Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa08543; 22 Sep 95 23:13 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA09901 for telecomlist-outbound; Fri, 22 Sep 1995 15:51:41 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA09893; Fri, 22 Sep 1995 15:51:38 -0500 Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 15:51:38 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199509222051.PAA09893@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #401 TELECOM Digest Fri, 22 Sep 95 15:51:30 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 401 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Listen to Me on the Radio This Weekend (TELECOM Digest Editor) Microsoft to Speak at IOC '95 Conference (Tom Geldner) Re: FBI Arrests America Online Users (Clifton T. Sharp) Re: AOL and Expectations of Privacy (David B. Hultberg) Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number (Paul S. Sawyer) Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number (Jeff Bamford) Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number (Wes Leatherock) Re: 911 Access/Disconnected Phones (Greg Abbott) 911 Signalling (was Bell Canada Tests "Soft" Dial Tone) (Paul Cook) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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, 22 Sep 1995 15:11:54 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Listen to Me on the Radio This Weekend Fred Goldstein and myself will be guests on the Spectrum show Saturday night. We both hope you will be able to listen and call in with any questions you might have. Emmanuel Goldstein has been the host of this popular program since its inception a few years ago. The topic for the show this week is the recent breakup of AT&T into various separate and distinct parts. Here is how you can listen: On shortwave - WWCR Nashville, TN 5065 Kz On Satellite - Galaxy 6 Channel 14 with Audio at 7.56 wide band New York City - WCNJ 89.3 and/or 91.9 FM and, it may be on other stations in your vicinity. The show is on 10-11 pm Eastern time. Our European readers will need to get up early Sunday morning I guess! Please try and tune in; Fred Goldstein and I will appreciate hearing your comments and questions. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: TGeldner@gnn.com Subject: Microsoft to Speak at IOC '95 Conference Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 12:00:44 GMT Organization: MFPA Microsoft Added to MFPA Integrated Office Conference '95 Featured Speaker List Presentation to focus on multifunction peripheral connectivity and Windows '95 SAN DIEGO, CA / September 20, 1995 - The Multifunction Peripheral Association (MFPA) today announced that Microsoft Corporation's Kurt Delbene, had been named as a featured presenter for the MFPA's upcoming Integrated Office Conference '95 (IOC '95), September 28 - 29 in Del Mar, CA. Delbene, Group Manager for Microsoft's Personal Systems Division, is scheduled to discuss multifunction peripheral (MFP) connectivity in relation to Windows '95. He will also be presenting Microsoft's Windows '95 Logical Modem Interface (LMI) technology. Targeted toward developers, manufacturers and marketers of printer, fax, scanner, copier and data communications technologies, IOC '95 is expected to draw some 200 senior engineers, researchers, managers and executives to the annual event. Raymond Lutz, MFPA Executive Chair, commented, "We are very pleased that Microsoft is Joining our outstanding list of speakers representing most of the multifunction development community's major players. The momentum and enthusiasm for IOC '95 is highly gratifying and we think it's safe to say that IOC '95 is now the singlemost significant MFP industry event going." For more information about IOC '95, contact the MFPA toll-free at 800-603-MFPA, via fax at 619-447-6872 or by mail at: MFPA, 1010 Old Chase Avenue, Suite B, El Cajon, CA 92020. Information is also available via Internet by sending an e-mail message to "mfpa-request@cognisys.com" with the subject "Send IOC 95 Info" or from the Worldwide Web at "http://www.cognisys.com". The registration fee for the IOC '95 is $595 for MFPA members and $695 for non-members. Admission includes access to all conference sessions including the keynote speech by Michael J. Miller, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of PC Magazine. Admission also includes continental breakfasts, a hosted luncheon, networking receptions, a "Del Mar-garita" party plus a complete conference binder. Audio transcriptions will be available for most conference sessions. Multiple attendee and other discounts are available. Qualified members of the press wishing to attend should contact Tom Geldner at 619-578-0096 or via fax at 619/578-0828. ------------------- The Multifunction Peripheral Association (MFPA) is a non-profit, industry association established for the promotion and development of multifunction computer peripheral devices and uniform standards for computer-based faxing, data transfer, scanning, printing and copying. MFPA member companies and sponsors of the MFPI / IS-650 standard include Brother International, Canon USA, Cognisys, Danka/Omnifax, Destiny Technology, Fujitsu, IBM, InfoNetwork, Konica Business Machines, Lanier Worldwide, Matsushita Electric, Minolta, Mita Copystar, Motorola, National Semiconductor, Oce Graphics, Peerless Systems, QMS, Ricoh, Rockwell International, Sharp, Torrey Pines Research, Toshiba, Wordcraft International, Xerox and Xionics Document Technologies. Raymond Lutz, MFPA Executive Chairman, is Director of Rearch and Development for Cognisys, Inc., a national contract engineering firm and multifunction product developer. MEDIA CONTACT: Tom Geldner Geldner Associates Bus: (619) 578-1076 Fax: (619) 578-0828 Hm: (619) 578-0096 Internet: 72650.1142@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: clifto@indep1.chi.il.us (Clifton T. Sharp) Subject: Re: FBI Arrests America Online Users Organization: as little as possible Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 17:03:35 GMT In article PAT writes: > Ward Christianson and Randy Suess started the whole concept in 1979 Christensen. > By 1985 or so we were seeing more and more BBS's change to 'read > only access until authenticated' as a result of the increasing vandalism > and harrassment so many suffered. Actually earlier. Seems to me it was around 1982 or 1983 when it started. I recall at that time that I had been "locked out" of one BBS when this started, even though I had been a long-time user (since nearly the time the BBS was started); I was rather miffed, as his logon screen told a story about vandalism etc. being the reason, and I felt that the implication was that I couldn't be trusted after all that time. Another BBS grandfathered all its long-time users, which seemed more reasonable. I didn't mind later giving my address, phone, etc. to the sysop of the latter BBS because of the implicit trust. > New users would often complain, "well I don't know > who this person (the sysop) is; I am not going to give out my name, > phone number and address to a stranger", and my answer always was, but > you expect me to be willing to allow a total stranger to use my > computer and visit electronically with me in my living room ... Well, sorta. With two or three notable exceptions since the early 80's, I've chosen not to use the BBSes unless I knew the sysop (at least by reputation). I don't expect "you" to let me use "your" system at all (is that too reasonable? :-); I just expect not to have to give personal information to a total stranger, even if that means I can't use the total-stranger BBS. > I'd like to see Caller-ID become a routine > thing on all incoming modem lines and no postings allowed Two problems with CNID. One, I don't always call in from my home number, but sometimes from client sites; this requires the sysop to constantly update my records by adding and deleting numbers. Two, a call redirector could cause numerous problems (for a short time) for hundreds of BBSes who relied on CNID alone. > And for those privacy freaks who would complain about their freedom > of speech being chilled and how abused they will become when their > phone and address are on file with the admin, I would respond "thank > you for your gratuitous insults regarding my integrity. Find some > other sucker willing to provide you with a free public toilet." End > of sermon. PAT] Only the abusers of free speech would assert that free speech implies anonymity. Indeed, the whole concept of constitutional protection of same implies that it protects one's ability to safely attach his name to his speech, without repercussions from government; constitutional protection wouldn't be needed if "free speech" meant, or even included, anonymous guerilla attacks. Cliff Sharp WA9PDM clifto@indep1.chi.il.us [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Tell me this Cliff; did you back then ever dream we would be as advanced as we are today in this concept? I am reminded of a message I posted on the Rogers Park Apple BBS (remember that one, at 312-761-ABBS?) sometime around 1982 saying I did not see any need for a 1200 baud modem; that 300 was as fast as I could read text as it scrolled across the screen anyway. When I hooked up my very first modem (a Hayes modem on a card that went in a slot of the Apple ][+) back in 1979, I never would have concieved of things being as they are today. Oh, I also had a Heathkit terminal (actually, they were the Zenith Z-19 terminals, but when you built them from a Heathkit package as I did they were called H-19) with a Hayes 300 baud SmartModem. I was the wonder of my neighborhood. Who would have dreamed it would gotten to where it is today? Regards the use of Caller ID on incoming BBS lines, I would never use it as the sole authenticator. I would use it for advisory purposes only. In other words, all calls are welcome, but I would like to be able to show on my opening banner 'you are calling from xxx-xxxx, and this is being noted in our records.' That would usually do the job I needed it to do. I sure wish we had Caller ID back then ... oh, do I!! PAT] ------------------------------ From: news@news.fmso.navy.mil Subject: Re: AOL and Expectations of Privacy Date: Fri, 22 Sep 95 13:29:03 GMT Organization: C&D Railroad Last week I attended a Network Security Workshop sponsored by a Navy activity. Most of the presentations concerned hardware and software means of keeping systems secure from hackers and other evildoers. One presentation germaine to this thread was presented by a Navy lawyer. The 4th Amendment to the Constitution and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act provide protections against monitoring of private communications but they are not absolute. The 4th Amendment says "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause ..." This sounds good, but the JAG lawyer went on to point out the following exceptions to the amendment: * Consent. If the AOL TOS that you agreed to says that they may monitor your communications and that by signing the TOS you agree to such monitoring, then you are out of luck. * Reasonable Expectation of Privacy. If you don't have a reasonable expection of privacy, then you can't object to being monitored. DOD and many BBS sysops use this exception by displaying a warning banner everytime you logon to the system. * Judicial Warrant The ECPA, the law that allows the cellular phone industry to claim that cell phone calls are private, also has exceptions built into it. * Judicial warrant * 18 usc SECTION 2511(2)(A)(I). SYSOP may monitor "in the normal course of his employment while engaged in any activity which is a necessary incident to the rendition of his service or the protection of the rights or property of the provider". The interpretation given to the above extract from 18USC2511 is that SYSOPs have a wide latitude in administratively monitoring the activity on their systems. It could extend as far as running a keystroke monitor on one of my users to determine what he/she was doing that was causing unusually high consumption of system resources or repeatedly trying to access areas that they weren't supposed to. However, the lawyer emphasized that everything the sysop did should be in a defensive mode. Once a sysop determines that illegal activity may be taking place, he or she should immediately cease any monitoring and notify law enforcement personnel. SYSOPs duties do not include gathering evidence. David B. Hultberg, Director david_b_hultberg@nslc.fmso.navy.mil Information Resources Management dave.hultberg@paonline.com Naval Sea Logistics Center http://www.nslc.fmso.navy.mil P.O. Box 2060 (717) 790-4507 or DSN 430-4507 Mechanicsburg, PA 17055-0795 (717) 790-2915 or DSN 430-2915(FAX) ------------------------------ From: PAUL_SAWYER@unh.edu (Paul S. Sawyer) Subject: Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number Date: 22 Sep 1995 16:57:34 GMT Organization: University of New Hampshire - Durham, NH In article Martin McCormick writes: > What happened was something that dates back to the 1840's. > The spring-wound mechanism was probably much like that of a music box. > As the spring unwound, a wheel with notches cut in to it rotated past > a switch. The notches were cut so that a code was sent via telegraph > wires to the central fire station. The mechanism probably had a > governor of some kind to make sure that the speed was fairly constant > as the spring unwound. Yes, and setting the timing in each box was an art in itself. Different code wheels had to be set so that the time between strokes was constant, therefore the RPM of the wheel varied greatly from box to box. > I have never been to Boston, but their fire department used > radio frequencies that sometimes propagate in to Oklahoma. I noticed > that they had their street boxes tied directly in to the radio system > so that when somebody pulled a box, one would hear a long tone to get > everyone's attention followed by the box number pulsed out much like a > very slow rotary dial telephone. I seem to remember that the beeps > were about three or four per second so a person could easily count > them to determine the number. This would have been on 33.74 MHz, back when all the fire dispatching for the city fit on one channel! Actually, the dispatcher relayed all the boxes, sometimes using judgment when many boxes came in for a big fire, etc.; the street boxes (on a "box circuit") come in as three or four "rounds" (repetitions), and the dispatcher pulled a card for the box number, set the number on an alarm transmitter, pushed an alert tone button, then started the transmitter which would transmit only two rounds (on "alarm circuits") to the station bells and the radio tones. A second (third, fourth, ...) alarm was indicated by a "2" ("3", "4", ...) then the box number; all out was "2-2; 2-2" then the box number, so monitoring this one channel at the time gave a pretty good idea of eveything going on in the BFD! > After a couple of repeats, the human dispatcher would confirm the box > number and make sure that the correct engines were heading for the fire. After he had read the file card for the box. > The alarm boxes vanished from streets in Tulsa and Oklahoma > City as well as many other places as soon as 911 became the method of > choice to report emergencies. [...] Which is sad, because even if the phones are in place, it was nice to have had the separate, dedicated alarm systems as backup. Paul S. Sawyer Paul.Sawyer@UNH.edu UNH Telecommunications Voice: +1 603 862 3262 50 College Road FAX: +1 603 862 4545 Durham, New Hampshire 03824-3523 ------------------------------ From: jeffb@audiolab.uwaterloo.ca (Jeff Bamford) Subject: Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number Organization: Audio Research Group, University of Waterloo Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 14:39:11 -0400 In article , Mark Brader wrote: >> 911 is put on the front page whereas the seven-digit numbers >> are relegated to alphabetical listings in the middle ... > The emergencies pages at the front used to show 911 (and before that > 361-1111 and before that EM1-1111) for emergencies, all right. But > right below that, in smaller print, they used to give the regular police > number (324-2222, and before that 967-2222). Seems eminently sensible > to me. Anyone know why Bell decided to change it? It's not as if a > call to 324-2222 couldn't be transferred to the dispatchers at 911. Maybe it depends upon the region. In Hamilton-Wentworth (a mere 45 minutes from Toronto) we have all the emergency numbers on the back side of the front cover. Most of them are just 911, but there are a couple of seven digit numbers for one exchange in Niagara region (905-662). Page 1 of the directory lists on the special services numbers (Distress, assualt etc. i.e. social services). Page 2 of the directory has a map of the area with the Police stations marked, each with their own number for rececption & crime stoppers. Across the top of the page is the non-emergency number for the region. Out of all the Bell Canada directories that I've seen this is the best. It has Postal Codes for the region, maps of Hamilton and Burlington. A short tourist guide (lists events for the year) is also included, as well as numbers for the rec. centres, social services, auditoriums - arenas etc. This is all included in the middle between the blue and yellow pages. (As mentioned before, the blue pages are government listings -- these need more work though!) Jeff Bamford Email - jeffb@uwaterloo.ca -- NeXT Mail welcome Office/Lab: +1 519 885 1211 x3814 Fax: +1 519 746 8115 WEB Page: A.R.G. Home Page ------------------------------ From: wes.leatherock@hotelcal.com (Wes Leatherock) Subject: Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 13:43:00 GMT Martin McCormick wrote: > The alarm boxes vanished from streets in Tulsa and Oklahoma > City as well as many other places as soon as 911 became the method of > choice to report emergencies. I also remember that many of the street > boxes had a glass window that one had to break with an attached hammer > to activate the alarm. This always seemed dumb and dangerous to me, > but I am sure there was a good reason for it. I did a story about the fire department dispatchers for {The Daily Oklahoman} in the 1950s, and even then fire alarm boxes were fairly rare. (Expensive, not used very often, especially subject to false alarms, the dispatchers said.) However, there was a theoretical fire alarm box number assigned to every address in the city, and when a fire call came in the dispatcher checked the street and number and the listing gave the fire alarm box number (whether theoretical or real) associated with that address. Then he checked his card file (on 3x5 cards; this was before the days of much computer use) for that fire alarm box number and the card listed all the equipment to be dispatched on first, second and third alarms. Really worked quite well. Schools, hotels and similar buildings had unique box numbers, and were automatically responded to initially as a three-alarm fire. I believe the idea of the glass window and hammer was to reduce the number of false alarms; you had to do something more than just walk by and pull the lever. This was true in most cities I'm familiar with. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@hotelcal.com wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu wes.leatherock@f2001.n147.z1.fidonet.org ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 11:05:45 CST From: Greg Abbott Reply-To: gabbott@uiuc.edu Subject: Re: 911 Access/Disconnected Phones stemaat@aol.com (STemaat) writes: > This is very similar to sa service started in the Mississippi service > area of BellSOuth on July 31. All phone jacks now have the "soft" dial > tone -- with only two numbers allowed: 6-1-1 (customer service) and > 9-1-1 (emergency). > As a 9-1-1 dispatcher, I think it's a great thing -- we only have two > small problems with it: (1) the line shows up on the ALI (Automated > Location Indicator) as a business number, which can be misleading to > someone not familiar with an area, or in an area that's mixed > business/residential. (2) the number, although it displays for us, > cannot accept incoming calls. therefore we can't call back if > disconnected. Also, the caller, obviously, won't know the number. > I would prefer to see an indicator (such as NOPR for Non-operative), > in place of the BUSN (Business) designation for these numbers. We > should also have some sort of Operator-override available (as I > believe we should on pay phones that don't accept incoming calls). By > this, I mean we could call the "0" operator, identify ourselves, and > have the operator ring the number back on disconnect. (This is the > same procedure we use for emergency traces when people call on an > administrative line and can't tell us where they are, and their > condition is too bad to trust that they can reconnect through 9-1-1 -- > a process which can take up to ten minutes if they don't know the > number they're at.) Despite the fact that some people may use this method (get a phone, let it be disconnected) to get 9-1-1 access from their homes without paying for it, I think it's a good idea. There are times when people simply forget to pay their bill or misplace it, etc. and if their service is shut off, they should still be able to access emergency services. I think that Bell Canada is on the right track with their two month limit for the continuation of this "free" service. This way, people are not getting something they have no intention of paying for. Now before everyone jumps on me about how people have a right to access 9-1-1, let me just say that unlike some communities, the 9-1-1 system here (and in most places in Illinois) is funded entirely through a surcharge on each telephone line. We do not receive tax-payer dollars from any other source for the 9-1-1 network portion of the service. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The problem is, even the operator cannot > ringback to lines which are one-way outgoing only service *unless she > had the call up to start with and has not released it*. Just 'cold > dialing' by the operator into a one-way outgoing line will get her the > same results it gets you: an intercept saying it cannot be reached. Now > if she got the call to start with and has not yet released it, then she > can ring back on the line. What 911 needs obviously is the ability to > hold up a trunk on an incoming call and only release it when they get > ready to do so. PAT] Basic Type III 9-1-1 provides for call trap which allows the 9-1-1 center to hold the call up for as long as they want to. With Enhanced, however, this ability goes away due to the increased computer switching (selective routing) which is available to direct the calls. I am told that the current technology will not allow Enhanced calls to be held up for traces, etc. It sure was a great service in basic though, I don't know how many times I had domestic disturbance calls where one party is trying to hang up the phone on the other. I would start a trace and then just sit there on the line and hope that someone would pick up again. On most occasions the phone would be laid (or thrown) down on the first ring-back and you could hear some pretty nasty arguments, people being beaten, stuff broken, etc. You can not begin to imagine the stress of knowing someone is on the other end of the line who is in dire need of assistance and you have no idea where they are at and, like Scott said, the trace information won't be available for several minutes. Enhanced 9-1-1 is truly a lifesaver in these cases! 99999 11 11 GREG ABBOTT 9 9 1 1 INTERNET: GABBOTT@UIUC.EDU 9-1-1 COORDINATOR 99999 == 1 == 1 COMPUSERVE: 76046,3107 9 1 1 VOICE: 217/333-9889 METCAD 9 1 1 FAX: 217/384-7003 1905 E. MAIN ST. 9 111 111 PAGER: 800/222-6651 URBANA, IL 61801 PIN # 9541 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Sep 95 12:19 EST From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: 911 Signalling (was Bell Canada Tests "Soft" Dial Tone) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The problem is, even the operator cannot > ringback to lines which are one-way outgoing only service *unless she > had the call up to start with and has not released it*. Just 'cold dialing' > by the operator into a one-way outgoing line will get her the same results > it gets you: an intercept saying it cannot be reached. Now if she got the > call to start with and has not yet released it, then she can ring back > on the line. What 911 needs obviously is the ability to hold up a trunk > on an incoming call and only release it when they get ready to do so. PAT] Basic 9-1-1 service used to provide this sort of Called Party Control. The trunk was configured like a TSPS or CAMA trunk, going directly from the originating CO to the PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point). When the operator answered, the caller could not go away until the operator released the trunk. If the caller hung up, the operator could flash the trunk and cause the originating trunk to rering the calling party directly, without a new call being set up via the network. With the advent of E911, ALI and Selective Routing, this important feature went away. In most systems now the call goes via a 9-1-1 tandem switch which routes the call to an appropriate PSAP, losing the Called Party Control when it is switched through the tandem. When the operator wants to ring back the calling party, a ringback button will cause the 7 digit number that was grabbed from the ANI to be dialed back on a regular outgoing phone line with an autodialer. If the line is busy, the operator cannot get through. There are a few smaller communities that have both ANI and Called Party Control on 9-1-1 trunks. We make 9-1-1 systems here at Proctor, and some of our trunks are installed in COs in small communities where they ring directly into the PSAP. If the caller hangs up, the operator just does a hookflash, and our 9-1-1 trunk converts the flash to TSPS rering protocol that goes back to the switch. The caller cannot get away from the 9-1-1 operator just as they cannot get away from a persistent TSPS operator. We also now offer a 9-1-1 version of our telephone demonstrator, which is used by police and fire departments for training school children on using 9-1-1. Our demonstrator has that same re-ring feature that the older 9-1-1 systems had where a hookflash rerings the calling party. Paul Cook Proctor & Associates 206-881-7000 Redmond, WA 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #401 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa08714; 22 Sep 95 23:15 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA11059 for telecomlist-outbound; Fri, 22 Sep 1995 16:16:05 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA11044; Fri, 22 Sep 1995 16:16:00 -0500 Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 16:16:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199509222116.QAA11044@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #402 TELECOM Digest Fri, 22 Sep 95 16:15:30 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 402 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Beach House Payphone (Atri Indiresan) Re: Beach House Payphone (Steve Bunning) Fire Alarm Telegraphs (was Re: Dialing 911 Instead of 7-D) (Peter Laws) Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes (Paul S. Sawyer) Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes (Tony Harminc) Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes (S.J. Slavin) CFP For March 96 Conference on Telecom Systems (Bezalel Gavish) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: Re: Beach House Payphone Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 16:07:20 -0400 From: Atri Indiresan In TELECOM Digest V15 #398, collin@hpjsdivb.kobe.hp.com (Collin Park) said: > The second experience, which is second hand: a friend of mine > lives in a "company dorm" here in Japan. The telephone > "service" there is also very interesting. All phone calls go > thru Axxx telephone service, which charges more for > long-distance calls than NTT or KDD do. This is absolutely > astonishing. Anyway, use of the touch-pad after a call is > completed results in the call's being disconnected!! This > prevents use of some call-back services, as well as preventing > employees from using the company's voice-mail system. > Making use of a particular rip-off telecom carrier a condition ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > of rental is probably illegal in the US, but here in Japan I ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > believe it to be a not uncommon practice. The goverment's > official position seems to have nothing to do with consumer > welfare here, which as an American I find a little annoying. Not exactly. The FCC does allow large aggregators (hotels, universities, companies, prisons etc.) to set their own telephone policies and rates. While 10-XXX-0-NXX-XXXX dialing is available in general (and access to carriers via their 800 numbers or calling cards or to their operators), Dial-1 or 10-XXX-1 access can be restricted legally. This is not as bad as the situation you described, but not the best situation here for people like me who live on University property. You described the accomodation as a "company dorm". Perhaps private companies might have even greater latitude in restricting equal access? Does anyone know the exact legal status? PAT has often described telephone service in prisons which allows only ripoff COCOTs, and so, I guess equal access is not for everyone. Atri Indiresan ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 16:36:29 -0300 From: bunning@acec.com (Steve Bunning) Subject: Re: Beach House Payphone In my original posting on this subject, our Moderator commented: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Wouldn't it have been easier to just unplug > or bypass the dialer somehow? PAT] and collin@hpjsdivb.kobe.hp.com (Collin Park) added: > A fascinating idea. Is it a foregone conclusion that the dialer had to > be on the premises? In the rental house we used, there was a locked closet > for which we weren't given the key. Could that have been the location > of the mystery dialer? Maybe if we had cut off the main breaker, the > dialer would have automagically just become a straight-thru connect to > the local phone company? I wonder. > The second experience, which is second hand: a friend of mine lives > in a "company dorm" here in Japan. The telephone "service" there is > also very interesting. All phone calls go thru Axxx telephone service, > which charges more for long-distance calls than NTT or KDD do. This > is absolutely astonishing. Anyway, use of the touch-pad after a call > is completed results in the call's being disconnected!! This prevents > use of some call-back services, as well as preventing employees from > using the company's voice-mail system. The dialer used by the operator service provider in this beach house was installed in the locked "owners" portion of the house along with the circuit breakers. I did go out to the back of the house and checked the telco demarc. The demarc was the modern type with an RJ-11 jack that could be used to separate the inside wiring from the outside line. However, the person who installed the dialer bypassed the telco wiring to the RJ-11 jack and rewired the demarc so that the dialer connection was crimped _directly_ onto the incoming telco line. Kind of defeated the whole demarc idea, but made it more difficult to bypass the dialer. I also had an experience like the one mentioned above where a touch-pad caused a call disconnect. Again, I was at a beach house, but this time I was dialing a voice mailbox via an 800 number. The problem seemed to be that the mailbox system gave back a second dialtone which caused the beach house phone to disconnect the call. After much hair pulling, a lot of experimenting, and more than a little practice, I found I could beat the dialtone detect circuit in the phone by quickly hitting a digit on the phone key-pad just as the voice-mail system was giving back dial-tone. The voice-mail system would then remove the dialtone before the local phone could detect it. As the phone allowed free use of the key-pad as long as it didn't detect another dialtone, I was able to access my voice-mail. Steve Bunning | American Computer and Elec. Corp.| 301 258-9850 (voice) Product Manager | 209 Perry Parkway | 301 921-0434 (fax) TEL*COMM Division| Gaithersburg, MD USA 20877 | bunning@acec.com "Your real-time CDR experts." See us at TELECOM '95 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What business did the owner have locking up the circuit breakers where you could not get to them? What if you had blown a circuit somehow and had to get in there and reset it? What if there was some emergency and the power had to be turned off quickly for the entire house? In Illinois, owners are NOT permitted to refuse access (via locked closet or whatever) to the circuit breakers or the gas and water meters/cutoffs, etc.) PAT] ------------------------------ From: plaws@comp.uark.edu (Peter Laws) Subject: Fire Alarm Telegraphs (was Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police 7-D) Date: 22 Sep 1995 16:25:21 GMT Organization: University of Arkansas Martin McCormick writes: > What happened was something that dates back to the 1840's. > credits the city of Boston with having the first alarm box system in > the 1840's. April 29, 1852, actually. I know 'cause I happen to be wearing my Boston Fire Alarm tee-shirt today. :-) To the best of my knowledge, it still continues 'til this day. > that they had their street boxes tied directly in to the radio system > so that when somebody pulled a box, one would hear a long tone to get Actually, the alarms are recieved at the FAO and then retransmitted on the station circuits. That prevents pulls from adjacent boxes from going to the stations and gives the FA Operators some discretion over the level of response. I think this is a Class B fire alarm system, if I remember my NFPA studies correctly (I took the civil service test for Fire Alarm Operator in 1988 :-). A Class A system send the box directly to the stations. BFD stopped multicasting on 33.740 MHz in the late 80's, BTW. I'm trying to compile a list of cities that still use pull boxes (like most in Mass). Please reply privately. Peter Laws| Note: This .sig not Windows95(tm) compatible n5uwy@ka5bml.#nwar.ar.usa.noam |geek All original portions of this posting are Copyright 1995, Peter Laws ------------------------------ From: PAUL_SAWYER@unh.edu (Paul S. Sawyer) Subject: Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes Date: 22 Sep 1995 16:29:48 GMT Organization: University of New Hampshire - Durham, NH In article Tony Harminc writes: > Toronto lost its pole-mounted fire alarm boxes as recently as 1980, > as I remember. There are still a few poles with strips of red paint > around them to be found. One point that has perhaps not been made > clear is the reason these boxes had clockwork code senders in the > first place: they were all connected in parallel on the same wire. > (Well, there were subsets, of course, but typically all the boxes > that rang in one station were on one line.) Actually, they were in series! Some small towns had a wire that left the fire station in one direction, looped around town, and returned to the station from the other direction (called a "balloon loop"). If the boxes had been in parallel, there would have been no way to have supervised against a wire break in the system. The circuit had a nominal 100mA current flowing normally; an interruption was a "stroke" on a bell, paper punch, or other alarm indicator, and some small towns had the clockwork timed slow enough to operate an outside air horn directly. One stroke by itself indicated a circuit opening, to be tracked down and fixed immediately, although one open in such a system automatically reconfigured the circuit for ground return signalling. The boxes also sensed whether another box on the circuit was signalling, and would wait its turn politely so as not to interfere. > If each box had had a direct wire back to the station there would > have been no need for pulses and clockwork. A direct pair like this was used some places, but I think the 100mA telegraph loop was much more popular. > As I remember, the wires on the Toronto poles were very thick -- perhaps 10 gauge or thicker. These wires were strung on the municipally owned Hydro (electric power) poles and not on telephone poles. I have no idea what voltage was used. Much of the technology was taken from telegraphy, so 10 gauge single iron wire on glass insulators was used, later 10 gauge Copperweld, then paired C-rural 10/12/14 gauge, usually with a red vinyl coating. Underground and in cable, as small as 16 gauge may be used - since current is 0.1 Amp, the size is for mechanical reliability rather than electrical requirements. Voltage is whatever it would take to get 100 mA thru the loop, but usually under 120 VDC. Around here they share space on poles above all other communications (Tel, CATV) and below power. Older systems are typically on insulators on a short, white-painted crossarm, while the newer installations are the red C-wire on J hooks. Many of these systems are still in use, but many others have been driven out of existance by a combination of (perceived) high maintenance, increased municipal non-involvement ("privatization"), and sales pitches by "The Phone Company" that their services are everywhere, so the old boxes are no longer needed. Some time after a city gives up its own alarm box system, "TPC" decides to remove public phones, at least in the "worst" neighborhoods where the fire alarm boxes were needed most ... Oh, well ... Paul S. Sawyer Paul.Sawyer@UNH.edu UNH Telecommunications Voice: +1 603 862 3262 50 College Road FAX: +1 603 862 4545 Durham, New Hampshire 03824-3523 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I remember once as a child watching them fix one of those boxes which was broken. The repairman took a phone handset with alligator clips and hooked onto the wire and was chatting with someone at the other end which I thought at the time was quite funny. How can you talk over that box, I asked him. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Sep 95 15:37:04 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes Martin McCormick wrote: [Fire alarms boxes that pulsed out their location] > The alarm boxes vanished from streets in Tulsa and Oklahoma > City as well as many other places as soon as 911 became the method of > choice to report emergencies. I also remember that many of the street > boxes had a glass window that one had to break with an attached hammer > to activate the alarm. This always seemed dumb and dangerous to me, > but I am sure there was a good reason for it. Even today many fire alarm pull handles have a glass strip or other device that doesn't automatically reset itself. It's to ensure that misuse can be punished: there can be no excuses like "I was just looking at it to see how it worked, and I accidently set it off". You have to take a very positive action to give the alarm. It (the dangling handle and/or broken glass) also makes it obvious to the repair/inspection people that the unit has been set off and needs work. Toronto lost its pole-mounted fire alarm boxes as recently as 1980, as I remember. There are still a few poles with strips of red paint around them to be found. One point that has perhaps not been made clear is the reason these boxes had clockwork code senders in the first place: they were all connected in parallel on the same wire. (Well, there were subsets, of course, but typically all the boxes that rang in one station were on one line.) If each box had had a direct wire back to the station there would have been no need for pulses and clockwork. As I remember, the wires on the Toronto poles were very thick - perhaps 10 gauge or thicker. These wires were strung on the municipally owned Hydro (electric power) poles and not on telephone poles. I have no idea what voltage was used. Tony Harminc ------------------------------ From: sjslavin@aol.com (SJSlavin) Subject: Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes Date: 22 Sep 1995 04:43:55 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: sjslavin@aol.com (SJSlavin) As Tony covered -- the old boxes were 19th centurt paper tape coded signalling; usually over City lines but sometime telco pairs; maintenance intensive; had to be reset after each use; Current units are narrowband pulsed, or use cellular phones. (California just arrested two guys for stealing 220 cellular units and recoding the ID for L.D> calls). ------------------------------ From: fraser@ccl2.eng.ohio-state.edu Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 08:03:31 EDT Subject: CFP for Mar96 conference on telecom systems C A L L for P A P E R S 4th International Conference on Telecommunication Systems Modelling and Analysis March 21-24, 1996 Nashville, TN Sponsored by: Bell South Telecommunications INFORMS Technical Section on Telecommunications INFORMS College of Information Systems Owen Graduate School of Management The 4th International Conference on Telecommunication Systems - Modelling and Analysis will be held in Nashville, Tennessee on March 21-24, 1996. The conference location will be the Bell South Tower in downtown Nashville. The conference will build on the tradition of the earlier conferences with a few changes in format due to the new conference location. The general idea is to limit the number of participants, concentrate on a few topics, present new problems and problem areas, encouraging informal interaction and exchanges of ideas. The objective is to advance the state of the modelling and analysis in telecommunications by stimulating research activity on new and important problems. The conference will be divided into segments with each segment devoted to a specific topic. This will allow for little conflict between segments. All papers will be screened by the program committee to ensure the quality of presentations. A decentralized paper handling process will be used, the Program Committee has been divided along geographical areas with a separate Program Subcommittee assigned to each area. Abstracts and papers should be submitted directly to Program Committee Chair of the appropriate area. It is expected that this will expedite the paper review process. In response to suggestions made by last year's participants, social and cultural activities will be included in the 1996 agenda. Lead Speakers and Keynote speakers include: Leonard Kleinrock, "Nomadic Computing and its Implications for Network Support" Alan Konheim, "A Monitor for Controlling Peak and Average ATM Input Traffic" Bezalel Gavish, "Low Earth Orbit Satellite Based Communication Systems - Research Issues" The Chairmen of the geographic Program Committees are: Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia: Prof. Richard Harris Department of Communication and Electronic Engineering Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology GPO Box 2476V Tel: 61 3660 2457 Melbourne, 3001 FAX: 61 3660 1060 Australia Email: richard@catt.citri.edu.au Europe: Prof. Guy Pujolle Laboratoire PRiSM Universite de Versailles - Saint-Quentin 45, avenue des Etats-Unis Tel: 33 1 39 25 40 61 78 035 Versailles Cedex FAX: 33 1 39 25 40 57 France Email: guy.pujolle@prism.uvsq.fr North America: Prof. Andre Girard INRS-Telecommunications 16, place du Commerce Tel: 514-765-7832 Verdun, Quebec FAX: 514-765-8785 Canada H3E 1H6 Email: andre@inrs-telecom.uquebec.ca North East Asia: Prof. Yutaka Takahashi Department of Applied Mathematics and Physics Faculty of Engineering Kyoto University Tel: 81 757535493 Yoshida-Honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606 FAX: Japan Email: yutaka@kuamp.kyoto-u.ac.jp South and Central America: Dr. Ernesto Santibanez-Gonzalez School of Industrial Engineering Catholic University of Valparaiso Tel: 56 32 257331 Av. Brasil 2147 FAX: 56 32 214823 Chile Email: esantiba@aix1.ucv.cl and Prof. Henrique Pacca L. Luna Department of Computer Science Federal University of Minas Gerais Tel: 31270-901 Belo Horizonte - MG FAX: Brazil Email: pacca@dcc.ufmg.br Chairman of the Economics track: Prof. Jeffrey Mackie-Mason Department of Economics Tel: 313-764-7438 University of Michigan FAX: 313-763-9181 Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220 Email: jmm@umich.edu and Prof. William W. Sharkey All other geographic areas: Prof. Bezalel Gavish Owen Graduate School of Management Vanderbilt University Tel: 615-322-3659 401 21st Avenue South FAX: 615-343-7177 Nashville, TN 37203 Email: gavishb@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu Listed below are some of the potential segments: Configuration of ATM networks Internet and its impact on commerce Topological Design and Network Configuration Problems Design and Analysis of Local Access Networks and Outside Plant Problems Low Earth Orbit Satellite communication systems Cellular Systems and PCS Modelling and Configuration Time Dependent Expansion of Telecommunication Systems Designing Networks for Reliability and Availability Network Design Problems in Gigabit and Terabit Networks LAN, WAN Global Network Interconnection ATM, ISDN, BISDN Modeling and Analysis Issues Artificial Intelligence/Heuristics in Telecommunication Systems Quantitative Methods in Network Management Pricing and Economic Analysis of Telecommunications Impact of Telecommunications on Industrial Organization Performance Evaluation of Telecommunication Systems Distributed Computing and Distributed Data Bases Security and Privacy issues in Telecommunications Virtual reality, Multimedia and their impact The Program Committee is open to any ideas you might have regarding additional topics or format of the conference. The intention is to limit the number of parallel sessions to two. The conference is scheduled over a weekend so as to reduce teaching conflicts for academic participants, take advantage of weekend hotel and airfare rates and of the many events that take place in the downtown area. Due to the limit on the number of participants early registration is recommended. To ensure your participation, please use the following steps: 1. Send to the appropriate Program Committee Chair by October 1, 1995, a paper (preferable), or titles and abstracts for potential presentations to be considered for the conference. Sending more than one abstract is encouraged, enabling the Program Committee to have a wider choice in terms of assigning talks to segments. Use E-mail to expedite the submission of titles and abstracts. 2. Use the form at the end of this message to preregister for the conference. Let us also know if you would like to have a formal duty during the conference as: Session Chair, or Discussant. 3. You will be notified by December 1, 1995, which abstract/s has been selected for the conference. Detailed instructions on how to prepare camera ready copies will be sent to authors of accepted presentations. January 30, 1996, is the deadline for sending a final version of the paper. Participants will receive copies of the collection of papers to be presented. All papers submitted to the conference will be considered for publication in the "Telecommunication Systems" Journal. The Program Committee looks forward to receiving your feedback/ideas. Feel free to volunteer any help you can offer. If you have suggestions for Segment Leaders (i.e., individuals who will have a longer time to give an overview/state of the art talk on their segment subject) please E-mail them to Prof Gavish. Also, if there are individuals whose participation you view as important, please send their names and E-mail addresses to the Program Committee Chairman, or forward to them a copy of this message. I look forward to a very successful conference. Sincerely yours, Bezalel Gavish Cut Here Fourth International Conference on Telecommunication Systems Modelling and Analysis REGISTRATION FORM Date: __________________ Location: Nashville, TN Dates: March 21, 1996 (afternoon) to March 24, 1996 Name: ________________________________________ Title: __________________ Affiliation: __________________________________________________________________ Address: __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Phone: ____________________________ FAX: _______________________________ E-mail: __________________________________________________________________ Potential Title of Paper(s): __________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ I would like to Volunteer as Comments A Session Chair : Yes No ________________________________________________ A Discussant : Yes No ________________________________________________ Organize a Session: Yes No ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ REGISTRATION RATES and DEADLINES Last Applicable Participant Type Date Academic Industry ---------------- -------- -------- 1. Preregistration Until Dec. 1, 1996 $ 350 $ 450 2. Registration Until Feb. 1, 1996 $ 400 $ 500 3. Registration After Feb. 1, 1996 $ 450 $ 650 Mail your registration form and check to: Mrs. Dru Lundeng Owen Graduate School of Management Vanderbilt University 401 21st Avenue, South Nashville, TN 37203, USA The check should be addressed to: 4th Int'l. Telecomm Systems Conference Refund Policy: Half refund, for requests received by February 1, 1996. No refund after February 1, 1996. If you have any questions regarding the conference, please contact Dru Lundeng at 615-322-3694 or through E-mail at lundeng@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu. Bezalel Gavish Owen Graduate School of Management Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN, 37203 Bitnet: GAVISHB@VUCTRVAX Internet: GAVISHB@CTRVAX.VANDERBILT.EDU Tel: (615) 322-3659 Home: (615) 370-0813 FAX: (615) 343-7177 ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #402 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10859; 26 Sep 95 0:02 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id NAA23203 for telecomlist-outbound; Mon, 25 Sep 1995 13:34:29 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id NAA23192; Mon, 25 Sep 1995 13:34:26 -0500 Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 13:34:26 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199509251834.NAA23192@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #403 TELECOM Digest Mon, 25 Sep 95 13:34:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 403 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cell One/NY Fraud Control Problems, More ... (Doug Reuben) No Service in Boston for CO/Rhode Island Customers (Doug Reuben) Captive Tele-Consumers (Jim Cantrell) Book Review: How To Access The Federal Government on Internet (Rob Slade) UUNet Drops Access Via Compuserve, Leaves UUCP Customers Hanging (A Boritz) Need Assistance Doing ISP Traffic Analysis (Martin J. Slover) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: dreuben@interpage.net (Doug Reuben) Subject: Cell One/NY Fraud Control Problems, More ... Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 02:58:07 EDT Recently, Cell One/NY (00025) announced mandatory use of the *560/*56 Fraud Protection Feature. This feature forces customers to enter *560+PIN (4 digits) after their phone has been off for approximately 25 minutes. By doing so, it is felt that cloning will be reduced as it will be harder to place calls if the cloner does not know the PIN. (Solution: KEEP THE PHONE ON! - If a cloner keeps the phone on, then the fraud protection feature is defeated, as it never 'kicks in'). Despite this obvious flaw, the McCaw/Cell One (now using the silly and hard-to-say "AT&T Wireless" name just so AT&T can be like Sprint) fraud protection feature is vastly superior to the "B" side fraud protection implementation in the Northeast, as on the B side: (a) a PIN code is required for EVERY call, (b) if a number is busy you can NOT hit "END" and then "SEND" to re-dial, since entering the PIN code erases the destination number, (c) you waste extra airtime (which NYNEX actually CHARGED for a few months ago ... they say they have corrected this now ...), (d) and you can't use a cellular modem or a Cellular -> RJ-11 adaptor (HINT: To get them to remove the PIN feature from SNET, NYNEX, or BAMS (B) accounts, just call and firmly state that you signed up so that you could use your cellular modem, and that you expect to be able to do so, BOTH in your home system and while roaming. Don't let them tell you any nonsense about calling your modem manufacturer, just demand (calmly :) ) that it be removed. They will comply, and if they don't, tell them you will immediately cancel your service contract with them and NOT pay a dime in penalty fees, and that you want your monthly "in advance" service fee returned to you.) Anyhow, when Cell One/NY initially offered the Fraud Protection feature to its customers last year, I reported a series of problems with the feature that made it impractical. For example, if you roamed out of NY with the feature "on" (ie, outgoing calls were denied), you would not be able to change call-forwarding on turn call-delivery on or off from visited (roaming) markets, such as Connecticut's and (then) ComCast's EMX-based systems. In other Ericsson based markets, such as Albany and Cantel's eastern Canadian systems, calls were blocked at all times, and in many cases incoming calls would also fail. In all, the system was so unreliable and useless that I had them take it off my phone. It seems that they've made a number of improvements, and that it is now a generally useful and unobtrusive system, except for one problem: In the US Cellular/Poughkeepsie (00503) system, (and perhaps in others), if the fraud protection feature is active (ie, no outgoing calls allowed), if the phone is registered (turned on) within the system, and a CO/NY roamer receives a call, it will be sent up to Poughkeepsie and simply fail. Not message, no fast-busy, just dead air. This is NOT the way the Fraud PF should work -- incoming calls are ALWAYS allowed (unless Do Not Disturb is active, but you should be able to turn Do Not Disturb *350/*35 on and off EVEN with Fraud Protection "on"). Currently, when in the US Cell 00503 system, a CO/NY customer can not receive calls with the feature on, and has no way to know to turn the feature on unless he/she tries to place a call and discovers that service is denied. I've called CO/NY about this, and they are looking into the problem, but so far, nothing has been resolved. I'd like to hear from other McCaw/AT&T customers who have had similar experiences in the instant as well as other markets, especially Canada. Other problems with CO/NY: 1. Most other markets do not have recordings to support the fraud protection feature. So when a CO/NY customer roams into a new market, and discovers that he/she can not place any calls (or receive them as in the case with Poughkeepsie), the recording the roamer receives is of no help, and the roamer has no idea why the calls keep failing. For example, in Poughkeepsie, there is no recording -- the cell site simply hangs up on the caller about 3 seconds after the channel is opened (like Cantel used to). In ComCast (NJ/DE/Philly), the recording states "If you are having trouble with your service feature, please call 611". 611, unfortunately, goes to a roaming operator when the Fraud Protection Feature is active! :( 2. Cell One/NY recently, and quite foolishly, commenced mandatory 1+ dialing for most calls, even in many cases for calls within their own service area. This has been explained to me as a "requirement" since AT&T now owns them, but unless this "requirement" is specific to AT&T-owned properties under the MFJ, I am not aware of any such MFJ, DOJ or other requirement on the Bell-owned carriers. Indeed, most of them do NOT require 1+ dialing in their markets, ever for roamers. The 1+ requirement wastes airtime, control channel overhead, and generally inconveniences customers no end. It is also not the slightest bit necessary (unless the Ericsson switch, which in order to provide for equal access, needs to have 1+ dialing. This still does not explain the requirement that roamers dial 1+ for "local" calls. If it is an Ericsson requirement, I think Ericsson may want to consider a software release to correct this). My cellphone is programmed with mainly 10-digit numbers. In some markets, 10-digit dialing is REQUIRED, and 11 digit will fail. I really don't want to have TWO sets of numbers in memory, one for CO/NY, the rest for eslewhere. This is a really frustrating requirement, and unless this is some scheme by AT&T to get people used to 1+ local dialing because they are dreaming of local equal access some day :), I'd suggest that CO/NY just get rid of it. (Note that NYNEX does not require it ...) 3. As a result on the 1+ requirement, you need to dial *71+1+AC+# to forward a call. However, in most other markets, you can hit *71+AC+# (no extra "1"), and the call will be processed and sent to NY's switch. What happens? When a caller calls your CO/NY number that has been forwarded, they get a recording "Your call can not be completed as dialed". You need to dial "*71-1-AC+#" from roaming markets as well to forward your calls properly. Another pain in the neck with is IMHO unecessary, and will lead to customer confusion. There are so few customers who use their features currently, in part because of the complications involved in roaming and previous frustrating experiences; this new problem makes it even less likely that they will ever want to use their features. 4. CO/NY customers who forwarded their calls in CT (in the Metro Mobile system, not in CO/NY's "country" system in Litchfield, CT, which they got after the local system failed to attract customers. Of course, they were charging 60 cents per minute for HOME customers in an area of CT populated mainly by cows...) were NOT able to unforward them, even though Metro Mobile reported the confirmation tones upon the roamer's request to unforward the call. This led the customer to think that he/she could receive calls, when in fact, they were still being forwarded. After contacting CO/NY, they seem to have swiftly addressed the issue, however, I'd be interested to hear if RI roamers in the ex-Metro Mobile system or Western Mass "A" side roamers continue to experience these problems. (Or am I the only one who drives there? :) ) 5. AT&T 500 service is STILL blocked in CO/NY's system, this after two weeks notification of the problem and a nice letter from AT&T saying "You may now use 0-500 dialing from your carphone..." Is it just me, or have things gotten a bit worse with AT&T 500 access AFTER AT&T managed to take over? Hmmm ... that should about do it for now. I'll post followups as progress is made. Regards, Doug Reuben * dreuben@interpage.net * +1 (203) 499 - 5221 Interpage Network Services -- http://www.interpage.net, telnet interpage.net E-Mail Alpha/Numeric Local/Nationwide Paging, Info., and E-Mail <-> Fax Svcs ------------------------------ From: dreuben@interpage.net (Doug Reuben) Subject: No Service in Boston for CO/Rhode Island Customers Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 01:58:40 EDT Recently, Bell Atlantic Metro Mobile's Rhode Island division was sold to Southern New England Telephone, the local Bell company in Connecticut, and the "B" side carrier in CT and (now) all of Western Mass. Around the same time, Southwestern Bell-Cell One/Boston ridded itself of its Motorola EMX switches (except for their "partnership"/dually-owned system in New Hampshire [01485] with Atlantic Cellular-Cell One/VT [00313], which is still served by their EMX), and after a *very* messy and unprofessional transition to an AT&T Autoplex switch which went on for a month or so, has managed to get back to a more or less reliable system. However, something which no one seemed to notice was that a good deal of Metro Mobile (errr ... sorry ... SNET/RI) customers were not able to place or receive ANY calls in the Boston 00007 system. By this, I mean no 611, no 911, no 0+, nothing! Each time a call was placed, the caller would get an EQUIPMENT-generated "fast-busy" (ie, the signal your cellphone makes, NOT the switch). When calling to a RI customer in the Boston system, calls would simply be treated in RI and were never sent to Boston. One of my friends who has been a long time MM/RI customer called me one day in early July to ask me if something was going on. After checking it out with him, and confirming his results, I told him to call MM/RI, and have them fix the problem. So he called, and called, and called, and each time was met by a very polite representative, but no one ever called back, and nothing was done. Moreover, a number of MM/RI customers who we associate with and who travel to Boston frequently (the Boston system starts 10 miles north of RI, so there is a lot of cross-traffic) also reported a similar problem, and after speaking to some of them, learned that they also received no followup to their inquiries and that nothing had been done -- no one was able to place or receive calls in the Boston system. At this point, since we pay for an account with MM/RI for a consultant who travels to Boston a lot, I decided to get involved, and press them to correct the situation. I initially spoke with Todd Palmer (who seems to have a somewhat authoritative position there), who handed me off to Mary Rigiornio in their Warwick, RI office. Both were friendly and expressed an earnest desire to correct the problem. When I inquired as to why this has been going on for *three* months an nothing had been done prior to my calls, they both had no answer, however. In any event, this was three weeks ago. I've called both of them a number of times recently, and neither has returned my calls. The situation is still the same -- many, if not all, RI and Southeastern Mass "A" (00119) customers can not place calls in the Boston system. I know from my own trials that 401-523 and 508-997 do not work at all, and from what I can tell from other customers' reports who have service on other RI/SE MA cellular echanges, their success with placing/receiving calls in Boston has not been any better. At this point, I've more or less given up with the people in MM(CO)/RI, and have already made contact with SNET Mobile in New Haven to see if someone from there can get things moving. If there are any MM/RI customers who are reading this who have experienced similar problems in Boston, could you please drop me a short note and just let me know the area code and prefix of your phone? (I don't need the whole number). If you are reading this from some Web Newsreader, go to "http://www.interpage.net", select to leave mail, and send it with the subject "RI Cell" and I will receive it. I'll post updates as the situation warrants ... Doug Reuben * dreuben@interpage.net * +1 (203) 499 - 5221 Interpage Network Services -- http://www.interpage.net, telnet interpage.net E-Mail Alpha/Numeric Local/Nationwide Paging, Info., and E-Mail <-> Fax Svcs ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 10:09:21 -0700 From: lti@nwlink.com (jim cantrell) Subject: Captive Tele-Consumers jerald@wrs.com (Jerald Pendleton) wrote: > I recently recieved a bill I incurred during a recent vacation. I > made several phone calls from my motel room to numbers within the > state of California. They charged me $9.13 for a four minute call > (apparently four minutes is the minimum) ... The phone was blocked... I've had my own experiences with these types of scams -- perhaps not scams technically, but morally. I have paid innumerable charges from operator assist collect call outfits that survive by taking advantage of the unwary traveler. I've also received innumerable solicitations from these same companies wanting me to sign up pay phones on their service in order to split the $2 or $3 per minute charges. My response when I turn down these opportunities to "TURN THAT PAY PHONE IN TO A PROFIT CENTER!" is that we provide pay phones for the convience of our customer, associates, and employees, all of whom we value to dearly to gouge for nickle and dimes. It is time we initiate legislative action to provide some protection for the consumer. The situation as I see it: 1. The companies do not provide additional value in exchange for higher price. They are not investing in the installation of more phones but rely on switching these services from other, usually cheaper, services and provide only what was already available but at an increased rate. 2. They prey on an almost captive consumer. The market base for these services are primarily people in transit -- customers at motels, truckstops, hospitals, etc. -- who may not have an understanding of the alternatives or the costs they are incurring. In many motels, use of an alternative service is made as difficult as possible. 3. A sound contract requires a knowledgable agreement by both parties of the terms. Although callers undoubtedly realize that they or the called party will be charged for the call, many are unaware that the charge may be double or triple the lowest rates available. Those who accept collect calls made via these companies receive no warning, sometimes the identity of the service provider AFTER the call is accepted. We can't ban these companies from providing service at these preposterous rates or prohibit hotels and motels from gouging their customers, however, it is fitting and proper that we require, through legislative actions at the state and federal levels, that these services provide the information necessary for the consumer to make a knowledgable decision. Every hotel and motel should have rates and alternate carrier instructions readily available to every phone user; every collect call should have the rates available or announced to the caller, the rates and identity of the service provider announced to the recipient of the call. The companies that provide these services will complain about the cost of implementation, but what the heck, were already paying for it. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 12:58:49 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "How to Access the Federal Government on the Internet" BKHAFGOI.RVW 950712 "How to Access the Federal Government on the Internet", Bruce Maxwell, 1995, 1- 56802-034-1, U$22.95 %A Bruce Maxwell bmaxwell@netcom.com %C 1414 22nd Street N.W., Wasington, DC 20037 %D 1995 %G 1-56802-034-1 %I Congressional Quarterly Inc. %O U$22.95 +1-800-638-1710 +1-202-822-1475 fax +1-202-887-6706 %O 202-822-1423 fax 202-822-6583 eashley@cqalert.com %P 402 %S Washington Online %T "How to Access the Federal Government on the Internet" For those interested in (the U.S.) government, and access to its information, Maxwell has provided a very useful compendium of addresses. As he admits, this is not an exhaustive list to U.S. federal government systems available through the Internet, but it definitely gives a good, broad starting field. University and other sites with a specialized interest in the government are listed, although strictly political organizations are rare. For example, the "Queer Resources Directory" is included, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation is not. The reader is expected to be reasonably familiar with the Internet use: the information given in the introduction is too brief to be helpful to a neophyte. The listings themselves, however, give clear "vital statistics" on access methods, and a detailed and useful write-up for each site. All of that would be extremely valuable for those interested in government and access to information, but since the feds have fingers in just about every pie, there is much more. The various departments provide information on agriculture, business, computers, demographics, education, energy, environment, foreign affairs, medicine, history, employment, law, technology, and transportation. Government sites often provide the most informative content to be found in the net. Maxwell has added to this with a very useful index: I didn't really expect to find anything under "Viruses, computer" but was pleasantly surprised to note a pointer to the NIST Computer Security Archive (http://csrc.ncsl.nist.gov). For the avid U.S. government watcher, an essential. For the serious Internet information gatherer, regardless of nationality, a very useful resource. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKHAFGOI.RVW 950712. Distribution permitted in TELECOM Digest and associated publications. Rob Slade's book reviews are a regular feature in the Digest. ROBERTS@decus.ca rslade@cln.etc.bc.ca rslade@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca ------------------------------ Subject: UUNet Drops Access Via Compuserve, Leaves UUCP Customers Hanging From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 08:08:49 EDT Organization: Harry's Place - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 UUNet announced to their customers last week that they were discontinuing access via Compuserve's packet-switched network by 10/1/95, and phasing in a new V.34 rotary (with much fewer POP's). The announcement, written 9/15/95, left their customers a little more than two weeks to change their access arrangements, or find service elsewhere. Also in their announcement to UUNet customers, UUNet staffer Michael Byman announced that they were phasing out uucp service on the older rotaries. The only problem, though, is that both uucp and ip customers are experiencing some severe connect problems through the new V.34 rotary, which appear to be running Ascend Pipeline Terminal Servers. UUNet doesn't appear to be in a hurry to respond to connect problems with this new (and more expensive) access arrangement, or at least not for uucp customers (no doubt Microsoft Net customers will be treated a lot better). Now that UUNet has expanding their customer base, and will be publicly traded, one would think they would have the resources to develop a competent technical support group. Or perhaps this was the area within which UUNet stated they had to hire additional qualified personnel (in their 5/25/95 perspectus). Time will tell if they really mean business, or if this is just one very rude way of getting rid of one class of customer that they may see as less profitable. ------------------------------ From: indigo@crl.com (Martin J. Slover) Subject: Need Assistance Doing ISP Traffic Analysis Date: 24 Sep 1995 16:30:49 -0700 I am hoping that this gets out in time but I need some assistance in doing a report on traffic analysis in regards to setting up an ISP. Specifically I need comments on what grade of service would I specifically want? What demands on the systems cause the most problems with traffic flow? If anyone can give me some info please email me at indigo@crl.com. Thanks... Max Slover Indigo@crl.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #403 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10485; 25 Sep 95 23:55 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id OAA23974 for telecomlist-outbound; Mon, 25 Sep 1995 14:05:08 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id OAA23963; Mon, 25 Sep 1995 14:05:04 -0500 Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 14:05:04 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199509251905.OAA23963@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #404 TELECOM Digest Mon, 25 Sep 95 14:05:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 404 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson President Clinton Speaks on E.T. (Clinton Speech via M. Troutman) Carribean Hurricane Damage (FEMA Public Affairs via Danny Burstein) GSM Cellular Tariffs For Norway (Markus Schlegel) Need DID Access in NY - NYTel Unresponsive! (Doug Reuben) Announcing TELECOM UPDATE (Ian Angus) Last Laugh! CLID in CA - Alice at the State Bldg! (S.J. Slavin) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: M. Troutman Subject: President Clinton Speaks on E.T. Date: 25 Sep 1995 14:01:12 GMT Organization: PSI Public Usenet Link President Clinton spoke last Thursday to school students in California. Here are his comments. ------------------- Remarks By The President On Education Technology And Connecting Classrooms THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. First of all, I'd like to thank Mr. Delecourt and all of the people who hosted us here. To Mayor Jordan and your outstanding California Commissioner of Education Delaine Eastin and to all of the others who are gathered here today -- thank you very much for being here with us. (Applause.) I want to say to all the students here that the Vice President and I are delighted to see you. Normally, we would not want to be responsible for taking you out of class, but today we think maybe we have a good reason, and we hope we have a chance to shake hands with a lot of you as soon as this brief ceremony is over. I want to say to all of the executives of the information companies that we just met with how very grateful I am to you and I'll say a few words about them in a moment. I came here to San Francisco today to issue a challenge to America to see to it that every classroom in our country -- every classroom in our country is connected to the Information Superhighway. To demonstrate that this is possible, we are all here today to announce a giant step toward that future. By the end of this school year, every school in California, 12,000 of them, will have access to the Internet and its vast world of knowledge. By the end of this school year, fully 20 percent of California's classrooms, 2,500 -- kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools, from one end of this state to the other, will be connected for computers. If that can be done in California, we can do it in the rest of America. But the key is to have the kind of partnership that we are celebrating here. The job of connecting California schools will be undertaken by a wide alliance of private sector companies -- among them, Sun Microsystems, Apple, Xerox Parc, Oracle, 3Com, Silicon Graphics, Applied Materials, TCI, Cisco Systems and others. Our administration has brought these companies together, we have set goals, but they are doing the rest. Just as the connecting of our classrooms is a model for the 21st century, so is the way we are doing it here today -- with government as a catalyst, not a blank check. So today, I challenge business and industry and local government throughout our country to make a commitment of time and resources so that by the year 2000, every classroom in America will be connected. Tens of millions of parents all across our nation have watched their children play every kind of video game from Mortal Kombat and Primal Rage to Killer Instinct and Super Streetfighter. But the really important new computer game in America is learning. And we are going to put it at the disposal of every child in this country by the end of the century. Last month, I announced a broad initiative to stop our children from being addicted to tobacco because it was bad for them. Today I hope to encourage a good habit -- a lifelong commitment to learning. I want to get the children of America hooked on education through computers. Our country was built on a simple value that we have an obligation to pass better lives and better opportunities on to the next generation. And we see them all here. Education is the way we make this promise real. Today, at the dawn of a new century, in the midst of an information and communications revolution, education depends upon computers. If we make an opportunity for every student, a fact in the world of modems and megabytes, we can go a long way toward making the American Dream a reality for every student. Not virtual reality -- reality for every student. The facts speak for themselves. Children with access to computers learn faster and learn better. Scores on standardized tests for children taught with computers, according to "Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow," a 10-year report that is coming out in a few days, caused scores to go up by 10 to 15 percent. Children mastered basic skills in 30 percent less time than would normally have been the case. Also, they stayed in school. Absenteeism dropped from over eight percent to under five percent. I cannot emphasize how important this is at a time when we want people to stay in school and get as much education as they possibly can. Technology enriches education, it teaches our children how to learn better, as the Vice President and I saw with the young people who walked in with us in their three different exhibitions of learning, and we thank them for that today. We must make technological literacy a standard. Preparing our children for a lifetime of computer use is now just as essential as teaching them to read and write and do math. With this effort, we are also reinforcing the core convictions that have stood us so well for so long. Computers offer a world that lives up to our highest hopes of equal opportunity for all. And look what we need equal opportunity for all for. Computers give us a world where people are judged not by the color of their skin or their gender or their family's income, but by their minds, how well they can express themselves on those screens. If we can teach our children these values, if they can learn to respect themselves and each other, then we can be certain we'll have stronger families, stronger communities, and a stronger America in the 21st century. I could think of no better place for us to begin than here in California -- the state that leads the world in technological innovation. Until now, this leadership too often has stopped at the schoolroom door, for California ranks 45th in the nation in the ration of students to computers. While suburban children often have access to computers in their homes, other children in rural areas and inner cities pass their school years without coming close to the Information Superhighway. The longer they're kept away, the less chance they have of building good lives in a global economy. Well, thanks to the dedicated Americans gathered here today, all that is going to change. These companies who compete vigorously every day in the marketplace have come together in the classroom. We shared with them our vision, and they shared with us their ideas, their resources, and their know-how. Every company represented here today is making a different contribution, but they're all committed to the goal of connecting California because they know the future depends upon it. Sun Microsystems is organizing a coalition of companies and volunteering in Net Day, an effort to install networks in at least 2,000 schools. And the number is growing with each new company joining the effort. In the morning, volunteers will arrive at each school. By noon they will have wired the library, the labs, the classrooms. By nightfall, those schools will have the technology they deserve. Smart Valley, a coalition of Silicon Valley companies, has contributed $15 million to putting technology in our schools. Smart Valley has agreed to develop 500 model technology schools over the next two years. America Online has offered Internet services for a year. Even those phone companies that are always going after each other on TV have joined forces in this cause. AT&T will provide Internet access and voice mail to all California schools. Sprint will help to connect the schools. MCI will provide software for entry into the Internet and help to connect the schools. And Pacific Bell, which has led the way in linking California schools, is accelerating its efforts this school year by hooking them up to high-speech phone lines. I want to thank them all, and I'd like to ask the leaders of these companies here to stand, and I hope the children will give them a hand, because they've done a great thing for your future. Please stand up, all of you who met with me earlier today. Thank you so much. (Applause.) This is an enormous effort. It will take the same spirit and tenacity that built our railroads and highways. It will take leadership and dedication of groups like the advisory council I have appointed on the Information Superhighway. So let us begin. Let today mark the start of our mission to connect every school in America by the year 2000. If we can connect 20 percent of the schools in the largest state in the nation in less than a year, we can surely connect the rest of the country by the end of the decade. In the coming days, I will announce the winners of our Technology Learning Challenge. And over the next several weeks, I will put forward a public-private partnership plan that lays out how we can move our entire nation toward the goal of technological literacy for every young person in America. Here are its guiding principles: Modern computers in every classroom, accessible to every student from kindergarten through 12th grade, networks that connect students to other students, schools to other schools, and both to the world outside. Educational software that is worthy of our children and their best aspirations and, finally, teachers with the training and the assistance they need to make the most of these new technologies. Make no mistake: You can count on us for leadership, but the goal we have set cannot be set and cannot be achieved by government alone. It can only be met the way these companies are doing it -- with communities, businesses, governments, teachers, parents and students all joining together -- a high-tech barn-raising. What we are doing is the equivalent of going to a dusty adobe settlement in early 19th century California and giving every child a slate and a piece of chalk to write with. It's akin to walking into a rough-hewn classroom in the Sierras of the 1860s and wiring it for electricity for the first time. It's like going to the Central Valley in the 1930s to the canvas classrooms of the Dust Bowl refugees and giving every child this book. Chalk boards, electricity, accessible books -- there was a time, believe it or not, when all these were rare. Now, every one is such a familiar part of our lives that we take them for granted. If we stay on course, we'll soon reach a day when children and their parents and their teachers will walk into a classroom filled with computers, and not even give it a second thought. Let's go to work. Our future depends upon it, and these children's lives will be better for it. Thank you very much. (Applause.) ------------------------------ From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: Carribean Hurricane Damage Date: 25 Sep 1995 12:53:31 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway Some reports from FEMA about the hurricane damage in the Virgin Islands. Check out the information given regarding utility damage and repairs. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 12:25:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Emergency Information Public Affairs To: roboaccount@fema.gov Subject: SitRep 16p 9/24/95 (part 2) A Task Force has been established to address fraud, waste, and abuse. This is standard procedure in all disaster responses managed by FEMA under the Stafford Act. The Task Force is intended to stop individuals who are not entitled to assistance from applying, to identify those who are not legally in the country, to counter fraudulent claims, and to prevent fraudulent claims against the Federal Insurance Administration. There will be approximately 120,000 lbs. of food shipped into St. Thomas today for household distribution to all three Virgin Islands tomorrow. An estimated 40,000 of the 50,000 residents on St. Thomas need emergency food at this time. Current information, including press releases, maps, and weather information, regarding the status of the Federal response to Hurricane Marilyn in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands is available on the FEMA Home Page on the Internet at http:\\www.fema.gov . This information is being published and managed by FEMA Public Affairs. Tomorrow (Monday) food will be distributed in bags at all distribution centers. Each bag will provide enough food for 2 people for one day. Larger families may pick up more than one bag, proportionate to the size of their family. As we enter the ninth day of operations in the Virgin Islands, the military has flown 657 sorties of all types bringing in 5.25 million pounds of cargo. We are currently delivering 80,000 gallons of water and 50,000 lbs of ice daily on the islands. We have delivered 12,000 rolls of plastic, approximately 8,000,000 square feet. Federal Responders A total of 2694 federal agency personnel deployed in the field as of today: Federal Emergency Management Agency 332 Emergency Management Specialists 66 MERS/MATTS Communicators Department of Defense 16 Mobile Field Kitchen Support Personnel 225 Mass Care teams 6 Combat Control Team personnel 210 Tanker/Airlift Control Element (TALCE) 112 USACE 4 NCS 186 Various affiliations Federal Law Enforcement 468 Special Agents and Sworn Officers 31 Charleston SC Police Officers Public Health and Related Services 213 USPHS Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATS)/MSU 12 DVA 17 EPA 9 Food and Consumer Service Other Departments and Agencies 282 Incident Management team personnel 3 Department of Interior (DOI) 3 Department of Energy (DOE) 999 American Red Cross (ARC) (not counting PR and USVI volunteers) 2 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ESF #1 (Transportation - Department of Transportation (DOT)) Three plane loads (50 pallets per plane) of plastic sheeting will depart today for St. Thomas from Jacksonville, FL. One or two additional planes will go tomorrow. All plastic sheeting has now arrived in Jacksonville. A flight from Dallas to St. Croix will deliver 50 additional pallets of plastic and is scheduled to arrive at 8:00 pm.. 120,000 pounds of food is being sent from Kansas City to St. Thomas today. Dog and cat food will be sent September 25 from Atlanta. Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) personnel from Florida and Tulsa departed by 11:30 am. American Red Cross (150 people) are being transported from Atlanta to St. Thomas. The ongoing shuttle from San Juan and St. Thomas is carrying approximately 200 people daily. ESF #2 (Communications - NCS) Federal disaster veterans state that, overall, this disaster has created on St. Thomas the most extensive telecommunications and electric power infrastructure damage seen in over 20 years (much worse than Hurricane Andrew in Miami or Hurricane Hugo in VI and South Carolina). While Central Office facilities have basically survived, the island's heavy reliance on aerial distribution plant has crippled interoffice and subscriber connectivity. Initial priority has been directed towards restoring the cellular infrastructure. Two systems operate on island: VITELCO and CellularONE. Off-island communications has been aided by AT&T's restoration of undersea cable connectivity to the Charlotte Amalie area via microwave links. The donated MCI satellite phone banks have been loaded and departed for St. Thomas. Ground transportation and refueling requirements for the MCI phone banks are being coordinated at the Disaster Field Office (DFO). Skypager service is now working on St. Thomas as of 2:15 pm September 24. ESF #2 is coordinating restoration of ten lines to Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) radio station in St. Thomas FEMA, FEMA personnel are assessing providing a laser shot between Disaster Field Office (DFO) and Vitelco Central Office. Vitelco Cellular is on site at Disaster Field Office (DFO) to program cellular phones for federal response workers. Vitelco wireless has a representative on site in Disaster Field Office (DFO) to coordinate federal disaster telecommunications priorities and requirements. Vitelco has been appraised of the requirements for the Disaster Field Office (DFO) and the four Recovery Centers that have been identified, two on St. Thomas, one on St. Croix, and one on St. John. One of the 400 MHZ repeaters has been repaired by the service provider and is operational. The second repeater has been repaired and is providing intermittent service. The service provider will send additional technicians to the site on September 25. The 150 MHZ system ordered by FEMA is operational on a five system portable repeater network and 200 handsets. An additional 200 handsets and 5 full size repeaters are on order and expected delivery to St. Thomas is September 25. ESF #3 (Public Works and Engineering - Army Corp of Engineers) A bottled water contract for delivery of 50,000 gallons per day is in place and will be effective on September 25. FEMA is arranging priority movement of 2,800 rolls (20x100 ft. each) of plastic sheeting from Thomasville and Denton MERS to St. Croix and St. Thomas. Delivery of the plastic sheeting to St. Thomas and St. Croix for the contractor to use in reconstruction work is a pressing issue. Part of the shipment of four Army Corp of Engineers 750kws generators arrived in Puerto Rico on a C-5A and are being barged to St. Thomas. The remaining generators are being prepared for movement via C-17 direct to St. Thomas for use at the hospital. Five FEMA generators (2-550kw, 3-425kw) will be flown from Jackson, MS, to the Virgin Islands for use in high priority areas. ESF #4 (Firefighting - USDA) Two fire stations on St. Thomas are not functional at this time and have been de-activated. Roofing, electricity, communications systems, and fire suppression equipment have been damaged or destroyed. The North Station must be completely rebuilt. Plans for reconstructing the stations on St. Croix and St. John will be delivered by September 24. Fire operations will continue from the Charlotte Amalie Station and Tutu Station until further notice. It should be noted that response times from the remaining stations to unprotected areas is greatly increased due to traffic congestion, debris remaining in roads and increased distances to be traveled. The build up of debris between structures on steeper mid-slopes presents an increased fuel hazard requiring analysis to recommend appropriate strategies for fire suppression and fuel treatment. On St. John, there is minor damage to one fire station and roof damage to a second. Both stations are currently staffed however. Response time to potential incidents is slightly impacted and road debris clean up is proceeding well. ------------------------------ From: Markus Schlegel Subject: GSM Cellular Tariffs For Norway Date: 23 Sep 1995 12:55:25 GMT Organization: Telenor R&D At http://www.unik.no/~markus/norgsm.html you can find a listing of GSM cellular tariffs for Norway. Since this page has been unexpectedly successful, I am thinking about enlarging the view to Europe in general. For this, I would be thankful if oyu could send me information on this subject. Please also see the "request for info" at http://www.unik.no/~markus/gsmhe.html Thanks, Markus Schlegel At UNIK, Center for Technology, University of Oslo (Norway) markus@unik.no ------------------------------ From: dreuben@interpage.net (Doug Reuben) Subject: Need DID Access in NY - NYTel Unresponsive! Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 01:11:06 EDT We've recently come to the conclusion that DID *may* be better than adding new phone lines all the time ...:) With that in mind, I called down to the local New York Telephone business center in New York City to inquire about rates, how it would be set up, transition to DID, etc, ie, basic information. I was told by the rep: "Ok, please fax us the questions and we will have someone get back to you next week". Ok, well, maybe they think I'm a vendor or something, so I explain I just want some general information about the service, and the rep goes "Well, write all the questions down and fax it to us, and we will get back to you next week." Errr ... Ok, I thought, maybe I have the wrong office. So once again I tried "Well, all I really need is to ask some basic questions about how DID works, rates, how long it generally takes to set up, etc. So I really don't need to fax anything, 'cause these are sort of general questions, and don't you have anyone somewhere else to take such calls?". NYTel's response: "Fax it to us". (I figured the next thing they would say is "nevermore"! :) ) So before the rep started to break out into a repetitive chorus of "Quoth the Raven", I figured I'd try one last time: "Look, all I want you to do is fax me or mail me some literature on DID so that I can decide if I want to use NYTel, which at this point I am not sure I do!". And of course you know the answer NYTel gave, so rather than waste half an hour faxing things to someone who was so enamored by the concept of faxing that he would probably frame whatever was sent to him, I figured I'd call the NYTel President's Helpline to see what they had to offer. After the usual ten minute wait, I got a rep who at first seemed interested in helping me, but when I explained the problem, ie, that I merely wanted to get some more information about DID and that their business office had been very unhelpful, she quickly lost interest. (Apparently, the President's Helpline is mainly to prevent irate telephone customers from calling the NY Public Service Commission. My complaint really wasn't something you would go to the PSC about, so she wasn't interested.) She did eventually manage to take my name and number, and said that someone would call back. She explained that the people handling DID service have "commitments" to other customers, and thus couldn't take my call right away. Huh?!! Ok, well, maybe I don't know too much about how DID works, but I DO know what poor service is, and THAT is it! It's outrageous that I or someone in my office (we only have a small staff, and we are quite busy) take the time to compose a fax to ask some service rep. at NYTel some basic questions. Moreover, in the event of a failure, I'd hate to have to fax a failure report to them and wait a week or so to have the problem resolved! So ... any other alternatives besides NYTel? We basically need to have maybe 100 DID "numbers" route to 10 or so lines, with expansion as our business grows. We'd like to buy them on a "per-use" basis, ie, we don't want to get a block of 500 and only use 20 or so for the first few months. Signalling to our system is also important, and we'd need an effective and scaleable method for having DID information signalled to our system. Any help or responses from other providers besides NYTel/NYNEX would be appreciated! Thanks, Doug Reuben * dreuben@interpage.net * +1 (203) 499 - 5221 Interpage Network Services -- http://www.interpage.net, telnet interpage.net E-Mail Alpha/Numeric Local/Nationwide Paging, Info., and E-Mail <-> Fax Svcs ------------------------------ From: Ian Angus Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 11:32:07 -0400 Subject: Announcing TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group is pleased to announce the introduction of TELECOM UPDATE, a weekly on-line news bulletin for Canadian telecommun- ications professionals. TELECOM UPDATE is published on the first business day of each week, and is distributed without charge. It is available in two formats: 1. On the World Wide Web: go to http://www.angustel.ca, and select TELECOM UPDATE from the main menu. The current issue and all past issues are available at that location. 2. By electronic mail: send an email message to majordomo@angustel.ca. The body of your message should say only subscribe update . Angus TeleManagement Group is an independent consulting and research firm, specializing in business telecommunications since 1979. We publish the monthly magazine TELEMANAGEMENT, and, together with our suster firm, Angus Dortmans Associates, we provide telecom advisory services to business, government, and supplier organizations. IAN ANGUS Tel: 905-686-5050 ext 222 Angus TeleManagement Group Fax: 905-686-2655 8 Old Kingston Road e-mail: ianangus@angustel.ca Ajax Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 http://www.angustel.ca ------------------------------ From: sjslavin@aol.com (SJSlavin) Subject: Last Laugh! Status of CLID in CA - Alice at the State Bldg! Date: 25 Sep 1995 00:37:18 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: sjslavin@aol.com (SJSlavin) The FCC Interstate order for CLID remains due 12-1-95. Pacific wants to offer intrastate at the same time -- makes good sense. But, AHA -- CPUC wants a public education program before they may offer it; Pacific feels they can provide such a program, but CPUC needs to approve it first -- can't trust those rascals in LEC-land to put together a PR campaign, can we? -- and the CPUC won't be able to do that before Spring, 1996. The State's appeal to the 9th Circuit has hearings scheduled for November, so CPUC wants the LEC's to ask the FCC to postpone their nationwide interstate order until California argues that the feds have no right to pre-empt the state. Pretty soon Alice will run into the Mad Hatter, crossing Van Ness Ave going into the State Bldg. One or both must work there on the 5th floor. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #404 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa10659; 25 Sep 95 23:57 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id OAA25240 for telecomlist-outbound; Mon, 25 Sep 1995 14:42:07 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id OAA25228; Mon, 25 Sep 1995 14:42:01 -0500 Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 14:42:01 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199509251942.OAA25228@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #405 TELECOM Digest Mon, 25 Sep 95 14:42:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 405 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Gary Novosielski) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Robert McMillin) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Clive D.W. Feather) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Clifton T. Sharp) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Ed Ellers) Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes (Martin McCormick) Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes (John Nagle) Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes (Peter Laws) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Juergen Ziegler) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (David H. Close) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Wes Leatherock) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: gary.novosielski@sbaonline.gov Organization: Small Business Administration Date: Sun, 24 Sep 95 03:01:43 -0400 Subject: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives johnl@iecc.com (John Levine) writes: > This [inability to dial local calls as 1++] is > only the case in states where short-sighted people have forced the > 1+ = toll nonsense. In New Jersey, the Land of Perfect Dialing, this > is how it's always worked, you can dial all calls with 11 digits > even within your own exchange and it handles them correctly. I > believe it's the case in most areas where you can dial all intra-NPA > calls with 7 digits. Well, "always" is a long time. For the vast bulk of the time since area codes were invented, we (in New Jersey) never had to dial more than 10 digits. It wasn't until NJ Bell was getting ready to introduce the first of the NXX-style central office designations that we were forced to begin any type of call with a 1+. Prior to that time, the CO could tell an NPA from an NNX by format alone, so only 10 digits were needed. But, though a leading 1 was not required, it was tolerated. In fact, the CO would absorb an arbitrarily long string of leading 1 digits without so much as breaking the dial tone. So strictly speaking you *are* correct that it would have "worked" even back then. I guess we really are the Land of Perfect Dialing. :) > Call Trace serves this [unblockable Caller ID] function now. It does > what caller-ID is frequently misrepresented as doing, collecting the > calling number of a call that you need to report to the cops. Don't bet your life on it! Call Trace, it turns out, is often not much better than Caller ID at turning up a number. A friend and client of mine recently had a "need to report" just such a call. He immediately dialed *57 for Call Trace, and got a recording: "We're sorry, the number cannot be traced because it is out of the area." (He reported the call to the cops in any case, of course, and they were as helpful as they could be, but without the Call Trace information, there's not much to go on.) Anyway, I spoke on a three-way with my friend and the folks at Bell Atlantic, and they confirmed that had the call come from as close as just across the Hudson in the 212 NPA, Call Trace would *not* pick it up. Call Trace *will* see past per-line or per-call ID blocking, but if the Caller ID box would have shown "Out-of-Area," the Call Trace would probably fail. In fact, we had reason to believe that the call *did* originate in NYNEX territory, so I asked BA to contact NYNEX. They did so, and said that the response from the NYNEX security department was that they would not supply call detail information without a court order, and that the entity whose outgoing calls were to be scrutinized would have to be identified on the warrant / subpoena / whatever. Without call trace info, where are you going to get a court order? Fortunately, Call Trace is NOT the last word, but the alternatives all require some advance preparation, so they are only effective against repeat offenders. They're all administered by the telco's Annoyance Call Bureau, whose number is available from the phone book or the business offices. Some of the options in their bag of tricks (at least in Bell Atlanticland) are are: 1) they can change your number to an unlisted number. 2) they can temporarily re-translate your line to a fictitious number, and forward your listed directory number to a human intercept operator. The operator will ask anyone calling your LDN what number they're calling from, and will attempt to verify that they're telling the truth. (I had the distinct impression that the ability to verify this in real time was fairly limited, perhaps not even as good as Call Trace) If the caller refuses to supply a number, or supplies a known phoney, he doesn't get through. If he seems okay, the operator will either ring through, or tell the caller the temporary number at which you can be reached. (I forget which). 3) they can institute a "Trap-and-Trace" on your line. This, according to the ACB, requires some additional equipment or other resources to be dedicated to the line. It also requires your written and signed authorization, but this can be done by fax, and the setup time is under two hours. For a period of time which varies from case to case, typically at least two weeks, each and every incoming call to your line is automatically traced, if possible, and the information recorded. According to the ACB rep, the success rate is *much* higher than with normal Call Trace, as it uses a completely different technology. For one thing, it will see past many types of forwarding. Although all calls are traced, only the ones which you identify (by date and exact time) as being suspicious are forwarded to law enforcement authorities. As with Call Trace, you are not provided with the information, only the cops are. The surprising advantage about all three of these options is that, unlike Call Trace, they are at no charge to the customer. Even the change order for the unpublished number is free if it is placed through the ACB rather than the business office. I'm not sure if the recurring charges for unpublished numbers are waived, but, as has been mentioned here I think, the cheaper way to get an "unlisted" number is to change your directory listing to Joe Doaks, or whatever. There's no requirement that the name on your account with telco, or any other business for that matter, has to be your real name. Using a false name is only illegal (in the U.S.) if your purpose is to defraud someone. My free advice (worth every penny, as always) to anyone who has the need to use Call Trace even once, whether it succeeds or not, is to call the cops on the next call, and the Annoyance Call Bureau on the call after that. Don't wait for the cops to suggest it; many of them don't even know it exists. In the case of calls that are merely annoying, rather than threatening or otherwise illegal, you can safely leave the police out of the loop and contact the ACB directly, but absent a police report they might neglect to mention all of the options up front. Knowing what they are is then an advantage. Regards, Gary Novosielski GPN Consulting gnovosielski@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: rlm@netcom.com (Robert McMillin) Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Organization: Charlie Don't CERF Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 16:24:30 GMT On 18 Sep 1995 01:44:24 PDT, DYost@Taurus.Apple.com (Dave Yost) said: > Our telephone systems should be straightforward enough that any child > capable of remembering their phone number can be taught how to pick up > any phone and dial their home phone number or 911. > Try it sometime with a five-year-old. You can teach her her phone > number, and you can teach her about 911, but it's really hopeless to > explain what to do in all the various telephone situations: [sundry different situations requiring different telephone dialing sequences deleted] Mr. Yost goes on to suggest that "We should work toward a standard that would allow a child to dial simply 1 + area code + number from any phone ... and get connected to their home." I presume for the moment that Mr. Yost is a concerned parent, or certainly, is looking out for the best interests of some child or children, somewhere. The problem I have with this proposal is simply that it takes a Procrustean approach to child safety, regardless of its effects on adults. By this approach, we should make the world completely and utterly safe for four-year-olds. This is the rallying cry currently used as a justification for censoring adults on the Internet. Adults use cars, airplanes, lathes, pornography, and slaughterhouses, all of which are patently unsafe (or at least, unwise) for four-year-old operation. Not everything can -- or should -- be made child-safe. Robert L. McMillin | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Netcom: rlm@netcom.com Jail to the Chief! | WWW: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/rl/rlm/home.html Ein Reich, ein Volk, ein Bubba! ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 23:36:03 BST From: Clive D.W. Feather > We should work toward a standard that would allow a child to dial > simply 1 + area code + number from any phone, whether it be a business > phone, a pay-phone, whatever, and get connected to their home. The equivalent works just perfectly in the UK, and has done for a long time. Why can't you lot make it work? > Business and Hotel phones: > Business phones usually require you to dial 9 for an > outside line. Hotels sometimes require 8. There was > a time, back in the old pulse-dial days, when this > made some sense. Now it doesn't. PBX systems with > push-button phones could use the * or # key to access > internal dialing, and allow normal dialing to the > outside without a prefix. Our office has a much simpler system: * 1XXX to 8XXX reach internal extensions or those in other offices on linked PBXs (with a single numbering scheme for the entire system, and extension NXXX having a DDI number of +44 181 371 NXXX). * Outside numbers can be dialled directly if they include a national or international code (which always begins with 0). Or if I want to dial another number in 181, or a service code, I prefix the whole thing with 9. So I can dial extension 2345 on our system by: 2345 9 371 2345 9 0181 371 2345 0181 371 2345 9 141 0181 371 2345 (with CLI withheld) (no pauses are ever required; gaps are for clarity only). Once you fix the area-code-needed/forbidden problem, you could do the same. Clive D.W. Feather | Work: clive@demon.net | Gateway House Senior Manager | Home: clive@stdc.demon.co.uk | 322 Regents Park Road Demon Internet Ltd. | Tel: +44 181 371 1000 | Finchley | Fax: +44 181 371 1281 | London N3 2QQ ------------------------------ From: clifto@indep1.chi.il.us (Clifton T. Sharp) Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Organization: as little as possible Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 17:13:23 GMT In article johnl@iecc.com (John Levine) writes: > Call Trace serves this function now. It does what caller-ID is > frequently misrepresented as doing, collecting the calling number of a > call that you need to report to the cops. What can Call Trace get that CNID wouldn't report accurately? The only thing that I've heard about inaccurate CNID so far regards outdial trunks, which would presumably be reported the same way to Call Trace. Cliff Sharp WA9PDM clifto@indep1.chi.il.us ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Date: Sun, 24 Sep 95 19:53:33 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) James E. Bellaire writes: > Train the child to dial 911. Universal 911 is growing and should be > the most well known way to get help. '0' is another option in areas > where 911 does not work. (Including switchboards with an attendant.) When my area was cut over to a 1A ESS in 1982 -- before we had 911 -- I found out that the switch was set up to pass 911 calls to the "dial-0" operator if no 911 service existed. > If PBX administrators would make 911 (as well as 9-911) work from any > phone it would be helpful too. Not too many people would be > attempting to reach 9-1-1xx-xxx-xxxx numbers (unless they thought they > were dialing 011 for IDDD access). Makes perfect sense. There is a possibility that someone would want to dial 9-10-xxx for a different LD carrier, but not 9-11-xxx. ------------------------------ From: Martin McCormick Subject: Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes Date: 25 Sep 1995 15:19:42 GMT Organization: Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK In article Tony Harminc writes: > the reason these boxes had clockwork code senders in the > first place: they were all connected in parallel on the same wire. You might say that the old fire alarms used a bus architecture. I wonder if some systems were wired in series with the current serving as a continuous test on the integrity of the wires? This is how some old teletype networks worked with each station able to send to all others by interrupting the loop each time a character was sent. Many fire alarm systems such as might be found in a school or other public building are designed to draw loop current or send some other kind of measurable signal to show that the telephone wires to them are intact. The pannel in the fire station has red, amber, and green lights that let the dispatcher see the system status. The amber light is called a trouble signal and means that the alarm status is unknown because of possible line trouble such as backhow fade, gophers, or water damage. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK 36.7N97.4W OSU Center for Computing and Information Services Data Communications Group ------------------------------ From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) Subject: Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 17:39:10 GMT Tony Harminc writes: > Martin McCormick wrote: > [Fire alarms boxes that pulsed out their location] Classically, those are clockwork pulsers, all in parallel on the same line. Some versions are "non-interfering"; two boxes won't transmit at the same time. (This is an early precursor of Ethernet collision-detection.) Back in 1978, I visited the dispatch center for the San Francisco Fire Department, and saw how their gear worked. They had a quite advanced dispatch center, but they had kept the clockwork pen and paper-tape registers for the pull box circuits. This was only a backup, though; when a box was pulled, a PDP 11/70 watched the pulses come in, converted it to a box number, and looked up the address. Nevertheless, the pen recorders continued to operate, printing dashes on paper strips, for every box pull. The SFFD had even kept their stationhouse telegraph, with a big brass key and gong mounted on a panel alongside a computer display. It's a very traditional department. John Nagle ------------------------------ From: plaws@comp.uark.edu (Peter Laws) Subject: Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes Date: 24 Sep 1995 19:12:25 GMT Organization: University of Arkansas PAT writes: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I remember once as a child watching > them fix one of those boxes which was broken. The repairman took a > phone handset with alligator clips and hooked onto the wire and was > chatting with someone at the other end which I thought at the time > was quite funny. How can you talk over that box, I asked him. PAT] Before radios were common, the deputy/battalion/district chief's aide had a handset with which he could communicate by voice to Fire Alarm. There was a jack in the box for this purpose. Before that, some systems had manual keys that the aide could use to transmit higher alarms, all outs, etc. Peter Laws If your FD still has a Gamewell or other telegraph system, send me mail - I'm working on a Box Alarm WWW page! