturned every single one of the more than 140 charges they were convicted of - and commented about the complaints about the practices of cops picking up people who were protesting or causing a rucus, and he said, "The police are not here to create disorder, they are here to preserve disorder." On the day of the blast, around 3 or 4 pm Eastern Time, I had to drive into Washington, DC, past the Holocost Museum on 14th and D Streets, NW, as well as the white house. The museum had a GSA Police Cruiser out front, and the White House had a DC Police Unit on the large area between the two double yellow lines on Pennsylvania Ave out front, another van with U.S. Government license plates, and two uniformed police officers on motorcycles (but they may have been there to shoot the breeze or to watch for chances to write tickets, but somehow I don't think so.) WTOP News Radio 1500 in Washington interviewed a retired Federal Employee about the concerns of tourists, especially teachers bringing a group of children, how safe they would be against terrorist attack. The man said that a few extra police cars and officers is minor in comparison to the height of the Vietnam War protests which were also around 1968, where the National Guard was patrolling DC in full riot gear, long billy clubs, and military vehicles. He feels Washington is safer now than back then. What is interesting about the reports is how much was wrong. First the van that was seen leaving the site fast, just before the explosion, was reported as rented from "A Dallas/Ft.Worth Airport rental agency," then another reported it was "National Car Rental," and now today it was apparently rented from another company - Budget or Alamo, but don't hold me to that - in Kansas. The Red Cross has a number for people to offer donations - especially money which is needed due to the large effort after the LA Earthquake and the midwest flooding, the San Francisco Drought, the LA Drought, the LA Floods, the LA and San Juachin Valley yearly brush fires, the... - and the Red Cross, which does a lot of help anyway, has a number to call to offer donations: 1-800-HELP-NOW ------------------------------ From: bhensley@oceo.trw.com (Bill Hensley) Subject: Re: We Will Find the People Who Did This Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 23:45:17 TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > I hope readers of the Digest in the Oklahoma City vicinity will share > news with us as it becomes available to them. Telephone service was > particularly slow and sluggish all day Wednesday all over the USA, > but virtually ceased to operate at all for a few hours in Oklahoma's > capitol city. Updates on the telecom situation there will be > especially appreciated. Patrick: Thank you for the kind words. I agree with your suggestion to mail President Clinton and I have done so. Things are very numb in this city now. This has touched a lot of people. I didn't know anyone who worked in the Federal Building or the Courthouse, but in my personal contacts in the past few days, 1) a woman's (in our birthing class) grandmother is missing from there, and 2) three students in my wife's school (she's a teacher, small school, *only* 150 students grades pre-school to 8th grade) had either parents or close relatives at that facility. It seems to have calmed here somewhat, but I think that numb is a good word. For the telecom situation, during the first five-six hours, the cellular freqs were completely jammed by competition between rescue workers and the public. Repeated requests to clear the air had to be made. It was difficult to get a call across town. Some calls were cut off (pre-empted, maybe?). It was very difficult to get a long-distance call made. A command post was set up in the SWB building (which also sustained damage, although it appears that the microwave antenna complex on the roof of the building was shielded from blast effects). There were tremendous EMI/EMC problems between the RF gear downtown. Radio reporters (which were our main information sources) said numerous times that they could not get signal through to base stations due to EMI. There are still periodic difficulties in getting calls through intra-city, but long-distance seems OK. That's all the information I have. Bill Hensley TRW Oklahoma City Engineering Office bhensley@oceo.trw.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you very much for taking the time to write with news from the center of it all. I know a lot of people there are probably far too busy with their own personal problems at this time to be very concerned about what the rest of the world is writing and thinking. I do hope Internet citizens (or netizens as we are sometimes called) will take a minute today if you have not done so to consider what donation can be made to the Red Cross for the benefit of Oklahoma City and call them at 1-800-HELP-NOW and take a second minute or two to send a note to President Clinton expressing solidarity and unity with our elected leader during this time of national crisis. Write president@whitehouse.gov. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 08:20:08 +0000 From: 1560440@nt.com Subject: Re: We Will Find the People Who Did This Organization: Nortel Ltd., Maidenhead. England Pat, Whilst in no way condoning the terrible events in Oklahoma, it seems that the hysterical wailing and gnashing of teeth that has followed bears little resemblance to the US feting of the leader of Sinn Fein. America has suffered two bomb attacks in the last five years - Great Britain is enjoying her first bomb-free year in the last 25. Perhaps all those US citizens that are so outraged now will reflect on what has been going on over here for so long, and rethink their blind worship of Mr. Adams. It also seems a little insensitive of Mr. Robinson to use this tragic situation for a lengthy diatribe on the ATF agency -- especially since it would seem that a number of them will have perished. It also shows the dubious wisdom of printing the first news that comes in -- Mr. Robinson has laid the blame at the door of most people based only on supposition and wild rumour. I wonder how many apologies will be directed at the Middle East now that the FBI are looking for two white men who rented the truck in Kansas?? Anyway, this bears little resemblence to anything telecom related, and I have work to do!! My deepest sympathies rest with all those in the States who have lost friends and relatives in the atrocity, but especially those in the rescue services that have the grisly task of clearing up. Adam Ashby | 1560440@nt.com | Nortel Ltd. +44 162 881 2557 | | Maidenhead, U.K. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Apr 95 15:46:22 -0500 From: stox@fsgi01.fnal.gov (Ken Stox) Subject: Re: We Will Find the People Who Did This In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > Why was Oklahoma City -- prime example of middle class America, relatively > quiet, safe place to live, mostly trusting people with virtually no > security at all required, and several hundred ineffectual (no insult > intended, please understand my intentions here) federal employees chosen > for this cowardly deed? ... I think the message being delivered is that it > can happen anywhere, at any time. Yes, when the WTC bombing took place > I said 'within a few months to a year it will become commonplace' ... so > my timing was off a little. I will again suggest we have not seen the > end of this reign of terror. This time I won't be so brash as to indicate > a time frame. I am sure that Oklahoma City was chosen very carefully to maximize the terror potential of this act. If it happened in DC or NYC, much of the public would have brushed it off, and there would have been a higher probability of being caught. But, instead, the very heart of America was struck. > Prior to Wednesday's incident, the most severe terrorist incident in the > United States took place Thursday, September 16, 1920 when a bomb exploded > in New York City's Wall Street area. In that incident, 40 persons were > killed and 700 were seriously injured. No one was ever apprehended or > convicted in the bombing which {The New York Times} blamed on 'anarchists'. > Prior to the 1920 incident, the most severe terrorist incident occurred > in Chicago, Monday, May 24, 1886. During a labor union rally in the > Haymarket neighborhood of Chicago, a bomb explosion left seven Chicago > Police officers dead along with four workers. Another 66 persons were > seriously injured. On New Year's Eve in 1975, a bomb in a locker at > LaGuardia Airport in New York City exploded killing eleven perseons > and injuring 75 others including a reporter from the {Chicago Tribune}. > But never before, an attack of the magnitude of yesterday within the > United States itself. President Clinton stated very plainly, "We will > find the people who did this ..." I hope everyone will for now put > aside differences they may have with Clinton and send a note of support > to 'president@whitehouse.gov' saying simply that in this we are united: > find, and severely punish the people involved. Janet Reno stated that > the federal death penalty is appropriate. I believe it is also. Let > Clinton know how you feel. I agree, but I am very concerned that many people will be willing to sacrifice basic rights to protect ourselves from these acts. I think we may end up with a society not unlike Britain. I, for one, would rather live free and die. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And what, pray tell, do you find so unpleasant about Great Britain? They seem to have some civilization there -- despite their own troubles in the past few decades -- that we are sadly lacking here. I'd move there in a minute if I had some employment there or method of surviving other than enrolling in their public welfare the day I arrived. You would rather live free and die, but I will suggest that you're going to be dead a lot sooner than you think with that kind of attitude. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) Subject: Re: Exchange Names Aid Memory, Especially With NPA Splits Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 05:13:13 GMT Exchange names were nice to have (I grew up in 201-Colfax-1 xxxx now 201-261-xxxx). But I know someone with the phone number 908-918-xxxx, there are no letters associated with "1", so there's no possible exchange name for it. Maybe we can have *area code* names for these new area codes without a 0 or 1 for the 2nd digit. Like "DEacon-4 xxx-xxxx" for that new 334 area code in Alabama. Or "WRiter-0 xxx-xxxx" for 970, "LAbrador-0 xxx-xxxx"for 520, "LOranne-2 xxx-xxxx" for 562, "VOltare-0 xxx-xxxx " for 860, and so on. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Apr 95 22:48:06 PDT From: lars@RNS.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Information Wanted on DSP Chip Modems Organization: Rockwell International - CMC Network Products In article is written: > ... DSP chip modems ... have an advantage of flexibility at a lower > prices. Any future changes just needs an upgrade in the software. Modems based on programmable Digital Signal Processors have the advantage that they can be updated with new future modulation protocols with only a software download IF THE NEW MODULATION ISN'T FASTER THAN THE ONE THEY WERE DESIGNED FOR. But if the new modulation does not have better performance, there is of course no reason to switch. In the words of my high school physics teacher: EX NIHILO NIHIL FIT (TANSTAAFL!). Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@RNS.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 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 04:55:15 PDT From: Paul_Gloger.ES_XFC@xerox.com Subject: New Improved Regulations For Cordless Phones Two weeks ago, on April 5, I heard on the radio news that the FCC had issued new regulations that would allow improved cordless phone quality. They only cited additional available channels. "Phones taking advantages of the new regulations will be in the stores by summer." I haven't seen or heard any more since. Anybody know more? Paul Gloger ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #207 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa07758; 25 Apr 95 5:04 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA11177 for telecomlist-outbound; Mon, 24 Apr 1995 19:49:45 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA11169; Mon, 24 Apr 1995 19:49:42 -0500 Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 19:49:42 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504250049.TAA11169@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #208 TELECOM Digest Mon, 24 Apr 95 19:49:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 208 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? (Randall Rathbun) Book Review: "NetPages" by Aldea Communications (Rob Slade) Need Help on 50-POTS-Line Setup (Trevor Fiatal) Indian Minister Calls For Computers in Rural Schools (Rishab Aiyer Ghosh) International Rates to Russia (Van Hefner) Mexico: Buying Modems and Muxes (maxthump@aol.com) EIA-232 Specifications - Where Can They be Located? (Chad Ira Hanneman) CIUG Conference (Bob Larribeau) Telecomics (Dave Leibold) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 21 Apr 1995 18:16:28 -0700 From: randall@coyote.csusm.edu (Randall Rathbun) Subject: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? "Would you like to work at home? Would you like to be freed from the drudgery of a company? Would you like to pick your own hours? etc, etc." This computer auto-dialed voice response advertisement hit our block of 1200 numbers in a CA office prefix and started up the chain of numbers. We have almost 3 dozen DID trunks selectable as a distribution group. Dial our range of numbers, and it comes in on any of our trunks. Continually hitting the attendant operator, the situation soon became very irritating. Our engineers and management were also receiving this barrage of automated enticements, and frankly it was disruptive to our business. We are a large defense manufacturer and don't have the time or inclination to be disturbed by this type of thing. What came as a surprise totally to us, was the response of our local telco when asked to remedy the situation. Here's what we're told (quoted) "We don't have a way to stop this ... we don't have a way of trapping ... you have to have a trap in place ... you have to have your security give us a signed statement ... you have to have a case number assigned to you from the county sheriff's department." In other words, it is just about impossible to even deal with this type of annoying or harassment call due to the complicated, extended and time-consuming legal procedures. The local telco representative added "We've had this thing happen to us, hopefully yours' will stop today" and they acknowledged that a carefully placed roving call would go through virtually impossible to stop. They said they had to have two matches on the same number before they could initiate law enforcement activity in their offensive call bureau. A simple question comes to mind, don't roving calls only hit the number once and then move on? In other words, knowledgeable offensive callers can dial with almost complete impunity and automated dialers are "impossible" to stop. What particularly irks this writer, with extensive knowledge and experience of telecommunications, is that he and a local CO technician can trace and lock down these type of calls within 10-15 seconds after they come in. The local CO technician can even remotely login to other telco sites and trace the call and positively identify its source within a minute or at the most two. In other words, it IS possible to stop these types of calls. Why can't we do something about this growing problem? Have the telco carriers formulated new procedures to handle this growing problem? All the hardware is already in place to deal with this situation. With the advent of the computer autdialers and increasing mechanization during the 90's, this type of thing will only increase. Certainly abuse will only increase once people realize that nothing really will ever be done. Can't we stop this type of thing, rather than throw up our hands and say "oh well, there's nothing we can do about it"? Your comment is appreciated. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Apr 1995 13:37:29 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "NetPages" by Aldea Communications BKNETPAG.RVW 950313 "NetPages", Susan Estrada, 1994, U$5.95 %A Susan Estrada susan_estrada@aldea.com %C 2380 Camino Vida Roble, Carlsbad, CA 92009 %D 1994 %I Aldea Communications, Inc. %O U$5.95 +1-619-943-0101 fax: +1-619-929-0580 info@aldea.com %P 214 %T "NetPages" Godin and McBride did the "1994 Internet White Pages" (cf. BKINTWHP.RVW) and haven't yet attempted an update. Hahn and Stout claim the "original" (cf. BKINTYLP.RVW), and New Riders the "official" (cf. BKNRYLPG.RVW), "Yellow Pages", both of which are in their second editions. Now, Aldea has produced blue, white and yellow NetPages in one volume. It is my understanding that NetPages is intended to be supplied like the phone book, with both hardcopy and online versions being provided free of charge and the project to be funded by the sale of advertising. (My copy, labelled "Spring 1995", was also marked "$5.95".) I assume this is the first edition: for a network directory, it is very slim. The blue pages are a remarkably cogent and concise "at a glance" guide to the Internet. Email components, mailing lists, codes of conduct, good references, and business on the Internet are covered quickly, but with all the major points covered. (The bibliography is terrible, but you can't have everything.) The white pages have first business, and then individual, listings. This is very handy in terms of finding people, but an additional page colour might be of benefit here, to distinguish the two sections. The listing system is automated; you send email to np-add@aldea.com, so there are frequent errors. (Send email to np-faq@aldea.com to get details of the submission format.) In this version, there are fewer than 160 companies listed in the yellow pages. The information in the book states that it will be published twice annually. For information on availability, send email to np-pickup@aldea.com. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKNETPAG.RVW 950313. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver roberts@decus.ca | "If a train station Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | is where a train Research into rslade@cyberstore.ca | stops, what happens User Rob_Slade@mindlink.bc.ca | at a workstation?" Security Canada V7K 2G6 | Frederick Wheeler ------------------------------ From: tafiatal@coetech7-pc.uncc.edu (Trevor Fiatal) Subject: Need Help on 50-POTS-Line Setup Date: 23 Apr 1995 19:49:22 GMT Organization: University of NC at Charlotte Hi, telecom netizens. I'm in the midst of coordinating an ISP startup, and I've run into a seemingly-simple problem which has me stumped. Please help me! We had Centel (Sprint's wholly-owned NC telco subsidiary) bring 200 pairs from their CO to our office. We currently have 50 pairs hooked up, and this is where my ignorance begins. Rather than a simple block of RJ-11s, I have two 50-pair blocks of punch-down posts, one labeled "Xmit" and the other labeled "Recv". The blocks appear to be bridged together; I can't tell for sure. Which block should I wire my inside lines to? I'm not certain it would make a difference, but I'd like to get it right the first time. I would also appreciate any tips on how to keep things simple, in terms of what number of conductors to use in any given cable, and good sources for RJ patch panels and the like. Email replies are fine; UNCC is graciously allowing me to use my (former) staff account as an access point until we get rolling. Thanks, Trevor Fiatal---tafiatal@cybernetics.com---tafiatal@ansouth.com Alphanet South -- High Speed Internet Access for the Pinehurst, NC area. USR V.34 Courier modems on every line -- ISDN coming soon! Pinehurst POP projected to open May 1, 1995 -- Call (910)673-3300 for info ------------------------------ Subject: Indian Minister Calls For Computers in Rural Schools From: rishab@dxm.ernet.in (Rishab Aiyer Ghosh) Date: Sun, 23 Apr 95 03:45:00 IST Organization: Deus X Machina Indian Minister calls for computers in rural schools Mr Madhavrao Scindia, India's Human Resources Development Minister who is responsible for education, outlined a range of improvements to the government-run Kendriya Vidyalaya schools across the country, including extensive computerisation. At a meeting with the board of governors of the schools, which are among the better run of the cash-starved public schools that cater mainly to the poor or rural population, the Ministry proposed that schools be connected through electronic networks to the facilities of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Management (IIMs). The Ministry also proposed replacing obselete BBC micros with newer PCs in several hundred schools. In order to make schoolgoing "a happy experience," it has been decided that children up to the second grade will not be given any homework, and all grades will incorporate more "activity-based learning," and "more freedom," with teachers acting only "as guides." An independent initiative from the Department of Electronics, involving the use of discretionary funds controlled by members of Parliament for public spending in their constituencies, aims to provide computers to schools at the district level and connect them through Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite links to ERNET, India's patch of the Internet, forming an "information footpath." This initiative was inaugurated earlier this year; in addition there are already some privately-run schools for the underprivileged that use Internet e-mail for innovative educational programmes. Rishab Aiyer Ghosh rishab@dxm.ernet.in rishab@arbornet.org Vox +91 11 6853410 Voxmail 3760335 H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA ------------------------------ From: VANTEK@aol.com Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 19:18:53 -0400 Subject: International Rates to Russia For those of you who make frequent international calls from the U.S. to Russia, I have compiled a factsheet listing rates to that country on programs from AT&T, MCI, Sprint, Cyberlink, and Telegroup. I used the best calling programs available from each company on both their commercial and residential programs. The report includes rates from programs such as Sprint Sense International, The Most For Business International, MCI Preferred Worldwide, MCI Friends & Family Around the World, AT&T Global Business Advantage, AT&T True World Savings, Cyberlink International Plus, and Telegroup Global Access USA. An explanation of all available discounts is listed for each program, as well as their base per-minute rates and peak/off-peak time periods (different with each company). Some of these rates are limited-time offers that expire within a few weeks. Also included is a comparison of charges for a typical 3 1/2 minute call using each of the programs (both with AND without all applicable discounts, peak and off-peak). Specific information on billing increments, service charges, monthly minimums, and required domestic services is given. Other info on fraud, six-second billing, differences between programs, access methods and a summary/reccomendation for each carrier is included as well. The file 'russia.txt' can be downloaded from my archive site via anonymous FTP at ftp.northcoast.com in the /pub/vantek/reports directory. All current and back issues of our newsletter Discount Long Distance Digest can also be downloaded from the same site in the /pub/vantek directory. Van Hefner Publisher Discount Long Distance Digest vantek@aol.com ------------------------------ From: maxthump@aol.com (MAXTHUMP) Subject: Mexico: Buying Modems and Muxes Date: 22 Apr 1995 20:59:44 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: maxthump@aol.com (MAXTHUMP) 4 0 7 - A F c o . V i l l a r re a l C o l o n i a B u e n a V i s t a M a t a m o r o s , T a m a u l i p a s , Me x i c o Telephone: 011 (528) 813-9398 Fax: 011 (528) 813-9398 E-mail: ping123@aol.com B U Y I N G NEW, USED, OR REFURBISHED We are "BUYING" the follwing items for customers in Mexico: Modems & Multiplexors in ANY of the following Brand Names: UDS 9648T & 9645's NET (NETWORK EQUIP. TECH) TIMEPLEX DATATEL TELEBIT CODEX UDS MULTITECH MICOM AT&T PARADYNE HAYES GDC NEC MICROCOM RACAL MILGO / RACAL VADIC CODEX AT&T 2048 T'S MISC. Cisco Bridges & Routers (T-1) VERILINK (T-1, CSU/DSU) PRINTERS: OKIDATA (MICRO LINE FAMILY-300 SERIES) EPSON (ANY) Pleases respond by phone, fax, or E-mail to Grady Young: With the Model #'s and Quantities you have available. Note: All transactions including receipt will be in U.S.; and , in U.S. currency. ------------------------------ From: weagle@crl.com (Chad Ira Hanneman) Subject: EIA-232 Specifications - Where Can They be Located? Date: 24 Apr 1995 18:00:11 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [Login: guest] I am looking for the EIA(RS)-232 specification. Would anyone know where I could find it? Any information via E-Mail would be greatly appreciated. I'm also looking for the 422, 423, 449, and 530 specs as well. Thanks in advance! ------------------------------ From: bob@larribeau.com (Bob Larribeau) Subject: CIUG Conference Date: 24 Apr 1995 11:48:44 GMT Organization: Larribeau Associates The California ISDN Users' Group Conference DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTING ISDN APPLICATIONS May 31 and June 1 LAX Marriott For more information and a registration form see below our take a look at http://www.ciug.org/ciug/ciugmeet.html or send more information to "info@ciug.org" Bob Larribeau ------------------- REGISTRATION Please fill out this form and mail with payment to: CALIFORNIA ISDN USERS GROUP P.O. BOX 27901-318 SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94127 or, for credit card orders, phone or fax us: (415)241-9943 Phone (415)753-6942 Fax Payment: ____ $100 Full Conference (includes membership fee) ____ $75 Full Conference (for members only) ___+ $25 Exhibits Only (includes membership fee; exhibits-only FREE for CIUG members Name____________________________________________________________________ Company, Job Title _____________________________________________________ Address, Mail Stop _____________________________________________________ City, State, Zip _______________________________________________________ Telephone, Fax, email __________________________________________________ ___ Visa ____ Mastercard ____ American Express Credit Card Number. Expiration Date _______________________________________ Name, Signature _______________________________________________________ HOTEL INFORMATION Los Angeles Airport Marriott 5855 W. Century Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90045 (301)641-5700 Call the hotel to make your reservations. The Marriott will hold a block of rooms until May 17. at a special rate of $85 per night - single double. Be sure to mention the California ISDN Users' Group when you make your reservation. The LAX Marriott is located conveniently by the Los Angeles Airport. The hotel provides transportation from the airport. EXHIBITS We will have exhibits and demonstrations by 40 ISDN companies on both days with a reception Wednesday evening from 5:00 to 7:00 PM. PROGRAM Registration Open* Wednesday 9:30 AM The Registration Desk will open at 9:30. Issues and Tutorials * Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00 Several informal meetings and tutorials will be held, including: New Members Orientation - S. Kluz, Chairman (10:00 - 11:00) ISDN Issues - S. Kluz, Chairman - (11:00 - 12:00) ISDN Tutorial - R. Brennan, AT&T (11:00 - 12:00) PPP MP Interoperability Workshop - R. Larribeau (10:00 - 12:00) Plenary * Wednesday 1:00 - 2:30 Stan Kluz - Chairman, LLNL Welcome and discussion of CIUG activities. Keynote - Pat Krause, McDonald's A discussion by an ISDN pioneer based on his experience of what it takes to be successful in designing and implementing ISDN applications. Bob Larribeau - Program Chair Conference Program Wednesday 3:00 - 5:00 Understanding and Selecting ISDN Services Leading phone companies that offer ISDN services will discuss the important considerations in selecting and using the various ISDN service options. Jack Stewart - MacNeal-Schwendler will give the user's view J. B. Hannis - GTE Mike Sapien - Pacific Bell Dei Hardiman - AT&T Pete Hansen - Sprint Thursday 8:30 to 10:00 ISDN Video Applications Two videoconferencing users will discuss the extensive networks that they have setup along with a presentation by Pacific Bell on how to select and use network based videoconferencing services. Ari Ollikainen - LLNL Jack Fine - Pacific Bell Denise Showalter - Pacific Bell ISDN Voice Applications Users who have implemented large ISDN Centrex applications will discuss their experiences and the benefits they have received. Rich Brennan - AT&T Brian Aumiller - McDonald's Alex Kelley - El Camino College Sheryl Kimball - El Camino College Thursday 10:30 to Noon ISDN Packet & Satellite Applications Discussions about how ISDN can be used with X.25 packet switching networks or in satellite networks to support Chris Brock - Pacific Bell Byron Wagner - Genius, Inc. Frank Piepiorra - Data TeleMark ISDN Data Networking Applications Three users will discuss their experiences in setting up network connections and network access using ISDN. Steve Wheeler - Graphics Plus Bruce Bartolf - Gensler & Assoc. Rick Valasek - Velasek Assoc. Thursday 2:30 to 3:00 ISDN and Netware A panel led by a user that will discuss how to solve the issues that come up in using Netware over ISDN. Includes a discussion of IPX spoofing changes in Netware that facilitate using ISDN. Doug Kaye - Rational Data Systems Joe Gervais - Novell Ham Mathews - Digiboard ISDN Data Equipment Meet the man behind the best ISDN Web site on the Internet. Hear about the kind of equipment that is available on how it performs. Presentation on the PPP MP Interoperability recently held by the CIUG. Dan Kegel - Knowledge Adventure Bob Larribeau - Larribeau Assoc. Bob Downs - Sonic Systems Thursday 3:30 to 5:00 ISDN Work-at-Home Applications Discussion by three users who have implemented programs that allow their employees to work at home. Natalie Clinton - LLNL Dirk Hartogs - Canon Research Chip Parham - Chevron ISDN and the Internet Will cover how and why you should use ISDN to dialup into the Internet. Charles Como - Underground Network Mike Friedman - Yasco Tom Ryan - Scitech ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@superctl.tor250.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 21 Apr 95 23:57:35 -0500 Subject: Telecomics Another sampling of those newspaper funnies featuring fones ... in not too particular an order ... # Sherman's Lagoon, 30 Mar 95: Fillmore: "What's Fidel Castro doing on your autodial?" Sherman: "Fidel and I go way back." Fillmore: "Madonna? Mother Teresa? I think you made these up to impress people..." (and on it goes until it is discovered The Three Tenors didn't live together ... now direct-dial to Cuba is in America now, isn't it? ... meanwhile this comic has an e-mail: slagoon@aol.com) # Dave, date unknown, but in 1995: Featuring the not-so-exciting TV series spun from Rescue 911, "Information 411" # Shoe, 25 Oct 94: Cosmo phones a female, gets her answering machine, and the message "... if this is you again, Cosmo, hang up at the beep." # Shoe, 24 Mar 95: Economy voice mail comes to Shoe's paper... where they "don't get same-day delivery" # Animal Crackers, sometime in '95: Lyle's continuing attempts to communicate with Lana ... this time it ends with her answering machine hanging up on his voice. # Animal Crackers, 27 Jan 95" Lyle vs Lana 2... a no-answer this time... playing hard to get, and in the words of a bystander, "she's winning" # Mixed Media, 4 Apr 95: Dating in the 70's... by phone number Dating in the 90's... by e-mail address # Mixed Media, 1 Mar 95: Alexander Graham Bell is shown, doing his famous summoning of Watson... but "the party at this extension is not available at this time..." ... imagine as Bell had to invent his device with those voice mail/PBX options. # Mixed Media, 20 Apr 95: Mailbox yells at someone to write his mother... "now that's voice mail..." # Mixed Media, 28 Feb 95: The results of cell phoning while race car driving are not nice ... # Mother Goose and Grimm, 31 Jan 95: Mother Goose wants to complain to the postmaster about rising postage rates and slow service ... so the postmaster uses the "fastest and most economical way"... fax # Sylvia, 1 Feb 95: Person on hold waiting for an operator ... "perhaps until your hair turns gray or your eyes bulge out." Fidonet : Dave Leibold 1:250/730 Internet: Dave.Leibold@superctl.tor250.org ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #208 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa09598; 25 Apr 95 7:11 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id VAA13139 for telecomlist-outbound; Mon, 24 Apr 1995 21:14:52 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id VAA13131; Mon, 24 Apr 1995 21:14:49 -0500 Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 21:14:49 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504250214.VAA13131@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #209 TELECOM Digest Mon, 24 Apr 95 21:14:30 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 209 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Do You Really Want the World in Your Living Room? (Rishab Aiyer Ghosh) CO/Boston Goes to AT&T Autoplex (Doug Reuben) ATT System 25 Music on Hold Help Please (Michael Cummings) Book Review: "51 Reasons" by Stone-Martin/Breeden (Rob Slade) FTC Report on LD Competition (Michael Ward) Florida AC Splits (Paul Knupke) 1-900-555-1212 (Jeff Smyth) Top Ten Excuses For Getting Your Own T-1 Connection (Peter M. Weiss) FCC Proposes Changes in Cellular 911 Service (Edupage via Michael Kuras) NYNEX Voluntarily Agrees to Competition (Jonathan Welch) Why SNMP? or Why Not? (Suresh Kalkunte) Need Help With Wiring RJ-11 Telephone Jack (Robert Swan) Voice Pagers; Where Are They? (intercom@netcom.com) Is There a Telecom Glossary On-Line Somewhere? (Nicol C. So) MCI Response to Oklahoma City Residents (Van R. Hutchinson) On Choosing a Long Distance Carrier (Van R. Hutchinson) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: Do You Really Want the World in Your Living Room? From: telco-rg@dxm.ernet.in (Rishab Aiyer Ghosh) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 95 19:55:22 IST Organization: Deus X Machina Weekly column for The Asian Age by Rishab Aiyer Ghosh #44, 16/January/1995: Do you really want the world in your living room? Off the wires, we are used to two basic modes of inter- personal communication - face-to-face, and writing, in order of decreasing directness. One provides less sensory input than the other, but allows more time for measured, intelligent and therefore useful responses. Electronic discussion in the form of e-mail or even real-time textual chat is unusual in that it provides both a sense of immediacy as well as the space required to organize one's thoughts. However, telecom giants are hoping that consumers of the future will simply cart their real-world conversation paradigms into cyberspace, making videoconferencing the rage. This is unlikely in the long run - even novice users of the Net discover the power of pure text early on. Physical proximity during a conversation encourages awareness of subliminal messages, through body language, inflexions of the voice and the physical context of immediate surroundings. It also distracts one's attention with a flood of details, sometimes useful but often irrelevant to the purpose of communication. Face-to-face interaction is very good at putting people at ease - they feel reassured that they are talking to someone who is really listening, and they get to know what other participants are "all about." E-mail, when best used, gets to the point. It does not carry any subliminal stream of unintended communication that is beyond one's control; instead, it encourages focussed, well thought out and relevant content. Of course those who have nothing to say also use e-mail, and the lack of content in their messages is more apparent, more quickly, than in face-to-face communication. Supporters of videoconferencing believe in virtual reality. As customers didn't consider talking to disembodied faces very appealing, we've progressed to torsos, sofas, embalmed-Pentium paperweights and even the odd potted plant. The idea is to create a sense of physical proximity, carrying people into each other's virtual living rooms. Unlike real living-room meetings, the barrier of distance and the camera lens (headset, datagloves, whatever) haunts any VR conference, so any closeness is clearly artificial. So you end up with the disadvantages of too much immediacy, of forced "spur-of- the-moment" responses, without most of the advantages of facing real people. Face-to-face communication and attempts to replicate it over fibre make the basic assumption of definite identity: all participants in a conversation are real human beings using their true names, rather than intelligent agents, pseudonyms or dogs. This is almost certain not to be the case, as concerns over privacy mount - a hypothetical Infosphere Secret Police could, from traffic in public forums, compile dossiers to shame the Stasi. One could imagine pseudonymized videoconferencing, with ski-masks digitally painted over faces, but unless you enjoy being subject to constant voice-stress (or tilt-of-head) analysis, you'll stick to text. Of course, realistic videoconferencing will have a niche market. Even though Granny, in the famous example, can't hold her newborn grandson over a video-phone any more than over a VCR playing a home video, she can see him gurgle in real time. High-flying directors of multinational corporations might like to hold board meetings while cruising off Nauru - but the truly foresighted are already realizing that the suits, accents and gestures transmitted so well over VR phone do not imply competence or expertise. Coherent conceptualization, which is all that textual e-mail permits, does. The sooner we understand this, the better equipped we will be to enter the information age. Rishab Aiyer Ghosh is a freelance technology consultant and writer. You can reach him through voice mail (+91 11 3760335) or e-mail (rishab@dxm.ernet.in). Rishab Aiyer Ghosh rishab@dxm.ernet.in rishab@arbornet.org Vox +91 11 6853410 Voxmail 3760335 H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA ------------------------------ From: dreuben@interpage.net (Doug Reuben) Subject: CO/Boston Goes to AT&T Autoplex Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 11:15:20 EDT Just last night I was driving to Boston, and south of Worcester, I activated No-Answer-Transfer. Instead of the Motorola EMX "Beep-Beep-Beep"...etc" tones, I got an AT&T Autoplex stutter dial-tone confirmation. I then tried call waiting (the Autoplex has a very distinctive Call-Waiting scheme, and you even get a stutter dial tone when the calling party gives up and disconnects), and sure enough, it was an AT&T switch! Only the western sections of Cell One/Boston's (00007) service area are served by the Autoplex, the rest get the older EMX, including the "partnership" system which they co-operate with Atlantic Cellular in NH (01485). However, I am told that by May 12th, the entire system will be on the Autoplex, and I assume this means the 01485 system as well. It will be fun seeing how two different companies, with two different switches, continue to operate one "seamless" (yeah, right...) system up in the Lakes region of New Hampshire ... When Boston gets rid of the EMX, I am told that redirects will still work to Metro Mobile (BAMS) RI (00119), although they may be a bit slower and not as elegant as they were on the EMX. (RI is also an EMX, as is all of Metro Mobile). We'll see ... One glaring bug on the Autoplex: If you dial 10xxx+0+AC+number, it is treated as if you just dialed the number direct! You are NOT prompted for a calling card, and the call goes through and YOU pay for the call -- it is not billed to a calling card. I think 10XXX in general is not working from the Autoplex, although I ddin't try that too extensively. They are looking into it right now and are supposed to call me back to let me know when that will be corrected. Also, late at night I noticed a lot of erroneous "ESN Retricted/Denied" messages, as well as some NACN-type recordings (The switch recording I got was DE-32 ... what's DE stand for, Dedham?). So there's a lot of work going on, and outgoing calls are sporadic at best, and incoming are just slightly better. It is an interesting transition though - two switches concurrently serving the same system. I guess they are testing out the Autoplex in the less populated sections of their system before they put one in Boston. (BTW, SWBell's other A property in the East, DC-MD/00013, is currently an AT&T Autoplex switch, and yes, they are STILL having isolated problems where if you register in Baltimore you can't get calls until you hit DC, which is really weird, and has been going on for over a year now :( .) Doug Reuben * dreuben@interpage.net * (500) 442-4CID / (203) 499 - 5221 Interpage Network Services -- http://www.interpage.net, telnet interpage.net E-Mail Alpha/Numeric Paging, Voice & Fax Svcs, News, and "Follow Me" Weather ------------------------------ From: cummings@netcom.com (Michael Cummings) Subject: ATT System 25 Music on Hold Help Please Organization: NETCOM Balt. I feel better now.(tm) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 06:22:54 GMT I have a ATT System 25 (in a remote location) that we are tring to setup MOH. From what I am being told to set this up you need a external piece of ATT equipt. to interface it to a system port. Some time ago, a tech attempted to install this setup, did the programing on the port (it's been marked MOH) then discovered that we needed some sort of interface box to complete the install (at a price of 750.00 or so). I have never worked on a System 25 (or any ATT switch for that matter) but I got to beleive that this box is just some sort of matching transformer or such. If so could I use something like a Bogen WT-1?? or some other sort of generic matching unit. What pair on the system port would I use?? Thanks for any help that anyone can provide. Michael Cummings at home, feet up, in Columbia, MD Work: 301-680-7906 DARCARS Automotive Internet: cummings@netcom.com Voice: 410-964-5741 Info. Systems Div. Netkom Stock?? I don't own no stkin' Netkom stock...Pyramid DC/OSx MIS-12 Yes, here at Netkom, we have BANANAS!!!.............System Admin. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 15:09:25 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "51 Reasons" by Stone-Martin/Breeden BK51RESN.RVW 950314 "51 Reasons", Martha Stone-Martin, Laura Breeden, 1994 %A Martha Stone-Martin %A Laura Breeden %C 114 Waltham Street, Suite 12, Lexington, MA 02173 %D 1994 %I FARNET, Inc. %O (617) 860-9445 stories@farnet.org %P 124 %T "51 Reasons" This book contains fifty-six short articles about some aspect of Internet use. Fifty-one represent works loosely based in each of the fifty states (in the U.S.) and the District of Columbia, while five are author profiles. The articles cover a wide range of topics. Most do not go into detail about the applications used. Some are a bit odd, such as the history of SIMTEL20 (which does not mention the recent shut-down at WSMR) and the promotional piece for Cisco Systems. This is good material for promoting Internet use. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BK51RESN.RVW 950314. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | "A ship in port is safe, Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | but that is not what Research into Rob.Slade@f733.n153/| ships are for." User .z1.fidonet.org| Adm. Grace Murray Hopper Security Canada V7K 2G6 | after John Parks ------------------------------ From: ward1@ux6.cso.uiuc.edu (ward michael) Subject: FTC Report on LD Competition Date: 24 Apr 95 21:25:37 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Earlier this month, the FTC released a report on competition in the long distance industry. The report attempts to measure market power by estimating firm-specific demand curves for AT&T and its rivals. From these, price-cost margins are infered and estimates of the social cost to above cost pricing by AT&T are calculated. AT&T's demand elasticity is estimated to be ~ -10 and the social cost is calculated to be 0.36% of total industry revenues. Copies of this report are available from the Federal Trade Commission or email a request to me, Michael Ward, the report's author at michael.ward@wpo.ftc.gov and I will mail a copy to you. Regards, Mike michael.ward@wpo.ftc.gov (202) 326-2096 ------------------------------ From: knupke@babbage.csee.usf.edu (Paul Knupke) Subject: Florida AC Splits Date: 24 Apr 1995 18:37:35 GMT Organization: University of South Florida In Friday's {Tampa Tribune} and Saturday's {St. Petersburg Times} it was mentioned that area code 904 will split in early fall of this year. The possible area code is 850. Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Pensacola will remain in 904 while 850 goes to Gainsville, Ocala, Daytona Beach. Basically a line from Crystal River east to Daytona Beach and south. Also mentioned is the 954 split from 305. Southern Bell supports an overlay while the FL PSC favors 954 for Broward County and 305 remaining for Dade County. Monroe County (non-mainland, ie the Keys) is also in 305 so I am not sure what the deal is there. The 941 split from 813 is scheduled to go ahead in May as planned with Metro Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater keeping 813 (Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough Cos) and the rest of 813 moving to 941. Paul Knupke, Jr. University of South Florida Computer Engineering knupke@babbage.csee.usf.edu Fidonet 1:377/61 Tampa, FL * Amateur Radio Callsign KR4YL * Packet @WA1GUD.#TPA.FL.NOAM ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 10:07:30 PDT From: Jeff Smyth Subject: 1-900-555-1212 Pat, On April 20th AT&T introduced a new service that allows callers to obtain domestic (USA) and international long distance telephone numbers -- just by dialing 1-900-555-1212. (This looks to me like AT&T's version of MCI's 1-900-GET-INFO service). I have one "simple" question -- does anyone know who gave AT&T the right to use this particular number? It was my understanding that the NPA-555-1212 number series was reserved for NPA specific directory assistance -- not for a worldwide directory service operated by AT&T! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 08:55:34 EDT From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: Top Ten Excuses For Getting Your Own T-1 Connection Organization: Penn State University ****************************************************************** ** The Macmillan USA Information SuperLibrary Newsletter ** ****************************************************************** http://www.mcp.com/general/news4/nl.html Volume 1, Number 4 M A C M I L L A N T O P T E N L I S T Top Ten Excuses for Getting your Own T-1 Connection 10) ...so I could dodge potholes in the Information SuperHypeway at 1.544 Mbps. 9) Loading those Cindy Crawford gifs takes too much time away from your schoolwork. 8) Scornful stares from coworkers when viewing your alt.binaries.shirtless. abe.vigoda gifs at work. 7) Get real-time display of the evidence shown to witnesses in the OJ trial. 6) So my Pentium (tm) doesn't run NetScape like an XT. 5) With a T-1 it's easier to justify the need for a T3 connection. 4) You have 24 different personalities and they all need to use the phone -- NOW! 3) Just gotta fill that new five gig HD. 2) So I can control my coffee machine at home while at work. And the number one excuse for getting your own T-1 connection ... 1) It will increase my productivity by allowing me to waste time more efficiently. Winners will be notified by email, so if you see your response listed expect to hear from us with details about your FREE SuperLibrary T-Shirt! April's Contest: Top Ten USENET Newsgroups You'd Like to See Send your response to topten@mcp.com Computer News is Copyright (C) 1995 by Olcay Cirit. All Rights Reserved. To SUBSCRIBE to Computer News, send e-mail to majordomo@libtech.com with the following in the body of the message: subscribe cn Computer News is edited by Olcay Cirit ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 23:19:22 -0400 From: mkuras@ccs.neu.edu (Michael J Kuras) Subject: FCC Proposes Changes in Cellular 911 Service Organization: College of Computer Science, Northeastern University Pat- I read this on Edupage and thought you might be able to toss it on the newsgroup if the subject comes up again sometime soon. > FCC PROPOSES CHANGES IN CELLULAR 911 SERVICE > A significant portion of the explosive growth in cellular phone services is > due to people who buy them to feel safer -- women who worry about traveling > alone in their cars, etc. But now it turns out that 911 calls made from > cellular phones are treated differently and the FCC is considering > requiring cellular providers to improve their service. While calls made > from wired phones are routed to a centralized dispatch center, cellular > calls are often routed other places, such as a state-police barracks. And > the automated tracking system that identifies where the call is coming from > is useless with cellular technology. The cellular industry is protesting > the FCC's proposal, which would require cellular providers to give 911 calls > priority over other calls and have technology in place within five years to > identify the location from which the call was made. They point out that > 25 million devices have already been sold, making retrofitting the phones a > nightmare. "We sat on our fat fannies 11 years ago when cellular first came > out," says the head of a national group of emergency-number administrators. > (Wall Street Journal 4/18/95 B1) > EDUPAGE is what you've just finished reading. To subscribe to Edupage: > send a message to: listproc@educom.edu and in the body of the message type: > subscribe edupage J.J. Johnson (assuming that your name is J.J. Johnson; if > it isn't, substitute your own name). ... To cancel, send a message to: > listproc@educom.edu and in the body of the message type: unsubscribe > edupage. ----------------------------------------------- michael j kuras mkuras@ccs.neu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 07:27:23 -0500 From: Jonathan_Welch Subject: NYNEX Voluntarily Agrees to Competition Pat, I was still half asleep this morning, so you might want to get more pertinent from another source, but WBZ radio in Boston reported that NYNEX voluntarily agreed to open up to local competition. A competing company's name (MFS?) was mentioned, and the story pointed out that one's phone number wouldn't have to be changed. Jonathan Welch VAX Systems Manager Umass/Amherst JHWELCH@ecs.umass.edu ------------------------------ From: kalkunte@aquarius.rutgers.edu (Suresh Kalkunte) Subject: Why SNMP? or Why Not? Date: 24 Apr 1995 18:18:17 -0400 Organization: Rutgers University LCSR Hi Folks, I was interested to know the extent to which SNMP as a means of managing telco network is employed. The question why, can be answered from a simplistic standpoint as to confirm to the emerging network management(NM) platforms. Is that the only issue or is it possible from SNMP to accomplish the stupendous task of replacing the complex intricacies involved in telco management. If so, to what extent? The question why not is driven by the fact that SNMP is a gateway to a number of off-the shelf products that will realize some of the operations performed in telco NM? Your views/insights/issues concerning the above will truly enligten a soul that asks one question every morning? should I persue network management as a career. Suresh kalkunte@aquarius.rutgers.edu ------------------------------ From: rjswan@ix.netcom.com (rjswan) Subject: Need Help With Wiring RJ-11 Telephone Jack Date: 24 Apr 1995 15:36:44 GMT Organization: Netcom I just had a second phone line installed and am having trouble with the color coding on the wires. Line 1 is on GREEN-RED Line 2 is on YELLOW-BLACK I have two cables in my main box inside the house; one coming from the outside into the house and one going to the jack in the bedroom. I tried GREEN to GREEN, RED to RED, ect. It doesn't seem to work. Actually, the old number works fine, the new number, which is for data, seems to disconect frequently. Any assistance will be appriciated, via e mail please. Thanks, Bob from Seattle ------------------------------ From: intercom@netcom.com (InterCom) Subject: Voice Pagers; Where Are They? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 16:59:13 GMT Where can I find out more information on pagers that receive audio messages (not cut-through voice-mail pagers, but real voice pagers)? TIA, Dan ------------------------------ From: so@eiffel.cse.psu.edu (Nicol C So) Subject: Is There a Telecom Glossary On-Line Somewhere? Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 17:14:09 -0400 Organization: Computer Science and Engineering, Penn State University Does anyone know of a telecom glossary somewhere on the net? I enjoy reading the discussions on this group but am confused by the ubiquitous use of acronyms. Thanks in advance. Please reply by posting a follow-up. Nicol [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Check out the various glossaries in the Telecom Archives. We have several different files dealing with telecom terms. There are a couple ways to do this: you can use anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu. Login anonymous then 'cd telecom-archives/glossaries'. You can then pull the files back to your site. The other method is to use the Telecom Archives Email Information Service. You can send a blank message to 'tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu' and a help file will be sent back to you explaining how to use the service. Via the email service you can either pull the glossaries files back to your site or you can use the interactive SEARCH command in your email. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Apr 95 20:25 EST From: Van R. Hutchinson <0005493896@mcimail.com> Subject: MCI Response to Oklahoma City Residents Pat, on the heels of my request and after reading your notes about the bombing, you may be happy to see that big corporation has a heart too. News Flash April 20, 1995 MCI Consumer Markets issued the following media advisory to local Oklahoma City media this afternoon: MCI OFFERS SUPPORT TO OKLAHOMA CITY Recognizing the importance for loved ones to stay in touch during this time of need, MCI is pleased to announce that long distance calls made by MCI residential customers in Oklahoma City to anyone in the U.S. are free of charge, effective midnight, Wednesday, April 19 through 11:59 pm on Sunday, April 23. For those consumers who may not be MCI customers, MCI has donated MCI PhoneCash calling cards for consumers to make free long distance calls anywhere in the United States. Beginning tomorrow, consumers may simply pick up PhoneCash cards at the following locations: St. Luke's United Methodist Church First Christian Church 222 Northwest 15th 3700 North Walker phone: 232-1371 phone: 525-6551 MCI has also provided MCI pagers and paging service to the local Red Cross chapter for their volunteers to stay in touch and coordinate efforts to help those affected by this tragedy. For more information, contact Kate Fralin or Carol Aarhus at MCI's Media Relations office at 1-800-436-9749. ----------------- TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This a very generous offer by MCI and I thank you for bringing it to the attention of the readers. And as a side note, although I am not familiar with St. Luke's in Oklahoma City and their involvement in the events of last week, I can say regards the First Christian Church that their involvement since the first day -- even the first couple hours -- of the tragic event has been enormous. Without regard to their own scheduled activities, they have provided numerous community services, and helped coordinate the flow of information between loved ones. And I don't mean to single them out above the many other volunteers and fine organizations in that city, however First Christian Church has been mentioned numerous times in the national newscasts from OKC as a clearinghouse for information, a place to seek help, etc. I listened to the memorial service on the radio yesterday afternoon and one of the speakers -- Clinton I think -- noted that 'anyone who says Americans are selfish, unconcerned and greedy has never been to Oklahoma.' If you have not yet specifically sent email to President Clinton in a display of unity with our elected leader in this time of national tragedy please do so today by emailing 'president@whitehouse.gov'. Please let him know that despite the several differences many of you (and certainly I!) may have with him, you stand united with him as recovery and the healing process begins. Thanks very much, and thanks also to MCI for their gesture. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Apr 95 20:26 EST From: Van R. Hutchinson <0005493896@mcimail.com> Subject: On Choosing a Long Distance Carrier > So go with whichever one is the most liberal in handing out those checks > or 'pay to the order of the telephone company' gift certificates. One free month of long distance on MCI, up to $1000.00, is available to business customers via its MCI Preferred program. No term commitment or contract required. Or you may elect to take 10,000 frequent flyer miles instead of the free month. If you have a business and would like more information, please e-mail. Van Hutchinson 5493896@mcimail.com Tel: 800-456-3004 ext. 231 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #209 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11452; 26 Apr 95 11:26 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA04084 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 25 Apr 1995 16:03:07 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA04074; Tue, 25 Apr 1995 16:03:04 -0500 Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 16:03:04 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504252103.QAA04074@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #210 TELECOM Digest Tue, 25 Apr 95 16:03:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 210 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson MCI/NSF High Speed Backbone Network (Stephen Goodman) Internet 1996 World Exposition (Alex Pavlovic) Looking For a Black Box (Andrew Bevan) Setting up as an LD Reseller? (Michael K. Heney) Use of 1-900-555-1212 (Mark Cuccia) RBOC IP legislation scaring local ISPs? (Bob Izenberg) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 25 Apr 95 13:53 EST From: Stephen Goodman <0003945654@mcimail.com> Subject: MCI/NSF High Speed Backbone Network FYI.. CORPORATE NEWS BUREAU 1-800-289-0073 202-887-3000 INTERNET: newsmci@mcimail.com COMDEX BOOTH #9054 Ron Taylor KETCHUM PUBLIC RELATIONS 202-835-8834 MCI AND THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE NEW VERY HIGH SPEED BACKBONE NETWORK SERVICE TO CONNECT NATION'S SUPERCOMPUTER CENTERS Network "R&D Lab of the 21st Century" Will Enable Scientists To Extend High Performance Supercomputer Models To Address Mankind's Grand Challenges ATLANTA (April 24, 1995) - MCI and the National Science Foundation (NSF) today announced the launch of a new network that promises to help solve mankinds Grand Challenges and serve as the blueprint for the Network for the Future. The very high speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS) was announced today by MCI Chairman and CEO Bert C. Roberts, Jr., in a keynote address at the COMDEX exposition here. The vBNS is the first nationwide high-speed network to use advanced information age technologies that enable massive amounts of voice, data and video to be combined and transmitted at speeds nearly four times faster than current technology. Initially the new vBNS will serve as an experimental platform for developing new national networking applications and will link five supercomputing sites around the U.S. It will be used to develop critical technologies and applications that will run over the National Information Infrastructure (NII), sometimes referred to as the Information Superhighway. "Using the very latest technology, vBNS will serve as the R&D lab for the 21st Century," said Roberts. "This network will open a whole new world of support for high speed applications and set the stage for the exploration of business applications comparable to the Grand Challenges. The technology will play a major role in establishing the next generation of networks and be a benchmark for future network models." The vBNS will provide scientists and researchers with faster data links and communications between supercomputing sites working to solve fundamental Grand Challenges in science and engineering. The Grand Challenges, first articulated by the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, are defined as fundamental problems in science and engineering with broad economic and scientific importance whose solutions can be advanced by applying high performance computing techniques and advanced networking resources. Examples include: Understanding the structure of biological molecules in order to fight heart disease; Forecasting weather and predicting global climate changes; Building more energy-efficient autos and airplanes; Improving environmental modeling to understand global warming; Understanding how galaxies are formed; and Understanding the nature of new materials. The vBNS is the next step in the evolution of advanced networking as part of NSF's commitment to furthering high performance computing as well as scientific research and education. The vBNS is designed to provide sufficient capacity for "next generation" networking and supercomputer applications requiring huge multi-supercomputer data exchanges to conduct Grand Challenge kinds of computations. The vBNS will use the capabilities of MCI's nationwide network of advanced switching and fiber optic transmission technologies, known as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Synchronous Optical Network (SONET). The combination of ATM and SONET enables very high-speed, high capacity voice, data, and video signals to be combined and transmitted "on demand." The vBNS initially will operate at speeds of 155 Mbps (million bits of data per second) and is planned to operate at greater than 600 Mbps by 1996. The vBNS speeds are achieved by connecting Internet Protocol (IP) through an ATM switching matrix, and running this combination on the SONET network. Due to its experimental nature, the vBNS is expected to stay a generation ahead of other commercially available network technology. It is specifically designed for high-speed applications, not everyday communications traffic. When upgraded to the next transmission speed, 622 Mbps, the vBNS will be able to carry about 14 times more traffic than the current NSF Network (NSFNET), which carries 100 billion data packets or the equivalent of the Library of Congress holdings, every month. "The vBNS will be a boon to scientists who are limited by current network speeds that cannot take advantage of the supercomputer speeds used in modeling, simulations and visualizations that require accessing and using huge amounts of data," said Paul Young, assistant director of the NSF's directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering. High speed performance computing and networking technologies provided by vBNS will allow scientists to create mathematical models of real life situations and run algorithms that predict changes in those events. Supercomputing and vBNS make it possible to study problems that are either too expensive or difficult to examine through observation or experimentation. Given this new power, scientists are being freed to ask questions they were unable to address five years ago and are coming up with innovative solutions using this new networking technology. The NSF already is in the process of authorizing use of the vBNS network for "meritorious" high-bandwidth applications such as: Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado are currently using supercomputer modeling to experimentally understand how and where icing occurs on aircraft--and also how to avoid altitudes most likely to create ice on aircraft wings. Researchers at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, are building computational models to simulate the workings of biological membranes and how cholesterol inserts into membranes. How membranes determine what enters and exits the barrier between the inside and the outside of a cell is still a puzzle to scientists. The vBNS will help scientists remotely access and share the enormous amounts of data required for membrane simulations--information that could ultimately lead to a cure for heart disease. Other applications for high performance computing and vBNS include building more energy-efficient cars; improving environmental modeling; and designing better drugs. The existence of a national high-speed broadband backbone for experiments in networking between supercomputing centers will enable information technology researchers to develop technologies such as high-density video conferencing from personal computers, remote telemedicine and two-way communications between citizens and their government. The five-year, $50-million agreement will tie together the Pittsburgh and San Diego Supercomputing Centers; the Cornell Theory Center; the National Center for Supercomputer Applications in Urbana, Illinois; and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. The vBNS also will be accessible to select applications sites through four network access points in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The National Science Foundation is an independent agency of the federal government established in 1950 to promote and advance scientific progress through grants to educational and research institutions for research and education in the sciences, mathematics and engineering. MCI, headquartered in Washington, D.C., has expanded from its core long distance business to become the world's third largest carrier of international calling and a premier provider of data communications over the vast Internet computer network. With annual revenue of more than $13.3 billion, the company today provides a wide array of consumer and business long distance and local services, data and video communications, on-line information, electronic mail, network management services and communications software. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 16:04:15 -0500 From: pavlovic@Newbridge.COM (Alex Pavlovic) Subject: Internet 1996 World Exposition Newbridge Networks Announces Sponsorship of Internet 1996 World Exposition KANATA, ONT., March 30, 1995 - Newbridge Networks Corporation, a global leader in networking, announced its sponsorship as an Official Organizer of the Internet 1996 World Exposition, which was formally announced at the NETWORLD+INTEROP 95 conference and exhibition in Las Vegas on March 29. The Internet 1996 World Exposition is a world's fair in the spirit of the great universal expositions of the turn of the last century that marked the beginning of modern industrial economies. The 1996 fair will help to usher in the information economy for the turn of this century. The Internet 1996 World Exposition will be located throughout the world, with centers of activity in multiple cities. The core cities will be connected together with an Internet Railroad, and will feature applications ranging from an Internet Town Hall to a Global Schoolhouse Pavilion to an Industrial Exposition. The fair will build and leave behind a permanent open infrastructure to help drive the world information economy forward. Official Organizers of the Internet 1996 World Exposition include Newbridge Networks, NBC, MCI, Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, Quantum, and many other leading corporations around the world. Newbridge Networks is providing financial sponsorship for the Exposition, as well as engineering resources and a wide variety of Internet-related products, including: - Broadband switching products including MainStreet multiplexers, frame relay and ATM switches, and network management for the high-capacity backbone of the Internet Railroad; - VIVID ATM LAN systems for high-bandwidth local connectivity in certain pavilions; - Communication cards including SPRITE T1, providing Internet access to servers such as the Sun Netra Internet Server; - TimeStep PERMIT products providing secure TCP/IP communication across the Internet; "We are pleased to welcome Newbridge Networks as an Official Organizer of the Exposition," said Carl Malamud, chairman of the Exposition's Organizing Committee. "With their global leadership in broadband networking, they will make a valuable contribution to the Internet Railroad providing the network backbone for the fair." "We are delighted to be an organizer and participant in this landmark global event," said Terry Matthews, Chairman of Newbridge Networks Corporation. "It grants us the opportunity to help build a broadband Global Information Infrastructure, and demonstrate the resulting economic and societal benefits of a secure, ubiquitous and powerful Internet." Newbridge Networks is an ISO 9001-certified, international company which designs, manufactures, markets and services multimedia, standards-based networking products for global WAN and LAN applications. Facilities are located in Canada, the United States, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East , Asia and Australia. Newbridge Networks Corporation is a public company whose common shares are listed for trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NN) in the United States and on the Toronto Stock Exchange (NNC) in Canada. Newbridge and MainStreet are registered trademarks and VIVID is a trademark of Newbridge Networks Corporation. PERMIT is a trademark of TimeStep Corporation. Netra is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Incorporated. Aleksandar Pavlovic Network Design and Consulting |||\ ||| tel. +1 613 591 3600 NEWBRIDGE NETWORKS CORPORATION |||\\||| fax. +1 613 591 1281 600 March Road, PO Box 13600 |||\\\|| Kanata, ON, K2K 2E6, Canada ||| \\\| pavlovic@newbridge.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 15:53:27 +0000 From: andrew bevan Subject: Looking For a Black Box Organization: BNR Europe Ltd., Oakleigh Road South, New Southgate, London The telecoms project that I'm working on has a requirement to notify users of certain conditions, externally to the platform that the application is run on, which is a workstation. One solution we have thought of is to utilise the RS-232 serial port, from the workstation, by connecting this to a "black box" containing relays or contact closures. These relays/contact closures could then be connected to the external device (e.g. a flashing light or audible bell). Therefore under the right circumstances within the application, a signal/message would be sent down the RS-232 to open or close the relay, thus triggering the external device. |-------------| |-------| |----------| | HP | RS-232 | Black | | External | | Workstation |=========| Box |-------| Device | |-------------| |-------| |----------| We are having problems finding a suitable black box that could be used within this scenario. Therefore does anyone reading these newsgroups know of a black box that can be used for this purpose or any companies that might be able to help. Please reply directly to me at bevan@bnr.ca, to save filling up this newsgroup. Thanks in advance, Andrew Bevan Internet: bevan@bnr.ca BNR Europe Ltd Telephone: 0181-945-2153 Oakleigh Road South Fax: 0181-945-3116 New Southgate London N11 1HB ------------------------------ From: mheney@access.digex.net (Michael K. Heney) Subject: Setting up as an LD Reseller? Date: 25 Apr 1995 12:23:31 -0400 Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA I have a few questions about re-selling long-distance service, and I'd appreciate any information or pointers to information sources anyone would care to provide. I'm the point man (because I'm the guy with internet access) on investigating how to set up an LD-reseller operation. What we're trying to do is generate funding for projects currently being pursued by non-profit membership organizations - the idea being that a business can generate more income than membership dues and grants. So, while I'm very good at what I do (and I have run tech-based businesses before) I'm a newbie in this field. So much for the prelims. What I'm trying to find out is: What do I need to know/do to offer 10-xxx LD service? That's kind of general; some of the particular questions I have are: Who regulates this? FCC? States? Regional Bells? We want to operate in all 50 states. Do we need to get approvals or licenses from one place or from all over? Does a reseller typically buy capacity from just one carrier, or can you work with more than one at a time? What is involved with getting set up to be selectable as the default for a particular customer; is it different than gettiing a 10-xxx code, or are these tied together? I've seen mention of something called the "ATR" (Association of Telephone Resellers?) - what do they do, and would they be helpful? Any pointers/suggestions of folks who are experienced in setting up an LD reselling operation and could provide advice would also be appreciated. Again, thanks for any help you can give. Mike Heney | Senior Systems Analyst mheney@access.digex.net | Space Activist / Entrepreneur Silver Spring, MD 20901 | Chairman, Mach 25 Technologies ------------------------------ From: Mark Cuccia Subject: Use of 1-900-555-1212 Date: Tue, 25 Apr 95 08:17:00 +6C Jeff Smyth wanted to know why/how AT&T got the number 900-555-1212 for 'universal' directory assistance -- AT&T WAS providing a recordrd listing of SOME 900 numbers when one dialed 900-555-1212 (I would assume that the information providers and 900 numbers identified in the recording were ONLY AT&T provided 900 service); There was NO charge at that time to call 900-555-1212; When Bellcore began the assignment process of 900-NXX codes to Carriers about eight years ago, the NXX codes used by AT&T were 'grandfathered' in as assigned to AT&T, as were the NXX codes used in Canada 'grandfathered' in as assigned to the local/provincial operating telephone companies of Telecom-Canada now Stentor; Since 900-555 was a code used by AT&T it was assigned to AT&T under the grandfathering process, and is probably also used by Stentor in Canada; Therefore AT&T could more or less do what they wanted to with 900-555-1212 Similarly, when Bellcore began assigning 800-NXX codes to carriers under the 'Interim' plan about eight or nine years ago, AT&T never had 800-950 assigned or reserved when THEY were the 'only' 800 carrier; MCI requested use of this code, and used 800-950-1022 for a 'Feature Group B' type of access to their network; MCI ALSO began assigning line numbers to other customers of MCI 800 service- I did NOT like the idea of a number such as 800-950-1033 or 800-950-1044 or ANY 800-950-XXXX being used by MCI for assignment to just any MCI 800 service customer - I would have thought that Bellcore would have put a reserve on this 800-NXX for use by each carrier as an alternate form of Feature Group B - like access to that carrier - i.e. you run across a private payphone that refuses access to 950 numbers or wants to charge you a quarter (maybe even 25 cents every 3 minutes) to dial a 950 number, you could then redial it as 800-950; If Bellcore would have reserved 800-950, then Sprint COULD have had 800-950-1033, Allnet would have had 800-950-1044, Pizza Hut would also have had their own 800-950 number just like their local 950 numbers, etc. but in the telecommunications industry, things don't always work out logically as we would have expected them to. Mark J. Cuccia (mcuccia@law,tulane.edu) - Tulane University Law School Library ------------------------------ From: bei@io.com (Bob Izenberg) Subject: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs? Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 07:21:00 CDT Reply-To: bei@io.com Are local internet service providers worried about competition from local telephone companies? I've heard two first- or second-hand accounts of existing ISPs holding back or potential ISPs putting startup plans on hold until the effect of "telco providing internet to the home" legislation is clear. The examples that I'm familiar with are from some areas of the country served by Southwestern Bell. I must be missing the competition peril here. The RBOC ventures into local data services have been unimpressive and short-lived. Maybe something could be pulled together with a cooperative effort between local telcos and established service providers... ISDN bundled with AOL or Compuserve, to pick two experienced-user-unfriendly examples (in my opinion, of course.) What I don't see is how this type of metered ISP is competition for flat-rate service from local service providers. Of course, if there are no ISPs serving an area, then the judgment of "Is the cost of a long-distance call to xyz.com's point of presence plus the cost of their service less than the cost of a call to the telco's offering plus the cost of their service?" I expect that users making more than casual use of their connection to "the happening world" will find the local ISPs a better value. Is this concern over potential competition from telcos to local internet service providers warranted? Bob Izenberg 512-442-0614 / 617-728-1416 / 800-946-4645, pager 1109500 bei@io.com / bei@dogface.austin.tx.us / bei@pencom.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #210 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa26699; 27 Apr 95 8:59 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id VAA08528 for telecomlist-outbound; Wed, 26 Apr 1995 21:18:08 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id VAA08520; Wed, 26 Apr 1995 21:18:05 -0500 Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 21:18:05 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504270218.VAA08520@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #211 TELECOM Digest Wed, 26 Apr 95 21:18:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 211 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Teach Yourself Web Publishing With HTML" (Rob Slade) Book Review: "HTML Sourcebook" by Graham (Rob Slade) Siemens Rolm and Newbridge: Integrated WAN Solutions (Aleksandar Pavlovic) Caller-ID and NT-Specific Caller-ID? (Chris Pirazzi) Phone Encryption Devices (Benjamin Fried) Detect/Prevent 3rd-Party Calls? (Alex Madarasz) St. Maarten Phone Connection for Modem? (John Irza) 911 Tariff in Illinois (Brian Krupicka) Question About Calling Cards (Thomas Feiner) RFI - U.S. FAA Vocoder Testing (Rob Morgenstern) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 25 Apr 1995 14:12:39 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Teach Yourself Web Publishing With HTML" by Lemay BKWPHTML.RVW 950322 "Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML", Laura Lemay, 1995, 0-672-30667-0, U$25.00/C$34.95 %A Laura Lemay lemay@lne.com lemay@netcom.com %C 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290 %D 1995 %G 0-672-30667-0 %I SAMS Publishing %O U$25.00/C$34.95 800-858-7674 800-428-5331 800-428-3804 317-581-3743 %O 317-573-2500 317-581-3535 317-581-3718 fax: 317-581-4669 %O 75141.2102@compuserve.com 75141.2104@compuserve.com %P 392 %T "Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML" For those of us, hoary old techies that we are, who had to deal with TeX, SGML, and the manual insertion of escape codes into documents for the earliest laser printers, HTML (HyperText Markup Language, the instruction set for World Wide Web) holds no terrors at all. For the other ninety-nine percent of the computer-using populace, Lemay has written a solid, realistic, well-paced and readable introduction to the topic. Having seen numerous recent exhortations that "Web publisher" is one of the "coming" jobs, I hope she makes a fortune. The fourteen chapters give a thorough coverage to both HTML tags and W3 page design. Topics include background; presentation and page design; basic, linking, formatting, media and form tags; examples; W3 servers; gateway scripts; and HTML tools. Appendices list further resources and a summary of commands. The "in a week" timeframe may be stretched by the forms and gateway scripting, but a dedicated student equipped with server and browser should be able to be well familiar with everything in the book after seven days. Lemay's pacing, organization and structure are sound. The content is clear and the text quite readable. Given the subject matter, some of the typos are ironic, but none should be a hindrance. In fact, the only problem I have with this book is that nine out of every ten readers will be using it to turn out the same guff we've seen on twenty thousand other Web servers. The ones, though, might make it worthwhile. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKWPHTML.RVW 950322. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | "Remember, by the Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | rules of the game, I Research into Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z1/ | *must* lie. *Now* do User .fidonet.org | you believe me?" Security Canada V7K 2G6 | Margaret Atwood ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 18:37:19 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "HTML Sourcebook" by Graham BKHTMLSR.RVW 950323 "HTML Sourcebook", Ian Graham, 1995, 0-471-11849-4, U$29.95 %A Ian Graham igraham@utirc.utoronto.ca %C 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-0012 %D 1995 %G 0-471-11849-4 %I John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (who do not honour copyright) %O U$29.95 800-CALL-WILEY 212-850-6630 Fax: 212-850-6799 jdemarra@jwiley.com %P 416 %T "HTML Sourcebook" For those who are serious about creating World Wide Web pages and presentations, this is a very thorough reference. Chapter one is a lesson in HTML (HyperText Markup Language). It covers elements right up to multimedia and forms. The overview, though, is quite brief. Anchors are explained as links to other documents, but the function of linking to a specific section of a document is not covered. This function *is* covered in chapter two, which details all the HTML elements, including those proposed for HTML+. Subsequent chapters deal with Universal Resource Locators (URLs); the Common Gateway Interface (CGI); tools, editors and document translators; browsers; servers; and examples. The material is technical and detailed, right down to mention of security considerations on clients. The pace and technical level may not be suitable for beginners, who may want to look at Lemay's "Teach Yourself Web Publishing With HTML" (cf. BKWPHTML.RVW). The organization of the all important second chapter takes some getting used to. The anchor element is included with "List Elements", is not referenced by the "anchor" entry in the index, and the "A element" index listing is out of order. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKHTMLSR.RVW 950323. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. 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" 0-387-94311-0/3-540-94311-0 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 16:12:07 -0500 From: pavlovic@Newbridge.COM (Aleksandar Pavlovic) Subject: Siemens Rolm and Newbridge: Integrated WAN Solutions CONTACTS: Siemens Rolm Carter Cromwell (408) 492-6999 carter.cromwell@siemensrolm.com Newbridge (Press/Industry Analysts) Kit Goldfarb (703) 318-5791 kit_goldfarb@qmail.newbridge.com (Financial Analysts) John Lawlor (613) 591-3600 SYMBOLS: NN (New York Stock Exchange) NNC (Toronto Stock Exchange) SIEMENS ROLM and NEWBRIDGE TEAM TO PROVIDE INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS FROM DESKTOP ACROSS ENTERPRISE TO WANS Siemens Rolm Enhances Wide-Area Network Integration Capability With Full Line of Newbridge Products, Including ATM FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., April 24, 1995 -- Siemens Rolm Communications has entered into an agreement with Newbridge Networks to offer the entire Newbridge product line, a move that greatly strengthens Siemens Rolms wide-area, voice/data network integration capability. The agreement, announced at the National Rolm Users Group conference here, significantly enhances the NetAsset networking products and services Siemens Rolm offers through its Network Systems Group. The Newbridge line, one of the broadest in the networking industry, includes time division multiplexers, frame relay and LAN products, ATM switches and Newbridge network management systems. Siemens Rolm will sell Newbridge products under a joint NetAsset/Newbridge label, and it will support all Newbridge products within its accounts. "Having access to the entire Newbridge line extends the breadth and depth of our offerings," Siemens Rolm President and CEO Karl Geng said. "Newbridge is a leader in technologies such as TDM, frame relay and ATM, and its single-platform architecture lets our customers easily migrate from one technology to another as the need arises." International Data Corporation (IDC) ranks Newbridge first in the worldwide T1/E1 multiplexer market, first in ATM enterprise switch installed base and second in frame relay revenue*. "Siemens Rolm views networks as strategic assets," Geng added. "Our strength is our ability to put it all together. We substantially simplify network operations and reduce cost by consolidating voice and data networks, reducing the required number of circuits. We also provide a single contact for sales, implementation and support." Sandy Teetsel, director of I/S technology services at Mercy Healthcare Arizona in Phoenix, said, "We needed to expand our network quickly to support remote locations statewide, but we did not have sufficient internal resources to plan, implement or support the project. Few integrators can provide voice and data services, as well as offer full support. Most can tell you technically how to do it, but then you are on your own. They lack the depth of understanding of strategic applications and cost-effective support. But Siemens Rolm brought all the right players to the table." Newbridge Networks Inc., President Mike Pascoe said, "We selected Siemens Rolm because of the synergy between our companies. We believe their products and after-sale support, coupled with our networking capabilities, enable them to provide superior turnkey solutions." Pascoe added that the Siemens Rolm installed base of more than 35,000 systems and its nationwide sales and support organizations offer Newbridge a large additional channel for sales and service: "Customers in markets such as health care, education and financial services will now have greater access to Newbridge products." Curtis Price, research manager for data communications at International Data Corporation, said, "The depth and quality of the Newbridge line puts Siemens Rolm in an even stronger competitive position in regard to turnkey networking solutions." This agreement builds on an existing relationship between Siemens Rolm and Newbridge, which has already resulted in a number of sales. Newbridge Networks is a world leader in designing, manufacturing and servicing a comprehensive family of networking products and systems that deliver the power of multi-service communications to organizations in more than 100 countries. It has facilities throughout the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Newbridge Networks Corporation common shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NN) and The Toronto Stock Exchange (NNC). Siemens Rolm is a leading provider of private telecommunications solutions. The company pioneered the digital PBX and integrated voice messaging and is at the forefront in developing advanced CTI applications and integrated voice/data networks. Siemens Rolm is part of Siemens Private Communication Systems, the world's largest supplier of private telecommunications systems, with approximate annual sales of $4.2 billion and more than 450,000 customers and 900,000 systems installed worldwide. # # # * International Data Corporation, March 1995 Siemens Rolm is a registered trademark of Siemens Rolm Communications Inc. NetAsset is a trademark of Siemens Rolm Communications Inc. Newbridge is a registered trademark of Newbridge Networks Corporation. ------------- Aleksandar Pavlovic Network Design and Consulting tel. +1 613 591 3600 NEWBRIDGE NETWORKS CORPORATION fax. +1 613 591 1281 600 March Road, PO Box 13600 Kanata, ON, K2K 2E6, Canada pavlovic@newbridge.com ------------------------------ From: cpirazzi@cp.esd.sgi.com (Chris Pirazzi) Subject: Caller-ID and NT-Specific Caller-ID? Date: 26 Apr 1995 06:09:24 GMT We have a Northern Telecom SL100 switch at our company. Certain phones (such as Meridian 2616) have a display on which the caller's name and number are displayed for any incoming or outgoing call. I have noticed that when we place a call to or receive a call from a number OUTSIDE of our company, and the phone at that number is also being served by an SL100 (or DMS100), the distant caller ALSO sees my name and number, and I see the distant caller's name and number. I recently noticed this when a friend of mine at our company called a hotel which happened to have a DMS100. When the hotel operator transferred him "anonymously" to a certain room, the hotel guest's name and room number popped up on his display phone! Nice security. I only barely understand what is going on here and I'd like to know more. Specifically, 1. I can understand how a distant phone user might get my phone number, via the standard Caller-ID signaling mechanism. But is the additional information (the string including my name and my extension) also transferred to all phones as part of the standard Caller-ID signalling mechanism, or is this indeed part of some Northern Telecom- specific protocol that somehow piggybacks its way over the public net? 2. Regardless of the answer to #1, can someone point me to a spec describing the signals used for Caller-ID (I understand they are wedged between the first and second ring in a call) ? I'd like to understand exactly what kind of information is carried by this protocol and how. 3. If the additional information from #1 is carried in an NT-specific signal, can someone point me to a spec for the NT-specific signal? 4. Can someone explain exactly what the deal is with Caller-ID and California? What forms of Caller-ID are allowed and what aren't? What are the restrictions on calls that are CA-to-CA, CA-to-outside, and outside-to-CA ? If this is an FAQ item please lead me to the right place. 5. If the additional information from #1 is carried in an NT-specific signal, is that signal also subject to the same legal constraints in California as "standard" Caller-ID information? Thanks, Chris Pirazzi ------------------------------ From: bf@morgan.com (Benjamin Fried) Subject: Phone Encryption Devices Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 13:47:51 -0400 Organization: Morgan Stanley & Co., New York I'm looking for pointers to phone encryption products, for voice calls, both cellular and desktop. I've seen some product flyers from Transcrypt, but that's it. Any information or pointers to sources would be appreciated. Ben ------------------------------ From: alex@eagle.hd.HAC.COM (Alex Madarasz) Subject: Detect/Prevent Third-Party Calls Date: 25 Apr 1995 18:20:44 GMT Organization: Hughes Training Inc. Reply-To: alex@eagle.hd.HAC.COM I just had two AT&T long-distance calls charged to my number, and had to call AT&T to have them removed -- AT&T isn't my long-distance provider. How / why is it possible for someone to have calls -- especially long- distance calls -- charged to my number? Is there any way I can detect this happening or prevent it in the future? Alex P. Madarasz, Jr. - Hughes Training, Inc. - alex@eagle.hd.hac.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You can prevent it from happening with a slight bit of inconvenience to yourself, but it may be worth it. Find out of your local telco offers 'billed number screening'. This is a database used in common by AT&T, Sprint, MCI and a couple other long- distance carriers which prevents anything but direct dialed calls from your actual telephone from being being to your account with the exception of credit card calls. That is, calls made 'collect' to you will be turned away as will attempts to bill 'third number' calls to you. The network simply won't allow those calls. Now if *you* have reason occassionally to call your number collect or place a call and bill it to your number, then you too are going to be rejected, but this may be a minor issue considering all the options available these days such as 800 numbers, calling cards and other methods. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jirza@world.std.com (John Irza) Subject: St. Maarten Phone Connection For Modem? Organization: MariNet, Marine Technology Online Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 18:35:10 GMT Does anyone know what sort of phone system is used on the island of St. Maarten (Dutch side)? Specifically, if I bring my laptop, PCMCIA modem, and RJ-11 cord, will I be able to connect to the phone system and dial out? (Right now I operate using the US phone system; in Boston, MA specifically.) Thanks in advance, John Irza jirza@marinet.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 08:00:16 CDT From: Brian Krupicka Subject: 911 Tariff in Illinois As most of you know, the new 911 law was signed by Governor Jim Edgar on September 1, 1994 (Public Act 88-604). The law requires, in our case, colleges and universities, within the state of Illinois, providing "private residential switch service", to integrate with the E-911 centers by June 30, 1995. Ameritech has not been able to handle the requests for integration. Partly because, Ameritech just completed and submitted the tariff requests for approval. It is my understanding that if no opposition is given within 45 days, the following tariff requests will be approved. I was given the following information, VERBALLY by Ameritech. Each college and university would need to set-up and maintain an ALI (automatic line identification) database in the Ameritech 911 center database. The requested tariff for this service is: one time set-up fee $5,000.00 monthly access charge $ 109.00 (additional, changes, deletions) Each college and university would be required to have at least two trunk lines which would be dedicated to 911 traffic. one time installation fee $450.00 monthly Trunk (line) cost $ 65.00 / trunk If anyone can add to this, please respond accordingly. Thank you, Brian Krupicka INTERNET: krupicka@admin.aurora.edu Telecommunications Manager PHONE: 708-844-8396 FAX: 708-844-5463 PAGER: 312-824-6270 Home: 708-961-1243 Aurora University 347 S. Gladstone Avenue Aurora, IL 60506 ------------------------------ From: feiner@informatik.tu-muenchen.de (Thomas Feiner) Subject: Question About Calling Cards Date: 25 Apr 1995 11:39:20 GMT Organization: Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany Hi, As I arrived at Atlanta Airport, I bought a prepaid phonecard from U.S. Telecard. I was very happy about the message features. I had a special message PIN (different to the PIN which is needed to place a call), who allowed anybody who knew the PIN to leave me messages. This call was free for the caller, only I had to pay 80c for each message. Now, I would like to use this feature for international calls (especially from Germany). The problem is, that 800 numbers can not be reached from outside the U.S. So I would like to know if there are calling-cards (prepid or not) with an international message feature. I am interested in general inform- ation about calling-cards too. Thank you very much for your help in advance. Thomas Feiner Munich, Germany ------------------------------ From: rmorgen Subject: RFI - U.S. FAA Vocoder Testing Date: 24 Apr 1995 20:17:41 GMT Organization: The MITRE Corporation The following is an announcement by the U.S. FAA Technical Center that was published in the April 14, 1995 issue of the {Commerce Business Daily}. I am cross posting it here in hopes of reaching a wider audience. ------------------------ Special Studies and Services - Not R&D - Potential Sources Sought Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center (FAATC) Atlantic City, NJ 08405 Sources Sought, suppliers of voice digitizing equipment for evaluation of applicability to Air traffic control applications. POC Anthony (Buzz) Cerino 609/485-5640 of the FAATC. It is the intent of the FAATC to evaluate current technology in the area of voice coding equipment to determine applicability for use in international air/ground communications. Suppliers willing to assist in this effort are encouraged to contact the above for the purpose of submitting equipment for evaluation. Subject equipment should consist of two parts: 1)a voice encoder and 2) a voice decoder. The voice encoder shall be capable of translating an input analog (voice) signal into a digital bit stream. The decoder shall perform the reverse operation. The following minimum requirements shall apply: -Maximum bit rate of 4800 bps (including all FEC) -Intelligibility should be maintained down to a BER of 2x10-2 -Operate in a half duplex "Push to talk" (PTT) mode -Maximum throughput delay of 80msec All equipment should include complete documentation on system operation, interfacing characteristics, and company policy regarding algorithm licensing for an international market. Any equipment meeting the above criteria and submitted for evaluation will be considered for FAA application. Any equipment/documentation submitted shall be considered proprietary and not be provided to any competitor. The FAA will not be responsible for any costs incurred by any contributor as a result of their participation, and there is no guarantee of any solicitation as a result of this study. Equipment should be available for submission no later than May 31, 1995 after which no updates in software or hardware will be considered. All equipment/documentation submitted will be returned following the evaluation. ------------------------------ Thank you for your time and patience. For further information, please call the POC or send me an email message. Rob Morgenstern Center for Advanced Aviation System Development rmorgens@mitre.org ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #211 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa28941; 27 Apr 95 12:13 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id VAA09113 for telecomlist-outbound; Wed, 26 Apr 1995 21:46:06 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id VAA09105; Wed, 26 Apr 1995 21:46:03 -0500 Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 21:46:03 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504270246.VAA09105@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #212 TELECOM Digest Wed, 26 Apr 95 21:46:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 212 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: NYNEX Voluntarily Agrees to Competition (pkcarroll@aol.com) Re: NYNEX Voluntarily Agrees to Competition (Bradley Ward Allen) Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That (Lars Poulsen) Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That (Tim Gorman) Re: Competition, RBOCs and all That (John Levine) Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That (Frank Atkinson) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: pkcarroll@aol.com (PKCarroll) Subject: Re: NYNEX Voluntarily Agrees to Competition Date: 25 Apr 1995 17:29:39 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: pkcarroll@aol.com (PKCarroll) That's true. Nynex signed an interconnection agreement with MFS in NY and Mass. The agreement includes number portability. This will be done initially via call forwarding which will be a bit troublesome since not all features will work transparently. It's still better than having to change your number. ------------------------------ From: ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Ward Allen) Subject: Re: NYNEX Voluntarily Agrees to Competition Date: 26 Apr 1995 03:39:48 -0400 Organization: URL:http://www.armory.com/~ulmo/ (see rivers.html for PGP key) In article , Jonathan_Welch wrote: > Pat, I was still half asleep this morning, so you might want to get > more pertinent from another source, but WBZ radio in Boston reported > that NYNEX voluntarily agreed to open up to local competition. A > competing company's name (MFS?) was mentioned, and the story pointed > out that one's phone number wouldn't have to be changed. MFS aired an ad for local service two Saturdays ago. I immediately called the local numbers in the white pages. Finally tracked the right people down on a weekday during business hours. I ordered an MFS line last Wednesday. Switchover paperwork sent in Friday. Was supposed to receive call from technician discussing details of installation already, but am leaving constant voicemails with salesperson who is not returning calls. She did inform me that the entire process takes a few weeks, some of which is waiting for NYNEX to release the phone numbers to MFS; I don't know why I haven't received the call from the technician I was promised. Insider informs me that "MFS and NYNEX are basically run by the same types of people." I have this inkling that the $14.50 per month which "includes all the same features as NYNEX for this one price" will save me a lot of money, but we still haven't discussed how much a local call costs. This is even if I do get the lines in the first place. At least the installation is free. The number will be the same one I have now with NYNEX, some other place (Pipeline or Phantom, an ISP, forget which one) mentioned that there is some sort of forwarding that happens from the NYNEX number to the MFS number, as they were mentioning their switchover. They mentioned that some numbers are "owned" by NYNEX and others "owned" by MFS. Whatever. She said caller-id will work, as will call-forwarding and call-waiting. Why are all the calls from her office "Out Of Area"?? Time will tell. Sigh. Well, I dunno. I figure having at least a little more option is good. The arrangement is to be that the copper from my place to the NYNEX telephone CO is the same, and from there it's MFS equipment co-located with the NYNEX building. My ISP is inquiring with both MFS and MCI about their entries into this area. MCI denies any involvement when I call them, but I'm sure that they are actually involved since my ISP is talking to them too. Also I think Teleport is doing some things. Someone about a year ago mentioned there's already a couple dozen companies gearing up to do local telephone service in Manhattan. Quite frankly, I can hardly wait ... if only to see what happens, but I'm hoping things will get better. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Apr 95 09:37:52 PDT From: lars@RNS.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That lars@spectrum.RNS.COM (Lars Poulsen) writes in TELECOM Digest V15 #205: LJP> No the issue is not that the RBOC offers busy/no answer forwarding, LJP> but that they price this service by itself higher than the voicemail LJP> offering that includes it. THAT is predatory pricing. Tim Gorman : TG> This thread started off with NYNEX not even offering CFBDA. TG> Now we have progressed to the point where it is priced higher TG> than the voicemail by itself. TG> Just what is the truth here? Are we even comparing apples and TG> oranges? Do customers with voice mail have to also buy CFBDA TG> from NYNEX? If so, then what is the problem? I MUST APOLOGIZE for jumping in without having read the start of the thread; I was addressing the larger issue of predatory pricing in general. I have been informed by several that NYNEX does not offer busy/no answer forwarding. TG> If not, then has this been addressed to the PUC? Has the cost TG> documentation for voice mail been reviewed by the PUC? Is this TG> service even priced based on cost plus contribution or is it TG> priced based on value of service? If priced based on TG> value of service that is a PUC decision. Railing against the RBOC TG> for a regulation decision gets nowhere although it may allow venting TG> emotions - which might be beneficial for those involved. Seen from the sidelines few PUCs seem to proactively regulate the communications industries. The California PUC has even gone to the extreme of asking the legislature to relieve it is duties of telecom oversight because the commisioners admit that they do not understand the industry and the issues. Since the regulation is usually drafted by telco staff, it is not altogether misdirected to vent anger at them for basing tariffs on what they feel they can get away with rather than on their perception of public benefit. LJP> A public service commission that understands the issues and wants LJP> to foster competition will insist that unregulated services -- like LJP> voicemail -- are not offered by the LEC itself, but by an arms-length LJP> subsidiary which has to purchase the switch support features from the LJP> regulated LEC at the same price as the competitors. TG> I think we are still running into a problem defining what the TG> difference between regulated/unregulated and TG> competitive/non-competitive is. I don't believe voice mail is TG> an unregulated offering but rather a competitive offering. TG> There are worlds of difference between the two. If it truly is TG> an unregulated offering then there ARE certain safeguards that TG> I'll bet all RBOC's have to obey - especially in accounting TG> practices. I must confess ignorance to this distinction. Would I be correct in assuming that a competitive offering may be offered through either the regulated or the unregulated side of the telco? And that the classifica- tion as competitive is based on the presumption that any underlying network services required to implement the service are available to competitors at a price close enough to cost to allow a level playing field? TG> Your plan may sound reasonable but the reality is that this idea TG> is 20 years too late. It may have worked shortly after Carterfone TG> was decided but there is not a single area in the business today TG> that is not competitive already. I suspect that the word "competitive" is used here in a different sense than in the paragraph above. The LEC network ("the local loop") is not competitive in any sense of the word for 90+ percent of subscribers. TG> This dooms such a plan from the beginning. And before anyone says TG> local competition doesn't exist I would suggest they talk to TG> organizations like the State of Kansas and some of the bigger TG> office complexes in various states. As I have stated on here before, TG> I can point out to you at least two business in the TG> state of Kansas alone that use 5ESS switches for their PBX's! TG> Anyone on their campus' gets service from them. These are not competitive local telcos. Like rural telcos they are (maybe poorly regulated) monopolies within their territory. I'll bet that tenants in the buildings you mention probably do not have the choice to go with another access provider. Nor do these alternative providers have an obligation to serve all comers in the city where they do business; they are free to serve only those accounts they deem profitable. TG> So, in essence, what you have proposed is a regulated wholesaler TG> in a market that will soon have exactly no use for a regulated TG> wholesaler. Unless, that is, you want to provide a government TG> subsidized boost to competitors that can not or will not get their TG> own funding in order to enter the market. TG> I say government subsidized because that is what will happen TG> sooner or later. This wholesaler is going to have rather thin TG> profit margins. Thin margins means major problems in capital TG> financing in our markets. Inability to finance capital improvements TG> means government intervention if you want to maintain TG> viability. While I look forward to seeing the first real competition in the local loop as the cable television companies start to offer telephone service, I am not yet convinced that this will benefit the larger subscriber community. While I think the urbanized areas (with CATV service) cover about 60% of the population, and while I think the duopoly service will lower rates in many (most ?) of those areas, it will almost certainly lead to higher rates for the last 40%. The "Rochester plan" of a regulated wholesaler of wire plant and switching makes no sense to me. Is that what you are referring to above? I believe in a distinction between "basic service" and "enahnced service" and whenever the regulated monopoly gets into "enhanced services", inequities abound. > The prior poster also said: > >> There's no technical reason why all three of those > >> features can't be offered fairly to all comers > >> (even stutter dialtone, which is controlled > >> from outside the CO now, since telco voicemail > >> isn't built into the switch. > >> I believe that PacTel offers it as an overpriced > >> ONA feature. No, I don't have the order code.) > >> And they price all this at about half of what the > >> independents charge, even though it's technically > >> more complex. Doesn't that seem a teensy, weensy, > >> itsy bitsy little bit predatory? LJP> I agree with this. TG> What you have agreed with is a statement that the more technically TG> complex a service is the more costly it should be. Are you really TG> sure that is what you want to agree with? I agree that there is no reason why these features cannot be offered fairly to all comers. That is indeed the idea of the ONA mandates. I do not agree that it is technically more complex for PacTel to build a voicemail service using the ONA attachment features than it is for an outside vendor. If the interconnection services needed to build the voicemail product are available under ONA, the price for these features must be allocated on the cost side of the telco's own voicemail product. If the telco's voicemail gets a free ride, and can be priced based on a low "customer perceived value" while the required components are priced high to the competitors, the combination is predatory. LJP> For a competitor to provide a voicemail service equivalent to the one LJP> offered by the LEC, they need to have the LEC provide: LJP> - forward on busy/no answer LJP> - remote control of stutter dialtone LJP> If the telco charges as much for those supporting features as they do LJP> for the service that includes them, I would call it predatory. TG> I think the operative term here is "IF". What we really need TG> is some accurate pricing information and service descriptions TG> in order to decide whether or not this accusation is true. Are you saying that you agree that if such pricing occurs, then it predatory and should not be allowed? If so, we would be almost in agreement, and we could proceed to an evaluation of facts: Does such pricing indeed exist. LJP> In my book, the IXCs access charges should be the same as the price of a LJP> local business call. The IXC is a business, as far as the LEC is LJP> concerned. The LEC's subscriber is placing a call to the IXC (assuming LJP> for the moment 950-xxxx access) and on the terminating end, the IXC LJP> is placing a call to the terminating subscriber. In most places, the LJP> access charges are 2-3 times the local business call rates. This is not LJP> a fair price. It seems reasonable to allow for a higher access charge LJP> on the originating end to pay for the database processing to record PICs LJP> for 1+ dialing, so long as 950-xxxx access is still available at the LJP> basic charge, though. TG> Toll for the price of local? You bet. Read again: Toll ACCESS for the price of local. TG> That is exactly where this market is going. TG> The problem is that the IXC's are going TG> to have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the real TG> world. A consortium of IXC's just today took out a full page ad TG> in several major newspapers condemning SWBT for it's TG> monopolistic practices. Guess what the monopolistic practice TG> being condemned is? LATA-wide flat rate calling. Are you saying that SWBT has expanded the local calling areas everywhere to whole LATAs? Or that SWBT has defined "calling plans" that the IXCs cannot match because SWBT are charging more in access fees? TG> So on the one hand the IXC's are complaining about having to pay TG> too much for access charges and on the other hand fighting truly TG> competitive service offerings tooth and nail. What I hope to see TG> happen someday is that the RBOC's will be allowed into the interLATA TG> markets and then we can see some really competitive offerings - TG> how about nationwide flat rate calling? Once there is true competiotion in local access, the LECs will be let loose. But allowing LECs to buy marketshare in the long distance business and pay for the losses with money earned in a monopoly home market is not in the interest of the consumer. Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@RNS.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 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 14:02:39 -0500 From: Tim Gorman Subject: Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That lars@RNS.COM (Lars Poulsen) writes: SNIP: (numerous lines concerning whether NYNEX tariffs CFBDA) > I MUST APOLOGIZE for jumping in without having read the start of the > thread; I was addressing the larger issue of predatory pricing in > general. I have been informed by several that NYNEX does not offer > busy/no answer forwarding. NYNEX may not offer this on a tariffed basis. This does not mean it is not available on a special arrangement. > Seen from the sidelines few PUCs seem to proactively regulate the > communications industries. The California PUC has even gone to the > extreme of asking the legislature to relieve it is duties of telecom > oversight because the commisioners admit that they do not understand > the industry and the issues. This is not the fault of the RBOC's. The issues are NOT that difficult to understand. There are lots of people who do understand them. What is more likely is a lack of political will to make hard choices and decisions by the commissioners and then suffer the flack. The answer most certainly is NOT the breakup of the RBOC's into tiny, function oriented separate companies. > Since the regulation is usually drafted by telco staff, it is not > altogether misdirected to vent anger at them for basing tariffs on > what they feel they can get away with rather than on their perception > of public benefit. Regulation is most certainly NOT usually drafted by telco staff. Telco staff prepare tariff filings, cost documents, and position papers. PUC staff review these documents, recommend changes they feel are necessary to balance both the RBOC and consumer needs, and determine their own positions. This is all then given to the commissioners to decide. If the commissioners don't understand the issues perhaps they should be looking at the qualifications of their staff memebers. Listen to what you are saying above. Does Jiffy Lube worry about "public benefit" when setting the prices for their oil changes? Or do they worry about setting the prices high enough to make an adequate net profit while setting them low enough to meet the competition? What is your rational going to be when the local market IS opened up totally for competition? Are the RBOC's still to be held to pricing for public benefit or will they be allowed to act as other competitors and price for stockholder benefit? It is essential that this question be answered and understood by all BEFORE full local competition is put in place. There are risks associated with abandoning the regulated monopoly philosophy for a competitive marketplace philosophy. Do we want full, free, and fair competition or do we want a government allocated market share scenario? > LJP> A public service commission that understands the issues and wants > LJP> to foster competition will insist that unregulated services -- like > LJP> voicemail -- are not offered by the LEC itself, but by an arms-length > LJP> subsidiary which has to purchase the switch support features from the > LJP> regulated LEC at the same price as the competitors. > TG> I think we are still running into a problem defining what the > TG> difference between regulated/unregulated and > TG> competitive/non-competitive is. I don't believe voice mail is > TG> an unregulated offering but rather a competitive offering. > TG> There are worlds of difference between the two. If it truly is > TG> an unregulated offering then there ARE certain safeguards that > TG> I'll bet all RBOC's have to obey - especially in accounting > TG> practices. > I must confess ignorance to this distinction. Would I be correct in > assuming that a competitive offering may be offered through either > the regulated or the unregulated side of the telco ? And that the > classification as competitive is based on the presumption that any > underlying network services required to implement the service are > available to competitors at a price close enough to cost to allow a > level playing field ? Most people do have a problem with this. Public coin is competitive yet it is not offered by a separate subsidiary. Operator services is competitive, at least within the industry itself, yet it is not handled by a separate subsidiary. Centrex is competitive with PBX's, yet Centrex is not handled by a separate subsidiary. Landline POTS service is certainly competitive with cellular POTS service in todays market, yet landline POTS service is not offered by a separate subsidary. Private lines, including facilties, are competitive today, yet private lines are not offered by a separate subsidiary. All of these are most certainly competitive. All are still regulated. Normally, you will only find unregulated offerings being offered by a separate subsidiary. Most of what the RBOC's do are going to be regulated for a LONG time. Competitive, regulated services should NOT be required to be offered via a separate subsidiary. > TG> Your plan may sound reasonable but the reality is that this idea > TG> is 20 years too late. It may have worked shortly after Carterfone > TG> was decided but there is not a single area in the business today > TG> that is not competitive already. > I suspect that the word "competitive" is used here in a different sense > than in the paragraph above. The LEC network ("the local loop") is > not competitive in any sense of the word for 90+ percent of subscribers. Oh, but the local loop IS very much competitive today. Or do you mean DIAL TONE? MFS, Teleport, TimeWarner, Multimedia are already VERY active in competing in the local loop. The number of people who have access to this competition is growing exponentially every day. In any case, the actual percentage is irrelevant unless you ARE interested in artificial allocation of the markets. Competitors are going to go where the money is. There will ALWAYS be a percentage of customers who don't have much competitive choice. Go see how many customers in Mantey, Kansas have a choice of grocery stores. For dial tone, within the year you will see a large growth in the competitiveness of intraLATA toll competition with the advent of dialing parity between the RBOC's and the IXC's. It is already a reality in Michigan. The commissions in the various states now looking at this are wringing their hands in agony because of the questions it will raise about the subsidies they have left in place with intraLATA toll subsidizing local service -- thus leaving the RBOC's in a very bad competitive posture. Consumers are not going to be happy when their local bills go up when these subsidies start to change. > TG> This dooms such a plan from the beginning. And before anyone says > TG> local competition doesn't exist I would suggest they talk to > TG> organizations like the State of Kansas and some of the bigger > TG> office complexes in various states. As I have stated on here before, > TG> I can point out to you at least two business in the > TG> state of Kansas alone that use 5ESS switches for their PBX's! > TG> Anyone on their campus' gets service from them. > These are not competitive local telcos. Like rural telcos they are > (maybe poorly regulated) monopolies within their territory. I'll bet > that tenants in the buildings you mention probably do not have the > choice to go with another access provider. Nor do these alternative > providers have an obligation to serve all comers in the city where they > do business; they are free to serve only those accounts they deem > profitable. These ARE competitive local telco's. This is the definition of competition. This is no different than Walmart taking Kmart customers away! Do you somehow think MFS is under any obligation to serve anyone who calls them? Heck no, they are totally free to decide when and where they invest their money and, therefore, with whom they do business. If the fiber they lay just happens to go by IBM, NCR, Boeing, and GM but misses AtoZ Rentals, the local Taco Tico, the Dew Drop Inn, and the local NAPA Auto Parts store are you going to class this as non-competitive? You need to take a close look at how you are applying definitions here. It would appear you are being very selective in what you classify as competitive in order to merely justify your argument. An apartment owner who buys a PBX and provides local service is certainly a COMPETITOR of the local telco whether the apartment dweller has any other choices or not. > TG> So, in essence, what you have proposed is a regulated wholesaler > TG> in a market that will soon have exactly no use for a regulated > TG> wholesaler. Unless, that is, you want to provide a government > TG> subsidized boost to competitors that can not > TG> or will not get their own funding in order to enter the market. > TG> I say government subsidized because that is what will happen > TG> sooner or later. This wholesaler is going to have rather thin > TG> profit margins. Thin margins means major problems in capital > TG> financing in our markets. Inability to finance capital improvements > TG> means government intervention if you want to maintain > TG> viability. > While I look forward to seeing the first real competition in the local > loop as the cable television companies start to offer telephone service, > I am not yet convinced that this will benefit the larger subscriber > community. While I think the urbanized areas (with CATV service) cover > about 60% of the population, and while I think the duopoly service will > lower rates in many (most ?) of those areas, it will almost certainly > lead to higher rates for the last 40%. Join the club. There isn't any other way around it. When you move to a competitive market place supply and demand rules. You, at least, have the honesty to admit it. There are many who won't. They think they can have the best of all worlds -- a utopia. Unlimited profits for the companies at no cost to the consumer. It won't happen. > The "Rochester plan" of a regulated wholesaler of wire plant and switching > makes no sense to me. Is that what you are referring to above ? Yes. There are some good arguments to be made for it. But it will just turn into a government subsidized provider for high cost areas sooner or later. > I believe in a distinction between "basic service" and "enahnced service" > and whenever the regulated monopoly gets into "enhanced services", > inequities abound. Sorry, this just doesn't cut it. Who determines basic and enhanced? Dual tone MF signaling used to be an enhanced service but not anymore. Frame relay used to be an enhanced service but it is pretty common place now. It has even reached Kansas in pretty high volume. :-) I think what you really mean to say is that you want low priced basic service for all - by government fiat if necessary. A much different concept with a different implementation. If there are inequities you need to define from where they come. Is it because high volume purchasers can get price breaks? You are going to have a hard time overcoming this basic economic fact. > > The prior poster also said: > > >> There's no technical reason why all three of those > > >> features can't be offered fairly to all comers > > >> (even stutter dialtone, which is controlled > > >> from outside the CO now, since telco voicemail > > >> isn't built into the switch. > > >> I believe that PacTel offers it as an overpriced > > >> ONA feature. No, I don't have the order code.) > > >> And they price all this at about half of what the > > >> independents charge, even though it's technically > > >> more complex. Doesn't that seem a teensy, weensy, > > >> itsy bitsy little bit predatory? > LJP> I agree with this. > TG> What you have agreed with is a statement that the more technically > TG> complex a service is the more costly it should be. Are you really > TG> sure that is what you want to agree with? > I agree that there is no reason why these features cannot be offered > fairly to all comers. That is indeed the idea of the ONA mandates. > I do not agree that it is technically more complex for PacTel to build > a voicemail service using the ONA attachment features than it is for > an outside vendor. I agree. But when you are comparing prices also be sure to compare ALL costs involved in those prices. The biggest company doesn't always have the highest costs. > If the interconnection services needed to build the voicemail product > are available under ONA, the price for these features must be allocated > on the cost side of the telco's own voicemail product. If the telco's > voicemail gets a free ride, and can be priced based on a low "customer > perceived value" while the required components are priced high to the > competitors, the combination is predatory. You are mixing apples and oranges. Don't confuse an act of the PUC with an act of the RBOC. If the PUC decides to price based on value then complain to and about the PUC, not the RBOC. > LJP> For a competitor to provide a voicemail service equivalent to the one > LJP> offered by the LEC, they need to have the LEC provide: > LJP> - forward on busy/no answer > LJP> - remote control of stutter dialtone > LJP> If the telco charges as much for those supporting features as they do > LJP> for the service that includes them, I would call it predatory. > TG> I think the operative term here is "IF". What we really need > TG> is some accurate pricing information and service descriptions > TG> in order to decide whether or not this accusation is true. > Are you saying that you agree that if such pricing occurs, then it > predatory and should not be allowed ? If so, we would be almost in > agreement, and we could proceed to an evaluation of facts: Does such > pricing indeed exist. Sure. I don't condone predatory pricing. Never said I did. The answer to all this is unbundling. The stutter dial tone and CFBDA features need to be sold separately from the voice mail function itself. That is why we need service descriptions and prices in order to determine fully what is going on. But remember, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. The same rules will also have to be applied to any local competitor in the future. > LJP> In my book, the IXCs access charges should be the same as the price of > LJP> a local business call. The IXC is a business, as far as the LEC is > LJP> concerned. The LEC's subscriber is placing a call to the IXC (assuming > LJP> for the moment 950-xxxx access) and on the terminating end, the IXC > LJP> is placing a call to the terminating subscriber. In most places, the > LJP> access charges are 2-3 times the local business call rates. This is > LJP> not a fair price. It seems reasonable to allow for a higher access > LJP> charge on the originating end to pay for the database processing to > LJP> record PICs for 1+ dialing, so long as 950-xxxx access is still > LJP> available at the basic charge, though. > TG> Toll for the price of local? You bet. > Read again: Toll ACCESS for the price of local. I'm not sure what you are getting at here. We don't do manual recording anymore. It costs just as much to terminate a call and record the access minutes as to originate a call and record the access minutes. Recording PIC's and such should probably be part of the flat rate monthly bill, it certainly isn't a usage senstitive part of the equation. > TG> That is exactly where this market is going. > TG> The problem is that the IXC's are going > TG> to have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the real > TG> world. A consortium of IXC's just today took out a full page ad > TG> in several major newspapers condemning SWBT for it's > TG> monopolistic practices. Guess what the monopolistic practice > TG> being condemned is? LATA-wide flat rate calling. > Are you saying that SWBT has expanded the local calling areas everywhere > to whole LATAs ? Or that SWBT has defined "calling plans" that the IXCs > cannot match because SWBT are charging more in access fees ? Yep. SWBT filed to make the whole LATA a flat rate calling area in Kansas and Missouri. $30 a month for residence, $60 per month for business I believe. The IXC toll rates in Kansas are already less than SWBT offers. So it isn't the access rates that is causing the problem for the carriers here. > TG> So on the one hand the IXC's are complaining about having to pay > TG> too much for access charges and on the other hand fighting truly > TG> competitive service offerings tooth and nail. What I hope to see > TG> happen someday is that the RBOC's will be allowed into the interLATA > TG> markets and then we can see some really competitive offerings - > TG> how about nationwide flat rate calling? > Once there is true competiotion in local access, the LECs will be let > loose. But allowing LECs to buy marketshare in the long distance > business and pay for the losses with money earned in a monopoly > home market is not in the interest of the consumer. The problem is that the local monopoly is on the way out. YOU may want to argue that there are consumers that no competitors will want to serve. This is just what Charlie Brown with AT&T started arguing in the 1980's. Nobody listened then, they aren't listening now. There WILL be some eggs broken. If the PUC's don't like it then they need to get with Judge Green ASAP and see if things can be put back the way they were. Don't hold your breath though. Tim Gorman tg6124@tyrell.net Southwestern Bell Tel. Co ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 22:45:38 -0400 From: johnl@iecc.com (John Levine) Subject: Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That Hi. I finally found the 800 number for VT-net, the Internet access service that NYNEX provides in Vermont below cost (or it would if they weren't selling 800 service to themselves at a price lower than they offer to any of their customers). The number is 800-763-9400, provider is indeed NYNEX. As I noted in another message, this sort of situation wouldn't occur if regulated utilites stuck to monopoly services. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com Primary perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" ------------------------------ From: fratkins@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Frank Atkinson) Subject: Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That Date: 26 Apr 1995 21:02:03 -0400 Organization: The Greater Columbus Freenet Without going too far afield, in Ohio we are discussing how to open the local loop up for competition and issues like this are on the table. The new phone compnay wanna-be's (Warner, MCI, MFS, AT&T, etc) have suggested that all subsidies be removed, identified and funded rather than hidden in one or another rates. Incumbent LEC's have suggested there is a subsidy for rural service, carrier of last resort, and universal service. Just today AT&T (currently an IX) suggested that their calls cost the same to terminate as any other call and should be priced based on cost (the silence you hear are the LEC's trying to breathe again ). Interconnection and unbundling where access to dialtone control and other such things will be discussed are on the agenda once the preliminary sparring rounds are finished. Frank Atkinson fratkins@freenet.columbus.oh.us or frank@hannah.com I think therefore I am, I think? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #212 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03588; 27 Apr 95 19:26 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id LAA21581 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 27 Apr 1995 11:17:18 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id LAA21572; Thu, 27 Apr 1995 11:17:15 -0500 Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 11:17:15 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504271617.LAA21572@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #213 TELECOM Digest Thu, 27 Apr 95 11:17:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 213 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson UCLA Short Course on Multimedia Compression Principles (William R. Goodin) UCLA Short Course on Transmission of Multimedia Information (W.R. Goodin) Quebec-Telephone Opens WWW Server (Nigel Allen) Help Wanted With AMARYS "210" French Telephone (Alan Nicolson) Can Someone Help Me With Sidetone (Steven Hellman) Farmstead Telephone Opens WWW Home Page (Alex Capo) International Caller-ID (Marko Ruokonen) New Date For National CID Announced? (Michael G. Godwin) Duplex Speaker Phone For Around $300 Available? (David Kovar) Minitel and European Infohighways (Romina Keller) Telecom New Zealand and GB (Marianne Stevens) What are Secure and Insecure http Links? (Jan-Adriaan de Lijster) VBR Video Over an ATM-Network (Hugo Nordkamp) Video-on-Demand (Herman Vandeven) Telecom in China (Tom Dedecker) Help Request - PC Autodialer vs. Phone System (Bill Breckinridge) Icom R-71 Receiver Wanted (Gordon Mitchell) Correction: PCS Comparative MTA Ranking (Bob Keller) Administrivia: Issue Number Correction (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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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 Multimedia Compression Principles Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 18:50:13 Organization: UCLA Extension On August 8-11, 1995, UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Multimedia Compression: Principles, Applications, and Standards", on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructors are Jerry D. Gibson, PhD, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University; Richard L. Baker, PhD, Chief Scientist, PictureTel Corp; Toby Berger, PhD, Professor, School of Electrical Engineering, Cornell University; and Tom Lookabaugh, PhD, Vice President, Research and Business Development, DiviCom. The efficient digital representation or compression of data, speech, music, facsimile, still images, and video for storage and transmission plays a dominant role in current and developing communications systems, computer networks, PCs/workstations, video-on-demand, and entertainment. Standards have been and continue to be developed for this host of multimedia applications that will serve as the traffic on the information superhighway. This course explains the fundamental principles and algorithms underlying these standards and describes in detail current and evolving multimedia compression standards. Audio tapes, slides, videotapes, and equipment demonstrations complement the lectures. The course should helpprofessionals to understand existing standards and products, evaluate future standards, and incorporate these compression methods into their ownapplications. Topics include: entropy and lossless coding, quantization, predictive coding, speech coding standards, frequency domain coding, audio coding, vision, perception and image representation, standards and applications in video compression, grey-scale image compression, videoconferencing, desktop videoconferencing and collaboration. The course fee is $1395, which includes extensive course materials. 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 Transmission of Multimedia Information Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 18:42:59 Organization: UCLA Extension On August 2-4, 1995, UCLA Extension will present the short course, "Transmission of Multimedia Information and Data", on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles. The instructors are Chris Heegard, PhD, Professor, Electrical Engineering Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, and Andrew J. King, MSEE, Design Group Manager, Communications Products, General Instrument Corp, San Diego. Each participant receives a manual used by DigComT, "The Digital Communications Toolbox" and extensive lecture notes. Digital communication systems are used for the transmission and storage of a large variety of data, speech, still images, audio, and video information for a wide range of applications including facsimile, telephony, voice mail, digital cellular mobile radio, CD-quality audio, personal communication systems, video-conferencing, video-on-demand, and HDTV. The physical transmission media for these applications, called channels, take a variety of forms such as copper wire pairs, coax cable, optical fibers, electromagnetic radiation, magnetic tape and disks, and optical disks. This short course presents the basic digital transmission methods for conveying digital information through these channels efficiently and reliably and covers the fundamental techniques for digital transmission from first principles to applications and implementations. The course presents an overview of the how and why of modern reliable data transmission. In multi-media applications, compressed information must be reliably delivered over channels that exhibit real-world limitations such as noise, distortion and interference. The course begins with an introduction to the basics of digital modulation theory and channel capacity. The results of this discussion are then used to motivate the need for Forward Error Correction (FEC) systems. An overview of the engineering methods that have evolved for these applications follows, including basic modulation methods, techniques for FEC, algorithms for tracking channel parameters and ideas for adaptive receiver design. Both hand-workable examples and a computer are used for developing a basic understanding of modern digital transmission systems. Such ideas as block, convolutional trellis and concatenated coding are described, as are methods of signal tracking and adaptive receiver design. The course provides practical methods for implementing digital communications systems, and a summary of some basic standards are presented. This material covers all issues concerning the development and prototyping of digital systems, with particular emphasis on communications applications, computer analysis and simulation, and the basis of modern VLSI design methodology. The course fee is $1295, which includes course materials. 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, 27 Apr 1995 04:18:56 -0400 From: ndallen@io.org (Nigel Allen) Subject: Quebec-Telephone Opens WWW Server Quebec-Telephone, the second-largest telephone company in Quebec (Bell Canada is the largest), has opened a WWW server at: http://quetel.qc.ca/qt0000ag.htm Other WWW servers operated by Canadian telecommunications companies include: http://www.bell.ca Bell Canada http://www.bctel.com/ (BC Tel, formerly the British Columbia Telephone Company) http://www.sasknet.sk.ca/Pages/sktlhome.html (SaskTel) http://www.rogers.com Rogers Communications, a cable TV company which owns part of Unitel and has others communications and media investments, including Rogers Network Services. http://www.stentor.ca Stentor, the consortium of telephone companies Interestingly, while Quebec-Telephone and BC Tel are both partly owned by GTE Corporation, GTE has not yet set up a WWW server of its own. (Its GTE Laboratories unit does have one at http://info.gte.com, though.) Nigel Allen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada ndallen@io.org http://www.io.org/~ndallen ------------------------------ From: nicolson_a@ukbcs1.decnet.philips.nl Date: Thu, 27 Apr 95 17:11:10 +0200 Subject: Help Wanted Woth AMARYS "210" French Telephone Our company is undergoing a feasability study on manufacturing of basic analogue telephones for the French telecom service. As most of our experience is with providing terminals with small digital switches for British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, and the Dutch PTT there are a few questions that are posing slight difficulties with regard to testing. The documentation which we have is one user guide (all in French of course :) ). These are not insurmountable, but if anyone knows the answers it would simplify matters. The name of the telephone is AMARYS "210". 1. What are Ringing frequencies, as well as DTMF frequencies/amplitudes? 2. What exchanges does this telephone connect to (PBXs' etc..)? 3. Are there any features of these exchanges that operate on this telephone (eg. CLI etc..)? 4. What type of barring is available on French exchange systems (eg.Line-to-Line)? 5. Are there any 'funny' French quality specifications (like the equivalent of BABT) that would involve us for example carrying out 'drop' testing, or lightning tests etc..? If anyone can help us out, it would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance. Alan Nicolson Philips BCS, Airdrie, Scotland. Tel. +44 1-236-79311 ext.3179 e-mail nicolson_a@ukbcs1.decnet.philips.nl ------------------------------ From: HQKX13A@prodigy.com (Steven Hellman) Subject: Can Someone Help Me With Sidetone? Date: 27 Apr 1995 01:56:39 GMT Organization: Prodigy Services Company 1-800-PRODIGY MY PROBLEM: I have a medical problem, with my ears, whereby I have required the use of an amplified telephone "handset or headset" for years. I have been in telemarketing, "Screaming into the telephone" for years, which has caused my hearing to get progressively worse. I NEED: a. I need to eliminate or 'lower' the sidetone in my handset. b. alternately, since I normally work in a private office, so, I could talk into a handset microphone and use "external speakers" to 'receive'. I am new to the Internet and don't know where to look for this answer. I have, for five years been speaking to Engineers at Bell labs, NY Tel, most of the telephone suppliers, most of the handset and headset suppliers, with almost no success (with very few people even understanding the term 'sidetone'. The only possible help I found is in the book "UNDERSTANDING TELEPHONE ELECTRONICS", which is 'Greek' to me. (I can E-mail the discussion if requested) If you can help with the solution or lead me to some avenues of possible assistance I will be in your debt. Steven Hellman HQKX13A@PRODIGY.COM fax 914-632-8628 [TELECOJ Digest Editor's Note: Well Steven, I think you came to the right place. Let's see if in a few days some of the readers here have not responded to you and/or this Digest with some solutions. Let me know how it works out. PAT] ------------------------------ From: acapo@farmstead.com Date: Wed, 26 Apr 95 22:51:16 PDT Subject: Farmstead Telephone Opens WWW Home Page "Farmstead Home Page" http://www.farmstead.com Farmstead Telephone Group, Inc., headquartered in East Hartford, CT., the alternative source for AT&T parts and systems, is proud to announce the "Farmstead Home Page". Farmstead is an "authorized distributor of AT&T remanufactured products". Farmstead is the oldest and largest reseller of AT&T equipment to AT&T end-users. All AT&T products sold by Farmstead are guaranteed for AT&T installation and maintenance. Farmstead offers all AT&T voice products at significant savings with AT&T Credit Corp financing. The "Farmstead Home Page" gives complete information on products and services as well as information on current industry trends and issues. Farmstead Telephone Group, Inc. may be reached at 1-800-243-0234, FAX 203-282-9719, or contact administrator Alex Capo Visit the "Farmstead Home Page", http://www.farmstead.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Alex! Isn't this a new position for you? Weren't you with a securities firm in New York? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 27 Apr 95 04:31:46 EDT From: Marko Ruokonen <100031.31@compuserve.com> Subject: International Caller-ID Yesterday, I received a call from a friend in the US and was very surprised to find his phone number on the phone's display even though I'm in Germany. I must admit that I have ISDN (Caller-ID is not provided to analog lines in Germany at all.) My friend called from the 301 NPA and was using AT&T for long distance. Some time ago, I received a call from area code 617 and the Caller-ID did not show up, just "Number unknown". I am not sure if that person used AT&T or some other LD carrier. My question is: What long distance companies pass caller-ID along on international calls? Also, did readers in the US with Caller-ID receive *international* numbers on their Caller-ID boxes? Regards, Marko Ruokonen Cologne, Germany ------------------------------ From: mgodwin@lan.mcl.bdm.com (Michael G. Godwin) Subject: New Date For National CID Announced? Date: 26 Apr 1995 13:30:24 GMT Organization: BDM Technologies Reply-To: mgodwin@lan.mcl.bdm.com (Michael G. Godwin) I read a posting a while back about the FCC delaying the national rollout of Caller ID. Has a new date for this blessed event been announced yet? Mike ------------------------------ From: David Kovar Subject: Duplex Speaker Phone For Around $300 Available? Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 11:21:03 EDT I participate in a conference call requiring speaker phones on both ends with great regularity. Unfortunately, I've been unable to find a speaker phone for under $1300 (Hello Direct) so far. I've purchased, and returned, two AT&T speaker phones, the latest the model 870. The 870 has improved sound quality, but the other end of the connection still cuts out when there is any noise on my end, and the microphone seems to be extremely sensitive. Does anyone know of any standalone speaker phones for under $500? Thanks very much in advance. David ------------------------------ From: hw42374@is1.bfu.vub.ac.be (KELLER ROMINA) Subject: Minitel and European Infohighways Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 17:27:06 DST Hi, I'm a third-year communication student at the Free University of Brussels (VUB), Belgium. I have to write a paper about the French Minitel-system and the possible impact of this French succes-story on the "infohighway policy" of the European Community because this EC-policy is rather confused at the moment. So if someone out there could help me by mailing me some information on this topic it would help me a lot. Thank you in advance for your help and best greetings from Brussels. Romina hw42374@is1.vub.ac.be (KELLER ROMINA) Student Communicatiewetenschappen Vrije Universiteit Brussel ------------------------------ From: hw42611@vub.ac.be (STEVENS MARIANNE) Subject: Telecom New Zealand and GB Date: 26 Apr 1995 09:59:56 GMT Organization: Brussels Free Universities (VUB/ULB), Belgium Hello, I am a student at the Free University of Brussels and I am making a paper on telecommunications policy in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Is there anybody who could send me some information about this subject, everything is welcome. Thanks in advance. hw42611@is1.vub.ac.be (STEVENS MARIANNE) Student Communicatiewetenschappen Vrije Universiteit Brussel [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I seem to get lots and lots of these messages from students in Belgium asking for help in writing their papers. Every day or two someone from there writes me and asks. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 11:50:06 GMT From: st_bit2@fac.fbk.EUR.NL (Jan-Adriaan de Lijster) Subject: What is the Difference Between Secure and Insecure http Links? Organization: Erasmus University Rotterdam / FBK - BIT I was on the net and ended up in some kind of shopping mall (WWW). What the difference is between secure and insecure http links? How secure is secure? What makes a http link secure? Could somebody explain this to me? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: Hugo Nordkamp Subject: VBR Video Over an ATM-Network Date: 26 Apr 1995 12:03:06 GMT Organization: Ericsson We are two students working on a M. Sc. thesis at Ericsson Telecom. We have to model the bit rate of MPEQ VBR Video. If somebody knows where we can get some more information about this subject, please tell us. It is hard to find people who are working on this subject. Our e-mail adresses are: xtrhugo@alfa.etx.ericsson.se (Hugo Nordkamp) xtrasa@alfa.etx.ericsson.se (Asa Hallgren) ------------------------------ From: hw48233@vub.ac.be (VANDEVEN HERMAN) Subject: Video-on-Demand Date: 26 Apr 1995 12:23:42 GMT Organization: Brussels Free Universities (VUB/ULB), Belgium I'm a student at VUB, Belgium and i'm looking for general information on video-on-demand and on its tarification towards the client. If any of you has information on this topic, please be so kind to send it to me. Thanks in advance. hw48233@is1.vub.ac.be (VANDEVEN HERMAN) Student Communicatiewetenschappen Vrije Universiteit Brussel ------------------------------ From: hw42276@is1.bfu.vub.ac.be (DEDECKER TOM) Subject: Telecom in China Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 15:06:31 DST Hello, I am a student at the Free University of Brussels and I am writing a paper about telecommunication development in China. Especially about the policies and the companies who are trying to enter the market. If you know something interesting about this topic would you be so kind to send it to me? Thank you, Tom hw42276@is1.vub.ac.be (DEDECKER TOM) Student Communicatiewetenschappen Vrije Universiteit Brussel [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The several messages above printed in this issue are a small sample of the requests I receive like this from day to day. Shall I print more of them from time to time? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 15:42:58 CDT From: Bill Breckinridge Subject: Help Request - PC Autodialer vs. Phone System Has anyone been able to use a PC based autodial program (such as Windows Cardfile, or Metz Phones) in an office environment? I have a separate modem line going to my PC, and the software dials out OK -- I can hear the ringing and the answer over the modem speaker. I got our telecommunications support people to add my modem line to an available button on my phone (NT Meridian M2317); but I am unable to pick up on the line once the modem goes off hook, apparently due to a feature called "privacy release". Our telecom people have been unable to figure out a way to remove the privacy release from the modem line, which would enable me to pick up the call being autodialed. Comments I've noted from our telecom people (which mean nothing to me, but may help all of you ;{>} ) include: "modem line is an analog line and privacy release is incompatible with an analog line", "switch is an SL100", "regular phone line is a digital line and modem can't dial out on a digital line", "autodial software needs to send a 750ms break followed by *87 after dialing" (there's no obvious way in the software to do that ...) Any suggestions would be appreciated. Request you respond to me directly so as not to add to the overworked condition of our dear Telecom Digest Editor. If a working solution is found, I will send a report to the list. Thanks for your help! Bill Breckinridge Office, 24HR Voice Mail/Pager: 214.995.3587 breckinridge@dallas.photronics.com (or wbreck@aol.com if your mailer can't handle the longer address!) Photronics, Inc. Dallas, TX USA ------------------------------ From: gordonlm@u.washington.edu (Gordon Mitchell) Subject: Icom R-71 Receiver Wanted Date: 27 Apr 1995 02:48:36 GMT Organization: University of Washington I am looking for an Icom R-71 in good condition. I will be using the computer interface so that has to work too. Gordon Mitchell (206) 481-5577 g.mitchell@ieee.org ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 09:20:41 EDT From: Bob Keller Subject: Correction: PCS Comparative MTA Ranking The comparative market ranking I posted last month for the PCS Blocks A and B auction were (How shall I put this?) ... well ... quite frankly ... not even close. It was a botched intermediate effort that mistakenly got included in my final output. Sorry about that! Set forth below is the revised/corrected listing. The process for compiling this listing was as follows. The amounts bid in each market for both licenses (Block A and Block B) were totalled and the sum was then divided by double the MTA population. (This renders the mean avearage of $/Pop value of the two licenses in each market.) The exceptions are the pioneers preference markets. Only one license was auctioned in MTA 1 (New York), MTA 2 (Los Angeles-San Diego) and MTA 10 (Washington- Baltimore), the other license having already been issued pursuant to pioneers preference awards. So only one bid amount was used and the populaton was not doubled. However, a second calculation was performed for each of these marekts for which the amount to be paid by the pioneers preference licensee (pursuant to the forulas specified in the GATT legislation) was also factored in as if it were a bid on the second license. Thus, for the "*" lines below, "w/o pp" = without factoring in the pioneers preference licnsees, and "w/ pp" = including the pioneers preference licensees. MTA# Market Name Population $/Pop Total Bid(s) ---- -------------------------------- ---------- ------ ------------ 01 M003 Chicago 12,069,700 $31.39 $757,800,583 02 M024 Seattle (Excl. Alaska) 3,827,175 $27.63 $211,518,486 03 M011 Atlanta 6,942,084 $27.59 $383,071,483 04 M010 Washington-Baltimore (w/o pp) 7,777,875 $27.23 $211,771,000 05 M002 Los Angeles-San Diego (w/o pp) 19,145,232 $25.78 $493,500,000 06 M015 Miami-Fort Lauderdale 5,136,581 $25.09 $257,743,126 07 M019 St. Louis 4,663,926 $25.00 $233,161,789 08 M031 Indianapolis 3,017,475 $23.45 $141,533,000 09 M027 Phoenix 3,510,140 $21.93 $153,955,434 * M010 Washington-Baltimore (w/ pp) 7,777,875 $20.19 $314,114,539 10 M037 Jacksonville 2,274,933 $19.89 $90,500,544 11 M047 Honolulu 1,108,229 $19.87 $44,036,462 * M002 Los Angeles-San Diego (w/ pp) 19,145,232 $19.47 $745,418,526 12 M020 Milwaukee 4,541,432 $18.83 $171,043,290 13 M017 New Orleans-Baton Rouge 4,925,269 $18.62 $183,424,485 14 M036 Salt Lake City 2,573,372 $17.88 $92,026,882 15 M033 San Antonio 2,986,524 $17.80 $106,344,182 16 M016 Cleveland 4,945,749 $17.48 $172,881,000 17 M013 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Orlando 5,417,788 $17.45 $189,114,560 18 M004 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose 11,891,177 $17.18 $408,650,000 19 M001 New York (w/o pp) 26,410,597 $16.76 $442,712,000 20 M022 Denver 3,880,637 $16.61 $128,938,483 21 M014 Houston 5,190,849 $16.04 $166,569,262 22 M048 Tulsa 1,096,396 $15.67 $34,364,023 23 M025 Puerto Rico-U.S. Virgin Islands 3,623,846 $15.39 $111,571,000 * M001 New York (w/ pp) 26,410,597 $14.96 $790,230,309 24 M026 Louisville-Lexington-Evansville 3,556,648 $13.47 $95,839,000 25 M008 Boston-Providence 9,452,712 $13.16 $248,725,892 26 M028 Memphis-Jackson 3,465,226 $12.46 $86,337,314 27 M030 Portland 3,059,948 $11.16 $68,294,815 28 M029 Birmingham 3,244,076 $10.92 $70,875,000 29 M038 Columbus 2,145,561 $10.36 $44,466,837 30 M009 Philadelphia 8,927,748 $9.29 $165,946,012 31 M043 Nashville 1,767,391 $9.10 $32,184,000 32 M007 Dallas-Fort Worth 9,694,157 $9.07 $175,944,578 33 M018 Cincinnati-Dayton 4,716,665 $8.98 $84,665,483 34 M023 Richmond-Norfolk 3,846,210 $8.67 $66,697,045 35 M005 Detroit 10,001,009 $8.36 $167,284,000 36 M034 Kansas City 2,913,304 $8.11 $47,231,005 37 M021 Pittsburgh 4,102,766 $7.36 $60,385,199 38 M032 Des Moines-Quad Cities 3,006,139 $7.18 $43,143,004 39 M006 Charlotte-G'boro-G'ville-Raleigh 9,752,317 $7.05 $137,523,001 40 M035 Buffalo-Rochester 2,777,046 $6.98 $38,757,000 41 M041 Oklahoma City 1,877,478 $6.46 $24,253,457 42 M012 Minneapolis-St. Paul 5,986,039 $6.37 $76,274,685 43 M044 Knoxville 1,721,911 $6.33 $21,784,000 44 M040 Little Rock 2,051,667 $6.11 $25,053,501 45 M051 American Samoa 47,000 $4.71 $442,556 46 M046 Wichita 1,124,174 $4.13 $9,294,343 47 M039 El Paso-Albuquerque 2,113,890 $4.08 $17,268,030 48 M042 Spokane-Billings 1,863,335 $3.19 $11,879,000 49 M045 Omaha 1,659,273 $2.93 $9,725,000 50 M049 Alaska 550,043 $2.41 $2,650,129 51 M050 Guam-Northern Mariana Islands 176,000 $0.71 $248,837 Bob Keller (KY3R) Email: rjk@telcomlaw.com Law Office of Robert J. Keller, P.C. Telephone: 301.229.5208 Federal Telecommunications Law Facsimile: 301.229.6875 http://www.clark.net/pub/rjk/ | ftp://ftp.eznet.net/pub/telcomlaw/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 10:31:26 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Subject: Administrivia: Issue Number Correction Issue 212 of the current volume left here Wednesday evening correctly numbered at the start of the issue, however the very bottom line which is used by some systems for bursting and separation of messages incorrectly identifified it as issue 213. Please correct that reference on your copy. What you are reading now is issue 213. Thank you. PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #213 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04051; 27 Apr 95 19:52 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id MAA23212 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 27 Apr 1995 12:25:13 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id MAA23204; Thu, 27 Apr 1995 12:25:10 -0500 Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 12:25:10 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504271725.MAA23204@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #214 TELECOM Digest Thu, 27 Apr 95 12:25:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 214 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Local Competition Epiphany (Donald E. Kimberlin) German Telekoms "KIT": Specs/Document Now Available (Werner J. Lilie) Re: The AT&T "Minimum Usage Charge" Rumor (Michael Ward) Re: Detect/Prevent Third-Party Calls (Steven White) Re: Detect/Prevent Third-Party Calls (Mark J. Cuccia) Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine (Clive D.W. Feather) USWorst / ISDN (Bill Halverson) IBM Twinaxial Cable Disposal (Shereef Moustafa) Re: NPA Black Holes (Mark Cuccia) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 27 Apr 95 10:45 EST From: Donald E. Kimberlin <0004133373@mcimail.com> Subject: Local Competition Epiphany For the past four days, full-page ads have appeared in the Charlotte, North Carolina {Observer}, telling of a coalition of companies that seek particular objectives in U.S. Federal legislation concerning local telephone competition. Those who remember "how it used to be" will find some of the statements no less than an astounding change from what AT&T once used to say to the world, in addition to noting AT&T's recognition of entities it would once have hoped to ignore and perhaps even hogtie to death. It certainly seems AT&T has discovered a new reality, and now has joined in to promote a new reality into local telephone business in the U.S. Here's the ad copy reproduced in ASCII as best I can do: Bell Monopolies are the problem. Real competition is the only answer. Congress will soon be considering legislation to rewrite the laws that will govern telecommunications policy well into the 21st century. If that rewrite is to help the average American, we believe a few key principles must guide this work. * Monopolies and a free market economy don't mix. * Monopolies stifle entrepreneurship and innovation, and keep prices high. * Monopolies never, ever give up their power voluntarily. Therefore, any legislation must start with breaking up the entrenched local Bell monopolies. The Bell companies are classic monopolies. The control about 99 percent of local service in their territories. Except for the monopoly Bells, everyone agrees that these monopolies must FIRST disappear -- the debate is about when, how and under what conditions. Real local competition will exist only when Bell monopolies meet clear tests that competitive choices actually exist. And when experts have the power to enforce those tests to preserve free markets. We want this industry to be deregulated as rapidly as possible. But it is essential to do it right. That means, first break up the local monopolies; then deregulate all markets. We know that competition in long distance is a dazzling success for America, driving down prices almost 70 percent in 11 years while providing new and innovative technological advances. It's time to bring those same competitive benefits to consumers of local phone service. DE-MONOPOLIZE, then DE-REGULATE You can affect this legislation. If you want to learn more about how to have real competition replace the local Bell monopolies... Call 1-800-4COMPETE The Competitive Long Distance Coalition (signed with logos of Comptel, AT&T, LDDS/Worldcom, MCI, Sprint, TRA and ACTA> (c) CLD Coalition, Inc. ... It's happening! Even the Greatest Telecom Show on Earth is encouraging interlopers into the local markets.) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The important thing is *do it right*. Proceed very carefully, to avoid the problems we had in the early days of long distance deregulation. Conditions are certainly changing quickly now; the rush for complete deregulation and competition is well underway. It seems amazing that time has gone by as quickly as it has since the early 1980's when this Digest first began publication and there was almost no competition at all. Yes, its been eleven years since AT&T and the local Bell Companies went their separate ways ... amazing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wjl@guug.de (Werner J. Lilie) Subject: German Telekoms "KIT": Specs/Document Now Available via ftp Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 16:44:10 +0100 Organization: Universitaet Stuttgart Hi ! The German "Telekom" has been operating a CEPT-based service named "BTX" for quite a while now. BTX is (was?) comparable to the well-known French system "Minitel" or maybe even the US-based service "Prodigy". BTX turned out to be a major disappointment: costly, not enough subscribers, too expensive and loaded with sleaze & smut (hot chat, and all that). However, since the former Bundespost/Deutsche Telekom (nowadays just "Telekom") turned over the marketing to a small company ("1&1") and renamed the service to "DATEX-J" (DATa EXchange - Jedermann [anybody/everybody]) it has been growing steadily. In the last couple of years the service has grown from around 200-thousand to an amazing 700 000 and is supposed to hit 1 million by the end of this year (keep in mind that this is a German-only service). Currently the system is undergoing a major overhaul: 14.4 & 28.8 (+ ISDN) access instead of former 2.4, Internet-email gateway, a lot of new high-quality (for example: FIZ) services and a completely new graphical interface (which will ultimately replace the old character-based interface). This new interface is called "KIT" (Kernel for Intelligent Communication Terminals) and the Telekom is going to try to make it a standard (ITU, and all that). I like the idea of having important stuff like this available at ones fingertips, so I contacted the Person responsible for this at the Telekom (N.Braun, Thanks!) and obtained the necessary documents and his permission to put them on the Internet. All the KIT-stuff can be found on "ftp.uni-stuttgart.de" in the directory "/pub/doc/standards/misc/KIT" It contains the following: - CHKSUM MD5 checksum of "kit_doc.pdf" & "kit_doc.ps.gz" - README German ReadMe file containing negligible info - kit_doc.pdf KIT-documentation as Adobe PDF file [695K] - kit_doc.ps.gz KIT-documentation as gzipped Postscript file [691K] - new directory, containing: - KIT_DOC.README another German ReadMe file - kitspec.exe a "zipped" (.zip) Postscript file of the KIT-docum. [258K] The PDF (Portable Document Format) file-format is sort of an enhanced postscript, while enjoying all the features of postscript you can, in addition, search the text and the like. Your best choice for reading a .pdf file is the free "Acrobat Reader" from Adobe, its available for DOS, M$-Windoze, Mac and Unix (sorry, just for SunOS - no source available). You can download it from "ftp.adobe.com" and probably a lot of other sites. The following locations of the files on ftp.uni-stuttgart.de will give you a hint which directories to check on other servers. When ftp-ing the files from ftp.uni-stuttgart.de please keep the pathetic bandwidth of the European (and particularly German!) network in mind! On ftp.uni-stuttgart.de the Adobe Acrobat Reader can be found in the following directories: DOS, M$-Windoze, Mac: "pub/tex/fonts/postscript/adobe/Applications/Acrobat/" Unix (SunOS binary): "/pub/unix/text-processing/postscript/Acrobat/" Und Tschuess..... WL P.S.: All-German posting available in "de.comm.internet, de.comm.misc, fido.ger.btx, fido.ger.internet" niteowl@studbox.uni-stuttgart.de | Fon:+49-711-8177553 wjl@guug.de CI$ : 100142,2352 | Fax:+49-711-8177620 ------------------------------ From: ward1@ux6.cso.uiuc.edu (ward michael) Subject: Re: The AT&T "Minimum Usage Charge" Rumor Date: 27 Apr 95 15:48:11 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) writes: > Here's what I've been able to piece together so far. It's accurate as > far as I know, but I have more inquiries pending and I'll pass along > anything else I find out. > 1) No minimum charges would apply to residential lines (as far as I can > determine right now). > 2) A minimum charge of $5/month/line will apply to all separately billed > business lines that have AT&T selected as their carrier. This will just > suddenly start appearing on bills shortly. Surprise! > 3) AT&T is suggesting that business customers aggregate their lines in > various ways to help avoid the charge (aggregated lines -- e.g. via Custom > Net or SBA, etc. apparently share a single $5 minimum between all lines). It is possible that AT&T does not want low volume customers. A similar issue has come up with regards to residential service. AT&T claims that 26% of its residential customers have monthly bills less than $3 and 44% less than $10. It costs AT&T between $0.35 and $0.85 to render a monthly bill. For residential service (I don't know about business service) LD carriers must pay ~$0.50 per subscriber per month to the Universal Service Fund regardless of the subscriber's calling volume. This goes a long way to explaining calling plans being volume sensitive. It also explains why some resellers are marketing that you do not pre-subscribe, but just dial thier 1-0-XXXX code. AT&T was further claiming that the price-cap plan did not permit them to set initial prices high enough to cover costs and then offer steeper discounts. I do not know how valid this claim is. The minimum monthly charge for business service probably is an outgrowth of the February (?) 1995 FCC decision to regulate AT&T commercial services in a more streamlined fashion, rather than keep under price-caps. ------------------------------ From: white@sunmgc1.ericsson.se (Steven White) Subject: Re: Detect/Prevent Third-Party Calls Date: 27 Apr 1995 11:14:50 GMT Organization: Ericsson North America, Inc. > I just had two AT&T long-distance calls charged to my number, and had to > call AT&T to have them removed -- AT&T isn't my long-distance provider. ... > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You can prevent it from happening with a > slight bit of inconvenience to yourself, but it may be worth it. Find > out of your local telco offers 'billed number screening'. This is a Southern Bell in N.C. charges $10.25 for this change in service to disallow incoming third-party billing. I was recommended by AT&T to have this option put on my line after a couple of (not inexpensive) calls were charged from a Texas hotel room. Of course, AT&T withdrew the charges. However, I don't feel I should have to pay $10.25 for a crime preventive measure. A couple more fraudulent charges, and the phone company will have already "paid" the charge in manhours. How about requiring Ma Bell to reimburse AT&T for any future fraudulent charges? Seems to me they are bordering on being an accessory. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ameritech (Illinois Bell) does not charge a fee for this service. You simply ask to be added to the data base. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: Detect/Prevent Third-Party Calls Date: 27 Apr 1995 14:01:24 GMT Organization: Tulane University alex@eagle.hd.HAC.COM (Alex Madarasz) wrote: > I just had two AT&T long-distance calls charged to my number, and had to > call AT&T to have them removed -- AT&T isn't my long-distance provider. > How / why is it possible for someone to have calls -- especially long- > distance calls -- charged to my number? Is there any way I can detect > this happening or prevent it in the future? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You can prevent it from happening with a > slight bit of inconvenience to yourself, but it may be worth it. Find > out of your local telco offers 'billed number screening'. This is a > database used in common by AT&T, Sprint, MCI and a couple other long- > distance carriers which prevents anything but direct dialed calls from > your actual telephone from being being to your account with the exception > of credit card calls. That is, calls made 'collect' to you will be turned > away as will attempts to bill 'third number' calls to you. The network > simply won't allow those calls. Now if *you* have reason occassionally to > call your number collect or place a call and bill it to your number, then > you too are going to be rejected, but this may be a minor issue considering > all the options available these days such as 800 numbers, calling cards > and other methods. PAT] Some local telco's offer third party billing restrict and collect restrict seperately. South Central Bell does so here in Louisiana, and there is NO charge for this service, neither one time nor recurring monthly. I cannot speak for servcies by any other local telcos in other states/provinces. I had a situation a few years ago when I had a third party charge back to my bill (via AT&T), and even though I was aware of collect restrict and third party restrict, I forgot to have them added to my account when I first got my telephone service. Also, SCBell does NOT just add the restrictions on your account by requesting them over the phone like they do with requests for new Custom Calling or 'Touchstar' features or even a 976 or 1-900 or N11 code blocking -- with these billed-back resrictions, SCBell will mail you a form which you must sign and mail back to Bell before they will put you number in the operator's database; I'm not exactly sure who OWNS this database, but the MAJOR long distance carriers AND the LOCAL TELCOS (InTRA-Lata TOPS operators) use the database for verification; NOT ALL LD Carriers will check this database - you could still get a third party charge via one of these private-payphone/Motel PBX private operators -- but Bell told me that they would adjust this off of my own bill and keep a reference of it for future problems with these *&@! private operators/PBX/Payphone companies. But, here in Louisiana, you CAN get your line free from MOST third party billing back withOUT having to give up COLLECT calls to you which you might want to accept in emergencies. Mark [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Here it is just offered as one package. You can ask for restriction on any charges coming through on calls which were not direct-dialed or via calling card. As you point out, not all the long distance carriers bother to check the database, however our good friends (?!) at Integratel maintain a database of their own for the telcos they bill for, and a call to Integratel will add you to their list as well. Between the database maintained/used by AT&T, Sprint. MCI and a few others and the one maintained by Integratel, you are about 95 percent certain of not getting hit with outlandish and/or unauthorized charges. I used to have problems with someone calling me collect from a private COCOT which charged something like five dollars per minute ... getting added to the Integratel database covers lots of COCOT situations. You mention wanting to accept collect calls under some emergency situations, but as John Higdon pointed out in this Digest about three years ago, there are so many options available now that collect calls simply are no longer needed. With a combination of things like 800 numbers, calling cards with restricted pins (good for reaching your number only), 500/700 service, etc ... who needs collect calls? Plus when you consider that almost anyone should be able to scrape together a few coins to call you, even if just to say please call back to xxx-xxxx .... collect calling is almost as obsolete as 'person to person'; does anyone still use that with its very high rates? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 00:54:08 BST From: Clive D.W. Feather > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you suppose one of these days as the > global community changes; new countries are formed and old ones go > out of existence that the international numbering scheme will get all > messed up the way USA area codes got messed up, out of sequence, etc? > Will we some day run out of country codes the way the USA ran out of > area codes and have to come up with some new numbering scheme for the > whole world? PAT] Hopefully not. After the breakup of the eastern block, things seem to have settled down in terms of new countries appearing. I compared my country codes list with my list of ISO recognised countries and territories. The shared uses of codes I found were: 1 Shared by 21 countries, of which 1 has a new code allocated 269 Shared by 2 countries: Comoros and Mayotte 33 Shared by 3 countries, of which 2 have had new codes allocated 39 Shared by 3 countries, of which 2 have had new codes allocated 41 Shared by 2 countries: Switzerland and Liechtenstein 42 Shared by 2 countries: Czech Republic and Slovakia 672 Shared by 5 territories under Australian control 7 Shared by 9 countries, of which 3 have had new codes allocated So there's a potential need for 31 new codes. But 68 are still spare: 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 292 293 294 295 382 383 384 388 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 801 802 803 804 805 806 807 808 809 830 831 832 833 834 835 836 837 838 839 851 854 857 858 859 881 882 883 884 885 887 888 889 970 978 979 990 991 992 993 996 997 998 999 and if the Czechs and the Slovaks want to split, ITU-T would almost certainly split code 42 into 10 codes, making another 8 spare. So I think we're safe for the while. Oops, almost forgot. Apart from the 31 cases I listed before, there are eight territories with no international code that I know of: Bouvet Island [Norway] East Timor French Southern Territories Pitcairn Island South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands [UK Atl] Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands [Norway] United States Minor Outlying Islands Western Sahara Clive D.W. Feather clive@stdc.demon.co.uk [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you are referring to the United States Trust Territory in the South Pacific Ocean as the 'minor outlying islands' you mention above, I think some of those have gone into 'area code' 808 which serves Hawaii and Midway Island. Also, I think the 'country code' for Guam is going to become an 'area code' in the near future, still serving Guam and perhaps nearby places. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Bill Halverson Subject: USWorst / ISDN Date: 25 Apr 1995 23:18:04 GMT Organization: Pacific Bell pp001983@interramp.com (John Sullivan) wrote: > You're one of the fortunate few, Michael. US West has decided to > concentrate its ISDN efforts on Washington state since their network > infrastructure is in better shape there and they think there will be a > larger customer base (e.g. Microsoft). They aren't pulling out of other > states entirely, but they are trying to get out of remotely providing > ISDN service and providing service only from "disclosed" offices which > would mean primarily existing digital offices. US West claims that > availability in Washington will be about 96 percent. They hope to use > Washington as a "testbed" for ISDN. Then, once they figure out how to > sell it, they'll take what they've learned and apply it in other states. > If I were a potential ISDN customer in one of those states, however, I > wouldn't hold my breath. Ah HA! This begins to explain what I heard in Minneapolis last week: US West declined to bid on a 7,500 line metropolitan voice system -- and when the customer had the audacity to buy a (gasp) PBX and request their own prefix ... well suffice it to say the poor TCM that made that decision now finds himself looking at a situation where US West testers fail to show up for scheduled tests, the T1 network he is leasing gives him fits, and ... on and on ... Moreover, several other corporate accounts (Cargill was mentioned) have their own horror stories about USWest. Bill Halverson Pacific Bell Sent 16:20:00 PDT on 04/25/95 PH 415 542 6564 wjhalv1@pacbell.com FAX 415 542 6424 "The views of the author are not those of his employer ... yet." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Care to share more of those 'horror stories' from Cargill and others? Interested readers want to know more. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rosettag@ix.netcom.com (Shereef Moustafa) Subject: IBM Twinaxial Cable Disposal Date: 25 Apr 1995 22:21:27 GMT Organization: Netcom Is anyone familiar with recyclers or resellers of IBM Twinax cable? I need to dispose of quite a bit and understand that there may be parties interested in getting this stuff for copper value or emergency cable. Thanks ... please reply to rosettag@ix.netcom.com :) ------------------------------ From: Mark Cuccia Subject: Re: NPA Black Holes Date: Thu, 27 Apr 95 10:19:00 GMT I heard this same story too, on Paul Harvey News yesterday on ABC Radio about those who are not able to dial out to 'NNX' type NPA's. MOST telcos have done everything they are supposed to in reprogramming their switches -- some small independents MIGHT have been late in doing so. Privately owned payphones (COCOTS) can also be blamed for not programming their phones, and most of us will blame A LOT of problems on COCOTS, who deserve all the blame they get (along with their sister AOS' (I'd like to spell AOS a little bit different). But even Bell can be blamed at times. Here in Louisiana, all of our Step by Step offices have been converted to ESS (or DIGITAL ESS), and there are probably a few #5 Crossbars (also common control); 557 is the special office prefix in the five-state SCBell area used to call Business Office, Repair, etc. When SCBell introduced it around 1986 or 87, it was listed as 1 + 557-XXXX; the 1+ was necessary in Stepper offices but redundant in CommonControl offices (#5XB, ESS, Digital); SCBell dropped the 1+ listing on 557 about two or three years ago; even when it was listed, you could still call 557 without the 1+ in common control offices; You can STILL use a 1 + 557 but it is NOT required; Actually whenever Bellcore assigns 557 as an Area Code, 1 + 557 for SCBell will become confusing; If MS, AL, TN, KY have ANY step offices in SCBell territory (I don't know for sure), they might change the dialing to 1 + HOME NPA + 557 or they might instruct callers to use an 800 (or 888) number. Recently I requested some code restrictions on my home phone. I have had NPA 900 and the 976 local office code restricted for several years. NOW, SCBell opened up some previously unused N11 codes for 'Information Delivery' services -- 211 is for the {Times Picayunne} newspaper's 'info' line (Tone phone required, dial 211 hear a preamble stating that it is 50 cents/call and if you don't want to be charged hang up now -- use the four digit menu options to request Soap updates, sports scores, you know the like); 311 is for an alternate private ambulance service (several ambulance companies bid for this code), 511 unused, 711 presently unused; 611 is NOT repair in La., 811 is NOT business office in La. -- these two unused. I requested free restriction on access to 211 as well as changing my local service to a more Metro-area dialing plan (former toll calls within 40 miles are local or greatly discounted toll -- and you don't have to dial 1 + 504 + -- you just have to dial seven digits. Well, when my 211 became blocked and my Metro dial plan went into effect, I found that whoever programmed my line cut out access to 557 SCBell company numbers. I could NOT get thru unless I dialed 1 + 557; I also could not do 0 + 504 + 557 nor 1 + 504 + 557. Knowing that NNX form NPA's are being used now, I called Repair (!+557 etc) and complained; A supervisor said "I don't see any problem with you dialing 1 + 557; if and when a 557 area code is assigned, you should take that up with your LD company" which I responded NO that it was THEIR problem to which she said "Oh well, if and when 557 becomes a new area code, as far as YOUR line goes, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." The Bell System planned YEARS ago (as early as 1959 or 60) that one day there would be N0X/N1X central office codes and NNX Area Codes; For the MOST part, Telco has done what they were supposed to -- PBX's, some independent telcos, and DAMNABLE PRIVATE PAYPHONES/AOS companies are to blame; but telco in some instances DOES deserve a little blame - WE HAVE COME TO 'THAT' BRIDGE BUT A TOLL-TAKER of DRAWBRIDGE TENDOR REFUSES TO CO-OPERATE!!! Oh by the way -- I kept harping on different supervisors -- my line at home is all straightened out now -- except I can't dial 0 + 411 anymore for Local Directory billed Calling Card/3d Party (31 cents here in La.) but so what - If a call to Directory billed like that is needed from my line at home, I can dial 0 + 504-555-1212; same 31 cents billing. Mark ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #214 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05646; 27 Apr 95 22:20 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA00355 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 27 Apr 1995 15:10:34 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA00348; Thu, 27 Apr 1995 15:10:30 -0500 Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 15:10:30 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504272010.PAA00348@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #215 TELECOM Digest Thu, 27 Apr 95 13:20:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 215 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson ISDN, BellSouth and OCN (edg@ocn.com) Out of the New Abyss (Jim Haynes) Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? (James H. Haynes) Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? (Benjamin P. Carter) India's VSNL to Offer Internet Access for $16 (Rishab Aiyer Ghosh) Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs? (Chris Garrigues) Telling It Like It Was - Howard Cosell (Donald E. Kimberlin) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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@is.net (edg@ocn.com) Subject: ISDN, BellSouth and OCN Date: 25 Apr 1995 01:50:14 GMT Organization: The Internet Connection, LLC. [ Article crossposted from comp.dcom.isdn ] [ Author was Ed Goldgehn ] [ Posted on 25 Apr 1995 01:40:40 GMT ] ATLANTA - Open Communication Networks, Inc. announced today that it has entered into a Data Sales Agency agreement with BellSouth Business Systems, Inc. as part of BellSouth's effort to enhance ISDN throughout all nine of its operating states. Open Communication Networks, Inc. (OCN), an Atlanta-based company, has been engaged in the development and operation of local internet services since March 1994. OCN's local internet service, called IPConnectSM, is considered to be the first of its kind in the country because it offers connectivity to a Metropolitan Internet while providing a seamless equal access type gateway to the Worldwide Internet. Through IPConnectSM, users have inexpensive access to a wide range of local information services and their choice of Worldwide Internet service providers. "IPConnectSM users have access to the Metropolitan Internet and are also able to select the carrier of their data to the worldwide Internet in much the same way they now select a long distance carrier along with local telephone services," states Robert Gardier, President of Open Communication Networks. OCN's Internet-related services will be featured along with applications from other providers, in conjunction with BellSouth's ISDN exhibit at the Spring `95 Comdex/Windows World Conference and Exhibition in Atlanta April 24 through 27. The demonstrations by OCN and the other providers are seen as examples of the kinds of services and applications which can be delivered by third parties in order to provide flexible and cost effective turnkey solutions to meet the information needs of the local community which BellSouth ISDN services are intended to serve. OCN will be launching several new promotions at the Spring `95 Comdex show, including: FREE Local Internet Connectivity to "ISDN Ready" BellSouth Customers --------------------------- Beginning May 1, 1995, OCN will provide connectivity to IPConnectSM, the Metropolitan Atlanta Internet, at no charge to BellSouth customers who are located where BellSouth ISDN services are available in the Atlanta calling area under a new program by OCN called Community Service. Connectivity to OCN's Community Service is implemented via standard BellSouth ISDN services as well as with analog modems at speeds up to 28,800 bits per second (bps) over traditional telephone lines. BellSouth customers living or working where BellSouth ISDN services can be ordered through OCN will also be provided the software they will need to connect to OCN's Community Service, or they can use any Internet software that supports asynchronous Point to Point Protocol (PPP) and dynamic Internet Protocol (IP) addressing. "The intent of OCN's Community Service program is to provide any potential BellSouth individual or business ISDN customer in the Atlanta community an opportunity to establish their own electronic mail address and see, first hand, what the Internet and the World Wide Web are all about," says Gardier. "Our real priority is to make people aware of the power at their fingertips with a distinct focus on the information that is available within the local and worldwide information communities and how BellSouth ISDN services will dramatically enhance that power." OCN's Community Service program is scheduled for general release on May 1st. However, Comdex Attendees who determine that they can receive ISDN by visiting BellSouth Business Systems' Exhibit at the Georgia World Congress Center will be provided advance information on how to access and use the free service. "Depending on the success of the Community Service program, we are already planning to expand IPConnectSM to all Georgia communities where BellSouth ISDN services are available," states Barry Loudermilk, General Manager for Internet Services of Atlanta, Inc. (ISA). ISA is a licensee and the operators of OCN's IPConnectSM service in Georgia. OCN plans to expand the Community Service program throughout the entire BellSouth region via local licensees and operators. OCN is currently planning the deployment of IPConnectSM service in Nashville, Tennessee ,in June of this year. Comdex ISDN Equipment Special Beginning April 24th at the BellSouth Business Systems Exhibit at Comdex, BellSouth customers will be able to purchase several ISDN products at extremely competitive pricing when ordering BellSouth ISDN services for their home or business through Open Communication Networks by May 31, 1995. For $195, BellSouth customers will receive a Motorola BitSurfer (TA210), an ISDN "modem" that provides one data port and one standard telephone connection to use with their new ISDN line. The Motorola TA210 has a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $495. "Motorola's product at this price should demonstrate that a mass market is ready and waiting for ISDN," says Edward Goldgehn, Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer for OCN. "People say it's a matter of cost justification. We believe it's really a lack of understanding of the profit potential that ISDN can provide in an information society." Goldgehn is also Co-Chair of the Mass Markets Industries Group of the North American ISDN Users Forum. For $595, BellSouth customers can select an Ethernet based ISDN connectivity product, the 5242i Telecommuter Bridge manufactured by Gandalf Systems Corporation. Gandalf's 5242i, with a suggested list price of $1,450, provides on-demand 128K connectivity, compression, and also contains a standard telephone interface. OCN anticipates that additional ISDN equipment from other manufacturers will be added to the Comdex promotion. A complete list of the products included in the Comdex ISDN Special will be available on OCN's World Wide Web server (URL: www.ocn.com), by sending e-mail to sales@ocn.com, or by calling OCN at 404-919-1561. All products provided come with OCN's Turnkey ISDN Solution Service which provides a "one-stop shop" for BellSouth customers to order Individual Line ISDN service, the necessary data equipment, receive technical assistance with implementation, and resolve any problems associated with getting fully operational. "We make BellSouth ISDN service as plug and play as it gets," stated Goldgehn. Customers subscribe to BellSouth's ISDN services on a month to month basis on BellSouth's standard rates, terms and conditions pursuant to applicable tariffs. However, in order to receive the benefit of OCN's Comdex ISDN Specials, OCN will require the customer to make a commitment to OCN to maintain its BellSouth ISDN services for at least six months and pay all non-recurring and recurring tariffed charges associated with BellSouth's provision of Individual Line ISDN Services to their residence or business. BellSouth ISDN customers are not required to purchase their equipment from OCN or subscribe to IPConnectSM services in order to utilize OCN's ISDN ordering and implementation services. "However, our ordering and technical implementation assistance is included without charge when a BellSouth customer places their original Individual Line ISDN order through OCN," stated Goldgehn. BellSouth's Data Sales Agency agreement with OCN authorizes OCN only to sell ISDN services on behalf of BellSouth. Such ISDN services are provided by BellSouth to all customers at applicable rates, terms and conditions as prescribed by applicable tariffs, and customers may purchase ISDN services through other authorized Data Sales Agents or directly from BellSouth. All promotions described above are offered solely by and on behalf of OCN. BellSouth does not currently provide Internet service and does not recommend or endorse Internet services provided by OCN or any other Internet service provider. For additional information: Open Communication Networks, Inc. 404/919-1561 URL: http://www.ocn.com Contact: Mike McDorman E-Mail: mikem@ocn.com Internet Services of Atlanta, Inc. 404/419-7672 URL: http://www.ticllc.net Contact: Barry Loudermilk E-Mail: barryl@is.net BellSouth Business Systems, Inc. 205/977-5001 Contact: Dave Storey, Media Relations =========================== Ed Goldgehn, Sr Vice President/CTO E-Mail: edg@OCN.Com Open Communication Networks, Inc. Voice: (404) 919-1561 Co-Chair - Mass Markets Ind. Group / North American ISDN Users Forum (NIUF) Authorized BellSouth Business Systems Data Sales Agent for ISDN ServicesFor For more info about the Mass Markets Group or NIUF, e-mail mmniuf@ocn.com Ed Goldgehn Voice: (404) 919-1561 General Manager Fax: (404) 919-1568 The INTERNET Connection, LLC E-Mail: edg@ocn.com ------------------------------ From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 21:33:51 -0700 Subject: Out of the New Abyss New Valley Corp. has emerged from bankruptcy, having sold the Western Union name and money order business to First Financial Management Corp. for $1,193 million. FFMC has an option to buy the Western Union message business for another $20 million; New Valley intends to sell. What will it do with its money? Well, it has bought an interest in a holding company that has an interest in a Brazilian airplane manufacturer. And it is talking about acquiring a broker and investment bank. At the end of 1994 there were approximatly 65 employees, 36 of them members of Communications Workers of America. The stock is doing better. In the first quarter of 1964 it sold at a high of one cent and a low of one cent. In the fourth quarter it sold at a high of 35 cents and a low of six cents. Now, don't you wish you had bought Western Union stock a year and a quarter ago? Oh, and the company has moved its headquarters to Miami. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Did you know there are still people who trudge down to the nearest Western Union agency to send telegrams when they want to get a message to someone fast? A fellow who manages a couple of currency exchanges in this area who is an agent for Western Union -- or whatever still remains of it -- has seen my collection of the old clocks ... and like President Carter has admitted to having lust in his heart to get them to put up over the cashier's cage at his currency. He wants my big eighteen inch dial clock with the cream colored face and the 'Naval Observatory Time/Western Union' logo. I always ROFLOL -- almost go spastic -- when he brings the topic up. Never will that clock leave my possession. I only wish back in the late 1960's I had grabbed a few more of them when they were easily obtainable. PAT] ------------------------------ From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (James H. Haynes) Subject: Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? Date: 26 Apr 1995 19:10:16 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz In article , Randall Rathbun wrote: > What particularly irks this writer, with extensive knowledge and > experience of telecommunications, is that he and a local CO technician > can trace and lock down these type of calls within 10-15 seconds after > they come in. The local CO technician can even remotely login to other > telco sites and trace the call and positively identify its source > within a minute or at the most two. In other words, it IS possible to > stop these types of calls. Aha. Sounds like this is a new business opportunity for someone like Kevin Mitnick. You tell him about the harassing calls and for a fee he will track down the caller and fix their wagon. (This relates to something I read about Japan, that the reason there are so few lawsuits is not that people are agreeable, but that it's practically impossible to get through the court system to collect a debt or evict a tenant. So for jobs like that it's quicker and cheaper to hire the equivalent of the Mafia to take care of things for you.) ------------------------------ From: bpc@netcom.com (Benjamin P. Carter) Subject: Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 05:31:25 GMT randall@coyote.csusm.edu (Randall Rathbun) writes: > "Would you like to work at home? Would you like to be freed from the > drudgery of a company? Would you like to pick your own hours? etc, > etc." > This computer auto-dialed voice response advertisement hit our block > of 1200 numbers in a CA office prefix and started up the chain of > numbers. Junk phone calls sent to phone numbers in sequence are truly obnoxious and should be made illegal. Even the "telemarketer's ethics" statement opposes them. Your friendly telco probably loves the business and would fight to protect the rights of the junk callers, as long as it is profitable. > Can't we stop this type of thing, rather than throw up our hands and > say "oh well, there's nothing we can do about it"? Your comment is > appreciated. It is clearly a political problem, not a technical problem. Ben Carter internet address: bpc@netcom.com ------------------------------ Subject: India's VSNL to Offer Internet Access for $16 From: rishab@dxm.ernet.in (Rishab Aiyer Ghosh) Date: Thu, 27 Apr 95 20:51:23 IST Organization: Deus X Machina Please redistribute where relevant. --==(C) Copyright 1995 Rishab Aiyer Ghosh (rishab@dxm.ernet.in) India's VSNL to offer Internet access for $16 New Delhi, 23rd April 1995: India's public sector Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) which holds a monopoly over all international communications is planning to offer full Internet connectivity on a commercial basis in June. Their rates range from Rs 500 ($16) per annum for dial-up access for "students" to $10,000 per annum for 128kbps 24-hour connectivity to other commercial Internet service providers. Currently Internet connectivity in India is limited to users of ERNET, the non-commercial Education and Research Network run by the Government's Department of Electronics. Partial connectivity is available to users of NICNET, a network intended primarily for government use. There are, however, several commercial e-mail providers who pay enormous licence fees to the Government's monopolistic Department of Telecommunications (DoT), which has not permitted the operation of any full-service Internet provider. While the legal position of VSNL's service is unclear, the company has a tradition of confounding restrictive rules originating from various government departments in search of its own profit. While VSNL might take its official monopoly on international communications, which was recently extended by the government for a further 10 years, to imply permission to offer Internet services, other potential Internet service providers who wish to route traffic through VSNL will probably still require DoT permission. VSNL's relatively low rates for Internet access, which are probably subsidized by high profits from other services such as international voice communications, may result in a sudden rush to get wired among India's Internet-aware population. Although VSNL plans to start small, offering connectivity in only Bombay and Delhi to begin with, they might be overwhelmed by the response. The company has no prior experience with the Internet, and the X.25 gateway and X.400 e-mail they currently provide are not known for excellent quality of service. --==(C) Copyright 1995 Rishab Aiyer Ghosh (rishab@dxm.ernet.in) --==May be distributed electronically provided that only compilation or --==transmission charges are applied. Other uses require written permission. Rishab Aiyer Ghosh For Electric Dreams subscriptions rishab@dxm.ernet.in and back issues, send a mail to rishab@arbornet.org rishab@arbornet.org with Vox +91 11 6853410 Voxmail 3760335 'help' in lower case, without H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA the quotes, as the Subject. ------------------------------ From: cwg@DeepEddy.Com (Chris Garrigues) Subject: Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs? Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 06:27:51 -0500 Organization: Deep Eddy Internet Consulting In article , bei@io.com wrote: > Is this concern over potential competition from telcos to > local internet service providers warranted? I know of one Austin ISP who's making sales calls on small phone companies around Texas in the hopes of creating partnerships with said phone companies as they expand out of Austin into the rest of Texas. Chris Garrigues cwg@DeepEddy.Com Deep Eddy Internet Consulting +1 512 432 4046 609 Deep Eddy Avenue Austin, TX 78703-4513 USA http://www.DeepEddy.Com/~cwg/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Apr 95 23:54 EST From: Donald E. Kimberlin <0004133373@mcimail.com> Subject: Telling It Like It Was - Howard Cosell I can't say, "I knew Howard Cosell before he was Howard Cosell," because I wasn't around in 1918 when he was born Howard William Cohen in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Nor was I even aware of him when changed his name to Cosell in his college years. He did, though, come to my awareness in the 1950's. Little did it seem that a whole nation and much of the world would become aware of him. Much less did I realize at the time, or even for a decade or two later realize what important change he brought to journalism and broadcasting. It was the 1950's, but it was not yet the 1950's. One of my college favorites taught me that. He was an old history professor who loved lecturing for hours on end. I thought I was beating the system, since he ran evening class sessions lasting four hours, so you could finish his courses in six weeks instead of a semester. Little did I know he required all the reading and written work in six weeks, too. But, he made the lecture sessions supremely enjoyable. One of his lectures really stuck with me, too. It was on his thesis that a "decade" in history did not begin with the turn of a calendar -- that it always took half a decade before signs of change were recorded. He proceeded to prove his point with events throughout history showing how our recollection of a "decade" really begins notable events midway through that decade. Think on it and you'll realize he was correct. When Howard Cosell appeared to my notice, it really still was the 1940's. If there were women like Leona Helmsley, they operated quietly, so nobody knew it. Rock 'n roll hadn't shown up yet, much less Elvis. Radio stations were still playing Big Band music, Sousa marches, and romantic vocals by Tony Martin or Frank Sinatra or Patti Page or Jo Stafford. Arthur Godfrey and His Friends were still Big Time Stuff, as was Don McNeill's Breakfast Club with Aunt Fannie (who others would know as the "Fran" of Kukla, Fran and Ollie). And sportscasters had one stock in trade -- outright adulation of star athletes. Nobody had warts; every sport was clean as the wind-driven snow -- or so it was reported. Then a raspy, tight-throated Brooklyn voice came along to challenge all that. Where we were in 1950's-cun-1940's Saint Petersburg, Florida was at the trailing end of change. St. Petersburg was so WASP-y most might not be able to imagine it. There would not be a Catholic mission for several more years, and a synagogue was even later than that. It wasn't that St. Petersburg rejected such people. It was simoly that they hadn't become particularly interested in the area. In some ways, it was a rather idyllic, larger sized "small town." We knew that in a distant land called Hollywood, movie actors occasionally did some disgusting thing called "smoking marijuana" and got arrested for it. We knew that in another distant place called Washington, some Senators and a man named Hoover seemed to be doing things some people didn't like ... but all that was so remote as to be unreal. We didn't even have any images of television to bring instant shock into our homes, because St. Petersburg had been caught by the FCC "freeze," then delayed further by multi-applicant wrangling over the few channels that did become available. Radio was still King in Our Town of the 1950's; sports heroes were unblemished, as was their trade. Maybe we were the Lake Wobegon South of the time, with a population of the sort Garrison Keillor describes. In our delayed last days of The Heyday of Network Radio, working at a Real Radio Station was one of the highest aspirations a kid could have. Radio was not only still in its prime; it was the primary source of fast information, right down to heroics in the rare event of an occasional hurricane. To be able to land a job in a local radio station was something the other kids held in awe, since it was a lot more usual to clerk in a store or help a plumber, or even do lawn mowing for one's first job or so. Good fortune had let me connect with one of the network affiliate stations in town, and into a people network that knew some names. That meant several of us got some rather delectable work for young kids -- things like being the remote engineer to sit in the wooden baseball park next to Mel Allen or Harry Caray when they announced a spring training game from Florida, or one of the many "special events" that might originate from a convention hall somewhere in Florida. We got to see the events in the presence of celebrities, and get paid to do so! And that meant learning about Howard Cosell by landing a two-week summer vacation fill-in job at WSUN, the city's ABC affiliate. I was put on the 3 to 11 shift, and had as much fun as any PC freak has today playing with WSUN's oddball custom-made control room. It was like no other in the area. WSUN's Chief Engineer, Bill Codding, was a Western Electric retiree who designed and constructed a completely remotely-controlled radio control room. Essentially, all the electronics were in a large closet full of relays and vacuum tubes nobody but Bill really understood. It meant that all the control positions merely fed DC control voltages over into the closet, where relays clunked to make connections and things called "variolossers" controlled signal levels from varying DC voltages fed to them. It was a pretty spiffy 1950's set-up; one that impressed people -- and *I* got to work there for two weeks (with the chance to impress some fellow geeks of an evening after the bosses had left)! As typical of The Grand Old Days of Radio, a Traffic Manager produced a nicely typed Program Schedule and log for the whole 24-hour day, with scheduled times for programs and announcements, listed down to the second. As each item occurred, it was obligatory to enter the actual time to the second in India ink, signing the top and bottom of each sheet. Any deviations had to be noted, and changes had to be written in with India ink, with the changed item crossed out but still legible and initialed by the person changing it. The first weekday on the job, there was a curious typed entry on the log. In the midst of the usual 5 to 6 PM block of network programs with local commercials between, a program running from 5:25:00 to 5:29:25 was called "Play Some Pretty Music, Please," and it was listed as "Local/Sustaining/Music." I didn't really understand it, so called the Traffic Manager to ask what she intended by that. Her answer was, "Just pull a couple of pieces from the transcription library and fill. ABC has a sports announcer in there who's so bad the station manager won't carry him." I said, "Gee, who's that?" She said, "Oh, he's Howard Somebody-or-Other from New York. Scuttlebutt has it he's a lawyer who married an ABC vice-president's daughter, and they had to give him a job." Obviously, my curiosity was piqued. Came 5:25:00 and I let a transcription of some fill music flow out to the transmitter plant on the edge of town, but of course, had to put the ABC network line up on the audtion bus to hear what came down the line. It was totally the opposite of Paul Harvey's dramatic inflections and pregnant pauses. Instead, I heard a nasal Brooklyn twang say, "Hello again, everybody, this is Howard Cosell, speaking of sports." An even, flat pronunciation of every word and sentence followed. He just didn't _sound_ like he'd ever be a successful announcer. My instant judgment was that Howard Cosell would never make it. And, of course, how wrong I was! Howard Cosell was probably the beginning of the wave that's now moved around to today's Howard Stern and the "In yer face" style of confrontational radio. A few years later, Howard Cosell still sounded irritating to me, but he was becoming a New York society darling for reasons I still wasn't paying attention to. Then things began to sink in a bit. Cosell was different. He was calling a spade a spade. If something was wrong, he said so. He upset a lot of people, but he was usually right. In time, I began to realize he had some principles and didn't seem to be a paid mouthpiece for anybody. In short, he "told it like it was." In later years, we even saw how he reversed his position on professional boxing when he felt it changed from a sport into a gladiatorial exhibition. He spoke his feelings. Some people liked them; some people hated them, but nobody could ignore Howard Cosell. Wherever he is today, he's probably "telling it like it was," because that seems to be the Howard Cosell of Eternity, perhaps one of the most honest, straightforward journalists we've ever heard. We tried to ignore you, but now we'll miss you, Howard. Your vocabulary is a lot better than Howard Stern's, to boot! ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #215 ****************************** Received: from ns1.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa19659; 4 May 95 18:13 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA10895 for telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu; Thu, 4 May 1995 17:13:21 -0500 Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 17:13:21 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505042213.RAA10895@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom-recent@lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #216 TELECOM Digest Thu, 27 Apr 95 15:06:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 216 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Ten Minute Guide to the Internet" (Rob Slade) PRI-ISDN Deployment (Adam Hersh) Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs? (Jason T. Adams) Live Internet Phone Software (Eric Hunt) Re: Location of EIA-232 Specs (Neal McLain) Transmedia Calling Card: 1-800-DEAD-SILENCE (Andrew Kass) Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb (John W. Pan) Video Conferencing Help (Naresh Sabhnani) Re: Can Someone Help Me With Sidetone? (D. Ptasnik) Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That (Richard Cox) Washington UTC Postpones Switch to Area Code 360 (Glenn Blackmon) Clipper Paper Available via Anonymous FTP (Michael Froomkin) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 27 Apr 1995 13:50:30 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "10 Minute Guide to the Internet" by Kent BK10MINT.RVW 950323 "10 Minute Guide to the Internet", Kent, 1994, 1-56761-428-0, U$12.99/C$16.99 %A Peter Kent 71601.1266@compuserve.com pkent@lab-press.com %C 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290 %D 1994 %G 1-56761-428-0 %I Alpha Books/Macmillan Computer Publishing %O U$12.99/C$16.99 800-858-7674 75141.2102@compuserve.com %P 162 %T "10 Minute Guide to the Internet" There are twenty "lessons" here. Each could be read in ten minutes. The material provides a basic grounding in email, UNIX, Usenet news, mailing lists, Gopher, telnet, ftp, archie, WAIS and World Wide Web. The book starts out by assuming that you are already connected to an Internet provider with a UNIX shell account -- then, immediately talks about the different types of connections, the equipment you need, configuring your system, and navigating menus on the Colorado Supernet. Most of this material (particularly the chapter on setting up your modem) is too rushed to be of any use. The later chapters are better, though some are disorganized (chapters six and eight both cover email -- first with Pine and then with mail), or limited (chapter eleven covers BITNET LISTSERVs -- and *only* BITNET LISTSERVs). Kent provides definitions, notes and warnings throughout the text. The warnings point out valuable information and common pitfalls, such as the delays you may experience using telnet, or the differences between the DOS and UNIX command line. After the first five chapters, the book is a decent enough introduction to basic network services. It does not, however, have the quality of the comparable "Zen and the Art of the Internet" (cf. BKZENINT.RVW). This is a pity, since Kent has demonstrated his ability to provide better content in both "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Internet" (cf. BKIDTINT.RVW) and "The Complete Idiot's Next Step on the Internet" (cf. BKCINSIN.RVW). copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BK10MINT.RVW 950323. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | Lotteries are a tax Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | on the arithmetically Research into rslade@cyberstore.ca | impaired. User rslade@vanisl.decus.ca | Security Canada V7K 2G6 | ------------------------------ From: ahersh@transit.nyser.net (Adam Hersh) Subject: PRI-ISDN Deployment Date: 27 Apr 1995 03:56:09 GMT Organization: Internet TRANSIT Reply-To: ahersh@nysernet.org Does anyone have Pri-ISDN deployed? In New York City? Also does anyone offer any ISDN service in NYC other than NYNEX? Thanks, I'm starting some research into this topic, specifically in the Metro NY area, any assistance would be appreciated. This is for Graduate Work in Telecommunication not for my job. Adam Hersh (ahersh@nysernet.org) 200 Elwood Davis Road Membership Subscriptions Associate Suite 103 NYSERNet, Inc. Liverpool, NY 13088-6147 Phone: (315) 453-2912 x243 Fax: (315) 453-3052 ------------------------------ From: jsun@shore.net (jason t. adams) Subject: Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs? Date: 26 Apr 1995 22:43:01 GMT Organization: North Shore Access/Eco Software, Inc; (info@shore.net) > Is this concern over potential competition from telcos to local > internet service providers warranted? The telcos not only have economies of scale, but they don't have to pay extra for leased line connections to internet sources, etc. They OWN the lines. That makes me think that it would be very easy (with a little software investment) to provide slightly cheaper access. But why make it cheaper? They have serious brand name. Everybody knows who they are. Furthermore, their network competencies are formidable. If your Web browser starts to seem kind of slow, perhaps your ISP hasn't invested enough in high-speed servers or perhaps they haven't invested enough in high-bandwidth connections to their internet source. I can't imagine this ever being the case with a Bell Company. Furthermore, it seems as if it would be particularly easy to bundle Internet access with ISDN. On the other hand, they are quite unaccustomed to competition and might not operate efficiently enough to compete with a Mom and Pop. In my opinion, though, I think they will do a bang-up job. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 12:33:58 -0500 From: Eric Hunt Subject: Live Internet Phone Software I was reading about software that NPR is using to distribute All Things Considered over the Internet (different from Internet Radio, they're not .au files). The article (Reuters on AOL, I believe) didn't list the web site for downloading the Windows version of the software, unfortunately. Eric in Austin metrowerks Corp. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Apr 95 05:29:00 CDT From: Neal McLain Subject: Re: Location of EIA-232 Specs This is in response to request by Chad Ira Hanneman for the source of EIA-232 specs. All EIA specs can be purchased from: Global Engineering Documents 15 Inverness Way East Englewood, CO 80112 800-854-7179 FAX 303-792-2192 The order number for EIA-232 spec is EIA/TIA-232-E. Price (1994 catalog) is $47.00. Same source for EIA-422, -423, -449, and -530. THREE BIG CHEERS for using the correct terminology!!! It's EIA-232, NOT "RS-232"! Sometime back in the 80's, RS-232 was correct; however, with the publication of EIA-232-E in 1991, it was officially re-designated EIA-232. This is consistent with EIA's policy of redesignating all EIA standards in the "EIA-XXX" format to bring them into conformance with the overall ANSI scheme. Neal McLain ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 13:01:44 EST From: SKASS@drew.edu Subject: Transmedia Calling Card: 1-800-DEAD-SILENCE The Transmedia (R) Card, a restaurant discount card, has begun offering a 25c/minute no-surcharge calling card with various additional services (voice mail, fax mail, speed dialing, conference calling, etc.) at no monthly charge to its members. None of this is groundbreaking. What's odd is that calling any of the 1-800 numbers for activation, customer service or just to use the card gets a completely quiet, dead line. No out-of-service message, no ringing, no busy signal. Just dead air. How does that happen? Not a good introduction to a new phone service, in any case. Steve Kass/ Drew University/ skass@drew.edu/ 201-514-1187 ------------------------------ From: JohnWPan@aol.com Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 00:12:28 -0400 Subject: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb Immediately in the wake of the Oklahoma bomb, a bomb threat was made, among many in the nation, to the Boston federal building. The call was traced. A young man was arrested. Subsequently, however, NYNEX realized that the tracer interchanged two digits of the purported origin of the call. The president of NYNEX personally apologized to that unfortunate man, who was released after one day in jail. The real perpetrator of the call was not found. Source: CBS radio. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As a followup to this story, I am told now the person is suing law enforcement officials for false arrest and suing NYNEX on the grounds that the company filed a false report in the matter and did so 'with wanton disregard for the accuracy of their report.' He says the president's apology is insufficient, because of the abuse and rough treatment he alleges he received at the hands of law enforcement officers during the time he was in custody, which would not have happened, he contends, had NYNEX properly supervised its employees who conducted the trace. He further alleges that the law enforcement officers involved committed official misconduct and acted in bad faith by not further investigating the matter when NYNEX later produced a 'corrected' version of the report showing the telephone number originating the call in question, instead continuing to hold him in 'unnecessary custody' several additional hours to be vindictive. PAT] ------------------------------ From: sabhna21@futures.wharton.upenn.edu (Naresh Sabhnani) Subject: Video Conferencing Help Date: 27 Apr 1995 09:36:05 GMT Organization: University of Pennsylvania We would appreciate a few moments of your time for filling out the survey below. We are five students at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School taking our Senior Seminar Class in Marketing and are interested in finding out about possible demand for video-teleconferencing services. Video teleconferencing technology allows people at different locations to communicate by exchanging audio signals (e.g. voice) as well as video images. This survey should not take more than a few minutes of your time but will help us with our work tremendously, especially if you have participated in a video-conference and/or are a person who travels for business purposes. After completing the survey, please mail to either: sabhna21@futures.wharton.upenn.edu or kratte13@futures.wharton.upenn.edu Please answer on the line following each question or, if you prefer, fill out the answer sheet following the survey. 1. What is the industry of your company: 2. What is your job title or function: 3. Do you deal with outside vendors / business clients: 1 = Yes 2 = No 4. If Yes, what percentage of your time is spent dealing with these individuals? 5. Do you use a computer at home: 1 = No 2 = Yes 6. Do you use a computer at work: 1 = No 2 = Yes 7. Do you make audio telephone conference calls: 1 = No 2 = Yes 8. Who approves your travel budget/plans: 1 = You 2 = Your boss 3 = Someone in your department 4 = Corporate Allocation 9. How often do you travel for business: 1 = Once a year 2 = Once every few months 3 = Once a month 4 = A few times per month 5 = Once a week 6 = More than once a week 10. How long is your average trip: 1 = One day 2 = Two days 3 = Three to Five Days 4 = One Week or More 11. When you are away from your office on a business trip, what percentage of your time is spent on work specific to your travel: 1 = Less than 25% (less than 2 hours in an 8 hour day) 2 = 25-50% (2 to 4 hours in an 8 hour day) 3 = 50-75% (4 to 6 hours in an 8 hour day) 4 = 75-90% (6 hours or more in a 8 hour day) 5 = 90-100% 12. What percentage of your time is spent doing work that would normally be done back at your office? 1 = Less than 25% (less than 2 hours in an 8 hour day) 2 = 25-50% (2 to 4 hours in an 8 hour day) 3 = 50-75% (4 to 6 hours in an 8 hour day) 4 = 75-90% (6 hours or more in a 8 hour day) 5 = 90-100% 13. On a acale of 1 to 6, please rate your enjoyment of travel: 1 = Do not enjoy at all 6 = Enjoy very much 14. Are your able to work productively when traveling (e.g. in an airplane, in a hotel room, etc.): 1 = No. 2 = Yes If Yes, how would you compare your productivity relative to that in your place of work 1 = Less than 25% 2 = 25-50% 3 = 50 - 75% 4 = 75 - 90% 5 = 100% (exactly the same) 15. What is your experience with video teleconferencing? 1 = Heard of 2 = Seen it used 3 = Used once or twice 4= Used semi-regularly or regularly 16. What are your perceptions (non-users) or experiences (users) with video teleconferencing? Please rate the following attributes from 1(low or poor) to 6 (high or excellent). a. Video (picture) quality b. Audio (sound) quality c. Ease of use 17. Please rate the following attributes in order of importance to you. 1 (low or poor) to 6 (high or excellent). a. Video quality b. Audio quality c. Cost per hour d. Ease of use e. Other ____________ f. Other ____________ 18. What do you estimate would be the total cost of 1 hour of video conferencing services between two sites? If you have not used video teleconferencing, please skip to question 23. 19. If you have used any type of video teleconferencing, what is your general satisfaction with it? Please answer on a scale of 1 to 6. 1 = Not satisfied 6 = Very satisfied 20. If you have used video teleconferencing, how long is the length of your average video conference? 21. If you have used video teleconferencing, what percentage of your uses have been with people outside your company?. 22. If you have used video teleconferencing, how many individuals on average are involved in a video conference on your end? On the other end? Please answer question 23 only if you have not used video conferencing. 23. If you have NOT used video teleconferencing, do you think you would find applicability for such a service within your business: 1 = No 2 = Yes Description of video teleconferencing service: The video teleconferencing service we are investigating for this project is a public-access service, available to you in a business conference facility located in a nearby hotel. The audio and video of this service are of good quality, slightly lower in quality than that which you are familiar with on regular television. Your video conference appears on a large TV monitor, allowing enough room to easily view four or five people sitting at a conference table. The cost for this service is $175/hour per site. 24. How many person-to-person meetings did you have last week with individuals not regularly located in your office (i.e. you were away from your office or guests were present at your office)? 25. For how many of the above person-to-person meetings might the described video teleconferncing service have been an attractive alternative for you? 26. How many audio teleconferences did you participate in last week? 27. For how many of the above audio teleconferencing meetings might the described video teleconferencing have been an attractive alternative for you? 28 A. Assuming that the described public access video teleconferencing services were applicable for a meeting with a client/executive in a city 2 hours away by plane (e.g. Chicago from Philadelphia), at how long would a meeting have to be to make you prefer travel to using the public access service? 1 = 1/2 hour meeting, 2 = 1 hour meeting, 3 = 2-4 hour meeting 4 = Full day meeting, 5 = More than one day meeting 28 B. Same situation as in question 28 A but with a city 5 hours away by plane (e.g. Los Angeles from Philadelphia) 1 = 1/2 hour meeting, 2 = 1 hour meeting, 3 = 2-4 hour meeting 4 = Full day meeting, 5 = More than one day meeting 29. Please indicate whether or not you would use video conferencing for each of the following: Answer 1 = No 2 = Yes a. Short communications b. Meetings of up to three hours c. Meetings of more than three hours d. Discussions with technical people (i.e. to show technical drawings or use of a product) e. Discussions/meetings with clients/prospective clients f. Discussions/meetings with vendors / service providers g. Discussions/meetings with subordinates h. Discussions/meetings with colleagues i. Discussions/meetings with superiors j. Other: 30. What is your perception of effectiveness of video conferencing for each of the following: (1 - low to 6 - high) a. One on One b. Small Groups c. Large Groups 31. Assuming that in-person meetings and audio conferences were on opposite ends of a communication spectrum in terms of productivity, where on a 10 point scale would you place video conferencing: 1 = Audio Conference and 10 = In - Person Meeting 32. What is your age? 1 = Under 25 2 = 25-32 3 = 32-39 4 = 40-46 5 = 47-53 6 = 54-60 7 = over 60 33. Sex: 1 = Male 2 = Female 34. Marital Status: 1 = Married 2 = Single 3 = Divorced 4 = Other 35. What are the ages of your children, if any: Thank you for your help! please mail your responses to either: sabhna21@futures.wharton.upenn.edu or kratte13@futures.wharton.upenn.edu Answer Sheet: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16 a. b. c. 17 a. b. c. d. e. f. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. a. b. 29. a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. i. j. 30. a. b. c. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. ------------------------------ From: davep@u.washington.edu (D. Ptasnik) Subject: Re: Can Someone Help Me With Sidetone? Date: 27 Apr 1995 18:27:16 GMT Organization: University of Washington HQKX13A@prodigy.com (Steven Hellman) writes: > a. I need to eliminate or 'lower' the sidetone in my handset. > I am new to the Internet and don't know where to look for this answer. > I have, for five years been speaking to Engineers at Bell labs, NY Tel, > most of the telephone suppliers, most of the handset and headset suppliers, > with almost no success (with very few people even understanding the > term 'sidetone'. GN Netcom headsets have a sidetone volume control on their multi-purpose amplifier. You have to pop off the bottom of the box to get at the controls. It can be reduced to zero. All of the above is nothing more than the personal opinion of - Dave Ptasnik davep@u.washington.edu ------------------------------ From: richard@mandarin.com Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 10:01:26 -0400 Subject: Re: Competition, RBOCs and All That In-Reply-To: <199504210003.TAA10053@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> lars@spectrum.RNS. COM (Lars Poulsen) wrote: > they price this service by itself higher than the voicemail > offering that includes it. THAT is predatory pricing. Over here we would say that that was a form of internal cross-subsidy, which has resulted in undue discrimination. And that is why the UK regulator, Oftel, is requiring the ex-monopolist BT to separate its accounting processes so that it can show it is charging its own retail arm the same price for each service as it charges their competitors. The retail arm is required to cover all its costs, both above and below the line, in the charges it makes to customers for its goods and services. Predatory pricing is something *quite* different: it is where a large and profitable organisation sells goods or services at or below actual cost over a period, covering its losses by the profits from sales in its wider portfolio of goods and services, so that its smaller competitors (and particularly those that do not *have* a wider portfolio of goods and services), cannot compete at those prices without becoming insolvent. Until the Accounting Separation rules are put into effect, the only times that undue discrimination can be identified are those few instances where there are direct retail pricing comparisons, as in the case you cited. 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: deltapac@wln.com Subject: Washington UTC Postpones Switch to Area Code 360 Date: 27 Apr 1995 18:41:14 GMT Organization: Delta Pacific Reply-To: Glenn Blackmon The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission directed U S West to extend the permissive dialing period for the 360 area code for an additional 90 days. The new area code was planned to become mandatory on May 21. Callers can continue to use the old 206 area code until Aug. 20 under the commission's order. This decision was made yesterday (Apr. 26) during an emergency hearing called after many complaints from consumers, primarily businesses, that they were having problems receiving long-distance calls from across the country and internationally. U S West told the commission it was willing to comply with the commission's order, though company representatives expressed concern about their ability to meet growing demand for new telephone numbers. The commission also directed U S West and other local exchange companies in the state to develop a list of remedies for consumer problems arising from the new area code. The commission scheduled a public hearing on May 10 at which the list will be presented. Glenn Blackmon, Ph.D. Delta Pacific - Economic & Policy Consulting Olympia, WA USA e-mail: deltapac@wln.com telephone: 360 352-9701 fax: 360 943-7026 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 15:24:59 EDT From: Michael Froomkin Subject: Clipper Paper Available via Anonymous FTP My paper, "The Metaphor is the Key: Cryptography, the Clipper Chip, and the Constitution" is now available for anonymous FTP. It is about 180pp. long, and contains more than 800 references. I would welcome your feedback on this paper -- even (especially?) contributions to the inevitable errata sheet. (Please note this docment resides at what is officially a "temporary" site, so that if you create a web link to it, please let me know so that I can notify you when it moves). Contents of FTP://acr.law.miami.edu/pub/.. File Type clipper.asc ASCII clipper.wp WP 5.1/Dos clipperwp.zip Pkzipped version of clipper.wp clipper.ps My best effort at Postscript. YMMV. (approx. 7Mb.) clipperps.zip Pkzipped version of clipper.ps clipper.ps.gz Gzipped version of clipper.ps Ports provided by nice people (please note I have not checked these) clipper.ps.Z Unix compressed version of clipper.ps with carriage returns removed -- courtesy of Whit Diffie clipperMSW.sea.hqx Binhexed self-extracting Microsoft Word 5.1 for Macintosh version of clipper.wp -- courtesy of Ted Byfield None of these files contains correct and final page numbers, and there are generally trivial typos that were corrected in the printed version. The printed version appears at 143 U.Penn.L.Rev. 709 (1995). I intend to put up a web version presently. The .index file in the above directory will have details when a clean copy is ready for prime time. A link to an experimental and highly buggy HTMLized version may appear at erratic intervals at http://acr.law.miami.edu at the very bottom of the homepage. A.Michael Froomkin | +1 (305) 284-4285; +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax) Associate Professor of Law | U.Miami Law School | MFROOMKI@UMIAMI.IR.MIAMI.EDU PO Box 248087 | Coral Gables, FL 33146 USA | It's warm here. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #216 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05463; 27 Apr 95 22:15 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA02789 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 27 Apr 1995 16:15:15 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA02775; Thu, 27 Apr 1995 16:15:06 -0500 Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 16:15:06 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504272115.QAA02775@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #217 TELECOM Digest Thu, 27 Apr 95 16:15:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 217 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: New Improved Regulations For Cordless Phones (Mike Pollock) Re: We Will Find the People Who Did This (Steve McKinty) US Leased Line Tariff Studies and Information? (Reinhard Seidel) Re: Can my Modem Talk to TTY Machines For the Deaf? (Karen Nakamura) Re: North American Modems in Britain (gsmicro@ios.com) Re: Phone Question Regards Transmission Problems (Anthony W Collins) Outgoing Only Phone Line Without Phone Number (Robert Casey) Re: Difference Between Secure and Insecure http Links? (John Engstrom) Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine (Bob Goudreau) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: pheel@panix.com (Mike Pollock) Subject: Re: New Improved Regulations For Cordless Phones Date: 27 Apr 1995 11:36:36 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Paul_Gloger.ES_XFC@xerox.com wrote: > Two weeks ago, on April 5, I heard on the radio news that the FCC had > issued new regulations that would allow improved cordless phone > quality. They only cited additional available channels. "Phones > taking advantages of the new regulations will be in the stores by > summer." > I haven't seen or heard any more since. Anybody know more? I found the following list of the new cordless frequencies, and more... Mike. ========== IJ> Well, I was watching the Dan and Connie News at 6, and Connie said that IJ> the FCC has opened up 15 new channels to the cordless telephones. IJ> Supposed to give more privacy. Hmmm. Anyone have any idea what the IJ> frequencies are? Probably the ones between the existing channels. Here are some new channels in the 43 mHz band: New 43-49MHz Cordless Phone Allocations NOTE: Channels 16 through 25 are identical to the old 10 channel system. BASE HANDSET ---- ------- Channel 1 43.72 48.76 Channel 2 43.76 48.84 Channel 3 43.82 48.86 Channel 4 43.84 48.92 Channel 5 43.92 49.00 Channel 6 43.96 49.08 Channel 7 44.12 49.10 Channel 8 44.16 49.16 Channel 9 44.18 49.20 Channel 10 44.20 49.24 Channel 11 44.32 49.28 Channel 12 44.36 49.36 Channel 13 44.40 49.40 Channel 14 44.46 49.46 Channel 15 44.48 49.50 Channel 16 46.61 49.67 Channel 17 46.63 49.845 # Channel 18 46.67 49.86 # Channel 19 46.71 49.77 Channel 20 46.73 49.875 # Channel 21 46.77 49.83 # Channel 22 46.83 49.89 # Channel 23 46.87 49.93 Channel 24 46.93 49.99 Channel 25 46.97 49.97 # = 49.83-49.89 freqs commonly used for baby monitors. And these are the 900 mHz channels, in case you are interested: 900 MHZ CORDLESS TELEPHONE FREQUENCIES - - 902 - 928 MHZ NFM 902 - 928 900 MHZ CORDLESS TELEPHONES (30-100 KHZ SPACING) Panasonic KX-T9000 (60 Channels) base 902.100 - 903.870 Base frequencies (30Khz spacing) handset 926.100 - 927.870 Handset frequencies CH BASE HANDSET CH BASE HANDSET CH BASE HANDSET -- ------- ------- -- ------- ------- -- ------- ------- 01 902.100 926.100 11 902.400 926.400 21 902.700 926.700 02 902.130 926.130 12 902.430 926.430 22 902.730 926.730 03 902.160 926.160 13 902.460 926.460 23 902.760 926.760 04 902.140 902.490 14 902.490 926.490 24 902.790 926.790 05 902.220 926.220 15 902.520 926.520 25 902.820 926.820 06 902.250 926.250 16 902.550 926.550 26 902.850 926.850 07 902.280 926.280 17 902.580 926.580 27 902.880 926.880 08 902.310 926.310 18 902.610 926.610 28 902.910 926.910 09 902.340 926.340 19 902.640 926.640 29 902.940 926.940 10 902.370 926.370 20 902.670 926.670 30 902.970 926.970 CH BASE HANDSET CH BASE HANDSET CH BASE HANDSET -- ---- ------- -- ---- ------- -- ---- ------- 31 903.000 927.000 41 903.300 927.300 51 903.600 927.600 32 903.030 927.030 42 903.330 927.330 52 903.630 927.630 33 903.060 927.060 43 903.360 927.360 53 903.660 927.660 34 903.090 927.090 44 903.390 927.390 54 903.690 927.690 35 903.120 927.120 45 903.420 927.420 55 903.720 927.720 36 903.150 927.150 46 903.450 927.450 56 903.750 927.750 37 903.180 927.180 47 903.480 927.480 57 903.780 927.780 38 903.210 927.210 48 903.510 927.510 58 903.810 927.810 39 903.240 927.240 49 903.540 927.540 59 903.840 927.840 40 903.270 927.270 50 903.570 927.570 60 903.870 927.870 V-TECH TROPEZ DX900 (20 CHANNELS) 905.6 - 907.5 TRANSPONDER (BASE) FREQUENCIES (100 KHZ SPACING) 925.5 - 927.4 HANDSET FREQUENCIES CH BASE HANDSET CH BASE HANDSET CH BASE HANDSET -- ---- ------- -- ------- ------- -- ---- ------- 01 905.600 925.500 08 906.300 926.200 15 907.000 926.900 02 905.700 925.600 09 906.400 926.300 16 907.100 927.000 03 905.800 925.700 10 906.500 926.400 17 907.200 927.100 04 905.900 925.800 11 906.600 926.500 18 907.300 927.200 05 906.000 925.900 12 906.700 926.600 19 907.400 927.300 06 906.100 926.000 13 906.800 926.700 20 907.500 927.400 07 906.200 926.100 14 906.900 926.800 OTHER 900 MHZ CORDLESS PHONES AT&T #9120 - - - - - 902.0 - 905.0 & 925.0 - 928.0 MHZ OTRON CRP. #CP-1000 902.1 - 903.9 & 926.1 - 927.9 MHZ SAMSUNG #S-R912- - - 903.0 & 927.0 MHZ More privacy? Connie does not realize that most scanners cover the 43 mHz channels as well as 49 mHz. Perhaps someone should whisper it to her and see if she reports it. Not! --------- T H E I N F O R M A T I O N E X C H A N G E B B S --------- Rip Graphics * Free Internet E-mail * CD-Rom File Libraries * Forums "THE ROAD OF INFORMATION LEADS TO THE INFORMATION EXCHANGE" (619) 599-4798 SYSOP: hunter@infoex.cts.com (619) 599-4798 ------------------------------ From: smckinty@sunicnc.France.Sun.COM (Steve McKinty - SunSoft ICNC Grenoble) Subject: Re: We Will Find the People Who Did This Date: 27 Apr 1995 14:36:17 GMT Organization: SunConnect In article , stox@fsgi01.fnal.gov (Ken Stox) writes: > I agree, but I am very concerned that many people will be willing to > sacrifice basic rights to protect ourselves from these acts. I think > we may end up with a society not unlike Britain. I, for one, would > rather live free and die. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And what, pray tell, do you find so > unpleasant about Great Britain? They seem to have some civilization > there -- despite their own troubles in the past few decades -- that > we are sadly lacking here. I'd move there in a minute if I had some > employment there or method of surviving other than enrolling in their > public welfare the day I arrived. You would rather live free and die, > but I will suggest that you're going to be dead a lot sooner than you > think with that kind of attitude. PAT] As a Briton I'd have to agree with Pat. There seems a popular idea in the US that it is the only truly free country in the world, and that the UK is some sort of police state. That is as far from the truth as the British stereotype of America being some sort of gun-crazy hell, where everyone walks around armed, and you get killed for looking the wrong way at someone. Both countries have their own problems, neither is perfect, but I've never been aware of any major difference in freedom when in the UK or the USA. No society can be totally free, we need at least a minimal set of rules and laws to be able to live together. The British and American approaches differ in small detail, but the general plans are the same. I was born and raised within 20 miles of Belfast. We've never had any terrorist incident as serious as the one in Oklahoma but I do greatly sympathise with the people there. The one thing that we did learn from such things in N. Ireland is that you cannot give in to the terror that such people try and inspire. Normal life must go on, you must not be panicked into locking up your cities and hiding behind barricades. In Belfast the initial response to car bombs was to seal off the city centre to traffic, behind ugly barriers. For a couple of years the heart went out of the city, but in the 1980's people pushed back. We still needed the security, but we needed to enjoy our lives as well. The military barriers came down, to be replaced by colourful railings and floral displays. The roads and pavements were redone, and the whole area turned into a pedsetrian precinct on a par with many other European cities. The bombers still couldn't get their cars in, but we had our city back as a nice place to live, work and shop. In California you build buildings to withstand earthquakes, in N. Ireland we learned to build them to withstand explosions. Nothing can be so disheartening to a terrorist when his bomb leaves only a hole in the road, but doesn't break a single pane of (toughened) glass in the surrounding buildings. You can't spread much terror if your tactics have no visible effect. Above all, you need to keep a sense of perspective. I don't mean this to sound callous, but when the shock wears off, and life returns to normal, remember that there were probably more people killed in traffic accidents this year than in that explosion. Don't let the terrorists run your life. Frightening though such things are, you're still in more danger crossing the road, but we don't hide indoors just in case the next truck has our name on it. That's what the bombers want to terrorise you into doing. That is not, or course, a consolation to those hurt, and my sympathies go to all involved. Apologies also to those who object to non-telecom discussion here, I'll be happy to continue it elsewhere. Steve McKinty Sun Microsystems ICNC 38240 Meylan, France email: smckinty@france.sun.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Judging from the amount of traffic the OKC bombing has generated in other newsgroups, and the hateful and vitrolic nature of much of it, I think I'll take a pass on doing any more of it here. To acknowledge all who have written, I have about three dozen items in the mailqueue now on this topic based on my own commentary last week and the remarks by Paul Robinson. My thanks to all who have written. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Reinhard Seidel Subject: US Leased Line Tariff Studies and Information Date: 27 Apr 1995 13:26:50 GMT Organization: OA Hi Everybody, I am currently working on a comparative study on international leased line tariffs in Austria. We are comparing the tariffs for ISDN access, leased analog phone lines, 64kbs (56k) and multiples lines, and 2.048 kbs (1.544 kbs) leased data lines. Some broadband services are included too. We (Institute for Industrial Science, Vienna) are looking at several European countries including Austria, Germany, Great Britain and a fewl northern European countries and two US-carriers. I am still working on obtaining data for US-services, concentrating on AT&T and Bell Atlantic. Does anbody have data on the services on these two or other carriers or does anybody know how to obtain them fast? I would also be interested in obtaining an international study on leased lines, possibly exchanging the material we have on all the European services for US-services. Please send any responses reinhard@ping.at Thanks for any responses, Reinhard Seidel ------------------------------ From: k.nakamura@yale.edu (Karen Nakamura) Subject: Re: Can my Modem Talk to TTY Machines For the Deaf? Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 16:28:34 -0400 Organization: Yale University Anthropology In article , lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) wrote: > The good news is that, unless your friend's TDD is *VERY* old, it will > probably be able to do "ASCII mode" at 300 or maybe even 1200 baud. The > TDD will need to be switched to "ASCII mode" for the call to complete, > so what you will probably need to do is something like this: Sorry, but ASCII was a $75 option on my TTY and so I didn't buy it. It doesn't come standard on many/most TTYs. I don't know many people who have a TTY with ASCII, it's an expensive, relatively useless feature for the primary purpose of having a TTY -- talking to other TTY users. Even most state relays don't have an ASCII option. Your best hope is v.18... whenever that comes. Karen (who actually thinks TTY technology isn't so bad) Karen J. Nakamura Starving Grad Student Department of Anthropology Yale University k.nakamura@yale.edu 76711.542@compuserve.com http://www.cis.yale.edu/~jiro/karen.html (World Wide Web Home Page) ------------------------------ From: gsmicro@ios.com Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 00:50:19 -0400 Subject: Re: North American Modems in Britain jbowler@biostats.uwo.ca wrote: > I have two US Robotics internal 14400's and am moving from Canada to > the UK in July. The USR manual mentions some configuration changes > that are needed for Britain. Will the modems then be OK? > I think that the sockets are physically different. Are adapters > available? What do people with portable computers do to use North > American equipment in the UK? If you call USRobotics, you can order an RJ11 convertor that will convert that jack to a UK compatible connector (the connector is slightly larger, and is keyed). However, USR will warn you that this configuration is only designed for occasional use (ie; when travelling). Since the modem you are using is designed for use in North America, and therefore only has approval for use in North America, it is *technically* illegal to permanently attach the modem to the UK network. I don't think there is much of a physical difference between the UK and North American versions of the modems. There may be different shielding, RF, or line conditioning requirements in the UK. But it will physically work. You will also need to send a command string to the modem to allow it to dial, especially if you are dialing pulse. Here are the codes for my Courier v.34, the Sportster should be the same, but check your manual or ask USR when you order the converter: ATB0 - Handshake v.32/v.32 BIS - ITU-T answer sequence AT&G2 - Set United Kingdom Guard Tone (not used in North America) AT&P1 - Set United Kingdon make/break ratio for pulse dialling (make 33%/break 67%). (North America is &P0 39% make/61% break) Some of the codes may not even be necessary, but it wouldn't hurt to use them. USR may even have a FAQ on their BBS. Since they do a lot of business in the UK; I'm sure you'll find all you need. Scot M. Desort Garden State Micro, Inc. +1 201-244-1110 +1 201-244-1120 Fax gsmicro@ios.com ------------------------------ From: Anthony W Collins Subject: Re: Phone Question Regards Transmission Problems Date: Thu, 27 Apr 95 01:12:49 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Jack Mott writes: > We have recently added a third extension for our house. Once every > four or five calls, the phone will stop sending my voice (I can still > hear the other party). This happens regardless of which phone is > attached to the third extension, even an old and reliable Bell System > phone. We do not experience this problem on the other two extensions. What you describe is not possible. From your description the problem is with the four wire part of the circuit transmitter to hybrid in the set which usually ends up being the handset cord or the transmitter contacts (clean with an ereaser) I have to dispute the problem being in your jack wiring back to the central office. It may help to call your telephone repair department and request a full test on your line by a technician If you get a bad test disconnect any wiring that you are responsible for and have them test again and get a dispatch if their part of the line is bad so as not to incur any charges. It is always helpful to clear up other minor problems when you are troubleshooting. ------------------------------ From: wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) Subject: Outgoing Only Phone Line Without Phone Number Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 19:42:54 GMT Can the phone company provide a phone line to be used to make outgoing calls only, outgoing only because this line has no phone number attached to it? Uses would include computer modem use (non BBS). A reason for such service is that it would conserve phone numbers. (For caller-id, 911, and such, assign it an "impossible" to dial number, like 010-123-4567, for the database. Using an "area code" that is undialable, as the system doesn't expect and gets confused by a pattern 010 or 1010. A leading 0 means you want the operator to assist you, or you want international if you then dial 11. If you then dial 12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19 after dialing 0, I think these are errors. I don't think you can dial 0-1-NPA-xxx-xxxx and get thru to NPA-xxx-xxxx, think you'll get an error message. If I'm right, you could have nine area code's worth of outgoing undialable numbers the phone company to assign. Or do they do this already, or have I overlooked something? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Outgoing only lines have been a standard staple of telco for many years, as have been incoming only lines. They have 'regular' numbers attached to them; there is not that great a shortage of numbers available. When you dial a phone number on a one way outgoing line one of two things happen: if the line is in use, the caller gets a busy signal. If the line is not in use, the caller gets a recorded inter- cept message saying 'the number you dialed, xxx-xxxx is not in service for incoming calls.' On lines designated for incoming calls only, if the subscriber lifts the receiver, he hears just sidetone, or battery. Dial tone never does come to the line. If he receives a call, the phone rings and he answers in the normal way. Most of those 'non-dialable' codes you listed in your examples above are already in use for billing purposes only. They are used for non-subscriber calling cards; as codes used for billing on manual ringdown points, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Engstrom Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 14:50:39 -0500 Subject: Re: What is the Difference Between Secure and Insecure http Links? > I was on the net and ended up in some kind of shopping mall (WWW). What > the difference is between secure and insecure http links? How secure is > secure? What makes a http link secure? > Could somebody explain this to me? Well, to sum it up, secure http uses RSA public key encryption. The new version of Netscape (a http browser like Mosaic) incorperates the secure http protocol. As for the question of how secure the secure http is, well, that depends on how large the encryption key used is. For a better discussion on security in general, and RSA public key encryption in specific, try getting a hold of the O'Reilley & Associates book on PGP. The author is Simson Garfinkel. Or, as an alternative, you could try checking out the newsgroup alt.security.pgp. By the way, PGP is a program written by Phil Zimmerman used to encrpyt and digitally sign messages. PGP uses RSAREF (the RSA encryption library) as the basis for its encryption. Name : John Engstrom Work Phone: 1-214-997-0750 E-Mail : eusengs@exu.ericsson.se engstrom@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 16:47:20 -0400 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine Dik Winter wrote: > But 37x is already filling up with 378 in use for San Marino. As far > as I know the following codes are assigned but not yet in use: 374 > Armenia, 375 Belarus, 376 Andorra, 379 Vatican City, leaving 377 as > only free code. Adding together this information with data I received from Mark Cuccia, it looks like the 37x series has now been completely exhausted: 370 Lithuania 371 Latvia 372 Estonia 373 Moldova 374 Armenia 375 Belarus 376 Andorra 377 Monaco 378 San Marino 379 Vatican City Perhaps the country.codes database in the Telecom Archives can now be updated accordingly. > Apparently assignments have been made for the Caucasian republics (one > in the 37x series, the remainder in 99x). I have no information about > assignments for the Central Asian republics. So now we know that outside of Russia itself, +7 is down to the five ex-Soviet "-stans" of Central Asia. I wonder if any of them will ever decide to split off on their own. Fortunately, there are plenty of spares available in the 99x series. > However, you never know about those assignments. Before it got 378 > San Marino had apparently 295 assigned, but that one has never been > used. Moreover, I do not know about assignments made for Monace and > Liechtenstein (which I would expect). See above for Monaco. Liechtenstein was the next question off my lips as well, since it's now the only European microstate that I can think of without its own country code (it shares 41 with Switzerland). The issue of the former Czechoslovakia is a little cloudier. Apparently, both the Czech Republic and Slovakia are for the moment satisfied with sharing 42 with each other. But if that ever changes, what will happen? Would the Czech Republic retain 42 while Slovakia picks up one of the 38x codes? Or would two new 42x codes be created (a la Yugoslavia's 38 --> 38x) in order to provide more equitable treatment? (Slovakia is no microstate; it has half the population of its Czech counterpart.) There now remain only four vacant codes in the European Zone (+3 and +4): 382, 383, 384 and 388. Fortunately, this is just sufficient to accomodate Liechtenstein and Slovakia (if necessary), plus Greenland (currently 299) and the Faeroe Islands (298), should they wish to follow San Marino's example and switch to a European code now that some are available. (No European codes were available in the late 1980s, so the 29x series was used as an overflow area for Europe. It served the same role for some new Caribbean country codes, since the two American zones, +1 and +5, are also completely full.) Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #217 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa17370; 28 Apr 95 20:40 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA27310 for telecomlist-outbound; Fri, 28 Apr 1995 15:14:45 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA27302; Fri, 28 Apr 1995 15:14:42 -0500 Date: Fri, 28 Apr 1995 15:14:42 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199504282014.PAA27302@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #218 TELECOM Digest Fri, 28 Apr 95 15:14:30 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 218 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: German Telekoms "KIT": Specs/Document Now Available (Frank Naehring) International Switching Symposium (Frank Naehring) 404 Area Code Split; New Code 770 (Rick Dennis) Need Information on Telecom Networks in China (Frederic Van Dessel) Telecom Engineering Grad Programs (Steve Granata) Need a PCMCIA ISDN Card (Everett C. Stonebraker) Re: MCI Commercial is in Bad Taste (Jim McTiernan) Networking Research Project (David Goessling) All Those Questions From Belgian Students (Rishab Aiyer Ghosh) Re: 1-900-555-1212 (Lou Jahn) Re: Is There a Telecom Glossary On-Line Somewhere? (John Teague) Can Someone Explain DID in English? (Brian D. Petro) Annoying Feature on Payphones Here (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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader Date: Fri, 28 Apr 1995 14:25:00 CST Someone sent me a note the other day which I have managed to lose, but the essence of his request was this: He likes to read Usenet news but many of the groups he wants to read are not carried by his site. He wants to know of sites which maintain 'open' NNTP servers; that is, where anyone can pull the news and post news, etc. If you want to send me the information, I'll pass it along to him when he writes me again, as I am sure he will when I don't answer him in the next few days. He wrote me, I mistakenly thought he wanted information on how to get this Digest by email; he wrote back saying it was not just this Digest, but various other groups that were unavailable as well. I told him I would post his note ... now it's lost. :( His intention is to edit his .login file to 'setenv NNTP open.server.somewhere', and pull the news that way. Any help will be appreciated. PAT ------------------------------ From: fnaehri@ibm.net Subject: Re: German Telekoms "KIT": Specs/Document Now Available via ftp Date: 28 Apr 1995 14:14:05 GMT Reply-To: fnaehri@ibm.net > However, since the former Bundespost/Deutsche Telekom (nowadays just > "Telekom") Nowadays it is called "Deutsche Telekom". Frank Naehring Berlin, Germany fnaehri@ibm.net ------------------------------ From: fnaehri@ibm.net Subject: International Switching Symposium Date: 28 Apr 1995 14:18:31 GMT Reply-To: fnaehri@ibm.net Is anybody able to give me a hint where to get some information on the topics discussed at the ISS '95 in Berlin this week? Thanks, Frank Naehring Berlin, Germany fnaehri@ibm.net ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Apr 1995 10:16:16 -0400 From: rad@eusdatl.attmail.com (rad) Subject: 404 Area Code Split; New Code 770 Hey, Yesterday, the Georgia PSC announced an area split for metro Atlanta. For the most part, anything inside I-285 will be 404, all the 'burbs will be 770 (that's me). The PSC was considering two plans. One being the plan approved above and the other involving an overlay scenario. As an interesting note, the head of the PSC, Bobby Baker, was a guest lecturer in one of my classes at Georgia Tech before the meeting. Of course, the issue of the split came up. We as a class decided what we would do if commissioners for a day. There was overwhelming support for the plan that was approved. Many felt the geographic split was easier deal with as far as knowing what numbers to dial and that it would perpetuate seven digit dialing. Well, I'm the glass-is-half-empty type and was, I think, the only one who supported the overlay plan. I feel that ten digit dialing is becoming more prevalent and will be the norm after some period of time. I don't think the geographic split is going perpetuate seven digit dialing as much as some people think. Also, after the 404/706 split a few years ago, it was predicted that Atlanta had numbers for EIGHT years. Three years later we're in a big rush to come up with a plan that will go into effect December 1, 1995. Thus, one would think that with continued growth here in Atlanta, we'll be ready for another split in the not too distant future. How will we split then? Another donut wouldn't be feasible(sp?), so the 770 would have to be split either north/south or east/west. Which brings up the possiblity of having three area codes in extremely close proximity, which, in my mind, reduces the benefits of the geographic split. Anyway, those are some thoughts and any comments would be appreciated. I'm not in the networking/local exchange side of the house. So I'm not informed as I'd like to be at this point, but I'm learning! BTW, we talked about a few other items in class, such as cable, electric utilities, and other telcom issues. If anyone from the Peach state is interested, drop me an email and I'll let you know how the PSC is leaning (today, that is). Rick Dennis AT&T Global Business Communications Systems Conversant(Intuity) Systems Suite 600 email: attmail!rickdennis 5555 Oakbrook Parkway Phone: (404) 242-1552 Norcross, GA 30093 ------------------------------ From: hw45644@vub.ac.be (VAN DESSEL FREDERIC) Subject: Need Information on Telecom Networks in China Date: 28 Apr 1995 15:18:47 GMT Organization: Brussels Free Universities (VUB/ULB), Belgium Hello, I'm a third year student in communication research at the Brussels Free University. I'm looking for information about telecommunication networks in China. Especially about: - telephone penetration in cities and rural regions; - government's telecom and tarrif policy; - current and future projects. If you have information about one of these topics, would you be so kind to mail it to me. Thanks in advance and regards from Brussels. Frederic hw45644@is1.vub.ac.be (VAN DESSEL FREDERIC) Student Communicatiewetenschappen Vrije Universiteit Brussel [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder if anyone there ever does their own research; their own hunting for data? As I mentioned yesterday, I am getting large numbers of these inquiries now for some reason. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve.Granata@gsa.gov Date: Fri, 28 Apr 95 10:37:39 EST Subject: Telecom Engineering Grad Programs I am posting this message for a colleague who does not have e-mail: Swiss Telecom is interested in sending a group of telecommunications engineers to the United States for graduate and continuing education in telecom engineering and technology. There will be small group of students who will be interested in a variety of opportunities ranging from a single semester of study, to completion of an entire degree program. Also, the company is looking for a campus somewhat "friendly" to European students and those who speak English as a second language. Please reply to this list or directly via e-mail to (Steve.Granata@GSA.GOV) with any recommendations or program information. Thank you, Steve Granata ------------------------------ From: stony@gate.net (Everett C. Stonebraker) Subject: Need a PCMCIA ISDN Card Date: 28 Apr 1995 17:50:12 GMT Organization: Stonebraker and Wilson, Inc. Can anyone refer me to a PCMCIA ISDN card for a PC laptop, if there is one? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: jwmctie@esac.PacBell.COM (Jim McTiernan) Subject: Re: MCI Commercial is in Bad Taste Date: 28 Apr 1995 18:05:25 GMT Organization: Pacific Bell ESAC Reply-To: jwmctie@esac.PacBell.COM In article 10@eecs.nwu.edu, Wolf writes: > I have to ask, does anyone believe that the actor that MCI uses in > their commercials as the snotty (not my first choice of words, but > more socially acceptable) operator actually helps them? Is this > supposed to representable of their regular operators? Most people I > asked said they thought this woman sounded like the biggest &$^#% they > ever heard. At least AT&T's adds are pleasant to look at! > Note: I say this as a user of neither service (actually, either service; > whatever happens to be cheapest among the three or four I use for the > type of call I'm making). I believe that she must be the ignorant, snotty Service Rep that I spoke with last night regarding MCI's inability to make correct charges for phone calls made using their famous "Friends and Family" plan. I have only two numbers, both of which are international numbers, on the plan. It took them a couple of months to initially start charging correctly, and they did for about a year. Then all of a sudden they started charging the calls higher even though they reflect the F&F plan on the bill. Of course, I should verify the bill every month for accuracy, but, do not like being told by the Rep that it is my responsibility to make sure that MCI is charging me correctly. Their service is no better than AT&T, if they can't bill correctly I will sure change back to what I have found to be a more reputable IC, AT&T. Should have never changed from AT&T. MCI says that they charge less than AT&T. They quote lower prices, they just don't use those prices to bill you. Jim ------------------------------ From: David_Goessling@fcbbs.ss.kpmg.com Organization: Strategic Services of KPMG Peat Marwick Date: Fri, 28 Apr 1995 12:29:27 EST Subject: Networking Research Project We are conducting research for a project which involves the collection of extensive information regarding end-user based metrics in the following two technical areas: 1. Voice and data communication networks (hardware, operations and support, and circuits); 2. Workstations, mobile devices, and fixed function terminals, including Helpdesk. The project covers multiple geographies, with specific focus on North Amer- ica, Europe and Latin America. References to market research firms, publica- tions, journals, etc. which specialize in reporting such detailed data would be appreciated. Please respond to David Goessling at David_Goessling@fcbbs.ss.kpmg.com. Technical Support (610) 995-4419. ------------------------------ Subject: All Those Questions From Belgian Students From: telco-rg@dxm.ernet.in (Rishab Aiyer Ghosh) Date: Sat, 29 Apr 95 00:11:58 IST Organization: Deus X Machina TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) writes: [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The several messages above printed in this issue are a small sample of the requests I receive like this from day to day. Shall I print more of them from time to time? PAT] Along with a note from you to post answers to the Digest, why not? Rishab Aiyer Ghosh rishab@dxm.ernet.in rishab@arbornet.org Vox +91 11 6853410 Voxmail 3760335 H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Somone else said print them, but clearly identify them in the subject line as a question for a student report so that readers who want to avoid them can do so. I wish people would look over the Telecom Archives (lcs.mit.edu) and the Frequently Asked Questions file before writing here. Everything I know about anything is either in the Archives or the FAQ ... speaking of which I sent out the most recent FAQ to Usenet earlier today since its been awhile since one was distributed there. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 28 Apr 95 14:46:44 EDT From: Lou Jahn <71233.2444@compuserve.com> Subject: Re: 1-900-555-1212 Has anyone else tried the new AT&T information service? I tired it today and it took 1 minute 45 seconds to determine they could not find my listing (one the same for 20+ years). The operator intially asks for the LOCALITY and STATE for which you need information -- I knew it wasn't going to work when they couldn't find my location (population 11,000 our own ZIP and three NXXs). They asked if there was a larger city -- I gave her the closest -- ATLANTIC CITY ... guess what no lisitng still found (I have three phones; one number for 25 years, a second number for 1.5 years, and the third number I added for FAX seven months ago). Does anyone know what and where AT&T is getting their data for their information system? Anyone else have any experience good or bad with 900-555-1212? I will wait for next months bill to see if they still charged me. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You know, if they (or someone) wanted to do it a clever way, they would set up a 900 number at a dollar a minute or two dollars for the entire call or whatever, and then when a call came in they would ask for the locality and state, *then outdial the call to the respective area code* and let the established operators handle the lookups. In other words, you pay me the rate on my 900 number to do the area code lookup, and I pay 75 cents (or however cheap I can get it in bulk) to the carrier actually doing the lookup. I would throw in zip code information as well to make it more worth your while to use my service. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Teague Subject: Re: Is There a Telecom Glossary On-Line Somewhere? Date: 28 Apr 1995 19:01:17 GMT Organization: Wandel & Goltermann Technologies Try http://www.wiltel.com/glossary/glossary.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's a good one, and as a reminder, the Telecom Archives (lcs.mit.edu) also has a directory with several various glossary files on line for downloading. PAT] ------------------------------ From: petro@crl.com (Brian D. Petro) Subject: Can Someone Explain DID in English? Date: 28 Apr 1995 12:13:07 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [Login: guest] I am currently researching voice-mail systems for a home-business I would like to start. I am a reasonably intelligent person, but I am finding myself drowning in the explanations and terms that vendors and my phone company use in their attempts to explain DID. I know that it is a system that will enable my customer's calls to be routed directly to their boxes. Beyond that it gets fuzzy. Is there a good book on the subject? Better yet, is there someone out their who feels up to the challenge of explaining it to me? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Please E-mail responses. Thanks in advance. Brian Petro ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Apr 1995 15:05:31 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Annoying Feature on Payphones Here I don't like a feature on the Bell payphones here in Skokie, and it seems to cause no end of confusion for many other people as well. It seems that when you call from a payphone in Skokie (708-673 and 708-674) after it rings two or three times, a recorded message comes on the line saying 'your party does not answer' and inviting you to leave a message 'for delivery at a later time' by pressing the keys on the phone, for an additional fee of course. Now should the caller actually answer, then of course the recording cuts off immediatly and you proceed with your call, however there are lots of foreign speaking people in Skokie -- mostly from Russia or the Ukraine -- and not being all that familiar with the phone system anyway, they think they are hearing a recording saying that the number is not in service. Another source of annoyance with payphones here is how seldom they seem to have their coin boxes emptied. There is one payphone which is otherwise quite convenient when I need to use one, but I think about half the time it won't accept money. And this is another curious thing; readers can tell me if this exists in your community or not: when a payphone is full of money here, somehow it is noted in the central office because if you pick up the phone, get dial tone and deposit your 25 cents, the money comes back out immediatly and you get a recorded message saying 'sorry, this phone cannot accept coins right now, however you can place your call with a credit card, collect, third party, etc ..'. This is *not* due to any overnight restrictions on payphones such as 'no coins after dark' in the War on Drugs, etc. When I have called repair to complain the clerk says its because the coin box is full ... yet I find that hard to believe that it would consistently happen with this one phone in particular at the one location all the time. Any other central offices you know of set up to sense when a coin box is full and return that kind of message to the user? As soon as that message is played out the phone goes 'click click' and the dial tone is restarted. If they know the box is full, why not just come and empty it? Anyway, have a nice weekend, we will meet here again Monday! Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #218 ****************************** Received: from ns1.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15351; 1 May 95 16:20 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA07166 for telecomlist-outbound; Mon, 1 May 1995 09:50:04 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA07158; Mon, 1 May 1995 09:50:01 -0500 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 09:50:01 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505011450.JAA07158@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #219 TELECOM Digest Mon, 1 May 95 09:50:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 219 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson MFS Advertising Irony (Dave Levenson) Re: Local Competition Epiphany (Michael D. Sullivan) BRI to Bipolar T1 (Joseph Hagan) PayPhone (COCOT and RBOC) Newsgroup (voices@unix.asb.com) Cross-Border Local Calls (Dale Crouse) CFP: Special Issue of Journal of Symbolic Computation (Mehmet Orgun) Fiber Loops and Coax Converters (Theodore F. Vaida) Looking For Integrated E1/V.34/PPP - TCP/IP/Ethernet Solution (P. Nikander) ThinkPad Modem in India (S. Arora) Internet in Dubai? (Sandy Kyrish) Regulation of PA Cable and Carriers (Theodore F. Vaida) Challenging Phone Bill (Grady Ward) International Telephone Number Length - Maximum Allowed (David E A Wilson) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: MFS Advertising Irony Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Sat, 29 Apr 1995 13:13:33 GMT The radio advertisement for MFS was a clever parody. It featured an automated attendant answering for your local telephone company, with a bored voice intoning (paraphrased a bit): "This is your telephone company... If you need repair service, press 1 If you need to discuss your bill, please take a number If you don't have a telephone at all, please call later..." This was contrasted with an apparently live and happy-sounding voice answering: "MFS, Can I help you?" This was followed by a the suggestion that you are no-longer limited to one local telephone company, and an invitation to call 800-669-6374 for more information. Later that day, I called the 800 number in the ad. Just like on the radio, a live human being answered the phone: "MFS, Can I help you?" "Good morning," I replied, "can you tell me if you offer local service in Morris County, New Jersey?" "No, sir, I can't. You'll have to call our New Jersey office at 201-938-7700 for that information" I thanked the MFS live attendant, and called the 201 number she had given me. That phone was answered by another live human being: "MFS, Can I help you?" "Good morning, can you tell me if you serve Morris County, New Jersey?" "No, sir, you'll have to call our Lyndhurst office at 201-507-8100 about service there." I called the Lyndhurst number. "MFS, Can I help you?" When I repeated my question about local service (for the third time, now) the Lyndhurst live body transferred my call to a sales representative. The sales representative answered: "MFS, this is Christine, can I help you?" "Good morning, can you tell me if you serve Morris County?" I asked, by now somewhat amused by the whole process. This time, my question was answered in the affirmative. The rep then put me on HOLD while going to look something up. While I was on hold, another party said: "MFS, Can I help you" "I was talking with Christine," I told her. "Oh, just a minute..." The call was then answered by Christine's voice mail greeting (with no automated-attendant menu options). I left my number and hung up. Christine called me back after about five minutes. So what did I learn from all of this? In case anybody else in this area wants to know, MFS doesn't actually offer local dialtone in Morris County (but some day soon, according to Christine). They do offer intra- and inter-LATA toll service, accessed by a 10xxx code or (for inter-LATA calls) by becoming your default inter-exchange carrier. Their rates were somewhat higher than we now pay another carrier. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: uunet!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That sounds like sort of cheap-shot advertising in my opinion. As evidenced by your experience, MFS has no idea at all what large volume, massive amounts of inbound calling is all about, as would your local telco business office. Telco handles a hundred times the volume of calls inbound to their various business offices in a day that MFS gets in a week, and probably does so with much more effeciency -- despite their voicemail front end, or perhaps because of it -- than MFS with their telling you to make several calls all over the county to get what you wanted. Note how they advertised on your local radio station, then are completely unprepared to accept your call and deal with it at the number they announced. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mds@access.digex.net (Michael D. Sullivan) Subject: Re: Local Competition Epiphany Date: 30 Apr 1995 01:47:27 -0400 Organization: Wilkinson, Barker, Knauer & Quinn (Washington, DC, USA) Donald E. Kimberlin <0004133373@mcimail.com> writes: > For the past four days, full-page ads have appeared in the > Charlotte, North Carolina {Observer}, telling of a coalition of > companies that seek particular objectives in U.S. Federal legislation > concerning local telephone competition. Those who remember "how it > used to be" will find some of the statements no less than an > astounding change from what AT&T once used to say to the world, in > addition to noting AT&T's recognition of entities it would once have > hoped to ignore and perhaps even hogtie to death. It certainly seems > AT&T has discovered a new reality, and now has joined in to promote a > new reality into local telephone business in the U.S. Welcome to the brave new world of "grass roots" politics. The ad found its way into the Charlotte paper to generate letters to Fritz Holings, who is the senior Democrat on the Senate Communications Subcommittee, from his home ground. And the same AT&T that is the driving force behind the "coalition" sponsoring this ad had its chairman testify last year before Sen. Metzenbaum's hearing on media megamergers that local telephone competition was virtually impossible, and told the FCC that local exchange service was a "natural monopoly." In other words, they are perfectly willing to let the Bells into interexchange competition only when local competition has fully occurred, a condition it has publicly equated with Satan skidding on ice. If local competition is such an impossibility, why are they now lobbying for it? Makes one wonder about how far you can throw any press release (or testimony) by AT&T. Michael D. Sullivan | INTERNET E-MAIL TO: mds@access.digex.net Bethesda, Md., USA | also avogadro@well.com, 74160.1134@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: haganj@ix.netcom.com (Joseph Hagan) Subject: BRI to Bipolar T1 Date: 1 May 1995 04:30:33 GMT Organization: Netcom Boy do I have a good one ... I have been looking for this one for two or three months: I am looking for a mux/imux/csu that will allow me to connect two Telco-type, vanilla flavored, generic, T1 channel banks (ESF, voice and LS data) using 3+ ISDN BRI 2B+D lines as opposed to leased line T1 or Switched 384K. (My total bandwidth requirement is only 384KBps.) I have found lots of gear that will do V.35, RS-449, EIA 530 at 1.544; but I need something that will synch something as unglamorous as channel banks. I thought this was a piece of cake (but it's Devil's food). Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Joseph Hagan Full Circle Communications email: haganj@ix.netcom.com ------------------------------ From: voices@unix.asb.com (The VOiCE of a new CyberGenegration) Subject: PayPhone (COCOT and RBOC) Newsgroup Organization: ASB Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 12:58:17 GMT Hello All, I was reading through this news-group and a thought popped into my head. I wanted to know if there was a news-group or a mailing list that anyone knew of designed specifically for those interested in the payfone (AOS, COCOT, etc) aspect of telecom. If there isn't, I would like to know how many people might be interested in alt.coin-phone or comp.dcom.telecom.coin, or something like that. adam VOICES@UNiX.ASB.COM [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It seems to me you can stretch things too thin here. Unless you are interested in adding still one or two more to the total number of 'newsgroups' circulating each day (what is it up to now, about seven thousand?) it hardly seems worthwhile to parse this topic down into even smaller groups, giving the spammers still one more place to post their get-rich-in-thirty-days and sell-long-distance service at home messages. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 01 May 1995 00:59:47 PDT From: Dale Crouse Subject: Cross-Border Local Calls I noticed in the FAQ file for TELECOM Digest that cross border toll-free dialing is available from some points in Maine to New Brunswick, and from a New York community to Quebec. At one time I new of toll-free dialing from Portal, North Dakota to North Portal, Saskatchewan. Does anyone know if this is still true? Also, I believe there was toll-free dialing from El Paso, Texas to Juarez, Mexico. I'm curious if this is still in effect. The FAQ article also makes reference to cross-border dialing from Point Roberts, Washington to Vancouver, BC. I believe that used to be offered on an unregulated basis by BC Tel, but the franchise was sold to Whidby Island Telephone in the 1980's, and they instituted a toll charge for cross-border calling. Prior to the sale, US 800 numbers were available by dialing '0' and asking the (Canadian) operator for the number. Incidently, Point Roberts used to get its water from BC too, and Canadian Currency is the primary medium of exchange there. Hyder, Alaska, like Point Roberts is intimately tied to its Canadian Neighbor, Stewart, BC. Does anyone know how they get their phone service? (I believe the RCMP provides the law enforcement there.) Dale Crouse Internet: dcrouse@crl.com voice: (206) 545-6933 fax: (800) 755-1380 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Also, what is the relationship between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario where telephone calls are concerned. I don't think it is strictly within a local zone, but isn't it handled like a 'suburban' point or for a small extra fee depending on the type of monthly service you have? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 30 Apr 95 13:26:02 +1000 From: mehmet@macadam.mpce.mq.edu.au (Mehmet Orgun) Subject: CFP: Special Issue of Journal of Symbolic Computation The Journal of Symbolic Computation ----------------------------------- [Editor-in-Chief: Bruno Buchberger] Special Issue on Executable Temporal Logics Guest Editors: Michael Fisher, Shinji Kono, Mehmet Orgun Call For Papers --------------- BACKGROUND: Logical representations have been widely used in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. In recent years, particularly with the advent of languages such as Prolog, the direct execution of such representations has been shown to be both feasible and useful. Logic-based languages have been used, not only for applications such as the animation of logical specifications, the characterisation of database queries and knowledge representation, but also as high-level programming languages in their own right. However, as the problems tackled have become more complex, the requirement for more powerful logical representations has been growing. In particular, since the concept of time is of central importance to an increasingly wide range of applications, including the representation of time-dependent data and the specification and verification of concurrent and distributed systems, many logics incorporating temporal notions are being developed and applied. It is not surprising, therefore, that executable temporal logics have been proposed in order to provide system developers with access to these, more powerful, logical techniques. Just as the development of sophisticated, and relatively efficient, theorem-proving techniques for first-order logic led to executable forms, such as Prolog, so the development of executable methods for temporal logics has often been based on temporal theorem-proving techniques. However, each particular executable temporal logic combines not only a logical perspective, but also an operational model, drawn from its intended application areas. Thus a wide range of languages have appeared, exhibiting a variety of characteristics and execution mechanisms. Consequently, such languages have a variety of application areas, such as temporal databases, temporal planning, animation of temporal specifications, hardware simulation, and distributed AI. OBJECTIVES: The Journal of Symbolic Computation is planning a special issue on Executable Temporal Logics, scheduled to appear in 1996. High quality original research papers are solicited on all aspects relating to the foundations, implementation techniques and applications of languages based upon temporal logic. The research described must not only incorporate an adequate level of technical detail, but must also provide a clear indication of both the utility and the applicability of the results. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, * theoretical issues in executable temporal logics * design of executable temporal logics * relationship between execution and temporal theorem-proving * operational models and implementation techniques * programming support and environments * comparative studies of languages * relationship of executable temporal logics to (temporal) databases * applications and case studies Because of the nature of the journal, it is particularly important that submissions, even purely theoretical ones, indicate the algorithmic relevance and applicability of the approach. Papers must be original and must not have been previously published or simultaneously submitted for publication elsewhere. The papers will be reviewed based on their originality and technical quality, relevance to the special issue theme, and the extent to which they will advance the frontiers of knowledge in this area. In addition to longer papers, we would welcome short papers (5 to 10 pages) describing specific features or novel applications of executable temporal logic. Submissions should follow the JSC style guide available from: ftp://ftp.risc.uni-linz.ac.at/pub/jsc LaTeX users are encouraged to use the jsc.sty file. Electronic submission is strongly encouraged (either as self-contained LaTeX, or postscript). Submissions, either electronic or a paper copy of the full paper, should arrive no later than October 15th 1995, and should be sent to the principal guest editor: Michael Fisher Department of Computing Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester M1 5GD United Kingdom Tel: +44 161 247 1488 Fax: +44 161 247 1483 Email: M.Fisher@doc.mmu.ac.uk GUEST EDITORS: Michael Fisher (details as above) Shinji Kono Sony Computer Science Laboratory, Inc. 3-14-13, Higashi-gotanda Shinagawa-ku Tokyo 141 Japan Email: kono@csl.sony.co.jp Mehmet Orgun Department of Computing Macquarie University Sydney NSW 2109 Australia Email: mehmet@mpce.mq.edu.au IMPORTANT DATES: Submissions of full papers due: October 15th, 1995 Notification of acceptance/rejection: January 15th, 1996 Revised final manuscripts due: April 15th, 1996 Queries concerning this special issue are welcome and should be forwarded to the email addresses above. Information about the special issue will be available via the WWW page: http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/RESEARCH/jsc-extl.html ------------------------------ From: tfv0@lehigh.edu (Theodore F. Vaida) Subject: Fiber Loops and Coax Converters Date: Sat, 29 Apr 1995 17:00:08 -0500 Organization: Lehigh Unviersity Electrical Engineering (student) I'm working on some marketing studies and ran into this quandry: Does the concept of fiber-loops for high speed trunking of SONET/ATM (or other physical/transport layer) with interfaces that gang coax 'star' type sub-nets? Let me expand on this - To implement high speed bi-directional networks with: - downstream adhoc video capability (read video on demand etc.) - di-directional digital data streams (computer data, video data for conferencing etc) implemented as a central loop/trunk of fiber to various ditribution points where an interface device converts from the fiberoptic trunk to short haul coax cables (say 1-200 customers) with the option for dedicated coax's for high density customers (eg: businesses wanting T1 type connection). Specifically the fier-optics could use SONET and ATM for multiple connections, high bandwidth, and the coax would have a GHz range carrier piggybacked over the normal cable video bandwidth... I'm trying to discern the viability, marketing potential and check for current deployment of this strategy for class. Both engineering comments on the feasbility of the idea and economic realities would be welcomed. Thanks, tfv0@lehigh.edu ------------------------------ From: pnr@tequila.nixu.fi (Pekka Nikander) Subject: Looking For Integrated E1/V.34/PPP - TCP/IP/Ethernet Solution Date: 29 Apr 1995 12:49:41 GMT Organization: Nixu Oy, Inc. I am looking for integrated solutions that have E1 or PRI ISDN at one end, and Ethernet at the other end. In the between the system should function as a number of V.34 modems connected to a TCP/IP - Ethernet terminal server running SLIP or PPP. We need this kind of solutions for our customer. The customer runs, among other things, Internet dial up services with several hundred dial in modem lines. Pekka Nikander Email: Pekka.Nikander@nixu.fi ------------------------------ From: arora@risky.ecs.umass.edu (S. Arora) Subject: ThinkPad Modem in India Date: 30 Apr 1995 22:17:48 GMT Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst Hi, I have an IBM 340 ThinkPad with an internal 96/24 fax-modem. I will be taking this laptop back with me to South India (Hyderabad) later this year. I would like to use the modem to dial a local BBS and the fax to send faxes. In the manual it says to use the internal fax/modem in the US only. What I would like to know is this because of some sort of regulatory warning -- or is it that these modems just won't work overseas (specifically I am interested in using it in India). Any sggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also, what type of additional wirting should I bring to hook up the connection to the phone lines there? Sid Call me anywhere 1-500-Hi-Sid-Hi (Local calls: 546-2307/545-0641) arora@kira.ecs.umass.edu s.arora@dpc.umassp.edu s.arora@ieee.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sid, in the future when you want to have 'local calls' go to a different number, you might want to include an *area code* in your .signature so people can tell what is local and what is not ... PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 12:05:44 EDT From: Sandy Kyrish Subject: Internet in Dubai? A friend is moving to Dubai soon and plans to establish an Internet account once there. Any pointers on providers, prices, access, etc. would be much appreciated, responding either to the list or to my mailbox. Thank you, Sandy Kyrish skyrish@netaxs.com ------------------------------ From: tfv0@lehigh.edu (Theodore F. Vaida) Subject: Regulation of PA Cable and Carriers Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 17:22:23 -0500 Organization: Lehigh Unviersity Electrical Engineering (student) I'm looking for a succinct way of getting the full picture of current and pending regulation on cable and telecom operators (read local phone COs etc) in the eastern PA area, this includes the FCC stuff as I have no idea what their current restrictions/regulations are ... can anyone name a good source of current information or some documents that would get me up to speed? Thanks, tfv0@lehigh.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, one of the best (that is, most comprehensive and least expensive) sources would be the FCC BBS operated by Bob Keller. Since he is a regular participant here, I imagine he will write you with details. There are of course, others sources. PAT] ------------------------------ From: grady@netcom.com (Grady Ward) Subject: Challenging Phone Bill Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 22:11:32 GMT I received my Pacific Bell bill today with two bogus $45 charges for repair visits. No such repair orders were authorized. According to the back of the bill I must pay the $90 disputed amount into a California Public Utilities Commission escrow account in order to challenge it. Apparently with some sort of binding arbitration the PUC decides who gets the money and that's it. The question is: is this kind of binding arbitration required by law or did I inadvertently agree to it by ordering service? If I go through with the PUC escrow, will I be preserving all of my rights under law? Do I have any other options? It seems as if the burden of proof is upon *me* to show that the charge is invalid, while it seems under common law that the entity *asserting* the charge must show that it is valid. What if the disputed amount were $50,000? Would I still have to post that amount in order to appeal the bill? This doesn't seem right. Grady Ward +1 707 826 7715 (voice / 24hr FAX) grady@netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ignore it. That is, simply deduct it and don't pay it without proper documentation. Call the telco business office if you have not done so already to investigate, and if this gets you nowhere then call the PUC and speak to one of the telephone specialists there. What's printed on the back side of your bill is just stock legalese. Don't get too concerned. PAT] ------------------------------ From: david@cs.uow.edu.au (David E A Wilson) Subject: International Telephone Number Length - Maximum Allowed Date: 1 May 1995 11:55:54 +1000 Organization: University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. Just last month we ran into a problem with equipment unable to handle twenty digit numbers (the UK just added an extra digit and when you add the four digit carrier selection code plus the four digit international access code to the twelve digit UK number the equipment could not handle it). This raises the following questions: 1) What is the maximum length for an international number (country code plus area code + local number)? 2) Is there a list of how long each country's numbers are? [This will answer the question: Is it just the UK or are we going run into the same problem on other calls]. Thanks, David Wilson Dept CompSci Uni Wollongong Australia david@cs.uow.edu.au ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #219 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa07171; 3 May 95 17:46 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA29672 for telecomlist-outbound; Wed, 3 May 1995 09:27:39 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA29663; Wed, 3 May 1995 09:27:36 -0500 Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 09:27:36 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505031427.JAA29663@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #220 TELECOM Digest Wed, 3 May 95 09:26:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 220 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson U.S. Federal Suggestion Box in Cyberspace (Donald E. Kimberlin) Re: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb (Lee Winson) Re: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb (Richard M. Weil) Re: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb (Butch Lcroan) Looking For a Home For Listserver (Christopher Zguris) Reach Out and Defibrillate Someone (Dave Leibold) Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader (Art Walker) Any Way to Have Parents' Phone Calls Billed to *My* Phone? (Scott Brenner) SMR Frequencies (Manuel Maese) Need New Voice Board or Lines Amps! (72164.3302@compuserve.com) Re: Annoying Feature on Payphones Here (gnuz@rjones.oz.net) Re: Annoying Feature on Payphones Here (Steve Cogorno) Re: Annoying Feature on Payphones Here (stufroed@acs.eku.edu) Re: Annoying Feature on Payphones Here (John Nagle) Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? (John Lundgren) Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine (Shalom Septimus) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 02 May 95 17:36:00 EST From: Donald E. Kimberlin <0004133373@mcimail.com> Subject: U.S. Federal Suggestion Box in Cyberspace During the two weeks from May 1 through May 14, the U.S. federal government will have its first "National Electronic Open Meeting," with the intention of it being a suggestion box in cyberspace. The program is supposed to be open for remarks or suggstions from anyone to any U.S. federal branch. Experts ffrom various government departments are supposed to host five different electronic fora, and a variety of access means will be provided. One of the accss means will be via computers at 362 libraries, schools, offices and stores around the nation. To find the location nearest you, telephone (800) 881-6842. Kinko's Copy Centers will also provide computer access at 114 of its locations. To find which Kinko's nearest you has access, telephone (800) 254-6567. Persons with Internet access or gateway access via online services like AOL, Prodigy, CompuServe, ATTMail, MCIMail or other gatewayed services can send messages to info@meeting.fedworld.gov. And those with Web browsers can address http://meeting.fedworld.gov. Government officials say they want to hear what the public wants and how it wants to interact with government officials in the information age. Messages received are to be analyzed and a report is planned for later this year. ------------------------------ From: turner7@pacsibm.org (Lee Winson) Subject: Rre: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb Date: 02 May 1995 21:58:15 GMT Organization: PACS IBM SIG BBS As to the false number reported by Nynex from a bomb threat -- Given the criticality of accuracy in this situation, any "call trace" reports should obviously be checked very carefully before release to police, then double checked. All systems involved in this should be thoroughly debugged and tested extensively. The innocent party deserves to win the lawsuit big time. ------------------------------ From: Richard M. Weil Date: Tue, 02 May 1995 22:20:55 -0400 Subject: Re: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb Pat said in a recent issue that the man that was mistakenly arrested for phoning in a bomb threat after the OK blast is suing the police for misconduct and suing NYNEX "on the grounds that the company filed a false report in the matter and did so 'with wanton disregard for the accuracy of their report.' He says the president's apology is insuffi- cient ... " I heard yesterday that the phone company has offered to pay for this young man's college education as compensation for the obvious mistake. ------------------------------ From: balcroan@netcom.com (Butch lcroan/.nameBalcroan Lilli) Subject: Re: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 2 May 1995 09:37:04 GMT JohnWPan@aol.com wrote: > Immediately in the wake of the Oklahoma bomb, a bomb threat was made, > among many in the nation, to the Boston federal building. The call > was traced. A young man was arrested. Subsequently, however, NYNEX > realized that the tracer interchanged two digits of the purported > origin of the call. The president of NYNEX personally apologized to > that unfortunate man, who was released after one day in jail. The > real perpetrator of the call was not found. Source: CBS radio. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As a followup to this story, I am told > now the person is suing law enforcement officials for false arrest and > suing NYNEX on the grounds that the company filed a false report in the > matter and did so 'with wanton disregard for the accuracy of their > report.' He says the president's apology is insufficient, because of > the abuse and rough treatment he alleges he received at the hands of law > enforcement officers during the time he was in custody, which would > not have happened, he contends, had NYNEX properly supervised its > employees who conducted the trace. He further alleges that the law > enforcement officers involved committed official misconduct and acted > in bad faith by not further investigating the matter when NYNEX later > produced a 'corrected' version of the report showing the telephone number > originating the call in question, instead continuing to hold him in > 'unnecessary custody' several additional hours to be vindictive. PAT] God Bless AMERICA!! The police state we live deserves that this man's rights be upheld I wish him the best of luck in court. I know NYNEX made a mistake and that is unfortunate but it is interesting that the police tried to ignore they did anything wrong by keeping him in jail even after NYBEX corrected the report? Anyone ever seen " In the name of the father " ? They were kept in jail for 15 years to coverup for a police mistake. I doubt if justice we be done but I wish him the best in his quest. The real question is what happened to the responsible party ... nothing? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Here in Cook County (Chicago) Illinois, a judge can order you released from jail, or you can put up the needed bond money to get out and the jail bureaucrats will still sit on thier tails for up to 24-48 hours before taking any action. And the best part is the person who comes to bail you out has to sit in the waiting area all that time with cash or money order. They do it deliberatly, to let the arrested persons and their friends/families know they are just scum. There is a class action suit against the Sheriff of Cook County now for the atrocious condition of their computer system which seems to keep spitting up the same old warrants over and over again. In the NYNEX case the fellow contends his initial attempts to get the matter corrected were rebuffed, met with scorn and the usual run-around, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 May 95 12:43 EST From: Christopher Zguris <0004854540@mcimail.com> Subject: Looking For a Home For a Listserver Hello to all. I'm looking for a site to carry a mailing list that deals with current events (CURRENT). Last week CURRENT was abruptly shut down (we were using listproc-service donated by a university). From the private email I've received from other list members, many people are upset about the demise of CURRENT. The list was very focused, with very little noise, and served as a forum for people all over the globe to express different opinions on a wide variety of topics. At this point, I don't know what to do. I've contacted several other listowners, and Netcom (my other provider), but so far I've come up empty. People want the list, and I'm more than happy to put in the time dealing with the adminstrative side (as I've been doing), but I need a site that has some sort of automated list software. Any help would be appreciated by me and the other subscribers. Christopher Zguris czguris@mcimail.com czguris@ix.netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Chris originally wrote me and asked if I knew of any sites where the mailing list could be operated. I checked with the sysadmin here to see if it would be possible to take on still one more here, but this machine is awfully overloaded at present. If some other site could be of assistance, I'm sure Chris would like to hear from you with your requirements, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@superctl.tor250.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 02 May 95 22:04:13 -0500 Subject: Reach Out and Defibrillate Someone An Associated Press report (carried in {The Toronto Star} 1 May 1995) mentioned studies (by a surgeon from Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami FL, and a heart pacemaker expert from the Mayo Clinic) that indicated digital cellular phones could cause some "inhibition of the pacemaker function" in some test cases. Analog phones were tested, but the news report implies these did not cause any noticeable pacemaker problems. There appeared to be no effects when the cell phones were in a normal talking position (receiver to ear). The problems appeared to occur when the cell phone antenna was close to the "pulse generator" of the pacemaker, often installed in the collarbone area. Any interferences found in these tests were not reported to be harmful, however. Fidonet : Dave Leibold 1:250/730 Internet: Dave.Leibold@superctl.tor250.org ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 May 1995 15:47:31 -0500 From: Art Walker Subject: Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader In article TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > I told him I would post his note ... now it's lost. :( His intention is > to edit his .login file to 'setenv NNTP open.server.somewhere', and pull > the news that way. Any help will be appreciated. Unfortunately, "open" NNTP servers are all but extinct. Art Walker, Somewhere In Iowa walker@mnscorp.com alt.sex/alt.binaries.pictures.erotica/alt.sex.bestiality, etc. At best, the regulars of these groups are failed phone sex customers... - SPY, Jul/Aug 94, Page 85 ------------------------------ From: sbrenner@cbnews.cb.att.com (scott.d.brenner) Subject: Any Way to Have Parents' Phone Calls Billed to *My* Phone? Reply-To: sbrenner@attmail.com Organization: AT&T Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 13:22:59 GMT I'd like to find out if there's a way to have the calls direct-dialed from my parents' home phone billed to *my* home phone number. Right now, they're using my calling card number for selected calls. But they show up on my AT&T Universal bill. I'd rather have them on my AT&T long distance bill (I get a separate bill from AT&T; my LEC doesn't handle LD billing anymore). I also want to avoid the ~$1 surcharge for using the calling card. If you know a way to do this, please send some e-mail to me at "sbrenner@attmail.com" a T d H v A a N n K c S e Scott D. Brenner sbrenner@attmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 May 1995 21:17:07 -0500 From: Manuel Maese Subject: SMR Frequencies Hello all: I'm interested in gathering information pertaining the frequencies that are allocated for SMR (Specialized Mobile Radio, abroad called TRS, Trunkated Radio System, or PAMR/PMR) in different countries. The areas I am most interested in are South and Central America and Asia (all of it!) and Australia/New Zealand, although any information would be greatly appreciated. The idea is to pinpoint exactly at what range is SMR/TRS allocated or is planned to be allocated. 800s MHz or 900s is a little to broad of a range, so I want to find out if, for example, the governments of Brazil, China or Australia have allocated SMR/TRS systems within 865-880 MHz or is it 815-825 MHz. Speaking of those countries, those are part of some countries in which I am more urgently interested than others. If you have any information (or, hey, similar information regarding cellular systems), or an idea of where exactly could I start looking, please e-mail me at mmaese@geotek.com Thank you very much for your help! Manolo Maese ------------------------------ From: N. M. S. <72164.3302@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Need New Voice Board or Lines Amps! Date: 29 Apr 1995 23:03:10 GMT Organization: via CompuServe Information Service Hi, I am using Dialogic Boards with an AMX/81, who's conference feature is plagued by a drop in gain. I need one of the following from you if you have for sale: - 4 or 8 line NewVoice/c Board(s); or - Copy of Parity's VOS software; - Someone who know's the C++ as well as Ram Research's DAX to help me program a .DLL for the MSI/C. If you can help me, please do!! ------------------------------ From: gnuz@rjones.oz.net (Newz) Subject: Re: Annoying Feature on Payphones Here Date: Tue, 02 May 1995 13:34:35 PDT > Any other central offices you know of set up to sense when a coin > box is full and return that kind of message to the user? As soon > as that message is played out the phone goes 'click click' and the > dial tone is restarted. If they know the box is full, why not > just come and empty it? That happens in Seattle from time to time. And, I was told by a pal who does nothing but maintain phones that they usually drive a route hitting certain payphones for service, cleaning, emtpying, and the like. They don't make a special run to empty one phone, since the cost of having someone drive to a phone to empty it would cost more than the cashbox contains. But if you complain loudly enough ... It's possible that the phone has a faulty cash box sensor, or that someone is making a lot of international phone calls from it, paying with silver instead of plastic. ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Annoying Feature on Payphones Here Date: Tue, 02 May 1995 14:09:42 PDT TELECOM Digest Editor said: > about half the time it won't accept money. And this is another > curious thing; readers can tell me if this exists in your community > or not: when a payphone is full of money here, somehow it is noted > in the central office because if you pick up the phone, get dial > tone and deposit your 25 cents, the money comes back out immediatly > and you get a recorded message saying 'sorry, this phone cannot > accept coins right now, however you can place your call with a > credit card, collect, third party, etc ..'. This is *not* due to We don't get any messages like that in PacBell territory, but I have had several phone refuse my coins because the collection box was full. THe last time this happened, I called the operator and said "Hello operator, I believe the coin box on this phone is full." And she said "What's your point?" I could have smacked her. Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: STUFROED@ACS.EKU.EDU Date: Tue, 02 May 1995 21:45:21 EST Subject: Re: Annoying Feature on Payphones Here > I don't like a feature on the Bell payphones here in Skokie, and it > seems to cause no end of confusion for many other people as well. > It seems that when you call from a payphone in Skokie (708-673 and > 708-674) after it rings two or three times, a recorded message comes > on the line saying 'your party does not answer' and inviting you > to leave a message 'for delivery at a later time' by pressing the > keys on the phone, for an additional fee of course. The ones I used in Washington DC offered that "Service" also. > Now should the caller actually answer, then of course the recording > cuts off immediatly and you proceed with your call, however there > are lots of foreign speaking people in Skokie -- mostly from Russia > or the Ukraine -- and not being all that familiar with the phone > system anyway, they think they are hearing a recording saying that > the number is not in service. That happened when I first got my answering machine ... it basically said the number and to leave a message. One of my wife's relative's kept calling from South America and hanging up. Unfortunately they were of course charged for the call. > credit card, collect, third party, etc ..'. This is *not* due to > any overnight restrictions on payphones such as 'no coins after > dark' in the War on Drugs, etc. When I have called repair to complain I assume then in the areas where 'no coins after...' anyone using a payphone is assumed to be a buyer or seller? > Any other central offices you know of set up to sense when a coin > box is full and return that kind of message to the user? As soon > as that message is played out the phone goes 'click click' and the > dial tone is restarted. If they know the box is full, why not > just come and empty it? Is this Ameritech area? They are implementing some sort of intelligent non operator asisted payphone monitoring network. I guess they have some sort of cost/benefit analysis and refuse to empty it more often. The only payphone I use lately is a Bellsouth phone and I call straight to home 30 miles away. Its expensive. But always takes quarters. ------------------------------ From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) Subject: Re: Annoying Feature on Payphones Here Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 02 May 1995 16:59:33 GMT TELECOM Digest Editor writes: > Another source of annoyance with payphones here is how seldom they > seem to have their coin boxes emptied. There is one payphone which > is otherwise quite convenient when I need to use one, but I think > about half the time it won't accept money. And this is another > curious thing; readers can tell me if this exists in your community > or not: when a payphone is full of money here, somehow it is noted > in the central office because if you pick up the phone, get dial > tone and deposit your 25 cents, the money comes back out immediatly The COINS retrofit has been around for some years. There's an electronics module that replaces part of the coin mechanism and keeps track of the phone's coin traffic. This can be queried remotely. The info is used to schedule coin box servicing (your local telco seems to be having problems with this) and to keep the coin-box service people honest. John Nagle ------------------------------ From: jlundgre@kn.PacBell.COM (John Lundgren) Subject: Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? Date: 02 May 1995 14:04:51 GMT Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network Randall Rathbun (randall@coyote.csusm.edu) wrote: > What came as a surprise totally to us, was the response of our local > telco when asked to remedy the situation. Here's what we're told > (quoted) "We don't have a way to stop this ... we don't have a way of > trapping ... you have to have a trap in place ... you have to have your > security give us a signed statement ... you have to have a case number > assigned to you from the county sheriff's department." I'm not sure whether, by CA, you mean California or Canada. But here in Pac Bell CA, we got essentially the same reply, and it is a matter of laws and can't be changed. But the law also says that the advertiser must have a human on the line ask first if the person wants to hear the message. A fully automated 'Junk Dialer' is illegal. That's why, on all the messages that I have received, the advertiser _never_ gives out a phone number os something traceable, but asks you to give _your_ number at the beep. > In other words, it is just about impossible to even deal with this > type of annoying or harassment call due to the complicated, extended > and time-consuming legal procedures. The local telco representative > added "We've had this thing happen to us, hopefully yours' will stop > today" and they acknowledged that a carefully placed roving call would > go through virtually impossible to stop. They said they had to have > two matches on the same number before they could initiate law > enforcement activity in their offensive call bureau. > A simple question comes to mind, don't roving calls only hit the > number once and then move on? > In other words, knowledgeable offensive callers can dial with almost > complete impunity and automated dialers are "impossible" to stop. In California, since CallerID is not yet legal, the offending number would not be readily available. But Pac Bell offers a service, for a monthly fee, where a line can have the call trace added. It allows the person to dial a number, *something, that locks in the offending number so that law enforcement agencies can access it. > What particularly irks this writer, with extensive knowledge and > experience of telecommunications, is that he and a local CO technician > can trace and lock down these type of calls within 10-15 seconds after > they come in. The local CO technician can even remotely login to other > telco sites and trace the call and positively identify its source > within a minute or at the most two. In other words, it IS possible to > stop these types of calls. But it's not legal, because of privacy issues. > Why can't we do something about this growing problem? Have the telco > carriers formulated new procedures to handle this growing problem? All > the hardware is already in place to deal with this situation. With the > advent of the computer autdialers and increasing mechanization during > the 90's, this type of thing will only increase. Certainly abuse will > only increase once people realize that nothing really will ever be > done. > Can't we stop this type of thing, rather than throw up our hands and > say "oh well, there's nothing we can do about it"? Your comment is > appreciated. It's not a matter of technology, it's a matter of sociological lag. The laws and prevailing attitudes haven't kept up with technology. There was a law recently enacted that outlaws junk FAX advertising, so maybe this will happen with phones. The option of tracing obnoxious calls so that LEAs can access the phone number seems like the best option in your case. Maybe the feature would only have to be added to a few of the lines, not all. 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\jlundgre@kn.pacbell.com ------------------------------ From: septimus@acsu.buffalo.edu (Shalom Septimus) Subject: Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine Date: 02 May 1995 05:23:14 GMT Organization: UB In article , Clive D.W. Feather wrote: > I compared my country codes list with my list of ISO recognised > countries and territories. The shared uses of codes I found were: > 672 Shared by 5 territories under Australian control Specifically, which? My list has only Cocos/Keeling Is, (6722), Norfolk Is. (6723) and Christmas Is. (6724). What are the other 2? Or are Cocos and Keeling two seperate territories, and I'm only missing one? > Oops, almost forgot. Apart from the 31 cases I listed before, there are > eight territories with no international code that I know of: > Western Sahara According to the Moroccan Consulate in New York, the Western Sahara is dialable using the same code as Morocco (212) and city code 8. Also you left out Easter Island (Chilean territory, but not apparently covered under the Chilean code 56). > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you are referring to the United States > Trust Territory in the South Pacific Ocean as the 'minor outlying islands' > you mention above, I think some of those have gone into 'area code' 808 > which serves Hawaii and Midway Island. Also, I think the 'country code' > for Guam is going to become an 'area code' in the near future, still > serving Guam and perhaps nearby places. PAT] I haven't found any code for Wake Island, either. Is this in +1(808) as well? J.Alan Septimus V111G9BQ@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu septimus@acsu.buffalo.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #220 ****************************** Received: from ns1.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa19043; 4 May 95 17:34 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id KAA28995 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 4 May 1995 10:06:17 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id KAA28987; Thu, 4 May 1995 10:06:14 -0500 Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 10:06:14 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505041506.KAA28987@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #221 TELECOM Digest Thu, 4 May 95 10:06:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 221 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Very Unhappy Customer Writes to MCI (Philip L. Dubois) Suggestions For Two or Three Line PC Based Phone System? (karlca@delphi) Florida 305/954 Split - Still Happening? (Greg Monti) Voice/Data Multiplexer for 64kb Leased Line? (Magnus Harlander) Taking my Laptop to the UK (Charles Ogilvie) Area Code 503 Split in Oregon (Leonard Erickson) Book Review: "Student's Guide to the Internet" by Clark (Rob Slade) Looking For Nationwide Data/Voice Providers (Jeff Tyler) High Speed RS422 I/F For PC (Russell George) Roaming in NYC (Tony Harminc) Com Problems With USR Sportster V.34 (Thor Stromsnes) Nokia 2110 vs Motorola 8200 (Nick Pitfield) Mexico Billing Method: Digit Analysis or Meter Pulse? (John E. Brissenden) Caller ID Format Varies? (Charles Copeland) Question From Brussels About Telecom in Latin America (Aurora Ferlin) Re: ThinkPad Modem in India (Martin Kealey) Re: ThinkPad Modem in India (Rishab Aiyer Ghosh) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: dubois@teal.csn.org (Philip L. Dubois) Subject: Very Unhappy Customer Writes to MCI Date: 3 May 1995 23:30:40 GMT Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc. 3 May 1995 MCI P.O. Box 7400 London, KY 40742-7400 Re: acct. # ------------ Sir/madam: Having extricated myself from your company's incompetent clutches (by switching to Sprint), I was content to let the matter rest. You, regrettably, were not. Your employees continue to call to waste even more of my time. I therefore write to tell you not to call me -- more specifically, not to call any of the numbers for which you formerly provided service. I was induced to switch to MCI from AT&T by, inter alia, your representation that I would receive a certificate for a month's free service (up to $1000), which certificate I could apply against any month's bill I chose. Your salesperson also made specific representations about various services like account codes and 800 service. These representations included prices. I ordered some of your products in reliance on these representations. It soon became apparent that the service I received was not what I ordered and the prices were not what they had been represented to be. It took several weeks and much phone conversation and correspondence to get it all straightened out. Worse, the free-service certificate never arrived. Ever. When I inquired, I was given some numbers over the phone and told to simply attach a note containing these numbers to the bill to which I wanted the certificate to apply and everything would be fine. So I did, and it wasn't. Not long thereafter, I got a dunning letter saying that my account was seriously past due. It turned out that the certificate had not been applied as I'd directed but instead to the most recent invoice. I was told that I should have received no dunning notice or calls, that my account was current, and that everything was taken care of. Shortly after that, I got another dunning notice and more phone calls about my past-due account. This time, I was told that the certificate was applied as MCI chose to apply it and that if I didn't pay the requisite amount by the requisite date, my service would be cut off. I know that the complaints of we few are far outweighed by the income you get from the thousands of new subscribers you entice by false promises of reliability and integrity. I know that your contempt for your customers is matched only by your greed for market share and that you couldn't care less about anything that doesn't get the attention of the FCC, which this letter almost certainly won't. Nevertheless, I will relate the foregoing facts to my friends and family, send a copy of this letter to the FCC, and post this letter on the Internet, where maybe a few thousand of the millions of Internet users will read it. You are instructed not to call me or my family or my business or to send me any solicitation materials by mail or otherwise. You have wasted enough of my time. Sincerely, Philip L. Dubois ------------------------------ From: Karl Subject: Suggestions For Two or Three Line PC Based Phone System? Date: Wed, 3 May 95 11:39:02 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Greetings, I have a small office that is slowly increasing in size and business and I have always been able to use one phone line and one person answering it. I now have a need to add one or two more lines but I cannot hire another person quite yet to handle this (yet). My requirements are for some type of system that will pick up my incoming calls if someone is on line one, give them a welcome message, allow them to hold until line one is available, and then forward the call. I would like the option of requiring them to leave a message after some given time and the important part here is the ability to answer more than one call at the same time. Hunting them together via Nynex is no problem from what I understand. One solution would be to put a $50 answering machine on each line but obviously it does not forward the call and its kinda 'crude' . I have checked around with some local company's and most have recommend PBX systems or Key systems and then buy the software for the PC and link them. These have ranged in costs from $2000 to $10,000 and up for complete systems. My budget though does not begin to come close to that so any suggestions, pointers or product recommendations that are within a range of $500-$1000 would be appreciated. Note: I do have some PC's sitting around to use and I can "combine" several products to maybe meet my needs. TIA, Karl karlca@delphi.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why don't you try a combination of PC and voicemail you build yourself, possibly using Big Mouth or something similar? Have a PC answer your second line with a message that goes something like this: "Thank you for calling; right now all agents are busy with other customers, but while you are waiting several recorded messages are available which may answer your questions, and of course if you wish you may speak to an agent as soon as one becomes available. For information about X, press one; for information about Y, press two. Press zero at any time to wait for an agent to become available. If you are calling from a rotary dial phone, please hold until an agent is available." You then take the half dozen or so 'most commonly asked questions and answers' (if there is such a thing in your business, such as your hours of operation, location, etc) and make little messages behind the various buttons which can be pressed. After each message is played out, another message comes on which says "Agents are still busy, please make another selection or press zero if you wish to wait for an agent to become available." They then press other buttons to hear other messages, or simply wait. If they press zero to reach an agent, in the case of Big Mouth at least, the transfer function causes the speaker attached to announce to you that 'call is holding, please pick up the phone.' As soon as you pick up the line and press a touch tone key on your end, Big Mouth shuts itself off and waits for the next caller. If you combine the Big Mouth transfer function with Call Transfer from your local telco, then once the waiting call has been passed over to you on the first line, Big Mouthh is freed up to take another call on the overflow line and hold it until you become available. PAT] ------------------------------ From: gmonti@cais3.cais.com (Greg Monti) Subject: Florida 305/954 Split - Still Happening? Date: 3 May 1995 03:29:56 GMT Organization: Capital Area Internet Service info@cais.com 703-448-4470 What has happened with the Florida 305/954 area code split? My old notes say it was supposed to have taken effect in early March, 95. A later note says authorities were debating whether a split or an overlay was appropriate. Haven't seen anything on it in comp.dcom.telecom in the intervening two months. Any news from the Sunshine State? Greg Monti gmonti@cais.com ------------------------------ From: harlan@Physik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Magnus Harlander) Subject: Voice/Data Multiplexer For 64kb Leased Line? Date: 3 May 1995 08:26:50 GMT Organization: Leibniz-Rechenzentrum, Muenchen (Germany) We are looking for a data/voice multiplexer for a leased 64kb digital line. We want to use some portion of the bandwidth for phone calls to and from a PBX extension and the rest for IP traffic. The leased line speaks the G.703 protocol (there would be an alternative using I.430). Any information about implementations, producers and distributors is appreciated. Thanx, Magnus V. Harlander --- GeNUA harlan@genua.de Gesellschaft f"ur Netzwerk- harlan@physik.tu-muenchen.de und Unix-Administration --- Tel: +49(89)99195010 --- and Physics Dep. TUM --- Fax: +49(89)99195029 ------------------------------ From: ogilvie@usc.edu (ogilvie) Subject: Taking my Laptop to the UK Date: 3 May 1995 09:25:03 GMT Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Does anybody know what I will need to purchase in order to use my lapop in London and surrounding areas? I think I will need some sort of power adaptor and some sort of modem adapter. If you have any suggestions, I would really appreciate hearing them. Also, does anybody know any good PPP internet providers in the UK? Thanks very much, Charles Please reply via email to: ogilvie@usc.edu ------------------------------ From: Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org (Leonard Erickson) Date: Tue, 02 May 1995 21:35:20 -0800 Subject: Area Code 503 Split in Oregon According to tonight's news, NPA 503 will split. There had been discussion about having an overlay, but apparently the comments to the PUC were in favor of the split. The new NPA will be 541. It will cover most of the state. Only the NW corner of the state will keep 503. This includes Portland and Salem. My guess is that it'll follow the LATA boundary from the coast until it starts to turn south (somewhere east of Salem) and then the AC boundary will head north. This is based on the crude maps shown so far, and a glance at the LATA boundaries shown in the phone book. The permissive period starts Nov 5, 1995 and ends Jun 30, 1996. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Around here somewhere I have a list of which prefixes go where according to a reader who sent in the information and I shall try to publish that soon. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 May 1995 15:02:27 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Student's Guide to the Internet" by Clark BKSTDINT.RVW 950320 "Student's Guide to the Internet", Clark, 1995, 1-56761-545-7, U$14.99/C$20.95 %A David Clark clarkd@bvsd.k12.co.us %C 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290 %D 1995 %G 1-56761-545-7 %I Alpha Books %O U$14.99/C$20.95 800-858-7674 75141.2102@compuserve.com %P 314 %T "Student's Guide to the Internet" Yes, this is well-suited to be a student's guide. There is just enough information on the various aspects of the Internet (well, we could do with maybe just a touch more information on SLIP) without going into turgid detail. The tone is very light; almost, but perhaps not quite, flippant. After a general introduction to the types of applications, chapter two talks about getting connected. This topic still gets the weakest coverage in Internet texts. (The fact that this is understandable, given the range of options, does not help the frustrations of the uninitiated.) The coverage here, while still weak, is better than most. Chapters three through ten give brief, but basic, information on UNIX, email, Usenet news, Gopher, World Wide Web, ftp, IRC and WAIS. The selling of Gopher and WWW tends to be a bit overenthusiastic, but Clark redeems himself with the first realistic coverage of SlipKnot that I can recall. Chapter eleven is a topical catalogue of resources, while twelve has a list of access providers (including Freenets). Chapter thirteen is a miscellaneous "FAQ" (Frequently Asked Questions list) of random information. There is a helpful appendix listing Internet client software and where to get it. The tone and level are easily appropriate for the target audience. A good, basic starting point for Internet exploration. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKSTDINT.RVW 950320. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | "Is it plugged in?" Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | "I can't see." Research into Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z1/ | "Why not?" User .fidonet.org | "The power's off Security Canada V7K 2G6 | here." ------------------------------ From: jeff@jthome.com (Jeff Tyler) Subject: Looking For Nationwide Data/Voice Providers Date: 3 May 1995 22:55:37 -0400 My company is ready to submit an RFP for a nationwide voice/data network. We are replacing an existing uucp/ppp data network and leased voice trunking with a private internet to tie our NYC office to five regional offices around the company and to our existing Internet connection in NYC. We are open to all technologies with the only stipulation being that the vendor must provide a total voice/data solution and end to end technical sufficiency. We plan to invite anyone that claims to run a telco to respond to this RFP so if you are interested, email me to conserve bandwidth. We plan to release the RFP in the next few days so a prompt response would be appreciated. Jeff S. Tyler Pencom System Administration| |jeff@jthome.com [home] [voice/fax] 508-297-4316/3453 | |jtyler@pencom.com [office] 617-443-1111 ------------------------------ From: rgeorge@hsv.tybrin.com (Russell George) Subject: High Speed RS422 I/F For PC Date: 3 May 1995 09:19:08 -0500 Organization: TYBRIN Corporation We need a source for a high speed RS422 interface for a PC. As you know the RS422 I/F is speced at 10 MB/s. Yet, the only serial cards we have been able to find so far are speced at 115.2 kB/s. We really need 1-2 MB/s for our application. We need to synchronously pump blocks of data to a telemetry bit sync which has an RS422 I/F. Thanks in advance for your help, Russell ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 May 95 04:20:51 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Roaming in NYC Reply-To: Tony harminc What's the current state of affairs with cellular roaming in New York City? The local Cantel office first said it was turned off, then said it was back on, and finally said that they didn't really know and I should just try it when I get there! I did try calling the NYC "A" system roam port and keying in my own cellphone's number (the phone was with me here in Toronto), and received an immediate reorder tone. I would expect their switch to at least try paging my phone before giving up, so perhaps this means things are not good. All I really want to do is make local calls, but it would be nice to be able to receive the odd call too. Tony H. ------------------------------ From: thorst@login.eunet.no (Thor Stromsnes) Subject: Comm Problems With USR Sportster V.34 Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 04:35:45 Organization: Privat I am having some problems with my PPP internet hookup. After about 10-15 min online, my V.34 Sportster just "hangs up". I use trumpet winsock and netscape software, and I have set the internal baud rate to 115.200, in order to handle compession. Is this a hardware problem, or what? Thor ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 07:33:47 GMT From: nick pitfield Subject: Nokia 2110 vs Motorola 8200 Reply-To: Nick.Pitfield@bnr.ca Organization: BNR Europe Limited Greetings, I'm about to buy a GSM phone, and have settled on either the Nokia 2110 or the Motorola 8200. Does anybody have good or bad experiences or opinions about these that they could share with me. Also, could somebody tell me where I can find the files describing how to re-program certain things on these phones: eg I had the file for the Nokia 101 last year and was able to change both the lock code and the start-up message. Regards, Nick Pitfield EMAIL : Nick.Pitfield@x400gate.bnr.ca SNAILMAIL : Nortel-DASA Network Systems GmbH & Co KG, An der Bundesstrasse 31, 88090 Immenstaad/Bodensee, Germany VOICEMAIL : Germany +49-7545-96-2057 ESN 565-2057 UK +44-1628-79-4476 ESN 590-4476 ------------------------------ From: jeb2@dana.ucc.nau.edu (John E. Brissenden) Subject: Mexico Billing Method: Digit Analysis or Meter Pulse? Date: 4 May 1995 01:51:40 GMT Organization: Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff AZ, USA Does Mexico / Central America use a digit analysis method for calculating charges, or a metered pulse method? What I'm actually refering to is the SMDR output on a PBX. I believe the U.S. is in the minority in using digit analysis, or am I wrong? Thanks, John ------------------------------ From: copeland@metronet.com (Charles Copeland) Subject: Caller ID Format Varies? Date: 4 May 1995 09:20:20 -0500 Organization: Texas Metronet, Inc (login info (214/705-2901 - 817/571-0400)) The Bellcore spec GR-30 for Caller-ID format dictates it shall have three parts: 1) 30 bytes of 55H (preamble); 2) 70-150ms of marks; 3) caller id data. However I've noticed on our lines to GTE here in Dallas doesn't always follow this standard. 90 percent of the time GTE conforms to the standard, but the other 10 percent the preamble is entirely missing. I wrote firmware to conform to the GR-30 Bellcore document, and now I find telco doesn't conform. I've verified the missing preamble with both my firmware and storage scope. Curiously, the cheapo Radio Shack caller id box works just fine whether the preamble is present or missing. Is this some older equipment out there that conformed to some outdated standard unknown to me? Anybody know out there? KC5LWF copeland@metronet.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So -- take a hint from the Radio Shack people and write your firmware to accept the preamble if it shows up and live without it if it doesn't. If the preamble is absolutely essential to your application, then write a default one which your firmware will apply when the 'real' one is missing. And how, you ask, is the firmware going to know if its missing or not? Look for some unique characters or string of characters which appears in the preamble but nowhere else. If that does not come through right away then swap your own in there and proceed. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hw45141@vub.ac.be (FERLIN AURORA) Subject: Question From Brussels About Telecom in Latin America Date: 4 May 1995 13:02:03 GMT Organization: Brussels Free Universities (VUB/ULB), Belgium I am a student at the Free University of Brussels and I am working on a paper about telecommunications in Latin America. Any information about policy, satellite communications, informatics or telephony is welcome. Thank you, hw45141@is2.vub.ac.be (FERLIN AURORA) Student Communicatiewetenschappen Vrije Universiteit Brussel [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do any of you folks ever go to the library and do your own research? Please don't keep asking me to do your homework for you. Thank you. PAT] ------------------------------ From: martin@econz.co.nz (Martin Kealey) Subject: Re: ThinkPad Modem in India Date: Wed, 3 May 95 13:53:25 NZST > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sid, in the future when you want to have > 'local calls' go to a different number, you might want to include an > *area code* in your .signature so people can tell what is local and what > is not ... PAT] In the future when you want to have 'national calls' go to a different number, you might want to include a *country code* in your .signature so people can tell which zone you're calling from. Martin D Kealey voice fax lat/long home: martin@kurahaupo.gen.nz 0-9-8150460 0-9-8150529 36.88888S/174.72116E work: martin@econz.co.nz 0-9-3788611 0-9-3789010 36.85300S/174.77900E Oops, sorry wrong .sig, try this one :-) Martin D Kealey voice fax lat/long home: martin@kurahaupo.gen.nz +64-9-8150460 +64-9-8150529 36.88888S/174.72116E work: martin@econz.co.nz +64-9-3788611 +64-9-3789010 36.85300S/174.77900E [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, technically you are correct, but since by default, the Digest is primarily a USA thing -- about 90 percent of the readers are in the USA -- I suppose the country code is not absolutely essential unless you are from another country. Nice thought though. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: ThinkPad Modem in India From: rishab@dxm.ernet.in (Rishab Aiyer Ghosh) Date: Wed, 03 May 95 00:11:36 IST Organization: Deus X Machina > I have an IBM 340 ThinkPad with an internal 96/24 fax-modem. I will > be taking this laptop back with me to South India (Hyderabad) later > this year. [...] In the manual it says to use the internal fax/modem > in the US only. What I would like to know is this because of some sort > of regulatory warning -- or is it that these modems just won't work > overseas (specifically I am interested in using it in India). Any You're not supposed to use modems that are not locally approved here, but they work fine. I don't see why there should be any problem; while I haven't used a ThinkPad modem, the internal modem in Apple PowerBooks work OK. Not all places in India will have RJ11 sockets handy. Rishab Aiyer Ghosh rishab@dxm.ernet.in rishab@arbornet.org Vox +91 11 6853410 Voxmail 3760335 H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #221 ****************************** Received: from ns1.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa20633; 4 May 95 20:35 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id NAA04801 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 4 May 1995 13:44:46 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id NAA04786; Thu, 4 May 1995 13:44:43 -0500 Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 13:44:43 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505041844.NAA04786@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #222 TELECOM Digest Thu, 4 May 95 13:44:30 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 222 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: 404 Area Code Split; New Code 770 (Linc Madison) Re: 404 Area Code Split; New Code 770 (Stan Brown) Re: 404 Area Code Split; New Code 770 (Lee Winson) Re: The AT&T "Minimum Usage Charge" Rumor (Tom Horsley) Re: The AT&T "Minimum Usage Charge" Rumor (Anthony Campbell) Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader (Patrick Phalen) Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader (Bob Izenberg) Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader (Antoin O Lachtnain) Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader (Marc Schaefer) Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader (Robbie Honerkamp) Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader (Markus Gloede) Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader (S. Rathinam) Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? (James E. Bellaire) Re: Annoying Feature on Payphones (Rob Hjort) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: 404 Area Code Split; New Code 770 Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 01:59:37 GMT rad (rad@eusdatl.attmail.com) wrote: > Yesterday, the Georgia PSC announced an area split for metro > Atlanta. For the most part, anything inside I-285 will be 404, all > the 'burbs will be 770 (that's me). > The PSC was considering two plans. One being the plan approved > above and the other involving an overlay scenario. ... > Also, after the 404/706 split a few years ago, it was predicted that > Atlanta had numbers for EIGHT years. Three years later we're in a big > rush to come up with a plan that will go into effect December 1, 1995. > Thus, one would think that with continued growth here in Atlanta, > we'll be ready for another split in the not too distant future. How > will we split then? Another donut wouldn't be feasible(sp?), so the > 770 would have to be split either north/south or east/west. Which > brings up the possiblity of having three area codes in extremely close > proximity, which, in my mind, reduces the benefits of the geographic > split. Well, first and foremost you have to blame the local politicians in the outlying regions of what is currently 404 for whining and crying enough to persuade the state to leave far too much in 404 and not move nearly enough into 706. If the first 404 split had been done sensibly, it would indeed be several more years before another split would be needed. The same is true, by the way, in Colorado; there is no excuse for having left so much in 303 and so little in 719 in the previous split. I have even less patience for this sort of shenanigans than I have for the cellular/pager companies whining about how it's "discriminatory" to put them into their own overlay area codes. Utter nonsense. Personally, I think the donut plan would work well -- you could have situations where a telephone across the street from you would be in a different area code, but something 50 miles away, on the opposite side of the metropolitan area, is in the same area code. Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ From: stanb@netcom.com (Stan Brown) Subject: Re: 404 Area Code Split; New Code 770 Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 00:19:08 GMT rad@eusdatl.attmail.com (rad) writes: > Yesterday, the Georgia PSC announced an area split for metro > Atlanta. For the most part, anything inside I-285 will be 404, all > the 'burbs will be 770 (that's me). Me too. I was just wondering, since I live two streets outside I-285, I feel sure that my local switch services phones both inside and outside I-285. If this is the case does it mean that the switch lives in more than one area code? Doesn't this make thing interesting? Stan Brown stanb@netcom.com 404-996-6955 Factory Automation Systems Atlanta Ga. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, two area codes in the same central office is not that uncommon in large metro areas where area code boundaries divide nearby communities. For instance, here in the Chicago area, the central office known as Newcastle on the far northwest side of the city always did serve parts of Chicago as well as the communities of Harwood Heights and Norridge, both of which are now in 708 while the Chicago prefixes served from Newcastle are in 312. The physical location of the office itself is in Chicago. The same thing occurs in areas on the southwest side of Chicago where 312 ends and 708 begins. I suspect with the additional split to 630 and 847 next year, Newcastle may well have three area codes in the same building and on the same switch. PAT] ------------------------------ From: turner7@pacsibm.org (Lee Winson) Subject: Re: 404 Area Code Split; New Code 770 Date: 04 May 1995 00:29:18 GMT Organization: PACS IBM SIG BBS In my opinion as a customer, I prefer splits rather than overlays. Overlays can be used for specialty services such as beepers, mobile phones, and other phones that don't have a fixed geographic location. ------------------------------ From: tom@ssd.hcsc.com (Tom Horsley) Subject: Re: The AT&T "Minimum Usage Charge" Rumor Date: 03 May 1995 12:50:40 GMT Organization: Harris Computer Systems Corporation Reply-To: Tom.Horsley@hawk.hcsc.com > AT&T claims that 26% of its residential customers have monthly bills less > than $3 and 44% less than $10. I resemble that remark. I usually have monthly LD bill of at most a few cents (usually a call to NIST's atomic clock to reset my computer :-). I essentially never make LD calls and would be happy to have no LD provider at all, and make any LD calls using a 1-0-XXXX code, but I don't think it is possible to select "nobody" as my LD provider (though I would be happy to learn otherwise). Tom.Horsley@mail.hcsc.com Home: 511 Kingbird Circle Delray Beach FL 33444 Work: Harris Computers, 2101 W. Cypress Creek Rd. Ft. Lauderdale FL 33309 (email pvs@neu.edu, 1-800-622-SMART, gopher://chaos.dac.neu.edu:1112/00/pvs.txt) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You might want to ask again. Quite a few folks have 'none' as their carrier. It is an interesting and cheap way to block your phone from unauthorized long distance calls by most people who might be in your home. Unless they know to dial the 10xxx codes -- and most folks do not -- any attempts to dial long distance will just reach the 'your call cannot be completed as dialed' intercept. Pressing double zero only, as in '00' will get the same recording, or in some locations a fast busy or reorder tone. This is not a recommended way to handle toll blocking, but it will generally work unless you have a house full of Digest readers. ... even if telco defaults your line to 'none', you will still have to pay the network access charge each month since you can access carriers you choose via 10xxx. Even when you get 'official' toll-restriction from telco, i.e. no matter what you dial out- side your local area, no matter how you dial it, telco rejects it, you will still pay network access. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 May 95 11:22:37 PST From: tonyc@amwbbs.rain.com (Anthony Campbell) Subject: Re: The AT&T "Minimum Usage Charge" Rumor ward1@ux6.cso.uiuc.edu (ward michael) writes: > lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) writes: >> Here's what I've been able to piece together so far. It's accurate as >> far as I know, but I have more inquiries pending and I'll pass along >> anything else I find out. >> 1) No minimum charges would apply to residential lines (as far as I can >> determine right now). I received one of these notices in with my AT&T bill for my residential line. It's no rumor. > It is possible that AT&T does not want low volume customers. A > similar issue has come up with regards to residential service. AT&T > claims that 26% of its residential customers have monthly bills less > than $3 and 44% less than $10. My monthly long distance bill is usually only $1.50-$2.00. From all the hype, I thought I was the only one who didn't spend $50 on long distance a month. > It costs AT&T between $0.35 and $0.85 to render a monthly bill. I guess that is what I found so funny, and frustrating. I always got my long distance billing included with my local phone bill. Without warning, several months ago, I started getting my AT&T long distance bill separately. Sending off a check for $1.50 every month is quite a nuisance. I decided that with my next bill I would send off a check for $10, just to save the hassle of mailing of checks for the next several months. You know what came with my next AT&T billing, the notice that a $5 minimum charge would be starting, possibly with the next bill. And just like the separate billing, this too would be to my benefit. (Don't you love how they worded that notice? :) Enough is enough, time to switch long distance carriers. So guess what was again included as part of my just received local phone bill? My last AT&T billing. Too late, AT&T. TonyC@amwbbs.rain.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: AT&T has a very good, efficient way of dealing with minimum usage where cellular phones are concerned. If you use AT&T as your cellular long distance carrier, that always come billed separately from some place in Florida. If the bill is less than five dollars, a note enclosed with the bill says payment can be delayed until the bill is at least five dollars *or three months has gone by* whichever comes first. Over a three month period, presumably at least five dollars in long distance charges will have accumulated. If not, its hard to imagine why you are using a cell phone anyway. My AT&T bill is still consolidated with the local Ameritech bill and I have not received any notices about a minimum monthly charge. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 16:49:23 -0700 From: pphalen@crl.com (Patrick Phalen) Subject: Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader > Someone sent me a note the other day which I have managed to lose, but > the essence of his request was this: He likes to read Usenet news but > many of the groups he wants to read are not carried by his site. He > wants to know of sites which maintain 'open' NNTP servers; that is, > where anyone can pull the news and post news, etc. > If you want to send me the information, I'll pass it along to him when > he writes me again, as I am sure he will when I don't answer him in the > next few days. He wrote me, I mistakenly thought he wanted information > on how to get this Digest by email; he wrote back saying it was not just > this Digest, but various other groups that were unavailable as well. > I told him I would post his note ... now it's lost. :( His intention is > to edit his .login file to 'setenv NNTP open.server.somewhere', and pull > the news that way. Any help will be appreciated. Patrick, I've seen this question come up periodically and the standard answer seems to be that any sys-admin who decides to permit it soon finds their newsserver overloaded (freeloaded?), and they inevitably have to slam the door. Of course, all the major online services provide this, but then why doesn't he just get a SLIP/PPP dialup connection at home (or work) for ~$20/mo; then he'll have the whole Internet at his fingertips, including the WWW? If his budget doesn't allow this, he could get a Shell account for under $9/mo, unlimited use, and Telnet to it from his other account or acess it directly with a few Unix commands. Patrick Phalen <<>> pphalen@crl.com ------------------------------ From: bei@io.com (Bob Izenberg) Subject: Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 10:33:16 CDT Reply-To: bei@io.com TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > He wants to know of sites which maintain 'open' NNTP servers Pat, They're not asking for much, are they? :-) There are some (but not as many as once there were) sites that do promiscuous NNTP. Does your correspondent understand what they're asking? "Dear system administrator: May I transfer anywhere between zero and many megabytes of data across your network at any time?" Want to bet that some of the groups that they seek are high-volume binaries groups? Would you also bet that they'll be accessed during the work day instead of in the wee hours? Bob Izenberg 512-442-0614 / 617-728-1416 / 800-946-4645, pager 1109500 bei@io.com / bei@dogface.austin.tx.us / bei@pencom.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 21:16:29 +0100 From: Antoin O. Lachtnain Subject: Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader In comp.dcom.telecom TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > Someone sent me a note the other day which I have managed to lose, but > the essence of his request was this: He likes to read Usenet news but > many of the groups he wants to read are not carried by his site. He > wants to know of sites which maintain 'open' NNTP servers; that is, > where anyone can pull the news and post news, etc. Pat, I seem to recall that news.uunet.ca worked the last time I tried it. I'm sure they wouldn't thank us if you sent that information to Usenet, though. I recall finding that one in a list on a link from the FAQ which refers to how to get Usenet groups on yahoo. Most of the suggestions on that list didn't work when I tried them, though. Antoin O Lachtnain, Trinity College, Dublin. mail: aolchtnn@alf2.tcd.ie ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 95 09:54 MET From: schaefer@alphanet.ch (Marc SCHAEFER) Subject: Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader > to edit his .login file to 'setenv NNTP open.server.somewhere', and pull > the news that way. Any help will be appreciated. setenv NNTPSERVER news.uni-stuttgart.de tin -r # or any newsreader capable of r)emotely reading news. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: More about Stuttgart a little later in this issue in a larger list of places. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Robbie Honerkamp Subject: Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 09:39:31 EDT news.randomc.com is an open port. :) Robbie [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you for your offering. :) PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 19:28:30 -0700 From: Markus Gloede Subject: Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader "AW" == Art Walker writes: > In article TELECOM Digest > Editor wrote: >> I told him I would post his note ... now it's lost. :( His >> intention is to edit his .login file to 'setenv NNTP >> open.server.somewhere', and pull the news that way. Any help >> will be appreciated. > Unfortunately, "open" NNTP servers are all but extinct. news.georgetown.edu is accessible from outside and has comp.dcom.telecom. hth, Markus G. markusg@darkwing.uoregon.edu http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~markusg/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 03 May 1995 17:54:32 CDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Re: Open NNTP Servers Wanted by Reader Once a "public" server becomes known, traffic increases and they go private. A. Lesiker used to maintain a list which he discontinued about a year ago. I have an old version (attached) and most/all the servers are non-US. Some of these may still be open. ============ OLD LIST OF PUBLIC NNTP SERVERS $ finger lesikar@tigger.stcloud.msus.edu LESIKAR Lesikar, Arnold V. LESIKAR not logged in Last login Mon 18-Jul-94 4:35PM-CDT Plan: PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE NEWS SERVERS (Last Update 3/14/94) I am planning to take down the Lesikar NNTP server list as of mid-July. Currently I am no longer updating the list. The problem here is with growth of the net. News administrators seem to be unwilling or unable to cope with the increased traffic that results from publication of their site in my list. They cannot be blamed for this; the rapid growth in usage seems to be straining many resources on the net. There are in fact a number of NNTP servers that can be accessed freely. However, publishing the address of an accessible site seems to result in such a load increase that public access is shut off. So giving out the addresses of the sites that I know of will certainly be self-defeating! Gopher news servers are easily found throught the use of Veronica. Search through gopher directories using the keyword "Usenet" or "news." Not every site that turns up this way is accessible, but a percentage of them can be used. The list of public NNTP servers was an experiment. I have learned a good deal about how the net works from maintaining the list. Unfortunately, one of the results of the experiment was proof that the list is impractical under present conditions. It is for that reason that I am ceasing to update the list and will take it down entirely in July. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Many sites seem to have closed down since my last update. :( Currently only one U.S. site still remains accessible. I am sorry about that people, but I have no control over how the site administrators decide to run their servers. We have lost several Gopher news sites as well, but still 29 sites remain that provide news service through Gopher. (NOTE: 3/24/94 - the last U.S. site has just closed. You can try sol.ctr.columbia.edu, but I am told that this site allows only 15 connections at one time. In fact I have never succeeded in connecting to it. Reportedly it does allow posting.) These sites have been found to be available to the general public for NNTP service through port 119. You will need Newsreader software to make use of these sites. These sites were found to be open at the time they were surveyed, but I make no guarantees about future access. News administrators are free to close off sites to the public at any time. I will remove any site from this list that asks to be removed. I have not surveyed what is available at each of these sites. Please do not overload these sites looking for pornography. The administrators of these sites have been notified about this list, and they are unlikely to make prurient material available to the public. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE A GUEST IN MAKING USE OF THESE FACILITIES. The news adminstrators who support open access to the Usenet News are voluntarily doing a service for the public. PLEASE SHOW GRATITUDE FOR THEIR EFFORTS BY NOT ABUSING THE ACCESS THAT IS PROVIDED! Please remember also that you can also use Gopher to access the Usenet news. After the list of news servers, I have included bookmarks for sites that provide access through Gopher for reading the news. - arnold v. lesikar lesikar@tigger.stcloud.msus.edu news.belwue.de, 129.143.2.4 (read only) news.uni-hohenheim.de, 144.41.2.4 (read only) news.uni-stuttgart.de, 129.69.8.13 SEE NOTICE BELOW! newsserver.rrzn.uni-hannover.de, 130.75.2.1 (posting OK) nic.belwue.de, 129.143.2.4 (read only) shakti.ncst.ernet.in, 144.16.1.1 (posting OK) Notice from the news administration of news.uni-stuttgart.de [please note the access policy & information below] - allows *read-only* access on port 119, - anon-nfs access to news.uni-stuttgart.de:/news and news.uni-stuttgart.de:/news/spool/news and, finally, to news.uni-stuttgart.de:/news/archive [our news archive]. - telnet access: rusinfo.rus.uni-stuttgart.de, login info, select menu item 1 (shell access), and to change to /pub/soft/comm/news/. cd spool/news for the spool dir, look around to watch a full-blown news server running 8-) - anon-ftp access: ftp info2.rus.uni-stuttgart.de:/pub/comm/news/*, same tree as via telnet access. - ftpmail access: ftpmail@info2.rus.uni-stuttgart.de, same as ftp access above - fsp access: info2.rus.uni-stuttgart.de, port 21, directory /comm/news - X.25 access (now, thats it ! 8-) to NUA (WIN, Datex-P): 0262 45050 367111 NUA (EuropaNet): 0204 3623 367111 - There is some way for decnet access. I don't know how this works. Good luck ! (quick'n'dirty) access policy: news.uni-stuttgart.de is a RS6000 with 128 MB RAM, FDDI interface, and a few Gigabytes disk (10, soon 15 8-). Its also our campus anon-ftp server. Its running inn-1.4. There are a few special hierarchies (e.g. russian, japanese, french etc), but no alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.*, alt.sex.* and some other groups the university administration was not able to allow, please don't waste your time trying. Do not abuse this service. If You want to use our nntp service on a regular basis, please contact news-adm@news.uni-stuttgart.de so that we *know* who You are and why You use our server. This helps us to defend the open access policy [and we've seen hard times ...]. We will disable any domain without further notice if we have problems with it. -------------------------- BOOKMARKS TO SITES PROVIDING GOPHER ACCESS TO USENET. You can edit this list and include whatever parts are of interest in the bookmark file for your Gopher client. Alternatively you can point your client directly at the site. On a UNIX system, for example, you could point your Gopher client at the La Tech Usenet site with the command gopher -p '1/Usenet News' aurora.engr.latech.edu 70. The general format for the command in Unix is gopher -p 'PATH' host_name port# You cannot post news articles via Gopher. However, it is possible to post news articles by mail through the University of Texas. You must remember in using this service that the periods in the newsgroup name are all changed to hyphens. So, to post an article to the newsgroup "alt.beer," for example, you would e-mail your article to the following address: alt-beer@cs.utexas.edu. To post to the newsgroup "comp.os.vms," you would e-mail to comp-os-vms@cs.utexas.edu. # Type=1 Name=USENET News (from Lousisiana Tech) Path=1/Usenet News Host=aurora.latech.edu Port=70 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (from Michigan State University) Path=nntp Host=gopher.msu.edu Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (from Walla Walla College) Path=news Host=saturn.wwc.edu Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (San Diego Supercomputer Center) Path=1/News/Usenet Host=milo.sdsc.edu Port=70 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (from University of Wyoming) Path=nntp Host=rodeo.uwyo.edu Port=71 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (from Los Alamos) Path=nntp Host=info-server.lanl.gov Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (from Florida State) Path=nntp Host=gopher.fsu.EDU Port=4320 [3/31/94 - Florida State site reported CLOSED] # Type=1 Name=Usenet News (from Universite Catholique de Louvain) Path=1/info.sc/tech/srv.ext/news Host=ifdh.sc.ucl.ac.be Port=70 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (from Tampere University of Technology, Finland) Path=nntp Host=butler.cc.tut.fi Port=6671 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (from Hannover Uni, Germany) Path=nntp Host=newsserver.rrzn.uni-hannover.de Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=Usenet News Reader (University of Manchester) Path=nntp Host=info.mcc.ac.uk Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (Osnabruek Uni, Germany) Path=nntp Host=gopher.rz.uni-osnabrueck.de Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=Usenet News (from Erlangen Uni, Germany) Path=nntp Host=cd4680fs.rrze.uni-erlangen.de Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=Usenet News (from Universite du Quebec a Montreal) Path=nntp Host=infopub.uqam.ca Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (University of Canberra, Australia) Path=nntp Host=services.canberra.edu.au Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (from Cranfield Institute of Technology, UK) Path=nntp Host=gopher.cranfield.ac.uk Port=4324 # Type=1 Name=Usenet News (from Birmingham University, UK) Path=1/Usenet Host=gopher.bham.ac.uk Port=70 # Type=1 Name=Usenet News (from Technische Universitaet Clausthal, Germany) Path=1/Internet/News Host=solaris.rz.tu-clausthal.de Port=70 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (Internat'l Centre for Theoret. Physics, Trieste) Path=1/news Host=gopher.ictp.trieste.it Port=70 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (from Tartu University, Taiwan) Path=nntp Host=gopher.ccu.edu.tw Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (from Universitaet Linz, Austria) Path=nntp Host=gopher.edvz.uni-linz.ac.at Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=Usenet News (Prague University of Economics, Czech Republic) Path=1/news Host=pub.vse.cz Port=70 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (from Rhodes University, South Africa) Path=nntp Host=gopher.ru.ac.za Port=4324 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (from University of New South Wales, Australia) Path=nntp Host=usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=USENET News (Universitat Jaume I, Spain) Path=nntp Host=gopher.uji.es Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=USENET news (from Palacky University, Czech Republic) Path=nntp Host=risc.upol.cz Port=4320 # Type=1 Name=USENET NEWS (from Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain) Path=.news/ Host=mirzam.ccc.upv.es Port=70 # Type=1 Name=NETNEWS (from osiris.wu-wien.ac.at) Path=1/.nn Host=olymp.wu-wien.ac.at Port=70 == $end ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 04:26:09 -0500 From: bellaire@tk.com (James E. Bellaire) Subject: Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? jlundgre@kn.PacBell.COM (John Lundgren) wrote: > [The law] says that the advertiser must have a human on the line > ask first if the person wants to hear the message. A fully automated > 'Junk Dialer' is illegal. That's why, on all the messages that I have > received, the advertiser _never_ gives out a phone number os something > traceable, but asks you to give _your_ number at the beep. Michigan has a similar law, and lots of scoffers. One company that constantly calls my number by machine looks for an open live operator AFTER I answer. The first voice is live human, so they don't technically violate the law but it is usually 15 seconds after I answer. The company does not give out their name and disconnects me when I ask for it. I can't prosecute without the name and they have a tendency to choose LD carriers that don't deliver CallerID. One day I was connected to an empty operator position and stayed on the line five minutes listening to a neighboring operator and somebodys VISA info. I was listening for the company name but still didn't hear it. (When my operator returned he hung up when he found me on line!) As long as I don't know who they are I can't complain. REPUTABLE calling companies would not do this, but who said you had to be reputable to connect to the LD network? As long as telco gets paid for the connection they will connect calls. Refusing to connect Teleslease would put them in court explaining why they refused service. > It's not a matter of technology, it's a matter of sociological lag. > The laws and prevailing attitudes haven't kept up with technology. The laws are there, but the enforcement is not. Besides, these are PUC rules or state laws. I doubt if Michigan laws can be used against callers from out of state. > There was a law recently enacted that outlaws junk FAX advertising, so > maybe this will happen with phones. The "nice" thing about junk FAX is the company must identify themselves since the messages are one way. Teleslease can just hang up if the call recipient is hostile to their call, without identifying themselves. There's always another target just one digit away so why should they care about who they annoy? > The option of tracing obnoxious calls so that LEAs can access the > phone number seems like the best option in your case. Maybe the > feature would only have to be added to a few of the lines, not all. I hope it does, but I wouldn't hold my breath. ** Hey teleslease!! *** Point your every-number-sequential dialers at 202-456-xxx in Washington D.C. That's the 'official' exchange for the White House - maybe you'll get some legal attention if you find one of the more 'secret' numbers. (Although I doubt if the oval office phone is in that block.) YMMV :) (Note: This is a joke - I don't advocate that anyone call these numbers!) James E. Bellaire (JEB6) bellaire@tk.com Twin Kings Communications - Sturgis, MI [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The White House has 202-456, and in par- ticular, 456-1414 is the main switchboard number. The higher ranking government employees however -- including President Clinton -- also are serviced from the centrex at the Executive Office Building nearby. The EOB centrex is quite large. About thirty years ago, when President Johnson was in office, a strange little fellow named Boyd McDonald who lived in Manhattan, New York at the YMCA published a lewd, rather vulgar and often-times funny monthly magazine called {Straight to Hell}. Published by mimeograph machine from his little room at the Sloane House Y, STH had a circulation of several thousand readers mostly in the USA, and was essentially a reader-written journal consisting of the subscribers writing in to exchange experiences they'd had -- sexual in nature of course, and for the most part absolutely outrageous, but presumably truthful since McDonald cautioned his reader/writers to only send him truthful accounts of their activities; truth, he said, was always more interesting than fiction. Certainly it made for more interesting reading than the {New York Times} as he often claimed. When President Johnson's top aide, a mousy little fellow by the name of Walter Jenkins got arrested in the middle of a sex act during a noon-hour raid by police in the men's restroom at the YMCA in Washington, DC it made a great national scandal of course, but for McDonald, it was a reason for an extra issue of STH. Quite the oppo- site of mousy little Walter, older people will remember Lyndon Johnson as a loud-mouthed, bellowing, cursing, vulgar fellow who was prosecuting the war in Vietnam with a vengeance. With Walter's arrest -- caught with his pants down, quite literally -- LBJ was greatly embarassed, but got even more aggravated when someone who had been on a public tour of the White House somehow managed to filch a restricted copy of the internal phone directory for the White House and EOB ... and forwarded certain pages from the directory to McDonald who promptly published them in the next issue of his magazine including LBJ's direct dial centrex extension; the First Family's private phone number in their living quarters, etc. He just printed page after page from the internal directory in STH ... ... and as you might suspect, very soon President Johnson, his wife, his two daughters, and several of his staffers were receiving 'strange phone calls' from men making lewd propositions of one kind or another. The war protestors, who were also increasing greatly in numbers by that time picked up on those phone numbers and called to voice their dis- pleasure, and soon it was like a circus until a few days later when the telecom people at the White House had gotten all the internal phone numbers changed. In 1964, Johnson's campaign slogan was 'All the Way with LBJ', and following the arrest of his top aide, McDonald and other counter- culture types of that era coined a new slogan for him which was 'Either Way With LBJ' ... Johnson hated that revised slogan, and went to a press conference one day to announce he was not a 'pree-vert' (his term) and that he had no idea what Jenkins had been doing on his lunch hours, even though the man had worked for him for about thirty years at that point. McDonald had some very clever and witty commentaries on it in STH; I wish I had saved them or could remember them all. PAT] ------------------------------ From: RobHjort@aol.com Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 01:13:27 -0400 Subject: Re: Annoying Feature on Payphones I agree that the offer to leave a recorded message (after only three rings) is annoying. This is another case of a convenient feature poorly implemented. It always irks me when making an operator assisted call to have the operator tell me after only three or four rings that there is no answer. I was taught as a child to let the phone ring eight times before hanging up because it was rude to make someone get up to answer the phone only to have the calling party hang up just as you get there. Happens to me every day. The message feature is handy, I've used it before, but it would be better manners, as well as less confusing, to implement it after more rings. As for your pay phones filling up, in the rural central Florida area where I live we have a large population of migrant farm workers (mostly Mexican) as well as tourist from all over the world. You would not believe the handfuls of quarters they feed into the phones here making international calls home. I don't imagine it would take too many minutes to Mexico to fill a coin box (how do they find time to talk?) Sounds crazy but I've seen it. Maybe one of your Ukrainians is calling home to check in with Mom on your favorite pay phone. As for the "box is full" recording, I've run across it before but can't remember when or where. I'll have to ask my local telco guy about it, but I agree, if they know it's full, why not come and empty it? In the immortal words of 'Captain Ron' - "Nobody Knows!" Rob Hjort RobHjort@aol.com BlackDragon Telecom Lake Placid, FL ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #222 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa21775; 4 May 95 23:18 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA12049 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 4 May 1995 17:50:10 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA12039; Thu, 4 May 1995 17:50:07 -0500 Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 17:50:07 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505042250.RAA12039@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #223 TELECOM Digest Thu, 4 May 95 17:50:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 223 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson The Quality of TELECOM Digest (James E. Bellaire) Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs? (Tim Gorman) Re: International Telephone Number Length - Maximum Allowed (Richard Cox) Re: International Telephone Number Length - Maximum Allowed (E. Rohwedder) Re: Cross-Border Local Calls (Mark J. Cuccia) Detroit, MI, USA to Winsor, ON, CA Calls (James E. Bellaire) Re: Detect/Prevent Third-Party Calls (Alex Madarasz) Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine (Tor-Einar Jarnbjo) Cell Phones vs Pacemakers (Michael J. Kuras) Advice Needed About Answering Service (Brian D. Petro) Book Review: "Computer and Communications Security" by Cooper (Rob Slade) Looking For Information on a Mux/De-Mux Device (Russell Ochocki) What's R2 Signalling on Switch? (Yee-Lee Shyong) Job Posting: Telephone Network Design Engineer (Jorge D. Salinger) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 04 May 1995 03:02:41 -0500 From: bellaire@tk.com (James E. Bellaire) Subject: The Quality of TELECOM Digest I believe we are coming to a point in TELECOM Digest's evolution, along with the evolution of the Internet and Usenet, that there is too much information available at too little cost. New users are swarming onto the net with a cheap commercial connection or a university supplied educational connection without understanding the history of the forums they invade. Reading all the way back to beginning with Volume 1, I sense that the friendly exchange of information between peers is changing to a information on demand environment. There are far more blank requests for any information or any statistics or any facts available and far less real problems or complaints. I worked in a college computer lab this past year and watched frustrated students not find information on the internet. Then, reading one of those 'Internet How To" books the read that they should post to a newsgroup. My college doesn't have a news server so they can't do that (yet) but a lot of the references I've pulled up in Veronica and other searches are to QUESTIONS and not ANSWERS. I enjoy reading the 'How to' books and would suggest every new user be required to read one or two. John Levine (a TD regular) has written the 'Internet fo Dummies' series, which includes instructions to check the FAQ before posting. I wish more people were listening. There are also other information search techniques than posting to usenet. Like calling the local business office of the phone company or visiting a good library. BTW: The number one question in the labs is how to find a friend's internet address. I always quote Mr. Levine, "CALL OR WRITE THE FRIEND AND ASK." The Internet is not a replacement for other research, it is a suppliment. Pat, if you do continue to publish student requests and answers PLEASE make the subject count. Add the word "question" or some other phrase to let people know that the answer is not in that posting. I've seen too many answer looking subjects that just point to a question. Summary for students: Before logging onto the Internet - CHECK LOCAL SOURCES. Before posting to any group - READ THE FAQ. Before writing your post - READ THE BACK ISSUES. Before doing any of the above - READ A GOOD 'HOW TO' BOOK. Thank you for your bandwidth ..... James E. Bellaire (JEB6) bellaire@tk.com Twin Kings Communications - Sturgis, MI ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 17:13:47 -0500 From: Tim Gorman Subject: Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs? jsun@shore.net (jason t. adams) writes in TELECOM Digest V15 #216: >> Is this concern over potential competition from telcos to local >> internet service providers warranted? > The telcos not only have economies of scale, but they don't have to > pay extra for leased line connections to internet sources, etc. They > OWN the lines. That makes me think that it would be very easy (with a > little software investment) to provide slightly cheaper access. I feel I need to correct this perception that since the telco "owns" facilities that their use is "free" and they don't have to "pay extra" to use them. They are most certainly not free. They represent a capital investment by shareholders and therefore a return on the investment MUST be earned at a minimum. In fact, if shareholder investment is to not be diluted, these facilities must contribute at exactly the same level as those sold "externally". It is, therefore, imperative that all costs including "contribution" associated with these facilities be included in the price of any service that uses them. I think you will find that MOST of the telco's advantages ARE from economies of scale and from an ability to maintain high levels of utilization so that equipment is earning ALL of the time. Regarding the telco's: > In my opinion, though, I think they will do a bang-up job. Gee, I hope you are right! :-) ------------------------------ From: richard@mandarin.com Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 18:27:32 -0400 Subject: Re: International Telephone Number Length - Maximum Allowed In-Reply-To: <199505011450.JAA07158@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> david@cs.uow.edu.au (David E A Wilson) said: > when you add the four digit carrier selection code plus the four digit > international access code to the twelve digit UK number the equipment > could not handle it. UK national numbers are (maximum) ten digits, (minimum) eight digits. Prefixed by 0044, that makes fourteen digits to dial. Even with a four digit prefix, no more than eighteen digits. If you had been in North America, you would have dialled 01144 for the UK and have a five (soon seven) digit prefix before that. North American callers will need to dial 22 digits when the new seven-digit prefixes arrive. > What is the maximum length for an international number (country code > plus area code + local number)? At the moment twelve digits (excluding local access and international prefices); this will change on 1/1/97 to sixteen digits. Many phone companies seem unaware of, and unprepared for, this international change. > Is there a list of how long each country's numbers are? There probably would be, if it didn't keep changing! No doubt PAT has something in the archives but by definition it cannot be completely up to date. Did *you* know all five digit numbers in Andorra had recently been prefixed with an "8", and the country code changed to +376? Neither did a lot of people! > Is it just the UK or are we going run into the same problem on other > calls The longest numbers are apparently in Germany: they now break the 12-digit rule, and therefore some people in the USA have difficulty reaching the longest numbers! (In practice these are nearly all on DDI PABX lines.) If you can handle German numbers you shouldn't have any other problems (except paying for the calls!) 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: Ekkehard.Rohwedder@KURT.TIP.CS.CMU.EDU Date: Wed, 3 May 95 18:24:31 EDT Subject: Re: International Telephone Number Length - Maximum Allowed One limitation that was discussed here in July '93 is that -- from the US at least -- an international call may not have more than 12 digits, e.g. dialing the following number in Germany: 011 +49 6131 XXX 4555 results after some time in a short beep and then a busy signal. On the other hand: 011 +49 6131 XXX 450 works just fine. An AT&T technician told me then that local U.S. exchanges only have the capacity to store 12-digit numbers (i.e. in my case +49 6131 XXX 455). This turns out to be an illegal phone number in Germany, which causes a congest signal to be sent back to the US (the beep), which then is turned into a busy signal here. If you have a 13 digit (including country code) phone number, you cannot be reached through direct dial from a local exchange in the United States!! (As I was told there are 13-digit numbers currently in Germany, Austria, and the Chech Republic.) Readers of the Digest had more to say about the international numbering scheme --- I just quote two of them: From: deej@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (david.g.lewis) ITU-T (Formerly CCITT) Recommendation E.164 on telecommunications numbering specifies that the maximum length of an international number be 12 digits, consisting of a one, two, or three digit country code, and a national significant number of any length such that the length of the country code plus the national significant number not exeed 12 digits. [...] The CCITT (now ITU-TSS) has recommended an expansion of international numbers from 12 to 15 digits at what they call "Time T", defined as December 31, 1996. As of that date, all switches should be able to handle international numbers of up to 15 digits in length. Before that time, 12 is the maximum. From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) [...] In most places outside North America the length isn't really a problem because calls are routed incrementally and, except in the fanciest new electronic exchanges, the whole number is never buffered in one place. Here in North America, we use 11 digit numbers as the Lord told us to [...] ------------------------------ From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: Cross-Border Local Calls Date: 4 May 1995 15:41:36 GMT Organization: Tulane University I don't know if El Paso, TX, USA and Cd.Juarez, Chihuahua, MEXICO ever had cross-border LOCAL, however El Paso was able to DIAL across the Rio Grande for many years. It MIGHT have been possible for ANYONE with DDD access in the US/Canada to DIAL to Cd.Juarez even BEFORE we had IDDD dialing to Mexico (011/01+ 52 + eight digits). This was NOT done by using that special NPA 903 nor that 'patch' NPA of 70-6. Cd.Juarez has had a city code beginning with '1' for over at least 25 years. According to El Paso Area directories in the 1970's, El Paso and nearby Texas customers called Juarez by dialing 1+ (or 0+) 32 + the five digits (at that time) number of Juarez; Customers in nearby US state of New Mexico could dial Juarez by dialing 1+ (or 0+) 915 + 32 + the five digit number. There WAS (and still is) a TOLL. During this time period, there were NO assignments of any 915-32X central office codes to any other towns in the 915/southwest corner of Texas. These dialing instructions were discontinued at sometime in the 80's - full international dialing instructions were required (011/01+ 52+). The 915-32X codes have since been assigned to Texas towns in the 915/southwest corner of Texas. Some other Texas phone books for Rio Grande areas DID (and probably still DO) have a section with listings for towns in nearby Mexico, but I don't ever remember DIAL instructions (If there WERE any instructions, it was to dial the operator). Whenever Mexico towns/listings are included in any California, Arizona, New-Mexico or Texas directories, there is either a copyright notice or a disclaimer which states 'Telefonos de Mexico, S.A.' Mark ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 04:25:54 -0500 From: bellaire@tk.com (James E. Bellaire) Subject: Detroit, MI, USA to Winsor, ON, CA Calls In the past couple of weeks there was a discussion about calling between countries as a local call. Our Esteemed Moderator (I like to call him Pat) asked about Detroit to Windsor calls. The information I have (from the "Downriver Area White/Ywllow Pages" serving Southwestern Wayne County) shows local calls within Detroit and the communities to the south, with zone calls to the northern suburbs (now in NPA 810). Seven digit dialing within the area code with 1+NPA for Long Distance "calls that are not local or zone calls." Prices are given for LD calls within the LATA but the cost of local and zone calls are not shown. None of the Windsor, Ontario, Canada exchanges are listed as either local or zone in any of the Detroit areas shown. IF there is any local international calling it is not shown in this phone book. Looks like it's up to the IXCs to make the connections and set the rates. Windsor is not a suburb of Detroit. Its a very nice community with a completely different atmosphere, a New England feel compared to Detroit's city-of-crime feel. I feel safer walking downtown Chicago after midnight than visiting Detroit during the day. I can see why connecting calls would be international and not long distance. James E. Bellaire (JEB6) bellaire@tk.com Twin Kings Communications - Sturgis, MI ------------------------------ From: alex@eagle.hd.HAC.COM (Alex Madarasz) Subject: Re: Detect/Prevent Third-Party Calls Date: 4 May 1995 11:59:18 GMT Organization: Hughes Training Inc. Reply-To: alex@eagle.hd.HAC.COM In article , white@sunmgc1.ericsson.se (Steven White) writes: >> I just had two AT&T long-distance calls charged to my number, and had to >> call AT&T to have them removed -- AT&T isn't my long-distance provider. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You can prevent it from happening with a >> slight bit of inconvenience to yourself, but it may be worth it. Find >> out of your local telco offers 'billed number screening'. This is a Thanks to all the helpful folks who replied to my original post. My Bell Atlantic rep added FREE third-party and collect call blocking to my account while she was getting me a new unlisted and unpublished number. > Southern Bell in N.C. charges $10.25 for this change in service ... > How about requiring Ma Bell to reimburse AT&T for any future > fraudulent charges? Seems to me they are bordering on being an > accessory. I too would get mighty angry in the case where a local telco charges someone for a service which prevents "illegal" calls of this type -- it's kinda hard for me to be sympathetic about a practice which encourages (by omission of responsibility) these kind of fraudulent charges. Alex P. Madarasz, Jr. - Hughes Training, Inc. - alex@eagle.hd.hac.com ------------------------------ From: bjote@cs.tu-berlin.de (Tor-Einar Jarnbjo) Subject: Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine Date: 4 May 1995 16:47:55 GMT Organization: Technical University of Berlin, Germany Clive D.W. Feather (clive@stdc.demon.co.uk) wrote: > Oops, almost forgot. Apart from the 31 cases I listed before, there are > eight territories with no international code that I know of: > Bouvet Island [Norway] > Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands [Norway] (others edited out here) As there are no permanent residents on the Bouvet Island, I don't beleive there are any need for a country-code there. I beleive the same applies to Jan Mayen, but numbers on Svalbard are put into the Norwegian number-scheme, and are +47 79 5x xx xx. Since calls to theese are treated and charged as regular domestic calls in Norway (about $0,12 per minute daytime from the mainland) it shouldn't be necessary to assign a country-code for Svalbard. Tor-Einar Jarnbjo, bjote@cs.tu-berlin.de ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 16:07:44 -0400 From: mkuras@ccs.neu.edu (Michael J Kuras) Subject: Cell Phones vs Pacemakers Organization: College of Computer Science, Northeastern University The Wireless Technology Group says studies show that in some cases cellular phones placed near the chest can cause pacemakers to recalibrate themselves or stop and restart. The advisory group warns that new digital pocketphones are of particular concern -- especially since their numbers are likely to proliferate once personal communications services are widespread. No such effects from the older analog cellular phones have been observed. A spokesman for Medtronic, a pacemaker supplier, says the company is advising patients with pacemakers to turn off their portable phones when the phone is in a shirt pocket, to hold the phone 10 to 12 inches from the chest when using it, and to hold the phone to the ear opposite the side where the pacemaker's implanted. (Wall Street Journal 4/28/95 B1) [...] EDUPAGE is what you've just finished reading. To subscribe to Edupage: send a message to: listproc@educom.edu and in the body of the message type: subscribe edupage Ted Williams (assuming that your name is Ted Williams; if it isn't, substitute your own name). ...... michael j kuras mkuras@ccs.neu.edu ------------------------------ From: petro@crl.com (Brian D. Petro) Subject: Advice Needed About Answering Service Date: 1 May 1995 17:07:47 -0700 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [Login: guest] I am very seriously considering the idea of starting a business from my home selling voice-mail boxes. As I have never been in the business, I am looking for advice from someone who has. I am planning on targeting the residential market. I live in a town of 40,000. I would only be charging $5/month for a basic service box. My major competition would be our local telephone company who charges $6.5/month. My question is this: Would there be enough interest in voice-mail from residential clients to keep my business profitable? It seems to me that it would be fairly easy to add 100+ customers/year to my service, but I would like the opinion of someone "in the business." Please E-mail any responses. Thanks in advance, Brian Petro ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 17:56:38 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Computer and Communications Security" by Cooper BKCPCMSC.RVW 950320 "Computer & Communications Security", James Arlin Cooper, 1989, 0-07-012926-6 %A James Arlin Cooper %C 2600 Tenth St., Berkeley, CA 94710 %D 1989 %G 0-07-012926-6 %I McGraw-Hill Communications Series %O 510-548-2805 800-227-0900 lkissing@osborne.mhs.compuserve.com %P 411 %T "Computer & Communications Security" This is a textbook for a security course. It has a good breadth of coverage in theoretical areas. There are problems and ethical dilemmae at the end of each chapter. The bibliographic references are a bit dated. The author is obviously unused to practical security considerations: social engineering is never mentioned. An engineering background shows through: there is a lot of math, including a theoretical basis for "doppler" detection of intruders (motion). The coverage of "hackers" and software threats indicates a heavy influence from the popular press and no real understanding of the issues. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKCPCMSC.RVW 950320. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z1/ User .fidonet.org Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ From: rdo@kynes.gatewest.net (Russell Ochocki) Subject: Looking for info on a Mux/De-Mux device Date: 3 May 1995 23:02:12 -0500 Organization: Gate West Communications, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada I'm looking for a device that will multiplex many phone lines into a smaller number of lines. For example, Northern Telecomm's Northstar 616 allows you to have 6 incoming phone lines and have up to 16 stations in your place of business. But, you can only have at most 6 incoming calls at once. Is there a similar device that given the 6/16 line split you could have all 16 local stations in use at the same time? Russell Ochocki Gate West Communications rdo@gatewest.mb.ca 204-663-2931 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 95 12:37:01 GMT From: apollo@n2sun22.ccl.itri.org.tw (Yee-Lee Shyong) Subject: What's R2 Signalling on Switch? Originally, I only heard about TR-008 or TR-303 for signaling specification between Digital Loop Carrier(DLC) and Local Digital Switch (LDS). But somebody tols me that R2 signaling is also popular on LDS. Can someone out there tell me what it is? Where I can find this document describibg R2? Who published that material? Best regards, Apollo Shyong ------------------------------ From: jorge@servms.fiu.edu (Jorge D. Salinger) Subject: Job Posting: Telephone Network Design Engineer Date: 4 May 95 15:43:14 GMT Organization: Florida International University POSITION POSTING DATE: 5/4/95 POSITION: Telephone Network Design Engineer REPORTS TO: Director of Digital Services Networking LOCATION: Coudersport, PA RESPOND TO: Maria Bliss 5 West Third Street Coudersport, PA 16915 Requisition #CC5189 DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES: 1. Design and implement telephone network systems and services over broadband cable plants. 2. Evaluate customer and company needs and design telephone network systems and services to meet those needs. 3. Perform research, analysis and interviews necessary to select appropriate trends, technologies, and vendors. 4. Plan and implement systems and services according to customer time frames. 5. Perform installation and testing of systems services and coordinate such installation and testing processes with customers, vendors, and subordinates. 6. Provide training to customers, subordinates and local personnel when required on the use, troubleshooting and repair of telephone network systems and services as applicable. 7. Assure the proper completion of projects on a timely and effective basis. 8. Inform the Director of Digital Services Networking of progress and problems as necessary. 9. In the role of supervisor, direct, evaluate and motivate subordinates. 10. Perform other related duties and tasks as assigned or as become evident. EXPERIENCE/SKILLS REQUIRED: 1. A Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering or computer science, or the equivalent in other education/experience, is required. A Master's degree in a related field is preferred. 2. Must have at least 3 years of experience in design of telephone network systems. 3. Proven knowledge of POTS and ISDN telephone network architectures, PBX systems and multiplexing and channelizing techniques is required. 4. Experience in the design of CATV systems and SONET and ATM networks is desired. 5. Must be a skilled technical writer. 6. Must be able to keep a regular schedule of daylight business hours and accept extended schedules that result form travel. Must be able to travel extensively by automobile and/or airplane to attend the company's business. 7. Bending, reaching, lifting up to 25 lbs., and climbing of step ladders up to 8 feet in height is required. NOTE: Successful applicant must pass drug/alcohol test, physical examination, and criminal record check. Resumes will be accepted until the position is filled. "ADELPHIA IS AN EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER" ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #223 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa22280; 5 May 95 0:37 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA14537 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 4 May 1995 19:47:06 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA14529; Thu, 4 May 1995 19:47:04 -0500 Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 19:47:04 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505050047.TAA14529@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #224 TELECOM Digest Thu, 4 May 95 19:47:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 224 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Caller ID Nationally and FCC Order (Lynne Gregg) Good Grief - Caller ID is Back! (hihosteveo@aol.com) Re: Can Someone Explain DID in English? (Marshall Leathers) For Sale: Combinet 56K Bridges and Shiva NetModems (Cheryl Van Winkle) Overhead Paging Advice Wanted (Tammy Fischbach) Subscription Details Wanted For "Telephony" (Nirad Sharma) Re: Comm Problems With USR Sportster V.34 (Doug Snyder) Re: Comm Problems With USR Sportster V.34 (jhines@xnet.com) Re: Question - Rotary vs Tone Dialing (John Lundgren) Re: Voice Pagers; Where Are They? (Bob Spargo) Re: PRI-ISDN Deployment (Jack Warner) Re: DTMF/Pulse Converters Wanted (swakopf@aol.com) Re: International Telephone Number Length - Maximum Allowed (Mark Cuccia) Re: Outgoing Only Phone Line Without Phone Number (John David Galt) Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine (Mark J. Cuccia) Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine (Toby Nixon) Re: Taking my Laptop to the UK (John Nice) Re: AT&T $5 Minimum Monthly Charge (teamiguana@aol.com) Re: Cross-Border Local Calls (Dave Leibold) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: Lynne Gregg Subject: Caller ID Nationally and FCC Order Date: Thu, 04 May 95 13:08:00 PDT gw@cdc.hp.com (Gordon Wilson) wrote: > So, which states do not have Caller ID (besides California)? Caller ID is now available in MOST states. In addition to the California exception, Caller ID is also not yet found in Alaska and possibly not yet in Hawaii. You can find it in most other states, but service is still quite spotty. Most of the RBOC CO's are SS7/ISUP readied, but there are some older switches that can't transmit Calling Party Number. Also smaller LEC's and independent carriers may not have SS7 or newer switch technology that enables CPN transport. By the way, the FCC Order (and that portion that was "stayed" pertaining to interexchange of CPN) does not require LEC's or IXC's to be capable of CPN transport. The original work ordered that if a carrier WAS capable of transporting CPN, they do so. This portion (and the portion ordering use of only Per Call Blocking) was stayed. There's no telling when the FCC will pick this up again. Regards, Lynne [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: However Lynne, in the next article in this issue, someone tells us the FCC *has* picked up on this again, and is pushing for implementation later this year. Read on. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hihosteveo@aol.com (HiHoSteveo) Subject: Good Grief - Caller ID is Back! Date: 4 May 1995 17:23:02 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: hihosteveo@aol.com (HiHoSteveo) This morning the FCC, to my suprise, issued an order mandating interstate caller ID, "mandating that carriers make available a free, simple and consistant, per call blocking and unblocking mechanism ... permits carriers to provide privacy on all calls dialed from a particular line, where state policies provide ..." that option. Order is effective 12-1-95. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 14:58:18 GMT From: marshall leathers Subject: Re: Can Someone Explain DID in English? Organization: Nortel DID or Direct Inward Dialling: A special type of phone line (trunk) provide by the telco which associates multipule phone numbers with a singe phone line and which sends a signal down the line with a call arrives which indicates which numbers was used to place the call. In some ways DID can be viewed as as the opposite of Caller ID. With Caller ID the signal indicates which number placed the call (i.e. the phone number of the orginator of the call. With DID the signal indicates which number was dialed (i.e. the phone number of the destination of the call). Note, however that the signalling mechanism used for Caller ID is different from the method used for DID. In other words, equipment that can decode the Caller ID signals will not work on a DID trunk. Historically DID has been used by PBXs that provide direct dialing to internal extensions. For example, dialling 555-1201 would ring on extension 101. Dialling 555-1202 would come in on the same trunk to the PBX but the PBX would route the call to extension 102. Now DID is also used with fax modems and boards to provide routing of inbound faxes. Each employee or department is given a different fax number but all the calls come in on the same DID trunk. The fax board (or external DID decode box) decodes the signal from the telco central office which indicates which number was dialed and used this number to route the fax to the appropiate user or department. ------------------------------ From: cherylvw@halcyon.com (Cheryl Van Winkle) Subject: For Sale: Combinet 56K Bridges and Shiva NetModems Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 18:21:54 -0700 Organization: Stadium Flowers REDUCED TO SELL! Like new used for less then a year. Networking bridges Reduced 50% to 80% of orginal cost. We have gone to Frame Relay and have no use for bridges. Anxious to sell! All manuals included. Bankcards welcomed; can take Visa, American Express, or Mastercard. Ready to ship at once. Will ship FedEx next day. Would be happy to talk to you in person on our 800 line if really interested. Qty. Item Ethernet Connector $ or OBO === ====================================== ================= ======== 2 Combinet Switched 56K Bridge (2 channel) 10BaseT & 10Base2 $ 1,500(all) Qty. Item Ethernet Connector $ or OBO === ====================================== ================= ======== 5 Shiva 14.4K NetModem/E 10BaseT $ 1,500(all) 1 Shiva 14.4K NetModem/E 10Base2 $ 300 Cheryl Stadium Flowers "Always Days Fresher" ------------------------------ From: Tammy Fischbach Subject: Overhead Paging Advice Wanted Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 12:42:00 EDT We're looking for any information re: overhead paging (loudspeaker paging) for a 9 story Hospital. We need to develop a technical RFP to replace an obselete system. Any assistance would be appreciated. ------------------------------ From: nirad@cs.uq.oz.au (Nirad Sharma) Subject: Subscription Details Wanted For "Telephony" Date: 4 May 1995 05:14:25 GMT Organization: Computer Science Dept, University of Queensland Reply-To: nirad@cs.uq.oz.au A friend of mine is trying to find out how to subscribe to "Telephony" but cannot get hold of a copy to get the subscription details (nor can I). Can anyone provide the fax number or e-mail address for subscribing to this periodical? 1. BRN: 4500218 TITLE: Telephony SUBJECTS: Telephone - Periodicals ADDED TITLE: Global telephony NOTES: Beginning in 1990 (?) one issue per month called: Global telephony Full text from Nov. 1987 in: Business periodicals ondisc Originally published: Chicago : Chambers-McMeal, 1901- If replying to this group, please e-mail me a copy as I rarely read this group. Thanks, Nirad Sharma Computer Science, University of Queensland. 4072. Australia [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is {Telephony} still in business? I've not heard anything from them in ages. They were located here in Chicago for many years -- almost all their existence -- but I seem to recall someone saying they had moved a few years ago, possibly to Iowa. At one point, going back into the 1930-40 era, {Telephony} was *the* magazine of the industry. If you had anything to do with the Bell System at all -- and really, that was all you had to do with -- then you read this weekly journal religiously. What are they doing now-days? I do know that when Harry Newton came along with {Teleconnect} he grabbed the lion's share of the readership. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dhsnyder@ultranet.com (Doug Snyder) Subject: Re: Comm Problems With USR Sportster V.34 Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 14:09:34 -0500 Organization: Echo Bridge Productions In article , thorst@login.eunet.no (Thor Stromsnes) wrote: > I am having some problems with my PPP internet hookup. After about > 10-15 min online, my V.34 Sportster just "hangs up". I use trumpet > winsock and netscape software, and I have set the internal baud rate > to 115.200, in order to handle compession. Is this a hardware problem, > or what? My ISP sent a message recently about USR Sportsters and a "new chip". You may want to call USR and check. ------------------------------ From: jhines@xnet.com Subject: Re: Comm Problems With USR Sportster V.34 Date: 4 May 1995 18:20:44 GMT Organization: XNet - A Full Service Internet Provider - (708) 983-6064 Reply-To: jhines@xnet.com In , thorst@login.eunet.no (Thor Stromsnes) writes: > I am having some problems with my PPP internet hookup. After about > 10-15 min online, my V.34 Sportster just "hangs up". I use trumpet > winsock and netscape software, and I have set the internal baud rate > to 115.200, in order to handle compession. Is this a hardware problem, > or what? Other users of my ISP have reported that ATS56=128 fixes the problem, and that it only happens with certain other modems on the other end. ------------------------------ From: jlundgre@kn.PacBell.COM (John Lundgren) Subject: Re: Question - Rotary vs Tone Dialing Date: 04 May 1995 16:42:25 GMT Organization: Pacific Bell Knowledge Network Richard Cayne (r_cayne@pavo.concordia.ca) wrote: > Does it cost a telephone supplier more or less money to maintain a rotary > system over a tone based line?? The telcos charge in Canada a surcharge for > tone lines but somehow I believe people who convert are doing them a favour. > Would like to get the hard facts on which system is more economical for > a telco. Pac Bell, for years, charged us for Touch Tone, something that I thought was a big ripoff. Using TT or DTMF allows the telco switches to do more with less equipment, so they are benefitting more from it than the subscribers. No matter what kind of switch the CO has, the DTMF converters can be added to it. The benefit comes from having to tie up a dialer for less time to complete the call. So more calls can be completed by the same amount of equipment. And since there are a lot less dialers than phone lines, this is quite a benefit. And then I got my first modem, a Hayes Smartmodem. I wasn't paying for the DTMF "feature", but I had it anyway, since I tried it and it worked. A few weeks later I got a letter from Pac Bell telling me that I was supposed to pay for this, and asked for me to call them in S.F. So since I was always at work during the day, and they were always gone after five, I just called and left voice mail and I played telephone tag until they gave up. Of course, I refrained from using DTMF after that. Turkeys seem to have had the wool pulled over the California Public Utilities Commission's eyes, and the ratepayers, too. I'm glad that someone woke up a few years ago and realized that they were charging for something that they shouldn't be. Now, for the past couple of years, DTMF has been free, and I don't think anyone uses a pulse phone anymore. Except I do, since I have some old rotary wall phones stuck to the wall of several of the phone closets at work. They do come in handy, and I don't always have to carry around a butt-in. N.B. MAIL ADDRESS CHANGES TOMORROW TO r_cayne@vega.concordia.ca email address: r_cayne@pavo.concordia.ca Tel: (514) 488 7110 Fax: (514) 488 1629 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\jlundgre@kn.pacbell.com ------------------------------ From: Bob Spargo Subject: Re: Voice Pagers; Where Are They? Date: 4 May 1995 01:56:53 GMT intercom@netcom.com (InterCom) wrote: > Where can I find out more information on pagers that receive audio > messages (not cut-through voice-mail pagers, but real voice pagers)? Voice pagers, once the most popular type, may be making a comeback in the next few years as the result of some new technology currently being developed by Motorola and Pagenet. For today, if you want wide area voice you can shop the Yellow Pages under Paging Services. In most markets, usually you can find one or two service providers that will offer the service -- for a premium price and often with limited coverage. Voice is still fairly popular for on site paging systems (i.e. within a building complex, campus, etc.). On site systems can be purchased from many two way radio dealers (look under Radio Telephone Equipment and Systems in the Yellow Pages). For some information on paging (and soon some specific stuff on tone and voice) check out the new paging section on Motorola's WWW server at http://www.motorola.com/MIMS/PPG/ (note the caps). Bob ------------------------------ From: jackeagle@aol.com (Jackeagle) Subject: Re: PRI-ISDN Deployment Date: 4 May 1995 09:43:15 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: jackeagle@aol.com (Jackeagle) > PRI-ISDN In most areas IXC's offer PRI -- particularly to PBX. I would contact AT&T, MCI, Sprint. Also I believe several CAPS offer this service. I believe TELEPORT is in your area. Jack Warner ------------------------------ From: swakopf@aol.com (Swakopf) Subject: Re: DTMF/Pulse Converters Wanted Date: 4 May 1995 10:58:48 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: swakopf@aol.com (Swakopf) > I have a need to purchase some conversion equipment. I need to > convert rotary digit pulses to DTMF and vice-versa. If you know of > such equipment, please post and e-mail me. We need multiple units. I know there are at least four companies who sell Pulse/DTMF converters. I have one working today. I believe they only convert in one direction pulse to tone. Teleliasion in Quebec, Pika (or Pica) in Toronto, another company in Isreal and I believe the other is in the UK, these are the only ones I can think of. I can provide address and numbers if you want. E-mail me at pswakopf@ccm.frontiercorp.com (business address). You could also check out some software vendors; AIN development folk. They may have something closer to what you want. peter ------------------------------ From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: International Telephone Number Length - Maximum Allowed Date: 4 May 1995 15:23:27 GMT Organization: Tulane University As of now, the MAX for a full international number is 12 digits; This will increase to a MAX of 15 digits at either the end of this year (1995) or at the end of 1996 - I can't remember right now - Most teleco equipment is designed to handle the max of 12 digits, but when it comes to PBX's, privately owned payphones, other customer premesis toll restricting devices, etc. you may run into problems -- The time when the ITU/CCITT states that an internatonal number can be expanded to a full 15 digits is noted as 'TIME-T'. Please note that the max of 12 digits presently and 15 digits soon does NOT include any carrier access/identification codes, international access codes, etc -- it is constructed of EXCLUSIVELY the Country Codes and the full national destination number -- whatever follows the '+' at the beginning of a number. MARK + 1 504 865 5954 (Work Tel) + 1 504 241 2497 (Home Tel, forwards to cellphone, forwards to voicemail) + 1 504 865 5917 (Fax, work) ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Outgoing Only Phone Line Without Phone Number Date: Thu, 04 Apr 95 10:29:57 PDT I like your idea of lines without dialable phone numbers, but I think you are confused about the number space. Dialing 01nxxxxxx, where n is a digit in the range 2..9 and xxxxxx is anything, is not an unused sequence in the US and Canada; it places an international call, just as if you had dialed 011nxxxxxx, but the lack of a second "1" means that the call is operator assisted. 010, however, is an unused sequence (or at least, they don't tell the public how to use it for anything). John David Galt ------------------------------ From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine Date: 3 May 1995 15:02:01 GMT Organization: Tulane University In the old Distance Dialing Reference Guide (the old Bell System equivolent of Bellcore's TRA products), 808-998 was a 'mark-sense' (operator billing code) for Wake and 808-999 was the mark-sense code for Midway; These assignments were STILL in use as late as 1990/91 according to Bellcore TRA's LERG & Industry Numbering Plan Guide, however they were NOT included in the December, 1994 issues of these TRA documents. MARK ------------------------------ From: Toby Nixon Date: Wed, 3 May 95 17:18:34 PDT Subject: Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine In TELECOM Digest V15 #220, septimus@acsu.buffalo.edu (Shalom Septimus) wrote: >> I compared my country codes list with my list of ISO recognised >> countries and territories. The shared uses of codes I found were: >> 672 Shared by 5 territories under Australian control > Specifically, which? My list has only Cocos/Keeling Is, (6722), > Norfolk Is. (6723) and Christmas Is. (6724). What are the other 2? Or > are Cocos and Keeling two seperate territories, and I'm only missing > one? Australia recently moved the Cocos/Keeling Islands to country code 61. Area accessible through 672 are Norfolk Island, Coral Sea Island Territories, Christmas Island, and Scott Base and Casey Base in Antarctica. Toby ------------------------------ From: John Nice Subject: Re: Taking my Laptop to the UK Date: 4 May 1995 21:23:38 +0100 Reply-To: jnice@gwhb486.demon.co.uk In article ogilvie@usc.edu "ogilvie" writes: > Does anybody know what I will need to purchase in order to use my > lapop in London and surrounding areas? I think I will need some sort > of power adaptor and some sort of modem adapter. If you have any > suggestions, I would really appreciate hearing them. Also, does > anybody know any good PPP internet providers in the UK? You will need an RJ- to UK adapter. Available for about Pds.3 from Tandy (UK for Radio Shack: ubiquitous over here) Your power unit, if switch-mode, may well cover 100-250 volts. Check the rating plate. Otherwise, Tandy sell a small 240-115 stepdown transformer which is meaty enough to drive a razor or small pc power unit. > Charles Please reply via email to: ogilvie@usc.edu Surely the point about Usenet is the information is here to be shared. John Nice "Whenever I hear the phrase 'Information Superhighway' I reach for my revolver" ------------------------------ From: teamiguana@aol.com (TeamIguana) Subject: Re: AT&T $5 Minimum Monthly Charge Date: 4 May 1995 12:21:33 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: teamiguana@aol.com (TeamIguana) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's why it is so silly at times to > worry about who your carrier happens to be. Just go with whichever one > offers the biggest rebate checks for switching to them. Not only is > MCI the largest customer of AT&T, but AT&T is also the largest customer > of MCI ... I'd be interested in hearing where that source of information comes from. Iguana [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Each of the carriers leases a large amount of the resources and facilities of the other carriers. MCI purchases a few million dollars worth of leased circuits from AT&T monthly. If there is any single customer (a large corporation, I assume) doing more business with AT&T monthly, I would like to know who they are. Anyone who has some actual dollar figures available want to comment on this? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@superctl.tor250.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 04 May 95 22:27:06 -0500 Subject: Cross-Border Local Calls Dale Crouse wrote: > a New York community to Quebec. At one time I new of toll-free dialing > from Portal, North Dakota to North Portal, Saskatchewan. Does anyone know > if this is still true? I didn't notice this was the case, although Saskatchewan local number relationships are hard to determine from their phone books. SaskTel doesn't have the sort of local number charts that most other telcos have (but I don't usually have many of these books in the basement :-)). The exchanges involved (from my notes) are: 701-926 Portal ND 306-927 North Portal SK I believe SaskTel has "protected" 926 (Portal ND's exchange) in the past, so that it is not assigned in 306. This provision does not necessarily mean local calling has been implemented. Whether long distance is needed to cross the border is another matter. > Also, I believe there was toll-free dialing from El Paso, Texas to Juarez, Mexico. I'm curious if this is still in effect. I have found no indications of any U.S.-Mexico cross-border dialing. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Also, what is the relationship between > Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario where telephone calls are > concerned. I don't think it is strictly within a local zone, but isn't > it handled like a 'suburban' point or for a small extra fee depending > on the type of monthly service you have? PAT] There is no local Windsor-Detroit calling, nor are any special procedures indicated in the Windsor Ontario phone books ... nor do I recall seeing any "suburban" rates or procedures mentioned in any of the Detroit books I've run across. Windsor subscribers dialing Detroit would have to dial 1 + 313 + number (or 1 + 810 as the case may be now). Detroit customers would have to dial 1 + 519 + to reach the Windsor numbers. From the Windsor end, I believe the usual Canada-U.S. long distance rates apply (though at this distance this means these tolls should be the lowest possible). Of course, whether some folks have taken to a do-it-yourself local cross-border connection is another question ... Fidonet : Dave Leibold 1:250/730 Internet: Dave.Leibold@superctl.tor250.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is that bizarre case still in effect where a certain 'area code' actually terminated in the middle east -- in Saudi Arabia I think -- for the benefit of some highly placed executives in the oil industry? Does anyone remember those? I've forgotten what the dialing codes were/are. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #224 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa22751; 5 May 95 1:52 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id VAA16567 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 4 May 1995 21:24:13 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id VAA16557; Thu, 4 May 1995 21:24:10 -0500 Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 21:24:10 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505050224.VAA16557@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #225 TELECOM Digest Thu, 4 May 95 21:18:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 225 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb (Steve Dyer) Re: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb (Carl Moore) Re: Any Way to Have Parents' Phone Calls Billed to *My* Phone? (S. Cogorno) Re: Any Way to Have Parents' Phone Calls Billed to *My* Phone? (M. Smith) Re: Any Way to Have Parents' Phone Calls Billed to *My* Phone? (HiHoSteveo) Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? (John David Galt) Re: Nokia 2110 vs Motorola 8200 (John Nice) Need Information on T1/E1 Rates in Asia (Gomab1183@aol.com) Possible Tax Break For Voice Networks (Ken Anders) Re: Challenging Phone Bill (Steven H. Lichter) Want Location of RS-232C Standard (Scott Ehrlich) Syncronous and Asyncronous Differences (Wayne Kosten) Frustrations With AT&T Long Distance Billing (Lathika Pai) Manuals for ISOTEC System 96/S (Steve Tanner) Re: North American Modems in Britain (Dave Mathews) Re: Looking For a Black Box (William Englander) Re: ISDN, BellSouth and OCN (Bradley Ward Allen) Resale of Telecommunications Service (Wei N. Deng) Telephone Answering Gizmo Wanted (Donald McLachlan) New House Telecom Bills (Jeff Richards) Voice Mail SMDI Specs (Kevin Fleming) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer) Subject: Re: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 06:24:13 GMT In article , Richard M. Weil wrote: > Pat said in a recent issue that the man that was mistakenly arrested > for phoning in a bomb threat after the OK blast is suing the police > for misconduct and suing NYNEX "on the grounds that the company filed > a false report in the matter and did so 'with wanton disregard for the > accuracy of their report.' He says the president's apology is insuffi- > cient ... " > I heard yesterday that the phone company has offered to pay for this > young man's college education as compensation for the obvious mistake. This obviously got a lot of play in the Boston area, and I hadn't heard anything about a suit. Rather, the kid and his parents bore no ill feelings and had accepted the tuition offer from NYNEX. Steve Dyer dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You can correct me if I am wrong on this. My understanding of the sequence of events was (1) incorrect report filed; (2) official apology only; (3) threats of legal action; (4) then the college tuition tossed in to sweeten things up. Since the cost of four or five years in college these days might easily come to a hundred thousand dollars, it would seem prudent to me also to accept that as a nice settlement. It works out much cheaper for NYNEX that way also. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 95 10:55:55 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb Is it a measure of how full the system is when messed-up digits result in someone else's valid number? Several years ago, this Digest had a note about a Chicago-area dress shop getting calls meant for an airline (two digits transposed in the telephone number). I recall this appearing not long before 708 area code came along to provide relief for 312. Outside the phone system, there have been "horror stories" about people getting billed for parking tickets when it turns out that there was an error in transcribing license plate number. Back to the phone system, there are the amusing incidents of a call intended for Marilyn in Beverly Hills (area 310, and received when eastern Maryland could be reached in either 301 or 410), and some calls for gynecology clinic (two transposed digits). ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Any Way to Have Parents' Phone Calls Billed to *My* Phone? Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 17:20:13 PDT scott.d.brenner said: > I'd like to find out if there's a way to have the calls direct-dialed > from my parents' home phone billed to *my* home phone number. Right > now, they're using my calling card number for selected calls. But > they show up on my AT&T Universal bill. I'd rather have them on my > AT&T long distance bill (I get a separate bill from AT&T; my LEC > doesn't handle LD billing anymore). I also want to avoid the ~$1 > surcharge for using the calling card. You can certainly get an AT&T Calling Card connected to your regular bill. It will still cost about $0.80 cents surcharge (may differ depending on your state), but the cost of the call will apply towards your True USA Savings and True Rewards. There is no way to have a called billed to your line as if it were a direct dialed call. You may want to set up an 800 number for your parents (and possibly others if you want) to use. Depending on your (their) calling patterns it may or may not be cheaper. Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: msmith@pluto.njcc.com (Mark Robert Smith) Subject: Re: Any Way to Have Parents' Phone Calls Billed to *My* Phone? Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 17:12:08 EST Organization: New Jersey Computer Connection, Lawrenceville, NJ In article sbrenner@cbnews.cb.att.com (scott.d.brenner) writes: > I'd like to find out if there's a way to have the calls direct-dialed > from my parents' home phone billed to *my* home phone number. Right > now, they're using my calling card number for selected calls. But > they show up on my AT&T Universal bill. I'd rather have them on my > AT&T long distance bill (I get a separate bill from AT&T; my LEC > doesn't handle LD billing anymore). I also want to avoid the ~$1 > surcharge for using the calling card. > If you know a way to do this, please send some e-mail to me at > "sbrenner@attmail.com" You could set up a personal 800 number, with PIN if desired. You pay something like 0.25 per minute, but no surcharge. You can also get it cheaper from another long distance company if you don't mind a separate bill. Mark ------------------------------ From: hihosteveo@aol.com (HiHoSteveo) Subject: Re: Any Way to Have Parents' Phone Calls Billed to *My* Phone? Date: 4 May 1995 17:23:04 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: hihosteveo@aol.com (HiHoSteveo) Good grief -- call your parent's business office and have them assign the bill to your telephone number -- you'll get the whole bill, not just LD. ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? Date: Thu, 4 May 95 17:46:33 PDT >> In other words, knowledgeable offensive callers can dial with almost >> complete impunity and automated dialers are "impossible" to stop. > In California, since CallerID is not yet legal, the offending number > would not be readily available. But Pac Bell offers [Call Trace]... [snip] While California doesn't yet have Caller ID, we do have some related features that ought to do the job. I got Call Screen (the same thing named Call Block in eastern states) for the purpose of blocking these junk calls -- but I have yet to see this work even once. The junk callers are smart enough to always call from a PBX, so that their number is "not available" to Call Screen. And Pacific Bell is too stupid (or too cunning?) to offer you the option of blocking the offending company's entire PBX when it happens. In addition, Call Screen can only block 10 numbers. If Pac Bell, or the PUC, really cared about giving us peace in our homes, these limitations would have been removed by now, and I'm not inclined to believe stories that it's impossible. The bottom line is that telco cares more about the income from these junk calls than about our right to peace. I can only hope that dialtone competition will change their attitudes. John David Galt ------------------------------ From: John Nice Subject: Re: Nokia 2110 vs Motorola 8200 Date: 4 May 1995 21:23:34 +0100 Reply-To: jnice@gwhb486.demon.co.uk In article Nick.Pitfield@bnr.ca "nick pitfield" writes: > I'm about to buy a GSM phone, and have settled on either the Nokia 2110 or > the Motorola 8200. Does anybody have good or bad experiences or opinions > about these that they could share with me. A colleague of mine had four 8200s. He now has a 2110 with which he is happy. > Also, could somebody tell me where I can find the files describing how to > re-program certain things on these phones: eg I had the file for the Nokia > 101 last year and was able to change both the lock code and the start-up > message. Me too. please. John Nice ------------------------------ From: gomab1183@aol.com (GOMAB1183) Subject: Need Information on T1/E1 Rates in Asia Date: 4 May 1995 10:53:40 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: gomab1183@aol.com (GOMAB1183) Does anyone have a listing of T1/E1 leased line and interconnection rate tarrifs for countries in Asia? If not, any pointers as to ftp sites or gophers that may have that information? Thanks, SD ------------------------------ From: kanders@wdi.disney.com (Ken Anders) Subject: Possible Tax Break For Voice Networks Date: 4 May 1995 08:27:11 -0700 Organization: Walt Disney Imagineering I have heard that calls made intra-company over virtual voice networks may be tax exempt. This would include VPN, SDN and other vendor supplied networks provided the calls are within your defined network. Has anyone else heard of this? If so, can you lead me to the proper tax codes? Thanks in advance, ken_anders@corp.disney.com ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: Challenging Phone Bill Date: 4 May 1995 21:33:06 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) Don't ignore it, because even if you are right you will have problems. Right call the business office first, give them a chance to remove it, which they will in 99% of the cases. Then as Pat says contact the PUC and go from there. By the way they charge is a non regulated part of your bill and it should not cause you to lose phone service. Sysop: Apple Elite II -=- an Ogg-Net Hub BBS Home of GBBS/LLUCE support (909) 359-5338 12/24/14.4 V32/V42bis ------------------------------ From: scotte@ccs.neu.edu (Scott Ehrlich) Subject: Want Location of RS-232C Standard Date: 4 May 1995 23:56:45 GMT Organization: College of Computer Science, Northeastern University Does an RFC or similar document exist on the 'net for the RS-232C standard? I performed a lengthy keyword search at InterNIC and came up with no RFCs with the standard, which is why I'm posting the query. If it doesn't exist online, how much does the EIA charge for the specs? Thanks, Scott Ehrlich, Internetworking ASM, Eastern Mass. E-mail: wy1z@neu.edu Boston ARC ftp archives: ftp oak.oakland.edu /pub/hamradio Boston ARC Web page: http://www.acs.oakland.edu/barc.html ARRL Web page: http://www.acs.oakland.edu/barc/arrl.html ------------------------------ Date: 4 May 1995 16:45:27 GMT From: Wayne Kosten Subject: Syncronous and Asyncronous differences Could somebody explain firstly the difference between Asyncronous and Sycronous data transmission and secondly the pros and cons for both. Can you please E-mail me if possible so as not to congest the digest. wayne_kosten@yes.optus.com.au Thanks in advance, Wayne Kosten ------------------------------ From: PAI@cgi.com Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 17:53:37 EDT Subject: Frustrations With AT&T Long Distance Billing I have been having a horrible time dealing with AT&T regarding my long distance billing. Here are a list of problems: 1) I do not receive the rate I have been told I would on the Reach Out World Plan. As a result, calls to India, which should cost me $1.12/min have been arbitrarily charged between $1.68/min-$3.60/min. 2) Every month, I find that calls are not for that specific billing period eg. February 15 - March 15. I find calls that should have been included in maybe the December or January bills show up in this bill. This has been happening to me for the past six billing cycles. 3) Every time I call AT&T up, they tell me that they do not have a copy of the bill that has been sent to me and ask me to fax them a copy. I have done this three times already. 4) It has been four months now, and AT&T has still not addressed any of my concerns. I now get a bill every month which says I owe AT&T a whopping $1300. What do I do? I have spoke to every supervisor possible and everyone of them promises to get back to me and no one has. I am absolutely frustrated and disgusted with AT&T. Any suggestions/advice is more than welcome. Lathika Pai e-mail : pai@cgi.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, why don't you quit using them and switch your service to MCI? ... they take real good care of their customers don't they? No billing mixups and unresponsive people there, no sir-ree. Maybe Sprint or LDDS would like your patronage for awhile also. Then when AT&T sees that you left them, and they look at your bill and see it was up to $1300 they'll say oh my gosh, send this guy a check for a hundred dollars if he promises to sign up with us. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 12:06:21 -0400 From: Steve Tanner Subject: Manuals for ISOTEC System 96/S Hello, I'm looking for a system manual or service manual for an ISOTEC System 96 / S PBX. My problem is that our service contractor has no staff trained on our system, and we are locked out from reprogramming it ourselves. They state they are checking for a "backdoor" to regain access as they lost the password. I would appreciate any help locating a set of service manuals. EMAIL : STEVET@CUC.CA Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ From: dmathews@netcom.com (Dave Mathews) Subject: Re: North American Modems in Britain Organization: Cellular World -- Wireless Data Specialists Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 06:20:08 GMT gsmicro@ios.com wrote: > jbowler@biostats.uwo.ca wrote: > However, USR will warn you that this configuration is only designed > for occasional use (ie; when travelling). Since the modem you are > using is designed for use in North America, and therefore only has > approval for use in North America, it is *technically* illegal to > permanently attach the modem to the UK network. I don't think there > is much of a physical difference between the UK and North American > versions of the modems. There may be different shielding, RF, or > line conditioning requirements in the UK. But it will physically > work. You will also need to send a command string to the modem to > allow it to dial, especially if you are dialing pulse. USR tells you that this is for temporary 'visiting' use because of telecom laws in the UK. Modems to be sold overseas must have the ability to store the last numbers dialed in the %B register and not let you dial any one of those numbers more than three (I am 99% certain on this figure) times within an hour. I was told this in response to another question by a technical manager at Compaq (they write their own very elaborate modem EEPROM code) when I visited their communications department in January. Dave Mathews Cellular World Wireless Data Specialist ------------------------------ From: englandr@netcom.com (William and Alice Englander) Subject: Re: Looking For a Black Box Organization: William and Alice Englander Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 12:24:18 GMT In article , andrew bevan writes: > One solution we have thought of is to utilise the RS-232 serial port, > from the workstation, by connecting this to a "black box" containing > relays or contact closures. These relays/contact closures could then > be connected to the external device (e.g. a flashing light or audible > bell). Therefore under the right circumstances within the application, > a signal/message would be sent down the RS-232 to open or close the > relay, thus triggering the external device. I have just the "black box" for you ... order a catalog from: Electronic Energy Controls 380 South Fifth Street, Suite 604 Columbus, Ohio 43215 Orders: 800/842-7714 Technical: 614/464-4470 FAX: 614/464-9656 I've used their AR-16 relay interface (with their RH-8 relay card) to do exactly what you described. I used it to turn on (and off) lights and to activate a Radio Shack telephone dialer. Bill William and Alice Englander englandr@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Ward Allen) Subject: Re: ISDN, BellSouth and OCN Date: 4 May 1995 16:39:51 -0400 Organization: URL:http://www.armory.com/~ulmo/ (see rivers.html for PGP key) > "IPConnectSM users have access to the Metropolitan Internet and are > also able to select the carrier of their data to the worldwide > Internet in much the same way they now select a long distance carrier > along with local telephone services," states Robert Gardier, President > of Open Communication Networks. That's stupid. Redundancy is better -- let all subscribers use whatever works best at the moment, as determined by a well-maintained set of routers. Or am I missing something? The old ways seemed better ... Or is this system a non-flat rate structure (i.e. charges per some unit of usage)? In which case, forget it anyway I'm not interested (unless full time usage actually works out to a reasonable cost for me, which doesn't seem to be the pattern of usage-based charging). ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 May 95 19:10 EST From: Wei N. Deng <0006001506@mcimail.com> Subject: Resale of Telecommunications Service I would like to open a discussion on resale of telecommunication service. In the past years resale in telecommunications industry is no longer a treacherous thing. Resellers didn't encounter strong resistance from Carriers. In some cases carriers are, to some extent, cooperative. I am wondering the economic motivation of carriers to do this. Besides economic driving force, is there any regulatory policy encouraging or preventing reselling? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Wei (404) 668-5189 ------------------------------ From: don@mars.dgrc.doc.ca (Donald McLachlan) Subject: Telephone Answering Gizmo Wanted Reply-To: don@mars.dgrc.doc.ca Organization: The Communications Research Centre Date: Thu, 4 May 95 19:32:08 GMT I need to monitor audio at a remote site. Our comm lines are all used and we are not willing to pay for them to install more so we can get a leased line. I need to be able to monitor an audio source at a remote site. What I would like is a device which: - can be programmed to pick up the phone on the N'th ring (N programmable). - upon answering "plays" the remote audio to me over the phone line. - will hang up the remote end after I hang up my end OR will hang up if I hit a certain key at my end (DTMF decoder). OR will wait a M minutes and then hang up (M programmable). Does anyone know of a device which will do this sort of thing? Sources for same? Thanks, Donald McLachlan e-mail donald.mclachlan@crc.doc.ca Communications Research Centre / DRX office 613-998-2845 3701 Carling Ave., fax 613-998-9648 Ottawa, Ontario lab 613-998-2423 K2H 8S2 ------------------------------ From: Jeff Richards Subject: New House Telecom Bills Date: 5 May 1995 01:38:04 GMT Organization: Capital Area Internet Service info@cais.com 703-448-4470 Within the last two days, two telecom reform bills were introduced in the House of Representatives, and are available on . One is HR 1555, from Messrs. Bliley, Dingell and Fields (Commerce Committee). The other, HR 1528, is from Chairman Hyde (Judiciary Committee). Hearings begin next week. We will post schedules and witnesses as they are available, as well as updates about Senate activity on Senator Pressler's bill. In the gopher site , choose "Legislation." In the Web site , you'll see the links on our Home Page. Please send questions to . Of course, you can always drop me a note directly with your comments about the site. Finally, directions to add yourself to our listerver are noted below. Jeff Richards The Alliance for Competitive Communications & Pacific Telesis Group and ==SUBSCRIBE BELL YOUR_LASTNAME YOUR_FIRSTNAME ------------------------------ From: Fleming, Kevin Subject: Voice Mail SMDI Specs Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 21:53:38 Anyone know where I can obtain (free or otherwise) documents describing the SMDI (Standard Message Desk Interface) standards, used between PBXs and voice mail systems? Thanks for any help. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #225 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03543; 5 May 95 16:22 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA22809 for telecomlist-outbound; Fri, 5 May 1995 09:24:19 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA22801; Fri, 5 May 1995 09:24:16 -0500 Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 09:24:16 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505051424.JAA22801@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #226 TELECOM Digest Fri, 5 May 95 09:24:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 226 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Need Help on 50-POTS-Line Setup (J. Herraghty) Re: Can Someone Explain DID in English? (J. Herraghty) Send-A-Call (was Annoying Feature on Payphones Here) (Jonathan D. Loo) Voice and Data on the Same Communication Channel? (Craig Bogli) Calls From Australia to US 800 Not Delivering DTMF (Serge Burjak) Wanted to Buy: D/121-A Boards (Joan Summa) Company Contact Information Needed (msal765@aol.com) Re: ISDN, BellSouth and OCN (Willard F. Dawson) Market Trial For Bell Canada Free-Call Service (Dave Leibold) Advice Wanted on VoiceFX Voice Board (Alex van Es) Want Phone Numbers of the PCS Narrowband License Winners (Steve Samler) Re: Advice Needed About Answering Service (Gary Breuckman) Self Service Fax Machines (Christopher Freitag) Rural Phone Companies (Jack Mott) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: herraghtyj@aol.com (HerraghtyJ) Subject: Re: Need Help on 50-POTS-Line Setup Date: 4 May 1995 21:58:34 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: herraghtyj@aol.com (HerraghtyJ) Typically, analog phone lines can be ordered to terminate either in an RJ21X (25 Pair block) with an amphenol adaptor which is probably what you have or as a series of RJ-11 jacks. Typically, it is cheaper on the monthly bills from the Telco if multiple lines are ordered to terminate as an RJ-21X. The pairs on the Telco cable all run in sequence. The color sequence for the first 5 pr is; White Blue/Blue White White orange/Orange white White Green/Green White Whie Brown/Brown white White Slate/Slate white. For the next four subsequent sets of five, substitute white for; Red: Black Yellow Violet. and you will have the sequence for all 25 pairs. This will give you 25 pairs, or 50 conductors. Each analog phone line is on its own distinct pair. Two blocks, one labeled transmit, and one labeled receive, typically indeciates a digital service as in T-1's, T-3's, or 56K lines. However, as you obviously ordered POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) this can only be a mislabeled block. I hope this helps. ------------------------------ From: herraghtyj@aol.com (HerraghtyJ) Subject: Re: Can Someone Explain DID in English? Date: 4 May 1995 22:22:59 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: herraghtyj@aol.com (HerraghtyJ) DID = Direct Inward Dial. The whole phone world works off DID principles. Imagine a hospital, it has 40 DID trunks to service 500 patient beds and 400 administrative personnel. The hospital would pay the telco for the 40 DID trunks and also would pay to block out 1,000 numbers. (500 + 400 + 100 spare). Assuming the exchange of the hospital is 555 then the 1,000 numbers could be 555-1nnn (000 to 999). Therefore, the hospital owns phone numbers from 555-1000 to 555-1999, as long as it maintains the monthly payment on the block of numbers. Now that you have the numbers and the phone lines, the next part of the equation is to get the numbers into the phone system. Here's how it works ... Auntie Emily calls Uncle Albert at the hospital to find out how his operation went. Uncle Albert has been given a room with a phone number of 555-1234. (One of our block of 1,000 numbers.) The Central office sees that the number 555-1234 has been dialed, it knows that this number belongs to the hospital (555-1nnn), and that it belongs in the group of 40 DID trunks. The central office GOES OFF HOOK and waits for a signal from the hospital phone system that tells the central Office that it (the PBX) is ready to receive digits. When the central office receives the signal from the hospital PBX, it sends down the phone line the digits "1234". The hospital PBX sees the digits 1234 and calls extension "1234", which just happens to be Uncle Albert's room. Uncle Albert answers the phone and is connected to Auntie Emily. In the case of voice mail, you buy the block of "1,000" numbers (Usually sold in blocks of 50 or 100). The subscriber's voice mail number is their corresponding DID number. If the voice mail system has a DID interface, then it sees the four numbers from the central office and answers with the appropiate voice mail box message/greeting or whatever. Was that English Enough? ------------------------------ From: Jonathan D Loo Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 18:29:10 -0400 Subject: Send-A-Call (was Annoying Feature on Payphones Here) I think that I sent a message to the Digest several months ago on this topic, but anyway: the TELECOM Digest Editor wrote, > I don't like a feature on the Bell payphones here in Skokie, and it > seems to cause no end of confusion for many other people as well. It > seems that when you call from a payphone in Skokie (708-673 and > 708-674) after it rings two or three times, a recorded message comes > on the line saying 'your party does not answer' and inviting you to > leave a message 'for delivery at a later time' by pressing the keys on > the phone, for an additional fee of course. > Now should the caller actually answer, then of course the recording > cuts off immediatly and you proceed with your call, however there > are lots of foreign speaking people in Skokie -- mostly from Russia > or the Ukraine -- and not being all that familiar with the phone > system anyway, they think they are hearing a recording saying that > the number is not in service." Bell Atlantic used to have a similar service in Maryland. It was unreliable; if the called party answered too early then the service would activate and also would block out the caller's voice, and if the called party answered later then the service might not de-activate quickly enough and the callers voice again would be blocked out. I lost a lot of money in payphones when this happened; I remember the days when I had to call coin refund quite often. Anyway, according to a telephone technician whom I know, the service did not make enough money to justify its existence, and as a result it has been removed from most of the payphones in this area. I also heard that there were two companies that sold this technology to phone companies, and that one of them sued the other for patent infringement or something like that. Anyway, Send-A-Call is now a thing of the past. Most people have answering machines or voice mail anyway. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 03 May 1995 15:47:01 GMT From: Craig Bogli Subject: Voice and Data on the Same Communication Channel? Organization: United Technologies Research Center I need some help on a universal design that will allow voice communication and data communication over the same channel. This is a remote monitoring station that will send data to a central monitoring center, and in certain cases, the monitoring center operator will need to talk the someone at the remote site. Our current solution is a custom data modem, that allows an analog connection to the low voltage signal side of the DAA. This analog signal, then goes through a speakerphone IC, and sent to an intercom. This custom modem is now >12 years old, and very costly. The solution needs to operate in about 25 different countries. We are looking for an off-the-shelf solution that currently has the approvals of the major PTTs. Some ideas we have, are: 1) voice/data modems (however, if digital voice encoding is used, countries like Malaysia require max data rates of 1200bps) 2) auto-dialer intercoms with a phoneline sharing device Please help with any ideas you might have, and company names/products. Thanks, Craig Bogli Otis Elevator Company ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 03 May 95 10:45:40 1000 From: serge burjak Subject: Calls From Australia to US 800 not Delivering DTMF After Connection I have a problem getting through to some automated attendants using DTMF from Australia. As the title says, after the connection the line appears not to pass DTMF tones ie., "press 1 for this service, press 2 for that service." This happens with both Telecom and OPTUS. The customer service droids will not escalate the problem to anyone at an 'Engineer' level, but only to techs who make comments like, well "the US is probably translating these into something different, sorry cannot help you". Am I being unreasonable asking to pass in voice band information? I know it's not my phone, I can use Cyberlinks dial back for this or AT&T's USA direct with a credit card. The Cyberlink solution is not totally satisfactory for other resaons. The attendant requires a # key after the some transactions and Cyberlinks interprets this as a new call request. Any advice anyone can give would be appreciated. ------------------------------ From: joan@telecnnct.com (Joan Summa) Subject: Wanted to Buy: D/121-A Boards Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 16:33:54 EDT We have an immediate need for 8 Dialogic D/121A 12 channel voice boards. Dialogic no longer manufactures the A board. We are willing to buy them outright, or trade new, unused, Dialogic D/121B Spring Boards for working D/121A Spring Boards. (In most applications [alas not ours], the newer boards work identically to the old and are upward compatible). Please e-mail or call: Joan Summa Tel. +1 301/417-0700 Fax. +1 301/417-0707 ------------------------------ From: msal765@aol.com (MSal765) Subject: Company Contact Information Wanted Date: 4 May 1995 16:45:11 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: msal765@aol.com (MSal765) I am looking for some information on a US carrier that has been operating in the United Kingdom for some time now. They began with UK domestic services and now have recently become licensed to offer International Resale services out of the UK to the US. The name of the company is ACC Global or ACC Long Distance. I would appreciate any phone/fax/contact info on this company. With much appreciation, MSal765@AOL.Com ------------------------------ From: wdawson@crl.com (Willard F. Dawson) Subject: Re: ISDN, BellSouth and OCN Date: 5 May 1995 06:45:49 -0400 Organization: Entropy, Ltd. ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Ward Allen) writes: >> "IPConnectSM users have access to the Metropolitan Internet and are >> also able to select the carrier of their data to the worldwide >> Internet in much the same way they now select a long distance carrier >> along with local telephone services," states Robert Gardier, President >> of Open Communication Networks. > That's stupid. Oh, I agree entirely with that assessment. However, the RBOC's (and their partner companies, like OCN) will do what they have to, under the present regulatory environment. > Redundancy is better -- let all subscribers use whatever works best at > the moment, as determined by a well-maintained set of routers. Redundant routers that kick in to the selected carrier of data rather than falling over to a different carrier are also possible ... and, required, in a RBOC environment that must compete with the likes of MFS and their "miss 1% a year, get the next year for free" attitude. > Or am I missing something? Lots of MFJ that regular companies don't have to worry about. > The old ways seemed better ... Agreed. Indeed, they might win out, as it is yet to be proven that OCN and the RBOC forays into Internet services will make money, be viable forces in the business, and all that rot. > Or is this system a non-flat rate structure (i.e. charges per some > unit of usage)? In which case, forget it anyway I'm not interested > (unless full time usage actually works out to a reasonable cost for > me, which doesn't seem to be the pattern of usage-based charging). For light-weight users, or certain businesses, usage-based charging (depending on the model, and there are several) do make sense. However, for addicts like myself, usage-based charges are always more expensive than flat-rated connections ... which is probably true no matter what the service. Of course, maybe this is just what I need, an economic incentive to get a real life, outside of surfing the 'net... Willard Dawson ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@superctl.tor250.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 05 May 95 00:33:30 -0500 Subject: Market trial for Bell Canada free-call service [from Bell News, 1 May 1995 - content is Bell Canada's] Londoners first to try our new Call-Me service Our customers in London are the first in Ontario to try out a new service called Call-Me[tm]. Call-Me is a Bell product which enables residential and small business customers to selectively provide others with the ability to place long distance calls to their telephone number toll-free. Days before the market trial began on April 24, 50,000 Bell customers in London who spend more than $15 in long distance per month automatically received four Call-Me service cards and their individual authorization code (PIN #). The market trial, which will end on September 30, is intended to assess customers' reaction to the service. "We're excited about the potential of the Call-Me service, and what better way to assess the needs of our customers than to try it out in London," said Brian Flegg, Bell's director of Consumer Market Management. "We think customers who'd like to hear from relatives and out-of-town friends more often will find Call-Me service an easier and more economical option than calling collect." As well, customers using the service can benefit from any time-of-day discounts, and if they currently subscribe to one of our long distance savings plans -- such as the Real Plus[tm] savings plan -- they can save even more money. Rewards points on residential calls also apply. Calls made with the Call-Me service are billed at the direct-dialed rate. No surcharge or transaction fees are applied on automated calls made from within Canada. Calls made from overseas locations are billed at Canadian rates through Canada Direct[tm]] service -- rates that are usually cheaper than overseas operator rates. During the same trial period, Bell customers in Jonquiere and Chicoutimi, Quebec, will also be participating in a similar trial to better determine the needs of customers in the Quebec marketplace. ------ (DL note: A sample card show indicates the calls are made by dialing 0 + number, then entering the special "PIN #" after the card boing.) Fidonet : Dave Leibold 1:250/730 Internet: Dave.Leibold@superctl.tor250.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We have had 'Call Me' style calling cards here for quite a few years. These are simply calling cards which are restricted and can be used only to call the number to which they are assigned. They are a pretty good deal. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 15:25:12 +0200 From: Alex@Worldaccess.NL (Alex) Subject: Advice Wanted on VoiceFX Voice Board Hi all, I am planning to buy a new voicemail card, and I need some advice on what to buy. I have been in touch with Dialogic, there cards seems to fine, but there is no software with them. Software can be bought, but often the price is high. So I looked in some american magazine, and found some info on a card called VoiceFX from Orion Telecom. It's a card with 1,2,3 or 4 lines and data/fax modem. It can do the usual stuff like voicemail and fax on demand.. Does anyone know this card, and if so, what is his experience with it? Or are there people with better cards in mind? I want to set up a open voicemail system to the public, and it should at least have the following options: * Voicemail * Fax on demand * Conferencing * Multi Language * Keep logfile of last few callers If anyone has any good ideas, let me know please! Alex van Es +31-55-421184 Alex@Worldaccess.NL, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 09:38:18 EDT From: Steve Samler Subject: Want Phone Numbers of the PCS Narrowband License Winners Can anyone tell me where to find phones or addresses for the following companies? Market Number Name Winning Bids N-1 [50-50KHz paired] 9065 - Paging Network of Virginia $80,000,000.00 N-3 [50-50KHz paired] 5398 - KDM Messaging Company $80,000,000.00 N-5 [50-50KHz paired] 7884 - Nationwide Wireless Network $80,000,000.00 N-11 [50KHz unpaired] 9683 - Pagemart II, Inc. $38,000,000.00 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 06:48:07 PDT From: Gary Breuckman Subject: Re: Advice Needed About Answering Service In article , Brian D. Petro wrote: > I am very seriously considering the idea of starting a business from > my home selling voice-mail boxes. As I have never been in the > business, I am looking for advice from someone who has. > I am planning on targeting the residential market. I live in a town > of 40,000. I would only be charging $5/month for a basic service box. > My major competition would be our local telephone company who charges > $6.5/month. My question is this: Would there be enough interest in > voice-mail from residential clients to keep my business profitable? > It seems to me that it would be fairly easy to add 100+ customers/year to > my service, but I would like the opinion of someone "in the business." Just providing voicemail might be cost effective, but remember that if you are providing voicemail to people who first dial your customer's normal number that you also need the feature "forward on busy/no-answer" or regular call-forwarding added to your customer's line, and the telco will charge for that. The telco also provides "interrupted dialtone" to customers with voicemail to indicate that they have messages waiting. In order for you to do that you need a data connection to the telco switch, something that may cost you lots of $$ if they are even able to do it for you. Because of complaints from telco voicemail competitors they do have to allow this in many places, but I have no idea what it will cost you to install or what the monthly costs might be. If you have multiple central offices in your area, what does that do to the costs? puma@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: cfreitag@kraken.mvnet.wnec.edu (Christopher Freitag) Subject: Self Service Fax Machines Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 10:14:03 EDT I have recently received a request to explore the idea of having a fax machine availiable for student use at our law school as well as at Mail Services for our general student body. Having no desire to get into the business of resale of fax service, I am looking to find information on companies that provide the machine, telephone line, service and billing. I have received information from Fax Unlimited, an affiliate of GOFAX, Inc. located in Shrewsbury, MA. They will do all of the above and even give a commission back to the College. Does anyone know of any other competitors or are there any other ways to provide this service without having to deal with the accounting? Thank you in advance! Western New England College Christopher V. Freitag, MA., BFA. Coord. Fac. Mgt. Tech. Svcs. 1215 Wilbraham Road Springfield, Massachusetts 01119 (413) 782-3111, Fax (413) 782-1253 CFreitag@wnec.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 18:08:22 MDT From: Jack Mott Subject: Rural Phone Companies I recently learned U.S. West is in the process of selling off its rural telephone properties (I live in Idaho Falls, which will stay with US West). Although I felt that the original break-up of the Bell System was unwise, it is natural to expect more fragmentation and specialization in the telecom industry. I would appreciate hearing about technical issues which are unique to phone companies serving sparsely populated areas. I imagine that the smaller companies could become quite innovative in dealing with problems specific to their business. Charles Mott ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #226 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa09147; 6 May 95 12:51 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id HAA15596 for telecomlist-outbound; Sat, 6 May 1995 07:58:34 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id HAA15588; Sat, 6 May 1995 07:58:32 -0500 Date: Sat, 6 May 1995 07:58:32 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505061258.HAA15588@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #227 TELECOM Digest Sat, 6 May 95 07:58:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 227 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re-Engineering The Telephone Industry (Comm Week Intl via D. Shniad) Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? (Heath Roberts) Book Review: "Get on the Internet in Five Minutes" (Rob Slade) Re: Mexico Billing Method: Digit Analysis or Meter Pulse? (J. Hinnerk Haul) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 4 May 1995 14:17:46 -0700 From: D Shniad Subject: Re-Engineering The Telephone Industry {Communications Week International} 10 April 1995 Re-engineering the telco By Jennifer L. Schenker In 1987, a few years before New Zealand opened its market, the country's incumbent monopoly had 26,500 employees -- including craftsmen who made the company's furniture and mechanics who serviced its motor vehicles. Once competition was introduced, the workforce was trimmed and remaining employees went to work on upgrading the operator's network, improving customer service and developing new products. The operator is spending NZ$4 billion ($2.6 billion) to phase out its 55,000 party lines and completely dig ititize its network, a process now almost complete. It is developing broadband services for business customers, expanding its cellular activities and looldng to invest abroad. As Telecom New Zealand continues to cut its workforce, to 7,500 by 1997, it is apparent that few of these employees will be raising a hammer or turning a wrench on company time. The company now considers itself a world-class competitor, pointing to 1993 and 1994 consultant studies that ranked its infrastructure highest among telecoms operators in industrialized countries for meeting business requirements. "We have nearly completed tuming the vision into a reality," says John Crook, Telecom New Zealand's strategic issues manager. "The fact that New Zealand has the most open and competitive telecommunications market in the world made realizing this goal possible. It also made achieving it a necessity." The lesson? As telecoms markets are deregulated, competition is introduced and tariffs are lowered in line with costs, telephone companies must overhaul their businesses to survive, analysts say. Even more radical restructurings will be required as bandwidth becomes plentiful and network digitization both decreases network maintenance requirements and changes the dynamics of competition by allowing several operators to cohabitate on the same wire. The telco of the future will be leaner, and its core business will extend to entirely new services and businesses. Heyday over The heyday of huge profit margins for basic connections and international calls is over, analysts say. By 2005, end-users may pay as little as $0.03 for an hour-long international call, according to a report by consultancy Cambridge Strategic Management Group. The report, titled "The Macroeconomic Effects of Near-Zero Tariff Telecommunications," predicts that market liberalization and a bandwidth glut will lead to an electronic commodity market for global telecoms capacity, with buyers choosing the least expensive option of the day. "The big message is don't stay in basic connectivity," says Simon Forge, one of the report's authors. "For the first time in the history of telecommunications, telcos will have to completely re-engineer their companies. They will have to shed 80 or 90 percent of today's staff and find a new operating profile or diversify into new businesses." Conventional telecommunications will no longer be the core business of most telcos, Forge says. "Which services a telco chooses to be in will change radically, with customization becoming far more important," he says. "And what telcos charge will change. As we move up the value chain, con nections could be given away." Telcos will slip into new, value-added roles, providing credit card or entertainment services over their networks, or specializing in such sectors as health, financial or educational services. Getting the message That message is starting to sink in. Telecom New Zealand is rolling out a cable TV network, offering original entertainment and news programming as well as connectivity. The operator is talking with health providers about developing a telemedicine network and is considering branching into other sector-specific services. For its part, Sweden's Telia has laid off more than 15,000 employees since 1992, reduced the number of switching points in its network to 250 from 6,000, and digitized its entire network. Basic telephony represents only about half of the operator's revenue, compared to an average of 70 percent at public telecoms operators in industrialized countries. Telia sees basic telephony generating only about 30 percent of the operator's revenues within a few years, says Bertil Thorngren, senior vice president in charge of strategy. Thorngren concurs with the Cambridge report that international call tariffs could drop as low as three cents an hour. "There is a tremendous decrease of costs, especially for international and broadband services, and prices have been artificially high and cannot be sustained over the longer term," he says. Shedding businesses that no longer fit into its plans, such as manufacturing telephone handsets, PBXs and Unix minicomputers, Telia has branched into mobile and financial services. And like Telecom New Zealand, the Swedish operator is looking for partners to develop expertise in sectors such as medicine. It has also created an internal restructuring program called-Project Telia 2001. "We are trying to restart the company from scratch to move as fast as possible away from the present structure," Thomgren says. Change brings profits The Telecom New Zealand and Telia experiences are interesting case studies because both companies have had to adapt to voice and network infrastructure competition, something most of the rest of the world's telephone companies are expected to face by the end of the century. In the European Union, a deadline of 1 January 1998 has been set for member states to open their markets. The World Trade Organization, which represents 82 countries, is pushing its members to do the same. In New Zealand, where all telecoms services have been open to competition since 1991 and there is no special regulation for the sector, and Sweden, with widespread voice and network infrastructure competition, profits at the incumbent operators are up. Other operators that face competition in their homes markets, such as AT&T and Australia's Telstra, announced record financial results last year. This evidence has led the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to conclude that, despite losing market share to competitive operators, incumbent operators stand to gain financially, says Sam Paltridge, a telecoms analyst in the OECD's directorate for science, technology and industry. The OECD, which is to release a report later this spring on how telephone company employment is changing, also argues that market liberalization creates jobs. In Japan, for example, former domestic monopoly Nippon Telegraph and Telephone cut its workforce from 329,000 in 1980 to 248,000 in 1994. But the same number of jobs have been created by the country's competitive long distance carriers and Value-added service providers, Paltridge says. In the United States, the seven regional Bell companies collectively cut their workforces by 13 percent between 1988 and 1992 while still exercising a high degree of monopoly power. But employment in the competitive U.S. long distance market increased 21 percent and employment in mobile communications services increased more than 50 percent during the same period, Paltridge says. Meanwhile, competitive local access carriers and equipment suppliers have also sprouted, creating their own j obs. No operator in an OECD country has gone further than BT, which has cut its workforce from 245,000 in 1990 to 137,000 today. Some, but not all, of those jobs have been offset by new employment in the booming U.K. mobile and value added services sectors, analysts say. The problem for those being laid off is there is no guarantee they will step into the jobs being created. The growth jobs identified by the OECD in its "1995 Communications Outlook" report require expertise in software, sales, marketing and management rather than line maintenance, in stallation or operations (see chart). Fearing strikes and voter dissent, governments are reluctant to allow their telcos to whip out the hatchet--even if they are convinced that restructuring will ultimately produce efficiency and net employment gains. And European governments are not taking the necessary steps to retrain workers, says consultant Forge. "In Europe, there are legal, social and political barriers to the cost shakeout seen in the U.K.," says Andy Embury, a partner at Price Waterhouse in London. "It is difficult for telcos in France, Germany, Spain and Italy, because on the one hand they are told you need to get your costs sorted out and be competitive within three years and on the other hand you can't lay anybody off." France Telecom, for example, is restructuring more slowly than any other telco in the OECD, Paltridge says. Revenue per main line is falling faster than wages per main line, meaning the state- owned company is under pressure to increase productivity by downsizing. But the French government is reluctant to face the wrath of unions, he says. Management pitches in Some telcos are getting around the problem by setting up new companies geared around the skills of surplus employees. For example, if a network maintenance operation has 25 percent too many employees, the telco helps to come up with a service those employees could provide both to the telco on a contract basis and to other companies. "A number of people are exploring it because it saves hundreds of millions of dollars from coming straight off the bottom line in redundancy costs," Embury says. "But there is a commercial risk to it because you might not be able to make that new business work." While BT has been criticized for laying off large numbers of employees with little warning and Bell Atlantic strikers last year donned T-shirts reading "I'm roadkill on the information highway," other telcos have cut their workforces with the cooperation of unions. Nynex Corp., which reduced its work force by 19 percent to 76,200 in the decade since the AT&T di vestiture, drew praise from the U.S. Secretary of Labor for the agreement it was able to hammer out with union officials last year. Telia was able to make its cuts without social unrest, offering its employees a variety of options, including early retirement, training for new skills and education for new positions within the company. And it is encouraging employees to start their own businesses, sometimes under outsourcing arrangements. "There were sad stories and even tragedies and also quite a few success stories,' Thomgren says. "Overall, we managed very well." Multimedia era Once telcos have streamlined, they must decide how to best approach the multimedia era. Given current U.S. restrictions, cable TV is a key option for the Bell companies because it is their only way to expand domestically on the delivery side outside of their regional territories. "We look at it as a great financial hedge at worst and at best a great bet for the future," says Euni Park, director of the media and telecoms group at Lehman Brothers in London. Nynex, meanwhile, has gone a step further, investing $1.2 billion in Viacom Corp. to jointly develop video-on-demand applications, games and other content. In Europe, Deutsche Telekom is still in talks with German media giant Bertelsmann AG, which has teamed with America Online Inc. to jointly launch on-line services in Germany, France and the United Kingdom. BT, barred from delivering broadcasting traffic, is nonetheless conducting video-on-demand trials. Telstra and partner News Corp., under a joint venture called Foxtel, plan to spend $2.7 billion on a digital broadband network that will run to 4 million Australian homes by 1999, delivering cable TV an advanced interactive services. "The $64,000 question," analyst Park says, "is whether telcos should own content." Telia's Thorngren says it is important to at least "be related to it." To some extent, you can't own media even if you have the money," he says, "so it might be wiser to try and understand media better than to spend a lot of money." Developing world In the developing world, the issue for telcos is "not about owning content or when should I introduce video dial tone, but rather how can I double my penetration in my domestic marketplace," says Price Waterhouse's Embury. "Issue No. 2 is how can I radically improve my productivity as a PTO." When competitive operators arrive, they bring the latest technology and their costs are a small fraction of those borne by the incumbents. They attack the most profitable business segments. So telcos in the developing world must get their cost bases under control in anticipation of competition, analysts say. But most are starting with poor infrastructure and poor productivity. "The nature and timing of competition is absolutely critical," Embury says. "If they face full-blown competition without restriction, without giving them time to adjust, they risk being blown away." Operators in Latin America, in particular, face a difficult situation, says Andrew Fyfe, head of the telecoms practice in Price Waterhouse's Washington office. As part of operator privatizations in the region, governments are pushing for shorter monopoly concessions than those handed out in the 1980s and early '90s. "In nine years, maybe you could get to some sort of state of equilibrium but there is no way to do it in five years," Fyfe says. And even though most operators are meeting government targets for quality, he says, the targets are too low and will not prepare the incumbents for competition. Meanwhile, incumbents in some of the Asia- Pacific's developing countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, are "diverting government attention with initial public offerings, claiming financial markets will make them more efficient," Fyfe says. "How will this ever make them more efficient? These countries would have more telephones and better service if they allowed strategic investors, but this is not favored in Asia." For its part, Telecom New Zealand is proud of the transformation it has made from a bloated part of the post office . "The challenge now is to continue being as innovative and flexible into the future," says strategy manager Crook. 'We must be able to recognize the opportunities new technologies and the growing synergy between telecommunications, computing and electronic entertainment are creating." ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 17:42:34 +0000 From: heath roberts Subject: Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? Organization: Bell Northern Research John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com wrote: > If Pac Bell, or the PUC, really cared about giving us peace in our > homes, these limitations would have been removed by now, and I'm not > inclined to believe stories that it's impossible. The bottom line is > that telco cares more about the income from these junk calls than > about our right to peace. I can only hope that dialtone competition > will change their attitudes. I think what happened in California is that when the telcos wanted to offer CLID, the California Public Utilities Commission (your representative government) placed so many different kinds of restrictions on what offering it would allow that it became economically unattractive for the telcos to offer. The market determines the price, remember ... the telco can't charge more than what people will pay, and the fewer people who buy the service, the less capital the telco has to buy software to implement the service. It's important to remember that telephone companies are *businesses* and they're not going to do anything that doesn't make them money. There's this warm fuzzy that people get when talking about the good ol' days of Ma Bell, but those days are gone now. We've turned the phone system into a cut-throat business where every penny of cost has to self-justify itself. You're right that the bottom line is that telco cares about income, which is as it should be in a capitalist society. The "problem" is that the customer doesn't care enough to make an issue about it. Government will never come up with the best solution, but if you let there be a (perceived) need for a governmental solution, you're damned well going to get one. So if you want CLID, or any other service the market will support, call your PUC/state representative/Congressman/Senator, and tell them you want to see barriers to a free market removed ... don't bitch at the company trying to provide the service. As always, my opinions only, but after all, isn't everyone entitled to my opinion? Heath Roberts ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 05 May 1995 14:20:15 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Get on the Internet in 5 Minutes (for Macintosh)" BKINT5MN.RVW 950320 "Get on the Internet in 5 Minutes (for Macintosh)", Miser, 1994, 1-56830-135-9, U$9.99 %A Brad Miser bmiser@pipeline.com %A Marta Partington martap@pipeline.com %A Brian Gill briangil@pipeline.com %C 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290 %D 1994 %G 1-56830-135-9 %I Hayden Books %O U$9.99 800-858-7674 75141.2102@compuserve.com 317-581-3743 %P 88 %T "Get on the Internet in 5 Minutes" If you live in New York City, or if you are willing to call and pay the toll fees, you can "try the Internet for 30 days, risk-free". This gives you *ten minutes* of access, making it one of the most limited I have ever seen. Also, it is not "Internet" access, but simply a subset of the Pipeline BBS. The booklet gives an overview of what you *can* do on the Internet: there is almost *no* how. The installation is "plug and play"; it is unlikely that you'll be able to take advantage of a high speed connection in any case. Get on the Internet in five minutes? No, I don't think so. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKINT5MN.RVW 950320. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. 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" 0-387-94311-0/3-540-94311-0 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 6 May 1995 13:34:03 +0200 From: Jan Hinnerk Haul Subject: Re: Mexico Billing Method: Digit Analysis or Meter Pulse? In comp.dcom.telecom is written: > Does Mexico / Central America use a digit analysis method for > calculating charges, or a metered pulse method? What I'm actually > refering to is the SMDR output on a PBX. I believe the U.S. is in the > minority in using digit analysis, or am I wrong? Well, it depends... Most countries (errr... PTTs / carriers) give call supervision data to the PBX in some form or the other. Typical methods are high-frequency pulses on top of the voice signal (e.g., Germany uses 16 khz). These pulses are filtered out by the PBX. Each pulse signals that one "unit" or "tick" of charge applies. The duration of the unit is varied based on time of day and distance of the call; the price of the unit is constant. The method is country-dependant, so there really is no universal answer. Also, this pulse is quite often disturbing fax transmissions and modem connections, on top of often being an additionally-chargeable feature, so quite a lot of PBXes can do number analysis as an alternative method. The drawback of number analysis is, of course, that no call supervision is possible, letting users being "billed" with uncompleted calls if they wait longer than the set timeout period and letting very brief calls unbilled. If your interest is mainly to catch the expensive calls, like an office setup, this is fine. When you want to bill the calls (like an hotel setup), it is not as easily acceptable. On ISDN (being a bit more popular, it seems, in Europe than in the US) you get accurate call supervision and billing information in the signalling or "D" channel (the calls take place in the "B" channels). This is called out-band signalling (like ITU-T System 7) and is generally the better way of doing it (no disturbance, more tamper-proof). Regards, Jan ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #227 ****************************** Received: from ns1.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15306; 7 May 95 12:55 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id HAA00981 for telecomlist-outbound; Sun, 7 May 1995 07:54:21 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id HAA00973; Sun, 7 May 1995 07:54:18 -0500 Date: Sun, 7 May 1995 07:54:18 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505071254.HAA00973@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #228 TELECOM Digest Sun, 7 May 95 07:54:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 228 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Trail Guide to Prodigy" by Halliday (Rob Slade) PacBell to Offer CID (Steve Cogorno) Syllabus WWW Online!!! (tbuckman@best.com) IEEE Tour (John Gulbenkian) Area Code Update (Steve Grandi) AT&T Files With State PUCs for Local Service (James E. Bellaire) Re: U.S. Federal Suggestion Box in Cyberspace (Wally Ritchie) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: Sat, 06 May 1995 20:25:11 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Trail Guide to Prodigy" by Halliday BKTGPROD.RVW 950331 "The Trail Guide to Prodigy", Halliday, 1995, 0-201-40972-0, U$12.95/C$16.95 %A Caroline Halliday %C 1 Jacob Way, Reading, MA 01867-9984 %D 1995 %G 0-201-40972-0 %I Addison Wesley %O U$12.95/C$16.95 800-822-6339 617-944-3700 Fax: (617) 944-7273 %P 239 %S Trail Guide %T "The Trail Guide to Prodigy" This is back to the old style of online service guide. You won't find much here that the Prodigy menus don't tell you. There is, for example, peripheral mention that the Mail Manager offline mail reader exists, but no specifics about how to get it or use it. On the other hand, Prodigy does tend to get short shrift in online service books. If you value your time, then buying and reading this book will likely give you a better idea of whether Prodigy suits your needs, than the "free trial" would. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKTGPROD.RVW 950331 Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into rslade@cue.bc.ca User p1@CyberStore.ca Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: PacBell to Offer CID Date: Sat, 6 May 1995 09:06:11 PDT I just read in today's paper that Pacific Bell will be offering Caller ID in California by STATEWIDE by early 1996. There weren't very many details, but the article indicated that PacBell has the facilities for caller ID in nearly all of their exchanges because the company has been undergoing a switch replacement program to replace all switches with 5ESS or DMS100 units. Finally California get CID! Hooray! Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: tbuckman@best.com (Syllabus Press) Subject: Syllabus WWW Online Date: 5 May 1995 16:53:19 -0700 Organization: Best Internet Communications, Inc. (info@best.com) Syllabus Press, publishers of Syllabus magazine and producers of the annual Syllabus conference, announce the opening of SyllabusWeb, a WWW site covering technologies of interest to educators in high schools, colleges, and universities. SyllabusWeb contains news, case studies, product reviews and announcements, and feature articles on technology written by educators and experts in educational technology. Among the technology areas covered are multimedia, graphics and visualization, quantitative tools, the Internet, telecommunications and networking, classroom products and technology infrastructure, personal computer and workstation technologies, video and presentation technologies, and more. SyllabusWeb opened officially on May 1 and will be updated continuously, including over the summer months. The URL is: http://www.syllabus.com ------------------------------ From: jvg@ccnet.com (John Gulbenkian) Subject: IEEE Tour Date: 5 May 1995 15:48:55 -0700 Organization: CCnet Communications OAKLAND/EAST BAY COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY Presents "Pacific Bell Consumer Broadband Laboratory" A Tour and Technical Presentation Pacific Bell had announced in November 1993 a $16 billion invest- ment plan to upgrade its core network infrastructure over the next seven years and to begin building an integrated telecommuni- cations information and entertainment network providing advanced voice, data and video services. The construction program begins in 1994, and initially focuses on parts of the San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. In addition to providing advanced telecommunications services, the new network will also serve as a platform for a host of information provid- ers, and will offer telephone customers an alternative to the existing cable television monopoly. An integrated network is also expected to spur the development of new interactive consumer services in education, entertainment, government and healthcare. A technology breakthrough allows delivery of information and entertainment over a single network, instead of the multiple networks in place today. AT&T was selected, through a multi-billion dollar contract, to be the system integrator for the new Pacific Bell's network, which will be capable of delivering fully interactive digital and telephony services in the 1995-96 timeframe. The Consumer BroadBand technology based on the Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) architecture to be deployed by Pacific Bell will be presented at the May 18, 1995 meeting of the Oakland/East Bay Communications Society to be held at Pacific Bell's Broadband Labs in Concord, CA. Keith Cambron will discuss the convergence of telecommunications and CATV networks and services. The talk will include a discussion and demonstration of the types of technology used in full service hybrid fiber coaxial networks, and how services will be enabled over those networks. Services carried by these full service network include narrowband telephony and ISDN, wideband data, broadcast video, and video on demand. Keith is the Director of Systems Engineering for the Consumer Broadband Project at Pacific Bell. He has worked in various systems engineering groups at Pacific Bell over the last six years. Before that he worked at Bell Labs and Bellcore on network and switching systems engi- neering projects. Keith graduated from the University of Missouri with a BS in EE in 1970, and received an MS in Systems Management from USC in 1974. Keith is a senior member of the IEEE. The meeting will be held from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM at the Pacific Bell Broadband Labs, 1401 Enea Circle, Concord, CA. Because space is limited, please call early to make reservations. IEEE Oakland/East Bay Communications Society Subject: Pacific Bell Consumer Broadband Laboratory Tour Speakers: Keith Cambron Director, Loop Architecture Systems Engineering Pacific Bell Date: Thursday, May 18, 1995 Time: 7:00 - 9:00 PM Location: Pacific Bell Broadband Labs 1401 Enea Circle, Concord, CA Reservation: Required e-mail: jvg@ccnet.com (prefer) voice-mail: (510) 945-2363 (use only if you don't have access to e-mail) (voice-mail RSVPs will not be acknowledged) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 May 1995 06:00:35 -0700 From: grandi@noao.edu (Steve Grandi) Subject: Area Code Update Area Code Changes: 1995- Maintained by Steve Grandi (grandi@noao.edu). Additions and corrections are welcome! Last Revised: 5 May 1995 Latest changes: 540/703 (VA) permissive period shortened 206/360 (WA) permissive period lengthened 404/770 split (Atlanta) finalized Oregon split: 503/541 Chicago split: 708/847 in '96, 708/630 in '98 904/850 split (N. Florida) overlay AC proposed for 314 (St. Louis) 612 split proposed (Minneapolis/St. Paul) Cleveland seems next in line for a new AC... Date Event 1) 1/7/95 AC 630 temporarily overlaid on AC 708 (Chicago metro area) 2) 1/15/95 AC 334 splits from AC 205 (Alabama) 3) 1/15/95 AC 360 splits from AC 206 (Washington) 4) 1/19/95 500 goes into service 5) 3/1/95 AC 281 overlaid on AC 713 (Houston metro area) 6) 3/19/95 AC 520 splits from AC 602 (Arizona) 7) 4/2/95 AC 970 splits from AC 303 (Colorado) 8) 5/28/95 AC 941 splits from AC 813 (Florida) 9) 7/15/95 AC 540 splits from AC 703 (Virginia) 10) 8/28/95 AC 860 splits from AC 203 (Connecticut) 11) 9/2/95 AC 562 overlaid on ACs 213, 310 and 818 (Los Angeles metro area) 12) 9/11/95 AC 423 splits from AC 615 (Tennessee) 13) 10/1/95 AC 441 splits from AC 809 (Bermuda) 14) 11/5/95 AC 541 splits from AC 503 (Oregon) 15) 12/1/95 AC 770 splits from AC 404 (Atlanta metro area) 16) 12/3/95 AC 864 splits from AC 803 (South Carolina) 17) ??/??/95 AC 954 splits from AC 305 (Miami metro area) 18) ??/??/95 AC 850 splits from AC 904 (North Florida) 19) 1/20/96 AC 847 splits from AC 708 (Chicago Suburbs) 20) 2/1/96 AC 972 overlaid on AC 214 (Dallas metro area) 21) 2/??/96 AC ??? overlaid on AC 314 (Eastern Missouri) 22) 4/1/96 888 goes into service 23) ??/??/96 AC ??? splits from 612 (Central Minnesota) 24) ??/??/97 AC ??? splits from AC 619 (San Diego) 25) ??/??/98 AC 630 splits from AC 708 (Chicago Suburbs) 26) ??/??/?? AC ??? overlaid on AC 817 (Ft. Worth metro area) 27) ??/??/?? AC 340 splits from AC 809 (Puerto Rico) Notes... 1) Originally reserved for Wireless services (cellular phones and pagers). All wireless services in 708 would have been forced to move to 630. All new wireless services in areas served by 312 and 708 would have been in 630. Wireless companies appealed to the Illinois Commerce Commission and to the FCC. The FCC seemed to indicate that wireless overlay area codes were discriminatory. The latest plan as decreed by the Illinois Commerce Commission is for 708 to do a three-way split into 708, 847 and 630. Wireless numbers assigned to 630 in the meantime would be reassigned into the geographical codes (but most existing 708 wireless services will not have to change to 847 or 630). 2) 334 for Southern Alabama, Northern Alabama keeps 205 334 will contain Auburn, Dothan, Mobile, Montgomery and Selma 205 will retain Anniston, Birmingham, Decatur, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa Permissive period ends 5/13/95 3) 360 will cover all of Western Washington except Seattle and immediate suburbs which stay in 206 360 will contain Bellingham, Bremerton, Olympia, Vancouver 206 will retain Auburn, Bellevue, Everett, Redmond, Seattle, Tacoma Permissive period ends 8/20/95 (an extra 90 days was tacked on by order of the state PUC in a response to horror stories by companies that can't be reached via AC 360). 4) Special Area Code 500, for "Personal Communications Services", goes into production with AT&T's service. Codes 533, 544, 566, 577 and 588 reserved for future expansion. 5) First numbers assigned in AC 281 (until 2/29/96) will be wireless services. After 3/1/96, all new numbers assigned will be in 281. Mandatory 10 digit dialing for all local calls in the 713/281 area begins on 3/1/96. 6) 520 will cover the entire state of Arizona except Phoenix and its suburbs which stay in 602 520 will contain Flagstaff, Prescott, Sierra Vista, Tucson, Yuma 602 will retain Buckeye, Chandler, Glendale, Mesa, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe Permissive period ends 7/23/95 7) 970 will serve Northern Colorado and the Western Slope except Denver and its suburbs which stay in 303 970 will contain Aspen, Durango, Fort Collins, Grand Junction, Greeley, Loveland, Steamboat Springs, Vail 303 will retain Arvada, Aurora, Boulder, Denver, Englewood, Littleton, Longmont Permissive period ends 10/1/95 8) Southwestern coast of Florida splits: Southern part moves to 941; Northern part (Tampa-St. Petersburg) stays in 813 941 will contain Bradenton, Fort Meyers, Lakeland, Sarasota, Winter Haven 813 will retain Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Tampa Permissive period ends 3/3/96 9) 540 will cover all of Western Virginia except the Washington DC area which stay in 703 540 will contain Blacksburg, Roanoke, Salem, Winchester 703 will retain Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Falls Church, McLean Permissive period ends 1/13/96 10) SW CT (Fairfield and New Haven Counties) will retain 203; the rest of the state will move to 860. 860 will contain Hartford, New London, Norwich 203 will retain Stamford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Danbury, Norwalk, Waterbury Permissive period ends 10/6/96 11) First numbers assigned in AC 562 will be wireless services in the area served by AC 310. Landline services in AC 310 and wireless and possibly landline services in AC 213 and 818 will follow. Wireless companies and MCI are appealing to the FCC, especially given the decision in the Chicago case. 12) Eastern Tennessee moves to 423 while Middle Tennessee retains 615 423 will contain Chattanooga, Clarksville, Johnson City, Kingsport, Knoxville 615 will retain Murfreesboro, Nashville Permissive period ends 2/26/96 13) Permissive period ends 9/30/96 14) NW Oregon (including metro Portland and Salem) will keep 503; the rest of the state moves to 541. The state PUC rejected an overlay in favor of a split. 541 will contain Corvallis, Eugene, Klamath Falls, Medford, Pendleton, Roseberg 503 will retain Astoria, Hillsboro, Portland, Salem Permissive period ends 6/30/96 15) Atlanta and suburbs interior to I285 (the Perimeter) will stay in AC 404, the remainder--a donut--moves to AC 770. The Georgia Public Service Commission voted 3-2 to adopt the geographic split rejecting staff recommendations to adopt an overlay. Southern Bell says AC 404 will have to split again in eight years. 404 will contain Atlanta, College Park 770 will contain Lawrenceville, Marietta, Norcross 16) Northwestern South Carolina moves to 864, rest of state keeps 803. 864 will contain Anderson, Greenville, Spartanburg 803 will retain Charleston, Columbia, Florence, Myrtle Beach, Rock Hill Permissive period ends 5/1/96 17) 954 was originally to be a wireless overlay on top of 305 effective 3/1/95. The Florida Public Service Commission rejected this proposal and decreed that Broward Co. (Fort Lauderdale) would move to 954 and Dade Co. (Miami) and the Keys would retain 305. Southern Bell is appealing the decision since 305 would have to split again in a few years. The PSC is holding hearings and a final decision is expected this summer. 18) Counties from Pasco to the Panhandle will move to AC 850. Panhandle counties east to Jacksonville will retain AC 904. 19) Landline service in the North and Northwest Chicago suburbs will move into AC 847 (suburban Cook Co. north of Chicago city limits, Lake Co. and the portion of McHenry Co. currently in AC 708 and the northern part of Kane Co.). Most existing wireless services with 708 numbers will not be required to change. Permissive period ends 4/20/96 20) Mandatory 10 digit dialing for all local calls in 214/972 area begins on 8/1/96. All new numbers assigned after 2/1/96 will be in 972. 21) Southwestern Bell has proposed an overlay AC upon 314 (Eastern Missouri, including St. Louis). Mandatory 10 digit dialing for all local calls in the 314/??? area begins in 6/96. The usual protests are being heard and the state PUC is taking an interest. 22) 888 will be used as an extension of 800 "Free Phone" services. 877, 866, 844, 833 and 822 are reserved for any future expansion. 23) Metro Minneapolis/St. Paul will keep 612, the rest of Central Minnesota will change. 24) No further details 25) Landline service in the Western suburbs of Chicago will move into AC 630 (Dupage Co., southern portion of Kane Co. and the portion of Kendall Co. currently in AC 708). Landline service in the Southern and Southwest suburbs of Chicago (south suburban Cook Co., areas around Peotone and Beecher in Will Co. currently in AC 708 and near-west Cook Co. suburbs south of O'Hare airport) will remain in AC 708. Most existing wireless services with 708 numbers will not be required to change. 26) Overlay similar to Dallas 27) Unconfirmed. Seems to be a stray rumor. Splits to watch for (Based on Bellcore's projections of number exhaustion contained in letter IL 95/01-018) 216 (Cleveland) (1997 1Q) 818 (N. part of Los Angeles Metro area) (1998 1Q) 210 (San Antonio) (1998 2Q) 318 (Louisiana) (1998 3Q) 213 (Central part of Los Angeles Metro area) (1998 4Q) 604 (British Columbia) (1998 4Q) 816 (Kansas City) (1998 4Q) 312 (Chicago) (about 1998; revised forward since 312 will get no relief from new 630 code) Steve Grandi, National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson, Arizona USA Internet: grandi@noao.edu Voice: +1 520 318-8228 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 May 1995 23:44:06 -0500 From: bellaire@tk.com (James E. Bellaire) Subject: AT&T Files With State PUCs for Local Service According to an article in the {Kalamazoo (Michigan) Gazette} AT&T has filed with the PUCs in Michigan and Illinois to provide local competitive telephone services. Competition will be in Western Michigan (NPA 616) and the Chicago area (NPAs 312 - 807 - 815 [the paper's list - not mine!]). The plan is to lease the local loops from Ameritech. Ameritech has been advertising *a lot* lately about how they are NOT AT&T and have been promising new services. Looks like they are getting ready for the 'competition'. James E. Bellaire (JEB6) bellaire@tk.com Twin Kings Communications - Sturgis, MI [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, they both have been advertising heavily in the {Chicago Tribune} lately, with AT&T saying they'll soon be in the business and Ameritech telling how they are not the same company. Some competition, eh? Pot meets kettle, each calls the other black. PAT] ------------------------------ From: writchie@gate.net Subject: Re: U.S. Federal Suggestion Box in Cyberspace Date: 5 May 1995 04:38:52 GMT Reply-To: writchie@gate.net In , Donald E. Kimberlin <0004133373@mcimail.com> wrote about a federal suggestion box. It would be nice if a million or so people just told them to put all federal documents (especially the tens of thousands of pages of federal regulations) online (with commercial contractors), then fire everybody in the federal government and start over from scratch. (Zero base head count). JMO Wally Ritchie Ft. Lauderdale, Florida ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #228 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11889; 9 May 95 19:56 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id MAA15755 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 9 May 1995 12:09:21 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id MAA15747; Tue, 9 May 1995 12:09:18 -0500 Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 12:09:18 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505091709.MAA15747@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #229 TELECOM Digest Tue, 9 May 95 12:09:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 229 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Mastering the Internet" by Cady/McGregor (Rob Slade) Wireless Telephone Seminar (Alexander Resources) Call for Papers: 1995 European Simulation Symposium (Alexander Verbraeck) Home Premises Distribution Systems (Bob Cas) Cyberspace Event in New York City (ssharan@hearst.com) Help Me Bring the Internet to Kyrgyzstan (Jonathan Korn) ATM Locators at NXX NPAs (John Mayson) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 08 May 1995 18:22:11 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Mastering the Internet" by Cady/McGregor BKMSTINT.RVW 950403 %A Glee Harrah Cady glee@netcom.com %A Pat McGregor pat@lloyd.com %C 2021 Challenger Drive, Alameda, CA 94501 %D 1995 %G 0-7821-1645-0 %I Sybex Computer Books %O U$39.99 510-523-8233 800-227-2346 Fax: 510-523-2373 %P 1258 %T "Mastering The Internet" "Mastering The Internet", Cady/McGregor, 1995, 0-7821-1645-0, U$39.99 I suspect the authors have tried to make this book do too many things for too many people. The result is an acceptable basic Internet guide "bulked out" with sections that don't work. Part one provides a background to the Internet, and a very simplified introduction to the standard applications. An interesting feature is a chapter on setting up and configuring a modem. Unfortunately, while this provides much better information to the novice than many "big name" modem reference books, it still falls short of what the new user needs. Throughout this first section, there are odd intrusions, such as tables of ISO country codes, which may confuse the neophyte. Part two looks at the net from the viewpoint of the provider. This is, though, a philosophical and limited overview, touching more on the public school system, acceptable use policies, and sample designs, than on the practicalities of bandwidth and security. Part three lists varied Internet resources for public policy and education. A set of appendices contains essays on philosophy and culture, plus the Hobbes' Internet Timelist, a list of MUDs, and a list of ftp archive sites. The book also contains access software for Netcom, and the Chameleon SLIP software sampler. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKMSTINT.RVW 950403. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | "Kill all: God will know his own." Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | - originally spoken by Papal Research into Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z12/ | Legate Bishop Arnald-Amalric User .fidonet.org | of Citeaux, at the siege of Security Canada V7K 2G6 | Beziers, 1209 AD ------------------------------ From: TZAH81A@prodigy.com (Alexander Resources) Subject: Wireless Telephone Seminar Date: 9 May 1995 03:39:02 GMT Organization: Prodigy Services Company 1-800-PRODIGY ***** NEW SCHEDULE AND LOCATIONS ***** The only educational seminar to focus on Wireless Business Telephone Systems. A comprehensive, two day seminar for telecommunications professionals who need to understand the applications, benefits and limitations of: ON-PREMISES PCS WIRELESS PBXs IN-BUILDING CELLULAR SYSTEMS New wireless communications systems are expected to bring about the most fundamental change in business communications since the introduction of the electromechanical telephone system. Nearly every provider of PBX, Centrex, Key system, Cellular and PCS systems and services is expected to offer a wireless telephone system to address business user's need for wireless communications. Yet continuing changes and differences in spectrum choices, RF technology, and architectural implementation will challenge a vendor's ability to satisfy their customer's price and performance requirements. Telecommunications managers will also need to evaluate and understand the wireless needs of their users, the strengths and weaknesses of various wireless systems and select the optimum wireless solution. This seminar has been designed to help both vendors and users make the right business decisions about wireless telephone systems. Whether you need to better understand the wireless needs and applications of your customers or develop a strategy to justify the purchase of a system, the seminar will prepare you for the most fundamental change in business communications systems. AT THIS SEMINAR YOU WILL LEARN: > Why these new systems will usher in the era of Personal Communications Services. > How these systems can: Increase productivity, revenue, customer and employee satisfaction; Improve access to existing communications systems and networks; Reduce wiring costs and problems. > What barriers exist to penetrating the installed base of 65 million on-premises business telephones. > How quickly the market for these systems will grow. How quickly price per user will decline. > Why leading end-user business organizations have purchased these systems. How they use them. How they have benefited from them. > What are the differences, advantages and limitations of: Part 15 Subpart C, Cellular and Unlicensed PCS spectrum; Single Cell/Single User, Single Cell/Multi User, and Multi Cell/Multi User architectures; Adjunct and integrated implementations; Host and Network controlled operation. > What strategies PBX, Centrex, Cellular and PCS suppliers will employ to capture this market. > How to use traffic engineering principles to evaluate, select and plan a system. ------------------------------------------- NEW DATES! NEW LOCATIONS! Atlanta, Boca Raton, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Morristown, Newport Beach, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Scottsdale, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington For a complete seminar information call 602-948-8225 now. Seating is limited! Presented by Alexander Resources, the leader in wireless communications research, analysis, consulting, seminars and conferences. ------------------------------ From: winfave@duticai.twi.tudelft.nl (Alexander Verbraeck) Subject: Call for Papers: 1995 European Simulation Symposium, Erlangen Organization: Delft University of Technology Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 09:31:55 GMT Second Call for Papers ESS '95 ******* 7th European Simulation Symposium Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany on October 26-28, 1995 Organized and Sponsored by: SCS The Society for Computer Simulation International Keynote Speakers: A. Alan B. Pritsker, Ph.D. Pritsker Corporation President and CEO: New Roles for Simulation in Industry Prof. Dr. Hansjoerg Fromm IBM Deutschland Produktion GmbH: Workflow Management and the Simulation of Business Processes Scientific Program: Simulation Methodology and Application Coordination: Andras Javor, (H) o Languages o Engineering Applications o Knowledge Based Simulation Tools o Distributed and Parallel system Simulation o Graphical Model Editors Computer and Telecommunications Networks Coordination: Winfried Dulz (D) o Electronic Circuits and Components o Parallel and Distributed Systems o High Speed Networks o ISDN and ATM Communications o Multimedia Systems Dependability Evaluation Coordination: Graham Horton (GB) o Reliability and Availability Assurance o Fault Forecasting o Safety and Security o Fault Tolerance Analytical and Numerical Modelling Techniques Coordination: Hermann de Meer (NL) o Queuing Networks o Stochastic Petri Nets o Markov Models o Optimization Simulation in Automation Coordination: Klaus Feldmann (D) o Scheduling o Manufacturing o System Optimization o Applications Simulation in Business Coordination: Peter Mertens (D) o Production Planning and Scheduling o Logistics o Risk-Analysis o Combination of Simulation and AI-Techniques SYMPOSIUM: MISSION EARTH Coordination: Alfred Jones (USA) Mission Earth is an Activity of the Society for Computer Simulation International. Its purpose is the identification and dissemination of the unique benefits of World Simulation as the prime tool for use in planning and monitoring a sustainable future for the World System. Conference Chairmen: Mario Dal Cin Univ. of Erlangen-Nurnberg Department of Computer Science Chair of Computer Architecture Martensstrasse 3 D-91058 Erlangen - Germany E-mail: dalcin@immd3.informatik.uni-erlangen.de Tel.: +(49) 9131 85 7003 Fax: +(49) 9131 85 7239 Ulrich Herzog Univ. of Erlangen-Nurnberg Department of Computer Science Chair of Computer Architecture and Performance Evaluation Martensstrasse 3 D-91058 Erlangen - Germany E-mail: herzog@immd7.informatik.uni-erlangen.de Tel.: +(49) 9131 857041 Fax: +(49) 9131 857409 Conference Program Chairmen: Gunter Bolch University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Department of Computer Science Chair of Operating Systems Martensstrasse 1 91058 Erlangen, Germany E-mail: bolch@informatik.uni-erlangen.de Ali Riza Kaylan Bogazici University Istanbul Department of Industry-Engineering 80815 Bebek Istanbul,Turkey Tel.: +(90) 212 263 1540 / 2072 Fax: +(90) 212 2651800 E-mail: kaylan@trboun.bitnet Finance Chairman and Conference - Coordination: Rainer Rimane University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Department of Computer Science Chair of Operating Systems Martensstrasse 1 91058 Erlangen, Germany Tel.: +(49) 9131 66247 Fax: +(49) 9131 66247 e-mail: rimane@informatik.uni-erlangen.de Local Organizing Committee: Joerg Dittrich, Wolfgang Hohl, Walter Henning, Elke Stief, Roya Ulrich University of Erlangen-Nuremberg European Simulation Office: Philippe Geril The Society for Computer Simulation International European Simulation Office University of Ghent Coupure Links 653 B-9000 Ghent, Belgium E-mail: philippe.geril@rug.ac.be WWW: http://hobbes.rug.ac.be/scs Tel.: +(32) 9 2337790 Fax: +(32) 9 2234941 International Program Committee: Amborski, K. (PL) Balbo, G. (I) Beilner, H. (D) BoHuLi (Tj) Boxma, O. (NL) Breitenecker, F. (A) Courtois, P.-J. (B) Crosbie, R. (USA) Eschenbacher, P. (D) Forster, H. (D) Giambiasi, N. (F) Guasch, A. (E) Hahn, W. (D) Halin, J. (CH) Hanschke, T. (D) Haring, G. (A) Houbak, N. (DK) Huntsinger, R. (USA) Iazeolla, I. (I) Irmscher, K. (D) Fryer, R. (USA) Jones, A. (USA) Kerckhoffs, E. (NL) Kleijnen, J. (NL) Krug, W. (D) Kuehn, P. (D) Lehmann, A. (D) Lehmann, F. (D) Lehnert, R. (D) Marie, R. (F) Meisinger, R. (D) Meisen, P. (USA) Merkuryev, Y. (LV) Molnar, I. (H) Mosekilde, E. (DK) Oren, T. (CAN) Pataricza, A. (H) Schmidt, B. (D) Strunz, H. (D) Szczerbicka, H. (D) Tanir, O. (CAN) Tripathi, S. (USA) Trivedi, K. (USA) Tucci, S. (I) van As, H. (CH) Verbraeck, A. (NL) Wake, B. (D) Witte, Th. (D) Wittmann, J. (D) Zobel, R. (GB) Important Information for Authors: Extended abstracts (2-3 pages for full papers and 1 page for short papers typewritten without drawing and tables) are due to arrive in quadruplicate at the European Simulation Office May 15th, 1995. Only original Papers, written in English, which have not previously been published elsewhere will be accepted. In case you want to organize a panel discussion, please contact the Program Chairmen. Authors are expected to register early (at a reduced fee) and to attend the Conference at their own expense to present the accepted papers. If early registration and payment are not made, the paper will not be published in the Conference Proceedings. In the case of multiple authors, one author should be identified as the person who will act as the correspondent for the paper. Abstracts will be reviewed by three members of the International Program Committee for full papers and one member for short papers. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent by June 15, 1995. An author kit with complete instructions for preparing a camera-ready copy for the Proceedings will be sent to authors of accepted abstracts. The camera-ready copy of the papers must be in by August 31, 1995. Only the full papers, which are expected to be five pages long, will be published in the Conference Proceedings. In order to guarantee a high-quality Conference, the full papers will be reviewed as well, to check whether the suggestions of the program committee have been incorporated. The nominees for the best paper awards will be selected as well. Important Dates: o Submission Deadline: May 15, 1995 o Acceptance Notification: June 15, 1995 o Camera-ready Copies: August 31, 1995 Conference Information: The ESS series (organized by SCS, the Society for Computer Simulation International) is now in its seventh year. SCS is an International non- profit organization founded in 1952. On a yearly basis SCS organizes six Simulation Conferences worldwide, cooperates in two others, and publishes the monthly magazine "Simulation", a quarterly "Transactions", and books. For more information, please tick the appropriate box on the reply-card. Exhibits: An exhibition will be held in the area, where the participants are having coffee during the breaks. There will be a special exhibition section for universities and non-profit organizations, and a special section for publishers and commercial stands. If you would like to participate in the exhibition, please contact the European Office. About Erlangen: Erlangen has one of the largest computer science departments in Germany. It traditionally had strong research groups in the area of dependability and performance evaluation. It is situated near the medieval city of Nuremberg and the beautiful Franconian Forest. Erlangen is also the location of a large research and development facility of Siemens. Authors Members Others ---------------------------------------------------------- Registration before BF 16000 BF 16000 BF 18000 August 31, 1995 ECU 400 ECU 400 ECU 450 Registration after Preregistration BF 18000 BF 20000 August 31,1995 required ECU 450 ECU 500 REPLY CARD Family Name: First Name: Occupation and/or Title: Affiliation: Mailing Address Zip: City: Country: Tel.: Fax: E-mail: Yes, I intend to attend the European Simulation Multiconference '95 Without presenting a paper And proposing the following paper The provisional title of my paper is: with the following highlights: The paper falls within the category (please tick one): Simulation Methodology and Application Computer and Telecommunications Networks Dependability Evaluation Analytical and Numerical Modelling Techniques Simulation in Automation Simulation in Business SYMPOSIUM: MISSION EARTH Do you know other research workers interested in the topics of the conference? Name: Address: Name: Address: More information on ESS95 can be found on: WWW at http://faui30t.informatik.uni-erlangen.de:1200/Misc/ESS95.html More information on SCS can be found on: WWW at http://duticai.twi.tudelft.nl/societies/scs and on WWW at http://hobbes.rug.ac.be/scs ------------------------------ From: rcash@ub-gate.UB.com Subject: Home Premises Distribution Systems Organization: Ungermann-Bass, Inc Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 18:46:31 GMT I am trying to find information on cabling equipment for use in the home. I would like to run cat-5 4-pair (TIA-568A?) to each of 4 bedrooms, a study, and the basement. Are there distribution systems available that cater to such small scale use? I would like to patch, on an individual basis, up to 2 phone lines to each room, with the capabilities to expand to 4 lines in the future. I would also like to patch, also individually, up to 2 10BASE-T connections to each room. Also, while I'm doing all this snaking, I might run COAX to each room as well. This would be initially for cable hook-up, but If I could get a coaxial patch system, it might be fun to be able to share VCR's etc.. Can anyone help me out? Thanks, Bob Cas (rcash@ub.com) ------------------------------ From: ssharan@hearst.com Subject: Cyberspace Event in New York City Date: 9 May 1995 03:05:15 GMT Organization: Hearst Corporation AFTERWORK ALTERNATE REALITIES for those of us for whom reality is not enough... Herbert Fox & Llewellyn Wall invite you to a CYBERENERGY Afterwork Networking Party at ***** CLUB EXPO ***** THE WORLD OF TOMORROW doors open at 5PM FRIDAY, MAY 12 FREE BUFFET HAPPY HOUR DRINK SPECIALS $5 admission invitation not valid after 10PM CLUB EXPO - 124 west 43rd street TIMES SQUARE for info call 212.819.0377 ABOUT THE EVENT: People from all realms of computer will be attending, programmers, designers, graphic artists, multimedia producers, engineers, animators, composers, systems developers, network specialists, telecommunication specialists, and common everyday internet hounds. A great opportunity for networking, making contacts and simply meeting other people enhabiting cyberspace. Music extreme. Relax afterwork and explore cyberculture. Everyone is welcome. ------------------------------ From: jkorn@ix.netcom.com (Jonathan Korn) Subject: Help Me Bring the Internet to Kyrgyzstan Date: 8 May 1995 19:05:19 GMT Organization: Netcom Hello! I am departing next month for the formerly Soviet Central Asian Republic of Kyrgyzstan for a one-year stint to expand computer network access among scholars, non-commercial civic groups and other members of the Republic's "informationally disenfranchised." My job will be to teach the virtues of networking to non-technical types: historians, linguists, librarians, local government officials, non-governmental organization activists, ecologists, etc. I will implement public access e-mail stations and develop Internet host sites with the objective of attaining full Internet access for Kyrgyzstan. I would like to see if their are any Internet gurus out there who would be interested in rendering me periodic assistance via e-mail. I will have numerous practical questions on how to configure and assemble networks under rather harsh conditions. It will be a great adventure with a very noble goal and I would love to have your participation! If you are a dedicated and interested "Net-head," I would welcome your e-mail message at until May 28, 1995. I will thank you, record your e-mail address and then get back to you from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan with questions and periodic progress reports. Thanks, folks! Jonathan Korn ------------------------------ From: jmayson@nyx10.cs.du.edu (John Mayson) Subject: ATM Locators at NXX NPAs Date: 8 May 1995 15:07:21 -0400 Organization: West Melbourne, Florida, USA Just for grins I called the ATM locator service for Cirrus, Exchange, and Plus networks. They work by having the caller enter the area code and exchange of a phone number. None of them recognize the NXX format area codes. Yet they kept up with area code splits very well in the past. I worked in New Jersey in 1990 when 908 split from 201. Early in the permissive dialing period, entering 908-615 gave me a list of ATMs in Middletown. John Mayson | West Melbourne, Florida | jmayson@nyx10.cs.edu.edu ------------------------to my original long distance carrier. I wonder I someone else had the same experience with LDCs literally *forcing* business from customers? Lionel [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you have experienced is a very common thing. The unofficial name for the theft of accounts by one long distance carrier from another is 'slamming', and although it does not happen as much as it used to, it still is a well-known practice. Thanks for passing along the warning that Sprint telemarketers are still up to their old tricks. PAT] ------------------------------ From: turner7@pacsibm.org (Lee Winson) Subject: DID: Same as Early SxS Centrex? Date: 5 May 1995 23:12:53 GMT Organization: PACS IBM SIG BBS Somewhere I read that in the early days of Centrex, step-by-step systems could be used pretty easily -- just allocate a block of it to that subscriber. I believe there were two possibilities. One, where the equipment was in the C.O. and every phone had a line to the C.O. The other, was where the equipment was on the customer's premises, and served by some trunks. Say the customer had 555-1000 to 555-1999. When the C.O. pulsed over to 555-1, the remaining digits would be transmitted over the truck to the the selectors at the customer's location. Isn't this the same principle as DID? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't know about SxS, but a firm I was involved with in the middle to late 1960's had centrex provided from a crossbar office. That particular office did not change to ESS until about 1973 or so, and when it did the company's centrex changed from crossbar to ESS along with it. It was sort of a funny changeover, regards how the handling of calls changed, etc. They also had an ACD (automatic call distributor) behind the centrex both when it was crossbar and when it was upgraded. One thing telco was forced to do was get their records for that subscriber in good order; when operating as crossbar, the subscriber had at one point converted all the rotary dial phones to touch tone. Telco only got about half the records updated (out of about six thousand extensions; this was a good size centrex). Comes the conversion to ESS over a weekend, and Monday morning half the phones on the system can't dial out! Their touchtones, although correcting making sounds to the phone network) were not being recognized because in telco's esteemed opinion, there were not supposed to be touchtones on those particular extensions/lines. After a couple days they had that corrected. PAT] ------------------------------ From: matt@acti.com (Matt Noah) Subject: Job Opening - Camarillo, California Date: Tue, 09 May 1995 22:39:09 GMT Organization: ACT Networks, Inc. Reply-To: matt@acti.com I am looking to hire a DSP/Telco Systems engineer immediately. The candidate should have B.S. (M.S. preferred) in Electrical Engineering and four to six years experience in DSP systems with an emphasis on telephony. My group works on Voice compression, fax, signaling, telephony (analog and digital) and related systems. E-mail, fax or mail your resume to: Matt Noah, Manager DSP Systems Group A.C.T. Networks, Inc. 188 - Camino Ruiz Camarillo, CA 93012 (805)-388-2474 fax: 388-3504 matt@acti.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #229 ****************************** From telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Tue May 9 13:04:37 1995 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id NAA17093; Tue, 9 May 1995 13:04:37 -0500 Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 13:04:37 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505091804.NAA17093@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #230 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 9 May 95 13:04:30 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 230 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson MCI's Intra-LATA Call Director Problems (Scot M. Desort) Telcos, Film Scripts, Vertical Integration (Chris Roth) Caller ID Approved in Anchorage (Ed Bennett) World Cellular Report (Steve Geimann) Frame-Relay to ISDN and ARA - Impossible? (James M. Haar) 555 Prefix Goes Public (Greg Monti) Cell Phones and Monthly Charges (Jonathan Thatcher) One Disaster After Another, it Seems (TELECOM Digest Editor) Job Openings at BellSouth (Chendong Zou) The Way Sprint Does Business (Lionel C. Ancelet) DID: Same as Early SxS Centrex? (Lee Winson) Job Opening - Camarillo, California (Matt Noah) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: gsmicro@ios.com Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 21:08:44 -0400 Subject: MCI's Intra-LATA Call Director Problems An MCI rep visited my office in October of 94 and talked me into switching over from AT&T. After discussing various options, he recommended the VISION plan. He also said they would install Intra-LATA dialers to enable us to route that traffic over MCI (for those who don't know, these boxes provide a false dial tone to you, receive the digits you dial, and do an internal lookup. If the call is an intra-LATA toll call, it prefixes your digits with 10222, seizes CO dial tone, dials the number, then connects you to the call and drops out of the picture. Local calls, 800, and 411/Operator are just passed through to the CO without prefix). Great -- rolling all of our discounts into one plan. Our combined intra/interLATA/800 traffic averages $700 a month. We also have Bell Atlantic's Centrex CustoPak (mini-Centrex). "No problem, the dialers work fine with Centrex ..." says the rep. First bill comes in. It's obvious to me, and the MCI rep at the "Proof Positive" Service Center that we obviously should never have been put on VISION, since VISION volume discounts start at +$1,000. Rep graciously switched me over to MCI Preferred. Switch complete, but 800 traffic still coming over AT&T network. Dialers get installed by sub-contractor. First day, centrex transfer won't work (Centrex custopak designates lines as #XX, XX being 20-49, rather than the traditional XXXX). Three days later, dialers reprogrammed remotely. Over the course of the next two or three months, bills were coming in for the closed VISION accounts, for FAX calling cards that were never ordered, and for 800 service monthly charges (traffic still being carried over AT&T). After 20 or 30 calls to Customer Service (I had also received listings with at least seven different numbers for Customer Service -- I am sure I now know why we are running out of 800 numbers in this country), bills started to get straightened out. Tried to call a support service with a 900 number. Dialers blocked 900 numbers, returning a corny reorder tone. No instruction by me to block 900. We use these services quite often for network support. Called and had the dialers reprogrammed again. Receieved our April VISION bill (remember, this VISION account has been closed since November). To my surprise, there was a *recurring* charge for $700!! The description on the bill -- "INTRALATA CALL DIRECTORS". I flipped! The rep never told me there would be any charge whatsoever for using these dialers to route traffic over *their* network. Called my *always-out-of-the-office* rep and left a furious message on voice mail. In the meantime, we switched our voice mail system, and now needed to utilize the call forwarding feature we get free with Centrex CustoPak. Pick up the line, dial *72. Expecting second dial tone -- got the Intelogic Trace dialer reorder tone. Now, I could *maybe* see them not knowing about the mini-Centrex #XX code, but *72 has been around since the beginning of CLASS services. I cannot believe these dialers would be installed with *XX codes blocked. Calmly I walked into my wire closet and ripped the power cords for the dialers out of the wall. Rep finally called back, left a message for me stating that it was an "error" and would be corrected. Why in the world would I pay $700 per month or quarter for these dialers if their purpose is to save me a few cents on each intra-lata call. If I save, say 5 cents per minute, I would need to talk 14000 minutes to break even on the dialers. Given my intralata volume of $300 per month, this is highly unlikely. Moral of the story -- if you utilize *any* telephone features out of the norm (CF, Centrex,900/976) and are deciding on putting these dialers in, make sure you *explicitly* explain your requirements to a technician. Support for the operation of these dialers is difficult to obtain from MCI. All re-programming requests are routed through the local sales rep (who is never in the office). I know that AT&T is also installing these dialers in NJ and other states where they are tariffed for intra-LATA traffic, but they may use better dialers, or have a better plan in place for supporting the end-users. Also make sure you ask for a written confirmation of the installation and/or recurring charges for the use of these dialers from your carrier. The dialers installed by MCI are made by Intelogic Trace/Mitel. They make a loud annoying clunk when they release the call to the CO (my headset users have complained about this noise, but just started getting used to it before I pulled the plugs on the damn things). Scot M. Desort +1 201-244-1110 Garden State Micro, Inc. +1 201-244-1120 Fax ------------------------------ From: croth@omnifest.uwm.edu (Chris Roth) Subject: Telcos, Film Scripts, Vertical Integration Date: 9 May 1995 01:03:13 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway FORWARDED FROM: /mail/cr/croth(#3808) From:croth(Chris Roth) The Regional Bell Operating Companies are using the First Amendment to demand the right to purchase preexisting cable systems within their service areas. And you thought their Rotary speeches for the last twenty years meant that they'd compete with preexisting cable operators! Will such vertical integration mean that Ameritech, NYNEX, and BellSouth executives will trip over themselves to bankroll scripts similar to Silkwood, Roger and Me, Rollerball, The China Syndrome, Power, The Formula, Norma Rae, Network, the President's Analyst, Bar Girls, and Deal of the Century? No. Telcos will scurry away from such projects. Who wants to be associated with controversy? Vertical and horizontal integration will increase. Concentration of these multinationals will increase. (Multinationals? Yes. Take a look at the foreign holdings of the RBOCs. Ameritech just bought up huge phone systems in New Zealand. Don't they want us to believe that rising prices for phone service are thrown back into local service to lower the price for everyone? Someday?) Let us hope that cross-subsidization will become part of public awareness. Cross-subsidization is when an RBOC uses captive consumers to fund risky and less-necessary services for upscale consumers. Price of "lifeline" POTS (plain old telephone service) rises artificially to artificially lower the price of expensive new services that, by and large, the wealthy want, and could afford in any case. There's no shortage of former FCC, PUC, and PSC commissioners who will tell you that this is widespread and simply cannot be policed even with a small army of investigating accountants. Once the RBOCs start funding motion pictures, the question will be: will cross-subsidization becomepart of public awareness? Perhaps movies are less abstract. And the whole racket will be more relatable and understandable. ------------------------------ From: Bennett, Ed Subject: Caller ID Approved in Anchorage Date: Mon, 08 May 95 09:34:00 ADT On April 28, the Alaska Public Utilities Commission approved a request by ATU Telecommunications, the LEC serving Anchorage, Alaska, to provide Caller ID, Last Call Return, and Continuous Redial. Both per-call and per-line blocking will be offered, and Last Call Return will be configured so it does not work on blocked calls. The initial offering will be for residential and single-line businesses only. ATU expects to have the new services on line by early August. ATU thus becomes the first Alaskan LEC to offer Caller ID. It was the single most requested service in our history. You can expect other Alaskan LECs to file for the service in the near future. Ed Bennett Sr. Communications Specialist ATU Telecommunications, Anchorage AK 907 564-1742 ebennett@atu.com ------------------------------ From: Geimann@aol.com (Steve Geimann) Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 07:00:38 -0400 Subject: World Cellular Report Scandinavian countries had the highest cellular penetration at end of 1994, with No. 1 Sweden nearly twice as great as U.S., and well-established markets still showed sustained growth, U.S. Dept. of Commerce report showed. Sweden had 1.3 million subscribers out of 8.8 million residents, 14.72% penetration, compared with 23 million in U.S., 8.8%. Report by International Trade Administration showed 52 million subscribers at year-end, 57% gain over previous year. U.S. accounted for 44% of all cellular subscribers. World Cellular Market report showed substantial gains in many developed countries. "This remarkable sustained growth is seen even in the oldest cellular markets," said Stephanie McCullough, analyst, Office of Telecommunications. Data showed substantial growth in Japan, which exceeded 4 million customers recently after expanding to 3.5 million last year from 2 million in 1993. Deregulation and introduction of new digital network "doubled the number of subscribers added in the first 14 years of cellular service," she said. Japan plans to end analog phone sales in April 1996. In Europe, Germany had 2.5 million customers, up from 1.8 million year earlier, Italy grew to 2.2 million from 1.2 million, U.K. to 3.5 million from 1.97 million. Report showed 9 nations exceeding one million, with western nations more than 2 million. "Additional growth is promised in Europe where 4 new competitors will be licensed in Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and Austria," McCullough said. "Around the world, nearly 50 new networks are scheduled to come on line in 1995." U.S. growth was 43.9% over 1993. Norway followed Sweden in penetration with 13.2%, Finland 12.8%, Denmark 9.8%. Trailing U.S. are Singapore, 8.8%; Iceland, 8.3%; Hong Kong, 7.7%; Kuwait, 6.6%; Canada, 6.5%. Report showed 47 nations had at least 1% of population with cellular telephones, but 63 had rates below 1% with bottom 5 in Ukraine, Ghana, Cuba, Burma, Bangladesh. Greenland, Virgin Islands, Andorra, Barbados, Fiji, Gambia, Nicaragua, Angola, Laos, Cuba and Bangladesh had fewer than 1,000 phones each. Subscriber base more than doubled in Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Korea, Kuwait, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, S. Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Venezuela. Among equipment makers, Ericsson was listed as sole contractor or joint provider on more than 135 of nearly 530 systems, followed by U.S.-based Motorola with just over 118. Both were dominant vendors, followed by Nokia with more than 47, Siemens at 35, Northern Telecom 30, Plexsys 25, AT&T and NEC 20 each, Philips 13. U.S. companies were partners in more than 100 systems, led by AirTouch, AT&T, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, GTE, Millicom, Nynex, SBC, U S West. ------------------------------ From: jimhaar@netcom.com (James M. Haar) Subject: Frame-Relay to ISDN and ARA - Impossible? Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 13:55:05 -0800 Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access Reply-To: jimhaar@netcom.com (James M. Haar) Here is my scenario and question: I have two offices, #1 is in Santa Rosa, and #2 is in LA. Both offices have their own LAN of Macs on ethernet. Office #2 in LA has an ISDN set up for a couple of telecommuters, who use ISDN for a high speed ARA (Appletalk Remote Access) line for file sharing and for some client/server applications, such as 4th Dimension databases. Office #2 does not have ISDN internet access. Office #1 in Santa Rosa will have one Mac as a web server. A 128K fraem-relay connection is planned (Netcom). I want to use another Mac on the LAN in Office#1 to connect occassionally to office #2 via their ISDN connection. I do not want to have an ISDN line in addition to the frame-relay line installed at office #1. I would prefer not to have to get ISDN internet access for office #2, nor change the set up in office # 2 at all. What I would like to have happen is to use some of the bandwith in the 128K frame connection to make a connection to Office #2 via ISDN, while not disturbing the web server connection (that is, durring the workstation session with Office #2 in LA, the web server continues to serve to the web). Is this possible? I can't get a consistent answer from either service providers or hardware vendors (Ascend says yes, Netcom says no, for example). I would think that somehow, magically and mysteriously, Pac Bell could peel off the IP packets destined for Office #2, and reconvert them to the ISDN (synchronous from packet based ?) protocol, and then automatically open the ISDN connection to office #2. Thanks in advance! ------------------------------ From: gmonti@cais2.cais.com (Greg Monti) Subject: 555 Prefix Goes Public Date: 8 May 1995 23:32:11 GMT Organization: Capital Area Internet Service The following is a summary of a story entitled "Dialing Hollywood's Number" which appeared in the {Washington Post} on May 5, 1995. Telephone numbers in the 555 prefix have frequently been used by Hollywood movie and television writers when one was needed as part of a plot or script. Famous past numbers: the Brady Bunch household 555- 6161; Mary Richards 555-7862; Charlie's Angels 555-0267. Bellcore is now giving out numbers with 555 prefixes to businesses nationwide. About 1,400 numbers with 555 prefix have been assigned so far. 555 numbers work in every North American area code. Bellcore has still set aside 555-0100 through 555-0199 for use in movies and TV, but pre-existing movies will still have numbers outside that range that could now also be assigned to legitimate businesses. Two issues have not been dealt with: -- how to route calls to 555 numbers, which may or may not be toll calls from a given phone; -- how to bill for calls to 555 numbers (some could be toll free -- reverse charged). [Monti note: The story doesn't say whether 555 numbers will be reachable from every area code, i.e., will 615-555-2222 reach the same location of the same company as 415-555-2222 does?] Greg Monti Arlington, Virginia, USA gmonti@cais.com ------------------------------ From: Thatcher@infonaut.com (Jonathan Thatcher) Subject: Cell Phones and Monthly Charges Date: 9 May 1995 03:28:42 GMT Organization: Infonaut Communication Services (801-229-2080) Can I purchase a cell phone, not pay monthly fees and still have access to 911? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the way the cellular company is set up, and it also depends on whether or not the area where you will be using the cell phone has 911 available to cellular callers. Many areas do not, requiring the caller to dial a seven digit number instead. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 12:12:12 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: One Disaster After Another, it Seems So today, as I write this, much of New Orleans is pretty well under water. Some eighteen inches of rain fell during the day and evening on Monday, and more is expected today. Anyone from southern Louisiana available among the readership to give a summary of telecom conditions there at the present time? PAT ------------------------------ From: zou@ccs.neu.edu (Chendong Zou) Subject: Job Openings at BellSouth Date: 9 May 1995 15:37:41 GMT Organization: College of Computer Science, Northeastern University This is posted for a friend, please use the contact info below: DATE: May 4, 1995 CONTACT: Send text resume to Dr. Eric Kai (eric_kai@snt.bst.bls.com) LOCATION: Atlanta, Georgia COMPANY: BellSouth Telecommunications, which has revenues in excess of $13 billion and assets of over $28 billion, has several R&D positions available in the Wireless Service Integration group of the Science & Technology department. Our charter is to: - provide technical support to BellSouth's business units in developing and implementing the business strategies for wireless market; - conduct technical evaluation, requirement specifications, system/software engineering, prototype/product development and technical/marketing field trials; - R&D technical solutions to offer integrated/enhanced wireless services to BellSouth consumers and/or PCS service providers within our region; - interact with vendor in product selection, requirement definition and/or joint development to support wireless products and services. EXPERIENCE/SKILL: Successful candidates should possess M.S. or Ph.D. in EE, CS, Telecommun- ication, or related disciplines. M.S. with a minimum of three years of experience (or equivalent) in the wireless telecommunication industry having solid working knowledge of wireless networks such as cellular, mobile data and PCS is required. Experience on system engineering, fast prototyping and software development on wireless product and services is highly desirable. Candidates must have expertise in at least one of the area below: RF Design Area: solid experience in frequency planning, system growth planning, cell site traffic analysis and RF propagation to conduct the design/developement of a Radio Planning tool for cellular/PCS network under CDMA, GSM and TDMA. Familiar with the air interface standards. Wireless Data Area: working knowledge with wireless data technologies such as CDPD, PCS data over CDMA and GSM, and/or other mobile data applications. Network Area: knowledge of SS7, ISUP and ISDN signaling and/or transport. Good understanding of HLR/VLR/AM mobility management under cellular/PCS for CDMA, TDMA and GSM. Familiar with IS-41/GSM MAP. R&D experience in the transparency of integrated wireline and wireless services using AIN capabilities and other intelligent network features. OAM&P Area: experience in numbering plan, CDR/AMA, cellular rate plan, billing services and downstream data processing and management. Working background in designing/developing OSS such as PCS/cellular network managment, PCS performance tuning and traffic analysis, customer trouble tracking, etc. PERSONAL: This individual must have: - good interpersonal skills to work in a highly competent technical team; - motivation to understand the business needs of BellSouth and to find effective matches between these needs and emerging technologies; - ability to work in an effective, cooperative manner with other client organizations within BellSouth as well as external companies. OTHERS: - U.S. Permanent Residentship required. - Head hunters please send resume to Joan Powell @404-332-2131 for filing. Chendong Zou Internet: zou@ccs.neu.edu College of Computer Science, Northeastern University 360 Huntington Avenue #23CN, Boston, MA 02115 Phone: (617) 373 3822 WWW: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/zou Fax: (617) 373 5121 ------------------------------ From: Lionel C. Ancelet Subject: The Way Sprint Does Business Organization: Compaq Computer Corp. Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 06:28:30 GMT ... looks strange to me. I currently use a Long Distance Carrier which is not Sprint. A few weeks ago I receive a phone call from Sprint, about their great new rates for long distance calls. I say "Send me a letter with the details of these new rates, then I'll let you know if I'm interested in switching to you as a LDC". The next evening, I get another phone call from Sprint. "This is to confirm you're OK to switch to us", they say. I reply "Not at all. I said I want a letter from you with your rates. Until then I stick to my current LDC." They say "OK, we'll send you this letter". Yesterday evening I want to send a fax overseas. I get a message from the local telco "Your long distance service has been disconnected, please call customer service". I call customer service ... and I learn that my line was just switched to Sprint! Needless to say, I asked to be switched back immediately to my original long distance carrier. I wonder I someone else had the same experience with LDCs literally *forcing* business from customers? Lionel [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you have experienced is a very common thing. The unofficial name for the theft of accounts by one long distance carrier from another is 'slamming', and although it does not happen as much as it used to, it still is a well-known practice. Thanks for passing along the warning that Sprint telemarketers are still up to their old tricks. PAT] ------------------------------ From: turner7@pacsibm.org (Lee Winson) Subject: DID: Same as Early SxS Centrex? Date: 5 May 1995 23:12:53 GMT Organization: PACS IBM SIG BBS Somewhere I read that in the early days of Centrex, step-by-step systems could be used pretty easily -- just allocate a block of it to that subscriber. I believe there were two possibilities. One, where the equipment was in the C.O. and every phone had a line to the C.O. The other, was where the equipment was on the customer's premises, and served by some trunks. Say the customer had 555-1000 to 555-1999. When the C.O. pulsed over to 555-1, the remaining digits would be transmitted over the truck to the the selectors at the customer's location. Isn't this the same principle as DID? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't know about SxS, but a firm I was involved with in the middle to late 1960's had centrex provided from a crossbar office. That particular office did not change to ESS until about 1973 or so, and when it did the company's centrex changed from crossbar to ESS along with it. It was sort of a funny changeover, regards how the handling of calls changed, etc. They also had an ACD (automatic call distributor) behind the centrex both when it was crossbar and when it was upgraded. One thing telco was forced to do was get their records for that subscriber in good order; when operating as crossbar, the subscriber had at one point converted all the rotary dial phones to touch tone. Telco only got about half the records updated (out of about six thousand extensions; this was a good size centrex). Comes the conversion to ESS over a weekend, and Monday morning half the phones on the system can't dial out! Their touchtones, although correcting making sounds to the phone network) were not being recognized because in telco's esteemed opinion, there were not supposed to be touchtones on those particular extensions/lines. After a couple days they had that corrected. PAT] ------------------------------ From: matt@acti.com (Matt Noah) Subject: Job Opening - Camarillo, California Date: Tue, 09 May 1995 22:39:09 GMT Organization: ACT Networks, Inc. Reply-To: matt@acti.com I am looking to hire a DSP/Telco Systems engineer immediately. The candidate should have B.S. (M.S. preferred) in Electrical Engineering and four to six years experience in DSP systems with an emphasis on telephony. My group works on Voice compression, fax, signaling, telephony (analog and digital) and related systems. E-mail, fax or mail your resume to: Matt Noah, Manager DSP Systems Group A.C.T. Networks, Inc. 188 - Camino Ruiz Camarillo, CA 93012 (805)-388-2474 fax: 388-3504 matt@acti.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #230 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa12940; 9 May 95 21:06 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA21178 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 9 May 1995 15:04:10 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA21164; Tue, 9 May 1995 15:04:02 -0500 Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 15:04:02 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505092004.PAA21164@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #231 TELECOM Digest Tue, 9 May 95 15:03:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 231 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson CAIS: Chicago Area Internet Society (John FX Berns) How Many GSM Users/Networks/Countries in the World? (John Scourias) ATM/SONET VLSI Designers Wanted (Sramana Mitra) Is it Just Me? (John Mayson) Desperately Seeking 7200's (Jeffrey Reed) Use of CDPD For Redundancy in Cellular Networks (Seth B. Rothenberg) Tunneling TCP/IP Over TCP/IP? (Garry P. Adkins) Help Needed With DS2153 Interface (Yaon Ram) Re: Can Someone Explain DID in English? (Mark E. Daniel) Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? (Bruce Roberts) Re: Annoying Feature on Payphones Here (Jens von der Heide) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 8 May 1995 16:04:51 -0600 From: jberns@fxmm.com (John FX Berns) Subject: CAIS: Chicago Area Internet Society Announcing the First meeting of The Chicago Area Internet Society: CAIS. What CAIS is: The Chicago Area Internet Society (CAIS) is a new organization formed to help people who are interested in the Internet as a communications tool. Our goal is to help professional communicators find out how they can responsibly and effectively use the Internet as a communications vehicle. Focus will be on the strategies and technologies for publishing and marketing on the Internet. What CAIS is not: CAIS is not a "user's group." We are not a place for beginners to learn about how to get on the internet. Future Goals: CAIS will be holding meetings to get input from people interested in helping form the future of CAIS. Some plans for the future: monthly meetings on HOT topics, developing a virtual organization on the internet, ie: a WWW page for information with links to members home pages, a news group and mail list and? Your suggestions are welcome! Where CAIS meets: CAIS will be meeting the 3rd Wednesday of every month at 6:00 pm at Loyola University's Downtown Campus at 1 E. Pearson St. (1 block west of the Water Tower, 2 blocks west of Michigan Ave & 1 block north of Chicago Ave). Getting on the CAIS E-mail list: E-mail us a CAIS@fxmm.com and send us the following info: Name, Company, Title, Address, Phone, Fax, E-mail address, home page address. NOTE: all CAIS notices will be sent via E-mail. It is critical that you include an e-mail address if you wish to receive notices. Contacting CAIS: E-mail: CAIS @fxmm.com WWW: HTTP://www.fxmm.com/cais.html (site will be up around May 7th) Phone: 312-787-3966 x200 Snail-Mail (Why?) CAIS, 520 W. Erie #220, Chicago, IL 60610 Contacting the President of CAIS John FX Berns E-mail: jberns@fxmm.com Phone: 312-787-3966 x102 Announcing the first CAIS meeting: Date: Wednesday May 17th. Time: Doors open at 6:00 pm (networking), 6:30 pm Program starts Location: Loyola University (Downtown campus) Rubloff Auditorium, 1 E. Pearson St. Subjects: Webforce web authoring tools and Electronic Retailing Strategies for the Internet The speakers for this meeting will be Tineka Pullens from SGI who will talk about their WebForce line of Internet authoring tools and Loren Freedman of the E-Tailing Group, who specialize in consulting on electronic retailing with clients such as ISN (Internet Shopping Network), AT&T, US West, Ameritech, who will talk about how to use the web as a way to effectively sell to customers--without violating Internet ethics. Donation: $5.00, students free. John FX Berns President Chicago Area Internet Society ------------------------------ From: jscouria@neumann.uwaterloo.ca (John Scourias) Subject: How Many GSM Users/Networks/Countries in the World? Organization: University of Waterloo Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 17:23:27 -0400 Hi everyone, I know I posted a similar posting some time ago, but I did not get the total, world-wide NUMBERS that I was looking for, although I'd like to thank the people who sent the lists of operators. So could someone please give me a pointer/source to recent statistics on international GSM usage? I don't know where I got the information, but I think it is 5.4 million subscribers. Thanks in advance, John Scourias http://ccnga.uwaterloo.ca/~jscouria University of Waterloo jscouria@neumann.uwaterloo.ca Waterloo, ON, Canada ------------------------------ From: smitra@hing.lcs.mit.edu (Sramana Mitra) Subject: ATM/SONET VLSI Designers Wanted Date: 8 May 1995 21:35:02 GMT Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, Cambridge MA DAIS Information Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is a new company with a vision. | Envisioned by a team of entrepreneurs interested and experienced in | state-of-the-art technology, DAIS has an imaginative business plan, | superb government support and contacts, utmost professionalism, and | excellent projected returns. | The core technical vision of the company is provided by | o Prof. Gautam Mitra (Phd from Imperial College with near 30 years | association with Information Technology both in academic and | commercial capacity) and | o Ms. Sramana Mitra (M.S. in Computer Science from MIT) | For the VLSI Design division of the company we are looking for | A SENIOR VLSI DESIGN ENGINEER | for a leadership position in ATM, SONET and other communication | system design | DAIS is headquartered in Calcutta, India, and the design center will be | located in Calcutta. An intensive training period will precede starting | work in Calcutta, during which candidate will be working at the site of | our US collaborator to get familiar with project details. | Candidate should have a Masters or a Phd with concentration in either VLSI Design or Telecommunication ATM/SONET Technology, and strong familiarity with the other. The projects will involve design, layout, simulation, testing, and verification of communication VLSI chips and systems. At least three years industry experience is required in a relevant field. DAIS is setting up state-of-the-art design facilities in Calcutta. Equipments will include Sun SPARCs, 486 PCs, Cadence / Mentor Graphics / Viewlogic Tools. Infrastructure will include a fully networked office, email and internet access, and other communication facilities. Compensation includes competitive salaries, performance based profit-sharing options, housing subsidy, etc. Interested candidates are requested to submit resumes to or contact: Ms. Sramana Mitra OR Mr. Jayanta K. Dey-Sircar Executive Director Department of Computer Science DAIS Information Technologies University of Massachusetts c/o Laboratory for Computer Science Amherst, MA 01003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (413)-545-3179 (work) 545 Technology Square, NE43-632 (413)-546-4580 (home) Cambridge, MA 02139 (413)-545-1249 (fax) (617)-253-7768 (work) dey@cs.umass.edu (email) (617)-441-0697 (home) (617)-258-8682 (fax) smitra@lcs.mit.edu (email) DAIS InfoTech also has three other divisions, namely, MULTIMEDIA, ONLINE SERVICES and SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT. Please contact one of the above persons if you are interested in any of those divisions. ------------------------------ From: jmayson@p100dl.ess.harris.com (John Mayson) Subject: Is it Just Me? Date: Tue, 9 May 95 14:09:49 EDT Is it just me? I've been following these NPA changes and it seems almost every split or overlay has some group of people really torqued off at the "big, evil telephone company". We hear the same tiresome argument. "We don't want *OUR* children (as if its society's collective responsiblity to rear them) to have to memorize a ten-digit telephone number.", implying millions of children will somehow die by having a ten-digital phone number. If that were the case, think of how many children die because of seven-digital numbers. Let's shorten them to five. A shining example is the 404/770 split in Georgia. By avoiding an overlay, we prevented people from having to dial ten-digits, right? Wrong. There's a lot of cross-Perimeter dialing, meaning callers will have to dial not just ten, but *ELEVEN* digits. And look at the case of our precious, helpless children. Billy is lost at Perimeter Mall. He finds a mall security guard who offers to call Billy's home. Billy knows his number is 555-9876, but can't remember his area code. Well, Billy could conceivably live in 404 or 770, who's to know? I know there are far worse things in the world to get upset at, but state regulators are really making a royal mess of our phone system. Had the Georgia PSC allowed Southern Bell to do the 404/706 split right, we wouldn't have this problem today. I just hope in the future, regulators look at Chicago, Atlanta, South Florida, and L.A. and learn not to micromanage private industry who knows how to do the job best. John Mayson (MS 100/2243) Senior Engineer Harris Electronic Systems Sector PO Box 99000, Melbourne FL USA 32902 Voice (407) 727-6389 | Fax (407) 729-3801 | Pager (407) 635-3606 internet john.mayson@harris.com | http://p100dl.ess.harris.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am told by some very old-time people who were with the Bell System and are since scattered all over the various Baby Bells today that if it were possible to set the clock back a half century and plan things over again, that many changes would be made. There were lots of very far-sighted well meaning people involved during the 1940's and 1950's with planning for future expansion of such things as area codes and local numbering schemes, etc ... but the general consensus today -- of the few who are still alive and that I have chatted with at one time or another -- that *no one* could have begun to anticipate the growth. There were plans even fifty years ago by some at Bell for eight digit local numbers and *four* digit area codes; the majority of the people involved thought such schemes to be outlandish and the majority involved in the process of planning 'area codes for the future' did pretty much correctly guess the time the old numbering system would be exhausted; what perhaps they failed to understand would be the social ramifications involved in the new system. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jreed004@aol.com (JReed004) Subject: Desperately Seeking 7200's Date: 8 May 1995 09:59:59 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: jreed004@aol.com (JReed004) I need to locate Mortorola 7200 "Original Label" phones. I need 75,000 (ideally, 25,000 x 3 months). The funds are already in place -- can move now. Call ASAP, Jeffrey Reed 414-761-8690 ------------------------------ From: rothen+@pitt.edu (Seth B Rothenberg) Subject: Use of CDPD For Redundancy in Cellular Networks Date: 8 May 1995 13:38:32 GMT Organization: University of Pittsburgh I recently did some work investigating CDPD. One observation I made was that CDPD is an excellent way to gain redundancy. In most areas (most populated areas?), there are two cellular carriers. Since the last mile is what is at greatest risk, half of any circuit is protected 100%. My question is about the other half. Does anyone know if there is an easy way to, for example, have a router connection to both the A-side carrier and to the B-side carrier? Then, you'd have almost perfect reduncancy. I would hope that you could just register the same Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) with each carrier, much they way you might register a single portable PC bootp servers on two networks. (Is that a violation of bootp?) What I am not clear about is, where the IP address is looked up. Does the CDPD Mobile End Station know its own IP address? I would think it WOULD NOT need to know it, because the Data Service Manager would do that. If this is the case, the device would just have two IP addresses, one on each network. My company's routers would need to be configured to rout via whichever path is available. Thanks Seth ------------------------------ From: adkinsg@piranha.ianet.net (Garry P. Adkins) Subject: Tunneling TCP/IP Over TCP/IP? Date: 8 May 1995 19:59:29 -0400 Organization: Ichthus Access Networking Inc., (304) 453-5757 Does anyone know of any IP software that would be able to "tunnel" (wrap up) IP packets so they can be directed to a far-away lan with a variable IP gateway? We need to "readdress" IP packets with a different destination and then unwrap them at the far end. Do you know of any sofware that would do that? Both end machines are Linux machines. For a short period of time each day, we'd like to link our lans (in different states) via dialup with the Internet. Thanks! Garry Adkins adkinsg@ianet.net USnail: 712 Chestnut St. BELLNet: +1-304-453-5757 Kenova, WV 25530-1511 ------------------------------ From: yram@ix.netcom.com (Yaon Ram) Subject: Help Needed With DS2153 Interface Date: 9 May 1995 16:35:09 GMT Organization: Netcom I am looking for someone that has a working E1 interface using the DS2153. Does it work right? Any bugs I should watch for? Any appnotes? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 May 95 20:41:13 EST From: mark@legend.akron.oh.us (Mark E Daniel) Subject: Re: Can Someone Explain DID in English? In article was written: > Imagine a hospital, it has 40 DID trunks to service 500 patient beds and > 400 administrative personnel. The hospital would pay the telco for the 40 > DID trunks and also would pay to block out 1,000 numbers. (500 + 400 + > 100 spare). OK. I can deal with that. Then pagers and perhaps cellular works the same way with a bunch of trunks? :-). Then if said hospital only has 40 trunks (assuming trunks are what the rest of us call 'lines') then only 40 of the 1000 extensions may be connected to outside calls at one time which would explain why I've been in the hodpital and hit 9 and gotten PBX reorder type things. Insufficent trunks to complete my request, right? GTE mobilnet has a bunch of "reserved" numbers in our area. 216-801 thru 805 are their's from 0000 to 9999. Cellular One only has three complete "reserved" exchanges. Not much competition. :-). Plus there are four or five other complete prefixes given to GTE Mobilnet here. :-). They own the Akron Cellular market. Except for one strange prefix given to something I've never heard of (independant cellular). ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 17:38:08 -0700 From: bruce.roberts@greatesc.com (Bruce Roberts) Organization: The Great Escape - Gardena, CA - (310) 676-3534 Subject: Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? > I think what happened in California is that when the telcos wanted to > offer CLID, the California Public Utilities Commission (your > representative government) placed so many different kinds of > restrictions on what offering it would allow that it became > economically unattractive for the telcos to offer. The market > determines the price, remember ... the telco can't charge more than > what people will pay, and the fewer people who buy the service, the > less capital the telco has to buy software to implement the service. Well, you're almost right. The CPUC insisted that per-line-blocking be available (I don't remember if it was to be free or fee.) GTE and PacBell said "forget it" and that's why California has no Caller-ID. TTFN Bruce Roberts, bruce.roberts@greatesc.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But the latest word is that California will be having Caller-ID real soon now. In an issue of the Digest I will send out later today, Lauren Weinstein writes to the Digest with some recent developments. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jens_von_der_heide@il.us.swissbank.com Subject: Re: Annoying Feature on Payphones Here Reply-To: jens_von_der_heide@il.us.swissbank.com Organization: Swiss Bank Corporation CM&T Division Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 22:27:11 GMT TELECOM Digest Editor writes > It seems that when you call from a payphone ... a recorded message comes > on the line saying 'your party does not answer' and inviting you > to leave a message 'for delivery at a later time' I had a similar and scary experience with AT&T USADirect. I was calling from Switzerland to the US via USADirect for an airline reservation. The airline answered immediately with an automated response system which would forward to a "ringing" phone after making the appropriate selection. After a few rings, I would be prompted by USADirect to leave a message for later delivery. I called the USADirect operator and asked to put me through without this "service", but the same "service" kicked in during my call. In fustration, I swore out loud about how stupid this was, when I heard... "AT&T Operator, let me put you through again...." I didn't know he had stayed on the line with me. :-( As I remember it, I was able to use USADirect on other occassions and allow the line to keep ringing. I was just surprised the service worked even after the initial call had been completed. Jens von der Heide, Network Engineer +1-708-955-4919 Swiss Bank Corporation, Capital Markets and Treasury FAX: +1-708-955-6929 4225 Naperville Rd E-Mail: jens_von_der_heide@il.us.swissbank.com Lisle, IL 60532, USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: 'Accidents' will happen! . For how long have telephone operators been abused? ... oh, since the dreadful instrument was first invented, I suppose. I have a microfilm copy of the 1919-1920 alphabetical directory of the Chicago Telephone Company, which was the predecessor to Illinois Bell until about seventy years ago when AT&T bought out CTC about 1924 and renamed the company to be part of the Bell System. From the inside front cover in small, yet quite readable type, a notice entitled 'Admonishment to Subscribers': "Subscribers are admonished to refrain from cursing our operators or using foul and profane language in their requests for telephone connections. Subscribers are requested to address our operators in a courteous manner; the operators have been instructed to respond in a similar way. Would you want the operator to curse you when a connection was impossible because the called line was engaged or out-of-order conditions prevailed? Speak to our operators in the same way you wish to be spoken to. Thank you." Remember, in those early years of this century, telephone connections were established entirely manually, by the subscriber asking the oper- ator to plug things together. Ignorant subscribers, frustrated by trying for hours to reach someone whose line was busy might well say something to the operator like, "#@@@!!77$ operator! Cut in on the line and tell them to can the shit so someone else can get through! #@@%!&%!!! " Or they would blame the operator for being incompetent if they got a wrong number (after having *asked* for the wrong number!); they would flash to get her back -- especially if they had deposited money in a payphone coin box they were about to lose -- and give her a good general cussing out in the process of trying to reach the right number. The operators had to sit there and take it; a single profane word passing their lips in response to a beligerant subscriber was grounds for immediate dismissal. But if a particular subscriber was always, consistently raunchy and rude -- cursing at the operators or making sexual propositions to them, and that happened a lot also -- then the operator would complain to the supervisor who in turn would tell the Business Office; the subscriber would be notified to cut it out or risk losing his service. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #231 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13788; 9 May 95 22:49 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA24513 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 9 May 1995 17:17:08 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA24503; Tue, 9 May 1995 17:17:05 -0500 Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 17:17:05 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505092217.RAA24503@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #232 TELECOM Digest Tue, 9 May 95 17:17:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 232 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Oregon Area 503 Split Details (Stuart Friedberg) Re: Oregon Area 503 Split Details (Robert Hansen) Re: Oregon Area 503 Split Details (Randal L. Schwartz) Re: Comm Problems With USR Sportster V.34 (ccruz@prime.planetcom.com) Re: Comm Problems With USR Sportster V.34 (Todd Koenig) Re: Comm Problems With USR Sportster V.34 (hihosteveo@aol.com) Re: Comm Problems With USR Sportster V.34 (Jerry Eckler) Re: Good Grief - Caller ID is Back! (hihosteveo@aol.com) Re: Rural Phone Companies (Bill Leidy) Re: PacBell to Offer CID (Steven H. Lichter) Re: PacBell to Offer CID (Lauren Weinstein) Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? (Benjamin P. Carter) Re: Calls From Australia to US 800 Not Delivering DTMF (John Combs) Wanted: Quality Residential LD Program (Bill Egel) External Antenna For DPC550 (Ken Levitt) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 8 May 1995 11:28:55 -0700 From: Stuart Friedberg Subject: Re: Oregon Area 503 Split Details Organization: Sequent Computer Systems Inc. > The new NPA for Oregon was announced today -- 541. It is > a split, not an overlay, and it will cover all of the state except > for northwestern Oregon, leaving Portland, its suburbs, Salem, > Newport, Hillsboro, and St. Helens (among others) in 503. I found this fascinating, as US West just sent out a few days ago a subscriber information pamphlet that indicated that the decision between split and overlay had not yet been made, and inviting public comment of the choice(s). ------------------------------ From: hansenr@ohsu.EDU (Robert Hansen) Subject: Re: Oregon Area 503 Split Details Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 22:54:45 GMT Organization: Oregon Health Sciences University Oregon will gain a new area code, 541, on November 5. The following exchanges will remain in the 503 area code (geographic area defined as roughly the NW corner of the state, south on the coast to just north of Lincoln City, east through Falls City, Salem, Scio, Mill City and Detroit, and north through Mount Hood Meadows): Aloha, Amity, Astoria, Aumsville, Aurora, Banks, Bay City, Beaver, Beaver Creek, Beaverton, Burlington, Canby, Cannon Beach, Carlton, Charbonneau, Clatskanie, Cloverdale, Colton, Corbett, Dallas, Dayton, Detroit, Estacada, Falls City, Forest Grove, Garibaldi, Gaston, Gervais, Government Camp, Grand Island, Grand Ronde, Gresham, Hillsboro, Hoodland, Independence, Jewell, Knappa, Lake Oswego, Lyons, McMinnville, Mill City, Milwaukie, Molalla, Monitor, Mount Angel, Mount Hood Meadows, Needy, Nehalem, Newberg, North Plains, Oregon City, Oak Grove, Pacific City, PORTLAND, Rainier, Redland, Ripplebrook, Rockaway, SALEM, Sandy, Scapoose, Scholls, Scio, Seaside, Sheridan, Sherwood, Silverton, St. Helens, St. Paul, Stafford, Stayton, Sunnyside, Tigard, Tillamook, Tualatin, Turner, Valley View, Vernonia, Warrenton, Westport, Willamina, Wilsonville, Woodburn, Yamhill. All other Oregon exchanges (197 in total) will move to 541. The permissive dialing period will be November 5, 1995 through June 30, 1996. ROBERT A. HANSEN Telecommunications Department Oregon Health Sciences University Portland, Oregon USA (503) 494-9160 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 17:50:59 -0700 From: Randal L. Schwartz Subject: Re: Oregon Area 503 Split Details Lincoln City went 541 so that the county would be one area code. Name: Randal L. Schwartz / Stonehenge Consulting Services (503)777-0095 Keywords: Perl training, UNIX[tm] consulting, video production, skiing, flying Email: Snail: (Call) PGP-Key: (finger merlyn@ora.com) Web: My Home Page! ------------------------------ From: ccruz@prime.planetcom.com (ccruz) Subject: Re: Comm Problems With USR Sportster V.34 Date: Tue, 09 May 95 13:50:44 PST In article , thorst@login.eunet.no says ... > I am having some problems with my PPP internet hookup. After about > 10-15 min online, my V.34 Sportster just "hangs up". I use trumpet > winsock and netscape software, and I have set the internal baud rate > to 115.200, in order to handle compession. Is this a hardware problem, > or what? I to am experiencing the same problem. This only happens the first time I dialup after I have powered up my PC. After the auto disconnect, if I attempt to login again without powering the PC down completely, the sync. tones sound really distorted and I can not re-establish the PPP session. After speaking to the people at US Robotics about this, they informed me that there is a new ROM chip that should take care of this problem. They will mail you this new ROM (4 to 6 weeks delivery) if your modem has an earlier version. Their tech support will walk you through determining which ROM version your using. Unfortunately I have yet to receive my upgraded ROM so I cannot tell you if this fixes the problem. If you here of another possible solution please let me know. Regards. ------------------------------ From: koenig@envnet.com (Todd Koenig) Subject: Re: Comm Problems With USR Sportster V.34 Date: 8 May 1995 20:00:04 GMT Organization: EnvisioNet In article , thorst@login.eunet.no (Thor Stromsnes) says: > I am having some problems with my PPP internet hookup. After about > 10-15 min online, my V.34 Sportster just "hangs up". I use trumpet > winsock and netscape software, and I have set the internal baud rate > to 115.200, in order to handle compession. Is this a hardware problem, > or what? Give U.S. Robotics a call. There was some sort of problem with some of the sporsters that required and upgrade. Something to do with higher speeds and disconnections. In the mean time, drop your speed down to 19200 and see if that works. ------------------------------ From: hihosteveo@aol.com (HiHoSteveo) Subject: Re: Comm Problems With USR Sportster V.34 Date: 9 May 1995 12:11:02 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: hihosteveo@aol.com (HiHoSteveo) USR tech support 1-800550-7800, 0800 - 1800 CST (Chicago). ------------------------------ From: Jerry Eckler Subject: Re: Comm Problems With USR Sportster V.34 Date: 9 May 1995 12:08:20 GMT Organization: On-Ramp; Individual Internet Connections; Dallas, TX USA Have you got the upgrade chip for the USR modem? I had the same problems and after calling USR they sent me a free upgrade chip. No further problems. Name: Jerry Eckler E-mail: jeck@onramp.net ------------------------------ From: hihosteveo@aol.com (HiHoSteveo) Subject: Re: Good Grief - Caller ID is Back! Date: 9 May 1995 12:11:25 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: hihosteveo@aol.com (HiHoSteveo) No sooner had the FCC prempted California PUC problems, and PacBell indicated they would go ahead -- finally -- then the STATE of CA has appealed to the Circuit Court -- Good Grief -- back to ground zero. ------------------------------ From: bleidy@ionet.net (Bill Leidy) Subject: Re: Rural Phone Companies Date: 9 May 1995 01:56:13 GMT Organization: Internet Oklahoma In article , jackm@pmafire.inel.gov says: > I would appreciate hearing about technical issues which are unique to > phone companies serving sparsely populated areas. I imagine that the > smaller companies could become quite innovative in dealing with > problems specific to their business. This is a subject that would fill a book. I will try to give a brief outline of the issues as seen from the perspective of the MIS Director of an independent telephone co. 1. History The government decided some 40+ years ago that basic telephone service was a necessity, not a luxury, and that affordable basic service should be made available in all areas of the United States (The doctrine of "Universal Service"). Ma Bell showed no interest in pursuing development in rural areas at the time, so the government encouraged entrepeneurs to develop service in rural areas. This was accomplished through two means: a. Low-cost loans made available through the REA. b. The promise of a "return on investment" based revenue model subsidised by the Universal Service Fund. 2. Divestiture Up until 1982, the independents had an informal "child-parent" relationship with Ma Bell. Most of the independents were basically care-takers for their customers, and not too involved with industry issues. This has changed! In the first few years following divestiture, there was an industry shake-out. A lot of "Ma & Pa" companies were bought out by more aggressive independents who realized that we had progressed from being care-takers to being risk-takers. The successful independents were quick to learn the industry game, using the "return on investment" revenue rules to update their plant and provide the best (and most competitive) service possible. Also, the successful companies were quick to form separate corporations to handle those activities (telephone sales and repair, for example) which were no longer subject to regulation. Now, the typical aggressive independent telephone company may have as many as nine or ten "sister companies", dealing in everything from long distance to paging. 3. Technology The Bell companies today still show little interest in the rural areas. Exchanges serves by independents tend to be much more technologically advanced than rural Bell exchanges (all nine of our exchanges, for example, are into their second generation of digital switches, while several neighboring Bell exchanges are still using step-switching). The reason you see the Bell companies selling rural exchanges, is that they are facing fierce pressure from the State Public Utility Commissions to upgrade all of their exchanges to minimum standards, i.e. digital switching (Can you imagine that there are still a lot of people out there with no touch-tone? Would you believe most of them are Bell customers?). In many cases, Bell has decided that it is easier to sell than upgrade. 4. The Future The independents will always be heavily dependent on subsidies like the Universal Service Fund. There is simply no way to maintain the local loop in rural areas on the revenue produced by reasonably rated local service. Competition for local service can be a good thing, but a completely free market economy for local phone service would mean the end of universal service. Bill Leidy MIS Director Chickasaw Telephone Co. Sulphur, OK ------------------------------ From: co057@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Steven H. Lichter) Subject: Re: PacBell to Offer CID Date: 9 May 1995 19:16:38 GMT Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA) All the phone companies will have caller ID in California in 1996, that is if the FCC gets the regulations in place and the fools that have been holding it up don't manage to go to court and delay it again. Though I agree that all have the right to disagree; that is why the PUC holds hearings which no one can go to except people that have a financial interest or nothing better to do; but when they go to court and cause a delay they should be made to pay for all the costs involved, if they had to do that then they would think twice about putting everything they own by doing it. I believe both the PUC (ha ha) and the FCC have looked at all sides the having it is much better then not having it. By the way all of the GTE offices have the options in place and all it would take is an update to each customer who wants it; they same type of command update a customer would need for any other option they want. All our CO phones have it in place, but there are only a couple of places that have the phones; these are for internal use only. Sysop: Apple Elite II -=- an Ogg-Net Hub BBS Home of GBBS/LLUCE support (909) 359-5338 12/24/14.4 V32/V42bis ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 May 95 12:25 PDT From: lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Re: PacBell to Offer CID Greetings. I posted a longer article with details regarding this over in my PRIVACY Forum digest. True, PacBell will be offering CNID. Note however, that they made this decision following the new FCC order which apparently now *permits* per-line CNID blocking on interstate calls. The earlier FCC decision which was stayed specifically prohibited per-line ID blocking on interstate calls, which effectively called into question the ability of states to legislate any per-line ID blocking at all -- it only allowed (mandated) per-call blocking. It is expected that in those states where per-line ID blocking availability has been legislated or otherwise mandated, an extremely high percentage of subscribers will request it, even among people who want CNID service for themselves! In California, where a large majority of lines are non-published, it is expected that almost all of them will ultimately request per-line ID blocking. It could well be the case that within a couple of years 80%+ of total lines request per-line ID blocking given responses people give to polls on this subject. Since the FCC did not mandate that non-published lines would be per-line ID blocked by default, it will take a definitive action on people's part to be blocked. Percentages will vary depending on whether or not a charge is associated with such blocking (in California I *believe* there is to be no charge the last I heard). The telcos are promising an education campaign to inform people about these issues. The upshot of all this is, I predict, that CNID services will generally be a rather small niche market with limited usefulness for most of the touted applications. Whether or not you consider this to be a good outcome depends on your point of view, of course. --Lauren-- P.S. For information about the PRIVACY Forum digest, please send the text: information privacy as the first text in the *body* of a message to: privacy-request@vortex.com --LW-- ------------------------------ From: bpc@netcom.com (Benjamin P. Carter) Subject: Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 06:31:00 GMT heath roberts writes: > I think what happened in California is that when the telcos wanted to > offer CLID, the California Public Utilities Commission (your > representative government) placed so many different kinds of > restrictions on what offering it would allow The PUC had ruled that an unlisted number would not be disclosed unless the caller chose to disclose it. That's all. Pac Bell asserted that too few customers would order caller ID under that rule to make it profitable. And now the FCC has decreed that the calling number will be disclosed unless the caller specifically choses to block it. This makes a difference because many (perhaps most) residential customers will ignore the whole issue of caller ID, doing nothing to either allow or block the display of their numbers when they make phone calls. By default, their numbers will be displayed under the FCC rule. The rule goes into effect December 1, 1995. Pac Bell is happy with this rule and will offer CNID in 1996. Ben Carter internet address: bpc@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 May 95 14:20 EST From: TestMark Laboratories <0006718446@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Calls From Australia to US 800 Not Delivering DTMF Serge Burjak writes in TELECOM Digest Volume 15 Issue 226: > I have a problem getting through to some automated attendants using > DTMF from Australia. As the title says, after the connection the line > appears not to pass DTMF tones ie., "press 1 for this service, press 2 > for that service." > This happens with both Telecom and OPTUS. The customer service droids > will not escalate the problem to anyone at an 'Engineer' level, but > only to techs who make comments like, well "the US is probably > translating these into something different, sorry cannot help you". > Am I being unreasonable asking to pass in voice band information? I > know it's not my phone, I can use Cyberlinks dial back for this or > AT&T's USA direct with a credit card. The Cyberlink solution is not > totally satisfactory for other resaons. The attendant requires a # key > after the some transactions and Cyberlinks interprets this as a new > call request. The DTMF receivers in automated attendants are usually not up to the same quality as a Central Office DTMF receiver. It sounds as if there is more loss on the Telecom and OPTUS connections than there is on the AT&T USA direct. This surprises me, as I would assume that all are using digital transmission systems, which are "lossless!" In North America, network design guidelines call for a maximum local loop loss of 8.5dB, although 9dB isn't too unlikely. A digital CO has 0dB through-loss, and an older, analog CO, such as a GTE #1 or #2 EAX will have a through-loss of 0.8dB. Then, don't forget, we have a loop on the other side of the CO going to the called modem, so our maximum dB loss on a local call using a pair of loosely-engineered loops through an analog CO is (9+0.8+9) = 18.8dB. These numbers come in part from EIA/TIA-464-A, which describes the North American Loss Plan for analog and digital PBXs. I don't know if Australian loop design is identical to this or not, but let's assume it is. Now, single line DTMF phones typically sends tones at levels of 0dBm to -6dBm. -6dBm through a facility loss of 18.8dB gives us a received signal level at the automated attendent of -24.8dBm. Even a poorly-designed DTMF receiver on an automated attendant should be able to handle this. But, what if the DTMF tones are lower, as might be true from a digital phone on a PBX, as the PBX could possibly send DTMF tones as low as -12dBm. In this case the DTMF level reaching the receiver would only be -30.8dBm, and many automated attendants, as well as answering machines, would have a problem with this. So, Serge, the only thing I can suggest is to call from a single line telephone, not a PBX, and try to pick a phone with a "hot" DTMF pad. John Combs, Project Engineer, TestMark Laboratories, testmark@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: engel2@ix.netcom.com (Bill & Susan Engel) Subject: Wanted: Quality Residential LD Program Date: 9 May 1995 19:24:42 GMT Organization: Netcom I am looking for a quality Residential LD Program that can meet the following criteria: 1. Preferrably LEC billed (although this is not critical); 2. Prefer WilTel as underlying carrier, however will consider others; 3. Competitive rate (nothing over 16 cents peak - and that is stretching it a bit - unless the night/evening rate is great); 4. No monthly fees over $1.00; 5. Calling card with no bong and rate no more than 25 cents/minute; 6. 6 second billing (if not, it better have a great rate); 7. Personal 800 numbers with no monthly fees and competitive rates; 8. Easy enrollment procedure. This program is to be offered to employees as a value-added service and to organizations as a fund-raiser. I have not found the ideal program in any one package, although there must be one out there. Thanks, in advance, for all responses. Please direct your response to my E-mail address - no direct phone calls please. Bill Engel P.S. If you have spoken to me about Residential programs in the past, and your program can meet the above criteria, please contact me again. P.P.S. No Excel agents need respond. Engel Strategies Group, Inc. * 11414 N. 69th Street, Ste. 103 * Scottsdale, AZ 85254 E-mail: Engel2@ix.netcom.com Phone: 602-948-9768 Fax: 602-948-4788 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 06 May 95 15:15:27 EST From: levitt@zorro9.fidonet.org (Ken Levitt) Subject: External Antenna For DPC550 I have a Motorola DPC550 cell phone. My car power adaptor connects to an 8 pin connector at the bottom of the phone. I would like to connect an external antenna to the phone and I'm guessing that one or two of those eight pins are for that purpose. I know they make docking stations for cars, but I don't want the external mike and speaker. And I also want to use this same setup while not in the car. Is there a connection for an external antenna? If so ... What pin(s) is it on? From which side are pins counted? Can the plug that plugs into the phone be purchased separately? If not, is there any way or product that will connect external power antenna and not cost me over $100? Ken Levitt - On FidoNet gateway node 1:16/390 UUCP: zorro9!levitt INTERNET: levitt@zorro9.fidonet.org or levitt%zorro9.uucp@talcott.harvard.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #232 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14698; 10 May 95 1:20 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA28001 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 9 May 1995 20:12:04 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA27992; Tue, 9 May 1995 20:12:02 -0500 Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 20:12:02 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505100112.UAA27992@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #233 TELECOM Digest Tue, 9 May 95 20:12:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 233 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Frame-Relay to ISDN and ARA - Impossible? (Shuang Deng) Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine (Sam Spens Clason) Re: ISDN, BellSouth and OCN (Bradley Ward Allen) Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs? (Frank Atkinson) Re: Advice Needed About Answering Service (Greg Habstritt) Re: Suggestions For Two or Three Line PC Based Phone System (Gary Valmain) Re: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb (Donald R. Newcomb) Re: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb (John Woods) Re: Rural Phone Companies (Lee Winson) Re: Rural Phone Companies (Paul J. Lustgraaf) Re: Resale of Telecommunications Services (Rick Dennis) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: sd03@gte.com (Shuang Deng) Subject: Re: Frame-Relay to ISDN and ARA - Impossible? Date: 9 May 1995 19:20:04 GMT Organization: GTE Laboratories, Waltham, MA In article , James M. Haar wrote: > I would think that somehow, magically and mysteriously, Pac Bell could > peel off the IP packets destined for Office #2, and reconvert them to > the ISDN (synchronous from packet based ?) protocol, and then > automatically open the ISDN connection to office #2. There are several options avaiable for ISDN-FR interworking, either customer premise and CO based. The CO based systems have to be deployed by a carrier (LEC or IXC) on a switch somewhere. That's probably what you are asking for. However, as far as I am aware of, currently avaiable systems initiate the connection from ISDN only, for there is not much FR SVC deployed yet. [Vendor should be able to still support PVC by starting the ISDN call as soon as a packet is received from FR, and automatically tearing down the connection after the link has been idle for a certain period.] If your carrier does not have enough demands to justify the deployment cost at the switch, you would have to purchase your own, stand-alone box to do the conversion from vendors (e.g., ISDN System Corp.) A summary and evaluation of ISDN-FR interworking options by us was presented at the recent Interop'95 engineering conference, and can be found in the preceedings. An extended version is to appear in the Communication Systems Design, August/95 issue. Drop me a note if you don't have easy access to those publications. Shuang Deng Email: sdeng@gte.com GTE Laboratories or sd03@gte.com 40 Sylvan Road Phone: +1 617 466 2165 Waltham, MA 02254, USA Fax : +1 617 466 2650 ------------------------------ From: d92-sam@hotblack.nada.kth.se (Sam Spens Clason) Subject: Re: New Country Code 380 For Ukraine Date: 9 May 1995 17:25:21 GMT In Clive D.W. Feather writes: > I compared my country codes list with my list of ISO recognised > countries and territories. The shared uses of codes I found were: > 1 Shared by 21 countries, of which 1 has a new code allocated > 269 Shared by 2 countries: Comoros and Mayotte > 33 Shared by 3 countries, of which 2 have had new codes allocated This referes to France, Andorra and Monaco. Is Monaco really going to move out from 33?! Monaco doesn't even have an area code, why would they want a country code? > 7 Shared by 9 countries, of which 3 have had new codes allocated I think it's a *#* shame that ex-Soviet countries can't share +7 because of national pride. > So there's a potential need for 31 new codes. But 68 are still spare: > 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 > 292 293 294 295 > 382 383 384 388 > 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 > 801 802 803 804 805 806 807 808 809 > 830 831 832 833 834 835 836 837 838 839 > 851 854 857 858 859 > 881 882 883 884 885 887 888 889 > 970 978 979 > 990 991 992 993 996 997 998 999 Is there any word on the proposed international toll free +800 code? > Oops, almost forgot. Apart from the 31 cases I listed before, there are > eight territories with no international code that I know of: > East Timor Not if you ask the Indonesians. To them East Timor is just another province. > Western Sahara Marocco regards Western Sahara to be the southern half of the country. I.e. no need for a country code. Sam www.nada.kth.se/~d92-sam, sam@nada.kth.se, +46 7 01234567 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Good point you raise about the new toll- free international scheme. I have heard nothing more on it recently from Judith Oppenheimer, who readers will recall wrote on several occassions to discuss the situation. Perhaps she will write again soon with an update; what's been happening in the past couple months on this. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Ward Allen) Subject: Re: ISDN, BellSouth and OCN Date: 9 May 1995 08:59:43 -0400 Organization: URL:http://www.armory.com/~ulmo/ (see rivers.html for PGP key) In article , Willard F. Dawson wrote: > ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Ward Allen) writes: [...] >> Redundancy is better -- let all subscribers use whatever works best at >> the moment, as determined by a well-maintained set of routers. > Redundant routers that kick in to the selected carrier of data rather > than falling over to a different carrier are also possible ... and, > required, in a RBOC environment that must compete with the likes of > MFS and their "miss 1% a year, get the next year for free" attitude. Yes but frequently the selected carrier of IP data cannot get packets around. For instance, I have had the worst luck with Sprint, however since my main host only connects via it (argg when are they going to upgrade?), I have a dependence on them. My solution is to also have a Netcom account, plus maintaining a short list of friends' passwords for emergency use. Last month, I think one out of five login sessions had to be done via Netcom. Tonight, Netcom hosts were down, luckily Sprint isn't being a problem to me. If I upgrade my system of two providers plus access to three others in emergency needs (included are seven regional, international and national networks), I'd want some incentive like automated packet routing via whatever network is working and other redundancy measures. ------------------------------ From: fratkins@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Frank Atkinson) Subject: Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs? Date: 8 May 1995 12:47:45 -0400 Organization: The Greater Columbus Freenet > I feel I need to correct this perception that since the telco "owns" > facilities that their use is "free" and they don't have to "pay extra" > to use them. They are most certainly not free. They represent a > capital investment by shareholders and therefore a return on the > investment MUST be earned at a minimum. In fact, if shareholder > investment is to not be diluted, these facilities must contribute at > exactly the same level as those sold "externally". It is, therefore, > imperative that all costs including "contribution" associated with > these facilities be included in the price of any service that uses > them. Without going too deeply into the regulatory system that built the network which took what the company spent, added a guaranteed rate of return, and in some cases hidden taxes, then passed it on to the rate payer's bill (rate of return regulation). The shareholder's position has been fairly well protected. Maybe each ratepayer should be given some company stock now that the network they built will be used to compete. The company hasn't sold enough stock to fund the network, the money came from the ratepayers, the ratepayers repaid the consturction bonds, not the stockholders. In a recent Ohio workshop on competetion an incumbent phone company objected to calling the network a "public-switched-network" and suggested there might be a questions of "lawful property rights" should the commission require the incumbent to unbundle and share, even though the customers funded it. Frank Atkinson fratkins@freenet.columbus.oh.us or frank@hannah.com ------------------------------ From: gregicg@cadvision.com (Greg Habstritt) Subject: Re: Advice Needed About Answering Service Date: 9 May 1995 13:09:26 GMT Organization: Intellitech Communications Group In article , petro@crl.com (Brian D. Petro) says: > I am very seriously considering the idea of starting a business from > my home selling voice-mail boxes. As I have never been in the > business, I am looking for advice from someone who has. > I am planning on targeting the residential market. I live in a town > of 40,000. I would only be charging $5/month for a basic service box. > It seems to me that it would be fairly easy to add 100+ customers/year to > my service, but I would like the opinion of someone "in the business." > Please E-mail any responses. Hi Brian: We operate a full service voice/fax service bureau here in Calgary, about 750,000 pop. We've been at it about 2.5 years, focusing almost exclusively in business and corporate clients. Firstly: it's not as easy as it sounds, particularly getting clients. Now, before we get into details, let's just take the assumptions you've made and see how they work out. You're looking at getting 100 clients per year, on average (a herculean task, considering the population of 40,000). Nevertheless: Let's say you have 100 at the end of the 1st year. Your revenue at that point will be $5 x 100 per month, gross = $500/month. In order to service 100 clients you are going to require at least 4-6 incoming lines for your system. The cost will depend on the type you use, however it would likely be in the range of $30-50 per line. $40 per line is probably likely. This will cost $200 per month. That leaves $300 per month. Now out of that, you've got to do some advertising, feed yourself (lotta macaroni, looks like).. AND ... somehow pay for the system you are using! A decent interactive system that can do most of the stuff required of a service bureau is going to be a minimum of $15-20,000. The companies that claim they can sell you one for a few thousands are bullshitting. In interactive, you really do get what you pay for. (Hardware for a decent system four line system is a minimum $5000 to start with, assuming you do it properly with UPS, remote power reboot, etc). > My major competition would be our local telephone company who charges > $6.5/month. My question is this: Would there be enough interest in > voice-mail from residential clients to keep my business profitable? We have somewhat the same problem here with our telco offering cheap voice mail. But that's the key -- it's cheap. There's no fancy options, it can't do anything like fax or interactive surveying, they can't do database lookup ... etc. In other words, they can have the business at the low end (simple voice boxes). THE ONLY PLACE YOU CAN MAKE MONEY IS OFFERING CUSTOM SERVICES like fax on demand, call transferring, database lookup, etc. To do that, you'll need a good system. I hate to sound negative, but that's the reality. If you're really not prepared to invest at least $25,000 in the business, don't bother. Plus, I think your pop'n is really going to work against you. On the positive side, growth of voice mail and related services is certainly staggering ... it's at least a good thing to keep your eye on. But don't get into residential service. There's no money in it. gregicg@cadvision.com Greg Habstritt Intellitech Communications Inc. Calgary, Alberta, Canada ------------------------------ From: gary valmain Subject: Re: Suggestions For Two or Three Line PC Based Phone System? Date: 9 May 1995 19:27:25 GMT Organization: Houston Advanced Research Center TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Karl : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why don't you try a combination of PC > and voicemail you build yourself, possibly using Big Mouth or something > similar? Have a PC answer your second line with a message that goes > something like this: "Thank you for calling; right now all agents are > If you combine the Big Mouth transfer function with Call Transfer from > your local telco, then once the waiting call has been passed over to you > on the first line, Big Mouthh is freed up to take another call on > the overflow line and hold it until you become available. PAT] I have a customer who wants exactly this. He has an AT&T four line Merlin phone system (known as a '410') in place. My questions are: 1) How would such a system 'sound' to the caller? Would it sound like it's a patched together kluged system? 2) Can the Big Mouth be interfaced with the Merlin phone system? 2) Is it difficult for the user (receptionist type) to use? 3) Can you provide some cost ranges (rounded dollars will suffice)? 4) Related to 3, would he be better off (money and practicality) to either upgrade the existing phone system or replace it with another phone system which already has all of his hot buttons built in? TIA gary valmain [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I don't think Big Mouth sounds bad at all considering its relatively inexpensive cost. I think you can buy a one line system in the range of $300-400. That's assuming you already have the computer and phone lines. I put together a small system for use in a small town bus station (a Greyhound Agency in fact) which was reviewed in the 'new products' section of {Bus Ride Magazine} a couple months ago. The application I built this for is typical. You have a ticket clerk, two phone lines which ring off the hook with calls from local residents wanting to know the schedule of busses, the cost of tickets, etc, and everything happening at once. The clerk not only has to write the tickets and answer all the phone inquiries, but he has to go out to load/unload the baggage and freight from the busses. Greyhound sends ten busses per day through that town (five each direction), and he also gets four Trailways busses each day (two each direct- ion); he writes tickets for those also. It is a hot little agency; both Greyhound and whatever Trailways company it is pay him a commission on ticket sales in return for providing 'bus station services' and his income in the summer is good; in the winter it is sufficient. The main problem he had/has is that there are times the place is dead. Nothing going on ... but once a day the schedules are such he gets two busses in his driveway at once, both to be (un)loaded, two or three passengers the bus driver picked up at a flag stop twenty miles out of town who need tickets written in a hurry so they can get back on the bus and the driver can be on his way, and then both phone lines ring at once with relatively complicated questions on schedules to some far away place. He had been letting the phones ring unanswered during that ten or fifteen minute period. As good as his business can be at times, he cannot afford to have two people on duty at once. Some family member of his comes in and takes care of things in the evening and on weekends; even that cuts deeply into his profits since he has to pay them something. Sometimes he was taking the phones off the hook for a few minutes when he got a line of people at the counter. I put together a Big Mouth for him on an old 286 to answer his second line whenever it does not get answered after three or four rings. If he is taking a call on the first line another call will roll to the second line. The Big Mouth answers, "You have reached the bus station. The agent is busy now on another call, or working with a customer. Your call will be answered as soon as possible, but in the meantime while you are waiting, you may listen to some recorded messages which may answer your questions entirely. At any time you can choose to be transferred to the agent if you wish by pressing zero on your touch tone phone." There then follows a menu of choices; what he calls his half-dozen most frequently asked questions; (1) schedule of busses going north to the big city where his passengers connect; (2) southbound schedule; (3) ticket prices for the half dozen most often purchased tickets; (4) hours the station is open and its address; (5) package express freight services; (6) other schedule connections, etc. The caller can leave a message to be called back by pressing a key with the message going to a voicemail box, and pressing another key allows purchase of 'tickets by phone with credit card'. It goes into an inter- active dialogue with the caller, asking the caller his name, waiting for a response; his credit card number, waiting for response; where tickets are desired for, etc. A callback is promised as soon as possible. Anytime the person bails out of one of the recordings, or is at the main menu and presses zero, the speaker on the PC announces, 'call holding, please pick up'. If he does not do so in thirty seconds or so, then Big Mouth takes the call back and advises the caller the agent is still busy and to please leave a message in voicemail for a return call ASAP. The neat part though is his after hours operation. By swapping out a couple files on the PC (done automatically by a cron job at a certain time of night when the station closes, and again in the morning when it opens), Big Mouth begins answering the first line instead, with a message saying 'station is closed, will be open to ... and offers to play the same menu of answers to 'most asked questions'. The menu concludes with 'if you need to speak to an agent right away, press zero' ... and in this case the transfer is done with three way calling. Big Mouth flashes the hook and outdials to the national Greyhound information line, a toll free 800 number. The caller hears ringing and gets an answer from a phone room clerk at Omaha where Greyhound information is located. Really, a very sharp little setup if I do say so myself, and I do, since the money I made on it allowed me to buy extra rations of macaroni for myself and a few more boxes of Tender Vittles for the cats. ..... PAT] ------------------------------ From: dnewcomb@whale.st.usm.edu (Donald R. Newcomb) Subject: Re: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb Date: 9 May 1995 21:00:01 -0500 Organization: University of Southern Mississippi In article , Carl Moore wrote: > Is it a measure of how full the system is when messed-up digits > result in someone else's valid number? > Several years ago, this Digest had a note about a Chicago-area dress > shop getting calls meant for an airline (two digits transposed in the > telephone number). I recall this appearing not long before 708 area > code came along to provide relief for 312. A friend of mine told this story. Years ago (1920s) when the phone numbers in my home town were three digits long, his phone number was slightly different from the number of the largest industry in town. He was always getting calls intended for them. One day he got a call from a salesman for a coal company who thought he was the factory's buyer. So, he ordered what he figured would be a two year supply of coal. He said he had a good laugh the day he saw a train of only coal cars rolling down the spur to the factory. Donald R. Newcomb University of Southern Mississippi dnewcomb@whale.st.usm.edu dnewcomb@falcon.st.usm.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Shame, shame, shame! That was fraud, although it is kind of funny. If he had gotten caught, the judge should have punished him by making him shovel all that coal by hand back into the coal cars to be returned to the company. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 May 95 11:08:15 EDT From: jfw@proteon.com (John Woods) Subject: Re: Call Trace Foulup Followed OK Bomb > Is it a measure of how full the system is when messed-up digits > result in someone else's valid number? Apparently the transposed digits turned out to be in a trunk number, not a phone number. This particular mistake also cost them the ability to trace the correct phone number, according to the newspaper. ------------------------------ From: turner7@pacsibm.org (Lee Winson) Subject: Re: Rural Phone Companies Date: 9 May 1995 23:16:57 GMT Organization: PACS IBM SIG BBS Other people here have reported that with fiber optic, things like expensive and cumbersome party lines are no longer needed; this makes for better service and lower cost. Also, electronics allows exchanges to be unattended and service remotely, saving money. The older SxS switches needed cleaning/adjustment from time to time. Further, things like operator service can be offered remotely from a considerable distance. If a company is still using SxS equipment (or even crossbar), I would be cautious. I've heard many horror stories from customers served by old mechanical switches that became unreliable from poor maintenance. ------------------------------ From: grpjl@iastate.edu (Paul J Lustgraaf) Subject: Re: Rural Phone Companies Date: 9 May 1995 17:30:13 GMT Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa USA In article , Jack Mott wrote: > I recently learned U.S. West is in the process of selling off its > rural telephone properties (I live in Idaho Falls, which will stay > with US West). Although I felt that the original break-up of the Bell > System was unwise, it is natural to expect more fragmentation and > specialization in the telecom industry. > I would appreciate hearing about technical issues which are unique to > phone companies serving sparsely populated areas. I imagine that the > smaller companies could become quite innovative in dealing with > problems specific to their business. The smaller companies are usually quite innovative in: Extracting large quantities of money from users of leased lines. We have one such here in Iowa that charges over $300/mo. for a 56K line *across town* (less than a mile). Talk about rip-off artists ... Paul Lustgraaf "It's easier to apologize than to get permission." Network Specialist Grace Hopper Iowa State University Computation Center grpjl@iastate.edu Ames, IA 50011 515-294-0324 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 May 1995 12:23:09 -0400 From: rad@eusdatl.attmail.com (rad) Subject: Re: Resale of Telecommunications Services Hey, I'm a little fuzzy in this area, but I'm pretty sure resale is required by the Communications Act of 1934, and accordingly this is enforced by the FCC. I believe it has something to do with being a Common Carrier and all. I could look up the exact section in the Act that contains the details if you like. I'm on Bob Keller's mailing list and from what I've gathered from various infractions over the last year or so, the fine for a carrier refusing to resell is a maximum of $100,000. The plaintiffs follow the FCC's usual complaint filing process. About the only benefit for the carrier doing the reselling is that they make a little extra money on bandwidth that would otherwise be unused. One downside, as has been seen this week with AT&T filing a suit against a reseller, is the issue of representation. See the included article for details: *** AT&T has filed a complaint with federal regulators accusing a long-distance reseller of "slamming" -- the practice of changing a customer's long-distance carrier without the customer's authorization. AT&T's complaint alleges that National Accounts, Inc., of Parsippany, N.J., misrepresented an affiliation with AT&T, and has switched customers from AT&T to National Accounts without the customers' knowledge or agreement. AT&T's complaint to the FCC describes how National Accounts representatives falsely told customers that National Accounts is affiliated with AT&T, or that National Accounts "markets and administers" AT&T service. In some instances National Accounts claimed it was "employed by AT&T." Where National Accounts' misrepresentations were unsuccessful in inducing AT&T's customers to switch their service to National Accounts, the reseller would frequently "slam" those customers, AT&T said. Under authority of the Communications Act of 1934, AT&T has asked the FCC to stop National Accounts from continuing these practices, and to award AT&T damages to be determined by the commission. As you can see, the relationship between resellers and the larger carriers is somewhat strained. It should be interesting to see how resale in the local market pans out. I know AT&T is doing that with Ameritech and Frontier at the current time. Rick Dennis AT&T Global Business Communications Systems Conversant(Intuity) Systems Suite 600 email: attmail!rickdennis 5555 Oakbrook Parkway Phone: (404) 242-1552 Norcross, GA 30093 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #233 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14878; 10 May 95 1:25 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA28901 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 9 May 1995 20:42:00 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA28891; Tue, 9 May 1995 20:41:57 -0500 Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 20:41:57 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505100141.UAA28891@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #234 TELECOM Digest Tue, 9 May 95 20:42:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 234 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Request U.S. Carrier or Integrator Response re - VTC (Brian Caldwell) Re: Mexico Billing Method: Digit Analysis or Meter Pulse? (Richard Cox) Re: Mexico Billing Method: Digit Analysis or Meter Pulse? (John Brissenden) Re: Can Someone Explain DID in English? (Eric A. Carr) Caller ID Nationally and FCC Order (Matt Simpson) Re: Outgoing Only Phone Line Without Phone Number (Mark Cuccia) Re: What's R2 Signalling on Switch? (Glenn Shirley) Re: What's R2 Signalling on Switch? (Wally Ritchie) Re: Voice/Data Multiplexer For 64kb Leased Line? (Wally Ritchie) Re: International Telephone Number Length - Maximum Allowed (T. Jarnbjo) Re: The AT&T "Minimum Usage Charge" Rumor (Bob Schwartz) Re: AT&T $5 Minimum Monthly Charge (teamiguana@aol.com) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: lcdltd@aol.com (LCD Ltd) Subject: Request U.S. Carrier or Integrator Response re - VTC Date: 9 May 1995 18:55:14 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: lcdltd@aol.com (LCD Ltd) Our architectural and engineering firm, headquartered in the UK, requests information about your U.S. corporation's capabilities regards providing the following under a sole source contact: U.S. video teleconferencing sites for our client, a European scientific corporation opening offices this fall and winter in NY, Washington DC, Baltimore, Norfolk, Atlanta, and 4 other eastern US locations. Primary VTC traffic to be between US sites @ 384/512 Kbps video + audio and up to 384 simultaneous data/file transfer for numerous multiplexed medical/scientific applications during video conferences. Nearly all calls to be point to point, but your firm would need to provide MCU on selection. Some traffic overseas to Belgium, France, UK, Sweden, and Italy. Carrier or systems Integrator would need to have consulting capabilities, or to be able to propose voice/data traffic solutions for intra US and to European sites. Your company would additionally need have creative design/build, or consultative, capabilities for advanced video conferencing facilities, which will also be used for group scientific/medical multimedia presention. In your response, please include senior-level marketing contact and systems integration contacts, as well as information about your company's size, VTC, network, and technical support capabilities, and experience in these fields. Kindly send this information to this Email address, or and/or by attached electronic file transfer ("zipped" or "stuffed" compressed files only). If you have an electronic presentation about your firm, and/or CAD illustrations of recent work, that will be considered by the client to be _extremely_ responsive. We prefer AOL electronic file transfer attachments. We request these to be: Text: PC or MacIntosh - Microsoft or Claris Works, Graphics: PC or MacIntosh - Microsoft PowerPoint CAD: MiniCad or AutoCad in DXF format (only - not DGS). (Again any file transfers must be "zipped" or "stuffed".) On submission of your company's profile, statement of capabilities, and POC's, our offices will respond immediately to any technical, network or other inquiries. Many thanks, Brian Caldwell Leeds, Caldwell, and Dickson, Ltd. ------------------------------ From: richard@mandarin.com Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 13:55:48 -0400 Subject: Re: Mexico Billing Method: Digit Analysis or Meter Pulse? Jan Hinnerk Haul wrote: > Most countries (errr... PTTs / carriers) give call supervision data > to the PBX in some form or the other. Up to now the UK has not done this reliably -- i.e. if you are fortunate you may get it but you can't complain if you don't. As a result most people tend to work on the assumption that they don't have it. > Typical methods are high-frequency pulses on top of the voice signal Hey! That's not call supervision, that's charging information, and that *is* available in the UK, for a quarterly fee per (analog) line. > The drawback of number analysis is, of course, that no call supervision > is possible, letting users being "billed" with uncompleted calls In the raw state, yes: but British Telecom (BT)is now proposing to abandon the meter pulses because it will very soon be abandoning meters (and their unit periods) and going to full per-second charging for all dialled calls. When it does, digit analysis will be the only option for PBXs but to avoid the problems of false/phantom call supervision, BT have undertaken to send supervision data to the PBX in the form of a polarity reversal. The changes are expected around August this year. Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, PO Box 111, Penarth, South Glamorgan CF64 3YG Voice: 0973 311111; Fax: 0973 311110; VoiceMail: 0941 151515 e-mail address: richard@mandarin.com; PGP2.6 public key on request ------------------------------ From: jeb2@dana.ucc.nau.edu (John E. Brissenden) Subject: Re: Mexico Billing Method: Digit Analysis or Meter Pulse? Date: 9 May 1995 18:52:58 GMT Organization: Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff AZ, USA After being asked to elaborate more on this question, here's a bit more ... In many other countries, the telco supplies the actual cost of a call in the form of a metered pulse count. The derivation is that a low frequency pulse is transmitted along the route and detected by PBXs. Far away places send more pulses per minute than closer places. Anyway, the important thing here is that the SMDR output on a PBX contains a pulse field. For billing, a site can simply multiply the pulses times a costperpulse for an accurate cost. With digit analysis, one has to find the distance of the call and multiply it by some band cost. (Yuch). Obviously, for call billing, it's much easier to use metered pulses, as many other countries do. John ------------------------------ From: Carr-C10973@email.mot.com (Eric A. Carr) Subject: Re: Can Someone Explain DID in English? Organization: Motorola iDEN Infrastructure Engineering Date: Tue, 09 May 1995 14:56:11 -0500 In article , marshall leathers wrote: > DID or Direct Inward Dialing: This might help clarify. DID is a way of automatically routing a call to a stationserved by a PBX that originates from the local PSTN, doing so without user intervention; i.e. an attendant. The originating party simply dials the directory number of the called station and the call is routed accordingly through the PSTN to the local CO, to the PBX, then to the called station served by the PBX. The PBX establishes the final connection. With a DID trunk, the local CO assigns blocks of numbers to that trunk (or group if there is more than one trunk assigned to the PBX), such as NXX-1000 through NXX-1099 for example. The local CO "knows" that any numbers within this range are to be routed to the PBX via the DID trunk, using DTMF or pulse dialing, serving the PBX. The PBX, in turn, "knows" which station set it serves that each string of digits represents. The CO doesn't necessarily send the entire digit string; in the block of numbers used in the example, 100 total individual numbers are represented. Only the last two numbers (00 through 99) are required to convey the called station set's address, so in this case the CO may only send the last two digits. It could send more, but for this example it only needs to send two. The PBX provides talk battery to the DID wire pair originating from the local CO, which senses this to keep the trunks "turned up" or in service. If a call to a number assigned to the DID trunk comes to the CO serving the PBX, the CO seizes the trunk by placing a short across the wire pair. The PBX senses the flow of current and places digit collection equipment across the line. Once the PBX determines it's ready to receive digits, it performs a predetermined handshake; "wink", "delay", or "immediate", wink being the most common. After detecting the handshake, the CO passes the dialed digits via DTMF or pulse dial to the PBX, which translates the digits to a station address and routes the call to that station. The PBX generates call progression tones and also conveys answer supervision to the network. If the called station goes off hook, the PBX again reverses loop polarity but for the duration of the call which signals the CO the called station answered. When the called station goes on hook (the PBX side), the PBX returns the line to normal polarity to signal the CO that the call is over. If the calling party goes on hook (the CO side) , the serving CO opens the loop, stopping loop current, to tell the PBX the call is to be ended. A good source of further technical reading on this and other PBX related issues can be found in the EIA/TIA RS-464 publication. Eric Carr Carr-C10973@email.mot.com ------------------------------ From: Matt Simpson Subject: Caller ID Nationally and FCC Order Date: 9 May 1995 19:02:57 GMT Organization: University of Kentucky Computing Services I assume that all the stuff the FCC is doing applies only to interstate calls. Does anyone know if the LECs will ever be required to transmit caller-id on intra-state, intra-LATA calls? Is this something the PSC in each state needs to address? For example, I live in Paris, KY and get my phone service (including caller-id) from South Central Bell. Many of my calls come from Lexington, KY, about 20 miles away. Same LATA, but served by GTE. I don't get caller-id on any of those calls. I know my local switch is capable of picking up caller-id from long-distance calls, because I occasionally get it on other calls. So I assume the reason I don't get it on calls from Lexington is that GTE doesn't send it. GTE does provide caller-id to Lexington customers, so I know they're at least capable of delivering it locally. And Lexington has lots of different exchanges and several COs, so I assume GTE is capable of transmitting the id between their own switches. So why don't they send it to South Central Bell? Is there some technical reason? Or are they just being stubborn? And is there any chance that they'll stop being stubborn? Matt Simpson -- Lead Systems Programmer - MVS University Of Kentucky, Lexington, KY msimpson@pop.uky.edu http://rivendell.cc.uky.edu ------------------------------ From: Mark Cuccia Subject: Re: Outgoing Only Phone Line without Phone Number Date: Tue, 9 May 95 09:45:00 GMT In John D. Galt's recent post, he states that 01 uses for a 'non-dial' number would be confused with International Dialing sequences. There are various semi-interrelated numbering schemes used by telco: 1. Dialable numbers by operators & customers (including certain codes, 011+ International Access) 2. Dial-ACCESS codes for CUSTOMER use (1+, 0+, and for opr.asstd.intl. 01+; ALSO 10XXX/101XXXX+) 3. Operator/Network SYSTEM codes of the form 1XX and 0XX -- these are NOT used by the general customer -- they are used by the operators and Test personnel, etc. Operators do NOT use a 1+ when dialing out for a customer, ergo 1XX used by an operator would not conflict. These are used for special routing, network control, opr.to opr.connections, etc. 4. Internal BILLING codes for identification of a party for BILLING purposes - used for manual Ring Down points, and used for OutWATS-"only" lines - these have been of the form 88X, and 0XX/1XX. Sometimes they are of the form of a LETTER followed by 2 digits for Private Leased Circuits - These are more or less an ACCOUNT number - They are NOT dialed by the customer and not even the OPERATOR - the Opr.will key the 7 or 10 digit string into the BILLING database for automated billing - YEARS ago, the opr.would write up a toll-ticket which would be processed manually to prepare the billed party's monthly bill. Sometimes these codes have been known as 'Mark-Sense Codes' since the Operator would 'Mark' (write) a 'Sense' (digit/symbol) on the old fashioned manually written toll-tickets. 5. Also related to point 4, 'Non-Subscriber' Calling Cards - These are 14 digit calling card numbers which are assigned to special billing card accounts; includes AT&T's non-line-number based card numbers but billed to a home/residence regular telephone number bill (I am NOT really referring to MAX 13 digit AT&T cards where you pick the card number). When placing a call, the Operator will key the number into the billing/validation database, first to verify/validate the number, and if ok it is recorded into billing equipment and the call goes thru. Customers can ALSO key this type of number AFTER reaching a TOPS/TSPS/OSPS system when using their card on an automated basis. NOTE: you as the customer are NOT keying your card number as a call destination but rather as a billing number and you are entering it into the operator's validation database, not the routing/switching network for the call. These numbering sequences also inter-relate with 'RAO' codes (Revenue Accounting Office) used for billing message relaying among the carriers. Bellcore's TRA, North American Numbering, and RAO/CIID divisions are responsible for managing the numbering issues amongst the various carriers in North America, along with regulatory agencies, the local telcos themselves, and various Industry Forums. They inherited this role from AT&T Long Lines beginning in 1984. Numbering/Dialing issues are NOT always that easy and simple. You have to know WHERE, HOW, WHY, WHICH particular numbering sequence is used and the network or database, etc. is applied. Oh BTW, Bellcore has plans to unload their North American Numbering Plan Administration (but probably NOT TRA)- This began after the FCC started a Notice of Inquiry back in '92 - NOTHING has yet been finalized on this matter. MARK ------------------------------ From: shirleyg@stanilite.com.au (UL ENG) Subject: Re: What's R2 Signalling on Switch? Date: 9 May 1995 03:00:42 +1000 Organization: Stanilite Electronics Pty. Ltd. Sydney, Australia apollo@n2sun22.ccl.itri.org.tw (Yee-Lee Shyong) writes: > Originally, I only heard about TR-008 or TR-303 for signaling > specification between Digital Loop Carrier(DLC) and Local Digital > Switch (LDS). But somebody tols me that R2 signaling is also popular on > LDS. Can someone out there tell me what it is? Where I can find this > document describibg R2? Who published that material? Its one of the CCITT Blue Book Recommendations (I think). Its based around multi-frequency signalling with each end sending its signal until the other end replies by sending an acknowledge/send next signal, also in the form of multi-frequency. Most countries make changes to the spec. (which the spec. actually allows for by having user defined signals). I just had to spend 5 weeks in China installing a cellular system with the Chinese equivalent of R2 (Chinese MFC) for connections to the local exchanges. If you don't get any replies with the exact volume and fascicle for this spec. mail me (glenn.shirley@stanilite.com.au) and I'll forward the information to you when I'm at work on Monday. Glenn ------------------------------ From: writchie@gate.net Subject: Re: What's R2 Signalling on Switch? Date: 9 May 1995 04:27:54 GMT Reply-To: writchie@gate.net In , apollo@n2sun22.ccl.itri.org.tw (Yee-Lee Shyong) writes: > Originally, I only heard about TR-008 or TR-303 for signaling > specification between Digital Loop Carrier(DLC) and Local Digital > Switch (LDS). But somebody tols me that R2 signaling is also popular on > LDS. Can someone out there tell me what it is? Where I can find this > document describibg R2? Who published that material? R2 is defined in the ITU-T Q Series documents which you can get from the ITU gopher at info.itu.ch R2 is a compelled form of signalling used primarily on International Gateway connections. Never heard of it being used in the US at other than International Gateways. Hope this helps. Wally Ritchie Ft. Lauderdale, Florida ------------------------------ From: writchie@gate.net Subject: Re: Voice/Data Multiplexer For 64kb Leased Line? Date: 9 May 1995 04:32:54 GMT Reply-To: writchie@gate.net In , harlan@Physik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Magnus Harlander) writes: > We are looking for a data/voice multiplexer for a leased 64kb > digital line. We want to use some portion of the bandwidth for phone > calls to and from a PBX extension and the rest for IP traffic. The > leased line speaks the G.703 protocol (there would be an alternative > using I.430). Any information about implementations, producers and > distributors is appreciated. Newbridge Networks (3606) (Canada) Republic Telecom (Now Netrix) (RLX400) (US) Micom (Marathon Series) (US) Case (UK) If you have trouble finding phone number e-mail me and I'll dig them out. Wally Ritchie Ft. Lauderdale, Florida ------------------------------ From: bjote@cs.tu-berlin.de (Tor-Einar Jarnbjo) Subject: Re: International Telephone Number Length - Maximum Allowed Date: 9 May 1995 10:26:18 GMT Organization: Technical University of Berlin, Germany Ekkehard.Rohwedder@KURT.TIP.CS.CMU.EDU wrote: > One limitation that was discussed here in July '93 is that -- from the > US at least -- an international call may not have more than 12 digits, > e.g. dialing the following number in Germany: > 011 +49 6131 XXX 4555 > results after some time in a short beep and then a busy signal. > On the other hand: > 011 +49 6131 XXX 450 > works just fine. [snip] > direct dial from a local exchange in the United States!! (As I was > told there are 13-digit numbers currently in Germany, Austria, and the > Chech Republic.) Actually phone-numbers assigned by German Telekom does not exceed 12 digits (country-code + area-code + local number). The number you mention (0 61 31) X XX 45-55 is a local line within the PBX on number (0 61 31) XX X45. Normally PBX-lines are denotated as (0 areacode) XXXX-YYYY where XXXX is the phonennumber and YYYY the local number. The manual switchboard is (always) then available at XXXX-0 which means that all German phone-number are dialable from US :) Tor-Einar Jarnbjo, bjote@cs.tu-berlin.de ------------------------------ From: bob@bci.nbn.com (Bob Schwartz) Subject: Re: The AT&T "Minimum Usage Charge" Rumor Date: Tue, 09 May 1995 10:39:58 -1000 Organization: BCI In article , Tom.Horsley@hawk.hcsc.com wrote: > I essentially never make LD calls and would be happy to have no LD > provider at all. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: ... even if telco defaults your line to > 'none', you will still have to pay the network access charge each month > since you can access carriers you choose via 10xxx. PAT] One other issue that is often missed on the topic: You still have to pay the network access charge for the ability to RECEIVE long distance calls. BOB ------------------------------ From: teamiguana@aol.com (TeamIguana) Subject: Re: AT&T $5 Minimum Monthly Charge Date: 9 May 1995 21:19:45 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: teamiguana@aol.com (TeamIguana) Pat said: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Each of the carriers leases a large amount > of the resources and facilities of the other carriers. MCI purchases a few > million dollars worth of leased circuits from AT&T monthly. If there is > any single customer (a large corporation, I assume) doing more business > with AT&T monthly, I would like to know who they are. Anyone who has some > actual dollar figures available want to comment on this? PAT] The BofA contract with MCI is the largest private contract the company has landed. Many years ago (ten or more) a lot of traffic was carried over other IECs. Those days are long gone. AT&T doesn't switch our traffic, we don't switch theirs. We don't lease any AT&T facilities, but might use some short fiber routes of theirs in remote areas where it's not cost effective to install our own. Bottom line really is that AT&T is not a million dollar customer of MCIs. Now how much do we pay the RBOCs? That's another story!! :) Iguana ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #234 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa23828; 10 May 95 16:48 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA08993 for telecomlist-outbound; Wed, 10 May 1995 09:02:08 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA08985; Wed, 10 May 1995 09:02:06 -0500 Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 09:02:06 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505101402.JAA08985@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #235 TELECOM Digest Wed, 10 May 95 09:02:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 235 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Country Codes (Clive D.W. Feather) Virtual Amateur Radio on the NET (Arthur Chandler) Re: U.S. Federal Suggestion Box in Cyberspace (Bradley Ward Allen) Re: Question About Calling Cards (Andrew Starte) Re: Phone Question Regards Transmission Problems (John Combs) Re: Mexico Billing Method: Digit Analysis or Meter Pulse? (David Gay) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: Country Codes Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 08:12:24 BST From: Clive D.W. Feather After the discussions about the Ukraine's new code and other related changes, I've updated my list of country codes, which I thought the readership might like. Clive D.W. Feather clive@stdc.demon.co.uk # A line beginning with # is a comment. # Codes after the country code # n: not used at present # s: shared with another country or territory # c: will change in the future # Within descriptions, &12 means area code 12 within country code # Tone codes (first is ring, second is engaged): # A: double ring, repeated regularly (UK ringing tone) # B: equal length on/off tones - about 1Hz (UK & USA engaged tone) # C: slow equal length on/off tones # D: fast equal length on/off tones - 2Hz to 3Hz # E: tones separated by long pauses (USA ringing tone) # F: long tones separated by short pauses # The codes immediately before the name are the ISO 3166 two letter code # for the country or territory. All countries/territories listed in ISO # 3166 are listed here, and the ISO name is used. 1 s AB AI Anguilla (&809) 1 s EF AG Antigua and Barbuda (&809) 1 s CB BS Bahamas, Commonwealth of the (&809) 1 s EB BB Barbados (&809) 1 s CB BM Bermuda (&809) 1 s AB VG British Virgin Islands (&809) 1 s EB CA Canada 1 s CB KY Cayman Islands (&809) 1 s AB DM Dominica, Commonwealth of (&809) 1 s EB DO Dominican Republic (&809) 1 s AB GD Grenada (&809) 1 s EB JM Jamaica (&809) 1 s AB MS Montserrat (&809) 1 s CB PR Puerto Rico (&809) 1 s AB KN Saint Kitts and Nevis (&809) 1 s AB LC Saint Lucia (&809) 1 s AB VC Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (&809) 1 c AB TT Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of (&809, see 296) 1 s FD TC Turks and Caicos Islands (&809) 1 s CB VI US Virgin Islands (&809) 1 s UM United States Minor Outlying Islands (&808) 1 s EB US United States of America 20 CF EG Egypt, Arab Republic of 210 MA (reserved for Morocco) 211 MA (reserved for Morocco) 212 s EB MA Morocco, Kingdom of 212 s EH Western Sahara (&8) 213 CB DZ Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of 214 DZ (reserved for Algeria) 215 DZ (reserved for Algeria) 216 EB TN Tunisia, Republic of 217 TN (reserved for Tunisia) 218 CF LY Libyan Arab Jamahiriya S'list P. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 219 LY (reserved for Libya) 220 AB GM Gambia, Republic of the 221 CD SN Senegal, Republic of 222 MR Mauritania, Islamic Republic of 223 CB ML Mali, Republic of 224 EC GN Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of 225 CD CI Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the 226 EB BF Burkina Faso 227 CF NE Niger, Republic of the 228 CB TG Togo, Togolese Republic 229 CB BJ Benin, People's Republic of 230 AB MU Mauritius 231 ED LR Liberia, Republic of 232 CB SL Sierra Leone, Republic of 233 ED GH Ghana, Republic of 234 CF NG Nigeria, Federal Republic of 235 CB TD Chad, Republic of 236 EB CF Central African Republic 237 EB CM Cameroon, United Republic of 238 CD CV Cape Verde, Republic of 239 CB ST Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of 240 GQ Equatorial Guinea, Republic of 241 EB GA Gabon, Gabonese Republic 242 CD CG Congo, People's Republic of 243 CD ZR Zaire, Republic of 244 CD AO Angola, Republic of 245 EC GW Guinea-Bissau, Republic of 246 IO British Indian Ocean Territory 247 [EA]B GB Ascension Island 248 AB SC Seychelles, Republic of 249 SD Sudan, Democratic Republic of the 250 CB RW Rwanda, Rwandese Republic 251 ED ET Ethiopia 252 CB SO Somalia, Somali Democratic Republic 253 EB DJ Djibouti, Republic of 254 AF KE Kenya, Republic of 255 AD TZ Tanzania, United Republic of (includes Zanzibar &54) 256 [AC]E UG Uganda, Republic of 257 CB BI Burundi, Republic of 258 EB MZ Mozambique, People's Republic of 259 TZ (assigned to Zanzibar, see 255) 260 EF ZM Zambia, Republic of 261 CB MG Madagascar, Republic of 262 CB RE Reunion 263 AB ZW Zimbabwe 264 AB NA Namibia 265 ED MW Malawi, Republic of 266 AD LS Lesotho, Kingdom of 267 AB BW Botswana, Republic of 268 AB SZ Swaziland, Kingdom of 269 s KM Comoros, Federal and Islamic Republic of 269 s YT Mayotte 27 AB ZA South Africa, Republic of 280 -- Spare 281 -- Spare 282 -- Spare 283 -- Spare 284 -- Spare 285 -- Spare 286 -- Spare 287 -- Spare 288 -- Spare 289 -- Spare 290 FB SH St. Helena 291 ER Eritrea 292 -- Spare 293 -- Spare 294 -- Spare 295 ED SM San Marino, Republic of (never used and withdrawn, see 378) 296 n AB TT Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of (see 1) 297 EB AW Aruba 298 ED FO Faeroe Islands 299 ED GL Greenland 30 ED GR Greece, Hellenic Republic 31 ED NL Netherlands, Kingdom of the 32 CD BE Belgium, Kingdom of 33 c CB AD Andorra, Principality of (&628, see 376) 33 s CB FX France (Metropolitan) 33 c CB MC Monaco, Principality of (&93, see 377) 34 ED ES Spain, Spanish State 350 AB GI Gibraltar 351 EB PT Portugal, Portuguese Republic 352 ED LU Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of 353 AB IE Ireland 354 CD IS Iceland, Republic of 355 AL Albania, People's Socialist Republic of 356 AB MT Malta, Republic of 357 AF CY Cyprus, Republic of 358 ED FI Finland, Republic of 359 ED BG Bulgaria, People's Republic of 36 FD HU Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic 370 LT Lithuania 371 LV Latvia 372 EE Estonia 373 MD Moldova, Republic of 374 n EB AM Armenia 375 n EB BY Belarus 376 n CB AD Andorra, Principality of (see 33) 377 n CB MC Monaco, Principality of (see 33) 378 n ED SM San Marino, Republic of (see 39) 379 n ED VA Vatican City State (see 39) 380 EB UA Ukraine 381 YU Montenegro and Serbia 382 -- Spare 383 -- Spare 384 -- Spare 385 HR Hrvatska (Croatia) 386 SI Slovenia 387 BA Bosnia and Herzegowina 388 -- Spare 389 MK Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of 39 s ED IT Italy, Italian Republic 39 c ED SM San Marino, Republic of (&541, see 295 and 378), 39 c ED VA Vatican City State (&66982, see 379) 40 CB RO Romania, Socialist Republic of 41 s EB LI Liechtenstein, Principality of (&75) 41 s EB CH Switzerland, Swiss Confederation 42 s ED CZ Czech Republic (&1 to &6) 42 s ED SK Slovakia (&7 to &9) 43 ED AT Austria, Republic of 44 AB GB United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland 45 BD DK Denmark, Kingdom of 46 ED SE Sweden, Kingdom of 47 s BV Bouvet Island 47 s ED NO Norway, Kingdom of 47 s SJ Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands (&795) 48 EB PL Poland, Polish People's Republic 49 ED DE Germany 500 EB FK Falkland Islands 501 ED BZ Belize 502 CD GT Guatemala, Republic of 503 EB SV El Salvador, Republic of 504 CD HN Honduras, Republic of 505 EB NI Nicaragua, Republic of 506 EB CR Costa Rica, Republic of 507 EA PA Panama, Republic of 508 CB PM St. Pierre et Miquelon 509 [EF]B HT Haiti, Republic of 51 EB PE Peru, Republic of 52 ED MX Mexico, United Mexican States 53 CB CU Cuba, Republic of 54 EB AR Argentina, Argentine Republic 55 EB BR Brazil, Federative Republic of 56 AB CL Chile, Republic of 57 ED CO Colombia, Republic of 58 CD VE Venezuela, Republic of 590 CF GP Guadaloupe, including St. Barthelemy and French St. Martin 591 EB BO Bolivia, Republic of 592 AB GY Guyana, Republic of 593 ED EC Ecuador, Republic of 594 ED GF French Guiana 595 EB PY Paraguay, Republic of 596 CB MQ Martinique 597 EB SR Suriname, Republic of 598 EB UY Uruguay, Eastern Republic of 599 EB AN Netherlands Antilles 60 AB MY Malaysia 61 AB AU Australia, Commonwealth of 61 AB CC Cocos Islands 62 EB ID Indonesia, Republic of 63 EB PH Philippines, Republic of the 64 AB NZ New Zealand 65 AB SG Singapore, Republic of 66 ED TH Thailand, Kingdom of 670 EB MP Northern Mariana Islands 671 EB GU Guam 672 s AB AQ Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) (&1) 672 s AB CX Christmas Island (&4) 672 s AB HM Heard and McDonald Islands 672 s AB NF Norfolk Island (&3) 673 AB BN Brunei Darussalam 674 EB NR Nauru, Republic of 675 AB PG Papua New Guinea 676 EB TO Tonga, Kingdom of 677 DB SB Solomon Islands 678 ED VU Vanuatu 679 AF FJ Fiji 680 EB PW Palau 681 WF Wallis and Futuna Islands 682 AB CK Cook Islands 683 NU Niue 684 EB AS American Samoa 685 AB WS Samoa, Independent State of Western 686 EB KI Kiribati 687 CB NC New Caledonia 688 TV Tuvalu 689 CB PF French Polynesia 690 TK Tokelau 691 EB FM Micronesia, Federated States of 692 EB MH Marshall Islands 693 -- Spare 694 -- Spare 695 -- Spare 696 -- Spare 697 -- Spare 698 -- Spare 699 -- Spare 7 c EB AM Armenia (see 374) 7 c EB BY Belarus (see 375) 7 c EB GE Georgia (see 995) 7 s EB KZ Kazakhstan 7 s EB KG Kyrgyz Republic 7 s EB RU Russian Federation 7 s EB TJ Tajikistan 7 s EB TM Turkmenistan 7 s EB UZ Uzbekistan 800 -- Reserved for international called-party-pays services 801 -- Spare 802 -- Spare 803 -- Spare 804 -- Spare 805 -- Spare 806 -- Spare 807 -- Spare 808 -- Spare 809 -- Spare 81 EB JP Japan 82 FB KR Korea, Republic of (South) 830 -- Spare 831 -- Spare 832 -- Spare 833 -- Spare 834 -- Spare 835 -- Spare 836 -- Spare 837 -- Spare 838 -- Spare 839 -- Spare 84 VN Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of 850 ED KP Korea, Democratic People's Republic of (North) 851 -- Spare 852 AB HK Hong Kong 853 EB MO Macau 854 -- Spare 855 KH Cambodia, Kingdom of 856 LA Lao People's Democratic Republic 857 -- Spare 858 -- Spare 859 -- Spare 86 CB CN China, People's Republic of (&6 assigned to Taiwan, see 886) 870 -- Reserved for Inmarsat 871 -- Inmarsat (Atlantic East) 872 -- Inmarsat (Pacific) 873 -- Inmarsat (Indian) 874 -- Inmarsat (Atlantic West) 875 -- Reserved for Inmarsat 876 -- Reserved for Inmarsat 877 -- Reserved for Inmarsat 878 -- Reserved for national mobile telephone purposes 879 -- Reserved for national mobile telephone purposes 880 AB BD Bangladesh, People's Republic of 881 -- Spare 882 -- Spare 883 -- Spare 884 -- Spare 885 -- Spare 886 EB TW Taiwan (normally used, but not ITU-T allocation - see 86) 887 -- Spare 888 -- Spare 889 -- Spare 89 -- Reserved for payment codes (e.g. 891228 = AT&T calling card) 90 EB TR Turkey, Republic of (including Turkish Cyprus &5) 91 AB IN India, Republic of 92 [EA][BD] PK Pakistan, Islamic Republic of 93 AF Afghanistan, Islamic State of 94 AB LK Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of 95 EB MM Myanmar 960 AF MV Maldives, Republic of 961 CB LB Lebanon, Lebanese Republic 962 AB JO Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of 963 EB SY Syrian Arab Republic 964 AB IQ Iraq, Republic of 965 EB KW Kuwait, State of 966 EB SA Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of 967 EB YE Yemen (former Yemen Arab Republic part) 968 FB OM Oman, Sultanate of 969 ED YE Yemen (former Yemen Democratic Republic part) 970 -- Spare 971 AB AE United Arab Emirates 972 EB IL Israel, State of 973 AB BH Bahrain, State of 974 AB QA Qatar, State of 975 AC BT Bhutan, Kingdom of 976 MN Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic 977 CE NP Nepal, Kingdom of 978 -- Spare 979 -- Spare 98 ED IR Iran, Islamic Republic of 990 -- Spare 991 -- Spare 992 -- Spare 993 -- Spare 994 AZ Azerbaijan 995 n EB GE Georgia 996 -- Spare 997 -- Spare 998 -- Spare 999 -- Spare ??? TP East Timor ??? TF French Southern Territories ??? PN Pitcairn Island ??? GS South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands # Notes on spare codes. # A spare code in the same zone (first digit) should be used if available, # otherwise a spare code in an adjacent zone, otherwise a spare code in # the zone with the most spares left. Isolated spare codes should be used # first; if there are none, use the lowest code in the same zone, or the # highest code in another zone. # 88x spare codes are not to be used until all other 8xx spare codes have # been used. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 22:12:13 PDT From: Arthur Chandler Subject: Virtual Amateur Radio on the NET BayMOO, an all-text virtual reality on the Internet, has implemented a striking new techology for amateur radio operators (Hams). BayMOO has just opened its Virtual Ham Central, a virtual room which is linked to a server in Canada, which in turn is connected to hundreds of packet radio stations all over the world. Anyone can enter the room and follow several conversations at once -- usually in different languages. Only licensed Ham operators can transmit from the room. A licensed ham tells his or her callsign to Dr.J or Akira -- the owners and builders of the room -- who then registers the visitor's callsign in the room. After the server link is activated, whatever the operator types after the % sign is sent out over the link to all connected packet stations. A typical conversation might look like this: ************************************************************* Hello -- anyone here tonight? Boa noite -- Alguem aqui fala Portugues? Good evening, KO6OA -- we are recovering from the big storm in Texas. Bonsoir -- Jean QTH Quebec ici. Ola, PY2NG. Como esta o tempo em Rio? Heard about that, KE5IIE. Any hams involved in emergency communications? Bonsoir, Jean, de Joao QTH Rio. ************************************************************* The Virtual Ham Center gives amateur radio operators a chance to communicate with each other via text in a much faster and more error-free medium than ever before. To reach the Virtual Ham Center at BayMOO: telnet baymoo.sfsu.edu 8888 Login as guest, then type @go Virtual Ham Center For more information, contact jeremy@crl.com ------------------------------ From: ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Ward Allen) Subject: Re: U.S. Federal Suggestion Box in Cyberspace Date: 10 May 1995 07:55:13 -0400 Organization: URL:http://www.armory.com/~ulmo/ (see rivers.html for PGP key) In article , wrote: > In , Donald E. Kimberlin > <0004133373@mcimail.com> wrote about a federal suggestion box. > It would be nice if a million or so people just told them to put all > federal documents (especially the tens of thousands of pages of > federal regulations) online (with commercial contractors), then fire > everybody in the federal government and start over from scratch. (Zero > base head count). That would certainly be nice. Problem is those employees are human, and there are a couple of functions that are actually vital. Like the CDC, and many would argue the DoD (as little as I like them I tend to agree). However, in the long run even *these* agencies and our society *may* (or may not) benefit from your reorganization implementation plan. Definately they can both use a lot more computerization. Ahh, my brain is synapsing about the efforts of the people to bandage what sores a bully-operated system creates. My brain feels happier when it synapses about telecommunications and free information access to all government documents ... ------------------------------ From: unitelcomms@cix.compulink.co.uk (Andrew Starte) Subject: Re: Question About Calling Cards Organization: Unitel Communications Ltd Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 12:40:41 GMT Thomas Feiner of Munich, Germany said: > As I arrived at Atlanta Airport, I bought a prepaid phonecard from > U.S. Telecard. I was very happy about the message features. I had a > special message PIN (different to the PIN which is needed to place a > call), who allowed anybody who knew the PIN to leave me messages. This > call was free for the caller, only I had to pay 80c for each message. > Now, I would like to use this feature for international calls > (especially from Germany). The problem is, that 800 numbers can not be > reached from outside the U.S. > So I would like to know if there are calling-cards (prepid or not) > with an international message feature. I am interested in general > information about calling-cards too. Unitel is a UK based phonecard service provider. We focus in Intra European business, so our rates are likely to be better for an European. We also handle the BIG European problem of dial pulse phones. Yes we can currently offer a message forwarding service on "no answer" or engaged" calls and plan to offer voicemail type features within 3 months. Our cards are also rechargeable be credit card. Mail me if you are interested in taking this further. TTFN Andrew Starte Unitel Communications Limited (Principal UK Calling & Pre-paid Phone Card Service Providers) For further details of our products and services e-mail to unitelcomms@cix.compulink.co.uk or telephone +44 1737 778 779. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 May 95 14:53 EST From: TestMark Laboratories <0006718446@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Phone Question Regards Transmission Problems Anthony W Collins writes in TELECOM Digest Volume 15, Issue 217: >> Jack Mott writes: >> We have recently added a third extension for our house. Once every >> four or five calls, the phone will stop sending my voice (I can still >> hear the other party). This happens regardless of which phone is >> attached to the third extension, even an old and reliable Bell System >> phone. We do not experience this problem on the other two extensions. > What you describe is not possible. From your description the problem > is with the four wire part of the circuit transmitter to hybrid in the > set which usually ends up being the handset cord or the transmitter > contacts (clean with an ereaser) I have to dispute the problem being > in your jack wiring back to the central office. It may help to call > your telephone repair department and request a full test on your line > by a technician If you get a bad test disconnect any wiring that you > are responsible for and have them test again and get a dispatch if > their part of the line is bad so as not to incur any charges. It is > always helpful to clear up other minor problems when you are > troubleshooting. A little knowledge is always a dangerous thing. The problem that Jack is describing could very easily be caused by a faulty subscriber carrier system. In fact, he mentions he just added a third line to the house. It's entirely possible that there were only two pairs going to the house, and the telco used a two channel subscriber carrier such as a GTE 84A to piggyback the third "line" onto one of the two copper pairs. Or he could be served by a larger carrier system such as an AT&T SLC 5 or SLC 96, and just happens to have a defective line card on the third line to his house. Unfortunately, the problem is intermittent, so he will no doubt have trouble convincing the telco to keep trying until it shows up. John Combs, Project Engineer, TestMark Laboratories, testmark@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: dgay@di.epfl.ch (David Gay) Subject: Re: Mexico Billing Method: Digit Analysis or Meter Pulse? Date: 09 May 1995 22:40:22 GMT Organization: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne In article Jan Hinnerk Haul writes: > In comp.dcom.telecom is written: > Does Mexico / Central America use a digit analysis method for > calculating charges, or a metered pulse method? What I'm actually > refering to is the SMDR output on a PBX. I believe the U.S. is in the > minority in using digit analysis, or am I wrong? Well, it depends ... Most countries (errr ... PTTs / carriers) give call supervision data to the PBX in some form or the other. Typical methods are high-frequency pulses on top of the voice signal (e.g., Germany uses 16 khz). These pulses are filtered out by the PBX. Each pulse signals that one "unit" or "tick" of charge applies. Other possible methods are a 50hz signal, and polarity reversal (between the A & B lines). The drawback of number analysis is, of course, that no call supervision is possible, letting users being "billed" with uncompleted calls if they wait longer than the set timeout period and letting very brief calls unbilled. If your interest is mainly to catch the expensive calls, like an office setup, this is fine. When you want to bill the calls (like an hotel setup), it is not as easily acceptable. Payphones in some countries use digit analysis, but detect the start of the call with one of the above methods (polarity reversal, etc), thus avoiding that particular problem. David Gay dgay@di.epfl.ch ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #235 ****************************** Received: from ns1.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa09061; 11 May 95 20:16 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id KAA05972 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 11 May 1995 10:15:25 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id KAA05957; Thu, 11 May 1995 10:15:22 -0500 Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 10:15:22 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505111515.KAA05957@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #236 TELECOM Digest Thu, 11 May 95 10:15:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 236 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Phones Fight Fraud (Steve Geimann) Announcement: Nautilus 0.9.0 Now Available (Bill Dorsey) Book Review: "Handbook of LAN Technology" by Fortier (Rob Slade) Rural Internet via Coops (Dean Hughson) MCI Invests in News Corp. (Steve Geimann) Data Pagers w/PCMCIA Interface (Douglas Neubert) Re: ISDN, BellSouth and OCN (Willard F. Dawson) Re: NPA Arrangmenets (John Mayson) FCC Press Release on Caller ID (Andrew Robson) Southeast Louisiana and Gulf Coast Flooding (Mark Cuccia) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: Geimann@aol.com Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 07:16:25 -0400 Subject: Phones Fight Fraud By Steve Geimann Senior Editor {Communications Daily} U.S. telephone companies have turned to customers to fight $3.37 billion in fraud, launching video campaign with fox mascot and enlisting financial support of industry to supplement current antifraud technology. Alliance to Outfox Phone Fraud has six members at its launch, including three RBOCs, and said it hoped remaining large companies and smaller service providers would join soon. Not-for-profit organization assesses members based on size, ranging from $500 for small companies to $50,000 for Baby Bells yearly, said Chmn. Mary Chacanias, Bell Atlantic (BA) fraud prevention manager. "This really is worldwide. It crosses all boundaries." Alliance effort focuses on raising consumer awareness of fraudulent activities, ranging from stealing access codes and PINs from PBXs, persuading clerical workers to release confidential information under guise of repair service and eavesdropping as callers use credit cards at pay phones. Industry statistics show $1.6 billion in fraud using PBXs, $1.7 billion from calling card and cellular theft. Total fraud rose $70 million (2.1%) last year, with average loss of $168,000 for businesses, while losses to PBXs dropped to $20,000 from $24,000 in 1993. Chacanias said BA cut credit card fraud 22% last year, is aiming at 50% this year. BA, Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, Ill. Consolidated Telephone, American Telecommunications Enterprises and Communication Fraud Control Assn. are the first members of alliance. Patrick Hanley, BA president, Carrier Services, said some RHCs might be reluctant to admit they have fraudulent calls: "It's almost like it's become an accepted cost of doing business." Public service announcements to begin in July will use "Freddie the Phone Fraud Fox" in urging customers to protect calling card information, avoid accepting third party or collect calls at home, demand identification from anyone calling themselves phone company employees, avoid allowing anyone to use cellular phone and call companies immediately if any phone-related equipment is stolen. SWB detected sharp increase in fraud directed at Latin population in Southern Tex., where individuals posing as SB representatives instruct consumers to engage call-forwarding feature "as a test," said Marcia Grabish, area mgr.-operator service, then make fraudulent calls through customers' phones. One recent victim got bill for $6,000, she said. Some customers have asked company to block nondomestic calls from their cards, she said. Industry officials hailed recent arrest in $50-million phone fraud case involving Cleartel reseller in D.C., in which someone gained access to computer tape with PINs, Chacanias said. In Illinois, Cheryl Smith-Rardin, manager, Corporate Fraud, ICT, said growing problem of jail inmate phone fraud, in which prisoners order service in name of warden, is prompting new system involving debit bracelets using bar code. ------------------------------ From: dorsey@lila.com (Bill Dorsey) Subject: Announcement: Nautilus 0.9.0 Now Available Date: 10 May 1995 18:09:27 GMT Organization: NOYB, Inc. Announcing Nautilus 0.9.0 (Beta Test) WHAT IS NAUTILUS? Nautilus is a program that lets you have encrypted voice telephone conversations with your friends without needing any special equipment. All you need is a standard personal computer (386/25 or faster PC with Soundblaster compatible sound board, or Sun Sparcstation) and a high speed modem. Its speech quality is reasonably good at 14.4kbps and acceptable at 9600 bps. It currently won't work at any slower modem speeds. Nautilus is the first program of this type that we know of to be distributed for free with source code. A few similar commercial programs have been distributed without source, so that their security cannot be independently examined. HOW DOES IT WORK? Nautilus uses your computer's audio hardware to digitize and play back your speech using a homebrew speech compression routine included with the program. It encrypts the compressed speech using your choice of the Blowfish, Triple DES, or IDEA block ciphers, and transmits the encrypted packets over your modem to your friend's computer. At the other end, the process is reversed. The program is half-duplex; just hit a key to switch between talking and listening. Nautilus's encryption key is generated from a shared secret passphrase that you and your friend choose together ahead of time, perhaps via email using PGP, RIPEM, or a similar program. Nautilus itself does not currently incorporate any form of public key cryptography. Further details are in the release notes included with the program. FTP SITES Nautilus is available in three different formats: nautilus-0.9.0.tar.gz - full source code naut090.zip - MSDOS executable and associated documentation naut090s.zip - full source code It is available at the following FTP sites: ftp://ripem.msu.edu/pub/crypt/other/ This is an export controlled ftp site: read /pub/crypt/GETTING_ACCESS for information on access. ftp://ftp.csn.org:/mpj/I_will_not_export/crypto_???????/ This is an export controlled ftp site: read /mpj/README for information on access. ftp://miyako.dorm.duke.edu/mpj/crypto/voice/ This is an export controlled ftp site: read /mpj/GETTING_ACCESS for information on access. INTERNATIONAL USE Sorry, but under current US law, Nautilus is legal for domestic use in the US only. We don't like this law but have to abide by it while it is in effect. Nautilus is distributed through export-restricted FTP sites for this reason. Please do not export it. IMPORTANT This is a BETA TEST VERSION of a BRAND NEW CRYPTOGRAPHY PROGRAM. Although we've done our best to choose secure ciphers and protocols for Nautilus, its design details have not yet been reviewed by anyone except the authors, and it's VERY EASY to make mistakes in such programs that mess up the security. We advise against putting too much faith in the security of the program until it has undergone a lot more reviewing and debugging. We encourage cryptographers and users alike to examine and test the program thoroughly, and *please* let us know if you find anything wrong. We hope to release an updated version within about one month fixing any serious bugs found in the current version, though probably not having many new features. Finally, although we'll try to fix any bugs reported to us, WE CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ERRORS. CONTACTING THE DEVELOPERS Nautilus was written by Bill Dorsey, Pat Mullarky, and Paul Rubin. To contact the developers, please send email to nautilus@lila.com. This announcement, and the source and executable distribution files, are all signed with the following PGP public key. Please use it to check the authenticity of the files and of any fixes we may post. You can also use it to send us encrypted email if you want. We will try to keep such email confidential, but cannot guarantee it. - -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6 mQCNAi+tZx4AAAEEALUDK2d68thTyVmD5bXeBEELLFtAgNU6O+M+anooPjXr9sBD 7HsHt4VYtDNY3ecefQAFTzTrBwn9V7Ya2EwVttT2cTEiOj9O6mii+QvOXplxsyWo SHsuLIjUzHqY9KvlDDMrBuVhs1qWdbXXax4uKB83kZUlABCVAinl/J//FNOFAAUT tCdOYXV0aWx1cyBEZXZlbG9wZXJzIDxuYXV0aWx1c0BsaWxhLmNvbT6JAJUCBRAv rWeHg1x2TS1X7GUBAYw4BACNBO/efXHqyMfFw8fzfwuUhHqGf4+VRbLWTvL6/JfH 9Vb8G7dhPQQvm6Q6KVnO6LyNskjb1d5noA03vIObC7hwTbr9sznohSd2OyRsTHiE Zdqnx0uv+ypsK+ZTOs4uRoKLd2C4sMqdylKaoF2D7Ob7rCwaGucQBuom8L0C0O7n eokAlQIFEC+tZ04p5fyf/xTThQEBe9EEAJS5fQWa7ev5Ke8Rpzx7zKqkbu7MyJS3 KSKIpsxyYqmx8k/9GmzNP4xxXUCjfro1zPp84WS3oeft0Qg9fOee09PFsjQ3yxI6 bH06tPO/mKmNrTGcLQmncrqyf4iOscBoIPYjXSSAG/ULz7Hwa2+vmjUkWk1K93BL port+RWomAoq =M+h4 - -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAgUBL7EA+inl/J//FNOFAQGexQP/RDIanlbvluQwPb+JTIzwmy0nIyh4vNxQ BcGoK/pKLGKHMsOYJF7DEBq39mEJ3Fn/AP6PPlW6yjKOn2Ngxl4WfhIbRdpXyjlr zbDlm/yZ7zY713RpM2BiPjUoZ7IZWRxhH+WfgvjqTahmSLuBYxnOLWLaQPko9p6N R6c5FKhDT7c= =l/tv -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Bill Dorsey "Nothing that results from human progress is achieved dorsey@lila.com with unamimous consent. And those who are enlightened PGP 2.X pubkey before the others are condemned to pursue that light available in spite of the others." -- Christopher Columbus ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 17:31:55 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Handbook of LAN Technology" by Fortier BKLANTCH.RVW 950331 "Handbook of LAN Technology", Paul Fortier, 1992, 0-07-021625-8 %A Paul Fortier %C 2600 Tenth St., Berkeley, CA 94710 %D 1992 %G 0-07-021625-8 %I Intertext Publications/McGraw Hill %O 510-548-2805 800-227-0900 lkissing@osborne.mhs.compuserve.com %P 732 %T "Handbook of LAN Technology" This is a collection of papers on various aspects, primarily theoretical, of local area network technology. Given the structure, and the variety of authors, there is a great deal of repetition of material. As well as general background, topics covered include error management, topologies, protocols, control, routing, interconnection, security, modelling and simulation, network operating system theory, software, programming languages, tools, architecture, and implementations. This would be of use principally as a collection of references in introduction to specialized theoretical topics. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKLANTCH.RVW 950331. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z1/ User .fidonet.org Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ From: dean@primenet.com (Dean Hughson) Subject: Rural Internet via Coops Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 08:08:44 MST Organization: Primenet It appears to me that some of the readers here are local coops. I wanted to share that in our rural Northern Missouri area the local telephone coops have shown some real leadership in forming a new group and offering affordable slip access to the Net to areas as small as mine (12 miles from a town of 886 people for instance). That is the advantage I see in telephone coops -- they can do things that much larger telephone companies can't quickly ... while my rural area has Internet access many larger cities in Missouri don't ... Dean Hughson ------------------------------ From: Geimann@aol.com Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 07:03:11 -0400 Subject: MCI Invests in News Corp. By Steve Geimann Senior Editor, {Communications Daily} Washington MCI plans $2 billion investment in News Corp. as part of global venture, giving MCI access to content and News Corp. ability to expand distribution and setting stage for delivering information to homes and businesses. MCI Chairman-CEO Bert Roberts and News Chairman-CEO Rupert Murdoch said venture will expand delivery of entertainment and information to homes and businesses worldwide. Roberts said focus will be on businesses as well as entertainment in homes and venture will be "by far is the most expansive and most impactful" of new communications/entertainment joint ventures. Murdoch said that two industries are changing rapidly and that both companies can "create opportunities from those changes." MCI's initial investment is $1 billion in preferred stock and warrants that could increase to $2 billion. At any time in next 4 years, MCI can convert warrants, giving it 13.5% stake in News Corp. and making it second largest shareholder after Murdoch's family. Agreement permits MCI to buy additional shares, up to 20%, after initial equity position. MCI will provide $200 million cash immediately, and News Corp. will offer investments in BSkyB worth up to $200 million to capitalize joint venture at $400 million. Roberts and Murdoch will supervise venture jointly. Staff size wasn't immediately known. Standard & Poor's said it wasn't immediately clear how two companies would provide services, Telecommunications Group Dir. Robert Siderman saying: "It's not quite as clear on its face without more details." MCI's link to U.S. homes is through local telephone companies, making immediate synergies hard to see, he said. He said MCI isn't lacking for cash, and its current rating of A- reflects expectation company planned to spend its cash. Moody's confirmed its A2 and Prime-1 ratings on MCI's senior unsecured debt and commercial paper and placed News ratings on review for possible upgrade. Agency said: "While the investment reduced MCI's cash balances by about one-third, the preferred stock structure ... provides immediate market reeturns although from a lower rated credit." Roberts said it's too early to identify services or offerings of joint venture, but speculated it would be in on-line services and information rather than entertainment. Several times in conference call with reporters, Roberts stressed focus will be on information and entertainment. "This is not just an alliance for entertainment into the home," he said. Although MCI doesn't have immediate access to home, both executives said many other delivery systems, including DBS, cable TV and "eventually" telephone lines will be available. Roberts said MCI-News combination wasn't "a timid deal." ------------------------------ From: dougneub@ix.netcom.com (Douglas Neubert) Subject: Data Pagers With PCMCIA Interface Date: 11 May 1995 12:15:33 GMT Organization: Netcom Can anyone tell me if there is a company that sells a service, that would give my field techs a display pager with an I/O port via PCMCIA or DB9 serial interface. I am trying to send the techs daily routs to the techs and right now they all call in and use the 800 service. This is very costley and with only 20 modems and around 300 techs getting in can be tough. If you can be of any help in this issue at all please E-mail me with any info. Thanx. Doug Neubert Engineering/Tech. Supp. Telsource Corp. ------------------------------ From: wdawson@crl.com (Willard F. Dawson) Subject: Re: ISDN, BellSouth and OCN Date: 10 May 1995 22:49:01 -0400 Organization: Entropy, Ltd. ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Ward Allen) writes: > In article , Willard F. Dawson com> wrote: >> ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Ward Allen) writes: >>> Redundancy is better -- let all subscribers use whatever works best at >>> the moment, as determined by a well-maintained set of routers. >> Redundant routers that kick in to the selected carrier of data rather >> than falling over to a different carrier are also possible ... and, >> required, in a RBOC environment that must compete with the likes of >> MFS and their "miss 1% a year, get the next year for free" attitude. > Yes but frequently the selected carrier of IP data cannot get packets > around. For instance, I have had the worst luck with Sprint, however > since my main host only connects via it (argg when are they going to > upgrade?), I have a dependence on them. My solution is to also have a > Netcom account, plus maintaining a short list of friends' passwords > for emergency use. Last month, I think one out of five login sessions > had to be done via Netcom. Tonight, Netcom hosts were down, luckily > Sprint isn't being a problem to me. > If I upgrade my system of two providers plus access to three others in > emergency needs (included are seven regional, international and > national networks), I'd want some incentive like automated packet > routing via whatever network is working and other redundancy measures. Good (or is that great) service providers will themselves be redundantly connected, and will configure their routers to use BGP to ensure that outages with one provider do not kill their routes to and from the 'net. Cheaper providers will cut corners, and hopefully pass the savings on to you, the user. If not, I suggest you jump ship, in a hurry. If so, then you're choice to remain with them should be an educated decision ... Unfortunately, too many net-newcomers don't know enough to ask these kinds of questions. Perhaps there is or should be a FAQ on proper questions to ask of potential Internet Service Providers. ------------------------------ From: jmayson@p100dl.ess.harris.com (John Mayson) Subject: Re: NPA Arrangmenets Date: Thu, 11 May 95 8:56:02 EDT > In your post, you criticized the current method of NPA splits. > I didn't quite understand what specific NPA you were referring to, what > specifically you didn't like, and what you would prefer instead. > Could you elaborate? Thanks. Well, that posting was more of a run-on thought that anything else. Basically my problem is we aren't trusting the LECs to make these decisions, instead we're allowing state regulators and "concerned" citizens who probably watch too much Oprah to make them. Having lived in Atlanta for many, many years, I see the 404 splits as a perfect example. The Georgia PSC was afraid of excluding outer communities from being "part of Atlanta", so they didn't split anywhere near enough off when they created 706. Now we've got this 404/770 split along I-285 which the local media hyped would keep Southern Bell from forcing Atlantans to dial 10-digits and would make it easier for "our" children to memorize their phone numbers (as if Southern Bell is out to get the people of Atlanta). However this is totally false since there is much cross-Perimeter dialing and a very large "border population" along I-285. They might as well have made an overlay so callers wouldn't have to guess what they need to dial. Hopefully Southern Bell will allow permissive 11-digit dialing These splits are becoming like the gerrymandered Congressional districts, IMHO. Like I said in my original post, yeah, there are bigger and better things to worry about in life. But my Libertarian nature has gotten a little miffed over state and local governments claiming they're acting in the people's best interest by "protecting" them from the LECs and their quest to create more telephone numbers. Personally I prefer overlays for large metro areas (e.g. Houston, Atlanta, South Florida), but splits for larger, more sparcely populated areas, such as Oregon (Were they REALLY considering a statewide overlay?). John Mayson (MS 100/2243) Senior Engineer Harris Electronic Systems Sector PO Box 99000, Melbourne FL USA 32902 Voice (407) 727-6389 | Fax (407) 729-3801 | Pager (407) 635-3606 internet john.mayson@harris.com | http://p100dl.ess.harris.com ------------------------------ From: arobson@cyberspace.com (Andrew Robson) Subject: FCC Press Release on Caller ID Date: 10 May 1995 22:17:37 -0700 Organization: None [The following is a press release downloaded from fcc.gov and lightly edited for line formatting] Report No. DC 95-71 ACTION IN DOCKET CASE May 4, 1995 FCC FINALIZES RULES FOR CALLER ID; ALLOWS PER LINE BLOCKING WHERE STATES PERMIT; PBX CALLER ID RULES PROPOSED (CC DOCKET 91-281) The Commission today voted to approve national Caller ID rules that will protect the privacy of the called and the calling party by mandating that carriers make available a free, simple and consistent, per call blocking and unblocking mechanism. Under the rules adopted today, callers dialing *67 before dialing a particular call will, for interstate calls, block calling party information for any interstate calls and those callers using a blocked line can unblock the line and release that information by dialing *82. The Order permits carriers to provide privacy on all calls dialed from a particular line, where state policies provide, and the customer selects, that option. Today's action came as the Commission reconsidered its original Caller ID nationwide Caller ID system is in the public interest. It found that passage of the calling party's number, or CPN, could benefit consumers by encouraging the introduction of new technologies and services to the public, enabling service providers and consumers to conduct transactions more efficiently. The rules adopted today will take effect December 1, 1995. Public pay phones and partylines will be required to be in compliance by January 1, 1997. The Commission also issued a rulemaking proposal concerning PBX and private payphone obligations under the Caller ID rules. In March 1994, the Commission adopted a Report and Order that concluded that a nationwide Caller ID system was in the public interest and stated that the potential benefits of a Caller ID system -- efficiency and productivity gains, infrastructure development and network utilization, and new service and employment opportunities -- would only be possible if CPN is passed among carrier networks. It noted two areas of concern however -- compensation issues related to passage of CPN for interstate calls and varying state requirements intended to protect the privacy rights of calling and called parties on interstate calls. In today's action the Commission affirmed its finding that common carriers, including Commercial Mobile Radio Service providers, with Signaling System 7 (SS7)call set up capability, must transport CPN without charge to interstate connecting carriers. The Commission clarified that carriers without SS7 call set upcapability do not have to upgrade their networks just to transport CPN to connecting carriers. The Commission noted that local exchange carriers are required to resell interstate access for Caller ID to other carriers wishing to compete for end-user business in this market. The Commission modified its previous decision that only per-call blocking would be allowed. Today's action permits per-line blocking for interstate calls instates where it is permitted for intrastate calls, provided the customer elects per line blocking. The Commission's original rules required a caller to dial *67 before each call in order to block the called party from knowing the caller's number. The Commission has now modified its rules to permit carriers to provide privacy on all calls dialed from a particular line, where state policies provide, and the customer selects, that option, provided carriers permit callers to unblock calls from that line by dialing *82. Where state policies do not require or permit at the customer's election per line blocking, carriers are bound by the federal privacy protection model to provide privacy only where *67 is dialed. The Commission noted that it continues to exempt calls to emergency lines from its rules; that is, a carrier's obligation to honor caller privacy requests to emergency numbers will be governed by state policies. As an additional privacy measure, the Commission requires that when a caller requests that the calling party number be concealed, a carrier may not reveal the name of the subscriber to that line and callers requesting that their number not be revealed should be able to block an automatic call return feature. The Commission continues to require that carriers with call set up capability that pass CPN or transmit Automatic Number Identification (ANI) educate customers regarding the passage and usage of this information. Finally, the Commission issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing that Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems and private payphones capable of delivering CPN to the public switched telephone network also be capable of delivering a privacy indicator when users dial *67 and be capable of unblocking the line by dialing *82. Action by the Commission May 4, 1995, by MO&O on Reconsideration, Second R&O and Third NPRM (FCC 95 - 187). Chairman Hundt, Commissioners Quello, Barrett, Ness and Chong. -FCC- News Media contact: Susan Lewis Sallet at (202) 418-1500. Common Carrier Bureau contacts: Marian Gordon at (202) 634-4215. ------------------------------ From: Mark Cuccia Subject: Southeast Louisiana and Gulf Coast Flooding Date: Thu, 11 May 95 09:38:00 +6C I can only speak for New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana - We are now 100% ESS/Digital ESS. The flooding this time seems worse than in previous storms. I did not have any flooding in my apartment nor was there flooding in any of my relatives' homes. Some of the New Orleans metro area had flooding which 'never' flood. Electric power, of course, was out at one time or another for most of us -- the power at home was out for 5 minutes and later for 55 minutes Monday nite, and there were split-second power flashes and 5 second 'brown-outs' from Monday nite thru Wednesday. Monday nite, the local SCBell class-5 central office where I live was on battery rather than commercial power. Sometimes I was off hook up to two minutes off-hook before getting dial-tone. I did get re-order signals on some call attempts. There were times where I could NOT do a '*66' -- I would get re-order on those Telco Auto-Redial attempts. I am a rather new customer of BellSouth Mobility -- I had some trouble getting a cellular call out -- and when I DID get a channel, the signal was quite bad and I got cut-off. Cable-TV service was still on in MY area of New Orleans, but Monday nite and part of the day Tuesday some channels were out. ALL Cable channels were on (and clear) on Wednesday. I did not come into work on Tuesday or Wednesday -- and when I got to work today, the System Administorator told us that we had been 'cut-off' from the outside world on Tuesday -- but most of our email would come in if the sender or their system kept resending. When I came in this morning, all issues of TELECOM Digest were waiting in my e-mail-box, and the receipt date/time was Wednesday nite. New Orleans has a 'flood-of-the-century' every year or so, and has since the late 1970's. We are actually BELOW sea level (most of the area is built on a SWAMP) and the climate is sub-tropical. Sometimes even a SIMPLE rain shower will cause street flooding. The 1983 annual 'flood-of-the-century' (April 17, 1983) caused FAR WORSE telephone trouble -- the 'main' telco building in the business district (Toll, Tandem, TSPS, AND ESS local office) was flooded in the basement, where telco power was located. When commercial power went out, South Central Bell was unable to start up their emergency generators. They had to go on storage battery power which eventually became DRAINED. At that time, most all network radio and television, including newswires had NOT yet gone to satellite distribution -- they still relied on the Bell System (AT&T). New Orleans was more-or-less cut off from the outside world. Western Union could not Telex in or out of New Orleans and WUTC was also probably down locally -- their switches were just one or two blocks away from Bell/AT&T and were probably flooded. No OTHER private line services/networks were able to transmit to/from New Orleans, and probably not even locally. THIS time, the business-district area did NOT flood -- and also there are other carriers and networks and technologies out there instead of just Ma-Bell. For about 30 minutes Tuesday morning, I did NOT even have sidetone on the Central Office serving my home -- I did have a 'hum' of battery, but no sidetone (I could not 'talk' through the receiver) Meanwhile, I am dry. Mark ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #236 ****************************** Received: from ns1.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa08369; 11 May 95 19:13 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id MAA10157; Thu, 11 May 1995 12:22:31 -0500 Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 12:22:31 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505111722.MAA10157@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #237 TELECOM Digest Thu, 11 May 95 12:14:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 237 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Job Opening at BellSouth (Chendong Zou) Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs (Tim Gorman) Re: Use of CDPD For Redundancy in Cellular Networks (John Agosta) Re: Mexico Billing Method: Digit Analysis or Meter Pulse? (Lars Poulsen) Re: Voice/Data Multiplexer for 64kb Leased Line? (Dan Matte) Re: Calls From Australia to US 800 Not Delivering DTMF (Serge Burjak) Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? (Bradley Ward Allen) Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? (Bruce Roberts) Extending Cordless Telephone Range (Greg Smith) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: zou@ccs.neu.edu (Chendong Zou) Subject: Job Opening at BellSouth Date: 11 May 1995 15:10:10 GMT Organization: College of Computer Science, Northeastern University This is posted for a friend, please use the contact info. below: ATTENTION: 1) In my previous posting on 5/9, I inadvertently forgot that our Employment Office needs to file your application. As a result, I am reposting this job specs with the correction that individual candidate should send resume to (resume@snt.bst.bls.com). 2) The Internet address is used for all groups within Science & Technology, BellSouth Telecommunications. Since there are openings in other groups, You may still want to send your resume even though your background may not match the job specs described below. 3) Search firms please do not response to this posting. A subsequent posting describes detailed qualifications and steps to submit your candidate resumes will follow. DATE: May 11, 1995 CONTACT: Send text resume to (resume@snt.bst.bls.com) and reference to Dr. Eric Kai. LOCATION: Atlanta, Georgia COMPANY: BellSouth Telecommunications, which has revenues in excess of $13 billion and assets of over $28 billion, has several R&D positions available in the Wireless Service Integration group of the Science & Technology department. Our charter is to: - provide technical support to BellSouth's business units in developing and implementing the business strategies for wireless market, - conduct technical evaluation, requirement specifications, system/software engineering, prototype/product development and technical/marketing field trials, - R&D technical solutions to offer integrated/enhanced wireless services to BellSouth consumers and/or PCS service providers within our region, - interact with vendor in product selection, requirement definition and/or joint development to support wireless products and services. EXPERIENCE/SKILL: Successful candidates should possess M.S. or Ph.D. in EE, CS, Telecommunication, or related disciplines. M.S. with a minimum of three years of experience (or equivalent) in the wireless telecommunication industry having solid working knowledge of wireless networks such as cellular, mobile data and/or PCS is required. Experience on system engineering, fast prototyping and software development on wireless product and services is highly desirable. Candidates must have expertise in at least one of the area below: RF Design Area: solid experience in frequency planning, system growth planning, cell site traffic analysis and RF propagation to conduct the design/development of a Radio Planning tool for cellular/PCS network under CDMA, GSM and TDMA. Familiar with the air interface standards. Wireless Data Area: working knowledge with wireless data technologies such as CDPD, PCS data over CDMA and GSM, and/or other mobile data applications. Network Area: knowledge of SS7, ISUP and ISDN signaling and/or transport. Good understanding of HLR/VLR/AM mobility management under cellular/PCS for CDMA, TDMA and GSM. Familiar with IS-41/GSM MAP. R&D experience in the transparency of integrated wireline and wireless services using AIN capabilities and other intelligent network features. OAM&P Area: experience in numbering plan, CDR/AMA, cellular rate plan, billing services and downstream data processing and management. Working background in designing/developing OSS such as PCS/cellular network management, PCS performance tuning and traffic analysis, customer trouble tracking, etc. PERSONAL: This individual must have: - good interpersonal skills to work in a highly competent technical team. - motivation to understand the business needs of BellSouth and to find effective matches between these needs and emerging technologies, - ability to work in an effective, cooperative manner with other client organizations within BellSouth as well as external companies. OTHERS: - Search Firm please do not response to this job post. A subsequent post will describe detail steps for you to send your candidate resumes. Chendong Zou Internet: zou@ccs.neu.edu College of Computer Science, Northeastern University 360 Huntington Avenue #23CN, Boston, MA 02115 Phone: (617) 373 3822 WWW: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/zou Fax: (617) 373 5121 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 23:19:02 -0500 From: Tim Gorman Subject: Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs fratkins@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Frank Atkinson) writes in TELECOM Digest V15 #233: > Without going too deeply into the regulatory system that built the > network which took what the company spent, added a guaranteed rate of > return, and in some cases hidden taxes, then passed it on to the rate > payer's bill (rate of return regulation). The shareholder's position > has been fairly well protected. Maybe each ratepayer should be given > some company stock now that the network they built will be used to > compete. The company hasn't sold enough stock to fund the network, the > money came from the ratepayers, the ratepayers repaid the consturction > bonds, not the stockholders. If each ratepayer should be given stock in the telephone company then why shouldn't each Ford owner be given stock in Ford? The car owners repaid the debt issues (including debt bonds) of Ford, not the stockholders. This is true of ANY company. The stockholders of Ford certainly didn't repay the debt issues of Ford in order to provide free cars to consumers. The problem with this logic is that: 1. The stockholders in the telephone companies did NOT make a killing. The dividends were always very low compared to other companies of similar revenues. The difference was that much of the company income flow DID go to pay off debt issues as well as being reinvested. The stockholders PAID a penalty for low risk by also incurring low yield. 2. The telephone companies were NEVER guaranteed a rate of return. In fact, the commissions set MAXIMUM rates of returns, not minimums. If rate relief was requested by the telco during a rate hearing it was incumbent upon the phone company to show that the rate of return during a measurement period prior to the hearing was insufficient to operate the company and attract sufficient capital. There were lots of years that the commission set MAXIMUM rate of return was never approached. By the same token, having a MAXIMUM rate of return limit did not provide much incentive for modern- ization, for creative service offerings, or for innovation. These are things driven by competition. 3. There is NOTHING wrong with reinvested earnings. Funding a capital intensive operation does NOT have to be done totally by shareholder investment in order to be "acceptable" Once again, we see a view that somehow transforms the phone company into being a non-profit, psuedo-government type of operation that should be "owned" by all citizens since it was paid for by "psuedo-taxes" on the ratepayers masking as "rates" for services. The assets owned by the shareholders should just be given away thus diminishing the value of each share held by the shareholders. They just got rich by trampling the "rights" of the ratepayers so who cares? Folks, the phone companies have always been just that -- COMPANIES. They have always been companies owned by shareholders -- just like Ford, Pizza Hut, and Midas Muffler. Just like any other company, these shareholders expected the company to make a profit and pay a dividend. The amount of the dividend versus the investment was never near the top but it was constant -- which is why AT&T stock used to be known as the stock for little old ladies looking for a guaranteed income. Since the telco's were franchised monopolies they were regulated. There was always two sides to the regulation: 1. See that the ratepayer received the proper value for the rates being paid. 2. Allow the company to earn adequately to provide the required service. You may want to argue all day long on how good of a job the various Public Utility Commissions did of regulation. You may even want to argue whether having regulated monopolies did or did not do the best for the consumer in the long run. But it is not valid to argue that the telco's, companies OWNED by private citizens, should somehow be nationalized. Those shareholders deserve an adequate rate of return on their investment, just as the shareholders of MCI, Sprint, and J.C. Penny deserve an adequate rate of return on their investment. Tim Gorman tg6124@tyrell.net Southwestern Bell Tel. Co (I speak only for myself) ------------------------------ From: jagosta@interaccess.com Subject: Re: Use of CDPD For Redundancy in Cellular Networks Date: 10 May 1995 17:01:31 GMT Organization: InterAccess, Chicago's best Internet Service Provider rothen+@pitt.edu (Seth B Rothenberg) writes: > I recently did some work investigating CDPD. One observation I made > was that CDPD is an excellent way to gain redundancy. In most areas > (most populated areas?), there are two cellular carriers. Since the > last mile is what is at greatest risk, half of any circuit is > protected 100%. I'm not sure what you mean about 1/2 of each circuit ... but, not understanding your situation entirely, I'll put in my two cents ... > My question is about the other half. Does anyone know if there is an > easy way to, for example, have a router connection to both the A-side > carrier and to the B-side carrier? Then, you'd have almost perfect > reduncancy. Each carrier is considered its own domain, with different IP net assignments / hosts etc. In order to use both carriers, an account would have to be established and IP addresses assigned to the M-ES for each carier. On the land line side, you would need a connection to your fixed end system from each carrier, meaning your router would need two ports, one connected to each CDPD provider. Your M-ES would need to be programmed with two IP addresses. (Many M-ESs can handle more than one, CMI does ten for instance.) Another way to work would be to use a single IP address, however, inter-working agreements between the A and B carriers would have to be in place, physical connectivity between the carriers would have to be in place, and roaming charges (or similar) may apply. (much deleted) > What I am not clear about is, where the IP address is > looked up. Does the CDPD Mobile End Station know its own IP address? > I would think it WOULD NOT need to know it, because the Data Service > Manager would do that. The CDPD mobile device does know its IP address, as per above. The IP address "lookup" is done at a database in the carrier user signs up with. The database is located in a "Home" function. All authentication, etc is done at this "home" function, regardless as to where the mobile user actually is being "served" from. If I lived in Chicago, for instance, my "home" function would be in Chicago (or the closest one to my office if there was more than one). > If this is the case, the device would just have two IP addresses, one > on each network. My company's routers would need to be configured to > route via whichever path is available. One IP address is required if only one "home" needs to be consulted for authentication purposes. Hence, interworking must be done between carriers A and B if one database is to serve the user. One router connection would be required as well in this scenario. If two network "accounts" are being used, yes, you would need two IP addresses. Did this help? I hope so. If you email me, we can have a more detailed discussion. John ------------------------------ From: lars@spectrum.RNS.COM (Lars Poulsen) Subject: Re: Mexico Billing Method: Digit Analysis or Meter Pulse? Date: 10 May 1995 10:14:49 -0700 Organization: Rockwell International - CMC Network Products In comp.dcom.telecom is written: >> Does Mexico / Central America use a digit analysis method for >> calculating charges, or a metered pulse method? What I'm actually >> refering to is the SMDR output on a PBX. I believe the U.S. is in the >> minority in using digit analysis, or am I wrong? In article Jan Hinnerk Haul writes: JHH> [for chargeback cost analysis] quite a lot of PBXes can do number JHH> analysis as an alternative method [to reading billing pulses]. JHH> The drawback of number analysis is, of course, that no call JHH> supervision is possible, letting users being "billed" with uncompleted JHH> calls if they wait longer than the set timeout period and letting very JHH> brief calls unbilled. This is an oversimplification. Even without billing pulses, you are not always limited to a simple timeout in determining whether the call was answered. The real answer -- as usual -- is "it depends". In some areas of the world [including specifically Denmark; I don't have any experience with Hispanic America], you will in fact be billed at the rate of the dialed number, even if the call was never answered. The logic is that you have been tying up facilities along the call path, just as if the call had been connected. Whether you get charged for uncompleted calls is of course an administrative tariffing issue, although it may depend on whether the switch is equipped to detect whether the call was connected. (In some areas, where trunking is analog, the information may not be available to the switch.) Independently of whether you get charged for the uncompleted calls, you may have either a short loop disconnect or a polarity reversal when the call is connected. This depends on the specific switching equipment that the line is connected to. Typically, the short disconnect is seen on older mechanical switches, while the option to provide a polarity reversal is available on newer switches. Most administrations can provide a booklet defining the subscriber interface, and saying that "you may see ..." this or that feature and any equipment connected must be able to deal with all of these. But unless you have a technical contact in the repair bureau, you will probably not be able to find out: - what switch type is serving a specific line - what options are available for that line on that switch, or - how the specific line is actually configured. Lars Poulsen Internet E-mail: lars@RNS.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: Reon_Can@mindlink.bc.ca (D. Matte) Subject: Re: Voice/Data Multiplexer for 64kb Leased Line? Date: Wed, 10 May 95 10:24:39 -0800 Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada In , harlan@Physik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Magnus Harlander) writes: > We are looking for a data/voice multiplexer for a leased 64kb > digital line. We want to use some portion of the bandwidth for phone > calls to and from a PBX extension and the rest for IP traffic. The > leased line speaks the G.703 protocol (there would be an alternative > using I.430). Any information about implementations, producers and > distributors is appreciated. Memotec Communications Inc (Canada/US) also provides a solution for this application that accomodates up to T1 speeds. CX1000 Multimedia Multiplexer 6/16 slot chassis Modules available: - Voice/Fax Compression - Data Compression - Ethernet & Token Ring bridging & routing - Frame Relay - Packet Switching - 56K DSU/CSU - FT1/T1 DSU/CSU US HQ (508) 681-0600 Canadian HQ (514) 738-4781 Dan Matte Memotec Communications Inc Vancouver, British Columbia d._matte@mindlink.bc.ca ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 May 95 12:10:05 GMT From: serge burjak Organization: SYSTECH in Queensland, AUSTRALIA Subject: Re: Calls From Australia to US 800 Not Delivering DTMF TestMark Laboratories <0006718446@mcimail.com> wrote: > Serge Burjak writes in TELECOM Digest Volume 15 Issue 226: >> I have a problem getting through to some automated attendants using >> DTMF from Australia. As the title says, after the connection the line >> appears not to pass DTMF tones ie., "press 1 for this service, press 2 >> for that service." >> This happens with both Telecom and OPTUS. The customer service droids >> will not escalate the problem to anyone at an 'Engineer' level, but >> only to techs who make comments like, well "the US is probably >> translating these into something different, sorry cannot help you". >> Am I being unreasonable asking to pass in voice band information? I >> know it's not my phone, I can use Cyberlinks dial back for this or >> AT&T's USA direct with a credit card. The Cyberlink solution is not >> totally satisfactory for other resaons. The attendant requires a # key >> after the some transactions and Cyberlinks interprets this as a new >> call request. > The DTMF receivers in automated attendants are usually not up to the > same quality as a Central Office DTMF receiver. It sounds as if there > is more loss on the Telecom and OPTUS connections than there is on the > AT&T USA direct. This surprises me, as I would assume that all are > using digital transmission systems, which are "lossless!" ... lots of good stuff archived. Thanks for the reply. I am hot on the trail of the problem. After much screaming I got an OPTUS network engineer and SHE took me seriously. They did some serious testing and it turns out, OPTUS and Telecom Australia use the same LD carrier in the US to route the calls. It appears when the remote answers, the LD invloved (one of the big three) does not get an acknowledgement from this number to start billing and enable the forward voice channel. It could be related to a fraud prevention program, or more likely a poor implementation. It's still broke on this one number that I NEED to use and I have found a couple of others. Most other 800s appear to work. Stay tuned. ------------------------------ From: ulmo@panix.com (Bradley Ward Allen) Subject: Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? Date: 10 May 1995 15:06:42 -0400 Organization: URL:http://www.armory.com/~ulmo/ (see rivers.html for PGP key) In article , Benjamin P. Carter wrote: > The PUC had ruled that an unlisted number would not be disclosed > unless the caller chose to disclose it. That's all. Pac Bell > asserted that too few customers would order caller ID under that rule > to make it profitable. And now the FCC has decreed that the calling > number will be disclosed unless the caller specifically choses to > block it. This makes a difference because many (perhaps most) > residential customers will ignore the whole issue of caller ID, doing > nothing to either allow or block the display of their numbers when > they make phone calls. By default, their numbers will be displayed > under the FCC rule. The rule goes into effect December 1, 1995. Pac > Bell is happy with this rule and will offer CNID in 1996. In retrospect, Pac Bell is right: I have CNID, and most the callers who call me don't care or aren't aware of CNID. Their numbers just show up on my box. Those who do care about CNID usually have gone out of their way to block their lines. Very few are aware and let it show, and I bet that if they had to actually call and activate the showing of their number, they wouldn't have done it. If they had to actively turn it on, my CID box would be practically useless. However, I can see putting a recording on my line, which whenever I received an Out Of Area or Private call would say: "Right now you can reach me at 1-800-BRADLEY" or whatever, then hang up. When they called back, they'd go through my WilTel or other 800 number which passes ANI via CNID ... (: I would still find this useful. I'm trying to figure out what inexpensive equipment I can get which would do this. Bradley ------------------------------ From: bruce.roberts@greatesc.com (Bruce Roberts) Subject: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 00:14:00 GMT Organization: The Great Escape - Gardena, CA - (310) 676-3534 Messrs. Greenberg and Cogorno have, quite properly, taken me to task for getting the California PUC decision on caller-id wrong. It was *not* the fact that the PUC wanted per-line blocking as an option but rather that they insisted all unlisted lines be per-line blocked by by default. My thanks to these gentleman for correcting me and my apology to the participants for putting out wrong information. TTFN -br- Bruce Roberts, bruce.roberts@greatesc.com ------------------------------ From: smithgl@ndlc.occ.uky.edu (Greg Smith) Subject: Extending Cordless Telephone Range Date: 10 May 1995 19:56:02 GMT Organization: The NDLC's Internet Gateway I recently installed a cordless telephone (Partner Plus - AT&T CDM 9000) for a client. The cordless gets great range when I locate the base/charger near the outside wall of the building. However, the owner wants his base/charger located in his office in the middle of the office building which severly limits his range and clarity when he uses his cordless outside. Is it possible to install an external antenna on the outside of the building to improve the signal from the cordless base/charger? Thanks, Greg smithgl@ndlc.occ.uky.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You can do this, but a couple problems come to mind. You are not dealing with that much signal strength to begin with, and some dissipation will occur in the coax between the base unit and the rooftop antenna, which, IMO, will get you back to about where you started, range-wise. It is also possible to open up the base unit and 'peak' it up some if you know how to trim those pots a little that you find inside. Know what you are doing please, before you take a screwdriver to the inside of any radio transceiver. Most cordless phones have how much power ... about a hundred milliwatts? So maybe you get in there and *carefully* and *very slightly* adjust the proper potentiometers to push the output up to ummm ... maybe a quarter-watt; god forbid a half-watt if you get it just right. Try not to blow out the final in the process, okay? Now, let's say the proper peaking of the base got you that quarter-watt of output, and you locate the base as strategically as possible, and use as short a coax run as possible to get it to the roof to an antenna preferably half-wave size. Notice how I emphasize *carefully* throughout this message: after all, you are not running WLS 890 AM or KOA in Denver, with fifty thousand watts of power to splash all over the northern hemisphere all night long. Your supply is very limited. *They* don't give a damn about Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) and such; why should they ... but you need every tiny bit of power you can tweak out of that base, making sure it reaches the roof and a peice of metal which is conducive to proper and efficient radiation. So here we go: your antenna on the roof is now really blowing smoke. That cordless phone can get signals twice as far as before ... maybe even up to three blocks away when atmospheric conditions are right and a lot of other cordless phones in the vicinity are not being used. You should be all set, right? Wrong ... guess what: the handset can hear the base alright, but can't get back to it. Now you can tweak and peak the handset a little also, but you will *never* get it anywhere near the potential strength of the base. For one, the components in the handset are a little different. At best, it has a chinzy little battery power supply which at any given time is about half-way run down, compared to the base which is plugged into the Edison line always getting lots of juice and always ready to go. For two, the antenna on the handset is a compromise to make it convenient to use. A half-wave antenna would be a burden due to its size (length), so the manufacturer compromised with a loaded coil in the phone making it 'think' its antenna was just as good as any other. The handset can still hear the base alright; a call comes in and the base sends a signal. The handset chirps and you turn it on; but it just keeps on chirping because the base thinks you did not answer; after all it got no signal back from the handset. Maybe you get slightly within range of the base, and because the base is booming so well, the modulation in your earpiece is fine .. perhaps too loud and too over- loaded (depending on what pots you turned when you were in the base messing around! ha ha) but to the person on the other end your voice sounds very distant, faint and even 'broken up' as other signals walk all over your handset. You sound like pooh ... as the CB'ers used to say. Get back within the 'normal' operating range and the handset works fine. All you basically accomplished by tweaking up the base and installing your rooftop antenna was fixing things so the scanner phreaks who spy on your cordless conversations could hear them that much easier. Now instead of snoopy people a half-mile away listening in, people a mile away get to listen also, but a fat lot of good it does your client who gets only frustration when he tries to get more than the 'usual' distance away with his cordless. So after all your experiments at extending the range, the truth becomes known: cordless phone bases are fixed 'the way they are' with the little antennas they have for good reason ... there has to be a more or less equal balance between the base *getting out* and the handset *getting back to the base*. They work at about half their potential (if everything inside was maxed out and the antenna was better quality) because that's the best the handset can do in return. Unlike a broadcast radio station, cordless phones take two to tango. I think you will find attempts to extend the range or overcome barriers such as walls and basements, etc have very limited success at best with cordless phones. If additional range and reliable transmission is what your client needs, we have a name for it: 'cellular service'. What success you will accomplish in increasing the range will only occur provided you also tweak the handset a little, and then the results will be dubious at best. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #237 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa24969; 12 May 95 21:37 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA10555 for telecomlist-outbound; Fri, 12 May 1995 16:01:04 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA10545; Fri, 12 May 1995 16:01:01 -0500 Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 16:01:01 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505122101.QAA10545@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #238 TELECOM Digest Fri, 12 May 95 16:01:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 238 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Request for Information: Combat Theater Comm (Michael R. Brown) Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? (Bob Yazz) Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs? (Ed Ellers) Re: Calls From Australia to US 800 Not Delivering DTMF (Wally Ritchie) Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range (Joe Carey) Re: The AT&T "Minimum Usage Charge" Rumor (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: The AT&T "Minimum Usage Charge" Rumor (Mark E. Daniel) Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? (Steve Cogorno) Re: DID: Same as Early SxS Centrex? (Richard Kevin) Re: DID: Same as Early SxS Centrex? (Wes Leatherock) Re: Country Codes (Toby Nixon) Warning About 500 Number Charges (Eric Wagner) NYNEX Strikes Again (Michael J Kuras) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: Michael R. Brown Subject: Request for Information: Combat Theater Comm Date: 11 May 1995 21:51:49 GMT Organization: The MITRE Corporation The MITRE Corporation, a Federally Funded R&D Center (FFRDC), is currently assisting the US Air Force in designing, procuring, and fielding its next generation Combat Theater Communications system. As the General Systems Engineer (GSE), MITRE is currently investigating the use of leading-edge, standards-based communications technology in the theater environment. Technology of interest includes, but is not limited to, ATM, N-ISDN, direct broadcast satellite (DBS), personal communications systems (PCS), intelligent agents (IAs), and integrated network management and control (INMC). In preparation for acquiring this new teleinformation system, MITRE is soliciting inputs from industry on the employment of these and related technologies and services to provide world-wide, on-demand communications support to deployed Air Force and Joint Task Force (JTF) components. Communication services to be supported include secure and unsecure telephony (analog, digital), data communications (IP, Novell, Vines, etc.), messaging (SMTP, X.400, Autodin, paging), video (broadcast, interactive), and other related multimedia services. Interested parties are encouraged to submit their ideas in the form of white papers, not to exceed 15 pages in length, to the address below by the COB on 15 June 1995. These papers will be reviewed and used as the basis for scheduling one-on-one meeting with government and MITRE personnel during July-August95. Your interest and support will be greatly appreciated. Michael R. Brown Director, Advanced Communications Systems The MITRE Corporation 202 Burlington Road Bedford, MA 01730 mrb@mitre.org 617.271.7390, 617.271.7231 (fax) ------------------------------ From: yazz@locus.com (Bob Yazz) Subject: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? Date: 11 May 1995 22:02:48 GMT Organization: Locus Computing Corporation, Inc. [ Probably newsworthy, for San Diego Local news. ] In the latest software release for the DMS-100 switch in the San Diego area, there is a new "feature" that is hurting people who cannot dial or remember phone numbers with great speed. Specifically, if you pause for a mere four seconds between digits you lose dialtone and get a recording that says to try again. Before this latest change, the timeout was 20 seconds for the entire dialing process. Four seconds! Hell, I sometimes pause that long myself when dialing an unfamiliar number, and my memory and dialing abilities are just fine. The question I have for the TELECOM Digest readership is this. Assuming that Pac Bell decides this is indeed a simple-to-find error they want to correct, how long will it take for a fix to be available? Is the best one can hope for a months-and-months wait for the next scheduled software release? Or will Telco's tradition of doing right by the handicapped -- long before it was politically and socially fashionable I might add -- triumph and make the correction happen any sooner? Incidentally, the problem appeared simultaneously with the release in San Diego of SS7 services (Call Screen, Call Return, etc.). Have any other Pac Bell customers on DMS-100's had a similar experience when their areas got these new features? Best wishes, Bob Yazz [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There seems to be a conflict here between people who need longer to dial and those who lacking the carriage return or '#' symbol on their phone want a speedy time-out. I'd think they might make it a little longer though; even six or seven seconds between digits would be an improvement and not that much more inconvenient to rotary phone (or for that matter, early, 1960-ish ten button touch tone) users. Still though, prepending '11' to the dialing string usually is considered a substitute for the '#' following; I suppose the people seeking speedy time-outs could do it that way so the slow dialers could have a full ten or fifteen seconds if desired. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs? Date: Thu, 11 May 95 22:10:15 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Frank Atkinson writes: > Without going too deeply into the regulatory system that built the > network which took what the company spent, added a guaranteed rate of > return, and in some cases hidden taxes, then passed it on to the rate > payer's bill (rate of return regulation). The shareholder's position > has been fairly well protected. Maybe each ratepayer should be given > some company stock now that the network they built will be used to > compete. The company hasn't sold enough stock to fund the network, the > money came from the ratepayers, the ratepayers repaid the consturction > bonds, not the stockholders. Has Apple Computer sold enough stock to fund all the facilities they've built? How about Microsoft? Or U.S. Steel? Or Sony? I think you'll find that *most* companies built up on profits earned from their customers; telephone companies are no different. The stockholders of a telephone company, just like any other company, accept the risk that the company may be badly managed; the customers do not share in this risk, and so have no claim to the profits. ------------------------------ From: writchie@gate.net Subject: Re: Calls From Australia to US 800 Not Delivering DTMF Date: 12 May 1995 02:33:44 GMT Reply-To: writchie@gate.net In , serge burjak writes: > Thanks for the reply. I am hot on the trail of the problem. After much > screaming I got an OPTUS network engineer and SHE took me seriously. > They did some serious testing and it turns out, OPTUS and Telecom > Australia use the same LD carrier in the US to route the calls. It > appears when the remote answers, the LD invloved (one of the big > three) does not get an acknowledgement from this number to start > billing and enable the forward voice channel. It could be related to a > fraud prevention program, or more likely a poor implementation. > It's still broke on this one number that I NEED to use and I have > found a couple of others. Most other 800s appear to work. It sounds like your problem calls may be those which are terminating in DID trunks. Although FCC Part 68 requires the PBX or automated attendant to return answer supervision (except under specified conditions) many do not. The local exchange company doesn't care because it still collects terminating access on the call (yes the IC pays for the ring no answer and eats it). IC's like AT&T don't like to be defrauded in this way so they solved the problem by blocking the voice path TOWARD the terminating location until answer supervision is returned. This is easily done at the final IC switch (like a 4E) and effectively prevents the fraud. In addition, most IC's will time out the call after a specified time without answer supervision. The IC's could report the offending switch to the FCC by why bother when the above solution effectively solves the problem. Wally Ritchie Ft. Lauderdale, Florida ------------------------------ From: Joe Carey Subject: Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range Date: Thu, 11 May 95 16:27:18 MDT In reply to the comments from smithgl@ndlc.occ.uky.edu (Greg Smith): > I recently installed a cordless telephone (Partner Plus - AT&T CDM > 9000) for a client. The cordless gets great range when I locate the > base/charger near the outside wall of the building. However, the > owner wants his base/charger located in his office in the middle of > the office building which severly limits his range and clarity when he > uses his cordless outside. > Is it possible to install an external antenna on the outside of the > building to improve the signal from the cordless base/charger? Cable losses might kill you, depending on the transmission frequency (49 MHz or 900 MHz?) and the distance. However, whatever additional gain you get by putting a better antenna on will help both transmit and receive. In antenna theory they call this "reciprocity". A better antenna is both better at transmitting and receiving. I forget the exact numbers, but it seems to me that RG58/RG59 cable isn't cheap: something like $75/100' roll in small quantities. If it's a 900 MHz phone, the cable losses will eat your lunch in no time. Probably your best bet is to try these options: 1) Simply get a better antenna -- this may not be possible. You may or may not be able to put a long piece of coaxial cable between the antenna and the base station -- try it! I don't recall seeing any aftermarket antennas for cordless phones. 2) Get a cordless _Digital_ phone. Most cordless phones (I don't know the model in question) are FM analog. These require a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of about 30 dB while a good _digital_ phone only requires an SNR of about 12 dB. I haven't worked through the numbers, but the path loss might kill you. The Tropez phone is digital. Our sysadmins here use it with about a 300 ft radius through lots of walls and seem very satisfied. 3) Tell the guy he can't have the base in his office, but it needs to be near a window instead. It's just the way physics is. Pat's later comments point out why simply inserting an external amplifier won't fix any of the problems -- you have both outgoing and incoming signals on the antenna, so you need the amplifier pointed in both directions. That configuration is called an oscillator. Yeah, it can be fixed with the proper filters, but it seems more trouble than its worth. BTW, this is very suspect from a legal point of view. If you really need that kind of range, buy a cell phone; nothing in life is free. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: > Notice how I emphasize *carefully* throughout > this message: after all, you are not running WLS 890 AM or KOA in Denver, > with fifty thousand watts of power to splash all over the northern hemisphere > all night long. Your supply is very limited. *They* don't give a damn > about Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) and such; why should they ... but you need > every tiny bit of power you can tweak out of that base, making sure it > reaches the roof and a peice of metal which is conducive to proper and > efficient radiation. Actually, they care very much about this. Too high a VSWR will blow up the final amp. Too much VSWR can actually cause the air to arc inside the transmission line going to the antenna (a friend lost his klystrons on a UHF broadcast station that way once). VSWR is very bad, no matter how much power you have. Joe Carey joec@aztek.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh of course they *care*, and generally speaking a high SWR (Like 3 to 1 or higher) will blow that final in a minute. Generally an SWR of 1.1 to 1 is impossible but 1.2 to 1 all the way to 1.5 to 1 is pretty good, and means you are about 95 percent effecient; that is, about 95 percent of what comes out of the back of the radio is making it to the antenna. 2 to 1 means a 15-20 percent loss is taking place. If you only have a hundred milliwatts to start with, you can't afford that loss; not if you want to be able to talk across the street. I would not say VSWR is 'very bad' unless you have it in large quantities. You are bound to have some. In the winter here, we get snow and ice in great quantities. Years ago my antenna was on top of a nine story building, a hundred feet in the air almost on the shore of Lake Michigan. I had it mounted very sturdy up there, on top of the elevator machine room on the roof yet, for another twenty feet or so. After a bad storm, ice was hanging from it as it whipped around in the strong wind up there. I would go downstairs, key up and let the RF *burn* that ice away! ... of course the SWR looked awful for a few minutes. Speaking of RF burns, ever get one on your hand or arm? That stings! You think taking a hit of DC will give you a thrill? Try having some idiot downstairs who does not pay attention while you are up on a ladder on the side of the antenna trying to clean it up a little. This bozo downstairs keyed up with a linear amplifier in the line, sending about 200 watts up the roof with me up there tightening a guy wire. Damn near knocked me off the ladder. At that point I went downstairs to the first floor where the radio stuff was; I had a hammer and was about ready to begin smashing every radio in the place into little tiny peices. PAT] ------------------------------ From: fgoldstein@bbn.com (Fred R. Goldstein) Subject: Re: The AT&T "Minimum Usage Charge" Rumor Date: Wed, 10 May 1995 14:10:51 GMT Organization: Bolt Beranek & Newman Inc. > In article , Tom.Horsley@hawk.hcsc.com wrote: >> I essentially never make LD calls and would be happy to have no LD >> provider at all. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: ... even if telco defaults your line to >> 'none', you will still have to pay the network access charge each month >> since you can access carriers you choose via 10xxx. PAT] > One other issue that is often missed on the topic: You still have to > pay the network access charge for the ability to RECEIVE long distance > calls. Common misunderstanding. But THERE IS NO NETWORK ACCESS CHARGE. The monthly charge in question is the CUSTOMER ACCESS LINE CHARGE. The adjective "access" modifies the noun "line", not the noun "charge". (It probably should be hypenated "access-line charge", but typically isn't.) This goes back to that other topic of late, the US Constitution, which divides responsibilities between state and federal jurisdiction. The CALC (up to $6/month per analog line or equivalent digital channel) represents a nationally-pooled (in part; it varies state by state) fixed charge for the share of the FIXED (not per-call) cost of the local network that falls under federal jurisdiction. If a line were exempt from that, then the state portion of its cost would have to be higher, and the "regualar" (state-set) monthly rate would be higher, because 100% of its cost would be recovered via state tariff rather than the maybe 50-80% (depending on where) now recovered via state tariffs. See "Smith v. Illinois Bell" (US Sup Ct 1927) and "Pure 2" (FCC 1982). Fred R. Goldstein k1io fgoldstein@bbn.com Bolt Beranek & Newman Inc., Cambridge MA USA +1 617 873 3850 Opinions are mine alone; sharing requires permission. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 May 95 07:28:11 EST From: mark@legend.akron.oh.us (Mark E Daniel) Subject: Re: The AT&T "Minimum Usage Charge" Rumor In article you wrote: >> AT&T claims that 26% of its residential customers have monthly bills less >> than $3 and 44% less than $10. > reach the 'your call cannot be completed as dialed' intercept. Pressing Here in Ameritech-Ohio land you will receive a different intercept. "You have dialed a call whivh requires a multidigit access code. Please consult a Long Distance Company before attempting to place this call again." You will get the same intercept if you dial an invalid 10XXX code. Not a very good way to detur Long Distance Calls. At least not here. All they would have to do is call 1 800 CALL ATT (which tyhey could get from TV) and ask. Or watch that "not all payphones use ATT so dial 10ATT commercial.". :-). ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Annoying Calls: Can We Deal With Them? Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 23:53:51 PDT Bruce Roberts said: >> I think what happened in California is that when the telcos wanted to >> offer CLID, the California Public Utilities Commission (your >> representative government) placed so many different kinds of >> restrictions on what offering it would allow that it became >> economically unattractive for the telcos to offer. The market >> determines the price, remember ... the telco can't charge more than >> what people will pay, and the fewer people who buy the service, the >> less capital the telco has to buy software to implement the service. > Well, you're almost right. The CPUC insisted that per-line-blocking > be available (I don't remember if it was to be free or fee.) GTE and > PacBell said "forget it" and that's why California has no Caller-ID. No, the PUC said that per line blocking had to be available, but ALSO that anyone who has a unpublished or unlisted number with AUTOMATICALLY get per line blocking. Since California has such a huge number of unlisted numbers (someone told me 40 million, but that sound pretty high), PacBell feared that (rightfully so, I believe) there would hardly be anyone left with a UNblocked line. Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: rkevin@indirect.com (Richard Kevin) Subject: Re: DID: Same as Early SxS Centrex? Organization: Internet Direct, indirect.com Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 13:04:17 GMT In article turner7@pacsibm.org (Lee Winson) writes: > Somewhere I read that in the early days of Centrex, step-by-step systems > could be used pretty easily -- just allocate a block of it to that > subscriber. > I believe there were two possibilities. One, where the equipment was in > the C.O. and every phone had a line to the C.O. The other, was where > the equipment was on the customer's premises, and served by some trunks. You are correct, there were two basic configurations for SXS customer systems. Typically for the larger systems, SXS equipment would be on the customer's premise. Traffic to the customer location would trunk off a selector level in the central office to incoming fourth or fifth selectors at the customer premise. Completing the call would require pulsing the last few digits into the equipment at the customer site, with the a connector switch actually doing the call completion to the terminating line. It has been many years since I messed with this stuff, but the big hassle used to be setting up the 'DTA' (distribution terminal assemblies) in the CO for the trunking off the selectors, and number plans. Much of this was not real flexible, and took a lot of lead time to implement. On the other hand, the customers were typically not paying specifically for trunking; they were paying for CENTREX lines, and the serving phone company guaranteed a level of service on the trunking from the CO to the customer's location, e.g. p.001. At least this the way it was in the old Mountain Bell territory in the 60's & 70's. Richard Kevin rkevin@indirect.com Phoenix, AZ ------------------------------ From: wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu Date: Thu, 11 May 95 18:32:29 Subject: Re: DID: Same as Early SxS Ce turner7@pacsibm.org (Lee Winson) wrote: > Somewhere I read that in the early days of Centrex, step-by-step > systems could be used pretty easily -- just allocate a block of it to > that subscriber. > I believe there were two possibilities. One, where the equipment was > in the C.O. and every phone had a line to the C.O. The other, was > where the equipment was on the customer's premises, and served by some > trunks. That's exactly right, and they were defined as Centrex-CU (equipment on customer premises) and Centrex-CO (equipment in central office). > Say the customer had 555-1000 to 555-1999. When the C.O. pulsed over > to 555-1, the remaining digits would be transmitted over the truck to > the the selectors at the customer's location. Isn't this the same > principle as DID? Sure is. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu wes.leatherock@f2001.n147.z1.fidonet.org ------------------------------ From: Toby Nixon Date: Fri, 12 May 95 07:34:08 PDT Subject: Re: Country Codes In TELECOM Digest V15 #235, Clive D.W. Feather presented his list of country codes. This was very complete. A couple of minor corrections I would make: - Andorra is now accessible via 376. - San Marino is now accessible via 378, except from Italy where it must still be called with 0549 instead of 00378. Also, Italy must be called from San Marino by dialing 0 and the Italian city code, rather than 0039. - Belarus is now accessible via 375, with permissive dialing with the old procedures until the end of June. Also, according to my records, Yemen has abandoned use of 969, and uses 967 exclusively. Can anyone confirm or deny that? I am very interested in finding out about exceptions to normal international dialing procedures, such as the situation noted above with regard to Italy and San Marino. For example, I know that calls from Singapore to Malaysia are dialed with an 020 prefix instead of 005-60, that calls from Mexico to WPA 1 are dialed as 95-NPA-Nxxxxxx instead of the usual 98-1-NPA-Nxxxxxx, and that calls from Ireland to Northern Ireland can be dialed as 080-city code instead of 00-44-city code. Is anyone else aware of similar bilateral or unilateral special arrangements? Thanks, Toby Nixon Program Manager - Windows Telephony Microsoft Corporation ------------------------------ From: ericw@netcom.com (Eric Wagner) Subject: Warning About 500 Number Charges Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 16:37:37 GMT Just in case it slipped by anyone's attention, one needs to be careful with how you phone home (and reverse the charges) using your AT&T 500 number. If you dial 0-500-xxx-xxxx and log in with your "master" PIN, you can call home quickly by hitting 21. But watch out! This charges you an 80 cent surcharge plus the 25/15 cent-per-minute rate. If your intent is to call home using your 500 number, don't log in with your master PIN. Instead, after calling 0-500-xxx-xxxx, enter one of the regular 4-digit PINs you've been assigned. Calling in THIS manner only charges you the 25/15 rate, with NO surcharge. I battled the why's of this out with AT&T last night, but got no meaningful response. By the way, instead of having to remember multiple PINs, ask the 500 customer service people to open a new 4-digit PIN that is just the first 4 digits of your master PIN. Eric Wagner ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 May 1995 13:42:25 -0400 From: mkuras@ccs.neu.edu (Michael J Kuras) Subject: NYNEX Strikes Again I received a phone call today from a NYNEX service representative: (NYNEX) "Hello, may I please speak with Mr or Mrs Kuras?" (ME) "This is Mr Kuras. There is no Mrs." (NYNEX) "Hello sir. I'm calling from NYNEX. I was hoping to spend some time reveiwing your phone service and to answer any questions you might have." [Great, I thought. I'd been meaning to call with some questions anyway, so this will save me some time.] (NYNEX) "We have this great new (?) service called caller-id. ...[caller-id babble deleted]... Would you like to order it?" (ME) "I already have it. For 3 1/2 years." (NYNEX) "Oh." (ME) "Speaking of caller-id, I only get caller-id info from about 20% of the calls originating *within* the NYNEX area." (NYNEX) "Well, a lot of people block their calls, sir." (ME) "No, if that were the case, the info string would show up as 'private', not 'out-of-area'. In fact, it's so useless I was thinking of dropping it." (NYNEX) "Don't do that! NYNEX is involved in an ever-expansioning [sic] growth for caller ID info. I'm sure if you hang on to it a little longer it'll be fully implemented. Besides, you don't want to go through all the trouble of reactiviating it again, do you?" [No, I guess not. Making a 2 minute phone call *is* a lot of trouble. ;-) ] (ME) "Can you give me the general timeline for fully implementing caller-id throughout the NYNEX area?" (NYNEX) "No, you'd have to call the business office." [NYNEX babble deleted] (NYNEX) "I see you have Metropolitan Service [calling plan]. How do you like it?" (ME) "It's fine, but could you please tell me if there is a less expensive plan which allows me to dial toll-free to the 373 exchange?" (NYNEX) "No, you'd have to call the business office." [NYNEX babble deleted] (ME) "I was thinking about getting call-forwarding for one of my lines. Could you tell me about it?" (NYNEX) "Call forwarding allows you to forward calls to another phone." [yes, she really said this!] (ME, smiling) "Can you tell me anything else about it?" (NYNEX) "No, you'd have to call out business office." It went on like this for another two or three minutes before she mercifully ended the call, being sure she thanked me for using NYNEX. All I can say is I'll be immensely grateful when local competition comes to the area. michael j kuras mkuras@ccs.neu.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #238 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01241; 13 May 95 12:37 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id HAA21167 for telecomlist-outbound; Sat, 13 May 1995 07:55:15 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id HAA21159; Sat, 13 May 1995 07:55:12 -0500 Date: Sat, 13 May 1995 07:55:12 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505131255.HAA21159@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #239 TELECOM Digest Sat, 13 May 95 07:55:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 239 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Complete Idiot's Guide to Modem and Online Services (Slade) UC Berkeley Short Course in Video Compression and Video Comm (H. Stern) Unusual RF Stories (John Dearing) Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range (John Radisch) Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs (John Higdon) More on Telco and Gulf-Coast Area Flooding (Mark Cuccia) Re: Request U.S. Carrier or Integrator Response re - VTC (Al Niven) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 12 May 1995 16:58:57 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Complete Idiot's Guide to Modems and Online Services" BKCIGMDM.RVW 950404 "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Modems & Online Services", Sherry Kinkoph, 1994, 1-56761-526-0, U$19.95/C$26.99 %A Sherry Kinkoph sherrylk@aol.com %C 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290 %D 1994 %G 1-56761-526-0 %I Alpha Books %O U$19.95/C$26.99 800-858-7674 75141.2102@compuserve.com %P 369 %T "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Modems & Online Services" I could name an awful lot of modem books that are worse than this, and only a few that are better. Don't get your hopes up -- in this field, the best are none too good. Part one contains five chapters giving a general overview of modems and data communications applications. The real meat doesn't start until part two, which discusses modem and software features and installation. The information given is OK, but often breaks down when pushed (V.32terbo and V.Fast are *not* official standards). The advice and directions on installation and configuration will likely get you online -- but *won't* get the most from your modem. Part three gives general guidance on what you can do with a fax modem, but little analysis on the pros and cons. Part four is the "online services" part; a thirteen-chapter look at life online, very heavily weighted towards commercial services. Part five is a miscellany, including a chapter on viral programs. It is perhaps kindest that I not comment thereon. Overall, the writing is good and the technical material reasonable, with reservations. The novice is still going to have to delve deeply into the modem manual, without much assistance -- but that is an all too common shortcoming. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKCIGMDM.RVW 950404. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | "virtual information" Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | - technical description of Research into Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z1/ | marketing info disguised User .fidonet.org | as technical description Security Canada V7K 2G6 | - Greg Rose ------------------------------ From: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: UC Berkeley Short Course in Video Compression & Video Comm Date: 12 May 1995 21:30:22 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces A Short Course on Video Compression VIDEO COMPRESSION AND VISUAL COMMUNICATION (June 26-27, 1995) 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: jdearing@netaxs.com (John Dearing) Subject: Unusual RF Stories Date: 13 May 1995 03:30:18 GMT Organization: Philadelphia's Complete Internet Provider Our esteemed Moderator wrote: -=[ a story about getting "bit" by RF while up on a ladder working on an antenna ]=- : downstairs to the first floor where the radio stuff was; I had a hammer : and was about ready to begin smashing every radio in the place into : little tiny peices. PAT] I have a couple of RF stories to relate, if you'll indulge me ... TED AND THE CAPTAIN A friend of mine told me a story of how he got court marshalled while in the Air Force for "Destruction of Air Force Property". He was an avionics tech and was working on the radar of a plane. He had to work on the antenna assembly. As part of the safety practice, lockouts are placed on the equipment to keep someone from accidentally firing up the equipment. He put the lockouts in place (up in the cockpit) and stared working on the antenna in another part of the plane. While working on the antenna he notices that his arm hurts and is feeling hot. His arm is in front of the "business end" of the radar horn. He immdeiately realizes that some idiot has turned the radar *ON* and is MICROWAVING his arm. Needless to say, he's *PISSED* and takes off for the cockpit to find the a**hole that did this. It turns out it was an OFFICER (The Captain, if I remember). He tears into the Captain asking him why the hell he removed the lockouts and fired up the radar. The reponse was less than satisfactory and he hauls off and decks the captain, giving him a black eye and some other injuries. The Base Commander refused to prosecute him for striking an officer after hearing the whole story. He did have to do something so he decided that the black eye was destruction of Air Force property (the military *owns* you while you're enlisted). I think he lost some money and maybe got busted down a rank, but it really wasn't much. The Captain wound up losing his wings for gross negligence. THE SECOND STORY This one isn't nearly as interesting. There's a section of Philadelphia called Roxborough. It's in the Northwest section of the city and is known for it's hills. Because of the geography, there are quite a few transmitter towers located there for local radio and TV stations. There's actually one location on Domino Lane called the "Antenna Farm". Anyway, some of these transmitters are quite powerful. AM stations with 50KW and TV transmitters rated in the MegaWatt range. HEAVY DUTY stuff. Needless to say, RFI is a common telephone problem in the neighborhood. 8-) I've been told by installers from that area that you have to be careful when working on the outside plant in the area of the antenna farm. The loops act like little antennas and you can get RF burns from the binding posts in the terminals or at the protector. The inverse square law at work. 8-) There's SO much stray RF in the area that there are homes where you CAN'T turn a fluorescent lamp OFF. Once you turn it ON it's always ON. The stray RF is enough to keep ionizing the gas in the tube!! Or the guy that kept hearing WCAU (1210-AM) from his toilet! Turns out that a cold solder joint in the plumbing in the water tank was acting as a detector/demodulator. Once enough corrosion built up, presto, instant semiconductor!! Well, that's enough for now! John Dearing : Philadelphia Area Computer Society IBM SIG President Email : jdearing@netaxs.com U.S.Snail : 725 Ripley Place, Phila PA 19111-2524 (USA) Voice Phone : +1.215.725.0103 (after 5pm Eastern) ------------------------------ From: radcom@intacc.net (John Radisch) Subject: Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range Date: 13 May 1995 04:54:36 GMT Organization: RadCom Technologies In article , smithgl@ndlc.occ.uky.edu (Greg Smith) says: > I recently installed a cordless telephone (Partner Plus - AT&T CDM > 9000) for a client. The cordless gets great range when I locate the > base/charger near the outside wall of the building. However, the > owner wants his base/charger located in his office in the middle of > the office building which severly limits his range and clarity when he > uses his cordless outside. > Is it possible to install an external antenna on the outside of the > building to improve the signal from the cordless base/charger? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You can do this, but a couple problems > come to mind. You are not dealing with that much signal strength to > [snipped..] Pat does respond quite well to the topic of regular FM/49Mhz extension techniques involving roof CB Center Load and Coax to a PL259 type connector on the back of the Base, with a rubber duck Radio Scrap extension antenna clip-on for the Handset unit. This sorta-works, and Pat pointed out pitfalls it took me 10+ years to work out in painful practice. However, I would point out that the AT&T in question is a 900Mhz Freq. hopping system, with up to 200 mW of power. In this case AT&T make antenna extension accessories for this product. I think the secret would have to be "Base Antenna Mounting Altitude" or "put it on the second floor, near the window, but NOT close to metal of any kind. Is this right or close? RadMan [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I did not know they were allowed to officially make a cordless phone with 200 milliwatts output. I thought 100 was the legal limit. Not that the antenna cannt 'see' 200 when it gets that far, just that the radio itself was limited to 100 at the final. PAT] ------------------------------ Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 20:46:50 -0700 From: John Higdon Subject: Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs Tim Gorman writes: > If each ratepayer should be given stock in the telephone company then > why shouldn't each Ford owner be given stock in Ford? One reason is that Ford owners did not have to be Ford owners. Similar transportation could be had from General Motors, Chrysler, or even foreign companies such as BMW, Toyota, or Volvo. A telephone customer has two choices: he can open his bill and pay it, or he can do without telephone service. If Ford's prices were out of line, customers would go elsewhere. If telephone rates are out of line (which, I might point out, they are), the customer is invited to pay up or yell loudly. > 1. The stockholders in the telephone companies did NOT make a killing. The > dividends were always very low compared to other companies of similar > revenues. The difference was that much of the company income flow DID > go to pay off debt issues as well as being reinvested. The stockholders > PAID a penalty for low risk by also incurring low yield. In the past, this was true. Not so now with the investment in SO MUCH non-telco facilities that will benefit the ratepayer not one whit. For instance, Bell Atlantic, Nynex, and Pacific Telesis have each kicked in one-hundred MILLION dollars to a joint venture dubbed "The Phone Booth". What is this supposed to offer "the telephone user"? Here's what: films, TV programs, video-games and home shopping. Why are we, telephone users, paying to capitalize this? And why should we going to get it in the shorts when the telcos fail at this venture as they have failed at every other non-telecom venture they have delved into? > 2. The telephone companies were NEVER guaranteed a rate of return. In fact, > the commissions set MAXIMUM rates of returns, not minimums. Guarantees were implicit in the nature of the "public trust" in which the telcos were involved. No telco would have been allowed to "fail". And apparently you never heard about the "Great Giveaway of 1989" in California. The telcos were told that if they could cut expenses and increase efficiency, they could KEEP the money they saved. Naturally, the base rates were the usual "calculation on fantasy" that has existed since the beginning of monopoly time. Do YOU happen to have the figures from a FULL AUDIT of a telephone company? I thought not. > 3. There is NOTHING wrong with reinvested earnings. Funding a capital > intensive operation does NOT have to be done totally by shareholder > investment in order to be "acceptable" It does when the company is not constrained by the marketplace. Your example of Ford is perfect. If Ford re-invests to the point where it cannot operate without raising prices, it either stops re-investing or it becomes uncompetitive. Telco simply takes its vaudville act to the PUC, whines that it needs more operating revenue to provide the baseline level of service, the idiots in the PUC buy the crap, and then the rates go up (or the negative surcharges go down). > Once again, we see a view that somehow transforms the phone company > into being a non-profit, psuedo-government type of operation that > should be "owned" by all citizens since it was paid for by "psuedo-taxes" > on the ratepayers masking as "rates" for services. Until telco becomes something other than "the only game in town", it should enjoy no slack in that arena. You will recall that Xerox had major sanctions because some in government thought that it had an unfair chokehold on photocopying. Hah! I suppose SWB and Pac*Bell don't have a chokehold on POTS? > Folks, the phone companies have always been just that -- COMPANIES. > They have always been companies owned by shareholders -- just like > Ford, Pizza Hut, and Midas Muffler. No, no, no. Not like Ford, Pizza Hut, and Midas Muffler. Each of these companies exists in a robust market of competitors. Someday, that may be the case for the telcos, BUT NOT YET. Until that day, they cannot be treated "just like any other company". John Higdon | P.O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | +1 500 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 | http://www.ati.com/ati | [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe John, that's one reason so many of the telcos, like NYNEX and others, seem to be welcoming competition. Then they won't be the 'only game in town' and thus can have more freedom to do their thing unhindered by regulations than they do now. Of course they know in real practice very few customers will make the switch. You and I both know the competition could advertise daily in the papers for the next year, and the 'real telco' would still have 95-98 percent of the same customers this time next year. So it will be competition on paper, with most people not having any idea what it is about, and most people still grousing about the 'telephone company'. But the telco will have complied with the new rules and be free to keep on in essence doing as it always has. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mark Cuccia Subject: More on Telco and Gulf-Coast Area Flooding Date: Fri, 12 May 95 09:34:00 GMT This morning on local news it was announced that South Central Bell will waive any service charges for relocation and reestablishment of service for Louisiana customers affected by the storms/floods. There were many poles and loops which were knocked down, but it seems that the switching network and trunk routes are more or less in working order. As I write this on Friday morning (5-12-95), there are MORE thunderstorms (severe as reported on radio/TV) moving across CENTRAL and NORTH Louisiana and Mississippi. Some of them ARE, however weakening but spreading out to SOUTH Louisiana and Mississippi. We really don't need any more rain down here for quite a while. Mark ------------------------------ From: alniven@pipeline.com (Al Niven) Subject: Re: Request U.S. Carrier or Integrator Response re - VTC Date: 9 May 1995 23:35:10 -0400 Organization: The Pipeline We sell an H.320 standards compliant videoconferencing boardroom system that is half the cost of the systems that Picturetel, CLI, or Vtel sells AND it is of equal or better quality AND it is based on a garden variety PC for the engine. We submit all our codecs to the "jumping jacks test". If you can have 6 people on both ends doing jumping jacks without picture degradation, you have a good product. The PC engine means, that unlike people who bought a Picturetel 3000 and then needed a forklift to upgrade to a 4000 (because the 3000 didn't talk easily to the 4000) or who spent an extra $10G for the "Link64E" software, all you need to do is swap boards as they evolve. Videoconferencing is not software upgradeable despite the hype. It is software upgradeable up to the level of the chip - and chips are evolving real fast. It also means that almost anybody can service you anywhere (I have an acquaintance that is a Pictel tech - all he does is installs - and he makes $80K/year salary) and that you are not dependent on us in a critical manner for anything, because everything is pretty much off the shelf. Finally, the PC engine also means that is easier to expand the conference room to a LAN app via products like C-phone. We can do a demo real easy anytime you want walk into our office at 292 Fifth Ave, #200 (30/31 St.) phone 212-714-3531. Or we can call your neck of the woods and see you in a public room there. This will demonstrate our complete and universal inter-operability with the codec on the far end, whatever the brand, as long as it is standards compliant. It costs $50/hour NY-LA for 384 and $200/hour for full T-1 (and you only get charged for what you use when you use) with an inverse multiplexor (using ANY carrier). Videoconferencing will certainly follow the pattern of voicemail. Original manufactuers - VMX, Octel, Centigram, Audix ... proprietary boxes. PC based platform comes out - market grows to $1B. Pictel, CLI, and VTel announced they will not develop on the TI chip which is 4 times faster (as far as videoconferencing is concerned) than anything available now, yet a number of companies are racing to put that chip on an ISA board. Result? By 12/95 you will have ISA board codecs faster than anything "refrigerator" based. Just one more reason to stick to the PC platform. The system we sell was recently favorably written up in Network World 4/18/95. It is being used to vc the America's Cup Yachting Races hooking up San Diego, NZ, Australia, and Paris for Louis Vuitton. It is also being used in 8 Chamber of Commerces in Spain. We would be delighted to vc with you to a public room in your area. There are quite a few public rooms in the UK. We have a list of every (supposedly) public room in the world and if you tell us where you are located we can direct you to the public room. Al Niven Video, Voice, and Data, Inc. 292 Fifth Avenue, #201 NY NY 10001 212-714-3531 voice 212-714-3510 fax ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #239 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa13391; 16 May 95 19:20 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id MAA21851 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 16 May 1995 12:56:12 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id MAA21843; Tue, 16 May 1995 12:56:08 -0500 Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 12:56:08 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505161756.MAA21843@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #240 TELECOM Digest Tue, 16 May 95 12:56:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 240 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Concentric Research Obtains Investment Capital (Kristine Loosley) 10224 - Thanks MCI!! (Les Reeves) Update on ISDN (ISDN Mailing List via Monty Solomon) Book Review: "NetGuide" by Rutten/Bayers/Maloni (Rob Slade) Info Wanted on Communications Fraud Control Association (Steve Collins) T1 Pricing Equation Wanted (Bill Barnard) Call Back Telecom Software Wanted (Ahmad S. Aziz) Looking For Online ROLM Users Conference (Chris Boone) Lowest $ Monthly Cellular Rate With No Free Minutes? (Keith Jarett) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 15 May 1995 18:09:38 -0400 From: press@cris.com (Kristine Loosley (Concentric Research Corp.)) Subject: Concentric Research Obtains Investment Capital CONTACTS: CONCENTRIC RESEARCH KRISTINE LOOSLEY (800) 745-2747; E-MAIL: KLOOSLEY@CONCENTRIC.NET GOLDMAN SACHS ED NOVOTNY (212) 902-5400 CONCENTRIC RESEARCH CORPORATION OBTAINS INVESTMENT CAPITAL FROM KLEINER PERKINS AND GOLDMAN SACHS MAY 15, 1995, BAY CITY, MICH. -- Concentric Research Corp., a rapidly growing online services and Internet access provider, has received equity financing from two prominent online industry investors, CRC co-founder Marc Collins-Rector said today. CRC recently launched the Concentric Network, which offers flat-rate nationwide dial-up access to the Internet and CRC's own online services through a privately owned network of over 125 local points of presence. The Concentric Network is the first private frame relay data network to provide nationwide dial-up access to the nation's largest electronic bulletin boards systems (BBSs), through its BBS Direct service. CRC recently sold a joint minority stake in the company for an undisclosed amount to an affiliate of the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the New York City-based GS Capital Partners, L.P., an affiliate of Goldman, Sachs & Co. "We are extremely pleased to partner with investors of the caliber and reputation of Kleiner, Perkins and Goldman Sachs," said Randy Maslow, CRC's Vice President for Business Development and General Counsel. "We will use the proceeds of the investment to expand our network and market our online services. With the help of our new partners, we also intend to rapidly enhance CRC's senior management team." "We have a philosophy that we invest only in companies that we perceive to be 10 times faster, more cost-effective or somehow better than what exists in the marketplace," said Vinod Khosla, a partner at Kleiner Perkins. "Content is king in the online world, and BBS Direct makes available some of the best online content in the country in a cost-effective and easy-to-use manner." Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has been the original venture investor in a number of technology and multimedia firms, including America Online, Ascend, Compaq, Electronic Arts, Intuit, Lotus, Macromedia, NetScape Communications, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, Spectrum Holobyte and 3DO. CRC's primary online product is BBS Direct, a network of dedicated connections to 32 of the nation's largest and best known electronic bulletin board systems. BBS Direct makes long distance charges for BBS callers obsolete by permitting customers to connect to the BBSs via a local phone call into the Concentric Network. CRC also provides nationwide dial-up access to the Internet, including the ability to use graphical browsers for point-and-click access to the World Wide Web. A subscription also includes access to a proprietary on-line service called CRIS that offers multi-player games, real-time conferencing, electronic mail and other online service offerings. Subscriptions to the Concentric Network include bundled access to BBS Direct, CRIS, and the Internet. Subscriptions cost just $29.95 a month for unlimited connect time through local points of presence. For rural customers who live outside dial-up access points, 800-number service is available for $5 an hour. Customers with Internet access from another provider can telnet to the Concentric Network and connect with its services for a flat rate of $10 a month for unlimited time. "Our vision is that of an on-line environment where the Internet, BBSs and online services are integrated instead of competing," Collins-Rector said. "Until BBS Direct, for example, some of the nation's finest online content was available only by dialing long distance to BBS locations. BBS Direct now consolidates the content of 32 of the nation's best systems and makes them available through the Concentric Network with just a local phone call." The company intends to rapidly add additional BBSs to the BBS Direct service, Collins-Rector added. Collins-Rector and his partner Chad Shackley founded Concentric in 1991. "We started this company in a garage," Collins-Rector said. "We are extremely pleased to see the company progress to the point that Kleiner Perkins and Goldman Sachs want to partner with us." Customers can obtain information about the Concentric Network by calling (800) 745-2747. Kristine Loosley email: kris@concentric.net Public Relations Manager http://www.cris.com Concentric Research Corp. voice: 517 895 0500 ------------------------------ From: lreeves@crl.com (Les Reeves) Subject: 10224 - Thanks MCI!! Date: 15 May 1995 17:00:07 -0700 Organization: CR Labs MCI has done something really great. Diametrically opposed to their gigadollar F&F vs AT&T advertising nonsense, they are mailing out innocuous little postcards imploring you to "Dial 10224-Anytime!". A couple of aggregators have tried this postcard marketing scheme, usually with odd rate structures such as the _initial_ minute set at one-half the additional minute rate. They then show you all the savings that will accrue on two or three minute long calls :-) This program is called SMARTminutes [sm] of Telecom USA. Telecom USA (10852) is a facilities based carrier bought by MCI four or five years ago. SMARTminutes (10224) is a flat rate $0.15/min flat rate service that DOES NOT require your "signing up" or changing your PIC (primary interexchange carrier). Fifteen cents-per-minute is a *real* good rate for low-volume users, from 8-5 PM local time. You can get business day rates about that low using some aggregator's 800 number access. Even with speed calling, computer dialers, and magic, using this method to access your LD carrier when you are not traveling is nuts. Adding 10XXX to your dialing from 8 AM to 5 PM, OTOH, is trivial. I have been doing this for some time, due to the very attractive "Evening Plus" plan from AT&T. You get $0.10 / minute from 5 PM to 8 AM, unlike a similar plan from US Sprint which is limited to 7 PM to 7 AM. Those are three *very* important hours. AT&T gets $0.125 / minute for the first hour, billed in advance. Either one is a good deal for low volume callers. I looked *real* hard for "casual calling" rates from the smaller IXCs (Wiltel, Allnet, Metromedia, etc), and found that they were no better than ten percent less than AT&T's MTS rate (oh-h-h, do they pay). When you consider that AT&T's MTS day rates are $0.254-$0.298 / minute, lopping off ten percent is still a very steep cost per minute. So here's what you do: Pick the $0.10 / minute plan you like (AT&T Evening Plus, or USS' Sprint Sense). Your primary interexchange carrier will be ATT or USS. From 8AM-5PM local time, prepend 10224 to all your inter-lata toll calls. You will get 11-14 cents-per-minute average, which is *very* good for low-volume users. AT&T and MCI spend massive amounts of advertising money to convince you that their particular "discount" is the best. Blending the two service offerings as mentioned above, a 35-45 percent discount is very realistic. MCI has never been my favorite IXC. I still think their network is designed for a busy hour grade of service of P0.22. Their F&F, Network MCI, and all the other "Madison Avenue" originated stuff really stinks. This is something completely different for MCI (oops, Telecom USA). If this trend continues, long distance marketing may finally make the qauntum leap into a marketing environment dominated by the word "cents per minute", as opposed to "discount compared to ...". Les lreeves@crl.com Atlanta,GA 404.874.7806 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 23:55:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Update on ISDN Reply-To: monty@roscom.COM FYI. Begin forwarded message: Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 22:21:57 -0400 From: James Love To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Update on ISDN TAP-INFO - An Internet newsletter available from listproc@tap.org TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE March 15, 1995 - House Telecom bill (hr 1555) will be marked-up in subcommittee (subcommittee memembers will vote on various amendments) on Wednesday, March 17, 1995. Background notes on ISDN issue attached below. james love (love@tap.org). Background Notes on ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) and telephone rates Ad Hoc Coalition for Low Cost ISDN May 15, 1995 1. ISDN is a mature technology which allows a telephone company to configure a telephone line to transmit digital data at high speeds. With standard analog telephone lines (sometimes referred to as POTS), the fastest modem connections to computer networks operate at 28.8 kilobytes per second. Using ISDN technology, a telephone can connect to a network at 128k per second. The higher speeds allow users to transmit data much faster, and to use telephone networks to transmit multimedia applications, including low grade video transmissions. Interest in ISDN technology has expanded greatly in the past year, as the use of the Internet's World Wide Web (WWW) has become more popular. The highspeed ISDN connections give users the "bandwidth" to download graphics and sound files much faster, making the WWW much more pleasant to use. 2. ISDN lines require the use of special hardware in the customer's home, plus some changes in the way the lines are routed by the telephone company. The cost of customer premises equipment vary according to configurations, typically costing more than $100 (and can run several hundred dollars for special uses of the technology.) The most important public policy debates concern the monthly cost of the ISDN lines. Studies of the "marginal" or "incremental" cost of providing ISDN services vary greatly, depending upon who is paying for the study. For example, in a 1993 study by the Tennessee Public Service Commission (TPSC), South Central Bell Telephone Company (SCB) estimated that the "incremental cost" of ISDN service (over and above the cost of POTS) is $36.33 (per month) for residential customers. But the TPSC's own calculations were only $9.77 (per month). In an earlier 1991 study, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (MDPU) found that the "marginal cost" of ISDN service was $7.40 (per month) over the cost of POTS service. In studies for the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), Mark Cooper has estimated the marginal cost of an ISDN service (over the cost of POTS) to be $2 to 4 per line (per month), and falling. 3. Telephone companies and consumers have different ideas about how ISDN should be priced. Telephone companies want to price the service on the basis of the "value" of the service, based upon its higher functionality. Consumers would prefer to pay prices based upon the actual cost (including reasonable profit on investment) of the service. If local telephone exchange service becomes a competitive market, competition among providers may lead to lower prices based upon the costs of providing the service. However, in most markets today local exchange telephone service is a monopoly, and even with legislation that removes legal barriers to entry, some markets may not have much or any competition for several years, because of economic barriers to entry. 4. The Ad Hoc Coalition for Low Cost ISDN service supports transition rules, that will apply to markets until competition for local exchange services actually occurs. Specifically, the Ad Hoc Coalition would require the incumbent telephone company to offer ISDN service priced no more than POTS, plus the incremental cost of ISDN. This requirement would hold until "actual substantial" competition occurred in the market for local telephone service. Thereafter prices would be set by the competitive market. Language that would accomplish this is given below: (xx) A common carrier providing local exchange telephone service that is the dominant carrier and that provides ISDN service to residential subscribers and small businesses shall make such a service available to the public for the price of a voice grade line plus no more than the incremental cost of providing the ISDN service. This requirement shall expire when the Commission determines that the common carrier faces actual substantial competition for local exchange services in the residential market. 5. The Ad Hoc Coalition position is consistent with the so called "open platform" language included in last year's HR 3636 (103rd Congress), which would have required carriers to provide a digital service priced at cost. ------------------------------- TAP-INFO is an Internet Distribution List provided by the Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP). TAP was founded by Ralph Nader to monitor the management of government property, including information systems and data, government funded R&D, spectrum allocation and other government assets. TAP-INFO reports on TAP activities relating to federal information policy. tap-info is archived at tap.org. Subscription requests to tap-info to listproc@tap.org with the message: subscribe tap-info your name Taxpayer Assets Project; P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036 v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176; internet: tap@tap.org ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 18:34:23 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "NetGuide" by Rutten/Bayers/Maloni BKNETGUD.RVW 950404 "NetGuide", Rutten/Bayers/Maloni, 1994, 0-679-75106-8, U$19.00/C$25.00 editors@ypn.com mwolff@go-netguide.com %A Peter Rutten %A Albert F. Bayers III %A Kelly Maloni %C 201 E. 50th St., 31st Floor, New York, NY 10022 %D 1993 %G 0-679-75106-8 %I Michael Wolff & Company, Inc./Random House Electronic Publishing %O U$19.00/C$25.00 212-751-2600 800-733-3000 800-726-0600 fax 212-841-1539 %O abiggert@randomhouse.com 74261.2352@compuserve.com mwolff@ypn.com %P 356 %S Net... %T "NetGuide" The description of this book as "the TV Guide to Cyberspace" is fairly apt. As a kind of concise "yellow pages" to online services, it has a good format for introductory searching in a given topic. The "Frequently Asked Questions" introduction lays out a useful style for providing basic access information. The FAQ chapter goes into greatest detail on the Internet applications: the outlines, though roughly a two-page maximum, nevertheless usually provide enough direction without going into technicalities. The content is not as complete as the two yellow page guides (cf. BKNRYLPG.RVW and BKINTYLP.RVW), although it also includes material from commercial services, BBS networks and individual BBSes. One use for the book would be in determining which type of service is best suited to your needs. (Take care, though: commercial systems have an advantage here, in that some service descriptions are lifted from promotional materials.) Some of the material is becoming dated, but I was favourably impressed with areas relating to my specialities. The topical divisions are sometimes odd, and there are no cross-references. Again, commercial services have an advantage: their material is more likely to be posted in multiple topics. A useful, quick reference which deserves to be updated. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKNETGUD.RVW 950404. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | "My son, beware ... of the Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | making of books there is Research into Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z1/ | no end, and much study is User .fidonet.org | a weariness of the flesh." Security Canada V7K 2G6 | Ecclesiastes 12:12 ------------------------------ From: stevec@eapi.com (Steve Collins) Subject: Info Wanted on Communications Fraud Control Association Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 20:51:06 GMT Organization: Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. I received some snail mail on a group titled Communications Fraud Control Association. Has anyone heard of these guys and whether or not they are worth joining? Thanks, Steven Collins | Voice: (513) 629-2485 Telecommunications Supr. | Eagle-Picher Industries | Fax: (513) 721-7126 Cincinnati, Ohio | 45202 USA | EMail: SteveC@eapi.com ------------------------------ From: wbarnard@interserv.com Subject: T1 Pricing Equation Wanted Date: 15 May 1995 20:51:17 GMT Organization: InterServ News Service Hello, Would somebody please tell me the current T1 equation for pricing a circuit? Thanks, Bill Barnard wbarnard@interserv.com ------------------------------ From: aaziz@osf1.gmu.edu (Ahmad S Aziz) Subject: Call Back Telecom Software Wanted Date: 15 May 1995 21:15:34 GMT Organization: George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA Hi everybody, I am looking for a "call back software" and card which I can fit into my computer and run it a sort of a telephone exchange. I want to offer an international telephone service to a particular country and I have a lot of clientel. If anybody has an idea about this kind of communication package, please inform. Thank you in anticipation. aaziz ------------------------------ From: Chris Boone <72732.2610@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Looking For Online ROLM Users Conference Date: 15 May 1995 21:19:17 GMT Organization: GSU/ENTERGY I have heard there is an online conference for ROLM users and self maintainers ... Anyone have that info?? Thanks! ENTERGY Telecom Chris Boone WB5ITT Compuserve 72732,2610 PO Box 3102 FIDO 1:106/4267 Conroe, Texas 77305-3102 Sysop WBBS @ 409-447-4267 ------------------------------ From: keith@tcs.com (Keith Jarett) Subject: Lowest $ Monthly Cellular Rate With No Free Minutes? Date: 15 May 1995 14:54:25 -0700 Organization: Teknekron Communication Systems Inc. Does any cellular carrier in the US offer a $0 per month service with high per-minute charges? I would like to sign up somewhere for up to a few bucks a month so that I can use my cell phone for emergency outgoing calls only, using a credit card or paying the roaming charges wherever I am. Apparently one used to be able to do this by setting the MIN and the carrier code to all zeros, but it doesn't work any more in northern California. More precisely, it works for a very short time, minutes or hours only, then it is blocked forevermore. It seems to me some tiny carrier could make a few bucks by offering roaming-only service at a few bucks a month. They could sell to customers anywhere in the country. Second question: can anyone explain to me the blocking mechanism that I experienced? Is there a way around it while remaining legal? keith@tcs.com Keith Jarett ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #240 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14829; 16 May 95 22:33 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA00345 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 16 May 1995 17:19:13 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA00336; Tue, 16 May 1995 17:19:10 -0500 Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 17:19:10 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505162219.RAA00336@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #241 TELECOM Digest Tue, 16 May 95 17:19:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 241 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson NPA 604 to Split: New Code 250 For Parts of British Columbia (Nigel Allen) Telecom Business Judgment (Jack Mott) Standards-Based Video MCU - VideoRouter (TM) (Chip Sharp) Send-a-Call (Not Done Yet) (Mark Kelly) Telephone 'Call Back' Services (Steven Knopoff) Question About Hunting and Call Waiting (Kevin Prichard) Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs (Fred Goodwin) TRT Consultant Needed in Atlanta (Howard Fore) Time Warner/Internet Access (Adam H. Hersh) Natural Microsystems VBX/400 Telephony Board Help (NMS) (Evan Harris) Warning Lights Available? (dm732@delphi.com) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 15 May 1995 04:10:21 -0400 From: ndallen@io.org (Nigel Allen) Subject: NPA 604 to Split: New Code 250 For Parts of British Columbia Here is a press release from BC Tel, formerly the British Columbia Telephone Company. I found the press release on the company's WWW site at . The map referred to in the press release is at . May 9, 1995 BRITISH COLUMBIA TO GET SECOND AREA CODE Burnaby, B.C. - BC TEL will introduce a second area code for British Columbia in 1996. This new area code - 250 - will apply to all regions of the province outside the Lower Mainland, the Sunshine Coast, Whistler and Hope. Map attached ( jpeg) "British Columbia needs a second area code because more telephone numbers than ever are needed to accommodate our growing population, as well as the increasing number of pagers, fax machines, modems and cellular phones," said Dale Reid, BC TEL's manager of network planning. "Introducing a second area code will open up millions of new telephone numbers in the province." Here is the timetable for the implementation of a new area code: October 1996 The 250 area code will be introduced. Callers dialing a telephone number in the new area code region will still be able to use either 604 or 250 to complete the call. May 1997 The grace dialing period will end. If the wrong area code is dialed, a recording will advise callers to hang up and dial the correct code. October 1997 Both area codes will be in full service. Callers dialling 604 to reach a customer in the 250 area code region will hear a recording that will advise them the call cannot be completed and to verify the telephone number. BC TEL is encouraging businesses in the 250 area code region to communicate with customers and suppliers about their new area code, and to ensure that all advertising and stationery has updated telephone numbers in time for the October 1996 introduction. In addition, long-distance telephone numbers in the new area code region that are currently stored in equipment, such as fax machines, cellular telephones and automatic diallers, will need to be reprogrammed before May 1997. "The introduction of a second area code will help serve the growing telecommunications needs of British Columbians for the next 20 years," added Reid. The new area code will have no impact on BC TEL's long-distance rates. Customers who have questions about the new area code can call 1-800-661-7202. For more information, please contact: Michelle Gagne Media relations manager (604) 432-2949 (office), (604) 977-5875 (pager) press release forwarded to the TELECOM Digest by Nigel Allen 52 Manchester Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M6G 1V3, Canada Internet: ndallen@io.org http://www.io.org/~ndallen Telephone: (416) 535-8916 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 23:50:41 MDT From: Jack Mott Subject: Telecom Business Judgment In a posting titled, "Rural Internet via Coops," Mr. Hughson pointed out how his local telephone co-op was starting to provide internet service. This is such a natural and appropriate area for telephony-based businesses to move into, one wonders why the major telcos have not done this up to now. (They already provide the internet infrastructure.) It appears that the telco executives have been occupying themselves too much with big-picture strategic thinking and not enough with common sense, incremental improvements to their systems. Basic errors in business judgment by these and other communications executives come to mind: 1) ISDN. This has been vastly overpriced. In a modern switch, voice is converted to 64 kbs, so why not price 64 kbs of ISDN like a voice line? The market would grow substantially. If telcos could provide automatic bridging between fax/modem analog protocols and ISDN, the market would explode. 