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 14:32:00 MET From: juergen@jojo.sub.de (Juergen Ziegler) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Organization: Private UUCP Site, Buehl (Baden), Germany Tony Harminc (EL406045@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU) wrote: > Easy yes -- but a disaster for planning and orderly growth. This sort > of design ensures that Germany will not have portable numbers for a > long time. I think "disaster" expresses the numbering system in Germany fairly well. You are absolutely right with your assesment. But I dont want to repeat my previous posting to this thread. > Okay -- you are in Germany and you start to dial +1 40 ... > Now with your scheme, the local switch would have to pick up a trunk to > somewhere -- to where ? It isn't even known what country you are calling > yet! Then you dial 3 as the next digit, and the switch in Germany knows > you are calling Canada rather than the USA. But Germany has trunks to > at least two points in the area covered by area code 403 - which one should > it pick up ? The next digit is 9, but still nothing is known - it could > be somewhere near Calgary, or over a thousand miles north in the Northwest > Territories. Only after two more digits (say 79) is it finally known > what local area the called line is in. Well, you should not take digit by digit routing verbatimly. Digit by digit routing does usually not work when calling to a foreign country. Therefore whenever you call a foreign country, that has a predefined numbering scheme (e.g. USA,Canada), the German international gateway switch will pick up the number of neccessary digits to setup the call to the foreign switch. But, when you call a number that is invalid from Germany (e.g. +1800 or +1900 or +1500 ...) the German international gateway switch will prompt you that the number is invalid as soon as this fact can be easily determined. When this happens there should (and hopefully will) not be a connection established to the USA. On the other side, when calling a country that has no predefined numbering scheme, the switch will establish a connection to the foreign switch, as soon as it has enough information. But as the foreign switch has not indicated "number complete" or "number invalid" the German switch will send further digits to its foreign counterpart. Juergen Ziegler * juergen@jojo.sub.de * 77815 Buehl (Baden) * Germany ------------------------------ From: dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu (David H. Close) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Date: 25 Sep 1995 05:27:44 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena I wrote: > What would it take for an originating switch to accept digits beyond those > it figures are necessary to complete the call, buffer them, and then > transmit them after the call is supervised? johnl@iecc.com (John Levine) writes: > A major hardware and/or software upgrade to every piece of phone > equipment in the U.S. that stores or processes phone numbers, > including everything from central office switches through PBXes to > memory phones. No dice. I also got some private mail that misunderstood my question in the same way, so I thought I should clarify. My suggestion was specifically intended to be fully optional at the switch level, with conforming and non-conforming switches fully interoperable. Thus there would be no need for a change to "every piece of phone equipment in the U.S." in order to try my suggestion. If it didn't work, fine. If it did, then changes could be gradual over many years as other changes were made. The phrase, "digits ... beyond those it figures are necessary to complete the call," was intended to convey the idea of no change at all to the present call routing algorithms. One correspondent did suggest that my idea would require a longer allocation of a "digit register", which could otherwise presumably be allocated to some other call after the last functional digit. Of course, I thought that modern switches did this sort of thing in software, not hardware. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359 ------------------------------ From: wes.leatherock@hotelcal.com (Wes Leatherock) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Date: Sun, 24 Sep 1995 20:51:00 GMT Tony Harminc wrote: > naddy@mips.pfalz.de (Christian Weisgerber) wrote: [ ... text deleted ... ] > One point remains to be covered, however: >> What is a phone number? For the most part, a phone number is a *route* >> through the network. > This is absolutely not true in North America. One of the fundamental > principles of the NANP long distance network from the earliest days is > that of Destination Code Routing. Each switch in the network is > capable of doing a database lookup on (typically) six digits of the > phone number to determine the action to take to advance the call. The > individual digits of the number in no way specify the route the call > is to take through the network; this is a decision made by each switch > as needed, and is based on much more than the digits in the number. > Currently available trunks, congestion, previous routing history, and > many other factors can be taken into consideration to make routing > decisions. Translations from the first part of the directory number (the "prefix," originally two, later three) digits were a part of Panel-Type (and its IT&T analog, rotary) switches from the beginning of common control offices in the United States ... I believe around 1920, or a little earlier. Crossbar machines typically looked at the first three digits. This goes back to the 1930s or 1940s. All these were used for *local* calling. Later when Direct Distance Dialing came into being, some switches could still get by with three-digit translations (downstream [higher level] switches doing further translations. But many had to be arranged for six-digit translation almost from the start of DDD. Of course, channels were expensive and scarce in those days; routing to a distant tandem and back through the originating office was discouraged or forbidden. Later channels became so relatively inexpensive and abundant that this was no longer much of a factor. [ ... text deleted ... ] > Tying the routing of a call to the digits in the number is the > huge failing of SxS switching systems. In the 1940s and 1950s Oklahoma City (all step-by-step) had a combination of five-digit and six-digit numbers. Tulsa had a combination of four-digit, five-digit and six-digit numbers, all coexisting in a multi-office exchange with all step offices. Dallas and Houston were also all step, and the difficulties there were horrendous. By the time Houston went to seven-digit numbers, there were some (local) routes so impossible with step switches that the dialing instructions from GYpsy (an actual office I was familiar with in the southwest part of Houston) to some offices on the northeast side of town were "Dial operator--no charge." By this time additions and replacements with common control offices in all four of these cities were becoming a torrent. The southern California area (Los Angeles and environs) solved this with senders on most or all step offices, which made the translations and outpulsed probably an entirely different set of numbers (which could, in the step environment, be of different lengths if necessary). (The subscriber line number, the last four digits, was not translated, of course, merely repeated.) Tony Harminc also wrote: > I say "database lookup" advisedly: in the early days the database > consisted of plastic cards read mechanically, and database updates > were made by manually punching new cards. These days, of course, > the database is more what we think of when we use that word in a > computer context: tables in memory or on disk. I believe for the first two or three decades they were actually metal (steel?) cards which had rather large holes punched in them (much larger than what we think of in punched cards). They were read by light beams through them. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@hotelcal.com wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu wes.leatherock@f2001.n147.z1.fidonet.org ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #405 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11734; 26 Sep 95 1:41 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA27851 for telecomlist-outbound; Mon, 25 Sep 1995 16:08:41 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA27843; Mon, 25 Sep 1995 16:08:39 -0500 Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 16:08:39 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199509252108.QAA27843@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #406 TELECOM Digest Mon, 25 Sep 95 16:08:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 406 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Breakup Memo to Employees (Bob Allen to Employees via Paul L. Moses) Book Review: College by Computer (Dan Corrigan) UK City (Geographic) Codes (Richard D.G. Cox) Cellular Support of 500 Numbers (Lynne Gregg) Question on Wireless (Manuel Maese) Book Review: "Creating Cool Web Pages With HTML" by Taylor (Rob Slade) Interchangable NPA / Official Test Numbers (Michael Fumich) Independent Cellular Network (Mark E. Daniel) Cordless Phone Range Extenders (Jeffrey C. Honig) Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? (Andrew Luck) Canadian Calling Cards in US (Ian Angus) The Unthinkable: Two Area Codes For Bridgeport (David W. Tamkin) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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, 25 Sep 1995 15:50:30 -0400 From: theseus@dgs.dgsys.com (Paul L. Moses) Subject: AT&T Breakup Memo to Employees Hi Pat, A friend of a friend and so on was the source of this. Though you would be interested. Paul To All AT&T People, In just a few minutes, we will issue a press release to announce that we will restructure AT&T in a way that will allow each of our businesses to be the best and toughest global competitor in its market. Thanks to your hard work, dedication and innovation, AT&T is, without a doubt, at one of the most successful points in our history. It's unusual for a company that is strong and doing well to look at itself and say, it's time to re-engineer for the future. But from my perspective, that's the best time to take bold steps to maximize our opportunities for future success. After listening consistently to our customers, our investors, and you, our associates who work so hard every day to satisfy our customers, we realized that it was time to move to the next stage of evolving AT&T into an even better business. Therefore, we plan to separate AT&T into three publicly-held stand-alone global businesses that will each be focused on serving its market: 1) We will cluster our Communications Services Group, AT&T Wireless Services, AT&T Solutions and AT&T Universal Card Services into a services company that will continue to be called AT&T. We will also create an AT&T Laboratories unit that will continue research and development for this business. It will have at its core the Bell Labs group currently dedicated to that activity and a research group focused on networking and new services innovations. AT&T will be a global company with revenues of $49 billion that will be totally focused on providing the best "anytime, anywhere" communications services in the world. 2) We will bring together our Network Systems Group, Microelectronics, Global Business Communications Systems , Consumer Products and the other businesses in the Multi-Media Products Group into a communications systems and technology company that would immediately be one of the largest companies of its kind in the world -- with revenues in excess of $20 billion. One of our major competitive assets, Bell Laboratories, will be the research and development engine for the new communications systems company. This company will develop a new identity that will build on the reputation for reliability, leadership, technological innovation and customer-responsiveness that each business enjoys in its market. Linked with the power of Bell Labs and its reputation, this company will be a formidable global competitor in the communications equipment arena -- one of the fastest growing markets in the world. 3) Global Information Systems (GIS) is taking decisive action to create a smaller, swifter, more focused business, concentrating on the three industries in which it has a leading position -- retailing, financial and communications. Following this transition, we plan to make it a stand-alone business focused on serving the computer market. Lars Nyberg is the right leader to get this business back on track. His goal is to be world class in a few targeted industry segments and in delivering high quality computer platforms and services. I believe that's not only worth doing but it's do-able. GIS customers and employees can count on AT&T's complete support during this transition. As part of its turnaround effort, GIS will halt manufacture of personal computers. It will continue to offer PCs as part of total solutions through an agreement with an outside supplier that it expects to announce soon. 4) We plan to sell the remaining interest -- more than 80% -- in our highly successful financing business, AT&T Capital Corporation, to the general public or to another company. The proceeds will be used to strengthen the balance sheets of the companies. We hope to complete all of these transactions before January 1, 1997. We also are considering an Initial Public Offering for about 15% of the shares of the equipment business in the first half of 1996. Apart from the shares sold in the public offering, AT&T's three stand-alone businesses will be owned by the current AT&T shareholders. THE RIGHT TIME FOR CHANGE On the one hand, this a very bold move. On the other hand, with the dramatic changes in our industry, we now see it as the next logical turn in our journey since divestiture. But, let me emphasize, unlike divestiture, this is not a change that is being thrust upon us. It is a change more analogous to our move to a business unit structure in 1988. And I credit that restructure with providing the focus on individual markets and customer sets that enabled us to become the $75 billion enterprise we are today. I have spoken to many audiences about the benefits of AT&T being a vertically integrated business that had both services and equipment and computers -- and even in recent years financial services. There have been many advantages to our current structure. And we have reaped those advantages. But the dramatic changes in our markets driven by our customers, new technologies like wireless, and public policy decisions have opened up so many new opportunities that we need to simplify and more sharply focus our businesses to respond swiftly and effectively to those opportunities. It is no secret that our Network Systems business has been affected by the conflicts that our Communication Services Group has been having with the RBOCs both in the public policy arena and increasingly in the marketplace as we entered the intra-LATA market. These conflicts foreshadow similar issues with some PTTs around the world. Network Systems' continued success in this marketplace has been a tribute to the quality of its products and customer responsiveness. In recent months, it has become clear that the advantages of our size and broad, diverse product line are starting to be offset by the amount of time, energy and expense it takes to manage conflicting business strategies and coordinate activities across a large, complex enterprise. No business can afford to waste resources or time in the competitive environments we face today. So, in this spirit, we prepare to launch three strong businesses who come to their markets with a heritage of quality, dedication to the customer, integrity, innovation, teamwork, and of course, respect for the individual. And we provide a structure for those businesses that is less complex and more focused. It is a structure that needs fewer internal meetings and less internal coordination. It means faster decision-making, faster delivery of new products to the marketplace and most importantly, it allows you to focus totally on your customer and your market. And all this pays-off by accelerating our growth. WHAT ABOUT YOU I understand that many -- if not all -- of you are reading this and saying "what about me". Where do I fit in? The restructuring is subject to resolution of a number of issues which we expect will take about 15 months. Let me promise you that we will be spending a lot of time in the coming months making sure that we answer your questions openly, honestly and quickly. I realize that when a change like this is announced, the first concern is job security. This restructuring is driven by the need for strategic focus, not force reduction. Having said that, it is our competitive position that ultimately determines the size of a business. And each of these businesses will be operating in hotly competitive markets. We've already taken billions of dollars of cost out of the business but, as all of you know, there's still more to do. So, while it is too soon to determine an exact impact, it would be safe to say that the combined new businesses will have fewer employees than the current AT&T does today. But let me hasten to point out, that all of these businesses are in growing markets with major opportunities. Our guiding transition principle will be that -- in the main -- each person follows his or her work. I also realize that this change has significance beyond job security. Like you, I am proud of being associated with an organization like AT&T. As one AT&T, we made a major contribution to the world's ability to communicate and share information. It's important that we acknowledge that emotion as well as some sense of loss as we look ahead. But, most importantly, we must carry that sense of pride into our new companies. That's the best way for the heritage of AT&T as a company that stands for quality, reliability, integrity and innovation to live on. For those of you who have been with AT&T since before divestiture, we've seen a great deal of change together. Frankly, even if you joined AT&T in the last two years, you've seen incredible changes in our customers, our competitors and the way in which our industry will be regulated throughout the world. When I reflect on the way we handled change in the past 11 years, it gives me tremendous confidence in the future. Each change has made us a better company, a tougher competitor and more responsive to our customers. HANDLING THE TRANSITION The first and most important element of this transition is that we can not miss a beat on any commitment to our customers. Let's promise ourselves that we will not be distracted by the transition and take our eye off of our most important mission: serving the customer. The reality is that this restructuring should provide more clarity and focus to your day-to-day jobs. And the vast majority of you will continue doing the exact work that you do today in support of your customer. It's inevitable in a transition like this there will be rumors as people feel uncertain about exactly what will happen. We pledge to work very hard to communicate so quickly and completely that we will keep the uncertainty to a minimum. In fact, we will be doing special editions of AT&T TODAY to answer your questions. We will re-double our employee communications and set up employee question lines starting next week. I want to say a few words about the leadership of this business going forward. I am immensely proud of AT&T's leadership. Our business unit presidents and group CEOs -- all of whom are tough competitors heading up multi-million dollar global businesses -- are the best in the industry. Naming the permanent leaders is a job the AT&T Board and I will address at the appropriate time. We have agreed, however, that I will continue as Chairman and CEO of the new AT&T -- a challenge that I look forward to with enthusiasm. My leadership team will continue in their current capacity, focusing on the fundamental job of serving customers while at the same time supporting the transition. In addition to their regular responsibilities, I have asked Rich McGinn and Alex Mandl, as heads of the largest businesses in the new systems company and AT&T respectively, to take charge of the transition for those companies. Dan Stanzione, President of Bell Labs, will work with Rich and Alex to ensure we protect Bell Labs' world class capabilities through the transition and create an exciting framework for the new AT&T Labs. As I said earlier, Lars Nyberg will have my full support as he refocuses and strengthens GIS. Tom Wajnert will continue to lead Capital Corp. Because of all of these changes, the operating challenges for the next 15 months will be very demanding. I am absolutely determined that we will meet all '95 performance commitments. I will look to Vic Pelson as chairman of the GO team to ensure that we maintain focus on delivering our operational results. I have asked Bill Marx, in addition to his operating accountabilities for the Multi-Media Products Group, to work with Vic on the transition from the current regional operating model to a new model more suitable to independent global businesses. Bill will help ensure that commitments to our many joint venture partners and global suppliers are met. And, Dick Bodman will continue in his role as strategic adviser to our team. I will also chair a Steering Committee for the transition composed of Hal Burlingame, Senior Vice President, Human Resources; Marilyn Laurie, Senior Vice President, Public Relations and Employee Communications; Rick Miller, Chief Financial Officer and John Zeglis, Senior Vice President and General Counsel that will supervise the transition, resolve conflicts, and stand accountable for the completion of the restructuring process by the end of 1996. General Transition Principles I am confident that the investment we have made in making the Common Bond values part of the way we do business will pay off as we work through the many issues surrounding the transition. These values are reflected in some basic implementation principles that we feel strongly about and will guide our actions throughout the transition: 1) Our behavior and decisions will be guided by our Common Bond Values; 2) We will approach this restructuring as a team and support each other; 3) Open and frequent communication will be the norm. Customers 4) We are here to serve our customers. The transition should not cause us to miss a beat in any customer relationships. 5) All contracts and commitments -- external and internal -- will be ful- filled. The Business 6) We will meet our 1995 operational financial targets; 7) Globalization remains a priority for each of our newly restructured businesses. Human Resources 8) In the main, people will follow their work; 9) Dedicated functions will generally follow their internal customers. Shared functions will be divided, although some sharing may occur in a few cases for a transition period after the transactions. 10) Employees who may be dislocated as a result of the marketplace issues or the restructuring will have access to opportunities across the enter- prise and every effort will be made to place them in a job. 11) Issues surrounding pension, benefits etc. will be managed in a way to assure equitable, consistent treatment. There will be a news conference today at 2 PM EDT. It will air live in all facilities that have viewing capabilities and be on audio (800-792-8900. The replay number is 800-475-6701. The code is 602744. Outside the U.S., the number is 402-496-9581. The replay number is 612-365-3844. The code is 602744). We will be using AT&T TODAY, AT&T News and special bulletins to keep you up-to-date with every aspect of the transition in the coming months. We will have a live all-employee broadcast within the next week or so at which I will take your questions. Details on the time of the broadcast and how to send your questions in will be found in AT&T TODAY. We have a huge task ahead of us. We owe it to our customers, our shareholders and to ourselves to do the best job we've ever done. Again, I thank you for the hard work and dedication that has enabled AT&T to take this bold step into the future. I have every confidence that each part of today's AT&T has the talent, resources, market position and courage to be the world's leader in its market. Bob Allen ------------------------------ From: Dan Corrigan Subject: Book Review: College by Computer Date: 25 Sep 1995 19:00:38 GMT Organization: Cape Software BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Title: The Internet University - College Courses by Computer Author: Dan Corrigan ISBN: 0-9648112-0-0 Pages: 528, 7.0" X 8.5" Price: $26.95 Publisher: Cape Software Press - P. O. Box 800-5C - Harwich MA 02645 - books@capecod.net COLLEGE COURSES BY MODEM A distillation of the country's most comprehensive database of ONLINE COLLEGE COURSES, this book answers the question, "Now that we've got the Internet, what do we do with it?". It is written for people interested in taking college courses from the convenience of home or jobsite. The Internet University - College Courses by Computer: * Details 30+ Universities and Colleges * Complete Descriptions for 650+ Courses * Lists 1,500+ Internet Sources for FREE Study * Assists Search for Online Financial Aid Sources Four Sections: 1) FUNDAMENTALS - how to get online, with pointers to additional 'how-to' sources; 2) ONLINE COURSES available today, from a catalog of 650+ offered by thirty colleges and universities, 3) LIBRARIES, museums, colleges and universities, etc. available for free study, and 4) EQUIVALENCY courses (CLEP, CEU, high school, etc.), plus hundreds of personal enrichment courses; all available ONLINE. This manual will be the online student's constant companion, providing the 'needed-to-know' for Internet-based college education. It is the most comprehensive list of educational sources available, covering CONNECTIONS, COURSES, STUDY, and PERSONAL ENRICHMENT. This book is available by mail for $26.95 + $3.50 s/h. For orders from Massachusetts please add $1.35 for sales tax. Order from: Cape Software Press P. O. Box 800-5C Harwich MA 02645 ------------------------------ From: richard@mandarin.com Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 11:14:20 -0400 Subject: UK City (Geographic) Codes On Tue, 19 Sep 95 msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) asked: > When are they going to start using city codes in Britain that don't > start with (0)1? Probably in around 18 months time. Until then there will in most cases be too great a risk of a caller dialling a number without the extra "1". Our regulator has recently completed a period of consultation on future numbering changes: to which, surprisingly, the number of responses that were received were significantly greater than the number of responses to previous consultation exercises. There is now little doubt that further changes will be needed, as Reading (area code 1734) has already run out of numbers, and London itself will have run out of its two area codes (171 and 181) within at best three years, possibly as little as two years. There are only a small number of available area codes suitable for large cities: 118 and 119 are readily usable, while 110, 111 and 112 are thought to be at too great risk of being dialled in error to be used at this time. One of the options being considered is that of moving London to an 8-digit scheme, as area code splits are as unpopular here as they are in the USA, and overlay schemes are highly anticompetitive as we now have extensive competition for local dialtone. However the fact that in the UK local numbers outside the major cities have until now not started with the digit "9", means that some codes can be reused before the two year safety period is complete, provided that in the short term all numbers under that code commence with the digit "9". For example, to provide extra capacity in a city like Belfast (which is one of those high up the list of places at risk of running out of numbers) the present area code of 1232 could change to (for example) an area code of 392, with local six digit numbers currently in the range 2xxxxx-8xxxxx moving into the new range 92x xxxx to 98x xxxx: and allowing new numbers to be introduced in the ranges 90x xxxx and 91x xxxx. Although 392 was previously in use as the area code for Exeter, the fact that there were never any Exeter numbers in the range (392) 9xxxxx means that the Telcos can correctly intercept calls intended for Exeter numbers while allowing calls to reach the new Belfast numbers on (392) 9xx xxxx. I have seen proposals in Telecom DIGEST for the introduction of 8-digit local numbers in the NANP, with shorter area codes. This seems to me to be a far better way forward than the alternative of further code splits or overlays, and 8-digit numbers are already in extensive use in Europe (in Copenhagen and Paris), Japan, and elsewhere. Who knows, this could become a world standard! My text in this article is in the public domain. Richard D G Cox Mandarin Technology, PO Box 111, Penarth, South Glamorgan CF64 3YG Telephone: 0973 311111; Fax: 0973 311110; VoiceMail: 0941 151515 ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Cellular Support of 500 Numbers Date: Mon, 25 Sep 95 11:15:00 PDT Recently, Doug Reuben posted to the Digest describing a recent change in the network that disallowed 0+ 500 number dialing. As another reader suggested, the cause could be attributed to the Equal Access conversion. I can't definitively state that is the case. However, I've asked our New York operations to identify and resolve the matter. I will send another post to the Digest describing the resolution. Although 1+500 number calling may not be supported for a while (billing hooks are the issue), operator-assisted calling should be supported. Regards, Lynne Gregg Product Manager, Personal Services AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. Headquarters 5000 Carillon Point, Kirkland WA 98033 email: lynne.gregg@attws.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 11:55:05 -0500 From: Manuel Maese Subject: Question on Wireless Dear Pat, Everyday I enjoy your e-mails with the latest postings to the digest, even though I'm not an expert in Telco issues and where I'm really interested is in wireless communications. So I'd like to ask you if you, as the moderator of this list, have knowledge of other newsgroups or e-mail dist. lists (unfortunately, I have no direct access to the USENET, and need to receive everything via e-mail) that deal with issues more directly related to wireless comms. (cellular, paging, SMR/ESMR, CT-2, Wireless Local Loop, etc.). Maybe you know of the addresses of other moderators in communications groups that I could contact to see if I could subscribe to their lists also. I do have to admit that your list does feature quite some wireless articles, for wich I'm grateful, and keep me up to date with the situation in India (Techonomist), cellular issues from the consumer's point of view, etc. (I work for Geotek, an digital SMR provider and I recognize that most times, providers forget to look at their networks and services from the eye of the consumer, who's the one paying our salaries). I work in International Bus. Development, so if you know of other dist. lists in other countries that deal with wireless (in english, spanish, italian & portuguese not a problem), please let me know also. Well, thank you very much for your time. I hope you can help me in some way. Thanks again, Manolo Maese Geotek Communications, Inc. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Perhaps readers will respond direct to Mr. Maese with information about other mailing lists of interest. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 08:09:09 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Creating Cool Web Pages With HTML" by Taylor BKCCWPWH.RVW 950711 "Creating Cool Web Pages with HTML", Dave Taylor, 1995, 1-56884-454-9, U$19.99/C$27.99/UK#18.99 %A Dave Taylor %C 155 Bovet Road, Suite 310, San Mateo, CA 94402 %D 1995 %G 1-56884-454-9 %I IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. %O U$19.99/C$27.99/UK#18.99 415-312-0650 fax: 415-286-2740 kaday@aol.com %P 244 %T "Creating Cool Web Pages with HTML" As far as a tutorial on basic HTML (HyperText Markup Language) goes, Taylor runs Lemay's "Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in 21 Days" (cf. BKWPHTML.RVW) a very close second. The material in this book is clear, well organized, and attractively presented. An odd positioning is the early chapter on URLs (Uniform Resource Locators). This could have been included with or after the chapter on linking, but there are arguments to be made for its placement up front. Taylor then covers basic HTML, text styles, lists, pointers, and multimedia additions. There are some solid pointers on common traps for the novice. More advanced topics are touched on lightly. Netscape extensions get a chapter to themselves, but forms design and HTML+ seem to be last-minute add-ons. As for the "coolness" of your Web presentation, that's up to you. Design is mentioned briefly in random places. The best advice is to be found in the rather ironically named "Announcing Your Site" chapter -- which primarily announces a number of existing Web sites on the net. (The sites listed *are* those which link to others around the Web -- sometimes for a fee.) copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKCCWPWH.RVW 950711. 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 rslade@vanisl.decus.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 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 95 22:32:00 EST From: Michael Fumich <0003311835@mcimail.com> Subject: Interchangable NPA / Official Test Numbers The following are the official test numbers for the new NPA's coming online: 205 / 334 AL (334) 223-0600 1-15-95 206 / 360 WA (360) 576-0023 1-15-95 WA (360) 532-0023 1-15-95 713 / 281 TX (281) 792-TEST 3-1-95 602 / 520 AZ (520) 782-0100 3-19-95 303 / 970 CO (970) 241-0022 4-2-95 813 / 941 FL (941) 959-1650 5-28-95 703 / 540 VA (540) 829-9910 7-15-95 404 / 770 GA (770) 666-9999 8-1-95 203 / 860 CT (860) 203-0950 8-28-95 213 / 562 CA (562) 317-0317 9-2-95 305 / 954 FL (954) 236-4242 9-11-95 615 / 423 TN (423) 634-1928 (Chattanooga LATA) 9-11-95 TN (423) 594-9040 (Knoxville LATA) 9-11-95 TN (423) 283-4424 (Johnson City LATA) 9-11-95 809 / 441 (441) 295-7606 (Bermuda) 10-1-95 503 / 541 OR (541) 334-0057 11-5-95 OR (541) 276-0192 11-5-95 803 / 864 SC (864) 242-0040 12-3-95 904 / 352 FL 12-3-95 314 / 573 MO (573) 792-TEST 1-7-96 214 / 972 TX 2-1-96 612 / 320 MN (320) 252-0090 3-17-96 Additions to this list are welcome! Michael L. Fumich / E-Mail: <3311835@mcimail.com> / V-Mail: 708-461-5770 ------------------------------ Subject: Independent Cellular Network From: mark@lsi.ald.net (Mark E. Daniel) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 95 02:16:44 EDT Organization: Legendary Systems Incorporated. Mark's Connection to the WORLD.s A new Cellular prefix popped up here in Akron, Ohio. But I can't find anything about them in the phone book. And I'm wondering who they are and where they'll serve and how they'll serve, since we already have an A carrier (Cellular One) and a B carrier (GTE Mobilnet). I am courious to find out who ICN is. Perhaps they have cheap rates. :-). Any info? I suppose I could try Directory Assistance as a last resort. :-). ------------------------------ Subject: Cordless Phone Range Extenders Organization: Information Technologies/Network Resources; Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 12:39:49 -0400 From: Jeffrey C Honig I just received my "Phone Central" catalog (800/437-2160 if you want to order one). In it I see "Cordless Phone Range Extenders" made by Valor. They are nothing more than antennas and coax that attach to the antenna on a 900MHz or 46/49MHz cordless phone base unit to extend the range. Has anyone tried one of these? I have an AT&T 5475 that I can use for a couple hundred feet on my farm, but I'd like a bit more range. Eventually I plan on getting a 900MHz phone, but this looks like a quick $25 solution. Thanks, Jeff [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Quick solution perhaps, but considering that 900 meg phones have come down some in cost, why not just get one and get it over with? Then, watch for 'range extenders' on those to hit the market before long; again mostly being antennas which have been carefully cut and properly loaded to max out the range, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: awluck@interramp.com (Andrew Luck) Subject: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 16:41:52 GMT Organization: Personal Account w/ PSI , a commercial service provider Reply-To: awluck@interramp.com When my wife and I moved to Maryland (410) about 13 years ago, by pure happenstance we lucked into the 666 telephone exchange (Cockeysville MD). With even greater serendipity (or a service representative with an admirable sense of humor), we were given 5835 for digits 4-7. This made a really easy phone number for friends and others to remember: 666-LUCK . On both counts :-) . Now I am back in the south (Atlanta GA area code 770) and really would like to get that number back. But my younger sister (the cynic) says that in this part of the country there are "rules" against using certain numbers, such as 666. Beyond conflicts with area coding, which appears to be on the way out, are there certain numbers that simply aren't going to be used either nationally or in certain localities? How about 777 (three's a charm?) Or 888 (Dead man's Hand ?) And is 666 available in area code 1-500 ? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Wait until they sit up area code 666 in some part of the country. '666' is a number presumed by people of some religions to be 'very bad'. At one point it was thought that it would be impossible to find a long distance carrier willing to accept 10666 since it would handicap them in getting new customers (from those religions.) In the past here in the Digest, we have had articles about places in the USA and Canada where 666 is used, as in AC-666-xxxx. In a few cases, which should make everyone feel good, it turned out to be some federal government agency. I think in one case it was the Internal Revenue Service. Here in Chicago, 312-MONroe has been around simply forever. It is one of the oldest exchanges in the city, and a phone district is named for it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ian Angus Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 06:49:22 -0400 Subject: Canadian Calling Cards in US Several weeks ago, TELECOM DIGEST carried several letters relating to the use of Canadian telco calling cards in the US. The original writer asserted that AT&T was refusing to validate Canadian cards, presumably because Canada's major telcos are allied with MCI. This surprised many people, including me, because our Canadian callingv cards have always worked in the US in the past. In fact, after the original letter appeared, I used my Bell Canada card without trouble in Georgia and Florida. I have finally tracked down the source of the original writer's conclusion. CANADA DIRECT is a service offered by Canada's telcos, similar to AT&T's USA DIRECT. It allows Canadians travelling abroad to reach a Canadian operator and charge calls to a Canadian calling card at Canadian rates. On September 1, Canada Direct became available from the United States. Callers dial 1-800-555-1111 to use the service. This is unnecessary in most locations, since a Canadian card can be used simply by dialing "0" or using the payphone's swipe reader. The major US long distance carriers all accept Canadian cards. However, some small carriers and private payphone operators don't accept Canadian cards: the Canada Direct Option can be useful in such cases. IAN ANGUS Tel: 905-686-5050 ext 222 Angus TeleManagement Group Fax: 905-686-2655 8 Old Kingston Road e-mail: ianangus@angustel.ca Ajax Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 http://www.angustel.ca ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 95 18:13 CDT From: dattier@wwa.com (David W. Tamkin) Subject: The Unthinkable: Two Area Codes For Bridgeport Organization: TIPFKAG [World-Wide Access, Chicago, Illinois 60606-2804] Stan Schwartz wrote in in comp.dcom.telecom: > Ameritech Illinois has unveiled its much-anticipated boundary proposal > for two area code zones in Chicago. The shrunken 312 area code in the > city center would be larger than originally announced -- peaking north > of Armitage Avenue and extending to 35th Street on the south, Western > Avenue on the west and the lakefront on the east. Everywhere else > within the city limits would be in a new 773 area code. Apparently the proposed boundary follows exactly that of Chicago Zone 1, comprising the Calumet (Calumet CO), Franklin (Canal West, Franklin, and Lakeshore COs), Monroe (Monroe CO), Superior (Illinois-Dearborn and Superior COs), and Wabash (Canal East and Wabash COs) Exchanges. Zones 2 through 11 will switch to 773 (except for the part of Zone 3 in area code 708, which will remain in 708). You can tell that the mayor no longer lives in the Bridgeport neighbor- hood: the Calumet, Lafayette (Zone 6), and Oakland (Zone 7) districts meet in Bridgeport; many calls within the neighborhood will need to be dialed with eleven digits. Splitting Bridgeport would have been un- thinkable in the past. >... "It will be an inconvenience at first that will cost us some > money to change some forms -- but eventually, everybody will get used > to it," says Steve Larrick, chief executive of Chicago-based Chernin's > Shoes, whose North Halsted Street store would be just north of the 312 > border in the 773 area. It should be explained that Chernin's original store on Roosevelt Road has a Wabash phone number and will remain in 312, so the [still local] call between there and the Halsted Street store (served by the Lakeview CO of Chicago Zone 4) will have to be dialed with eleven digits. Personally, I don't mind that my neighborhood at the city's edge (in Zone 2) will get the new code instead of keeping the old one. I think "773" is grand: it's made up of all odd digits that add up to lucky seventeen. Also, if I have to call downtown from a rotary phone my finger will be less chafed dialing 1312 than 1773. David W. Tamkin dattier@wwa.com MCI Mail: 426-1818 "When lutefisk is outlawed, only outlaws will have lutefisk." -- bumper sticker I saw on a Nova PS: a very happy hatching anniversary to our Fearless Leader and a good, healthy, and prosperous 5756 to us all. TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Indeed, a very happy and prosperous new year is extended to all our Jewish readers. Things are very very quiet here in Skokie today, with all the public (and private) schools closed, most of the small shops closed, and only emergency functions in the Village government in operation. Skokie has a reputation for being 'all Jewish', and that is not true. It is true a sizeable number of residents here are Jewish; certainly many more than would be customarily found 'on average' in other towns across the USA. But an interesting thing about our village history is that there were *no Jews here at all* until about 1950. Prior to that, the village was largely German with a mixture of other northern European stock. The close of the Second World War saw both a name change for our village which previously was known as 'Niles Center, Illinois' to Skokie, and it brought an influx of Jews from Europe, a large number of whom had been in the concentration camps. The first ever Jewish religious services here were in the early 1950's and the small group of people involved met in the high school auditorium, which they rented for several months in the process of building their synagogue. Other synagogues were constructed at a rather rapid pace during the latter years of the 1950's and into the 1960's. Everyone has always been welcome in this little town, Jewish or not. The Jews were the newcomers here forty years ago, and nowdays there are lots of newcomers of many ethic backgrounds and faiths. The sad part though, is that as the older Jews -- the original ones that is, from the 1950's -- pass on, so much of the heritage and history is lost. The kids just are not learning it as they should. One day last summer, I was in the park chatting with a couple of the neighborhood (non-Jewish) teenagers. An old man walked past and sat at the bench near us. The kids looked at him as they tend to check-out any older person around them, and one of them noticed a number tatooed on his arm. "Hey, checkout the dude with the number tatoo on his arm," said the one. "Let's go ask him what it means." We talked about it a few minutes and they were amazed. Of course these kids have been born even since Frank Collin and the 'American Nazi Party' had their infamous march planned for Oakton Avenue. They had never heard of him either. It is sad ... it really is. Indeed, happy New Year, 5756. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #406 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa22063; 26 Sep 95 22:17 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id MAA00504 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 26 Sep 1995 12:21:16 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id MAA00496; Tue, 26 Sep 1995 12:21:13 -0500 Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 12:21:13 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199509261721.MAA00496@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #407 TELECOM Digest Tue, 26 Sep 95 12:21:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 407 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Why NOT Use 880? Why Not Use 88x? (Toll Free Numbering) (Paul Robinson) New NPA/NXX'S For Ooctober, 1995 (Paula Pettis) New Telephone Numbering Plan in Australia (Mark J. Cuccia) Need Information on 1A2 System Using "Regular Phones" (Les Fairall) Summary of RSA/Cylink Situation (was Re: Speaking of Netscape) (P. Kocher) Re: Netscape Secure Connection Technology Hacked! (Matthew Richardson) French Forum (FRFORUM) Explosion on CompuServe (JeanBernard Condat) Help with Rolm!!!! 9751 Questions (Brian Stoll) Has Anyone Used This Software? (Steve Morrow) Need Information on Latest CDPD Progress (Fardad Vakil) Last Laugh! Free SPAM Program (Carl Bittner) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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, 26 Sep 1995 02:57:41 EDT From: Paul Robinson Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company/TDR, Inc. Silver Spring, MD USA Subject: Why Not Use 880? Why Not Use 88x? (Toll Free Numbering) There was some mentioning here about the use by Australia of the "international area code" 1880 for calls dialed into 1800. I use quotes around that term because, as it should be well aware to readers of this forum, 1880 is not now in use as a dialing code, and it might be confusing, i.e. this was apparently a problem because people expect the number to be 1800. But sometimes solutions to problems come from unusual ideas, as I know from my own business. Why not have it that way for real? Use 880 and 800 as the same "area code"! Why not allow 880 and 800 to both represent the same service code/area code, and no longer state that 800 is the toll free area code? Or even easier, have 88x be assigned as the "Toll free code" system, e.g. "Dial 188 plus the 8-digit toll-free number." when someone is in the U.S., Canada and the North American multinational code 1809. Oh, wait, people will start complaining about loss of their valuable "800 name" trademarks, e.g. 800-FLOWERS, 800-THE-CARD, 800-TDARCOS, and, of course, the famous bumper sticker, "How am I driving? Call 1-800-EAT-S--T". :) Companies could still call their numbers 1-800, and they would still work, but the "technical" number being assigned to callers in 1-800 would actually be 1-880. Give this a very-long overlay, to allow those who have spent money on advertising, brand recognition, stationery, to allow them to change over as new advertising and other such materials are made. Make it, say, ten years, e.g. until December 31, 2005. After January 1, 2006, the 800 code would be removed from service, possibly being used for something else after some period of time, maybe around 2008, e.g. after two years of nonuse. This concept of a single large range of numbers, e.g. "88 plus 8," would simplify the toll-free dialing system since ALL toll-free numbers[1] in World Zone 1 would be under a single set of codes, i.e. 88 plus a single digit from 0 to 9 and the seven-digit number. This would also eliminate the problem of companies despirately wanting to duplicate their number in the new 888 space which is coming up. Because now, they would have to duplicate it in all TEN 88 "supercodes" (a new name I've coined to refer to a block of ten consecutive area codes all beginning with the same two digits.) This would provide advantages, such as allowing an organization to give out an eight-letter toll free number, or a ten letter one if the term they want to use begins with TU-, TV-, UT-, or VU-. Or they can still do something similar to what they are doing now: "Do you buy diskettes? Check our lowest prices. Dial toll-free 1-88-DISKETTE! Additionally, do you have a problem and need ideas to solve it? Call 1880-TDARCOS. From older exchanges dial 1-800-TDARCOS, all numbers toll free from anywhere in North America!" "Do you want to know what's on television? Subscribe to TV Listings now! Call Toll Free 1-TV-SHOWS-4U for our money saving offer! Fifty-six issues, in twelve easy installments of ten dollars, that's only half of three times the cover price! Call Now!" "You're stuck in a supermarket checkout stand when suddenly you realize you have no cash. What will you do? What will you do? Then you remember that your market takes the 'Get InDebt and stay till you die card,' If you don't have it, get it before it gets you. Dial 1-88-2-GET-IN-DEBT for a $10 discount off the usual $20 price for our free application. Don't go anywhere unless you Get InDebt first!" As it is clear, it adds a huge range of new numbers that interexchange companies can now sell to customers, it creates a single, unified supercode for assigning ALL transnational toll-free numbers within the U.S., Canada and the other 1809 countries in the North America dialing area. In fact, this idea is so simple, so clean a design and so lacking of any serious problems in implementing it that I am absolutely certain that it will never be done! It's too bad it's not difficult, hard to install, causes major problems to everyone, and is a pain in the derriere to implement. Then I know it would become {standard} almost before you can blink! Paul Robinson General Manager Tansin A. Darcos & Company/TDR, Inc. Among Other things, we sell and service ideas. Call 1-800-TDARCOS from anywhere in North America if you are interested in buying an idea to solve one of your problems. From Australia, dial the international dialing prefix, then 1-880-TDARCOS. :) Footnotes: [1] The "Enterprise" and "Zenith" pseudo-exchanges are still grandfathered for current customers for local toll-free extended area calls, and the exchange 950 in each area code is reserved for connection to a Feature-Group circuit of either a long-distance company or a customer wanting FG service as a form of Intra-LATA toll-free calling. I do not refer to these as "national" since they have to be set up specially in each LATA that they are to be enabled. Also, the 950 exchange is not accessible in a few areas of the country which have older equipment. ------------------------------ From: stuff@gdi.net Date: Mon, 25 Sep 95 20:37:00 PDT Subject: NEW NPA/NXX'S FOR OCTOBER 1995 NPA/NXX additions for October 1995 Note the following lists additions of NPA's & NXX's to North American Numbering Plan this month. NPA's which have been used in the past but for the first time appear in a new state are also shown here. NEW NPA Count: 1 423 KY NEW NPA-NXX Count: 356 201-287 NJ 201-395 NJ 201-840 NJ 202-235 DC 202-281 DC 202-314 DC 203-513 CT 203-613 CT 203-619 CT 205-214 AL 206-430 WA 207-521 ME 207-851 ME 209-230 CA 209-791 CA 210-473 TX 210-594 TX 210-764 TX 213-637 CA 214-599 TX 214-738 TX 215-255 PA 215-826 PA 215-845 PA 215-863 PA 216-309 OH 216-717 OH 217-265 IL 218-733 MN 301-664 MD 303-205 CO 303-315 CO 303-407 CO 303-501 CO 303-603 CO 303-715 CO 303-716 CO 303-813 CO 303-975 CO 305-604 FL 305-708 FL 305-816 FL 310-227 CA 310-622 CA 310-680 CA 312-361 IL 313-351 MI 313-398 MI 314-207 MO 314-209 MO 314-305 MO 315-814 NY 316-229 KS 317-216 IN 317-519 IN 317-570 IN 318-427 LA 318-789 LA 360-867 WA 360-874 WA 360-934 WA 404-369 GA 404-549 GA 404-647 GA 404-721 GA 404-747 GA 404-821 GA 405-750 OK 405-819 OK 407-230 FL 407-317 FL 407-370 FL 407-418 FL 407-476 FL 408-952 CA 410-738 MD 412-380 PA 412-420 PA 412-425 PA 412-450 PA 412-460 PA 412-467 PA 412-522 PA 412-552 PA 412-650 PA 412-799 PA 412-850 PA 412-876 PA 412-886 PA 412-888 PA 412-891 PA 412-982 PA 413-457 MA 413-493 MA 413-564 MA 413-626 MA 413-821 MA 413-834 MA 414-215 WI 414-219 WI 414-302 WI 414-303 WI 414-304 WI 414-306 WI 415-439 CA 415-633 CA 415-846 CA 415-874 CA 415-932 CA 423-249 KY 423-272 TN 423-397 TN 423-447 TN 423-554 TN 423-701 TN 423-739 TN 423-881 TN 423-907 TN 423-908 TN 423-916 TN 423-921 TN 423-949 TN 501-617 AR 501-917 AR 502-392 KY 504-428 LA 504-477 LA 504-681 LA 504-794 LA 505-726 NM 507-379 MN 508-341 MA 508-353 MA 508-424 MA 508-551 MA 508-581 MA 508-717 MA 508-923 MA 509-323 WA 509-744 WA 510-563 CA 510-780 CA 510-864 CA 512-436 TX 512-437 TX 512-481 TX 512-494 TX 513-215 OH 513-387 OH 515-362 IA 516-814 NY 518-814 NY 562-808 CA 562-817 CA 601-220 MS 601-578 MS 606-385 KY 607-814 NY 609-814 NJ 610-518 PA 610-530 PA 610-894 PA 612-301 MN 612-403 MN 612-407 MN 612-703 MN 612-806 MN 612-901 MN 612-903 MN 612-904 MN 614-359 OH 614-435 OH 614-941 OH 615-701 TN 615-907 TN 615-908 TN 615-916 TN 615-918 TN 616-398 MI 617-358 MA 617-363 MA 617-882 MA 617-883 MA 619-618 CA 619-639 CA 619-671 CA 702-393 NV 702-495 NV 702-682 NV 702-694 NV 702-730 NV 702-850 NV 702-880 NV 703-575 VA 704-618 NC 707-438 CA 713-500 TX 713-510 TX 713-512 TX 713-970 TX 714-430 CA 714-431 CA 714-460 CA 714-623 CA 714-901 CA 715-685 WI 716-240 NY 716-814 NY 717-221 PA 717-260 PA 717-331 PA 717-360 PA 717-603 PA 717-791 PA 718-537 NY 718-814 NY 719-381 CO 770-549 GA 770-647 GA 770-721 GA 770-747 GA 770-821 GA 801-431 UT 801-767 UT 803-719 SC 803-818 SC 803-819 SC 803-902 SC 804-416 VA 804-896 VA 805-276 CA 805-291 CA 805-572 CA 805-827 CA 808-274 HI 808-581 HI 808-974 HI 808-984 HI 810-337 MI 810-393 MI 810-582 MI 810-584 MI 810-780 MI 810-824 MI 810-835 MI 812-488 IN 813-308 FL 813-636 FL 814-343 PA 814-357 PA 814-363 PA 814-471 PA 814-543 PA 814-644 PA 814-686 PA 814-693 PA 814-762 PA 814-884 PA 814-951 PA 816-220 MO 817-820 TX 818-318 CA 818-588 CA 860-513 CT 860-613 CT 860-619 CT 860-701 CT 860-702 CT 860-704 CT 901-282 TN 901-771 TN 903-981 TX 904-210 FL 904-490 FL 904-515 FL 904-609 FL 904-719 FL 904-820 FL 907-761 AK 908-471 NJ 908-630 NJ 908-904 NJ 909-280 CA 909-716 CA 912-223 GA 912-392 GA 912-899 GA 913-248 KS 913-250 KS 913-323 KS 913-324 KS 913-328 KS 913-498 KS 914-814 NY 916-874 CA 916-875 CA 917-221 NY 917-388 NY 917-695 NY 917-814 NY 917-835 NY 941-401 FL 954-242 FL 954-296 FL 954-316 FL 954-321 FL 954-327 FL 954-349 FL 954-384 FL 954-389 FL 954-572 FL 954-581 FL 954-583 FL 954-584 FL 954-587 FL 954-608 FL 954-627 FL 954-704 FL 954-712 FL 954-713 FL 954-741 FL 954-742 FL 954-746 FL 954-747 FL 954-748 FL 954-749 FL 954-765 FL 954-768 FL 954-774 FL 954-779 FL 954-791 FL 954-792 FL 954-797 FL 954-814 FL 954-831 FL 954-832 FL 954-845 FL 954-846 FL 954-847 FL 954-848 FL 954-851 FL 954-855 FL 954-917 FL 954-968 FL 954-969 FL 954-970 FL 954-971 FL 954-972 FL 954-973 FL 954-974 FL 954-975 FL 954-977 FL 954-978 FL 954-979 FL 954-984 FL 970-407 CO Paula Pettis Stuff Software Telecommunications Email: stuff@gdi.net, http://www.gdi.net/stuff/stuff.html ------------------------------ From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: New Telephone Numbering Plan in Australia Date: 26 Sep 1995 03:49:14 GMT Organization: Tulane University Australia is undergoing a nationwide change to standard eight-digit local numbers and single digit (minus the initial 0) 'super' areacodes. Many locations are having to undergo a two (or even three) stage change of local numbers -- with the intermediary stages being that the first few digits of their current length telephone number are changed, and the final change being that the latter digits of their former areacode are tacked onto the front of their current length number. Except for the major cities, all other locations in Australia are going to have *new* single-digit 'super' areacodes (minus the initial 0). There are some reference documents at the website (and ftp sites) of Australia's TELSTRA (formerly Telecom-Australia) and AUSTEL (the government's regulatory agency which has taken over the numbering administration from Telecom-Australia). SEE: http://www.telstra.com.au/press/info/8-digits/8-digits.htm for Geoff Dyer's (u7910169@keystone.arch.unsw.edu.au) condensed description of the numbering changes. One of his sources was from a large AUSTEL document giving more details on the numbering plan changes. This document can be downloaded from: ftp://ftp.austel.gov.au/pub/reports/numplan.word.zip It is a PKZIP-compressed of 22 individual MS-Word 6.0c formatted documents. The individual 22 filenames when 'unzipped' will in alphabetical order, but the contents.doc file should help to be a guide to the order of the files. (There is NO readme.txt file, unfortunately). There are some graphics in these files which can only be viewed/printed in MW-Word 6.0c or better, but the text should be viewable/printable in MW-Word 6.0 (or maybe even less). This document is dated June 1995, and is the second edition of the new Austalian Numbering Plan. The first edition was April 1993. Other Austel webpages are at: http://www.austel.gov.au MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@law.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail ------------------------------ From: les@jaguNET.com (Les Fairall) Subject: Need Information on 1A2 System Using "Regular Phones" Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 01:49:08 GMT Organization: jaguNET Access Services I have an 1A2 system with several "single line" phones attached to it. The 1A2 is strapped with common ringing (provided by a separate ring generator. Problem is that if someone answers on a non-key phone (i.e. a regular off the shelf store bought phone that has been added w/a single line adapter), the system continues to ring all other phones for about ten seconds. (I believe that is the standard timeout for the 400E KTU cards that are in the system.) I remember years ago seeing a device that you could plug a normal phone into and it would sense it off hook and satsify the A/A1 connection and make the ktu see that line as in use. This would be great as it would (1) stop lines from ringing another ten seconds and (2) actually light the line up in use. Any helpful advice would be appreciated. I hope this message makes sense as I am an amatuer at "antique systems" but still enjoy making them work. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Use the second (normally unused) pair in the 'regular phone' to short the A/A1 line. Wire them through a relay in the 'regular phone' which would close on the phone going off hook. You will find a spare set of contacts in the phone for that purpose. When you provide the A/A1 supervision you will get what you want. PAT] ------------------------------ From: pck@netcom.com (Paul C. Kocher) Subject: Summary of RSA/Cylink Situation (was Re: Speaking of Netscape) Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 06:58:58 GMT John R Levine wrote: > I got a press release today that said that Cylink had won its patent > suit against RSA, and the court agreed that RSA had infringed Cylink's > patents on public key encryption. It's unfortunately much more complex than this. The dispute went to arbitration, where a ruling was made. Strangely, both parties now claim to have won completely. I've never seen two interrpretations of any legal document that are so different. There are actually two batches of patents involved in the suit, some from work done at MIT and some from Stanford. The MIT patents cover the RSA cryptosystem (a public key encrytion technique discovered by the founders of RSA Data Security, or RSADSI, which is a company), while the Stanford patents include Diffie-Hellman exponential key exchange and the original idea of public key cryptography. There are other ways to do public key cryptography besides RSA, though RSA is simpler and more popular than the other techniques. The Stanford patents, however, appear to cover the whold field of public key cryptography. Before this recent ruling, all the patents were controlled by Public Key Partners (PKP), which was run by Jim Bidzos. PKP was a partnership including Stanford, MIT, Cylink, and RSADSI and was run by Jim Bidzos, president of RSADSI. Cylink wanted to use and license the patents on its own, but was blocked by PKP, which started the whole mess. RSADSI has been selling toolkits that let people use technologies covered in the Stanford patents, and Cylink now claims that RSADSI didn't have rights to do this. Cylink has reportedly threatened to charge RSADSI's customers $50,000 each for using patents that weren't licensed correctly. RSA has now taken to claiming that the Stanford patents are invalid, to prevent Cylink from harrassing their customers. I think RSA is probably right here, since the Stanford patents weren't filed properly. (For example, they were submitted more than a year after the publication of the techniques they cover.) Meanwhile Cylink wants to be able to use the RSA cryptosystem without paying royalties to RSADSI, so they seem to now be claiming that the MIT patents are invalid! These patents actually seem fairly strong to me, so I don't think this claim would be likely to make it very far. Hopefully we'll know more soon about the situation. The outcome will have a big impact on the ability of companies to make and sell products using cryptography in the USA. Anything from encrypted encrypted telephones to secure e-mail to Internet commerce need public key technologies, so the outcome of the lawyering is quite important. Currently the patent licensing situation is a huge expensive mess for anyone trying to bring a product to market, and I'm hopeful that as a result of all this we'll soon have non-patented ways of doing public key cryptography. Cheers, Paul C. Kocher Independent cryptography/data security consultant E-mail: pck@netcom.com Voice/FAX: 415-354-8004 ------------------------------ From: matthew@cix.compulink.co.uk (Matthew Richardson) Subject: Re: Netscape Secure Connection Technology Hacked! Organization: I.T. Consultancy Limited, Jersey Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 20:50:40 GMT The details (as described by Netscape) can be found at:- http://home.netscape.com/newsref/std/random_seed_security.htm Basically their random number generator (used to generate the encryption keys) in insufficiently random. Thus the keys are reasonably easy to guess and hence break. ------------------------------ From: JeanBernard_Condat@eMail.FranceNet.fr (JeanBernard Condat) Reply-To: JeanBernard_Condat@eMail.FranceNet.fr Subject: French Forum (FRFORUM) Explosion on CompuServe Date: 26 Sep 1995 18:44:31 GMT Organization: FranceNet Bonjour, Since September 1st, you can access the French Forum (GO FRFORUM) on CompuServe services. The success will be so great that the French Paris' accesses was down during a complete night: too many people in the same forum. More than 4,500 daily users visit this French forum to find French up-to-date conversations on French subject of interest. Don't hesitate to visit this uncredible forum. Jean-Bernard Condat (sysop) 75162.767@CompuServe.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: JeanBernard writes to the Digest from time to time on telecom events in France. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bstoll@aol.com Subject: Help With Rolm! 9751 Questions Date: 22 Sep 1995 19:43:54 GMT Organization: Netcom Help!!! I need some help with the configuration of the Rolm 9751 models. I have been told the model 30E is capable of growing to 384 ports. Is that true? Is it still non-blocking? They are telling me that I may need to upgrade to a model 30EX. What is that and why would I need to upgrade? My company is thinking about networking our offices together and we want to use the Coronet software. Does anyone use this stuff? Are the features truely transparent across the network? Can anyone tell me about the data features of the PBX? I want to send data thru the telephone but I believe the only options the Rolm offers is async. Is that true? I was told the highest speeds they handle is 19.2K. If you have any information on the 9751 product I need your help. Please post a follow up. Thanks in advance, Brian ------------------------------ From: smorrow@dotrisc.cfr.usf.edu (Steve Morrow) Subject: Has Anyone Used This Software? Date: 26 Sep 1995 21:16:08 GMT Organization: University of South Florida Hi, As we progress in determining requirements for a new telemanagement system, we've obtained product info from several companies, including: Company Product ----------------- ----------------- Pinnacle Software Axis Telco Research Tru-Server Telemate TMI 5500 Angeles Group Cable Master/Call Master/etc PCR COMIT Do any of you use, or have seen, these products? Any opinions on these or others would be much appreciated! Thanks, Steve Morrow, Coordinator / DBA University of South Florida Internet: smorrow@dotrisc.cfr.usf.edu Voice: (813) 974-6889 ------------------------------ From: Fardad Vakil Subject: Need Information on Latest CDPD Progress Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 00:00:00 GMT Organization: Printrak International Hi there, I am looking for information and the latest progress on Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD). Your generous responses would sincerely be appreciated. Also, I would like to know which company has offered the best equipment for this technology. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: cbittner@squeaky.free.org (Carl Bittner) Subject: Last Laugh! Free SPAM Program Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 12:32:10 GMT Organization: Spammers 'R Us Reply-To: cbittner@squeaky.free.org HERE IT IS: ABSOLUTELY FREE Spam as many groups as you want with one command. Can post same message to 14,000 groups in just a few hours. Must have UNIX shell account, the attached script, and create two ascii text files called groups.txt and message.txt. The file groups.txt should contain a list of all groups you want to spam, one per line. If you want to hit everything, you can just copy your newsrc file, but you'll have to remove all index numbers and end of line punctuation. The message.txt file is the actual message you want to spam. It must contain the subject header on the first line, ie: Subject: Spamming is Fun. You may add in other headers, such as Organization, Paths, Reply to, etc, but none are required. Do NOT put in a newsgroup header. The script does that automatically. There must be a blank line between the last header and the start of the actual message. Then, download those two files plus the following script (call it spamming.fun) to your home directory on the Unix shell account, type "perl spamming.fun", and sit back to watch the fireworks. -----------------------Cut Here-------------------- #!perl #Assumes both Perl and Inews are accessible through #your home directory. If not, either place them in your path #or adjust the script. #You must also have a ascii text file called groups.txt, which #contains a list of each group you want to spam. One to a line. #No punctuation at end of line. #Your spam message must be called message.txt, and it should #be in ascii. The first line must be your subject header: # For example: Subject: this is spam. # You may add in other headers if you wish, but there must be a #blank line before your actual message begins. #run program by typing "perl spam.pl. # # #!perl print "Running...\n"; $newsrc = "$ENV{'HOME'}/testgrps.txt"; open(GROUPS, "$newsrc"); while($group=) {print "Posting to: $group"; open(NEWS,"|inews -h"); print NEWS "Newsgroups: $group"; open(MESSAGE, "message.txt"); while($line=) { print NEWS $line; } close NEWS; if($?==0) { $success++ } else { $fail++ }}$total = $success + $fail;print "Tried to post to $total groups.\n$success OK, $fail failed.\n"; ------------- cut here ---------------- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Just a couple notes that the author did not mention. If your groups file includes the names of moderated groups then attempts to post to them will of necessity fail, with your message going instead to the moderator's mailbox. You can eliminate this 'problem' by the addition of a line in the header, but I am not going to tell you which one, or what it says. Also, you should be aware that running this script will bring *lots* of attention to your site, and your postmaster/ sysadmin/news person may be busy for several days afterward cleaning up the mess and responding to hate messages sent threatening to kill him and you. In turn, he may in the worst case scenario try to hurt you, and in the best case scenario, simply cancel your account. People who respond back to you -- probably several thousand users -- will not wish you Happy New Year 5756, and they will probably set up a script of their own to send your spam back to you many times over with their compliments for your thoughtful gesture. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #407 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa21893; 26 Sep 95 22:15 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id NAA02634 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 26 Sep 1995 13:12:17 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id NAA02625; Tue, 26 Sep 1995 13:12:15 -0500 Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 13:12:15 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199509261812.NAA02625@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #408 TELECOM Digest Tue, 26 Sep 95 13:12:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 408 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Martin Kealey) Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? (Jerry Pruett) Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? (Jack Hamilton) Re: Cordless Phone Range Extenders (Ed Ellers) Re: Interchangable NPA / Official Test Numbers (Scott Robert Dawson) Re: Need DID Access in NY - NYTel Unresponsive! (Chuck Poole) Re: Canadian Calling Cards in US (Mark J. Cuccia) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Daniel Ganek) Re: Need Help To Deal With "Slamming" (Bruce McGuffin) Re: Voice Compression on T1s (Paul O'Nolan) Re: FCC Rules Against Carrier Kickbacks to ESPs (Geoffrey P. Waigh) Re: Pros and Cons About Making One Channel of T1 Data Line (Patton Turner) Re: Listen to Me on the Radio This Weekend (Emmanuel Goldstein) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: martin@kurahaupo.gen.nz (Martin Kealey) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Date: Tue, 26 Sep 95 18:14:10 NZST Tony Harminc wrote on 20 Sep 1995 in article : > Most of this has been dealt with by people pointing out that compelled > signalling is widely used in Germany and other parts of Europe, but > is essentially unknown in North America. > One point remains to be covered, however: > naddy@mips.pfalz.de (Christian Weisgerber) wrote: >> What is a phone number? For the most part, a phone number is a *route* >> through the network. > This is absolutely not true in North America. It seems that you are arguing at cross-purposes ... The term "network" needn't necessarily mean the actual hardware used to carry the call once a circuit is established, although I don't warrant that Herr Weisgerber necessarily made that distinction. Further, the routing for the setup needn't necessarily be along the same path for the actual call. A network is simply a collection of nodes and links between them. So, there is a virtual network in NANP, which can be navigated by taking groups of three digits at a time ... it's just that this network is not isomorphic to the actual phone circuits installed. What is useful though is that this "network" can be easily internalised by a human to whatever level of detail they like. However, viewed in this way, it seems a rather chaotic compared with other countries -- only three levels for a whole continent, and multiple routes to nearby physical locations. For example, we have up to four levels of such a virtual network, in a country only 1% the size. On the subject of internalising rules, I would note also that a hierachical numbering system similarly reduces the number of rules -- if a number looks similar to mine, then it's nearby, and the call should be cheap. For example, numbers in a small town 90 km to the north are all of the form +64-9-42-26-xxx. Numbers in the next calling area are all +64-9-42-xxxxx. Numbers on the northern side of my free calling area are +64-9-4xxxxxx; other sectors can similarly be identified from the first digit and the second digit generally indicates how far from the centre of town. A toll call from one of the northern adjacent calling areas costs more to the southern & eastern suburbs than to other parts of town. Area code "9" selects the northern part of the country. -=@@=- It was noted elsewhere that most countries are moving to uniform length numbers, partly because it also makes numbers easier for people to deal with; however this does not stop the demarcation between area code, prefix and trunk number from varying. For the mnemonic to be effective, all that is needed is that the length of all numbers in each local calling area be the same, or that some very simple rule exists to distinguish them; how they may divided up into area code, prefix or trunk isn't necessary to knowing if you have a complete number. > Tying the routing of a call to the digits in the number is the > huge failing of SxS switching systems. True, but it does lead to a hierachical numbering scheme that makes life easier for the end users, even if you aren't using SxS any more. Here in NZ we have 100% digital exchanges, and redundant network lines all over the place; however, we still have the human advantage of a hierachical numbering scheme. In simple terms, the more digits at the start of a number are the same as mine, the less the call is going to cost. [ Also true, we have yet to see portable numbers, but then we don't even have any dialtone competitors yet... By the way, are land-line numbers portable in NANP yet? ] > > Okay, you dial +49 or within Germany 0. > > Now you're on the long distance level of the German Telekom network. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is the clue that he isn't necessarily refering to the physical transport network. Each step represents a "level" for decoding the number, rather than necessarily an actual switch, although it may have done originally. >> You dial selects >> - <6> South western Germany. >> - 6<2> The Ludwigshafen/Mannheim area. >> - 62<1> The cities of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim themselves. >> - 621 <5> Ludwigshafen. >> - 621 5<8> The particular part of Ludwigshafen I live in. >> - 621 58<70460> That's my line. My phone is ringing! >> (Actually, the final 0 helps selecting a particular >> device on my ISDN line.) >> Easy, isn't it? > Easy yes -- but a disaster for planning and orderly growth. This sort > of design ensures that Germany will not have portable numbers for a > long time. Whilst this may make portable numbers a little more difficult, they are by no means impossible. On the other hand it seems that "planning and orderly growth" are in fact quite WELL catered for - the upgrade path can be made visible well in advance (possibly decades, but of course it's still possible for politics to hide this information). None of this messing round only getting told 1 year before which new area code you're going to get because which one will depend on how many other areas are in the queue ahead of yours, and on who complains loudest so they don't have to change. Two points: (A) considering Germany (or elsewhere). Once it is decided that local dialtone is considered a commodity service, then it should be detached from the numbering plan, and a separate (singular) entity should provide the core lookup services. I don't think there is anything that stops this working with compelled signalling? (B) considering NANP. What you say makes sense in terms of large and growing cities, but there's more to life than big cities. As I understand it, the reason that NANP needed to switch to NXX area codes was not because it had run out of numbers, but because it had run out of prefixes. If there hadn't been the rigidity that prefixes and area codes be exactly three digits, maybe this would have been alleviated. With the price of connectivity coming down, it is not unreasonable to consider that proxy lookup services would be at least a reasonable, if not better approach, than making each switch do its own database lookup? Indeed, isn't this how 800 number lookup already works? The local switch sees "1800" and then knows "collect 7 more digits and refer them to Bellcore" (or whoever). THEN a decision on routing the CALL is made. If compelled signalling were used, then the reply from Bellcore could come back "collect another four digits and refer to agency XXX for the next routing query". -=@@=- There is an assumption that changing phone numbers is an expensive exercise; well, I'm not trying to say that it's completely painless, but if *all* the numbers in an area change by adding a uniform prefix in front, it's far less expensive than when some numbers change and others don't. Furthermore it is relatively fair, since nobody gets to lobby that they should stay the same while everyone else has to change area codes. This makes it more a matter of public education than a cost to be borne individually. > Okay -- you are in Germany and you start to dial +1 40 ... > Now with your scheme, the local switch would have to pick up a trunk to > somewhere -- to where ? It isn't even known what country you are calling > yet! You note that up to six leading digits may need to be analysed to get a route *for the connected call* to a normal line, and even more may be required in other cases. However I don't think Herr Weisgerber claimed that you had to take the digits one at a time when choosing the next node -- it just you have the option of doing it that way since the numbers are well structured. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? From: kd4cim@vulcan.com (Jerry Pruett - KD4CIM) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 95 17:34:33 -0500 Organization: Vulcan - Live Long and Prosper! awluck@interramp.com (Andrew Luck) writes: > Now I am back in the south (Atlanta GA area code 770) and really would > like to get that number back. But my younger sister (the cynic) says > that in this part of the country there are "rules" against using > certain numbers, such as 666. Then you need to move to Marrietta - it has 770-666, also Mobile, AL 334-666, Lakeland, FL 941-666. > How about 777 (three's a charm?) 334-777 Deer Park, AL, 407-777 Indian Harbor, FL, 305-777 Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 404-777 Atlanta > Or 888 (Dead man's Hand ?) 404-888 Atlanta 404-222, 404-999 are also in Atlanta; 770-333 is in Smyrna, GA; 404/770-444 and 555 are not in use in GA, but there is a 205-444 in Birmingham, AL. (my office for example) 111 and 555 appear to be the only ones that are off limits - I guess 111 would confuse the switches too much and 555 is reserved for TV shows and Directory Assistance ;-) Note that NNXs (or is it NXX now) for 404 and 770 cannot be duplicated as the permissive dialing period hasn't expired for the 404/770 NPA split. Information obtained from the FCC #4 Tariffs issued by NECA. ------------------------------ From: jfh@acm.org (Jack Hamilton) Subject: Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 19:22:09 GMT Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access The TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > In the past here in the Digest, we have had articles about places in the > USA and Canada where 666 is used, as in AC-666-xxxx. In a few cases, which > should make everyone feel good, it turned out to be some federal government > agency. I think in one case it was the Internal Revenue Service. Here in > Chicago, 312-MONroe has been around simply forever. It is one of the oldest > exchanges in the city, and a phone district is named for it. PAT] In San Francisco, the 666 prefix belongs to the University of San Francisco, a Catholic college (Jesuit, I think). No doubt some heathen at Pacific Bell assigned it to them; I'd be surprised if they requested it, but who knows? Maybe they wanted to prove some point. Jack Hamilton jfh@acm.org Sacramento, California, USA kd6ttl@n0ary PGP Key fingerprint: B90D02076A05ADAF 12C1ECF47C4A39E1 1992 BMW K75RTA co-moderator, sci.med.aids ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Range Extenders Date: Mon, 25 Sep 95 22:38:08 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Jeffrey C Honig writes: > I just received my "Phone Central" catalog (800/437-2160 if you want > to order one). In it I see "Cordless Phone Range Extenders" made by > Valor. They are nothing more than antennas and coax that attach to > the antenna on a 900MHz or 46/49MHz cordless phone base unit to extend > the range. One little problem -- those things are barred by FCC rules, which state not only that cordless telephones' antennas must be no larger than a certain size but that they must be *permanently attached* to the unit, precisely to prevent the antenna from being placed on a rooftop (where it would cause more interference to other users). The reason so many 49 MHz base antennas are available is that they were legal for the older type of cordless phone that used a much lower frequency (around 1600-1700 kHz!) for the base-to-handset link; the outdoor antennas only worked for receiving on those, and were therefore legal. ------------------------------ From: srdawson@interlog.com (Scott Robert Dawson) Subject: Re: Interchangable NPA / Official Test Numbers Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 02:38:12 GMT Organization: InterLog Internet Services Michael Fumich <0003311835@mcimail.com> wrote: > The following are the official test numbers for the new NPA's > coming online: > 213 / 562 CA (562) 317-0317 9-2-95 I tried all of the numbers listed, dated as being active, and they all worked... _except_ (562) 317-0317. That one yielded a 'Your call cannot be completed as dialed' message, which did not sound like the Bell Canada message. Maybe that one doesn't work from 905? TTFN, Scott ------------------------------ From: cpoole@magg.net (Chuck Poole) Subject: Re: Need DID Access in NY - NYTel Unresponsive! Date: 25 Sep 1995 22:45:14 GMT Organization: Voiceware Systems, Inc. dreuben@interpage.net (Doug Reuben) writes: > We've recently come to the conclusion that DID *may* be better than > adding new phone lines all the time ...:) > With that in mind, I called down to the local New York Telephone business > center in New York City to inquire about rates, how it would be set up, > transition to DID, etc, ie, basic information. Most sales reps don't understand DID much less the way it is propagated. Furthermore, they don't really know anything technical about the equipment (PBX / Hybrids). Usually, they refer such matters to a Technical Service Rep. This person works with a number of sales reps and answers their questions. This is the most probable reason for doing business this way (asking for a fax). The other problem the LEC is faced with is the fact that you can get DID service just as easily from Teleport, and it's probably cheaper. So therefore, they have cut back on Technical Service reps (and everyone else) because their cost of doing business is relatively high. They know the writing is on the wall ... but they sure are having trouble adjusting to the non-monolopy way of doing business. Chuck Poole Voiceware Systems, Inc West Palm Beach, FL ------------------------------ From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: Canadian Calling Cards in US Date: 26 Sep 1995 03:21:52 GMT Organization: Tulane University Ian Angus wrote: > Several weeks ago, TELECOM DIGEST carried several letters relating to > the use of Canadian telco calling cards in the US. The original writer > asserted that AT&T was refusing to validate Canadian cards, presumably > because Canada's major telcos are allied with MCI. > This surprised many people, including me, because our Canadian > calling cards have always worked in the US in the past. In fact, > after the original letter appeared, I used my Bell Canada card without > trouble in Georgia and Florida. > I have finally tracked down the source of the original writer's conclusion. > On September 1, Canada Direct became available from the United States. > Callers dial 1-800-555-1111 to use the service. Using Canada Direct's 1-800-555-1111 will help Canadians travelling in the US to avoid many of the problems of COCOTS (private payphones) and their AOSlime operator 'services', if those AOSlimes 'accept' Canadian issued calling cards. But since many of these AOSlimers might not have billing agreements with the local Canadian telcos, they probably don't 'accept' valid Canadian cards. And, what do they mean by 'Canadian Rates' for using Canada Direct? Is it a 'generic' rate from 'anywhere' in the (continental) US? Or is it a Canadian tarriffed rate billed from the originating US NPA-NXX to the destination Canadian NPA-NXX? From what I've seen by researching the toll rates pages in Canadian telephone directories, Canadian rates to the US seem to be *higher* than US rates to Canada. Rates from the US to Canada are also much higher than comparable distance rates within the US domestically (unless you have AT&T's "True World" plan, which I recently 'had' to get). And domestic rates *within* Canada (inter-province) have seemed to be higher than Canada to US rates of comparable distance. Intra-province rates (just like domestic US inter-state rates) are the highest! Could it be that Bell Canada (and other Stentor member telcos) want Canadians travelling in the US to use 1-800-555-1111 since it probably will cost more than using (10-XXX/101-XXXX+)0+the ten digit Canadian number? BTW, I dialed 1-800-555-1111. It only allows you to enter *CANADIAN* destination ten-digit numbers. It rejected any attempts of (continental) US numbers. I don't know if this may change in the future, but I didn't even try to enter a Canadian number, followed by my AT&T and SCBell card numbers, since they would most likely be rejected. MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@law.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail ------------------------------ From: ganek@apollo.hp.com (Daniel Ganek) Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 13:49:07 GMT Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA In article rlm@netcom.com (Robert McMillin) writes: > On 18 Sep 1995 01:44:24 PDT, DYost@Taurus.Apple.com (Dave Yost) said: >> Our telephone systems should be straightforward enough that any child >> capable of remembering their phone number can be taught how to pick up >> any phone and dial their home phone number or 911. > Mr. Yost goes on to suggest that "We should work toward a standard > that would allow a child to dial simply 1 + area code + number from > any phone ... and get connected to their home." I presume for the > moment that Mr. Yost is a concerned parent, or certainly, is looking > out for the best interests of some child or children, somewhere. The > problem I have with this proposal is simply that it takes a > Procrustean approach to child safety, regardless of its effects on > adults. > By this approach, we should make the world completely and utterly safe > for four-year-olds. This is the rallying cry currently used as a > justification for censoring adults on the Internet. Adults use cars, > airplanes, lathes, pornography, and slaughterhouses, all of which are > patently unsafe (or at least, unwise) for four-year-old operation. > Not everything can -- or should -- be made child-safe. Mr. McMillin is missing the point. We don't propose that 11-digit dialing be REQUIRED in order to make a phone call. We are simply stating that it is be ALLOWED. I certainly don't want to dial a lot a digits when it's not necessary -- but even this 51 year old has been in many situations where I'm not sure whether I should use 7, 10 or 11 digits. My 4 year old is just learning to dial now I and it would be VERY simple if I could tell him to dial 1-508-nnn-xxxx. Just yesterday a cell phone user was compaining that he couldn't program his phone to use 11 digits because some areas don't allow it for local calls. I live is one of those brain-damaged states that say that 1+ is a toll call -- of course with all the dialing plans available that's only true for ONE plan and that's not even the cheapest! dan ------------------------------ From: mcguffin@ll.mit.edu (Bruce McGuffin) Subject: Re: Need Help To Deal With "Slamming" Date: Tue, 26 Sep 95 10:16:54 -0400 Organization: MIT Lincoln Laboratory KBC6891 (KC6891@megaweb.com) wrote: > A friend of mine in Mass was ripped off by some small long distance > company by illegal connection without consent. That person has had > some deep discount package to call with MCI so he/she called abroad > alot unknowing that the line had been slammed to some other company. > That result to a very, very big LD bills with some outrageous charges. Slamming is illegal. There are various tricks that these companies use to get you to agree to be switched over without realizing it, but most do not hold up in court. Both the FCC and the Massachussetts Attorney General have recently developed an interest in slamming, after basically ignoring the problem for years. Your friend probably does not need to sue in civil court. Tell your friend to: 1) call the attorney general and the FCC to complain; 2) call the local phone company, tell them he/she was slammed, and does not intend to pay the outrageous LD charges, and 3) call the old long distance carrier, tell them he/she was slammed and wants to return to their old service right away. With any luck at all, that should take care of the problem. Bruce McGuffin ------------------------------ From: Paul O'Nolan Subject: Re: Voice Compression on T1s Organization: NLnet Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 22:14:00 GMT In article , writes: > I would like to hear from anyone with experience using voice > compression techniques in T1 muxes. I need as much of the bandwidth of > my T1s as possible for data, but had to cost-justify the T1s by > including reductions in voice telco expenses. I will probably be using > Newbridge muxes (3600 & 3624), which seem to support a voice-path at > as low as 8kbps. Although it leaves more for data, I'm concerned about > degraded quality. Of 8, 16 or 32kbps, I'm sure 32 is the least > objectionable for the telemarketing people who will be on the phones, > but what kind of quality might I expect? Are there other mux vendors > who provide better quality at low bandwidths? Mark, I'm using a MICOM with 12kpbs (9.6 was noticeably poor) voice channels. Newbridge was on the shortlist, as was Netrix. There are trade offs between quality of voice compression and adaptive reallocation of bandwidth. Good luck. ------------------------------ From: g9gwaigh@cdf.toronto.edu (Geoffrey P Waigh) Subject: Re: FCC Rules Against Carrier Kickbacks to ESPs Organization: University of Toronto Computing Disciplines Facility Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 18:17:31 GMT Tony Harminc writes: > It seems implausible that the FCC would attempt to tell US carriers > that they may not connect to certain numbers outside the US based > either on the content of certain calls or on the (presumably confidential) > billing arrangements between the non-US carriers and their subscribers. Err, why? The US has a rich history of trying to regulate activities in foreign countries. In particular, not too long ago, one of the US government agencies forced American telco's to block calls to Canadian service providers that permitted people in America to call Cuba. I don't remember how it was resolved, but I think the service providers just shut down rather get into a prolonged battle. So long as the telco's moved quickly to block access to "inappropriate" destinations nodes on the PSTN as they are discovered, I would think that most of the Christian Fundamentalists would tolerate the situation. Geoffrey Waigh Fault-tolerant means you need to drop g9gwaigh@cdf.utoronto.ca two screwdrivers in the power cabinet. ------------------------------ From: pturner@netcom.com (Patton M Turner) Subject: Re: Pros and Cons About Making One Channel of T1 Data Line Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 13:35:31 GMT Lou DeFonzo writes: > rolland@mcs.com (Rolland Suh) wrote: >> We are thinking about getting 56KB dedicated line to the Internet. We >> already have a T1 voice line, and wondering if it would be cost >> effective for us to use one of the channels of existing T1, over >> getting a new dediccated line. Any idea on this? > Assuming that you are not using all 24 DS0s, this would be an > excellent way of gaining internet access. However, this will depend on > who your carrier is for the T1 and who you are planning to use for > your Internet Access Provider. This will require that your CSU is > capable of providing Drop and Insert capability and that it can > support a DSU. Basically a DSU/CSU with Drop and Insert capability. It depends on a number of things: Do you have the space on the T1? If the T1 is going to the IXC and the 56 is an inter LATA circuit, you will save even more. If the T1 terminates on the LECs switch you will save less. As the above poster said you will need a CSU/DSU capabile of doing drop and insert or a D/I channel bank added after the CSU. This assumes you don't already use a channel bank in which case you can drop in a OCUDP or DSUDP card. Patton Turner KB4GRZ FAA Telecommunications pturner@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: emmanuel@2600.com (Emmanuel Goldstein) Subject: Re: Listen to Me on the Radio This Weekend Date: 26 Sep 1995 08:59:01 GMT Organization: 2600 Magazine - The Hacker Quarterly TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) (telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu) wrote: > Fred Goldstein and myself will be guests on the Spectrum show Saturday > night. We both hope you will be able to listen and call in with any > questions you might have. > Emmanuel Goldstein has been the host of this popular program since > its inception a few years ago. The topic for the show this week is > the recent breakup of AT&T into various separate and distinct parts. No, the popular show I've been host of for several years is "Off The Hook" which airs on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York Wednesdays at 10 pm (moving to Tuesdays at 8 pm starting 10/3). I've gotten a lot of mail from people wanting to know about this "other" show I'm doing. I've gotten a bit curious myself. emmanuel@2600.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ooops! That was my error, sorry. The show I was on Saturday night with Fred Goldstein was Spectrum, not your show. It was an interesting program, and my thanks to those of you who listened or called in with comments. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #408 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa24301; 27 Sep 95 3:32 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA10966 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 26 Sep 1995 17:40:33 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA10958; Tue, 26 Sep 1995 17:40:31 -0500 Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 17:40:31 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199509262240.RAA10958@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #409 TELECOM Digest Tue, 26 Sep 95 17:40:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 409 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Cell One/NY Fraud Control Problems, More (Jeffrey Rhodes) Re: IS95 Standard (Sona Kapadia) Re: FBI Arrests America Online Users (Ron Bean) Re: FBI Arrests America Online Users (dunscomb@aol.com) Re: Hi-Speed via POTS (Dave Harrison) Re: Area Code Split Dates (Robert McMillin) Re: Help Needed Increasing UTP Segments (John N. Dreystadt) Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number (Gordon Burditt) Re: Voice Compression on T1s (Gerald Mori) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Dik Winter) Re: War On Payphones (Nude Maid Service) (Ron Bean) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: jcr@creator.nwest.attws.com (Jeffrey Rhodes) Subject: Re: Cell One/NY Fraud Control Problems, More Date: 26 Sep 1995 19:38:03 GMT Organization: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. Reply-To: jcr@creator.nwest.attws.com In article 1@eecs.nwu.edu, dreuben@interpage.net (Doug Reuben) writes: > Recently, Cell One/NY (00025) announced mandatory use of the *560/*56 > Fraud Protection Feature. Deleted: an excellent discription of the FPF feature and excellent feedback. > 2. Cell One/NY recently, and quite foolishly, commenced mandatory 1+ > dialing for most calls, even in many cases for calls within their own > service area. This has been explained to me as a "requirement" since AT&T > now owns them, but unless this "requirement" is specific to AT&T-owned > properties under the MFJ, I am not aware of any such MFJ, DOJ or other > requirement on the Bell-owned carriers. Indeed, most of them do NOT > require 1+ dialing in their markets, ever for roamers. The 1+ requirement is a result of McCaw's conversion to Equal Access which is required by the 1994 Consent Decree between the DoJ and AT&T. Now that Cell One/NY has been converted to Equal Access, 60% of all McCaw/Cellular One markets are converted, which means the company has the right to call itself AT&T Wireless (which has greater brand name recognition than McCaw Cellular). Basically, 1+ ten digits implies that the call will be charged regular airtime plus maybe something else. Seven or ten digits can imply no extra charge. Depending on the cell of origin and the destination digits dialed, a toll charge is either paid to the mobile subscriber's Preferred Interexchange Carrier (PIC) or the toll is paid to ATTWS who is able to route calls on their own facilities within a Local Calling Service (LCSA). LCSAs are similar to LATAs under the MFJ. ATTWS is able to route 1+ calls to ATT Commericial Long Lines when the mobile's IS41 PIC is not locally supported or because the PIC is not known, eg. not delivered by IS41 or is delivered blank. You also noticed that roamers need to dial 1+tendigits even when the tendigits destination is not charged toll. I guess the "roaming" airtime surcharge is the implied "toll" in this case. > My cellphone is programmed with mainly 10-digit numbers. In some markets, > 10-digit dialing is REQUIRED, and 11 digit will fail. I really don't want > to have TWO sets of numbers in memory, one for CO/NY, the rest for eslewhere. I like the way my Ericsson TDMA cellphone handles this. I can program local seven digit numbers and preprogram 1206 to be prepended to any stored seven digit numbers when the Roaming Lamp is lit on the cellphone. For the case you mentioned I could change 1206 to 206, but my eleven digit entries would be useless. A market that supports ten digit toll dialing and does not support 1+ten digit toll dialing must not be required to meet Equal Access obligations. > What happens? When a caller calls your CO/NY number that has been > forwarded, they get a recording "Your call can not be completed as > dialed". You need to dial "*71-1-AC+#" from roaming markets as well to > forward your calls properly. Another pain in the neck with is IMHO > unecessary, and will lead to customer confusion. There are so few > customers who use their features currently, in part because of the > complications involved in roaming and previous frustrating experiences; > this new problem makes it even less likely that they will ever want to > use their features. You're preaching to the choir. This problem can be minimised by requiring *71+ eleven and rejecting any *71+ < eleven attempts. Personally, I promote *711 + ten, *71 + ten and *71 + seven as acceptable. When a mobile dials *71 + seven, they mean MIN's NPA + seven=ten, so when it comes time to route a forwarded call, they mean 1+ MINNPA + seven=eleven. I also like the feature *71- to reestablish call forwarding to the last established call forward to destination without having to resend the destination. These dialing features are non-uniform. The Equal Access conversion process has spurned an internal drive for Standard Customer dialing translations at all ATTWS switch. > 4. CO/NY customers who forwarded their calls in CT (in the Metro Mobile > system, not in CO/NY's "country" system in Litchfield, CT, which they got > after the local system failed to attract customers. Of course, they were > charging 60 cents per minute for HOME customers in an area of CT populated > mainly by cows...) were NOT able to unforward them, even though Metro > Mobile reported the confirmation tones upon the roamer's request to > unforward the call. This led the customer to think that he/she could > receive calls, when in fact, they were still being forwarded. I hate it when that happens. Personally, I always call my number after confirmation tone, to make sure what I think happens, really has happened. IS41 has some holes to fill. Jeffrey Rhodes at jcr@creator.nwest.attws.com ------------------------------ From: Sona Kapadia Subject: Re: IS95 Standard Date: 26 Sep 1995 19:59:00 GMT Organization: Nokia Group maverick@kom.auc.dk (Hans Peter Oestergaard) wrote: > I am currently writing my Masters thesis on Interference Cancellation > for a DS-CDMA system and therefore need some information to simulate a > real-world realistic system. > Is there anybody who could tell me if Qualcomm's proposed standard > (IS95) are available anywhere on the net or somewhere else where it > could be ordered and delivered fast. None of the libraries around here > (In Denmark) seems to be able to get it and the ftp cite at Qualcomm > doesn't include the main chapters with specific details. IS-95 is published by TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association). Their address and number to call for ordering standards, as listed in my copy of IS-95 is as follows: Telecommunications Industry Association Standards and Technology Department 2500 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, VA 22201 Global Engineering Documents, USA and Canada: 1-800-854-7179 International: 303-397-7956 Sona ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Sep 95 19:04 CDT From: madnix.uucp!zaphod@nicmad.nicolet.com (Ron Bean) Subject: Re: FBI Arrests America Online Users clifto@indep1.chi.il.us (Clifton T. Sharp) writes: > In article PAT writes: >> New users would often complain, "well I don't know >> who this person (the sysop) is; I am not going to give out my name, >> phone number and address to a stranger", and my answer always was, but PAT, I didn't mind giving my address and phone number, but some sysops had a whole laundry list of questions they wanted you to answer -- how old are you, what do you do for a living, what brand of CPU do you have (I always answered "NEC V20", taking the position that "CPU" means the microprocessor chip and not the whole motherboard). I could never figure out what they thought they were going to do with all that other information -- I think some of them were just on a power trip. Interestingly, I only had *one* sysop call to verify my identity. That one was a UUCP site. Once I got access to usenet, I pretty much gave up on BBS's. BTW, back then quite a few sysops still wrote their own software, sometimes on obscure machines (some even ran in interpreted BASIC, with a few key routines in assembler). MSDOS clones were still relatively expensive, and most BBS's had no hard disks (they only lasted about 8000 hours, which is about a year in continuous use). About the time clones with hard disks started getting cheaper, shareware BBS packages were starting to became available, and a lot of non-techies were becoming sysops. This changed the character of the BBS world quite a bit. madnix!zaphod@nicmad.nicolet.com (Ron Bean) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know what you are saying is true. The age and occupation questions made sense occassionally when the sysop was trying to run a serious social issues discussion type board (these were the forerunners of let's say, one of the Usenet groups today dealing with social issues.) I had a user profile section on one of my BBSs which users who had contributed to were entitled to review, and because I had such a wide age span (a couple of guys in their fifties -- older than me at the time by far; a couple of younger guys about fifteen and every age in between) it often times helped place their messages in the proper context by having an idea of *who* was writing them. I always left that stuff as optional; all I demanded was some recourse to the user in the event of hassles. Also, for those guys running a so-called 'adult board' or with an 'adult' section, age was critical to insure they were not inadvertently providing the younger 'under-age' guys with stuff that could get the sysop in trouble. I never did run adult stuff so that was not a concern to me. And yes, some of the sysops indeed were on a power trip; they exercised considerable authority over their boards, and yet when inappropriate got posted, they were the first ones to cry and whine about how 'I cannot be held responsible for stuff posted here.' PAT] ------------------------------ From: dunscomb@aol.com (Dunscomb) Subject: Re: FBI Arrests America Online Users Date: 26 Sep 1995 09:06:22 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Pat, you're getting "humongous" junk mail on AOL? Must be that your celebrity status makes you a magnet for the stuff. Or maybe you're just unlucky. I get and send a lot of e-mail on AOL, all of it personal and desired, and I see no junk or spam except for a once-a-month "newsletter" that I never read. But then, I'm a dull man. Or, maybe I'm just lucky. Since CIS charges for Internet mail, and AOL doesn't, for me it's the least expensive service around. (Cheap enough to make me put up with the kiddycar mail facilities, even. Maybe with AOL 3.0 they'll get mail facilities as good as those on CIS. Or, maybe 5.0, or 8 ...) ------------------------------ From: west@via.net (Dave Harrison) Subject: Re: Hi-Speed via POTS Date: 26 Sep 1995 04:59:28 GMT Organization: American Tripe Producers Council Robert Ricketts (rkr@pel.com) wrote: > Greetings. I'm looking for a couple of boxes that does the following: > A B C D E (see below) > | | | | | | I think Telebit makes a device to combine multiple dial ups to a single higher speed. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 01:24:44 -0700 From: rlm@netcom.com (Robert McMillin) Subject: Re: Area Code Split Dates On 21 Sep 1995 07:34:13 PDT, lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) said: > The splits are listed in order by the date of the END of permissive > dialing. > NEW OLD START FINAL ST Place/Comment > -- --- ----- ----- --------------------------------------------- > 562 310 02/01/97 08/01/97 CA Los Angeles area; details not finalized Interesting. According to a recent article in the Marina Del Rey {Argonaut}, the cutover is scheduled to start around 06/96, with permissive dialing ending early in 1997 -- a very aggressive schedule. Also, this list doesn't cover the alleged split of the 818 area code into 818 and 626 (?) along geographic lines, with San Fernando Valley cities (Burbank, Pasadena, Studio City, Van Nuys, etc.) retaining the 818 area code, and San Gabriel Valley cities (Azusa, the Covinas, etc.) adopting the new 626 NPA. I heard about this (if I recall, it was a mailing in my Pac*Bell bill) several months back, but have heard nothing since. Am I hallucinating? Trivia question for fellow Angelenos: within the city limits of Los Angeles, how many area codes are there? How many within the County of Los Angeles? ------------------------------ From: johnd@mail.ic.net (John N. Dreystadt) Subject: Re: Help Needed Increasing UTP Segments Date: 23 Sep 1995 15:07:06 GMT Organization: ICNET... Your Link To The Internet... +1.313.998.0090 Reply-To: johnd@mail.ic.net In article , gettings@econnect.net says: > The maximum length of an ethernet UTP segment is said to be 300 feet or 100 > meters. Does anyone know of a low cost repeater or amplifier to allow more > than this length between the hub and the workstation? Check out the FAQ for comp.dcom.cabling or comp.dcom.ethernet. There are several methods for extending the length, but they are going to depend on the configuration of the rest of your network. You have to worry about speed of light delays within a single collision domain so if the rest of your network is large enough, you will have to use a router. More likely, you can just stick another hub halfway between. Another option would be to use 10Base-2 (thinwire) between the hub you need to reach and the workstation as 10Base-2 has about twice the distance. Many hubs have a single 10Base-2 connector on the back. John Dreystadt ------------------------------ From: gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number Slowed Things Down Organization: Gordon Burditt Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 04:16:49 GMT > We are to blame for this though, in most cases we do not > take the time to educate the citizens that 9-1-1 is for life > threatening emergencies *ONLY*. Please educate the *POLICE* that 9-1-1 is for life threatening emergencies ONLY. A few years ago I was the victim of a hit-and-run rear-ender accident. I was stopped, waiting to turn left, waiting for oncoming traffic to clear. The police showed up quickly (I did not have to call them; apparently there was a cruiser half a block away.) I had a banged-up arm but nothing that needed medical attention. The car seat back broke. The car was totalled, although it wouldn't have taken much damage (e.g. dirty windshield or empty gas tank) to total this junker car. The police officer told me I'd need a copy of the accident report for insurance and to call 911 in a few days. I ended up asking for a repeat three times because I didn't believe I was hearing correctly. Several days later I called the normal police number. I was told to call 911 for the accident report. I refused. After about five calls I threatened to sue (I was bluffing) using the name of a local lawyer a friend had mentioned once, and reminded the officer that he had the right to remain silent. Finally I got my accident report (well, they sent it direct to the insurance company). They never did catch the guy. But a few months later they added a center-turn-lane to the site of the accident. Gordon L. Burditt sneaky.lerctr.org!gordon ------------------------------ From: gmori@idirect.com (Gerald Mori) Subject: Re: Voice Compression on T1s Organization: ComputerLink Internet Direct. Date: 26 Sep 95 06:54:11 GMT Jim McGrath (Jim_McGrath@gw.pps.com) wrote: > I would like to hear from anyone with experience using voice > compression techniques in T1 muxes. I need as much of the bandwidth of > my T1s as possible for data, but had to cost-justify the T1s by > including reductions in voice telco expenses. I will probably be using > Newbridge muxes (3600 & 3624), which seem to support a voice-path at > as low as 8kbps. Although it leaves more for data, I'm concerned about > degraded quality. Of 8, 16 or 32kbps, I'm sure 32 is the least > objectionable for the telemarketing people who will be on the phones, > but what kind of quality might I expect? Are there other mux vendors > who provide better quality at low bandwidths? The company I used to work for was heavy into Newbridge muxes for both voice and data. I've heard voice calls at 32k and 16k and they were intelligible with 32k obviously better sounding than the 16k. I think 16k is the absolutr minimum you'd want to run at. Although I haven't tried 8k myself I spoke to one of the techs who tested a voice call at 8k and he said it was OK in that you could understand the person on the other end but the total lack of sound quality it was somewhat irritating to deal with, whatever that means. :-) When we first installed a bunch of 3600s engineering thought it would be a good idea to put all our voice customers on 32k channels in order to save money (or make more). Of course, a lot of customers were using their voice channels for data as well and that pretty much put an end to that plan. Jerry Internet Direct Have you heard about our (416)233-2999, 359 lines our Do-It-Yourself Webserver? T1 bandwidth, 300-28,800 bps http://web.idirect.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 01:34:50 GMT From: Dik.Winter@cwi.nl Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers > One point remains to be covered, however: >> What is a phone number? For the most part, a phone number is a *route* >> through the network. > This is absolutely not true in North America. Nor is it true in the Netherlands. But we manage variable length phone numbers very well. When somebody dials 06 (the start of the free and premium numbers, as well as the equivalent of 911 in the US plus all cellular phones), a connection is made with the central switch for such numbers in Rotterdam. No trunk, only a signalling channel. Based on what follows said switch will tell the asking switch to routine it either to some particular switch (which may be the switch itself if the number translates to a local connection) or to signal that the number is not in use. Moreover, because there is a hierarchical structure amongst switches some things have to go up and down to/from parent/child switches. For instance, I dial 0611 (emergency number). 06 goes to Rotterdam which expects more digits and when it sees the second 1 it decides that the number expands to a local number and hands it back again. If I dial 0632032012 again 06 goes to Rotterdam which at some instance (after 320320) knows where the call should be routed to and signals that the remainder should go to a particular switch. But similar things work with area codes. If I was living in the place were I was born (Warffum) and I were to dial 0206372010, the switch would know at the digit two that it is not for itself and would forward it higher up (Groningen). Groningen can decide routing when the 0 is received and at that stage forward it to Amsterdam, setting up a signalling channel between Warffum and Amsterdam. And finally when the number is completed a speech channel is set up for the connection. However, if the number I dial is in Delfzijl (05960-..., area code for Warffum is 05950), Groningen might well decide on a direct link between Warffum and Delfzijl for call forwarding; bypassing all lines to Groningen (provided of course that such a link exists). dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj amsterdam, nederland, +31205924098 home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn amsterdam, nederland; e-mail: dik@cwi.nl ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 26 Sep 95 19:47 CDT From: madnix.uucp!zaphod@nicmad.nicolet.com (Ron Bean) Subject: Re: War On Payphones (Nude Maid Service) echack@crl.com (Edmund C. Hack) writes: > all this is coordinated via pagers and/or cell phones. In the sex > trade, if you call an "escort service" or a "nude maid service", the Are you saying that "nude maid service" is being used as a euphemism for prostitution? Too bad, I always liked the idea. The first such service I heard about was a guy who called himself the "Naked Poet Housecleaning Service". He was for real: He'd come to your house, take off his clothes, *and recite poetry while he cleaned your house* (yes, he really cleaned the house). He admitted that it was a gimmick, but he was unemployed and it worked. Nobody touched anybody. No word on whether the poetry was any good, but he didn't do windows (for obvious reasons :-). More recently other people have tried larger services, with actual employees (always female, which does make one wonder...). As far as I know, they really did clean houses, and supposedly nobody touched anybody. IMHO it lost a bit in the translation, and I don't know if they're still around. Businesses based on gimmicks tend not to last very long. Anyway, it might be worth mentioning that there are people who take things like nudism and massage seriously; it's not always a cover for something else (see alt.nude and alt.backrubs). Hmm, I think that should be rec.nude, not alt.nude. We don't get it here, so I'm going by memory. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are still 'escort' and 'massage' services around. So many, in fact, that the few legitimate ones have to emphasize 'no sex' in their advertising, and even then some customers assume they only put that there to discourage the perverts without really meaning it. About 35-40 years ago, there used to be a daily radio program called 'City Court' which was broadcast live from the police misdemeanor courtroom at the police administration building downtown. It was on the air from 9:00 AM until more or less noon every weekday, depending on when the judge decided to break for lunch. It was a very popular program, with lots of listeners who had a prurient interest in the cases on trial that day, and of course the 'trials' themselves were a joke. Ninety or ninety-five percent of the judge's caseload was sex- related. There were a few spitters on the sidewalk and litterers and people who smoked on the streetcars, but by and large it was people the vice-cops had arrested the night before. In-between the occassional 'refused pay his fare to the streetcar conductor' and 'was caught shoplifting at Sears' were dozens of prostitution, indecent exposure, and 'lewd and/or disorderly conduct' cases. A very popular radio program similar to (but not nearly as sophisticated as) today's Court TV, people would listen eagerly to see if they recog- nized the names of any of the people 'on trial' that day. It included a regular cast of characters; people who were invariably the complaining witnesses, including five or six 'vice cops' from the Chicago Police Department, the house detective at the Lawson YMCA, security personnel at department stores downtown, etc. You were perfectly welcome to be in the audience if you wanted; all you had to do was show up at the eleventh floor police courtroom at the main police headquarters each morning. Of course if you were unfortunate enough to have gotten arrested the night before, you were on the show whether you liked it or not. The courtroom itself was a smelly, nasty-looking place, with a large 'bullpen' in back and a connecting door where the prisoners would come in as they were called. The radio station went on the air at 9 although they seldom started the court until ten or fifteen minutes after that when the judge arrived. As the first order of business, after the courtoom bailiff had announced there would be 'no talking, no smoking, no newspaper reading, everyone pay attention and no disrepect for the court' the bullpen door would open and anywhere from a dozen to a hundred women would form a line in the order their names were called. Most were dressed as they had been the night before when 'on duty', but badly in need by this time of a bath and clean clothes. Each 'trial' took about ten seconds as the matron would motion for them to leave tbe bullpen and approach the bench where their name would be read, and the judge would say 'guilty, punishment is time served' and bang his gavel, which was the signal for the matron to send the next one. They would sas-shay across the front of the courtroom in a beligerant manner, pausing usually to say 'thank you judge' and leave. Once this exercise was complete, which usually took 10-15 minutes, the judge would break for coffee and a cigarette, then come back about 9:30 for the next session. When court resumed, following the bailiff's warning to the audience, the 'more involved' cases began. These were cases where there was some dispute in the testimony to be given. The same two vice-cops would stand there, as case after case was heard. Like poker players, they stood there with poker faces expecting to win some and lose some; not caring either way. The cops always had the same old story, with variations: "Well judge, me and my partner were having breakfast at the drug store in the Palmer House Hotel. As we were leaving, this woman (here, a pause for the obligatory identification of the defendant) approached us and offered to perform a sex act for money." Naturally, offended by hearing such a thing they arrested her. The woman of course would explain it in a much different way. "I left the drug store and was waiting for the elevator to go upstairs to my room when these men approached me and they asked me 'how much?'. Well I just ignored them and got on the elevator but they got on with me and got off on the same floor I got off. They asked me again, 'how much do you charge?' and I just walked away but as I was going in my room, the one grabbed me and said I was arrested." The judge would listen to it all and give his verdict one way or the other. Roughly half the time he said 'innocent' and the other half the time he said 'guilty, one month court supervision, twenty dollar fine'. The defendant would say thank you, and leave with the two poker faced cops showing no emotion at all and just standing there for the next case to be called. Average time for trial was about five minutes, maybe ten. Now and again they would have a 'major case' such as an alleged house of prostitution being raided with all the employees and customers who were present at the time brought in. For some reason, those same two vice-cops found themselves in more unusual situations in which they were 'shocked and offended' in a day's time than most people find in a lifetime. By comparison, the 'refused to pay streetcar fare' people and shoplifters, who were given their trials in the third session when court resumed about 11:00 AM after the judge took another break were quite tame and boring. But City Court was a popular and widely-listened to radio program each day. A small red light on the judge's podium was used to let the judge (and others) know when they were 'on the air', and the judge, who had to run for re-election now and then would make a point of doing all his blustering and hell-raising when that light was on so everyone would hear him. Then that light would go off when the radio station took a break for a commerical message, and that is when the judge would dismiss the case or say 'guilty, with time served.' PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #409 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa14188; 28 Sep 95 19:43 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id KAA20752 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 28 Sep 1995 10:33:17 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id KAA20741; Thu, 28 Sep 1995 10:33:13 -0500 Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 10:33:13 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199509281533.KAA20741@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #410 TELECOM Digest Thu, 28 Sep 95 10:33:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 410 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson 3rd Quarter NPA Report (David Esan) GlobeSpan (ISDN Speeds on POTS) (Brian McNally) Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Christopher Ambler) The Irony of the AT&T Breakup (Robert Jacobson) Traffic Measurement System For UNIX (Didier Bertrand) Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! (W. Craig Trader) CIS no Longer Charges For Internet Mail (Stan Schwartz) Will NA Caller ID Boxes Work in Europe? (Aldo Cook) Lots of Goofups This Week (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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: de@moscom.com (David Esan) Subject: 3rd Quarter NPA Report Date: 28 Sep 95 12:02:37 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 #17 in the series. I'm a little late this quarter, but it has been a busy time, so forgive me. 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 August 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 April, 1995 213: 736 (1, 7) area code --^^^ ^^^ ^------- number of new exchanges |-------------- total number of exchanges 206: 778 ( 1, 0) 703: 722 ( 6, 23) 813: 707 ( 7, 17) 314: 673 (17, 20) 602: 774 ( 2, -1) 503: 720 (12, 42) 615: 703 (14, 29) 203: 670 (19, 28) 708: 765 ( 4, 12) 305: 719 ( 9, 34) 214: 700 (15, 31) 212: 657 (16, 0) 713: 740 ( 5, 13) 803: 715 ( 8, 30) 303: 690 (13, 14) 312: 648 (23, 28) 216: 728 (10, 43) 404: 712 (11, 31) 604: 679 (18, 27) 904: 646 (22, 19) 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. 708 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 4. 713 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 5. 216 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 6. 703 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 7. 503 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 8. 305 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 9. 803 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 10. 404 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 11. 813 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 12. 615 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 13. 214 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 14. 303 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 15. 604 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 16. 314 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 17. 203 - split is in progress. Number should be reduced by split. 18. 312 - split is planned. Number should be reduced by split. 20. 904 - split is in progress. 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: 906: 117 - Michigan's Upper Peninsula (no change) 807: 109 - Western Ontario (no change) 630: 44 - Remnants of 708 proposed split (+15) 281: 41 - Overlay of 713 (+18) 441: 18 - Bermuda 562: 3 - Test exchanges in Los Angeles -> The NPAs with the greatest growth rates are: NPA % growth 281 78.26 630 51.72 917 12.96 941 12.66 334 12.58 510 10.14 415 10.14 215 10.11 610 9.84 810 9.74 -> The 10 NPAs with the least growth rates are: NPA % growth 715 0 709 0 507 0 316 0 306 0 212 0 206 0 602 -.12 (Probably due to our correcting the our database.) 902 -.35 (Probably due to our correcting the our database.) 205 -30.29 (Deletions of 334 area code) -> There are 93 NPAs (59% of the total, and increase of 7%) that have exchanges that are in the x00 to x19 range. They are: 201 310 506 619 815 202 312 510 630 816 203 313 512 703 817 204 314 513 704 818 205 317 517 706 860 206 334 519 707 903 209 360 520 708 904 210 403 540 713 905 212 404 541 714 908 213 407 601 718 909 214 408 602 770 910 215 409 604 803 912 216 410 609 804 916 219 414 610 805 917 281 415 612 808 919 301 416 614 809 941 303 423 615 810 954 305 501 616 813 970 306 503 618 -> Just for grins: The most used NXX (not counting 555) is 456 used in 126 (80%) 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: 206: 778 619: 620 412: 505 801: 437 505: 372 423: 324 806: 271 602: 774 501: 620 614: 499 907: 430 517: 371 808: 323 706: 270 708: 765 817: 612 601: 487 219: 429 905: 369 819: 322 709: 269 713: 740 804: 596 516: 487 408: 424 304: 369 606: 314 603: 266 216: 728 809: 594 714: 485 914: 423 770: 368 218: 314 970: 251 703: 722 414: 579 913: 482 502: 415 204: 367 360: 312 417: 236 503: 720 405: 573 215: 479 919: 414 319: 363 860: 307 707: 224 305: 719 717: 565 810: 473 512: 408 702: 362 812: 306 308: 221 803: 715 317: 556 515: 468 318: 406 909: 357 917: 305 719: 217 404: 712 816: 553 301: 466 406: 404 815: 351 903: 305 506: 211 813: 707 201: 549 416: 465 316: 404 409: 351 712: 299 307: 199 615: 703 617: 547 402: 463 912: 402 334: 349 705: 297 802: 187 214: 700 513: 541 910: 461 519: 402 540: 348 518: 297 607: 185 303: 690 210: 539 306: 459 217: 402 610: 346 315: 296 401: 169 604: 679 410: 537 716: 456 701: 391 541: 346 814: 290 302: 155 314: 673 407: 536 209: 455 805: 389 915: 345 509: 288 413: 150 203: 670 205: 536 313: 454 605: 380 208: 340 901: 287 906: 117 212: 657 916: 535 504: 449 609: 379 941: 338 309: 285 807: 109 312: 648 514: 532 908: 448 418: 374 918: 336 902: 284 630: 44 904: 646 718: 521 704: 445 419: 373 613: 334 608: 284 281: 41 403: 642 415: 521 510: 445 207: 373 715: 328 507: 284 441: 18 612: 639 818: 519 213: 443 618: 372 202: 327 954: 272 562: 3 310: 626 508: 506 616: 439 520: 372 David Esan de@moscom.com ------------------------------ From: brian mcnally Subject: GlobeSpan (ISDN Speeds on POTS) Date: 28 Sep 1995 00:24:57 GMT Organization: iActive, Inc. What is the deal with this? Has anyone else head of this? Is this for real or is this netBS? Garrick Case (813)530-8221 AT&T PARADYNE UNVEILS MODERN MODEM TECHNOLOGY, WHICH WILL OPEN THE WINDOW TO A WORLD OF MULTIMEDIA SERVICES FOR THE MASSES The new technology will send video and other multimedia offerings over the copper phone line, thus complementing other AT&T high-speed solutions for accelerated, universal access to new services. LARGO, FLORIDA - SEPTEMBER 21, 1995 - Modem evolution made dramatic progress today with AT&T Paradyne's introduction of digital transmission technology that operates more than 70 times faster than currently available modems and enables widespread video telephony services over a single, copper, phone line. AT&T Bell Laboratories and AT&T Paradyne have developed a new application for its GlobeSpanTM technology platform that is the first single line solution to transmit simultaneous voice and data at a range of speeds up to T1 and E1 (1.544 Mbps to 2.048 Mbps) in both directions. AT&T Paradyne describes this as SDSL (symmetric-digital- subscriber-line) technology. GlobeSpan is a current solution to provide high-speed access over existing phone lines and complements emerging fiber-based networks. Bi-directional speeds for GlobeSpan SDSL will range from 128 Kbps to E1, with initial availability set for December 1995. Potential applications using GlobeSpan-based products include distance learning, remote LAN access, work-at-home, high-speed Internet access, remote medical imaging, remote interactive game participation and interactive video services. "This technology will allow worldwide phone companies to make the information superhighway as universally accessible as today's telephone, radio and TV services," said AT&T Paradyne Director of Business Development, Clete Gardenhour. "The technology can open access to new multimedia telephone communications (MTC) services to anyone over the common telephone line. At a touch of a button, SDSL will enable anyone with a telephone line, a telephone and a computer or television to access new services, while simultaneously conducting a phone conversation on the same phone line. This is what the information age promise is all about. "It's a new communications dimension that will change the use of telephones, televisions and computers. GlobeSpan technology will enable on-line service providers to offer video programming via the computer." The GlobeSpan chipset enables one common hardware platform to support SDSL, ADSL (asymmetric-digital-subscriber-line) and HDSL (high-bit-rate, digital subscriber line) applications. The flexibility of the GlobeSpan technology to use common chip components will increase chip volumes and help drive down the costs of products and ultimately, the cost of provisioning service. GlobeSpan SDSL offers many advantages. Service providers may use SDSL for access to multiple data services, including fractional T1/E1, X.25, frame relay, Internet access and ISDN. Projected transmission distances will reach more than 17,000 feet (5.1 kilometers) at 384 Kbps, including standard telephone service on the same phone line. When phone service is offered with SDSL, it will not be disrupted by the transmission of data or video, or the loss of customer premises electrical power. Additionally, the cost of SDSL will be less than HDSL because it requires nearly one-half of the transceiver components and only one copper wire phone line. AT&T Paradyne licenses GlobeSpan technology to worldwide telephone equipment manufacturers, who include Advanced Video Access(USA), Cheng-Hwa Communication(Taiwan), Hyundai Electronic Industries Co., Ltd.(Korea), Il-Jin Telecom Electronics Co., Ltd.(Korea), IPM Datacom S.r.l.(Italy), Lucky Goldstar Information & Communications(Korea), NEC Australia Pty. Ltd.(Australia), Performance Telecom(USA), Quadraplex Incorporated(USA), Schmid Telecom(Switzerland), Westell(USA) and Westell International(USA). Based in Largo, Florida, AT&T Paradyne is a division of AT&T and a leading worldwide technology innovator for solutions that allow easy access to worldwide networks for communications and entertainment. [X] Read GlobeSpan 6M BPS ADSL Transceiver Technology Data Sheet on the Web using Adobe TM Acrobat TM [X] Read GlobeSpan E1 HDSL Transceiver Technology Data Sheet on the Web using Adobe TM Acrobat TM [X] Read GlobeSpan T1/E1 ADSL Transceiver Technology Data Sheet on the Web using Adobe TM Acrobat TM [X] Download FREE Acrobat Reader Software [X] Configure Acrobat Reader Software to read files on the Web GlobeSpan is a trademark of AT&T. ---------------------------------------- [ ] Meridian - AT&T Paradyne Products Lodestone - Industry News and Views Antares - Other Stuff Tech Info Axis - Home Visitor Feedback Form This link requires a browser that can read forms commander@pdnis.paradyne.com ------------------------------------ Check out the URL : WWW.paradyne.att.com and tell me what you think. ------------------------------ From: chris@ivanova.punk.net (Christopher Ambler) Subject: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Date: 27 Sep 1995 23:44:10 GMT Organization: Punknet Internet Cooperative, San Luis Obispo, CA We have 26 lines (residential POTS) and 1 ISDN line into our house. (For the curious, we have an internet cooperative amongst 20 people, ISDN carries internet to my house, and then 20 modems take it all over town to the members). Pac*Bell told us, when we ordered our last three lines, that we could only have one of them, and that we were then maxxed out. Their story is that we've used all the pairs up my street save for the spares to each other house (for which I've heard anywhere from one to five pairs per house). I called "Home Office" on Monday to enquire as to the cost to get two more lines. I told them that engineering had told me no more unless I pay for trenching, etc. The lady told me, "Well, there are nine pairs to your area available, and three available to your house." I found this hard to believe, but decided to test it, and ordered a line (POTS/res/meas). She assigned me a number and a date for install. Today (a day before the install date), an engineer came out and was rather rude with me, telling me that there's been a block placed on my address, such that we can have no more lines. He said we can pay upwards of $10,000 (ten thousand dollars!) to have the area rewired. But I got a firm commitment from the business office ... Do I have any recourse here? We need more lines, and this is getting very frustrating. (C) Copyright, 1995 Christopher Ambler, Director, Punknet Internet Cooperative San Luis Obispo, California Punknet: Home Page: My hovercraft is full of eels ------------------------------ From: cyberoid@u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) Subject: The Irony of the AT&T Breakup Date: 27 Sep 1995 09:01:29 GMT Organization: University of Washington, Seattle But for the fact that the RBOCs are now independent entities, the AT&T breakup now being undertaken by the company itself is pretty close to that originally demanded by the Justice Department before the Reagan Administration and AT&T renegotiated the Settlement. The original plan, for those who remember, would have severed AT&T's network services from its Western Electric manufacturing facilities. Antitrust lawyers look better and better with each corporate flub. Bob ------------------------------ From: dib@cct.hydro.qc.ca (Didier Bertrand) Subject: Traffic Measurement System for UNIX Reply-To: dib@cct.hydro.qc.ca Organization: Hydro-Quebec, Montreal, QC, Canada Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 10:30:44 -0400 I'm looking for a commercial traffic measurement system running on UNIX (Sun sparc) supporting the Northern Telecom Meridian 1 switch and that can handle up to 300 switches. Anybody have an idea? Didier Betrand, Hydro-Quebec, Quebec, Canada. dib@cct.hydro.qc.ca. ------------------------------ From: ct7@datatel.com (W. Craig Trader) Subject: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! Date: Wed, 27 Sep 95 20:31:15 GMT Organization: Datatel, Inc. Help! I've been slammed by WilTel (and I can't get up). I live in Northern Virginia. I was just checking my August Bell Atlantic bill, where I noted a strange $5.00 charge for Long Distance Company, 1 line(s) for WilTel, Inc. I called Bell Atlantic and asked about it, and they assured me that the charge was legit. I replied that I had made no such change, so they've returned the charge to WilTel, and marked my account for no further changes. So I'm OK to date, but what I have questions about is: 1. What's the contact number for WilTel? 2. I'm going to see seven weeks worth of phone calls billed to WilTel. What are my rights regarding not paying them? Do I have to pay WilTel for this disservice? 3. What other steps should I take? My deepest appreciation in advance for any help that can be rendered in this time of dire need. W. Craig Trader, Programmer/Analyst, Datatel, Inc. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This comes up here frequently. You should pay WilTel the amount you expected to pay your regular carrier. You have to pay *something* since you did make the calls expecting (I assume!) to pay for them. Unless you can prove the change was made deliberatly in a fraudulent way, there is probably nothing more you should do. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Stan Schwartz Subject: CIS No Longer Charges For Internet Mail Date: Wed, 27 Sep 1995 21:04:51 -0400 dunscomb@aol.com (Dunscomb) wrote: > Since CIS charges for Internet mail, and AOL doesn't, for me it's the > least expensive service around. (Cheap enough to make me put up with > the kiddycar mail facilities, even. Maybe with AOL 3.0 they'll get mail = > facilities as good as those on CIS. Or, maybe 5.0, or 8 ...) Actually, CIS no longer charges for internet mail, and their basic = monthly plan is the same as AOL's. ($9.95 for the first five hours, $2.95 = each additional). A "frequent user" plan is available for $24.95 for 20 = hours and $1.95 each additional. Stan ------------------------------ From: Subject: Will NA Caller ID Boxes Work in Europe? Date: 26 Sep 1995 22:25:50 GMT Organization: Magic Online Services Toronto Inc. Hi there! I have been trying to get the answer to this but no one seems to know. Any help would be appreciated! My friend's family (in Poland) were watching a local TV program that mentioned the fact that calling line id was available in the area (Warsaw). They would like to know if the calling id boxes that we can buy here (I'm in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area) would work if they were sent there? I thinking that they wouldn't unless the local CO was obviously offering this service to the public and the boxes were compatible standard-wise between here and Europe. Does Poland also run on 210/220 VAC electricity -- is a converter of some sort required? Also, do they use the RJ-11/12/45 standards for cabling that we do? Thanks! Aldo [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What caller-ID boxes do you know that run on AC rather than battery? I have never heard of this. PAT] ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Lots of Goofups This Week Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 10:20:00 CDT Two major problems this week: Here in the Chicago area, a contractor cut through a MAJOR group of cables in one of the western suburbs leaving several thousand phone subscribers without service. Not for a few hours; not for the day; *but all this week*! ... Three or four west suburban communities have been totally dead since the start of this week, with Ameritech repair crews working around the clock and still not able to get it all sorted out. Apparently their outside plant records at that location were, ummm ... deficient. Day by day they have been getting customers back online, and the process has been one of going one by one through *thousands* of pairs which were not identified correctly and tracing them -- one by one -- out to the subscriber and back to the central office. Ameritech says their lawyers are looking into it. They were about ninety percent restored as of this morning and hope the work will all be complete later today. The other major screw-up involved pagers. Did yours go off this week? Apparently someone in Houston sent a signal to a satellite (?) which in turn caused several satellite receivers to shut down. Does anyone have further details on this? PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #410 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa25441; 29 Sep 95 18:39 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA15395 for telecomlist-outbound; Fri, 29 Sep 1995 09:27:21 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA15387; Fri, 29 Sep 1995 09:27:19 -0500 Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 09:27:19 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199509291427.JAA15387@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #411 TELECOM Digest Fri, 29 Sep 95 09:27:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 411 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson UC Berkeley Short Courses on Communications (Harvey Stern) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Richard Eyre-Eagles) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Steven Lichter) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Curtis Wheeler) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Dave Harrison) Re: Hi-Speed via POTS (Tim Williams) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Toby Nixon) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Steve Cogorno) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: UC Berkeley Short Courses on Communications Date: 28 Sep 1995 19:46:12 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley U.C. Berkeley Continuing Education in Engineering Announces 4 Short Courses on Broadband Communications, Wireless Networks SONET/ATM-BASED BROADBAND NETWORKS: Systems, Architectures and Designs (November 29-December1, 1995) It is widely accepted that future broadband networks will be based on the SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) standards and the ATM (Asynchronous transfer Mode) technique. This course is an in-depth examination of the fundamental concepts and the implementation issues for development of future high-speed networks. Topics include: Broadband ISDN Transfer Protocol, high speed computer/network interface (HiPPI), ATM switch architectures, ATM network congestion/flow control, VLSI designs in SONET/ATM networks. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. Lecturer: H. Jonathan Chao, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Brooklyn Polytechnic University. Dr. Chao holds more than a dozen patents and has authored over 40 technical publications in the areas of ATM switches, high-speed computer communications, and congestion/flow control in ATM networks. MODERN TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Wide Area Networks, Personal Communication Systems, Network Management and Control, and Multimedia Applications (November 2-3, 1995) This course is designed as a gentle but comprehensive overview of telecommunications including current status and future directions. This course traces the evolution of telecommunications, starting from its voice roots and progressing through local, metropolitan, and wide area networks, narrowband ISDN, asynchronous transfer mode, broadband ISDN, satellite systems, optical communications, cellular radio, personal communication systems, all-optical networks, and multimedia services. Lecturer: Anthony S. Acampora, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering, Columbia University. He is Director, Center for Telecommunications Research. He became a professor following a 20 year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, is an IEEE Fellow, and is a former member of the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors. NETWORKS FOR DIGITAL WIRELESS ACCESS: Cellular, Voice, Data, Packet, and Personal Communication Systems (November 8-10, 1995) This comprehensive course is focused on the principles, technologies, system architectures, standards, and market forces driving wireless access. At the core of this course are the cellular/microcellular/ frequency reuse concepts needed to enable adequate wireless access capacity for Personal Communication Services (PCS). Presented are both the physical-level issues associated with wireless access and the network-level issues arising from the inherent mobility of the subscriber. Standards are fully treated including GSM (TDMA), IS-54 (North American TDMA), IS-95 (CDMA), CT2, DCT 900/CT3, IEEE 802.11, DCS 1800, and Iridium. Emerging concepts for wireless ATM are also developed. This course is intended for engineers who are currently active or anticipate future involvement in this field. Lecturer: Anthony S. Acampora, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical Engineering, Columbia University. He is Director, Center for Telecommunications Research. He became a professor following a 20 year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, is an IEEE Fellow, and is a former member of the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors. ATM DATA COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS: Internetworking, Signaling and Network Management (November 27-28, 1995) This short course examines the key issues involved in designing and implementing high-performance local and wide area networks. Topics include: technology drivers, data protocols, signaling, network management, internetworking and applications. Lecturer: William E. Stephens, Ph.D., is the Head of the Wireless and ATM Networking Group at the David Sarnoff Research Center. Prior to this he was Director, High-Speed Switching and Storage Technology Group, Applied Research, Bellcore. Dr. Stephens has over 40 publications and one patent in the field of optical communications. He has served on several technical program committees, including IEEE GLOBECOM and the IEEE Electronic Components Technology Conference, and has served as Guest Editor for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. For more information (complete course descriptions, outlines, instructor bios, etc.) send your postal address or fax to: Harvey Stern or Loretta Lindley U.C. Berkeley Extension/Southbay 800 El Camino Real Ste. 150 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Tel: (415) 323-8141 Fax: (415) 323-1438 email: southbay@garnet.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ From: rec@goodnet.com (Richard Eyre-Eagles) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Organization: GoodNet Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 03:29:57 GMT Christopher Ambler (chris@ivanova.punk.net) wrote: > But I got a firm commitment from the business office ... > Do I have any recourse here? We need more lines, and this is getting > very frustrating. I know your situation. I used to work for Pacific Bell in the Residence Business Office. I worked with BBS's. Unforutnately, us who want more than six lines are really considered as 'excessive users'. There was a time when they tried to force all of the BBSs to business service. In a residential area, there is at least one cable pair reserved for each residential unit (this includes apartments and 'rear houses'). This is caled CT'ing the pairs. Once you hit your max (which you have), that's pretty much it. You have a few choices on where to go from here: 1) Pay the construction charges. If your operation is long term, it may be a huge outlay but it may pay-off in the future. 2) Switch your lines to business and consider having your lines brought on a digital entrance facility. In this configuration, your lines are brought in on a T-1. You will need to purchase 'channel banks' so the T-1 lines can be converted back to analog so you can use your existing modems. Each T-1 only takes 2 pairs and can hold up to -24- lines. When I worked for Pacific, I tried to get digital entrance facilities approved for residence, but ol' Paccy*Bell did not budge. 3) Primary Rate ISDN. 23B and 1D channel on your first circuit, 24B on each additional. You can have your internet connection ride one of these channels and have your users ride on the other 22. 4) Pacific Bell's public packet switching. You can have a high speed connection to Pacific's network and other users can call a Pacific Bell port number and type your 'address' then they will be connected to you. There are a few boards using this. Unfortunately, Pacific Bell has tolarence for it's high user residential customers but they will not bend over backwards for them. Maybe if you ordered a 100 line Centrex and paid all the installation charges up front, you may see some movement in the vertabrae. I now live in US West area and I am being threatened with construction charges for anything over six lines, even though the F-2 going down my street has 15 pairs available (I currently have 2). Good-Luck ... please E-mail me if I can be of any help. BTW, are you in Northern or Southern CA? Richard Eyre-Eagles, KJ7MU Tempe, Arizona ------------------------------ From: slichte@cello.gina.calstate.edu (Steven Lichter) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Date: 28 Sep 1995 14:21:12 -0700 Organization: GINA and CORE+ Services of The California State University I guess PacBell could look at your operation as a business, even though you say it is not. In fact you are all paying for a common point to access The Internet. Since you live in a non-business area they might not have enough pairs to supply such a venture. Though they did give you a firm ok, they may have an out. I guess you could go to the PUC, but then the PUC in their very strange ways may say that you are in fact a busineness then your rates will go through the roof. I guess PacBell feels that since the lines are used just for incoming they are not making any oney other then the monthly service charge. The PUC is really your only option and it could blow up in you face. The above are my ideas and have nothing to do with whoever my employer is. SysOp Apple Elite II and OggNet Hub (909)359-5338 2400/14.4 24 hours, Home of GBBS/LLUCE Support for the Apple II. slichte@cello.gina.calstate.edu ------------------------------ From: Curtis Wheeler Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Date: 29 Sep 1995 04:15:35 GMT Organization: CCnet Communications chris@ivanova.punk.net (Christopher Ambler) wrote: > We have 26 lines (residential POTS) and 1 ISDN line into our house. (For > the curious, we have an internet cooperative amongst 20 people, ISDN > carries internet to my house, and then 20 modems take it all over town > to the members). [out of pairs story snipped] > Today (a day before the install date), an engineer came out and was > rather rude with me, telling me that there's been a block placed on my > address, such that we can have no more lines. He said we can pay > upwards of $10,000 (ten thousand dollars!) to have the area rewired. > But I got a firm commitment from the business office ... > Do I have any recourse here? We need more lines, and this is getting > very frustrating. Your recourse would be the PUC. I don't work in the common carrier business so I don't know the facts -- but I would be prepared to hear that Pac Bell may only be obligated to provided a certain number of lines to a residence. Perhaps your cooperative needs to consider an alterative service. If you need that much service you may be justifying more digital. Will the cable facilities in most residential areas support a T carrier into your living room? Provisioning and equipment might have apparent high initial cost but your co-op would probably benefit in the long term. Sounds like it's time to make some business decisions. Curtis Wheeler - Pleasanton, CA ------------------------------ From: west@via.net (Dave Harrison) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Date: 29 Sep 1995 06:45:39 GMT Organization: ViaNet Communications Pac Bell is well within the tariff, which covers "Special Construction Charges" for situations like yours. When they design the outside plant, they plan for x number of lines per residence. You were lucky to get that many lines in the first place. If you want to invest in a channel bank, you can have 24 lines come in on four wires (a T1). Or, you can simply move to a commercial office where having 50 lines would be no problem. And by the way, co-operative or not, you should be paying for business service. You can't argue "we're non profit"... so is the Red Cross and they pay for the proper service. ------------------------------ From: bawler@cris.com (Tim Williams) Subject: Re: Hi-Speed via POTS Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 21:42:36 GMT Organization: Global Communications Reply-To: bawler@cris.com Robert Ricketts wrote: > Greetings. I'm looking for a couple of boxes that does the following: > A B C D E (see below) > | | | | | | > | | | | | | > | | | | | | > | | | | | | > ----- 28.8 Kbps ----- > 57.6 Kbps | b|---------------|b | 57.6 Kbps > DTE ----------|a | 28.8 Kbps | a|----------- DTE > | b|---------------|b | > ----- ----- > A = Serial line, 115.2 kbps > B = Box that splits a single 'a' channel into two simultaneous > 'b' channels. > C = Four plain-jane 28.8 kbps modems. One on each end of two > POTS lines. > D = Box that merges two simultaneous 'b' channels back into a > single 'a' channel. (Same box used for B) > E = Serial line, 115.2 kbps > Connection is TWS > The DTE would be see the appearance of a plain-jane modem. Perhaps with > special dialing commands to cause the component modems to place their > respective calls. A and E appear as traditional DCE. > The beauty of this is high speed through-put using POTS. I don't have to > even settle for two modems. Perhaps three or four for uncommpressed 115.2 > thru-put, or more when compressed using special serial ports, e.g. 230.4 > kbps. Each box would reassemble arriving packets to the original sequence. > Sort of a reverse mux. Anyone ever seen such a thing? This is called load-balancing, and many opearting systems (unix based) allow you to do this completely software based. You can have say 15 28.8 modems all hooked up, and use them together to form a high-speed connection. Try using Linux or FreeBSD. ------------------------------ From: Toby Nixon Date: Thu, 28 Sep 95 14:01:46 PDT Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives In Telecom Digest V15 #405, rlm@netcom.com (Robert McMillin) wrote: >> Our telephone systems should be straightforward enough that any child >> capable of remembering their phone number can be taught how to pick up >> any phone and dial their home phone number or 911. > Mr. Yost goes on to suggest that "We should work toward a standard > that would allow a child to dial simply 1 + area code + number from > any phone ... and get connected to their home." > By this approach, we should make the world completely and utterly safe > for four-year-olds. This is the rallying cry currently used as a > justification for censoring adults on the Internet. Adults use cars, > airplanes, lathes, pornography, and slaughterhouses, all of which are > patently unsafe (or at least, unwise) for four-year-old operation. > Not everything can -- or should -- be made child-safe. But in this case, adding some consistency, simplicity, and sanity to the dialing plan in North America would help a lot more than four-year-olds. It would, in fact, go a long way toward making it possible to reliably dial calls from your computer, wherever you might be. We all know that computers are actually dumber than four-year-olds, right? This is particularly true when it comes to dialing. Your computer can't read the template around the phone dial, the card by the phone, or the front of the phone book. There's no way to connect your computer to the phone network, and have it ask the network "how do I dial calls from here?", or to dial "0" and ask the operator for help. It can't automatically know whether or not to dial 9 before some calls, 8 before others, and nothing on yet others. It can't figure out how to dial 011 or 00 before country codes, or 1 or 0 or whatever before city codes. Even within a single country, you have cases where numbers in the same area code as you have to be dialed sometimes with 7 digits, sometimes with 10, and sometimes with 11, and there's no way to ask the network which is which; all you can do is trial-and-error. And the error doesn't have any sort of machine-detectable tone; it's just an undecodable voice prompt! Some people have thought of having a database on the net that anyone could connect to and download dialing rules on a per-exchange basis (which area codes and exchanges are "same area local", which are "same area toll", which "foreign area local", etc.), and the part of the number and prefixes that need to be dialed for each category. If we had commitments from all local exchange carriers to build and maintain this database, it might be possible. But I don't think even that would be good enough. Many LECs have different "subscription" options that let individual users expand their local calling area on a line-by-line basis by paying a little extra each month; even if the database included all of these options, there's no way for a computer to query the network and find out which options are enabled on a given line! Is software going to ask the user to dig out their phone book and latest phone bill, find the codes that identifying optional local calling area plans, and type those into the computer so that it knows how to dial calls? You end up, whatever you do, with the end user needing to do a bunch of programming or configuration of their computerized dialing software, and that assumes that they can even find out the current information. So, why SHOULDN'T the phone network be designed so that computers can be connected to the network ANYWHERE and be permitted to input a fully-qualified international number (including country code) and have the NETWORK figure out how to route the call, instead of the computer needing to be pre-programmed to know exactly which subset of the phone number needs to be dialed, along with whatever prefixes are needed? All we need to do is define some sort of single, nationwide (even worldwide!), standard prefix that says "what follows is a country code and nationally-significant number; YOU figure out how to connect me". So what if it takes a few more digits to dial *00,12068828080 when, if it was local to me, it could have been dialed as just "8828080" -- those "extra" six digits only took half a second to dial, and I didn't have to make two or three failed call attempts to find the right digit sequence! This ought to be implementable on PBXes just as easily as on COs. We need to get the state public utility commissions out of the business of dictating dialing procedures, and overcome the fiction that dialing a "1" before a number means "I have to pay extra for this call". We need a national consensus among LECs and PBX vendors on what this prefix should be that allows a fully-qualified international phone number to follow. Mr. Yost's point about children being unable to figure out how to dial in an emergency situation is a good one to wake up regulators, legislators, and telephone system designers who otherwise might not pay attention to the problems caused by confusion in the national dialing plan. Once awareness of the problem is raised, however, I would expect the primary motivation for finding a solution would be to facilitate shipping and installing shrink-wrapped software with preloaded phone numbers, distribution of phone numbers and dialing directories over the Internet that can be dialed anywhere, simplification of dialing configuration for travelers with computers. Toby Nixon Program Manager - Windows Telephony Microsoft Corporation ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 22:17:25 PDT Clifton T. Sharp said: > In article johnl@iecc.com (John Levine) > writes: >> Call Trace serves this function now. It does what caller-ID is >> frequently misrepresented as doing, collecting the calling number of a >> call that you need to report to the cops. > What can Call Trace get that CNID wouldn't report accurately? The only > thing that I've heard about inaccurate CNID so far regards outdial > trunks, which would presumably be reported the same way to Call Trace. Well for one thing, the CID can be blocked. Call Trace cannot. As somone else pointed out, Call Trace is only good within the LATA (because it relies upon SS7), but I believe that this will be changing when the December FCC Caller-ID IXC thing goes into effect. But, I think it's a major scam that the LECs charge such high prices for Call Trace (PacBell charges $5/trace). There is a lot less work involved for them than setting a trap on the line - they should make it free or at the most $1 to discourage abuse. Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #411 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa27481; 29 Sep 95 23:36 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA02115 for telecomlist-outbound; Fri, 29 Sep 1995 16:21:25 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA02107; Fri, 29 Sep 1995 16:21:22 -0500 Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 16:21:22 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199509292121.QAA02107@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #412 TELECOM Digest Fri, 29 Sep 95 16:21:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 412 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Lots of Goofups This Week (Brent E. Boyko) Re: Lots of Goofups This Week (danny burstein) Re: Lots of Goofups This Week (James E. Bellaire) Re: Lots of Goofups This Week (Bill Blackwell) Re: Will NA Caller ID Boxes Work in Europe? (Jeremy Rogers) Re: Will NA Caller ID Boxes Work in Europe? (Pat Barron) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (John Levine) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Martin Kealey) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Christian Weisgerber) Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number (Nevin Liber) Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number (Mike Morris) Unabomber Full Text Now in Archives (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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: bboyko@brent.llu.edu (Brent E. Boyko) Subject: Re: Lots of Goofups This Week Date: 28 Sep 1995 13:02:06 -0700 Organization: Loma Linda University In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > The other major screw-up involved pagers. Did yours go off this week? > Apparently someone in Houston sent a signal to a satellite (?) which > in turn caused several satellite receivers to shut down. Does anyone > have further details on this? Our Pagenet pagers were out of service from about 11:30 P.M. Tuesday night to 11:30 A.M. Wednesday. The medical staff were not pleased. According to an Associated Press news article today, a technician at Space Com, the satellite carrier, accidentally disabled "thousands" of satellite receivers. Apparently the receivers had to be restored individually. The story indicates that five of the national paging companies use Space Com. I believe that the individual receivers that they are talking about would include one at each paging transmitter. Brent E. Boyko Telecom Engineer Loma Linda University Medical Center bboyko@brent.llu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 16:37:22 -0400 From: Danny Burstein Subject: Re: Lots of Goofups This Week In comp.dcom.telecom you write: > The other major screw-up involved pagers. Did yours go off this week? > Apparently someone in Houston sent a signal to a satellite (?) which > in turn caused several satellite receivers to shut down. Does anyone > have further details on this? > Per RISKS Digest, one of the carriers for satellite relay sent out a > signal which shut down the base receivers in umptity umptity cities. Huh? When you send a page the signal gets relayed to of local sites which then feed it into local transmitters. WHile this is designed for the (semi) nationwide coverage, it's often the way your neighborhood paging system works as well. Your "satellite pager" does -not- get its signal directly from orbit, but rather via a terrestrial relay. So they shut down the local receivers by remote control. Problem was they couldn't restart them the same way. This could be due to two reasons: a) There was a complete shutdown so the receivers didn't get the 'turn on' signal (after all, they were off....) b) Pager transmitters are designed so that a group of them spaced, perhaps, ten miles apart, all go off simultaneously. Although it flies in the face of everything I know about radio, they can, and do, set off multiple transmitters to ensure (usually) that the signal covers the wanted area. This requires "ultra precise" synchronization. It's quite possible they were able to turn the units back on, but did not have remote-synch capability. Mark> A SpaceCom technician at their uplink facility in Tulsa, Mark> Oklahoma accidentally send out a spacey command shutting down Mark> the satellite receivers used by pager systems throughout the Mark> country, affecting millions of pagers. SpaceCom supports 5 of I can picture the guy. He's waiting for the 'Index restructured' response, when suddenly the screen starts filling with these: Message from Chicago2: Shutdown completed. Message from NewYork4: Shutdown completed. Message from LosAngeles1: Shutdown completed. Message from Miami3: Shutdown completed. Message from NewYork2: Shutdown completed. etc. Magnus. dannyb@panix.com (or dburstein@mcimail.com) ------------------------------ From: James E. Bellaire Subject: Re: Lots of Goofups This Week Date: Thu, 28 Sep 95 23:04:42 CDT In TD410 Patrick Townson wrote about this weeks goofs: You want to know about goof ups? Someone in the sales department at my internet provider took an order to change MY email domain over to uucp (from my current shell/SLIP arrangement). I noticed that TD was not coming at all since Saturday and sent some mail to myself which eventually returned via DAEMON. It is likely that you (Pat) have a box full of DAEMON's from me. For that I apologize. I have firmly instructed my provider not to do this to you again. Fortunately lcs.mit.edu has provided me with ftp back issues. Otherwise I would have starved from lack of Telecom information. BTW: Other than this my provider is an excellent and affordable service. James E. Bellaire (JEB6) bellaire@tk.com ^^^^ The ruler of this domain! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I saw a few of those daemons sent by your provider but ignored them. Do you think your provider will listen to and abide by your 'firm instructions'? Just a reminder to all readers that back issues -- fourteen year's worth, thousands of issues -- can be obtained from the Telecom Archives as needed at lcs.mit.edu using anonymous FTP. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 09:21:58 -0600 From: bear@electrotex.com (Bill Blackwell) Subject: Re: Lots of Goofups This Week Organization: me According to the Houston Chronicle (_The Paper_(tm)), the shut-downs were caused when a data entry clerk mistakenly forgot to enter a carriage return when he was entering in the receiver codes into several paging companies' satellite uplink ... Bill Blackwell bear@electrotex.com Houston, Texas, USA ------------------------------ From: jrogers@aea.orgn.uk (Jeremy Rogers) Subject: Re: Will NA Caller ID Boxes Work in Europe? Reply-To: jrogers@aea.orgn.uk Organization: AEA Technology Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 10:46:01 GMT In article 8@eecs.nwu.edu, writes: > My friend's family (in Poland) were watching a local TV program that > mentioned the fact that calling line id was available in the area > (Warsaw). They would like to know if the calling id boxes that we can > buy here (I'm in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area) would work if they > were sent there? I don't know about Poland, but NA CLID equipment won't work on BT in the UK. Jez ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 15:35:58 EDT From: Pat_Barron@transarc.com Subject: Re: Will NA Caller ID Boxes Work in Europe? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What caller-ID boxes do you know that run > on AC rather than battery? I have never heard of this. PAT] My FANS CallScreener plugs into the wall; does not use a battery. Pat ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John Levine) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 19:31:44 GMT Organization: I.E.C.C. > there is a virtual network in NANP, which can be navigated by taking > groups of three digits at a time ... Not really. Consider area code 809, where you need to decode 809 and the following three digits to tell what country the call is going to. > By the way, are land-line numbers portable in NANP yet? ] In a few cities. There's still three competing technical schemes for how portability will work, and no agreement at all on who's going to pay for it. > As I understand it, the reason that NANP needed to switch to NXX > area codes was not because it had run out of numbers, but because it > had run out of prefixes. If there hadn't been the rigidity that > prefixes and area codes be exactly three digits, maybe this would have > been alleviated. They'd have had to design things quite differently in the first place; by the time they started to run out, there weren't 10 contiguous area codes to allocate any more. The NANP worked great for several decades. It ran into trouble because a lot of things started to need phone numbers that nobody'd forseen in the late 1940s, e.g. mobile phones, pagers, modems, faxes, and individual extensions in a company PBX. > With the price of connectivity coming down, it is not unreasonable to > consider that proxy lookup services would be at least a reasonable, if > not better approach, than making each switch do its own database > lookup? Indeed, isn't this how 800 number lookup already works? The > local switch sees "1800" and then knows "collect 7 more digits and > refer them to Bellcore" (or whoever). THEN a decision on routing the > CALL is made. That's right. It's also the most likely scenario for local number portability, although it's still possible that they'll use a scheme that assigns each prefix to a switch (the same as now) and effectively call-forwards calls that aren't homed in that switch. > If compelled signalling were used, Ah, but it's not. And that's the issue, isn't it? Regards, John R. Levine, Trumansburg NY Primary perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" and Information Superhighwayman wanna-be ------------------------------ From: martin@kurahaupo.gen.nz (Martin Kealey) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Date: Fri, 29 Sep 95 20:15:46 NZST Organization: Kurahaupo Migratory Canoe I really must stop doing this thing of answering multiple points in one article - but never mind for now. [1] >> virtual network in NANP ... groups of three digits at a time ... > Consider area code 809 It still goegraphically reduces to "the Carribean & misc other bits" - maybe not a great increase in specificity, but still a reduction to a nameable geographic entity. Many area codes are a lot more specific. I'm not claiming that this is a perfect mental model, but it's at least somewhat useful, else there wouldn't be people who learn off all the area codes "for fun" because there wouldn't be any point to learning them. [2] >> If compelled signalling were used, > Ah, but it's not. And that's the issue, isn't it? Quite true; the point I'm trying to get at is that compelled signalling doesn't necessarily mean opening a voice-grade path all the way to the far end, so while it's not entirely without cost, that cost is pretty insignificant; for example, far less than the voice-grade path used to signal ring-back in a lot of networks. (It is conceivable that there may even be a net benefit from cost reductions elsewhere.) Sending one keypad digit takes only 4 bits; even if it were to get say 512 bits of framing overhead added, that still only amounts to about 4 ms of voice time - or a fraction of a cent for the entire phone number, to even the most distant part of the world. Cheers, Martin D Kealey 36.88888S/174.72116E ## Science Fiction Modellers' Club of ## New Zealand voice +64-9-8150460 fax +64-9-8150529 ## all SF catered for; email for info ------------------------------ From: naddy@mips.pfalz.de (Christian Weisgerber) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 20:50:21 MET Tony Harminc writes: >> What is a phone number? For the most part, a phone number is a *route* >> through the network. > This is absolutely not true in North America. Well, AFAIK you can roughly tell the location of +1-xxx-yyy-zzzz if you know xxx and yyy. (With the obvious exception of 1-800 and other kinds of portable numbers.) > Each switch in the network is capable of doing a database lookup on > (typically) six digits of the phone number to determine the action to > take to advance the call. The individual digits of the number in no > way specify the route the call is to take through the network; this is > a decision made by each switch as needed, and is based on much more > than the digits in the number. Currently available trunks, congestion, > previous routing history, and many other factors can be taken into > consideration to make routing decisions. You have to realize that the routing example I gave was simplified a lot, partly to show my point, partly because I'm not all that familiar with the details of SS7 routing. Of course a switch can sit there and collect further digits before making a routing decision, and routing in Germany is also influenced by trunk availability, congestion, and many other factors. I think you try to point out differences that don't exist. [ my example deleted ] > Easy yes -- but a disaster for planning and orderly growth. Why so? I don't have a history of the development of the German numbering plan and I am too young to remember much of it, but growth works nicely by expanding into formerly unused portions of the numbering plan. If a dead end should really come up somewhere, the situation can be relieved by inserting a single digit somewhere, which is certainly no worse than North American area code splitting. The latest major event was the integration of the former East German network, +37.. as +49.3.. No sweat, since the 3* area code range had wisely been reserved... > This sort of design ensures that Germany will not have portable > numbers for a long time. Germany has had toll free, special service, and other kinds of portable numbers for several years by now. Their prefixes lead to one of several centralized switches that perform a data base lookup, negotiate some billing details with the originating and true destination switch, and return the true number to place the call to. Basically, this scheme could be extended to all numbers but I'm not aware of any plans to do this. As long as the call charges are dependant on the distance, a principle that doesn't seem to be going out of fashion anytime soon, a mapping of area code and location remains desirable. > Okay -- you are in Germany and you start to dial +1 40 ... > Now with your scheme, the local switch would have to pick up a trunk to > somewhere -- to where ? Why should it have to pick up a trunk yet? You miss the point of a SS7 signaling network, where all the switches are connected by what amounts to a packet-switched network independant of the voice circuits. A trunk isn't selected until the destination switch has signalled back. > It isn't even known what country you are calling yet! Then you dial 3 > as the next digit, and the switch in Germany knows you are calling > Canada rather than the USA. But Germany has trunks to at least two > points in the area covered by area code 403 - which one should it pick > up? The next digit is 9, but still nothing is known - it could be > somewhere near Calgary, or over a thousand miles north in the Northwest > Territories. Only after two more digits (say 79) is it finally known > what local area the called line is in. When I dial '+...' ("00..." in Germany) my switch forwards further digits to one of several switches responsible for handling international destinations. The default one from here is in Frankfurt/M. When I dial +1.40 all that happens is some signaling traffic. Now, when I dial +1.444 I at once get an intercept. Obviously, there's a lookup that checks for valid North American area codes. Apart from this, the switch in Frankfurt just sits there and collects digits until a 10-digit North American number is completed. Then it makes a routing decision and actually sets up the call. Christian 'naddy' Weisgerber naddy@mips.pfalz.de ------------------------------ From: nevin@cs.arizona.edu (Nevin ":-]" Liber) Subject: Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 10:45:12 -0700 Organization: University of Arizona CS Department, Tucson Arizona In article , gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt) wrote: > Please educate the *POLICE* that 9-1-1 is for life threatening > emergencies ONLY. Good luck. It seems that if you don't phone it in on 911, they just don't seem to care. A couple of years ago I was the victim of a hit and run by a drunk driver in Chicago. Since no one was injured, I phoned it in on the non-emergency line. When I finally got through, they told me since no one was hurt, they couldn't be bothered to come out to the scene. If I wanted, I could come down to the station and make a statement. Luckily, my automobile was still driveable, and I did so. They reluctantly (kept telling me it probably wouldn't do any good, etc.) wrote down the information about the accident. I bet that I would have gotten better treatment if I had just called 911 in the first place. Do they record non-emergency calls to the police, fire department, etc.? Maybe they ought to start ... Nevin ":-)" Liber nevin@CS.Arizona.EDU (520) 293-2799 ------------------------------ From: morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Mike Morris) Subject: Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number Organization: College Park Software, Altadena, CA Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 03:46:58 GMT wes.leatherock@hotelcal.com (Wes Leatherock) writes: > Martin McCormick wrote: >> The alarm boxes vanished from streets in Tulsa and Oklahoma >> City as well as many other places as soon as 911 became the method of >> choice to report emergencies. I also remember that many of the street >> boxes had a glass window that one had to break with an attached hammer >> to activate the alarm. This always seemed dumb and dangerous to me, >> but I am sure there was a good reason for it. > I believe the idea of the glass window and hammer was to > reduce the number of false alarms; you had to do something more than > just walk by and pull the lever. This was true in most cities I'm > familiar with. I spent one summer working for an alarm company and was fortunate enough to spend some time with the head technician, who was kind enough to "walk" me through a sample of each kind of alarm system. The street boxe (and some of the older building alarm) circuits use a technology called a McCullogh (Mccullock? McCulloch? sp? I never saw is written - just heard it spoken) circuit. Addresses were assigned by breaking tabs off a code wheel in the box, and each of three positions had five tabs. The spring mechanism had enough energy to turn the wheel at least three revolutions, many times five. The "console" was basically a buzzer and a light for each circuit -- when a box was tripped the buzzer/light would be "read" by an operator, who then looked up the number in a card file. Some panels had 50 circuits. The circuit used a higher voltage DC (100-150v) that is alternately shorted and grounded by the leaf switch that rode the edge of the code wheel in the box. The system was designed to provide a usable signal even if one wire of the pair was open. He told me the glass was there to keep the bugs, snow, dirt and rain out of the clockwork/cam/leaf switch mechanism. This is from a 20 year old memory, so I hope I got it right. Eric Ewanco writes: > So I called that number and they referred me to another seven digit > number. (Apparently I had reached some sort of administrative office > or something.) So I dialed that SEVEN DIGIT NUMBER and imagine my > surprised when I hear, "911, please report your emergency." What > ensued was a somewhat tense conversation, because I was understandably > confused as I stayed on the line and argued that I didn't call 911, > but a seven digit number. (In retrospect I probably should have just > apologized and hung up. Understandably the dispatcher was a bit curt > as she explained that I had dialed the seven digit number which > patched into the 911 system.) Here in the L.A. area quite a few amateur radio autopatches are set up to take the phone number and validate it before taking the actual phone line off hook and dialing it. Many are set up to convert 911 into a 7 or 10 digit number (most use the 7/10-digit version of the CHP LA dispatch 911 number). There is a classic story in the local ham radio circles about one of the early cellphone 911 calls to the Whittier Police Dept (an L.A. suburb) reporting a traffic accident. They sent the ambulance to the address shown on the screen: the cell switch site. Another story has a autopatch user calling 911 and the police show up at the ham radio repeater site. In both stories the city name changes with the telling, and I've never been able to pin down the source of either story. Urban legends. But the stories point out that 7/10 digit alternatives to 911 are useful. >> Our phone books tell us to use 911 only for emergencies. The local >> police stations in Chicago on the other hand tell us to use 911 for >> everything. Who is correct on this? > Well, I think that with the shift of emphasis to 911, the organization > and promotion of seven-digit police numbers has become chaotic through > neglect. 911 is put on the front page whereas the seven-digit numbers > are relegated to alphabetical listings in the middle, with no indication > which ones are for police dispatchers, which ones are administrative, > which ones are for which communities, and so forth. The telephone > pinball I had to put up with in this experience was inexcusable, as > one number directed me to another and another, or maybe nobody answered > or whatever. Part of the fault lies with the police department then, > I think, for failing to provide a clearly defined and effective > alternative to 911 for non-emergency numbers. > Hence it may be no wonder that people are more inclined just to dial > "911" when they want the police for whatever reason. > I think the solution is to clearly identify emergency and non-emergency > numbers, and under what circumstances they should be called, and then > make sure that the people who answer them can direct them correctly. It's my opinion that the designers of the phone books are a bit to blame. They should include the 7 (or 10) digit non-emergency number of the police on the same page as the 911 listing. Pacific Bell uses the inside of the front cover (both white and yellow pages) to list the cities that the book serves, and the emergency number (911 in 72 point type, in red ink), and the nonemergency police and fire numbers for those cities. The police are a bit to blame also for the poor design of the system that doesn't have a non-emergency number to call 24 hours, and the workaround the dispatchers have to use to get around that design (call 911). And it would be nice to have a standard non-emergency number: perhaps 912 or 999 could be used? All the hardware is in for 911, all it would take is programming, and public education. Mike Morris morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us #include I have others, but this works the best. This message assembled from 100% recycled electrons (and pixels). ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Unabomber Full Text Now in Archives Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 16:00:00 CDT Thank you to everyone who sent the full text of the Unibomber manifesto to me. I got several copies, which certainly filled my mailbox in a hurry. A copy has been placed in the Telecom Archives for anyone who wants to read the entire thing. You can use two methods of getting it. The traditional one, anonymous ftp is available at lcs.mit.edu. You would login anonymous, using your name@site as password. Then you must 'cd telecom-archives/reports'. If you prefer to do it by email, you can send a request to the Telecom Archives Email Information Service for automatic handling. The instructions for this are: Send email to tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu. The subject line does not matter. As the text in your message: REPLY yourname@site GET unabomber END The above will get you several files in email with the complete text plus the rebuttal messages which appeared here awhile back. I hope you have time to read it all over the weekend! If you don't have the current HELP, INFO and DIRECTORY files for the Archives, you can order those also by adding those three commands in your email, prior to the END: HELP INFO DIRECTORY END Patrick Townson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #412 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa02304; 4 Oct 95 0:01 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id NAA10650 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 13:50:04 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id NAA10641; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 13:50:01 -0500 Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 13:50:01 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510031850.NAA10641@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #413 TELECOM Digest Tue, 3 Oct 95 13:50:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 413 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Dead Line, Annoying Red Tape (Linc Madison) 911 as quid pro quo (Mike Wengler) Citizen Intercepts 911 Calls; Assists Police (Steve Bauer) 1996 ACM SIGOPS Workshop on Wide-Area Distributed Systems (Andy Tanenbaum) New US Area Code Test Numbers (Clarifications) (Michael Fumich) Universal Service Policy Documents Available (Robert Deward) What's With This 814 Prefix in New York? (John Levine) AT&T's New Role with Unitel in Canada (Martin Stewart) Trouble With NPA 860 (Alan Lange) Speakers Wanted: Data Over Digital Cellular - CelluComm '96 (K. Zsigo) DateLine NBC to Air Segment on How to Stop Junk Calls (prvtctzn@aol.com) Programmer Position/Job offering (Ibis Fontes) What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (John R. Levine) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: Dead Line, Annoying Red Tape Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 09:01:00 GMT Well, this has been quite a fun and exciting weekend for my telephone. A few months ago, I finally got a separate line for my modem. I also got a two-line phone. My directory listing is the modem number. Saturday morning at about 8:15, my (non-listed) voice number rang, to bring me word from a delightful gentleman who wanted to know how I plan to pay the $992.73 in delinquent charges on my credit card. Yes, it happens that someone else with the same first and last name and middle initial, with some other coincidental details with my life, has skipped out on yet another creditor. I told him (although I didn't get the impression he was convinced) that I have never had a credit card from the bank he named, nor have I ever lived in the city where his deadbeat last listed an address. Sunday morning (clearly one day too late), I discovered that my voice line was dead. My two-line phone has the "in use" light burning steadily for that line, but gives dead air. My single-line phone when attached to that line gives dead air and dead keypad. I called 611 and filed a service request, and assured the clerk that I had tried disconnecting all of my subscriber equipment and that the fault persisted. The clerk performed a basic line test (during which the "in use" light blinked off momentarily) and reported that the line was "open" but that he couldn't isolate the fault specifically. There was the usual warning about the charge if the fault were with my equipment and so forth. A technician is supposed to check on it tomorrow. The annoying red tape is yet to come, though. I picked up the working line and dialed the non-working number. It just rings away merrily with no indication of a problem. I thus called back to 611 and asked them to divert my number to a "temporarily out of service" recording until they fix it. NO CAN DO. That requires approval from the Business Office, which isn't open on Sunday. Apparently this is to prevent the repair office from making an unauthorized diversion of my line to a recording, in case some scofflaw calls up impersonating me and reports trouble on my line just to harrass me. Now, let us bear in mind that the repair clerk I spoke to had my billing name and address on his screen and had also run a test of the line which verified that there was in fact trouble on the line. He had already verified my identity as the owner of the line. Thus, they have NO EXCUSE for refusing to put the recording on my number, but they still refuse. If my line isn't fixed tomorrow, I will certainly raise a stink about that fact, and also about the repair office's refusal to take a perfectly logical and obvious step. There is no justification for placing that function with the business office; clearly, it MUST reside with the repair office. Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * LincMad@Netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Perhaps they would have been willing to forward the bad line to your other line for the day or so needed. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Oct 95 08:54:21 EDT From: wengler@ee.rochester.edu (Mike Wengler) Subject: 911 as quid pro quo Talking about Bell Canada's Soft Dial Tone allowing 911 calls for two months only, I wrote: In the article describing Bell Canada's introduction of soft dialtone on unsubscribed lines, it was stated: >> A secondary benefit of Soft Dial Tone is that, in the event of an >> emergency, students can call 911 emergency service without having >> regular phone service during September and October. I wondered: > Can Bell Canada really be so cavalier to only provide 911 service for > two months? PAT replied: > I don't think telco is required to provide its services for free on > an unlimited basis. Where would you draw the line? A reasonable question. If I owned the facility (University dorms in the Canadian message) I would inform the phone company that if the line was alive *at all* it would carry 911 to something other than an intercept telling you to call the business office to subscribe. And that failing that, they could get their lines off my property. If I were Bell, and I left a live line laying around, while I was busy making sure it could connect to the business office I'd program in going right through to 911 as well. Telco doesn't have to come and give me phone service if I don't want to pay for it. But I'll be damned if I'll let them leave *their* outside plant in my apartment, house, or dorm room all set to take a business order, but not working on 911. This isn't a matter of taking something "as a right" from the phone company. This I would justify as "quid pro quo", they get to leave live lines around to make it easy for people to sign up for service is the quid, and those same live lines don't give me an intercept when I'm lying helpless on the floor, hoping I don't die until their business office reopens Monday morning to process my order. Just my Humble Opinion. Mike Wengler http://www.he.net/~wengler/VoiceNet/ or ftp://he.net/pub/wengler/index.txt Phone/Fax: (716) 244-0238 ------------------------------ From: sbauer@tyrell.net (Steve Bauer) Subject: Citizen Intercepts 911 Calls; Helps Police Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 03:37:14 -0500 Forwarded FYI to the Digest. A great report about someone getting involved. 911 phone line crossed RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- When Rosa H. Dickson answered her telephone, the caller requested an ambulance. It took only a moment to figure out that the caller had dialed 911 and got Dickson instead. "When I realized what happened, I dialed 911 and couldn't get 911," she said Monday. For a half-hour last Wednesday, Dickson tried to help 911 callers as best she could by passing them on to police. She received two calls for rescue crews and one for police between about 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. The first thing she did, however, was alert police that there was a phone problem. Gene Scott, account manager for Bell Atlantic, said the phone system was upgraded in July and the mix-up occurred during maintenance. He said a company computer mistranslated some of the phone numbers and routed the 911 calls to Dickson, whose number doesn't include a 9 or a 1. "We've done this 100 times and never had a problem. It's not going to happen again," Scott said. One woman misrouted to Dickson apparently gave her a wrong number. When police couldn't reach her, they called Dickson back. About the same time, the woman called 911 again and got Dickson again. Dickson got the woman's correct number and relayed it to police. The City Council honored Dickson with a proclamation Monday night and she received a standing ovation from a City Hall audience. "I was just doing my duty," she said. ------------------------------ From: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) Subject: 1996 ACM SIGOPS Workshop on Wide-Area Distributed Systems Organization: Fac. Wiskunde & Informatica, VU, Amsterdam Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 22:48:34 GMT Call for Papers Seventh ACM SIGOPS European Workshop Systems Support for Worldwide Applications 2-4 September 1996, Connemara, Ireland In the past, each computer had its own users and jobs. The task of the operating system was to allocate resources among competing users. With the advent of LANs and the Internet, multiple computers could collaborate to per- form specialized tasks for a modest number of sophisticated users. In the future, most computers will be connected to what is often called the "Information Superhighway." This as-yet-unbuilt system will allow hundreds of mil- lions of ordinary citizens to access global information and participate in applications of unprecedented scale. The requirements of the system software will change accordingly. The emphasis will shift from enforcing local kernel-user protection boundaries to enabling groups of users to collaborate and access information efficiently. New models, tools, and other software will be required. In this workshop, we will explore these issues. Possible topics include: - Wide-area distributed systems for millions of users - Tools, models and infrastructure for global applications - Life after the World Wide Web - Caching and replication - (Distributed) management of (distributed) services - Resource and information discovery services - Systems support for multimedia applications - Systems aspects of security and reliability Attendance is limited to 50 people, by invitation only. The workshop will be held at the Renvyle House Hotel in Connemara, Ireland. It is a small, secluded site on the Renvyle Peninsula, surrounded by water on three sides and 200 acres of hotel land and mountains on the remaining side. Papers will be selected on the basis of ability to foster discussion, originality, and appropriateness to the workshop topic. Accepted papers will be distributed to the workshop attendees and via the web. A few papers may be selected for publication in Operating Systems Review. For additional information, submission instructions, and photographs of the workshop site, see the workshop's web page: http://plastique.stanford.edu/sigops96/ Program chairman Program Committee Andrew S. Tanenbaum Ozalp Babaoglu, Univ. di Bologna Dept. of Math. & Computer Science Jean Bacon, Cambridge University Vrije Universiteit Mary Baker, Stanford University De Boelelaan 1081a Yolande Berbers, Kath. Univ., Leuven 1081 HV Amsterdam,Holland Andrew Black, Oregon Graduate Inst. Email: ast@cs.vu.nl Frans Kaashoek, MIT FAX: +31 20 4447653 Barbara Liskov, MIT Karin Petersen, Xerox PARC Important dates: Willy Zwaenepoel, Rice University Position papers due: 1 March 1996 Acceptance notice: 15 May 1996 General chairman Final 8-page papers: 15 July 1996 ---------------- Workshop date: 2-4 Sept. 1996 Andrew Herbert, ANSA (ajh@ansa.co.uk) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Oct 95 21:54 EST From: Michael Fumich <0003311835@mcimail.com> Subject: New US Area Code Test Numbers (Clarifications) Recently I submitted to TELECOM Digest (Issue #406), a list of test numbers which are used to determine whether calls to the new-style US area codes are being completed properly. Several people wrote me with questions and comments. I hope the following clarifies things a little. This list was compiled from LEC and Bellcore sources only, not news report or advertisements. In addition, I have personally completed calls to ALL the numbers on the list thru the Bermuda (441) split on 1 Oct 95. This includes the 562-317-0317 So. California test number which several have reported as not working. If the number does "not" work from your location, it may be that the new area code is not yet loaded into your exchange. I have found that the LEC's do not always meet the deadlines required. If this is the case, call your local repair service and report the problem to them. And get a Trouble Ticket number too! When I couldn't get thru to 360 (WA) I reported the matter to Ameritech repair (611). I had a feeling I wasn't being taken seriously and got the stock "your problem should be resolved before 5:PM tomorrow" reply. When I asked for a report number, suddenly there was furious keybourd pecking. "One moment sir, the computer suddenly went down. What was the problem again?" ;+) Successful completion of these calls will get a LEC recording which states that you are reaching the XXX test number. Calling some of these numbers may incur a charge. Calls to the 334 (AL) and 770 (GA) test numbers have been reported as chargable by AT&T and Sprint. The numbers on the list are all that I have available at this time. I will post updates to this newsgroup as additional information becomes available. Michael L. Fumich / E-Mail: <3311835@mcimail.com> / V-Mail 708-461-5770 ------------------------------ From: bobd@well.sf.ca.us (Robert Deward) Subject: Universal Service Policy Documents Available Date: 03 Oct 1995 15:50:34 GMT Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA There's been a lot of discussion online about Universal Service. But most of the talk concerns whether people should be entitled to wideband or broadband and what information they should be able to access free. That's putting the cart before the horse! Here in California -- and California is not the only state -- no plan exists to fund even voice service at its present level of penetration when competition blasts away the old subsidy system. Whether your interest is education, health care, or promoting representative government, Universal Service is a key concern. Some documents raising fundamental Universal Service issues are now available free from Pacific Telesis. On the Pacific Telesis Home Page (http://www.pactel.com) look in "What's New." If you prefer a fax, phone toll free (nationwide) 1-800-704-4636, pick any category, and then punch in one of these numbers and your fax number: 970 for Basic Facts about Pacific Bell's Universal Service plan 971 for a summary of Pacific Bell's Universal Service position 972 for a brief history of Universal Service. Bob Deward, Pacific Telesis External Affairs, S.F. voice: 415-394-3646 ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John Levine) Subject: What's With This 814 Prefix in New York? Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 13:28:30 GMT Organization: I.E.C.C. I note that the New York NPAs 315, 516, 518, 607, 716, 718, 914, and 917 (that is, all of them except 212) just gotten new "814" prefixes. Most of those NPAs still have plenty of NNX prefixes left, and it's unusual to assign the same prefix everywhere at once. I'd guess that NYNEX is planning some new category of rip-off, er, added value service. Anyone know anything? Regards, John R. Levine, Trumansburg NY Primary perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" and Information Superhighwayman wanna-be ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 06:38:52 +0800 From: martin@cti-tel.com (Martin Stewart) Subject: AT&T's New Role with Unitel in Canada Pat, I was just wondering if you had heard anything or received anything concerning the recent announcement by AT&T of their intended additional investment into Unitel in Canada. Unitel is essentially owned by three banks due to its enormous debt. AT&T has agreed to purchase up about 48% of the ownership into Unitel from Rogers and Canadian Pacific. They are able to increase their ownership above the regulated 33% foreign ownership clause stipulated by the CRTC somehow by having various AT&T owned shell companies purchase into Unitel. Anyways, I haven't seen any mention of this in your news group and as it is quite a newsworthy event, I figured I would inquire. Regards, Martin CTI Telecommunications [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Very little has come this way on this, so perhaps some of our Canadian readers with knowledge will contribute to the thread. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Oct 1995 20:10:19 EDT From: Alan Lange Subject: Trouble With NPA 860 The front page of {The Hartford Courant} on Saturday 9/30/95 reports on trouble with the new NPA in Connecticut. It appears that not all calls using the new code are being completed. Several businesses who have already changed their advertising and stationery are finding some of their customers cannot reach them. AT&T and SNET both deny that it is a problem in their switches. SNET says they receive around five complaints each day about the problem. SNET is handling each complaint by contacting the company that handled the outgoing call. ------------------------------ From: kzsigo@ix.netcom.com (Konstantin Zsigo) Subject: Speakers Wanted: Discuss Data Over Digital Cellular - CelluComm '96 Date: 3 Oct 1995 05:00:31 GMT Organization: Netcom We are looking for panelists to speak at a particular session in the upcoming CelluComm '96 Cellular Data Conference. The panel is focused on the transmission of data over digital cellular networks, including upbanded GSM (PCS-1900), CDMA, TDMA, and Omnipoint. We would like to hear commentary about the availability of both circuit-switching, packet-switching, short-message services, and channel/time aggregation for video-over-cellular. The audience would also be very interested in the availability of equipment for these systems, as most are either carriers, manufacturers, or corporate customers. We consider "cellular" for this conference as either 850 or 1900MHz systems deployed in North America. Other sessions will consider CDPD over AMPS, CS/CDPD over AMPS/N-AMPS, and basic circuit-switched cellular with special modem protocols and other radio-level enhancements. Audience members range from engineers to upper management to data specialists. Therefore, discussions should contain a balance of both technical and marketing issues, as we do not have separate engineering/marketing tracks by design. CelluComm is the only industry conference dedicated exclusively to cellular data. It will be held in St. Louis, MO USA on May 20-22, 1996. For more information about speaking opportunities, exhibiting or attending, please contact Zsigo Wireless at 517-337-3995, or send electronic mail to kzsigo@ix.netcom.com. Fax information to 517-337-5012. Surface mail to 2875 Northwind Drive, Suite 232, East Lansing, MI 48823 USA. ------------------------------ From: prvtctzn@aol.com Subject: DateLine NBC to Air Segment on How to Stop Junk Calls Date: 03 Oct 1995 07:34:53 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: prvtctzn@aol.com (Prvt Ctzn) On Friday, October 6th, DateLine NBC will air a segment about the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. (TCPA). It will feature two members of Private Citizen, Inc. that have collected thousands of dollars from telemarketers ... just for calling. One, a grandmother, who sued a newspaper and collected $2000. The other, a guy in California who has collected over $6000 from telemarketers, in out-of-court settlements within the past 14 months. If you want to learn more about cutting junk calls, tune in DateLine NBC on Friday, or call Private Citizen, Inc. at 1/800-CUT-JUNK today. ------------------------------ From: ifonte01@fiu.edu (ibis fontes) Subject: Programmer Position/Job offering Date: 02 Oct 1995 22:24:51 GMT Organization: Florida International University, Miami Presently seeking programmers to design, code, and implement telephony applications which involve networking with a DCO, TCP/IP and utilizing the X.25 network. Will work on several platforms including UNIX System V, AIX, Informix and New Era. Must be willing to take on a project and perform by a set deadline. Enthusiasm is a definite requirement. C programming knowledge is mandatory. Accounting knowledge a plus. Submit your resume along with a list of educational accomplishments and/or pursuits, list your GPA and specify your salary requirement. This position may require relocation to Culpeper, Virginia. Applicants may fax the above information to 305-372-0435 or via e-mail to ifonte01@fiu.edu. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 04:42:31 -0400 From: John R Levine Subject: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? I see in the press releases that after the three-way AT&T split, the piece that handles telephone service and stuff like that will be called AT&T. The other two pieces, the one that builds equipment and the one that sells computers, remain unnamed. Clearly, this is a job for The TELECOM Digest. The obvious names, of course, are Western Electric and NCR. Can we come up with anything better? Regards, John R. Levine, Trumansburg NY Primary perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" and Information Superhighwayman wanna-be [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't think there is a better choice than 'Western Electric'. Sorry John, you won't get any better than that. But, I'll listen to suggestions. As I write this, the 'trial of the century' with OJ Simpson has ended with a verdict of innocent on all counts. What a complete spectacle the entire thing has been. The closing press conference with Fred Goldman was particularly touching to me. Of course it is only partly over. The analysis and commentary will go on for a long time. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #413 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03768; 4 Oct 95 2:51 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id SAA17977 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 18:09:24 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id SAA17970; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 18:09:20 -0500 Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 18:09:20 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510032309.SAA17970@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #414 TELECOM Digest Tue, 3 Oct 95 16:52:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 414 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson The Rush For Unabomber's Essay (Patrick Townson) AIN/SS7 Modeling Job Opening (David Lin) Updated GSM List (Jurgen Morhofer) 4th Intl Conf on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP 96) (Jim Polikoff) Optus CEO Resigns (Grahame Lynch) Cap'n Crunch WEB Pages Now On-Line (John T. Draper) European Council Statement on Encryption (Marc Schaeffer) Payphones For Prisons (latinnet@aol.com) Last Laugh! Heavenly Phone Calls = Hellish Long Distance Bill (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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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, 3 Oct 1995 16:03:05 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Subject: The Rush For Unabomber's Essay I am sitting here amazed watching the requests flow into the archives for the Unabomber's complete essay. The volume of requests for that file alone (actually a collection three files: the complete essay and the earlier abridged version plus the 'rebuttals and commentary' file) have overwhelmed the email server and caused some delays for everyone who wanted to use the Telecom Archives this past weekend. Hopefully all requests have been filled. If you have not received the files, you should re-order them at this time. I finally got a call from a fellow at the FBI in San Fransisco on Monday, and I put him in touch with a correspondent here who had given much of the background information printed in the Digest. We will see what comes of it, if anything. In other news today, the 'trial of the century' came to a dramatic conclusion with OJ found not guilty. Nearly everyone seemed to assume that the speed of the jury deliberations 'almost certainly' meant a finding of guilty. What a mockery the whole thing was! Although there was certainly a preponderance of evidence pointing to OJ as the guilty person, preponderances don't count in the USA. Absolute proof is the only standard accepted, and it would appear the prosecution just could not pull it off. Certainly some of their witnesses were not of the caliber they might have been were a prosecution victory to be assured. I feel extremely sorry for Goldman's family; he was certainly one victim in the case; his only act was being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or would you say the wrong place at the right time. PAT ------------------------------ From: kdlin@advtech.uswest.com (David Lin) Subject: AIN/SS7 Modeling Job Opening Date: 3 Oct 1995 00:22:24 GMT Organization: U S WEST Advanced Technologies Please send your resume to Kristein Tait. All mail to me will be ignored. Her e-mail address is: ktait@advtech.uswest.com Her US mail address is: U S WEST Advanced Technologies 4001 Discovery Dr., Suite 220 Boulder, CO 80303 U S WEST Advanced Technologies has one MTS opening in the Network Performance Modeling group to do performance simulation and analysis in the areas of SS7 network and AIN services. The goals are to examine the impacts of AIN services on SS7 networks, and to build tools to allow services planners to plan the growth of SS7 networks and AIN equipment accordingly. U S WEST Advanced Technologies is the research and development subsidiary of U S WEST who is the Regional Bell Operating Company that serves 14 Western States -- excluding California and Nevada. The Network Performance Modeling group is part of the Network Architecture and Standards (NAS) department of U S WEST Advanced Technologies. The group's mission is to use modern network performance analysis techniques (such as discrete-event simulation, queueing theory, etc) to provide planning guidelines for the development and operation of U S WEST's communications networks. We have research interests and capabilities in AIN, CCS/SS7, ATM, SMDS, Frame Relay, Cell Relay, and broadband networks. The work location is at the University of Colorado Research Park, Boulder, Colorado. Duties and Responsibilities: Member of an R&D group applying discrete-event simulations to analyze existing and future telecommunications networks and protocols, and to develop planning tools for them. Individual responsibilities will include: (1) As part of a team, develop computer based models of existing and future networks and the signaling and data delivery protocols to be used on them. The models will be used to verify adequacy of the networks and protocols against the anticipated use of services by our customers. An additional objective of this work is to develop a core performance modeling capability so that networks can be easily tested for adequacy against new or alternative services and uses of the network. The work includes specification of data needs from the actual networks and services as they are deployed so that accuracy of the models can be assessed and improved. (2) Monitor external and internal research and development to identify technology advances that could affect the cost, quality, functionality, or feasibility of multimedia telecommunications products, services, networks and protocols. (3) Work with the Modeling group in Applied Research department to explore system design trade-offs and to develop optimization procedures to improve network efficiencies and/or to reduce total costs. (4) Identify network bottlenecks and recommend improved and optimized solutions to business and market people. (5) Work with market and network people to understand market needs and evolving network capabilities. (6) Facilitate the transfer of new technologies and services into network deployment. Required Qualifications: PhD (or MS with relevant experience) in EE, CS, Physics, Applied Math, or an advanced degree in a related field plus prior work experience. Candidates at the BS level with exceptionally relevant experience will also be considered. Extensive working experience in CCS networks and/or AIN services. Extensive experience and knowledge of computer based modeling techniques and computer and/or data communications networks, equipment, and protocols. Desired Qualifications: A background in queueing theory, probability, and stochastic process. A background in Statistics. Prior experience in the telecommunications industry. U S WEST Advanced Technologies is an equal opportunity employer. -------- 1911, when 1+911 is a long distance call ... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 10:22:52 +0100 From: Jurgen Morhofer Subject: Updated GSM List (Changes in the list marked by "*") Date 1995-09-29. Country Operator name Network code Tel to customer service ------ ------------- ------------ ----------------------- Andorra STA-Mobiland 213 03 Argentina Australia Optus 505 02 Int + 61 2 978 5678 Telecom/Telstra 505 01 Int + 61 18 01 8287 Vodafone 505 03 Int + 61 2 415 7236 Austria PTV Austria 232 01 Bahrain Batelco Belgium Belgacom 206 01 Int + 32 2205 4000 Brunei Cameroon China Croatia Cyprus CYTA 280 01 Denmark Sonofon 238 02 Int + 45 80 20 21 00 Tele Danmark Mobil 238 01 Int + 45 80 20 20 20 Egypt Estonia * EMT 248 01 Int + 372 639 7130 * Int + 372 524 7000 * Radiolinja Estonia 248 02 Int + 372 639 9966 Fiji Finland Radiolinja Finland 244 05 Int + 358 800 95050 Telecom 244 91 Int + 358 800 7000 France France Telecom 208 01 Int + 33 1 44 62 14 81 SFR 208 10 Int + 33 1 44 16 20 16 Germany D1, DeTeMobil 262 01 Int + 49 511 288 0171 D2, Mannesmann 262 02 Int + 49 172 1212 Gibraltar GibTel 266 01 G Britain Cellnet 234 10 Int + 44 860 321321 Vodafone 234 15 Int + 44 836 1100 Greece Panafon 202 05 Int + 30 944 00 122 STET 202 10 Int + 30 93 333 333 Guernsey Guernsey Telecom Hong Kong HK HTCLGSM 454 04 SmarTone 454 06 Int + 852 2880 2688 Telecom CSL 454 00 Int + 852 2803 8450 Hungary Pannon GSM 216 01 Int + 36 1 270 4120 Westel 900 216 30 Int + 36 30 303 100 Iceland Post & Simi 274 01 Int + 354 96 330 India PT SATELINDO Indonesia TELKOMSEL 510 10 Iran T.C.I. Ireland * Eircell 272 01 Int + 353 42 31999 Israel Cellcom Israel Ltd Italy Omnitel 222 10 Int + 39 2 41431 SIP 222 01 Int + 39 6615 20309 Japan Jersey Jersey Telecom 234 50 Int + 44 1534 88 28 82 Kuwait MTC 419 02 Int + 965 484 2000 Laos Latvia LMT 247 01 Int + 371 2256 7764 Int + 371 2256 9183 Int + 371 2934 0000 Lebanon Libancell Liechtenstein 228 01 Lithuania Mobilios Telekom Luxembourg Telekom 270 01 Int + 352 4088 7088 Macao Malaysia * Celcom 502 19 * Binariang 502 12 Malta Advanced Marocco O.N.P.T. 604 01 Monaco France Telecom 208 01 SFR 208 10 Namibia * MTC Int + 264 81 121212 Netherlands PTT Netherlands 204 08 Int + 31 50 688 699 New Zealand* Bell South 530 01 Int + 64 9 357 5100 Nigeria Norway NetCom 242 02 Int + 47 92 00 01 68 TeleNor Mobil 242 01 Int + 47 22 03 03 01 Oman Pakistan Phillipines Portugal Telecel 268 01 Int + 351 931 1212 TMN 268 06 Int + 351 1 793 91 78 Qatar Qatarnet 427 01 Rumania Russia Mobile Tele... Moscow 250 01 Int + 7 095 915-7734 NW GSM, St. Petersburg SaudiArabia Singapore Singapore Telecom 525 01 Slovenia South Africa MTN 655 10 Int + 27 11 445 6000 Vodacom 655 01 Int + 27 82 111 Sri Lanka MTN Networks Pvt Ltd Spain Airtel Telefonica Spain 214 07 Sweden Comviq 240 07 Int + 46 586 686 10 Europolitan 240 08 Int + 46 708 22 22 22 Telia 240 01 Int + 46 771 91 03 50 Switzerland PTT Switzerland 228 01 Int + 41 46 05 64 64 Syria SYR-01 223 01 SYR MOBILE SYR 263 09 Taiwan Thailand TH AIS GSM 520 01 Int + 66 2 299 6440 Turkey Telsim 286 02 Turkcell 286 01 Int + 90 800 211 0211 UAE UAE ETISALAT-G1 424 01 UAE ETISALAT-G2 424 02 Uganda Vietnam |------------| |o o|| |o TradeNet o|| Jurgen Morhofer |o -- o|| |o Business o|| jurgen@flashnet.it |o for o|| Tel:+39-6-780-8093 |o tomorrow o|| FAX:+39-6-780-8777 |o o|| GSM:+39-335-281929 |============|| Rome, Italy ============| ------------------------------ From: polikoff@castle.asel.udel.edu (Jim Polikoff) Subject: 4th Intl Conf on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP 96) Date: 03 Oct 1995 15:42:21 -0400 Organization: AI duPont Institute IIII CCCCC SSSSS LL PPPPPP 999999 666666 II CC CC SS SS LL PP PP 99 99 66 66 II CC SS LL PP PP 99 99 66 II CC SSSSSSS LL PPPPPP 9999999 6666666 II CC SS LL PP 99 66 66 II CC CC SS SS LL PP 99 99 66 66 IIII CCCCC SSSSS LLLLLLL PP 999999 666666 Fourth International Conference on Spoken Language Processing ****** October 3-6, 1996 Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel Philadelphia, PA, USA ****** ________________________ ICSLP 96 Organizers____________________________ H. Timothy Bunnell, Chair Richard A. Foulds, Vice-Chair Applied Science & Engineering Laboratories Wilmington, DE, USA ______________________________ICSLP______________________________________ ICSLP unites researchers, developers, and clinicians for an exchange on a wide variety of topics related to the spoken language processing of humans and machines. Conference presentations range from basic acoustic phonetic research to clinically oriented speech training devices to speech-based natural language interfaces for man-machine interaction. ICSLP 96 will feature technical sessions of both oral and poster format, plenary talks, commercial exhibits, and daily special sessions. In addition, satellite workshops will be held in conjunction with the conference in the areas of interactive voice technology, spoken dialogue, speech databases and speech I/O, and gestures and speech. A new emphasis for ICSLP 96 will be on the clinical applications of speech technology, including the use of speech technology based applications for persons with disabilities. _________________________Conference Update_________________________9/27/95 Dates to Note: January 15, 1996 - Paper abstracts due for review March 15, 1996 - Acceptance notification May 1, 1996 - Deadline for papers (camera-ready, 4 pages) Prospective authors are invited to submit papers relevant to spoken language processing in any of the conference Technical Areas. Abstracts of proposed papers must be received by the ICSLP 96 Organizing Committee no later than January 15, 1996. Papers will be selected by the ICSLP 96 Technical Program Committee and assigned for presentation in poster or oral format. English is the working language for the conference. Submission of an abstract implies a commitment to submit a four page, camera-ready version of the paper and to present the paper in either an oral or poster session if the abstract is accepted. Participants will be expected to pay their own registration fees, travel, and accommodations for ICSLP 96. _____________________Submission of Abstracts____________________________ Abstracts must be received by the ICSLP 96 Organizing Committee no later than January 15, 1996. Abstracts may be submitted either by post or by e-mail following these guidelines: + One page, 400 word maximum + Technical Area(s) indicated in order of preference using the codes (A - X) below. + Title of the proposed paper clearly indicated + Preference for paper or poster clearly indicated + If sent by post, submit four (4) copies of the abstract + If sent by e-mail, use plain text (ASCII) format only Each abstract must also include the following contact information: + Author name(s)* + Postal mailing address + Phone number + Fax number + E-mail address E-mailed abstracts will be acknowledged by e-mail within 48 hours of submission. If you do not receive e-mail confirmation, we have not received your abstract! Please check the e-mail address and resubmit. Please do not e-mail multiple copies for any other reason. *Please be sure that the primary contact person is noted if it is someone other than the First Author. Mail or send abstracts to: ICSLP 96 Applied Science & Engineering Laboratories A.I. duPont Institute P.O. Box 269 Wilmington, DE 19899 E-mail: ICSLP-abstract@asel.udel.edu ________________________Technical Areas___________________________________ A. Production of spoken language B. Perception of spoken language C. Robust speech modeling and speech enhancement D. Speech coding and transmission E. Automatic speech recognition F. Spoken language processing for special populations G. Phonetics and phonology H. Spoken discourse analysis/synthesis I. Synthesis of spoken language J. Applications for people with speech/language/hearing disorders K. Databases and standards for speech technology L. Prosody of spoken language M. Speech analysis and parameterization N. Spoken language acquisition/learning O. Integrating spoken language and natural language processing P. Hardware for speech processing Q. Neural networks and stochastic modeling of spoken language R. Dialects and speaking styles S. Instructional technology for spoken language T. Speaker/language identification and verification U. Human factors and assessment in spoken language applications V. Spoken language dialogue and conversation W. Gesture and Multimodal Spoken Language Processing X. Other _____________________Registration Information______________________________ Full registration includes: Admission to technical sessions, Reception, Banquet, Proceedings (printed & CD-ROM) Limited registration includes: Admission to technical sessions, Reception, Proceedings on CD-ROM Early Registration fees: Member* Non-Member Student Full $425 $525 $250 Limited $300 $400 $150 Late registration: After June 21, add $60 After August 9, add $100 Additional Tickets: Banquet $50 Reception $50 Additional Proceedings: Printed $125 CD-ROM $15 * See Sponsoring and Cooperating Organizations. ________________________Satellite Workshops________________________________ The following Satellite Workshops will be held immediately before or after the ICSLP 96 conference. 