2) CDMA. This technology is great from a theoretical standpoint, but is always two years away from being affordable. The basic reason for this is that 10 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth has to be digitally processed by a handheld transceiver. Suboptimal, but more cost effective solutions could have been arrived at for the cellular industry. Qualcomm fooled everybody on this issue. 3) SMR. Nextel and Motorola fooled everybody on this. Handheld transceivers that could cover the wide range of frequencies used by the specialized mobile radio industry turned out to be expensive and difficult to manufacture. Surprise. Bandwidth is costly. A nationwide cellular system goes back to taxi dispatch. 4) Telco/Entertainment/Cable Convergence. Talent and insiders make money in the recording and motion picture industries. Outside investors are often big losers. The public will be an even bigger loser as common carrier networks are increasingly distorted and supplanted by proprietary systems. The Swedes are moving more intellegently on this issue. They are requiring different communications companies to use common fiber lines in Stockholm. 5) Dividing Wireless Licenses into Local Markets. This is really the government's problem, although they have been encouraged by private interests who profit enormously from the needless fragmentation of the wireless industry. The jury is still out on Iridium. If only a personal communicator for the super rich, it will be a failure. If it can provide bandwidth more cost effectively and with greater flexibility than geosynchronous satellites, it will be a success. Charles Mott ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 May 95 10:34:09 EDT From: hhs@teleoscom.com (Chip Sharp) Subject: Standards-based Video MCU - VideoRouter(TM) Teleos Communications, Inc. announces their New VideoRouter(TM) Product Family Providing Standards-based Multipoint Video Conferencing The VideoRouter(TM) Product Line Description The Teleos VideoRouter product line is an H.320 standards-based family of Video Multipoint Conferencing Units (MCUs). Full port-to-port and line-to-line switching is provided. All features of the Teleos AccessSwitch product line are included in the VideoRouter family. Network Attachment: T1/E1, PRI and BRI. Room/Desktop Video Attachment: T1/E1/PRI, BRI, V.35/RS-449/X.21. The Video Router(TM) Express The entry-level VideoRouter Express is available in four configurations. Prices start at $19,995 with 4 MCU ports and full network switching. Easy upgrade from 4 MCU ports to 8 MCU ports. Four (4) Port MCU Availability: US/CA - Now (8 port in 4Q95) Europe - 2Q95 Asia - 4Q95 The Multi VideoRouter(TM) and the Enterprise VideoRouter(TM) The mid-range Multi VideoRouter and high-capacity Enterprise VideoRouter products will support a mixture of up to (72) MCU ports, (80) T1/E1/PRI (152) BRI interfaces, and (72) synchronous interfaces. Upgrade existing AccessSwitches by adding the VideoRouter Pro card. Availability: 4Q95 MCU Features In addition to the advanced, integrated network access features of the AccessSwitch product family, the VideoRouter includes: + Advanced Audio Support - G.711, G.722, G.728 at 16 Kbps + Conference Control from Front Key Pad (Express only) + Multiple Meeting Control Modes: (1) Voice Activated Switching, (2) Lecture Mode with AutoScan and (3)* H.243 Director Control + Auto Mode Negotiation + Integrated Network Access Features + Inverse Multiplexing for MCU and Sync Ports (IS 13871, BONDING) + Standards Based Multipoint Control (ITU-TSS H.243). + Support for the following Per-Port Conference Speeds: 2 x 56/64 kbit/s 112 - 384 kbit/s (768K*) + Cascading with H.243 Director Control* + T.120 Data Conferencing* + Dial in Broadcast Server for up to 900 Sites* * Indicates Next Release Customer support and network design services are available around the clock, around the world. VideoRouter, AccessSwitch and Teleos are trademarks of Teleos Communications, Inc. PRODUCT: VideoRouter(TM) Family US CONTACT: Dan Acquafredda COMPANY: Teleos Communications, Inc. 2 Meridian Road Eatontown, NJ 07724 USA voice: +1 908-544-6278 fax: +1 908-544-9890 email: info@teleoscom.com www: http:\\www.teleoscom.com\ (Opens end of May) Teleos Europe: Teunis deVries: (v) +32 2 725 5211 Teleos Asia: Terence Tan: (v) +65 321 8920 Hascall H. ("Chip") Sharp Teleos Communications, Inc. 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: mkelly@gabriel.resudox.net (Mark Kelly) Subject: Send-a-Call (Not Done Yet) Date: 16 May 1995 04:44:12 GMT Organization: A poorly-installed InterNetNews site I've read the last couple of posts on the payphone 'send-a-call' service with a fair bit of amusement because the product line marketing folks at Northern Telecom (sorry ... Nortel) wouldn't be too pleased to hear the negative feedback. NT has a product called Message Delivery Service which basically provides the functionality described in the posts. MDS detects ring-no-answer or busy and asks the caller if they would like a mesage delivered later for a fee. The product has had a few market trials here in Canada and I think is going through another right now. Same complaints as before along with a fair amount of confusion. Look for it soon in your area with features like 'Send a Greeting' or 'Deliver a message from Elvis' (and I'm not kidding about this stuff). Mark Kelly | Serving the North American Advanced Multi-Point Conferencing | Conference Call Market 320 March Road, Suite 102 | with Kanata, Ontario | CLEAR DIGITAL SERVICE K2L 1Z8 | 1-800-900-4249 (Reservations) | Operator Dial-Out,Meet-Me 1-613-592-5752 | and 1-800 Meet-Me ------------------------------ From: sknopoff@chomsky.arts.adelaide.edu.au (Steven Knopoff) Subject: Telephone 'Call Back' Services Date: 16 May 1995 11:40:36 GMT Organization: University of Adelaide, South Australia I have two related questions I hope someone might answer: First, does anyone know of a phone company that offers cheap rates (e.g. under .50/minute) between the U.S. and Australia? And second, can anyone here familiar with these 'call back' long distance services (some of which claim to offer U.S./Australia rates as low as .30/minute) explain why these companies' sales/customer service operations are run in such unprofessional manners? I have looked into three of these services (including MTC Passport) but have hesitated to proceed because their own sales phone numbers keep changing (at least here in Adelaide they do) and/or because the people answering the phone act as if they are somehow unauthorized or unwilling to answer questions about the service, or they say they will call back with the answer to a question but do not call back. At one point I started to think that this type of business might not be legal, but I checked with the Australian telecommunications ombudsman and Australian Trade Practices Commission, both of whom say that 'call back' services are perfectly legal (though they had no further information about them). Why, for example, don't these companies advertise in the phone book or newspapers like any other telephone-related business? ------------------------------ From: kpx@panix.com (Kevin Prichard) Subject: Question About Hunting and Call Waiting Date: 16 May 1995 11:06:59 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC I'm moving soon and have ordered two phone lines for my new apartment. Wanting to get the most from the two lines, I spoke with a couple of people at NYNEX about what I can do with the lines. I want to use the two lines for outgoing and incoming voice calls, plus use the second line for outgoing data/fax and incoming fax. I asked for, and got the okay for, the following features: 1. Line one hunts to line two; 2. Line two hunts to line one; 3. Line one has call waiting. The desired effect would be, for voice calls, that as line one and two are in use, line one would get the third call via call waiting. This, rather than put call waiting on line two, where the potential for interrupting data/fax transmission would be too great. The service is due to be turned on next week. Frankly, although I dreamed this up, I am skeptical that it will *actually* work. I expect that call waiting will override hunt on line one and additional calls will never pass to line two, or that hunt will override call waiting and the third caller will get a busy. Has anyone ever tried something like this? Whaddya think? Kevin Prichard kpx@panix.com The Atlantic Software Group [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Call waiting does not work in connection with hunting because when a line hunts to another line, then the line is never 'truly' busy. Call waiting depends on a line testing busy in order for it to kick in. I think your scheme is not going to work. Why not reverse the order of how you use your lines, like I do, and see if this works instead: Publish line one as your only number. Have it forward on busy to line two as now. Have call waiting on line two when *it* is busy. *Put your modem on line one*. Now what will happen is everyone dials line one. I assume you are not going to have your modem answering calls. Either you are not on the modem (or otherwise talking on line one) and incoming calls land there first, then roll to line two. If you are on the modem, then calls to line one will roll to line two, and you can have call waiting there with no problem where the modem is concerned. The only problem here is if you intend to have the modem answer the phone. If so, then you need some sort of device to tell the difference between modem and voice and have the calls routed accordingly. Here is my configuration: line 'one' with call waiting line 'two' rolls to line one when busy everything points to line 'two'. i.e. 800 number, 500 number, references to how to reach me, etc. All modems are on this line. line 'three' stand alone for fax. Line 'two' rings only two places: in my basement office and my second floor bedroom. It can be picked up or used in only those two places. Line 'one' rings all over my house, we all use it. Either I am in the basement in my office when line 'two' (inbound for everything relating to Digest, etc) rings or I am not. If I am not, it goes to voicemail. If I am on a modem, then line 'two' rolls to line 'one'; I can answer that down here also. The rest of my extended family is restricted to using line 'one', a non-published number with call waiting as mentioned above. Therefore I either get my calls on line 'two' or if the modem is on it (or I am using it voice) then I get roll overs on the family line 'one'. Line 'one' rings all over the house including their bedroom, the kitchen, etc. This way, their calls (and more important, their calls-waiting) don't bother me or my modems. On the other hand, since I pay all the bills around here for those lazy worthless deadbeats (grin, but only slightly, a bit forced) I get to use all the phones. If they (or I) need still another line for some reason, we can use the phone attached to the modem for a quick call out. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 12:12 CDT Subject: Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs From: swgate2!AUSMAIL1!FG8578@wugate.wustl.edu John Higdon writes: > Guarantees were implicit in the nature of the "public trust" in which > the telcos were involved. No telco would have been allowed to "fail". > And apparently you never heard about the "Great Giveaway of 1989" in > California. John: I've not heard of the so-called "giveaway"; may I suggest you look into the case of El Paso Electric? A "guaranteed" return did not keep EPE from going bankrupt, and being liquidated. My point: there are no guarantees. > No, no, no. Not like Ford, Pizza Hut, and Midas Muffler. Each of these > companies exists in a robust market of competitors. Someday, that may > be the case for the telcos, BUT NOT YET. Until that day, they cannot > be treated "just like any other company". Wasn't it true that in the days shortly after the invention of the automobile, that (for all practical purposes), Ford monopolized the auto market? How about Standard Oil in the oil market or US Steel in the steel market? My point: monopolization does not have customer ownership as a necessary consequence. If I'm wrong, fill me in. > (TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe John, that's one reason so many of > the telcos, like NYNEX and others, seem to be welcoming competition. Then > they won't be the 'only game in town' and thus can have more freedom to > do their thing unhindered by regulations than they do now. Of course they > know in real practice very few customers will make the switch. You and > I both know the competition could advertise daily in the papers for the > next year, and the 'real telco' would still have 95-98 percent of the same > customers this time next year. So it will be competition on paper . . . Pat: Tell that to AT&T, who's market share is down to 60% from virtually 100% before Divestiture. Pat, you and I both know (to paraphrase), the reason the LECs will keep high share is because the CAPs and IXCs don't WANT to serve (and WILL not serve) customers in high cost areas, like rural etc., where they have to "build-out" their own networks. And I seem to recall you took a strong stand against allowing CAPs and IXCs to resell existing LEC facilities to "cream-skim". So, who do you think will be left in the dubious position of "carrier of last resort"? The LECs, of course, to serve all the customers left after the CAPs and IXCs have skimmed off the most profitable 10-20% (pick a number). My point: the only "real" competition will be for the most profitable customers -- and the LEC is left to serve all other high cost customers. So, in a round-about way, I guess I would agree the only competition will be "on paper". Fred Goodwin fg8578@ausmail1.sbc.com Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. 512.870.2375 1616 Guadalupe, Room 640 Austin, TX 78701 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, AT&T's share is down, but note, it has taken over a decade for it to get as low as it has. For several years in the future, the local telcos can count on still having virtually all of the business, just as AT&T's share stayed in the 85-95 percent range for a number of years after divestiture. Regards cream-skimming and the way all the latter-day competitors have been feeding at the trough, I think it is a shame; I really do. To have real competition, the newcomers should have been told by Judge Greene that the *only* thing he would require of AT&T and (then, their subsid- iaries) the Bells was equality and fairness in interconnection and the assignment of telephone numbers and area codes. MCI and the others would have the right as of that day to string their wires, their local loops, etc. They could excavate in the street, climb over moutaintops with their wires, build central offices, develop a sophisticated system of internal accounting procedures, set up a manufacturing facility to build telephone equipment of all kinds; in summary, do it all. Let's not forget a little human sacrifice along the way: as Charles Brown, chairman of AT&T during the divestiture proceedings and former president of Illinois Bell (and I might add, former neighbor of mine from *many* years ago when he worked for IBT and lived near me in Rogers Park, a Chicago neighborhood) once commented, "when was the last time MCI had two long time employees killed in a weather-related accident high in the Rocky Mountains during a severe winter storm while they were trying to repair a downed line so a community of a couple hundred people could have their telephone service restored?" ... And Brown also noted, "If all I did was sell the profitable east coast corridor service, and I did not have to cut the local companies in on the action, I could sell it a lot cheaper also ...". Divestiture was from the beginning a hit-and-run, rough-and-dirty, grab-what-you-can-and-run process by the other carriers. None of them could begin to legitimatly accomplish what AT&T has done. So let them all start from the beginning, and build a telephone network. And Judge Greene might have concluded, "in a half century or so, when you have accomplished perhaps half of what AT&T has done, come back and see me; I'll order them to open the door of their central offices and hand you a bunch of pairs for the purpose of interconnection with their subscriber base and order them to apply their standards fairly and at arms-length. They'll get no special pricing or privileges for themselves." No use grousing about it now I guess; its over with. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hfore@mindspring.com (Howard Fore) Subject: TRT Consultant Needed in Atlanta Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 11:00:35 -0500 Organization: Techies, Nerds, and Wireheads Consulting The subject line says it all. I need a TRT consultant in Atlanta. Anybody know of one. TRT tells me to go to Chicago or New York. Howard Fore - Mac/LAN Manager/Webmaster - Creative Loafing Inc. hfore@mindspring.com - http://www.mindspring.com/~hfore/home.html ------------------------------ From: ahhersh@newstand.syr.edu (Adam H Hersh) Subject: Time Warner/Internet Access Date: 16 May 1995 07:23:29 GMT Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse NY, USA Reply-To: ahhersh@mailbox.syr.edu I have heard that Time Warner has some Ethernet Internet Access in Beta-Testing, soom to go public. Anyone have any more details? Adam Hersh ------------------------------ From: carlin!eharris@uunet.uu.net (Evan Harris) Subject: Natural Microsystems VBX/400 Telephony Board Help (NMS) Date: 16 May 95 08:05:30 GMT Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas Reply-To: eharris@soulmind.connectamerica.com I need to find a source of technical specs for Natural Microsystems VBX/400 telephony boards. I need to find out what the file format of the prompt files is, so that I can create them. I've called NMS, and they have been no help. Apparently the person that worked for them that wrote the drivers for the board left the company and no one knows the specs on the files. (Sounds like good planning to me...) Anyway, if anyone knows anything about these boards, or knows where I can get more information on technical details, it would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance, Evan Harris - eharris@soulmind.connectamerica.com ------------------------------ From: dm732@delphi.com Subject: Warning Lights Available? Date: Tue, 16 May 95 13:38:14 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Hi I live with two other roomates (with one phone number/line). Lots of times when I'm on the computer/modem, one of my roomates not knowing I'm on line, would pick up one of the extension phone, and of course disconnect me from the service I was using. I was wondering if there might be some type of red (or anytime of warning light, to indicate that the line is in use? Any help will be appercated. Thanks. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: How about a device to just cut off the other phones in your house so they are dead and your roomates can't get on the line at all? Radio Shack makes a little thing which is normally used to shut off an answering machine message in progress when someone picks up a phone associated with the machine. We have found these can be used as 'exclusion keys' for extensions on a phone line with a modem as well. You plug them into the modular jack of the device you want restricted from service when another phone on the line (without such a device) is off hook. Your modem/phone is then the master or controller of the phones in your house. When it goes off hook, instantly all other phones on the same line go dead. I think they cost about ten dollars each; ask at Radio Shack. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #241 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16376; 17 May 95 2:18 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA04194 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 16 May 1995 20:42:16 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA04186; Tue, 16 May 1995 20:42:14 -0500 Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 20:42:14 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505170142.UAA04186@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #242 TELECOM Digest Tue, 16 May 95 20:42:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 242 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? (Bob Michael) Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? (Bob Yazz) Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? (Dave Harrison) Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? (Lee Winson) Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? (Mark Cuccia) Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? (James E. Bellaire) Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range (rsprang@Internet.cnmw.com) Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range (Ed Ellers) Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range (Lionel C. Ancelet) Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range (Benjamin L. Combee) Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range (Ed Mitchell) Re: Unusual RF Stories (swainp@stanilite.com.au) Re: Unusual RF Stories (K.M. Peterson) Re: Unusual RF Stories (Eric Florack) Re: NYNEX Strikes Again (Paul Houle) Re: The Way Sprint Does Business (Douglas Kaspar) Re: Voice/Data Multiplexer For 64kb Leased Line? (Hiro Daryanani) Re: Voice/Data Multiplexer For 64kb Leased Line? (J. Giles) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 16 May 1995 17:49:37 +0000 From: bob.michael@nt.com Subject: Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? Organization: Nortel (Northern Telecom) In article Bob Yazz, yazz@locus.com writes: > In the latest software release for the DMS-100 switch in the San Diego > area, there is a new "feature" that is hurting people who cannot dial > or remember phone numbers with great speed. > Specifically, if you pause for a mere four seconds between digits you > lose dialtone and get a recording that says to try again. On the DMS-100, the interdigit timeout is settable by the telco for between 0-30 seconds, with a default of four seconds; this has been the case for quite some time. There are at least two possible reasons Pacbell changed the timeout: * The Bellcore default for this value changed at some point from six to four seconds, and Pacbell followed suit. * Pacbell may have set their value to 20 seconds in the previous SW load, but did not change it from the Nortel default value of four seconds when they loaded new software. In any case, I'd suggest contacting Pacbell. I'd also remind you that a formal complaint to your PUC must be addressed within a specified period of time. But call Pacbell first, this may just be an oversight, or they may not be aware of the problems this can cause. Please email if you require additional information. Regards, Bob Michael Marketing Communications, Switching Networks Research Triangle Park, North Carolina ------------------------------ From: yazz@locus.com (Bob Yazz) Subject: Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? Date: 13 May 1995 22:50:50 GMT Organization: Locus Computing Corporation, Inc. Pat wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There seems to be a conflict here between > people who need longer to dial and those who lacking the carriage return > or '#' symbol on their phone want a speedy time-out. Hmm, I think this misses the point -- there's really not a conflict. I do hope a TV news crew films someone who has to dial their phone from bed using a stick in their teeth and their neck muscles. I'll bet such folks are having a barrel of fun playing Pac Bell's new "3.5 second game of skill" with each new digit they dial. (:-{( (I re-checked; the timeout is 3.5 seconds, not four as I said before.) So brief a timeout is fine to distinguish "0" from "0 plus the number". The problem is that the 3.5 second timeout now applies to *all* dialing. So if I dial "1-202", and glance back at slip of paper (or my new- fangled Microsoft wristwatch) for the remaining digits of the phone number, I get cut off in just 3.5 seconds. More common than the neck muscle example above, imagine a grandmother, not handicapped per se, but perhaps less nimble than she once was, trying to phone her family on Mother's Day. Since the recording she'll get says "Your call did not go thru; please hang up and try again", how many Pac Bell operators are going to tell such a grandmother that her problem has to do with heavy Mother's Day phone traffic or her long distance carrier? Alright, so it really is a DMS switch software bug, not a feature for "conserving precious dialtone resource". (They still give you 15 seconds to hit your first digit.) Does anyone know how quickly Pac Bell is *capable* of applying a simple fix to their bad BCS? It's very probably a single word of code -- like "timeout1" instead of "timeout2". (BCS=software release for the DMS switch.) Best Wishes, Bob Yazz ------------------------------ From: west@via.net (Dave Harrison) Subject: Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? Date: 13 May 1995 23:28:34 GMT Organization: Westside BBS Los Angeles USA We have 120 DMS Centrex lines, and four regular DMS 1MB's in Los Angeles (Webster) ... and the four second time out is annoying. You can get by if you know the number, but it will usually take two or three attempts to dial a number by word (such as 1-800-DMS-SUXX) etc. I can see where this could present major problems for our senior citizens, those with limited vision, etc. Other problems we have noticed since last October (when we converted from ESS to DMS) ... modem calls will drop randomly after midnight; the "level" on calls is lower than ESS as all of our calls go thru the Sherman Oaks tandem instead of a more direct route; and on a few lines where we have call forwarding variable, the number of paths will mysteriously change from the defualt of 99 to 1. And let's not forget the morning at 4 am when the entire DMS switch died -- and no one knows why. I have asked my Pac Bell rep to switch us back to ESS on many occasions. Hell, I've even pleaded and begged. All to no avail. Pacific Bell is slowly becoming another GTE ... poor service, incompenent sales reps, management, engineers, and technicians ... I could go on and on. ------------------------------ From: turner7@pacsibm.org (Lee Winson) Subject: Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? Date: 13 May 1995 01:54:20 GMT Organization: PACS IBM SIG BBS I wouldn't call it "screwing the handicapped", but I've noticed real short timeouts on dialing as well. Sometimes you gotta look down at the phone book. Dialing letter codes (ie "EATGOOD") is slower. When you throw in access codes and area codes, it slows things down. I don't think it would kill things if they allowed a good 20-30 seconds to dial a number. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, they *do* allow at least thirty seconds to dial a number. Seven digit numbers get up to four seconds each for input, or potentially 28 seconds of time. Toss in a three digit area code and '1'; that gives you 44 seconds to punch in what you want. And you say 20 seconds might be long enough? Yes, I understand; you meant a *digit*, not a *number*. The problem with this is who wants to press zero and wait half a minute for it to set up? Who wants to dial the pin on his credit card and have to wait half a minute for the system to begin checking the data? What in the world would be wrong in the USA with variable length telephone numbers -- any length desired -- and ALWAYS the use of '#' to indicate that you are finished with your input. Then allow that 20 or 30 seconds as you wish following the final digit if no '#' esd entered. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mark Cuccia Subject: Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped Date: Mon, 15 May 95 09:39:00 +6C Regarding DIGITAL ESS offices here in NEW ORLEANS, the 'Briarwood' Office (504-46X) switch is also a DMS switch. Dial Tone cuts out after about four or five seconds to 'If you would like to make a call...' and then Off-Hook beeps. You also cut out to 'Your Call Did Not Go Thru' after four to five seconds on dialing a single 'N' digit or double 'NX' digits (such as not having subscribed to any Custom Calling/Touchstar/Prestige/vertical features), particularly not having any 'Speed Calling 8' or 'Speed Calling 30'. On the third digit, NXX or four or more digits, if the code is 'invalid', i.e. a 'partial dial', you cut out to 'Your Call Did Not Go Thru' after eight to ten seconds. I'm not yet sure how the Digital #5ESS offices handle this. (We have several now in New Orleans). The older 'analog' ESS offices in New Orleans (and when we DID have #5Crossbars) give you anywhere from 12 to 30 seconds before timing out to 'off-hook' warnings or 'partial-dial' treatment. SOME local telcos ARE coming out with a 'Voice-Dial' feature - you get dial tone for only TWO seconds where you would THEN quote out a name or number which you have stored in a 'memory' space. IF you need up to four seconds of dial tone (such as for modem dial-out), you can do something like a *45, beginning it before your two seconds of dial tone cuts out. This will give you up to four seconds of dialtone until you do ANOTHER *4X code OR quote a voice dial address after your four second dialtone cuts out where upon you default back to two seconds of dial tone on subsequent calls. I'm not sure if the code is *45 to give you longer dialtone -- I know it is in the *4X series. USWest is one of the companies offering this Voice Dial feature in selected DMS & #5ESS offices, for a monthly fee. (See articles in Bellcore's DIGEST of Technical Information; or a for a longer list of 'Vertical Service Codes' *XX or NX# codes - Custom Calling, Touchstar, Prestige, Premier, Call Managment, CLASS, etc. - see the *XX code subsection of Section 1 of Bellcore TRA's Local Exchange Routing Guide - LERG). MARK +1 504 865 5917 (FAX, work; UNiversity 5-5917) +1 504 865 5954 (TEL, work; UNiversity 5-5954) mcuccia@law.tulane.edu +1 504 241 2497 (TEL, home - will roll over to my cellular with voice mail; CHestnut 1-2497) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Except if you only get two seconds of dial tone in which to enter that *45 or whatever, what are you supposed to do with modems which do not begin dialing for at least two seconds? Remember the old rule about how the modem is supposed to wait two seconds before dialing? It was a technical thing; I don't know if it matters now or if it ever did. From what you are saying above, the dial tone has come and gone before the modem is in a position to prepend *45 or much of anything else. Sounds like a strange waste of feature codes to me. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 11:12:03 -0500 From: bellaire@tk.com (James E. Bellaire) Subject: Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? In TELECOM Digest V15 #238, Bob Yazz wrote: > In the latest software release for the DMS-100 switch in the San Diego > area, there is a new "feature" that is hurting people who cannot dial > or remember phone numbers with great speed. > Specifically, if you pause for a mere four seconds between digits you > lose dialtone and get a recording that says to try again. > Before this latest change, the timeout was 20 seconds for the entire > dialing process. Your digital switch problems are probably local, complain to the 'normal channels' (business office, supervisors, PUC). Here in Sturgis, a GTE North - Michigan town, we have a switch with all the SS7 fun stuff just turned on. I checked the following times on a watch... Lift Handset to first digit - 28 seconds (Err TLD) Between MOST digits - 25 seconds (Err TLD) After dialing a feature code - 5 seconds (completed) (example: 72# dialed as 72 wait) After dialing part of a valid local number - 25 seconds (Err TLD) After dialing part of an invalid local number - 5 seconds (Err CNC) After dialing 1+ a valid area code - 25 seconds (Err TLD) After dialing 1+ an invalid area code - 5 seconds (Err LDE) (Err TLD) = you have taken to long to dial (Err CNC) = your call cannot be compeleted as dialed (Err LDE) = your long distance carrier cannot complete your call as dialed ^^^^^^^ this is a GTE local message, not one from the IXC carrier. This kind of setup would solve your problem (unless you wait too long after the second digit while dialing a local exchange that begins with a function code.) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There seems to be a conflict here between > people who need longer to dial and those who lacking the carriage return > or '#' symbol on their phone want a speedy time-out. Bingo. GTE North seems to have this right. (Yes, GTE does get things right once in a while!) Maybe PacBell needs to learn how to set their timeouts better. BTW Pat, you said: > Still though, prepending '11' to the dialing string usually is considered > a substitute for the '#' following A 'pause' is the proper substitution for '#', '11' is the substitute for '*'. Always another nit-picker ... James E. Bellaire (JEB6) bellaire@tk.com Twin Kings Communications - Sturgis, MI [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well for quite a few years here, it was possible to do any of these things to effect (for example) 'cancel call forwarding': *73, 73#, 73 wait, or 1173. The asterisk took the place of the '11' (pronounced 'eleven', not 'one one'); the '11' took the place of '73 wait'. Using 73# now seems to not be available in most central offices here; its *73 or 1173. Likewise, 73 wait has vanished. I guess they figure even if you don't have a touchtone phone, or you have an older one with only ten keys, at least you must have the digit '1' there somewhere to be pulled or poked. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rsprang@Internet.cnmw.com Date: Mon, 15 May 95 12:18:58 EST Subject: Re: Extending Cordless Phone Range smithgl@ndlc.occ.uky.edu recently said: > I recently installed a cordless telephone (Partner Plus - AT&T CDM > 9000) for a client. The cordless gets great range when I locate the > base/charger near the outside wall of the building. However, the > owner wants his base/charger located in his office in the middle of > the office building which severly limits his range and clarity when he > uses his cordless outside. > Is it possible to install an external antenna on the outside of the > building to improve the signal from the cordless base/charger? Why not use a 900 Mhz cordless phone? The phone we (Cincinnati Microwave) produce has a range of 1/2 mile. Other 900 Mhz phones have ranges in the < 1/4 mile range. ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range Date: Mon, 15 May 95 21:56:01 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to John Radisch : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I did not know they were allowed to > officially make a cordless phone with 200 milliwatts output. I thought > 100 was the legal limit. Not that the antenna cannot 'see' 200 when it > gets that far, just that the radio itself was limited to 100 at the > final. PAT] I'd have to look up the rules -- they vary for each category of device. 100 mW input to the final stage was the limit for the old 27 MHz walkie- talkies, which are no longer legal as Part 15 devices. I do know that it's flat out illegal to attach an external transmit antenna to a cordless phone -- not only are those devices restricted as to antenna size, but the antenna must be permanently attached to the device. External *receive* antennas are in fact legal; the outdoor cordless phone antennas offered a few years back were designed for the older cordless systems that had the base-to- handset link at 1650 kHz or so with the handset transmitter on one of the five 49 MHz walkie-talkie channels. (For that matter, when I was a little kid I had a GE base station, designed to the Part 15 specs for 27 MHz operation, that had an external antenna input for the receiver only.) ------------------------------ From: Lionel C. Ancelet Subject: Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range Organization: Compaq Computer Corp. Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 18:24:45 GMT smithgl@ndlc.occ.uky.edu (Greg Smith) wrote: > I recently installed a cordless telephone (Partner Plus - AT&T CDM > 9000) for a client. The cordless gets great range when I locate the > base/charger near the outside wall of the building. However, the > owner wants his base/charger located in his office in the middle of > the office building which severly limits his range and clarity when he > uses his cordless outside. > Is it possible to install an external antenna on the outside of the > building to improve the signal from the cordless base/charger? You could use a "passive repeater": an inside antenna in the room where the base is located, an outside one on the outside of the building, and a coax line between the two. This way you don't need to touch the base or the handset. Of course, take antennas tuned for the frequency range your phone uses, likely 46-49 MHz. Lionel C. Ancelet CIS: 71641,1340 AOL: L Ancelet ------------------------------ From: combee@cc.gatech.edu (Benjamin L. Combee) Subject: Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range Date: 16 May 1995 17:00:36 -0400 Organization: ROASF Atlanta Reply-To: combee@techwood.org In article , smithgl@ndlc.occ.uky.edu (Greg Smith) says: > I recently installed a cordless telephone (Partner Plus - AT&T CDM > 9000) for a client. The cordless gets great range when I locate the > base/charger near the outside wall of the building. However, the > owner wants his base/charger located in his office in the middle of > the office building which severly limits his range and clarity when he > uses his cordless outside. Perhaps you could also get an extension charger that you could place in the center of the office while the base sits near the edge of the building. That would give the client the ability to dock his or her phone when not in use while giving you the range you want. There is an extension charger available for my cheap Uniden XC310, so I'd assume the manufacturers may have them for the more expensive cordless phones. Benjamin L. Combee combee@techwood.org http://www.yak.net/combee/ ------------------------------ From: Ed Mitchell Date: Tue, 16 May 95 13:27:06 PDT Subject: Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range Pat writes: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I did not know they were allowed to > officially make a cordless phone with 200 milliwatts output. I thought > 100 was the legal limit. Not that the antenna cannot 'see' 200 when it > gets that far, just that the radio itself was limited to 100 at the > final. PAT] 900 Mhz cordless phones that use spread spectrum modulation techniques can operate up to a maximum of 1 watt output. This applies to both the handset and base. Most cordless phones operate with considerably less power than this because (a) high power drains batteries quickly and consumers seem to like long battery life more than range, and (b) to cover typical areas - say 500 ft radius - requires very little output power. You can read the rules for low power unlicensed devices in Part 15 of the FCC's Rules (CFR Title 47). I have not done any measurements nor field strength calculations but I am under the impression that many cordless phones operate at around 1 mw. It does not require much power to achieve the desired coverage range. In a related area, 46/49 MHz cordless phones operate on ten paired 20 khz wide FM channels. A few weeks ago, the FCC approved the use of an additional 15 channels so that there will now be a total of 25 "low VHF" cordless phone frequencies available. The additional frequencies were added because cordless phones have become the norm and in densely populated areas (apartments, condos, town homes), users had saturated the 10 existing channels. Even though 900 MHz offers vastly more frequencies, manufacturers can build much lower cost phones at the "low VHF" frequency range. For the record, my digital but non-spread spectrum Tropez 900DL has achieved a range of probably over 700 feet even though the phone is located inside the house and the signal must traverse a hostile environment (my house, my garage, my neighbors house, the forest) in the direction I measured. Ed Mitchell KF7VY ------------------------------ From: swainp@stanilite.com.au (UL) Subject: Re: Unusual RF Stories Date: 16 May 1995 18:31:54 +1000 Organization: Stanilite Electronics Pty. Ltd. Sydney, Australia jdearing@netaxs.com (John Dearing) writes: > There's SO much stray RF in the area that there are homes where you > CAN'T turn a fluorescent lamp OFF. Once you turn it ON it's always ON. > The stray RF is enough to keep ionizing the gas in the tube!! > Or the guy that kept hearing WCAU (1210-AM) from his toilet! Turns out > that a cold solder joint in the plumbing in the water tank was acting > as a detector/demodulator. Once enough corrosion built up, presto, > instant semiconductor!! AM from a toilet? Wierd, but easy to demodulate I once found a toaster that played FM. About 300 metres from the Channel 10 xmitter in Chatswood, Sydney I was fitting a few ferrite cores to speaker leads, etc to stop the signal creeping into everything electronic in the house and when the tape player, etc had stopped reading the news there was a small residual newsreader, which we tracked to an unplugged toaster on the kitchen shelf. It was buzzing the video signal, with a quite intelligible voice. I never expected such a good slope-detector in a simple kitchen appliance! Two solutions: - wound the cord around the toaster and it went quiet; - convinced my pregnant friend to move, as that much rf 24hrs/day frightens me, even when my cells aren't frantically dividing! ------------------------------ From: Eric_Florack@mc.xerox.com Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 06:35:44 PDT Subject: Re: Unusual RF Stories jdearing@netaxs.com (John Dearing) wrote in #239, about some interesting games with RF. Having around 15 years in radio behind me, I can write some interesting stuff as well. Allow me an example: Back during WWII, 700/WLW was running 50kw into a single tower, via open air feeedlines. Now, as to what they were, they're evenly spaced feedlines, uninsulated. You see, this was coax, pre-Korean war. Anyway, the stuff tended to be affected by the weather, as you might imagine. I used some of the same stuff at the old WSAY up here in Rochester, some years ago. You could always tell if it was raining or snowing, because the standing wave ratio would start to climb ... but back to WLW. During WWII, WLW was doing some propaganda broadcasts. Mr. Goebels had the highest power medium wave transmitter known to exist, and was using it for propaganda purposes. The folks here in the United States decided they wanted to play 'me too', and gave a few stations permission to do 'high power testing'. In the case of WLW, this meant changing from 50,000 watts to 500,000 watts, with a callsign on the big gun of WLWO. These tests were run after midnight local. Now, there were no inline meters made that could measure reflectivity at that kind out TPO ... nobody was running that kind of TPO in ANY service at the time. So, the only way to test the tuning of the antenna system, (something done quite freqently, given the relative instability of open-air feeders) was to walk along the feedline from the shack to the tower, with a field strength meter in your hand. On rainy nights, though, things got weird, as I gather it. With all that power, the lines had a tendency to arc a bit. An engineer who worked there at the time later told me: 'It was the strangest thing; Lightning bolts from the sky, screaming German ...' Somehow I can't imagine the kind of RFI on local telephones of the day. I have a few more such stories but I won't bore you with them. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It was during the Second World War that the radio stations in the USA went through a frequency realignment process. For example, WGN in Chicago had been on 730 and they moved to 720. WBBM had been on 770 and moved to 780. There were quite a few stations which were affected and relocated. I am not sure why it was done. How is the situation in south Florida these days with the Cubans and all the AM broadcasters? You'll recall a few years ago when the USA was building that big radio station down there to broadcast propoganda to the Cubans, Fidel Castro got quite angry about it and instructed stations there to start a radio war. Cuban stations started sending out so much power it made AM radio miserable to listen to even here as far north as Chicago sometimes. Some station down there sitting on 720 was pushing so much power our own WGN radio was difficult to listen to after dark. It was okay all day, but once the sun disappeared and that RF started skipping all over the northern hemisphere, we'd get WGN *mostly*, with that fellow screaming in Spanish condemning the US government riding along with it. Night after night, all night long some nights; other times when the skip was not so good we would not hear the Cubans this far north. Where it got bad was the further south you went in the USA. Go south of Miami on the way to Key West, and AM radio was just one big mess of heterodyne and jumbled signals, with the Cubans pushing all the power they could and the USA broadcasters dumping back, each side seeing who would be the ones to get out with their message, their music or whatever. In the southern USA -- places like Georgia, Alabama and Texas -- their AM stations got walked over pretty badly also some nights by the Cubans, and I suppose by USA broadcasters who were trying to retaliate. That radio war went on in earnest for what, a couple years? The FCC gave the stations in south Florida permission to increase their power 'as needed' to get their signal out at least around their own communities. You got Miami stations *in Miami*, but go five miles south of town and the Cubans were screaming out of your radio at you. Just like the olden, golden days of Citizen's Band -- CB, sometimes called Crazy Band -- radio in the USA. PAT] ------------------------------ From: KMP@portal.vpharm.com (K. M. Peterson) Subject: Re: Unusual RF Stories Date: 16 May 1995 17:16:06 GMT Organization: Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated In article jdearing@netaxs.com (John Dearing) writes: > Or the guy that kept hearing WCAU (1210-AM) from his toilet! Turns out > that a cold solder joint in the plumbing in the water tank was acting > as a detector/demodulator. Once enough corrosion built up, presto, > instant semiconductor!! Personally, I'd like to hear more. Question: there are some rather tall buildings here in Boston. Some of them have TV and radio antennas; what do you do when you have to go up on the roof to maintain wiring and other things there? Is there protective clothing? K. M. Peterson [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What seems to happen in the Chicago area is that all the stations located on the roof of the Hancock Building or Sears Tower (whichever applies) go off the air whenever any one of them has to do antenna work. It does not seem to happen very often, but about a year ago I recall three or four stations (two or three radio, one was television; I do not remember the specifics) all announced on the same day that they would be off the air that night from about midnight until 5:00 in the morning for 'antenna adjustments'. I remember about 30-35 years ago when one summer evening we had a very sudden and very heavy rainfall. A torrential downpour would be a better description; or you might term it an 'electrical storm'. There was a great deal of lightning and you could feel that juice as the crackle in the air proceeded the thunder. WLS 890-AM was playing the top ten as always with Dick Biondi when all of a sudden they went totally silent in the middle of the Beatles singing something. They were off the air for about an hour or maybe longer. After flipping around on the dial listening to a couple other things I went back and just left it set to 890 and hash in the background until they returned. I suppose an hour later I noticed the hash went away with dead silence in its place; they were warming up the transmitter again. Someone came on -- a voice I had not heard before -- merely to announce that, 'at this time WLS will leave the air to do emergency maintainence work at our transmitter site; we will return as soon as the work is finished ...'. This person then read the usual obligatory notice about their frequency assignment, their FCC authority to broadcast, etc, then they went dead again. A minute or two later they were back on the air doing testing of some sort, just whistles and tone signals, and a couple times what appeared to be a recorded announcement saying 'testing only' and a few phrases. Following that some dead air -- just carrier with no modulation on it -- for perhaps a minute and then the studio came back on, once again giving the obligatory notice about their station and the FCC, and that they were coming on the air at this time 'to resume programming in progress'. It seems the antenna had gotten struck by lightning; it must have been a powerful hit that knocked them out. Dick Biondi and the other on-air people spent the rest of the night chattering about the lightning strike and not much else in between songs they were playing. By curious concidence, while I was waiting for them to come back on the air I did tune WBBM 780-AM which in those years played classical music all the time instead of their all news format they've had for about 25 years. What were they playing? The scheduled work was a choral selection, 'As Torrents in Summer', from the opera 'King Olaf' by Grieg. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ph18@crux2.cit.cornell.edu (Paul Houle) Subject: Re: NYNEX Strikes Again Date: 16 May 1995 14:14:48 GMT Organization: Cornell University mkuras@ccs.neu.edu (Michael J Kuras) writes: > [NYNEX babble deleted] NYNEX is just as bad in Ithaca. I live in a house with two other students, and because they get more calls than I do, very often when I am by myself I let the answering machine pick up, since maybe four times out of five I'd just have to take a message anyway. For about a week around 9:15 in the morning the phone would ring a few times, the answering machine would pick up and then the caller would hang up. I never really made the connection, until one time I actually did pick up and I found out that it was NYNEX. The telemarketer was very aggressive about caller ID, and I said that we weren't interested -- then the telemarketer moved on to call waiting, call forwarding, the works. I was really astounded at how aggressive the person was, and finally I said that "I'd have to bring this up with the people I live with" and I hung up. ------------------------------ From: BYJV13A@prodigy.com (Douglas Kaspar) Subject: Re: The Way Sprint Does Business Date: 16 May 1995 03:43:39 GMT Organization: Prodigy Services Company 1-800-PRODIGY When you examine Sprint's basic LD tariff vs. AT&T, their cost per minute is identical to AT&T's across rate bands, time of day, etc. MCI's basic LD tariff across the rate band's is .0001 cent per minute less. The savings come in when your volumes increase, so beware of the so called "savings". DOUGLAS KASPAR BYJV13A@prodigy.com ------------------------------ From: Hiro Daryanani Subject: Re: Voice/Data Multiplexer For 64kb Leased Line? Date: 16 May 1995 03:40:26 GMT Organization: Hong Kong Internet & Gateway Services, Wanchai, Hong Kong writchie@gate.net wrote: > Newbridge Networks (3606) (Canada) > Republic Telecom (Now Netrix) (RLX400) (US) > Micom (Marathon Series) (US) > Case (UK) Don't forget about ACT (located in the same city as Micom) and PCSI. Stratacom have also OEMed ACT's equip. The aggregate 64kpbs link can be frame relay in ACT's case. This essentially means that you can do voice over frame relay. Regards, Hiro Daryanani (hiro@hk.net) ------------------------------ From: jgiles@rohan.sdsu.edu (giles) Subject: Re: Voice/Data Multiplexer for 64kb Leased Line? Date: 16 May 1995 04:18:23 GMT Organization: San Diego State University Computing Services > We are looking for a data/voice multiplexer for a leased 64kb > digital line. We want to use some portion of the bandwidth for phone > calls to and from a PBX extension and the rest for IP traffic. The > leased line speaks the G.703 protocol (there would be an alternative > using I.430). Any information about implementations, producers and > distributors is appreciated. AT&T carries just what you are looking for. Try your nearest AT&T GBCS. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #242 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa18532; 17 May 95 4:55 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id WAA06068 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 16 May 1995 22:15:24 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id WAA06056; Tue, 16 May 1995 22:15:19 -0500 Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 22:15:19 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505170315.WAA06056@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #243 TELECOM Digest Tue, 16 May 95 21:15:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 243 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs (Thomas Peters) Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs (Tim Gorman) Horizontal Frequency of Television (Friedrich Kaufmann) Long Wave and Medium Wave Transmitters (Friedrich Kaufmann) Stats For Obtainable Bitrates For Data Transfer on PSTN Lines (Jan Nielsen) Video Teleconferencing - CLI Problems? (Vince Muehe) NE Ohio - New Area Code 330? (Doug Sewell) Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range (Mike Curtis) A Question About Priorities (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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: tpeters@hns.com (Thomas Peters) Subject: Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs Date: 15 May 1995 22:19:18 GMT Organization: Hughes Network Systems Inc. >> If each ratepayer should be given stock in the telephone company then >> why shouldn't each Ford owner be given stock in Ford? > One reason is that ... To make this proposal perfectly clear: you are proposing that it is appropriate to confiscate a large portion of American industry from its owners. Many of those owners by the way are widows and pension plans. Even if one believes this is "fair" and "justified" the financial markets might well collapse in a manner which would make 1929 look like kid stuff. > Guarantees were implicit in the nature of the "public trust" in which > the telcos were involved. No telco would have been allowed to "fail". Really? Just because a telephone company continues to operate does not mean that its stockholders' equity can't be confiscated and given to the creditors in a chapter 11 bankruptcy. This has happened to some very large electric utilities, which should be even more sacred than telephone companies. > what: films, TV programs, video-games and home shopping. Why are we, > telephone users, paying to capitalize this? And why should we going to > get it in the shorts when the telcos fail at this venture as they have > failed at every other non-telecom venture they have delved into? ... > Naturally, the base rates were the usual "calculation on fantasy" that > has existed since the beginning of monopoly time. Do YOU happen to have > the figures from a FULL AUDIT of a telephone company? I thought not. You keep making accusations like this. Do you have any proof? Of massive fraud on a scale to justify your ideas? You're the one making the accusations and suggesting the radical remedy, not Tim Gorman. The relationship between the public and a large regulated monopoly is never going to be smooth and free of disagreements, but a little balance is in order. The Bell System and the other local phone companies have built a fabulous telephone network, by far the best in the world. They invested their money, time, and energy on the basis of a deal they made with the public long ago. This is how you would repay them? Speaking for myself only. Tom Peters ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 20:24:06 -0500 From: Tim Gorman Subject: Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs John Higdon writes: > Tim Gorman writes: >> If each ratepayer should be given stock in the telephone company then >> why shouldn't each Ford owner be given stock in Ford? > One reason is that Ford owners did not have to be Ford owners. Similar > transportation could be had from General Motors, Chrysler, or even foreign > companies such as BMW, Toyota, or Volvo. A telephone customer has two > choices: he can open his bill and pay it, or he can do without telephone > service. If Ford's prices were out of line, customers would go elsewhere. > If telephone rates are out of line (which, I might point out, they are), > the customer is invited to pay up or yell loudly. All of which means nothing when it comes to considering nationalization of the telco's. This is nothing more than sour grapes about the government deciding many years ago to implement telephone service as a regulated monopoly rather than a competitive service. Telephone rates being out of line has absolutely nothing to do with whether the telco should be considered a ratepayer owned company or a stockholder owned company. If you have a problem with Public Utility Commssion approved tariff rates then you have a problem with the Public Utility Commissions and not with the stockholders of the telco's. >> 1. The stockholders in the telephone companies did NOT make a killing. >> The dividends were always very low compared to other companies of similar >> revenues. The difference was that much of the company income flow DID >> go to pay off debt issues as well as being reinvested. The stockholders >> PAID a penalty for low risk by also incurring low yield. > In the past, this was true. Not so now with the investment in SO MUCH > non-telco facilities that will benefit the ratepayer not one whit. For > instance, Bell Atlantic, Nynex, and Pacific Telesis have each kicked in > one-hundred MILLION dollars to a joint venture dubbed "The Phone Booth". > What is this supposed to offer "the telephone user"? Here's what: films, TV > programs, video-games and home shopping. Why are we, telephone users, > paying to capitalize this? And why should we going to get it in the shorts > when the telcos fail at this venture as they have failed at every other > non-telecom venture they have delved into? This is STILL more of the philosophy that the telco's should be non-profit, government owned (i.e. ratepayer owned) entities. As you noted yourself, we are not living in the past. If the telco's wish to continue to attract the capital necessary to upgrade the ENTIRE network to digital switching, ATM, ISDN, etc. -- things which benefit the customer in services available and incremental cost -- then they must be able to compete in the capital markets with companies growing at much faster rates and paying much higher dividends. In the past, this was possible through very controlled introduction of technology in a vertically integrated network with capital gained by being a "little old ladies" stock. This is no longer the past. If the telco's don't begin to position themselves for a competitive market TODAY, they will not be ready TOMORROW. If you have a problem with this, you need to take it up with Judge Green, not with the telco's. It is a fact of life. It is not going to change no matter how much grumping about it is done. What you are griping about was an inevitable result of the breakup of AT&T and the national franchised telephone network. Too bad. The king is dead. :-( Long live the king! :=O >> 2. The telephone companies were NEVER guaranteed a rate of return. In >> fact, the commissions set MAXIMUM rates of returns, not minimums. > Guarantees were implicit in the nature of the "public trust" in which the > telcos were involved. No telco would have been allowed to "fail". And > apparently you never heard about the "Great Giveaway of 1989" in > California. The telcos were told that if they could cut expenses and > increase efficiency, they could KEEP the money they saved. Naturally, the > base rates were the usual "calculation on fantasy" that has existed since > the beginning of monopoly time. Do YOU happen to have the figures from a > FULL AUDIT of a telephone company? I thought not. Nope. I don't have the figures from a full audit. So what? You STILL are griping about the Public Utility Commissions and the job they did. Take it up with them. If you have and no one listened then maybe there is a reason. Of course, telco's were allowed to fail. I know of at least two that were forced by the PUC in Missouri to sell their assets to others because they were doing such a bad job running their franchises. Did any of the AT&T affiliates fail? No. So what? If you think the PUC's were all sweetness and light with the telco's you haven't talked to the PUC in Oklahoma! Are you listening to what you are saying, John? On one hand you complain about the efficiency of the telco's being so bad and on the other you argue for keeping regulatory practices that contribute nothing toward developing efficient practices. Letting the telco's keep profits from cutting costs and more efficient operation is the BEST way to encourage such practices. This is why there is an industry wide move to price regulation rather than maximum rate of return regulation. It is an emulation of how the competitive market works. >> 3. There is NOTHING wrong with reinvested earnings. Funding a capital >> intensive operation does NOT have to be done totally by shareholder >> investment in order to be "acceptable" > It does when the company is not constrained by the marketplace. Your > example of Ford is perfect. If Ford re-invests to the point where it cannot > operate without raising prices, it either stops re-investing or it becomes > uncompetitive. Telco simply takes its vaudville act to the PUC, whines that > it needs more operating revenue to provide the baseline level of service, > the idiots in the PUC buy the crap, and then the rates go up (or the > negative surcharges go down). With an attitude like this we would still all be using panel switches, John. The telco's were not given the option of not investing in the business. It was part of their franchise contract that the network would be as modern as possible and that ubiquitous service would be provided. So, once again, you are railing against the model this country decided to use for over 100 years to provide telephone service. That is still not a reason to penalize stockholders. Neither does it make the ratepayers owners of the business. >> Once again, we see a view that somehow transforms the phone company >> into being a non-profit, psuedo-government type of operation that >> should be "owned" by all citizens since it was paid for by "psuedo-taxes" >> on the ratepayers masking as "rates" for services. > Until telco becomes something other than "the only game in town", it should > enjoy no slack in that arena. You will recall that Xerox had major > sanctions because some in government thought that it had an unfair > chokehold on photocopying. Hah! I suppose SWB and Pac*Bell don't have a > chokehold on POTS? Xerox was NOT a regulated monopoly by government order. You are comparing apples and oranges. If you are going to pick some examples at least be consistent. Should the railroads be nationalized because they were regulated psuedo-monopolies? Should the power companies all be nationalized because they are regulated monopolies? How about the bus lines? And what slack are you talking about? Are you really suggesting that the telco's should be non-profit? Take this suggestions to anyone who knows about the capital markets and see how big of a belly laugh they let out! Anyone who thinks the RBOC's have a strangle hold on POTS is not paying attention. We are seeing 5 ESS switches being installed as PBX's, we are seeing a BIG move toward cellular as the MAIN telephone service in some areas, every day a new apartment building connects up their PBX for use in providing service to their tenants. There are already office buildings trialing PCS for providing tenants telephone service. In at least one city I know of the CITY has more fiber buried than we do fercrissakes! They are considering offering phone service themselves to residents of the city and want us to offer free consulting services to them on how to do it! There is LOTs of competition already out there. It just isn't advertised for the most part. That doesn't make it any less real. >> Folks, the phone companies have always been just that -- COMPANIES. >> They have always been companies owned by shareholders -- just like >> Ford, Pizza Hut, and Midas Muffler. > No, no, no. Not like Ford, Pizza Hut, and Midas Muffler. Each of these > companies exists in a robust market of competitors. Someday, that may be > the case for the telcos, BUT NOT YET. Until that day, they cannot be > treated "just like any other company". I did NOT say they should be treated "just like" everyone else. I said the idea that they should somehow be "non-profit" organizations and should be nationalized is not reasonable and does not recognize the reality of the past, present, and future. Tim Gorman tg6124@tyrell.net Southwestern Bell Tel. Co (I speak only for myself) ------------------------------ From: fkauf@fstgds06.tu-graz.ac.at (Friedrich Kaufmann) Subject: Horizontal Frequency of Television Date: 14 May 1995 13:58:09 GMT Organization: Graz University of Technology, Austria Which horizontal frequencies are used for television receivers? =============================================================== Here in Austria the horizontal frequency is exactly 15.625kHz. Now I have some questions: * Which frequencies are used in other countries? * What is the maximal allowed deviation of that horizontal frequency? Many thanks, Friedrich Kaufmann email: fkauf@fstgds06.tu-graz.ac.at ------------------------------ From: fkauf@fstgds06.tu-graz.ac.at (Friedrich Kaufmann) Subject: Long Wave and Medium Wave Transmitters Date: 16 May 1995 13:58:53 GMT Organization: Graz University of Technology, Austria Where are transmitters for long wave and medium wave? ===================================================== I'm designing a telecommunication link at about 125kHz using only little power. Now the receiver isn't ideal and electromagnetic fields at frequencies of harmonics of that frequency are disturbing my receiving signal. My questions are: * Do you know long wave transmitters in the frequency range 230kHz-270kHz and 355kHz-395kHz and medium wave transmitters in the frequency range 480kHz-520kHz, 605kHz-645kHz? * Is somewhere a list of long wave and medium wave transmitters for Europe and perhaps other countries? I'm interested in magnetic field strength in about 10km distance of those transmitter and their location too. If you can tell me an estimate of the transmitted power, I can calculate the field strength by myself. Many thanks, Friedrich Kaufmann email: fkauf@fstgds06.tu-graz.ac.at ------------------------------ From: jann@iuno.lira.dist.unige.it (Jan Nielsen) Subject: Stats For Obtainable Bitrates For Data Transfer on PSTN Lines Date: 16 May 1995 11:57:47 GMT Organization: Univ. of Genoa, Italy Hi, My problem is the following: We are currently working on the design of a videophone for PSTN lines. In this videophone we use a 28.8Kbit/s modem. Given the actual lines I guess we cannot expect to get 28.8K transmission in all situations. So my question is: Are there any statistics for the bitrates commonly available on average, or in other words something like: On X% of the connections in Western Europe you will get 28.8Kbit/sec On Y% of the ------------------------------------------ 24 etc. I am especially interested in western Europe, but will also appreciate pointers for the US, eastern Europe etc. Any pointers to information of this type will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance, Jan Nielsen AITEK S.r.l. | LIRA-Lab, DIST | V. Ponte Via Pisa 12 | University of Genoa | Dell'Ammiraglio 52/8 I-16145 Genova, Italy | Via Opera Pia 11A | I-16148 Genova, Italy | I-16145 Genova, Italy | Phone : +39 10 3778245 Phone :+39 10 3620102 | Phone :+39 10 3532946 | (cell): +45 4030 15 14 Fax :+39 10 314873 | Fax :+39 10 3532154 | E-mail:jann@aitek.it | E-mail:jann@lira.dist.unige.it ------------------------------ From: Vince Muehe Subject: Video Teleconferencing - CLI Problems? Date: 16 May 1995 19:17:30 GMT Organization: Primenet I have several CLI Gallery video teleconferencing systems installed in the company I work for. We have had several problems with the systems in the past two and half years and am wondering if the problem is with the gear, the vendor, the user or the network configuration. I would like to speak with other CLI users. If you would e-mail me name and phone number or just open discussion here is fine too, I would appreciate it. A little background on our systems: Using Rembrandt codec and Voice Crafter audio system. We run the systems primarily on a private T1 network utilizing 384K bandwidth stripped off using IDNX multiplexers. Troubles we have had: very bad audio, Rembrandt saying it's in one mode when it's really in another, Rebrandt rebooting after a configuration change, control panel freezes up, intermittant focus problems (may be due to lighting -- we're working on that). The major complaint has been audio (echo, some mics being hot, some cold, no audio, feedback, etc.) There's almost a complaint a day. Anyway, I'd really like to talk to some folks with Gallery systems or Radiance systems. Thanks, Vince Muehe vince.muehe@giz.com ------------------------------ From: doug@cc.ysu.edu (Doug Sewell) Subject: NE Ohio - New Area Code 330? Date: 16 May 1995 09:37:41 -0400 Organization: Youngstown State University On the radio news today (5/12/95), the announcer said that NE Ohio was running out of phone numbers, because of the popularity of cellular phones and fax machines. "One option" is to assign NE Ohio, outside of Cleveland, the area code 330. The way it sounded, it's probably a done deal |-: no other options were mentioned, and the area code is already picked out. She even said that the change would be made in 1996. Personally, I'd like to see Cleveland assigned the new area code, since it's a smaller geographic area ... Doug Sewell (doug@cc.ysu.edu) (http://cc.ysu.edu/doug) "People who live defensively never rise above being average... You will find that when all of your reasons are defensive, your cause almost never succeeds" -- John L Mason, "An Enemy Called Average", pp 15-16. ------------------------------ From: wd6ehr@kaiwan.com (Mike Curtis) Subject: Re: Extending Cordless Telephone Range Date: 16 May 1995 14:46:09 -0700 Organization: KAIWAN Internet (310-527-4279,818-756-0180,909-785-9712) Greg Smith (smithgl@ndlc.occ.uky.edu) wrote: > I recently installed a cordless telephone (Partner Plus - AT&T CDM > 9000) for a client. The cordless gets great range when I locate the > base/charger near the outside wall of the building. However, the > owner wants his base/charger located in his office in the middle of > the office building which severly limits his range and clarity when he > uses his cordless outside. > Is it possible to install an external antenna on the outside of the > building to improve the signal from the cordless base/charger? Then TELECOM Digest Editor added this ill-advised note: > So maybe you get in there and *carefully* and *very slightly* adjust > the proper potentiometers to push the output up to ummm ... maybe a > quarter-watt; god forbid a half-watt if you get it just right. Try > not to blow out the final in the process, okay? All part 15 FCC type accepted devices I've worked with cannot be peaked substantially above their design power. And you might end up breaking a slug, or with LESS output. I would caution against this. If you have an external antenna connection on the base unit (I've yet to see one on a 900 mHz cordless phone), use a matching network and GOOD quality coax (9913 or better), and the coax run isn't too long (like 50' or so), you may be very happy with an external antenna. I'm not aware of a "clip on" type for 900 mHz units. > this message: after all, you are not running WLS 890 AM or KOA in Denver, > with fifty thousand watts of power to splash all over the northern hemisphere > all night long. Your supply is very limited. *They* don't give a damn > about Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) and such; why should they ... but you need There are numerous reasons they should be concerned about VSWR. Harmonic radiation is one. High VSWR is very hard on (expen$ive!) transmitter finals, and it is far cheaper to use a proper matching network to the antenna than to burn out your finals. Of course, at MW, cable loss isn't a serious concern, but voltages present in the feedline are. A high VSWR isn't nearly as hard on a 100 mW transistor. However, cable loss can be severe at 900 mHz, and higher VSWRs only aggravate cable loss. Why does the owner want the base in his office? If he wants the charger base where he can replace the phone when he wants to charge it, you might think about using a second base unit, and disabling the transceiver on the one in his office. Alternatively, you might rig up a cable from the base unit with the charging voltage and build a second charging base in his office. Cordless phones are purposely limited in range, which is why they don't have provision for external antennas. And with all the cordless phones and other part 15 devices sharing 900 mHz (not to mention that it is shared with amateur radio, which is _NOT_ power or antenna restricted, and has priority over all part 15 devices -- if the ham down the street creams your cordless, you have to put up with it according to law), external antennas are probably best avoided in many instances. Mike Curtis wd6ehr@kaiwan.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't know anyone who has ever broken off a core in a radio while tuning it ... ... or for that matter anyone who has ever dropped the screws from the case on the floor and not been able to find them when it was time to put the thing back together. All my radios are held together with electrical tape wrapped around the case and mismatched knobs because I like them that way. PAT] ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: A Question About Priorities Date: Tue, May 16, 1995 21:20:00 CDT I have a couple questions about the order in which things are processed or dealt with when seemingly 'conflicting' features are installed on phones. Perhaps someone has answers. Call screening and hunting: According to a service rep, these are not guarenteed to work properly when both are on the same line. That is, let's say you have six lines in a hunt group where line 1 hunts to 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... etc. The *only* number known to the public and used by incoming callers is 1. The *only* reasons lines 2 through 6 get calls are because of overflow coming from line 1 or because they were accidentally misdialed. Service rep said if I wanted to insure that a given caller was screened from reaching me in all instances, it would be necessary to have call screening on all six lines. I proved her wrong. The 'decision' in the software to screen is made before the 'decision' to hunt; therefore if the call has been screened -- that is, the caller is being denied a connection to you -- then he won't get through regardless of where his call *might have landed* had he been admitted. Now if a denied or screened caller is smart enough to direct dial into your subsequent lines in a hunt group, then he will get through to you unless those lines also have call screening. If he does not know those numbers, and is unwilling to hunt all over the prefix trying to find them, then you can get by with call screeing on the first line only of a hunt group. It helps of course to not be so obvious as to have all the numbers in your hunt group in sequence. One here, one from there, etc makes it hard for a non-dedicated hackerphreak to get through. So when placing a call in an ESS exchange, it appears that first a decision is made whether or not you are to be admitted to the called party's line, *then* a decision is made where to park your call within the subscriber's cluster of lines. Another rep volunteered that one could absolutely prevent 'independent' or random dialing into the lines of your hunt group by making those lines 'one way outgoing only'. That is, if someone dials the number assigned to those lines, they get the intercept message that, 'the number you have dialed, xxx-xxxx is not in service for incoming calls' (unless the line is busy, in which case they get a busy signal). But the rep said there is a distinct difference in the way calls are delivered when dialed into a line versus being 'handed to' the line by another line in the hunt group. In other words, once the 'decision' is made that its okay to hand over this call to the subscriber, it becomes okay to hand it to him on any of his lines in whatever order was established for doing so. So incoming calls hunting for an open line could land on and signal a 'one way outgoing line' even though a person directly dialing that line would be blocked from entry. Any comments on this? What about Call Screening and 'Transfer on Busy'? TOB is a lot like hunting, except the latter is usually offered free by progressive telcos where the former is charged for. The latter is done in hardware I think and the former in software. What about Call Screening and 'Transfer on No Answer'? What are the priorities here? Now what about Call Screening and Call Forwarding? Which comes first? I assume since screening is done before a decision of where (what line) to place your call, it probably comes ahead of forwarding as well, since forwarding is a way of delivering the call to you according to your instructions. Is this correct? What about 'Return Last Call Received' and Call Forwarding? Is the calling party's number put in the buffer which holds 'last call' prior to the call being forwarded or not? If not, that is, if the decision to forward the call is made before the decision to deposit the number of the calling party in your call-back buffer, then of course it never gets there at all I assume. Perhaps someone could write back and describe step by step exactly what occurs and in what order as a call is handed to your line. Thanks, PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #243 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa24259; 17 May 95 15:30 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id IAA14110 for telecomlist-outbound; Wed, 17 May 1995 08:15:13 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id IAA14102; Wed, 17 May 1995 08:15:08 -0500 Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 08:15:08 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505171315.IAA14102@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #244 TELECOM Digest Wed, 17 May 95 08:15:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 244 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs (Jack Decker) Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs (Chris Gettings) Ameritech Rant (Kevin A. Mitchell) Re: T1 Pricing Equation Wanted (Vince Muehe) Re: T1 Pricing Equation Wanted (Steve) What is the Exact Meaning of POTS? (Eric Tholome) CLID and Visual Message Waiting Indicator (Ben Liberman) Re: Caller ID Format Varies? (Les Reeves) Question on Level One Gateways (Dan Leifker) Re: 555 Goes Public (Greg Monti) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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: aa931@detroit.freenet.org (Jack Decker) Subject: Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs Date: 17 May 1995 07:33:35 GMT Organization: Greater Detroit Free-Net, Detroit, MI Reply-To: aa931@detroit.freenet.org (Jack Decker) In a previous article, tpeters@hns.com (Thomas Peters) says: > The relationship between the public and a large regulated monopoly is > never going to be smooth and free of disagreements, but a little > balance is in order. The Bell System and the other local phone > companies have built a fabulous telephone network, by far the best in > the world. They invested their money, time, and energy on the basis of > a deal they made with the public long ago. This is how you would repay > them? Tom, I think you are living in some sort of fantasyland where the telephone company was always good, and always put the interest of its customers first. This, or course, has no relationship whatsoever to the reality of the situation. First of all, they got to be monopolies by eating up their competition like sharks and by convincing (some might say "bribing", but of course we have no proof of that) legislators that a regulated monopoly was better than competition. Then they set up a system where prices bore no relationship to their costs. I can still remember the days when if you wanted a cord longer than six feet on your phone, they'd be happy to RENT you one for an outrageous monthly charge. Same thing if you wanted a colored plastic phone rather than a black one. Of course, you couldn't buy the items and install them yourself because that was "illegal". (It always amazed me how many otherwise law-abiding folks had "illegal" extension telephones that they'd bought from some surplus store, or acquired from a building being demolished or some such thing. You sort of got the feeling that folks knew when a company had bought themselves some legislation, and at least in that case they didn't feel much obligated to observe the "law", which of course was really only a phone company tariff. The worst that would ever happen to someone with an "illegal" extension was that they'd be threatened with phone service disconnection, but I never heard of anyone actually having their service pulled.) The way you talk, this system was what the public wanted, and their elected officials were only expressing the public's desire. Yeah, right. The telco monopoly and the ridiculous system of charging outrageous amounts for things that cost the phone company almost zero was put in place by some pointy-headed bureaucrats who were given a real snow job by the phone company attorneys (this varied from state to state, but in no case that I know of was the public consulted on whether they wanted phone service to be a monopoly). So in my opinion, the way *I* would repay the phone companies (at least the largest ones) for what they did "way back when" is with a swift kick in the posterior, and possibly a few words that are unprintable. You see, I happen to live near a local phone company that for several decades has proved what local service could be like if the customers really are put first (unfortunately NOT near enough to be in their local service area). That is the Allendale Telephone Company of Allendale, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids. They offer local calling to the Grand Rapids area, but their local service prices are about one-third of those charged by other area phone companies, and their optional services are much more reasonable as well. And they've been profitable for at least the last four decades. If it had not been for the Bell System, there might be a lot more Allendale Telephone Companies around, and in my opinion we'd all be much better off. So if you are looking for folks to have some sort of gratitude toward the old Bell System, I think you're going to have to search long and hard. Perhaps some former employees, and quite likely most of the stockholders would have some warm feelings for it, but many customers have felt that all they have got is shafted and gouged. I wonder how things would have been different if Elisha Gray had gotten to the patent office first! Jack ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 00:23:19 -0600 From: gettings@tcel.com (Chris Gettings) Subject: Re: RBOC IP Legislation Scaring Local ISPs > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, AT&T's share is down, but note, > it has taken over a decade for it to get as low as it has. Note also that although AT&T's market share has dropped to the low 60s, their revenues and profits continue to increase. Basic economics: the cost goes down the demand goes up. AT&T is not hurting as a result of divestiture and competition. Nor are the RBOCs. Never a quarter to quarter downturn. > Regards cream-skimming and the way all the latter-day competitors have > been feeding at the trough, I think it is a shame; I really do. To have > real competition, the newcomers should have been told by Judge Greene > that the *only* thing he would require of AT&T and (then, their subsid- > iaries) the Bells was equality and fairness in interconnection and the > assignment of telephone numbers and area codes. Well, look at Canada's experience with competition so far. The CRTC elected to allow competition without any kind of divestiture, in a "pro Bell" approach. The Stentor Cartel has certainly taken advantage of it. Even with easier legislation to deal with, Stentor laid off thousands of workers, and has cut prices to unrealistic levels in a blatant, predatory price war. Bell Canada installers have gone to a three day work week! They do no installations on Fridays or Mondays! AGT recently told Alberta Internet Service Providers that they would no longer be able to use Centrex as an access method "because it hurts the network for calls to last so long;" then filed their own tariff to provide internet services over Centrex! Stentor service technicians are notorious for unplugging competitors' autodialers, too. Further, while Canadian access charges to carriers are relatively low, the Cartel gets to collect a monthly "contribution" charge from the new carriers to "subsidize universal service." This charge is for every local access line the carrier buys in/out, and every line that crosses the border to the U.S. The structure for the contribution charges is perverse; the more lines you buy, the more you pay per line. By example, BCTel's monthly contribution charges per line are: Lines $Charges 1-3 35 4-6 125 7-9 180 10-14 225 15-19 265 20-29 295 30-39 325 40-49 345 50-74 365 75-99 385 >99 405 A zero mile DS(1) of FGD access costs $980 per month, plus $7,080 in contribution. When you buy in volume and add a second DS(1) the contribution for *each* DS(1) goes *up* to $8,280! Then they add per minute charges for switching and aggregation. The result of this "Bell Friendly" approach to competition? Of the eight carriers that achieved equal access on July 1, 1993 three are bankrupt (TelRoute, ATCI Canada, ITN) and two are insolvent (Unitel, STN). The carriers that went out of business had advanced networks, and some critical mass, too. TelRoute had $20M in capital, $26M in sales, ATCI Canada $10M capital, $17M annual sales, ITN/NorthQuest had $15M in capital and $22M in sales. Unitel, the leading competitor, is loosing more than $1M a day on > $400M in sales, has major debt service problems, called loans, and its largest stockholder (Rogers) has declined to exercise an option to provide additional funding. AT&T owns a 24% stake in Unitel but can't own much more because of the foreign ownership rules of facilities based carriers. STN's story (backed by LCI) reads like Unitel's only smaller. Fonorola barely holds its own with massive investment. ACC is in deep. Cable & Wireless chose to leave Canada rather than try to compete on its playing field. Alan Peyser, C&W's chairman told me "there is no way to make money in Canada." (I should have listened.) How will real competition ever happen? > Divestiture was from the beginning a hit-and-run, rough-and-dirty, > grab-what-you-can-and-run process by the other carriers. None of them > could begin to legitimatly accomplish what AT&T has done. You are certainly correct that AT&T has accomplished extraordinary things. They are to be commended and the shareholders are rewarded. There was a time in the U.S. after divestiture that the new competitors had some artificial advantages over AT&T that were not earned. Nor did they come by virtue of innovation. They came by somewhat arbitrary rule making and it had to be that way, otherwise the new entrants never would have lived long enough to prosper and mature into true competitors. In the U.S. we recognize the legitimacy of fostering competition in all industries, hence our anti-trust laws. Without a period of "tipping the scales the other way" true competition would never occur. Canada is the prime example. Of course ISPs are scared to death of RBOCs. Even though the growth of commercial internet is relatively new, it is really just data and local data lines are still the dominion of Bell. ISPs need some protection from the RBOCs until they are on their feet and there is a real competitive industry. Chris Gettings gettings@tcel.com http://canam.dgs.dgsys.com ------------------------------ From: kam@mcs.net (Kevin A. Mitchell) Subject: Ameritech Rant Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 22:55:03 -0600 Organization: Author of GIFConverter Allow me to rant ... It's that bill-paying time of the month, and we can't go through a billing cycle without calling Ameritech customer service. Let's get Caller ID out of the way. Oh, the promotions. Well, I've got an unlisted number, which Ameritech made me take after some kid filled my answering machine with very unimaginative profanity. ("Find the kid" "We can't" "You've got call details, just find out who called my home 60 times today" "We can give you a new number, and make it unpublished for free, that's all we can do" "Fine"). So I like my anonymity. Friend gets a new caller ID box. Turns out that Ameritech charges me $1.45 a month for the privilege of having a non-pub number, but then send my number AND NAME sent to everybody I call. So I call them. Tell 'em I want my lines blocked. Oh, they can't do that. Sure, you can, I tell 'em, I know your switches can do that. You just don't WANT to because then you can't make your $6.95 a month windfall on caller ID because everybody will get their line blocked. Billing. Ameritech will gladly take your permission to dip into your checking account and extract your phone bill from it. But I like doing it myself, I use Checkfree, and I decide when it gets paid, and I reserve the right to withhold disputed charges. But Ameritech doesn't take customer-initiated electronic transfers. Other utilities like Commonwealth Edison and Northern Illinois Gas do. So Checkfree sends 'em a check drawn on my account, sent to arrive a few days before I indicate payment. Ameritech then takes my check (with the full 14 digit account number in big print right on top) and puts it through three weeks of processing. Then they claim I didn't pay my bill. They send me a bill dated 2/28/95 saying I didn't pay yet, and then on 3/1/95 they send me a disconnection warning. Of course, this being Chicago, I get both pieces of paper around the 6th. I guess it takes a lot of people to process all those checks that come without OCR tickets. Wouldn't want to accept a simple magnetic tape from the Federal Reserve Bank and put them out of work, would we? So I get my phone bill this month, and there's this notice "OUR RECORDS INDICATE THAT YOUR ACCOUNT HAS MULTIPLE LONG DISTANCE COMPANIES." Uh oh. I have four lines, and they all should be AT&T. Turn the bill over, and sure enough, I spent $5 to change long distance companies. Wrong. MCI called, and I told them six or seven times "no" so there was no doubt. And whoever slammed me was dumb enough to not slam all four lines. So I call Ameritech "customer service". I paid all my bills in the 25 minutes I spent on hold, at 930pm on a Tuesday night. The rep says they're training new people, but that takes three months. Turns out that one of my lines has ATI as a long distance carrier. The representative said that she didn't even have them listed. Well, I think, I wonder how many $6/minute phone calls I made last month. Anybody know of these people? What they're like? Well, Ameritech is taking the $5 charge off. And they said they'd have my lines switched to AT&T tomorrow. And they're marking my account so only I can initiate a PIC change by calling Ameritech. And, the rep says, they are going to do a "PIC claim" on my line, and if ATI can't prove that somebody at my place authorized the change, they'll get fined. Got off the phone, and decided to do a little test. I wanted to get an ATI operator and find out what the direct-dial evening rates were to Florida. So I pulled out a trimline phone and plugged into all my lines. Dialed 00 on each one. Got the AT&T message on each one. So I guess they got me fixed up that fast. I'm not happy with Ameritech. They want to be my cable company and internet provider, but I don't think they remember how to be a phone company any more. I don't want them for cable. I REALLY don't want them for internet access. (My provider put a POP within 8 miles of me, so now I laugh at the hundreds of dollars in timed calls I no longer make). And I can't wait to see if we can get some real phone company to compete with them. One that will take my electronic payments, give me the line features I really want, and one that won't take bogus PIC changes. Kevin A. Mitchell, developer of GIFConverter for the Macintosh kam@mcs.com GIFConverter and other info at http://www.mcs.com/~kam/home.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've never had a lot of problems with Ameritech. They seem rather responsive to me most of the time. My one big objection is how slow they can be to answer their own phones at times. When I have occassion to call, I put them on the speaker phone and only pick up when they actually answer. They have one recorded announcement at the business office I find particularly annoying: the computer answering the calls calculates how many calls are ahead of you are responds, "time on hold until a representative is able to assist you is (here, the computer voice pauses while calculating the number of calls) greater than ten minutes." Indeed, the other evening when I was talking to a rep, I waited on hold 25 minutes before they got to me. I know how those things work, and how phone rooms can get massive backlogs and congestion when least expected, etc ... but 25 minutes on hold is a bit much. Oh well, its their 800 number and their money being spent while I waited. I just put it on the speaker phone and grabbed the receiver once I heard an actual voice come on the line asking how they could help me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Vince Muehe Subject: Re: T1 Pricing Equation Wanted Date: 16 May 1995 19:01:53 GMT Organization: Primenet wbarnard@interserv.com wrote: > Would somebody please tell me the current T1 equation for pricing a > circuit? You will find that T1 pricing varies greatly on location and type of T1 circuit you are ordering and somewhat on what carrier you use to get your T1 from. A T1 that is used for point-to-point traffic (ie. data circuit or tie-line) has up to three sections that are priced if it crosses a LATA boundary. There is the access portion (which is really two parts because there is access on both ends) and there is the inter-exchange carrier portion in the middle. Ironically, the access portions may cost you more than the IXC portion even though the mileage is less. Mileage is another factor. On access and IXC portions of the circuit, generally speaking, the longer the circuit, the greater the cost. If you could post what type of circuit (data/voice/switched/point-to- point) and the endpoints, it might be easier to provide an explaination. Vince Muehe vince.muehe@giz.com ------------------------------ From: synchro@access5.digex.net (Steve) Subject: Re: T1 Pricing Equation Wanted Date: 17 May 1995 10:46:03 GMT Organization: Express Access Online Communications, Greenbelt, MD USA There is really no simple formula for this. In my area a T1 rate is comprised of the following: - One time installation charge - Channel termination charge (recurring) - Fixed charge (recurring) - Mileage charges based on the V&H's on my "A" and "Z" (recurring) Your local telco/cap marketeer can give you the specifics. Take it easy, Steve ------------------------------ From: tholome@dialup.francenet.fr (Eric Tholome) Subject: What is the Exact Meaning of POTS? Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 22:33:05 +0200 I was wondering whether any of the Digest Readers, or you Pat, could explain me what exactly POTS means. I know it stands for Plain Old Telephone System, but I was wondering what the real meaning was. Is it just a pejorative way to talk about the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), or some sort of telecom slang with no pejorative connotation? Or is it really different from PSTN? If yes, how? Does PSTN include ISDN whereas POTS only concerns analog lines? The reason I'm asking is that I'm writing a paper about European Telecommunications for an American audience and I have made extensive use of the acronym POTS. I thought it simply meant the classic analog PSTN network for all telecom aware people, with no special negative connotation (apart from the fact that analog is on its way out). But now that I'm about to proof read the final version, I'm not so sure anymore. So I would appreciate if you could tell me if I should replace POTS by 'analog PSTN' or something else, or leave it there as it is. Thanks a lot in advance. Eric Tholome private account 23, avenue du Centre tholome@dialup.francenet.fr 78180 Montigny le Bretonneux phone: +33 1 30 48 06 47 France fax: same number, call first! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think the last word is 'service' rather than 'system'. A minor distinction perhaps, perhaps not.

lain ld elephone ervice or POTS usually refers to the use of just one or two lines with just regular instruments and no bells or whistles. POTS lines would not have any of the newer custom calling features for example. POTS always refers to the humble and simple service of any single subscriber, not to the system or network as a whole. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ben@mcs.com (Ben Liberman) Subject: CLID and Visual Message Waiting Indicator Date: 16 May 1995 22:10:05 -0500 Organization: Serious Cybernetics ... the really nice machine people! I just talked to Ameritech in Chicago and was told that Visual Message Waiting Indicator service is only available in Springfield. We're trying to develop a product that uses this service. Anyone know where I can find out the details of the signaling for this? (in case you are wondering, it is a service whereby the CO turns on your indicator when you have voice mail waiting.) It's supposed to be an adjunct to caller ID, as far as I know. Thanks in advance, Ben Liberman ben@mcs.com ben@bl.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's what the rep told me the other day also; that it is only presently available downstate, however it is supposed to be available in the Chicago area later this year. I have not yet spoken with anyone who actually knows how it works. PAT] ------------------------------ From: lreeves@crl.com (Les Reeves) Subject: Re: Caller ID Format Varies? Date: 17 May 1995 03:10:23 -0700 Organization: CR Labs Charles Copeland (copeland@metronet.com) wrote: > The Bellcore spec GR-30 for Caller-ID format dictates it shall have > three parts: > 1) 30 bytes of 55H (preamble); > 2) 70-150ms of marks; > 3) caller id data. > KC5LWF copeland@metronet.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So -- take a hint from the Radio Shack > people and write your firmware to accept the preamble if it shows up > and live without it if it doesn't. If the preamble is absolutely > essential to your application, then write a default one which your > firmware will apply when the 'real' one is missing. And how, you ask, > is the firmware going to know if its missing or not? Look for some > unique characters or string of characters which appears in the preamble > but nowhere else. If that does not come through right away then swap > your own in there and proceed. PAT] Pat's right. As I recall those 30 bytes of 55H are described in the Bellcore document as a "600 Hertz buzz" and should only be used to set the relative level of the AGC circuit in the CID modem. In my experience, having looked at *many* raw dumps from 202 type CID modems, the 55H is rarely pristine. Speaking of the Bellcore Spec, it also decrees that a CID display device should totally discard a packet if it fails the checksum. The checksum is not large enough to reconstruct any data, so it is effectively a "parity byte". Both Colonial Data's and Cidco's box ignore this Bellcore edict. Granted, you may find that you were just called by 004-074-7806 every now and then, but I would rather have that than nothing. Les lreeves@crl.com Atlanta,GA 404.874.7806 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: By the way, CIDCO means 'aller mpany in case you were wondering. I have a CIDCO SN-30A-02 and as you point out it now and then misinterprets what it gets, but not very often. To compound things a little, I have both of my CID-equipped lines fed into a Radio Shack thing which feeds a single output to the display box. Either ringing line trips the Radio Shack switch and feeds the output to the box. I thought at first perhaps it would not trip soon enough; after all the ID gets transmitted between the first and second ring, and here in Chicago it seems to actually come immediatly at the end of the first ring. As it turns out though, the switch trips in plenty of time to provide a clear delivery path for the ID to the box from either line about 95 percent of the time. If I remove that switch, the ID is totally delivered about 99 percent of the time. Like yourself, I would rather have one time out of a hundred or so when the delivery is partly messed up rather than missing entirely as Bellcore would seem to want it. The very rare occassion when delivery shows up incorrect it will be the first couple digits with enough left that I can still figure out who is calling. PAT] ------------------------------ From: DLEIFKER@news-feed.delphi.com (DLEIFKER@DELPHI.COM) Subject: Question on Level One Gateways Date: 16 May 1995 21:08:57 -0400 Organization: Delphi Internet Services Corporation Has anyone heard of "level-one gateways" or "level-two gateways"? I see them written as L1GW, etc. I believe they have something to do with broadband networks. Any pointers to Internet resources on this topic would be appreciated. Thanks, Dan Leifker dleifker@delphi.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 May 95 21:37:55 PDT From: Greg Monti Subject: Re: 555 Goes Public One group of users of the newly-released 555-XXXX numbers will be competitive directory assistance providers. I didn't know there were any such firms. D. Kelly Daniels , who is non-LEC co-chair of the Industry Numbering Committee, wrote me a brief e-mail noting that in some states (like Oregon), there is, statewide directory assistance available from 503 245-1122. This competitive provider looks up the number and dictates it to you and transfers you to the number. In between the two tasks, you hear a ten-second ad, which is why the service is free. (I assume you may need to pay the toll charge to reach the 503 245 prefix, which my records show is in Portland, which is local to about half the state's phones). Come to think of it, there's a more limited version of that service here in Virginia at 703 237-1001, but I think they only look up numbers of their paying advertisers. Someday, such alternative DA services would like to be able to charge for DA, without commercials, so their incoming trunks would need to support ANI for billing. Such services could now move to a 555-series number. Just in case, some alternative DA providers have requested a national 555-XXXX number which they can eventually activate in every area code. The 555 assignment process allows for two kinds of 555 numbers. Ones that work only in one area code, and ones that are national (identical in each area code). Thanks for the clarification, Kelly! Greg Monti Arlington, Virginia, USA gmonti@cais.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #244 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa00614; 18 May 95 21:14 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA25937 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 18 May 1995 15:12:22 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA25917; Thu, 18 May 1995 15:12:13 -0500 Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 15:12:13 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505182012.PAA25917@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #245 TELECOM Digest Thu, 18 May 95 15:12:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 245 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Ameritech: Bloodthirsty Bandits (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: Ameritech Rant (smokey@bah.com) Re: NYNEX Strikes Again (James Carlson) Phone Monopolies (Eric Florack) Re: CLID and Visual Message Waiting Indicator (Mike Sandman) Re: CLID and Visual Message Waiting Indicator (Scot M. Desort) Re: CLID and Visual Message Waiting Indicator (Richard A. Victor) Re: Horizontal Frequency of Television (smithdulut@aol.com) Re: Horizontal Frequency of Television (Ed Ellers) Re: Unusual RF Stories (Martin McCormick) Re: Unusual RF Stories (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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 18 May 1995 13:53:33 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Ameritech: Bloodthirsty Bandits When we last met here yesterday morning, there had been a bit of a problem with that old bug that creeps in now and then and causes the issue numbers to get out of order. The general consensus seems to be that issue 244 has now been delivered to everyone. If you still don't have it, perhaps you can obtain it from the archives. If not, let me know and I will send a copy to you when I can. This issue is therefore number 245. I think its been fixed once again. The other problem is that you-know-who clipped my line again, and is holding it ransom for about $300 minimum for restoral. I came home from a meeting Wednesday evening late and found my lines all turned off. Even though I talked to them early in May about a small down payment on the overdue balance and a deferred payment plan on the rest -- which they agreed to -- now they are saying since I did not get there in time with the agreed upon down payment the deal is off. I raised $200 in cash this morning plus a 'pay to the order of telco' voucher for another $35, but they said nope, not good enough ... no restoral until at least $300 paid in cash. I don't know where/when that will be available so for the time being I will put out issues when possible for me to do so using 'borrowed' facilities. Despite the ever-increasing number of subscribers to this journal, quite a few cannot seem to take a hint when I say it costs money. Maybe a few of the couple hundred new subscribers over the past two months will send in their donation, and perhaps a few of you who have been so generous in the past will again assist. Anyway, that's that. In other news, I think the Telecom Archives will be available on CD Rom by sometime late this summer. I think you will be able to purchase the Rom from the company which has indicated an interest in producing it. I will have more specifics on this maybe in a month. Patrick Townson Editor ------------------------------ From: Smokey@bah.com, Eric@bah.com Subject: Re: Ameritech Rant Date: Thu, 18 May 95 10:01:23 PDT Organization: Booz-Allen & Hamillton > Allow me to rant ... > I'm not happy with Ameritech. They want to be my cable company and > internet provider, but I don't think they remember how to be a phone > company any more. > I don't want them for cable. I won't argue that you should or should not rant. It appears that you have been through a lot. I used to live in Chicago. I found that even if Ameritech made mistakes, they were very responsive in getting them fixed- and readily offered credits that were permanent. I used "permanent" purposely. I used to have Chicago Cable and Prime Cable before that. Their customer service lines were more often busy than not. Corrections were reversed, corrected and reversed and they were not, at all, customer oriented. I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE AMERITECH AS MY CABLE COMPANY. How many times have you been watching a game, only to have the cable go out? How many times, during a storm, has the cable gone out on a Saturday nite? Now, ask yourself, how many times has your phone service been out? Maybe I'm a little prejudiced, but I love cable TV and I HATE THE AWFUL SERVICE I've had from the cable providers. Eric ------------------------------ From: carlson@xylogics.com (James Carlson) Subject: Re: NYNEX Strikes Again Date: 17 May 1995 12:27:22 GMT Organization: Xylogics Incorporated Reply-To: carlson@xylogics.com mkuras@ccs.neu.edu (Michael J Kuras) writes: > NYNEX is just as bad in Ithaca. I live in a house with two > other students, and because they get more calls than I do, very often > when I am by myself I let the answering machine pick up, since maybe four > times out of five I'd just have to take a message anyway. > For about a week around 9:15 in the morning the phone would > ring a few times, the answering machine would pick up and then the > caller would hang up. I never really made the connection, until one > time I actually did pick up and I found out that it was NYNEX. I can top that -- I got a harassing call from NYNEX at 10:30PM. I tried to explain to the woman at the other end, in as reasonable a tone as I could muster, that making this type of call at that time of night is plainly illegal. She then became verbally abusive so I just hung up ... I wish they'd call back. I was almost asleep the last time, and I didn't have the presence of mind to tape the call and register a complaint. (And don't get me started on AT&T and Citibank ... ugh.) James Carlson ------------------------------ From: Eric_Florack@mc.xerox.com Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 05:06:22 PDT Subject: Phone Monopolies >> The relationship between the public and a large regulated monopoly is >> never going to be smooth and free of disagreements, but a little >> balance is in order. The Bell System and the other local phone >> companies have built a fabulous telephone network, by far the best in >> the world. They invested their money, time, and energy on the basis of >> a deal they made with the public long ago. This is how you would repay >> them? > Tom, I think you are living in some sort of fantasyland where the > telephone company was always good, and always put the interest of its > customers first. This, or course, has no relationship whatsoever to > the reality of the situation. > First of all, they got to be monopolies by eating up their competition > like sharks and by convincing (some might say "bribing", but of course > we have no proof of that) legislators that a regulated monopoly was > better than competition. You forget, to add to your answer, that these monopolies were created by government action ... or inaction, depending on your perspective. > Then they set up a system where prices bore no relationship to their > costs. I can still remember the days when if you wanted a cord longer > than six feet on your phone, they'd be happy to RENT you one for an > outrageous monthly charge. Same thing if you wanted a colored plastic > phone rather than a black one. Of course, you couldn't buy the items > and install them yourself because that was "illegal". No quotes about it; this was a government enforced monopoly, and folks resented the hell out of it. I suggest to you that such attitudes are now being reflected in the furvor over lowering the amount of federal-governmental intrusion at all levels and in all areas of our daily lives. I suggest to you that the anger at the governmentally created monoploy of 'the telephone company' serves as an example of poor service, high-handed atitudes, and a 'the customer be damned' philosphy that always accompnies any group that survives only because the people don't have any choice. > (It always amazed me how many otherwise law-abiding folks had > "illegal" extension telephones that they'd bought from some surplus > store, or acquired > from a building being demolished or some such thing. You sort of got > the feeling that folks knew when a company had bought themselves some > legislation, and at least in that case they didn't feel much obligated > to observe the "law", which of course was really only a phone company > tariff. The worst that would ever happen to someone with an "illegal" > extension was that they'd be threatened with phone service disconnection, > but I never heard of anyone actually having their service pulled.) When the government makes criminals out of people for simply doing what makes sense, this is what happens. > The way you talk, this system was what the public wanted, and their > elected officials were only expressing the public's desire. Yeah, > right. The telco monopoly and the ridiculous system of charging > outrageous amounts for things that cost the phone company almost zero > was put in place by some pointy-headed bureaucrats who were given a > real snow job by the phone company attorneys (this varied from state > to state, but in no case that I know of was the public consulted on > whether they wanted phone service to be a monopoly).<< The answer is fairly clear; whenever folks have been given a choice, they've voted with their feet. > So if you are looking for folks to have some sort of gratitude toward > the old Bell System, I think you're going to have to search long and > hard. Perhaps some former employees, and quite likely most of the > stockholders would have some warm feelings for it, but many customers > have felt that all they have got is shafted and gouged. Well stated. > I wonder how things would have been different if Elisha Gray had > gotten to the patent office first! I somehow doubt it would have been any different, given that the government will always stick it's nose in, given the chance. When the telephone came along, they were in the mood to give them that chance. Persoanlly, I figure our telecommunications development would have gone much farther, if it had not. Eric [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well all I know for sure is since dives- titure, my own phone bill has skyrocketed. Bills of well over a hundred dollars per month are not uncommon at all; waiting on hold 25-30 minutes to speak with a representative is becoming more and more common; and I am certainly glad I did not -- like a sucker -- take them at their word a few days ago and hand over the $75 they said would be sufficient to start a plan. Had I gone and done that this morning -- or even the $200 I was planning on taking -- I would be that much poorer now and still not have my phones back on. I am glad I checked first, even if I did have to wait on hold a long time to reach someone (calling from a payphone a block away in the rain). PAT] ------------------------------ From: mike@sandman.com (Mike Sandman) Subject: Re: CLID and Visual Message Waiting Indicator Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 19:32:42 GMT Organization: InterAccess, Chicago's best Internet Service Provider Right now, if you want message waiting indication on CO based voice mail, you need to pick up the phone and listen for stutter dial tone. Most phone companies are quickly shifting to a new technology, called FSK (Frequency Shift Keying). An FSK message waiting indicator works kinda like caller id. The CO sends out a burst of data every once in a while, and the FSK gizmo listens for the audio. It either turns the light on or off based on the data sent. They do this WITHOUT the phone line going off hook, the data is just audio riding on the pair from the CO. We should have FSK Message Waiting indicators in stock in the next couple of weeks, selling for around $30. This is a much better use of CO resources, because you don't have to pick up your phone line just to see if you have a call, so you don't use up DTMF receivers. You could imagine that if you had a few thousand people pick up the phone line at the same time to see if they have a message at one CO, you'd get verrry slow dial tone. You would need to call your phone company to see if they have a schedule for installing FSK MW. Eventually, it should be available everywhere. The phone companies may even give you an FSK MW gizmo to use when you rent one of their CO based voice mail boxes, someday. There are Stutter Dial Tone Message Waiting devices on the market (we sell one for $29.95), but they are to be used behind a PBX or Key System, not for connection to the Public Switched Network - because the FCC hasn't authorized this kind of device yet. Mike Sandman ------------------------------ From: gsmicro@ios.com Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 22:59:56 -0400 Subject: Re: CLID and Visual Message Waiting Indicator ben@mcs.com wrote: > I just talked to Ameritech in Chicago and was told that Visual Message > Waiting Indicator service is only available in Springfield. We're > trying to develop a product that uses this service. Anyone know where > I can find out the details of the signaling for this? (in case you > are wondering, it is a service whereby the CO turns on your indicator > when you have voice mail waiting.) > It's supposed to be an adjunct to caller ID, as far as I know. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's what the rep told me the other > day also; that it is only presently available downstate, however it > is supposed to be available in the Chicago area later this year. I have > not yet spoken with anyone who actually knows how it works. PAT] Ben- I believe you are correct in your assumption of the signals relationship with the CLID transport signal. The CO simply sends the carrier tone on your idle loop, the device at your end receives the signal, and either turns on or off your VMWI. This feature has been available throughout New Jersey for some time now, probably since they began offering CO-based voice mail. What you might want to do is contact someone at Northern Telecom. In addition to being the second-largest CO switch manufacturer, they are also the most prominent player in the retail market who provides telephones with the Message Waiting lamps (check out the Hello Direct Catalog, for example). I'm sure they can refer you to someone there who can tell you *exactly* how it works, or refer you to a Bellcore spec. Nortel can be reached at 1-800-NORTHERN. Scot M. Desort Garden State Micro, Inc. +1 201-244-1110 +1 201-244-1120 Fax gsmicro@ios.com ------------------------------ From: Richard@Victor.com (Richard A. Victor) Subject: Re: CLID and Visual Message Waiting Indicator Date: Thu, 18 May 95 03:07:04 GMT Organization: Alpha.net -- Milwaukee, WI In article , ben@mcs.com (Ben Liberman) wrote: > I just talked to Ameritech in Chicago and was told that Visual Message > Waiting Indicator service is only available in Springfield. We're > trying to develop a product that uses this service. Anyone know where > I can find out the details of the signaling for this? (in case you > are wondering, it is a service whereby the CO turns on your indicator > when you have voice mail waiting.) > It's supposed to be an adjunct to caller ID, as far as I know. I've got this service from Ameritech in Milwaukee, WI. The device that indicates that a message is waiting is made by CIDCO Incorporated and was sold by Ameritech. It plugs into a standard phone jack and displays the word "Message" when an unread message is waiting in my voice mail. After I listen to the message, the "Message" light goes off. Works very well. The stutter dialtone is also used to indicate the presence of a message so I can tell there's a message even if I pick up an extension that doesn't have the visual indicator. The instructions don't provide much of a description of how it works, but it does refer to the fact that your telephone company has to provide "FSK Visual Message Waiting Indicator" service. I assume that the "FSK" is frequency shift keying. BTW, I don't subscribe to the Caller ID service, so it isn't necessary to have Caller ID to get the message waiting light. Hope this is helpful. Richard@Victor.com 05/17/95 22:08 CDT ------------------------------ From: smithdulut@aol.com (SmithDulut) Subject: Re: Horizontal Frequency of Television Date: 17 May 1995 22:09:46 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: smithdulut@aol.com (SmithDulut) In the U.S. it's 15,750 khz roughly, actually its harmonically related to the color burst frequency of 3.579545 mhz. which the networks reference to the National Bureau of Standards cesium clock. ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Horizontal Frequency of Television Date: Thu, 18 May 95 01:20:49 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Friedrich Kaufmann writes: > Here in Austria the horizontal frequency is exactly 15.625kHz. Now I > have some questions: > * Which frequencies are used in other countries? In the U.S. (and other NTSC countries, such as Japan) it's a very weird number -- 15.73426573 kHz. This value is related to the color subcarrier and aural FM carrier frequencies, to reduce the visibility of beat interference between the color and aural carriers. (Before NTSC color was adopted the frequency was 15.750 kHz. The proper relationships already existed in the 625-line 50 Hz systems, so the 15.625 kHz value didn't have to be changed when PAL and SECAM were adopted.) Japan also has their Hi-Vision HDTV system, with a horizontal scan rate of 33.75 kHz. > * What is the maximal allowed deviation of that horizontal frequency? Actually, the tolerance of the color subcarrier frequency (in NTSC or PAL) is far more important. In the U.S. the subcarrier is at 3.5795454... MHz, and can vary by +/- 10 Hz; the scan rates are divided down from the subcarrier. ------------------------------ From: Martin McCormick Subject: Re: Unusual RF Stories Date: 18 May 1995 15:56:52 GMT Organization: Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK There are broadcast installations in which two FM stations may share the same tower and antennas. It is usually a win for both stations since they can both pick a prime location and their signals will have exactly the same coverage area. Each transmitter's feed system to the shared antenna contains traps tuned to the frequency of the other station so that virtually no RF flows from one transmitter to the other. This works beautifully until something dreadful happens to the traps in one or the other of the feed lines. These traps are called cavities and look sort of like tanks of various sizes with pistons that can be adjusted to tune the trap like the tuning slide on a musical instrument. If water gets in the trap or lightening zaps it, the damage changes the electrical characteristics of it and it becomes detuned. This can create a situation in which RF from one of the transmitters ends up flowing in to the output circuitry of the other and usually does lots of nasty things. In a case like that, both stations would probably go off the air until the bad cavity or the bad coax feeding it can be repaired. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK 36.7N97.4W in Tornado Ally OSU Center for Computing and Information Services Data Communications Group [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The transmitters and antennas for WGN 720 AM and WBBM 780 AM are just a short distance apart (like maybe a half mile) out in Dupage County, part of the western suburbs of Chicago. Several years ago late one evening I was DX'ing on my broadcast receiver -- just cruising around to see what I could hear -- and I got a very strong signal at 660 khz. Now that is the location for WNBC in New York I believe, but we don't usually hear that station here in Chicago. This particular night, the signal was booming right out. It was a discussion program of some sort, and I hoped they would give an ID sometime soon since it was a few minutes after 1:00 am our time. Meanwhile, I called the switchboard at NBC in New York and asked her what were they doing on the AM station at that moment? Were they having a discussion program or what? Nope, says the lady, they are playing music. Hmmm ... According to my copy of the {North American Radio and Television Stations} guide book, the only occupants of 660 kc were WNBC (the primary station, and orginally the only occupant when it was a 'clear channel'), a smaller station down in North Carolina which only broadcasted during the day on that frequency, and a very tiny station in Alaska. I reasonably assumed I was not getting the station in Alaska -- all of a hundred watts or so -- and put in a call to the station in North Carolina. The engineer on duty assured me 'the AM side' was off the air; after all it was about 2:15 in the morning there, and they would not bring the AM station back on the air until after sunrise. But he was curious about who it was on that frequency when I told him WNBC had insisted it was not them -- that they were playing music, not having a discussion -- so he went over to the control board to listen for himself. He heard the discussion program there also, a thousand miles away from where I was hearing it! He said he could not venture a guess where it was coming from. I decided the only thing to do was sit it out and wait for a station ID at some point or another, and finally after another 20 minutes or so they gave it alright: WBBM, 780 in Chicago. I flipped over there, and sure enough heard the same thing on 780 that I was getting on 660 and that the fellow in North Carolina had plainly heard on 660 as well. The next day I asked the engineer at WBBM about this and why he thought it might have happened. His answer was, they and WGN sit very close together out in the boondocks. So close together, that WGN picks up some of our signal and send it out with theirs, and we pick up some of their signal and send it out with ours. So, he said, if you note that we are at 780 and they are at 720, that's a difference of 60 kc. Subtract 60 from 720 and you get 660 ... hmmm ... Now it used to be quite common to be able to hear WBBM at multiples all the way up the tuning dial. At night I could hear them at 780 of course, but also at 1560, 2340, and sometimes 3120 kc. I have never before nor since ever heard them *below* their usual location. Radio waves can be very weird and strange at times. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Unusual RF Stories Date: Thu, 18 May 95 01:11:31 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) writes: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It was during the Second World War that > the radio stations in the USA went through a frequency realignment > process. For example, WGN in Chicago had been on 730 and they moved to > 720. WBBM had been on 770 and moved to 780. There were quite a few > stations which were affected and relocated. I am not sure why it was > done. That was actually before Pearl Harbor -- most of the AM stations in North America had to change channels on the same day, in March 1941. This was a result of the new North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement concluded in 1938. A few stations -- like WLW -- didn't have to move. Something similar happened with VHF TV in 1953 -- the FCC worked up a new allocation table in 1952, replacing one from 1945 that proved to be fatally flawed, and most of the existing stations (the two biggest exceptions were the New York and Los Angeles stations) had to switch channels. Unlike 1945 the stations moved one at a time, so they had to coordinate the switches to keep stations on new channels from interfering with ones that had yet to switch (for example WLWT in Cincinnati couldn't switch to channel 5 until WAVE in Louisville changed to 3, and WAVE couldn't switch until they got their new transmitter facility finished). I'm not sure which mess was worse. Eric_Florack@mc.xerox.com> writes: > During WWII, WLW was doing some propaganda broadcasts. Mr. Goebels had > the highest power medium wave transmitter known to exist, and was > using it for propaganda purposes. The folks here in the United States > decided they wanted to play 'me too', and gave a few stations permission > to do 'high power testing'. In the case of WLW, this meant changing > from 50,000 watts to 500,000 watts, with a callsign on the big gun of > WLWO. These tests were run after midnight local. I'm not aware that WLW used their 500 kW rig at all during the war -- WLWO was a *shortwave* operation, which carried Voice of America programming from the early months of the war and was finally sold to VOA in 1948. (It closed down last year.) The "after midnight" 500 kW tests on WLW were in the 1930s (they apparently started in 1934) and were under an experimental license with an "X" call sign. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I remember that the change in television channels. I was around ten years old or so. We used to have channel 4 in Chicago, but did not have a channel 2 or a channel 5. Then one day they started channel 5 and the people on channel 4 moved to channel 2. Then soon thereafter, channel 4 started operating in Milwaukee. It was called WTMJ and was owned by the {Milwaukee Journal}. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #245 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa01484; 18 May 95 22:04 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA29030 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 18 May 1995 17:08:42 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA29022; Thu, 18 May 1995 17:08:38 -0500 Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 17:08:38 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505182208.RAA29022@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #246 TELECOM Digest Thu, 18 May 95 17:08:30 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 246 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: Canadian Business Guide to Using Internet (Rob Slade) Ameritech and 10XXX (Mustafa Soysal) MCI/Telecom USA's Smart Minutes Program (Richard Layman) India's Anti-Terrorist Legislation to Expire on May 23rd (Rishab Ghosh) Voice Dial (was Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped)(Mark Cuccia) Frequncies of a Data Display (Friedrich Kaufmann) Dime Line Anyone? (Paul Celestin) Phree Phone in Chicago's Union Station ... Still There? (elana@netcom.com) Cell One/Boston (Brian Vita) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 18 May 1995 16:16:33 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "The Canadian Business Guide to Using the Internet" BKCBGTUI.RVW 950330 "The Canadian Business Guide to Using the Internet", Linda Richards, 1995, 0- 88908-849-7, C$14.95 %A Linda Richards scribe@mindlink.bc.ca %C 1481 Charlotte Road, North Vancouver, BC V7J 1H1 %D 1995 %G 0-88908-849-7 %I Self-Counsel Press %O C$14.95 +1-604-986-3366 fax: +1-604-986-3947 %P 133 %T "The Canadian Business Guide to Using the Internet" I suppose it is faint praise, indeed, to say that a book is "no worse" than the others which are available. Richards' book is, though, no worse than any of the other "Business on the Internet" books I've reviewed, and no worse than (the first edition of) "The Canadian Internet Handbook" (cf. BKCANINT.RVW). It also has the three advantages of being shorter, cheaper, and having better cartoons and is, therefore, to be recommended over the above. All business guides to the Internet stress the need to know the community, and rightly so. This author betrays no more faux pas than others. Netizens will, however, note a lack of familiarity which shows up in many ways, including system-specific (and incorrect) references to Usenet newsgroups. A technical background is also lacking: discussion of Internet attachment completely misses the dedicated connection that provides complete linking for a company. The book is, of course, intended specifically for small business owners and those who do not have either technical background or staff. Still, the lack of material in this area does leave those interested in actually providing information on the net dependent upon specialty "business" Internet providers and those who "rent out" commercial cyberspace. For those interested in getting connected, this does, at least, provide a very quick starting point, as well as salutary advice: "Just do it." copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKCBGTUI.RVW 950330. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | Slade's Law of Computer Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | Literacy: Research into Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z1/ | - There is no such thing User .fidonet.org | as "computer illiteracy"; Security Canada V7K 2G6 | only illiteracy itself. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 15:15:15 -0400 From: Mustafa Soysal Organization: MISTIK Systems (info@express.net for info) (313) 741-1844 Subject: Ameritech and 10XXX Hi, I received a letter from Ameritech today that claims I am spending too much money when I dial my in state call by using 10XXX (used to be 288). They also mention a new tollfree number, trying to save Michigan customers 250,000 per month. Today, I had a in state call to make, and made my call using 10333. After completing it I remembered the letter I received, so I called the 800 number suggested in the letter (800-408-5600) to get the expert advice on making sure to get the best price on every call from trained Ameritech representatives. At my first try, I got the "All representatives are busy..." announcement and hangup to work on something else. At my second attempt, the call got ansered by a representative who honestly said that she was not trained in the matter, and she wuld take my name and number to have someone call me back. I asked if I am supposed to wait until they call me back in order to complete my call. She was puzzled for a moment, and repeated her disclaimer, and that she had to have someone else call me back. So I repeaed my question again, adding that the letter I received suggests to call them before I make the call. Her response was to contact her supervisor for which she put me on hold. After being on hold for a while, I hang up. She was being kind but that department seemed to be seriously overwhelmed by the incoming calls. I guess I will continue to make my 10XXX calls without calling Ameritech's number. If anyone else gets to talk to them, please share your experience. Best Regards, Mustafa Soysal msoysal@mistik.express.net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have very mixed feelings about that company. They seem to have changed a lot from years ago when they were just Illinois Bell. Their attitudes about customer service are nothing like they used to be. Anymore, one does NOT reach repair service at night for example without a long, long wait. One does not reach a service rep without a long wait. It used to be that if you were a customer of theirs for a long time that meant something. No longer. To be honest, now that my phone lines are off, I don't know when I will get them turned on again. I may just wait until their competition arrives, and see how that works. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 10:27:52 EDT From: Richard Layman Subject: MCI/Telecom USA's Smart Minutes program I tried 1-0-224 as offered by Les Reeves (lreeves@crl.com) as a way to get 15 cents/minute flat day rate calling but I learned it only works in certain areas; alas Washington, DC is not one of them. Smart Minutes, at 15 cents/minute day rate is available in CA, CO, GA, IL, and TX. I don't know if intrastate rates are higher. Richard Layman, Mgr., Business Development, and Research Producer Computer Television Network, 825 6th St. NE, Washington, DC 20002 (202)544-5722 - (202)543-6730 (fax) - rlayman@capaccess.org http://www.phoenix.net/~ctn (... I know, it needs work) ------------------------------ From: rishab@dxm.ernet.in Date: Wed, 17 May 95 22:26:56 +0530 Subject: India's Anti-Terrorist Legislation to Expire on May 23rd --==(C) Copyright 1995 Rishab Aiyer Ghosh (rishab@dxm.ernet.in) India's anti-terrorist legislation to expire on May 23rd New Delhi, May 17th: India's Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (amendment) Act, or TADA, will expire on May 23rd, as the Indian government has decided not to renew it. The TADA, which was enacted as a temporary measure to counter acute terrorist violence in the northern state of Punjab in the mid-80s, it was later extended to cover first Kashmir and then the rest of the country. While the Act, which allows for various exceptions from the "due process" of law, has been criticised in the past by human-rights activists and even the government's National Human Rights Commission, over the past year there have been a series of official announcements of changes to the Act. As its expiry date neared, the government had to decide whether to renew the Act with some modifications or to repeal it altogether. Finally, with all political parties except the right-wing BJP favouring its repeal, the Union Cabinet decided yesterday to let TADA die next week. However it also recommended the incorporation of some changes, including stronger penalties, to the Indian Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Explosives Act. In the light of recent proposals in the US to fight terrorism, including Clipper and the Digital Telephony bill, it is interesting to study the approach taken by India, a country that still faces considerable terrorist threats in Kashmir and the remote north-eastern states sandwiched between Myanmar and China. While letting its anti-terrorist legislation lapse just as the FBI advocates similar measures in the US after the Oklahoma bombing -- a relatively minor event on the scale of international terrorism -- India also has nothing like Clipper in the forseeable future. One reason is that Indian courts don't usually accept taped evidence, and wiretapping is effectively illegal. Signals intelligence in terrorist-prone areas, such as Kashmir, are in the hands of the Army. The Army recognises that laws restricting cryptography and the sophisticated US-made frequency-hopping phones left over from the Afghan war will not affect their use by militants in Kashmir, only by ordinary, law-abiding citizens who don't concern them. Similar arguments have been made in the US, which continues to favour Clipper, while facing practically no terrorist activity. India, which unlike the US has real experience of violent terrorism, appears to know better. --==(C) Copyright 1995 Rishab Aiyer Ghosh (rishab@dxm.ernet.in) --==May be distributed electronically provided that only compilation or --==transmission charges are applied. Other uses require written permission. Rishab Aiyer Ghosh For Electric Dreams subscriptions rishab@dxm.ernet.in and back issues, send a mail to rishab@arbornet.org rishab@arbornet.org with Vox +91 11 6853410 Voxmail 3760335 'help' in lower case, without H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA the quotes, as the Subject. ------------------------------ From: Mark Cuccia Subject: Voice Dial (was Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped) Date: Thu, 18 May 95 08:12:00 GMT On the subject of voice-dialing: USWest is offering (or will soon offer) it as a monthly fee optional service at selected Digital offices (DMS, #5ESS). 'Regular' dialtone is four seconds. If you subscribe to voice-dial, you would probably be using the line for voice, even if you have a modem/fax on that line. You would probably NOT subscribe to voice-dial on a line if you used the line for ONLY modem/fax/etc. Voice-Dial customers have a 'default' dialtone of two seconds. IF you need the dialtone longer (and only four seconds is the MAX), you would MANUALLY dial *45 and then probably hang up. (It IS *45, I've checked my LERG section 1.6). The initial '*' (or 11) would probably need to be dialed within two seconds, but it could PROBABLY be dialed even AFTER the two second dialtone cut out, and I would assume that ANY tone/pulse digits could be entered as well after the two seconds. The Voice-Dial activation PROBABLY works only AFTER the dialtone cuts out, but there is OBVIOUSLY a time-out to either 'partial-dial-recording', 'off-hook-recording/warning-tones', 'invalid-entry'(by voice or traditional tone/pulse - i.e. invalid digits/number), etc. When you have entered *45, you change the length of dialtone on ALL SUBSEQUENT CALLS to four seconds. THIS is if you intend on making several modem/fax calls -- you would MANUALLY enter *45 within two seconds, once, and then all subsequent calls would be auto-dialable (without any prepending *45) by any special CPE (auto-dialer, modem, fax, etc) since dialtone on all of these new calls would have four seconds (MAX). You can 'toggle-back' to two second dialtone for voice-dial, by waiting for the four-second dialtone to 'cut-out' and then verbally quoting your name/number/etc. ALL subsequent calls now will give you two second dialtone, until you 'toggle-back' with *45. DURING a four second dialtone, you can enter *50 to not just remove the dialtone but 'cut-thru' to a 'voice-dial' audio-register associated with your line. *50 will also toggle your line back to two second dialtone for all subsequent calls. *44 is to 'set-up' your voice-dial directory - ADD, DELETE, CHANGE entries - I DON'T know if the system will recognize SPECIFIC voices or not, i.e. allowing ONLY the actual customers whose voices record entries with *44 to place calls by VOICE. Yes, they do CHARGE EXTRA for voice-dial, but what else would you expect from the utility. But this COULD be beneficial FOR handicapped individuals with hand or mobility problems - I assume that you could also quote out DIGIT by DIGIT - i.e. when the two second dialtone cuts out, quote 'NINE --- ONE --- ONE' or 'EMERGENCY' or 'OPERATOR' There are many OTHER voice or name or speech recognition technologies being used by telco as well -- using the word 'OPERATOR' on some 0-, 00 and 0+ calls, or the instruction to say 'COLLECT' or the instruction to 'at the tone, record your name' on some automated handling of collect/3d-party-billing/person calls, or being instructed to say 'YES'/'NO'/'HELP'/'OPERATOR', again on being on the receiving end of automated special billed calls. I've even recently run across speech-detection service on DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE. Incidently, Bell Labs experimented on a 'voice-dial' type of PHONE for the handicapped some 20 to 30 years ago. There is an article in the Bell Labs Record from the 60's or 70's about a speech detection type of phone for those with special needs. It could detect the sound of all ten digits and a few other controls for going off-hook & going back on-hook (FULL hands-free operation) - you would quote out the number on a digit by digit basis, speaking CLEARLY and DISTINCTLY in the direction of the microphone. It also had a series of lights on the phone as to when to quote out the first digit, when to quote another digit, etc. This was CPE, of course, not something in the switch, and the phone would 'dial-pulse-out' (or touch-tone-out) the digit that was quoted. I think that you had to wait until the digit had FINISHED dial-pulsing until you could quote out the next digit. MARK +1 504 865 5917 (Fax, work) +1 504 865 5954 (Tel, work) +1 504 241 2497 (Tel, home, forwards to cellular/voice-mail) mcuccia@law.tulane.edu ------------------------------ From: fkauf@fstgds06.tu-graz.ac.at (Friedrich Kaufmann) Subject: Frequncies of a Data Display Date: 18 May 1995 13:56:47 GMT Organization: Graz University of Technology, Austria Disturbance due to horizontal magnetic deflection of dada displays ================================================================== I'm designing a telecommunication link at about 125kHz using only little power. Now I got problems due to interferences of the horizontal magnetic deflection of dada displays for computers. Now I need some information: * Which horizontal frequencies are used (exact values)? A ET4000 graphics display adapter uses the frequencies 31.5kHz, 35.5kHz, 38kHz, 48kHz, 56kHz and 64kHz (as I have read in the manual) and I found a quartz (XTAL) having the frequency 14.31818MHz. Using simple digital dividers I get following frequencies: factor 455: 31.4685 kHz (instead of 31.5kHz) factor 403: 35.5290 kHz (instead of 35.5kHz) factor 377: 37.9793 kHz (instead of 38.0kHz) factor 298: 48.0476 kHz (instead of 48.0kHz) factor 224: 63.9204 kHz (instead of 64.0kHz) Is this correct? * Do you know other frequencies for horizontal magnetic deflection? * Do you know a graphics display adapter, which doesn't use a quartz and therefore the frequency isn't stable over time and temperature? Many thanks for your help, Friedrich Kaufmann email: fkauf@fstgds06.tu-graz.ac.at ------------------------------ From: celestin@celestin.com (Paul Celestin) Subject: Dime Line Anyone? Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 17:46:27 -0700 Organization: Celestin Company, Inc. I just got a mailing the other day from a company called VarTec Telecom, Inc. that states you can get 10 cents a minute long distance service anytime, anywhere in the continental U.S. Only catch is a $5 monthly service charge for residential lines, even if you use it just once. I think the service charge for business lines is $15. Has anyone given it a try? How do modem calls go through, especially V.34 ones? Is the quality good enough for high-speed datacom? Seems like a good deal, and I just wanted to see if anyone has already tried it out. Celestin Company, Inc. - 1152 Hastings Ave. - Port Townsend, WA 98368 Home of Apprentice - the Mac Programmer Source Code & Utilities CD-ROM Check out our World Wide Web Site -> http://www.celestin.com/celestin/ send a blank message to info@celestin.com for an index of our products ------------------------------ From: elana@netcom.com (Elana who?) Subject: Phree Phone in Chicago's Union Station - Still There? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 13:01:19 GMT In January of 1990, I took a train trip to Chicago from the West Coast, intending to connect with a train heading south. My first train was very late, however, so I missed my connection. I was then herded into a room where they dealt with lost passengers like me. First priority, of course, was to try to call my southern friend and let him know not to meet me -- I would not be on that train. I looked around ... there where few phone booths, and what few there were had long lines in front of them. I asked about getting change for the phones, and got some long, convoluted directions to a snack shop on another floor. Never mind! I gave up and found a place to sit in one corner to comtemplate my fate. I was staring at the long lines at the phone booths and thinking, when I suddenly noticed an ordinary, everyday desk phone on the table next to me, with nobody else even *near* it. Hmmmm ... So I tried calling my friend. GOT THROUGH!!! Free call! :) Happy now, I then dealt with Amtrak and got them to find me another way to send me south. It would be a two-hour wait, they said. "No problem!" said I. Then I went back to that phone, called my chatty friend in New Jersey and we yakked and gossiped all about the latest progressive, instrumental, electronic albums that were out and whatever happened to Tangerine Dream now that Chris Franke left the band. It was fun. :) I regretted that I did not have tbe phone number of my friend in England at the time. So, dear Moderator, I ask you: is that phone still operating in that Amtrak station? I'd like to go back to it someday! :) (Of course, it may be gone within a week of hitting the Internet ... oh, well...) Elana [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I feel rather certain you were using the unguarded, unattended phone of some employee who was not present at his/her desk at the time of your visit. While you were there, did you consider rifling through the desk drawers looking for things of value which the occupant may have left there while out to lunch or in a meeting or wherever people go when they are not at their desk? You would like to return to the scene of the crime, eh? Well it is hard to say exactly *where* in the building you were at. There has been extensive remodeling of Union Station over the past five years with Amtrack building a large nice waiting room and ticket office for themselves and the local commuter railroads occupying other parts of the building. Also, I think Metra, the suburban commuter train people, have their offices in the station also, on the upper floors where the New York Central, Pennsylvania, and other long-gone railroads in Chicago's (at one time) glorious history used to have their accountants, etc. So much has changed over there, I would not begin to know where to start looking for a phone such as you describe. I could refer you to City Hall: you'll find lots of empty desks there at any given time since the bureaucrats tend to take very long lunch and coffee breaks on the days when they come to work. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 18 May 1995 10:47:37 GMT From: Brian Vita Subject: Cell One/Boston Cell One/Boston The long promised (threatened) switch change from a Motorola analog to a AT&T digitial occurred this past weekend (5/12-14) and with it came three days of nightmarish service. Starting Friday at about 11PM, inbound calls to Cell One customers were greeting with a variety of intercept messages ranging from number out of service, customer out of area, etc or sometimes just plain dead air. The inbound service remained out, or at very least unreliable, until sometime mid-Monday. The only calls that I was able to receive were from other Cell One phones on the same switch. Outbound traffic was a hit or miss proposition. Normally Cell One does not require 1+ with out of area calls. For a while on Sunday it required them and then suddenly rejected them. Throughout this entire ordeal, Cell One's customer support (an oxymoron) was swamped and, on Sunday when all hell was breaking loose, took the day off. This was blatantly irresponsible of CO's management. When I was finally able to get a live service drone on the line Monday, I was told that they had no way of anticipating problems (gee, what about the fiascos at all the other McCaw properties that have already made the changeover) and that I was basically SOL for the inconvenience. After much haggling, I was finally able to get a 1/2 month credit for the inconvenience. This amount will not compensate me adequately for the lost income for missing calls but will nicely cover the cost of a NYNEX activation. The official party line was that their switch was 13 years old and, being so grossly out of date, required replacement with an AT&T switch. I tend to think that the reality of it was simply that since AT&T spent meggabucks buying a portion of CO's parent, they are forcing their subsidiary CO franchises to buy new AT&T switching equipment to get some of their money back. Although I have always been an avid CO fan,in the past year since the AT&T aquisition, I have noticed a *major* deterioration in their attitudes and policies, to wit: 1. Elimination of "unlimited" night/weekend airtime in their high volume package. This was cut back to two hours. After much screaming, those of us that were in the program prior to the change were grandfathered. 2. A $5 charge for detail billing. Since every time I audit the bill I find at least that amount and sometimes up to ten times that amount in misbilled calls, I find this charge to be an insult. The corporate thinking must be that if they don't provide the detail, customers will not know about their false charges and CO gets to pocket the difference. My wife notified them that she wanted to maintain the detail billing when the notice went out. They ignored her request and started sending just the summary bills. Since that time her bills have gone up an average of 5% month without explanation. Three calls to customer service have failed to produce the call detail for those periods. 3. We've just been given notice of a per call "line access" charge that is going be assessed to each outbound call. CO seems to like sneaking these things by the customer in a way that most of us wouldn't notice the subtle increase in our bills. Given this modus operandi, I would be interested in any legal beagle types that might be in the mood to complain to the AG's office. Brian Vita Brian_Vita@CSSInc.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One of the cellular carriers charging the extra $5 per month for detailed billing did at least acknowledge the sort of thing you are talking about by offering to rebate or write off the five dollar per month charge *in any month an error otherwise appeared in your bill that you brought to their attention.* In other words, you want a detailed statement this month? Fine, that will cost five dollars; call us back and point out an error to be corrected, we will correct the error and waive the charge for that month. That seems pretty fair. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #246 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa02634; 19 May 95 0:01 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA01759 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 18 May 1995 19:15:49 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA01750; Thu, 18 May 1995 19:15:45 -0500 Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 19:15:45 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505190015.TAA01750@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #247 TELECOM Digest Thu, 18 May 95 19:15:30 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 247 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Using Unix Newsgroups" by Gregory et al (Rob Slade) Connie Chung's Attitude About Oklahoma (Martin McCormick) France Numbering Plan Change Set For October 1996 (Erik Mueller) What Does F.A.T. Stand For? and PCS-A Winners (Steve Samler) Network Level Performance Modelling (Herb Calhoun) NPA Commentary (James E. Bellaire) Cyber-Liberties Alert #4: State Bills Regulating Online Content (ACLU Info) Opera: "The Telephone" (Jim Haynes) Chicago Area Internet Providers Wanted (John Meissen) Easy Way to Busy Line in Modem Pool? (David W. Rowlands) Recording Digital (Stephen Guthrie) IBM Direct Talk (Diane Clune) Long Distance Rates in Southern California (craig@cmtele.com) Sprint: All Else Being Equal (John Marquette) 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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 17 May 1995 17:05:55 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Using Usenet Newsgroups" by Gregory et al BKUSUSNE.RVW 950329 "Using UseNet Newsgroups", Gregory/Estabrook/Mann/Parker, 1995, 0-7897-0134-0, U$19.99/C$26.99 %A Kate Gregory %A Noel Estabrook %A Jim Mann jmann@college.Antioch.Edu jim_mann@adbbs.Antioch.Edu %A Jim Mann ug0056@eworld.Com %A Tim Parker %C 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290 %D 1995 %G 0-7897-0134-0 %I Que Corporation %O U$19.99/C$26.99 800-858-7674 75141.2102@compuserve.com 317-581-3743 %P 363 %T "Using UseNet Newsgroups" This book has the usual background material on Usenet, the Internet and Usenet news. Please note that many items bluntly presented as fact are opinion or, at best, extreme oversimplification. More than half of the chapters are devoted to the use of "client" newsreader software for Windows and Mac (primarily WinVN and NewsWatcher). A single chapter briefly mentions what it calls "text-based newsreaders", and this gives only the most cursory coverage of trn, tin and nn. The list of "hot" newsgroups is limited and not particularly enlightening. Not recommended. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKUSUSNE.RVW 950329. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | Omne ignotum pro magnifico. Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | - Anything little known Research into Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z1/ | is assumed to be User .fidonet.org | wonderful. Security Canada V7K 2G6 | - Tacitus ------------------------------ From: Martin McCormick Subject: Connie Chung's Attitude About Oklahoma Date: 18 May 1995 21:30:12 GMT Organization: Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK I heard an interesting story concerning media coverage of the bombing in Oklahoma City. Shortly after the bombing, CBS sent Connie Chung to cover the scene. She quickly irritated local officials by seeming rather incredulous as to whether Oklahoma City was up to the job of handling the medical and logistical emergencies caused by the tragedy. She was also quoted in local newspapers as saying that Oklahomans were tobacco-chewing and pickup-driving among other things. Needless to say, this did not set well with many people, here. A man who ran a teashirt printing operation seized the moment, however. He printed a bunch of shirts that said something like, "Connie Chung. Bite me!" He sold the shirts for $5.00 or $10.00 and gave all the profits to the bombing victims' relief fund. Most of the people I talked to were very glad when Dan Rather replaced her as the correspondent for CBS in Oklahoma City. He seemed to have a much better feel for the pulse of the area than she did. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK 36.7N97.4W in Tornado Ally OSU Center for Computing and Information Services Data Communications Group ------------------------------ From: Erik_Mueller@eMail.FranceNet.fr (Erik Mueller) Reply-To: Erik_Mueller@eMail.FranceNet.fr Subject: France Numbering Plan Change Set For October 1996 Date: 18 May 1995 17:52:39 GMT Organization: FranceNet According to an article in {Le Monde} (May 18, 1995, p. 15), France will convert on October 18, 1996 to a uniform 10-digit numbering plan. A 2-digit area code will be added to the front of the existing 8-digit numbers. The area codes will be: 01 Ile-de-France (Paris, ...) 02 northwest France 03 northeast France 04 southeast France 05 southwest France 06 mobile phones Currently, customers calling the provinces from Paris dial 16 + 8 digits, while customers in the provinces calling Paris dial 16 + 1 + 8 digits. After the change, the same 10 digits will be dialed from all locations within the country. According to a representative at the France Telecom business office, the initial zero will be included when dialing into France -- a number in Paris, for example, will be 33 + 01 + 8 digits. Other changes are scheduled to occur on the same date: Electronic directory assistance via Minitel will change from 11 to 3611. Numeros verts (toll-free numbers) will be preceded by 0800 instead of 05. The international access code will change from 19 to 00. The Minitel access codes 361X (3615, 3616, 3617, ...) will remain unchanged, as will the following two-digit service codes: 12 directory assistance (voice) 13 repair service 14 business office 15 ambulance 17 police 18 fire department (This message updates the previous articles and . For more information on France's numbering plan, see: Claude Perardel, Numero s'il vous plait, France Telecom, Paris, 1985 and the files ftp://lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/country.codes/zone.3.codes.32-34 ftp://lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/country.codes/zone.3.france.33.comments) Erik ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 15:12:49 EDT From: Steve Samler Subject: What Does F.A.T. Stand For? and PCS-A Winners F.A.T. is the "Western Electric" of France Telecom. Does anyone know what the letters stand for? Thanks to all who got back to me with PCS A winners. Here is the complete list: Paging Network of VA (PageNet), KDM Messaging (ATT/McCaw), Nationwide Wireless Network, Pagemart II, BellSouth Wireless, AirTouch Paging are the Nationwide winners. Regional Winners are Benbow PCS Ventures, Ameritech Mobile, Insta check Systems, Lisa Gaye Shearing, PCS Development, Mobilemedia PCS, Advanced Wireless Messaging. ------------------------------ From: Herb Calhoun Subject: Network Level Performance Modelling Date: 18 May 1995 18:05:48 GMT Organization: Motorola Research and Development Center, Fort Worth, TX Due to a recent job assignment I need to become familiar with network performance modeling for both telecom and data networks. I can see this information coming from several sources, which might include: a. publications (books, magazines) b. consultants/classes c. tool supplier training courses d. discussions with practitioners in telephone or data network providers Any assistance which could be provided in directing me to these or other sources of information would be appreciated. Regards, herb ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 09:35:22 -0500 From: bellaire@tk.com (James E. Bellaire) Subject: NPA Commentary I have been looking at NPAs lately with all the talk in the papers and in TELECOM Digest. There are several good files in the archives about their history which I have been looking over. I noticed that in the 1952 listing in the archives that 80 of the then 140 possible area codes were assigned. In a rotary dial system it is important to note that the number of pulses in an area code ranged from 5 (212 NY) to 21 (a tie between 605 SD, 704 ND, and 803 SC). 808 Hawaii, 907 Alaska at 26 pulses and 809 Caribbean at 27 were added later. Up to 1995 the additions ranged from 12 to 25 pulses each. Obviously the lower pulse count numbers were given first. September 2nd, 1991 saw the first n10 area code (510 California) for public voice service, January 8th, 1994 is the historic day when the last 'old style' area code went into effect (610 Pennsylvania). Then everyone had to stop until 1995 when the new codes became available. Now we have (announced) 17 new codes for 1995, plus 8 more after the end of the year. No wonder why the public has been confused. We only had 13 codes added in the past 6 years and then opening up to NNX allowed the flood. It's a shame that we couldn't have had NNX availability sooner to stop the 'number rush of 1995'. Its good to see the announcment for 330 in Ohio, but the hope of ever making a smaller geographical area change to a new code is lost. Its the population that counts. Changes are made to affect the least people, allegedly. I would rather see the cities change. Now that we are seeing second and third generation splits (since 1952) we have people in the sticks that have changed their numbers twice because the city is using more numners! It would also be easier to advertise 'Atlanta has changed to ...' instead of 'Georgia has changed to ..., except Atlanta which remains ...' But then that is my humble opinion. Considering that the original system was over 4/7ths full (80 of 140) I wish that we would have had more NNX codes earlier. They could have been avoided as local exchange numbers. If I could rule the world ... James E. Bellaire (JEB6) bellaire@tk.com Twin Kings Communications - Sturgis, MI ------------------------------ From: infoaclu@aclu.org (ACLU Information) Subject: Cyber-Liberties Alert #4: State Bills Regulating Online Content Date: 18 May 1995 17:56:53 -0400 Organization: ACLU National Office **ACLU CYBER-LIBERTIES ALERT** STOP STATE LEGISLATORS FROM CENSORING ONLINE CONTENT! As more and more people sign on to the Internet and commercial online networks, there is a growing panic that online networks are being infiltrated by pedophiles and peddlers of obscenity and child pornography. Legislators are proposing severe criminal laws in an effort to purge online networks of these influences. Many of you were first made aware of this threat to your civil liberties by the pending federal legislation -- the so-called "Communications Decency Act of 1995", proposed by Senator Exon (D-NE) and recently approved by the Senate Commerce Committee as an amendment to the massive telecommunications reform act now pending in Congress. But while online civil libertarians were distracted by their laudable rally against the Exon Bill, state legislators were busy crafting similar bills at home. **These state bills, like the federal Exon Bill, raise serious First Amendment and privacy concerns.** Legislators are attempting to extend to the online context criminal laws that restrict the following categories of sexually expressive material and behavior: -the distribution of "obscene" materials to adults -the distribution of materials deemed "harmful to minors" -the solicitation of children to engage in sexual conduct -the possession and distribution of visual materials produced through the sexual exploitation of children Through a lack of understanding about how new interactive technologies work, legislators have managed to craft these laws to prohibit a wide range of constitutionally protected material. If enacted into law, these vague and overly broad bills could have the following draconian effects: * Prohibit communications with sexual content through private e-mail between consenting adults, and inhibit people from making comments that might or might not be prohibited. * Require service providers to act as private censors to avoid criminal liability for prohibited material produced by subscribers on their networks. * Prevent health care providers from posting sex education materials to online networks. To date, the ACLU has located and continues to monitor bills proposed this year in twelve states: Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington. The Oklahoma and Virginia bills were both voted into law in recent weeks. Bills in Washington, Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania are moving rapidly through state legislatures. ACT NOW: * Contact your state legislators and urge them to oppose the state bill. * Urge legislators to hold full public hearings to identify the problems and to explore technological alternatives to censorship. * Generate online discussion about the threats to civil liberties posed by the state bill. * Organize an online "grass roots" effort to stop the bill. * Ask your online service provider to publicly oppose the state bill. * Write a letter to the editor of your local paper in opposition to the state bill. Discuss the liberating potential of online technology and provide examples. ---------------------------- For more information on the pending state bills, visit our gopher site, the ACLU Free Reading Room: gopher://aclu.org:6601/1/issues/cyberspace/state This subdirectory contains the full text of some bills, in addition to ACLU legal analyses of, and letters written to oppose, particular bills. ACLU Free Reading Room | American Civil Liberties Union gopher://aclu.org:6601 | 132 W. 43rd Street, NY, NY 10036 mailto:infoaclu@aclu.org| "Eternal vigilance is the ftp://ftp.pipeline.com | price of liberty" ------------------------------ From: haynes@cats.ucsc.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 15:12:54 -0700 Subject: Opera: "The Telephone" Gian-Carlo Menotti's one-act opera "The Telephone" is being performed at University of California, Santa Cruz, Jun 2 and 3. So if you are a telecom reader living nearby this is your once-in-a-lifetime chance to see it. (along with a couple of other one-act operas, but not, alas, "Bells Are Ringing") ------------------------------ From: john@preview.com Subject: Chicago Area Internet Providers Wanted Date: Thu, 18 May 95 09:21:47 GMT Organization: Rosetta Technologies, Inc. Reply-To: john@preview.com Can anyone point me to a list of Internet providers in the Chicago, IL area (708 area code)? John Meissen Rosetta Technologies, Inc. john@preview.com 15220 NW Greenbrier Pkwy Credo quia absurdum est Beaverton, OR 97006 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The first one which comes to mind is mcs.net. It is operated by Karl Denninger. He is actually in 312 regards his physical location on West Belmont Avenue, but I think he services all of northern Illinois with ease. Try him out. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rowlandsd@hal.hahnemann.edu (David W. Rowlands) Subject: Easy Way to Busy Line in Modem Pool? Date: 18 May 95 12:38:07 EST Organization: Hahnemann University Is there an easy way to busy a phone line, save leaving an actual phone off-hook? A resistor or simple circuit across the line? I have a bank of 20 modems that are in a hunt group, this is on a VMS system. I use kermit to grab an individual line to reconfigure or test the modems. But if a modem goes down, I need to busy out the line so the hunt group skips that particular modem. I do not have control of the University's PBX to modify the group at will. Thanks for any help, David Rowlands Systems Manager Hahnemann University & Medical College of PA. You can send email to rowlandsd@hal.hahnemann.edu if you feel the answer is not of general interest to this group. Thanks! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, some readers of this group have reported busying out lines by merely shorting the wires in the pair and letting it go at that. It seems to cause no harm to the phone network, although the PBX at your school may be different than others. You could probably just install a little toggle switch for each line where it is connected at the wall. Bring up a little jumper wire from the pair to the toggle switch which, when thrown, will short the two wires. When you want to take a line out of service, just flip the little toggle switch for each pair. There are other, more elaborate methods as well. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Stephen Guthrie Subject: Recording Digital Organization: Computer Science, Indiana University Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 22:02:24 -0500 I currently have a digital phone system, and was wondering if there is any hardware / software combination that would allow me to record the digital signal on my pc (not as a wave or vox file, but as a pure digital signal)? Also, could I then somehow convert this on the fly to either play back as sound through my pc or through my phone system? I have been working this problem for months and have found no one that has any idea on how this could be done. Any help or suggestions are greatly apreciated. Thanks, Steve Guthrie ------------------------------ From: cluned@motss.newpaltz.edu (diane clune) Subject: IBM Direct Talk Date: 15 May 1995 11:41:59 GMT Organization: SUNY New Paltz I would like to know if anyone is using IBM's Direct Talk voice messaging product. I am thinking of installing it for our University and would like some feedback from current users. We will be using the Auto Attendent feature to replace the operator for most calls. Also, we will be using the voice mail feature. We will run this on our IBM Risc/6000. If you use this product from IBM, are you satisfied with it? What level of customer support does IBM offer, etc. Thanks for your help. Diane ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 17:35:19 PDT From: craig Subject: Long Distance Rates in Southern California The following rates are now available through C&M Telecom in Los Angeles: IntraLATA .08/min Intrastate .12/min Interstate .16/min These rates are available as PIC rates or 10XXX rates. They are available to any customer in California, business or residential, day or night. There is a service application which must be completed and returned, but there is NO minimum usage or time commitment involved. You can reach C&M Telecom at 800-731-2100 from anywhere in California. ------------------------------ From: John Marquette Subject: Sprint: All Else Being Equal Date: 18 May 1995 13:20:00 GMT Organization: John Marquette & Associates I've been a Sprint customer since the Southern Pacific days and have stuck with them through billing errors, through moves, and through additions to my household (telephonic additions, that is). Here's where I stand now with them: Jan 95: after MCI's ad to slice rates by 50% on all calls, Sprint's customer service people match the deal for me for domestic (alas, not international) calling. Still, this happened about the same time Internet Phone came out, so no big deal. Feb 95: Customer satisfaction staff call me to find out why I switched (I hadn't, just changed some accounting information) and gave me a $50 concession credit. Apr 95: Sprint announces new airline partnerships. I find that I have enough points accrued -- 80,000 -- (two of those 25,000 point savings bonds redeemed in an appropriate way helped a lot) for a free trip to the UK on Virgin Atlantic. May 95: The round-trip tickets are delivered for exactly the dates in Dec 95-Jan 96 I specify. May 95: I'm still paying $0.05/minute for long distance due to the the match offer. Way to go, Sprint! Note to readers: this is the golden age of the Sprint Rewards program -- REDEEM YOUR POINTS NOW! (g) http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~jbm/homepage.html http://www.earthlink.net/free/jmarquette/webdocs/index.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I can hardly argue with the results you have experienced. That trip to the Virgin Islands is what sounds incredible to me. The AT&T True Rewards program is pretty similar, and a couple months ago I mentioned that readers here who are enrolled in True Rewards but not particularly interested in participating could transfer their points to me if they wished to do so, and a few readers have done just that. True Rewards pays off with 'pay to the telco' checks which can be submitted to pay my constantly increasing and annoying phone bill. If you have points you don't want, please let me know and I will explain how they are transferred. So far as I know, AT&T is the only company (of Sprint and others) which allows its rewards, i.e. cash back or frequent flyer miles, etc to be transferred to other subscribers. If you are not using yours, please let me know. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #247 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04367; 19 May 95 4:41 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id WAA04912 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 18 May 1995 22:36:33 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id WAA04904; Thu, 18 May 1995 22:36:31 -0500 Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 22:36:31 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505190336.WAA04904@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #248 TELECOM Digest Thu, 18 May 95 22:35:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 248 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Local Phone Competition (Mike McKinney) Re: A Question About Priorities (Chris Hardaker) Re: A Question About Priorities (Scot Desort) Re: A Question About Hunting and Call Waiting (Kevin Prichard) Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? (Michael McCalpin) Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? (Henry Choy) Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? (Bob Michael) Alabama 334 Backup Plan (Greg Monti) What is an R-Modem? (Bob Collins) Re: Virtual Amateur Radio on the NET (Arthur Chandler) Re: Virtual Amateur Radio on the NET (hkassoc@netvision.net.il) Re: Country Codes (Andreas Pavlik) Re: Unusual RF Stories (John Nelson) Re: Unusual RF Stories (Carl Moore) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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, 18 May 1995 19:41:30 -0500 From: mikem@i-link.net (Mike McKinney) Subject: Local Phone Competition In issue 239, John Higdon replied to Tim Gorman: TG: >> Folks, the phone companies have always been just that -- COMPANIES. >> They have always been companies owned by shareholders -- just like >> Ford, Pizza Hut, and Midas Muffler. JH: > No, no, no. Not like Ford, Pizza Hut, and Midas Muffler. Each of these > companies exists in a robust market of competitors. Someday, that may > be the case for the telcos, BUT NOT YET. Until that day, they cannot > be treated "just like any other company". The big question to John and other Telco haters who seem to hold on to every mistake, bad call, and yes, I'm sure, some outright dishonest activities, is which will come: first; the true competition or treating Telcos like other companies and how long will the interval be between the two?(sorry for the LONG sentence, but I'm a tech, not a writer) This is important to me. I have invested my career and my future in Southwestern Bell. To those of us who take pride in their company and who think we can meet the challenge, these two things should occur simultaneously and soon. Enough screwing around, let's get to it. As an aside, I'm having a hard time taking the grin of my face as I listen to ATT & MCI moan and groan here in Texas. They think it's terribly unfair that they are being required to build their own facilities for local services and that it's just a case of SBC putting one over on the everybody. The rule makes perfect sense in the long range and I think the author of the bill should be applauded. If the goal is potential cost reductions for users, then there must be competitors in the market that do more than resell Telco services Mike McKinney SW Bell Austin, TX mikem@i-link.net ------------------------------ From: Chris Hardaker Subject: Re: A Question About Priorities Date: Thu, 18 May 95 08:24:00 PDT Pat, With reference to the sequencing within an ESS, I can not specifically help you. My experience is with NEC NEAX and NorTel DMS technology. Both of these are very similar in that they process in phases. Firstly, does the switch want to complete this call. That is, is there some software or hardware condition that prevents the switch from ensuring this call is completed (CPU Occupancy for example). Then it checks if there is some Telco defined parameters which prevent completion (line suspension or call gaping(Your call blocking will occur here if it is done by the Telco)). Then customer defined options are checked (like call diversion and temporary call blocking). At last you check to see if the line is free. There is one module of software per condition check phase, which checks all possible conditions within it particular area of concern. Any other method would require separate modules per condition and would add to the average work time for each call. Of course, as far as the ESS is concerned, this may be the technological equivalent of a baseball diamond in an ice rink (Totally inappropriate and rather silly anyway) Chris Hardaker Network Management CLEAR Communications Auckland New Zealand V +64 9 912 4286 F +64 9 912 4451 E HARDAKER @clear.co.nz ------------------------------ From: gsmicro@ios.com Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 23:00:06 -0400 Subject: Re: A Question about Priorities Pat: While I'm no expert, I'll try to give you some information regarding my personal experience about how switches react to certain feature combinations, as well as switch to switch communication. Alot of the priority of events has to do with the CO equipment. Whether it's analog or digital, and what manufacturer. 1.Call screening and hunting: Generally speaking, any call handling that needs to be done based on the *calling party's* number is handled first. It probably makes the most sense that way (why bother hunting through 30 lines if it is a blocked call?). Bell Atlantic once described hunting to me as Call Forwarding Busy (as far as their switch programming codes where concerned), the only difference being hunting can only be done among lines in the same "billing entity" (you can't hunt your line to your neighbor's). Once an incoming call lands on your first line, the switch makes the determination as to whether a call from XXX-XXXX can be processed to your line yyy-yyyy. If so, the switch attempts to ring line one. If line one is busy, hunting begins as usual. The determination as to whether the call is allowed is made prior to ringing the line. With regards to: > ....... In other words, once the 'decision' > is made that its okay to hand over this call to the subscriber, it > becomes okay to hand it to him on any of his lines in whatever order > was established for doing so. So incoming calls hunting for an open > line could land on and signal a 'one way outgoing line' even though > a person directly dialing that line would be blocked from entry. > Any comments on this? Not sure about this one. I believe I have had clients who have had pools of lines in hunt groups that were designated as you have described, and it has worked as you've described. The switch is not interpreting the *dialed* number as line two, so it does not make the determination that the line is a restricted outbound line. Just a guess here, but it sorta follows suit. > What about Call Screening and 'Transfer on Busy'? > What about Call Screening and Transfer on No Answer'? Again, the same reasoning should apply here. The CO receives call from xxx-xxxx to line yyy-yyyy. Line y is checked for permission to allow calls from line x. Permission granted. Line x is rung. Line x is busy, CFBY forwards to line z. Now, line z can block calls from line x. This leads us into a whole other area where I have had personal experience. If line x is in a digital switch, say 5E, and so is z, the CFBY call that x made to y, now being forwarded to z, will be analyzed for permission based on x. But if x is in an analog switch like a 1A, the correct information will not be passed to the 5E destination switch by the 1A, and the 5E will see the calling party as y, not x. I have used this to my advantage. I have a sales rep in a small office in Jersey City. He is served by a 1A. Our main office is served by 5E. We have CO voice mail (CF BY/DA). I set my sales rep's line to CF Don't Answer to my main number. If we don't answer, CO forwards to voice mail. Voice mail picks up -- *our* main number greeting is played. The 1A doesn't send my sales reps number as the *called* number, so the 5E uses our number and plays our greeting. One day, I tested this another way. I activated CF variable on my main office number to my home number, also served by a 5E and has CO voice mail (CF variable always overrides CFBY/DA). Dialed the office number, forwards to home (which is busy) and dumps to voice mail. Guess what greeting played -- the office greeting! (when I told Bell Atlantic, they didn't believe me ). Problem is, when my sales rep's switch goes to 5E, I'm out of luck. Voice mail will play a generic greeting. I don't know how all this works on DMS-100. Bell Atlantic tells me they function significantly different than the 5E, especially with regards to CF and hunting. So much so that most of the reps hate getting orders for hunting changes or voice mail setup on the DMS100 because it's so confusing to them (but it still works). > Now what about Call Screening and Call Forwarding? See above. > What about 'Return Last Call Received' and Call Forwarding? Got me on this one. Don't know how the last number buffers are handled. Maybe someone else will chime in. Hope I've helped a bit. I don't claim to be an expert here, but this is what I've observed. Keep in mind that, while you and I for example may both be served by a 5E, Bell Atlantic may program the switch differently than Ameritech, and really confuse matters. So much of the functionality of the switch is definable by the LEC (as is evident by recent complaints here about DMS100 dialing timeouts in PacBel land). Maybe some folks here who actually sit in front of those switches and program this stuff will chime in with some real nitty-gritty stuff. Scot M. Desort Garden State Micro, Inc. +1 201-244-1110 +1 201-244-1120 Fax gsmicro@ios.com ------------------------------ From: kpx@panix.com (Kevin Prichard) Subject: Re: A Question About Hunting and Call Waiting Date: 18 May 1995 00:20:23 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC Pat, Thank you for your excellent comments. I am located in NYC, area 212. I am fairly certain distinctive ring isn't available here, having asked for it a couple of apartments ago ... however it is certainly worth the call to find out the situation today. As I mentioned in my first post, the requested setup is as follows: : 1. Line one hunts to line two; : 2. Line two hunts to line one; : 3. Line one has call waiting. : The desired effect would be, for voice calls, that as line one and two : are in use, line one would get the third call via call waiting. This, : rather than put call waiting on line two, where the potential for : interrupting data/fax transmission would be too great. So, desiring to have both a published voice and (uninterruptible) fax number, I sought this as a solution. Your suggestion: : Publish line one as your only number. : Have it forward on busy to line two as now. : Have call waiting on line two when *it* is busy. : *Put your modem on line one*. is fine for outgoing fax/data ... but for uninterrupted incoming fax/data ... well you get the picture. Hmm, another option is to go with your scenario, and add a switch which I would flip to manually connect an incoming fax call on line one with the fax machine, then hit the 'start' button. I wonder if a fax machine will go into receive mode without first having received a ring on a closed line and then entering the pickup/carrier signal/receive cycle. That might require some hotwiring. If it's my faxmodem, maybe there's on option to make it pickup without a ring ... just pick up. I'll research that further. This is sort of like playing chess on a 2x2 board ... not a lot of options! The method you employ: are you utilising distinctive ring from your telco? Well, tomorrow is install day ... I'll let you know whether there was success with my initial scenario. Grazie mille, Kevin kpx@panix.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No, I am not using distinctive ring. As a matter of fact I am not using anything right now. I got cut off on Wednesday for non-payment; as soon as I get together the $300 plus they are demanding I will get it turned back on; maybe, or I might leave it shut off since it has gotten so terribly expensive in recent years. But I know what you meant. I do not get incoming modem calls. I only make outgoing modem calls. Although I have a fax card in one of my 386's (remember the Sprint Fax Modem offer guys? grin) I get incoming faxes -- when the lines are turned on -- via a separate, third line and a fax machine attached to it. So I guess I cheat a little in the scheme I proposed to you. PAT] ------------------------------ From: SBolivar@aol.com Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 22:45:10 -0400 Subject: Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? In a previous message, Bob Yazz (yazz@locus.com) noted that: > In the latest software release for the DMS-100 switch in the San Diego > area, there is a new "feature" that is hurting people who cannot dial > or remember phone numbers with great speed. > Specifically, if you pause for a mere four seconds between digits you > lose dialtone and get a recording that says to try again. This really IS a feature; your objection is to Pac Bell's implementation. As a former NorTel employee (and having checked with some old co-workers), I recall the feature working something like this: an office-wide parameter sets the interdigital timer for all the office's lines. This timer can be set to values ranging from (don't hold me to this) 1 to 15 seconds. The default may be four seconds, but the database reformatter should have retained any previous value during the software upgrade. Depending on the database set-up, another timer can take over after the minimum number of digits has been collected (usually seven). This timer, also telco-adjustable, is generally set shorter to limit post-dial delay during LD calls. > Before this latest change, the timeout was 20 seconds for the entire > dialing process. This would surprise me since the above functionality has been around since like BCS-Nothing and I believe that the Bells tend to remain within three BCSs of the current release (I think it's BCS36 right now). This functionality should have been in San Diego for a long time. > Four seconds! Hell, I sometimes pause that long myself when dialing > an unfamiliar number, and my memory and dialing abilities are just > fine. Agreed, four seconds is a little tight unless you've really committed to engineering the bejeesus out of the network. :-) > The question I have for the TELECOM Digest readership is this. Assuming > that Pac Bell decides this is indeed a simple-to-find error they want to > correct, how long will it take for a fix to be available? > (remainder deleted) It's a really simple fix -- a database parameter change in Table OFCVAR or OFCENG. The trick is that the change is office-wide and so will affect handicapped and non-handicapped subscribers equally. I hope this has been of some help. Call Pac Bell and let them know you care! Michael McCalpin DSC Communications Corporation Requirements Engineer 1000 Coit Rd. MS: 171 SBolivar@aol.com Plano, TX 75075 mmccalpi@spd.dsccc.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 17:12:36 GMT From: choy@cs.usask.ca (Henry Choy) Subject: Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? Organization: University of Saskatchewan bob.michael@nt.com wrote: > In article Bob Yazz, yazz@locus.com writes: >> Specifically, if you pause for a mere four seconds between digits you >> lose dialtone and get a recording that says to try again. > On the DMS-100, the interdigit timeout is settable by the telco for > between 0-30 seconds, with a default of four seconds; this has been > the case for quite some time. There are at least two possible reasons > Pacbell changed the timeout: Four seconds! I can't believe this. When I phoned someone in Russia I had to dial about 25 digits. Henry Choy e-mail: choy@cs.usask.ca [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So teach your fingers to do the walking a little faster. step lively! Or should I say finger lively? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 May 1995 14:13:29 +0000 From: bob.michael@nt.com Subject: Re: Pac Bell Screwing the Handicapped? Organization: Nortel (Northern Telecom) In article Bob Yazz, yazz@locus.com writes: > Alright, so it really is a DMS switch software bug, not a feature for > "conserving precious dialtone resource". (They still give you 15 > seconds to hit your first digit.) The problem you describe is not a "software bug." The length of the timeout is set by the telco. Nortel simply provides the flexibility to set the timeout, but it's up to the provider to decide what that value should be. Bob Michael Manager, Nortel Marketing Communications, Switching Networks ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 May 95 17:53:16 PDT From: Greg Monti Subject: Alabama 334 Backup Plan The Friday, May 12 edition of {Communications Daily} had a brief story noting that South Central Bell had set up a toll-free number to help callers complete connections to new 334 area code. Now that permissive dialing for that split has ended (5/13, I think), there will still be some unmodified PBXes that cannot treat 334 as an area code. Callers unable to reach southern Alabama can either ask an operator to place the call, or they can call 800-691-2992 from 7 am to 7 pm central daylight time, 7 days per week. It's answered by a South Central Bell operator. Greg Monti Arlington, Virginia, USA gmonti@cais.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: All they are doing by this is enabling the private PBX owners to continue stalling on the required upgrade. Do you think they will ever made the needed changes as long as telco keeps bailing them out? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 02:52:01 EDT From: Bob Collins Subject: What is an R-Modem? Anybody heard of an R-Modem or R-Dat modem? Evidently this type of modem uses an odd-ball carrier technique that won't connect with common modems. It's used on the remote programming port of a call processing device. Thanks for any information. ------------------------------ From: hkassoc Subject: Re: Virtual Amateur Radio on the NET Date: 18 May 1995 12:40:48 GMT Organization: NetVision USENET Site. Have these guys considered using something like the Internet phone to continue having voice (i.e. simulated ham) conversations? Why switch to text, given that part of the pleasure of ham radio is the voice (more live) aspect. It seems as though there may be a convergence of chat lines, formerly relegated to the world of telephones, and ham radio, if Internet telephony takes off. What thoughts do you have on this? Regards, Gary ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 08:34:24 PDT From: Arthur Chandler Subject: Re: Virtual Amateur Radio on the NET On 18 May 1995, hkassoc wrote: > Have these guys considered using something like the Internet phone to > continue having voice (i.e. simulated ham) conversations? Why switch to > text, given that part of the pleasure of ham radio is the voice (more > live) aspect. Greetings! Two thoughts here: 1) Yes, we also use CUSeeMe -- which supplements voice with video. It's cheap (a Quick Cam is $100 and CUSeeMe software is shareware). The audio and video are pretty raw; but it works amazingly well -- even for conferencing. 2) I don't see a place like the Virtual Ham Central as REPLACING voice ham -- it supplements it. And by allowing one to follow a number of conversations all at once, it is even superior to conventional ham contact. In addition, if you are speaking in a foreign language, you have time to look up words and phrases before you respond. Etc. etc. > It seems as though there may be a convergence of chat lines, formerly > relegated to the world of telephones, and ham radio, if Internet > telephony takes off. I agree. It would be a mistake for ham radio to remain in the world of traditional rigs and methods of interaction. The NET has already expanded the horizons of Ham radio, and promises to do so even more in the future. ------------------------------ From: pavlik@apap4.pap.univie.ac.at (Andreas Pavlik) Subject: Re: Country Codes Date: 18 May 95 10:57:57 GMT Organization: Vienna University Computer Center In article , Toby Nixon writes: > Is anyone else aware of similar bilateral or unilateral special > arrangements? In the 1960s the first countries, which could be dialled directly from Austria were Switzerland and Western Germany. For Germany you had to use 06+ city code including the "leading zero" and for Switzerland 05+0xx. Later it was called "country code" 060 and 050. A few years later Italy was assigned 040 and the northern part of Yugoslavia 030. The south of Yugoslavia was first reachable only via the operator, than by 00 + the usual country code (38 I think). The country code for Germany was changed to 49 after the unification of the former FRG and GDR telephone systems and since one or two years also Switzerland and Italy can be reached by dialing 00 39 and 00 41, but I am quite sure that 040 and 050 do still work. And the most strange thing I know is that for calls to Luxemburg we have to dial 00 432, i.e. to use our own country code. AFAK calls to Austria from all of the countries mentioned always had to be dialed by the international access code (00 in the most cases) + 43. Andreas Pavlik University of Vienna Vienna, Austria pavlik@pap.univie.ac.at ------------------------------ From: jsnelson@netaccess.on.ca (John Nelson) Subject: Re: Unusual RF Stories Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 19:11:39 Organization: Bell Canada > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The transmitters and antennas for WGN 720 AM > and WBBM 780 AM are just a short distance apart (like maybe a half mile) > out in Dupage County, part of the western suburbs of Chicago. Several years > ago late one evening I was DX'ing on my broadcast receiver ... Pat, did you know my uncle Phil Rand, W1DBM from Redding Ridge, Connecticut? Your reminicences are so poignant to me, having grown up with my Dad VE3BFG operating (I guess we call it surfing today) 80 meters at breakfast every day throughout the 1960's, with a a Heathkit of some kind pushing a kilowatt amp driving a final with 837's. I remember once when a mouse ventured through the final, and met his end with a zzap! while Dad was on the air -- all that was left was his four little legs spread-eagled on the chassis. Two meters was considered a new field then -- 432 MHz was like outer space. Ahhhh ... and I said I'd never grow up. Oh well, the Internet is teaching me that its never to late to have a happy childhood. John Nelson, Bell Canada Marketing %ANP Control Centre, F7, 66 Bay St. South, Hamilton, L8P 4R7 (905) Voice 575-4106, FAX 575-3770, Cell 520-5175, Pager 540-0416 jsnelson@post.bell.ca jsnelson@netaccess.on.ca [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I remember once a radio of mine getting cranky one day. When we opened it up, a pregnant cockroach (or maybe it was a water bug) with her egg sack was found in there, cooked to a crisp having wandered around by one of the capacitors. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 May 95 18:03:11 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Unusual RF Stories By the way, I am from close enough to get some Philadelphia radio. How old is that item about WCAU-AM transmission into that Roxborough toilet? WCAU-AM changed to WOGL-AM in 1990, so suddenly that listeners didn't find out about the change until they tried to get programs in the just-replaced format; Frank Rizzo, the late former mayor, had a "Frank Talk" program which was knocked off the air as part of this change; and he furiously said, in public, that the radio station had better pay off the rest of his contract. WOGL-AM changed again, this time to sports radio WGMP-AM, The Game. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Many listeners know that the first FM station in the United States was here in Chicago in 1941, when the Zenith Radio Corporation put station WEFM on the air with exclusively classical music so that people who were buying the (then new) style of radio with frequency modulation (FM) would have something to listen to. Otherwise no one would buy an FM radio since there were no stations 'like that' to listen to -- not in the early 1940's at least. The station was named after the president of Zenith at that time, a fellow named dward . cCormick. They stuck with the classical music format until 1975, and sold the station to Metromedia who had the intention of making it into an acid rock music station. Such a large number of people filed complaints with the FCC about the station planning to change its format that the FCC ordered them to *not* change it until after the matter had been reviewed. That process took two years, and for that period of time through early 1977 Metromedia found itself stuck with having to operate and maintain a classical music station. Finally they got permission to make the change in their format, but with strings attached: For one week prior to the change in format on an hourly basis, one week after the change in format on an hourly basis and then ten times per day for the second week of the new format they were required to play a pre-recorded 'disclaimer' message prepared by one of the former staff announcers. As best as I can recall it, the announcement went like this: "On the Federal Communications Commission granted permission to WEFM to change its programming format from classical music to other styles of music. That change in format is imminent, and for continued enjoyment of classical music programming may we suggest that you tune on your dial to WFMT at 98.7 FM or WNIB at 97.1 FM. The Commission requires that we make this announcement over the air on a frequent basis over a period of time prior to and following the format change." There then followed something about the address of the station and the name of its new manager, along with the address of the FCC for persons who wished to write and complain. Even once the new format was started (the 'old' WEFM signed off the air on Sunday night at midnight after playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the 'new' station signed on the air at noon on Monday with rock music) they kept on playing that pre-recorded disclaimer message for another two weeks inviting people to tune to one of the two classical music stations if they wished to do so. WBBM 780-AM was also heavily into classical music with several hours of it daily interspersed with the network programming they got from CBS including the daytime soap operas, etc. From about 10 pm until 5 am however, it was all classical except for Sunday night when they went off the air at midnight. They switched to 'news radio' sometime in the late 1960's. WLS 890-AM was the Prairie Farmer Station for 35 years with country and western music, market reports and news for farmers, and the daily feed at one point from the Mutual Network and at other times from the American Broadcasting Company. Sunday from 5 AM through midnight (when they signed off like all the other stations) it was a steady diet of religion, with one preacher brokering time after another. Every religion under the sun, all in 15 or 30 minute segments. Billy Graham, Carl McIntyre, Oral Roberts ... all of them one after another in an endless litany that went on for 17 hours, one reel of tape after another. They had that Catholic priest -- Father McLaughlin -- who was the extreme right-wing guy of the era preaching about the 'anarchists' and the Communists. The Christian Science lesson for the week; they did not miss anyone's religion. L. Ron Hubbard with his Scientology program; still another who called his thing 'religious science'. Aimee Semple McPherson was on WLS every Sunday in the 1930's as was Mrs. Ballard with her religion called 'I AM'. They were still running her tapes clear into the early 1960's. When Sears, Roebuck sold WLS the new owners wanted to go with the rock and roll music of the late 1950's and early 1960's. They went to the rock music format dumping all the farmers and the country and western and hillbilly music out. But they had a problem: the preachers all had contracts for varying lengths of time. Most of them moaned and groaned because they hated losing a fifty thousand watter like WLS but the price was right so they passed the collection plate one final time to the new owners of the station and went away. Once the new format kicked in, the preachers were phased out over about the next three or four weeks. All except one: For how many ever years, the 11 am to noon spot on Sunday belonged to a fellow named Preston Bradley, whose church services were carried live from People's Church on Lawrence and Sheridan Avenues in Chicago. He would not sell out on the contract which still had three years or so to go. It was not a religious or moral or ethical thing with him; he just had lots of money and didn't need the largesse that WLS offered all the other preachers to get off the air. At times very pompous; and always a very liberal, quite intellectual type, Bradley had started his church fifty years earlier and planned to run it until he died. It wasn't any specific religion, maybe sort of Unitarian. Bradley told WLS to kiss off, he wanted the three years he had left on his contract, after which point he was going to retire anyway. So for three years into the new rock music format at WLS, every Sunday at 10:58 am the music would stop and the announcer would say something like, "its time for Doctor Bradley's Church ... now listen up! We'll be back with the Top Ten hits right at noon. As for me, I'll be across the street at Walgreen's having breakfast, but don't you touch that dial! I wanna see you all here at noon when I get back." And *exactly* at 12:00 they'd cut him off the air and start the music again. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #248 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa17132; 20 May 95 12:53 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id HAA01870 for telecomlist-outbound; Sat, 20 May 1995 07:50:17 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id HAA01861; Sat, 20 May 1995 07:50:13 -0500 Date: Sat, 20 May 1995 07:50:13 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505201250.HAA01861@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #249 TELECOM Digest Sat, 20 May 95 07:50:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 249 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Meeting the Challenge (John Higdon) What's Wrong With Telecom Books? (Tom Farley) April 1995 NPA/NXX report (David Esan) Book Review: Complete Idiot's Guide to Usenet Newsgroups (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 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 12:41:17 -0700 From: John Higdon Subject: Meeting the Challenge The following remarks concern the history, practices, and policies of Pacific Bell and do not necessarily reflect any aspect of any of the other RBOCs. However, I suspect that there may be aspects of these observations that do apply in one way or another. Much has been said lately concerning the ability and desire of telcos to "meet the challenge" of competition. As we forge ahead into uncharted waters, no one can say with certainty where the road is going, or where the potholes are located. But we do have some history, at least as far a Pac*Bell is concerned, of attempts at competition. What we see is not encouraging. When 976 was looming on the horizon, Pacific Bell (it was actually Pacific Telephone at that point, but for simplicity I will refer to the company by its present name throughout) launched a "chat line service" that was statewide in scope. There was a moderator, and for some amount of money per minute, one could participate in some "G-rated" discussion involving hot topics of the day. To save a lot of verbage -- the service was a flop. As telcos across the nation were rolling out 976 services to providers, Pac*Bell followed suit. However, the PB powers-that-be looked at all these potential competitors (to its failed chat line) and hedged its bets. Exercising its power as owner and controller of the network, yet hiding behind the PUC tariffs that the company itself wrote, Pac*Bell offered 976 services to information providers with incredible conditions attached. A provider had to place an incredible cash deposit with the written service installation order, usually several thousand dollars. The installation site had to have "excess facilities" which meant that any 976 lines had to be installed on pairs that would never conceivably be used for POTS. The site had to be located within some arbitrary perimeter of the specific 976-serving office. In addition to the installation restrictions, Pac*Bell had implemented 976 in a way that allowed unlimited access from out of state by any carrier and had no collection mechanism to seek remittance on those calls. As Pat has pointed out, a favorite pastime of out-of-staters was to call California 976 numbers for the price of a long-distance call. Pac*Bell's liberal forgiveness of IP charges to customers resulted in major re-charge percentages. Those recharges put many IPs out of business, since Pac*Bell not only re-charged IPs for the portion they would have otherwise netted from the telco, but socked them with Pac*Bell's portion as well. It was entirely possible to end up, not with a check at the end of the month, but with a huge bill for thousands of dollars. Pac*Bell's failed computer store business needs only a mention. Flashy store fronts and deep-pile carpet did not fly in selling computers. Pac*Bell's computer sales efforts were a flash in the pan. Enter voicemail. Noticing the success of voicemail service bureaus, Pac*Bell saw dollar signs and heard the sounds of cash registers. The telco contracted with a major voicemail concern and installed CO-based voicemail services. Of course, being The Telco, it could save a lot of money over its competitors by not having to pay for things like office space, service trunks, and it could offer features that could even be withheld from competitors such as stutter dial tone and other amenities. Even advertising could be charged off to the regulated ratepayers. But what happened? Many agreed with the Pac*Bell philosophy: "If the telco can do it cheaper and 'better', why not let them do it?" The problem is, "better" is a subjective word. As Pac*Bell jacked up its prices to competing voicemail providers for trunks and "feature interfaces", many of these businesses went out of business. These bureaus, before going under, were providing specialized services for doctors and other professional people that Pac*Bell had no intention of serving in any customised manner. Pac*Bell's product offerings were geared to the mass market and non-discriminating consumer. So where did that leave those with specialized requirements? I leave that as an exercise for the reader. Now we are entering the new horizon of Internet Service Providing. Pac*Bell is all set to get in there and compete. It has even concocted a list of "competition poster children" -- ISPs who will be reselling Pac*Bell's data transport services and providing Internet access in competition with Pac*Bell's own Internet access offerings. But what will be Pac*Bell's market? The backbone carriers, such as MCI and Sprint will ALWAYS be able to out-bid and out-perform for the major Internet user. They carry the Internet backbone and have interLATA facilities that far exceed anything Pac*Bell can muster. That leaves the smaller Internet user who may need "value-added" services such as DNS and web server space in addition to his packet feed. Does anyone think for one second that Pac*Bell has that kind of expertise at hand? No one is that stupid. And finally, we get to the "far out". Already, many analysts have concluded that Pac*Bell's model for "video-on-demand" is a blueprint for failure. People are already wearying of games, shopping services, and yes, even movies on cable. The provision for only a narrow reverse channel tells us that Pac*Bell is not really interested in putting people on the "information superhighway" but is rather setting up an audience of "eager consumers". I want frame relay, but Pac*Bell cannot give me that for lack of facilities. But after spending the last year tampling my rose bushes, it is apparently ready to give me home shopping. This fits right in with comments made recently by an Australian observer: transport is soon to become a commodity. The actual connection from point A to point B anywhere in the world will be nothing more than a low-cost triviality. Bandwidth will be readily available, and the obscene profits currently enjoyed by those carrying, for example, international traffic will have gone with the wind. Pac*Bell, to its credit among its stockholders, sees this vision. It wants to get into the program origination business. Problem is, it does not have any expertise in anything other than transport. And, more importantly, we the public have nowhere else to go for transport -- at least at the local level. Will Pac*Bell survive in the future? Who cares? Telcos are an endangered species that, in my opinion, should be regulated right up to the bitter end and then let die. If the stockholders want to pick up the pieces and start a competitive company, fine. But where is it written that the LECs, grand historical carryovers from a bygone era, must somehow be protected and preserved? Rather than "transition" into competition, LECs such as Pac*Bell should be swept away or massively resturctured when that becomes a viable marketplace alternative. Yes, I am aware that AT&T made the transition, but its position on the food chain was much different than the telcos, who have completely forgotten their roots and are leaving customers high and dry. Before and after divestiture, one could get long distance service from AT&T. However, I will probably be able to get frame relay from TCI (my cable company) before I can from Pac*Bell -- who now wants into the cable TV business! John Higdon | P.O. Box 7648 | +1 408 264 4115 | FAX: john@ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | +1 500 FOR-A-MOO | +1 408 264 4407 | http://www.ati.com/ati | ------------------------------ From: Tom Farley Subject: What's Wrong With Telecom Books? Date: Sat, 20 May 95 00:58:54 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) I just had a terrible time ordering from Telecom Books. Anyone know what's going on over there? 1. Last month I ordered a book from Telecom Books, the book publishing and selling division of _Computer Telephony_, _Teleconnect_ , _Call Center_ and _Imaging_. They say that they will ship in 24 hours. 2. A week goes by. No book. Ten days. No book. I call them and they seem confused. Yes, it's in our inventory but it is not in stock. Maybe it's at the printer awaiting a reprint. The order is canceled. 3. I call up Harry Newton a little later to tell him that he ought to have CTI for his call center. After all, that's what all of his magazines are about. He agrees and promises that he will call me back. Maybe he can hunt up an office copy. Great, I think. I email him a memo of what we talked about and I faxed in the same memo. (I'm a '90's kind of guy) 4. Another week goes by. No call. Oh, well. Time to forget about it. 5. The next day I get billed for the book. 6. I call Harry but he won't take my call. He's under deadline. (As if I'm not). His assistant takes my call. Promises to get back to me.Maybe she can find the office copy that Harry was going to look for. Can't understand how I got billed for a non-existent book.Seems confused but says that she will make sure that I am taken care of and that she will prove what a fine company they are. Great. I e-mail and fax memos to them again to make sure the bill is finally canceled. 7. No one calls or checks back. I fax again. Someone calls to tell me that they don't have a copy, they don't understand what has happened, that they don't know why Harry won't talk to me and that they are a great company.In talking with her, however, it is obvious that she has not seen any of my faxes or electronic mail. I propose a solution. Call the publisher. Overnight me me a photocopy of the book. It's only 87 pages. She tells me that she already did that and that the publisher doesn't have a copy! Even though it is supposed to be reprinted in three weeks! What lousy company service. They only call back under pressure if at all. They have none of the technology they write about. They show inventory if it is still in their catalog, regardless if they have it. And they bill for goods despite calls, faxes and e-mail. Is this common? It's my first order with them and I can't believe how low tech they are and what an attitude they have. Anyone else have this problem? They just did a mass mailing of 300,000 catalogs, so good luck everyone! Tom Farley -- private line ------------------------------ From: de@moscom.com (David Esan) Subject: April 1995 NPA/NXX report Date: 19 May 95 15:11:17 GMT Organization: Moscom Corporation, Pittsford NY This is my quarterly report on the number of exchanges in each NPA in the NANP. It is derived from information in FCC #10. This is article #16 in the series. FCC #10 is a tariff issued by BellCore that contains all the area codes, exchange combinations in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). It also contains lata information and V&H coordinate information. There is a lot of additional information that I don't use, so I won't add here. It is available through a number of sources. The one closest to the FCC is ITS, which can be contacted at 202-857-3800. My company compiles this information for use in its products and does not seem to be interested in selling this information. Queries are still flowing through the bureaucracy. I have used pages that are effective prior to April 20, 1995. I am not responsible for the information supplied in FCC #10. I have not included the following in my counts of exchanges: - NXX's that are not dialable by a standard user (ie nxx's that begin with a 1 or 0). - Mexican exchanges in the 52[1-9] series of area codes. I've got them, you can dial them with 011, but they're not really NPAs. - Exchanges that are non-dialable in the 88? series of area codes. I've got those also, but you can't dial them, so I'm not including them. Numbers that begin with 88 are nondialable stations in the US, Canada and Mexico. They are ranches in the middle of the Nevada or Texas desert, or isolated outpost of civilization (always wanted to use that phrase) in the tundra of Canada. I find place names like the Bar J Ranch, Double B Ranch, and JD Dye, Texas, Amargosa, Corncreek and Reese Valley, NV, and Chick Lake, Redknife and Taglu, NT. I gather they are ringdown stations, or radio-telephone stations. [It has been noted in c.d.t. that at least two of these numbers are for a bordello on the NV-CA border.] The fields are: ------------ rank last in January, 1995 213: 736 (1, 7) area code --^^^ ^^^ ^------- number of new exchanges |-------------- total number of exchanges 206: 778 ( 1, 3) 703: 699 ( 7, 20) 404: 681 (11, 13) 212: 657 (16, 4) 602: 775 ( 3, 22) 813: 690 ( 8, 17) 503: 678 (12, 12) 314: 653 (18, 14) 205: 769 ( 2, 5) 803: 685 (10, 16) 303: 676 ( 9, 5) 604: 652 (20, 29) 708: 753 ( 5, 23) 305: 685 (15, 32) 615: 674 (13, 14) 203: 642 (19, 12) 713: 727 ( 6, 8) 216: 685 (14, 28) 214: 669 (17, 16) 403: 638 (21, 16) 1. 206 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 2. 602 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 3. 205 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 4. 708 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 5. 713 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 6. 703 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 7. 813 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 8. 803 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 9. 305 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 10. 216 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 11. 404 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 12. 503 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 13. 303 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 14. 615 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 15. 214 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 17. 314 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 18. 604 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 19. 203 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. -> The NPA that is largest and is not splitting nor has plans, at this time, to split, is 212. -> The 6 smallest NPA's are: 413: 143 - Western Massachusetts (+6 exchange) 906: 117 - Michigan's Upper Peninsula (no change) 807: 109 - Western Ontario (+1 exchange) 413: 148 - Western Massachusetts (+5 exchange) 302: 148 - Delaware (+2 exchanges) 906: 117 - Michigan's Upper Peninsula (no change) 807: 109 - Western Ontario (no change) 630: 29 - Remnants of 708 proposed split 281: 23 - Beginning of 713 overlay -> The NPAs with the greatest growth rates are: NPA % growth 905 7.50 613 6.75 519 6.64 917 5.46 909 5.08 305 4.90 312 4.72 604 4.65 301 4.57 508 4.46 -> The 10 NPAs with the least growth rates are: NPA % growth 507 .35 360 .34 306 .21 906 0 807 0 607 0 520 0 281 0 416 -3.16 (deletion of 905 nxxs) 215 -40.81 (deletion of 610 nxxs) -> There are 78 NPAs (52% of the total, and increase of 4%) that have exchanges that are in the x00 to x19 range. They are: 201 216 360 510 615 714 903 202 281 403 512 616 718 904 203 301 404 513 618 803 905 204 303 407 517 619 805 908 205 305 408 519 630 808 909 206 306 409 520 703 810 910 209 310 410 602 704 813 916 210 312 415 604 706 815 917 212 313 416 609 707 816 919 213 314 503 610 708 817 941 214 317 506 612 713 818 970 215 334 -> Just for grins: The most used NXX (not counting 555) is 754 used in 123 npas. The least used are: 311 used only in 212, and 959 used only in 808. I should note here that these are exchanges that are truly in use, not for special calling, but in general day to day use. All the NPAs and the number of nxx's in each are listed below: 201: 515 304: 358 406: 396 510: 404 613: 332 716: 448 819: 321 202: 312 305: 685 407: 514 512: 394 614: 484 717: 551 901: 280 203: 642 306: 459 408: 406 513: 524 615: 674 718: 514 902: 285 204: 362 307: 196 409: 340 514: 526 616: 428 719: 213 903: 303 205: 769 308: 220 410: 502 515: 464 617: 521 801: 423 904: 627 206: 778 309: 277 412: 487 516: 473 618: 368 802: 186 905: 358 207: 367 310: 612 413: 148 517: 364 619: 592 803: 685 906: 117 208: 339 312: 620 414: 545 518: 294 630: 29 804: 573 907: 423 209: 437 313: 425 415: 473 519: 401 701: 387 805: 377 908: 417 210: 509 314: 653 416: 428 520: 364 702: 355 806: 271 909: 351 212: 657 315: 289 417: 233 601: 476 703: 699 807: 109 910: 447 213: 419 316: 404 418: 373 602: 775 704: 434 808: 313 912: 392 214: 669 317: 536 419: 367 603: 263 705: 294 809: 576 913: 477 215: 435 318: 395 501: 605 604: 652 706: 267 810: 431 914: 414 216: 685 319: 361 502: 406 605: 379 707: 220 812: 303 915: 339 217: 397 334: 310 503: 678 606: 306 708: 753 813: 690 916: 515 218: 312 360: 291 504: 429 607: 183 709: 269 814: 286 917: 270 219: 419 401: 166 505: 367 608: 270 712: 297 815: 346 918: 332 281: 23 402: 458 506: 196 609: 348 713: 727 816: 547 919: 400 301: 434 403: 638 507: 284 610: 315 714: 469 817: 581 941: 300 302: 148 404: 681 508: 491 612: 631 715: 328 818: 511 970: 244 303: 676 405: 570 509: 281 --> David Esan de@moscom.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 14:28:04 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Usenet Newsgroups" BKCIGUSN.RVW 950330 "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Usenet Newsgroups", Paul McFedries, 1995, 1- 56761-592-9, U$16.99/C$23.95 %A Paul McFedries paulmcf@hookup.Net %C 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290 %D 1995 %G 1-56761-592-9 %I Alpha Books %O U$16.99/C$23.95 800-858-7674 75141.2102@compuserve.com %P 317 %S Complete Idiot's Guide ... %T "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Usenet Newsgroups" Usenet news is not, primarily, about technology, competing newsreaders or massive data transfers. Usenet news is about discussion. McFedries keeps this idea firmly in mind, and presents a very useful, helpful, and acceptable introduction to the topic and activity. Part one covers the basics and background concepts. Netiquette is covered early, while jargon is presented as necessary for the reader's understanding, without suggesting that it be used (Bravo!). Part two covers the mechanics of newsreaders, not only on host systems (trn, rn and tin) and client programs (Trumpet, AIR News, Netscape and Newswatcher), but also on Compuserve, America Online and Delphi. McFedries' guide to newsgroups, in part three, is more logically laid out than most, but I did note some gaping holes in the coverage. The level of the material is neither oversimplified to the point of inaccuracy, nor bogged down in technical depth. There are gaps in the information which could have been filled without upsetting this balance. (For example, only the University of Texas mail-to-news gateway is mentioned.) Overall, however, this is a valuable starting point. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKCIGUSN.RVW 950330. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca Research into rslade@cyberstore.ca User rslade@sfu.ca Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #249 ****************************** Received: from ns1.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03322; 22 May 95 17:54 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id IAA00531 for telecomlist-outbound; Mon, 22 May 1995 08:48:18 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id IAA00514; Mon, 22 May 1995 08:48:13 -0500 Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 08:48:13 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199505221348.IAA00514@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #250 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 May 95 08:48:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 250 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Bell Canada to File Pay-per-Local-Call Rates (Dave Leibold) Global Electronic Library Project via Internet (Dave Leibold) Imperial College Short Course on "Multimedia Data Compression" (W. Goodin) Book Review: "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Mosaic" by Kraynak (Rob Slade) Pac Bell Fixed it - and Fast! (Bob Yazz) T1.403 ESF and CRC-6 Usefulness (Jim Beasley) Execs Issue Declaration (Steve Geimann) Cellular-Cancer Suit Dismissed (Steve Geimann) Telephone Voice "Broadcast" Software? (Harold Hallikainen) Anyone Heard of LSI, Carrier or Resp Org? (Judith Oppenheimer) Flash! NYNEX WWWeb Site With Yellow Pages for NY; New England (J. Covert) Last Laugh! Mike and Terry's Lawnmower Service (stanford@algorhythms.com) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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: 500-677-1616 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. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. 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@superctl.tor250.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 22 May 95 01:09:36 -0500 Subject: Bell Canada to File Pay-per-Local-Call Rates Organization: Gateway: The Super Continental - North York, Canada [from Bell News, 15 May 95 - this is Bell Canada's version of events] Bell to file usage-based pricing for business local calling. Bell will move one step closer to a pay-as-you-use pricing structure for business local calling. On May 31, we will ask the CRTC to approve prices for this new structure, which would see business customers pay a reduced, flat monthly price to access the local network, plus per-minute usage charges, based on distance, for certain outgoing calls, starting July 1, 1997. Pay-per-use continues our move toward cost-based pricing. The need for price restructuring became clear following a September 1994 decision by the CRTC to introduce competition to the local calling environment. In April of this year, we filed a plan to restructure prices for *access* to the local network so that they will align more closely with costs. Pay-per-use will better reflect the costs of *usage* - that is, the number of calls customers actually make. Usage-sensitive pricing emphasizes fairness for business customers because they will only pay for the local calls they make. Customers who make many calls will pay more, while those who make fewer calls will pay less. The proposed pricing will not generate additional revenues for the company. Pay-per-use will also provide a platform for Bell's vision of local services, which would see customers enjoy greater choice and flexibility in the kinds of services they receive and the way they pay for them. Although usage pricing for business is the norm in many other countries, such as the U.S. and UK., it will represent a major change for our customers. As a result, it will be critical that Bell employees provide on-going support in responding to customer questions and concerns throughout the transition to usage pricing. "Employees in Sales, the Business Offices, and many other areas of the company will play a key role in the transition to this new way of pricing," says Raymond Provencher, director, Local Marketing. "We will have to work closely with our business customers, and provide them with the tools and solutions to manage the change." Look for in-depth coverage on this filing in upcoming issues of Bell News. ------- [sidebar] What business will NOT pay for: * incoming calls; * long distance calls; * calls made within customer's system; * calls to 911; * directory assistance (411); * Bell operator (0); * Bell repair (611); * relay services for the hearing impaired (711). What business will pay for: * all other outbound local calls. Fidonet : Dave Leibold 1:250/730 Internet: Dave.Leibold@superctl.tor250.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think they are making a big mistake by not requiring businesses to pay for calls to Directory Assistance. Many large businesses are big abusers of this service. There will usually be hundreds of copies of the telephone directory delivered to a large corp- oration each year, yet very few employees ever seem to have a copy at their desk; it is always easier to dial 411. Then also, businesses which rely on very accurate, up-to-date records of how to reach their customers such as credit services, banks, etc *never* use the paper directory, instead preferring the more accurate operator records. One reason all of us here in Ameritech territory have paid for Directory Assistance calls for many years now was because of the way businesses abused it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@superctl.tor250.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 22 May 95 00:59:02 -0500 Subject: Global Electronic Library project via Internet [from Bell News, 15 May 95 - this is Bell Canada's version of events] Global Electronic Library to include National Library historical collection on Internet. Historical materials from the National Library of Canada will be among the first to form part of the Global Electronic Library (GEL), an initiative by the Stentor Alliance to begin to make collections from the world's libraries available via cable and computer networks. Derek Burney, chairman of BCE's Bell Canada International, said members of the Stentor Alliance are participating in the international project aimed at ultimately bringing material from such institutions as the National Library of Canada, the U.S. Library of Congress, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, the Lenin State Library in Moscow and the British Library in London to classrooms and homes via cable TV and the Internet. "The Global Electronic Library is an undertaking that is breathtaking in scope with the capacity to empower citizen learners with a fund of knowledge beyond that imagined in the past," Mr Burney said. "It is a practical demonstration of the potential of the Information Highway to affect learning and knowledge." He announced a $450,000 gift by Bell and the other Stentor owner companies to the National Library of Canada which will permit it to expand access to Canadian publications through the digitalization of collections, in particular some of its pre-1900 historical content. By digitizing, the material can be distributed on the Internet as part of a global electronic library and by broadband co-axial cable to cable TV subscribers. Mr Burney spoke at a news conference which featured a live satellite demonstration of students in Nova Scotia and Virginia working on class projects with learning materials delivered to them via the Internet from the National Library of Canada and the U.S. Library of Congress. The move by Stentor members to fund the first step in the National Library's access and preservation program through digitization follows initiatives by Jones Education Networks in the U.S., a major education and communications company in which Bell Canada International has made an investment. Jones has acted as a catalyst for digitization of collections of the U.S. Library of Congress. Material from the Global Electronic Library (GEL) will reside on the Internet as part of the Jones Education Network's (JEN) World Wide Web "Home Page" and will be accessible to WWB [sic] browsers and Mind Extension University students beginning today. The Mind Extension University is a specialty channel that reaches 26 million households with degree programs from 30 universities. The Internet address for the Global Electronic Library is http://www.meu.edu. Fidonet : Dave Leibold 1:250/730 Internet: Dave.Leibold@superctl.tor250.org ------------------------------ From: BGOODIN@UNEX.UCLA.EDU (William R. Goodin) Subject: Imperial College Short Course on "Multimedia Data Compression" Date: Sun, 21 May 1995 15:02:07 Organization: UCLA Extension On June 28-30, 1995, Imperial College will present the short course, "Multimedia Data Compression", on the campus of Imperial College in South Kensington (central London). The course is jointly sponsored by UCLA Extension. The instructor is Jerry D. Gibson, PhD, J.W. Professor of Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, USA. Information technology is increasingly important to society; and the efficient digital representation or compression of data, speech, music, facsimile, still images, and video, both for storage and transmission, is playing a dominant role in current and developing communications systems. Examples include computer networks, PCs, workstations, video-on-demand, and other entertainment options. Understanding these compression standards, including the basic principles and algorithms, is essential to the development of new products and services in these diverse and developing fields. This course explains the fundamental principles and algorithms underlying these standards and describes in detail current and evolving multimedia compression standards. The course should help professionals to understand existing standards and products, evaluate future standards, and incorporatethese compression methods into their own applications. Specific topics include: What is data compression, entropy and lossless coding, scalar and vector quantization, predictive coding, speech coding standards, frequency domain coding, high quality speech and audio coding, standards and application in grey-scale image compression, standards and applications in video conferencing, standards and application in video compression. For additional information and a complete course description, please contact Sally Verkalk at: tel: +44 (01) 71 594 6882/6881 fax: +44 (0) 171 594 6883 email: cpd@ic.ac.uk ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 May 1995 17:37:21 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Mosaic" by Kraynak BKCIGMOS.RVW 950328 "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Mosaic", Joe Kraynak, 1995, 1-56761-588-0, U$16.99/C$23.95 %A Joe Kraynak jkraynak@alpha.mpc.com %C 201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46290 %D 1995 %G 1-56761-588-0 %I Alpha Books %O U$16.99/C$23.95 800-858-7674 75141.2102@compuserve.com %P 278 %S Complete Idiot's Guide ... %T "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Mosaic" Other than copping out on SLIP configuration, this is a very thorough, user level guide to Mosaic. (Come to think of it, SLIP configuration is *not* user level stuff, so the advice to rely on your provider is likely good enough.) Part one gives background information and a solid guide to what you need, and where to get it. There are separate chapters for installation on Windows and Mac, and a very useful chapter on error messages. Part two covers the operation of Mosaic, itself, while part three details the use of Mosaic as a front end to ftp, Gopher, telnet, Usenet news, WAIS, finger and whois. There are also chapters on the other World Wide Web browsers, plus the mandatory list of Web sites to visit. Well written, helpful and aimed at a good audience level. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKCIGMOS.RVW 950328. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. Vancouver ROBERTS@decus.ca | "A modern US Navy cruiser now requires Institute for Robert_Slade@sfu.ca | 26 tons of manuals. This is enough Research into rslade@cyberstore.ca| to affect the vessel's performance." User rslade@sfu.ca | "New Scientist" article Security Canada V7K 2G6 | on the "paperless office" ------------------------------ From: yazz@locus.com (Bob Yazz) Subject: Pac Bell Fixed it -- and Fast! Date: 22 May 1995 00:29:32 GMT Organization: Locus Computing Corporation, Inc. I'm pleased to be able to report that Pac Bell has lived up to "The Telephone Company's" longstanding tradition of serving the disabled. San Diego customers can once again pause momentarily while dialing -- up to 15 seconds when I checked -- without getting cut off by a recording that tells them to hang up and try again. The problem took under a week to correct. While I never had any doubt that this was a "bug" not an intended "feature", I was particularly pleased that Pac Bell reconfigured their switch right away, rather than waiting 6-18 months for a new BCS (DMS-100 switch software release) to come out. The timeout was always a telco-configurable parameter. I even got a call from someone at Pac Bell's "External Relations" department. I hadn't contacted them, nor the PUC, nor any higher- ups at Pac Bell, so I have to wonder if those folks read the TELECOM Digest! Anyway, credit where credit is due; thanks Pac Bell. Best wishes, Bob Yazz ------------------------------ From: jimb@wes.com (Jim Beasley) Subject: T1.403 ESF and CRC-6 Usefulness Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 05:26:45 GMT Organization: Whittaker Communications Reply-To: jimb@wes.com In looking at the overhead bits for and Extended Superframe T1 connection, there is a CRC-6 value transmitted over a 2Kbps subset of that overhead. Can someone tell me how that is used and what would happen if the CRC-6 were not calculated or transmitted? I would assume that Error Free Seconds might be detirmined from errors in the CRC-6, but I am wondering if any other use is made of it (or if that assumption is not correct). I am considering an encapsulation method for T1 data that would not allow me to send CRC-6 in a timely manner. This is why I need to know how useful or important it is to T1 users. Thanks for any replies, Jim Bealsey ------------------------------ From: Geimann@aol.com Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 07:06:21 GMT Subject: Execs Issue Declaration By STEVE GEIMANN Senior Editor, {Communications Daily} Leaders of 34 global companies Thurs. declared support for plans to open telecommunications markets, but urged govts. to accelerate building data networks and encourage participation of all nations. High-level meeting, held quietly at Mayflower Hotel in Washington, issued 13-page policy paper, including 6-point declaration of principles. Participants said meeting was "unprecedented" in developing consensus. "We call on governments to take urgent and coordinated action... to accelerate" development. Paper will be presented to heads of state at Halifax, Nova Scotia, meeting next month. Olivetti Chmn.-CEO Carlo De Benedetti of Italy convened meeting, which picked up where Group of 7 nations ministers ended meeting in Brussels Feb. 24-26. Insiders said meeting would take longer than expected as delegates worked out language of action plan. "We all felt it was important that we did not provide governments with just air," source said. In hallway outside meeting, several delegates praised declaration and overview as "more than good" and predicted acceptance by heads of state. Participants were confident differences among companies, especially monopolies and competitive firms, would find "convergence" on key issues. Leaders recommended action to open all markets "not later than 1 Jan. 1998." They also sought interoperability standards and protection of privacy and intellectual rights. Document we obtained spelled out 8 principles that parallel conclusions of ministers' meeting in Feb. Business leaders recommended that ministers: (1) Conclude World Trade Organization (WTO)-General Agreement on Trade & Services (GATS) negotiations by April 1996, opening basic telecommunications services and infrastructures. (2) Agree to remove barriers to trade in telecommunications products and services, including foreign ownership restrictions and foreign access to markets by April 1996. (3) Remove trade, investment and technical barriers in information technology sector, including customs tariffs, export controls, government-mandated standards and "unnecessary conformity assessment requirements." (4) Identify and dismantle barriers based on content, ensuring access on "transparent and fair basis," while promoting diversity. Canal Plus and France Telecom fear removing such barriers "could endanger cultural diversity." (5) Define set of investment rules on multilateral basis. (6) Give institutions such as WTO and ITU responsibilities and resources to coordinate and speed up global network development. ------------------------------ From: Geimann@aol.com Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 07:06:22 GMT Subject: Cellular-Cancer Suit Dismissed By STEVE GEIMANN Senior Editor, {Communications Daily} A federal judge in Florida dismissed first lawsuit that sought to link cellular telephone use and cancer in death of Tampa woman, saying evidence failed to meet judicial tests for scientific evidence. Judge Ralph Nimmons, in ruling issued last Wednesday, said documents submitted by David Reynard hadn't been subject to peer review and in several cases contradicted claims made in lawsuit. "The court finds that there is no genuine issue of material fact with regard to the plaintiff's wrongful death claim," Nimmons wrote. He said Reynard didn't respond to company's motion to dismiss. Cellular Telecommunicaitons Industry Association President Thomas Wheeler, in news conference Thursday, hailed decision as "seminal." He said: "The scientific evidence presented was not credible science." He said industry-sponsored research, under Wireless Technology Research Group, will continue despite dismissal. Group this week awarded three contracts for research. At least four other cases are pending alleging link between phones and health problems. He said courts have joined with General Accounting Office and Food & Drug Administration in "finding no credible scientific evidence" of problems. In one case, in Cook County (Chicago), judge said evidence "didn't even come close" to linking cellular and cancer. Reynard filed suit in 1992 against GTE Mobilnet of Tampa, NEC and GTE, charging cellular radiation "irritated or accelerated" growth of brain tumor that led to death of his wife. Nimmons said: "The only medical evidence on causation submitted by the plaintiffs is the affidavit of Dr. [David] Perlmutter, which the court does not establish as a material issue of fact. There is no proffered evidence that the studies, analysis and conclusions of Dr. Perlmutter's affidavit have been subjected to the normal scientific scrutiny through peer review and publication. Additionally, the conclusions of the affidavit are not supported by any objective sources, such as a treatise or a published article in a reputable scientific journal." ------------------------------ From: hhallika@slonet.org (Harold Hallikainen) Subject: Telephone Voice "Broadcast" Software? Date: 22 May 1995 02:37:42 -0700 Organization: SLONET Regional Information Access Anyway, the school where I teach is interested in software that would do something similar to a fax broadcast, but it would be voice. They'd have a list of the students in a particular class and if the class were cancelled, the system could call each of them and let them know. It SEEMS like this could be an option on the school's phone system (I don't remember who made it), since it does have voice mail and all sorts of fancy features. But I'm wondering if there's some simple PC software that could also do it. I'm running SuperVoice 2 with a Maxtech voice/data/fax modem and am quite pleased with it. I spoke with the publisher of SuperVoice yesterday and they did not have any voice broadcast software. So, anything like this around? SuperVoice 2 with modem was about $70. It'd be real nice to find something in this price area. Thanks! Harold Hallikainen email hhallika@slonet.org Hallikainen & Friends www http://slonet.org/~hhallika/ 141 Suburban Road, Building E4 phone +1 805 541 0200 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 fax +1 805 541 0201 ------------------------------ From: producer@pipeline.com (Judith Oppenheimer) Subject: Anyone Heard of LSI, Carrier or Resp Org? Date: 15 May 1995 21:01:02 -0400 Organization: Interactive CallBrand(TM) I'm looking for a company called LSI - either a carrier, or resp org. Please respond to producer@pipeline.com with where/how to contact etc. Judith [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Judith, how about getting back to us soon with the most recent update on the Internatioal Freephone situation? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 May 95 00:06:42 EDT From: John R. Covert Subject: Flash! NYNEX WWWeb site with Yellow Pages for New York; New England FLASH!! http://www.vtcom.fr/nynex/ Is a WWWeb interface to the NYNEX Yellow Pages, with links from the business entries to their own web pages, when known. /john ------------------------------ From: stanford@algorhythms.com Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 00:33:58 -0400 Subject: Last Laugh! Mike and Terry's Lawnmower Service Attempting to get to the bottom of the matter, I called the PR department at Mitel this morning to find out if there is any truth to the widespread rumor that it was originally called "Mike and Terry's Lawnmower Service." The clerk there told me that this was absolutely false, and that supression of this damaging rumor was the primary job function of a whopping 7% of Mitel's mployees! She went on to say that other companies' names had far more colorful origins. For example, the WordPerfect corporation was originally called Satellite Software International. The name Microsoft was suggested by a woman the morning after one of Bill's less memorable attempted conquests. IBM was the name chosen by Tom Watson for his first business venture, a novelty suppository company whose products not only provided instant relief, but turned the stool deep blue, or Indigo. This venture went nowhere, but after his 12 year stint at NCR Watson reactivated the shell company under the same name. The rest is history. Tom Watson had a childhood nanny, and after he flew the nest she helped found a remarkable group of similarly retired nannies with nothing to do. They spent their afternoons drinking tea and doing tatting alone in their apartments, then they got together around 6:00pm for their retired nannies support group, which they somewhat appropriately called After Tea & Tatting. As it happened, Alexander Graham Bell's mother, Mary "Ma" Bell was also a member of this group. When he ran into business difficulties early in his attempts to popularize the telephone, AT&T came to the rescue. The nannies agreed to conduct all their support group meetings by telephone, running up enormous bills and saving the fledgling technology from oblivion. Thus AT&T was not only the first known support group and the first known women's group but also the very first use of teleconferencing and 'virtual meetings.' Two of this original group, Beryl and Beatrice returned to England before the war to found a Catering service, but that is another story. Another founding member of AT&T, Constance Wilkins, went into a shocking decline in the late '30's, and ended up living in Las Vegas, compulsively playing slot machines. Her preferred haunt was the first dry cleaner's in Vegas to feature slot machines, the Nice 'n Easy Cleaners. This was run by a Japanese guy, Fuji Morita, who fled back to Japan in 1940 to escape the concentration camps. He remembered Constance's stories about the big money to be made in telecommunciations. Again, the rest is history. But some say that NEC's bid to buy the MGM Grand is not 'diversification into entertainment,' but a case of corporate nostalgia, since the hotel occupies the site of the original Nice 'n Easy Cleaners. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Very clever! Some real cases of name choices though include MCI and Sprint. MCI, or Microwave Communications, Inc. did in fact get started as a small company in central Illinois where the owner was involved in the production and repair of microwave radio equipment. His name long since forgotten, he got involved in a partnership with Bill McGowan. The new partnership's original purpose was to provide private leased circuits to 'a few selected customers' of the firm between Chicago and St. Louis. This would have been about 1970. MCI's first public offering was 'Execunet', a service between about a dozen cities where one could call in to a local dialup in one of those commnities and then after entering an account code outdial to one of the other places in the relatively limited network. They also offered 'speed dial' service where one connected to the local dialup, then entered a pin and the network would automatically connect the call to a pre-detirmined number on a collect call basis; sort of like an 800-style number. I signed up for Execunet service in 1974 to see what it was like. In the case of Sprint, the company was originally the telecom department of the old Southern Pacific Railroad. Until about 1970, the railroad (and most other railroads for that matter) operated their own telecommunication links between their terminals by stringing wires on poles along the right of way where the tracks were laid. For emergency use by train crews were telephones every five miles or so along the tracks. The railroad wanted to upgrade its telecommunications facilities and it did so with a huge expansion in the early 1970's. The expansion was so large in fact that the railroad had lots of excess capacity on their network which they decided to sell to other companies. Eventually this was spun off into the outhern

acific ailroad nternal elecommunications Company, and that was eventually abbreviated simply as SPRINT. At some point or another, the upper-casing was dropped and now it is known as Sprint. MCI had been in business about a year or so when Sprint first started selling their services to businesses only, also with a limited network of about a dozen cities. Often times letter abbreviations simply take on a meaning of their own and the original phrase they represented is forgotten. Does anyone remember when ITT referred to 'International Telephone and Telegraph', or when GTE meant 'General Telephone and Electronics'? In the case of ITT at least, because of the many varied and diverse enterprises the company got involved in (baking bread as one example), the name was finally officially changed to simply the letters ITT. Likewise, GTE makes lightbulbs among other things, with telephones now being just a portion -- but a significant portion -- of their overall business. Fax machines were so named because of the Telephone Company's penchant for the use of the word 'exchange' on so many of their specialized services. The machines which would send pictures and words over a phone wire were part of the 'Facsimile Exchange', which eventually began gett- ing shortened to 'facs exchange'. At some point the word 'exchange' was dropped and the spelling was changed to agree with the way the letter abbreviation was being pronounced. This was not to be confused with FX service (Foreign Exchange) which involved bringing in phone service from a telephone office other than the one geographically closest to the subscriber. Likewise, 'Telex' and TWX were originally the 'telegraph exchange' and yperiter echange services. I do not know why the one got an 'ex' on the end and the other only an 'x'. Telex was Western Union's version of a public switched network for telegraph machines and TWX was the Bell System's version of the same thing. AT&T and WUTCO got in a big fight about 1960 with WUTCO claiming Bell had no right to be in the telegraph business. AT&T lost and had to divest themselves of the TWX business, but the name stayed with the equipment. So much, in fact, of the way things in telecom are named today is due to the way the old Bell System named them. The Bell System 'practices' had a name for everything, and most of those names and terms have continued on to this day, regardless of the companies now involved in the manufacture and sale of the equipment with the origin of the names many times lost in obscurity. And by the way, that was a very unkind comment about Bill Gates. I have no authoritative word on this, but I beleive the name came from the combination of micro-computers and software. My first introduction to the company was about 1977-78 when I had my Ohio Scientific C-1-P computer. It used Microsoft Basic (a very early version, full of bugs!) as did my Apple ][ computers, only they (the Apple people) repackaged the same thing under the name 'Applesoft Basic'. The Apple people started out in a garage in back of the owner's house, you may recall. About 1977 they had four or five employees and had to move to a small office to accomodate everyone and get the space they needed. Other abbreviations which have taken a life of their own? Anyone? And please do not suggest that in the year 2050 there will be a monolithic mega-national universal diversified corporation called TDI (only oldtimers will recall that used to mean TELECOM Digest) whose primary business is posting messages begging for money on the ten-billion site internet. If anyone says that, I will personally fly out to see you and accept your donation in person while presenting you with a free-will offering of my own. Smack! PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #250 ******************************