1. IVITA The 3rd IEEE workshop on Interactive Voice Technology for Telecommunications Applications (IVTTA) will be held at the AT&T Learning Center, Basking Ridge, New Jersey, from September 30 - October 1, 1996. The IVTTA workshop brings together applications researchers planning to conduct or who have recently conducted field trials of new applications of speech technologies. Due to workshop facility constraints, attendance will be limited primarily to contributors. For further information about the workshop, contact: Dr. Murray Spiegel Bellcore 445 South Street Morristown, NJ, USA e-mail: spiegel@bellcore.com Phone: 1-201-829-4519; Fax: 1-201-829-5963 Submit abstracts (400 words, maximum 1 page) before April 1, 1996 to: Dr. David Roe IEEE IVTTA `96 AT&T Bell Laboratories, Room 2D-533 Murray Hill, NJ 07974 e-mail: roe@hogpb.att.com Phone: 908 582-2548; Fax: 908 582-3306 2. ISSD-96 The 1996 International Symposium on Spoken Dialogue (ISSD-96) will be held on October 2 and 3 at the venue of ICSLP 96. It is intended to be a forum of interdisciplinary exchange between researchers working on spoken dialogues from various points of view. The first day is devoted to invited lectures followed by sessions of both invited and contributed papers, which will be continued on the second day as special sessions of ICSLP 96. Papers submitted to ICSLP 96 (Technical Areas H,L,O,U,&V) may be selected for presentation at the symposium. For further information about the symposium, contact: Prof. Hiroya Fujisaki, Chairman, ISSD-96 Dept. of Applied Electronics Science University of Tokyo 2641 Yamazaki, Noda, 278 Japan e-mail: fujisaki@te.noda.sut.ad.jp Phone: +81-471-23-4327; Fax: +81-471-22-9195 3. COCOSDA Workshop 96 COCOSDA Workshop 96 will be held on Monday, October 7 at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel. The International Coordinating Committee on Speech Databases and Speech I/O Systems Assessment (COCOSDA) has been established to promote international cooperation in the fundamental areas of Spoken Language Engineering. Previous meetings have taken place in Banff 1992, Berlin 1993, Yokohama 1994 and Madrid 1995. Program and registration information for COCOSDA 96 will be forthcoming in later announcements. For more information about COCOSDA, consult the Web Page at http://www.itl.atr.co.jp/cocosda. 4. WIGLS Workshop on the Integration of Gesture in Language and Speech (WIGLS) will be held October 7 and 8. This Workshop will consider the integration of gesture and spoken language in intelligent human/computer interfaces, advanced assistive technology for individuals with disabilities, telemanipulation and robotics systems, and human conversation. Gestures including hand postures, dynamic arm movements, facial expression, and eye gaze will be considered along with more traditional lip shapes and handwriting movements. For further information, contact: Dr. Lynn Messing A. I. duPont Institute P.O. Box 269 Wilmington, DE 19899 e-mail: messing@asel.udel.edu Phone: +1 302 651 6830; Fax: +1-302-651-6895 _____________Sponsoring and Cooperating Organizations________________________ The Acoustical Society of America The Acoustical Society of Japan American Speech and Hearing Association (Pending) Australian Speech Science and Technology Association (Pending) European Speech Communication Association IEEE Signal Processing Society Incorporated Canadian Acoustical Association International Phonetic Association For additional sponsoring organizations, contact ICSLP 96. _____________For more information about ICSLP 96, contact_____________________ ICSLP 96 Applied Science & Engineering Laboratories A.I. duPont Institute P.O. Box 269 Wilmington, DE 19899 Phone: +1 302 651 6830 TDD: +1 302 651 6834 Fax: +1 302 651 6895 Email: ICSLP96@asel.udel.edu WWW: http://www.asel.udel.edu/speech/icslp.html FTP: zeppo.asel.udel.edu:pub/ICSLP A two-page PostScript format copy of the most recent Conference Announcement and Call for Papers can also be obtained by anonyomus ftp. Connect to host zeppo.asel.udel.edu, cd to directory pub/ICSLP96, and get call.ps.Z in binary mode. The file must be uncompressed with a unix compatable uncompress program before being printed. This plain text version of the announcement is located in the same directory as file call.txt ______________________International Advisory Board__________________________ Hiroya Fujisaki - Founding Chair Science University of Tokyo Tokyo, Japan Jens Blauert Louis C. W. Pols Ruhr-Universitat Bochum University of Amsterdam, Bochum, Germany Amsterdam, The Netherlands Anne Cutler Lawrence Rabiner Max Planck Institute for AT&T Bell Labs Psycholinguistics Murray Hill, NJ, USA Nijmegen, The Netherlands Gunnar Fant Katsuhiko Shirai Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Waseda University Stockholm, Sweden Tokyo, Japan John Laver Kenneth Stevens Humanities Research Board of Massachusetts Institute the British Academy of Technology Edinburgh, Scotland Cambridge, MA, USA Joseph Mariani Yoh'ichi Tohkura LIMSI-CNRS ATR Human Information Orsay, France Processing Research Lab Kyoto, Japan J. Bruce Millar Victor Zue Australian National University Massachusetts Institute Canberra, Australia of Technology Cambridge, MA, USA John Ohala University of California Berkeley, CA, USA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 02:08:27 +1000 From: gly@magna.com.au (Grahame Lynch) Subject: Optus CEO Resigns OPTUS CEO RESIGNS Copyright Communications Day (Australia) Australia's no 2 carrier Optus Communications' CEO Bob Mansfield has resigned his position to join the Australian Fairfax publishing group as its chief executive. The move is not expected to be officially announced until this morning, but was leaked yesterday to ABC Television and other journalists. Optus was caught on the hop by the revelation last night, having not released a public statement on the move as at 2am Eastern Australian time this morning. Its public affairs section was continually engaged last night. AAP reported last night that Optus had refused to comment on the news. Mansfield is to take over at Fairfax from November, according to today's Sydney Morning Herald. He will replace existing CEO Bob Mulholland who is departing his position one year earlier than expected. Fairfax published Australia's leading newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Melbourne Age. MONTHS OF SPECULATION: Mansfield's departure ends months of speculation about his position at Optus. In that period he has been besieged by rumours that shareholders were dissatisfied with Optus' latterday performance under his stewardship. The commissioning of McKinsey & Co to undertake a major management review of Optus fuelled this speculation. The review is scheduled to report next week. Mansfield's future at Optus Communications was probably untenable, anyhow. The company appears set to become a mere shell of its current self, restricted largely to cost-based interconnect revenues derived from resale to pay TV joint venture Optus Vision, which is set to assume ownership of the carrier's vast residential and small business customer base. Mansfield suggested in late August that Optus Vision and Optus Communications would not even offer unified billing at first, but Optus Vision CEO Geoffery Cousins said last week that the there will be seamless integration of the two offerings with "one company, one sales force". He said that Optus Communications would only look after corporate customers in future. Cousins already appears to have assumed the public role in guiding the network's future marketing and strategic direction. OPTUS ACHIEVEMENTS: Despite all of this, Mansfield's achievement at Optus has been considerable by any standard. He has guided the company from startup in 1991/2 to a A$1.5b annual turnover based on an estimated 14% share of long distance and international traffic and a 30%-34% share of mobile connections. The company has disappointed some with the limited focus of its services but in retrospect it was probably wise for it to avoid some of its early potentially expensive plans for payphones, a commercial ISDN service and extensive suburban fibre loop-based business services. Mansfield's greatest achievement was probably the high profile he created for the group through his extensive advocacy of Optus services via the media. He is one of the most recognised business faces in Australia with his Sydney North Shore rugby union player demeanour serving more than probably any other single factor to blunt Optus' foreign ownership image problems. WHERE NOW FOR OPTUS? Mansfield's departure will not be good for Optus, at least in the short term. The last senior expatriate executive in the company, chief operating officer Ian Boatman (from Cable & Wireless), is expected to return to the UK soon. Boatman and Mansfield are regarded as Optus' two most outstanding executives to date. Also, staff morale in Optus Communications is reportedly at an all-time low with an attitude permeating the place that Optus Vision has a much brighter future and will glean the fruits of their labour. Mansfield's departure may serve to reinforce this attitude among some staff. Any drastic changes or rationalisations that may eventuate from the McKinsey review could fuel this discontent. Of the remaining executives, chief financial officer John Greaves would appear to be the best qualified for the top job, but it is more likely to go to an outsider. Mansfield's departure probably also rates as a negative for the company's proposed float. WHAT FOR FAIRFAX? Optus' loss is surely Fairfax's gain. The newspaper group has been left at the starting gates in the convergence race, with yesterday's failure of its pay TV joint venture with the ABC symbolic of the company's inability to adapt to the new media environment. Mansfield brings with him an experience of the telecomms and convergence environment unequalled among Australian CEOs. This article appeared in September 29 {Communications Day}, a daily Australian comms news service. E-mail gly@decisive.com.au for more details. GRAHAME LYNCH Editor, Communications Day, Communications News & Analysis, Mobile News & Analysis Writer, Business Review Weekly, Comms Network, Australian Pay TV News, Broadcast Engineering News. ------------------------------ From: John T. Draper Subject: Cap'n Crunch WEB pages now on-line Date: 03 Oct 1995 18:25:29 GMT Organization: Programmers Network Greetings, Many of you Telecom folks know about Cap'n Crunch, but I still get lots of people asking how I got that name. Well, it's now explained in gory detail, as well as my early days of hacking Ma Bell and some great stories I tell. So I invite all you TELECOM Digest readers to visit my "home" in cyberspace. In there, you'll get to meet me, see my home, hang out in the town square, see what I do for work, and read some amazing stores I tell that have never been told before. Now that the statute of limitations is up, I can talk about it. Point your browser to: http://www.well.com/user/crunch/ and surf your wa wa off!! Cheers, Crunchman - Web weavers ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Oct 95 14:15:00 MET From: schaefer@alphanet.ch (Marc SCHAEFER) Subject: European Council Statement on Encryption Organization: ALPHANET NF - Research and information - Not for profit Does someone know something about the rumoured European Council Statement on Encryption ? I have heard it may establish a central (possibly private) organization which would be holder for keys. ------------------------------ From: latinnet@aol.com (Latin Net) Subject: Payphones For Prisons Date: 03 Oct 1995 10:28:59 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: latinnet@aol.com (Latin Net) I represent a group in Mexico that has a contract for 13 prisons in and around Mexico City for telephone equipment. This group has asked me to research putting pay-phones in these prisons for inmate use. I really would like to find a company that specializes in this market that would be interested in expanding internationally. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Andrew Salisbury ASALISB741@AOL.COM ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Oct 95 13:47:15 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Last Laugh! Heavenly Phone Calls = Hellish Long Distance Bill The Dialog (Catholic diocese of Wilmington, Delaware) has on page 5 of its 21 September issue a cartoon with the following caption: "We think it's wonderful that you want to play 'priest', dear, but daddy and I are concerned about all these phone calls to the Vatican." ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #414 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04133; 4 Oct 95 3:04 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id SAA18092 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 18:14:04 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id SAA18080; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 18:14:01 -0500 Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 18:14:01 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510032314.SAA18080@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #415 TELECOM Digest Tue, 3 Oct 95 18:14:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 415 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Karen Jensen) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Bill Fenner) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Patton M. Turner) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Chris Mayer) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (John Higdon) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Toby Nixon) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Mike Morris) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Dave Levenson) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Steve Cogorno) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Ed Ellers) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Dave Yost) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Wes Leatherock) Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! (M. Troutman) Re: Unabomber Full Text Now in Archives (Scot E. Wilcoxon) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: dkjensen@ix.netcom.com (Karen Jensen, CPA) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Date: 3 Oct 1995 05:00:44 GMT Organization: Netcom In chris@ivanova.punk.net (Christopher Ambler) writes: > We have 26 lines (residential POTS) and 1 ISDN line into our house. (For > the curious, we have an internet cooperative amongst 20 people, ISDN > carries internet to my house, and then 20 modems take it all over town > to the members). > Pac*Bell told us, when we ordered our last three lines, that we could > only have one of them, and that we were then maxxed out. Their story > is that we've used all the pairs up my street save for the spares to > each other house (for which I've heard anywhere from one to five pairs > per house). > I called "Home Office" on Monday to enquire as to the cost to get two > more lines. I told them that engineering had told me no more unless I > pay for trenching, etc. The lady told me, "Well, there are nine pairs > to your area available, and three available to your house." I found > this hard to believe, but decided to test it, and ordered a line > (POTS/res/meas). She assigned me a number and a date for install. > Today (a day before the install date), an engineer came out and was > rather rude with me, telling me that there's been a block placed on my > address, such that we can have no more lines. He said we can pay > upwards of $10,000 (ten thousand dollars!) to have the area rewired. > But I got a firm commitment from the business office ... > Do I have any recourse here? We need more lines, and this is getting > very frustrating. Maybe you can get a T1 in to your house. It only takes two pairs. Pac Bell installed mine for free for our business. You may need to pay a move charge to move your existing trunks to the span. Maybe they would wave the move charges to get 18 of your existing pairs. I have a used channel bank for sale. ------------------------------ From: fenner@parc.xerox.com (Bill Fenner) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 07:55:01 PDT Organization: Xerox Palo Alto Research Center In article , Christopher Ambler wrote: > Their story is that we've used all the pairs up my street save for > the spares to each other house (for which I've heard anywhere from one > to five pairs per house). We had a similar problem; when we moved in, PAC*Bell said that we only had four pairs available for our house; we wanted three POTS and two ISDN lines. They ended up putting a box they call a DAML on one of the pairs, which gives you two POTS lines over one pair. Apparently, it uses a 2B1Q physical layer just like ISDN, and apparently does the A<>D, dialtone generation, tone recognition, etc. in the garage. We are using the two POTS lines both for modem lines, and although the S/N ratio dropped a couple of dB when switching from a fully analog line to one of these DAML'd lines, we don't have any connection problems because of it. So, perhaps you can get them to put these DAML boxes on some of your pairs and double the number of POTS lines into your house. Bill ------------------------------ From: pturner@netcom.com (Patton M Turner) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 02:07:08 GMT I supprised PacBell doesn't just put a slick in you basement (or in your front yard :-)). If you are getting ISDN you are 18,000 feet or less from either the CO or SLC. It seems it would behove them to get rid of the bridge taps, splice in a pair of span repeaters, and the ISDN line should carry a T span (with a second pair). Then they can feed you the ISDN line with a BRITE card. Of course you many not want a SLC in your bedroom, but it is the ultimate sign of computer geekdom. Let me guess though, your fellow coop members dial in close to 24 hrs a day, only hanging up when the carrier is lost. I bet PacBells attitude has something to do with this. Pat ------------------------------ From: Chris Mayer Organization: IncidentNet Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 21:45:48 -0800 Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? > From: west@via.net (Dave Harrison) > And by the way, co-operative or not, you should be paying for business > service. You can't argue "we're non profit"... so is the Red Cross and > they pay for the proper service. Unless I read wrong, he is operating out of his home, and if so, Pacific Bell has a special program called "Cottage Industries" for home businesses. A rep told me that there would be no problem with bringing in additional lines on the residential rate, although the only drawback is that you don't get any business line pluses such as a line in the yellow pages and a line in the business white pages. IncidentNet(tm) - Fire, Police and EMS Information Services Chris Mayer, Owner National ID: (Net/3500) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 13:05:15 -0400 From: Fred R. Goldstein Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? chris@ivanova.punk.net (Christopher Ambler) wrote: > We have 26 lines (residential POTS) and 1 ISDN line into our house. (For > the curious, we have an internet cooperative amongst 20 people, ISDN > carries internet to my house, and then 20 modems take it all over town > to the members). I have to admit that while I consider myself a respectable telco basher, my sympathies are with PacBell here. I realize that some BBSs can use residence service, and an Internet coop running from a house and NOT charging money can use residence service by the same standard, but let's not get carried away. We had a case in Cambridge a few years ago. Channel 1 began as a residential BBS, but grew to dozens of lines. It was really kludgey; they had dozens of PCs on shelves with separate modems and everything, working out of a tiny house on a back street. The city made them move it to a commercial zone. Last time I looked, they were in the same building as Delphi Internet, but the latter is moving to larger quarters in Lowell. Anyway, there _is_ a way to get some relief from the 20-line limit. Turn some of the lines into (residential) ISDN BRIs. Each has two B channels. There are some devices (Adak makes one) that convert it into two analog POTS jacks. In effect it's doubling the capacity of each pair, even if you don't have people dialing in on ISDN. And some devices have modems built in. Check out the ISDN web page that Dan Kegel maintains on: http://alumni.caltech.edu/~dank/isdn Fred R. Goldstein fgoldstein@bbn.com Bolt Beranek & Newman Inc. Cambridge MA USA +1 617 873 3850 ------------------------------ Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 13:19:59 -0700 From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Dave Harrison writes: > And by the way, co-operative or not, you should be paying for business > service. You can't argue "we're non profit"... so is the Red Cross and > they pay for the proper service. The tariff does not agree with you. There are specific points involving business service: 1. The phone is installed in a business location; This means an office building or structure in a business district. Or it means in a business environment that is not a domicile. The Red Cross has offices downtown; the poster is in a home. 2. The number is advertised; The Red Cross even runs media ads. The poster does not. 3. The number is answered as a business; The Red Cross answers, "Red Cross...". A modem answering is neutral (neither necessarily business nor residence). I have been around and around with Pac*Bell types who try to regrade various services to business. I always win when we get down to the wording in the tariffs. 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: I would have to take exception with John's third point, 'the number is answered as a business' and 'a modem is neutral (neither necessarily business or residence)'. A phone which is answered with a person's name (for example, an direct-dial extension at a company where the user replies, 'John Smith speaking') could have the same kind of neutrality of which you speak, but no one would be fooled into thinking that John Smith was going to have a social call and there- fore should be charged residence rates. Likewise, merely because the human brain cannot decipher via the ear what a modem is 'saying' -- we hear only the squeaks and hisses -- that does not mean that the message delivered to the caller is a neutral one. When the message is interpreted by a similar device -- just as when a foreign speaking person's message is translated for us -- the context might well be business. If the message sent as interpreted by the modem on the other end of the line says 'you are connected to the XXX Internet Gateway Service' then it is indeed quite arguable that the service should be classified as business. The context is all-important here. On the other hand if the modem replies with a message saying 'this is X, I am a deaf person; you have reached my residence and this is how I communicate' then obviously you are talking about residential service. I do not know about the tariff in California, but the tariff here states things a bit differently. (1) any service which is not exclusively for the personal use of the residents of a domicile is a 'business' service. (2) at an address which has historically been used for business, then any service installed there must be business service; however at an address which has historically been residential in nature then residence service is available *unless the line is being used for business purposes.* (3) there are no distinctions made between 'for profit business' and 'not for profit business'. There are no distinctions made between social and/or religious organizations and businesses. The only distinction made is if the phone is in an historically residential area and if it is intended for the non-business exclusive use of the residents therein, in which case residence service is an available option to the subscriber. The error by telco is one of nomenclature. Long ago the types of service should have been described as 'exclusive personal use by one or more individuals at a place of residence' and 'all other service.' Then either you qualify for the less expensive rates or you do not. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Toby Nixon Date: Tue, 3 Oct 95 12:16:29 PDT Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Steve Cogorno wrote: > Toby Nixon said: >> So what if it takes a few more digits to dial *00,12068828080 when, if >> it was local to me, it could have been dialed as just "8828080" -- >> those "extra" six digits only took half a second to dial, and I didn't >> have to make two or three failed call attempts to find the right digit >> sequence! This ought to be implementable on PBXes just as easily as on COs. > This is already the case. Dialing 1+NPA for calls within that NPA will > go through. This is part of the "new" NANAP numbering system. > If your LEC is doing it differently, then they should be told > that they are not following the proper dialing procedures. The North American Numbering Plan Adminstration at Bellcore has no legal authority to mandate dialing procedures in the LECs. That authority rests with the public utility commissions in each state, at least for now. Only a couple of states currently permit 1 + NPA + 7D for local calls, and the blame for this rests squarely with the PUCs. One of the states that permits universal 11-digit dialing is California, and the PUC there is to be commended for that. But this is the exception, not the rule. > Even if you COULDN'T dial 1+NPA calls, this is an extremely easy > problem to fix in a software environment. Baloney. It's only appears to be "extremely easy" to those who haven't actually tried to deal with designing software to do this, across the country and around the world. > First, create a user profile for the CALLING number: > area code > outside line access (8,9,nothing,etc.) > long distance access (1,0 for charge, 102881 for AT&T, etc.) > suffix (calling card, charge account, etc.) > country > Then for each stored number: > area code > phone number > country > When the user calls from a new location, he or she changes the CALLING > number data to include the new area code and outside line access. The > computer then the desired number against the current area code and if > they are different it dials it. > The AppleTalk Remote Access software has a good example of this: it's > called DialAssist. Well, the Dialing Properties feature in Windows Telephony is a good example, too. And since the ongoing design of that feature is my responsibility, I hope you respect the fact that I have a pretty good feeling for what is required. You are greatly oversimplifying the problem! I started out thinking it was as simple as you state, and wish that it were true -- but it isn't. Reread my previous messages. Look at what the reality is out in the world. It is NOT as simple as "if the country code is different, dial the international prefix then the country code". If you're in Italy calling San Marino, you dial "0549" then the local number, instead of "00378"; if you're in San Marino calling Italy, you dial "0" and the city code, not "0039"; if you're in Singapore calling Malaysia, you dial "0" and the Malaysian city code, not "00560"; if you're in Mexico calling a country in WPA 1, you dial "95" plus the area code, not "98" plus the country code (1) like for every other country in the world. If you're in Russia dialing Estonia, you prefix the local number with "8 014" instead of "8 10 372". I could go on and on with these exceptions -- I have two full pages of them. Likewise, dialing within countries is not so simple. In Austria, the city code for Vienna is "1" if you're calling in from outside the country, but "222" if you're calling from inside! In France, if you're outside Paris, your city code is "null" (you don't have one) while it is "1" inside Paris, but if you're inside Paris and the destination number doesn't have a city code, it doesn't NECESSARILY mean that you need to dial the "16" long distance prefix (if the local number starts with "15", it is a toll free number that doesn't need the prefix). If I'm in the 416 NPA (Toronto) and I'm dialing certain exchanges in the Toronto suburbs (NPA 905), I must dialing then using NPA+7D, but other exchanges that aren't local calls to me must be dialed as 1+NPA+7D; this situation exists in Dallas, Houston, Washington DC, Atlanta, and Miami, and is spreading. There's simply NO WAY TO KNOW whether a given call to another NPA must have, or not have, the leading "1", without a huge database -- and you can't load that database from some central repository, because the exchanges that are local TO YOU can vary based not only on the exchange you're calling from, but on the basis of optional subscription plans. It is, in fact, a monumental software engineering problem. It is an awful data collection problem as well. None of it would be necessary if there was a *real* nationwide standard dialing plan that allowed all calls to be dialed the same way, but there isn't, your assertion notwithstanding. > Let's leave the re-engineering where it belongs: with the computer > people who want to interface into the public TELEPHONE network. Why? There's ample processing power in all those 5Es, 4Es, and DMS-100s out there to route the call properly even if it has "extra digits". The phone network is being re-engineered all the time by the PUCs, who have imposed or are imposing ridiculous 10-digit local dialing across NPA boundaries in a half-dozen metro areas already, and the problem is growing. In every one of these cases (except maybe the overlay NPAs in Houston, which will require universal 10-digit dialing between them starting next year), dialing correctly requires either acquiring or building a database to know, for each exchange, which exchanges in the same NPA must be dialed as 7 or 11 digits, and which exchanges in the other NPAs must be dialed as 10 or 11. And, no, they do NOT have permissive 11-digit dialing for non-toll calls in ANY of these places! Toby Nixon Program Manager, Windows Telephony Microsoft Corp. ------------------------------ From: morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Mike Morris) Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Organization: College Park Software, Altadena, CA Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 04:06:27 GMT James E. Bellaire writes: > In TD389, Dave Yost wrote: >> Business and Hotel phones: >> Business phones usually require you to dial 9 for an >> outside line. Hotels sometimes require 8. There was >> a time, back in the old pulse-dial days, when this >> made some sense. Now it doesn't. PBX systems with >> push-button phones could use the * or # key to access >> internal dialing, and allow normal dialing to the >> outside without a prefix. We could require new >> systems to offer this facility, and old ones could >> be required to offer it as a software upgrade if >> feasible. (The phone system manufacturers should >> welcome this revenue opportunity.) > No thanks. I like being able to dial direct digits on inside calls. > * and # are used for accessing specific functions on PBXs (like remote > call pickup and direct trunck selection) so requiring all PBXs to > change would lose the availability of these features. I agree with Mr. Bellaire. Let's leave the PBX systems as simple as possible for the majority of the users. The place where I'm currently working has five-digit extensions, and ties up all of 1 centrex prefix and portions of two others. Dialing five digits to get the next desk over seems to be a bit much already -- having to dial * or # first? No thank you. I'd love to have the PBX software take one, two or three digits as "shortcut" dialing -- if I dial one digit, take my number, truncate the last digit, add the one I dialed and connect me. Same with two or three digits. Yes, I know it won't work with 9 or 0, but it would be nice. Yes, I'm aware that large C.O. level centrex PBXs have intercom functions. >> Calling from within the area code: >> If you dial your own area code, you get a recording >> saying you did something wrong. This should be >> reprogrammed so that such a call goes through as a >> normal local call. > Absolutely. All local calls should be connected and billed as local > calls regardless of 1+, NPA+, or 7D (where permitted) pattern used. > This would help travelers more than missing children since they would > not have to reprogram their pocket dialers (or minds) every time they > changed local calling areas. One pet peeve I've had with terminal programs with dialing directories is that I have to edit the phone file when I change area codes. I'd love to just enter 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx for each number, and then enter the area code that I'm calling from in a different field, and the program would "know" not to dial 1-xxx then they match. >> Special hookups for emergencies: >> In the case of a lost or kidnapped child, a >> subscriber should be able to request that a special >> unblockable Caller ID logging unit be attached to >> their line so that the police or FBI can trace a >> relevant incoming call when alerted. > Available on a limited basis now (for prank calls mainly). Just dial > a * something code and the number is logged. Report the call to the > police or telephone company and they investigate (without telling you > the number). Call-back * codes could also be used to store this > number in some switches. Hopefully you;ve reported the person missing before you get the call, so when you hit *67 (is that the code?) the police can act quickly. > If PBX administrators would make 911 (as well as 9-911) work from any > phone it would be helpful too. Not too many people would be > attempting to reach 9-1-1xx-xxx-xxxx numbers (unless they thought they > were dialing 011 for IDDD access). I've seen a few that did that. Dial 9 to get outside? fine. "11" times out and translates to 911. Doesn't take rocket science - just decent software. Mike Morris morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 12:13:44 GMT Clifton T. Sharp (clifto@indep1.chi.il.us) writes: > In article johnl@iecc.com (John Levine) > writes: >> Call Trace serves this function now. It does what caller-ID is >> frequently misrepresented as doing, collecting the calling number of a >> call that you need to report to the cops. The answer is that it allows you to collect the calling number of a call that you don't need to report to the cops. I would prefer to use cops when there's an emergency, and to use less expensive measures when there is not. An anonymous phone call is often an annoyance, but it is seldom an emergency. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: uunet!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 12:42:27 PDT Toby Nixon said: > So what if it takes a few more digits to dial *00,12068828080 when, if > it was local to me, it could have been dialed as just "8828080" -- > those "extra" six digits only took half a second to dial, and I didn't > have to make two or three failed call attempts to find the right digit > sequence! This ought to be implementable on PBXes just as easily as on COs. Toby, This is already the case. Dialing 1+NPA for calls within that NPA will go through. This is part of the "new" NANAP numbering system. If your LEC is doing it differently, then they should be told that they are not following the proper dialing procedures. Even if you COULDN'T dial 1+NPA calls, this is an extremely easy problem to fix in a software environment. First, create a user profile for the CALLING number: area code outside line access (8,9,nothing,etc.) long distance access (1,0 for charge, 102881 for AT&T, etc.) suffix (calling card, charge account, etc.) country Then for each stored number: area code phone number country When the user calls from a new location, he or she changes the CALLING number data to include the new area code and outside line access. The computer then the desired number against the current area code and if they are different it dials it. The AppleTalk Remote Access software has a good example of this: it's called DialAssist. Let's leave the re-engineering where it belongs: with the computer people who want to interface into the public TELEPHONE network. Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Date: Tue, 03 Oct 95 12:15:14 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Toby Nixon writes: > So, why SHOULDN'T the phone network be designed so that computers can > be connected to the network ANYWHERE and be permitted to input a > fully-qualified international number (including country code) and have > the NETWORK figure out how to route the call, instead of the computer > needing to be pre-programmed to know exactly which subset of the phone > number needs to be dialed, along with whatever prefixes are needed? That could be done easily enough -- all AT&T (or whatever the new hardware company will be called), Northern Telecom and others have to do is rewrite their switch software. However, this would eliminate the safety feature that now exists in most (but not all) areas where you can't accidentally dial a toll call as a local one or vice-versa. ------------------------------ From: DYost@Taurus.Apple.com (Dave Yost) Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses Date: 03 Oct 1995 12:03:28 -0700 Organization: Apple Computer, Inc. Toby, I agree with everything you say. I'm glad to hear from many people how much hope there is for simplified dialing from direct lines and for good call tracing. I hope that the good examples of these become universal. Here are some answers to other points raised by others. Many of you seem to not be too well in tune with what might go through a child's mind. Yes, I agree that it's a good idea to teach them to call 911 (when they're old enough -- see below) and it would be good to fix the systems so at least that would always work. But then, what shall the child do when they're not sure their fear merits a call to 911? I would hope they would call home. And what if they're afraid that the big authorities at 911 would say they're crying "Wolf"? They'd want to call home instead. And there are situations when your child would want to call home simply because they're afraid or don't feel well, and they don't want to disturb other people or are embarrassed or afraid to disturb them, like when they stay overnight somewhere. This is not life-threatening, but still, a person, the child, is suffering. Must we be hard-hearted and defend our crufty system that some of us love the way it is? I could revise my instructions to the child to this: "Pick up any phone, dial our home telephone number, and we'll answer. If that doesn't work, call 911 if it's an emergency. Even if you don't get to speak, it will help to know where you called from." Another problem is that really tiny children can be taught their phone number, way before they're able to understand what an emergency is, and way before it's appropriate to get them thinking about what they would do if they were kidnapped or caught in some sort of disaster. If you raise this kind of issue with a really small child, it can be terrifying to them. A friend gave us a videotape to show our then 3-year-old daughter about what to do if you're approached by a stranger or taken away by them. I wish we'd looked at it before showing it to her. It was quite nicely done, but still she was very frightened by it, and had nightmares about it for a long time. This is why I made such a big issue of dialing home rather than 911. 911 is problematic, especially for really young children, when calling home is not. 0 would be good if it always worked because it's presumably a number you can call in something less than an emergency, but it often doesn't work. Many, many companies in my experience send 0 calls to a recording except during business hours, many even during business hours. Besides it has some of the same problems from the child's perspective that 911 does. I don't see a need to take on making 0 work for kids everywhere if we can get phone numbers and 911 to work nicely. Here I must confess that while the child safety concern was what pushed me over the edge to raise the dialing weirdness issue, I too think there are other less urgent reasons to deal with it. Yes, I'm a dad of a small child, but I'm also a user of phones and computers myself. In addition to Toby's excellent points about computer dialing, there is another annoyance. Haven't you ever picked up the phone at work and started to dial a number without the 9? Haven't you ever picked up the phone at home and started to dial 9? This kind of mistake is not stupidity or some kind of disability, it's what happens with wetware. And it is evidence that there is something wrong with the usability of the system. I admit that my proposal for putting through calls from pay phones without paying and without having to speaking to an operator need some work, but think the goal is a good one, and it should be worked out. The same goes for phones in elevators, lobbies, and other places where companies now summarily block outside or long distance calls. In working it out, we would have to take into consideration language barriers and fear at having to talk to a strange adult (operator). Dave Yost Apple ATG ------------------------------ From: wes.leatherock@hotelcal.com (Wes Leatherock) Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 20:11:00 GMT Toby Nixon wrote: > But in this case, adding some consistency, simplicity, and sanity to > the dialing plan in North America would help a lot more than > four-year-olds. It would, in fact, go a long way toward making it > possible to reliably dial calls from your computer, wherever you might > be. We all know that computers are actually dumber than > four-year-olds, right? There are many more people out there that are not computer users than those who are computer users. And while you may be used to dealing primarily with computer users who move their computers from place to place, even the vast majority of the (rather small, in the overall scheme of the world) number of people who have computers do not move them from place to place or even from one line to another. > We need to get the state public utility commissions out of the > business of dictating dialing procedures, and overcome the fiction > that dialing a "1" before a number means "I have to pay extra for this > call". We need a national consensus among LECs and PBX vendors on what > this prefix should be that allows a fully-qualified international > phone number to follow. I would hope that LECs and PBX vendors would be much more interested in the interests of the entire population than the small number of computer users who would see any benefit at all from this proposal. And I can assure that in many large parts of the country it is by no means a "fiction" that dialing 1 before a number means it will cost extra for the call. A vast part of the population is concerned about whethe or not it will cost extra for the call, although perhaps the few number of people who will be benefitted by this proposal do consider cost of no interest. But the vast majority of the population does worry about money and costs. > Mr. Yost's point about children being unable to figure out how > to dial in an emergency situation is a good one to wake up > regulators, legislators, and telephone system designers who > otherwise might not pay attention to the problems caused by > confusion in the national dialing plan. Once awareness of the > problem is raised, however, I would expect the primary > motivation for finding a solution would be to facilitate > shipping and installing shrink-wrapped software with preloaded > phone numbers, distribution of phone numbers and dialing > directories over the Internet that can be dialed anywhere, > simplification of dialing configuration for travelers with > computers. If this would be the primary motivation, it would indeed mean that the whole world has been remade for the benefit of software companies, including the one that seems to have been the most successful of all under the present system. I hope the regulators, legislators and telephone system designers continue to be considered about the people of the U.S.A. rather than the convenience and profitability of software companies and a small percentage of the population who takes their computers to different phone systems and has no concern at all about how much it will cost them. Wes Leatherock wes.leatherock@hotelcal.com wes.leatherock@oubbs.telecom.uoknor.edu wes.leatherock@f2001.n147.z1.fidonet.org ------------------------------ From: M. Troutman Subject: Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! Date: 03 Oct 1995 14:58:25 GMT Organization: PSI Public Usenet Link Contact Bell Atlantic and have them place a block on your line. They are very friendly :) and the service is free. I was slammed twice by MCI, and I haven't had a problem with them since. Next, find WilTel's phone number. Here is their web site ... http://www.wiltel.com/corporat/cfwt.html Harass them. Let them know how much you dislike them. Try anyname@wiltel.com ... send hate mail! MT - Vienna, VA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 10:58:11 -0500 From: Scot E. Wilcoxon Subject: Re: Unabomber Full Text Now in Archives Organization: FieldDay A local newspaper also published the entire Unabomber text. "Pocket Unabomber Text" Editor's note: After intense internal debate, the {Twin Cities Reader} has decided, in the interest of reader safety, to publish the entire Unabomber manifesto." The whole thing fits on a 3 by 5 inch card. The text is somewhat smaller than the legible version which required several pages in larger papers. Scot E. Wilcoxon sewilco@fieldday.mn.org 1. Laws are society's common sense, written down for the stupid. 2. The stupid refuse to read. Thank you for choosing to read. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Just a reminder to readers who have asked about the full Unabomber text that it is available in the Telecom Archives. You can either get it using anonymous ftp lcs.mit.edu or by using the Telecom Archives Email Information Service. To use the latter, send email to 'tel-archives@lcs.mit.edu'. The subject does not matter. As the entire text of your message issue these commands at the left margin, just as shown here: REPLY yourname@site GET unabomber END If you wish more information about the Telecom Archives Email Information Service and the hundreds of files available in addition to the past four- teen year's of this Digest, then add the commands: INFO HELP prior to the END instruction. The Unabomber text is quite large and will be sent to you in several parts, numbered appropriatly. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #415 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05532; 4 Oct 95 5:36 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA19788 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 19:36:24 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA19780; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 19:36:21 -0500 Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 19:36:21 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510040036.TAA19780@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #416 TELECOM Digest Tue, 3 Oct 95 19:36:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 416 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? (bkron@netcom.com) Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? (Stan Schwartz) Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? (Tony Harminc) Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? (Arthur L. Shapiro) Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? (Rich Osman) Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? (Robert Casey) Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? (David Breneman) Re: Cell One/NY Fraud Control Problems, More (Dave Levenson) Re: Cell One/NY Fraud Control Problems, More (Alan Boritz) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Thomas Villinger) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Steve Cogorno) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (John David Galt) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Boyce G. Williams, Jr.) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Al Varney) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: bkron@netcom.com (BUBEYE!) Subject: Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 21:39:16 GMT awluck@interramp.com (Andrew Luck) writes: > Now I am back in the south (Atlanta GA area code 770) and really would > like to get [my 666-XXX number] back. > How about 777 (three's a charm?) > Or 888 (Dead man's Hand ?) 666 and 777 are unassigned in the Atlanta area, but 888 is on a 1AESS. > And is 666 available in area code 1-500 ? Yes, and it is assigned to "Nationwide Wireless." The following NPA's have an active 666 prefic within them: 201 217 405 516 617 817 202 218 406 540 703 818 203 302 410 603 713 900 207 303 415 605 714 903 208 305 419 606 800 904 210 312 500 608 803 913 212 318 501 610 804 914 213 334 503 614 810 916 214 360 505 615 813 918 216 402 513 616 816 941 ------------------------------ From: Stan Schwartz Subject: Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 11:11:31 -0400 awluck@interramp.com (Andrew Luck) wrote: > Beyond conflicts with area coding, which appears to be on the way out, > are there certain numbers that simply aren't going to be used either > nationally or in certain localities? > How about 777 (three's a charm?) > Or 888 (Dead man's Hand ?) In the 516 NPA in New York, 666, 777, and 888 are in the normal exchange "pool". In 516 as well as many other areas of the country, a service called "MovieFone" (Phone?) uses 777-3456 (FILM). 888 has TicketMaster in it (888-9000). > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Wait until they set up area code 666 in > some part of the country. '666' is a number presumed by people of some > religions to be 'very bad'. A few years ago, New York radio show host Howard Stern discussed a frustrating weekend going house hunting with his friend Andrew (formerly Dice) Clay. According to Stern, they had found the perfect house on the water in Bay Shore (Long Island). Dice was all set to buy the house until he found out that the current phone number was in the 666 exchange. Go figure. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I can tell you that Howard Stern has problems that go a lot deeper that whatever phone exchange he uses. For the second time in as many years, his radio show was dropped here in the Chicago market this past week. Citing the generally crude and lewd broadcasts for which he is famous -- or infamous -- the station bought off his contract and took him off the air at the end of last week. Would you believe WJJD (another station here at 1160 AM) agreed to take him. I guess they hope someone will start listening to their very low-ranked station now that they have Stern to insult and abuse people over the air at their location. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Oct 95 15:07:40 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? awluck@interramp.com (Andrew Luck) wrote: > Beyond conflicts with area coding, which appears to be on the way out, > are there certain numbers that simply aren't going to be used either > nationally or in certain localities? Certain NXXs are never going to be assigned for use with AMPS cellular phone service. This is because the truly bizarre design of AMPS allows the routine transmission of certain prefixes (as would be common in a metro area) to be confused with the framing bits in the paging channel data stream. Strange but true! I have a list of these 'forbidden' prefixes at home and can post them if there's any interest. Many of them are ineligible on other grounds (e.g. starting with 1 or 0). Tony Harminc ------------------------------ From: ARTHUR%MPA15C@MPA15AB.mv-oc.Unisys.COM Date: 03 Oct 1995 09:17:00 GMT Subject: Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? I didn't spot this one in the various replies; apologies if it's a dup. My sister's residence, in the little village of Manhattan NYC, is (212) 666-xxxx. I'd say it's a source of pride with her. Arthur L. Shapiro Arthur@mpa15c.mv-oc.unisys.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As Howard Stern would say, is your sister a devil worshipper? ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: ROsman@swri.edu Date: Tue, 03 Oct 95 8:15:41 CDT Subject: Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? > that in this part of the country there are "rules" against using > certain numbers, such as 666. Umm, is this the "Central Office of the Beast?" Sorry, I couldn't resist. I'm going to my room now sir. Oz@SwRI.edu (Rich Osman) SwRI didn't say it, I did. (210) 522-5050 (w) (210) 699-1302 (h;v/msg/fax) ------------------------------ From: wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) Subject: Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 22:09:12 GMT In article jfh@acm.org (Jack Hamilton) writes: > The TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: >> In the past here in the Digest, we have had articles about places in the >> USA and Canada where 666 is used, as in AC-666-xxxx. In a few cases, which >> should make everyone feel good, it turned out to be some federal government >> agency. I think in one case it was the Internal Revenue Service. Here in >> Chicago, 312-MONroe has been around simply forever. It is one of the oldest >> exchanges in the city, and a phone district is named for it. PAT] > In San Francisco, the 666 prefix belongs to the University of San > Francisco, a Catholic college (Jesuit, I think). No doubt some > heathen at Pacific Bell assigned it to them; I'd be surprised if they > requested it, but who knows? Maybe they wanted to prove some point. Here in Northern New Jersey (201), there's a 666 exchange. It's just a random assignment, mostly in Westwood, NJ. It feeds the usual mix of homes and small businesses, nothing special about it here. I would like to see area code 666 be assigned somewhere in the Bible Belt. :-) :-) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Either that, or possibly in Hell, Michigan. Hell, a small village of a couple thousand people is located about 20 miles northeast of Ann Arbor. Coming down from Luddington to Ann Arbor several years ago, we went through Hell on the way to the University of Michigan campus. At that time, the major highway there was undergoing repairs and was down to one lane in each direction with cars diverted over onto the shoulder of the road in a sort of make-shift lane they had setup for the southbound traffic. Far from having a nice paved road with an easy ride to Hell, the traffic jam was horrendous that day. The little village used to be famous for its branch of the US Weather Bureau located there, and its reports each winter when the bitterness of January in Michigan would cause a report to be issued saying that "Hell Froze Over". A lot of people who had promised to only do one thing or another when that condition occurred suddenly found themselves obliged to honor their commitment. Otherwise, the sole industry in this farm community with a large state forest at its southern end seems to be a tourist shop and restaurant. The tourist shop has such novel items as T-shirts on sale with the inscription "I've Been Through Hell"; coffee mugs with the same inscription; and maps of the State of Michigan with the highways outlined which point to their town and the notation "When you tell someone to go to Hell it would be a good idea to have a map showing them how to get there." This is not a recent creation; the village has been there for over a century. Drive north on interstate 75 out of Ann Arbor to the junction of State Highway 36, then go west about ten miles and there it is. Phone service is either from the Pinckney or Dexter, Michigan phone exchanges, depending on where in Hell you are calling from. I say let's assign them 666-666 as their own area code and prefix. PAT] ------------------------------ From: david.breneman@attws.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Forbidden? Exchange Prefixes? Date: 03 Oct 1995 19:42:19 GMT Organization: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. In article jfh@acm.org (Jack Hamilton) writes: > The TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: >> In the past here in the Digest, we have had articles about places in the >> USA and Canada where 666 is used, as in AC-666-xxxx. In a few cases, which >> should make everyone feel good, it turned out to be some federal government >> agency. I think in one case it was the Internal Revenue Service. Here in >> Chicago, 312-MONroe has been around simply forever. It is one of the oldest >> exchanges in the city, and a phone district is named for it. PAT] > In San Francisco, the 666 prefix belongs to the University of San > Francisco, a Catholic college (Jesuit, I think). No doubt some > heathen at Pacific Bell assigned it to them; I'd be surprised if they > requested it, but who knows? Maybe they wanted to prove some point. I know this is probably taking this conversation way far afield, but are there really many mainstream Christians who believe in this 666 stuff? My impression was that it fell some place between the Shroud of Turin and "Moses was a Space Alien" in the big list of Dubious Western Religion Legends. It originated with a mistranslation from a bible four or five generations back from the King James version (which is a translation of a translation of a translation, etc.). Typical disclaimers (I am not my employer's Biblical Scholar)... David Breneman Unix System Administrator Mail: david.breneman@attws.com IS - Operations (Formerly: ~@mccaw.com) AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. Phone: +1-206-803-7362 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You mean AT&T did *not* hire you to read and interpret the scriptures? ... yes, there are some religions who have strong feelings about 666 and who accept without reservation the Book of Revelations. ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Cell One/NY Fraud Control Problems, More Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 00:38:23 GMT Jeffrey Rhodes (jcr@creator.nwest.attws.com) writes: > In article 1@eecs.nwu.edu, dreuben@interpage.net (Doug Reuben) writes: >> 2. Cell One/NY recently, and quite foolishly, commenced mandatory 1+ >> dialing for most calls, even in many cases for calls within their own >> service area. I have subscribed to MetroOne, CellularOne, AT&T Wireless of New York since 1986. I have always programmed my speed-dials as 1+ ten digits, even when the area code is my own. This has always worked in the NYC area, and it has always worked when roaming with no need to change anything in the phone. I have roamed into all of the neighboring A systems without experiencing any difficulties with dial plan. I have also roamed to Washington, Baltimore, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh without having to change any of my 11-digit speed-dials. Landline phones in New Jersey allow 1+ ten digits even for local calls, and even when not required. It made perfect sense to me to allow the same flexibility for cellular users in this area. Where is there a problem? Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: uunet!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Cell One/NY Fraud Control Problems, More From: drharry!aboritz@uunet.uu.net (Alan Boritz) Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 06:32:51 EDT Organization: Harry's Place - Mahwah NJ - +1 201 934 0861 In comp.dcom.telecom, jcr@creator.nwest.attws.com writes: >> 2. Cell One/NY recently, and quite foolishly, commenced mandatory 1+ >> dialing for most calls, even in many cases for calls within their own >> service area. This has been explained to me as a "requirement" since AT&T >> now owns them, but unless this "requirement" is specific to AT&T-owned >> properties under the MFJ, I am not aware of any such MFJ, DOJ or other >> requirement on the Bell-owned carriers. Indeed, most of them do NOT >> require 1+ dialing in their markets, ever for roamers. > The 1+ requirement is a result of McCaw's conversion to Equal Access > which is required by the 1994 Consent Decree between the DoJ and AT&T. > Now that Cell One/NY has been converted to Equal Access, 60% of all > McCaw/Cellular One markets are converted, which means the company has the > right to call itself AT&T Wireless (which has greater brand name recognition > than McCaw Cellular). An operational detail that CellOne had forgotten to mention, though, is that quite a few cellphones have to be reprogrammed to dial properly in the NY market. For example, we always have used 1+ dialing on our A phones at work, but NONE of our A phones will store the "1" in speed dial locations. Any customers from other markets may also find they can't use their speed dial because their equipment may not store the leading "1," either. In the former case, CellOne will pick up the tab for reprogramming. However, in the latter case, the roaming customers will be unable to use their built-in speed dial. That's not a trivial matter in the event you're using an employer's phone with restricted dial features (i.e. speed dial only), of if you just need to dial a dozen or so numbers that you only have in memory but don't have on paper anywhere handy. ------------------------------ From: villing@muc.de (Thomas Villinger) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 09:08:56 +0100 Organization: MUC.DE e.v -- private Internet access martin@kurahaupo.gen.nz (Martin Kealey) wrote: > Tony Harminc wrote on 20 Sep 1995 in > article : >>> Okay, you dial +49 or within Germany 0. >>> Now you're on the long distance level of the German Telekom network. > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > This is the clue that he isn't necessarily refering to the physical > transport network. Each step represents a "level" for decoding the > number, rather than necessarily an actual switch, although it may have > done originally. As example, if you call from Ulm to Neu-Ulm which are some hundred meters apart but are located in differen states who dont get routed via Munich and Stuttgart which would be the "normal" hierarchical routing scheme, you do get a direct link because the exchange in Ulm checks its database and knows to take the direct route. >>> You dial selects >>> - <6> South western Germany. >>> - 6<2> The Ludwigshafen/Mannheim area. >>> - 62<1> The cities of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim themselves. >>> - 621 <5> Ludwigshafen. >>> - 621 5<8> The particular part of Ludwigshafen I live in. >>> - 621 58<70460> That's my line. My phone is ringing! >>> (Actually, the final 0 helps selecting a particular >>> device on my ISDN line.) >>> Easy, isn't it? >> Easy yes -- but a disaster for planning and orderly growth. This sort >> of design ensures that Germany will not have portable numbers for a >> long time. > Whilst this may make portable numbers a little more difficult, they > are by no means impossible. Why should it be impossible to get portable numbers? I don't see any difference to the problems as they occur in a fixed numbering scheme. We already do have "portable" numbers (think of all the mobile phones which are in fact portable numbers) and guess what i works :). Note that we do have a hierarchical numbering system but still work with databases, so it might be possible that a certain group of numbers get collected in an exchange aand are routed after the last digit which contains the necessary information is collected. Thom Dive Safely! Thomas Villinger, Munich, Germany root@remora.muc.de or villing@muc.de ------------------------------ From: cogorno@netcom.com (Steve Cogorno) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 01:39:10 PDT Martin Kealey said: > Quite true; the point I'm trying to get at is that compelled > signalling doesn't necessarily mean opening a voice-grade path all the > way to the far end, so while it's not entirely without cost, that cost > is pretty insignificant; for example, far less than the voice-grade > path used to signal ring-back in a lot of networks. (It is > conceivable that there may even be a net benefit from cost reductions > elsewhere.) I can assure you that those cost reductions would be very slow to realize because changing the entire network would cost huge amounts of money. This thread has gone on for quite some time, but I'd like to add two points and then that's it for me: 1) The whole point of variable length numbers is moot (or at least academic) because there are at least 660 new area codes that are unassigned. That's more than 600 million new numbers that can be put into service. 2) If it HAD been cheaper, faster, easier, etc. to convert to variable length phone numbers instead of introducing the new numbering plan, don't you think Bellcore would have done that? Steve cogorno@netcom.com ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Date: Tue, 3 Oct 95 11:28:58 PDT >> ... If there hadn't been the rigidity that >> prefixes and area codes be exactly three digits, maybe this would have >> been alleviated. > They'd have had to design things quite differently in the first place; > by the time they started to run out, there weren't 10 contiguous area > codes to allocate any more. ... They could not have avoided going to NXX area codes, but there are groups of ten contiguous codes NOW that are free and could be assigned this way. 27x and 32x for example. That would seem to me a much friendlier setup than an overlay. Of course, in the place that needs it the most, Los Angeles, it is already too late. Greater LA already has five whole area codes to itself and uses parts of two more -- and two of the five are now about to split! If they went to 2+8 numbering, their two digit code would be full before 2000. Maybe we should just keep the existing codes and go to 3+8 ... It sure sounds like the equipment is capable of any of these things. That makes the whole question a matter of taste and/or politics, not engineering. John David Galt ------------------------------ From: bowilliams@gems.vcu.edu (Boyce G. Williams, Jr.) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 13:07:56 GMT Organization: VA Commonwealth University Changing the subject a little, can anyone tell me where I can find a list of the display images used with the variable-length phone numbers used internationally? That is: for any country code, the typical length of the number and where the dashes go. I have a database of country codes and the name of the country that goes with it, but not much more. My only "source" giving a clue about the display is an "Airman's Guide" I found in a bookstore where a German phone number is displayed as eleven digit "WW-XXXX-YY-ZZZ", English as eleven digit "WW-XXX-YY-ZZZZ" and Japan as ten digit "XX-YYYY-ZZZZ". The first three digits is the country code, so how does the remainding numbers appears locally in that country? The reason for this request is I must format the numbers on a locally produced telephone bill I send to other departments. It's a matter of pride that I want to get the images right instead printing all thirteen digits, making the image look junky, or truncate the trailing zeros, not knowing the first+ zero is actually part of the number I should be printing. Thanking y'all in advance, Boyce Williams ------------------------------ From: varney@ihgp1.ih.att.com (Al Varney) Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Organization: AT&T Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 20:05:22 GMT In article , Toby Nixon wrote: > In Telecom Digest V15 #405, rlm@netcom.com (Robert McMillin) wrote: >>> Our telephone systems should be straightforward enough that any child >>> capable of remembering their phone number can be taught how to pick up >>> any phone and dial their home phone number or 911. >> Mr. Yost goes on to suggest that "We should work toward a standard >> that would allow a child to dial simply 1 + area code + number from >> any phone ... and get connected to their home." > So, why SHOULDN'T the phone network be designed so that computers can > be connected to the network ANYWHERE and be permitted to input a > fully-qualified international number (including country code) and have > the NETWORK figure out how to route the call, instead of the computer > needing to be pre-programmed to know exactly which subset of the phone > number needs to be dialed, along with whatever prefixes are needed? This capability is available in ISDN, since the "caller" can provide unambiguously the TYPE of NUMBER and the full number of DIGITS, along with a Transit Network selection (IXC) > All we need to do is define some sort of single, nationwide (even > worldwide!), standard prefix that says "what follows is a country code ^^^^^^^^^ You mean the ITU's "00" isn't a standard? > So what if it takes a few more digits to dial *00,12068828080 when, if > it was local to me, it could have been dialed as just "8828080" -- > those "extra" six digits only took half a second to dial, and I didn't > have to make two or three failed call attempts to find the right digit > sequence! This ought to be implementable on PBXes just as easily as on COs. The main problem here is that you want a computer interface to the phone network, but you're using (or emulating) a human interface. And you left out the Carrier selection string, the call waiting suppression code, and potentially an authorization/calling-card code, followed by an end-of-dialing indicator. "*00,*72,10288,12068828080#" .... Really begs for a digital (like ISDN) interface, doesn't it. Then you also get real call progress information (not just tones) and real answer indications and real call disconnect information. > We need to get the state public utility commissions out of the business > of dictating dialing procedures, and overcome the fiction that dialing > a "1" before a number means "I have to pay extra for this call". We > need a national consensus among LECs and PBX vendors on what this > prefix should be that allows a fully-qualified international phone > number to follow. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That's known as an E.164 number. Al Varney [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As a note of conclusion to this issue, most of our readers will receive this issue of the Digest as Yom Kippur is underway; a time of much significance and importance. To all our Jewish readers may I extend my kind thoughts and best wishes on this occassion as well as renew the thoughts expressed here one week ago for a most joyous and happy new year 5756. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #416 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05708; 4 Oct 95 5:39 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA20762 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 20:32:27 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA20752; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 20:32:25 -0500 Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 20:32:25 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510040132.UAA20752@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #417 TELECOM Digest Tue, 3 Oct 95 20:32:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 417 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Michigan Telecom Bill Raises Costs For Accessing Online (Richard Stoddard) Voice File Conversion Program-press release (btatro@tatro.com) Wanted: Bell System Picturephone (William King) Re: Lots of Goofups This Week (Dale Robinson) Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number (David E.A. Wilson) Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number (Tom Horsley) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Richard Eyre-Eagles) Re: 911 as quid pro quo (Mark Brader) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Mark Brader) Re: The Rush For Unabomber's Essay (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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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, 3 Oct 95 19:49 EDT From: Richard H. Stoddard Subject: Michigan Telecom Bill Raises Costs For Accessing Online The Michigan Legislature is now rewriting the state's telecommunications act. While the bill, which is supposed to be introduced on Thursday, October 5th, by Sen. Matt Dunaskiss, addresses many different issues affecting telecom providers and consumers, SOME OF THE PROVISIONS WILL SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE PHONE BILLS FOR ANYONE WHO REGULARLY ACCESSES THE INTERNET OR OTHER ONLINE SERVICES, AND FOR RESIDENTS OF SMALLER COMMUNITIES IN THIS STATE. (It goes unmentioned what this will do to families with teenage children.) This bill moves us much closer to having local telephone service billed in the same way long-distance service is: based on frequency, distance, AND DURATION. The committee staff in fact testified that in the future they envision local calls being billed just as long distance calls are. More and more people are accessing the Internet for both business and personal use. We are increasingly able to do our banking, shopping, pay our bills, and plan vacations online. Kids are able to do the research they need for their schoolwork online. Businesses, both small and large, are increasing their presences on the web. But if Ameritech and the other phone companies gets their way, the meter will be running every second we are logged on. The bill's sponsors talk about furthering the development of the information superhighway, but this bill provides for toll booths every mile. The bill reduces the number of allowable calls to 200 per month, with the charges for extra calls determined by the phone company, not the Public Service Commission. (Residents currently get 400 calls per month, with extra calls billed at 6.2 cents per call.) The bill also allows for billings based on frequency, distance, and duration, or combinations of those factors. While the bill allows consumers to determine which of those methods they want (provided it is technologically feasible, whatever that means), it will be much easier for the phone companies to structure the rates to make the "flat rate with a limit of 200 calls" much more expensive, pushing people into metered service. The bill also allows automatic rate increases up to the consumer price index less one percent, even though the actual cost of providing the service is going down. Furthermore, once a service is "competitive" -- meaning that there is more than one provider, the service SHALL be deregulated -- and you can be at the mercy of the phone companies! Finally, the bill REQUIRES that phone companies increase their rates in smaller communities in Michigan on the premise that they are "below cost" currently, even though a company may be making significant profits on local service on a statewide basis. Based on figures we have seen from other states, this may lead to rate increases of 200 - 300 percent in some communities. The bill is not available online, but copies of the bill can be obtained from your state legislator. However, you can access testimony provided to the committees earlier this year. All testimony is archived at . (My testimony, which covers this issue as well as issues like number portability, can be found at: .) We will be pushing a number amendments during the upcoming process. At a minimum, we will be attempting to eliminate the local measured service provisions, the automatic rate increases, and the proposals to jack up rates in smaller communities. But we need your help to have any chance against the high-priced lobbyists and campaign contributions of the phone companies. It is critical, therefore, that people immediately contact their state senators and representatives and express their concerns about these provisions. Interested people should contact their own legislators, but they should also contact members of the committees with jurisdiction over the bill. If you are unsure who your legislators are, contact your county clerk for information. The Senate Technology and Energy Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Dunaskiss, will hold a hearing on the bill on Wednesday, October 11, at 3:00pm. The bill, which is on a fast track because the current law expires at the end of this year, may be reported out by the committee that day. Because the bill is starting in the Senate, it is imperative that you contact your senator and members of the Senate committee immediately. Members of the Senate Technology and Energy Committee, their addresses, and their phone numbers are provided below. However, it is not too soon to also begin contacting members of the House of Representatives. Again, please contact your own state representative along with members of the House Public Utilities Committee. Contact information for House members is also provided below. You should contact legislators by regular mail or telephone. If you use E-mail, please also send a letter by mail, since many of them may not know how to use E-mail yet. The Legislature is just now making E-mail available to members and their staffs, and many of them have not had training yet. Finally, you should pass the word to other Internet or bulletin board users in Michigan. If you have access to more local newsgroups, you may repost this provided you do so without alteration. This legislation will affect all of us. I will provide more information on other provisions of the bill in the near future, along with periodic updates on the bill's status. You may also contact me for additional information. Thank you. CONTACT INFORMATION SENATE Members of the Senate Technology and Energy Committee are as follows: COMMITTEE PHONE Sen. Matt Dunaskiss, Chair 517-373-2417 Sen. Mike Bouchard 517-373-2523 Sen. Bill Schuette 517-373-7946 Sen. Jim Berryman 517-373-3543 Sen. Dianne Byrum 517-373-1734 Regular mail* can be addressed to all senators as follows: Senator (Name) P.O. Box 30036 Lansing, MI 48909 *Most senators do not have e-mail addresses yet. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: The House of Representatives has a web site with members' names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses (for those that have e-mail). Its URL is http://www.house.state.mi.us/; a list of committee members, along with links to their addresses and phone numbers, is at http://www.voyager.net/house/commpubutl.html. Richard H. Stoddard stoddard@sojourn.com Michigan Consumer Federation Phone 517-482-6262 115 W. Allegan, Ste. 500 Fax: 517-487-6002 Lansing, Michigan 48933 ------------------------------ From: btatro@tatro.com Subject: Voice File Conversion Program Date: 2 Oct 1995 18:38:52 GMT Organization: Tatro Enterprises Reply-To: info@tatro.com For more Information, Call: 205-650-0095 or: info@tatro.com Huntsville, 2 October, 1995 Telephony File Format Coinverter For Immediate Release: Tatro Enterprises is pleased to announce the release of their telephony file format conversion program. the program will enable all IVR developers toi convert voice files from all generally used vox-formats to all commonly-used wav-formats and back. This will allow the editing and recording of voice files in the familiar Windows environ- ment and converting the files back to vox-format for inclusion in IVR-applications. The full program retails for US $20.00 plus $3.00 shipping and handling. A demonstration program is available which will let you convert files from vox- to wav-format using the default settings. Bulk conversion of files in one directory with directory synchronization is possible. The program runs under Windows 3.11, Windows NT, and Win 95. The following file-formats are supported: VOX-Format Options: PCM (8 bit) (ALaw-encoding possible) ADPCM (4 bit) - both 6000 Hz and 8000 Hz WAV-Format Options: 8000 Hz 11025 Hz 22050 Hz 44100 Hz - 8 bit or 16 bit per Sample - Mono or Stereo The demonstration program can be downloaded from the following internet site: ftp: vespucci.iquest.com /tatro-enterprises/demo/vfc.zip or http://iquest.com/~btatro Tatro Enterprises. All other brands and product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective holders. ------------------------------ From: joeyking@u.washington.edu (William King) Subject: Wanted: Bell System Picturephone Date: 3 Oct 1995 06:06:55 GMT Organization: HITL, University of Washington (Seattle) I would like to acquire a Bell Picturephone (probably a Mod II). It need not be a working unit. If you have two, I might be interested in the set. Please contact me if you want to sell a Picturephone or if you know of someone who might. Thank you, Joey King joeyking@u.washington.edu jking@hitl.washington.edu ------------------------------ From: Dale.Robinson@NCOM_MAIN.ccmail.nt.gov.au Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 13:01 CST Subject: Re: Lots of Goofups This Week Pat Townson wrote: > The other major screw-up involved pagers........ > Does anyone have further details on this???? Pat, You have probably have seen dozens of replies to your query, but here's my 5c worth. From the FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS, Digest Volume 17, Issue 37: ----- Start Cut & Paste ----- Date: Wed, 27 Sep 95 8:43:49 PDT From: "Peter G. Neumann" Subject: SpaceCom technician disables pagers massively A SpaceCom technician at their uplink facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma accidentally send out a spacey command shutting down the satellite receivers used by pager systems throughout the country, affecting millions of pagers. SpaceCom supports 5 of the largest 10 paging outfits. This happened at 1 a.m. yesterday, and each receiver had to be manually reprogrammed -- which took all day until most of the service could be restored. Al Stem, VP and GM of SC said, "This hasn't ever happened before. And we're putting additional systems in place to make sure it never happens again." [Source: AP report, seen in the San Francisco Chronicle, 27 Sep 1995, p. A2.] I guess they haven't been reading RISKS. Wow, what a user interface! Sort of like being able to type rm * without any confirmation required. Accident? Malicious act? Whooops? PGN] ----End Cut & Paste----------------------- You would think that there would be a way to prevent this. Maybe the technician's level of authority was inappropriate? Or was it a case of tiredness that caused the technician to mistype the command and hit the GO key. I've seen similar things done to IBM Mainframes :-). I damm well hope it WASN'T intentational! May I add that comp.risks is a "Good" read! Regards, Dale ------------------------------ From: david@cs.uow.edu.au (David E A Wilson) Subject: Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number Date: 3 Oct 1995 17:21:11 +1000 Organization: University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Mike Morris) writes: > It's my opinion that the designers of the phone books are a bit to > blame. They should include the 7 (or 10) digit non-emergency number of > the police on the same page as the 911 listing. Pacific Bell uses the Here in Australia we have a similar system (000 instead of 911) and here is what we get inside the front cover of our phonebook. It seems to address many of the points raised. LIFE THREATENING EMERGENCY [red 17mm high] FIRE [black 10mm high] POLICE " 000 [red 43mm high] AMBULANCE " (24 hour service) [black 6mm high] * ASK THE OPERATOR FOR THE SERVICE YOU NEED * WAIT TO BE CONNECTED * THIS IS A FREE CALL Privacy Considerations When reporting an emergency by calling 000, the telephone number and address from where you are calling, may be disclosed to the Emergency Service to enable a quicker response to the emergency. If you do not wish to have the telephone number and address details disclosed, you must call the Emergency Service direct. Personal Emergency Numbers Fire ........ Police ........ Ambulance ........ Doctor ........ Hospital........ Dentist ........ OTHER 24 HOUR EMERGENCY NUMBERS ON PAGE 29 [red 5mm high] David Wilson Dept CompSci Uni Wollongong Australia david@cs.uow.edu.au ------------------------------ From: tom@ssd.hcsc.com (Tom Horsley) Subject: Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number Date: 03 Oct 1995 11:10:32 GMT Organization: Harris Computer Systems Corporation Reply-To: Tom.Horsley@hawk.hcsc.com > And it would be nice to have a standard non-emergency number: perhaps > 912 or 999 could be used? All the hardware is in for 911, all it would > take is programming, and public education. I've always thought a standard non-emergency number would be nice. There are all kinds of things "the authorities" ought to be notified of (things like overgrown plants blocking visibility at intersections, big potholes, out of order traffic signals, etc). Most of the time, it is way too much trouble to figure out who to call to report something like this (especially in my part of south Florida where there tend to be 5,221 separate small communities all crammed together and you never really know if you are in Ft. Lauderdale, Pompano, Margate, Tamarac, etc...) 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 Support Project Vote Smart! They need your support in non-election years too! (email pvs@neu.edu, 1-800-622-SMART, http://www.vote-smart.org) ------------------------------ From: rec@goodnet.com (Richard Eyre-Eagles) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Organization: GoodNet Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 00:40:34 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would have to take exception with John's <> > I do not know about the tariff in California, but the tariff here states > things a bit differently. (1) any service which is not exclusively for > the personal use of the residents of a domicile is a 'business' service. California's tariffs define residential service as telephone service that is used *mostly* for social and domestic purposes. California defines a residence location (in A2.22 I think it was) as a location designed for residential living and has things such as a bed, kitchen, etc. I had one customer who had residence service in a known commercial location. I had a maintence supervisor go out there to inspect the location (for tariff compliance reasons) and they had a bed and a kitchen there. Residential service! > (2) at an address which has historically been used for business, then > any service installed there must be business service; however at an > address which has historically been residential in nature then residence > service is available *unless the line is being used for business purposes.* Refer again to above. Richard Eyre-Eagles, KJ7MU Tempe, Arizona ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: 911 as quid pro quo Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Wed, 4 Oct 1995 00:19:18 GMT > Talking about Bell Canada's Soft Dial Tone allowing 911 calls for two > months only ... I wondered: >> Can Bell Canada really be so cavalier to only provide 911 service for >> two months? > ... If I owned the facility (University dorms in the Canadian message) I would inform the phone company that if the line was live *at all* it would carry 911 ... I guess Pat didn't run my reply on this point the last time around. Cc'd to the above poster this time. Please go back and reread the original article, or take my word for this: The article did *not* say that soft dial tone was being tried and would provide access to 911 for the first two months. It said that soft dial tone *was being tried for two months*, and would provide access to 911. All clear now? Mark Brader "A clarification is not to make oneself clear. msb@sq.com It is to PUT oneself IN the clear." SoftQuad Inc., Toronto -- Lynn & Jay, "Yes, Prime Minister" My text in this article is in the public domain. ------------------------------ From: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, Canada Date: Wed, 4 Oct 1995 00:26:50 GMT >> Call Trace serves this function now. It does what caller-ID is >> frequently misrepresented as doing, collecting the calling number >> of a call that you need to report to the cops. > The answer is that [caller-ID] allows you to collect the calling number > of a call that you don't need to report to the cops. I would prefer to use > cops when there's an emergency, and to use less expensive measures > when there is not. Is it not actually correct that Call Trace collects the calling number of the call *in case* you need to report it to the cops? And furthermore, it does it in a way that isn't dependent on your own honesty and record-keeping; that's not the case if you get the number from caller-ID (or from Last Call Return in areas where it provides the number), Mark Brader, msb@sq.com "Every new technology carries with it SoftQuad Inc., Toronto an opportunity to invent a new crime" -- Laurence A. Urgenson My text in this article is in the public domain. ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 18:19:54 -0400 Subject: Re: The Rush For Unabomber's Essay In article I wrote: > I finally got a call from a fellow at the FBI in San Fransisco on > Monday, and I put him in touch with a correspondent here who had given > much of the background information printed in the Digest. We will see > what comes of it, if anything. In private correspondence someone replied: Pat, you might be interested in knowing that the STANDARD FBI procedure would have been to have a LOCAL FBI agent contact you directly, present his badge (identification) and request information. That info would then have been checked locally (or fowarded to the proper agent in the area in question who *could* properly and *personally* verify/check your data). Having dealt with this agency in the past, I find it somewhat strange that you were contacted by telephone only ... Are you *sure* that you spoke with the FBI ? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, you know ever since that time when I fell off the turnip truck and banged my head on the ground when I landed I have not been thinking too clearly. Do you think someone may have played a trick on me? Actually what happened was I got a call Monday morning while I was over at the IHOP across the street for my breakfast. When I got back a message on the answering machine said to please call this fellow. He gave a number for voicemail and a general switchboard number, something-7400 in San Fransisco. I rang that number and a woman answered saying 'FBI'. I left a message for him on his voicemail and he called back a bit later. I assume there could have been some massive plot, but it seems unlikely. He did offer to give me what was termed an 'event number' which was my proof of the conver- sation in the event my nomination for Unabomber of the Year turns out to agree with theirs. I know I could certainly use the money from any reward given although it is quite unlikely I will get anything. My personal suspicion is they gave up on personal interviews with people who 'know exactly who the unabomber is' somewhere after the first thirty thousand interviews or so. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #417 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa06061; 4 Oct 95 6:58 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id WAA23483 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 22:38:39 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id WAA23475; Tue, 3 Oct 1995 22:38:36 -0500 Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 22:38:36 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510040338.WAA23475@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #418 TELECOM Digest Tue, 3 Oct 95 22:38:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 418 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Legal Notice: MCI 900 Number Settlement Claims (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: Area Code Split Dates (Phil Ritter) Re: Area Code Split Dates (David R. Sewell) Need Technicians Worldwide! (jputman@eden.com) Re: CIS No Longer Charges For Internet Mail (Ed Greenberg) Re: CIS No Longer Charges For Internet Mail (Kevin Kadow) Re: The Irony of the AT&T Breakup (Marvin Vis) Re: GlobeSpan (ISDN Speeds on POTS) (Steve Schaefer) Re: GlobeSpan (ISDN Speeds on POTS) (John R. Levine) Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number (Andrew C. Green) Phone Number to Word Converter (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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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, 3 Oct 1995 21:58:23 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Legal Notice: MCI 900 Number Settlement Claims This is a legal notice of a Class Action. Please read it carefully. Discuss it with your attorney before taking any action. If you choose to participate, you must follow the instructions given below EXACTLY as they are stated. You may be eligible to make a claim and receive Certificates for free long distance calls in accordance with a class action settlement approved by the Federal District Court in Augusta, GA between class plaintiffs and MCI Telecommunications Corporation. In order to be eligible to make a claim, you must have paid, during the period January 1, 1988 through November 1, 1994 for one or more telephone calls to 900 numbers provided by MCI in connection with programs offering: Sweepstakes, wagering, games of chance, awards, prizes, gifts or information on unclaimed funds, AND/OR financial information services, credit cards, information about 'credit repair', catalog cards, or information on obtaining credit cards. You need to have paid for calls to 900 numbers provided by MCI to one or more of these categories, however your payment may have been made to your local telephone company or direct to MCI. You may NOT have disputed or refused the request for payment, nor may you have received a goodwill credit or adjustment on your telephone bill as a result of billings for calls to the above types of 900 numbers. The long distance company on your home telephone does not need to be MCI in order for you to claim and use a certificate, however only calls made during the time period above *via MCI and billed to you by MCI directly or through your local telephone company as billing agent for MCI are covered by this settlement*. Calls to 900 numbers placed through AT&T, Sprint or any other long distance carrier do not count for the purpose of this settlement. AT&T and Sprint have elected to NOT participate in the settlement. You will not receive certificates for any calls to 900 numbers made using the services of AT&T, Sprint or other carriers. To use the certificates, MCI 'Dial One Plus' customers will complete their calls in the normal way, by direct dialing the numbers of their choice. Non-MCI customers (that is, those whose one-plus dialing connects to another carrier's lines) will be instructed how to place calls over the MCI network to use the certificates. MCI has the right to investigate and challenge any claim and to verify the information you submit. If MCI chooses to investigate, challenge or audit your claim, you will be notified and given an opportunity to respond. You are admonished by the Court that the willful filing of a false claim may constitute the federal crime of 'mail fraud' and may cause you to be found in Contempt of Court. ----------------------------------------------------------- 900 Number Settlement Proof of Claim Form You are required to complete the following information in order for your claim to be processed. Your claim cannot be processed unless this information is complete and legible. NAME______________________________________CITY_________________________ ADDRESS___________________________________STATE_____ZIP CODE___________ You must identify the *home* telephone number(s) used to make 900 calls and check the box which represents the actual or estimated payments made by you for 900 number calls using MCI services between January 1, 1988 through November 1, 1994 for the following types of programs, less any credits or refunds you received from MCI ** or any telephone company ** in reference to these programs. PART I PART II For programs offering sweepstakes, For programs offering financial wagering, games of chance, awards, services information, credit cards, prizes, gifts or information on catalog cards, information on unclaimed funds. obtaining same or 'credit repair'. Home telephone number(s) used to Home telephone number(s) used to make 900 calls: make 900 calls: (___)___________________________ (___)____________________________ (___)___________________________ (___)____________________________ Check box which applies to your Check box which applies to your estimated or actual payments. estimated or actual payments. __$10 __$20 __$30 __$40 or more __$10 __$20 __$30 __$40 or more __Other amount: _________________ __Other amount: __________________ YOU MUST SIGN AND DATE THIS FORM IN ORDER FOR IT TO BE PROCESSED. Certification: I hereby affirm that the information on this Proof of Claim form above and below is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and that this Proof of Claim Form has been read, understood and affirmed by me. Date:________ Sign name_____________________ Print name____________________ Optional information below will assist the Administrator in verifying your claim and speeding its processing. You may also attach copies of postcards, letters, phone bills or other records which relate to your claim. Month(s) and Year(s) 900 calls were made? _________________________________ 900 Numbers called? _______________________________________________________ Names of 900 Programs? ____________________________________________________ Name(s) of Company Soliciting 900 Calls?___________________________________ Mail just this claim form -- NOT the entire legal notice -- before March 31, 1996 to: 900 Number Settlement Administration PO Box 33308, Washington, DC 20033 ------------------------------------------------------------------ INSTRUCTIONS FOR FILLING OUT THE CLAIM FORM: 1. If you are eligible, please complete the Proof of Claim form printed above and mail it to 900 Number Settlement Administration, PO Box 33308, Washington, DC 20033. The deadline for submitting the form is March 31, 1996. Claims postmarked after that date will be discarded. 2. In Part I and/or Part II, identify the *home* telephone numbers used to place the calls and check off the estimated or actual amount you paid, less any refunds or credits given to you by MCI or any other telephone company. Give your honest estimate if you do not know the exact amount. If there is no box for the amount you wish to claim then use the box marked 'other'. 3. If you are submitting this claim in a representative capacity for someone else who is eligible, you must attach proof of your authority to act as representative for the person whose claim you are submitting. If you hold that person's power of attorney, kindly so demonstrate. 4. Be sure to sign and date the form. Unsigned forms will not be pro- cessed, nor will they be returned for correction. At the same time, please note that by signing your name, you are affirming that the statements you are making are true and correct to the best of your knowledge. The making of false statements to the Court subjects you to punishment under the law. 5. If you have questions about completing the Proof of Claim form, you may call toll-free to 800-421-1269. TO RECIEVE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE SETTLEMENT ITSELF OR THE CLASS ACTION SUIT WHICH WAS FILED AGAINST MCI, OR TO RECEIVE ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THE CLAIM FORM, CALL TOLL FREE 800-871-5409. DO NOT TELEPHONE OR WRITE THE COURT ASKING FOR INFORMATION. DO NOT TELEPHONE OR WRITE THE CLERK OF THE COURT. DO NOT TELEPHONE OR WRITE TO MCI ABOUT THIS MATTER. DO NOT TELEPHONE OR WRITE TO YOUR LOCAL TELEPHONE COMPANY. ** All correspondence must be through the telephone numbers given above and the post office box address given above. ** -------------------------------------------------- This is a legal notice, and by your response to the notice or your failure to respond you will be bound to the conditions and terms set forth. Always consult with your own attorney about legal matters and follow your attorney's advice before making any response to notices published by the Court. Published by order of the Federal District Court in Augusta, Georgia. October 3, 1995 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 Oct 95 03:58:58 GMT From: pritter@la.AirTouch.COM (Phil Ritter) Subject: Re: Area Code Split Dates > Trivia question for fellow Angelenos: within the city limits of Los > Angeles, how many area codes are there? How many within the County of > Los Angeles? Inside LA city limits: 3 (213, 310, 818) Inside LA County: 6 (Add 714, 805, 909) Inside LA LATA (LATA 730): 8 (add 520, 619) These totals do not include 562 any potential split for 818. These would bring the total in LA County to 8 NPAs and LATA 730 to 10 (whether or not the total inside LA city limits changes depends upon the exact NPA boundaries). The 213 NPA is entirely contained inside the LA City Limits. The others are partly (or mostly) outside the LA {City Limits, County, LATA}. They are included if any part is included inside the respective boundaries. The 619 NPA is scheduled to split too. It appears that the part that remains 619 will all be in the San Diego LATA and part of the new code will be in the LA LATA. This split will not change the number of codes in the LA LATA. Finally, note that including 520 in the LA LATA is not a typo (Yes, that is the 520 that covers western Arizona after the 602/520 split). Yes, these codes are in Arizona. The LATA line, however, crosses over the state line to included 9 exchanges in western Arizona. Wierd. (Actually, until the permissive period for the 602/520 split ends, a purist would claim that there are 9 codes in LATA 730, but thats would just be picking nits...). Phil Ritter PRitter@la.airtouch.com ------------------------------ From: dsewell@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu (David R Sewell) Subject: Re: Area Code Split Dates Date: 04 Oct 1995 01:48:02 GMT Organization: University of Arizona, Unix Users Group In article , Linc Madison wrote: > I was going through Steve Grandi's list of area code splits (FTP from > gemini.tuc.noao.edu, /pub/grandi/npa1995.txt) and thought I would add a > summary just listing the dates that area code splits become final. This > list only includes geographic splits, not overlays, and it only includes > those splits for which both the initial effective date and the final > (end of permissive dialing) date have been announced. Check Steve's > file for more details. > The splits are listed in order by the date of the END of permissive > dialing. > NEW OLD START FINAL ST Place/Comment > -- --- ----- ----- -- ------------------------------------------- > 520 602 03/19/95 10/21/95 AZ Tucson, Flagstaff, Yuma (all but Phoenix) After Tucson businesses (mostly) raised hell about problems inbound calls have had under the new code, the Arizona Corporation Commission just mandated *much* looser final deadlines: 31 December 1996 for Tucson, 30 June 1996 for other affected areas. It will be interesting to see if this response to discontent sets any precedent. David Sewell dsew@packrat.aml.arizona.edu Temporary Internet gypsy (packrat's net is down for major repairs) ------------------------------ From: jputman@eden.com Subject: Need Technicians Worldwide! Date: Wed, 04 Oct 1995 04:51:01 GMT Organization: Adhesive Media, Inc. New World Telecom L.L.C. needs qualified telecommunication technicians around the world. Applicants should be able to work in on-premise phone rooms of large businesses. Also should own laptop computer, be PBX (PABX) knowledgeble, able to work closely with NWT on equipment programming and be certified, bonded and insured. Applicants interested should send email to: jputman@eden.com and put --technician-- in the subject line. Additional information and detailed questionairre's will be sent out upon contact. **WE NEED QUALIFIED TELECOMMUNICATION TECHNICIANS IN ALL COUNTRIES OUTSIDE U.S.///very lucrative offering** ------------------------------ From: edg@best.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: CIS No Longer Charges For Internet Mail Date: 04 Oct 1995 00:10:13 GMT Organization: Best Internet Communications In article , Dunscomb wrote: > Since CIS charges for Internet mail, and AOL doesn't, for me it's the CIS no longer charges for internet mail. You read or download your internet mail using the free hours per month just like any other mail. Of course, if you use more hours than you are given, you pay for them, but isn't that true of all services? Ed Greenberg edg@greenberg.org Ham Radio: KM6CG http://www.greenberg.org/ ------------------------------ From: kadokev@ripco.com (Kevin Kadow) Subject: Re: CIS No Longer Charges For Internet Mail Reply-To: kadokev@msg.net Organization: MSGNet, Chicago Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 15:11:07 GMT In article , Stan Schwartz wrote: > dunscomb@aol.com (Dunscomb) wrote: >> Since CIS charges for Internet mail, and AOL doesn't, for me it's the >> least expensive service around. (Cheap enough to make me put up with >> the kiddycar mail facilities, even. Maybe with AOL 3.0 they'll get mail >> facilities as good as those on CIS. Or, maybe 5.0, or 8 ...) > Actually, CIS no longer charges for internet mail, and their basic > monthly plan is the same as AOL's. ($9.95 for the first five hours, > $2.95 = each additional). A "frequent user" plan is available for > $24.95 for 20 = hours and $1.95 each additional. Strange. The September {Computer Shopper} quotes CompuServe's Jane Torbica as saying "... no, we have no plans for free E-mail", in an article on advertising supported mail services. Now if only CompuServe would offer "normal" mail addresses instead of their numeric userID- though I offer an alternative, giving a human-readable address that can be forwarded anywhere, including CIS... kadokev@msg.net Kevin Kadow Yes, I do speak for MSG.Net -- http://msg.net/ Your own domain name/e-mail for only $49/year, no setup fee: domain@msg.net ------------------------------ From: mvis@advtech.uswest.com (Marvin Vis) Subject: Re: The Irony of the AT&T Breakup Date: 03 Oct1995 19:42:47 GMT Organization: U S WEST Advanced Technologies > But for the fact that the RBOCs are now independent entities, the AT&T > breakup now being undertaken by the company itself is pretty close to > that originally demanded by the Justice Department before the Reagan > Administration and AT&T renegotiated the Settlement. > The original plan, for those who remember, would have severed AT&T's > network services from its Western Electric manufacturing facilities. Regarding the breakup, has anyone speculated about the driving forces behind the move? Of course, there are the factors that AT&T has presented as their motivations (those of speed/responsiveness, targeted stock, etc.), but has anyone tried to think of other reasons? For example, with the latest trend in legislation to move toward deregulation, could AT&T be setting up for the "deregulation age" so that, when the time comes, some of their moves in the communications world won't prompt action/question by the FCC, since they've broken themselves up and don't look like such a "bully" in the area (so to speak :)? Perhaps they even feel that this breakup might prompt faster movement of deregulatory legislation. Sorry, I'm not trying to start flames ... I'm just an inexperienced player that's curious. ;) Any ideas/comments? M. ------------------------------ From: schaefer@paclight.com (Steve Schaefer) Subject: Re: GlobeSpan (ISDN Speeds on POTS) Date: 03 Oct 1995 19:15:50 GMT Organization: Pacific Lightwave In article , brian mcnally says: > What is the deal with this? Has anyone else head of this? > The new technology will send video and other multimedia offerings over > the copper phone line, thus complementing other AT&T high-speed > solutions for accelerated, universal access to new services. This is accurate, I suspect, but this is not "on POTS". > AT&T Bell Laboratories and AT&T Paradyne have developed a new > application for its GlobeSpanTM technology platform that is the first > single line solution to transmit simultaneous voice and data at a > range of speeds up to T1 and E1 (1.544 Mbps to 2.048 Mbps) in both > directions. > At a touch of a button, SDSL will enable anyone with a telephone > line, a telephone and a computer or television to access new services, > while simultaneously conducting a phone conversation on the same phone > line. This is what the information age promise is all about. The same copper pair is used to carry both data and voice. This is not to say that the data is carried "on" the POTS service in the sense that a modem signal is. The GlobeSpanTM technology involves new equipment at both the customer and the carrier ends of the circuit. I'm not clear as to whether it typically requires changes to the in-line amplifiers between the subscriber and the telco office. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Oct 95 00:47 EDT From: johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) Subject: Re: GlobeSpan (ISDN Speeds on POTS) Organization: I.E.C.C., Cambridge, Mass. > What is the deal with this? Has anyone else head of this? SDSL is real, but it's not all that revolutionary. The predecessor ADSL provided T1 one way, 64K or so the other way over copper, SDSL gives you T1 both ways. The phone line is indeed copper, but it requires fancy equipment at each end, like ISDN only more so. I believe it has stringent requirements both on maximum line length and line quality. ADSL always seemed to be like a reasonable technology for client network users, but it never went anywhere. Don't know why. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Trumansburg NY Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" and Information Superhighwayman wanna-be ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Oct 1995 13:07:25 -0500 From: Andrew C. Green Subject: Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Mike Morris) writes: > There is a classic story in the local > ham radio circles about one of the early cellphone 911 calls to the > Whittier Police Dept (an L.A. suburb) reporting a traffic accident. > They sent the ambulance to the address shown on the screen: the cell > switch site. Another story has a autopatch user calling 911 and > the police show up at the ham radio repeater site. > Urban legends. Well, not quite. I was saving this for a RISKS article, but will probably never get around to it: Last month I had some car problems and found myself stranded in a parking lot in Mount Prospect, IL. "No problem," I thought. "I'll use my car phone to call the Allstate Motor Club for a tow." Dialed the 800 number and landed in a voicemail menu. One option offered to direct my call to the nearest towing company _automatically_; i.e. just stay on the line and (presumably) the system would do a database lookup of towing companies based on the ZIP code of the ANI of my call, then forward my call to the service station selected. Ah, but I'm on a _cellphone_, not a land line; how will the system locate me? I found out soon enough. The phone was answered by a towing company in Schaumburg. What's in Schaumburg? Ameritech Cellular, my cellphone company. The ANI address was apparently that of the point where my cell call was dropped into the main telephone network, which for the purposes of my call was giving bogus information to Allstate's automated location lookup. It took a second call to their 800 number and a breakout to a live operator in order to get a number for the Mount Prospect towing company. Do you you think Allstate will start wondering why so many of their motorists seem to break down in Schaumburg? :-) Andrew C. Green (312) 266-4431 Frame Technology Corporation Advanced Product Services 441 W. Huron Internet: acg@frame.com Chicago, IL 60610-3498 FAX: (312) 266-4473 ------------------------------ From: jmayson@p100dl.ess.harris.com (John Mayson) Subject: Phone Number to Word Converter Date: Tue, 3 Oct 95 15:45:33 EDT I must've really been bored today. I wrote a Unix Korn Shell program that takes a telephone number in the XXX-XXX-XXXX format and produces a listing of everything those ten digits will spell. The program is crude and I'm sure someone could write a better one, but for what it is, I can't see investing too much time into it. [cut here] ----8<------------------------------------------------------------------- #!/bin/ksh # name : phonenym # author : John Mayson # description : A very crude program that generates all possible "words" # from an NANP telephone number. # date : Mon Oct 02 14:30:26 EDT 1995 USAGE="usage: $0 XXX-XXX-XXXX" case $# in 0) echo ${USAGE};; *) case $1 in -\?) cat < Message-Id: <199510060018.TAA14585@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #419 TELECOM Digest Thu, 5 Oct 95 19:18:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 419 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Only You Can Prevent Slamming! (Stuart Zimmerman) Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! (Ed Ellers) Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! (Jim Jacobs) Re: Caller ID Boxes on Line Voltage (Chris Farrar) CDPD Training (Tyler Proctor) Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Jeffrey Yee) Keeping Up With Our Neighbors, the Unabombers (Danny Burstein) Universal Service Hearings In Northern Calififornia Now (Robert Deward) Conference: Internet and Telecoms in Brazil (Dave Sosa) Job Opening at BellSouth (Chendong Zou) Keeping NPA/NXX Separate (was: New US Area Code Test Numbers) (R McMillin) Conference: Number Portability II and Number Administration (Kevin Shea) California Telecom Bill Lowers Cost For Residents (Gary D. Hodge) USOC and Facility Interface Codes (Paul Cook) Last Laugh! Trying to Call the Nowhere Man (Gary D. Shapiro) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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, 5 Oct 95 15:52 EST From: Stuart Zimmerman <0007382020@mcimail.com> Subject: Only You Can Prevent Slamming! There have been a number of articles in the Digest and the mainstream media about slamming (when a long distance carrier causes the local telephone company to convert a customer's PIC to that long distance carrier without consent). I heartily encourage your readers to contact their local telephone company and request that company's "Carrier Block" or equivalent. That service (free at the companies I have checked), prevents a long distance carrier from ordering a change in your long distance carrier without your request directly to your local telephone company. (This may be slightly inconvenient, but it is far easier than cleaning up after a "slam".) The FCC is working on changing the rules of carrier switches to avoid slamming, but the "Carrier Block" service (name may vary) is an easy and probably free way to avoid the problem now. For readers who have gotten slammed, my company offers a service where we will reprice your calls and deal with the local telephone company, and both long distance companies to insure that you pay no more than you were supposed to. Please E-Mail me or call 800-313-6631 for more information. Stuart Zimmerman Fone Saver, LLC "Saving consumers and businesses money on Long Distance" 007382020@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! Date: Thu, 5 Oct 95 10:36:14 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to W. Craig Trader : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This comes up here frequently. You should > pay WilTel the amount you expected to pay your regular carrier. You have > to pay *something* since you did make the calls expecting (I assume!) to > pay for them. Unless you can prove the change was made deliberatly in a > fraudulent way, there is probably nothing more you should do. PAT] Which is really a shame, because the slammer then gets the revenue. The way I'd like to see it work would be that you'd have to pay *your* LD carrier as if you hadn't been slammed; this would appropriately punish the slammer. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But what if the carrier handling your calls is not the one at fault? Suppose the error was made at the local telco level by a clerk who changed your line to another carrier instead of the line they were supposed to change? i.e. a person with a number similar to yours wants to change to MCI, but in error telco transposes a couple of digits and changes your line to MCI instead. Should you then 'punish the slammer' in this case by not paying at all? I don't think the revenue trade-offs are that significant. In other words AT&T gets paid for slams sent their way in error just as MCI gets paid for slams sent thier way in error. None of the LD carriers are getting rich from slams with the additional paperwork involved, etc to reverse it. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! From: jim.jacobs@pchelp.com (JIM JACOBS) Date: Thu, 05 Oct 95 02:42:00 -0400 Organization: PC-Help! BBS Tampa Fl. 813.949.4993 Reply-To: jim.jacobs@pchelp.com (JIM JACOBS) > I was just checking my August Bell Atlantic bill, where I noted a > strange $5.00 charge for Long Distance Company, 1 line(s) for WilTel, > Inc. I called Bell Atlantic and asked about it, and they assured me > that the charge was legit. I replied that I had made no such change, > so they've returned the charge to WilTel, and marked my account for no > further changes. > So I'm OK to date, but what I have questions about is: > 1. What's the contact number for WilTel? The number is 800-324-2222 > 2. I'm going to see seven weeks worth of phone calls billed to WilTel. > What are my rights regarding not paying them? Do I have to pay WilTel > for this disservice? See the comment left by Pat at the end of your original message. > 3. What other steps should I take? WilTel was acquired by LDDS Communications in December of 1994. LDDS, now known as WorldCom, Inc. stopped adding it's own new customers to the WilTel customer base in February 1995. However, business written by resellers is still being added. Therefore, it is most likely that a reseller was probably responsible for this occurance. If the reseller is slamming other carrier's customers, this practice violates the reseller's agreement with WilTel and (I believe) can be considered grounds for termination of the agreement. Call WilTel / WorldCom at the above number and inform them about what has happened. Jim Jacobs, Senior Communications Consultant, WorldCom, Inc., Tampa FL voice 800-275-9090 fax 813-229-6373 e-mail jim.jacobs@pchelp.com ------------------------------ From: Chris.Farrar@p1.f20.n246.z1.fidonet.org (Chris Farrar) Date: 05 Oct 95 18:38:56 -0400 Subject: Re: Caller ID Boxes On Line Voltage Organization: FidoNet Nameserver/Gateway > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What caller-ID boxes do you know that run > on AC rather than battery? I have never heard of this. PAT] Pat, I have a "Bell Canada T-450" (aka TAI 450). It uses a transformer plugged into the wall, and a barrel type connector in the device. It takes a 9-volt batter to provide memory backup (much like an alarm clock). I've never heard of a caller id box that runs solely on batteries. Data from the back plate: TAI Model 450 Telecommunication Accessories S I D A Division of TIE/communications Canada Inc. Made in Canada [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is quite interesting. The unit sold by Ameritech with their name on it comes from a company called CIDCO, and other than the phone line which plugs into the unit, it is powered entirely from a nine volt 'D' battery which seems to last for several years. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tyler Proctor <75260.710@CompuServe.COM> Subject: CDPD Training Date: 5 Oct 1995 21:06:14 GMT Organization: CompuServe, Inc. (1-800-689-0736) Course Description: This two-day course is a technical primer in the development of Cellular Digital Packet Data Applications. It will provide you with an overview of CDPD, a foundational understanding of TCP/IP, and an opportunity to develop a wireless CDPD application in class. CDPD modems will be provided, as well as testing software. You will learn in a small group environment with plenty of individual help. You will be working in both a live and a simulated environment to make the most of your time. For more information For times, location, and all general information pertaining to the program, call Jonathan Smith at 602-302-9884, or e-mail to jsmith@mobile.bam.com. For course materials, billing, and content information, please call Zsigo Wireless Data Consultants at 800-594-5102, or e-mail to kzsigo@ix.netcom.com. E-mail technical questions to Wireless Connect at bsmith@wci.com. ------------------------------ From: jyee@unixg.ubc.ca (Jeffrey Yee) Subject: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 5 Oct 1995 09:13:07 -0700 Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada I have a question. Where does telco obtain their time signal from to synchronize their clocks and equipment. I was in a CO one time when i worked for a telco as a student. I noticed that there was this device that annouced the time every 5-10 seconds or so and it had a panel on the front with time precise to 100ths of a second (I think). Is there a national reference that all telcos go by? Is it a satellite signal, radio signal, or what? IF so Where is it and is there only one? Just curious. Thanks. iNTERNET Alpha pager ->jyee@unixg.ubc.ca ->jyee@ee.ubc.ca WWW -> http://unixg.ubc.ca:780/~jyee [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: They get it from America OnLine by clicking on the clock icon. ... Actually what happens when you use the most recent version 1.6 of AOL software, clicking on the clock icon sends you to .... surprise! {Time Magazine}. It seems that the software has the clock icon 'point to' 'time' which used to get you the time of day. Then {Time Magazine} came online there and bought the rights to the keyword 'time'. Therefore, the keyword for time of day had to be changed from 'time' to 'clock'. No one has bothered to make the change in the software yet. There are two sources of standardized time information in the USA. These are the US Naval Observatory in Washington, DC and the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder, Colorado. Both maintain highly accurate clocks which are regulated or governed by natural forces in the universe including gravity and the sun's rotation around Skokie, Illinois. ... Both services have links to other clocks to help them maintain their accuracy. NBS operates two radio stations which give the correct time each minute. They are WWV and WWVH, which can be heard at 5,10,15 and 20 mhz on most shortwave radios. We could have long discuss- ions here about those two stations; they are both fascinating operations. USNO also has a public service. For a good time, call 900-410-TIME at just fifty cents per call. If you think fifty cents is too much to pay (or you are like me and wonder why you should have to pay for it at all) then you can dial 202-653-1800, which is what the 900 number translates to. Using your computer's communication program and a modem set to 1200 baud, you can get a dislay on your computer screen showing the correct time by calling USNO at 202-653-0351 or NBS at 303-494-4774. I shall stifle my desire at this time to discuss the old (defunct for almost thirty years) Western Union Time Service, which got its feed from USNAVOB. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dnb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: Keeping Up With Our Neighbors, the Unabombers Date: 4 Oct 1995 23:12:22 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway Forwarded FYI to the Digest by Danny Burstein, as broadcast on WVOA, the Voice of America radio service. DATE=10/4/95 TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT NUMBER=2-186349 TITLE="UNABOMBER" TRAIL (L-O) BYLINE=PAUL FRANCUCH DATELINE=CHICAGO CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: A CHICAGO NEWSPAPER REPORTS (WEDNESDAY) THAT FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS ARE FOCUSING ATTENTION ON COMMUNITIES IN THE NORTHERN SUBURBS OF CHICAGO AS THEY CONTINUE THEIR SEARCH FOR AN ELUSIVE SERIAL KILLER COME TO BE KNOWN AS THE "UNABOMBER." V-O-A'S PAUL FRANCUCH HAS MORE DETAILS FROM CHICAGO. TEXT: THE NAME COMES FROM THE SUSPECT'S TARGETS WHICH INCLUDE UNIVERSITIES AND AIRLINES. FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS SAY THE BOMBER, WHOM THEY BELIEVE TO BE A MIDDLE-AGED MAN OF SLIGHT BUILD, HARBORS SUSPICION OF HIGH TECHNOLOGY AND HAS ACCORDINGLY TARGETED AN AIRPLANE MANUFACTURER, AN AIRLINE, AN AIRLINE EXECUTIVE, AND SEVERAL UNIVERSITIES WHICH DO MAJOR RESEARCH INTO COMPUTERS AND OTHER HIGH TECHNOLOGY. SINCE HE BEGAN HIS TERRORIST STRING OF LETTER BOMBS BACK IN 1978, THE UNABOMBER HAS STRUCK AT LEAST 17 TARGETS, KILLING THREE PEOPLE AND LEAVING MORE THAN 20 OTHERS INJURED. MANY OF THE UNABOMBER'S TARGETS HAVE BEEN IN THE CHICAGO AREA, AND SOME OFFICIALS SAY CLUES POINT TO THE SUBURBAN COMMUNITIES OF "SKOKIE" AND "NILES" AS PLACES WHERE THE SUSPECT MAY HAVE GROWN UP AND ATTENDED SCHOOL. THE NEWSPAPER "THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE" REPORTS SOURCES IN THESE COMMUNITIES SAY THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, OR "F-B-I," HAS BEEN COMBING THROUGH RECORDS OF ABOUT TEN STUDENTS LIVING IN THE AREA DURING THE 1970S. THE F-B-I IS REPORTEDLY LOOKING FOR STUDENTS WHO MAY HAVE BELONGED TO SCHOOL CLUBS WHICH DEALT WITH ECOLOGICAL ISSUES AND THE EMERGING PHENOMENON OF PERSONAL COMPUTERS, CHECKING FOR A CROSS LINK IN MEMBERSHIP. THE F-B-I WILL NOT CONFIRM THAT IT HAS MADE THE SEARCH, BUT A SPOKESMAN FOR THE BUREAU IN CHICAGO DID SAY THEY ARE INVESTIGATING LEADS IN THE CHICAGO SUBURBS. // REST OPT // SINCE THE INVESTIGATION TO FIND THE UNABOMBER BEGAN, THE F-B-I HAS RECEIVED MORE THAN 20-THOUSAND TIPS. A ONE-MILLION DOLLAR REWARD FOR HIS ARREST HAS BEEN OFFERED. A MANIFESTO WRITTEN BY THE UNABOMBER ENTITLED "INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND ITS FUTURE" WAS PRINTED BY THE NEWSPAPER "THE WASHINGTON POST" A FEW WEEKS AGO. THE UNABOMBER INFORMED INVESTIGATORS HE WOULD STOP HIS KILLING IF THE MANIFESTO WERE PRINTED IN EITHER "THE WASHINGTON POST" OR "THE NEW YORK TIMES." THE TWO PAPERS AGREED TO SHARE COSTS AND PRINTED THE MANIFESTO AS A SUPPLEMENT TO THE "POST." THE PAPERS PUBLISHED THE CONTROVERSIAL MESSAGE AT THE URGING OF PRESIDENT CLINTON'S ATTORNEY GENERAL JANET RENO AND THE DIRECTOR OF THE F-B-I.(SIGNED) NEB / PCF / BD/PT 04-Oct-95 8:01 PM EDT (0001 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America ------------------------------ From: bobd@well.sf.ca.us (Robert Deward) Subject: Universal Service Hearings In Northern California Now Date: 5 Oct 1995 21:00:23 GMT Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA If you are concerned about continuing affordability and access to telecommunications, you still have a chance to make your thoughts known to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC. But you've got to hurry. There are six remaining CPUC Public Participation Hearings on Universal Service in Northern California. All begin at 7:00 p.m. October 5 -- Fresno, State Offie Building, Auditorium, 505 Van Ness Avenue October 11 -- Roseville, Maidu Community Center, 1550 Maidu Drive October 12 -- San Jose, City Council Chambers, 801 North First Street October 12 -- Volcano, Armory Hall, 2 Consolation Street October 19 -- Redding,City Council Chambers, 1313 California Street October 24 -- Eureka, County Board of Supervisors Chambers, County Courthouse, 825 Fifth Street If you can't attend a public hearing, you can still communicate with the CPUC: You can write to the Public Advisor, California Public Utilities Commission, 505 Van Ness Avenue, Room 5303, San Francisco, CA 94102. Or you can e-mail to public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov. Explain your comments concern "Universal Service Rules," Decision 95-07-050. For more information, you can access the CPUC's gopher. A fact sheet is at gopher://nic.cpuc.ca.gov:70/00/telecom/universal_service/factsht.txt. The entire text of the CPUC's proposed decision is at gopher://ni.cpuc.ca.gov:70/00/telecom/universal_service/d9507050.txt. Put plenty of paper in your printer; the decision runs 55 pages. You can also check out the Pacific Telesis Web page at http://www.pactel.com. Look under "What's New." Bob Deward, Pacific Telesis External Affairs, S.F. voice: 415-394-3646 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Oct 1995 12:53:56 PDT From: Dave Sosa Subject: Conference: Internet and Telecoms in Brazil I realize this is a late post, but I only just heard of this yesterday. The Brazil Society of N. California with the Pan American Society of California and the Brazilian Consulate in San Francisco are sponsoring a seminar Thursday, October 5, 1995 at the ANA Hotel in SF. The title is: INTERNET AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN BRAZIL Contact # is (415)989-2884 (ARBI Transnational) David W. Sosa (916)752-6770 Dept. of Ag Economics (510)268-1062 University of California dwsosa@ucdavis.edu Davis, CA 95616 ------------------------------ From: zou@ccs.neu.edu (Chendong Zou) Subject: Job Opening at BellSouth Date: 5 Oct 1995 20:46:13 GMT Organization: College of Computer Science, Northeastern University Posted for a friend, please direct all inquires to the contact info. below. Thanks. JOB OPENING AT BELLSOUTH TELECOMMUNICATIONS DATE: October 3, 1995 CONTACT: Send resume to 'resume@snt.bst.bls.com' and reference to Dr. Eric Kai. Position: Contract Software Engineer Location: Atlanta, Georgia Company: BellSouth Telecommunications, the regulated subsidiary of BellSouth Corporation. BellSouth has revenues in excess of $16 billion and assets of $28+ billion and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. Responsibilities: The individual will work in a team to be responsible for the design and development of a radio network planning tool for the wireless communications networks such as cellular and PCS. Coding, testing, integration and system testing activities are required. Experience/Skills: Successful candidates must have MS degree in CS, EE or related dicipline plus 3+ years solid software development experience in C and X/Motif on UNIX platform. Candidates with equivalent experience will be considered. Having development experience in Geographical Information System environment and familiar with the TIGER data from the US Census Bureau and/or DEM (Digital Elevation Model) data from USGS will be helpful. Knowledge and working experience on RF system design, RF propagation analysis, traffic analysis, and outage prediction for wireless communication systems are highly appreciated, but not required. RATE: depending on experience. OTHER: Individual applicants only, no search firms please. Mark contract applicant on resume please. RESPOND ONLY TO ADDRESS GIVEN ABOVE. 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: rlm@netcom.com (Robert McMillin) Subject: Keeping NPA/NXX Separate (was: New US Area Code Test Numbers) Organization: Charlie Don't CERF Date: Wed, 4 Oct 1995 08:20:57 GMT Michael Fumich recently published a list of test numbers for new area codes. It has been the case (in LA, at least) that the various local telephone companies have tried to keep NXX exchanges separate from valid local NPA numbers. So, for instance, you won't get 818-818-xxxx or 714-818-xxxx, 213-805-xxxx, etc. The point, I suppose, is that someone wanted to eliminate some confusion. (But IMHO, anyone living in El Lay or any large U.S. city who doesn't give out all ten digits is asking for trouble.) I noticed that in the LA area, 562 is a valid prefix in 213, 714, and 818. Question: do the telcos now plan on ignoring this convention? There's currently no 562 in 310, so 562-562-xxxx isn't a possibility -- yet. But will we see such a beastie? How about 714-714-xxxx or 805-818-xxxx? Robert L. McMillin | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Netcom: rlm@netcom.com Jail to the Chief! | WWW: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/rl/rlm/home.html Ein Reich, ein Volk, ein Bubba! ------------------------------ From: kjshea@ix.netcom.com (Kevin J. Shea) Subject: Conference: Number Portability II and Number Administration Date: 5 Oct 1995 05:14:29 GMT Organization: Netcom Telecom Research Services is pleased to announce: Conference 502 - "Number Portability II & Number Administration" When: November 29 & 30, 1995 Where: Meadowlands Sheraton Hotel - East Rutherford, New Jersey Detailed information about the conference can be found at our web page, http://Gramercy.ios.com/~telres/telres2.html If you can't access the web site, or would like more information, send an email to telres@Gramercy.ios.com. Or you can call us at 201-535-2765. ------------------------------ From: cg_asso@ix.netcom.com (Gary D. Hodge ) Subject: California Telecom Bill Lowers Cost For Residents Date: 5 Oct 1995 16:06:10 GMT Organization: Netcom In California, phone bills have dropped. With the announcement that rates, such as IntraLATA, Intrastate/InterLATA, and even Interstate, were lowered by 15 to 20 percent. I couldn't believe eyes when my phone bill showed a 20 percent drop. I really thought my flat rate was good before, but now, wow !!! As far as I know, this is only applicable through certain carriers, but, watch out for those that can't guarantee rates of six cents/minute. Gary Hodge cg_asso@ix.netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Oct 95 13:47 EST From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: USOC and Facility Interface Codes How can I find a list of USOC and Facility Interface Codes, along with their definitions and specs? I've tried websearches and looking through the FCC stuff online, and have found nothing. All I have for reference is an old Pacific Northwest Bell COG book. Does anyone know if there is a USOC or FIC for a PS ALI trunk? Or would it just be defined with whatever code is used for a standard two-wire, loop-reversing trunk? (PS: ALI I believe stands for Public Switched Automatic Location Identification, where a 7 digit MF ID of the calling party is sent from a PBX to an ALI tandem switch in order to identify a calling party who is placing a 9-1-1 call from behind a PBX). Paul Cook Proctor & Associates 206-881-7000 3991080@mcimail.com ------------------------------ From: gshapiro@rain.org (Gary D. Shapiro) Subject: Last Laugh! Trying to Call the Nowhere Man Date: Wed, 04 Oct 1995 15:42:49 -0700 Organization: Emperor Clothing Co. I feel like I'm trying to telephone that Nowhere Man character. My former housemate had her own telephone line and had her account tranferred to her new location, although the number had to change. The old number is supposed to refer to the new one for 60 days. This was to take place on Friday. When I called the old number on Saturday, I got a "no longer in service" message. When I called the old number on Tuesday, it answered with a very short beep and nothing else. I reported the problem. The gentelman who took my call had a hard time understanding why I, not the subscriber and not even a relative, was concerned enough to report the problem. When I call the old number today, I get this Zen puzzle: The number you have dialed, XXX-XXXX, is a working number. Please check the number and dial again. Roll that one around in your brain for a while. When I call the new number, it rings four times, then there's a discontinuity and it rings once more. Then I hear this: Sorry, voice mail service is temporarily not available for this telephone. Please consult your directory for the main number of the business you would like to reach. Goodbye. I called Operator just so someone else could have a good laugh. Then I called repair service, and they agreed there was a problem with the referral. For the other problem, they said they couldn't address the problem because my former housemate was not at home when they came by and that she has to call to make another appointment. How could this be a problem with her equipment? I doubt if she ordered call forwarding. Needless to say, I live in the domain of GTE (Goofy Telephonic Entertainment). Gary D. Shapiro...on the WWW at http://www.rain.org/~gshapiro/ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, your Zen puzzle is not a puzzle at all, or least its a very simple one. Most calls reaching intercept have been dialed direct, and the computer merely reads back what it received and tells you what is wrong. If the error was that the number you dialed is correct *but you misdialed it* and reached (some other) non-working number then the computer will recite the number *you actually dialed* and upon hearing it the assumption you will say, 'oh gee, I dialed wrong' and you will hang up and dial over. On the other hand, if you had dialed the number correctly then your call would have gone through. But a small number of intercepts reach an operator instead. The number of these is getting fewer and fewer, but it was much more common when there was a hodge-podge of switches and central office equipment in larger cities. For example, here in Cbicago, if the equipment was not able to ascertain the number you dialed for some reason, you were cut to an operator who responded 'Chicago Special Operator, what number did you dial?'. You would tell her, and *she* would 'bubble in' or key the number into the computer for a res- ponse. So far so good. But when you reached the computer direct, there was no doubt what number you had dialed. Right or wrong the computer told you the number and that it was wrong ... otherwise intercept never would have seen it. When reaching the operator instead, you had to say the number you *thought* you dialed. You *thought* you dialed my working number but instead you dialed some other non-working number. The operator was at your mercy; all she could input was what you told her you did. If it turned out that the number *was* good and that your misdialing was the problem, a recording had to cover that situation as well, thus the message that 'the number you dialed *IS* a working number ... please hang up and dial again.' As a result, 'operator handled intercept' (as opposed to direct dial reaching intercept) can occassionally see good numbers as a result of the customer misdialing. Does anyone remember that mess of a few years ago when some of the carriers were playing tricks by not allowing a voice path to open until supervision was established? Of course when operators answer you there is no supervision for billing purposes. Normally the intercept messages are just one way requiring you to listen. You don't speak back to them. In the case of 'operator handled intercept' of course it took a two-way conversation: the operator asking what number you dialed, you respoding and the computer speaking about what the operator punched in. If you placed your call via some carrier that did not open a voice path until supervision and you wound up getting a Bell Inward Operator at some place handling intercept duties, you could not speak to her. She would respond something like, 'Southern Bell Inward, what number did you dial?'. You would respond but she could not hear you. She would scream in the phone a couple more times at you and you would scream back at her to no avail -- there was no talking path! Thus came the now seldom heard 'intercept' message, "In certain cases, customers of long distance companies other than AT&T may not be able to speak with the operator when she answers. If this has happened to you, please hang up and dial *your own operator* to ask for assistance." I think all those kinks have since been resolved; there are virtually no 'operator handled intercept' situations any longer. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #419 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa03043; 6 Oct 95 6:59 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id VAA16863 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 5 Oct 1995 21:37:15 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id VAA16851; Thu, 5 Oct 1995 21:37:11 -0500 Date: Thu, 5 Oct 1995 21:37:11 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510060237.VAA16851@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #420 TELECOM Digest Thu, 5 Oct 95 21:37:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 420 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Remarks on the German Phone System (Marko Ruokonen) Broad Computer Telephony Patent Sweep! (Kingsley G. Morse Jr.) Zmodem and Win Programming Comms API (Miguel Angel) Competitive Markets (Dominic Pinto) Berkeley Advanced Product Development Courses (Harvey Stern) Conference: Merging Your Organization Onto the Internet (uspdi@clark.net) Correction Re: A History of the Early Days of Usenet (Mark Crispin) Last Laugh! A Day Without OJ (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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: 05 Oct 95 10:29:38 EDT From: Marko Ruokonen <100031.31@compuserve.com> Subject: Remarks on the German Phone System I followed the discussion about the "Variable length problem" here in this newsgroup and thought I'd give some comments on this. I am 30 years old and I do no business in the telecommuncations field, so my view is a non-technical but instead that of an interested user of the phone system. Germany has variable length phone formats. However, nobody seems to actually have a big problem with that, not even callers from the US who kind of expect that the "outside world" is entirely different. ("It's a phone system, but not as we know it.") I remember when about 20 years ago the city of Frankfurt/Main changed its area code from 611 to just 69 to make room for extra numbers and to stay below the internationally allowed maximum length, so obviously they were preparing to introduce eight-digit numbers back in the 70s. I don't know how long the "permissive dialing period" was or if there even was one. However, this is the _only_ change of a _major_ city I can remember -- not talking about the changes coming out of German Unification. Before Unification, West-Berlin used area code 30 as the only city in the 3x range of numbers. All East German cities went into 3x. Before Unification East-Berlin was dialable from West-Germany as 00372 (+37: east Germany, 2: East Berlin) but as 0372 (note missing '0') from West-Berlin, making it in fact a "domestic" call. I think this little fact also expressed the wish for "Berlin" to be a single city. After Unification I think all East-Berlin numbers got some number prefixed (8 or 9?) and went into 30, which became the area code for all of Berlin. Also 15-20 years ago, I remember there were "shortcut" numbers to dial in addition to area codes. Dialing from Duesseldorf to Cologne one could use 0221 + number or just 90 + number (or was it 91? Well you get the picture). However, these numbers were not assigned uniformly from city to city. Once I tried to call home and -- used to calling from Duesseldorf -- dialed 9x + number. Too late I realized that I *was* in Cologne and found myself talking to some lady in I-don't-know-where. You may think there is no big difference dialing 0221 (four digits) instead of 9x (two digits). But in the mid-70s, tone dialing was "science fiction" to the German Telekom and it made a difference dialing two instead of four digits. Those '9x' numbers were abandoned sometime in the 70s and dialing a '9' would get you an immediate "No number" recording ("Kein Anschluss unter dieser Nummer") At present, you can (at least in Cologne) guess whether a number is an ISDN line or not. If it starts with a '9', you can be 'pretty' sure it is. We have 989 xxxx while our neighbours have 89 xxxx. No problems with this -- only our pizza service often hesitated to take our order because of the "uncommon" exchange "989" (they are used to 89 as being "near" to them). Which brings me to another topic: How to expand reserve number space? A lot of seven digit numbers have zero as their third number, so there is the plan: avoid '0' as the first number after the exchange when using six digits. If numbers are needed, start opening the nn0 "exchange" *years* before it even *gets* tough. Then, move numbers 89nxxx into 89m nxxx (m and n should not be equal to avoid ambigious numbers) and you get lots of new numbers with only number changes, never area code splits or overlays (I hope we *never* get overlay area codes ... what a messy idea). Standardized anouncements can be put on the old 89nxxx numbers: "The new number is <8> <9> <1> "). As a remark: We (my parents and as soon as I had my own phone) _never_ changed numbers (and "of course" area codes). There has been one re-assignment of exchanges to consolidate a new numbers. My grandmother's phone was moved from 62xxxx to 64xxxx sometime during the late 70s or early 80s. Note that no extra digit was introduced to make it seven digits long. I think this was done to group neighbourhoods to the same exchanges. Offices reserve a block of numbers to get dial-in service: The main number is sometimes as short as three digits to keep the overall length below the max. You dial the extension you want. Sometimes, because of a real number shorage, this does not work out: A company I do business with has a phone number of 976 xxx0 (right: ISDN and I can tell the area in Cologne where they are) The problem is that their main number is already seven digits long and extensions are two digits, thus (dialing it instead of the '0') forms an eight digit number. Cologne already has a three digit area code and thus, the national number for the extensions would be eleven digits. Where is the problem? Nowhere. Except that Telekom notified the company that extensions may not be reachable from outside Germany, _especially_ mentioning the US. So, they installed a seperate line for the fax and got a seven digit number for it. Interestingly, no other country was mentioned having problems with eleven digit numbers. As a matter of fact, I like this system more than dialing a "switchboard" to get connected (this is the 20th century after all) or to have different numbers for switchboard and dial-in as I encounter in the US. It's easy to remember: If I don't know the extension, I dial '0' instead. If I there is no ringing, I'll add another '1' and get the switchboard. Switchboards have 0 or 01 as the last digits. In fact, you can always dial '01' directly without waiting for ring, since the extra '1' will be dropped if it's not needed. The rest of this message compares some aspects of the German phone system (I'm used to) and the US system (I got to use during some stays over there): Concering time-outs? Sorry, there is no need for timeouts just because of variable length numbers. Even in the above case for the switch-board, as I explained. I got to know timeouts when I visited the US, I was not aware of any timeouts before that. To put the record straight: we had pulse dial until last year and when dialing the last digit, it took about two seconds to complete a call within the city and some more outside the city. In some cases one could her the relays "clak-clak-clak" of numbers being dialed after you completed dialing. But as soon as that was done, there was a connection, _never_ some seconds of silence (timeout) for some extra digits. When I now dial some number I can figure if the target switch is digital or analog. Digital is almost immidiate, analog takes an extra second or two, but never a four or five second timeout. Another weirdness I encountered is "same area code -- long distance" dialing. Here, if you dial the same areacode (or leave it out if you prefer) you always are doing a local call. Therefore, there is no such thing as '1' means toll. Dialing your area code makes no difference _at all_ concerning completing the call or charging. It may give you a different line (speaking of quality). Sometimes lines used by area code dialing are better than just dialing them as without area code. I used that practice when I was unable to connect via modem to a local BBS. And you could get through to directory assistance faster if you used 0 + areacode + 1188 instead of just 1188 (which was notoriously overloaded). Domestic DA over here was always 1188, dispite the city you are looking for. Then, 1188 was changed to 01188, so it could not be dialed as 0 +areacode + 1188 (guess why ). I remember times when DA was 118, then 1188 and now 01188, maybe to make room for other special services. Talking on a US pay phone long distance without being disconnected when you used up your change? Thanks, that's a great way of doing cheap calls. I know this constitutes fraud, but why is it made _that_ easy? I did not do it, I paid the "extra" dime. Over here, you are just cut off (which is right IMO: no pay -- no service). There IS a display showing you how much money is still unused, so you can prepare for more change or end the call gracefully. Another thing that _really_ got me mad was the complicated dialing in the US: I had to call someone while waiting for a plane at Logan International Airport in Boston/MA. I had a calling card (AT&T) and some change. First, I tried a NYNEX pay phone. I expected this call to be local, so I used my change. Then, I was told (recording) that this call would require some more change. I assumed it would therefore be LD. So, I decided to use my calling card. Starting another call, the phone simply went *dead* and did not come back to life even after replacing the handset and waiting for some seconds. So, I found one of those "2000" AT&T phones with keyboard and "all the works". I swiped my card through the reader and started punching 0617xxxxxxx. But as I dialed the '0' (as I thought using a calling card required), I got an immidiate display "your call cannot be completed". Somewhere on the phone, there was a note: "Dial 1 when using calling cards". This all recalled from memory, but that's about the story. And asking around in 508 land if I have to use '1' before a number in the same area code (because it's toll) for each call is somewhat unnecessary, believe me. Redialing? Next question, please. As I mentioned at the beginning, these are the views of a user, not someone involved in the technology. But phones are made for the people to _use_ them, not to _understand_ the technology behind it. I wonder how all this will change when competion is supposed to start in 1998. Comments are welcome. Marko Ruokonen Cologne / Germany [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The reason our payphones -- or at least the 'Genuine Bell' payphones do not cut someone off in mid-sentence when the time is up is because it is thought to be discourteous and a poor business practice. It is considered better to let the person have a chance to immediatly say goodbye and disconnect voluntarily or remain on the line with an operator asking for additional money if the parties wish to continue talking to each other. There can be and certainly is some fraud as a result of this, but it apparently is considered minor in comparison to the inconvenience callers would have in needing to redial and start the call all over again if all they needed were a few more seconds. How many constitutes 'a few more' is open to debate. Operators are trained to use judgment in allowing the call to remain connected while requesting more money, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: change@cleese.nas.com (Kingsley G. Morse Jr.) Subject: Broad Computer Telephony Patent Sweep! Date: 4 Oct 1995 23:36:50 -0700 Organization: Network Access Services, Inc. I need a reality check. The September issue of {Computer Telephony} magazine published a shocking article saying that a new partnership, named RAKTLP, owns MANY CT patents which are SO broad that they could even make end users who write CT applications at home liable! Their 25 patents cover a WIDE range of interactive technology, including merchandising, promotions, home shopping, securing information from databases by telephone, and various uses of 800 and 900 numbers. These may seem obvious and unpatentable, but West Interactive, a CT service bureau, paid $4.4 million dollars for patent infringment, not to mention ongoing royalties. Evidently American Express and First Data Corp. have licensed the patents too. And RAKTLP is sending more letters to other CT service bureaus. The article, which was published WITHOUT the author's name, by the way, said that "In theory, anybody who rolls their own CT-based information-transaction app is liable, including end users who, more and more, are using easy-to-use app gens to do just that from their own premises." Are they liable? Since this article was the first time I'd heard about these patents, I'd like to ask for a reality check from the net at large. Are these facts correct? Do these patents affect individuals programming computer telephony applications at home? Kingsley G. Morse Jr. ------------------------------ From: miguel@grial.uc3m.es (Miguel Angel) Subject: Zmodem and Win Programming Comms API Date: 5 Oct 1995 13:29:13 GMT Organization: GSyC, Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. We need C source code for Zmodem protocol programming as well as the Windows programming communications API. Thanks for any message that anybody can mail to me, and ftp places are welcome for this porpose. Miguel A. Gallardo, President of APEDANICA Carlos III University Associate Professor P.O. Box 17083 - E-28080 Madrid (Spain) Tel: (341) 474 38 09 - FAX: 473 81 97 E-mail: miguel@grial.uc3m.es ASOCIACION PARA LA PREVENCION Y ESTUDIO DE DELITOS, ABUSOS Y NEGLIGENCIAS EN INFORMATICA Y COMUNICACIONES AVANZADAS (APEDANICA) ------------------------------ From: Pinto, Dominic Subject: Competitive Markets Date: Thu, 05 Oct 95 16:15:00 GMT Pat, I'm looking at -- in the UK context primarily - the implications for 'dominant' carriers of an increasingly aggresive and competitive market (or perhaps markets). Markets in the geographical sense as well as non-geographical (e.g. customer segmented), and also where there are fairly or increasingly artificial distinctions say between wireless, wireline, and satellite based services. I've noted that AT&T has been seeking to be regarded by the FCC as a non-dominant carrier -- with further relaxation on pricing -- advance filing notice reducing to one day -- quoted as the main advantage. But the details of the arguments seem to be a little thin or alternatively unclear. AT&T claim that whilst they may have 60% share (of the U.S. long-distance market, I assume!), they are not able to control prices or keep competitors out - i.e. AT&T is unable to act independently of the market and has no (dominant) market power. Can anyone help or provide pointers to useful sources or studies dealing with for example these kind of questions? Such as: what are the characteristics of a sufficiently competitive market (i.e., sufficiently competitive and self-sustaining so as to no longer need market/economic regulation), and what criteria can or might be used to determine whether or not a participant is dominant? Dominic Pinto ------------------------------ From: course@garnet.berkeley.edu Subject: Berkeley Advanced Product Development Courses Date: 6 Oct 1995 00:23:37 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley University of California, Berkeley, Extension announces: "ADVANCED PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT" A series of five 1-day coordinated courses, October 23-27, 1995 at the San Francisco International Airport "WHEREAS THE BATTLEGROUND OF THE '80S WAS QUALITY, THE COMPETITIVE BATTLEGROUND OF THE '90S WILL BE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT" ---Red Poling, former CEO, Ford This series presents an advanced approach to product development to help you achieve: *Lowest possible total cost *Ultrafast time to market *Broad market acceptance *Rapid and efficient customization *Responsiveness to changing market conditions THE COURSES (October 23-27) 1. Advanced Product Development Management 2. Product Definition Using QFD: Quality Function Deployment 3. Agile Product Development for Mass Customization, JIT, BTO, and Flexible Manufacturing 4. Low-Cost Product Development 5. Design for Manufacturability LECTURERS DAVID M. ANDERSON, a consultant based in Lafayette California. He holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley, and has more than 21 years of industrial experience, including 13 years of consulting work. He is the author of two books published by the Harvard University Press: "Design for Manufacturability: The New Product Development Imperative" (1990) and Mass Customizing Products" (to be published in 1996). His next book will be "Low Cost Product Development." Anderson has taught New Product Development in the Management of Technology Program of the Haas School of Business and the University of California, Berkeley. In addition he has given numerous corporate product development seminars internationally, and at many companies, including several divisions of Hewlett-Packard. CHARLES A. COX, instructor for Product Definition using QFD, is a Certified Management Consultant and Certified Quality Engineer. An engineer by training, he has more than 17 years of consulting experience in the management and service sectors, working with large and small organizations to implement customer- driven product or service design systems and procedures. His latest publication is "The Executive's Handbook on Quality Function Deployment" (John Wiley, to be published in 1996). COMPANIES MAY BUY SEATS The fee for each one day course is $395. The fee for the entire five-course series is $1,495. There is a 10 percent discount for three or more enrollments provided they are submitted together. Companies may "buy seats" for the series and send appropriate people each day. FURTHER INFORMATION For a free detailed brochure describing the series send your postal address to: course@garnet.berkeley.edu Specify the "Advanced Product Development Series" ------------------------------ From: uspdi@clark.net (USPDI) Subject: Coference: Merging Your Organization Onto the Internet Date: 5 Oct 1995 01:08:40 GMT Organization: U.S. Professional Development Institute National Conference on MERGING YOUR ORGANIZATION ONTO THE INTERNET Theme: Successful Implementation November 13-16, 1995 Sheraton National Hotel * Arlington, Va. (Washington, D.C.) This Conference Teaches Workable Internet Implementation Solutions ABOUT THE CONFERENCE SCOPE AND PURPOSE The conference is organized to benefit both current and prospective users of the Internet, including executives, managers, technical/communications specialists and contracting professionals. Focused workshops explore special interest areas, while the conference sessions give attendees an opportunity to expand their knowledge of practical marketing and operating applications, management methods and technical information. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN This intensive program of workshops and conference sessions is designed to facilitate usage of the Internet by any organization. It will assist your organization in implementing all aspects of a successful Internet strategy including: * Defining the business uses for Internet and developing an integrated Internet strategy; * Implementation including: the connection, servers, user workstations, training; * Security considerations and solutions; * Business applications including: marketing, ordering, customer support; * World Wide Web servers and page development. WHO SHOULD ATTEND: * Managers and technical staff needing an understanding of the Internet potential and usage; * Business and government managers responsible for improving the operations of their organizations; * Private sector executives responsible for marketing products and services; * Operations personnel involved in MIS, IRM, systems operations, network management and other aspects of implementing Internet usage. CONFERENCE VOLUME Collections of presentation and reference materials will be provided to each participant of the conference, briefings and technical workshops. Participants will also receive "Internet: A Knowledge Odyssey (Business Edition)," a multimedia reference guide and tutorial on CD-ROM, designed for business and professional users. HIGHLIGHTS 27 Plenary and Concurrent Sessions: * User Track * Implementation Track * Applications Track MANAGEMENT WORKSHOPS: * Increasing Internet Productivity with the Latest Tools * Conducting Business Over the Internet * Developing a Corporate Internet Strategy TECHNICAL WORKSHOPS: * Security Systems on the Internet * Setting Up and Operating Internet Gateways and Web Servers * Constructing a Successful Web Site In cooperation with: D.C. Chapter -- Internet Society Association of Online Professionals Capital PC Users Group Conference Management by: U.S. Professional Development Institute FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT: Mail: USPDI, 1738 Elton Road, Suite 304; Silver Spring, MD 20903 Phone: 301/445-4400 Fax: 301/445-5722 E-mail: uspdi@clark.net (Subject: Interne#t Conference) Web: http://www.clark.net/pub/uspdi ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 5 Oct 1995 17:06:55 PDT From: Mark Crispin Reply-To: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: A History of the Early Days of Usenet Organization: Networks & Distributed Computing [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Earlier on Thursday I commented that TELECOM Digest was the oldest mailing list on the Internet. I got the following note of correction this evening. PAT] Pat - Header-People@mc.lcs.mit.edu is older than Telecom; I've been a member since 1977. TOPS-20@Panda.COM is also older, having been founded in 1979 (as TOPS-20@SU-SCORE). -- Mark -- DoD #0105, R90/6 pilot, FAX: (206) 685-4045 ICBM: N 47 39'35" W 122 18'39" Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Perhaps I should have said 'on the modern Internet' or 'on the Internet as we know it today', but that would have been weaseling out a little, wouldn't it? PAT] ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Last Laugh! A Day Without OJ Date: Thu, 05 Oct 1995 21:15:00 CDT Our first full day in a year without the spectacle of the century broadcast live around the world ... but the first day of many for commentaries that will probably go on so long that no one will remember quite for sure what happened by the time it finally ends. What was it the orange juice people said about a day without OJ is like a day without sunshine? After my comments here yesterday, someone wrote me to say the proper term for what happened was the jury aquitted him. They did not 'find him innocent', they did not 'find him not guilty'. I guess there is an important distinction we should remember. Anyway, some OJ jokes to share with your friends and co-workers. If you enjoyed the 'dancing Itos' comedy routine on the 'Tonight Show' then perhaps you will enjoy these also. ******* OJ called his attorney recently. Do you know what OJ wanted? He asked the attorney 'Those were expensive gloves. When do I get my gloves back?" ******* OJ has a new email address for anyone who wants to write him. It is really easy to remember: "slash slash slash slash backslash backslash slash escape" ******* After he got home, OJ got a phone call from former President Reagan. The call went like this: "OJ, this is President Reagan calling. I wanted to congratulate you on your victory in the court. Once things have settled down for you again, Nancy and I would like to invite you and your lovely wife Nicole to join us for dinner." Okay, I admit they're a little sick. But so was the whole trial. Aren't you enjoying the miracle of modern telecommunications which allowed the whole world to participate in the circus? PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #420 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa06660; 6 Oct 95 12:21 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id AAA20552 for telecomlist-outbound; Fri, 6 Oct 1995 00:49:17 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id AAA20544; Fri, 6 Oct 1995 00:49:15 -0500 Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 00:49:15 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510060549.AAA20544@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #421 TELECOM Digest Fri, 6 Oct 95 00:49:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 421 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Voice Compression on T1s (Matt Noah) Re: Voice Compression on T1s (Andrew Salisbury) Re: Voice Compression on T1s (Bob Stone) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Earl Wallace) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Fred Atkinson) Re: Pros and Cons About Making One Channel (Jeffrey Rhodes) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses (Marko Ruokonen) Re: ROLM Help Request by Brian Stoll (Lou Jahn) Where Can I Find CAT5 Standards/Specs? (Timothy H. Ohara) Centrex Information Wanted (James Deibele) Re: Payphones For Prisons (Peter M. Weiss) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Sam Spens Clason) Re: European Council Statement on Encryption (Sam Spens Clason) Re: The Irony of the AT&T Breakup (Robert Virzi) Re: Need Information on 1A2 System Using "Regular Phones" (Mike Morris) Re: Need Information on 1A2 System Using "Regular Phones" (Ed Greenberg) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: mjn@sage.acti.com (Matt Noah) Subject: Re: Voice Compression on T1s Date: Thu, 05 Oct 1995 15:49:29 GMT Organization: ACT Networks, Inc. Reply-To: matt@acti.com Jim McGrath (Jim_McGrath@gw.pps.com) wrote: > I would like to hear from anyone with experience using voice > compression techniques in T1 muxes. I need as much of the bandwidth of > my T1s as possible for data, but had to cost-justify the T1s by > including reductions in voice telco expenses. I will probably be using > Newbridge muxes (3600 & 3624), which seem to support a voice-path at > as low as 8kbps. Although it leaves more for data, I'm concerned about > degraded quality. Of 8, 16 or 32kbps, I'm sure 32 is the least > objectionable for the telemarketing people who will be on the phones, > but what kind of quality might I expect? Are there other mux vendors > who provide better quality at low bandwidths? We have toll quality voice at 8 kbps. As for the T1 interface, check with our Marketing Department. (805)-388-2474 x226. ------------------------------ From: latinnet@aol.com (Latin Net) Subject: Re: Voice Compression on T1s Date: 05 Oct 1995 11:01:39 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: latinnet@aol.com (Latin Net) Mark, I am running into a very similar dilema except I am trying to reduce the network cost of E-0's from Mexico City. I was also hoping to use a Newbridge product to get more workable voice lines per E-0. Please let me know if you find a good solution, and I will do the same. Andrew Salisbury ------------------------------ From: Bob Stone Subject: Re: Voice Compression on T1s Date: 5 Oct 1995 22:41:28 GMT Organization: JT&T, Inc. In article Paul O'Nolan, ponolan@inter.nl.net writes: >> I would like to hear from anyone with experience using voice >> compression techniques in T1 muxes. I need as much of the bandwidth of Voice & Data Systems manufactures a new telecom technology called Terra Globe - virtual Global System. Terra Globe sends real-time fax, fax-mail, and voice-mail as packetized data over the enterprise data network. The real-time fax function called Terra FaxPAD compresses and multiplexes fax 20 to 1. Fax sent with Terra FaxPAD uses just 1/20 of the bandwidth normally required. Many users have had to eliminate or reduce voice compression because of problems with fax. Since 25% to 45% of all voice traffic is fax, by packetizing the real-time fax you can save significannt bandwidth and run your voice at the compression you find best. See our web page for more details: http://www.fairfield.com/terra_globe Regards. ------------------------------ From: earlw@walltech.com (Earl Wallace) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Date: Thu, 05 Oct 1995 11:49:44 -0700 Organization: WTC > And by the way, co-operative or not, you should be paying for business > service. You can't argue "we're non profit"... so is the Red Cross and > they pay for the proper service. Funny you should mention that. I'm planning on running a zillion Centrex ISDN PRI's into my home over the next few years and they are all 100% business lines. Yet, Im going to pay the National Debt off with my "Trench And Engineering Fees". Well, one could say that since I'm paying business rates I should get some sort of break, eh? ------------------------------ From: fatkinson@radix.net Date: Thu, 5 Oct 1995 09:29:07 -0400 Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? > 3. The number is answered as a business; > The Red Cross answers, "Red Cross...". A modem answering is neutral > (neither necessarily business nor residence). > I have been around and around with Pac*Bell types who try to regrade > various services to business. I always win when we get down to the > wording in the tariffs. Hmmm, this puts my situation in a border area. I have remote call forwarding on my home phone. When I work, I generally forward my line to my desk at work and answer with my company name. Interesting dilemna here should a telco person call my home during the time I am forwarded to my office. Any feedback. Fred ------------------------------ From: jcr@creator.nwest.attws.com (Jeffrey Rhodes) Subject: Re: Pros and Cons About Making One Channel Date: 05 Oct 1995 23:42:23 GMT Organization: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. Reply-To: jcr@creator.nwest.attws.com In article 2@eecs.nwu.edu, Lou DeFonzo () writes: > rolland@mcs.com (Rolland Suh) wrote: >> We are thinking about getting 56KB dedicated line to the Internet. We >> already have a T1 voice line, and wondering if it would be cost >> effective for us to use one of the channels of existing T1, over >> getting a new dediccated line. Any idea on this? > Assuming that you are not using all 24 DS0s, this would be an > excellent way of gaining internet access. However, this will depend on > who your carrier is for the T1 and who you are planning to use for > your Internet Access Provider. This will require that your CSU is > capable of providing Drop and Insert capability and that it can > support a DSU. Basically a DSU/CSU with Drop and Insert capability. This is good advice but the story isn't finished. You will need to negotiate with the T1 carrier to provide the Drop and Insert capability to the Internet at the other end of the T1. Not all T1 carriers/providers are currently capable to be Internet Service Providers. Also, there are two types of Drop and Insert DSU/CSUs. One type is intended for fractional T1 and terminates a T1. A cascadable DSU/CSU allows you to Drop and Insert and pass the T1 signal to another DSU/CSU. You will want a cascadable Drop and Insert DSU/CSU. ------------------------------ Date: 05 Oct 95 10:29:25 EDT From: Marko Ruokonen <100031.31@compuserve.com> Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses In Telecom Digest Volume 15, Issue 415 DYost@Taurus.Apple.com (Dave Yost) wrote: > [...] Haven't you ever picked up the phone at work and started to > dial a number without the 9? Haven't you ever picked up the phone at > home and started to dial 9? This kind of mistake is not stupidity or > some kind of disability, it's what happens with wetware. And it is > evidence that there is something wrong with the usability of the > system. Think about a fax machine dialing a wrong number because someone entered the number in a wrong "format" (leaving out 9 or prefixing it with '9' where it should not). This happened at a company that I do consulting for here in Germany, a country with variable length numbers. A document had to be faxed to Maidenhead (Great Britain). The fax number was something like +44 628 ... . Dialing would be: 0(get outside line)+00(international)+44628(Maidenhead)+(rest of no.) Note: This was before "Phone day", so no '1' before the 628 code. Some days later I answered a call for the person who sent the fax and was on vacation at that time. The guy at the other end was furious and shouted he would sue me for harrasing phone calls. Well, I managed to get the word out of him that he lived in the town of Wittmund in Northern Germany. I asked what his phone number was (no caller-ID yet :-() and - bingo - it was: 04462 8+something. I explained that someone here had left out an extra '0' to reach an outside line and so on. Ok, so what? He told *his* side of the story: That fax was programmed to call during off-peak (cheaper) hours and called this poor guy *in the middle of the night* over and over again *for days*. He complained at the phone company (Telekom) and they quickly found out it was a fax that did the harrassing calls. They installed a fax machine at his home and that's how he got the company's phone number. In effect, the phone company helped this guy to get after the harrasser himself and I'm sure this is not how it done here in Germany. And what's more: even dialing 0+0044+ would get you nowhere at that company because they use a different code for international destinations: 98+00+country code+rest of number. This is because of special tariffs based on volume and they claim that's the only way they can do book-keeping on the international calls and get discounts from Telekom. The problem here is that "getting outside line" and "long distance" both use '0' and can thus get you way off. How to change this? I believe this is a difficult task if everybody insists to have his favorite dialing scheme spared from change. Therefore, there will not be a common plan to ever come into existence. Examples: How many people object to making '00' the international access code and '0' the long distance code _worldwide_? Don't come up saying "but we already have '0' for alternate billing / operator". That's exactly what I mean. There should be ways to implement uniform dialing, even if it would take ten years in transition. How about 112 as an emergency number instead of 911? I've heard that 112 is very easy to dial even if there's no light to see the pad or the dial. Conclusion: It's not the best ideas that win, but those that are "rushed" to market go gain share quickly. Marko Ruokonen / Cologne, Germany 100031.31@compuserve.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A perfect example of a fax machine giving all sorts of grief to innocent people occurred here in Chicago several years ago when the First National Bank had a fax machine programmed to dial out at the close of business each day to various branches of the bank with whatever it was being transmitted among them. Somehow the klutz who programmed the autodial function managed to get '011' in the dialing string. 7 or 8 pm here each day and after midnight in Germany some poor family there was getting awakened by a ringing phone and greeted by silence when they answered. Not once of course, but several times in a row each night until finally the machine would give up and move on to other numbers on its list. After a couple weeks of this, the family was understanably very annoyed and frightened, so they went to Telekom asking for help. Telekom traced the call back to the USA and asked AT&T to intervene or look into the matter. Of course a few more days had passed by that time, rendering the family's phone almost useless all night long. AT&T found it was coming from Chicago and brought it to the attention of Illinois Bell, which in turn traced it back pretty quickly to the First National Bank. Whoever at IBT handled the bank's account called their contact at the bank to ask for assistance. According to the report on it later, 'the bank has (this was some years ago) idiots working in their telecom department.' The telco person said it was like talking to a brick wall. No one seemed to understand what was the problem or what was wanted. Telco finally got someone who grudgingly agreed to 'look into it and get it taken care of.' You think that solved the problem? A week later the Germans reported the problem hasn't been cured at all; that the calls are still continuing. At this point AT&T leans and breathes a little harder on IBT and quite embarassed about it, IBT sent someone over to the bank to talk to the people. The VP-Telecom was not in at the time, and it was the same run- around with incompetent people who could 'only follow policy'. The IBT's guy's response was to go back and order a disconnect on that line. A day or two later when the bank complained about the line being 'out of order' he read them the riot act and *finally* got someone to go reprogram the fax machine. Well, the fax calls stopped going to the German family alright, but soon enough the monthly phone bill arrived for the bank, and although it is always a huge bill, they did look it over from time to time and when page after page after page of one minute calls to a number in Germany show up the bank's response was to call and complain, asking for credit on account of 'some screw up by the phone company'. The person calling had no knowledge whatsoever of the problem that had gone uncorrected for close to a month. Apparently no one there mentioned it. All very self- righteous, he wanted credit since this was being charged against his department's budget. This was like the frosting for the cake, and the telco man read him the riot act also and concluding that 'you are not to ever call here direct again. Take any and all complaints to your telecom department, period.' Then there was the guy who ran the Fido BBS here in Chicago about ten years ago whose script for National Mail Hour had an error in it and he kept waking up some 75 year old woman at 3 AM. This was a local call, and it went on for about a week until finally the IBT Security Department looked into it. Not knowing exactly what was going on -- this was ten years ago in the 'early days' of BBS'ing -- telco security and Chicago police got warrants and went out there to kick his door in and confiscate everything telephone-related they could find. The woman was ready to sue telco, and telco told this guy if she sues us we are going to have you added as a defendant in it. The deal they finally cut with him was he had to *immediatly* remove his modem and computer from the phone line and not re-attach it to the line until it had been inspected and found to be in good working order AND to immediatly and permanently discontinue all BBS operations. That was the part that stung. "Of course," said telco, "if you don't think we have the authority to make that demand, you can always sue us, and the woman who you *harrassed* is ready to sue you as well. Let the court straighten it out." He thought it prudent to close his electronic doors. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 05 Oct 95 20:17:19 EDT From: Lou Jahn <71233.2444@compuserve.com> Subject: Re: ROLM Help Request Brian Stoll asked for help with a ROLM PBX. Brian, I am not certain if you've tried it, but ROLM has an excellent Consultant Liaison program. You can contact them via 1-800-538-8154. Ask for Bob Lee -- he knows PBXs and the 9751 like nobody you've seen (and if he can't answer he'll get one for you). Secondly, failing that call Society of Telecommunication Consultants and ask them to give you a local wizard on the 9751. They have some super members, many focused on ROLM PBXs. Call Susan Kuttner at 1-800-782-7670. Sure one or both of these will be helpful. Lou ------------------------------ From: tohara@acsu.buffalo.edu (Timothy H Ohara) Subject: Where Can I Find CAT5 Standards/Specs? Date: 6 Oct 1995 02:19:51 GMT Organization: UB Does anyone have any suggestions where I could find specs and standards for CAT 5 cabling on the net? Thanks in advance. Please E-Mail tohara@eng.buffalo.edu Timothy H. O'Hara Senior, Electrical Engineering State University of New York at Buffalo tohara @ eng.buffalo.edu World Wide Web Home Page: "http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~tohara" ------------------------------ From: jamesd@teleport.com (James Deibele) Subject: Centrex Information Wanted Date: 5 Oct 1995 18:21:17 -0700 Organization: Teleport - Portland's Public Access (503) 220-1016 I tried checking the archives at lcs.mit.edu and the local technical bookstore (Powell's Tech here in Portland) and am coming up empty on information on Centrex. I have an article out of {Teleconnect} magazine and a long fax from US West and that's about all I've got. We're looking to replace our ancient Telplus 16x48 phone system which uses proprietary digital phones with something a bit more up-to-date. We're not that unhappy with the Telplus except that we'd like to graft voicemail and auto-attendant features onto it and we've been told that while it does have analog capability it doesn't work all that well (which is different than what the installer told us ... oh, well). Because of the rate that things are changing I'm not wildly interested in buying a nice PBX that will turn out to be useless for voice over ethernet or video conferencing or whatever it turns out that we'll be doing a couple of years from now. If I can buy some $50 phones that work with a standard RJ-11 and use them for a year or two we can just give them to employees when we go to ISDN at every desk or whatever. Are there any books readily available on Centrex? Any archive sites? Any references to software vendors who would let us control Centrex features ourselves without having to go through US West (there's supposed to be a couple of programs that do this)? Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 05 Oct 1995 15:05:17 -0400 (EDT) From: Peter M. Weiss Subject: Re: Payphones For Prisons Organization: Penn State University Don't forget to research the RISKS of pay phones in prisons by searching the archives of the RISKS-Forum Digest. Current issues available on Usenet group COMP.RISKS which has pointers to other resources. Pete Weiss, Penn State ------------------------------ From: sam@nada.kth.se (Sam Spens Clason) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Date: 5 Oct 95 21:01:38 GMT In villing@muc.de (Thomas Villinger) writes: > martin@kurahaupo.gen.nz (Martin Kealey) wrote: >> Tony Harminc wrote on 20 Sep 1995 in >> article : >>>> Easy, isn't it? >>> Easy yes -- but a disaster for planning and orderly >>> growth. This sort of design ensures that Germany will not >>> have portable numbers for a long time. >> Whilst this may make portable numbers a little more >> difficult, they are by no means impossible. > Why should it be impossible to get portable numbers? I don't > see any difference to the problems as they occur in a fixed > numbering scheme. We already do have "portable" numbers > (think of all the mobile phones which are in fact portable > numbers) and guess what i works :). Note that we do have a > hierarchical numbering system but still work with databases, > so it might be possible that a certain group of numbers get > collected in an exchange aand are routed after the last digit > which contains the necessary information is collected. Our toll-free numbers in 020 (= +1 800) used to be geographic when they were introduced some ten (?) years ago. A call to 020-796xxx was routed to the area code switch in e.g. Stockholm where xxx was resolved, 020-797xxx onto e.g Gothenburg etc. After a couple of years this was dropped and SS7 signaling with IN-db's was introduced. 020 numbers are now of variable length (020+ 4, 6 or 7 digits) and more carriers than Telia now offer them. The change of standard length from 6 to 7 enabled new carriers to have a slice of 020 and introducing shorter special numbers (e.g. 020-0031 as prefix to hide CLI) and at the same time not having to change the old (vanity) numbers. So yes, portable numbers can be introduced very easely. Introducing IN-db's for parts of the geographical number range should be no problem since, if my memory serves me right, up to seven digits can be used when determining to which network entity the call is to be routed. Sam http://www.nada.kth.se/~sam, sam@nada.kth.se, +46 701234567 ------------------------------ From: sam@nada.kth.se (Sam Spens Clason) Subject: Re: European Council Statement on Encryption Date: 5 Oct 95 22:39:19 GMT In schaefer@alphanet.ch (Marc SCHAEFER) writes: > Does someone know something about the rumoured European Council > Statement on Encryption? I have heard it may establish a central > (possibly private) organization which would be holder for keys. Not much, but statements (or whatever they're called) aren't mandatory (=European law). Sam http://www.nada.kth.se/~sam, sam@nada.kth.se, +46 701234567 ------------------------------ From: rv01@gte.com (Robert Virzi) Subject: Re: The Irony of the AT&T Breakup Date: 5 Oct 1995 21:34:53 GMT Organization: GTE Laboratories, Waltham, MA In article , Marvin Vis wrote: > Regarding the breakup, has anyone speculated about the driving forces > behind the move? Of course, there are the factors that AT&T has presented > as their motivations (those of speed/responsiveness, targeted stock, etc.), > but has anyone tried to think of other reasons? I thought it was so that the equipment ATT could sell more stuff like switches. In the phone business LECs and {Whole}ATT are each others biggest customers. LECs buy lots of stuff like switches and fiber and whatnot from ATT, and then sell ATT for local access and the like. Now that parts of ATT are going in to direct competition with LECs, for example in the mobile environment, LECs are thinking that maybe they ought to be buying from some other vendor. Or at least that is how the story goes. This upsets the balance. So by spinning off equipment from network services, the equipment ATT should be treated like all the other equipment vendors (Nortel, Ericcson, Motorola, etc.). I would think that would take a bit of convincing, but then nobody has asked me. Bob Virzi rvirzi@gte.com +1 (617) 466-2881 ------------------------------ From: morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Mike Morris) Subject: Re: Need Information on 1A2 System Using "Regular Phones" Organization: College Park Software, Altadena, CA Date: Thu, 5 Oct 1995 06:18:21 GMT les@jaguNET.com (Les Fairall) writes: > I have an 1A2 system with several "single line" phones attached to it. > The 1A2 is strapped with common ringing (provided by a separate ring > generator. Problem is that if someone answers on a non-key phone > (i.e. a regular off the shelf store bought phone that has been added > w/a single line adapter), the system continues to ring all other > phones for about ten seconds. (I believe that is the standard timeout > for the 400E KTU cards that are in the system.) I remember years ago > seeing a device that you could plug a normal phone into and it would > sense it off hook and satsify the A/A1 connection and make the ktu see > that line as in use. This would be great as it would (1) stop lines > from ringing another ten seconds and (2) actually light the line up in > use. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Use the second (normally unused) pair > in the 'regular phone' to short the A/A1 line. Wire them through a > relay in the 'regular phone' which would close on the phone going off > hook. You will find a spare set of contacts in the phone for that > purpose. When you provide the A/A1 supervision you will get what you > want. PAT] I have a 1A2 here in the house -- in fact my modem is going thru it right now. Most Bell-clone instruments have a set of hookswitch contacts that can be freed up and wired to the second pair of the RJ-11. If not, call Greybar or Alltel and ask for a TA-1 - it's a little black box made by TT Systems in NYC (914-968-2100) that has a two-wire RJ-11 jack and a four-wire 6" RJ-11 plug-ended cord. Works just fine to solve problems like this. In fact I may be ordering another half dozen real soon now. I have one on my modem, one on my answering machine, one on each port of the three-port conferencing bridge, one on each port of the five-port announcing system at a friend's movie theater that still has a 584-shelf running ... etc. Mike Morris morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us #include I have others, but this works the best. This message assembled from 100% recycled electrons (and pixels). ------------------------------ From: edg@best.com (Ed Greenberg) Subject: Re: Need Information on 1A2 System Using "Regular Phones" Date: 05 Oct 1995 15:06:24 -0700 Organization: Best Internet Communications In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Les Fairall : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Use the second (normally unused) pair > in the 'regular phone' to short the A/A1 line. Wire them through a > relay in the 'regular phone' which would close on the phone going off > hook. You will find a spare set of contacts in the phone for that > purpose. When you provide the A/A1 supervision you will get what you > want. PAT] It's important to get the right set of contacts involved here. The order in which the contacts for Tip/Ring and A control are made and broken are important. When answering the call, make (close) A-A1 BEFORE allowing the phone line itself to be connected. When hanging up, break (open) A-A1 AFTER disconnecting the line. If A breaks first on disconnect, the line will go on hold instead of hanging up. Ed Greenberg edg@greenberg.org Ham Radio: KM6CG http://www.greenberg.org/ ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #421 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15356; 6 Oct 95 23:49 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA07513 for telecomlist-outbound; Fri, 6 Oct 1995 15:28:40 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA07504; Fri, 6 Oct 1995 15:28:37 -0500 Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 15:28:37 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510062028.PAA07504@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #422 TELECOM Digest Fri, 6 Oct 95 15:28:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 422 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Phil Schoendorff) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Bill Walker) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Linc Madison) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (John David Galt) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (John David Galt) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (David H. Close) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (John Thompson) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Al Varney) Call for Vocoders for Testing Reannouncement (Rob Morgenstern) Re: Broad Computer Telephony Patent Sweep! (Chris Gettings) Re: California Telecom Bill Lowers Cost For Residents (Steven Lichter) Caller ID Expansion Stalled (Krusty Robinson) CT Applications - Pricing Policy (Manoj Bhatia) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: schoendo@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Phil Schoendorff) Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Date: 6 Oct 1995 13:57:44 -0400 Organization: The Greater Columbus FreeNet Well I don't know how everyone else might take it but, I just talked to what used to be an AT&T employee. A little unsure of the final situation but they seem to be taking it well. They were trying to find a new name for their section and someone came up with another damned acronym. TWATT for This Was A T T Phillip A. Schoendorff ------------------------------ From: wwalker@qualcomm.com (Bill Walker) Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Date: Fri, 06 Oct 1995 11:21:34 -0800 Organization: Qualcomm, Inc. In article , John R Levine wrote: > I see in the press releases that after the three-way AT&T split, the > piece that handles telephone service and stuff like that will be > called AT&T. The other two pieces, the one that builds equipment and > the one that sells computers, remain unnamed. Clearly, this is a job > for The TELECOM Digest. A person I talk to at the part that builds equipment has taken to saying her employer is "the company formerly known as AT&T". Bill Walker - WWalker@qualcomm.com - QUALCOMM, Inc., San Diego, CA USA ------------------------------ From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 11:02:20 GMT Ed Ellers (edellers@delphi.com) wrote: > Toby Nixon writes: >> So, why SHOULDN'T the phone network be designed so that computers can >> be connected to the network ANYWHERE and be permitted to input a >> fully-qualified international number (including country code) and have >> the NETWORK figure out how to route the call, instead of the computer >> needing to be pre-programmed to know exactly which subset of the phone >> number needs to be dialed, along with whatever prefixes are needed? > That could be done easily enough -- all AT&T (or whatever the new > hardware company will be called), Northern Telecom and others have to > do is rewrite their switch software. However, this would eliminate > the safety feature that now exists in most (but not all) areas where > you can't accidentally dial a toll call as a local one or vice-versa. This is a commonly-held misconception. In fact, allowing, for example, 1+NPA+NXX-XXXX for *ABSOLUTELY ANY* call within the NANP would not in any way even compromise this "safety feature." The translation of this number in billing terms is, "put this call through, WHETHER OR NOT a toll applies." If in fact the call is local, the fact that you dialed it with a 1 in front DOES NOT change that!!! In areas where the difference between local and toll calls is both distinct and severe, it is reasonable to REQUIRE a 1 on all toll calls. However, it is entirely STUPID and POINTLESS to *prohibit* the 1 on local calls. It serves ABSOLUTELY no valid purpose. So, to the PUCs of states like Texas, I say unequivocally, ALLOW 11-digit dialing for ALL calls. There is no EXCUSE for doing otherwise. This isn't just a matter of computers. If I'm in Dallas and need to call someone in Arlington, *WHY* should I be required to know whether the number I'm dialing is a Metro number? If I dial 1-817-265-xxxx instead of 817-265-xxxx, the call should go through WITHOUT INTERCEPT and WITHOUT CHARGE. By dialing the 1, I indicated willingness to pay a toll *IF* it applies; so, I get a nice surprise at the end of the month when the call doesn't appear on my bill. If Dallas goes through with the 214/972 overlay as currently planned (although a Digest reader I know from high school tells me there is talk of doing a split roughly along the loop freeway), the situation will get even worse: there will be four different area codes with some numbers requiring 1 and others prohibiting it, with no easily remembered pattern. Make that 5 area codes if 817 also overlays, as rumored. The one difficulty in North America with allowing users to dial the full international number is that we would have to change the dialing prefix for operator-assisted international calls from 01 to 010. Otherwise, dialing 011612NXXXXXX could be either an operator-assisted call to Minneapolis (01-1-612...) or a direct-dialed call to Sydney, Australia (011-61-2...) [Even when Sydney switches to 8-digit numbers, it would require too many digits to decide, and there are other examples.] And as for the so-called "international standard" of 00, we in North America will comply just as soon as the "standard" allows for subscriber-dialed operator-assisted calls. Until then, a standard that was written with deliberate and malicious disregard for the requirements of the North American network will be disregarded, as it should be. Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * LincMad@Netcom.com ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Date: Fri, 6 Oct 95 11:07:21 PDT > One pet peeve I've had with terminal programs with dialing directories > is that I have to edit the phone file when I change area codes. I'd > love to just enter 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx for each number, and then enter > the area code that I'm calling from in a different field, and the > program would "know" not to dial 1-xxx then they match. WinFaxPro, a program to send and receive faxes on a PC, does not have this problem. Like you, I have not found a modem program that doesn't have it. John David Galt ------------------------------ From: John_David_Galt@cup.portal.com Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Date: Fri, 6 Oct 95 11:33:16 PDT PAT writes: > I do not know about the tariff in California, but the tariff here states > things a bit differently. (1) any service which is not exclusively for > the personal use of the residents of a domicile is a 'business' service. > (2) at an address which has historically been used for business, then > any service installed there must be business service; however at an > address which has historically been residential in nature then residence > service is available *unless the line is being used for business purposes.* ... > The error by telco is one of nomenclature. Long ago the types of service > should have been described as 'exclusive personal use by one or more > individuals at a place of residence' and 'all other service.' Then either > you qualify for the less expensive rates or you do not. PAT] It's still a matter of opinion, for two reasons: 1) The fact that someone may do a lot of entertaining, parties and the like, does not make his/her home a "business." Social gatherings are part of the normal use of a residence. Internet use is to my phone what a party is to my home: part of residential use, as long as I don't create a public nuisance. 2) The analogy goes further: suppose I start selling software, Tupperware, or Amway stuff at my parties? (Still assuming that I don't create a nuisance such as excessive noise ...) No reasonable jurisdiction would want to shut me down for violating residential zoning, unless I make enough money that the IRS would call it a business rather than a hobby. I would assume that the original poster's operation falls into the "hobby" category -- because I know about 20 people who have similar systems in their homes. None of them has a prayer of competing with the major commercial ISPs, and none of them wants to try -- each serves a small circle of friends. John David Galt ------------------------------ From: dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu (David H. Close) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Date: 6 Oct 1995 06:21:13 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: > The error by telco is one of nomenclature. Long ago the types of service > should have been described as 'exclusive personal use by one or more > individuals at a place of residence' and 'all other service.' Then either > you qualify for the less expensive rates or you do not. PAT] The error is classifying service at all. At one time, percentage of time the line was in use may have justified higher rates due to expensive lines. But today, service is essentially without cost beyond overhead. There is no remaining justification for charging residences less or businesses more except that there are more residences and their occupants vote. See the cover story in this week's issue of the {Economist}. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359 dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu ------------------------------ From: jthompson@monmouth.com (John Thompson) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: Fri, 06 Oct 95 05:32:58 GMT Organization: Monmouth Internet Corporation In article , jyee@unixg.ubc.ca (Jeffrey Yee) wrote: > I have a question. Where does telco obtain their time signal from to > synchronize their clocks and equipment. PAT responded, > There are two sources of standardized time information in the USA. These > are the US Naval Observatory in Washington, DC and the National Bureau of > Standards in Boulder, Colorado. > Using your computer's communication program and a modem set to 1200 baud, > you can get a dislay on your computer screen showing the correct time by > calling USNO at 202-653-0351 or NBS at 303-494-4774. I shall stifle my > desire at this time to discuss the old (defunct for almost thirty years) > Western Union Time Service, which got its feed from USNAVOB. PAT] There is a neat little shareware Windows program out there called TimeSync. It connects to the USNO Internet Time Server at tick.usno.navy.mil, and sets your computer's clock to the USNO's time. It's easy to use, as long as you know how many minutes difference you are from UTC. I'm not exactly sure where you get it, but I'll e-mail it to anybody who asks. (I did try to telnet to 'tick', but got nowhere). John Thompson jthompson@monmouth.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I telnetted to tick without any problem (that is to stay the network was up; there were no connectivity problems) but I had no login for it of course. I tried FTP thinking there might be stuff in a public directory, but tick does not allow anonymous ftp connections. Is there also a DOS version of this that you are aware of? PAT] ------------------------------ From: varney@ihgp4.ih.att.com (Al Varney) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Organization: AT&T Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 14:25:01 GMT In article , Martin Kealey wrote: >>> If compelled signalling were used, >> Ah, but it's not. And that's the issue, isn't it? > Quite true; the point I'm trying to get at is that compelled > signalling doesn't necessarily mean opening a voice-grade path all the > way to the far end, so while it's not entirely without cost, that cost > is pretty insignificant; for example, far less than the voice-grade > path used to signal ring-back in a lot of networks. (It is conceivable > that there may even be a net benefit from cost reductions elsewhere.) I'd be interested in the type of signaling between switches you imply does not require reserving a circuit when sending the first batch of digits. The ITU-T standards I recall insist on a circuit ID in the IAM (repeated in SAMs). While the circuit may not actually be cut through for voice, it is tied-up from the moment of the IAM being transmitted until the last digit is dialed. After all, you don't want to ring a line unless there is a circuit available and ready to cut through, right? The ring-back (audible ring) signal needs to be sent via a real circuit, since there is no other means of insuring the circuit can be cut through after answer without clipping the initial "hello". And, of course, since the circuit is sitting there anyway (after the first IAM), it might as well be used. Again, from what I know (and I'd like to be wrong here): Compelled signaling has significant circuit holding times when R2 signalling is used through several switches and long numbers are being dialed. The holding times do NOT change when SS7 is used, unless dialing is faster that the R2 signalling times (for example, ISDN can give the originating switch the entire number "en bloc", and SS7 would save some time). In the USA, a similar problem occurs when "overlap MF" outpulsing is used to access an Interexchange Carrier (IXC). To save post-dial delay time, the call begins routing to the IXC when there are 4 more digits yet to dial -- on average, the dialing time is about the time needed to seize circuits to the IXC and outpulse ANI information. The actual dialed digits are not sent until the last four been collected. This is an attempt to balance the extra holding time of circuits with the desire to reduce the delay after dialing caused by the amount of data signaled by MF. With SS7 in the USA, there is no need for "overlap" outpulsing. NPAs and NXXs of nearby NPAs are screened for validity as they are dialed, but the call is not sent outside the originating switch until all digits have been dialed. Al Varney ------------------------------ From: Rob Morgenstern Subject: Call for Vocoders For Testing Reannouncement Date: 6 Oct 1995 16:38:03 GMT Organization: The MITRE Corp. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in cooperation with the International Civil Aviation Organization's Aeronautical Mobile Communications Panel is soliciting vocoder manufacturers to evaluate current technology for application to air traffic control communications. Following is the text published in the Commerce Business Daily by the FAA Technical Center. This information is being posted to TELECOM Digest in hopes of expanding the coverage of this information. VOICE DIGITIZING EQUIPMENT FOR EVALUATION OF APPLICABILITY TO AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL APPLICATIONS POC Anthony (Buzz) Cerino, (609) 485-5640. Alternate Contacts: John Petro (609) 485-5436, Ed Coleman (609) 485-4592. It is the intent of the FAA to evaluate technology in the area of voice coding equipment to determine applicability for use in national and 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 will be evaluated within a standardized test bed. For specifications and information on the standardized test bed please contact the above contact points. Equipment not meeting the following requirements shall not be tested further: a) Maximum bit rate of 4800 bps (including all FEC); b) Maximum back-to-back delay of 80 msec; back-to-back delay less than 80 msec is desired back-to-back delay measured from analog input of test bed to analog output of test bed through the correlation of voice waveforms; c) An integer number of Vocoder frames shall be equal to 120 msec; d) Operate in a half duplex push to talk (PTT) mode; e) Equipment provided must interface with the standardized test bed setup; The encoder and decoder shall be two separate units; RS422 into and out of the encoder; RS422 into and out of the decoder; Obtain a copy of test bed specifications from above contacts; f) Duplicates of submitted equipment must be available for testing by multiple international sources (at reasonable cost). The following performance criteria shall apply: a) Good voice quality maintained down to a BER of 1x10-3; b) Intelligibility should be maintained down to a BER of 2x10-2; c) Intelligibility maintained at a maximum bit rate of 4000 bps or less (including all FEC) for special operations; d) Voice quality performance in high level background noise environments; e) Voice quality performance in tandem with other digital voice techniques; f) Voice quality performance using speakers of multiple languages. All submissions must include or shall not be tested: 1. Complete documentation on system operation; 2. Company policy regarding algorithm licensing; 3. Disclosure plans for international standardization and manufacturing. 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 submitted no later than January 12, 1996, after which no updates in software or hardware will be considered. All equipment/documentation will be returned following completion of the evaluation. Any questions regarding this CBD should be submitted in writing to Mr. Cerino via FAX@(609) 485-7336. (0102) FAA Technical Center, Contracts section, ACT-131, Atlantic City International Airport, NJ [08405] Robert Morgenstern rmorgens@mitre.org Center for Advanced Aviation System Development ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 09:29:39 -0600 From: gettings@econnect.net (Chris Gettings) Subject: Re: Broad Computer Telephony Patent Sweep! I did not see the article however, I do know of a company which had some patents on telephone keypad dialing sequences. Believe it or not, this guy had a patent on certain methods of entering alphanumeric characters with the standard 12 button keypad. These included striking the "2" key three times to enter a "C" and some other "techniques." I was very suprised that he was granted patents some time in the 70s since the very presence of three letters on each key anticipates some way of using them in data entry. If anyone held a patent I was sure that it would be Bell Labs, Western Electric or another early telco. However, apparently this small company was apparently able to obtain and uphold some rights to this technique. They have reportedly been successful at obtaining HUGE royalties and settlements from a number of large companies which make fax machines since this technique is often used to enter the fax transmission header which prints out on the top of the fax. (Seeking royalties and settlements is all they do!) I am trying to find the literature I was given by an executive of the company and I will post more info. I am very interested in other info on the RAKTLP too, although I think it is a different group. Chris Gettings, Lead Lunatic gettings@econnect.net www.econnect.net ------------------------------ From: slichte@cello.gina.calstate.edu (Steven Lichter) Subject: Re: California Telecom Bill Lowers Cost For Residents Date: 6 Oct 1995 08:43:44 -0700 Organization: GINA and CORE+ Services of The California State University cg_asso@ix.netcom.com (Gary D. Hodge ) writes: > In California, phone bills have dropped. With the announcement that > rates, such as IntraLATA, Intrastate/InterLATA, and even Interstate, > were lowered by 15 to 20 percent. I couldn't believe eyes when my > phone bill showed a 20 percent drop. I really thought my flat rate was > good before, but now, wow !!! > As far as I know, this is only applicable through certain carriers, > but, watch out for those that can't guarantee rates of six cents/minute. Your Intra and Interlata rates may have dropped, but you now pay about 20% more for you basic phones monthly rates, plus the taxes have increased, so unless you make a lot of toll calls you bill will have increased and will continue to do so. Also when next year comes around and you can pick your own local dial tone you can expect more of an increase, more so if you pick another carrier other then the basic phone company you have now. Unless they have their own equipment they will have to resell your local carrier's trunks or another one that has trunking and that will also require that a service fee will be paid to the local carrier for using their facilities. In the long run only large customers will save money and they already have those options. The above are my ideas and have nothing to do with whoever my employer is. SysOp Apple Elite II and OggNet Hub (909)359-5338 2400/14.4 24 hours, Home of GBBS/LLUCE Support for the Apple II. slichte@cello.gina.calstate.edu ------------------------------ From: bkron@netcom.com (Krusty Robinson) Subject: Caller ID Expansion Stalled Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 06:45:26 GMT ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Southwestern Bell on Thursday yanked a plan to sell detailed information about people to the businesses they call after criticism it was a threat to customers' privacy. The service would have given businesses the names, telephone numbers and addresses of callers, along with demographic information compiled by Equifax Inc., a national credit reporting and information service. But the phone company withdrew its proposal for the Caller Intellidata after Missouri Public Counsel Martha Hogerty persuaded utility regulators to put it on hold and schedule a public hearing for Nov. 16. "We want to take more time to insure that Missouri regulators have a comprehensive understanding of the parameters of the proposed service," said Terry Freeman, Bell's area manager of product management. Southwestern Bell may again seek approval for the program later this year or in early 1996, Freeman said. "Consumers should not be forced to become statistics in a marketing study merely by placing a telephone call," Hogerty said. She called the service an abuse of the company's local telephone monopoly and said it "smacks of Big Brother." Bell wanted to sell businesses monthly reports about their callers. The reports would include the date and time of each call, the caller's name, telephone number, street address, city, state, nine-digit zip code and whether the number is a residence or business. Bell would get that information from its own computerized files. The company also would give businesses a statistical profile of their customers as a group, using demographic information from Equifax, Hogerty said. The information would include income, lifestyle, education, neighborhood and other information from census reports. Bell maintained the demographic information cannot be tied to a specific caller. The profiles are for general areas, such as zip codes or census tracts, and not for individuals. Bell already offers the service in Wichita and Topeka in Kansas and in Houston and Austin in Texas. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 12:47:03 +0000 From: manoj bhatia Subject: CT Applications - Pricing Policy Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada To all the Computer Telephony (CT) application developers, I have some queries on pricing policies of the CT app gen companies in the market (like Stylus,Parity, Technically Speaking, Apex etc). 1) Why are some of these vendors charging run-time fees on the application developer toolkit they offer, while some are not? Is it a question of pure volume of sales or is it something else? 2) What is the relation between the number of lines supported for an application (say voice mail)and the number of ports of a typical Dialogic card (say 2port , 4 port or T1/E1) supports? e.g. How far a typical voice mail application software (the app-gen and the source code) gets affected by the number of ports that the card supports? Thanks in advance, manoj ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #422 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa15598; 6 Oct 95 23:58 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA09390 for telecomlist-outbound; Fri, 6 Oct 1995 16:22:38 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA09380; Fri, 6 Oct 1995 16:22:35 -0500 Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 16:22:35 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510062122.QAA09380@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #423 TELECOM Digest Fri, 6 Oct 95 16:22:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 423 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: The Irony of the AT&T Breakup (Garrett A. Wollman) Re: Area Code Split Dates (Richard Eyre-Eagles) Re: Area Code Split Dates (Craig Milo Rogers) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (lchism@mcs.com) Re: Canadian Calling Cards in US (Tony Harminc) Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes (Gabe Wiener) Re: Will NA Caller ID Boxes Work in Europe? (Claes Gussing) Re: Need Information on 1A2 System Using "Regular Phones" (Dave Levenson) Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! (Robert Ricketts) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: wollman@ginger.lcs.mit.edu (Garrett A. Wollman) Subject: Re: The Irony of the AT&T Breakup Date: 6 Oct 1995 15:34:54 GMT Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science In article , Marvin Vis wrote: > Regarding the breakup, has anyone speculated about the driving forces > behind the move? Of course, there are the factors that AT&T has presented > as their motivations (those of speed/responsiveness, targeted stock, etc.), > but has anyone tried to think of other reasons? I think it's pretty clear, actually, what the driving forces are. Consider the following facts: 1) AT&T is the RBOCs' principal supplier of switches and related equipment. 2) AT&T is also a large long-distance company. 3) The RBOCs want to compete with AT&T in the LD market. 4) AT&T wants to compete with the RBOCs in the LEC market. 5) NCR has been a money sink since AT&T bought it. I'd say the writing has been on the wall for some time now ... Garrett A. Wollman wollman@lcs.mit.edu ------------------------------ From: rec@goodnet.com (Richard Eyre-Eagles) Subject: Re: Area Code Split Dates Organization: GoodNet Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 09:30:24 -0400 <> (not snip!, I'll explain later) > The 213 NPA is entirely contained inside the LA City Limits. The > others are partly (or mostly) outside the LA {City Limits, County, > LATA}. They are included if any part is included inside the respective > boundaries. Wrong ... according to my maps, the following municipalities are in the 213 area code: City of Los Angeles City of West Hollywood City of Glendale (less than 10 streets) City of South Pasadena City of Beverly Hills (about a 1 sqare mile area) City of Culver City (3 streets) City of Monterey Park City of Montebello (virtually the entire city) City of Vernon City of Highland Park City of Maywood City of Commerce City of Inglewood (portions) City of Lynwood (small part) City of Hawthorne (east of Crenshaw, north of El Segundo) > Finally, note that including 520 in the LA LATA is not a typo (Yes, > that is the 520 that covers western Arizona after the 602/520 split). > Yes, these codes are in Arizona. The LATA line, however, crosses over > the state line to included 9 exchanges in western Arizona. Wierd. > (Actually, until the permissive period for the 602/520 split ends, a > purist would claim that there are 9 codes in LATA 730, but thats would > just be picking nits...). Unless they changed it, there is one exchange (Winterhaven, CA) in area code 619 that is in the PHOENIX LATA (666) due to its closeness to Yuma, AZ. I think it is the Blythe, CA central office ... which is a Contel exchange, has both a 619 and a 602 code in the same switch. Richard Eyre-Eagles, KJ7MU Tempe, Arizona ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 13:09:26 -0700 From: rogers@ISI.EDU (Craig Milo Rogers) Subject: Re: Area Code Split Dates Organization: USC Information Sciences Institute In article dsewell@helium.gas.uug.arizona. edu (David R Sewell) writes: > In article , Linc Madison com> wrote: >> NEW OLD START FINAL ST Place/Comment >> -- --- ----- ----- -- ------------------------------------------- >> 520 602 03/19/95 10/21/95 AZ Tucson, Flagstaff, Yuma (all but Phoenix) > After Tucson businesses (mostly) raised hell about problems inbound > calls have had under the new code, the Arizona Corporation Commission > just mandated *much* looser final deadlines: 31 December 1996 for > Tucson, 30 June 1996 for other affected areas. Prescott keeps getting left off the list! According to the Friday, 22 Sep 1995 edition of the {Sierra Vista Herald}: 21-Oct-1995 Permissive dialing ends except in Falgstaff, Yuma, Prescott, and Tucson. 30-Jun-1996 Permissive dialing ends in Flagstaff, Yuma, and Prescott. 31-Dec-1996 Permissive dialing ends in Tucson. The article said that, according to Jack Ott, numbering adminstrator for US West, phasing out permissive dialing by prefixes hasn't ever been tried before. "The potential is high for a real mess." Craig Milo Rogers ------------------------------ From: lchism@mcs.com Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Date: Fri, 06 Oct 1995 05:59:45 GMT Organization: MCSNet Internet Services John R Levine wrote: > The other two pieces, the one that builds equipment and > the one that sells computers, remain unnamed. Clearly, this is a job Since mean ol' Uncle Scrooge is no longer with us, how 'bout Huey, Lewy, and Dewy? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Some of their competitors are hoping it will turn out more like Moe, Curley and Larry of The Three Stooges. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 06 Oct 95 14:39:29 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: Canadian Calling Cards in US Mark J. Cuccia wrote: > Using Canada Direct's 1-800-555-1111 will help Canadians travelling in > the US to avoid many of the problems of COCOTS (private payphones) and > their AOSlime operator 'services', if those AOSlimes 'accept' Canadian > issued calling cards. But since many of these AOSlimers might not > have billing agreements with the local Canadian telcos, they probably > don't 'accept' valid Canadian cards. The best situation is when the AOSlime *does* accept Canadian cards, but does *not* have a billing arrangement with Canadian telcos. It has happened. :-) > BTW, I dialed 1-800-555-1111. It only allows you to enter *CANADIAN* > destination ten-digit numbers. It rejected any attempts of > (continental) US numbers. I don't know if this may change in the > future, but I didn't even try to enter a Canadian number, followed by > my AT&T and SCBell card numbers, since they would most likely be > rejected. I called 800 555-1111 from here (905) and got "bing-bing-bing Welcome to Bell Long Distance / Bienvenu a l'Interurbain Bell". The s were little hesitations, leading me to think that they tailor the greeting to the caller's location. I was prompted for the destination number and keyed in 504 865-5954. Prompted for calling card number, and I keyed my valid Bell Canada issued number. The message then said "please hold for operator assistance". Ringing, then - "What the?! ... uh, Bell Canada - how may I help you?" The operator was completely flumoxed by how my call was presented on her screen. She was friendly and we chatted a bit - the call showed up in some format she had never seen, evidently flagged as a Canada Direct call, but with calling and destination numbers listed in a funny way. She wanted me to hold while she got her supervisor to come and look at the display, but I didn't want to wait that long just then. It wasn't clear if she could advance the call. She was in Montreal, btw. The other thing of note was how incredibly slow the automated system was. Every stage took at least five, and some closer to ten seconds. Normal calling card validations go through in one or two seconds at most. Tony Harminc ------------------------------ From: gabe@panix.com (Gabe Wiener) Subject: Re: Pole Mounted City Fire Alarm Boxes Date: 06 Oct 1995 12:53:33 -0400 Organization: Panix In article , Peter Laws wrote: > Before radios were common, the deputy/battalion/district chief's aide > had a handset with which he could communicate by voice to Fire Alarm. > There was a jack in the box for this purpose. Before that, some > systems had manual keys that the aide could use to transmit higher > alarms, all outs, etc. When I was a kid in the 1970s, my parents bought me an antique New York City telegraph fire-alarm box which I still have. It has an elaborate clockwork mechanism which transmitted the telegraph pulses, as well as a manual telegraph key, and a regular 19th-century-style telegraph sounder! I've been looking for a date on the thing, but haven't come across one in 20+ years of scrutinizing it. I wish there were a reference book in which one could find info on such boxes. In the 1970s, New York had mechanical boxes which were not entirely dissimilar from the one I have. About 1975, they replaced them all with two-way voice units which can ring either fire or police depending on which button you press. There have been many times where the city has tried to take the system out of service, but they have all failed. So even though we have full 911, the alarm boxes are still found on many street corners. I hear that the city General Svcs office sells the old boxes still, and one day I'll take a trip to the middle of nowhere and see if they have any in their disposal lot. Gabe Wiener Dir., Quintessential Sound, Inc. |"I am terrified at the thought Recording-Mastering-Restoration (212)586-4200 | that so much hideous and bad PGM Early Music Recordings ---> (800)997-1750 | music may be put on records gabe@panix.com http://www.panix.com/~gabe | forever." --Sir Arthur Sullivan ------------------------------ From: Claes Gussing Subject: Re: Will NA Caller ID Boxes Work in Europe? Date: 06 Oct 1995 08:54:00 GMT Organization: Ericsson wrote: > My friend's family (in Poland) were watching a local TV program that > mentioned the fact that calling line id was available in the area > (Warsaw). They would like to know if the calling id boxes that we can > buy here (I'm in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area) would work if they > were sent there? > I thinking that they wouldn't unless the local CO was obviously offering > this service to the public and the boxes were compatible standard-wise > between here and Europe. Does Poland also run on 210/220 VAC electricity? > Is a converter of some sort required? Also, do they use the RJ-11/12/45 > standards for cabling that we do? I know it would not work in Sweden anyway. Here they send a sequence of DTMF-signals prior to the first ring-signal. I beleive that in North America the caller-ID is implemented such that something similar to a modem-connection is established and then the info is transferred. Yes, they have 230 VAC/50 Hz in Poland. Claes etxguss@tnssupport.ericsson.se ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Need Information on 1A2 System Using "Regular Phones" Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Fri, 06 Oct 1995 10:28:28 GMT Les Fairall (les@jaguNET.com) writes: > I have an 1A2 system with several "single line" phones attached to it. You don't say what kind of single line phones are attached. If they're Western Electric 500 or 2500 sets, they are designed for this eventuality. There is a wiring option within the set which provides A-lead control on the black/yellow pair in the mounting cord. The modification consists of using one of the contact sets in the switchhook to connect A and A1 when off-hook. If this is what you need, I may be able to find the ancient Bell System Practice document which describes what wires to move within the set to accomplish this modification. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: uunet!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ From: Robert Ricketts Subject: Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! Organization: Panhandle Eastern Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 16:23:09 GMT [blurb about unauthorized slamming deleted] > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This comes up here frequently. You should > pay WilTel the amount you expected to pay your regular carrier. You have > to pay *something* since you did make the calls expecting (I assume!) to > pay for them. Unless you can prove the change was made deliberatly in a > fraudulent way, there is probably nothing more you should do. PAT] I'm unsure quite how this works. If I receive a package addressed and delivered to me (e.g. not delivered to the wrong person) that I did not order, I believe I have the right to keep it without paying for it even if billed at a later time. (An obvious exception is the negative option refusal method used by record and book clubs. But with those, the negative option refusal is part of the contract you agree to.) In the case of long distance, if I'm slammed to a different LD provider (e.g. no consent) then why should I have to pay? PAT is correct in saying that I should expect to pay for the calls -- and I do expect to pay. But I expect to pay company X for those calls, not company Y who slammed me. Changing LD carriers should require a signed authorization, or a PIN. (The PIN would be spoken to the LEC who would then flag the account as authorized to be switched to company Y) If I subscribe to the {Houston Post} (ex-local newspaper), then I'm certainly not going to pay the {Houston Chronicle} if they toss their paper on my lawn for a month without my consent. (Sadly, the {Houston Post} is now defunct -- after being in business 100+ years.) If users were relieved of having to pay toll charges to companies who slam to get customers, then slamming would slow way way down. A bill insert could explain this to users, making sure everybody knows their rights. !cheers Robert K. Ricketts rkr@pel.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you pick up the paper which was tossed in your yard and read it on a regular basis without attempting to mitigate the newspaper's loss in delivering to you in error, then you may be in fact responsible for payment, and it could be said that you have unlawfully enriched yourself at the newspaper's expense. Regards packages delivered which you did not order, it all depends on if there was *some basis for the company to have sent the package out to start with*. If they can produce an order form from *someone* then that will serve to show their good faith in having shipped the merchandise. Maybe they got the name and/or address wrong, or perhaps as a joke someone filled in a coupon with your name and address on it. Once again, you have an obligation under the law to mitigate the losses to the company. You may not unlawfully enrich yourself. The rule about not having to pay for (or return) merchandise which comes unsolicited to you in the mail only applies when there was no basis of any kind for it to be sent out. That law was written a number of years ago for a specific reason: some sleazy companies were taking advantage of the greiving families of dead people. In the one widely publicized case, a company was scanning the obituary notices each day looking to see who had passed away. They were then imprinting a message in gold on the front of a large 'Family Bible' saying 'to my loving family from (deceased person's name)'. They then sent it out with an inflated invoice shipped to the deceased person. The family would receive the Bible and the invoice in the mail a few days later with a note on the invoice saying 'here is the lovely Bible you ordered for your family.' Naturally the relatives would assume old Granddad or Grandma 'must have ordered it before they passed away'. They'd see the lovely pictures in the Bible along with the big section in the middle for the recording of 'family tree' information, marriage and death records, etc ... and to honor their deceased family member and see to it that (s)he did not leave any unpaid bills behind, the family would send the money to the company, never even questioning whether or not the purchase was legitimate. All they thought about, at that time of mourning, was they wanted to do the right thing for their parent who had passed away, etc. 'Obviously' the deceased person had intended this as a gift for the family and the children or widow or whoever wanted to do 'the right thing'. When the scam got publicized, several million of those Family Bibles had been shipped out by the lowlife scum responsible for the fraud, and several million inflated invoices had also been paid. The Congress of the United States -- not ordinarily a body that sets much of a moral or ethical standard for the rest of us -- itself got quite nauseated by that one, and passed the 'no payment required for unsolicited merchandise rule'. They passed it to protect -- let's be frank -- honest and well- meaning, but poorly educated Americans who had been defrauded at a time in their life when they were already greiving because of a loss. That's how that rule came to be passed back in the 1950's; not so that people today could stiff a long distance carrier out of a few dollars due to a clerical error made somewhere. The rule is, if there is/was *any basis* for the action to take place (signed order, phone call from someone, etc) and the company acted in good faith, then you are *not* permitted to benefit from the error the company made. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #423 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa22170; 9 Oct 95 22:34 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA23038 for telecomlist-outbound; Mon, 9 Oct 1995 09:12:42 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA23030; Mon, 9 Oct 1995 09:12:39 -0500 Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 09:12:39 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510091412.JAA23030@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #424 TELECOM Digest Mon, 9 Oct 95 09:12:30 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 424 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Krusty Robinson) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Clarence Dold) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Stan Schwartz) Re: Where Do They Get Precise Time Information? (Joseph Singer) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Dale Robinson) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Damon Kelly) Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! (Mark Gabriele) Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! (Clarence Dold) 602/520 Split (Richard P. Nickum) Calling Card Billing (Ole J. Jacobsen) Slick Unit For POTS (Jason Philbrook) Dealing With Bell Atlantic re Line Noise (Ken Bass) Bell Name Change (Stan Schwartz) Economist Article on Telecom (Tony Harminc) Old Telco Question (Stan Schwartz) Re: Keeping NPA/NXX Separate (Richard Eyre-Eagles) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: bkron@netcom.com (Krusty Robinson) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 00:52:30 GMT >> I have a question. Where does telco obtain their time signal from to >> synchronize their clocks and equipment. >> There are two sources of standardized time information in the USA. These >> are the US Naval Observatory in Washington, DC and the National Bureau of >> Standards in Boulder, Colorado. >> Using your computer's communication program and a modem set to 1200 baud, >> you can get a dislay on your computer screen showing the correct time by >> calling USNO at 202-653-0351 or NBS at 303-494-4774. You can also pick up the time signals on shortwave radio from Boulder and Hawaii on 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz. You will hear second ticks with a voice time announcement between :50 and :00. Their signals also serve as a frequency standard. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Since WWV and WWNH can frequently both be heard in many parts of the central and western United States, there is an interesting method for keeping the voice messages separate. The tone signals and ticks are heard at the same time, but the tone discontinues at the fifty second mark with only the ticks in the background. The recorded message from WWVH in Hawaii is heard first (a woman's voice) and the time announcement for WWV in Boulder follows immediatly. That is done so that the people who hear both at the same time don't heat the two voices at the same time. She gets five seconds then he gets five seconds. At the top of the minute, a signal tone and then the frequency tone begins again. During certain minutes of the hour, there is no frequency tone and other reports are given instead such as atmospheric conditions. A certain number of minutes in each hour are given over to WWV and a certain number are given over to WWVH. During the minutes when there is a message being spoken by either one, the other one silences its frequency tone as well. Its a fun thing to listen to but I would not want to listen all day. A similar service exists in Canada called Radio Station CHU. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Clarence Dold Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 9 Oct 1995 02:10:29 GMT Organization: a2i network Jeffrey Yee (jyee@unixg.ubc.ca) wrote: > I have a question. Where does telco obtain their time signal from to > synchronize their clocks and equipment. I was in a CO one time when i Available from OAK.Oakland.EDU 141.210.10.117 Directory SimTel/msdos/clock/ usnotime.zip B 2173 870822 Set your system clock to US Naval Obsv. time There is also a version for UNIX... Clarence A Dold - dold@rahul.net - Pope Valley & Napa CA. ------------------------------ From: Stan Schwartz Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information Date: Sun, 8 Oct 1995 19:32:34 -0400 In TELECOM Digest #419, TELECOM Digest Editor' wrote: > Actually what happens when you use the most recent version 1.6 of > AOL software I assume you're using a Mac (for shame!) because the most recent version of AOL for Windows is 2.5. > If you think fifty cents is too much to pay (or you > are like me and wonder why you should have to pay for it at all) then you > can dial 202-653-1800, which is what the 900 number translates to. You can also call 303-499-7111 for the same thing. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am not using Mac. I am using a DOS based machine; an old 386 I have here. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Oct 1995 17:47:19 -0700 From: jsinger@scn.org (Joseph Singer) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise Time Information? Reply-To: jsinger@scn.org jyee@unixg.ubc.ca (Jeffrey Yee) writes: > I have a question. Where does telco obtain their time signal from to > synchronize their clocks and equipment. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: > For a good time, call 900-410-TIME at just fifty cents per call. If > you think fifty cents is too much to pay (or you are like me and > wonder why you should have to pay for it at all) then you can dial > 202-653-1800, which is what the 900 number translates to. Sorry Pat, but this is not quite correct. 910-410-TIME translates to 303-499-7111. It's the WWV number. The 202 number you mentioned is the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, DC. If you'll dial all three numbers you'll find that the 303 number is the same as the 900 number. JOSEPH SINGER SEATTLE, WASHINGTON USA jsinger@scn.org ------------------------------ From: Dale.Robinson@DWNPLAZA.NCOM.nt.gov.au Date: Mon, 09 Oct 1995 06:24:53 +0930 Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Jeffrey Yee wrote, amongst other things: > Is there a national reference that all telcos go by? Is it a satellite > signal, radio signal, or what? IF so Where is it and is there only one? Pat Townson replied: > Using your computer's communication program and a modem set to 1200 baud, > you can get a dislay on your computer screen showing the correct time by > calling USNO at 202-653-0351 or NBS at 303-494-4774. I shall stifle my > desire at this time to discuss the old (defunct for almost thirty years) > Western Union Time Service, which got its feed from USNAVOB. PAT] Or using the technology of the internet, visit the USNO web page at: http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/time.html Which has lots of info about time! :-) The phone number you mentioned Pat is/has changed from 202-653-0351 to 202-762-1594. I often wonder why, that with all this technology on my desk, I still ONLY get the same amount of work done??? Regards, Dale ------------------------------ From: damon@umbc.edu (Mr. Damon Kelly) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 8 Oct 1995 19:12:57 -0400 Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County In article , John Thompson wrote: > (I did try to telnet to 'tick', but got nowhere). Connect to port 13 next time. I like the information provided by the World Wide Web. All the mysteries and incantations of sync-ing your system clock with USNO's equipment can be found here. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: ... > Is there also a DOS version of this that you are aware of? PAT] I suppose that there are NTP daemons you can run on DOS boxes connected to the Internet. -d [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Trying socket 13 did work correctly. Henceforth anyone interested do it this way: telnet tick.usno.navy.mil 13 The '13' on the end means you want to telnet to socket 13 on that machine. When you do, watch the interesting display on your screen once it connects. PAT] ------------------------------ From: gabriele@rand.org (Mark Gabriele) Subject: Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! Date: Sun, 08 Oct 1995 17:23:43 -0800 Organization: RAND Patrick Townson wrote: > ...That's how that rule came to be passed back in the 1950's; not so that > people today could stiff a long distance carrier out of a few dollars due > to a clerical error made somewhere. The rule is, if there is/was *any > basis* for the action to take place (signed order, phone call from someone, > etc) and the company acted in good faith, then you are *not* permitted > to benefit from the error the company made. PAT] Right, but the point here is that "slamming" is NOT an act made in good faith. It is a fraudulent action taken by a disreputable sales representative. When I have been slammed by a company (it was a reseller called "Cherry Communications"), I was called by a telemarketer who asked if I wanted to switch to them. I responded: "Not only no, but hell no." (This is an exact quote; after I said "no" the first time and the saleslime tried again, I repeated it twice. I was otherwise pleasant in my demeanor and tone of voice.) A month later, my bill came from Cherry Communications. It was for a LOT more than I had figured the calls would cost with my real carrier (then MCI). That's fraud, and it's wrong. I did wind up paying (I think) just about what MCI with all of the various discounts would have cost for those calls, as I refused to pay their inflated charges (although it was quite difficult to try and figure out exactly *what* all the discounts were supposed to be). This cost several hours of my time, and I was NOT happy about a company whose representatives acted in bad faith to defraud me being enriched thereby in ANY amount, even though it was less than they had tried to charge me. "Clerical errors" are probably not the cause of most "slams". Perhaps the best way to deal with this is to have the telemarketers eat the charges for "slam-refusal" telephone services; this would provide a disincentive that might actually curtail these irritations. Mark Gabriele (PGP public key available upon request) gabriele@rand.org ------------------------------ From: Clarence Dold Subject: Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! Date: 9 Oct 1995 02:16:45 GMT Organization: a2i network Robert Ricketts (rkr@pel.com) wrote: > I'm unsure quite how this works. If I receive a package addressed and > delivered to me (e.g. not delivered to the wrong person) that I did > not order, I believe I have the right to keep it without paying for it > even if billed at a later time. (An obvious exception is the negative > option refusal method used by record and book clubs. But with those, > the negative option refusal is part of the contract you agree to.) But you _did_ order the package (place the phone call). You're upset that it didn't come from the company that you ordered it from, but they might be a supplier to a clearing house that you don't know. If your carrier-of-choice is a switchless reseller, he might carry your traffic on Wiltel. If he fails, or Wiltel fails, to update their ANI-table, they will handle you as a casual caller, and send out a bill. Regardless of how it happened, including malicious slamming, _you_ placed the phone calls. Why should they be free? Clarence A Dold - dold@rahul.net - Pope Valley & Napa CA. ------------------------------ From: rpn2@pge.com (Richard P. Nickum) Subject: 602/520 Split Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 16:06:12 Organization: Pacific Gas & Electric Co. In article rogers@ISI.EDU (Craig Milo Rogers) writes: > Subject: Re: Area Code Split Dates > In article dsewell@helium.gas.uug.arizona. > edu (David R Sewell) writes: >> In article , Linc Madison > com> wrote: >>> NEW OLD START FINAL ST Place/Comment >>> -- --- ----- ----- -- ------------------------------------------- >>> 520 602 03/19/95 10/21/95 AZ Tucson, Flagstaff, Yuma (all but Phoenix) >> After Tucson businesses (mostly) raised hell about problems inbound >> calls have had under the new code, the Arizona Corporation Commission >> just mandated *much* looser final deadlines: 31 December 1996 for >> Tucson, 30 June 1996 for other affected areas. > Prescott keeps getting left off the list! According to the > Friday, 22 Sep 1995 edition of the {Sierra Vista Herald}: > 21-Oct-1995 Permissive dialing ends except in Falgstaff, Yuma, > Prescott, and Tucson. > 30-Jun-1996 Permissive dialing ends in Flagstaff, Yuma, and Prescott. > 31-Dec-1996 Permissive dialing ends in Tucson. > The article said that, according to Jack Ott, numbering > adminstrator for US West, phasing out permissive dialing by prefixes > hasn't ever been tried before. "The potential is high for a real > mess." Note that as of now, I still have been unable to call numbers in Yuma or in Tucson Arizona from northern California (San Francisco, or Suisun City) using the 520 area code (on ATT) I am continuing to use 602. Has anyone else noticed this? On an unrelated note, it was great to see Ehud on the list, that is a name from my distant past days at the good old University of Arizona - and the "Mosiac" house on Speedway blvd. Richard Nickum Price Waterhouse ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 8 Oct 95 17:32:07 PDT From: Ole J. Jacobsen Subject: Calling Card billing Something happened today which had my blood boiling. I received a bill from Pac*Bell demanding immediate payment of my long distance balance since this had exceeded their idea of "normal". All the calls were made on my AT&T calling card while travelling in France and England, it is pure coincidence that I am now home and received the bill. It is due on October 11, 5 days from now, two of those days are weekend days. I called and complained and the payment people at Pac*Bell apologized stating that I had been a long time good customer and this letter should not have been sent out. However, I did some further investigation and discovered that Pac*Bell sets a credit limit which they pass on to AT&T and it is AT&T which triggers the "pay now or else" letter which is issued by Pac*Bell. It comes with a nice little note which says it will only cost $20 to have service restored, but by the way they want a deposit of $2555.00 (that's right two-and-a-half THOUSAND dollars!). Since this letter was obviously triggered automatically I have two options to avoid this hassle in the future: 1. Negotiate a higher limit with Pac*Bell; 2. Switch to direct billing from AT&T and set my own limit with them (they don't insist on any limit ["we want your money"], but it is probably a good idea to have the calling card self-destruct at a preset limit in case of fraud.) The customer service rep with AT&T promised to pass on my comments regarding how silly this mechanism is. If AT&T is concerned about my long distance spending habits while I am on the road, they should invalidate my card and say "please call us" instead of triggering possible disconnection of local phone service back home. All involved parties seem to agree that this is nonsense, we shall see if it gets fixed. Ole J Jacobsen, Editor & Publisher, ConneXions--The Interoperability Report, Interop Company, a division of SOFTBANK Expos, 303 Vintage Park Drive, Foster City, CA 94404-1138, USA. Ph: +1 (415) 578-6988 Fax: +1 (415) 525-0194. ------------------------------ From: Jason Philbrook Subject: Slick Unit for POTS Date: 9 Oct 1995 01:12:53 GMT Organization: Midcoast Internet Solutions My phone company (Nynex) is thinking about putting a slick unit in my basement. A slick unit takes in several T1's and puts out close to a hundred POTS lines. I run an ISP in Maine. I've investigated different options, and since Nynex is paying for this, It's a better deal than a channel bank as far as we are concerned. The other option would be to buy a channel bank and what Nynex calls a FlexPath T1. This figured to be about $80/line/month. Ouch. So the Slick is looking pretty good at $34/line/month. There are two type of Slicks and I'm interested in hearing what other people's experiences are with them. Nynex voiced concern (who woulda thought?) that some slicks might not be able to support full speed 28.8 connects,something of extreme importance for an ISP. One type is a "Universal Slick" which will allow DDS2 as well -- something I won't be needing much more of with the recent arrival of Frame Relay. The other type is just a "Slick" I guess. It does not incorporate DDS2 capabilities, but it can only handle 60-somthing of the 96 lines it carries simultaneously. Works great with modems. Nynex says another ISP in Clinton Mass had trouble with a slick unit. They also use slick units on the side of the road in remote locations to extend POTS far beyond the normal range of the CO, such as rural areas. These people use modems just fine. Of course Maybe the slick in clinton was improperly installed and tuned, but I don't have too much confidence when Nynex tells me these things. Thanks for any comments! Jason Philbrook jp@midcoast.com ------------------------------ From: kbass@clark.net (Ken Bass) Subject: Dealing With Bell Atlantic re Line Noise Date: 8 Oct 1995 19:47:19 -0400 Organization: Clark Internet Services, Inc., Ellicott City, MD USA Does anyone have PERSONAL experience dealing with Bell Atlantic to resolve problems with a noisy phone line? I can just barely get 14400 bps. I just upgrade to a 28.8k modem and it is hell. I ordered a second phone line, but it is just as bad. To eliminate concerns about inside wiring (my house is only two years old), I moved my computer very close to my basement window, ran a wire outside and directly into the network interface. (Having disconnects all wire into the house.) Still problems. So I bought Shielded Twisted Pair and ran that from the box to a jack in the basement. Same problem. My modem (Zyxel Elite 2864) has a mode which reports S/N ratio and RX level. On these poor connections I got between 13-20db SNR and -33dB receive level. Does anyone know what the standards are? The levels seem to fluctuate a lot. When it rains it seems to be worse. I believe we are served off of a SLC. But I'm not sure the distance. Any first hand experience would be appreciated. Ken ------------------------------ From: Stan Schwartz Subject: Bell Name Change Date: Sun, 8 Oct 1995 19:36:45 -0400 In TELECOM Digest #419, TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > She would respond something like, 'Southern Bell Inward, what number did > you dial? I just thought I'd take this opportunity to mention that earlier this week, the name change became official. Southern Bell and SouthWestern Bell became BellSOUTH. Even though I always thought it would be a good name for the Mexican Telephone Company, how long before Taco Bell changes its name to BellSPICY ? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 08 Oct 95 20:37:03 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Economist Article on Telecom TELECOM Digest readers may be interested in The Economist's survey of telecommunications in their September 30th, 1995 issue. Titled The Death of Distance, it discusses the rapidly approaching future world where it costs as much (as little) to call the next continent as it does to call the next house. I read the article on paper (I subscribe to this excellent newspaper), and only then noticed that they have made it available on their Web site http://www.economist.com/ . No connection/just satisfied customer/etc. Tony H. ------------------------------ From: Stan Schwartz Subject: Old Telco Question Date: Sun, 8 Oct 1995 20:50:57 -0400 I was walking in one of the yuppified sections of Uptown Charlotte today, when I noticed a person-hole cover that said "W.U.Tel.Co." Would someone care to explain if Western Union had telephone or telegraph lines buried down there, and if it was telephone -- when did they own local telcos? Stan [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It was probably an access point for Western Union Telegraph Company cables. They were never in the local telco business. Did they have a large office in Charlotte at one time or another? I do know that if you go over on LaSalle Street in in the south end of downtown Chicago I used to see a few of those mainly in the vicinity of WUTCO's large office building and wire center. PAT] ------------------------------ From: rec@goodnet.com (Richard Eyre-Eagles) Subject: Re: Keeping NPA/NXX Separate (was: New US Area Code Test Numbers) Organization: GoodNet Date: Sun, 8 Oct 1995 20:10:37 -0400 Robert McMillin (rlm@netcom.com) wrote: > beastie? How about 714-714-xxxx or 805-818-xxxx? The "So-Cal Area Code Conflict" prefixes do exist. They are used for WATS services (not diallable on a POTS line). I think there is an 818-805 and an 818-213 out of SHOKCA04. There is an 818-909 in Van Nuys/Cedros, there is POTS and DID on this prefix. It was established before the 909 NPA came in. There is also a 310-909. What's funny is that the old 213-310 was in Santa Monica and was a Centrex prefix dedicated to GTE (before all of their departments were moved to Thousand Oaks, then dissolved). But then, the 310 area code came along. GTE conveniently cancelled the 213(310)-310 prefix. There is a 562 in 213, 310 and 818. Richard Eyre-Eagles, KJ7MU Tempe, Arizona ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #424 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa02613; 10 Oct 95 20:54 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id KAA00174 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 10 Oct 1995 10:30:28 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id KAA00163; Tue, 10 Oct 1995 10:30:25 -0500 Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 10:30:25 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510101530.KAA00163@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #425 TELECOM Digest Tue, 10 Oct 95 10:30:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 425 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Atri Indiresan) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Hovig Heghinian) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Mark Malson) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Matthew Lasater) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (David Kirsch) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Wilson Mohr) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Gary D. Shapiro) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Greg Hennessy) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Pieter Jacques) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (John R. Covert) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (David Breneman) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (John N. Dreystadt) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Michael Shields) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Steven Lichter) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (John Thompson) Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! (Peter Lamasney) Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! (Linc Madison) Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! (Gordon Burditt) Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! (Chris Whittenburg) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: Mon, 09 Oct 1995 10:52:45 -0400 From: Atri Indiresan > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I telnetted to tick without > any problem (that is to stay the network was up; there were > no connectivity problems) but I had no login for it of > course. I tried FTP thinking there might be stuff in a public > directory, but tick does not allow anonymous ftp connections. > Is there also a DOS version of this that you are aware of? To get time service at this (and any other Unix computer), you need to specify socket 13. Here is the output I got: telnet tick.usno.navy.mil 13 Trying 192.5.41.40... Connected to tick.usno.navy.mil. Escape character is '^]'. US Naval Observatory Master Clock, Washington, DC Estimating network time delay for 4 seconds...delay = 20.5 ms MJD DOY UTC(USNO) (* = on-time mark, follows ASCII) 49999 282 142613 UTC * [many more deleted] 49999 282 142633 UTC * Connection closed by foreign host. [question: what is MJD?] For an ordinary machine (like mine), you would usually see the system time once, and obviously this is as accurate as my wrist watch when I last set the time! telnet crazies 13 Trying 141.213.10.74... Connected to crazies.eecs.umich.edu. Escape character is '^]'. Mon Oct 9 10:50:07 1995 Connection closed by foreign host. Regards, Atri ------------------------------ From: hovig@ai.uiuc.edu (Hovig Heghinian) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 9 Oct 1995 16:29:25 GMT Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana Reply-To: hovig@cs.uiuc.edu bkron@netcom.com (Krusty Robinson) writes: > You can also pick up the time signals on shortwave radio from Boulder > and Hawaii on 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz. You will hear second ticks > with a voice time announcement between :50 and :00. Their signals > also serve as a frequency standard. Does anyone know how to build a WWV receiver -- i.e., a self-setting clock? Isn't there a Heathkit for this type of thing? Hovig Heghinian Department of Computer Science University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh my! Are the Heathkit people still in business? I haven't heard from them in a few years, except for a couple messages from someone saying they thought Heathkit was gone. I built my very first terminal from a Heathkit back about 1980. It was essentially the Zenith Z-19, but when you put it together as a Heathkit it was called the H-19. They had a computer to go with it called the H-89. I certainly wish they were still around because it was a marvelous educational thing. Does anyone know what their status is these days? PAT] ------------------------------ From: markm@xetron.com (Mark Malson) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information Organization: Xetron Corporation Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 18:36:45 GMT In article , Stan Schwartz wrote: > In TELECOM Digest #419, TELECOM Digest Editor' wrote: >> Actually what happens when you use the most recent version 1.6 of >> AOL software > I assume you're using a Mac (for shame!) because the most recent > version of AOL for Windows is 2.5. Actually, the latest version for the Mac is 2.6. AOL mailed it to me and I didn't even have to ask. Mark Malson markm@xetron.com ------------------------------ From: aaron@zoom.com (Matthew Lasater) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: Mon, 09 Oct 1995 12:33:50 -0700 Organization: SPPPS > There is a neat little shareware Windows program out there called TimeSync. > It connects to the USNO Internet Time Server at tick.usno.navy.mil, and sets > your computer's clock to the USNO's time. It's easy to use, as long as you > know how many minutes difference you are from UTC. I'm not exactly > sure where you get it, but I'll e-mail it to anybody who asks. (I did > try to telnet to 'tick', but got nowhere). There is a similar product for Macintosh, called AutoClock. (On a Mac, of course, you don't have to tell the application where you are or whether you're on summer time or not; the system know what time it's in.) Aside from setting your clock, it will figure how fast or slow your system clock is and continuously correct for this. It takes at least two samples for the auto-compensation to be possible, and AutoClock will check with the server periodically to refine it's adjustments. I haven't set my computer's clock or had it off by more than two seconds in years. Happily using a Microsoft-free machine. ------------------------------ From: dkirsch@coolhand.East.Sun.COM (David Kirsch - SunNetworks Manager) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information Date: 9 Oct 1995 19:40:57 GMT Organization: Sun Microsystems Inc. Reply-To: dkirsch@coolhand.East.Sun.COM Actually, FWIW ... the 202 dial number for time synch is the Atomic Clock maintained at the Naval Observatory on Mass Ave. in DC. It is in the same compound as the Vice President's residence. Probably one of the best houses and grounds in the capital actually. Cheers, David K. ------------------------------ From: mohrwl@cig.mot.com (Wilson Mohr) Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 11:36:18 -0500 Subject: Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? jthompson@monmouth.com (John Thompson) writes: > There is a neat little shareware Windows program out there called TimeSync. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is there also a DOS version of this that > you are aware of? PAT] Courtesy of your local Archie server: Host wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) Last updated 05:12 18 Sep 1995 Location: /systems/ibmpc/win3/uploads FILE -rw-r--r-- 210167 bytes 03:08 7 Sep 1995 timesync.zip Wilson Mohr mohr@cig.mot.com ------------------------------ From: gshapiro@rain.org (Gary D. Shapiro) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 00:09:40 -0700 Organization: Emperor Clothing Co. In article , jthompson@monmouth.com (John Thompson) wrote: > There is a neat little shareware Windows program out there called TimeSync. > It connects to the USNO Internet Time Server at tick.usno.navy.mil, and sets > your computer's clock to the USNO's time. It's easy to use, as long as you > know how many minutes difference you are from UTC. There's even a neater little freeware Macintosh program out there called AutoClock, except that it makes a long-distance phone call. It knows about time zones, standard and daylight savings time, and sets the Macintosh clock. But what's "neater" about it is that if you use it to set the Macintosh clock again at some later date, it computes how much your computer clock drifts and from then on will make periodic adjustments. I probably found it at an info-mac mirror site. Gary D. Shapiro...on the WWW at http://www.rain.org/~gshapiro/ ------------------------------ From: gsh@clark.net (Greg Hennessy) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 10 Oct 1995 08:21:36 -0400 Organization: Clark Internet Services, Inc., Ellicott City, MD USA > The phone number you mentioned Pat is/has changed from 202-653-0351 to > 202-762-1594. The phone numbers at the US Naval Observatory have not changed as of this date. Working for, but not speaking for, the USNO, Greg Hennessy [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: After receiving that earlier message, I dialed 0351 and still got through on it; I don't know what the 1594 number is for. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jacques@physics.rutgers.edu (Pieter Jacques) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 9 Oct 1995 13:23:26 -0400 Organization: Rutgers University > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I telnetted to tick without any problem (that > is to stay the network was up; there were no connectivity problems) but I > had no login for it of course. I tried FTP thinking there might be stuff > in a public directory, but tick does not allow anonymous ftp connections. > Is there also a DOS version of this that you are aware of? PAT] You need to telnet to port 37, at which point tick will send you 4 bytes of binary information which contain the current time in a Unix internal time format. The windows program mentioned does just that, then converts the binary data and sets your PC's clock. I'm not aware of a DOS version of this, and a few minutes spent just now looking over Unix "man" pages didn't reveal the exact content of the binary data. Pieter Jacques (jacques@ruthep.rutgers.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Oct 95 19:03:09 EDT From: John R. Covert Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? All of this discussion of where _you_ can get precise time information may have nothing at all to do with the phone companies. I have evidence, in phone bills involving forwarded and/or roaming calls, that the telcos really aren't all that good about precise time info. I can show you a bill with the start time shown for the "home" portion and the "roam" portion of a call differing by _four_ minutes. The carriers were NYNEX Mobile and Bell South Mobility. john [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, they (the telco) don't care anymore about that stuff. The scandal is how far off some of them can be in their public announcements. Our local one here, giving the time and temperature is operated by Centel on 708-296-7666. You get a short little blurb about whatever telco wishes to sell you presently followed by the time, temperature and a short summary of the weather. The forecast they give is just a reasonable guess, and I think the time they announce is only a 'guesstimate' also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: david.breneman@attws.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 9 Oct 1995 02:53:03 GMT Organization: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. In article jthompson@monmouth.com (John Thompson) writes: > In article , jyee@unixg.ubc.ca (Jeffrey Yee) > wrote: > (I did try to telnet to 'tick', but got nowhere). > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I telnetted to tick without any problem (that > is to stay the network was up; there were no connectivity problems) but I > had no login for it of course. I tried FTP thinking there might be stuff > in a public directory, but tick does not allow anonymous ftp connections. > Is there also a DOS version of this that you are aware of? PAT] It's not "tick", it's "tock"! And, you telnet on port 13. viz.: > telnet tock.usno.navy.mil 13 > Trying 192.5.41.41... Connected to tock.usno.navy.mil. > Escape character is '^]'. > US Naval Observatory Master Clock, Washington, DC > Estimating network time delay for 4 seconds...delay = 55.6 ms > MJD DOY UTC(USNO) (* = on-time mark, follows ASCII) > 49999 282 023614 UTC > * > 49999 282 023615 UTC > * > 49999 282 023616 UTC > * etc ... David Breneman Unix System Administrator Mail: david.breneman@attws.com IS - Operations (Formerly: ~@mccaw.com) AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. Phone: +1-206-803-7362 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So either tick. (or) tock.usn.navy.mil will work? PAT] ------------------------------ From: johnd@mail.ic.net (John N. Dreystadt) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 9 Oct 1995 21:04:47 GMT Organization: ICNET... Your Link To The Internet... +1.313.998.0090 Reply-To: johnd@mail.ic.net If you are getting service directly from an Internet Service Provider, see if they have a time server. The Internet protocols include something for distributing time information. Sorry but I can't remember the name for sure but I think it is NTP (Network Time Protocol). Client software is available for most machines that will set the local machine's clock to the time given on a server machine. Internet Service Providers get their time from a small number of machines that get their time from USNO directly. The protocol computes round trip times and does some averaging to determine the exact time. Then your machine has the exact time. John Dreystadt [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Check out the 'date' command on a Unix machine, and read the 'date' man pages. Please note that the Unix command 'time' comes up with something totally different. PAT] ------------------------------ From: shields@tembel.org (Michael Shields) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 10 Oct 1995 00:18:54 -0000 Organization: Tembel's Hedonic Commune You might be interested in two WWW pages: is the USNO Directorate of Time, and tells you lots about official US time and how the USNO provides it to the public. points to software for time synchornization for Mac, Unix, and Windows, thought you probably shouldn't use UCLA's servers if you're off-campus. And the easy way to get time is to telnet to tick or tock on port 13. Shields. ------------------------------ From: slichte@cello.gina.calstate.edu (Steven Lichter) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 10 Oct 1995 19:43:08 -0700 Organization: GINA and CORE+ Services of The California State University We are now setting our clocks or will in the near future to GPU's (Global Positioning Satellites. I don't know where that comes from though. All system clocks are being linked now. The above are my ideas and have nothing to do with whoever my employer is. SysOp Apple Elite II and OggNet Hub (909)359-5338 2400/14.4 24 hours, Home of GBBS/LLUCE Support for the Apple II. slichte@cello.gina.calstate.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Speaking of setting clocks, we will be at that semi-annual point in a couple weeks here in the USA in which most of us will set our clocks back one hour. Where years ago it used to be done on the first Sunday in October (and the last Sunday in April in the other direction) we now do it on the first Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October, so enamored are we of the extra hours of daylight during the summer. When Wally, the clock repairman from Western Union dealt with this forty years ago when WUTCO had their Time Service operating, he said it took them two days every spring to set the clocks forward but *three* days to set them all 'backward' in the fall. In the spring they would start on the Friday before the official Sunday forward movement and go to hundreds of offices where their clocks were located. It took roughly one minute to open the case, reach in, push the hand around the dial once, close the case and leave. It did not matter if they got it *exact* -- as long as they pushed it foreward to within two minutes before or after where it should be -- since on the next hourly pulse from the master clock, the minute hand would get jerked into the correct position. The setting circuit and the clock's internal gears had a two minute tolerance for clocks which were incorrect. They would go office to office and get all the clocks on Friday for the companies which were not open on Saturday, and they would spend all day Saturday getting those which were open on weekends. In a large highrise office building, one guy would spend a couple hours getting all the clocks there, then move on to another building. They tried to get it all done on Friday and Saturday, but they sometimes had a few left overs to get on Monday. In the fall though, it was a different problem. On a WUTCO clock, you could not move the minute hand backward further than the twelve. Generally they had to move the hands *forward* 11 hours except in the few cases where they arrived for the fall setting at 58 or 59 minutes past the hour (or on the hour exactly) in which case they could get a full one hour backward ro- tation to a point 'close enough' that the master clock would handle the small difference on the next pulse. This additional time spent manually moving the clock hands added about a half day to their project, and Wally said they always had 'quite a few' to finish on Monday morning. Then they had some customers who did not want the clock changed at all. These were usually state and local governments who did not observe the federal rule on daylight savings time. For all intents and purposes, they were on the same time as everyone else; they simply refused to set their clock to the 'new' time, preferring instead to open and close their doors and conduct their business one hour earlier during the summer so they would be in synch with the rest of the community. Wally noted how one year, when quite a few of the 'Time Service guys' were on strike for some reason or another, the few who remained on the job were confronted with 'spring ahead' and they estimated it would take about a week to get all the clocks set, but at the last minute some of the strikers came in long enough to help them do that task before walking out again. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jthompson@monmouth.com (John Thompson) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 06:23:57 GMT Organization: Monmouth Internet Corporation >Is there also a DOS version of this that you are aware of? PAT] I am relatively certain that the software is only available for Windows. I found the ftp site where a copy of the software can be obtained, and didn't find any other versions. It's at ftphost.cac.washington.edu, in the directory /pub/winsock. One quick correction: I originally said that the software was shareware. I must reverse my statement to say that it is freeware, authored by Brad Greer at the University of Washington. John Thompson | 1-908-988-6520 Home Avon-by-the-Sea, NJ USA | 1-908-515-2137 Numeric pager | 1-500-265-1582 MCI 500 e-mail: jthompson@monmouth.com | 1-800-449-JOHN AT&T Toll-free pager: thompson@interpage.net | (can you tell I'm a telecom junkie?) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 12:19:46 GMT From: Peter Lamasney Subject: Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! [bunches of stuff deleted] Robert Ricketts sez: > If users were relieved of having to pay toll charges to companies who > slam to get customers, then slamming would slow way way down. Yes, "slow way way down" as in "stop altogether!" See these skid marks? and: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you pick up the paper which was tossed > in your yard and read it on a regular basis without attempting to mitigate > the newspaper's loss in delivering to you in error, then you may be in Who's to say they're doing it "in error"? Could be a promotion, for all I know, and a quite lengthy one at that. And I can't see that I have any responsibility to expend energy trying to determine the reason for the paper's regular appearance. I consume all sorts of stuff without attempting to mitigate a loss, and apparently they're happy with the situation, because they keep doing it. > That's how that rule came to be passed back in the 1950's; not so that > people today could stiff a long distance carrier out of a few dollars due > to a clerical error made somewhere. A couple of points here -- if it's _really_ only "a few dollars," what's the problem? Kiss it off and get on with your business/life. If it's _not_ a few dollars (perhaps because of the number of occurrences), then maybe you should get your act together! So long as there is no penalty for sloppy or inaccurate behavior, it will continue. The "clerical error" argument is rubbish. My pappy always said that everybody is responsible for their own errors. So if _I_ get to pay because _you_ made an error (be it "clerical," "honest mistake" or whatever), that must mean that _you_ get to pay for _my_ next error, right? The waitress makes a clerical error and writes my order down wrong ... (the disposition of the food is entirely up to them, and sometimes they just leave it). "It was a computer error" -- there's a hot one. Let's see if we can't (1) shuck the responsibility off somewhere else, (2) onto something mysterious that nobody understands anyway. Well, ok, perhaps the Data Processing Department has an appetite for the bill, then. And that must mean that you get to pay for my next computer error, right? "It was an honest mistake" -- well, no aspersions are being cast upon anyone's motives. Just agree to pay for my next honest mistake and we're home free. Pete plamasne@mail.coin.missouri.edu They felt sorry for O.J. because he was a widower. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe they felt sorry for him because he is a widower. Seen on Compuserve CB the other night: someone logged in using the handle 'Marcia Clark' who sent out a message saying, "That bastard had the nerve to call my office and ask when he could have his gloves back." Oh well ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: lincmad@netcom.com (Linc Madison) Subject: Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 16:01:40 GMT Clarence Dold (dold@rahul.net) wrote: >> I'm unsure quite how this works. If I receive a package addressed and >> delivered to me (e.g. not delivered to the wrong person) that I did >> not order, I believe I have the right to keep it without paying for it > But you _did_ order the package (place the phone call). You're upset > that it didn't come from the company that you ordered it from, but > they might be a supplier to a clearing house that you don't know. [ ... ] > Regardless of how it happened, including malicious slamming, _you_ placed > the phone calls. Why should they be free? If I order a software package from XYZ mail order, and somehow that order is fraudulently intercepted by PDQ mail order, which sends me the item I ordered and sends me a bill, it is still unordered merchandise: I did not order that merchandise FROM THAT VENDOR, and I therefore do not owe PDQ one red cent for the merchandise. As for Pat's point that the "slam" may have been a clerical error at the local telco, I would bet that such honest errors are a very small percentage of slams. (Besides that, every carrier tells you to call 1-700-555-4141 to verify that your carrier has been switched, so you would likely figure it out pretty quickly, as opposed to a "slam" which catches most people off guard, unless they happen to verify their carrier on a routine basis.) Even in such a case, I think the carrier should write off the charges on a goodwill basis, most especially since that's probably less costly to the carrier than figuring out what credit to issue to balance the charges to what the carrier-of-choice would have charged. In short, I think the only thing that will significantly reduce slamming is to make a firm rule that any company that slams my phone line gets NOTHING from me for those calls, provided I give notice in a reasonably timely manner. Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * LincMad@Netcom.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And provided that once you know of the problem you *immediatly* quit using the carrier's services, prepending the requisite 10xxx code to regain the carrier you desire until the service has been reinstated. See, its not only that slamming goes on. People find out they have been slammed, and then proceed to milk it to the hilt for a month or two, running up huge bills all the while claiming ignorance. Then of course comes the bill and they claim they knew nothing of it. There is where the 'mitigation of loss' comes in to it. You are a smart person. You know someone screwed up somewhere, either accidentally or on purpose. The law says you cannot take advantage of someone else's misfortune. And would you believe it ... gasp! There are people in the world who get called by a carrier soliciting their business who give their verbal okay in a phone call to the change of carrier only to later be called by their original carrier asking 'what for' ... and rather than admit they okayed the switch, they claim they did not. Some people give a verbal okay on the phone knowing that later on they can claim there was slamming and they'll get to play the injured party and not have to pay for the 'contested' calls. So it works both ways. The general public is just as good at con-artistry as are the carrier marketing reps. PAT] ------------------------------ From: gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! Organization: "Gordon Burditt" Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 14:30:33 GMT >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This comes up here frequently. You should >> pay WilTel the amount you expected to pay your regular carrier. You have I don't agree. You should pay your regular carrier the amount you expected to pay your regular carrier (that carrier's rates). This *COULD* be zero (unlikely, but it could happen) if your calling plan charges by "hours" and the slammed calls wouldn't have cost you another hour (Anyone still do that? This kind of plan used to be popular.) It could be zero if you work for a phone company and get free long distance up to a limit (which you wouldn't have gone over) as a job benefit. If the incremental cost of the calls would have been negative, you should collect that from the slammer (e.g. 25% off if you spend $25 a month, and this month you came two cents short of $25 because the slammer grabbed a $1 call near the end of the month. The slammer owes you about $5.) >> to pay *something* since you did make the calls expecting (I assume!) to >> pay for them. Unless you can prove the change was made deliberatly in a >> fraudulent way, there is probably nothing more you should do. PAT] > yourself. The rule about not having to pay for (or return) merchandise > which comes unsolicited to you in the mail only applies when there was > no basis of any kind for it to be sent out. Even if they sent the package by mistake, this still does not obligate me to do more than inform them of where the package is and how they can come and pick it up. If they ask me to do more than that, rest assured their own "handling" charges WILL be used against them. If they want rain-proof storage in a place where it's less likely to be stolen than the front yard, they can ask for and pay for it through the nose, cash in advance. > That's how that rule came to be passed back in the 1950's; not so that > people today could stiff a long distance carrier out of a few dollars due > to a clerical error made somewhere. I believe the intent of the rule is still to prevent a long distance carrier from stiffing a customer out of a few dollars due to a, um, "mistake" which is usually at best criminal negligence and at worst massive fraud (although it may be the fault of telephone solicitors hired by the LD company, not the LD company itself, doing most of it). If the LD company doesn't in good faith believe they have a SIGNATURE of someone authorized before making a switch, I call that criminal negligence. If the LEC accepts any switch request from a long-distance company, knowing that it is a long-distance company (that is, it is a business of a type known to slam regularly), without seeing a signature, I call that criminal negligence. I suspect at least 90% of slamming fits this description. > The rule is, if there is/was *any basis* for the action to take > place (signed order, phone call from someone, etc) and the company > acted in good faith, then you are *not* permitted to benefit from the > error the company made. PAT] So why is the company permitted to benefit from the error it made? I propose the settlement be made like this: Customer complains when he first notices the slamming (which is likely to be a few weeks after the end of the first billing period after the first call after the slam, when he looks at the bill). Customer needs to get in the habit of dialing 10XXX on all LD calls. - Customer pays regular LD company (the one he was slammed away from) that company's normal rates. This amount could be zero with calling plans. Negative amounts are collected from the company at fault. - Company at fault pays customer an amount equal to the LEC's "switch fee" for customer's assistance in fixing their records. This amount doubles for each separate slam after the third one in a 10-year period. - Company at fault (possibly LEC) pays LEC to switch customer back. - Company at fault pays triple amount billed for slammed calls to FCC's Slamming Enforcement Fund. How do you determine who's at fault? Like this: - If the LEC cannot or does not produce a signed and dated request (or a request for a switch from a LD company with a claim they have such a request on file, although I'd really like to see this practice stopped dead -- the LD company should have to deliver the original signed request) for a switch, the LEC is at fault. If the LEC cannot identify who made the request, the LEC is at fault. - If the LD company cannot or does not produce a signed and dated request they claimed to have on file, the LD company is at fault. If the LD company's records have been destroyed by fire, the LD company is at fault. - If the signed and dated request is in the name of someone not authorized to make switches for that line, and the request is not forged, that person is at fault (and really stupid if they used their real name!). - If the signed and dated request is forged in the name of the subscriber, it's the forger who is at fault but you'll probably never catch him, unless it turns out to be a telephone solicitor who was hired by/on behalf of the LD company. - If the signed and dated request is forged in the name of someone other than the subscriber, the company that first accepted the request and failed to check that the names match is at fault. Gordon L. Burditt sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon ------------------------------ From: chris_whittenburg@wiltel.com (Chris Whittenburg) Subject: Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! Date: 10 Oct 1995 04:11:42 GMT Organization: WilTel Reply-To: chris_whittenburg@wiltel.com M. Troutman (ir002937@interramp.com) wrote: > Next, find WilTel's phone number. Here is their web site ... > http://www.wiltel.com/corporat/cfwt.html > Harass them. Let them know how much you dislike them. > Try anyname@wiltel.com ... send hate mail! I really don't think any of your above recomendations will help anything. LDDS WorldCom, as WilTel is now known, can be reached at 1-800-864-4060. A more general web site address is just http://www.wcom.com Instead of sending hate mail, some investigation might be possible on our part to determine who put the request in to change preferred carriers. Maybe customer service can determine if it was a WorldCom reseller, which was the source of the problem, and take some sort of action. Regards, Chris Whittenburg Data Network Engineer (918) 588-5845 LDDS Worldcom chris_whittenburg@wiltel.com Me. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #425 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa04194; 10 Oct 95 23:57 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA10068 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 10 Oct 1995 15:48:14 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id PAA10060; Tue, 10 Oct 1995 15:48:12 -0500 Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 15:48:12 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510102048.PAA10060@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #426 TELECOM Digest Tue, 10 Oct 95 15:48:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 426 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Casting the Net" by Salus (Rob Slade) India Telecom Summit 1995 in Washington DC, November 30 (Rishab A. Ghosh) 12 Months to the Numbering Change in Finland (Kimmo Ketolainen) The New "israel.dcom.isdn" (Meir Guttman) New Bell Canada 900 Service Features (Dave Leibold) New List: mtalist - Michigan Telecom Act Re-write List (Thom Byxbe) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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, 09 Oct 1995 18:23:46 EST From: Rob Slade Subject: Book Review: "Casting the Net" by Salus BKCSTNET.RVW 950807 "Casting the Net", Peter H. Salus, 1995, 0-201-87674-4, U$26.85 %A Peter H. Salus %C 1 Jacob Way, Reading, MA 01867-9984 %D 1995 %G 0-201-87674-4 %I Addison-Wesley Publishing Company %O U$26.85 markj@aw.com tiffanym@aw.com 800-822-6339 617-944-3700 %P 297 %T "Casting the Net" As with his earlier "Quarter Century of UNIX" (cf. BKQRCNUN.RVW), Salus has collected the important players and papers, to set out a history of the modern computer net. (This is not limited to the more strictly defined Internet, but encompasses the global, interconnected data communications web which John Quarterman (after William Gibson) has dubbed "The Matrix.") As well as the conceptual and ARPANET foundations, there are snippets from the development of Ethernet; email; OSI and protocol wars; UNIX; Usenet; Bit, Fido, and proprietary nets; applications; and security. A selection of the less serious RFCs provide diversions throughout the book. Salus' sources are excellent, but his writing style tends to be a bit terse. Still, for those who are seriously interested in the history of the net, this is reliable material, compiled in one place. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1995 BKCSTNET.RVW 950807. 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 rslade@cln.etc.bc.ca Research into rslade@cyberstore.ca User rslade@vanisl.decus.ca Security Canada V7K 2G6 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 13:38:58 -0700 From: Rishab Aiyer Ghosh Subject: India Telecom Summit 1995 in Washington DC, November 30 The World Research Group is organising the India Telecom Summit '95, a 2-day forum in Washington DC on November 30 and December 1. Special guest speakers include India's Communications Minister and Chairman, Telecom Commission, as well as US Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown, and FCC Chairman Reed Hundt. My newsletter on India's information industry, The Indian Techonomist -- published from New Delhi -- is the official publication. I've enclosed the programme of the summit and registration info. More details will be available shortly at http://dxm.org/summit95/ The Indian Techonomist is at http://dxm.org/techonomist/ For a request form for a free sample issue of the Techonomist, send a blank mail to sample-request@dxm.org Rishab Aiyer Ghosh (rishab@dxm.org) Editor & Publisher, The Indian Techonomist INDIA TELECOM SUMMIT 1995 NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 1, 1995 LATHAM HOTEL - WASHINGTON, D.C. AN INTERNATIONAL FORUM EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES CREATED BY INDIA'S TRANSITION TO AN OPEN, MARKET-ORIENTED SYSTEM MEET WITH LEADING DEVELOPERS, FINANCIERS, REGULATORS, AND TELECOM EXECUTIVES IN INDIA'S RAPIDLY CHANGING TELECOMMUNICATIONS MARKET SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKERS Sukh Ram, Minister of Communication, Government of India R.K. Takkar, Chairman Telecom Commission and Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India Honorable Ron Brown, Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce CONTRIBUTING ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDE: AT&T, CPInternational, Ex-Im Bank, US West, HCL Corp, Tata Incorporated, PanAmSat TRW/Odyssey, India America Chamber of Commerce, US-India Business Council, Satellite Industry Association, U.S. Dept. of State, IFC, TIA, IMTA, Global Telesystems Group HEAR THE VERY LATEST INFORMATION AND FORECASTS ON: Emerging telecom regulatory reforms and policy Licenses up for tender Increasing financeability Alternatives to government guarantees Development in wireless satellite digital and mobile communications Streamlining the approval process Establishing fair, efficient bidding and negotiations PROGRAMME IN BRIEF ***Day One*** Tuesday, November 30, 1995 8:30 OPENING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIR Mark Riedy, Partner; Chairman India Practice Reid & Priest, L.L.P. 8:45 KEYNOTE: AN OVERVIEW OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN INDIA The Honorable Sukh Ram, Minister of Communications Government of India 9:30 THE OUTLOOK FOR THE TELECOM INDUSTRY IN INDIA Narayan Valluri, Minister (Economics) Embassy of India, Washington DC R.K. Takkar, Chairman Telecom Commission & Secretary, Department of Telecommunications Government of India Richard Barber, Executive Director Pacific Telecommunications Council 10:15 PRIVATIZATION & COMPETITIVENESS IN THE INTERNATIONAL TELECOMSECTOR Ambassador Vonya B McCann, United States Coordinator, International Communications and Information Policy, U.S. Department of State Judith O'Neill, Chair Telecom Practice Reid & Priest, L.L.P. Larry Irving, Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Commerce 11:15 DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA Karan Swaner, Executive Director, US-India Business Council Ginger Lew, General Counsel, U.S.Department of Commerce Ashok Mehta, President, Tata Incorporated Patricia Paoletta, Director, U.S. Trade Policy, U.S. Trade Rep. 12:00 LUNCHEON REMARKS The Honorable Ronald Brown, Secretary of Commerce U.S. Department of Commerce 1:30 INDIAN TELECOM DEVELOPMENT IN THE LIBERALIZED ENVIRONMENT: NEEDS, ECONOMICS OF OPERATION AND STAKEHOLDERS' PROSPECTS Diju Raha, General Manager, Internatioanl R&D Operations Bell-Northern Research Ltd. 2:15 LEGAL OBSTACLES TO DOING BUSINESS IN INDIA Mark Riedy, Partner, Chairman India Practice Reid & Priest L.L.P. David Hardy, Partner, Reid & Priest L.L.P. 3:15 A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE INDEPENDENT REGULATORY STRUCTURE Moderator: Eric Nelson, Vice President Telecommunications Industry Association 4:0 DEVELOPING STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS Moderator: Peter Purushotma, President HCL Corporation, Advanced Technologies Group ***Day Two*** Wednesday, December 1, 1995 8:0 OPENING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIR Rajiv Khanna, Presidient, India America Chamber of Commerce and Parrtner, LeBoef, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, L.L.P. 8:30 GLOBAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE AND ITS IMPACT ON INDIA Carol C. Darr, Associate Administrator, Office of International Affairs, NTIA, U.S.Department of Commerce Jeffrey M. Conklin and Beth A.Perdue Managing Partners, CPInternational 9:10 ATTAINING FULL DIGITAL NETWORK BY THE YEAR 2000 R.K. Takkar, Chairman Telecom Commission and Secretary Department of Telecommunications William Carter, President AT&T Submarine Systems International 9:50 THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONAL AND DEVELOPMENT CAPITAL Vipul Prakash, Senior Investment Officer International Finance Corporation Vincent D. Salvatore, Jr., of Counsel, Reid & Priest, L.L.P. 10:30 EX-IM BANK FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR EXPORTS TO INDIA Kevin G.O'Connor, Business Development Officer Export-Import Bank of the United States 11:05 FINANCING TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROJECTS IN INDIA Deborah A.DeMasi, Chairman Infrastructure Finance Reid & Priest, L.L.P. 11:50 LEAPFROGGING INTO NEW SERVICES AND TECHNOLOGIES Mike Nelson, Office of Science and Technology Policy Executive Office of the President Tedson J. Meyers, Partner, Reid & Priest, L.L.P. 12:20 BASIC TELEPHONY: BRINGING INDIA INTO THE 21ST CENTURY Moderator: Diljeet Titus, Partner, Singhania & Company 1:00 LUNCHEON REMARKS The Honorable Reed Hundt, Chairrman U.S. Federal Communications Commission 2:00 MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF BUILDING THE TELECOM NETWORK Moderator: Janet Hernandez, Associate, Reid & Priest, L.L.P. 2:55 GLOBAL SATELLITES AND THEIR ROLE IN LINKING INDIA Clayton Mowry, Associate Director Satellite Industry Association Tim Logue, Associate, Reid & Priest, L.L.P. Craig Moll, Regional Director South Asia, Middle East, Africa, PanAmSat Tom Tycz, Chief, Satellite Division U.S. Federal Communications Commission 3:35 WHAT ROLE WILL MOBILE TRUNK RADIO PLAY IN WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS DEVELOPMENT? Moderator: Christopher Rogers Senior Advisor to the Chairman, Nextel 4:15 COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY John McPhee, Director, Office of Computers & Business Equipment, U.S. Department of Commerce Frank Dorian, Tandem Computers 4:55 CLOSING REMARKS:OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE Mark Riedy, Partner, Chairman India Practice, Reid & Priest, L.L.P. TO REGISTER: Phone: 1-800-647-7600 (toll free) Fax: 1-212-421-7325 Or write to: Customer Service Dept World Research Group 12 E, 49th St, 17th Floor New York, NY 10017 REGISTRATION FEE: $ 1295 for the 2 day conference. Fee includes lunch, refreshments, and conference documentation. CANCELLATIONS: Your registration may be transferred to a member of your organization up to 24 hours in advance of the conference. All cancellations received on or before November 15, 1995 will be subject ot $ 195 administrative charge. We regret that no refund for cancellations will be made after this date. CONFERENCE VENUE: Latham Hotel 3000 M Street, N.W Washington, D.C. 20007, Phone : (202) 726-5000. Fax (202) 343-1800 SPECIAL TRAVEL RATES AVAILABLE: As the World Research Group's official travel agent, Zenith Travel can offer specialy negotiated rates to atendees. Call 1-800-221 2786 or 212-251-1455 and specify that you are attending the india Telecom sumit conference when making your reservation. HOTEL ACCOMODATION: Mention the World Research Group for specially reduced rates at the Latham Hotel. To take advantage of this discount contact the hotel directly by Tuseday, November 14, 1995. REGISTRATION FORM YES Please register the following attendee (s) for the India Telecom Summit Name: Company: Position: Division: Approving Manager: Address: City: State: Zip: Telephone: Fax: Enclosed is a check / Mastercard / Visa / American Express Card#: Exp. Date: Signature Please send me information on Exhibtions Sponsorship (Please photocopy this form for additional attendees and pass it on to another colleague). The Indian Techonomist - newsletter on India's information industry http://dxm.org/techonomist/ rishab@dxm.org Editor and publisher: Rishab Aiyer Ghosh rishab@arbornet.org Vox +91 11 6853410; 3760335; H 34 C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA ------------------------------ From: Kimmo.Ketolainen@utu.fi (Kimmo Ketolainen) Subject: 12 Months to the Numbering Change in Finland Organization: Turun yliopisto =B7 University of Turku, Turku, Finland Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 16:53:33 GMT The largest single numbering change in Finland this far occurs on Saturday 12 Oct 1996 at 00.00. The change affects most numbers in the country: * All current 75 area codes are rearranged to only 13 * Mobile phone and pager networks retain their codes * The leading digit 9 changes to the leading digit 0 * 00 is introduced as a neutral international access code BACKGROUND The process of harmonizing the different access codes and emergency numbers with those of the Western Europe began in early 1990's. One of the major differencies has been the emergency number which has been throughout the years 000 (and 002, 005) in Finland, whereas in many other countries 00 has been used as the international line access code. To free up the 00* number space, the standard EU emergency number 112 was introduced in Finland in 1992, and a recording was put behind 000 to tell callers to dial the proper number. During the last five years the number of different area codes has been coming down slowly with occasional merges. Currently, the number of them is 75, and it will remain the same until next October. The year 1994 brought finally competition to all the remaining monopoly fields of telecommunications. At the same time, the concept of 13 large telecommunications areas was introduced, and area code billing was abolished making all calls within a telecommunications area billable at the local call rate. The 13 areas are approximately the same as the provinces of the country with few small local exceptions, and a separat= e code of the capital area. Subscriber numbers have been changed gradually to make most of them seven digits long. The largest changes occur in 1995 and 1996, and the last numbers change in 11 Oct 1996, on the last day of the old area cod= e system. On 12 Oct 1996 none of the old area codes is usable. NEW AREA CODES Area/Province New code Old codes Aland Islands 018 928 Central Finland 014 941 942 943 944 945 946 947 Hame 03 916 917 918 919 931 932* 933 934 935 936 937 Kuopio 017 971 972 977 978 979 Kymi 05 951 952 953 954 Lapland 016 960 9692 9693 9694 9695 9696 9697 9698 Mikkeli 015 955 956 957 958 959 North Karelia 013 973 974 975 976 Oulu 08 981 982 983 984 985 986 988 989 Turku and Pori 02 921 922 923 924 925 926 930 932* 938 939 Uusimaa I 09** 90 Uusimaa II 019 911 912 914 915 Vaasa 06 961 962 963 964 965 966 967 968 *) Exception: the current area code 932 splits as follows: the municipality of Huittinen belongs to the new area code 02; the four other municipalities of Mouhijarvi, Suodenniemi, Vammala and Aetsa belong to the new area code 03. **) Capital area Example 1, national dialing: (921) 237 8227 changes to (02) 237 8227 Example 2, int'l dialing: +358 21 237 8227 changes to +358 2 237 8227 Example 3, national dialing: (90) 1234 5678 changes to (09) 1234 5678 Example 4, int'l dialing: +358 0 1234 5678 changes to +358 9 1234 5678 MOBILE PHONES AND PAGERS Mobile phone and pager networks retain their codes. Only the leading digit nine changes to the digit zero which is dropped when dialing from abroad. Example 1, national dialing: 940 555 5508 changes to 040 555 5508 Example 2, int'l dialing: +358 40 555 5508 does not change INTERNATIONAL ACCESS CODES The new neutral international access code 00 is taken into use to accompany the various operator-specific codes such as 990, 994 and 999. There is no word yet on how these access codes will change in the future. SPECIAL SERVICES CODES There is no word yet on how and when the remaining special services codes, toll and toll free numbers in the leading digit 9 system will change. A large part of them have been already moved to the leading digit 0 system. Kimmo Ketolainen Internet Telefonkartensammler Yo-kyla 84 A 10 WWW http://iki.fi/kk IAP http://www.sci.fi FIN-20540 Turku GSM +358 40 555 5508 Tel +358 21 237 8227 ------------------------------ From: Meir Guttman Subject: The New "israel.dcom.isdn" Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 16:02:41 EET Organization: NetVision LTD. Followup-To: israel.dcom.isdn Hello all ISDN'ers in Israel! Welcome to the new "israel.dcom.isdn" USENET news-group. I hope this group will help us all in our respective interests as users, professionals and "innocent bystanders", caught in the ISDN pond. As at least one of the people who promoted and asked for this news group to be created, I am taking the liberty of putting some guidelines for the mission and purpose of the group. These are of course put as a basis for debate. All of you are urged to put forward their opinions, especially where they *oppose* those outlined here. I am proposing the purpose of this group to be: 1) The discussion of ISDN issues *related to Israel*. It is assumed that ISDN issues of general interest are better handled on the general news group "comp.dcom.isdn". 2) A forum for the announcement, discussion, debate, petition, and suggestions regarding ISDN related policies, tariffs, standards, services, etc. of: * The Ministry of Communications * BEZEQ * Cellular Phone Service Providers * International Call Carriers * Internet Service Providers 3) Questions, experience (good and bad) and help with the usage of ISDN equipment. 4) Posting commercial "News release" bulletins of interest to the ISDN community. 5) Announcements of compliance approval by the proper authority of equipment, software and services. 6) Announcing events (conferences, exhibitions, lectures, etc.) and Call-for-Papers of interest to the ISDN community. 7) Monthly posting of the Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) document. (The undersigned volunteered to collect and edit the FAQ, see related posting) This article is cross-posted also to the "comp.dcom.isdn" and the rest of the "comp.dcom.xxx" hierarchy. Meir Guttman Phone +972-8-554 987 ------------------------------ From: Dave.Leibold@f730.n259.z1.gryn.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 07 Oct 95 00:42:40 -0400 Subject: New Bell Canada 900 Service Features This is an announcement of some new Advantage 900 Service features. These are proposed for 1st November 1995 implementation, subject to CRTC approval. 1) 900 Caller Identifier The 900 number operator can receive the caller's number ... call blocking (*67) will allow callers to suppress the Calling Line ID, though. 2) Dialed Number Identifier When more than one 900 number terminates at the same location (for purposes of identifying which commercials prompt which calls, etc), this feature will allow the service provider to identify which 900 number was dialed by the caller. Bell will identify this in a special "800-0/1XX-xxxx" format for use with CMS and Centrex setups. ISDN and PBX setups will have the actual called number delivered. 3) Area Code Route A 900 call can be terminated at different locations according to the area code from which the 900 number was dialed. 4) FlexRoute Calls can be routed to different terminating centres based on time and day; this can be used to take advantage of different provincial holidays and different time zones. 5) Emergency Route Calls can be re-routed to a different terminating centre in the event of an emergency or other disruption. The 900 service provider informs the phone company to implement an emergency route in such situations. 6) Courtesy Response A voice announcement is provided at times when the 900 call cannot be answered. Fidonet: Dave Leibold 1:259/730 Internet: Dave.Leibold@f730.n259.z1.gryn.org ------------------------------ From: byxbe@DigitalRealm.com (Thom Byxbe) Subject: New List: mtalist - Michigan Telecom Act Re-write List Date: Mon, 09 Oct 1995 01:17:22 GMT Organization: DigitalRealm.com Reply-To: byxbe@DigitalRealm.com mtalist on mtalist@digitalrealm.com A Moderated mailing list has been started to discuss the Michigan Telecommunications Act re-write currently underway in the Michigan legislature. This list will act as a tool to communicate information about the act and it's ramifications on the citizens of Michigan. This act is being rushed through committee and there is very little time to act. Please use this tool to communicate opinions and to rally support. It is IMPORTANT that we move VERY quickly to ensure that this rewrite is fair to ALL of Michigans citizens. For more information on the act please visit this WWW site: http://www.rust.net/~jack/mta.html TO SUBSCRIBE send e-mail to: mtalist@digitalrealm.com Place the word SUBSCRIBE in the Subject line and *ONLY* your E-Mail address in the body of the message TO UNSUBSCRIBE send e-mail to: mtalist@digitalrealm.com Place the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the Subject line and *ONLY* your E-Mail address in the body of the message TO CONTRIBUTE to the list send mail to: mtalist@digitalrealm.com List Owner: Thom Byxbe ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #426 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa05458; 11 Oct 95 3:17 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA17489 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 10 Oct 1995 20:00:59 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA17481; Tue, 10 Oct 1995 20:00:57 -0500 Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 20:00:57 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510110100.UAA17481@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #429 TELECOM Digest Tue, 10 Oct 95 20:00:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 429 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cross-Canada Trip (Dave Leibold) Dutch Renumbering Scheme Almost an April 1 Joke (Alex van Es) Distributed Line Hunt (Kevin Kadow) Telecommunications Survey (Judith Oppenheimer) Telecommunications Survey in _The_Economist_ (Bob Goudreau) California Opportunity/Help Wanted (Bob Schwartz) Enterprise Management Summit '95 - Free Exhibits Pass (summit@netcom.com) Opinions on PC-Based IVR Systems (Wynn Quon) Redundant Systems (D. Matthew Ford) Periphonics VPS 7000 For Sale (James Wiley) FCC Issues NPRM re Toll Free Numbers (Judith Oppenheimer) Circuit ID Formats (Randy Tischler) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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@f730.n259.z1.gryn.org (Dave Leibold) Date: 09 Oct 95 23:53:38 -0400 Subject: Cross-Canada Trip I had the opportunity to travel throughout Canada in August, some of it by rail (an endangered species here), the rest by bus. Cards ... This was a good opportunity to try out a few of the pre-paid phone cards that are now available to Canadians. This included a $15 value Bell Canada "Hello" pass which was included with VIA Rail's Canrailpass, a Trendwatch card, and a Callsaver card. All these cards operate using an 800 number access, with a "PIN" or card number code. The prepaid amounts associated with the cards is reduced as calls are made. Customer service numbers were printed on all three brands of cards. PIN numbers were 8 digits for Trendwatch, 10 digits for Callsaver, and 12 digits for Bell/Stentor's Hello pass. The Hello pass operation was straightforward enough, but the recorded introductory greeting changed according to which province one was in. In British Columbia, the greeting would mention "BC Tel" while in Manitoba it would say "MTS". The confusing part occurs when users are prompted to enter their "BC Tel", "MTS" or "MT&T" Hello card numbers, even though the card itself may have been bought in Bell Canada territory. I noticed no call supervision problems, especially with the Hello pass, although another make of card (Cardinal) warns that billing begins after five rings. It's normally possible to access touch-tone operated services after placing the call (again, different card companies may give different results). Rates: the Hello pass costs start at 50c/min for calls within a province, or $1 within Canada to another province. The Callsaver card has the lowest rates based in the 416/905 area codes; that is, a call placed from anywhere in Canada or the USA to a 416/905 point costs the lowest 50c/min rate (to the rest of Canada and continental USA, the Callsaver rate is 65c/min). All cards are generally good at indicating how much time is left to complete a given call, or otherwise indicates how many units are left to be used. Wild North-West ... The Edmonton-Yellowknife bus trip takes two transfers and just under 23 hours to do. One bus stop was at Indian Cabins, Alberta (just a few km south of the NWT border); this place has but 8 residents connected with a highway store. One can find a radio payphone there (lift the receiver, wait for the radio operator, arrange for payment accordingly). Arctic Frontier Carriers, the bus operator responsible for the Hay River/Enterprise to Yellowknife link of the trip, lives up to its name: the driver has radio contact throughout the trip, particularly useful considering there are very few settlements along the way, and plenty of gravel road to boot. In Yellowknife, Northwestel's offices take up one of the taller buildings in the city (just down the street from where I stayed, at one of the other taller buildings). This city of 15k has most of the telephone features taken for granted in the rest of North America: credit card dialing, call waiting, reasonable quality connections. The various phone cards can even be used in the north, thanks to 800 number access. Other Yellowknife features: * Free local phone calls could be made from the tourist centre. * One of the streets there is actually called Ragged Ass Road (one wonders why the city can't seem to maintain a street sign for this :-)). * Summer months are actually quite warm, despite the northern latitude. Gardeners are very active as are cyclists. The winter months are something else, though. * Canada Post ate the postcard sent to my parents ... this is but one of the reasons many Canadians have a healthy respect for the USPS. Other postcards did at least reach their destinations. 'Net postcards here we come... Not as Wild West ... Edmonton: Ed Tel maintains a historical telephone museum in this city, complete with various phones, a caller ID demo, a chance to play with limited versions of step-by-step, crossbar and electronic switches, and even a few examples of telephones that survived fires (albeit in different shape than they were originally). A few of the exhibits once lived in Toronto's Ontario Science Centre, such as a wire-pair matching game (i.e. learn how to tell which ends of two-colour coded wires will make the connections). The Ed Tel museum is not to be confused with the less elaborate "Vista 33" which is AGT's mini-museum. I don't know if there are plans to merge the two (or if this had been done, since I didn't visit Vista 33 this time). Saskatoon: The Diefenbaker centre is a museumish building on the U. of Saskatchewan campus that is named after the former Prime Minister. Among the Diefenbaker memorabilia sits a blue-turquoise coloured telephone with a handset plaque that reads: "Presented to the Rt. Hon. John G. Diefenbaker, P.C., Q.C., M.P. Prime Minister of Canada, who used this instrument in conversation with President J.F. Kennedy of The United States of America Between Whitehorse, Y.T. and Hyannisport, Mass. July 22, 1961 to inaugurate the Canadian National Telecommunications Canada-Alaska Microwave System." Winnipeg: MTS announced its "Name That Number" service, a pay offering where callers dial 555.1313, give up to two subscriber numbers for 50 cents, and get the names for those numbers. Similar services exist in the U.S. in places such as Chicago and Tampa. This was subject to CRTC approval. The trains often take breaks of 10-60 minutes at certain stations. These allow for such things as servicing, crew changes, etc. Many passengers often take such opportunities to wander around, make phone calls, check out the town scenery. At one such break, the Sioux Lookout, Ontario has no payphones; the nearest ones found were at a convenience store across the street (and both were utterly dysfunctional when I found them on the eastbound journey back to Ontario). Looking East ... Not much to report on the Atlantic, other than MT&T's payphones in Halifax are mostly without phone books. In better news, the main library in that city has a terminal or two connected to the Chebucto Free-Net, and even had some colour WWW browser terminals on hand. Montreal was the first place I spotted Bell Canada's specially-equipped payphones for their forthcoming QuickChange/LaPuce EEPROM cards. This should begin to bring Canada up to the sorts of card services available in many other nations. Those are just a few scattered highlights of this year's big vacation. The Canadian Thanksgiving weekend has just begun, so holiday greetings as appropriate. Fidonet: Dave Leibold 1:259/730@fidonet.org Internet: Dave.Leibold@f730.n259.z1.gryn.org ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 20:09:35 +0100 From: alex@worldaccess.nl (Alex van Es) Subject: Dutch Renumbering Scheme Almost an April 1 Joke October 10th is a date marked on many company calenders here in the Netherlands. For a change the reason is not a national holiday but on this day almost six million phone numbers are going to be renumbered. Phonenumbers starting with 020 (Amsterdam), 010 (Rotterdam), 070 (The Hague) and the cities Almere and Almelo are not being affected by the renumbering. Nationwide the Dutch PTT has been spreading renumbering guides. Other products that are available are PC programs to convert data files and portable calculators that can convert numbers for you. Your truly is one of the person being affected by this renumbering scheme. Luckily my phone number is only going to get a extra digit, changing the number from 055-421184 into 055-5421184. Unfortunatly there are many people being less lucky, getting an extra digit PLUS a total new areacode. PTT is appearantly expecting a lot of trouble coming out of this renumbering, therefore the old numbers will also keep on working for the coming six months. In the beginning of April the old numbers will be disconnected. And that is in my opinion where the problems are going to start. Many people will not change their friend's phone number straight away. After all, converting phone numbers is not the most interesting job to do, and so many people decide to delay it till some rainy Sunday afternoon. And if that rainy Sunday is not coming along to soon, they probably trashed their renumbering guide, forgetting all about it. And then around the beginning of April trouble is going to start. All of the sudden you will be forced to dial the new number. Luckily the PTT is spending millions in commercials reminding people to dial the new number from October 10th on. The reasons for the renumbering are; - making the European 112 alarm number possible - creating space for extra numbers - leaving room for competition Especially that last reason "leaving room for competition" is mentioned a lot as a good reason. "The dutch market wants a second telecom provider, so we had no choice then to renumber and create space"; almost blaming the dutch customer for wanting a second provider. Alex van Es Alex@Worldaccess.NL, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands Phone:+31-55-421184 Pager:+31-6-59333551 (CT-2 Greenpoint) Voicemail: +31-6-59958458 ------------------------------ From: kadokev@ripco.com (Kevin Kadow) Subject: Distributed Line Hunt Reply-To: kadokev@msg.net Organization: MSGNet, Chicago Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 05:58:39 GMT Does anybody have information on the Distributed Line Hunt service? Getting information from Ameritech is like pulling teeth. Apparently this differs from a standard hunt group in that the switch "remembers" which line answered a call last, then presents the next call on the next line in sequence. Possibly also known as "Uniform Call Distribution". This is useful for when you have a pool of people taking phone orders and you don't want all the calls to go to the person on line 1 because all the calls ring there first and hunt down. Here's the question: My provider has 64 lines, of which 1/3+ are USR Couriers with the 33.6Kbps software. Right now all the USR modems are at the "bottom" of the hunt, so people who call the first number hunt through all 64 modems, and people who call the 40th number get the first of the USR modems. If service is switched to a DLH(UCD?) hunt group, will I still be able to get a 33.6 connection by calling the 40th number, or will the call go to the next modem after the one that answered the call before mine? Basically what I want to know is if DLH applies to just the first hunt number or to every number in the group. Thanks! kadokev@msg.net Kevin Kadow ------------------------------ From: Judith Oppenheimer Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 18:38:26 -0400 Subject: Telecommunications Survey The URL also contains a new web d.comm site. > From owner-futurework@csf.colorado.edu Sat Oct 7 14:13 EDT 1995 > The latest Telecommunications Survey of The Economist is available on: > http://www.economist.com Judith Oppenheimer, President Interactive CallBrand(TM): Strategic Leadership, Competitive Intelligence Producer@pipeline.com. Ph: +1 800 The Expert. Fax: +1 212 684-2714. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 00:04:01 -0400 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Telecommunications Survey in _The_Economist_ Readers of the Digest may find the 32-page survey of telecommunications in the September 30th issue of _The_Economist_ magazine to be of some interest. You don't even need to be a subscriber to see this survey; it's available on the World Wide Web at http://www.economist.com . On a related note, the acknowledgements in the survey mention a Jonathan Solomon as one of those due thanks. This wouldn't happen to be the TELECOM Digest's own "JSol", would it? Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I don't know if it is or not. I have heard nothing about it. If it is, maybe he will write and tell us. I can't really imagine it being anyone else. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bob@bci.nbn.com (Bob Schwartz) Subject: California Opportunity/Help Wanted Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 15:13:53 -0800 Organization: BCI I've been asked to post this Help Wanted and to field replies. Recent articles quote ISDN "cheerleaders" as saying that sales are exploding as more and more people and businesses want faster ways to access the World Widw Web while sending and recieving pictures, spreadsheets, and large files. -------------------- POSITION: Sales, commissioned LOCATION: California. Telecommute from your home. Company located in Marin County. DESCRIPTION: Developing leads and closing sales of ISDN (business and residential), Centrex, and LEC call discount plans. Please send cover letter and resume: E-Mail, Bob@BCI.NBN.COM or Fax (415)459-0258 Attn. Bob Schwartz. No voice calls please. ------------------------------ From: summit@ix.netcom.com Subject: Enterprise Management Summit '95 - Free Exhibits Pass Date: 10 Oct 1995 20:26:07 GMT Organization: Netcom If you would like to attend Enterprise Management Summit'95, free SummitPlus show floor passes are available by calling 800-340-2111. You can also register by accessing the Summit web site at http://www.summit.micromuse.com. The SummitPlus pass includes access to: * Show floor on October 23, 24, and 25. * Solutions Centers on Asset Management (sponsored by Intel), Help Desk (sponsored by Remedy), and Proactive Management (sponsored by CoroNet). * Keynote addresses by Don Haile of IBM (Managing Information In The Next Millennium), Jonathan Roberts of Microsoft (Microsoft's Back Office Strategy), and Making Enterprise Management Work - A Real World Perspective sponsored by Network Computing Magazine. * The Wall Street Journal's "Measuring Your Marketability" * All 14 Product Directions Sessions Summit '95 will be held this October 23-27 at the Dallas InfoMart. The theme this year is 'Managing Technology to Meet Business Needs'. Major areas covered this year include asset management, software distribution, help desk, applications management, and proactive management. There will be 57 tutorials and technical sessions, and 50+ exhibitors. The 1995 Summit Shoot-Out will feature Bull, Cabletron, DEC, IBM, and SunSoft competing head-to-head to show the most effective enterprise management solution. ------------------------------ From: quonw@software.mitel.com (Wynn Quon) Subject: Opinions on PC-based IVR Systems Date: 10 Oct 1995 17:44:45 -0400 Organization: Mitel Corporation Hi, we're looking for an Interactive Voice Response system with an Applications Generator package that runs on a PC under Windows 95. What are your best recommendations? Is there a mainstream product out there which is the industry leader? Our requirements are: * must be highly reliable * ability to support concurrent voice mail and audiotext applications * excellent technical support * user-friendly interface * ability to access a proprietary database (using ASCII command strings over an RS232 port) based upon voice response events * price is not a major factor but is a consideration * what's more important is that we want to avoid products that are likely to be orphaned either through poor support or business problems The selected package will be part of an OEM offering in conjunction with a Mitel system, hence the requirement for excellent technical support. Please respond via post and e-mail. Thanks! Wynn Quon Mitel Corp. ------------------------------ From: dmatthewf@aol.com (DMatthewF) Subject: Redundant Systems Date: 9 Oct 1995 12:34:00 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Hi, We have two T-1's coming in from two different LD carriers. They both come from the same NJ Bell CO (609-784). Is there a way to have one of them come from different CO's on different lines so that if there is a problem between the CO and us, we can still have service through a different CO? Our customers have been saved from an outage on one of our LD carriers before because they could call a different 800 number to access us over a different carrier, but if the CO or the line coming from the CO has a problem. Any comments appreciated. D Matthew Ford DMatthewF@aol.com ------------------------------ From: wiley@PROBLEM_WITH_INEWS_DOMAIN_FILE (James Wiley-TSU) Subject: Periphonics VPS 7000 For Sale Date: 10 Oct 1995 21:49:23 GMT Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station, TX Tarleton State University has a Periphonics model VPS 7000 voice response unit for sale. Please contact me for more information. TSU is in Stephenville Texas. Thanks, James L. Wiley Tarleton State University Steohenville TX 76402 wiley@Tarleton.edu 817.968.9397 ------------------------------ From: Judith Oppenheimer Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 11:39:26 -0400 Subject: FCC Issues NPRM re Toll Free Numbers The FCC has issued its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 95-419) regarding "The Fair and Efficient Use of Toll Free Numbers". Comments in this proceeding are due November 1, 1995, and reply comments are due November 15, 1995. Judith Oppenheimer, President Interactive CallBrand(TM): Strategic Leadership, Competitive Intelligence Producer@pipeline.com. Ph: +1 800 The Expert. Fax: +1 212 684-2714. ICB publishes inTELigence, the newsletter that separates fact from fiction. Call or email for a sample issue, and subscription information. ------------------------------ From: randy@uunet.uu.net (Randy Tischler) Subject: Circuit ID Formats Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 09:06:16 EDT It dawned on me the other day that, of all the acronym lists and telecom term glossaries and LATA maps and telco test numbers available in the Telecom Archives and in other places on the net, there is nothing regarding circuit IDs. I have noticed that different telcos follow different formats depending on things like the bandwidth of a circuit, the physical location on one end or the other (or both), the LATA in which it resides, etc. Others are just a blob of numbers after some predictable string of letters and/or numbers. Has anyone compiled a list of these, and if so, where might I find this? Randy ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #429 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa06778; 11 Oct 95 7:12 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA13158 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 10 Oct 1995 17:12:10 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA13150; Tue, 10 Oct 1995 17:12:08 -0500 Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 17:12:08 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510102212.RAA13150@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #428 TELECOM Digest Tue, 10 Oct 95 17:12:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 428 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Hugh Pritchard) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (David L. Kindred) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Gordon Burditt) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Henry Baker) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Israel Moskowitz) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Bud Couch) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Robert Casey) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Gary D. Shapiro) Re: Dead Line, Annoying Red Tape (Mark E. Daniel) Re: Dead Line, Annoying Red Tape (Bill Fenner) Re: Bell Name Change (Mark J. Cuccia) Re: Bell Name Change (John Levine) Re: Bell Name Change (Bob Goudreau) Re: Bell Name Change (Stan Schwartz) Re: Bell Name Change (Ed Ellers) Re: Bell Name Change (Eric Hunt) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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, 10 Oct 95 10:53 EST From: Hugh Pritchard <0006348214@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise Time Information? In a recent posting, jsinger@scn.org (Joseph Singer) claimed that > Sorry Pat, but this is not quite correct. 910-410-TIME translates to > 303-499-7111. It's the WWV number. The 202 number you mentioned is the > National Bureau of Standards in Washington, DC. If you'll dial all three > numbers you'll find that the 303 number is the same as the 900 number. While I know nothing about the WWV number, I do live in the Washington Metro area, and Pat is right: 202-653-1800 is the U.S. Naval Observatory Master Clock Time Announcement number. From the "Blue Pages" part of the Bell Atlantic (C&P Telephone) Northern Virginia directory: UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT Navy Department Of The Naval Observatory Mass[achusetts] Ave at 34th St NW Master Clock Time Announcement.....900-410-8463 Guard Desk-General Info............202-653-1507 Tour Info-Recorded Message.........202-653-1543 The headquarters of the "National Bureau of Standards" is no longer in downtown DC. It relocated (in the '70s, I believe) to Gaithersburg, Montgomery County, Maryland; and was renamed the "National Institute for Standards and Technology" (NIST). Any NIST phone numbers would have the area code 301. Hugh Hugh_Pritchard@MCImail.com (703) 414-9051 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 16:21 EDT From: kindred@telesciences.com (David L Kindred ) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Someone a while back wrote: > I have a question. Where does telco obtain their time signal > from to synchronize their clocks and equipment. I have not yet seen anyone mention Radio Station WWVB, a 60 khz broadcast that also originates from Colorado. This longwave station has the advantage over the shortwave stations that there is little, if any, problem caused by signal fading, multipath interference, etc. The WWVB receivers I have seen offer 1 pps and 1 khz clock outputs that are not only accurate, but in sync with the Colorado master clock. Unfortunately, the WWVB receivers are not cheap. There are also GPS receivers dedicated to providing just the time, and also providing 1 pps clocks and the like. These also seem to be more expensive than some of full function GPS receivers, but do include RS-232 ports and the like. My employer has been including WWVB or GPS clocks in our larger systems for many years. Unfortunately, not all of the telco's equipment is connected to such a time source. I can recall several cases where all hell broke loose when a CO tech misread his/her watch (or calendar) and a 1AESS or 2BESS mis-recorded large quantities of call records. Definitely not a pretty sight. EMail: kindred@telesciences.com Phone: +1 609 866 1000 x222 Snail: Securicor Telesciences Inc, 351 New Albany Rd, Moorestown, NJ 08057-1177 Web: http://www.telesciences.com/~kindred/index.html ------------------------------ From: gordon@sneaky.lonestar.org (Gordon Burditt) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Organization: "Gordon Burditt" Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 06:59:01 GMT > There is a neat little shareware Windows program out there called TimeSync. > It connects to the USNO Internet Time Server at tick.usno.navy.mil, and sets > your computer's clock to the USNO's time. It's easy to use, as long as you > know how many minutes difference you are from UTC. I'm not exactly > sure where you get it, but I'll e-mail it to anybody who asks. (I did > try to telnet to 'tick', but got nowhere). > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I telnetted to tick without any problem (that > is to stay the network was up; there were no connectivity problems) but I > had no login for it of course. I tried FTP thinking there might be stuff > in a public directory, but tick does not allow anonymous ftp connections. > Is there also a DOS version of this that you are aware of? PAT] This server probably uses NTP (Network Time Protocol) to transfer time information over the net. One-shot setting of the time would be done with a program like 'ntpdate' on UNIX and I think there are DOS and Windows ports of it, not necessarily with that name. Some versions of the client program prefer to use multiple servers (to detect servers with bogus time), and they measure round-trip times of packets to compensate for the network delay. They also average several samples from each server. There is no "login" although servers can restrict who they will talk to by IP address. Most servers are very strict about who they will accept time information FROM. You don't want some joker goofing up your clock. UNIX systems and other multi-tasking systems can keep their clocks sync'd to a server by running an ntp daemon. This corrects not only the current time, but it can also adjust the system clock frequency (a correction is applied by the OS) to compensate for errors in crystals. This keeps the clocks in better sync even if they lose net connectivity. These systems can also act as servers for other systems. You can probably get accurate time within tens of milliseconds. A really serious server like tick probably won't want load from ftp or telnet interfering with time service. If there are public documents for ftp, they are probably on another host. There is a hierarchy of time servers. A server like tick or one connected to a radio clock (such as a GPS receiver, WWV receiver, or in Germany, a DCF77 receiver) driven from a time reference is a stratum 1 server. There are a lot of public stratum 2 or stratum 3 servers that sync from stratum 1 or 2 servers. It may be better to sync from a server close to you in network path (like the one at your ISP) than having everyone go directly to tick over a long network path. It is definitely better to have an office of a few thousand systems obtain time from a couple of local servers (which sync from stratum 2 servers) rather than all of them going directly to the stratum 1 servers. They will at least stay close to each other if the office is cut off from the net. A lot of the methods used in NTP, including the use of stratum "number of hops from the reference" numbers to avoid loops and deal with network partitioning, were developed by the Bell System originally, or at least they made extensive use of it. Gordon L. Burditt sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon ------------------------------ From: hbaker@netcom.com (Henry Baker) Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Organization: nil organization Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 20:20:18 GMT In article , lchism@mcs.com wrote: > John R Levine wrote: >> The other two pieces, the one that builds equipment and >> the one that sells computers, remain unnamed. Clearly, this is a job > Since mean ol' Uncle Scrooge is no longer with us, how 'bout Huey, > Lewy, and Dewy? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Some of their competitors are hoping it > will turn out more like Moe, Curley and Larry of The Three Stooges. PAT] Between these three pieces and the Baby Bells, don't we now have the Decibels? www/ftp directory: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/hb/hbaker/home.html ------------------------------ From: izm@panix.com (Israel Moskowitz) Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Date: 10 Oct 1995 00:21:17 -0400 In article , John R Levine wrote: > I see in the press releases that after the three-way AT&T split, the > piece that handles telephone service and stuff like that will be > called AT&T. The other two pieces, the one that builds equipment and > the one that sells computers, remain unnamed. Clearly, this is a job > for The TELECOM Digest. How about AT&T BT&T CT&T ? izm@panix.com Israel Moskowitz WA2ZKG ------------------------------ From: bud@kentrox.com (Bud Couch) Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Organization: ADC Kentrox Industries, Inc. Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 11:31:42 GMT In article wwalker@qualcomm.com (Bill Walker) writes: > In article , John R Levine > wrote: >> I see in the press releases that after the three-way AT&T split, the >> piece that handles telephone service and stuff like that will be >> called AT&T. The other two pieces, the one that builds equipment and >> the one that sells computers, remain unnamed. Clearly, this is a job >> for The TELECOM Digest. > A person I talk to at the part that builds equipment has taken to saying > her employer is "the company formerly known as AT&T". I don't understand what is taking them so long ... unless one of the executive staff has a brother-in-law "conman^H^H^H sultant" that they are trying to employ to come up with a name. After all "Bell Labs/Western Electric" was good enough for the first eighty years or so. Bud Couch - ADC Kentrox bud@kentrox.com (192.228.59.2) ------------------------------ From: wa2ise@netcom.com (Robert Casey) Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 04:30:33 GMT How about: Moe, Larry and Curley Huey, Duey, and Louie (I used to work for the phone company (AT&T Bell Labs) untill I had a manager who shafted me. "The people of Bell Labs are very good, they have to be, to achieve what they do dispite the awful management there! ------------------------------ From: gshapiro@rain.org (Gary D. Shapiro) Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 15:21:55 -0700 Organization: Emperor Clothing Co. Why not just A, T and &T ? Gary D. Shapiro...on the WWW at http://www.rain.org/~gshapiro/ The quote that solves all problems goes here, but I've lost it. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 22:32:02 EDT From: mark@legend.akron.oh.us (Mark E. Daniel) Subject: Re: Dead Line, Annoying Red Tape I'm having a problem similar to that. Except that my line isn't really dead. It's just "off-hook" though nothing connected to that line is really off-hook. My two-line phone hapily reports "in-use" on that line. But I can't get it to go back on-hook. Ameritech might even fix it if they ever get around to it. Oh the fun of phone trouble and oh the stupidity of repair droans ... "Do you have a cordless or an answering machine?" ARGGG! Oh. The line actually comes and goes. When you can dial on it there is plenty of static. Then you just won't be able to make it go back on-hook after a call. Mark E. Daniel mark@legend.akron.oh.us (paged Notify) mark@lsi.ald.net (Direct INet [POP3]) ------------------------------ From: fenner@parc.xerox.com (Bill Fenner) Subject: Re: Dead Line, Annoying Red Tape Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 10:00:58 PDT Organization: Xerox Palo Alto Research Center In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to something from Linc Madison : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Perhaps they would have been willing to > forward the bad line to your other line for the day or so needed. PAT] PAC*Bell did this for us when our main line went dead -- we have two other POTS lines, with unlisted numbers and used for modem calls. When I complained about the fact that they claimed it was going to take two days before someone could come out and take a look at it, they offered to call-forward to one of the other lines, and I played some demarc games and wired that line to the house jacks. So we lost the use of a modem line, but people could still call us. (BTW, the situation when we lost one of our lines sounds a lot like Linc's -- one of N lines goes, but in our case the telco said there was a ringer on the line when I had it unplugged from the demarc! I spoke with a supervisor and suggested that our pair had been stolen by an installer [our neighborhood is short on pairs] and all of a sudden he found an open at the CO! Amazing.) Bill ------------------------------ From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: Bell Name Change Date: 9 Oct 1995 14:31:48 GMT Organization: Tulane University Stan Schwartz wrote: > I just thought I'd take this opportunity to mention that earlier this > week, the name change became official. Southern Bell and SouthWestern ^^^^^^^ > Bell became BellSOUTH. Just being nitpicky here- I live in New Orleans which is (was) South CENTRAL Bell (a BellSouth Company). ^^^^^^^ South *Central* Bell covers (covered) Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, while Southern Bell is (was) Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina South *Western* Bell is another operating company (and regional corporation) altogather (since the 1984 split) which covers Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri. And BTW, the logo for the 'regulated operating telephone company' division is the 'slanted' print of BELLSOUTH, with the word BELL in bold, but they *did* retain the actual little blue bell (circa 1970 version) with the name change. At least that is how it looks on the recent bill inserts describing the name change. About three or four years ago, there was a public notice that BellSouth was applying to the FCC (and other federal agencies) as well as all nine states' regulatory agencies for the 'name-merger'. A few months ago, it was announced that South Central Bell was changing its name to BellSouth. Sometime earlier this year, Business Office and Repair reps would answer the line as BellSouth. Last week, the 'ID' recording/jingle on 0+ inTRA LATA calls changed from South Central Bell to BellSouth and the 'live, human' operators were beginning to answer as BellSouth on operator assisted calls, altho' I think that some of them *might* still answer (or begin to answer a call) as South Central Bell (or Southern Bell for their territory) out of habit. Anyway, the bill insert requests customers to begin making out their checks to BellSouth. I've always made out *my* checks to "The South Central Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company" even tho' SCBell never had the '& Telegraph' as part of their name, while Southern Bell DID. Bell always accepted my checks, and I would assume that they will continue to do so even if I continue to make them out to the more 'traditional/ nostalgic' sounding name. MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@law.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John Levine) Subject: Re: Bell Name Change Date: Mon, 09 Oct 1995 16:45:29 GMT Organization: I.E.C.C. > I just thought I'd take this opportunity to mention that earlier this > week, the name change became official. Southern Bell and SouthWestern > Bell became BellSOUTH. Depatment of minor corrections: BellSouth is what used to be Southern Bell and South Central Bell. Southwestern Bell, which is its own RBOC, turned into SBC (named after their stock ticker symbol) but the last I heard their telco arm was still Southwestern Bell. This seems to be this year's fad in the RBOCs, since NYNEX got rid of the New England Tel and New York Tel, and Bell Atlantic got rid of all their great old company names including the Chesapeake and Potomac telephone companies and Diamond State Tel. US West merged their telco operations together some years ago, but considering the black eye they've given themselves with their horrendous third-world quality service in the southwest (reports of waiting a year for service to be connected), it's about time for them to pick a new name, too. Regards, John R. Levine, Trumansburg NY Primary perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" and Information Superhighwayman wanna-be ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 16:38:03 -0400 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Re: Bell Name Change Stan Schwartz wrote: > I just thought I'd take this opportunity to mention that earlier this > week, the name change became official. Southern Bell and SouthWestern > Bell became BellSOUTH. Actually, the two former subsidiaries of BellSouth were Southern Bell and South *Central* Bell. Southwestern Bell is another RBOC entirely. Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA ------------------------------ From: Stan Schwartz Subject: Re: Bell Name Change Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 19:02:44 -0400 > Depatment of minor corrections: BellSouth is what used to be Southern > Bell and South Central Bell. Whoops, you're right. MeaTeleCulpa. > This seems to be this year's fad in the RBOCs, since NYNEX got rid of > the New England Tel and New York Tel, and Bell Atlantic got rid of all > their great old company names including the Chesapeake and Potomac > telephone companies and Diamond State Tel. It seems like BellSOUTH's new name was partially to give it a bit more recognition at the '96 Olympics in Atlanta (BellSOUTH's HQ). They call themselves the "Official Telephone Company of the '96 Olympics". Like there's a choice? That's like calling Georgia the "Official State of Atlanta". ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Bell Name Change Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 01:43:48 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Stan Schwartz writes: > I just thought I'd take this opportunity to mention that earlier this > week, the name change became official. Southern Bell and SouthWestern > Bell became BellSOUTH. Nope, the other one is (was) South Central Bell. Actually the parent company has been called BellSouth since divestiture; it covers exactly the same territory Southern Bell did before South Central Bell was spun off in 1968, so the two have become one again. ------------------------------ From: ehunt@bga.com (Eric Hunt) Subject: Re: Bell Name Change Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 14:18:06 -0600 Organization: Lil' Ole' Me I was in Birmingham, Alabama three weeks ago and noticed that they were changing the South Central Bell tower downtown to say "BellSouth" on the top instead of the simple Bell logo that had been there since the tower was built. Eric Hunt ehunt@bga.com (preferred) Austin, TX hunt@metrowerks.com ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #428 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa07168; 11 Oct 95 7:58 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA11851 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 10 Oct 1995 16:30:05 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id QAA11843; Tue, 10 Oct 1995 16:30:02 -0500 Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 16:30:02 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510102130.QAA11843@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #427 TELECOM Digest Tue, 10 Oct 95 16:30:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 427 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Final CFP: JSC Special Issue on ETL (Mehmet Orgun) New French Numbering Plan (Patrick Raffin) Motorola GSM 8200 - Problems? (H.C. Eng) Information Needed About AT&T 7400A L1 DSU and NT1U-200 (bobo@ccnet.com) Need Past Issues of IEEE Communications Magazine (Jim Miller) 28800 Works Fine on Second Line, But Not on First (Toby Nixon) Wanted - Information on Harris Dracon TS21 Butt Set (radcom@intacc.net) Battery to a Device (Bruce Roberts) Converting V&H Coordinates to Latitude and Longitude (Sam Hartley) Caller ID During Call Waiting (Paul Cook) Scan and Reject Program From Pacific Bell (Daryl Frame) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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, 9 Oct 1995 10:54:08 +1000 From: Mehmet Orgun Subject: Final CFP: JSC Special Issue on ETL (Extended Deadline) [ NOTE: Deadline for submissions has been extended to 31 Oct. ] 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 31st 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 31st, 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 Mehmet A Orgun Tel: +61 (0)2 850 9570 Department of Computing Fax: +61 (0)2 850 9551 Macquarie University E-mail: mehmet@mpce.mq.edu.au Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia URL: http://www-comp.mpce.mq.edu.au/~mehmet ------------------------------ From: praffin@teaser.fr (patrick raffin) Subject: New French Numbering Plan Date: 9 Oct 1995 11:03:33 GMT Organization: Fluctuat nec mergitur (as of today) Reply-To: praffin@teaser.fr FRANCE NEW NUMBERING PLAN On 18 October 1996, most French telephone numbers will change. Here is what will happen, as far as it is documented now. All errors and omissions are mine (P. Raffin, 1995/10/08, praffin@teaser.fr). 0. French Telcos France Telecom is the public operator until 1998. They have a monopoly on non-mobile phones. They have also mobile networks (pagers, analogic, GSM, CT2). SFR (Societe Francaise du Radiotelephone) has two mobile networks: one analogic and one numeric (GSM) network. Bouygues has a pager network (Ermes). They have a license for a DCS 1800 mobile network. There are experiments for DECT networks as well. 1. Numbering plan in France today 1.1 Normal numbers Today, setting apart some special services which are on 2 or 4 digit numbers, all French phone numbers have 8 digits, plus one digit for the Paris area. Their format is: Z.AB.PQ.MC.DU, with Z being 1 or nothing, and A being neither 0 nor 1. (Note 1) 1.2 Area codes There are two areas in France: the Paris area and the rest of France. For Paris, there is an area code: the digit 1 (Z.AB.PQ.MC.DU) There is no area code for the rest of France. When calling inside the Paris area, you dial 8 digits; when calling from Paris to outside its area, you dial "16" plus 8 digits; when calling from ouside Paris to Paris you dial "16" plus "1" plus 8 digits; when calling from outside Paris to outside Paris you dial 8 digits. 1.3 Special numbers Special numbers on 8 digits are (no area code): 01 to 04 plus 6 digits: Eurosignal pagers (France, Europe) 05 plus 6 digits: toll free numbers 06 plus 6 digits: some other pagers 07 plus 6 digits: GSM mobile phones for France Telecom 09 plus 6 digits: GSM mobile phones for SFR 1.4 Basic special services Basic special services are on 2 digits, extended special services are on either 4 or 8 digits. The basic services are: 11 electronic directory (Minitel) 12 directory assistance 13 to report problems, out of service lines 14 your local telco office (France Telecom) 15 health emergency 16 inter area calls 17 police 18 fire brigade 19 international 10 currently not assigned 1.5 Extended services The extended services begin with 36; there are too many to list them all. Some have 4 digit numbers, some have 8 digit numbers, all begin with 36. (Note 2) Some of the 4 digit services are: 3612: Minitel mailboxes 3613, 3614, 3615, 3616, 3619: welcome screen for thousands of Minitel services (different tariffs) 3618: Minitel-to-Minitel (for deaf persons..) 3610, 3650: France Telecom calling card (automatic, operator) 3644: line testing robot 3655, 3656: telegrams (by phone, by Minitel) 3658: info about your phone bill 3672: voice mailboxes 3699: speaking clock Some of the 8 digit services are: (36xx plus 6 digits) 3606: Transpac (X25 public PSN) 3623, 3624, 3625, 3626, 3627, 3628, 3629: direct access (different tariffs) to some Minitel services 3660: some pagers (operator assisted calls) 3663, 3664, 3665, 3666, 3667, 3668, 3670: phone kiosk (different tariffs) 3673: voice mailboxes 1.6 Other services Other services (some need a subscription): *55* 4 digits # rings your phone at the given time #55* 4 digits # cancels this *#55* 4 digits # to verify this service *21* 8 or 9 digits # forwards your calls to the new number #21# to disable call forwarding *43# to enable second call on same line #43# to disable call waiting when you have 2 calls at the same time, you use the "flashing" key plus "2" to switch from one to the other, or plus "3" for a conference 1.7 International access The prefix for international and oversea access is 19. International and overseas departments and territories: 19 plus country code: direct dialing 19 33 plus country code: operator assisted call 19 33 12: directory assistance (33 is the country code for France, 12 is the number for DA in France) 19 33 00 plus country code: to call a foreign operator (calling cards) 1.8 Calling France When calling a number in France you dial your international access code plus 33 for France and either 1 plus 8 digits (Paris) or only 8 digits (outside the Paris area). 2. New numbering plan 2.1 Normal phone numbers On 18 oct 1996 at 23h, the numbers will be modified as follows: numbers in the Paris area will be 01 plus today's number (ABs: 30 34 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 51 53 55 60 64 69) numbers outside the Paris area will be 0x plus today's number: x= 2 for the North West (31 32 33 35 37 38 39 40 41 43 47 48 51 54 96 97 98 99) x= 3 for the Nort East (20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 44 60 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89) x= 4 for the South East (42 50 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 90 91 92 93 94 95) x= 5 for the South West (34 45 46 49 55 56 57 58 59 61 62 63 65) 2.2 Area code No area code, you dial 10 digits in all cases. 2.3 Special numbers Toll free numbers: 05 plus 6 digits will become 0800 plus 6 digits. All mobile numbers: 06 plus today's number on 8 digits. 2.4 Basic services Remain on 2 digits: 12 13 14 15 17 18. 2.5 Extended services Remain on 4 digits: most of the 36xx numbers. Most of the 36 plus 6 digits numbers will become 0836 plus 6 digits. The 3663 numbers (charged as a local call) will become 0801 plus 6 digits. 2.6 Other services [TBS; should not change] 2.7 International and oversea The 19 is replaced by 00. Oversea departments will be accessed as if they were internal French numbers: 0 plus "country" code plus internal number on 6 digits, instead of using 00. ("Country codes": 262 Reunion, 269 Mayotte, 508 St Pierre et Miquelon, 590 Guadeloupe, 594 Guyane, 596 Martinique) (Note 3) 2.8 Calling France When calling a number in France you dial your international access code plus 33 and 9 digits (the 10 digit French number without the leading 0). Notes: Note 1: Z.AB.PQ.MC.DU: Z stands for Zone, and MCDU for "milliers, centaines, dizaines, unites". I don't know where AB and PQ come from. Note 2: The use of 36 is for historical reasons: the first Minitel experiments happened in a town whose phone numbers began with a 6, at a time where they were on 7 digits; this town was in an area which received a 3 as first digit when they switched to 8 digits. As people and machines were used to dial such numbers as 613.13.13, then (3)613 ... which was shortened to 36.13, this number stuck. Many service providers spent a lot of money on commercials for 36.15 services. The AB 36 was carefully preserved across all following numbering plans. Note 3: care was taken that there is no confusion between local numbers and oversea numbers: 0262, 0269, 0508, 0590, 0594 and 0596 are unique to oversea). Patrick Raffin e-mail : praffin@teaser.fr ------------------------------ From: scv_rnd@technet.sg (H.C. Eng) Subject: Motorola GSM 8200 - Problems? Date: 10 Oct 1995 15:24:06 GMT Organization: Pacific Internet, Singapore I have a Motorola GSM 8200 phone. I bought Motorola thinking that it would have the best RF performance. But my experience proved otherwise. RF performance was bad, and this was easily verified when I operate it side by side with a Motorola 7200. Lately, I heard that there are some software bugs with the 8200, something like it locking to the weakest signal instead. Does anyone have more specifics on this problem, if it is real? H.C.Eng Singapore ------------------------------ From: bobo@ccnet.com Subject: Info Needed AT&T 7400A L1 DSU and NT1U-200 Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 06:51:23 PDT Organization: CCnet Communications (510-988-7140 guest) Installation Practice, wiring, general info needed for 7400A, also for NT1U-200. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: jam2904@aol.com (JAM2904) Subject: Need Past Issues of IEEE Communications Magazine Date: 10 Oct 1995 21:23:19 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: jam2904@aol.com (JAM2904) Urgently need past issues of IEEE Communications Magazine to replace some lost in recent vandalism of my personal property. The issues I need are: Mar. 90, July 90, Nov. 90, Feb. 92, May 92, Aug. 92, Dec. 92, Mar. 93, Aug. 94, Jan 95. IEEE reprint services only provides issues for prior three years; microfilm for older issues. "Ask IEEE" provides photocopies for $54 each! I really need good original magazines. Willing to pay reasonable price if you have these and no longer need them. Thanks! Jim Miller 594 Acacia Ave. Melbourne, Fl. 32904 (jam2904@aol.com or jmille03@harris.com) ------------------------------ From: Toby Nixon Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 12:58:44 PDT Subject: 28800 Works Fine on Second Line; But Not First I finally got tired of my wife and kids picking up the phone while I surfin' the net (or whatever) from home, and broke down and sprung for a second line. GTE hooked up the line to the demarc, and I ran an entirely new cable direct from the demarc to a jack in my office, into which the modem is plugged. On the first line, I'd been lucky to even get 26400 bps connections, and usually had 24000 or 21600. Now, though, every call I've made to a V.34 modem on the second line has connected at 28800. I suspect the difference results from the haphazard wiring on the first line -- it's really a mess with cable run over and next to AC lines, light fixtures, multiple stars, lots of unused branches, etc. -- a real do-it-yourself special (by previous homeowners, not me). Anyway, maybe this is a reasonable tip for folks who never seem to be able to get 28800: not only will a second line keep your calls from being interrupted, but it might, if you wire it directly, improve the performance as well. Toby ------------------------------ From: radcom@intacc.net (RadMan) Subject: Wanted - Information on Harris Dracon TS21 Butt Set Date: 9 Oct 1995 23:16:25 GMT Organization: Internet Access Inc. <613> 225-5595 I need some simple tech specs on HARRIS DRACON TS21 BUTT Test Set, namely, I need someone to open their unit and tell me where the two wires from both RECEIVER and SENDER carbons get connected on the main PCB. I called HARRIS DRACON at the 800 number and they were helping to an extent but wanted me to send it into REPAIRS @ $80 for the shot. This is really a no - brainer and I am qualified to do something this simple. I bought this unit at a swap meet and some gorilla tried to rewire it I guess, but never made notes and now I am stuck. I got some WIN CARDFILES with valuable Canadian Interconnect data in a database plus a very cool vendor information and grey market PBX/KEY CPE contacts I can share as INFO payment. HARRIS DRACON TS21 -020 model, mfr 8250 date board assy # 021-721848-001, all the silkscreen contacts start with "E" (ie E10 and E11...) John R 613-224-2922 but email back to radcom@ottawa.net. See what I do at http://www.ottawa.net/~radcom Thanx a bunch, the RadMan, in Ottawa, Ontario. ------------------------------ Subject: Battery to a Device From: bruce.roberts@panasia.com (Bruce Roberts) Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 12:27:00 -0800 Organization: Panasia BBS - North Hollywood, CA - (818) 763-1158 - No Fees! Reply-To: bruce.roberts@panasia.com (Bruce Roberts) Looking for a device to connect battery to a device and keep it out of the D4 channel bank card that feeds it. I have the -48V, just need the interface. Thanks in advance, TTFN -br- Bruce Roberts, bruce.roberts@panasia.com ------------------------------ From: xrictus@aol.com (Xrictus) Subject: Converting V&H Coordinates to Latitude and Longitude Date: 10 Oct 1995 14:52:47 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: xrictus@aol.com (Xrictus) Does anyone have the algorithm that Bellcore uses to convert Lattitute and Longitude to V&H coordinates (or visa versa)? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Sam Hartley Engineering - FCI ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 13:11 EST From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Caller ID During Call Waiting? Is anyone manufacturing Customer Premises Equipment yet which meets the Bellcore spec for receiving Caller ID during a Call Waiting signal? Paul Cook Proctor & Associates 3991080@mcimail.com Redmond, WA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 13:59:25 -0700 From: dframe@ix.netcom.com (Daryl Frame) Subject: Scan and Reject Program From Pacific Bell Does anyone know anything about the new Pacific Bell program called Scan and Reject? It is intended to restrict the maximum charge that can be billed in California by independent phone companies. This new program is supposed to go into effect starting December 1, 1995. Part of the criteria that is checked in the EMI record is whether the call originated from a COPT phone. If it did, then the charges are calculated by Pacific Bell based on some new formula and compared with the charges found in the EMI record. If the COPT computed charges are greater, the call record is rejected! Can anyone provide any specifics on this new program? ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #427 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa07410; 11 Oct 95 8:15 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA18557 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 10 Oct 1995 20:51:03 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id UAA18549; Tue, 10 Oct 1995 20:51:00 -0500 Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 20:51:00 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510110151.UAA18549@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #430 TELECOM Digest Tue, 10 Oct 95 20:51:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 430 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Ed Ellers) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Dave LeVasseur) Re: Dealing With Bell Atlantic re Line Noise (H.D. Knoble) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Bob Goudreau) Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number (Barry Margolius) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Gordon A. Lew) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Dale Farmer) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Ron Bean) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Ed Ellers) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? (Mike Curtis) Re: Slick Unit for POTS (David C. Pratt) Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! (Robert Ricketts) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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 Ellers Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 00:54:28 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Wes Leatherock writes: > There are many more people out there that are not computer > users than those who are computer users. And while you may be used to > dealing primarily with computer users who move their computers from > place to place, even the vast majority of the (rather small, in the > overall scheme of the world) number of people who have computers do > not move them from place to place or even from one line to another. But a lot of people do use telephones in cities other than their own, and would benefit from being able to dial a call in a consistent manner regardless of location. Say I head east from Louisville on I-64, and at some point I realize I need to call someone in Louisville to ask the address of my destination in Lexington. Depending on how far I've driven when the light bulb comes on in my head, I may be able to place this call by depositing a quarter and dialing seven digits, or I may need to dial eleven digits and deposit more money. I don't know exactly where that point is along I-64, but I know it's there. What harm would it do to set things up so that, when I dial eleven digits, I will be connected even if I'm still in the Louisville calling area? > If this would be the primary motivation, it would indeed mean > that the whole world has been remade for the benefit of software > companies, including the one that seems to have been the most > successful of all under the present system. Ah. Another Microsoft basher. Why is it that so many people on Usenet seem to think that whatever is good for Microsoft is bad for the world? Linc Madison writes: > In areas where the difference between local and toll calls is both > distinct and severe, it is reasonable to REQUIRE a 1 on all toll calls. > However, it is entirely STUPID and POINTLESS to *prohibit* the 1 on > local calls. It serves ABSOLUTELY no valid purpose. I guess the one reason for doing this (aside from it being a holdover from old switches that couldn't pass a 1+ local call back into the local network) would be that allowing 1+ local dialing would lull some people into believing that certain numbers they called were toll calls, just because they *thought* they were such and found that a 1+ call would go through. I'm not so sure this isn't outweighed, as you say, by the ease of allowing 1+ for anywhere to anywhere. > And as for the so-called "international standard" of 00, we in North > America will comply just as soon as the "standard" allows for > subscriber-dialed operator-assisted calls. Until then, a standard that > was written with deliberate and malicious disregard for the requirements > of the North American network will be disregarded, as it should be. Expect to get flamed for being undiplomatic, ignorant of the ways of the world, an ugly American imperialist, etc., etc. (Not by me, though!) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 13:10:25 CDT From: Dave LeVasseur Subject: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives In Telecom Digest #421, Marko Ruokonen wrote: > Think about a fax machine dialing a wrong number because someone > entered the number in a wrong "format" (leaving out 9 or prefixing it We, like many large businesses, occasionally get fax calls to our "front desk" number. This caused our receptionists some consternation since these calls, once started, came every five minutes or so. We finally hit on the idea of connecting a fax machine to one of our DID lines. The department that uses that fax can still give out the fax number (since it is a DID) AND our receptionists can forward a fax call to it for reception. This also allows them the satisfaction of picking up the fax and calling the perpetrator to give them the proper fax number. Dave LeVasseur, R&D Mgr, Midcom, Inc. N0DL dlevasseur@midcom.anza.com Watertown, SD USA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 11:12:44 EDT From: H. D. Knoble Subject: Re: Dealing With Bell Atlantic re Line Noise Organization: Penn State University I live on a rural line which goes about .4 miles up my lane. I had noisy lines too once. Called the local Bell of Atlantic office (near Bellfonte, PA) and made an appointment to talk with the resident engineer there. He had some tests run and it was determined that the line running up my lane was at fault. They stretched a brand new line in, mounted a new service box on my private pole. This solved my problem and allows easier diagnostics in the event a tree or something "injurs" the line in the future (I live in the middle of a forest). Bell is always doing maintenance on their lines. When miles and miles of lines may be overgrown, have old less reliable junctions and repeaters, etc., they value customer input so their priorities match customer satisfaction better. Ask for an appointement with the local Bell office engineer or CEO and then go out there and explain exactly what problems you're having. Get your facts at to times of day, line speeds, weather, dependency, etc. Make damn sure that you don't have any electrical line (e.g., power cord for your PC; power supply, lamp cord, etc.) within six inches of the phone line coming out of your modem or modem card; even if you have to tape your phone line away from these. Also make sure the same is true in your house or basement; that is, electrical inductance can and does mess up modem connections big time. Before you use your points with the Bell engineer, you also may wish to borrow another V.32 modem and try that to make certain it isn't a modem problem on your end. After doing this homework, then meet with Bell and ask for some testing to see if the problem can be isolated, or if the local Bell engineer already knows about a potential stretch of borderline data service problem in your neighborhood. It is my understanding that V.34 technology is pushing the present limit of standard phone lines. That you get 14.4 reliably says the lines aren't all that bad. Depending on where you are located, and where the source of the noise is, it may or may not be economically feasible to do a quick fix. The local Bell engineer can tell you where you stand in this regard -- assuming you are not on a Sprint phone:-) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 11:03:43 -0400 From: goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com (Bob Goudreau) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers villing@muc.de (Thomas Villinger) writes: > Why should it be impossible to get portable numbers? I don't > see any difference to the problems as they occur in a fixed > numbering scheme. We already do have "portable" numbers > (think of all the mobile phones which are in fact portable > numbers) and guess what i works :). Note that we do have a > hierarchical numbering system but still work with databases, > so it might be possible that a certain group of numbers get > collected in an exchange aand are routed after the last digit > which contains the necessary information is collected. I think you're missing the point. The term "portable numbers" is not a synonym for "portable telephones". Rather, it refers to the ability to *change your telco while still retaining the same telephone number*. Obviously, this isn't much of an issue yet in your country, where Deutsche Telekom is still an almost total monopoly. But it's about to become important here in the US, as competition for local telephone service is starting to appear. And we've already crossed the number-portability bridge when it comes to 800 (toll-free) numbers, where the recipient pays for the call, and thus gets to choose which long-distance carrier will handle the call. You can no longer assume *anything* about an 800 number (geographical destination or carrying telco) by looking at some leading prefix; you have to parse the entire number and then look it up in a database in order to route it. Long-term general number portability could mean that eventually *every* number works like this, allowing people to have "lifetime phone numbers" that stay with them even if they move to another state or choose to be served by another telephone company. Any scheme that relies on inferring such routing information from anything less than the entire phone number is thus an impediment to number portability. Bob Goudreau Data General Corporation goudreau@dg-rtp.dg.com 62 Alexander Drive +1 919 248 6231 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA ------------------------------ From: bfm@panix.com (Barry Margolius, NYC) Subject: Re: Dialing 911 Instead of Police's 7D Number Organization: Misconfigured client newsreader Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 15:10:47 GMT morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Mike Morris) wrote: > The police are a bit to blame also for the poor design of the system > that doesn't have a non-emergency number to call 24 hours, and the > workaround the dispatchers have to use to get around that design > (call 911). > And it would be nice to have a standard non-emergency number: perhaps > 912 or 999 could be used? All the hardware is in for 911, all it would > take is programming, and public education. Seems to me that we already have a standard non-emergency number: it's 911. Whether right or wrong, the police have apparently designed a response system around using 911 for both emergency and non-emergency problems. Everyone here seems to think this is blatantly stupid, but I'm not so sure. In any case, it's the way the police (at least here in NYC) have implemented the system, and for us to continue to abuse the system by calling the local numbers out of stubbornness is wrong. For example, it is my understanding that in New York, the local station cannot dispatch an officer, so if you call the local station to complain about, say, a drunk singing loudly at 2AM, they must then call 911 to get an officer dispatched. So, stupid system or not, it seems like we should be trying to use the existing system to it's best effect, or trying to change it; but trying to use the existing system as if it were the system we wanted is counter productive to both the individual and the system. Barry F Margolius, New York City (speaking for himself, not his employer) bfm@pobox.com For PGP Key, finger bfm@panix.com ------------------------------ From: glew@ionet.net (Gordon A. Lew) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 01:05:39 GMT Organization: Internet Oklahoma Dale.Robinson@DWNPLAZA.NCOM.nt.gov.au wrote: > Jeffrey Yee wrote, amongst other things: >> Is there a national reference that all telcos go by? Is it a satellite >> signal, radio signal, or what? IF so Where is it and is there only one? For those who might be interested, I have a small (5500 bytes) DOS program which will dial either the Naval Observatory or NIST and will then set your computer's clock to the correct time. It adapts to all time zones, and provides DST corrections automatically. Send me an e-mail if you want a copy of the program. While it does generate a long-distance call, the call durtaion is generally about 25 seconds, so cost is minimal. A description of the formats, etc. is below: Note: NIST will now accept connections at 1200, 2400, 4800 or 9600 BPS DESCRIPTION OF THE NIST AUTOMATED COMPUTER TELEPHONE SERVICE (ACTS) D L D MJD YR MO DA H M S ST S UT1 msADV 47999 90-04-18 21:39:15 50 0 +.1 045.0 UTC(NIST) * 47999 90-04-18 21:39:16 50 0 +.1 045.0 UTC(NIST) * 47999 90-04-18 21:39:17 50 0 +.1 045.0 UTC(NIST) * 47999 90-04-18 21:39:18 50 0 +.1 045.0 UTC(NIST) * 47999 90-04-18 21:39:19 50 0 +.1 037.6 UTC(NIST) # 47999 90-04-18 21:39:20 50 0 +.1 037.6 UTC(NIST) # etc..etc...etc....... UTC = Universal Time Coordinated, the official world time referred to the zero meridian. DST = Daylight savings time characters, valid for the continental U.S., are set as follows: 00 = We are on standard time (ST). 50 = We are on DST. 99 to 51 = Now on ST, go to DST when your local time is 2:00 am and the count is 51. The count is decremented daily at 00 (UTC). 49 to 01 = Now on DST, go to ST when your local time is 2:00 am and the count is 01. The count is decremented daily at 00 (UTC). The two DST characters provide up to 48 days advance notice of a change in time. The count remains at 00 or 50 at other times. LS = Leap second flag is set to "1" to indicate that a leap second is to be added at 23:59:60 (UTC) on the last day of the current UTC month. The LS flag will be reset to "0" starting with 23:59:60 (UTC). The flag will remain on for the entire month before the second is added. Leap seconds are added as needed at the end of any month. Usually June and/or December are chosen. DUT1 = Approximate difference between earth rotation time (UT1) and UTC, in steps of 0.1 second. DUT1 = UT1 - UTC MJD = Modified Julian Date, often used to tag certain scientific data. The full time format is sent at 1200 Baud, 8 bit, 1 stop, no parity. The format at 300 Baud is also 8 bit, 1 stop, no parity. At 300 Baud the MJD and DUT1 values are deleted and the time is transmitted only on even seconds. Maximum on line time will be 56 seconds. If all lines are busy at any time, the oldest call will be terminated if it has been on line more than 28 seconds, else, the call that first reaches 28 seconds will be terminated. Current time is valid at the "on-time" marker (OTM), either "*" or "#". The nominal on-time marker (*) will be transmitted 45 ms early to account for the 8 ms required to send 1 character at 1200 Baud, plus an additional 7 ms for delay from NIST to the user, and approximately 30 ms "scrambler" delay inherent in 1200 Baud modems. If the caller echoes all characters, NIST will measure the round trip delay and advance the on-time marker so that the midpoint of the stop bit arrives at the user on time. (In actuality, only the OTM need be echoed). The amount of msADV will reflect the actual required advance in milliseconds and the OTM will be a "#". The NIST system requires 4 or 5 consecutive delay measurements which are consistent before switching from "*" to "#". If the user has a 1200 Baud modem with the same internal delay as that used by NIST, then the "#" OTM should arrive at the user within +-2 ms of the correct time. However, NIST has studied different brands of 1200 Baud modems and found internal delays from 24 ms to 40 ms and offsets of the "#" OTM of +-10 ms. For many computer users, +-10 ms accuracy should be more than adequate since many computer internal clocks can only be set with granularity of 20 to 50 ms. In any case, the repeatability of the offset for the "#" OTM should be within +-2 ms, if the dial-up path is reciprocal and the user doesn't change the brand or model of modem used. This should be true even if the dial-up path on one day is a land-line of less than 40 ms (one way) and on the next day is a satellite link of 260 to 300 ms. In the rare event that the path is one way by satellite and the other way by land line with a round trip measurement in the range of 90 to 260 ms, the OTM will remain a "*" indicating 45 ms advance. For user comments write: NIST-ACTS Time and Frequency Division Mail Stop 847 325 Broadway Boulder, CO 80303 NAVAL OBSERVATORY FORMAT DDDDD jjj hhmmss UTC crlf*crlf DDDDD is the MJD as in the NIST format. jjj is the day number of the year. hhmmss is the hour, minute and second. As in the NIST format, the '*' is the OTM, but there is no allowance for transmission delays, nor does it change. Gordon A. Lew glew@ionet.net ------------------------------ From: dale@cybercom.net (Dale Farmer) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 10 Oct 1995 22:27:53 GMT Organization: Cyber Access Internet Communications, Inc. Clarence Dold (dold@rahul.net) wrote: > Jeffrey Yee (jyee@unixg.ubc.ca) wrote: >> I have a question. Where does telco obtain their time signal from to >> synchronize their clocks and equipment. I was in a CO one time when i A couple of years ago, (last time I got a standard reference catalog from them.) The National Bureau of Standards had in their catalog a dos program that would using a modem call and sync your PCs clock to the Naval Observatory clock to some obscenely high standard of accuracy, way higher than the out of the box PC is capable of. It was five bucks or so, probably just enough to pay for it's costs of copying & shipping the disks. Some of the other reference materials were VERY expensive. Dale ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 18:57 CDT From: madnix.uucp!zaphod@nicmad.nicolet.com (Ron Bean) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Since WWV and WWNH can frequently both be > heard in many parts of the central and western United States, there is an If you write to the station they'll send you a booklet that explains all this and more. They announce the address on the half-hour, but here it is: NIST/Radio Station WWV 2000 East County Rd 58 Ft Collins CO 80524 In addition to WWV and WWVH, the booklet describes a coded time signal (no voice) broadcast on WWVB at 60kHz, and another time signal broadcast from the GOES satellites (GOES = Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite). Since many Digest readers are interested in history, I'll copy the timeline from the booklet: March 1923 First scheduled broadcasts of WWV, Washington DC April 1933 WWV gets first 20 kW transmitter, Beltsville, Maryland Jan 1943 WWV relocated to Greenbelt, Maryland Nov 1948 WWVH commenced broadcasts, Maui, Hawaii Jan 1950 WWV added voice announcements July 1956 WWVB began 60 kHz broadcasts (as KK2XEI), Sunset, Colorado April 1960 WWVL began 20 kHz experimental broadcasts, Sunset, Colorado July 1963 WWVB began high power broadcasts, Ft Collins, Colorado Aug 1963 WWVL began high power broadcasts, Ft Collins, Colorado July 1964 WWVH added voice announcements Dec 1966 WWV relocated to Ft Collins, Colorado July 1971 WWVH relocated to Kauai, Hawaii June 1972 First leap second in history was added to UTC time scale July 1972 WWVL went off the air Jan 1974 Voice announcements changed from GMT to UTC (WWV/WWVH) July 1974 GOES satellite time code initiated March 1975 Frequency calibration network using network color TV became a nationwide service Feb 1977 20- and 25-MHz broadcasts from WWV and 20 MHz broadcasts from WWVH were discontinued Dec 1978 20 MHz broadcasts from WWV were reinstated Feb 1984 Frequency Measurement Service began March 1988 Automated Computer Time Service (ACTS) began on experimental basis [this is the dial-up modem service] madnix!zaphod@nicmad.nicolet.com (Ron Bean) ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 01:13:03 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) writes: > I have remote call forwarding on my home phone. When I work, > I generally forward my line to my desk at work and answer with my > company name. Interesting dilemna here should a telco person call my > home during the time I am forwarded to my office. Any feedback. It shouldn't be hard at all for the phone company to determine that you had call forwarding turned on, to a business number, at that time. I can't see them squawking about it. ------------------------------ From: wd6ehr@kaiwan.com (Mike Curtis) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Options? Date: 10 Oct 1995 13:59:05 -0700 Organization: KAIWAN Internet (310-527-4279,818-756-0180,909-785-9712) >> (2) at an address which has historically been used for business, then >> any service installed there must be business service; however at an >> address which has historically been residential in nature then residence >> service is available *unless the line is being used for business purposes.* > Refer again to above. > Richard Eyre-Eagles, KJ7MU Tempe, Arizona Amateur radio repeaters are usually located at commercial radio sites. Historically, the phone company has insisted that autopatches (telephone line access) use commercial lines, even though business communication is expressly forbidden by the FCC. Several years back, this was overturned, and amateur autopatches may insist on residential service even though the autopatch is located in a commercial site. Mike Curtis wd6ehr@kaiwan.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 02:15:32 -0400 From: Pratt, David C. (REU) Subject: Re: Slick Unit for POTS > There are two type of Slicks and I'm interested in hearing what > other people's experiences are with them. A "slick" refers to a SLC-96, which stands for Subscriber Loop Carrier and carries 96 POTS lines over 2 or 4 DS1 (T1) spans. A SLC is AT&T's brand of Digital Loop Carrier (DLC) although in the telco most folks call a DLC a "SLC." General requirements for DLC can be found in TR-57. > One type is a "Universal Slick" which will allow DDS2 as well -- > something I won't be needing much more of with the recent arrival of > Frame Relay. It's not so much that there are two types of DLC, it's that there are 2 ways to set it up. "Universal" means that the interface at the central office is analog. That is, there is a SLC-96 terminal in the central offIce which has 96 phone line inputs. These are wired onto 96 conventional phone lines out of the switch then transported over the DS1 links out to the remote terminal where the telephones are acutally connected. Since there are two ends to the system the non-Bell world calls this method of setting up the DLC "Double-Ended." The other method to connect a DLC is "integrated." (In non-Bell referred to as "single-ended") In an integrated system the Remote DLC is connected directly into the switch on DS1 lines. The SLC interfaces to the switch according to a spec in TR-8. A newer standard, TR-303 is beginning to roll out now. The 60 lines off hook at one time is a restriction on the 5ESS switch module (DCLU, the newer one is called IDCU) on how many lines can be active at once. Integrated has the advantage of eliminating back-to-back analog devices which can degrade the audio. On traditional SLC you are correct in stating that designed special services like DDS and FX will not work -- this is because the traditional way to deliver these is thru analog connections at the CO. Several newer DLC systems are available that can give you the best of both worlds -- both integrated and universal in the same system. Use the integrated for low cost, high-quality POTS, and groom channels to universal for specials. > Nynex voiced concern (who woulda thought?) that some slicks might not > be able to support full speed 28.8 connects,something of extreme > importance for an ISP. Most all DLC technology has trouble in some cases with high modem speeds. This is because DLCs are designed and tested to a set of specs (TR-57) which describe VOICE characteristics. In addition the tariffs are written around VOICE parameters. The telco cannot guarantee that your modem will work at ANY speed, even 1200 baud! They do, however, do the best they can because competition is beginning to sprout up and they don't want to alienate people too much. In general I would suggest that integrated SLC is better - it eliminates back-to-back hybrids. Also try to take a little responsibility yourself for getting the modems working -- study the modems and figure out how to set their transmit and receive levels. This is the main problem with using DLC vs cable -- the DLC levels are higher since it hasn't gone thru the cable loss. If you adjust your modem to account for the "short loop" you'll be in better shape. Dave Pratt prattd@reu.reliance.sprint.com ------------------------------ From: Robert Ricketts Subject: Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! Organization: Panhandle Eastern Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 20:08:19 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And provided that once you know of the > problem you *immediatly* quit using the carrier's services, prepending > the requisite 10xxx code to regain the carrier you desire until the > service has been reinstated. See, its not only that slamming goes on. > People find out they have been slammed, and then proceed to milk it to > the hilt for a month or two, running up huge bills all the while claiming > ignorance. Then of course comes the bill and they claim they knew nothing > of it. It would be pretty easy to see through the claim of ignorance made by a party who racked up huge charges just for a month or two just to take free advantage of service. >> I'm unsure quite how this works. If I receive a package addressed and >> delivered to me (e.g. not delivered to the wrong person) that I did >> not order, I believe I have the right to keep it without paying for it >> even if billed at a later time. (An obvious exception is the negative >> option refusal method used by record and book clubs. But with those, >> the negative option refusal is part of the contract you agree to.) > Clarence Dold wrote: > But you _did_ order the package (place the phone call). You're upset > that it didn't come from the company that you ordered it from, but > they might be a supplier to a clearing house that you don't know. And a call to that supplier inquiring about the package arriving from the clearing house would yield that information, in which case I have no objection. But if I subscribe to, say, AT&T then all of the sudden start getting serviced and billed by MCI, then I cry foul. Wether or not I received service from MCI is beside the point. The point is I did not authorize MCI to change my service -- they offered without my consent, so they pay. (AT&T and MCI were used as examples. I have no complaints about either company.) > That's how that rule came to be passed back in the 1950's; not so that > people today could stiff a long distance carrier out of a few dollars due > to a clerical error made somewhere. The rule is, if there is/was *any > basis* for the action to take place (signed order, phone call from someone, > etc) and the company acted in good faith, then you are *not* permitted > to benefit from the error the company made. PAT] But the company did NOT act in good faith. That's the whole point. I have received packages in the mail before, sometimes quite valuable, that I did not order. One call to the company generates an apology and a UPS call tag is promptly mailed to me. I affix the tag and send it back. No problem. Now, were I to knowingly continue to receive free products and services for months on end or even take extraordinary advantage of them, then *I* would not be acting in good faith, and I should pay. But that's not what started this thread. It started because Wiltel acted in bad faith by enganging in slamming, a frequently occuring practice. Wiltel should not be rewarded with compensation of any amount for their fraudulent behaviour, even at prevailing market rates. Otherwise, why would they stop? Economic disincentive will slow them down. Sadly, slamming will continue as many people who are slammed probably don't realize it -- they just continue to pay their bill. As for clerical errors, that could not happen if, as I originally posted, the LEC required a PIN or SIGNED letter authorizing the change. PS: I received a printed copy of my original post via *inter-office mail* from an anonymous sender with some important people CC'd. Whoever you are, your anonymous mailing was cowardice and in poor taste. Please identify yourself. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #430 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa16896; 12 Oct 95 4:29 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA15515 for telecomlist-outbound; Wed, 11 Oct 1995 19:21:19 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA15507; Wed, 11 Oct 1995 19:21:17 -0500 Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 19:21:17 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510120021.TAA15507@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #431 TELECOM Digest Wed, 11 Oct 95 19:21:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 431 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: GlobeSpan (ISDN Speeds on POTS) (Henry Baker) Re: GlobeSpan (ISDN Speeds on POTS) (Rupert Baines) Re: GlobeSpan (ISDN Speeds on POTS) (Chris Batts) Re: CIS No Longer Charges For Internet Mail (Mike Curtis) Re: Caller ID During Call Waiting (Lynne Gregg) Answering Service For Inbound Telemarketing (Andrew Salisbury) Re: Dead Line, Annoying Red Tape (Mike Curtis) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Kee Chan) Re: The Irony of the AT&T Breakup (Ed Ellers) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Clive D.W. Feather) Re: Payphones For Prisons (Dave Levenson) Re: Old Telco Question (Mark J. Cuccia) Re: Last Laugh! Trying to Call the Nowhere Man (Scott Montague) New Telecom WWW Page (anadigicom@aol.com) Administrivia: Lost Mail Tuesday Overnight/Wednesday (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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: hbaker@netcom.com (Henry Baker) Subject: Re: GlobeSpan (ISDN Speeds on POTS) Organization: nil organization Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 20:34:30 GMT In article , johnl@iecc.com (John R Levine) wrote: >> What is the deal with this? Has anyone else head of this? > SDSL is real, but it's not all that revolutionary. The predecessor > ADSL provided T1 one way, 64K or so the other way over copper, SDSL > gives you T1 both ways. The phone line is indeed copper, but it > requires fancy equipment at each end, like ISDN only more so. I > believe it has stringent requirements both on maximum line length and > line quality. There were several companies showing SDSL/ADSL at Telecom'95 in Geneva. Prices are $1500-$2000 for the equipment at both ends per subscriber at medium volume production. At high volume, the costs could drop precipitously. Of course, you still have the problem of paying for multi-megabit links from your local switch to somewhere else, which could cost > $500/month. What's needed is for an entire town in the U.S. to switch to this technology at one time. This would enable a real test of what's possible. It should be a relatively wealthy community. Suggestions: Jackson Hole, Wy. Montecito, CA Aspen, CO parts of Long Island, NY .... www/ftp directory: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/hb/hbaker/home.html ------------------------------ From: Rupert Baines Subject: Re: GlobeSpan (ISDN Speeds on POTS) Date: 11 Oct 1995 00:52:25 GMT In article John R Levine, johnl@iecc.com writes: >>> What is the deal with this? Has anyone else head of this? > SDSL is real, but it's not all that revolutionary. The predecessor > ADSL provided T1 one way, 64K or so the other way over copper, SDSL > gives you T1 both ways. The phone line is indeed copper, but it > requires fancy equipment at each end, like ISDN only more so. I > believe it has stringent requirements both on maximum line length and > line quality. ADSL is an alternative, not a "predecessor". Many (most ?) applications will prefer higher speed but assymetric access: ANSI have recently standardised ADSL as T1.413 with rates of 6.1Mbps downstream and up to 640Kbps duplex over a CSA loop (12 kft). Higher speeds for shorter reach, or lower rates for longer. This is over a standard copper loop, at the same time as normal POTS (they co-exist), but it does require a modem at each end (one at home, one at CO, where it can connect to a nice big OC-n pipe). Why the asymetry? More people watch videos than make them, more people download web content than host it at home. Nuff said. And even the "low speed" duplex is many times basic rate ISDN...! (NB The assymetry can't be *too* severe - say 10:1 - or data protocols get bottlenecked by slow ACK return). > ADSL always seemed to be like a reasonable technology for client > network users, but it never went anywhere. Don't know why. It's getting there. A lot of trials, and commercial boxes are staring to appear. Most so far are based on AT&T's chipset, which is non-standard-compliant (shades of V.terbo ?), but a ANSI compliant chipset has been announced by Analog Devices/Aware, and Motorola, Orkit, Alcatel have their own developments; companies such as Westell are releasing solutions. You can expect to see ADSL modems getting common next year. Rupert Baines ADSL Marketing Analog Devices ------------------------------ From: Chrisbatts@aol.com Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 11:35:17 -0400 Subject: Re: GlobeSpan (ISDN Speeds on POTS) Organization: Aware, Inc. In response to a recent query about AT&T Paradyne's GlobeSpan, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, remarked about ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line). > SDSL is real, but it's not all that revolutionary. The predecessor > ADSL provided T1 one way, 64K or so the other way over copper, SDSL > gives you T1 both ways. The phone line is indeed copper, but it > requires fancy equipment at each end, like ISDN only more so. I > believe it has stringent requirements both on maximum line length and > line quality. > ADSL always seemed to be like a reasonable technology for client > network users, but it never went anywhere. Don't know why. ADSL is a communications technology that increases the usable bandwidth of a single copper telephone line, allowing audio, data and video communications without interruption of normal phone service (POTS). While John's comments were correct as far as they go, ANSI standard ADSL data rates are much higher than the data rates he stated. Standard compliant ADSL provides for up to 6Mb/s downstream and 640kb/s upstream (or duplex) throughput over CSA loops of up to 12k feet on 24 gauge twisted pair copper wire. Faster rates are probably achievable over shorter loops. While these aren't LAN speeds, they're a lot faster than a T1 or ISDN, much less a 28.8 modem. ADSL falls under the auspices of the ANSI T1E1.4 working group. The data rates John stated were for AT&T Paradyne's implementation of ADSL, which is not ANSI standard compliant. I think ETSI has adopted ANSI's ADSL standard as well. While there are various approaches for implementing ADSL, ANSI chose discrete multitone (DMT) as the modulation technique for provisioning ADSL. DMT was picked as the modulation scheme of choice because of it's inherent superiority in resistance to RF and narrowband interferes compared to single carrier modulation techniques. Simply put, higher data rate throughput. ADSL was originally proposed several years ago by Bellcore for delivering video services to residences, however interest waned as the telcos soon realized that no financial model could justify provisioning networks for ADSL based on cash flows solely from residential customers. Also, technology providers could not deliver product with adequate performance characteristics in a timely fashion. Interest has recently resurfaced due to the quickly growing demand for high speed data services, particularly Internet access, by both business and residential consumers. Data service isbelieved to be a financially viable service for the telcos to offer. The key to the ADSL market is seen as getting the incremental cost of ADSL devices, such as modems, router cards or switch modules for COs, down to some magic number ($300 per end has been frequently mentioned) that the market will bear. Although several companies are working on ADSL products, Analog Devices is currently the only chip vendor with ANSI standard compliant product available to telecomm OEMs. Several trials around the world using ADSL technology have been conducted proving the technology works and more are planned. Other services envisioned for ADSL include telecommuting/remote LAN access, distance learning and video conferencing. Higher speed versions of ADSL called VDSL (Very high speed ADSL) are planned (26 to 51Mb/s downstream) for more advanced architectures like FTTC (Fiber-to-the-Curb) with shorter loop lengths of 3k feet or less. ADSL is seen as playing a crucial role in the deployment of broadband services until broadband cabling reaches all prospective subscribers, which could take 10 years or more. The installed copper architecture represents the most significant investment by the telcos. Reusing those loops for broadband architectures would save a large amount of capital and speed up introduction of multimedia services. ADSL is a physical layer protocol and could therefore run just about anything on top of it including images, digital video, voice, ISDN, TCP/IP, ATM, ethernet or token ring packets. It will not handle broadcast video. Contact the ADSL Forum for more information. http://www.sbexpos.com/sbexpos/associations/adsl/home.html or ADSLForum@adsl.com. ------------------------------ From: wd6ehr@kaiwan.com (Mike Curtis) Subject: Re: CIS No Longer Charges For Internet Mail Date: 10 Oct 1995 14:17:32 -0700 Organization: KAIWAN Internet (310-527-4279,818-756-0180,909-785-9712) Ed Greenberg (edg@best.com) wrote: > In article , Dunscomb > wrote: >> Since CIS charges for Internet mail, and AOL doesn't, for me it's the > CIS no longer charges for internet mail. You read or download your > internet mail using the free hours per month just like any other mail. > Of course, if you use more hours than you are given, you pay for them, > but isn't that true of all services? Nope -- there are LOTS of ISPs who offer shell accounts for very cheap. I pay $15 per month to Kaiwan for unlimited usage. The shell account allows me to do one thing at a time (i.e. ftp, mail, www, etc.), and permits SLIP emulators such as TIA during non-prime time (you get bounced if you use TIA, etc., during 6 pm to 11:59 pm) Kaiwan covers much of Southern California with local access numbers. I don't have them handy, but feel free to drop me email and I'll look them up for you. Mike Curtis wd6ehr@kaiwan.com ------------------------------ From: Lynne Gregg Subject: Caller ID During Call Waiting Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 16:08:00 PDT Paul Cook asked: > Is anyone manufacturing Customer Premises Equipment yet which meets > the Bellcore spec for receiving Caller ID during a Call Waiting > signal? Yes, several manufacturers are working on wireline terminals. AT&T Wireless Services supports Caller ID with Call Waiting in it's network (TDMA cellular sets). Regards, Lynne ------------------------------ From: latinnet@aol.com (Latin Net) Subject: Answering Service For Inbound Telemarketing Date: 10 Oct 1995 16:05:12 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: latinnet@aol.com (Latin Net) My company is trying to find an answering service to handle a large volume of calls through a voice mail / auto attendant setup. We have been talking to Sprints' Telemedia service and want to see if there are other companies who might be suitable. We want to be able to send aprox 20,000 mins per month through this platform. Does anyone have any suggestions. Thanks, Andrew Salisbury ------------------------------ From: wd6ehr@kaiwan.com (Mike Curtis) Subject: Re: Dead Line, Annoying Red Tape Date: 10 Oct 1995 13:36:16 -0700 Organization: KAIWAN Internet (310-527-4279,818-756-0180,909-785-9712,714-638-4133,805-294-9338) > ... I thus called back to 611 and asked them to > divert my number to a "temporarily out of service" recording until they > fix it. NO CAN DO. That requires approval from the Business Office, > which isn't open on Sunday. Apparently this is to prevent the repair > office from making an unauthorized diversion of my line to a recording, > in case some scofflaw calls up impersonating me and reports trouble on > my line just to harrass me. This is a valid concern. I've had my business lines disconnected by a former associate who owed me money and didn't like the fact that I refused to pay for some shared yellow pages advertising (in his name) until he'd settled up. I'd much rather apologize to people on Monday for the outage over the weekend than lose my business lines during business hours. Mike Curtis wd6ehr@kaiwan.com ------------------------------ From: kee@ssc.eecs.harvard.edu (Kee Chan) Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Date: 10 Oct 1995 22:42:02 GMT Organization: Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University Reply-To: kee@eecs.harvard.edu > I see in the press releases that after the three-way AT&T split, the > piece that handles telephone service and stuff like that will be > called AT&T. The other two pieces, the one that builds equipment and > the one that sells computers, remain unnamed. Clearly, this is a job > for The TELECOM Digest. I think the best names are : AT&T, Western Electric, and National Cash Register :-) Kee kee@eecs.harvard.edu ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: The Irony of the AT&T Breakup Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 01:20:25 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Garrett A. Wollman writes: > 1) AT&T is the RBOCs' principal supplier of switches and related > equipment. > 2) AT&T is also a large long-distance company. > 3) The RBOCs want to compete with AT&T in the LD market. > 4) AT&T wants to compete with the RBOCs in the LEC market. > 5) NCR has been a money sink since AT&T bought it. 6) AT&T wouldn't mind being able to sell switches to other long distance > companies, either. According to a recent AT&T Technical Journal (available on their Web site in Acrobat format), they just recently finished installing new 1B processors on all of their 4ESS toll switches, which previously had 1A processors (same as those on the 1AESS analog end office switch, AFAIK). There are less than 150 of these switches in existence, and less than ten are in use outside AT&T. Somehow I can't see AT&T putting all that money into developing a new fault-tolerant processor for an ESS unless they hoped to sell some more switches with that processor, and from what I've seen there isn't much demand for new processors for 1AESS analog switches. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 10:39:45 +0100 (BST) From: Clive D.W. Feather > Changing the subject a little, can anyone tell me where I can find a > list of the display images used with the variable-length phone numbers > used internationally? That is: for any country code, the typical > length of the number and where the dashes go. > I have a database of country codes and the name of the country that > goes with it, but not much more. My only "source" giving a clue about > the display is an "Airman's Guide" I found in a bookstore where a > German phone number is displayed as eleven digit "WW-XXXX-YY-ZZZ", > English as eleven digit "WW-XXX-YY-ZZZZ" and Japan as ten digit > "XX-YYYY-ZZZZ". The first three digits is the country code, so how > does the remainding numbers appears locally in that country? I doubt you'd ever find such a thing. For example, the following are all correctly formatted UK telephone numbers: (0113) 234 5678 (0121) 234 5678 (01234) 567890 (01234) 77777 (012 468) 34567 (012 468) 4567 0800 123456 0763 123456 07010 123456 0800 1111 ------------------------------ From: dave@westmark.com (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Payphones For Prisons Organization: Westmark, Inc. Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 00:43:30 GMT For prison phones, check out Omniphone. They offer COCOT-style high- security telephones of various kinds, including a system designed specifically for correctional institutions. Dave Levenson Internet: dave@westmark.com Westmark, Inc. UUCP: uunet!westmark!dave Stirling, NJ, USA Voice: 908 647 0900 Fax: 908 647 6857 ------------------------------ From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: Old Telco Question Date: 9 Oct 1995 14:43:29 GMT Organization: Tulane University Stan Schwartz wrote: > I was walking in one of the yuppified sections of Uptown Charlotte > today, when I noticed a person-hole cover that said "W.U.Tel.Co." Again, speaking of namechanges and manhole covers, New Orleans still has many manhole covers (which I've seen Bell maintenance workers still going into) which state 'CT&T'. Back in the earlier decades of this century (I don't have the *exact* years of name changes), the local telco was known as The Cumberland Telephone & Telegraph Company. It *was* a Bell operating company, and I *think* that it served the *same* five states which South Central Bell later handled. Sometime in the 1920's or 30's it was either merged into, or changed its name to *Southern* Bell. Sometime around 1970. AT&T's Bell System carved out a new Bell operating company name -- South Central Bell, only to be remerged with the four states of Southern Bell as BellSouth with the 1984 divestiture- and now with the actual names of operating companies. Sometime in the late 1960's or early 1970's, Pacific Northwest Bell (covering Oregon, Washington, southern part of Idaho) was 'carved' out of Pacific Telephone & Telegraph (now Pac*Bell). Pac NW Bell was 'put-into' US West rather than Pacific*Telesis corporation in the 1984 Bell System breakup. There were many many other names of Bell operating companies used through the years. These have faded from memory due to mergers and name changes, most of which happened prior to 'The War' (WW-II). MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@law.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail ------------------------------ From: 4sam3@qlink.queensu.ca (Scott Montague) Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Trying to Call the Nowhere Man Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 19:46:17 GMT Organization: Queen's University at Kingston Reply-To: 4sam3@qlink.queensu.ca Pat, you asked: > Does anyone remember that mess of a few years ago when some of the > carriers were playing tricks by not allowing a voice path to open until > supervision was established? Of course when operators answer you there > is no supervision for billing purposes. Normally the intercept messages > are just one way requiring you to listen. You don't speak back to them. In > the case of 'operator handled intercept' of course it took a two-way > conversation: the operator asking what number you dialed, you respoding > and the computer speaking about what the operator punched in. If you > placed your call via some carrier that did not open a voice path until > supervision and you wound up getting a Bell Inward Operator at some place > handling intercept duties, you could not speak to her. > She would respond something like, 'Southern Bell Inward, what number did > you dial?'. You would respond but she could not hear you. She would > scream in the phone a couple more times at you and you would scream back > at her to no avail -- there was no talking path! Thus came the now > seldom heard 'intercept' message, "In certain cases, customers of long > distance companies other than AT&T may not be able to speak with the > operator when she answers. If this has happened to you, please hang up > and dial *your own operator* to ask for assistance." I think all those > kinks have since been resolved; there are virtually no 'operator handled > intercept' situations any longer. Well, not quite. Up here in Bell Canada land, we still have operator handled intercepts (try +1-705-234-2222 or +1-705-864-1160, provincial parks that have shut down for the season). This is for the REALLY old crossbar and stepper switches in remote northern Ontario. She will answer with a "Bell Canada, What number did you dial please?". Unfortunately, according to Radio Services, customers from certain American carriers *such as AT&T* will not be able to speak to the Bell Canada operator, which of course annoys the heck out of them. My question: if American carriers allow voice path on domestic unsupervised calls, why won't they allow it with a reputable interoperable company such as Bell Canada? Scott. (Who still is annoyed that Bell has a short 4 sec timeout between dialed digits) Scott Montague / "Montague of \ 4th Kingston Assistant Cub Leader 4sam3@qlink.queensu.ca \ the Mounted" / * Proud to be Canadian * <> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I tried those two numbers you suggested as examples, and both simply rang and rang and rang with no answer from anyone, let alone an operator. PAT] ------------------------------ From: anadigicom@aol.com (Anadigicom) Subject: New Telecom WWW Page Date: 11 Oct 1995 15:30:34 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: anadigicom@aol.com (Anadigicom) The new www site above has information for applications involving T1/E1 rate conversion, signaling conversion, channel bank multiplexing equipment and much more! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If I get one plug in the mail each day for some new WWW site, I must get a dozen! Most I just dispose of without using since I had to be a billboard for everyone else. Then someone sends along one that looks like it might be interesting, like this guy, and he fails to give the actual www address. I suppose one could probably locate it with a bit of trial and error, however you would think when someone wants me to advertise for them, they'd at least send full information on how to reach them. I guess interested parties can write to the above and ask how to connect with his web page. PAT] ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Administrivia: Lost Mail Tuesday Overnight/Wednesday Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 19:03:00 CDT Due to a malfunction here, all EDITORIAL mail sent to the Digest from about 9:00 PM Tuesday night through about 6:00 PM Wednesay was lost in processing. If you wrote to me and got back an autoreply from anytime late Tuesday evening through late afternoon Wednesday, chances are likely your mail *was not received* even though you got a receipt saying it was. Please send it again. I receive on average about 600-700 pieces of email daily. I believe that all mail relating to subscriptions and other stuff was received and processed correctly. PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #431 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa18837; 12 Oct 95 9:43 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id WAA18969 for telecomlist-outbound; Wed, 11 Oct 1995 22:50:34 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id WAA18961; Wed, 11 Oct 1995 22:50:32 -0500 Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 22:50:32 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510120350.WAA18961@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #432 TELECOM Digest Wed, 11 Oct 95 22:50:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 432 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Civics Lesson (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (tms@dukepower.com) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (George Fry) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Ed Ellers) Update on GLU (R. Jagannathan) Updated GSM List (Jurgen Morhofer) Automatic Privacy Cord (roys@sos.net) CCITT Standards (100322.2352@compuserve.com) AT&T Passageway CTI (Eric Griffith) Re: Old Telco Question (Paul J. Zawada) Administrivia: Lost Mail Tuesday Overnight/Wednesday (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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: Civics Lesson Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 19:40:00 CDT Today students, we shall examine different government agencies and their purposes. FCC - The Federal Communications Commission has the responsibility of regulating the airwaves and the phone companies. FAA - The Federal Aviation Administration has something to do with airplanes and their flying around in the USA. Let's see ... what about the United States Customs Service? Well ... they are in charge of manufacturing and distributing child pornography on the Internet. They have a pretty large operation for that in south Florida now. Their objective is to entrap whoever they can by sending it out through email to see who takes the bait. They also get involved in 'hot chat' looking for people interested in the garbage they have for sale. Now of course if they were to send it out from a site with an address ending in .gov or .mil or similar, only someone like your Editor, who fell off the back of the turnip truck yesterday would be inclined to exchange any correspondence with them at all. So they had to find some other Internet service provider willing to give them a few bogus accounts and ficticious names to use. Wait a minute, I hear you saying ... what sort of service provider would deliberatly allow child pornography to be pushed out into the net via their site? Well, America OnLine would do it. When Steve Case was approached by the Customs 'service' asking for a few accounts and screen names to be used specifically for the purpose of sending out child porn to unsuspecting netters, he agreed. After all, the FBI was already doing their thing on AOL, so why not let Customs in on it also? By their own admission in recent articles in the mainstream press, the United States Customs Service took over a child pornography operation in Florida about two years ago, and has continued to operate it. What they did not go into detail about however was how they go about finding people they can set up. And that is what it amounts to; it is a numbers game to get as many arrests and convictions as possible. Someone has decided there are zillions and thousands of pedophiles on the net and they have to all be rounded up -- no matter who gets hurt in the process. Customs uses screen names such as 'Confused Teen' to hang around on line in places like the gay chat rooms on AOL, along with Teen Chat and Romance Connection, two other popular chat areas on that system. They do it with the full knowledge and blessings of AOL management. Confused Teen and his 'younger brother' start up conversations with suspected pedophiles -- users whose names have been supplied to them by AOL -- to see what they can get cooking ... and a couple of 'teenage girls' (yeah ... you bet!) work the heterosexual side of the house making the same kind of agressive approaches. Soon enough, the conversations get steamy and the guys respond like, well, like guys will respond. Pretty soon the .gif files start coming, etc. Then comes a little more hardcore stuff and maybe you would like to order more, eh? It can be sent direct to your computer from ours, here in south Florida at the offices of the US Customs Service, d/b/a Confused Teen. Of course they don't tell you *that*. And if you don't want to order it today, we will keep sending you a little every few days until you do decide to order some. Some AOL users were just junking it on arrival. Deleting the mail and ignoring it. Now and then one might send it to TOSAdvisor with a com- plaint, but not often; you know how it goes. When Customs tried to arrest a couple people they had *entrapped* into purchasing their stuff, the people quite correctly managed to get it deleted from the computer before the federal officers got there which made it hard for the Customs people to prove the 'pedophiles' were in possession of it. To fix that little problem, AOL agreed to change the email software so that users CANNOT delete mail they receive. All email received there is now stored *in your account, in your storage space* until AOL gets good and ready to delete it. If the user attempts to delete unwanted mail, he gets back a system response saying 'We have removed the delete function from mail since you don't need it any longer. We will delete it in a few days. In the meantime, we will just save it over here in another folder for you.' ... how terribly thoughtful and gracious of them, don't you think? It sure makes it a lot easier to be certain that someone will be 'in possession' of something nasty when the law comes a-calling at their door. ------------------------------- That's what happened to a Chicago Police officer here recently. A very high-ranking officer, a watch commander in his district ('watch commander' here is the title for the supervising officer of an entire police district for certain hours of the day) wound up with child pornography in his email at AOL. By coincidence -- the merest coincidence of course -- federal agents were at his house *the day it arrived* with a search warrant. How is that for slick timing? ... The media in Chicago has withheld his name from publication to protect his privacy in this early stage of the investigation. He has been temporarily assigned a job with no public contact pending a complete investigation. He maintains his complete innocence, and we shall see, I guess, what we shall see as things move along. -------------------------------- And I bet all this time you thought the pedophile stink over at AOL consisted of users complaining that other users were bothering them ... or kidnapping their children. Its understandable you feel that way, since that's what AOL would like to have you believe. And yes, there is a grain of truth in that I suppose, but the reality is some of the tax dollars you pay are being used to pay the salaries of some slimeballs whose job is to sit at a keyboard and try to entrap you into accepting child porn so they can come out and arrest you for being in possession of it the next day. One has to wonder if Steve Case really likes having that sort of thing go on over his network. Cynics might say that Case has found that federal judges and federal agents are really good at enforcing the TOS which his Guides are rapidly losing control over ... but others suggest that maybe the real reason he tolerates the spying on and entrapment of users is because he has no choice in the matter. Maybe the feds got something on him and got him to flip also, eh? Maybe his arm (or something else) is getting twisted to force his cooperation. It is getting harder and harder these days to sing 'America the Beautiful' and really mean it. Ugly things are all around us and show no signs of going away anytime soon. ------------------- In other news about the recent AOL busts, the two guys here in Chicago who were arrested *and charged* -- out of what was it, over a hundred people hassled? -- have already had their day in court. Yep, that quick. Mr. Zucker had his pre-trial hearing on October 5 and he pleaded guilty. Mr. Zemke's attorney said to my correspondent that "there won't be any trial", so I guess we can figure that one out also. PAT ------------------------------ From: tms@tms7808s.dukepower.com Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 12 Oct 1995 00:00:19 GMT Organization: Duke Power Company Reply-To: tms@tms7808s.dukepower.com In , shields@tembel.org (Michael Shields) writes: > You might be interested in two WWW pages: > is the USNO Directorate of Time, and > tells you lots about official US time and how the USNO provides it to > the public. > points to software for > time synchornization for Mac, Unix, and Windows, thought you probably > shouldn't use UCLA's servers if you're off-campus. There's also an OS/2 utility called 'NISTIME' (a UNIX port) that sets your PS'c clock to the NIST time. It's a free utility that can be found at many OS/2 sites. I got my copy from Hobbes. This is a neat utility. When you start the program, it connects to the NIST server and compares your PC's clock with the standard. If your PC's clock needs adjusting, it will ask you if you want to update your PC. I usually start the utility like this: echo y | nistime. This will update my PC's clock without asking me. Tom (on time) ------------------------------ From: gfry@primenet.com (George Fry) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 17:16:52 MST Organization: Aviso Micro Technology In article dale@cybercom.net (Dale Farmer) writes: > Clarence Dold (dold@rahul.net) wrote: >> Jeffrey Yee (jyee@unixg.ubc.ca) wrote: >>> I have a question. Where does telco obtain their time signal from to >>> synchronize their clocks and equipment. I was in a CO one time when A quite accurate source of time signal (within a microsecond or so) is available from the Navstar Global Positioning Satellite system. I understand that many telcos use this source of time signal. ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 01:33:50 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) John R Levine writes: > The obvious names, of course, are Western Electric and NCR. Can we > come up with anything better? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't think there is a better choice > than 'Western Electric'. Sorry John, you won't get any better than that. I'm tempted to suggest "Western Telecom" or just "WEC," given that Western's two offshoots -- Northern Electric and Nippon Electric -- are, of course, now called Northern Telecom and NEC. (Actually, Western was often referred to as "WECo" within the Bell System.) As for NCR, that hasn't been called NCR for a while; they call it AT&T Global Information Solutions, and they may just call it GIS after the AT&T name is dropped. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 Oct 95 16:02:32 PDT From: R. Jagannathan Reply-To: Subject: Update on GLU One of the problems in distributing GLU (and its Lucid) has been the license agreement that users had to execute, a tedious process at best. Users will soon (end of this month) be able to download GLU binaries for their favourite (Unix) machines by pointing and clicking over the Web. The license agreement will essentially be an electronic shrink-wrap. The latest version of GLU will support: * PVM as well as TCP/IP protocols for parallel GLU execution * single-master/multiple-worker as well as multi-master/multi-worker program architectures for GLU execution * the OUP book syntax of Lucid More soon, R. Jagannathan phone: +1-415-859-2717 SRI International fax: +1-415-859-2844 Computer Science Laboratory email: jaggan@csl.sri.com 333 Ravenswood Avenue www: http://www.csl.sri.com/~jagan Menlo Park, California 94025, U.S.A ------------------------------ From: Jurgen Morhofer Subject: Updated GSM List Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 22:00:00 GMT For the latest edition of this list look at my Web-Site: http://www.cs.tu-berlin.de/~jutta/gsm/gsm-list.html kindly supplied by Jutta Degener. (Changes in the list marked by "*") Date 1995-10-12. Country Operator name Network code Tel to customer service ------ ------------- ------------ ----------------------- Andorra STA-Mobiland 213 03 Argentina Australia Optus 505 02 Int + 61 2 978 5678 Telecom/Telstra 505 01 Int + 61 18 01 8287 Vodafone 505 03 Int + 61 2 415 7236 Austria * PTV Austria 232 01 Int + 43 222 79744 Bahrain Batelco Belgium Belgacom 206 01 Int + 32 2205 4000 Brunei Cameroon China Croatia Cyprus CYTA 280 01 Denmark Sonofon 238 02 Int + 45 80 20 21 00 Tele Danmark Mobil 238 01 Int + 45 80 20 20 20 Egypt Estonia EMT 248 01 Int + 372 639 7130 Int + 372 524 7000 Radiolinja Estonia 248 02 Int + 372 639 9966 Fiji Finland Radiolinja Finland 244 05 Int + 358 800 95050 Telecom 244 91 Int + 358 800 7000 France France Telecom 208 01 Int + 33 1 44 62 14 81 SFR 208 10 Int + 33 1 44 16 20 16 Germany D1, DeTeMobil 262 01 Int + 49 511 288 0171 D2, Mannesmann 262 02 Int + 49 172 1212 Gibraltar GibTel 266 01 G Britain Cellnet 234 10 Int + 44 860 321321 Vodafone 234 15 Int + 44 836 1100 Jersey Telecom 234 50 Int + 44 1534 88 28 82 Guernsey Telecom * Manx Telecom Greece Panafon 202 05 Int + 30 944 00 122 STET 202 10 Int + 30 93 333 333 Hong Kong HK HTCLGSM 454 04 SmarTone 454 06 Int + 852 2880 2688 Telecom CSL 454 00 Int + 852 2803 8450 Hungary Pannon GSM 216 01 Int + 36 1 270 4120 Westel 900 216 30 Int + 36 30 303 100 Iceland Post & Simi 274 01 Int + 354 96 330 India PT SATELINDO Indonesia TELKOMSEL 510 10 Iran T.C.I. Ireland Eircell 272 01 Int + 353 42 31999 Israel * Cellcom Israel Ltd Int + 972 2 795944 Italy Omnitel 222 10 Int + 39 2 41431 SIP 222 01 Int + 39 6615 20309 Japan Kuwait MTC 419 02 Int + 965 484 2000 Laos Latvia LMT 247 01 Int + 371 2256 7764 Int + 371 2256 9183 Int + 371 2934 0000 Lebanon Libancell Liechtenstein 228 01 Lithuania Mobilios Telekom Luxembourg Telekom 270 01 Int + 352 4088 7088 Macao Malaysia Celcom 502 19 Binariang 502 12 Malta Advanced Marocco O.N.P.T. 604 01 Monaco France Telecom 208 01 SFR 208 10 Namibia MTC 649 01 Int + 264 81 121212 Netherlands* PTT Netherlands 204 08 Int + 31 350 688 699 * Libertel 204 04 Int + 31 6 0500 New Zealand Bell South 530 01 Int + 64 9 357 5100 Nigeria Norway NetCom 242 02 Int + 47 92 00 01 68 TeleNor Mobil 242 01 Int + 47 22 03 03 01 Oman Pakistan Phillipines Portugal Telecel 268 01 Int + 351 931 1212 TMN 268 06 Int + 351 1 793 91 78 Qatar Qatarnet 427 01 Rumania Russia Mobile Tele... Moscow 250 01 Int + 7 095 915-7734 NW GSM, St. Petersburg SaudiArabia Singapore Singapore Telecom 525 01 Slovenia South Africa MTN 655 10 Int + 27 11 445 6000 Vodacom 655 01 Int + 27 82 111 Sri Lanka MTN Networks Pvt Ltd Spain Airtel Telefonica Spain 214 07 Sweden Comviq 240 07 Int + 46 586 686 10 Europolitan 240 08 Int + 46 708 22 22 22 Telia 240 01 Int + 46 771 91 03 50 Switzerland PTT Switzerland 228 01 Int + 41 46 05 64 64 Syria SYR-01 223 01 SYR MOBILE SYR 263 09 Taiwan Tanzania Thailand TH AIS GSM 520 01 Int + 66 2 299 6440 Turkey Telsim 286 02 Turkcell 286 01 Int + 90 800 211 0211 UAE UAE ETISALAT-G1 424 01 UAE ETISALAT-G2 424 02 Uganda Vietnam Zimbabwe * Jurgen Morhofer jurgen@flashnet.it Tel:+39-6-780-8093 Fax:+39-6-780-8777 ------------------------------ From: Sheri Subject: Automatic Privacy Cord Date: 11 Oct 1995 00:16:29 GMT Organization: Network Access Services, Inc. Has any one had any luck with the Viking Automatic Privacy Cord? It supposedly replaces the standard modular line cord connecting the phone, fax, or modem and prevents interruption of a telephone conver- sation or data transmission already in progress. I'm considering recommending it for a client who wants to use it in an office situation with a telephone and four modems sharing the same line ... Thanks, Sheri ------------------------------ From: SYSADMIN <100322.2352@CompuServe.COM> Subject: CCITT Standards Date: 10 Oct 1995 17:13:48 GMT Organization: Science Systems Ltd Does anyone know of FTP sites where the CCITT Spec's can be obtained? Please mail here to the Digest, and I would be most obliged if you would respond also to ambler_rj@scisys.co.uk. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ From: ericgri@ix.netcom.com (Eric Griffith) Subject: AT&T Passageway CTI Date: 11 Oct 1995 05:31:10 GMT Organization: ix.netcom.com Has anyone had any experience in using AT&Ts Passageway CTI boxes for interfacing G3I phonesets to computer RS 232 ports? I just bought ten of these units and although the device is impressive, the included software "Fastcall" is really not. Has anyone been able to access the unit outside of AT&T's own software? My application is to do database lookups based on ANI information passed to the phoneset, as well as some outbound calling for a customer service application running under Lotus Notes. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Oct 95 12:34:02 -0500 From: Paul J Zawada Subject: Re: Old Telco Question TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Stan Schwartz : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It was probably an access point for > Western Union Telegraph Company cables. They were never in the local > telco business. Did they have a large office in Charlotte at one > time or another? I do know that if you go over on LaSalle Street > in in the south end of downtown Chicago I used to see a few of those > mainly in the vicinity of WUTCO's large office building and wire > center. PAT] Most of those WU manholes are still there, although some of them may now say ATS. Access Transmission Services bought a significant amount of WU's conduit plant and pulled fiber through it. ATS was subsquently aquired by MCI and is now a wholey-owned subsidiary of MCI-Metro. MCI-Metro is the arm of MCI that is planning on selling local telephone service in the major metropolitan areas. MCI-Transmission also contracts to ATS to plow in relatively short fiber routes (> 100 miles or so). So while WU may never had been in the local telco business, it looks like MCI will use their conduit to provide said service ... Paul J. Zawada Sr. Network Engineeer zawada@ncsa.uiuc.edu National Center for Supercomputing Applications +1 217 244 4728 http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/People/zawada ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor SubjectL Administrivia: Lost Mail Tuesday Overnight/Wednesday Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 22:20:00 CDT In case you missed the message in the last issue, the incoming mail here for Wednesday got trashed in processing. This would involve the mail which arrived between about 9:00 PM Tuesday night and late after- noon on Wednesday. If you sent me mail during that period of time it mostly was lost without being read *even if you did get an autoreply saying I got it.* Only EDITORIAL mail was involved. It is safe to say if you wrote me anytime Wednesday morning or afternoon you should send it again. PAT ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #432 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa26331; 12 Oct 95 22:53 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id OAA03943 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 12 Oct 1995 14:02:39 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id OAA03934; Thu, 12 Oct 1995 14:02:37 -0500 Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 14:02:37 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510121902.OAA03934@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #433 TELECOM Digest Thu, 12 Oct 95 14:02:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 433 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson How to Make Dial-up Stay Up as Long as Possible? (M.C. Wong) Connecting Modem to Multi-line Phone (Tom Spielman) FAX Machine as Page Scanner (Keith Knipschild) European Numbering Plans and Telecom Policy (Bill Ciminelli) Bell Atlantic Mobile $25 Offer (James B. Langridge) Internet Voice Mail (Jack Bryar) Mystery - How Do You Interface With European Phones (Sub Ramakrishnan) A Question About Special Access Surcharge (Jingshong Xie) Phone Number to Word Converter (Edward A. Kleinhample) Statewide Exchange for South Carolina (Fred Atkinson) Payphone Data (Phone Numbers and Address) (Jim Crider) Numbering Plan Change in Israel (loeb@netcom.com) Legal Slamming (Fred Atkinson) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Michael Shields) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: mcw@aus.hp.com (M C Wong) Subject: How to Make Dial-up Stay up As Long as Possible? Date: 12 Oct 1995 02:27:17 GMT Organization: Hewlett Packard Hi, I wonder if anyone has any good advices/suggestions of making a dial-up link stays up as long as possible? The reason I asked is that, like many others, I am connected to the net on a permanent SLIP link, and every now and then the line gets reset by the telco, sometimes it can go as frequent as few times a day (which I suspect may also be noise anyway). The cost of redialing is only a small price to pay, but the interruptions it costs is the worst. Even with auto-redial enabled, the answering modem may get into a non-functioning state and sometimes it thinks it is still off-hook and auto-redial can never succeed without having to reset the modem manually. I wonder has anyone tried increasing the carrier drop time-out value with their modem and got positive result? Please reply/post your experience/advices/suggestions/tips etc ... Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ From: tjspiel@maroon.tc.umn.edu (Tom Spielman) Subject: Connecting Modem to Multi-Line Phone Organization: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 02:31:57 GMT I've had trouble getting a modem to work on a multi-line phone system. The jack seems to be the same, but the modem doesn't get a dial tone. I've seen some modems that have multi-line features. Do I need one of these? Can I do it at all? Thanks, Tom ------------------------------ From: keith@unix.asb.com Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 01:13:15 -0500 Subject: FAX Machine as Page Scanner In the July, August, September, or October issue of {Popular Electronics}, or {Electronics Now}, there was a schematic of a simple circuit that would allow one to connect a FAX Machine to a Fax Modem. This would let you scan a page to the computer. Does anyone have this schematic or the magazine? I think the circuit consisted of two nine-volt batteries. Keith@unix.asb.com SLIP/PPP Internet Address Keith.Knipschild@asb.com BBS Internet Address Http://www.asb.com/usr/keith My WWW Page URL Address N2NJS@KC2FD.NY.USA.NA Ham Radio AX25 Packet Address 70302,2701 CompuServe Address K.Knipschild GENIE Address [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: An even easier way of doing this involves merely a fax machine and a second phone line. Hook your fax machine to one phone line, and your computer with fax/modem card to the other phone line. Have the fax machine call the computer and feed it whatever you want scanned. You will get it in the output from your fax/modem card. Use whatever software came with your fax/modem card to convert the file to a way it can be viewed on your computer. Deal with it however you want at that point, sending the file wherever. Really quite simple. PAT] ------------------------------ From: wciminelli@aol.com (WCiminelli) Subject: European Numbering Plans and Telecom Policy Date: 12 Oct 1995 07:06:59 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: wciminelli@aol.com (WCiminelli) Can some one direct me to sources of information on two topics: 1) A description of Europen market telephone numbering plans, both current and planned changes 2) Any general information on European Telecom policy, status of deregulation etc. Any help would be appreciated! Regards, Bill Ciminelli bill.ciminelli@nt.com ------------------------------ Subject: Bell Atlantic Mobile $25 Offer From: jlangri@relay.nswc.navy.mil (Langridge, James B) Date: 12 Oct 95 07:22:22 EDT Bell Atlantic Mobil recently mailed out a certificate offering it's cell customers involved in the 703/540 area code change $25 to reprogram their phone with the new 540 area code and advising them that if the phone is not reprogrammed by 1996 that it will no longer be able to make or receive calls. I considered this a great offer considering I can program my phone myself. After programming my phone (a couple of days ago) and receiving several calls since then, I called BAMS to let them know I had reprogrammed my phone and was calling to get my $25. Upon hearing that I had reprogrammed my phone myself the phone droid in a concerned voice advised me that he wasn't sure that it would work since the cell number for the new AC is not automatically reserved for the customer. A cell agent must call to have the new number reserved and activated for me. After explaining that I have indeed been able to receive and make calls since I changed the area code in the NAM programming, he then tried to call my phone (which is out in the car) and got the standard recording that the cell customer he had called was not available. Not convinced that everything is working he contacted the orders and operations department and had my number with the new AC activated. Then came back on the line to say everything should work now but if not, please let BAMS know. Oh yes, Let's not forget the $25. He advised me that the $25 offer was intended only for people who take their phone to a cell agent for reprogramming ... kind of a way to make up for the inconvenience. Then offered me $12.50. Of course, the certificate said nothing like that. So I stood firm and was told I would receive the full $25. We'll see on my next bill. And I wonder why a cellular carrier would not automatically reserve active cell numbers for it existing customers in the new area code. This guy told me that I might have had to change my number had it been assigned to someone else with the 540 area code. You know, I just can't help but feel like someone just tried to steal something from me anytime I have to deal with the phone company. James B. Langridge jlangri@relay.nswc.navy.mil (Office) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 11:04:33 -0400 From: jbsajual@sover.net (Jack Bryar, Sajual Systems & Consulting) Subject: Internet Voice Mail I am looking for any information concerning using the 'net as a means for narrowcasting/multicasting voice mail messages via a process of: [local voicecall over traditional phone] -to- [ISP based converter] -to- [ISP based re-converter] -to- [local voice call to phone of recipient]. Are there existing developers of such systems? What is the response of ISP's to the idea of providing such a service? Are the regulatory "gotcha's" that would make this difficult. Understand that we know about the voice over the net products, but since the net is essentially packetized, with no ability to reserve continuous bandwidth, we think that "real-time voice" isn't going to be satisfactory for many applications. (we do NOT want flames from Iphone or vocal tec users on this point, please) For the purposes of our clients, we think that messaging would be a more appropriate use. Also, we have worked with Wave files as MIME extensions, but again, not everyone has a multimedia PC, and everyone DOES have a phone. Given that the successful installation of such systems would require the active participation of Internet Service Providers, it would be important to know if there are groups within the CIX that are studying the provision of such services. What kind of response would the regulatory community have to such systems, especially if the service extended outside of the affiliated set of businesses that have asked us to investigate this technothey extended outside of gy for their internal use? Thank you for your kind attention to this inquiry. J.V. Bryar Sajual Systems & Consulting, Inc. "Technical Due Diligence" (sm) Investigations Project Management and Prototyping Cambridge MA and Grafton VT 802-843-6101 Fax: 802-843-2640 Partner - NORTHERN MEDIA SOLUTIONS Telecommunications Applications Evangelists and Strategic Integration Consulting (802)843-2500 email: info@nmsi.com ------------------------------ From: Sub Ramakrishnan Subject: Mystery - How Do You Interface With European Phones Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 11:24:24 -0400 Organization: Bowling Green State University I am trying to reach a number in Austria, from US. The number is, 011(43)(xxx)yyy; 43 is Austria, xxx and yy are the area codes, and the local number. A computer answers this number and asks me to press 1 for service_1, 2 for service2 etc.. I get connected to the computer OK but nothing happens when I press 1. My USA phone is tone. Note that when I tried this Austrian number from Austria it works without any problem. I suspect that the tones transmitted from USA (after you reach the computer) may not be of the same frequency the Austrian system expects ... but any solutions or alternate theories? Are there any boxes one can buy in Radio Shack that I can interface with my (US) phone to resolve the problem? Sub Ramakrishnan rama@cs.bgsu.edu ------------------------------ From: jsxie@Glue.umd.edu (Jingshong Xie) Subject: A Auestion About Special Access Surcharge Date: 12 Oct 1995 12:13:37 -0400 Organization: Project Glue, University of Maryland, College Park According to FCC Tariff: "The Special Access Surcharge will apply to each interstate Special Access Service that terminates on an end user's PBX or other device where, through a function of the device, the Special Access Service interconnects to the local exchange network. Interconnection functions include but are not limited to wiring and software functions, bridging, switching or patching of calls or stations." Could gurus out there explain how to read this? Does "interstate" mean "between two States (i.e. Maryland, Virginia)"? And what is considered as "Special Access Service"? Thanks a lot. Jingshong Xie ------------------------------ Date: 12 Oct 95 10:14:47 EDT From: Edward A. Kleinhample <70574.3514@compuserve.com> Subject: Phone Number to Word Converter John Mayson's shell program from the 3-Oct Digest sparked my interest. I dug up a pair of little C programs that I presented to my students in a C class last spring. ---------- cut here----------- /* Program TelNum.c Find Mnemonic name from telephone number. Adapted from pascal code by Tom Swan (Dr. Dobbs - June 93) */ #include char *TelDial[10]; char *inString; char *outString; long nCount; int ValueOfChar( char c ) { return ( (char) ( c - '0' ) ); } void Permute( int n ) { int i, digit; digit = ValueOfChar( inString[n] ); for( i=0 ; i < 3 ; i++ ) { outString[n] = TelDial[ digit ][ i ]; if( n == strlen( inString )-1 ) { nCount++; printf( "%s\t", outString ); } else Permute( n + 1 ); } } void main() { TelDial[0] = " "; TelDial[1] = " "; TelDial[2] = "ABC"; TelDial[3] = "DEF"; TelDial[4] = "GHI"; TelDial[5] = "JKL"; TelDial[6] = "MNO"; TelDial[7] = "PRS"; TelDial[8] = "TUV"; TelDial[9] = "WXY"; inString = (char *) calloc( 1, 32 ); nCount = 0; printf( "Telephone number: " ); scanf( "%15s", inString ); if( strlen( inString ) > 0 ) { outString = (char *) calloc( 1, 32 ); strcpy( outString, inString ); printf( "\n\n" ); Permute( 0 ); printf( "\n %ld combinations\n\n", nCount ); } } ---------- cut here---------- /* Program TelName.C Display Phone number from a mnemonic phone name adapted from pascal code by Tom Swan (Dr. Dobbs - June 93) */ #include int i; char TelNumber[15]; char *TelDial[10]; char LetterSet[] = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPRSTUVWXY"; /* note Q/Z ommitted */ char DigitToLetter( char c ) { int i,j; c = toupper( c ); /* make upper-case */ for( i=0 ; i<=9 ; i++ ) { for( j=0 ; j<3 ; j++ ) { if( c == TelDial[i][j] ) { return ( (char) ( i + '0' ) ); } } } return ( c ); /* default */ } void main() { TelDial[0] = " "; TelDial[1] = " "; TelDial[2] = "ABC"; TelDial[3] = "DEF"; TelDial[4] = "GHI"; TelDial[5] = "JKL"; TelDial[6] = "MNO"; TelDial[7] = "PRS"; TelDial[8] = "TUV"; TelDial[9] = "WXY"; printf( "Enter Telephone Name: " ); scanf( "%15s", TelNumber ); printf( "\n\n" ); for( i=0; i < strlen( TelNumber ); i++ ) { printf( "%c", DigitToLetter( TelNumber[i] ) ); } printf( "\n\n" ); } ---------- cut here--------------- Ed Kleinhample - Land O' Lakes, FL - 70574.3514@cis.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Oct 95 13:04:51 CST From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Statewide Exchange for South Carolina Does anyone know anything about a 'statewide' 440 exchange that I have been told is springing up in South Carolina? The reason I ask is that I am trying to get a friend of mine (he lives in a little rural town that is long distance to all major cities) on a local Internet service provider. I spoke to one provider who says that a new 'statewide' exchange (440) was springing up and they were going to offer an access number on it. She was not sure whether non-BellSouth telephone subscribers would be able to access it, though. I called BellSouth to find that no one in the business office knows anything about it. That doesn't mean anything, though, based upon my past experience with telephone company business offices. Often times those who sell the service are the last to be told. The 803 directory assistance says they show 440 as a Columbia exchange but couldn't see that any numbers were assigned to it at least as yet. If anyone has ANY information about it, I would be very grateful if you'd reply. My friend is a highly technical type and has been wanting Internet access for some time. He'd be grateful, too. I don't want to get his hopes up and find out that this is just bad information (no, I haven't told him as yet). Fred Atkinson ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Oct 95 12:11 EST From: Jim Crider <0004356129@mcimail.com> Subject: Payphone Data (Phone Numbers and Address) I'm looking to obtain a data source for all payphone (public and private) phone numbers with address information within the U.S. Does anyone have this information or know who I could contact to obtain it? I'm willing to pay for it. Jim Crider Internet: jcrider@mci.com Arlington, VA USA Voice: 703 415 2506 Fax: 703 415 6402 ------------------------------ From: leob@netcom.com Subject: Numbering Plan Change in Israel Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 05:09:44 GMT I've heard rumors that Israel is going to switch from the current numbering scheme (one-digit area code + six or seven digits local number) to flat seven-digit numbers with no area code. Is that true and if yes, when the permissive dialing starts? Thanks, Leo ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Oct 95 08:24:40 CST From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Legal Slamming I got home last night and found a three dollar check in my mailbox. It said that this long distance company (one I've never even heard of with rates that could save as much as fifty-five percent over AT&T) was giving me a calling card (gratis) and for three dollars per month they could have the charges added to my local phone bill. Well, the calling card I won't use. The print on the back of the three dollar check (where you endorse it) says that you are authorizing them to switch your long distance carrier to their service. It always pays to read the fine print. Another fresh approach to slamming. Since they would have a signed document (the check) authorizing them to switch you, they would've gotten away with it scott free. They claim their rates are so much lower than AT&T yet they provided no documentation as to what their rates are. That makes me more leary than I already was. Fred [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Three dollars? Three dollars??? I would never let anyone do it to me for three dollars. What a bunch of cheapskates they are. This is not a 'fresh approach to slamming' by any means. It has been around for years, but the checks are usually a lot more. Fifteen, twenty or thirty dollars are much more common offers. They must not think much of your business relationship with them Fred; otherwise they would have offered you more also. AT&T offered me twenty-five dollars to come back to them after I signed up with Sprint to get the fax card a few years ago, and heck, I don't even pay my phone bill at all until I can't avoid it any longer and am about to get cut. Three dollars? Geeze. PAT] ------------------------------ From: shields@tembel.org (Michael Shields) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 12 Oct 1995 07:59:11 -0000 Organization: Tembel's Hedonic Commune In article , Atri Indiresan wrote: > To get time service at this (and any other Unix computer), you need to > specify socket 13. Port 13. > [question: what is MJD?] Modified Julian Day. I've appended . Loose ends: * Yes, both tick and tock will work. tock is probably less busy. * The advantage of the 900 number over the 202 number is that it is guaranteed not to travel over a satellite. Is this true of all 900 numbers? * NTP is still the best way to get time, because a great deal of research has gone into it. See if your ISP offers NTP service. Better NTP clients will run continuously, computing drift and adjusting for leap seconds; for Unix, get xntpd from . On a LAN, it can get your clocks within < 1 ms on some platforms. Here's more than you ever wanted to know about MJD. -- cut here -- MODIFIED JULIAN DATE The Modified Julian Day (MJD) is an abbreviated version of the old Julian Day (JD) dating method which has been in use for centuries by astronomers, geophysicists, chronologers and others who needed to have an unambiguous dating system based on continuing day counts. The JD counts have very little to do with the Julian calendar which was introduced by Julius Caesar (44 BC) and in force until 1682 when Pope Gregory directed the use of an improved calendar, now known as the Gregorian Calendar. In the case of the Julian day count, the name was given because at the time, the Julian calendar was in use and, therefore, the epoch of the day count was fixed in respect to it. The JD counts days within one Julian Period of exactly 7980 Julian years of 365.25 days. Start of the JD count is 12 NOON 1 JAN -4713 (4712 BC, Julian Proleptic Calendar). Note that this day count conforms with the astronomical convention starting the day at noon, in contrast with the civil practice where the day starts with midnight (in popular use the belief is widespread that the day ends with midnight but this is not the proper scientific use). The Julian Period is given by the time it takes from one coincidence to the next of a solar cycle (28), a lunar cycle (19), and the Roman Indiction (a tax cycle of 15 years). At any rate, this period is of interest only in regard to the adoption of the start, at which time all periods counted backwards were in coincidence. The Modified Julian Day, on the other hand, was introduced by space scientists in the late 50's of this century. It is defined as MJD = JD - 2400000.5 The half day is subtracted so that the day starts at midnight in conformance with civil time reckoning. This MJD has been sanctioned by various international commissions such as IAU, CCIR, and others who recommend it as a decimal day count which is independent of the civil calendar in use. To give dates in this system is convenient in all cases where data are collected over long periods of time. Examples are double star and variable star observations, the computation of time differences over long periods of time such as in the computation of small rate differences of atomic clocks, etc. The MJD is a convenient dating system with only 5 digits, sufficient for most modern purposes. The days of the week can easily be computed because the same weekday is obtained for the same remainder of the MJD after division by 7. EXAMPLE: MJD 49987 = MON., 27 SEPT, 1995 Division of the MJD by 7 gives a remainder of 0. All Mondays in 1995 have this same remainder of 0. Note that for 1993 the MJD = 48987 + DOY For 1994 the MJD = 49352 + DOY For 1995 the MJD = 49717 + DOY For 1996 the MJD = 50082 + DOY where DOY is the Day of the respective Year. The MJD (and even more so the JD) has to be well distinguished from this day of the year (DOY). This is also often but erroneously called Julian Date, when in fact it is a Gregorian Date expressed as number of days in the year. This is a grossly misleading practice that was introduced by some who were simply ignorant and too careless to learn the proper terminology. It creates a confusion which should not be taken lightly. Moreover, a continuation of the use of expressions "Julian" or "J" day in the sense of a Gregorian Date will make matters even worse. It will inevitably lead to dangerous mistakes, increased confusion, and it will eventually destroy whatever standard practices exist. The MJD has been officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), and by the Consultative Committe for Radio (CCIR), the advisory committee to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The pertinent document is CCIR RECOMMENDATION 457-1, USE OF THE MODIFIED JULIAN DATE BY THE STANDARD FREQUENCY AND TIME-SIGNAL SERVICES. This document is contained in the CCIR "Green Book" Volume VII. Additional, extensive documentation regarding the JD is contained in the Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, and in the yearbooks themselves, now called The Astronomical Almanac. The Almanac for Computers also provides information on such matters. NOTE: The MJD is always referred to as a time reckoned in Universal Time (UT). The same is not true for the DOY. This is usually meant in a local time sense, but in all data which are given here at the observatory, we refer the DOY to UT also, except where specifically noted. One could call it then something like Universal Day of the Year to emphasize the point. However, this would introduce a completely new term, not authorized by any convention. Moreover, it is not really necessary to use a different term because we simply follow logically the same practice of extending a time and date measure to the UT reference as we do when we give any date or hour. NASA sometimes uses what they call the Truncated MJD or TJD. It is simply the MJD less the first digit. The above used date would be 6324 Note, however, that in this case the remainder for the days of the week comes out differently (3 for Mondays). LITERATURE: Gordon Moyer, "The Origin of the Julian Day System", Sky and Telescope, vol. 61, pp. 311-313 (April 1981). See also a subsequent letter by R.H. van Gent, Sky and Telescope, vol.62, p.16 (July 1981). Last but not least, see also the Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac pp. 600 etc. This is the current, revised issue published by University Science Books, FAX 415-383-3167, ISBN 0-935702-68-7. Gernot M. R. Winkler formerly with U.S. NAVAL OBSERVATORY 3450 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE NW WASHINGTON DC 20392-5420 Shields. ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #433 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa27561; 13 Oct 95 2:18 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA10281 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 12 Oct 1995 17:55:10 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id RAA10273; Thu, 12 Oct 1995 17:55:08 -0500 Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 17:55:08 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510122255.RAA10273@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #434 TELECOM Digest Thu, 12 Oct 95 17:55:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 434 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Recourse? (Edward A. Kleinhample) Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Recourse? (Tom Watson) Re: Caller ID During Call Waiting (Peter Polishuk) Re: Old Telco Question (David Breneman) Re: New French Numbering Plan (James E. Bellaire) Re: How to Make Dial-up Stay up As Long as Possible? (Pete Kruckenberg) Re: Dutch Renumbering Scheme Almost an April 1 Joke (Piet van Oostrum) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Tony Harminc) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Daryl R. Gibson) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (David Breneman) Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! (dharper521@aol.com) Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers (Peter Corlett) Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives (Peter Corlett) Re: Connecting Modem to Multi-Line Phone (Pete Kruckenberg) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (Roger Wells) Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? (barry@broadcast.net) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: 12 Oct 95 15:07:52 EDT From: Edward A. Kleinhample <70574.3514@compuserve.com> Subject: Re:Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Recourse On issue 422, Dave Close adds: > The error is classifying service at all. At one time, percentage of time > the line was in use may have justified higher rates due to expensive > lines. But today, service is essentially without cost beyond overhead. > There is no remaining justification for charging residences less or > businesses more except that there are more residences and their occupants > vote. See the cover story in this week's issue of the {Economist}. As long as there is government regulation of LECs, there is justification for the classification of service as residential or business. Business customers tend to be clustered together in geographically small urban areas, requiring a less expensive physical plant to service the large number of circuits needed by modern business. Because these customers are paying a premium price for their services, the telco is less fussy about pulling an additional pair of wires their way. The bulk of telco's profits come from this class of service. The residential customers tend to be spread out with a small number of subscribers over a large geographic area - this means a more expensive physical plant, and lower revenues. The residential class of service is largely subsidised by the business class revenues in order to keep costs relatively level. There has been talk of doing away with allocation of revenues and allowing telco to charge a subscriber what it costs to provide them service. Those of us who live well outside of primary business centers will find ourselves paying considerable more for our home telephone service. Ed Kleinhample Network Systems Guru and General Practitioner of PC hardware Land O' Lakes, FL. 70574.3514@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: tsw@3do.com (Tom Watson) Subject: Re: Pac*Bell Lied, Do I Have Any Recourse? Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 12:33:03 -0700 Organization: The 3DO Corporation In article , wd6ehr@kaiwan.com (Mike Curtis) wrote: > Amateur radio repeaters are usually located at commercial radio sites. > Historically, the phone company has insisted that autopatches (telephone > line access) use commercial lines, even though business communication is > expressly forbidden by the FCC. Several years back, this was overturned, > and amateur autopatches may insist on residential service even though the > autopatch is located in a commercial site. Been there, done that. Boy did it take a whole lot of fighting with Pacific Ding-A-Ling, but when I mentioned Amateur Radio, something clicked. You should see what installers do when they need to go to a mountaintop and I'm over two counties away from the site. The problems I had also involved the fact that the hill is half way between two CO's and they couldn't decide which prefix I should get. They insisted that an installer go to the hill. The other problem is that I have instruments connected to the line, and other bozos visiting the site would go INSIDE my cabinet to make calls. I would get phone bills and then call up the number and complain. It would keep on happening, so I decided to fight back. I changed the lines to ground start. The abuse stopped immediately!! I felt vindicated. Tom Watson tsw@3do.com (Home: tsw@johana.com) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Are you suggesting that 'other bozos' at the location did not know how to jump a ground start line and get dial tone? Was there no source of ground in the vicinity? And then, how did your users make outgoing calls? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 18:35:02 +0000 From: Peter_Polishuk@nt.com Subject: Re: Caller ID During Call Waiting Organization: Nortel (Northern Telecom) In article , Lynne Gregg wrote: >> Is anyone manufacturing Customer Premises Equipment yet which meets >> the Bellcore spec for receiving Caller ID during a Call Waiting >> signal? > Yes, several manufacturers are working on wireline terminals. AT&T > Wireless Services supports Caller ID with Call Waiting in it's network > (TDMA cellular sets). Northern Telecom also has equipment that meet these standards. Peter Polishuk Nortel Marketing Communications Switching Networks ESN 255-4295 or 992-4295 Peter_Polishuk@nt.com ------------------------------ From: david.breneman@attws.com (David Breneman) Subject: Re: Old Telco Question Date: 12 Oct 1995 19:26:10 GMT Organization: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. In article Paul J Zawada writes: > TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Stan Schwartz : >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It was probably an access point for >> Western Union Telegraph Company cables. They were never in the local >> telco business. Deletions... > So while WU may never had been in the local telco business, it looks > like MCI will use their conduit to provide said service ... But, Western Union *was* in the local telephone business! They bought the rights to all of Thomas Edison's telephone patents, including his superior carbon-granule microphone, and went in head-to-head competition with Bell in many markets. And, they almost drove Bell out of business until an agreement was reached whereby WU would stick to (what's now called) data and Bell would stick to voice transmission. This all happened in the 1880s. The main reason WU surrendered its phone service to Bell was that they didn't think there was much future in it -- their main fear was that Bell would establish a network of lines on the "pretext" of providing phone service, which could later be converted to telegraphy in competition with WU. When the agreement was reached, Bell was no longer a threat. Yeah. David Breneman Unix System Administrator Mail: david.breneman@attws.com IS - Operations (Formerly: ~@mccaw.com) AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. Phone: +1-206-803-7362 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In fact, a regular poster here has a neat .sig file he attaches occassionally which quotes the contents of a memo circulated among Western Union executives in the 1880's telling how they believe the telephone to have little value to them. Little did they know. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 14:39:44 -0500 From: James E. Bellaire Subject: Re: New French Numbering Plan praffin@teaser.fr (patrick raffin) wrote: > FRANCE NEW NUMBERING PLAN > On 18 October 1996, most French telephone numbers will change. With no permissive period? Ouch! > Here is what will happen, as far as it is documented now. All errors > and omissions are mine (P. Raffin, 1995/10/08, praffin@teaser.fr). I think I got the regular numbers right, from an international perspective: Paris now +33-1-xx-xx-xxxx will be +33-1-xx-xx-xxxx NorthWest France now +33-xx-xx-xxxx will be +33-2-xx-xx-xxxx NorthEast France now +33-xx-xx-xxxx will be +33-3-xx-xx-xxxx SouthEast France now +33-xx-xx-xxxx will be +33-4-xx-xx-xxxx SouthWest France now +33-xx-xx-xxxx will be +33-5-xx-xx-xxxx I am assuming that the +33 then eight digit rule also applies to pagers/mobiles, and eight digit special services when calling from outside France, making Eurosignal Pagers now +33-01-xxxxxx Eurosignal Pagers now +33-02-xxxxxx Eurosignal Pagers now +33-03-xxxxxx Eurosignal Pagers now +33-04-xxxxxx Toll Free now +33-05-xxxxxx will be +33-800-xxxxxx Other Pagers now +33-06-xxxxxx GSM - France Tel now +33-07-xxxxxx will be +33-807-xxxxxx GSM - SFR now +33-09-xxxxxx will be +33-809-xxxxxx Extended Services now 36-xxxxxx will be 0836-xxxxxx But you do not mention what is happening to the pagers. Are they moving to the +33-8 range with the mobile phones? I assume that the 1x services are not available from outside France, but are the 36xx / 36xx-xxxx services available? Is Toll Free available out of country? TIA for any clarifications. James E. Bellaire (JEB6) bellaire@tk.com ------------------------------ From: pete@inquo.net (Pete Kruckenberg) Subject: Re: How to Make Dial-up Stay up As Long as Possible? Date: 12 Oct 1995 19:53:53 GMT Organization: inQuo Internet (801) 530-7160 M C Wong (mcw@aus.hp.com) wrote: > I wonder if anyone has any good advices/suggestions of making a > dial-up link stays up as long as possible? Two things. First, contact your phone company and ask them to stop testing the line. They have stuff that periodically tests analog lines to make sure they're in working condition. However, this causes problems when it's a modem line. Just tell them it's a line used for modem communications and they should be able to remove the testing. Be sure to have it done on both ends of the call. Second, make your modems more tolerant of intermittent signal loss (which is what happens), configure them with the command ATS10=100 (or some other high value). This will let the modem continue trying to connect in spite of a long loss of carrier. Be sure to use this command on both modems, and save the configuration into NVRAM (usually using the AT&W command). I've had good success with using this. You're still going to get disconnects now and then, so be sure your modem's configured to make DCD follow the actual carrier detect, rather than be held high artificially. And be sure to write all configuration changes to NVRAM so you don't lose them. Another thing you might do is have a separate daemon that periodically pings the other end of the SLIP connection, and if it can't see the other end, hard-resets the modem (usually done by dropping DTR). If you had this on both ends, it'd eliminate most of your modem hang problems. Good luck. Pete Kruckenberg pete@inquo.net ------------------------------ From: piet@cs.ruu.nl (Piet van Oostrum) Subject: Re: Dutch Renumbering Scheme Almost an April 1 Joke Date: 12 Oct 1995 12:33:49 +0100 Organization: Universiteit Utrecht, Dept. of Computer Science alex@worldaccess.nl (Alex van Es) (AvE) writes: > PTT is appearantly expecting a lot of trouble coming out of this > renumbering, therefore the old numbers will also keep on working for > the coming six months. In the beginning of April the old numbers will > be disconnected. And that is in my opinion where the problems are > going to start. Many people will not change their friend's phone number > straight away. After all, converting phone numbers is not the most > interesting job to do, and so many people decide to delay it till some > rainy Sunday afternoon. And if that rainy Sunday is not coming along > to soon, they probably trashed their renumbering guide, forgetting all > about it. And then around the beginning of April trouble is going to > start. All of the sudden you will be forced to dial the new number. On the first day, the PTT reported that 30% of the calls used the new numbers, while 49% used the old numbers, the rest being numbers that don't change. I think this is not bad for a first day. Secondly, they will monitor the change rate and adapt the advertising. So if next year too many people are still using the old numbers you can expect a flood of commercials. Finally, I think there will be no abrupt shutting off the old numbers but there will be a period where a message will be given if you dial the old number. Piet van Oostrum http://www.cs.ruu.nl/~piet ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Oct 95 16:07:58 EDT From: Tony Harminc Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Ed Ellers wrote: > I'm tempted to suggest "Western Telecom" or just "WEC," given that > Western's two offshoots -- Northern Electric and Nippon Electric -- > are, of course, now called Northern Telecom and NEC. (Actually, > Western was often referred to as "WECo" within the Bell System.) Northern Electric was hardly an "offshoot" of Western Electric. Yes, for many years Northern built sets and CO equipment under licence from WE, but they also had a thriving business making the likes of radios, power cable, and even refrigerators! Western Telecom might be fine, but they'd need to watch out for Western Telephone and Telecommunications (WT&T), a tiny Toronto company that specializes in old electromechanical key systems and PBXs. (Of course suggestions that WT&T's name was chosen to try to confuse people are preposterous ...) Northern Telecom has recently taken to calling itself Nortel; I'm not sure what Nortel Manufacturing (a maker of glassblowing equipment) thinks of this. No clash unless it comes to fibre, perhaps ? Tony Harminc ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 09:38:35 MST From: Daryl R. Gibson Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Since the stock ticker designator for AT&T is "T", I thought we could always call them "T2" and "T3" Those of you who haven't heard of "Terminator 2" will no doubt not get this joke ... Daryl (801)378-2950 (801)489-6348 drg@du1.byu.edu 71171.2036@compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: David Breneman Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Date: 12 Oct 1995 01:50:24 GMT Organization: AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. bud@kentrox.com (Bud Couch) wrote: > After all "Bell Labs/Western Electric" was good enough for the first eighty > years or so. If you'll recall, part of the consent decree was that AT&T could not use the Bell name. The one exception was Bell Labs, and the reason had to do more with national prestige than any business reason. If you will remember, right after the breakup, AT&T changed it's name to the name it had prior to becoming AT&T - American Bell. This was the name used in the late 1800s. I still have a 9-track tape of UNIX Version 7 for the 3B15 at home, with stickers all over it saying (paraphrased) "Please note that all instances of the name American Bell should be construed to be American Telephone and Telegraph Company." An acquaintance who worked for AT&T Computer Systems even saved the name sign off the building. "American Bell Computer Systems." Maybe now that time has passed and so many of the "Baby Bells" have dropped the Bell name, AT&T will be allowed to adopt it again for one of more of their divisions, but I doubt it. ------------------------------ From: dharper521@aol.com (DHarper521) Subject: Re: Help! I've Been Slammed by WilTel! Date: 12 Oct 1995 06:54:32 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) Reply-To: dharper521@aol.com (DHarper521) Wiltel has recently been purchased by LDDS. You may wnat to look them up in the book. As far as your rights, you will need to pay what your charges would have been on the carrier you wnat or originally had. You will also want to have the phone company "freeze" your PIC. Meaning that the phone company will not change your carrier without your written approval. Slamming is typically a result of the carrier sending in a request for your line to be PICd to them. There are very tight FCC regulations around this issue today. They have recently changed many of the requirements in favor of the consumer and the carriers that are attempting to run a clean shop. You can also file a complaint with the FCC and Public Service Commission. This may not result in anything other than a mark against the carrier. If they get enough marks they get investigated and in amny cases fined. An Operator Services Provider (ONCOR) was recently fined $500,000 for slamming 92 payphones. The system does work. ------------------------------ From: corlepnd@aston.ac.uk (Peter Corlett) Subject: Re: Variable Length Phone Numbers Reply-To: corlepnd@aston.ac.uk Organization: Aston University Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 11:13:41 GMT In article 13@eecs.nwu.edu, bowilliams@gems.vcu.edu (Boyce G. Williams, Jr.) writes: > I have a database of country codes and the name of the country that > goes with it, but not much more. My only "source" giving a clue about > the display is an "Airman's Guide" I found in a bookstore where a > German phone number is displayed as eleven digit "WW-XXXX-YY-ZZZ", > English as eleven digit "WW-XXX-YY-ZZZZ" and Japan as ten digit > "XX-YYYY-ZZZZ". The first three digits is the country code, so how > does the remainding numbers appears locally in that country? UK numbering isn't quite like that; there are several schemes. The 0 prefix is just to indicate to the equipment that you are making a national call, and is not part of the number (but is still written.) Metropolitan areas, with seven digit codes: (01x1) xxx xxxx [Old traditional areas] (011x) xxx xxxx [New areas, created 4/95 due to number shortage] Other STD areas: (01xxx) xxxxxx (01xxx) xxxxx Some exchanges in the middle of nowhere are given as (01xxx xx) xxxx Whether these actually have four digit local numbers, I don't know. I though these had all been removed until one popped up on my bill. I know no way of identifying such exchanges without a lookup table. Special services, without 01 prefix: 0xxx xxxxxx Peter Corlett ** corlepnd@aston.ac.uk http://www.aston.ac.uk/~corlepnd ------------------------------ From: corlepnd@aston.ac.uk (Peter Corlett) Subject: Re: Eliminate Dialing Weirdnesses - We Can Save Lives Reply-To: corlepnd@aston.ac.uk Organization: Aston University Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 10:45:19 GMT In article 11@eecs.nwu.edu, Ed Ellers writes: > Toby Nixon writes: >> So, why SHOULDN'T the phone network be designed so that computers can >> be connected to the network ANYWHERE and be permitted to input a >> fully-qualified international number (including country code) and have >> the NETWORK figure out how to route the call, instead of the computer >> needing to be pre-programmed to know exactly which subset of the phone >> number needs to be dialed, along with whatever prefixes are needed? > That could be done easily enough -- all AT&T (or whatever the new > hardware company will be called), Northern Telecom and others have to > do is rewrite their switch software. However, this would eliminate > the safety feature that now exists in most (but not all) areas where > you can't accidentally dial a toll call as a local one or vice-versa. Seems that the US phone system is rather odder than I thought ... My number is +44 121 373 xxxx, and a favourite BBS is +44 121 449 xxxx. As the BBS is local, I can dial 449 xxxx as this is a local code, or 0121 449 xxxx -- which is what is actually dialed. 0044 121 449 xxxx is also a possibility, although it is a bit silly for my purposes. BT basically scrapped all the local access numbers (i.e. 9x was a shortcut to another local exchange) and forced everyone to use full national numbers except for your own exchange. Extra routing and billing intelligence was introduced to handle the extra cases. The situation is made a bit trickier by using an alternative carrier, which means the user has to make the distinction, but you can arrange a very good price deal with BT, which becomes cheaper than the other operators. So, basically whether you are local, long distance or international from a UK number, you can dial the same thing. Peter Corlett corlepnd@aston.ac.uk http://www.aston.ac.uk/~corlepnd ------------------------------ From: pete@inquo.net (Pete Kruckenberg) Subject: Re: Connecting Modem to Multi-Line Phone Date: 12 Oct 1995 19:56:47 GMT Organization: inQuo Internet (801) 530-7160 Tom Spielman (tjspiel@maroon.tc.umn.edu) wrote: > I've had trouble getting a modem to work on a multi-line phone system. > The jack seems to be the same, but the modem doesn't get a dial tone. > I've seen some modems that have multi-line features. Do I need one of > these? Can I do it at all? If your multi-line phone system is digital, you'll need some kind of convertor or a special modem. Many digital phone systems have options or ports for analog lines, so you could possibly use one of those if your system supports it. It sounds like you are not on an analog phone system or you would at least get dial-tone. You could try testing the line with an analog phone (just bring one in from home) and see if you get anything on it. If you do, it's a modem problem. If you don't get a dial tone on the phone, you'll need to look into the other options for using your analog modem with your digital phone system. Pete Kruckenberg pete@inquo.net ------------------------------ From: rwells@usin.com (Roger Wells) Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? Date: 12 Oct 1995 14:41:49 GMT Organization: U.S. Intelco Networks, Inc. In article , Atri Indiresan writes: > US Naval Observatory Master Clock, Washington, DC > Estimating network time delay for 4 seconds...delay = 20.5 ms > MJD DOY UTC(USNO) (* = on-time mark, follows ASCII) > 49999 282 142613 UTC > * > [many more deleted] > 49999 282 142633 UTC > * > [question: what is MJD?] I'll venture a guess; was this by any chance for Sunday, 8 Oct. 1995? The so-called Julian Date for 8 Oct is 2449999, so I'll guess that MJD is the Julian Date minus 2400000 or else modulo 100000. The Julian Date counts the number of days from the start of the Julian epoch, some day several thousand years B.C. This date was chosen, if I recall, because the leap-year cycle, lunar cycle, and calendar were in sync; details are a bit rusty in my mind. The person who developed the Julian Date, and I forget his name, named it for his father, who's given names were Julius Ceasar. It has nothing to do with the Julian calendar except that both were named, directly or indirectly, after Julius Caesar. Roger Wells ------------------------------ From: barry@broadcast.net Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 19:31:33 -0700 Subject: Re: Where Do They Get Precise TIME Information? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So either tick. (or) tock.usn.navy.mil > will work? PAT] "Ve haf ways of making you tock!" [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Are we finished with this thread now? All in favor of ending it raise your hand. Good, it is unanimous. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #434 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa27843; 13 Oct 95 2:41 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA11900 for telecomlist-outbound; Thu, 12 Oct 1995 19:41:25 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id TAA11891; Thu, 12 Oct 1995 19:41:22 -0500 Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 19:41:22 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510130041.TAA11891@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #435 TELECOM Digest Thu, 12 Oct 95 19:41:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 435 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Call Waiting/Three Way Calling on Your 800 Number (TELECOM Digest Editor) Information Wanted About "AT&T ProData II" (Bob Natale) Where to Find SMDR and SMDI Specifications? (Bill Dietrich) Internet Interbackbone Connectivity (Jeroen Doucet) Re: CCITT Standards (Andy Behrens) Re: CCITT Standards (Robert Shaw) Re: Keeping NPA/NXX Separate (Peter Mansfield) Re: Keeping NPA/NXX Separate (Carl Moore) Re: Automatic Privacy Cord (Paul Cook) Re: Citizen Intercepts 911 Calls; Helps Police (stemaat@aol.com) Re: Distributed Line Hunt (Steve Uhrig) Re: Caller ID During Call Waiting? (Dan J. Rudiak) Re: Last Laugh! Trying to Call the Nowhere Man (Scott Montague) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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, 12 Oct 1995 18:57:36 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Call Waiting/Three Way Calling on Your 800 Number I had an interesting chat a couple days ago with Steve Betterly from MyLine, the remarkable 800 service offered by Call America. I have pointed out some of the features of MyLine 800 service here before, but with the recent additions they have made to the service, this seems like a good time to mention them once again. MyLine is a user-programmable forwardable 800 service. When you sign up you get a personal 800 number, and you can also have a number in the 408 or 415 area code if you want one. The reason for having a non-800 number on their system is in the event you have a lot of incoming international traffic where the 800 number might be difficult to reach. When dialing your 800 (or 415/408) number, the system answers with a recorded greeting in your own voice saying something like: Please hold while your call is transferred to me. If you enter your master pin at this point, you go into maintainence mode to make changes in forwarding, check voice mail, establish a new speed dial list, or making outgoing calls. You might also ask for a wake-up call or a few other things. If the caller enters a two digit 'priority code' then his call is transferred to the number you have established as the place where you want priority calls to ring at. If the caller does not enter a code, then the system rings through to you at whatever number you gave it. If priority calls or regular calls are unanswered, then the caller is transferred to the voicemail of your choice, including the one offered on MyLine itself. You can either announce the priority code as part of your greeting message or not as you wish. You might want to just keep it confidential so that only certain people (who use it) can get through to you with the rest of your calls going to voicemail instead. For instance, you might program the MyLine system to send all of your calls to voicemail except the priority ones. Or perhaps routine calls would ring one place and priority calls would ring elsewhere. You can also program in the number of your fax machine, since MyLine is very good about detecting fax calls when they arrive at your 800 number. If you don't have your own fax machine, then maybe it is the number for the fax machine at the local Kinko office. You can be in the middle of a chat with someone and press * to switch to fax mode if you wish. The system will respond that it is transferring your call to your fax line. The really neat new features though which have been added this past week are 'virtual call waiting' and 'virtual three way calling'. It works like this: Suppose you are on the MyLine switch. Either you have just answered an incoming call or you have called in via MyLine to make an outgoing long distance call or you are in maintainence mode. In any event, MyLine knows you are on the system. Now if a call comes in for you while you are already connected via MyLine, the caller will get your usual greeting and will hear simulated ringing while MyLine cuts in on you with a tone signal and a message saying 'Excuse me, you have another call waiting.' By pressing the buttons 1, 2, or 3 on your phone at that point, one of these things happens: Press 2: whatever call you were on (or action you were taking) goes on hold. The system responds 'party one is now on hold' and it connects you with the new caller. Press 1: The reverse occurs, with party two going on hold and you get reconnected to party one. You can toggle back and forth as much as desired. Press 3: You get a conference between yourself and both parties. So far as I know, MyLine is the only carrier which allows a three- way conference call that *you did not originate*. Usually you have to originate at least one side of a three way call, or at least the second party. With MyLine, you can be at home talking on call that came in over your 800 number and with 'virtual call waiting' take the one call while holding the other, or establishing a conference. To drop either party while retaining a connection with the other, you go to that party and let them disconnect. You then get the one that was left. Or if you prefer, press * and the party you are connected with goes to voicemail. With 'virtual three way calling' the process is similar, but you originate two outgoing calls at once in a conference or you are accepting an incoming call and press the required buttons to make an outgoing call which you then conference in. It is more or less like three-way calling works on your phone now, but I think MyLine is the first and only company making it possible on your 800 number. If you like the idea of easily programmable remote call forwarding but don't like the idea of having to pay for everyone who decides to call your 800 number, then you give out only the 408/415 version of your number to those individuals. MyLine now also offers message store and forward service. You can record a message and have it delivered to any phone number in the world in your own voice at the time you specify. A front end message says who it is for so that person can be called to the phone at the distant end. MyLine has an automated wakeup service and a callback service for international callback. I often times tell MyLine to wake me in the morning at the time I specify. It calls me at the time specified and requires me to enter my master pin. If I fall back asleep in the process, it waits a couple minutes and calls me again. Overall, MyLine is the best 800 service I have ever seen, and I have tried quite a few. You get a genuine 800 number of your own (not one of the bogus shared number 'insert the pin' type offered by MCI). Although Cable and Wireless still offers their programmable 800 number, they don't come close to all the additional services MyLine offers. And of course, where Sprint, AT&T and others are concerned who only offer the traditional style 800 service that just rings at some fixed location, MyLine runs circles around all of them. MyLine is a very good alternative to 500 service as well. Although 500, as sold by AT&T has some nice features, it is still tricky getting calls through at times, and you don't get any of the extras MyLine offers such as automatic recognition of fax tones on incoming calls, callback service or additional numbers in regular use for international purposes, etc. Another way you can use MyLine is as a 'number referral' service. In maintainence mode you can toggle between 'automatic call forwarding' and 'number referral' mode. In number referral mode, the system does not send along your calls as they come in. Instead it announces that 'your party can be reached at the number AC-xxx-xxxx. Please hang up and dial AC-xxx-xxxx'. This way, the called party has to pay for talking to you. When I chatted with Steve Betterly a couple days ago I told him I would specifically mention the new 'virtual call waiting' and 'virtual call conferencing' features of MyLine which had been added this week. Some of you signed up with MyLine in the past because I mentioned it and if you were not yet familiar with it, now would be a good time to inquire. The rates are about the same as any other 800 service on your inbound/outbound traffic and the monthly fee is very low also. Steve Betterly will send you the full details. PAT ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 16:06:59 -0400 From: natale@acec.com (Bob Natale) Subject: Information Wanted About "AT&T ProData II" In the process of spec'ing a billing system, someone suggested that I consider the "AT&T ProData II" product, either as a model for or as a component of a possible solution. Unfortunately, despite a significant effort involving a number of knowledgeable people and several false leads within AT&T, we have been unable to locate any source of information about this product. Does anyone know of it? Perhaps, it's not an AT&T product, but is a product of some other supplier? Can anyone suggest any other search paths we might take? (The leads inside AT&T wound up in something like the Software Defined Network Marketing Group, before reaching the dead ends.) TIA ... cordially, Bob Natale | ACE*COMM | 301-258-9850 [v] Director | 209 Perry Pkwy | 301-921-0434 [f] Network Mgmt Products | Gaithersburg MD 20877 | natale@acec.com ------------------------------ From: Bill Dietrich Subject: Where to Find SMDR and SMDI Specifications? Date: Thu, 12 Oct 95 13:16:00 PDT Where can I find specifications of SMDR (Station Message Detail Recording?) and SMDI (Station Message Detail Interface?) formats? (I've looked in the BellCORE catalog.) My understanding is that these are ASCII data sent over an RS232 line. SMDR is output from a PBX, and reports call information (stations and lines involved, duration, etc). SMDI is bidirectional and can tell the PBX to route calls to stations and lines. I'd appreciate any information to correct my understanding of these, point to any official specifications, and also give some sense of how "standard" this is from PBX to PBX. (The one PBX manual I've found SMDR in also contains lots of features to customize the output, which implies that there can be a lot of variation.) Thanks, Bill Dietrich Voysys Corp bill_dietrich@voysys.com ------------------------------ From: Doucet@sara.nl (Jeroen Doucet) Subject: Internet Interbackbone Connectivity Date: 12 Oct 1995 14:19:02 GMT Organization: Knoware Internet Hello, My name is Jeroen Doucet. I am a student in Communication Science in the University of Amsterdam. Currently I am doing research on inter- connectivity. I remeber that there is some standard agreement between different backbone operators to share the cost of interconnectivity. Does anybody know if there is a standard agreement and what this looks like? If not, how do the bigger service providers arrange this? Thanks in advance, Jeroen Doucet Doucet@Sara.nl ------------------------------ From: andyb@coat.com (Andy Behrens) Subject: Re: CCITT Standards Organization: Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 05:28:05 GMT SYSADMIN (100322.2352@CompuServe.COM) wrote: > Does anyone know of FTP sites where the CCITT Spec's can be obtained? ITU (formerly known as CCITT) recommendations are available at: http://www.itu.ch/ in a variety of formats and languages. Unfortunately, the ITU has decided to make the online recommendations available only to subscribers, for a hefty fee. Annual fees start at 1600 Swiss Francs (US$ 1840) and go up from there. But you can browse through the titles of the recommendations at no charge. Andy Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty. (Anne Herbert) Andy Behrens Burlington Coat Factory, Schoolhouse Lane, Etna, N.H. 03750 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 13:29:43 CET From: SHAW +41 22 730 5338 Subject: Re: CCITT Standards > Does anyone know of FTP sites where the CCITT Spec's can be obtained? ITU-T Recommendations (ex-CCITT) are available at the ITU's WWW site (http://www.itu.ch) Browsing of titles and status information, etc. is free but downloading standards electronically requires a name and password given when you subscribe to the service on a yearly basis. Information about subscribing is available at the address above or from sales@itu.ch. Robert Shaw ITU Information Services Department shaw@itu.ch [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As many of our readers know, the ITU is one of the principal sponsors of this Digest. Along with Microsoft, they provide generous funding on a regular basis to keep this Digest alive. My thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Peter_Mansfield@australia.notes.pw.com Date: Thu, 12 Oct 95 16:12:20 +1000 Subject: Re: Keeping NPA/NXX Separate (was: New US Area Code Test Numbers) > There is a 562 in 213, 310 and 818. If this is the case, then how and why was 562 selected as a relief NPA for the Los Angeles (310) area?? It has always been my understanding that with the advent of interchangeable NPA/NXXs a prerequisite for NPA selection was that the NXX in question was not assigned as a CO code in that NPA, and preferably not in adjacent NPAs (especially in metro areas with multiple codes). Can anyone shed any light on this? Peter Mansfield Sydney, Australia Tel: +61 2 256 7940 Fax: +61 2 256 7777 Email: Peter_Mansfield@australia.notes.pw.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Oct 95 12:44:16 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Re: Keeping NPA/NXX Separate The published instructions for some local calls to other area codes are NPA+7D (can or must omit leading 1), and this puts restrictions on the use of some area codes as prefixes. I have heard of this happening across 214/817 border in Dallas/Fort Worth area and across 416/905 border at Toronto. Close to home, this happens: -across 301/410 border in Maryland; -between area codes in the DC area (703,202,301); Due to the use of "extended local" in Virginia, I looked up the use of 540, which had been proposed for Leesburg (not any more). ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Oct 95 12:31:00 EST From: Proctor & Associates <0003991080@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Automatic Privacy Cord Sheri writes: > Has any one had any luck with the Viking Automatic Privacy Cord? It > supposedly replaces the standard modular line cord connecting the > phone, fax, or modem and prevents interruption of a telephone conver- > sation or data transmission already in progress. Viking started making these shortly after our 1960s era patent on automatic exclusion devices ran out. The way these work is they prevent access to the line when you go off-hook until they verify that the line voltage is 48 vdc. So they insure privacy for all other devices that share a line. When an exclusion module is hooked to a phone or other device, all other extensions are protected from interruption by that device if they have grabbed the line first. You can use these in series with any or all phones on a line, and any device that doesn't have one can jump in on any call. We make these in both modular and hard wired versions, both balanced and unbalanced, and voltage or current operated modules. Contact us for more information on our exclusion modules at: Proctor & Associates email: 3991080@mcimail.com 15050 NE 36 St phone: 206-881-7000 Redmond, WA 98052-5378 fax: 206-885-3282 Paul Cook ------------------------------ From: stemaat@aol.com (STemaat) Subject: Re: Citizen Intercepts 911 Calls; Helps Police Date: 12 Oct 1995 08:38:25 -0400 Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364) > mistranslated some of the phone numbers and routed the 911 calls to > Dickson, whose number doesn't include a 9 or a 1. For those who don't know -- that's because all 9-1-1 is, is a forwarding to a *real* (though unpublished) phone number. We ocasionally get calls showing 911-000 as the phone number. These are people who've stubled across the direct number to that particular 9-1-1 phone. So she didn't have to have a 9 or a 1 in her number! Best, Scott [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For example, in Chicago the number 312-787-0000 is the same as 911. PAT] ------------------------------ From: suhrig@bright.net (Steve Uhrig) Subject: Re: Distributed Line Hunt Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 02:56:57 GMT Organization: BrightNet kadokev@ripco.com (Kevin Kadow) wrote: > Does anybody have information on the Distributed Line Hunt service? > Getting information from Ameritech is like pulling teeth. > Apparently this differs from a standard hunt group in that the switch > "remembers" which line answered a call last, then presents the next > call on the next line in sequence. Possibly also known as "Uniform > Call Distribution". Yes this is a modified form of Circular Hunt. > My provider has 64 lines, of which 1/3+ are USR Couriers with the > 33.6Kbps software. Right now all the USR modems are at the "bottom" of > the hunt, so people who call the first number hunt through all 64 > modems, and people who call the 40th number get the first of the USR > modems. > If service is switched to a DLH(UCD?) hunt group, will I still be able > to get a 33.6 connection by calling the 40th number, or will the call > go to the next modem after the one that answered the call before mine? Maybe, when you call the 40th line number and it is busy the switch will connect you to the line that has had the lowest usage. This could be say line 5. > Basically what I want to know is if DLH applies to just the first hunt number > or to every number in the group. It applies to every number in the group. Steve Uhrig suhrig@bright.net Chillicothe, Ohio ------------------------------ From: Dan J. Rudiak Subject: Re: Caller ID During Call Waiting? Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 10:51:37 -0600 Organization: Calgary Free-Net On Tue, 10 Oct 1995, Proctor & Associates wrote: > Is anyone manufacturing Customer Premises Equipment yet which meets > the Bellcore spec for receiving Caller ID during a Call Waiting > signal? Check out the Vista/PowerTouch 350 phones at: http://www.nortel.com Dan J. Rudiak SYSOP - the Penalty Box 1:134/36@FIDONET.ORG +1 403 242-5453 President; Cambridge Bay Sports Holdings Inc. - Owners of: Cambridge Bay Islanders - C.O.A.C.H Fantasy Hockey League Franchise Cambridge Bay Omingmak - F.C.L.F. Fantasy Football League Franchise ------------------------------ From: 4sam3@qlink.queensu.ca (Scott Montague) Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Trying to Call the Nowhere Man Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 03:54:50 GMT Organization: Queen's University at Kingston Reply-To: 4sam3@qlink.queensu.ca Pat, in reference to 705-234-2222 and 705-864-1160's 'live intercept' you said: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I tried those two numbers you suggested > as examples, and both simply rang and rang and rang with no answer from > anyone, let alone an operator. PAT] True, true! I made an error. Those phones will be disconnected as of the end of NEXT week (ie. about the 23rd). Doh! Until then, you'll be ringing into the air, literally (as those phones are radiophones, and as the radios are disconnected, the tower will just keep ringing, ringing, etc. Try again in a week or so and you'll see what I meant. Hanging my head in shame, Scott [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For shame! Causing me to print something incorrect in this Digest in which nothing has ever been incorrectly stated before. Oh well, there has to be a first time for everything, however in a day or so, selective amnesia will have caused me to forget that I said this. Let's quit for today and go out and enjoy the last of the beautiful weather while it still is here: Indian Summer in Chicago today -- 80 degrees! This weekend, get those furnaces ready to go. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #435 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa07334; 13 Oct 95 23:10 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id OAA04608 for telecomlist-outbound; Fri, 13 Oct 1995 14:52:23 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id OAA04598; Fri, 13 Oct 1995 14:52:20 -0500 Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 14:52:20 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510131952.OAA04598@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #436 TELECOM Digest Fri, 13 Oct 95 14:52:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 436 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson EC Plans Encryption Rules For Internet in Europe (F. Denis) Re: AT&T Passageway CTI (John Romano) Re: A Auestion About Special Access Surcharge (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Edwin Green) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Robert Schreibmaier) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Paul C. Kocher) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Mark J. Cuccia) Information Wanted For AIN on Cellular Phone (Jeehyun Paik) Information Wanted on Harris Dracon TS21 Butt Set (RadMan) Re: Connecting Modem to Multi-Line Phone (Bruce Wilson) Re: Legal Slamming (David Brod) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: denis@cnam.fr (F. Denis) Subject: EC Plans Encryption Rules For Internet in Europe Date: 13 Oct 1995 12:00:00 CDT This comes from {Nature}, a magazine in France. Vol 377 #6547 September 28, 1995 `EC PLANS ENCRYPTION RULES IN BID TO POLICE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY' Paris. The European Commission is to propose legislation to police the information superhighway that will include powers to decrypt confidential telephone and computer communication. The commission's move follows concern over the perceived increase in the `illegal' use of the Internet, including the proliferation of pornography and the unauthorized release of classified documents. It also coincides with a similar proposal from the 34-nation-member Council of Europe. The proposals would, if passed into law, effectively end the Internet's status in the 15 member states of the European Union (EU) as an unregulated medium for the free flow of information. But they have also raised questions about the possible violation of telephone and computer privacy, as well as the preferred choice of encryption/decryption system. The proposal to introduce Europe-wide surveillance guidelines has been confirmed by a senior official responsible for encryption and data security in the French government. He says that Brussels is working closely with the Senior Officers Group for Information Security Systems (SOGIS), a collection of experts from EU countries, chaired by the commission itself. The commission is expected to publish its guidelines later this autumn, detailing the powers of enforcement to be given to regulatory authorities. as well as a preferred choice of decryption system. The guidelines will then be considered by the EU's Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. But a spokesman for the commission's telecommunications directorate says that the decryption mechanism is likely to be based on a version of the `key escrow system'. This refers to the policy under which users of encryption systems give copies of their decryption keys either to their government or to a third party that the government trusts. The keys can be handed over if the government, on production of a court order, wants to monitor encrypted information. The system being considered by the commission will enable EU countries to monitor encrypted telephone and computer communications in member states. Thus if someone in Germany makes a call to Italy, agencies in both countries would possess the key enabling them to decrypt the call. Siguificantly, the commission will also propose that member states choose private `trusted third parties' rather than government departments to regulate computer and telephone networks. it is thought to believe that this move will secure greater public support for the proposals. But civil liberties groups remain sceptical, and maintain that the use of `third parties' to police the Internet raises its own questions, one of which is deciding which party to trust and ensuring they all remain trustworthy. `It is difficult to trust these third parties," says Simon Davies from the organization Privacy International. "There is no guarantee that the keys [to decryption] will not be corruptly accessed within the `trusted' organization." Critics of the commission's proposals also include information technology specialists, although their concerns are different. Ross Anderson. a senior research associate in computer and communications security at the University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory says that the Council of Ministers will need to iron out various issues before the key escrow system is fit for use. One factor, says Anderson. is that such a system ironically falls victim to precisely what it is trying to protect - namely. national security. If you are a banker doing a politically sensitive deal - such as renegotiating the Eurotunnel debt - then the UK government will certainly not want the French to get that key." Similarly. the decryption key for a secure telephone bought in Britain will be kept at the government's General Communications Headquarters. But if it is taken into France and used to call someone in Germany, the French government "will inevitably want a copy of the key", says Anderson. This direct conflict of national security priorities, adds Anderson. makes it hard to "specify a system which satisfies the curiosity of intelligence agencies. while still providing meaningful privacy to users". A parallel proposal for decryption was announced earlier this month by the Council of Europe. Peter Csonka, head of the council's Crime Problems Division, said its 18 suggestions were long overdue following concern that "electronic information systems and electronic information may also be used for committing criminal offences". The council's suggestions include giving investigating agencies the right to search computer networks and seize offending, unauthorized or illegal material. The proposals will also require providers of telecommunication networks to "avail themselves of all necessary technical measures that enable the interception of telecommunications by investigating authorities". F Denis denis@cnam.fr indosuez bank, media consultant ------------------------------ From: John Romano Subject: Re: AT&T Passageway CTI Date: 13 Oct 1995 18:21:52 GMT Organization: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory ericgri@ix.netcom.com (Eric Griffith) wrote: > Has anyone had any experience in using AT&Ts Passageway CTI boxes for > interfacing G3I phonesets to computer RS 232 ports? I just bought ten > of these units and although the device is impressive, the included > software "Fastcall" is really not. Has anyone been able to access the > unit outside of AT&T's own software? > My application is to do database lookups based on ANI information > passed to the phoneset, as well as some outbound calling for a > customer service application running under Lotus Notes. There is a API available for the Passageway desktop unit which the last time I saw it. It had a set of C function calls you could build on. Should be available through your account exec (make sure they get you the version for Definity, there's also an API for the Passageway for Merlin and the two are not interchangable). Caller-ID and ANI are something we had a hard time pulling out with the API. We could find no way to access what would be in the DCP world analagous to the Q.931 calling party information element. Basically all you could get was any info routed to the display, which in some cases meant the number was missing or incomplete (example: If the call was forwarded the number would get cut off). I wonder if any other Third Party software houses has done Fastcall one better ... Good luck, John Romano Telecommunications Engineer JHU/Applied Physics Laboratory Eyes: smiley@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu Ears: (301) 953-6061 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 09:27:49 -0400 From: Fred R. Goldstein Subject: Re: A Auestion About Special Access Surcharge Jingshong Xie asks in V15 I433, According to FCC Tariff: > "The Special Access Surcharge will apply to each interstate Special > Access Service that terminates on an end user's PBX or other device > where, through a function of the device, the Special Access Service > interconnects to the local exchange network. Interconnection > functions include but are not limited to wiring and software > functions, bridging, switching or patching of calls or stations." > Could gurus out there explain how to read this? Does "interstate" > mean "between two States (i.e. Maryland, Virginia)"? And what is > considered as "Special Access Service"? "Special Access" is FCC jargon for leased lines. ("Switched access" refers to circuits within the switched telephone network.) The tariff means that IF you have a leased line that crosses a state boundary (note: LATAs are NOT relevant) that carries telephone calls INTO the local exchange network in one state from callers in another state, THEN you are subject to a surcharge. This is sometimes called the "leaky PBX", where for instance you have a tie line (special access) between a PBX in New York and a PBX in New Jersey, and in addition to sending calls between PBX users, you allow users in New Jersey to make calls that are local to New York via the tie line. So the NJ PBX routes calls to the NY PBX and the NY PBX routes them to the public network. Voila, you're "leaking", or carrying interstate local exchange traffic across a special access facility. This tie line is thus "contaminated" and subject to a surcharge of $25/64k channel/month. It is possible to order Feature Group A (POTS lines under interstate tariff) lines to your PBX for the exclusive use of interstate calls. If you route ALL interstate calls to the FGA trunks, and don't "leak" onto the state-tariffed local exchange trunks, then the special access surcharge doesn't apply. And if you don't do this "tail-end hop off" at all, the surcharge doesn't apply. You just certify to the phone company that there is no surchargeable leakage, and you don't pay the $25/channel. Fred R. Goldstein fgoldstein@bbn.com Bolt Beranek & Newman Inc. Cambridge MA USA +1 617 873 3850 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 Oct 95 07:39:01 EST From: egg@inuxs.inh.att.com (Edwin Green) Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Organization: AT&T In article is written: > bud@kentrox.com (Bud Couch) wrote: >> After all "Bell Labs/Western Electric" was good enough for the first eighty >> years or so. > If you'll recall, part of the consent decree was that AT&T could not > use the Bell name. The one exception was Bell Labs, and the reason > had to do more with national prestige than any business reason. If > you will remember, right after the breakup, AT&T changed it's name to > the name it had prior to becoming AT&T - American Bell. This was the > name used in the late 1800s. I still have a 9-track tape of UNIX > Version 7 for the 3B15 at home, with stickers all over it saying > (paraphrased) "Please note that all instances of the name American > Bell should be construed to be American Telephone and Telegraph > Company." An acquaintance who worked for AT&T Computer Systems even > saved the name sign off the building. "American Bell Computer > Systems." Maybe now that time has passed and so many of the "Baby > Bells" have dropped the Bell name, AT&T will be allowed to adopt it > again for one of more of their divisions, but I doubt it. Actually AT&T never changed its name to American Bell. American Bell was formed in 1983 as a fully-separated subsidiary of AT&T. Its purpose was to allow AT&T to sell phones, PBXs, etc. on the open market. To do that, AT&T had to have a separate set of books so it could prove that there was no cross-subsidizing from network revenues. The icon for American Bell was the Death Star which was adopted by AT&T in 1984 after it divested itself of the local operating companies. American Bell lived on for a year or so. I don't remember when the name was dropped completely. Edwin G. Green egg@inuxs.att.com Laboratories 317-845-3659 6612 E 75th Street Indianapolis, IN 46250-2856 ------------------------------ From: Robert.Schreibmaier@att.com Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Reply-To: bob@mtdcr.att.com Organization: AT&T Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 01:52:43 GMT bud@kentrox.com (Bud Couch) wrote: >> After all "Bell Labs/Western Electric" was good enough for the first eighty >> years or so. > If you'll recall, part of the consent decree was that AT&T could not > use the Bell name. The one exception was Bell Labs, and the reason > had to do more with national prestige than any business reason. If > you will remember, right after the breakup, AT&T changed it's name to > the name it had prior to becoming AT&T - American Bell. This was the > name used in the late 1800s. I still have a 9-track tape of UNIX > Version 7 for the 3B15 at home, with stickers all over it saying > (paraphrased) "Please note that all instances of the name American > Bell should be construed to be American Telephone and Telegraph > Company." An acquaintance who worked for AT&T Computer Systems even > saved the name sign off the building. "American Bell Computer > Systems." Maybe now that time has passed and so many of the "Baby > Bells" have dropped the Bell name, AT&T will be allowed to adopt it > again for one of more of their divisions, but I doubt it. I know I'll be sorry, but... 8^{) The joke going around these parts is that they'll bring back John Mayo to be President of the new firm, called Bell Laboratories Technologies. Yes, that would be BLT with Mayo. Sorry. Bob Schreibmaier K2PH | AT&T Bell Laboratories Internet: bob@mtdcr.mt.att.com | Middletown, N.J. 07748 ------------------------------ From: pck@netcom.com (Paul C. Kocher) Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 05:50:48 GMT In article , Daryl R. Gibson wrote: > Since the stock ticker designator for AT&T is "T", I thought we could always > call them "T2" and "T3" > Those of you who haven't heard of "Terminator 2" will no doubt not get this > joke ... I thought it was funny but didn't get the Terminator 2 reference -- I thought you were talking about T1s and T3s in the telephone sense ... (I think I need to spend more time in the real world ...) Cheers, Paul C. Kocher Independent cryptography/data security consultant E-mail: pck@netcom.com Voicemail: 415-354-8004, FAX: 415-321-1483 ------------------------------ From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? Date: 13 Oct 1995 19:31:09 GMT Organization: Tulane University David Breneman wrote: > If you'll recall, part of the consent decree was that AT&T could not > use the Bell name. The one exception was Bell Labs, and the reason > had to do more with national prestige than any business reason. If > you will remember, right after the breakup, AT&T changed it's name to > the name it had prior to becoming AT&T - American Bell. This was the > name used in the late 1800s. (snip) > "Please note that all instances of the name American Bell should be > construed to be American Telephone and Telegraph Company." An > acquaintance who worked for AT&T Computer Systems even saved the name > sign off the building. "American Bell Computer Systems." Maybe now > that time has passed and so many of the "Baby Bells" have dropped the > Bell name, AT&T will be allowed to adopt it again for one of more of > their divisions, but I doubt it. If I remember right, the 'recent' usage of the name "American Bell" began in January 1983, one year *before* the effective date of the breakup. I remember seeing large fullpage newspaper ads in January 1983 for American Bell's computers and business telephone systems. American Bell's logo was the current *fried-brain* of today's AT&T rather than the post-1970 blue Bell logo. I don't remember whether it was in 1982 or 1983 when the 'good Judge' restricted the 'new' AT&T from using the Bell name or logo after the breakup, but if I'm not mistaken, Greene did allow AT&T to continue using the Bell name (and logo?) in its (new/developing) overseas operations (AT&T International). I think I'd seen the name "American Bell International" back in 1983. This name did *not* apply to AT&T's marketing of international toll calls (011+/01+) from within the US, but rather AT&T's holdings and operations within other countries. The 'recent' use of American Bell disappeared rather quickly, even for American Bell International. Bell Labs seems to be the *only* present-day usage of the Bell name within AT&T, and they call it "AT&T Bell Labs". I have never seen any present day usage of the traditional Bell logo anywhere within AT&T. Even the IDDD instruction booklets published in 1983 with the Bell logo and the inscription "Bell System" had this identification pasted over with the *fried-brain* logo and the letters "AT&T" when being distributed beginning in late 1983. As for "All AT&T is Divided into Three Parts": Many competing oil companies all are officially known as "Standard Oil" - with a state's name following. As for GIS, they should simply go back to NCR, but the other two companies should continue to have AT&T as part of their name. Equipment should be known (IMHO) as "AT&T Western Electric" and Long Distance & Cellular should be known as "AT&T Long Lines". (How about a fourth company being spun off- not to be known as AT&T Cellular or AT&T Wireless, but calling it McCaw ). As for the Regional (formerly Bell) holding companies dropping the 'Bell' name, let's not forget that New York state's BOC telco was *not* known by a 'Bell' name - it was "New York Telephone Company". What I *do* find ironic is that California was "Pacific Telephone & Telegraph" under the Bell System, using the Bell logo but not the name. When Pacific*Telesis corporation was 'created' for the CA & NV BOC's, they changed CA's to Pacific*Bell, but they dropped the Bell logo in favor of the touchtone star!?!? And prior to the divestiture, how many average Joe six-packs referred to long distance as "AT&T". Even AT&T promoted itself as "The Bell System". Yes, people who owned stock or worked for Long Lines frequently used the name AT&T, but most of us referred to telephone service as "The Telephone Company", "The Bell System" or the actual name of our local Bell or independent telco! And while I would like to see the name "Western Electric" come into official use again, most people didn't use that name on a daily basis, even tho' (except for people with 'foreign-attatchments' or those who lived in independent telco territory) we *used* WECO phones every day- and EVERY one of those phones have Western's name stamped in every handset and most have Western Electric stamped somewhere on the phone's base-housing as well. BTW, as late as the 1920's, WECO made electric fans, lamps, vacuum cleaners, etc. as well as AT&T/Bell's telephones. Western Electric dates back *prior* to the invention of the telephone! And as for WUTCO, sometime in the early years of this century, I think that AT&T owned the controlling stock of Western Union Telegraph Co. It was in 1912 with the Kingsbury Committment (which also established the 'current, traditional' relationship between AT&T/Bell and the 'independents') which required AT&T to divest itself of Telegraph operations. Of course AT&T and WUTCO had a friendly relationship for many many decades after that - but a somewhat rocky one. AT&T/Bell had numerous involvements into telegraphy and data all along, in competition with WUTCO- TWX, Dataphone, etc. Just my thoughts for today. MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@law.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail ------------------------------ From: jpaik@mobile.kmt.re.kr (Jeehyun Paik) Subject: Information Wanted For AIN on Cellular Phone Date: 13 Oct 1995 07:41:54 GMT Organization: KMTRC TaeJeon Korea jpaik@mobile.kmt.re.kr wrote: I'm looking for AIN platforms for cellular phone. Before starting project, I need some information about SSP. I need to get some information about basic call model which can be adapted to cellular phone. Can anybody give me this information? Thanks, Jeehyun Paik | e-mail: jpaik@mobile.kmt.re.kr Address : KMT Research Centre. | Tel : 82-42-865-0594 Research Division I. | Fax : 82-42-865-0620 58-4, Hwaam-Dong, Yuseong-Gu | Taejon City, Republic of Korea| ------------------------------ From: radcom@intacc.net (RadMan) Subject: Information Wanted on Harris Dracon TS21 Butt Set Date: 13 Oct 1995 03:27:26 GMT Organization: Internet Access Inc. <613> 225-5595 I need some simple tech specs on HARRIS DRACON TS21 BUTT Test Set, namely, I need someone to open their unit and tell me where the two wires from both RECEIVER and SENDER carbons get connected on the main PCB. I called HARRIS DRACON at the 800 number and they were helping to an extent but wanted me to send it into REPAIRS @ $80 for the shot. This is really a no - brainer and I am qualified to do something this simple. I bought this unit at a swap meet and some gorilla tried to rewire it I guess, but never made notes and now I am stuck. I got some WIN CARDFILES with valuable Canadian Interconnect data in a database plus a very cool vendor information and grey market PBX/KEY CPE contacts I can share as INFO payment. HARRIS DRACON TS21 -020 model, mfr 8250 date board assy # 021-721848-001, all the silkscreen contacts start with "E" (ie E10 and E11...) John R 613-224-2922 but email back to radcom@ottawa.net. See what I do at http://www.ottawa.net/~radcom Thanx a bunch, the RadMan, in Ottawa, Ontario. ------------------------------ From: udreams_blw@dsm1.dsmnet.com (Bruce Wilson) Subject: Re: Connecting Modem to Multi-Line Phone Date: 13 Oct 1995 02:08:00 GMT Organization: DES MOINES INTERNET, DES MOINES, IA Reply-To: udreams_blw@dsm1.dsmnet.com In article , tjspiel@maroon.tc.umn.edu (Tom Spielman) writes: > I've had trouble getting a modem to work on a multi-line phone system. > The jack seems to be the same, but the modem doesn't get a dial tone. > I've seen some modems that have multi-line features. Do I need one of > these? Can I do it at all? Do you have the modem's manual? If you do, does it say anything about a jumper or dip switch setting for operation such as this? Most probably, you'll need a SLT port on the key system or a way to tap a single pair coming directly from the demarc. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 23:04:41 -0500 From: doc_dave@bga.com (David Brod) Subject: Re: Legal Slamming > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Three dollars? Three dollars??? I would > never let anyone do it to me for three dollars. What a bunch of cheapskates > they are. This is not a 'fresh approach to slamming' by any means. It > has been around for years, but the checks are usually a lot more. Fifteen, > twenty or thirty dollars are much more common offers. They must not think > much of your business relationship with them Fred; otherwise they would > have offered you more also. This is true. I have several phone lines. I am offered (and accept) $50.00 checks all the time to switch the LD's on these lines. I actually do not care who the carrier is on those lines, as I do not call out on them anyway. It is a second income for me! ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #436 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11242; 17 Oct 95 21:24 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id KAA19007 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 17 Oct 1995 10:52:41 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id KAA18996; Tue, 17 Oct 1995 10:52:39 -0500 Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 10:52:39 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510171552.KAA18996@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #437 TELECOM Digest Tue, 17 Oct 95 10:52:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 437 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson NYNEX Goes National With Online Yellow Pages (Barry M. Brooks) "B-Side" Systems Added to NACN? (Doug Reuben) Update on Telecommunications Act Rewrite (Michigan Consumer Federation) Middle East Telecom Publications (Sam Bahour) Audio Signal Directly Into Phone Line? (tgo@vanbc.wimsey.com) Monterey Mobile Computing and Communications Show (Charles P. Cummiskey) End-User Call Accounting Software (Matthew Dukleth) International Fax From Canada? (Dale Robinson) Payphones in Australia (Dale Robinson) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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: BARRY M. BROOKS Subject: NYNEX Goes National With Online Yellow Pages Date: Tue, 17 Oct 95 08:49:53 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) News Release Contact: Phil Santoro 508 762-1326 NYNEX goes national with online Yellow Pages. Connecting businesses and consumers nationwide over the Internet. MIDDLETON, Mass. (Oct. 17, 1995) -- NYNEX today announced that it has expanded its online Yellow Pages service so that consumers can now find virtually any business in the United States. There is no charge to consumers for the service. NYNEX Interactive Yellow Pages (TM), available on the Internets World Wide Web (http://www.niyp.com), now offers consumers 16.5 million business listings from throughout the nation. The directory includes business type, name, address, and telephone number. It is the United States' first and only complete online national business phone directory. Since May, NYNEX has offered its regional business phone listings on the service. NYNEX creates advertising on the service for interested businesses. Advertising units range from brief business profiles for $100 to four pages of display advertising for about $3,000. Already, NYNEX has created ads for some 2,500 businesses. In addition, the NYNEX Interactive Yellow Pages currently offers direct links to the Web sites of businesses and offers any business the opportunity to hot link their Web site to their listing. The NYNEX Interactive Yellow Pages is the most comprehensive Web-based shopping directory available, said Mat Stover, president and chief executive officer of NYNEX Information Resources Co. For the first time there is a national directory to bring buyers and sellers together. The NYNEX Interactive Yellow Pages lets individual shoppers create their own directory experience -- listing the products and services they need by category, neighborhood, city, state, or even the entire nation. Other NYNEX Interactive Yellow Pages enhancements announced today include the following: --Web site reviews and ratings. When shoppers look up popular headings, they will find a summary and rating of linked Web sites. For example, someone looking for a specific brand of car may click on a nearby button to get performance data on the car manufacturer and its current models. --A section called Your World, where consumers can connect directly to Web sites that may help them in their daily lives. Subjects include, travel, music, movies, children, the 1996 Olympics, and even seasonal topics like Halloween. --A streamlined design and more powerful search tools, which make navigating the service quicker and easier than ever. Users will find the NYNEX Interactive Yellow Pages well-organized and easy to navigate. It is organized by familiar A-Z shopping headings much like traditional Yellow Pages directories and may be searched by business name, type of business and geography. Other special features include a Hot Sites list of new and exciting Web sites, and a special text capability to provide access for the visually impaired. Businesses and consumers nationwide can learn more about the service by accessing it on the Internet at http://www.niyp.com or by calling 1-800-356-9639. NYNEX Information Resources Co., based in Middleton, Mass., is a leading provider of printed, online, interactive, and data base information services. ------------------------------ From: dreuben@interpage.net (Doug Reuben) Subject: "B-Side" Systems Added to NACN? Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 08:10:58 EDT Yesterday, I was driving in Southern New Hampshire near the Vermont border. This area is covered by Cell One of Vermont (the "A" carrier, SID 00313) and US Cellular (the "B" carrier, SID 01484). The "A" carrier uses a Motorola EMX switch, which used to be very nicely integrated into the "A" side EMX "DMX" network which all of the southern/central New England carriers shared before Boston converted to AT&T switches. More recently, after Boston's conversion, networking to the Vermont system has been pretty poor - features do not work, and the call delivery has been a bit awkward. (Note that this is not a problem of linking an EMX to an Autople per se, as it is done very nicely between Metro Mobile's "A" system in CT and BAMS's "B" system in the Mid-Atlantic region. It is just that CO/VT and CO/Boston do not seem to know how to do this well. The collapse of ALL feature access in their Concord/Lakes Region "partnership" service in SID 01485 is an example of this apparent lack of technical expertise). On the other side, the "B" carrier has traditionally lagged far behind -- it only got Follow Me Roaming last year, and currently does not have any sort of B-side automatic call delivery which all of its neighboring "B" side systems have. However, yesterday, while driving through on NH-9 through Keene, NH, I tried my usual call to set up FMR, but hit *350 (the NACN "A" side activation code) instead of *18 (the FMR "B" side code). To my surprise, it worked! I then did a series of other tests, such as listening to recordings (all have standard NACN messages, but with a THREE letter switch code instead of two, in the instant case "MAN-XX" [MANchester? It's not really near Manchester, though...]). I then switched my phone to my Cell One/NY (technically AT&T Wireless, but I'll never use that silly name! :) ) account, and ALL feature codes worked, I was able to get calls, unanswered calls were redirected to voicemail, etc. In other words, the "B" side was fully active on and compliant with all NACN standards and protocols (as far as I could tell). I also tested it with my Metro Mobile account, and Cell One Boston account, and both worked fine. Indeed, features which I *should* be able to use on the "A" side CO/VT 00313 system which no longer do worked perfectly on the "B" 01485 US Cell system. Thus, if you are a CO/Boston customer who needs to forward calls to voicemail, you CAN'T do it from the "A" side, where you would normally roam, BUT, if you switch to the "B" side, you can! (A ridiculous situation, but it is not unique - take the example of Metro Mobile 00119 customers in the Comcast/NJ/DE/Philly, where all they can do is receive calls, bit if they flip to the "B" side and use BAMS, all features AND call delivery work. Even Boston customers can use their features by switching to BAMS in these markets, although they do not have call delivery on BAMS, and need to switch back to the A side in order to receive calls.) In effect, this allows me to get a very well covered service area. Since BOTH the "A" and "B" sides will deliver calls to me, and since I autonomously register on both, I can set my phone to scan for both systems, and if one side is not available, to use the other. Thus, if my phone is set on the A side, and I drive into an area which is dead for CO/VT, the phone will switch to the B carrier (US Cell) and providing they have coverage, I will still be able to receive my calls. The situation with Philly is similar, but since BAMS's B properties are not on the NACN, the ability to receive calls on both systems in the same (Philly, DC, Western PA) market is limited to Metro Mobile customers who have a special call delivery system set up with the BAMS B systems. In any event, the addition of a "B" side system to the NACN is an interesting and welcome milestone. Not only can I receive calls on my CO/NY account while in southern VT and NH (the "A" side is NOT on the NACN), but I can have my CT and Boston accounts scan both systems and create a higher likelihood that I receive an inbound call by allowing me to rely on two systems instead of one. This is a BETTER situation than I (or anyone else, I think) has in my home system, where you are not allowed to roam on the other side (which is understandable) and thus can not take advantage of the broader coverage potential of two systems instead of just one. If anyone else finds other B systems on the NACN and/or knows of similar instances of automatic call delivery on BOTH systems in a given market, please let me know. Doug Reuben * dreuben@interpage.net * +1 (203) 499 - 5221 Interpage Network Services -- http://www.interpage.net, telnet interpage.net E-Mail Alpha/Numeric Local/Nationwide Paging, LinkAlert, E-Mail <-> Fax Svcs ------------------------------ From: mcf@sojourn.com (Michigan Consumer Federation) Subject: Update on Telecommunications Act Rewrite Date: Tue, 17 Oct 95 10:59:45 GMT Organization: Sojourn Systems Ltd. The Senate Technology and Energy Committee will be considering SB.722, the rewrite of the Michigan Telecommunications Act, at its meeting Wednesday, October 18th. It is the committee chair's intent to report it out of committee that day; it would likely be considered by the full Senate early the following week. There has already been a lot of discussion about the bill. This bill will increase telephone rates for almost all Michigan residents over the next four years, especially for outstate residents, online service users, and families with teenage children. The key anti-consumer provisions of the bill are as follows: 1. It reduces the so-called flat-rate option from the current 400 to 200 calls per month and allows the telephone company to determine how much to charge for the calls over that limit. 2. It continues provisions in the current law allowing for billing for local service based on frequency, distance, and duration of the calls. 3. It will force rates up in outstate communities by as much as 200 to 300 percent. 4. It allows telephone companies to increase their rates automatically every year whether they can justify the increases or not. A copy of the bill is available online downloading online at . Ameritech has made it clear that it wants to be able to bill for local service just like long-distance service: based on frequency, duration, and distance. And the bill's sponsor, Sen. Mat Dunaskiss (who is also the committee chair), has indicated that this is the way it will be in the future. While the bill allows customers to choose which billing option they prefer, these provisions and those that dramatically reduce the Michigan Public Service Commission's authority make it much easier for Ameritech to push customers into metered service. Local telephone service costs are less "usage-sensitive" than ever before. In fact, some local telephone companies around the country claim that it costs more to bill for service based on the number of calls than it does to just provide unlimited flat-rate service. Local telephone service is the on-ramp to the Information Superhighway. We are already using online services for education, shopping, to pay our bills, to arrange vacations, and for many other purposes. It is critical that these on-ramps remain affordable for all residents, no matter where they live in the state. It is also critical that we preserve universal service for those who may not want to use online services. It is important for you to immediately contact your state senators and representatives about this bill and indicate your strong opposition to any metered billing for local telephone services. You should contact legislators by regular mail or telephone. If you use E-mail, please also send a letter by mail, since many of them may not know how to use E-mail yet. The Legislature is just now making E-mail available to members and their staffs, and many of them have not had training yet. LEGISLATIVE CONTACT INFORMATION A list of state senators and representatives by districts is available at . If you aren't sure what district you live in, the number should be printed on your voter registration card. SENATE Members of the Senate Technology and Energy Committee are as follows: COMMITTEE PHONE Sen. Matt Dunaskiss, Chair 517-373-2417 Sen. Mike Bouchard 517-373-2523 Sen. Bill Schuette 517-373-7946 Sen. Jim Berryman 517-373-3543 Sen. Dianne Byrum 517-373-1734 Regular mail* can be addressed to all senators as follows: Senator (Name) P.O. Box 30036 Lansing, MI 48909 *Most senators do not have e-mail addresses yet. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES The House of Representatives has a web site with members' names, addresses, phone numbers, committee assignments; and e-mail addresses (for those that have e-mail). Its URL is . ------------------------------ From: Sam Bahour <73317.3605@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Middle East Telecom Publications Date: 16 Oct 1995 22:10:16 GMT Organization: Applied Information Management Anyone know of the available telecom industry magazines and trade journals that focus on the Middle East market? A list with phone/email numbers would be helpful. Sam Bahour email 73317.3605@compuserve.com Applied Information Management Sam Bahour, President 2986 Roosevelt Drive U.S. 216-759-2738 Youngstown, Ohio 44504-1204 Offsore 011-972-2-995-2626 Offsore Office: P.O. Box 3651, El-Bireh, West Bank, via Israel ------------------------------ From: tgi@vanbc.wimsey.com (TGI) Subject: Audio Signal Directly Into Phone Line? Date: 16 Oct 1995 12:41:24 -0700 Organization: Online at Wimsey Information Services Reply-To: ron@tgivan.wimsey.bc.ca How can I play audio directly into the phone line? I'd like to connect an RCA-style input to a phone jack so I can play audio directly from the stereo/computer output into the phoneline. What interfacing electronics is required? NOTE: This is not for hacking/phreaking I just want to play computer samples or music directly into the line during a phone conversation. Thanks, ron@tgivan.wimsey.bc.ca ------------------------------ From: Charles P. Cummiskey Subject: Monterey Mobile Computing and Communications Show Date: 16 Oct 1995 23:25:55 GMT Organization: Internet Alaska, Inc. The MONTEREY MOBILE COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS SHOW will be held from 5:30PM to 10:00PM on October 26, 1995 in the Barbara McNitt Ballroom of the historic Naval Postgraduate School (formerly the Del Monte Hotel) in Monterey, California. The highlights of this year's show are Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and palmtop computing solutions oriented towards the needs of busy mobile professionals. Cellular phones, wireless modems, pagers, mobile radios, PC Cards, and mobility-oriented hardware and software products of all types will be showcased by numerous manufacturers and vendors (to include products by Hewlett Packard, Apple, Psion, Sharp, Casio, Motorola, Educalc, ACE, etc.). There is NO COST for attending the show, which includes a series of presentations on various mobility issues. Free entertainment, hors d'oeuvres and a cash bars will all contribute to a lively atmostphere. A HP200LX and Apple Newton are among the many prizes to be raffled off. EVERYONE IS WELCOME! For more information, please email or call the Show Coordinator, Jim Cummiskey (jccummis@nps.navy.mil) at (408)655-8222 or (408)672-2974 for more information. ------------------------------ From: mdukleth@ix.netcom.com (Matthew Dukleth ) Subject: End-User Call Accounting Software Date: 16 Oct 1995 01:41:14 GMT Organization: Netcom Does anyone know of any commercially available end-user call accounting software? For example, you could receive your call records on floppy and use this software to analyze your long distance bill. I have been unable to find much information on this subject. Thanks! ------------------------------ From: Dale.Robinson@DWNPLAZA.NCOM.nt.gov.au Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 13:08:48 +0930 Subject: International Fax From Canada? Hi, I have a friend of a friend (we'll call them A) in Canada trying to fax my friend (we'll call him B) in Darwin, Australia. The receiving fax (Person B) is at 9600bps, software is Win Fax Pro 3. Person B is getting a lot of "Invalid Data" warnings from WinFax Pro. I suspect that part of the problem is satellite latency, so my questions are: When a person from Canada dials a person in Australia, is the link via satellite? If yes, can you "force" the call to use landlines? How? We in Australia are able to select whether we want to route our call over satellite, or land/sea line by dialing an appropriate prefix. 0011 - is the normal ISD prefix. 0015 - is what we call International Fax. From the telephone book: "0015 International Fax is a network of specially selected lines which provide optimum quality for overseas facsimile calls" What they (Telstra) really mean is that the call will generally be routed on landlines, depending on line-loading at the start of the call. Thanks in advance for help. Regards, Dale ------------------------------ From: Dale.Robinson@DWNPLAZA.NCOM.nt.gov.au Date: Mon, 16 Oct 1995 13:13:35 +0930 Subject: Payphones in Australia. Pat, This is from the Telstra Web page (http://www.telstra.com.au/prod-ser/payphone/intro.html). It's about our payphone system and you may find it of interest: Telstra Payphone Services ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Doing Business ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Payphone Services currently operates more than 84,000 payphones across Australia. Approximately 38,000 public payphones are fully maintained and operated directly by Payphone Services, from major city centres (locations are featured in some major city street directories) to the most remote areas of the country. In fact more than 300 payphones are solar powered, an innovation to overcome power supply problems faced in distant regions. The remaining 46,000 are leased or sold to private businesses, in the form of Goldphone or Bluephone. On average more than 95 per cent of payphones are in working order at any given time through an active maintenance program. Payphone Service employs around 1000 staff across Australia. The National General Manager of Telstra Payphone Services is Ms. Janet Sayer. Payment made easy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Payphones accept a variety of payment methods including: Phonecard[TM] - the convenient prepaid card is available in $5, $10, $20 or $50 denominations, eliminating the need for payphone customers to carry change. Phonecard[TM] can be purchased at more than 15,000 retail outlets nationally, including most newsagencies, pharmacies and kiosks and can be used in approximately 28,000 payphones across Australia. Coin - the vast majority of public payphones accept 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents and $1 coins. Credit/Eftpos - increasingly popular, particularly for travellers and business people. Creditphones accept most credit cards and are predominantly located in major airports, shopping centres and transport hubs. Services for the Disabled ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In 1993, Payphone Services began a concerted campaign to improve services to people with differing disabilities. A comprehensive modification program has resulted in more than 1000 payphones modified with special features to assist people making calls when out and about. Modifications include lowering the payphone height and installing longer phone cords to assist access for people in wheelchairs and with walking frames, as well as for children. Audible signals have been added to indicate to visually impaired users when a Phonecard is nearing the end of its value. Selected payphones have also had hearing aid couplers, special volume control and handsfree operation added to further assist customers. In addition, 20 Payphone TTY (tele-typewriter) units have been installed in major capital cities, specifically for people with speech and hearing impairment. Following the success of this initial stage, a further 50 Payphone TTY's have been purchased for installation in regional centres across Australia in the second half of 1995. --- End of Page --- Regards, Dale Robinson ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V15 #437 ****************************** Received: from delta.eecs.nwu.edu by MINTAKA.LCS.MIT.EDU id aa11436; 17 Oct 95 21:29 EDT Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id MAA21737 for telecomlist-outbound; Tue, 17 Oct 1995 12:07:22 -0500 Received: by delta.eecs.nwu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) id MAA21726; Tue, 17 Oct 1995 12:07:15 -0500 Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 12:07:15 -0500 From: TELECOM Digest (Patrick Townson) Message-Id: <199510171707.MAA21726@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V15 #438 TELECOM Digest Tue, 17 Oct 95 12:07:00 CDT Volume 15 : Issue 438 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Power and the Internet Domain (Jesse Hirsh via Sean Murphy) Shutdown of Email -> Usenet Gateway (Danny Burstein) Help Wanted With PHS Standard (Francois Denis) Regulatory Question - LATAs vs. State Lines (Jerry Pruett) Faxback Modem With Credit Card Abilities? (pringler@cuug.ab.ca) Calling 911 Where No 911 Service Exists (georges@mhv.net) AT&T's Bait and Switch Tactics (Jason Fetterolf) Internet Over the Atlantic (Stuart D. Brorson) Commercial Satellite Communications Help Wanted (James E. Diskin) AT&T Switch Access via PC (Sean Doherty) Re: The Irony of the AT&T Breakup (Tayeb Damerji) Re: Keeping NPA/NXX Separate (Mark J. Cuccia) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Raymond Charles Jender) Re: What to Call the Three Parts of AT&T? (Edward A. Kleinhample) 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. * ************************************************************************* In addition, TELECOM Digest receives a grant from Microsoft to assist with publication expenses. Editorial content in the Digest is totally independent, and does not necessarily represent the views of Microsoft. ------------------------------------------------------------ Finally, 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, 16 Oct 1995 16:14:27 -0400 From: murphy@rtcent.com (Sean Murphy - RTC Enterprises) Subject: Power And The Internet Domain Forwarded to the Digest FYI. "Power and the Internet Domain" by Jesse Hirsh This story is almost too easy to believe. Turns out (no surprise really) that the Internet domain registration monopoly (internic.net) is indeed owned by the military-industrial- biological complex. For once it's as if the double-speak vanishes and the truth is as open as a web page. Now Internet domain registration will begin to be priced according to user-fees starting at $50 annually. One source, one collecter of fees. One databank with all Internet registration ... Scientific Applications International Corp. To quote web reviews (emag): "The company, with over 20,000 employees and 450 locations around the world, reported $1.9 billion in gross revenues in 1994. Over 90% of its income was generated by government contracts - more than half of that from defense, intelligence, and federal law enforcement contracts." They are a large military technology corporation. Check out some of the projects that are listed in the corporate report: - National Security: "Our advanced technology for the Army Global Command and Control System will allow quick response deployment and tracking of troops in simulated or actual evetns." - Information Management: "SAIC is supporting Department of Defence's renovation of the 52-year-old Pentagon, one of the largest buildings in the world and workplace for nearly 25,000 people. Under U.S. Armyd network" of shared communications and computing services. We are designing the network to operate more efficiently than today's disparate systems, yet require less human and fiscal resources to operate and maintain." - Military Technology: "Our contribution to the U.S. Navy/Defense Nuclear Agency Electro-Thermal Chemical Gun illustrates this new focus." WAIT A MINUTE, READ THAT SENTENCE AGAIN... - Military Technology: "Our contribution to the U.S. Navy/Defense Nuclear Agency Electro-Thermal Chemical Gun illustrates this new focus." CAN SOMEONE PLEASE DECIPHER THIS? - Law Enforcement: "A new SAIC system will give federal, state and local law enforcement agencies fast, on-line access to criminal histories." - Environment: "SAIC supports the decontamination and decommissioning of defense plants and military facilities." These guys are some bad dudes. To quote web review (emag): "In 1990 SAIC was indicted by the Justice Department on 10 felony counts for fraud in its management of a Superfund toxic cleanup site. (SAIC pleaded guilty.) In 1993 the Justice Department sued SAIC, accusing it of civil fraud on an F15 fighter contract. In May 1995, the same month SAIC purchased NSI, the company settled a suit that charged it had lied about security system tests it conducted for a Treasury Department currency plant in Fort Worth, TX. (The company paid the government $125,000 to cover the cost of the investigation as part of that settlement.)" So why is this coming up now? SAIC with the purchase of NSI, which owns Internic.net, now controls all Internet domain registration. A monopoly that now wants to charge $50 annually for every domain name. Turn the funnels of money on. For those who don't know internic.net is the "central" (catch that one), registration point for the Internet. Operated in conjunction with AT&T, internic.net is the biggest reference source on the net. Every time you send an email with an address like "lglobal.com", that name is referenced to internic.net and converted to an I.P. address such as 210.50.120.2 which denotes network topography. So again the military controls the maps and the bureacracy. You've got to go see their board of directors page. It's incredible. As an expression of global empire, SAIC is as naked as an oligarchy can be. Their board of directors, 23 white men, 1 white woman, and 1 perhaps southern european woman. Two generals, one admiral, vice-chairman of bank of america. > From: Wes Thomas > The press recently reported that the National Science Foundation>has turned > over Internet Domain Name registration to Network>Solutions, Inc. (NSI) of > Herndon, VA. The press failed to note some interesting connections. > Tomorrow morning (Sept. 26), Web Review, a biweekly online magazine > (see >Special Report at http://gnn.com/wr/) will reveal that NSI > was purchased in May by Scientific Applications International > Corporation (SAIC) of San Diego. SAIC is a $2 billion company > indicted by the Justice Department on ten felony counts for fraud > in managing a Superfund toxic cleanup site (SAIC pleaded guilty) > and sued by the Justice Department for civil fraud on an F-15 > fighter contract. > SAIC's board members include Admiral Bobby Inman, former NSA head > and deputy director of the CIA; Melvin Laird, Nixon's defense > secretary; and retired General Max Thurman, commander of the Panama > Invasion. Recently departed board members include Robert Gates, > former CIA director; William Perry, current Secretary of Defense; > and John Deutch, the current CIA director. Current SAIC government > contracts include re-engineering information systems at the > Pentagon, automation of the FBI's computerized fingerprint > identification system, and building a national criminal history > information system. goto http://www.saic.com/ and pick the corporate report. it's some crazy pages, almost wonder if they're real... Check out http://www.lglobal.com/TAO/ <---- End Included Message ----> R E A L T I M E C O M M U N I C A T I O N S land: 2050 Claremont, suite 25 Montreal, Quebec CANADA H3Z 2P8 tel: (514) 482-5551 fax: (514) 879-8485 email: murphy@RTCEnt.com http://www.cam.org/~murphy ------------------------------ From: dannyb@panix.com (danny burstein) Subject: Shutdown of Email -> Usenet Gateway Date: 17 Oct 1995 11:47:52 -0400 Afraid, as per the attached message, that the influx of the Great Masses of the Unwashed has led to the shutdown of a very useful service, the email->usenet gateway at texas.edu. *sigh* From: usenet@cs.utexas.edu Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 20:31:25 -0500 Subject: mail-to-news error There is no longer a mail-to-news gateway on cs.utexas.edu. It became a magnet for abuse, which we are no longer willing to endure. No, I am not aware of any other similar gateways. Sorry. ------- original message appended ------- dannyb@panix.com (or dburstein@mcimail.com) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Just one more sign of the times; another example of the handwriting on the wall for Usenet isn't it ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: denis@cnam.fr (francois Denis) Subject: Help Wanted With PHS Standard Date: 13 Oct 1995 10:49:19 GMT Organization: CNAM Hi, I am working as a telecom analyst in Paris and I am looking for recent ressources about low tarifs mobile for mass consumers. In France people get a look on PHS system run in Japan by firms like DDI and (of course) NTT. Do you know where I can find some reports and figures on the net about this technology and other similar low costs mobile experiments in the world? Thanks for your help. denis@cnam.fr ------------------------------ Subject: Regulatory Question - LATAs vs. State Lines From: kd4cim@vulcan.com (Jerry Pruett - KD4CIM) Date: Tue, 17 Oct 95 07:26:24 -0500 Organization: Vulcan - Live Long and Prosper! I have run across a regulatory issue that I can't quite figure out. There are a number of examples, but to zero in on one: South Haven, MS is in the Memphis, TN LATA and is also in the free-calling area of metro Memphis. Do calls from South Haven to Memphis fall under state PSC jurisdiction or under FCC jurisdiction? It *appears* that South Haven falls under the jurisdiction of the TN PSC for POTS service (I am sure that MS has figured out how to at least collect taxes from the situation), but a private line from South Haven to Memphis falls under FCC jurisdiction. I have always known that LATAs can span state boundaries, but I have just encountered the jurisdicational issue as to where to go for tariffs for different services. Other examples: St. Louis, MO - East St. Louis, IL Reno, CA - Reno, NV West Memphis, AR - Memphis, TN. Any thoughts or clarification would be appreciated. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Also consider the case of Antioch, Illinois and North Antioch, Wisconsin; Beloit, Wisconsin and South Beloit, Illinois; Hammond, Indiana and Calumet City, Illiniois; Whiting, Indiana and selected exchanges in Chicago, Illinois, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: pringler@cuug.ab.ca Subject: Faxback Modem With Credit Card Abilities? Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 10:31:12 -0400 Reply-To: pringler@cuug.ab.ca Organization: Maas Storage Technologies I'm currently working on setting up a business that would be vending market information via "fax-back". My question is, is there anything out on the market that will take credit card numbers and then fax the information? This seems to be the best way to collect the fees. But, I'm fairly new to this and open to suggestions. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: georges@mhv.net Subject: Calling 911 Where No 911 Service Exists Date: 17 Oct 1995 16:21:24 GMT Organization: MHVNet, the Mid Hudson Valley's Internet connection Reply-To: georges@mhv.net While reading my local fire department's annual newspaper, an article titled "PLEASE DON'T (DO NOT) CALL 9-1-1 IF YOU HAVE AN EMERGENCY" caught my eye. There is no 911 service in this part of New York State (near Poughkeepsie) and there won't be for about two years. According to this article, if you dial 911 here, you will get an operator "somewhere in the United States." It notes that the last time it happeded here, the operator was in Florida and it took about 30 minutes to dispatch the fire department. Fortunately, the fire burned itself out. What should happen if you call 911 in an unserved area? Obviously, 30 min delays in an emergency would be a disaster sometimes. I don't have any good ideas what should happen ... should it just give a fast busy to indicate a non-working number, or a recorded message, or ???? There are problems with each of these options. Going to a local operator would be the best, but local operators don't seem to exist any more. What happens in other places? Is there a better solution? George georges@mhv.net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In the few remaining cases here where no 911 service exists (primarily because two or more very small communities are served by the same phone exchange and the authorities cannot decide among themselves which one should handle the calls), dialing 911 reaches a recording which says "If you have an emergency, please hang up and dial the operator now." PAT] ------------------------------ From: Buxboyy@aol.com Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 09:41:29 -0400 Subject: AT&T's Bait and Switch Tactics Dear Telecom Digest: I recently received a call from AT&T (regarding my residential service), and they offered me a $70 check, and 50% off their regular rates for the next three months, if I would "switch back" to their service. Having been lied to by them once before, where they promised me a check for $50, and only sending me one for $15, I was suspicious, and lack respect for them, but the salesperson assured me that this was a true deal, and so I toyed with them, and said I would only switch if I got a check for $150.00 first. The salesperson said: "Not a problem, sir", and said that I would get a check for $150.00, 50% off their regular rates (which is how much, now, hmmm...) for the next three months, and that I could call him if there was a problem, and he even gave me his extension at AT&T's main number. Well, two days ago (five days after being PIC'ed over to AT&T) I got a check for ... $15. Wow, could they have switched and baited me twice? YES, but never again ... how can I take action against AT&T for their misrepresentations, and report them to the FCC? Has anyone else ever reported these slimy tactics of theirs? Any help with this would be truly appreciated, as a call back to this salesperson will result in a 15 minute hold on the phone, waiting to get through. Thanks, Jason Fetterolf buxboyy@aol.com ------------------------------ From: sdb@gamma.dou.dk (Stuart D. Brorson) Subject: Internet Over the Atlantic Date: 17 Oct 1995 08:43:18 GMT Organization: UNI-C, Danish Computing Centre for Research and Education. Hello -- This is just a short question. I recall hearing somewhere that the internet has only two T1 lines and an E1 line going over the Atlantic (between Europe and North America). Is this true, or just a silly rumor? Does anybody have suggestions about where to find such information reliably? Thanks, Stuart Brorson Copenhagen ------------------------------ From: jimdiski@wam.umd.edu (James E. Diskin) Subject: Commercial Satellite Communications Help Wanted Date: 17 Oct 1995 14:30:24 GMT Organization: University of Maryland, College Park Hi folks, I am a stupid lowly grad student taking a course in Satellite Communications. I need to define a commercial application. I have chosen video-teleconferencing. I am looking for people with experience with commercial satellite communications systems to correspond with. I have studied a lot, and can actually ask some halfway intelligent questions. Are you familiar with link budgets, EIRPs, PFDs, TASO, the Crane model, etc? Please email me at jimdiski@wam.umd.edu. Sincere thanks to anyone who may take the time to respond, and thank you all for your time. Jim Diskin ------------------------------ Subject: AT&T Switch Access via PC From: sean.doherty@channel1.com (Sean Doherty) Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 10:57:00 -0640 Organization: Channel 1(R) 617-864-0100 Info I would like to use the PC and modem on my desk to access a System 75, G2 and G3 switch. I've tried using Procomm Plus's ATT 4410 emulation but something is funny with the keyboard. What software/emulations are other tech's using? Does any body have any suggestions? Is their an AT&T BBS with these type of utilities? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Sean Doherty ------------------------------ From: tayeb@maestro.intertel.net (Tayeb Damerji) Subject: Re: The Irony of the AT&T Breakup Date: 17 Oct 1995 15:38:45 GMT Organization: Interactive Telecom, Inc. (613) 727-5258 Garrett A. Wollman (wollman@ginger.lcs.mit.edu) wrote: > In article , Marvin Vis com> wrote: >> Regarding the breakup, has anyone speculated about the driving forces >> behind the move? Of course, there are the factors that AT&T has presented >> as their motivations (those of speed/responsiveness, targeted stock, etc.), >> but has anyone tried to think of other reasons? > I think it's pretty clear, actually, what the driving forces are. > Consider the following facts: > 1) AT&T is the RBOCs' principal supplier of switches and related > equipment. I thought Nortel had a larger share of the RBOC business for switches, access and transport equipment and services. AT&T main startegic focus is to get a bigger portion of the high margin global telecom market place, in order to do this it has to project the image that it is a very competitve, innovative company. One of the main manifestations of this would be rapid service introduction. E.g. being the first company to introduce ATM, having a SONET network, etc. These criteria are especially important to network managers of the Fortune 1000 companies. Telcos make most of their profits serving these large accounts. With its old structure AT&T was unable to react fast enough to changes in technology and be the first with new services. AT&T does not have a credible Internet startegy and it is loosing the lead to MCI in data networks. Since data networks are poised to become the main medium to transport voice, this places AT&T in a precarious strategic position. The main business advantage that AT&T has is its image, and the high quality service it provides, but its competitors are catching up. So dividing AT&T in three was the best strategy to make the telcom services unit more competitive and agile. Tayeb Damerji Tel.(613) 727 5258 Interactive Telecom Inc. Fax.(613) 727 5438 204 -190 Colonnade Rd Email: tayeb@intertel.net Nepean , Ont K2E 7J5, Canada Web: http://www.intertel.net ------------------------------ From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Re: Keeping NPA/NXX Separate Date: 17 Oct 1995 19:50:27 GMT Organization: Tulane University Bellcore's Numbering Administration (and previously AT&T Long Lines) did not recommend using the home NPA code as an NXX, nor even adjacent NPA codes. There were several guidelines listed in various editions of "Notes" (Notes on the Network 1980, Notes on the BOC Intra-LATA Networks 1983 & 1986, BOC Notes on the LEC Networks 1990 & 1994) spelling out how local numbering/code administrators should assign NXX Central Office codes, particularly in areas where 'interchangeable' (N0X & N1X) office codes had been introduced. The ICCF/INC has guidelines on this as well. The situation is going to get messier with new NPA splits announced almost every week, and now with interchangeable NPA codes. If mandatory ten-digit local dialing really does take effect in Houston and Dallas, it won't matter if 713-713, 713-281, 281-281, 281-713 are assigned in metro Houston, and similar combinations of 214 and 972 (along with 817 and whatever it will be announced) for the Dallas/Ft.Worth metro areas. Does it really matter if someone has the seven digit number such as 234-234x? It might in some rural areas which do allow local dialing of four or five digits as well as the standard seven digits, but even shorter local dialing in rural areas is fast becomming a thing of the past. I know that within toll-free (not always?) 800, 800-800 and 800-888 are available, as well as 800-900, 800-500, 800-600, 800-700, etc, but the 800 Special Areacode is a non-geographic mandatory ten-digit situation (along with 500, 600, 700, 900, etc). I think that there is a 900-800 and a 900-900 as well, but I don't have the Bellcore TRA office code lists in front of me right now. According to my December, 1994 Bellcore TRA 'Industry Numbering Plan Guide' fiche, ALL possible 792 combinations of NXX codes were allocated within the 800 special areacode. The N11 combinations have usually NOT been used for standard central office codes. 800-555 went into the 'general portability' pool of 800-NXX's sometime in Nov. or Dec. 1994 according to one of my Bellcore NANPA IL mailings. Also according to the December, 1994 INPG fiche, the 800-N12 and 800-N02 combinations (total of 16) which had been previously reserved to 'Radio Common Carriers' (and the *same* 800 + seven-digit number could be reused from state to state with the 800-N02's and 800-N12's, just like the *old* pre-CCS inTRAstate 800-NN2's) were instead identified as regular 800-NXX codes (general portability). A small handful of 800-NXX codes were assigned to Carribean carriers for terminating 800 calls there, and 800-855 was still listed as for Deaf and Hearing Impaired toll free assignments, to be carried by AT&T, Bell, traditional independents, and Canada's Stentor companies, etc. However, I was informed about a month ago (and now I've noticed